Chapter 6 #3
“Yet,” I mostly say to myself, earning another glare from Oleander.
We slip back into an uncomfortable silence.
I refrain from asking more questions about why all interactions with the creatures of this world seem to have a price tag.
I don’t want her to suspect I am from the human realm, but perhaps my clothing is already a dead giveaway.
After she is done with her rabbit, Oleander lies down with her back to the fire and goes to sleep.
I stare off into the dark as I finish my last few bites and shudder at the glowing eyes I can see blinking back at me. Stay close to the fire and you’ll be all right, I reassure myself as I curl up into a ball with my back to the fire as well and try to get some sleep.
I have a fitful night filled with dreams of a sharp toothy smile coming from the face of a wolf and the distant screams of Marissa.
I wander aimlessly in the Tanglewoods, the dangling moss sways like a woman walking and for a moment it looks like Marissa walking away from me in my white linen dress.
I call out to her but am met with flames and gnarled trees with red glowing eyes trying to grab me. I wake up with a gasp.
I look over and Oleander is still sleeping.
She has a steady rise and fall to her chest that indicates a deep slumber but I’m too disturbed by my dreams to close my eyes again, so I lay awake, staring at the small sliver of night sky above us.
At least the stars are the same here, there is a slight comfort knowing I am still on the same planet.
I wonder to myself whether the whole earth was like the fae realm before The Divine Mother, as the fae call her, split it in two or if it had been more mundane and subtle like the human realm.
The forest here has a certain sentience to it, and though I do love the Wildwood back home, it has never felt like it acknowledged my presence.
Here, I feel seen by everything, and I swear the ground even has the faintest thump of a heartbeat.
I even feel… more here. It is hard to describe but every cell of my body feels… awake.
I wonder whether the world is actually divided in two and our maps just don’t show it or if this realm is somehow overlapped over the other, hidden in the in-between spaces.
There are so many questions I fear will go unanswered.
I long for the ignorance I had just a few days prior.
I had always believed in a higher power and felt the wild places to be the closest I would come to divinity but finding out there is an actual entity with power to divide a planet is a chilling and humbling thought.
I envision this ethereal being looking down at us all and moving us around like little puppets but have a deeper understanding that She is among us rather than removed.
My eyelids are getting heavier and heavier, the questions start to slow in my mind but I flutter them open, fighting the encroaching sleep.
When I open them again I am met with a full view of the night sky, no gnarled branches block the shimmering expanse.
I look to the side and see that the menacing trees of the Tanglewoods are gone.
I am lying in a grassy knoll, beside a big, black horse.
The rise and fall of its body is slow and calm as it breathes, letting out little snores.
I scrunch my eyes shut, not believing what I am seeing and when I open them again the same small sliver of sky and the familiar gnarled trees are once again enclosing me.
Was that a vision? I haven’t had one of those since the night Marissa was taken.
I shake my head and glance over to Oleander to double check if this is real and stifle a scream. A tall figure is standing in front of her, just outside of the glow of the fire. The smell of wet dog is thick in the air.
I try to pretend I am still asleep as I slowly feel for the hilt of my sword.
The creature leans in to sniff at Oleander, its furry face with a long snout and long jagged teeth comes into view.
Is this a varg? My heart thunders in my chest. I suddenly doubt whether I can take this thing on but I know that if I scream now it will just slash out and probably kill Oleander before she has a chance to fight back.
So I grab firmly onto my sword as I see the varg lift a long arm with a clawed hand into the air, as if to strike Oleander, and I jump to my feet and run at the monster, sword first.
I manage to catch it by surprise and it stumbles back, letting out a deep growl, crouching down low and lunging for me. I block its striking hand with my blade and hear it yelp out, it swings its other arm at me just slowly enough for me to spin out of its reach, slashing its forearm as I turn.
I hear Oleander get up behind me and yell, “get down!”
She gives me a split second to drop to the floor as a blast of fire roars above my head, stinging my back with its intensity. The varg screeches and runs off into the forest, the smell of burning hair fills the air.
I turn around, still crouched on the ground with Oleander between me and the fire we were sleeping next to, and from this angle she looks as if she is a hot glowing ember, her features dark like coal.
Her fingers are still on fire but soon sputter out, one by one, as she takes a few deep breaths and looks down at me.
“You saved me. I owe you a life debt,” she drops on one knee in front of me, head bowed.
“Hey now, no need for all that. I need my guide alive after all,” I laugh nervously, trying to shrug off the insane events that just transpired.
I look down to see my blade coated in dark red blood and shudder.
I have never harmed anything before, all my swordsmanship has been for tournaments and shows.
I am grateful that muscle memory took over for me but I do not think I would have forgiven myself if I killed the thing.
“Why is everything a transaction here anyway?” I mutter to myself, realizing too late that I spoke that question out loud. Oleander narrows her eyes.
“You aren’t from here… You’re human? You mask your scent well.” She sniffs the air, “what are you doing here? No wonder you’ve been so hopeless,” she says as she stands up and offers me her hand. I tentatively grab it as I look into her eyes to gauge whether she holds malice or sincerity.
She smells like the other one, yet different somehow, I hear her voice in my head, my eyes go wide. I pull my hand away and quickly look down so she cannot read my thoughts.
The other one? Does she mean Marissa? I wonder as I try to figure out a way to find out what she knows without her knowing of my powers.
That information seems too important to share; besides, keeping this a secret could come in handy, so I decide to let her think I am human.
It also dawns on me that I haven't been able to read her thoughts until now because I hadn’t touched her yet; more pieces of the puzzle of my powers slotting into place as I stare at the hand she had just touched.
“How do you know what a human smells like?” I question, looking her in the eye, knowing what she says out loud probably won’t be the truth.
“I have Metamorph blood and have encountered one or two before.” She cannot know of my mission but perhaps she will lead me to the other one.
Both responses are almost simultaneous so I have to scrunch my face to concentrate.
From what I could hear, she has Metamorph blood, like Durga, and the person she is searching for is most likely my sister .
I wonder what this woman could want with her and become decidedly more wary of her.
I try to keep my face as neutral as I can.
“Do humans often come through to the fae realm? Has another one recently come through these woods?” I ask as nonchalantly as I can, trying to make my question sound like a general curiosity.
“It doesn’t happen often but yes, there is rumor that one recently passed through.
There are certain scents I can detect,” she says as she sniffs the air again.
What are the odds that two would come through within days of each other?
I can hear Oleander’s thoughts layer over her spoken words as she gives me a questioning look.
Before I can respond with another question, we hear the howl of several wolves, or I’m guessing vargs, and look at each other, eyes going wide.
“We should probably go!” I say, putting a pin in this sly interrogation to get as far away from here as possible.
Oleander gives me a nod and snaps her fingers which instantly douses the fire.
We both start out at a little faster than our jogging pace of yesterday, all too aware of the multiple horrors that are now searching for us.
I’m surprised to feel that in the short hours of sleep my feet have healed again, much quicker than in the human realm.
I am also able to keep up with Oleander as we try to put as much distance between us and those vargs as we can without making too much noise.
Am I getting stronger? Or is it this realm…
She is much lighter footed than I am and I can tell she knows her way around the forest as I stumble and curse my way through.
After a long stretch of silent running we realize we cannot hear any more signs that we are being pursued so we slow down to a jog to conserve our energy.
Although I am unsure if Oleander’s energy stores will ever wane.
She still looks fresh and bright eyed whereas I can feel my unruly hair plastered to my forehead and neck with my copious amounts of sweat and I know my stench is quite horrific.
“How are you not tired?” I ask as we stop for a breather, entirely for my sake.
“My mother was a deer Metamorph. I cannot transform like she could but I suppose some of her traits passed on. Not every child of an Elemental and Metamorph couple inherits both gifts, some barely receive anything at all. I have my father’s gift mostly,” she explains and I’m caught on the word “could” as I look into her eyes and see a glimmer of sadness.
“She is no longer alive?” I ask, cautiously. Oleander gives me a glare back. “My mother is dead too. She died giving birth to me,” I blurt out. I expect a retort about giving too much information away, instead Oleander gives me a sympathetic look and squeezes my shoulder.
“We should keep going. We aren’t far from the forest’s edge.” She looks off into the distance as if she can see the actual edge and we keep going, at a much more manageable pace.