11. The Monster
The Monster
Prism Malefic
The Day I Was Taken
As I stood with my back to the forest, searching the smoke-blurred crowd for my fiancé, an odd sort of memory fell into my mind.
Rumor was only seven years old, and yet Matri took her into the woods with her each morning as the sun drenched the sky in pumpkin orange.
It was their special time together. One morning, the patter of Rumor’s footsteps woke me, and I crept out of bed, careful not to wake Mother.
They’d just left the cottage when I slipped on my boots and quietly followed along.
Staying a good twenty paces behind them, I covered my giggle with my hand so they wouldn’t hear me.
Maybe I’d jump out and surprise them, maybe I’d follow them a while before revealing myself and asking to join in on the forest journey.
I liked the woods, I was decent at gathering mushrooms and berries, though they never asked me to accompany them on their early morning adventures.
Matri stopped at a rope on the ground and knelt. “Not one of our traps.” She scratched her jaw. “Someone doesn’t know how to tie a strangle snare.”
Rumor bounced on her heels. “I do! My strangle snares are excellent.”
Matri laughed and tousled my sister’s hair. “They sure are.”
Rumor and Matri were both fair with black hair and dark eyes. Meanwhile, Mother and I were tan and golden blonde. Mother used to tease that Rumor and Matri were the ravens and Mother and I were the daisy fields.
I followed after them for a while longer. Just as I was bored and my stomach grumbled in hunger, a shriek stopped me in my tracks. I ducked behind a tree and peeked out as Matri and Rumor inspected the source of the cry.
A wash of fur writhed and cried a piercing wail so lonely and destitute that my ribs constricted in sympathy. My palms pressed to my ears, hoping to muffle the heart wrenching noise, when Matri pulled a dagger from her cloak.
Forgetting my scheme to jump out and surprise my family, I leapt from behind the tree. “No! Stop, don’t hurt it.”
Rumor and Matri regarded me without the least bit of shock. My sister crossed her arms. “We knew you were trailing us, Prism. How dumb do you think we are?”
The creature wailed.
Inching closer, I peered over Rumor’s shoulder, and the big, watery eyes of a crimson furred creature stared back at me. Its long ears flopped over its whiskered face while its thick tail swished in panic and pain. Its leg was caught in a trap.
Matri took my hand. “It’s called a fallope.”
“It looks like a bunny mixed with a fox.”
Matri smiled weakly. “Sure does. They’re skittish, but some say if you catch and befriend one, they bring rain in time of drought. However, this fallope has stumbled into an inexperienced and inhumane hunter’s trap.”
Rumor twirled the knife. “We have to kill it, then.”
“No!” I protested. “We can bring it back to Mom and she can heal him.”
Matri gripped my shoulders and held my gaze with her empathetic and wise green eyes.
“Magical healing is not permitted—certainly not for animals, regardless of how cute they may be. This little one is suffering and won’t survive the night.
The moral thing to do would be to free this fallope from its mortal form so their soul can pursue its next life. ”
Tears pricked my eyes as distress tightened my throat. “If I were a witch, I’d save him.”
Rumor rolled her eyes. “And risk the rapture? Prism, grow up. It’s a good thing you’re not a witch like us.”
Matri squeezed my shoulders. “You run along home and help Mother with breakfast. It’s biscuit Sunday, remember? Your favorite.”
The fallope cried out, weaker this time, and I took a moment to softly pet its ear. It stopped crying, leaning into my touch. I swallowed. “No, I’ll help. Do what you have to do, but I don’t want him to be afraid.”
“Are you sure?” Matri asked before gesturing to Rumor. “You don’t have to stay, but it is a very brave and sacred thing to aid a soul toward death.”
“I’ll do it.” I gently rubbed the creature’s silky ears as Rumor positioned behind it. Out of the corner of my eye, Matri motioned to the spot where my sister should strike.
The creature noticed and tried to fight its way out, wailing loudly.
“Shh…” I hushed. “It’s okay, little one.
Just look at me.” The fallope met my gaze, its big brown eyes wide and terrified.
“You’re going to fall asleep, and when you wake up, you’ll be in a wide open field full of strawberries and bumblebees.
The sky will be blue, and the grass will feel like velvet under your paws.
Your leg won’t hurt anymore, and there will be no more traps. ”
Stroking under its chin, the creature sighed… before a sudden jolt and the fallope’s head went limp in my palm.
Why would that memory spring to mind as I fulfilled my marriage rite? One of us had to wed between Rumor and I, and I wasn’t convinced that not every man or woman who beheld my sister wasn’t downright terrified of her.
I loved that about my older sister. She was so fierce, so headstrong, not even the magic of Willowspire that persuaded us into submission could tame her.
Though, it wasn’t only obligation that pulled me to Birch.
Birch Viper was handsome and gentle. He was a quiet sort of man, which suited me, because I was a shy sort of girl.
There’d be no fussing or bickering between us.
As my husband, he’d leave me each morning to tend the horses while I kept our home in the ways my mother taught me.
I may not have been a hedge witch, or any witch, but I still learned everything I knew from my mother’s careful tending.
I’d hoped Birch would ride in on a horse. It was the dreamiest fantasy in my mind. My groom on a stallion, trotting down the aisle, completing our rite before a sunset ride.
But no sounds of hooves reached my ears.
Only the hushed whispers of a town wondering where my would-be husband was.
Searching the crowd, I wished to see Mother, Matri, and my sister smiling up at me.
I missed my moms always, but especially with my back to the forest and my fiancé late for our rite.
My gaze landed on Rumor, and my mind drowned out Charm’s songs and the bishop’s prayers.
They weren’t my North Star of calm—Rumor was.
If my sister wasn’t worried, I wasn’t worried.
Rumor leaned back on a quilt and whispered with our friend, Burgundy.
They didn’t seem too concerned. Birch was simply waiting in the wings to make his romantic entrance.
That’s all. I was worried for nothing. What happened to that poor girl, Fable the Forgotten, wouldn’t happen to me.
Cold air intensified against my back and a shiver slithered down my spine.
I could have sworn I heard a branch crack behind me.
The stories weren’t true.
The stories weren’t true.
I’d be married by sundown.
Suddenly, something boomed behind me, and a gust of cold air rushed around my sides. Someone screamed. My heart sank to my feet in disbelief and terror.
No, no, no, this wasn’t happening.
In the frenzy of activity, I searched for Rumor, who climbed over people as they ran, forcing her way through the chaos as she reached for me, screaming my name.
My outstretched arms froze as a cold tear streaked my cheek.
Maybe this was a test from the magic of Willowspire.
It was a hell trial to measure my resolve; a secret part of the rite all the married women were forbidden to tell me about.
Maybe if I just stayed as I was supposed to, my back to the forest, arms outstretched, and didn’t look over my shoulder no matter the commotion, this would all evaporate like a bad dream.
Trees snapped behind me.
Something was big enough to snap trees and it was behind me?
“Prism!” Rumor’s eyes went wide as she yelled my name again, reaching for me before dropping to her knees, agony twisting her expression.
“Rumor!” I cried out, when suddenly, the air was knocked from my lungs.
Something long and limber reached around my middle, plucking me from the willow stump.
People around me screeched in panic, but before I knew what was happening, my body yanked backward at a speed so quick I could hardly catch my breath.
No, no, no.
Where was Birch? Why hadn’t he come?
I looked down at the grip around my ribs.
Dark as night, clawed hands made way for thick, inky arms. Its face like a skeleton on the outside of midnight muscle with eyes a whitish blue hue and teeth…
long and sharp. Another scream wrenched from my throat as I was hoisted over its massive shoulder.
I had to have been nine, ten, twelve feet off the ground.
My fists beat against its back, but it were as if I were hitting solid rock. The giant, horrific thing stomped through the forest, breaking branches and logs as it did so.
It was then my mind caught up to what was happening and clued me in. All the stories at past campfires, all the warnings to not go into the woods alone, the terror that lurked behind the wedding rite… the women stolen, never to return… It was a wither that had me in its clutches.
A wither.
The deadliest creature within the realms was marching me through the forest, and there was nothing I could do to stop it.
In that moment, I was the fallope.
The wedding rite was my poorly set trap.
The wither the knife that sank into my heart.
I could only hope for the same mercy the creature of my youth received… a swift death and a field of strawberries on the other side.
Though that night… death did not come.
What did was far worse.