Chapter 8
CHAPTER EIGHT
Ifroze, heart racing in my chest and palms slick against the roughness of the forest floor.
Something prowled closer between the soaring tree trunks, the chill of its powerful body taking hold of me in its shadow, coiling around me and choking the breath from my lungs.
The slosh of wet paws hitting the ground slowly advanced and a whimper rose in the back of my throat.
I turned my head. Slowly, so achingly slowly that I hardly dared breathe as drips of water hit my cheek like rain. But there was no rain.
A scream stalled in my lungs as my eyes roamed up the enormous body of the beast that stood over me, raised onto its hind legs, its head almost brushing the canopy of the trees far above.
The Bear.
My fingers shifted in the detritus beneath me, scrawling a shaking X into the dirt, though I knew superstition would do me no good.
The Bear growled in a low and menacing tone, its head cocking downward, more water spilling from its snout to rain down on my cheeks.
The spirit was a mixture of beast and element, its fur braided strands of pale blue liquid which moved endlessly across its hulking frame, making it appear as if in motion even though it stood still above me.
I reached for my slingshot with painful slowness, easing back onto my haunches, but it was pointless. My weapon had been in my hand when we’d been thrown through the trees and it had been lost in my fall.
I had nothing to defend myself against this creature of myth, and even if I had, what use would a slingshot have been against a behemoth such as this?
The Bear raised its snout, sniffing at the wind and looking skyward.
I didn’t waste my chance, shuffling backwards, not daring to rise to my feet, hoping to find shelter at my back so that I might hide.
With a tremendous roar, the Bear slammed down onto all fours, the ground trembling beneath me as it landed, leaves kicking up as water splashed from its pelt.
The Bear had been tasked with keeping the forest nourished. Its job had once been to see to it that water reached every root, every sapling, every seed. Now, in its madness beneath the weight of the curse, I didn’t know what it was capable of.
I stilled, fear eating its way into my soul as the Bear prowled toward me, every step of its enormous paws soaking the ground beneath it, its claws digging channels in the soil where the water pooled and dispersed.
“Don’t eat me,” I breathed, uncertain why I thought this monstrous creature might care for my pleas but unable to hold my tongue against them.
I hadn’t even begun to do what I’d come here for. Each moment within these trees made my task feel more and more impossible. I didn’t know where to start, and now it was all over before I’d even managed to-
The Bear’s snout brushed my brow and I stilled entirely, sucking in a sharp breath as warm water trickled over my skin, roaming down my cheeks, washing the dirt from them. It didn’t feel like normal water though, its touch was a caress, the swipe of a thumb to still tears, inquisitive, tender…
With a trembling hand, I reached for the Bear, uncertain if madness had claimed me in my final moments or if I was somehow finding a clarity which had been evading me from the first second I’d stepped into these cursed trees.
My eyes met the roiling blue tempests of the Bear’s and a jolt of understanding struck me, like a pathway had opened up between us and now this creature wanted me to know the way its heart sang.
Iron and soot still sat on my tongue, but as I stared at this spirit of myth and legend, the taste didn’t seem so sour anymore.
It reminded me of days beneath the sun, splashing in the brook at the bottom of the hill beyond our house with Rissa.
It gave me a taste of a joy I’d lost so long ago that I’d almost forgotten the feeling of it.
I stared into the eyes of this magnificent beast and for a moment, I felt what it had once known too, a forest so alive its heartbeat pulsed with each turn of the season. The gift of water so nourishing that the trees bowed in thanks for it as the Bear passed them by.
My lips parted as I caught a glimpse of what felt like both the past and something that might still be again, and my tears became one with the sorrow of the spirit which should have offered me nothing but fear.
I stared into those endlessly blue eyes and the Bear looked back at me like it could see me too, in a way that no other ever had. A low rumble sounded in its chest, but as it dipped its head lower, I found myself needing to know what it meant.
As if that one desire had been the key to a lock, the power of the bear swept around me in full, and its yearning for me to know its pain pressed into my mind without confine.
“Lost.”
The word struck me like a blow, the echo of it tumbling through to my core and shifting everything around me on its axis.
But before I could respond in any way, the Bear released a bellow which deafened me, a spray of water from its jaws crashing over me before its huge paw swatted me aside like a bug.
I hit the solid trunk of a tree hard enough to knock the breath from my lungs, pain exploding through my side, my terror turning to horror as I found Damon at the Bear’s flank, his spear lodged in its thigh.
“Wait!” I scrambled to my feet just as Colton charged into the clearing, his sword held high and a warrior’s cry on his lips.
The Bear bellowed as it swung a paw at Damon, striking him so hard that the sound of his spine snapping stuck me like a blow.
I cringed back as the spirit whirled around, water flying from it in every direction, saturating the ground, the trees and the leaves above us as it hunted for more targets to attack.
But Colton had gotten behind it and he took a running leap as the spirit rose up onto its haunches with a furious bellow.
“Wait,” I gasped, my moment having passed me by before I’d even realised it was upon me. I had no weapon, no way to defeat the spirit, but I had felt the need to claim it like a second heartbeat pounding in my chest.
Colton either didn’t hear me or ignored me regardless as he swung his blade with deadly precision and the Bear bellowed mournfully as the blade sank into its heart.
Something cracked apart in my chest as the Bear staggered and then fell, its enormous body headed straight for both me and Colton, its weight sure to crush us both.
I didn’t move, I couldn’t tear my gaze from the woeful sight of that ethereally beautiful spirit being felled by something as commonly crass as an iron blade.
I tipped my head back and stared up at the Bear as it toppled straight for me, a cry piercing the air as it fell, the haunting beauty of it stealing my breath.
But we weren’t flattened as we should have been.
Instead, a flood of water crashed down over us as the spirit disappeared, a swirling torrent of liquid hurtling through the trees and surrounding us like a whirlpool sucked toward a drain.
I staggered within the grasp of its power, my dark hair plastered to my cheeks, my heart breaking as my tears mixed with the water that rushed towards the centre of the clearing and almost swept me along with it.
Something heavy and solid hit the dirt, the last of the water seeming to disappear within it, and the world held its breath for several weighted moments like even the magic of the forest had felt the burden of the Bear’s capture.
Colton recovered from the shock of what had happened faster than I could and strode forward to secure his prize.
He stooped, a victorious smile on his lips as he plucked a dark chain from the ground, a hexagonal locket swinging from it, about an inch in length.
I watched stoically as he placed the amulet over his head, the carved Bear on its face looking out at me with such intensity that I was almost certain the Bear itself was peering through the metal to survey me.
The weight of its stare felt like judgement. Betrayal.
I swallowed back the rising bile in my throat.
“At last,” Colton said though panted breaths, his shirt clinging to his muscular body, his victory tangling with my bitter disappointment in the air that divided us. “The Hunt is coming to fruition.”
I nodded, knowing he was right, that this was what had to be done. The spirits had to be vanquished before the amulets could contain them. Anyone wishing to Summon their power had to prove their worth in capturing them.
But as I followed Colton into the trees, the two of us alone in our hunt now, I couldn’t help but mourn the loss of the Bear from these woods. Its existence was tied to the magic of this place, and I could feel an emptiness in the space surrounding us which hadn’t been there before.
Worse than that, I’d missed my shot.
I needed to be the one to claim the most amulets if I wanted the forest to grant me its boon. The Bear should have been mine. Rissa was counting on me and I’d failed her.
I spotted my slingshot in the dirt as Colton led the way once more, and I bent down to take it. Bitterness consumed me as I stayed with him in our hunt despite the urge to turn tail and flee his wretched company. But I knew my chances were better with him than alone in this cursed place.
I’d come so close.
Next time, I vowed, I wouldn’t let my opportunity slip away. Next time, I’d be winning a spirit for myself. I just had to pray that I could.