CHAPTER SIXTEEN
The ground slips beneath the creature and it misses a step.
It fumbles trying to right itself, and I take the moment to drag myself up over the ledge. The thing scurries to follow, head twitching on its thin neck. Its claws tear clumps of dirt and grass as it bounds after me.
I push to my feet and run. I throw myself through the trees. Behind me, the thing gives chase. It bounds nimbly, using all six arms to gain momentum. When an area gets too dense, it scuttles up the trees and leaps through the branches like an overgrown sugar glider.
The commotion stirs the other things living in the forest. Yellow eyes follow me. Loops that I thought were vines slither and coil around branches. In the distance, something howls.
It’s the wail of something I don’t want to come across. Whatever it is, it sounds enormous and it’s scary enough that the chittering stops. Other animals scurry for cover. But not for the thing with all the arms. It continues after me with a renewed sense of determination.
I crash through a heavy thicket of brush and tumble into a clearing. It’s wide enough that there is no way I will make it to the other side before I’m captured.
Panting, I turn to face the human spider. I watch it crawl down the side of a tree, every joint cracking. It smiles in triumph.
“Take my hand.” It snickers, lifting the front two towards me.
I edge back slowly, but keep my voice firm when I tell it, “Stay away from me.”
It’s dumb.
Under no circumstances would that ever work, but I hope I sound fearless enough that...
The trees to my left part and from the shadows, twin sets of golden eyes emerge. They gleam over a wide maw lined with serrated fangs. Each one glints with the slow curling of its lips.
“You are far from your home, little soul.” The low, guttural growl echoes through the trees. “Are you lost?”
The thing that emerges is a wolf, but twenty feet high with a pelt that gleams blue in the night and paws as wide as boats. Next to it, the human spider is no bigger than a wolf spider.
“It’s mine!” the spider hisses.
The wolf seems to notice it for the first time. Its massive, furry head cocks in its direction with mild surprise.
“Leave,” he tells it.
But the spider goes up on its back hands like it’s ready to fight.
The wolf eats it.
No hesitation. No remorse. One quick swoop and the spider is in the wolf’s mouth. It crunches beneath his teeth. All that remains is the single, bloody arm that flops out and hits the dirt between us.
“Disgusting.” The wolf mutters, sitting back on its haunches. He sighs and fixes me with the full weight of his attention once more. “You shouldn’t be here.”
“It wasn’t on purpose,” I pant. “I got lost and I don’t know how to get back.”
“The humans have a story that begins this way,” he muses slowly. “Little girl gets lost in the woods and comes across a wolf. The little girl gets eaten.”
“Little Red Riding Hood,” I mumble, contemplating my chances of making it into the trees again. He’s definitely too big to fit. “The woodsman cuts the wolf open and the little girl lives.”
He makes a clicking sound that is much too strange for a dog. “Humans are so barbaric.”
It takes a lot not to laugh at the statement after the day I’ve had.
“I need to get home,” I tell him.
His golden eyes shift down to me with a look so human I shiver. “Has no one told you? You’re dead. You don’t have a home.”
So, it’s true, I think sadly. While I didn’t think Vaelith was lying to me. I hoped he was mistaken.
“I still have to go,” I murmur, taking another step back.
“You seem nice,” he decides with a wistfulness that prickles the hairs at the back of my neck.
“But you’re the most delicious looking meal I’ve seen in a long time.
” He rolls onto all fours and towers over me.
“You can run, if you like. I haven’t had a good chase in a while, and it’ll make me feel less guilty when I eat you. ”
“Please, don’t.” I know it’s useless to try, but I pray there’s a small part of him that will let me go.
“Go on. Run,” he urges, gently at first. When I don’t move, he bares fangs as long as I am tall and snarls, “Run!”
I scream, but it’s engulfed by the roar that swallows the world.
It rolls beneath the earth and splinters across the sky. It shakes the ground beneath our feet. An earthquake that has the wolf staggering back several steps, massive head swinging in the direction of the sound.
I follow the line of his attention to the crack and snap of trees. The thundering clap of something enormous charging towards us.
“Can’t be...” the wolf mutters, but a figure as tall as a skyscraper unfolds against the heavens.
And the wind goes silent.
The world stills as if the very earth is too afraid to move.
The trees beneath his feet bend and snap. They’re swept aside with an easy flick of his monstrous hands, clearing a path until he stands before us with the swirling fury of a wildfire.
“F ... Father...” the wolf stammers, head bowed in supplication and shame.
But the creature blotting the moon merely stands over him.
Antlers a crown of carved ivory spiraling towards the stars from a face of bone.
Two pools of crimson glow from the sockets that wash down the long length of his snout.
He crouches, folding a body made of pure muscle and covered with a thick, black fur onto all fours.
But those burning eyes stay fixed on the wolf.
Hands with jagged claws fall to either side of me, caging me.
Protecting me.
A low rumble vibrates through the clearing. A snarl deep in the cavity of his chest.
“You dare threaten my wife?” he says without a mouth, yet it rumbles through the sky like thunder.
The wolf, on its belly, head to the ground, whimpers, “Forgive me. I didn’t know. She didn’t say...”
Talons gouge into the dirt. Ripping up mounds. Creating trenches.
“If I find a single scratch on her...”
“He didn’t hurt me,” I blurt. “He saved me from a different ... thing that was chasing me.”
I don’t know why I’m trying to protect the wolf, but maybe because he saved me, and it only feels right to return the favor. Even if he saved me so he could eat me himself.
Vaelith lowers his massive maw and sniffs the air around me. I reach up and lightly touch the side of his nose, and I’m immediately scooped up into his palm.
“Are you hurt?” he demands.
“I’m okay,” I promise.
He continues to study me for several moments before returning his attention to the wolf still cowering in the dirt.
“Your queen just spared your life,” he snarls. “Spread the word. Anyone comes near her again, I will make an example of them.”
“Yes, Father. Thank you.”
Without another word, Vaelith turns and starts back the way he’d come. The movement is probably slow for him, but I have to cling to his thumb to keep from sliding over his palm.
The further we get from the heavy smog of whatever I just ran through, the less furry he becomes. Roots and vines wind their way up and around him, covering the fur until he’s back to what I remember. The mask dissolves back into his beautiful face and I’m the center of his entire focus.
“You should have let me use my vines,” he teases.
Despite the nightmare I just went through, I laugh at the ridiculous joke.
“I kind of wish you had, too,” I admit. “That was terrifying.”
His smile slips and he stops walking. I’m lifted until I’m level with his face.
“Are you sure you’re not hurt?”
I look down at myself. At the mud, sludge and blood caking my feet, staining my dress. I can’t imagine what my face and hair must look like, but it doesn’t seem to be bothering him.
“My dress is ruined,” I murmur.
His brows furrow. “I will get you as many more as you want, but that isn’t my concern.”
“I’m alright,” I promise him. “I do have several questions about the things I saw.”
Vaelith grunts and resumes walking.
“The border between our kingdom and the others is a thin one. The one between Paludaris and Tarnveil is nearly identical until you realize you’re no longer in our realm. Nothing beyond our borders will make sense to you until you become more familiar with them.”
After everything I just saw, I’m not entirely certain I want to see the other places, but I am curious.
“What’s out there?” I ask, turning my head to squint out into the spanning darkness stretching wide into the horizon.
“All manner of creatures. Some good. Some evil.” With his free hand, he gestures to a faint glow of lights in the distance. “Fae. Vampires.” He motions a little over. “Werewolves. Incubi. Chthonia is a home for monsters and things that have no business in the human world.”
“I don’t know how I’ll get used to all this,” I confess. “I was raised to believe none of this existed.”
We arrive in what I assume is our border and Vaelith shrinks to a manageable size. He’s still a dominating tower looming over me, but I’m no longer sitting in his palm.
“Do you still wish to visit your death, little one?” he asks.
“I think I need to,” I confess. “I want to know how it happened. See it,” I stress when he opens his mouth.
He inclines his head. “As you wish, my queen.”
I take his hand. I capture it between both of mine and I can feel the surprise coming off him, but he doesn’t protest. And I don’t tell him it’s not only because I like holding his hand, but because I’m terrified I’ll lose him again and end up somewhere even scarier.
“I’d like to see my parents,” I say, breaking the calm silence between us. “To visit occasionally. Is that possible?”
He’s quiet for several steps, eyes locked on the distance. “The longer you continue to move in and out of their lives, the harder it will be for them to move on. They will perpetually mourn you, but, yes, you can visit.”
“They don’t have to know I’m there, do they? Can I just look in on them from time to time?”
His head cocks down towards me. “If that is your wish, I will see to it.”
We continue onward, and I have a momentary thought that makes my chuckle.