Chapter 9 #2
My heart’s racing now, and I frantically scan the tree line, hoping to catch a glimpse of one of my mates, but I don’t spot them.
Relax Shade, I’m sure they’re still out there.
They’re just trying to make sure you’re properly terrified so the nemins turn up.
Logically, I feel like that must be true, but telling myself that doesn’t stop me from being afraid.
“Guys!” I hiss again, my voice shriller this time.
When my mates are using their shadow whisper power on me, my voice is hushed, but this time, the word echoes around the clearing, bouncing off the massive trees.
I snap my lips shut, hating how that one word is penetrating the quiet around me and disturbing the forest. Crap.
My breathing quickens, the air so cold my lips go numb, and then it starts.
A low whistle weaves through the trees, the crisp sound reaching my ears. Dread pools in the pit of my stomach as awareness prickles down the back of my neck, and I get the feeling that someone or something other than my guys is watching me.
I squirm against the rock, wishing I was anywhere but here.
Just remember, if it wasn’t you, it would be someone else, I tell myself.
But right now, I’m not feeling very noble.
No, right now I feel like an idiot, and my legs twitch as I fight against the urge to run.
Not that I would know where to run to anyway.
I’d only get lost in the forest, and knowing my luck, probably run right into the lair of another shadow monster.
Pretending to be brave, I stay seated, my body tight as I fight against my flight reflex, even though my instincts are telling me to hightail it out of here.
“Please don’t let me die,” I mutter under my breath to the guys, but my voice is still not being masked, and that only makes this so much worse.
The whistling becomes louder, and the cheery tune grates against my ears. It sounds wrong. Everything about it has warning bells clanging in my mind.
“I swear, if I die a horrible death today, I’m going to find a way to haunt you all,” I threaten under my breath, my teeth starting to chatter from the cold.
I wonder then what it would be like to turn into a soul wandering the shadow realm.
It sounds pretty boring, but I guess as a soul there wouldn’t be any sense of time.
Would there? I mean, would I even know who or where I was?
Or would I be like a zombie ghost simply aimlessly wandering around?
The whistling grows louder until I’m sure I know the direction it’s coming from. I clench my eyes shut because if I see what’s coming I’m going to scream, and I’m still trying to be brave.
Just when I think I can’t resist opening my eyes, the forest falls silent as the whistling abruptly stops.
A strange floral scent mixed with the smell of rotting flesh assaults my nose, and tears prick at my closed eyes.
Calm down, Shade. You have your big girl pants on, remember?
Except I really don’t. I’ve never been the brave one. At least, not that I can remember.
Something stings my leg, and I snap my eyes open, horrified to see there’s a tiny wooden dart jutting from my skin. Warmth radiates from where the dart has hit me, and instinctively, I try to reach down and remove it.
Only…my hands won’t move. My fingers tingle, like tiny needles are pricking my skin. Oh, crap. I’m freaking paralyzed.
My face still has feeling, but the rest of my body has become completely useless to me.
I try to move my arms and legs, but I’m stuck in a seated position against the boulder, with my legs stretched out in front of me.
Fear and panic flood my system. No. No. No.
Why did I agree to this? Glowing eyes penetrate the tree line in front of me, and if I hadn’t needed to pee before, I definitely need to go now.
Five strange little creatures step out into the moonlight, moving away from the cover of the trees, and I’m not sure what I expected, but this isn’t it.
The skin of their small, wrinkled bodies is an ashen gray, and their limbs are gangly and childlike as they walk toward me on two legs.
They’re different heights, with the tallest nemin being around 3 feet high.
They have white claws on their hairy hands, and their round, sunken eyes seem comically large for their bald heads.
Two slits are situated where a human’s nose would be, and when they smile, their thin, pale lips stretch from one side of their faces to the other, revealing rows of pointed, decaying teeth.
They’re dressed in layers of moss and bark, and tiny white flowers have sprouted over their clothes.
The flowers jiggle and shake as the creatures move toward me, and honestly, in their own way, the nemins are kind of…
adorable. One of the nemins sneezes, and a cloud of shadows appears before its mouth like a puff of smoke.
The sound reminds me of when a puppy sneezes, and stupidly, my fear eases a little. That is, until one of the smallest creatures on the right licks it’s lips with a furred, black tongue and starts to sing. Following the tune of the whistling from earlier, its high-pitched voice fills the air.
A tasty morsel, we can see,
Delicious, not vicious, for us to eat,
We hope it screams, we hope it begs,
We will slowly devour it until we’re fed.
The tune is surprisingly catchy, and when the tiny nemin finishes, it blinks at me innocently, like it wasn’t just singing about torturing and eating me.
Oh great. Now I’m going to have that looping in my head as I die.
I’m contemplating my horrible untimely death, as the creatures close in on me.
Two of them reach down, pulling my boots from my feet, and one of them lifts my left foot to its face.
It’s cold and slimy tongue wiggles between two of my toes, before he curves his tongue around, flicking it across the bottom of my foot.
I’m terrified, but that doesn’t stop the involuntary laughter that bursts out of me at the ticklish sensation.
The creature stops and cocks its head, turning to its companion on its right side. “Mmm, delicious,” it says in its high-pitched musical voice. “Here, try this, Shazeke. Have you tasted such a thing?”
Every horrible fact Knox told me about the nemins’ eating habits repeats in my head, but when the next nemin copies its friend, licking my feet with its furred tongue, I can’t help laughing again.
My stomach clenches as I’m helpless to stop myself.
The only good thing right now, is that I still seem to have control over my inner muscles and my bladder, so I haven’t peed myself. Yet.
The nemins’ tongues are worse than feathers, and as they take turns licking my feet, tears of laughter soon stream down my cheeks. One of the nemins sucks on my big toe, his lips pressing together, while another lightly scrapes down my foot with its clawed finger.
Knox really understated how bad this would be, because it’s true torture. I know I should be grateful the pain hasn’t started yet, but the ticklish sensation is unbearable.
I fight to control my limbs, desperate to kick out and get the little creatures away from me, but my body won’t obey.
“Please stop,” I beg through tears of laughter.
A tendril of power flicks out from my academy ring, but the magic is even harder to grasp than usual.
The toxin in my system must be affecting what little power I’ve managed to harness in the past, and my eyes grow heavy, exhaustion trying to pull me under. I curse under my breath.
Still, when another tongue licks up the bottom of my foot, I manage to focus a small surge of shadow magic.
It zaps out, a tiny, snake-like shadow flicking the creature who was licking me.
The nemin yelps in surprise, its already comically large eyes getting even wider.
Ha! I give myself a mental pat on the back.
“A strong one, this one is,” the shocked nemin comments, but it’s not too fazed, and my moment of triumph is fleeting as it goes back to licking and torturing me.
Another one of the nemin pauses, lifting its head to lick his lips. “So tasty,” it says in a musical voice. “Must savor this one for days. Might not get another like it.”
Days? Stuff that.
“Yes, days,” another nemin agrees, echoing its companion.
“Hmmm it’s suspicious to be so delicious,” rhymes the nemin who had serenaded me earlier. “Too strange, but shouldn’t complain.”
Another of the nemin, pulls back from my foot, cocking its head as it observes me with its large, circular eyes.
“Tell us, tasty morsel. Why so much flavor? Not an ordinary human, are you stranger?” It stares at me with curiosity as it lets out a high-pitched whistling sound, before the noise cuts off again.
“Wish I knew,” I croak deliriously through laughter. My so-called mates still haven’t come to my rescue, and I really am starting to wonder if this will be how I die. It seems a ridiculous way to go. Not that I was expecting a warrior’s death or anything, but this seems seriously anticlimactic.
My laughter tapers off, and as I blink through my tears, it takes me a moment to realize it’s because they’re no longer tickling me. When I peer down, all of the creatures are standing still like tiny statues, and they’re staring at me with the same odd expression.
“Did you hear that?” one of the nemins finally says.
“It responded,” replies another.
“Understood you,” adds a third.
“Well yeah,” I answer, panting as I catch my breath. “You asked me a question, and I don’t want to be rude.” My throat is burning and raw from all the laughter, but I decide I need to keep talking to distract the creatures from the fact that I’m their dinner. “It’s nice to meet you. I’m Shade.”
The nemins are gaping at me now, which kind of makes sense, because I doubt they were expecting small talk from their meal.
“She can hear us,” a nemin comments.
“So peculiar,” another one adds.
“Disconcerting,” says a third.
“Hold on, can’t humans normally speak to you?
” I ask, now completely weirded out. I decide I’ll have to try and unpack that discovery later.
Right now, I’m wondering if this piece of information can work in my favor.
The nemins all shake their heads in answer, and I remember what Galen said earlier about the little creatures being superstitious.
It gives me an idea. “I mean, of course, you’re right.
I’m no ordinary human and eating me would be a…
a bad omen. You’ll be cursed. For eternity, or however long you creatures live.
” I’m obviously making this up, but the nemins look unsettled now, so my comment has managed to hit the mark. A spark of hope ignites in my chest.
The nemins exchange uneasy glances like they’re not sure what to do, but one of the largest of them roughly grabs my foot again. “I don’t care, I’m starving,” it says, dipping its tongue between my toes again.
It’s barely there for a second before the first nemin who spoke slaps its companion hard, making it drop my foot. “Do you want to be cursed? We should leave her. Let one of the other creatures kill her while she’s vulnerable, and then we’ll recover our meal once she’s dead.”
I grimace, not sure if my plan is really working out for me.
The nemin who was slapped makes a disgusted face. “And eat it when it’s already dead? You know I hate it when my food goes cold.”
“We all do, but better to have it dead than suffer an unknown curse,” the nemin who slapped him explains.
At that moment, a sixth, much larger nemin seems to appear out of nowhere. It looks much the same as the others, though there’s more muscle on its wiry arms and legs. It turns its alert gaze from the forest to the five nemins in front of me. “What’s the argument? I’m hungry. Let’s eat.”
The nemin who slapped the other one quickly explains the situation. When it’s done speaking, the larger nemin seems to consider me. “We can’t risk a curse,” it finally says reluctantly. “Our hollowing may not survive. We wait for another to kill the human before we feast.”
The nemin who had suggested this plan prior, looks pleased, and on the bright side, I’m thinking I’ve bought myself some time. That the nemin will leave me alone for a while. At least, until some other monster comes to finish me.
Before I can even mentally celebrate, the nemin who got slapped goes for my feet again. “You’re all being selfish! There’s no curse,” he spits, and opening his mouth wide, he bites my big toe.
That’s right, he bites it. I’m not laughing now.
His fangs sink into my flesh, and a searing, burning agony stabs into me.
It’s like something is attacking all the nerves in my body at once, and I scream.
The sound pierces the forest, and I’m sure I’m imagining it, but the trees seem to shake around me.
As the scream continues to rip from my lips, the nemins cover their ears and stare at me in horror.