...
''So what do we do?'' - Ashes asks, walking in circles, with her arms crossed. The ominous aura of the circle is starting to get on her nerves, she'd waited too long for Ewan and Iris to return.
''How'should i know? Never seen Ewan do this.'' - He glances at Iris, and with a saddened face, he continues - ''Or her... This must be some kind of ritual.''
''Well, what kind of rituals your 'Máistir' Ewan do?''
''Not the kind that shocks'ye when'ye tries to get close to it.'' - Phi'lip walks towards a table close to the ritual circle, it's full of books, none of them have anything that seems to be special, though a few are open. - ''I'd say we could find answers on these but... I can't read.''
Ashes puffs, holding a laugh. - ''You can't read? Tsc, hand me these.''
She picks up the book from him, and while flipping through the pages, a sudden realization hits her on her face. She can't read either.
Among her confused glances, Phi'lip provokes - ''What? Gonna say ye can't read as well?''
''I know i can Phillip, but not this... What language even is this?'' - She keeps flipping through the pages, growing more confused with each page.
''Right, let's ask the guy who can't read at all to IDENTIFY THE LANGUAGE IN A BOOK! Real funny.'' - He yells, then drags the chair opposite the table and slumps into it. ''And me name's PHI'LIP. Not 'Phillip'. Big difference.'' - He says, mildly annoyed.
''Right, of course...'' - Ashes doesn't even look at him as he speaks, but notices he's unnaturally irritable.
She comes across a page with sketches on it, a person being affected by some kind of dome, it covers the entire person, then lines converge toward it from all sides.
''Huh, some of the pages are illustrated...''
A second person comes in, makes the first one sit down, and a circle is drawn around it. On the next page, amidst writings she can't decipher, another illustration - the same exact circle that is sketched around Ewan and Iris. Two pages to the side, a creature is shown embracing the person with the dome, as the one who made the circle points towards it with its hand. The creature is tall, with a deformed skull of what seems to be a deer, but larger, wider, with more teeth and many horns.
A detailed sketch of a hand is shown next, inside of it, lines flow towards the tips of the fingers, blood vessels, they seem to be, but a page later, the person that points the hand lets out fire from the fingers, it covers the creature in flames. At last, the dome is broken. The book is actually a manuscript, a guide it seems.
''I think i figured it out...'' - Ashes turns to Phi'lip, who lies laid back on the chair.
''Hey, Phillip?'' - She taps on his shoulder, he mumbles something but he doesn't fully respond. The boy is unconscious. Is it because of the injury? Or does it have to do with the circle? she wonders, still gently trying to wake him up.
''Depart, and then slumber shall relinquish its hold on thine friend.'' - The same voice from before speaks again.
Well, that answers one question...
She turns to the circle, where Ewan and Iris stand. They're sweating, yet remain motionless. She reaches her hand into the area of the circle, thinking of the creature she saw, thinking that perhaps it is who they're trying to reach.
She isn't repelled, quite the opposite, she feels like being pulled into it. She closes her eyes instinctively as she feels the pull, a sensation of being drowned in a thick liquid covers her from head to toe. When she opens her eyes, she's somewhere else entirely. Falling face-first into the ground.
The leaves in the ground tingle her, even through the fabric of her clothes, as if they could move on their own. The air is stale, cold, heavy. This forest is quiet, almost abandoned, the trees are all the same kind, a simple yet robust tall pine trunk, yet it has weird leaves for a pine, they're rounded, large. They all move in the same direction in unison, despite not having any wind. She feels the leaves are watching her, each individual leaf, an observant eye. Sunlight barely reaches the floor.
Her hands go into her hips, pulling the sheathe upwards from the belt. As she unsheathes her sword, the belt stays in the air after she lets go of it, thinking it would simply fall down. Instead, it fades, dematerializes in front of her, as if being removed from reality.
How is that even-
Then it hits her; She's alone, not a sight about Ewan, Iris, or the creature on the book. Apart from the trees and herself, the place seems completely sterile. And yet, as she starts walking, the place becomes more and more familiar, more like home. The silence, the coldness, the emptiness of it all. It's disturbingly comforting, aside from the feeling of being observed.
The silence is broken by sounds moving the leaves on the ground. She turns almost immediately, startled by the noise.
In between the leaves, a small creature moves towards her. Eight legs, fangs, many, many eyes, the same one she had seen inside the manor. I must be close to the manor, if this little critter is here. She lowers her sword, the creature turns it's little head, as if confused. Then it quickly burrows itself, almost in desperation.
''Hey! Don't you remember me? You can come clo-''
From the silence something finally creaks loudly, a deep step sound suddenly reaches her ears, it comes from behind her. She can barely turn her head before the metallic taste rushes into her mouth. A claw protrudes through her waist, she looks down on it, her body frozen, her vision blurring. Then the pain comes, slowly every bit of her body starts to ache, in a way she can't even process the amount of pain.
Her lungs emptied, not even screaming is an option at this stage. Her hands move to hold the claw but it gets pulled back before she reaches it. She falls face down almost immediately, as if the claw itself was the only thing holding her upright. At this point, her body is completely limp.
Her vision fades completely from the pain, and when she opens it, Ashes lifts herself from the ground, almost tripping over. She looks down at her waist, but there's nothing in there. No blood, no scar, nothing. Yet the pain is still there, slowly ticking down until not even the pain's present anymore. Her breathing is still euphoric and her heart is still racing.
She looks around in desperation, fearful of the creature attacking her again, still trying to process what just happened. It struck me... It definitely did. It felt like i died, but... Why am i still here?
Ashes struggles to unsheathe her sword, her hand trembling, then finally getting it unstuck from the belt, and as before, the belt simply dematerializes in front of her. Fear ravages her mind, a pure state of fight or fleet, against an enemy she can't even see, something that sliced her open in less than a second.
She looks right to left, left to right, quickly going in circles around herself, desperately trying to avoid a second possible attack. As she starts moving, a sound creeps behind her, leaves being moved at the ground. She turns around aggressively, desperately, her blade cleaves in the air, hitting nothing. But as she turns around, she takes a glimpse of it. It's not a man, nor an animal. Something incomprehensibly grotesque, though it resembles the hauntingly beautiful creature from the sketchbooks, what she sees might be something else entirely.
A living corpse, is what it looks like, whatever the creature was, as depicted in the book, this isn't it anymore. His towering form stands almost as tall as the surrounding pines, his skin is not skin at all, but a rough, uneven sheath of bark and gray-green moss, mottled with years of decay, scarred, broken and rotted. His long, spindly limbs are disproportionate, his fingers ending in thick, blackened claws like burnt roots. His horns, instead of two, are many. All broken halfway through. His deer-like skull stands directly pointed at Ashes, jaw wide open. Small droplets of what she presumes to be saliva, occasionaly jump out of it's jaw, though they have a more greyish colour.
Her feet fail her, her mind unsure of what to even think. An ancient instinct begs her to leave, another voice - curiosity - asks what are you?
It starts walking, then it degrades into limping, using the trees as support. Not unlike she'd done a few weeks back when she first woke up. It appears to be mimicking her.
A battered, broken, rash and incomplete voice whispers behind her.
Her ear rings, the sound of its breath stirring something familiar in her, words she'd once said to something small, harmless.
''I'm not going to. Hurt you, little guy. I'm going. Going. to take you somewhere else, you're not supposed to be here''
Word for word, it utters what she'd told the little critter back at the manor. And in between the bizarrely disfigured voice it has, a more gentle and familiar voice shyly accompanies it.
The voice mimicry is hard not to notice, it resembles her own voice being used, as hollow as they seem, it's still distinguishable. But how could it know what she'd done, what she'd said, she thinks. And then it hits her; When the critter seemed to understand what she said at that library room at the manor, perhaps it really did. Or perhaps there was something else listening all along.
As it passes behind a tree, it doesn't come out the other side. Ashes tightens the grip on her sword, although her fingers tremble, she desperately tries to spot it again.
Her head aches as she turns around, he's already lunging at her, it's jaw appears to be as big as her when she sees it. This time she manages to dodge it, albeit by throwing herself to the side, but dodging it. Ashes gets back on her feet and backs away a few steps, taking a look at how the creature attacks.
A few moments ago, it seemed intelligent, conscient, even. Trying to communicate. But now it seems wild, nothing more than a hungry beast.
It lies on all four of its limbs, it's neck and head pointing up-forwardly in a disturbing pose that at the same seems like it has a broken neck. The creature starts winding up, rushing towards her, like a disjointed wolf hunting his prey.
She feels like time has slowed down. How do i beat him? Can i just cut him open?
Ashes assumes her fighting stance, though her hands tremble, the fear of feeling that pain again haunts her to do better. The creature reaches closer and closer, eventually leaping towards her small frame. She attempts to dodge away but it's too late and it hits her anyway.
First the claws, they barely touch her arms as she tries to distance herself from it as it gets on top of her, and yet they burn like fire, dive into her skin as knives dive into butter. All five of them penetrate her skin, her left shoulder is mauled in the impact alone. Her bones are the only thing between the claws and her neck.
The pain is still too much, she tries her best not to puke out of pain, feeling like throwing up her entire stomach. She can't even scream.
In amidst the messy blender of leaves, blood, sweat and whatever it is that leaks from the creature's skull, she tries to connect her sword into it, but it fights back trying to disarm her. Even with a mangled arm, she holds his left claw in place, giving enough room for her sword to find it's way in.
And against all odds, her blade reaches his neck.