Nightmares Amongst Firelight

CW - Assault, Brutality, Fighting, Blood, Gore

(An excerpt from the novel, The Lost Heir, written by J. Flessa circa. July 2021)

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She took a deep breath as she opened her eyes to the darkened forest beyond. Crisp air, and an odd mingling of pinewood and maple dancing about. Looking around, Lorik gently resting next to her and her longbow at the ready, where was this?

The Whispering Wood? The Rhedwyr Thicket? The moon was dancing at its full height, illuminating the shadows that gathered. Yet they kept creeping closer.

Above it all sat the uncanny sight of a burning star in the sky. One that kept following them.

Rayna shook her brother, gathering him up as he grumbled. “Ray?” He murmured.

“Shh,” she hushed. She stood, Lorik in one arm and long bow in her other hand. Lorik clung to her neck staring off behind them.

“The shadows are back,” Lorik whispered.

“I know-” Rayna began forward, away from the figures creeping closer, only to falter as pain shot up her leg.

Her ankle was throbbing to the beat of her heart. Sprained, and in desperate need of rest. Thoughts of a stress fracture passed by, and she swallowed back the bile rising in her throat. You have to keep going.

She limped forward, eyes searching the trees, hoping that the shadows were only behind them. Footsteps rustled through the underbrush, several pairs matching her uneven march.

“Ray,” Lorik’s whispering wavered in her ear. Hands tightened in her cloak. “They’re getting closer.”

Biting her cheek, tasting copper, Rayna tried to pick up the pace. She swallowed the whimpers rising in the back of her throat. She faltered, good foot catching on a root, and staggered as her bad leg caught her from toppling. Her knee wobbled at an odd angle the way it does when one walks too quickly on a sleeping limb.

Squeezing her eyes shut, she bit back a scream as she pressed her face into Lorik. Searing nails stabbed into her ankle. As if an artisan was welding together the pieces of an automaton.

The footsteps behind them halted. Animals readying to pounce.

“Ray?” Lorik whimpered.

She managed another step forward. Fire biting up her leg. The footsteps didn’t follow. Another. A cry caught in throat as the air left her lungs. Another. The distance grew between them and the shadows. Another. Her ankle began to numb. Another. Her vision began to spot.

Rayna approached a fairly large tree, low hanging branches allowing easy access to the sky. She pulled her longbow over her head, and hoisted Lorik toward the lowest branch. He grabbed on, looking back at her.

“Go ahead,” Rayna panted. “I’ll be right behind you.”

He began to scramble up the tree, glancing back to see if Rayna was following. She waved him forward as she pulled herself up. Cold relief seeped into her leg. Without using her bad leg, she began to hoist herself after Lorik.

He had stopped halfway up, hugging the trunk. His eyes grew wide as he looked back down at his sister. “Ray-”

A hard tug on her bad ankle sent Rayna crashing to the ground with a pained scream. She landed on her feet, bone snapping under her weight. She clutched at her ankle, shimmying her longbow over her head as she tried to sit up.

A pale figure grappled her into a headlock, attempting to wrangle her onto her feet. Lorik’s screaming rang in her ears. The rush of blood pounded in her head. She threw her elbow back, connecting with her captor’s nose, crunching under the force.

Whipping around on her good foot, she whipped her bow across their face as she fell onto her back. Her head knocked against the ground making her vision tunnel. The figure swam into view, rubbing at his jaw.

Blacked out eyes, starlight hair, and ghostly pale with black claw-like tattoos spanning his neck. The changeling wiped the blackened blood streaming from their nose.

“Brats the both of you,” he growled.

Rayna readied her longbow, reaching for her quiver on her back. The arrows pinned under her as the container had broken her fall. The changeling stomped towards her, and she kicked out with her good leg.

He stepped on the other, and Rayna screamed.

Clambering on top of her, he dug a knee into her stomach to stop her from flailing. Black smoke coalesced in his palm as an ice shard formed.

“No more cat and mouse games,” he snarled. His voice clear over Lorik’s shrieking in the tree. “We’ve let you run far enough-”

Rayna managed an arrow free, and she sunk it into the changeling’s eye. Blackened blood splattered across Rayna’s face as the man shouted. One hand rushing to grapple her, and the other reaching for her neck.

She kneed him hard, her bad leg limp and numb. She pulled the arrow out, and jabbed it into the other socket. The changeling wrestled with her, uncannily unbothered. Blood poured over her face, Rayna blinking and spitting to keep from gagging.

She kneed him again, trying to push him to the side. She kept sinking the arrow head deeper, stabbing it as many times as she could manage. Again. Through his cheek. Again. Through his ear. And Again. Through his temple.

After minutes of struggle, he fell limp against Rayna. She pushed him off. Breathing heavy, and heartbeat pounding in her ears. She rolled, managing herself onto her knees. Her leg throbbed, vision tunneling as she stared off into the forest.

The shadows started forward. Footsteps rustling closer.

She clutched her long bow in her hand. Bloodied hand fisted around the arrow in her other. Chest heaving, she screamed. Primal and frustrated. War-like and exhausted.

The shadows halted.

Rayna pushed herself to her feet, pain giving way to constraining numbness. She screamed again. Growling. Challenging. Draining.

The shadows receded.

Her vision blurred, and she toppled forward. Face grinding against the earth. Small feet found the ground next to the tree, and rushed towards her.

“Rayna,” Lorik cried. His hands shook her, twisting in the bloodied fabric of her shirt. “Rayna, please don’t go to sleep.”

Lorik. Thoughts began to drift. You have to keep going. For him. For them. Rayna attempted to roll over. Lorik hung over her, tears streaming through the dirt on his face. She reached to cup the side of his face.

“It’s- alright,” she managed. “We’ll find them. Ravens. Guardian. ”

Her eyes glanced past to the sky above as her hand dropped from Lorik. Stars twinkling like the sparks of blue magic that radiated off her arrows. One rocketed across the sky as her eyes slipped close.