by Jaie Cavell
-The Heat-
Jessica cut the low hanging branches away from her face and smoothed her blonde hair back. She welcomed the fresh air that invaded the forest’s edge and chased back the damp heat; she unzipped her jacket, cooling her temperature significantly. At her back she felt as if the heat was forcing her into the open, coaxing her towards her goal. She took a step forward, her boot squelched in the undergrowth as a pink nebitt ducked under an exposed root. Jessica stared at the root for a few seconds longer; she had never seen a real nebitt before now, there had only ever been the drawings that lived within her small blue leather bound book. Her chest clenched tightly at the thought of the book, reducing her breathing to strained gasps as her mind raced back to afternoons with Fyeria on the riverbank, watching as she scribbled that day’s lesson into the small book. Her bag weighed heavy at its place on her left shoulder, its weight intensified by the dense moisture that clung to the external of the bag. Jessica lifted her boot over the final exposed root and stepped out onto the warm soft grass. The smell of the sunshine soaked meadow rid her nose of the damp forest smell and was most definitely a welcome joy.
In the distance she could see her objective, and her heart sank as she took in its appearance; she had come all this way for what looked like to be a very abandoned, and run down, cabin in the middle of nowhere. Jessica rolled the sleeves of her duster and light jacket up, allowing the wind to caress her skin and dry the moisture which had transformed her clothes into a second skin.
The lush meadow embraced the small wooden cabin from every side, as if holding it in place for the sun to warm up adding to the effect to give it an almost cosy look. As Jessica walked towards the cabin, the abandonment factor raised a few notches, the broken window panes enforcing the uninhabited look. Jessica hoped this wasn’t the case and picked up her pace, ignoring the all too familiar warm ache that was spreading across her palms. The closer she got to the cabin, the more she felt the presence of the darkness and the thicker and danker the air became. The smell of death rolled out of the cabin and over her in waves, making it harder for Jessica to breathe. Coming up to the porch steps Jessica slowed her pace significantly as she fixed her clothes, and tugged her gloves on further. One steady hand rested on the hilt of her favourite blade as she held the other out in front of her, she started her ascent up the few porch stairs to end in a half crouch at the top.
The heavy wooden front door of the cabin was ajar and through the gap a thin, ragged leg could be seen lying on the floor. She stilled, taking a quick breath and listened for movement on the other side of the door. “Here goes nothing…” she whispered as she dropped her bag and kicked the door in. Blade raised, she stepped over the threshold and glanced around quickly. Satisfied there was nothing waiting to jump out at her she took a second to focus on her hands. The heat they were emitting was overwhelming; not giving a good sign to Jessica. She took a more detailed assessment of the cabin; it was a lot bigger than she first anticipated. Rather than a single roomed simple cabin, she found herself at the mouth of the mansion of all cabins. From the doorway she could see three hallways alone, in front of her was the living room – with a large slender male lying in the middle of it.
Taking a step towards the male, Jessica sheathed her blade before crouching down to get a better look at him. His once-blonde hair was now matted with blood and a wicked scar branched from his eyebrow down to his jaw on the opposite side. His right arm was missing at the elbow and the muscles were stretched out as if something had played with them and the remaining flesh was starting to blacken. His legs seemed intact until she saw the pool of dark near-black liquid oozing out onto the floor from the knees of his trousers. Using her small knife she cut the trouser leg open to reveal a pattern of bite marks and a very noticeable damp, mildewy smell that radiated from the blackening wounds. Jessica raised a hand to her mouth to prevent herself from dry reaching and took another look; each of the legs looked like they had undergone at least partial exsanguination. She counted the number of teeth gouges in the cleanest bite wound; 52 needle point teeth in the top row alone. She knew of only one creature whose bite caused instant rot, explaining the mildewy smell, whilst draining its host of blood entirely through its sharp needle-like teeth. But the teeth number was something different, something new; the creature in her mind that had done this an adult could only ever grow 40 teeth to a row. This creature would be the Nurkle; a very extinct creature, recorded in all history texts as having all of the bloodlines completely destroyed a few centuries ago during the last harrowing, or purge as its commonly referred to. Having this male lying in front of her exhibiting similarities to a Nurkle attack meant one of two things; either there are still at least a few Nurkles that escaped the purge whom have evolved some new features, or there is another delightful breed of creature ready to fill nightmares. Jessica hoped for Nurkles, there are enough nightmarish creatures running about without any more popping up.
That being said, if there were Nurkles alive and around she would need better supplies as few have ever seen a Nurkle and lived to tell the tale. To the foolish, a Nurkle’s bite looked quite similar to that of a Djinn; at least a few rows of teeth marks forming perfect circles, with anywhere from two to six circles in a nice, pretty pattern centred around the deepest wound. Jessica sat back on her heels and just stared at the body, she really was not prepared to go up against any Nurkles. The male shifted, rolling his head in her direction and blinked up at her, assumedly refocusing his eyes onto her. Jessica jumped back into a crouch and drew her blade, staring down at the male. The male stared at her and mouthed two words before slumping into his final position – help them.
Jessica stood and stared at the male for only a few seconds longer before noticing the bloody trail that ended at the male. Someone, or something, had dragged him before leaving him in the front room. Jessica sniffed the air, besides from the iron smell that the blood gave off there was a less persistent dank smell. Stilling herself, she strained her ears to hear something, anything that would let her know she wasn’t alone before she followed the blood trail. She glanced around the illuminated cabin; most of the walls were speckled with blood and the occasional handprint. Hearing only her heartbeat in her ears she pulled herself from her half crouch and tip toed forward to place her back against the clean wall, and followed the blood trail away from the body.
-Blood and Glitter-
A low groan sounded from outside the bloodied cabin. Weapons readied, Jessica flattened herself against the cold wall and started towards the back door. With every inch the laboured breathing loudened and the dank, nauseating smell worsened. She fastened her kerchief at her lower face, lessening the stench, grasped her curved blade and slid around the corner. She felt her blade meet flesh before she saw the silver skinned creature in front of her. Jessica glared at the Djinn,” Disgusting creature! What did you do with them?” she hissed. The Djinn turned its eyes to her and spread its mouth wide into a makeshift Cheshire grin. Jessica pushed her blade further into its thick skin, causing a small amount of glittery powder to fall onto the blade’s edge. “Speak creature! Tell me what your kind has done to the two of them; I did not fail to notice that the cabin reeked of you so do not even attempt to tell me that you know nothing.” The Djinn simply tilted its head and widened its grin so that Jessica could see ripped flesh remnants amongst the rows of pointed teeth.
“Well, no point keeping you around then,” Jessica lunged towards the Djinn; thrusting her blade through its neck and felt both of its spinal cords snap under the pressure. She withdrew her blade and stepped to the left; the grinning head smacked onto the concrete, releasing a few razor sharp teeth and grey skin. Jessica crouched down next to the head and pulled out a small jar from the inside of her snug leather duster. She plinked the teeth and placed the skin into the jar before replacing it. Jessica stood and dusted herself off; she always hated dealing with Djinns, they truly were disgusting creatures – leaving their glitter dust behind whenever they grew or shed a skin. Sh
e glanced down at the large, elliptical shaped head with the rows of teeth still on display thanks to that ghastly grin of its, she compared that to the fine silver glittery powder that now covered the bench which had just seated the Djinn’s body. Jessica acknowledged that the Djinn must have either been very weak or a freshling for the body to have already decomposed without the life support that the head had given it.
A hand closed around the nape of her neck and pulled her into the cabin doorway and onto her knees. She reached for the hilt of her dagger but her hand was knocked aside and pinned to the doorframe. “Aye, no need for that love; just lookin’ for a few answers here.” whispered a deep voice into her ear. Jessica took a deep breath; she had trained herself in case of situations like this, and threw her spare elbow backwards hoping to find purchase. Her elbow connected with metal rather than bone; Jessica felt the pain shoot through her arm and fell forward. The male laughed and planted a knee into her back, pushing her chest into the doorframe. “Really aren’t that bright are ya love. Thinkin’ I’d be just standing here and trying to grab some answers from ya with not a bit of protection. Love, you’re gonna be feeling that one for a bit now…not just ordinary metal you hit there. But that’s getting a tad off topic, now tell me. What did you do to Thamisan and the brats?” Jessica attempted to turn to look at him, but her wrist and chest were firmly pinned, allowing for no rotation. “Really testing my patience here love, and I’m not especially known for me patience. Best ya be spitting it out already, what the hell did ya do with me baby brother?”
Jessica held her head as far back from the doorframe as possible, which was only a couple of centimetres, and growled at the oaf. “I don’t know anything about this goddamn brother of yours and even if I did, after this treatment…oof!” The male ground his knee into her back further; expelling the air from her lungs. She could feel the heat of his face at her neck as he bent towards her. “I alreadys told ya that patience is not a virtue of mine girlie, so don’t ya even think of feeding me this drivel. You’re gonna tell me exactly where me brother is or what ya’ve done with him.” Judging from the knee in her back, he was at least triple her slender frame and so very much taller. Jessica pulled at her wrist, knowing the result would be some act of violence from the oaf, and managed to pull it free. She wasted no time in tucking the wrist between her chest and the wall. The oaf’s knee was hard into her back and she was never more thankful than right now for the padding her duster provided her. A hand clamped onto her left shoulder and forced the opposite to smash into the ground, taking her head with it. Pain danced across her right cheekbone and her ear ringed like there was no tomorrow. Her eyesight flickered and black shadows crept across her vision; this was not happening to her, to have come so far only to be defeated by a half-wit oaf.
Jessica mentally shook herself and focused her eyes, it was never a brilliant idea to let the enemy become out of sight. She felt movement and then the hot, sweaty hand close around her throat, pulling her upright and onto her feet. Stars blurred across her vision, inviting the black to present itself more prominently. She could already feel her face swelling up and her right eyelid threatened to close. The oaf lifted her by her throat and dangled her off the floor so high that she could feel the heat coming down through the skylight. The oaf’s face was now level with her midsection, and if she played this right her knee might be lucky enough to connect with his features. A female voice filtered through the front window; “Hannithan! Come quick, I’ve found Thamisan….or rather, what is left of him.” The oaf stiffened and dropped Jessica to the floor, causing pain to splinter through her legs and making her double up. His steps thundered across the cabin as he disappeared from her sight. Now was her time to make her move; she slowly pushed herself to her feet and felt her boots for the runes she wrote into the heels. Her hands found the runes and as she applied pressure to them she felt the pain in her legs being absorbed into the runes.
Her mind flickered to her sister, the charming Fyeria D’Allaen, the girl that could get her way with anything and the girl that everybody adored. The very same girl that had spent endless hours with Jessica sitting under the cover of the wild grape vine that stretched alongside the river bank at the rear of their family property. Fyeria would sit with Jessica and teach her little sister the power of the runes and try to describe the unimaginable potential each one held. On a typical day Jessica would be found in the kitchen, babbling to their mother and watching her cook. Fyeria would come running through the house as she got home from school and run straight into the kitchen, throwing her bag down in the hallway. “Miarie! Miarie! Come, come I have things to tell you!” their mother would smile at them both and watch as they disappeared out through the kitchen door and race to the riverbank; Fyeria would always reach the bank first, having the advantage of her long legs. Jessica would assume her position under the largest vine, one leg dangling in the water and her large green eyes on Fyeria as she set up the lesson. The fat black leather bound book would lie open atop Fyeria’s felt roll, revealing what the lesson would be today. The sunlight would filter through the vine leaves and illuminate the pages as Fyeria would hand a secondary, smaller blue leather bound book to Miarie. This blue book was where Fyeria would help her baby sister draw the runes and tell her why they were special. Jessica forced her mind back to the present; it really wasn’t the time to be reminiscing when she had injuries to assess.
Jessica paused, straining her ears to see if the conversation between the mystery woman and Hannithan was still going on. The wind bought her snippets of the hushed conversation between the two. “Hannithan! Are you really so daft as to think that blonde floozie in there could possibly do this to your brother? That she could actually best him, trust me Hannithan…that airhead would not have it in her to do this to him.” A low grumble answered the woman but Jessica could barely make it out. “Seriously Hannithan, I have put up with you this entire time and now you have the audacity to tell me that you don’t believe a word out of my mouth. Well hell, you didn’t seem to mind when I was supplying you the directions to get here.” Jessica gingerly pressed her hand to her right shoulder and felt for a sign of break, she bit her lip against the pain as she searched. Despite the force that she hit the concrete, her shoulder felt intact. Half of her face felt like it was on fire and her eye had fortunately not closed but she could definitely feel the swelling coming on. Heavy footsteps came closer to the cabin and she knew her window was closing. With her now uninjured legs she moved towards the back door and chanced a glance outside. Her glittered blade lay only a few feet away, tempting her to collect it. Jessica launched herself from the doorway and grasped her blade, rolling before jumping to her feet. She collected herself and sheathed her blade, took a deep breath and then she took off running towards the dark tree line.
There were shouts as she emerged from the cover of the cabin, fuelling her desire to reach the tree line and pushing her muscles to the limits. With less than a kilometre left until the tree line she could feel her lungs tightening and she was struggling to grab enough breath, causing her pace to slow. The heavy steps behind her were catching up fast, meaning she did not have the necessary time to stop and pull her blade. The tree line was still over half a kilometre in front of her and her lungs were now begging her to stop and take a deep breath. With no choice but to face Hannithan Jessica felt for the hilt of her blade, slowed her pace and turned, drawing her blade as she turned. Taking a deep breath, she blanked her face of all emotion; presenting only a bloody and bruising wall framing piercing green eyes.
-Blade for a Girl-
Hannithan charged at Jessica, knocking her injured shoulder into the earth and grinding it in with his elbow. He smiled in satisfaction when she yelped in pain and stared into her wild eyes. “Ya’re really gettin’ on me nerves girlie! If it weren’t for yer information ya’d be dead, so ya better start spillin’ it all” Hannithan growled at Jessica. Jessica looked at the oaf with her wide eyes and assessed her situation; from the
sharp pain she suspected her shoulder was shattered, the muscles in her arm were dead to her and she couldn’t feel the heat of her hands. Not good in the slightest and it didn’t help that she couldn’t press her fingertip runes to her palm. Her blade had been knocked away from reach by the oaf’s impact, meaning no primary weaponry available. Jessica still had the dagger tucked into her boot and her manriki wrapped around her uninjured forearm. The force from Hannithan’s elbow was thankfully being absorbed by the jacket otherwise Jessica was sure that she would be crying by now. How ridiculous, a girl trained and quite skilled in combat and she still retained the tendency to ball her eyes out at pain. Hannithan’s body was straddling her own, he was definitely at least triple her size. Jessica was well pinned to the ground and without a readily accessible weapon. Her useless arm would mean that even if she could get to her blade, it wouldn’t be that effective in combat. She glared into his dark eyes “You really must be thick if you cannot comprehend the fact that I don’t know a single thing about this goddamn brother of yours. And as for the killing me part…” Jessica reached up with her free hand and grabbed the back of his neck, pulling his face towards the ground and using that force to help her thrust her opposite knee up. Her knee found purchase and she slid out from under him, using the soft grass to slide on, whilst he grabbed his now injured groin. He shot a look at her, his dark eyes darkened from the pain “Ya’re goin’ ta pay fer that one”.
Jessica jumped onto her feet, grabbed her blade from the ground and spun back around to look at him; he was already back on his feet. She crouched down slightly, her useless arm laying limply at her side whilst the other held the blade out in front, crossed across her body. She stared right at him, inviting him to try something as he took a step towards her, closing the distance ever so slightly. Her face burst into a grin as she noticed the faint limp in his step and calculated her next move. She hopped towards him, landing slightly to the left of him and raised her blade so that its wicked tip curved into his cheek. Hannithan grabbed her wrist and twisted, the blade fell away from his face but Jessica hung on to the blade; she’d already lost it once today. She snarled at him, he still held her good wrist and she noticed his other arm clenching up; he was going to throw something off of it. She ignored the pain through her wrist as she threw the elbow back into his ribs. He unclenched his hand, allowing her to pull her wrist out and jump back from the oaf. Hannithan rubbed his ribs and observed the girl’s face; the tangled mess of light hair that framed the determined, wild look in her bright green eyes.
“HANNITHAN! What the hell are you doing?” Hannithan rolled his eyes and turned away from Jessica to face the woman flowing across the grass towards them. “Come with me you idiot! What would Thamisan say to you prancing about acting like an imbecile and beating on little girls that should be home with their mothers?” She shot a disgusted glance at Jessica as she spat the last words towards her. Jessica gritted her teeth and glared at the woman; reaching down her leg to unsheathe her knife buried in her boot.
“Can yer shut up woman! Ya barely knew me wee brother so ya’re barely in ta right position to be pullin’ that one eh. Ya know, if it were’nt fer ya, he would’a still been at home an’ not slaughter’d in the middle of these here woods.” The woman stopped in her tracks and gaped at Hannithan.
“Now I can barely believe that you’re trying to put this one on me you idiot! You’re the one who thought it a fabulous idea to fill his head with delusions of being an adventurer and following in his big brothers footsteps. Urgh, you make me sick!” Hannithan filled the gap between the woman and himself, his large frame truly overshadowing the tall slender frame of the woman. Jessica glanced back into the forest behind her, measuring up her opportunity as a pretty good one. “Really, we are measuring ourselves up now? Step back idiot, or I’ll have to make you” She hissed the latter part at Hannithan. Jessica rolled her eyes, left the knife in her boot and started walking backwards towards the forest line, not taking her eyes off of the pair. Hannithan stepped even closer to the woman, removing all space between the two of them and glared down at her.
“Go ahead then witch, make me move!”
The next second Hannithan dropped to the floor; his legs had collapsed underneath him and his body lay unmoving. Jessica wasn’t even sure he was still breathing. She glanced at the woman, noticing a faint shimmer about her face that had definitely not been there before. A quick look at the woman’s fingertips told Jessica that it was time to exit, now. Jessica spun and sprinted for the tree line, she could feel the woman’s eyes on her back and hear her giving chase. Palms burning at her gloves, Jessica ripped through the tree line and ducked into the thick patch of bush to her left. The woman ripped through seconds after her and paused, raising her fingertips to the air and tasting it. Jessica buckled down; digging into the soft undergrowth, unsheathed her boot knife and activated the shadow rune on her left forearm.
“You know, I didn’t want to hurt you little girl. But you’ve seen too much now, unfortunately darling there’s no turning back. Perhaps you should’ve stayed at home with your mother today instead of playing pretend adventures. Oh well, you know what they say…you can’t change the past.” The woman’s voice did not change volume as a footstep crunched to Jessica’s right. Jessica breathed in deeply, pressing her forearm tighter and rotating her knife to be in alignment with a heel. How had she not noticed the woman’s glamour before? If she was an ardgjen like Jessica suspected, then they do not possess the ability to hide glamours. You either see them in their natural form, as a disgustingly twisted wraith-like creature with long protruding jaws full of razor sharp teeth, or you saw them in their human form, glistening ever so slightly from the thin mist that their glamour caused.
“Come on now dear, I can hear you shaking with fear as I close in on you. I can hear your blood pumping, filling your veins and making your heart beat faster and faster; you’re just like a scared little rabbit waiting for the hawk to zone in on you and kill you.” Liar! Jessica thought to herself, there Is not a creature in any world that can penetrate her shadow. This woman, this ardgjen, would have to try a whole lot better to scare her. Knife clutched, Jessica wriggled along the undergrowth, careful not to disturb any of the overlying leaves or green growth. The last thing she needed was an attack to her exposed back. The ardgjen’s footstep echoed through the forest, she was circling Jessica’s location but Jessica was not close enough to her yet. Pausing to think back to her book, panic flashed through her eyes as she remembered that young Miarie had never bothered to listen to Fyeria’s lesson on Ardgjens. Partially because they were not supposed to have existed past The Cleanse, and were meant to be in scarce numbers even before then. Urgh, what an idiot she had been. Without the much needed knowledge of her weaknesses and strengths, Jessica was left to her own devices; consisting of her wielded silver boot knife and her protection runes. This was going to be just fabulous.
-The Ardgjen-
