by Lori Holmes
Whomever he had been, Nyri guessed Juaan’s father had died and that’s why Rebaa had returned. When Rebaa, too, had joined with the Great Spirit, Juaan had been left orphaned. Nyri’s own mother had taken him into her family when no one else would. Nyri had idolised him and when Nyri’s own family had been lost, Juaan had become the centre of her world. Her mother, her father, her everything.
Pain cut at her. She wondered if he would ever again let her hold his hand or tell her stories while she fell asleep. She wondered if she could even survive without him. The rest of the tribe would look after her, yes, but it would not be the same-
“Ow!” Nyri cried out as a boar ran past her legs, knocking her to the ground in its haste. “You!” she started to scold the creature. “Be-” She stopped speaking at the sight of the hunted, rolling eyes. Waves of fear buffeted across her senses as the animal swept by.
Nyri frowned, uncomprehending. There were no wolves in the area to threaten him but the boar was running as though his very life depended on it. He crashed away through the undergrowth as fast as he had come, leaving Nyri alone in the silence of the forest. It had grown very still, her breath was the only sound.
Then she felt it. The Great Spirit quivered and the hairs on the back of Nyri’s neck lifted in response. Flocks of birds swept through the canopy above, crying in alarm and making her start. Nyri took a hesitant step backwards, trying to keep her eyes on everything at once, her heart thudding in response to the shift in the forest’s energy. Something was very wrong.
Thwack!
Nyri flinched and leaped back. A huge, unnaturally straight branch had seared past her ear and embedded itself, quivering in the nearest tree.
“OOOOOAAAAHHHHGGGG! OOOOAAAAHHHHGGGG!”
The shriek shattered through the trees; long, drawn out, piercing. It shivered into nothingness before repeating. The sound sank into Nyri’s very bones, the darkest nightmare of her young life. She could not gate the cry of denial that emerged from between her own teeth.
The forest burst apart. A score of huge, man-shaped beasts with skulls for heads cleaved into view through the trees, baying like forest wolves on the hunt. Branches burning with the light of Ninmah threw their gruesome faces into terrifying relief; the bony, animalistic features white against the blackness behind.
The real monsters had returned.
Run! A part of Nyri’s mind that still functioned shrieked. Run! Mama told you to run and never look back.
The sense of malice and murderous intent gaining on her from behind was as the hot breath of a predator on her exposed neck. The pounding of her heart deafened all else.
Nyri fled through the trees. Gasping from the effort and using every shred of will she possessed, she darted towards her unsuspecting tribe. She did not think of leading the beasts elsewhere. She thought only of reaching the safety of home. Her throat was so dry she could barely raise the alert. “Woves!” she cried ahead. “Woves!”
She could see them now, her people. Some were standing at the foot of their dwellings, still scolding their errant children. They looked up, alarmed by her cry. For a moment they stood rooted as she had, uncomprehending and disbelieving before the panic cascaded and Nyri’s cry was taken up. Woves. Woves.
The Elders appeared as Nyri flew into the midst of her home, drawing the monsters in her wake.
“Into the trees! Get into the trees!” For all their might on the ground, the Woves were not masters of the trees. In the highest branches, the Ninkuraaja would be safe.
Bloodthirsty howls drowned out the screams as the beasts came crashing through on Nyri’s heels. She was still too far from the nearest eshaara tree.
Only one thought kept her on her tiring feet and stopped her from collapsing to the ground in helpless terror amidst the chaos.
Juaan.
She had to find him. Everyone else was scrambling into the branches. Capture was not an option. Juaan might not have heard the warning.
Nyri gasped as a terrible light flared to life all around her, glowing violently in the dark. It seared her eyes, blinding her. She stumbled, holding her hands reflexively before her face. As her sight adjusted, she saw the light was formed of hot, bodiless tongues. They licked at the base of the trees. Ravenous, they began to climb higher and higher, toothlessly devouring everything in their path. New screams of terror and pain ripped the air.
Nyri had always been taught that the Woves were demons. Now she truly believed it. Her people were trapped in the branches, helpless to escape the hungry onslaught of the glowing beast the Woves had unleashed from their glowing branches. The light unveiled their enemies in all their terrifying glory. Dead and rotten eyes rolled blindly in the bony sockets of their flayed, skull-like heads.
The hot tongues licked higher into the trees. Nyri screamed in denial as she watched members of her tribe, her family, throw themselves into the air, falling into the waiting arms of their demonic assailants below. The women and children were lifted away while the men were savagely put to death.
Maddened with fear, Nyri did not know where to turn as she battled her way through the screaming mass. The air turned thick and black, sticking in her throat. Disoriented, she stumbled on.
“To the river!” Someone cried. “Get to the river!”
Nyri sensed a sudden intent and a hand grabbed her shoulder.
“Nyriaana!” the man who had caught her shouted. She did not recognise him in her panicked state. “Come with me! This way!”
Nyri clung desperately to that one clear thought in her mind. “Juaan! I have to find Juaan!” She could not lose him to the Woves, too.
The man began to drag her along with him. “He’d have fled by now! We have to go!”
“No!” Nyri fought back. “He wouldn’t go without me!” She knew that truth to the core of her being.
“Leave the Forbidden filth!” the man raged. “Daajir informed us of his attack. His life is-”
Something sliced the air and hit the man full in the chest. With a heavy grunt, he toppled to the ground, the air leaving his body in a long gasp. He lay motionless, eyes unseeing beneath half open lids. Blood oozed from around the long, straight branch protruding from his body. Nyri stared. The presence of life that had been beside her just an instant ago was gone. The figure on the ground was now a terrifying shell of emptiness. She could not contain the blood-curdling screech that tore from her.
She stumbled back, turned and scraped her knees in her haste to escape. No thought or purpose guided this new flight, only the blind urge to run, run and put as much distance between her and death as possible. Hot tongues licked from all around. She barely noticed their sting as they tasted her skin.
Nyri had no idea how far she had gone before she was knocked backwards off her feet. It felt as though she had run face first into a thick branch. Pain seared through her mouth as she struck it at full pace and rebounded, her head snapping back. She tasted the bitter tang of blood just as the ground slammed the breath from her lungs.
The world stopped. It hung there, breathless, detached.
Am I dead?
A hulking form loomed into view and sensation returned in a rush, the pain, the fear, the stench of destruction. It hadn’t been a branch. She had run straight into its waiting, outstretched arm. Nyri scrambled backwards on her hands and feet in an attempt to escape the dark figure which stood twice as tall as any Ninkuraaja.
The half-skinned skull resembling that of a bear sat upon the massive shoulders. Four eyes glared down at Nyri. Two were lidless and glazed with death, the other two dark and living, peering out from sockets in the centre of the skull. A tangle of flaming wiry hair framed everything, glowing hot in the light of the burning beast. The blackness of the monster’s soul flowed over her like tar.
One thick arm, bristling with snapped bones and sharpened horn, reached down towards her. “You do nicely.” The voice rumbled from an unseen throat. “Where scarred one?”
Nyri did not hear it. She screamed before sh
e could think. “Juaan! Help me! Juaan!” And then she did think and her mouth snapped shut. What had she done? She did not want him to come. She did not want to see Juaan as an empty shell upon the ground. All strength left her as the image flooded her mind. He could not win this fight.
A crooked, human-like hand at the end of the bony arm caught her by the green leathery cloth at her chest and lifted her from the earth. She could smell the rotting flesh of the skins dangling from the beast’s body.
Strength returned in a blaze through her veins. The hatred she felt for this demon burned at her. She wanted to hurt it, any part she could reach. Wild, Nyri kicked, clawed and bit like an animal at bay. She was only half aware that she was screaming with rage. The monster’s grunts of pain were satisfying, as was the bloody mess her teeth had turned its horridly pale hand into. Satisfying, that was, until it swung her out at arm’s length and held her there like a leaf on a branch.
Nyri hung from the fist, struggling, until her rage burned out. She whimpered and cried as she pulled fruitlessly at the thick fingers, smearing blood. All enjoyment had melted from the dark eyes at the centre of the skull. They were pools of death. Nyri saw them flick towards a burning tree.
Her blood ran cold. “No. Please,” she whispered, even though she knew in her heart that no amount of pleading would sway the creature. It would throw her into the burning beast and enjoy watching it devour her. “No! Please!”
“Noooo!” A furious howl split the air. There was a clash of heavy bodies and the demon holding her aloft bellowed in furious surprise as it stumbled to the side. Nyri’s weight overbalanced it and it was forced to let go of her to break its fall. Nyri tasted earth again. The tang of smoke and blood mingled with leaf mould on her tongue but the foul concoction had nothing to do with the roil in her stomach.
He was here.
She watched as Juaan untangled his long legs from her assailant’s and leapt to his feet. “Leave her alone!” he screamed down at the stunned demon and aimed a hard kick at its side for good measure. He held a long, thick spear in his hand. His face was unrecognisable as he raised it above his fallen enemy, point down; murder in his eyes.
“Juaan!” Nyri cried. “Juaan!”
The sound of her voice pulled him around before he could land the killing blow. The murderous frenzy in his eyes receded and a trickle of reason returned. He forgot their enemy and rushed to where she had fallen. Then Nyri was off the ground again. Juaan had grabbed her hand and was dragging her in the wake of his long, swift strides. Nyri’s terror for him warred with joy and relief. He would get them out of this.
Nyri tried her best to keep up, running as hard as she could but Juaan’s legs were too big. She was already choking on blood, smoke and pain. It wasn’t long before she stumbled and fell. Juaan pulled at her arm. “Come on! Get up!” he urged. “You’ve got to run!”
“I-I can’t,” she choked, sobbing. “Juaan, I c-can’t.”
Through streaming eyes, she saw Juaan whip his head this way and that. It was as if he was looking for something but then just as quickly came to the conclusion it was not there. He scooped Nyri up in his arms and stumbled on through the billows of smoke and darkness.
Nyri wrapped her arms around his neck and hung on. She closed her eyes against the red glow of destruction that raged all around her. She did not want to see. She did not want to feel the sting of heat against her cheeks. She did not want to smell the suffocating smoke. She buried her face in Juaan’s jolting shoulder and inhaled his familiar scent, mixed now with the bite of sweat.
Juaan struggled on, avoiding the worst of the flames and the screams. He was running with purpose but to where, Nyri could not guess. Eventually, though, even Juaan’s strength had to run out and he collapsed to the earth, choking and gasping as he lowered Nyri gently with him. “Close enough,” he rasped, voice so rough it was almost unrecognisable.
Nyri did not ask what he meant. She clung to him, shaking and sobbing. Juaan leaned them against the base of a tree. He put his arms around her and rocked them back and forth, trying, she thought, to be comforting.
It was quieter here, the stillness unnatural after the chaos and the bloodshed they had left behind in the eshaara grove.
“Don’t be afraid, Nyri, Nyri, Nyriaana,” he half sang but, for the first time, the familiar rhyme did nothing to comfort her. She did not think she would ever know peace again. Their home was gone. She could feel it dying slowly around her as her people were slaughtered without purpose. She pressed her hands to her ears, whimpering nonsense in an attempt to block out the distant screaming.
“What’s going to happen to us?” She forced the words through chattering teeth. She had grown cold from the inside. She could not stop the trembling.
“Shhh,” he whispered. “You’ll be safe, I promise to make you safe. Have I ever broken a promise to you?”
She shook her head but her heart remained a stone in her chest. Those demons were out there. They were searching. They were coming. They would not be allowed to escape. That monster had terrified her. Thick grey smoke wrapped them in a cloying veil, wrapping them in their own little pocket of desperate anticipation. It would not hide them for long.
Nyri sniffed. “Why did you do it?”
“What?”
“Come back for me?”
Juaan’s body stiffened. “Why in Ninmah’s name wouldn’t I come back for you?”
“I hurt you. I was cruel.”
He sighed. “It doesn’t matter. You are my Nyri and I will protect you to the end.”
Nyri began to sob, great wracking hitches of breath. This was all her fault. Why had she wandered so far from home? She had lead their enemies straight to her tribe. It was all her fault!
The sharp snap of a twig and a shout made them both flinch. Juaan clutched his spear defensively before them. Nyri was clinging to him so tightly she was sure her nails were stinging his skin.
“Please let’s go. I want to go.” Her skin was prickling with the nearness of the devils. “Please.”
“Shhh,” Juaan hissed then spoke in a breath. “We have to wait here.”
“Why?” She pulled on him, feeling them draw closer. “Let’s go! I wanna go! Please! Please!” Nyri was practically crawling out of her skin but she may as well have been trying to move a mountain.
A strange noise made her pause in her efforts. It was like the sound of an animal bellowing a furious challenge. Wha—
Juaan’s stiff shoulders fell. Nyri could have sworn she felt relief radiate from him. It was as though the sound had been something he had been waiting for. She had no time to think for he was shaking her urgently. “Nyri, listen! Listen! When I tell you, you must run that way.” He pointed with the spear into the smoke. “Run as fast as you can. As fast as you can!”
“Why? No! I wanna stay with you!”
Juaan’s face closed, emptying of any emotion. She tried to cling to him but he pried her hands from around his clothing with frighteningly little effort. He caught her face between his long hands. Green burned into indigo. “Run.”
“Where?” A muffled voice mocked from the gloom. Nyri moaned. Juaan was on his feet in an instant, spear raised. She grabbed onto his free hand and was dragged up with him. He was careful to keep her shielded between himself and the tree behind but this did nothing to protect her from the sight of ten hulking shadows emerging from the murk to form a loose semi-circle around them. Their pale lipless faces grinned in the darkness. Nyri huddled against Juaan’s legs, her grip hard on his hand. She refused to acknowledge the tremble she felt there.
“Brave, boy.” It was the bear-skulled demon that lead the others. Nyri felt her knees weaken at the sight of the demon as it drawled haltingly. It was as if it did not quite know how to speak the words. The creature stepped closer, idly swinging a stout branch tipped with the fleshy knee bone of an elk before it. “You think you challenge me and walk way? Foolish. Should killed me. Not many get chance.” The Wove studied Juaan and the two
living eyes at the centre of the skull widened in shock as the two dead eyes rolled wildly upon either side. “You?”
The demon then caught sight of the spear in Juaan’s hand and recoiled further before recovering itself. It growled something Nyri could not hear. Juaan’s only answer was to tighten his grip on the weapon.
“You not these people.” The monster grunted. “Let me take girl. Come willingly and I let you live. Maybe.”
“Never!” Juaan spat. “I’m not one of you, either! I will not let you take her.”
Their tormentor huffed. One of the others spoke rapidly, this one’s face was that of a skinned elk, the sharpened antlers flared from either side of the bloody head. At least, Nyri thought it spoke. The noises it made sounded like words but they formed no pictures of understanding in her mind. The leader snapped back at the other demon, making the same sounds before returning its attention to Juaan. “Stubborn boy. Seen it before. Always the same ending. Move. You not know how use weapon.” The figure took a menacing step forward. “I not ask again.”
Nyri willed him to run. Willed him to run with all her heart but Juaan only set his feet and raised his chin, leveling his spear. Nyri felt like she would die right there. Juaan was finished and she did not know what fate awaited her.
The standoff broke as the earth vibrated. The sound of hoof beats drummed the dead air, getting closer. A single grey stag barrelled from the gloom. Nyri could hear its breath; feel its frenzied energy, the urge from its rider to run ever faster.
As if in slow motion, Nyri watched as stag and rider bore down upon them. The rider was one of her tribesmen and he charged the demons surrounding Nyri and Juaan without breaking stride. Curses flared as the unprepared Woves leaped aside, the speed of the attack shocking them for a few vital moments. In those eternal heartbeats of time, the great, grey creature was alongside the two children. The rider was reaching down. Juaan’s hand ripped from hers. A grunt of effort and suddenly Nyri was in the air.
Too late she realised what was happening. Too late to try and cling to her life. Another pair of hands was tearing her away, lifting her onto the stag’s hot, heaving back. The cold wind whipped her face as she was borne into the night.
