Midnightstar (Creatures of the Lands Book 5)

by Natalie Erin

  “Thank you, Aunt Lottie.” Snapfoot nodded to her. “I won’t let you down.”

  Snapfoot slunk carefully away from the pack before bolting in the direction of the large city. After quite some time, Snapfoot finally stopped to rest, as he’d been running for hours. He sat a moment, panting, before beginning to walk, refusing to take even a small break on his journey to the city. Snapfoot wanted to keep moving, as the sun was already halfway across the sky. At this rate, he would be to the outskirts of the city well before dark.

  “Not much farther now,” he said, trying to encourage himself. “I just need to keep moving.”

  “Moving to where, little alpha?” a distinctively male voice questioned. “Where is a little morsel such as yourself off to?”

  Snapfoot whipped around, expecting an Ortusan. Instead, he saw the filthiest, deadliest creature he could’ve ever imagined. Its teeth were long and sharp, more threatening than any dagger, and its black eyes were lifeless, like that of a cold, immobile doll. The hair upon its head was long and flowed well past its shoulders in ebony waves. It was taller and larger than any Accompany or fairy he had ever laid eyes on. There was rotting flesh underneath its fingernails, and permanent stains of red around its mouth. Snapfoot could see the thin veins protruding from underneath the monster’s pale white skin. It smelled far different from any Ortusan. This, Snapfoot knew, had to be a Bloodluster. His bite would do no good against the monster. He was certainly dead.

  Snapfoot gulped and started backing away from it slowly. “I’m trying to find somewhere safe for my pack.”

  “There are Ortusans out here,” the Bloodluster breathed, creeping towards Snapfoot like a jerking, crushed insect. “It will not be safe for them here.”

  “I know, but I have to look around anyway,” Snapfoot replied. “Please, spare me, so I may keep my pack alive.”

  “Now why would I do that...when you seem so strong and delicious?” the Bloodluster seethed. “Your pack will make it without you.”

  “My pack won’t make it more than a few days without a leader,” Snapfoot begged. “I need to get back to them alive.”

  “It doesn’t matter. If I don’t eat your heart now, the Ortusans will only get you later.”

  “I can handle a few posers,” Snapfoot growled.

  “Can you?” The Bloodluster cocked his head to one side, and the movement was so sharp it appeared the creature was breaking its own neck.

  “Yes, I can,” Snapfoot replied harshly. “They would be simple to handle”

  “Then perhaps we can strike a deal.” The Bloodluster sat backwards, folding its long limbs upon itself as it recoiled to the forest floor.

  “What?” Snapfoot said, shocked from the sudden change of heart.

  “You need food for your pack, and my Bloodlusters need to be rid of the Ortusans,” the monster told him. “Perhaps you can take care of them for us.”

  “Why would you want to get rid of the Ortusans? They’re like you,” Snapfoot questioned skeptically.

  “They destroy this lovely land far too fast,” the Bloodluster replied. “If this keeps up, there will be nothing left, and we will all die.”

  “But you’re a Bloodluster. Why would you need my help to kill them?” Snapfoot asked.

  “We Bloodlusters are strong, but few. If we were to attack, we could kill them in the hundreds, but it would only be so long before they would take us down.” The Bloodluster made a long, rattling noise in its throat. “The life of a wolf is nothing to us. It is more reasonable for me to agree to hunt for you than to risk the lives of my people against so many enemies.”

  “So if I get rid of them, you’ll feed my pack?” Snapfoot asked.

  “Precisely.”

  “What if I can’t kill all the Ortusans?” Snapfoot asked.

  “I am willing to keep my promise if you continue to uphold yours. We will continue to hunt for you so long as you continue to hunt Ortusans.”

  “We? How many of you are there?’

  “There are seventeen of us, all living happily underground. We’ve been there for centuries, and haven’t been bothered, but now these filthy Ortusans come and think they can build a giant city to draw attention to the location. It’s ridiculous.”

  “Then...I think we can make a deal.” Snapfoot nodded slowly.

  “Wonderful…uh…” the Bloodluster stopped, tapping a long finger on its chin. “What is your name, again?”

  “Snapfoot.”

  “I am Valdus, leader of the Bloodluster colony.” He bowed slightly. “We are the only Bloodlusters in the Lands, save for the despicable Aravoni and Carmilya.”

  “Aravoni and Carmilya? Who are they?”

  “Please, don’t ask. I would prefer not to speak of them.” Valdus shook his head. “Come. I know of a perfect clearing for your pack to thrive.”

  “How will hunting work?” Snapfoot asked, following behind Valdus warily.

  “You tell me when and where you plan to hunt, and I’ll have one or two of my colony chase some game into the area,” Valdus explained. “It will be my pleasure to keep you all alive and well, so long as you keep your bargain.”

  They walked into a large clearing, and as they did so, Snapfoot gazed around in wonder. Healthy trees and flowers bloomed all around the clearing, untouched by the Second Despondent. He couldn’t believe his eyes. “Wow,” he breathed. “I thought everything was destroyed.”

  “This is the last lovely place that I know of.” Valdus placed his hand gently upon a tree. “Our colony is directly beneath here, so we keep it nice to curb any suspicion. No one wants to believe that evil creatures would live beneath a flower patch.”

  “Wait. If you’re beneath it, then my pack will see you come and go,” Snapfoot said. “If they see you, they will run.”

  “The entrance is quite a distance that way,” Valdus explained, pointing in the opposite direction. “Once you enter, it splits off into three paths. Your pack will never see us coming or going.”

  “They would love this place,” Snapfoot breathed. “I can’t wait to show Kaliska!”

  As her name slipped from his mouth, he stopped. He hadn’t seen the she-wolf in days. He doubted she would forgive him for a clearing. “I should head back.”

  “If you have trouble finding this place once more, just howl, and I will find you.” Valdus smiled sinisterly, displaying his large fangs. “But keep in mind, young alpha, that you have a promise to keep. If you do not rid the Lands of the Ortusans, we will eat out the hearts of every single wolf in your pack. You have my word.”

  Snapfoot gulped. “Thank you for helping me.” He looked around one more time before turning away. “I will kill the Ortusans that are bothering you. I promise.”

  Snapfoot started heading back the way he had come. His pack would eat well from now on, but could he really hold up his bargain to kill the Ortusans?

  He didn’t have a choice. It was either chase out the Ortusans...or become the meal.

  “Dust!” Midnightstar bolted down the mountain, charging towards the sandy unicorn, ridiculously happy to see her. For the first time in a long, long while, her head felt clear, and the voices were silent. She could think again. She reached the unicorn with vigor, barely winded. “You came back.”

  Dust looked back at Midnightstar with those great, swirling eyes. “It seems we are more alike than we know. I heard what happened to the Assembly, Midnightstar. It appears I owe you a favor.”

  Midnightstar cringed. “That was an accident. Xiuh didn’t mean to kill them. We just needed to escape.”

  “They enslaved me for years until I was strong enough to break free. Whether you meant to kill them or not makes no difference to me.”

  She looked up at the unicorn. “So you’ve come back to help?”

  “More than that. I’ve come to finish your training, and when you know everything I can teach you, we shall go to the plains and I will speak to the unicorns. We will show them that wolves and unicorns can be friends.”
<
br />   “I don’t think we have that much time,” Midnightstar said. “The Second Despondent is getting worse everyday.”

  “Then I will teach you everything I can,” Dust said. “Now where are the rest of them?”

  Midnightstar’s stomach dropped. “I ran away, Dust. I have no idea where they are.”

  “Do you want to find them?” Dust asked.

  “Yes. I need them now, more than ever.”

  “Then concentrate,” Dust said. “I’ve never had a portal, but I know how to contact one. The reason why you slip into his mind by accident is because when you’re upset, or frightened, the mind of a skygazer often goes into her portal’s for an escape.”

  “That makes sense,” Midnightstar said, thinking back to previous experiences. “Every time I felt bad, I always reached out to Xiuh.”

  “If you concentrate on controlling your thoughts you won’t fall into his sight by accident, preventing an invasion of privacy. Yet you already know that by calling to Xiuh, you can enter it.”

  “I don’t think Xiuh will hear me from this far away,” Midnightstar said sadly.

  “The ability of a portal to hear their skygazer is much stronger than even the call of an Accompany to his Changer. You could be on the opposite side of the world and he will still hear you.”

  “So, I just have to reach out to Xiuh…and he’ll hear?”

  “Presumably.”

  Midnightstar expanded her mind, searching for her portal. She cast her thoughts outward until her vision changed and she was flying above Rabika, Tatl and Adelaide, who were hurtling full speed at the mountain she stood at.

  Xiuh! It’s me! Midnightstar shouted.

  The dragon gasped, plummeting towards the ground. She fell with him as he slammed into the grass, tumbling scales over tail in a state of shock.

  “Dragon down!” Tatl shouted, and all of them screeched to a halt.

  Xiuh coughed up dirt. Midnightstar! Where have you been! I’ve been all over the place looking!

  I’m sorry, Xiuh. I…I wasn’t in my right mind. But I’m alright now, and I’ve found Dust! She’s come back to help us! I’m at the base of the Peaks. You’re going in the right direction.

  Stay there. I’m coming to get you.

  How long will you be?

  Sundown, at least.

  He was mad at her, she could tell, as she delved back into her own mind. But there was another emotion raging through the dragon that dominated over his anger…relief.

  “He cares about me more than I know,” she told Dust, waving her tail slowly.

  Dust nodded. “Yes. He’s just unsure of how to show it.”

  Dust shook her neck, rustling her mane. “Let’s try returning to the palace you were talking about earlier. See if you can find a Changer that’s around the area, and see what’s going on.”

  “But how?” she asked. “It seems so uncontrollable.”

  “Changers originally came from the Lands. Their connection to skygazers is strong. It is the same concept as talking with Xiuh. Try looking for a certain creature. You will find that you can shuffle through the memories and thoughts to get what you need, unless they are blocked. Try it now.”

  Midnightstar knew what she wanted to find out. She wanted to see if Kennu was alright, and if Allie was with him. Find Allie, she whispered to herself, and her mind began tumbling over and over in space again, possessed by the dark canvas that was the Inbetween as her eyes began to glow…

  This wasn’t right. It was the same giant palace that she had seen before, except that the beautiful gardens were gone. Everything was covered in water, and many bodies laid strewn about the gardens. Allie and Kennu were flying above it all, next to Midnightstar as she looked out of the eyes of a white griffin, watching as Wyntier’s vast army retreated. The cords that connected the memory were thick, white, and strong.

  “What did you see?” Dust asked, and Midnightstar heard her from far away. She pulled out of the white griffin’s body as her heart leapt for joy. Allie and Kennu were alive, and what was more, they were safe! Wyntier’s plan had failed!

  “There’s been a horrible flood and a large battle,” Midnightstar said. “But Wyntier didn’t win.”

  “Are you seeing out of the eyes of a Changer you know?”

  Midnightstar shook her head. “No. It’s somebody else. But they were with two of my friends, and they were flying back to the palace. They’re hiding there, and by the strings connecting the memory, this was recent. Couldn’t have been more than a few days old.”

  “That’s excellent news for our brothers in the south.” Dust nickered happily.

  “Yes,” Midnightstar said, despair now crushing the little hope she had as she remembered the task ahead. “But how are we going to stop the war here? The unicorns and the wolves will never listen to us.”

  “There is one way we can stop them, if they won’t listen to reason,” Dust said. “And since you are a new skygazer, you should have plenty of energy for it, though I say we should only use it as a last resort. It will take all your power to do what I’m about to tell you.”

  “What is it?”

  Dust looked from side to side, as if looking for any creature who dared to eavesdrop on the conversation. She then bent her neck down, and whispered something private in Midnightstar’s ear. When she was done, Midnightstar nearly toppled over in surprise.

  Dust brought her head back and said, “Remember your powers are similar to the Great One’s, Midnightstar. To use them foolishly would put the entire Lands in danger.”

  “I can do that?” she asked in amazement.

  “In theory.”

  “How?”

  “It is inside you. It’s not something that can be taught. You have to discover it on your own.”

  “Dust, I need to know how to do it now! We don’t have time,” Midnightstar protested.

  “We have all the time we need. You can’t rush what is meant to be.”

  “You’re so patient,” Midnightstar complained. “Nothing ever gets in your way.”

  “I live life from moment to moment. Each second is different from the rest, changing from one form into another as a Changer does. For me, it is hard to live any other way, I value each moment I receive on this precious earth.”

  “But everything in this life fades away.”

  “That much is true. Everything you’ve ever known will soon be no more than dust in the ground, and everything you’ve ever done will be forgotten. But does that make your life useless? No. You are forgetting that this is all temporary, Midnightstar. What we do in this short time will be erased, but you have the power to alter someone’s perception of life, therefore altering their reality.”

  “This isn’t what you told me before. You said life was meaningless.”

  “I did a lot of thinking while I was away, Midnightstar,” Dust said. “You’ve caused me to see things I never could’ve imagined before.”

  “If you think this way, Dust, then why have you isolated yourself?”

  The unicorn’s eyes became sad. “I am afraid of attachment, Midnightstar. It is my poison. When the Assembly found me, I had been separated from my herd. Many times in my life, I’ve had to leave everything behind.”

  “I was the same way, not so long ago,” Midnightstar admitted. “The Assembly is nearly as horrible as Wyntier, forcing you to work for them all those years.”

  “The Assembly wasn’t all bad. Some of them were very wise. In fact, the old ones I miss.” Dust wistfully looked back at the mountain, to where she knew the mass grave of her caretakers lay.

  A question popped up in Midnightstar’s head. “Dust, where did you come from?”

  “My parents came with Dragonstar and Vixen from Nesting’s Haven a long time ago, to help settle the unicorn herd there. They lived in the Ice Borns for many years.”

  “What happened to them?”

  “They died when I was a filly. Killed by the Accompany you know as Wyntier.”

  “Has Wyntie
r taken everything away?” Midnightstar asked in frustration.

  “There is no family in the Lands nor Nesting’s Haven that hasn’t been touched by his destruction,” Dust said simply.

  “Couldn’t you seek out other Changers and be with your own kind? Why don’t you go back to Nesting’s Haven?”

  “I am a Land creature, born and raised here. Though I am a Changer, I am not of Nesting’s Haven. I wouldn’t belong with the others. I would miss this realm too much, if I left for good.”

  “Home has a way of getting to you like that,” Midnightstar admitted, watching as Xiuh came swooping down from the sky. She rushed into his embrace, nuzzling herself against his scales before adding, “And that’s exactly where we’re going.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  Starfall

  “This is amazing, Snapfoot,” a wolf proclaimed happily in the clearing as she kicked aside a bone that was completely gnawed clean. “There’s so much food here. It’s like the Second Despondent never even touched this place.”

  “Yeah.” Snapfoot grimaced. He hated that his pack didn’t know the truth. It was only because of Bloodlusters there was more than enough food for everyone.

  “You’ve done well,” Lottie said softly as he dropped another rabbit at her feet humbly, keeping his eyes down. “Your father would’ve been proud.”

  Snapfoot swallowed. “Father would’ve never let things get this bad in the first place. I’m only fixing what went wrong.”

  “Though I must wonder…” she said with suspicion, glancing around the clearing. “How did you manage to make all this prey appear? The hunting is far too easily.”

  He smiled sheepishly. “Instinct?”

  “Help, help!” a wolf cried, tearing out of the bushes, his face frantic. “Help, a Bloodluster! I saw a Bloodluster!”

  Snapfoot’s heartbeat quickened, but an elder sat up and said, “Now see here, little one, you’ve had too much to eat. No Bloodluster could dwell in a place so grand.”

  “No, no! His fangs were big and sharp, he was huge and mean! Please believe me!” Tears sparkled in the wolf’s eyes as he danced around the clearing in a panic.