by A. Evermore
‘I know and soon you’ll be better than me,’ Rhul’ynth said and took out a small wooden pot from her belt pocket. She popped the top off and scooped dark green paste out. With her finger she drew swift yet precise and delicate lines on Diarc’ynth’s face and arms, careful to be symmetrical on either side. Clearly an expert at this strange body painting.
‘This is the mark of Woetala, a new huntress has come to the hunt,’ she said as she worked, ‘it is a tradition that we mark the new initiate for all to see as well as give them the blessing of Woetala, the supreme huntress and provider. We can take nothing from the forest that she does not give to us.’ In a matter of minutes she stepped back to look at her work. ‘Perfect,’ she said satisfactorily and Diarc’ynth laughed, looking at the green swirls on her arms. The men cheered.
‘You’re next,’ she said, coming over to Issa.
‘Oh, no, are you sure? I surely don’t count, I still don’t have four legs.’
Palu’anth laughed loudly and muttered to Fris’anth who broke into a rare smile.
‘Nonsense! One blessed by Zanufey is surely blessed by Woetala for really they are just different aspects of the same goddess, the Great Mother,’ Rhul’ynth said and Issa knew there was no getting out of it then.
‘You have a pretty face,’ Rhul’ynth said as her deft fingers smoothed on the paste, ‘for a human,’ she jested. Issa gasped in feigned indignation.
‘Tanned and fair hair is surely prettier,’ she replied but Rhul’ynth guffawed.
‘I don’t think it matters. I think men take whatever they can get,’ Rhul’ynth laughed but looked slyly over to Fris’anth and winked. The dark-haired karalanth stamped his foot and tossed his antlers, a wicked grin spread across his face.
‘What exactly happened last night,’ Issa mused as she twiddled one of the flowers in Rhul’ynth’s hair. It was the karalanth’s turn to blush.
‘Oh uh, nothing unnatural,’
‘Oh really?’ Issa burst out laughing, ‘I don’t think I want to know!’
Rhul’ynth smiled. ‘You know when you first arrived you looked pale and gaunt but now you are stronger, there is colour in your face and you glow from within. I cannot imagine what facing that awful beast must have been like. But that aside, Asaph really must know what he is doing,’ she teased.
‘Nothing happened, we went to bed… Alone!’ Issa yelped. She turned her attention to cleaning her nails. ‘You are right though,’ she admonished, ‘I am not the same person I was before Keteth. Something has changed. I feel stronger. It’s funny but I do feel more… me… Somehow.’
‘The goddess is with you, it’s plain for all to see,’ Rhul’ynth said. ‘Quite a feat to slay that beast. You are already a hero and will be remembered in ages to come, we are honoured to be in a hero’s company,’ she bowed.
‘Nonsense, it was the power of the dark moon and Zanufey that did it, I could not have done it alone. And anyway, it is I who honour you. I would have died had you not cared for me. You treat me as one of your own and share with me all that you have. That is surely the greatest honour.’
Rhul’ynth smiled and squeezed her shoulder, ‘Come, let us hunt!’
Rhul’ynth took the lead and Palu’anth took up the rear. Issa jumped to catch up with them. It felt so good to be wild and free in the forest with the karalanths, jumping over roots, ducking under boughs at break neck speed. How on earth do they manage to avoid getting their antlers caught? Issa wondered.
Issa ran as fast as she could but had no chance against her four-legged friends and she swiftly fell behind. They tempered their speed accordingly but though running was easy at first it wasn’t long before she was sweating profusely.
They must have massive lungs. I will not be a “weak two-foot”! But there really was no way she could run faster, her leg muscles were beginning to burn after a short while. They all turned to see where she was without so much as slowing their speed.
‘Don’t let me hold you back, I can catch up,’ she gasped and then squealed when Palu’anth circled back and hoisted her into the air with those same tree trunk arms, laughing again as she squirmed. He moved his quiver onto his upper back and shoved her in its place.
‘Just hold on,’ he said with a wink and they all leapt into a gallop.
Her scream was lost in the rushing air as she clung to his torso, holding on for dear life. They raced through the forest at twice the speed. It wasn’t easy riding bareback, nor the most comfortable, everything kept jolting and banging and she hoped Palu’anth wasn’t being bruised under her weight. If he was he didn’t show it, didn’t even seem to notice he carried a heavy passenger on his thickly muscled back. Despite the discomfort her aching legs were relieved.
Much of the forest was the same with thick trunked deciduous trees, some so densely packed together that little light hit the floor. Vivid green ferns splayed their delicate fronds and between these they ran upon soft dark earth. The air was cool in the thick forest and glimpses above suggested that the day was cloudy.
They must have been running for about an hour when Issa first felt something wrong. She closed her eyes and focused on observing the Flow. She opened her eyes and saw the pretty picture of the lush forest suddenly shot through with black, with wrongness, that was how it looked and felt. An icy gust of wind rushed past her and the forest darkened. She closed her eyes and swallowed down a wave of nausea.
It is not the bouncy ride, something is wrong. Where is the raven? She suddenly felt very vulnerable without her friend. She hadn’t seen him since they’d left the Land of Mists. “Even as we speak the raven searches for the ‘Cursed King’ and Murlonius waits to take him to his Banished Legion.”
Issa remembered Edarna’s words again. Her chest tingled where the raven mark was. She didn’t know why, perhaps it was to tell her danger was near. Perhaps it was to reassure her that the raven was still with her. A sharp headache came then and she knew the vision was coming. Always the animal communion, the gift of the Daluni, hurt more the longer she ignored it. She opened her mind to it. It was not coming from the raven.
In her mind she saw the fleeting image of a large cat, black as midnight, cowering in the shadows, its green eyes wide and gleaming. It hissed and showed white fangs. It is afraid, but of what?
The vision was gone but adrenaline hummed in her veins and the hairs on her neck prickled. She looked around, looking and feeling for the source of danger and where the cat was but there was nothing. It was safer not to enter the Flow when an unknown danger was near.
‘Danger,’ she hissed into Palu’anth’s ear. He dropped to a trot.
‘Danger?’ The others dropped to a trot, they had amazing hearing to hear her over the pounding of their hooves. They walked and then stopped, nodding as if feeling it too. They grasped their bows and reached for arrows.
Issa slipped off Palu’anth’s back. ‘I felt it briefly but now nothing. Perhaps it is gone.’
As soon as she finished speaking the dark twisted feeling came again and twice as strong. Instinctively she grasped her bow, fear rising in her stomach. She certainly wasn’t ready to face a real enemy with her weapon. She looked around, the roots of the trees entwined around each other like lovers embracing. Nothing there. She looked up at the leaves blowing gently in the breeze but there was no danger there either.
‘The forest is silent,’ Rhul’ynth said looking about her nervously, ‘I do not feel danger and yet the forest is still.’
Pressure on her mind. Issa closed her eyes. The black cat hissed its warning again and she saw through its eyes. Three huge ugly cat-like beasts exploded out of the forest. She blinked and opened her eyes. Within seconds those same three beasts bounded out of the dark undergrowth towards them.
‘Foltoy!’ she heard the others scream.
With trembling hands Issa fumbled for an arrow, dropped it and knew it was too late. She stood the furthest from the group and the three great beasts were heading only for her. They were slightly smaller than
karalanths but long and skinny. They had massive feline heads with long pointy ears, bared sharp yellow teeth, flaring unholy green eyes and slick furless skin. They made a terrible snarling sound as they closed in upon their prey, moving so fast they were a blur of dark and snapping yellow teeth. Everything slowed down and yet so much was happening. Cold calm stilled her shaking hands even though her body screamed at her to flee.
The last moments were moving slowly but there was so much to be done in that time. Above her was a thick branch. There was no way she could reach it even if she jumped. The foltoy were only a few feet from her. She bent her knees, all so slow. She reached her arms wide and leapt. She swiped her arms down feeling their undersides fill with air. She didn’t think, she only did, and all moved so slowly. Her feet became black-taloned claws as they rose above the foltoy’s ugly heads. She blinked and beat her wings again. Twelve feet above the ground and the tree branch loomed into view. She plopped onto it, her talons gripping it easily. Then time speeded up.
She looked down upon the foltoy as they fell upon the empty space where she had been seconds before. My arms are wings! She suddenly realised in astonishment, realised what she had done. I did not even enter the Flow! She laughed down at the howling foltoy whose prey had eluded them and it came out a raucous cackling. I have become a raven completely, as once I had before, yet still I do not know how it happens!
Her awe was soon forgotten as the battle unfolded below her. She had bought enough time for the karalanths to draw their bows and loose their arrows but they were now locked in a close quartered battle as the foltoy wheeled around to face them.
With little more than a semi-conscious thought Issa swooped down behind the beasts and became her human form once more. The foltoy had their backs to her. She found her dropped arrow and bow, notched the arrow, drew it back and let it loose but her hands trembled too much. The arrow only grazed the back of a foltoy’s head and whizzed away harmlessly. It was enough to make it turn towards her in a fury.
She drew and loosed another arrow as it turned. The arrow sank deep into its shoulder but it seemed not to notice as it bounded towards her. Maybe they don’t feel pain, only rage! She notched and loosed another arrow as fast as her novice hands could, striking it in the chest and slowing it. The sweat dripped down her face and her breath seemed to come in painful lumps in her throat as she stared into its awful intelligent yellow eyes. She suddenly desperately needed to go to the toilet, felt her bladder go anyway. She stepped backwards as it still came on, uncertainty creeping into her heart.
“The warrior that shows no mercy will be the one still standing at the end of the battle,” Grast’anth’s words echoed in her mind.
The foltoy leapt. Abandoning her bow she rolled away and under the beast, drawing her knife from its sheath as she did so. She was terrified, she did not deny it, but my will is unbreakable!
‘My will is greater,’ she snarled breathlessly, as the foltoy spun deftly to face her once more, eyes watching the knife. It snuffled a strange sound almost like a laugh, as if it understood what she said. And then, to her shock, it hissed and spoke in words she could just about make out.
‘They are all coming for you.’
Issa laughed, a loud cold laugh filled with a confidence she did not quite feel. She glanced past the foltoy to the karalanths, but they could offer her no help, they were in the thick of it fighting furiously for their own lives against the other foltoy. Issa turned her gaze back to the beast. She licked her lips, tasted blood and, for one bizarre moment, a part of her was enjoying this, she felt alive. My chance to get back at you bastards for all you have taken from me!
‘Ma died, and Tarry, they didn’t stand a chance. But I will fight you and take you with me before I die!’ A raging fire ignited in her heart and a savage passion overcame her. She screamed and attacked first, running at the beast and slashing viciously with the knife.
Such was her fury that the foltoy actually hesitated. But only for a second and then it bounded forward to meet her. She could smell its rotting breath as it neared. It was three times her size and the goddess only knew how much stronger, but those things were meaningless in the face of her battle fury. On the borders of her awareness she the felt the presence of something else moving swiftly through woods. She was too focused on the foltoy to think about it.
She sidestepped and slashed but the foltoy was ready and its claws struck a crushing blow to her side. As it did so she struck upwards and drove her blade deep into its neck even as the force of its blow sent her backwards. She smacked into a tree, felt ribs crack as the wind was knocked from her lungs. Pain flared in her side. She fell to the floor and lay there dazed and gulping.
It was not over. The foltoy still came on despite the blood gushing from its neck. She struggled sluggishly to her feet, breathing hard against the pain in her ribs. Her legs gave way as it bore down upon her, and then out of the trees another dark shape leapt. A large black leopard with orange stripes upon its legs and tail hurtled into the surprised foltoy. It tried to turn but the leopard was quicker. Sharp claws spread wide sunk easily into the flesh of the foltoy’s back. It tried to turn to get the leopard off but it could not.
Now was her chance. In a daze Issa staggered upwards and forwards, knife drawn. The foltoy had its head turned back towards the leopard and exposing its throat. Issa lunged forwards and plunged her knife into the foltoy’s neck. She’d expected it to be easy but it still took all of her weight to sink the killing blow through unnaturally tough flesh.
The foltoy gave a gurgled howl and blackish red blood oozed over her hand. She pulled the knife free, gagging in revulsion, both at the foul beast and what she had done. She watched horrified as it fell twitching to the floor. The forest leopard slithered off the foltoy unharmed. Foltoy blood matted its shiny coat. Its orange eyes looked at her and she felt its feline mind touch hers. She opened herself to it.
‘Embrace your fear, it teaches courage, sister,’ it said silently.
‘Woetala protect you, sister,’ was all she could think to say.
The leopard bounded off on silent feet back into the forest. Well thank the goddess you came, there is still no sign of that bloody raven, I thought it was supposed to be protecting me!
Her pulse slowed and the adrenaline dropped but now the pain in her side began with a vengeance. The karalanths came bounding over, the other two black bodies of the foltoy still twitching behind them. They seemed unharmed as they circled around her, worry and awe in their faces. A barrage of questions followed a short silence.
‘Are you all right?’… ‘How did you do that?’… ‘How did you sense them?’ they looked at each other then fell silent again.
‘Somehow I felt danger before it arrived. I don’t know how but I think the leopard warned me,’ she said.
The others nodded, ‘Animals always warn us of the immortals if we are open enough to hear them. The foltoy are masters of stealth though, even for us karalanths,’ Fris’anth said.
‘The Daluni talent can be weak or strong. It is strong in karalanths but the cat must have spoken only to you,’ Diarc’ynth said thoughtfully.
Issa didn’t add that she could see through its eyes and talk with it. It was enough that they understood what she meant.
‘But never have they fought for us,’ Fris’anth said, his face a mix of frowns and wonder.
‘If it had not come I doubt I would be standing here now,’ Issa replied. Now the fight was over fatigue crept in. ‘That was close,’ too close.
‘They were after you only and I don’t think they wanted to kill you until you maimed one. Look at what they carry,’ Fris’anth said, inspecting the foltoy she had slain. Around its thin waist was tied a net and a curved knife. ‘The others have the same. They didn’t attack from the front either, like they usually do, but from the side, where you were,’ he added.
‘It spoke too, I didn’t know they could speak. It said “they” were coming for me,’ Issa said.
‘It spoke?’ Rhul’ynth asked incredulously.
‘We have not heard them speak before,’ Palu’anth spoke for the first time, ‘they were the biggest I have seen, stronger, and sort of crazed. Maphraxie filth,’ he spat on the body.
‘How did you do that?’ Diarc’ynth asked, eyes wide with wonder.
‘Do what?’ Issa frowned.
‘Change into that bird, a raven.’
‘Oh,’ she had forgotten that bit. One minute she was faced with three hideous beasts hurtling towards her and the next she had leapt into the air spreading her arms wide and they had become wings without her even entering the Flow. How had it happened? What did it mean? She rubbed her chest above her breasts where the strange raven mark was.
‘I… don’t know. It just kind of happened. I needed to get out of there and I, I don’t know, suddenly I was flying.’
‘Perhaps I can only do it when in great danger,’ am I becoming more and more the Raven Queen as each day passes? The pain in her side made itself known fiercely and she sat down gasping.
‘You are hurt, you could have killed yourself taking it alone like that,’ Palu’anth said, but there was only kindness in his voice.
‘I didn’t have much choice,’ Issa replied with a groan.
He laughed and settled on the ground next to her, curling up his legs gracefully.
‘Lie back and let me look,’ he ordered, pushing her firmly but gently onto the earth. ‘I can set a broken bone, and the sooner the better.’
‘Palu’anth is a healer,’ Rhul’ynth reassured.
‘I am too, but mainly horses and it never works on myself,’ she mumbled, the pain was strong now. She winced, waiting for Palu’anth’s touch to hurt.
‘The healer’s trouble, the inability to heal oneself,’ Palu’anth nodded. ‘Lie on your good side,’ he said.
She did as he asked. He pulled aside her top to reveal angry purple bruises. They covered her right side from hip to shoulder where its claws had hit her.
‘Oddly the skin is not broken, its claws should have ripped you in two. Clearly it wanted you alive.’
