Crown of Sunlight

by Payton Taylor

  She was so focused on looking for a way out that Jo's voice startled her when she spoke.

  "Do you think there are more of them out there?"

  Sunny knew what she meant by 'them'.

  Whether it was their sibling relationship or their close proximity, Sunny somehow knew exactly what her sister was talking about.

  Them.

  The monsters.

  The frightening hallucinations.

  "Do you think it was the forest that made us see those things or the Swarog?" Sunny asked, almost afraid to know the answer.

  Jo swallowed thickly, "I don't know, but I don't want to take any chances."

  Sunny nodded, "We'll be careful then. If we hear anything strange, we won't follow it. If we see or hear anything at all, we shouldn't trust it."

  "Right," Jo said resolutely before the confidence fell from her face, "now which way do we go?"

  Sunny pursed her lips, "I guess we should look for some kind of trail or something."

  The two of them began walking around, looking for some sign of life, some evidence of a way out.

  It came in a more obvious way than they had anticipated.

  "Um, Sunny?" Jo called a few minutes later after they had walked a little way.

  Sunny walked over to find her sister crouched down, her fingers lightly tracing imprints in the sun-baked dirt.

  "Are those. . .tire tracks?" Sunny asked, unsure. But they had to be. Though they were faint and at least a few days old, she recognized tire tracks when she saw them.

  She looked up, following them with her eyes. They seemed to lead deeper into the forest.

  Sunny looked at Jo. Jo looked at Sunny. They shrugged.

  Then they stood and began following the tracks.

  Neither of them mentioned the obvious.

  That these tracks led to people and neither of them knew who those people might be.

  For now, all that mattered was that they had a plan. Well. . .not a plan, exactly. More like a direction.

  But it felt good to be moving.

  Sunny couldn't help it. She bounced on the balls of her feet as they went, the pent up fear and anxiety from the day finally finding its release through her constant bouncing.

  Jo, on the other hand, babbled.

  She noticed everything around them, every single oddity they happened to pass, which there were plenty of.

  She pointed to a small creature with the body and reddish-brown feathers of an owl but the long nose and twitching ears of a fox. "What do you think that is? It looks like some sort of reverse griffin, with the body of a bird and the head of a mammal. Can you believe we're actually even seeing this? Do you think it bites?"

  Sunny looked up at the tiny creature which seemed to be licking up insects from the branch it was perched on. "I don't think it seems particularly dangerous, Jo."

  But Jo didn't seem to hear, for now she had moved on to another topic.

  Just then, something swooped down from above, flying just over Sunny's head before landing on the tree next to her.

  Sunny yelped, covering her head with her arms. After a moment she straightened to look at the bright orange lizard that now clung to the bark with its strange, flexible toes.

  Suddenly, it pushed away from the tree, its arms outstretched to reveal translucent, webbed wings connecting its arms to its torso. It swooped through the air and landed on another nearby tree.

  Sunny and Jo watched it crawl along the branch toward what looked like a shiny silver piece of fruit. It bit into the fruit, juice dripping from its reptilian mouth.

  After a few more bites it took off down the path, gliding from tree to tree.

  Sunny looked up to see more silver fruit hanging from the branches of the tree. Her stomach let out a loud grumble. "Well, there's our dinner for the night."

  But Jo was already moving toward one of the lower hanging branches. She stood on her tiptoes as she picked half a dozen fruit. When she was done, she took off her jacket and made a make- shift bag to carry them.

  As they continued following the tracks, Sunny asked, "So how did we even get here in the first place?"

  Jo scrunched up her nose, "I've been considering parallel universes and tears in the fabric of reality. Or maybe I'm in a coma and none of this is real." She looked at Sunny, "Or maybe we're having some sort of weird, shared delusion."

  Sunny nodded, assuming an equally serious demeanor, "Or maybe they put 'shrooms in the food at McDonald's."

  They shared a grin.

  Then Jo sobered once more, "I don't know, Sunny, I've been thinking about it since we got here. But every explanation I come up with is somehow illogical."

  "Maybe it's magic." Jo gave her a look but Sunny remained serious. "I know it's not logical, but how else can you explain all the crap that's happened?"

  But Jo was silent, lost in thought.

  They walked for hours. Sunny had half hoped they would come across a town or a house of some kind and find someone to help them, but all that greeted them were more trees.

  They were exhausted. Their legs and feet ached from hours of walking. Their faces were streaked with dirt and sweat, the sweat causing the scrapes Sunny had gotten in her earlier fall to sting. Jo's sandals were wearing blisters on her heels and toes. Sunny's dance shoes were holding up better, but even she was sore and stiff. If she saw a bed at that moment, Sunny probably would have fallen to her knees and kissed it.

  Finally, after what felt like an eternity, they picked up on the sound of rushing water. They left their path, not daring to go far, and found a small stream.

  The sisters sank to their knees gratefully and splashed the cool water on their sweat-soaked faces. Sunny leaned back, cold drops of water soaking the collar of her t-shirt, and looked around.

  The stream seemed to flow down the mountain parallel to the trail they had been walking. Her eyes followed the rolling mountains around them.

  There, she spotted it.

  It was hidden so deep in the trees that her eyes almost missed it.

  A cave.

  She reached for Jo at the same time Jo reached for her and they both said, "A cave!"

  Sunny glanced at Jo and held up a hand, "On one hand, a possible safe place to rest for the night out of the elements," she lifted her other hand, "but on the other hand: bears."

  Jo bit her lip, "What will our heroines do?" "Well, we won't know until we find out,"

  Sunny said, dusting off her pants as she rose to her feet.

  Together, they slowly made their way toward the cave. . .

  And let out a breath of relief.

  What they had thought was a full-blown cave was actually more of an outcropping of rock, shallow enough that they could plainly see there were no bears or anything of the sort.

  With the sun sinking below the horizon, they decided it was their best chance at shelter for the night.

  It was warm enough that they decided against a fire. Neither of them was entirely sure how to start one anyway, so it was just as well. They huddled together, too tired to even eat the fruit they had picked, and drifted off to sleep. Sunny dreamt of her sister drowning, but in the dream, she couldn't save her.

  *****

  The sound of Jo's groaning woke her up.

  Sunny came to slowly, her dreams like an anchor that she had to struggle against to reach the surface. As consciousness returned, she turned over and curled into a ball, squeezing her eyes shut tighter.

  Jo groaned once more, a low guttural sound. "Jo, shut up," Sunny grunted, "go to bed." Light flared behind her closed eyelids.

  She squinted one eye open before quickly shutting it again, the brightness too much to bear.

  She threw an arm over her head, "Jo, turn off the light!"

  She reached for her blanket only to realize it wasn't there. Her neck ached and her mattress was much harder than she remembered.

  And that was when she heard it.

  The melodic tinkle of children's laughter.

  Every
thing that had happened came crashing back. Waking up in a strange new place. The men chasing them. The Swarog. All of it.

  Sunny bolted upright.

  After everything she had seen, she still wasn't prepared for the image that greeted her.

  Jo, sprawled across the floor of their cave, her head lying next to a puddle of vomit. In her open hand rested one of the silver fruit they had picked, a single, perfect bite missing.

  The laughter trilled again and she turned to find two tiny, glowing creatures. They resembled the small cherubs she had always associated with Renaissance paintings. Barely six inches tall, with fair hair, eyes, and skin, they grinned up at her with perfect, round dimpled cheeks. Glowing, white wings sprouted from their backs, fluttering delicately.

  Sunny took exactly three seconds to adjust to the impossibility in front of her before she rose and quickly crawled to her sister.

  "Jo? Jo, can you hear me?" She put her hand against her sister's sweaty forehead and winced at her burning skin.

  Nearby, the winged creatures skipped in circles, their laughter too loud in the quiet night. One stopped abruptly, waving to the other as if to get its attention. The other stopped as well, resting its chin in its hand as if analyzing its miniature friend.

  The first cleared it throat before suddenly stumbling, its hand gripping its neck as if it was choking. It made its eyes bug out and its face turned red before it fell to the ground, playing dead.

  The other started clapping, as if applauding a play, while the first jumped to its feet and gave a bow.

  Sunny watched the entire act without moving a muscle. There was no protocol in her brain to tell her how to act in such a situation.

  The creatures looked at her blank expression before bursting into giggles once more, one of them doing its best impression of her shock.

  Words finally made their way up Sunny's throat, spilling from her lips.

  "Did you do this? What did you do to her?" Her voice hitched when she spoke.

  The child-like creatures looked at each other before one looked over at Jo and pointed in alarm.

  Sunny's gaze jerked back to Jo, only to find her the same as before.

  When she turned back to the creatures, they were gone.

  "What the fuck," she whispered to herself, quietly but with feeling.

  Jo moaned, her eyes fluttering open. "Sunny?"

  "Shh, don't say anything," Sunny said, helping her to sit up. As Jo sat up, the fruit fell from her hand.

  Sunny kicked it away, watching it launch through the air with mild satisfaction.

  "I didn't want to eat it, Sun," Jo mumbled.

  Her voice sounded foggy like she'd been drugged. "I didn't want it, but then I saw it and I was so hungry. . ."

  Sunny pulled her into her arms, her hand stroking Jo's hair. "It's okay, it was the babies." The sentence sounded wrong even as she said it.

  Jo leaned into her and murmured deliriously, "They were cute. . .they had little wings. . ."

  Sunny continued to stroke her hair as she stared at the wall of the cave and desperately tried to figure out what she was going to do now.

  As they sat, Jo only seemed to get warmer and warmer by the minute. As if they were connected, Sunny's panic rose with Jo's body temperature.

  Jo threw up several more times before leaning back and wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. "I'm thirsty."

  The stream, Sunny thought.

  She gently pulled away from her sister, "I'm going to go to the stream and get you some water. Are you going to be okay by yourself?"

  Jo nodded, though Sunny thought she only comprehended about twenty-five percent of what she said.

  She looked around before finding a large rock and handing it to Jo. "If anyone comes near you, kill them."

  That seemed to get Jo's attention. She blinked several times before saying, "What?"

  "I'm not even kidding," Sunny told her before ducking under the low hanging entrance and heading toward the stream.

  The sun was rising as she made her way towards the sound of trickling water.

  At least we got some sleep, she thought as she rubbed the crust from her eyes.

  She had almost reached the stream when she noticed a sudden stillness to the forest. The hairs on the back of her neck rose as goosebumps sprung up along her arms and legs. Her heart thundered in her chest as she became hyper-aware of her surroundings.

  Someone was watching her. She could sense it.

  She stopped in her tracks and stood completely still, barely daring to breathe. Her ears strained, listening for the slightest noise.

  The leaves behind her rustled. She whirled, her body tensing, expecting to find the next monster.

  Instead, it was Jo.

  Her sister stood a short distance away. Her shoulders were ramrod straight and her face was strangely blank, wiped of any emotion.

  The tension seeped from Sunny's shoulders as she ran to her sister. Something must have been terribly wrong for Jo to have made her way from the cave in her condition.

  "Jo? What's wrong?" Sunny called.

  But Jo just stood there, her body stiff, her eyes startlingly alert.

  Sunny slowed to a walk. "Jo?"

  Suddenly, a look of alarm crossed Jo's face. Her hand lifted, beckoning Sunny closer before she lifted a finger to her lips in the universal sign for "quiet".

  Sunny's eyes narrowed as she halted.

  Something nagged at the back of her mind, some instinct telling her that something was wrong.

  As she took a single step closer, the feeling of wrongness intensified.

  She met her sister's eyes and Jo smiled. It was a slow, wide smile that revealed dozens of needle-sharp teeth.

  Shocked, Sunny jumped back, barely escaping the imposter "Jo's" grasping hands as it reached for her. The escape was so narrow that she could feel the brush of air against her cheek as its fingers swung through the air.

  Sunny let out a startled yelp and turned to run, only to find another Jo in her path. Terrified, Sunny looked back and forth between the two Jo's and started backing up when she felt a pair of hands clamp down on her shoulders.

  Sunny let out a blood-curdling scream as they hissed at her. She threw her elbow back, connecting with the abdomen of the Jo behind her. She heard a grunt, and the imposter's grip loosened for a moment. Sunny wrenched herself forward out of its grip and ran as fast as she could, but she wasn't fast enough.

  Another Jo appeared in front of her, and before she could turn, it grabbed her arm and flung her. There was a moment of freefall when she felt nothing but the wind whipping against her face before she felt the impact of bark ripping against her skin as she slammed into the trunk of a huge tree.

  Seeing stars, she tried to regain her balance when she was thrown back once again. One of the creatures, because they surely weren't human, grabbed her right arm while another grabbed her left, holding her in place. She tried to pull free, but it felt as if her shoulders were going to pop out of their sockets.

  Two more terrifying look-alike's slowly approached her from the front. Sunny panicked, as she struggled and begged them to let her go. Then, they stopped in front of her and stood shoulder to shoulder. Where their bodies touched, they began to melt into each other, becoming one.

  They began to grow larger and larger, and a body began to form, but this body wasn't human.

  Two front legs were developing as well as two back legs, and she was pretty sure the thing sprouting out of the back was a tail. Its skin turned a rotten greenish gray. Well, what skin there was. It looked to be peeling off to reveal the creature's muscle and bones. Its head began to take shape, that part alone was the size of Sunny's entire body. Two horns the size of butcher knives sprouted out of its head and giant, tattered wings burst out of its back, knocking down a tree or two.

  When it was finally finished, it let out an enormous roar. It was like a dragon, but the most grotesque dragon she had ever seen. Its skin was rotting away, and she could see i
ts insides, but that didn't seem to slow it down.

  It stunk of rotting meat.

  She felt tears race down her cheeks as warmth flowed down her leg.

  The dragon reared back, ready to strike and Sunny looked away praying to herself, "Please let Jo be okay. Please let Jo make it out alive," over and over. Not willing to go down without a fight, she tried her hardest to struggle out of the creature's hold, but their strength was too great.

  She closed her eyes, but the pain she was waiting for never came.

  Instead, she heard a swooshing noise followed by a thunk and the ground shaking as something heavy fell. Opening her eyes, she saw the beast collapsed on the ground with a giant spear sticking out of its head. The grip of the others fell away, and she turned around to find them flat on their backs with arrows sticking out of their eyes.

  Sunny was alive, but before she could celebrate or even take a breath, she followed the arrow's path with her eyes.

  And saw a group of twenty or so warriors staring back, their weapons pointing directly at her.

  Chapter 6

  Jo Writhia, 5219

  The Mistwood

  This was the worst Jo had ever felt.

  Her stomach was so empty that she had nothing left to throw up but bile and acid. She sat with her back against the wall, head tilted back. She attempted to stay alert, but her eyelids kept drifting closed. She wanted to sleep.

  She also wanted to smack herself.

  One bite, that was all it took for that silver fruit to poison her.

  But she’d been so hungry.

  She'd been sleeping soundly when a dull glow had awoken her. She sat up, her eyes seeking out its source but instead falling on the small pile of silver fruit she had picked earlier.

  She was hungry, sure, but not that hungry. But the longer she looked at those crisp, round fruit glinting silver in the low light, the hungrier she seemed to get.

  And then they had appeared.

  Those strange infant creatures had appeared so suddenly that her mind had trouble processing the fact that they hadn't been there before. They had floated over to her, offering her one of the fruits with a low bow, as if presenting a queen with a divine jewel.