18.2: The Nightcrawler

18.2

Hawthorne

It starts tremulously low, barely noticeable, yet it rattles every bone in my body. Before any of us can react, it crescends to block out the owls and crickets chattering around us. A chill ripples down my spine, the hair on my neck lifts in warning, my feet root themselves to the ground. I do not dare to move. I do not dare speak. Iridea curses under her breath, a harsh whisper that carries in this silent space. The Star Elf and I stare at her, pleading with our eyes that she stays quiet. We all know what it is: the Nightcrawler, a cat-serpent-spider something that people are only able to describe on account of their escape being a miracle.

“Cut the bullshit, if we can hear it, it already knows where we are.” Iridea’s voice is soft, but it comes out as a roar.

“What do we do?” the Star Elf presses. Her eyes flit to the shadows of the forest. Which happens to be the entire forest.

“We’ve two options,” Iridea responds, “fight or flight.” After an imperceptible pause, both the Star Elf and Iridea raise their guards, apparently neglecting the latter option.

“What? No!” I cry in a harsh whisper, finally breaking my silent spell, “No. We can’t fight that thing.”

“Maybe you can’t,” Iridea directs her pointed glare at me. I shove aside her spiteful comment and stumble towards her. For the sake of my mother’s precious porcelain dishes, they have to see reason. We’re going to die out here.

“I- You’re - You’re gonna get us killed! We have to get out of this now.”

It’s too late. The deadly threat screeches in our ears. I raise the sword in front of me with a shaky grip. The glistening light in Iridea’s hands bounces off the steel of my blade to show my terrified expression. Leaping fish of the Lost Sea, not this again. 

Several glowing purple eyes blink to terrifying being from the bushes. Their light glints off pointed silver teeth. The rest of this infamous creature is wrapped in a blanket of unwavering shadows. It's a battle enough for me to keep my feet where they are. But the creature doesn’t move. It doesn’t leap. Those eyes stare persistently at the three of us. Still. Silent. 

“Guys… maybe we should go now…?” I whisper as I take a step backward. My boot drags through the dirt in a muffled hush.

“No!” the Star Elf tremendously growls, “That is what it wants!” She shoots forward and the air around her crackles with sparking energy. Her hands curve through the air, slicing blue sparks into the darkness. She flings a shard of sharpened ice at the waiting beast with a shout. In response, an unworldly laughter-like chatter fills the space. The eyes elongate and expand. The flash of silver teeth curl into a smile. The Nightcrawler’s spindly body whips like a snake out of the bushes.

I startle into Iridea with a scream, pushing her to the ground. The monster is encased in oily black fur that is tightly packed to its long, panther-like body. Its spine tears like jagged daggers from its body, its bones clacking silver. It devotes two eyes to each of us as it slithers through the battlefield. Its eight paws dig crevices into trees as it spins closer. Its three tails, lined with rows of dripping spikes, rip through the air, shredding branches. It doesn’t need to be quiet to kill its prey, its prey is too horrified to move anyway.

“For fucks sake, Hawthorne!” Iridea shouts as she pulls herself from the ground. 

“Sorry…” I swing my sword wildly. The blade draws nothing but air. The Star Elf bumps into me, she spits ice from her hands like it’s as simple as breathing. She glares at the Nightcrawler from under her eyebrows with a feral look I haven’t seen on her before. Even when she slayed the werewolves. She’s lost her composure, her control. In a battle like this; what is she thinking? Her aim is all over the place. Her shards hit everything but our rippling enemy as it stalks closer and closer.

The nightcrawler darts forward, its tails whip through the air, and it makes its first attack. A claw swings for the Star Elf’s face.

I step in front of her and slice my sword for the heel of the beast’s paw. I make contact and draw its purple blood across my blade. The nightcrawler reels back, a malicious hiss rolls from one of its mouths, and a warning chatter from the other. Then, drawing four of its eyes to me, it engages me in a whirl of deflects and swipes as it battles with its mouths, tails, and claws.

“Stop wasting your energy, Star Elf!” I shout through gritted teeth as my pulse heats. She sidles to my side and ignites fire on her fingertips.

“Do not call me that,” she fumes. She outstretches her flaming fingers and backs the beast away from us. I dart backward to put space between the beast and me. The Star Elf follows. She clutches her knees as she huffs for breath. My ribs suddenly scream in agony as I take deep breaths and heft my sword once more.

Iridea pushes between the two of us roughly. Her hand curls into a tight ball and the nightcrawler roars, a screaming, shrill, cracking screech. I resist the urge to cover my ears, to block out the infernal noise. It attacks next from the left. I thrust my sword for its face, but the scream that fills the air is not its own.

“Fucking hell, Hawthorne!” Iridea cries. A fresh wound slashes across her arm, shallow but already filling with blood. 

“Oh spirits, I’m so sorry,” I stammer. I hadn’t meant to hurt her, of course, I hadn’t. My heart dips in my chest, my thoughts jump with activity. I rush to her with my arm outreached but she slaps it away,

“Whatever, dammit,” Iridea curses, clutching her arm, “Stellina, back it into the bushes.”

The Star Elf nods and swishes her arms in a precise motion. Seconds later, a blast of fire erupts from her hands, heating the air. This time, she accurately flares her spell into the nightcrawler’s face while finding a gap through the throngs of trees all around us. The beast skitters back into the bushes it emerged from as The Star Elf keeps a consistent stream of flame. It glares at her with its six eyes narrowed.

“I cannot hold for long,” she mutters as her sigil glows feverishly.

“Hawthorne, go to that tree!” Iridea points to a tree shorter than all the others, only metres away from the nightcrawler.

“Wha- but-” I sputter as I eye the tree and the nightcrawler’s glowing eyes. Iridea gives me a glower filled with murder. I dart to the tree she indicated before she decides to attack me instead.

“Iridea!” The Star Elf screams. Her fire spurts.

“Hold on!” Iridea snaps back. Her fingers curl. Shadow, like liquid, flows across the whites of her eyes. The veins of her face throb in black webs.

The tree I stand by cracks. Its trunk bubbles like molten lava. I take a step back.

In a burst, the bubble pops and sprays sweltering liquid onto the mossy floor. The tree groans, the wood is cleaved into two jagged pieces.

“Push it, Hawthorne!” Iridea screeches as The Star Elf’s fire fizzes out and her legs wobble beneath her. The nightcrawler prowls forward, I throw my back into the sharp bark of the tree, ignoring the burst of bright pain from my ribs, and push with all my might.

For three aggravating moments, nothing happens. Then, the tree sways, the pressure on my back is released, and the tree comes creaking, crashing to the forest floor on top of the nightcrawler.

The worst sound imaginable explodes in my ears; scraping metal, a yowling cat, the hiss of a thousand stalking snakes. But in its wake, it leaves the most blissful silence.

“Is it…dead?” Stellina asks the question that crosses all of our minds.

“Let’s not stick around to find out,” Iridea replies.

We move as one, dashing into the forest without knowing which way we go. The smallest sound lifts the hair on the back of my neck; be it a silent scruffle in the bushes or the terrifying shriek of a barn owl. With every step, I feel like the nightcrawler is right at my heels, flitting from tree to tree, seething to finish its job.

The sword drags my hand down, pulls at my socket. My ribs bounce in my chest. Every breath is agony. My upper body feels on fire. My feet begin to stumble, my legs shake. I fall behind The Star Elf and Iridea. When I feel on the verge of collapse, I see it: a light in the distance. I hear it: loud clinking pipes.

I call for the other’s attention and throw myself into motion again. We dart in the direction of the growing yellow light weaving between trees. It bounces up and down along a break in the tree line; a path, a cart, a broad tawny horse, a tussle of brown hair underneath a straw hat.

“Ms. Mais! Ms. Mais!” I shout. My heart soars as her warm, familiar cart comes into full view. Tears creep into my eyes as I throw myself towards the rattling vehicle. At last, thank the holy spirits. We are not lost. We are not going to die. 

The cart pulls to a halt at my cry and Ms. Mais brings her lantern in an arch to face us. It illuminates her flabbergasted face.

“Hawthorne?” she exclaims, “what in the Saints are you doing here? Why do you have a sword?”

A laugh bubbles out of me at her bewildered statements. I slow my aching legs to a walk as I come into her light and my boots touch even trodden dirt.

“Spirits, I wish I knew.” I run a hand through my hair. “Hey, do you have space? Is it ok if we join you? We’ve been wandering about Finmork all day.”

“Pogum’s beer, Hawthorne.” She stares at me with wide eyes. “Yes. Yes, of course.”

I turn to the others, who seem ready to collapse as they heave for breath and introduce them to Ms. Mais. Ms. Mais tips her hat to them and the other’s return the gesture; Iridea with a nod and The Star Elf with an elegant bow. We clamber onto Ms. Mais’ coal cart, me at the front with Ms. Mais and The Star Elf and Iridea in the back. She winds up the musical instrument at the front of her wagon, designed to keep night creatures away from its shrill sound. Then, she clucks Noah into motion and the cart begins to bounce along the dirt path once more.

“Thank you so much, Ms Mais,” I say, putting all of the gratitude I feel into words.

“Don’t thank me yet,” she begins with a shake of her head, “I’m going in the wrong direction, towards the Castle, you’ll have to stick with me until I make the journey back.”

My eyes jump open. Oh, how smoothly everything’s beginning to work out!

“No! That’s perfect! That’s where we’re going too!” I exclaim. She looks up at me from the corner of her eyes and sighs,

“The amount of questions I have for you, my boy.”