Flash Fixtion #632 -- Neko's Trip Home/11

 

A true fanatic is something beyond wild. No matter what the species, they are beyond reason. The polite, tired man I faced changed in a heartbeat into a raving lunatic.

His face paled, and his eyes grew large. He lifted his hands, the fingers thin as claws as he swiped at me, but I had already moved out of the way. What had been a normal face elongated and opened, showing row upon row of dagger teeth.

I ran.

I knew I couldn't go far. My mouth had filled with white dust, and my legs began to cramp. I had only a small reserve of magic and felt no link back to my friends.

It would have had me if it hadn't laughed.

The sound brought me up short, and I tripped over my own legs. I hate when an enemy laughs at me. In a moment of Shosha-like rage, I spun to go after him.

The monster tripped over me.

"Nooooooo!"

It hit the ground in slow motion and dissolved into white dust.

He didn't reform. I stared for a long time, fighting the urge to laugh. That would hardly be appropriate considering my reaction to his laughter.

Besides, except for his disappearance, nothing had changed. White dust hung in the still air where not even a slight breeze gave respite from the sun and heat. The most I could hear was my own breathing.

Colin would be looking for me. So would Dorian, and even Luna in her own way. I only had to wait. And survive.

No, not wait. Sitting still was the best way to make myself a target. Other things might lurk not far away, white and invisible in this overwhelming light. If I sat still, I might hear them. When I tried that, all I could hear was My own breathing, which sounded like a roaring wind. I got up and started walking again, following my own footsteps back to where we began. I hoped it would be easier for Colin to find me if I was near where I'd been dropped in the first place. That started me wondering why he had not shown up yet. After all, he was getting a lot of practice at this work.

I found the end of the footsteps and saw nothing but my own prints. There was no sign of the creature with all the teeth. I tried to make myself believe that it wasn't real.

"Colin?"

Something moved, but it wasn't my fae friend. I saw something about the size of my hand stand up from the sand. It was a miniature of Mr. Teeth. When it came closer, I slapped it hard enough that it disintegrated back into the sand. That pleased me, so I did the same when a couple more appeared. Then, a few more seemed to join together and make a bigger version.

I wasn't quite so pleased now, but I could still get them hard enough to send them back into their sand base. Fortunately, there were not many of them, but some were getting large. Despite that I'd still had no relief from the heat and white dust, I managed to get to my feet and dash -- no, stager -- into them. It helped that they were coming at me, so I didn't have to move much. They annoyed me. None of them was the size that would scare me, so I took advantage of this stage as I danced around the little area, slapping, kicking, and biting. I didn't do that one again since it got me a mouthful of dust. Slap. That one didn't work, and it showed me they were getting stronger as they got larger. A distant part of my mind still hoped for rescue, but I had turned my own status to survival.

Plop.

Colin arrived. "What the hell?" he demanded and scrambled to his feet. "Ow!"

He shook one of the creatures free of his hand, and it disintegrated as it hit the ground.

"Well, that's better. The thing bit me. How many teeth does it have?"

"Welcome to my nightmare."  I coughed, my voice ragged. "You don't want ... want to meet the full version. Get me out of here."

"If we leave now, we'll have to come back and deal with this later." Colin grabbed up one by the arm and shook some sand from it. "You are a frightful little monster, aren't you? More of an annoyance than a danger, though."

"You haven't met the larger version."

Colin finally picked me up. I could feel his magic, which made me feel better -- until I saw the sand men joining into a form larger than the one that had faced me.

I expected Colin to take us away. Instead, he stared at the creature stomping its way to us.  

"Can we go now, Colin?"

"We need information. If you were made of sand, what would you fear?"

"Wind," I replied. "But that doesn't bother him. He just reforms. I might try rain."

"Water," Colin said with a nod. He knelt and put me down. "Don't panic. This won't take long."

Fae, being as old as the world and immortal, have an odd idea of time. Sometimes, I err in that way, too. This was not the time with my enemy only a few steps away. Could I bury myself in the sand?

I made one sad little hissing sound as the thing reached toward me --

Then, it pulled away in shock. My eyes blurred as I scrambled backward, but my legs didn't want to work. The ground pulled at me. I shivered --

Not fear. I was suddenly cool and unexpectedly found myself splashing in water.

Mister Teeth had begun splashing as well, but not with the joy I felt. The water was up to his knees, and he was not disintegrating. In fact, he looked more solid.

This was supposed to help?

Flash Fiction #631-- Neko's Trip Home/11

 

I wasn't the only one who started to ask what Luna meant. We didn't need anything that sounded like a bad omen.

Luna only stared at the tent's doorway as though she expected someone to step in. When Colin moved and started to speak, Shosha hissed, and he fell silent.

Luna leaned forward. Her fingertips glowed, and I had never seen that happen before. Shosha glared in my direction, but I wouldn't draw her wrath.

Luna finally blinked and looked around at us as though she had just woken up.

"I need time to see if I can sort any of it out. I only know that our current journey will not be as long as we might fear."

"Is it safe to remain here for the night?" Colin asked.

"I saw nothing happening here. That doesn't mean it is safe, but I think it might be safer than moving on to our next problem without rest and preparation."

Colin didn't argue. I went to sleep and realized Shosha curled up with me. I almost complained, but she was soft and warm.

She had the cutest little kitten snore.

I woke to Dorian's voice.

"Rage, desperation, fear. I would have expected desperation to be more difficult. How is Neko --"

"I am fine," I answered as I sat up. Shosha sat up as well, yawned once, and fell over again. "I may be wrong, but it seems to me that we don't want to spend too much time here, resting. I am starting to feel itchy like something keeps touching me."

Colin and Dorian both nodded. "We've felt something sniffing around the tent, but it feels local, not part of the larger --"

"And yet we were pulled here, too," I said. "Perhaps Shosha wasn't the first. We just moved too quickly."

I had only just considered that idea, but it suddenly felt right. This was not a safe place, despite all the festivities. Even now, barely dawn, I could hear distant music and laughter. It didn't sound inviting this morning. Instead, I had the suspicion that it covered other things.

Lurking things that still lingered around the shadowed edges of our tent. A misshapen figure poked at the far corner and the spot glowed red, but Dorian was already heading outside. I heard a soft whistle, and all of them disappeared.

That didn't make it safe.

Colin came to the pile of pillows and sat beside me. Shosha made a sound of protest until he put her in his lap. Spoiled little thing ...

No. She was learning to reconnect with the world. Good. It seemed that even her saved rage was smaller.

"Dorian and I have been unable to discern anything about the being that keeps investigating us. I can't tell if it is really searching for us -- for you -- or if it is --"

"Lost," I said as I felt it again. This gave me a clearer view of it.

And that lost feeling overwhelmed me. I no longer sat with my friends in the tent. Instead, I crossed a dry white desert, the light so blinding that I could barely see a dark shape moving ahead of me.

"Hey," I said, but my voice was a harsh, dry croak. "Wait."

I thought it looked back at me, confirming it was not my shadow. Black shimmered against blinding white. I was starting to detest white.

"Don't get lost," a deep, haunting voice came from the shadow. "There are worse than me in this wasteland. Worst to fear than faceless shadows. This is a place where the almost dead wait."

And that confirmed my other worry. This was another of Maude's creatures, the one I had barely touched in Avesa's world.

Lost and afraid went well together. I had to pause to get control. The stone and sand burnt my paws. I extended my claws and walked on them as best I could. It hurt, but so did the blisters already appearing on my feet.

And now the worst news.

It had reached into that tent and yanked me away from two very powerful fae. I could find no hint of them with my dwindling magic. All I could do was follow --

I blinked in shock when I saw that the shadow had far outdistanced me so that I saw hardly more than a black line on the horizon. I gave a slight croak of despair, pulled in my claws, and ran.

I ran until I fell gasping. When I looked, nothing had changed.

Illusion.

A person could get lost in an illusion just as easily as in reality, even if they knew it wasn't real. The brain doesn't always agree.

But I had to fight the tendency to stand up and race after that line of black. Distant laughter didn't help. I feared moving and not moving. This was a game, and I didn't know the rules.

But wasn't the goal to frighten me?

Why?

Because it would have given Maude power -- my power. Fear was easy for others to manipulate and then control the one affected. I had read that in an ancient text. I knew the trick.

I didn't know if Maude still had an existence that could interact with me, but her other trapped minions could still act according to her orders.

Great. I understood how it worked. That didn't give me any idea of how to get free of it. But at least I felt better for not running.

"You think too much."

I looked up to find the shadow almost within reach. I could see a face now: tanned skin, gray eyes, a hint of a beard. I found nothing frightening here.

"You are not going to get what you want from me," I said. "I have helped free two others from Maude's old spells. You could leave this place."

"You are trying to trick me into giving up my quest!"

And then it got scary.