Embers of the Lost

Oscar had been right in his prediction, moving with the contraption was difficult, the crutch not much support on the thin branches. But her ankle didn’t hurt unless she actually knocked it against something. Movements were slow and careful, attention focused on footing rather than direction.

Not that moving would have been quick if she wasn’t injured. The forest seemed to become denser with every step; each tree had to be fought through with magic in order to get to the next branch. Viparterka loitered on the ground’s surface in greater numbers and their snarls and growls while fighting over a kill seemed to come from all sides. They quickly deemed the surface level of the forest too dangerous to try and find food in, the cats were chased off prey very quickly before they became prey themselves. The glowing mushrooms, while numerous, caused a violent vomiting reaction from Lily when she tried one.

Water was easy to draw from plants, but despite their thirst being quenched, Lily was soon feeling the effects of starvation. They say that, without other factors, a fairy could survive without food for up to two months, however, after weeks of travelling in what seemed like circles, Lily felt weak and she had begun to lose weight that she couldn’t afford to lose. Her body was trying to find the energy to heal and her will was trying to push it to move as well.

Hunger was making them all weak. Every movement, every use of magic, every breath, they were all so much effort.

“Why is this forest so big?” Kiki whimpered one night as Lily collapsed inside the wooden cocoon she had built in the tree tops to keep them safe while they slept. She no longer had the energy to complete it, and so it was more like a hammock expanded from one branch, but it kept them away from the ground-dwelling predators.

“They got the name right though…” Lily chortled sleepily.

“Yeah, Densewood is accurate. I miss The Greenwood though; at least there we could find decent amounts of food.” Oscar sighed. “I don’t know about you, but even leftovers from the Viparterka kills are starting to look good.”

“Even though they are rotting?”

“Yeah, that’s how hungry I am.”

“I wonder if it could be cooked to a healthy enough level to eat.”

“We’ll have to try something…” Lily nodded with a small groan. Rotting meat was even less appealing than normal meat which didn’t agree with her stomach in large quantities.

“Yeah, I think I’m starting to hallucinate,” Kiki batted at a wisp-like orange tuft that had appeared floating above the branch below her.

“I can see them too,” Oscar commented as he eyed up the second one that appeared next to it.

“I don’t think that’s a hallucination,” Lily motioned to the two sets of orange glow in the branches above. Within a few seconds, each pair was followed by three orange rings waving back and forth through the air as if they were caught in a breeze.

“What?” Kiki attempted to swat the rings and wisps away as they moved up to her branch and circled around her. The other two were descending on Lily and Oscar, causing both to back away as much as the branch hammock would allow.

Then glowing pawprints appeared on the bark beneath the orange shapes, lingering behind a trail that showed the directions of the movements.

“They’re Perdiauxilio…” Lily breathed, remembering the story that Finnigan had told her about them being the finders of lost souls. The moment she named them, slim black felines appeared where there had previously been nothing. The orange wisps were tufts of fur on their long-pointed ears, and the rings were a pattern that ran up each of their tails. The Perdiauxilio were hairless and smooth, they looked like they would have felt like silk to touch, but as Lily reached out to the one closest to her, it shied just out of reach.

“What do they want?” Kiki asked nervously, jumping down onto Lily’s shoulder.

“Well, we’re lost… maybe they’ll show us out of this place.” Oscar ventured, his stomach gurgling loudly at the idea of getting somewhere he could eat something substantial.

“Or maybe they’ll lead us somewhere we’ll be lost forever.” Lily countered, recalling Finnigan’s theory about the children being taken forever back in the war.

“No, wait. What if the children that were led away by them are the ones who became the ancestors to the Litihana? These things may have led them to the tunnels where they would be safe?”

“Those tunnels aren’t exactly easy to find.” Kiki agreed.

The three of them turned to look at the Perdiauxilio who had come to a standstill in front of them.

“We’re lost either way… neither of us can get through the canopy to find a direction, at least they’d guide us somewhere.” Oscar sighed with a small shrug. “Worth the chance, I reckon?”

“Can’t we sleep first?” Kiki whined, surprised the moment the three creatures nodded in unison as though understanding the language.

“Ok. So, sleep, then we get out of here.” Lily agreed, settling herself carefully back into the wood hammock without knocking her foot. In turn, the Perdiauxilio jumped up onto a higher branch where they faded from sight, leaving only the orange patterns aglow in the darkness of the foliage.

Considering their position when Lily woke a few hours later, they probably hadn’t moved an inch the whole time. They were just waiting for their chosen charge to be ready to move wherever they would lead them.

“They’re really… ominous?” Kiki mumbled under her breath as they turned to jump down the tree to lead on the ground.

“Yeah, I think we should follow from above,” Oscar added, the glow of the pawprints left behind were easily visible in the undergrowth so long as Lily stuck to the lower branches.

“In case they are actually a lure for prey!” Kiki hissed as though a conspiracy was afoot.

Lily chuckled a little at the dramatic twist Kiki was putting on the situation. Though, given recent events and her luck, they probably would be leading them to something bad. If they did, Lily would just have to do what she’d successfully done twice now… run away. She couldn’t exactly see herself as a fighter, but she had gotten away from Finnigan, and then away from the Fairy community when they had chased her. Oh, and the Viparterka. Maybe she’d survive long enough to get to Xalina just by running away from everything dangerous.

“Even if they are, we’ll be ok” Lily reached out to ruffle the fur at the base of Kiki’s tail with a tired smile on her lips. “We’ll just keep going. One foot in front of the other.”

They would make it. Somehow, they would make it.

It took a few more days to reach the edge of the Densewood, in which Lily and the cats did end up savouring the number of berries they could find to eat. Oscar and Kiki both managed to catch a couple of small flying creatures as the woods became less dense.

They had lost weight, but the warmth of the sun was as fantastic as ever the moment they bustled out of the woods and into the sparse area between woodland and mountain. It was cooler outside of the Densewood, the breeze licked over Lily’s skin and its freshness was enough to make tears prick at her eyes once more.

The damp of the Densewood was obvious in those seconds, the lack of air and the oppressive height of it. Looking at the tundra environment in front of her, it felt like she had been freed from a prison she hadn’t known she was in.

For the first time since the truth had come out about Finnigan, Lily felt a sense of freedom that was unusual. She was acting for what she felt was right, and the world was right at her feet. The sparse lands and then the mountains. The clean air of a path that wasn’t being shackled in chains by society, expectations, or actual chains.

“Sokari!” A voice to the side called out followed by a small chorus of “Mariatio!”

The shockwave was aimed above her, shattering branches and leaves from the overhang of trees she stood beneath. The transmutation spell immediately transformed the falling debris into a shower of daggers.

Cursing loudly, Lily flung her arms over to protect the cats in front of her, a slab of wood growing out from the woods behind to cover them and take each dull stab of the sharp weapons.

Her eyes settled on the group of witches that had sent the spells. Six of them were advancing on her from downwind with their wands held in front of them.

Instantly, Lily thrust her hand out in their direction to create a wall of ice to work as a barrier. What she hadn’t noticed was a seventh person approaching from another angle. A hooded figure sent a thin metal wire flying at her arm, slicing into her skin and trapping her arm tight against the wood she had used for protection.

A scream ripped from her throat as the wire cut deep into her flesh and blood dripped down her skin. The two cats immediately jumped up to try pulling the wire back from her skin, resulting in small cuts in and around their own mouths.

“You’ll rip your forearm off before you’ll get free of that.” All three froze as a chill of dread fled through Lily at the voice that haunted her mind. Turning to the hooded figure, she could recognise the green of Finnigan Byrne’s eyes instantly.

The boy she loved was leading a hunting party to track her down. The clenching of her heart and chest somehow hurt more than the wire which was almost reaching the bone at the side of her forearm.

“If you are here to kill me, why didn’t you just do it last time?” She found herself snarling through gritted teeth, the pain within her voicing itself as venomous anger. How could one person toy with her so badly, both with her life and her emotions?

A flicker of hesitation shone in Finnigan’s eyes causing Lily to tilt her head as she watched his hooded face.

“You can’t, can you?” Or maybe he just won’t. Finnigan may believe in his parents’ aim but he hasn’t become a murderer yet. There was something in his eyes that gave away the innocence of the boy he was. A hesitation that either stemmed from a wish not to actively kill, or perhaps from the fact he had bonded with Lily. Maybe he couldn’t face being the hand that ended her life.

Right now, the reason didn’t matter.

Using the hesitation to her advantage, Lily froze the blood from her wound and curled the bark of the tree between her and the weapon to pull it loose enough around the arm to rip her arm free, slicing flesh as she went.

“Peiara!” Lily flicked out her healthy arm and sent Finnigan flying backwards away from her, though his own hand flew out to bring down the ice that was blocking the rest of the hunting party.

“What?!” Kiki yelped.

“He’s half fairy…” Oscar reminded her, raising his heckles in an attempt to ward off the attackers who seemed to ignore just how the ice had vanished. His hissing was likely ineffective, however the group seemed to take pause at the sight of Lily casting her arm in ice. A frozen casing to stop the bleeding and numb the pain.

A few beats of silence passed, Lily contemplating how to get away and the witches working out if a front attack was a wise choice.

“Havatu!” The slicing spell sent from the redheaded male was met with a wooden wall to take the damage.

“Agora!” The fire snake sent from the blonde pixie-cut was doused quickly with water pulled from the surroundings and balled in its path.

Panting, limping and weak, Lily was still able to block the shockwaves, the daggers, and the flames which made up the bulk of the spells being sent her way. None of the witches particularly tried to close any distance but followed as Lily dodged and defended in the direction of the mountains.

She had to get away. She couldn’t keep this up. She couldn’t use her ice-encased arm and her crutch had been abandoned so the hobbling on her ankle contraption was making her move slow. She either would make a mistake soon, or she would run out of energy to carry on.

Bile rose in her throat as a shockwave knocked her to the side and her ankle jolted.

Fight. Survive. Run. She had to do something. She didn’t want to die.

“Lily!” Oscar yelled from up ahead, motioning to the towering mountain and the layer of white that lay thick from about a third of the way up. Dodging another wire aimed for her legs, Lily reached the elevation in the terrain and began to climb.

“She can’t move that much at once!” Kiki called from behind as she dive-bombed one witch, snapping the wand in two with her jaw.

No, Lily couldn’t.

She was exhausted. It was taking every ounce of willpower to keep her climbing while pulling wood and ice behind her to protect her.

But, it occurred to her, she didn’t need to move the ice far. Gravity could do that for her.

“Bolvia!” Lily yelled, dragging Oscar and Kiki through the air to her side from where they had been. With them there, she slammed her hand against the ground and cried, “Sokari!”

The rumble through the earth beneath her caused the figures behind to stop.

“Are you insane?!” Finnigan yelled over the noise, realising what Lily was trying to do. She wasn’t insane, she was desperate. With a look in his direction with eyes full of tired pain, Lily ducked her head to curl around the two cats as a mesh of roots and vines to cocoon them all safely as ice and snow thundered down the side of the mountain in a deadly avalanche.

“They really want me dead…” Lily whimpered as she melted the ice around her arm to look at the damage done. In the darkness of the cocoon, she had to draw light into a small orb above her so she could see, but what she saw was worse than she had thought. In tearing her arm free, she had sliced through the back of her arm and taken chunks of flesh away from bone at either side.

“Tch. We should just leave them to the war!” Kiki spat at the sight of the injury. “We could just go to the mainland and be done with it!”

“It would be the easiest choice…” Lily murmured as she guided thread-thin vines down to her arm and began stitching her skin back together, hissing in pain. She could hear nothing outside of their little safe-space now the snow and ice had covered them, any warmth from the air was gone and replaced with frigid chill. They couldn’t stay there for too long, but hopefully they wouldn’t be followed now.

“It’s not the right thing.” Oscar said, nudging Lily’s leg to encourage it to straighten a little to be kinder to her injured ankle.

“But we’re out here; starving, being hunted, banished, alone! Why should we be the ones who get this deal when everyone else is living a comfy life?!” Kiki growled.

“Because we are no longer ignorant,” Oscar sighed. “If we run to the mainland, would we really be ok knowing that the blood spilled in the wars could possibly have been stopped by us? Even if it’s just one life that we could have saved?”

Lily sighed as the vines tightened to seal the wounds. She wasn’t going to be able to use her arm well for a while, but at least the bleeding had stopped. “He’s right Ki… We have to try.”

“Tch!”

Oscar shook his head a little at the kitten’s response. “You should sling that arm; we’ll have to crawl out of this.” This being the avalanche on top of them; going straight up would be quicker, but if Finnigan and those witches were close they would spot Lily and the cats against the white of the snow.

Nodding in silent agreement, Lily wrapped vines around her arm and her body to create a stable sling.

“This will be fun, one ankle and one arm out of order…” Lily huffed with a roll of her eyes. She knew Oscar was right, but the idea of running to the mainland and just living was a very tempting idea.

With her magic allowing a tunnel to be created in the frozen covering, Lily was able to leave behind the blood splattered ground and crawl awkwardly on her knees and her one good arm.

Things just had to get better. Lily didn’t know how they could get worse.

The tunnel she created took them considerable feet up the side of the mountain before they finally came up for air. The chill had set into the cats who shivered and immediately ran ahead to sit themselves in direct sunlight to warm themselves. Lily could cope with ice a lot better than they could it would seem. Or perhaps she was just distracted by the lightheaded feeling the loss of blood had given her. She could have been cold and she wouldn’t have even known it.

Pushing herself to her feet, Lily swayed as her vision seemed to blur before her.

“We’ve got to keep moving…” She mumbled, mostly to herself as motivation to lift her bad leg and take the first limped step. She would take as many steps as she could. Though how long her body would last, she didn’t know.

Blood loss and hunger made moving difficult and slow, every few steps came with a wave of dizziness that brought Lily to a stop with her head in her hand.

“We need to stop,” Oscar chimed.

“Where?”

“Anywhere! Create a shelter out of snow or something!” Kiki yelled over the growing wind.

The only problem Lily had was, if she stopped, she wasn’t sure she would be able to start again. If sleep took her, she felt that it would take her for good and she wouldn’t be able to fight both the tiredness and the injury. Though she was struggling to fight anyway. Her body didn’t feel like hers, she felt like she wasn’t in control and it was taking all of her will just to keep her legs moving.

She didn’t know how long they managed to walk. It could have been minutes or hours. With just one mantra repeating as though to force the movement that sounded out a crunch of snow beneath her.

One step. One more step.

The sensation of her face hitting the soft snow was the only thing she registered as her body stumbled and fell to the white ground. Her legs wouldn’t move any more, she couldn’t feel her hands, she couldn’t hear the cats or feel them by her side.

Dark shapes started to grow in her vision among the falling snow. None of the three blobs would take any focus in her sight, in fact they only got more blurred as they drew closer.

“Xa...Xalina…” Lily couldn’t be sure if her lips actually moved to form the word as the shadow of the figures loomed over her. “Please… Xalina.” Darkness consumed her sight and the cold of the snow vanished from her skin along with every other conscious sensation.