Forever Green

~ 9 ~ An Unwelcome Visitor

It was only for a moment, but Shwei turned green.

Lenesa looked over to the wisp in alarm, but he had already resumed his cheerful blue color, and let out a reassuring trill. Still, something didn't feel right—that didn't usually happen.

Her grip tightened on the basket of herbs she was carrying. Shwei had left the fireplace in the cottage burning—had something happened to it? Was Theiden trying to extinguish the flames, or burn the cottage down with him in it? She had left him in such a foul mood—it was possible he might have tried something destructive in her absence. Perhaps sparring with him earlier hadn't been such a good idea.

Clouds shifted across the sky, blocking out the moonlight and steeping the night in a thick shadow. Lenesa was almost to the faerie ring now, but the unease curling in her stomach had become too strong to ignore. The air, though crisp and cold, seemed heavy with an unspoken warning.

"Not tonight," Lenesa finally told Shwei with a shake of her head. "Let's go back."

The wisp hummed in agreement and followed beside her as she headed back up the mountain. At first, she started out at a regular pace, but the longer she dwelt on her worries, the quicker her footsteps became. At a sudden snap of a branch from somewhere deep in the trees to her right, Lenesa startled into a run, hiking up her skirt and chanting a spell of swiftness for her shoes. Somehow, she only managed to trip once before the spell took effect, and then she was vaulting over the stones and fallen branches that littered the forest path.

At Lenesa's behest, Shwei zoomed ahead. Soon, he was visible as just a dim flicker of blue through the trees, and the only sound Lenesa could hear was her own loud progress through the forest as she raced back up to her cottage near the top of the mountain. How long had it been since she'd left? It seemed like it was taking forever to get back.

Lenesa stopped to catch her breath, bending over with her hands on her knees and taking in great gulps of air. When she finally looked back up, it was just in time to see Shwei's light disappear. She had to keep up.

"Just a little bit farther," Lenesa muttered to the darkness around her.

She straightened up and resumed her running. Trees blurred in her peripherals as she sped past, willing herself to get there, hoping for everything to be okay.

Finally!

Shwei's blue light became visible once more, and a few minutes later Lenesa broke into the clearing, facing the dirt rows of the cottage's garden. Fighting to control her breathing, Lenesa moved around to the front of her home where the wisp was hovering protectively.

The cottage was not on fire, much to her relief. There was, however, something large lurking in the shadows at the front door.

As Lenesa watched, the creature rammed its shoulder into the door with all the force of a battering ram.  The wood splintered with a loud crack.  Judging by the state of the hinges, the creature had attempted to break in the door several times already.  It wouldn't last much longer.

When the intruder took a step back for one final attack, Lenesa reached out with her magic and yanked back as hard as she could.  It stumbled away from the door and into the moonlight.  Lenesa watched with bated breath as the dark, hunched figure took a moment to compose itself before turning to face her.

It did so slowly and with a long sigh. Lenesa took in the tattered black cloak and the knobby hands that gripped a wooden staff, sharpened to a stake at one end and adorned with bird feathers and a human skull at the other.

"Ah," the creature said when its large pearly-white eyes finally landed on Lenesa. "There you are." The two black horns that spiraled above its head gleamed in the reflection of Shwei's light.