The Balance Goddess only wanted
those pure of heart to live.
Only those who were able to survive.
She wanted the world,
She wanted her world,
to be pure once more
And is it?
Depends on who you ask, my child.
~Holy Texts of Amaryllis
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"There was nothing to be seen."
No matter in what direction Aldwin looked, he couldn't see a thing, only shadow staining the whole world as black as pitch. Gwen clung to his arm as if it was a shield, the only thing protecting her from whatever lay before them in the dark shadows of the Wild Woods.
They had been traveling for hours, and night must have fallen, because, if it was even possible, the Wild Woods had grown even darker than it had been in the daylight hours. And somewhere in the back of Aldwin's mind, he had linked the darkness and the danger together.
"You don't think they're watching us, right now, I mean?" Gwen asked, not needing to say who she was referring to. It was obvious to both of them.
The Mutare.
Aldwin felt his body stiffen as if all his joints had frozen together, his breath catching in his throat, at even the mere suggestion of them being watched since he had been feeling the same way ever since they had entered the Wild Woods. Now, with just Gwen's nervous words, he found himself double checking the brush behind him, and scanning the limbs of the trees before him, double checking for any signs of danger. Yet, he saw nothing.
"No, of course not," he answered, although his lie did little to comfort Gwen, who was beginning to regret leaving the safety of Astrakane and yearn the warmth of her own bed. In truth, she had never meant for it to go this far when she had seen Aldwin pass by her house painted a bright teal this morning on his way to the Wild Woods.
No, she had just been looking for something to fill her otherwise boring day, but she had nothing like this in mind. Now all she wanted to do was return home. Yet she couldn't think of a place further than it as the Wild Woods.
As the winds picked up and the frozen night air came creeping in, Gwen began to start to shiver, and found herself even closer to Aldwin, trying to keep warm. "Are we going to stop anytime soon?" she asked, between chattering teeth.
"If you want," Aldwin said. "I think we've put enough distance between us and Astrakane for them not to come looking for us," he said, then with a smile added, "then again, we could have been walking in circles for an entire day, and just end up right where we started in the morning."
"I'd very much like that," Gwen murmured to herself, but if Aldwin heard her, he showed no sign of it. It then took them a good half an hour to find a suitable place to spend the night, which was among the roots of a fallen pine.
It was a bit strange that the Wild Woods only had pine trees, as Aldwin had thought the deeper they got the more types of trees there would be. Yet, only pine trees seemed to grow here, their dark bark and sharp pine needles just as cold and menacing as those who lived among them. That thought sent a chill crawling down Aldwin's spine.
The two Lekki children then curled up under the roots of the tree and Gwen fell asleep almost instantly, whilst Aldwin struggled to stay awake and protect them from any Mutare that might spot them. They'd be defenseless in their sleep.
However, he, too, found himself exhausted now that they had stopped walking. Yet, he still found himself having trouble falling asleep due to the fact a stray Mutare would have no trouble killing the two of them off without even blinking. However, even with these dark thoughts, Aldwin's eyelids began to grow heavy.
It wasn't long before Aldwin found he couldn't keep them open anymore and his mind drifted off into the land of dreams. It was only then that their shadow chose to reveal itself. The creature with golden eyes fell from the treetops, where it had been following them all along, and got closer to the two Lekki kids, studying them, as if it was trying to figure out just what they were.
He sat there, watching them, until long after the sun rose. It was an unusually bright day, and the creature found himself somewhat annoyed at how these two Lekki were just sleeping it away. Perhaps it was because they died.
The creature continued to watch them for a while more before it heard the sounds of stomping feet and snapping twigs in the distant. It muttered a curse in a dark and ancient language, forgotten to most of this world before it disappeared back into the trees, becoming nothing more than a shadow, once more.
Even the creature knew better than to mess with any of the Mutare patrols that wandered these parts. It was considered high treason these days, for one to interfere them from performing their duties. One could be sentenced to death for so much as being seen by the patrol.
It seemed as if the entire woods was holding its breath as the Mutare patrol came into view. However, they were not grotesque nor disfigured beasts who only sought Lekki blood, as most in Amaryllis preferred to believe but instead something truly beautiful if one could look past how they were different from the Lekki.
At first glance, they looked just like Lekki, but then when one looked closer they noticed certain animalistic features about the Mutare. Most commonly they had dark colored eyes and hair, coming in shades not natural for the Lekki, while others had ears or a tail of a certain beast of the woods, and even on the rare occasion; paws.
This certain group of Mutare were dressed in the dark armor with a silver half moon on the chest plate, signaling these were soldiers who would gladly risk their lives for the Wild Woods. It was also a warning to any other Mutare to stay out of their way unless they had a death wish.
Anyone who did not bear the silver half moon would be impaled at a moment's notice if they got in the way. It had been a rather tame day for the patrol of Mutare, which for any Lekki would have been a good thing. But these creatures were no Lekki, and their commander still had an unfulfilled bloodlust.
When the patrol of Mutare slowed as they saw the two Lekki children, their eyes glowing with interest as they approached the two children. There were five of them in total, but these Mutare had learned the hard way that Lekki were more than just unpredictable.
They were the type of race that would gladly sacrifice the lives of their own children if it meant winning the war they started all those years ago. The commander of the group, a tall beast of a man, who stood nearly seven and a half feet tall, walked closer to the children and signaled his troops over.
"Are these Lekki?" he growled looking at the children below his feet. He could have easily crushed both of their skulls beneath his feet if he wanted. Only right now, he just looked at them curiously. Lekki were a mystery to most of the Wild Woods.
"It looks like it," another voice said. This one belonged to a slender woman with eyes as sharp as the twin daggers she wielded. Unlike Amaryllis, the Mutare had no problem with women fighting if she could wield a sword.
"Whatcha think we should do with 'em?" The large Mutare asked, an accent dripping over his words. He was simple-minded at best, and one of the more beastly killers the stories in Amaryllis liked to feature, not caring how he satisfied his bloodlust.
If all the stories in Amaryllis had clever, merciful creatures as their villains, people would begin to question why they were at war in the first place. The Mutare were curious about that too. They most certainly weren't interested in anything the Lekki had. Just in protecting what little they had left to lay claim to in their broken world.
"Hostages?" the female Mutare suggested, shrugging her shoulders. "Or maybe we should just give them a good scare, and send them runnin' back to their village," she suggested, the accent on her words far lighter than on the first Mutare, her eyes trained on the two children.
"Or maybe we could kill them, as payback for all the lives stolen in the battle last week," he said, licking his lips. The female Mutare simply shrugged, although she was truly disgusted by this suggestion. These were just children, and who had no place in the war, even if the Lekki might be using them as some sort of trap.
That was when Aldwin woke up.
A U T H O R ' S N O T E
Hey, three people who are bothering to read this.
Just wanted to let you know I shall be updating this every Sunday from now on.
Hopefully...
Thanks for reading and please vote/comment
Until next time!