*squishes eju to oblivion* Love you, m'dear. :3 :3 Thank you!
Authors note: I couldn't wait any longer. :x I'm fond of this chapter. I will happily admit it. Well, I'm fond of parts of it. xD Elizabeth gave me a heck of difficulty (she refused to go where I wanted her to xD) but I believe I successfully fenangled it in the end. :3 In any case, like before, please let me know if you have any qualms!
Beta'ed by the amazing ejunknown~!
Song list:
Coyote - The Lonely Forest
Your Rocky Spine - Great Lake Swimmers
Chapter Three
Wolfsbane
The night air was chilled as Elizabeth and Nathaniel emerged onto her porch, a faint breeze flitting across her arms and sparking another shiver as she blinked in the faint light. Shreds of cloud blocked out the stars above them, their shadows winding across her unkempt lawn. She huddled into herself, realising as she began to shiver anew that she hadn’t changed from her nightclothes before she’d left. Then again, she remembered, she hadn’t even thought before agreeing to follow Nathaniel out here, had she? Let alone about what she’d need for a trip.
She cast an eye on the boy that stood poised beside her, examining the stars as they fluttered into view through the patches of clear sky.
Now outside, the ridiculousness of her decision, dream or not, was beginning to hit her.
There was a faint tug as Nathaniel pulled lightly at her hand, and she turned towards him, the hot, firm pressure of the boy’s grip comfortable against her palm. Naive trust clear in his eyes, he offered her another grin. The sight almost made her cave to his request to follow him again, if only to ensure he got back home safely.
Lily was right: Elizabeth really did have a soft heart.
“It’s just this way,” he told her excitedly, pointing out towards the forest that encroached on her grandfather’s land. The pines he highlighted leant low over an orchard her mother kept, their thick branches overshadowing the olive trees. Elizabeth nodded, a small frown crumpling her forehead nevertheless. The way he pointed led out only to the lower, uninhabited slopes of the mountains, she was certain of it. “We just need to head up through that little bundle of trees, and then we’ll run
straight into it.”
“Run straight into… what?”
“The meadow, of course! Remember?” He pulled her gently down the stairs, his strength surprising her. She cast a lingering glance behind her as they marched across the grass, eyes catching her bedroom window, the one that was impossible to reach from the outside. “The ceremony starts there, you see – wait, you still don’t know, do you? Well, have you’ve heard about old man Wotan, or Odin? There are a huge number of myths and stuff about these guys, but in Norse mythology, Odin was said to go out on these hunts on his eight legged-horse, joined by the dead and… what’s wrong?”
She’d finally stopped in her tracks, her shock from the ordeal faded enough to allow her to comprehend the situation, leaving her thoughts clearer as she pulled her hand free from the boy’s grasp.
What was she doing?
“A ceremony.” Her tone was flat, expression hardening as she crossed her arms. She’d been forgetting herself, she realised. She’d been letting herself get carried away as if this was just another game she was playing with Anthony. “Nathaniel, just what is going on here? Why are you out here, alone, in the middle of the night?”
“I told you, I was sent to come get you. The ceremony- it’s, it’s this traditional thing that’s been going on for centuries, between people like me, and people like you. Between the wild hunt and the caul bearers.”
They were in the middle of her garden by this point, the tangled weeds brushing against their calves. Nathaniel hunched his shoulders defensively as he spoke, drawing back his hands to jam them in his pockets.
“It’s the re-enactment of a truce, of sorts, the peace treaty that first allowed the hunt and humanity to co-exist. It’s pretty much just a show now, but both sides are supposed to appear, at least for their first one, it’s their duty- it’ll make a lot more sense when we get there, I promise-”
“The
hunt? Caul bearers?” He flinched at the sharpness in her voice, a tremble noticeable in his shoulders. She softened her voice at that, gaze softening somewhat. He was just like all kids, all too fond of fairy tales. “Nathaniel, this isn’t a game. Where are your parents, and why do you have the… the…”
She gave up her final line of questioning about his
genetic abnormalities as her mind began to roll back onto itself again.
“You were born with the caul,” Nathaniel repeated, voice sounding strained. His hands appeared to be clenched into fists in his pockets. “It means that when you were born, you still had the ‘birth’… stuff on your head, or something like that. You did, didn’t you?”
He tilted his chin up in a slight challenge, and her mouth snapped shut.
“You mean… the amniotic sack.” It wasn’t a question.
Nathaniel nodded, a tight grin ripping across his lips, his shoulders continuing to shake nevertheless. She stared at him in shock.
Her mother had been telling her since she’d been a child about how she’d been born with the amniotic sack still covering her head and shoulders; the tale was one of her family’s great ‘near-death-experiences’.
But… how did he know?
“
Nathaniel, how-?”
“I told you, that’s how I knew who you were.” He was stepping closer, she realised through her shock, but she didn’t move, still staring at him. The chill from earlier was scraping deeper into her skin. “It’s what allows your soul to go walking like this, don’t you get it? It’s what will allow you to travel with the hunt, with
me.”
There was a strange, almost feral light in his eyes as he said the last words, and she met his gaze, trying to figure out his expression.
“It means more than you can imagine, Elizabeth, really, it does! It means you can be one of us, in a way, if only to keep an eye, yeah-“
He cut himself off with a huff of a laugh and gripped her hand, raising it until it was level with his eyes.
“Just watch this, alright? Don’t worry, you won’t feel a
thing.”
He smiled crookedly, excited once more, and before Elizabeth had a chance to draw a breath, blue flames roared from their clasped hands, tearing up both of their arms in a cackle of sparks.
There was no time to think.
Elizabeth screamed. Throwing herself backwards, she tried to pull them both out of the flames, beating at her burning arm, but somehow Nathaniel held on to her, his continued smile momentarily visible before he was swallowed by the fireball. She fell to her knees, tears creasing down her cheeks. The flames were crawling over her skin, biting up her chest and licking at her neck in an icy caress. Within moments it would be all over.
Then, as quickly as they came, the flames were gone.
Eyes clenched tightly closed, she felt a small hand on her head, burying itself in the charred remnants of her hair, Nathaniel’s breathy, excited tone reaching the bloody mess of blistered skin that used to be her ears.
“You- see what I mean?”
She cracked her eyes open slowly as she felt Nathaniel move to crouch before her, anticipating the onslaught of pain as her body became aware of her burns - and gazed down at her unmarked skin in confusion, raising her hands to run her fingers through her untouched hair.
She was completely unharmed, and so was he.
…What just happened?
Nathaniel poked at her tears with a failing smile, the dangerous light that had fluttered in his eyes replaced with a nervous glimmer. Breathing raggedly, he offered her an apologetic smile.
“Eheh, I didn’t mean- to scare you, I swear! Smile, eh, Elizabeth? It was just a lil bit- of fun, and it didn’t hurt- at all, did it? And wasn’t it cool!” He smudged the tear tracks gently away as she blinked at him uncomprehendingly, briefly stricken mute. “You wouldn’t been able to do- that with me unless you hadn’t been- born with the caul, see? And that’s just- a
midget bit of it all, I swear.”
“I’m not dead,” she whispered, struggling to comprehend. She was blinking at her hands, twisting them back and forth, bending each finger in turn.
Why wasn’t she?
The fact defied all of her logic, frustrated her reason, confusing her.
“What- what did you
do?”
Nathaniel let out a little laugh at that, reaching out to rustle her hair. She flinched instinctively away from it, thinking of the flames, and a streak of pain crossed his features. Squatting before her with his hands tucked firmly into his armpits, he regarded her quietly, despair in his eyes.
“It was just a little- magic, alright? Fox fire. It couldn’t hurt you, not at all and I wouldn’t, anyway – not ever. Not
ever.” He reached forward again, and this time she didn’t flinch, remaining as she was as he crept forward, expression imploring. Despite herself, she was reminded once more of her brother. “It was just- just to show you, nothing more, I swear... Come on, Elizabeth, please?”
He gently grabbed her shoulders after that and, straightening, pulled and encouraged her upright, once more surprising her with his strength. His grip shook. “Just… come with me. It won’t take long. But I- we have to go, now.”
But- why should she listen, and why should she go? The small voice persisted in the back of her mind, arguing her back, reminded her of her reason, her doubts. It was subdued by something else, however, a force that swallowed her fear and smothered her doubts. Her thoughts were just too thick, too clumsy. He gazed down at her with those bright, trusting eyes, his nervousness so clearly painted on his features, the trembling weakening his grip. There was pain, too, she realised, physical pain in the sharp twist to his mouth, and it was that, more than anything that dissuaded her from fear.
“Please.” His voice was heavy, pleading.
She allowed herself to be coaxed upright, taking a few steps with him towards the orchard.
“Nathaniel,” she murmured quietly, acting on one of the questions that had managed to break from the tangle the filled her brain. He glanced up at her, eyebrow quirking, eyes alight. “What’s wrong with you?”
He gave her a strangely wry smile, hiding his hands in his pockets as they continued forward. “I’m fine, I swear, it’s just… I just have to get home.”
She regarded him quietly as they staggered forward. “Is home this way, then?”
He blinked, and then grinned wolfishly. “Yeah, it is.”
She ignored the sudden switch, too wrapped up in her sluggish thoughts. “And you’re… you’re not human, either, right?”
Nathaniel hesitated as he did before, but he answered her question this time after a breath, his smile fading slightly. “No, I’m not. I’m… part of the hunt. We’re not really human at all, I guess.”
He tugged her into a faster pace, and they jogged towards the forest, reaching the orchard in a matter of minutes and slipping beneath their well-kept branches. Ripened olives tumbled around them as they brushed past the laden leaves, pattering to the floor like fat rain drops, bouncing off of his back.
Inhuman.
“And what is… the hunt?”
He shrugged, not looking at her as he shimmied to the end of the grove, his tail swishing behind him, his claws scratching faintly against the tree trunks as he swung past. “I guess you can say we are… we are like spirits, a mix between men and animals. You used to call us gods, you know. We were more than you deserved”
“
Gods.”
They had reached the final barrier between them and the wild of the forest, the aged fence seeming almost fragile as it bent under the weight of a lazily cast pine limb, its faint smell of vanilla filtering through the air. Not waiting a moment, Nathaniel clambered onto the branch with an air of experience, rising to his feet immediately and padding across it with arms outstretched. “Then again,” he called back as he reached the end, spinning around regardless of the height and beckoning. “You started calling us demons and stuff after that!”
--
It was with numerous little cuts and bruises that the two of them finally emerged from the arm of forest onto the lower slopes of a grassy knoll crested with orange light, the breath of a breeze sighing past them, sending a shiver across her bare arms. Drawing in on herself, all too aware, once more, of her ill-chosen clothing, she cast an inquisitive glance at the boy beside her. This, she realised, must be where Nathaniel had been aiming all this time. If she concentrated, she could just hear a clamour of sound coming from over the ridge, the sound of voices raised in excitement or anger, she wasn’t certain which, threaded with the warmer tones of music. What waited for her up there, however, she was still uncertain of.
What she did know was that Nathaniel’s
affliction seemed to have been growing all the worse. The boy in mention’s eyes seemed to be fixed on the sight, a twitch flicking his tail from side to side as he examined the slope. A dull glaze had coated them since they’d entered the forest, but nevertheless he turned to her practically shimmering brightness, excitement bursting from every inch of him.
“We’re here!” he confirmed, a grin splitting his lips.
An answering smile attempted to twitch up the corners of her mouth, unbidden, and she regarded the hilltop once more, examining the flickers of light that speared above it. The glow seemed to claw at the surrounding darkness, plumes of grey rising from it to blot the stars – they must’ve lit bonfire, she guessed – and the sight seemed almost alien to her, terrifying in the sullen silence of the night. She huddled further into herself.
“Don’t worry.” Nathaniel’s voice cut into her thoughts almost as if he’d read them, a comforting, yet trembling hand resting on her forearm. “We can just slip in through the back, no one should notice us at all. From the sounds of it, we’ve only missed a bit of food, anyways.”
It was the reminder of his weakness as much as his words that pressed her onwards.
They ascended the hill slowly, crouching as they neared the top, Nathaniel’s body warm beside her against the chill of the grass. The sounds of a celebration grew steadily louder, the outline of actual flames now visible against the clouded sky. They were very, very close now. Every fibre of her was aware of it. Her stomach was flipping, but she kept her breathing steady and her feet moving. She could feel Nathaniel’s shaking growing beside her, occasionally wrenching through the young boy until all he could do was collapse and wait for his breath to return.
She would see him home. No-one deserved to suffer alone.
It was with her heart in her mouth that they finally made it that final couple of meters up the slope, only a stone’s throw separating them from the loud revelling going on beyond. At their proximity she could almost make out human voices, words, intermingled with a chorus of what she could only describe as
howling and barks, as a string quartet and a drummer trilled out a tune in the background. Nathaniel turned to face her, ears twitching, excitement dancing in his eyes.
“Now, wait here a sec’, alright? I’m just gonna pop my head up and see where everyone’s at, and then we can skedoodle up there, kapish?”
She nodded, a newly formed lump in her throat preventing her from speaking, and he cast her a smile, before turning to crawl up the slope. Before he could make it more than a few step, however, another series of trembles wracked his frame, twitching through his limbs. Arching his back with a wordless cry, the boy began to jerk uncontrollably. He ground his forehead into the grass, his shoulders straining as he attempted to brace his arms against the slope. Crying out his name, Elizabeth leapt to her feet and staggered forward- only to leap back with a whisper of a shriek as
icy cold blue flames burst into life along his arms, tearing across his body with a soundless, smokeless roar as it consumed every inch of him.
She stumbled backwards, only able to grasp at the air as Nathaniel writhed into a foetal position, his cries deepening into guttural growls, falling once more to her knees as the boy she knew as Nathaniel shuddered from view. Shock rendering her speechless, she watched as the flames quickly consumed the boy she’d gotten to know and care about, the one who reminded her so much of her little brother.
Like the earlier time, the flames faded suddenly, petering out with a final spark.
Robbed of its light, the hill’s slope returned to darkness, a great shadow hiding the space where Nathaniel once lay. She could just make out a soft crooning reaching out from its depths, the sound almost swallowed by the cacophony above. Catching her breath, she took a careful step closer, blinking the light spots from her sight. The form of a tawny dog curled where Nathaniel was just visible in the darkness, it’s small ribcage rising and falling in the jagged rhythm of its pants. Fixing her with large, golden eyes, the creature gave a dwindling whine, a familiar taint of sadness in its eyes, before it staggering to its feet, shirking the cover of a now over-large shirt and scrambling up the slope.
Leaping to her feet, Elizabeth bolted after it, its- his name tearing from her mouth before she realised it as they burst into the outskirts of a huge campsite, where a menagerie of different beasts and humans creatures frolicking in the light of a collection of bonfires that roared at the sky in the center of the clearing, their collected cries and roars swallowing her call whole.
--
In the warmth of a bonfire at the opposite corner of the clearing, a stir of cobalt shifted in the firelight, watching the otherwise unnoticed new comers with a vivid, ochre eye. A plume of white fur tumbled across his chest, flicking at the spiked, amber tufts that followed the lines of his shoulder blades. Lazily running his tongue across his glistening teeth, the great stag watched as the woman tore after the growlithe cub, her ebony hair whipping out behind her, swallowing the amber light of the flames.
The Cobalion's jaw quivered, his lip curling.
So the boy was back.