The Fear

Both Magda and Robin didn't have much stuff to pack. They got up as usual early in the morning, ate some dried fruits for breakfast and were pretty much ready to go. The boy was still very sleepy, he didn't pay much attention to all the things, that Magda quickly threw in two little backpacks, he only grabbed one, when the redhead handed it to him. Already at the door, Magdalene shook Robin's shoulders, making sure that he was listening carefully to her and gave him a small but quite a massive axe along with some instructions, but lack of sleep successfully prevented Robin from comprehending the woman's speech clearly.

The two walked for many hours. Robin had never seen those parts of the forest. He followed the young woman step by step, fearing ending up in some deadly bog. The boy heard cries of unknown to him animals, which also scared him a bit. He constantly gazed at Magdalene; her calmness affected him very soothingly. Robin would have never dared to walk through those places alone or even with his colony but with an elemental? Well, she could fell trees with one blow and crush them into pieces with a single lightning strike. He believed; Magda also knew how to avoid the sinister traps of endless forests.

After a long time, Magdalene finally stopped, looked around, listened cautiously and then allowed her small companion to sit down for a rest. It was the high time, the child was exhausted and his stomach, spoilt by relatively plentiful food in the last two months, had already started to rumble. The boy swiftly looked through the contents of his bag, found some dry bread and greedily clutched at it. Magda sat down in front of him, took a tiny old book out and briefly looked through the pages.

"You took books with?" Robin mumbled with surprise.

"It's not just a book," Magdalene replied thoughtfully. "It's a book with spells. We might need some of them."

"Hm… So, you can also cast spells?"

"Sure," the redhead answered without removing her eyes from the text.

"And prepare potions?"

"As you know."

"I thought, that's what gifted do…"

"What do you think gifted are?" Magdalene raised her eyebrow and stared at the boy with reproach.

"I don't know. Witches and wizards… That's what I was taught," Robin awkwardly rubbed his blond head.

"Gifted are descendants of elementals from an alliance with people or children of elementals to whom fate did not grant the power over the elements. We can do everything that the gifted can and even more. Better, faster, without any spells," Magda proudly explained. "Okay, we do need spells and potions for some things," she shook her head irritated, "But not as much as gifted need them."

"Oh…" Robin exhaled. "So, you are indeed almighty."

"No, I'm not. My powers are not endless. Moreover, I'm far not the strongest elemental out there."

"Thanks, now I'm absolutely not afraid to be out here only with you and this pixie axe," Robin huffed slightly disappointed.

"You are welcome."

"Do you know…Eh…" the boy started after several minutes of silence. "Do you know who shot first?"

"Han Solo," Magda replied emotionlessly.

"Who?"

The redhead raised her eyes and intently looked at the boy. "Doesn't matter. What do you even mean?"

"Who shot those rockets first?" the boy persistently repeated his question.

"I know, but why do you need to know it?" Magdalene coldly said.

"I just need it!" Robin insisted.

Magdalene leaned forward and pronounced slowly and clearly, "What for?". The kid didn't answer so Magda continued, "You need it to blame somebody. Even now, two hundred years after you need it to know, that it wasn't somebody to whom you could belong. No, it was somebody else. Somebody different and definitely hostile," the redhead said angrily. "It is very humanly indeed to think this way. You don't want to see the whole picture, don't want to figure out how the world functioned back then. All you need is a simple and short answer to calm your conscience down and to know that you have nothing to do with those people. But I have bad news for you. The whole humanity was guilty. There are no exceptions. You were blind to the needs of each other. Everybody was caring only about their own interests. You all tore this world apart in pursuit of the greatest benefit. There will be no easy answer to your question. You are all guilty and you all pay now for your egoism."

Robin lowered his gaze. Magda was right, he did want to calm his conscience. Everything that the woman told him yesterday firmly stuck in his head, forcing him further and further into the dark labyrinth of doubts and despair.

"Isn't your kind also egoistic, though?" Robin finally whispered.

"Uh, only towards those who don't belong to us," Magda said unexpectedly calmly.

"And towards each other? I can't believe that gifted and elementals agree about everything."

"We do. Unity is the greatest value of our society. We share all technologies and resources. Even our political opposition is very mild and doesn't deviate from our main ideas. Our kind learns from a very young on what happens when people let discord rule their civilization. Thanks to the human example we are all devotedly united and fulfil our roles in the community mechanism."

"I see…" mumbled Robin. He closed his eyes and sat silently for a long time. "So that is why you left, right?" he suddenly asked.

Magdalene gave him a cold, tranquillizing look but didn't answer anything. She waited half an hour more and gave the boy a sign that it was time to go again. Before Robin got up again, Magda approached the child and passed her hand in front of his eyes without explaining anything. The boy didn't know what that meant, all he felt was only a light breeze.

The two walked without no rest for the whole evening after that. Magda didn't say a word to the boy, she only gave him signs with her hands about when or where to step or to stop. Robin thought firstly that his questions during the rest made his companion angry at him. He had already noticed before, that Magdalene, when angry, didn't need any words to quite explicitly show her displeasure. She was pretty much a master of silent rage. Robin didn't like it, but he didn't like the perspective to stay alone in this place even more, so he obediently followed Magda trying not to irritate her even more. Yet soon enough, he noticed that the redhead seemed to be rather tensed than angry.

Magdalene kept turning her head anxiously all the time, listening carefully to every, even the quietest sound. Louder sounds made her flinch barely noticeably and stretch out her hand to the small spell book, fixed on her belt. She turned her face to Robin only once and immediately looked away, as if she didn't want him to see her eyes, full of freezing fear.

The night was cloudy, so darkness swallowed the whole landscape around the two wanderers. But when the thin arc of the moon finally shortly appeared in the dark sky, Magda's fears became clear. The moonlight wasn't enough to see the forest around clearly, but it was enough to define, that something wasn't quite right with this area. Grass, long pine needles and pretty much everything around was rusty red colour. Tiny specks of dust, dancing in the moonlight, sparkled with sinister green glimmer, slowly falling down on the ground and burning it.

Robin shivered from horror. He had seen such a forest before. Land, poisoned by dreadful, deadly radiation. The day before his colony was destroyed, they passed the same rusty land. Paralyzed by dread, Robin stumbled on a tree root and heavily fell to the ground. Magdalene swiftly turned around and jumped toward the boy, ragefully staring into his full of tears eyes.

"Make no sound!" the redhead hissed, "Get up!"

But Robin couldn't force his body to make a move. Pictures of the attack at his colony circled in his head, reminding him of all the blood-chilling details. The creatures. Disgusting, monsters that remotely reminded humans. Jumping on four crooked legs they all moved so fast, that it was nearly impossible to escape. Their reddish skin, burned by severe radiation, was covered in a stinky, acidic slime that could instantly kill their victims. Their filled with blood eyes seemed to be rather useless in the darkness of the night, but their sharp ears could catch every single noise.

Robin couldn't stop recalling how bloodthirsty and merciless those creatures were. Adults and children, everybody screamed from the top of their lungs, praying for salvation but there was no salvation, only sharp as knives claws and teeth of the monsters. That night not radiation but human blood coloured trees rusty red. And Robin fled through that red forest. He had never run that fast before and even though he clearly knew that there was nothing he could do to save his companions, he couldn't hate himself less for leaving them behind so cowardly and pathetically.

"Get up!" Magda's voice echoed loudly in the boy's head, dispelling the fog of memories.

Robin woke up from a stupor and terrified stared at the redhead. It took him several seconds to realize, that Magdalene's lips remained tightly shut as her angry voice commanded right inside his head. Robin, still half unconscious, immediately obeyed and followed Magda, who was already in a hurry to leave that place. However, it was too late. The duo barely managed to make a few steps when they heard the rustle of dry leaves and branches, and then suddenly a loud, disgusting chirping that went right up to wanderers' bones.

Magdalene bowed her head, listening gingerly, and grabbed the spell book. Fast steps were getting closer and closer to the two from all sights. Magda strongly pushed Robin, and the boy flew into a hole under the roots of a tall pine tree. In the next second three reddish creatures appeared out of the thicket, targeting their sharp claws at Magda. A strong blow of wind pressed them into tree trunks, but it didn't stop the beasts. As soon as they fell back to the ground, they immediately returned on their long paws, and, drooling, rushed at the woman again.

Magdalene flipped through the pages of her book convulsively and finally cried out, "Compedibus invisibilis!".

Two of the creatures, loudly chirping, remained motionless as if something securely bound their bodies. Yet, the third monster didn't stop and joined by another bunch of creatures from the thicket, ran at Magdalene once again.

Robin couldn't follow up with all the spells that Magda threw at the beasts. Some of them seemed to work, throwing the monsters far away, paralyzing them and building invisible barriers, some of the spells, however, couldn't hit the targets. The boy looked at his shaking hands and once again remembered, how he fled from these creatures back then. Panic possessed the child's body, making him feel small and useless. He pressed into the tree roots and squeezed his eyes shut. Seconds turned into endlessly lasting, sticky minutes, and Robin felt that no matter how long he waited, this horror would never end. The kid covered his ears and rolled together, trying to hide better in the roots. He couldn't make himself move, once again he was lying in some dirty hole, scared and useless.

A loud Magda's scream reached the boy's tightly closed ears and resonated inside his head. Robin, sobbing and, desperately trying to take a breath, slightly opened one of his eyes. He saw how one of the creatures clung to Magdalene's back with its long fangs, painfully burning the woman's skin with its slime. Magda staggered and fell to her knees screaming from pain. A moment of her weakness cost her control over the spells she put. Other monsters, released from her magic, swiftly returned to their feet and were already prepared to attack for the last time to finish their victim.

Robin shut his eyes and pictures of the people from his colony, getting killed by those beasts, appeared in his mind again. There was nothing he could do. He is just a small child and if even a powerful elemental couldn't fight those creatures, there was no use for him to try. There was no use, now he was doomed. Suddenly the boy's hand landed on a small axe that Magda gave him earlier. Right, there was no chance. Robin was doomed. His body filled with heavy, disgusting weakness and his hands were still shaking. They both would die here anyway. So, it didn't matter if he stayed there, under the tree, or at least tried to release the person who saved him from a painful hug of the radioactive monster. Robin gathered his last powers to take back control over his body, clenched the axe in his hand, and with a loud scream rushed to Magdalene.

It was naive to expect that a child like him could really hurt one of those predators, but Robin smashed the one at Magda's back as strongly as he only could. For a moment the beast, confused by the unexpected attack, lost its concentration and opened its claws. It turned its round head at Robin, ragefully stared at the scared child and roared, but before it managed to move forward to its new target, Magdalene rapidly got up, pressed two fingers, like a pistol, close to the monster's head, and the creature's body instantly convulsed by an electric shock, and breathlessly fell on the ground. Other monsters, shaken up over their fellow's death, stepped back and bared angrily their long fangs. Magdalene didn't want to wait until the creatures are ready to attack once again, she quickly stepped forward, throwing up her hands and at the same moment strong stormy wind knocked down all the beasts.

Magda powerlessly bowed down, trying to resist the burning pain that rolled down her back. Robin glanced at the woman and then moved his filled with hot tears eyes at the creatures still swarming in dry leaves. Without thinking much, he grabbed Magda's hand, threw it over his bony shoulder and ran. He ran fast, dragging the weakened body of his friend. He didn't look back, but he could hear remotely, how the monsters started to follow them once again. The two nearly fell down several times, but every time Robin momently got back on his feet, dragging Magdalene further and further.

Suddenly the two broke out of reddish pine thickets, falling on a soft grass of a wide meadow. Robin, fearing the chase, was about to flee again when Magdalene tightly grabbed his shoulder and pushed him down to the ground.

"Look!" she whispered pointing in the darkness.

Robin squinted, trying to figure out what the woman wanted him to see but he could distinguish only strange big stones, scattered around the whole meadow. Yet, Magda stared at him very demanding not willing to move. Robin tensed up and gazed into the darkness. Still, nothing except the stones. The stones? For a short moment, it seemed like the stones were moving. Robin forced himself to calm down and looked again. The stones were moving. Slowly and steadily, they were moving slightly up and down. They were breathing.

"They are...alive," the boy's voice trembled.

"Yes, those are sulphur deer. We must go as far as possible until the chirpers get here," Magdalene strictly instructed. "Be quiet this time!" she huffed.

The two slowly walked between giant sleeping animals. Robin could barely control his feet. He wanted to run, to flee from the predators that were about to catch them, but Magda strongly squeezed his shoulder, slowly pushing the boy forward in front of her. It seemed like she didn't fear the forest beasts anymore, but her injury gradually made itself felt. Dark red blood from a huge wound rolled down her back, falling on the ground and leaving a crimson path behind. Magda's head started to spin, she swayed, but Robin swiftly grabbed her and kept walking.

They didn't make it too far when the loud chirping echoed through the meadow. The humanoid monsters leapt out of the forest, sniffed and immediately rushed towards the two, disturbing the sleeping animals. Deer, one by one, raised their huge heads, crowned with massive, tangled horns and, sensing predators, quickly jumped on their long legs, making dull noises.

Robin looked up at the animals and swallowed nervously. He had already seen deer in forests before. They often bore signs of radiation poisoning: most of them lacked or had too many legs, had several heads or non-standard number of eyes. All those mutations forced them to move slowly limping, but apart from that, they looked pretty normal. Deer, that were surrounding the boy now, were at least two times bigger than the forest ones. They were cowered not in soft fur but in some strange chitinous shell and had big, bloated goitres on their necks.

One more second, and the whole herd took off, loudly stamping their hooves and releasing fetid smoke from their goitres. Robin got scared, that the giant animals would trample him and Magda to death even before the reddish monster reached them. He trembled in an attempt to run, but Magdalene, nearly falling on him, forced Robin to stop. The redhead stepped her feet, dispersing the smoke, creeping on the ground around the two. Fast currents of wind swirled around them, and when Robin could already clearly see the monsters, persistently getting closer to them through the panicking herd, Magda waved her hand, and a blinding bright lightning cut the skies, and stroke at the ground nearby.

As soon as the electric blast met the ominous smoke, everything around the two sank in a sizzling, hot fire. Robin and Magda were standing in a sphere of raging wind in the middle of the burning meadow. Deer, securely protected from flames by their chitinous shell, quickly passed by them, fleeing in fear. When the herd was gone, there were only smouldering bodies of forest creatures left around the duo. Robin shut his eyes and pressed his head against Magda's shoulder. The sight and smell of those dying beasts made him feel dizzy.

The two waited for some more time and then slowly crossed the meadow. Soon enough they heard remote sounds of fast water. Magdalene nodded with satisfaction. She seemed to know those places very well. The woman led Robin through a small swamp, surrounded by a withered forest to an old ruin of a house. The building was nearly destroyed by time and nature. Plants and mushrooms settled in its rooms ages ago. The walls and the roof crumbled into sand and the floor desks rotted completely. Magdalene slowly walked inside, disappearing in a hole that probably used to be an entrance to the basement several hundred years ago. Robin swiftly followed his friend. It was cool and wet down there, but this place made the boy feel safe for some reason. He crashed on the ground near Magda and almost immediately fell into a deep sleep.