The Chase

"Here." Nimby offered Ealga a small berry a few times larger than a pea coated in a layer of fine frost. In the silvery bloom of the lantern light, it was impossible to know what color it was. Red seemed the most likely.

"Thank you." Ealga put the fruit into her mouth. It was tart to begin with then became very sweet and pleasant as she chewed. It was lovely.

"What kind of berry is this?"

"I don't know," Nimby stated cheerfully before she zipped ahead several feet. She hummed a musical tune that Ealga didn't recognize in the same delighted manner.

For the briefest moment, the thought of the berry being poisonous crossed Ealga's mind. Nothing in this strange forest was as it seemed to start with. The real world and the world of magic had merged together under the night of the Silvery Moon. Anything that seemed to be familiar could be something else entirely. The realization that she had just eaten something without question only proved that she was still not being careful enough.

The mystery of the woods was wonderfully beguiling at first. There was magic in this place. Then it revealed dangers hidden away among the trees. Dangers that lurked everywhere just out of view. If the berry had been poisonous then it was too late to be worried now. There were bigger concerns to keep her mind occupied. Ealga sighed and resigned to just keep moving.

Every breath puffed into the air as a plume of steam. The cold night had only gotten colder. If not for the cloak around her shoulders she'd have frozen half to death by now. By no means was she comfortable, but she'd be in far worse shape without her enchanted garment.

Her arm ached relentlessly from the weight of the lantern. The apples in the satchel had grown heavy as she walked. It made her shoulder slump in a way that made her gait awkward. Time stretched onward eternally. It felt as though it had been hours since she'd narrowly avoided her own death. The thoughts of warm fires and blissful sleep became ever-present. A small whiff of pride had taken root though. She'd only let out a few groans of discontent during her journey. It was a sign of her maturity she guessed. That felt pretty good.

Perhaps mother would be proud of her also.

"This road just goes on forever," her inner monologue burbled out from her mouth, "Why is it so long, Nimby? I know that it can take some hours to reach my grandmothers, but we should have been there by now."

"Oh, well…" Nimby mentally addressed the question in the span it took to blink an eye, "Things change." Then silence.

A ball of consternated frustration welled inside Ealga's chest, "Ugh, I guess that's true."

Nimby looked back at her then flitted up into Ealga's face with a childlike jovial expression, "Why so grumpy, Hat Seeker?"

Ealga let out a breath, "I don't know." She set down the lantern and squatted next to it. Her muscles creaked as the tension her legs gave way for a short rapturous moment, "It feels like it's been hours. I am glad that the wolf monster hasn't come back, but this is taking such a long time. I am also very cold."

"Yes, yes, you should rest. Yes." A short pause ensued, "Oh! You should get a very large hat for yourself when you're at your grandmother's. That would help."

Ealga was sick of hats now. Her head sagged as she closed her eyes and tried to push the world away. Heavy fatigue grew then washed over her. It may be that Nimby was genuinely unknowing of things beyond the world of magic. She was a faery, of course, but right now it just felt like Nimby employed rampant, malignant, purposeful stupidity for her own twisted amusement.

Small feet landed on the back of her head. "Yes. A Hat Seeker should have a hat of her own. Proves she's capable of seeking said hats."

"Get…"

"Shh!" Nimby took to the air so fast that it was as if she had disappeared altogether.

Eagla's breath caught in her throat. Her mind raced. She waited there on the road like a stone. She couldn't move. In her heart she knew what it was that made Nimby sound so frightened. As she had been before she was curled into a ball with her eyes squeezed closed in terror. Vulnerable.

Light sounds of wings fluttered nearby, "It's here," Nimby's voice wobbled as she whispered into Ealga's ear. "Run!"

Her eyes snapped open as panic exploded through her body like liquid lightning. No scream came forth, but it blasted in her skull just the same. She snatched up the lantern and ran.

Instinct took over completely as her feet acted of their own accord. By the time she'd let out two breaths, she heard it. Footfalls of something enormous had taken chase. She had made herself the prey. All of her aches and pains were gone. Any doubt that her life was in mortal danger was shredded to bloody bits. Death pursued her now.

Fathump fathump fathump fatump.

It closed in on her. She'd never be able to escape it. Hiding was impossible. The road just went on endlessly into the darkness as she ran for her life. Despite the futility of the circumstances her feet never slowed.

Nimby abruptly burst into view from the side. More like a erratic globe of light than a fey of the wilds. Nimby's voice called out a warning made shrill with fear, "Look out!"

Time stopped. Ealga whipped her head to look behind her. In the air, painted in the pale lantern light a monster descended upon her.

The teeth stood out against its the dark fur like rows of curved ivory spears. The beast's maw was wide open as it fell from the air having pounced from nearby. It was a wolf in essence but the human-like arms with clawed hands outstretched made it all the more strange and grotesque. The coat of thick fur did little to hide all the powerful muscle underneath. Its form had stretched out long from the leap it made to snare its victim.

The scream that had been contained in her mind finally erupted from Ealga's chest. With it, a potent ripple of something else followed. The lantern light flared suddenly as she bellowed. Some kind of invisible force collided hard with the creature. It roared loudly in fury while it tumbled through the air in a mad spasm to control the sudden change in its trajectory. Then it crashed to the earth in a haphazard heap.

Its claws had nearly reached her. Ealga had felt the shift of fabric at her belly and looked down. Her satchel strap showed ragged frays where it was severed from the bag which spilled the apples out onto the road.

Before she could even contemplate this further, the wolf monster was back up again. It was hunched on all fours to prepare for another rushed assault. Burning red coals for eyes looked at her with lethal desire. The growl that emanated from it was the same as she'd heard before. A font of raw menace made manifest to weaken her resolve to fight or run.

It charged her.

There was a subtle, imperceptible, tingling in her chest that seemed like her fear but it wasn't. The red eyes of the monster bobbed as it ran with its muzzle agape to brandish those terrible teeth.

Again, her instinct snapped forward. This time it hadn't been to run. There was no way to outrun something like this. She'd just die. Her heart raced as she surrendered to some inner voice that guided the motion of her hands. She put them forward and splayed her fingers apart. Her digits were hooked downward like she intended to dig into the frozen dirt at her feet. In a sharp motion, she made them into fists then jerked both upward violently.

Power seethed into the physical world in a silver vapor that followed Ealga's motions. The apples on the ground suddenly popped open. Trees sprung forth from the seeds within. They appeared so fast that the wolf monster couldn't react quickly enough to avoid the sudden growths.

The branches entangled together in an impossibly thick mesh. Each tree's gnarled trunk pushed together to form a prison of living moving wood. It was so dense that the wolf vanished inside while it thrashed against the emergent vegetation.

There were snarls and growls followed by loud cracks of wood being broken to splinters. Yet the wolf was not able to immediately claw itself free.

Ealga was just frozen in place with her mouth open in disbelief. Suddenly she was very tired and overly warm overtaken by some sort of fever. Nimby flew into view. Her face showed a frantic urgency, but nothing seemed to be clear anymore. Her ears muted the sounds of the cracks and bestial noises coming from the cluster of coiled apple trees. Whatever Nimby tried to say Ealga couldn't hear it. Everything was becoming dark, quiet, and surreal. Nimby's wild hand motions were indecipherable gibberish.

Ealga's head jerked to one side abruptly. The faery had decided to intervene directly as she yanked on the hood to get Ealga's weight to shift. Nimby was surprisingly strong for such a tiny little thing. Ealga stumbled a little then followed her companion awkwardly into the woods. Then she sped into a drunken run. Exhaustion had nearly taken her entirely.

After several shaken steps the world came back into focus just enough for Ealga to understand Nimby's urgent cries, "RUN! Don't wait! Run run run! We have to get away from the road!"