Dreaded Beginnings

Wed, 02 Jan 2008 02:58:24 GMT

1931, Edinburgh, Scotland

The sword sliced through the air, humming with ferocity as it snapped through the ball and chain of his enemy's weapon effortlessly. Unrelented, Sir Iain snatched up the goblet, mounted his dragon and flew off into the shadowy mists of legendry, weapon held high in victory.

"Hey! I was calling for you!" Sarah shouted, glaring down at the tiny little boy and snapping him out of his reverie.

"Oh. I didn't hear you...I'm sorry," Ian said forlornly as Sarah's expression melted into a faint pout.  He had been trying to get her to play with him for weeks, and she had been spending more and more time with her friends. The only reason she had even come looking for him now was because Mom had figured out that she was ignoring him. Soon, she would not want to spend any time with. "Don't be mad! Look! This one is new!  See it, Sarah?" He beamed brightly, hoping that the mushrooms he found in the old ring the past couple of weeks with increasing regularity might perk her interest. After all, they'd both heard the same stories of mushroom rings and bluebells and knights and monsters. Hopefully, she still found some interest in these things...

Sarah looked at the large mushroom oddly, then down at Iain uncertainly. "Come on, we'll go see it," she said relentingly, her eyes brightening only slightly as Iain hopped up onto his crutches in less time than someone with such weak bones should be able to.

Eventually, they made their way into a thick portion of the forest trail, and Iain pointed triumphantly at the mushroom ring--still there, still an oddity that was not going away until winter. For now, it was like a gateway to another world.

"I see it..." Sarah said as she sat down on a patch of grass near some tiny growing flowers.   "Leave it alone, you know what Grandma says about those."   She began to fasten the flowers together into a little chain, winding the stems into each other until she had formed a crown. She always seemed to think that he was not watching her, but had a keen eye for his surroundings and knew when she had perched behind him, looking over his shoulder at the ring of eldritch fungus. Mushroom circles were the gateways of the Fae, according to legend...and where he had picked the previous one, a fully-frown mushroom was already there. That could not be right...

The wind picked up a little bit, the sunlight between the clouds a little...too...peircing.    They both looked up, Iain for only a moment before he looked back down and focused on the ring.

Maybe...if only...a slight amount of focus to reach into the other world, letting his imagination run away with his musings as all sound in the forest drowned out for a moment and was replaced by chirps and squawks that did not sound of this Earth. He looked up, noting the fog billowing around them.

"What are you doing...?" he heard two voices speak at once and looked over his shoulder at Sarah just a pale fingers slid around her throat.

"RUN!" Sarah croaked, strangling out the syllable as she was pulled backward.

Iain pulled himself onto his crutches feebly, squinting in the dim light of the huge briarpatch that should not have existed in that part of the ancient forest and hobbled away from the slithering shadows toward the imperious figure holding his sister inches off the ground and whispering to her.

She was beautiful and regal, a queen with many arms and covered in strange webbing for clothes that made him want to avert his eyes; it was not proper to be dressed in one's bedwear in the middle of a glade. Still, the mouths that could be seen through her thin robes whispered at once, sometimes in unison to curse Sarah's nosiness, other times to agree or disagree with what the main mouth was spouting. He finally creeped up next to the Empress and tapped one of the mouths with his crutch, trying to get her attention.

"IAIN!" Sarah screamed again, more emphatically, "RUN! Get MOM!"

Unable to imagine ever running, Iain ignored the order and struck his crutch into the woman's leg again as hard as his feeble arms could do it. He nearly toppled over from the effort, but the mouths suddenly fell silent...and the creature in the dim light, wreathed in fog, slowly turned to her side and then down toward Iain.

She looked like one of the villains from the fairy tales. Beautiful, dark, foreboding and undeniably confident and powerful. He tried to stand up straight, looking similarly as she scowled at his posturing. He knew that the only things the villainesses respected was equal measure, but he also knew that he was a pale shadow of her and could never quite be what she was. Still...he steeled himself as she knelt down, bringing Sarah back to the ground but still keeping hold of her throat. "What do we have here?" all of the voices said in condescending unison. "Little half-boy, standing too tall for his feet. Useless and meaningless. You can't have been the one. Get out of my sight, practice being a threat to your fellow flies, you insignificant little maggot."

He stared her in the eye, marveling at how it gave off more light than it could possible receive, and knew he was being mocked. The Campbells had always been known for being cantankerous, and now was no exception. He did not like being taunted, and before he even knew what he had done, his index finger whipped up from the sleeve of his jacket and jabbed deep into that beautiful eye, causing the mushy tissue to fold inward release crimson down the side of her face.

Iain winced, knowing he had done that far harder than he had intended, but the effect had occurred: She released his sister and was doubled over, shrieking in rage and pain as he was lifted away from the coalescing shadows that began to form around them.

"NO!" all of the voices roared at once, but Iain could not see what she had railed against. All he could see was his sister panting as she ran as far as she could toward the forest, briars digging into both of them as he held onto her neck and back for dear life.

Murmuring that phased in and out of their hearing reverbrated from the Empress suddenly, and before the siblings could escape the last of the briars, a wall of thorns rose before them. Sarah, always sure and dependable to know what do do, climbed without breaking stride, and soon the pair were far above the forest floor and still ascending as they fought against the twisting, piercing foliage.

Inevitably, the wall twisted enough that Sarah lost her grip and tumbled, taking her brother with her, the duo smacking through numerous branches and spinning gracelessly. With an uncereomonious THUD, Sarah landed on Iain, his body shuddering with numerous cracks and snaps from his frail little back's inability to withstand the fall.

"IAIN!" Sarah bolted to her feet and turned, lookin down at her unmoving, broken little brother. "I am so sorry, I..." she trailed off her eyes slowly looking up at the approaching creature that wore the guise of a woman and screamed. As Iain strained to turn his head, a jolt of pain surged through his body, but he saw what he needed: The eldritch woman's eye was collecting itself, mending back to be whole...and she looked determined now.

A thud made Iain turn back to Sarah, who was now lying next to him unconscious. She was breathing, but must have passed out from exhaustion and the shock of what had happened. The shadow of the Empress fell over them both, and she knelt down next to him and whispered softly.

"You are the one who opened the gate, aren't you?" she asked, delighted as he strained to nod. "Do you know how you did it?" she whispered, affectiontely touching his cheek now as she shook his head no.

She considered him for a long moment with a look in her eyes that Iain could not identify. Fear? Wonder? Confusion? He was some unknown, a riddle...but all at once, her eyes sparkled, and she whispered again, "You have wanted to be a creature from the tales, haven't you? The tales your kind have all but forgotten as real." At this point, he knew he had no recourse but to tell her the truth: He had wanted her to come. He was imaginative and his curiosity had hurt him and sister in the end.

"You are to be punished, little dear...but not quite in the way I'd expected. I shall make you my servant, and you shall work off you debt to me for defiling this sacred place. And in time, I will make you that creature, little boy. You will be the terror that you have shown today. No one will ever ignore you again as I have tonight. Your body will be whole and strong. You will defend me and strike at those who would ever displease your Empress. You cannot go back to your old home, little creature...you would not survive as you are now. Do you understand?" she said, almost purring her declaration to him.

He nodded weakly, bracing himself in agony as she lifted him onto the black dragon-like steed that trotted up to her. "Take her as well," the Empress whispered to the shadows as they congealed into stickthin figures that scooped Sarah and moved silently.

"In time, you will come to understand me well, my darling...my darkling...my...little...Vestigere..." she whispered as she huddled him against her, taking the reins and riding down the path, deeper into the foliage.

Little Vestigere just nodded, hardly in a position to disagree.

Loyalty Spurned

Dreaded Beginnings