Chapter Text
I get blinded for a good 10 seconds where time seems to have stop.
Then the light goes back down... and I tumble to the ground.
I rapidly get into a defensive position, still feeling the presence of at least one of them. Other weird smells get mixed to it, but I push my curiosity away, searching the dark for the creature.
My eyes get used to the darkness around me, taking in my new battle field. Trees. Shit. It had to be trees.
Blocking every new thing, every detail that isn't helpful to my survival, I slow my breathing, trying to get as immobile as possible. Twos can hide, we'll have to wait and see who goes seeking first.
I wait.
He may have the advantage of mixing in with the trees, but the almost absolute darkness is playing in my favor. So, I keep on waiting. I can see better, they all know it, their kind. It would be stupid of him to keep on hiding when I could sneak up to him. Staying still is probably what he doesn't expect of me. So I don't mind waiting if it gives me more time to recharge my energy and power "tank".
Seconds go by.
Then, to my left, a little movement and a growl. Stupid thing. I stay without moving, waiting for the actual first move. They may be vicious and deadly, but smart? It just revealed his position by trying to scare me. 5 seconds go by... then 10... 20... 30.
Then it charges.
The big dark shape comes at me in 3 steps of his ridiculously elongated legs. Legs long enough for me to slip in between them as he steps over me, revealing my position in doing so. His long body deforming, he folds toward me rapidly while swinging his right arm from behind to the left. I duck under it to the side, barely escaping its cold burning touch.
I get back in position, and look up just long enough for me to evaluate the height of the tree branches. As he swings back, I summon power to my palms, and jump over his sloppy heavy arm, knowing he won't be fast enough to get to me in the air. As his head look up to me, my hands start to tingle and fire erupt from them, directed straight at him.
It lets out a high cry, as I fall back to the ground.
Swinging his arm in his face, clawing his eyes, he tries to get his vision back while screaming and growling.
The disadvantage his kind has is their vision. You won't ever see one outside in daylight; their eyes are way to sensible to light, they'd be completely vulnerable. So they come out at night. But their eyes are still their weakness, even in the dark. Close to being blind, all they can distinct is blurry shapes and scarred souls. Though what they lack in vision, they have in their sense of smell. That, plus a prolonged contact with them could kill a human and gravely injure a fae. Magic also rarely works on them. The actual fire I threw at him didn't do damages, it's the light coming from it that did. And now I have to find a way to kill it. Fast.
I quickly look around me while the monster is still panicking. There. That big tree. Only the trunk left, with half of it ripped apart. From a lightning strike probably. Great. A way to kill it? Got it. How to get him there? No freaking idea.
The screaming and growling lessen. He'd have to be high enough for it to actually go through him and kill him. I don't have enough magic left to lift him by myself though. What if I made it jump? I could-
I snap out of my "planning" when I get violently hit to the side. A freezing bite takes over the left side of my abdomen as soon as his leg hits me, sending me rolling in the roots and branches on the ground in a cry. I roll over on all four to try and catch a breath through the burning. I shove the pain far away in my brain and get back up, a hand on my side. Now he'll definitely have to jump on his own.
He let out a mocking growl at me.
I stay in position, lowered.
The thing starts running straight toward me. I wait for him to get close, and as I did earlier, I sweep past him, out of his reach and take off in the opposite direction of the tree trunk.
As I'm running, I feel a tingle down my spine. A new presence, close. The beast being not far behind me, and the presence for sure not another Jonuk, I don't give it any attention for the moment being and focus on my attacker, something I never would've done. To turn my back on a possible threat? My priority would have to be a matter of life or death, and that's what it is right now, with my low level of energies and my physical state of exhaustion.
Time to see if you're a stupid one. I sharply turn around and wait for him to get close enough. Seeing he's not slowing down at all, a smile goes up to my lips and I procced to do the same as before. When he's about to run into me, I slide to the side and dodge him once more. Hitting the break, he still glides for a few meters and let a scream out. An angry one. Dumb and annoyed. Perfect really. I wait for him to turn around and look at me, then I take off running again, this time right to my way out of this.
Let's see who'll be left standing. I'm not running to escape him. I'm running to kill him. So I slow my pace, while building up more power, gathering what I have left in me. Feeling him getting closer, I keep slowing down, to a point where he could probably reach me if he was smart enough to try it.
I see the trunk, and it's all I focus on when I jump as high as my fae body allows me.
The monster crunches down and jump after me a second later.
Time slows down. I'm high in the air, and I wait for the trunk to get closer from under me. I also feel him getting close: him being way stronger, his jump easily outdoing mine. Still, I wait and focus on the tree. Almost there. I can almost feel its breath behind me. Then as soon as it gets to the perfect angle, I bend the air to my will, giving myself a boost to go up, and out of the way. Positioning myself higher. Higher than him. Higher and now aligned with him. And with the trunk.
Another boost of power, this time pushing me down and hard, right into the dark back of the creature. I throw my body against his back, which is literally the same size as me, and I push him down, focusing my attention on us falling faster, and not on the pain the contact afflicts me.
It growls and screams has the ground gets closer. Jumping off its back in a grunt, I fall a couple of meters away right before he gets impaled.
A high squeal is the last thing that comes out of him as he gets pierced by the pointy wood.
I watch as his body goes still and limp, as the dark shiny blood coming out of the wound makes a puddle under him. I feel my entire body let go a little at the sight, adrenalin spiking down now that the danger's been dealt with, and in a sigh of fatigue, I painfully flip myself on my back, finally catching my breath.
It's at this exact moment that I remember the presence I felt before, just as a "crack" can be heard to my left.
I quickly get back in a kneeling position, now fully feeling the burning cold sensation on my left side, now that the adrenalin's gone.
A teenage boy is standing there. Dark hair, crooked jaw, with a shooked but worried look on his face. Probably around the 17, 18 age mark, he lifts up both hands, seeing me getting back into a defensive stance.
Him: "I'm not here to attack you. You don't have anything to fear from me."
I just look at him, evaluating either to class him as an enemy or not.
Him: "Are you... ok?"
Alright, I guess I look like shit. My left side and hands are throbbing, where the touch of the monster's skin burned through my shirt and my skin, adding that to the dozens of scratches and bruises covering my body... I probably look as scary as the creature.
I also realise the throbbing and the dampness from my left eyebrow where I must have a cut, blood running down slowly onto my temple. My legs and arms muscles feel as if I just ran for 2 days straight. Nothing on this list is healing on its own, since my magic is so low. And my hair... good lord, my hair. I don't even want to think about what it must look like right now.
I focus my attention back on him and throw a little magic toward him. Nothing he can feel, but enough for me to know what I should do with him. Should I be doing so with how spent I currently am? Absolutely not. But lowering my guard around a potential threat is also not something I should be doing.
My power has never failed me before. It has the ability, in its rawest, pure form, to feel, evaluate, to draw instinct onto what it's shadowing. As my magic wraps weakly but invisibly around him, a frown comes to my face, focusing on what I'm getting back from it, the impression hard to percieve because of my own state.
It's warmth. Some innocence, some great responsability. Trust and honor, That's what comes back from it, from him.
Whoever he is, he has a pure heart, that's an easy tell. He also has some kind of magic in him, a weird power, a part of it not human... but I'm not getting any presentiment of him planning to use it on me. My stance eases slightly, just enough for him to know that I'm not about to attack either.
Not haven gotten an answer from me yet, he tries again:
Him: "I saw... well, light. So I came here, and... I honestly froze. That thing..."
He glances at the now lifeless body laying a few feets away from me.
Him: "I feel like if I had intervened, I would have been in the way... Clearly, you knew how to deal with him... I'm Scott."
I study him for a couple seconds more, then decide to answer.
Me: "Hi Scott. It would've indeed have made things harder for me if you had tried to step in."
I blink, watching his posture as I answer him finally.
Me: "And... yes, I am alive, so I'm ok."
He drops his hands and carefully make his way over to me.
Me: "Why were you here?"
Scott: "I was waiting for someone and..." He looks to the ground with a sign, then back at me. "Well, she never came. I was on my way home when the flash happened. I came, and I saw you dealing with that..." He points with his chin toward the trunk. "Thing?" He tries. "What even is it? Is it what made the light?"
I get up as he gets closer to me, and draw a quick breath, the pain of the burn intensifying with the movement. He goes to support me but I put my hand up, refusing his help.
Me: "I'm fine... thanks. It's a Jonuk."
He looks at me in complete confusion.
Me: "A night asshole who feeds on the fear of its victim as he kills them in a painful death," I sigh as I brush the palm of my non injured hand on my pants to clean it a litte. "Bit morbid in my opinion."
Scott: "You've met a lot of those?" He ask, eyes widening a little in surprise.
Me: "I..." I get confused for a moment, trying to recall the amount of Jonuks I killed before, but the fact barely coming to me. "I have, yes... some... before. I..." I shake my head, trying to get my thoughts straight. "I only felt one as I got here, but it doesn't mean there's not more who came through. If there is, they'll know one died. They won't try anything again tonight, trust me."
I shake my head again to shove the dizziness away, and charge my hands with as little power as needed, since I'm already dangerously low. A flame erupts and is sent straight at the Jonuk's body, who now dead, lights up in a second. Left behind is now nothing but a smoking pile of ashes on the ground.
Scott takes a step back as it occurs.
Scott: "Woah you! What, how..." he blurts out, looking at where the body was seconds ago. "I saw you... boost or like double spacebar jump in the air, but..." he starts, jaw still hanging a little.
His attention shifts from the calcinated body to me, just as a blur fogs my mind and vision for a second, causing me to lose balance. His hand shoots out again, catching my arm and slowing me as my knees buckle, hitting the forest ground.
Scott: "Woah easy, easy."
He kneels beside me, while I'm half sitting on my side, catching my breath yet again.
Me: "I'm... I'm fine. I... I just, need to... rest a little..."
I focus on a slim broken branch next to my knee to stop my vision to go completely black. I'm overwhelmed by everything all while feeling weakened, the sweat perling on my forehead mixing with the blood smeared there invading my nostrils. My ears are ringing, and I feel myself slipping away all while maintaining a small grip on myself. I got too close. Way too close.
Scott: "Hey, you never told me your name?" He asks, voice calmed, trying to distract me, but the little note of worry in there doesn't escape me.
Me: "Eve... my name is Eve." I manage to get out slowly, focusing on him, slowly anchoring myself to my own voice, into my own body.
Scott: "Alright Eve, nice to meet you. It'd be great if you stayed with me," he lets out with a little huff that's meant to be casual. "Hey, tell me where you come from?"
Me: " I... I'm from..." I start, but my breath catches in my lungs as I just blink at the branch.
I become immobile.
My ears suddenly stop ringing, my vision coming back to normal, as if that question had pulled me right back into my body, pushing the burnout symptoms away for a moment.
Where do I come from.
Me: "I..."
I blink once, twice, my throat tightening and my heart caving in slightly.
Me: I don't...
A shiver takes over my body from head to toe.
Me: I can't remember.