Darkness in Appalachia

Robyn had heard Walker’s howl and was rushing around the earth wall desperate to reach him, letting her shield drop since it seemed obvious that he was in more danger than her. She fought her way through the woods and brush to find herself standing a few feet away from a strange entity. It hadn’t noticed her yet so she followed it’s gaze to see Walker suspended in air. He writhed in apparent pain but refused to call out, his limbs hanging limply and swinging back and forth.

Rage filled her body and she lashed out at the entity hurting Walker, picking up a large chunk of the surrounding forest and sending it flying towards him, knocking him back and away from Walker. She saw Walker hit the ground and wanted to rush over to him but turned her attention to the other entity instead. Her lips curled in an angry scowl and her hands clenched into tight fists. Her eyes stared into his as power radiated from her, bending the surrounding trees and brush away from her as if in fear.

It laughed. “Finally, you arrive. I’ve been wanting to meet you, guardian. It’s just unfortunate that I wasn’t able to absorb your friend before you showed up. I could have used his skinwalker power to become a wolf and force you to fight me in that form.”

Robyn spoke a spell, surrounding her and the entity in a barrier that wouldn’t allow them or any magic to escape. “You won’t be touching him or anyone else again. I am going to rip you apart just like you tried to do with him.”

It threw back it’s head and laughed. “Do you know who I am and what I’ve done? I have the souls of more than twenty others inside of me powering me up. Do you really think one lowly guardian will be able to stand against me.”

“You might have absorbed them but at least a few of them must be running low on power. Human souls can’t produce magic indefinitely without rest and will eventually run out and disappear. Isn’t that why you came here, to find a guardian whose soul would last longer?” She raised her hand and crooked her fingers. “Well, come on and try.”

His smile faded and he began moving around the barrier, either testing for a weakness in the barrier or her. “Well, that is the main reason that I came down but there’s also another one. I owed a favor to another guardian who wanted you out of the way. He’s the one who told me where to find you and help provide many of the humans and entities that I’ve absorbed.”

She refused to show her shock. “A guardian helped you with this. Bull shit. No guardian that I know of would have anything to do with something like you. It’s our job to protect humans and entities, not use them for our own ends.”

He shrugged. “That may be how you see if but that doesn’t mean that all guardians feel that way. It doesn’t really matter if you believe me anyways. Pretty soon, you will be absorbed by me and I will make you watch while I tear this reserve apart using your magic. I will take out everything that you know and care for and you will be helpless to stop me.”

They had changed positions in the barrier and now she was facing where Walker had fallen and its back was to him. She looked past him to see several entities creep out of the forest, watching the two of them as they gathered around Walker and carried him to safety. The last one through the trees met her eyes and nodded before disappearing. “Then, maybe you should quit running your mouth like a movie villain and get on with it. I’m beginning to think that you’re too scared to do anything but run your mouth.”

Its face twisted in anger and it shrieked at her before hurling lightning at her. She threw up a shield in time to prevent it from hitting her and smiled at it, hoping to goad it into using more of his magic and weakening it in the process. Spell after spell slammed into her shield as it screamed at her in a rage but she managed to maintain a haughty smile throughout. Each spell knocked her back a little further until her back pressed against the barrier she had created. When it eventually stopped to recover, she launched her own barrage, hurling fireballs and chunks of ground at it, trying to get it to keep wasting what magic it had gained from the souls it had devoured.

It soon became clear that, while he didn’t possess the same amount of magic that she did, he was far more skilled at using the offensive spells that she had only recently learned. It managed to avoid being hit by any of her spells while she had bumps, bruises, and burns from the times that she didn’t get her shield up in time. It showed no signs of slowing down and instead kept using more and more powerful spells. Causing explosions, removing air from the air they were in, filling the barrier with water, and making tornadoes all designed to rip her apart in the small enclosed area. She was able to counter all of them to keep herself alive but was no longer able to attack herself.

With a very large explosion, it threw Robyn against and through her barrier destroying it and making it possible for it to leave the area. Robyn hit the ground hard and had the air knocked out of her, unable to defend herself from whatever spell it might attack with next.

To her surprise, it didn’t attack her with magic but instead picked her up physically by her throat. Holding her in the air above its head, it panted and shook her angrily. “For a bitch guardian in the middle of nowhere, you seem to know a lot about my kind and what we do. Care to explain why that is.”

Her hands clawed at its, and she glared at it. “Why the hell should I tell you anything? You want to kill me and destroy everything I care about remember.”

“Because you don’t want me to start burning down this forest and everything in it.” It created a fireball in the hand that wasn’t holding her and aimed it towards the woods around them. “Most of the entities have probably run off in fear but there should still be a few of them around.”

She couldn’t let him harm any entities so she answered him, but not truthfully. “My line of guardians keeps journals of all the entities they’ve come across. I found a story in one of them that described a creature that left bodies like you did that girls and stole souls.”

It lowered her until she could smell its foul breath. “And what did it say about the one they ran into? Did it talk about how powerful he was and how the humans groveled in fear?”

She smirked. “No. It called the creature Ameet and said that it’s powerless unless it steals the souls of others. It described a battle scene where Ameet was beaten by an alliance of humans and entities and sent running like a whipped dog.”

It slammed her to the ground, knocking the air out of her again and pinning her in place. “Lies. None of my kind would ever run from humans.”

She pulled at its hand and arm as he choked her, cutting off her airway until she nearly blacked out before loosening his grip enough for her to recover. Coughing, she glared up at him. “That’s what the journal said. It contains records of all the entities and I’ve never known anything written in it not to be true.”

Something flickered in its eyes as it lifted her head and slammed it back into the ground. She could barely focus on what it said through the buzzing in her head. “What is written about the entities?”

She took her time thinking of an answer, pretending to need the time to recover. She was beginning to get an idea of how to deal with this monster. It might not save her, but it would save the others on the reserve. “Everything that is known about the entities. Power levels, weaknesses, habitats, and whatever else the writer feels is important.”

Ameet didn’t speak. It almost seemed to forget that she was there as it stared blankly into her face, but its hand didn’t loosen its grip on her throat. She struggled weakly against it but found that whenever she was close to getting loose or striking it, its hand would tighten and she wouldn’t be able to breathe again.

After what felt like several minutes, its eyes refocused and it leaned down, shoving its face into hers. “Where are these journals?”

She spit in its face. “Someplace that a monster like you can never go. Guardian are the only ones allowed.”

It slammed her head against the ground again. “Tell me you bitch.”

She allowed it to shake her for several minutes, knowing that if she gave in too easily it would know something was up. “OK. OK. I will tell you. Just please stop.” She allowed tears to leak out of her eyes and fear to creep into her voice.

It pulled her back into its face. “Now. Tell me where they are.”

She cried, knowing that it made her look weak and that it would make it think it’d won. “They are in a chamber next to the gate. No one but guardians can pass through unless escorted by a guardian.”

It grinned, releasing a foul breath of air into her face. “Then isn’t it lucky that I have a guardian with me. You’re going to take me to those journals.”

She shook her head. “No, I would never do that. No one has ever read those but my guardian ancestors and I can’t allow anything else to.”

It grinned wider. “You won’t have a choice. Your journal was wrong about one thing. I do have magic of my own. I am able to paralyze my prey, preventing them from physically moving or casting any magical spells. But, I have to be able to keep hold of them for a significant amount of time so it’s not very useful. Except for when I can pin my opponent and prevent them from getting away.”

Robyn’s eyes widened and a wave of horror swept over her. She tried to move and realized that she was completely immobilized below her neck. Ameet laughed and released her, standing and staring down at her in triumph.

“I always make sure to only paralyze my prey below the neck. I want them to be able to hear them scream as I remove their souls from them piece by piece.” He picked her up and began walking, carrying her princess style through the woods. “I want you to watch as I burn this reserve and everything in it to the ground. Everything here will see you helpless and know that you failed to protect them. Then, after I get the books, I will devour your soul and the soul of every entity that remains.”

She lay cradled in his arms, unable to fight or defend herself. “No, please don’t. If you promise to leave this reserve as it is, I will tell you how to get to the gate and the journals. You can even have my soul but don’t harm the entities that live here.” She knew it wouldn’t keep any promises that it made but hoped it would work until they got to the gate.

He looked down at her. “You’re saying that you will help me if I promise to leave your little friends alone?”

“Yes.” Her voice was small and weak. “I will help you find the journals that you want if you leave them alone. And think about it, the faster you get to them, the less chance that some of the more powerful entities will have time to show up and try to stop you.”

“That’s true. And if I have the journals before I face them, I will know all of their weaknesses and will be able to defeat them easily if they did try to attack.” It raised its head to focus on the woods ahead of them. “OK. I promise that I won’t harm anything that doesn’t try to harm me first. Is that fair?”

She tried to nod but found that she couldn’t. “Yes, that’s fair. Head towards my home. I assume you know where it is.”

It’s only answer was to begin moving faster through the woods. They were moving far faster than Robyn had expected and she could only hope that nothing got in the way before they made it to their destination.