Darkness in Appalachia

David arrived at Robyn’s feeling haggard and worn out. He had had to stop several times on the drive up as pain racked his body and couldn’t continue until it stopped. He limped up to the door and knocked, looking around to see if Walker or Puk were in view.

Puk answered the door. “David, you made it back before Robyn did? I thought that your shift would run longer.”

He walked inside as she held the door for him. “They let me off early since I appeared to be in pain. Do you have any idea where Robyn is right now?”

Puk appeared in front of him. “You appeared to be in pain. Do you mean that you faked it to get out of work?”

Impatience welled up inside him but he knew he wouldn’t get anything out of Puk unless he answered her questions as well. “No. I didn’t fake it. I really was in pain and that means Robyn was using magic. A lot of it.”

Puk’s eyes widened and she began waving her hands nervously. “Magic? A lot of it. Robyn’s with Walker repairing the barrier but that shouldn’t take a lot of magic. And how do you know she was using it?” Worry made her voice higher and squeaky, driving nails into David’s head.

He sat down hard in one of the kitchen chairs, holding his head in his hands. “She didn’t remove the bond so I’ve felt it every time she’s used magic. She’s been doing it all day and it’s just about killed me. But, a little while ago, she used a lot in rapid succession.”

Puk stood over him, still fluttering. “I can’t believe that she didn’t remove your link. That’s not something she would normally forget.”

“Well, she did. Did you say that there wasn’t any reason for her to be using a lot of magic now? Do you have a way of getting in touch with her?” He looked at her as a wave of foreboding twisted his stomach.

Puk looked back at him anxiously. “Well, she had Walker with her and his howl can be heard for miles when he wants it to. At least, by the dogs and certain other entities. If something was wrong, he would have called for help that way and someone would have let me know so that I can try to organize something depending on the situation.”

“And you haven’t heard anything?”

She shook her head. “No, but, depending on where they are on the property, it could take a while for a message to reach me.”

David looked away from her and considered the situation. He felt in his gut that something was very wrong but he had no way of knowing where Robyn was or what the situation might be. He might actually make things harder on her if he did go search for her. But, the thought of sitting here not knowing anything made him sick to his stomach. “I can’t believe that you three haven’t come up with some sort of magical messenger system for these kinds of situations.”

Puk shrugged. “We’ve never come across one of these situations. Most of the entities we have here just want to be left in peace and Robyn provides a safe haven for them. In the three years since she’s become a guardian, there’s only been a handful and entities that wanted to cause trouble and they were all bound by the contract they have to sign before Robyn lets them in. The barrier around the outside prevents outside entities from entering without permission as well.”

“And none of the previous guardians put a system in place?”

“They might have but they didn’t tell Robyn or us entities. Remember, Robyn was never supposed to become a guardian so her family kept her out of it as much as possible. And previous guardians never trusted the entities with things like battle or emergency plans.”

He placed his head back in his hands. “As soon as she gets back, we are going to come up with some kind of plan. I can’t handle sitting here helpless while she is out there doing who knows what.”

Puk sat down across from him. “That’s a good idea. But, you are still bonded with her, you can reach her telepathically through that link.” She was trying to sound reassuring but the worry was showing in her voice and the way she had begun wringing her hands.

He shook his head. “I know but I don’t know how to do it and she hasn’t reached out to me herself.”

“She probably doesn’t realize that you two are still bound together. I’m sure that she wouldn’t have put you through all this if she had realized that it would cause you this much pain.”

“I know that she wouldn’t. But I’m not worried about the pain I’m feeling. If she’s using this much magic, then there must be something more going on than just fixing that barrier. I can’t imagine that she would put herself through this much pain for nothing.”

Puk laughed but it was weak. “You don’t know Robyn very well. She doesn’t care about the pain she feels. She’ll do whatever she thinks is necessary for the entities and this reserve even if it brings her to her knees.”

He groaned in frustration but didn’t get a chance to respond. Several dogs began barking and howling outside, causing Puk and David to jump to their feet and rush to the door. When they opened it, they found that the dogs had gathered around something lying in the yard. One would approach it before backing up and howling in what had to be the most mournful sound David had ever heard. He heard Puk gasp before she appeared inside the circle of dogs. He watched as she dropped to her knees and wailed, a sound that put the dogs to shame as it reached inside him and squeezed his heart.

He walked out to them slowly, afraid of what he might see. He knew from Puk’s reaction that it was bad but hoped it wasn’t what he thought it was. The dogs his way for just a moment before parting and letting him through, revealing Walker laying immobile on the ground. David’s gut clenched as he took in the blood and the joints that seemed to be in the wrong places, all of which suggested Walker hadn’t gone done easy. He dropped to his knees on the ground beside the skinwalker and reached out a shaking hand. Afraid to touch but needing to confirm by touch what his eyes were telling him.

He stroked the fur, knowing that Walker would hate it if he had been aware that it was happening. Tears welled up in his eyes and he could feel them running unchecked down his cheeks. He placed his hand on Walker’s chest, bowing his head to say a quick prayer for the soul of this entity that he had come to respect so much in a short period of time.

Thump.

He felt something under his hand and raised his head, a tiny sliver of hope creeping in.

Thump.

He knew that feeling and pressed his hand more firmly against Walker’s chest, ignoring the blood. Now, he could feel Walker’s chest rising and falling on shaky, irregular breaths and the thumping of his heart.

“Puk.”

She didn’t hear him. Only continued with that inhuman wailing.

“Puk. He’s alive.”

No reaction. He stood and grabbed her shoulders, pulling her to her feet and shaking her gently until she met his eyes. Her face was streaked with watery red lines that he could only assume were tears. “Puk, he’s alive. Call Beryl. Fast.”

She looked back at him as if he was speaking a foreign language. Not understanding what he was trying to tell her. He shook her again, harder this time but still not hard enough to hurt her.

“Get Beryl. Now. I don’t know how long he can last like this.”

Her eyes cleared. She took a quick look down at Walker before disappearing. David hoped that she was going for Beryl and would be back soon but wasn’t sure. He turned back to Walker and keeled back down beside him. He couldn’t stand to leave him laying in the dirt so reached for him, intending to pick him up and carry him into the house.

“Don’t touch him.” Puk reappeared behind him and pushed him away from Walker.

He looked at her, seeing the anger in her eyes and knowing that, while it wasn’t really directed towards him, he was a handy target for her. “I just wanted to take him in the house. He doesn’t belong out here in the dirt.”

Her face twisted, showing anger one second before morphing into a look of profound sorrow and then back again. More tears threatened to spill from her eyes as she took several deep breaths to steady herself.

“I know. I know that.” She seemed to be talking to herself more than him. “But we need to be more careful when we move him. I think that I can transport him inside the house with me but where should I take him? Where would he want to be?”

The look she aimed at David caused his heart to squeeze again and he reached out to comfort her, pulling her into a hug and holding her tight against his chest. “It’s going to be OK. You know Walker won’t give up without a fight. Besides, he will never let you see him give up.”

She allowed herself to be held but only for a moment. When she pushed him away, she seemed calmer and more able to focus on what needed to be done.

“I’m going to take him to his bedroom. It’s on the first floor, off of the living room. Robyn allowed him to pick out everything in there so that he would be as comfortable as she could make him. That’s where he would want to be right now.” She leaned down, placing her hands on him. “Let Beryl know where we are when she gets here.” They disappeared.

David took several deep breaths to calm himself before turning to the woods. He stared into the trees, hoping that he would see Robyn coming out of them, concern for Walker written on her face. He didn’t think that it had occurred to Puk yet that if Robyn had been with Walker. She would never allow something like this to happen to him without putting up one hell of a fight herself.

Growling in frustration and worry, he turned back to the house. All he could do was hope that Walker regained consciousness long enough to tell him where Robyn was and if she was OK. It wasn’t lost on him that he had stopped feeling the pain of her using magic. He actually wished for a sharp pain somewhere on his body because it would tell him that she was still alive and fighting.

Inside, he paced from room to room while he waited for Beryl to arrive. He looked out every window that he passed, hoping to see either her or Robyn approaching the house. He couldn’t stop himself from imagining the worst possible scenarios. Robyn laying bleeding and broken somewhere out in the woods while a shadowy figure stood over her cutting her open and removing everything that made her her. Maybe, she was already dead and devoured by the entity. Or, this could have nothing to do with the entity and she fell down a cliff. His thoughts swirled around in his head, getting worse with every passing second.

A light tapping, scraping sound shook him out of his thoughts. He rushed to the door and flung it open, finding Beryl waiting on the doorstep.

“Puk said that Walker has been seriously injured and that Robyn isn’t around to help. She said that you need my help to make sure that he doesn’t die.” Her tone was disturbingly matter of fact and put David on edge but he wouldn’t show that to the one entity who might be able to save Walker.

“That’s right. We thought he was dead at first. He looks really bad. Please help.”

She looked up at him, the branches that formed her face were twining violently and seemed completely at odds with her tone. “That’s what I’m here for.” She pushed past him into the house and began walking towards the living room. “Do you know where he is right now?”

He followed closely. “Puk took him to his room. She said that it is off the living room.”

She didn’t slow down. “I know where it is. I need you to get me some water and bandages. If it’s as bad as you and Puk made it sound I won’t be able to completely heal him in one shot with magic. We will need to treat at least some of his wounds normally.”

He stayed with her, following her behind the staircase to a hallway with several doors leading off of it. “I don’t know where Robyn keeps the first aid kits. And maybe you should look at him and tell me everything that you are going to need so I don’t have to make too many trips.”

She opened one of the doors and entered. “Puk, tell this human where the first aid kits are. He needs to be at least a little useful if he’s going to stick around.”

Puk had been sitting on a twin bed beside the prone Walker stroking his head. She stood when they entered and he could see that she had been crying again. “I’ll get the one downstairs. David, there’s another, bigger one upstairs in Robyn’s bathroom under the sink.” She disappeared without another word.

Beryl scuttled across the floor to the bedside, her head twisting and turning as she tried to examine Walker without touching him too much. “You heard her. Get going and get back here quickly. And don’t forget the water. These wounds will need to be cleaned and it’s not like he can get in the shower.”

David spared a quick glance for Walker before turning and hurrying out of the room. Running up the stairs, he burst into Robyn’s room and went straight to her bathroom sink. Underneath, was a large box with ‘first aid’ written on it. He grabbed it, surprised by how heavy it was. He grunted a bit, his muscles still sore from the pain of Robyn’s magic but was able to lift it and lug it back downstairs. He deposited it in Walker’s room before running back to the kitchen. He found a large stockpot in one of the cabinets and filled it with warm water from the sink. He lugged it back to the room as well, splashing water onto the floor a couple of times but managing to keep most of it in the pot.

Puk was on the bed again, watching as Beryl laid her hands on Walker. “Hurry up, Beryl. He’s in real bad shape and he’s the only one who knows where Robyn is. He can’t die like this.”

“Be quiet.” Beryl’s voice was harsh. “I won’t let him die but he isn’t going to be able to tell you anything for a while. Both of you need to leave the room and let me work. I’ll call you when I’ve done as much as I can.”

“I’m not leaving. He needs to know that one of his friends is here with him.”

Beryl scoff. “He doesn’t know whether your here or not right now. All you’re doing is distracting me and making this take longer. Besides, “ she looked up and gave Puk a hard stare. “you need to be trying to find out where Robyn is. Talk to the dogs and other entities and see if anyone has seen her.”

Puk glared at her but stood and left the room, pushing David out ahead of her and closing the door behind them. She stalked into the living room, muttering under her breath and clenching her fists while David followed. In the living room, she paced from one side to the other, getting faster with each circuit that she made. David stood to one side, waiting for her to calm down so they could discuss what they needed to do.

She turned on him, appearing in front of him suddenly. “What are you doing to help? Walker and I wanted you around to help her and you’re just standing there. What good are you?”

He stood with his arms crossed, letting her vent while his stomach twisted and turned, telling him that she was right and he needed to do something. He waited until she was finished only because he knew they wouldn’t get anywhere until she had burned off some of her anger.

She stopped berating him but stayed close, invading his space. “You don’t think I know that I’m useless in this situation. I’m not a guardian, I don’t know any magic, the entities don’t know me well enough to speak to me, and I don’t know enough first aid to help anyone who gets injured. All I can do is back up someone who can do at least some of those things. If she would get her head on straight and think.”

Puk stepped back, surprised by the ferocity of his voice. She hung her head as he spoke, feeling ashamed of herself and not able to meet his eyes. It was obvious just by looking at him that he was worried sick but he had managed to keep a cooler head than her. She turned from him and tried to think.

“You’re right. There are some things that I can do but I will need your help. You are bound to Robyn so we will know if something major happens to her. I can speak to the dogs and get them moving, keeping one here and having them spread out throughout the reserve to search for signs of Robyn. They can communicate with each other over and certain other entities over long distances and relay messages back here to me. They can also get messages to some of the entities for me.” She headed into the kitchen. “I will have to teach you a little magic if you’re up for it.”

He followed, happy to have some sort of plan in place. “Whatever I can do to help.”

She pointed at the table. “Sit down and wait for me. I’ll be right back after I speak to the dogs.” She disappeared before he could respond. He paced the kitchen, having too much nervous energy to sit and wait patiently for her to come back. They had the beginnings of a plan in place but they still had to sit and wait for word on Robyn.

Puk spoke from behind him. “I thought I told you to sit down.”

He spun around, surprised at hearing her voice behind him. “Don’t do that. You could get hurt sneaking up on a guy like that in this kind of situation.”

She raised an eyebrow. “Do you actually think that you would be able to hurt me? I may not look like much but I’m pretty good at defensive magic.”

He sat and waited for her to sit across from him. “Is that what you are going to teach me now?”

She shook her head. “You should probably learn some at some point but right now I need to teach you how to reach out to Robyn through your bond. But before that” She reached out and grabbed his wrist, removing the brace that he had put to hide the mark. Whatever she saw caused her to breathe a sigh of relief. “Thank heavens. She’s still alive.”

He looked at his wrist but couldn’t see anything that would make her feel better. “How can you tell? I know that it lights up when she uses magic but she hasn’t used any for a while now so it isn’t visible.”

“It’s not visible to you. I can see active magic and the traces of magic. The bond is still there and that means she is still alive. She always sets them up so that the connection will be broken before it drains the other person of energy to keep her alive.”

He held his wrist up close to his face, trying to see what she did. “So, as long as I have this, she’s still alive.”

Puk smiles just a little at the relief in his voice. “Yes, but that doesn’t mean that she’s alright. You said that she hasn’t used magic in a while so that could mean a couple of things.” She didn’t need to go over the situations with him. He already knew that being alive didn’t actually make the situation better.

He lowered his arm and met her eyes, determined to do whatever was necessary to bring Robyn home. “So what do you need me to do?”

She took a deep breath and leaned towards him. “You’re going to have to do exactly what I say and don’t stop no matter how much it hurts.” She continued at his nod. “Close your eyes and try to clear your mind. Focus only on my voice.” She watched as he leaned back, closed his eyes, and took several deep breaths. “Good. Now focus on your wrist. I want you to imagine the mark she put on you. Focus on it until it becomes a real chain.” His wrist and hand twitched and she knew he was focusing intently on it. “That chain’s other end is around Robyn’s wrist. I want you to follow the chain all the way to the end. No matter how far away it is, find the end that’s connected to Robyn.” His face twisted in pain and concentration. She watched, waiting to see if he was going to be able to find her.

In David’s mind, he was following a glowing gold chain through a dark tunnel. It was slow going because there seemed to be some substance filling the tunnel that kept trying to push him back. Each linked he passed felt like a spike going through his skull but he continued moving. Link by link, further and further from where his body waited for him he fought against the invisible substance. Hours passed, or maybe it was days before he saw something ahead of him. He pushed harder, picking up speed as he tried to reach whatever waited ahead.

Suddenly, he was somewhere else. He couldn’t move and his face was turned into a solid object but he could sense that he was moving. Something slapped against his feet and he realized that something was carrying him. He could feel arms or something behind his shoulders and under his knees, holding him so tightly that he could barely breathe. He tried to move his head and see where he was or at least what was holding him, but he ran into some kind of barrier. When he pushed against it, sending new waves of pain through his head, it pushed back hard. He flew back into the dark tunnel and was jerked back to his body before he could react. He snapped back into himself so hard that his head snapped back against the chair he was sitting in. He was immediately overcome by pain so bad that it made him double over and vomit. He tried to open his eyes but the slightest bit of light caused the pain to increase exponentially.

“Here, drink this.”

Something pushed a cup into his hand but he didn’t want to drink, afraid that he would just throw it back up. Someone’s hand gripped his firmly and forced the cup to his mouth, pouring a thick, syrupy liquid down his throat. The taste nearly caused him to vomit again and he pushed the hand away, realizing after he had done so that his stomach calmed as soon as the liquid hit his stomach.

“You have to drink all of it. We don’t have time for you to recover normally and this will help with the pain.”

He still couldn’t place the voice but he took the cup, drinking it himself this time. With each drink, the pain subsided a little and his stomach calmed. He finished the cup before attempting to open his eyes, finding that it still hurts but not so bad that he couldn’t handle it. Puk stood over him and he realized that it was her that had forced him to drink.

She kept her voice soft and quiet, knowing that if she was too loud it would hurt him worse. “Is that a little better?”

He started to nod but changed his mind. “Yeah. What the hell was that?”

Puk went to the sink and grabbed a bucket filled with water. She brought it back to the table and kneeled at his feet, cleaning up the mess he had made. He wanted to stop her but was afraid that any movement on his part would cause him more pain.

“You tried to use a magic that you were unfamiliar with and didn’t have any experience with. Mental magic is always worse than other types. At least, that’s what Robyn has told me.”

“Haven’t you done this before?”

She shook her head. “No. I’ve been bound to Robyn before but I never had a need to contact her through the link. I felt the pain that she did but she has some experience with mental magic so it wasn’t as severe as what you felt.”

He narrowed his eyes. “Then how did you know how to do it?”

She gave him a small smile and a pale imitation of her normal mischievous look. “I didn’t. I just told you to do what made sense based on what I know about magic. Did it work?”

He wanted to chew her out for causing him so much pain on something that she didn’t know would work but decided that he could do that later. “I think so. I found the end of the chain and...” he tried to think of the best way to describe what he had felt. “ I became someone else. I don’t know for sure that it was Robyn but I don’t think I’m bound to anyone else so it probably was her.”

Puk turned her full attention to him and motioned for him to continue.

“I couldn’t move and my face was pressed against something so I couldn’t see either but I’m sure that I was moving. Or, I guess, something was moving me. I was being carried but I couldn’t see by what. I tried to turn my head and see but that’s when I was kicked out and ended up back here.”

Puk lowered her eyes to the floor and began tapping her fingers against the chair next to him. She appeared to be deep in thought but it was hard to tell since her hood hid most of her face. She stayed in that position for several minutes and he began fidgeting, wondering if he should say something.

Finally, she stood up, taking the bucket to the sink and emptying before returning to the seat across from him. She met his eyes and he could see the fear and anger waging war in her face. “You said that you couldn’t move. Do you think that’s because of the barrier that kicked you out when you tried to move your head?”

He thought back, trying to remember the feelings he had gotten. “No...I didn’t try to move anything until the end. It was more like...” the more he tried to remember the more his head hurt but he wouldn’t stop. “It was more like I knew I couldn’t move. As soon as I entered that body, I knew that I couldn’t move anything but my head. But I don’t know why I knew it.”

“OK, so she can’t move and she’s being taken somewhere. But where? There’s nowhere on this reserve that we wouldn’t be able to find her and follow. And why would it take her somewhere, anyways? Wouldn’t it have made more sense to take her soul wherever they were?”

A horrible thought came into his head. “It needs her for something. That’s the only reason it would keep her alive if it beat her. It wants to use her for some other reason, then it will take her soul.”

Puk nodded. “Makes sense. If we can figure out what it wants, we can figure out where it’s taking her.” Her eyes and voice became fierce. “And we can destroy it.”