Hejira 09
Story by Mantrid_Brizon on SoFurry
Episode 09: Faye and Kelly camp for the night. Preparing a fire they receive quite a fright. Encountered a girl with skin like the snow. The duo are shown things they'd rather not know...
Hejira: Crystalline Hall
By Mantrid Brizon
Episode 09: I Put A Spell On You
Several days have passed since Faye and Kelly have left Tim’s hut. They walked all day and through part of the night, stopping only for short breaks to snack and drink. When they were both too exhausted to march any longer, they reluctantly set up camp. They have repeated this pattern for the last few days. Using their flashlights, they begin to construct a basic campsite for the night, pushing leaves and sticks away from their would-be campfire. They have already had to change their batteries; Faye worries that they will soon have to start camping at twilight.
“Do you wonder what Gareth or Naomi are doing right now?” Kelly asks Faye, as they collect dry tinder.
“Naomi’s probably built a wind-powered generator and is watching anime on her laptop right now; Gareth is probably screwing that cat girl.” Faye answers.
“You think so?”
“Oh yeah. Did you see how he was looking at that thing.” Faye comments.
“No, I meant the generator.” Kelly corrects.
Faye looks back at him and sighs. She shakes her head and smiles as she squats down and brings up her magnesium flint stick. Striking the flint with the back of her Mora knife, she sparks the magnesium and gets the campfire going. Kelly sets down the pile of sticks in his arms and turns back, away from the infant fire. He is suddenly startled by the appearance of a hideously pale girl, standing half-naked before him, her hand resting against a tree trunk. Somehow, she silently approached the both of them, and stands within arm’s reach of Kelly.
“Holy shit!” He exclaims as he stumbles back, kicking the burgeoning fire and promptly killing it.
“Hey, you idiot! Watch your fat feet!” Faye growls.
Kelly draws his pistol and aims at the woman, who doesn’t seem to realize that he’s holding a weapon. She looks to him, wearing a top of animal hide that slings over a single shoulder and bears her midriff, and an animal hide skirt that ends just past her buttocks. She squats down and moves over to Faye, who turns to see what he is pointing at.
“Oh God!” Faye exclaims as she stumbles back.
The girl reaches out and touches her leg as Faye pulls away, backing up behind Kelly’s legs. Her grip is ice cold.
“Who the hell are you?!” Faye cries out.
“Can you help me? I need to find my way home.” She says in a soft but unsettling monotone.
Kelly and Faye look back at each other and then to the sheet-white girl. With nothing to pack away, and not sure how else to make her leave, they silently nod in agreement to one another.
“Alright…” Faye begins as she stands up.
“We’ll help you.” Kelly finishes.
The girl gets up and grins, slowly tilting her head to the side. She begins to walk away from the pair, heading slowly back into the woods. They turn on their flashlights and carefully follow behind. The pale girl sees their lights and looks back. As their lights touch her skin, they realize just how white she actually is. She appears to have absolutely no blood in her body, and her eyes are dark and glossy. The girl holds up her hand and closes her eyes, summoning her aura to create a ball of glittering white light that floats and follows her.
The two adventurers are amazed by her casual display of what can only be called magic. They turn off their flashlights. She leads them through the woods, as though she knows where she is going. She moves past obstacles in the dirt as if she had walked this path dozens of times before. They ask her repeatedly where she is heading, but she never answers.
“I need to go home…” She says repeatedly.
“Don’t we all…” Faye mutters.
The girl suddenly turns and walks through bushes, before she disappears into the darkness. Stepping through, Kelly and Faye find themselves at the edge of a large graveyard. The girl sits atop a tombstone, carved into the shape of an hourglass, in the center aisle and at the rear of the graveyard. She swings her feet back and forth childishly as she looks to them, a twisted little smile across her face.
“Welcome home.” She says in a deep and echoing voice.
Her violet aura glows around her, as she stands atop the tombstone. She lifts her arms up to the night sky and tilts her head back, cackling maniacally as a violet mist pours from her palms, filling the air. She looks back to the two as Kelly takes aim to fire. The witch sees his lack of fear and assumes the silver L of metal must be a weapon. She reaches ahead and the pistol is pulled from his hands telepathically.
“Naughty boy…” She says as she waves the pistol slowly, as though presenting a trophy.
Faye draws and throws her Mora knife, a skill she has practiced occasionally at home. To her amazement, the knife plants itself just above the girl’s left hip. She screams and swings her arms, throwing the violet mist at her. Neither of them know what the mist is, but they know that it can’t be good. They dive out of the way as it slams into a tree. The tree withers and dies in a matter of seconds.
Faye gets up and looks for a weapon, but doesn’t have anything. She suddenly wishes that this whole mess could have happened a year later, when she was old enough to buy her own handgun to smuggle along to Belize. She runs through the cemetery as the witch swings her arms, moving the mist to follow her. It withers the trees on contact, as she jumps over a tombstone and hides behind it. The tombstone slowly erodes away, as though the mist in speeding up time itself.
The witch suddenly screams in pain as Kelly slashes a huge gash in her left calf muscle. She was so focused on Faye, that when Kelly dove out of the way and landed behind her, the witch never turned to deal with him. She turns back to him and extends a hand. A violet shockwave blasts Kelly back from her as the witch struggles to stand on her injured leg. She suddenly falls over and lands with a thud on the ground.
Faye rushes her with a large stick, intent on clubbing her to death. The witch grabs the stick with both hands, dropping Kelly’s gun as the two women begin wrestling over the stick. Faye suddenly releases the stick, grabbing her knife that sticks out of the witch’s abdomen. She quickly yanks it out. The witch screams in pain and forces Faye back with another shockwave, as Kelly tries to slash at her with the sword again. The witch throws him back with yet another shockwave, and subsequently summons the mist.
She heaves the mist towards Kelly, who panics and puts up his left arm to shield himself. The mist slams into a translucent, cobalt blue wall of concentrated aura, flying around and behind him without so much as a scratch. The witch seems horrified; Kelly has talents like she does. Using her telekinesis, she drops a large branch on Kelly, tangling his legs within it. She turns back and charges at Faye, determined to finish her off quickly.
Faye charges in turn, roaring in blood rage as a faint orange glow radiates from her body. The witch throws the violet mist at Faye, who screams in anger. The mist is blown through the air by a powerful orange shockwave that shoots out from Faye’s hands. Faye keeps charging and grabs the witch by her icy cold throat before managing to fire a second shockwave. The blast snaps the witch’s neck, and simultaneously heaves her body over ten meters from Faye, impaling her on a broken branch of a tree, nearly six inches in diameter.
“Fuck you…” Faye mutters as she gasps for breath and raises a middle finger to the witch’s dangling corpse.