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Hejira: Crystalline Hall

By Mantrid Brizon

Episode 12: Just Right

Early the next norming, Kelly, Faye and Marcella strike their camp and prepare to leave. They take only the time needed to cook and eat their breakfast before continuing their ascent into the mountains. Marcella seems to know exactly where she is going. Kelly can’t help but gaze at Marcella, as she leads the way up the mountainside. True to her word, she shows them the meager pass. She explains that by staying on this path, they can make it to the other side in only a few days, rather than walking around the entire range in a week or more.

They climb for hours and all of their muscles burn. The sun rises high in the sky as the pass levels off. Already thoroughly exhausted, they take a moment to rest and drink from their water bottles. Kelly walks towards a bush to relieve himself. He steps through it and behind a tree as he unzips his pants and begins urinating. He closes his eyes and sighs in relief as he leans back. He hears a branch break, and assumes that Marcella is peaking.

“You know that all you need to do is ask.” He chuckles.

“Ask what?” A deep female voice says.

His eyes shoot open and he turns to see a brown furred Sahvorai standing only a few feet away, looking around from behind a tree. Startled, he jumps back, nearly urinating on the girl’s feet. She steps back as he falls from behind the tree, yelping as he lands with a thud, his upper half on the trail. He scrambles to pull his pants up as Marcella and Faye both come running. The Sahvorai steps out from behind the trees.

She is quite tall, standing about five feet and ten inches, almost perfectly eye level with Kelly. She is well built and muscular, but with a distinctly feminine figure. She wears an animal hide loin cloth and top that could best be described as a poncho, tied together on each side. Her long brown hair is braided on the sides of her head in an almost elven fashion. She has stubby and rounded ears, with a longer snout, and a little nub of a tail; she looks like a human-grizzly hybrid. She looks to the humans who all seem ready for battle.

“What are you doing here?” Marcella asks the strange girl.

“I uh… Live here?” She answers with a confused look.

“Oh… Well, we were just walking through the pass.” Marcella adds.

“Fine. This way!” The bear girl chirps.

The girl motions for them to follow her as she walks down the pass. The three humans begrudgingly tag along. After walking for only a few minutes, they walk across a recently built log cabin. The cabin is well constructed, and rather large, complete with square glass windows that are a vibrant blue hue. The girl opens the door and a voice speaks from within.

“Where have you been?” Another female voice says.

“I met some f… Friends… You are friendly right?” The girl asks, turning back to the three.

“Of course.” Kelly nods.

“Absolutely…” Faye says in an eerie monotone.

“See? They are friendly.” The girl adds before stepping inside.

“Oh! Can I see?!” Another female voice says.

Kelly and Marcella back away from the cabin as the girl walks back outside, followed by two more bear-like Sahvorai females. The girls appear to be related, as they look incredibly similar, though none of them seem old enough to be either of the other’s mother. The girl from the trees seems to be the middle sister. Faye stays put, looking up blankly at the much large females.

“Oh! She is so cute!” A girl says with a squeaky voice.

“She is. What do you think?” The middle girl turns to her sisters.

“Well… Alright.” The oldest begins. “Would you like to come in for… Tea?” She seems to think.

Kelly and Marcella are very uneasy about the three bear-like Sahvorai sisters. Faye smiles, looking at them with her blank eyes.

“I don’t know… We have a long way to go before-” Kelly says.

“We’d love too.” Faye interrupts.

“What?” Marcella asks in shock.

Faye suddenly follows the youngest sister inside of the house, disappearing into the darkness of the cabin. The other two sisters look back at Kelly and Marcella, grinning twisted grins and showing off their white fang-like teeth. Their appearance is unsettling; Kelly can suddenly appreciate a Sahvorai like Kahlera, especially when compared with these women. With Faye already inside, and left with little options, Marcella and Kelly look to each other. They reluctantly walk inside of the cabin.

The sisters gaze at each other for a moment before heading back inside, closing the door behind the humans. Kelly backs against a wall, struggling to see in the dark cabin. The windows face the wrong direction, and sunlight doesn’t enter directly; only the residual light of the day pierces the grey shroud within the home. He very carefully tries to slowly and silently open the flap of his holster. He hears shuffling inside of the cabin as his eyes strain to adjust. A candle suddenly lights in a corner, before lighting several more candles.

He turns to see Faye standing in the middle of the room like a mannequin, while Marcella looks towards him on the other side of the one room cabin. He turns his head, looking for the sisters, only to see the youngest sister’s face near his. He steps back, startled as she holds a candle near her chin, as though making a concerted effort to be frightening.

“Hi…” She says in an almost sensual tone.

One of the sisters lights a fire within the fireplace, at the back wall. The cabin interior slowly lights up. The older sister stands in front of Faye, looking down at her.

“So… About that tea?” Marcella begins.

“Which one do you like?” The middle sister asks, ignoring Marcella.

“I like this one!” The youngest says, looking at Kelly with a sinister smile.

“He is too fat.” The oldest says.

“I’m husky… And big boned…” He retorts.

“Well, then too boney.” She quips.

“Okay, how about her?” The middle asks while looking over Faye.

“She looks too tough.” The oldest says.

The youngest sister cackles maniacally. Kelly steps away from her, but she quickly reaches out, grabbing his right shoulder hard. Her claws stab into his shirt, digging into the flesh beneath.

“Where do you think you are going?!” She growls in a gruff voice.

“Nowhere in particular… I guess there’s no tea, huh?” He jokes.

“That one looks just right.” The oldest says, turning to Marcella.

“Yay! Can I skin them this time? Pleeeeeaaaase?!” The youngest begs childishly.

Marcella draws a dagger as the middle sister steps up to her. Swinging she cuts her palm and the girl reels back.

“You bitch!” She roars.

The middle sister lunges at her, attacking her like a wild animal. The youngest yanks at Kelly, pulling him off balance as he struggles to draw his pistol with her claws in his flesh. She opens her toothy maw and screams like a banshee as he quickly aims in her general direction and fires twice. The noise startles all inside of the cabin as the youngest sister falls back, blood gushing from two wounds in her abdomen. He takes aim to finish off the youngest sister, only for a large hand to swing down, crashing into his wrist.

He drops the gun and it slides away from him as the oldest sister, easily six feet and two inches tall, grabs him from his underarms and lifts him with ease.

“You are going to pay for this!” She roars.

She lunges forward to bite his throat but he lifts his palm to shield himself. He wishes that she could be blinded, giving him a fighting chance, and in that split second, a blinding flash of light radiates from his hand. She drops Kelly to the ground and covers her eyes, screaming in pain. He looks at her as she seems to smell him and lunges again. He puts up his arm and shields himself. His aura shield blocks the girl, who slams into it. They fall away from each other like repelling magnets.

Faye turns to the middle girl and wrestles with her on the floor. She seems to be playing with the bear girl, only using weak versions of her powers; she seems to want to drag the fight out for as long as possible. Kelly draws his sword and manifests his sling-blade, the cobalt blue aura that covers the sword. The oldest sister lunges, but he dives to the side and swings, slashing her side. She cries out in pain and anger. He turns in time for her to grab him by the shoulders and shove him across the room.

He slams into Faye, still wrestling with the middle sister, and the trio fall into a heap on the floor. Kelly lands atop Marcella’s twitching body. She is horribly mangled, and he cannot tell if she is still alive or not. The sticky blood covers his hand as he struggles to stand. The oldest sister grabs him again and throws him clear across the room towards the other side. He lands next to the youngest sister, who grabs onto him and tries to bite him. She is very weak, but she manages to sink her teeth into his left shoulder.

He grits his teeth from the pain, but spins the aura sword around and jams it past his side, right into the youngest girl. Her arms fall limp and her jaw loosens. Faye seems to grow tired of playing with her assailant and stands, aiming a palm at the middle sister. She uses and aura push and throws her back, while simultaneously breaking her arm. The older sister turns back to Faye and both sisters charge at the same time. Kelly stands, determined to keep fighting. Amazingly, Marcella is still alive, and struggles to stand.

Faye releases an aura shockwave of considerable power. It throws the two remaining sisters, as well as Kelly, Marcella, and everything in the room that is not nailed down. The middle sister lands into the fireplace and her fur ignites. A cauldron flies away from Faye’s side and right into the youngest sister’s skull, crushing it. Kelly flies into the wall hard, nearly cracking a rib. Marcella is thrown through the glass window behind her, and the oldest sister is impaled on the blunt end of a leg from an overturned table.

The middle sister screams as she crawls from the fireplace, setting the ground on fire as she struggles to move. The smoke and stench of singed hair fills the cabin. Kelly groans, hobbling over to the burning Sahvorai. He swings his sling-blade and decapitates her, cutting a deep gash into the floor. He stumbles back and breaks through the wooden door of the cabin, falling backward onto the ground. Faye walks up to the oldest sister, who reaches for the table leg that juts from her lower chest.

“I think this is the part where I’m supposed to say some cliché one-liner…” Faye says with an eerie grin.

She holds out her hands and concentrates. Orange blasts of aura fly from her palms, merging into a single focused stream. The aura burns the girl’s body. She screams for several seconds and writhes in agony as her body becomes rigid from the intense heat, her fur singed off completely, and her skin turning black. Faye looks down and collects Kelly’s pistol. She walks out of the cabin, using her free hand to blast the aura like a flamethrower, setting the house ablaze.

She stands over Kelly and flips the safety on before handing him his pistol, butt end first. He takes pistol and struggles to get up from the ground.

“Hurry up. We need to keep going.” Faye demands.

“What about Marcella?” He asks.

“Oh. She’s over there.” She answers casually, pointing to her side.

Kelly turns and sees Marcella’s mangled and bloody corpse. She is covered in cuts, exposed compound fractures, and bits of blue glass that jut from her flesh at odd angles. Kelly sees the body and stares for a moment. He turns over and throws up at the sight of her injuries, and the pungent smell of her blood. Faye sighs as though she is becoming bored.

“Are you done yet?” She asks calmly.

Kelly looks over to Faye, who’s dead eyes and faint smile haven’t changed. Maybe this really is her true self? Maybe some people have this inside of them, and don’t need tragedy, or a horrible childhood? He holsters his pistol, buttoning the flap closed.

“Yeah… We can go.” He says as he takes labored breaths.

“Oh, wait. Silly me!” Faye exclaims, walking up to Marcella’s corpse.

She pats her legs and torso, checking her body thoroughly. She finds a pouch of coins tucked into her boots.

“Now we can go.” Faye says as she slips the pouch of coins into her pack.

Kelly looks back at Marcella’s corpse, then to the burning cabin, and finally at Faye, who is quickly leaving him behind.

“Shit…” He mutters as he quickly hobbles to catch up.