Syth and Axe (part 18) - Rise of the Mothman

 

1777 - near what would become Point Pleasant, WV

Cornstalk and his companions stood in the entry to the fort, its wooden slats rising above them. These white men were moving in - permanently. There was no driving them back, unless he threw in his lot with the other white men from across the sea. But where was the purpose in that? Fight one enemy and ally with another, or fight another, and ally with one you know. Both were dangerous, and perhaps… perhaps… he could trim this plant before it blossomed.

He strode to the fort.

A concerned paleface looked out.

“Chief Cornstalk, Chief Redhawk?”

He nodded. “Introduce us to Chief Arbuckle.”

There was silence, then a man appeared. “He will see you inside.”

“The message is urgent,” Cornstalk insisted.

“Yes, please, come with me.”

The two chiefs and their assistant soon found themselves in a small room across the table from the commander of the fort - Arbuckle.

“Chief Cornstalk. What brings you here?”

“Your white man enemies are stirring up the tribes, encouraging raids upon your territory. I came to warn you. I will have no part in this coming conflict.”

Arbuckle steepled his fingers and gazed down at the map before them. He breathed in deeply, and let out a slow, deliberate sigh. “I can’t let you leave…”

Cornstalk nodded, causing Redhawk to gaze at him in shock. “You knew about this?”

Cornstalk sighed. “I assumed this is what would happen.” His gaze rose to Arbuckle, “I think we both knew this.”

Arbuckle frowned sadly. “Yes. You are too important a piece to allow to roam freely. You will be held here and cared for, but you will not be allowed to leave. Perhaps your people will withhold their anger for fear of losing you.”

“My people follow me.”

“Yes, and in case you change your mind about us…”

“You’re not making this decision easy.” Cornstalk retorted.

“I’m not. But it’s the only one I can choose.”

“And you know more than just my tribe have been listening to the serpent hiss of your enemies.”

“I do. And they respect you and will not allow harm to befall you by attacking this or other garrisons.”

“Or they may attack to break me free.”

“They won’t,” replied Arbuckle with confidence, “not if they want you to remain unharmed.”

“Keep your promise, white man. Your kind tends not to do so. A betrayal upon this land would soil it to the core.”

1966 - Gallipolis, OH

To an outside observer, it would have looked like a window opened and a small foxlike creature dropped out of it and into the world. 

Bones and skin flexed and morphed before Kit hit the ground, landing in a strange sort of crouch, her tail billowing out behind her before she could make it vanish. Her hands rose to the top of her head. “Human ears… so pathetic,” she muttered, adjusting her clothing. A fly buzzed near her face. She shooed it away, actually making contact with it and sending the bloated thing sailing off into the nearby forest.

A vehicle rumbled past. “Those have improved,” she muttered, watching it go past.

A man strolled past. “Good day,” he said. She watched him, then spotted a woman trekking behind. 

“That’s improved, too.” She said, eyeing her own garb. She’d need to do some shopping and try to track down her friends. It had been how many years? She had no idea.

Something had triggered a portal here - a weakness in the world, a contamination of some sort? She had no idea. The one thing she did know - it wasn’t her amulet.

She held out the thing.

“Broken… again.”

She cursed her fate and slipped off the main street and off toward the forest.

She pulled up a map and sat in the grass, Indian style, examining the paper document. She looked behind her, following the curve of the village roads, tracing the map to try to orient herself. She looked up. Something strange was drawing her off to the northeast. She gazed at the map. “Point Pleasant? Sounds lovely,” she said ironically. “I have a feeling it’s about to be the opposite.”

She stood, looking at the map once more before attempting and failing to fold it. She tried a few times before finally making a new crease and stuffing it in her bag. She pulled out her amulet and was about to use it to get across the stream a little faster when she remembered…

“Broken…” She thought of Paul stealing it and taking it for a joyride. He’d probably made it worse… When she found him, she didn’t know if she’d hit him or kiss him first.

She slipped back onto the road and held out a hand. “Excuse me, how do I get across the river there to Point Pleasant?”

The man eyed her in confusion. “That would be the Silver Bridge,” he said, as if explaining it to a foreigner. She thought of what she must look like now, in her vintage clothing. She fought the urge to double-check to make sure her ears were proper. She nodded. “Thank you. Is that up this road?”

He laughed awkwardly and nodded. “Yes.”

“Thank you,” she replied, hurrying up the road. She awkwardly reached up, touching her rounded human ears just to make sure everything was normal. She didn’t like this plane.

The bridge stretched on before her. She made her way across it, finding herself in the otherwise bland and uninteresting village of Point Pleasant. She gazed around. It wasn’t that interesting compared to some of the cities she’d seen. But she was sure someone found it quaint and “home.” She gazed around.

Cars had come in vogue for sure. The bridge was absolutely crammed with traffic. She slipped her way across, ignoring the dirty looks as she wound between the vehicles, moving ever toward the other side of the bridge.

She passed into the town - Point Pleasant apparently. This whole region had grown so much since she’d last been in this realm. Impressive feats of technology to be sure, but still very little magic - though… something seemed different about the world. Parts seemed darker, as if a sickness had burst into a full-blown fever.

She stood in the middle of town, looking around her. Why had she been summoned here of all places? What was happening - or was something about to happen?

A newspaper floated past on the wind. She snatched it, trying to find a date.

“November…” she said, trying to read the words. It had been so long since she’d had to decipher this language. And these strange writing styles. Why couldn’t they all just be normal. “November 16, 1966. Okay, I know when and where I am… now why am I here?”

She examined the paper, hoping that it would shed some light on her problem.

“Couples see Man-sized bird…creature…something!” The headline read.

“Well, there it is.”

Something haunting the region… and had apparently been sighted as early as the previous day - assuming this was an up-to-date newspaper. By the whispers and murmurs, something was going on. She was also drawing far too much attention - if only through her dress.

Apparently, hunting parties were already mustering to hunt down this strange creature - whatever it was. If rumors were to be believed, animals were already going missing, cars were being attacked, and some people had actually vanished - though which of these stories were trustworthy, she could only guess.

She patted her pockets. She had no currency - at least modern currency - no food, no identification - nothing.

“Stupid amulet,” she cursed.

She’d need to find someplace to hide out for a while…

“Heading up to the TNT area.”

Her ears - the human ones - perked up. 

Apparently, this creature had been sighted somewhere a good bit off to the north - an old “munitions dump,” whatever that was. If she could hitch a ride up there with some of the hunters, maybe she could find out what was going on - and at worst, maybe she could find a place to sleep for a few days.

A band was heading that way, and she managed to follow some other vagabond who stuck up his thumb in a strange sort of “I like you, so drive me where I want to go” sort of gesture.

“I love the style!” said the young man who opened the door. “Are you coming from a festival or something?”

She nodded. “Yes, you could say that. I like to wear this costume whenever I explore so people talk about me when they spot me in the woods - makes them start thinking they saw a fairy or something.” She said, then laughed a little too heartily. 

The guys in the car exchanged awkward glances, then laughed sympathetically. “Yeah, that’s… uh… great. And funny.”

Something thudded above them.

“What was that?”

Kit looked up, seeing a strange series of depression in the metal roof of the car. Her heart skipped a beat as they began to move, as if something was walking across the top of the car as it drove!

“Hey man, what’s going on?” One asked.

“I don’t know!” Another replied.

The divots in the roof moved again.

“Something’s alive up there!”

“Pull over!”

“Are you crazy? I’m not pulling over. I’ve seen those serial killer movies… you get grabbed when you stop!”

“Then we’ll shoot through the roof!”

“This is my mom’s car, you’re not shooting a hole in the roof!”

Then the car sprang up, as if a heavy weight had been removed, and the divots slightly flattened.

“Pull over, pull over!”

“No way, man!”

“I saw something - over there!”

The car skidded to a halt. And there, flapping off into the distance, silhouetted against the dark sky, was a winged form.

“What was that?” the driver cried.

“It had legs like a man.”

“Shut up, it did not!”

“Look!”

“Are those wings?” 

“And the eyes… I saw glowing eyes!”

“Shut up, you’re making stuff up!”

The figure vanished off into the dark trees.

“It’s the curse!” cried the man who’d been sitting behind the driver. He pushed a shock of dark brown hair out of his eyes and pointed to where the thing had vanished. “I’m telling you, it’s that curse I told you about!” He swatted a fly that had taken a sudden interest in him. “Ah! Get outta here!”

“Oh, I already told you enough times to shut up. There’s no curse. Cornpop didn’t exist.”

“Cornstalk, you Neanderthal!” the dark-haired man responded.

“We’re just hallucinating.”

“What about the new girl. What did you see?”

But she was gone, but there was a small fox was loping its way through the field toward the distant trees.

Later, at the TNT area

Bunkers set back into the small grassy hillsides, their concrete walls forming up to small doorways.

Kit pushed open one of the doors and stepped inside. Empty.

Vaulting concrete walls rose around her, terminating at a small opening high overhead. She gazed around. A few palettes, some broken bottles and other detritus - nothing here.

She slipped into the next one - various steel drums, some crumbled concrete…

Something… tainted. Something… dark.

She gazed around. Sniffed the air.

Her real ears appeared, supplanting the pathetic human ones. Something scraping along the concrete roof - a short distance away. A few people wandering around, their heavy footfalls filling the quiet night with more noise than…

“Pathetic.” She muttered. “Even Paul was never this loud, and he was huge!”

Crunching. Stomping. Dragging feet trying to be quiet.

She sniffed the air. Fear. Sweat… something else.

She instinctively turned up her nose at the reek.

But there was something - something on the roof. She gazed up through the small ventilation hole.

Then she saw it. Two glowing eyes staring down at her from high above. Two brilliant eyes watched her for a moment, blinked, then vanished.

Something thrummed at her waist.

Her medallion was responding to… something. It had never done that before.

She held it tight against her leg so as not to draw attention to herself, then listened.

The humans were coming again. 

A small group entered the bunker. “I heard something in here.”

“Yeah, maybe Popcorn’s ghost is coming to kill you for not saying ‘sorry’ enough times!”

“Shut up, and it’s Cornstalk.”

“Stupid name to make up for an Indian.”

“You shut your mouth!”

“Both of you shut up. I don’t know what you heard in here. Unless it was a mouse running across a barrel - there’s nothing in here.”

“Is that toxic waste? Are we going to get superpowers.”

“Only in comic books, you moron. In the real world toxic waste kills you.”

A small moth fluttered past. “Ah, look! It’s a moth! I could fuse with it - I’d be terrifying. I’d be horrible. I’d be… the Mothman!”

“You’re an idiot.”

“I’m telling you, I heard something in here.”

“And I’m telling you, it’s Cornpop.”

“Cornstalk.”

“Leave him alone.”

“I’m telling you, Cornstalk cursed this land - his betrayal wouldn’t go unanswered. You wait! There’s something going on - and it’s his curse.”

Kit shifted her position.

“What’s that?”

“A ghost?”

“No, something moved in the corner over there.”

She cursed, trying to keep every muscle in her small, foxlike body still.

“Watch out, could be one of those giant sewer rats like they have in New York - my aunt said her friend saw one the size of a dog.”

“Your aunt lives in Kentucky.”

“And her friend lives in New Jersey, which is right across from the city.”

“Not the part she’s from.”

“Shut up! Both of you!”

They fell silent as the first guy stepped closer to the palette. He was just about to knock it over when a large moth flapped in his face again.

“Ugh! Get out of here, stupid bug!”

“Mothman!” laughed the other guy, “he was huge and human and had wings like a moth. And he… fluttered viciously in our faces.”

Kit bolted.

The man closest to her swore and leapt back. “There it goes!”

She bolted out of the open door and off into the marshy region beyond, leaving a group of confused teenagers and college students to argue over what they had seen.

She didn’t stop until she’d reached the denser woods, then she slowly morphed back into her human-like shape, using her foxlike ears to scope out the environment.

Her medallion quivered again.

She clamped a hand over it and gazed around. No one was anywhere nearby - the other group was far away, still scouting out the bunkers. She held the medallion upright, pointing it back and forth. It vibrated more strongly coming from the south. Looking behind her to make sure she wasn’t seen, she followed, using the strange vibrations as a sort of compass.

Over the swamp, over a slight rise and into another section of bunkers. Then she pivoted again, following something deeper and deeper into this region.

A bunker yawned before her.

“Why are you special?”

She pushed the door open. It stuck slightly, then shifted, moving as the dirt behind it slowly gave way, and the slightest sliver of evening light crept in.

A slight shimmer of light diffused in from high overhead.

She swatted at a bloated fly that buzzed her face.

Her medallion wobbled in her hand, then lay still. She stared at the far wall. Something in here had drawn her. She took a tentative step forward. It was mostly empty, as the others had been - a barrel or two, some rotting wood, a few bits of graffiti here and there. She checked the medallion, holding it up to the far wall, then turning it slightly back and forth.

Nothing.

Confused, she stepped toward the graffitied wall, hoping maybe there would be some sort of secret entrance, a panel - something!

Nothing.

Something scraped behind her.

She was just about to turn when something told her to duck - fast!

She dropped into a crouch as something whooshed over her head. She dove aside as an overhand strike split the ground where she’d been just a moment earlier. Her muscles tight as cables, she leapt back, just barely missing another sweeping strike. She landed on the barrels, which toppled out from under her, dropping her heavily onto the dirt-smeared concrete of the floor.

A glint of gold and red swept down, crushing one of the barrels. She sprinted away in fox form.

“Oh, clever.”

She rose to full height in the doorway, summoning up her golem as she did. An emaciated little corpse of a statue rose, only to be smashed nearly-instantly.

Two red eyes glowed in the darkness, striding toward her from the far wall.

Something large, human-like, covered in hair.

Wearing a strange, swirling crown and billowing red and gold clothes.

“Sune?” She said in confusion.

The figure stopped.

“Have I threatened you before?”

“It’s me, Kit!”

He stared at her in confusion.

She held up her medallion. It vibrated slightly.

Sune placed a finger against his crown. “Well, that explains some things.” He said with a laugh, the reddish glow fading from his eyes. His weapon promptly vanished, and he strode forward.

Kit bristled slightly, instinctively raising her defenses.

A broad hand plopped down on her head as he scooted past with a laugh. “Good reflexes,” he said with a smile. “I thought I’d clip you a few times there. Good thing I wasn’t serious.”

“You were playing around?” She asked, trying to hide the horror in her voice.

“Of course. I only go all out with one friend…” He paused, a slight shadow passing across his slightly-glowing eyes. “We sparred to keep each other sharp.” 

He had switched to the past tense. How many constellations had Andren sent out - was he even one of them? Where had he been all this time?

Kit watched him stroll out of the bunker and onto a dirt path that connected several concrete structures. Swampy water had begun to build up, blocking off a few of them. A few piles of rotting wood and broken concrete and bits of metal piled here and there.

“What are you doing here, Sune?”

She instinctively began to form a new golem. It rose from the surrounding clay and muck, forming stronger than the one in the bunker.

“Looking for someone.” Sune replied.

“What?”

“I’ll know him when I see him.”

Sune eyed her golem. “Your powers are impressive.”

“They’re weak compared to normal,” she retorted. “This place acts as a dampener.”

“It does, does it?”

“How did you get here?”

Sune laughed. “I can go wherever I please.”

“That doesn’t answer my question.”

“It does, if you pause and think about it.”

“Okay, then when did you arrive?”

“Earlier today.”

She glared. “How?”

“I told you, I can go where I please.”

“So you had nothing to do with that window that opened and dropped us in here?” She asked.

He laughed. “So insistent, young one. When you’re ancient like me, you will learn to relax about the short things.”

Kit’s ears perked up. “The humans are coming. Sune, what is going on?”

“What isn’t going on is the easier question to answer,” he replied. “Relax, young one. You’ll unravel all in due time.”

“Sune, give me a straight answer. Don’t speak in riddles. I don’t have time.”

“You’re nearly immortal, my young one,” he replied, “you have all the time in the world - at least some world, somewhere. Maybe not this world. I’m not sure. I don’t think we have an opening to a future point yet, do we?”

She fought to control her hands from lunging at his throat.

“Sune. Something has been scaring the locals. Do you know what it is?”

Sune chuckled again, turning slightly to watch the huddled mass of humans slowly exploring bunkers a good distance away, their glowing flashlight barely cutting the darkness of night.

“It could be me, if you wanted me to.”

“No, I don’t want you making things worse!” She cried.

He smiled, his monkey-like face splitting into a big, toothy grin. “I would have thought someone with the ability to transform like you would be more mischievous.”

“It’s been a rough time lately,” she responded.

Sune actually seemed concerned for a moment, then gazed back at the humans. “Let me scare them away, then we can talk,” he replied, his sarcastic joviality vanishing for a moment. With that, he vanished completely into a puff of hair, only to reappear as a strange, mutated creature just out of the line of sight of the young humans.

A shriek, a cry, and the humans rushed away, filling the night with their screams, the monster hot on their heels.

She watched as the night finally settled.

Her ears perked.

Something scrabbled nearby - claws on concrete. “Sune?”

The scrabbling stopped.

She stepped toward one of the bunkers. The only sound was the light wafting of the wind through the trees, the hollow moan of the bunkers, the light scratching… and there it was again - claws on concrete, the scattering of dust. Something large was nearby.

She closed her eyes and listened.

Scrabbling.

Claws.

A light shift in the breeze.

Then she dropped to the ground as something crashed into her golem, shattering its upper half with a swift blow before swooping back into the air.

She stood, staring up at the beast. It was humanoid - more elven in grace than the awkward fumbling of a human. Large wings - whether batlike or birdlike she couldn’t tell in this darkness - flapped behind it, like some sort of fallen angel. And the eyes - large and seemingly bulbous, glowing with a slight reddish hue, as if reflecting some distant fire.

Something seemed off about the being. Something she couldn’t quite pinpoint. It swooped down, clawed feet extended. She dove to the side as the talons raked at her side. She rolled, rising to her toes, fists up. If she could get a grasp on the being, perhaps she could pin it long enough for a newly formed golem to hold it until Sune returned.

Something shattered behind her as the creature struck again, then flashed up into the sky. Her golem had taken two solid hits - it now lay in shattered pieces, still semi-alive, but unable to move. She released her hold on the soil, returning it to a pile of swampy mud, and rounded on the creature.

It was gone!

She tried to settle her nerves, calm her pounding heart. She swallowed, trying, but failing to trace the sound of where the creature had gone.

Scratching - this time far away.

Then nothing…

She lowered herself to the ground, breathing heavily.

Something dropped down from the sky.

She shrieked and rose, claws extended.

Sune eyed her. “You seem troubled.”

“The creature came back.”

“What did it look like?” Sune demanded.

She did her best to describe it. Sun listened with rapt interest - a rare feat for him - asking only a few clarifying questions. As she finished her encounter, he nodded.

“What?”

“I’ve met this creature before - in the fairy realm, and elsewhere.”

“What’s it doing here?”

“I’m not sure.”

“Tell me what you know.”

Sune sighed. “Fine. Have you ever met a jatayyim before?”

Kit shook her head. “I don’t think so. What world are they from?”

“Zylthania, at least one iteration of it. They’re flying elf beings.”

“Not as fancy, but a good name.”

“This creature is working with them somehow. I’m not sure if it is one of them or just works with them. It captured a friend of mine and duplicated into his form.”

“How’d you find out?”

“I killed him.”

“You killed your friend?”

Sune shrugged. “It’s what friends do. Anyway, his clone is dead and he is missing.”

“Okay…” she was lost now.

“This creature has two more clones of itself out in the worlds. I tracked one to the fairy realm, and before I could pinpoint where it was, I fell into this realm. I’m not entirely sure where this realm is.”

“This is earth.”

Sune paused a moment. A wicked smile split his features. “Earth?”

She nodded.

“Do you know a small man. I call him ‘Kneelength’?”

She shook her head. “I don’t think so. My husband might. He knows a lot of strange people.”

“Where is he?”

“I’m not actually sure,” she replied. “I had to leave on business - you know - and this is the first I’ve been back for probably decades.”

Sune frowned. “Well, I’ll have to find him and see. Kneelength was a fun human. Lost his arm to some pale creatures crawling around in that realm, you know,” he said, pointing up.

“I’ve seen them,” was all Kit could muster.

“Nu’wo…” Sune paused again. “Well, let’s just say that thing won’t be pretending to be him anymore.”

She didn’t want to ask. The look on his face was all she needed to know. Something had happened, and this sarcastic, jovial being had suddenly darkened at the mention of the one she presumed was his lost friend.

“So what are the jatayyim - elf things?” She asked.

Sune shook his head.

“You don’t know?”

Sune shrugged, then began to pick at his teeth with a fingernail.

“You seem remarkably calm.”

“I’ve taken down one of their allies, and I’m close to taking down more. I’m not intimidated. Besides, they’re trapped in a backwater world and can only slip through portals with the aid of another. They’re a minor threat.”

Something shrieked overhead, and a humanoid figure, large wings, with strange extensions coming off the top of its head, flapped out from a nearby bunker and vanished off into the gloom.

“That thing?”

Sune nodded. “Best I can tell.”

Something shuffled nearby.

Sune smiled. “There you are.”

“What is it?”

Sune pointed at the large swath of contaminated, marshy water. “That thing…”

Kit turned. Something was crouched in the mire. Its squat, neckless form was hunched, yet elongated, its long arms and fingers reaching down to the water, as if washing its hands - which were long and slender. It turned toward them, the light catching in its eyes, reflecting back on them.

“What is it?” Kit asked.

“One of the clones,” Sune replied. “They’re not holding up too well.”

Kit thought of her own golems and how they slowly faded over time, crumbling more and more the longer she tried to sustain them - especially in this world. Was this bird-like creature suffering the same fate?

The creature seemed to blink, the red vanishing for a moment, before turning its gaze from Kit to Sune and back again.

Sune drew out his staff.

The creature eyed him, cocking its head strangely before taking a delicate step out of the slime, strings of algae and muck dripping from its feet as it did.

It barked and chittered at them, its hands curled up against its chest as it jerked its head at strange, almost disjointed angles - striding toward them step by unnerving step. Its mouth opened and closed, chittering in some strange, unknowable language. Wings flapped uselessly on its back - the feathers all gone, leaving just fleshy lobes.

“You’ve seen better days, haven’t you?” Sune said, almost apologetically. The beast’s cream eyes stared blindly back at him, as if every bit of it were slowly eroding away as they watched.

Sune stepped near it and reared back, ready to swipe its head off with a single blow - a mercy kill.

The staff swept toward the creature, and just before it made contact, the creature vanished.

Sune toppled off balance, caught unawares for the briefest of moments. But that was all the time the clone needed. It appeared high overhead, flapping with its emaciated wings, then dropped down toward them.

“Watch out!” Kit cried

Sune shoved her aside, sweeping his staff straight up toward the creature. It dodged easily aside, crunching down on his shoulders, driving his body into the ground before pecking and slashing violently at his unprotected neck and head.

Sune lunged up with one arm, clutching the lobe-like wing of the beast. He wrenched sideways and slammed it into the ground. Blood sprayed as the head met the dirt.

The creature rose, growling at him through the blood running down its face. A broken antler hung awkwardly. It leaped at his face, talons outstretched. Kit watched as Sune sidestepped again, cracking it unceremoniously with the staff, driving its face down into the dust. It vanished and reappeared above him, a spray of blood announcing its arrival as it crashed onto his back.

Sune growled and swept with a powerful backhand. The creature reeled, spinning off across the clearing, crashing into the dark opening of one of the bunkers. It shrieked, and the distinct sound like a large moth trapped in a closet from thudded from inside as it attempted to find its way out.

Sune grinned evilly and leapt across the clearing, dodging through the broken door into the darkness. The flapping and smacking continued, then a shout, and a sickening squelch.

Kit watched through the darkness, her vision slowly adjusting to the gloom, seeing details a normal human wouldn’t have been able to track.

Sune stepped out of the opening, dragging a dissolving corpse behind him, covered in gore that was rapidly vanishing into clouds of dust.

“This clone is finished.”

He brushed the dirt from his shoulder, revealing a long clawmark running from the rounded edge of the muscle down his bicep.

“You’re hurt.”

He looked down and shrugged. “I’ve suffered worse.”

“So, is it dead?”

Sune gazed at the slowly-evaporating corpse. Pieces fell free in dirty chunks, dissolving into the soil. “Nu’wo didn’t do this…”

“My golem doesn’t dissolve all the time. It all depends on the realm and how close I am.”

Sune nodded, watching the body finally dissolve into the mound of dirt. He reached down and pulled a shattered feather from the pile. Had there been one when he’d killed Nu’wo’s clone? Had he just missed it?

The feather flared and burnt up.

He watched it for a moment, then shook his hand, relegating the singed feather to a small cloud of ash and dust.

Kit watched. “The original must be somewhere within a few miles or so, otherwise the clone wouldn’t have held up nearly that well.”

Sune shook his head. “No, this user is way more powerful. It’s in this realm, but it’s far away.”

Kit eyed the pile of dust. How powerful could this thing be to empower one of its clones from dozens if not hundreds of miles? She struggled to extend her reach a few miles in this world before the clone started to fall apart, and her golem was barely humanoid, much less a fighting force like that!

Sune kicked at the dirt. Once he’d spread the ashes and dust far and wide, he gazed at Kit.

“Smell anything?”

She shook her head.

“So, there’s only one clone in this area. I wonder if the other followed those people back to the town?” Sune mused, gazing back across the swampy ground to the road.

“Point Pleasant’s quite a ways away by foot,” Kit observed.

“Not when you can leap that distance.”

“Yeah, you might be able to, but I certainly can’t,” she replied.

Sune hoisted her up onto his shoulder and made to leap toward the direction.

“What?!” She shouted incredulously.

He jumped

About twenty feet straight up into the air, then dropped back down like a stone. Thankfully, Kit was able to spring free as Sune crashed down, shoveling away with dirt with his shoeless feet, leaving several deep tracks where he’d barely righted himself before the crash.

Kit rolled lightly as Sune crashed heavily into the ground.

“This land dampens magic,” she replied, “your leaps don’t work.”

Sune chuckled, brushing the dirt off his baggy pants. He shook the mud from between his toes and cackled. “Ah, so a real challenge, then!”

“How is that creature so powerful then?” Kit asked.

“Maybe it’s from this world after all.”

“Is that possible?”

Sune shrugged. “You’ve been here longer than I have. You tell me.”

Kit thought of the various beings she’d gotten to know in her travels - some were unbelievably powerful. She nodded. “I think this world produces… things.”

“That’s very descriptive.”

She smiled awkwardly and gestured toward the direction the clone had flown. “That thing, it retains its power I believe because it’s been here in this world for so long.”

Sune thought for a moment, but remained silent.

Kit watched him. “What?”

He gazed back, seemingly confused.

“What are you thinking?”

“Nothing in particular,” he replied. “Why?”

“You looked like you were about to say something.”

“I was?”

“Ugh, men!” She barked. “What do you think about these creatures?”

“I try not to when I don’t have to,” he replied with a smile.

She sighed. “I think there’s something in this world that dampens our magic.”

He nodded. “Yes, obviously.”

“But it seems to strengthen the natives.”

Again, he nodded. “So you say.”

Something shrieked high overhead - a strange chittering sound - and a lobe-winged beast dropped down from the heavens and vanished into one of the bunkers.

“Old beast seems plenty powerful, still.”

“I suppose that answered where he came from,” Sune observed.

“But why?” Kit asked. “Why terrorize a town and just run away like that?”

Sune made to cross the distance to the bunker when the beast shot back out, soaring high into the air before sweeping off into the distance, vanishing into a copse of trees.

Kit watched it vanish beyond the scrubby brambles.

“It’s looking for something.”

Sune eyed its path. “Head back to the village, I’m going to follow the creature.”

“But –!”

He shook his head, “You can feel the taint to this place, can’t you?”

She scowled. “Yes. You can too?”

He nodded. “There’s a strange miasma about this land. I need to look into it. That creature is connected somehow.”

With that, he tapped his crown, as if giving her a salute, and vanished.

It was as if a window had opened, letting in a blast of fresh air, then slammed shut. The stifling miasma bubbled and pooled around her, now so much more poignant for being mentioned. It was as if she had become nose blind to it up until now, and suddenly had the wave of fetid rot roll over her once more.

She covered her nose, knowing it wasn’t really what was sensing the decay, and moved away from the area. But the whole region seemed tainted somehow - all of it seemed cursed.

She held out the amulet.

“Broken.”

She’d need to walk back to the town.

She groaned. Sune had given up his attempt to fly back a little too quickly. Did he know something else he wasn’t sharing? Could he sense this decay?

Something whistled high overhead.

The creature soared past, its dark wings splitting the night, red glows at the front of its face like great, bulbous eyes.

“It’s decaying quickly. Something has distracted its master.”

The creature gazed down, seemingly spotting her. It seemed to hesitate but a moment before vanishing over the trees again. She gazed around. Most likely south, if directions on this planet worked like hers. Slightly southwest.

Toward Point Pleasant and her entry point.

She gazed around the site. “Something here… there has to be something here.”

The creature had come here for a reason, had passed through this region and returned over and over again. Why did it haunt this abandoned site of all places? What was here? What was she missing?

She held out the amulet, as if begging it to give her some guidance.

It thrummed lightly.

She needed to follow it.

Then it stopped.

She scowled. “By Andren’s clean-shaven face, if you don’t start working again this instant, I’m shattering you and leaving the humans of this world to pick up the pieces!” She cursed, shaking the metal device.

It thrummed to life, ripping open a portal.

She scowled for a moment, unsure of what to do.

Then the portal wavered, as if it were about to collapse. She dove through before it could seal her back in this place, landing heavily in a strange forest.

A rotting pedestal stood before her, its surface a sort of stone-like wood that seemed covered with cracks and pock-marks. Several large chunks had fallen off, leaving desiccated piles around its border. 

There was a man standing near it, his long black coat trailing out nearly to his ankles, his wide-brimmed hat hiding most of his dark hari. He turned to look at her, and when he did, his face hung strangely, as if the bone structure had turned to powder and the only thing holding up his features was the fat beneath the skin. The whole appearance seemed like a candle left too close to the fireplace. She knew who it was instantly - only one being’s face could change that drastically.

He slapped his hands together, creating a small puff of dust, which he shook free. A small pile of similar-colored dust lay on the ground nearby. He eyed it momentarily, then turned to her.

“Cole?”

He smiled. “I see you’ve found your way back to my little realm. Run into any weird golems lately?” He said with a laugh.

“What are you doing here?”

He shrugged. “Examining this pedestal and waiting for a visit from an old friend - I guess that would be you.”

“What’s going on?”

“It’s corrupted,” he muttered. “It’s spreading too fast,” he replied.

“Why do you care?”

“As goes this realm, so goes my realm.”

She scowled. “Why?”

“Where do you think my world’s magic comes from?”

She gazed at the rotting pedestal.

“And how did you finally find a way in here?”

Cole shrugged. “I have friends. You could say they gave me a key.”

She chuckled in response. “Wish I could borrow it so I could find my way back home. Got sucked into this stupid place and back to earth.”

“Really?” Cole responded. “That’s strange. I’ve never known of a portal stone to stop working… well, once. What have you been using?”

She turned her palm over, showing her amulet.

“May I?” He asked.

She handed it to him.

He held it up and turned it. “It’s been tainted with other domains, you know.”

She scowled incredulously. “What do you mean?”

He pointed at the long seam that formed a sort of design motif running across its face. “Fairy realm, death realm, your realm, I’m assuming. And this is something else. Has anyone else used it?”

She nodded. “I had it stolen from me a while ago, it hasn’t worked right since.”

Cole nodded. “That makes sense.” He pulled a small crystal from his pocket and held it against the medallion. “Hold a moment, let me adjust something.”

She frowned. “What are you doing?”

He held the medallion against the stone a while longer, then drew it back.

“There.”

She held the small disk in her hand. He had actually removed one of the scratches.

“What did you do?” She asked.

“I cleansed out one of the realms - they were interacting… badly with each other and causing your difficulty.” He slid his small crystal into his pocket. “You should be fine, now.”

She turned the medallion over in her hand, then used it to open a small doorway. “Thank you, Cole.”

He nodded, or at least an approximation of a nod with mashed potatoes for a face.

She vanished, and found herself back in the same spot she had just left.

“TNT area, again.”

But something was different. Something had changed. Things seemed more run-down, more decrepit. It was as if years had passed. The swampy water still settled all over, dirt paths running here and there. The bunkers were more overrun than normal.

Something blew past. A newspaper. It was dated March 28, 1980. A volcanic eruption on the other side of the country? What had happened? How had she ended up here?

Then something shimmered, and the world resolved itself. The newspaper vanished from her hands, the grass shrank back, the pond receded slightly, the trees shrank. She was back where she had begun - when she had begun.

She collapsed to the ground as something streaked overhead. Her medallion thrummed, then went still. She gazed at it.

“What is happening?”

Then the creature dropped down in front of her. Its face was gaunt, eyes bugging out. The antlers had snapped free of its face, the horn-like stubs protruding from where they had been. A face that had once been almost elven gaped at her, its features slowly coalescing into a strange blob-like mass with a small gash where the mouth had been.

It jerked unsteadily, its gangly shoulders bereft of feathers, yet still bearing the rough scars where the pinion feathers had once inserted. The creature’s skin had all the appearance of a plucked turkey, just darker. Its flesh clung to the bones as it staggered forward on birdlike legs, its arms tucked tight against its sides as it approached.

Long wings extended out the back, featherless and lobed.

“Mothman is appropriate for whatever you are,” she spat. “You’re a miserable clone.”

The red eyes blinked momentarily - more shut off and turned back on - then locked on to her. The creature rushed forward, arms extended.

She yelped and tried to dive out of the way, but it bore down on her, clenching around her throat and bearing her down under its weight, which was more than at first glance.

She struck the ground with her shoulder, kicking at the monster to free herself. Clawlike hands clenched around her ankle. WIth a cry, she kicked out at the beast, catching it in the eye. The creature withdrew its grip, clutching its wounded eye, letting out a sibilant hiss at her as she rose to her feet, only to be tackled from behind as it regained its bearings.

She writhed on the ground, clawing and kicking, as it attempted to pin her again, shoving her from behind, driving her face into the dirt. She felt her nose and mouth fill with mud. Choking and spitting, she coiled and struck again, slashing the monster across the face and drawing a line of dripping blood-like ichor, which splattered out of its wounded cheek, dribbling down its collapsing face into its sorry excuse for a mouth.

It leaped back as she did the same.

Several feet lay between them. She heaved, holding her injured side, watching as the beast stalked around her. Its face drooped almost like a deflated balloon, its eye blinking slightly. Its small mouth twitched and moaned as it filled with ichor.

She bristled, a light matt of fur racing across her body. She growled, using whatever strength she could to extend a series of razor-sharp talons from the tips of her fingers. She barked at the creature, threatening it to approach.

It paused momentarily, its head jerking side to side unnaturally, then seemingly winked out of existence and appeared beside her. She barely had time to move when it struck. Its fist connected solidly with the side of her head, sending her body ragdolling across the dirt.

She awoke against the grassy hill that covered one of the bunkers. Blood filled the vision of one of her eyes.

She blinked several times to try to clear the cloud of red, but not use.

Her head swam, her vision pulsed.

The creature reappeared in front of her and wrenched her up from the ground.

It wasn’t messing around. It wasn’t capable of gloating. It had come to kill her and there was no avoiding it.

She felt in her pocket for the medallion. It was gone.

Something glinted a short distance away - if she could reach it!

She felt the claws closing around her throat - felt something cricking in her windpipe. She growled and swiped her claws up and along the forearm. More of the black blood flashed free. She growled and slashed a few more times. The grip loosened just enough for her to pry back a few fingers and drop to the ground.

The creature seemed confused, both registering the damage to its hand and also the escape of its prey. It gazed between where she had been and where she was, as if trying to understand what had happened.

“Intellect according to distance. Good to know,” she gasped, leaping forward as the creature regained its senses and turned on her, moving almost robotically.

She dove for the medallion and snatched it up, hugging it tight and wrenching open a portal to somewhere - anywhere!

The world shifted.

But a tug.

She looked down in horror to see the creature clinging to her ankle. The portal sealed behind them.

She was back in the fairy realm. The decrepit pedestal languished before her. Cole spun in shock.

“What’s that doing here?” He gasped, the first time she had ever seen him show the slightest bit of surprise or fright.

 She kicked at its face, catching it in the jaw. Blood welled up, dropping free in coagulated ribbons as it clawed its way up her body, reaching for her throat.

A flaming blue sword pierced down through its body, pinning it to the ground.

The grip went limp for a moment, and Cole wrenched his blade free. He whirled it through the air once more before bringing it down onto the creature’s head, splitting its face in two with a sickening thwock. The creature dissolved into dust.

Kit hobbled upright.

Cole chuckled. “Well, that was not what I’d expected to drop in.” He turned to her. “It’s been a while, Kit.”

She nodded, gasping and holding her injured side.

“Why aren’t you armed?” He asked.

She shook her head and tried to catch her breath. “Lost it,” was all she could respond.

He chuckled, then made as if to whistle. He paused, seemingly thinking better of it, and rifled in a pouch that lay on the ground. He drew out a pistol. “Here, take this. You can give it back the next time we meet.”

He tossed it to her.

“It won’t run out of ammo, so no worries on that front. But, you must use it every day, though,” he cautioned, “or it will grow hotter and hotter in your grip.”

She nodded. “Oh, and thank you for fixing the medallion.”

He looked at her for a moment, his decrepit face showing no evident emotion. She continued.

“I would have never realized that it had been tainted - and by death of all things. I know it was probably a big sacrifice to draw that out, but it’s working fine now.”

His melting face twisted into what appeared to be a genuine smile - a little too elongated for comfort - and he nodded. “You’re welcome.”

An awkward silence hung in the air. She turned. “I should be going.”

He nodded. “Be careful out there.”

She wrenched open a portal and was just stepping through when he approached the pile of ashen dust and crouched over it. He plucked a handful of the powder from the ground and smiled.

The portal dumped her back onto earth - the best she could tell. The taint was still heavy in the air, but this wasn’t anywhere she recognized. She groaned and rose to full height, feeling the cricks pop as she stretched.

“Ugh… what happened?”

“You okay, miss?”

She jumped, turning. “Oh, hi! Yes.”

“Where’d you come from?”

She shrugged. “I was at the TNT area and got completely turned around.”

“TNT area? Where’s that?”

She moved to point, but realized she didn’t know the direction from here. She turned back to the man. “It’s just a little ways from Point Pleasant.”

“Point Pleasant?”

“Yeah, just on the other side of the river.”

The man seemed confused. “I’m not sure what you’re talking about, ma’am. I like those fake ears, by the way.”

She reached up, feeling the fox-like ears sticking off her head. She laughed. “Yeah, they’re part of a costume I’m working on. I was taking them for a run to make sure they held well enough.”

“They look so real, good job!”

She smiled. A large fly buzzed her face. She swatted at it and continued the conversation.

“You may want to find shelter. There’ve been weird things reported in the area. Probably not safe to be wandering out here by yourself.”

She nodded. “Thanks.”

The man was about to leave, when she stopped him. “Out of curiosity. Where am I?”

He looked at her with a mix of pity and confusion. “New Jersey.”

She nodded. “Okay. Where in New Jersey?”

“Oh, we call it the Pine Barrens. You’re up near the northern end of it.”

She felt her blood run cold. “Thank you,” she replied.

“Do you need a ride somewhere?”

She shook her head. “No, I should be fine.”

The man drove away, his tail lights vanishing into the trees.

“Whoo…” she muttered. “And how did I get here?”

Something dropped from above, a dark cloak billowing dramatically as it touched down onto the roadway.

“You’d better have a good reason…” something muttered into her mind.

“Syth?”

The creature rose above her. “You leave for decades and then appear when everything’s going to hell in a hand-basket? Did you cause all this?”

“What are you talking about?” She said, now genuinely confused.

Long, thin fingers closed around her arm and dragged her none-too-gently off the road. “You don’t know? Seriously?”

“I don’t. A portal opened and I dropped here. I was talking with Cole one moment and the next–!”

“Cole? He started all this! Where is he?”

“I saw him in the fairy realm - outside Point Pleasant.”

“The Mothman sightings?”

“You know about those?”

“Everyone does, been going on for months. Cole, or should I say “Cold” has been seen snooping around the area - Lemurians, too.”

“I have no idea what’s going on,” she protested. “When I was there, news was just breaking of the first sighting. I fought and Cole killed one of the creatures, Sune killed the other.”

“Sune?”

“Yeah, kinda like a large monkey.”

Syth sighed. “Rip told me about this.”

“Rip?”

“Kneelength - Paul’s friend he rescued from the fairy realm. He met Sune when trapped there.”

Kit put a hand to her head. “I’m sorry, this is all too much. Where am I? When am I?”

Syth looked around. “In the Pine Barrens. I would’ve thought that was obvious.”

“Yes, but forests are forests. Forgive me for not recognizing one particular tree or swamp,” she spat. “Now, when am I?”

“1967.”

“So I lost a year…” she replied.

“A year?”

“Yeah,” she replied. “Sune went one way chasing this bird thing and I went the other. Long story short, I got ambushed but escaped into the fairy realm, dragging one of the creatures in there with me. Cole killed it.”

“Well, I doubt that,” Syth replied. “It’s still in the area.”

“What’s it look like?”

Syth described the beast. It was one of the clones.

“They’re both dead. Sune said there were only two.”

Syth shrugged. “You know more of that than I do. I’m just telling you what everyone has been seeing.”

She sighed.

“So, where have you been?”

“I had other jobs to do, Syth. I can’t be in this realm when there’s so much else to do.”

“Yet you came back.”

“Unwillingly.”

“Paul will be excited to hear that reasoning.”

“This has nothing to do with him.”

“Your husband has nothing to do with your decision to leave? You should have thought about that before dragging him into all this.”

“Where is he?”

“Trying to figure out where the sasquatch went.”

“Sasquatch?”

“Big, hairy beasts - look like overgrown humans with large feet.”

“Trolls?”

“No. Trolls as squat and toadlike.”

“No, they aren’t. I mean, some are, but generally, trolls are tall and elf-like.”

“Not in our world,” Syth replied.

Kit nodded. “I forgot. Trolls in our world come in a few varieties - some are the squat, toadlike version. Some are elvish, they call themselves ‘Hul,’ and then the hairy, tall ones are called ‘Quien.’”

“Interesting,” replied Syth, with a clear disdain resonating through his mind.

“And why aren’t you with him?”

“Research.”

“Cole was standing in front of a rotting pedestal. Is there one here?”

“Paul destroyed it decades ago. It’s what freed me from this place,” Syth replied.

“This pedestal was collapsing in on itself.”

“Nahanni…” Syth muttered, almost to himself, yet she still heard the whisper.

“What was that?”

“Cole chained a young sasquatch to a pedestal and we had to destroy it to save the child.”

“That’s horrible, why would he do that?”

Syth shook his head. “I don’t know. We can’t figure out what his endgame is, and we’ve been a little tied up lately with other issues...”

Kit waved her hand. “What’s this feeling?”

“Feeling?”

“This… corruption.”

Syth frowned. “Come to think of it, I felt something similar a few other places .”

“And I felt something like this in Brown Mountain when Paul and I explored there. There was this figurine - it just oozed this foulness.”

“Spearfinger’s prison, she’s been leading us on a goose chase lately,” Syth nodded. “Could Cole be doing this on purpose?”

Kit paused, considering something. “Did you say Lemurians had been sighted in New Jersey?”

“I think so - men dressed in all black asking questions about Cole. You know about them?”

“Maybe. If they’re Lemurians, then they’re from my realm. I thought they were wiped out.”

Syth shook his head. “No. They’ve set up a city far out West under a mountain.”

“They were destroyed, though…”

“Apparently not all of them,” Syth replied. “I’ve been there. I’ve seen them.”

Kit tried to process what she was hearing. “Describe the city.”

“Crystals everywhere, geometry that didn’t really make sense, dimensions that seemed to stretch as you got closer and closer to them - you know. A completely normal place, apparently,” he replied, sarcastically. She thought she saw the slightest bit of humor tinge his features.

“You’ve changed since I last met you.”

He gave a little jerk of his head, as if acknowledging the truth. “Perhaps,” then he resumed the conversation. “But the strange thing was that this whole area was underneath a pocket of water.”

“A pocket of water.” she repeated. “They were wiped out in a flood generations ago.”

“Well, between the water and the crystals, and a large creature. Oh, and they referred to me as something called a ‘Deep One.’”

“A Deep One?”

“Ever heard of it?”

“No.”

Something buzzed past her face. She swatted at it, then gazed around.

“What is it?”

“Nothing… just thought I saw something.”

The insect buzzed her again.

“I will crush you, you stupid -!”

Sune materialized nearby and lightly dropped to the ground. “Such anger.”

She glared at him. “And where have you been?”

“I should ask the same of you - you vanished from this plane for almost a year. I couldn’t find you anywhere.”

She scowled. “My medallion messed up and I got ripped through time.”

“Interesting,” Sune said. He held out his hand. She understood and passed over her medallion. He held it up. “Many competing magics. I can sense…” he seemed to search for the words, “... something of the fairy realm, hmmm… I’m not sure on these others. I sense the faintest whiff of death, and is this the lavender of dream?”

“Cole drew those out.”

“Cole?”

“Yes, he’s been around this world for a long time.”

Sune stroked his furry chin with his broad fingers. “Same Cole who has been investigating Point Pleasant lately?”

Kit shook her head. “I don’t know.”

“Probably.”

Sune jumped, then laughed, “brilliant trick! I don’t know a transformation that makes me invisible - truly invisible. Brilliant!”

Syth regarded the large form. “Are you a sasquatch?”

Kit translated. “He thinks you’re one of the Quien.”

“Oh, no. Those time-twisting lunatics. I’d never associate with them. I prefer my time travel to be in one direction.”

Syth examined Sune. “So, where do you come from?”

“My own realm - beyond the waterfalls and under the mountains.”

“And what’s that realm called?”

“You do not have the letters to pronounce it. Where are you from?”

“Here,” Syth replied.

“And what are you?”

“Locals call me the Jersey Devil.”

Sune nodded. “I’ve killed my share of devils in my life. What kind of devil are you?”

Syth shrugged. “I don’t know. Most people don’t see me anymore, so I don’t think I’ve been classified.”

Sune stepped closer. “What did you say the Lemurians called you?”

“Dark One.”

Sune chuckled. “Well, isn’t that a coincidence.”

Kit turned. “What do you mean?”

The staff was in Sune’s hand before Kit could respond. It swept through the air with such blinding speed, Syth barely had time to leap high into the trees before it took off his head. His wings spread to slow his descent, but Sune seemingly materialized in front of him, staff arcing down onto Syth’s head.

The devil swept his wings up, locking the blade in between the talons, but the momentum launched him straight at the ground.

Kit dove aside as Syth’s body crashed into the dirt and brambles of the forest floor.

Sune was upon him like a bolt of lightning.

“Drop the act, demon!”

Syth rolled out of the way, his bladed wings blocking, his tail lashing out to try to trip Sune up.

Nothing worked.

A whip cracked out against the staff, which promptly vanished, only to reappear in Sune’s other hand. It screamed toward Syth’s unprotected side, catching him in a mixture of shoulder and wing and launching him into a nearby stand of trees. He rebounded off of several before coming to a stop in the middle of a clearing.

Sune dropped to the ground and stalked toward Syth.

“I’ve searched for you for ages,” he began, his staff reappearing. “You vanished after West Virginia. Now, I have you. And you’d better fight back. I won’t go easy on you.”

The staff crunched the ground where Syth had been. He’d managed to vanish.

Sune shot his gaze around. His face broke into a scowl.

“What are you doing, Sune?”

“This is that creature I’ve been hunting. The Dark One is the name the Lemurians gave it.”

“That can’t be. I’ve known of this creature for years. He’s a friend!”

Sune glared back at her. “You’re friends with the demon we hunt?”

“He’s not the demon!”

Sune cast his gaze around again. “Got you!” He sprung up into the trees, his staff shattering several trunks and cascading chunks of broken splinters down around them. He let his momentum carry him back to the ground, leaving large grooves where he struck the soil. Shattered trees dropped around him, stabbing into the ground, throwing up clouds of dust as ancient trees toppled to the earth.

He slowly turned, his eyes glowing slightly as he gazed through the destruction, trying to find the object of his rage.

Kit’s golem grabbed his arm. “Stop this!” She yelled.

He shook it off, sending the golem into a cloud of dust that rapidly reformed, clutching him again, this time by the ankle.

He kicks it away, sending the cloud scattering as clods of dirt which peppered the surroundings.

“This being has been here for almost three hundred years! He’s not what you’re looking for!”

Sune’s gaze tore through his surroundings again.

He leapt off toward distant trees, and as Kit watched, more trees shattered. Syth dropped down, fleeing like a shadow, spikes engaged as he vanished in and out of sight. She could barely see him most o the time, but Sune was a mad dog, chasing him wherever he went.

Syth spun, blocking the staff with his wings and lashing out with the whip. It looped several times around Sune’s broad forearm. The monstrous monkey-like being laughed as the lash lanced open a line of cuts along his flesh. He clenched his fist and wrenched the whip from Syth’s hand. He then retaliated, punching with all his strength.

The leathery wings absorbed the blow as if made of steel, but the energy launched Syth back. He cracked into a nearby tree, gasping audibly before sinking down against the ground.

Sune slowly unwrapped the lash from his arm, flexing his fingers. Blood welled from the wound.

“Well-fought,” he complimented, striding forward, “but this chase ends now.”

Syth pulled himself into a sitting position, stretching his wings to help him upright. He stood, holding an injured spot along his arm, watching as Sune strode toward him, his face hard - cold and determined.

Sune’s staff disappeared for a moment.

“So, I have one question for you before I crush the life from your miserable body.”

Syth glared at him. “What?”

“Where’s Nu’wo?”

The staff reappeared and buried itself into the side of the tree, just inches from Syth’s head.

“You didn’t even flinch.” Sune observed. “Brave. I wonder, are you holding back? Is this even your real form or did you create another clone, coward?”

Syth didn’t reply.

“Where’s Nu’wo?”

“I don’t know.” Syth responded, his strength faltering as he dropped to a knee. “I don’t know who that even is.”

The staff crunched into the ground. Sune crouched over him, his simian face just inches from Syth’s. He gaze into his eyes, boring down into his soul. A broad smile split his features. “You’re either the best liar I’ve ever met…”

Syth’s gaze locked with Sune.

“... or I have the wrong demon.” He stood to full height, extending a hand. “I’ve never said that before.”

Syth accepted the hand, allowing himself to be pulled to his feet.

Sune turned. A monstrous stone and wood golem stood behind him.

“I’ve seen the error of my ways, ‘Kit.’”

She stepped out from behind her creation.

Sune probed at the stone monster looming over him. “You spared nothing to make this one.”

“I was about to crush you if you’d gone any farther.” She stated coolly.

“And you may have succeeded,” Sune replied, giving the golem another firm poke in the chest. “But you can let him go, now. The strain is wearing on your body.” Sune replied, giving her a playful flick in the forehead. She gasped, and the golem crumbled to dust.

Sune turned. “You’re no Dark One.”

Syth chuckled morosely. “You just figured that out? You could have just asked.”

Sune made his staff vanish again, then cracked his broad knuckles. “You only get to know someone you fight against. It’s the spar philosophy of friendship.”

“So… we’re friends?” Syth asked.

“If I don’t kill you, then I consider you a friend.”

Kit snorted. “Strange way to make friendships, Sune.”

Sune shrugged. “Best way in my opinion. You really know a man when you’re trying to bash his skull in - and this one didn’t beg or plead at all. And he didn’t hold back at all.” Sune held up his arm, where a looping scar ran through his fur. “That was a skillful attack,” he complimented.

Syth shook his head, then stretched his wings, easing the cricks out of them. “Thankfully we fought now and not a few years ago, or I wouldn’t have been able to block any of those blows.”

Sune eyed him, waiting for more explanation.

“Since Nahanni, my wings have become shields in their own right, only broke in the dream.”

Sune nodded. “I don’t know where this Nahanni is, but it is obviously a place of great power. And your wings are indeed strong - swords and shields.”

Sune placed a large arm around Syth’s shoulders. “I enjoyed the fight, young one.” He said, clapping the devil on the shoulder, nearly knocking him forward. “You’re clever, and know your way around a fight!”

Syth nodded, not knowing what else to do.

Sune strode around the clearing. “This is your territory, Syth?”

He nodded.

“You feel that taint, don’t you?”

“It’s been this way for years.”

Sune stepped around. “Has this ‘Cole’ person been here before?”

Syth nodded.

“And he’s been to Point Pleasant.”

“Yes.”

“Where else was tainted?”

“Salem, I believe, probably Nahanni, Santa Lucia a few other spots I haven’t been able to visit to confirm.”

Sune nodded. “And has he been to Salem, Nahanni, or these other places?”

“Nahanni and Salem, yes.” Syth replied. “He can take on different faces, so I’m not sure specifically unless I meet him. Rumors are that he caused Santa Lucia, but I’m not sure.”

Sune smiled. “I’d like to meet this Cole fellow, I think I’d have a few words with him.”

“Hasn’t he been seen in Point Pleasant? That’s where I last saw him.”

“And he can enter and exit the fairy realm?” Sune asked.

Syth frowned. “He didn’t used to be able to, but apparently, he’s learned how. We’ve known that since Nahanni. I’ve been trying to track down his location, but barely anyone knows his name.”

“Until now,” Kit replied.

Syth nodded. “Yes, he’s been reported as Indrid Cold, but it’s probably someone just hearing it wrong and the newspaper ran with it. I don’t know why he would appear under his real name.”

Kit shrugged. “What difference would it make? Is there a significance to his name in your world?”

“Not as far as I can tell,” Syth replied. “The dullahan - headless horseman - has been a fixture in many mythologies. How he got tied up in it, I’m not sure. All I’ve been able to pinpoint is that he came into existence sometime around the Revolution.”

“I love a good revolution,” Sune laughed. “What was this?”

“This country broke away from the island that ruled it.”

“Ah,” Sune replied, “Much like my people. I think I’ll like this land. And how did you come about?”

Syth shrugged. “Born on cursed ground, or cursed by my mother. I’m not sure.”

Sune laughed. “I had no mother. I was birthed from a rock.”

“That’s a myth and you know it!” Kit replied.

“Honest truth.”

Kit turned to Syth. “When did you meet him for the first time?”

“I don’t remember,” Syth replied. “I’ve guarded these forests for centuries.”

“Then what century?” Kit asked again.

“I don’t know. I might have met him back in the 1700s, but if I did, he was riding a horse and wearing a jacket like everyone else did back then. I wouldn’t be able to identify him.”

Sune strode around the clearing, sniffing the air. “Is there a fairy ring nearby?”

“A few of them,” Syth responded. “And a blue hole.”

“A blue hole?”

“Easier to show you.”

A few miles away, they paused at a pool, surrounded by a ring of stones. Sune stepped up. “Interesting.” He gazed over the edge of the stone circle, refusing to step over it and into the water. “Any idea where it leads?”

“I don’t dare enter. Though in dream form, Paul said it took him to the Soviet Union.”

Sune paused and crouched. “This circle hasn’t been breached, correct?”

“Not that I’ve felt.”

“Something’s inside it. Something’s fallen into that hole and ended up wherever it leads.”

Syth stepped up and reached out his hand. It stopped at an invisible barrier. “I can’t pass through.”

Kit held her amulet and stretched out a hand. It passed through the barrier. Sune did the same, though it was unclear what, exactly, gave him that ability. They turned to Syth. “You’ve been in the fairy realm?” Sune asked.

“As far as I know. That or the death realm, I’m not sure.”

Sune laughed. “Ah, the death realm. That’s a strange place. I’ve explored it a few times. Death realm is more a misnomer - it’s not actually where all the dead go - just certain ones.”

Kit nodded, “when you tried to help Paul, he was in the death realm. That’s where Babe’s spirit was trapped in a cocoon of vengeance.”

Syth gazed behind him. “And Babe’s tree form died near here,” he led them through the woods, finally coming up on an overgrown stump, seemingly blasted from the inside, split up the middle and charred.

Sune nodded in appreciation at the destruction. The ground around it was still scorched, as if the life was unwilling to approach. Dead vines had coiled around it, splaying out like mangled fingers, stretched out away from the blast as if frozen in time where they had been sent.

“You did this?” Sune asked.

“I helped.”

Sune smiled. “I like your style. And this explosion.”

Kit beamed, “from what I hear, that was Paul’s work.”

“Paul?” Sune asked.

“He’s a giant in this world, kind-hearted old goof.”

Syth chuckled. “I suppose that’s about all there is to say about him.”

Sune looked around. “Where is he?”

“He’s looking for the Sasquatch - uh, Quien - on the other side of the country.”

“Why aren’t you with him?”

“I’ve been trying to track down the agents of this creature known as Spearfinger,” Syth explained. “She’s taken over a section of land and has some truly evil things afoot. She even trapped several of us in some sort of dream realm.”

Sune eyed the broken corpse of the tree being. He’d seen his share of strange creatures in his travels, but this one was unique. “Is this something local to this world?”

Syth shook his head. “Not to my knowledge. It was a spirit of vengeance grafted to a tree.”

“So if it happened once, it may happen again?” Kit asked.

Sune nodded. “I would imagine so. I think it’s an elemental.”

“What’s an elemental?”

“A spirit of nature - a being of power that is neither mortal or immortal. It just is. Normally, they are bound to a specific region, unless what binds them is broken or they are forcibly removed.”

Syth eyed the broken tree. “It was trying to take over this region.”

“Was it after something here?”

Syth turned and gazed at Sune. “Yes. It was trying to draw energy from the fairy realm. Paul stopped it.”

“Stopped it how?”

“He destroyed the pedestal from inside the fairy realm.”

Sune looked around him. “But it reformed. I can sense it.”

Syth nodded. “Same, but it’s different now. I used to be trapped in this realm. Now, I can leave, but… the pull is greater.”

“And the taint?”

“It’s gotten worse.”

Sune gazed back in the direction of the Blue Hole. “I sense something coming from that place. It’s as if something has corrupted all of this.”

Syth shrugged. “I can feel it, but I cannot find it. And I cannot enter the fairy realm freely, so my hands are bound.”

Sune looked at Syth. “I don’t see any fetters on you.”

“It’s an expression,” Syth replied. “I am prevented from acting.”

Sune winked. “I know.” And with that, he vanished, transforming into a bloated fly.

Kit cursed, “No, you don’t!” She cried, jumping up and slapping him out of the air. He struck the ground, transforming back into his normal form with a laugh.

“You’re getting better at that.”

She stood over him, arms crossed. “No, you’re taking me with you this time. No running off to fight and leaving me behind.”

Syth watched as the two of them vanished into a gateway.

Fairy Realm in an adjacent reality to Pine Barrens

Sune stepped through, pulling Kit along behind him.

“You didn’t have to try to kill him,” she rebuked.

“It was a worthy fight,” Sune replied. He cracked his knuckles. “Now, where is that pedestal?”

They roamed through this strange land for what felt like days, roaming down long trails and paths that cut strange routes through the darkening realm. Whitish shadows crept away, their dark eyes sticking in sharp contrast to their pale forms.

“What are those?” Kit asked.

“I only see them here. It’s like they’re some sort of parasite.”

“Is this where you first saw that bird-creature?”

Sune nodded. “On a trail like this. It ambushed us.”

“You and Nu’wo?”

“And a strange little human named Kneelength.”

Kit nodded. “Another of Paul’s friends.”

Sune chuckled. “He was a funny little man. Kept getting himself eaten.”

“Really?”

“Oh, yes. That’s how I met him. He was being eaten by those creatures, so Nu’wo and I took him around. Then that creature attacked and captured Nu’wo.” Sune fell silent after that.

They continued on in silence for a while longer, watching the pale creatures creep along behind them. “Has this realm always been this dangerous?”

Sune nodded. “Not for me, but for one like you, probably.”

She ignored the insult, bristling slightly as they continued. Something shifted in the darkness.

“Another one?” She asked.

Sune shook his head. “This one’s different. Those live in the swamps of Oni’ja. Guaron.”

The creature was froglike, with long legs that it used to squat and hop its way through the shadows, periodically raising itself on tall legs that could stretch like a human’s. It watched them through bulbous eyes, its pale-green skin covered in strange pockets of glandular pimples.

“That’s not a troll?” She asked. She hadn’t spent a ton of time in the city, preferring the suburbs and other realms to the hustle and bustle of the heart.

“No. They’re more toadlike.”

She glared at him.

The Guaron stuffled along, half plodding, half hopping. Its large eyes shifted and bulged as it seemed to keep parallel with them.

“What’s it want?”

“Go ask. I tend to hit things when I meet them for the first time and I don’t think that thing would survive.”

“Troll Market must love you,” she said, referring to the crude name outsiders gave to the markets along the river that ran through Oni’ja. It sat in the shadows beneath a large rocky outcropping where most of the city had been built, and so it typically stank with smoke and other detritus that got trapped under the overhang. It seemed to be constantly bathed in filth and shadow, and thus any criminal or refugee seemed to settle there first. The amount of innocents preyed upon by the underbelly of society was incalculable.

Sune nodded seriously. “I tend to clean up that region whenever I visit. The Oni don’t welcome me there. They say I get in the way of their duties.”

“Duties or business?” She replied scornfully.

Sune nodded.

The Guaron seemed to croak at them, plodding along in the shadows, then vanished.

They finally arrived at what had been the pillar.

Sune paused and took in the scene, gazing back and forth without moving his head.

“What is it?” Kit asked.

“We’re surrounded,” he said matter-of-factly, seemingly not caring, stating it as if one would state that the grass was, indeed, green.

She moved to look, but he tapped his staff against the pillar. She snapped her attention to it. “You startled me on purpose,” she accused.

“When your prey is hiding and you can see them,” Sune muttered, “you don’t let them know you know.”

“How are they our prey? They’re hunting us!”

“Oh, you are most definitely their prey,” Sune replied, “but I’m no one’s prey.” He gazed at the pillar, running his staff down its slowly-regrowing edges. “I imagine this is the one Paul destroyed?”

Kit nodded. “Probably.”

“And it’s regrown almost its whole length. Is this how the one Cole was near looked?”

“No.”

“Then it’s not corrupted.”

“But the taint?” She asked.

“It’s somewhere else,” Sune replied. “Back near that blue hole?”

“Can we go back?”

Sune smiled, still eyeing the pedestal. “I could, but you’d get taken down before we moved beyond the treeline.”

“I’m faster and stronger than that.”

“So is the Guaron,” Sune replied. “It can leap ten times farther than you, pin you down with its powerful legs, swallow you whole if it wanted, and it can stretch that tongue longer than that, trapping and dragging prey back to that crushing maw. It might even give me a challenge if I didn’t know it was there.”

“How are they allowed to live in Oni’ja?”

“Dangerous place with dangerous secrets. Some hollows are unknown to even the rulers.”

“How do you know about them?” She said, her eyes moving to see what was in her periphery.

“I have many friends…” he replied enigmatically with a slight smile, “... and many favors waiting to be drawn.”

“So you have spies?”

Sune smiled and made a buzz sound, which sounded strange coming from his simian mouth. He laughed. “When we land, we will immediately open another gate. Do you understand?”

“No…” she began, but it was too late. The gate was open and Sune was diving through, her hand firmly grasped in his. He dropped into a small open field and promptly opened another gate. He dove through. She gazed behind. The Guaron was hot on their heels, but just as its tongue shot out to latch around her ankle, the new doorway winked closed, shredding half the tongue’s length as it did. It flopped and flailed, spraying dark red blood.

Sune laughed and dropped out of the portal into another place. “That’ll take a few years to regrow.” He plucked up the length of tongue and gave it a playful flick, imitating Syth and the whip. “Good stretch, but it will rot away too soon.” He tossed it aside and wiped the slime off his hands.

“Where are we, where were we?”

Sune shrugged. “I tried to get back to that field where we first met.”

“You mean swamp?”

“One man’s field is another man’s swamp. That’s nothing compared to the swamps near –” He trailed off.

“What’s wrong?”

“The creature. It’s here.”

Something dropped from above, splashing down into the marsh. She now understood why the Lemurians had confused this creature with Syth. The similarities were uncanny. Thin, cloaked in dark wings, hunching as it landed, a serpentine tail shooting out its back, twitching slightly - the creature could have been of the same species as Syth. Small glowing lights seem to stretch out from around it, vanishing slightly as they floated farther and farther away.

Then it stood and the similarities evaporated. Its body was coated with a rapidly-molting layer of feathers, as if it were decaying before them. Sharp talons glinted as it pushed back its broad wings. Its face was a strange melding of elf and bird, and while it had once had two antlers jutting off the sides of its head - only one remained.

It stared at them with a scowl.

“Ah, the Great Sune. You’ve chased me all over creation, and yet, here I’ve been all this time. I’ll be honest, I did not expect to see you here in this realm,” it paused, its voice cold and threatening. “This isn’t your realm, traveler.”

“You interfered in mine,” Sune spat, “I’ll interfere in yours.” Sune bit back.

The birdlike creature smiled, its lipless mouth parting in a toothless grin. “I always liked you, Sune.” It cracked its neck and twitched spasmodically. “Shall we?”

Sune’s staff erupted into view. “Yes. We shall.”

The sweeping blow was so fast Kit wasn’t even aware Sune had moved. It swept harmlessly over the creature, which vanished, drawing up several clones around it - each one more decrepit and decayed than the one before. “You’re losing your touch - someone else using your power instead of you?” Sune mocked, making short work of them, dashing them to bloody chunks like wheat beneath a scythe. He lunged forward.

With a small chain of werelights announcing his arrival, the bird-creature rematerialized. 

“Sune! Behind you!” She cried.

It vanished in a puff of ethereal gas as Sune swung around behind him, just barely missing it, then reappeared directly in front of her and took a split second to eye her. “What are you?” It asked. Then it smiled as it recognized her. “Ah, another shape-shifter. It sure would be a shame to rip that skin from your body.” A taloned hand stretched toward her face, the long, eagle-like blades just a hair’s breadth from her eye.

The staff swept mere inches from her face, but the creature had already vanished, leaving a dark trail behind.

Her heart thudding in her chest, she staggered back, only to see the bird creature appear on the roof of a nearby bunker. It eyed them with a smile.

“Sune, you always bring your useless friends,” it mocked, “I have a date I’m afraid I can’t miss. Fear won’t create itself, you know?”

“Face me, coward. It ends here.”

“Still hunting Nu’wo, not realizing that I have no control over him. No one does. He chose to stay behind with them.”

Spit flecked at the edge of Sune’s lip as he seethed in rage.

He rushed toward the bunker, leaping into the air as high as he could, bringing the staff crashing down. The creature leapt even higher, using its wings to keep itself aloft as the bunker shattered to pieces under Sune’s blow.

The creature laughed, “So pathetic. You fight as if this is your realm, forgetting you are powerless here. You have fangs but no bite.”

“I have bite enough!” growled Sune, leaping up toward the creature, his staff elongating as he did.

The bird nipped neatly aside with a scornful laugh. “Good try, Sune, but you know you can’t really stop what I have planned.”

Sune swept his staff in a mighty overhead blow. It caught the bird by surprise, slamming it into the ground with a thunderous explosion that rumbled the ground all around them.

Kit drew up her own golem and launched it at the creature before it could rise.

Several clones of the creature appeared, making short work of her golem before rushing her.

Sune left her to fight them as he rushed toward their source. She leapt up, her fingers extending into claws. She drove them through one of the clone’s eyes. It dropped back as if responding to the pain. She noticed a slight flicker to the rest of them, as if they were all linked somehow.

She wrenched her clawed hand free and, with her hand like a spear, drove it into the other eye, feeling the ball collapse under her force. The clone fell backwards as her claws stabbed through into its brain. It twitched and lay dead.

A nearby clone flinched, its eye giving a slight spasm.

She leapt at it, teeth bared, and bore it to the ground before it could register where she was. She reared back and buries her fangs into the things neck. It tasted of dirt and rot, of gravedust and mold. Then blood - but a dried, dessicated and rehydrated blood that flashed across her tongue and gushed down her lips and chin.

She bit hard and wrenched the throat free, ignoring the spray of dead blood gushing from around the wound.

A strong hand clenched on the nape of her neck, and she felt herself bodily being thrown through the air. The world went upside down, spun end over end, and then struck her in the face.

She slid a few feet, coming to a stop inside an abandoned bunker.

The clattering of talons against concrete announced the creature’s arrival.

“You just couldn’t stay out of it,” came the hissing voice. “You had no stake in any of this - you didn’t know Salem, or what happened in Brown Mountain. You don’t know the old corpse she raised or the fear eaters she’s drawn to herself. You’re a foreigner… and yet… you won’t leave it alone!” The one-antlered creature shifted between a few forms, finally settling on something more grotesque and damaged, as if it could not longer hold its more beautiful form together - it was reverting to something more… natural, if the word could be used for the thing looming over her.

She gazed up through blood-stained vision. The glowing eyes, the damaged flesh. Large, fleshy wings bereft of feathers stretched out on each side. Its eyes were swollen and blood-red, seemingly glowing in the moonlight.

It strode closer, taloned feet clattering loudly on the dirt-smeared concrete. Powerful hands hung at its side, fists clenched. It jerked slightly as it strode forward. “I’ll kill you, then I’ll kill the whole town. Enough with making them just fear, I’ll make them despair!”

She pushed herself up as the creature stalked toward her.

It twitched slightly, rubbing at its eye. Then she noticed. It was bleeding. The eyes were red with dripping blood, and its once stately form was ravaged by the damage sustained from her strike on its clones. Its neck was racked with scars, its throat whole, but emaciated, as if it had been torn open and then healed in an instant.

Grave dust… she had tasted grave dust.

She watched the creature approach. It bent and clutched her by the front of her shirt. It plucked her bodily from the ground, its once-birdlike face now looking more like the corrupt clones Sune and Cole had killed.

Was this its true form?

The creature slammed her into the ground. She felt something crack, the taste of blood filling her mouth.

Then the roof exploded and Sune dropped in, covered in blood. A loop of intestines hung around his neck. The beast roared and spun, but Sune planted a solid kick against the creature’s chest, sending it flying back. It dematerialized for a moment before reforming overhead, perched on the broken shard of concrete high above them. It coughed and shrieked at him. “You can’t stop any of this!”

And with that, he was gone, flapping off into the distance before they could stop him.

Sune pulled Kit back onto her feet. “Are you badly hurt?”

She nodded. “Yes,” she managed through a bloody mouth. “But go, stop him. I’ll manage,” she coughed again.

He hesitated, a look of concern on his blood-stained features.

“Go!” She commanded. “You’re a fighter, not a healer. I’ll manage.”

Sune left, sprinting off toward the city without another word.

She staggered out of the bunker, a sharp pain reminding her of every breath. Bodies lay strewn about - every single clone and duplicate - more physical than any she’d ever made.

Something clattered in the nearby bunker, and out stepped a shadowy figure. A tall collared coat marked who it was, though he had no face to reveal his identity.

“Cole.” She groaned.

He seemed to gaze around at the carnage. “I see it worked.”

“What did?” She replied with a wince.

“Using the creature’s own power against it,” he gestured at the field of carnage. “Strew the fields with the tainted ashes of its clone and when it tries to reform more of them…”

She gaped.

“Couldn’t have done it without you,” he replied with a smile in his voice. “You’d better hope Sune gets to that beast before it gets to town. I’m sure we both know what it will do if it gets there.”

Her mouth tasted of grave dust, and she saw the flashing vision of a creature perched on a bridge, scornfully glaring down below it. Sune sped across the countryside.

Too slow!

Then a sharp crack split the night.

The creature had struck out in vengeance.

The Silver Bridge - the one she had crossed… she didn’t know how long ago - split and began to collapse. She watched the dozens of cars sliding off into the cold darkness below. Her voice screamed wordlessly. This was her fault. She couldn’t stop it - she had just angered it. If she’d only left it alone, let it cause fear instead of death!

The bridge folded in on itself and vanished into the chaotic frozen waters below.

With a flash, Sune leapt the gap, catching the creature with his staff and launching it off into the darkness before pursuing it into the cold night. A second antler dropped to the ground, splintereing into dozens of glowing orbs.

Then the silence was split by the screams…

She snapped back into her own reality once more.

Cole stood beside her. “You saw it, too?”

She nodded. “So much death.”

Cole seemed unphased. “I’ve done what I can here.”

“What do you mean?”

“I removed a piece from the board. That was the ultimate betrayal,” Cole replied, “there’s nothing more I can do for now.”

And with that, he turned and walked off into the darkness.