to love a beast - fiction - as the world turns - luke snyder/dr. reid oliver
The man is unaware of how much time had passed, of how long he has been wandering vaguely toward his intended destination. He has the impression that time seemed to be only a concept often ignored in this woods, while his watch tells him he had entered them just three hours ago, his body tells him it has been several days.
The sun rises and falls twice as he traverses these strange grounds, and he is beginning to think it is impossible for this forest to be so large, so vast, when he had just passed it overhead not three days ago. But then, so much strange had occurred in the past three days, he thinks that maybe how large the woods were was the least of his problems.
The horse he rides is just as spooked as he, and as they continue on, they both grow more nervous and tense. Thankfully he, or at least the saddlebags he had found on the mare, had been prepared for such strangeness, in them he finds that he has more than enough food, and he even finds a small blanket that becomes much appreciated. The nights are far colder than they have any right to be during the summer in this region, even with the blanket his teeth clatter as he lies on cold ground, feeling his breath fog before him.
He's almost starting to believe the little voice in the back of his head, the nasty little whisper that says that the Beast is toying with him, punishing him, that there's no way out of these woods and he's going to wander among the silent trees until he runs out of food and starves. It's when the voice gets stronger, more out of control, that he finds that he's tumbling out of the tree line, that there's a slowly sloping field spread out in front of him, and in the distance, a house.
The man walks on, leading the mare and feeling the vague tug of unrealism, astounded that he is among people. He can hear bustle from the house as he gets closer, the warm sounds of a family, and he knows this is the one he was supposed to have already met those four days ago. The man leads his horse closer, until he's just standing at the backdoor, and as much as he wants to go inside, he stands there, weaving a little, unable to bring his hand up to knock. He blinks, his brain feels like it's being sucked into quicksand.
"Sir?" He thinks someone might be calling to him, he dizzily looks around, stumbling a little, and he sees a man who looks like he might be around the same age, dark haired and bright eyed, full of concern. "Are you okay sir?" He can't answer, he can't make his mouth work properly. Finally his eyes roll into the back of his head, and the world tilts backwards as the lights go out.
~
The Snyder family tries not to crowd the man, but they're all so curious and close to the edge of the bed that Lily sends all but Luke and Noah downstairs. Lily is adjusting the warm blankets the man is swathed in, doing her best to make him comfortable as his body warms up.
"You might've died of exposure if you were out there for a few more days, how long were you in those woods, three days? Four?," Lily asks softly, rubbing the man's forehead absently.
"No, no, a…few hours? Since about noon, maybe?" The other three exchange glances of surprise. "Time was…strange in there. I swear, it felt like it should have been days, but honest I just entered at the other side today," he says, babbling faintly.
Lily shushes him to keep him from straining himself, smiling, but concern creasing her forehead. "What's your name, sweetheart? Why were you in the forest?"
"It's Richard, Richard Tyler," he says, as if just remembering himself. The other three murmur among themselves. This is the horse owner who was the be accompanying Holden back to the farm. Holden was also due back two days ago. While this might not have been much news for someone else in his position, Holden is as punctual as a sunrise, a person could set their watch by him, and he is never late, if he can at all help it. Before anyone can refer to that fact aloud, Richard speaks again. "And I have something I need to tell you, Mrs. Snyder." The two men, previously standing, find spots in the room to sit down, instinctively feeling that this is the type of story that a person will want to be sitting for.
"Mr. Snyder, Magician's Trick and I left the city by the airship about four days ago," he begins, referring to the mare now out in the barn, the one that was the reason behind the whole trip. "The first two days were uneventful, just watching the land pass beneath us as the ship made its way west. We went bed that night very cheerful, your husband telling me of the meal we'd be presented with on our arrival the next day," he says, and Lily's hand twists a little in the bed sheets; they'd waited dinner a few hours, until it was almost nine at night and the food was cold as they all sat around the table trying not to look worried. Luke swallows, blinking his eyes hard. He doesn't know how this story will end, but he feels sick to his stomach, he knows that it can't possibly end well.
"When we woke up the next day and got underway, a fog crept from seemingly nowhere, and it blanketed the earth beneath us completely, confounding the pilot, he'd never seen anything like it. He said that usually, it's not dense enough to obscure the ground, or it's close to the ground, leaving many identifiable land masses to be guided by. But this, it was…wrong. It turned the earth into a ghost, and worse yet, a few hours later, the flying instruments along the pilot's front panel began to fail too. It became clear that we needed somewhere to land.
Unfortunately, though we needed to land, it was impossible to do so in the current conditions, since it was incredibly likely that we would end up crashing into whatever was waiting for us beneath the fog bank. We had no choice but to continue west, and hope that the fog would clear enough for us to land. That was how we spent the day, watching out the windows, hoping to spot green, or brown, or some color other than grey."
Richard's voice turns a little bitter here, though there is also fear in his features, and he takes a steadying breath before continuing.
"We rejoiced when we saw the field open up out of the fog before us, it was a weight off of the heart. The pilot landed the airship in the grassy area, and we all, men and horse, made our way out of the cab of the ship, in quite a splendid mood after the day of unease and worry. We looked around ourselves, watching the fog dissipating; we could now see the forest that began about fifty feet away, and it spread far in a circle around us. I wasn't paying attention, I had Trick by a lead rope, letting her graze, and Holden shook me by the shoulder.
'Look,' was all he said, and I followed the direction he was pointing, and I could see what at first look, appeared to be a mountain. Then the fog completely vanished, and the reality of what I saw truly was hit me. It was…some kind of house," he's squinting, as if observing it still, trying to puzzle out how to describe the structure. "The three of us stared at it for a moment, and it seemed to be a hodge podge manor of different metals." He pauses, considering. "I suppose there were other building materials in there, but it was almost entirely metal. We stood there for a while staring up at the tall building. We knew we were going to have to speak to whoever lived inside, the instruments were still going haywire, and if we could just get a map of the area, and our location, the pilot could manually fly us to our destination.
It did give us all the wiggins, it seemed to exude a strange menace, there was something in the air that turned the stomach. But we had no choice, we just had to hope that the owner of the strange dwelling would be willing to help us. I tethered Trick to the side of the airship, and the pilot opted to stay with the ship, he refused to go near the house. I would have liked to, but I didn't want Holden to go alone. It seemed as if he…knew the building somehow, in the way that it's unusual nature did not seem to surprise him, and he had no trouble locating the entrance, which was hidden in the shape of the sheeting that made of the bulk of one area.
It swung open with a creak as we approached, which should have been our first clue that we should turn back and wait for the instruments to fix themselves." Richard sighs, rubbing a hand on his face. The other three get the sense that this is not a usual mood for this man, he has tiny creases by the side of his mouth, as if suggesting he is often prone to laughter and smiling. "I wish now that we had. I called out first, hallooing, peering inside without entering. Holden shook his head, and grabbed my shirtsleeve, pulling me inside.
'Abandoned, or not home,' he said with something like relief, looking around in the dimly lit foyer; the inner walls were made of the same material, and they glittered in the light that poured in from the open door. The smell was worse as we got further inside. I was very uneasy by this point, I turned to Holden and begged him to leave. He opened his mouth, but he didn't get the chance to respond.
From behind me, I got the sense that there was someone, or rather something, that had crept up behind me. It was very close, I could hear its raspy exhalations. Holden's eyes widened, but he didn't shy away or run.
'You thought to come back, with your payment unfulfilled? Are you finally keeping your end of the bargain, or merely an idiot?' The voice that spoke was low, rough like sandpaper. It made me think of a childhood story, with Odysseus and the Sphinx. I was seized with the fear that it was a creature far beyond my comprehension, and I'm not ashamed to admit I shook like a young tree in heavy wind.
'I did not intend to be here, but I offer myself, in payment, and I ask that this man and my pilot go unharmed.' I stared at Holden, who could speak so freely and unafraid to this monster behind me. The creature made a rumbling sound, considering.
'Done, you are my prisoner. The pilot may try to lift off soon, he should find his flight panel instruments in working order,' and then there was a rumble that might have been laughter. I was further terrified, but I was also angry, I had the impression that it believed it was toying with us for it's own amusement. I turned to look, and immediately shriveled from what I saw."
Richard pauses again here, licking dry lips, fear still writ on his features.
"It was a large, hulking shadow the size of a Kodiak bear in gloom, a complete look impossible due to the poor lighting, but what I did see furthered my alarm. I had the immediate impression of shining tusks of teeth, curling ram's horns, and inscrutable eyes. I nearly stained my trousers. As I looked on it, there was another rumble. It was laughing at me.
'Little boy, are you in over your head?' It said to me, and the shadow grew, coming even closer to me. 'I have a job for you. Take your horse, ride her east through the woods, and you will arrive at the farmstead that was your original destination. Tell the family what has transpired.' I said I wouldn't leave without Holden. Before I could say another word, a claw slashed out of the hulking shape towards me, and cut me, here," he points to the wound along his collarbone, not deep, but there's enough crusted blood around it to suggest that it bled almost more than it should have. "So I ran." Richard falls silent, staring down at the bedclothes. The others realize belatedly that this is the end of the story. Noah is the first to speak.
"You're a very good storyteller," he says, as if unsure what else he can say. Richard shrugs, and the hint that he is a constant grinner bleeds through in his hesitant smile.
"Thank you, it was a required course in the school I attended in the city." Luke interrupts this exchange with a frustrated noise, standing up from where he had been sitting on the steamer trunk at the end of the bed, and he paces, seeming to consider something.
"You two just continue to blab away," he says heatedly, and it's plain that he is terrified. "Let's ignore the fact that my father is being kept prisoner by a fucking monster!"
"Luke, please! We don't even know if it's true." Lily is seconds away from tears, and whatever Luke was considering is cemented by the shine in the corners of her eyes. He flips open the steamer trunk, grabbing a canvas bag from it's depths and moves about the room, filling it with clothing. "Luke, what are you doing?" Luke rolls his eyes as he stuffs a slightly moth-eaten grey sweater into the bag.
"Well, obviously rescuing Dad. You know the animals of this area as well as I do, there is nothing that could have cause that cut. I'm going to save him, because obviously no one else is going to." With these words, he tears out of the room and down the stairs, the quick and heavy thump-thump-thump of his boots tearing a shriek out of a thoroughly wound up Natalie.
Luke exists out of the back door after grabbing his coat from it's hook in the mud room, and sprints across the yard toward the barn. He can hear Noah following after him, shouting something, but he does not have time, he has a storyteller sensibility, and his brain is already creating scenarios where the creature holding his father hostage has a taste for man flesh, is parting him from his skin at this very moment. Luke races to Dusk's stall, and Dusk makes a disquieted sound, he can feel how agitated Luke is. For a mad moment, Luke reaches for the teasel, his brain desperate for a normal routine to make sense of the crazy that sprouted through the cracks in his life just a few hours ago, but he shakes his head, and goes for the saddle blanket. Dusk nickers nervously.
"Sorry, no time, later," he says shortly, biting his bottom lip as he adjusts the blanket, then moves onto the saddle.
"Will you please stop and think for once in your life?" The voice that says this behind him is out of breath, and really pissed off. Noah leans against the nearest wood support beam, scowling at him.
"I am thinking," Luke replies fiercely, tugging on the front cinch and pausing, before tugging it tighter while Dusk isn't paying attention. It's almost turned into a game they would play as Luke adjusts the saddle, Dusk would take a deep breath as Luke was dealing with the cinch, so that it would significantly less tight than it should be, and Luke tightening it when he's off his guard. It usually makes Luke laugh, but right now it's automatic, there's no time. "I am thinking that my father is kidnapped, and I am the only one willing to save him."
"You are the biggest idiot," Noah's voice is disgusted, but Luke can here the tremble of fear creeping in. "If this whole thing is even true, you're playing right into its hands. If that story is true," Noah pauses here, before rushing on, "then it sounds like Holden owed the creature a debt, and now he's repaying it, that's not a hostage situation, it's business." Luke just stares at him.
"Whatever my father owes him, it's not worth his life!" Venom laces his every word, each word getting progressively louder, causing Dusk to toss his head as Luke coaxes a bit into his mouth. Noah looks ready to tear his hair out.
"Then wait until tomorrow! We'll go see Margo, or Jack, they'll know what to do," he says, practically begging. Luke shakes his head, he doesn't even consider it. Noah makes an exasperated noise. "I don't know why I expect any different, this foolishness is exactly like you," he said angrily, and stalks off toward the house. Luke doesn't allow himself to dwell on it, he tells himself he doesn’t have time, that what matters now is Holden.
Luke springs into the saddle, and urges Dusk out of the barn, leading the gelding by the failing light behind the house. His plan is half formed in his mind, and more ill-conceived than he is willing to admit, but his mind is thumping dad dad dad like a horse's canter. He urges Dusk faster, and they tear down the hill toward the tree line, and disappear into the woods.
Chapter Four.