Spirit Chronicles: Materialization 001
Goodness ... the third draft of Spirit Chronicles. Finally finished it! Now I can go on with life with no regrets!
...Well ... other than that I haven't written the other 50 or so chapters yet XD (Don't worry, just a random number! Not a prediction of how many chapters I'm going to have XD)
Spirit Chronicles
Materialization 001
Just Another Job
Tap tap went sandaled feet over the dirt road, as fast as they could take April forward. Her dress flapped behind her, blue ribbons trailing from her waist and flittering in the wind. The sun beat down upon her, causing her to sweat slightly from exertion despite the short distance she had traveled even though she was wearing a sleeveless dress was designed to handle this weather. Usually, she would be wearing a sun hat as well, but in her haste to leave, she had forgotten it. However, this was the least of worries, as it clashed horribly with her hair ribbon, not to mention that she would be meeting him in the tavern, indoors where it was infinitely cooler than the outside.
Since the town of Kaysa was located fairly close to Cerebraille, the capital of the country that carries the same name, machines were fairly easy to get a hold of. One of the most popular pieces of machinery everyone seemed to indulge in was the fan, run off solar panels placed on the roofs of houses. Most of the residents took the presence of technology to be granted, but April knew, since her father was a merchant, that just a little further out and the trade routes from Cerebraille dwindled down to near-nothing. Add to that the fact that solar energy was a fairly new accomplishment and an extremely successful one, given the constantly torrid climate, and Kaysa turned into one of the best towns to live in the country.
Cicadas chirped incessantly, clinging tightly to stone and cement, as their armor glistened under the sunlight. People milled about, concentrating on staying out of the sun as much as possible. Many had umbrellas open, whereas others had hats that hid their faces in shadow. Those without either took to the time-old strategy of door-hopping, going from entrance to entrance to stand and catch the welcome cool breeze.
April pushed her way through the crowd, not finding it in her heart to care about such trivial things as the constant heat or the danger of sunburn. All she felt was excitement, desire to get to where he was as fast as possible. She had waited for so long, three days after she had sent her request, for someone to arrive, to listen to her. All the people in the village were too cowardly or self-absorbed. No one would do anything about that menace just outside their doorsteps! And now, finally…
It wasn’t long before she reached her destination, shoving open the doors to be met with a blast of refreshingly cool wind. She sighed in contentment before remembering why she was here, looking around frantically. There were many people sitting around, seated at the tables and standing by the walls with drinks, also taking advantage of the relative cold and the shade. Most she knew by sight, as she had grown up knowing them and watching her father deal business with them. It was only after a few seconds’ searching that she spotted someone she didn’t recognize.
The man was sitting with his back to her, swirling his drink around listlessly. He had medium-length brown hair, darker than chestnut, which was kept out of his brow with a dull blue bandana. The ribbons flowed down through his hair and down his neck, reaching just below his shoulders. He wore a gray-blue-collared vest, which seemed to be loosely attached in the front somehow, that was nondescript gray color. His sword (and at this, April’s heart jumped - finally!) lay by him on the ground near his feet. His pants seemed to be a bit too white and clean for a mercenary, and his black shoes a bit too clean, now that she looked closely, but he seemed to be the man. Who else could he be?
Her suspicions were answered when the stranger suddenly addressed her. “If a young girl such as yourself is going to stand staring at me, you may as well sit down beside me.” He said this without turning around, and April wondered how he knew she was there in all the din of the bar.
She took his advice, and settled herself down, being sure to pick up her dress as her mother had always told her to do before sitting, while the man called for the bartender to prepare another glass of water. Personally, she would have preferred some lemonade, but it was awfully thoughtful of him to order something for her without knowing who she was. She looked up at him, trying to see what the man’s face looked like. To her shock, the reputed mercenary (came with all sorts of recommendations from the Agency) was merely a teenager, or possibly at most, twenty. His eyes were a nice almond shape, although due to the angle and bad angle she couldn’t properly discern their color - probably hazel. And while his eyebrows were partially hidden by the headband, she could see they were thin. He even had a Greek nose and a well-formed face in general, and April let herself be distracted by her slight approval for his looks.
However, that thought was dashed away with his next words. “I take it you’re the client, um … April?”
April nodded.
“My name’s Hix, the mercenary sent from the FleetFoot Agency to take care of your request.” The newly-named Hix shifted, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a slightly rumpled letter. April recognized her handwriting on the envelope. “Your words were a little … vague. Would you mind clarifying for me what you would like accomplished?”
Again April nodded, glad to get down to business so quickly. She thanked the bartender for her water and took a sip, briefly letting herself relish the cold ice, before starting her story.
“I’ll start from the beginning then. As you know, my name’s April. My father was a pretty well-known merchant in this region. He was very smart and had a good eye for profit. It’s actually thanks to him that we have so many accommodations in Kaysa right now. He used to bring those machines back from the capital Cerebraille and sometimes he’d bring some for me to play at home as well… However, about two weeks ago, he ran across one of them on his trade routes.”
“Them?”
“Spirits! What else? An enormous Spirit suddenly appeared out of nowhere and attacked my father! The Spirit ran off, but my father’s shipment was already completely wrecked. When he made his way back here, he told the story to the mayor and they decided to try and drive the monster away. The first attack was a failure, though. After all, it’s to be expected, facing up against a huge beast like that…” April sipped her water.
Hix was silent for a little before asking, “Do you know what kind of Spirit it was?”
April pondered this. “I think my father said it was a caterpillar Spirit, not that that means much. It was ridiculously strong. And aggressive too! About two days ago, the men were scouting out the cave where they think the worm had crawled into, just to see if it was still there, and all of a sudden they were attacked out of nowhere!” April paused. “Many people died in that attack, including my father.” Before she could continue, Hix put his hand up, interrupting her.
“So you want me to kill this Spirit for revenge?”
She shook her head. “I want to protect this town that my father gave his life to. So many lives were lost that day. The Spirit is too aggressive and is a danger to Kaysa! Can’t you do something about this, please?”
Hix sighed. “It’s not possible, not in the least, for me to talk with the Spirit to try and convince it to leave? Perhaps…” He stopped at April’s expression.
“No! The Spirit is evil! You have to kill it before it kills anymore people!”
April stared at Hix hard as he put his head in his forehead, muttering “This wasn’t what I had expected…” With a sudden tightening in her heart, she wondered if this young man would refuse the request. Who knew how long it would be before another able enough would come…
The men from the FleetFoot Agency were renowned for getting the job done, be they searching for lost objects or assassination, so long as they receive payment. Mercenaries in the purest sense. This Hix didn’t look it, but who knew. If there was one thing April had learned in the years of watching her father, it was that you can’t judge a person by his looks. Either way, April was sure that she would be able to pay off whatever Hix demanded. Daughter of a wealthy merchant and all. She knew that her request was a little farfetched and perhaps even impossible for one man, but if anyone could do it, it would be one of the mercenaries.
She let out a sigh of relief when Hix looked up and said, “Very well. Take me to where this Spirit is and I’ll do what I can.” When she didn’t move, Hix raised his eyebrows. “…Yes? Aren’t we going somewhere?”
April fidgeted. “About your payment…”
The young mercenary tilted his head and looked at nothing in particular. “We can discuss that along the way. Is that all right with you?”
April nodded. Hix reached into his pocket and pulled out a few coins, putting them on the table for the bartender, before grabbing his sword from beside his seat and left the tavern. April trotted after him.
As the two walked under the shade from the balconies towards the edge of town, Hix asked, “So where is this Spirit located?”
“It holed up somewhere in a cavern in the small forest outside here - right outside the village, to the west - so we should get there pretty quick.”
April walked ahead, leaving Hix to follow her. After all, this was the town where she had been born and grew up in; it made sense that she’d be the guide.
The two walked in silence for a while, and April felt the silence that was only interrupted by her sandals’ and his shoes’ scratching grow. She looked over her shoulder and found Hix looking at the houses with what could have been wonder. “What’s wrong?”
Hix shook his head. “No, it’s nothing. Just that I’ve never been this close to the Capital before, so all this machinery is new to me.”
“Really?” April put her hand to her chin, thinking. “Well, I suppose it might be because of the trade that passes through this town. I don’t think any other places that are this far from Cerebraille have what we have. I mean, I think some of the wealthier here even have those fancy ice boxes that never need to be refilled!”
“Hmm…” Hix trailed off, looking interestedly around him again. April cocked her head. Was he not a big talker?
“So,” April started, trying for conversation again, “where else have you been? I’m sure you’ve seen lots of interesting things.”
Hix laughed sheepishly at this. “It’s not quite like what you think. I mean, a place is a place, with houses, grass, trees, and people, so after a while things start looking the same.” He paused here. “Well, I suppose there are a few exceptions. There was another town not far from here that was built under the shadow of an enormous tree that covered the entire place. I think that was their method of staying cool.”
“Oh, you mean Iliki! I’ve heard about it from my father’s travels. He was always complaining about how no one would buy his merchandise because they had the shadow to keep the sun’s heat from bothering them too much.”
“Ah, yeah, I think that was the name. So your father has been there, too? He must have been a successful man.” The sudden reference to her father’s death made April jump. “I’m sorry for mentioning that,” Hix added quickly.
She shook her head. “Don’t worry about it. My brother’s away, trying to uphold what’s left of the business.” At this point, the two were out of the town and instead of gravel and sand rasping to each footstep, fallen leaves and grass rustled and crunched and squelched. “So, your pay…”
The mercenary was busy looking at the surroundings again, turning his head this way and that, and sometimes looking up and sometimes down. Occasionally he’d furrow his brows before looking elsewhere. ‘Were the woods really that interesting?’ wondered April. “Hix?” she asked aloud, trying to regain his attention.
Hix startled and then tried to recover with a small smile. “Oh, sorry. I didn’t hear what you just said.”
April replied with one of her own. “Nothing to apologize about. I only asked how you want me to pay you. If you want cash, I can-“
He shook his head. “No, I think that is best determined after this job is done.”
“Oh, OK.” She was surprised, but she supposed this might be the way mercenaries do things after all. She’d never been in contact with one before, after all.
There wasn’t much talk after that, as April was getting more and more nervous as they approached its hideaway, and Hix was busy looking every which way but forward for some unfathomable reason. At one point, he even knelt down to pick something up and inspect it, mumbling to himself as he did so. April was too far when she realized he’d stopped to see what it was that had caught his interest and he’d discarded the item not long after. She silently wished for the young man to walk just a little faster, so she wouldn’t have to be so far in front all the time.
That was something he did a lot of, April noticed. The mercenary often talked under his breath to himself, and she heard it more, in a soft voice, when she was turned around and walking ahead. He probably didn’t think she heard. She wondered just what he was saying, but then decided better of it. After all, Hix didn’t talk all that much. It wouldn’t be surprising if he didn’t make up for it by talking to himself.
It wasn’t long before an enormous cave, dug into the side of a hill that stood out above the rest of the forest, loomed into view. The entrance was clear and open, as though something large had come and dragged itself through all the foliage to get in. Branches and trunks were pushed every which way in great disarray, and the forest floor in front was completely devoid of plant life, soil overturned and with huge stretches of soil thrown about. April’s eyes nearly popped out of her head as she saw the deep trenches created by the monster’s claws, two rows of holes parallel to the giant dirt track.
“The Spirit must have been injured before it made it here.”
April turned to look at Hix, who was observing the whole scene with a serious expression on his face. “How do you know that?” she asked in a small voice. She almost felt that if she spoke too loudly, it might hear her and come out and attack.
Hix had no such qualms and replied in his normal volume. “The dirt thrown everywhere. With claws like I’m guessing he has, it shouldn’t be everywhere so far to the right. The prints on the left are also dragging a bit.”
She nodded and gulped. She didn’t want to check, or even think more about this whole thing than she had to. “H-how are we going to get in? I forgot…”
“Don’t worry. I have flint.” Hix reached into his vest. It hadn’t looked like he kept anything in there, but he pulled out two shiny pieces of stone anyways. “Now for some firewood…” That wasn’t hard at all, considering that they were in the middle of a forest. April stood still while he settled down onto the ground, striking the stones together for a spark. She couldn’t see over his back, but she could hear the roar of fire when it started.
The mercenary then stood, and started towards the cave. “You should stay here, where it’s safer. I’ll go in alone.”
April stopped, perplexed and a little annoyed with herself for never having thought of this. She had always assumed that she would be going in as well. “I’ll be fine! I’ll stay close … or far away if there’s a fight. I just want to see the whole thing through to the end!”
Hix frowned. “You can see it through to the end by staying outside just as well. If what you say is true, and there really is an aggressive Spirit in the caves, which these tracks do seem to indicate, then it would be much too dangerous inside. Even if we know that the Spirit is a caterpillar, we don’t know what Element it is nor what its abilities are.”
She paused and considered. This was true, and yet… “I said earlier that this was for the good of Kaysa, and it is. But I also want to see for myself what happened, for my father’s sake, in his memory.” So I can look my father’s murderer in the face as it dies.
The man seemed to be debating with himself before finally settling on an answer. “Come on, let’s go then. Don’t fall behind.”
April had no intention of doing so. She hurried along, slightly in shock that he had agreed so easily to her demands, after the mercenary, the torch a bobbing light that seemed to grow brighter and brighter the further the two left the last vestiges of light behind at the entrance. She looked around, nervous. The shadows seemed to creep towards her, reaching out for her. When she felt something snag her foot, she gave a small cry and ran up to Hix, standing as close to him as possible.
“What’s the problem?” he asked, his eyes elsewhere.
She kept quiet, not wanting to admit that she was somewhat of a coward, if not only because she’d never done anything adventurous in her life at all. Before she could reply, her foot caught on something on the ground, causing her to stumble.
“What was that?!” April yelled, a voice that echoed through the cavern. Hix swiftly turned around and knelt on the ground, one hand up holding the torch and the other down searching the ground. Eventually he found what he was looking for and held it up for inspection.
Clasped in his hand was a fistful of what seemed to be white string, running lengthwise across the tunnel. Under the orange light, the yarn-thick threads glowed a soft henna hue. Hix ran his fingers over it, assessing its texture and strength before speaking. “This is silk…” He trailed off as his eyes followed the strings out of light’s cast. “Not a very high quality, but still rare and worth a fortune.”
He stood and walked to the wall, raising the torch so that a good portion of the wall was in view. Continuing onward as far as vision allowed, the tunnel was lined with a thin layer of thread, packed tightly against the sides. Or at least, it would have been had there not been entire sections of the thread missing. Loose ends hung, plumb straight in the tunnel with no wind to make them sway. Most of these were towards the edge, but some were actually overhead as well, dangling down to whisper past the duo’s ears.
They continued on in awkward silence, with the quiet crackle of fire and periodic footsteps being the only sounds that drifted through the dank air of the cave. April nervously glanced back at her hired hand every few moments, glad that he was walking as sturdy and sure as before, providing a sort of anchor for her to hold on to. It wasn’t long before the monotony of walking and silence began to bother her, though. Always with an active mind and mouth, she was unused to such long periods of relative inactivity. However, her courage could not drive her to speak pointlessly in the oppressing lack of noise as something seemed forbidden about it, and she was too afraid to run too far forward, away from the light and her protection. In the end, she settled to counting her steps and trying to skip in rhythm to the slightly faster strides of her company.
In reality, after she had lost count twice, she had no idea of how much time had passed before she collided with the mercenary’s back.
With a cry more engendered from surprise than pain, she stumbled a few feet back. “Why did you stop?” she asked, peeking over from behind Hix to see what he had been staring at. She gasped when she saw what had made even the jaded fighter pause in his steps.
Lying there, strewn along the path, were remains. Bones standing erect in the ground, some whole with dark spots still speckling them, others fragmented and sharp, pointed edges facing skyward like purposefully-laid traps waiting to skewer an intruder. Red smears like an abstract painting, covering all 4 walls of the cave, dying the silk, white and orange against the din of the flames a burgundy red.
April had to suppress her lunch from coming back up from her stomach as she stared at the carnage before her. “What did this? Why are there … why are there blood and guts smeared against the walls? The Spirit? The Spirit did this, didn’t it?!” She gasped in horror as she processed her own realization. “This means that these are the people, doesn’t it? That disappeared? D-Dad’s not-”
“It’s too early to make any conclusions,” interrupted Hix. He had been surveying the scene before him with a masked expression, and the only way April could tell he wasn’t completely calm was by the thin line his lips were making and by his slightly narrowed eyes. He took a few steps forward, looking left and right every few moments at some flag of clothing lodged on a bone or at the hair-fine threads on the wall. He continued going forward before he realized that April wasn’t following him. Turning around, he tilted his head in a questioning manner before heaving a sigh and walking back. “Here,” he said before taking her wrist and pulling her forward.
April tugged back, not wanting to go any further. She planted her feet into the ground. “No! I don’t want … I don’t want to-!” To go any further, to go any closer to the horrible Spirit, to go any closer to her father’s murderer.
“This was what you wanted, coming in,” cut in the mercenary again. “If you don’t want to see it through, then I have no objections. Leave. Is that what you want?” He turned to face her fully.
April hiccupped, by now tears freely flowing down her face. Of course she didn’t want to go any further in! Who did, into a place of killing?! But the way he had put that, it was her responsibility, and it was true. She did hire him. She did want vengeance for her father.
With a few deep breaths, and some wiping at her eyes with her sleeves, she replied, “No, I’m sorry. We’ll go on.”
Hix nodded, apparently satisfied with the answer, before he turned and continued onwards, still holding onto April’s wrist so that she was dragged forwards as well. She kept her eyes concentrated on the man’s back, focusing on anything but the red surrounding her. She tried to ignore the slight squelching sounds her sandals made on the floor, as well as the reflective light from the silk on the wall.
But when she spotted a scrap of purple, a few more minutes down the cave, she felt her eyes pulled away, and she stopped. Hix turned, and if April didn’t know any better, she’d have though him to be exasperated. “What is it?”
Despite her hesitance and disgust, she knelt down and picked up the piece of clothing she had found. It was a rich royal color with edges of patterned gold and brown in a circular pattern.
“Is that your father’s?”
April didn’t look up, and so she didn’t see the odd expression on Hix’s face when he asked, but she nodded her affirmative. “He ordered this design to be made especially for him. He said that once he’d made a name for us, this pattern would be our family seal, like the ones the rich people have.”
“Is that also his?”
She turned to see what Hix was referring to, and her eyes came to rest on a small pile of debris. The mercenary knelt and brought the torch closer, then held one of the pieces up to inspect it. It was kind of curved, like part of a bowl. After staring at it for some more, she shook her head. “I haven’t seen it before, but I think it might be something he used in his trading. He used to bring all sorts of things back home and I think they may have been in a basket like that, but I can’t be sure.”
The man made a disinterested sound, and for a flash, April felt anger. Just because he had no emotions for her father didn’t mean that she had to be stoic as well! Wasn’t she allowed to mourn for just a little?
As though in response to her questions, Hix said, “You can mourn after everything is over. Now’s not the time. We’re in the enemy’s den, and I think we’re close.” He nodded towards a large rent in the sheet of silk that bedded the floor, near where the piece of cloth had been found.
April gulped, realizing the truth in his words as well as her fear now that they were getting close to the Spirit. She had never seen one before herself since they were uncommon in this area of the land, but they were commonly told through stories as vicious monsters standing five stories high with vicious weapons of all manners and kinds: pincers, fangs, claws, spikes, and, more unnaturally, blades and guns as well. They were the bogeymen of stories told to children, and they were the nightmares of men fully in adulthood. This man standing before her must be utterly fearless or very good at hiding that he was scared out of his wits, she realized as he led the way while she hastily stuffed her father’s sleeve, the only part left of him as no more remains were seen the rest of the way, under one of her ribbons.
It wasn’t long before the caves started to open up wider and wider, April noticed as she kept close to her hired hand. Hix had taken to walking with one hand on the hilt of his sword, although he didn’t once look around nervously. Then, suddenly, the tunnel they had been walking through opened up into a wide cavern, and suddenly April couldn’t see the walls that had been hugging so close to them for so long.
The room was dark, except for the small circle of light the flames provided them. She wished fervently that Hix had brought two sticks instead of one and was surprised when Hix thrust the torch into her hands. She fumbled, almost dropped it, but in the end managed to grab a hold. Despite her instinct to curl up out of fear because of her close proximity with the enemy, she had to hold the flames at arm’s length. She saw the man walk forward, hand outstretched. “What ar-”
She was hastily silenced by a “Shh!” louder than she had been talking.
April hastily scuttled after Hix, and it was only after she approached she saw what he had been touching.
If she had thought the silk in the caves were amazing, then this sight completely caught her unawares. In front of her was an enormous ball of silk, seemingly hanging from the ceiling the same way it was attached to the ground - like an enormous aged tree with roots deeply ingrained into the earth, the cocoon had thick bunches of string attaching the ball to all corners of the room.
A sharp shiing drew her attention from the sight and she turned to see Hix draw his sword. In the brief moment she could see it, blade was ordinary to her eyes, nothing special at all, and she felt a slight disappointment. But that was quickly torn away as she saw him plunge the blade, from tip to hilt, all the way into the cocoon.
April jolted, backed away. But there was no movement.
Hix narrowed his eyes, pulling the sword out with one jerk. The flap that he had cut open in the cocoon dangled loosely, drifting slowly to the ground. He took a few steps back, seemingly in thought, before he suddenly turned on April and grabbed the torch right out of her hand.
The action was so spontaneous and rough that April couldn’t help but yell out. “Hey, what was that for?!”
She couldn’t see his face as he replied in a monotonic voice, as though he talked only because she had asked and he wanted to get this over as soon as possible. “The cocoon’s skin is too thick. It would take forever to cut through, and by then the Spirit will be alerted of our presence. This will be faster.” He held his empty hand out and stepped back, signaling for April to back away as well. She did, and it was a good thing because right then, he threw the torch to the ground.
The flames spread upwards quickly, faster than April had ever seen the red blossoms devour anything. Higher and higher they climbed until the entire pillar of silk encasing the ball was wreathed in it. The light from the fire illuminated the cave, and she found that the room wasn’t quite as large as she had imagined, but still sizeable. Curiously, the burning didn’t make as much progress on the ground as it did around the cocoon. “Why isn’t the ground burning too?” she asked.
However, there was no reply. The shadows cast by the fire accented just the wrong places on Hix’s face, thought April, making him look awfully frightening. His stern expression didn’t help either.
Thinking he didn’t hear the first time, she asked the question again. This time there was a response, albeit curt, and his eyes never left the hibernating Spirit. “The ground is slightly moist. The cocoon was dry.” She was about to ask another question before he preempted her. “Now’s not the time for questions. You should get back further-”
And no sooner had he said that, several things happened at once, or one after another. April never did remember.
A great rumbling shook through the cavern, causing some dust from the ceiling to fall. Some of the weakened threads, partially eaten by the fire, snapped and fell, curling and drifting downwards like some great fiery tentacle. And then there was the shrieking.
The sound pierced through April’s ears, so sharp and loud that she had to cover her ears as she huddled on the ground for balance. It wasn’t just the shrillness of the scream that she wanted to block out, though; there was a horror to it that just sent chills down her spine. Even Hix, sword still drawn, winced, his face contorted into a grimace as he endured the assault on his ears.
Then a great rip captured April’s attention. She couldn’t take her eyes off the sight as, like from something crawling out from the depths of her darkest dreams, an enormous claw - a great, green, sickle-shaped thing with spiky protrusions instead of a blade - pierced through the top portion of the column of flames and tore. Another appeared and sliced diagonally downwards. And another, and another, until the column was no more and the Spirit was out in the open for both to see, screeching its fury and pain to the world.
April decided that even the tallest fairy tales had some truth to them. The Spirit was almost as long as the cavern, and when it stood on its hind, it could easily reach the ceiling. It had a body like a caterpillar, but it was armored with shiny, olive green plating that spiked at the back and reflected the light into a light brown color. This armor continued all the way from head to end, where two enormous spikes protruded, curved upwards. The thing was a mass of legs, and April was reminded of those centipedes at home, where one leg moved after the other in waves. The only difference was that each leg ended in a miniature version of the sickle that had cut through the cocoon earlier. The weapons that did perform the deed were only the two foremost legs, which were shorter but with longer blades.
However, what captured April’s attention most were the head and its front claws. The caterpillar Spirit - for it could only be that - had a head plating that resembled a horse’s skull. The two openings on either side of this armor each held a large, seemingly gelatinous red eye, and two more small beady black eyes seemed to be on the armor itself, one above and one below each larger eye. Then, sprouting from the back were large feather-like appendages that shook and wavered as the worm shook its head in agitation. Upon closer inspection, she saw that there were small veins running through each enormous flake - were those leaves? As if that wasn’t hideous enough, April couldn’t stop staring at its mandibles. Two large ones, like great scythes, on each side of the mouth, and two more above the mouth. These ones were flexible, and … were those fingers? Two on each limb, as though a human hand had been fused so that only the thumb remained separate.
April gagged, but she couldn’t bring herself to unfreeze as the beast thrashed. It would crash headlong into first one wall and then the other, and sometimes even would rear up and rub itself against the ceiling. Was it trying to put the flames out? Or was it just crazed? It was when it started to roll over onto its back that April realized she wasn’t in a good position at all, despite how far away she was standing. An enormous leg-claw came shooting down towards her as the creature landed on its belly again.
Before she knew what was happening, she was being dragged along towards the exit. Looking down, she saw a hand. She had forgotten Hix was even there, so horrified was she at the sight of the monster. Roughly, she was pulled with a jerk, swung around and shoved into the small tunnel from where they had come. The two stood there against a wall, Hix bracing himself over her to protect her from anything falling. The two were in such close proximity that, had this been any other circumstance, she would have flushed red. After a moment, the commotion quieted, and with a quick “Stay here,” the man was gone.
By now, the silk strings were dangling everywhere, like those fancy curtains at doorways that April had seen at stores before, decked in flames and debris - small chunks of rock, even - were falling from the ceiling and collecting on the ground along with black char. Past all this, Hix dashed, occasionally zipping left or right to avoid a stone, until he finally came up to the Spirit, which had exhausted itself with its flailing.
Despite the roaring of the flames, April could hear every word he said.
“I’m sorry I set fire to your home, but it was the best way to get you out. I know you are frightened, but will you listen to me?”
There was no response from the Spirit, which leaned against the wall, its head turned towards the mercenary.
April couldn’t believe what she heard when he continued. And the idiot even thrust his sword into the ground. Empty-handed against a Spirit!
“I apologize for the humans’ actions - their greed had driven them too far. Regardless, you have killed. You can’t live here anymore!”
Her eyes widened. This monster had attacked so many good men from the village and killed her father … and yet they were the ones who had to apologize? Greed? What was this man playing at?!
Her legs carried her forward, but Hix’s words continued. He stared into the Spirit’s eyes, as though that would prove to it his sincerity. “If you leave peacefully, I won’t have to kill you. You can trust my words.”
Mandibles clicked, but before it could right itself completely, April had reached the sword that Hix had abandoned. With a heave, the weapon was free, and she charged forward, the too-heavy blade dragging behind. She didn’t make three steps before Hix intercepted her, grabbing her on the shoulder and turning her around, but her rage dictated that she had to attack, and so, with a cry, she swung.
It was clumsy. The blade dug deep into the ground as it missed. Hix had jumped back, his teeth gritted and eyes wide. April panted, only half-comprehending what she had done though her knuckle-whitening grip on the handle was just as tight as before. The furious man was about to open his mouth when he froze, gaze fixed above her. Without another word, he sprang forward and plowed into her.
An enormous claw crashed down right where the girl was standing a moment earlier.
The Spirit reared and howled. It had gotten back on its feet, and with renewed vigor was starting to stamp around and everything twitched agitatedly.
April felt herself shoved back, away from the worm, and she collapsed as the weight of the sword unbalanced her.
“Give me that!” Hix’s voice startled her. The urgency of the situation had reduced it to a growl.
She clutched the sword closer to herself, still on the ground. She glared up defiantly. If he wasn’t going to kill the thing, then she wouldn’t give him what he wanted.
Hix tsked. “I don’t have time for this,” he murmured as he stood straight. Then, amazingly, empty-handed as he was, he ran towards the rampaging Spirit.
No, not empty, thought April numbly. Fragments, the building blocks of the world, gathered together in glittery white sparks around Hix’s hand. As she watched, the pieces aligned themselves in a line, stemming from his hand. By the time the man (Spirit-fiend! Traitor!) had reached the caterpillar, the white sparks were gone, and in his hand was another sword, identical to the one April herself was clinging to.
By the time he was within attack range, the creature had noticed the approaching human that held no small amount of hostile intentions towards it. Claws came raining down. Hix weaved back and forth, sometimes jumping backwards, to avoid the attacks. One even came so close as to knock Hix off his feet, sending him rolling several times before he managed to right himself - only to launch himself forward to dodge another strike.
Through all of this, April stood statue-still. She couldn’t convince her feet to move even if she wanted to. She watched the whirlwind dance the two participated in, watched as Hix finally got close enough to strike … but didn’t. Instead, he jumped on top of the Spirit and began scaling its armored back. When the worm started to buck, April half expected him to go flying (was she cheering for the man anymore?), but he somehow never did, sword stabbed deep into the Spirit’s armor and hand bracing himself by grabbing an edge or one of the many spikes. Slowly, but surely, he made his way up to the head.
And then he stood, the moment the Spirit kept its head steady in its bucking for more than two seconds. “I’m sorry.” With the soft whisper, Hix plunged his sword deep.
A shriek, not unlike the first made when the Spirit discovered its den on fire, rang through the cavern, and its great body crashed to the floor, rolling around as though it were trying to get rid of an irritating fly. Hix fell off, the sword still stuck in the monster’s head, and he landed with a cushioning roll near April.
She backed away, but was stopped by the stare from the mercenary. He was none the worse from the fall, except for some tears on his vest and dirty black smears on almost every inch of him, but it wasn’t this absence of damage after what was essentially a brief scuffle with the enormous caterpillar that startled her. It was the distant look in his eyes that was so different from how he usually looked at her, yet it was directed straight at her.
He held his hand out. “The sword.”
April looked around in confusion. His sword that he had been using … was still stuck in the struggling Spirit. But the way he had pulled one out earlier out of thin air meant… “You’re an Ark. Make another one yourself.”
Hix’s eyebrows furrowed in what was probably exasperation. “It’s my sword you’re holding hostage right there. I will get it back, with or without permission from you.”
She didn’t resist when the man reached forward and wrenched the blade from her grasp. But that didn’t stop her from screaming at him, tears starting to well up at the corner of her eyes. This wasn’t fair - first there was a Spirit, men-killers the lot of them, and now the person she had hired, she had trusted to kill it was one of those horrendous human-Spirit mixes? “Why would you want that thing anyways? You can make anything you want, just from thinking it, you freak!”
The Ark turned his attention back to the writhing Spirit. He didn’t turn back, nor spoke a word in response to April’s accusations and questions before he ran back towards the worm again. And this time, when he reached the Spirit, so half-blind with pain was it, that it didn’t even react when Hix drove his second sword into its head.
This time, there was no great crashing against walls or thrashing to scramble back onto its feet. The caterpillar Spirit fell still, and with a doleful keening, its legs twitched in small, fitful waves before resting. Some got their blades caught in the floor and ended up still folded; others lay flat, energy sapped out of them. The eyes stared at its killer, and he looked back into them before the eyes dimmed, and the mandibles of the creature clicked one last time.
Hix reached forward, and pulled both swords out. A flow of particles trailed after the swords, white like the Fragments he had gathered before to form one of the weapons. Before long, the entire Spirit was glowing, and, bit by bit, disintegrating. The destruction spread like a festering wound, starting from the extremities and its fatal wound and eventually on to the tail end until nothing was left but white dust that quickly vanished as well.
Overwhelmed by everything that happened so quickly, April startled when Hix suddenly turned and quickly made his way back to her. She jerked away when he grabbed her wrist. “What are you doing?”
Hix motioned with his eyes at the cavern, which was still in flames and starting to overtake the matting on the ground as well, and made to grab her hand again.
“No! I won’t go with you. You’re an Ark, and y-”
“And we are standing inside a blazing inferno right now. If you want to talk, we’ll do it outside.” He said forcefully before grabbing her again, and this time she let him.
The two then proceeded to run out of the cave in silence, or as much silence as the rustling of clothes and tapping of footsteps and roaring and crackling of fire behind them would allow. Perhaps it was because they were in such a hurry, but April didn’t feel that they took nearly as much time leaving as they did going in.
Once outside, April stopped, reveling in the sunlight, something she had never thought she’d miss. She just stood, arms outstretched as though she were trying to catch as many rays as possible. The wind that she hadn’t even noticed was lacking in the cave whipped around her dress, caressing it against her.
“The Spirit did not initiate the conflict.”
The voice broke through her focus, and she found herself turning to face the newly-discovered Ark. “What do you mean?”
“The remains of the people were much too far inside for them to be victims of simple curiosity or exploration. As you said, they were there to attack the Spirit or to try to flush the Spirit out most likely. However, they had no weapons. On top of that, your father’s remains were much further in than the rest of the people’s, and instead of a weapon, he has his basket with him.” Hix said all this in a detached manner … and his clothes were spotlessly clean again. April scoffed. The benefits of being non-human.
But then her attention turned back to what he had said. April narrowed her eyes. “What are you trying to say? Are you accusing my father of something?”
Hix wasn’t looking her in her eyes, instead wandering off to gaze at the trees. “There was silk in that cavern. Valuable silk lining the walls, every inch of it, and its quality improved the further into the cave we traveled.”
“You are accusing him of something! What are you saying he did, turned coward and ran away with silk? That’s ridiculous! Even if he did-”
“If he did, he wouldn’t have gone that far into the tunnel. No, I’m pretty sure he was actually a brave man, plowing forward to get better silk than that outside.”
“What? How dare you! So instead of being a coward, my father is now a greedy hoarder?”
“One who pushed his luck.”
April eyed Hix with disgust. “Of all the people the Agency could have sent, it had to have been you. Not only did you almost not fulfill my request, you’re trying to tell me my father brought this upon himself. And on top of all that, they sent an Ark. Oh no, wait, don’t tell me. The entire organization is made up of Arks.”
The temperature seemed to drop a few degrees. “You may insult me as much as you like, but you leave the Agency out of this.” At this, Hix looked around. His hand reached his sword, and for a split second April was afraid he was going to draw the weapon, but then his hand left it. It occurred to April that he was taking inventory, but then again, the man hadn’t come with anything more than the sword in the first place. “I believe I have finished what you requested. I’ll take my leave now.”
April froze, so sudden was this statement, and so unexpected, that she couldn’t gather her joy together. In fact, the words, “Wait, but wh-what about your pay?” slipped out of her mouth before she knew what she was saying.
“It’s all right. I don’t need it.” And with that curt response, the mercenary walked away, disappearing into the trees.
April was left staring after the man as he left, uncomprehending of his abrupt departure. On one hand, it was a good thing that he hadn’t asked for payment even though she had a small fortune that she had inherited ready, but on the other, her conscience didn’t want her to let this man go without anything. After all, he had completed her request even if he was an Ark, and Arks were better than Spirits… Either way, it didn’t seem right just to let him go like this.
“Wait, come back here! I-I’ll take back what I said!”
But Hix didn’t stop and look back.
...Well ... other than that I haven't written the other 50 or so chapters yet XD (Don't worry, just a random number! Not a prediction of how many chapters I'm going to have XD)
Spirit Chronicles
Materialization 001
Just Another Job
Tap tap went sandaled feet over the dirt road, as fast as they could take April forward. Her dress flapped behind her, blue ribbons trailing from her waist and flittering in the wind. The sun beat down upon her, causing her to sweat slightly from exertion despite the short distance she had traveled even though she was wearing a sleeveless dress was designed to handle this weather. Usually, she would be wearing a sun hat as well, but in her haste to leave, she had forgotten it. However, this was the least of worries, as it clashed horribly with her hair ribbon, not to mention that she would be meeting him in the tavern, indoors where it was infinitely cooler than the outside.
Since the town of Kaysa was located fairly close to Cerebraille, the capital of the country that carries the same name, machines were fairly easy to get a hold of. One of the most popular pieces of machinery everyone seemed to indulge in was the fan, run off solar panels placed on the roofs of houses. Most of the residents took the presence of technology to be granted, but April knew, since her father was a merchant, that just a little further out and the trade routes from Cerebraille dwindled down to near-nothing. Add to that the fact that solar energy was a fairly new accomplishment and an extremely successful one, given the constantly torrid climate, and Kaysa turned into one of the best towns to live in the country.
Cicadas chirped incessantly, clinging tightly to stone and cement, as their armor glistened under the sunlight. People milled about, concentrating on staying out of the sun as much as possible. Many had umbrellas open, whereas others had hats that hid their faces in shadow. Those without either took to the time-old strategy of door-hopping, going from entrance to entrance to stand and catch the welcome cool breeze.
April pushed her way through the crowd, not finding it in her heart to care about such trivial things as the constant heat or the danger of sunburn. All she felt was excitement, desire to get to where he was as fast as possible. She had waited for so long, three days after she had sent her request, for someone to arrive, to listen to her. All the people in the village were too cowardly or self-absorbed. No one would do anything about that menace just outside their doorsteps! And now, finally…
It wasn’t long before she reached her destination, shoving open the doors to be met with a blast of refreshingly cool wind. She sighed in contentment before remembering why she was here, looking around frantically. There were many people sitting around, seated at the tables and standing by the walls with drinks, also taking advantage of the relative cold and the shade. Most she knew by sight, as she had grown up knowing them and watching her father deal business with them. It was only after a few seconds’ searching that she spotted someone she didn’t recognize.
The man was sitting with his back to her, swirling his drink around listlessly. He had medium-length brown hair, darker than chestnut, which was kept out of his brow with a dull blue bandana. The ribbons flowed down through his hair and down his neck, reaching just below his shoulders. He wore a gray-blue-collared vest, which seemed to be loosely attached in the front somehow, that was nondescript gray color. His sword (and at this, April’s heart jumped - finally!) lay by him on the ground near his feet. His pants seemed to be a bit too white and clean for a mercenary, and his black shoes a bit too clean, now that she looked closely, but he seemed to be the man. Who else could he be?
Her suspicions were answered when the stranger suddenly addressed her. “If a young girl such as yourself is going to stand staring at me, you may as well sit down beside me.” He said this without turning around, and April wondered how he knew she was there in all the din of the bar.
She took his advice, and settled herself down, being sure to pick up her dress as her mother had always told her to do before sitting, while the man called for the bartender to prepare another glass of water. Personally, she would have preferred some lemonade, but it was awfully thoughtful of him to order something for her without knowing who she was. She looked up at him, trying to see what the man’s face looked like. To her shock, the reputed mercenary (came with all sorts of recommendations from the Agency) was merely a teenager, or possibly at most, twenty. His eyes were a nice almond shape, although due to the angle and bad angle she couldn’t properly discern their color - probably hazel. And while his eyebrows were partially hidden by the headband, she could see they were thin. He even had a Greek nose and a well-formed face in general, and April let herself be distracted by her slight approval for his looks.
However, that thought was dashed away with his next words. “I take it you’re the client, um … April?”
April nodded.
“My name’s Hix, the mercenary sent from the FleetFoot Agency to take care of your request.” The newly-named Hix shifted, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a slightly rumpled letter. April recognized her handwriting on the envelope. “Your words were a little … vague. Would you mind clarifying for me what you would like accomplished?”
Again April nodded, glad to get down to business so quickly. She thanked the bartender for her water and took a sip, briefly letting herself relish the cold ice, before starting her story.
“I’ll start from the beginning then. As you know, my name’s April. My father was a pretty well-known merchant in this region. He was very smart and had a good eye for profit. It’s actually thanks to him that we have so many accommodations in Kaysa right now. He used to bring those machines back from the capital Cerebraille and sometimes he’d bring some for me to play at home as well… However, about two weeks ago, he ran across one of them on his trade routes.”
“Them?”
“Spirits! What else? An enormous Spirit suddenly appeared out of nowhere and attacked my father! The Spirit ran off, but my father’s shipment was already completely wrecked. When he made his way back here, he told the story to the mayor and they decided to try and drive the monster away. The first attack was a failure, though. After all, it’s to be expected, facing up against a huge beast like that…” April sipped her water.
Hix was silent for a little before asking, “Do you know what kind of Spirit it was?”
April pondered this. “I think my father said it was a caterpillar Spirit, not that that means much. It was ridiculously strong. And aggressive too! About two days ago, the men were scouting out the cave where they think the worm had crawled into, just to see if it was still there, and all of a sudden they were attacked out of nowhere!” April paused. “Many people died in that attack, including my father.” Before she could continue, Hix put his hand up, interrupting her.
“So you want me to kill this Spirit for revenge?”
She shook her head. “I want to protect this town that my father gave his life to. So many lives were lost that day. The Spirit is too aggressive and is a danger to Kaysa! Can’t you do something about this, please?”
Hix sighed. “It’s not possible, not in the least, for me to talk with the Spirit to try and convince it to leave? Perhaps…” He stopped at April’s expression.
“No! The Spirit is evil! You have to kill it before it kills anymore people!”
April stared at Hix hard as he put his head in his forehead, muttering “This wasn’t what I had expected…” With a sudden tightening in her heart, she wondered if this young man would refuse the request. Who knew how long it would be before another able enough would come…
The men from the FleetFoot Agency were renowned for getting the job done, be they searching for lost objects or assassination, so long as they receive payment. Mercenaries in the purest sense. This Hix didn’t look it, but who knew. If there was one thing April had learned in the years of watching her father, it was that you can’t judge a person by his looks. Either way, April was sure that she would be able to pay off whatever Hix demanded. Daughter of a wealthy merchant and all. She knew that her request was a little farfetched and perhaps even impossible for one man, but if anyone could do it, it would be one of the mercenaries.
She let out a sigh of relief when Hix looked up and said, “Very well. Take me to where this Spirit is and I’ll do what I can.” When she didn’t move, Hix raised his eyebrows. “…Yes? Aren’t we going somewhere?”
April fidgeted. “About your payment…”
The young mercenary tilted his head and looked at nothing in particular. “We can discuss that along the way. Is that all right with you?”
April nodded. Hix reached into his pocket and pulled out a few coins, putting them on the table for the bartender, before grabbing his sword from beside his seat and left the tavern. April trotted after him.
As the two walked under the shade from the balconies towards the edge of town, Hix asked, “So where is this Spirit located?”
“It holed up somewhere in a cavern in the small forest outside here - right outside the village, to the west - so we should get there pretty quick.”
April walked ahead, leaving Hix to follow her. After all, this was the town where she had been born and grew up in; it made sense that she’d be the guide.
The two walked in silence for a while, and April felt the silence that was only interrupted by her sandals’ and his shoes’ scratching grow. She looked over her shoulder and found Hix looking at the houses with what could have been wonder. “What’s wrong?”
Hix shook his head. “No, it’s nothing. Just that I’ve never been this close to the Capital before, so all this machinery is new to me.”
“Really?” April put her hand to her chin, thinking. “Well, I suppose it might be because of the trade that passes through this town. I don’t think any other places that are this far from Cerebraille have what we have. I mean, I think some of the wealthier here even have those fancy ice boxes that never need to be refilled!”
“Hmm…” Hix trailed off, looking interestedly around him again. April cocked her head. Was he not a big talker?
“So,” April started, trying for conversation again, “where else have you been? I’m sure you’ve seen lots of interesting things.”
Hix laughed sheepishly at this. “It’s not quite like what you think. I mean, a place is a place, with houses, grass, trees, and people, so after a while things start looking the same.” He paused here. “Well, I suppose there are a few exceptions. There was another town not far from here that was built under the shadow of an enormous tree that covered the entire place. I think that was their method of staying cool.”
“Oh, you mean Iliki! I’ve heard about it from my father’s travels. He was always complaining about how no one would buy his merchandise because they had the shadow to keep the sun’s heat from bothering them too much.”
“Ah, yeah, I think that was the name. So your father has been there, too? He must have been a successful man.” The sudden reference to her father’s death made April jump. “I’m sorry for mentioning that,” Hix added quickly.
She shook her head. “Don’t worry about it. My brother’s away, trying to uphold what’s left of the business.” At this point, the two were out of the town and instead of gravel and sand rasping to each footstep, fallen leaves and grass rustled and crunched and squelched. “So, your pay…”
The mercenary was busy looking at the surroundings again, turning his head this way and that, and sometimes looking up and sometimes down. Occasionally he’d furrow his brows before looking elsewhere. ‘Were the woods really that interesting?’ wondered April. “Hix?” she asked aloud, trying to regain his attention.
Hix startled and then tried to recover with a small smile. “Oh, sorry. I didn’t hear what you just said.”
April replied with one of her own. “Nothing to apologize about. I only asked how you want me to pay you. If you want cash, I can-“
He shook his head. “No, I think that is best determined after this job is done.”
“Oh, OK.” She was surprised, but she supposed this might be the way mercenaries do things after all. She’d never been in contact with one before, after all.
There wasn’t much talk after that, as April was getting more and more nervous as they approached its hideaway, and Hix was busy looking every which way but forward for some unfathomable reason. At one point, he even knelt down to pick something up and inspect it, mumbling to himself as he did so. April was too far when she realized he’d stopped to see what it was that had caught his interest and he’d discarded the item not long after. She silently wished for the young man to walk just a little faster, so she wouldn’t have to be so far in front all the time.
That was something he did a lot of, April noticed. The mercenary often talked under his breath to himself, and she heard it more, in a soft voice, when she was turned around and walking ahead. He probably didn’t think she heard. She wondered just what he was saying, but then decided better of it. After all, Hix didn’t talk all that much. It wouldn’t be surprising if he didn’t make up for it by talking to himself.
It wasn’t long before an enormous cave, dug into the side of a hill that stood out above the rest of the forest, loomed into view. The entrance was clear and open, as though something large had come and dragged itself through all the foliage to get in. Branches and trunks were pushed every which way in great disarray, and the forest floor in front was completely devoid of plant life, soil overturned and with huge stretches of soil thrown about. April’s eyes nearly popped out of her head as she saw the deep trenches created by the monster’s claws, two rows of holes parallel to the giant dirt track.
“The Spirit must have been injured before it made it here.”
April turned to look at Hix, who was observing the whole scene with a serious expression on his face. “How do you know that?” she asked in a small voice. She almost felt that if she spoke too loudly, it might hear her and come out and attack.
Hix had no such qualms and replied in his normal volume. “The dirt thrown everywhere. With claws like I’m guessing he has, it shouldn’t be everywhere so far to the right. The prints on the left are also dragging a bit.”
She nodded and gulped. She didn’t want to check, or even think more about this whole thing than she had to. “H-how are we going to get in? I forgot…”
“Don’t worry. I have flint.” Hix reached into his vest. It hadn’t looked like he kept anything in there, but he pulled out two shiny pieces of stone anyways. “Now for some firewood…” That wasn’t hard at all, considering that they were in the middle of a forest. April stood still while he settled down onto the ground, striking the stones together for a spark. She couldn’t see over his back, but she could hear the roar of fire when it started.
The mercenary then stood, and started towards the cave. “You should stay here, where it’s safer. I’ll go in alone.”
April stopped, perplexed and a little annoyed with herself for never having thought of this. She had always assumed that she would be going in as well. “I’ll be fine! I’ll stay close … or far away if there’s a fight. I just want to see the whole thing through to the end!”
Hix frowned. “You can see it through to the end by staying outside just as well. If what you say is true, and there really is an aggressive Spirit in the caves, which these tracks do seem to indicate, then it would be much too dangerous inside. Even if we know that the Spirit is a caterpillar, we don’t know what Element it is nor what its abilities are.”
She paused and considered. This was true, and yet… “I said earlier that this was for the good of Kaysa, and it is. But I also want to see for myself what happened, for my father’s sake, in his memory.” So I can look my father’s murderer in the face as it dies.
The man seemed to be debating with himself before finally settling on an answer. “Come on, let’s go then. Don’t fall behind.”
April had no intention of doing so. She hurried along, slightly in shock that he had agreed so easily to her demands, after the mercenary, the torch a bobbing light that seemed to grow brighter and brighter the further the two left the last vestiges of light behind at the entrance. She looked around, nervous. The shadows seemed to creep towards her, reaching out for her. When she felt something snag her foot, she gave a small cry and ran up to Hix, standing as close to him as possible.
“What’s the problem?” he asked, his eyes elsewhere.
She kept quiet, not wanting to admit that she was somewhat of a coward, if not only because she’d never done anything adventurous in her life at all. Before she could reply, her foot caught on something on the ground, causing her to stumble.
“What was that?!” April yelled, a voice that echoed through the cavern. Hix swiftly turned around and knelt on the ground, one hand up holding the torch and the other down searching the ground. Eventually he found what he was looking for and held it up for inspection.
Clasped in his hand was a fistful of what seemed to be white string, running lengthwise across the tunnel. Under the orange light, the yarn-thick threads glowed a soft henna hue. Hix ran his fingers over it, assessing its texture and strength before speaking. “This is silk…” He trailed off as his eyes followed the strings out of light’s cast. “Not a very high quality, but still rare and worth a fortune.”
He stood and walked to the wall, raising the torch so that a good portion of the wall was in view. Continuing onward as far as vision allowed, the tunnel was lined with a thin layer of thread, packed tightly against the sides. Or at least, it would have been had there not been entire sections of the thread missing. Loose ends hung, plumb straight in the tunnel with no wind to make them sway. Most of these were towards the edge, but some were actually overhead as well, dangling down to whisper past the duo’s ears.
They continued on in awkward silence, with the quiet crackle of fire and periodic footsteps being the only sounds that drifted through the dank air of the cave. April nervously glanced back at her hired hand every few moments, glad that he was walking as sturdy and sure as before, providing a sort of anchor for her to hold on to. It wasn’t long before the monotony of walking and silence began to bother her, though. Always with an active mind and mouth, she was unused to such long periods of relative inactivity. However, her courage could not drive her to speak pointlessly in the oppressing lack of noise as something seemed forbidden about it, and she was too afraid to run too far forward, away from the light and her protection. In the end, she settled to counting her steps and trying to skip in rhythm to the slightly faster strides of her company.
In reality, after she had lost count twice, she had no idea of how much time had passed before she collided with the mercenary’s back.
With a cry more engendered from surprise than pain, she stumbled a few feet back. “Why did you stop?” she asked, peeking over from behind Hix to see what he had been staring at. She gasped when she saw what had made even the jaded fighter pause in his steps.
Lying there, strewn along the path, were remains. Bones standing erect in the ground, some whole with dark spots still speckling them, others fragmented and sharp, pointed edges facing skyward like purposefully-laid traps waiting to skewer an intruder. Red smears like an abstract painting, covering all 4 walls of the cave, dying the silk, white and orange against the din of the flames a burgundy red.
April had to suppress her lunch from coming back up from her stomach as she stared at the carnage before her. “What did this? Why are there … why are there blood and guts smeared against the walls? The Spirit? The Spirit did this, didn’t it?!” She gasped in horror as she processed her own realization. “This means that these are the people, doesn’t it? That disappeared? D-Dad’s not-”
“It’s too early to make any conclusions,” interrupted Hix. He had been surveying the scene before him with a masked expression, and the only way April could tell he wasn’t completely calm was by the thin line his lips were making and by his slightly narrowed eyes. He took a few steps forward, looking left and right every few moments at some flag of clothing lodged on a bone or at the hair-fine threads on the wall. He continued going forward before he realized that April wasn’t following him. Turning around, he tilted his head in a questioning manner before heaving a sigh and walking back. “Here,” he said before taking her wrist and pulling her forward.
April tugged back, not wanting to go any further. She planted her feet into the ground. “No! I don’t want … I don’t want to-!” To go any further, to go any closer to the horrible Spirit, to go any closer to her father’s murderer.
“This was what you wanted, coming in,” cut in the mercenary again. “If you don’t want to see it through, then I have no objections. Leave. Is that what you want?” He turned to face her fully.
April hiccupped, by now tears freely flowing down her face. Of course she didn’t want to go any further in! Who did, into a place of killing?! But the way he had put that, it was her responsibility, and it was true. She did hire him. She did want vengeance for her father.
With a few deep breaths, and some wiping at her eyes with her sleeves, she replied, “No, I’m sorry. We’ll go on.”
Hix nodded, apparently satisfied with the answer, before he turned and continued onwards, still holding onto April’s wrist so that she was dragged forwards as well. She kept her eyes concentrated on the man’s back, focusing on anything but the red surrounding her. She tried to ignore the slight squelching sounds her sandals made on the floor, as well as the reflective light from the silk on the wall.
But when she spotted a scrap of purple, a few more minutes down the cave, she felt her eyes pulled away, and she stopped. Hix turned, and if April didn’t know any better, she’d have though him to be exasperated. “What is it?”
Despite her hesitance and disgust, she knelt down and picked up the piece of clothing she had found. It was a rich royal color with edges of patterned gold and brown in a circular pattern.
“Is that your father’s?”
April didn’t look up, and so she didn’t see the odd expression on Hix’s face when he asked, but she nodded her affirmative. “He ordered this design to be made especially for him. He said that once he’d made a name for us, this pattern would be our family seal, like the ones the rich people have.”
“Is that also his?”
She turned to see what Hix was referring to, and her eyes came to rest on a small pile of debris. The mercenary knelt and brought the torch closer, then held one of the pieces up to inspect it. It was kind of curved, like part of a bowl. After staring at it for some more, she shook her head. “I haven’t seen it before, but I think it might be something he used in his trading. He used to bring all sorts of things back home and I think they may have been in a basket like that, but I can’t be sure.”
The man made a disinterested sound, and for a flash, April felt anger. Just because he had no emotions for her father didn’t mean that she had to be stoic as well! Wasn’t she allowed to mourn for just a little?
As though in response to her questions, Hix said, “You can mourn after everything is over. Now’s not the time. We’re in the enemy’s den, and I think we’re close.” He nodded towards a large rent in the sheet of silk that bedded the floor, near where the piece of cloth had been found.
April gulped, realizing the truth in his words as well as her fear now that they were getting close to the Spirit. She had never seen one before herself since they were uncommon in this area of the land, but they were commonly told through stories as vicious monsters standing five stories high with vicious weapons of all manners and kinds: pincers, fangs, claws, spikes, and, more unnaturally, blades and guns as well. They were the bogeymen of stories told to children, and they were the nightmares of men fully in adulthood. This man standing before her must be utterly fearless or very good at hiding that he was scared out of his wits, she realized as he led the way while she hastily stuffed her father’s sleeve, the only part left of him as no more remains were seen the rest of the way, under one of her ribbons.
It wasn’t long before the caves started to open up wider and wider, April noticed as she kept close to her hired hand. Hix had taken to walking with one hand on the hilt of his sword, although he didn’t once look around nervously. Then, suddenly, the tunnel they had been walking through opened up into a wide cavern, and suddenly April couldn’t see the walls that had been hugging so close to them for so long.
The room was dark, except for the small circle of light the flames provided them. She wished fervently that Hix had brought two sticks instead of one and was surprised when Hix thrust the torch into her hands. She fumbled, almost dropped it, but in the end managed to grab a hold. Despite her instinct to curl up out of fear because of her close proximity with the enemy, she had to hold the flames at arm’s length. She saw the man walk forward, hand outstretched. “What ar-”
She was hastily silenced by a “Shh!” louder than she had been talking.
April hastily scuttled after Hix, and it was only after she approached she saw what he had been touching.
If she had thought the silk in the caves were amazing, then this sight completely caught her unawares. In front of her was an enormous ball of silk, seemingly hanging from the ceiling the same way it was attached to the ground - like an enormous aged tree with roots deeply ingrained into the earth, the cocoon had thick bunches of string attaching the ball to all corners of the room.
A sharp shiing drew her attention from the sight and she turned to see Hix draw his sword. In the brief moment she could see it, blade was ordinary to her eyes, nothing special at all, and she felt a slight disappointment. But that was quickly torn away as she saw him plunge the blade, from tip to hilt, all the way into the cocoon.
April jolted, backed away. But there was no movement.
Hix narrowed his eyes, pulling the sword out with one jerk. The flap that he had cut open in the cocoon dangled loosely, drifting slowly to the ground. He took a few steps back, seemingly in thought, before he suddenly turned on April and grabbed the torch right out of her hand.
The action was so spontaneous and rough that April couldn’t help but yell out. “Hey, what was that for?!”
She couldn’t see his face as he replied in a monotonic voice, as though he talked only because she had asked and he wanted to get this over as soon as possible. “The cocoon’s skin is too thick. It would take forever to cut through, and by then the Spirit will be alerted of our presence. This will be faster.” He held his empty hand out and stepped back, signaling for April to back away as well. She did, and it was a good thing because right then, he threw the torch to the ground.
The flames spread upwards quickly, faster than April had ever seen the red blossoms devour anything. Higher and higher they climbed until the entire pillar of silk encasing the ball was wreathed in it. The light from the fire illuminated the cave, and she found that the room wasn’t quite as large as she had imagined, but still sizeable. Curiously, the burning didn’t make as much progress on the ground as it did around the cocoon. “Why isn’t the ground burning too?” she asked.
However, there was no reply. The shadows cast by the fire accented just the wrong places on Hix’s face, thought April, making him look awfully frightening. His stern expression didn’t help either.
Thinking he didn’t hear the first time, she asked the question again. This time there was a response, albeit curt, and his eyes never left the hibernating Spirit. “The ground is slightly moist. The cocoon was dry.” She was about to ask another question before he preempted her. “Now’s not the time for questions. You should get back further-”
And no sooner had he said that, several things happened at once, or one after another. April never did remember.
A great rumbling shook through the cavern, causing some dust from the ceiling to fall. Some of the weakened threads, partially eaten by the fire, snapped and fell, curling and drifting downwards like some great fiery tentacle. And then there was the shrieking.
The sound pierced through April’s ears, so sharp and loud that she had to cover her ears as she huddled on the ground for balance. It wasn’t just the shrillness of the scream that she wanted to block out, though; there was a horror to it that just sent chills down her spine. Even Hix, sword still drawn, winced, his face contorted into a grimace as he endured the assault on his ears.
Then a great rip captured April’s attention. She couldn’t take her eyes off the sight as, like from something crawling out from the depths of her darkest dreams, an enormous claw - a great, green, sickle-shaped thing with spiky protrusions instead of a blade - pierced through the top portion of the column of flames and tore. Another appeared and sliced diagonally downwards. And another, and another, until the column was no more and the Spirit was out in the open for both to see, screeching its fury and pain to the world.
April decided that even the tallest fairy tales had some truth to them. The Spirit was almost as long as the cavern, and when it stood on its hind, it could easily reach the ceiling. It had a body like a caterpillar, but it was armored with shiny, olive green plating that spiked at the back and reflected the light into a light brown color. This armor continued all the way from head to end, where two enormous spikes protruded, curved upwards. The thing was a mass of legs, and April was reminded of those centipedes at home, where one leg moved after the other in waves. The only difference was that each leg ended in a miniature version of the sickle that had cut through the cocoon earlier. The weapons that did perform the deed were only the two foremost legs, which were shorter but with longer blades.
However, what captured April’s attention most were the head and its front claws. The caterpillar Spirit - for it could only be that - had a head plating that resembled a horse’s skull. The two openings on either side of this armor each held a large, seemingly gelatinous red eye, and two more small beady black eyes seemed to be on the armor itself, one above and one below each larger eye. Then, sprouting from the back were large feather-like appendages that shook and wavered as the worm shook its head in agitation. Upon closer inspection, she saw that there were small veins running through each enormous flake - were those leaves? As if that wasn’t hideous enough, April couldn’t stop staring at its mandibles. Two large ones, like great scythes, on each side of the mouth, and two more above the mouth. These ones were flexible, and … were those fingers? Two on each limb, as though a human hand had been fused so that only the thumb remained separate.
April gagged, but she couldn’t bring herself to unfreeze as the beast thrashed. It would crash headlong into first one wall and then the other, and sometimes even would rear up and rub itself against the ceiling. Was it trying to put the flames out? Or was it just crazed? It was when it started to roll over onto its back that April realized she wasn’t in a good position at all, despite how far away she was standing. An enormous leg-claw came shooting down towards her as the creature landed on its belly again.
Before she knew what was happening, she was being dragged along towards the exit. Looking down, she saw a hand. She had forgotten Hix was even there, so horrified was she at the sight of the monster. Roughly, she was pulled with a jerk, swung around and shoved into the small tunnel from where they had come. The two stood there against a wall, Hix bracing himself over her to protect her from anything falling. The two were in such close proximity that, had this been any other circumstance, she would have flushed red. After a moment, the commotion quieted, and with a quick “Stay here,” the man was gone.
By now, the silk strings were dangling everywhere, like those fancy curtains at doorways that April had seen at stores before, decked in flames and debris - small chunks of rock, even - were falling from the ceiling and collecting on the ground along with black char. Past all this, Hix dashed, occasionally zipping left or right to avoid a stone, until he finally came up to the Spirit, which had exhausted itself with its flailing.
Despite the roaring of the flames, April could hear every word he said.
“I’m sorry I set fire to your home, but it was the best way to get you out. I know you are frightened, but will you listen to me?”
There was no response from the Spirit, which leaned against the wall, its head turned towards the mercenary.
April couldn’t believe what she heard when he continued. And the idiot even thrust his sword into the ground. Empty-handed against a Spirit!
“I apologize for the humans’ actions - their greed had driven them too far. Regardless, you have killed. You can’t live here anymore!”
Her eyes widened. This monster had attacked so many good men from the village and killed her father … and yet they were the ones who had to apologize? Greed? What was this man playing at?!
Her legs carried her forward, but Hix’s words continued. He stared into the Spirit’s eyes, as though that would prove to it his sincerity. “If you leave peacefully, I won’t have to kill you. You can trust my words.”
Mandibles clicked, but before it could right itself completely, April had reached the sword that Hix had abandoned. With a heave, the weapon was free, and she charged forward, the too-heavy blade dragging behind. She didn’t make three steps before Hix intercepted her, grabbing her on the shoulder and turning her around, but her rage dictated that she had to attack, and so, with a cry, she swung.
It was clumsy. The blade dug deep into the ground as it missed. Hix had jumped back, his teeth gritted and eyes wide. April panted, only half-comprehending what she had done though her knuckle-whitening grip on the handle was just as tight as before. The furious man was about to open his mouth when he froze, gaze fixed above her. Without another word, he sprang forward and plowed into her.
An enormous claw crashed down right where the girl was standing a moment earlier.
The Spirit reared and howled. It had gotten back on its feet, and with renewed vigor was starting to stamp around and everything twitched agitatedly.
April felt herself shoved back, away from the worm, and she collapsed as the weight of the sword unbalanced her.
“Give me that!” Hix’s voice startled her. The urgency of the situation had reduced it to a growl.
She clutched the sword closer to herself, still on the ground. She glared up defiantly. If he wasn’t going to kill the thing, then she wouldn’t give him what he wanted.
Hix tsked. “I don’t have time for this,” he murmured as he stood straight. Then, amazingly, empty-handed as he was, he ran towards the rampaging Spirit.
No, not empty, thought April numbly. Fragments, the building blocks of the world, gathered together in glittery white sparks around Hix’s hand. As she watched, the pieces aligned themselves in a line, stemming from his hand. By the time the man (Spirit-fiend! Traitor!) had reached the caterpillar, the white sparks were gone, and in his hand was another sword, identical to the one April herself was clinging to.
By the time he was within attack range, the creature had noticed the approaching human that held no small amount of hostile intentions towards it. Claws came raining down. Hix weaved back and forth, sometimes jumping backwards, to avoid the attacks. One even came so close as to knock Hix off his feet, sending him rolling several times before he managed to right himself - only to launch himself forward to dodge another strike.
Through all of this, April stood statue-still. She couldn’t convince her feet to move even if she wanted to. She watched the whirlwind dance the two participated in, watched as Hix finally got close enough to strike … but didn’t. Instead, he jumped on top of the Spirit and began scaling its armored back. When the worm started to buck, April half expected him to go flying (was she cheering for the man anymore?), but he somehow never did, sword stabbed deep into the Spirit’s armor and hand bracing himself by grabbing an edge or one of the many spikes. Slowly, but surely, he made his way up to the head.
And then he stood, the moment the Spirit kept its head steady in its bucking for more than two seconds. “I’m sorry.” With the soft whisper, Hix plunged his sword deep.
A shriek, not unlike the first made when the Spirit discovered its den on fire, rang through the cavern, and its great body crashed to the floor, rolling around as though it were trying to get rid of an irritating fly. Hix fell off, the sword still stuck in the monster’s head, and he landed with a cushioning roll near April.
She backed away, but was stopped by the stare from the mercenary. He was none the worse from the fall, except for some tears on his vest and dirty black smears on almost every inch of him, but it wasn’t this absence of damage after what was essentially a brief scuffle with the enormous caterpillar that startled her. It was the distant look in his eyes that was so different from how he usually looked at her, yet it was directed straight at her.
He held his hand out. “The sword.”
April looked around in confusion. His sword that he had been using … was still stuck in the struggling Spirit. But the way he had pulled one out earlier out of thin air meant… “You’re an Ark. Make another one yourself.”
Hix’s eyebrows furrowed in what was probably exasperation. “It’s my sword you’re holding hostage right there. I will get it back, with or without permission from you.”
She didn’t resist when the man reached forward and wrenched the blade from her grasp. But that didn’t stop her from screaming at him, tears starting to well up at the corner of her eyes. This wasn’t fair - first there was a Spirit, men-killers the lot of them, and now the person she had hired, she had trusted to kill it was one of those horrendous human-Spirit mixes? “Why would you want that thing anyways? You can make anything you want, just from thinking it, you freak!”
The Ark turned his attention back to the writhing Spirit. He didn’t turn back, nor spoke a word in response to April’s accusations and questions before he ran back towards the worm again. And this time, when he reached the Spirit, so half-blind with pain was it, that it didn’t even react when Hix drove his second sword into its head.
This time, there was no great crashing against walls or thrashing to scramble back onto its feet. The caterpillar Spirit fell still, and with a doleful keening, its legs twitched in small, fitful waves before resting. Some got their blades caught in the floor and ended up still folded; others lay flat, energy sapped out of them. The eyes stared at its killer, and he looked back into them before the eyes dimmed, and the mandibles of the creature clicked one last time.
Hix reached forward, and pulled both swords out. A flow of particles trailed after the swords, white like the Fragments he had gathered before to form one of the weapons. Before long, the entire Spirit was glowing, and, bit by bit, disintegrating. The destruction spread like a festering wound, starting from the extremities and its fatal wound and eventually on to the tail end until nothing was left but white dust that quickly vanished as well.
Overwhelmed by everything that happened so quickly, April startled when Hix suddenly turned and quickly made his way back to her. She jerked away when he grabbed her wrist. “What are you doing?”
Hix motioned with his eyes at the cavern, which was still in flames and starting to overtake the matting on the ground as well, and made to grab her hand again.
“No! I won’t go with you. You’re an Ark, and y-”
“And we are standing inside a blazing inferno right now. If you want to talk, we’ll do it outside.” He said forcefully before grabbing her again, and this time she let him.
The two then proceeded to run out of the cave in silence, or as much silence as the rustling of clothes and tapping of footsteps and roaring and crackling of fire behind them would allow. Perhaps it was because they were in such a hurry, but April didn’t feel that they took nearly as much time leaving as they did going in.
Once outside, April stopped, reveling in the sunlight, something she had never thought she’d miss. She just stood, arms outstretched as though she were trying to catch as many rays as possible. The wind that she hadn’t even noticed was lacking in the cave whipped around her dress, caressing it against her.
“The Spirit did not initiate the conflict.”
The voice broke through her focus, and she found herself turning to face the newly-discovered Ark. “What do you mean?”
“The remains of the people were much too far inside for them to be victims of simple curiosity or exploration. As you said, they were there to attack the Spirit or to try to flush the Spirit out most likely. However, they had no weapons. On top of that, your father’s remains were much further in than the rest of the people’s, and instead of a weapon, he has his basket with him.” Hix said all this in a detached manner … and his clothes were spotlessly clean again. April scoffed. The benefits of being non-human.
But then her attention turned back to what he had said. April narrowed her eyes. “What are you trying to say? Are you accusing my father of something?”
Hix wasn’t looking her in her eyes, instead wandering off to gaze at the trees. “There was silk in that cavern. Valuable silk lining the walls, every inch of it, and its quality improved the further into the cave we traveled.”
“You are accusing him of something! What are you saying he did, turned coward and ran away with silk? That’s ridiculous! Even if he did-”
“If he did, he wouldn’t have gone that far into the tunnel. No, I’m pretty sure he was actually a brave man, plowing forward to get better silk than that outside.”
“What? How dare you! So instead of being a coward, my father is now a greedy hoarder?”
“One who pushed his luck.”
April eyed Hix with disgust. “Of all the people the Agency could have sent, it had to have been you. Not only did you almost not fulfill my request, you’re trying to tell me my father brought this upon himself. And on top of all that, they sent an Ark. Oh no, wait, don’t tell me. The entire organization is made up of Arks.”
The temperature seemed to drop a few degrees. “You may insult me as much as you like, but you leave the Agency out of this.” At this, Hix looked around. His hand reached his sword, and for a split second April was afraid he was going to draw the weapon, but then his hand left it. It occurred to April that he was taking inventory, but then again, the man hadn’t come with anything more than the sword in the first place. “I believe I have finished what you requested. I’ll take my leave now.”
April froze, so sudden was this statement, and so unexpected, that she couldn’t gather her joy together. In fact, the words, “Wait, but wh-what about your pay?” slipped out of her mouth before she knew what she was saying.
“It’s all right. I don’t need it.” And with that curt response, the mercenary walked away, disappearing into the trees.
April was left staring after the man as he left, uncomprehending of his abrupt departure. On one hand, it was a good thing that he hadn’t asked for payment even though she had a small fortune that she had inherited ready, but on the other, her conscience didn’t want her to let this man go without anything. After all, he had completed her request even if he was an Ark, and Arks were better than Spirits… Either way, it didn’t seem right just to let him go like this.
“Wait, come back here! I-I’ll take back what I said!”
But Hix didn’t stop and look back.