Chapter 0.6

The sun crept into the cabin. Gadreel however was still asleep, this was not part of the routine. The usual presence of Klau was not waking him. His eyes droopily opened and looked around the room, she wasn’t here. ‘What’s happening? She is here every morning. I wonder if something happened, could she have slept in?’ Gadreel’s sleepy mind slowly processed these thoughts, as he grasped that she really wasn’t here, he began to feel uneasy. His bare skin tensed in the air as he slid out if the sheets and dressed out in his armor. 

The light enveloped the world, but there was still sunshine missing from his morning. He left the cabin and stood among the long grass reeds, examining the outside, trying to see if maybe she had come by, but left for some reason. Everything was the same, this did not sit right with Gadreel and a deep sense of worry filled every part of him.

A thin breeze riffled through the treetops, welcoming him into the forest, one thought bounced around his head mercilessly, ‘What if she got hurt?’ He shook his head, trying to clear this cruel thought from his mind. She was strong and brave, surely nothing bad would have happened in one night. Against his will, his mind began to panic, his pace quickened, Gadreel ran through the forest to their favorite hang out spots. She was nowhere to be found, and he was running out of places to check.

As he checked over the small stream, an ear splitting cry leapt into the air. His heart raced, and his muscles tensed, Gadreel stood completely still and listened for anything. The leaves trickled down along the water, he watched a dried leaf lazily float down to the earth and when it hit the soft ground, the cry blew into the air again. It wasn’t human. Whatever it was, it sounded wounded, probably crying for help. 

“Don’t worry guys!” Gadreel strained his ears to pick up the faint sound of a voice. It had a melodical tone to it, but fierce and powerful, it was Klau. He took of running once more in the direction he thought the noises were coming from. His armor clanked loudly, his vision cut by the narrow slit on his helmet. The clamor grew as he came closer. Loud thuds, soft whimpers, and the sound of struggle were louder now, his blood pounded in his head. The trees parted in his furious descent into a valley, the air grew damper, the light was harder to catch. A smooth mist lifted from the grass that was broad and dewy. His movement was muffled by the screen of powdery air. Deeper Gadreel went into the crevice of earth. Mist began to crawl up to his chest, he couldn’t see very far in front of him, random twigs on the ground caught his feet and startled him. 

An orange glow danced around in the mist before him, muffled by the growing mist. Gadreel heard the sound of Klau struggling against something, then the sound of a loud screech, it definitely wasn’t human but sounded almost like a bird. He parted the screen and fell onto a desperate scene. In front of him, was a massive creature. It recoiled at the sight of Gadreel, he couldn’t see it quite so well until it quickly began to flap its wings. The misty shield in the air quickly dispersed around the beast and he was baffled by the form he was seeing. A masculine snake body supported the fragile spindly frame of an old woman, the were conjoined at the hips in a gnarled twist of flesh. Long stringy hair hung over her naked sagging breasts, thankfully covering most of them. Her skin was loose and fragile, but the muscles lining her body were tough and rugged. Unproportioned arms were bared in front of her, long talons from her fingertips dripped red with blood. The woman’s eyes were as sunken in as her rib cage, every bone showed on her frail body, the face she wore wasn’t resembled of a human any longer. An elongated nose threw off the beady black eyes, her mouth opened and released a vicious hiss, flicking the forked tongue hidden inside her mouth. Crude lips pulled back to reveal razor sharp teeth, ready to tear apart anything she could get her hands on. From her back, outstretched worn broken wings. They were tattered and old, feathers consistently fell off each time she beat them back and forth. 

The creature was a sight to behold, a sense of strong yet disturbing power radiated from her. Her snake body slithered and began to charge towards Gadreel, her arms outstretched and mouth open for the kill. A quick body barreled into the snake woman thing and threw her off balance, a resounding boom echoed through the misty valley as the weight of her hit the earth. Spindly limbs flailed helplessly as she tried to catch herself, the rescuing shape bounded to the other side of the creature and pinned itself to the woman’s back. A significant flash of purple instantly registered with Gadreel that it was Klau. Dread filled him as all he could do was watch the fight unfold. The creature thrashed violently, trying to either squish Klau beneath her, or tear her off of it’s back. With a strong grunt of effort, Klau dug her fingers into the joint of one the creature’s wings and tore if from it’s body.  A sickening popping sound silenced the air as she broke the socket, The skin tore like thick paper, surprisingly leaving no trace of blood. It’s body froze then even more violently fell backwards, a ear bleeding, gut wrenching sound echoed through the air as the beast yowled in pain. It’s face contorted grotesquely. 

Klau nimbly collapsed to the ground, tossing the creature’s wing aside seemed to be studying her opponent. The mist began to collect at her feet as she stood completely still, Gadreel couldn’t even tell if she was breathing or not. The creature had stopped pawing at it’s back where the wing was torn off, and became silent. The mist collected in wisps around the snake body, little snakes of mist dance around the terrifying creature. Gadreel watched Klau noiselessly adjust her stance to a pounce and take her knife from the side of her thigh, determination of the final strike filled her eyes. They both stood still and became enveloped by the mist, an eerie silence filled the scene. 

The temperature was far from warm in the valley, and seemed to creep into Gadreel’s bones. His skin tingled with goosebumps, stung against his nose. His body out of habit recoiled in a shiver, the armor he wore clanked loudly as his body moved. The mist in front of him pated immediately at the creature jumped towards him at full speed, crazed by a bloodlust he had never encountered before. Gadreel fell down to his back completely shocked by the sudden movement. Before he could fight back in any way, the old woman’s arms held him firmly to the ground, pinning the rest of him with it’s meaty snake lower half. It seemed to smile, happy to have a prey at last. She opened her mouth wider than any human, barring all her razor tearing teeth. Gadreel pulled against the hold with all his might, but it was no use, the creature had an impossible strength. Darkness clouded his eyes as he shut them, half out of fear, and half so he wouldn’t have to see the wretched thing any longer. It’s breath stank of s**t and rotting flesh, and kindly billowed it into Gadreel’s face with every breath it took. He felt the creature pull back and prepare to tear through his armor, and destroy his body. 

Suddenly, the grip holding down his arms became more limp, and released him entirely. There was a dripping liquid falling onto his armor with a foreboding ‘Tink, Tink, Tink.’ Gadreel opened his eyes, and peered through the helmet’s slit. A wave of purple hair enveloped the scene that was before him, snakes of mist trailing in and out of the strands. Something was wrong however, the purple was becoming darker, being stained red. Red. Blood. Klau was bleeding. 

Gadreel squirmed from under the creature’s weight and threw off his helmet. ‘Damned thing is horrible for seeing anyways’ Blood dripped heavily to the leaved ground as he saw what happened. Klau stood above where he had lain, knife plunged deep into the monster’s torso, possibly where the heart would have been. The old woman’s face was posed peeking just over her shoulder, stuck in place by the razor teeth implanted into Klau’s shoulder. Thick blood ran down Klau’s arm that hung limply by her side. Her body fell and drug down the creature as Klau fell onto her knees. Her hand reached up across her shoulders and grabbed the woman’s hair. Klau viciously yet weakly tore off the woman’s head from her shoulder, leaving the body the recoil to the ground. 

Gadreel ran immediately to Klau as she began to bob backwards, possibly passing out due to blood loss. He caught her roughly, watching and wincing and her soft skin hit hard against his armor. ‘This s**t has been giving me nothing but trouble all day.’ His mind yelled at him. The blood was draining out of Klau’s face and running down her body, the dress she had been wearing, a sunshine gold was now sunset red. Grave worry filled him as her eyes rolled into the back of her head, and her body went limp. Gadreel had no idea what to do; then off to the side of the valley, through the mist, he heard a small whine. It was shaky and wounded, but begged to be noticed. He scooped Klau’s body into his arms and headed towards the source of the noise. Strong mist clouded his vision, so he listened as hard as he could to the silence, besides his armor giving off the usual clamor, and his heavy foot falls. The whimpering drew him close to the ground, and he gently knelt and peeked under a bush. There it was, the source of the whimpering.

Two scraggy wounded wolf pups were huddled at the base of the bush, trying their best to hide from the intruder. They were so tiny and fragile, their tiny noses sniffed the air, apparently picking up an important scent. Tiny paws lead them from under the scratchy bush and into the open. Bones stuck out from under their coats that were in turn matted and caked with mud and blood. They bore scars, and fresh wounds. Gadreel stayed kneeling, while one pup came close and sniffed at Klau’s hanging arm, blood smeared slightly onto the pups nose. His tail began to wag as he recognized her scent. 

“Ah, So it was you two that she was saving.” His voice was a pleasant deep tone, it stirred inside of Klau, and encouraged her to open her eyes. She looked around dazed, then locked onto him.

“Gadreel.” Her voice was weak, but she seemed to be determined not to show it. “Are you alright?” Despite her serious wounds, she was immensely worried about his wellbeing, he felt a strong pang of guilt well up inside his stomach. ‘If I had fought the woman bird snake f****r thing, then she wouldn’t be this way. Why didn’t I fight.’ His mind scolded him. 

“I’m perfectly fine, and look,” He lowered closer to the ground, the pups became excited to see her face and happily yelped and tried  to jump up onto her. Their little faces lit up so happily, she had risked so much to help two little wolf pups. This made Gadreel happy that she went through so much for so little, she was truly good. 

“I need to go to my home.” Her voice interrupted the happy scene, for it was very grave and urgent. She began to stand, but fell hard back into Gadreel’s armor, she winced in pain. 

“Let me help you, I can carry you there.” Gadreel offered as she pushed herself from his arms and shakily stood up on her own feet. The pups bounced excitedly around her, pawing at her legs, almost knocking her over. Gadreel quickly scooped up the pups who whined at him in utter protest. 

“I think you have helped enough, I can do it by myself.” She said coldly, and began to hobble out of the little valley or mist.

They pups squirmed in Gadreel’s grip, but soon settled as he gave them each a chunk strip of meat and they began to doze in the crevice in his arm. He watched Klau ahead of him, following slowly, and wincing slightly as every step was followed with a drop of blood either off the tips of her fingers, or down her leg. There must be something he could do, He had to help her. 

Gadreel walked up next to her, and stood with his back facing Klau, he knelt slightly, 

“I am going to carry you there.” He instructed coldly, hoping that his sense of demanding would convince her. “You’re very badly hur..” Before he could finish convincing her, Gadreel felt her small body fall onto his back, her legs weakly wrapped around his armor, and her arms fell around his neck. Without a word, he stood and continued in the path she was walking. 

He continued to walk for quite some time, but then it dawned on him, Gadreel had no idea where is was she was going. It was obviously not towards the cabin, but she was determined to go this way. The trees parted and began to thin around him until he was standing in a clearing. The only thing in the clearing was a massive tree. The trunk was so wide he would have to walk for a long minute to reach the otherside. It reached at high as the sky and probably rested among the stars. Klau realized where they were, and gently slid from Gadreel’s back, a squeaky noise told him her skin slid off with the help of a blood layer.She walked in front of Gadreel, and held up her unwounded arm, the other lay uselessly limp at her side. Her fingers outstretched and danced gently in the air as she drew a sign. When she lowered her arm, to Gadreel’s surprise, there was a shining golden symbol dancing gently in the air, Its rays bent gracefully. He had no idea what she was doing, but it was fascinating to watch. 

She blew gently on the sign and it drew back, the shining symbol traveled backwards through the air, and hit the tree trunk. Silence folloe as the sign was absorbed into the bark and outstretched as the frame to a door. Golden line curved down and around the tree, a shining handle appeared and Klau stepped forward. As if it was an everyday thing, she turned the knob and opened the tree, it swung out naturally, unopposed by the magic it had just encountered. The door gave way to a dark opening, Klau walked through the door, at a slow stumbling pace, holding her shoulder. Gadreel nervously followed her into the dark. He had to crouch slightly to fit through the smaller door. The pups stirred in his arms, but remained fast asleep. The door closed behind him, and they were left in utter darkness, Gadreel opened his mouth the speak but was cut off by a solitary flame sprouting from the tip of Klau’s finger. 

It danced happily, curling and bobbing, gently illuminating her face. She flicked the tiny flame, and it bounded into the dark, but instead of diminishing, it fell onto the wall. The flame lit an old candle, and jumped into the dark once more, but found again another candle lined along the wall. The new flames shone brightly, showing the worn wooden steps set before them, Gadreel watched the candle lights catch life, until he saw the little spark round the corner. Klau began to shakily climb the stairs, leaning against the wall for a support. Her blood glistened in the flame light. They followed the spiraling stairs for what seemed like hours, Gadreel’s legs felt weak in the knee and he was glad when Klau had to take little breaks, because he did too. 

They climbed and climbed until eventually, the corner rounded and turned into a wooden door. The tiny flame had diminished seeing as how its task was finished. Klau opened the door and it noiselessly presented a quaint room. It was spacious and airy, much more than the cabin. Instead of walls, the tree’s branches stretched up to provide cover, the room was a dense covering of leaves that rustled in the breeze. Sunlight streamed between the branches and leaves. A crude bed laid in one corner, and a collection of boxes laid scattered about. One side of the room seemed to be an armory, or a place to craft such things. Small wood shavings littered the ground beside a bench, apparently home made. It was all so wonderful, so many little nicknacks lined the floors, and the “shelves”, which were just conveniently outstretched branches.

Everything was so artistic and beautiful, in an odd way, but it was so raw and fascinating. Klau made her way directly to the makeshift bed roll and heavily flopped down. Her face was pale and pained, It made Gadreel very anxious about her condition. Her hand was hung across her chest and clutching her wounded shoulder. The bleeding had appeared to be stopped, but it was still a very serious wound.

Gadreel carefully, not to wake them, but quickly put the pups down on a sort of fabric, and rushed over to Klau. His armor, as usual, annoyingly loud in the quiet of the new surroundings. He hurriedly ungloved his hands, and took the wrist bracers off his forearms. With the new mobility, he very gently began to rip away the fabric on her shoulder. Klau winced as he accidentally brushed the wound with his fingers, her movement forced a small trickle of blood to flow out of the wound, rewetting the dried blood on her shoulder. 

“I have to see how bad it is, I’m not going to try anything. I promise.” Gadreel tried to reassure her, Klau’s body had become tenser as he got close to her chest area. Hearing his deep voice seemed to calm her and she weakly said, 

“It’s okay,      I know.   I trust you..” Her voice was quiet, lost of the usual excited edge, even the usual flare and sharpness in her eyes was lost behind a dull shield. Obviously in pain, she sat slightly, and wrestled off her dress, both of their cheeks flushed out of the situation, but Gadreel was focused on the task at hand. He handed her a cloth that was beside the rucksack, and she used it to cover her lower half. With her uninjured arm, she draped it tightly over her bosom, trying to conceal herself from him. 

Unlike his usual motives, he had no intent to jump her, or a want to run his fingers through her hair, or press himself against her naked body. The only thing he could feel was a sense of dread, he had to help, she got hurt because of him, he should’ve fought, why did this happen?

Multiple small cuts lined down Klau’s thigh, a long gash cut from the bottom of her right ribs and ended above her left hip, the wound on her shoulder was very deep, multiple holes and tears where the creature’s teeth had sunk into her skin. Gadreel pulled three teeth out of the wound, and set them to the side, she would want to keep them. Klau really liked odd memory trinkets. A leaf that reminded her of a particular day, teeth to remember an attack. 

Klau kept dipping in and out of unconsciousness. At one point, Gadreel was stitching up her stomach when she woke up. Terror filled her eyes, clouding her sight. She began to scream very loudly out of pain when she tried to get up. The cry made Gadreel’s stomach turn to knotts, she was hurt because of him, it was all his fault. Through the whole endeavor of her stitches, the odd waking ups, and the horrible pain, Klau didn’t spill a single tear. The most he saw of her crying over pain was her eyes turning red, and water welling up, but she seemed to zone out, and refused to let a single tear fall onto the ground or otherwise. 

He felt the guilt increase in his stomach as he watched blood drip over the curves of her body. The entire time he patched her wounds, she kept letting out little gasps of pain whenever the needle slipped in or out of her skin, her eyes were clouded by the pain, and were an eerie dull grey, it was soul sucking to see her so helpless and weak. Gadreel kept thinking to himself, ‘I will get her better, she’ll be all better soon. Then we can go back to having so much fun. She can run around again. I won’t let her get hurt this way ever again.’ He promised. 

Gadreel sat against the back wall, watching Klau sleep. He had finished with the wounds, and covered her with a large blanket. Her breath was shaky, but the color was coming back into her face. The sun was growing small against the horizon, preparing to set. Gadreel had been sitting and waiting for about an hour. He began to think about the times they had together, about how much she had changed him, how everything was happening so fast, yet not fast enough.

She had told him a while before that a home is not a place you live in. It’s the feeling you get when you are somewhere with either the person/s you love, or where you feel the utmost happiest. Klau said, A home in not a location, but where you feel most at heart. It was kind of confusing to Gadreel, and she tried to explain it further to him, but got her words all mixed up, and they lost the conversation to a laughing fit between them. Gadreel smiled happily at the memory.

They have had such a good time together, and dare he say it,

“I hope it stays like this for a while longer. Just us having fun.” His voice echoed slightly in the room. Beside him, the pups stirred slightly, one was sucking on his finger in it’s sleep. Klau literally risked her life for these pups, that was amazing. He had been around many many people, but none of them have been ever truly good. Sure they hold the door, say ladies first, but when it came down to it, they were the first persons to leave for safety. But it took him this long to realize how exactly she was. There was such a pure innocence about Klau. She had not yet experienced the real world, and remained so uncorrupt. It was refreshing to meet such a person. 

A deep feeling was beginning to take root in Gadreel, every time he saw Klau, or thought about her, it was a warm pleasant feeling that calmed his entire body. Something was happening to him.