Stench of Decay

Leaf comes into a human world recovering from devastation, only to experience human depravity in action.

2.

Stench of Decay

 

The reek of death assaulted her as soon as she materialized.   Mold, rot, rust, and the pungent stench of decaying life.  

 

Llaiannileaf gasped in repulsion to the horrid odor and covered her nose and mouth with her hands.   What could possibly live in such an environment as this?

 

Yet there was something more, something that shouldn’t be there.  It wasn’t sentient, but it had blanketed this world like a heavy snow, many, many years ago, bringing lifelessness and corruption to that which should have been.   Though it had faded and life had returned, it lingered, absorbed into all the life here.   Mutations and cancers, a wasting of the mind and a shorting of the span of fertility.

 

‘Radiation’, her father had called it once.   Those of this world had mastered the very core of creation and knew how to tear it apart, though doubtless they knew little (if any) of how to restore it.

War had raged over this place, or perhaps a horrid accident, filling it with the sewage of the human’s arrogance that they could manipulate the very fabric of all things.

 

With terrible results.

 

Oh, it had doubtless been long ago, as they reckoned it.   Centuries or even eons of the passing of their years, and the fauna and foliage had slowly returned.  

 

But it was a sickly forest that she walked in now.  The trees were mature and alive, dark and twisted, quite large, yet not proud, and their leaves were changing into muted fall colors - mostly pale yellows and faded oranges.  

 

A heavy grey fog hung over the equally grey trees as a slow drizzle fell.  She could hear very few living things moving around in the leaf strewn floor of the tangled forest, but some sounds reached her.

 

It was the sound of someone hurrying through the underbrush: not running, but walking very quickly, as if carrying something that kept him from running.   She could hear a deep breathing, accented by a few mumbled curses and she knew it had to be a human man.

 

But mixed in were some muffled whimpers; the sound of a scared child.   Though it was a sound totally alien to her; something instinctive within her spurred Llaiannileaf forward.   She ran, graceful as a deer, through the pulling, scratching underbrush.

 

The sounds grew nearer and she came out onto a very narrow foot path, perhaps originally a deer path that humans now used, as well.   She stood on the pathway for only a few moments before they appeared.

 

It was a disgusting looking man; tall but thick as an old bear, strong and as poisoned as the forest.   She could feel his corruption from afar.  His greasy brown hair hung limp on his head and a tangled mess of a beard hid his neck as he stumbled through the deep mud of the path and up the hill toward her.

He was covered in some sort of animal hide as protection from the rain, but it wasn’t protecting him much, for his clothing and boots were wet and caked with thick brown mud.   A limp hat hung onto his head and he had a leather pack and some sort of odd rifle on his back, as well as a large knife, a small hand axe, and even a curved saber or sword strapped to his belt.  

 

But it was what he was carrying that got Llaiannileaf’s attention.   A small girl, curled into a ball, her white woolen night clothes wet and muddy, had been flung over his shoulder like a sack.   The girl’s blonde hair covered her face, but she could see that her bloody hands were tied by cord and the man held the bonds.

 

A sob escaped the child and with a growl the man turned angrily and hit the top of her head.   The child cried out in pain and he raised his hand again, but at that moment Llaiannileaf moved forward so he could see her at the summit of the hill.

 

His eyes widened in fear, his hand frozen in the position to strike the child as he slid slightly backwards, his mouth now appearing from beneath his shaggy beard as he shouted out in alarm.

“Who are ya?”   He growled in a slurred, almost grunting voice, “Get back, I warn ya!   Get back!”  He slid a bit more in the mud and then dropped his right shoulder, letting go of his hold on the child.   She rolled off and fell hard onto the muddy ground.   The ugly man reached over his shoulder for the rifle.

 

Fury filled her.   Llaiannileaf took a step forward, but then thought better of a frontal advance.   With a thought she slipped just slightly out of time and place - it was her people’s ability to move that way at will - and then back.   She appeared beside the child, who she could now see was bound hand and foot.   The brute of a man cried out in terror at her disappearance and reappearance, but it only fuelled his urgency to get his rifle.

 

The weapon was something she had never seen while peering into the Chronal pool, something that seemed both very primitive and yet not quite primitive.  Somewhere there was the sound of the baying of hounds and the shout of more men, growing closer.

 

He pulled it from his back with fumbling, sweaty hands, but she did not wait for him to aim it.    She shifted out of time and space again, moving forward until she was right before him.  

 

She shifted back into being directly in front of him, but before his scream could leave his mouth, her hand had closed around his throat.

Blue fire seemed to engulf him immediately as his life drained from him like fluid from a broken vessel.   His body jerked and twitched only for a few moments before she dropped his corpse to the muddy ground.   It was a mere dried-up husk of its form, his wide bulging eyes frozen in the horror of death.

 

Llaiannileaf shivered at the disgust of what she had done, but did not doubt it was right.   The hounds broke through the underbrush, feverish with the nearness of the one they pursued.   Then they sensed her and all the baying stopped.   All six dogs stood a stone’s throw from her, ears laid back, tails tucked under their legs.  

They did not move, nor make a sound, but watched her in instinctual fear.

Yet Llaiannileaf did not take heed of them, for her concern was the human child.   Kneeling down, she gently scooped up the girl’s head into the lap of her dress.   She was scratched and bruised from the flight with her abductor and she cringed when the Sidhe woman touched her.

 

The child sensed something different through her tightly shut eyes and sneaked a quick peek.   But that glance stole away all her fear and her blue eyes popped wide open in dumbfounded wonder at the lady.

 

The girl would never forget the image before her.    She took in breath to scream - more in awe than in terror- but the lady’s finger on her lips froze that scream.

“Shh!  Do not be afraid, little one.”  She spoke with the voice of an angel.   Her words somehow calmed the child and she stared at her in great wonder.

Llaiannileaf could hear the masters of the dogs now crashing through the underbrush at the bottom of the hill.   Soon they would break through and see her.   But she could not leave the child like this.   She touched the little girl on the forehead, smiling warmly as she did, and green light flowed over her then drifted like mist from her form, taking the wounds from her, as well as the cords that bound her hands and feet.

 

She was a beautiful child, almost fae in her appearance.  

“You will be alright, little one.” She comforted her, gently laying her head down against the side of a small tree.

“Are you… are you an angel?”   The child asked.

“Today I am.”   She replied, glancing down the bottom of the hill.   She could see them through the trees now, a search party, desperately crashing through the underbrush.   

“Your people will be here in a moment to rescue you.   You shall be fine.”

“Lady, what is your name?   Please tell me.”   The little girl asked.

“First tell me yours.”   Llaiannileaf countered.   There was power in knowing one’s real name, and only those most intimate to you should know your true name.

“Finola” The girl quickly admitted.

“Fair-Shouldered”   Llaiannileaf knew the old root meaning of the name.    At the bottom of the hill came shouts of alarm as the party now came into view.

“You can call me ‘Leaf’, Finola.”

“Are you really my guardian angel?”

“You may believe that.”   Llaiannileaf smiled at her innocence, preparing to fade away before the other humans arrived.

“Don’t leave me!”   The child cried.

“Peace, child!   I shall look upon you again.    Peace!”   

Llaiannileaf held up a hand in farewell and shifted out of the flow of time.   As that reality drifted off into shadow, she heard the running footsteps of the girl’s rescuers and their alarmed questioning about her companion.

“My angel… Leaf.”   Finola said as the last of the time and place faded from Llaiannileaf’s grasp.

Reviews

[Elina]

"Llaiannileaf gasped in repulsion to the horrid odor..." It may sound better if you replace "to" with "of."
"They of this world..." Perhaps, "Those" ?
"...as if carrying something that slowed him down from a run." Mayhap, something similar to "...as if carrying something that kept him from running."
"...that humans now also used." It may sound better "...that humans now used, as well."
"...deep mud of the path, up the hill toward her." Maybe take out the comma and replace it with "and."
"...was flung over his shoulder like a sack." Perhaps, "...had been flung..."

[Eddie Davis]

Thanks, Elina.

[Dhaye]

I can see myself in the character of the child, treating someone who helped her as an angel. But it's the best feeling when you know that you can be an angel, too, which means you can also help others even in little things.

Glad you're not too fast in posting the chapters. lol
Thanks for sharing your story, Eddie. Keep it up!

[Eddie Davis]

Thanks, Dhaye, I'll be posting one chapter each day.