Iteruhi Chapter 2

The next day we headed out at dawn. The two of us sped through the snow trying to get away from the battle grounds as quickly as possible, hoping that the farther we got from it, the less likely nearby Iters would follow us. But we both knew that that wasn’t going to happen. If the one we fought earlier was easy, then I don’t want to know what a more difficult one would be like.

                Wilkhelm said our trip may take a week to possibly a month depending on how quickly we could find Shina; and everything was based off old stories and legends; I highly doubted we would be able to find Shina at all. We thought the Iters had been extinguished, and look how that turned out. Besides, if Shina was still alive, wouldn’t she be hundreds of years old?

                “Wilkhelm, where are you even taking us?” I asked him on the third day of the trip. We were having our lunch together and so far, there have been no sightings of any Iters.

                “Well,” he began, “I…don’t really know.”

                I just gaped at him in shock. Here he was, dragging me across the entire country and he didn’t even know where we were going. “Are you serious?”

                “No! I just have a vague idea about where it is, that’s all,” he muttered. “Listen, Shina’s somewhere in the fire country, and as soon as we arrive at the next village, we’ll ask around from there ok?” I nodded, but I knew he was just saying that to calm me down so I threw him a dirty look. For the rest of the day we didn’t speak; besides what had happened earlier with the Iter, our trip proved to be quite an uneventful one. Finally, after another week, we arrived at a tiny village. Our supplies were depleting quickly, and we had to restock on our food.

                “I’ll go do some shopping for us, so feel free to wander around if you like. Just meet me back here in an hour,” Wilkhelm said. I nodded and put my hands in my pockets to hide the purple marks. I wandered over to a rundown looking inn and stepped inside. Despite how old it looked from the outside, it was surprisingly clean indoors.

There was a man in the center of the room playing a lute and singing a song. Most of the guests were gathered around him and were clapping along. That’s when I recognized the tune. It was “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star;” even the words and melody were exactly the same, which took me by surprise. It made me wonder why two completely different worlds had the exact same song. But instead of thinking about it too much, I pulled up a chair and sat at the edge of the crowd, listening to the player's music. There were tears in my eyes when he was finished because it made me miss my home all over again. Then I noticed everybody putting coins into the performer’s hat, but Wilkhelm didn’t give me any coins to spend so I just sat there quietly. I felt bad because I had nothing to give, so when he held his hat out toward me, I just told him his performance was the most wonderful thing I’ve seen yet, and he bowed in thanks after noticing that I had no coins for him.

                I sat there alone even after he packed up all his instruments and left. The tavern keeper asked if I wanted anything to drink but I told him that I had no money. A minute later, he brought me a drink anyways, saying it was on the house. Surprised, I thanked him and tentatively took a sip. It was warm and dark, and tasted surprisingly close to coffee. That’s when I realized that there were so many things in this world that were similar to mine.

                I felt a light tap on my shoulder, “Hey, it’s time to go.” It was Wilkhelm, he pulled me up and told me to hold out my hands, slipping on a new pair of gloves for me. These felt sturdier and a lot warmer than my old ones. “Thought you might be missing these,” he grinned sheepishly at me and I happily fastened them on.

                That night we stayed in that same tavern. Wilkhelm told me that after the next village we come across, we’ll have to switch to horses. Feeling thrilled about how I’ll get to use my legs even more, I nodded excitedly and mentioned the “Twinkle Twinkle Little Stars” incident to him and told him how I had the exact same song in my world too. We both thought it was a rather big coincidence, but perhaps at one point in time, our worlds were somehow connected.

                The next morning we headed out to the next village, I had a feeling we’d be hopping around like this quite often. However it took us another uneventful and boring week to get there. “This town is called Spiroth. It’s a trading town, unlike the previous one which was just a tiny village.” Wilkhelm led me through the town square into a tiny shop.  There we sold our heaviest furs and thick leather snow boots for lighter jackets and riding boots. I kept my gloves though, if only to hide the marks on my hands. It was going to start getting a little warmer from here on out. This was where we were going to leave the wolves. Someone from his home village would pick them up later.

                We trudged through the melting snow into a stable shop and bought two fresh horses to ride. I chose a red chestnut colt and he bought a black stallion. Then I asked Wilkhelm a question that had been bugging me for awhile now.

                “Is there really fire in the fire country?”  i wondered aloud, but Wilkhelm just laughed.

                “No silly, we just call it the fire country because there isn’t a ton of snow like what we have back home,” He walked off, still laughing as I secretly glared at his back for the rest of the shopping trip.

                That night, we stayed at another inn. This one was a lot nicer than the previous one but there were no performers this time. By this point, Wilkhelm and I were pretty comfortable with each other. However, it was my first night with a nightmare. It was about the Iter from before. In my dream it was chasing after Kaitlin and I couldn’t do anything to stop it no matter how many times I clawed at it. I was shaking and sweating so much in my sleep that Wilkhelm had to shake me awake. For the rest of the night, I made him stay with me as he stroked my hair again, eventually falling asleep beside me.

                The next morning we quickly packed our new things and picked up our new horses at the stable downstairs. Just before we were about to leave. The inn’s owner came out with a warm breakfast all packed and wrapped for us. “My wife made extra sandwiches, and you two look like you could use some more food.” Wilkhelm thanked him gratefully, “Also, I came here to warn you about something.” The inn keeper whispered and motioned for us to come closer, “There have been thieves in these parts nowadays. They started quite a commotion here the other night. Thought I should warn you both before you left,” he muttered.

                “Thank you for the fair warning and for the delicious looking breakfast, sir,” replied Wilkhelm. “We’ll keep that in mind,” and with that, Wilkhelm and I saddled up and sped away from the village.

                We began on a slow trot in order to familiarize ourselves with our new horses.  I named mine Bayer, after Wilkhelm’s lead dog despite how scary he seemed before. Wilkhelm’s was named Beni. An hour passed. Some sixth sense of mine detected a slight change in the breeze. The wind eventually picked up and my nose detected a strange scent coming from behind us. The trees howled in the wind, as if trying to warn me, but I waved it off as my imagination. Suddenly, all the hairs on the back of my neck rose. I could sense someone's gaze penetrating me from behind. I was just about to turn around to confirm this when Wilkhelm stopped me, “Keep still, Katy. We can’t let him know where we’re headed to.” I could tell that we were being followed. I nodded nervously, trying to look confident and natural, as if I hadn't noticed a thing. Then I thought of something: getting attacked and defending ourselves against an Iter was one thing, but just thinking about fighting another human being was another. I wouldn't dare hurt an actual person, and I could practically smell a fight brewing between the three of us.This could be the thief that the innkeeper warned us about.

                “Get ready to make a run for it. We need to lose him on our trail,” Wilkhelm whispered. I moved my head in confirmation ever so slightly and tightened my hands on the reins. Finally, Wilkhelm nudged his horse into a gallop and we were off, with me barely keeping up. If you were to ask me how I was able to stay on my horse during that sprint, I wouldn’t know. But I did have a little horseback riding experience. Back in middle school, I remember going on a field trip to visit a farm, and we were giving horseback riding lessons there. I never would have imagined that I’d actually have to use those tips again, especially not at the speed we were going at.

                Wilkhelm and I hurried down the beat up path and into the woods nearby. I could hear a third horse following closely behind us. Panicking, I ushered my horse into a faster speed, but it was already starting to tire. There was a layer of sweat beginning to form on the horse’s once beautiful fur. This didn’t do any good for us. 

The trees flew by as we rushed through the woods, making random turns here and there in order to throw off our follower. In the end we came across an abandoned cabin. There were vines growing over its walls. One of the windows was cracked and broken, but otherwise we thought it’d make a nice hiding place because at this point, our horses were too tired to go on. I leaped off my horse and led it into a thicket of trees a few yards away. Wilkhelm skillfully knotted them to a strong branch and we rushed back to the cabin.

                Together we hid behind an old shelf and peeped through the broken window. We saw the rider stop just outside the cabin through broken glass. I took this moment to study him: the man was wearing a dark hood over his face, so I couldn’t really make out his features. His horse looked like it hadn't been groomed properly with the matted fur and blood-red, tired looking eyes. I also couldn’t help but notice the menacing looking sword at the side of his belt, and gulped uncertainly.

                Unexpectedly, without warning, Wilkhelm stepped out of our hiding spot and I watched him load his bow in one fluid motion. He released his first arrow and it caught the stranger off guard in the arm. He clutched his shoulder where the arrow was protruding from and looked in our direction. Wilkhelm was already loading another arrow on his longbow and aimed at the stranger’s heart, but before he could get another shot, the man threw himself off his horse and rolled out of sight. I sat back against the wall, scared out of my wits. I felt bad for attacking him at first, but thought about how he was obviously following us with bad intentions. Wilkhelm left me inside and went off to stalk the man. Suddenly, the stranger lashed out at Wilkhelm’s calf with his long sword. I shut my eyes just as the sword dug into Wilkhelm’s exposed leg.

                His piercing scream echoed all around us. I uncovered my eyes and felt a wave of fury take over me.  I ran out of the cabin but before the man had time to turn around, I had slipped my gloves off and clamped my transformed hands over his neck. I dug my razor sharp nails deeper and deeper into his soft flesh, and watched toxic purple wisps of poison ooze out of my fingers. The man gasped and choked, breathing in the toxins, and scratched at my arms, but he eventually lost too much air to fight back. My eyes grew large with adrenaline as I continued to squeeze the life out of him: I had lost my mind at this point. His neck shrunk considerably in size and I continued to crush his throat even after he died. Then I watched Wilkhelm pry my fingers off of the poor man’s neck and felt his arms go around me in order to calm me down.

                “Katy, it’s over now. Let go,” he commanded. I released my hands completely and stared blankly into the distance. What have I done? My victim slumped onto the ground and fell over on his side. There were purple scorch marks and bruises wrapped all around his creased neck where I was choking him, and he was bleeding from multiple places where my nails had dug themselves into his flesh.

                “Wilkhelm…I-I killed him,” I whispered, covering my face in shame. He hugged me tighter and whispered into my ear telling me that everything was going to be alright.

                “Sh…It’s ok Katy. It’s ok…” His voice grew even softer and we just stayed there for a while as I denied all his comforting words. Then I remembered his injured leg.

                “Wilkhelm, you're hurt!” I exclaimed. It was still bleeding like mad and I could see that all the color was already draining from his face. He was about to faint. I half carried him back to the cabin and carefully placed him on an old mattress. Wilkhelm was breathing heavily, so I pressed my hand onto his forehead. He was starting to get a fever. I didn’t have anything to nurse him with…then I remembered the horses and ran out to fetch them. I fumbled through our packs and found some spare cloth and water.

                When I returned to his side, he was sweating and his breathing was irregular. I cursed myself for letting him ignore his injury for that long, and I didn’t know anything about first aid. But I had to do something. First I rolled up his pants well above his calf, where the man had stabbed him. There was a nasty gash that almost provoked me to throw up, but I held in the nausea and forced myself to begin cleaning it out. Cleaning his wound depleted almost half our water. I started to panic, but before I let it overcome me, I pinched myself until I bled and wiped away the blood. Then I spread some ointment I found in his pack onto the cut, and finished it by wrapping it tightly with a clean cloth. Satisfied that I did the best I could, I tucked the blanket into him and left a damp rag on his forehead. Everything was as disaster, and I was too tired to do anything else, so I leaned against the edge of the bed and fell asleep.

                I woke up to the sound of an owl hooting outside. Wilkhelm was awake and eating the sandwich from the inn’s wife. “You gonna share any of that?” I asked. I was so relieved that he was recovering so quickly. He grinned and handed the other sandwich to me. “Are you feeling better now?”

                “Yeah, I think my fever’s gone, but my leg is still sore,” he shifted his leg a little. “Thanks for treating it, you didn’t do too bad actually.” I smirked and hid a smile from his compliment.

                We decided to move on as soon as possible in order to get far away from this dreadful place, and I didn’t want to be around the dead body any longer. Together we hid it under some old furniture from the cabin, both too weak to dig a decent grave for him. We traveled silently afterwards, feeling guilty about the death of an innocent man. However, I blamed the whole incident and his death on myself.

                One day we came across a waterfall and stopped to replenish our water bottles, “How much longer until we find Shina do you think? I wondered out loud. Wilkhelm shrugged. Then something else occurred to me. “Hey Wilkhelm, can I just call you Will?” Saying Wilkhelm over and over again was starting to tire me. It was quite a mouthful.

                “Will?” He asked, testing out the sound of it. “Will,” he repeated, “I like it.” A wave of relief washed over me and I began to trail my fingers across the surface of the lake. The waterfall was really loud. The sound of the water roaring past my ears reminded me of Niagra Falls back in New York. My mother took me there once when I was little before my sister was born. Even though Niagra Falls was much larger, this single waterfall was taller than anything I’ve ever seen. The water crashed into the lake and made a tremendous thundery sound, creating a magnificent rainbow all across the surface. Staring at it, I thought back on all the things that happened. Iteruhi huh…I wondered. I still couldn’t believe I was in a different world. I encountered a horrifying monster, and I might even be turning into one myself, but I shook this thought away. I killed a human man: this to I tried to forget. People back home would think I was a lunatic, but for now I was stuck here.

                Will began to pack our belongings and hoisted me up on Bayer. “Where are we going now?” I asked.

                “Back into the forest,” Will said. As the two of us trotted slowly through the forest, we talked about how different our lives were. Will has never heard of an electric light bulb, let alone electricity. He was fascinated with the idea of something lighting up from just clicking a switch. I also told him about telephones and the internet. He drank in every word I said.

                “I’d like to visit your world someday.”

I shook my head with a smile, “It’s not as beautiful as yours though. In my world, all the trees are dying off, and it’s losing the natural beauty this place still has. But maybe I can show you around one day.” My voice broke as I held in my tears; I knew this probably wouldn’t happen. Besides, I was turning into a monster, and even though Will hasn’t said anything about that yet, I’m sure he felt scared.

“Did you know that here, in Iteruhi, we have creatures called sprites that live in the forests? You might be able to see some since we’re so deep in the woods now. But beware, you must not follow them,” he said gravely.

“What do they look like?”

“Like fairies, they glow like floating lights in the dark. In fact, the light in their bodies are so captivating that you might fall under their spell and into a dangerous trance. By then there would be no turning back,” Will paused, as if considering if he should tell me anymore. “If that happens, people say that you’ll follow them to their home, which is a den that contains a large and mystical beast. The monster would rip you to pieces instantly and slowly eat you up.” His voice took on such an ominous tone that I actually gulped from nervousness. Well that was reassuring.

“You think we’re going to see any today?” I joked. I would love to get a small glimpse of them though. They must be beautiful creatures.

“What do you have in your world?” He asked, I laughed.

“Not much, just the usual horse or pig.” But I started to tell him about guns and bombs and about all the horrible wars that happened in my world. Will told me there hasn’t been war in Iteruhi for centuries, because everybody was still weak from the attack of the Iters.

“Starting a war would be pointless here,” he said. Hours passed, and we continued to chat about our lives. I was grateful for his easy companionship; then I realized that he was my friend and that I haven’t had a friend like this for months. I was just about to mention this when a soft yellow light zipped by right before my eyes.

“What was that?” I called out to him, slowing Bayer down.

“What was what?” Will gave me a skeptical look.

“I thought I just saw…nevermind,” I was probably just tired and imagining things, but then I saw it again. This time I heard it fly past my ear. It sounded almost like a tiny bee. I followed the tiny light with my eyes and pointed it out to Will. He studied it for a few seconds then abruptly reined in his horse.

“Don’t look at it anymore. It’s a sprite,” he whispered. I froze instantly and automatically grew more aware of them, but I focused on the darkness ahead of us instead. “There must be a sprite home nearby,” I heard him mutter to himself. “We must hurry.” Will watched the sprite float to our left, and we turned to the right, assuming that this way, we’d travel farther away from it. Before we could move any farther though, more sprites began appearing all around us. They twinkled in harmony and hummed loudly. I swore I could almost hear them laughing at us, trying to get our attention.  I concentrated on Will’s back and followed him deeper into the forest, but it was hard to get through because more and more sprites sprung out of nowhere and blocked our path. They were becoming restless because we weren’t giving them the attention they wanted. One sprite actually began tugging on my hair and more followed. I felt them pulling at me from all over; their tiny hands felt like pinches. My inner sense of direction told me I was moving close to the sprite home. I quickly swatted the annoying sprites away, but they just kept coming until a whole swarm surrounded me, blocking my view from the outside world. Their lights were so bright at this point that I thought I was going to go blind. Suddenly I felt Bayer sway below me as we were gradually being lifted off the ground.

“Will!” I shouted over all the twinkling. He stretched out his hand but the sprites moved me away from him so that he was out of my reach again. I looked down: I was about a foot off the ground now. Will hopped off his horse and landed awkwardly on the floor because of his injured leg. Then he reached out to me once more and I was finally able to grab hold of his hand. I saw his mouth form the word jump and flung myself off Bayer and into his open arms.

“Let’s get out of here!” He shouted over the increasing noise. The sprites were making such a huge commotion with their high screeches, it was hard to ignore them. I unstrapped my pack from Bayer just in time as they lifted him higher and higher into the air, carrying him away from me. Will and I ran through the sprites, swatting them aside with Beni following us close behind. When we were about a hundred feet from them, we hid behind a large willow tree, panting and catching our breaths. The two of us listened to the fading sound of their twinkling disappearing into the distance.

“Are they�'” I started, but Will clamped his hand over my mouth and motioned for me to be quiet. After what seemed like forever, Will slowly rose off his feet and peered around the tree. Then he helped me up and climbed onto Beni. I just stood on the ground staring up at him.           

“Bayer’s gone,” I said.

Will held out his hand, “Well come on then.” I grabbed his hand as he pulled me up behind him. “Bayer was a good horse, but we can’t save him now.” I nodded glumly and tentatively wrapped my arms around his waist. “Hold on tight!”

Hugging him tightly, he slapped Beni on the side and let her kick her hooves up. I screamed and almost fell off as we galloped at full speed away from the sprite home. We rode together like that for the rest of the day. I let myself relax and enjoy the ride as we dashed toward civilization. The nearest one was right outside the forest. Stopping a few yards away from the entrance, we studied it. The buildings looked even older than the ones from the first village. Almost all the windows were clamped shut with wood, and tiny dust tornadoes swept the area around it. There were a few people milling around but overall, the town gave off a foreboding look. I yawned loudly, it was almost midnight.

“Let’s look for a place to stay tonight,” I nodded and nestled my face into Will’s warm back as we trotted through town, looking for an inn. He asked an old lady sitting on a bench for directions and she directed us to a place called Sprite Homes, which was ironic because we barely escaped a real one.

After leaving Beni with her dinner in the stables, we walked around the building and opened the front door. As soon as we stepped into the inn’s lobby, all eyes were turned on us and once again, I felt the unfriendly stares of other people. It was like all their eyes were telling us to leave and that no outsiders were allowed.

“Shut the damn door,” someone grunted. I quickly fumbled with the door to close it but in my haste, the door knob slipped out of my grasp and slammed itself back in place, shaking all the walls and lights hanging on the ceiling. Another awkward silence followed. Will started to head over to a table at the corner of the room, but as we walked toward it, I got distracted from everyone’s eyes boring into our backs and tripped over something. As I scrambled back onto my feet, my head collided with the bottom of someone’s table and knocked their beer over. I rose on my feet, still clutching my head and saw what I had tripped on. It was the wooden leg of an aged man with scars running all across his face, connecting to the spot under his eyepatch. He cursed at me and slammed his fist into the table.

“I’m sorry,” I stammered, clinging to Will’s arm. The man shot an angry look at me. Then he leaned forward and spoke. The sound of his voice boomed all across the room.

                “What was that, missy?” He snarled. I whimpered.

                Will stepped up for me, “She said she was sorry for the inconvenience we caused. And I’ll pay for the beer.” The man with the scars nodded, still eyeing us with raised eyebrows, and obnoxiously picked at his rotten teeth with his dirty finger nails. I grimaced and let Will lead me away to our table. As we sat down he whispered, “Try not to attract too much attention like that again,” I pursed my lips and nodded stiffly. “We wanna try to stay as low key as possible, ok?” I nodded again. Satisfied, Will waved a waiter over and ordered us some food. A young boy of around thirteen years of age stopped in front of our table and pulled a slip of paper and pencil out of his apron pocket.

                “You kin have the lamb stew or the pumpkin pie,” he muttered under his breath. The boy looked bored, and started to distract himself by picking at some dry skin on his finger.

                Will cleared his throat loudly, and the boy looked up and gave us an annoyed glance, “We’ll have the lamb stew with some tea.”

                “No tea,” the boy replied automatically.

                “Well what about some coffee?” I piped up.

                He just gave me an exasperated look and repeated, “No coffee.” Then before we could say anything else he added, “I’ll bring out two cups of water,” and sped away before we could say anything. I just gaped at him and Will shook his head.

                “You know,” I began, “Restaurant service is a whole lot better back in my world.” I suggested. Will chuckled.

                “I’ll bet.” Before long, our food arrived. The lamb stew looked more like onion soup, with a few green parsnips tossed into it, and came with a plate of stale bread. I took a cautious sip and made a face. Will choked on his first bite but composed himself right away. Then I watched him down the rest of the bowl in one go. I gawked at his bravery as he drank the rest of his water too. Two seconds of silence followed, and we both burst out laughing. However we covered out mouths as soon as we saw a few of the other guests glaring at us over their shoulders. I pushed my soup away and just nibbled on the bread. We sat there talking quietly for a little while longer, then we stood up and left a few coins on the table.

                “That was terrible,” I blurted. Will smiled.            

                “Get used to it, not every place is as civilized as the last two inns.” He paused, “I should probably mention that this town is known for hosting a number of bandits and criminals. We should probably just rest for one night here and leave early in the morning.” Together we searched for the main desk to check out a room. There, a plump lady was sitting on the counter wearing a super short skirt with her legs crossed. She had thick curly hair that looked extremely fake, and her face was caked with make-up. She looked like a life-sized, ugly porcelain doll in my opinion. After analyzing her, we approached her and asked if there were any available rooms for us.

                “Hello deary,” she purred, then reached out and obnoxiously stroked Will’s cheek. I stiffened up and coughed. She ignored me. “We only have one room left with one bed…Why don’t we go up there and have some fun?” She discreetly nudged me out of the way and wrapped her legs around Will’s waist. I almost barfed.

                “My wife and I would like to take that room, if you please,” He stood up straighter and draped his arm around my shoulders. The porcelain doll stared me down for a bit, then seemed to give in. I’m Will’s wife now?

                “Ah. I see. Very well then,” the owner sniffed. Her ugly face was starting to irritate me. She reached behind the counter and pulled out a rusty key with a number stamped on it. She turned to Will and spoke, “I’m Delia. Call me up when you get tired of your wife,” then she tossed me the key and I barely caught it. I stuck out my tongue behind her back and heard Will snort as he tried to contain his laughter.

                We walked up the stairs and searched for our room number. As Will and I passed by, one of the doors to our right opened slightly, and I saw someone peak out at us. I jumped as soon as I noticed the huge red eyes peering from inside the dark room, but it disappeared as quickly as it came out, slamming the door shut.  I shivered. It wasn’t going to be a very good night.

                Not noticing a thing, Will burst out laughing as if he was trying to contain himself the whole way up as soon as we locked our door. I puffed up my cheeks and hastily began to unpack my few belongings as I tried to look busy. We were assigned a tiny room with barely any walking space. There really was only one bed, and it wasn’t very large either. The mattress looked old and had holes in it. The blankets provided were thin and rough. Even the pillows were virtually flat. I flinched when I thought I heard a rat run across the edge of the ceiling. Instead, the bed squeaked as Will fell back onto the bed with a huge sigh. I turned around: he was already fast asleep. I could see the small movement of his chest as he breathed lightly. Then I walked over to him and tucked him under the blankets, pulling off his shoes as I did so. It was well past midnight by now. I plopped myself at the edge of the bed and watched him sleep for a bit. He looked quite handsome when his face was relaxed this way. Then without realizing it, I surprised myself by leaning forward to brush a strand of hair out of his face. All of a sudden, his eyes flickered open and for a short but electrifying moment, we just stared at each other. Then I squeaked and quickly turned away. What did I just do?! That was so embarrassing, I thought. I crawled under my blanket, staying as close to the edge of the bed as I could.

                “Katy?” Will asked, but I ignored him and pretended to sleep.

 

                I woke up to the sound of someone crashing down the hallway. I heard Will jump onto his feet and slip his boots back on. Then I followed him to the door and we pressed our ears against the wall, listening.

                “Who do you think you are? Creepin’ on the great Roden himself, eh?” a man yelled. His voice sounded vaguely familiar. “Ar’ you a stalker or somethin’? Good god,” the man swore, sounding exasperated, and I heard the unmistakable clunk of a wooden leg stomp on the ground. Then I heard the sound of a hand colliding with someone's face.

                A voice spoke just outside our door; I could barely make out his words, “You’ll pay for that…”

                “What? What was that you said?” Roden laughed mockingly.  I glanced at Will nervously, I was afraid of the other voice’s threat. I think Roden was talking to the one who was spying on us earlier. I pressed my ear closer to the door, but as soon as I did it, the wood grew hot against my skin until it seered my flesh. I jumped back and saw Will react the same way; the smell of burning wood spread throughout the room. Was there a fire outside? But that’s when I noticed the fresh lava erupting from the cracks in the wall and beneath the door. Will and I rushed to the other side of the room to avoid it, and just in time too.

                The pressure of the blast threw us against the wall just as we got to it, but we weren’t the only ones who experienced the impact. Roden was slumped on the ground at the end of the hall way with his feet hanging above him. His wooden leg was on fire and half of his face was scorched. I looked over to my left and saw the little boy from earlier, slouched over, eyes wide with a creepy smile plastered on his face. He wore a dark blood red cloak with the hood up, obscuring a majority of his features. But his teeth shone from underneath it, white as pearls, but sharp like a shark's. Goopy red liquid began to slowly ooze out of his body. 

This guy looked insane. I remember thinking this while inching my way to Roden’s body, I just had to see if he was dead.

                He wasn’t. As soon as I was close enough, he reached out to me and grabbed a handful of my hair. Then he pulled me closer and shouted in my face, “I’m gonna kill this girl because of what you did to me!” he gasped. I felt him spit into my face and tried not to spit back. “I’m gonna kill her!” He screamed hysterically. Then, despite how damaged he was already, Roden rammed my head, face first, into the wall over and over again until my forehead bled. I could’ve sworn my nose was broken too, and my entire face felt bruised.

                “Please stop�'” I whimpered. I tried to wrench his hand off of my tangled hair, but I couldn’t win against his death grip. He only let go when Will shot an arrow directly into his forearm, pinning it into the wall. Roden cursed and yelled in pain. Without hesitating, I took this chance to let the poison take over me. My right arm began to bulge and extend, turning into a hideous, furless arm with talons. I was shaking with adrenaline and rage, and Roden wouldn’t stop screaming like an annoying girl, so I simply smashed his head into the ground with my fist, crushing his rotten skull into pieces. That shut him up for good.

                I stood, surveying the damage, breathing heavily. Then I turned toward the boy. He looked even more frightening than before and his grin was abnormally huge. He licked his lips, and it was like he was eating up every moment of my fury. Suddenly I wavered, feeling lightheaded and dizzy. Will caught me just before I fell, and I sensed my arm returning back to its usual shape. I could see the boy approaching us in my peripheral vision, and I couldn’t do anything to stop him. He was licking his lips again.

                The boy stepped closer. “You’re turning into one of them,” he whispered sinisterly. His moist lips looked blood red, and they were only inches from mine, “You’ll need help with that,” he hissed into my ear.

                Will shoved him away from me, “Don’t come any closer,” he declared. The strange boy barked out a laugh. I saw the red lava slowly evaporating into the air. Shivers ran down my spine, but I started to relax as he walked away from us with a sneer glued on his face.

                “Let’s get out of here,” Will said. It was morning already, and we both didn’t want to stay at this inn any longer than we needed to.

                “What’s going on?” I heard Delia yell. She emerged from the bottom of the stairs and took in the damage. Then she fainted on the spot, slipped, and rolled all the way back, down the way she came up. Will ran into our room, grabbed our packs, and hastily threw my arm across his shoulder, supporting me as we hurried down the stairs toward the stables. The two of us worked together to saddle up Beni and tightened her straps. Then we left the inn, but instead of heading toward the exit, Will dragged us deeper into the town’s center.

                “Where are we going?” I panted, as we walked quickly past a crowd of drunkards.

                “We’re going to get you a new horse; you can’t expect Beni to carry us the whole way out of here.” I nodded, finally understanding. We arrived at the nearest horse market and purchased a shaggy looking colt. It was the last one and looked like it hadn’t eaten properly for days, but it would have to do. We rushed out of town, galloping past curious people and into the country side. It wasn't even five minutes yet when I felt a familiar sensation crawl up my back, like we were being watched again. I turned around and almost jumped out of my skin.

                “Hello Miss Iter,” he hissed. I screamed and fell off my horse, spraining my ankle as I did so. It panicked and began to stomp on the ground, barely missing my face. The boy was back, and he was sitting on the back of my horse.

                “Katy!” Will exclaimed, “What�'” Then he saw who was here and narrowed his eyes. Will slid off his horse and helped me up. I flinched as I tried to stand on my own. “Why did you follow us here?” He demanded.

                “I’m just here,” the boy began, “to offer…my services,” He widened his eyes greedily, and I could almost see his pupils dilating until they were so tiny, he looked like he was from an insane asylum. The scary look he had earlier was back.

                “Unless your name is Shina, we won’t be needing any of you help,” Will responded. The boy laughed even harder and actually began to cough and choke from it. But he was still grinning. It made me want to choke him for real like our last follower.

                “But I am,” he removed his hood and dropped his cloak. Then he stripped off all his clothes down to his pants and I finally understood. There were purple marks all over his body forming words, but it was like a different language, and I couldn’t read it. “I’m Shina," he said.

Author's Note

Please let me know if you find any typos or grammatical errors! >.< And feel free to pitch in some of your ideas and opinions. They'd be GREATLY appreciated. ^-^ thanks!

Reviews

[kathrina]

Nice chapter. :) The ending of the chapter is really good. It left me hanging and it just made me want to read more. No grammar errors I think. I also agree with AisuMyrmidon that you should add some more details in some parts.
I can't wait for your next chapter! :D

[Myrmidon]

Nice ending. it really had me surprised. i have some things i can say about the story, but ill save it till i can speak to you another way :P. u DO over use flesh though. and certain parts could use more detail while other parts have a good amount of detail. could also explain certain parts, but overall its a good plot. im looking forward to read your next chapter.