CHAPTER TWO –The stranger
Tara, what is it?
Low-low enquired, startling me from my daze. She sat perched by her water jug on my bedside table, watching me with the biggest most inquisitive eyes.
“Hmm?” I answered distractedly.
We were alone in our bed chamber.
What were you thinking about just now? She insisted, jittering a little from too much sugar in the raspberry tart. She was adorable that way, once I allowed her two sips of qahwa and she quite literally bounced off the walls.
“Oh.”I reached behind my back to fasten the clasp of my dancing gown,
“N-nothing.” Curse my stuttering.
Casually I brushed my hands over my stomach to flatten the slight wrinkles in the fabric then started fiddling with my braids.
“How should I wear my hair tonight?”
It didn’t matter, my hair never sat the way I intended it to, but I desperately wanted to talk about something else.
“Like this?” I asked pulling it up away from my face.
Usually that was enough to distract her.
If it's nothing then why don't you tell me?
Now ordinarily I am an adequate enough liar. I’d done every full moon for the last ten years. But lying to her...it was like lying to a part of myself, and I suppose in a way I was. The root of my denial had begun only three nights prior when I’d had the strangest dream, a dream that lingered with me in a way I was embarrassed to admit.
I’d dreamt of a girl floating towards me, and I could hear her trying to talk but it was as though she spoke from underwater. Everything was just sounds and swelling. But when she’d come close enough, all I could do was stare. I memorised every feature of her face. The depth in her eyes and the curve of her nose. I memorised the colours, the leafy green, copper rouge and the freckled pink. And I memorised the four words I caught her saying through all the distortion.
“Tara. Please see me.”
And that was it.
When I woke I felt I’d spent all night looking at her and the strangest notion overcame me. A residual yearning. I longed to see her again the moment I opened my eyes. It was this notion that made me so uneasy. There was a part of me that was worried that if I revealed my seemingly innocent encounter that my brilliantly intuitive amphibian would see right through me. That no matter how calmly and well practiced I recounted it she’d catch that hidden thing I was scared to feel.
Want.
I’d never wanted someone like that. Not when Buffy talked about handsome stable boys or when Dawn fantasized about wealthy young bachelors dressed in their finest.
But I was drawn to this...this...girl.
And that was not something I would allow myself to confess. I had a responsibility and it did not bode well to acknowledge this unsettling truth. We had a problem, no heir to our estate. I had a solution, marry a husband. This figment of my imagination was dangerous, and I refused to justify it by admitting its existence, even to my dearest confidant.
Tara, I'm worried about you.
“I’m fine, okay. Now will you just help me with my hair?” I muttered impatiently, getting more flustered.
Just tell me, I can help.
“You can’t fix everything Low-low.” It came out harsher then I’d meant.
She flinched and tucked her legs underneath herself, shrinking into her best impersonation of a mossy rock.
“Oh Lowie, I’m sorry.” I quickly scooped her up in my hands, though she didn’t move an inch. The damage was done.
“Please, I’m just tired and I’m concerned about father. We’ve never been in charge of the estate for as long as we will be this time.”
She refused to move, holding perfectly still in my palms and I worried that I’d truly offended her. We very rarely fought.
“Please believe me.”
I stroked her back with the pad of my finger.
“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have snapped. It’s not your fault. Please don’t be upset.”
For the next few minutes I attempted to sooth her back into the warm hearted companion I knew her to be, but Low-low remained a small bundle of nervous energy quivering in my hands.
Perhaps I would have stayed there all night if we were not interrupted when Buffy burst through the door, all dressed in dancing wear, hair pinned and rosy cheeked. It always amazed me how she could transform from windswept wild child to the loveliest of ladies without even batting an eyelid.
“Tara, where’s the lace that matches your buttercup gown? Dawn needs something around her waist...” Before I could answer she was scrimmaging through my wardrobe.
“Bottom draw...” I aided.
“Oh thanks.” She turned and faced me, ribbon draped over her arm.
“You’re not ready yet?” Her tone was somewhere between annoyed and alarmed.
I was just sitting there, Low-low perched on my knee, half dressed and hair tangled.
“I-I...”
Was being ignored by my frog?
“I’m just finishing up.” I landed on weakly.
“Well you better hurry, we need you to open the portal and you’ll be the joke of the Glade if you come through looking all dishevelled like that.”
I self consciously touched my gown and as I did it slid off my shoulder reminding me I hadn’t even finished fastening it at the back. Quickly I dressed, heaped my hair onto my head with a clasp and ignored my mess of a reflection.
Usually that was when my little friend would whisper something sweet like: you’re so beautiful, and though I wouldn’t have believed it, I would know that at least she did. Of course that night we weren’t speaking, so I’d have to face the Glade without even the assurance that a frog thought me pretty.
“Would you like to ride on my shoulder tonight?” I asked Low-low quietly.
She did not respond, simply sat; staring vaguely out the window and shoulders tense. I swallowed heavily and followed her gaze. The plane was frosted over.
“Though it’s awfully cold out there, perhaps you’d be warmer in my pocket?”
Next door the floorboards squeaked and I knew my sisters were getting in position. It was time to go.
“I-f you’d rather stay here I’d understand.”
You do not want me to come?
“No, of course I want you to come. You have to come. I just... I t-thought... ”
If it pleases you, I will ride on your shoulder.
“It does, it really does.”
Then she hopped haphazardly for my torso and I caught her half way through the air, held her gently then placed her where she always sat, snuggled just at the base of my neck.
I joined my sisters in the nursery across the hall, they were both crouched under the stain glass window.
“Hurry Tara!” Dawn whispered and Buffy patted my place in the triangle.
Kneeling beside them I sore they’d already shifted the rug we kept over the discoloured symbol engraved on the wooden floorboards.
This was our secret.
To me the symbol looked like a crown but it seemed to appear differently to whomever sore it. That is perhaps the first hint that it is not of the Human world.
The stain glass window above was the only source of light in the room and it glowed with the radiance of full moon, and I watched and waited for the light to align with the centre disk of the coloured glass before I placed my hand over the seal and begun our spell.
“A crown for a queen.” I begun.
“A blade for the warrior.” Buffy seconded.
“A key for a passage.” Dawn chimed.
“We are friends with good intentions, with your permission we will cross over.” I finished softly.
Then the symbol glowed white and fell through floorboards, taking with it the ground it was engraved on. The shimmering hole it left dropped into a vast catacomb of tunnels bellow.
Magic.
Nothing else could explain why a seemingly common nursery on highest floor of a castle could lead to an underground passageway. Nothing else could explain how we three sisters stumbled across it by accident ten years ago or the wondrous place it lead too. This was our full moon secret.
Buffy leapt through the opening first before sliding down the slopped path and onto a stone floor with agility and poise. Dawn followed her, lowering herself down in a controlled movement and stumbling a little on the way. I hesitated before going after them. Buffy was brave and where I was sensible. Dawn was energetic where I was calm. I suppose that comes from being just a little older, and just a little more wary. But it is for this very reason that I always went after them nonetheless, someone had to keep watch, someone had to bring them home and remind them where we belonged. The Other Kingdom can be alluring in the most incredibly confusing ways.
“Hold tight Low-low.” I whispered, and felt her brace herself against my collar bone.
Always. Her little voice so tender.
On three?
I nodded.
“One.”
Two.
“Three.”
And with that I fell through the portal and into the labyrinths of stone tunnels.
The four of us followed our usual route deeper and deeper into the darkness. We held hands when all light faded and followed the sound of waves crashing on a distant shore. I walked first in our chain because the only time I hadn’t my sisters had gotten terribly lost. It seemed I was necessary in this, I could go alone, or I could take others. But it had to me, otherwise the familiar paths become twisted and safe passage was not guaranteed. I’d walked those catacombs countless times but I still relied on Low-low’s little voice.
Almost there, two more left turns up ahead. Then straight till you see the rocks and the skyline.
I once asked her if she could see, and she simply said.
No, I just remember from the first time.
That in itself was impressive, it was over half an hour’s journey on foot and each turn bent into the next.
One more left, and just like Low-low said we could see the skyline. In some ways so similar to our sky, same consolations and arrangements, but here there was never clouds and the stars almost seemed to dance as though alive.
We approached the River Swallow, which always glistened and gleamed in this realm. Buffy and Dawn released one another’s hands and raced towards the silhouettes of three small boats docked nearby and I smiled at the image of them in their elegant dresses running wild like forest nymphs. I didn’t chase after them, Low-low was tensing as we drew closer so I took her from my shoulder and pressed her gently against my chest humming a lullaby my mother use to sing.
She hated crossing.
Dawn once pointed out how ridiculous it was that a frog was petrified of a river.
“It would be like a sheep afraid of pastures or a bird afraid of nesting trees.”
I thought it best not to mention the time Low-low sore a wild bull frog and was so horrified she hid under my skirt and begged me to save her from the beast.
I could feel her shivering against my neck.
“We’ll be over before you know it.”
On the shore the three boats bobbed steadily, each an enchanting vessel in its own right. One was carved to look like a heron, the next a swan and the next a wood duck and each only large enough to carry their captain and one passenger.
I could see Dawn on the duckling, laughing with her guide, a familiar boy, almost human in appearance except for the rams horns protruding from his forehead and the bluish tinge of his skin.
My guide was Clement, a loose skinned floppy eared creature.
“Miss Tara.” He bowed then helped me onto the heron vessel.
“Clem.” I greeted with a curtsey.
I took my place where I always did, leaning against the mast, Low-low safe between my fingers, and the two of us praying to be on solid land soon. Dawn was always more daring, she bustled about from one side of the boat to the next trying to catch sight of all the incredible things.
“Look! Look! A pixie near the bridge!” She’d say.
“Oh there! A little island with glowing flowers!” A moment after that.
Buffy however would usually stand at the bow, leaning forward and dragging her hands through the water. I use to ask her not too , I remembered the claws that pulled the Rosenberg’s little girl under and I feared the marine dwellers. All matter of luminous eyes and scaled cretins inhabited this river, and those were only the beings that chose to make their presence known
Who’s that? Low-low asked.
I followed her gaze and caught sight of the swan vessel. They were yet to way anchor. I’d never seen the guide with Buffy before, he was a tall man, dark featured and well dressed.
He watched her with frightening intensity.
“Who is the man accompanying Buffy tonight?” I enquired, attempting to keep my tone casual.
His eyes...they were hungry eyes, and they never left my sister for a moment.
“I don’t know his name, but his travelling companions are honoured guests of her majesties Glade.”
We chopped through rougher waves and a shiver ran down my spine
“I thought it wasn’t customary for a guest to act as an escort...” I pushed.
“It’s not, but he requested to meet with one of the human girls on Full Moon specifically. Even challenged a few of our locals to a duel of the matter. Knocked the legs right outa Forrest Gates. They may not be much for talking those Night People, but boy they can put up a good fight.” Clem had a good-natured grin on his face.
“N-n-night people?”
They’re not real.
I’d heard stories of garlic, holy water and throats torn from sleeping children. Everyone had. But I’d thought they were myths, old wives tales, and superstition.
Suddenly I was desperate to call out to Buffy, to warn her of the danger she might be in.
“Do not fret Miss Tara. He will not harm your sister, or anyone here by invitation. The Glade is a peaceful gathering, and even the most violent of creatures abide by the rules of full moon.”
I wished they weren’t so far behind, I wished Buffy would turn so I could see her face.
“H-how can you be sure?”
Clem smiled.
“Our rules are not like human rules, believe me, you of all people are safe here Miss Tara.”
His reassurances hardly eased my anxieties and I spent the remainder of the journey preoccupied with my own restlessness. I was shocked when the boat scraped across shallow ground.
Clem disembarked and requested his dance. I accepted, but only on the condition that we wait for the others. Just as the swan vessel made port he led me away from the river. I let him but watched over my shoulder the whole way. Buffy’s escort bowed deeply, and offered her his hand while assisting her to dryer land. If it had been any other suitor I would have thought he respectful, but I didn’t like any of this, and I didn’t trust him for a moment.
The Glade was a clearing in the woods, round and lined with butterfly lanterns and hovering tinker bell lights. At the apex was three golden thrones where Glory and her advisers sat and watched the splendour of it all. A queue of adoring subjects weaved around the crowd, waiting for an audience with her Majesty, which she gave to each in due time. The band were at her right, playing whatever she demanded at the pace she tapped her foot and to her left were acrobats and jesters performing for her amusement. The inner circle was the dance floor, and the outskirts were for those who preferred social niceties. Some debating philosophies of interspecies communications, some simply who chose to watch rather than join the festivities and all those who had grown weary of dancing and had retired for the evening. Then the most unsociable ominous creatures lingered just behind the shadowed trees. The ones who feared the light, but curiously hovered near. My sisters and I had long agreed that those regions were strictly forbidden.
Poor Clem led me through the steps of the fox trot without any assistance on my part. We spun and we parted and our feet twirled about but the entire time I looked for them over my shoulder. As always it was invigorating, and the drums sounded of beating hearts, the tambourines of secret thoughts and the fife of life’s melody itself. The music of the Other Kingdom far surpassed anything I’d ever heard at village concerts and balls. But perhaps that was because the fey playing them seemed born for their instruments, strange fingers that could reach impossible notes and hard hooves that clacked along. Usually I found it the most delightful thing, and though I am not the most graceful of dancers ten years of moon lit practice have made me passable by any standards.
Low-low did not enjoy my dancing. She retreated to the pocket I had sown into the hem of my gown and was forced to be flung about wherever my dress took her. Occasionally she would make a little noise as a goblin bumped into my hip or a flying couple kicked their legs about without the slightest concern. Though she always insisted on staying with me, even though after the twirls she seemed to come out dizzy and nauseous.
After the first dance I saw Dawn and Antoine skip off towards some other youngsters and found Buffy amongst the crowd, she was still linked arms with the stranger. His pale skin looking unnaturally colourless under the lights and his dark eyes burning through her.
“E-excuse me Clement. Oh, and thank you f-for the dance.” I hurried off towards them.
“Buffy.” I tried to get her attention, but she seemed as enraptured as he was. Hypnotism? I’d not heard tales of that. I continued squeezing through the mass, through elves and minatores and creatures with feathered wings.
“Buffy!” I repeated louder, though the music was starting up for the next dance and people begun to take their places. Her and the brooding stranger were slipping out of sight.
“Would you do me the honour?” I heard a low voice, and a hand was on my shoulder.
If given time I may have made an excuse to the exceptionally tall bachelor, but we were already bowing to our partners and I was sure he’d have a clear view over the masses.
“It would be my p-pleasure.” I answered back as we started moving. I tried to see Buffy by standing on my toes.
I stepped twice then again.
“Forgive me my Lady, but you seem distracted tonight.”
“Miss, miss Tara. My mother was the Lady of our estate, I am merely her daughter.” I absent minded corrected. Of course she was dead so perhaps the Giant was actually the more correct out of the two of us.
“Forgive me Miss, so I wonder which gentlemen has caught you eye.” I only then realised that he thought me indifferent. Of course I was. He was handsome enough, but I wasn’t really looking for handsome. I was looking for appropriate inheritor material, and otherworldly giant didn’t really fit the bill.
“It is not my own concerns that distract me, but my sister, I’ve lost sight of her and she was dancing with the most ominous of partners.”
And by ominous we mean suspicious. Low-low muttered.
“Oh, perhaps I can assist you in your search.”
For the next turn he lifted me high and held me there a few moments longer.
I saw them.
“That c-can’t be right...”
What can’t be right?
They were leaving the dance floor and heading towards the forest.
We never left the Glade...those were the rules. Buffy was smarter than that, she was sensible.
What is it? Where are they? I want to see, take me out.
Then my partner placed me back on the ground and spun twice under his arm.
“Any luck?” He asked charmingly, completely unaware of my inner turmoil.
I nodded, Low-low was trying to squirm from my pocket but I subtlety pushed her back in.
Let me see. I’m coming out.
“You’ll get trampled on.” I hissed under my breath.
“I’ll get what?” The giant must have heard.
“I-I must apologise. I’m feeling al l-little...” I couldn’t see Buffy at all anymore
“I’m n-not...” Where was he taking her?
“I h-have too...” Images of my sister disappearing deeper and deeper into the woods assaulted me.
“I need a moment.” Quite rudely I dropped my partners hands and scurried in the direction I’d seen them leaving.
What's happening?
I scooped Low-low out of my pocket and placed her on my shoulder.
“Where is he taking her? What on earth is she thinking?” I fumed as the crowed thinned and I pushed through.
I don’t know, but we better hurry. Something’s not right.
“Buffy?” I called out blindly.
I squeezed through the last of the dancing couples, only to come to the scattering expanse which transitioned from clearing to dense forest. I rushed through the area of tied dances, onlookers and laughing spectators too the shadowed place that was always forbidden. The folk here were guarded and strange. A backwards headed monkey, a serpent headed man, a gathering of dark witch’s with things hidden under their robes. All watched me sceptically and I was left with the unmistakable impression that I didn’t belong amongst them.
I crossed my arms around myself defensively.
“Where is she? God I’m going to kill her when I find her.”
Where did you see them last?
“Over there.” I pointed to a winding path leading into the woods.
Oh. Of course, let the creepy bloodsucking man lead you away from all the witnesses.
“What is she doing going that far into woods? And with one of them?” I took one last look at familiar glade behind me, of the merriment and festivities, then I looked ahead and set off after her.
Wait, I don’t like this, too dangerous, you shouldn’t go alone.
“I’m not alone. I’ve got you.”
I don’t count.
“Don’t say that. Not ever.”
That’s not what I mean.
I picked up the pace. There was something terribly eerie about these trees, the way they sagged and clung and bent. With every step the howls and creaks grew louder and louder and the dancing Glade faded away.
Please Tara, go back for the giant.The big one who was flirting with you.I’m sure he’d be happy to play the big strong protector.
Or ask Clem.
Or Doc.
Or anyone with arms big enough to hit something.
“I don’t intend on their being any hitting.”
Something snapped in the nearby branches and I suddenly realised we weren’t alone.
Not even slightly.
The sombre faces were all around us. Some laying together on roots and tangled twigs. Some pressed against the trunks. Some lounging just out of sight, dim figures blending into shadows and silhouettes.
The Night People were everywhere; I’d stumbled helpless into their den.
Pretend you don’t see them.
I fixed my eyes on my feet and carried on.
Don’t run, they’ll chase you if you do. Move slow. Turn around, go back. Go back now.
Low-low was nudging her nose into my neck over and over: go back, go back, go back now.
But there was no going back. Not anymore. I had a sister to save. And then possibly kill if she hadn’t managed to do that on her own. So I walked through the lair of the beasts, and their gazes weighed heavily on my chest.
Please, I’m scared.
I wanted to answer her, but they’re eyes were all over me, and they were suffocating.
Please take me back now.
Take me home.
“Not this time baby.” My voice so quiet I almost mouthed it. But I knew she heard the moment she stopped prodding and buried into the nook of my neck. I felt a little braver for it and tilted to rest my cheek against the smooth of her back.
She was there.
We were together.
I noticed one of them following me soon after. Slinking behind. Then another, stalking just off the path.
Faster and faster I walked, trying to appear calm. Faster and faster they followed, gaining with each stride.
“Little mouse, little mouse, lost her way.” I heard a women’s voice close on my heels. Her voice... I can only describe it as that of a deranged poet. Fluently haunting. She sung it as she swooped, overtook and blocked my way in one graceful movement. She was not what you’d expect for a bloodsucking monster, unnaturally beautiful, fine featured and elegant. But there was something profoundly dangerous about her.
I tried to move around her but she reached out and caught my arm, loose hipped and slinking.
“Twelve franks for the beastie on your shoulder.” She said with an air of vague detachment.
Her grip on my arm tightened.
“Let me go.” I pulled against her only to back into the other one.
“Woah there pretty lady.” Spinning quickly he grabbed my wrist but I yanked him off with a little shove.
“No need for that pet.” He was tall, blonde haired and smirking as he and his partner circled.
“We’re all civil folk here.” He leered towards me and licked his lips.
“Gotta play nice on this side of the moon. Play nice for her Highness, she’s a nice sort of Queen.” He bowed low, kissed my hand in rough jab then grinned wide, exposing his teeth, elongated and disfigured.
When he released me I backed away so quickly I almost stumbled.
On my mark, you run, I’ll distract them.
“Isn’t she a lovely birdie, chirping away in her master’s ear. You think she’d sing like that for me Spike? ” The women purred.
“W-what?” I spluttered. Did she hear…?
I started to back off the path and into the forest.
“It seems Drusilla has taken a liking to your toad. Got a thing for the weak and pitiful she does.” He explained.
Low-low was shaking. So was I.
“S-she’s not for sale.” I managed, quickly sliding my friend out of sight under my bodice.
“Oh don’t be rude, we can make a deal, I’ll be your beastie instead if you like? You can carry me around and press me to your bosom. I’d make a good beastie. Much prettier then that ugly thing.” She reached her hand out towards me.
You touch her and I’ll kill you. Low-low hissed.
“I-I’m looking f-f-or my sister.” I stuttered out.
No Tara.
No questions.
No talking.
Blood sucking tricksters, not to be trusted.
You run when I say.
“She as tastey as you?” Drusilla seized my throat with an unsettling sense of forced intimacy and a vice like grip.
NOW!
Low-low leapt from my gown and landed directly on Drusilla’s perfect face causing her to squeal and flap her hands about.
I slipped from her grasp, dropping to the ground to scrambled for something, anything, to use as a weapon.
“It’s in my mouth!!” She screeched, slapping Low-low away like a bug.
“Feisty for a frog, isn’t she?” Spike attempted to snatch her up. Low-low hopped and hopped but within moments he’d caught by the leg.
“Not to bright though. Getting yourself smooched and all.” He dug his fingers into Low-low’s little body.
“Squish her dead.” Drusilla hissed and spat out the bad taste.
I couldn’t breathe. One of his nails had split through her skin and I sore red pooling around his thumb.
No. No. No.
“Stop it!”
I snatched up a branch and swung it before me like a sword. It wobbled in my hands. I wobbled all over.
Blood.
Not much for a person, but a too much for a frog that fits in your palm. Too much.Too much.
“Give her back to me.” I demanded. Low-low wasn’t moving. Every ounce of me was begging her to just be playing dead. Just be pretending. Just be alive.
“Vicious for a mouse.” Drusilla slunk away into the dark, but her partner didn’t flinch.
“I m-mean it. Give her back or I will drive this through your heart, and we’ll soon see if what they say about your kind is true.” I didn’t recognise my own voice.
Spike snickered at my threat, it was awfully patronising.
“Settle down love. As I said, all civil folk on this side of the moon. But you should tell your little toad to mind her manners, not all folk are as understanding as I am.” With that he threw her carelessly into the shrubbery and I heard her splat against something solid.
And just like that my first encounter with the Night People was over. They disappeared like dust in the wind and I couldn’t care less where they went. Frantically I ran to Low-low, scrimmaging through thorns and bristles, to find her limp form awkwardly flopped on a rock.
I lifted her as though her guts might spill out of her any moment.
Her body quivered and twitched with each little breath and a crescent shaped wound above her collar seeped.
Tara.
So weak, so very weak.
“Sshh darling....”
My eyes stung as I tore a layer of silk from the hem of my gown tied the fabric tightly over her little shoulder to slow the bleeding, the makeshift bandage covered half her entire body and a scarlet stain quickly seeped through.
“Lowie, your hurt.”
Not safe here. Have to get back.
“You’re really hurt.” I held her so carefully against me.
Doesn’t matter. Have to get somewhere safe.
“Safe...” Yes, urgently I rose and clutched her as I ran back down the path.
I needed help.
A healer.
A sage.
Anyone.
I ran through the woods one way, then the next, this direction, then that. I ran towards the sound of the Glade, but never manage to reach it. I ran until my lungs and legs betrayed me and I was forced to press on despite them. Everyone knew the stories of people who strayed to far into the wildwood, everyone knew what happened to those who couldn’t find their way back.
Tara...
“Hang on Low-low. I’ve got you.”
Her eyes, usually hyper-focused and alert were cloudy and her shaking grew weaker by the moment
Please hurry.
And I did, I hurried as I have never before, adorned in a tattered dress and ruined dancing shoes, I hurried.
My mind was plagued with thoughts of Buffy following the dark stranger to her doom, of Dawn lost and alone in the Glade, of the red mark leaking through fabric. Of my father’s coughing and my sisters never getting home. Of Low-low lying there, of his hands around her.
I must have found favour with the Goddess herself because, vision blurred and weary, I ran straight into my sister full paced. Buffy swerving out of the way, and me tumbling over with a gasp.
“Tara?!” She exclaimed while trying to catch me.
I struggled against her as not to lose sight of the dark stranger lingering at her heel like a lost puppy. I tried to drag Buffy away from him but my sister resisted my efforts with her usual tenacity. She didn’t understand. She didn’t know what he was.I had to warn her. But first we had to get away.
“We have to g-go. ” Everything ached. But nothing more than the uncharacteristic silence of my companion. She’d stopped talking miles ago.
“Tara, you’re filthy, what’s wrong? Look at me. What happened?”She lifted my chin to face her.
“We h-have to go, Low-low she’s...”
“Is that blood on your arm?” Buffy checked me over for injuries but I brushed her away. No time for that. I was fine. But Low-low...
My stained hands started to tremor despite willing myself to be still as I revealed my frog from beneath the satin bandages.
“Angel, I need you to take us the fastest way back.” Buffy looked at him with an expression I’d never seen on her, a vulnerability. My independent wild child force of nature sister was relying on this man, this thing, to get her home
And he did.
By whatever way he navigated us through the dense wilderness, he had us back to the Glade much faster then I knew should be possible. It was as if the paths were straighter now, the light brighter and the distance that took half an hour to run before now only took three little steps.
He didn’t say a word.
But I sore him gallantly kiss the back of her hand after she whispered her goodbyes.
We quickly fetched Dawn from a cluster of youngsters who all silenced when they saw me approaching, I must have looked frightfully serious. One of the tree dwellers gave me a velvet pouch of herbs to put in a soup for Low-low and another suggested I add a cup of water from the River Swallow.
The journey back passed in a blur that a scarcely remember how I got from one side of the shore, to the other. Once home I put Low-low on a saucer of warm water by the fireplace and got to work. I didn’t want the water to cause more bleeding, but her body was frozen through, and the wounds needed cleaning. The broth smelt positively awful, and as I stumbled about the kitchen in the early hours of the morning trying to find a ladle, a match, a bowel, any morsel of vegetable matter that might make it more palatable, I couldn’t stop from shaking.
As the sun rose I was still awake in my bed chamber, and Low-low was asleep on my stomach. Warm now. She’d managed to drink almost half the broth with me bringing the teaspoon to her mouth. The crescent shaped slice at the base of her neck was deep and oozing, so after washing it with alcohol and sterilising a needle and thread from my sewing kit I sutured it closed as if I was mending one of my father’s old socks.
Buffy had sent Dawn to bed and hovered around to help for a while, but I hardly acknowledge her. The truth was that I was mad, and the part of me that wasn’t spirally down into a guilty despair blamed her for everything.
Not her fault. Low-low had muttered through a tense little frown as I pieced her skin with the needle.
“Hush.” I was trying to concentrate, and when she spoke I wanted to cry and that wouldn’t help anyone.
She didn’t mean anything bad to happen. And I’m alright Tare. Truly.
“Hold still.” Is all I could say.
After I was finished, and she was neat and bandaged and tucked next to me I started to cry. I’m not sure if it was because everything caught up to me all at once, or I was simply too exhausted not too. And Low-low, likely in more pain then she was letting on, nudged by tear stained cheeks with her nose. When I finally calmed she wiggled down to my tummy and buried herself under the blankets.
I dreamt of the girl again, the floating mirage, the forbidden affair. This time she didn’t effortlessly drift through my mind, but struggled to stay. And I felt as though the only reason I was able to keep her was that I held her in place. And that the only reason I heard her message come faintly from her lips was because I knew what she was going to say
“Tara, please see me.”
But then I couldn’t, because she was fading.
Last edited by The Mulberry Thief on Tue Nov 21, 2017 6:01 am, edited 2 times in total.
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