Untitled Short Story

Darkness. 

Silence broken only by the occasional sound of dripping water falling from a great height. 

Something bad had happened. She knew it. Felt it. The ragged breathing she could hear gradually getting louder and louder confirmed it. Then with a jolt she realised that it was her. She was the one breathing raggedly. With another jolt she realised that it was dark because her eyes were closed. She wasn't surprised that she was lying in a pool of ice cold water. For some reason that made sense to her. Even if she couldn't remember why. 

She opened her eyes. It was still dark. She was inside some sort of cavern. For a moment a sense of overwhelming despair and claustrophobia threatened to overwhelm her. She wanted to curl up into a ball and wish everything away. But she knew that wouldn't work. It almost never did, and the few times it had, things had turned very ugly. If she wanted to get out of this she would have to do more than wish to do so. She held up her hands. Good. The worzt hazn't happened. She slowly pushed herself up into a sitting position, wincing in pain. At leazt I don't think the worzt haz happened. 

She looked around the cavern, hoping to remember what she was doing in there. Her vision was a little blurry, and she had a splitting headache. She suspected that someone had struck her on the head at some point. That blow iz probably why I waz unconzciouz. Or maybe thiz contributed. She had an arrow sticking out of her right shoulder, which had been bleeding heavily, although it had stopped now. She really wanted to remove the arrow, but knew that it would be wiser to wait until there was a healer present just in case the wound continued to bleed heavily. 

There were two long knives lying in the pool of water next to her. She picked one of them up, her eye straying to the edge of the pool as she did so. Oh shit! She scooped up the second knife and tried leaping to her feet. But she was too beaten up for that. Instead she gasped as pain shot through her body and she crouched down, knives held expertly at the ready as she looked around the cavern again. This time she saw the bodies strewn everywhere. She drummed her fingers nervously on the hilt of the knives, surveying the scene. There was a number of large blue furred creatures she knew to be vicious, blood thirsty monsters. But there were also a number of human bodies strewn throughout the chamber. Which side am I on?

She looked down at her hands again. They looked unmarked. Looked unshackled. But she knew through past experience that this wasn't always an indicator. Tezt? Or ... She looked around at the bodies of the blue furred creatures again. Do they know how to kill thoze thingz? She straightened up, bouncing anxiously on the balls of her feet. They've got to know how to kill thoze thingz. Otherwize the war would be over! She looked a little more closely at the human bodies. None of them appeared to be Fredono or The Guard. She looked down at her clothes. She wasn't in uniform. But again, past experience told her that this wasn't an indicator. She noticed for the first time she noticed that she was wearing a dark grey cloak with a jade dragon pinning it around her throat. She instantly recognised the cloak as one of the family heirlooms. Guezz that anzwerz that. 

She looked around the cavern again. Butbutbutbut. She squeezed her eyes shut and tapped the side of her head. Something wasn't adding up. She looked down at the jade dragon pendant, tapping the side of her head harder and harder. No! Thiz izn't right. The air was starting to get thick, making breathing difficult. I have to get out of here!

She was just about to turn to look for an escape when she heard people approaching from behind. She gasped involuntarily, and bounded across the pool and ducked behind a rocky outcrop, this time prepared for the pain caused from her movement. Her mind racing, she peered out from behind the rock. Hopefully I'll recognize them. Then I can figure out which side I'm on bazed on how they react. It wasn't much of a plan, but it was the best she could come up with. Her headache was starting to get really bad, that it was starting to distract her. 

Urgh! I can't fight like thiz! She bounded up onto the rock she'd been hiding behind just as five figures entered the cavern.

"There!"

 Shit! She half jumped, half toppled off the rock. She rolled, forgetting about the arrow sticking out of her shoulder until it snagged on the ground. Growling in pain and annoyance, she sprang to her feet. Her hand subconsciously rising to her injured shoulder. She was alarmed to feel warm blood seeping through her fingers. There was a blinding flash of light. Her other hand rose to shield her eyes against the sudden glare. I've lozt. 

"What happened here?" A voice she recognised as her former fiery mentor asked in a hushed voice. 

"Ummm ..." Her eyes now accustomed to the brightness of the glowing ball of flames hovering a couple of meters above the pool of light, she looked around at the carnage. The blue fur of the monsters appeared to be glowing in the light. "Do, d'ya know how to kill thoze thingz?"

"Perziztanze and a whole lot of luck. Why?" This was asked with a lot of suspicion. 

They don't truzt me. But why? She mulled over the possible reasons, completely forgetting about the others in the cavern until a soft voice brought her back to reality. 

"She appearz to be muddled."

That doezn't sound like good news for me. "No. Why. Ya wanted to know why, right?" She smiled nervously at the group. "There'z an eazy way to kill thoze beaztz that you guys don't seem to know about." She staggered slightly, and only prevented herself from falling over by catching at the rock she'd just fallen off. The cavern span dizzingly around her, and she struggled to fight against the darkness that was threatening to overtake her again. 

"We don't have time to put up with gamez." A broad man with a heavily scarred face snapped. "What happened here, Skip?"

"Well, um." She stopped leaning against the rock and scratched at her head, stalling for time while she tried to find a suitable answer to the question. The problem was, she still wasn't sure what a suitable answer was, or even what had happened. She was certain that telling them that she couldn't remember what had happened was wise. It would most likely end with her being captured and interrogated further in one of their bases. She was dimly aware of the cavern swirling gradually into darkness and a sharp pain in her knee as the nothingness that she'd been trying to keep at bay finally overtook her. She had one last, bleary glimpse of five people hurrying towards her as she blacked out completely. 

War pt1

The air raid sirens sounded again. They were meant to indicate that everyone was supposed to take cover in the nearest bunker. But since they had sounded at least once a day for the last two months without any kind of destruction following, most people ignored them and went about their business as usual. Most people now believed that they were safe and that the war front wouldn't reach their little town. After all, the war had been raging for almost two years and no one had seen any of it except what filtered through to them in the sparse news reports.

But they were still constantly reminded that there was a fierce battle raging across the country by the constant fuel, power and food rations, not to mention that the army had set up a base on the outskirts of town to train the constant stream of new recruits, all of whom were getting younger or more elderly each day. Everyone had at least one family member serving in the army, many of whom hadn't been heard from since they were sent to the front line.

The sirens lasted for fifteen minutes, and then everything went silent again. This happened so frequently even the soldiers had stopped reacting whenever the sirens sounded. But this time, when the sirens had finished wailing, something was different. It was a subtle difference. It was the silence. It was a different kind of silence today, and only those with extra keen hearing were able to pick up on it. But they just shrugged it off as paranoia.
So it came as a massive surprise to everyone when an extremely old woman strode up to a soldier and tore a huge chunk from the side if his neck with her teeth. The soldier screamed in agony and futilely tried to stop the flow of blood pouring from the wound. The old woman hissed and bit his arm. The soldier would've screamed as she tore part of his arm away, but he was already dead.

Civilians screamed and scrambled to get away from the creature, while soldiers rushed forward, their weapons aimed at her. The creature turned and faced the soldiers, baring her blood stained pointy yellow teeth as she hissed again. She crouched down, ready to attack. The soldiers consisted of new recruits still being trained and veterans who had seen too much action in the war. All of them were terrified of the creature and fired wildly at her.

The creature shuddered with the impact of the bullets, and dark blood oozed from the wounds. She stumbled backwards and fell over the body of her victim. The shouts of a commanding officer could be heard over the gunfire but no one could make out what she was shouting.

Gradually the soldiers stopped firing and looked apprehensively at the prone body of the creature. One of the bolder recruits cautiously crept towards her.

"Sanders, fall back!" The commanding officer shouted in alarm, hurrying forward to pull him back. But she was too late. With a shriek of rage, the creature threw herself from the ground at Sanders, who screamed in agonised terror before his throat was torn out.

The creature looked up at the soldiers through slitted eyes, Sanders' blood dripping off her face, and hissed something in articulate at them before turning and running away from them with inhuman speed.

"What she say?" A heavily scarred one eyes veteran asked the group at large.

"Something about losing, I think." A recruit answered uncertainly. "My Faerie isn't all that crash hot. But I'm certain she said something about losing."

"Does anyone speak fluent Faerie?" The commanding officer demanded.

Everyone shook their heads.

"Shit! I hope somebody caught this on camera."

Most of the recruits looked sheepishly down at their feet. None of them had thought of bringing their cameras with them when they had left the base. But all of the veterans responded that they had.

"Good. All of you back to base now. Those of you idiots who don't have your cameras I want you to report to Thompson in full gear." She pulled out a small transistor radio from her belt. "This is Major Fielding. There's been an attack in town. I'm declaring a code red curfew be enforced immediately."

"What is that?" A recruit pointed towards the nearby hills. Everyone else looked in the direction he was pointing. It took a couple of minutes before they were able to see the faint black cloud that was rapidly growing darker and larger. As they stared at the growing cloud, sirens, slightly different to the air raid siren, started to sound all around them.

"THIS IS NOT A DRILL. A CODE RED CURFEW IS NOW IN PLACE. EVERYONE IS IMMEDIATELY GO INSIDE AND STAY INSIDE UNTIL FURTHER ADVISED." A deep robotic voice intoned over the siren.

All across town, everyone hurried into the nearest buildings. They all knew that code red meant that they weren't even allowed to go home. They just had to get inside or face a military tribunal for civil disobedience, which often ended with the culprit being forced to join the army before being sent off to the front lines. It was better to our up with a small amount of discomfort for a short time than facing the tribunal.

"Back to base, everyone!" Major Fielding barked.

The soldiers fell into formation and marched back to base on the other side of town. Many of them, including Major Fielding, kept stealing uneasy glances back at the still rapidly growing cloud behind them. They passed more soldiers hurrying to position themselves around town to keep look out for anyone breaking curfew and any foes. Although no one expected to face any Faeries. They still believed themselves to be safe in the relatively sleepy town.

A Quick Story

The sun was setting as two black horses pulled a black carriage with gold trimming along the well worn road. The driver could see the city in the distance. He sat back with a smile and allowed himself to relax a little. The master's daughter was almost home. Eager to get home himself, the driver spurred the horses on even faster with a shout.
He didn't see what spooked the horses. All of a sudden they reared back kicking their front legs and screaming. The sound was horrendous. The driver just had time to hope that he'd never hear that sound again before he was thrown from his seat. He landed heavily beside the road and never heard another sound again.
The horses veered off the road, dragging the carriage after them. Off the well used road, the carriage bounced crazily until it finally snapped free of the horses, bouncing sideways until it finally came to rest upside down.
Some minutes later one of the carriage doors was forced open and a dishevelled young woman, looking much the worse for wear after her misadventure in the carriage, toppled out. She landed face down in the soft dirt. She then shakily pushed herself up so that she was kneeling on her knees and dazedly looked around. She pushed a stray lock of hair from her eyes and almost fainted when she saw that there was blood on her gloved hand. She leant back against the carriage to try and steady herself.
"Driver!"
She waited for him to respond. He didn't.
"Driver!" She called out louder this time, starting to feel mildly annoyed that the driver hadn't yet answered her call. The fact that he could be dead hadn't even crossed her mind. Feeling pretty close to hysterics, she almost screamed for the driver, threatening this time that unless he answered her immediately he would lose his job.
Still no answer. But then,
"May I be of assistance, miss?" It wasn't the driver asking.
She looked up at the voice and saw a young, nicely dressed man smiling encouragingly and offering her his hand. Even in the dim light she could see that his eyes were almost an orange colour.
She accepted his offered hand and let him help her to her feet.
"I heard your shouts from the road and thought I'd better come and help." He explained, still smiling easily.
The young woman found his smile reassuring somehow. "Thank you. I'm sure my father will be pleased to hear about your help to me."
He just smiled before assisting her back to the road. Once there her took her arm and began leading her away from the city.
"Where are you taking me?" She demanded, alarmed. "The city is that way." She indicated the opposite direction they were going with her free hand.
"It'll take us hours to walk there. It'll be much faster if we go this way: there's a pub a mile back. We can send word to your father and wait for him there."
"I don't remember see a pub." She frowned, although allowing the stranger to lead her once again.
"Maybe you weren't looking for it." The young man smiled.
The young woman wasn't sure how long they walked for. But they walked long enough for her feet to start hurting in her shoes. She was about to start complaining about it when a dingy looking tavern loomed up through the gloom. The lights from inside glowed dimly through the windows.
Again the young woman felt a sense of apprehension and paused.
"Relax, it's a reputable place." The young man smiled again, correctly guessing why she had slowed down.
Although his smile once again reassured her, the young woman carefully looked him up and down. His dark hair was slicked back and carefully parted to one side. He was in a dark coloured silk shirt, which was tucked into charcoal grey trousers and was in carefully polished black boots that went up to just below his knees. She looked back up into his orange eyes. They matched his smile and twinkled warmly at her, encouraging her to trust him. She followed him into the tavern which she noticed was called The Jolly Hunter.
The inside was far more welcoming than the exterior of the tavern indicated; a large heart fire burned warmly in one corner and on all of the polished tables burned at least three large red candles. Many of the tables were taken by groups of people merrily talking as they drank and ate.
"The table by the fire is free." The young man nodded towards the fire place. "What's your father's name so that I know who to address the telegram too."
She told him her father's name before going to sit and wait for him at the table he had indicated. She nervously sat on the edge of her chair and watched the young man talking to the man behind the counter. After a few minutes, the young man joined her at the table carrying two glasses of red wine.
"While we wait for your father." He smiled, placing the glass down in front of her. She thanked him and politely took a sip from the glass. She didn't really want to drink with a stranger. No matter how nice she found him.
The young man fixed his eyes on her as he took a sip from his own glass. He then started asking her questions about her recent trip and her life. She found herself easily answering his questions. She didn't ask him any. She was surprised when she went to take a sip of wine and discovered that the glass was empty. She didn't remember drinking anything while she talked. The young man laughed when she expressed her surprise at this to him. He waved at the bartender who promptly brought over two more glasses to their table.
This time the young man regaled her with stories from far off lands. His eyes still never leaving hers, and she leant closer in to better hear his stories. A bell tinkled as the tavern door opened. She hadn't heard it when they had entered. The young man looked away from her towards the door.
"It looks like we part company now."
She followed his gaze and recognised her father's old cook, although she didn't know his name.
"Thank you for rescuing me and providing the most wonderful company while I waited for my father, Mister ..." She faltered, realising for the first time that she didn't know his name.
"I go by many names. But a lot of people know me as Adrian." He smiled, rising and helping her to her feet. He led her towards the open door that the chef was holding open for them.
The air outside was chillier than expected and the young woman shivered after being in such a warm building. Adrian guided her to the horse and buggy that stood waiting nearby while the chef clambered up into the drivers seat.
Adrian opened the door for her and allowed to place one foot on the step before pulling her closer to him than was proper. She found she didn't mind this. Her ran a finger down her cheek and under her chin, lifting her face so that she was looking into his smiling orange eyes.
"I rescued you and know everything about you except one thing," he said so softly that she could barely hear him. "What is your name?"
She told him.
As soon as he was certain that she was safely seated and comfortable, Adrian bid her good night and closed the door. She could hear him and the chef exchange a few words before the chef spurred the horse into action, and the buggy slowly rocked away from the tavern.
She looked out the side window, Adrian was standing with his hands behind his back. He smiled and waved goodbye just as she lost him from sight.