Chapter 36

Faraway overlooking Mārin village, a small coven congregated. descant figures in black robes, wearing conical hoods. The noir shapes wore terrifying occult masks and flocked queerly for a black mass.

They held their lanterns aloft and softly chanted their demonic whisperings as they trafficked their light onward into the bleakness of the night, where the fire itself writhed like a great wyrm to the Caden of their singing. On they marched toward their destination an ancient O’Sh tree, a reverent tree that was long-lived and majestic.

The wyrm of fire, like a red and orange ribbon meandered forward up the hillside towards where the hemlock was located. Until it coiled itself around, like a melancholy halo, almost as if it were awaiting to be throttled by a ligature. Finally, a thin pasty-faced Martian addressed the members of the congregation by torchlight.

The conifer itself appeared an odd-looking specimen. Although it seemed ordinary in every other respect, the tree had fallen on its side and over centuries had grown branches sprouting Upwards from its trunk towards the light of the sun. For this reason alone, its size was immense. The high priest commanded “bring hither the offering,” as they paraded a young prepubescent girl in front of the mass, wearing a sapphire coloured gown and a petite crown upon her childlike brow.

Leers and cheers filled the air as the dark satanic twisted machinations of the group were manifested. They took pleasure from the girls’ misery as they taunted her and collectively recited “Alluah Anjelleah Magia Rohan Meer,”
They lay her on the trunk of the aged tree. The poor girl, having a moment of revelation, began to wake from her nepenthe induced State. She began to struggle, as she resisted, bit, pinched, kicked, scratched, clawed, but to no avail. As finally, hopelessness met her. She yielded and began to weep in abject terror as the priest bore down on her with a sacrificial dagger and pierced her heart with a dark shard of blackness. Rich, warm blood gushed out of the wound onto the silk of her gown, down into the furrows and channels of the bark of the tree. the girl began to move less and less until she was pale and still as the blood ebbed away onto the trunk of the old tree.

The congregation sat and waited as to what would soon appear next.

The sky fizzed and took on hues of primary colours as it filled the night horizon with an aura of magic and the sound of roots being ripped from the earth permeated the ether. A very real phenomenon, as the reverent tree be-gan to spasm and move as if it had a body and a shape of a manthing,
As it tried to talk in frustration but instead squealed like a thing that had never lived, or had any right to life at all.

The sound of wood buckling and straining screamed in the night as IT…
Slowly managed to stand, it grew in stature and dread as it reached its full height. The High Priest and Arch Pa’ mina Commanded “destroy everything in your path, leave nothing alive,” as the dreaded creature lurched forward down into the fields and in a direct course for the sleepy vale of Mārin village.
—–
A platoon of the Shae swarmed at the peripheries as they gathered at the only entrance to the town.

The night was cool and although unseen by the eye, crickets chirped a stridulating symphony to salute their foreign visitors.

The whippoorwills sang and the occasional lonely mere-wolf howled to the two moons above in the sky.

The hour of the spirit when the soul is at low tide.
They marched two by two as they scoured the part of Mārin village known as lowtown.

Shining their lamps into every nook and cranny of the buildings that at last stood quiet like a mausoleum that only shadows had the fortune to inhabit.

Two familiar denizens were being rather obtuse as they squabbled amongst themselves in muffled voices so they didn’t disturb the rest of their platoon.

Gedinac and Schem wondered how they had the misfortune to end up here in such a dreary place. “I say we desert tonight!” said schem, as he fondled his long grey and black hoglike ears “it’s already tonight schem!” said Gedinac hurriedly as the duo looked around at the empty street that were strewn with debris, as they patrolled the barricades. It was eerie even to them. “I don’t like it,” he restated as if making his point “don’t like what? there you go again,” he said as if the same old rhetoric drained him
“Are you mocking me!!! Because I might just have to, give you a smack in the gob!” He said in a coarse gravely tone as he gritted his mostly absent teeth “you wouldn’t dare!!” said Gedinac squaring off to one another. Suddenly something interrupted their squabbling and disturbed schem greatly as he uncharacteristically stood mute with his mouth agape.

A strange sound, was it, did it, was it a thing at all?
“Ere did you hear that?” asked schem, unsure if he had perceived anything at all. he assumed he heard a pair of light-footsteps racing across the roof terraces
“hear what?”
“Listen, there it is again!” as now it sounded like a strangled breath of something going limp and making a gratifying thud onto the floor.
“where is it,” Asked Gedinac “I don’t know quite where it is, but I know WHERE it is!” he said cocking an eye at him.” dumb culchie, you’re not making any sense schem!” He remarked wagging his finger at him, but his curiosity got the better of him as he intriguingly Asked in hues of disownment” what did it sound like?”
“like someone being asphyxiated,”

Gedinac grimaced as he too recalled something from times of yore that he found unpleasant. “ere d’you remember that story about the ghoul that liked to run across the roofs and torment its prey,”
“child stories,” he asserted as he blew a raspberry and continued by exclaiming “that’s just superstition, like giant Spiders… or… those Spiritwalkers,” nonchalant Gedinac face seemed to look whiter than its usual pasty grey complexion as the colour drained out of it. “I don’t. Think that is a story,”
“Ere what do you mean,”
“My father told me about an elite band of assassins, they used to call Spiritwalkers…” he said lowering his voice as if he did not wish even the wind to drop eaves upon him “killers so proficient, he reckoned they could even kill death himself, you wouldn’t even know they were there until… you were?,” Gedinac gulped in a mouth full of air and stopped short as schem joined him as he simulated cutting his own Aorta.
“I don’t believe ya!” Answered another voice that seemed to do a half-decent impression of both of them.
“What!?” Said Gedinac looking around and concluding it must have been his companion playing some weird game.
“I don’t believe you know who your father was,” as he looked at schem who looked blank “HOW DARE YOU!”
The two dunderheads rolled over as they wrestled with one another Schem thought he caught sight of bodies lying on the ground, wait he said as Gedinac grappled him into a headlock, “the others,” he murmured whilst being violently throttled “they’re dead!” He replied in anger “no, you’re dead!”. He patted his arm, as he tried to loosen his vice-like grip. he tried again and repeated “the others…. they’re dead,”
“WHAT!” Cried Gedinac, as he slackened his grasp as schem took in a deep breath. the salty pair looked around casually and saw the members of their platoon lying dead in gruesome positions as the duo looked at one another and said, “we’re off, we’re going!!” and fled for their lives
—-
Vir Okota looked upon his work with satisfaction as he saw the two shae silhouettes fleeing in terror into the silence of the night, moving fast and away from the village.

He always liked witnesses to amplify his deeds, thus perpetuating his reputation. the life of a spiritwalker was a lonely existence.

And then he overheard it… From far away a dirge egressing from the tree-lined perimeter. A strange sound of wood creaking as he heard the slow heave and rumble of heavy footsteps, what type of creature would make such a sound he wondered as he scampered up to a still higher vantage point to see a tree animated bound and bought to life. No he thought to himself, that’s no longer any type of tree it was more like a hungry Anemone of the land, on a rampage and heading toward the deep of the underpass, he felt dread upon his shoulders as it occurred to him one man, Spiritwalker or otherwise would not be enough to stop the thing, other more untraditional measures must be pursued, as a cold shudder passed over him and he thought about the villagers that were holed up there. It would mean the end of them and the very idea shook him to his core.
He remembered what Emsie wrote in the Chronicles of Invasions
“beware the Whirlygig, a dark vision softly creeping, sowed its seed while I was sleeping and the vision that was planted into my soul, was as black as coal… at the birth of silence,”
——
At the underpass Tumjai
Was making progress as he used his diplomacy to talk ūna and Vee into a position of sober sensibility. They almost forgot about where it was they had to go?

“I don’t think you want to dwell upon superstitions,” he said deliberating over the quarrel “it’s my belief that Martians are hard-wired to feel certain things carried over from antiquity, but clearly like ancient monsters, they belong in antiquity,” he emphasised his words with his light yellow eyes that stood out in stark contrast against the complexion of his atrous skin.
As much as the young man liked philosophical debate, his musing over the sciences was impeccable and Vee knew he had to yield to old Moors faultless apologetics.
If you’re going down there… be careful… it was the advice that nurtured a seed within his brain, he pondered what it meant, it was too precise to be rhetorical.

Ūna watched on abashed and said nothing as she realised that her behaviour had been less than savoury and now she felt ashamed by her lack of maturity. It was the first time she hadn’t been able to one-up Vee, embarrassed by her competitive nature she looked away into the soft torchlight of the deep with the notion that she should atone.

She took solace in her teacher Grozettes wise words…like wizards that come to visit, It’s never too late, it’s always precisely when it’s meant to be.

It was then the curvaceous shadow of looty fell upon them as she bought them a tray of hot beverages.

One more drink and looty decided that would be nonalcoholic.
“relax your minds now,” she said to Vee Vee and ūna as if they were progeny of her own and she was putting her ducklings in a row. Something was reassuring about her face, line by line around the eyes seemed to tell a story and she seemed wise in a non-academic way. She turned her glance towards Jai “that goes for you too master Tumjai, relax your mind,”
A moments pause as they shared an instant in which they all drank deep from the rich ground honey roasted tea, that they quaffed from crystal tumblers. It was impeccably rich and very nuanced. They heard the satisfying gasp and silence fall as the hour of the spirit passed almost peacefully and uneventfully.

Almost…

It started with dust falling…
It started with a rattle and hum, that found its way through the pores of the naturally jagged stone walls. Like a ghost, it moved invisibly, creeping softly and insidious, inside the acoustics of the cavern and hovered slowly as it rustled the surface of the subterranean stream that ambled underneath the lonely mountain.

They began to hear a commotion outside, as the huge gates that shrouded the main entrance in the ceiling seemed to be burdened as if something or someone were ripping them steadily against its hinges and gravity. The Doors strained as if its alloy was pleading and Crying at the enemy at the gates.

They stood aghast as they peered towards the sound of the invasion. Confused regarding what was breaking in? Was it some new siege engine they wondered, as they dropped their empty glasses onto the hard-stone floor and heard them shatter? “Get Emrys and the others to safety,” Jai commanded as he called for a retreat? A siren sounded signifying impending woe.

They did not hesitate to see what was coming in.

Ūna grabbed the box that Emrys sat in and hefted it as she moved through the masses unevenly like a bird waddling. she directed the remaining civilians into the labyrinth and shepherded them through to the direct path. Toward the exit, via the subterranean lake.

She again saw Looty as she snatched the old senior’s forearm hampering her as she rushed past her and thrust the box into her right hand “I haven’t got time to persuade you,” she asserted “lead them up Lifrinsvere Looty… to the old fort at Aranmore … if I can.. I’ll meet you there,” She garbled as she did not leave a second to think and did not intend to abandon her brothers in arms.

Looty had that pained look upon her face as she clung on to ūnas arm a moment longer than she expected before she unwittingly let her go, as they exchanged glances for a final time.

Clambering up on top of the walls of the labyrinth ūna spied the beast it was immense. a creature of O’Sh wood, dense and Transformed by dark magic into a cursed creature known from archaic scripture as a Whirlygig. ūna knew of this entity, but there had not been an eyewitness account for millennia. But all the stories were Grimm.
A creature from the ancient world no less.

Now her head hurt, it was hard to concentrate on any one thing in the calamity. cold sweat trickled into her hair and down the nape of her neck. but above all else, she felt scared to death.

She had never faced such a creature before in her life. It was beyond any of the rest, even the greatest of them.
The Red Witch sensed it in her blood’s specific gravity. Her heartbeat grew until it thumped like a drum, she thought it might erupt out of her chest.

She brushed the notion aside as She tried to put her mind to better use, locate the boys she told herself! But in the fear and alarm, Vee or even Tum Jai were as allusive as the fairies themselves. The creature looked almost humanlike, almost aside from its rough scaly bark trunk for a torso and two primary thick branches for arms, and then there were its wooden spines that pierced from out of its back, razor-sharp and jagged.
It used its arms extremely proficiently as it smashed them into the small defence force that was duty-bound with defending the civilians.

Leaving an ugly mess on the floor of the stronghold.

It was devastating.

It would give no quarter, requested or otherwise.

The remnants of men and women lay scattered on the ground like toppled skittles lying splayed in no particular order. She couldn’t do anything to help them now. But worst of all some were little more than children lying broken on the floor and it made her eyes brim with tears.
at last, she spotted Jai and vee far away and cut off… they were almost at the exit but were stranded like cast-aways by the creatures flailing arms, if ūna could cause a distraction, they may have a slim chance. So, standing precariously upon the very edge of the labyrinth wall she stood proud as she momentarily closed her eyes, found her stillness, and began to recite words of deeper meaning.

Ūna began to conjure and manifest a ring of pure white steel that reflected cool light and itself hummed as it slowly rotated.

“Attack,” she said as she pointed her fingers like a gun at the mark, it shot through the air and hit the target. A rattled shriek emanated from the beast as it began to saw into the Whirlygigs trunk, to the accompanying screams of pain and black blood that spewed out of its wooden arteries.
It marked out thereafter a trail of everywhere it had been or would go.

At last…
It was distracted, now was their chance.! The red witch wavered them on hurriedly. As the coast was clear. They both ran into the nearby labyrinth at a full sprint to safety. It was done. Her rescue mission was a success.

She turned away to join them with haste, but soon found she could not advance as alas she felt a viny frond lasso her ankle and pull her sharply over the edge of the labyrinth wall. She clung on for a moment in shock but was pried away as her fingers clung on but were of no match for the monster’s sheer strength and torque, away she fell from her high vantage point. Now she was being dragged along the deep in the creatures killing ground.

She turned over as she heard the clank of the magic Chakram fail and fall to the floor shattering into millions of tiny fragments. She saw her Sabre pulled out of its sheath from the sword cleat upon her back. As she was swept along the ground she attempted a quick grab. She sailed past, and then another as she attempted to reach the crimson sashes that we’re attached to the pommel.

Hooking her weapon she took what little comfort that she had her sword but knew she stood very little chance against the creature as she cut the vines that had ensnared her legs and stood to face the Towering bulk of the Whirlygig.

It was huge.

With only her sabre in her grip, she knew her chances of continued existence were slim to none. she found what little self-belief she still had intact as she said with tenacity in her voice “I am Major Paschėlle ūna, a Pa’ mina of Kalithia, a High Disciple of Grozette the Wind Waker… and I vow with all my strength to my Country and those in need… my protection!”
The Whirlygig let a terrifying reply as if it just didn’t care as it unleashed its mallet-like branches once again as ūna narrowly avoided being smashed to a pulp and hacked into its twig-like fingers with her sword as wood chippings dusted the floor.

Its viny fronds struck her a second time a lash that scourged her clothing as her face turned with violent pang and she knew she was in trouble.
Again the second wave came as she couldn’t avoid being batted into some cider casks that were stacked vertically.

It was slow lunging but fast with the whip.

A white sail on a calm expanse of ocean ūna felt ineffectual. She stood up against the cavern wall, unable to withdraw further it had cornered her like a hind-fox.
This was the end.

The monster loomed over ūna. as its thick wooden hand branches pinned her to the back wall and began to press her harder and harder as if it wanted to squash her like a bug, she couldn’t bear the pain as she screamed in agony and felt her ribs cracking. Her vision began to blur, all she could see was a tower of casks that stood beside them. She thought she might be able to topple them with her legs if she could only just stay conscious long…. enough… sounds seemed very distant now as she just braced the sole of her left foot against the barrels before everything went dark as the casks came down and buried them.
—–
Quickly shouted Tumjai as Vee carried the badly injured ūna through to the underground lake as he waded and found the shallows. Her body lolled like a broken puppet. They heard the monster behind them and the echo of the creature haunting them as they strayed into some smaller tunnels.
They felt the heavy movement of the Whirlygig coming nearer, a trembling vibrato in the very bowels of the cavern.

Could they hide?

Would they be that lucky?

It finally entered the tunnel as Vee looked back, he could barely move as his appendages were sore and heavy. He felt exhausted as the creature fixed Him with his eye. Disturbed he trudged on as the creature followed them into the tunnel as it narrowed

It was gaining as vee fell to the ground, he held ūnas hand daintily as he told her that he loved her. He took one look at Tumjai in the distance and shook his head. The creature lurched for them as it clambered for them in the now bijou dimensions of the tunnel as the rumbling sound and shaking permeated, as it shed its black blood on to the feculent shale floor.

Vee at that moment… just seemed to lie down and play dead… He looked resigned
and scared as he knew he was running to a standstill, his every move he felt like he was moving in quicksand and he knew they couldn’t outrun his impending demise. He gathered his beloved in his arms stroked her wine coloured locks and lay next to her on the dusty floor and whispered “sometimes you can’t make it on your own,”

He looked fearful with his dirty face and sad eyes.
Tumjai gazed upon them and with fear, in his voice, he stammered “NO… No VEE…. VEEEEEEEE!”

Tumjai. Recalled how Emrys had shown him… two figures lying on the ground male and female hanging onto one another but deathly still, in a puddle of black liquid Underground. It was ūna and Vee, and now he was looking at reality as the tunnel began to quake and collapse, burying the Whirlygig and the disparate pair, this time forever. All his attempts to change the future Emrys had shown him had been for nought as he stood quietly in the dusty cavern resigned with his feelings of sorrow which he had tried to pre-empt but had failed miserably

—-
Beneath the rubble, two bodies lay still and entwined lovingly by each other as they lay in a cold tomb as vee looked at the small pocket of blue energy that was emitted by Vee’s shield belt as he breathed a sigh of relief.