Edna's Apprentice
Chapter 1 - Twilight
It was always twilight in the Haunted Woods. Nothing stirred. Nothing moved. Not a single being dared to disturb the bleak, humid silence. The image of deathly stillness was suddenly shattered by an unkempt figure stumbling through the matted foliage, huge yellow eyes glowing, fangs wet and mouth gaping with ragged gasps. The creature paused, bent double, and gave a snarl of discomfort. A clawed paw reached down to extract a splintered knife from its foreleg, broken blade shining with fresh blood. The thing hurled the knife away, and continued its staggering gait through the trees, every now and then stopping to grasp a tree for support. The creature's strength was sapping, fast. And the wound looked deep.
An eye gleamed in the darkness. Scraping noises, and a blade was drawn from the watcher's belt. She climbed soundlessly from her vintage point – a rocky shelf studded with half-dead saplings – and walked on light feet towards the place where the figure had first stopped. She sniffed. Blood…the watcher picked up something from the dry mould spattered earth. A shard of metal from the knife– one end bloody. The watcher sheathed her blade, and peered into the deep shadows. "Edna…the poor creature was hunted…we must help her…" Hearing something else, the watcher spun round and drew her weapon. Legs tensed and ears pricked, she waited for the silent attacker. It didn't come. She relaxed; just a little. "We're getting a lot of passers tonight," she whispered to herself, as first one voice, then another penetrated the boughs of the ancient forest.
"Tarrio! Tarrio! Tell me where you are!"
"Here, below the spiky bush!"
"There's lots of spiky bushes, you dolt!"
"This one…the one to your right!"
The voices got closer. Smearing earth on her face and paws to mask her scent, the watcher retired to her crag again. She would miss nothing.
Swearing under her breath, the Zafara staggered blindly after her brother's voice, her outstretched paws criss-crossed with bramble scars. "Tarrio, this time something sensible or I'll leave you here!" She said hoarsely, afraid to speak for fear of what was behind them caught up…there was an answering cry from her brother; but he sounded odd, thick, even. "I'm over here…your right…in a hollow underneath this bush; can't move 'cause it's sharp." She stole towards his voice, then shrieked with alarm as the soil beneath her paw crumbled and fell into a dark abyss. "Inka! Not that way!" Hollered Tarrio's voice, then dissolved into a hacking splutter. "Inka! Come here!" Inka the Zafara screamed, ice cold panic welling up inside her, as the ground sank beneath her feet and she was deposited, flailing helplessly, onto a writhing landslide of pebbly scree. Blood seeped through gashes on her arms and legs, and Inka felt her heart race as her ears filtered one thing into her terrified mind, her brother's voice, still calling: Inka! Inka! Inka! Inka!...
The screams and sobs eventually died away, and the other creature remained hidden beneath his bush, making no sound, and the watcher stood alone, trembling, tears dribbling unbidden from her stony eyes, and her cold lips uttered a word, a word that meant everything to her. "Inka."