10: Black Fire

When they arrived at Mej-Gurk two days later, Onomi learned why Keera had taken a mud bath.

Circling the entire village was a semi-transparent wall of writhing black flames. It blackened bark and grass, sent up tendrils of smoke that created a haze above the rooftops, but didn't actually set anything afire. Nevertheless, Onomi could feel its heat from twenty yards off as they hid in the jungle surrounding the village. The village pond had somehow lost much of its water despite the wet season, and was now a puddle of mud that stretched under the barrier. He saw grooves and splashed mud where Keera had squeezed through and fled into the jungle.

Onomi sat stone still, breathing slow and steady to minimize his movement, as he observed the village. A few trolls wandered about, but it seemed most were in their huts. The roof of the chieftain's house bore an apparition of the black flames, dancing and waving though there was no wind.

"The demon used its spirits to lock all the shamans in the prayer house," Keera whispered. "It went in there once and burned all the good spirits out. It keeps my father and husband in there too." She gestured to the flame-crowned house of wood and fronds. "I escaped when I went out to relieve myself. Usually its bad spirits stop anyone from escaping, but it needs the bad spirits to search the others out for any of the magic. It did not see me."

Onomi grimaced, whiskers flattening under the asha'jyu.

"Is the pond the only way in and out?" he said.

"As far as I know, yes." She turned her yellow eyes to him, and then looked down, posture poor. "Onomi, you don't have to go in...I must go back to my husband, but you can still be free. Maybe you can find help...?"

Onomi felt warmth at her loyalty to her mate, and he also thought of Rich's caravan. They had magic-makers...but would they be able to defeat so volatile a creature? It could remove a person's connection to magic with a mere touch. He thought then of Remel, how part of her powers had been temporarily withheld, and she was left with her ice magic. He hated to think of her facing the demon, and somehow losing what was left of her powers.

"I won't endanger anymore magic," he growled. He felt a cold sensation go up and down his spine at his next decision, and he blurted out before he could stop himself: "I will face the demon."

Keera stared, not bothering to be modest about how she looked at him this time. Onomi huffed to himself and removed all his clothing and tools down to his thong, setting them at her side. It would be easier to go in without his bow and arrows, and it was likely his old bow was still in the village. The only other thing that remained on him was the panther fang ice pendant. He touched her shoulder.

"Stay here," he hissed. "I will go in, and motion you if it's safe to follow. It's up to you to come back in now."

Before she could say anything else, he ran in a crouched position to the pond. His ears worked to catch any suspicious sounds, and he splashed into the mud and came face to face with the flames. Their smoldering heat made his eyes water and his skin tingle uncomfortably, and he admired Keera's courage in crawling under it.

Onomi gulped in a few breaths before slithering onto his belly and shoving himself into the two-feet deep mud. It squelched around him, and he grasped his way forward. His fingers pulled at slime and buried, rotting branches, and he thought he felt some dead fish crumble in his hands. He fought the nausea that rose in his throat and the mud that tried to keep him buried. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he hoped the demon didn't have a good sense of smell, because he would smell of the dead when he arose from the pond.

Distantly he felt the line of demonic fire slide over his back, and as soon as the heat passed over his feet, he shoved himself upward with a gasp. He yanked his feet beneath him and stood, hunched over. He shook himself, mud flying and fur sticking out in clumps, and licked mud from his clogged nose and blinked open his eyes.

Onomi flicked his ears in a blur and froze when a low tune sounded around him. It imbued him with fear, and his body flinched as he started to move.

The earth seized his feet, and invisible hands grasped his wrists. He roared, and the hum turned into a bass chant, whispering dooms and curses. Onomi's breathing came as fast as the beating of his heart, pounding like a drum in beat to the chant.

Other villagers appeared and looked at him, stuck in the pond as invisible forces battled him for control over his own body. He recognized the people by face and name, but he wouldn't ask them to help him. What could they do, seeing as they hadn't been able to help themselves?

He felt the ethereal forces surround his torso and legs, and they pulled him towards the village. Onomi bore his teeth and spat and growled, but they were too powerful. The chants throbbed in his head, weakening his will to resist. With a final curse, he grudgingly allowed the demonic spirits to yank him forward.

He passed between several houses, the stares of trolls following him from inside their sanctuaries. Any outside backed away, giving the seemingly possessed, mud-ridden troll a wide berth. Though he looked like a swamp beast, did they recognize him? Onomi wanted to look at them closer, but the spirits held his jaw like a clamp, forcing him to look forward.

They brought him to the chieftain's possessed home. Onomi felt the heat emanating from the open door, and inside was only blackness. The chants fell abruptly silent, and a low, vibrating sound of energy came from inside the large hut.

"You have failed, yet you have come back."

He recognized the voice of the Guardian –– no, the demon –– in all its monotone darkness. Onomi snorted, his anger replacing his fear in a flash. He had been tricked out of being a full shaman! And though Onomi still had some spiritual repair to do in regard to him and Keera, he knew he had been purposely dealt a blow from the wrong spirit. Not only had he suffered, but now his people were suffering.

The anger was only a brief reprieve, from his fear, and he clenched his shaking hands into fists as he stepped in. The morning light only filtered in a foot through the door, and the hot, pulsing blackness kept it from going any further.

Onomi stopped in the dark when the heat intensified. He peered through the black, but even his night-sensitive eyes saw nothing but a void.

"You're a liar," Onomi called.

"I tricked you," the demon agreed. "Ignorant one. In your ignorance, I drove another shaman away. You failed and ran. But the old ones knew I was not their Guardian. It didn't matter. We subdued them. Why come back?"

Onomi remained silent, folding his arms and straightening. He had to appear unafraid, even though he felt like screaming and running for his life.

"You will not answer," it observed plaintively. "I did not run away from Mej-Gurk. I have been watching your village for a long time. I've seen your sin, Onomi, and I played on your mortal guilt without saying a word. Yet you come back in face of that sin."

An unpleasant shudder went through him at the thought of this demon watching him and Keera commit sin. Only the sick-minded watched people and their private affairs.

"I'll stop you," was all Onomi managed to rasp. "Where is our Guardian? Where have our spirits gone?"

A few moments of quiet passed before the demon rumbled, its voice like rocks tumbling down a cliff.

"You act ignorant in this thing," it moaned. The grinding and muttering noises echoed through the air while it spoke. "You felt the fire. I burned the bridges between your shamans and the spirits. My spirits drive the others away. This is my forest."

Two eyes split open in the dark. They were white save for three vertical black slits in each. The eyes focused on him, wide and without emotion.

"Your Guardian has fled my forest," it ground on. The rumbling grew louder, vibrating the house. Onomi felt bits of dead fronds patter over his shoulders. "It abandoned you. I took its place."

He grabbed his ears. The quaking of the air seemed to pierce his mind, and he snarled, bowing over.

"You are mine to do with as I please," the demon said. Its eyes turned in opposite directions, looking at things Onomi couldn't see. The troll glared at the eyes, and a burning hot, white substance dripped from them as they rolled everywhere except towards Onomi. The heat became unbearable as the rafters shivered, and Onomi finally turned and fled from the hut. The demon's voice chased after him like the dead calling from the grave.

"You came again, and you failed again."