Penny knelt on the soft, red checkered picnic blanket as she gathered together her notes and books. The kids, having spent the morning with her learning about the forest, were now playing gleefully along the riverbank, running around, skimming stones and playing with Jas' skipping rope.
During their lesson they'd talked about their favourite plants, with Jas concluding after much deliberation that even though her "most favourite" flowers were the fairy roses that bloomed in the fall, the spring daffodils were "pretty cool too, I guess". Penny had been pleasantly surprised by how knowledgable and insightful Vincent had been about his plant of choice - the spring onion - and how he'd gone into great detail about the best way to pick them.
She couldn't help but smile as she thought of them; watching them continue to learn and grow was so wonderful. She turned her head towards the riverbank as she continued gathering up her notes, smiling along as they both laughed at Vincent pulling silly faces.
"I hope I'm not too late to join in on the Cindersap field trip," came John's voice from behind.
Penny pivoted on her knees to look at him and smiled as he approached, tucking a wave of auburn hair behind her ear that had come loose in the motion. "Oh, John!" she said, turning her head to glance back at the kids by the river. "It's perfect timing that you showed up."
"Excellent," he said, grinning. He had a black backpack and a leathery brown satchel slung across his chest, which gave him a look of preparedness that reminded Penny faintly of the Spirits' Eve festival.
She got to her feet as he approached, her notes now neatly gathered together in one pile. She'd spent a little bit of time earlier trying to figure out in her head how she'd word what she wanted to ask him, and tried her hardest to sound casual.
"So, I brought the children on a little field trip into the countryside," she said, with one hand slowly rubbing the back of her neck. "You know all about life in the country, right? So I was thinking..." Penny glanced back towards the kids down by the water. "Could you be my guest speaker today?"
John laughed, his eyes flitting between Penny and the kids in the distance. "Sure," he said cheerily, pulling the leathery satchel further up his shoulder. "I'd love to."
"Great!" Penny beamed. "Let me just call the children over." She sidestepped around to stand next to John and faced the kids. "Jas! Vincent! May I have your attention please!"
Jas and Vincent stopped to look and, having spotted that John was now over by the picnic blanket too, dropped what they were doing and rushed over towards them.
"I have a very special guest here to talk to you today..." said Penny, nudging John playfully with her elbow. He smiled at her in response, and it was more than enough to cause a small flitter of the familiar scarlet blush to dance across her face. "John, our very own local farmer. He has first-hand experience living in the countryside... so he knows all about the valley's 'natural resources'!" Penny paused to look at them both, smiling. "Can anyone tell me what a 'natural resource' is?"
The kids' hands shot up into the air, waving excitedly.
"Jas?" said Penny, pointing at her.
"A natural resource is a material source of wealth that occurs in a natural state and has economic value," said Jas in a rhythmic way, sounding as though she had memorised the answer word-for-word. John chuckled in amazement.
"Very good!" said Penny. "That's worth two star points, Jas."
"Yess!" Jas made a little fist pump movement in celebration. Vincent crossed his arms grumpily.
"Okay, now," said Penny, turning to face John. "Let's give John our full attention."
John cleared his throat and began explaining all about life on the farm. He spoke remarkably eloquently, Penny thought, considering he didn't really have a chance to prep anything in advance. The kids weren't just being polite by paying attention; they were captivated. When John started talking about all the new vegetables he'd sown the fields with this year, Vincent's hand shot up into the air.
Penny nodded at him. "Yes, Vincent?"
"Um, Mister John, if I eat your veggies will I grow up strong like my big brother Sam?" said Vincent, lowering his hand and staring hopefully at John. "He's so strong, I saw him lift Miss Penny clear off the ground last night when they were climbing into a tree!"
This caught Penny completely off guard. John laughed and looked at Penny, but it wasn't a look of simple laughter. He had a slightly bemused look in his eyes, but maybe that was just her imagination. Her face burned scarlet.
"Vincent!" she said quickly, looking away from John and down to Vincent. "It's not good to gossip!" She bit her lip, unsure what to say next. "Well that's probably enough for today. You two run along and play."
Penny played with her hands absent-mindedly. She glanced at John and offered a nervous smile, to which he smiled back kindly. She wanted to tell him that it meant nothing, that she didn't feel in any way as close to Sam as she did to him, that he was all she wanted and that climbing a tree with Sam wasn't exactly a common occurrence.
She wanted to say these things. But instead, her brain decided to change the subject to try and move on.
"It's a lot of work to take care of these kids..." she said, watching them running off to play in the distance. "But I don't really mind. I enjoy seeing them learn... and hopefully I can help them grow up to be good people." She glanced back at John to gauge his expression. He was nodding, watching the kids fondly.
"Would you ever want to be a parent, John?" Penny cringed internally. This was one of those things that she'd blurted out without really thinking about it, and she really hoped it hadn't come across as a strange question.
John rubbed his chin in thought, a coy smile on his face. "I don't know," he said finally, shrugging slightly and looking at her. "I don't think I'd be good at it."
"Oh, really? I think you'd make a good parent." Penny said this very softly, almost as if hoping he might not hear her. He definitely did though, because there was an unmistakable light blush streaking across his face. "I'm glad you showed up, John," Penny continued. "I think the kids had a great time."
"I did too, it was nice to talk to them a bit about what I do," said John. "Do you do these trips with them often?"
"No, not really," said Penny, deep in thought. "But I think I will in the future, every now and then."
"Yeah, it's a good idea." John beamed at her. He hoisted his backpack straps further up his shoulders. "Well, I should get going. You'll never guess where I'm headed now."
Penny looked him up and down and giggled. "You're not going to solve another Spirit's Eve maze, are you?"
John chuckled. "Nope." He paused, as if to build tension. "I'm going to the sewers."
Penny frowned. Then she raised an eyebrow. "The sewers?"
John reached his hand behind him and into a pocket of the backpack. He produced a large rusty key, the same key that Gunther had given him the other night.
"You remember what I said about the Noctumbra that stole Cluck? About how I'm pretty sure he fled into the sewers?" He waggled the key in front of her, which somehow managed to catch a glint of sunlight even through the layers of ancient rust. "This is what that key unlocks."
Penny's eyes widened. "You're chasing a Noctumbra into the sewers?"
John nodded eagerly.
"Now?"
John nodded even more vigorously, a smile on his face.
Penny bit her lip, her arms now folded. "...Then I'm coming with you," she said, finally.
John stashed the key back in the backpack pocket, stepped forwards and held her shoulders gently. "You don't have to. But I won't lie," he said with a smile, "I was hoping you'd say that."
Penny laughed, her face still a warm red, not helped by John now holding her shoulders. "Well, we make a great team. And I'm not letting you face something like that alone."
...
After making sure the kids got home safely, packing up her things and bringing them back to her trailer, Penny headed back into town to meet John at the manhole down by the river. She wasn't sure what they were going to find down there, but she knew she definitely had to go with him. No way was she letting him go down there alone.
With a nod of agreement, John inserted the heavy iron key with a little bit of difficulty, and turned it until there was a loud click. A satisfied smile spread across his face as he removed the key and heaved the cover open. The two of them carefully got down on to their hands and knees and climbed inside.
The rungs on the cast-iron ladder were uncomfortably warm and rough as Penny gently descended further into the muggy sewer. She stepped off at the bottom onto the greasy stone floor, making sure not to let go of the ladder until she was sure she wasn't going to slip.
The air felt humid and thick. Every breath she took came with awful and putrid stench; a stench so powerful that it couldn't even be stopped by covering her nose completely. She looked at John as he glanced back at her, both of them covering their noses.
"Pretty gross, isn't it?" he said, pulling out a flashlight, "let's not stay longer than we have to!"
"You always take me to the nicest places!" said Penny through a half-laugh, trying not to let go of her nose.
John switched on the flashlight and the two surveyed the room.
There was a channel of waste water running alongside them on their right and further down into the sewers, where it looked like it opened up a little further down into a large open pool of waste water. The water itself was a dark, sickly shade of green, and Penny had an awful feeling that it would be quite lumpy and viscous to the touch. Further down in the room a smaller channel of water ran all the way down into the darkness, where a few tiny slits of light could be seen. Most likely that was some sort of storm grate leading outside, perhaps at the coast below Cindersap Forest.
John began walking forwards slowly, treading carefully so as not to slip on the grubby stone tiles. Penny did the same, keeping close behind him. As he approached a corner, he glanced around it, before continuing straight ahead and moving over to the edge of what could only be described as a dock, which stretched out into the pool of waste water in front of them. He stopped at the edge and pointed his flashlight down into the murky depths. Penny slowly approached his side, to see what he was looking at.
"Willy once told me you can catch some very strange fish down here," John whispered, still looking into the water. "Talked about mutant carp and glowing things in the water."
"Willy's been fishing...?" said Penny, with a mixture of confusion and disgust. "He's been fishing down here?" There was a short pause. "I should probably tell Mom to never buy fish from him again."
John caught her eye and tried to smother a laugh before it burst through. Penny giggled too, his laugh too infectious to ignore. How was it possible, she thought, that even in a sewer, being with him was so much fun?
Their laughter was cut short by a loud clucking noise coming from around the corner they'd passed earlier. John spun around and aimed his flashlight. "Cluck!" he said, now brandishing a small sword from his backpack. A sudden rush of fear overcame Penny as she spotted the sword, waves of uncomfortable memories flooding in on her from every direction. She shook her head as if to throw off the thoughts. This is different, she told herself. John has the sword, he's standing up this time, he's ready.
Before she'd fully managed to calm herself down, John had began marching his way confidently across the stone sewer floor towards the corner, his sword held outwards in one hand and the flashlight held tightly in the other. Penny did her best to keep up as he rounded the corner.
"You took Cluck!" he called as he disappeared around the corner. Penny rounded the corner too.
It was a Noctumbra, the same shadow people that had attacked Penny all that time ago.
The creature stood towards the back wall, surrounded by what looked like sturdy stone pots and urns. It stood still, watching John as he approached slowly. In its hands - or at least, what Penny guessed had to be its hands but was otherwise just more of its swirling black mist - was Cluck. It looked like it was... petting him?
John held the sword out towards the Noctumbra, now only a couple of meters away from it. "Give my chicken back to me," he demanded.
The creature watched him for a moment, unmoving. Then - something that Penny would never have predicted - it spoke.
"A human visitor? This is most unusual..." The holes where a person's eyes would be quivered, as if it moved to look at Penny too. A cold shiver ran down her spine. "I'm Krobus, merchant of rare and exotic goods."
Penny's mouth fell agape. This couldn't be a Noctumbra, it couldn't be from the same species that attacked them in mines, there was no way. But it looked just like one. It had the same face of infinite darkness, the same twisted unintentional smile, the same nightmarish stare that haunted her dreams. It has to be some sort of trick, she thought, narrowing her eyes at this 'Krobus'.
"I don't care if your name is 'Krobus' or 'Mayor Lewis'," said John, taking the revelation of a talking Noctumbra surprisingly well. "You stole my chicken."
"...I'm sorry," said Krobus, after a short pause. He set Cluck down on the floor. Cluck didn't immediately flee, but instead slowly plodded his way towards John, as if he was curious about him rather than grateful to see him. "'Cluck', did you call him? He's a fascinating creature. I'm sorry, I didn't realise he was yours, I just wanted some company and he didn't seem to mind."
Penny was seriously struggling to get over how surreal this conversation was, holding one side of her head, almost as if to keep her brain from falling out in disbelief.
John took a step forwards to scoop up Cluck, and Krobus immediately shivered and took a step back, closer to the wall.
"...Sorry, I'm still a little wary of humans," said Krobus, the black mist of his ghostly form still shivering. "My shop is still open to you, however."
John was now nestling Cluck in the crook of his arm while still holding the flashlight. His sword arm lowered slightly.
A sudden pang of fear overtook Penny. She had visions of the mines, visions of the shadow brutes throwing themselves at her, desperate to get to John, desperate to finish him off. She could feel a blind, unstoppable petrification overcoming her. "No, John!" she yelled, hurting her own ears in the process as her voice echoed all around the small chamber. "It's a trick, it has to be, don't let your guard down!"
Alerted by Penny's raw panic, John raised and steadied his sword arm again.
Krobus shifted slightly, now focusing on Penny properly. She still had no idea what expression was on its twisted face. "...Have you encountered others like me?"
Penny mustered all of her strength to continue staring Krobus down, saying nothing.
"In the mines?" Krobus continued. Krobus then let out a sort of sigh and shrank away a little bit, like a human might if they were loosening their posture. "I'm sorry if they were hostile towards you. You see, we've learned to fear humans..."
John's sword arm was now definitely faltering, and he kept glancing back at Penny, uncertainly.
"...there have been too many... unpleasant encounters," Krobus finished, lowering his eye holes. "I'm sorry. I'm different, I promise. Normally on a Friday like today I'd stay silent out of respect for Yoba, but given the situation..." he looked down at John's lowering sword. "...that seemed imprudent."
John's arm was now more pointed at the ground than at Krobus. He looked over at Penny.
"Penny..." he said, slowly in a calm voice. "I don't think Krobus here means any harm."
"They wanted to kill you, John...!" she squeaked, fear welling up inside her like a rush of hot water. "They wanted to..."
John stashed the sword in his backpack and moved towards Penny. She was more or less motionless, her eyes wide and affixed on Krobus, but he grabbed her gently and held her tightly against his chest.
"You stopped them, Penny," he said, quietly, his chin resting on top of her head. She crumpled into his arms as her strength let go. "He's not them. It's not ever happening again, I promise."
But Penny couldn't hear him any more. Her eyes were squeezed tightly shut.
All she could see was the endless dark of the mines, the hordes of ravenous shadowy monsters, the sword swinging helplessly in front of her. All she could hear was Marlon's yelling, the clashing of steel, the screeching Noctumbra. All she could feel was the unending cold, the unwavering fear, the unbearable hopelessness.
Penny shifted all of her weight on to John, shivering and murmuring. With one last great shudder of horror, she slipped from consciousness, passing out in his arms.
Year 2, Spring 5th
So it was Krobus that took Cluck! But he seems to be an ally - can he shed any light on the Noctumbra and help the dream team learn more about them? Will Penny get on board with the idea of a friendly Noctumbra?
I'm sorry for how long this one has taken. I've had a family emergency due to Covid and it's taken us a long time to bring things back to normal, but we're still going with Valley Girl, right to the end!
Please let me know what you think, I love hearing from you guys. And please stay safe, everybody ❤️