AN: Wow!! Thank you all very much for your kind reviews! You people have no idea of what kind of natural high your reviews gave me. To write my first fic ever and to have people actually appreciate it??? My parents thought I actually was high, going around the house grinning like an idiot and singing the coconut song. Thank you very much! So, as requested, here is the second chapter!
Disclaimer: Dun own it, wish I did, blah blah blah blah blah!!
Chapter 2: Stone and Shadow
~oOo~
When I came to, I was standing upright against something rough and hard. After a moment's inspection I discovered that the object was a tree, and that I was tied to it. I tried to move but found that I was bound very tightly and with very, very secure knots. Obviously, whoever had tied me to this tree had absolutely no intention of giving me any chance to escape whatsoever (cue the "duh"s).
As I was making this incredible discovery, I became aware of a familiar throbbing pain in my right side, which reminded me of why I was out there in the middle of the woods in the first place. I swallowed hard as I remembered the chase... Becky going off to get help... I, running for my life from a vicious serial rapist... The gunshots... Hiding in a hollow log... What if the creep had come back and found me after I had passed out? What if he was planning some sort of weird, Satanic ceremony to get me back for causing him the trouble of running after me? I forced down the panic that had risen in me more than once that day. There's no point in worrying about something that hasn't happened yet. One thing's for sure, though, I thought as I bared my teeth and narrowed my eyes, I'm not going down without a fight! That bastard had better get himself a first-aid kit.
With this resolve, I then pushed those thoughts to the back of my mind, concentrating instead on my surroundings. It was nighttime, and from the position of the moon it appeared to be about 1 or 2:00 in the morning. It was also unusually warm for a spring evening, but I shrugged that thought off. I looked around and saw that I was in an area of the woods that I had never seen before, or at least did not recognize. There was also something... well, something odd about my surroundings, though I couldn't place it at first. I looked up at the stars, and after a few moments I realized that the stars themselves were strange to me! I gazed up at those shining celestial bodies and saw that I could not name a single familiar constellation. Was that Orion? No, it couldn't be! And where was Cassiopeia?! I do not like to be in situations where I have absolutely no idea of what's going on, and this fit the bill entirely.
Before I could ponder the stars further, though, I heard a sound that made my breath catch in my throat. Hope welled up in my chest as I heard the sound of voices in the distance, perhaps from a search party! However, what small hope I had soon died most horribly as I recognized the sound of many voices singing. What rescue party would be singing? As I listened, the song became clearer to me and filled me with such a dread that I cannot describe. It sounded like the howling of many wolves, but was colder and more sinister. The only way I can describe it was that it was like a darkness so complete and so enveloping that you cannot see, cannot think, cannot breathe... This time I had foreseen the panic and was ready for it, knocking it down before it had the opportunity to grab me. This was no time for fear, for that song told me I was in grave danger. The time would soon come in which my courage would be tested.
I was right, and only minutes later I heard soft footfalls upon the earth, coming in my direction. Instinct took over as I tensed up, ready to spring. This was folly, of course, since I couldn't have sprung anywhere so long as I was tied to that infernal tree. Oh well. Anyways, as I have already mentioned, someone was heading towards me, and at an alarmingly fast rate. So much the better, for I wouldn't have to wait long to tear his slimy head off.
This was the frame of mind I was in when the visitor stepped in. I was anxiously awaiting whoever-it-was, having steeled myself, looking up into the space where I was sure his gruesome head would appear in seconds. When the footsteps stopped, however, and no gruesome head had popped out from the branches of the trees before me, you can imagine how confused I was. Then whoever-it-was spoke, and I followed the voice downward. Ha! He was a little guy, not four feet in height! I am not very tall myself, being only about 5'2", but this one didn't even come up to my armpit! He was dressed in a long, brown robe that fell to his feet, and I couldn't see his face because it was hidden in the shadows of a cowl pulled up over his head. He was, by far, the funniest little thing I had ever seen in my life, partly because I was so relieved that he didn't look threatening. All this time I had been frightened by this??
Now, earlier I said that he had spoken as he entered the clearing. However, I can't tell you what he said because, frankly, I had never heard that language in my life. Not to say that it didn't exist for that reason, but it was very, very strange sounding. It had the harshness of German but sounded more like Latin, from what little of the dead language I had heard during Mass. This, though, was no Pater Noster. His tone when he spoke to me was snide and mocking. It had that, "Well, well, well, what have we here?" tone to it. I got the feeling that his words were intended to be intimidating to me, but because I was so giddy with relief they just served to make the situation all the more amusing. After he had finished his little monologue, my undersized captor reached into a fold of his robe, and for a moment I was horrified to see a long dagger emerge. My fear quickly subsided, though, when he made no move to disembowel me, but simply went around to the other side of the tree and commenced cutting the ropes that bound me. "Thanks, little guy!" I said mockingly as he worked. "I was starting to cramp." I guess he got the gist of what I was saying from my tone, because he stepped over then and kicked me hard in the shins. Owww, did it hurt! That little jackass! Who did he think he was, anyway? I was big enough to crumple him up and use him as a basketball! Oooh, just wait till I get free... I thought with sudden hate. I'm not, by any means, a disagreeable person (most of the time). But when I get my temper up, Hell hath no fury.
The little wise-ass had returned to cutting the ropes, and soon I was sighing in relief as I felt my bonds loosen and drop to the ground. Boy, did my legs hurt! I tested them and found that I could walk all right, so I decided that it was high time to get out of there and get help. My side was still hurting like hell and my head felt a little fuzzy, but I could manage. Who knows? Maybe if I got to a phone soon enough, the weirdoes who had me would still be around when the police showed up.
"Well," I said to my former midget captive, "it's been nice knowing you, but I really should be off." With that, I began to stride off in a direction that I felt would take me to a nearby house. I was completely unprepared for the blow that came to my back, right where my wound was. I gasped in shock and fell to the ground, clutching my side. "Oh, shit..." I moaned. It was a pain such as I had never experienced before. I heard chuckling and looked up to see my captor, grinning. It was then that I noticed his teeth. They were all long and viciously sharp. Crap.
He grinned more broadly at the shock that registered on my face then, and shook a pudgy little finger in my face. He said something vile-sounding in that harsh language of his, and then spat in my face. Okay, that was it. "Why, you little shithead!!" I growled through clenched teeth, and hurled myself at him, intending to rip his heart out and shove it down his esophagus. I didn't get that glorious chance, though, because he, still grinning, waited until the exact second when I almost had my hands around his scrawny little neck. He then drew back his clenched fist and hit me straight on in the gut. I cried out and fell back down, clutching this time at my stomach in agony and coughing up blood. This little quark, which seemed small and fragile to behold, had the strength of an ox! The trees swam before my eyes as I fought for breath. The asshole who did this to me chuckled and kicked me in my injured side, and then barked out something in his language. I couldn't understand the order, and I was too much in pain to move even if I had known what he wanted. He yelled again, and when I didn't move this time he kicked me again and forced me to my feet. I felt nauseous then, and fell back to my knees, losing what had remained of my breakfast the previous morning. The hateful little midget screamed at me and forced me to my feet again, kicking me in the process. I fell again.
They say that pride is a sin, but in this case it worked for me. I had run like an Olympian to get away from someone who wished to do me harm, had survived a bullet wound to my back, and had hidden in a rotting, smelly old log to survive. I had not come this far to let myself be killed by a horrible little... whatever it was. I was a fighter and a survivor! I had the proud blood of Celts in me! I was not going to give up now. This time, before the little animal could do me any more physical harm, I forced myself to my feet and forced myself to stay up once there. It wasn't easy, I'll tell you that much. I held my head up proudly, becoming every inch of the warrior I was in my heart then. The beast next to me howled something snide and kicked me hard in the shins again, but I paid him no heed this time, not even flinching. He... or it... was little more than an animal to me then. I certainly could not run now, not with the pain lancing through my body, threatening to make me pass out again. I would let it take me where it would, but I would go down with my head held up, not shivering in a corner like a wounded kitten. "Lead on," I croaked. The angry little thing muttered something and tied up my hands tightly behind my back. Then he tied a rope around my neck and led me off like one would lead cattle. But very proud and defiant cattle.
I heard the spine chilling singing, which had been going on the whole time, grow louder as we neared the singers. It had changed in the meantime, though, and as I neared it sounded like the wind howling, or like the moaning of a dying person. That sound struck more fear in my heart than any rapist or Herculean midget ever could. Listening to it was like being blind, and deaf, and unable to feel, smell, taste, or speak. I felt myself shaking as we neared and I saw the flicker of fire, but I clenched my fists and made myself stop.
Minutes later, we entered the clearing, the animal and I, and I looked around. There was a huge, roaring bonfire going on at the center of the clearing, and there were about twenty or so figures encircling it, holding hands and standing stock-still. They were the ones making that horrible noise. From what I could see, there were six others in brown robes like the beast that was leading me, and the rest were in similar robes of black. The brown ones, like my captor, had their hoods up so that it would have been impossible for me to see anything other than their mouths, had they been facing me. The rest had their hoods down and I could see that they were all female, or at least their long hair made then look the part. There was also one lone figure, robed in white, standing in the shadows off to the side. He was staring directly at me. Go figure. Anyways, I knew just by looking at them and hearing their song that I hated them. Every one of them. There was nothing that I could do about it, though. I was at their mercy.
I couldn't take in the scenery for long, though, as a moment later the beast that was my captor shouted something at me and pulled me over to the left. I turned, and saw something that made my blood freeze. There, to the left, underneath the towering trees and bathed like blood in the flickering light of the fire, were two stone altars. They were carved with many strange glyphs and characters, but that wasn't what caused and icy hand to grab my heart and squeeze. It was the four manacles that were attached to each altar, and the figure of a young woman chained to one of them. The other was unoccupied, but I had a good idea of whom it was reserved for. The little terror yanked at the rope again, but I had found new strength borne of desperation. I hurled myself away and managed to tear the rope from the very surprised midget's strong little hands. I felt blind with terror as I ran away, too scared to think, too scared to even scream.
I think I got about ten feet away when it appeared in front of me. I mean, one minute I was just running blindly away from certain horrible death, and the next there he was, the strong little animal, hovering... hovering five inches from my face. The next thing I saw was a pair of eyes that seemed to freeze and burn at the same time, and then a fist.
I woke up, I think, about five minutes or so later. The first thing I noticed was that I was lying down, and damn did my wrists hurt. Then I noticed that my wrists were chained above my head, as were my ankles (not above my head, of course), and further inspection proved that I was lying, back-down, on the other of the stone alters. There was something wrong with my jaw, too. Hm. Probably broken. I didn't feel alert enough to care at the moment. I dunno, it's just something about being far from home, not having the faintest inkling as to what's going on, being beaten up severely, and facing imminent death, that tends to distance a person. I looked over to my right and saw what I had seen before. The bonfire, the weirdo cultists, etc, etc. Only now, my happy little captor had joined the circle and was singing with them. The song had changed again, and it sounded like the bottom of a fathomless sea. Oh well. No matter. I was going to die anyways. I wondered where Becky was, though...
Becky! The other girl on the alter!! I snapped alert at that moment and tilted my head up, looking across my feet at the figure on the other altar. I breathed a sigh of relief when I realized that that person was way too tall to be my friend. Okay, crisis averted. Back to "I-don't-care" mode.
The young woman must have felt my gaze, though, because she tilted her head up too, and looked directly into my eyes. She looked like a rabbit does when it stares into the headlights of a car, just before it's turned into road pizza. She said something in her own language, which was not harsh and angry like that of the beast, but soft and melodious, and strangely familiar. It was also thinned with pain and fear. I could not understand her words, but I got the meaning. "Help me, please! Oh, can't anybody help me?!"
"Sorry, lady," I said sadly. "There's nothing I can do to help either of us anymore." She must have understood my meaning, too, because she seemed to crumple then, laying her head back on the cold stone. I heard her sobbing softly. I sighed heavily and laid my head back down, too. Man, I thought, it just doesn't get any better than this, does it?
A curious sound caused me to look over at the bonfire again. The singing had stopped, and the fire had changed color. It was now a dark, icy black. I heard thunder and flinched involuntarily, remembering the gunshot that had wounded me earlier. I should have died then, I mused. The cultists had stepped back from the flames, which were growing taller, almost as if they were intending to lap up the stars themselves. Then there was another clap of thunder (I didn't wince this time) and something was suddenly in the center of those flames. I say "something" because I cannot think of anything to compare it to. It was a creature, a monster so horrible as to make up the stuff for a hundred thousand nightmares. It was all colors and colorless at the same time, both beautiful and hideous, repulsing, yet I found myself drawn to it. It was all opposites, yet the same, all at once. It was too much to take in, and I found myself wishing to look away but unable to do so. The creature, which was both monstrous and tiny, roared, and that sound was like waterfalls and flame, and anger and sadness and fear. I shuddered at the sound, but the cultists, its children, rejoiced in it.
What followed was a silence more terrible than the roar itself. It was a moment in which all things seemed to stop; all crickets ceased their chirping, the stars their blinking, the breeze its blowing, the world its turning, my heart its pounding. Then, one by one, the seven in brown turned around and formed a semi-circle, facing the altar. There was one in the middle that seemed to be the leader, and he, or she, held a long, silver dagger in his hand. The others, including the midget who had brought me here, were three on either side of the leader. The ones in blue stayed where they were around the fire and began to sing again, and this time the song was like a rotting world. The demon reared back its terrible head and roared again, and the singing grew louder. Then, the brown one in the middle of the semicircle chanted something loud and harsh in his strange language, and the six others responded in kind. This went on for another five minutes, and then the leader came forward, turned around, bowed to the creature, and turned around again, heading for the alter on which the other girl was bound. I knew what he was going to do, so I did not look. I could not, block out the horrible screams that she uttered, though. It was a horrible thing to hear, and the sound pierced my heart as if the dagger were in my chest and not hers. A moment later she was silent, but that sound still comes to me in my dreams sometimes.
The six others cried out in joy, and the leader held up the heart of the poor dead girl, and then threw it to the monster, which devoured it. I looked away from the creature then to see the leader advance towards me, bloody dagger in bloody hand. I no longer cared, though. Not after all I had seen. I saw the evil one's face hovering over mine, grinning with fanged teeth, dagger raised and the cold moonlight reflecting off it. It was then that some part of me came alive, and I looked away from the dagger and up at the stars. God, help me! I desperately prayed for the first time that day or evening. I squeezed my eyes shut then, knowing any minute that I would be before my Lord, and felt the impact of the knife upon my chest.
Hmm... Dying didn't hurt like I thought it would. In fact, it felt... no different. That was when I heard the hiss of pain coming from somewhere above me. I opened my eyes and saw that I was exactly where I had been when I closed my eyes. That the dagger was not in my chest but had nearly fallen on top of it. And that the leader of the brown-robes was still standing over me but was clutching his right hand and howling in agony. Then I noticed that there was an arrow sticking out of his hand. The others all gasped in shock, and the beast roared again, this time in surprise. There was a hissing sound in the air, and another arrow appeared, lodged in the chest of one of the women in blue. The brown-robes seemed to wake up at that point, and they ran, screaming into the woods. The blue-robes tried to do the same, and many of them succeeded, but a few of them escaped into the surrounding wilderness. I saw three figures seemingly fall from the sky (though now I know that they were merely perched up in the trees above me), and a moment later they were facing the demon in the fire. It roared for the fourth time this evening, and this time was more terrible than all the others combined; the mere sound of it made me want to crawl away and hide. My rescuers stood their ground, though. I didn't understand why a rescue team would be using bows and arrows, but nothing else that night had made sense, either. I let it drop.
The beast howled again, this time sounding not so sure of itself. I knew that it wanted to devour me as it had the heart of the other girl, but it could not get to me with these three blocking its way. So, it screamed and howled, and through it all my three defenders stood firm. Then, with a final, agonizing cry, it reared back its head and vanished in a flash.
I was starting to phase out at that point, but I saw with my waning vision one of the three go to inspect the bodies of the fallen, another to the alter and the poor dead girl's body on it, and another came to me. "Robin Hood?..." I whispered hoarsely. For that was what he looked like, to the full. Green tunic, brown leggings, rakishly dark hair, beautifully perfect features... all complete with bow and quiver of arrows. I saw Robin Hood take out a beautifully crafted knife from somewhere behind his back, and moments later I was freed from my chains and I felt my tattered body being scooped up into a pair of strong arms. I looked up at my handsome hero and he met my gaze with eyes that were full of concern. He said something in that beautiful, familiar language and I suddenly remembered where I had heard that musical dialect. Hand trembling violently, I reached up and pushed away a lock of hair from Robin's face to reveal a beautiful, pointed ear. "Wow..." I said before I lost consciousness for the third time that day, "An Elf in Sherwood Forest. Now all that's missing is a song..."
~oOo~
AN: SO... what did you think?? I'm really sorry that this was such a looooong chapter, but I really couldn't think of any way to make it into two, and I had promised LOTR characters by the second chapter... Anyways, I know it's probably not what you had hoped for, so far as in characters, but I got in an Elf, at least! Anyways, I promise that I'll get the third chapter in sometime soon, and it won't be nearly as angsty as this one. Yeah, and I know the ending sukd, but I've never been good at ending things anyways. Oh well. Anyways, have a great week! I'm going to shut up now! Thanx! =^_^=