Chapter 9: Shapes in the Shadows

The sun was setting as we emerged from the woods. We had been trekking nonstop since leaving the gypsy camp, and I was looking forward to just collapsing on a warm bed.

"Oh, you guys'll love Little Lamb Town! It's supposed to have the best food in the whole of the Nine Kingdoms, it has a wonderful little inn…" Lena continued along in this vein as we entered the village's main square. She looked up, still talking, and stopped dead.

"What?" I asked, turning to look where she was staring at. The sight that greeted me wasn't what I would have hoped for. All around us were old, burned-out buildings.

"I… I don't understand… What happened?" Lena said disbelievingly, falling to her knees. "I… I came here, when I was a little girl… It was fine then!" While Lena sat on the ground, staring at the scene disbelievingly, Skae bent down and picked up a handful of ashes, examining them carefully.

"Well Lena, hate to break it to yea, but this place burned doon an age ago. Longer than this wee lass's been around, I'd say." She said, gesturing to me. I wasn't listening, too wrapped up in the destruction all around me. What could have done this? I'd never seen such devastation. In some places, there weren't even the remains of the buildings, just a scarred outline on the earth where they had been.

"C'mon, Lena… We need to find someplace to sleep…" I said, pulling her to her feet. "Yeah… Someplace to sleep…" She echoed my words, still staring at the remains of a place she had clearly cherished.

An hour later, we had settled ourselves into the hay of a barn that had a relatively small amount of fire damage. Lena and Skae were jointly making dinner, discussing what could have possibly happened to the town. Their theories ranged from Dragons to forest fires to arson. I sat a ways away from them, watching the moon through the barn's broken rafters.

There was something about the moon that I loved… I had loved it for as long as I could remember. Something about its round shape, it's pearly glow… It entranced me. Slowly, I fell asleep, watching the moon…

I was awakened by a crackling, hissing sound. Slowly, I opened my eyes, peering throughout the darkness around me. I couldn't see anything out of place, but I could smell something… Smoke!

"Lena! Skae! Wake up!" I screamed, jumping to my feet. Now that I had a better view, I could see a blue flicker coming from a field of corn nearby.

Within minutes, Skae and Lena were up with me on the roof, watching the field burn. The strange part of it was that the fire didn't seem to be catching. Only portions of the field were burning in the blue flames.

"I don't understand this…" Lena murmured, biting her lip. "The only beings capable of manipulating flames like this were the Dragons of old, and the last Dragon recorded was the one whose bones were used by the Dwarves of Dragon Mountain to fashion the peak's entrance. Even the queen can't manipulate the elements to this extent." She stopped talking, squinting at the field.

"Strange… The patterns of the flames… They look like letters! You two, come with me!" She slipped back down into the barn, Skae and myself close behind, wondering what was going on. Upon reaching the bottom, she gestured for us to follow her out of the barn, and we did so, still in the dark as to what this was all about. She stopped in the village commons, next to the Wishing Well's remnants.

"Now, I need you two to lower me in on that rope. No questions, just do it!" Skae opened her mouth to say something, but apparently thought better of it. Both of us gripped the rope as she tied it around her waist and climbed over the top, and into the well's murky depths. It was a great strain, lowering her in, and my arms were tiring very quickly. Thankfully, we heard a dull splash, meaning that she had hit the bottom. The rope went slack, and I could hear the sound of Lena moving about down in the darkness.

"What'd yea think she saw in that corn field, eh?" Skae whispered to me, making sure that Lena didn't hear.

"I don't know, but she'd better have a good explanation when she comes up!" I hissed back. Suddenly, the rope tightened again.

"Melody! Skae! Pull me back up, I've got what I was looking for!" She yelled up at us. Groaning, we started pulling at the rope, making meager progress. It was much harder to pull someone out of a well than it was to lower them into it.

"Blimey, Lena… Oomph… I wish yea were lighter! If yea… Arrgh… Weighed as much as a cat… This'd be… a lot easier!" Skae panted, a vein on her forehead standing out.

"Skae, you idiot! This is a Wishing Well, do you have any idea what you're sayi-" Lena's voice abruptly stopped, and the weight on the rope was lightened considerably. We easily pulled it the rest of the way up, anxious as to what had happened to Lena. When the end of the rope finally appeared, attached to it was a wet, blonde tabby cat with a circlet of metal in her mouth.

"Lena?!" I asked incredulously, untying the cat from the rope and taking the small ring from her mouth and pocketing it. The cat let out a mournful mewing sound, and dropped to the ground. Skae stared for a moment, then broke into a fit of hysterics. The cat stared at her imperiously, looking about ready to use her for a scratching post. I scooped her up in the nick of time, holding her in my arms.

"Now Lena, it's not a good idea to be scratching Skae, she's just having a little fun. Don't worry, we'll give you another dip and you'll be back to normal in no time." Just then, I heard a scratching noise, and turned around. At first, all I could see was the barn and the cornfield, but then I saw something move.

It was in the barn that we had just been occupying. It was big, and I could make out the dark glimmer of scales. A long, thin tail and part of a webbed wing were caught in a beam of moonlight. Suddenly, I saw its head turn, and a reptilian eye gleamed out of the darkness at me. It chilled my blood to arctic degrees. I could tell Skae saw it too, for she had stopped laughing.

"Run?"

"Until your feet fall off, lass."

Holding Lena the cat to me, I grabbed Skae's hand and sprinted into the fields to the west, as I heard the shrill cry of the creature, declaring for all to hear that the hunt was on.