~o~
Maravillarse
Jesse studied the trap with a sigh. It was meant to capture smaller animals, but it remained empty, the food sitting inside of it, untouched.
Nothing.
Not a single thing all day.
"Goddamn it..." he griped, rising to his feet.
He thought about fishing by the lake down the hill, so he wandered back to his cabin and gathered a pole leaning against the wall near the fireplace. There was a case where he kept the tackles, lures and bait. He gathered it and stepped outside, looking around before taking in a deep breath of that mountain air. Well, he wasn't about to be discouraged by a little hiccup.
He wandered down the hill toward the lake. Taking a seat at the edge of the water, he began to set up the fishing pole, but paused and looked over his shoulder with a frown.
That feeling came back again.
Jesse scanned the forest, spotting a golden eagle perched nearby, preening its feathers, but nothing out of the ordinary; just trees and wild animals around him. Well, anyone would be stupid trying to sneak up on him, so he kept his hand on his gun holster just in case.
"Guten Morgen!"
Jesse abruptly whirled with his weapon pointed and the man who had greeted him - dressed in a delivery uniform - let out a yelp and took cover behind a tree. Jesse sighed, lowered his gun and waited until the terrified man was finished whimpering in streams of German before he spoke.
"Goddamn it, do you have a death wish?" he snapped. "I could have blown your head off."
"Es tut mir Leid!" the man told him, carefully peering out from behind the tree, "It's just... I have a package for you. A delivery from one..." He looked down at a holographic display that projected itself from his wrist watch. "Ana Amari. I just need a signature from you."
Jesse nodded and stood up. "Well, alright then."
Once he signed the electronic signature on the holographic image, he was offered a box and sat down once more near the lake to open it. It was a metal case with a few clasps that only needed to be pressed before opening.
Inside, Jesse found a few things; some of his favorite snacks, a couple of tools that would be useful around the cabin and a letter. He rolled his eyes good-naturedly and opened it, studying Ana's intricate handwriting.
Jesse,
I have a few things here that might be helpful to you, including some of your favorite snacks you liked to eat around the base. A lot of us pitched in to buy these. Angela insisted that I also remind you to take good care of yourself while you're away. She tells me she will fly all the way there if she must. Maybe we will stop by for Christmas and see how you are fairing.
Stay safe, Jesse.
Ella Al-leqaa
Ana Amari
Jesse smiled a little, folding the letter and setting it back into the box. They had their hearts in the right place and he believed that the doc would absolutely come flying over to patch him up if she believed he was in trouble. But Jesse had to do things on his own. That's just how it was for him and how he'd always done it.
Still, seeing some of his favorite jerky snacks wasn't something he was going to complain about. So he opened one of the bags, took a bite of one and sat there to continue fishing.
He began to sing a song to himself as he did.
O
The pub wasn't too bad.
Jesse had ordered a beer and leaned against the counter, listening to the chatter around him and watching a few of the town locals wandering inside. The beer didn't taste quite as bad either and he didn't mind the atmosphere and general surroundings. It wasn't like Calaveras where he frequently visited, but it was decent enough for him.
"You catch anything yet?"
Jesse glanced over at a man sitting across the counter from him. He was smiling and looking at him, but the look didn't seem mocking in any way. He just seemed to be genuinely curious and Jesse didn't mind the small talk.
"Nah, not yet." he replied, with a small shrug.
"The deer don't migrate up that way," the man explained, "A few marmots might still be running around, but you'd be lucky to catch anything with the land being cursed and all."
"Cursed." Jesse quipped, rolling his eyes and taking a drink from his glass. "So now we got ghosts and curses. Got it."
"It's all true! It's why the land was untouched until you came along, my American friend."
"Let me guess," Jesse began, skeptically, "The big blue ghost keeps everyone away from the land I bought, right?"
A sage nod from the bartender now. He didn't acknowledge the jibe from the other man. "That's right. Everyone knows the thing that lurks in those woods is no good. If I were you, I'd leave before it kills you. Or worse, eats you alive. That's what it does, you know."
Jesse leaned his cheek into his hand and shook his head. "Yeah, sure. I'll take my chances. Ain't a man alive I couldn't handle. I'm sure not tucking tail and running because of superstition."
He took a drink, gave a half-salute before departing the pub. Once outside, he walked down the street, noticed a sign in the distance for the Old Village that was closed off to the public. Frowning thoughtfully, he made his way toward it before he was stopped by an older woman. She yelled in German and Jesse sighed, shaking his head when she took his arm.
"Lady, I don't understand much German," he said.
She indicated the Old Village, then the sign before looking at him and sharply shaking her head.
Jesse's features darkened now. "Something bad happened there?"
Two officers approached them now and one cleared his throat, gaining Jesse's attention. "She says the Old Village is cursed," one of them explained, in a thick accent, "But it's just closed to the public for now. After the fire there last night, no one's allowed inside."
"Fire?" Jesse questioned.
"The Rime." the other officer joked. "That's what the townspeople like to believe did it."
"The Rime." Jesse pondered the name. "That's your ghost, right?"
The two officers nodded. "Correct." the first one explained, "The Rime is the spirit of the mountains who they believe causes mischief and torment in its wake. But it's an old, ridiculous tale to scare the tourists and the children. No one's seen it but Leonhard and no one believes him."
The second officer scoffed at the mention of the spirit. "There's no Rime spirit. Leonhard rolled down that hill and shit himself scared."
Another officer approached them now, frowning at the two. "The Rime is real."
"No, it's not."
"Yes it is. I've seen it."
The first officer laughed skeptically. "You've seen it?"
"Yes." the third officer argued.
"You've seen the Rime?"
"Yes."
"You haven't seen it."
The second officer made a face and glanced briefly at Jesse, who looked bored with this argument. "You've seen a blue spirit of frost and mischief who stalked you in the dead of night and laughed at your misfortune?"
"I know what I saw!"
Jesse had grown bored with the conversation, so he made his way passed the gates of the Old Village and made his way inside to see what had happened. He couldn't help himself; the fire had come shortly after he'd arrived and if something was going on, he had to know what it was.
The officers were still arguing behind him, so he was able to pass into the Old Village without being stopped. The homes here were much lower in quality compared to the rest of the town; houses frozen in time as a living museum of the past.
Jesse looked around with a thoughtful sound, stopping at one home in particular. It had its windows blasted out by what looked like a gunshot. He frowned and approached it, running his fingers across the seared wood. The marks left were iron particles, which was the absolute strangest thing. He'd never seen that sort of thing used before, not even with his own weapon.
"Like I said, there's no such thing that can match - Hey!"
Jesse looked over his shoulder when the officers rushed over to him, brandishing their weapons now. He raised two hands and chuckled slightly, glancing down at the guns.
"Hey, I'm sorry. It's just...you know your story didn't quite add up to me," he explained, "Figured I'd check it out myself and see what I could learn."
The officers studied him suspiciously.
"What's your business here, Cowboy?" the first officer asked.
"And no lies!" the second one added.
Jesse raised an eyebrow with a smile. "None? Alright, you got me." He shrugged his shoulders. "I just thought I would move here in the middle of nowhere and find myself a nice, cozy life in the mountains. But now, ya'll got me questioning just what is really going on here, so I took it upon myself to sniff around a little."
"I said, no lies!" the second officer snapped.
The third officer frowned at him now. "I think he's telling the truth."
"If he were telling truth he wouldn't have told us."
Jesse exhaled, rolling his eyes now. They argued in snippets of German before the first officer regarded Jesse. "I will not see you here again," he warned, "If I catch you trespassing, I'll have you arrested, verstehen?"
"Yeah. I hear ya'."
O
They were hiding something in that village.
Jesse thought about it as he studied the two marmots he'd caught in his trap that afternoon. They'd make a decent lunch, but he wasn't too sure about it. Something just felt off today and he couldn't take his mind away from what he'd seen at the Old Village. There hadn't been a fire. Someone had fired off guns in that village for some reason and for another, the officers lied about it.
The subject of the Rime was an interesting one, too. Maybe he would look into it as he made his way to the cabin and prepared his lunch.
It took almost the entire afternoon to clean and cook the marmots; he'd worked up an appetite and there hadn't been much meat to really fill him, but it was enough until he caught bigger game.
Jesse took the food and sat down in his chair, looking at a small computer screen he'd left open and decided to look around for the legend of the "Rime". Something about how the townspeople had been handling it made him slowly question just what he could be dealing with.
Spirits weren't real, but maybe it wasn't a spirit.
Jesse searched his computer and found very little on the legends of the town, but the Rime was briefly mentioned in the folklore database. There wasn't much for him to go on, but it was a good enough start. Maybe if he understood the legend a little, he could figure out what was going on.
A Rime entity is a personification of frost, ice, snow, sleet, winter, and freezing cold. This particular being is believed to be held responsible for frosty weather, nipping the fingers and toes in such weather, coloring the foliage in autumn, and leaving fern-like patterns on cold windows in winter.
It is traditionally said to leave the frosty, fern-like patterns on windows on cold winter mornings (window frost or fern frost) and nipping the extremities in cold weather.
Starting in late 19th century literature, more developed characterizations of the Rime depicted is of a sprite-like character, sometimes appearing as a sinister mischief-maker or as a hero.
Jesse made a thoughtful noise. Well, that didn't quite tell him much, so he continued his search and came up with a few things that were interesting.
Approach a Rime entity with caution. They abandoned their humanity long ago.
Most supernatural entities of this nature are wounded by iron or silver, the Rime is no different in this regard. Iron will cripple the being in smaller doses. But larger amounts will kill it.
Iron. Jesse thought of the iron dust particles he'd seen at the Old Village that shattered the window. Did they really believe that iron was a weakness of this thing?
It's not real. It can't be real.
O
A deer watched the skies.
The deer don't migrate up that way.
Well, they did today.
Jesse was kneeling in the grass, watching the animal with bated breath. His weapon was pointed right at it's heart. One shot was all he needed to bring the animal down. But his mind was filled with distractions; the Old Village, the rumors of the Rime spirit everyone in town was afraid of.
Focus. He had to focus.
"Alright, come on..." he whispered, watching the deer make its way closer to him. "Just a little bit - "
Something blurred passed his face and he let out a startled grunt, discharging his weapon. The sound cut loudly through the air and the deer was gone, galloping away. Jesse let out an angry, frustrated sound and gave chase. He followed the fleeing animal through bushes, passed trees until losing sight of it over the nearest hill.
Jesse groaned, throwing his hands in the air before he glanced down, noticing a puddle of blood at his feet. He must have hit the deer and it was running wounded. If that were the case, it would eventually slow enough for him to capture and finish it.
He slowly tracked the trail of blood he found, along with broken branches and torn bushes.
"Where'd you go?" Jesse pondered to himself. "Come on, now. Don't much like losing."
He smelled the blood in the air - much heavier now, which meant it was closer. Maybe it had tired out and laid down somewhere.
"Come on now, boy! Pull the damn trigger!"
"But..."
"Be a man! Put it out of its misery!"
Jesse could hear his father's words echoing as he remembered his first time hunting with him. He'd been a kid and like all kids, cried when animals were hurt. He had pulled the trigger and missed the vital shot needed to end the deer's life quickly. It had laid there in the bed of grass, slowly bleeding out and suffering. His father had absolutely disapproved of his failed attempt.
His father always liked to point that out.
Well, his father was dead now. So there wasn't much point in dwelling on those memories.
Jesse made his way through the brush before he froze in his spot when the temperature abruptly dropped. He held his arm close to his chest with a shudder, looking down when he noticed the puff of his breath. The chill had come from nowhere and even though winter was well on its way, this was an unnatural cold.
Something wasn't right about it.
He glanced up at the soft, amused laughter that filled the air before his eyes widened.
A woman was standing there; her skin was blue, icy patterns peppering her cheeks, thighs and arms. There was the strangest thing about the body armor that she wore and the claws on her hands and her bare feet. He'd never seen a woman look as striking as this one, especially when she had two white wolves standing at her side, her eyes bright and her irises thin, like the eyes of a cat.
She just watched him.
Jesse hadn't moved. He wasn't sure if he even breathed.
She smiled a little, tilted her head with a thoughtful noise in her throat. The two wolves at her side bared their teeth at Jesse, but made no move to attack him.
"Hey." Jesse finally managed to say.
When he dared take one step toward her, she immediately frowned and vanished in a flicker of violet light like a skiddish doe; leaving him alone in the woods, stunned by what he'd seen. He'd never seen anything or anyone quite like her before; she was beautiful, despite everything about her. Jesse wasn't a blind man, he could see that.
Still, it left him questioning everything he'd doubted about the legends the townsfolk told him.
"What in the holy hell...?" he whispered, to himself.
The sharp, intense cold in his chest had vanished along with her.
When he returned to the cabin, he couldn't take his eyes away from the sight of the woods from his window, unsure if he'd see the woman there watching him again. It had already grown dark and he lost interest in the deer completely. It was all he could think about now - the woman he saw watching him. She didn't strike him as a ghost, but he had no idea what she was.
Had that been her? Really?
The Rime.