Something crept into Elias's mind. It had been working its way through the layers of consciousness he had built up to protect his anger towards the young prisoner. The anger that had been able to renew his drive to take action against those who had done wrong. Now, ever since he had heard the cry rolling over the golden hills, he found this drive to be under attack. It would not allow him to stew in his hatred. No. It forced him to, for the first time, consider a horrible thing. What if Giles had told the truth?
His claim, the possibility of a wolf or bear attack, would have convinced him, had he sent another man to investigate the scene. Elias had seen such attacks in the past, and became used to expecting such tragedies. He had also seen Brister's corpse. Not a single death from his past compared the remains strewn about the tilled soil.
Stepping into the farmhouse, he shook the rain from his thinning scalp and looked around. Save for a few white beams radiating through the cracks in a window, the inside of the house had been cast in shadow.
"Sarah? Kaitlin?" In spite of the calm control over his tone, his eyes darted about the darkness, and his hand gripped the club at his belt until his knuckles went white. Rain stuttered along the outside of the house and thunder rolled across the sky every few minutes, drowning out any senses he might have to perceive life within the home. Stumbling through the dark space, he felt his hands clutch the shutters. He flung them open, nearly ripping them off their mounts in his desperation for sight.
Pale light spilled in, coating the furniture with gloom. Rain misted onto the bed directly below the window. Elias turned and looked about.
Plates upon the table. Coats from their hooks. Even the toys had been put back where they belonged. Not a thing out of place.
Elias moved about the home. A small place, with the bedroom, living area, and kitchen all being connected in an open stretch before reaching the oak door. With little space to hide, it only took him a few minutes to be resolute that he indeed had been alone.
After calling out their names once more, this time shouting, he went and sat on the edge of the bed.
Sinking into its worn bedding, he gazed into the open emptiness, a haze of droplets soaked his arched back. He tapped his fingers against the wooden frame, eyes blinking through potential answers. The fields, perhaps somewhere down the road. Or maybe they had gotten into the wagon and escaped.
"No." The words mumbled through his whiskered lips. "If they had done that, they would have come right to the village. Don't be a fool." The boy had been right. Something really is out there. "No." The word hissed from deep within Elias's throat. Wolves or even bandits could have easily raided the farm. They might be hiding somewhere in the fields. Unlikely, they would have not heard your call, old man.
He stood, shoulder square.
"Then I'll check the whole damn countryside if I have to." He took a few steps towards the door, but as he did something caught his eye. Upon the table, placed next to the smallest chair, a little leather bound book sat open, its pages inked with scribbles and words. Elias stared at it for a moment.
Several months back when Brister's family had come into town, Elias had gotten the chance to meet Kaitlin. Not for the first time. He had seen the girl once or twice while she was just a babe. However, now she had grown and gained enough awareness to be properly introduced to the town's guard.
Her first conversation with him went about as expected. A child shyly rambling about her parents and anything they had found interesting in life, which offered little to an adult. However, she had mentioned how her mama began teaching her to write a month prior to their visit. Elias, holding a tender heart for children, that he would die before owning up to, went into one of the shops and bought the little girl a journal, making her promise to practice what her mama taught her, every single day. Her enthusiastic nodding brought a hearty grin to his leathery face that day.
It had been nearly a year ago. Now here it sat, only a few pages left blank.
Evidence. Their whole mission's purpose. A journal, while most of its pages totally unrelated to their cause, might be just what they needed. He stomped over and reached for the book, and found his head trembling. The idea of the author being somewhere lying dead. A vision of himself hiding behind the village walls while it had happened. Remembering himself only leaving those walls for the hopes of finding justice in his vengeance. Shame crept over his spirit.
He clenched his eyes tight, and shook his head, driving off the sensation. His fingers wrapped around the tiny pages and snatched it up. However, as he did so, the last quarter of the bindings came loose, and splattered their pages upon the ground. With a sigh he squatted down and began to pick them up.
I saw it wandering the hills today. Papa still won't believe me.
The smeared ink struck his mind's eye like a thunderbolt.
–
The heavy rain's assault upon the earth had driven away nearly all sense of smell for Giles. But as he crept closer to the barn doors, the stench grew ever clearer. He had become familiar with it over the past month. He had smelt it on the Magi, upon the farmer at the well, upon Brister's mutilated corpse. Death wafted out of the darkness towards him.
His head leaned within, and the buzzing of flies surrounded his ears. Only a moment passed before his eyes adjusted. The remains of the woman's arms clutched around something small and dark, drawing it closer in her final moments.
Giles felt his stomach churning beyond control.
–
Hello. My name is Kaitlin. I am five years old. I live on a farm with my mama and my papa.
Elias flipped on. Many of the remaining pages held nothing beyond the girl's daily living information. Things her parents had taught her about animals, or how she had gotten in trouble for wandering too far along the hills. Eventually Elias had begun sifting through the fallen pages, using the dates scribbled at the top to find the order they were crafted in.
September 18th. Elias turned to look at the open door. If he remembered correctly, that would have been the date Giles had come to the bridge. He read on.
I saw something very strange today. I told papa and mama about it, but they do not seem to believe me.
I was walking along the road. I know I should not have been so far from the farm all alone. But I have recently made a new friend. I call him Lilly. He is a dirty old mutt. Papa says I am not to go near him and that he might have sickness. But he is always so nice to me, even after papa threw those rocks at him.
Lilly has been waiting for me each day on the hill down the road. Every morning after my chores I bring him the scraps I am supposed to put into the mulch pile. Mama and papa do not know.
Today I went up the large hill and saw Lilly there wagging his tail. I petted him and told him he looked beautiful today, and he licked my hand and jumped around me. He always does this when he smells the food I bring him.
Well, when I gave him the food, he did what he always does and ran down to the old magnolia tree near the bridge. Then I saw him stop and his ears went up and he started backing away from the tree.
Its branches are so large and its leaves so wide that I could not see what he was looking at. But it must have spooked him something dreadful because he went running off over the hill after only a few seconds. I tell you, I have never seen a dog run so fast. He even dropped the scraps.
Before I could call after him someone else spoke. It sounded like a man. He must have been on the bridge, but the tree would not let me see him. I listened for a bit. And I tell you, I heard another voice. I mean it when I say, it sounded almost just like me. Perhaps a little raspier, but still my voice. What do you think of that?
Elias shuffled through the scattered pages, nearly ripping them apart in the process. The last one. He read it over and over to himself.
I saw it wandering the hills today. Papa still won't believe me.
He dropped the page and stood up. The idea had drilled through all doubt he could muster. Anger gone, his fear alone remained.
He stood, heart pounding in his chest and he felt his vision growing narrow. The home felt small, too small. A belief that he had to get fresh air seized him, and he stumbled, nearly running, out of the doorway. Rain pounded the muddy ground about him. Its freezing sting slapped across his old face waking him from his stupor.
Giles no longer waited next to the door, sending Elias into a near panic as he looked about. However, instead of the prisoner having vanished from his life, Elias found him doubled over next to the barn's entrance, finishing spilling the contents of his stomach onto the soppy ground.
"What are you doing?" Elias barked, marching over to the man. He grasped him by the back of the collar and hauled him upright. "Didn't I tell you to wait over there?" He shook the younger man, who could only point back over himself to the barn's entrance.
A stench engulfed Elias's whole face, and he released the prisoner, who slumped to the ground. The guard stepped away from him and over to the door. Nothing could be seen within. However, Elias did not need to look within to see what the evidence about the door revealed.
Claw markings made their way along each side of the frame. They stood a foot higher than himself and each clean scrap appeared no less than an inch wide. Along the ground, out from the darkness, a river of red had crusted into the dirt, becoming rejuvenated where the rain hit it and turned once more to liquid.
Elias, for all of his effort, could not hold back the shaking of his hands once more.
Not this, he thought, not here.
Turning around to Giles, who had managed to stand back up, he rushed over to him, grabbing him by the lapels. Their faces nearly touching.
"Tell me you were lying. For the love of all that remains, tell me it was just a lie!" Thunder boomed overhead and drowned out his still screaming voice.
"I'm sorry. It's all true, Elias."
All of Elias's assumptions about the prisoner began falling away. His hate, for the first time since he had heard the young man's story, fizzled out. His mind became clear again and he looked upon Giles honestly for the first time.
Before him, he saw a young man. Shivering in the autumn rain. Alone and afraid. Accused of things he had not done, and brought out to the danger he had so narrowly escaped before. Elias noticed that, mixed with the rain, tears had been streaming down his face.
"I wish it wasn't." The words shook from frozen lips as he looked deeply into Elias's eyes. "I don't know what's happening Elias. Please, I just want to go back now?"
Elias opened his mouth to speak. Then a cry rang out.
The two spun to face the road they had been coming from. Down the road it came. Running on all fours, at a speed Elias had never anything move before.
"By the gods. What is that?"
Faster, faster, nearing the farm. Rage filled its powerful eyes.
Giles began shaking. He placed both hands over his face.
"No! No, not again!
Another boom of thunder broke Elias from his trance, and he looked to Giles. He seemed nothing more than a child to him at this moment. And so, he acted as a guard should.
With a whistle, he called his horse over to him. It had been wandering behind the house and came running forth to stop next to him. Elias grabbed Giles by the shoulder and pulled him next to the animal.
"If your story is true, then you should know how to ride a horse well enough."
Giles, as though coming awake from a deep dream, looked between the old man and the horse.
"What are you doing?"
"Get on the horse. I'll get on behind you in the saddle. Hurry!"
Giles nodded, and placed a boot into the stirrup lifting himself onto the powerful steed. He then looked down at Elias and offered him a hand up.
"Come on, let's go, old man."
Rain splattered Elias's eyes as he looked up at the young man. He took a step back.
"She can't carry both. Sorry, boy. Guess I was wrong. The road is going to go a bit further for you after all."
"What?"
But Elias merely slapped the horse and it took off full speed down the road. Even over the sound of the thunder and rain, he could hear Giles shouting back after him, but he did not listen. Instead he turned to the enemy.
It had entered the farm, nose close to the ground, sniffing at the mud. For a moment it froze, searching for a scent. Then, raising its head to the sky, it widened its great jaws and bellowed out a cry of rage before facing down the road at the fleeing horse and rider. Once more it rushed forth.
Elias pulled the club from his belt. He knew a finished fight when he saw it, and instead chose to simply do what he could. Lifting the club high, he hurled it forth. It rotated several times in the air before landing with a crack onto the creature's wide forehead.
It stopped for a moment, confused as to what had happened, rather than due to any damage it had sustained. It looked about, and for the first time Elias noticed the milky white at the center of its eyes.
Its nose went to the ground again, only for a moment before lifting again and facing Elias directly. With a snarl, it rushed him. Giant clawed hands wide to strike, it leaped through the air. Elias fell to the ground as it passed over him, landing just behind the old man.
Elias began to crawl, but felt the hand land upon his back. The claws found his skin, first stabbing deep into his flesh, then raking down. The scream he let loose could not be drowned out by the rolling thunder claps.
–
The agony of the cry reached Giles' ears. The horse galloped over the soft ground, kicking up chunks of mud behind it. But when the agony of the cry reached Giles' ears, his hands instinctively jerked the reins back. The horse came to a skidding halt, and reared up on its hind legs. During the motion it had turned completely around to face the farm.
A thick wall of rain blurred his vision of the way ahead.
"Damn you, you old man."
–
His hands reached out desperately for anything to take hold of. Then they found it. The handle of a rusty sickle met his fingers. Gripping it with all of his might, he spun around, wrenching the claws from him, and struck blindly with the tool.
He felt it meet the creature's hind knee.
It let out a cry, so similar to his own that he was unsure if he had not been the one to make it.
The creature looked down at him once more and reached its claws out, this time for his neck. Elias felt his world going black with panic and blood loss.
Then a sound of hooves splashing through mud sounded off. The horse, Giles mounted upon it, split through the rain and crashed into the beast, sending it flying into the crops.
It quickly stood up again, this time on its hind legs, totally unfazed.
It snarled at the rider.
"Elias, go! It just wants me." He looked over to the thing standing among the crops. "Been looking for me for a while haven't you? Well, come on! Let's see how fast you can really move."
He spurred the horse and took off once more down the road. Lightning and thunder framing rider and beast as they passed away into the storm and out of Elias's sight.
"Giles." He called out, his voice weak as he crawled along the ground. Blood oozed from his back. He looked about for some way to stand again, but nothing presented itself.
There he lay, feeling death closing in upon him. His hand reached out, but found itself grasping at something leathery. Lifting his head from the mud, Elias saw Kaitlin's journal, its pages becoming soaked through.
His mind filled with a new sensation. The desire to finish his mission. To return to Thomas and warn him of what had happened here.
He pulled the book to himself and tucked it into his belt before looking around once more for some way to raise his wounded body up. Then he saw her. Unbothered, munching away at the crispy wide leaves near a stone wall, Mabel stood fat and content.
Elias lifted himself onto his elbows.
"Mabel. Mabel, come here girl." Her ears lifted. No longer did she hear the unfamiliar voice of Giles, but the old friend of her master. She took one more bite before trotting happily over to the old man. "Good- Good girl." Elias panted. He pulled himself up to her saddle back screaming as its wounds stretched wide, and laid himself across her back. "Mabel, take me home, girl."
Mabel lowered and then raised her head in understanding. She walked along the muddy road back to town. Elias smiled at her.
"Thank you Mabel."