Ten: Mist in the Desert

I woke with the sun long since set. I yawned and stretched, only to be met with a peck on my cheek from Puko.

"Ouch!" I snapped. "Don't do that. Oh, what do you have there?"

I reached my palm out to see what Puko was carrying in his beak. He looked at me for a moment with his good eye, then dropped something wet in my hand.

"Ugh!" I dropped the half eaten lizard on the ground next to me, rolling off of my mat.

"Why would you bring me that?" I grumbled and walked down to the water to clean the lizard innards off my hand.

"Caw!" Puko dived back down and began eating the other half of his breakfast.

I sighed and dropped down to the water's edge, scrubbing my hand clean, then washing my face. The sky overhead was still thick with dust. I sensed something else in the air too, something like mist or fog but not much of it. I was surprised the little oasis water was enough to bring on any kind of fog since the desert was usually so dry. All it did was mix with the dust in the air and leave a gritty feeling on my skin.

"Good evening, little bird," Kai grinned nearby where he was putting together some kind of stew. "Nice of you to join us."

I shook the excess water off my hands and stood straight, coming over to see what he was cooking. "You could have woken me up. And don't call me that, Eb- someone else calls me that."

Kai shrugged and began dicing up a handful of jerked meat to put in the boiling pot nearby. "Suit yourself. You looked like you needed the sleep though. That Schula runs you pretty ragged."

I gave him a half grin and sat down beside him while he worked. "She doesn't do anything I haven't asked her to do."

"To what end?" Kai asked. "You don't act like a soldier, but you train like one. You're looking for the witches, and brute strength won't help you there if your deal goes sour. So why?"

I pulled my knees up to my chin, hugging my legs close while I looked out at the water. "I'll end up back in the Wyldes someday. Things aren't peaceful there like they are in Sulls. I train because I'm tired of being the weak one. I want to be strong enough to protect the ones I care about. I want to be strong enough to stand by someone's side. He... he deserves someone strong."

I reached up and brushed my fingers on the light chain at my neck, feeling the weight of the pendant rest on my skin below the tunic.

"Hm," Kai said as he stirred the food. "Well good luck then. I hope you don't need to use this strength you're after."

"Don't you need to be strong to live in the desert?" I asked.

"No, you need to be smart and fast," Kai answered with a grin. "There are warriors in the desert. The Khusru for instance, and the spear throwers of the south east. But the tribes value the wise and the cunning, because that is how you live with monsters as neighbors."

I shivered, thinking of the feeling that had followed me from Sulls. "You keep saying things like that, but you never say what is out here. What monsters exactly are we dealing with?"

"If we're lucky, none of them." Kai sighed and stopped stirring the food. "It's bad luck to speak the names of things you don't want coming after you. But trust me, if something comes after us I will tell you immediately."

I nodded and looked around us again. Had the fog gotten thicker?

"Hey, Kai," I started. "Where are Schula and Nassir?"

"They went for a small walk," Kai said, going back to stirring. "Something about feeling magic."

My back shot up straight and my eyes popped out. "Did they say they felt something?"

"Yeah, that might have been it," Kai said. "Nassir seemed curious, so Schula went with him."

I scrambled to my feet, spinning my head around the oasis and seeing that Puko was fluffed up, a round and terrified raven.

Stupid. It was stupid not to say something to them before now. I knew I was feeling something, but with the nightmares after Icehold and the paranoia from my time trapped in the darkness, I was so sure I was imagining things.

"Kai, something is out there," I said as I ran up the hill and scanned the ground for footprints.

"What is it?" He followed me up the hill and pulled a short spear and a curved piece of wood from beneath his white cloak.

"I don't know," I said. "I've just had this feeling on and off since we were a few hours into the sands, and I feel it again now. Strongly."

"They went that way." Kai pointed and I spotted the two sets of footprints in the sand.

I took off. I've never run so fast in my life. Maybe it was Schula's training, or the fact that I was half elf, or maybe it was just my desperation.

As I ran, I could feel the thickening of the fog around me. Something was wrong, the desert was way too dry for a fog like this to be natural. The air was thick and still murky with settling dust from yesterday's storm. I couldn't see as far ahead as I would like, but I still had footprints to follow and I threw myself into following them.

"Wren!" I heard Kai somewhere behind him, but he was pretty far back and I was losing him fast.

I closed my eyes and flung my magic out wildly, reaching for Schula and Nassir.

But that isn't who I found.

The sensation of music without actually hearing it. Somehow that is what my magic reached out and brushed against. A soft feeling. Something sad but light.

I slowly opened my eyes, and slowed to a walk. Some of the fog... no, mist... parted for me.

Dancing in the sand, with the moon high above and a reddish glow from the settling dust, I saw her.

A beautiful figure in a long silver dress with a life of it's own. She wore no shoes and her black hair was let down, falling to her knees. Her eyes were a solid blue, shining under the stars as the watched me with the hint of a smile.

When she parted her red lips her mouth was full of thin, sharp teeth. My mind was a fog. Those teeth reminded me of something, but I couldn't put my finger on what that might be or why it would even bother me.

"Join me, lost one," her soft voice whispered, reaching out to me. "Dance with me and let your worries fly away."

"Yes," I found myself agreeing. It was a good idea. No, it was a fantastic idea. Of course, I should dance with her.

A smile spread across my lips as I walked even closer to her. My feet were eater to dance. I rushed to untie my boots, slipping them off my feet and tossing them in the sand. I thew my stockings aside and wiggled my toes in the sand with a sigh.

"Dance, lost one." The woman smiled and I was happy to smile back.

"Yes, dance." I began to twirls slowly, dancing in the moon like I would do with Mila on the solstices. I moved so smoothly, my limbs relaxed and limber.

It pleased the woman that I would dance with her. And it pleased me to please her. I was happy to fling my arms out around me as I spun and swayed to a silent feeling of music.

To my delight, I was rewarded with more of the mist swirling away, opening up the desert even more for dancing. I laughed as shadows appeared in the mist, just out of sight.

A white figure swayed in place, staring at the mist. She was so beautiful, something in me wanted to reach out to her. Her hair, her skin, all of it was white as snow except her eyes. Her blue eyes were so sad as she stared at the shadows in the mist.

A small frown crossed my face as I danced a little closer to the sad white figure. That's when I saw the brown one. He was handsome, and he looked weary as he too swayed in place, watching the mist. Tears traveled down his cheek, falling from his chin. I wanted to reach out to him too, he seemed so tired. So weary. My frown deepened.

"Wha's wrong my Wrenling?"

My heart soared as I spun around, all my sadness for the other two fading away, forgotten. "Bryn!"

Bryn was here! Just inside the mist. He was a head taller than me and twice as wide. His big shaggy beard lay sprawled across his chest like a pile of brown leaves. His eyes crinkled and his smile was wide as he beamed down at me.

"Bryn! Where were you?" I reached out to him, but as I neared the mist I found I couldn't touch him. "I was looking for you. Why was that? I don't remember you going anywhere."

Bryn just smiled down at me, not moving but smiling at me.

"Come on, Bryn," I said. "I want to go home."

But Bryn just stood there, smiling. I pouted in confusion, just like I did when I was a child, when the dancing woman drew near.

"He can't answer you, lost one," she said, her voice so sweet. "But I can change that. I can let you talk to him."

"You can?" I smiled, hopeful.

"Yes, I can." She swept her cool fingers across my chin, turning my head to face her. "But it will cost a small price to do so."

I looked back at Bryn again. Still smiling, always smiling. "Tell me, what is this price?"

The dancing woman smiled, so sweet but with something under the surface that I should have been weary of. Or should I? It was getting very hard to tell.

"The price is not much, lost one," she answered. "Allow me a kiss, and give to me half of your remaining days. That, is the price."

"Half of my days?" I said, worry creeping into my voice.

"Yes, a small price. Only half of your days, and you have so very many days left," she said.

"Yes, a small price," I agreed. I looked back up at Bryn. He was still smiling, but there was something wrong. A tear. There was a tear in the corner of his eye. He was smiling, but he was sad.

I turned my head to see the other figures. The white one, she was looking sadly at a water nymph. The nymph was so young, and she had the excitement of youth still in her. Despite the mist clouding her from me, I could see a kindness in her face.

My eyes drifted to the brown figure. He stood before a woman with tears in her eyes. She had wild brown hair and a smear of freckles across her nose. Something about her was familiar. I stared at her ears. For some reason I wanted to know the shape of them. They were round like a human's ears. She was beautiful, and though she watched the brown figure with a smile and sad eyes, she turned her head a moment to meet my stare. I gasped as a tear streaked down her face.

I stumbled a step back, shaken.

"What is wrong, lost one?" The woman glided back into my vision. "It is only a small price, half of your days. You want to speak to Bryn again, do you not?"

I found it hard to open my mouth. I closed my eyes tight, straining to put together my thoughts.

"Half of... Half of my..." I was panting now, straining hard trying to think when-

Smack.

My eyes popped open and looked down at the stone that had just hit me in the leg.

"Wren!"

Smack.

Another small stone, this time hitting my hip.

I looked up at... someone. The dancing woman hissed at him. At... Kai!

"Kai!" I yelled.

"Wren!" He answered back. "Get away from that thing!"

I blinked and my eyes locked onto the wraith before me. And that is exactly what she was, a wraith. She may have been more dressed up than the ugly thing that I met months ago in the mountains with Thain, but she was still a wraith.

I was furious. Flames ignited around my hands and crawled all the way up my arms. I screamed as I flung it at the Wraith. She hissed, and the mist in the air around me sizzled.

"Kai, get Nassir!" I yelled and dove for Schula. I had only a moment while the wraith recovered to pull her out of the trance.

"Schula," I shook her shoulders, trying to get her to look at me. "Schula, wake up!"

She slowly turned her head, her eyes glazed as they drifted to meet mine.

"You..." she said, a frown creasing her face. "You are..."

"Wren! It's me, Wren!" I said desperately.

But the wraith had recovered, and her claws struck me in the back.

I grunted as I hit the sand hard. The wraith was on my back, but I managed to turn over and shove my burning hands into her face. My eyes widened at my own flames. For the second time now, they were purple.

The wraith hissed and rose to strike me again, and was toppled off of me in a blast of ice.

"Wren!" Schula called. I could have cried in relief, she was fully recovered.

"Wren, Schula," Nassir called from next to Kai. "Remove it's heart!"

"I looked at the wraith, her face contorted in pain and fury as she lay on the desert floor. Black veins were at the surface of her pale skin and something too thick to be blood dropped from her mouth.

Fire. I burned her with purple fire and she screamed. Kai ran over with the strange short spear he had pulled from his cloak earlier and speared it into her chest.

I stopped the burning and turned my back as Kai cracked open the rib cage and sliced out the heart. Schula hugged me tightly and wiped away my tears with her tunic.

I looked over at where Bryn once stood, but he was gone.

"Wren," Kai placed a hand on my shoulder. "Let's go back and clean up. We should talk."

I took in a shaky breath, and nodded. Schula and Nassir nodded too.

And Kai, stars bless him, he led us back to camp in somber silence.