Vanilla pointed Avrevm Bacvlvm to the entrails of that dead conjunction of trees, but there was nothing. "I can't see anything. Do you, Rowie?" She whispered.
The puppy raised his snout and suctioned air, but he sat down and looked down. "Too many smells. I can't smell anything."
"Come here, you monster piece of..." Vanilla's uncovered eye swept every tree. But the dead, standing logs didn't respond to her insults. They stood unmovingly inanimated.
"...guess I've just grown to be paranoid about everything..." She sighed. Perhaps it was true that when you thought you saw or listened to something, your brain ended up believing it."C'mon Rowie, Let's go."
She inspected Avrevm Bacvlvm. There were still some of those gems she had not put her fingers on; the Aquamarine, the Onyx, the Diamond, and she still didn't understand how the Emerald-Amethyst dynamic worked ever since she used them on Carol.
Perhaps she coul- "Graaaaaarrwghhh!" A gargling, raspy and high-pitched scream rumbled and pinned her against the muddy ground. The horses neighed in desperation.
Vanilla's hat flew away. Avrevm Bacvlvm fell out of her reach. She felt two pointy, cutting objects penetrating her back and ripping its flesh apart. A pair of stiff hands nailed her shoulders and raised her. The stink of putrefaction and the noise of heavy winging filled the area. Rowie barked and growled from the ground.
Only raspy and nasal laughter was returned. Vanilla felt her skin breaking in two as the flying monster took her to the deep entrails of the grey forest. She tried to scream. All that came out from her mouth was a silent echo. Rowie rushed behind, running between the hollow trees as fast as his tiny paws allowed him.
•••
"Hmmm... What's that?" Cookie saw from her room's window the quarrel between the weird girl that almost discovered her, and a grey feathered being taking her away into the entrails of the dead forest.
Whoops. Now that girl was in trouble. And just when Cookie got into another clean pink dress and perfumed herself. She sighed. Looking pretty was not going to be part of her day. That girl with an eye missing should better be thankful...
"Vanilla never obeys me. I just told her to come and she is not anywhere to be seen." Carol stood at the entrance of the Manor, along with the King's, looking at the natural surroundings covered by orange glister.
"Oh, maybe she is playing with my sweet Cookie," Mrs. King said.
"I don't care. The girl should learn to do as I say."
"Oh, Cookie!" Mr. King said as the blonde girl crossed the porch. "We thought you were outside playing with Vanilla. She is Carol's daughter. Have you seen her?"
"No, but I can go and look for her if she's lost. I know that forest and these fields like the palm of my hand!"
"Oh, be a sweet dear and do, please." Mrs. King gently grabbed her right cheek. Cookie smiled and jogged through the yellow fields to the dark and ashen woodlands. "And don't be late! Food is ready!"
"Wish Vanilla was as obedient as your daughter." Carol hit her cigarette deep, exhaling the smoke away.
"Cookie had her rebellious phase, of course. But you have to learn to give your children space and freedom to be themselves." Mr. King responded.
"I give Vanilla space and freedom and look at what happens." Carol rolled her eyes and drank from her cup of wine, "Why don't we delight ourselves first? The kids can eat together later. The rest of our acquaintances should not be late."
"Well, being that the case," Mr. King said. They returned to the Manor "Tell us, Carol, how's Lugus doing? It's been a while since the last time I saw the boy..."
•••
"Hmmm... What's this?" Cookie found a strange, golden pole in the same place that the flying monster took the girl with jet black hair, right in front of the horse stable. Different gems surrounded the device's lower part. It had inscribed the words: A V R E V M B A C V L V M.
What a weird object. It was probably worth more than her parent's two farms, the Manor, their collection of paintings. No. probably not as much. Numbers made Cookie's head hurt.
•••
The feathered monster dropped Vanilla on an elevated platform hanging from a hill that divided the chirring forest in two. Dried branches and leaves cracked as her body smashed them.
Crows cawed. The cliff was an ample stone formation covered by hollow branches, dead leaves, and the suffocating stench of rotten guts.
Vanilla looked behind. Near the natural wall, a greenish, skeletal human figure was surrounded by dried black blood and green bottleflies. Those harpies had already begun to kill more people. Her migraine kicked in and her stomach almost expulsed everything out.
The hybrid monster then put her avian, clawed paws on the edge of the natural formation. Her face was one of the most horrendous Vanilla had ever seen, with tiny, yellow eyes and what looked like a broken beak mixed with a mouth.
The banshee looked gorgeous compared to that freak of nature. Her feathery hands were covered by twisted, pointy yellow claws. Vanilla crawled back. The monster advanced towards her, making a malicious grin.
"Look, Look, Look!" Her voice was nasal, guttural, and high-pitched. "At this beauty, we must cook!"
Another two arrived, making shaking sounds as they winged down to the platform. They forced Vanilla to crawl even further, despite the blood-spilling lacerations on her back that burned every time she spread her muscles.
The Sky Empress, that was right! She checked her waist and —Oh no. Her purse must have fallen mid-air.
"...What in the bloody hell do you want?" She asked.
"Oh, dear! How kind of you to ask!" They released caw-laughter mixes. "In hell, I want my own nest, a good man, and devour you. That's my task!" They laughed harder and moved forward.
What a stupid way to talk. Well, they were doing the old game of playing around and torturing your victims before ending them. Damn it, was she doomed to the same destiny of those drunk men inside that cave? Dying twice in such a brief period now felt more like a badly executed comedy instead of a tragedy.
But maybe she could make herself some time. There was always a way. "Pathetic. Look at yourselves." She chuckled. The harpies tilted their heads. "So pathetic, ugly, and weak you must take such from those who can't fight you."
"Weak? You human one are the only one here who is weak! I'll devour you and take your flesh with a single bite!"
"Just do it. Stop torturing me with your cringy rhymes," She cynically said. The harpies got even closer, spread their wings, clawed hands, and sawed beaks. But something buzzed in the distance.
"Oh my god! It's the weird girl's talking dog!" Cookie signaled the puppy in awe after looking for Vanilla unsuccessfully in the decaying forest.
The pup was sitting in an anxious position of being lost, and his expression was not one of relaxing and admiring the dead paintings of dry vegetation around him. He noticed her and immediately ran towards her.
"You've got to help me! those harpies are going to eat Vanilla alive!" He put his paws on her white stockings.
"Cookie to the rescue!" She straightened up like a superhero. "tell me, my dog friend, where did she go? Where did they take her too?"
"Deeper into the forests! I lost track of them." He hopped on the dead leaves a foot ahead.
"Follow me. We'll save her!" Cookie walked with confidence, only to trip over a root four meters ahead and releasing a high-pitched moan. "Please ignore that. Shhh..." She clumsily got up, shook her already muddy dress, and continuing strolling.
Rowie shook his head and followed her. The forest began to get tinted with a bluish dark contrast. Not much time of sunlight remained. Crows cawed and owls hooted. But in such a place, they weren't the real threat compared to the creatures that used to dwell under the cover of night. They had to hurry up.
Once deeper in the grey undergrowth, Cookie signaled something in the electrified branches of the autumn trees. "Hey, look at there, in that tree," A black purse of white dots was tangled on a thick branch of few leaves.
It still had inertia to swing on itself. "It's Vanilla's purse!" Rowie said. "The Sky Empress must be inside."
"The Sky Empress?" Cookie inquired.
"Her eagle plush. She can use it to—" He halted his words. Would it be prudent to reveal the powers of a plush to a stranger like her?
Vanilla would get mad at him, and the truth was that Cookie was obviously hiding something as well. Everyone could keep their own secrets.
"Plush?" Cookie exclaimed, with a frown that made her blue eyes dazzle in the dark. "Oh my god. You are saying that Vanilla is another user of— Kyaaaah!"
Her face paled in panic and she climbed the hollow tree as fast as she could, making squirrels feel jealous of her tree climbing skills. She squeezed her body hard on the hollow wood, and her trembles made it crack as it was about to break.
"What's wrong?" Rowie looked above, tilting his head.
"There's a spider! bad! bad! bad!" Cookie signaled the ground below.
"Spider? Oh." Rowie looked down.
A brown spider crossed calmly on the ground. It advanced to the tree and put its front legs on the tree bark. He approached and kindly sniffed her. It didn't react and continued her way up.
"Kill it! Kill it!" Cookie yelled, waving her hand down and trembling harder, wearing the fear of hiding from a serial killer armed with an ax.
"But why? It's just a tiny, innocent harmless spider," Rowie said. He didn't understand Cookie's fear. Why would an innocent animal deserve death just because the girl was scared of it?
"It's coming up, oh no! Kyaaaah!" Cookie advanced on her branch, hugging like an electrified sloth the end of it where Vanilla's purse was tangled. Her face was red as a tomato, and tears rained down to the dried leaves below.
"Cookie, it's no time for games!" Rowie spun on himself and hopped on the ground. "Vanilla needs us!"
"I-I, waaaah!" The branch cracked for one last time, and it got ripped apart in two. "Aaaaaaaah!" Cookie screamed as she plummeted. She fell in the greyish-yellow ground of leaves with her body still wrapped on the branch.
She sat up, shook her wobbly hairs, and pouted. An empty bird nest fell on her head. "Hehe!" Rowie giggled.
"What's so funny?" Cookie pouted harder, blushing, and put her fists on her waist.
"You are so fun to be with!"
"You think this is fun? it's not! That evil monster tried to kill me!" She turned her face away.
"It's not that. Unlike you, Vanilla has a strange sense of humor only she can understand. And that's when she's not grumpy and withdrawn."
"Well, I hope she'll be thankful enough with me. I fought the most dangerous beast just to save her! Tell me if someone ever had done something like that for her!"
"Dangerous beast?" Rowie tilted his head in confusion. "Ah yes, you fought it, tough girl. The spider's gone. C'mon. Let's not waste any more time!"
"Y-yeah, but you better not tell anyone about this! If you do so, I'm gonna sit on you until your eyeballs pop out, do you understand?" She got up and pushed out the dried nest out of her head. Small sticks and dried leaves remained tangled on her shiny hair. Her face boiled, but her threat sounded more like a defeatist joke rather than an actual menace.
"Vanilla will defeat you if you do!" Rowie responded. "besides, do I seem like someone who talks to people?"
"Well, no. But yeah! Let's keep going!" Cookie took a deep breath and cleared her throat. She walked fast and confident on her way, like a marching soldier going to combat.
But Rowie didn't move. "Cookie! wait!"
"What?" She didn't stop marching.
"They went to the other side!"
Cookie halted her steps. "O-of course. I just knew a super special shortcut. But if you want to do it in a hard way and witness my skills then you are free to do so!"
Rowie shooks his head. He just hoped that the time she wasted there was not fatal. The thought of those harpies killing Vanilla was something he preferred not to think about in the least.
They continued to stroll in the craked leaves and twisted roofs of that dark, never-ending woodland. The sun was beginning to say goodbye to another day. But a unique night was about to be born.