"The female of the species is more deadly than the male."
--Rudyard Kipling
Aiden swallowed the tea from his canteen and made a face. He said it made him feel better but Annie knew he was lying—she could see the sickness in his face. As it was a face she was growing to like, she worried about him and how much he was hiding from them. Already he was too pale and drawn. Whenever she brought it up, he quickly changed the subject, focusing instead on the boggy land around them, fading in and out of the fog.
He was on foot now, boots squelching in the mud of the road, leading his horse around the deepest of the puddles and mires. She followed directly behind with Marya bringing up the rear. There were howls and growls from the fog around them, but nothing made its presence known to them. Still, Aiden kept his sword slung over his back, ready to draw. She was amazed at how well he fit in here. In their world he had always seemed out of place—growing his hair long regardless of styles, eschewing what was cool for what was comfortable in clothes, acting, well, strange would be the word for it. Here, he looked like a young hero—a young knight, perhaps—out on a quest.
"Shit," he said suddenly and bent to study his boot heel. She stopped her horse behind his.
"What is it?" she asked him.
"I stepped in shit," he said sourly and danced his way out of the greenish mud in which he was standing. He stepped into another puddle and his boot sunk in up to his shin. He grumbled and scrambled over to a drier place. Annie studied the greenish mass he had stepped in.
"That's shit?" she asked him. It was nearly six feet across. "God, what leaves a shit that size?"
"Something big," he replied. "But a plant eater—shouldn't be dangerous to us." Marya goggled at the mass and looked out into the fog worriedly. "Unless it steps on us or something." He did his best to wipe his boot on a protruding root and turned to lead the way once more.
"Do you think there's anything out there?" Marya asked him, bow and arrow at the ready.
"I don't know." He stooped and picked up a fist-sized stone. He sent it into the mist with an overhand throw. It struck something just out of sight and it let loose a startled bray. Something the size of a city bus moved dimly in the thick fog and ran in the opposite direction, water splashing behind it. "Jesus," Aiden said. "Let's get out of here."
"We can't see anything in this fog," Annie said, her crossbow knocked and ready. "How much further?" She watched as Aiden suddenly did a very odd thing. He lifted his face and sniffed the air, like a dog would.
"Not far," he said. "Let's move." He moved on, pulling his horse behind him. The girls looked at one another and rushed to follow, eyes straining to see in the fog around them.
The dog-sized thing that glared at them from the middle of the path looked like a giant rat. In fact, it WAS a giant rat—with a third eye set in its forehead. As Aiden approached the thing, he drew forth his halberd from where it rode on his saddle. Holding it out in front of him, he stopped directly in front of it. It was grotesque, with tusk-like teeth sticking out along the sides of its jaw. The third eye seemed to glow with a gassy green glow.
Annie watched as he confronted the thing, when it seemed like he just turned off. One moment staring intently at the thing, the next staring vacantly at it. While she was trying to figure out what was going on, Marya grunted and fired an arrow at it. It struck the thing dead center of the third eye. It squawked and fell dead in front of Aiden. He blinked, shook his head, and looked down at it curiously.
"Ugh," he said with disgust. "That thing was in my brain."
"Psyrats," Marya said. "Quickly, there might be more." Aiden gave the dead rat another look and stopped as two more melted out of the mist before him. "Don't look them in the eye!" Marya warned. Annie saw three more climb onto the road on her left. She gave a startled scream and fired her crossbow. One of the creatures went down with a bolt in its neck and she steered her horse to the right.
Behind her, Marya shouted and let another arrow fly. There were more rats behind her, hissing and clicking their teeth. "Get on your horse," Marya yelled. "Run! Run! There must be a nest nearby!"
Aiden lunged with the halberd and sent the rats scurrying back. He swore and swung himself up onto the horse. Annie loaded another bolt and shot at another of the creatures. Three more swarmed out of the fog to take its place. "Run," he growled and swatted her horse's rear with his other hand. She grabbed the reins quickly as the horse surged forward, making the rats scatter. Then, Aiden was beside her, urging his horse to run. Marya was right behind him, firing arrows into the mist. She kicked her horse forward and took the lead.
Mud churned beneath her and she said a silent prayer that the horse wouldn't step into a hole. Behind her came the thunder of Aiden and Marya's horses. As she ran, she noticed the fog getting brighter. There were places on the road that were dry, even. Then, the fog began to dissipate, replaced by bright sun and gigantic snow-capped peaks before them. They were out of the bog! On the other side! Aiden ran his horse beside her and grinned. She grinned back, slowing her horse in the bright sunlight. They trotted to the tree line beneath sprawling pines. Marya laughed, delighted to be out of the fog-shrouded gloom. The rats had not followed them out of the fog.
"We made it," Annie breathed.
"Psyrats," Aiden said shaking his shaggy head. "There's no shortage of magical creatures here."
"Monsters," Marya corrected him. "Unicorns are magical creatures. Wild girls are magical creatures. Psyrats are monsters."
"What about that thing that took a giant crap?" he wondered. Marya scowled at him. "Cousin to a wild girl, perhaps?" She swatted at him with her bow. He ducked, grinning.
"We have to go back through that?" Annie said, still clutching her crossbow tightly. She eyed the wall of fog with distaste.
"We have charms," someone said from the trees, "that keep the beasties at bay, dear." Annie gasped and her horse jogged backwards a few steps. A middle-aged woman with long black hair, white at the temples, stepped out of the trees. Her eyes were as black as her robe and her lips were as red as blood. She was a handsome woman, aging well, and must have been beautiful when she was a young woman. Her feet, they noticed, were bare.
"If we allow you to return at all," another voice said near Marya. From behind a tree stepped a young woman of startling beauty. Her hair was a fiery blonde, framing a flawless, high-cheekboned face and luscious red lips. She was clad in a similar black robe and bare feet. Her eyes were the same black hue.
"What have you brought us, Daughter of the Moon?" a voice said and cackled. An ancient crone stepped from behind the tree nearest Aiden. Her hair was as white as snow and her face was deeply lined, with the same deep black eyes. She grinned at them with a total of three teeth. Reaching out a bony hand, she touched Aiden's ankle. He recoiled as if shocked and the crone cackled some more. "A champion so sick he can barely stand, and his gilly-girl! Hardly a prize at all."
"All bones and no meat," the middle-aged woman remarked.
"His gilly-girl is at least a virgin," the young woman smiled and licked her lips. Annie shivered from the look. The newcomers moved into the clearing, eyes never leaving the three on horseback. Marya looked stricken. She looked as if she knew the three women. Aiden edged his horse next to hers.
"The Kindly Ones," Marya said at his questioning look.
"Orddu, Orwen, and Orgoch?" he said. "The Fates?"
"So they've been called," she nodded. "The Kindly Ones."
"They don't seem very kind," Annie said, voice pitched low. The women winked at her.
"Kind as in ancient and secretive," Marya informed her.
"Oh," Annie replied doubtfully.
"Pray tell, you've come a long way," the middle aged said. "Across the worlds, so you have."
"This world reaches far," the young one nodded. "These come from a Keystone."
"There are others," the crone cackled. "One who seeks escape, the other dead-yet-not-dead are these two."
"We are looking for a way home," Aiden interjected. The women looked at one another.
"Though you do not want to go back?" the middle-aged one said. "This is not your path. You seek for your companions. What is it you seek?"
"Is it love you seek?" the young woman said in a husky voice, the slit up the side of her robe showing a generous amount of shapely leg. His eyes never went lower than the other woman's eyes.
"Power," the crone croaked. "He comes seeking power." Aiden shook his head.
"I came seeking a way home," he told them firmly. "It's… it's my responsibility. I'm the oldest." The three women nodded their heads, side by side. Annie was glad they were focused on him and not on her. These three women absolutely made her skin crawl. She had never heard of the Kindly Ones or those odd names Aiden had said. She just knew these women were giving her the serious creeps. And if Aiden was creeped out, he didn't show it. If anything, he just looked tired. And sick.
"There is something you must yet do, youngling," the crone said extending a bony finger. "This world chose you—chose all of you—for a reason. Home is something you will see again."
"Your path is difficult," the middle-aged woman said. "But not impossible."
"Give me something I can use," he said suddenly and wobbled on his horse. "All this cryptic stuff is a load of crap." He looked way tired. And sick.
"We'll see you again," the young woman said. "In fifteen years."
"Thank you," he said quietly and closed his eyes. Then, he slumped forward and fell off his horse into the empty space the young woman had just occupied. Annie did a double take—the three women had simply faded away.
"Where did--?" she began, then remembered Aiden had just fallen from his horse. She quickly jumped from her own and met Marya at his side, already checking the pulse in his neck. "Is he--?" she asked worriedly.
"He's alive," Marya said. "Help me put him on his horse. Let's get him to the village." She shook her head as they struggled to lift his thin frame. "He truly tempts the Fates. No one talks like that to the likes of them."
"They gave me the creeps," Annie said. Marya nodded as they loaded the boy back onto his saddle. He slumped over the horse's neck.
"They are as old as time itself," Marya told her. "Therefore they have many names. The Fates, the Furies, the Kindly Ones—all the same." She smiled shyly. "And yes—they 'creeped' me out, too."
"They said we were here for a reason—that we were chosen for a reason. Does that mean me, too?"
"It must."
"But I didn't come with them. I came here on my own. I was here a week before they even showed up. A month in my world." She climbed back up onto her horse and gripped the reins of Aiden's.
"She said you were the one who seeks escape," Marya said on Aiden's other side. "What are you trying to escape?"
"Everything," she replied truthfully. "School. Home. My Dad. My friends. It's all… too much. That's why I just… ran away."
"It looks like you got your wish."
"Yes," she agreed. "This place is certainly different. But do I have a reason for being here?"
"I would say you do," Marya assured her. "Even if it's only to help me get this strange boy somewhere safe."
"Lead the way," Annie told her, one arm steadying him on the horse's back. Marya nodded and found the path leading up through the trees.