Swallowing hard on the mouthful of bread I was eating, I was saved from losing my own composure by the timely arrival of her husband, who entered in from the back door. Much like his wife in appearance, except that he had a well-muscled chest and cow horns above his ears, he gruffly greeted us. "You are here. That is good. Please follow me."
Not looking at Steven's place, I had pretty much finished eating my bread. I quickly downed the last of the orange juice from the chipped clay cup that contained it. "Thank you." I called out to the wife as I then followed her husband to our destination.
The father was not much for conversation as we followed him. Considering the circumstances, I did not begrudge him of it. He led us to a nearby shed of sorts with a wheel barrow out front in minor disrepair but still usable. Inside the basin was a sheathed knife.
Only after arriving there, did he speak again. Looking at my waist he said. "It is good that you have your own knife. Our children . . ." He paused a moment, taking a deep breath before hardening his expression. "Our children were out harvesting the early growth of our vegetables for the season, when they were taken. As requested by the city patrol, I am to have to do the same work as they were when they were taken." Looking up at the sky, he continued. "Normally we perform this work early in the morning when the temperature is cooler and the plants are damp with dew. However, with your late arrival, we will work with what we have and hope for the best."
Leading us while pushing the wheelbarrow along to the green fields, he continued. "It was late morning when we first noticed that my son and daughter went missing, and so we can't guess at if or when you too may be lured away. But heavens help us, it will all come to an end today." His eyes hardened in anger and despair which warred across his weathered face.
He remained silent until we reached the first row of broad-leaved plants. Pulling out the knife in the wheel barrow, he unsheathed it and held it up against the sunlight. Grunting in apparent satisfaction at what he saw, he then knelt down on the ground beside the flowing plants. Reaching inward, he gently held up a long green vegetable that I knew to be a cucumber from my past experience. "These plants are very fragile and easy to trample on and break. As such, I ask that you do your best to be careful as you harvest."
Gripping the long vegetable, he held the knifes edge to the stem, about an inch away from the start of the deeper green. With a careful yet swift motion, he cut through the stem and held the resulting bounty before us. Looking at both of our arms, he said. "Only those vegetables that are about three quarters the length of your forearm or longer, should be harvested. Anything shorter than that needs to be left to grow more." Tilting the shorn edge of the stem to show us better, he continued. "Only cut the stem about two to three of your finger widths away from the main vegetable itself."
Setting down what looked like a cucumber in the basin of the wheel barrow, he gave a departing remark. "If you need anything from us, please come and ask. If it is something simple like thirst or hunger, please use the many orange trees over by the creek to quench it and rest." He motioned to the edge of his property where more verdant and wild growth could be seen along with a good number of orange trees.
Without saying anything further, he left us to our own work. Both of us promptly began carefully cutting free the occasional cucumber, that met the pre-set qualifications to be harvested.
It was hard work, and the time went by at an indiscernible pace. The large wheel barrow had reached about half way full with me feeling like I was doing most of the work. Taking a moment to look up and stretch out my sore back, it was then that I noticed that Steven had gone over to relax under the shade of the nearby orange trees and enjoy their bountiful fruit.
To be honest, I didn't blame him for the need to take a break at this point. If we were on better terms with each other, I probably would have joined him for a relaxing break myself. Instead, feeling somewhat grateful to be more distanced from him, I tried to enjoy the silver lining of the weary farm work I was doing.
As I continued to work along the scattered plants, harvesting the occasional cucumber, I would at intervals look up to see Steven relaxing or snoozing away against the orange tree. *Sigh* That does look so relaxing. Giving myself a goal of picking 20 more cucumbers before I too took a break, I began harvesting in greater earnest.
At 10 left, I again looked towards where I last saw Steven, and I saw him to be exactly where he was before. I could almost guarantee that he was sleeping by this point. Once more, I invested myself in completing the last 10 before I too could enjoy a nice sweet and cooling orange, under the deep shade of the bunched trees.
"Finally!" I called aloud in relief at accomplishing my personal goal. The wheel barrow now was about three quarters full and I was more than ready to take a break before dragging it back to the farm house to empty for the next load. Stretching my back out to relieve the growing stiffness, I looked about to see how Steven was doing. Huh, the tree that he had been laying against for a while now, was empty. Casting my eyes about over the field of plants, in case he decided to rejoin me, I still did not see him.
"Steven!!" I called out his name. . . . No response came back from my yell. Maybe he had already been taken somehow? In hesitant curiosity, I walked to where I had last seen him lounging before, to see if I could pick up a trace of where he was.
Seeing nothing of note, my mind and ears were however drawn to the sound of rushing water. "Oh! The creek!" I vocalized in excitement. To be honest, I really wasn't too interested in the well-being of Steven. However, we had a job that we were hired for, and I felt responsible for finding him, if only for closure to the families impacted and ending the menace that had plagued them. The added possible perk of getting to wander down a fresh water creak, in search of the perpetrators just added to the allure of my search.
And so, I set out. Following the creak-bed a few meters away from the rushing waters. The numerous rocks forming the bed and several meters on either side of it were heavily covered in foliage from above. This was blocking out the entirety of the direct sunlight.
If I was camping at this moment, I would have loved to be hunting along the shore of the creek for hiding crawdads, interesting looking rocks, and maybe the rare water turtle. I smiled in thought at those childhood memories of pursuing such adventures. Those nice memories were a pleasant counter-part to the depressing mood I fallen to with the introduction to the bovine couple.
My eyes hardened as I forced myself to focus on completing the job I was on. Raising my gaze up from the rushing waters, I cast my eyes about up and down the creek bed. Pausing a moment as my eyes caught sight of something in the distance, I believe it was the slowly walking form of Steven. Hastening my pace, I rushed to catch up to him and see what was going on.
He was quite the ways away as I set out, but after about a good five minutes of a more dogged pace, I had reached within light calling distance. About to yell his name, I again paused. There was something off about his gait. . . . The steps he was taking were more like a shuffle rather than that of careful placement as would be normal this close to a rock-strewn creek. Once again, I upped my pace, being careful to maintain as quiet of steps as possible. I then stopped as I reached about a couple of body lengths from him.
The rigid stance, the shuffling steps and the complete silence that surrounded him, gave off warning bells in my mind. However, I felt that I needed to know what was going on. Quietly closing the few steps between us, I reached out my right hand letting it hover just over his left shoulder, about to touch him.
The sense of unease and warning before had reduced to a kind of cryptic silence. Then my hand touched down on his shoulder.
. .
. .
. .
*SKREEE!!* His rigid figure turned impossibly fast, and his clawed right hand swung out to slash at me. Tearing at my clothes and ripping into my left bicep, I fell down into the rushing waters of the shallow creek. Horror filled me as I stared into the soulless pitch-black eyes of a wraith like creature. The body still appeared to be that of Steven. However, that face which would probably give me nightmares for days to come, was sallow, dark, and filled with blood thirsty insanity.
*SKREEEEE!!!* It howled out even more loudly. Then in a weird and horrifying moment of transformation, a kind of inky black shadow detached itself from Steven's body, and rushed at my fallen figure.
"AAAHHHH!!" I couldn't help but scream in fright as this phantom creature rushed at me in my defenseless state.
Desperately trying to scramble back in retreat, my effort was useless as I made no real progress. Just as it reached out its smoky clawed hand to thrust into my body, something odd happened.
The amulet on my chest warmed up, and the stimulated energy within my core sent out a coursing wave of warmth and chills through my body. Upon this manifestation of energy, the rushing figure of the shadow appeared to have hit an impenetrable barrier at contact with my skin. In fact, it even appeared to be repelled back in pain, as if burned by something. Even as it was repelled, I felt a draining weakness come over me. Gritting my teeth, however, I forced myself to keep alert and awake in the presence of this terror.
*SKREE!* A shorter and less mind numbing scream came forth from this shadowed figure, and then it turned and rushed off into the distance, leglessly skimming across the ground, leaving myself and the fallen body of Steven behind.
.
.
.
In the brief deafening silence left behind by the fleeing shadowy figure, my hazy thoughts and weakened frame began to fall into darkness. I might have passed out entirely, except that I suddenly heard the sound of branches snapping and several heavy forms crashing into the water and ground around me.
The hazy form of the Vulpine Leader Jax stood tall before me. "Attention patrol!! Team 1 will remain here to canvas the area and assist apprentice Andrew and trainee Steven. Team 2 will perform circular sweeps at 3 pace intervals for any places not covered by the sun! You are not, I repeat Not to separate into smaller groups! These are Shades that we are dealing with. Nasty buggers that I'd love to shine the light of day on are known for short bursts of possession, and instigating violent chaos among team members.
Kneeling down beside me, Jax hefted me up to a lounging position with his support. "Do you have any healing potions on you?" He asked seriously.