Moonstone

wild goddess part 4

"Then love knew it was called love. And when I lifted my eyes to your name, suddenly your heart showed me the way"- Pablo Neruda

Sanem

As soon as I’d walked through the mouth of the cave, it was as if I’d been swallowed whole by the earth. The fear I’d tried so hard to control started seeping through the cracks. How will I ever find him in this gloom? What if it's too late? I quickly shut down that thought. If he was...gone, I would know it. 

“I won’t lose you again,” I said resolutely, my heart twisting with remembered anguish.

I grabbed Petunia’s scruff as she trotted confidently ahead. I considered using my fire to cut through the relentless dark but I thought it better not to call attention to myself until it was inevitable.

My eyes had adjusted to the deep shadows and I could make out a wide entrance ahead where a murky light pierced the dark. I picked up my pace.

The darkness eased and the gloom receded. My surroundings opened into a world that was as luminous as a star-studded night. A slow-moving river, one so wide I could not see the shore on the other side, sparkled silver in the starlight. Entranced, I let go of Petunia and walked towards the water. 

“What do we have here?” A high-pitched girlish voice said from behind me.

I whirled around to face the newcomer, knife already in hand. Petunia moved in front of me.

“Looks like Spring but smells like a wolf. I think you are lost, Little Flower. Nysian Meadows is that way,” another shrill voice said. My hand holding the knife dropped gradually as I beheld the apparition before me.

“Look, sisters! It’s our very own Cerberus!” A third voice shrieked in delight.

Petunia growled a warning while I tried not to gape. They were...wraiths. They shifted as one like a thick black mist, floated separately as filmy as vapor, and then came back together in a strange and hypnotic dance. Faceless but for the red eyes shining from beneath deep hoods. I thought of Cey Cey’s Shades and I suppressed a shudder.

“Where did you find this pretty bloom, dear Cerberus?” I felt the crown of flowers on my head being lifted by invisible hands.

I reached for it and defiantly put it back on my head. I found my voice and tried to imitate Can's imperious tone. I wasn’t fooled by their harmless-sounding girlish voices, these creatures wouldn't hesitate to hurt if they deemed me a threat.

“Her name is Petunia and she didn't find me. I rescued her,” I said, raising my chin and putting the knife away. What was a knife against supernatural specters?

They gasped in unison. “Rescued her? From the vampires? How did such a small, delicate creature manage to do that?” One of them said, voice dripping with skepticism.

I raised my hands encased in blue fire. "I’m full of surprises,” I declared with a smile before I pulled the fire back.

They swirled together again and blew around me in a whirlwind but I stayed still even as the strength of the wind almost lifted me off my feet. The only sign of my distress was my death grip on Petunia’s scruff. 

I had a feeling they were sizing me up and that feeling was confirmed when I felt cold tendrils wrapping around my ankles. My arms windmilled as the ground started to shift under my feet. I looked down in horror as withered claws pushed up out of a quagmire and grabbed at my legs, ripping at my clothes. A scream got caught in my throat as I sank helplessly into black slime. The slithery feel of cold, decomposing clammy fingers grasping my flesh made me gag. I shot a desperate look at Petunia but she stood still in the same menacing pose as before as if nothing was happening.