The Sylph Queen of Edenworld

CHAPTER 5 - NILLY

Nilly languished in a sleep so deep, her eyelids felt sewn together.  It was blissful, if not for that loud ringing in her ears.  Stirring, she forced her eyelids open.  Snow fell in slow motion towards her from a black and grey streaked sky.  Something wasn't right.  Snow shouldn't smell of ashes nor should winter air scratch her throat like smoke.  She sat up and rubbed her eyes furiously.  Her back felt queer but there was no time to think about that now.  As the ringing slowly quietened, her realisation came back to her like a thunderbolt.  Wildfire surrounded her, its flames scarlet red and filling the dusken sky with black smoke.    

Her breath caught in her throat.  Twenty paces away from her, inches away from a blazing tree trunk, was Arti.  He lay face down on the ground, still as stone.  

She dashed towards him and turned him over, slapping him hard across the face.  She thanked the Gods when he roused and responded with mumbles.  'Wake up, fat head.  The woods are burning.  We need to leave or we will die.  Where is Eveen?'

At the mention of his sister's name Arti was on his feet and shouting her name through the burning wood.  Nilly did the same.

'Nilly!' screamed Eveen's voice from behind the burning verge.  

Using their spears, they hacked a path through the burning verge and entered a small copse of burning trees.  Branches fell at random from above, igniting the ground where they fell.  Curled into a ball at the centre of the copse and sobbing uncontrollably, was Eveen.  

Traversing the flames, Nilly reached Eveen before Arti did.  She crouched down and readied to check her for wounds.  Before she could touch her, Arti struck her hand away, aiming his spear at her neck.  

'Don't you dare touch her.  Don't you dare touch her ever again!  Freak!'

His words echoed exactly how she felt, but coming from Arti just resulted in a swell of anger.  Ignoring the spear-tip pressing into her neck, she stood upright and glared into his furious eyes, willing him to strike. 

'Not now!' Eveen whimpered, pulling at the both of them.  'We need to get back to the Esterlake.  The wildfire will burn through the entire Dell Woods!  We will be safe on the crannog.'

Nilly looked at the sky to check their bearings.  The jagged peaks of the Spine were barely visible through the rising smoke but it marked their position.  'South,' she pointed.  'This way.'

They made their way through the Dell Woods, striving to stay as far ahead of the spreading inferno as they could.  Nilly led the way with spears at hand.  Reaching a familiar pathway, she continued on until she exited the woods and stepped onto the banks of the Esterlake, not far from where their currachs were banked.  

She turned around to make sure Arti was still following with Eveen.  Every time his eyes met hers, they seethed with hatred.  She answered his glare with one of matching contempt, even though her heart was strangled with guilt.  Without a heavy rainfall to extinguish it, the wildfire would burn for days, razing the Dell Woods to the ground and killing countless animals throughout.  Trees that have stood for proudly for hundreds of years would burn to ashes.  This was all her fault.  If she had not agreed to bring Eveen ranging, she would not have had to go so far north, Arti would not have followed and they would not have attracted the attention of that...

Nilly's step faltered, remembering the black beast with eyes red as the flames it spat from its fanged maw.  It would have ripped her open from stem to sternum if it wasn't for... She stopped to look at her palms.  Was her memory playing tricks on her, fuelled by the fear of imminent death?  A blast of explosive, blinding, light.