The Daughters of Danu

Chapter One

Aurora

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Twisted trees surrounded her in a mocking dance, their barren branches swaying from side to side in some kind of ritualistic movement that made the clouds darken. Aurora tried, but could not escape their desperate attempts to grab her, the thin ends of branches digging sharply into her collarbones and shoulders like a butcher's blade through a pig's skin; they dug in deep and with purpose. Aurora felt their thorns pierce her body, anchoring themselves under her once flawless skin and settling there like a bee's sting. The branches continued to push her to the ground until she felt as though she was sinking into the black earth around her. She screamed before they forced her face against the dirt. Then all was black. Aurora's tongue frantically moved inside her mouth, searching for air. But all it found was the taste of dirt and animal shit as the earth swarmed her mouth like an army.

Then, faintly in the distance, Aurora heard that scream. If she had not already been terrified at the idea of death, the sound of the scream would have killed her instantly. It was blood-curdling. It was a screech of death and desperation combined, as if all the souls of the underworld sang out at once. It was the mutation of something human and yet, something more. But Aurora clung to it. She forced her ears to focus on it, as it echoed against the trunks of those twisted trees. It forced her to open her eyes and fight against the dirt that was trying to blind her. She tried to push herself off the ground, finger nails penetrating the earth. But she failed, collapsing onto her face once more, dirt embedding itself into her skin.

The being cried out again, another sinister screech, but this time it sounded closer. Aurora tried to focus on it like she had before, but the dirt had advanced to her ears, blocking her eardrums like a fortified wall. That filth had also found its way down her throat and she felt as though she was being stuffed for dinner. Aurora closed her eyes and accepted the darkness.

But suddenly the branches were ripped from her body; thorns tearing themselves from her skin in a bloody mess. The air was filled with the sound of something cutting the branches down in large quantities, the wind catching under whatever force it was and whistling as it slashed. Then the whistling stopped. Aurora lay still against the earth, her body as flat as a silverfish. The now dead branches covering her back like a cruel blanket. She spat out the dirt in clumps, her saliva mixing with the muck and forming dark balls of fear.

Whatever the being was, it breathed next to her. Short, shallow breaths hit the top of her head making her hair move like waves. Aurora compelled her body to move. She sat up and let the branches fall from her back, hitting the dirt like they had forced her to do moments before. She breathed rapidly as she tried to regain her breath, those shallow puffs of air sending whispers of smoke into the darkness around her.

And then she saw it. That being who had come to her rescue, or who had come to do the trees work for them. Its silver eyes bore into her soul as she tried to hold her ground against its intimidating gaze. Aurora stared down the large white wolf that stood before her, their breath syncing together in a hopeless harmony. The beast was massive, at least twice as big as any wolf she had seen before. But this one was different. Despite its sharp fangs and the white froth that coiled at the sides of its mouth, it held an aura of peacefulness. Aurora bowed to it, letting her forehead touch the ground once more. When she rose, she discovered that the wolf was mirroring her actions, bowing to her with one of its front legs bent, its snout touching the ground. Aurora reached out her hand to the beast, to stroke its ice white fur. But the beast recoiled and ran off into the night.

And Aurora was left alone, kneeling in that black dirt, hidden by the ever consuming darkness of the twisted trees.

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