Hello, From the Edge of the World

Chapter Six: "The Gloamglozer"

Chapter Six

"The Gloamglozer"

The three of us stared back at him in confusion and started speaking all at once. "What do you mean? What could possibly happen to us her-" I asked the tree-giant. Nicole began to yell out into the void, "What could possibly be harder than what I already went through? Are you kidding me right now?" she huffed. Twig looked around warily, and pointed over my shoulder at something in the distance. "Look—what is that coming through the mist over there?" He asked the tree-giant, quietly. The shape floated nearer, and I could not recognize who it was. I turned to look at the tree for answers, but it had vanished.

"Who are you, and where do you come from?" yelled Nicole, who was squinting at the shape. A nasally voice hissed back, and I did not have a good feeling about who it belonged to. Something felt awfully familiar, as if the memories from our past events had returned, personified. It was an eerie, gangly-looking monster with round, bulging eyes and horns that protruded from a long, black cloak. I did not have a good feeling about this creature. "Oh, but you have seen me before, Nicolaus—do you remember our meeting? You have summoned me here, and called me for help," said the stranger. "How did I summon you? I don't even know who you are," said Nicole. The creature just cackled, hideously. "I take on many different forms, Nicolaus—you wanted me to lead you out—and I did. It is what you wanted of me."

The creature began to change its shape, and shifted into a short and squatty goblin with glinting eyes and a cloak. "You have traveled far, and I have followed you since the Gyle Goblin colony. Could you really have forgotten your pleas? 'Save me, oh Gloamglozer! Please lead me out of this maze!'" he mocked. Nicole pulled out her sword, which now shimmered with a blue light, as Twig unsheathed his knife, and I grabbed a nearby rock. Stunned, I looked at him, and then remembered the male Trog who had helped me out from the sanctuary. "Was that you who rescued me from the Termagant Trogs?" I yelled at him. My head was spinning, for now it all made sense—the vial, his method of transforming the natural occurrence of the Bloodoak, the fact that he seemed to not mind the other Trogs and knew the way out—I felt faint. "Do not tell me that you did not know this, Elspeth," said the Gloamglozer. "You needed saving, and I saved you. Everyone comes to me, as you have. If you join me, you will finally be free from the troubles of the world."

The mist began to thin, and I saw that we were standing on the very tip of the edge. The demon floated towards me, stretching out his hands us to take. But after all that I had been through, I was over it. I was over being followed everywhere, jumping at every sound, always following something and never receiving anything back. I gritted my teeth, and gripped my palms tightly. "No," I said. "I will not take your hand." The Gloamglozer snarled, and licked his hideous, grinning lips. "I gave you the chance of coming with me, of getting out of here—but I see now that you have chosen treachery over life—and now you will PAY!" He hissed, lunging forward at a quickened pace. I screamed, trying to duck out of the way, but the demon was faster than me. His talons dug into my skin, drawing blood from my arm. Nicole and Twig leaped onto his back and began stabbing him from behind, but it made little effect.

In a frenzy of yelling, clawing, biting, hacking and fighting—I remembered something that I overheard Mumsie say before the ritual—that bloodoaks feast on fresh blood, which gives it its powers. I rip out the vial from my satchel, and drip some of the blood from my arm into the glass. "Hey Gloamglozer—get a load of this!" He raced over as soon as he heard me, hoping to take another scratch off of me, but not this time. When I saw the tips of his calloused, bony fingers ready to seize me again, I threw the contents over his face. The Gloamglozer fell to the earth and began to writhe in agony, hissing and burning as the pain of his own medicine overtook his wretched body. His body stood twitched for a moment, and then lay still in the darkness of the Edgelands. The three of us plopped down onto the ground, breathing heavily and gratefully that the most feared monster in all of the Deepwoods, had been defeated.