❝ DEATH IS COMING.
BUT SHE DOESN'T FEAR HIM. ❞
For the people of Khaya's little village living amidst the woods is quiet, and even more, so it became since the creatures lurking in its shadows turned into mere fairytales. Little does Khaya know that...
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WHAT DEATH CANNOT TOUCH x. in the pines
❆ ❆ ❆
Dorka's screams had not only the family but the entire village awake, denying silence to replace it and swallow Lasow once again. However, no one dared to leave their hut but solely stared out into the night, whispering to Svet to protect them.
"What is going on?" Abram came running out of the house, weapon in hand. Right behind him, to Khaya's dismay, Ulyana and Ilya followed. Eyes wide, the girl clutching the little wooden rabbit to her chest, the boy holding on to a piece of wood like a sword—and way too close to the body of their dead sister.
While Majda didn't even seem to hear him, Khaya sprang to her feet and barred their way and sight. "Go back inside."
"What's going on?" her father repeated, ignoring the urgency in her voice and eyes.
"You're bleeding!" Ulya cried.
Khaya forced her numb lips to curve into a calm smile. "It's just a little scratch. You know how clumsy I can be."
"No. You are all outside at night, and you are bleeding, and mamochka is strange. She is crying." Ulya bore the burden of understanding full well, that nothing was alright without knowing or even being able to guess why.
Other than the children, her father could see right over Khaya's head and thus to this scene of horror that covered the white field in gore.
"Khaya, you better tell me this instant—" his voice was trembling.
She wouldn't have known how to answer his questions, but someone else redeemed her from her task, even before Abram finished speaking. "The wolf, gospodin."
Her head flung around to find Davor, who had approached them silently once more.
"It's dead." The soldier leaned down towards the siblings. "There's no need to be afraid anymore." And right before Ilya could answer that he wasn't, already opening his mouth, Kazminov added with a glance at the wood in his little fingers, "Or to fight."
"So, you fought the wolf?" Ilya asked. "And Khaya helped you?" Ulya looked at him with starry eyes.
Or did he help her? If not for Kazminov, would she have been there in the snow torn apart like Daniil by cold claws through which no blood ran? Had he saved her...once more?
Davor hesitated, watching Khaya while she pressed her fingers against her wound, before turning back to the children. "Yes." Only for Abram to hear, whispering into his ears, the soldier revealed what really had haunted them this night, what had shaken his sister so.
"Now go back to bed and close the door to not let the nochnitsy in", Khaya said quickly and shoved the children back inside the warmth of the house. To her, the thought of the night demons, that haunted people in their sleep, seemed almost pleasant in comparison to that dreadful voice. At least, from them, her grandmother kept her safe with talismans. What protected her now?
