Ùna: Like All & Like None

Chapter VIII

Part II: Uprooted

I had awoken to my body curled in the fetal position. Not remembering falling asleep and unsure of how much time had passed. The snow had piled atop me like a thick comforter. I looked around to get a sense of what time of day it was, but the blizzard had not let up. No sign of the sun or moon in the sky, just a murky grey light dawned over the land. Shadows didn't even cast from the trees. Still, it was a bit lighter than it was when I came out here, so I knew the night had finished its shift.

I struggled to unpack my body from the snow, every inch of me ached. I hadn't been aware of how much I strained my body. No doubt due to the liquor. I remembered my grandmother saying- "alcohol is a wicked man's nectar, and a loose girls excuse." She always spoke in phrases that escaped me. Granting me her wisdom through metaphors I didn't understand. My head began to pound as I sat up, vertigo making my balance spin. Searching my hands through the snow for a point of leverage I could lean my weight on, I felt the wirey fur of that wolf. I hadn't yet noticed that I fell asleep against its body. I looked at what was visible of it up and down. I scoffed, giving a hollow thanks to that beast. The warmth of it body must have done some work to keep me alive through the night. That was the least it could have done considering it was the reason I ended up here in the first place. 

I made it to my feet, stumbling a bit as I sank in the snow was up to my knees and still feeling a bit drunk. Retrieving the dagger that was left in the wolf's back, I tripped back to where those two servants lay. The spillage of their blood piercing through the snow revealed their location to me. I tried my best to fix their bodies in a proper burial position, but they had become so stiff they felt like they would break if I forced them to lay straight. I wasn't even able to shut their eyes as the delicate skin was crisp in ice. I piled the snow over them to shield the gruesome mess and traced my finger to draw the sigil of saving over their grave. 

I wasn't exactly religious or knowledgeable about such holy practices. I was only aware of what I had observed my mother and grandmother did. They used such sigils in times of need and prayer. A memory passed through my mind of when particularly harsh weather had plagued our garden, and my mother drew this exact sigil in the dirt. She had told me that it would renew the ashes of what was with love and nourishment, and birth new life. I was young but I still remember that like magic, the garden grew back in a green much brighter than before within just a few days. Thats what I wanted for these two women- a new brighter life. 

I needed to get back home and fast. My skin quickly growing icy after leaving my warm cocoon in the snow. I didn't have the sun to help me make sense direction. The house of horrors was the only marker I had. I knew that we vaguely traveled west from my house in that carriage. So heading back from where we came would be east. But using the road we took seemed untenable. I was covered in blood and wanted absolutely no interaction with strangers. Still too rattled in fear and shock to explain to anyone what had happened to me, what I had seen. That I had killed the man that controlled the port of this land. And just the thought of going back into that house to change made me sick. As if Ernest would somehow rise from the dead and capture me for good. Thus, doing my best to navigate the woods back home set in as my only option. I dusted off myself, now regretting not packing extra warm layers in my bag. But I ironed my will and began walking.

I had only made it about 50 steps from the carnage in the snow when a roar that half deafened me bellowed from behind. I turned to see an enormous growling shape behind me. So other worldly my mind took a moment to make sense of it. It had to be as large as a prized horse. A muscled form that was somewhat feline. The head was distinctly wolfish, and gold antlers reached out from each side- easily wider than my height. Yellow fangs gleamed out from its curled mouth as I began to prowl towards me. It made the distance between us in mere seconds. I felt my pupils empty out wide into full black. Every hair on my body stood on its end. I stood absolutely frozen as the creature's face came within inches of mine. Hot breathe from its snout clouded around my face and its vibrant green eyes held mine. Fear swallowed me whole. With no mental effort I could piece it all together. This was fae. 

I couldn't dare to move or shout. Absolutely alone- me and this beast. The creature's lips quivered as it leaned even closer, and in a groaning whisper it spoke, "Murderer". I held my breath like a stone. Another grumble, "You . . . murdered that wolf." Maybe it was the thought of its fangs ripping through my neck. Maybe it was the conditioning that had been engraved into me all my life, the accusation from the beast controlling me for a reply. The answer just fell from my mouth quietly, "Y-yes." I trembled. A metallic taste coated my mouth, and an inescapable exhaustion coaxed my body to the ground. No might in me could keep my eyes open when it all became dark.