Dreams of Imahken

By masks that tell more than our sight.

 The vines parted, untangling their coiled chaos brought on by the crashing thunder and bludgeoning rain. Illus ran through a storm swell, his range of vision cut to barely ten feet until the torrent clouded all else around him in swirling darkness. The lantern swung from his belt like mad, slowly filling with water, like a timer to retrieve Anilee and retreat back to the other side of the river.

His uphill battle found cobblestones and shattered tile, the mosaic of the masked woman callously watching him from her splendor.

Then he heard splashing in the rain behind him, and whirled around to see nothing.

"Ani!" He screamed into the storm, overshadowed by a crash of lightning. "Ani!"

Splashing, yet again, behind him. Small, light footsteps. Could it be the woman? Or worse, the fox. He ignored it.

Panting in the rain, his ankle was beginning to ache more, swelling with the storm.

He took off toward the bridge, up the stairs and across more overgrown tiles.

Cackling broke the rhythmic crashing of rain behind Illus. He tossed the rifle over his shoulder and drew his machete. Rain clashed into his eyes, the wind berated his face, and his own hair whipped around in front of him. To see, to hear, to sense anything around him was nigh impossible. Soaked to the bone, and sloshing in his boots, he sprinted for the bridge, pushing through the surging pain in his ankle.

"Ani! Where are you?!" He screamed out the moment he stepped onto the collapsed roof of the bridge, careful not to slip and tumble over the edge.

A voice called back.

"Time, young Illus, runs from us!"

The fox howled laughter ahead of him. As Illus crossed, his lantern illuminated the soaked, matted fox sitting upon the wall of the bridge, smiling that wretched, elongated smile.

"Take care to find her spot, lest ye miss her for naught!"

Illus paid the fox no mind, already having prepared himself for the unwelcome idea that Anilee had been too scared to go down the mountain alone. She had a lantern, but Illus wouldn't be able to see it from afar in this storm.

No dull dawn glow assisted Illus. The clouds blocked all light from reaching the soil as he began his ascent up the stairs.

Suddenly the lightning flashed and the fox leapt at Illus from atop the stairs. Illus slipped on the first step, tumbling onto his back. But the fox did not land on him, nor attack. It laughed from behind him. The sloshy mud seemed to drag Illus down, every movement a chore to rise back to his feet. Growling rose up from behind him, growing closer until he took off up the slick granite steps, flailing the machete toward his rear.

Lightning flashed again. The growl became a bark which was closing the distance. Yet above Illus, at the top of the steps stood the woman in Anilee's robe, the ornate fox mask's eyes flaring an ethereal blue.

"I banish thee, fox!" Her voice boomed like a raging river around Illus, overtaking the wind and thunder, bursting harsh vibrations that rattled Illus to the core and scattered the rain.

The fox dissipated into wispy black and blue mist and dispersed around Illus. He stopped for a brief moment, unable to see her, but reeling from the shock of what just happened.

"I can do no more!" She yelled through the rain to Illus. "Make haste, the fox returns as you tarry!"

Illus's feet were heavy, his arms exhausted, his throat parched, but he ascended the steps with haste. The woman was nowhere to be seen as he sprinted up slick mountain steps. Streams of water rushed down the slopes, catching his feet, flash floods carving paths through breaks in the stairs.