Scout Stories: Bruised Beginnings

Mist

The man looked at her for a moment and sniffed the air. Then there was a loud snapping sound from the tree and they both watched as the flowers and leaves withered and died, falling away from the tree. When they landed on the ground, the grass around them died too. The branches of the tree groaned and the bark began to split and break. The rot reached the edge of the circle and kept going.

The man ran to her and bent down in front of her. He had blue eyes. Miach had never seen anyone with blue eyes before.

"Alright?" he asked.

"Who are you?" she asked.

He tutted and glanced at the dead tree.

"Get up," he said, pulling her to her feet. "We have to get out of here."

"Why?" asked Miach.

He pointed at the spreading rot. "What do you think that is going to do to us?"

He grabbed her arm and started to pull her back towards the village. Miach shook him off.

"I'm perfectly capable of running," she said. She grabbed up the books from the floor and started to run.

The blue-eyed man watched her carefully.

"Are you hurt?" he asked.

"No," said Miach. "I'm not hurt."

The clearing, which had looked so pretty in the moonlight a few moments before, was completely dead. They ran until they cleared the tree line and then he stopped.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"Have to check," he said. He stared at the grove. Miach stopped and stared as well. She couldn't help it. Creatures ran under foot and headed towards the wall. As Miach watched the last tree died. The rot stopped then. It didn't spread onto the grass.

The man sighed and fell to his knees.

"Thanks be," he said, "It's not going to the village."

Then he rounded on Miach.

"What happened?" he asked.

"There was an Aed..."said Miach.

"Yes. I saw that. Did it touch you?" he asked.

"What?" said Miach. What are you talking about? We have to get back to the village. I have to talk to the Rí. That thing said that it knew grandmother."

"Yes," he said. "I agree. But first you answer my question. Did it touch you?"

"It said that they had a deal," said Miach. "What kind of deal could it have had with Grandmother?"

He caught her by the shoulders and shook her.

"This is important. You must tell me if it touched you."

Miach shook her head. "No. No it didn't touch me."

He visibly relaxed and released her.

"I'm sorry," he said. "I don''t mean to upset you. Usually I can tell but...this place smells wrong."

Miach had no idea what the man was talking about, but she used the opportunity to get a proper look at him.

"Who are you?" she asked.

The man seemed a bit surprised to be asked.

"Mac Tíre," he said. "You?"

"Miach," she said.

"Are you from this village originally, Miach?"

"Yes. Why?"

He shook his head. "No reason. You said something about a deal with your Grandmother. Do you know what kind of deal it was?"

"No. It wanted her books but I don't know why. Sorry."

"Don't apologise for that. Apologise for going near that place."

"Sorry."

He shifted awkwardly from one foot to the other. "I need to speak with your Grandmother."

Miach sniffed back the tears. "You can't. She's dead."

"Now I'm sorry."

Miach shook her head. "Don't be. She had a good life...although she would be annoyed to have missed all this. It's prime gossip material. I'm...I'm supposed to be at her wake now."

Mac Tíre froze. His eyes got wider.

"She died recently?"

Miach nodded. "Yeah. She died last night."

Mac Tíre turned and stared at the crumbling wall.

"It's going to attack," he said.

"Aed don't attack our village," Miach told him.

He ignored her and started to walk towards the village.

"It wanted the books?" he asked. "What do they say?"

"They're just my Grandmother's journals. She was our healer before she died, and a lot of it's about treatments and medicines."

He stopped.

"There must be something in these books. You stay here, read them. I'll warn people, get them out of the village. Then I'll come back to you. Find out what you can before it starts killing people."

"Killing people?"

He nodded pointedly at the book she was still holding and ran off. He was fast, and she lost sight of him quickly. Miach hesitated, and then ran after him. She couldn't just wait around reading books if people were in trouble. She got to where she could see the broken boundary wall and stopped.

Mac Tíre was standing staring at it, looking in at a dense fog. Nothing else could be seen. He looked back and saw Miach standing there.

"The books," he said. Then he jumped into the fog and out of sight.

Note: This story has changed drastically from what it was originally. Originally it took place weeks after her Grandmother had died and Mac Tíre walking into the village started it off. 

Anyway, what do you guys think? Why did it want to know her name? Why was he so concerned about it touching her?