Larkspur Mittel: The Lark & Owl Trilogy

31 - Blighted

The dog ran off towards the lode.

"Where are you going?! We have to do something!"

Hero took the globe from the satchel, but it did not glow or weigh in her hands.

"Useless object!" She muttered, shoving it back into her bag.

The white pup barked twice, a call to follow.

"We can't just leave! What about Aggie?"

Pancake pawed the ground and growled. She barked once more, as if to say, there is nothing to do now. Follow me!

Hero searched the night sky though she knew the ogiri and Aggie were gone, far away by now. The clouds had disappeared and the stars shown brightly. A gentle mist had settled over the fens and the air was crisp and sweet.

No sour smell anymore.

Little Pancake barked twice again, beckoning Hero to come.

They reached the water and ran in the direction the boat had traveled.

Hero was jittery and spooked. She was sure the demon spirit would find her again, and her mind played tricks with every little sound. She shivered and kept her head down as she ran. Her legs soon grew tired though, and she would have given anything to just stop and curl up on the ground to go to sleep. She slowed to a walk, while Pancake barked at her, insistent that she should speed up again.

Just as she thought she couldn't go on, the sky started to lighten. Gradually, she saw better across the beauty of the fen. The grasses swayed in a light breeze as the mist rose. The air warmed and hummed as morning drew near.

And then she heard something faintly on the wind.

Heee-roooo!

She paused.

Herooo! Aaa-gie!

Was she hearing things? A lark's whistle sounded somewhere out in the fen.

Pancake heard it too and dashed off up the path.

Ahead in the distance, just beyond an abandoned trading hut where the fen grasses seemed to end, she finally saw the long trawler boat sitting peacefully in the water.

He-rooo!

"I'm here, here I am!" she shouted.

She waved her arms frantically above her head.

Pa-nush stood at the stern of the ship looking out. When he spotted her, he climbed down to the lode, and called out to the boys who emerged from the grasses and met her on the path.

"Larks alive, we found you! But where's Aggie?" Adelmus asked, worriedly looking down the path past Hero.

"Pa-nush saw that you were gone and stopped the boat and woke us a while ago- we were worried that- hey where did you come from?!" Marcus was saying when he noticed Pancake.

She barked and spun in circles for him, her small black eyes alert and shining.

Hero meanwhile felt her her throat closing up with anxiety. She tried to tell them what had happened, but nothing came out the way she wanted it to, and she felt horrible and stupid. The words just sounded all jumbled.

She was covered in dried mud and started to shiver with cold. Her hair had fallen out of her braid and had bits of leaves and things stuck in it, and she was jabbering and pointing to the sky like a madwoman.