A Match of Monsters

Chapter One

Time was running out. Elain shivered as she felt the sharp chill through her thick coat. Already the mountains were preparing for the inevitable arrival of winter. Stronger, harsher winds, frost bordering the shores of the lake, and berries and animals disappearing as they do when the snow is about to set in.

It was all making her chores very difficult to complete, as she had to travel further and further from home to find enough berries or herbs to fill her basket. The more she wandered, the more tired she became. Just yesterday, Elain had been so exhausted that she had mistaken belladonna for blueberries as she stumbled back to the cabin she shared with her family.

Mother had scolded her harshly.

Elain was determined not to make the mistake again, and now she had walked so far from home that even with the sun beginning to set, she was still hours from home. She would never make it in time, and she knew better than to dare try – those that prowled under the moonlight were not for humans like herself to survive an encounter with.

She could not run, either, for if she did, all the hard work that she had gathered in her basket would spill out. She would come home empty, and face her mother's wrath. No one in her little village risked arising the infamous temper of Mistress Ronda the Weaver, a woman whose tongue could dull even the butcher's blades.

Knowing her mother, Elain knew her punishment would be something horrible. She might even be forced to dig the next public outhouse in the village square. It was a duty saved for whoever truly angered Mistress Ronda, and that didn't happen very often. The job was filthy, consuming time and energy until whoever had been subjected to it was too tired to be anything less than perfectly behaved.

Mothers would threaten naughty children with taking them to seen Mistress Ronda, and even though the mistress was Elain's own mother, when her father or anyone else had levelled the threat against her as a child, it'd still been just as effective.

No one – not even the village elders or the travelling priestess – messed with Mistress Ronda.

Despite all logic stating that the monsters crawling and hunting through the night were far more dangerous, fifteen years of village life reinforced a fear beyond that of even the undead when Elain thought of her mother's temper.

So, even with the likelihood of her arriving before the last rays of sunlight left the sky back at the small settlement if she ran, Elain would not risk it.

Illogically, losing the contents of her gatherer's basket was almost worse than losing her life.

So instead, Elain would find a shelter close by that she could hide from the horrors beginning to stir.

Author's Note

I know that the chapter is short, but I wont apologize for it. Long chapters get boring, and take forever for the author to finish, but I want to finish this book more than any of my others.

So this entire book is dedicated to my father - @PhillippeAnthonyReid  - Dad you're my greatest inspiration and happy birthday.