Ironminder

A Mite Foolish

***
Caught in the nettles, snagged by a snare,
One must be sure to travel with care.
The last sullen creature, who tarried long there,
Brought with them a mess we cannot repair.

So off when the dove, with a message to find her,

Our friend, our folly, our dear Iron minder.
***

The summons was written in looping silver script, delicate and beautiful. It was completely at odds with the ink dark creature that called out to me. Its skin gave off a wet sickly sheen. "Ironminderrrr..." it crooned again in its wet voice. 

"I've been called Ironminder," my voice didn't quiver like it once had when I'd first seen this kind of nonsense. 

"A bargain..." it whispered, scrabbling forward in the dirt toward me. It spanned an impressive distance from foot to claw when it was completely stretched out, easily ten feet. 

I pocketed the summons again, "Were you the one that summoned me?"

"Come...to...retrieve you," its eyes were round saucers, reflecting the light of the streetlamps. 

Not a denial. My gaze strayed to the iron around us: the cars sitting in the street, the lights, the metal filigree on the honors building. 

"What will you have me do?" I could feel the cool kiss of my iron rings. I spun one --a simple band-- around my finger. It was one of my last nervous habits that persisted, I'd worn the skin smooth beneath the band years back.

"A ssssssimilar fare to our lasssst," its voice hissed out like a wheeze. There was a rigidness to how it held itself.

Maybe it was anxious, or maybe it wanted to lunge. I couldn't decipher it either way, but such were the whims of a faerie. Tedious. I was inclined to crumple the summons up and toss it away, to shirk this odd responsibility I'd stumbled upon. But something told me it wouldn't do any good aside from angering this...messenger. Even to me --a human-- that title seemed disingenuous. 

I took a moment to really look at it. It moved like an animal in its death throes, all long unusual limbs, and erratic movements. Its skin was near black and soggy. It half-dragged itself toward me, half crawled. As it moved into the light, I caught a glance of moss and water weeds dangling, intermingled with the scraps of fabric that at one time might have been clothes. That decaying scent of a bog washed over me as it approached. 

It was ungainly and horrifying. One would call it a creature that looked...mostly...human, in the sense that it had a similar shape but its proportions and the way it moved were off. It looked like it had extra joints somewhere in its form that my eyes just happened to skate over whenever I looked at it. 

It scribbled just a little closer, close enough that if it had tried it might have been able to reach my ankle. I held up my hand, the one with all of my rings, and the creature politely stopped, which inclined me toward distrustfulness. 

"Our sumonsssss..." its wheezing voice was wet and garbled, choking over the sound of water in its lungs. 

"I received your summons." What can I do for you? How can I help you? What do you need? "For what reason have you called upon me?"

"We have...a matter. It needssss attending."

"Should I accept, where am I to go?"

Its large glass-like clouded eyes swirled as it stared up at me from where it lay crouched on the grass, "Through the Reedlings and into the Darkmarsh."