Chapter 2 – A Strange Creature
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           The brisk night air bit at Aella’s cheeks as she exited the old library, book in hand. She was tired, both mentally and physically, after a long day of reading through her mother’s old books. Thoughts raced through her mind of her aunt; who was she, would she even know Aella, would she accept her as family after a lifetime apart? She absentmindedly walked through the woods as she got lost in this train of thought.

            “Penny for your thoughts?” Yriel asked.

            Aella had almost forgotten about the strange man following behind her. She was not sure yet how she felt about Yriel. He was quiet and kept his thoughts to himself making him hard to read. When he did speak, he was dry and sarcastic. He was obviously very powerful and much older than he looked. While the body she saw looked to be in his early thirties, the fact he knew her grandmother told her he was at least around the age of 60.

            “How old are you?” she questioned without looking back at him.

            “That’s really what you were thinking about?” He smirked and raised his hand to his face, resting his chin in his hand. “Don’t you know its rude to ask someone their age?”

            “Tsk. Figures you wouldn’t give me a straight answer.”

            “Well, ask something a bit more polite then.”

            Aella had another question mulling in the back of her mind since their first encounter. “When you opened that black portal, what was that? It absorbed my orb.”

            “Ah, yes” he replied with a big toothy grin. “Impressive, right? That’s just a little trick I’ve learned to get rid of whatever annoys me.”

            Aella turned to look at him and waited for an explanation but he just stood smiling at her in silence. He is so strange she thought to herself. “So…. where do these annoyances go? Do they just disappear from existence?”

            “No.”

            Another stretch of awkward silence. Aella sighed. “Okay. Where did my orb go then?”

            “I don’t know, really. It just opens up another portal somewhere.”

            Aella’s eyes widened in disbelief. “What?” she shouted. “So that could have released my orb into a town?”

            “Yes, I suppose. Or someone’s house.” His grin widened more as Aella frowned at him disapprovingly. “Is it my turn to ask questions now?” Without waiting for a response, he asked, “Who is Elaysia?”

            Aella was still in shock at the revelation that this man released dangerous magic into the world without a second thought. She began to think a monster lived behind his handsome façade. “She is my friend, although she feels more like family. We have been together since I lost my mother. Why do you ask?”

            “She knew your mother?”

            His abrupt tone gave Aella the feeling Yriel did not trust Elaysia. “So she says…” Aella said quietly. Her stomach let out a low rumble. “I don’t want to talk about that right now, I’m starving.” She set her mother’s book down on a nearby stump and pulled a knife from its sheath on her thigh. “Shall we look for food?”

            Yriel shrugged, uninterested in her request. “Go ahead.”

            “Right.” Aella was growing impatient with the man, tired and drained from hunger. He leaned against a tree and picked at his nails as she stared at him. “Fine, suit yourself. Stay here. I’ll be back with my dinner shortly.” Aella closed her eyes and focused her energy into her hands. She mouthed an incantation to herself and the runic etchings on her arms began to glow. She slammed her right palm into the ground and a light shot up from that spot into the night sky.

            “Cute trick,” Yriel said.

            Aella did not bother to reply. Not knowing her surroundings, she had placed a light beacon at their makeshift campsite. She did not want to get lost in the woods at night for fear of the cold and the unknown creatures that may be lurking around. “Make yourself useful and start a fire, will you?”

            “Aren’t you worried your little beacon will attract unwanted attention?”

            “I figured you could handle a few monsters. Just fling them into someone’s bedroom while they sleep,” she replied sarcastically.

            Yriel chuckled and winked at her, “Finally a fun idea from you.”

            Aella rolled her eyes and turned on her heels, walking off into the woods. The starlight faintly lit her surroundings, but she was used to hunting on sound and instinct in the dark. Living off the land was all she knew. She and Elaysia had lived alone, traveling, and making campsites away from towns and settlements, avoiding people as much as they could other than days they went to the market for supplies.

            About fifteen minutes had passed before she found a rabbit den at the base of a large oak tree. She spotted a rabbit foraging and readied her knife. Holding her breath, she threw the knife, missing the small animal by a quarter of an inch. The rabbit sprinted into the night and Aella immediately gave chase. She snatched her knife from the dirt as she passed it. After several yards, she found herself in a clearing alight with dimly glowing vines that crept up the trees and intertwined with branches and shrubs around the edge of the field. Wildflowers grew in abundance near a pond that burst with light and gold glittering particles that swirled in the air. It was eerily quiet and the glowing pond cast strange shadows in tall grass. There were no sounds of nocturnal animals calling to one another, no owls hooting in the dark, no sounds at all other than a breeze rustling the overgrown meadow. She was so focused on her prey she did not notice the lack of living creatures around the clearing, or the fact that the trees around her were dying and withering.

      The rabbit darted into a bush near the water. As she neared, the pond began to ripple and a dark shape rose to the surface. A strange creature appeared before her; one she had never encountered before. It pulled itself out of the water on two thin arms with three gnarled claws and stopped only feet in front of her. The water rolled off its smooth, thick skin and began to crystalize as its warm body met the frigid air. Its head resembled a flower bud nearly ready to bloom, void of eyes with a small dainty mouth that lacked teeth. Two holes above the mouth twitched as the creature took in deep, rapid breaths. It exhaled and droplets of water sprayed Aella. She held her breath and dared not move, unsure if the creature was dangerous. Swirls of thin vines drifted on the back of its head as if suspended in water. At the end of a frail neck was a humanoid torso attached to a spider-like thorax colored in spotted patterns of pastel pink and vibrant orange. Six legs supported the creature’s body, each a thick vine writhed and curled as the creature moved.

      Aella was in awe, eyes wide, unable to look away from the strange yet beautiful thing. It stood eerily still, staring, mouth slightly open. The creaking and moaning of the trees broke the silence. The vines around the glade began constricting, snapping trees in half and knocking dead limbs to the ground. Aella’s heart began racing as vines burst from the ground throughout the clearing, sending clumps of dirt and grass flying. The vines rocketed twenty feet up, violently swatting at the air and slamming to the ground, shaking the earth as they beat down. The rabbit who had taken refuge near the pond darted from its safety, scared out by the violent onslaught. It raced across the field, zigzagging around the shafts that protruded from the ground. Just before it made it to the edge of the clearing and into the safety of the forest, a vine slammed down on its body, crushing it.

      The creature let out a hiss and glided with unnerving speed to the rabbit’s carcass, its vine-like appendages curling and slithering like snakes. Aella was still frozen in terror, unable to think, unable to move. She saw the creature’s tentacle-like limbs scoop up what was left of the rabbit and lift it to its dainty mouth. Then, to Aella’s shock, the creature’s mouth widened, unhinging its jaw and stretching the skin to make a gaping hole large enough to accommodate the rabbit’s entire body. Razor-sharp teeth, oozing with thick saliva, began sliding from its gums. The tentacles shoved the rabbit into the hole and with a sharp snap the mouth shut and the sickening sound of bones snapping made Aella sick to her stomach.

      The creature seemed to have forgotten about Aella as it dined on the rabbit, gurgling and cooing like a happy child. Aella’s feared she would be next and the only thing she could think of was an escape. Adrenaline surged through her and she began to sprint to the tree line while the creature was distracted. The moment she moved the creature jerked around to face her and wailed a high-pitched scream followed by several deep, guttural clicks.  Blood dripped from its teeth which still had chunks of meat wedged between them. The vines, which had begun to recede as the creature consumed its meal, once again rocketed back into the air and plummeted to the ground where Aella stood.  She jumped to her side, evading the large vine that tried to crush her, hitting the ground hard on her left shoulder. She pushed herself to her feet and continued her mad dash to safety, but the vines continued their assault, always crashing down in her path as if guessing the route of her mad dash. Aella was quick and was able to dodge and sidestep the attacks. She thought about fighting but knew she wouldn’t have time to summon her orbs and target the creature all while dodging the lightning-fast attacks against her.

      Her legs began to ache as she pushed her body to its limits. She ignored the pain, pushed through the burning in her lungs, and ran as fast as her body could take her, zig-zagging through the field to outwit the creature’s attempt to block her path.  There was a large boulder just a few feet to her left. She ran in a straight path, parallel to the rock as a vine above her head quivered, ready to slam down in front of her. As the vine plummeted, she leaped to her left and landed on the side of the boulder. She clung to the side, pulling herself up until she stood atop it. It was as she thought. The vines no longer thrashed. They were still. The vine that had just landed stayed upon the ground, sliding about, searching for the body it was trying to catch. 

      The creature let out a stream of rhythmic clicks and shrieks as it glided towards the boulder. Aella’s moment of relief turned back to panic as the creature closed the gap at an amazing rate. She believed it only hunted based on the vibrations on the ground or possibly sound as well, but if it were to slide a vine up on that rock she would have nowhere to hide, no way to avoid it. It was time to fight back if she could. She took a deep breath, focusing what little energy she had. The runic marks on her arms began to faintly glow, waxing and waning as she breathed hard, still winded from her run. She felt weak, her legs shook, and her arms felt heavy. An energy ball began to form as the marks lit up from her upper arms down to her forearms, but it was small and nowhere near what she would normally summon.

      She wished at this moment that her magic was tied to emotion like certain other magic users. Fire potency is tied to anger, she knew she could easily master that. Water magic is tied to both fear and compassion. Earth magic tends to be erratic, tied to manic and depressive states. While a mage can use magic at any time, certain emotions or states cause some of the elemental magics to be much more potent as well as dangerous. Aella’s light magic seemed to only respond to how much energy she could muster. While she could unleash great force at the beginning of an encounter she suffered as the battle went on, waning as her energy levels did.

     “Crap,” she managed to choke out between pants.

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