Something was ringing in her ear. Lalauri couldn’t quite tell what it was, though. She also could not remember why it was that she was now laying face flat on the cobblestone ground.
When she finally gathered up the strength to sit herself upright, Lalauri looked around the village square and all that had happened instantly came back to her. Panok was now gone, the entire area was now fully ruined and abandoned apart from herself, and the Waxen Witch was nowhere in sight. Whether she managed to limp off to safety somewhere, or perhaps died of her wounds and shrivelled up like the rest of the corpses, Lalauri couldn’t say. Perhaps she was completely obliterated by the blast. Who knew? Truthfully, Lalauri no longer had the energy to care much about it, let alone to try and search for her remains—a decision she prayed she would not come to regret later on.
Raining down on everything in the square was an innumerable amount of tiny, green, burning specks of phosphorous-like dust. Presumably, they were what was left of Panok. They slightly singed Lalauri’s skin as they fell and made contact with her, but she didn’t mind as it didn’t hurt that much. Her body was already healing from the burns of the explosion and the wounds she had gained from the fight. She could already feel her bonds mending as they moved back into their proper places.
Lalauri looked around and her eyes landed on the Anthem standing upright and off towards the other side of the square. When she walked up to it, she saw that it was not simply sticking out of the ground, but instead, it was sticking out of a body. Panok’s body. She had thought only moments ago that it was obliterated, but laying before her were the gaunt and shrivelled remains of the upper half of a mutant human body. The deformed body was complete with a demonic-looking head, glowing green eyes, and Panok’s curved ram horns jutting out of its head. Lalauri figured that this must have been how Panok had manifested inside the village; he had taken one of the villagers as a host and warped it to his specifications. To be taken over—fully possessed, and transformed in such a way, a shiver ran up Lalauri’s spine at the thought of what it must have felt like for the damned villager in question.
Deciding that she would like some sort of trophy for her troubles to add to her collection, Lalauri removed Anthem from the mutant’s chest and used it to carve off the head of the fallen host of Panok. She also took the ephemeral hand that she had already cut off from Panok during the fight. She then looked up and saw that the specks of glowing green dust had now completely fallen, and the twilight of the morning too had passed, leaving only a clear blue morning sky and a dazzling yellow sun.
Just for a moment, as twilight passed into the blue of a proper day sky, Lalauri allowed herself to soak in the warm, golden rays of the sun, and then she headed off towards the edge of the adytum to meet with Keridwen and the Hounds.
*
When she finally exited out of the hidden village’s borders and back into the forest-jungle of the Greater Wilderness, she was surprised by the carnage that was now between her and the horses that they took to get there; the ground was now littered with the bodies of dead mutant villagers and other monsters. Standing above the corpses were the Hounds of Twilight, who were curiously appearing somewhat faded themselves in the light of the morning sun. Almost like ghosts in daylight.
“What’s all this about?” Lalauri asked, addressing Razzalar.
“Some of the convicted icon’s lesser demons tried to attack us while we waited for you.” Razzalar answered. “They failed. However, I’m afraid it proved to be too much for the girl.”
“What do you mean? What does that mean?” Lalauri asked, somewhat frantically.
“While she remains unharmed, physically, I’m afraid the demons scared the poor child into hysterics. Although, she seems to have calmed down somewhat since then. Observe.” Razzalar and the other Hounds moved out of the way so that she could view Keridwen for herself. What she saw caused her to gasp.
While it was true that she remained uninjured, she was not unscathed. Keridwen’s once beautiful auburn hair was now a stark, petrified white—not that unlike Lalauri’s own hair—and she was shaking like mad. Lalauri rushed over to where the little eight-year-old was sitting on a large boulder by the horses and knelt down to her eye level.
“Oh, you poor thing…” said Lalauri, checking her over just to ensure there were no injuries. Then she stood up again and turned back to Razzalar. I need you to go back and check on something in the village for me. Please.” She added quickly, in order to not make it seem like she was trying to order the celestial around.
“Yes?” said the Hound.
“When Panok held me captive, there was a cage on a wagon full of children. I told them I would come back to them to help them…please, I need you to go back and find those children for me.”
“Very well. We will go look for them.”
“Also! I’ll need as many of the bodies of the paladins I came with that you can find. That includes the body and severed head of Gennady’s son, a werewolf, to use as evidence for when I tell the Church of all this.” She told them where to find the bodies of the two and when they agreed, they all began disappearing into thin air, off to carry out the tasks. Lalauri thanked him, and when all the Hounds of Twilight left, she went and sat down on the ground cross-legged in front of Keridwen.
“Hello.” Said Lalauri.
“…Hi.” Keridwen sniffled.
“You’ve been very strong, you know. I don’t know if I would be able to handle everything that you’ve been through these past several hours.”
“Thank you…Miss Lauri?”
“Yes?” said Lalauri, ignoring the fact that she got her name wrong. It was close enough. She could correct her later.
“What do I do now? My home is ruined. My friends are gone…and my parents…my parents are…”
“Here. Come here, child.” Lalauri opened up her arms, and the little girl slid off the boulder to come to give her a hug as she sat in her lap, silently crying into Lalauri’s armour. In that instant, Lalauri was very grateful that it was the Hounds that had slayed the girl’s parents so that she did not have to. She doubted that the girl would be this receptive if it were the other way around. “I don’t know what exactly the future looks like for you,” Lalauri went on, stroking the girl’s new stark white hair which now matched her own. Then she took a deep breath, preparing herself for the commitment she was about to make to the little girl, and then said, “But what I can tell you is that…you can stay with me. I’ll take care of you from now on. I’ll protect you, and anyone that tries to hurt you will have to answer to me from now on. Okay?”
Keridwen then looked up at her with large tearful eyes and nodded at her. “Thank…thank you.”
“You’re welcome, dear. Now come on. Let’s get back on our feet and…we’ll do our very best to shake this one off and put what happened here behind us. I’ll help you get up on one of these horses so we can begin our trip home. Have you ever ridden a horse before?”
As Lalauri helped the girl onto one of the horses, the Hounds materialized behind her, having returned from their search for the abducted children with only the dead bodies of the werewolf and the paladins in tow. Lalauri looked at them questioning them wordlessly, hoping they had found something. However, her questioning look was met with Razzalar shaking his head. The children were gone. To where though would be anyone’s guess, but Lalauri had some ideas of what might have happened to them. None of them were pleasant.
In an attempt to not worry Keridwen about this just yet, Lalauri put on her best smile and turned back to the girl to help her settle onto the saddle of her horse. Then she tied the severed trophies from Panok’s earthly body as well as the bodies of Gennady and Sir Anxo onto the horses she needed to carry them. When she was done, she removed the saddles of the unused horses and set them free into the Greater Wilderness. Finally, she hopped onto her own horse, sitting in the saddle behind Keridwen, and then they, the Hounds, and the other horse began making their way home.
Lalauri had so many questions that were racing through her mind—not the least of which was how on earth was she going to be a mother figure to this poor girl. She was trying her best not to worry about it, though. For no matter what came next—as He did that night—Lalauri knew that the Faun had it all figured out already, and so she looked up at the gorgeous sunlit sky above and dared to smile, confident that the Faun would continue to guide her, his knight, in the direction that she needed to go in all things.
The End.
