Terror

"You should turn back, Hue?" A voice whispers in their head. It's him again. Always shaking in his boots, afraid of every shadow lurking in the corner. But what does he know. Nothing of what you must face.

"Are you sure you wanna go in there, Hue?" A younger voice, a girls voice, one they remember fondly yet cannot bear to face let alone answer.

They take a deep breadth. And exhale.

"I can do this." Hue whispers to themselves.

"I can do this..."

****

"Elder Lio, where are we going." The young girl asks, her hair trailing behind her in a great tangled mess as she whips the stick haphazardly in her hand at bushes. Her demeanor bored, tired, and confused.

"Patience little one, we are almost there." A clean shaven man with a bald head dressed in simple attire of a hooded cowl walked slowly along guided by his staff. His sight poor, his gait slow and tentative.

"You said we would be doing something fun." She complained, as she tossed the stick overhead into the woods scattering a quarrel of sparrows. They took to the skies in a flutter above the tree line as she skipped ahead. Bringing her hand to her forehead, she scanned the forest but found nothing in sight. Beyond more trees, bushes, and wildlife. "This isn't much fun wandering the forest, Amilio."

She said this with a straight face turning to him, expecting an apology. She in fact had used his full name. And she knew how he hated that.

Yet he simply smiled back at her and beckoned with his staff.

"Go see what is beyond that tangle of vines," He prodded with his walking stick guiding her. "Perhaps then your sourness will fade into delight."

Curious. She followed his lead and leapt through the vines. Her movements gracefully intertwining through the knots as she emerged upon the other side. And before her was a hot springs. Steam rose slowly from a stone enclosure that enveloped the pool of bubbling water.

She had never been to a hot springs before but had heard of its healing properties. Then in her heart of hearts, she knew why Lio brought her here. A flutter fell over her.

"This is not it is it?" She asked more rhetorically than anything else. She dared not believe.

Lio simply smiled and shrugged.

"Don't joke with me old man." She responded as she dipped her ravaged finger into the pool. The water was hot to the touch and there was a scent here she couldn't put her nose on. A lone tear made its way down her face without her permission as she brought the finger up to inspect it with her own two eyes.

Lo and behold. It was a finger. With a clean cut nail and dark brown skin. Nothing different from any other person in there small village of Talong. But as she looked down to the part of her finger that had remained untouched by the pool was a pocked mark skin. Weeping with open wounds and peeling dried skin. Her body. From her head down to her toe was covered in such wounds. She had been born as what people thought to be a leper.

"This can't be..." She said as tears began to well up in her eyes. The simple thought of having normal skin overwhelming the young shunned girl. She leapt to her feet and ran to Lio wrapping her arms around the old man and buried her face in his chest. A smile so big from ear to ear leapt to her mouth as she tried to form words of thanks.

He simply pat her on the back gently as he scanned the sacred springs.

"It took me some time to find this, it has been eons since I've last step foot in Valerion's glade. He was a greater healer, like our Elder Po Ung but he was cursed with a body that would not heal from even the smallest of wounds. Legends say he lived thousand of years under the protection of this here forest. And that spring that you just put your finger into was where he had worked his magic."

The memory was a fond one as they had stepped into that pool. Forever transformed from that day forward to someone not quite themselves yet. But soon to be.

And now, Hue stood in the same place they had tossed that stick into the woods. A tangle of vines lay before them. And a foreboding feeling fell upon their stomach.

"Let's go back," Pleaded the young girl. "You don't have to do this."

Hue smiled half hysterically to themselves. If not them who then they wondered. Lio. A flash of an old man with a giant gash through his chest flashed before their eyes. Pain struck them then, one not of hurt but of loss. Or Elder Po Ung... His body twisted and broken like a rag doll outside their hut. Or any of the druids had raised them these last fifteen years.

No there is no one else. But me.

Stop. A gripped tightened itself along their upper arm. They turned back to look into the face of the young man. His features elvish despite being of human descent.

"Let go..." Hue warned him. But his eyes were sorrowful and pleading. They wanted to turn away from him but they couldn't.

There must be another way.

"There isn't," Hue answered turning downward to mossy floor beneath her feet. And with that they turned abruptly, the grip unable to hold let them briskly make their way through the vines just as they did when they were young.

On the other side was that same bubbling pool that healed her of all the hate, the mockery, the disgust, the pain, the suffering and the pure humiliation. And resting, in its waters, writhing in pain was the demon.

It's skin as dark as night. It's eyes, cat like yellow with a slit down its center that widened at their approach. A forked tongue slipped between its fanged mouth as it brought itself up on all fours.

It's great wound that had been pierced along its flanks was visibly regenerating before their eyes. But they couldn't keep their attention away from the beasts fangs and claws for long.

Around the beast, the woods seem to expand and contract with the immense power emanating from the vile creature. Its crooked wings, webbed and scaly. It appeared now like a monster where upon their town it had walked on two feet as a handsome peddler. Little did they know what horrors lay deep within the eyes of this creature.

It let out a low growl as it began to pace around Hue. It's great talon claws clicking against the stone and crushing it beneath its weight as it moved slowly and smoothly never taking it's deadly eyes of the young druid.

There was courage to muster, but Hue couldn't find it at the moment. They froze instead holding tightly to Lio's spear. The same one that had pierced the beasts hide. Blood still trickling down its tip. Something the beast, they were sure, noticed and didn't at all appreciate.

"You are brave..." It said in their mind like a thought of their own, but with a sinister twang. "To come for me despite what you have seen." Images of ravaged bodies and people screaming out in pain echoed in their mind.

But Hue simply refocused as they had been taught. They brought forth images of happier moments in her life. Fishing with the catfolk and swimming with mermen.

"Do not try to resist.. chiild." It spoke softly as the demon began to approach her with a claw raised high. "Simply surrenderrr." It cackled.

Shaking fiercely against the beasts voice. Hue brought the spear to bear just in time as the claw came down heavy and fast. It's tip piercing a hole in the center of it's paw. But it didn't stop the force of the blow from crashing down on the small human.

Looking off to the side, their face buried beneath the beast outstretched arm. Breathing profusely spraying dirt and dust away from their face as they did so to gather the strength to fight being crushed.

The beast brought it's face down to their eyes so they could meet and opened it's maw wide.

"I will feast upon your ragged body and break you against these trees for your insolence." It spoke cackling at its own anticipation to inflict as much pain as it could upon her. "And when I'm done I will ravage that pretty body of yours until you scream out in agony."

With that it clasped it's claws around Hue and lifted them high. Their limbs going slack with the force of downward push as it smashed them into the very rocky ground surrounding the pool.

The night suddenly encroached upon them. Everything was black.

*****

"You can do this... You can do this..." He reached into his pocket fingering a silvie coin hidden there for luck. Breathing heavily, they looked at the door. Pictured the outside world and simply shuddered.

"NOPE! nope nope nope. Not doing this... can't do it. No, not at all."

Lio simply transcribing on a desk nearby looked over to Hue and lifted their glasses peered at the young man and then returned back to dipping their quill into a bottle of ink.

"Lio... why is this a thing."

He did not answer.

"I mean. Do I have to?"

He did not answer.

In defeat, the young man flopped onto an old deer-skinned armchair and struggled to make out why responsibilities were even a thing.

"Why must I," He said pressing his fingers into his chest. "Me - give the speech. You know I hate speeches. You know I hate crowds. You know I hate ceremonies."

Lio breaking his silence turned to the young man. "And that is precisely why you must."

"You know that makes no sense right?" Hue retorted.

"There comes a point in you life where you are obligated to do something you may not enjoy, want, or even dare do. But it doesn't change the fact;" He said rising from his chair reaching for his staff. He walked over to him lifting him by the nape of his chest vest and dragging him along like a petulant child over to the door. "You, not them, not they, not him, nor her. But You. Must do the thing that is expected of you. Now go... And make a fool of yourself."

*****

And odd memory to have, Hue thought as the pressure of the beasts claws came swiftly back to their consciousness. Blood was dripping down their mouth now. And the pain was excruciating.

But a smile made it's way to their lips despite the absurdity of it all. The humor like a second wind came upon them and they began to laugh out loud. The beast paused a moment in disbelief then curiosity as it brought its nose to their face.

"What is so amusing, plaything. Have you lost your mind?" It spoke deep within Hue's thoughts prodding for the thought that provoked the laughter. Finding only a mix mash of emotions. Fear, amusement and disbelief.

"You could say that," Hue said through gritted teeth. While quietly... desperately... reaching out for Lio's spear that was almost within reach. "You see..." They said meeting the beasts stare. "You are terrifying. But nothing compared to a crowd of my people waiting to see me address them as my brothers and sisters. Nothing compared to loss of their lives at the whim of your own thirst for bloodshed. Nothing compared to the pain I will inflict upon you in this life or the next. For I will find you. And I will spit in your eye."

They said as they hacked and spat into the beast's face. Causing it to flinch in surprise.

"Just like that." They said as their fingers wrapped around the haft of Lio's spear. Bringing it to bear, it pierced it into the side of it's maw. Causing the beast to rear and release hold of Hue, for just enough time for him to roll to the side.

A roar so loud. It shook the very floor beneath him and scattered all the animals in the area away from the glade. As the beast brought its attention back on Hue. Who now stood defiantly, no longer frozen in fear.

The heart swelling and beating with determination to live. The beast looked then upon Hue in wonder. A light was beginning to emanate from around them. Almost blinding.

"There was a time where terror ruled my life. I ran from myself. I hated who she was. I turned away from what he was supposed to do."

Hue was practically yelling this at the top of their lungs as the light suddenly caressed itself around them forming white flowing wings. Their clothes slowly began to morph around the young druid into striking armor of silver and gold.

"It was within the heart of the man, you had murdered. The man whose heart your ripped out that I found my salvation. To know that I was a child of the heavens whose duty it is to banish demon like you to the hell you had crawled out of."

Hovering now, the spear rose from the ground and lightly slid into Hue's outreached hand. Their skin pristine and sun kissed brought it to bear.

"Now you too, will know terror."