Mysterious Creatures

Lyla looked out across the open field, her eyes scanning the landscape for any sign of movement in the tall grass. She stood at the edge of the dark forest, a place few dared to enter for fear of the terrible beasts that lurked within.

Lyla’s focus was not on the infamous woods, however, but out towards the wild grass field that lay in the opposite direction, between the dark forest and the village of Dandelilly. The field was rich with wildflowers of all kinds, thanks to the myriad of seeds dropped over the years by birds flying overhead. It was actually a rather beautiful place and reminded Lyla of a vibrant rainbow, something she rarely got the chance to see.

But Lyla hadn’t come here today to admire the flowers. She had heard from her friend, Edon, that a strange creature had been spotted roaming this field the last few days during the early morning hours. No one had managed to get a decent look at the creature, but her Edon said it had the form of a human and it glowed with an unearthly light. He also said it appeared to have wings, though no one had seen it fly.

Lyla was skeptical when she first heard this and figured he was trying to play a joke on her. But when she ventured out the next morning, she found several pure white feathers in the grass. These were not like any feathers she had seen before, the feathers felt lighter than air and yet were also surprising strong. When she held them to the light, they seemed to glow, as if the feathers had absorbed the light and were reflecting it back. Most surprisingly, Lyla had been holding the feathers when she cut her hand on a thorn bush. Before she could wipe away the blood, the feathers had glowed and somehow absorbed the blood, and had also healed the wound.

Intrigued by this discovery, Lyla had come to the same spot every day before dawn for the past week. If these feathers could heal wounds, it would be a great help to Lyla and her family. So far she had failed to see anything out of the ordinary. As the sun began to rise and the sky changed from velvety darkness to bright blue, Lyla sighed in disappointment. Maybe Edon had been playing a joke after all, she thought. She gazed at the feathers in her hand which she was starting to believe probably came from an exceptionally well-groomed swan. As the dawn broke, Lyla yawned and sank down in the grass with her back against a tree and soon drifted off to sleep.

“Hey!” “Wake up!” Lyla heard the stranger’s voice ringing in her ears as she slowly opened her eyes. Standing in front of her was a girl about her age, dressed in a long, silky gown that was definitely not made for walking in the wilderness. She could see that it had already been stained and torn in several places. “You fell asleep!” the girl shouted at her, her eyes wide in disbelief. “Yes” Lyla said, “thanks for putting a stop to it.” Lyla had no idea who this girl was, but it was clear she had never been in this area before. Her eyes were constantly darting in every direction, as if she expected something terrifying to jump out at her at any second.

“You should never let your guard down so close to the dark forest!” “Haven’t you heard the stories about the fearsome creatures that live in there?”

Lyla rolled her eyes. “Oh, yeah!, Terrible, blood-sucking, monsters! You should get out of here right away!” Lyla said, hoping the girl would leave her alone and go back to wherever she came from. Instead the girl stared at her like she had gone insane.

“I don’t know what you’re doing out here, but I urge you to be more careful. If I hadn’t found you asleep and woken you, a monster could have come out of the forest and eaten you! Believe me, I’ve seen a creature roaming around here the last few nights.”

Lyla’s ears perked up when she heard that. “You have? I’ve been waiting for a creature to show up here for the past few days. It was spotted by one of my friends. What kind of creature did you see? Did you get a good look?” Lyla was now standing up and coming closer to the girl. The girl seemed a little taken aback by Lyla’s sudden interest and took a few steps back. “Before we discuss this further, we must make proper introductions.” She straightened up and smoothed out her fancy gown, even though it was covered with dirt. “My name is Lady Riley Fallow of Dandelilly. Pleased to make your acquaintance.” She extended her hand out to Lyla who frowned and looked at the girl like she was crazy.

“Hmm” the girl cleared her throat and awkwardly moved her hand closer to Lyla’s. “This is where you take my hand and tell me your name.” She whispered as though she was afraid someone would overhear and she didn’t want to Lyla to be embarrassed.

Lyla took the girl’s hand. “My name is Lyla.” The girl kept looking at her like she expected more. “I’m from here and it’s nice to meet you, Lady Riley Fallow of Dandelilly.”

“Oh, please, call me Riley”. Riley seemed pleased with the introductions and moved to stand closer to Lyla.

“So, you say you’ve been waiting to see the creature?” Riley’s long blond hair flowed gently in the morning breeze and the emerging sunshine bounced off of it making it shine. “Yes, I’ve been out here before dawn every day but I haven’t been able to see anything.”

Riley gazed out towards the field, staring towards where the village lay. “Do you mind if I wait here with you? It’s daybreak now but who knows, the creature may show up“ Riley sat down and Lyla shrugged and sat down next to her. “I saw the creature about two days ago, while I was out for my evening walk. It was too far away to see properly, but it looked like a massive animal, with glowing eyes.”

Lyla turned her head towards Riley. “That doesn’t sound like the creature my friend saw. He said he saw something that looked like a woman with long hair and wings and that it glowed with a strange bright light.” Riley’s eyes widened and her heart rate quickened.

“You’ve seen a creature like that?” Her bright blue eyes were staring right into Lyla’s dark green ones and Lyla felt a strong nervous energy coming from her. “No, I haven’t seen it, my friend told me about it” she reminded Riley. “But that’s what I’ve been here waiting for.” Riley gulped and ran her hand through her hair. “Well, perhaps your friend was mistaken. I certainly have never seen or heard of such a creature.”

“Maybe” Lyla said. “I thought he was just messing with me at first, but then I found these out in the field. They’re not like any I have seen before.” Lyla pulled the feathers out of her pocket. They were still a bright, pure white and in the morning sun, they had that strange glow.

Riley looked shocked at gingerly took the feathers from Lyla’s hand. “They also have the power to heal wounds. I cut my hand the other day and these feathers somehow healed me. If I can find more of them, I can help my family. Living in these woods is great, but you can get scratched up now and then.” As Riley turned them over, Lyla noticed a few tears roll down her face. “Are you okay?” Lyla wondered why the feathers would elicit such a reaction from the girl.

Riley took a deep breath and gave the feathers back. “I’m fine” she said, wiping her face. “Your story just took me by surprise.” Lyla put the feathers back in her pocket. “What sort of creature did you come to find, then?” she asked. “I didn’t realize there was more than one hanging out around here. Wait till I tell Edon.”

“Well, like I said, I couldn’t see it properly, but from where I stood, at the edge of the village, it looked like some sort of hairy animal but it was huge and its eyes glowed a haunting yellow color, like a jack-o-lantern.”

“A what-o-lantern” Lyla asked.

“You know, the decorations for All Hallows’ eve. You put them out to keep the monsters away.”

“We don’t do that here.” Lyla said.

“What do you mean, here”

Lyla threw her arms open and gestured to the forest. “Heeerreee” she drawled as she swept her arms over the tress behind them. Riley tilted her head and looked at Lyla with confusion.

“Are you saying you live in the dark forest?”

Lyla nodded her head and Riley stared at her in disbelief.

“How could you possibly live here!” She screeched as she mimicked Lyla’s hand sweeping gesture. “This is the Dark. Forest.” She pronounced each word slowly and loudly.

Lyla rolled he eyes again. “ Oh, wow. Thanks for telling me! All this time I thought I was living in the Bark Forest! Lyla chuckled and turned her attention back to the field.

“Okay, I thought you were a little weird before when you didn’t know how to properly introduce yourself, Riley stammered, “but now I know you’re completely insane.”

“What about you? You walk all the way out here in your fancy flimsy dress to look for some terrible creature all by yourself. I mean, what were you planning on doing if you actually came across it, ask it to properly introduce itself?”

“Of course not.”

“Well, what then?”

“I… I hadn’t thought of that. I just wanted to get a closer look and make sure it didn’t harm anyone in the village.”

Lyla looked at Riley again. She was a skinny, clearly clumsy girl judging by the state of her dress. She carried no weapons, and looked as though this was her first trip outside her village walls.

“And how exactly are you going to stop a massive creature from doing…anything. I don’t want to hurt your feelings but you’re not exactly what I’d call,…strong or intimidating”

Riley huffed and stuck out her chin. “I’ll have you know I’m a lot stronger than I look. If that creature shows up, you’ll be surprised.”

Lyla yawned and stretched back against a tree. “Why don’t you tell me more about this creature you saw? What was it doing when you saw it? Maybe it was just a big deer foraging for food.”

“This was no deer, Miss Lyla of the Dark Forest”, Riley stated as if Lyla should be ashamed.

“It was covered in dark fur, it walked up and down the edge of the forest, and its glowing eyes kept looking out towards the village. That’s why I got worried and started coming out to look for it during the early morning, when I figured it would be getting tired and I could get closer. Maybe find it asleep somewhere and…” Riley looked up then and turned her head.

“And what? Kill it while it’s sleeping?”

“Lyla, I would never harm an animal that poses no threat to me or my family. But this creature is some kind of monster and the way it was staring at my village…I feel that its thinking of coming over and causing havoc.”

“You don’t know that” Lyla said “And it sounds to me that it was just being curious.

“I hope you’re right, Lyla. I hate violence.”

Riley was looking up to the sky and seemed to be trying to look for something among the clouds.

“Do you know something about the feathers?”

“What, no, I’ve never seen them before.” Riley’s heart was beating faster again.

“Are you sure? You seemed to get really upset when you saw them, and your heart rate when up.”

“No, no, I..wait, how do you know my heart rate went up?”

Lyla was puzzled by this question. Uh, because I heard it? You were standing right next to me.

“I wasn’t that close. Do you have some sort of enhanced hearing ability?”

“No, everyone can hear things like that.”

“Like what?”

“You know, heartbeats, pulses, mice scurrying in the grass”

Riley looked dumbfounded at this. “Lyla, normal people can’t hear any of those things”

“Yeah, well normal people don’t go hunting for a giant monster on their own when they have absolutely no hunting skills either.”

Riley took a deep breath. “Okay, well perhaps we’re both a little different.”

Lyla looked back towards the forest. “I’m not different. Everyone who lives here can do what I do.”

“Well then you’re all different! People from my village can’t hear heartbeats and everyone can introduce themselves properly.”

“Then how are you different? Why do think you can kill a giant monster with nothing?”

“I’d rather not talk about it”

“It’s the creature with the wings, isn’t it? You know what it is.”

Riley was silent for a minute.

“Riley!”

“No, I don’t know anything about it!”

“But..”

“No! I told you I have no idea what those feathers are or what the creature is. Now can’t we just sit here together and wait for the creatures to show up.”

“Okay.”

After about an hour of sitting in silence, Lyla stood up.

“Well, I don’t think either creature is showing up anytime soon. I think you should go home and try again later.”

Riley looked disappointed but stood up as well. “I just hope that wolf creature stays away.”

“Yeah, well don’t do anything rash” Lyla said. “I’m pretty sure it doesn’t want to hurt anyone.”

Lyla started walking back into the woods. Riley spun around and shouted after her, “Lyla wait!”

She ran up to her and handed her a bright red scarf. “Here, take this. I have one just like it. Whenever you’re out here waiting for the creature, wear it. I’ll do the same and that way, we’ll be able to see each other when we’re both out looking. Maybe we can help each other if we see something.”

Lyla took the scarf and stashed it into her pocket with the feathers. “Okay, Riley, sounds like a plan.”

Riley smiled and turned to walk back to the village.

Later that night, Riley was getting ready to go back out to look for the creature she had seen. She walked out her house with her red scarf tied snug against her neck. As she stepped outside the village wall, the moonlight hit her and bathed her in its silver light. Riley breathed deeply and let the light sink into her body.

Across the field, standing at the edge of the dark forest, Lyla looked out waiting for the creature to appear. She had tied Riley’s red scarf around her neck and wondered if she would be out there tonight. As she gazed across the landscape, a glowing figure caught her eye. As it moved closer, Lyla could see that the figure had the shape of a woman with long, flowing hair. She could also make out a set of wings on the woman’s back, the feathers radiating with the silver light of the moon. And through the blinding light, Lyla saw something else, a splash of bright red, wrapped around the woman’s neck.

             Riley walked across the field towards the black forest, suddenly, she froze in her tracks. There, standing right at the forest’s edge, was the creature. A massive animal, with the shape of a wolf and eyes glowing bright jack-o-lantern yellow pierced through the light of her wings and meet her own. Now is the time to strike, Riley thought. In this state, she was sure she could fight off this creature and keep her village safe. As she marched towards the beast, something caught her eye. Beneath the midnight fur of the creature was a flash of bright red. Riley stopped dead in her tracks as she realized what it was. The scarf. Riley reached up to clutch her own scarf and the wolf lowered its head in recognition. Riley smiled and shook her head in disbelief. She bowed back to the creature and turned to head back to her village, leaving a trail of feathers in her path.