“Leon? What is it?” I heard myself asking, confused. His expression was drawn tight, his dark eyes piercing through the room from the doorway he had burst through. I got up, making sure to secure Estrakulius to me quickly.

“Trouble. We got a distress call from one of the outer-lying villages not too far from here. Saddle up, you’re with me. Why the hell aren’t you wearing your Comm?” His voice was aggravated, and I began to move as he spoke. Malakaii who’d settled back in his chair caught the hand of Alice who had been trying to follow me, while Khaos scampered down my body as I ran quickly outside.

“Be careful Yuzuki!” Alice’s small voice reached me. I turned and gave her a small smile waving to her and Malakaii before following Leon out the door. Both of us grabbed our horses and after a few short minutes, we were in the sky.

“Leon, what’s going on? What about the distress call? What happened?” I called to him as he flew further away from Warrior City. I’d never been this deep into the world, but that was not my main concern as he urged us on faster. His raven black hair whipped out behind him, hands holding tightly to the mane of the painted steed he rode. 

“We got a distress call shortly after you left this morning for Malakaii’s. We do our best to make sure that anyone not living within the Warrior City has access to communication with us. The voice on the other end said that the village was being attacked by a group of Tisin. The poor girl...she was killed right there on the call I think. We barely got the village location out of her before she started screaming, and the sounds of battle cut into the call. The worst part, we could hear she was not the only one screaming. Voices of a hundred people reached our ears.” Leon answered me as he scanned the world below. My blood ran cold as he spoke. This village had a hundred people in it. I felt I was being extremely literal, but the way he spoke, his voice was grave, the usual spark of mischief that I’d noticed in his eyes over time was not there, and his body atop his horse was rigid. “I have already dispatched a good portion of the Warriors under me. CiCi and Claus had covered the three nearby villages, in case the pack moved on to them.”

“This doesn’t happen often I take it?” I asked, keeping my eyes peeled for any sign of civilization down below.

Leon shook his head, his hard-cut face solemn as he looked at me and simply answered with, “This is the first time.”

“Is it known to be a particularly big village?” I asked.

“Most of the villages in limbo have anywhere between one hundred and five hundred residents.” He answered quietly. “This was one of our medium size village locations.”

We flew in disturbed silence, each lost in our own thoughts. During our time together we had both found we were comfortable in our own silence. Never once had I tried to pry into his private thoughts nor did he ever try to pry into mine. The noisy Kora had told me that many were jealous of the time that Leon spent with me. He had not taken to anyone in such a way since they could remember. This flattered me, but I couldn't help but think perhaps if women spent a little less time drooling on him, he would be more open to talking with them. Kora had laughed at me when I said so and told me in a matter-of-fact voice that I was 'absolutely astoundingly right' in her opinion. She'd told her best friend Rachel the same thing.

Kora spoke a lot about this Rachel. I couldn't help but note how her voice naturally softened and how adoring her voice became when she spoke about the girl. I had yet to meet her, but apparently, she was Elliot's older sister. And when I say older, I mean older by fifteen minutes. I couldn't help but be a bit jealous of Kora's affection for Rachel. I wanted a friend that I loved that much, someone I could tell everything to, casting my heart and soul at them like it was automatically assumed it would be caught safely. Someone like Yuki. Then again I couldn’t imagine just sharing my business with anyone openly.

It was only a short time that I had been in limbo compared to my years of training in the living world, and one could not completely forsake the habits of an entire lifetime. To this day my dreams were haunted by the fierce training sessions my father had put me through. Always in the dreams he was punishing me for the way I had forsaken everything since arriving in Limbo.

I thought about all these things, instead of focusing on what Leon had told me. There was no need to stress myself out before I was actually involved in the situation. I myself, did not feel any emotional distress about how many people seemed to have died. I was more anxious about the way they had died. It seemed cruel and from the sounds of it, it was an unusually large group of Tisin. From what I had learned here in Limbo, Tisin were mostly solitary creatures. Most who traveled in pairs usually ended up turning on each other in fits of rage and hunger. Already, I wanted to get to the bottom of it. If Tisin were displaying unusual grouping behaviors could it be that they were evolving? And if so, what triggered it?

When we reached the ground our horses tucked their wings away. The first thing I noticed my mare did was flare her nostrils, and she was prancing uneasily before I could even dismount. I tethered her to the tree outside of the village where the other horses were, hoping that giving her the company of other equines would comfort her. A horse is sensitive to the scent of death, and I could even smell the scent of death from our location outside the blood-soaked village.

I could feel the heaviness of death in the air, like a disgusting aura of terror and agony. The atmosphere of the area just felt… wrong. I shuddered as I joined the others at the gateway of the village, just in time for Leon to order a report. I noticed Ivan and Elliot standing in the small group that stood there, and Kora was another familiar face I saw. There were two in the group I did not recognize.

One was a woman with dark skin that looked like scorched wood or deep rich earth. Her eyes when she looked at me were olive green and as I got closer, I could see the black streaks within them, a bit more prominent than the yellow or red that usually lay hidden in green eyes. Her hair seemed to be solid curls down to her waist and again when I came closer I could see they were actually dreaded locks of hair. She was tall, almost as tall as Leon was, her body slender but every time she shifted her stance, muscles could be seen rippling under her skin and it reminded me of a constricting snake. She bore white marks on her face, lines in a pattern that I did not understand. My eyes caught a glimpse of a bow, it was pure white and polished. I turned my attention to the other girl.

She was a pretty thing with light brown hair that was perhaps to the bottom of her shoulder blades. Her eyes were crystal blue. She was taller than I was, though that wasn’t uncommon. It seems the curse of being vertically challenged had followed me to the afterlife. The build of her body was petite and balanced. Through her uniform’s sleeveless top, I could see the girl had barely any muscle on her bones, and she built softly compared to the rest of us girls who did a lot of fighting. She stepped forward, giving a respectful nod to Leon, who I’d come to stand next to.

“I am Rachel, sir. If you would like a report I can happily give it.” She spoke in a soft voice. I was surprised as I looked to Elliot, remembering that this was his sister, and compared them. They were similar in facial structure, and petite framed bodies, but that was where the similarities ended. The blond boy stepped forward with his sister and gave her an encouraging smile. She looked like she was about to burst into tears, and I stepped forward instinctively as she seemed to stagger in her steps.

Leon nodded and crossed his arms, while she launched into a report. As I listened to the report, I took in the looks on everyone’s faces. Everyone was solemn, their faces shadowed with a haunted sadness and confusion. I shivered as the heavy air drew in around me and threatened to darken my mood further. It was as though the sadness on their faces, sadness for people they did not even know was contagious. I steeled myself when I caught myself feeling sad as I listened to the report Rachel was giving. There was no point in that. With our type of duty - such sadness would only weaken your resolve, and distract you from the current situation.

“We got here as the last of the Tisin were leaving. Nakita, Thomas, and Elliot managed to purify a few, but they all fled. All of us have swept the area for survivors, but none were found. Kora and I were connected with our Soulmates the entire time, and trying to activate our abilities. If there was anyone alive, Kumumgwe and Shion would have found them. I am afraid,” she paused briefly, “there is no one left of the village. The casualty count, though incomplete, is at one hundred and fifty-three dead. But the strange thing is, none of them were eaten. They are still…corpses. I’ve never seen anything like this!” Rachel’s voice broke as she spoke, and she was visibly shaking. Her eyes were brimming with unspilled tears, and I shifted, torn between the feeling of discomfort and confusion.

One hundred and fifty-three souls were lost. That was sad to me, but I found myself void of any real emotion on the situation. I knew this was a callous thing, due to the mournful looks on everyone’s face. Perhaps it was simply because death had never bothered me before. Or perhaps it was due to the fact that I couldn’t change the situation. It was enough to perturb me, but not enough to evoke a feeling of genuine sadness. Instead, I wanted to move forward, figure out what happened, and most importantly I wanted to figure out how to prevent this from happening again.

Elliot wrapped an arm around her shoulder, and she sighed, bringing her hands to her chest. It was then I noticed the stick she was holding. It was about thirty-one centimeters long, a light white color I’d find out later called White Oak. Creamy light yellow sand stuck to the surface of this stick. It had three bulbs at the end, like a branch that was about to split into three thick strands. I realized that it must have been her soulmate, the Kumumgwe she mentioned. “Damn it. I’m sorry you guys had to see that.” He muttered softly, and I noticed the entire group seemed to share looks and squirm uncomfortably. Leon sighed, running a hand through his long ebony hair.

“What is it?” I found myself demanding, sending a look of alarm through the group as Leon’s eyes focused once more on Rachel. She gave me a questioning look, though she didn’t have time to focus on me as Leon made an impatient noise in his throat, his eyes narrowed. Thomas stepped forward now, clearing his throat nervously.

“The corpses… they were visibly mauled by Tisin. However… each of their souls is still intact. None of them have been devoured.” He stated. I didn’t have any experience in the field but enough studying had told me that a Tisin who left a soul attached to its kill was completely unheard of.

“Isn’t devouring the soul how a Tisin grows in power and survives? Why would they leave their sustenance behind? And so much of it?” I asked, frowning. The scowl on Leon’s face said more than enough about how he didn’t have the answers. Instead, he turned and headed to the village. I followed right behind him, my hand on Estrakulius’ hilt.

Entering the village, the smell of death and carnage hit me, and I could feel the twisting of my gut, as the smell made it turn. People had been frightened when they died and, in large numbers, it left a putrid amount of evidence. Not only the stench of lost bowels lingered in the air, but the scent of dried blood. The metallic smell settled on my tongue and I could taste rust in the back of my throat. I swallowed hard, cringing at the scent and sight of the village.

Leon stopped as he lay eyes on the first corpses on the ground. I was right behind him, and I frowned in confusion. They looked like regular corpses to me, ravaged by teeth and claws, some of them pulled apart, broken, or ripped apart from the inside. Blood soaked the ground and our footsteps made a sick sound as mud suctioned our feet with every step. The dirt of the village was stained red where it must have once been a light brown.

The sight was gruesome, but I did not flinch. I had seen one battlefield in my lifetime before Limbo, and it was an image of a human being. No matter how many people they had killed in cold blood I would not forget. The shock was always the sheer amount of people that could lose their lives in one place, and that’s what I struggled to comprehend now as I surveyed the scene before us.

There were bodies everywhere, the ground was stained with blood that had pooled and mingled, and I could not see a place to step that was not muddy with the mixture of blood and earth. This was going to be messy. I looked down at our typical uniform sandals and sighed before turning to Leon and asking yet another question. “What is the difference between a corpse with a soul and a corpse with none?” I asked him softly, as the others caught up. He tore his horrified face away from the scene and focused on me. He seemed to steel himself, staring at my face, careful to avoid glancing away from me. He was shaken though he was trying not to show it. I stepped closer to him and put my hand on his arm before he was able a small grateful nod.

“The difference is,” he spoke quietly, “when a soul dies of natural causes and is able to ascend or go back through to be reborn on Earth, there is nobody that remains. The soul leaves and goes on its way, the body then fades away, leaving only a purple and white flower called an Amaranth in its wake. When a soul is taken by a Tisin, the body usually crumbles, leaving a large toxic mushroom cluster. I’ve never seen a corpse here in Limbo. Nature has a way of dealing with death in a lot cleaner way than back in the living realm.” When his voice trailed off, he closed his eyes, before steeling himself to turn. “I honestly don’t know what to do in this circumstance. I’ve never seen or heard of this in the centuries I’ve been here.” He said, turning to the group who had stopped and looked at him expectantly. I found myself shocked at his words. He’d been here for centuries? He didn’t look a day over twenty-seven years old. I kept silent as it wasn’t a great time to ask for clarification. 

“Well, we have to do something, Leon! We can’t just leave them here!” Kora said shrilly, finally speaking. I could hear the raw emotion in her voice, and my eyes flicked to each face. Devastation, pain, fear, worry, confusion, even a few that looked absolutely green.

I turned my eyes back to the carnage. According to the coagulation of the blood in the dirt and on the bodies, the attack had taken place several hours ago. The setting of the day was mismatched. It was a sunny day, the sun seemed too cheerfully bright and it let none of the savagery done to these spirits go unrevealed in the daylight. I was thankful though. A gloomy atmosphere would have been too cliche and possibly, too much to bear.

Leon cleared his throat and told them to hold fast while he contacted CiCi in one of the villages beyond reach to ask what her thoughts were. But I was staring at the face of a young woman who was torn apart in front of me. Our Soulmates, if they had the ability to cleanse Tisin and turn them back into human souls to move forward, why wouldn't our Soulmates have the strength to release these already human souls from being trapped? Generally, a corpse was a corpse to me, but in this case, I knew I had to think alternatively.

I wasn’t going to wait around for answers that may not even come. I approached the nearest corpse, the young woman I had been staring at, and sank my blade down into them. From their back it wasn’t so hard to reach their heart and years of the bad kind of experience taught me exactly where that was. I stabbed the corpse hard enough for the blade to sink through the solid resistance that met my blade, the sickening crunch made me shudder. I had never wanted to stab another human again. I was just grateful that this time I wasn’t making the lifeless sack of flesh it already was. The group had fallen silent after Kora had let out a little gasp of horror. I waited, hoping that I wasn’t just being ignorant.

I was rewarded quickly. The body began to glow and suddenly, the white orb that was the soul rose from the young woman and shot out to the distance. The body it left behind turned to dust, and a beautiful purple flower with intricate white patterns on the petals I’d never seen before bloomed in the ground. I turned back to Leon and looked at him, the edge of Estrakulius dripping crimson liquid on the ground by the Amaranth. I didn’t say anything, I knew I wouldn’t have to. Leon stared at the Amaranth for a second, before turning his mahogany eyes towards me and nodded.

“Okay then. We purify them. Everyone, get to work. Nakita and Yuzuki start from the west. Rachel, Ivan you two start from the east with Kora. Elliot and I will head up the north. I will call for help.” He said, taking Dennahayy from her holders and turning. I couldn’t help the small smile of appreciation that twitched my lips upwards. A leader who didn’t mind doing the same dirty work as the people under him. Somehow, my respect for Leon grew every day.

I noticed then, the dark woman was staring at me, her eyes were intense, looking me up and down. I immediately felt defensive and wondered if it was because I had stabbed the dead woman. When I caught her stare, she nodded at me gave me a graceful hand gesture for me to go first, and bowed her head respectfully. Though I wished Leon had paired me with him, I knew this would be a good opportunity to learn a little bit about some of the other people I would be working with.

I gave Leon one more glance as I set off after the dark lady named Nakita. He had his strong face on, determination making his features set and rigid as he began speaking into the comm detailed into his uniform. I knew then that he was fine. I paid attention to my steps, as Nakita and I made our way to the western side of the village silently, I would occasionally dip my blade in an exposed heart as we passed them. Finally, reaching the edge of the village, our work really started. Nakita reached up to a quiver on her back and closed her eyes. The quiver was empty - so naturally I stared, but soon she pulled her hand up and out, and an arrow seeming to be made of ephemeral energy shimmered in her fingertips. It was pure white, and Nakita swung her bow up and put it in the empty quiver.  I watched as instead of shooting the arrow, she knelt down, and dug the arrow deep into the chest of a stray corpse. I blinked, as the body faded away, the soul shot out and Nakita looked up at me.

“What you looking at, little mouse?” She asked in a snapping voice, and I jumped, immediately turning to begin to work. I grit my teeth, cringing as Estrakulius buries himself deep into the heart of a young girl. I made the mistake of looking at her face. Her mouth was ajar, her eyes wide with shock, rolled to the back of her head. I cringed and decided not to look too closely at my job again. But as Nakita moved forward to another, and knelt down, doing the same again with her arrow, she turned her face to me. “Don’t know how to talk?” She pried and I sighed - knowing that silence was not going to get me far today.

“I know how to talk.” I snipped a bit, looking up at Nakita, deciding she was better to look at than the next corpse I impaled. “I was simply curious because your quiver was empty. Why would you choose to stab them instead of shooting the corpses?”  I asked as I moved on to a young boy, his head five feet away from the rest of his body. Perhaps silence was not the way to go about our work anyway. This was gruesome, even for me, and I felt my stomach turning as I sank my blade into his small chest. Nakita gave an audible snort as she continued to move, her arrow finding another corpse for itself.

“So you are a cat then, not a mouse. Curious and observant. I see. It is part of my Soulmate abilities. Her name is L'Aquila. The arrows zat come are from our own shared spirit and soul. I can make whatever I want. Arrows to purify, arrows to poison, arrows to paralyze. But since zey come from me, I must conserve my strength. Lots of corpses round ‘ere, whatever may come our way I must be prepared for. So I do not want to waste my strength.” She answered.

Her voice was deep and rich, strong. I childishly thought that if she perhaps began to sing it would chase away the feeling of death around us. It was beautifully deep, powerful, and loud. I began to realize this strange woman was intimidating. She never faltered in her movements, staying on a bent knee, and walking from a balanced crouched position so she did not have to waste time standing then stooping.  I had found my own rhythm in my work, though it was still painstaking. Her explanation not only entranced me because of her voice but because it was so...different. “Are you Chief Leon’s new Brave?” she asked then, taking me by surprise.

“No. I am new. I was transcended. So all the Chiefs have been taking a special interest to train me themselves.” I explained as I pushed the blade through another corpse, swallowing hard as I had to give extra effort. It was a big broad man - his thick body was more difficult to get through. Nakita gave me an interested look then as she released another soul.

“So you are za one I hear all the gossip about then. You are Yuzuki Kobayashi, the mysterious girl who awakened on ze day she awaken here.” Nakita said grinning, and I sighed. I hated that everyone knew me for that. Or the fact that people knew of me at all. But her next words amused me. “Za one I hear so many other little birds complain about because the most eligible man in Warrior City only spends time with her. HAH! Little birds don’t know zat a puma will want another puma, not a parrot for a mate.” I turned my eyes to Nakita, letting out a half laugh, a half exasperated snort, before purifying another soul.

“It’s nothing like that!” I said, though I could feel my cheeks heating up - my mind flashing to our first embarrassing meeting where he carried me to my bed.

“Parakeet cheeks tell no lie girl! Besides, even if not, then when you are grown powerful enough to take position, you will be his Brave. You two have a strong bond, that can be seen from the contact he allows, the closeness of where you stand. The man is like a wall to most unless he’s confident you’re worth being soft to. You sure you are not his kitty cat already?”

I let out a little groan, glaring over at the woman, then shook my head when I saw her wicked grin back at me.  It seemed callous of us, to talk and be amused as we did the arduous task of releasing souls from corpses, but it was better than dwelling on the actual deed wasn’t it? I looked back and realized our conversation had led us to almost 30 amaranths together. I let out a little smile at the flowers, proud that we were helping souls find peace.

“I am nobody’s pet. Or puma. Or mate.” I said, each clarification, causing a guffaw of amusement from the loud lady. It was then I noticed my talking sword was glowing and I paused.

“Nakita?” I asked, indicating the sword and she stopped, nodding. Her own bow in the quiver was glowing too - a blackish green, that almost made it impossible to see that the original bow was pure white. She had glanced up over her shoulder at her quiver to make sure.

“The mistakes of zis life I suppose. We are treating them like Tisin, our Soulmates must be too. It won’t be as potent as a Tisin, but your Soulmate is soaking up their mistakes, and purifying them as ze soul moves on. Your Soulmate… will have gained power from this task. I suppose I am glad I was paired with you. You did not falter. After you had stabbed ze first one, I figured out too, the logic behind your action. It is not often I find one who I respect immediately. Ze audacity you had to test out the theory - I respect zis courage because we are not used to zis carnage. We genuinely didn’t know what to do. We were overwhelmed.” Nakita explained, and I nodded, as I continued forward once more with my blade.

I understood she’d complimented me, but she seemed the type to be very careful how she handed such things out. I felt in a strange way… honored.

“I am still very fresh from my own living existence. Some parts of me are still stuck in a past I am ashamed of. Stabbing a body that is already a corpse is the least shameful thing I have done. But, I am glad it ended up being the act of kindness I thought it would be.” I sighed when I spoke, my blade finding another heart, making another flower. We were moving fast, and behind us, a trail of flowers that sparkled in the sunlight was proof we were working well together. Nakita turned to me and opened her mouth to respond but suddenly a shriek of the trees made us turn. 

A bird had issued a warning call and all of a sudden, the sky was filled with birds, and they all seemed to be flying rapidly away from something.  My heart jumped to my throat as I stepped back to Nakita, who had made her way to me, pulling out L'aquila as she did. We seemed to be in sync as she ran past me, and I her then pressed our backs together. As her warm back pressed to mine, it was hard not to notice how much bigger than me she was.

An eerie scream erupted from the trees behind the village, in the direction I was facing. I could hear the others shouting throughout the small village of carnage, orders flying out. What was it? My heart was pounding, my eyes scanning the rooftops and sky. I noticed the trees began to shake and my gasp caused Nakita to turn her head, and her own olive green eyes widened as the tree canopy separated and I couldn’t help but draw back pressing against Nakita. Fear laced my veins, freezing me cold, and paralyzing me.

Legs. Eight of them, slinging through the trees. They were spikey, with long hairs along them, thick and wiry. The color of them was so red they were almost black. Then the body of an arachnid rose, balancing on however many trees it needed to use to not crush the ones beneath them. On top of the spider's body, a human torso, with a grotesque head, eight human eyes lined its face, its human arms reaching out. The skin of the flesh on the humanoid areas was a bluish gray as if it belonged to a corpse, and dark black veins ran along under the flesh, dark enough to be seen from a distance.   

There was no visible heart that I could see, but I didn’t have much time as it jumped from the trees to the village. It was huge, and when it landed, its shadow cast down over us and houses crumbled under its weight. It opened its mouth to scream again, and strands of energy left its mouth. The open maw was human but with spider pincers, dripping and oozing whatever substance it produced down. The pinchers clicked rapidly and I felt my stomach drop. The monstrous size of this beast was enough to overwhelm. 

The energy strands were gray and they reached out and connected to the corpses around us. I turned my head, and the world slowed as the strands of sickly gray energy sank into the dead souls around us. The corpses began to light up, and the colors of each person's own energy began to flow out and into the tendrils that the Tisin had let out.

“It is eating the souls, Yuzuki!” Nakita shrieked as she turned and fired the white arrow at the spider.  I turned, and sliced at a strand of the energy - though it did nothing to it. I tried again, this time by digging my blade deep into the corpse. It seemed to free it. As soon as my blade pierced the heart, the strand of energy went gray again and the soul shot free, its image flickering as if it were terrified, and the flower bloomed. Voices were now screaming through the comm on my uniform, Leon’s being the most prominent. 

“REGROUP!  REGROUP! ATTACK THE TISIN DIRECTLY!” The voice was coming through Nakita’s comm as well. But I was frozen. A spider tisin. Why did it have to be a SPIDER? I hated spiders… I could feel my breath coming in ragged short gasps.

I was frozen, my blade still in the ground near the Amaranth that had bloomed. Luckily I wouldn’t need an excuse later as the Tisin jerked its head towards Nakita and me, one of its nasty gray strands returning to its mouth without the teal blue color of the soul it had been trying to eat. Nakita grabbed my arm as one of its spider legs had moved up, and came crashing towards us.

“It moves like a tarantula!” I heard myself scream in useless panic, as Nakita began to run, dragging me along, making me come to my senses.

“Run, girl!” Nakita snarled at me, and as she dragged me, my body moved automatically. I was keeping up with Nakita just fine as she guided me towards the center of the village, toward the area Leon must have ordered us to go when I was locked in my terror trance. As its foot crashed down into the mud and corpses, wood from buildings spat into the air. Another crash and the earth shook under Nakita and me, propelling us forward, sprawling out helplessly as we lost our footing. Estrakulius shot out of my hand, clanking to the ground as I fell face-first into a particularly gory corpse. I gagged as my hands landed in the open stomach, bile filling my mouth as its blood squirted from various wounds to cover my face and hands. I let out a wrenched sob as I tried to struggle out of the mess, the ribs of the dead person catching on to my uniform.

“I”m sorry! I’m sorry!” I kept hearing someone screech, and only when strong hands pulled me up and out of the trap of a corpse I’d landed in did I realize it was me.

“C’mon! Get yer head straight!” Nakita hissed in my ear, helping me towards Estrakulius. As soon as my hands were on his hilt, I felt much better, looking up at Nakita gratefully. I could see the others already at the base of the Tisin attempting to fight it off. It was still drawing the souls up into its maw - and I watched as Kora let loose a large pink-winded tornado up at its face. Its face looked oddly familiar in a way, and I watched as countless corpses began turning into clumps of disgusting-looking mushrooms.

I gripped Estraklius as fury welled up within me. This thing… was eating every single corpse that had yet to be purified. It was almost like a pack of Tisin had ripped through this village and left the bodies for this guy to pig out on. Nakita reached up into her quiver and pulled out a black arrow.

“To blind! L'aquila!” She shrieked and I nodded. I needed to help. I ran towards the Tisin, my uniform heavy with mud, blood, and bits of people who were not myself.

“Where is the heart!?” Rachel was screaming, holding her Soulmate out over Elliot who I could see had been injured on his shoulder. Leon was throwing bits of the earth, sharp stalagmites he made with Dennahayy at the creature. Not on its chest and not from when I could see on the bottom. There was only one place left   - somewhere on top or on its back. 

I was furious but I could sense something else was wrong.  The bodies that were slowly being drained of the souls were turning into mushroom clusters. These mushrooms grew big, about a foot tall, they were a foul-looking yellow with green spots. And they seemed to be spitting spores and gas. It lingered as a heavy murk in the air - and I knew it could not be good for us. There was no way we were going to kill that Tisin in time before it turned all the bodies left into mushroom clusters… Leon had said they were toxic.

“Leon!” I screamed, pointing around them. When he turned to see what I was pointing at, fear became visible on his face.

“EVERYONE, RETREAT!” His voice boomed in our comms. “NO CHOICE! Rendezvous with the horses! RETREAT!” Estraklius was pulsing in my hand, throwing off bits of purple.  I had grabbed Nakita’s hand on the way past her to the exit of the village, the way we came, back to our horses, dodging and jumping over giant growing mushrooms as we ran.  Hurtling out of the village both of us stumbled, fell, and rolled, Estrakulius once more being dropped. It was better to have to go back and retrieve a sword than slice your ally or yourself up while falling with it after all. Nakita and I landed in a heap and we turned, anxiously watching as Elliot, Rachel, Kora, and Ivan each made it out of the village. The Tisin had been turning, its legs toppling buildings as it turned in circles, trying to find where we had gone. Clouds of green smoke were rising in plumes across the village. I waited for a few more seconds, watching the village intently.

Where was Leon? I disentangled myself,  and bolted towards Estrakulius, quickly making it to my feet as the rest of the group came to a halt near Nakita. I put him in his sheath on my back, my eyes never leaving the village. But still, no more people ran out of the smoking village. The feeling in my stomach jumped into my chest, and I knew within my soul that something was wrong.

“Leon!” I shrieked dashing towards the village, dodging hands of my company that grabbed at me.

“Yoo-zu-ki, no!” Kora’s frightened voice rang out, though I could hear the others calling my name as well. I ignored them, as I approached the entrance to the village. The yellow miasma seemed to come from the mushrooms. It was thick and reeked of rotten eggs. I held my breath as I stepped into the miasma, still ignoring the screams of warning behind me.

I couldn’t see a single corpse anymore, instead all I saw were mushroom clouds. The Tisin seemed satisfied and I could see him through the murky gray yellow fog retreating into the trees. I kept my eyes to the ground since the Tisin was no longer a threat, and ahead of me I could see a clouded figure. I took a few steps forward and was able to see that Leon was on the ground, crawling. Immediately I bolted to him, though my body was getting heavy. I felt as if all of my movements were happening seconds after I ordered them to.

“Crouch near him now, Yuzuki,” I ordered myself. When my body seemed to finally get down beside him, I wrapped my arms around his chest.  ”Drag him out now, Yuzuki!”  I ordered myself to move but my slow-motion body did not want to listen. I dragged him a few feet, and my vision began to become blurry. And on my back, I could feel a vibrating warmth, and my muddled mind wanted to tune into that.

I wanted to laugh, the miasma making me slow, and I continued to drag Leon slowly toward the exit, almost unsure as to why I was doing this. I didn’t know how to reach out to Estrakulius! He’d not bothered to talk to me since our Awakening. Not to mention at that moment, I was sure I was going to die. I looked down at Leon and saw he was unconscious, and my vision faded a little more. I had to get him out. I struggled to pull him and felt my body weakening with every heartbeat.

Believe in me! NOW. Yuzuki, reach for me NOW or you will NEVER make it!

I heard myself scream desperately as my body lost the will to move, and I began to fall, unable to take Leon’s weight. I desperately wished I knew how to obey Estrakulius, and I closed my eyes, focusing on the warmth on my back, glad that I could feel him close to me in my last moments.

But...a flurry, a warmth, a strange tugging at my soul and suddenly I was being lifted, and I clung to Leon with all the strength I could, though my body felt numb. I felt like I was falling, and I closed my eyes, hands gripping the behemoth of a man I had run into the poisonous miasma to save. My mind faded into blackness, I did not get to see the shock on their faces at our sudden trajectory toward them, or our crash landing at their feet. 

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Memoirs Of The In-Between Table Of Contents

Memoirs Of The In-Between: Chapter 7

A New Enemy Is Discovered

Chapter 7

“Leon? What is it?” I heard myself asking, confused. His expression was drawn tight, his dark eyes piercing through the room from the doorway he had burst through. I got up, making sure to secure Estrakulius to me quickly.



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Memoirs Of The In-Between: Chapter 7

A New Enemy Is Discovered

About the Creator

Hope Martin

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