The Culling Clouds

Every night at midnight, the purple clouds came out to dance with the blushing sky. They’d drift across that starry landscape, the colors of the universe twisting around them. The animals joined together, chattering and howling a requiem for those they carried, wherever that may be.

I wonder, do they know the weight they carry for the world? Do they know that they alone hold the key to both our salvation and destruction? Sylvie thought to herself, as she gazed up towards a star-lit sky framed by pine trees, a vast field extending behind her. She liked coming out and watching the Clouds roll in and out every night when she was younger, but now the notion seems a tad too bittersweet, considering the circumstances.

Nonetheless, there was something both awe-inspiring and terrifying of the royal nimbus traveling through. Seemingly every living thing taking note of its arrival, almost like the old Tsar coming back to life just to visit his ill-remembered subjects. As much as she’d like to watch them tonight, she thought it best to leave it to another day, or maybe never again.

“Sylvie, dear! Dinner’s ready!” her mother yelled from the brightly lit mansion, the only one that’d be nearby for miles seeing as her family owned the land. Their own personal getaway, the Maine house was their vacation home, set up somewhere remote, just close enough to the coast to get the remnants of sea breeze, and just far enough to hear that breeze rustle through the trees on calm nights.

“Coming!” she responded, her stomach feeling heavy. She held her abdomen softly, already feeling sick at the thought of eating at a time like this. So many happy moments lodged in these forests, so many jeweled memories thrown into the coastline. It was down this trail her father taught her to ride a bike, these forests she learned how to set up a tent, those waters she commandeered a boat from her dad, only to capsize it for an impromptu swimming lesson.

Now she’ll only be left with the memories with no recourse to make more, for this was the last dinner she’d have with her father before his Culling.

She sat up and softly, almost reluctantly, walked back to the temporary home. Her parents thought it’d be a good idea that their last family moments be spent here, and of course Tobi was all too happy to come out here. They may think they can cloud his memories of this night in happiness, but he’s smarter than that, Sylvie thought of her younger brother.

Steamed lobster, her father’s favorite. Seemed appropriate enough. She came back, sat down, and soon the table was full. “Okay, how about we say grace?” Her mother mumbled under forced breath, before quickly looking at Sylvie’s father, “Ted? How about you lead us?”

“Sure thing, Kat,” Ted said with an obviously forced smile. She extended her hands and motioned towards Sylvie and Tobi to do the same. Kat flinched at Ted’s marked hand, the candle within the wheel that seemed to warm his hand as if he’d had it against a heater for an hour.

It appeared a week ago, Ted awoke to a slight discomfort on his hand. It was enough to keep him awake, but not enough to force him out of bed, for he’d just had a busy day of shareholder meetings and arguing with insurance companies over the malfunctioning of his most recent oil rig. He ignored it, but a few minutes went by and the discomfort extended through his arm. Another few minutes, and he felt the need to turn the fan onto it. Escalating further and further, it soon felt like his hand was engulfed by hellfire, running it under cold water did nothing, for the flame crawled under his skin and slithered across his carpals like lightning. Holding ice was a fruitless venture, and simply left his hand soaked from it melting.

As the days went by and the candle burned in real-time, the pain began to fade. The flame fueling his life was very literally burning out. As it went down to the wick, it was a pleasant warmth, and while Kat flinched at first she found comfort in it as he thanked Yahweh for the life that he’d had before.

However, the discomfort around the table was palpable. Sylvie wished that a Daemon or Eldra would break through the bay window and save her from the situation, especially having to watch her father walk into whatever it is that floats through the skies at night. At least then nobody would have to, or even have time, to say goodbye. It would just be over, quick, simple, painless (maybe). Tobi piped up after prayer, “Dad! Are you going to work at Yahweh’s side?!” The question was seemingly random and out of nowhere, but that’s the kind of sophisticated and intricate conversation a six year-old offers.

“Absolutely, buddy! And if I-” Kat kicked him under the table, “uh, when I come back, I’ll bring you a souvenir!”

“Nice, let’s lie to the child rather than suggesting he deals with reality, that’ll be good for his emotional growth…” Sylvie whispered to herself. Kat shot her an annoyed and threatening side eye, but said nothing as Tobi didn’t seem to notice. As much as she hated it, it was true. Nobody knew what happened to those Chosen by the Clouds, nor where they went. Rumors abound that they went to serve real-life deities like Yahweh, Buddha, Rod. Others said they were retribution for the damage done by humans to the environment, and their blood was the price for Mother Nature’s reconstruction. The list goes on and on and neither folklorists nor meteorologists had any acceptable answers. She hit a dead end every time she researched the phenomena.

Dinner conversation petered out, and soon enough the room was silent with the occasional clattering of silverware as this family, mere hours of missing a member, seemed to wither away under the weight of the situation. Tomorrow, the dynamic would be wholly different, but at least Ted was accepting the situation with grace. Or perhaps it was dejection and anguish, but the line between is negligible at best.

Traditionally, people Chosen by the Clouds left with nothing but the clothes on their back. Anything taken with them would be found miles out in some random stretch of forest or nearly destroyed on the road, so it was futile to take anything. That didn’t stop Sylvie, though. She’d spent the last week crocheting a plush for Ted to take with him. She hadn’t been doing it long, and her attention to detail (and attention span, at that) wasn’t always present, which would explain the strangeness of the plush. She was sure it started out as a whale, and that was evident by the shape of its tail and the way it rested on its underside, but the teeth and eyes made it look more like a shark. She didn’t think much of it as she quickly walked to the master bedroom, a mere half-hour left to say goodbye to her father.

He’d said that he didn’t want them to see him leave, and to leave their goodbyes at dinner. Some sort of masculine pride, and Sylvie scoffed at that idea when she heard it, so naturally she didn’t listen. She opened up the bedroom to find Ted finishing up his long-distance backpack, neatly folded clothes, a gaslamp hanging on one side, and the other filled with various high-protein snacks and dried foods.

Sylvie chuckled at first to break the tension, since he looked at her like a child sneaking treats out of the cookie jar. “What are you doing, dad? You know none of that stuff will stick with you?” Her forced smile faltered quickly under his stoicism, her heartbeat racing in anticipation of his answer.

“I’m…” He stumbled, trying to find the right words, “I’m not going. I’m running, I’ve heard stories of people able to outrun them. Eventually, I’ll be able to come back, but-”

“Mom!” Sylvie yelled, running through the house, finding Kat and Tobi in the kitchen, him half asleep next to her on the kitchen bench. Her stamping through the house startled him awake. “Do you know what dad’s doing?! We have to go with him," she pleaded.

“Sylv, this is our decision, and who knows what’ll happen if we go with him.” She seemed resolute, and knew exactly what she wanted to say. “I was going to tell you in a few days, after I knew he was okay. My job is to keep you two safe.”

“So you knew?” Sylvie and her mother already had a distrusting relationship, very typical of a teenage daughter and her mother, but more than anything she hated being left in the dark. “No, I’m going with him, and I’m taking Tobi, too. We have a better chance of survival if we stick together, you know what’s out there.”

“I wanna go with Dad, too,” Tobi murmured under the thin veil of sleep.

“Great, so it’s settled!” Sylvie said without awaiting a response from Kat, and she sprinted back to her room. She was prepared for an event like this, when the world would end and she and her family would need to disappear into the woods, living off the environment. She was almost excited for this, to start over away from her father’s awful business and be one with the earth again. She’d felt so disconnected for so long.

Fifteen minutes went by and suddenly everyone was packed and ready to go. Sylvie brought her favorite books and crocheting equipment, she’d definitely have enough time to practice while hiding from Daemons and Eldra. Tobi packed his Nintendo switch, fully oblivious to the fact that it likely won’t live to see the end of the weekend. Kat packed everything she felt the kids would need to survive, and brought the few survival books she bought for a case like this.

Everyone so silently filled the car, a bird chirp could’ve snapped the silence with the force of a breaking femur. The Aurora had started to fill the night sky, greens and blues swirling around the bright white lights of the void above. Crows cawed, foxes yipped, wolves howled, all seemingly in protest of Sylvie’s defiance of fate. Despite the circumstances, she was confident, ecstatic even. It felt right for her to go against whatever gods preordained this hilarious transaction between humanity and the Clouds. The car was filled, and the family filed in, ready with a seatbelt click.

A moment of silence felt like eternity. A single drop of sand hung in the air while they all stared forward at the lawn illuminated by headlights. “I can’t believe you’re allowing this,” Ted said with disdain.

“I’m sorry, but you know that Sylvie’s right. I don’t agree with her, but she’s right. We’re a family, and we need to stick through this together. Besides, you know she’d find some way to come with you anyway, then I’d be worried sick for her and it’s not like you would make any effort to tell me she’s alright,” Kat’s facial expression went from stoic and concentrated to filled with anger. “In fact, it’s your decision that’s putting our family in-”

“Oh, my gods! Can’t you two stop arguing for two seconds? We have far more important things to worry about!” Sylvie protested, her arms slamming against the leather seats. Without another word, Ted shifted the vehicle into drive and went down the long winding driveway that led out of their estate.

They went inward, away from the coast, their car speeding down a lone road as pine trees wisp past them and the Aurora spreading across the sky. It almost felt like it was chasing them, the Fates themselves identifying the rabbit running from the wolves. Nobody was really sure what the plan was, just that they had to get away from the Clouds. Ted mentioned before he could feel where they were, and where he needed to go thanks to the mark, which was now an empty candle plate, dripping wax and real smoke lifting from his hand like a signal of his whereabouts. He could feel the wheel turning, like a centipede skittering under his skin chasing and eating its own tail.

Then, midnight came. The black clouds that roamed the dark above spread out and dissipated to make space for their royal brethren. They always moved with weight and purpose, opposed to normal clouds. They glowed with that same light the Auroras held, something so magnificent yet so belittling. Maybe those that worshiped the Clouds were right, maybe they were deities. Sylvie just watched them from the car with an awe-filled anxiousness, they never failed to impress her.

Her cloud watching was interrupted, however. Midnight came, and so did the Luscae. She saw one in the woods staring at her from just beyond the treeline with those eyes that pulled you in like a black hole, the tentacles oozing from its back, caressing and slinking the trees and foliage around it as it shambled forward looking for its next victim. She’d never seen one in person. As a fan of the occult, she would’ve been enthusiastic to see one, but the circumstances were less than exemplary.

After one minute, she saw three more, tripping and crawling out of the tree line towards the rumbling of car tires on the concrete. Two more minutes, she saw six of them pushing against each other at the sight of their next meal. As time went on, they appeared in exponential numbers. She hadn’t taken the recommendations to stay in at night too seriously, but now she understood. Her chances of survival at night were not quite what she’d daydreamed.

A massive thud snapped her attention to the front of the car. Something had jumped onto the hood, but from where? She didn’t have time to think about it as the car’s swerving gravity pulled her from side to side. She instinctively grabbed onto the safety railing above and she felt her untrained muscles tense under sudden pressure trying to pull her back to her seat. She pulled Tobi closer, hoping to shield him from whatever impact was coming. Screams filled the vehicle to the point she might as well been blind from sensory overload, but she’ll never forget what she saw against the headlights of the car.

A silhouette, black as void, squatted atop the dented hood as if it had just performed some dystopian superhero landing, its limbs spread out like a spider. Amidst the chaos, she noticed pointed ears reaching upwards that held glistening jewelry illuminated by moonlight. Pearly, fanged white teeth shone in a demonic wide smile, the shining mimicked by the polearm blade held across its shoulder by one arm. A single, scarlet eye glowed, sly and wild, mocked them as it frightened them to panic.

The car skidded across the road before smashing into a tree, metal bending and wood splintering met the piercing screams of the riders until no sound save the clicking of the car’s blinkers mingled with the oil-stained air. One of the creatures met its fate between the car and tree, its ichor spattered against the windshield in a pattern reminiscent of an abstract painting.

Sylvie awoke just moments later to Kat shaking her and Tobi awake, Ted just coming to around the same time. She immediately checked herself and Tobi for injuries, finding nothing serious except the concussion she knew they’d likely both have, the pounding in her head evidence enough of the trauma. Her parents seemed fine as well, despite the tears in both their eyes. Unconsciousness was something they could ill-afford at the moment with hell itself moments away from encroachment. Kat fumbled with the kids’ safety belts, the metal clinking against the car.

It was moments after that they heard heavy footfalls crack sticks and rustle leaves from dark within the shadows of the forests flanking the road. Traveling closer, panic set into the family again, but Tobi’s safety belt bent into the clasp, meaning he would need to be cut out. They could feel the ground tremor beneath them. Kat grabbed a pocket knife from one of the bags they’d packed and got to work, but at that point it was far too late, and the entire family’s blood ran cold like the night air seeped into their skin at the sight above them.

A large creature of at least ten feet in height lorded over them, holding the top of the vehicle with long-nailed hands, its massive wolf head salivating into the car like an uncomfortable waterfall. A slit, eerily yellow eye stared at them, bloodshot from watching them so closely. Opening its jaw, the iron-like teeth offered them a most unorthodox escape through chewing and digestion. It moved closer and began to shut its jaws with the speed of a bear trap, until it stopped just short of piercing right through Kat and Sylvie, its single eye now focused on something else.

“Sorry, Teddy, dearest, but you have a date with-” whatever humanoid had caused their crash had now made their way over to the site, dusting themself with one hand while the other nonchalantly held a polearm with a curved blade. “Oh, you seem to be busy. I’ll come back later.” No sooner than they said that they were forced backwards no less than twenty feet by a beam of energy from the creature’s eye, who seemed far more intrigued by the newcomer, stepping over the vehicle now to close the distance.

Sylvie, now getting a better look of their assailant, specifically the one who so graciously saved them from the perils of the open road, recognized the type of individual they were. Their ashen gray skin revealed them as a Duskwalker, agents for both the Deities and Clouds. They’re tasked with hunting those who deny their culling and the Luscae that roamed the Earth during the dark hours, explaining the current situation.

The Duskwalker simply lay in the road for a few moments while the creature approached, staring upwards with nary a word spoken or movement done. The creature now bent over face to face with the Duskwalker smiled as more drooled over the walker’s fine, flower-embroidered trench coat. “Ah, I’d challenge you to a battle of wits, but I see you are unarmed, and so it is with blade and strength I must best you!” The walker said before leaping towards the creature, dissipating into smoke and shadow before coalescing atop its back. They then promptly plunged their blade into the creature’s spine, black black spewing and oozing from the wound while it howled in pain.

“Shakespeare said that, by the way, though I don’t suppose Daemons are well read, are they, my lupine friend?” mocked the walker while using their polearm as leverage to stay on the creature’s back.

“Your sharp tongue betrays your dull blade. I shall enjoy spilling your blood and cracking your bones, Duskwalker,” growled the creature in an otherworldly voice, who was attempting to grasp the walker with its sharp hands. In a fit of frustration, the daemon barrel rolled over the street, knocking the walker toward the ground, their boots skidding across the road as they caught their fall.

A moment before closing the distance between them, the daemon brought down its claw in an attempt to reap life away from the walker, who deftly parried the strike with the haft of their polearm, slashing across the creature’s arm in the process. The daemon tried to squash the walker with its hoof, but they back stepped away from the impact. The tremors left by the strike knocked them off-balance slightly, and the daemon took this chance to lunge forward, maw open and teeth salivating. Metal against metal rang as the walker wedged their polearm into the jaws of the creature, its haft bending under the sagittal strength.

Almost like a predator who’s outsmarted their prey, the walker grinned and their red eye glowed. The single yellow eye of the daemon corroded into black, becoming void and empty. Its eye and attentive ears oozed a dark plasma, and fear creeped across the daemon’s face. The walker pulled inwards, knocking the creature onto its underside in a feat of strength. They twirled their blade in an impressive display of skill and dexterity as if they were a circus ringmaster before stabbing the daemon directly into the eye, dislodging it from its socket and dismembering the nerves. The daemon’s howls echoed through the forest and the other zombie Luscae slowly backed away from the scene in response. It continued until the walker flipped over the daemon in a move that resulted in its head meeting the same fate as its eye, the sound of tearing flesh a cadence to the macabre elegy.

The fight ended just as quickly as it began, and the walker hopped off the creature’s corpse like they’d just come back from a leisurely walk. Ted, business man that he was, was suddenly overcome with the feeling that he could talk his way out of the situation, and approached the walker with the energy of a beggar asking a noble for alms. “Thank you so much for saving my family, Duskwalker, you really do have my greatest gratitude. I don’t suppose you could escort us to safety? I’d be forever grateful,” Ted just about begged.

“Woah, woah,” the walker chuckled, “you talk as if you’re walking away from this situation. Fact of the matter is that you’re denying the call, and we can’t have that, can we?” The walker leaned forward on their polearm and extended a hand in a scene akin to a biblical painting. “If you come with me, I promise an associate of mine sees your family to safety, back at that manor.”

Ted’s pleading, sheepish smile down-turned into fear for his life. Sylvie, now free from the wreckage with Kat and Tobi, inserted herself into the interaction, “Why do you have to take him? Where exactly is he going?” she inquired.

The walker pondered, “Oh, who knows? If I had to make a guess, considering his gallant history at his oil company, he’s to give back what he stole from Mother Earth,” they said as a grin extended across their face. “Could be he’s turned into a tree in the rainforest, or his blood is used to heal the radiation of Chernobyl. I’ll say not that your disapproval of his fate is invalid, however he must’ve known what he was doing, and that karma always finds a way back to you threefold.” A grim silence fell over the family.

“Blythe!” someone yelled from down the road, to which the walker acknowledged the call. Running from down the road was a thin man with shaggy red hair and slight stubble. Making his way to Blythe, he stoically addressed Ted, “is this the target?”

“Sure is!” Blythe said while draping a shoulder over the terrified Ted, who’s bloodshot eyes denoted a lack of brain activity. “I assume you’ve got a teleportation spell ready, Vivian? The real tragedy would be if we had to walk all the way back,” they rolled their eyes and nudged Ted.

“Of course, but after dropping off the runaway, we’ve got bigger issues,” he said, tracing an arcane symbol in the air. “We’ve got reports of Clouds not appearing at their usual spots for Cullings, and areas bereft of Clouds entirely.”

“Oh…” Blythe let go of Ted, their expression slightly more serious than before, now deep in thought. Ted shuffled back to his family, who were now giving their proper, tear-laden goodbyes. “Sounds like we should go talk to Buddha!” They exclaimed excitedly as if a lightbulb went off in their head.

“You only say that because he offers you smoke and drink upon every visit.” Vivian pointed out as he finished the spell he’d been casting for the last few moments.

“Yup, and is there anything so wrong with that? Don’t pretend you don’t enjoy visiting him,” Blythe lilted as the portal opened up, the aetherial wind disturbing the leaves and blowing against everyone’s clothing. “Alright, come on, kiddos,” they sighed towards the entire family. “Let’s get this over with.”

Together, one after another, Sylvie’s family reluctantly walked through the portal. This was their first time seeing a Sorcerer’s magic in action, and it would’ve been brilliant if their father’s death wasn’t imminent. Nonetheless, they were powerless to stop it, and while they were thankful to the walker for saving the family entirely, it was bittersweet as they had to take Ted as payment for their services.

Blythe and Vivian were the last to walk through the portal, the psoglav’s corpse dissipating into smoke and brimstone as they left the scene. They didn’t know what was happening with the Clouds, but it was entirely unheard of. Neither of them knew what the implications of such an event would be, but it would change the world as they knew it.