Thoughts of the Mist

The Village of Toth burned. The community, twenty hollowed-out trees a hundred feet tall, contained in a single stone wall fifteen feet high that stretched around the entire circumference of the settlement. Two thick wooden gates, one on each side of the village guarding its vulnerable interior, stood wide open. Fire engulfed the leafy canopy above, burning down the dark gray trunks toward the people cowering beneath. Flaming branches and leaves fell, covering the victims in black ash. Each tree was a dwelling, and the people saw their homes burn in panic and disbelief. The smell of smoke permeated everything.

Sinister cloudy shadows roamed through one open gate, spreading leisurely throughout the village. As they passed the villagers, wispy mist tendrils drifted out, touching the cringing residents. Each time, the victim cried out, convulsing until they lay still, a look of ecstasy on their moribund faces. Wherever the wraiths touched someone, the flesh around the area grew pale, spreading from the site. As the whiteness spread, the victims became silent until the pale wound reached their head or their heart. Then they died in a last spasm.

Through the screams and wailing, a pregnant young woman hid behind several old wooden carts, watching the misty monsters hunt. Several passed her hiding place, not noticing her. Caught off-guard while preparing a bath for herself, she wore none of her usual metal toe rings. Without her rings, she was powerless. She was a Fire Shaper, like her husband. But with no charged metal rings, she hadn’t the magic to shape a single spell. Powerless, the Wraiths ignored her; only metal holding a magical charge attracted them. She would come back tomorrow and retrieve her rings if she could. The Wraiths never came out in daylight.

A break in the oncoming train of wraiths opened, and Teremi waddled towards the stone wall, holding her protruding belly. An enormous pile of stacked wood leaned against the stone wall, providing an unorthodox escape route from the embattled hamlet. If Teremi could make it out of the besieged village, she had a chance, however small, to survive. Even if she didn’t deserve it.

She clambered to the top of the woodpile. She glanced behind her and caught several wraiths heading towards her.

Tors’s beard, she cursed. They’ve already found me!

In a panic, Teremi turned back toward the rough stone wall. She jumped and just caught the lip of the wall, hanging by two fingers on one hand. Her grip slipped, and she clattered back down to the woodpile, almost losing her perch atop it. The Wraiths grew close! She leapt again, this time getting a better grip. She scrabbled for better purchase, getting both hands on the stone lip.

Teremi scrambled to the top, scratching her arms and legs on sharp edges as she climbed, smashing her protruding belly against the rough stone surface. Teremi felt something burst inside her. She loosed a grunt, clamping her teeth down on her tongue almost immediately.

Something cramped inside her. She moaned, keeping from tumbling off the wall while she grabbed her belly again. Blood from her torn tongue trickled down her face. Something wet and sticky leaked between her legs. She didn’t have time to discover what she had done to herself.

Teremi lowered herself over the outside ledge as best she could, hanging above the compacted earth beneath. Another painful cramp struck her, almost causing her to lose her grip.

 With a whispered prayer to Tor, Teremi let herself drop. She hit the ground hard with bent knees. As she landed, she rolled and ended up on her side, breath knocked out of her. Something popped in her ankle, and she groaned in excruciating pain while clutched her leg. She would have screamed, but she had no air left in her lungs from her rough fall to make a sound, and her mangled tongue wouldn’t have cooperated, anyway.

She gritted her teeth and checked her ankle. Nothing seemed broken, so she stood. Teremi saw no wraiths near her. Sharp lances of pain shot up her leg with each step, and she almost collapsed again. She gasped, trying to refresh her lungs with new air.

Teremi clenched her jaw, stumbling away from the wall into the dark trees, limping with each additional step in agonizing pain. If she stayed here, Teremi knew, she would die.

She limped as fast as she could, moaning and trying to distance herself from the disaster unfolding behind her. She glanced back, but by now the dark trees obscured her view. All she saw was a deep orange glow from the general direction of her burning home. She still heard wailing and screams, but they were fainter now. Teremi tried to shut the horrible images from her mind. Her husband, also a Fire Shaper, had set the village aflame while trying to fend off the Wraith army. She witnessed him die in horror and flames. She didn’t deserve him.

Teremi doubled up in pain. Her baby was coming!

Not now!

Teremi screamed. She was close to the birthing time, but she had done too much! She fell to her knees, feeling warm wetness spreading down the inside of her thighs. It seemed too sticky, too thick to be her water breaking.

Something is wrong!

She rose and stumbled away.

She groaned, an involuntary spasm forcing her to her knees again. Then she saw the wraiths surrounding her. They were just visible, gray puffs of mist, some tiny, some quite large. They stretched tendrils toward her, and she closed her eyes. This was the end.

The night split with a bright glow. Teremi snapped her eyes open, taking in the sight of two men with glowing swords charging toward her. They laid about themselves with their glowing blades. One man shot fire from his open hand, causing the Wraiths to scatter. They soon reforming on the two men.

The younger of the two, perhaps still in apprenticeship, flashed his glowing sword towards the wraiths. He sliced each wraith, then picked up speed to move to the next. Each time, just before he hit, he slowed his blade to almost a standstill. As the glowing steel edge passed through the Wraith, small sparkles seemed to jump into the wraith, causing it to shrink, then back away.

The older man, the master, no longer bothered to use his sword. With one hand spouting fire, the other waved at the trees near Teremi. Thick roots sprouted from the ground, surrounding her with in a rough cage, cutting her off from the Wraiths.

Through panting breaths, she watched in awe as the two War Shapers decimated the Wraiths. Teremi no longer saw the smaller Wraiths, and the larger Wraiths bounced around as if in a panic, trying to surround the War Shapers. Each time they got close, the older man burned the Wraiths away. A few trees caught fire around her, but the War Shaper’s fiery blasts were precise.

She doubled up in pain again, screaming in anguish. Never had she experienced such agony! It seemed like she ripped apart from the inside. Blood poured from between her legs, and she screamed again. Tears of fear and pain trickled down her ash-stained face. She wiped the spittle and blood from her cracked lips, then she noticed a small wraith had breached her protective branches.

She scrambled back, moaning, but it was too late. The Wraith touched her. She stiffened, then fell to her side, convulsing. She bit through the rest of her tongue. Everything went hazy. Her body shook, but she was at peace. Teremi heard the voice of God and rejoiced. Her vision faded, and she felt no more pain.

The End