I came to with a start and looked around. We were all tied to trees with vines, and everyone else was struggling to break out, so I hadn’t been out for long. On the tree next to me Colby pulled out of the vines holding him, only to be wrapped by thinker ones. He pulled again, but this time the vines didn’t break, and more added themselves to those holding him.
They came from the ground, the branches and the trees themselves.
My arms were over my head, my gun still in my hand. There was a vine around my chest and each legs holding me in place. I tested the strength of the vines by lightly pulling on them with my arms. They gave for a moment, then more joined. They adapted to our individual strength.
This was why Colby was covered by a thick layer of them, and I only had a few holding me. Martin didn’t seem to have much more than me. Fred and Frank a big more. Either Fred couldn’t break the magic animating them, or he was waiting for a better time. Tom was being held by a thick vines, and he was still fighting against them. Zee was panting, leaning forward, the vines the only thing keeping him from falling. Marcus was still, like me looking at our situation.
Magdee was looking at the hag, who was tracing symbols in the dirt around the stump on which Luis was tied.
“Stop this,” My sister said. “This is a perversion of what we stand for.”
The hag snorted. “Like you know what we are about.”
Magdee growled and tried to break out of the vines. They didn’t even move. “Why are you doing this?” She asked.
“Because it needs to be done.”
“How can killing this man be something you need to do? We’re about protecting the forest. His death isn’t going to protect anything.”
The hag barked a laugh. “His death is going to save us all. I need his skin to I can procreate.”
“Wait,” Martin said. “This is about you having a child?”
“It is.” She stood, looking at her work. I couldn't tell if she was happy about it. The skin on her muzzle was so tight it was a constant rictus.
“Then there’s no need to kill him. Once he wakes up, You can explain the situation, and I’m sure he’ll be happy to father
your child.”
This time her laugh was dry. “Does it look like this body can bear anything? I need his skin to wear so I can impregnate a woman.”
“What will that accomplish?” Magdee yelled.
“I’ll transfer myself into the seed, so I can grow anew.”
“You want to be young? That isn’t how it works. You know—”
“Want? You think this is about what I want? The beast is coming. I’ve seen him. He’ll raise an army and with it destroy us. I’m the one who can stop him. I know where he’s hiding, but I’m in my winter. I can’t defeat him this way. I need to be in my summer….”
“What’s this beast you’re talking about?” Magdee asked. “How do you know what he’s going to do?”
“Weren’t you listening? Or have your ears not grown in yet? I saw him.”
“You saw…. No, it can’t be. You’re a crone?”
“A crone? I’m not a crone, I’m—”
“What’s a crone?” I asked. The hag glared at me.
“They’re our seers,” Magdalene answered. “The last time there was one was in the 1600s.”
“Ahh, yes, the Renaissance,” the hag said. “So many things happened during that time.”
“I thought seers couldn’t—”
“You were there?” Magdalene cut me off. “That’s impossible.”
“Really?” the hag said. “And who taught you that? Who has made you saplings forget that we are linked to the forests and jungles of the world?”
“Magdee….” I said.
“We can live longer, but not that long. There’s no way you’re four hundred years old.”
“Magdee….”
“Four hundred? I am far older than that. I was there when they put down the first stone of what would become Rome.”
“Magdee.”
“No, this is impossible.”
This was starting to feel familiar, although it used to happen when her boyfriend would come over. They’d talk all evening and neither me or Tim could get a word in.
“If you’re that old,” Magdalene started, her tone uncertain. “You have to know that life is sacred.”
“Sacred? Is that what you saplings think now? Life is a cycle, and death is part of it. You’d best remember that.”
“Damn it! You can’t kill him, he’s just a kid.”
“Does the beast care if his prey is young, mature or old? No, it hunts what he needs to survive, to ensure there will be a new generation. This is what I’m doing here.”
Magdee couldn’t seem to be able to form a new objection, She stared as the hag went back to her work. In the silence I looked at Fred.
“I thought seers could only see their future or of someone they were connected to?”
The lion nodded. “That’s how it works. There’s never been any records of seers who could see the future in general. Well, except for what you experienced at the Hearth.”
The hag snorted. “Another sapling who thinks he knows everything.”
I’d seen so much in that moment when I’d used Stephan’s ability, boosted by the Hearth’s power, that I barely remembered any of it. I thought there had been a war, but I had no context for it, and it wasn’t like wars were unheard of, without involving the Gods.
The Alpaca groaned.
“Luis,” I called.
He groaned again.
“Luis!”
His head snapped up, and he fought at his bounds, which grew thicker, until he stopped moving.
I waited until he breathed normally. “Luis, are you okay?”
He looked around. “Why am I here?” he asked in a barely accented English. “Who’s the ugly bitch?”
“She isn’t important for the moment.”
The hag looked up from tracing a design.
“Do you know who I am?” I asked.
He turned his head to look squarely at me. “Should I?”
“Considering your family killed someone to get my briefcase, yeah, you should. I’m Denton Stenton, Elder of the Stenton line.”
“You look a little young to be an elder,” he said, but his tone was subdued.
“It’s what happens when you’re the only surviving member. Now, I want you to tell me who killed Mashek Saracen.”
“I can’t tell you that. Even if I knew who it was,” he quickly added. “It doesn’t matter if you’re an elder, I can’t betray my family like that.”
I nodded. “You wanted to know why you’re here. Well, she wants to skin you, then wear your skin so she can have babies.”
“What?” Luis started trashing, but to no avail. I again waited for him to tire himself out.
“Now, here’s the deal. You tell me who killed him, and I’m going to get you out of this and back to your family.”
Luis looked at hag, who was watching our exchange. I thought she looked amused.
“And— And if I don’t.”
“Then I’m going to just hang here and watcher her skin you alive.”
“You can’t—”
“Denton—”
“I won’t let—”
The objections from everyone descended into a cacophony as they yelled over each other.
“Shut up!” I screamed. Even the hag looked surprised at the volume. “Unless someone else here is an elder, I don’t want to hear another word.”
There was a moment of silence.
“Denton, dear, I can’t go along with this.” Zee said, his tone firm.
“I know. Which is why it’s a good thing you’re tied up. You can’t try to save me from myself.”
Zee fought against the vines holding him.
“Now Luis, You need to make a decision.”
“You can’t do that! You can’t let her kill me!”
“Tell me, how quickly did your family move in to save mine?”
“What? How the fuck would I know that?”
“It’s my understanding that hardly no one helped, even once it became obvious someone was killing them. So I have no problem do you to you what the entirety of the Society did to my family.”
Martin opened his mouth and I glared at him.
“You can’t hold me responsible for what happened to them? I was just a baby back then.”
“I don’t care. You either give me a name, or I watch her cave you up.”
Luis looked at her and she looked back. I couldn’t tell what she thought of this. The rictus on her face hadn’t changed for the last five minutes.
He cursed in Spanish under his breath. “His name is Pablo Guerrero.”
I closed my eyes and let out a breath. I had a name, and it wasn’t a Santiago. Now, for the hard part. I opened my eyes and the hag was looking at me expectantly.
I tapped Colby’s ability and pushed myself away from the tree as hard as I could. The vines broke and I rolled to the ground before they could reform. I Got up to a knee and fired at the hag. I emptied my clip in her, forcing her back.
I dropped the gun and picked up Tom’s which was at his feet. I sprinted to the stump. Tapped Fred’s ability and broke the magic on the vines, getting them to fall off. I grabbed Luis by the collar, tapped Colby’s again and pulled him off, sending him a dozen of feet pass the trees.
The hag had regained her balance. She looked at the stump. “You think you have done anything? You are in my realm.” Twigs around us started moving on their own assembling into stick figures. Seven of them.
“Guys, I hope you’re ready to take her down.” I tapped Fred again and broke the all th magic in the clearing. I fell to my knees to the sounds of them grunting and cursing. I looked around. Everyone was in the process of moving away from the trees or grabbing a gun from the ground. Except for Magdalene, who was slumped down against her tree.
She wasn’t moving, but I didn’t have time to go check. The sound of twigs moving told me the stick men were still there. I looked for them, and they were reforming. The hag’s bark was thicker now. I fired twice, but except for making her take a step back, it didn’t have any effect.
Fire erupted all around me, and with a gesture a tree grew before the hag fast enough to take most of the bullets. I should have had sex before all this.
One of the stick men went for my sister and I forced myself in that direction, staying below the line of fire. When I thought it was safe I sprinted and tackled it. I went through it, and the twigs clung to me, and more added themselves, forming a cage around my leg then locking in place.
I pulled twigs away, but more replaced them, faster than I could go. I looked up to see Colby go at the hag, only to be batted away, across the clearing, and through a tree.
I tried to break the magic of the twigs holding me in place, but I didn’t have that ability anymore. Fred was too far away. He was fighting with his own twig man. I didn’t get why he wasn’t breaking its magic.
Marcus and Zee were back to back. Carefully shooting stick men, breaking them apart, and waiting for them to reform. Marcus caught my eye.
“I suggest you do what ever you had in mind to end this.”
“Shooting her was kind of it,” I replied.
“When this is over, the two of us are going to have a talk with you.”
“If we get—” I cursed as my hand because caught in the twig cage. I stopped fighting it, I was loosing this fight and the cause was there, batting my friends away like they were twigs themselves. I really hadn’t expected her to be that strong. I took aim at her head, taking my time because I probably only had a few shots.
I fired and she staggered back, almost fell, caught herself and straightened. She looked at me. Half her face was gone, but she wasn’t bleeding, from where I stood, the inside if her head looked like it was filled with moss, not brains. Her face reformed as I watched.
Okay, this wasn’t going to end well. I tried to step back, but the cage still held me. He took a few steps in my direction, but stopped.
A roar came over the forest. Trees were crashing down, and the sound was getting closer and closer. The edge of the clearing exploded, splinters flying everywhere.
The biggest bear I’d ever seen roared. Everyone of us froze, including the hag. It looked around. It’s eyes fixed on me for a moment, it growled, then moved to the hag.
The next moment it was pouncing on her. Trees grew in its path, but it broke them with its bulk. Before the hag could move it backhanded her into the stump. It then smashed it, and her into kindling.
When there was nothing left of either, it looked around, looked eyes with me again, roared, then turned and lumbered back into the forest.
