Callie
One of the monsters took flight into the trees again while the other chased me on foot, not near as fast as when they flew.
With all my studies and obsession with wings, the luna moth had always been one of my favorites. It was so easy to fall in love with them after Eli had told me about the beauty of the wonderful green moth.
I touched the V-shaped scar on my thumb as a painful reminder.
After I had come home from the hospital as a child, no one believed me, and I had started to feel crazy. No one believed my story about the tiny fairies, insisting that it was a hallucination from the mushrooms I had picked, but Eli believed me. He knew I wasn’t crazy.
Click, click, click, click!
Fuck, they were getting close!
I took a sharp right and pushed to run as fast as I could, the strips flowing elegantly behind me.
Luna moths are unique in that they thrive at night next to bats. They only live about one week as adults, as their sole purpose is to breed. Evolution needed them to survive and outsmart their biggest predator—bats—long enough to reproduce. Thus they were blessed with long spiral tails that acted as acoustic camouflage, bouncing the bat’s sound waves in different directions, making them nearly impossible to track.
Click! Click, click, click!
It was working. The monster began to stray slightly as the silk of my new tails worked in a similar fashion, redirecting their sound waves.
The ghost of distant murmurs mumbled frantically around me.
The beast on foot was faster than I had thought and slammed its large wing into my side, knocking me to the ground in a muddy heap, and I nearly impaled myself on the stick I apparently still held.
I saw a flash of white teeth surrounded by black feathers.
I steeled myself quickly and moved under the beast’s giant wing. My hands shook with what I was about to do.
I gripped the bottom of his wing where it connected to his back and shoved it aside, stabbing my pointed branch in as far and as hard as I could.
Gasps echoed from the crowd.
The monster shrieked an agonizing scream, and I couldn’t help but feel horrible about what I’d just done. Unlike the bog, I didn’t think he was cruel, he was just doing what he knew.
The screams soon drew the attention of the second monster. I pulled the stick free from the tender spot where I’d stabbed the creature with a slick sound. I couldn’t risk not being able to find another stick that was strong enough.
I quickly ran to a nearby tree, but my body was quickly slowing with the loss of blood. I climbed the thick tree biting down on the bloodied stick. Thankfully I had climbed many trees at the park in an effort to see something better, and this tree had an exceptional supply of branches. Otherwise, I would have been too drained for the climb.
The second beast landed with a low rumble.
Fuck! He was much, much larger than the other.
He crouched down to look at his friend and let out a pained roar that shook the marrow in my bones.
What the hell was I doing? He was so big!
I couldn’t climb any higher to jump on his back like I had hoped.
If I was going to do it, I needed to do it now while he was crouched over, and I could still move.
I jumped from the tree but missed his back.
I fell to the ground with a groan.
I moved to get up as fast as I could, but my adrenaline was waning. I had lost so much blood.
I was too slow.
The monster stood in front of me. A large snarling roar erupted from its toothy mouth as bits of spittle flew out.
He was angry.
It slammed a wing into my head and knocked me to the ground.
I ruined my last chance, and I wouldn’t do it again.
I rolled under his widespread wings and clamored up the feathered body. Lifting the wing slightly, I found the same smooth patch under the other monster’s wing. I rammed my stick into its body with everything I had left.
The beast roared and twisted, sending me sliding against the ground at its side.
It grabbed me.
Its large claws dug painfully into my side as it hunched over, muscles slowly relaxing, and I rolled from its grip.
It gave one last squeeze and shriek before succumbing to the apparent deathblow and melted to the ground in a heap of lifeless feathers and horns.
I quickly pushed myself away from its grasp. The cool dirt below me collected under my nails as I pushed myself as far away as I could.
The ground shifted, bottoming out from below where I had sprawled. I fell backward as I struggled to keep consciousness.
My tired eyes flickered at the temperature change as dry heat covered my now damp skin.
Instantly I was back inside the castle. The same twinkling night sky filled my vision but was now surrounded by fancy walls and tapestries.
“I must say, that was quite impressive,” sang the queen as she popped her pretty head into my vision.
I struggled to sit, realizing I was in the middle of the ballroom floor once again. The crowd gathered around me as I fought to stand. I was still in the presence of predators, and it was foolish to lie vulnerable beneath them.
My eyes immediately searched for Mendax, although I’m not sure why. I suppose I was curious to see if he was actually going to hold up his end of the bargain. He was probably stewing angrily in another room.
“Unless you all would also like to die tonight, get away from my pet,” his voice lumbered at my back as the crowd quickly moved away.
“Take her back, but get her cleaned up before she is returned to her cage. I don’t want her soiling my rugs with her red human blood.”
His words were told to someone else, but as he moved in front of me, his eyes held mine with something I couldn’t understand. A look I hadn’t seen from him before. He looked disheveled, his dark hair mussed about as if he had been pulling on it. Likely furious because I hadn’t died like he’d hoped. Why did he hate me so much?
This time elfish-looking lady’s maids came to fetch me instead of guards or the shadow-maids that had bathed me last time.
My body was about to give out, and the acid wounds still burned full of fire. I couldn’t continue with the other trials if I died from my wounds tonight.
“Say it,” I stated, though it came out with more gusto than I could have predicted.
Mendax and I remained standing, eyes locked. He hesitated a moment.
“Callie Peterson of the human realm has won her first trial,” he said, humoring me, as a foreign gleam of respect flashed over his eyes and just as quickly left.
