The forest screamed. Not the mournful howling of wind through trees, but shrill high pitched wail that was too rageful to be something less than sentient. She stopped in her tracks at the hearing of it and looked around for the source but in the dim light of a sunset through a canopy of trees she could see nothing.
She heard plenty though. The screaming and what sounded like pounding footsteps getting closer and closer. No birds though. No insects.
She whipped around as the footsteps broke through the line of trees and Kalten's voice burst out of his lungs. "Mery! Run, damn it!"
He caught her wrist as his longs legs carried him past her and practically dragged her across the ground.
"What is it?" she panted out.
"Banshee," he replied shortly before tugging her sharply to one side and into a thick bramble.
The thorns caught the fabric of her clothes and her long red hair tangled in the leaves and branches as she was all but pulled into Kalten's lap. His hand closed around her mouth, but was gentle.
She could hear his breath panting in her ear and over it she could hear the crunch of another set of feet, these ones not running as Kalten had been but jogging at a steady pace. Mery jolted when the scream sounded again, so close and so loud it hurt her ears.
The crunching footsteps stopped just feet away from where they hunkered down and Mery recognized the boots. It was Taya. Feeling a little safer she reached up to put her hand over Kalten's and gently ease it away from her mouth. He resisted her tugs until she turned to look at him, their faces so close together they practically shared breath.
The look in his eyes told her that no matter what she needed to remain silent. She gave a small nod to tell him she understood and his hand moved away slowly and rested gently on her waist.
She only had a moment to muse that she'd never been this close to another human being before when the shrill screaming sounded again and instinctively she tucked harder back against him.
"Oh stop your bitching," Taya called out, turning to face back the way she'd come. "You're giving me a fucking headache."
A woman, small and pale with huge black eyes and clad in a white robe stepped forward, her movements oddly stuttering as though her whole body ticked.
"You dare come to my woods!" The voice was shrill and painful in the air as it speared through it. "You dare cross me!"
Taya's arms folded, an unimpressed line curving her mouth. "Is that a question or a statement?"
"Give it back!" The banshee screamed, and Mery almost giggled hysterically when she recalled she had heard a petulant 4 yr old saying the exact same thing once.
"Give what back? The cairn?" Taya's arms unfolded and her hands rested on her hips. "I don't think so. I'm fairly certain I need it more than you do."
"You and your kind," the banshee said with disgust. "Filthy Voro. Stealing the blood of others not enough for you? I'm not in the habit of doing favors but I think killing you could be considered one!"
The banshee moved closer with her odd twitchy movements. Taya made no move other than to lift an upturned palm.
"I wonder how flammable your kind is…" she quipped.
Another scream of rage filled the air as the banshee came flying - literally flying - at Taya. Before she reached her however, the scream became one of pain and fear.
Through the leaves and branches Mery saw the figure alright with flame, running and flailing her arms almost as though in a dance. The sight and smell of the being burning alive before her had her turning into Kalten with disgust and horror.
"It's alright, little witch," he soothed, no longer afraid to be over heard. "It will be over soon."
And then with sound of a sword being drawn and a final strangled gasp, it was. Taya had mercifully ended the banshees life with one killing stroke.
Mery didn't move, but continued to shake and shudder against Kalten until she heard Taya's voice call to them.
"You two alive in there?"
As though she'd been stung Mery jumped up and having forgotten she was in the middle of a bramble, fell back with a cry as thorns tore at her.
"Bollocks," she said pitifully as she tried to gingerly move away from those painful little claws.
Kalten extracted himself with slightly more coordination and held branches apart for her as Taya began plucking her free from the ones that had captured her.
"Are you alright?" Taya asked as she checked all the little nicks that oozed fresh warm blood.
"Aye," Mery whispered, her face so bright red her freckles almost disappeared. "I shouldn't have followed. I know you said not to but I was curious… I thought I'd just peek…"
"And you ended up in a bramble with Kalten for your effort," Taya finished for her, trying to ease some of her shock with humor.
Mery jumped and scrambled behind Taya when she felt Kalten step up close behind her. "Let's get back to camp where there's some light and I'm not so damn jumpy."
Kalten and Taya both watched her speculatively as she all but ran into the trees in the direction of camp.
"For someone who doesn't want to be in the dark she sure doesn't seem to be afraid of running into it," Taya said as she planted her hands on her hips.
Kalten grunted and turned to grab his weapons that he'd had to unbuckle to free himself of the tangle. "Brave little rabbit."
She cocked her head at him, her eyes slightly narrowed. "She's nervous around you lately."
"Is that a question or a statement?" he asked as he slipped by her, buckling his weapons back on.
"However you like," she said keeping pace with him. "I'm just wondering why it pisses you off so much." His grey eyes swept across to her, dark and dangerous, but far from making Taya pause in her questioning it made her grin. "In fact I've never seen you this cranky."
He grabbed a small linen bag that he'd tied to his belt and yanked it off, tossing it to her. "There's your cairn. I hope this plan works."
Taya sighed as she tied the pouch to her own belt. "Me too. If we live through John's lecture about going without him it might just save my - our asses."
