Memories Lost - First of Apocalyptic Hell Series

More Friends

    Come morning I was greeted with the first bit of sunlight that broke through the darkness of the clearing. As I collected myself and stretched, waiting for the others to rise I looked over to see that Aulcmid was still lying next to Caethrynna. He was sound asleep and this was the first time I had seen him actually sleep, I swear some days that Uruk-hai never slept, to see him so peaceful in his sleep made me wish I didn’t have to rouse him. I tapped on his foot twice to rouse him. He took a deep breath before opening his eyes, he looked at me before he looked down at Caethrynna. She looked almost like a delicate dove that was nestled under the wing of a great raptor. 

    “Best get your armor on before the others rise. The sooner we can get everything loaded the sooner we can leave and get back on the road.” he nodded in response as he started to lift his arm. As he began to move, Caethrynna began to stir and wake. 

    “I’m sorry, I tried not to wake you.” he spoke softly to her. 

    “No need to apologize, Aulcmid, besides I needed to wake up anyway.” She stretched before she sniffed the air. “What is that?” I turned to see Orus approaching carrying what looked like a large tray that was steaming. “Whatever it is, it smells incredible!” She was practically drooling as she licked her lips. All I could do was chuckle at her, as her pregnancy progressed her cravings consistently kept us on our toes. 

    The aroma of the food and tea brought the rest of the group to the waking world. Luckily there wasn’t anything odd in the mixture of foods that Caethrynna could combine and gross out the rest of the group. Although she did out eat everyone. Surprised even Aulcmid given her tiny frame. After taking time to eat and drink our fill on a great breakfast spread we loaded up the wagon and added whatever gear that Orus was bringing with him. Aulcmid lifted Caethrynna up and gently set her down in the wagon, while the rest of us mounted or climbed into the wagon if they weren’t walking. 

    We traveled through the wood within a week, once through the forest we entered into one of the greatest places in America that I have always enjoyed. Yellowstone National Park. The scenery was incredible, to see all the wildlife and not a single being to interrupt it at all. Or so we thought when we came up on what looked to have been a camp, there were two horses and two mules that had been left tied to a line and were hobbled. One of the horses had laid down, probably from being left standing for too long. As we approached, I could smell the stench of decay in the air. 

    I motioned for everyone to stop as I dismounted, drawing my sword as I walked closer to the tent. As I drew closer, the scent of decay grew stronger. I could feel the bile in my throat as I fought the urge to gag. I could also hear the buzzing of insects. Thankfully the wind picked up and began to carry the stench off as I got closer, one I was within reach I used my sword to push open the flat of the tent to see the remains of two adults, possibly male and definitely older. I suspected that they died of natural causes and had been dead for less than a week. I left the remains and approached the run line. 

    They had been hobbled and I could see that the poor things were exhausted from having to stand there. I left them on the run line as I took the hobbles off of them, rubbing their legs and picking up their feet. Each of them had a set of solid shoes on and luckily they were just stiff from having to stand for so long. The rest of the group joined to help walk them around to loosen their stiff joints. The men took care of the dead like the last time, after they had taken what would be beneficial to us. All of their equipment had been left, nothing was taken, confirming my suspicions of them having died of natural causes. 

    After everything was said and done, we were able to saddle two of the horses and the two mules were ponied to the wagon. This gave us more mounts to ride and hopefully we would find more saddles on the remainder of our journey. This allowed Charles and Alex to get out of the wagon, granted teaching Alex how to ride was the best entertainment I’d seen since before the war. 

    We were able to enjoy the scenery of the park as we continued on our journey, and managed to get plenty of hunting done to stock up on fresh meats and pelts. We were going to need them the further north we traveled. It seemed as if we had sprinted through Yellowstone when we found ourselves entering Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest, which was equally peaceful as we continued till we reached the base of the Rockies Mountain range. From there we turned north and continued along till we came across the first actual town that we had seen in nearly a month and a half. It was the same routine as always of raiding all the buildings, taking what we could and searching for survivors. Our party expanded by three and thankfully they had their own horses, we also found a tack supply store where we were able to find saddles for the other two horses allowing Melanie and Jessica to ride and not be stuck in the wagon. 

    We were stopped in what was an indian reservation, there wasn’t much left of it sadly. There were a few teepees left and we were able to find many animal hides that were already tanned and ready to be used. The supplies we gathered from there weren't as much as we were used to, but my guess is the natives were long gone and surviving just fine out on their own in the wilds. If we came across them I hoped they would join us, but I didn’t keep my hopes up. We set up camp in what looked to have once been the community center and luckily they ran off gas, there was still propane left enough for everyone to be able to shower and for us to prepare a meal. 

    I wandered the remnants of the reservation and was amazed at how barren each home was. The town looked as if it hadn’t been inhabited for months even, but nothing was left destroyed. As I wandered about I found their burial grounds, pens that looked like corrals for horses, everything that they would need in order to survive out here. I made my way to the teepees, they were large enough to fit at least four people in them comfortably. The hides were in great condition and the poles were still solid, the trick would be tearing them down and setting them back up. I didn’t know how to set up a teepee and I wasn’t sure if anyone in our group knew how. 

    “I can build that if you want to take them with us.” a voice broke my train of thought as I turned to see one of the new members of our group. His name was Jacob Raven, his hair matched his last name as it was as black as a raven, his skin was almost the same shade as copper and he was very stout. Broad shoulders, thick muscles and strong stature. 

    “Are you sure?” I asked him questioningly. 

    “Of course. I used to live here, I didn’t want to leave with the rest of the tribe so myself and my siblings left on our own. I knew there was something more out there and that being out in the wild wasn’t safe. My visions told me that before the world went to hell.” He looked up at the teepee. 

    “You have visions?” I asked. 

    “Yes, my ancestors show me pieces of the future, of things that are coming. I knew about this coming war before it ever happened. I thought I had gone mad when I had that vision, but when I brought it to the elders they didn’t brush it off. They ordered the reservation to pack up and move out. They took as much as they could, but left three teepees for me and my siblings when we told them we weren’t going with them. I know where they are and if we needed them I would be able to find them with no trouble. I even saw you before I ever met you.” He looked over at me. That is an incredible gift and one that we could use to our advantage. 

    “Is this a gift that you’ve always had?” 

    “It started when I was a teenager, about 13 years old, I had a vision that one of our elders was going to drive into town and be killed in a car accident involving multiple vehicles. I didn’t know when it was going to happen so I watched the elder like a hawk and every time he would try to get into his truck I would ask him where he was going. The first few times I asked he wasn’t even leaving the reservation, but the last time I asked him and he told me I begged him not to leave. When he asked for an explanation, I told him about the vision and from then on every time I would experience one I went before the elders with them.” He looked back at the teepee again, “I had several visions throughout my life, many have been able to save hundreds of lives. Unfortunately the vision I had of this war was unable to save anyone.” 

    “Jacob,” I stepped up to him and placed a hand on his shoulder, “Do not blame yourself for anything. You were able to save your tribe, there is nothing you could have done to stop Lilith. No one could have, trust me, I was on the battlefront and even with the best warriors she was simply too powerful. We are going to send the demon b***h to the deepest and darkest cell in Hell, but it’s going to take time and as much man power as we can muster. But certainly don’t blame yourself, even if you could’ve given enough warning, it wouldn’t have stopped anything. Getting the mortals to believe you would’ve been difficult. Many didn’t believe any of us Fae existed before the Great Battle.” I gave his shoulder a squeeze to reassure him. “You did what you could and that is what matters the most. For now let's try and survive till we make it to Eindenia and we can go from there. If you know how to take these down and get them loaded into the wagon by all means go for it. We could certainly use them.” He nodded in agreement before getting to work on taking them down. His siblings seemed to pop up out of nowhere and joined him. 

    The Raven siblings were an interesting bunch, Jacob had the gift of foresight and his siblings, Emily and Ethan, were quite mysterious. They had a certain aura about them as well as a smell, I couldn’t place my finger on the scent, but I had smelled it before. They were twins, one sister and one brother and they both had one blue eye and one green. They also had interesting tattoos on their chests, the head of a wolf on the brother and the head of a large cat on the sister. They kept to themselves mostly, only speaking with Jacob and he spoke for the two of them, but they never caused trouble and always did their share of work with the group. They seemed like good people, there was just something different about them. They smelled like that of were beings, so I assumed that Ethan was a werewolf and Emily was a werecat, possible werecourgar. 

    As I walked back to where we were bedding down for the night I heard what sounded like wings on the air. I stopped to listen, thinking it was Fayrova, that was until I saw her bedded down in front of the building with her ember bed. I called out to her through the bond. 

    “Fayrova!” I watched as her head popped as she looked for me, she started to rise when I motioned to stop her, “Don’t move, I need you to listen and look to the skies. Tell me what you see. Be as inconspicuous as you can be, if it’s an enemy we do not want to be seen.” she nodded as she laid her head back down, but tilted it so she could look skyward. 

    “I’m not certain on what it is, but I can tell it isn’t a bird and it’s fast.” she continued to watch the skies as I kept my pace toward the building, luckily where she was she blended in with the building. “Wait! It looks like a small winged being, I think it might be a large fairy?” she was confused by what she was seeing. It wasn’t until whatever it was attempted to land and was pounced by a large cat, a mountain lion with one green eye and one blue. 

    “Wait, don’t eat it, Emily!” I knew it! They were weres, that’s the smell I was getting. She froze for a moment before rising to a sitting position while she held the fairy in her mouth. As I got closer I could see that it wasn’t a fairy or at least not one that I had seen before. It was far too large to be a fairy and it’s wings weren’t shimmery like a fairy, it had webbed wings like a bat. I reached her at the same time as Jacob. 

    “Please don’t hurt her. She was only hunting.” Jacob began to plead for his sister’s safety. 

    “I wasn’t going to hurt her, I don’t want her to kill it.” I gave him a questioning look before I looked at his sister. She lowered her head and dropped the creature on the ground, but held its wings with her paw so it couldn’t escape. 

    It looked like a large Fairy honestly now that I got a better look at it. I knelt in front of them both and looked at the creature. She had delicate features, with skin an olive shade, eyes as bright as emeralds, and hair a fierce red. She was shaking in fear as I watched her for a moment, before I reached towards her. She flinched away from my hand as I brushed some of the hair away from her face. 

    “Do you speak the common tongue?” The creature looked up at me and nodded, her eyes full of fear as she trembled. “There is no need to be afraid of us, I promise no one will hurt you. What is your name?” 

    “M-my name is, N-nelye Beladrin of the The Witchmoor Marsh fairy clan.” Her voice was so quiet I could barely hear her. 

    “What brings you to the mortal realm?” I asked her. 

    “Our home was destroyed by the Demon Queen, I was separated from my family when we fled and I haven’t been able to find them back.” Nelye looked down as I saw the light shimmer of tears in her eyes. 

    “Nelye, I am truly sorry to hear about your family. If you wish to travel with us, you are welcome to join us. We are traveling to Eindenia, if your family made it this far north, it is possible that they could’ve made it to Eindenia.” I watched as she thought it through for a moment before she nodded in agreement. Emily lifted her paw off of her wings to allow her to stand and dust herself off. I reached out to her so she could step up onto my hand. 

    “Thank you, you are so kind to allow me to join you! I had heard talk of this realm, but we didn’t know where to find it. I have never met the Queen or any royalty for that matter, only heard tales about her greatness. Is she really as beautiful and powerful as they say? I heard that she was so powerful that she has been living for a 1000 years! Is she truly the embodiment of the Goddess Nyx? Does she have wings of the purest of white feathers? Oh, I'm certain that Eindenia is far more beautiful than that dark marsh. I mean I loved my home, but it could be so dreary, you know? I wonder what kinds of other creatures live there, how many different kinds of creatures are there?” Nelye went from being shy and quiet to chattering in the blink of an eye. I just chuckled at her enthusiasm as we walked to the community center. 

    “Nelye, I will answer all of your questions in due time, for now let us introduce you to the rest of the group and get you settled in for the night with some food and a bed.” She giggled as she clamped a hand over her mouth. She nodded in agreement and continued to follow me and thankfully in silence. As we entered the building she zoomed in ahead of me, but froze as soon as she saw Aulcmid and Caethrynna. Luckily the door had shut behind me to keep her from bolting outside, but she began to panic and she banged on the glass. 

    “Let me out! Please, I promise not to tell a soul what I saw! You promised not to hurt me!” Nelye began to scream in fear, her screaming was so high pitched everyone was flinching and covering their ears. Melanie ran up next to me with her ears covered as well. 

    “What is that thing and how do we make her stop screaming?” She yelled at me. 

    “She is a Witchmarsh fairy and until she calms down she probably won’t stop screaming! I think seeing Aulcmid set her off!” I yelled back. For something as tiny as she was she certainly had a set of lungs on her. “Nelye! Nelye, please stop! Stop screaming!” Nothing was getting through her panic, so I pulled on my magic to make my voice louder than hers. I touched my throat before I spoke. “SILENCE!” My voice was so loud that not only did it drown out her screaming, it shook the windows and even faltered her flying. I took my hand away from my throat and cleared it. “Now that I have your attention. Would you kindly explain what all the screaming was about?” Nelye looked at me with fear filled eyes before she started to speak. 

    “You promised you were good and no harm would come to me, but when I come in here I see an Uruk-hai and the daughter of the Demon Queen. You lied to me!” She accused as she pointed a shaky hand at Aulcmid and Caethrynna. Everyone in the building burst into laughter, even Aulcmid and Caethrynna. 

    “Well you aren’t wrong on whom you see, but I can assure you they are both good. Why would I tell you that we were going to Eindenia if I were traveling with those who serve the Demon Queen? There are a small number of Uruk-hai that fight for Queen Alenia, not all of them are bad and it has to do with who aided in creating them. Now Caethrynna may be the daughter of the Demon Queen, but she would never side with her mother. She has been on the run ever since her mother came to the mortal realm. I can assure you that she is nothing like her mother nor would she ever harm another being.” I gave her a kind smile, Aulcmid and Caethrynna approached next to me. 

    “Whoa, you’re huge!” Nelye exclaimed before she flapped her wings and began to fly around Caethrynna, “What did you eat to get such a large belly?” Her question brought about another round of laughter, “What? What did I say that was funny?” I couldn’t help but chuckle again at her innocence. 

    “Nelye, she doesn’t have a large belly from eating something, she is pregnant with two babies.” I chuckled some more at her confusion. 

    “Wait, so demons don’t lay eggs?” This question brought about more laughter. 

    “No they don’t, not many races do.” I couldn’t believe how innocent she was, it was rather cute. 

    “Huh, that’s odd, so does she just carry them inside her and then what?” Nelye asked as she placed her hands cautiously on Caethrynna’s gravid stomach. 

    “In the coming months she will go into labor and deliver the babies. Hopefully after we reach Eindenia and not before.” I said. 

    “Why would it be bad if she had them before we got to Eindenia?” Nelye asked curiously. 

    “If the babies come before we get there will put the entire group in danger of drawing unwanted attention to us all. We don’t want to risk anyone’s safety especially the babies if they come before we make it.” Caethrynna answered her. 

    “Oh, well that makes sense.” Then she looked to Aulcmid. She flew up to be eye level with him before she started to circle him. “For an Uruk-hai, you sure are different from the others I’ve seen. Why is that?” 

    “My maker made me different from the others for a reason. He knew the war was coming and that Lilith would bring to all races, so he was making as many as he could different from how Uruk-hai are supposed to be made, he hoped that if he made enough it would help the queen in the Great Battle.” Aulcmid answered her, thank goodness someone else had taken over answering her questions. She flew back to me after she got the answer that she wanted from him. 

    “I’ll take your word that they are good, sorry for the screaming.” She looked at me sheepishly. 

    “It’s quite alright and it’s understandable considering everything you have experienced at the hands of Lilith and her forces. Trust me when I say that everyone in this group is good and no one here will hurt you.” As I spoke, the Raven siblings walked in to join us. Emily looked up at Nelye and gave her a small smile. Nelye bolted behind me, peeking just over my shoulder. 

    “What about that one? The were-girl.” She looked at me before looking cautiously at Emily. “She tried to eat me.” Emily chuckled at her statement. 

    “I wasn’t going to eat you, I caught you because you looked suspicious.” I was actually shocked that Emily spoke. Her voice was warm and soft, and it had a singsong rhythm to it almost. 

    “Suspicious?!” Nelye squeaked, “I didn’t mean to do that, I’m sorry if I worried anyone!” She almost looked like she was going to cry again, almost like a pitiful child whose toy had broken, “I was hungry and as I was flying by, I could smell the food so I flew closer to get a better look and was trying to see what kind of people were here. I wasn’t trying to do anything bad, honest. I was just so hungry.” 

    “Oh the poor thing.” I heard Melanie say, “Well come on in, we’ll feed you and get you taken care of.” She stepped around Aulcmid and held her hand out to Nelye. She first balked as she looked to me for reassurance, I nodded at her, then with a few gentle flaps of her wings she landed gracefully on Melanie’s hand, from there Melanie lifted her up to her shoulder and took her over to where the food was. 

    “Looks like we can add a Witchmoor Marsh fairy to our group.” I chuckled, I had heard of marsh fairies but had never seen one before. I can remember reading about them once and there were different kinds, but due to the environment they lived in they were larger than the average fairy. I didn’t expect them to be like her, but she seemed young so it explained a lot and she is a fairy, they can be rather over the top sometimes. 

    “I’ve never seen a fairy before, she is so,” Emily took a moment to search for the right word, “strange, but adorable.” I chuckled at her choice of words. 

    “That’s fairies for you, I have never seen a fairy not be adorable. They also aren’t the brightest of beings, next to pixies. Pixies are the worst on the intelligence scale. But all of them are innocent and wouldn’t hurt anyone. They can all be quite over the top in their behavior, especially when they are younger.” I watched as I could see Nelye ask Melanie 1,000 question, while Melanie prepared her a plate of food. 

    “Does it always talk?” Ethan muttered as he watched her cautiously. 

    “A young fairy that has been on her own for who knows how long, yes she is going to talk a lot. Be prepared for her to play the 50 question game with you, just like a child.” I said. 

    “If she does that, I’m going to eat her.” he growled, only to yelp in pain as Jacob smacked him in the back of the head. “I’m kidding!” 

    Once Nelye had been fed, she curled up next to Melanie while we all settled in for the night. Jacob and his siblings had already packed up the teepees, which will help later down the road with us being so close to the mountains. We all chatted away while enjoying the dinner that Melanie had prepared, simple yet perfect, a medley of fire roasted meats, roasted and fresh vegetables and fruits along with warm bread. Once again not disappointed with the meal that she prepared, I’m surprised that she hasn’t asked for someone else to take over preparing food, then again Charles, Alex, and Asar work to clean up after each meal so it’s a mutual team effort. Once everyone was settled I was able to drift off to sleep.