Page 46 of To Free a Soul
He looks so cute, so handsome!She gave an accidental hoot that would have been a gleeful squeal had she been in her human form.He looks so dapper in his outfit!
At the sound she made, he looked towards her with dark-yellow orbs and a head tilt. She held in her excitement and remained still so he wouldn’t try to enter the building below her clawed feet. She didn’t even know what it was.
Even though he looked more sophisticated, the Demons continued to give him a wide berth. Lindiwe receded back into the twisting, spiralling tree canopy above, remaining hidden as best as she could.
When he approached a cart merchant selling pretty gems and ornament-crafting materials, Lindiwe was surprised by his interest. He sat on his haunches as he inspected it all, as if mesmerised by the pretty shinies.
Before the woman shopkeeper could ask, Orpheus dug into his satchel, which sat above a new one given to him by Snush, and pulled out a handful of broken amethyst crystals.
She shook her head when he shoved his hand at her to trade.
“T-that’s too much,” she pleaded. “I-I’d only need a few. You don’t need to give me that many.”
Before she could finish, he pulled his hand back, dumped half of the pieces into his other palm, and held them out to her. Her blonde eyebrows furrowed as she took them with trembling hands and placed them in her wooden trade box next to her. Then she proceeded to place everything he picked up into a large pouch, whether he truly wanted it or not.
When their awkward exchange was complete, the woman picked up an amethyst and gestured to it.
“Thank you, Mavka. I like your trade.” She picked up a piece of crude jewellery she’d made, obviously not a well-skilled craftspersonyet.“I’ve never seen pretty stones like these, and I can practise with them. I’m sure others will like them.”
He dipped his skull down to her hand and then back to her face. “Orpheus.”
Her light complexion paled further as her eyes widened. “Pardon?”
“Name is Orpheus, not Mavka. OrpheusisMavka.”
“Oh.” She offered a strained smile. “Thank you,Orpheus.”
He nodded with a snorting huff and then moved on – a little more confidently than before. He never noticed how the Demon fell back into a chair as if all the energy was sapped out of her, and how the attendant at the cart next to her selling herbs came to her side.
“Are you okay, Coyul?” the man asked.
“By the cursed light, did you see that?” she muttered, fanning herself and attempting calming breaths. “I’ve only seen Merikhfrom afar, but I’ve heard the other Mavka are more violent. I was so worried he’d try to eat me!”
“At least he didn’t steal anything,” he stated, eyeing Orpheus walking away, only for his eyes to widen when Lindiwe’s child grew confident enough to stand on two legs once he left a different cart. “Are they all so big?”
I’m glad the village has a scent-cloaking spell,Lindiwe mused. She turned her attention away from them and brought it back to Orpheus, who garnered more stares now that he was standing at his full height in his humanoid form.Without it, the smell of their fear might have sent him into bloodlust.
That, or the aroma of blood from the meat market further in would have.
When he really needed specific guidance, she’d find a place to shift into a human, use black mist to mostly obscure her presence, and leave behind something he would understand.
A single white feather, pulled from her cloak.
April 9th, 1835
Seated on a rather comfortable boulder in the middle of a small clearing, Lindiwe moved her writing apparatus with care. It’d been quite some years since she’d used charcoal with her bare fingers, now preferring to utilise a charcoal holder. It was fashioned similarly to a spear, where a polished cylinder of wood was attached to a sharpened piece of charcoal by specialised twine.
Readjusting her journal on her left bent knee, the heel of her right foot had found a place to wedge, so she didn’t tip to one side. She noted some of the recent events, as she’d yet to do so.
Dappled sunlight swayed back and forth across her pages, the light wind causing them to flick. The chill in the air was mild enough that it didn’t make her talisman radiate with heat, even as autumn deepened. Branches clacked together, leaves rustled, and the subtle squawks of birds could be heard.
Humming a soft tune, she pushed her braided ponytail over her shoulder when it slipped down to her chest.
There was a distinct rustle, like someone dropping from atree, followed by the quadruple thump of an undoubtedly large four-legged beast landing not too far behind her. After so many years of living on the razor’s edge of danger, her human ears had learned to pick up when she was being quietly hunted.
The minute snap of a dry leaf or tiny twig. The clacking of small rocks knocking against each other. The way the area seemed to grow quiet, as if the animals knew of the impending doom long before she did. There was even a sixth sense now where the hairs on her nape would rise under the weight of watchful eyes – a completely different sensation from the gaze of her shadowy partner.
She could almostfeelthe danger, smell it, taste it. It was right there, and with every second that passed, it only grew more barbed – like the universe was cutting its fangs on her demise.
