Wild Avalon

35

I spent two days in peace in Canada. Just barely starting to consider that I might be reasonably safe. Sleeping in my tent after eating a solid meal of brook trout. Snuggled into my thin sleeping bag when there came a single percussive caw of a crow, followed by Hilda alerting me that people were nearby. I laced my boots on, rolled up the sleeping bag. Was getting ready to take the tent town. When I heard the snap of a twig nearby. I turned. Securing the now packed hiking bag on my back. I could live without the tent. I was about to take off at a run, when my feet faltered at who was looking at me from the bushes.

"Marissa?" I asked, looking at a face I didn't ever expect to see again.

The sneer on her face let me know everything I needed to know about our meeting, before she spoke a word. "In the flesh," A wicked glint in her eyes. "Sorry to hear about your mother, not all mortal hosts are suitable for a Lamia to inhabit long term." I went stiff. Still unprepared to face that my mother was really dead. Marissa was enjoying hurting me. Giving me the name of the demon who had taken over my mother. 

I wouldn't give her any additional satisfaction. I was going to stand strong. I was going to make it to Rama. I just nodded, never taking my eyes off her as she continued to try and get under my skin. "You have the body of a fourteen year old boy, do you really think you are worthy of a King?" More sneering at me.

"What are you doing here?" I asked her, ignoring her taunts. Listening to the forest as the crows circled over head. No woman was more vindictive than a woman who had been spurned for someone new. Except I wasn't just someone new to Rama. He was mine and I was his. We had always been each others. He might have known first. I knew it now. I knew Marissa was not on my side, the extent of how hard she would be working against me was the only variable I cared about.

When I felt the ripple of magic in the air, smelt burn mix nuts heavy over the pine smell of the woods. I knew Marissa was all in to work against me. I tucked and dove into a roll not more than a second before a fire ball hits the tree behind me. The forest exploded with the sound and feeling of countless people joining Marissa and I in the woods. Demons and witches alike. I was out numbered. Out powered. I had no choice.

Hilda tore free, shifting us instantly. The well stocked backpack falling to the ground as Hilda's lithe muscular body that was built to run sprung forward and free of the melay. Hilda ran for a full night and day. Until long after the last of our even most dogged pursuers had to give up the chase. Hilda kept moving. Making sure no one would be able to easily track us from our last marked location.

Burnt nuts in the air meant demons, who could likely easily teleport. Marissa was against me, and if I had to place a bet I would say she was working with the coven that wanted to use me for some kind of power spell. Marissa was the kind of person who would lie, cheat and steal her way to a better position. She had already revealed her true nature to me. Whatever promises or deals Marissa had made were none of my concern. I just had to keep escaping. Stay safe, keep moving. That was my focus.

No matter how far, or how fast Hilda ran, Marissa kept appearing just in front of me as I ran. The same sickening smile on her face as she popped into being just in front of Hilda as we ran. "You are your mother's daughter," Marissa held up a red vial. "We have more than enough of your mother's blood to track you to the ends of the Earth and into Fae, Avalon. Give up. It'll be easier for everyone." Marissa called out after me.

"You have seen yourself shifted right? You know you're a stunted, deformed atrocity Avalon. You shouldn't ever have lived." Hilda hissed. I wasn't able to keep her from wasting the energy. Our strength was failing. We weren't going to be able to keep running. We were going to lose. 

Marissa popped ahead of me once more. Hilda shifted to run in a new direction as fire balls began to rain down on us. Setting the grasses on fire. The fire spreading. Limiting our means of escape ever further. The air was hot, the fire taking the oxygen we needed to breathe to keep muscles moving.