Onyx

Chapter 2: Little Girl

At the break of dawn, Onyx's eyes fluttered open. The man she thought. She jumped straight from her cot and quickly got dressed in her rough wool tunic, as quickly as possible. It was improper for a woman to dress in a tunic, but it was all her family could afford. The dresses and robes appropriate for women were too much, and too expensive for them. Besides, it was unfit attire for someone to work in the groves with.

Quickly and silently, she opened up the flap of her tent and looked around to see if anyone else was awake. Seeing as the coast was clear she jogged in the direction of the groves. What do I say to him if I see him?  she wondered. Is he even human?  she scoffed at herself. Of course he would be human. What else would he be, besides human. But something pricked the back of her mind...

As the trees came within view, Onyx started running faster. If I could just get there in time, maybe I'll be able to spot him again she thought. As she burst through the woods she quickly went to the same area she spotted him last night and looked everywhere. He was nowhere to be found. Thinking he was somewhere else, she looked towards the spot she first heard the jingle. Not even a hint of his presence was anywhere near the groves where she first saw him.

Discouraged Onyx made the long trek home. When she was about half a mile to her tent, she heard a jingle. Excitement poured through her at the prospect of seeing the young man again as she turned around towards the noise. Her elation soon deflated after seeing it was just the bells of the wagon of hay Mr.Bozelli was pulling towards the stables. "G'day Ms.Windward! What brings you out here so early?"

"Good morning Mr.Bozelli! I was just looking for some herbs to bring home in the fields, but I couldn't find any of use."

Seemingly satisfied with her answer Mr.Bozelli nodded and continued on his path. Onyx quickly hurried home in fear of someone else catching her by surprise. When she returned to her tent she was relieved to find both her mother and Rigel sound asleep. She wasn't needed in the groves for another 4 hours, but she was far too awake to go back to sleep, especially after the scare with Mr.Bozelli.

To pass by the time she decided to read the book she threw on her cot the night before. It was passed down from generation to generation in her family, filled with drawings and descriptions of different medicinal based plants and how to use them. It was a good book to have, especially when working in the groves where injuries were quite frequent.

Onyx slowly drifted into a reverie as the time to go back to work in the groves drew nearer, dreaming about those glowing blue orbs.

She had hopes to see him again and each day she continued waking up early to see if she would spot him, while being extra careful to avoid Mr.Bozelli. A week had gone by and there was still no sign of the strange man. Disheartened Onyx decided to look no more. She wondered if he was real, or some twisted fragment of her imagination.

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Since the week had been eerily quiet, the chieftain gave the okay for people to go back to work in the groves. Picking up her ax, Onyx headed back to the groves ready for work.

She didn't bother trying to look for the strange man after searching for a week with no avail. Besides, she convinced herself, I'm far too busy to be worrying about a stranger.

The day wore on and still she heard no jingle. Arms tired she rested upon a stump and drank from her water skin. She spotted Rigel leaning on a tree flirting with a group of village girls. She felt a bit of bile come up her throat at the thought of someone liking Rigel. Eager to get the thought out of her mind, she picked up her ax and got back to work.

In her culture everybody had a part to play. Those who were able to perform hard labor were required to work in the groves, whether you were male or female did not matter. Men and women were viewed equally in the sense of they were all able to perform the same tasks. Onyx's job was to chop wood and collect a portion that at the end of the week, would be sold out and traded to the neighboring villages. Money was hard to come by so more often than not the wood was traded for needed supplies.

If on the off chance she did get money, she would save it up and buy different valuables when the merchants would stop by their village. Her mother was too weak to work in the groves alongside her and her brother, so instead she worked in the fields South of the groves tending to a mix of medicinal plants and crops.

Onyx's father had left when she was little. One day he packed up his stuff and said he was going to trade some wool in one of the neighboring villages. He never returned. It doesn't bother her that much, because she barely remembers him. It really impacted her mother though—at least that's what the neighbors say. Oftentimes, Onyx wondered what her mother was like before her father left.

She continued chopping down trees until nightfall. As she picked up her ax to head home before the curfew, a scream erupted from within the trees. Alarmed, Onyx ran towards it along with a couple of other grove workers—Neo, Enzo, and Reno. Everybody else had already left and the 4 of them had stayed back a little longer to chop some more wood. When they arrived at the scene they found a little girl crying at the base of the tree.

Right above her, there were claw marks similar to the marks seen on the livestock from the week before, except these marks had a blue hue to them. Onyx could've sworn that blue was the same shade of the eyes of the man she had seen, but she couldn't be sure. She was still contemplating whether he had been real or not.

Reno bent down and asked the girl, "Are you ok? What happened here?"

The little girl couldn't answer his questions through her sobs. Neo pushed him aside and said, "Geez Reno, you're scaring her away! You're not the most approachable person to a little girl."

Reno was a booming man, with large round shoulders due to the years spent working in the groves. Enzo snickered a bit at that comment. Onyx stepped forward and kneeled by the little girl. "It's ok you're safe now." she said.

The little girls head snapped up at the sound of her voice and a mad gleam entered her eyes. The entire bearing of the girl changed from weak and pitiful, to something else entirely inhuman and malevolent . She started sniffing the air and locked on Onyx, eyes dilated and hungry. Her mouth formed a twisted smile.

Enzo backed up saying, "Woah, woah, woah, what's going on?"

Every ounce of Onyx's fibers said to run, but she was immobilized with fear staring into the girls horrible yellow eyes. Reno and Neo tried pulling the girl off of her, but the girl would not budge. In a feeble attempt to help, Enzo stepped in and tried hitting her with a stick.

Seemingly irritated with their attempts the little girl knocked all 3 men off with a flick of her wrist and sent them sprawling across the woods. She grabbed Onyx's arm and sprinted off at a dizzying speed, with more agility than any human can achieve. The men had no chance of catching up to them.

She heard far in the distance Neo call out to the others, "Go notify the chieftain! Tell him a rabid little girl-"

The rest of his sentence was unintelligible as she was taken farther and farther away from them.

Onyx was so disoriented she couldn't even stand up. She felt her strength ebbing as her body kept hitting the roots of trees, and being scraped by twigs and branches. Everything went by in a blur and she was unable to grab hold of anything, in fear of her arm being ripped out of her socket. She had no sense of direction, and did not know how much longer her body could take the pain. She was full of bruises and scrapes and knew she had fractured a finger somewhere along the trip.

The little girl jumped from a hill and Onyx felt her body weightless in the air and sensed nothing beneath her. Her head shook violently from the impact of the landing. Panic overwhelmed her and in a desperate attempt to escape, hit the little girl with her other hand. The little girl stopped leaving Onyx extremely dizzy.

She stared at her with a mad sort of pleasure in her face as if seeing another creature weaker and more helpless than her was entertaining. Her eye's were wild and her mouth curled into a cruel smirk.

Still holding onto Onyx's arm, the little girl picked up a large rock and lifted it towards Onyx's head. That was the last thing Onyx saw before everything went black.