Deadwood (The Chronicles of Mistar - Short Story)

···Delfie Caramon

Bastendin 18, 40318 BW···

I got no lecture from my Gama Deity, but I did get a sour look when I escaped from our cabin. A very sour look and an open mouth but I slipped out the door before she could say anything. Mala Della and Pala Fenrick didn't mind. If anything, they would want me to be happy on my birthday and that didn't involve a lecture from Gama Deity.

The deadwood. It wasn't an official name yet, but it certainly felt real besides for the rays of light that poked through the shade and smell of fresh greenery. The woods didn't smell dead yet.

The river was close. Ice River was it called? I couldn't remember but I think I got it right. I came here every Solstice but somehow I always forgot the river's name.

As I got closer, I could hear the roar of the waterfall. I knew its name. Ice Pillar Falls and they were magnificent. They fell into the canyon below, an inta down with no way to get back up if you fell. If anybody did, nobody would know and that person would most likely be dead. Every time I ventured here, I made sure it wasn't me.

The darker it got, the further away I lingered from its edge. I didn't want to get too close to slip and fall and have that be my death. I only dared myself when the sun was high in the sky, knowing every rock and planet without even looking at it.

I could see it's entrance in the distance. The cave's tunnel looming gloomily as if a grave. I didn't mind, even though I smelled death the closer I got to it. It was new, but not completely new. Small animals usually ended up dying in the cave, scared to exit and dying of hunger or jumping into the waterfall that happened to be one of the cave's waterfalls.

I almost choked on the scent of death when I entered, crouching in the dirty tunnel. When I emerged, I was surprised to find blood. Red blood, the color of my hair, glistening all over the glossy walls with feathers and furs of animals along with it.

My stomach flopped when I saw it, my body unable to help the fall to my knees. The smell of iron floated into my nose and my eyes rolled back into my head but I didn't pass out. I wanted too. I deathly wanted too, but I didn't. I couldn't. I was paralyzed by the stench, stuck to the cave's wet floor in the seizing stance.

That's when I saw the sisters. I would come to know them and their gruesome ways. All three wore white and black gloves, the red one in the middle, her eyes like blood and fire. They each held a dead animal in their hands that had stained parts of their dresses orange. They looked like the fire my mala made with her hands, white smoke, orange flames, black coals, and a cooking corpse.

The one with red eyes walked to me. She smiled mischievously, her grin like the devil. Then she said, with fake worry plastered on her face, "You weren't meant to see this, honey."

Laughing, the red-eyed girl left the cave, my back to hers. The two others follow. One was grinning. She had eyes as green as an emerald. The last one looked on with pity and fear, though as she passed I could tell she was the embodiment of fear. Her eyes were as yellow as rotten teeth and the stars that filled the night sky.

Then I was alone, confused and frightened at what I was witnessing. Blood and the smell of death were still everywhere. My eyes seemed to burn but no tears came. I felt as if I was in a trance, my body falling over to hunch. I could feel vomit starting to sputter up but nothing came and my mouth was covered in saliva.

But I wasn't alone. I heard the squeak of a shoe against wet stone. Someone else was here.