Night's Shadow

Chapter 3

Sayomi waited for something to happen. She wasn't quite sure what would happen if a Poe touched you. Maybe all you insides would freeze, or maybe the sensation would be enough to drive you mad or give you nightmares for the rest of your life and become and insomniac. Well, what ever would happen, she knew it wasn't going to be pleasant. But what happened next, she never expected.

Something whizzed past Sayomi's head and the Poe's evil laughter suddenly cut off. Everything was silent and Sayomi opened her eyes. An arrow shaft was protruding out of the Poe's body and it had a shocked look on it's face. Suddenly, it's expression turned to rage and it screamed. The noise was so horrible and high pitched that Sayomi had to cover her ears. It writhed and thrashed in mid-air, clawing at the arrow, trying, in vain, to get it out.

'CURSE YOU!' it spat, glaring at something over Sayomi's shoulder. 'I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU!'

As it suddenly burst into flames, the screams got louder and more desperate. Sayomi felt strong hands grab her arms and drag her back, away from the flaming Poe. She didn't try to fight, she just let them take her away, completely frozen, watching in detached fascination as the Poe convulsed and screamed. Finally, the flames engulfed its body and it disappeared. The little lantern that the Poe was holding dropped and smashed on the stone bridge. A small, purple flame appeared where the glass had shattered. It didn't do anything, just flickered slightly in the breeze. Sayomi breathed a sigh of relief, glad it was all over, and looked back at her saviour. Aki stood directly behind her shoulder, a quiver strapped to a sash that looped over his shoulder, down across his chest, around his waist and back up. In his right hand, he was holding a wooden bow with two ruby coloured crystals implanted at both ends of the wood. He was glaring at the small flame, as if he was afraid it would rear up and attack them again. Sayomi cleared her throat and he looked down at her.

'Um,' she started, becoming extremely interested in the grass. 'I just wanted to say...thank you...for saving me...' she said quietly, ripping a leaf apart, not looking at him. When he didn't reply, she looked up slightly, and found him looking away from her and scratching the back of his head, clearly embarrassed. 'Don't...don't mention it.' he finally replied. Sayomi got to her feet and looked around for  Plum. 'That was pretty good timing. I mean, if you hadn't come when you did I...I don't know what would have happened.' she said, spotting the horse off near the river that lead to Zora's Fountain.

'What were you doing here any way?' she asked, walking over to retrieve the mare.

'Oh, I was going to Zora's Domain to deliver something.' he explained, following a bit behind her. Plum had calmed down pretty quickly and was grazing so Sayomi had an easy job of checking that everything was alright. She checked her hind legs especially to make sure the cart hadn't scratched her when she ran. Everything was ok so Sayomi took the reins and headed back towards the bridge. Aki jogged on ahead of her to capture the floating flame/spirit in a small glass jar. He twisted the lid on tightly and muttered something to it. 'What are you going to do with that?' Sayomi asked, startling him.

'Oh, um,' he swallowed. 'I'm going to go around and see if anyone wants to buy it off me. There are some strange people around these days.' he said, pocketing the slightly glowing jar.

'Um, well, thanks again.' she said, looking at her feet.

'Ah, yeah well, like I said before, don't mention it.' he replied, looking at his feet too. She nodded and turned away. 'Hey Sayomi?' he called after her. She turned back and he was scratching his head again. 'Uh, I just wanted to say that I'm sorry about before. It was really out of line.' he said. She smiled at him. 'It's fine, don't worry about it.' she replied, walking over the bridged to the field on the other side, pulling Plum along with her. She turned around but Aki was already gone. She sighed and looked up at the darkening sky. She closed her eyes and let the cool night air wash over her as she stood there. A lone wolf howled, signalling that it was night-time.