In the Margins

     When finally she awoke several hours later, it was with her head spinning and an ache pounding behind her eyes. She needed to eat something, clearly- but finding anything edible in these woods that wasn't also slimy, chewy, or mushy was a headache all its own, and for a time she just groaned and covered her face with her wings.

     Why me? she thought, not for the first time.

     Because someone has to do this, Aethia's voice replied from her memory. It is a duty upon which all of our safety depends.

     With an inarticulate noise of frustration, the Draik pushed herself up onto her knees and looked around. It was late afternoon, going by the light. She was getting better at judging time despite the constant fog and rain that obscured the sun during daylight hours in the Haunted Woods. It wasn't quite sunset, but probably it wouldn't be too much further off. If she was going to find food before the beasts of the Haunted Woods started pressing on the border again, this was the best time to do it.

     She stood, gritting her teeth against a wave of dizziness. Once the world had stopped spinning quite so much, she pumped her wings and leapt into the sky.

     Luck, it turned out, was with her. There was an apple tree not too far from the burrow where she'd dozed off, and when she cautiously drew closer to its branches, it didn't even seem to be an animated one. More than once since coming to the Haunted Woods she'd found herself approaching a fruit tree that took personal affront to her, and shared its fruits only by way of hurling them at her head. But this meal, at least, she could enjoy in peace.

     She plucked one of the apples, taking a bite that crunched satisfyingly in her teeth. As the flesh and juice of first one apple, then a second, then a third vanished down her throat, the world stopped lurching quite so much and she felt re-energized for the task ahead.

     Once the Draik had eaten her fill, she gave a long stretch, fluttering the ends of her wings. Then, she started exercising, doing a series of stretches and warm-ups that the battle faerie had once taught her. The routine helped clear her head of the last dregs of fatigue, and as the light filtering through the fog took on the golden-orange hue of sunset, she shook her arms and started walking along her patrol route once more.

     For about twenty minutes, the only company she had was the crunching of her own feet in the leaf litter on the forest floor. Then, a shadow fell over her and she jerked backwards, her head snapping up. Her gut lurched as she caught sight of a dark shape that was moving somewhere high above her. Though the fog was starting to burn off as night drew over the Woods, it was still too dense for her to clearly make out whatever was blotting out the light high above.

     Which means I have to go up there and try to get a closer look, she thought, flicking her fingers as her pulse hammered in her throat. Breathing deeply in, she bent her knees and leapt up into the clouds. Whatever was overhead was moving fast, as the shadow had already passed her by. But she could still see it a short ways off, a dark blot against the fire-orange of the fog. Stringing her bow on the wing was nearly impossible, but she didn't have time to land and handle the matter. By the time she got her bow ready to use, she didn't doubt that the creature would have vanished into the mists and the dark.

     And it was headed east. Exactly the way she didn't want it to go.

     Resigning herself to a very difficult fight, she drew the rapier and buckler that were her backup weapons for close combat. Then, she pumped her wings and took off after the blot of darkness.

     As she narrowed the distance between herself and her target, a shape was coming together- it was some sort of massive bird, coal black against the embers of dying sunlight. It had huge, broad wings, and a long narrow tail- a Pteri?

     The Black Pteri, the Draik realized uneasily. A notoriously malicious creature, a lot of rumors existed about the Black Pteri, but few knew any concrete facts. But one thing was almost certain- this enemy was going to be a lot smarter than a few stray skeletons. If she was going to get it to turn back, she was going to have to put up an impressive fight.

     Which meant it was very likely she'd have to take some hits.

     She swallowed hard, steeling her nerves. Then, putting on a burst of speed, she shot past the Pteri, darting in front of it to block the way. It gave a squawk of surprise, pulling up short in its headlong flight and fanning its wings to slow down its momentum.

     "You can't go this way," the Draik said, wincing at the sound of her own voice- rough and shaky with disuse. "Turn back."

     "Not happening," the Black Pteri snapped, crimson eyes seeming to glow with the reflection of the fading sunlight. "One sad, pathetic little would-be warrior doesn't scare me. I've seen things in my time that you can't begin to fathom. You move aside, or I'll send you down to fertilize the forest roots."

     The Draik's jaw clenched. "No."

     Then, to the Pteri's obvious surprise, she folded her wings tight to her body and dropped like a stone, nose first. The gravity of Neopia's surface caused her to gain speed rapidly, and just shy of the treeline she snapped her wings open again, arcing a U-turn back up into the sky.

     The Pteri realized what she was up to, and dove to meet her as she spiraled upwards. The Draik's momentum proved the greater, however, and she managed to dodge out of the path of the pteri's dive just in time to slash her rapier along its broad wing. It screeched in pain, the noise making the Draik's ear frills pin back and her teeth clench. Then she yelped as the powerful grey beak closed over the heart-spade on the end of her tail. The Pteri threw her by her tail, sending her careening through the air for several seconds before she could right herself.

     As she struggled dizzily to regain her equilibrium, the Black Pteri raised its head and began to shriek, a sonic noise that reverberated through the air in a visible ripple of sound. The Draik gasped, dropping her rapier and buckler to clap her hands over her earholes. She struggled to keep her concentration on the mechanical process of flapping her wings to stay airborne, but it was like the Black Pteri's screech was swallowing her consciousness, echoing not just all around her, but also inside her head. She was vaguely aware of the fact that her wings were completely out of synch, that she was jerking through the air erratically, but she was helpless to do anything about it.

     Shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up-

     A lash of pain across her back was the pteri's talons, and she cried out in agony. The physical and sensory pain were a tangled knot in her mind, snarling her ability to think and plan cognizantly. Desperate and panicked, she lunged out with her hands, managing to grab a double-fistful of feathers, and bit down hard with her teeth on the foot that had just slashed her.

     The pteri howled with fury, kicking violently with its opposite foot until the Draik was finally forced to let go. Thankfully, her weight had been too much for the pteri to keep aloft, and she only fell a short ways before she hit the tangled branches at the crown of a tree.

     A loud creak of wood told the Draik that the pteri had landed beside her on the tree, and she cracked her eyes open to see two dark grey talons curled around a thick branch, one of them ringed around the ankle with a glowing golden band.

     "Pathetic," the pteri said scornfully. "Is that really the best you can do? What sort of warrior drops their only weapons so easily?"

     The Draik gritted her teeth, forcing herself up on all fours on her own branch. As she looked over the pteri's shoulder, off into the distance, she could just make out where the treeline of the Haunted Woods ended.

     She knew what lay beyond that horizon.

     It is a duty upon which all of our safety depends.

     The Draik lunged, tackling right into the startled pteri's chest. As they tumbled together, struggling through the trees towards the ground, the Draik managed to wrestle an arrow from the quiver at her back. She brought it down hard, plunging the head into the pteri's wing, quickly clenching her free hand over the monster's beak to keep it from screaming again. It tried, though, oh did it try, thrashing in pain and rage and giving muffled shouts.

     Finally, the duo hit the ground, the Draik leaping backwards as the Black Pteri crash landed, dazed. She panted, the cuts across her back searing, and her still frazzled senses feeling like a skipping record that could not find its steady tune. It was everything she could do to gather her wits enough to gasp, "Surrender. Turn back. You can't fight me with an injured wing."

     The pteri managed a rasping laugh, rolling over enough to push itself upright again, though its wing dragged the ground tellingly. "I almost took you out of the fight with nothing but my voice, little thing." It looked at its wing, tsking. "Still- this wound I cannot like, and I have no desire to take on more when there are worse things waiting to challenge me beyond the wood. I will turn back- for now."

     It ruffled its feathers, smirking. "But there are others, oh yes. You've noticed, haven't you? The deep woods are no longer safe for my kind. You are only one, little warrior. You can't stop us all. And when you are overcome, I will be back."

     The Valentine Draik bristled at this threat, but the Black Pteri was as good as its word. It turned, plodding back into the deeper part of the forest, the gold band around its ankle winking in the gathering evening gloom.

     Once she was sure it was gone, the Draik moaned, falling into a sitting position in the leaf litter. In spite of the pain of her injured back, she shook both hands and arms hard, doing her best to dispel the lingering tension that hummed through every cell of her body. Then, flicking her fingers rhythmically along her thumb, she stood up and looked around. Much though she longed to just take a moment to rest, she needed to find where her sword and shield had fallen.

     The pteri was right, after all. Her patrols were only getting harder and harder lately.

     How long can I keep this up alone?

     *

     Growing up a Woodlander, Tavasz had always been taught that there was one rule that mattered above all others for their survival- Woodlanders stick together.

     So it had been a given, when she learned about the monsters passing in droves by the Deserted Fairgrounds, that she would look into the matter. The dangers of the Woods never made themselves known quite so overtly, preferring to skulk in the shadows and take lone prey when it was foolish enough to pass them by. If they were traveling so openly, that implied something had changed, and drastically. It was a threat not just to her friends in the Fairgrounds, but all over the Haunted Woods.

     And Woodlanders stuck together.

     Another rule, far less strictly adhered to, was "don't go out alone after dark." This one came from an understandable place, as ghosts and ghouls and things that went bump in the night tended to be most active… well, at night. But in the Haunted Woods, where daylight hours tended to be consumed by fog and rain, the safety difference between night and day was largely inconsequential.

     Besides- Tavasz wasn't trying to avoid the monsters. She didn't necessarily want them to find her, but she did at least need to find them.

     It actually didn't take very long for Tavasz to track down the trail she wanted, which in itself was concerning. The Woods were as much full of vampire hunters, ghoul catchers and exorcists as they were of malicious monsters, and the darker residents of the Woods knew well how to evade detection. But not very far at all outside the gates of the Deserted Fairgrounds, she started seeing the massive, heavy prints of werelupes.

     If they were out in the open like this, not bothering to hide their trail, that meant they were either extremely desperate or extremely cocky. Neither boded well.

     Tavasz huffed softly out of her nose. The last thing she wanted was to follow these obvious tracks into an ambush- the reasonable thing to do would be to get some backup. Woodlanders stuck together, after all. But while the carnies in the Deserted Fairgrounds were too clever by half and more than capable of handling themselves against difficult tourists, none of them were trained for combat. There was a shop that sold weapons, but nobody local was adept at their use.

     And besides, she had her own reasons for wanting to involve as few people as possible.

     All right, so don't be a bloody moron about this- follow them, but be alert.

     Tavasz crossed her arms in front of her chest, closing her eyes as she gathered her magic around her body like a cloak. Then she snapped both arms out, palms down, and a halo of purple fire rushed from her feet, all the way up her body to her head. When it faded, Tavasz's body had become see-through, a vague pink impression against the trees instead of a glowing sugary beacon. True invisibility was hard to cast and harder to maintain over long periods of time, but at least this way she was less obvious.

     Thus concealed, the lutari crept forwards through the trees at a snail's pace, checking every leaf and shrub for hidden snares or other disturbances that might indicate a trap. She held her breath every so often, ears twitching as she listened for the breathing of any creatures besides herself.

     At one point, a shadow passing overhead made her duck for cover, but it turned out to be nothing more than a flock of crokabek. Finally, she came upon a place where the ground was even more disturbed, with sticks and leaves gathered together into impromptu nests that were coated in telltale tufts of brown and black fur- the werelupes must have camped here overnight.

     In the open, though? Even they shouldn't have been that cocky about the dangers of these woods…

     "You always did have a knack for getting up to your eyeballs in trouble that wasn't yours," a cool voice remarked, making Tavasz jump. She whipped around, reaching for her magic and calling amethyst flames into her paws.

     When she saw the speaker, however, recognition made her ears prick, and her pink eyes widened. "...Sorceress?" she said, disbelief thick in her voice.

     For the newcomer was someone Tavasz knew well, or about as well as they let themself be known. Referred to in the Woods as "the mysterious Aisha sorceress" or just "the sorceress," the figure was just one of the many enigmas that called the Haunted Woods home. At a glance, one could be forgiven for assuming her a Darigan aisha; she had the same dark purple fur and crimson eyes common to those worthies. However, while many Neopians native to the Darigan Citadel grew wings that their species normally lacked, aishas were not one of them- and yet the Sorceress did indeed have a pair of huge leathery wings.

     "Hello to you, too," the Sorceress replied, folding her arms. Tavasz snorted, letting her mostly transparent arms drop back into a more relaxed posture.

     "You're forever sneaking up on people and then acting like it's a horrible insult when they're spooked half out of their minds. You forget where we are?"

     "Of course not," the Sorceress replied. "Though it seems you have. Trying to play the hero again, Tavasz?"

     "Trying to help out our people!" Tavasz corrected, holding her palms up and spreading her arms wide. "The monsters in the woods have been freaking people out. How long until someone gets hurt?"

     "Never, if we don't go looking for trouble," the aisha said dryly. "I've been watching the situation for a while; there have been no attacks or even incursions into any cities and towns. Whatever is going on here, it isn't a threat, not to us."

     Tavasz frowned deeply, glancing into the murky trees. "But… the only other thing in that direction is…"

     "New Faerieland," the Sorceress finished. "In other words, not our concern, just as I said. You know Fyora and her loyal subjects would never lift so much as a finger to help you if the situation were reversed."

     The lutari looked away, grumbling, "Because nothing comes out of the Haunted Woods but monsters, supervillains and con-artists." But if I can just prove them wrong…!

     The aisha chuckled darkly, poking a clawed finger into the middle of Tavasz's forehead. "I know that look. You still think you're going to change people's minds. But you know this is pointless as well as stupid. The tale of Neovia's woe already proved it- there are no heroes in the Haunted Woods."

     Tavasz tsked softly, looking away. "That's easy for you to say. You're not the one people are forever griping to about your own friends and family. Treating you like you're better just because you look like a bright pink gumdrop. It isn't right, how people talk about Woodlanders."

     "Hm," the Sorceress shrugged. "I don't think the solution is for you to get yourself killed by a werelupe trying to win their approval. They're hardly going to come around to your point of view when they get besieged by ghosts and dark faeries anytime they cross the border." One of her main ears twitched, and she looked up with narrowed eyes. "Speaking of which- brace yourself, trouble's coming."

     Tavasz tensed, her gaze snapping up in the direction that the Sorceress had looked. She didn't see anything, but that hardly mattered- an Aisha's four ears were better than her two, and she was not about to waste time asking for clarification.

     Trying to turn fully invisible or hide was pointless- werelupes were famous for their keen sense of smell, and candy pets were famous for smelling like a sweet shop. She didn't think he could run either- the massive creatures would surely catch up before she got far. But could she fight them? Well, maybe with help…

     She glanced towards the aisha sorceress, and felt a spike of annoyance- but no surprise- to see that her companion had already vanished, melting away as if she'd never existed.

     It's stunts like this that give us such a bad reputation! Tavasz thought waspishly. Then, there was no more time for thinking- now she too could hear the sound of something big and heavy crashing through the underbrush. Gritting her teeth, Tavasz dismissed her veil of transparency and shifted into a defensive stance, both arms raised to cast bolts of offensive magic if need be.

     Then they were upon her- werelupes, six of them, big shaggy creatures with glowing eyes and massive teeth. They exploded out of the trees, surrounding her with their hackles raised and their fangs bared.

     "Don't like you sniffin' around our camp, sugar rat," one of them growled, rearing up on her hind legs so that she towered over Tavasz. She licked her chops, adding, "Maybe we should eat the little sweetling. I've always wondered if they'd taste like candy."

     "What I'll taste like is the hottest pepper you've ever had in your life, burning my way down," Tavasz snapped in reply, a bloom of purple energy swirling around her menacingly. The werelupe's ears pricked forward, and to the Lutari's surprise, she seemed to relax a notch.

     "Dark mage?"

     "Just like my mother before me, and my gran before her," Tavasz confirmed in a tone that she hoped communicated "not to be trifled with." She added, "I've studied my craft under every witch in the Haunted Woods that humoured me with more than threats of transmogrification."

     "Not many of those," the werelupe mused, though her smile seemed almost wistful. She settled back down on her haunches, adding, "So you're from the Woodlanders. I take it the locals are getting jitters 'bout us?"

     Tavasz glanced around at the other werelupes, and to her surprise, she saw that, while they still had her surrounded, they too were lying or sitting down, clearly no longer primed to attack. Gingerly, she let her arms fall and her power recede into her skin once more.

     "They're none too pleased," she confirmed. "Isn't it often we get an entire pack of werelupes this close to Neovia and the Deserted Fairground. To say nothing of the others."

     "Because we prefer it far wilder, and there's bigger prey to be had in the deeper Woods," the pack leader agreed. She grinned, her massive teeth making the expression look more like a leer. "But there are strangers in the Haunted Woods. Someone or something that's taking exception to us and driving us out."

     Whatever Tavasz had been expecting, it hadn't been that. She frowned skeptically, tilting her head. "Something is in the deep Woods that's powerful enough to drive out entire packs of werelupes, hoards of giant petpets, and legions of undead?"

     For an answer, the werelupe looked to one of her packmates and made a beckoning motion. This werelupe's fur was dark grey, and as he limped over Tavasz could now see that there was something clamped around his ankle- a gold band that seemed to be glowing in the darkness.

     "Shef picked this up from a trap that caught him unawares," the pack leader explained. "It burns his flesh, and us if we touch it. These things are littered like snares all over the deep Woods now, driving the weaker creatures delirious with pain and at least weakening the stronger."

     Hesitantly, Tavasz edged closer, squinting at the brightly glittering object. "May I… take a closer look?"

     The grey werelupe looked questioningly at his leader, and she gave a short nod. Clenching his jaw, he held out the afflicted foot, and Tavasz hesitantly stepped closer. She knelt down, squinting at the band around the werelupe's ankle. She realized that it wasn't a band at all- there was no metal there, just a loop of bright golden energy. She reached a paw towards it, but the minute her talons came into contact, she saw a spark of that golden power, and a shower of her own dark purple magic. A searing pain like the worst burn she'd ever had in her life shot up her arm. She yanked the limb back with a yowl, and the werelupe leader snorted softly.

     "Seems like our enemies have no more love for dark mages than they do for dark monsters."

     "Seems like," Tavasz agreed grimly. "This is light magic. Powerful light magic." She looked up at the werelupes. "So the mass exodus from the woods is to escape who or whatever is leaving these things?"

     The werelupes nodded, the injured one adding, "Some have tried to leave the woods entirely, but they are stopped at the border. That is why we amass here in such numbers as to draw the unease of the little meats; because we can go no further."

     "Stopped at the border?" Tavasz repeated, tilting her head. The leader laughed.

     "There is a ranger there, or so the ones who try to leave say," she explained. "A vicious little thing who fights with the courage and desperation of a half-starved wildcat. The ranger keeps us from leaving, and so we are trapped."

     The lutari hummed thoughtfully. That seemed awfully suspicious, for a warrior with sufficient skill to hold back an army of monsters to appear at the border of the Haunted Woods just as monsters were being driven en masse towards that border. She hadn't expected to find out that the monsters in the forest were victims of whatever was going on rather than accomplices, but in retrospect, it did make sense. There was no reason for all these disparate monsters to be working together or tolerating each other in such a narrow strip of territory.

     No reason, that was, except for fear of an even stronger adversary.

     "If I look into this," Tavasz said slowly, "Do I have your word that you won't attack the people around here?"

     "You trust our word?" the werelupe leader asked with wry amusement. Tavasz grinned crookedly.

     "Woodlanders stick together, aye?"

     That startled a bark of a laugh out of the werelupe, and she grinned back. "Woodlanders stick together. All right then, sugar rat, you have a bargain. We can make no oath on behalf of the other creatures, but my pack will keep to the forest and leave your kin alone."

     Tavasz nodded, standing upright and dusting off her hands. First things first, then- she needed to have a chat with this mysterious ranger.

To be continued…