La Montagne Québécoise

Chapter 6:

The morning after my late-night encounter started off languidly, and is rather hazy in the memory of it. When I first opened my eyelids, I discovered myself to be lying in an uncomfortable position across my bed, with the covers askew, and the sounds of the birds singing and squawking to each other outside, greeting my fresh and awakened ears. Under normal circumstances, I would’ve wanted to doze right off again, but considering how uncomfortable I was, combined with the curiosity to see if that strange girl was still downstairs, I grudgingly pulled myself up out of bed to get dressed in some more comfortable clothing.

The very first thing I noticed as I stood with a grunt on the soft wooden floor was that the fine cracks between the boards of the walls had early golden sunlight forcing its way between them. This told me that I’d overslept, for even though this was supposed to be a fun and enjoyable getaway, there were still many things to around the mountain in order to keep it functional. That meant there was a timetable I had to stick to in order to stay on track with the activities I had planned. So, after stretching out the tight stiffness in my muscles as best I could, I kicked open the trap door leading to the main hall and as soon as the ladder had slid its way down to the floor, I was clambering to the ground.

After pushing the ladder back up and re-closing the door into the ceiling, I walked down the short main hall to the back of the cabin, where a rickety-old door opened up onto a narrow porch that ran perpendicular to the hall. It was outside, but it did have a plywood roof and a floor with carpet, as well as a few steps leading down to the snow. Once I was there, I looked to the southeast where a misty sunrise was making its way over the distant hills.

The last of the dark clouds that had brought snow two days before was finally breaking up, and what was left of them was hanging on the horizon near to the sun. It may have risen in a more sharply defined fashion the day before, but this time I was truly in it. A part of this whole, beautiful experience. I could hear the wind between the trees, the sound of animals moving through the forest, and the familiar scent of nature that I’d known since I was small. It always registered as one of my most beautiful sights, that is, the northern wilderness in general, not just my cabin and the Québec mountain, and it was always the first thing to come to my mind when depression or intense stress were bothering me.

After another minute or two of fully savouring the spectacle, I turned around and stepped through the door that led back inside. From the main hall, I looked to my left, into the living room. Twilight was lying on the couch in the same exhausted position she’d been in the night before, still unmoving and fast asleep. This was mildly disappointing for me; I’d hoped to be able to question her at least a bit the first thing after I got up, but evidently, there was no such luck.

Sighing, I walked down the length of the hall and turned left into the kitchen, to begin preparing breakfast. I wasn’t sure how hungry the girl would be, after all she hadn’t said much to me on how long her travels to get here had been, or on anything else for that matter, but I thought it would probably be best to prepare more than I thought I’d need, as it was usually possible to set extras outside to freeze and then eat them later.

After skillfully re-kindling the fire back up to a moderate blaze, I set about slicing some of the strips of squirrel meat to fry in a pan like bacon, as well as crushing up some of the wild berries from the other day to make jam. I thought even if there was some special allergy or something that Twilight had, that at least one of the two would make a half-decent breakfast. Then I remembered that I had eggs as well. Because they were difficult to transport all the way out here, I usually didn’t have any, but when I did I used them sparingly; as a way to start a new day off well after a particularly bad one, or if I was out of meat and needed protein before I could go trapping again. ‘Buuuuut,’ I thought to myself, ‘I might as well. I’ve got six of ‘em and two weeks out here, so I’ll just make two for now’.

So, after I finished crushing the berries and the squirrel meat was almost cooked, I went back out into the main hall. At about halfway down it and on the right, there was a door to the storage room, which I went through. The room was divided in two; one half was dedicated to racks with the tools and equipment that I’d brought and things I’d made, and on the other was shelves and boxes with the foodstuffs and medicine, including some real morphine and other hard-to-come by drugs, which did actually come in rather handy from time to time.

Stepping inside, I was greeted by the room’s typical must scent. Walking over to the back wall, I pulled on a course rope handle in the floor, opening a secret storage cavity, which I, myself, defined as a cold pit; an area designed to trap and hold cold air. I removed two eggs from a carton lying near the bottom before reclosing the door and walking out again, past the hastily-made shelves and containers, into the main hall. That particular room in the cabin did have a rather eerie feel, or at least to me it did, with the heavy curtains over the one lone window, and just the open space in general. Although, it was the single most important room in the whole cabin. If I had to have the whole top of the mountain shelled, but could spare one place, and it couldn’t include the whole structure, that would definitely be the one.

As I re-entered the kitchen, I fumbled step in my surprise to find that Twilight was awake at last, sitting quietly at the table and wearily rubbing her eyes, looking as though she could do with a few more hours sleep. Noticing me striding in, she looked up groggily, but didn’t say anything right away.

“G’morning” I said, as I walked back to the area of the counter where I had been preparing breakfast, spreading only the slightest of sarcasm into my even tone.

“Good morning” Her voice seemed much less enunciated as it had been before, and now sounded tired and worn.

“Quite the scare you gave me last night, setting off my alarms like that” I placed the eggs on the counter beside the basin; there wasn’t running water, so I just replaced the little bit that was always in there each day; and then reached down to ease the pan with the squirrel bacon off the fire, to check if it was ready yet.

“Did I scare you? Oh I am so so sorry!” .

Damn it. There was that scripted tone, back again. But just then, as her gaze dropped to the inside of my pan, her eyes suddenly widened and jaw dropped.

“Yeah, I would say no problem, but that was kind of a problem for me” I said, hoping to draw the conversation to a more realistic backstory that would explain her appearance, but I noticed that she was still staring at the pan. I looked where she was, and shifted it back and forth a bit.

“Bush bacon; see there’s not too many pigs out around here, so I’ve got to improvise a bit” she lifted her stare from the pan and looked at me questioningly, eyebrows raised. I moved my free hand up and absently stroked my hair, wondering what part of that she didn’t get “Squirrel”.

“Oh my gosh!” Twilight exclaimed, clasping a hand to her mouth.

“What?! What is it?”.

“Is that… that isn’t… an actual squirrel in there, is it?”.

“Well, yeah, kind of” I acknowledged. At this point I began to wonder if maybe I was mistaken about the getting high thing, and that this girl was actually some kind of hippie. That would explain her being out in the forest, anyways.

“But that’s, that’s, terrible! How could you? Killing a poor innocent squirrel like that?!”

« C’est la vie » I responded. Another questioning glance up from her, but this one laced with horror. “That’s life” I translated, shrugging. “There’s no way to get store-bought food out here, so I make a lot of my own, which, brings up the point; what exactly where you doing in the forest last night?”.

The terrified look faltered off for a moment and I received a huge sigh. “How many times do I have to tell you?”.

“At least once more” apparently the ‘poor squirrel’ had been forgotten for the moment, but her crazy story certainly had not.

“I came here through the portal that I showed you last night, from a land called Equestria. There’s something here that I need to find, or discover, or something like that, and when I’ve found it, that’s I’ll be able to go back”.

“Look, if you can’t remember anything just say so, but this isn’t helping you at all” I replaced the pan heavily.

“But I am, telling the truth! Why can’t you believe me?”.

Now I sighed. “Alright then, fine, whatever, just, just how much longer before you’ll be able to go back to this horse-land?”.

“Ponyville” Twilight corrected. She sat back and thought for a moment, furrowing her eyebrows and putting a knuckle up to her finely-built chin, as though she needed to think about the circumstance. “Well, since there doesn’t seem to be any really terrible and immediate danger, Celestia will probably allow my friends come in after me through the portal. It probably wasn’t a very good idea to leave them behind in the first place. Hmm, maybe together we can figure all this out.”

“Wait a minute, who are these friends, and how would this Celestia character know that you’re not in danger anyway?” ‘Ha!’ I thought, ‘got her this time’. But after not even a pause, she replied with;

“Well, you see, my friends are actually a force called the Elements of Harmony, which are supposed to keep chaos and evil at bay. I met them when I was first relocated to Ponyville and we’ve saved Equestria many times in the past. As for Celestia, I wish I knew; she and Luna were acting strangely before I left, kind of like they knew something. But it doesn’t matter; we’ll question them about it after we find out the meaning of why we’re here”.

Great. Just perfect.

I no idea how to reply to this, so I simply responded with an unbelieving; “Riiiiiiight, sure okay. They’ll be coming today then I take it?” a nod from Twilight. “Well, as long as you’re with me, you can help with the work I’ll be doing. This morning was going to make maple syrup. If you don’t know how that’s done, tough, I’ll find something for you to do, ‘cause you are not just going to sit around and wait for these friends of yours to come and get you. In other words, you’d better damn not be lying”. Twilight merely shrugged in indifference, and so I turned around to face the counter again and, setting the pan of bacon down, picked up an egg. Turning again, I held it up for her to see, asking in a falsely cheerful voice; “Scrambled or sunny-side up?” The look that proceeded to cross over her perfect little features was absolutely priceless.

***

After a silent and rather awkward breakfast – Twilight ate mostly toast and berry spread while I took the meat products – it was time to get started. I fitted on my own outdoors gear, before heading back into the storage room and digging up some more practical winter clothing for the girl, which ended up being some boots and a coat that I’d outgrown, and, leaving the her to her own means, grabbed my gun and marched outside, moving to take the sap cauldrons out from under a low hut at the side of the cabin and leaving the rifle propped against the wall nearby.

Firstly in my customary routine, I found the small stone fire pit near the centre of the open clearing, and after brushing a long oval of snow off of the ground covering and to one side of the pit, and set up a short tripod of large sticks on top of it. I then took some wood from a low stack that rested nearby and built two other fires, with about a metre between them, off to the right of the first fire in the oval I had cleared. A second tripod over the end fire which didn’t already have one, and I was able to place a long aluminum pole from the top of one, across to the three-pronged V-shaped nook in the other. This would be where the cauldrons would hang from, which, after I’d checked that they and the stick structure was sturdy, I placed one over each of the fires. By this time, Twilight had finished getting dressed and had come outside, though she was still walking as though she’d just jumped ship. Upon seeing her form I relaxed my mind, to try and encourage patience so I could explain the art of maple syrup making.

“Alright, so, to start” I began, well aware that if we were ever going to get back on time, I’d need to be quick, “You collect the sap from the trees. I’ve already tapped a lot of the trees on the mountain, so the first thing we need to do is take the sap that will have congregated in the buckets and empty them into this pot here” I kicked the first and largest cauldron lightly with my foot “Which is usually a two day job; the first half of two days, in succession, should be enough to fill that last little pot over there, with syrup” Glancing sideways at her, I saw Twilight standing straight, with her left arm curved to hold up a notebook, into which she was jotting notes. “Wa– where did you get that?” I asked feeling taken aback, as I was sure that she had not had that when she’d left the cabin.

“It’s just something I brought with me; keep going” she replied.

“Um, okay, well once the sap in here boils down to a certain colour and thickness, you’ve got to pour it into the next one, and then when that boils down, into the next. By the time the stuff in that last pot boils down, it should be thick enough to call syrup”.

“Mmm” muttered Twilight, still jotting. “But wouldn’t it be easier to just keep adding to each of the pots until its thick enough?” she asked, looking up “Then we wouldn’t have to keep pouring it”.

“It’s more efficient this way” I replied “And faster; when you don’t keep deluding the syrup with sap it saves time, and goes a lot smoother I find”.

“Well, alright then” she said, scribbling that last bit down in her book before looking up expectantly at me. I was immediately reminded once again of how odd it was for her to be here, now more than ever. Her purple and pink hair, which hung over her forehead in a thick fringe, combined with nearly flawless pale skin, and certainly not an athletic build, although, it did seem as though she might be a good runner; gave the impression of a young schoolgirl, though I estimated her age to be about 17. And once again, the question came to mind, what was she doing out here? I didn’t know it then, but very soon, my frustrated ignorance would be put to rest.

“So, how do we get started?”.

“Well, the buckets attached to the tapped trees shouldn’t be too hard to find. We’ll each take one of those long tin containers over there” I said, pointing at a low hut at the side of the cabin “And just, when you find a bucket, pour the sap from it into the container, and when it gets full bring it back here and dump it into the first pot. All of the buckets are within seeing distance of the trapping trails, so stick to them and you should be okay. Also, count how many you find, so I can figure out if we missed any of them afterwards”

“Alright then, let’s get going!” What with that last exclamation, she made it sound like some kind of grand adventure, but I was ready for something like that, so it didn’t bother me as much as it would have. Besides, I really had to get going. The extra set of hands would make things faster, but still, I only had until about 2:30 or so in the afternoon to be finished. So, making a note of which path Twilight was heading down, I took one of the tin containers from the shelter, and turned to make my way down the opposite slope.

At first, the going was fairly easy; it was downhill trail and most of the buckets were in relatively reachable spots. It was possible to take only a few steps off the path before being able to remove one of the buckets with sap and empty it into the container. But, after about 40-45 minutes of hard, competent work, I was nearing the valley between my and a different mountain’s slopes and had planned a transition to a another path for the trip up to collect still more sap.

The side of the mountain I was on was opposite to that which bordered the river, which meant I had to keep a careful eye on where I was going to avoid straying away from the main path. Because the undergrowth was greatly diminished in the winter, it was sometimes easy to mistake a path where there were none. I then had the thought that maybe I should have mentioned this to the girl – Twilight – before I sent her off. It could end up unfavourably if she were to go wandering around again. ‘Ah, but wait’ A voice in my head told me, ‘Maybe when she hits the river, she’ll go back through her magic portal and be gone! Or maybe she’ll get lost, that would solve things as well. But no, no, that… wouldn’t be right. But, still, hard to imagine what happened to her. Maybe she ran away from home… but what home?’ These thoughts continued to speculate for a few minutes about the girl, but eventually I gave up on trying to figure out the mystery, and instead focused on the task at hand.

I continued down until I reached the last of my placements, then started back up the mountain. After a tiring hour-long climb inclusive of a similar routine to that which I followed going down, I arrived at the last stretch of slope with a near-full sap collector; I had reached the summit and my cabin once again.

Then, I noticed something that, upon inspection, brought me utter and complete shock. I saw none other than Twilight, standing next to the first cauldron and pouring sap, with difficulty into it. How was this possible? Surely she couldn’t have collected much sap if she’d taken even less time than myself!

Walking quickly over to where she stood, I glanced down into the pot, and found, with even greater surprise than before that it was more than half full!

“What? But, but how is that– what did you do?”.

Starting and looking over at me, with an air of… something like discomfort, combined with bewilderment, she replied “Well, I, uh, used my magic to help me, of course. How else could I do this so quickly?”.

At this point, I was ready to just chuck her off the damned mountain. Why did she keep on with this story? Just as I was thinking of something angry and or clever to say, a thought struck me. With it, I felt my shoulders relaxed and muscles un-tensed themselves, as the ease of my decision reached them.

“Well, alrighty then” I said casually. The sudden change in attitude caused Twilight to look up at me again curiously for a moment, with a small ‘Hmmm’, but I just shrugged and stated matter-of-factly “If you say so, I believe you. If you keep insisting that this is the truth, then it must be so”. Twilight raised her eyebrows curiously, but soon turned away again went back to pouring the sap.

I stepped casually back in the direction that I had come, but after a dozen or so steps backward turned 90 degrees and sprinted into the woods. Staying hidden within the trees I watched her closely. Twilight finished pouring the sap into the pot and took an observant step back. But then, standing there, thinking she was alone; she did something… unbelievable. Something that would be etched like with hot steel into my memory for weeks and weeks to come.

***

Twenty-five minutes earlier: Twilight had chosen to travel down the side of the mountain that was closest to the river, thinking that since she’d been up that side last night, it shouldn’t be as hard a trip. She also wanted to be closer to the portal that had brought her here, in case there were any new developments with it, such as the arrival of her friends; she knew that if they did come today it would be of great benefit if she could reach them before Darius, of whom she was becoming aware knew absolutely nothing of her world. As it turned out, her inference was accurate for second part, but the going did turn out to be very rough. For starters, she kept on slipping on the snow and the ice, becoming bruised and spilling part of the sap that she’d collected. Secondly, it was difficult for her to find each of the taps, and even harder to tip their contents into her tin container. By the time she had worked her way through the woods and out onto the frozen river, she only had about five or six inches of sap in her container, and figured that she’d already been out for well over an hour.

“Oh, this is ridiculous!” Twilight told herself. “How can I possibly do anything at this rate? If I were going to accomplish anything at all I’d need…” and then it came to her. The bracelet! With it, Celestia had said she could use magic in this world, she’d completely forgotten, and so could simply use its power to collect all the sap she needed, while still leaving enough on Darius’ side of the mountain for him not to get suspicious! It was a perfect plan! With a small flame of excitement growing inside of her, Twilight pulled back the right sleeve of her coat to expose the bracelet, and attempted to recall the workings of a complex retrieval spell she’d first learned over a year before.

“Alright, here goes nothing…” the Twilight told herself, and, raising her hands and bending her knees slightly, she was able to focus her magic and, feeling power flow through her for the first time since she’d teleported to the Crystal Empire only a day before, conjured up two glowing orbs of purple, one surrounding each hand. She felt the familiar sensation of the magic reaching her very soul, and smiled at the knowledge that it was still possible to call upon her great talent, even in the strange world in which she was experiencing. Shortly afterwards, emerging out from between the trees, levitating towards her with purple halos etched around them, came the sap buckets.

Twilight reached a hand down and removed her tin sap collector from her side, as it had been strapped like a satchel across her shoulders, and placed it in the snow in front of her. The buckets floated over and, with perhaps a little more vigour than was necessary, emptied themselves into her container one by one, before floating back into the trees, presumably returning to their taps. After about five hearty minutes of this, the last buckets had poured their contents into her container and returned to their spots within the forest.

Twilight let her arms drop to her sides, simultaneously groaning from the effort. Though her powers had much improved since she had begun her studies, it was not every day that she had to sustain a complicated spell like that for so long. Now her sap collector was, to Twilights great delight, quite full, and so she decided that it was time to head back to the summit. But, after dragging with difficulty the container from her spot on the river, over to the treeline, and after taking one look at the climb she would need to take to get back up, she decided that it would be impossible for her without another spell. Surely using magic once more couldn’t hurt anything. Twilight knew she couldn’t risk teleporting all the way back up the mountain; if Darius saw her – or heard her for that matter – It could end up very badly. Celestia had told her before she left that magic was weak in this world, and chances were that Darius had never seen it performed before.

So, with a cautious glance to the left and right, another summoning of power and a halo of purple, this time surrounding Twilight herself, she felt the ground below her feet fall back as she rose several meters in the air above the snow. She had not done this very many times before, but the feeling was, again, a familiar one. Hesitantly, Twilight kicked her legs and swung her arms a bit in order to ensure that the spell was working properly, which it appeared to be. The last thing she needed was for the enchantment to give out on her halfway up the slope. But it held fast, and so, moving along quickly but cautiously while levitating the container behind her, Twilight floated gently, with stomach parallel to the ground, back up through the trees, bearing once again towards the open area on the summit of Darius’ mountain.

Once the ground had leveled and the cabin itself could be seen anew from between the trees, she had lowered herself back to the ground and ended the spell, just to be on the safe side, as she arrived. Dragging the container all the way from her landing position across the last stretch of forest to the sap pots was difficult work especially when combined will spells and all that sap carrying. Looking into the first pot in the line that he had constructed, it was evident that Darius had not been back here yet to make his first drop off. So, being quite at ease with the scene herself, Twilight started emptying her own sap into the first bucket.

After she was close to finishing pouring the last of what she had in, she jumped suddenly at the gawking voice of Darius beside her; “What? But, but how is that- what did you do?”.

Looking up, startled, she could see Darius standing there, holding his own tin container, having just arrived from his first collection trip. On his face there was a look that Twilight had never seen on anyone before; disbelief mixed with shock, and even a hint of fearful suspicion resided there. And it was then that Twilight realised her mistake; even if there was no physical evidence of her cheating, it would still be obvious that something was out of the ordinary when she, an inexperienced younger-than-he girl came back from the collection, in less time than Darius, with more sap. Maybe it was because of the tiredness she was experiencing, or maybe it was because she knew that he wouldn’t believe her, or a combination of both, but swallowing her previous caution, Twilight replied to him with; “Well, I, uh, used my magic to help me, of course. How else could I do this so quickly?”.

As soon as she said it, Twilight could almost feel the irritation crossing over his form; the tightening of the muscles and tendons, his facial features screwing themselves up, the replacement of surprise with anger. He seemed as though he were going to say something very forcefully or even shout at her, but then, quite unexpectedly, he stopped. His form relaxed, and uncharacteristically he gave a wide grin, the first time she had seen him do this since they’d met the night before.

“Alrighty then” he said. This was strange. She had expected based on his other reactions at her story that he would become angered and interrogate her further, but on the contrary, he shrugged and said “If you say so, I believe you. If keep insisting that this is the truth, then it must be so”, and then turned and walked away.

Now she was the one who was confused, but was far too tired and cared too little to pursue the topic at the moment. Turning back to her work wondering mildly what had come over him, Twilight finished pouring the sap into the first pot. Then, she set the empty container in the snow nearby and stepped back, watching as the fire worked to boil it into the first, weak form of syrup.

Twilight sighed. ‘This is going to take sooooo long’ she thought to herself. Impatience, amplified by her long slow walk down and only slightly more interesting trip back up, was working its way into her judgement. ‘Why not just fill each of the pots and let them boil down on their own? That would be so much faster’. She remembered mentioning it to Darius before, but he had said no it wasn’t good. Then she thought ‘Well, if I could just use magic to boil down the sap in this pot, then he would see how my method is much better’. However there was now a nagging feeling in the pit of Twilight’s stomach that was telling her otherwise. She was beginning as though she was abusing her powers to make everything easier. But, a silent promise to herself not to use it again unless it was absolutely necessary after this somewhat subdued that sense. So, raising her hands once again, she launched a short burst of her purple magic aimed at the sap, which upon contact heated the pot so quickly that an audible Hisssss and a puff of steam rose from it.

After a minute or two, the sudden sound died down and the steam was exiting the pot in a steady plume, which indicated that the water was vaporizing at a solid rate. Twilight stepped back again, feeling pleased with her handiwork, knowing that now, the process would go much faster. Then, all of a sudden, a cold, even voice from behind her commanded; “Put your hands up, and slowly turn around”.

Twilight’s whole body stiffened, as she had though that she was alone standing there, but there was no disobeying the orders from this voice. Shakily, twilight did as she was told, her arms rising and her feet turning her body gradually around, and soon when she twisted her neck around she could see that it was Darius, with his feet spread apart and knees bent, but this was a new Darius. Judging by the rise and fall of his chest, Twilight could tell that he had seen her use magic. His face was set, his mouth hanging slightly open, and a black six-shot revolver aimed right at her head. He was in a combat stance commonly used by police and other law keepers; an athletic position with his right hand on his gun and the other supporting its weight from the bottom. Both arms were bent and he was staring down the steady sights of the weapon, held at about a foot from his face.

“What are you?” he asked, his words like ice, and Twilight knew that there would be no funny business now, that if she couldn’t come up with something really good really fast, it would not end well. ‘Oh boy’ she thought to herself ‘Here we go’.

***

Moments earlier: I couldn’t believe it. It simply could not be possible. But here it was, right in front of me. From my hiding spot behind a couple of close-grown trees I could see that, out in the clearing Twilight, braced slightly as if against a wind, had conjured two rippling, glowing, purple orbs of power and had fired a short burst of… something, into the metal of the first pot. But that was impossible; it couldn’t be. What was going on here; really? The time for games was fully and truly over. So, she thought that it would be funny to mess with me and pull me along with some kind of grand prank she had planned, eh? Thought it would be a great time, to tell me fairy tales and then go do… whatever it was that she had done. Silently, and with grim determination set into my soul; I stepped out from behind my cover in the woods and began walking towards her. I felt no mercy in my veins; and remorse wasn’t really my style.

When the distance between us was approximately halved, I reached into the inside pocket of my coat and pulled from it a sleek black pistol; my grandfather’s old army revolver. He had left it to my father when he’d died, but he never even touched the thing, so I came and lifted it from his office one day. I don’t even know if he noticed the disappearance, but I’d kept it ever since. Twilight had her back to me, seeming to be admiring something with the first sap cauldron, but that was just as well. Standing at the edge of the trees directly behind her, I aimed the gun, and wondering mildly about what kind of story I would tell the police when they questioned me on how exactly she been murdered, I spoke in my most even, terrifying projection; “Put your hands up, and slowly turn around”.

At the sound of my voice, Twilight immediately stiffened, in surprise, but, she did comply, looking rather scared and guilty at the sight of me, turning haltingly to face my voice. Now, at long last, I was going to get answers from her. Real answers.

“What are you?” I uttered on a breath, trying to sound as cold as possible.

“Darius, please, you don’t understand –” she started.

“But I’ve been trying to!” I said. “I tried to understand what happened to you out in the forest, but you kept on and on with all that ‘Equestria’ bullshit. Well now, guess what, my patience is done. Zero; and you’re going to tell me the truth. All of it. Killing you right here and now is no skin off my back, but keeping you alive with that… that, whatever it was you just did, is! So spit-it-out!”.

“But Darius, that was the truth” she cried desperately, seeming on the verge of tears.

“Still going are we?!” I said, more angrily and forcefully than before. “Well I’m gonna count to three, and you had better god damn tell me something I want to hear.” I had seen terror in the eyes of people before, a common sight in the army, but nothing compared to this. Maybe it was because she wasn’t used to being so powerless, or because death had never stared her in the face as it did now. Maybe it was something else still, but anyhow, her breath came in short, struggling gasps, her eyes watered and she looked as though she wanted to scream and cry at the same time, but did not; Twilight was trying hard to keep her composure even.

I let out a low, cold chuckle. “Silly Twilight, you know that breaking and entering is a crime, don’t you? Manslaughter you see, completely justified” I sneered as Twilight’s gaze dropped and a single tear rolled slowly down, and fell from her face. “One…..” Nothing. No move or sound from her at all. “Two…..” she dragged her stare up to look at me again and moved her mouth desperately, but only a few incomprehensible noises escaped. “Three”, I smoothly moved my finger down from the side of the gun onto the small curved trigger, and was in the process of making a very spur-of-the-moment choice on where to put my bullet, when something stopped me. A noise, out in the forest. The trigger was almost pulled far enough back to release a shot, I could feel the resistance of it, just a little bit more, and a loud Bang would end my trouble, likely for good. But the noise was growing louder; it was spreading out all across the mountain, I could hear it, the familiar haunting echo, which signified the approach of danger. The bells were ringing again.

I swung the barrel of the gun away from Twilight, pointing it instead into the depths of the forest, as though someone were about to come charging out of it at any second. The eerie chimes of the bells echoed out all across the surrounding area as well, creating an intensely creepy atmosphere. Perhaps I imagined it, but I thought I could hear something off in the distance, like a faint swooshing of energy… and even more faintly than that, screams of pain. The gun trembled lightly in my hand, and it wasn’t from cold. If I was at all disturbed from something being wrong before, that was nothing compared to what I was feeling right now. Just then, Twilight gasped and her hands shot up to her mouth. I pointed the weapon back at her again, and demanded harshly – though I could not suppress my own fear “What, what is it? Do you know?”.

“They’re here! I– I don’t believe it th– they’re here” she exclaimed, choking on unformed tears.

“Who, who is?!” I shouted, panic and desperation in my voice, for I knew that it would take something really worth knowing about to make this hopeless wretch happy.

“My friends, the ones I told you about!”.

“What? They’re here?”.

“Well, it certainly sounds like they are”.

I thought for a moment. Her arrival alone was unlikely enough; I had been travelling to the mountain for years, and this was only the second time the bells had rung; including the time last night. What are the odds that they would do so in such short succession? If this girl was telling the truth and had friends out there, then killing her now perhaps was not the greatest of plans; my manslaughter story certainly wouldn’t fly. But, the thought that scared me more than the wrath of the law was her spell. If her little friends could also do that… I supposed it was some kind of bending, of light and energy, in the same way I had just seen her do a minute ago, I might just be facing the most dangerous point of my entire existence. Come to think of it, I wasn’t entirely sure why she hadn’t blasted me while my back was turned moments before. Cursing my hesitation, as well as the current misfortune plaguing me, I came to a silent conclusion that I should’ve shot the damn girl while I had the chance.

“Go inside the cabin; don’t move or touch anything” I ordered, replacing the revolver in my coat and running back to the wall near the hut where my rifle was propped. I grabbed it, quickly checked that it was loaded and the mechanism clear of debris, and turned to jog back towards the trees. When I was about to pass Twilight on the way back, I spoke to her lowered gaze; “If you leave or try to escape from here, I might just shoot one of them. Even if you’re lying and they’re not your friends, I could still shoot them on account of you, got it?”.

Even though this was a bluff, I wanted her to know who was in charge while I was gone. Twilight nodded compliantly as I passed, staring at the ground “You’re not going to get away with this” I added over my shoulder as I continued towards the woods. Turning back to face forward and taking a deep breath to calm my nerves as battle instincts began to take a hold in my mind, I muttered to myself; “I am going to find out what’s going on here, one way or another”.