Weeks had passed since the last Nocast entered my bar, yet I still found myself drowning in nightmares. I’d spent the last week and a half waking in the middle of the night in a cold sweat, sheets sticking to my skin. Those eyes haunted me in and out of my sleep, for every waking moment of every goddamn day. Laz probably would’ve forced me to talk about it by now.
To tell the truth, I often find myself wishing she would come back just to yell at me for repressing my feelings. She was always insistent on that kind of stuff…
Exhausted after a week of no rest and constant work, I decided to close the bar for a day and wander into the city near sundown. About two years ago I built the bar at the edge of a capital city called Polter. The nation it resided in shared the same name. Quite obviously, the settlers were high in creativity.
We – er, I, lived near Polter because big cities were always filled with new faces and lost souls. It was easy to disappear into a crowd of people should the need arise. It also allowed me to remain connected to the world outside of Polter, due to how many people migrated through on a daily basis.
Polter’s outer walls were only a five minute walk through the outskirts of the bog, but when unnamed voices whispered promises to you in the wind, those five minutes could seem like hours. Thankfully I made it through, my lungs heavy with humidity as I approached the intricate archway overgrown with thorny vines and wildflowers. A little purple flower had bloomed through the middle of the characters spelling out ‘Polter City’ at least ten feet above my head, though I paid little attention to it as I passed.
The entrance I frequented was more of a back door to the city, noticeably less populated and pretty far from the hustle and bustle of the downtown district. I walked along the cobblestone streets slower than my normal pace, tiredly trying to appreciate the floating lanterns lining the streets in preparation for the festival later that week. Children ran past, giggling and blasting each other with false spells that merely fizzled sparks at the ends of their sticks. A few mothers were perched on their home porches nearby, watching them and waving genially to me as I passed.
I lifted a hand halfheartedly, looking away from the children as the cottages and houses gave way to industry and business. There seemed to be an amalgamation of forestry and nature the further I walked into the city, starting with vines draped over the houses and ivy bravely crawling up the bottom of a brick skybound tower. A few coniferous trees stood taller than the towers themselves, acting as silent sentries along the well worn path and guarding the buildings beside them with their height and power.
Leading the way deeper into the man-made forest, were the floating lanterns.
The lanterns were lit in preparation for the fall festival Polter was famous for. A literal parade of creatures and beings alike would dance through the streets, celebrating the changing seasons with laughter and drink. There were always a few who abstained from drinking, preferring instead to thank their gods or goddesses for the new season and the changing leaves through song.
The city itself would be bathed in golds and reds to honor the changing season, and it was truly a sight to behold. The parade would end at the center of Polter at midnight, which in turn the trees would sigh as one, and the leaves would change colors all at once. I visited the celebration last year to find an excuse to leave my apartment, and I didn’t regret it for a moment.
Actually I may have regretted it when a drunk gnome puked on my boots, but I own a bar and bile is not new to me. I may have gagged once or twice but other than that, I remained unmoved. For the record.
I’ve always loved the seasonal festivals because they’ve never lost their splendor, no matter what shit life throws at me, or how much my depression acts up. It’s hard not to appreciate such a beautiful custom.
I followed the festival lights into the depths of the city, blending in with the crowd of citizens flooding the streets with my dark cloak. As the lights flickered and danced merrily above the heads of passerby, I noticed a small creature scuttling into an alley, its movements clearly stiff and pained.
My jaw clenched, my hands flexing at my sides as I debated with myself for a second. I lost the debate and headed in the direction of the creature. Eternally curious, I always found myself in these situations – walking head first into some kind of danger whether I knew it or not. What can I say, my curiosity never makes a boring day.
I stepped into the dark, fearless. I whispered a spell and a burst of flames puffed from my palm, swirling and hovering above the skin. The shadows it cast were large and wild, jerking and flowing in a crazed dance above my head.
The creature I had followed was curled at the end of the alley, shivering as it fumbled with the brick wall beside it. The moment my light had touched the creature’s small body, it reeled away with a loud hiss. Its long ears were nearly bigger than its head, pierced with various jewelry and baubles that jingled as they flattened against its skull. The imp crouched, and its wide eyes flashed into a silvery white with no pupil, like how a cat’s eyes flashed like mirrors in certain light.
The white eyes startled me, and I paused for a breath too long.
Within seconds the creature was on me, tiny claws ripping at my clothes as I yelped and fell to the cobblestone. I heard them howling in my ear, and felt nails raking down my cheek, roughly splitting the skin. It was only up to my waist in height, but it caught me off guard and its claws were sharp enough for blood to pour down the left side of my face.
With an angry rumble building up in my chest, I felt my own instincts flare up in response. A voice, quieter than a whisper, tickled the back of my brain.
“Kill it. Consume it.”
My immediate reaction was to reject it – but one look at the foaming mouth above me and I acted without thought. My hand clamped down onto the back of the imp’s skull, and I flung it clear across the alley with a bone rattling growl. The imp fell from the wall, stunned by my strength as I stumbled to my feet. I made my way over to the small angry creature, the alley pitch black around me due to my spell fizzling out. My boots made wet taps on the stonework, my reflection barely visible in the water pooling between cobblestones.
I saw my eyes reflecting back at me through distorted ripples, my poisonous greenish yellow irises glowing ever so softly with magic.
The imp tried to make a run for it, but my boot cracked down on its spine before it could really move. A strangled squeak came from its throat, frightened yellow eyes frantically searching for a way out.
I hated to be cruel to creatures, but my face was in so much pain that I couldn’t see out of my left eye. I reached to the imp, picking it up by the scruff of its neck and baring my canines at it.
“Now was that really necessary?” I hissed, blood dripping off my chin in steady droplets.
The imp spat in my face in response, a garbled language clambering from its mouth in a series of grunts and screeches. Pain blossomed across my face and dipped down to my collarbone as its dirty saliva seeped into my open wounds. I dropped the little beast with a nasty roar, cringing into myself.
Fury spiked through my chest, and I could feel the bones in my fingers beginning to shift. The imp almost made it to the mouth of the alley. Almost.
My hand clamped around its jaw and pinned it to the wall with one hand, leaning in and shoving my hand up into its stomach. The fear in its eyes faded with its life, and I dropped the body unceremoniously to the ground, breathing harshly.
My fingers, coated in the creature’s blood, had wicked black talons curling from their tips. In the apex of those claws sat a glowing ball the size of a coin, radiating pure, raw energy. Tinted softly with green, it pulsed softly in my hand. I stared at it for a good minute, regret blooming in my stomach, even as the voice in the back of my head repeated the words from before.
“Killed it. Now…must consume.”
Silently, and reluctantly, I obeyed. The ball disappeared into my mouth, traces of the imp’s blood left on my lips. As soon as the warm energy settled into my stomach, a dizzying rush of satisfaction had me stumbling and leaning against the wall for support.
The wound on my cheek closed suddenly, though the blood on my skin had already begun to coagulate and dry. The warmth stayed in my stomach, quelling the ache of hunger I felt at all times of the day. I glanced down at the dead imp and sighed quietly, gently moving the body further into the alley and positioning it against the wall.
“Sorry.” I whispered, gently closing the creature’s eyes and turning to the mouth of the alley. “Circle of life, I guess.”
Hundreds of people passed, oblivious to my fight and the screams from the alley. I shook my head, drawing my cloak further around me. It amazed me, how people can dismiss something like a scream as something normal.
I glanced up at the buildings rising towards the sky, the stars twinkling faintly in the distance.
Perhaps the day would be better spent at home.
The Bog Blog 