Is that… a manifestation of death itself?
She could feel every part of her trembling under the layers and layers of animal skin; even in the chilling cold she felt damp with cold sweat and a deep sense of unease.
A slender figure was standing in front of a herd; it seemed to have no depth and was entirely black. White dots moved erratically on its black surface like twinkling stars.
Her blond hair danced in the air with the chilling breeze as the dark figure moved.
The black figure slowly raised its hand like projection towards a nearby sheep.
The ink black limb was inching closer and closer to it; as soon as it touched the sheep, the sheep disappeared without a sound. So Flieday — the girl who was frozen like ice — was finally broken from her reverie.
And she ran; with her movements jerky and her eyes frenzied she ran. She quickly scooped down some ice and stuffed her mouth with it, trying her best to not slow down while sprinting.
Bitter!
She swiftly looked back, hoping the dark figure to be far away from her; but to her horror, the harrowing figure was still following her. Her hair danced in the wind as color drained from her face.
The figure did not seem to move; it seemed to shorten the distance between them as if it affected space itself. Flieday could barely suppress the fear and think properly.
It's a new type of beast
Flieday still remembered the parade militarists did yearly with their strange beasts.
It affects space… space, space; can I use other methods to overpower it?
If I can somehow use time or energy against it… no, that's futile. I just need to divert its attention
The dark figure was inching closer and closer, its chase getting more and more precise the more Flieday's movements deteriorated.
Wait, if it can only use space then
Of course, there is no guarantee that the dark figure cannot manipulate or use other elements, but the world — while not fair — does give a weakness to everything; after all, perfection is merely a facade. It depends on Flieday if she can use the weakness or not.
The dark figure was just meters away now; Flieday took a deep breath and picked up as much snow as she could and threw it onto the dark figure. The snow disappeared instantly, but Flieday did not; now merely some inches away from the dark figure she stood still, not moving an inch.
If the figure can not use energy, then it should not be able to use light to see things too. The snow hopefully made it unable to perceive space for a second; now that there are no changes in space, it should not sense me.
Or it does not get blinded by measly snow, So Flieday did not know. To her horror, the figure did not stop, undisturbed by So Flieday's desperate attempt.
It was merely a gamble anyway, she was doomed the moment a beast set its sight on her for she did not possess any beasts tamed to use, however she refused to be helpless.
The dark figure's limb reached out once again, inching closer and closer to Flieday's face.
Hadrien was calmly grooming his four eyed yak; he rarely got free time, for he was the only one who could somewhat trap those dark Cursers, thus he could hardly get some time to groom his yak. Well, giving him all the credit felt wrong to Hadrien as his yak did most of the work, he merely gave it important instructions and took care of it.
The four eyed yack — Rien as he called her — suddenly grew alarmed, it looked towards north as its white fur glided through the air and snorted; as if telling Hadrien of another dark Curser's location. Her behaviour gestured that someone might be in fatal danger or she would not have snorted.
Hadrien sighed deeply and sat on Rien almost immediately
No escaping work today
…
The dark figure was less than a moment away from touching Flieday's face. Flieday was sweating profusely as something mystical happened; the distance between her and the dark figure increased exponentially.
Flieday was not running randomly, of course, she was running towards a mid-sized tribe near her; hoping that the tribe could slow the figure down, or better help her kill it.
Ah, I finally got lucky
"Are you okay?"
Hearing the sweet voice of her saviour, So Flieday looked at the young man; he was wearing thick animal fur and had piercing blue eyes.
"Thank you for taking care of that," Flieday grimaced as she continued, "that thing"
"You did good, coming here and surviving is no small deal"
Judging by the young man's attire, he did not seem to be from the militarists, which was a relief; Flieday would not like to be 'pay' for their services. She tied her blond hair behind her head as she followed the man to his tribe
The young man — whose name was Hadrien apparently — brought her to the tribe; Flieday immediately asked for a ride to her tribe but Hadrien kept dodging her questions and requests. After a while Hadrien grimaced and said
"The militarists reported that many tribes were wiped out by these beasts… your So tribe is one of them"
Flieday seemed dazed for a moment, her eyes unfocused; she opened her mouth to say something but stopped, eventually she asked
"Can i take shelter here for now"
Well, the militarists only care about money, so they would not have saved stranglers, at least not children or old people; however, people from tribes are tough, they would survive for long enough for her to find and save.
Hopefully, her family will too. But that is a distant matter; she needs shelter, food and water now. Thankfully Hadrien helped her with the necessities. Flieday later found out that he is the only person who can stop the dark figures.
Flieday settled down in her new makeshift house and rested, In the season of dusk the sky was always dimly lit. Every twenty hours people would estimate the passing of a dusklay and moved according to their Calender.
Flieday was laying on the bed of leaves as the memories of her family kept haunting her but she bottled up her feelings for now.
…
Flieday was calmly sitting next to Hadrien, the poor man had to work constantly so she gave him company; that was not the only reason she was staring at the twilight sky with him though
"Hey Hadrien, I want to find people whose tribes got eradicated"
"You want to face those cursers again?"
"Sure do"
Hadrien stared at the sky expressionlessly, his eyes filled with mix of understanding and regret, he eventually shook his head.
So Flieday heard a faint whisper, was it her imagination or the man just mumbled "Naive girl"? No, that wasn't possible. Hadrian is not a man who would say things like that; it was her imagination! Yes, she imagined it. She was just some days shorter than her too!