16 Picking Up The Pieces

The green flowery meadow where I'd buried her was vast, extending way out beyond the horizon. It was remarkably untouched by battle as well; it was perfect. It even overlooked the nearby river, where its waters were constantly splashing up against steep rocky banks. Anya would undoubtedly be at peace here.

I couldn't put her to rest in an unmarked grave, though, so I managed to find a flat stone slab to carve a little message on for her.

The headstone read: "Here lies Anya Ravenhill, beloved daughter and girlfriend. Now resting with the fairies."

I'd always heard of tales regarding fairies' magic when I was younger, including the rumours that they were the caretakers of those we had lost. With this in mind, I'd felt it to be a fitting addition to her stone.

I must have been sitting by her grave for well over an hour; my ghostly companion was long gone now, having stayed to help me dig and refill the trench. And while despite being wary of the strange entity's power over me, I did appreciate the help, not to mention its masterful cauterisation of my wound.

I stared up at the sky; the beautiful red sunset was rapidly fading, becoming more of a washed-out purple colour. It was going to be dark soon. Sensing the need to get moving, I stood up, wiping away at my tired eyes and not bothering to brush the dirt off of my blood-stained trousers; there was no point. Then I took one final look at Anya's grave and smiled. 'I'll see you again one day.'

The walk back to 'the battlefield' as it would be forever known to me was short, even shorter than I'd hoped it would be. The smell of rotten flesh was already sifting through the air, and wriggling carrion worms were slithering in and out of gaping tears in dead bodies. Greedy vultures were circling overhead as well, just waiting for the living to scurry away from what was going to be their evening meals.

As I wandered through the sunken road, bordered on both sides by piles of dead wolf corpses, I couldn't help but gaze at their blank faces. It was a dismal sight.

'Wheeey.' A high-pitched voice squealed.

I turned abruptly at the sound, only to discover one of the mole people. It was frozen still, floating in mid-air while somehow propping itself up with a large stick. I cautiously approached it, now standing mere inches away, when it started wailing, with its head swivelling like that of an owl.

'Are you alright?'

'Wheeey beeer buuur.' It replied, waving at me with tiny furry paws.

I didn't expect an answer at all, but for it to be actively communicating with me was incredible. Discovering a new species was on my dream list, after all.

'Wheeey beeer buuur!' It repeated before vaulting out of sight.

Just when I thought it was gone, I saw two little eyes peering over the top of the wall of the dead.

'Beeer Buuur buuur!' It yelled before disappearing again.

It wanted me to follow, yet I didn't know how to; the route was blocked up ahead. I ended up walking the only path available to me, hoping that it would allow me to double back. It didn't; instead, I found myself standing in front of an abandoned barricade.

It was a rickety wall of tables and chairs, blocking access to the main street through the village, but I could still see through the tiny gaps between each piece of furniture. There were no bustling crowds of shoppers or the typical scattering of merchants selling their wares, though. The sad truth was that if the residents weren't still hiding, they were most likely dead.

After a few minutes of scouting around, I finally re-discovered the village's centre, only to get there; I was going to have to crawl through a gore-filled ditch first.

Shuffling underneath, I had to tug at loose soil and stray guts in an attempt to drag myself forward and escape the mess. My spectral saviours were nowhere to be found this time, and I was going to have to make do on my own.

Shimmying with one arm was a real pain, especially when you couldn't wipe the splashing blood out of your eyes. I couldn't see the light at the end of this tunnel, that was for sure.

'Hello, stranger.'

'Violet?'

'Give me your hand,' She crouched over while yanking on my arm, then somehow dragged me out with one pull. But before I had the chance to move, she whispered something in my ear. 'Regenero.' 

I was about to ask what she'd just done when the bones in my arm began to stretch out from the cauterised stump, followed by layers of muscle and skin that seemed to wrap around tightly. 'Thanks.'

She laughed, throwing a ragged cloth at me. 'You know Mrs Goodwin would only worry; I'm doing you a favour.'

'What's-'

Violet pointed. 'You've got mud all over your face.'

I was about to do as she'd asked when I dropped it on the floor in shock. At least ten-mole people were scouring through the remains of the dead and wounded outside the village tavern. At first, I thought that they were looting corpses, but my resentment was quickly replaced with admiration as I noticed fluffy paws checking for pulses and administering triage.

Violet followed my gaze. 'Aren't they amazing? The little balls of fur arrived during the battle to help us.'

I nodded slowly, smiling. 'I remember one of the creatures defending me... I don't know what happened to it afterwards, though. It saved my life, Violet.'

'Let's help them then.'

'If we can see where we're going.' The sun had now set, and the skies were so black that even the puffing white smoke of chimneys appeared to be light by comparison. 

'There you are, Jake! I was worried, sick.'

'Mom, I can't breathe.'

She only begrudgingly let go of me while flashing one of the magic-powered torches in my face. 'Sorry.'

I covered my eyes dramatically before glaring at her. 'We still can't find Avrae or Asher. Have you seen them?'

She shook her head. 'It's been chaotic out here. If not for the help of the Uvaaaru people, we wouldn't have been able to rescue anywhere near as many as we have.'

'Who?' I ask, with a blank expression.

'The Uvaaaru. You know them as the mole-people Jake.'

My jaw dropped. 'How did you find that out? They don't understand us, or us them.'

'I introduced us as humans. They replied in kind,' she shrugged. 'There's more to communication than the spoken word son, look to their actions here.'

I couldn't argue with her. What they'd been doing was miraculous. Offering aid to a stranger was big enough, let alone providing care to thousands.

Thinking that this day couldn't get any worse, we were brutally corrected when the heavens opened up. Torrential rain started filling up shallow drains, and brown water was flooding out onto the slippery cobbled road. Even the surrounding patchy soil throughout the village was becoming boggier than usual.

Thick grey clouds were starting to replace the wispy white ones, and after a couple of minutes, we heard the unmistakable rumbling of thunder. There was no use hunting for cover as we were already soaking wet; instead, I pulled what was left of my school blazer over my head in a poor attempt to stay dry.

'Still a kid.' My mother laughed, scruffing up my mop hair. She stopped at the sound of a tremendous clatter, though. At first, we both thought it was thunder until we heard it again and then again.

Looking up, I could see a giant silhouette of a figure with its head buried in the clouds, and my heart seemed to skip a beat. It was moving slowly towards us with every ground-shaking thump. Avrae knew this creature better than anyone, though, and without his help, we weren't going to last the night.