Final Confrontation: Caregivers 3

It was over before she knew it. She could feel the magic that once overwhelmed her begin to wash away into the night. Did they finally do it?

Please, I don’t want to see this, please…

She felt a presence in her mind. Before she realized what she was doing, she was reaching out to it, trying to understand it. 

No, stop!

She heard a gasp and Stranger opened one eye. Ephemera’s milky eyes stared blankly at the space above her head, his mouth hung open in an O. She closed her eye and reached out to the presence again. This time she decided to form words. 

Just stop there! You’ll make things worse!

Ephie? Is that you?

This time Ephemera let out a small cry. 

It is you! We did it! We can talk! I can show you things! You can see! What do you want to see first? Oh! Let me show you your garden!

No, no, no, no!

Stranger summoned an image of her and Ephie’s secret garden, the way it looked when they first met. A cavern empty of life, bar the sapling in the centre growing from a crack in a boulder. Then she showed him the garden now. 

That’s ENOUGH!

Every corner was filled with some kind of shrub or cacti. The sapling wasn’t that much taller than when she first saw it but its branches were strong and its leaves a dark green. Below the sapling lay a small speckled blue and white—

A shrill scream rang in her ears. Stranger’s eyes snapped open. Ephemera was shrinking away from her, tears streaming down his cheeks, his face a mask of horror. 

Ephie?! What’s wrong? Are you hurt?

She lifted a paw to pull him into a hug but Ephemera just screamed and tried to push her away. 

Hold on! Let me help!

You’ve done enough! Just let him go!

He wouldn’t respond to her. Instead he bared his teeth and clamped down on her shoulder, hard enough to draw blood. 

“AAAAGHHH!” Stranger screamed and finally let Ephemera go. He bolted out of the cavern, into the cold night. 

“Ephieeee! I’m sorry!” Stranger called for him, tears running down her cheeks too, more out of sorrow than pain. “Ephemeraaaaa!”

She didn’t chase after him. She watched his tail disappear over a dune. 

That would be the last thing anyone ever saw of him. 

-

“STAY IN YOUR BEDS! YOU HEAR ME?”

Dani woke up with a start, her heart hammering in her chest. There was screaming, there was shouting. Whose voice was that? Du’an? No. Somos? Maybe?

She stumbled out of her bed and squinted at the longhouse’s front door. A tall humanoid had burst in, clad in black. As soon as they spotted her, they came marching towards her.

“I SAID, STAY THERE! DON’T YOU DARE MOVE!” The stranger swung a long blade towards her and stopped just short of her throat. 

“S-sorry!” Was the only thing she could whisper. She looked around. Cinder stayed curled up in bed. She could barely see the speckled runner among the furs but where was Stranger? She looked across from there to Ephemera’s bed but he was gone too. They must have ran off to their secret place. She hoped they were safe there.

Across from her was Reon’s bed. Reon was all but a pair of green eyes in the dark. They met hers and he slowly shook his head. Was it really just the three of them?

A deafening crash came from the back of the longhouse, where the storage area was. Cinder screamed. She toppled out of her bed and ran towards Dani, crying.

“No! Stay there!” Dani tried to warn her.

“HEY, HEY, HEY! DON’T MOVE!” The stranger flipped the blade and shoved the pommel into Cinder’s snout. The action was accompanied with a crunch! The poor girl was stunned to a halt, her nose bleeding. Dani cried out and scrambled to shield her from any more blows. 

“Don’t hurt her!” Dani begged. “She’s just scared!”

The doors slammed open again but this time Eli was the one to come through. He launched himself and the humanoid’s back, knocking them over. He latched onto the back of their neck and began shaking. He didn’t stop until their body went limp and they stopped moving. 

Eli dropped the man and began shouting instructions. “You kids get out of here! Round up the horses and don’t come back! I’ll find you! Understand?”

So many questions were running through Dani’s mind but none would come out of her mouth. She could only gape like a fish. Reon hadn’t moved from his spot. He stared vacantly at Cinder as if he was still processing what happened to her.

“REON! DANI! MOVE! NOW!” Eli shouted and bolted out of the house. 

“L-let’s go guys!” Dani pulled Cinder off the floor. 

“What’s happening!?” Cinder cried. 

Dani found tears in her eyes too. She couldn’t keep the shaking from her voice. “I don’t know but we need to run. Reon? Let’s go.”

Reon's eyes still hadn’t focused but he responded by stepping out of his bed and opening the door. No one was blocking their exit outside. It was a straight shot into the open desert. 

 A loud BANG reverberated through the air, shaking even the house. Reon grabbed Cinder, tossed her on Dani’s back and sprinted into the plains. Dani followed as best as she could but Reon was fast and slowly pulling away. He never looked back once.

“ELIIIIIII! NOOOOO!” Cinder cried as she bounced on Dani’s back. Dani didn’t have the breath to tell Cinder to stop looking. She could only keep running and running and listening as Cinder wails quieted into sobs. 

-

The rumbling was too loud for any of the sleeping vayrons to ignore now. Reon gladly returned to consciousness, where he could breathe easy and wasn’t being tormented. He looked around. Dani and Stranger were being pulled out of the pool. He himself wasn’t in the water, thank Holy, but was surrounded by two handmaidens. One laid a blanket over his shoulders, the other lifted a flask to his lips. He shook his head and pushed it away. The last thing he wanted was to be coddled. Actually, the last thing he wanted was to be here. Though the memory had dulled, it kept replaying over and over and over in his mind. It was making him sick.

“Reon!” 

Reon turned to where he heard Somos’s voice. He and his buddy Frosty were being ushered out of the cavern. Somos was fighting them.

“I’ll be waiting above ground, okay? Back at the entrance! And tell Stranger I’m sorry. She’s right, I’m an asshole and stubborn. Take care of them! Hell! Okay! I’m going now! Stop pushing!”

Somos was gone before Reon could respond. Not that anything would have come out. His throat felt tight, all that came out was a wheeze and a few tears. One of the handmaidens collected a handkerchief for his eyes. The other offered the flask again. Reon shook his head. 

“No!” His voice cracked violently, barely above a whisper. “I can’t stay here anymore!”

He pushed them away and ran after Somos.

“Reon? Where are you going?” Stranger asked as he passed. She was just being settled down with a blanket over her shoulders. Her eyes were half open, still processing what was a memory and what wasn’t. She also looked worse for wear. “They said we all passed.”

Reon just shook his head. She could give his regards to the Matriarch for him. He wasn’t going to stick around any longer. 

Stranger saw the look on his face. She knew just what memory he must have seen. “Yeah, okay. Just be safe.”

Reon nodded. He didn’t bother giving Stranger Somos’s apology. He could say it to her face for once. He ran out of the cavern after Somos and Frosty. The farther he was the better he felt and when he finally caught up to them, his stomach settled and the shaking in his limbs stopped. He felt right.

Dani found herself being guided back to solid ground by one of the handmaidens. The water no longer felt warm. It was cold and unwelcoming to her. Stranger was already huddled up in a blanket, eagerly taking the food and drink the handmaidens provided her. Dani flopped down and snuggled under the blanket with her. Stranger gave her a sad smile and offered one of the treats from the plate. Dani hadn’t noticed how hungry. She was and popped a few in her mouth. Sugary, sweet jelly flowed from the inside of the treats. It was just the thing she needed right now.

“Reon couldn’t stay.” Stranger said. Dani understood why. If the pool showed them their memories, Reon had the worst experience of them all.

“Did we pass?” She asked. Stranger nodded.

“Yeah. We’re going to see The Matriarch.”