The Faery Hunt (The Wicked Grove Prequel)

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Copyright
Text and Cover D
esign
:

© September
2012 Alexia Purdy

Original Copyright
©
February 2012

All rights reserved

This is a work of fiction. All characters and events portrayed in this novel are fictitious and are products of the author’s imagination and any resemblance to actual events, or locales or persons, living or dead are entirely coincidental.

Dark Light

A twisted path in disarray

A siege inside my head.

As darkness grips at my eyes

I feel the mortal dread

As wired barbs and thorns embed

The world’s a different place

I shudder and remember when

The light shone on my face

The dusk relents to the night

My light that shuns and takes

Embraces me with its breath

Releasing what it makes

The path eludes as I go

An infinity
of dead

Dark light immolates

Down pours on my head

Dawn expands its grip anew

As wild and cursed things

Retreat back into night

Light’s sanctuary brings

~Alexia Purdy

The
Faery
Hunt

“
GRAB YOUR GEAR,
we’re almost ready to go
,”
Jay hollered out to me
.
He was dressing in full hunting gear, cargo pants, black shirt with knives sheathed across his chest
.
A quiver stuffed full of arrows crisscrossed the belt of knives, making him look like a black ops soldier
.

Groaning
,
I pulled myself up into the back of the truck, grabbing my hunting gear that matched his and snugly strapped it on
.
“Oh come on, I was heading towards the mall to hang out with my girls
.
What’s going on that you guys had to screech on over here and interrupt my perfect evening?” 

Jay tossed a bow at me and snickered, “I think this is much more imp
ortant than shopping for shoes. “ 

I glared at my brother, wishing I could give him a slap
.
He never cared for anything
but the hunt
.
Sighing, I was glad I remembered to wear decent shoes, I had learned long ago that a hunt can happen at any time and it was better being ready than sorry.

“Heads up!”
  Craig yelled out from the cab of the truck
.
A flashlight went sailing out the window and barely missed my head
.
Catching it, I cursed him under my breath
.

“You could have killed me
,
moron!”  Stuffing the flashlight into my belt, I pulled the truck do
or open and plopped on the seat
, glaring at my older brother Craig
.

“Sorry
P
udge
,
didn’t mean to almost take your head off
.
Just
helping you prime your lightning fast reflexes
.
It’s
gonna
be a doozy tonight!”  He stuffed a flashlight of his own into his jacket and hopped out
.
I did the same, slamming the truck door and scurrying towards the back to find him and Jay scoping out the woods.

“Hey, don’t I get a say in the game plan?  This isn’t a ‘boys only’ club.”  I sighed, turning to scan the darkening woods before us
. “And don’t call me ‘
Pudge
’!”

A trail on our left led deeper into the trees, disappearing from the road after the first turn
.
It looked scary, and the pit of my stomach agreed
.
Shaking off the dread, I followed my brothers into the forest, letting the truck disappear behind us in the thick
of
the woods.

“You sure there were sightings in these woods?  I don’t see any tracks yet.”  I
knelt down to study the d
irt, looking for any disturbances
.
The twigs and dead leaves cluttered the forest flo
or and made it difficult to pin
point any tracks
.
I studied it intensively until a small splash
of dirt across
some sapling leaves betrayed our prey
.

“This way,” I said, confident that I had discovered a tr
ack
.
No way
were they
getting away from us this time.

We tracked them for a
bout an hour, as the dusk sucked the
day
light away
.
The trees rustled in the cool evening breeze and made it hard to hear any movement around us
.
As the night approached, the lights became clearer, marking the
Faeries
in the distance.

“
Faery
lights,” whispered Jay, motioning towards the darkness beyond
.
In the distance, firefly-like glowing orbs reflected back towards us
.
I sucked in my breath, steading my bow as I swept my flashlight back and forth, counting the lights
.
Faery
lights were the retinal reflections of the woodland
Faery
tribes that hau
nted the woods around the city
.
They had caused a number of disappearances lately, thus keeping us hunting them regularly.

My brothers were on full alert, guns and arrows pointed and readied towards the flashing targets
.
They watched us approach, not wavering in their positions
.
Their confidence made the hairs on my neck stand on
end;
these were not so easily spooked
like the others we’ve encountered
.

“Amy, take the left
flank
, I’ll take the ones on the right, Jay you’re center point man
.
Don’t spread out too much, stay together
,
”   Craig said intently, stepping carefully towards his
right as they expanded their perimeter
.

“Now!”
  Jay gave the command as he had many times before
.
Craig and I followed with a cascade of arrows flying into the darkness, hitting the glowing targets around us
.

The infernal screams that followed were deafening
.
Even the
now loud
roar wind through the tree can
opy
was swallowed by the carnal wailing all
around us
.
I wanted to fall to the ground and hold my hands over my ears to muffle the screeching
.
This band was lou
der and madder than any we had
extinguished
before.

We continued to hit them with arrows and bullets as Craig shot some down with his handgun
.
I reloaded as fast as I could but realized that the mass of dark
Faeries
had taken a different stance and began to
bum rush
right at
us
.

Crap!

I pulled out a
hunting knife from my belt, just in time to slash one across the chest and butt another
in the head
with the bow
.
Their
bright green blood splashed across my fa
ce and arms as their veiny skin
burst open under
my blade
.

Their hair was made of twisted twigs and thistles while their skin was green like an emerald forest in spring with veins like leaves that spread across their bodies like emblazoned tattoos
.
They wore moss and long grasses woven into capes and pants
.
Their eyes glowed
like the yellow
of a cat’s
eyes
,
reflecting the moonlight like
feral
orbs
.
They fought us bravely, falling
in
piles as our weapons got the best of
them
.
Iron arrows and bullets
decimated their numbers efficiently.

Their sheer numbers pushed me fa
rther from my brothers as they too spread apart to keep up with the rampage
.
Sweat gathered on my brow
s
as my heart jumped in my chest
.
If we don’t end
this soon, we would be no match against them.

As if they heard my thoughts, the attack slowed, more warriors came to stand around me as my ammo ran out
.
The ceasing of gunfire let me know that Craig too had run out
.
Panic seared through me like lightning, threatening to burst my chest open
.
I held my knife out, dropping the now useless bow to the ground
.

In a flash, one Faery
grabbed
the
hand
holding the knife
, squeezing hard enough for me to yelp
out
and drop it
.
He moved in a blur as he
twisted
my arm painfully around my back and held
it
tight
.
Unable to break free, he shoved me forward, deeper into the forest and away from the calls of my brothers
.
The pain in my arm seared through me, making my eyes tear up as I stumbled under his impatient shoving
.
When we app
roached a clearing, he shoved me
down to the floor where I struggled to get back on my feet, rocks and mulch scraping my hands
.
Looking up,
my eyes rested on another
Faery
who
stood staring down at me intently.

“Let me go!”  I yelled. The still face remained
unmoving, boring down
into mine
.
I tried my best to look
away;
knowing
that to
stare back
into the bright yellow glow of
Faery
eyes was to become a prisoner of Faerie itself
.
I pulled my gaze away, tears spilling down my cheeks as I stared at the ground.

“Please, don’t hurt my brothers
.
I’ll go with you, but please, don’t hurt them
.
Let them go.”   My voice quivered as my body shook, exhaustion and terror crawled over me, threatening to collapse the last bit of strength left inside me. Looking back up
,
I waited, studying his features, which were
similar to the rest of their kind
.
The only difference was
a
twisted
crown of wood and vines sitting on his head
.
His eyes glared at me, seemingly sucking my soul out into them as the
world swam around me.
I could hear but a whisper in my head as he agreed with my terms
.
Reaching out
,
he touched my cheek.