Onyx

It was midafternoon and hundreds of rhythmic pounding of ax against wood rang within the groves. Wiping the sweat from her brow, Onyx leaned on her ax and looked at the position of the sun in the sky. “Three more hours.” She muttered to herself.

With her dark skin and strange white hair tucked into braids, Onyx picked up her ax. Just as she was about the break the bark of the tree, she heard a faint jingling sound. Looking around, she saw nothing amiss. Nobody else seemed to hear the strange noise. She shook her head, a bit disconcerted. Picking her ax back up, she continued her work until nightfall.

Walking back to her tent, Onyx heard someone shouting her name. Turning around, she saw Rigel jogging behind her. Wonderful she thought to herself. Rigel was handsome enough to other girls, with his golden brown skin and silky curls, but he was just annoying to Onyx. Her parents adopted him after finding him in a basket in the woods nineteen years ago. He’s been harassing her since.

“I saw you looking around the forest like an ox.” He said with a smug smile. Onyx rolled her eyes. “And you smell like one, yet I didn’t say anything about that.”

Rigel scowled seemingly unprepared for that response, and trotted away with a flick of his head, curls bouncing.

She and Rigel haven’t always had the best relationship. He seemed too flaky to her. One moment they were laughing and joking around, the next he was snitching on her for something she did last week. So now, Onyx does her best to avoid him which is nearly impossible since they’re siblings.

As Onyx entered her tent she heard the jingling sound again. Whipping around, she grabbed the nearest object to her—a book—and prepared to hurl it at the perpetrator. Nobody was there. An eerie feeling crept over her and she slowly lowered the book wondering if she was going mad.

Was it magic? She wondered. She quickly flung the idea out of her head. Magic hasn’t been used nor seen in nearly a hundred years. But for some reason, she felt drawn…

“ONYX!”

Rigel came barging into her tent, snapping her out of her thoughts. “All the livestock has been slaughtered. The chieftain has called a meeting and requests everyone to be there within fifteen minutes.” He stared at the book in her hand and cocked a brow. “What’s with the book?”

“Never mind that,” Onyx growled, and flung the book on her cot walking out of the tent. She could never reveal to her brother she was hearing jingling sounds. She’d never hear the end of it.As she was walking out she spotted her mom in the stream of bustling villagers. Picking her way through the crowd, she asked her mother what was happening.

“It seems that as we were all working in the groves, some lunatic came and slaughtered all the sheep and cows. Now we only have enough wool to last us a couple of months, and no milk. The chieftain called the whole village for a meeting to discuss the details and the steps moving forward.”

Mrs. Windward was a short, but pretty woman despite the creases of labor on her face. She had the same dark skin as Onyx, with dark graying hair. She turned to Rigel and fumed. “If I find out this was you, I swear to the heavens above, you will be cleaning up horse poop from the stables for six months.”

Rigel put his hands up with an innocent look on his face. “I would never!”, he said in a mocking tone. That ticked Onyx off. There was a time for joking and a time to be serious, and this was the time for the latter.

The town hall was a crude building that truly displayed her village’s poverty. The soggy walls caved in with splintered beams. The floor was cracked and little weeds grew in between. She could never remember a time when her village had been prosperous. She couldn’t even recall having history books. She knew it was because of her village’s poverty, but Onyx had a feeling it was for a different reason. Something pricked the back of her mind that she couldn’t quite shake.

The bang of the chieftains gavel brought her back to reality. “I called this meeting here today to address a tragedy that occurred during a time we were diligently working for the success of our community…”

“There he goes, with his long-winded speech.” Muttered Rigel. Onyx stifled a grin.

“…Not only is it an attack on our livelihoods, but it is an attack on our peace as well…the person responsible for this monstrosity of a crime was not human,”

There was a collective of murmurs from the crowd. Does this have to do with the jingle sound? Onyx wondered to herself.

“The marks this beast left on the livestock were those only a creature with claws could create. The claw marks were the length of a young child, and I daresay no creature I am aware of could create wounds of that size. This creature is out to kill. They’ve left the carcasses untouched. I am putting a mandate that no persons should be out their tents past nightfall.”

One scraggly man raised his gnarled hand and said, “How can we ensure we will be safe when all we have for shelter is a flimsy old tent?”

Mutters of agreement filled the room. The chieftain scratched his thick beard, seemingly lost in thought. A moment passed before he answered. “For those who are worried about your safety, you may stay here for the night. It’s not the sturdiest, but it’s fully enclosed and sturdier than the tents. This mandate will be imposed until the issue is resolved. Any other questions?”

The room was silent. With a bang of his gavel the chieftain dismissed everyone. “Meeting adjourned.”

Onyx walked back to the tent with her mother and Rigel. They were all silent with the feeling of impending doom looming over them. As Onyx opened up the flap to her tent, she heard the jingle again and stopped in her tracks.

“You okay there?” asked her mother.

“Yes I’m fine,” she replied distractedly. “I’m pretty sure I left something in town hall. Can I go grab it?”

“Be quick, it’ll be dark out soon.”

Onyx nodded her head and walked towards the direction of town hall. Once she saw Rigel and her mother slip inside the tent, she quickly turned, and started walking in the direction she heard the jingle. Despite the obvious danger, she couldn’t help but feel drawn to it. She followed her instinct and walked back to the groves she was working in earlier that day.

Initially scanning she couldn’t find anything. Not wanting to take too long in fear of her mother finding out, she turned back to the village when she heard the jingle again, this time closer.

On edge, she searched around once again and found peeking from behind a tree, about a hundred yards away, a pair of glowing blue eyes.

She felt something probe her conscience as if telling her she was safe. Every muscle in her body strained to run, but her brain wouldn’t allow the signal to register.

The creature emerged from behind the tree. Onyx braced herself to be mutilated by the same creature that slaughtered the livestock. To her utter surprise and dismay, a man emerged.

He was the most beautiful being she had ever crossed paths with. He wore no shirt and had bands wrapped around his arms with strange symbols, and carried a magnificent sword at his hip. His pants were long and baggy with a strange wrap around his waist depicting a series of runes within its folds. He was tall and toned, every muscle defined and smooth. His hair was long with locs that hung over a heavy brow. It was as if his face was chiseled to perfection, every line sharp and crisp. His skin was the richest shades of brown with full round lips. What struck Onyx the most though, was his strong presence. He radiated with pure power, the air itself charged with electricity. He did not seem human, he was almost otherworldly. She was hypnotized by his presence.

Just as she gained the courage to say something she heard a twig snap behind her. She turned, and within that second the stranger was gone. Rigel showed up behind her smirking smugly.

“I knew you were lying.”

“Did you see that?” asked Onyx.

“See what?”

“The man…he was just here a second ago.”

“No…? You sound crazy. We need to go home now before mom has heart palpitations. You know she doesn’t have a good heart.”

Dismayed, Onyx walked with her brother out of the groves. “Please don’t tell mom I lied.”

“Doing my chores for a week might convince me,” said Rigel with a mischievous grin. Groaning, Onyx reluctantly agreed to his terms.

Upon entering the tent, she found her mother asleep on the cot. Onyx whipped around angrily to her brother and whispered, “You knew she was asleep didn’t you!”.

Chuckling Rigel said, “Yes I did. But you still owe me chores for a week, lest I wake her up and inform her of your mistruths.” He said in a mocking tone.

Fuming, Onyx went to bed in her cot. It was moments like these she wished her parents just left him in the woods.

Drifting off into an uneasy sleep, the last thing she saw before it went dark, was those glowing blue eyes.