ALORAH

A gate made of ironwood surrounded the entire island like a fortress.

The fortress was constructed under the instructions of the Blessed Mothers, clan leaders that ruled the five territories as protection against all enemies and them.

The ominous structure was three feet thick and stood thirty feet at its highest points; the killing ground beyond it was the sandy shores themselves. But there was no point more fortified and guarded as that of the Twin Towers of the northeast at the Devil’s Pass on the edge of the Ironplate’s Territory.

Beyond the gate, the two towers housed the most vicious of archers as they stood at the ready against the mysterious wilderness. A vast land that only twelve hundred new moons ago, had swallowed a succession of some fifty warriors that had disappeared without a trace.

No one since had attempted to venture into its dark forest and whatever laid beyond. None until two little girls approached the tower at the northwest gate.

Lelah, the older of the two cupped a pouch in her small hands. The north wind combed through the long braid that rested on her back. “We want to go there,” she pointed in the direction of the forbidden lands to the only guard that acknowledged her. A tall, seasoned guard whose metallic breastplate caught the evening sun and hurt the young girl’s eyes.

“What’s that you say,” the guard from the second tower yelled down. The girl continued pointing with one hand and shook the pouch in her other.

“We want to go there,” the girl yelled.

After some time, the guard descended her post, and again, the girl pointed beyond the gate.

“We want to go there,” the young girl motioned, her tiny finger remaining fixed.

“You had me come down for this?” The guard asked.

The older of the two girls smiled. “We want to go exploring,” she said.

“Go discover something else. We’ve no time to watch over you.” The guard turned her back on the younglings. Then the girl shook the pouch again. What sounded like metal coins clanking stopped the guard in her track.

“Do you know who my mother is?” the girl asked.

“Of course, I do. You’re one of Ladka’s—.”

“Then you know my worth.” The youngling shook the pouch again. “This is my daily allowance; a six new moon’s salary for a guard, I’m told.”

The guard laughed, adjusted her breastplate, and rolled her eyes under an armored helmet that exposed only her eyes and mouth. “I’m on duty and have no time for games, Ladka’s little one,” she said before turning away.

“Wait,” Lelah said. “We only want to go in a little way.”

“And who are you?” The guard pointed to the other girl. Immediately, the girl covered her eyes.

“My younger sister Leela. I promised her that we would explore the Dark Forest.”

“She looks barely old enough to walk. Anyway, the forest is forbidden. No one goes there.” The guard grabbed a ladle of water and took a sip. “Hasn’t your mother told you? There are things out there that eat little girls,” she joked.

“Eat little girls?” The younger of the two sisters said.

“She doesn’t mean it,” Lelah said. There was nothing that indicated the guard was lying; the stories of competent warriors disappearing without a trace, but the taste of exploration was too much, and the girls were too close. The darkness of the forest beckoned. “I know, but a true warrior is never afraid of the unknown.”

The guard grinned the way a big sister would when a younger one strived for mimicking. “You are one of Ladka’s,” she noted.

Lelah dropped the pouch on the table where the ladle for the water sat. “This is half. I can give you double when we return if you won’t tell on us.”

The guard picked up the pouch and poured half the coins into her hand. The weight was telling but the sight of them was even greater. Ladka’s child was telling the truth. She thought for a moment. “Alright. I’ll lift the gate but stay where I can see you. Do not go into the woods. Is that understood?”

Lelah smiled and tickled her younger sister. “We’re going on an adventure,” she said.

The guard returned to her tower.

“I don’t know your name. What are you called?” Lelah said as she and her sister waited by the gate.

“Rhona,” the guard yelled down to the youngling before pointing to the other guard. “And this is Genna.”

Genna nodded and grunted.

The thick oak logs slowly raised just high enough to let the girls through. It clicked with each rising foot. When the girls were safely on the other side, the younger attached herself to the tough leather harness on her older sister.

Lelah looked to the forest. Immediately, it took on an appearance different than from behind the gate. It looked like another world. The cold soil dared the little girls to go further.

Their feet grazed the unknown land. “Let’s go,” she directed, and the two ran through the clearing until they were confronted by the first row of trees.

The trees. They appeared older than Alorah itself. Dark and brittle bark, as if they would cry when touched.

“Stay within the borders!” The guard, Rhona yelled. But the two had run well past that.

“Stay close to me,” Lelah said.

“Close, close,” her younger sister chanted.

The forest grew darker within seconds. Trees groaned as they passed through.

“Stop!” Rhona yelled again. Her voice shot down onto the wall of trees where the girls were last seen. “Younglings! Younglings!”

The guard’s plea fell on deaf ears as the girls moved deeper into the forest.

“It’s getting dark,” the smallest of the sisters noted.

Lelah rested her body on the trunk of a tree and shivered. A coldness like ice cut through the girls the moment they were invisible from the tower. She looked down at her little sister who hugged her tight at the waist. “I know but we need to go further. We’ll be heroes when we return.”

The sounds of an active forest: owls, other birds, crickets, and other wildlife were nonexistent, only a stillness that was just as audible. “I don’t want to be a hero anymore,” Leela said. Tears welled in her large eyes.

“We have to keep going,” Lelah demanded. She pretended not to be worried, but her face revealed otherwise. Her little sister remained grasped to her waist. “Let’s find something that says we were here.”

“Can’t we go back? It’s getting dark.”

Lelah noticed the once setting sun gave way to dusk, and then night. A splinter of moonlight squeezed through the trees. “It’s so dark,” she spoke. “But if we go back now, we would have done this for nothing. If we find something of proof mother will be lenient. Don’t you want Ironplate pride?”

“No,” Leela said as she pulled at her big sister’s leather apron. “I want Nani,” her tiny voice whimpered.

“Nani will only turn us over to mother. No! We’re too far in, and I won’t return empty-handed.”

Rhona had come down from the tower and cursed every step for agreeing to let the younglings pass through. The pouch of coins would mean nothing if the children of Ladka received even the slightest scratch. She couldn’t risk dealing with Clara and especially Bolah.

The guard cut through the first layer of trees where the girls were last seen. A torch in one hand and an ax in the other. “Lelah, Leela,” she called the younglings by name. “Follow my voice.” The woods groaned; the forest welcomed her. She moved further and called again. “Lelah, Leela!” There was no answer.

“If you don’t want to go, then wait here,” Lelah said when her little sister let go of her and grasped a tree instead. “I will come back for you.”

“Don’t leave me,” Leela begged. The darkness that swallowed them implored her to run to her big sister.

Ladka’s only children moved slowly through trees that grew tighter together, almost warning them to go back. It seemed like hours since they’d entered. The coldness of the night engulfed them like a cocoon.

“I’m cold,” the younger of the two said.

Her older sister, also chilled to the bone ignored her, instead, she focused on a dim light that peeked through the trees.

The two followed the light until they reached a clearing. It was the shine of the moon—a harvest moon that bathed the glade in a warm, hazy glow that revealed something bizarre. The opening was littered with what appeared to be white pieces of something, something that resembled bones. Neither was sure. Both stood motionless. Lelah moved a foot forward, meeting a resistance followed by a hint of weight that pressed down on her leathered boots.

Her hand instinctively reached down to pick up whatever it was. In the dimmed light, it looked and behaved like…like a skinless hand. The thing was cold to the touch, bleached, other than soil lodged within the fine pieces, completely noticeable by the moonlight, and rattled when she shook it. The thing seemed as if it had been in its place for a long time. A hand? she thought before studying it. It was a hand, and every bone was intact. She threw it amongst the graveyard of what appeared to be parts and kicked away whatever sat on her boot—a femur.

Next to it sat a skull as white as the sands of the Bay of Ruuth. Having it would surely acknowledge that the girls had traveled into the forbidden land. Lelah picked it up and swallowed the regurgitation from an earlier snack of berries and dried meat that rose into her throat. “We need to go back,” she said to her little sister when she was able to speak. Then the center of the clearing came to life. Three large fleshy forms rose and turned toward them. The light of the moon rained down and illuminated the things, and what appeared to be something like a mouth, opened and hissed from where a chest should be. Then all three began to come forward.

Lelah grabbed frantically at her sister’s hand. “We need to go now!”

Rhona moved like a predator hunting prey. It had been a long time since the older warrior had tracked on foot, but she recalled her training: observing twig breaks and analyzing footprints. And every so often, she’d cut pieces from her torch. Bits of burning linen left a trail like a compass.

“Lelah! Leela!” She called and waited for a reply. There was no sound from either girl, only the forest that groaned and laughed at her. “LeLeLeLe-eeya!” She howled the ululation that all Ironplate women learned. There was nothing but her panting breath, her pounding feet.

Then a sound rang out—the piercing scream of a child in terror. “LeLeLeLe-eeya!” She again ululated and ran toward the sound.

It wasn’t long before she knew who’d screamed when the youngest of the two sisters collided with her.

“What has happened?” Rhona asked. Leela’s mouth opened but no words escaped. Her eyes were as wide as a cornered Doe; her body trembled uncontrollably. Rhona laid her ax against a tree and shook the child. “Where is your sister?” The eyes of the girl went blank the way life seeped from the dying. “You’re in shock,” she said to no one in particular. “We must—”

Crack! A sound just beyond the trees to Rhona’s left. She grabbed the torch and lifted it. “Lelah?” She called out. Cruck! The sound of branches breaking to her right. “I will gut you where you stand!” She promised. Thump! A sound as if something hit a tree from behind them. “They’re circling us,” she said to the youngling who was more corpse than a child. Out of the corner of her eye, she sees movement from an oak not far away. The torch is extended forward to get a better look. Whatever it was, it broke free, and the two locked eyes, (if you can call it that.) The headless thing: the size of a man, opened its torso to reveal what looked like, thousands of razor teeth. “Phagus,” she whispered. “On my back girl. Now!” She ordered. Life or the will to live must’ve returned because the child did as she was told.

Rhona threw the torch, double-fisted her ax, and the two made their way back.

The sound of heavy, strange feet pounded close, along with the eerie noise: the muffled sound like a mixture of a Bull Frog crossed with a goose. A sound that warned every child to stay away from the gate. Rhona swung her ax through the darkness with every few steps, praying to cut whatever dared to come close. Leela held on with all her might.

The trail of torch trimmings was already smoldering, their amber ash was barely noticeable, but Rhona kept pace until her breath went wheezy and her heart nearly burst from her breastplate.

When the two had reached the clearing, where the gate was in full view, her weakened voice summoned. “Open the gate! Open the gate!”

Her comrades raised the heavy gate and manned their positions, archers at the ready.

When the two were nearly safe on Iron plate soil, the archers sent a flurry of warning arrows at the assailants who refused to flinch.

“Lower the gate! Rhona pleaded. “Now or we’re doomed!”

The gate lowered, and the clank of each spoke was sure and true. As the huge planks came down to meet the earth, Rhona and her parcel of Ladka’s youngest child, slid beneath the towering protector without a second to spare.

Behind the planks were the things not seen for twelve hundred new moons. There were seven of them, clawed hands that rubbed and scraped the wood planks of the gate hungrily. But there was one different from the rest. It stood between the gate and the forest defiantly while the others had their way with the fortification.

Leela covered her eyes, hoping the things would be gone when she removed her hands.

Rhona looked in disbelief, her mouth agape. The story told to children in line was true after all.

The creatures milled about like drunken men, bumping into each other. Some struck the gate in anger, others hissed and expelled sounds like a troubled stomach before regurgitation. Back and forth, the shadow of their fleshy bodies passed through the wooden slats. It was only until they were certain that gaining entry was futile, did they turn and frolicked away, disappearing into the forest.

Everyone behind the gate watched in silence. None of the guards could believe what they’d seen.

Finally, Rhona removed Leela from her back. “There are more of them, I’m sure of it,” she said.

A younger guard seized the girl. One who’d only been at the tower a short while. “Blessed Mothers, what were those things?”

Rhona peeped through slats in the gate. “They’re gone for now,” she said.

“But what are they?” The guard asked again.

“Phagus,” Rhona took her time answering. “Flesh Eaters.”

“Our Gem needs to know of this,” the guard said. Her eyebrows raised.

Rhona pulled from her waistband, the pouch of a guard’s six-month salary. She shook the coins in her hand. “I know and may the Blessed Mothers help me.”