Page 2

Chapter

Two

D elilah warily looked around as she stepped out her front door.

The few remaining hens raced for the door, reassuring her that there was no threat at her doorstep as they eagerly demanded their breakfast. Such as it was.

She didn’t have much feed left, though she had tried to stretch it as far as possible by picking what she could find growing in the abandoned fields.

She had tried to pick up the slack and maintain them as people left the village, but it grew more difficult as every month passed, and the remaining residents trickled away or were swallowed by the forest. Even going into the fields was becoming risky as the forest quickly began to overtake them.

It wouldn’t be too much longer before she wouldn’t be able to get any of the grain from them, and her small vegetable garden beside her cottage only provided so much.

As it was, she only had enough feed to last a few more days, and their cellar was getting low on stores.

They had been making due mostly with eggs, but those were dwindling.

With the quality of their feed going down and their advancing age with no younger hens to take their place since a predator had brought the rooster down the year before, Delilah was running out of options.

“Sorry ladies, looks like this might be the end of the road,” she sighed as she scattered more feed for the birds.

Emptying the small basket on the ground, she turned and smiled at the sight of her daughter sitting on the porch step with a kitten cradled in her lap.

The kitten had wandered into the field several days ago, half-starved.

The painted geshi cat had a tawny coat speckled with vivid pink spots overlaying black pigmentation.

It was foolish to take the kitten in, especially knowing that the arboreal geshi got quite large in the wild, but she hadn’t been able to abandon it.

Of course, Lily had taken to the little furball quickly and had been the one to name her Nimh.

Given how sad Lily had been, seeing her daughter’s happiness was worth it—if only she could feed it enough to keep the kitten and themselves alive.

“Hey kiddo,” she murmured, ruffling her daughter’s hair. “How’s Nimh?”

Lily’s little shoulders lifted and fell with her sigh. “Hungry,” she said as the kitten mewed plaintively. Her bright green eyes turned to her hopefully. “Maybe it’s time for lunch now?”

Delilah bit the inside of her cheek to distract herself from the choking despair that welled up so suddenly. They wouldn’t go hungry. She wouldn’t allow it.

“Sure, honey. The rice has been cooking on the stove all day. It is a nice porridge by now. We can cut up some of the vegetables from the yard and then—” she broke off seeing the way her daughter’s face fell, her little nose wrinkling in distaste.

Crouching in front of her daughter, Delilah patted her cheek sympathetically.

“I know that it is not what you want. But what if we can have meat for dinner? Would that make it better?”

An uncertain look crossed Lily’s face, and she craned her neck to peer around her at the chickens pecking at the ground. “You are going to kill one of the hens?” she asked quietly.

Delilah nodded. “Yes, baby. They aren’t laying eggs any longer and we need something to eat to help us hold out a little longer.

Our neighbor, Vernon, did say that he would send his kin back to escort us safely through the forest once he arrives home.

We just need to hang on until they arrive.

” Brushing a lock of Lily’s hair behind her shoulder, she rubbed her back lovingly.

“Besides, Nimh needs the meat as much as you do. You both need the energy for growing.”

Lily nodded but glanced one last time at the hens and headed inside, cradling Nimh in her arms. “You’re right, momma.”

Delilah’s shoulders slumped with a mixture of relief and resignation. Relief because Lily accepted what needed to be done. Resignation because no matter how much she wanted to, she couldn’t change things.

If only things had been different. If only Zack hadn’t disappeared into the woods and died years ago, abandoning them in the village without family to lean on when they desperately needed the safety that numbers would bring.

If only some of the other village folk had set aside their resentment to extend a helping hand and welcome them among their families so that they could safely escape.

But as frightened as everyone was, no one had wanted to take them in.

They blamed him—and, by association, her—for the ruination of their village.

When she had arrived with her husband many years ago, it was because he had been the huntsman assigned to patrol and protect this part of the woods.

He had safeguarded the people of the village for many years until he ultimately failed.

And then, he had walked into the woods one day and died there, never to return…

not even as a body so that they could properly bury him.

He died five long years ago, abandoning her, abandoning Lily, and abandoning the village to the dangers of the encroaching forest.

The villagers had blamed her husband, their anger growing as the threat from the forest grew.

But, as there wasn’t much that they could do to him, they shifted that blame to her.

Like many, they believed that an active huntsman shouldn’t be married with home obligations.

Such things were best left until after he was ready to retire from being on active assignment.

By marrying him and having a child with him, they believed that she and Lily had been a distraction and ultimately harmful to the community.

The fact that they had been one community together and had celebrated Lily’s long-awaited birth with her meant nothing.

Zack had abandoned them, and Delilah and Lily were to pay for his failure.

It hadn’t taken the village long to start shunning her either, so Delilah wasn’t entirely surprised when the villagers began to leave, leaving their homes in small groups without them.

Vernon had lingered longer than most, unwilling to abandon them.

He had hunted game for them to see that they were reasonably fed.

He went out every day, braving the woods until he began to run out of ammo.

Then he too had ventured into the woods with a promise to send help to escort them out, convinced that they would be much safer that way.

Or perhaps he had tired of the responsibility when she repeatedly declined his advances.

Maybe he never had any intention of sending anyone but hadn’t wanted them to get it into their minds to try to follow him.

It was a terrible thought, but one that she couldn’t quite shake free of as she filled the bowls with porridge.

After all, a woman unfamiliar with the woods beyond the immediate area right outside their gates and a young child would attract every opportunistic predator in the area.

If he had lied… well, that left her with a very uncomfortable probability that she hadn’t wanted to consider. That eventually she would be forced to venture into the forest herself and pray that she would be able to find her way.

Delilah lifted a spoonful of porridge to her lips but nearly choked when she attempted to swallow the small mouthful of food, her appetite vanishing at the thought.

Seeing that Lily was ravenously cleaning her bowl and down to the last few bites, she pushed the bowl toward Lily.

Rising to her feet, she bent, dropping a kiss to the top of her daughter’s head.

“Go ahead and have mine, too. I’m going to walk toward the village center and see if those berry bushes that Mrs. Murgun grew have any fruit on them. It would be nice to have something a little sweet. Just stay inside with Nimh.”

Lily nodded without looking up as she rotated the bowls and shoveled a large spoonful of porridge into her mouth. Her feet swung happily despite the meager meal while Nimh purred as she devoured her own food beside Lily’s chair.

Gathering her basket from the shelf beside the door, Delilah gave her daughter one last fond look before heading out the door and quickly striking down the path that ran through the center of the village from the northern gate to the southern wall.

Although Mrs. Murgun’s abandoned berry bushes were her ultimate destination, Delilah stopped at several gardens on the way, checking on fruiting plants and vegetables as she went.

She came away with little, but every bit would help feed them for another day.

She was almost feeling optimistic, in fact, upon catching sight of the familiar berry bushes when something stepped out of the abandoned house, directly in her path.

Delilah froze in place in the middle of the street in shock.

She’d heard on the comm-radio about the arrival of an alien species.

She had laughed about it with her husband at the time—some five years ago?

But those aliens had been described differently.

Large lupine creatures with thick furry pelts, multiple arms and savage fangs…

the Ragoru had been described to be stuff of nightmares.

But this… this was not a Ragoru.

Tall and lean but powerfully built, the alien’s body seemed to shimmer a golden red hue and possessed down that thickened in certain spots along the legs, shoulders and collar where it gave way to larger gold-tipped red feathers.

On either side of the alien’s neck there were two long teardrop shaped marks of a vivid blue on either side of its neck and a thick collar of similarly colored feathers just above its chest, and threaded within the thick feathery crests that covered its head, the feathers of which were long enough to trail over halfway down its back with streaks of red and bright blue amid the scarlet feathers.

It was the alien’s face, however, that gave her a pause.

It was almost humanoid in appearance except that its eyes were larger and rounder than human eyes, giving it an uncanny appearance that was only matched by the bony plating that ran down over the bridge of its nose, forming something of a hooked shape to it that was only matched by a similar plating on its chin.

Its head suddenly turned toward her, and her heart nearly failed when its vivid blue eyes locked onto her.

It trilled softly, and suddenly another came from the same cottage almost identical in size and plumage except it was vivid green in places where the other was blue.

Their heads turned toward her in unison as green and blue eyes fastened upon her.

Anxiety pumped through her, making her heart race and, in that moment, Delilah discovered her limit for the unusual as a scream ripped from her throat and she whirled away, determined to find her daughter and take their chances in the woods far from the cursed village and its mystery aliens. Even she had her limits.