Page 20 of Where the Shadows Land (Garden of Hope #1)

MAIRUK

M airuk returned to their garden in a frozen, half-dazed fog.

Astoria’s outburst carried more venom than a bog snake, and stung just as hard.

Fresh from a hunt with a new corpse to feed the magic-starved land, they should have had more energy in their steps.

Yet, they dragged their feet the whole way home.

“Why would I want a monster like you?” Astoria’s venomous voice rang clear in their mind. The memory was sharp and bitter. “What is pathetic is living alone in an abandoned, dead village. Are you so cruel your own kin cannot stand you?”

Mairuk lived alone for so long, only interacting with their companions who traveled through.

Occasionally they had a one-night dalliance in Bounoss when they needed to resupply.

Those situations always went the same way and were easy for Mairuk to navigate.

Simple. Dealing with Astoria brought so many challenges because she was human.

Her needs, beliefs, and expectations were all so different from theirs.

Astoria was a riddle Mairuk could not solve .

Astoria was a good worker, kind when she wanted to be, and vicious when she didn’t.

Powerful magic simmered below the surface of her skin, yet she never called it forth.

Her magic sang to theirs in a melody that was near as intoxicating as her soft mouth.

She possessed the bravery to argue with them toe-to-toe, despite her small size.

Astoria cut them deep with the sharp lashes of her tongue, but was capable of tenderness, too.

She sang to the sprouts in the soil and never as much as raised her voice at Bastian.

Astoria should not have appealed to Mairuk.

They should not have found her so desirable, but her soft touch woke something in them.

Something they now had to put back to sleep because she didn’t want them.

‘Does she not want us, or is she afraid?’ Twelfth asked. ‘She shared her tendency to fear with us.’

‘It does not matter what her truth is, it matters what she has said to us,’ First said.

The rest of Mairuk’s system bristled. They would not harm their human by attempting to circumvent the boundaries she laid out, but her truth did matter.

All animals snarled when backed into a corner.

Aggression was a natural response to fear.

Does she view us as a monster in truth, or did she mean it when she called us beautiful? Could both be true?

Lost in thought, Mairuk did not recognize the pull in their blood that dragged them toward the northwest until they wandered past Astoria’s open door. Mairuk froze and dropped their offering on the rough stone street. “Astoria? Bastian?”

No response. Their mental words found no mind to land in, and nothing responded when they spoke, either.

Dread, cold and dark, swelled in the fibers of their body.

For the first time in weeks, Mairuk’s garden was empty and devoid of all life.

The silence bit into their skin, sharp and stabbing against their ears.

Astoria left. She chose death over a peaceful life in their garden for a second time. She hated them enough to face her cowardice and finally die. The ache Astoria left within them roared with fresh rage as Mairuk ran northwest as fast as their legs could carry them.

‘If she believes us to be a monster, then allow us to show her what a monster we can be!’ Fifth sent a wave of ravenous hunger through the system.

‘We’ll feast on her blood and release our spores over her corpse. She’ll nourish the sprouts well,’ Seventh said, the desire for her mixing with the rage in the system.

Mairuk growled and moved with the roots of Mieotsy, as fast as the wind. They spent hours in the forest, but at their speed, it didn’t matter. Humans, even those gifted in magic like their little vixen, were slow creatures and no match for a Rholctai at full strength.

Orange-red evening sunlight cut through the dense storm clouds in a red haze when the scream of a harpy called from above. Astoria’s rich, coppery, and almost floral blood hit Mairuk’s senses a moment later. Their saliva thickened in their mouth, preparing to dissolve the flesh from her bones.

Bastian broke through the bush and ran toward Mairuk. He wined, barking at them then nosing the direction of Astoria’s blood. “ Help her ,” Bastian seemed to beg.

Help was not what Mairuk had in mind for Astoria.

She chose death. She picked this when she left the garden.

Astoria hated them enough that she decided any life they could offer her was worse than dying.

They only still ran toward her because they refused to allow the harpies to consume her.

The vixen was theirs for the taking. Her body and blood by all rights belonged to Mairuk now that she broke their pact.

A feral snarl ripped through them at the sight of the carnage.

The sound shook the ground and all the harpies looked back at once, screaming and alert.

Blood coated Astoria’s body. The foul beasts tore chunks of flesh away from her neck, arms, and even her face.

Three deep slices on her shoulder revealed the bone underneath and poured blood at an alarming rate .

Time slowed to a stop. Astoria’s eyes scrunched shut and tears streamed down her pretty face.

She didn’t bother putting on her armor when she left, and the simple dress she wore earlier was ruined.

Her arms stretched out to either side, neither her bow nor her dagger in sight.

She did not fight. She did not protest. Astoria submitted to the death the harpies offered her without defending herself.

Mairuk’s rage pushed higher, the sensation burning in their fibers so hot they swore they would burst into flame.

“ASTORIA!” Mairuk shouted with their voice, not their mind. The entire forest around them rustled in response.

Her spring green eyes opened. Though her face twisted in pain, a glimmer of acceptance shimmered in her eyes.

She would not fight. This Mairuk knew as deep as they knew the Song of the Forest. A truth they could not question.

Astoria was theirs. Their human. If anyone got to kill her, it was Mairuk and not these blighted beasts.

Mairuk bolted forward and gripped a harpy by the neck.

They snapped the beast clean in half with their bare hands.

Its cursed body fell into the dirt, the deadly scream cut off before it did any damage.

Two others flapped their wings to take flight, but Mairuk was as made of the forest as the forest was made from them.

Their hands covered in harpy blood, Mairuk shoved their long fingers into the dirt and let loose a scream of their own.

The forest floor shook and groaned deep below the surface.

White mycelium threads shot through the surface and tangled along the edge of each harpy, locking them in place.

The harpies made their vixen bleed. They hurt her and nearly tore Astoria to shreds.

They would die and Mairuk would feast on their corpses.

The mycelium wrapped around Astoria, too, covering her body like a second skin and protecting her tender flesh from taking more wounds. The only one who would deal the final blow to their vixen would be Mairuk. Her life, her blood, belonged to them alone .

One harpy screeched and freed herself from the tangle of mycelium.

She dove for Mairuk. Her talons scratched down their chest and dug deep into their flesh.

Mairuk dodged her second attack with ease, and when the harpy kicked them a third time, Mairuk clenched their fist around the bird-like foot.

They called to the water in the harpy’s body to come to them, and the beast’s body dessicated before their eyes.

Hot, rancid steam evaporated from the corpse in a dense fog as the body released all moisture.

A second harpy broke free as her sister fell to the ground in a heap of dry flesh and bones.

Mairuk tossed the stinking cloud at the second harpy and rolled under her talons.

Mairuk snarled and drew her further away from the three remaining beasts, easily dodging her claws.

On her last dive, her talons sank deep into Mairuk’s cap and pulled.

She tore a section free with a shrill scream.

Mairuk’s ear holes bled, and the wound in their cap rained down thick globs of green blood into their eyes.

Mairuk stood, stunned, as she dove in again.

They struggled to see and could not hear much, but they still sensed the forest and ducked out of the way.

They were not as lucky with the next hit.

Her teeth sunk deep into Mairuk’s shoulder with a trill, and her taloned foot kicked Mairuk hard.

Another broke free and screamed. She swooped down and joined her sister in clawing Mairuk apart.

They blinked past the blood in their eyes and returned to their senses with a snarl.

They reached for the closest harpy, snapped her wing, and tore it from her body.

Mairuk’s other fist wrapped around the harpy’s long neck and crushed it in their heavy grasp.

Turning, Mairuk set their sight on the other harpy, hovering above them in the air.

Mairuk leaped up twice their height and grasped the wings of the beast. The pair fell hard to the wet, muddy ground with Mairuk taking the brunt of the fall.

They pulled both wings off the creature’s body and she bit them on the arm.

Her sharp fangs sank deep into their flesh, but Mairuk barely felt the pain under their burning rage.

They growled and threw the harpy to a tree and both her spine and the tree snapped.