The World of Myth Magazine

The year is 514, Vladimir the Young is Sage-King of the human kingdom of Thuraen.

The year is 5,297, Ulan is High Prince, Derek is Low Prince and Sienna Alknown is Mother Druid of the sylvan princedom of Greenwood Vale.

Paechra, surrounded by darkness, found herself in a great spiritual struggle against the ghoul Overtain. As the captain of the Ship the Picturesque Picaresque pulled, Paechra pulled back. The two auras were engaged in a tugging match that the druid was not a hundred percent sure she could win. Paechra could only just sense the physical skirmish that was happening close by in the captain’s cabin, her focus solely upon herself and the ghoul, unable to allocate even a slither of her focus to anything but the battle in the ethereal. Overtain’s dark aura syphoned off more and more of Paechra’s dazzling purity, the young Lightheart having need to draw more and more inwardly. All the while the darkness from outside seemed to squeeze Paechra tight, the fog in her mind threatened to become everything and then nothing. In a last-ditch effort, the daughter felt her mother’s presence, joining her in the battle of spirits.

“I will not lose you, daughter,” announced Sarah Lightheart. “I did have you away from my side for so long already, I’ll not accept that such absence will be eternal.”

“Is the battle beyond already won?” the daughter asked, surprised, but hopeful.

“Nay, it still continues,” said Sarah. “Though it seems, our captain does not know well the beliefs of the vorsurk.”

“I believe enough in my own power, upon my own ship,” growled the ghoul. “I have turned one of yours against you, it will be child’s play to claim those that remain against me.”

“You’ll not have us as your ship’s crew,” replied Paechra as her aura clutched the spectral hand of her mother.

Sarah Lightheart gasped, and her aura shimmered as Paechra drew deeply upon her mother’s soul, the younger Lightheart then yanked with all of her mental might, tearing the ghoul’s dark shadow right out of his body.

The aura smiled, wickedly, suddenly growing to double its size now that it was free of the physical restraints of a body.

Paechra released her ethereal grip on her mother and then allowed her mind to return to the physical realm. In doing so she let go of the dark, growing shade, and it snapped instantly back into the ghoul-shaped cage that held it captive.

Choas ruled the cabin, still dark, but not nearly as purely dark as the ethereal realm. Anton stood shakily, fending off a slice from Isobella-Ann whose purple aura resembled a fierce jungle cat. Back to back with Anton was Thomas who somehow was keeping two vorsurk on the back foot, a flurry of random strikes with a pair of dancing daggers, each blade equally confusing and deadly. Paechra counted seventeen of the vorsurk, too many for the cabin space and way more than the eleven, or factor of eleven that the religion of the wolf-like creatures demanded for a battle. Normally there would be present one sorcerer, accompanied by ten, one hundred and twenty, or sometimes one thousand, three hundred and thirty of the grunt soldiers. It seemed to Paechra that Overtain had opened up the portal of dreaming and drove in as many soldiers as he thought would fit. Paechra imagined the furious sorcerer, located somewhere, suddenly short so much fodder, without meaning, Overtain had probably saved some humans or sylvan, possibly both.

“We’re not done yet,” growled the captain, suddenly returned to his physical form, sword drawn, tip held under Paechra’s chin.

“Oh, I feel we are,” stated Paechra, she could both sense and see that her mother still remained in the spiritual tug-of-war.

Satisfied, Paechra watched the light vanish from Captain Overtain’s eyes as his soul was again dragged out of his physical form. The sword tip scraped across Paechra’s throat lightly, drawing a single droplet of blood. Paechra cloaked herself in the blue image of a hawk before she ran a claw down Isobella-Ann’s exposed back.

“Ahhhh!” cried the druid that had been bitten by Overtain the ghoul. “You shall pay for such.”

“Catch me,” demanded Paechra. “If you indeed dare to try.”

With a single kick the young Lightheart burst forth from the darkness of the cabin and into a world of mist. With the cry of a hunter, she took to the sky. A moment later Paechra felt that she was pursued as Isobella-Ann made her own transformation. The pair put on quite an aeronautical show, though there were none, but maybe Sienna Alknown who had the opportunity to watch, though none truly understood what had happened to the wise, aged druid.

Paechra in hawk-form took a quick glance over her left wing and cursed. She had chosen the spirit of a fast flyer, just as previously she had chosen a fierce combatant in the bear, but Isoballa-Ann had chosen to take on the form of the Akknoo-Ruu, a sylvan forest bird whose speed far our striped any animal known to humans. Perhaps too long had Paechra been in the realm of those other than her own, she was forgetting much, relying on knowledge that seemed to be no longer there, or at the very best a distant second in consideration. The very instant that Paechra thought of the creatures known to the sylvan people she immediately changed her form into the littlest bug known to her kind. The Thy-Lth-Rewoln was similar in size to a flea, but far greater at distant flights. In her new form, the youngest Lightheart vanished in the strange mist, part ocean, part ship’s creation, and with satisfaction heard the cry of frustration come from Isobella-Ann. Hovering in the thick mist, Paechra made a great gamble, waiting with tiny mouth open, hoping that Isobella-Ann would continue the same flight path. With a cry of triumph, the Akknoo-Ruu appeared quite suddenly, at the very moment that Paechra transformed herself into the largest sea creature known to the sylvan people, a Mth-Hja-Ioiputh…

As Isobella-Ann flew into the wide, opened maw it snapped shut on the great, leathery beast and, broadtail first, Paechra and her captive plummeted back towards the Picturesque Picaresque. There came a great crash as Paechra’s gigantic form took out one of the ship’s masts, before a meaty slap announced she had returned to the deck. There was an awkward feeling inside Paechra’s great gut as Isobella-Ann made a transformation of her own. In a pool of orange sickness, the ghoul-bitten druid reappeared in the shape of a Juu, known to those humans who had witnessed such a creature by the name of Puff-Spines, due to its ability to grow in size during times of danger and sprout large, spear-like quills that could be fired towards enemies and threats.

“Curse you,” growled Paechra, pulling a quill from her thigh and watching her veins turn black as they absorbed the poison.

Isobella-Ann also returned to her natural form.

“Give up, sister,” she demanded of Paechra. “You have lost, and you will die.”

“Not yet, will I die,” Paechra replied. “Today is not my day.”

Muttering under her breath a spell, Paechra then enveloped herself in the brilliant white light of her inner being.

“The Juu poison will work through your body, quicker than even you can react,” Isobella-Ann then boasted. “Face it, Paechra Lightheart, you have lost, and I have won.”

At that moment Paechra activated her spell. She focused the dazzling white light upon her thigh where the poison resided and, painfully, dragged it out from her body.

“Impossible!” hissed Isobella-Ann, a mixture of frustration and awe. “None have ever managed to remove the poison before now, let alone so quickly.”

Paechra risked a moment to glance up at her enemy and give her a gritted-teeth grin. She dared not retort though; focus was paramount at that very moment. The poison seemed to have a life of its own as it struggled to seep back into Paechra’s form, even trying to bond with her aura. Eventually the whole black and purple mess was drawn out, writhing in the sea air.

“What now, dear Paechra,” said the voice of Sarah Lightheart.

Paechra’s mother had stepped out from the cabin of Captain Overtain, covered in scratches, and deeper wounds. Paechra’s friend Heidi appeared beside the elder Lightheart, helping her to stand.

“See, Isobella-Ann,” muttered Paechra, under deep strain. “The captain is vanquished, you are alone.”

Sarah began to speak, but Heidi placed a gentle hand upon her shoulder and Paechra’s mother stopped before she had even begun.

“If such is indeed the case, then return the poison from whence it first did come,” begged Isobella-Ann.

“I will not,” announced Paechra. “Not until you reveal what curse you and Captain Overtain have placed upon Mother Druid Sienna Alknown.”

“A curse? I know nothing of such a thing,” replied Isobella-Ann.

“But you must,” stated Sarah and Paechra, together.

“Isobella-Ann was present when the mother druid began to change,” stated Heidi.

“But so too were you,” Isobella-Ann bit back. “All sisters, except for Paechra Lightheart, the precious one… All others were there when the change began.”

“Are you suggesting that my daughter played a part in why and how the mother druid was captured and cocooned?” Sarah demanded to know.

“We were all casting the wind spell,” argued Isobella-Ann in her defense. “None of us noticeably altered the words, none of us could have known such a strange change would occur.”

“None of us thought it possible that one we call sister could possibly betray us, such as we have witnessed you do, Isobella-Ann,” suggested Sarah Lightheart.

“Wait!” cried Paechra. “If what our sister says is true then there is only one explanation for the change that our mother druid has undergone.”

“And that is..?” Sarah, Isobella-Ann, and Heidi all begged to know.

“For some reason, perhaps, Sienna Alknown has undertaken this cocoonment on purpose, herself,” Paechra suggested.

“Strange, but possible,” considered Sarah. “I’ve not heard of it happening before, though.”

“Perhaps, our mother druid is the first to discover it,” Heidi suggested.

“I believe sister Isobella-Ann when she claims no knowledge of how the transformation did come about,” said Paechra. “I sense no ill magicks emanating from the ship, and I do not believe that our captain has any great knowledge of the dark powers of captivity.”

“I sense it too,” announced Sarah Lightheart. “Captain Overtain is more a captive than a captor.”

“As now am I,” added Isobella-Ann, her tone reverberating melancholy and regret. “Is there any chance perhaps sister Paechra that your brilliant light may have an effect on ghoul bites?”

Paechra awoke in that moment to the fact she still had in her possession that cloud of Juu poison.

“It seems a very sisterly thing to do,” stated Paechra then. “To act rashly and consider afterward the consequences.”

“Be ye human, sylvan, or other race,” suggested Heidi. “Such a show of thoughtlessness seems natural for all.”

“The monster is free!!” suddenly announced the panicked voice of Thomas the Butcher of Andrapaal, bursting from the captain’s cabin.

“The monster?” mouthed Paechra, catching her mother’s eyes.

Anton was at Thomas’ heals.

“Move lad! Make haste! Make way!” demanded the Head Truth Keeper, both he and Thomas wishing they were back home again, far from the ship and the mysterious sea.

Billowing out from the cabin then came Captain Overtain, or whatever it was that the captain of the Picturesque Picaresque had become. Over the course of the skirmish that had occurred in the dark, cramped space of the cabin and in the ethereal realm, the world between worlds, it seemed to Paechra that the ghoul had melded and molded with some of the souls of the vorsurk soldiers that he had brought to his side via the dreaming. The younger Lightheart could count at the very least five heads, including two half-heads that sprouted from the underside of the beast. It was difficult to determine where physical ended and aura began. The creature roared, gurgled, and then made a noise like laughter.

“You lied!” cried Isobella-Ann. “The ghoul does live, if such can be called living…”

“Wish you to side with such a beast?” asked Heidi, genuinely surprised.

“I am bit,” said Isobella-Ann, mater-of-factly. “I fear I have not a great deal of choice.”

Again, the purple aura encased the druid and once more the Juu landed with a slap upon the deck of the ship. Paechra quickly forced the struggling cloud of poison towards Overtain.

“Paechra, just let go and leave!” urged Sarah her mother. “We must all take cover, transform and fly…”

“What of the humans?” questioned Paechra. “I’ll not leave them, nor will I leave the mother druid.”

“Curse you and your kindness,” replied Sarah, but she smiled, proud of her daughter’s pure goodness.

“I shall counter our sister, fear not,” announced Heidi, and in a matter of moments she had cast a glowing sphere of protection atop the fish, just as it reached full expansion, just as the spears shot out one by one.

Each spear was stopped, except for one which flew across the starboard side of the ship and vanished into the sea. Isobella-Ann transformed once more, this time into the form of a hulking forest beast. Sarah took on a similar form and the pair rose up upon hindquarters and, with meaty claws, sought an opening to slash. Heidi took a differing approach and took on the form of a tiny Thy-Lth-Rewoln, flying about the two combatants, seeking a place to land and bite. Paechra forced the cloud of poison to strike one of Overtain’s faces, a wolf-like maw that howled and snarled as the darkness vanished up nostrils and into other orifices.

“And… You call… ME… evil…” gasped and gargled the voice of Overtain.

“I cannot go on!” cried Thomas. “I am sorry Paechra, I am sorry Johannas… Anton…”

With that said, the butcher then tossed his weapons and ran, fleeing from the ghoul, the skirmish, and the battle. Paechra heard Anton curse.

“Looks like it’s up to us, witch,” the Head Truth Keeper laughed.

Paechra watched on as Anton then danced in and swung at the beast Overtain had become. The human’s blade struck true and two of the heads howled in pain. Paechra witnessed the poison seeping across their eyes, black blood mixed with aura drifting out to be caught by the wind.

“The wind!” cried Paechra.

The other druids had once more begun the chant and the ship was again on the move.

“Anton, stop!” Paechra then commanded.

The human swung again, and his sword sliced another wound.

“We cannot stop!” growled Anton. “Not until this monster is slain!”

“No, you are wrong, but equally right!” Paechra argued. “Even with the aid of the wind, we cannot reach the shore without the captain.”

“You speak in riddles again, witch,” growled Anton, raising his blade to strike again.

“We need someone to steer the ship!” explained Paechra, her urgency causing Anton to pause.

“Kill me…” gargled Overtain’s voice. “You… will… sail… FOR… EVER…”

“What do we do then?” Anton demanded to know.

It was dawning on the human that this was not a battle he wanted to win, but equally, none of them could pay the price of losing.

“Protect me,” commanded Paechra, then trusting that Anton would do as she asked, she closed her eyes and allowed her aura to guide her.

Darkness, all around her Paechra sense nothing but darkness. Her brilliant light could not penetrate the dark and it felt as though the very essence of evil was surrounding her. Paechra pulsed and the presence retracted, burnt by goodness. In this way the younger Lightheart navigated the dark, hoping beyond hope that she could find what she sought. After a moment she saw it, another glowing presence, a beacon in the dark. It was far, but it gladdened Paechra’s heart to see that it was there.

“Mother?” Paechra’s spirit called. “Sienna?”

“Daughter, you have found me!” a much younger version of Sienna called back.

And then they were together, side by side, and Paechra sensed that she had physically made her way to where Sienna Alknown still stood, cocooned upon the deck of the Picturesque Picaresque.

“Why did you choose to leave us, Mother?” Paechra asked. “Why did you leave us in our time of need?”

“It is because I foresaw this time that I chose to leave you all,” Sienna replied. “I was given a vision and I was told by our ancestors of a way to preserve my powers…”

“But you are all powerful!” stated Paechra.

“What I am, or what I was at least, I was old, and frail, and tired,” explained Sienna. “What I am now is strong, strong enough to help you, strong enough to right this ship and return its captain to the helm.”

“Let us work together then,” said Paechra. “Let us banish the darkness and find a way to continue on to Andrapaal.”

“Take my hands,” requested Sienna.

When Paechra did as she was bid she felt youthfulness as well as wisdom, the best of all states.

“And now?” asked Paechra.

“Patience, daughter, listen, learn,” urged Sienna.

Paechra thought that the mother druid was scolding her, but then she opened her mind and began to hear the chant, to feel the rhythm that was trying so hard to break up the dark.

“I feel it, I hear it, I know it,” stated Paechra in awe.

“That is because it is you, daughter,” Sienna explained. “You, me, us, life… The goodness will drive away the dark… There will be balance… Good and evil existing together…”

“I understand,” whispered the younger Lightheart.

Together Sienna and Paechra began to chant, with each syllable intoned a tendril of light flew out from the embracing pair and wrapped around the dark. The world then became lighter. Bit by bit it changed.

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