The Invisible Planet

Part 13: LightWalker

Angeline hurried along the side of the creek, following the luminescent stones on its bank. She stopped in her tracks as she heard a loud snarl from where she'd left Shay behind, glancing over her shoulder with worry. She fought the urge to turn back, rationalizing with herself that he was immortal.

Not just immortal, but able to wield magic beyond her meager comprehension of the universe. She would only end up getting in his way, she thought, continuing forward.

Bright flashes of red light came from behind her, accompanied by the sounds of more growling and snarling. Shay cried out and she stopped again, arguing with herself.

The possibility of glimpsing his face crossed her mind. After all, she had his cloak. He couldn't hide from her without it.

Curiosity got the better of her, and she turned around.

More red light flashed from where she'd left him. She crept up beside one of the trees, peering cautiously. Three raptor-like creatures circled him, each one easily several inches taller than him. They were covered in shimmering scales of blue and green, and had three sharp claws on each foot.

One lunged through the air, feet level with Shay's head. He rolled out of the way and shot a blast of red light that struck it in the chest and launched it several feet away.

The second one lunged next and he caught it within a red bubble, freezing it in place. The third one jumped from the other direction and he ducked to the side, releasing the red bubble. The two creatures knocked into each other and fell to the ground, snarling at each other as they struggled to regain their footing.

"Are you quite done?" he asked them, still facing away from Angeline.

As if in response, one of them snarled at him and snapped its teeth.

"I'm trying not to kill you, but if you don't fuck off, I won't have much of a choice."

The second one lunged again, and he met it with a blast of light to its face that knocked it back to the ground.

"Seriously, you're not going to win." He paused, glancing around. "Hold on, there were three of you."

The soft footstep behind Angeline was almost inaudible. The hairs on the back of her neck stood up as she slowly turned, face to face with one of the creatures. It had large yellow eyes and a long snout full of sharp teeth, each the length of her finger.

She cringed as it opened its mouth, shrinking back against the tree. A red blast struck it, barely enough to make it flinch.

"Hey! Look at me!" Shay shouted, throwing another blast.

The creature huffed at him and then turned back to Angeline, snapping its jaws in the space she had occupied just as she ducked out of the way. Another red blast knocked it back a few feet. It roared at Shay, and then turned back to Angeline.

"Oh, you—" Shay cried out suddenly as more snarls came from the other side of the tree. "Fuck!"

Angeline scrambled backward across the dirt as the creature snapped at her again, teeth lodging into the edge of Shay's cloak. One of the other creatures yelped in pain, and then the second one. As the last one lunged at her, it suddenly froze in the air inside Shay's red bubble.

"Move," he ordered.

She rolled out of the way and got to her feet, watching as Shay circled the creature. He kept it perfectly between them, obscuring his face. As he neared the front of it, he released the bubble and caught its head in his arms. With a shriek from the creature and a sickening crunch, he twisted his body and snapped its neck.

It fell limp in his arms and he carefully lowered it to the ground, keeping his head down. His messy hair covered most of his face; she could just make out the squareness of his jaw and the soft cupid's bow on his pursed lips.

"I told you not to turn back," he said in a low voice. She slowly got up, watching as he ran his fingers against the creature's scales. "They didn't need to die." He held out his left hand without looking up. "Give me my cloak."

"It was trying to kill us," she defended.

"She was hungry. And she posed no threat to me. I was buying you time to get to safety, but you had to go and come back. For what?"

She took the cloak off her shoulders. "I'm sorry."

"You ought to be."

"I'm not the one who killed them," she countered.

"You left me no choice. She'd picked up your scent. Even if I'd pulled you away, they would have tracked you. I don't like killing things." He gestured at her, still not looking up. "Cloak."

She hesitated as she noticed the torn cloth on his right sleeve. Blood seeped from three large gashes in his arm. "You're wounded."

"My cloak."

"But you're bleeding."

"Angeline, give me my cloak. Please."

She stepped forward and reluctantly handed it to him, trying once more in vain to get a glimpse of him as he pulled up the hood. "Why won't you show me your face?" she asked.

"Because I don't want to."

"Why not?"

He sighed, and then he strode past her and along the side of the creek without a word. The water disappeared below the rocks of a sheer cliff, and he continued parallel to it. She followed him through a narrow passage into the rocks, and then out into a clearing surrounded by the cliff. A beautiful waterfall poured off the edge into a pool of crystal clear water that gathered in the middle. Bits of grass with glowing yellow flowers sprouted from the sand, and luminescent blue mushrooms grew along the cliffs.

He disappeared behind the waterfall and she followed him into a small alcove. More mushrooms lit the walls, and there was a pile of furs in the middle.

"You can stay here for the night," he said in a short tone. "Don't wander into the woods unless you want to get killed."

"Are you mad at me?" she asked.

"Yes," he answered. "You put yourself in danger, you got me injured, and now three LightWalkers are dead. All because you wanted to see my face. And you're still not going to stop trying."

"Then why not just show me?"

He chuckled slightly in disbelief. "It really matters that much to you?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"You act like you're some sort of inhuman monster under that hood, but you bleed red like any of us."

"Lots of creatures bleed red. Including those LightWalkers I killed."

"Why are you so scared to show me?"

He was quiet for a few seconds. "Maybe I'm not keen to lose the first new person I've met in a hundred years."

She crossed her arms. "Then show me your face."

"If you're really trying to give me an ultimatum, I'll just skip ahead and leave."

"You'd rather leave forever than just take off your stupid hood?"

"Yes," he answered.

"Why?"

"Because, I'm— the stuff of nightmares."

She scoffed in disbelief. "Fuck it. Just go, then."

He hesitated for a moment, and then he vanished into thin air.

She blinked. "Shay?"

No response.

Her eyes grew wide as she realized what he'd said. The stuff of nightmares. The same thing she'd said about the glowing red eyes in the forest. "Shay, wait!" she cried. She hurried out from behind the waterfall to find the area empty.

He was gone.