MonsterVille
Twenty Five

The Rat froze. River froze. His feet were planted firmly in the ground, he was doing everything in his power not to shake, not show how absolutely terrified he was—he didn’t think he was doing that great a job if he was being honest but it didn’t matter. He wasn’t running. He wasn’t leaving her. He didn’t owe her anything, but he owed himself. Maybe the town was full of literal monsters, but if he just looked out for himself? If he just tried to save himself and left her to die? He might not have been a monster in the flesh, but he would have been a monster in his soul.

Aura’s father had rushed head first into a pack of monsters that had probably torn him apart by now. But he had done it to give his daughter a fighting chance. That was love; that for lack of a better word was pure humanity. And Aura? She was a little sassy, demanding, confusing, but she was warm and sweet, and so damn endearingly curious.

“Come on,” River demanded. “Bring. It. On.”

He was unarmed. He was exhausted. He could barely stand. That monster was going to eat him alive. It snickered but it didn’t move. No, it was the other one. The one he never even knew was there that tackled him from the side and sent him careening along the ground, rolling along the damp foliage with a heavy weight pressed on his chest, foul breath on his face and claws raking along his skin.

He looked up into the pitiless black eyes of that Rat and he screamed. Serrated teeth tore into his shoulder, shredded his flesh, ripped up his body and sent hot rushes of his blood splattering across fur and leaves alike. He screamed and grasped at the monster, pulled at its hair, slammed his fists ineffectually against its side and screamed some more. He battered it relentlessly and it ignored him. In his peripheral vision he saw the other monster nudging its nose along Aura, flicking out a long pink tongue to taste her blood.

River found a rock. His hand touched it by chance, it’s hard jagged edge felt good in his hand. Solid. He swung it with all his might and cracked the Rat across the side of its head. It squealed and rolled to the side. River rolled with it. He pounded that rock down into its face, again, and again, and again, in a crazed frenzy. He pounded that rock till his hands and body were slick with the monster’s blood. He screamed wordlessly and pounded the monster’s head into a pulverised mash of fur, flesh and grey matter. And he kept pounding it until the other Rat ripped him away, threw him into a tree hard enough to rattle his skull and knock him senseless.

The second Rat snickered. No, snickered wasn’t the right word, it wailed. It’s black fur fell away to reveal a humanish figure beneath, its eyes were still huge and dark, its hands were skeletal pincers, but that eerie human visage that replaced the rest of her—the very human vocal chords—they wailed a mourning dirge that made River sick to his stomach. The Rat turned those hateful eyes back to River and he saw his own death, saw his terrible demise reflected in its eyes. It didn’t matter. He wouldn’t have changed a thing. Maybe he had failed, but he had tried. It was all he had left in him. The Rat moved.

Blemmyes moved faster. A headless, or would that be head-in-stomach, monster shot across the woods. It crashed across the Rat and in one fell swoop of its razor teeth it bit the Rat in half and discarded the pieces to either side. Its wild blood stained mouth erupted in a massive smile and it unleashed an unnerving howl that was instantly echoed by a dozen more, each of which sounded closer.

“Alright you bastard,” River muttered. He pushed to his feet; he wobbled, but he managed to stay standing which he felt was enough of an accomplishment given his current predicament. “Come and get me.”

“Yes little headless one, come and get some.” A gruff woman’s voice announced. A woman who dropped from the trees to land daintily between River and the blemmyes. She looked human for all that meant, although she wore an animal hide in place of clothes. She quirked her head to one side and shrugged as she smiled and rushed head long at the blemmyes. It didn’t flinch, not even as the woman collided with it and the two went staggering back. The woman’s human appearance burst as claws shredded skin and boarish tusks ripped free of her face, she growled, heaved and puffed, and lifted the blemmyes from the ground as two more emerged from the woods. Only to be met by a man, or a wolf? A man-wolf the size of a bear? He batted the other blemmyes around like chew toys and laughed while he did it. It was a bloody free for all and River took the opportunity to scoop Aura up and make a hasty retreat—well hasty may have been an overstatement, he made a slow, painful, retreat. He had no direction in mind, no idea where he was going, just as far away from the fighting monsters as he could.

River stumbled into a, well, a river. His feet splashed in the cold water and he collapsed. He had been running half the night, and even carrying someone as light as Aura, it had taken a toll on him. He had nothing left. He slumped to his knees, Aura still in his arms. Her skin was flaking, dry and brittle. Her lips were chapped and she was running a fever.

A little of the water splashed on her and she stirred.

“Put me down,” she murmured.

“In the water?” River asked. Aura just nodded. He did what she said, he tried to do it gently, but he mostly just dropped her before slumping to all fours himself. He was on the edge of the water, Aura on the other hand slid off the bank and dipped under the stream. River made a futile attempt to grab her but she slipped under the current and vanished.

He wanted to be concerned, wanted to try and help but he had nothing left in him. The very thought of just lying in that muddy bank of water was almost too much for him. Besides Aura was a mermaid. Mermaid plus water, that had to be a good thing. He hoped.

River focused on breathing. One deep breath after another as he lay there, the cold soaking into his body, the mud suctioning around him. He vaguely remembered something about water or mud hiding a hunter’s scent? Maybe it would be enough to do the same for him. Maybe he could have a few minutes to catch his breath, because the relentless hunting howls of the blemmyes had chased him all night. He didn’t know what the hell the monsters had been that interrupted the blemmyes earlier but given the way his night had been going he assumed they had wanted to eat him as well.

“Little human, little human, whatever are you doing?”

River started. Practically leapt out of his skin at the woman’s voice.

“Who are you?” he looked around wildly, “Where are you?!”

He felt her before he saw her, felt her presence behind him, the ebb of her breath, the warmth of body, and he asked the last question he wanted to ask, “What are you?” He turned slowly to face her.

She was gorgeous. Par for the course in MonsterVille. Long golden blond hair and piercing green eyes, her skin was silky smooth and she was veiled in a thin silky fabric that moulded to her exquisite figure.

“I prefer who,” she said softly, stepping well into his personal space, her hand resting lightly on his chest, “What is so impersonal. So… cold.”

River swallowed hard. “Who are you?” he asked again.

“I am Heidi.”

“Heidi.” He repeated. She smiled wickedly.

“Heidi the Huldra.”

“Do I want to ask what a Huldra is?”

“I don’t know,” she countered, “do you? Are you inquisitive enough to dare? Or have you seen enough of our town to learn ignorance is bliss.”

River gritted his teeth. “What’s a huldra?”

“I am a Huldra.” Heidi replied with amusement.

“Funny.”

“I thought so.” Her wicked smile grew wider, and she stepped into him, her body pressed hard against his, her hand trapped between them, “Huldra are creatures of the forest, akin to nymphet, to sirens and succubi, for we hunger for both the flesh and sex of men. Please us and be rewarded, disappoint and be punished.” She quirked her head to one side, “Does this knowledge make you feel better?”

“I guess that depends,” he hedged.

“On?”

“On whether that’s all true or just a bunch of folklore.”

“Oh it’s all true,” she purred, “the real question is what do I want?” she paused for dramatic effect, “flesh? Or sex?”