Crodox

It was a chilly gray autumn morning. A blue mist drifted along the forest floor mingling with the dried leaves and floating over rocks. In a swirl of a breeze it rose from the ground and took the form of a beautiful woman in pale blue robes. Brenda's journey had ended. She had reached the town in time. This would be her last chance to save her dear friend.
As she stood in the quiet of the forest she thought of Druscilla. Druscilla was a follower of the great mystic healer Telka. Her kindness and insatiable need to end suffering made her, a natural, Telka Follower. Her one tragic fault was her overwhelming curiosity.
Brenda remembered back to when they met. Brenda had just entered the granite caves that housed the Circle of Magic. The entrance gave no cheery welcome to a sixteen-year-old novice. It was dark and forbidding. Dressed in the drab brown leather of a commoner, Brenda inched her way in the darkness. She was about to stop and let her eyes adjust, when she slipped on a wet rock and tumbled into the jagged cave wall. Her head struck a protruding rock and everything went black.
When she came to, she saw a young girl about her own age. The black-haired lass was gently wiping Brenda's brow with a wet rag. "You took quite a spill." Brenda remembered her friend's first words. She also remembered how her new friend stayed with her and supported her until their journey was ended. They made a pact on that day to help each other through the challenges and the tests that were to come.

Two years later Brenda donned the wizard robes and Druscilla was wrapped in the robes of a Telka Follower. Their futures were bright until they enter the ancient castle of Dedron. The evil warlord had been defeated by the knighthood, but he had gathered some very dangerous magic items before his death. They entered the castle at the request of the Circle. Their task was to identify as many items as they could. They were not to disturb them. The Circle just wanted an accounting of the items before the castle was sealed.
The women had listed several items on the first level of the castle and proceeded up the marble staircase. Druscilla saw a flicker of light coming from a chamber to her left. Her green eyes sparkled eagerly as she investigated the source. Darkness shrouded the empty gray stone room. Heavy black curtains covered the tall thin windows. The only furniture in the room was a small round table. On its marble top was an open wooden chest. It was the source of the flicker.
Brenda remembered seeing the chest from the hallway. She cursed herself over and over for not going in the room with Druscilla. She was the wizard, and she knew how curious Druscilla could be about things. Brenda allowed her friend to enter the room alone while she went to the warlord's bedchamber. The scream she heard tore her heart out. Brenda rushed into the empty room to see Druscilla was on her knees holding the crystal orb above her head. Her eyes were wide with terror as her body was transformed into a leather-winged beast. It flew out of the castle with the orb in its talons.

Brenda's masters, at the Circle, were very upset. The Crodox Orb was freed from its confinement. The orb fed on the sheer terror emitted when a human is about to die. It knew how to create that terror, and the villages of Adiam would be its hunting ground. Its destruction was most important. Brenda begged for her friend's life, but the Circle would not make Druscilla's safety a condition of the quest. Brenda knew if her friend were to be saved, she would have to find her and somehow get her away from the orb. In the four years since that awful day Brenda had approached the evil power twice, but the thing saw through Druscilla's eyes and recognized the danger. The orb escaped with its captive, leaving death in its wake.

Brenda wasn't sure how she would approach the evil on this try, until she saw the child. Brenda took a necklace from around her neck and hung it on a low branch.
The young farm girl wandered out of her small village into the forest. Her shabby brown garb and dirt-smudged face could not diminish the sparkling of her hazel eyes. The forest was quiet save the crackling of leaves under her feet. The air was brisk on her cheeks and the smell of autumn was in her nostrils. She strolled happily through the trees until she spotted something gleaming on a branch to her right. Being bright and curious, she investigated. To her amazement she found a necklace of gold that shimmered with five flashing diamonds. With wide eyes and a gaping mouth she gently lifted the necklace from the branch. As if compelled, the girl draped the beautiful necklace around her neck. As soon as she did, she fell into a deep sleep. Brenda took the form of the farm girl and ran toward the village.

The forest lay quiet until the rumbling was heard. Horses' hooves fell like thunder on the hard beaten dirt road. Autumn-stripped trees seemed to cringe away from the road in anticipation, as the thundering grew steadily louder. The forest shook and the fallen leaves swirled in the air being pushed aside by the rushing horde. Through the swirl of dirt and leaves came the warhorses, black as coal with teeth bared and nostrils flaring blood red. On their backs were the warriors. Their black armor matched the gleam of their horses. A silver battle-axe swung from each warrior's black gloved right hand. The black-gloved left hand held a death grip on the reins of his mount. Beneath the heavy steal helmet inhuman red eyes glowed as they scanned the countryside. Nothing in the forest dared to breathe as the beasts rumbled past.

The hamlet of Tolshen was trying hard to get in the harvest before the snow fell. Farmland surrounded the forty dirt and grass huts that made up the tiny backward village. Dirty rag-clothed farmers led mule carts slowly out of the fields. Their scythes lay heavy on their shoulders. An old man straightened his crooked spine when the rumble was heard. First he turned his weather-leathered face to the sky, but he found no answer there. Then he felt the black dirt under his feet vibrate as the rumble approached him like a premonition of death.
From nowhere, the black horde broke out of the trees as if they were spat out of the forest. The farmers' eyes bulged and the blood drained from their faces as they gazed at the evil approaching. They dropped the scythes and ran through the fields in all directions. The black clad warriors swooped into the fields like a flock of powerful crows. They hunted down the farmers. The farmers ran gasping and stumbling in panic. Some screamed and some cried, but they all heard the thunder of a horse on their heels. One by one they turned in time to see the blade of the giant battle-axe come down upon them.

Women and children in the village froze in fear. Rumbling and screaming in the fields could only mean one thing. The Crodox was collecting its due. Tolshen had been spared from the terror, but their luck had run out.
A young woman, made haggard by the hardness of her life and the harshness of the weather, clung desperately to her eight-year-old daughter. Her daughter did not cower at the sounds of death. Her hazel eyes did not shut against her fatal future. The dark tan on the girl's dirty face and the commonness of her messed and tangled brown hair failed to hide the boldness within her.
She tore from her mother's arms as the woman screamed for her to return. The screams fell on deaf ears as the girl left the small hut. She grabbed her father's wood chopping axe and made her stand facing the onrushing evil.
Her axe was raised high in the air as the ground shook beneath her. On all sides women and children ran in terror but she stood firm. The giant horses thundered at her. The warriors raised their gleaming battleaxes. Their fierce red eyes gleamed through their helmets. Timing her swing, the girl aimed to prove what she already knew. When the evil was upon her, she swung the axe with all her strength. The axe passed through the animal as if it wasn't there. She was spun around by the momentum of her swing and fell to ground, but she did not expect to be trampled. Looking up, she saw the horses gallop over her. Their powerful hooves came down, but there was no impact.
As the last horse passed her she rose to witness the terror that was occurring behind her. Silver axes came down on the women and children. Villagers screamed in agony as they died. The girl saw their grimace of horrible pain, but their heads did not come off. No blood spilled on the ground. No blood on the weapons yet all the villagers lay dead on the hard dirt. As expected, the warriors were not real. She moved quickly into a doorway of a dirt hut and waited.

In a few minutes a black leather-winged creature appeared. It descended from the sky and landed in the center of the village. The creature's shape changed into a woman. The woman had the body of a goddess under deep black robes. Her skin was pale to the point of being ghostly and her thick black hair fell to the center of her back. There was no white in her dead black eyes and her teeth flashed through black painted lips. Her laughter echoed like the cry of a banshee through the village and the forest beyond.
In her long slender fingers she held an orb that glowed brighter and brighter as each villager fell. The young girl's eyes focused on the orb. Quietly she moved toward her target as the ghostly creature continued her laugh of terror. When the girl was in range, she stopped and called out. "Druscilla!"
The heinous laughter stopped as the woman stared in shock at the little girl before her. That was the moment the girl was waiting for. She snapped her right wrist and a thin lightning bolt flared from her hand cleanly severing the right hand of the woman before her. The orb dropped to the ground. It flashed gruesome colors and shapes. The woman collapsed and her appearance began to change. Rushing up to the flashing orb, the girl raised the axe. With all her strength she brought the flat side down on the orb. It shattered in a blaze on light. Suddenly the deafening screams of hundreds of people echoed across the land. As they did, the light in the shattered orb grew dimmer and dimmer. Soon the screams and the orb light were gone forever.

Brenda transformed into her true form. She looked at the figure of the woman before her. She was also transformed. Her pale ghostly complexion changed to one of rosy cream. The dead black eyes were now green, but dulled by exhaustion. Only her long, thick black hair remained the same.
The black haired woman looked up at the woman standing over her and weakly smiled. She mustered all of her strength to speak. Her voice came out in a whisper, "Brenda, you found me. Thank you so much, dear friend."
Brenda knelt down and hugged her friend, "Druscilla, dear Druscilla, I am so sorry for what I had to do. It was the only way to get the orb away from you. I am sure your hand can be replaced by your Telka masters."
"No," Druscilla said with a tear in her eye, "it's my payment for my folly. I was warned not to disturb the items of evil. I was curious and weak-willed. My hand is my payment. How long have I been a slave to the Crodox Orb, and how many have paid for my error with their lives? How many, Brenda?"
Brenda lowered her head and quietly said, "You've been gone from the Circle of Magic for over four years. I don't know how many villages were affected, but at least we saved this one."
The women sat quietly and watched as the women and children slowly rose from the ground. The villagers looked around in wonder. They felt their faces and necks to make sure their heads were intact. Brenda whispered to her friend, "Come, let's go home." Her blue robes swirled, and the women were gone.