The Child Snatcher

Beira climbed quietly across the expanse of the mountain range, humming an old Utgardian tune to herself. The mountain range surrounding the Phoenix Mountain Village could be very quiet and devoid of life in quite a number of areas, like this stretch of mountain range that had a few stubborn grasses and rock moss as the only living things in close proximity, although Beira was aware of one or two eagles circling far off in the distance. One of them cried out, and the other answered, their characteristic keening calls reaching far across the distance between the birds and the mage. She paused to watch them for a moment, then continued on her way. While watching the wildlife in these parts could be interesting, she had not come here to gain knowledge about birds. Her destination was the lonely and remote village located deep in the mountains, as well as the other hamlets which surrounded it. And while the Utgardian maiden felt that it was quite unwise to establish a settlement so far away from human civilization, in such an inhospitable place, she could understand why the villagers of this place had chosen such a site to found their village. It was most likely to facilitate security, although whoever, or whatever, these people were running away from was anybody's guess. But Beira had decided that it wasn't going to be her business to find out why they had gotten so far away from other human settlements.

The sun was low in the sky, and it was soon going to be nightfall, which would come on quicker, thanks to the fact that the crevices and declines in the mountain range would create shadows and intensify the darkness, while obstructing the light of the sun, something which would be less likely to happen on more even terrain. With the dying sun, the temperatures fell as well, and it was very likely that soon freezing temperatures would be the order of the day... or night, if one wanted to be more accurate. Still, Beira wasn't too worried. For starters, she was immune to the cold, so she could wander as long as she wanted across the mountains. Secondly, despite the very present danger posed by the shadows and forming mists, which would soon hamper visibility terribly, the God Slayer did not need her eyes to see. As a result, she wasn't in danger of slipping into an unseen crack, or falling off a cliff. All the same, arriving at the village before sundown would be more advantageous for her. She had heard that these fellows were extremely superstitious, and even among more... progressive people, Beira was still considered strange, so she had to attempt as much as possible not to appear too suspicious. If she came with the night, who knew whether she wouldn't be fingered as the culprit for all the missing children. Hopefully, if her map was correct, she would be quite close to the mountain village as at now.

A sharp bend round a rather large tooth of rock, jutting up from the mountain like the canine of some dismembered demon, revealed a valley, with the Phoenix Mountain village sprawled in the descent. Even though the mountain was rather rugged and apparently inclement, Beira realized that the people who had established the Phoenix Mountain Village were wise in their choice of location. When rain fell on the mountain, it would wash soil into the valleys and lower areas. Such places could well support agriculture, while presenting an apparently barren surrounding to mislead any potential threat who might be looking for an easy target to raid. The disadvantage, of course, was getting help when it was needed. Descending the narrow pathway which led to the village, Beira began to notice, as was expected, an increase in the life existing in the area. Grasses first, then more broad-leafed plants began to dominate the area, and on the valley floor, Beira could even see trees. In the fading light of day, she could even see patches of farmland as she drew nearer to the village. A shoddy fence of wood demarcated the village proper from the other scattered hamlets in the surprisingly wide valley. One would hardly imagine such a place was here. Beira was sure that whoever had found this place first had most likely stumbled on it, and had not expected to come across such a thing as this hidden valley. The further side of the valley rose up in a steep grey rock wall, which was simply a continuation of the Phoenix Mountain range, so if any enemies would discover this place and desire to attack, they would have to approach from the only entry point into the valley, which was quite visible, and also very narrow.

As Beira approached the rickety gates, someone called out to her to state her business. It was almost amusing to see that they had what passed off as a sentry. The Utgardian was sure that if she desired to bulldoze the place, there would hardly be anything to stop her from running amok. In any case, she was supposed to be here to solve a problem, not cause more of it. So she maintained her civility and replied that she had seen a job which had been put up by the village, and had come to help them solve their child vanishing problem. The 'sentry' vanished momentarily, and Beira could easily hear him arguing with someone else behind the gate about letting her in, as he thought she did not look one bit like someone who could help them solve their problem. For a moment, Beira waited, until her patience grew thin and she sighed audibly. To hell with the perceived notions of these people. Utilizing the power of her Anima Umbrae, Beira simply walked through the wooden gate. Beyond the gate, she saw the two debaters. The one who had asked her what she wanted was facing her, and he froze, his mouth dropping in shock. The second, who was trying to persuade him to open the gate turned to see the stranger looking silently at him. Beira wondered whether she should do or say anything by way of greeting, but she wasn't sure how it would be taken.

There was a moment of silence, then the two men let out a cry of alarm and fled towards the other buildings. Beira sighed again and shook her head, but chose to remain by the gates and not move this time. It would be more difficult to explain herself to anyone, if she took the liberties of walking into the village uninvited, since she had already gotten past the gates without prior welcoming.


Total: 1120/3500

As Beira waited silently by the gate, her very sharp ears picked the sound of footsteps approaching. Much more than one set of feet, it seemed. It was still bright enough to see, if not Beira would have seen the glow of torch light before the sound of approaching feet became audible to her especially perceptive ears. She leaned against the gate, half expecting it to be rickety enough to give way under her weight. It didn’t. Well, that was a relief. It was best to appear relaxed to the coming villagers. If she seemed alert or apprehensive, some fool might reason it was because she was planning something hostile.

An old man walking with the aid of a cane came into view from behind a wooden house, followed closely by half a score of villagers, as well as the two sentries. It could be seen that a good number of the people had what could pass off as weapons, like large sticks and farm implements. Not very frightening, but in retrospect, it would still be very much painful, and undoubtedly fatal, to be brained by a hoe. A murmur rose from the group when they saw the God Slayer, but the old man kept walking, and so the others kept following. Beira could hear their whispers. She didn’t hear anything nice. The best thing she heard was someone saying to another that she didn’t look like she was quite dangerous, but she was probably rather proficient at doing something else, which Beira did not catch, as a heavy-set woman cuffed him on the back of the head. Probably his wife. The two began to bicker, until the old man stopped, turned and gave them both a withering glare. Then he continued walking until he stopped about six or seven feet away from her.

”State your business here,” he said in a shrill voice. Beira sighed audibly. ”Not even a greeting? Your lack of manners is quite unappreciated,” she replied. ”I am Beira, and I came in response to a call for help from your village, although if it pleases you, I might as well just take my leave, seeing as I don’t seem welcome here.” There was another murmur from the crowd, as the old man frowned. ”My apologies. I am Grish, head of this community. Do forgive the show of hostility; we were informed that the village was being invaded by a spirit from the mountains.” He turned to favor the two sentries with his trademark glare, who shrank back, scared. Grish turned to face Beira once more. ”Our children have been disappearing, for years now. We have tried to find a way to discover who or what is behind this, and prevent it, but to no avail. Can you help us?” Beira nodded once. ”That’s what I’m here to do. And the help I’ll need from all of you just comes in two forms. Firstly, answer my questions as truthfully as you can afford. Secondly, please try not to get in my way.”

That being said and done, Beira set to work. First things first, she needed to collect information, and as such got Grish to gather a good number of people for her to interrogate, both from the village and the hamlets around it. Due to the sizes of these settlements, thirty minutes was enough for that. An hour later of talking with people and fact-finding, Beira was sure she had made absolutely no progress whatsoever. The villagers were terribly superstitious, and while she got tidbits of information, they didn’t help what she already knew, which was that children from the village and its environs were missing. What had happened, leading up to the children vanishing, was the problem. Some people said their children were snatched from their very arms, but on further prodding, such stories were discovered to be a lie. Others blamed fellow villagers with whom they had vendettas. One of Beira’s favorite stories was that the rural folk around the village had been stealing and eating their children. But the rural folk seemed to have had cases of missing children as well, even in greater occurrence than the village proper. Some villagers refused to even speak with her, with Beira overhearing someone say, after she had shut the door on the God Slayer, that one who could walk through walls was most certainly the child thief, and should be at best thrown out of the village. In any event, there was someone who seemed to be interested in the whole proceedings of finding the Child Snatcher, the ‘wise-woman’ of the village. While Grish, the village elder, would come and ask from time to time how matters were going, Iva would attempt to make the villagers cooperate, as well as tell Beira what she knew about the matter. So far, Iva’s recounting of the whole matter seemed more trustworthy than any other thing she had heard all day.

Eventually, Beira was able to put a few things together. It seemed that at night, from time to time, some weird lights would appear outside. What created the lights, nobody knew. Beira asked if anyone had attempted to investigate the lights, but Iva responded that nobody had, because the lights were scary. But it seemed that whenever the lights appeared, one child or more was reported missing the next day. Obviously, the lights were connected with the disappearance of the children, but what was the connection? And how was it that even in houses which were reportedly locked, children could be reported missing? Beira decided to ask Iva about her own suspicions on the matter, to which the wise woman replied that the Child Snatcher was probably some mountain spirit that came to steal children to feed on, which was why the villagers had decided to get someone that could use magic to either kill, or chase away, the mountain spirit. While that was possible, Beira wasn’t interested in assuming that there was indeed a mountain spirit. It was mere conjecture. Such a being had not ever been seen.

By this time, it was getting late, and people were turning in for the night. Beira eventually decided to do the same, having received lodging in what would pass off as the local inn, with Iva attempting to make her as comfortable as possible. Seeing that this place was far removed from technology, most people in the village retired much earlier than in the cities. Soon the entire village was silent, and all was still. Beira, for her part, lay down, but did not go to sleep, for she hoped that the lights would appear again that night. She felt that these lights, possibly the work of some sentient being, would not show up, seeing as she, who was meant to unravel this case, was around, and whoever, or whatever, was responsible for the strange child-stealing lights would probably be aware of her presence in the village, and not attempt to make any moves.

Against the suggestions of most of the villagers, who dared to talk to her, Beira had left the window of her room open. The night mountain air was nice, and the open window would allow her to observe anything that went on outside, if something of notable interest decided to go down that night. For about an hour or two, the night was very calm. Then a strong wind began to rise, and Beira saw, about twenty feet from her window, a small yellow light, no bigger than her clenched fist, spring into being. The lights had come!


WC: 1265 words
Total: 2385/3500

Beira watched the light silently as it just sat there, though she made no attempt to move from where she lay. The entire village was silent now; there wasn’t even the sound of rats scurrying about, owls flitting through the trees, crickets and cicadas chirping, or dogs barking or howling. Everything was silent and still, like the atmosphere of a graveyard. That was strange. At least, nocturnal creatures were meant to be on the prowl, and Beira was sure that her heightened senses would easily pick the sound of their movements. But there was nothing. It was as though she was alone.

And then she began to feel drowsy. At first, she almost thought it was natural. After all, she had hiked through the mountains, and was surely tired after such a long travel. Nothing would happen tonight. Everything was fine. But just as she was about slipping into unconsciousness, it suddenly struck Beira that the reason everything was silent was simply because there was a spell at work, cast on everything in the area. An area of effect spell, which would explain why everything in such a large radius was asleep. As she struggled with the sleep inducing spell, Beira utilized her Winter God Dominance, freezing the spell and rendering it useless. While it was expected that something as abstract as sleep should not be dispelled by ice, nether rime was, even though basically ice, so much more powerful, capable of freezing even concepts. Having dealt with the problem of the slumber spell, Beira waited and closed her eyes, pretending to be asleep, as she was unwilling to alert anyone to the fact that she was still awake.

Very soon, her sixth sense began to pick movement. Some figures had entered the perimeter of her sense, and were sneaking about. One of them came to the open window of the room in which Beira pretended to be asleep, and looked in. Then he gestured, and someone else slipped into the room. Initially, Beira was afraid that they wanted to try something stupid, in which case neither of them would live to do it, but her plan would be foiled. The man in her room came over and lifted her, placing her over his shoulder. Ah, so it seemed some kidnapping was underway. Having carried the Utgardian maiden, he carefully left through the same window he had come in from. Beira could sense that there were about six people, and aside the man carrying her, two others held immobile forms on their shoulders. So the children were actually stolen from the village by magic users. Beira made no attempt to free herself, allowing the group to quietly leave the village through the main gate. Curiously, Beira did not sense the sentries at the gate when they left.

The six kidnappers, after walking a while, took a sudden path down a gully cleft, and entered a cave in the gully. There, they tied Beira and the children, and began carrying them further into the cave. Eventually, they reached a chamber which seemed to have been hollowed out of the rock, and they put down their captives. There was a strange stone platform, probably an altar, in the center of the room, and strange vines seemed to be growing on it. Another form came out of some other recess in the cave room, and said, ”You have done well this day.” It was Iva.

Just then, Beira heard one of the children whimper. The spell seemed to be wearing off them. If that was so, it was her cue to awaken. She moved, then struggled feebly with the ropes, feigning surprise at finding herself bound. ”What’s this?” she asked. ”What’s going on?” By now, all the children were awake, and the place was getting rather noisy with their cries. One of the kidnappers drew a knife and threatened them, to which they fell silent. ”Someone had better answer me, or things won’t be pleasant,” Beira said, though she allowed her voice to sound shaky, making it appear that she was scared. Iva placed a hand on the shoulder of the man with the knife. ”Allow the kids to cry,” she said gently. ”After all, they shall soon leave the land of the living, so we should at least oblige them. Besides, there is an enchantment of silence on this place. Nothing and no one shall hear us. As for you,” here she turned to look at Beira, ”Oh, I shall tell you what’s going on, since I guess it’s only fair that you know. We are ensuring the survival of our village. ” Seeing Beira’s confused expression, the woman seated herself and continued speaking.

”Long before, when our ancestors first came into this mountain, we discovered our home, but it was barren, practically a dead land. We prayed to the spirit of the mountain, and it made the lands habitable, in exchange for a life every season. It was our god, and we had to serve it, for the survival of the village. One day, one of my ancestors, a magic user like yourself, sacrificed himself to the mountain god. His sacrifice was so great that the mountain god left us alone, and we lived in peace. To commemorate his sacrifice, all the members of his line have been honoured as spiritual leaders of the village.”

”So, what happened?” Beira asked. ”What has that got to do with the missing children?”

”The mountain god returned,” Iva replied, ”because we had worked the lands so much that they were no longer fertile. The mountain god is tied to our lands. If it is full, our lands are fertile. If it is hungry, our lands are barren. People with the power to use magic are extremely rare among us, and to feed, we had to sacrifice for the greater good. I told Grish, but he would not hear me. He thought it was natural for us to have poor yield. So I had to convince him by making the sacrifice. I used my own son.” A tear ran down Iva’s face, but she continued calmly. ”No one else knew. If they did, they would have expelled me from the village, even though I am their savior. So I gathered people who understand what must be done, and we have been taking care of our village, though at great cost. So, we had to lure someone with great magical power here, which was quite simple, given you ‘urban’ people’s greed for money. With your sacrifice, we shall have good yields for many years again.”

Well, that explained why Iva had been helpful. ”By ‘we’, that means Grish is in it with you, right? So what of the children? If I’m required for a sacrifice, why do you need the little ones?”

”Because your life force alone won’t be enough. My ancestor sacrificed himself along with other people, so you have to be sacrificed as well alongside others.”

”If you’re so selfless, why not sacrifice yourself, like your ancestor did? After all, you too can use magic.” Iva shook her head. ”If I go, who will lead these people? Grish isn’t strong enough, and no one else understands the meaning of sacrifice. So, let the sacrifice begin. And I know you want to use your magic to break yourself out of here. Don’t even bother. Your bindings are designed to prevent you from using any magic.” That much was true, it seemed. Beira was just glad she had dispelled the sleep spell before the bindings had been placed on her. She knew the way back to the village at least. Getting out of here with the kids was the problem. There was an advantage she had, though. It seemed everyone thought she was physically as strong as she looked. Snapping the restraints binding her would be child’s play.

One of the men grabbed at a crying child. ”No! Don’t hurt them,” the God Slayer pleaded. ”I’m sure I’ll be enough for the sacrifice.” ”Even if you are, they already have seen and know too much. But alright, we’ll sacrifice you first, if it will be any consolation to you.” So Beira was and placed her on the altar. As soon as her back touched the altar, the vines began to move, wrapping around her. She struggled against them, as a creature made of vines and roots emerged from cracks in the cave wall. All the child kidnappers bowed, as the creature revealed itself. Beira tore the bindings on her wrists and legs, even as she felt the vines draining her.

”Winter God Bellow!”

The blast of nether rime tore out of her lungs and smashed into the creature, tearing it free of the rocks to which it was attached and smashing it against the further wall of the cave, freezing it in place there. Without stopping for a beat, Beira used her Winter God Curse, attacking everyone else in the room that wasn’t a child. Soon, only the sobbing children were left. Freeing herself from the limp vines that held her, Beira led the children out of the cave and back to the village.

By the time she got back, the village and its environs had all gathered in front of Grish’s house. She could hear him telling them that the mage had collected their money and fled, and may even have been the Child Snatcher. Cries of “get the witch”, “she can’t have gone far”, and such rent the air. But as the crowd turned in one accord, they saw Beira and the three children. Of course, glad parents claimed their own, and someone asked Beira what had transpired, and who was responsible for the disappearances.

”I’d have said you should ask your leader, but he won’t be alive by tomorrow to tell you, so ask one of the children I saved,” Beira replied, flicking her wrist as she struck Grish with the Winter God Curse. Of course, panic ensued, as Beira silently walked into the inn and collected her belongings. As she came out, she saw that some of the villagers had gathered before the inn’s door, weapons at the ready, shouting that she needed to die. Beira simply exhaled, and quickly the temperature plummeted, with people literally shivering in their boots. ”Anyone who comes after me shall never return,” she said ominously, as she walked off, unhindered, into the cold night.



WC: 1737 words
Total: 4122/3500