Page 18 of Shadowed Summer Sun

Stumbling through the muck was slow, and each rough landing was made that much worse because my arms remained bound behind me. I was filthy, covered in sludge and algae. The moonlight barely cut through the thick haze that dripped endlessly from the gray sky.

Reaching the shores of the Shrouded Island, I tried in vain to toss my hair over my shoulder to see better, dropping my boline in the process. The otherworldly trees that ringed the isle created a perfect circle surrounding a barren mound of sand. Centered, an odd cave-like structure formed a black maw in the middle of the island. Pitch Darkness absorbed any and all light, creating an impenetrable barrier between the Mortal Realm and the World of Below.

Stillness hung. The only sound was my ragged breathing.

Then, the blacked bones of a foot stabbed through the intangible wall. The skeletal frame of something almost human followed after. A sucking pulled the nearby Shadows to the massive form, coalescing on the bones like thick, sinewy muscles as black as night. Pinprick stars dotted the corded muscles as they flexed, immeasurable strength barely contained within the corporeal form.

The image of the fallen poacher punched into my mind, knocking me to the ground.The bones. When I looked up, a stark white wolf skull, cracked and sharp, sat atop the enormous male body. The canines were too large, too cat-like. A vision of the fallen cougar flared behind my eyes. Gargantuan antlers tore through the skull, and I saw the massive stag decaying in the Guarded Wood. Large bear claws tipped the ends of Shadow and bone fingers as more ropes of Darkness appeared around me and held me to the ground.

Claws. The bear’s. His.

He moved toward me, and I craned my neck to keep him in sight. A rattling snap rustled behind him, and I saw the raccoon’s ragged fur and bone tail stretched to match the King’s immense size.

His tail flicked like a cat’s but with much more agility and control. He used it to retrieve my lost boline from the sand beside me, gripping the smooth metal handle braided from my ancestor’s silver as dextrously as a hand.

The muscles of his Shadow body continued to fill out until they bulged, exuding power. Still, he was nearly indistinguishable from the Darkness leaking out of the cave. I guessed he must be at least eight feet tall, towering over my small stature, made smaller by kneeling. The weight of his presence stole my breath, and his smoky tendrils took advantage, sliding up my arms and wrapping around my throat.

He pulled me up to my knees, facing me before him as he stopped inches away. The King of Summer’s End walked through the sand, leaving blackened footprints in his wake. As I looked up into the glowing colorless orbs within the wolf skull’s eye sockets, Darkness spread across the sky, blanketing the island in Shadow.

Chapter Seven

Do Not Run From Monsters In The Wood Lest You Wish To Be Chased.

“Summer.”

The King’s voice was no longer a whisper. It was the crack of bones and the gnashing of teeth.

One with the Darkness that now suffused the entire tree circle, I could just make out the shape of his skull face topped with antlers and his long bony tail. The smokey ropes holding me lifted me higher into the air so that I was nearly level with his head.

“Speak the words, Summer. What do you seek?” The rumbling growl shuddered through me.

“Power. To stop the Taking.” My throat burned as I voiced its name.

A breeze chilled my wet skin, flicking my hair across my face and making goosebumps ripple across my flesh. I dripped lake water, and mud slowly dried on my arms and legs. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed the black of my fingers had reached my biceps now.

“Why?”

I shivered, more vines branching off his body and slithering around my legs.

“It is ending innocent life. Where there was growth and peace, there is just emptiness and pain.”

The King pressed in closer, sniffing at me with his bony snout as innumerable tendrils of smoke danced over me like snakes.

“Birth is blood and pain. Why should Death be any different? One creature’s Death can feed another. It is the cycle.”

Frustration twisted in my gut as I was held there, trapped in the King’s vines and shaking. “But something is defiling that cycle, taking things before their time and not returning them to the Earth.”

He raked over me with his glowing eyes, and I warmed despite myself. Dragging his claws down my neck and circling behind me to run them over my healing scratches, a growl rumbled low in his throat. It was animal heat and predatory, like he was merely biding his time until I finally said the right words.

“I can give you the power you seek, my Summer, but it comes at a cost. One that you will pay evermore. One that you will pay in blood and flesh and surrender.”

The King’s tendrils squeezed all around me, biting into my flesh as he returned to stand before me.

Blood rushed in my ears, my pulse thundered, and my breath hitched in my throat.Holding onto the old will kill the new.The blackness of the Guarded Wood was everywhere, and the too-tall trees of the Shrouded Island loomed over me, staring into my soul.Wild, young one, unite. The King of Summer’s End waits.

His tongue traced the curves of his cougar fangs, and he snapped his jaws at me, claws dragging up my neck to tip my chin up to him.

In the Darkness, you will find strength.

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