“Wait,” I said. Max stopped. Gripping onto the metal pipe, I held up Occidae with one hand. It was strangely light. “Tell me how this works first.” It was stupid to walk into demon territory without knowing how to use it.
“Right,” said Max. “Duh.”
“Sorry,” said Amethyst.
We set our backpacks on the ground. I rested the pipe against my bag. I unstrapped Occidae and held it in front of me. It was strangely light—it weighed less than the pistol at my side. I looked at it closely, but its design was still impenetrable to me. As far as I could tell, it was just a rounded wooded box with a strap on it. It was sanded down and had a smooth clear-coat over it. Faint lines ran through the box, but it didn’t look like there were any openings or latches.
Amethyst came over to me and turned over the box. She pointed at a rectangular outline within the box. “Press that,” she said. I pressed down on the rectangle, and it swung up to reveal a handle with a trigger. I turned the box over, holding the handle.
“Now what?” I asked.
“Unclip the strap and hold your arm straight out in front of you,” said Max.
The strap was held on at each end by carabiner-style clips, so it was easy to unhook. I tossed it on the ground beside us and held Occidae out in front of me. The end of the box rested just past my wrist. The majority of the box jutted before me, in front of my hand.
“Now let the front tilt down and press the button on the side of the handle,” said Amethyst. I let the front drape awkwardly and pressed the button. Immediately, the box sprung to life. Bits of wood and metal flew everywhere as the weapon unfolded noiselessly. A long barrel swung out to point in front of me, and a stock unfolded to rest on the inside of my elbow. I was now holding what looked to be a large bolt-action rifle. A long scope sat at the top, black casing glinting in the light.
“Why is it so light?” I asked.
“The entire body is made out of balsa, and the barrel is thin aluminum,” explained Max. “It’s all magically reinforced, and none of the parts have a ton of stress on them anyway.”
“So how does it work?” I asked, turning the gun over in my hands. A plastic magazine jutted out from under the action. It all looked normal enough.
“It’s similar to a railgun,” Amethyst said. “You chamber a projectile from the magazine with the bolt, and the enchantment in the barrel propels and spins the projectile when you press the trigger.”
I pressed what looked to be the magazine release and popped the mag out. It was filled with long metal bolts that were about as thick as a dime and as long as my hand. I took one out to look at it. It was basically just a cylinder that tapered to a sharp point at the end.
“There’s nothing very special to those,” said Max. “It’s just cast lead reinforced with magic. The enchantment in the barrel grabs onto the magic so it can push it forward. They’re long so the barrel has more to grab onto and so that they carry more mass.”
Amethyst tapped her bag. “I put an extra magazine of lead bolts in each of our bags. Amber, I put our additional mag of tungsten bolts in your bag. They’re very massive so they can soak up a ton of energy before they leave the barrel.”
“They were a pain to machine…” Max mumbled.
“OK. I’m good now,” I said, and picked up the strap from the ground again, reattaching it to Occidae and letting the rifle hang in front of me. I awkwardly hoisted the backpack onto my back, careful not to bang Occidae on the ground. I grabbed the rifle again and held it with the barrel towards the ground. “Max, you take the metal pipe.”
“Why?” he asked.
“You never know when you might need a metal pipe,” I said. “And you’re the one that brought it.”
He gave me a strange look but complied anyway. It was light enough to make a good walking stick, so he’d be fine.
We made our way forward to the edge of the clearing. The trees in front of us loomed tall, but the forest was too bright too seem sinister. I tightened my grip on Occidae. I wasn’t about to let my guard down yet. “Keep the chatter to a minimum,” I said. Amethyst gave me a mock salute, but didn’t contradict me.
We walked into the woods, weaving between trees. I let Max and Amethyst pass me and brought up the rear, looking behind us. Nothing moved besides the tree branches swaying in the breeze. The tent was now just a little dot on the hill behind us.
We walked on in silence, Amethyst regularly glancing down at her compass and making minor adjustments. The bright light of the sky filtered through the leaves above, marbling the ground with shifting tints. Fallen leaves crunched underfoot, deafening compared to the silence of the woods. A faint earthy scent painted the air.
We progressed relatively quickly, sans the minor hiccup here and there. Occasionally we had to dodge a fallen tree or find a way across a stream, but we stayed in the right direction. I regularly looked around and behind us, occasionally using my scope to check suspicious shapes. Nothing moved. Nothing even caught my eye or spiked my adrenaline; the lighting made every shape look innocuous. Usually I would have encountered at least a bearish-looking stump by now.
The adrenaline that had kept me alert for the past few hours began to seep away. Weariness gradually began to tug at me again, accompanied by something much more unwelcome. Idle thoughts.
I stared at my feet, measuring my pace. Surely there was something more important that needed my attention. I blinked a few times and took manual control of my breath, working my lungs like a pair of bellows. Food? Water? Shelter? Clothing? Protection? Was there anything else I should plan for? I wished I could ask Amethyst what was in the bags, but we couldn’t risk unnecessary conversation. For all I knew, the noise of her voice could drown out coming danger.
The unconscious preludes of thoughts whispered in my mind, but I didn’t give them time to take shape. I scanned the treeline again. Everything was in order, like it had been for the last few hours. The trees were tall, but no more tall than back home. Everything seemed somewhat ordinary. I looked up in the branches. There weren’t any animals out and about, no birds or squirrels. Granted, they usually weren’t very active this time of day. Whatever creatures lived here were probably resting.
The thoughts congregated at the threshold to my conscious mind, knocking at the door and whining about being left outside. I took the pistol from my side and slid out the magazine, inspecting the clear bit running down the side. I used my thumb to count the cartridges. There were twenty-four. I jammed the mag into the pistol again and holstered it.
I plodded forward, staring straight ahead. The thoughts gnawed at my gut. I could feel them more clearly now. They shakily resolved themselves into an aimless question. I ignored it and took my water bottle from my bag’s right-side pocket. It was a beat-up disposable one, tall and thin. The label on the bottom said it held one liter. I took a few sips, then assessed how much I had. It was getting low, I’d have to stop soon.
I had nothing else to do now. I sighed. Well, fine. I’d have to deal with it at some point. I took a deep breath and let the question in.
Why didn’t I feel anything?
There was nothing. No rage, no crushing depression. I replayed Dad’s death in my mind, lingering on each horrifying detail. I couldn’t even muster mild anger or sadness.
I had just lost the only person that meant anything to me. Was there something wrong with me? Where did it go? I had cried, screamed when he died, but it was just gone. There was nothing to grab onto now. I felt like an engine that had run out of gas and had sputtered to a stop.
I looked at my feet moving by themselves, plodding through the undergrowth. What was driving them? It wasn’t a lust for revenge. I wasn’t running away from melancholy. What was I here for?
Amethyst and Max stopped in front of me, taking our bearing again. I stopped and looked at them detachedly, observing the expressions on their faces. They both looked worn, but determined. Why were they here? Why not release Dad’s soul and go back?
Amethyst patted Max’s back encouragingly, and they continued onward. I paused, staying where I was. Duty. It was duty. Dad told Amethyst to bond his soul, and she did it. Amethyst told Max to power the spell, and he did it.
If it was good enough for them, it was good enough for me. Dad told me to stop the demons, so I would. Max and Amethyst turned to look at me and stopped again.
“Sorry,” I whispered, and followed after them. I could keep this train of thought for later.
We continued onward, putting the miles behind us. I looked down at my watch. We had been trekking for hours now, and I estimated we were beyond the halfway point. For some reason, the brightness enveloping the woods hadn’t faded. As far as I knew, the sun was still hanging high in the sky. Maybe it had something to do with the Moon’s cosmology, if it really was the Moon. Maybe it had something to do with magic. Heck if I knew.
Come to think of it, I didn’t really know much of anything beyond mechanical design and machining. I used magic here and there in the shop, but I never really got beyond a surface-level understanding. Dad never really taught me anything beyond the basics. His professorship at the university was for plain old mechanical engineering, not any fancy magical discipline. That had been more of Mom’s thing.
I caressed Occidae idly, not looking away from the woods in front of me. Dad’s soul was in here, and I didn’t even know how. Or what that even meant, really. The only things I had ever heard about souls was speculation.
I thought back to when I had first seen my own soul. It had shown up on the x-ray as a big white splotch over my heart, little tendrils reaching out through my body like miniature veins and arteries. Mom stepped out from behind the lab equipment and reached over my shoulder to put a finger on the screen. She traced the outline of the spot with her finger and pointed to my chest. “That’s yours,” she said. She picked up a pen, spinning it in the air above her hand without touching it. “It’s where magic comes from,” she said, a huge grin on her face. “You really are a fairy. We’re all fairies. Every one of us now.” She took me by the hand and walked me back down the hallway we had come. “You know, we had none of this growing up. But it’s all yours now. You can make whatever you want with it.” She looked down at me, eyes full of wonder. “I’m so excited to see what you make, Amber!”
I brought my mind back to the present. We continued through the now-monotonous woods, our elevation barely changing. In front of me, Amethyst pointed to a nearby stream and walked over to it. She set her bag down and knelt near the stream, scooping water into a dingy plastic water bottle. Presumably that was the bottle she was using for filtering. I walked over to join, setting down my own bag and laying Occidae up against it.
I pulled my own filter bottle and filter from the left-side pocket of my bag and squatted down beside Amethyst. It was nothing more than the same kind of disposable bottle with a filter screwed onto the top in place of a cap. I unscrewed the filter and knelt down next to Amethyst, dipping the bottle into the stream. Cool water flowed across my hands and into the bottle. On my opposite side, Max followed suit.
Once the bottle was full, I screwed on the filter and took out my drinking bottle. I squeezed the water from the filter bottle into the drinking bottle. Small floating bits stayed in the filter bottle, and fresh water spurt out of the filter into my drinking bottle. It was a nostalgic process—it reminded me of when I first went backpacking with Dad.
Somewhere far behind me, a twig snapped. Adrenaline shot through my body again. Probably just a squirrel. I slowly reached for Occidae, pulling it close to me. There were no squirrels.
I tapped Amethyst and Max lightly, putting my finger to my lips in a shushing motion. I stood slowly and turned to look behind me. Not a hundred yards from us stood a horrific, six-legged creature the size of an elephant. The demon was covered in shaggy black fur from its deer-like head to its long, alligator-like tail. Curving antlers jutted backward from its head and ended in many spiky points. Two fangs curved down from the demon’s mouth, their blinding white a stark contrast against black fur.
The thing stopped in the middle of its pace, staring at me with beady black eyes barely visible against its fur. There was no time to react. It was too close for me to even use my scope properly.
I pointed Occidae at the thing’s head and pulled the trigger. There was no recoil, no shock going down my arm, just a loud thunk as the head exploded in a shower of viscera. The demon immediately slumped, no brain to control its legs.
Amethyst and Max were now standing behind me, horrified looks on their faces. They breathed heavily, saying nothing. We were all covered in sticky, dark blood. We stood in silence, looking at the grisly pile in front of us.
“Well,” I finally said. “I guess Occidae works.”
“Good thing we’re near a stream,” remarked Amethyst.
Max looked at both of us for a moment. “I’m out of quips,” he said.
Amethyst suddenly started. “There’s more,” she whispered, drawing her pistol.
We each spun in different directions, scanning the treeline. Just from where I could see there was three more creatures circling us, although they were a little smaller. There was probably more behind me where Max and Amethyst were looking.
I chambered another bolt and set my scope on one of the demons, centering the crosshairs on its chest, hoping its vitals were there. I probably didn’t need to account for drop, or accuracy in general. I pulled the trigger and it went down, its chest cavity simply deleted from existence.
Gunshots erupted behind me. The other two demons turned and charged at me, mouths wide in a vicious snarl. There was no time to aim well. Rack the bolt, fire, rack the bolt, fire. The two dropped in front of me and skidded towards my feet, one hit in the side and the other through the eye.
I spun just in time to see a demon lunging towards Max, jaws extended. Before I could react, a red blur smashed into the demon, slamming it to the side and sending out a jet of blood. Metal flashed through the air again and again, slamming into the demon with nauseating crunches and squelches, spraying gore everywhere. A high pitched giggle pierced the air. In mere moments, the demon was an unrecognizable heap.
“There. That’s the last one,” said a girl standing on the pile. She wore a t-shirt, shorts, and a brown cloak soaked in blood. In front of her hovered a massive greatsword, nearly as tall as she was. The greatsword swung to hang over her, dripping blood like a leaky pen. She stood and caught the drops on her tongue as if they were snowflakes. A huge grin spread across her face. “Y’all want any?”