The Badlands

Violet:

The badlands were vast at night, but now that the morning dew had settled, the vastness of the land was wide.

My stomach growled, aching with hunger, or maybe it was the memory of the moon goddesses’ words gnawing at my ribs.

“We need food… and real shelter… and clothes.” Neoma’s words vibrated against my pounding head.

My fingers danced in the opalescent fabric of the dress I had loved so much just weeks ago. Now, the sight of it makes me sick.

I left the rocks in a huff. I wanted to break down and cry, crash out and lose control… I wanted to die.

“None of that is an option, Violet. Now we get it together. I sense something to the east, get moving, and find us some food and water. If we don’t find sustenance, we won’t make it out here.” Neoma’s thoughts pushed my pity party to the side, and as much as I wanted to wallow in that self-hate, she was right.

If we didn’t find what we needed before night fall, we may not make it another night.

I headed east, my skirt whipping around my ankles, the cold earth biting into my busted-up feet. I would survive this, but I would not, no matter what the goddess said, return to Dark Moon.

I had walked for what felt like hours, through water, over hills, and through thick foliage, when finally, I came out into a clearing of knee-high grass and soft earth that kissed the edges of my aching feet.

My relief was short lived when about halfway through the field, right before the next tree line would swallow me whole, a pack of rogues stepped into the clearing.

One… Two… there were eight of them, all snarling maws and rotten teeth.

“Don’t move.” Neoma sounded as breathless as I felt watching the beasts stalk up to me.

Before I could register their closeness to me, they shifted, six men, two women, and a whole lot of malice in their eyes that was directed at me.

“Seems we have a lost little doe.” A woman with long, dirty curls snickered, her muscular body a war machine in comparison to everywhere that softness touched my frame.

I tried so hard to hide the way my hands shook in their presence, the way my body screamed to run, the way I knew if I did, they would kill me without remorse.

“I-I was just passing through.” I stuttered, hating how my voice quivered with the fear that had replaced the hunger squeezing my ribs. My heart was hammering so hard my ears ached with the sound as they moved closer.

“No, see, that’s where you’re wrong. People don’t just pass through here, little doe.” The man I assumed was their leader spoke this time. His sickly green eyes raked over my body, and I shuddered.

“Please, I don’t want no trouble.” I sounded stronger this time, but I knew it was just the adrenaline flooding my system.

They laughed.

“What is it you want then?” The man asked.

I opened my mouth, but nothing came out as I realized he was so close now that if he reached out, he would have me in his grasp. I could smell the rot wafting off him in waves of putrid sickness, and the thought of those big, dirty hands touching me made my stomach churn.

“I just want to pass,” I finally managed.

“How about we make a trade then… I smell your innocence, little doe. Why don’t you give it to me, and in return, I let you pass through my territory with no bother.” He smiled, his yellow teeth a grimace of triumph.

I couldn’t breathe.

I couldn’t say anything.

He reached for me, and without thought, I dropped to my knees, taking two fistfuls of the soft earth between my fingers, and I flung it into his face before running in the other direction.

If I died here, then so be it; at least it would be on my terms.

As fast as the wind whipped the trees he had me, my hair was twisted in his fists and before I could scream, before I could beg for help, his mouth was near my ear whispering so soft, so slow that it could’ve been mistaken for comfort in his tone if I didn’t know better.

“What is it, little doe? Do you think you’re too pretty for me?” I spat in his face, making him laugh.

Before that laughter died down, he drew back, and with one quick flash, his claws raked across my left eye, nicking my nose.

I fell to my hands and knees, clutching my face with a cry. His boot landed hard in my ribs, knocking me on my side, making the wind rush from my lungs in a violence so swift it was sickening.

“Grab her.” The man spat, venom lacing his tone.

Before I could run again, before I could register that this was it for me, I was pulled to my feet by two of the other men with him.

“Let’s see how pretty you think you are after we’re done with you.” He smirked, his head falling to the side while he watched the others claw at my body and sink their teeth into my cold skin.

Suddenly, they dropped me as a voice pierced the air, pierced the agony blurring at the edges of my vision.

“For crimes committed on neutral soil, you’re sentenced to death. Your execution will be carried out immediately.” I felt the soil vibrate in one hard knock, then I was looking into the eyes of the man who ordered the others to do this to me.

He was clutching at his throat, his eyes wide in fear as he reached for me as if I could or would help him, and then it was over. They were dead.

“You’re going to be okay, kid.” I heard a deep, somber voice from above me, but I couldn’t break my gaze from the man who lay in front of me, dead.

“Help,” I gurgled, not knowing who or what stood over me, only that I was bleeding to death, growing colder by the second, and if this being didn’t help me a second time, this would be where I died.

“If I help you, you must train. You must go back and do what the goddess has asked of you. Do you agree?” I didn’t ask how he knew what the goddess had asked of me, I wasn’t sure I could have asked if I had wanted to.

“Do you understand?” he asked, crouching down to me, still out of my sight but kneeling at my back now.

I nodded, knowing that I had no choice but to agree.

Then, just as his hand, cold as ice, touched my back, I fell into a deep sleep I was certain meant death for me.