“If you like, you can assist me in the future with making them as they do not require magic. They themselves create a bond with the world once tied together. Even humans can use them for protection.”
“I didn’t know we could make items like that.”
He shrugged as he brought her closer and closer to the forest border. A deep emotion lanced her chest.
“Control your fear,” he told her sternly, his head turning so he could look at her from over his shoulder. “I would not have allowed you out here with me if I could not protect you.”
She believed him, and felt that spike of anxiety lessening.
“However, stay behind me.”
Then he knelt onto the ground and shoved the metal spike into a groove already present. He sliced it sideways, following it as he carved it deeper. Once he’d spanned about three feet, he placed the ceramic pot on the ground, pulled the lid off, and began sprinkling a white powdery substance into the groove.
“What is that?” she asked while watching him with interest.
“Salt. It acts as a barrier.” He pointed to the carving line he had yet to dig into. “I only do this when I have one of you humans here. It helps to keep the Demons out. However, not much needs to be done to erase it. Simply throw dirt over it and that section is able to be walked through.” He stood, walked over to where he’d pointed, and started carving into it as well before sprinkling more salt. “The weak ones are stupid and have never figured it out.”
“I don’t understand, though.” She frowned as she clasped her hands behind her back and leaned forward to watch him better. “Why don’t you just use the same protection ward you used in the village when you took me?”
“I can only have one of those cast at a time, and it requires the blood of a human to do it.”
A smirk cruelly pressed into her lips as it curled them.
“I give you my permission to take my blood and cast it here now.”
You forced me to come here, and I will gladly take away your protection. The village people could die for all she cared for how they had treated her over the years.
His head peeked at her over his shoulder, tilting it like he found what she said as odd, before shaking it. It made that subtle rattling sound that once creeped her out because it reminded her of the noise Demons made, but she was beginning to become accustomed to it from him.
“The bargain has been made. I can only cast it once every decade, which is why I only ever come for an offering then. I cannot do it again until the allotted time is over.”
Reia pursed her lips together. Well, that’s a pity.
It took him nearly an hour to move halfway around the house on his knees as she stood behind him to watch, but she lost her interest when something else stole her attention.
They eventually came close to the garden he’d been speaking of.
Oh wow! Surrounded by a small fence of wooden stakes and slotted in horizontal logs, was a long and wide garden of varying plants.
She didn’t know how to farm, since the village never allowed her to walk anywhere near their food as if she’d cast a disease over it, but she thought she may know what a handful of the plants were.
Cabbages, lettuce, tomatoes, and pumpkins were easy to tell since they grew above ground. She thought she saw the familiar stalks of radishes, onions, and carrots. The blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries were easy to pick out because of their colours within the bushes.
There were no tree plants like apples or oranges, other than the hazelnut tree – which was relatively small.
There were also many more herb plants she couldn’t identify besides the dill and mint, and a handful of flower bushes that weren’t budding because it was still too close to winter, though it appeared they were trying.
He said the temperature in the Veil is well controlled. Warmer winters, cooler summers, which seemed like the perfect environment to grow plants. Especially since the sun was fading into the afternoon, but she could still see a sliver of its light haloing one last shrub over the tops of the forest trees.
I was right. I did see sunlight in the yard. She walked over to it so she could greet it, holding her hands out and wiggling her fingers as though it was tangible and she could touch it. She felt the warmth that cascaded over her hands before she turned her face up to it. I bet it showers this garden completely.
How... beautiful. There was a place of light in the Veil.
She could see that the clearing had been created by someone uprooting trees to make it bigger and that gap allowed enough sunlight to make its way through the forest and grey fog.
She smiled at her hands as she watched it glittering before the last spark of it disappeared when the sun dropped away over the trees. It was still early afternoon, so she imagined it was only able to reach here for a very few short hours.
Still, this was hope that his home wasn’t as dreary as she’d thought it’d be.
Quick huffing and snorting caught her attention as something thumped quickly across the ground. Her face shot to the side while she stood in the middle of the garden just as she saw a Demon running straight for her on all fours.
Oh shit! Reia backed away quickly from it and tripped over a plant in the garden, falling to her bottom with an oomphft.
It wrapped his black, claw-tipped hand around her ankle right before it screamed and released her. Then, there was a black shadow sprinting into her line of sight as Orpheus gripped it around the throat right after it let her go in pain.
“Mavka!” it yelled before it gave a choke when Orpheus must have squeezed harder.
His growl was deep and bestial as she watched him claw his way through its shoulder with his other hand.
“Do not touch!” he roared.
Not that it mattered when he ripped its head from its body a moment later as though he was simply popping the cork off a bottle.
Purple gooey blood splattered from its headless body before he tossed both to the side, out of the garden and into the clearing beside it.
He spun to her, his eyes a bright, glowing red with his fingers curled with tension, his sharp claws dripping with moisture.
“I told you to remain with me!”
He looked frightfully gigantic standing over her while she was almost lying in the dirt. She had to crane her neck far back to look up to his face.
And yet, Reia wasn’t afraid of him. Sure, she was definitely worried, and even though the red in his glowing orbs obviously symbolised something terrible, she knew he didn’t want to hurt her.
“I’m sorry! I saw the garden and forgot!” she yelled up to him, but her voice didn’t hold any anger. It was strained, more like she was pleading her case to calm him. “And you said I’d be fine with the amulet.”