Uno and Fog: Forlorn

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, but I’m not taking you anywhere, you’re going back where you came from.”  Ms. Teri answers her.

The abomination, as Teri called her, although there wasn’t any guarantee she was a she, or even thought of herself as such, looks at Teri for a moment like she’s puzzled.  It would be very easy to think of her as an angry woman that’s looking for the guy that knocked her up and abandoned her.  I wonder if it was an intentional ruse or if the form was an indication of something else.

I look of comprehension crosses her face, “you lie,” with an undercurrent of excitement, “it has been a long time since someone has lied to be, but your gift is wasted.  I will strip the truth from you.” SHE took a step toward Teri, who made a slashing moment with her hand, I can see a ripple of bluish energy dance across SHE’s body, but other than that there isn’t any visible impact upon the creature from beyond.

SHE makes another gesture and I hear a cry from Teri.  The Fog throws several knives and I watch SHE actually blur she’s moving so fast to avoid the blades.  I hit her with an electric discharge, her hair flies outward as sparks course over her body.  SHE pauses for just a moment, then tilts her head up and makes a cry out to the night sky.  It grows stronger, and seems to echo across the park.  It continues to reverberate long after she finishes.

The Fog’s knives splash into the lake behind her.

Something answers her cry, then another answers, closer than the first.  Over the sounds of the city, I hear more cries being taken up, an undulating chorus of despair. I see white flickers in the distance, like fireflies dancing in the night sky.

Except they are far away and I can see them.

SHE smiles, it actually looks sweet, I expected it to look cruel.  “The Forlorn are coming, give me what I want and I will send them back to their sorrows.”

Teri shakes her head.  A small knife is in her hand but I have no time to see what she’s doing.

The Fog takes a sweeping kick at SHE, but again the creature blurs out of the way from him, but he keeps spinning around and strikes her with a reverse crescent kick.  I hear the impact and see her stagger from it.

SHE looks more annoyed than angry, but while she is focused momentarily on him, I hit her again with an electric discharge.  I pour everything I have into it, all the little sparks that are in every living cell of my body.  I feel my vision haze a bit, my body has a numb feeling the way a leg might go asleep, except its the entire body.

Bluish white light flickers over her, lighting up the area, creating weird shadows in the darkened park area, and reflected off the ripples of the lake.  SHE grabs The Fog and flings him at least twenty feet away before looking in my direction.

The wails of anguish are closer, I see translucent, spectral, vaguely female, figures flying toward us. The sound of cries makes my body shiver with despair.

I’m exhausted. I don’t have anything else to give. I’m useless, but I’m not going to give her the satisfaction of seeing me afraid.

Figures form out of the ground around Teri, ancient, ghostly warriors in armor that looks more Roman than medieval and for a chilling second I think its more creatures that SHE has brought forth, but I realize they belong to Teri.  I wonder how old Ms. Teri’s magic is, if it is more akin to the beliefs and traditions of the ancient world. I always thought that magic followed some set kind of rules, but it occurs to me that there might be different practices, different rules, different results.

I see The Fog land, he tries to roll with the fall, I can see that he is only partially successful.

The Forlorn are upon us, and I see Teri’s ghostly army take on the wraithlike specters in an eerie spectacle.  Their battle looks like a strange dance, with spears and claws slashing to only the sound of the Forlorn accompanying them.  The howls are worse close up.  Wordlessly their cries convey loss, separation, parting from a loved one, but the type of parting where you will never see that loved one again.  I feel the way I did when my mother left one day and never came back.  I’m that little four year old boy again, my world shifting without understanding why.  What had been certain, is replaced with instability.

The realization that what had seemed eternal, permanent, had been ephemeral. Could never be restored.  Could never be fixed.  Could never be trusted.  If she could leave, if her love could end, what hope is there?

Ms. Teri’s spectral warriors are fighting, but they’re losing.   I see Teri casting spells to support them, streams of light flicker and when they hit one of the Forlorn they break apart like vapor, but more keep arriving.  When they lose, there won’t be anything between us and the Forlorn.

The Fog is limping back toward us, his mouth set.  He looks at me briefly before facing our adversary.

I have a crazy idea.  I can’t do anything to her, at least nothing that seems to concern her, but . . .

I reach out for her child, feel her tiny nervous system, the little currents of it and I give it a little adrenalin burst, setting the child to kicking.

SHE is suddenly hyper focused on me, “You dare!”

If I wasn’t so tired I would have thought about that old adage of mama bears and their cubs before now.