Shades of Grey

AUTOMNE DE FLEURE— MARCH 1843

I woke up screaming and gasping in a cold sweat with my body gripped in a seizure of panicked fear. It took Forma’s strong, stern voice to calm me.

“Grey, settle down. You are in the hotel room we rented a month ago in Automne de Fleure. It is March 23rd, 1843. You have been in a coma for three days.”

“What happened?” I asked as I sat up and turned to her, fearing the answer.

“After the Letum entered you, your body went rigid and you fell from the roof and landed on the cobblestone street, breaking almost every bone in your body. How are you feeling?” she asked with passive indifference.

“Fine, I feel fine…” I replied carefully. I sensed an outpouring of emotion about to spring from Forma. I tensed in anticipation.

Forma’s face then melted into a hideous frown of anger and she morphed furiously into a huge silverback gorilla, towering menacingly over the bed as she swung around the bedposts.

“Well I’m glad you feel fine! I hope you realise what your little act of self-sacrifice has done to me!” She punctuated this with a great roar of anger that rattled the already strained walls.

“Forma, I’m sorry, I—” My voice sounded small compared to the roars emanating from her.

“DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT I’VE BEEN THINKING FOR THE LAST THREE DAYS?! Grey, if you had died, I would have been stuck forever as a Darklight Dragon! I’VE BEEN SO SICK WITH WORRY THAT YOU WOULD NEVER WAKE UP THAT I HAVEN’T BEEN ABLE TO MORPH AT ALL!”

I exhaled sharply as Forma finished venting her gall and morphed back into herself.

“I’m sorry Forma, but I had to do something to get them out of those people!”

Forma nodded as she held her head in her hands.

“I know, I just wish you would alert me when you’re about to do something like that!”

“Why? So you could have a chance to tell me what an awful idea it was?”

“Grey, you could have died! There’s no telling how the ghosts would have reacted once they had entered you! Who knows what could happen when the Caedes virus comes in contact with Hunter blood! You could have died, contracted the disease, or been privy to whatever hallucinations they would manifest in your subconscious; which you clearly were! GOD, GREY YOU’RE SO RECKLESS!”

Forma shrank back to her normal size and flew in my pocket as she began to cry in distress. I gently touched my pocket apologetically when a soft knock at the door brought my attention outward.

“Come in,” I said, fastening the pocket where Forma rested.

The door opened and about forty townspeople filed in, gathering around my bed with sympathetic gratitude in their eyes.

“How are you feeling?” asked a tall, dark-haired woman to my left. She set a basket of food down on the bedside table.

“Fine, thank you. You really didn’t have to come to see me,” I said in surprise.

“Yes I did. You brought my son back to me.”

She gave me a grandiose smile and quietly avoided eye contact. My heart lifted.

“The children are alright?” I asked.

“They’re fine,” replied a man to my right.

“There’s even more outside! Take a look!”

I leaned over in my bed and pulled back the curtains, looking down upon the entire populace of the town — including the children from behind the purgatory window — as they crowded anxiously around the entrance to the hotel. I saw the looks of guilty gratitude on the faces of the parents as they waited to hear about my condition, remorseful of their hostile behaviour. I felt my eyes begin to water.

“Er, Miss Echo?”

I turned to Governor Tristam who stood at the foot of my bed next to the hotel attendant, both looking shameful.

“Yes, Governor?” I said softly.

“We would like to extend our immense thanks for your actions. You risked your life to save all of ours and you have brought back our children that we thought we had lost forever. We could never hope to repay you.”

The hotel attendant then reached into his pocket and pulled out a medium sized pouch, which he placed carefully on the edge of the bed.

“We hope this will make a nice start, though,” he said, bowing graciously. Everyone then followed his lead until the foot of my bed was covered in small brown bags. I began to tear up at their reception.

“I don’t know what to say!” I managed to choke.

“Well, think about it while you get some rest,” said Governor Tristam. With that, the room began to empty and soon I was alone again.

“They’ve gone, Forma,” I said gently into my pocket. She instantly flew out and sat at the edge of the bed in her human sized form. She stared at me, her eyes red and watery, until she noticed the pouches that the people had left. She opened one and began to count its contents, ready for a distraction. Her eyes widened in delight as the number got higher and higher.

“Grey! They’ve given us two thousand Francs!” she cried, elated.

“That’s wonderful,” I said wistfully. Forma noted my lethargy and crawled up next to me, studying my face.

“What did you see?” she asked.

It took several moments before I was comfortable enough to tell her that, despite its horrible nature, it was nice to have a memory to visit, something to look back upon...to avenge...

I told her what I had seen and she listened intently, her face lighting up in understanding as I relayed to her the immense gratification and saddened happiness I had felt at seeing them. She gave a deep sigh when I finished, lying down next to me in the form of an orange cat.

“What do we do now?” she asked. “Do we continue on to Vikka?”

My fists clenched. I remembered the terror and frightened urgency with which my parents had acted on the night they were killed. I remembered the fire, the intense heat... Evan’s terrifying face...

“Yes. In the morning, we leave for Vikka.”

“Are you ready?” Forma whispered early the next morning as we approached the village gates. She changed smoothly into a white stallion and waited for my response. I looked back at the town just as the sun was coming over the horizon, casting an ethereal light over the small hamlet. It was a beautiful sight and I was sad to have to leave, but such was the onus of a Creature Hunter: we were unbearably and unavoidably nomadic.

“Yes. I’m ready.”