Shades of Grey

THE BLACK WOODS— JULY 1843

I froze in horror as Loria collapsed to her knees, looking down at the huge blade. A wounded Treptik behind her gripped the handle and proceeded to twist it slowly. Loria screamed, too weak to fight him off. Scepta angrily took the form of a Dranis and tackled the Treptik, ripping off its head in a horrific display of vengeance and driving the Treptiks into well-deserved extinction.

Scepta morphed back into herself and rushed to Loria’s side. Some concerned Cambrians also approached, Lanek stepping quickly to the front. Forma grew to her human size and stood very close to me in almost audibly dark astonishment. No one could breathe.

“Scepta… I’m so sorry!” Loria gasped, quickly losing her colour. “I’m so sorry…”

“Don’t be sorry!” Scepta said gently. “You don’t have anything to be sorry for! You fought valiantly!”

There was a moment of serenity between the two of them when Loria suddenly gave several bloody coughs and began looking around wildly.

“Grey...where’s Grey?” she called suddenly, turning wildly to look for me. I rushed over to her side and took her hand, exchanging a grieving look with Lanek, which he immediately understood. He turned and addressed the Cambrians in their native language. They began to make their way back to the clearing, casting sympathetic glances in our direction as they left.

“I’m here, what is it?” I said gently.

“Grey, you are the only one left! The Avians...after we escaped…they circled back and found us! Scepta and I…barely made it out…! Everyone else is dead!”

My mouth fell open in horror. Forma knelt behind me and wrapped her arms around me, leaning her head on my shoulder in equally horror-struck astonishment.

“No...” I exhaled.

“Grey, promise me you will stay alive! Promise me!” she cried. “The safety of the world depends on you now!”

I nodded through my tears. She smiled peacefully and looked to Scepta. They shared a moment and then Loria was gone.

There was a beat of horrified, grief-stricken silence where nobody moved.

“Let’s go, Grey. I’m sure Scepta would like a moment alone,” Forma finally said in a shaky voice, helping me to stand. I turned to leave, until I felt Scepta’s hand fly to my wrist. She looked at me with lachrymose despair.

“I need you to do something for me,” she said in a dark voice, staring at me with firm eyes. There was a brief pause before I understood what she wanted.

“No! Scepta, I will not!” I shouted.

“Please, Grey! You cannot possibly understand! You must begrudge me this one favour!”

Scepta fell at my feet, weeping like Niobe. I watched as her body began growing and sprouting fur — she was losing her Fairy magic and reverting back to her Dranis form where she would remain forever.

Forma began quivering next to me in horror.

“Do it,” she urged me mentally. “Spare her the agony.”

“No! I will not murder her!” I cried.

“I AM BECOMING A CREATURE!” Scepta shouted as her body began morphing, growing and changing with every step. “If I attack you once the change is complete, will you kill me then?”

“Never!” I exclaimed.

“Then I will do it myself!” she cried, withdrawing her cutlass and holding it to her neck. Before I could say any more, she drew it deeply across her skin and her blood began to stream down her malformed body which stopped changing as the light faded from her eyes. She collapsed next to Loria, gasping her last breaths until she lay perfectly still.

Forma and I stood next to each other in grieved astonishment.

“We should bury them,” she finally whispered after several seconds. She promptly changed into a huge Dragare — a large, ape-like creature known for its digging capabilities — and began to dig two graves next to a large nearby boulder.

I stood still, physically incapable of movement. I was the last Hunter, the last of my kind: how could this be? There were still too many Creatures in the world for me to fight on my own, what was I supposed to do?

“Grey? Will you carry Loria?”

I snapped out of my trance and looked at Forma, who placed a misshapen Scepta in one of the two graves. I walked over and lifted Loria, placing her in the opposite grave, crying once more as Forma covered the two and wrote their names on the boulder above.

When she was finished, she walked next to me and we stood together for a long, mourning minute. Forma then gripped my hand and leaned her head against mine in a horatory gesture.

“Would you like to stay here while I take the Cambrians to Granyah?” she asked softly.

“No,” I replied, snapping out of my depression. “I need to stay busy and keep my mind off the fact that it is my sole responsibility to destroy every Creature left in the world!”

I lost control of my emotions and began to cry again, falling to the ground in despair. Forma kept her arms around me and we sat together for a long while, releasing the emotional burden of what had just happened.

“Come on. I’ll drop you off at Granyah while I ferry the Cambrians,” Forma offered when I had finally calmed down.

“No,” I countered. “I need a distraction, something to take my mind off of…things…”

Forma nodded, mercifully remaining silent and smoothly changing into a great Lequus. I stood up and climbed onto her great back, hardly noticing anything around me as she flew over to the clearing to collect the first group of Cambrians and then over the forest to Granyah.