CHAPTER 1: RYNNA

 

Rynna was born with the desire to kill herself the way some people are born with webbed feet. Although where healers can take small knives to free the individual toes of those unfortunate cases, Rynna's problem was one of the mind, not of the body. It is rather more difficult to cure afflictions of the brain. Not that they hadn't tried, though.

The girl's earliest memory was of the man holding the cup to her lips. The man was telling Rynna to be a good girl and to drink a burning liquid that she was later to identify as brandy. After the ineffective sedative, she remembered another man, this one with clear blue eyes. He was holding onto her neck with one of his hands and in his other was a straightened fishhook. His smile was so sweet. She thought her father was only napping on the floor and that her mother enjoyed the kiss the strange man was giving her.

Then the blue-eyed man was squeezing her neck and bringing the hand with the fishhook closer. The white-hot pain that followed blurred the rest of the memory. Rynna's right ear leaked blood for two weeks after the incident and she did not regain the hearing on that side.

In her next memory, she was four. Rynna's mother was wearing a wide brimmed hat for Trinni, the planting festival, and she was humming as she put up the laundry. Linens fighting their pegs for freedom trailed her progress through the air. Rynna remembered those dampened fabrics because they took longer to burn. Hidden in the back wood lot, the girl and her mother watched the flames eat their house and all their pretty things, and then travel to the small shed where the clothesline was attached. Eventually, even the wet shirts and pants were consumed, and it was then that Rynna and her mother quietly snuck away with their lives.

In her third memory, Rynna was alone and waiting at the kitchen table. It was late and when her mother finally came home, she was smiling tightly and holding a small, stale heel of bread. The bread tasted simultaneously of triumph and inadequacy.

It was these dark recollections that began Rynna's consciousness. The fleeing and gradual poverty. The fires, screaming mobs, and thrown rocks. Her mother slowly becoming a night lady, because at least that way she'd get paid for the rape.

And yet, curiously, that aspect of her which one would assume to be most damaging, emotionally and physically, was not among her earliest cognizance. Just as most small children do not remember every instance of tying their boots as a child, Rynna's mind discounted her repeated efforts to end her own life. They were too frequent an occurrence to be of any importance. After all, she didn't mean to keep trying to kill herself. It was something that happened when she wasn't paying attention. Like how some people twirl their hair in their fingers, or bite their nails. In Rynna's case, it just so happened that if her mind wandered when she was practicing her letters, her hand would migrate the sharp quill to her temple and start ripping a hole there.

Her first suicide attempt happened when she was two, when her father was still alive and she could still hear from both ears. There was a little fire made of some twigs and leaves. On toddler's feet she waddled over and calmly stood in the middle of it. Her father spotted little Rynna first, standing there giggling while the skin on her toes blackened. He scooped her out, doused the flames, and then immediately rushed her to the healer's where they paid ten coppers for a salve that still left her bereft of toenails.

Next it was the creek behind their little wooden hut, too small for even a toddler to drown in unless you specifically moved rocks to make a hole at the bottom. Rynna's mother found her face down and only just managed to breathe air back into her lungs.

It didn't take Rynna's parents long to figure out that they not only had to keep their precious bundle of joy away from the typical dangers to small children like loose blankets, sharp instruments, and heights, but that they also needed to keep her from being alone with more innocent things like small puddles, piles of laundry, and her dinner.

The other children noticed. The other parents, too.

Mothers and fathers did not want their sons and daughters playing with a girl who might pour boiling water onto them without a moment’s notice. And of course they didn't want their children getting any funny ideas, as if Rynna's problem was small pox or a bad cold which could be caught. And these were the more rational minded ones.

Other members of the community thought that she was a demon or a changeling and needed to be killed, or in the very least removed from the village proper. It was the result of this thinking that left Rynna and her mother constantly without any possessions or money.

It was the same no matter where they went. Welcoming neighbours to a widowed mother and her cute daughter became suspicious conspirators within months. Rynna and her mother were always relocating. Place to place, town to town, movement was the general state of the girl's youth.

Although her suicidal impulses had no cure, Rynna and her mother developed ways to fight them. So long as Rynna never allowed herself to be thinking absently or get distracted, they could be avoided. She learned to watch herself at all times and never allowed herself to be idle. It reduced the number of 'incidents,' as her mother began referring to them, and made them less noticeable to the community.

Rynna helped knead the dough, but not cook it nor slice the ensuing bread. They ate soft foods: soggy crusts, liquid cheeses, soups, and things boiled for so long that it all became a mush that could slide down her throat easily.

She also learned other skills. At age six, she knew basic first aid and could construct a splint for herself with nothing more than fallen branches and her own hair. She knew how to dislocate and relocate all of her joints. She could smother most flames in less than five seconds.

It never really helped in the end though.

As a three year old, Rynna had been attacked by people who wanted to fix her to save the village. Years later, Rynna was never sure whether they were trying to get rid of her condition or simply get rid of her, period. The end result was the same. Rynna and her mother respectively left a father and a husband along with most of their personal possessions, and had been nomadic ever since. They would stay in one spot for six months or a year at the most, and then Rynna and ______ would be moving on. Sometimes it was voluntarily, but those times were seldom. No matter where they settled, the two always kept a small traveling bag packed, just in case.

 

CHAPTER 2: THE LOVELY LADY SHUTBA

 

Shortly after Rynna turned fourteen, her and her mother had been staying in the same village for two years, which was a record of sorts, if there was anybody paying attention to these sorts of things. It was affectionately called Dompt by those who lived there, and they didn't really get enough visitors for anybody else's opinion to matter much.

Between the small village and its surrounding farmland, the place managed to stay afloat by exporting sheep, wool, and potatoes. The general level of intelligence of the townsfolk ranged from stupid to an almost average. The usual pastimes for the adults were procreation and inebriation, with the tedium only being interrupted by Trinni and the harvest festival, Mong.

The youth, on the other hand, had another pastime. Her name was Lady Shutba. 'Shutba', in the local slang, meant more or less 'cuntface' and had originally been grafted as a joke, but it had stuck, and then caught on, and eventually even the adults began to address the old hag as such.

The children and young adults of the community had been throwing rocks at Lady Shutba for decades. It was a coming of age ritual of sorts for the boys. For causing a light bruise, your voice lowered, for breaking a bone, you grew pubic hair, and if you actually managed to knock the old hag over with the force of your blow, your testicles dropped and all the village virgins would proceed to swarm you.

The most vicious of this generation's attackers was Fik Tucker. He sported red hair, a square jaw, and a nasty temper. So naturally, he was the most socially sought after boy in the entire village by both males and females alike.

The young girls in the town, either too timid or too aware that the hag had to have been a small girl like themselves at one point in time, never participated in the stoning. Instead, they would sit on the sidelines chanting their rationale for the abuse,

 

“The only good witch 'sa dead witch.

Buried in the back ditch

Hot fire and black pitch.

A good witch 'sa dead witch.”

 

They would then proceed to rush up and fawn over the successful attacker with batted eyelashes and compliments about bravery. For after all, they did not want to end up as groomless hags themselves, and the best time to look for a husband was a firm 'now.'

Nobody knew much about Lady Shutba, neither of her name nor of her origins. She had just shown up, already old and senile sixty years previously. She hung around on the edges of town and down by the lake where she had a hut, but other than that, did not do much else. Sometimes she would disappear for a few months at a time, but she would always come wandering back eventually.

There had been much speculation as to the woman's past, but people didn't speak of said theories too often. No explanation really fit and the whole situation was unnerving. If she really was insane as some people claimed, then she should have died from eating poisoned berries or a fetid piece of meat long ago. If she was just an aborted Oceo Tolok project from centuries past, why would she put up with abuse from the prepubescent boys in the neighbourhood? And if she was a changeling, as was sometimes whispered, biding her time until the devil's return to power, then why had she not at least eaten a few of the local children to slake her evil appetites?

And the weirdest thing of all: why did the butterflies follow her? Wherever she went, there was always a plethora of brightly coloured, fluttering creatures trailing her every move. Why, they asked, why?

The old woman didn't speak any known language, and instead just shuffled around making grunting, coughing, and wheezing sounds. Whether she had forgotten how to speak or simply lacked the human organs was something much debated, but as a result by and large the woman's life remained a complete mystery.

Rynna had never liked how the children treated Lady Shutba, nor the benevolent amusement with which the adults looked down upon the situation.

“We should stop them. You and I both know how it hurts. We can't let them keep doing it!” Rynna would argue with her mother. But her mother's answer always left the bitter aftertaste of truth in the air.

“There is finally somebody stranger than us. You will let the abuse continue because it means they will be too busy watching her to notice you.”

Rynna, as always, obeyed and did not draw attention to her mother and herself by interfering with the children's activities. Instead, she would walk down to the hag's hut, wait until she left, then leave bundles of warm clothes and blocks of cheese with bread.

It was on one of these trips that Rynna discovered the hag's corpse on the forest floor.

“Lord of Salvation,” Rynna whispered, nausea and fear creeping through her limbs. She had never seen a dead body other than her father's, and that she couldn't remember well.

It was a pitiful thing that lay on the ground. Small, mostly. Small, frail, and lifeless. Rynna walked towards the body slowly, and then carefully knelt beside it. There were no live butterflies circling the woman now, just a few crushed ones littering the forest floor.

So that was it, then. One of the boys must have gone too far this time. They had actually killed the innocent hag. Just a lonely old woman with nobody left in the world except sadistic kids. Rynna wondered if once the woman had been sane and happy. She hoped so.

Rynna imagined Fik bragging about it for weeks to come and she felt a knot in her stomach. The feeling was made worse because deep down she didn't know if it was the senseless murder that bothered her or the fact that without the distraction of the hag, the villagers would search for someone else to make them feel secure about their own lives and normalcy.

The girl frowned in a sad sort of way, then shook her head and placed her bag to the side. Abandoning Dompt was a discussion her and her mother could have tonight. For now, she felt she owed something to this woman who had given her two years of security.

Rynna reached out to awkwardly touch the body. She thought that she should hold Lady Shutba or do something to give her a last ounce of human affection. The young girl tried to stroke the woman's forehead, but the moment her fingers came in contact with the skin her hand recoiled. Wrong. There was something wrong. There was no resistance under that flesh.

Her fingers had left a depression in the skin where she had touched it. An indent that meant that there were no bones, no organs, and no muscles under there to support its shape. The thing was only skin. The girl may not have been familiar with dead bodies but she knew for sure they weren't supposed to be hollow.

Rynna gagged. She had visited the tanner in town to see him at his work before. Leathers of all shapes and sizes being cured, shaped, and eventually stitched. Rynna had also seen the butcher skinning the cows and sheep after they were slaughtered. It amazed her how efficiently creatures could be broken down into their parts, although she had never liked the floppy, fleshy bit that was the animal's hide. Why someone would do that to a person . . . how someone could do that to a person brought bile into her throat.

Feeling sick, but surprisingly less angry than she ought to have been, Rynna weighed her options quickly. Only shaking a little, she picked up the fleshy remains of the old woman and walked along until she found a peaceful spot under an elm tree.

There she started to dig a shallow grave with just her hands. Mud dug into the flesh under her fingernail as she scraped a hole. An unmarked tomb that nobody would ever know about let alone place flowers on. This would be just a small old woman disappearing quietly. She had no plans on informing the mayor or anybody remotely official. Justice would not be had by accusing the residents of Dompt of indiscretion and scandal. Justice was a bit of a fickle bitch.

When she finished, Rynna wiped her hands off on the coarse material of her plain wool skirt. She then returned to the path, picked up her bag, and began the walk home. The girl felt tired and culpable for all the things she was not going to do.

Two minutes.

It was exactly two minutes when Rynna heard the strange noise. It was a deep, angry rumble. A frustrated roar of a volume and calibre that it could be felt through the forest floor for miles. It was like a mountain with a herniated disk threatening the cosmic healer. Or a very large, and very incensed beast who had just discovered something unpleasant.

When Rynna heard the sound, she began to walk faster, unease mixing unpleasantly with her earlier emotions. As the sound kept repeating itself and seemed to get angrier, the young girl went faster still, unease blossoming into something more panic-esque and less rational. However, she didn't really start sprinting until she felt the booming echo of large footsteps coming quickly in her direction.

More heavy pounding, more horrific roars, and suddenly Rynna was pinned to the ground by a large, livid beast.

“Where is my human suit?” the creature growled overtop of her.

Rynna didn't know what a human suit was. She also didn't know exactly what the beast was. All she knew was that there was a twelve-foot, grey-green monster towering above her.

“Tell me where my human suit is or I will eat you!” the creature threatened.

Rynna was still stunned and now had started to cry panicked tears. And all she could do was tell the truth.

“I don’t know!”

“You lie!”

Rynna sobbed and shook her head. It had all happened too quickly. No response would come to her lips, not even to plead for her own life.

So the beast ate Rynna.

It was a very fortunate thing that she tasted terrible. The creature immediately spit out the girl and proceeded to gag for a few minutes before running its tongue all up and down the rough bark of a nearby tree.

“Dear Salvation, human, you taste terrible. Have you never bathed before?” The creature shuddered and then once more scratched its tongue along the serrated bark.

Rynna did not answer. She had been spit out headfirst and hadn't been able to cushion her landing. Pain flashed through her and a large bruise could already be felt on her back and right shoulder. Small cuts from where the monster's teeth had begun to graze her were beginning to bleed, and the creature's caustic spit was blistering into a rash on her exposed skin. It was a wet, painful feeling of terror.

As her mind was not quite functioning, the young girl could only manage to get herself away from the beast in a weak crawl. Knees and hands cut themselves against the rough forested earth in her frantic efforts, and the broken skin burned when dirt was ground into her wounds.

The beast watched the pathetic escape attempt emotionlessly for a few minutes. Then, he calmly extended his foreclaw, sliced through the meaty section of her leg, and dragged the girl towards him. Rynna shrieked in pain as she was pulled across the ground, grabbing at scraggly grass along the way.

The creature lifted the girl's body in the air with the same claw. Rynna felt important veins and muscles ripping apart as her own weight pulled the cut deeper. Her screams were jagged.

Then, as if the beast was a lady delicately nibbling on honey cakes, the creature bit off three toes from Rynna's left foot. Blood leaked from a new source. Rynna kept screaming.

The creature spit out the three toes to the side and shuddered once more, while simultaneously sliding the girl off its claw the way thick mutton slides off a roasting spit.

“Definitely one of the worst things I have ever tasted in my life. Listen, human. Apparently I cannot eat you, but I have no qualms about ripping off all of your extremities and leaving you for dead. I can find my human suit by its scent alone, but that would take time. It would greatly increase your lifespan if you were to tell me where it is.”

Rynna had not stopped screaming and the girl had actually gotten louder as she was now desperately clawing at her foot, trying to stop the blood flow.

The beast swung its large tail around and hit Rynna in the side of her head. A loud thump was followed by silence. Spots danced in front of Rynna's eyes and her hands went limp.

“I will ask one last time. Where is my human suit?”

Rynna could only shake her head in ignorance. She had this funny tilting sensation.

The creature once more brought its tail around to hit Rynna in the head. Its sharp scales smashed into the soft flesh of the girl's face with a sick thwack.

Then, somehow, Rynna was lying on the ground far from where she had been before. Why was she lying on the ground? Everything seemed unfocused and she was covered in a wet, messy substance. Things seemed to be frozen in a static buzz around her.

From a distance, she could hear what sounded like a bee. An angry bee. It was speaking to her. When Rynna concentrated very hard, she could almost make out what it was saying.

“Human! Human! Wake up, human!”

That’s nice, she thought. Then Rynna passed out.