Crystal Compass Book 1: Part 13: July 2014 Camp NaNo

She was just rolling through town when she spotted something moving by the home of one of the children she had earmarked as a possible target. She turned her headlights onto the moving shadow to try and get a better look at what it was.

She swiftly wished she had not.

It was just as Clara had described and yet so much worse. The almost skeletal figure was hunched at a grotesque angle, seeming to be almost bent double. The grey, clammy, dead seeming skin was decaying away, revealing dying flesh and rotten organs underneath, blood oozing slowly from each and every hole, dripping onto the pavement and leaving a trail that Twilight knew no mortal who could not see like she could would notice. Bloodstains made their way up its arms, at the end of which were claw like fingers. It turned and glared at her with its burning blood red eyes and Twilight froze up in terror as it smirked at her, its sharp, vicious looking teeth bared.

Twilight fumbled for her crossbow, remembering too late that she had no bolts for it and had left it behind. The creature turned away and leapt with astounding agility up to a child’s bedroom window and slowly opened it, using its long fingers as a lever to prise it open. Twilight cussed and snatched up a rock and threw it at the beast before scrambling for a nearby, rather hefty looking branch she could use as a weapon, wondering what the hell she had been thinking in going after any old bogeyman without a weapon. Especially when this monster was roaming around.

She did not get the chance to snatch it up. The creature was on her in a heartbeat, slashing at her with its claws. The shockingly sharp talons pierced not only her bike leathers, but the clothes and skin underneath. Twilight let out a pained yelp which was swiftly cut off when she was knocked off of her feet and her head slammed into the pavement, knocking her partially senseless.

The creature stalked forward with a low, vindictive chuckle as Twilight moaned and tried to push herself upright, pushing her back down with a foot and pinning her to the floor. Twilight feebly struggled as the creature leered down at her, increasing the pressure on her chest, causing her to scream in pain as her ribs started to creak and crack at the weight.

“Little Havenkeeper, I remember you.” The creature hissed, seeming amused, “Your grandmother kept this town from me, rescued you from my clutches when your mother brought you to town. Shame you won’t live to do the same.”

“K...Kill me,” Twilight stammered out, crying out in pain as he kept increasing the pressure, “And you’ll bring t...the entire Compass d...down on your head!”

“They’re too busy to really pay attention to what I’m up to.” The creature smirked back, “Besides none of them could hope to defeat me.”

The first part was probably true. He had hurt her, had probably hurt Mikey. The Wrath of the Seasons should have activated for the nearest Crystal Compass immortal. That none had shown up told Twilight that she was, terrifyingly, alone.

“Y...You’re just a bogeyman.” Twilight retorted, trying to throw him off balance as she grabbed for something, anything, that she could use to defend herself and finding a sharp stick. “I’m not afraid of you!”

She jammed the sharp stick through paper thin flesh, into the ankle of the foot pinning her. The creature howled in pain and backed off, giving Twilight the chance to get to her feet. She took it, rolling onto her side and pushing herself up as she tried to ignore the way her world was swimming nauseatingly.

She stumbled towards her bike, intending to run the thing over, only for him to grab her hair and pull her back. She tripped, losing her balance, only to crash into the creature. It slammed her into the nearest wall, holding her there by the throat, its long fingers wrapping tightly around her neck and its claws cutting in, leaving trails which oozed blood that, thankfully were not deep enough to kill. Not that Twilight appreciated it as she struggled to breathe past his hand, trying to pull his hand away from her neck.

“You should be, little Havenkeeper.” The creature growled at her, though she had trouble hearing it over the sound of her own heartbeat pounding in her ears, “I’m not A bogeyman, I’m THE Bogeyman, the one all the others answer to, the one who created them in his image. I’m the King of Fear, Bloody Bones. Not that you’ll get to tell anyone.” He squeezed tighter and drove his other hand through Twilight’s stomach, just below her ribcage.

The scream of agony she wanted to let out caught in her throat and Twilight’s world whited out for a moment. When she came back to herself, the creature had let go and was being chased away by an eight foot long, panther like tabby cat.

“K...Kuma.” Twilight called feebly, beginning to slip again as the creature vanished into the shadows, seeming to use it to teleport away.

The feline returned to her side, concern obvious as it nuzzled her. “Use your bracelet.” The cat demon told her, “I’ll get you mortal help.”

“But...busy...” The librarian managed as Kuma transformed into her human form and rummaged through her pockets until she could find Twilight’s phone.

“This is more important than Handover.” The nekomata hissed at her, her voice unchanged from one form to the next, “Use the damn bracelet.”

Twilight stared at the item in question blankly. The silver bracelet had been a present from Jack and Nowell. It was enchanted to allow her to call them when she needed them. She did now. She really did. But it was Handover. They had jobs to do. But whatever Bloody Bones was, she was never going to defeat it alone.

She made up her mind just before her world gave way to total darkness and whispered just one word, the one word that would bring her friend to her.

“Help.”

Crystal Compass Book 1: Part 11: July Camp NaNo 2014

“The King is not seeing anyone.” Clara huffed, sounding exasperated, “Not even the Lords and Ladies who rule over the subcultures of his Kingdom. He has no time, apparently, to deal with ‘such petty concerns,’ despite our best attempts to make him understand the situation.”

“Do you want me to seek the creature out and...”

“No!” Nadia shook her head violently, “Do not, Miss Twilight. This is our affair to deal with and you are mortal, you break far too easily. The Crystal Compass would not be pleased if we let a Havenkeeper get hurt. They like the fae little enough as it is. If you try, I will send even you around in circles!”

Twlight tried not to be insulted, she really did. It was a valid concern. Jack was known for his playful nature, but he was also known as the ‘Harbinger of the Winter Storm’ as he had, on more than one occasion been gifted with the ‘Wrath’ of Winter as he had been the closest Immortal of the Crystal Compass on hand when something non-mortal had been preying on those of mortal persuasion.

However she was honestly getting a little sick and tired of the ‘you’re only mortal’ issue. She fought monsters and magic on a regular basis in order to protect her little Haven. She had been at Jack’s side through several incidents and helped him all the way. She was not as useless as everyone seemed to believe. To hear even Nadia, who had seen and assisted in the take down of some of the recent non-friendly’s come out with it was exasperating.

“Fine.” She shrugged anyway, trying not to show her frustration, “I just came up to ask a favour. People are going to be searching for that missing kid again, can you grant them safe passage through your forest, please?”

“I don’t see why we should.” Clara grumbled, “My home is my home, you would not let people traverse your garden however and whenever they like!”

“I’m a Havenkeeper, remember?” Twilight reminded her with a chuckle. “Non-mortals traverse my lands all the time.”

“You’re a rare, almost extinct breed,” Nadia sighed, “I can tell you now that the child does not take shelter amongst the trees of my forest, Twilight, my people have told me such. At least the ones who can currently reach their trees have. So there is no need for the search to continue within the confines of our lands.”

Twilight grimaced at that. It meant that Mikey had obviously either gone in a completely different direction or was within the dark spot of the forest. However if Nadia kept her word and she would, the librarian knew, there was no way for her to get there to find out.

“I wish I could inform the searchers of that, but they would never believe me.” Twilight tried, “You can keep them away from that dark zone, if you wish, but the sooner they think they’ve traversed the whole area, the sooner they’ll leave you alone.”

“Fine.” Nadia huffed as Clara moved from Twilight’s shoulder to hers, nodding irritably, “But only because you asked and only until they are done with the search. Then the forest will not let them in so easily.”

“Thank you.” The student grinned at the pair of them, “You’re the best.”

“We know.” Twilight could barely hear Clara from just a few feet away, but she caught the tiny fairy Queen’s comment and laughed as she headed back to her bike.

One brief call to Detective Ley later to tell her that the dryads reported that Mikey was not in the forest, she finally got on the road, trying not to feel really weird that she had just reported something a member of the fae had told her to a detective. The trip to Plymouth was relatively quick once she actually left the dirt track. Though it took her an hour to get across to the port city, she welcomed the feel of the wind hitting her and the sounds of the road. The hustle and bustle of the busy university town was a stark and interesting contrast to the quiet and more often than not, peaceful village.

Her friends were waiting for her as she pulled up, demanding answers from her about the missing kid and whether she had seen anything as she tried to chain up her bike and head to the one revision class she had before they were supposed to be settling at the library.

She answered their questions with ease, a bright smile she did not entirely feel on her features as she remembered last night and the fact that right now there would be people combing her home in order to remove the bugs that the police had installed.

Still her friends, who had been the ones to coin the nickname ‘Twilight’ in the first place, were in quite a jovial mood. Once the initial questioning had passed and they had sat through the revision session with the one lecturer Twilight had that was guaranteed to put eighty percent of his students asleep with just a short lecture, they dragged her out to have a little fun. Considering the state of her bank account and the state of the accounts of her friends, who were all shopaholics and had almost completely totalled their student loans for the term, it was almost a relief to get dragged halfway across town for a burger and an hour on the ice skating rink.

Hanging out with her mortal friends was a breath of fresh air. They might have been obsessed with that daft animated pony show that was so popular right now, enough so to have nicknamed her after the book-obsessed librarian pony within it but they were good for her. Though they had no powers and often just humoured her when she said something odd, she did not have to worry about what she said around them or guard her words or actions.

It was okay, they had told her, that she was a little odd and occasionally talked about the fantastical. They had decided years ago that obviously her creative nature took over and ran roughshod over reality. They were used to it and it made life more interesting. She did not have the heart to tell them that it was all real. She was just pleased for their acceptance.

Crystal Compass Book 1: Part 10: July Camp NaNo 2014

Twilight was almost glad to get back to the normality of University the next day. Detective Ley and her ‘deal’ left a bad taste in her mouth. Getting back to the most mundane part of her life offered her a chance to get away from the deals and dangers and just focus on what she wanted for a change.

She made one detour on the way out to her university. Her bike complained as she drove it up the old dirt track through the forest, hating every moment of it as the dirt and leaves and sticks got caught in its wheel guards. Still it made the journey admirably and she dismounted near the old, abandoned farmhouse. It had been thoroughly poured over yesterday, but had revealed none of its secrets.

“Clara!?” Twilight called as she walked around the building, “Nadia?! I need to talk to both of you!”

No one appeared worrying Twilight as she continued her journey, looking for a certain mound. The farmer who had lived here when her grandmother had been alive, had known about the fae folk living right on his back yard and amongst his orchard. He had not been as stupid as his successor, who had been fool enough to take over an apple orchard, dismiss the predecessor’s warning about the ‘help’ and rip down the orchard in order to raise animals.

Every dryad linked to one of those apple trees had died with their tree and Twilight’s grandmother had seen no reason to step in when the Fae folk had retaliated for the demise of over a hundred of their people. The librarian was not sure she could be quite as callus about it, but then she had been six and friends with Clara and seeing how upset the tiny Queen had been had made her unsympathetic to the plight of the farmer.

“Clara? Nadia?” Twilight called as she found it and knocked on the nearest wooden post, one with had a small celtic knot carved into it. “It’s only me, Twilight. Come out, please?”

There was nothing for a few moments longer. Then a bright golden blur flew towards her, latching onto the young woman’s jacket and refusing to let go, babbling something at such high speeds that it sounded like a high pitched humming.

“Whoa, Clara please, I don’t understand when you talk that fast.” Twilight tried to get her to slow down as a willowy looking humanoid with dark brown, bark like skin and bushy, foliage like hair, of a colour not unlike the local trees warily emerged from the tree line and headed in her direction.

The tiny golden blur backed off and dusted herself off, taking a deep breath. The aura around her died down as she calmed, revealing a tiny, deeply tanned woman with golden blonde hair and sharp amber eyes of no more than three inches tall. She wore a long golden robe and had tiny, dragonfly like wings which shimmered, leaving a trail of what looked like gold dust as she flapped them at a speed unseeable to the human eye.

“Sorry.” She apologised to Twilight as she settled on the librarian’s shoulder, her voice ringing like a tiny, but almost unheard bell.

“It’s okay.” Twilight reassured the leader of the only fairies that were accurately portrayed in modern media. Tinkerbell, with her jealousy and temperamental nature was a surprisingly close portrayal of Clara’s people. “What’s wrong?”

“There’s something moving in the woods. Something that shouldn’t be there.” Nadia informed her, the oldest of the dryads looking pensive. “A huge swath of the forest has been rendered uninhabitable because of it. A lot of us,” She indicated herself, “Have been resting within the trees of others for the time being.”

“It chased us out of our home.” Clara complained, her tone shrill in her anger, causing Twilight to wince, “It’s a huge, boney creature, mostly humanoid in nature with ashy grey, almost dead, but bloodstained skin. It has burning red eyes, sharp, sharklike teeth and it brings fear and a trail of blood with it whenever it’s near. My warriors tried to fight it, of course, but it swept them aside with a sweep of its massive hand.”

Twilight frowned. There was nothing she knew of by that description that was local to the forest. In fact she had not read of anything of that kind in general, but then she was only halfway through her grandmother’s journals. Not to mention her own collection of books on ghouls and goblins was limited due to the limited income she made as a part time librarian having to mostly go on bills each month.

“Can’t you ask for assistance from the Fae Realms?” Twilight asked them, unable to help but wonder if it was this new entity that had stolen Mikey away and if the child was okay.

Crystal Compass Book 1: Part 9: July Camp NaNo 2014

“I’m not exactly going anywhere.” Twilight pointed out, twanging her seatbelt and huffing, well aware that the doors on the back of the car were set so they could only be unlocked from the outside and the windows would not open.

“We need to know if you know of anyone...or anything, that could do this.” Ley asked, seeming awkward.

Twilight froze for a moment, then looked out the window. “I don’t know what you’re...”

“We know.” Ley interrupted, “We know about everything.”

Twilight had had a suspicion that they had but she still could not quite believe it. “How?”

“Did you know that you can record the voices of, I believe they call themselves Immortals?” Twi nodded, still stunned, “Immortals, even if you can’t see them. They turn up rather nicely on rapid exposure cameras too. Fae too.”

“So you have been spying on me.” Twilight growled, annoyed at having that suspicion confirmed.

“I’m sorry but you have to understand our concerns.” Ley did look apologetic at least, “When we have reports of someone who talks to them self, can locate missing people easily and acts oddly, especially during certain times of the year, we have to consider mental instability or being part of something illegal. Admittedly it took me several attempts to get my head around the fact that you are in contact with invisible beings who control our weather, but if this is related to immortals, rather than a much more normal thing, we will need to talk to some of your contacts.”

“I can’t.” Twilight shook her head, “And not because I don’t want to. It’s Handover. I can’t get ahold of anyone right now.” Her left hand went to her right wrist, where an ornamental silver bangle rested. She rubbed her fingers over the diamonds and engraved snowflakes as she continued, “None of the Crystal Compass would do something like this. Especially not right now. The Seasons are turning, they wouldn’t have time to pause and kidnap a child.”

“What about the other ones?” Ley asked her, “The ones that don’t answer to that compass thing?”

“If it’s one of them, I haven’t seen any signs of it. If I hear anything, I’ll let you know.” Twilight didn’t add, ‘after it’s been sorted.’ “But I want your bugs out of my house. It’s an invasion of privacy and I’ve done nothing wrong, this has to be illegal! How long have you been hacking my life?”

“Since just after your grandmother died.” Ley admitted, “I’m pretty sure that we could probably make a case for insanity if we tried hard enough off of what we’ve recorded. However you’re quite right in that you’ve done nothing wrong. If we could be guaranteed that you’d pass on information now you know we’re aware of the truth...”

“How? Just phone up the station and say ‘oh I need to talk to Detective Ley about the immortal who’s kidnapping children!’? They’ll laugh and put the phone down.” The young librarian demanded, still ticked, “That’ll work. Not.”

“I understand where you’re coming from but I can give you a number to call that’ll patch you straight through to me.” Ley informed her, smiling slightly. “You can call me on that number.”

“I want your word that your team, and god only knows how you’re going to convince enough people to get one together, won’t harm any immortals or fae or anything else if they pose no risk to mortals.” Twilight snapped back, “And I want all of your bugs out of my home!”

“We’re officers of the law, not hunters or poachers. I have no great urge to pick a fight with a creature that can freeze me solid or turn me into a plant.” Ley snorted, amused at Twilight’s audacity. “Your friends are at no risk from me or anyone else I select for my team.” Ley smiled at her, “Do we have a deal? If we do, we’ll remove the bugs while you’re at your revision session tomorrow.”

Twilight did not really consider herself to have a choice. If she did not agree there was no way she was ever getting her privacy back and she was still worried that without her to confirm which immortals were ‘good’ and which were ‘bad’ that the police would just go after any that they could catch.

“We have a deal.” Twilight nodded as they pulled up outside her house, just wanting to go to bed and worry about this in the morning. “But you could have come for a cup of tea and a chat. I have earl grey, breakfast, raspberry if you’re allergic to caffeine...”

“You’re babbling, Miss Rodgers. Go to bed.” Ley sounded far too amused as her companion got out of the car and opened the door for Twilight, “I’ll be in touch.”

“The code for the key box is 3112.” Twlight grumbled as she exited the vehicle, “So your guys don’t have to break into my house. Good night.” She stalked to her house, pausing just long enough to plug her phone in and turn on her alarm clock before collapsing in bed.