Chapter 10: 10. Hecuba and Gale

Once the white light faded, Elyssia lowered her arm that was covering her face and froze up. She found herself in a dark space filled with whips of dark fog slowly passing her by. Her surroundings were dimly lit, however the source of light could not be seen as everything above her past the patchy fog was pitch black. The terrain was relatively flat with a few clumps of brown grass scattered across the black barren earth. The whole area was covered in a heavy silence and the atmosphere seemed to press down on her.

Looking down, she was on a straight cobble stone road that led forward into the fog ahead, while looking behind her, Elyssia could see the road was the exact same.

Taking a moment to calm herself down, she looked down at the amulet that was still held in her left hand. It was clear to her that the amulet was the source of the blinding light, but the item looked no different from before.

Starting to feel herself panic again, she slapped her cheeks.  

‘I can’t panic now. If I do, I won’t be prepared for anything, I don’t want to experience something happening like that dream. Grandfather told you to stay safe and survive. Get yourself together Elyssia!’

Taking a deep breath, Elyssia calmed herself down.

‘First, I need to figure out if this is some kind of dream or if this is where I was supposed to be taken.’

Elyssia first started by checking herself out. Seeing that she was still in her back skirt and tights with a white blouse, Elyssia concluded that she was likely not in a dream like before. Putting the amulet around her neck, she tucked it behind her blouse to keep it out of sight. Crouching down, she rubbed her finger against the bare ground, examining the slight layer of back dirt that had collected on her fingertip.

Other than the fact It was black, it seemed like normal dry dirt.

‘So, this dirt is naturally black and not become after being charred? How strange’

Standing back up, Elyssia decided to follow the cobblestone road in the direction she arrived in.

‘Thankfully I put on my thick high heeled ankle boots, otherwise the cobblestones here would be hell!’

 

****

 

After a while of walking, Elyssa started to hear the sound of rhythmic breathing and what sounded like claws scraping on the cobblestone. Stopping and becoming alert, Elyssia crouched down slightly and got into an unarmed stance.

Thinking about what kind of creature could make those kinds of sounds she realised it sounded similar to a dog running on the street. Staying alert, Elyssia looked around to see if she could find a weapon without much luck since there was only dull looking grass and black dirt.

Elyssia focused her attention forward again and eventually a black dog whose height came up to Elyssia’s waist could be emerging from the fog in the distance.

Focusing on analysing the dog, the first thing that Elyssia noticed was the ferret like creature riding on the dog’s head. Had Elyssia not been in such a tense situation she would have likely laughed at the scene.

Spotting Elyssia, the dog reduced its speed and came to a stop a few metres away from her. The dog eyed Elyssia up and down, then started to circle her as if evaluating her.

Looking closely at the pair of animals, their demeanour was very different to that of normal animals. They seemed smarter and wiser, exhibiting almost human like traits.

Stopping once again in front of Elyssia, the kind voice of an older woman slightly echoed from the Dog in front of her.

“Greetings young one, you must be the one we are to bring back. Please, follow us”

Baffled by the apparently talking dog, Elyssia was confused as to why the dog was talking and why its mouth did not even move.

“Who are you? Why do you want me to follow?” Elyssia questioned.

A younger, jovial voice, come from the ferret answering her questions.

“The little doggy here is Hecuba, and this ADORABLE polecat’s name is Galinthias, but you can call me Gale”

Elyssia raised her eyebrow seeing the polecat standing up on its hind legs cupping its cheeks.

The dog shook its head in a way that seemed exasperated, causing the pole cat to tumble onto its back.

“There was no need for that!” Gale exclaimed.

“Well, you should have been sitting properly then.” Hecuba sighed

Looking closer at the pole cat, Elyssia realised that she had been wrong in her initial guess as to what Gale was, remembering that a pole cat was more muscular and had a bigger head than a ferret.

‘Apparently a bigger ego as well’ Elyssia chuckled to herself

Deciding that the duo was not hostile and that this was related to why she was taken here, Elyssia decided to follow them for information since she currently had no other options.

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“Very well, I will follow you. Would you mind telling me where we are?” Elyssia questioned, dropping out of her stance.

Starting to walk, Hecuba started to answer.

“Currently we are in the Cross-“

“Don’t spoil the fun! Wait for Mistress to explain, it will be more entertaining to see her expression then.” Gale interrupted.

“Ugh, you can be so annoying sometimes. I will play along with you for now” Hecuba replied with a slight growl.

Elyssia concluded from the conversations that Hecuba was the serious one out of the duo, while Gale was playful and could possibly like to trick and annoy people for fun.

Elyssia, not in the mood for playing games since she was just thrown into whatever place this is after having her reality shaken by her grandfathers’ revelations, turned to Gale.

“Look. I was having a nice conversation with my grandfather before finding myself here with no idea as to what’s going on. While I understand you may like to joke around, have some consideration for me in this situation. I just want to know what I have been thrown into before I end up dead. I’m sure you understand, RIGHT?”

“oooo, you seem to be a little bit cranky eh?” Gale retorted.

“And she has good reason to be. It’s a surprise that you have not been turned into a scarf in all these years from your troublemaking. Be patient young lady, you are perfectly safe here with us. We will take you to our mistress who can likely explain things better than us.” Hecuba explained, trying to ease Elyssia who was clearly becoming agitated.

“Now stop your taunting Gale or mistress will be annoyed”

“Fine, you two are so boring.” Gale replied

Deciding that if she continued to converse with Gale at the moment, she would only end up getting wound up, Elyssia decided to collect her thoughts about what her grandfather had divulged earlier and try to come up with a plan of what to do for now and what she needed to find out.

 

****

 

After another short while of walking, the trio reached a point in the cobblestone road where it diverged into 5 roads that travelled off in different directions.

‘I assume then that Hecuba was going to call this place the crossroads earlier. If that’s so, I guess the name is quite obvious. But this all seems somewhat familiar?’

Elyssia continued to follow Hecuba as she walked down one of the roads, lost in thought.

 

****

 

Eventually the fog started to thin out as a large Victorian style mansion started to become visible as they walked closer. Given the setting with the black earth and wispy black fog, the house looked slightly creepy. Elyssia would have thought it was haunted if the lights inside the house were not so bright.

Turning her head towards Elyssia, Hecuba spoke up.

“We have arrived, when we go inside you will meet our mistress.”

Looking back at Hecuba, Elyssia nodded and focused back on the mansion, cautious as to any sudden changes.

As the trio walked up the small wooden stairs onto the porch, the front door suddenly opened up.

Startled, Elyssia jumped back, immediately taking up a fighting stance.

Looking towards the open door with the blinding light, Elyssia could see the figure of someone. As her eyes quickly adjusted to the light, she saw it was a young lady in her mid 20’s with hair as black as the night falling down to her waist.

She had beautiful facial features, just a little more beautiful than her mother Helens face, with bright golden eyes. Her irises held a hint of other colours like blue, silver, black and green around the pupil. She wore a white dress that went over her shoulders exposing the pale white skin of her arms. The dress, flowing down to her calves was drawn in at the waist by a golden rope belt that had been wrapped around multiple times.

Looking at Elyssia who was on guard, she smiles.

“welcome, please come in”

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