The Mantis Variant - Book One - 10. Chapter 10 - Agrell, Dozi, & Ilya

"You've got yourself quite a little savior," Dozi commented, as Ilya opened her eyes.

She tried to sit up.

"Whoa, take it easy, girl," Dozi encouraged.

Ilya's eyes were unfocused, but the pain in her side was a precision fury like being electrocuted. "They're coming," she groaned.

"Oh-ho," Dozi chuckled in disbelief. She gave Ilya a confused look and replied. "Don't you worry about them. Agrell's done them right. I told her they were after you for your mantis gland, being a Shift and all, and well, you won't need to be worrying about that lot again." A thought came to Dozi and she added, "Mind you, when we leave this place, don't look back the way you came. Straight to the city is the key. I'm Dozi."

Ilya slowly began to gain her bearings. The wound in her side was making it hard to think, though it seemed under control. She looked around.

Dozi was kneeling beside her.

Ilya was still naked but she was wrapped in a large hooded cloak. The arrow was gone and the wound was dressed with some torn cloth as a makeshift bandage.

"How did you know that I," she began, but Dozi answered her before she could finish.

"The men who did that to you eventually tracked your blood trail to the rockway along the water's edge. You were unconscious, and a little while after we dealt with that shit," and Dozi pointed at the shaft and feathers of the arrow; its head was missing, "we could hear men arguing. We headed out of the cave and they started shouting at us that there was a dangerous Shift who came this way."

Dozi made another perplexed face and continued. "Well, turns out our girl Agrell has a gentle spot for people in unfortunate situations, and a very tough spot for people who hurt Shifts." She shook her head.

"You've lost some serious blood," Dozi noted, "but the wound actually does not seem to have done much damage. One of the mystics in the Spritehood will know what you need, but for now, you've gotta regain your strength a little before we head back out. Do you think you could eat some of this?" and Dozi held out a cold meat pie. "It's not much, but it'll fill you up. I made it myself," she added.

"Now, look," Dozi continued, as Ilya took a bite, "whatever you think, Agrell's not who she appears to be. She's new, and she's lost, and nothing that's happened to her is her fault. You've got to understand that and look past the thing that you're likely to realize first. She's not what you think."

"I don't understand," Ilya said thickly with a mouth full of food.

Dozi gave her a worried look. "Just don't believe what you're eyes tell you," she reiterated.

The meat pie was gone after another few bites, and Ilya said, "I think I can stand. Thank you for that."

"Let me help you. Take it easy. We found some driftwood that might work as a cane or crutch to help you walk." Dozi rose and assisted Ilya in slowly getting to her feet.

The injured young woman gasped in pain and gripped firmly into Dozi's arm.

"It's okay," Dozi encouraged. "I've gotcha. What do we call you?"

"Ilya," she replied through gritted teeth.

They positioned the wood under her arm, and the two stepped out into the sunshine. The grey of the day before was now only a smudge on the horizon.

"It's morning?" Ilya asked.

"Yeah, you slept through the night," Dozi confirmed, as Ilya inadvertently looked back up the rockway towards the beach.

Agrell was standing with her back to them and looking out at the ocean. A pile of mangled flesh sat on the stones behind her. The sun shimmered off a massive red smear on the wall, and miscellaneous body parts were strewn around the rocks at her feet.

Ilya recognized Agrell's garb at once. "She a Messiah from the Lovegood cult?!" she squawked, but the exertion sent a fresh bolt of pain raging through her body and she leaned hard on the crutch.

"No," Dozi corrected gently, "she was born and raised there, and forced into becoming a Messiah when she turned 18, which was just a few days ago. They cut off her cousin's head when it turned out that the boy was a Shift, and after they made her become a Messiah, she ran away. She's been in the city for less than 24 hours."

Dozi added, "I think she was picturing the leadership of the cult while she was pulling those men's limbs off. She squashed one of their heads against the stones like it was a grape." Dozi sucked air through her teeth and shook her head.

Ilya just stared.

"You should have heard the screaming," Dozi commented in a voice that almost sounded wistful. "Hers I mean. They were screaming too, of course, but her fury was quite something to hear. I watched," Dozi added in an almost guilty tone. She sounded dumbfounded. "I watched as she slaughtered them. She'd been such a quiet girl," but then Dozi turned to Ilya, "and I told you not to look," she said with a scolding tone. "Let's get you out of here. Agrell!" Dozi called out, "We're leaving!"

Standing with the sun beaming down on her, Agrell looked like a statue, a seaside sentinel that stares out at the ships returning to port. She turned and approached the other young women, and Ilya realized that Agrell was just a skinny little thing who stood a full head shorter than her.

"Are you okay?" Agrell asked in a timid voice. She looked up into Ilya’s eyes. "I took that arrow out of you."

"Thank… you…" Ilya said with an unsure voice, eyeing Agrell's blood-soaked body.

Dozi nodded to her in encouragement.

Ilya asked, "How did you remove it?"

Agrell's face lit up. "I held the shaft where it was sticking out of your back and snapped off the head. Then I pinched in the bit where the metal was sharp and twisted, and Dozi carefully pulled it out. She bandaged you up."

"But it's only temporary," Dozi added. "Enough talking for now. Let's get you back to the city."

"Would you like me to carry you?" Agrell offered.

Ilya looked down at the scrawny and bloody girl with an expression of disbelief and disgust.

"I'm really strong," Agrell added with a little uncertainty in her voice.

"Wait," Dozi said to her, "turn your clothes inside out. That will make them and you less recognizable to anyone in the city."

Agrell looked dumbfounded.

"She's right," seconded Ilya. "You stand out in your cult garb."

"If you don't want to be noticed," Dozi added, "the first rule is, don't stand out. Go on," she urged.

The two women stood and stared at Agrell, waiting for her to switch her clothes around so they could be on their way, but she did not move.

"I can't," she whispered, "take my clothes off."

"We don't want you to take your clothes off," Dozi said with a skewed look. "We want you to flip your clothes inside out so you blend in more."

"But I can't just get naked!"

Ilya opened the cape that they gave her and revealed her bare body beneath it, bandages and all. "No one is asking you to get naked," she said without closing the garment. "Suit yourself, but I knew who you were immediately. I mean not you personally, but I know you from your group, and others will as well." She winced at a fresh shock of pain in her side and clutched the makeshift crutch.

"I can carry you," Agrell mumbled, while she pulled her top up over her head. She was wearing a bra, but she still tried to cover her small breasts as she turned the shirt inside out. She yanked it forcefully back over her head.

Both women watched her with uninterested expressions.

Agrell slid her trousers off her narrow hips and again tried to prevent herself from being seen, before pulling them back onto her legs.

"Better," Ilya groaned to her through gritted teeth.

"Yeah," Dozi agreed, "the blue that everyone in your group wears is recognizable." She caught herself. "Sorry, your former group," she corrected. "Also, now the orange thing on the front is hidden. Inside out, the colors are subdued and the symbol is not eye-catching like it was."

Agrell tried to push aside her discomfort at having been exposed, and she re-stated her offer to Ilya. "Do you want me to carry you back to the city?"

The two of them may have appeared odd, with the skinny one carrying the much larger. However, Ilya weighed almost nothing in Agrell's slender but empowered arms.

"Did those men take your clothes?" Agrell asked in a nervous voice. "Did they do something to you?"

"You mean besides shoot me?" Ilya mumbled. She moaned against another electric shock of pain in her side, gasped, and squeezed her arms tight around Agrell's neck. "No," she said between struggling breaths, "they didn't take my clothes."

It was not long before the three young women arrived back at the edge of the Spritehood. Carrying Ilya was less convenient once they were on the narrow streets between the old military buildings, and she again walked with the crutch. It was not long before they located a mystic healer and entered the shop.

Behind the main counter, a round man with a mustache was seated in a large leather armchair. As he stood, it turned out that he was not much taller than Agrell, but easily more than twice her size. His hand shot up above his head and he wiggled his fingers at them in greeting. He was chewing a large mouthful of fluffy white cake with thick creamy frosting, and he gave them a smile with his cheeks bulged out like a chipmunk. The mustachioed fellow covered his mouth with his hand and rolled his eyes in an apologetic way. He then moved around his counter and swallowed.

"I'm sorry, dear ladies. I confess that you caught me right in the middle of a bite. Now, how may I be of service to you?" He was already peering at the oozing bandage on Ilya's face, but she opened the cape again, exposing her nudity and also revealing the much more serious wound.

The man immediately jumped into action. "Take her in the back, now," he commanded Agrell and Dozi, and he pointed to a door behind him. Then he started naming off things to himself that none of the women recognized. "Chiapple blood, calcium of the vigortree, Durga seeds and bark shavings. Let me see, let me see, there it is. Put her on the examination table," he called to them, "but get rid of that filthy cloak."

Agrell took the cape and looked away from the naked woman.

Ilya cringed as she sat onto the cushioned table and leaned back. She stretched out and made no effort to cover herself.

Agrell kept her eyes averted.

As the man entered, he grabbed a fresh sheet and whipped it open. He spread it over Ilya's torso so that only the wound on her side was exposed.

Agrell appreciated his courtesy.

"What happened to her?" he asked, as he daintily removed the bandage Dozi made in the moment.

Ilya winced in pain and sucked air through her teeth.

Dozi nudged Agrell's foot and spoke aloud to the man before the other girl could answer. "We don't know what happened to her. We found her outside the city limits and helped her get back."

"Nasty bit of work, this," the mystic commented, peering down at the wound. He looked up into Ilya's eyes. "You're lucky, doesn't look like it hit anything important," but then he added in a sympathetic tone, "except you. I'm sorry to make you do this, but I need you to sit up," and he put a hand behind her shoulders in assistance.

Tears streamed from Ilya’s eyes, as fresh agony radiated from her side, but the man helped her rise to a seated position.

"Drink this. It's a shot of whisper vinegar. You won't like the taste, but it'll do the trick for now."

"I'd go for a bite of that cake," Ilya mumbled in reply, but she obeyed. She gulped down the bitter beverage and swallowed, sputtering and coughing.

"You can have a whole slice of cake when we're done, my dear," he replied in a soothing voice.

He helped her rest back again as her eyelids began to flutter.

Dozi and Agrell watched their new companion as she received the mystic's ministrations. He made a thick paste from several ingredients and dipped two pieces of gauze into it. Very gently, he packed the wounds at the entry and exit point under Ilya’s ribs. He then spread some sort of thick sticky substance like tree sap over both openings and covered her side with fresh clean linen bandages.

The mystic removed the sheet, and Agrell looked away as Ilya's naked body was again exposed. He put a wrap around her ribs that went under her back, and he fastened it in place to hold the bandages secure, then he immediately covered her again with the sheet.

The little round man turned to the other two ladies. "She can rest here," he said, and he waved towards the front of his shop.

A lone individual was perusing the available wares and gave the three of them a little wave when they emerged from the back.

"Let me know if you need anything," the mystic called out to his customer, who nodded without looking back.

He then addressed Dozi and Agrell. "Would either of you like a piece?" and he waved at his half-eaten cake.

"Oh, yes, please, we'd each love one," Dozi responded right away, and the man smiled.

As he scrubbed the blood and ointments from his hands in a basin of water, Agrell asked Dozi, "Why did both of you use that word?"

"That's what they are," she replied.

"What who are?" the man asked innocently, as he withdrew a box from beneath the counter. He opened it to reveal most of a cake. It looked like only a single slice was removed prior to the one the man was enjoying when the three women arrived at his shop.

Dozi snapped, "Nothing," but then she gave the mystic a wide toothy smile and extended her hands with palms up toward him.

He made a gesture of surrender. "I meant no offense, good ladies. I've just always been curious by nature." The fellow removed slices of cake and set them onto two faded and chipped pieces of porcelain flatware. He placed one plate onto Dozi's palms, put the other on the counter in front of Agrell, and handed each of them a tarnished little silver dessert fork.

"My husband's birthday was yesterday," the man said with a beaming smile, "but he's not big on sweeties like I am," and the man rubbed his round belly before he shoveled another large bite of cake into his mouth.

Dozi dug right into her slice, but Agrell was unfamiliar with anything like the fluffy cloud of pale crumbliness, nor its shimmering white frosting. The cakes she grew up eating during the very few high celebrations each year, were things made of dense dough with too many dried fruits. They were drizzled daily in a high alcohol-content plum brandy for three entire months, and the end result was barely palatable, even though everyone in the community said how much they enjoyed the cakes. They commented on how lovely they looked, and how impressive it was that this or that member put so much time and care into the cake, but Agrell always thought that they were terrible.

She pressed the edge of the old silver fork into the frosting, and it sliced through the spongy dessert like it was little more than air. Then she put the bite in her mouth, and it was indeed much more than air. This cake was unlike anything Agrell had ever eaten. Its sweetness was delicate and its texture was silky. She thought it was like eating honeyed cream that was whipped into a fluffy mass of perfection.

Agrell's eyes lit up with an emotion that was foreign to her. The delicious decadence made her feel like she was floating, and made her feel like she might drift right out the door and sail off into the sunset. Her brain felt sparkly, and she said thickly through her first bite of the treat, "Wow, thishh ishh really good." She swallowed. "This is cake? The only cakes I've ever eaten were nothing like this."

Dozi nudged her below the counter where the mystic could not see, and she said, "You're right. I've never eaten cake this good either!" Dozi knew that she would need to have a talk about the way Agrell reacted to all her new experiences.

"I think I'll just help myself to another little wedge," the mystic said as he finished his piece, "so that you two aren't eating alone." He smiled wide and added another slice of cake to his plate.

*

Clear across Teshon City, a pack of hunters that called themselves Talin's Talons, were closing in on their prey. The scouts tracked the man for more than a week, a Shift that they claimed possessed the ability to harness devastating cosmic rays from his eyes.

Static crackled before one of them informed the others, "He's veered off course. Repeat, he's veered off course. The docks at the industrial district are no longer his destination. Your current positions are obsolete. He is now headed for Springwater Square."

"Move, hunters!" Talin ordered. He reminded his crew, "The Shift will look exactly like a human. There will be no distinguishing features that set it apart from you or me," he paused, "that is, until it's blasted a pair of holes in your torso. Claw One, you have the lead."

More static hissed. "You all know that we need to take the Shift out immediately," Claw One instructed. "Do not give it the opportunity to activate its ability or we will lose soldiers. Claws Six and Seven, you're with me to the west. We'll come in from the top, positioned on three of the buildings around Springwater Square. Two, Three, and Four will approach separately on ground level from the east. Claw Five and Talin will be our backup. Let's move! Get to your new positions!"

Moments later, three of them were climbing ladders to the tops of buildings, while the other three each laid eyes on their target. The square was quiet, as the night was slowly darkening.

The hiss of static was followed by multiple voices.

"Do you see it? Confirm."

"I see it."

"It's entering the square."

"We can't see it yet from our position."

"Hold."

There was a pause.

"Engage," Talin ordered.

His hunt pack was made up solely of Demifae. They moved in, and Claw Three reached their target first. He grabbed the man by his shoulder, spun him around, and hit him in the face. With the steel gauntlets that he wore, it was like being punched by a brick. Claw Three's attack dealt a devastating blow to the man's cheek, crushing the bones in his face and knocking him back. He fell to the pavement unconscious.

However, the defensive blasts that were fired from the man's eyes as a reflex also hit their target. The cosmic energies only appeared as a flash to Claw Three's fellow predators, and then they saw him standing motionless with his arm extended in the punch. Behind him, the pair of plasma projections punched deep divots into the thick wall of one of the old concrete buildings before the energy from them dissipated.

Claw Two stepped up to her fellow hunter.

Claw Three's body trembled for a moment, and he fell to the dusty street.

"Pity," Claw Two tutted down at him.

The few civilians in the square ran from it in terror.

Claw Three's neck and one shoulder were pierced with a pair of smoldering holes about the width of a large coin. The cosmic rays cut clear through his flesh.

Claw One began to descend from the top of his building, and Claws Six and Seven followed. They joined the other hunters in the square and ran towards Claw Two, as she stepped up to their bloody quarry.

She put the heel of her boot on his neck, pressed the toe to his cheek, and held his head against the pavement to keep his eyes pointed away from her. Her face was suddenly full of horrible rage, as she drew a blade from her belt and thrust it into his heart.

The man's eyes flashed open and multiple blasts fired against another one of the buildings. Concrete particles were sent flying around the square like shrapnel, but Claw Two ripped the blade out of his chest, and blood gushed from the hole. His energies failed him, as he gurgled and coughed up his life's fluid, and was dead.

"Shift filth!" Claw Two spat, and she took her foot from his throat.

Talin and the others ran up to the murdered man and their dead companion. "Damnit," he growled. "Leave One's body, and take that Shift's head.”✪