Angel on the Edge (3 page)

She walked over toward the water, her movements
graceful, and her steps confident as she didn't look to see if he
was following.

Was this the angel he had been called to find? Do
all angels look like this?

With a grimace, Dale pulled himself to his feet, the
itching of his ankles grew to a small burn before settling once
again to an irritation he forced himself to ignore.

"Where is this Learnie and where am I?"

"So full of questions, and yet you should be
answering ours. You'd be dead like the rest if we didn't risk our
necks keeping you alive."

Dale flinched at the sharp look in her eyes before
her features softened, and she smiled as she dipped the tips of her
fingers into the water. He didn't know what to say or think as the
small oasis within the dead forest remained silent. She had to be
the angel that protected them from the demons; he was certain of
it, but she wasn't at all what he had imagined.

Leather straps held metal plating that fit tight
against her body. Unlike knights he read about in history books and
fairy tales, her outfit was tightly fit to her body though it
allowed her to move with perfect grace. Reflecting the light of the
moon above, he could see the metal plates that were hidden beneath
the thick leather as it protected and hugged her curves.

"Come, my friend, meet who has given us such a
headache," she whispered into the night air.

Rumbling echoed into the small alcove as the center
of the pool began to ripple violently. The outside perimeter of the
water began to swirl as the entire pond became an eddy as the
shadows sank below the surface. Dale backed up a few steps while
his eyes watched the head of a creature, scaly and covered in mud,
slowly rise from the depths. With two heads, elongated at the nose
and with forked tongues like a serpent, Dale watched as it extended
itself fifteen feet above the water. Its arms, vine-like limbs that
puckered with thorns from its clawed hands to its shoulders. They
snaked their way across the top of the dark liquid as the creature
settled itself, and the spiraling water calmed as it waded into the
center of the pond. The burning in Dale's ankles returned as he
eyed the razors that had cut deep into him.

"He is sorry about that," she replied as if she
could read his mind. "He really can't stop the poison once he wraps
onto his prey, I made sure he only injected you with enough to pull
you through to safety. It will go away in a few days if you are
still alive."

She turned and walked back to where he had awoken.
For the first time, he saw the small single bed that remained no
more than five feet from where he had been laying. Vines stretched
between two bare tree trunks with soft leaves the size of Dale's
head laid down to build a simple looking hammock. A single chair
made of a stump and curved branches sat beside it.

"What do you mean if I am still alive?"

The words stumbled as they left his lips, and his
heart began to race again as dread tickled down his spine.

"You do want to go home don't you?" She smiled as
she pushed the netting of the bed back to seat herself before
lifting her feet to sway into the air. "I assume you didn't come
out here to live by yourself or commit suicide. Well, I assumed
that was the case."

An inquisitive look passed over her face as a
silence fell between them.

"I did want to go home, but not before I found
you."

"Find me?" She sat forward with her feet firmly
planted on the ground and her chin resting in her hand. "Now why
would you want to find me, and what makes you think I would want to
be found."

"You're an angel, and you protect my village."

Her laughter echoed throughout the haven. Even the
large hydra churned the water behind him.

"An angel? What religious rhetoric have they got you
believing in that small village you call home?" She rose to her
feet and began walking away from him and around the water, her look
turned to the sky above before she continued. "You're just a
dreamer kid, playing games with his life and making mine more
difficult."

"Then you're not the angel that called to me? I
swore I've seen you before, in my dreams."

"Boys see many women in their dreams, sometimes it
can make them do ‘silly' things with themselves when they are
alone."

She continued to walk along the perimeter of the
wall, and he was surprised to find himself following.

"This wasn't just a dream, I could feel it, even
when I was awake."

He followed her closely though she did not turn or
indicate she cared.

"OK, tell me. What did I say to you in these dreams?
Was I naughty?" She chuckled as she flicked a small pebble into the
dark pool.

In response, the hydra slashed one its arms into the
water sending a jet of spray high into the air and splattering
against the wooden barrier.

"No!" Dale answered in a voice meant to defend the
angel from his dreams. "Most of the time you didn't say or do
anything, you just watched over us. But lately things have
changed."

She stopped in her tracks so suddenly he almost
stumbled into her.

"How have things changed?" She asked; her head
tilted so he could see the side of her face though her eyes
remained looking ahead.

"Lately you have been coming to me directly,
whispering that I needed to find you." He hesitated as she didn't
respond, the images from his last dream vivid in his mind. "The
last one, you stood right in front of me until the shadows closed
in. You had a weapon, a sword of light like nothing I've ever seen
before." Dale could feel his heart continue to race as she turned a
little more toward him, the look on her face inquisitive, yet
enough to stop him dead.

"And?" She asked impatiently.

"Oh yes, you turned back to face the darkness alone,
but not without telling me I must come to find you. I needed to
find you."

Silence quickly became the third wheel between them
again as neither of them spoke for a few moments.

"Dreams of a young boy. This time they almost got
you killed."

She waved him off as she turned and began walking
once more. The ground at their feet began to dry as Dale noticed
the scuff marks from something being dragged from the wall.

"Look, can you tell me the truth?" Dale pleaded. His
soul was crumbling as the angel he knew existed stood right before
him, yet she was still no closer. "Who are you if you aren't an
angel?"

She stopped. A small sigh escaped her lips before
she turned to face him. In the moonlight, her hair was almost white
as it waved and fell gently across her shoulders.

"You have no need to know who or what I am. It is
best we get you back to your village before anyone notices you are
gone, and I'm stuck with the whole lot of you running around this
forest. Keep your dreams to yourself next time kid, listen to your
friends, and stay out of the forest."

With her final words, they approached the wall where
most of the soil had been disturbed. From the outside, he had been
unable to see any weakness in the barrier, the gnarled trees an
impenetrable force. As she ran her hand across the dry bark, he
could see where small fissures worked their way up along the limbs
to form the entryway that the hydra must have used to drag him
in.

"OK, if you are going to send me home, can you at
least tell me if you saw my father's dagger?

Dale could feel the emptiness on his belt, as heavy
as his heart in his stomach. He hadn't thought about it until the
idea of venturing back out into the forest finally settled in his
mind. Everything he dreamed of was crushed, his angel, the one
woman who meant more to him than the world, didn't care for him at
all. He was just another villager who needed to stay behind the
wall.

"If you had it with you when you came in, it is
probably still around here. Learnie has no need for the things, and
I haven't seen it," she replied before she whispered a few words
that Dale could barely hear.

Cracks opened, and dry bark flaked off the wall as
the doorway to the forest began to take shape. Dale fought the urge
to back away as he forced himself to examine the grass by his feet.
He must have dropped it when he was dragged through, maybe it even
caught itself in some of the vines.

Desperation began to build slowly inside as he could
see her standing there watching. She didn't want to wait any
longer, her right foot tapping the ground as Dale dropped to his
knees.

"It's the only thing I have left from my father. I
was never given the chance to know the man," Dale said while trying
to hide the tremble in his voice.

Her features softened for a moment, her foot no
longer tapping as she looked down at him.

"Sometimes our fathers are still around, even if you
don't see them," she replied though her face looked sad. "That's at
least what I tell myself."

"You lost your father as well?" Dale asked the small
sensation of relief struggled to take hold as she crouched to
help.

"People would say that, but I am not so sure."

"What do you mean? How could you not know?"

"Be quiet and keep looking," she answered with a
voice that would allow no argument. "I'll help you for a few more
minutes, and then we are gone."

"Wait! I see something."

Dale's heart stopped for a moment as the polished
metal surface of the blade caught the moonlight above when he
pushed away the knee high grass that lined the wall. The blade had
sliced its way into the wood, splintering several inches into the
dead tree.

"That looks," she said but hesitated with the
rest.

He could feel her stand and back away as he cleared
the rest of the weeds and revealed the wrapped hilt and blade.

"Are you sure that is your father's?" She asked, now
standing near the dark pool with the Hydra, who was churning the
water.

"Of course," he replied as he reached for the
weapon.

Warmth flooded his veins the moment his skin touched
the oiled leather grip, and the shadows within the hideaway
retreated before him. A bright light exploded before his vision as
he stumbled away from the wall, dagger in hand as the hard ground
caught his fall, and the breath retreated from his lungs.

With a push from his elbows, he turned to his angel
and her pet, but she was no longer there. What stood before him was
the same angel from his dreams. Long golden hair fell gently over
her bare shoulders as a thin dress of fine silk hugged her body as
it gracefully swayed in the air until it settled at her feet.

The Hydra was no longer a two-headed serpent. Light
danced and swayed as it circled an older man, naked as the day he
was born decades before. Darkness and shadow orbited within the
light around him, his features lost as the thunderous clouds of
magic pulled at his being but retreated in an unending fight with
the darkness that radiated from him like an aura.

"What…What is this?" Dale asked, lifting the blade
to his face.

Untouched blue steel stretched out before him,
hammered to perfection the knife was no longer a simple dagger, but
the pristine blade of a sword with etchings of a language he could
not read.

"Where did you get that?"

He could hear her voice, it was distant and had no
effect as his eyes were drawn to the light that pulsed from within
the power of his weapon.

"I said, where did you get that?"

Dale felt the strong hands as they gripped the front
of his shirt and forcibly lifted him from the ground. He could see
her face reflected in the light, but her beauty was no match for
the grace of the shining white light. It warmed him down to his
core, a feeling he had not known in all of his life.

"Give me that!" She shouted as she wrenched the
blade from Dale's hand.

An explosion ripped the space between them as Dale
tumbled toward the black pool. Cool water filled his boots as he
pulled himself free from the watery embrace, mud and seaweed
dripping from his shirt. His angel rested against the forest
barrier, the soil and bushes blown to the side where her body
collided with the wall. Remaining on the ground was his father's
dagger, silent and untouched, the silvery blade had fallen where
they once stood.

"Are you OK?" Dale asked as he made his way over,
the sight of where she had cracked three of the trees more
concerning then his father's blade.

"Yeah I'm OK you oaf, do you know what that thing
is?"

Dale turned back to the knife on the ground, his
angel wiping away the leaves and twigs from her armor.

"No, should I?"

"If I'm correct, and my aching shoulder tells me I
am, where I am from they call it the ‘Right Hand.'"

"The ‘Right Hand' of what?"

Dale felt the tremors down at his feet as the small
rocks rattled against the soles of his boots. The second tremor was
stronger as it shook the ground at their feet, strong enough that
she grabbed his shoulder to help stabilize them both.

"Use your imagination, genius. The one thing I know
is, wherever that thing goes, trouble follows."

The stars above them blacked out as a boiling mass
of dark clouds rolled over the wooden walls. Water began to boil as
the hydra climbed higher above the pool, its venomous teeth bared
and its limbs coiled back as the third tremor dropped both of them
to their knees.

"Do you know how to fight?"

Dale couldn't answer before the gnarled barricade
that separated them from the demons exploded.

* * *

"Run!"

Dale heard the angel scream before she evaporated
into a ball of light and steamrolled into the darkness that fell
over the opening in the wall. Wood logs and splinters littered the
ground around him, the gap between their oasis and the world of the
forest now gone as the hole was large enough to roll in an old
Chevy truck.