Sosa`s feet drummed a desperate rhythm on the earth. The armour clung to her like a baby to its mother. She broke through the buildings and had a view once more of the trees.

　　There was nothing.

　　She stared, searching for any movement. The rain had left them alone all day, but the air had been unsettled and trees weaved in the gusts; there was movement everywhere. She sighed through gritted teeth. Where had she seen them, exactly?

　　There, finally, she saw a single figure, a woman who had not yet crossed into the forest. Please, she thought, please if Mmawe is there at all, let that one be her. The others could walk to their deaths. Let that one be her.

　　Her muscles burned but Sosa ignored the pain and pushed harder, flying across the open land between the village and the trees

　　Mmawe!` It came out a breathless rasp. The woman had gone, stepped into the trees, swallowed into the darkness. No.`

　　Sosa knew how bad it got, she knew how strongly the dark could pull. Sosa and Talon had had each other. Kala should have had them both.

　　She knew how the dark called to her even next to the protection of the light from the spear. She knew how it stained her mind, colouring her thoughts. She should have known, should have done more but there had been barricades to build, chiefs to elect, traditions to rewrite, funerals to attend, wounded to organise, villagers to pacify, Elders to persuade. Now she was here, charging into the bulging darkness where she was about to hear her mother`s dying scream.

　　Tears mingled with the sweat stinging her eyes but there was also anger. Anger towards her mother who had looked to her with the same red eyes as the others, as she struggled to organise everyone, to bring the village together. Was it unreasonable to expect her mother to keep herself alive? If nothing else, surely her family should have been enough of a reason not to do this?

　　That was unfair. Sosa had considered letting herself fall from a tree for no reason but the whispering darkness. She had not once thought of her mmawe.

　　Sosa hit the first line of trees and plunged into the dark.

　　Mmawe?` Strange that out in the dark, surrounded by claws and malevolent trees, she felt free to scream in a way she never had in the village.

　　Kala!`

　　She stopped running and listened, but the forest was full of the usual sounds which echoed and mocked. Rushing blood and her own breath filled her ears. There was no sign of her mother, of anything.

　　She stood alone, feeling the darkness creep into her and feed her fear. The trees looked the same in all directions, just trunks swallowed by the unnatural black.

　　As she moved, the black parted for her, falling before the light from her armour, but it closed behind, shutting her into a tight bubble. Eleris managed to clear the forest in every direction when she walked through it. Talon was able to control the light, force it to his will. Sosa had managed to lend her light to Talon, but it had been he who had controlled it. Here she was a firefly in the fog and the darkness was smothering. Her mother could be a few paces away and she would not know.

　　She could be dead by now, Sosa thought. No. If the bodaki had taken her at least Sosa would have heard that. It might be the only way she`d find her mother in the this darkness.

　　Every direction looked the same. They`d done this once - navigated to another village. The forest`s edge was yards away, how had she got this lost?

　　You charged in without thinking, came the answer. She felt foolish. Her hands felt empty. The spear was back in the chamber, where Kala must have left it. How had she intended to rescue her mother if she even found her?

　　Calm! Think. She stopped, held her breath and listened. The creatures in the trees filled the air with sound, the only sound.

　　No. Listen.

　　A rustle, something weak, struggled in the undergrowth. She spun in the direction of the sound and ran, making it three strides before running into something hard. She cried out, falling backwards, but the ground knocked the air from her lungs and she tensed, waiting for the pounce that would follow.

　　It did not come.

　　She struggled to her feet, gasping for air.

　　Don`t look back, just run.

　　No. If she ran away she would only run deeper into the woods. She had to look back.

　　Her attacker was only a tree branch.

　　Sosa.` An arm reached for her from darkness. The voice was muffled, the mouth lost in the black. Even then she could tell who it was.

　　Mmawe!` She stepped closer, and the dark retreated, uncovering her mother`s face.A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

　　Where am I?` She blinked as if awoken from troubled sleep.

　　Get up!` She ran towards her mother and Kala threw out a hand. Sosa reached for her, but Kala`s mouth split into a wide scream, eyes screwed tight in pain. Kala jerked back into the dark. Their fingertips brushed. Kala landed, half hidden in the black and looked back. Sosa lunged, reaching, but Kala was yanked again, disappearing from view. Sosa landed with a cry as some protruding root dug into her thigh.

　　From somewhere just ahead, the dark screamed back.

　　No!` she shrieked, tears and sweat once more stinging her eyes, Mmawe!`

　　Another scream answered her from just beyond the dark. She struggled up and forwards, stopped, listened, stared at the solid wall of darkness, and ran again. Just beyond her vision, there were groans; rapid exhalations of pain. A pained voice called her name. She ran again, and another yelp cut off the voice. She could hear her mother being dragged away. Then the voice, but this time weaker.

　　Sosa fought the compulsion to run again. They were luring her deeper into the trees.

　　Maybe they were luring her out of the village leaving it undefended. Perhaps that was their plan. Or maybe it was her they wanted and were leading her to a trap. It had been dusk when she`d run from the village, for all she knew, the dark was already flooding the clearing and pouring into the council chamber. She had left Talon with only a single piece of armour and the spear to defend them. Could he draw enough light from just those pieces to defend all those people?

　　Maybe he only needed to defend the entrance. Maybe that would be enough?

　　She felt a cold dread. It would be, she realised, if only someone had managed to barricade the other door. Sosa`s stared into the nothing, holding her breath. She`d been so busy playing guardian, pretending she was Eleris and ordering Elders about, overseeing funeral processions and being important that she had forgotten to finish her one and only actual job. She was no better than the Elders she complained so much about. She`d even killed one of them for it. She deserved no better herself.

　　Sosa?` croaked a voice from just beyond the veil of darkness. It sounded so weak, so full of pain. Her eyes closed and tears flowed. She was so tired. She could not do this any more.

　　The voice was so close that if she reached out, with her eyes closed, she would be able to touch her mother`s fingertips. She didn`t try, she knew the things watching her would not allow it.

　　Mmawe, no.`

　　Sosa. Don`t&` her mother began, but something dragged her backwards into the dark and far out of reach, out of sight.

　　Then it made her scream.

　　Rage burst from Sosa`s mouth. Thigh muscles bunched and quivered as, exhausted, they pushed her back to her feet. The light from her armour flared and she used the pressure of her anger to push it outwards. The dark retreated, burned by the glow of her wrath.

　　She ran. The circle of light grew, pushing out and moving further and further ahead of her. There was a flash of flesh, human skin, wet and slick with blood. She ran harder, pushed harder at the light, but the things were faster.

　　Mmawe!` Her legs burned with pain, but she didn`t stop. The air rushed over her, cooling her skin as sweat poured from her.

　　Then her foot hit a root. Pain shot from the top of her foot to her knee and she was thrown to the ground. She tried to send the light on ahead, but once she had stopped moving so too did it.

　　Please.`

　　The bodaki knew no mercy. Sosa knelt in the vegetation, her blood pulsed so hard she could feel it in every part of her body, breath ripping in and out with angry, helpless cries.

　　They gave her barely a moment before they made her mother scream again.

　　No, no, no, please no.` Sosa wept.

　　They were not going to let her win.

　　She slammed her fists into the detritus of the forest floor, and screamed. Screamed for her mother. Screamed in fury at the bodaki.

　　As her screams mingled with her mother`s, the black bulged against her light.

　　Trembling, Sosa knelt in the dark. She had the powerful glowing armour. She had even learned some control over the light. And still she was still going to lose. There was nothing she could do to save her mother. Then a much darker thought entered her head.

　　Die. Please die so I don`t have to listen to this any longer. She pulled up her knees and wept into her legs.

　　In the darkness ahead, her mother sucked in painful breaths of air. Behind her Talon defended the village alone as the dark pressed in on all side and seeped through the back door she had failed to close. The bodaki would get in, they would be killing everyone&

　　Sosa sat in the middle, helpless. Useless.

　　Then it all fell silent.

　　The bodaki`s frenzy ended. The sounds of the insects and the trees, the noise of the things that lived safely within the darktrees stopped. Even the wind dropped and left the canopy still for a moment.

　　She could hear laboured breathing somewhere beyond the edge of her light.

　　Mmawe?` she whispered.

　　So&` the broken voice trailed off.

　　Something, some pressure, pushed her to the floor. Sosa felt like a child awaiting punishment, transcendent beyond fear or despair. She felt like a deep cut awaiting the blood. The air settled on her, heavily. She tried to still her own breath, to make herself quiet. The urge to run, to hide, became strong.

　　The bodaki were still, silent. Even Kala`s cries ceased.

　　There was something out there. Something else. Something awful. Something even the fearless guardian had been afraid of, had fled from.

　　Sosa,` the broken voice tried again.

　　I`m here, Mmawe,` Sosa whispered, I`m sorry, I can`t&` but she couldn`t finish.

　　Sosa, please,` came the voice, run.`

　　Sosa swallowed. The silence pressed down hard enough to crush her. She forced herself onto shaking legs. This time when Kala`s voice cut through the black it was not weak. It was a scream as loud any the bodaki had elicited from her. Run!`

　　Fear swelled in Sosa`s head and pushed out all other thoughts, the anger, the frustration, the exhaustion. There was only terror.

　　She was afraid of something she could she not hear, something she could not see. Something whose presence froze even the fearsome bodaki.

　　Sosa looked into the dark towards the voice.

　　I`m sorry, Mmawe. I will come back for you.`

　　Then she ran.

　　It was so still that she could hear the voices from the village. She could even pick out Talon giving instructions.

　　Had they not heard the screams?

　　No, she realised, not over the sound of their labours.

　　Would they notice the silence?

　　As she fled, the feeling of dread eased. Whatever this thing was, perhaps it was just passing by. They had run from it once with Eleris. Maybe they had felt its presence earlier without realising. Sosa only knew she never wanted to find out what that thing was.

　　The feeling passed. Whatever it was had moved away. Sosa stopped, uncertain. The noise of the bodaki returned, but with it came another sound. A scream. Not Kala, not this time. This was a man. A second rose to join it, this a child. A third, a fourth.

　　Sosa sagged as she realised the whole picture. Those who had followed the darkness were now in the claws of the bodaki. The bodaki didn`t need to take the villagers by force, not tonight. The bodaki had learned new tricks.

　　You bastards,` she whispered.

　　Tonight they would make the villagers come to them.