Kendrick awakened slowly, and looked around. He was lying on the ground, The hem of his jeans damp from the moss around him. His head resting on a stone. The clearing he lay in, surrounded by tall trees, and twilight. The stars are brighter than they’ve ever been. He doesn’t know how he got here, or where here even is. Kendrick’s last memory was standing at the window in his kitchen, watching the waves from the ocean, while he talked to his mother on the phone. He remembers saying good night to his mom and disconnecting the call. There was a woman on the beach in a white bikini, he remembers that because the white stood out against the darkness of the sky. But he went to bed afterward. He’s almost sure of it. But he can’t recall going into his bedroom, or even dozing off on the sofa. But here he is now, fully rested in a place that is clearly far away from San Diego. The more Kendrick looks around the more confused he becomes. He stood and began to pat himself down, searching for his cell phone finding only empty pockets. Which is even more strange, because he always has something in his pockets. His wallet, chapstick, cellphone, or keys. But none of those are there. Okay definitely a dream then, Kendrick thinks. He noticed how preternaturally quiet it was. Every other forest or wood he’s been in was alive with noises. There was nothing but him. All he heard was his heartbeat and the rustling of his jeans when he moved. Kendrick couldn’t stay in this spot any longer, it was just too weird. He wants to see if the dream can take him someplace familiar, and maybe even less creepy. The sky seems to darken with distance. Kendrick walked a few feet to the east, and turned to see nothing but forest. The clearing where he was laying was gone. He couldn’t have gone that far, it had to be a yard maybe less. “What kind of lucid dream is this?” He mumbled under his breath. He’s had lucid dreams before, but none he could control to this extent. His grumblings cut off when he heard rustling from somewhere to his left. Or was it his right? All at once the rustling sounded all around him. Kendrick stopped walking and tried to shrink himself in the shadows, but the starlight reflected off of the neon colors in his graphic t-shirt. He grimaced and tried to hide them with his hand, before giving up when he heard a voice.
“Don’t be afraid Kendrick.” The harmonious voice almost singing the words. Kendrick immediately calmed. His hands dropped to his side. The sky now light, the sun shining, birds chirping and a cool breeze rustled, as the uzuri walked towards him. She stopped a few feet away, silently commanding the sunshine to remain, while the wind blew her cerulean hair away from her pointed ears. Her severe cheekbones alienesque, her eyes large and round. She studied Kendrick, while he studied her. She wanted Kendrick to see her as beautiful, so he did. He saw her fair skin kissed with gold, her teeth sharp and small, lips full and wanton. Kendrick watched her lick her lips slowly, her forked tongue flicking at him, making him shudder with excitement. The uzuri calmed the wind, and dimmed the brightness of the sun a bit, causing the temperature to drop several degrees. Kendrick shivered again as the uzuri took his hand. “Don’t be afraid Kendrick, I’ll take good care of you.” Her voice somehow sounded like a harmony of three, soothing to Kendrick’s ears.
She took his hand and placed it on her waist. She pressed into him close, brushing her breasts against his chest. He held her tight, mesmerized by her every move. She lay her hand against his face, her webbed fingers caressing his sideburns. She stared into Kendrick’s eyes. Working her magic so that, while he’d see her for who she is, he’d only find her beautiful. Her powers would be stronger if she fed more often.She would have the ability to change her appearance to Kendrick, but since she was so hungry, Kendrick would see her forked tongue, maybe even her webbed fingers, and pointed ears. She didn’t mind much, he was enthralled, and thus hers. She worked her magic in and out of his chest, being very precise as to keep him hers. It had been a long time since she’s fed from a human this pure, and she was going to make sure she savored every second of it. The uzuri could feel her magic slowly waning. She had to keep him enthralled long enough to get him to her den. Her den was coated in magic, magic she’d stored and she wouldn’t need to work so hard to keep him under her spell. While holding his gaze she raked her tongue across his bottom lip. Her saliva glistened against his umber skin. She tried not to tremble, with both lust and excitement. He was everything she dreamed a meal could be. He was pure, not pure like a virgin, no that was too rare unless one feasted on children, which was always forbidden to the uzuri. No, his purity is how he shared himself. Only with those he loved. She drew him closer still, feeling his excitement press against her, through the thin fabric of her dress. She couldn’t help but grind against him. She wanted so badly to take him right there, but his heart was not fully hers yet. The magic in the binding needed just a little more time to make him fully love her. Kendrick wrapped both his arms around her, pressing his forehead to hers, breathing in the rotten apple scent, but still enjoying it. The uzuri broke away, holding Kendrick’s hand and leading him deeper into the forest.
Kendrick, content to be led away, no longer questioned where he was. He was with her. She had become his everything. All of his thoughts were about her. To Kendrick she was beautiful. The most beautiful woman in the world. He saw no imperfections, sensed no danger. She moved gracefully through the trees. The sun shining, showing the subtle differences in the hue of her hair. To him, she smelled like home and that is where he wanted to be.
The uzuri hurried along the memorized path towards the entrance to her den. She sensed that they were being watched. She’d worried about the nunashi finding her, and based on the sounds behind her, her fear was warranted. She smelled a nunashi. At least one of them was close. She knew they were pack hunters, she also knew they’d never harm a human. They fancied themselves protectors of the pure, and a sworn enemy of the uzuri. She was not prepared for a fight. For the hundredth time she wished she could survive longer than a few minutes on the earth realm. But whatever magic the nunashi wove onto the physical earth plane kept the uzuri from being able to survive longer than a few moments. She had to jump planes several times to pull Kendrick here. Her magic didn’t work on the astral plane, not well enough to feed. And that was the only plane her weak magic would carry her to. She didn’t even have enough magic to open a portal to take him straight to her den. She’d had to save all she had in order to open a portal here and mesmerize him enough to walk back to her den.
She had an idea. The nunashi would not attack Kendrick. She stopped and turned to face him. Noting the calm, serene look on his face. She leaned into him again and smiled into his eyes. She quickly used her magic to communicate what she wanted from him. Each command became more difficult as the nunashi began to throw rocks and make noises. Not to distract her, but to break Kendrick’s concentration. The more he thought about what was actually happening the less her magic held. Kendrick found it hard to keep eye contact with the uzuri. Each time a rock fell he looked in that direction, and saw darkness. The sunlight and beauty of the day were gone. A putrid smell of rotten fruit assaulted his nose. He tried to pull away from the thing in front of him, but she held fast. His vision blurred as this wretched looking alien thing with unreal eyes, blue hair, webbed fingers and a forked tongue hazed into his beautiful curvaceous woman with the same imperfections but he loved them in one moment and loathed them in another. The sudden changes made him nauseous. He staggered backward as the uzuri’s magic frantically flowed into him. She pressed a small object in his hand and hastily stood behind him. She hoped her plan would work. She braced herself for a fight while Kendrick doubled over, heaving with his hands on his knees. She knew she gave him too much, but she didn’t have any other choice. He had to be hers. She needed this. Her species was dying. It was all or nothing. She’d used so much of her magic, she could no longer hold the illusion of the sunny woods. From the darkness she heard the nunashi all speak at once. “Foolish uzuri, you know you cannot have him.” “Little uzuri, are you lost?” “Let him go uzuri, this isn’t right!” “Human, you must follow us to survive, we can take you home.” Their voices falling around them like shattering glass.
The uzuri pulled on all the power she had left. She prepared for a strike as the dark figures came closer. The light from the stars illuminating the obsidian specks on their cloaks. She wished her kind were pack hunters, it would make things easier. She wished the uzuri had cloaks that added to their magic, the way the nunashi’s did. She covetously watched the cloaks. She watched as the nunashi moved closer to her and Kendrick. He was still bent over. She didn’t have time to see if what she’d done worked. She launched herself at the closest nunashi.
Kendrick didn’t know what he was seeing. Tall, elongated humanoid women, some in cloaks some not, fighting this smaller lighter being. He recognized that smaller being as her. The one who brought him here. Those other things, they were nunashi she’d told him. Pain lanced through his chest, he put his hand there and pulled it away, expecting to see blood but seeing none. He was so confused, why was he in pain? What was happening? He could hear voices in his head. He heard hers calling for help and he also heard the nunashi, promising to save him, if he’d only walk away. He couldn’t make sense of it all. He fell down to one knee, and looked up in time to see her get stabbed in the back by a nunashi. His chest ached. He looked at the thing in his left hand, and he knew what he had to do. He heard the voice tell him how to get away, how to stop the pain.
Kendrick stood and began to walk, stumbling as the roar of voices in his head continued and the pain in his chest grew. He walked over to where the uzuri lay on the ground. Thick clear goo oozed out of her chest and back, coating the dirt in what must be her blood. He knelt beside her, saturating his jeans in it, as she tried to smile up at him. The voices of the nunashi grew louder in his head, but when he looked at them, their lips never moved. They were stunning. A contrast to the uzuri lying before him now. He lowered his head and met the uzuri’s eyes, raising the knife she’d given him in his left hand.
The blade shone in the light of the stars. The voices of the nunashi ceased inside of him. The closest to them stepped forward, coming closer still, until she knelt in front of him, on the other side of the uzuri. Her lips didn’t move as she spoke, but this time it was out loud. “Back up nunashi. He carries the burazum.” A gasp escaped the mouths of each of the nunashi. Before he could register it, they were alone, just the uzuri and the single nunashi. “I am called Makurai.” Her voice feather soft, her hands wizened as she reached for the burazum. Kendrick pulled away. “Please give that to me child, you can do great harm, and it is not your place to kill a uzuri, that is ours.” She said sternly.
Makurai leaned forward, her cloak’s sleeve inches away from the uzuri’s face. The uzuri weakly grabbed hold of the cloak. Her blood being absorbed in the obsidian pieces. The uzuri began to cough as she thought about all she knew of the nunashi. She always wondered if she could harness the power in those obsidian shards, and now that she had her hands on one, it was time to find out. Her eyes rolled over slowly to Kendrick. The nunashi’s attention solely on the human, she didn’t see the uzuri cast one more weak spell. Kendrick thrust out with the knife swiftly and succinctly. The blade driving home directly in the chest of Makurai.
As Kendrick stabbed Makurai he thought about the uzuri. His lover, the woman carrying his child. The uzuri had spent almost all of her magic making him believe that he loved their non-existent child and that he’d do anything to save them. And that he did. He never had any intention of stabbing the uzuri. He loved her, he thought. He was going to save her and his baby. They were going to get married and raise their child together. He was going to make her as happy as she made him. He gazed into the uzuri’s eyes as the nunashi grabbed his wrist, trying to pull the blade from her chest. Makurai screamed at him silently as Kendrick leaned down and kissed the uzuri on the lips.
The kiss was ecstasy for Kendrick and for the uzuri. Kendrick felt as if he was inside of her, pleasing her and himself, moving in and out of her as his tongue danced inside her mouth. In his mind he was making love to his wife on their wedding day. She was enjoying him as he was enjoying her. Seconds felt like long drawn out minutes as he climaxed, believing to have mated with the love of his life. The uzuri on the other hand, her ecstasy was different. She felt his soul leaving his body, and it was euphoric. It was almost sexual for her, but not like Kendrick.For her there was no climax, just the rush of power, more and more of it. More than she’d had in a long time. Consuming his soul, she learned that Kendrick had exactly one lover. His love for that woman was so alive and so pure. This was Power. As she clutched the robe, willing strands of Kendrick’s soul into the obsidian, she smiled, reveling in what she was doing. This has never been done before. She would be the first, but she wouldn’t be the last. She’d save her species. She felt Kendrick’s body begin to waste away, but she didn’t stop, she drank him down greedily and hurriedly as the nunashi began to notice that something was very wrong.
The nunashi let out a battle cry and launched themselves from the trees. But it was too late. The uzuri was now full of life, full of magic she could now wield, powered by Kendrick’s soul and her own blood, amplified by the cloak. She stood in a fluid motion, sliding the cloak over her shoulders, stepping over Kendrick’s husk of a body. The nunashi surrounded her, beginning to understand what this uzuri had done, and one by one they fled. The uzuri didn’t chase the nunashi, instead she opened a portal to earth, where she could feed freely and no one could stop her now.
E Monique Writes 