Apocalyptica Fanfic: What Could Go Wrong? Part 4

The woodsmen quickly lost interest in the bound band once their leader had left. Having been dismissed from his attention, the rest of the rough tribe drifted away, and soon a tempting smell of cooking meat- succulent and herbal- drifted on the night breeze, along with roars of laughter and something tangy and beery.

Left in the darkened corner, the band and the Driver sagged against their bindings, exhausted, tempers beginning to fray under the pressure of no food and too much excitement for one day.

“Eicca? C’mon, Eicca! That’s insane!” Paavo groused.

“I-I think quite possibly they are insane!”

“No Way! Some joke or trick!”

“I saw-!”

“No, Eicca! Your mind is overwrought and your imagined the rest!” Antero stated firmly, seeking to put a lid on things before they kicked off for real.

“He’s right, Eicca- it’s a trick.” The Driver weighed in, seeing that Paavo was still grumbling for a fight. “They have someone here who can speak Finnish. So what? It’s a big group- maybe they have many linguists to play mind-games on their victims.”

“Victims?!”

“Calm down, Mikko! I meant the punters= tricks, yeah?”

“Like the cup-and-ball man in the street, Mikko. It’s a hustle is all.” Perttu was amazingly calm.

“Except this is a bit more elaborate than some street scam,” Paavo grunted, his astonishment over Perttu’s soothing influence over Mikko softening his own rising agitation.

“A long way from a street for a start,” Antero joked.

Eicca glowered. He was still convinced he’d seen something weird…

“It’s true. We rarely get as far as streets.”

The voice broke softly from the shadows between the trees and Aedd strolled into view, cleaning his nails with a knife.

“Aedd- or whatever your name is- hang on, that’s not a very Romanian name, is it?”

“No, actually it’s from the old country- Cymru to you, lad, but you’d have to go back to the time of the dragon to find any of my immediate family- but that all aside, how can I help?”

Paavo beat Antero to the question. “What’s going on? What do you want from us?”

Aedd smiled slowly, lazily; a study of careful indifference.

“Not big believers, your boys, are they?” This directed at Eicca. “Didn’t they take on what I showed you, eh?”

“Eicca-! If this some game you’ve got going between the two of you-!”

“I swear Antsa! What I told you was true- I really did see into his mind!”

Aedd leapt forwards, grabbing the ropes around Eicca and peered into his face.

“’N what did you see there, huuum?”

Eicca blanched and gagged, dropping his head, unable to meet the dark fire in Aedd’s eyes.

“Quite,” Aedd said, quietly.

Sensing something passing between the two men, something awe inspiring and awful, the rest feel quiet. Paavo swallowed, suddenly nervous and contrite.

Everyone, that is, but- “Still a trick,” muttered Perttu, rebelliously, fighting Aedd’s influence with a subversive grumble.

Aedd sighed. “Eicca, my dear, what did you see in me?”

But before Eicca could reply, in the distance but still clear and painfully beautiful, came the sound of wolves howling. The group looked about, eyes wide, nervous. Aedd’s eyes closed in pleasure.

“Ah, the children of the night…” his eyes opened, seeking Eicca’s.

“Your family singing us carols?” Eicca asked, his voice uncharacteristically bitter.

“Exactly!” Aedd clapped his hands together, spinning in a delighted, slightly demented, circle.

“You beatniks sleep with animals?” Paavo’s jaw dropped.

“Well, that’s one way to describe us in the sack, I suppose- rrrrr!” Aedd made a campy ‘oh, you’ gesture.

“Mikko, they are the animals!”

“Quite right!” Aedd’s voice was suddenly a growl, his eyes shaded to a violent yellow, and his eye-teeth elongated in a vulpine grin.

“Ei-cca?” Perttu whimpered.

Eicca, however, was gasping in high emotion. “The chase- the fight- oh, God, the blood! I saw so much blood!” Eicca moaned, his eyes fluttering shut as if in pain.

And Aedd threw back his head and howled.