Army of Souls
If you listen closely you can hear the sounds of every season. Winter brings the eerie cracking of branches that have been overcome by frost. Spring brings birds chirping as new life emerges. Summer is laughter. Fall, most of all, is the sound of leaves beneath your feet.
Konrad and Nell descended into a sweeping valley. With each step, more leaves crunched beneath them. The world was turning toward fall.
As they strode Nell noticed a chirping sound. It sounded like some sort of beetle except the chirps were new and distinct to Nell’s ears. He followed the sound over to a mound of dirt and charred wood. Nell lifted the wood to unveil a single unremarkable black beetle.
Nell looked back at Konrad. “An interesting specimen.”
Konrad stepped closer to look at the beetle. He chuckled. “Distinct from others, is it?”
“Possibly.” It chirped in Nell’s hand, the sound as unique as when he had first heard it. “I’d have to speak to someone more involved in the beetle community.” Nell let the wood fall back into place and stood.
“Perhaps its grandfather…” Konrad teased.
Nell laughed. When he stopped, his body was coated in goosebumps. He tried to shake it off. Instead, he felt colder. Nell gazed around the forested valley. “This place has an eerie air to it.”
“Does it?” Konrad took a step into the woods. Nell’s body tensed. “I thought it was memory more than perception.”
“What sort of memory?” Nell asked.
His mind flashed with images of a battle. In the memory the land was clear of trees. Bodies littered the ground. The memory of pain sent a wave through Nell.
“Nearly two thousand years ago we did battle here.”
Like an imprint, Nell saw the battle unfolding before them.
A sword plunged through Nell. His body arched with the intrusion. White powdery nothing burst through him. Nell coughed as he fought to stand upright.
“Did anything peculiar happen?”
Konrad turned to Nell. “Peculiar in what way?”
Nell’s eyes darted around the forest. It had flooded with soldiers, with the memory of the battle. “The way that causes such an event as this?” Nell asked.
Konrad shook his head.
“The ghosts?” Nell whispered.
Konrad took a step toward Nell. His hand grazed Nell’s arm.
The second they made contact, Konrad’s eyes widened.
“We weren’t able to burn the dead,” Konrad muttered.
“Likely you should have.”
Konrad edged them away from the battlefield. The movement caught the eye of a ghost who charged toward them. As he moved closer, his flesh was more brown, his clothes more grey, his eyes a muddy shade of blue-green.
Konrad brushed Nell aside. He drew his sword from his belt. With the first swing, the ghost blade cut through Konrad’s. With the second they made contact.
Nell backed further. He glanced toward the burnt shelter, which stood in flames instead of lying in rubble.
“Have you any idea what sort of beetle this is?” Konrad asked.
“Konrad, they’re trying to kill us. I think it is not the time to discuss beetles.”
“I thought they might know.”
“You were asking the ghost?”
Kornad’s sword burst through the chest of the ghost. The ghost crumbled to the ground in response.
Not ghosts.
Nell touched Konrad’s arm and pulled a travel pack from his pocket. He thought of the Dells and dropped the pack.
They were still there. Another half dozen soldiers made their way toward them.
“Perhaps the field is warded?” Konrad said. “How soon did it feel eerie?”
Nell pulled the beetle out. “As soon as I lifted the wood and touched the beetle.” The sound it made was unique…
Konrad beat off two more soldiers. He turned and lifted the shelter lid. “Can you return it to its nesting place?”
Nell pushed the beetle into the burning building. Instead of hissing screams, the entire image vanished into the forest they had walked into. The flames of the building turned to the charred remains.
The Beetle was gone.
“An interesting specimen,” Konrad mused.
Nell looked at him. Blood dripped from a cut on his arm. “Perhaps…” A shiver ran through his body. He pulled a travel pack from his pocket. “We should get home.”
