Little Park

Erin swung her sword at me. I effortlessly parried and front kicked her in the chest. She fell onto her ass with a comical “Wah!”

I pointed my sword at her face. “Do you concede?” I asked.

She spat on the grass and looked up at me. Her eyes shone defiantly through her blonde bangs. “Never! You’ll have to kill me,” she retorted.

I scoffed and lowered my sword. “Erin, this is sword fighting practice, not theatre rehearsals. Please take this seriously,” I said.

“I am!” she whined. “You kicked me too hard!”

“No, I didn’t. Your chest padding is more than enough to absorb that,” I protested.

Erin stood up. “It’s not fair. You’re a powerful mage, a strong swordfighter and a great investigator,” she complained.

“I already told you; I’m not a mage. I don’t know how I can do that place switching thing.”

“Whatever. I’m hungry.”

***

The sun was shining, the grass shimmered green, and the sky was a brilliant blue. It felt like the whole world was smiling, as Erin and I slowly rode our horse across a lush, flowery field.

“What does your compass say?” she asked.

“It’s still pointing up,” I replied, looking down at the compass in question. It was a simple-looking device: a small, transparent sphere, with a red arrow pointing straight ahead. It was the gift Professor Vodu had promised me when he’d left that night. Mr. Hokey had explained that this compass was not a work of science, but a work of magic. It pointed you to whatever your heart most desired. Ever since Erin and I had set off to find the supposed sky library, it hadn’t stopped pointing up.

Part of me felt like I was being pranked.

“How are we going to make it to the sky?” Erin asked me.

With all the steampunk weirdness going on in this world, I’m surprised you guys don’t have any blimps or propeller planes.

“We could make a rudimentary hot air balloon, though I don’t know where we’d find the materials, and I’ve never piloted one before,” I uselessly responded.

“A what?” Erin asked.

“Never mind that. Look up ahead; we’re approaching a village,” I pointed out.

“Yay, food!” Erin exclaimed.

“We’ll eat and then ask around about how we can fly-”

“Kugo, I’m tired of this. Humans can’t fly. We’re going to the Kingdom of Boria and that’s all we’re doing,” Erin interrupted with finality.

“Isn’t that what we’re doing right now?” I asked, annoyed. Indeed, we were slowly heading North, to the Kingdom of Boria. I figured, if Allister told us about it, it’s that he wanted us there. Therefore, there must be a clue or even an answer... In the meantime, I was doing my best to figure out how to takeoff into the air.

We trotted into the bustling village. Some villagers eyed us suspiciously as we passed, but none of them said anything.

“Over there!” Erin said, pointing to a small restaurant. We hitched our horse nearby and entered. It was half full, with people sitting at benches eating rice, soups and noodles.

An older man rushed over to us. “Welcome, customers. Are you new around here?” he asked.

“Yes, and we’re hungry,” Erin told him.

The man smiled. “Well, in that case, take a seat over here and I’ll get you some menus,” he instructed, pointing to a free bench.

The man hurried back with our menus. “Where do you two come from? We don’t get many visitors,” he said.

“We’re from Boneview,” I explained.

“Ah, the big city. So, are you here for business or pleasure?” the man asked.

I was a little annoyed by the questions. What, is he an airline survey?

“We’re working on a case. We’re professional investigators,” Erin cockily told him.

Way to paint a target on our backs, moron.

The waiter’s face lit up. “Investigators, you say? How exciting! So, if you’re here to work, I imagine you’re investigating the murders that have been happening in this town?” he guessed.

Murders?

“Sorry, but-” I began.

“We’re not, but we can look into them,” Erin interrupted.

You’re going to get us killed!

The man told us to wait a moment, as he danced off outside of the restaurant. He returned a minute later, as I was scolding Erin for her abrasiveness. “Here!” he said, excitedly giving Erin and I a sheet of paper each. “They're wanted posters about the case.”

I uninterestedly skimmed through it:

Young women targeted at night… four victims over the past two months… cannibalism… five gold to whoever catches them.

Well, whatever. We do need money, anyway, I thought.

Our waiter told us to take our time ordering and hurried off to attend to more customers. I looked up at Erin. “What do you think?”

“It’s definitely one person. Since the killer is preying exclusively on young women, he’s probably a male and a pervert,” she sneered. “This village is small and isolated, so if he’s been on the prowl for two months, then he must live here,” Erin answered.

I nodded. I had arrived at the exact same conclusions. “How should we investigate this?” I asked.

She thought for a second. “First, we’ll interview the victims' connections: family, friends, workplace. Then, we’ll retrace their steps as best as we can-”

I stopped paying attention. Erin was missing crucial information. The victims were killed in pairs. Here, it says that the last two were killed on the 27th of Jeena, which is what the call February. It also says the first two went missing 29 days earlier, on the 30th of Genesis- their version of January. 29 days… today marks the 29th day since the last two girls were killed.

My eyes widened. 29 days? It wasn't the possibility that the killer would strike again tonight that bothered me. It was something else entirely...

Surely not, right? Honestly, at this point, I feel like anything’s possible.

“Kugo? Kugo, are you listening?” I heard Erin ask.

I looked up at her. If I tell her what I'm thinking, she won’t agree to help me, I thought. “That’s a great strategy, Erin. Very by-the-book. However, I have a better idea,” I told her.

***

It was the middle of the night. Signs of paranoia were everywhere, starting with barred windows and locked doors. Everything was quiet, but for the chirping of the crickets, who performed for an audience of zero. The streetlamps shone meekly, as if they knew no one was outside tonight.

Except, there was one person wandering the otherwise deserted streets...

That person was Erin. She slowly and nervously walked through the village streets with her arms folded. She shivered, despite the night’s warmth.

Suddenly, she spotted a humanoid figure in the shadows. What is that? she wondered. The figure emerged. It was a furry man with a wolf’s face and long, beastlike limbs.

“W-what the hell?” Erin stuttered. She reached for her sword, but her hand closed around nothing. Damnit, why did you have to take my sword?

The creature sprinted towards her.

“Kugo! Abort mission!”

I leapt down from a neighbouring roof, landing right in front of the werewolf. I took a swipe with my sword, but the wolf leapt out of the way.

It’s just as I thought.

I tossed Erin her sword. “I suggest you run. You’ll only be a liability.”

“No, I can't leave you-” she said.

“Hey, I used you as bait, so we’ll call it even,' I hastily interrupted. "Now, go!”

She nodded and ran off. The werewolf tried to chase after her, but I slashed the air in front of it, temporarily blocking its path.

"Two people every full moon?” I asked. “A little greedy, aren’t you?”

The werewolf responded with a vicious swipe to my torso. I tried to dodge, but its claws ripped through my gambeson.

Where’s that surge of energy when I need it?!

The werewolf began rabidly swiping and biting at me, snarling the entire time. I was overwhelmed in approximately three seconds. I could only do so much to prevent it from tearing out my throat with its fangs or hacking me to pieces with those huge, dirty claws.

Eventually, it caught me with a solid swipe to the chest, knocking me to the ground. I couldn’t stand up. I was bleeding profusely, and my vision was darkening. The wolf eagerly approached. It crouched down above me and opened its fangs. Suddenly, an arrowhead shot out of its mouth, like a metallic tongue. The werewolf dazedly stood up. Before it could fully turn around, it was met with a stab to the ribs. The creature was then thrown to the ground by its cloaked assailant. The attacker stabbed it once more, this time through the heart. The monster let out a final whimper, before it went limp.

The cloaked figure looked over at me. It spoke in a high-strung woman’s voice. “You-”

I used my last breath to groan out a single word: “more…”

The woman instinctively leapt backwards, as another werewolf slashed at her. It thankfully missed, though it did manage to tear off her cloak.

My vision was fading. The last thing I saw was the woman’s shirt in the streetlight. It was a washed grey t-shirt. On the front, in big print, was the Little Park band’s logo.

I lost consciousness.