IX - Noonwraiths

The other passengers instinctively covered their ears as the bloodcurdling shrieks rang out across the wheat fields.

Sabbel trembled, pressing herself against her father.

“D-Daddy...”

Haku had already lowered her visor.

“Everyone stay inside the coach!” she called to the passengers before leaping down, Pan right on her heels.

“A monster attack?” the Sword Saint asked, already raising her shield and sword.

Pan narrowed her eyes, trying to make out what lay beyond the towering wheat.

“I don’t know, mm...”

The coachman had not moved. He sat rigid on the driver’s bench, one hand locked around the reins, staring into the wheat.

“N-Noonwraiths...”

“Noonwraiths?” Haku turned to Pan with a questioning look, but she could only shrug.

The coachman reached beneath his seat and pulled out an old crossbow. With trembling fingers, he loaded a bolt from a wooden box.

“I knew it was a mistake to travel during Ember Weeks. Hazard pay or not...”

“Would you mind explaining what we’re dealing with here, mm?!” Pan demanded.

At that moment, several figures emerged silently from the edge of the fields.

Their empty eye sockets were pitch black, their bodies barely tangible, as though they were made of nothing but shimmering heat. Tattered scraps of clothing clung to sun-scorched skin stretched tightly over their translucent bones.

Pan felt her fur stand on end.

“G-Ghosts?!”

Without taking his eyes off the figures, the coachman nodded.

“They say they’re the restless souls of the women who were slaughtered during the Great War. Ever since then, they’ve wandered the fields during Ember Weeks, slaying anyone unfortunate enough to cross their path.”

He tapped the box of bolts with a finger.

“Only silver can harm them.”

Haku glanced down at her blade.

“My sword should be of use, then.”

She turned to Pan.

“Under those circumstances, you’d better stay with the passengers. I’ll deal with the Noonwraiths.”

Pan nodded.

“You don’t have to tell me twice, mm!”

As Pan climbed back into the carriage, Haku took up position beside the coachman.

With a sharp hiss, the first of his bolts shot through the air and buried itself squarely in the forehead of the leading wraith.

For the briefest instant, its form flickered.

Then it crumbled into motes of light.

Haku stepped forward.

Her silver blade flashed, and with a single swing she cleaved through the next wraith, which dissolved as well.

The coachman reached for another silver bolt, when one of the wraiths lunged straight at him.

Haku stepped into its path, and with another swing of her sword the ghostly figure vanished as though it had never existed.

Another wraith silently emerged from the shimmering wheat on the opposite side of the stagecoach.

No one noticed as it drifted up to the wagon and passed straight through the wooden wall as if it weren’t there.

“AAAAAHHHHH!”

Pan whipped around.

It got inside?!

The Noonwraith had appeared right in the middle of the coach, barely an arm’s length away from her.

For an instant, she could only stare into its empty black eyes.

Then instinct took over.

“Get away from them!”

Pan sprang between the apparition and the other passengers and threw two quick punches.

THUD. THUD.

But her fists passed straight through its body as though striking nothing but warm air.

“That didn’t do anything!”

The wraith’s hollow eyes settled on Sabbel, who clung to her father, eyes squeezed shut.

It stared at the little girl for a long moment.

Then it slowly raised both claws, almost tenderly, as if reaching out to embrace a lost child.

Pan’s eyes widened.

“Don’t touch her!”

She lunged forward.

But the wraith moved first.

Its ghostly fingers closed around Sabbel’s arm, and with a sudden yank, it pulled the girl toward itself.

“WAAAAAH!”

Her father shot to his feet in horror.

“Sabbel!”

“Let her go!” Pan cried, striking it again.

As before, her fist vanished uselessly into its shimmering body.

The wraith drifted out of the stagecoach, dragging the terrified child with it.

Pan followed them out of the coach.

“HAKU!”

The Sword Saint spun around.

Her eyes widened as she saw the wraith disappearing into the wheat, Sabbel struggling in its grasp.

“Hold on!”

She took a step toward them.

But at that very moment, the coachman let out a strangled cry.

Another Noonwraith had materialized directly in front of him.

Startled, he lost his footing as the crossbow slipped from his hands.

Two more wraiths emerged on the opposite side, gliding toward him.

Haku froze, her gaze darting between Pan and the helpless man.

Pan clenched her teeth.

Damn it. She can’t protect everyone at once.

I’ve got to do something myself!

Her gaze darted around desperately.

The coachman’s crossbow lay on the road, but the box of silver bolts was still beside him, the Noonwraiths closing in.

Silver... I need silver!

She went back to the stagecoach.

Her eyes swept over the terrified passengers until something caught her eye.

A delicate necklace glittered around the neck of the young woman clinging fearfully to her partner.

Pan’s eyes widened.

“What’s it made of?!”

The woman blinked in confusion.

“W-What?”

“Your necklace! Is it silver, mm?!”

“Y-yes...”

Before the woman could react, Pan tore the chain free.

“Thanks!”

“H-Hey!”

Pan jumped out of the coach and turned to Haku, who was already fighting off the next apparitions.

“I have an idea! Protect the others!” she shouted.

For a heartbeat, Haku simply stared at her.

Then she gave a firm nod before turning back toward the remaining Noonwraiths.

As Pan ran, she wrapped the silver chain around her right fist several times.

Please...

This has to work.

Ahead of her, the wheat parted, and she followed Sabbel’s desperate cries until she found her deep inside the field.

The Noonwraith held the little girl close against its chest, almost lovingly.

Then it stopped.

Slowly, it turned its head toward Pan, its ghostly body shimmering.

Pan accelerated.

“She’s not your child! Let her go right now, mm!”

The wraith raised one claw and struck.

Pan shifted her weight and ducked beneath the swipe.

Her right fist shot forward.

But the wraith suddenly drifted backward, Pan’s punch falling short.

“Damn it!”

The apparition swept its arm sideways.

Pan barely twisted away in time as the ghostly claw passed so close to her face that a wave of unnatural cold washed over her fur.

Before she could recover, the wraith lunged again.

Pan retreated one step, then another, shifting around its attacks while desperately searching for an opening.

Come on...

I just need one opportunity!

She ducked beneath the next attack, nearly losing her footing in the uneven earth.

Sabbel screamed as the wraith pulled her tighter against itself.

“Let her GO!” Pan bellowed, surging forward again.

The wraith slashed.

But Pan twisted past the claw, planted one foot firmly in the earth, and drove herself forward with everything she had.

Her chain-wrapped fist slammed squarely into its face.

The moment she struck the wraith, cracks of shimmering light raced across its body.

It burst into countless glowing motes that the hot summer wind carried away across the golden wheat.

“Wahh!”

Pan lunged forward and caught Sabbel just before she hit the ground.

“I-it’s okay... I’ve got you, mm...” Pan panted, as the little girl clung tightly to her, soaking Pan’s fur with tears.

A few moments later, Haku burst through the wheat, sword in hand.

“Pan! Are you...” 

But when she saw the fading particles of light drifting away on the breeze, she stopped, lowering her blade.

Her gaze shifted from Pan to the sobbing child in her arms.

“You destroyed it...”

Pan scratched her cheek awkwardly and raised her fist, still wrapped in the silver chain.

“W-Well... it seems my idea worked out, mm.”

Haku looked at the silver chain and her expression softened in a way Pan had rarely seen before.

“Well done.”

For a moment, neither of them spoke until someone gently tugged at Pan’s sleeve.

She looked down at Sabbel, who gazed up at her with tear-reddened eyes.

“Thank you...”

Pan blinked in surprise.

Then she gave an awkward smile.

“S-sure... don’t mention it.”

At last, Haku pushed her visor back up and smiled.

“Come on. Let’s head back to the others.”

Pan nodded and rose to her feet.

Together they walked through the golden wheat toward the road, Sabbel never letting go of Pan’s hand.

When they returned to the stagecoach, Sabbel’s father immediately pulled his daughter into his arms.

“Sweetheart, you’re safe!”

He held her tightly for several seconds before looking up at Pan.

“Thank you,” he said, his voice trembling. “I... I don’t know what I would have done if...”

He couldn’t finish.

Pan shifted awkwardly from one foot to the other.

“I-It’s fine! She’s safe. That’s what matters...”

She quickly turned away and held the silver necklace out to the young woman.

“And, uh... sorry about this, mm.”

The woman stared at the broken clasp for a moment before she took it with a smile into her hands.

“Don’t worry about it,” she finally said. “You saved us. Thank you.”

“Uh...”

Pan slowly looked around.

The coachman gave her a grateful nod, and even the elderly merchant smiled at her with unmistakable warmth.

Pan’s ears lowered slightly.

“Y-you’re welcome, mm...”

A short while later, the passengers settled back into their seats, and the carriage finally resumed its journey.

Pan, however, remained strangely quiet.

“Everything all right?” Haku asked after a while, as the evening sun bathed the road in crimson light.

Pan didn’t answer right away.

“I don’t really know how to explain it... but it just feels... strange.”

“What do you mean?”

She looked up at Haku.

“I’m just not used to people being grateful to me, that’s all, mm.”

Suddenly, something tugged at Pan’s fur again.

She turned around.

Sabbel stood before her, holding out her stuffed rabbit with both hands.

“Your bunny? You don’t have to give it to me...”

But the girl’s expression was utterly serious, leaving no room for argument, as she held it out more insistently. 

“All right, all right!”

Reluctantly, Pan took it.

“Uh... thank you, I guess...”

Satisfied, Sabbel returned to her seat while Pan stared blankly into the toy’s button eyes.

“I’d like to tell you that you’ll get used to it someday,” Haku said quietly. “But you never will.”

“I won’t?” Pan asked.

Haku smiled and shook her head.

“No. That’s how it is for every Great Hero.”

Pan sighed.

“I already told you, I’m not a...”

She never finished the sentence.

Because when she looked into Sabbel’s eyes, she understood...

...that to her, from that day forward, she would always be a hero.