Drekavac

“Ha! That was a great joke!” Dragomir tapped on the Little Table. “So if your taste has changed and you desire ‘young meat’, veal it is!”

Dragomir waited for any sort of reaction from Baba Yaga. Milena and Zduhach did, too.

But her sinister smile never went away.

“You’re actually serious…?”

“Leshy has brought countless humans to me. Children, families, pregnant women.”

“Just how many babies have you eaten?” Zduhach’s voice was low, almost a whisper. A vein popped on his neck. “How many?!” he yelled, startling Milena.

“Thirteen,” Baba Yaga responded calmly. “And I remember the taste of every single one.”

Dragomir’s nostrils flared as he breathed heavily. His hand resting on the Little Table trembled. “I think I get it now.”

“So what will it be, young aspiring bohatiers? Hehehe.”

“We accept,” Dragomir said coldly.

Milena and Zduhach jerked their heads toward Dragomir.

“Not a single word!” He raised his voice. “We’ve come this far! I will avenge my father!”

Zduhach observed Dragomir. And then he grinned to himself. “Alright, let’s catch you some children!”

Dragomir nodded.

Milena stared at both of them. She wanted to say something but decided to stay silent.

Baba Yaga then stomped her skeletal foot on the wooden porch. “The hunter stays here!”

“Are you giving us a handicap?” Dragomir straightened his posture.

“No. He can pass into Prav and back as he pleases. But if he helps you with this trial, consider yourselves disqualified.”

“Milena and I can do just fine.” Dragomir took the Little Table and put it on his back.

“Yeah, they can handle that.” Zduhach readied his bow. “I will make sure you won’t pull any tricks.”

Baba Yaga smiled. “Beware of the Drekavac!” she yelled down at Dragomir and Milena.

The two of them turned toward the forest and soon disappeared from Zduhach’s sight.

“So? What’s your plan? We’re not gonna bring her any babies, are we?” Milena walked a few steps behind Dragomir.

“We are.”

“Oooh, so we are… of course, we are,” Milena said in a mocking sing-song voice. “Have you lost your mind?!”

Dragomir stopped and turned to her. “Baba Yaga gave us a hint.”

“What hint?” Milena took a fighting stance, already holding one of her shoes again.

“Put that away.”

“That depends on you.”

“She warned us about ‘Drekavac’. I have no idea what that is. Except… it could be the one kind of creature I didn’t recognize.”

“Do you mean…?” Milena loosened her stance and straightened.

Dragomir smirked and faced the path forward. “Yes. Those little creatures must be Drekavac. And what did they look like?”

“Oh, that’s right!”

“Yeah, if you ignore the long necks, horns and hairy skin, we have pretty standard loud newborns.”

Dragomir then took the table off his back and grabbed it as a shield.

“So do you think she just wanted us to catch these little monsters? And that she doesn’t eat the human children at all?”

“I would have thought so, too. But… I saw a couple of those Drekavac come to this forest from Nav. And I think there were about thirteen in total. So…”

Milena’s expression fell as she slipped her shoe back on. “The babies came back as evil spirits…”

They wandered through the forest, but Leshy stayed silent. Leaves fell from the trees whenever the wind blew.

The gentle murmur of flowing water was the only sound around them.

A fallen tree blocked their way. Dragomir jumped onto it and offered his hand to Milena. But she crossed her arms and glared at him from below.

He understood.

Milena climbed over the tree herself, although she tore a bit of her skirt.

The forest was peaceful. But what they needed right now was chaos.

Dragomir put the table down.

“Little Table, Lay the Feast!” he commanded.

A basket of red apples appeared. Milena sat on a tree stump, reaching for one.

They ate in silence, listening for any sign of danger.

“Do you think Leshy will put us through another illusion?” she asked, biting into the fruit.

“As long as we don’t let negative feelings take over, we should be fine.” He took the last apple from the basket. “But I don’t think Leshy is in any mood to test the same people twice.”

“Did you experience this the first time with Levoslav, too?”

“No, we managed to think about happy moments.”

She almost took another bite before she decided to save it. “And what did you think of?”

“You.”

Milena chuckled. “For some reason, I think you would have said the same thing to any other woman.”

“Hey, just what do you take me for?” Dragomir let out a small giggle.

The final piece of apple dissolved in Milena’s hand, along with the empty fruit basket on the table.

“Say…” She slid off the stump and sat down beside Dragomir. “What were you like when we were together?”

Dragomir lifted his chin and gazed up at the forest canopy. “I… I was a selfish brat. Thinking back, I don’t think I deserved you.”

“And… what was I like?”

“You were you. An almost perfect being that the whole village talked about.”

“’Almost’ perfect? You underestimate me!” Milena quipped.

“I used to fight any guy who so much as laid eyes on you. Although I got beat up pretty badly almost every time. But then you came along and…” Dragomir’s gaze finally settled back on her face.

“And… what…?” Milena spoke softly, just above a whisper.

“And you…” His eyes darted between her eyes and her lips. “You would scold all of us for being such childish jerks.”

Milena leaned closer. But as their lips were about to touch, she yawned.

“Oh, I’m so sorry!”

“No, it’s fine. I think it’s past midnight already. It’s just that you can’t really tell while inside of Leshy. We can continue searching for those monsters tomorrow. You can rest for now. I’ll keep watch.”

“But Dragomir...” She took his hand. “If I sleep now… I’ll lose you again.”

SKRAAAAAA!

The Drekavac suddenly appeared, surrounding them.

“What? How could we have failed to notice them?!” Dragomir sprang to his feet, grabbing the table as a shield.

“It’s fine, we were looking for them anyways!” Milena instinctively took out her pocket watch. Helpful or not, it was still better than nothing.

SKRRAAAAA!

One of them jumped closer and opened its mouth wide, but Dragomir deflected the screech with the metal table.

The sound wave hit a nearby tree, slicing through its trunk.

“What the…” Dragomir’s eyes widened. The power was too immense.

The Drekavac crowded around Dragomir’s table, shrieking over one another as each tried to get closer.

Another Drekavac hopped right in front of Milena, its belly bloated, its mouth wide open.

“No, you don’t!” Dragomir smashed it with the table, knocking it unconscious. “It’s out cold! I thought that spirits don’t rest!”

“I don’t think this counts as rest, boss.” Milena squeezed the pocket watch, but one Drekavac suddenly shoved its way beside her, knocking her off balance. Before she could recover, another one shrieked directly at her, pinning her to the ground. “Aaahh!”

“Milena!”

In that moment of distraction, Dragomir lowered the table slightly. A Drekavac squeezed past the edge of his shield and shrieked from only a few steps away. The blast slammed into him, sending a sharp pain through his injured shoulder. He cried out from the impact and fell to his knees, dropping the table entirely.

The creatures surrounded him from every direction. Whenever one shrieked, another pushed closer and cried even louder. Soon, they were all trying to drown each other out.

Milena watched two of them shove each other aside to get closer to Dragomir.

Another shriek struck Dragomir at close range, forcing blood from his mouth.

“No… please stop…” Milena pleaded.

One Drekavac inhaled so much air that its belly grew visibly bigger. And then it screamed.

The screech was so strong it even tore through Dragomir’s shirt. The impact left him bruised and bloody.

But before he could recover, another Drekavac had already pushed its way forward and unleashed another shriek.

“Noooo! Make it stop!” Milena cried out, gripping the pocket watch in both hands.

And then it reacted.

The second hand started ticking forward. Each tick was unbearable. But that was when she noticed.

Dragomir’s breaths seemed to take forever.

The leaves falling from the branches of the trees looked like they were stuck mid-air.

Every movement of the Drekavac had slowed to a crawl. Even those caught mid-leap seemed to hang in the air.

The shrieks stretched along with the slowing world. Their piercing pitch dropped lower and lower until the noise began to break into words.

“Mommy.”

“I don’t want to hurt people.”

“Please, help me.”

“It hurts.”

“I want my mommy.”

“Just… kill me…”

Chapter 18: END