Silhouette

"Zules, it's been hours and we've seen neither hide nor hair of this damnable creature," whined Lucia. "And I'm starting to get a bit hungry. Those rations we brought along were barely enough to fill an orphan's bowl. I would know."

The two shining priestesses had spent most of the morning retracing the routes taken by their scouts in search of their mysterious predator in the hopes that they could quash any further attacks that led to the death of their Crusader comrades. A very deadly and very strange being was on the loose in the forest and despite Lucia's reservations, Zulema felt it their duty to eliminate all malevolent threats that would put the young, inexperienced Malachian soldiers in any sort of mortal danger. She took her role as a Scarlet Sister very seriously, and what's a Sister for if not protecting the young, inexperienced soldiers who sign up for warfare without knowing the harsh, bitter truth of it?

"I thought they were pretty good actually. The dry food has a sharp taste that really sticks inside your mouth and becomes very savory," replied Zulema sincerely.

"Right. I forgot you had the palate of a ninety-year-old. This is what happens when you spend so much time training with that old crone."

"High Priestess Maribel is a paragon of blistering madness that has instructed me on the key principles of monastic living—or as she likes to call it, madnastic—and it would behoove you to do your own brushing up on our asylum doctrines—-"

Zulema's preaching came to a halt after realizing Lucia's presence had suddenly vanished during their conversation. Tightening her grip on her scythe, she cautiously surveyed her surroundings. The two priestesses had traveled quite a bit of ways away from the military base and their church and had been up to that point casually strolling through unfamiliar territory. It wasn't difficult for the slightest disturbance to cause Zulema to tense up.

"Lucy…?" Her voice echoed beneath her helmet. "Did you discover something? You know you ought to at least notify me when that happens…"

Zulema shuddered as the wind blew menacingly through the jagged trees. As she looked around, there was a brief moment when the swaying of dead branches seemed almost erratic, chilling her to her core. She had been so used to handling these strange missions in a group that now that she was all alone, the young scarlet priestess couldn't help but feel partly helpless. It was a deeply irritating and irrational sensation that attempted to shake a resolve so steadily put together just hours before. It was simple for her to act solo when her missions involved espionage and gathering reports, but in dangerous situations such as hunting or assassinations, she would always take more of a support role while letting her partners be the ones who got their hands the dirtiest. It wasn't something simply done out of cowardice—as Zulema's extensive scythe training could attest to—but rather, she felt it more of a pragmatic choice. It was where she felt her skills were best suited. So then it becomes difficult for her when she finds herself in a conceivably deadly situation with no one by her side.

Zulema once again called for Lucia, wishing silently that she remains hale and hearty and only oblivious to her calling due to being engrossed in some strategic brainstorm as she often does. But as the priestess of Macha continued the search for her partner, she quickly began to sense a disturbing aura in the air. It started with a strange buzzing noise—an incessant droning that filled the cold, silent atmosphere. A rising timbre that grew alongside her dread. It had gotten to a point where she was unsure if the sound was in her head or all around her. It took the powerful gust of a breeze to knock her back to her senses. It was once again quiet, aside from the howling of the wind. She continued onward, slowly, calling out to her missing partner. The white willows vibrated along with the increasingly strong winds, batting against her armored body as if mocking her, rushing to push her out of their home. Zulema’s concern for her partner only intensified as she moved farther from where she had last seen her.

The blizzard—growing ever more ferocious—forced the young priestess to continue onward until finally the singular presence of a figure just beyond the trees, in the shadow of their large boughs, appeared before her. Zulema, gripping her scythe tightly, smiled beneath her visor, relieved that she had finally found her friend—or perhaps it was she who was found after traversing the wild snow. The shadowed silhouette of her partner, vibrating erratically like a haze, was beckoning to her—surely alleviated that they had not been separated for too long in the middle of a mission. The figure was dead silent, yet there was an echo in the air that reverberated from her. As Zulema began to pick up the pace to run steadily towards Lucia, she suddenly felt a firm grip on her shoulder hold her back. The somewhat battle-ready girl jumped around with a start.

“Sorry ‘bout that, Zules. Went to take a leak behind some trees and you know what a pain it is to get these damn pants off once you’ve put them on. I was literally freezing my ass off the whole time.”

It was Sister Lucia, standing stoically in front of her, as if nothing had happened. The blizzard had come to an abrupt stop and the speed of the winds returned to a calm breeze. Zulema, noticing the trees around her, quickly realized she was back at the spot where she had first lost sight of Lucia.

“Something wrong? I don’t think I took that lon—”

The still confused Sister Zulema cut her partner’s line short as she rushed to embrace her. The melding of their armor making for a somewhat awkward hug, but it was something she easily disregarded.

“Whoa, Zules. You know there’s no way for me to wash my hands out here, right? Hey. Doesn’t seem like you to get frightened without me. I miss something?”

“No, I think it’s just the cold making me feel disoriented. The air here’s kind of suffocating, isn’t it?”

“Now that you mention it, this place does feel pretty eerie. I swear I was hearing a bunch of weird noises earlier. Let’s hope it doesn’t come to us needing to patrol this place after sunset.” She began to mumble under her breath, "I swear one of those damn soldiers better not have been watching me while I was relieving myself…"

"Lucy, look!" Zulema hastened to change the subject, pointing at something a few feet ahead of them.