Monster Hunter elf

Crack! The fire-axe sunk into the last zombie’s head. It collapsed with a grateful sigh.

‘Well done, young one,’ said the stranger. ‘You managed to keep your head when all about you were losing theirs.’ 

‘I suppose you think that’s funny?’ Zak groaned. He was beyond tired, he hadn’t the energy to argue any more. ‘Pointy-eared ponce.’

The corners of the elf’s mouth twitched. ‘At least your swearing has more poetry, now.’ The elf hitched up his Kevlar vest and pulled out a small vial. ‘Here, take this.’ He handed it to Zak. ‘It’s a restorative. You need to stay alert until we get to the pick-up point.’

Zak popped the lid and it flopped on its string. He took a sip, and liked it. Then he chugged it down. The elf laughed, a sound of happiness rather than mockery. ‘Feel better?’ he asked.

Zak couldn’t believe how he felt. His muscles suddenly turned from water to solidity, and his mind cleared the fog of violence and horror. ‘Yeah,’ he admitted, ‘That’s powerful stuff!’ He took a deep breath. They started walking along the deserted country track, away from the old barn. The sky was just starting to lighten in the east, picking out the horizon of the Kent countryside.

‘I shall be sure to tell Teleriel. She’s been working on those potions for a long time.’

‘Well, bless her. Who did you say you were again?’

‘My name is Fengon. I’m with MHI. Come on, it’s 15 minutes to the extraction point, and you’ve done more than I ever would have thought.’

‘Are you with some government agency?’

The elf laughed again. He always seemed to find something to laugh at, and it was nearly always Zak. ‘Heavens, no! If I was, I’d be asking you to fill in a form or something right now, wouldn’t I?’

It was Zak’s turn to chuckle. ‘So what’s MHI?

‘We are… bounty hunters, I think the term is. That’s what the other humans I know tell me. We hunt down monsters, and the taxpayer pays us a bounty. It’s a business.’

‘How do I know you’re not a monster, too?’

‘Good question – you’re learning. Well, monsters don’t need firepower. They’re mostly strong enough to do their killing… without technology.’

‘I don’t suppose you’d be willing to share any of that technology with me?’

‘Sorry, no. But stick with me, and we’ll see what we can do. You handled that fire-axe so well, I think the boss might even offer you a job.’

‘Will I get some of those guns?’

‘As many and as varied as you like!’ Fengon stopped, held up his hand. There was silence as they listened. Faintly on the dawn wind came the sound of eerie music.

‘You can’t be serious!’ Fengon sighed. ‘These fairies don’t know what’s good for them.’ He pulled out a small handgun. ‘All right, I’m going to make an exception, now. Those fairies might be peed off we disposed of those zombies. They were probably the ones who re-animated the corpses. Your axe was great for zombies, but fairies need something smaller and faster. Here, take this.’ And he handed Zak a small, beautiful sword-like weapon. ‘This is a dirk. Try not to stick me or yourself with it.’

Zak took the pretty weapon. ‘Is this silver?’

‘No. That’s for werewolves and speaking undead. Iron is fatal to fairies.’ Fengon took out a small handgun.

‘Ah – of course.’

‘Just loosen your belt and hang the axe on it, you’ll need…’

Suddenly the pre-dawn sky exploded in a riot of colourful clouds. Zak gaped as he looked around at the light display around him. ‘What is this?’

Fengon looked at him intently. ‘What is what?’

‘Don’t you see all this – colour?’ Zak sounded drunk to himself.

‘Shit!’ was all Fengon came up with. ‘It’s a Glamour, don’t look at it!’ 

‘All the pretty colours,’ Zak said, giggling. He looked around, then back at Fengon – but in Fengon’s place stood a horror, laval red eyes glowing from under a rotten hood of musty cloth. Zak realised with growing horror that the elf was a monster – he just hadn’t seen it before! He had to get away! It was just too horrible to see. If the elf caught him, he could be eaten alive, or his soul sucked out of his body, like a fly in a spider’s web!

Sobbing with terror, Zak dropped axe and dirk and ran! He ran down the lane to a place where a copse of trees grew close to the road. The elf followed him, calling out in a horrible, low-pitched bellow like a devil in Hell! There was a faint light in among the trees, and Zak made for it. Anything but the dark and the horrible elf!

In the deep dark of the trees, Zak was utterly blind. The light he’d thought he saw vanished. He stumbled on blindly in a funk of terror. Suddenly came a flare of ghostly blue light like a lost soul, and a small, beautiful child stood before him. His eyes were bright, his expression reassuring, and he looked like an angel. ‘Over here!’ called the child in a hoarse whisper. Zak lurched  towards him, but tripped. His head hit something hard, and the world dissolved into sparks.

Fengon ran into the copse. The pre-dawn dark was no obstacle to elven eyes. Too late, he saw the fey flash of deathly blue. He aimed his pistol, but hesitated. Zak floundered in the dark between them. All too soon, all was gone: the blue glow, the fairy, and Zak.

Fengon’s shoulders slumped in defeat. The filthy little Fey had won, this time. Zak, if he was lucky, would spend the last years of his youth as a slave to the fairies, blissfully happy, profoundly stupid and utterly forgetful of where he had come from. Then, they would kill him, either as a gladiator in their entertainment, or given as food for a worse beast they kept for dark purposes of their own. Fengon could not follow. The unholy magic of the elves who had never left the shadowlands was forever opaque to him.

‘Oh, Ero,’ prayed Fengon, ‘let the traps set by evil recoil on their own heads.’ Best not to wish any more evil than had already been done.

He took out a mobile device, tapped a few times on the screen, pressed Send. Every point of Fey magic could tell a story, and one day… one day, that story would lead to their downfall. For that was the reason – or one of the reasons – why the Elves of Avalon had come back.