Weekly Drabble #132: Winter Bell (Patreon)

With the prompts of 'snowflakes' from Knightress and 'slay bells' from Name Brand Products, we have a winter solstice-themed story of playful romping in the snow. Enjoy and have yourselves a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

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Winter Bells:

Silene moved through the light sprinkling of snow that covered the ground. Frost-covered leaves crunched softly under her hooves. The pale elaphocentaur trod quickly but carefully though the winter forest, her breath creating small wisps of steam that blew the falling afternoon snowflakes away from her face. Her fingers, inside brigandine gauntlets, ever so often tapped against the shaft of the spear she carried. It was much like a boar spear, with a flange past the bladed tip to keep the creature you stuck from pushing themselves down the shaft and killing you.

The elaphocentaur dipped her head under a hanging branch. Her pointed ears twitched as snow fell on them as her antlers caught the branch, shaking its cold covering off when she pulled free. She shivered, from the tips of her ears to the end of her small, puffy tail, but not from the cold. From the waist up, she was a woman, though one not quite human. Her lower body was that of a silver-furred deer, currently covered by what humans might think of as a horse blanket lain over with barding to protect her sides and legs. On her torso, she wore a gambeson. Not her usual attire. She didn’t often need the additional protect.

The inhabitants of the lands nearby called her the Pale Stalker, the Wood Spirit or the Quiet One, a creature that haunted their forests and featured prominently in their stores, a symbol of what might lay within the deepest, darkest reaches of their woods.

If they only knew.

In the distance, she heard the ringing of bells. They came from the town of Sleepy Valley, a small farming community. They weren’t celebrating the winter solstice festival like they had in years past, but as a warning.  Fainter, but closer, Silene heard the barking of dogs as hunting teams delved into the forest, searching for a killer. Searching, they thought, for her.

The murders had begun at the beginning of the fall season. First it had been wild animals; deer and coyotes. Then dogs and cats, sheep and goats, cows and horses. Then people. In the beginning, the bodies had been dragged away, but as the deaths continued, the killer became more brazen – or less controlled. Mutilated corpses were left in the open, bones gnawed and splintered, bellies empties of viscera. The killings had spread across the region, from township to township. Sometimes it was something as minor as a chicken coop raided of all its fowl. Other times, houses were found ransacked, their occupants devoured. Hunters, deputies and lawmen had gone out in search of the murderer. Not all of them had come back.

In the wake of another killing, three such men had come across Silene as she’d been feeding. She’d speared a small boar and its screaming as she’d run it down had attracted their attention. With blood dripping down her chin, the humans had assumed the worst and attacked her. She’d had to kill two of them, but the third escaped with tales that the Pale Stalker was the killer that they were seeking.

She’d begun to pay more attention to the deaths in the area after that; the only way she’d know peace was if she found the killer herself. It wasn’t easy in the best of times for a ghostly-pale elaphocentaur to enter human lands without being noticed; with them frightened and paranoid it was even harder, but she had learned a few things. Not without spurring the locals’ suspicions further, but she’d had little choice. What she’d learned had stoked fearful suspicion of what was behind all this.

Once, she’d even caught sight of the killer’s silhouette, chasing it from its latest victim and into the forest before it had eluded her, doubling back to claim its prize. It was what she’d suspected. What she’d feared. The humans wouldn’t be able to stop it. Not without a great deal more bloodshed. 

Today, she’d heard the distant scream of a woman, seen the killer loping into the woods with a bloody, ragged body in its arms. The bells had started ringing. Silene had gone back to her lair and armed herself. The trail was fresh, footprints and blood in the snow making it easy to track. She was following it, just as the humans were. She was closer, though.

She could smell the blood now. She was almost there. The elaphocentaur moved more cautiously. The trees here were without needles, barren and lifeless. This was an older part of the forest, one in which even creatures like she were careful. Ahead, half-hidden by a light curtain of snow and a small hollow, was a cave entrance, but that wasn’t what caught her attention.

The crunch of bones, the slurping of marrow, the ripping of meat. Nearby, with its back to her, the killer tore and chewed its latest meal. It was white-furred all over, with antlers much like hers. Unlike Silene, this creature was – mostly – human from the shoulders down and deer from them up. It was gaunt, as if it were on the verge of starvation, forever unable to satisfy its hunger.

The elaphocentaur took a step forward. Leaves and brittle pinecones crunched. The killer’s head snapped up and it made a whuff, turning to spot the intruder to its feeding ground. Glazed eyes, like those of a corpse, stared hatefully at Silene. Its maw, stringy meat hanging from its sharp teeth opened in a wet, raspy hiss. It stood, a full head taller than the elaphocentaur. Its arms were too long. In one fist it clenched one of the woman’s legs. Its ribs showed through its skin.

Silene raised her spear. “No more,” she told the beast. 

“No,” it rasped back at her, its obscenely long tongue licking its lips. “More.” It braced its feet and lunged forward, arms reaching for her. Silene met its charge, galloping forward, the point of her spear seeking its heart.

In the distance, the bells of the village continued to ring.