Home for Horny Monsters Ch. 076

Energy flowed through his limbs as he cackled madly, then raised the hand holding the orb to the sky. The energy coalesced around it, forming into a vibrating blade.

My sister was never much of a fighter, and she doesn't attract them.

He hesitated, unsure if the voice was just a memory or something else. The world around him was moving slowly, almost as if reality itself were holding its breath.

More images came. This time, he was seeing the forest from the owl's point of view, watching as she met the Nirumbi for the first time. They had been afraid of her, but she had gained their trust.

A maternal feeling overwhelmed him as more images came. The Nirumbi hunting deer in the woods. Sitting around the owl as she told them stories. Letting her play with their children.

She spoke to the mystical creatures of the woods, pleaded with them to band together and find someplace safe, somewhere away from humans. He watched as many of them died, from forest fires, deforestation, and even men in white coats with swords. So many painful memories surfaced, and the pain filled him up until he threatened to burst.

And then it would shift. Long walks with Nirumbi elders, speaking about philosophy to a giant bear that walked on stilted legs, flying through the sky with an emerald serpent. There were peaceful times amidst the chaos, and almost none of them involved power or magic of any kind. She had formed bonds with the others, bonds that had eventually cost her life.

His own face appeared. There was an upswell of hope that was almost scary to experience, and then she was speaking to him with her clacking beak. The world was still now, save for the sound of his own heart beating deep within.

"You should know that magic like yours can be quite powerful, but only if it can be controlled. Be warned that it has a life of its own, very much like a roaring fire. If you aren't careful, it will consume you."

The words resonated with him, and he contemplated the blade of magic in his right hand. He could drive it into Leeds right now, sever the bond between spirit and body and banish him from the world.

There's always a cost. They were his own words now, and they gave him pause. For the first time in hours, he truly saw the brutality of the magic he had summoned. It had indeed become a wildfire, one that threatened to escape him. If he destroyed Leeds, it wasn't just on a physical level, but a spiritual one. Immortality required a high price to achieve, but what was the cost of destroying a soul?

There were suddenly too many questions, and he could feel the pressure building in his head. He had summoned this magic, and it demanded an outlet, craved the change that would come once it was released.

I am not just a structure in the forest. The stag was watching him from the edge of the clearing, its dark eyes brimming with power. I am also the ground beneath your feet, and the trees around you.

Mike screamed, desperately trying to regain control of his hand. The blade was swinging down in slow motion, aimed for the center of Leeds's chest. The magic had been born of rage, and it hungered for the demon's blood.

Your true power isn't something that grows from within. The stag walked toward the trees, immune to the slowing of time. It flicked its tail once and then looked back at him. It is also your connection with me and with others.

"Aagh!" Fiery pain lanced through his shoulder as he tried to force the blade to stop. Leeds' eyes had widened in terror as the blade moved closer to the demon, now, less than a foot away.

When last we spoke, you did not carry such an earthen aura. He saw himself through the owl-woman's eyes once more, but now he saw the magical aura that surrounded him. It was a cloud of colors that sank deep into the ground and spread out like tree roots. It is very much like the fae, but also the magic of the forest.

The fae. The forest. His mind flashed to Titania, then back to the incident in the clearing with Abella. The Queen of the Fae was triggering a memory of his own.

This little shit stain wants to be king of the forest. Besides fucking up the flow of my woods, he is also the reason you cannot get home. He couldn't tell if he was remembering the cabin's words or hearing them live in his head. Your compassion and kindness have brought you some very powerful allies.

Allies. From the corner of his eye, he saw Yuki summoning a barrage of ice and skewering the Nirumbi. Dana was frozen mid-kick, sending another one of their warriors across the clearing.

Someone must care for the forest children. He was the owl-woman now, holding out her eye to Mike. He could see the concern in his own face, the lines of despair that were already forming. This was the Mike he had been, the one who didn't know that he would never see Velvet alive again.

Yuki took the eye from the owl-woman's hands, and then Bigfoot leaned in, his body smelling of cloves. Below him, the steady humming of the forest was beating in time with his own heart as the owl-woman's final memory came to a close.

Now sleep and be one with the woods, Bigfoot told her as everything went dark.

The blade was inches away, and Mike's eyes locked on his hand. He had become so lost in his rage that he had forgotten who he was, what he was meant to be. His magic had been summoned in a fit of rage, and he could now feel it simmering beneath his skin, spreading through his body like a poison.

Driving that blade into Leeds would kill him, but it would change Mike forever. Over the last nine months, his actions had not only shaped his magic, but had changed him. Acts of love, lust, and kindness had changed him for the better. Would participating in this act of rage do the same?

He tried to withdraw the magic, but it burned deep inside him, like inhaling hot smoke. Time was going back to normal, and the next few moments of his life would change everything. He had come into this fight with the attitude that nothing else mattered, but he knew now that it wasn't true. No matter what was going on in his life, there were still plenty of people who mattered to him.

And right now, they needed him to come back alive.

"No," he muttered through gritted teeth, feeling his magic try to feed his rage back into him. It was trying to establish a feedback loop and he fought back. The anger needed to go somewhere else, but where?

The magic couldn't be stopped, the spell had already begun. He thought back to sitting at the table with Dana, wondering if magic was like energy. The sparks had sunk into the wood of the table and vanished. He couldn't let it back into his own body, nor could he use it to kill Leeds. It would have to go somewhere else, but where could he put it without causing destruction?

Be one with the woods. It wasn't Bigfoot's voice he heard, but the owl-woman. He could almost feel her gaze on him, see those intense eyes peering through his very soul.

Screaming in fury, he stopped fighting the magic and fought to adjust his aim. The blade twisted and missed Leeds' chest, piercing the demon's wing and sinking deep into the ground. Blue and red flames ate away at the membrane of the wing, searing the flesh as Leeds howled in agony.

Crimson bands of light swirled around the two of them as Mike forced his mind into the ground, seeking out every strand of life he could find. He could feel the land beneath him, his magic touching every tree, bush and animal. Their minds were briefly part of him, and he was them, and then he was everywhere. For a split second, he and the land were one, and it felt like his head would explode from the pressure.

He channeled his anger, grief, and rage into the spell, willing it to depart from him, to feed the land and make it grow. In that moment, he felt how everything was connected, saw how he could turn tragedy and death into beauty and life.

"Velvet." He whispered her name like a prayer, letting her go.

The swirling maelstrom of magic channeled itself through his elbow and down into the bowels of the Earth itself, spreading far and wide. His rage was sucked along with it as the magic spread out like a blanket and warmed the tired soil beneath. Stubborn foliage pushed its way through the snow, and the trees shook off their snow and held their branches high in pride.

There was a loud snap, and pain flared up Mike's arm as the last of the magic passed through it. Gasping in agony, he was unable to stop Leeds from kicking him hard in the chest, which sent him sprawling across the snow.

"Fool!" Leeds leapt to his feet and laughed. "You were so close, closer than anyone's ever gotten!" He flapped his wings and jumped into the air, only to tumble about before coming to rest in the low branches of a tree. Puzzled, the Jersey Devil extended the wing Mike had pierced to reveal a large hole.

"Looks like your flying days are over," Mike told him between gritted teeth.

"This? This will heal." Leeds summoned the shadows around him. "But your friends? They will be dead fore--"

The tree swung one of its upper branches into Leeds, cracking him in the back of the skull and knocking him down to the ground. He landed with a thud, then cried out in pain when flowers burst out of the snow and wrapped around his neck.

What few Nirumbi were left frozen as the trees around them came to life. Tree roots ripped free from beneath the snow and grabbed Leeds by the ankles to drag him away. He let out a cry of terror as the beasts of the woods descended on him, scratching and biting as he passed. The roots passed him from trunk to trunk as nearby bushes scoured his flesh with thorns and sharp branches.

Mike stood, wincing as he tucked his arm into his belly. Nearby trees smashed the altar as he followed after Leeds.

"What happened?" Dana sniffed the air, then looked at him. "It's your magic, I can smell it everywhere."

"I woke up the forest," he told them as he followed Leeds' cries. "It might not be alive in a way we can understand it, but it knows a shitstain when it sees one."

The trees were unable to move Leeds quickly, but between his damaged wing and the consecutive animal attacks, he was unable to escape. Occasionally a portal would open between the trees and the devil would be tossed through and carried away. Mike was surprised at first when the portals remained open for him and the others, but the trees that touched him conveyed feelings of mutual grief and respect. When he touched their branches, it felt like greeting an old friend.

A song played in his mind, one that only he could hear. The forest shared more memories with him, memories of Darren and his daughters as they played in the woods. There was an older Arachne who looked startlingly like Eulalie, and he caught brief glimpses of their lives in no particular order. The girls as children, chasing their mother through the trees. Darren trying to give Eulalie a piggy back ride. Velvet trying to sneak up on Bigfoot while he was reading a Harlequin romance novel with Fabio on the cover. They had been the keepers of this land for decades, and the forest had not forgotten.

The forest would never forget.

Leeds shouted in agony. Wolves had emerged from the woods to tear chunks out of him as he went past. Mike had worried that he might end up dying, but the animals seemed to know and understand the limit of what the demon could survive. The land was pissed, and it was letting him know.

"Mike, you're bleeding."

"Huh?" He held up his injured arm and winced. The owl's orb had shattered in his hand, the shards of glass slicing up his flesh. His arm was numb from the bicep down, which probably wasn't a good sign.

"Gods." Yuki reached into her coat and pulled out a piece of fabric. "Your hand is a mess."

"We can deal with that later." He nodded toward Leeds, who was being pulled up a stream. "I need to see this through."

"Mike, what happened back there, I..." Yuki grabbed his good hand and squeezed it. "I thought we were going to lose you. Your eyes, they were--"

"Don't." He leaned onto her and was surprised at how warm she felt. "I don't want to talk about it. I know how close I came. And you would have been right to stop me. You need to hear me say that."

She nodded, and he suddenly felt so tired. Dana got on his other side and they helped him through the woods as they neared the boundary. They had come down in elevation, enough that the snow was actually gone from several places, and the forest was making sure to drag Leeds through all the muddy parts.

They were at the boundary when a roar came through the forest. It was a howl of pain, and Mike saw a portal between the trees. Bigfoot stepped through it, his features borderline feral. Behind him was Abella, her eyes widening at the sight of Mike.

His eyes flicked to the dogtags on her chest.

"LEEDS!" Bigfoot stomped over toward the devil, his huge body making the ground tremble. He swatted away the branches as they tried to form a barrier, then roared to chase away the animals. Relief shined in the devil's eyes as Bigfoot raised a giant fist to strike him.

"What do you think you're doing, you damned yeti?" Mike wasn't even sure why he said those particular words, but they caused Bigfoot to spin around, anger in his eyes.

"He killed Vee! He killed my fluffy girl!" He grabbed Leeds by the ankle and picked him up, ripping the roots that held him down. "He has to pay!"

"And he will. But right now, stomping his ugly ass is what he wants." Mike approached Bigfoot and stared into the sasquatch's eyes. "He wants you to take a piece out of him. Don't give him what he wants."

Bigfoot huffed for a couple of seconds, then roared in Mike's face, spraying him with spit. "You don't understand, he--"

"I know." He put his good hand on Bigfoot's arm and squeezed. "This piece of shit owes you a pound of flesh. But you have to understand, he's banking on it. He's been playing us since we got here, and your only response so far is to go storming off in a rage. If you do that here, if you crush his skull just to feel a little bit better, she will have died for nothing."

Bigfoot hesitated, his hot breath filling the air with vapor. His fur was ruffled like a cornered animal's, and his lips kept pulling back to reveal his teeth.

"There are better ways to make him pay." Mike stared at Leeds. "I have a whole house full of people who would love to sit down and discuss how to punish him. You and Eulalie will be part of that discussion, she deserves a say as well. But right now I need you to stand down."

"Pathetic." Leeds spat on the ground as he dangled upside down, his tail whipping uselessly against Bigfoot's chest. "It's because you don't have the guts to kill me. Go ahead, yeti. Break the barrier first and then crush me, snap my neck, torture me until I beg for death! You've gotten soft, listening to filthy fucking humans!"

Bigfoot looked at Leeds, then Mike. Doubt, grief and anger all played about behind his furry visage before he let out a pained groan as if injured. With a grunt, he threw Leeds through the air. The Jersey Devil's body passed through the red barrier at the edge of the property. With a quiet pop, the spell dissipated, and Leeds bounced off a tree and fell to the ground.

"You're the big hero now, aren't you, Caretaker?" Leeds chuckled and stood. "Gonna run home to your family and try to save them. Don't look so surprised, I can hear your thoughts, I know all about the angel, the horsemen. I'm willing to bet that--"

"Shut this fucker up," Mike snapped, and a massive pine outside of the boundary bent itself over and smashed Leeds into the ground with a pair of long branches. The demon was flattened beneath heavy boughs, then roots ripped free of the earth to wrap him up tight into a bundle.

"How?" Leeds asked, his fiery coal eyes blazing. "These trees aren't part of your land!"

Mike approached Leeds, then crouched down and smirked. "The forest doesn't belong to anyone," he told the Jersey Devil. "The land doesn't belong to me, either. I had the choice to destroy you and we both know it. I think maybe you even welcomed it, you poor, tormented soul. But that's not who I am." He stood and walked over to the nearest tree, then placed his hand on it. "And it isn't who I plan to become. All I did was let the land know how I felt about you. And it agreed."

He felt a presence over his shoulder, then turned and saw the stag watching him from between the trees.

"I know you said you would keep him out," he told the beast. "But would you consider letting him back in? I need somewhere to keep him for a little bit."

"Who are you talking to?" Bigfoot asked, craning his neck to look around.

Mike shrugged. "I'm not entirely sure, to be honest," he replied.

The stag bowed its head, and the trees outside the boundary passed Leeds back over. Animals appeared from the trees and bit into Leeds' flesh, then dragged him through the woods.

"The forest is going to hold him for us." He put a hand on Bigfoot's forearm. "Follow him and figure out where that is, make sure he can't escape. Meet us at the cabin after, so we can plan our next steps."

The sasquatch deflated, his eyes brimming with tears. "You speak for the forest," he muttered beneath his breath. "You're just full of surprises." He wandered off with Leeds, his shoulders drooping. It was clear that the sasquatch had mixed feelings, but even clearer to Mike that this was the correct choice. Allowing Leeds to wander off again would just create a problem in the future that he might not have a solution for.

Even worse, someone else could die because of it. He winced, feeling the pain of Velvet's death anew. Though his anger was gone, his sorrow had been planted deep.

"Abella." He walked over to the gargoyle and put his hands on her shoulders. "Are you okay?"

She looked at him for several moments, then shrugged. "I've had better days," she told him.

With a sigh, he touched the dog tags around her neck. The soft jingle reminded him of Velvet, her head tilted to one side with a smile on her face.

"Here." Abella started to lift the tags off her neck, but he stopped her.

"Hold onto them for me," he said. "I'm about to be neck deep in shit soon, and I know you'll take care of them."

She looked away from him, her tail thumping on the ground. "I can barely take care of myself, much less anyone else." Her voice was harsh and laced with venom.

"You are nothing short of amazing," he said, then placed his forehead against hers, his voice wavering. "I'm broken inside, and it feels like the world is spinning, but if I had lost you too, I want you to know it would have killed me."

Firm hands gripped his back as she held him close.

"She lost her life saving me," she whispered. "How can I live with that?"

He tried to answer her, but the spinning sensation intensified. He mumbled something, the words dripping from his mouth like molasses as he lost consciousness.

🏠🏠🏠

It would have taken them far longer to return to the cabin if not for the fact that the forest seemed to sense their urgency to return. Abella cradled Mike's unconscious form as they were led by deer through a series of glittering portals that returned them to the cabin.

Smoke rose from the chimney, and Quetzalli burst out of the front door, her cheeks and eyes red from crying.

"You left me here!" she shouted, then paused when she saw Mike. "Is he okay?"

"Exhausted," Dana replied, then took Quetzalli by the hand. "Sorry we ran off, it was everything we could do to even keep up with him."

Yuki put her hand on Quetzalli's shoulder. "We need to get him inside, he's freezing."

"Yeah, okay." She walked back toward the cabin and opened the door. Emery shot out through the gap and hovered overhead.