Page 10 of Hollow

He didn’t know the Hearst family or the hunters they hired, but he hated them all. It was a reminder of why his mother created these magical woods for him centuries back. Humans always sought to slaughter what they didn’t understand, what they didn’t approve of, and what they didn’t have control over. Humans were horrible, even to themselves.

“You should prepare yourself,” Dimitri said in a low voice, stealing Jack from his thoughts. “More hunters will seek you out. The Hearst family will seek retribution for my escape, and for your flaunting of power.”

“But you’re their only tracker, right?”

Dimitri stared.

“The only Leshy they have?”

Dimitri nodded slowly.

“Then let ‘em send a hundred or a thousand, it won’t make any difference.”

“Your shadows are powerful, but they will be more prepared. They always go prepared.”

Jack looked at the corpses littered across his yard and scoffed. They didn’t seem that prepared, in his opinion.

“Without you, I doubt I’d even need my shadows for the next batch.” Jack pointed to the fog. “Trust me, no one really finds their way through it. The whole design is meant to send folks in circles until they wind up back at the forest entrance.”

“A truly powerful magic.”

“Yep.” Jack eyed the collar around Dimitri’s neck, recognizing several of the sigils from his mother’s grimoire. “Speaking of powerful magic. Seems they use more than a jolt of electricity to keep you in line.”

Dimitri pressed a clawed hand to the collar, staring off sadly into the distance. “It is meant to prevent me from connecting fully with nature.”

“Well, fuck that, let’s get rid of it.” Jack stepped forward until Dimitri flinched. The hesitation in the Leshy’s bright green eyes gave Jack pause.

“I am never supposed to remove my collar.”

“You don’t have to obey anyone’s rules but your own anymore.”

Dimitri stayed silent for a long minute. The longest minute in Jack’s very long life. But he patiently awaited as Dimitri processed all the sudden changes in his tragic plight.

Dimitri knelt, revealing the lock pad in the back. “It might not be easy to remove. None of the hunters would carry a key.”

“No need.” Jack conjured a shadow, slender yet jagged.

It soaked into the gaps of the key slots, unraveling the pattern, and with a quick click, the lock fell off—and the collar with it soon after.

Dimitri stood tall, breathing in deeply. He must’ve soaked in some of the magic of the forest as his antlers swelled with each inhale, and the blackness over his fingers and feet soon stretched over the skin of his calves and forearms.

“It has been so long since I truly felt nature’s embrace.” Dimitri’s skin trembled as he stretched; the chains made it impossible to pull further.

One by one, Dimitri ripped out the rods embedded into his flesh, chucking them to the ground. He removed them from his arms, his legs, and his torso. The chains rattled, collapsing into a pile of bloody rods the more he removed.

After removing them all, Dimitri stood covered in deep, bloody gashes. Jack realized the painful effect of being deprived of a connection with nature and how much it slowed Dimitri’s healing process. Leshy were usually quick to recover in a forest, especially one seeped in so much magic.

“Do you mind?” Dimitri turned around, revealing a few rods dug into his back.

Jack approached, gently running his fingers over the skin around the rod, then he dug his fingers in to get a grip on the deadly device. Dimitri growled but remained still. His body shivered as Jack yanked the rods out one at a time. With the final rod removed, Dimitri was freed of his shackles, of his detainment.

“I should be leaving,” Dimitri said, taking a wobbly step.

“Nonsense.” Jack intervened, helping to steady Dimitri’s stance. “You need to recover.”

“Yes, and I will find another forest to lay my head.”

“Not one with nearly as much magic.”