Chapter 1 - The Brown Haired Girl

The snowstorm had gotten worse. Through the eyes of a child it was as if the outside was howling at them with a thousand cuts and scrapes against the glass. Indeed it was the worst storm the young girl had seen in all her life as she watched the castle grounds become coated in fine white dustings that almost appear like fluff balls on the rocky barriers. This vision of father winter in action, while chaotic, holds some semblance of peace... which is more preferable than the anarchy that is going on in the castle.

"Dahlia."

A sweet, husky voice of a woman that is instantly recognised by Dahlia. Her mother, Varme, stands in the doorway of her room. A fur hide coat wrapped around, her long brown hair tangled slightly in a mess as a silver hair clip hangs on lazily. She held her arms, rubbing her elbows as she approached the girl by the window.

"Is father okay?" Dahlia asked.

"...No. The doctors are trying their best but they don't think he can make it." 

Varme's words felt forced and the cracks in her voice were clear, her eyes slightly wet and fighting back tears, but she kept strong for her daughter. She walks up and sits on the girl's bed whilst she continues to look out the window, at the snow.

The sixteen year old girl, Dahlia wore a green dress but was wrapped in blankets. Her brown hair was not as messy as her mothers, attributed to the fact she had spent the morning watching the snow get heavier. Her face was pale, paler than her mothers and paler than one should which contrasted well with the clear green irises she had. 

The room was silent before Varme spoke again, "Are you alr-"

"Are we going to die?" she spoke calmly.

Varme looked taken back. Her daughter still refused to look at her. Varme opened her mouth then shut it, thinking over her words before opening her mouth again.

"No, we won't. We should have enough firewood until the storm ends and when it does we will send out a group to go to Teviril and get the Duke and they will return with help."

"What if it kills us before then."

"It won't, we have our best p-"

"Father was the best!" Dahlia slammed her hand against the glass and stood up. "We don't even know what it is that we're running from!"

Varme looked up as her daughter looked at her, face filled with worry and fear.

"The mage says that it is likely an undead wit-"

"But it got in the chapel! Did the gods abandon us!?"

"No, the-"

"They have! We all saw it! Everyone in the castle saw it! Holy magic didn't phase it, fire didn't phase it, our weapons shatter on its skin and now it is roaming out there in the town, hurting innocent people!" Dahlia threw her hands up, exasperated, her mother trying to keep her composure.

"We evacuated most of them here."

"But not all of them! It's probably why that thing hasn't attacked because it's busy mauling the stragglers!"

Dahlia's raised voice was a full shout as her mother stood up, holding her daughter by her arms and caressing them.

"We are safe. The people in the castle are safe. I will keep you safe." she affirmed.

Dahlia broke her hold and walked over to her door and opened it and stormed out.

"I'm going to see father." she said loudly.

Varme kept her posture, watching her daughter leave. Her hands shaking.

---

Dahlia stomped through the halls of the castle before reaching the staircase down to the main foyer. As she stepped down, the foyer was filled with people setting up makeshift beds from clothing, mothers tending to their crying babies, children huddled in a corner absentminded while playing games and common men commune with the knights to get themselves armed and ready. In-between, boxes are being carried from the castle storage to here as well as the fireplace roaring whilst an elderly woman chucks another log into the flames.

Some watch as Dahlia walks downstairs, mindful of her cloth dress when she begins asking if anyone needs help. Many looked at her, not strangely, but with an ounce of caution. Nevertheless, the girl goes to help with some boxes an older man was struggling with.

"Thank you, young mistress." thanks a man, helping her with the last box of bread to be moved from the kitchen to the foyer.

"You are welcome." she replies.

The two set down the box together but beyond that, that is all said. Though these are her people, being the daughter of a count and countess of this land she has always felt estranged from everyone. Though she was used to it, the eyes that followed her by child and adult alike was a familiar feeling to her.

Once she steps away, the man who she helped moves on. Dahlia tries to find others to help, and outside of prying herself into helping someone, no one wants her help.

After a few more tasks, she enters the dining room. The main table has been placed to the side and small beds taken from the servants quarters have been laid out where injured rest and groan as an older couple rushes around tending to the wounded. Dahlia stops one of them.

"Dr. Steads, how is my father?"

The older woman stops and talks to Dahlia as she continues to move around the room.

"In truth, mistress, he is in bad condition. The undead took his arm off clean and he almost bled out."

As she places down some bloodied cloth she brings Dahlia to her father, curtains around him to give the count his privacy. Dahlia's skin crawls observing her father, lying there his long brown hair sprawled out behind his pillow, laboured breathing, wrapped in white all over and his skin paler than the snow outside. His right arm was gone, just a bandaged stub remains.

"He hasn't woken up yet. By Lanai, he would've died if it wasn't for that traveller." the doctor exclaimed.

"Traveller?"

"Yes, she bandaged him up fast, even gave us some medicine to stop the pain for everyone here. Most of them were rolling out in pain, some even started thrashing around but after we gave them her medicine they all calmed down."

"Where is she?" asked Dahlia.

"She said she needed to see where the beast attacked."

Dahlia thanked Dr. Steads. The doctor left them and Dahlia sat down on a stool next to her father. Alone, Dahlia began to weep quietly over her father. This is the worst she has ever seen him. The only other time was when he had protected her as a child, having wandered away during a hunting party and almost getting mauled by a bear. She remembered her father, holding her as swung his blade and almost cut the bear in half with his first strike.

He slayed the bear but not after it slashed him across the face, nearly taking his nose off. She remembered him looking at her, kneeling down smiling as blood trickled down his face, a blood stained smile cracking when he said he was glad she was safe before collapsing.

"Father... You're so stupid. Why did you have to get hurt again." she croaked.

She sniffed and leaned over to his ear.

"I will protect you this time father. I wanted to hide it for longer, but I will use 'that'."

The girl stood up, wiped her face with her sleeve and left the space. She walked back out to the foyer where she can see Varme talking with the knights on what to do. She glanced over for a moment before turning back to the man she was talking to. Dahlia continued through the castle, up the foyer stairs, before she came to the doors to the chapel built into the castle. The doors were closed but she could hear through them.

"Status is... temperature possibly coordinating... likely type three..."

The woman on the other side sounded muffled through the door. Dahlia pushed open the doors and entered the chapel. There she could see before the altar, kneeling before a blood splatter, a pure white lumpy figure.

"Excuse me..." Dahlia called out to her.

Dahlia stopped halfway towards the traveller once she saw her fully. Her body illuminated by the stained glass of the chapel and the blinding white light piercing through it.

"Hmm? Oh yes?" the white clothed woman uttered.

The woman stood up, or at least you think she is a woman from her voice. Her body was fully covered in one giant white suit. Not armour nor was it anything formal but something that entirely covers her body in one fabric. She carried a square white bag on her back with metal segments and metal teeth all over it. But what was most striking to Dahlia, other than the fact that this traveller's clothes are so impossibly white, was her helmet. For her helmet was a dome. Half of it was made of glass at the front and the back was all metal.

Dahlia could see the dome but she could not see into it, almost as if it's a warped mirror showing her reflection back. She was taken back, it was as if she was looking at a knight but in cloth and glass armour but her etiquette pushed her to respond.

"Are you the traveller who saved my father?" she questioned.

A silly question, it was obvious looking at this person they are clearly not from this land but it would be rude to assume.

"Yes." she replied, a slight uplift in her tone.

Her voice was strange. It was an accent she didn't recognise and sounded as if it was slightly buzzing with static.

"Well. I am Dahlia McDernon, daughter of Count McDernon and on behalf of the McDernon family, I'd like to thank you. May I ask you-"

"How many people were left outside?" she interrupted.

She cut the girl off, no rather she talked over her and Dahlia was forced to cease to listen. The girl was befuddled by this but didn't want to waste time correcting a foreigner on etiquette, especially her father's saviour.

"About twelve. George and Marsha, the Bailey family, some workers at the mill and an orphan boy who hasn't been accounted for."

"I see."

The woman walked past Dahlia. With her clothes you expect heavier footsteps but they were surprisingly soft; Still audible, just muffled. She walked up to a large pooling of blood. It was the space where her father had his arm taken. She knelt down and grabbed something, a white strand of hair.

"Did the creature have white hair?" the woman in white questioned.

"Um, yes it did." Dahlia answered.

"What colour was it's eyes?" she thumbed the hair strands in her fingers.

"I can't re.. No, it was red. Definitely red." Dahlia asserts.

"And it's skin? Was it particularly hairy, gaunt, pale?"

"No, it was mostly hairless. It was a bit gaunt and it was pale white. Why are you asking this, may I inquire?"

The woman was silent, mumbling something to herself as she set her backpack on the ground and opened one of the metal teeth with a zip. She reached in and pulled out a few vials, a bottle made of a see through material and a few stirring utensils. She uncorked one of the vials and immediately Dahlia felt sick as a horrible smell entrenched her nose.

"*Hack* What is that?!" she coughed.

"A counter."

She then uncorked the other vial. It had no scent, either that or the other overpowered it. Then she poured it into the bottle; then the other vial. As soon as the two liquids made contact the odour rapidly ceased. The woman then began to stir the two liquids together and after a few seconds took out a strange object. It appeared to be some kind of held mechanism with a spout that she attached the bottle to. A hole rested on the front of the object and the whole design appeared to be similar to that of a crossbow.

"Does this castle happen to have any arsenic lying around?" asked the woman in white.

"I would hope not. Why would we keep such a dangerous poison in our home.. wait, is that arsenic?"

Dahlia stepped away. This woman is already starting to look suspicious and her good actions are being diluted by her strangeness. The woman stood up and checked over her contraption, all the while retrieving something else from her bag, a large flask of water. She snapped it onto her device as well and soon some whirring was heard within.

"An ingredient; but mostly to intensify the toxicity. It's odourless which is not what I need but I'll make it work."

"Look here, I would like to know who you are and explain what you are doing." Dahlia said firmly. 

"I am preparing to kill the anomaly." she stated.

"The anomaly?"

The woman began to walk around the room. As the contraption whirred she pulled a small trigger and began to spray a liquid along the walls of the chapel.

"Stop that now! You're spraying poison everywhere!" Dahlia shouted.

"It has been diluted. It shouldn't be harmful to humans."

"And you expect me to take your word?!"

"Yes!" she cheerily exclaimed.

Dahlia was now ready to call the knights and have this person apprehended and she would if she hadn't heard a commotion coming from beyond the chapel.

"They're here!" a distant voice shouted.

Voices echoed through the halls followed by screams and crying. Dahlia, without hesitation ran, leaving the foreigner behind. She rushed through the halls before turning up at the foyer to see people panicking and knights standing against the grand door into the castle as it thrashes violently.

"Dahlia!" Varme yelled as she ran up to her daughter.

"What is happening?"

"It's trying to get in, the knights are holding the door but.."

A loud thrash rings out as a few knights holding their bodies against the door are sent tumbling back before getting up and slamming back into the door. Dahlia looked at her palm and focused her attention on the door. She realises her situation as being almost hopeless but that doesn't stop her desperation to save everyone.

"Everyone who is too weak to carry anything! Begin climbing the stairs! Abandon your possessions now!" commanded Varme, directing everyone who was not prepared to fight.

The townsfolk began to rush up the stairs, some having to be carried up due to being frail or sick.

"All those who are able and not a part of the guard! Start getting the sick and wounded and bring them up the stairs as well!"

Several people rush into the dining room and proceed to quickly carry the injured up the stairs with coordinated effort.

"Any guards not at the door, begin moving people who aren't!"

Towns guards and some barely able knights begin carrying those who have curled up or frozen in fear at the situation and move them up the stairs.

Soon everyone was rushing up, going up into the throne room, some stumbling, others running ahead of the pack. Soon the foyer was empty except for the knights, a court mage, Dahlia and Varme.

"Mother, you need to go upstairs as well." the girl spoke frantically.

"Not without you."

"I'm fine, trust me." she promised.

"What do you mean, trust you? You're not going to fight it are you? You don't know how to use a sword or even magic!" she exclaimed.

"Look jus-"

*CRUNCH*

The cracking of wood cuts her words as the door shatters and the knights are pushed back. As snow trickles in from outside, a long bleached arm stretches into the foyer spanning twenty feet long and three feet thick as it pulls in a big pudgy body, the size of a carriage, that hunches over. Its legs are tiny compared to its arms which act more as legs, with multiple joints through them allowing the long limbs to fold and turn in many ways that reminds Dahlia of spiders.

As it was fully in the foyer its full size was seen. The foyer was 20 feet tall but this creature was taller, obvious by its bent arms carrying it. Its head was malformed, flat, squashed, elongated and had a few thin strands of white hair spooling from the top of its skull covering it's beady red eyes underneath. It had molars for all of its teeth, no nose nor ears and a red fleshy tongue in its wide jaw. All in all, its head was an oval with human teeth.

It was naked but it had no genitals or rather it doesn't anymore as it's clear from its cracked skin that whatever was once there had crumbled off like an unwanted scab.

The knights that held the door were lying at its hands, which were huge, wrinkled and without nails; paralysed at the sight before them with no clear way of attacking it. The court mage keeps his composure however and immediately sends forth from his palms a ball of fire that crashes onto the creature's head causing it to let out a loud human whine and stumble, its arms readjusting to keep its balance.

Once the knights recollect themselves, they raise their longswords and swing at the limbs to try and hack it and bring it down. As one knight's blade strikes the wrist, it causes the skin to crack a bit but not as much as the sword which bores a long crack through it and soon with all knights swinging a series of shatters has the floor decked in broken blades. The creature, letting out an annoyed whine, swings one hand and slashes several knights, cutting through their steel armour and sending them hurling back into the foyer.

"Get back!" the mage yells as he begins to channel and his palms begin to heat up.

The knights retreat, some of them grabbing their fallen and dragging them back. The creature watches this and merely observes. Once the mage finishes his chant he casts forth a ray of pure burning light that glides across the creature's arms. He misses it partly whilst aiming it, melting the stone of the wall around it and incinerating wooden chunks still hanging off of the doorway.

The creature reels back but doesn't fall when the spell ends and its skin is left blackened and bubbling. The knights cheer but the mage's face looks horrified then he collapses from the expenditure of mana. As he falls, the realisation begins to set in that that attack was their only hope of killing it and yet it only burned. The creature then lets out a howl like a whale and begins to stomp towards the knights, lowering its body to their level to go for a bite but just as it reaches a knight, its jaw completely encompassing him...

*Hirishhh* *Hirishhh* *Hirishhh*

Several inky black tentacles wrap around the beast, restraining it completely and holding its mouth open and allowing the knight to stumble back while screaming. The creature was restrained, its tiny eyes visible through the white strands of hair, darting around in confusion.

"*Nghh* Mother grab the mage. Everyone start attacking its neck." Dahlia groans.

As the tentacles are traced they all flow back to the girl as they grow from her back in an inky black darkness that spools in the centre of her spine. Varme looks at her daughter in horror.

"Dahlia what did you do…" she said, her face filled with fear towards her daughter.

"I'm doing what I *Nghh* need to, to protect my subjects." she growled when the creature began to try to wrestle free.

"Go!" Dahlia yelled as she continued to pull.

Varme grabbed the mage's arm and began to pull him back far enough to lift him up and carry him upstairs. The knights, now acclimated to the situation, immediately follow Dahlia's orders and begin to hack into the creature's neck now lowered down enough to be reached. They use whatever they have left. Some still had their broken swords and began to saw into the nape while others got some daggers and tried to stab the creature's eyes.

The thing began to whine louder with every strike and indeed, as the knights began to saw more the first spilling of red are done as hot blood begins to pour down the nape and drip off its throat onto the floor. Dahlia groans again, she can't hold it for even 30 seconds more. At this rate they won't make it, unless she does more.

Dahlia raises her hands up, more tentacles spiral out of the pool on her back and twines them into a thicker limb. Black water begins to pour out her nose and ears as she sends the limb up and then down onto the sliced nape of the creature into the cut and forces its way in widening the wound. The creature is now violently trembling and shaking and trying so hard to break free it is now howling out and whining in a high pitched human screech.

And as Dahlia screamed too, the knights standing back and watching this had no way to improve upon this brutal attack. The tentacles pushed fully through the creature's neck, tearing out from its throat and spreading inside to where they poured out its wide mouth. It goes limb and Dahlia finally lets go of it as it plops down on the ground.

Dahlia heaves, falling on her rear and coughing the black inky substance all over her dress. The tentacles retreat into her back as the knights look at her, amazed and in fear.

"Mistress Dahlia, are you alright?" a knight says and they rally next to her.

"Yes. *Huff* Yes... I'm fine. Is it dead?" she heaved.

"I believe so."

"Thank goodness, make sure to remove its heart in... case..." she mumbled.

Dahlia looked past the knights at the entrance of the foyer, the door now no longer there she could see a flash of white as rushing in from the cold is a sight that causes Dahlia to scream out.

"Get back!"

*SHRIINNGG*

As Dahlia blinked, three of the knights had their torsos taken off as they flopped to the side, innards pouring out. The remaining three spun around only for one to be crunched between the jaws of another beast, the same as the other but with short brown hair, leaving its tiny crimson eye's free to look around. One of the remaining knights stood in front of the sitting Dahlia and shouted to the other.

"Drag Mistress Dahlia back up the stairs!" he ordered.

The other knight began to do so and pulled her back whilst the other knight prepared to fight the beast. The creature gagged and coughed as it proceeded to gulp down the body of the knight down its small neck before focusing back onto Dahlia, wary of her. The knight yelled and charged towards the creature but was swiped away with ease as a bloody mess was painted across the floor. It lowers its body to meet Dahlia as she is being dragged under the arms by the knight.

Is this it? Is everyone going to die? Mother. Father. Why couldn't she... was she not enough? Dahlia's eyes, sagged from exhaustion, saw the creature stretch open its mouth and dive for her.

~I guess I wasn't enough~ she thought

She closed her eyes, accepting death until...

"Close your mouth."

A hand covers Dahlia's mouth as a mist of liquid is shot out directly into the beast's mouth before Dahlia is sent backwards somehow some feet.

*RAAAGGGGHHHH!*

The beast stumbles back and whereas before it was a whine in annoyance, the creature screamed in absolute agony. It falls down helplessly and seizures as it claws at its mouth trying to get what was sprayed in it out.

When Dahlia opened her eyes fully and saw the beast's agony she could see the traveller stand in front of her, the contraption in hand and pointed at the creature as she stared down the beast.

"Subject shows an incredible ability to restrain... Possible connection to an elder god?" she mumbled.

The beast violently struggled to breathe; it began thrashing around, slamming into anything. The woman then shoves her hand, palm open, at Dahlia and the knight, sending them further back out of reach of the limbs as she jumps up and floats in the air.

"Will need to bring her back. Samuel will know more on that subject than me." 

The beast continues its tantrum, struggling whilst it slams its hands and shatters the ground around it. A few more moments pass before it stops and rests next to the dead other and slouches. The woman slowly lands back down and turns to Dahlia.

"Though there does appear to be possible psionic vulnerability, we'll have to tinfoil that to see if it's true."

Dahlia stares up at the woman who continues to speak to herself. It's then that she manages to push out a few words at the woman.

"Who.. are you?"

The woman stops and looks at her, "Oh yes, I forgot to say my name. Well you'll need to know it so I think it's important that I say it as such. But not now as we are not safe yet there are still some more false troglodytes." she uttered out.

"There's more of those things?!" Dahlia panicked.

"Oh yes, ten more if what you said about the remaining villagers is right. They reproduce by infecting other lifeforms with a parasite called a false mite. They skitter all over their skin and jump at the chance to spread, normally during touch. Oh, did it touch any of you?" she asked casually.

She reaches into her bag and takes out a pouch.

"If you had, please either rub that on your skin or mix it with water and drink it; falseness cannot be cured."

Dahlia held the pouch in hand before the ground began to rumble again as charging out of the cold is another beast diving towards the woman and chomps down on her torso.

Dahlia quickly stands up with the aid of the knight whilst the beast begins to visibly strain when the woman in the suit underneath starts to force open the creature's jaw with her gloved hands.

"How frustrating, I just had this cleaned." she complained.

She then proceeded to wrestle the beast onto its back and placed her foot down on its upper jaw on the roof of its mouth. Freeing a hand she reaches for the contraption once more and sprays into the beast's mouth causing it to recoil back and scream, before convulsing wildly.

The woman then threw the contraption to Dahlia, rushed and picked her up with one arm and the knight with the other and ran up the steps.

"We need to get to the chapel."

Dahlia was flapping around as she was pulled along with the knight up the steps and through the hallways to the chapel. There the door was open and inside there were the townsfolk, the injured, and Varme who rushed to her daughter when she was tossed forward by the woman.

"Dahlia!" Varme wailed as she rushed to her daughter and held her.

"I'm fine." Dahlia said between swallows of saliva.

She stood back up with the aid of her mother then she looked to the woman, who had taken back the contraption, and was now mixing more of the liquids.

"What will happen when they get here?" Dahlia said, concerned and still tired from before.

Her words fell on deaf ears; the woman was chatting with herself as she continued to mix.

"Definitely physical weakness in the body after use. Likely because she is weak. Maybe Gregortz can train her body?"

"What will happen when they get here!" Dahlia shouted out towards the woman.

"Hmm? Oh! Well they won't. Currently this room doesn't exist to them. I sprayed it with arsenic falintoliate. Their scent glands will view it as something to avoid and will only come here if there is truly nowhere else." she frantically says.

"How do you know all of this?" asked Dahlia.

"Because I come across these all the time! Anything, it'll be easy to take them down since they'll be migrating to the castle now."

She proceeded to take out a few strange metal parts and attached them to the contraption which makes it appear heavy and weighted but is carried easily by the suited woman. She walks up to Dahlia and hands her something from her bag.

"If they happen to push through here, please spray this in its face." She handed her a small metal ball with a little button on the underside of it and a hole on the top.

Dahlia held the object and the woman turned and walked out to the chapel, the weapon in tow and her backpack shifting on her back.

"Now then, let us clear out the mites."