Free The Wealding Word by A C Gogolski

stupid, just like Lexi says.”
    Nell was reaching for her bag when she caught sight of movement in the thicket beyond the old well. “Rawley?” she called again, this time more cautiously.
    As if summoned by her voice, a gray creature with a long, pointy head prowled from the trees. Large, jagged antlers threatened the air above it, seeming to shrink and grow as the light changed. It had the front legs of a horse, and the rear of a deer, but its limbs were jointed all wrong, giving it the crouched look of a spider. Its body was like that of a sick animal, ribs and spine poking from mangy fur. But for such a huge and unwieldy thing, it made no sound. A long skinny rat’s tail trailed the creature, with three curling pink fingers at the end. The tail floated about grasping at branches with a will of its own.
    Nell took a step backward and felt the stones of the well. She could make no further move without turning her back on the creature. For a moment she considered bolting into the woods to her left, but her limbs froze up. She couldn’t even lift her tongue to swallow.
    The gray beast slowly cocked its head, red-rimed eyes absorbing her every detail. Then it spoke. Its voice carried the echo of ahundred wild dogs – a distant, frenzied baying from the pit of its gut. “You dropped your bucket,” it said. “Let me help you.”
    Nell was afraid to take her eyes off the creature, but its compulsion was too great. Her head swiveled against her will and she saw the bucket once again on the edge of the well. The water inside it reflected the gloomy sky above. “Drink,” came the baying call.
    A thirst greater than any Nell had ever felt stole over her, but she knew she must not bend to drink. To give in to the commands of the skeletal beast would be her doom. “Ra… Raw-ley,” she croaked. She wasn’t sure if she spoke the name or not, but the thought of her companion gave her some hope. With a great effort, she managed to turn her head from the bucket.
    The creature was so near to her now that its horse breath moved her hair. Shifting antlers jutting from its skull bent toward her face like twenty shadowy knives. Its eyes were opals, just three hands’ breadth from hers, and she could taste the hot air wheezing from its crusted nostrils.
    The voice sounded again inside her chest, “Come with me, I will feed you. I will take you home.”
    Looking into its eyes, Nell felt she would never see home again. Heaviness filled her. She was a hopeless puppet with no will of her own. Rawley had abandoned her just like the Prince, and her end would be a drab gray ritual of pain. The beast’s mouth parted to show a line of pointy teeth, and Nell shut her eyes to the sight of it.
    Then an unexpected sound split the air. Ga WOOOOOK! It echoed up from the well, startling both the creature and Nell. The giant frog! Her mind was free of the beast’s beguiling for just a moment – long enough for her instincts to take over. Shifting back on her hands, Nell kicked the sickly thing between its antlers and scrambled up onto the well.
    The creature screamed like an insane horse, tossing its head wildly. Just as Nell tried to fling herself into the grass, one of thesharp antlers caught the back of her coat and tipped her in the wrong direction. Her collar suddenly snapped free of the barb and she teetered, for a frozen moment, on the lip of the well. The gray beast reared, its three-fingered tail whipping toward her but it was too late. Arms flailing, Nell slipped into the well. The darkness gripped her. Her hands and feet beat frantically at slick walls all the way down the stone shaft. In a heartbeat the frenzied fall ended, and Nell found herself in water up to her knees. For a long time she stood unmoving, unwilling to look up for fear the gray beast’s head would greet her from above – and haunt her every second thereafter.
    She drew a shuddering breath, trying to steady her heart as her eyes adjusted to the murk of the well.