The small leather laden blond gripped down tight on the voluminous mane before her, straddling the beast as it charged through the foliage just outside the Witch Queens Palace. A mass of twisted goblin fiends, thwarted jailors, gave chase– clawing at the ground, scraping and scurrying! Trying to grasp their prey before they got too far… twisted humanoid things, loyal only to the All-powerful Witch Queen.

Fiona’s heart was a racing! This was it, the night… Halloween!

The night the Witch Queen planned to rip open the portal between the Cursed World, Mya, and the Next… the modern world known as Earth.

Certain doom for both worlds– for not only would earth quickly find itself enthralled by the evil queens’ machinations, but the cursed world, Mya, would no longer be needed to maintain her life force. The planet would at last succumb and crumble from within, allowing the creatures engulfing it, to at last drain the last of its life. Murdering all those that lived on the planet and allowing the World Consumers freedom from their current prison… hastening their own leap to Earth.

The wolf racing beneath her was far larger than any found on Earth. It was as tense as she, as it carried her up and over a granite stone wall. Upon gaining a successful perch, they both found it was in fact the outer wall of a great labyrinth. Something the Witch Queen had added, enjoyed, and lost interest in– long ago. It was a twisting maze that many had surely lost within, not only their way, but their very lives.

The thrashing goblin-fiends clamored and climbed up over their own bodies to follow– nipping at their heels.

Luckily, neither the wolf nor rider need leap down into the twisting pathways– the long stride of the giant wolf, leapt from one wall to the next, leaving the goblin nightmare far behind. Many of the monstrous mass, by their own folly, slipped down into the maze- never to be seen again.

Looking down, Fiona found nothing but darkness between those walls. The drop would be perilous, and the climb back up… impossible.

The wind threw her blond locks behind as the wolf raced over a long stretch of the labyrinth wall, quickly leapt to the next, when he’d run out of ground, and back again. Zigzagging where he could.

The goblins raged in the distance, trapped at the outer wall.

It had been a full year since Fiona managed to capture the Cursed Man. A full year since the Witch Queen pried into his mind, learned what she could of the Next World, and made her plans to leave the monster ridden world, Mya, in her wake.

But also, a full year for Fiona Hart to find a way to thwart it.

The Queens Giant Ravens appeared above; letting out a screeching caw.

Fiona found the sound unnerving as she cast a glance to the skies, blackened wings cut through the air as the sun set in the distance.

It was getting there; they were getting there.

The birds swooped in to harry them; Fiona struck out with the short blade she’d taken to carrying on her person. Feathers seemed to deflect the blow, but the bird soared away before she could strike again.

The wolf tumbled as the next raven struck it, mid-leap, from one wall to the next.

Though Fiona had a good hold on the wolf’s mane, her legs tumbled free, she found herself hanging over the abyssal drop.

The wolf itself was agile beyond reason, quickly managed to gets its hind paws back under him as he scraped and kicked back to the top of the next wall; regaining his purchase. The snarl and snap at the next raven, within reach, was fierce. All the while Fiona managed to right herself on the giant wolf’s back.

This was no normal wolf– this was a Wild Spirit, fully pulled from beyond the veil. The very spirit that month after month borrowed the form of the Cursed Man… that is until the Witch Queen grew tired of him, and forced the spirit-wolf fully into this world. Transforming the human man into the mount-sized beast Fiona had previously saved from his prison and now grasped desperately to.

The Ravens were not enough– in the distance before them, stalking over the long plane of twisted swirling walls, the Witch Queen seemed to step out of the haze. Standing in a full length gown the beautiful woman appeared just for a moment, before she flickered away again.

Fiona, frantic, searched. She found her again on the other side of the reaching twisted landscape… watching, smirking. The Queen was evil and powerful beyond reason— though, Fiona knew, she could not guess what the escapees had planned. She also knew, none of the witches evil plans could come to fruition, without the now freed wolf.

The sun finally vanished under the horizon and night claimed the skies as quickly as the luminous blue glow claimed Fiona’s alabaster skin. Her eyes now emblazoned yellow; the raven clawed at her back as it swooped over the racing wolf.

Then the Witch Queen was there! Right there, beside her! Gripping for her throat. They leapt… three giant ravens flew in hard, all clawing at wolf and rider and queen at once.

But it was too late for the fiends.

Too late for the Queen to stop Fiona– or the wild spirit gripped between her legs.

Once Fiona was fully empowered by nightfall, they both slipped through the veil… to the other side. Where the spirits of all the misdeeds born throughout this world, hunted the lost souls of this strange Cursed World, known, as Mya.

But ultimately, to where the Witch Queen couldn’t follow.

– –

Happy Halloween!