Time for Part Three of The Shape of Family! There will be no more new POVs after this Part, just Sadie, Claire, and the uh… thing below.

<- Part Two – Wings

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The Shape of Family

Part Three – Wild

by Rick Cook Jr

The thing that was not a bandersnatch followed at a safe distance. He knew her by the scent of blood. Scent was curious; he did not always possess it, and wished never to need it, so abhorrent was it to him.

He should take her now. If it wasn’t for that thing under the girl…

What is it? he wondered. Not a horse, that much he knew. It was interesting, piquing the curiosity that came with the bandersnatch, but he overrode its instincts for his own. There might be time for curiosity later, once his quest was complete. Once his bloodline was secure.

He followed for hours, and it was like the horse did not need rest. The infernal thing. He would tear it apart. He would rip its flesh from its bones and feed its guts to his new brood.

But the bandersnatch was also possessed of wariness and that was not so easily overridden. Caution, it warned. Wait and see, it begged.

He listened to it. The girl on top of the horse wasn’t going anywhere he couldn’t follow just yet. When they rested, when she could be separated from the beast, he would take her. And none would see her again.

But the horse didn’t slow, not even when passing patrols and vetted merchants. The day waned and then turned to night and still it ran on. Was it immortal? Invincible? The snatch didn’t want to test that. The thing protected her and he couldn’t risk his life on an unknown.

So he followed and waited. The girl and the horse must surely seek shelter. Stable the beast, forest willing. He would seek the girl within, for walls were no bar to such as him.

But something better presented itself. When the moon in the sky hung like a worm from the hook, the girl reined her not-horse in and waited in the middle of a crossroads. Was it a trick? Did they know he was following?

Nevermind that. He might not get another chance. He swirled back into the nothing he usually was and crept out over the road, silken blackness all but invisible in the moonlight.

Then another rider approached and he darted back to the safety of the Red Forest. So close! He became the bandersnatch again and delighted in an almost-identical scent of blood as the new rider came close and then stalled in front of the girl and her midnight horse.

“Hail, Scout,” the newcomer said. They were mirrors of each other. What sorcery was this? He stared. He salivated. The new girl was on a normal horse, much like the pony he’d ripped to shreds before.

“Always so formal,” the first girl said. “No one’s here to hear it. Just say hi.”

“I have to do it or I’ll forget when I’m in front of the Captain.” She hesitated.  “Where’s your horse?”

“Bandersnatch got her,” the first one said.

The new girl gasped, covering her mouth. “I’m sorry, Marie. Is that why you were scared before?”

“I wasn’t scared.”

“Why do you insist on lying?”

“Makes me feel better. I need to have some secrets, even from you.”

“Poor Amelia’s gonna have a fit,” the new girl said, patting her gray horse. “They came up together, you know.”

“I was there when we chose and named them, sister.”

“How far back are they?”

“They’re waiting for you in Stalbridge. If you ride hard you’ll make it by morning.”

“Another sleepless night,” the new girl whined. “Hope Captain Claymonte doesn’t catch me sleeping in the saddle.”

“Again.”

“Yes, again.”

“I’m going to run on. I have to take this weirdo horse home and deliver the news.”

“What news?”

“The Red Forest is more dangerous than usual. Bandersnatch comes out in broad daylight. Times are getting harder.”

“During the day?” the new girl asked, rubbing her temples over this new worry.

The bandersnatch in the canopy could hardly contain himself. Separate, pull away, he willed. Go on.

The girl on the black horse leaned in the saddle and hugged her mirror. “If you hear it, don’t stop. Just keep riding. Keep yourself alive.”

“And now I have that to worry about,” the second girl said. “Good luck, Scout Mollen.”

“And you, Renee. Call and I’ll come.”

And they parted, the girl on the confounded mystery riding ahead, the mirror image on the normal gray heading back the way the first had come.

Perfect.

He followed the mirror image. She smelled almost the same, and it would be so much easier to deal with her than with the black horse.

She rode hard but the bandersnatch didn’t need to lope, just shifted into his shapeless form, weaving around trees, keeping her always in his sights. They passed town after town, sometimes passing patrols in the night. Patrols full of hardened men and women, worthless for his purposes. It was half an hour of darkness and dusty road before the creature judged the distance between civilizations great enough.

He ran ahead of the girl on the horse and waited, hoping the horse was moving too fast to stop once it smelled him.

He pounced when it came close, and the horse reared back and the girl fell out of her saddle, crying in perfect imitation of her mirror image. Curious. It wanted to place them side by side and test them, find their differences. But no. Time enough for that later, maybe.

The horse bolted before he could sink his claws in. Abandoned her rider. And the monster known as the bandersnatch pooled around the crying, scuttling girl. Enveloped her in his misty, changing form and dragged her away, screeching, into the pitch blackness of the Red Forest. Faint signs of a struggle on the road would lead any trying to follow on a blind chase through the haunted woods.

They couldn’t follow, and soon his kind would rise once more.

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Part Four – Priority

Come on back for Part Four next Tuesday!