Building up to Christmas with Dusty the Demon Hunter - A Blast from the Past - Flights of Fantasy Part 5

Dusty the Demon Hunter has had a few adventures that she decided to share with me - seven in all (so far) and this is the second one, hot on the heels of Dream Lover, came Flights of Fantasy.

This is the updated book cover. My wonderful best friend, Anna posed for these pics.

This was the original cover

Images of the book covers are mine, all others are from Google's Free for use image search unless the source is stated.

As ever, I have so many stories rolling around in my head, I can't recall every detail, so you'll just have to read it with me.

Enjoy!

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

Flights of Fantasy

Dusty set Finn to sleep on the sofa and she went into the kitchen to find Ange. Ange wasn’t in the kitchen; she had gone out to sit on the back yard where she was in no danger of overhearing her cousin’s confessions.

Dusty went to sit at the side of her friend and Ange was trying hard not to be upset.

“What have they done to him?”

“Oh I don’t think you want to know that, mate.” Dusty said.

“I’ll fucking kill them if I get my hands on them.”

“Yeah, that’s a nice thought but it’s not going to be possible. Finn needs a bit of TLC and a lot of protection. They’ll be coming for him I would think. I know it’s a long-shot, but do you have any brass in the house?”

“Brass? You mean money?”

Dusty laughed. “No, I mean actual brass, like ornaments that a grandma would have.”

“No, I don’t have anything like that...” Ange said but stopped as she remembered something.

She stood up and went back into the house. She looked in on the sleeping Finn and smiled at Dusty. Then Ange went up the stairs and pulled down the loft ladder. Dusty followed her up to the loft and into the dark, hot space between the house and the roof. At the back of the attic, amongst dust and mouse shit, there was an old cardboard box. Dusty couldn’t make out the brand of whatever it had once contained but she was pleased at what it contained now.

“These were left here. I think the old lady that was here before me used to keep them. Will these do?” Ange pulled out the box and Dusty could see that there was another box behind that one.

Ange lifted the flap on the first box to show Dusty the contents. There was a kettle, a bird on a twig, a few bells – none matching another – and lots of small ornaments, similar to the ones that her grandmother called ‘dust catchers’. The old lady before Ange had a large collection of brasses.

They took the boxes down the ladder and began to clean them up.

Ange distributed them around the house, underneath windows and any entrances to the house and she nailed a few of the horse brasses outside the front and back doors.

Dusty left her to do that and ran home. As she ran, she thought hard about Hunter and she was pleased to see him when she got close to her house. He was walking down the lane towards the house and he heard her pounding feet as she approached him. Dusty didn’t need to explain, she ran past him and he followed. He caught her up as she got close to the house.

“Will you help me please?” Dusty asked him before they got in full sight of her home.

“What with?” Hunter was eager to please but not so eager that he would make a promise without hearing the conditions.

Dusty liked him even more for that.

“Harpies.”

Hunter went pale. “They found you?”

“Not yet but they have a strong hold on my friend’s cousin and I think they’re going to make him commit suicide.”

“Yeah, that’s what they do. What do we need?”

“I think a few brass weapons will help, don’t you?” Dusty said and went into the house.

“Dusty...” Hunter began.

Dusty turned around with a large dirty-golden coloured knife in her hand. She was smiling and he really didn’t want to wipe that smile from her face but he had to.

“Where on earth did you get that?” he asked, distracted from his original question by the large and ornate weapon Dusty was holding.

“You know my grandparents have travelled around the world, well they brought back loads of artefacts. This is a ceremonial knife that was made specifically for them.”

“Oh, as long as it’s not plunder then.” Hunter said. “Anyway. Brass weapons won’t do any good at all.”

“Why not?”

“Because they're scared of brass for one thing, so if you’re wielding a bloody great brass knife like that, they’ll not come anywhere near enough for you to use it on them and for another, it can’t actually harm them any more than a weapon made of steel or even slate can harm them. “

“Oh,” she said and her smile dropped from her lips, the eagerness that was obvious as she held up the knife drained from her and she lowered the knife to her side.

“Yeah, sorry, we’ll have to find another way to get them to leave Finn alone.” Hunter stopped talking and stood thinking. Dusty saw the concentration and waited.

“Finn, is that short for Finneas?” He asked.

“I don’t know. I never heard of Ange’s cousin before today. To say that he was so close to her, she must have kept him quiet because I didn’t know anything about him when we were at school together.” Dusty shrugged and then she put the knife back in its place.

“King Phineus was the one that the most stories have been told about where the Harpies are concerned.”

“Yeah, so?”

“So I think that maybe they have their humans mixed up and are waging war of a kind on Finn because they think he’s the one that had them driven off.”

They were still thinking about what to do when Dusty’s grandad arrived to see what they were doing.

“It’s Harpies then?” he asked.

“Yes and we’ve no ideas on how to kill them.”

“Oh you can’t kill them. You can only banish them. They're protected by Zeus and Iris and she swore an oath on the waters of the river Styx that she would call them off. I think there lies your answer.”

He didn’t say anything else but he held out his hand to give something to Dusty. She took it and put it in her pocket. Grandad knew what he was doing.

“Come on then, we’ve got to go.” Dusty said.

“Where? To Iris?” Hunter said.

“No, the river Styx.” Dusty said and pulled Hunter along with her.

When they got back to Ange’s house, it was growing dark and Dusty knew they had very little time left before the Harpies would come calling for their chosen victim. She didn’t have time to explain, she only had enough time to sketch out a plan for Hunter to meet her on the Astral Plane.

She prepared herself for travelling and Ange kept out of her way whilst she made the necessary arrangements. Ange knew what Dusty was doing; she’d seen it before, under very different circumstances. Ange knew how vitally important everything in Dusty’s ritual was, so she kept out of her way and watched.

The cat necklace had quickly become part of her usual dress and even when Dusty went across to the Astral Plane, she remembered to add it to her attire as she clothed herself.

She saw Hunter almost immediately and she flew across to him. He followed her, though he didn’t know where he was following her to.

They saw red deserts of immeasurable vastness stretching out beneath them and they flew over the Wraith mountains where she had almost been killed once before, where Hunter had helped her in defeating Impundulu. They were flying faster than Dusty had ever flown before and she realised it was because of Hunter’s help that she could manage the speed they were travelling at.

Over and beyond the Wraith Mountains lay another desert landscape, one that was far more intimidating. There were monstrosities roaming the land and sometimes they looked up to see the pair of half demons flying above them. The things scared Dusty; she couldn’t tell if they scared Hunter.

They descended and slowed down as they approached another massive range of mountains. Hunter held on to her hand as they landed and it was a far more graceful landing than she usually made. She remembered then that Hunter was not a youngster like she was, he was more than two centuries old and had the experience of those two hundred years.

Their landing had not gone unnoticed and Hunter dragged her into a large opening in the rock face before them. There were many flaming torches on the walls lighting the way so their route was obvious. They travelled as swiftly as they could but their progress was hampered by people wandering along the same path. The people were dressed in simple shifts with bare feet. Some were serene on their journey and some wailed and moaned as they walked but all were moving at the same speed.