previous part: https://jordynsaelor.com/2025/10/30/stronghold/
all parts: https://jordynsaelor.com/cant-catch-me-now/
***
I don’t know what they called
the building in the middle of nowhere
so I’ll just describe it.
In the falling twilight,
the walls
looked like storm clouds
squished into huge blocks and stacked
taller than any of the trees.
It had a door
shaped like a triangle,
made of something blue
that split down the middle
and let us inside.
Shallow water
covered the floors,
which the trees
seemed to slide through
without a ripple
and the salamanders
slipped under,
leaving only submerged streaks of color to find them by.
Currents
of lightning
danced inside the walls,
throwing light and shade
and the whole place
carried a burning sting of ozone.
It had no roof, though.
So I tried
to keep track
of our movements
through windy, narrow halls
by watching the sky
instead of the placid ground and shifting walls
but the sun wasn’t visible,
nor any stars
or clouds
so I got turned around quicker
than a bug in a windstorm,
and none of the trees
answered me
about where we were
or where the blankets went
or where the salamanders were swimming off to
or why I was here
or why they’d watched me
walk for so long
before nabbing me
or if I could have some water
so I gave up asking
and waited
for the tree to ease its grip
so I could burn them all to a crisp
then get out
but also,
get out where?
To the bare
dust?
The tree
eventually
carried me
into a vast room
babbling with dripping ripples
and they shut the doors behind us
with oversized branch hands
then stood there;
me
lofted up
flanked by maybe
seven other trees,
though with the sky growing dark
and the lightning crackling inside the walls,
the shadows and waving branches seemed to multiply
into armies–
a voice
from across the room
hummed
and a chill passed through my bones
then the tree let go of me
so I fell, splashing to the water,
ice cold,
arms and knees pressing into heavy mud,
with a faintly foul smell rising
to sabotage my thirst,
and the voice
hummed
so loud
that the water vibrated
and the walls seemed to glow
or maybe the lightning just froze
in place–
the voice asked, in a thick accent,
“What were you doing
with a trio of codependent demons,
mortal?”
I looked up,
searching for the source of the sound
but even with the walls
burning brighter,
only water
and trees
occupied the wide room to my sight.
So I shut my eyes
and pretended the voice
came from a sad salamander
under water,
hiding from me.
“We escaped a demon school together.
I was using them for shade,” I said.
The voice hummed, “Did you or did you not
know their true nature?”
I pried an eye open but the room remained as before,
the trees above me perfectly still
like they’d grown here
in front of the door.
“What are you going to do to me?” I asked.
“We’ll decide that,” the hum said, “after
you tell us:
did you know the codependent demons’ true nature?”
I asked, “What do you mean, ‘true nature’?
Did I know they were codependent demons? Yes.
Do I know what that means? Not really.
I mean, they kept wanting me
to never get rid of them
but can they, I don’t know,
turn me into one of them?
Didn’t some of your trees grab them?
Did you bring them here too?
Where am I?”
“Enough.” The walls trembled
in a manner probably meant to be intimidating
but
enough dragons
had done this in stories
it oddly
relaxed me
so I pushed myself to my feet,
ragged hem of my dress drizzling.
“I just wanted to escape the demon school
and if you’re going to hold me here
I will escape you too–”
a branch
thumped my shoulder,
startling me to silence
though it didn’t really hurt.
“So you’re not
working for the demons?”
the voice asked. “You didn’t take any bites of the blankets?”
“N-no.” I scooted away from the branch
and it didn’t follow,
but neither did it lift back up.
“And you have no intention of aiding them?” the hum asked.
“I was going to ditch them as soon as I found shelter, but then these trees–”
“Well,” the voice whispered, “shelter you have found.”
I glanced at the open sky
but didn’t point out the obvious
then the hum grew into an ooohhh
and the trees joined in too,
a disjointed chorus
buzzing through my insides,
shaking the water,
making the lightning in the walls race in circles,
spinning and spinning faster–
***
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Jordyn Saelor 