Night of the Skull

Night of the Skull
Mary Ellen had been begging her parents for months to let her go Adventuring by herself for once. She pulled out all the classic arguments- she was old enough, it wasn't that dangerous, all the other kids did it, she'd be good and do all her chores and never talk back and... after months of pleading, her parents finally relented, and set up a date for her to go out by herself.

"It'll be our little Christmas gift to you, honey." her mother had said. "It'll just come two days early."

The bridge near her house was a classic Adventuring location, where all the locals went to explore after a hard day's work, but on this cold night Mary Ellen was alone there, the others enjoying the warmth of their homes. She took a deep breath as she held her nets and tranq darts close, then slowly exhaled, her foggy breath hanging in the air.

After this pause, she ran off into the wilderness, her young and energetic arms helping her to capture everything she saw in her plethora of nets, the tranq darts slowing her targets down before their capture. The pets were all things she had caught before on outings with her mother, of course, but this time around they were hers, all hers. Who cared if it was the same boring old Chipmunk Maki she'd caught a hundred times before? Tonight was special, and therefore these pets would always be special to her.

Suddenly, out of the corner of her eye, Mary Ellen spotted a pet she'd never seen before around the bridge. It was a Phanto, which made her smile, as Phantos had always been her favorite pet species. The Phanto was black, with white markings around its face that resembled a skull. A bit of an odd appearance, admittedly, and Mary Ellen dimly remembered hearing village rumors about such Skull Phantos, something about them being bad luck. But who cares about the superstitions of a bunch of old guys? She had a Phanto to catch!

Mary Ellen ran towards the Phanto and swung her net, the strategy that had already netted her a dozen wild pets. But as soon as the net fell, the Phanto had appeared elsewhere, far from the trappings of her net.

She threw her tranquilizer darts towards the Phanto's new location- just one at first, half-heartedly, and then more and more. All of the darts missed, no matter how hard they were thrown, how carefully their path through the air was planned. Eventually, she looked down into her bag of tranq darts and found it empty, her night's supply wasted on this Skull Phanto that simply refused to be caught. But Mary Ellen was not willing to give up so easily.

She grabbed another net, then walked slowly and quietly towards the Phanto, getting within arm's reach of it before launching her net its way. Surely the Phanto had been caught in the net this time- but no, as she inspected the net, nothing was contained within. All that her stealth and strength had accomplished was breaking the net. She heard a soft, repetitive noise coming from behind, and turned around to see the Phanto- was it laughing? Laughing at her failed attempts at capture? How dare a stupid wild pet think it was better than her? This net was broken- and she let it sit where it had landed, a visible sign of her failure- but she had more. Oh yes, she had more...

Mary Ellen began chasing the Phanto throughout the wilderness that surrounded the bridge, following it whenever it evaded her grasp, hitting her net whenever she saw even a glimpse of opportunity pass by. The Phanto still refused to be caught, and its capture quickly became Mary Ellen's sole goal that night. She didn't notice that the Phanto was leading her towards the lights of her village, or the moonlight on the river which supplied the town's food and water. All that she noticed was that the Phanto was outside of her nets, which were now quickly breaking down and falling apart as her attempts at capture became more and more frantic.

Mary Ellen didn't notice that she was on the bridge, and that the Phanto was floating over the river's edge, until her last attempt at capturing it caused her to fall into the water.

She had learned to swim several years back, but her energy had been spent on her futile capture attempts, and the water was frigid on that cold December night. After a few minutes' struggle, Mary Ellen had no strength left to resist the water's call.

When her mother noticed that Mary Ellen never came back home after her adventuring journey, she called together a band of villagers, who formed a search party the next day. Instead of sitting by the fireplace that Christmas Eve, the men of the village went out to the bridge to search for Mary Ellen.

They found her broken nets, which formed a trail onto the bridge, very quickly. Her body was never found- but another strange discovery was made that night. While Skull Phantos were the stuff of village rumors, almost never appearing near their town, that night the men found two of them, standing side by side.