The Forest of Aisling: Dream of the Shapeshifter (The Willow Series Book 1) (31 page)

I held on, shaking my head, ensuring that I was
fully latched onto his neck, and slowly stepped off his back, dragging him to
the driveway.   A choking sound was coming from his throat which let
me know he was almost gone.  I released the bite for an instant and rolled
him over with my snout.  I then sunk my teeth deep into his neck once more
and could feel the life drain out of him.  I let go and howled, absorbing
the relentless torrents of rain.  The giant’s body lifted and became
transparent, just as the other one had done; after the mist encircled and
morphed him, it made him disappear into the splashes of rain.

A lightning bolt struck right after that, and then
another, this one struck the roof of the house.  A fire immediately took
off and began to spread.  The rain had no effect on the fire; it was
acting as lighter fluid. 

I ran to the house and entered the living room,
which had been destroyed.  Furniture was overturned and a small fire was
smoldering in the corner of the room.  I padded my way to it and put it
out with my foot.  I listened for the others but heard only the fury of
the storm blowing through the broken door and windows.

Unable to mindspeak or shift, I knew I needed to
recharge, so I went to a dark corner of the room and sat down.  I
channeled my hearing to other areas in the house but nothing was coming
through.  As I sat there I could make out movement in the hallway.  I
remained sitting in an effort to regain my strength.

Suddenly Quinn literally came flying through the
door and landed on the overturned couch.  He was flat on his back and
moaned in pain as I saw the Lizardman making his way to Quinn.  He had a
knife sticking out of his back and was moving slowly.  I finally was able
to shift to my smaller self when I saw Aaron close in on the lizard and plunge
another knife into his back.  The beast swirled and lashed out its claws
at Aaron, nearly connecting with his face.  Aaron jumped back, grabbed a
coat tree and swung it like a baseball bat, sending the creature reeling. 
It landed at the base of the couch where Quinn was now standing.  He had
an end table raised above his head and slammed it down on the skull of the
green-tinted creature.  A sickening crackling sound was heard, followed by
Quinn’s bellowing, “Yeeeesssssss, take that you snake,” as he held onto his
side.

The Lizardman did exactly as the Cyclops had; its
lifeless body rose in the air, becoming transparent and morphing before
disappearing into the cloudy mist.

I had shifted and went running to Quinn and Aaron
who both looked horribly beaten and bloody.

“Where’s Bram?” I screamed, holding onto the two
of them.

Before either of them could answer a tremendous
boom came from the attic.  We all looked up, only to see bits of plaster
breaking off the ceiling in the living room.  Seconds later a huge hole
had opened up and a bird’s beak, the size of large watermelon, appeared through
the falling plaster.  It pecked away at it until the hole was big enough
to drive a Volkswagen through.

We all just stood and stared in amazement when the
beak appeared through the hole once again holding onto another Lizardman,
depositing it through the orifice.   Another lifeless body succumbed
to the transparency and mist before disappearing.

The beak reappeared through the ceiling, followed
by the brown feathered head of an eagle.  He let himself drop to the
ground and flapped his wings, turning his head in my direction.

“There you are,” I said, mouthing my words wide.

Bram was able to shift quickly and surveyed the
damage, “Sorry about that, Da,” he said apologetically.

He then rushed over and held my face in his hands.
“There
you
are,” he whispered.

We gave ourselves a few minutes to recharge and
catch our breath.  I bandaged Quinn and Aaron’s injuries while Aaron
discussed our next step.

“Take him to the lake at the park,” Aaron began,
“get yourself situated, Quinn, get used to your abilities as quickly as you
can.  Then make your way to the Causeway.” 

We went to the basement and grabbed all the
priceless documents that had been stored so carefully.  Upstairs the house
was in shambles and soon the basement would be flooded, so we needed to ensure
the safety of the ancient papers.   Aaron stuffed everything into an
oversized suitcase and slammed the lid shut.  We returned upstairs and
decided it would be best for Bram to get Aaron to his office in town where he
had a safe room and could continue his research on how to call forth Lugh if
necessary.

As we stood at what was left of the front door,
Aaron looked back into the chaos that was once his home and sadness filled his
face.  Rain was pouring in through the hole in the roof and ceiling and
devastation was everywhere.  I grabbed his arm sympathetically and leaned
my head against his shoulder.  I hated the thought that he was losing
everything he had worked so hard for.

“It’s all right, Willow,” he said, holding onto my
hand, “this…I can rebuild.” His expression was bittersweet as he looked down at
me.

We stepped over the toppled tree that now lay on
the front porch and looked at each other.  I would get Quinn to the lake
and Bram would join us there after he got Aaron to safety.  I quickly
shapeshifted, then grew larger and waited for Quinn to make his way to where I
stood.  He was still grimacing from the injury to his side. 

I watched in amazement as Bram did the same
–shifted and grew – becoming the size of a motorcycle.  He looked towards
Quinn and me and nodded his head.  Aaron climbed on his back and wrapped
his arms around his neck.  With a quick snap his wings were outstretched
and he was in the air.

I lowered myself to the ground to make it easier
for Quinn to climb on my back.  The rain had now become hail and was
pounding us.  I heard Quinn moan a couple of times and raised myself
carefully in an effort to keep him as comfortable as possible.  He nuzzled
into my thick coat gripping my neck tightly and digging his heels into my
sides.

“Ready, Willow!” he shouted.

I stood up and shook my head, releasing the
moisture that had accumulated, then took those first wobbly steps over the
soaked ground and fallen trees.  Once I had my footing I sprinted into
motion.  My eyes narrowed as I kept my stare straight, zeroing in on the fastest
route to the lake.  I instinctively knew which way to go by both smell and
sound.  Even with the turbulent crashes of thunder echoing in my ears I
was able to hear the woods in the distance, and the scent filled my nose as I
drew closer. 

I ran along the highway, jumping over sports
car-sized potholes.  Huge chunks of the road had been washed away and
replaced with small rushing rivers.  Complete environmental devastation
was occurring at an alarming pace. 

In the distance I could make out the entrance to
the park and veered across the road, slipping once on the mudslide that had
begun to consume what was left of the highway.  I found myself on the
familiar gravel stone path that snaked its way into Killarney National
Park.  I sniffed the ground and detected an unusual scent rising from the
saturated surface.  I stopped, allowing Quinn to readjust himself, when I
noticed movement to my right.  A blur about fifteen feet away had shot
through the rain and actually made a watery path in its wake. Not in any hurry
to find out what it was, I turned and quickly padded my way towards the
lake. 

 The road was completely washed out so I
headed through the densest part of the woods, jumping over fallen trees and
loosened boulders.  I paused just long enough to channel my hearing in all
directions, trying to decipher any threats looming before us.  Aside from
an odd whisper-like sound, which I wrote off as wind wailing through the beaten
trees, I was unable to pick out anything else.

 I slowly started up the last remaining
hillside before the lake when another lightning bolt illuminated the ridge in
front of us.  There I saw, perched like some kind of vultures, creatures
the size of a ten-year-old child.  There must have been at least twenty of
them.  I stopped dead in my tracks and mindspoke to Quinn.

“Do you see them?”  I asked.

“Aye,” he replied.

“You have to hang on as tight as you can. 
I’m going to try and rush them and get over the ridge.  The lake is on the
other side so once I get there you’ll need to make it to the water.  I’ll
try and get you right to the shore, but, if I can’t, jump off and make a run
for it.  I’ll fight them off,” I said, my heart pounding, readying itself
for battle.

A low moan came from Quinn as he dug himself
deeper into my back. “Ok, let’s do this,” he mumbled.

I surveyed the ridge once more and let my
instincts take over.  A low howl rose out of my chest as I felt my teeth
baring themselves with a growl surging in my throat.  I stretched out my
hind legs, one after another, and then bounded straight up the ridge.  I
lowered my head, ready to butt anything that might be in my way.  An
inhuman cry rose from the creatures as they stood and raised their arms, waving
spear-like weapons high above themselves.  I reached the peak and directed
my head to the two creatures directly in front of me.  They had their
spears pointed straight at my face.  I pressed down on my front paws,
surging the muscles there and in my back legs, and hurdled above the two,
narrowly escaping the spears.  As I landed I felt a burning ache in the
back of my right leg.  The creatures were heaving their spears and a few
had pierced my body. 

I kept running towards the lake with one thought
in mind, and that was to get Quinn there.  The screams from behind me were
closing in as I suddenly became aware of flashes of light on the surface of the
lake.  Lightning appeared to be striking the water.  I was only a few
feet from the shore when Quinn screamed.  I could feel him slipping off my
back so I stopped and spun my head back, trying to see what was wrong. 
One of the creatures had hold of his leg and was pulling him down, and another
was driving a spear into the back of my leg.  I howled with pain. 
Quinn was struggling and kicked at the little beast.  I saw its
gruesome-looking form, with misshapen arms and a goat-like head.  Its feet
were cloven and a monkey tail had wrapped itself around Quinn’s leg.  My
first thought was,
Thank God these things aren’t any bigger.

I kicked at the Goatman that had just plunged the
spear into my leg and sent it flying a good thirty feet.  The other one
had Quinn on the ground and was trying to drag him away.  I hastily turned
and lowered my front paw, pinning him to the ground.  Quinn recovered
quickly and without hesitation jumped into the lake.  I raised my paw and
watched the Goatman scramble to his feet and try to run away.  I nabbed
his tail in my jaws and tossed him towards the ridge.  The other creatures
were all around me now, poking and stabbing their spears into me.  I snarled
and latched on to one that had just tried to stab my eye.  I clamped down
on its throat, and instantly it was gone.  It became transparent, the
swirling mist morphed it, and in a puff, it disappeared, just like the
Cyclops. 

Another had climbed on top of me and was trying to
spear my back.  I rolled over on my side and forced it off.  When I
stood, they had me circled and were jumping on me and stabbing at my
legs.  I howled in pain but also in anger.  Adrenaline began pumping
through me and I swung into action, spinning and circling, nipping at any
creature I could get my mouth on.  Once I had them off of me I trampled
them and took them in my jaw, sending them reeling, all the while being pierced
by their razor-sharp spears. 

Tremendous lightning bolts lit up the lake,
followed by an awful bellowing.  I turned quickly and choked back the
terror that had lodged itself in my throat.  There, in the middle of the
lake, rising slowly against the crashing surf, was the most incomprehensible
horror I’d ever seen.

Monstrous proportions rose from the depths of the
water to heights of at least one hundred feet.   The dark gray and
black mass was horrifying in its size and shape.  I blinked my eyes
numerous times in an effort to try and distinguish what exactly it was I was
looking at, but to no avail.

Panic rose through me at the thought of Quinn
being in the same body of water with that horror.  My eyes scanned the
nearby shoreline and further out when, luckily, I caught sight of the long
flippers of the pilot whale.  I immediately went to mindspeak.

“Quinn, what is that thing?”

He didn’t respond for a few minutes.  While I
stood there, distracted by the spectacle, two more Goatmen jumped on me and
began plunging their spears into my sides.  I had had it with them by this
time and shook then both loose before I plopped my paws on top of them, then
watched them float off into nothingness.  I scanned the ridge and felt
sure that I had managed to rid myself of the annoying creatures.

“Wil...low, Wil…” Quinn’s voice cracked in my
head.

“I’m here, Quinn, are you ok?”

“I’m trying to…” his voice faded into the static.

“What, Quinn, what!”

I ran to the shoreline, hypnotized by the monster
undulating in the water.  I couldn’t take my eyes off of it.  It was
silent now but was still stretching itself up into the night sky, almost as if
it were growing.

A gigantic splash washed upon me and broke my
trance.  I looked into the water and saw Quinn’s whale head surfacing, his
mouth opened in a perpetual grin.  He lifted his body higher, and then
dove back in below the surface.

“I’m trying to get this echolocation thing
down.  Some weird snakes were in here attacking me.  It took a couple
of tries but I finally wa–” he cut out again.

He surfaced once more, and then dived. “I finally
was able to use it to kill them.  I’ll try it on squid face out
there.” 

I looked at the gigantic sea monster, then over to
Quinn.  There was no way he would be able to take that thing down all by
himself.

“Quinn, have you tried to get bigger?”

He rose above the surface once more and this time
made a nodding motion with his head.  “I tried, nothing happened.”

“Don’t do anything with that monster yet. 
It’s not moving so leave it alone.  Try to get bigger,” I urged.

“How?”

“All I had to do was focus on growing. 
Picture it mentally, try that…visualize.  You need to get rid of other
thoughts, just think about growing.”  I kept my eyes on the middle of the
lake while he lowered himself once more into the depths. 

As I watched, more lightning began to build up in
the cloud directly above the monster.  The thing was just towering there
in the middle of the lake.  It seemed like it must be waiting for another
charge of electricity.   When that came, I had no idea what would
take place.  Would the charge cause the creature to grow or would it be
the final blast it needed to take control and attack?  I just kept
staring, as if that somehow held the thing in check.

My attention was drawn in the other direction when
I heard high-pitched cries coming from the ridge behind me. Bram came crashing
down, followed by two birds that were attacking him.  They were the same
size as Bram but with female human heads and long pointed beaks.  Their
hands and feet were made up of three elongated digits with long curling
nails.  Like the Goatmen, they had tails, which they used to grab Bram’s
feet, forcing him to the ground.

Bram stood up and was immediately covered by the
birds as they pecked at his eyes and face, holding him in check with their
tails.  He stretched out his wings and tried to use them as a kind of
shield, but the attack was relentless.

 I sprang for the ridge and when I reached
Bram I took hold of the bird on top, fastened my teeth around her and pulled
her off by her neck.  She let out a piercing cry and became uncontrollable
in her attack, plunging her beak into my eye and her nails into my mouth.

Stupid move
, I thought as I clamped down on
her hand and spit out the disengaged appendage.  The bird screeched in
pain and fell to the ground.  One more nip and she was gone.

Bram had forced the other bird to the ground and
had it pinned down with his massive claws.  He bent over and bit its neck,
sending it into oblivion. He stretched out his wings and shook his head. 

I licked my wounds, which were worse than I
realized, before I shifted back to myself.  Bram shifted too and stood
beside me staring at the lake.  “What the…?” he asked as he stared at the
spectacle looming in the distance.

The thing had transformed itself even more since
Bram’s arrival.  Its large snake form now had a more pronounced head with
four bulging eyes that lay on either side.  Tentacles appeared from its
midsection, reaching out at least twenty feet, along with what looked like the
same tail as the Goatmen and birds.

“Who raised the kraken?” Bram asked with a
furrowed brow.

I led him down to the lake to where Quinn had
been.  I wasn’t able to see him anymore and asked Bram to use his
sight.  He quickly lowered his head and was zeroing in on the lake. 
After a few seconds he saw him.

“There he is,” he pointed to an area close to a
small island.  I could see his shape now.  He looked massive and was
circling the island.

“Quinn,” I thought, “you’re huuuuuge!”

He laughed.  “I’d better be if I’m going to
deal with that thing.  I feel good about the sonar.  I’ve been able
to direct it where I want it and control the intensity.  I can even –”