Winter's Fury - Volume Two of The Saga of the Twelves (11 page)

“
Sophie, if you can hear
me? Wake up, ok? Babe, if you hear my voice, then open your eyes.”
He was saying it over and over like he was reciting the
rosary.

“
I don’t see any cuts or
broken bones, or anything like that,” concluded Joaquin as he
continued to search over the teenage girl. His movements were still
a little too fast, birdish. His body afire with adrenaline, made
his breathing ragged, his mouth dry.

Mikalah chanced a glance
around, noticing for the first time the sun was out and the sky was
clear of any sort of cloud or haze. She gazed over at the toppled
mound of vegetation blocking the way back to their sanctuary. There
was nothing but crystalline blue above. She saw Kenai and Mugzy
above the rest of them, scanning the area with protective tenacity.
The rest of the Guardians were craning their necks to see what was
happening, though they all stayed at the edge of the dead-fall.
They were unsure if it was proper to come closer. They did not want
to get in the way.

Taking a deep drought of
air, enjoying the warmth of the sun upon her face, she peered back
at her brother and the girl he held in his arms. Mikalah was just
in time to see Sophie’s eyes flutter, close for a moment and then
open wide. Astounded, she saw a single tear fall from one of
Anthony’s eyes onto the cheek of the girl, who was staring up at
him. She had a quizzical look etched upon her face, the fallen
moisture completely ignored.

Mikalah had never seen her
brother cry over a girl before. It left her short of breath and
panting. It was profound, incredible and reflective of a part of
her brother she had never seen before.

“
The sun is out,” stated
Sophie, her voice groggy, as if her tongue was twice as thick as it
should have been.

“
I guess it is, huh?”
replied Anthony, his arms tightening about the girl. He brought her
closer to him and hugged her, firm, for a long time.

The rest of them waited
for them to end their embrace.

The silence
welcomed.

“
How did I get out here?”
wondered the blond teen the moment Anthony loosened his hold of
her.

Her brother's smile
crooked, snagged at one corner. He gave a pleading look toward
Joaquin.

The large wrestler
returned his gaze for a moment or two. Then, he gave him an
imperceptive nod. “A Crawling Creep attacked you,” he began, trying
but failing to keep his voice steady. Though he was not her
boyfriend, there was still much feeling for her in his
heart.

Mikalah felt her brow
furl.
Crawling Creeps are sooo
creepy!

“
A w-what?” managed
Sophie, her tones stronger than they had before.

“
A Crawling Creep,”
answered Joaquin. “In essence, it's a vine, though it does not need
a constant connection to the earth to sustain itself. For the most
part it crawls, or writhes, over the ground looking for suitable
prey. When it finds it, it wraps itself about its’ meal and
searches out a suitable place to devour it.”

“
Ah man, that’s gross!”
exclaimed Mikalah, mortified that the thing had been a plant, a
plant that moved about like a snake.

Sick!

Joaquin nodded at her.
“They’re somewhat slow. They wait until their prey is asleep. Then
they spray the air about their intended meal with a kind of
knockout gas it emanates from those thick hairs covering its body.
Once it has its’ food snug in its coils, those same ‘hairs’ with
seek out the various orifices and other tender regions of its’
victims. It shoves them deep into the flesh of its’ prey. Once
successful, the Creep will begin to eat its’ catch through those
filaments. They grow longer and multiply over the course of its’
eating, until its’ food is just about covered with them. Over time
– and this could be up to a month later - a Crawling Creep with
disengage its ‘hairs’ from its victim. It lets them fall from its'
body, sloughing them off, leaving only a skin sack filled with
bones behind…”

“
God damn,” cursed Sophie
as she shuddered in Anthony’s arms.

“
It is still no excuse,”
piped-in Mr. Patas. His high-pitched squeal made Mikalah
cringe.

“
What is this you speak
of, old friend?” asked Kodiak.

“
I should never have
fallen asleep. We could have lost one of the Twelve! For that there
is no excuse,” answered the rabbit-man, his voice thick with
conviction, conveyed with a screeching tone.

“
Do not waste your time
dwelling upon that which cannot be undone,” counseled the Bear-dog.
“There was no way you, me or any other member of the Fist could
have accounted for such a creature here in the Melded World. We had
no idea it could induce one to sleep with any specificity. There
was no manner by which you could have prepared. Let it go. I will
have no more of it.”

“
As you say, great canine,
as you say,” proclaimed Mr. Patas, crossing his arms before
him.

“
Well, it is all quite
disgusting, if you ask me,” commented Garfield as he sauntered back
into the lot of them. “I dragged the god-awful thing off into the
bushes, where it can rot,” he finished with a feline harrumph. As
far as he was concerned the matter needed no further
discussion.

“
I doubt if it’s dead,”
rationalized Joaquin with a slight shake of his head.

Kodiak gazed at the
approximate location where Garfield had left the Creep. “What makes
you say that, Joaquin?”

He shrugged his good-sized
shoulders. “They have prodigious regenerative capabilities. It
takes fire – intense fire – to kill them outright, and sometimes
even that doesn't work. If left unchecked, they will regrow the
damaged areas and move on.”

“
Is this true despite the
fact Mikalah mangled a good part of its’ front end?” queried
Garfield, his brows raised, incredulous.

Joaquin nodded
again.

“
Hmmff,” sniffed the great
cat. “Nasty, resilient things, aren’t they?”

“
Yeah, most things from
the World of Storm are just that,” explained the large teen,
running a hand through his mussed hair as he stood.

“
World of Storm?” question
Anthony, fear creeping back into his voice.

Joaquin peered down at
him, squinting in the glare of the morning sun. “Yeah,” was all he
said.

“
What makes you think it’s
from those environs?” asked Garfield. He too was looking to where
he had left the plant-snake.

“
My Gift is telling me
that it is…”

A short stillness befell
them as the wind blew through their group. It was still cold, but
refreshing after the confinement in a cave over the course of the
past four days.

“…
I think everything we
saw in the cave, moments ago, was from the World of Storm. As
things progress, I bet we’ll be seeing even more of the inhabitants
of that terrible place,” uttered Joaquin. The last part he said to
himself, though he spoke loud enough for them all to
hear.

“
Why, Joaquin?” wondered
Anthony.

“
I just have a bad feeling
about it.”

They all seemed to
consider Joaquin’s reply for a moment, then Kodiak spoke. “Let’s
get Sophie back into the cave. There we can figure out what to do
once we have attended to her needs.”

“
Does that mean we can
finally go out and get the camping stuff at Jason’s house?” asked
Mikalah, her typical girlish energy bubbling to the
fore.

“
I think so,” retorted her
brother as he wrapped his arms once again about Sophie and together
they came off the ground.

She leaned into Anthony,
getting her feet under her, a tentative attempt at allowing them to
bear her weight.

“
Finally!” exclaimed
Mikalah. All the disgust on her face washed away. In the light of
the sun, her visage was aglow with excitement.

“
Yeah, we should -,”
Joaquin was about to agree when something seemed to hit him – hard.
They were thoughts and images, not his, delving into his
consciousness with brutal force and without mercy. He stopped
mid-sentence, staggering, putting a knee to the snow-covered
ground. His hands clutched at his head.

For a moment, Mikalah
thought he was about to fall to the ground, but Garfield was there
in an instant. He leaned against the large teen, supporting him
with his considerable bulk. The great feline seemed unbothered by
the other’s weigh. This despite Joaquin weighed two hundred
pounds.

“
Joaquin, are you
alright?” grumbled Kodiak.

Only silence
followed.

*****

Joaquin could not
answer…

…
More and more images
streaked before his eyes, swifter with each passing second. It was
as if he were watching some fantastical slide show with photographs
of amazing detail. There were scores of them. No, there were
hundreds, thousands, each one scorching his brain with unfeeling
purpose. He could feel the others gather about around him. He even
heard someone say: “Whatever was going on, it appeared to have
something to do with his Gift…”

They retreated a bit. They
gave him room to breathe as he half-stood, half-leaned against
Garfield. The onslaught continued.

Unlike before, he did not
fight it, he steadied his breathing. He began to inhale and exhale
in long, slow gulps of air, letting his chest expand to its fullest
before he breathed outward.

Of the images, he welcomed
them, studied them and learned them. He chalked every iota of
information into a corner of his mind for use afterward. He stood
straighter as time passed. The visions filled him - scenes of
trails and dirt roads, forests and hills, and a gigantic valley.
Next he saw a sloping landscape, then a wide trail, the trail
leading up and into the mountains. It was a winding, turning,
twisting trail. It led to even higher elevations, farther and
farther up. In the World of Man, these were peaks towering above
the city of Los Angeles. Here though, in the Melded World, they
guarded a vast unexplored primeval, conifer forest.

So, he let them come. He
watched and felt his brain grown. He let the knowledge pour into
him like corn into a silo, ever flowing. It was inexhaustible,
filling, filling and filling.

He saw it then, the Grove,
just as before, but no longer where it once had been…

The images
stopped.

He took a few side-steps,
standing on his own.

The act gave Garfield some
respite, though he did not seem to need it.

He could feel twelve sets
of eyes boring into him.

“
What did you learn?”
asked Anthony, breaking free from Sophie. He came forward to look
into Joaquin’s visage, concern plain upon his face. His eyes
searched the others’ for clues, any notion of what had
happened.

He’s already beginning to
see the signs. When my Gift is active, he knows
, though Joaquin, rubbing his temples.

“
It moved,” muttered
Joaquin after a time.

“
What moved?” inquired
Kodiak, coming forward as well.

“
The Grove. It moved
farther away, to a more hidden place. A place where Fenris can’t
find it, or so I assume,” he managed, feeling more like himself. “I
think. I hope.”

“
You mean it’s not in
Shoal Canyon anymore?” inquired Anthony. Of a sudden, he remembered
Sophie was still unsteady upon her feet. He went back to her, one
arm about her waist in one swift motion.

Joaquin shook his head,
“no”.

“
Where then?” It was
Anthony again, trepidation creeping into his tone.

“
It is in the mountains,
near Crystal Lake, way, way up there beyond at least fifty miles of
trail. Fenris must have found its’ original location. Sometime
during the snowstorm, the magic surrounding us, the Twelve, and
moved it to a safer place, one known only to us.

They were all staring at
him like he was mad.

“
The magic is strong, you
guys. The utter meaning of strong,” he mumbled. He was out of
breath, though he had only spoken a few sentences.

“
Oh wow,” mumbled Sophie,
rubbing her scalp, agitated. Her other hand fell to her hip,
clutching at Anthony’s arm.

“
But you can get us there,
right?” asked Anthony, trying to change his voice, pushing away
tones that might upset the others.

Joaquin let his smile
grow. “Absolutely… It’s just a bit more of a trek, but I can get us
there, no problem.”

Anthony spun on his heel.
“Good, then let’s get Sophie squared away, clean up the cave and
then gather what we need. Then, we head out and see, if by some
miracle, Jason’s house has made it through the Rending,” he
announced with a flourish.

As they made their way
back toward the others to one side of the fallen trees, Kodiak
called out to Elena. Her deep bass tones echoed across the land.
“Elena!”

“
Yes!” answered the girl,
coming around the hips of Mugzy, who had, been standing before her,
shielding her the entire time.