Winter's Fury - Volume Two of The Saga of the Twelves (14 page)

She could have kissed him
right there and then, but the giggles from his sisters forestalled
her. She let only a tiny heartfelt grin touch her lips.

He surprised her by
continuing. “I sort of hoped you could bring yourself to do the
same. You know? Maybe you could think of things the same way,
because you liked me enough to find it possible to do so. At least,
I was hoping, anyway.”

Sophie let the silence
grow between them for a while, trying to think of the right thing
to say. He had caught her off guard by being so basic and truthful
with her, even with his sister looking on. She had not expected him
to be this brave.

When she glanced back the
boy, her hesitation seemed to have make things worse for
him.

“
You do like me enough,
don’t you, Sophie?” he entreated, plaintive. There was real fright
cloaking each word he spoke.

The words she was about to
speak were stuck in her throat.
When had
he turned the tables on me?
she thought,
miserable. She looked back at him only see his sisters were staring
back at her with just as much intensity as their
brother.

Yet, why continue to fool
herself? What was so hard about admitting what she knew was real in
her heart? Here she was on the Melded World, involved in a
fantastical plot of diabolical intent, and what was she doing? She
was wasting time ignoring what she did not have time to ignore in
the first place. For all she knew, she could dead a week, or a day
from now. Who was keeping count here on the Melded World? Who was
going to make fun of her or tell her she was stupid, because she
had just met him? Why should she not go for it? What was stopping
her? There were no parents here. There were no legal guardians or
their like abound in this plane of existence. Nothing was here. No
one would come.

Who the
actual fuck
cared?

She peered through the
interplay of sunlight and shadow, holding his gaze. Though his
little sisters were watching her every move, she said, “You are
right, Anthony. I should just be real with myself and stop wasting
time.” She swallowed hard. “I do like you enough.” She was blinking
rapid like the flutter of a butterfly's wings. “I think I liked you
from the first moment I saw you coming at Louis and me through the
snow. You were reassuring and nice. You made us both feel at ease
when we were just about to go crazy with fear.” She knew she should
be blushing, feeling inadequate and without confidence, but she did
not. For some reason, she was feeling the exact opposite. Somehow,
admitting her emotional ties to him grounded her, made her feel
solid. It all felt right, as if things had always been this way and
all else was a lie.

His expression went from
expectant to pure exhilaration in the span of a few heartbeats. He
gazed back at her with equal self-reliance. He seemed to glow
before her eyes, his skin awash with light. She knew he loved her
already. Like she told herself before, she could feel it. Why
continue to deny the obvious? It was pointless to waste
time.

“
I am
glad you feel the same,” he said through a sigh. “And no matter
what happens, I won’t let anything happen to you, I promise. I will
get us all out of here safe and sound, so you and I can spend
some
normal
time
together. In the meantime, just know I mean what I say. I will
always tell you what’s real and what’s not. I will be by your
side…always… I will try my hardest to make sure there is enough
time.” His voice trailed off, a small twinkling of his former
awkwardness reaching his face, making him slink as he
walked.

Sophie was powerless. She
was beyond thinking. One second she was on one side of Elena and
Mikalah and the next she was on the other. She was in their
brother’s arms, squeezing him with every ounce of strength she had
within her. She muttered simple, but powerful words in his ear,
“Thank god for you, thank god for you, thank god for
you…”

If she had not shut her
eyes, enjoying the moment, she would have seen Elena and Mikalah
share a smile and walk-on, hand in hand. Satisfied, they followed
Mugzy through the trampled snow, leaving them behind.

“
Come on, my dears. We
still have much to travel before this day is out,” urged Kodiak.
She had not stopped walking. Although, she did in fact shatter the
intensity of the moment between them.

“
Oh yeah,” she managed in
a shuddering breath. She released her death grip on the boy,
grabbing one of Anthony’s hands instead and dragged him back into
place. Though now they were walking behind his sisters. She was not
going to let go of his hand any time soon.

She and Anthony took their
fourth step together. When the trees gave way and revealed a
crossroads that looked more like a pair of wagon trails
intersecting. They were the pathetic remains of two huge streets an
infinite amount of worlds away.

Sophie could see Garfield
and Mr. Patas milling about where the two roads met. They were
sniffing at the air, listening, pawing at the ground, ensuring
there was no danger abound.

The rest of them reached
the parting of the trees and looked down at what should have been
Colorado Boulevard. The local Rite-Aid and the Post Office would
have stood had there as well if they had been back home.

Now, there was only snow
everywhere and a few trees growing in sparse clumps nearer the
roads, thicker the farther away. The topography of the land was
exactly as it should have been. But, as was the case wherever they
had traveled thus far there was no sign (or inclination) of human
habitation.

Again, she saw a plant
like the one she had seen before. Though hidden beneath the snow,
it was still capable of issuing forth a cloud of dusty spore into
the air. It was dark green and dispersed with alacrity into the
lethargic air before it fell back down a few moments later. It
littered the ground in all directions, four feet from where it
originated.

Joaquin must have seen it
to, because he called out: “Billow Wart! Don’t let that cloudy junk
get on any area of your skin. It’ll burn. It'll bring about nasty,
puss-filled boils that will pop with germinated seedlings of the
plant. This is how its' scourge will spread even farther. You won’t
die, but the process is excruciating and whatever flesh it
encounters will never recover. If it does get on you, there is only
one way to get it off and neutralize the toxins.”

“
How’s that?” asked Andrew
as the group began to bunch alongside the verges of the dirt road
intersection.

“
The same as with Jelly
fish, you’re gonna have to pee on it,” was the answer.

“
Yuck!”, Gross!”, “Ah,
come on!”, said the three females together, each as outraged as the
next.

“
Hey, not my fault if
things from the World of Storm are nasty,” replied the boy in full
retreat.

“
It’s from the ‘other’
place?” asked Mikalah, eye-balling the plant, distrusting of the
growth.

“
Yeah, real nasty stuff,
so stay away from it, ok?” warned Joaquin.

“
Ok.” She murmured the
word.

“
Garfield, lead the way
following this trail,” instructed Anthony. He motioned with his
hand for the huge cat to follow what Sophie considered calling the
Colorado Trail. Since the four-lane avenue was gone and only a
six-foot wide pathway remained, it seemed fitting.

“
It will go down,”
continued the boy, “and then up over that hill just ahead of us.
Then it should begin to descend all the way to Floristan Avenue, if
it’s in fact still there.

“
Is that’s right, Jason?”
He turned to ask the question, raising his voice to the teenager
who had walked off a few feet to the side.

Jason just nodded and gave
them the thumbs-up.

“
At once, Tony-Boy, I will
scout the area,” was all Garfield said. A blink of an eye later, he
bounded down the decline and vanished from sight at the curve of
the trail, where the trees blocked their view.

Mr. Patas ran upon his
humongous toes a ways ahead as well. His colossal ears twisted one
way, then the other atop his head as he listened to the noises of
the landscape.

Mugzy turned back toward
the rest of them. “Well, should we plow forth?”

“
We should,” replied
Anthony in jest.

Sophie watched his mouth
move.

A few blinks of an eye
later, they began to walk down the trail ever closer toward Jason’s
house.

The teenage girl’s eyes
never moved.

I can’t wait to kiss those
lips.

~~~~~~~<<<
ᴥ
>>>~~~~~~~

~ 9 ~

Uncharted and
Unknown

Day Four, Sunday, 8:20
am…

“
Tony, do you think we’ll
find anything once we reach Jason’s house?” asked Mikalah in her
squeaky voice.

She’s scared, thought
Sophie.

They had reached the
bottom of the shallow bowl. This was where Colorado Boulevard met
the terminus of La Loma Road and the beginning of Monte Bonito
Drive. But, they came together in an unusual configuration for an
intersection. It resembled backward letter “K” than the more normal
“+”.

Except, La Loma was only
the tiny walking trail now.

When the others old their
stories days prior, they had informed Sophie that further up the
trail was where the first of their group had met. The bear-dogs,
Anthony, Andrew, Elena, Mikalah, Joaquin and Jason had faced down
Fenris up there.

Since Sophie had lived in
the area all her life, she knew the exact location they'd been
talking about.
The top of the hill, where
all the roads came together,
she
thought.
Only now, they're
trails.

She glanced about, getting
her bearings. Of Monte Bonito Drive, there was no trace at
all.

Anthony looked down at his
youngest sibling and shrugged his shoulders. “Your guess is as good
as mine, little chicken bone. We’ll just have to wait and
see.”

It was plain to the
white-haired teen, Anthony’s mood had lightened three-fold since
she had given him ironclad confirmation that she liked him. There
was a bounce in his step now.

Elena laughed aloud. “Why
is she a chicken bone?”

Anthony was smiling now,
making Sophie grin.

“
I don’t know… chicken
leg,” he jibed.

Now Mikalah joined in the
laughter. “Well if I am a chicken bone and Elena is a chicken leg,
then you’re chicken wing!”

She had such an adroit
wit. Sophie laughed aloud.
Anthony’s
sisters are so adorable!

“
Well, before you choose a
name for me, I would like to be, chicken neck,” interjected Mugzy,
surprising them all into silence. None of them suspected he was
even listening. “Chicken necks are, after all, quite graceful. As
you can see, so am I.” He pirouetted in the snow.

As if flammable, they
exploded with laughter, the large man-dog as well. His chortle
sounded like that of a Wall Street tycoon, chuckling at a funny
jibe made over a brandy. This of course made them all laugh even
harder.

“
Well, if we are all going
to have chicken names, what is mine?” asked Sophie through
persistent giggles.

Without skipping a beat,
Anthony said, “Why you’re my Chicken Tender, of course.” He scooped
the girl up in his arms before she could react. He gave her a twirl
that made her squeal with mock outrage and pleasure at the same
time.

Anthony held her as firm
as he had a few hours before in the snow when he thought the
Crawling Creep had injured her.

She felt her entire body
flush with excitement. Her hands squeezed him at his shoulders. Her
legs bent at the knees. Inside, she relished the feelings he coaxed
from her body with little to no effort.

“
Oh god!” whined Elena,
rolling her eyes and looking away from them.

Mikalah stared at them in
wonderment. She had never seen her brother act this way with
anyone, even a girl. Now he had one in his arms and she was
squirming with delight. She loved it!

Then, Louis’ voice piped
through the air. He broke the revelry with his excited yammer.
“What is that? Hey, you guys, what is that? Do you see that? What
is it? Can you see it?” He was beside himself with excitement,
exclaiming time and again.

They all looked up,
slowing their collective stride, into the clear, blue
sky.

At first Sophie took it
for a bird, but as some of its’ features came into focus, she knew
it was not avian.

Above them was an animal
as alien as some of the plant life she had seen in the forest. It
circled in long, slow arches. Its' wings were broad and efficient,
capable of gliding for long stretches without a single flap. They
were much like that of a bird, possessing something that could pass
for feathers. Yet, its' wings were leathery and drooped when not
pulled taut. They appeared more bat-like than bird-ish.