Winter's Fury - Volume Two of The Saga of the Twelves (17 page)

Their brother stood and
embraced Elena a second later, a rarity between them, but necessary
given the moment.

Sophie came up behind
Elena and dropped to her knees to give the girl a squeeze from
behind.

“
You two are becoming
quite the tandem,” said Joaquin, walking up to them, a broad smile
making his eyes squint. “The Blytz and the Flĕsch can do some
serious damage working as a team.”

Mikalah watched as Sophie,
her brother and Elena finished hugging. They released one another
and turned as a group to face the large teenage boy, faces
speculative.

“
You guys mangled that
Klürrg.” He was motioning with excitement toward the sodden corpse
on the ground at Jason’s feet.

Klürrg? Is that what you
call a squirrel-pig from Storm?
A silent
question she left unsaid.

Jason was beaming. He was
not used to possessing such brute strength. He’d been diminutive
growing up. “It felt like I was hitting tissue paper or something,
and not skin and bones. And to make things even cooler, for a
fraction of a second, I thought I could read Mikalah’s thoughts.”
Jason shrugged, muttering under his breath, “It was crazy.” He
reached down, grabbed a handful of snow. He began to wipe at the
blood and gore on his gloves and right arm where some of the
remains of the creature had splattered onto him.

Joaquin dipped his head at
his friend, proud of him. To him, it was inspiring to know Jason
was the Blytz.

Mikalah watched after him
as he trotted the few steps to where Louis sprawled in the drifted
snow.

“
Jason’s right,” declared
Mikalah.

All the others turned to
look at her.

She went on, “I saw him…
he was glowing with the strength of his Gift. I could see his
power, his… he was so strong. And like he said, I could hear what
he was thinking. It was weird. It was like we were sharing the same
brain.”

“
Well, good team or not it
was still freakin’ nasty,” said Andrew, glancing over at the corpse
of the squirrel-pig. Its’ mashed up snout still oozed onto the
ground.

Mikalah followed his
gaze.
Is that brains?!?
She twisted away before she got a good look,
feeling the bile in her stomach begin to rise once more. She
overcame it by speaking. “You think it was nasty for you, Drew? I
saw the whole thing in slow motion,” blurted Mikalah her tiny voice
reverberating. She felt the nausea come back.

Maybe I shouldn’t have
said that.

“
Ah man, that’s sick,” was
all Andrew uttered. He was pacing back and forth. He would not look
at the squirrel-pig remains, dogged determination creasing his
brow.

“
Aaaaaw! What the hell
happened?” complained Louis out loud, holding his head as if he
were dizzy.

Joaquin scooped him out of
the snow and onto his feet.

“
My sister saved your
bacon, Lou. That’s what happened,” commented Elena with an
appreciative look at Mikalah. The throbbing in her shoulder she
ignored for the moment, still rubbing it with her opposing hand.
“That’s three times now; she has come to the rescue!”

Mikalah felt herself blush
at her sister’s praise. It was not like Elena did not love her or
did not care about her. She was just stingy with praise out of
habit. It made Mikalah feel good inside. She felt warm love flush
through her body. It made her grin with delight. All thoughts of
regurgitation evaporated.

“
Really? Cool!” started
Louis, rubbing at his head, looking up at Joaquin in thanks. He
twisted from side to side at the waist, before he stretched his
back as if he needed to limber up. “But who tossed me into the snow
all MMA style?” His face was bunched with confusion.

“
That would also be my
sister,” replied Elena in her typical “so there” tone that usually
got on Mikalah’s nerves. Although this time, she let it slide off
her without a wrinkle on her face.

Louis looked over at
Mikalah, his mouth agape since he outweighed her by at least forty
pounds. He was trying to figure out how the little girl could toss
him like a rag doll.

Mikalah shrugged under his
stare. “Sorry, Lou, I was trying to be gentle, but it’s hard not to
hurt someone when you’re moving as fast as I was. I’m sorry. I
really am.”

He stared at her, blinking
at her with wide eyes, still pondering what had happened to him and
how. Then, in typical Louis fashion, he shrugged the whole incident
off. “Ah, don’t sweat it, I bounce real good,” joked the boy as he
grabbed his potbelly and gave it a jiggle, which made all the girls
giggle.

Louis is such a
dork!

Then Kodiak walked amongst
them, her deep voice rumbling, “Well, it looks as though everyone
is no worse for the wear. Should we continue on to Jason’s house
then?”

“
Yeah, Kodie, let’s reform
our little parade and get moving. There's no telling what might
come around now that there’s all this fresh blood lying all over
the place,” decried Anthony.

Mikalah went out of her
way to avoid looking at the mess they had made of the trail. She
wanted to keep her breakfast.

“
And everyone…,” decried
the bear-dog, “please take care. As you have seen, this is not the
peaceful countryside we were all accustomed to living. This is an
inhospitable place in the extreme. It is brutal and merciless. Be
wary at all times, be on you guard, and above all else – be
quiet!”

You think?
was Mikalah’s only thought.

Kodiak called out in low
tones, “Fist reform!”

They were off once more
for Jason’s house. The prospect of finding the camping equipment
they needed to survive driving them deeper into uncharted
wilderness.

If they were going to
travel up into the mountains, they would need to get their hands on
every provision they could find. To do anything less could spell
certain death.

~~~~~~~<<<
ᴥ
>>>~~~~~~~

~ 11 ~

Questions

Day Four, Sunday, A Few
Minutes Later…

When they reached the
T-intersection where Floristan Avenue should have been, there was
nothing. Both Dahlia Heights Elementary School and the local coffee
shop were gone. Only a dense, tangled forest of shadow and cold
stood before them. A landscape none of them had much interest in
traversing, especially after what had happened up the trail a few
minutes prior. The idea was somehow more foreboding than it had
been when they had emerged from the cave. It smacked of things of
dark and evil. Gone was the sense of exhilaration at being
outdoors, under the wan warmth of the sun. The joy of being free of
the rocky confines of their sanctuary was now replaced by something
sinister. Every shadow was a place where something lurked or crept
and crawled, ready to pounce at any moment.

She swore she could feel
the imaginary sets of slitted eyes, gazing upon her. She could
almost smell their fetid breath. They were all around now, all
about her and her friends, she was sure of it. They were out there
hiding behind the pines and the oaks and the elms, and the horrid
trees from Storm. They were silent, vigilant of the angled Spindle
Downs and their dagger-like leaves of death. They waited, counting
on the odd chance that she or one of her other companions might
grow careless and wander off. They were biding their time,
searching for the right moment to attack. They were there in the
forest. She was sure of it. The enemy was anxious to taste human
flesh, to drink the blood of children.

Mikalah shivered at the
thought. She glanced up at her brother when he said: “Let’s keep
going and see if there is anything left of Townsend Avenue. It was
a larger street, so maybe it is still there. If it’s not, then
we’ll have Jason guide us overland to his house.” Turning back to
the boy, “You think you can do that, Jay?”

The Chinese teen inclined
his head that he would, too nervous to risk answering
aloud.

No one else said anything.
The group reformed and trudged onward, passing where back home had
stood a series of small shops, a Trader Joe’s and a
mini-mall.

Now, there was only
forest. Nothing but a wild, hodge-podge of trees, clutching
underbrush and meager clearings remained. The way was more often
than not choked by thick conglomerates of twisted foliage. Covering
all was the snow.

Above them, a more normal
sounding bird called. Mikalah glanced skyward to see it was either
a hawk or a raven, using the currents of the air to stay in a fixed
position with almost no effort.

She peered beyond the
avian. Coming over the top of the ridge separating Eagle Rock from
Highland Park, she could see a bank of dark clouds. More probable
than not, it was the beginnings of another storm.
I hope we don’t get snowed on
, she said to herself, wishing they would not be outside when
it hit. Ever since she was a toddler she had hated the cold. A warm
parent in a snuggle-spot had always been heaven for Mikalah
Herrera.

“
It’s here!” shouted
Anthony.

The ground had flattened
somewhat, although it canted downward for a long uninterrupted
expanse. “It” was another T-intersection. From it, Mikalah could
see Townsend Avenue branching off Colorado to their left. It too
was no larger than a trail just like the onetime boulevard was a
narrow, snow-covered road.

Mikalah ran forward to get
a better view. She was happy to see the trail seemed to follow the
exact route the avenue had followed in their world. It went
straight from Colorado, up to the bottom and finally over the top
of the Townsend ridge.

That is also the way
home
, she thought of a sudden. Sadness
almost consumed her in that moment. The lay of the land was too
familiar. She could discern she was only a mile and a half from
where her home would have been. And yet, being in the Melded World,
it was a million, billion miles away. She ached at the thought of
her mother and father being so far away.

Just over that hill and
down the other side a ways. Make a left on Meridian, and head down
it for a mile or so. Make another left on Milbur and we’d be home.
We’d be with Mommy and Daddy. We’d all be safe…

“
Jason, why don’t you go
up with Mr. Patas, so you can try to find the way to your house,”
suggested Anthony. There was a little excitement in his voice,
breaking Mikalah from her gloomy thoughts.

She forced herself to
focus on things that were more immediate. She scolded herself for
wallowing in circumstances she could not control. In the Melded
World there was little she could change. They would see their
parents again. She was certain of it. The best way to do just that
was to stick with the plan. They had to find better supplies, find
more clothes and find the remaining four of the Chosen Twelve.
After, they would retrieve the Legacy of Truth. There was no other
way. So she needed to stop wasting time wishing for what could not
be. The whole of the country-side wanted to devour them. She should
keep focused on more immediate things.

It occurred to her right
then that the Nöhreg were right after all. The Lord of the Storm
had indeed inserted more of his world into this place than theirs.
The plants and creatures populating the Melded World were already
dangerous and would be moreso over time. This meant their
collective determination was not only going to have to prove
potent, it would need to be resilient at the same time. They were
stranded here for the foreseeable future. They were going to have
to keep pace with this new world or they were going to fail. The
Melded plane would destroy them if they did not for
sure.

“
What are you thinking
about?” queried Elena.

Mikalah looked over at her
older sister expressionless. She knew Elena could always tell when
her thoughts were troubling. It was typical when she faced a
problem she could not solve on her own. Though they were not twins,
they were close in age, only eleven months apart. Because of this,
they had grown up close to one another, learning the world
together. They had fashioned bonds that most sisters did not
fabricate with time. Elena and Mikalah had. They could
feel
things. They
could
know
things
about the other without having to speak. Because of this unique
trait between them, Mikalah was banking on neutrality. Mikalah did
not want to lower her sister’s spirits any further than what was
necessary. Elena’s tussle with the Klürrg had been disheartening
enough as it was.

Why add salt to the
wound?
At least that was what her father
would have said.

“
I was just thinking about
mom and dad that’s all,” admitted Mikalah. After a bit, she noticed
the other girl was stretching out her bruised arm, loosening the
aching muscles within.

Jason passed between her
and Elena on his way to join Mr. Patas at the front of the group
where he would lead the search for his house. He glanced at both of
them with a crooked smile for each, continuing in
silence.