Winter's Fury - Volume Two of The Saga of the Twelves (18 page)

Mikalah wondered if she
and Elena somehow made him uneasy.

After Jason had passed,
Elena stared at her without replying. She waited for a few moments
after he had gone a ways beyond. Then, “We’re close to home,” she
noted, pointing toward Townsend ridge. “I can feel it too, but…”
She trailed off. Her silence and gaze as one. It was enough for
Mikalah to understand exactly what her sister was feeling. “…I know
we are nowhere close to home, though.”

“
Yeah, you’re right. They
aren’t there,” agreed Mikalah, enunciating aloud what Elena had
implied. Their parents were gone. They were on their own, and that
was that.

“
I wish they were,
Mikalah. I wish they were.” She was rubbing at her shoulder and
kicking at lumps of snows as they walked.

“
Me too.” Mikalah’s voice
was tiny and only loud enough to carry to the ears of her sister
and no one else. “I hope they aren’t too scared or too sad, because
we aren’t there with them anymore.”

“
I know,” mumbled Elena.
“It must be hard for them not knowing where we are, especially
after so many days and nights have passed.”

“
They have to be going
crazy by now.” Mikalah was ruminating. Her voice was full with
worry she could not set aside.

“
Oh my god, Miki, that’s
so terrible to think about. Mom and Dad sad and hurt, not having
their children with them during the holidays.” Elena’s eyes were
brimming with tears. “Do you think they will be ok?”

Mikalah felt her own tears
come unbidden, thinking of her poor mother crying and distraught
over the loss of
all
her children. She thought of her father, grief-stricken, near
ballistic when he realized the police could do little. Whatever
resources law enforcement committed to the search for them, they
would never find them. Despite whatever efforts they undertook,
there was no trace of them
anywhere
in the World of Man.

And, it would be this way
until they found a way to change it. Until then, nothing was going
to change that reality. They were prisoners on another planet,
twirling about another sun. They spun about another galaxy,
hurtling through another universe, fathomless light years away.
Until they found the four remaining Guardians, had the Legacy of
Truth secure in her brother’s grasp, there would be no change those
circumstances. No one would ever find them.

“
I hope so,” was all
Mikalah could say. Everything else coming to mind seemed beyond
inadequate.

“
I hope so
too…”

The group began to move
off again, Joaquin and Andrew now walking side by side, bringing up
the rear.

The sisters walked on in
their allotted spot, silent and wrapped deep in their own
thoughts.

Mikalah kept her vision
fixed ahead.

She watched Garfield
scurry from one side of the small road to the other. He would sniff
at the ground and then at the air, repeating himself, ever
thorough, ever vigilant in his task. Somehow, he had already
managed to clean himself of the bloody mess that had covered the
frontal portions of his body.

Meanwhile, Mr. Patas and
Jason would trot forward every ten feet or so and then stop.
Listening, they would bow their heads. The rabbit-man’s ears
twisted and twined atop his head, sensitive to even the slightest
of sounds.

To her, it was somewhat
comical to watch Jason do the same thing as Mr. Patas. His ears
had, at best, five percent the capabilities of his companion, but
it did not dissuade him. Every time the rabbit-man paused to
listen, Jason did the same.

Elena appeared to notice
as well. She turned to smile at Mikalah, weary. However brief the
moment might have been, the nine-year-old she knew returned. Her
face and eyes were dim, but lit all the same.

Mikalah was glad they had
each other at least. That was some solace. Maybe it was enough to
ward off feeling desolate and lost as she had seconds before. They
had each other. Together they would get done what needed to get
done. They would do what they could to get back to their parents,
to return home. They would have to make it enough.

They walked on for another
three hundred yards. The clouds Mikalah had noticed just a short
while ago were beginning to pile-up above the top of the ridge
before them. Larger, thicker and darker clouds were billowing
higher up in the sky. Steady as the progression of the day, they
were blowing in from the west.

Mikalah could already
imagine Highland Park engulfed in snow and wind.

Then she heard Jason’s
voice and her attention shifted.

“
It should be right around
here, but it’s not, the street is gone,” he was explaining to her
brother, vexed.

Already, it was proving a
long day. And, it was only morning.

“
We figured this might be
a possibility, Jason. Don’t give up on the idea just yet,” consoled
Anthony. “If it's supposed to be here, then we’ll just search the
forest to the left of this trail and see what we find. I mean,
there’s not much else we can do, right?”

“
Yeah, I guess you’re
right. But dammit! I was counting on getting all my Dad’s gear,
dude. We could’ve used it. Shit!” he fumed, unwilling to let his
frustration rest.

Anthony shook his head in
the slightest. “We still don’t know if your house is there or not,
ok? Let’s just go check it out, while we still have decent
weather.” He glanced heavenward, a shallow frown etched upon his
face.

“
You sure got that right.
Those clouds over there don't look inviting at all,” declared
Andrew. He pointed at the same storm Mikalah had been
contemplating.

“
Yeah, we better get
moving, Anthony. I think we’re running out of time,” urged
Sophie.

Anthony pursed his lips,
nodding, then motioning for Garfield to lead the way without
replying. His acknowledgment was enough to let the others know he
understood their deteriorating situation.

He motioned to Sophie to
come to him and they held hands as the great cat hastened into the
forested area.

He was gone in half a
heartbeat.

Mr. Patas wasted no time
either and vaulted up one of the slight inclines bordered both
sides of the trail.

Jason was hot on his
tail.

Right on
it
, thought Mikalah as she watched,
following a few moments later.

Kodiak and Kenai struggled
a bit getting the shopping carts up the short incline.

But Joaquin and Andrew
each grabbed a hold of one. They helped manhandle the carts through
the rocky, root-strewn embankment-like incline. They continued to
assist until the bear-dogs trod over ground that was easier to
travel.

Mikalah peered through the
trees, catching glimpses of Garfield as he scouted the entire area
in front of them. She kept seeing his back here, his knobby tail
there.

Jason made straight for
his home. He did not move right or left, except when he had to
round a lurking Spindle Down or a another menacing bush from Storm.
He would pause then and re-route around the offensive obstruction.
But immediately thereafter, he would make a beeline for where he
knew the house he shared with his father should be.

They all negotiated the
snow for a few minutes.

Then Garfield
stopped.

Mikalah could not tell why
he had done so.

He was scrutinizing a
small area of the ground ahead of them.

Jason halted his forward
progress as well, his head searching left then right, and finally
up.

Mikalah’s eyes followed
and that’s was when she saw it. The biggest flower she had ever
seen in her life, way over fourteen feet across, standing half
again taller.

Joaquin spoke the moment
he laid eyes on the impossible bloom. “Jason, stop! Do not go any
further! Not one fucking step!”

Jason made no move
forward.

Both Garfield and Mr.
Patas stayed glued to his sides.

“
Wow, what a gorgeous
bloom,” said Sophie with admiration.

Mikalah found she agreed
with her, through a grimace at Joaquin’s foul mouth.

The petals of the flower
were a deep magenta, flecked with crimson and saffron - both atop
and underneath. From the center of the flower sprouted huge stamen
and lower hanging pistol, bright yellow, drenched in pollen. From
more than twenty-five yards away, Mikalah could smell the sweet
fragrance, saturating the air about the blossom. It was a
honey–like scent, thick and saccharine, but pervasive, almost
overpowering.

“
Yes, it is beautiful.
That’s what makes it so lethal,” clarified Joaquin.

Lethal?
thought Mikalah. It did not appear to be
deadly.

“
It’s a Tethering Thresh,
one of the most virulent plants on the World of Storm. One of the
most aggressive as well,” explained the large teen, walking up
beside her, pointing. “You see the thorns growing along the
stem?”

Thorns?
She had not noticed any…

Then, she did. They were
dark green barbs about three to four inches long, about half that
in width. Their color so much like that of the stem, she had not
seen them. In fact, she would not have, if Joaquin hadn’t pointed
them out. They grew all along the plant’s stalk, on every side,
spaced well apart. They were equidistant, definitely not random as
a more normal flower might grow, which was unsettling.

From the other side of
Joaquin, she heard Andrew grunt that he had seen the thorns as
well.

“
You walk too close to
that thing,” began Joaquin, clearing his throat, “and one of those
thorns will shoot out at you from the stem. It is connected to a
sinewy, but strong, silk-like tether almost as strong as steel.
They shoot out with a huge amount of speed. This allows the barb on
the tip of the thorn to puncture the skin, even the hides of the
hardiest of beasts.

“
Once it has a hold of
something, it will pump hundreds and hundreds of seeds through that
silken rope and into the newfound host. It will do this until it
has succeeded in completely filling the unfortunate victim with
its’ spore. Only then, will the tether fall free of the
stalk.

“
The
only way to save the host is to dig out
all
the seeds and cauterize the
wounds. Otherwise, the victim will be consumed from the inside out
until there is no more left to eat. The seeds then work themselves
to the surface and burst free. They'll fall onto the ground where
they burrow down and away in all directions. They will continue to
tunnel for a suitable place to grow. Rumors on Storm suggest that
some seeds dig through a hundred miles of earth before they allow
themselves to germinate. Only then will another Thresh bloom.
Always somewhere far from the one that created them. They are nasty
plants.”

“
Jeez, that’s horrible,”
said Sophie, shuddering, giving Mikalah’s brother a squeeze on the
hand.

Mikalah turned to look at
the macabre flower with new eyes. It disturbed her when she
realized the flower was not growing from an accompanying plant or
vine or bush. Rather, the sweet smelling blossom grew from the
ground itself upon a tree-like trunk. This was unlike any flower
that she had seen back home. Once she realized it was hostile, the
mere sight of it was enough to cause fear to shoot up and down her
spine.

“
It is all deception,”
intoned Joaquin, bitterness in his voice. “It uses beauty and its
pleasant smell to lure in heedless victims. It would murder them
with unparalleled savagery. Even in the cruel world ruled by the
Lord of the Storm, they are vicious.

“
Even the pollen is not
real,” he added as an afterthought. “It’s sticky glue that’s
disabling. Its mires potential prey into its’ gooey grasp until
they fall from the petals and onto the ground. There, victims are
impaled by the tethered thorns…,” he breathed heavy, “…Freakin’
nasty-ass plants.”

“
Isn’t there anything from
that place that isn’t gross or demented?” asked Elena desperate to
hear anything positive.

Mikalah could tell in an
instant her sister was on edge. It was on her face and in her
voice.

Then Joaquin surprised
them all. “To tell you the truth, there are a few species that are
benign, but they stay hidden, out of sight, unless they have to do
otherwise. But I doubt any of their kind would have made it here.
They're not as numerous as the other, more violent
species”

A silence befell them and
stretched for a time.

Mikalah glanced up and saw
the tops of the trees were beginning to sway with a breeze that had
not quite reached their level yet.

It is a storm,
she thought
, and it is
coming fast.
Sophie was right.
We don’t have much time before we’re gonna get
socked again by the stupid weather.

“
Well, at least, it’s good
to know there are some things in that horrendous place that are
decent,” offered Sophie. She was trying to lighten the mood, but it
fell flat on the entire group.