Winter's Fury - Volume Two of The Saga of the Twelves (19 page)

“
There are a few…," was
all Joaquin said on that account. Then he raised his voice so that
it would carry. “We will need to walk around it. We’ll have to stay
at least thirty feet away from the frickin’ thing. Any closer and
any one of us might get pin-cushioned.”

Jason turned back and gave
thumbs up as he, Garfield and Mr. Patas conferred for short time.
Then, they began to track through the forest off to the left of
their original course.

“
I think it is an
abomination. A plant that uses such devices as natural glamor and
becoming scents to lure in its’ intended prey is appalling. It is
against the order of nature itself,” rumbled Kodiak from deep
within her throat. Her voice was like ancient bedrock rupturing
during a mild volcanic event.

Kenai tossed her huge
head. “I agree, Mother, though I reckon there is little order or
nature on Storm.” Her long lips curling into a rueful
snarl.

Kodiak joined her. “Well
said, my Heartling.”

The rest of them followed,
giving the Tethering Thresh twice the range Joaquin had
recommended. Their shoes and boots and sneakers crunched into the
frozen snow as they stepped. The air began to stir for the first
time since they had left the cave. Already, Mikalah could feel the
frosty currents brushing against her cheeks. They were colder than
they had been minutes before. She knew, before long, they would be
icy enough to chap her skin.
I hope we
find Jason’s tents before the snow begins to fall again. I don’t
want to freeze to death out here.

They walked for no more
than a hundred yards. The Thresh disappeared in their wake,
shrouded by the sheer density of the other foliage.

Jason announced of a
sudden: “This is it.” There was dejection in his tone, his
expression and his body all at once. “My house should be right here
and it is not, everything is gone. Shit!”

“
Crap!” echoed Andrew, a
few feet behind them all, kicking at the snow in frustration, his
hands shoved in his pockets.

“
So, now what?” wondered
Sophie as the boys milled about lost for words.

Garfield came into the
group then, agitated and jumpy, which was not like him at all. “I
say we leave immediately.” He glanced around and then stared hard
at Anthony, which Mikalah took as a bad sign almost at
once.

Garfield did not prefer
direct looks.

“
Why, Cat Face, what’s the
rush…? Well, besides the weather closing in?” questioned Anthony.
He searched Garfield’s eyes, an attempt to glean what he
meant.

“
This area was scouted,”
he said, succinct.

This got everyone’s
attention immediately.

“
By what, great feline?”
inquired Kodiak, her brow knitted as she eased her body closer to
the huge cat.

“
By a pack of those large
hounds,” he replied, sniffing at the air again. This seemed to
edify his conclusion by re-smelling their bacterium.

Joaquin came closer, then:
“Are you talking about Isighünds, Garfield?”

“
That is correct,
Loremaster,” came the quick reply. “And, there is something else,”
went on the lion-sized feline, “something I have yet to come
across. It is like the hounds, but different, much bigger. But
alas, I cannot tell from its’ scent alone.”

Loremaster?
though Mikalah. She let the thought
go.

It was Joaquin once more.
“What kind of smell was it?”

Garfield gazed at the
large teen, holding the boys’ eyes for a time, not letting go.
Again, something he usually did not do – eye contact was not his
way. “It smelt of canine - musky and sweaty sweet. Still, there was
something that should not have accompanied the trail of any
animal’s scent – brimstone.”

Joaquin took a step back
and shuddered as if electrocuted, which stunned Mikalah.

Those of the group close
enough to witness the teenage boys reaction, glanced at once
another in bewilderment.

Anthony looked to her and
Elena both, mouthing the words, “His Gift”, waylaying her worst
fears.

Joaquin’s Gift is creepy
when it sneaks up on him of a sudden
.

A few seconds passed, as
they waited for the well-muscled teen to recover. “I agree with
Garfield, we should leave at once,” he gurgled through a throat
that would not work. There was a sense of urgency about him that
had not been there before.

“
Ok, we’ll go. But first,
tell us, what’s going on?” queried Anthony. His curiosity was too
great. He needed to know what had unnerved his two companions to
this degree.

“
Garfield has caught the
scent of a Dēowulf –,” Joaquin attempted.

“
A what?” asked some of
them at once.

Joaquin continued as if he
had not heard them.

Anthony waved them to
silence, so he could hear what the large boy was saying.

Mikalah felt her forehead
wrinkle with questions.

“
- a kinda Isighünd and
Isig-Pjäs put together – bigger - only it’s much more than both,
and also hard to kill. It has the ability to control a whole slew
of them, to tell them what to do without question. It is much
smarter than they are. Its’ one of the greatest creatures ever
created by the Prēosts.

“
In the World of Storm,
they are another sort of tracker like a Nixy. Only these Dēowulfs
bring numbers, hordes of canine-like beasts are theirs to command.”
He stopped to think. “The only way I can describe them with any
accuracy is to translate their name, and maybe that might help you
understand. It means in a loose sense, Demon Wolf… or wolf-like
demon or something like that.”

Oh crap!
thought Mikalah and still the boy went
on.

“
And this one seems to
have anticipated we would want to see if our houses made it through
the Rending. I bet you, if we went to every one of the locations
where our homes used to be, we would find each spot scouted just
the same.”

“
Holy shit, Tony, we gotta
get out of here!” interjected Andrew, rubbing his hands against his
blanket-covered thighs.

Man, he needs a jacket.
He’s gonna freeze his you-know-what’s off out here.

“
They knew where we lived
all along, huh?” questioned Sophie, her voice quivering. With
events in her immediate being what they were, she did not like the
idea someone had observed her without her knowledge.

Mikalah was old enough to
know something like that always freaked out girls. Someone stalking
about was ominous and spooky.

“
Yeah, I think they had us
pegged from day one,” asserted Andrew, scowling and shaking his
head back and forth, as he did often. “I mean, they sure had me and
Anthony and Mikalah and Elena nailed, so why wouldn’t they scope
the rest of you out as well?”

“
Damn, man, I almost led
us right into a trap and right back into Fenris’ hands,” said Jason
with a sick look on his face.

“
It doesn’t matter, Jay.
The plan was good. It was worth a try. Besides, we didn’t spring
any sort of trap. We just missed springing one and that’s a whole
different thing, so don’t worry about it.” Anthony gazed about, his
decision made. “Let’s just get moving and head back to cave and
figure out our next move. It’s too dangerous out here. We need to
get inside, under some cover and some degree of safety, before we
try to come up with an alternate plan. We have another storm coming
in fast.” He concluded with a firm shake of his head.

A moment later, they were
all moving. They had reformed the original traveling procession
they had employed when they left the cave an hour earlier. They
were retracing their steps through the forest, giving the Thresh
wide berth as they trudged along.

Five minutes later, they
were back on the Townsend pathway, walking toward the Colorado
trail, much faster than before. Them all were eager to put as put
distance as possible between them and where the Dēowulf and its’
horde had scouted.

Complying with Anthony’s
request for strength in numbers, Garfield stayed closer than he had
on their way out. Now, he was poking around for anything out of the
ordinary a few feet in front of Mr. Patas. No longer was he
traipsing about the forest.

The rest of them moved in
unison.

Overhead, the light of the
day was diminishing fast. The first tendrils of cloud cover began
to blot out the bright blue sky as the storm began to move in from
the west. With it, came more cold and a stronger, steadier breeze.
The first sustained wind they had felt all day.

Mikalah felt a tap on her
shoulder and turned to see Elena looking back at her. “I guess it
was a good thing we didn’t go back to our house after all,
huh?”

Mikalah nodded in
agreement. “It wouldn’t have been there anyway.”

“
How do you know,
Mikalah?”

“
Because it seems the only
‘things’ that made it through the Rending were those ‘things’ one
of us was inside when it all happened. We were outside, remember,
so was Louis and Andrew. For them and for us everything we knew
vanished. For Joaquin and Jason, they were at Vons. The store was
pulled from our world into this one. You see, that’s why I don’t
think our house would’ve even been there anyway,” she
explained.

Her logic was sound to
Elena. She nodded as she pursed her lips with her usual
“sounds-good-to-me”
expression on her face.

“
I think you’re right,
Mikalah,” injected Sophie.

Both of the girls turned
to look at her, unaware she had overheard their
conversation.

Sophie gazed at them for a
heartbeat or two and then continued. “I was in our pool house when
it happened to me. I was looking for the cover to the pool. My Dad
and I were going to put something over the water, because the
weather had changed so dramatically that day. You know, the one
before Thanksgiving. My Dad had been just outside the door,
straining leaves from the water. It was already half frozen-over
with the cold. That’s when the weird lights came and then the
nausea in my stomach followed. I fell to the floor of the pool
house and just kinda laid there trying not to throw up. I think I
passed out next. When I woke up, I was still in the shed. But when
I went outside, everything was gone – the pool, our house, my Dad,
the backyard, everything was gone. But like you said, Mikalah, only
the pool house made it through the Rending, and it most likely did
so, because I was in it.”

Elena seemed to drift off
in thought.

Mikalah held Sophie’s eyes
for a moment longer, smiling.

The pretty teen girl
added, “You are very smart, Miki, very, very smart.”

The little girl felt her
face flush with embarrassment, though, not without a degree of
pride as well. Her smile fluctuated, caught between the two
emotions, on her face. She saw her brother smile at his new-made
girlfriend and the warm look they shared between them

“
Halt! I see something up
ahead, on the trail,” growled Mugzy.

They all froze in their
tracks.

Garfield turned to
position himself perpendicular to the pathway Mugzy’s mentioned,
crouching. His eyes were like a pair of headlights beaming out
before him, scanning the area in detail.

It was then they heard
them - voices on the wind, coming from up ahead – both of them
female. They were arguing, loud.

Oh god! Please, don’t
bring the Dēowulf and his pack down us with your racket!
was all Mikalah could think when another voice
joined in, deeper, male.

It sounded as though
someone was about to get into a fight.

Whoever was up ahead, they
did not like each other at all.

~~~~~~~<<<
ᴥ
>>>~~~~~~~

~ 12 ~

With Friends Like This,
Who Needs Friends…

Day Four, Sunday, 8:52
am…

For a second time that
hour, they approached the intersection of Townsend and Colorado.
This time though, they did so in two separate parties. Each group
left the trail and gathered in the forest surrounding the one-time
road. Because they did not know who or what was making the racket
ahead, they decided it was best to remain concealed as long as
possible. They would then make an educated determination once they
spied their quarry.

Thus, their plan was to
move slow through the dense foliage and observe. Every one of them
hoped they had not stumbled upon a Swüreg hunting party or worse,
the dreaded Dēowulf and its’ pack.

Although to Elena, from
all the noise these others were making, they did not sound at all
like creatures from the World of Storm.

From the left side of the
bracketing forest strode Kenai, Garfield and Mr. Patas in a line
diagonal to the intersection itself. Anthony, Elena, Mikalah and
Sophie followed, forming in a loose line mirroring the first. On
the opposite side of the trail came Mugzy and Kodiak, with Joaquin,
Jason, Louis and Andrew walking behind. They were also diagonal to
the intersection, an inverted copy of those on the left. If one was
able to gaze at them from above, their twin groups formed something
that resembled a chevron, converging upon the intersection from two
opposing sides.