Winter's Fury - Volume Two of The Saga of the Twelves (32 page)

“
I don’t know for sure,
Miki,” began Anthony. He thought back to what he had told Derek,
Kimberly and Hyun further up the trail. “I think this place is just
imbalanced. We should ask Joaquin for more specifics when we get to
the mall.” He watched as she turned to look back at the hulking boy
with an absent nod.

Joaquin was staring into
the strengthening tempest as well, his expression grim.

Anthony shared a quick
glance and a smile with the girl he now considered his sweetheart.
He took the time to linger over her pale features and sparkling
blue eyes.
Jeez, you are so beautiful,
Sophie…

Then Mr. Patas stopped in
his tracks, training both ears ahead. “Something runs ahead. I can
hear it trotting through the forest… Now, across the trail, but it
is not coming at us, rather… it crosses our path. No, wait, it has
fallen! It no longer moves. Or it moves with stealth, so I cannot
hear it.”

“
Could you tell what it
might be, Patas?” asked Kenai with the rolling thunder that was her
voice.

“
It was bi-pedal, First
Daughter, definitely running upon two legs. It was not large,
though. Its’ footfalls did not sound heavy,” he replied at once in
his fluttering, high-pitched tones. His great eyes darted back and
forth at each of them for an instant.

“
That sounds like nothing
we have encountered thus far,” Kodiak stated. Her huge brow furled
in consternation.

Anthony glanced at
Garfield. “Cat Face!” he called, pointing ahead.

The Great Cat bounded off
into the snowstorm to investigate what Mr. Patas had
heard.

“
What do you think it
could be?” asked Louis to no one in particular.

“
We don’t know, Lou, but I
have a feeling we’re about to find out,” answered
Sophie.

Her retort made Anthony
look back the way Garfield had vanished. It astounded him to see
the cat was already returning, and at great speed.

“
Get
ready everyone, Garfield, must have found something!” Anthony
announced, peering at his onetime pet, surprised at the speed with
which he was moving.
He’s hauling
ass!

As one, the group prepared
themselves for whatever was coming their way. Anthony could see his
sister’s faces lose all emotion as they both seemed on the cusp of
embracing their Gifts.

The boys fanned out,
placing themselves in front of all the girls, offering what little
protection they could.

The four other members of
the Fist stood before the entire group of kids. If there were to be
an attack, they would take the brunt of it.

Then his pet cat was upon
them.

Incredibly, Garfield
looked more scared than Anthony had ever seen him before. He was
about to comment on it, when the cat spoke, so swift and so urgent,
he had Anthony’s complete attention in an instant.

“
Tony Boy, it is the last
of the Twelve, lying in the snow. We must hurry, for he is near
death!”

“
The last of the
Twelve!?!” bellowed Kodiak and Mugzy at once.

“
Oh, my
god! We cannot lose him! We have to save him! Come on everyone!
Garfield, lead the way!
HURRY!
”

There was no need for
Anthony to yell at the top of his lungs to get them to
move.

The entire group erupted
in a flurry of motion. One moment they were all standing there and
in the next, they were gone.

Only the snow and wind
remained.

The last of the Twelve!
The last of the Twelve! We have found you! At last, we have found
you! Now, we are complete. Finally!

Just please… don’t
die!

~~~~~~~<<<
ᴥ
>>>~~~~~~~

~ 18 ~

A Tiny Frozen
Beauty

Day Four, Sunday, Less
Than a Minute After…

The entire group followed
Garfield as fast as their collective feet could manage. They were
struggling, half-crazed. Through the snow and the growing wind
battering them with increasing strength, they plowed. Above, the
clouds seemed to boil and churn. It was a marshaling of strength, a
titan’s inhalation. All atmospheric forces gathered intent upon
unleashing havoc onto the world below.

They ran what Andrew
figured was about a city block. They passed what looked to be the
trail representing Eagle Rock Boulevard in this place, but he paid
it no heed. They ran another. Then, they found themselves in an
area flatter than that around it, five hundred feet square. It
nestled against rocky embankments off to the right.

As the group, they came to
halt.

He glanced around and
immediately recognized where they were standing. Andrew turned
half-expecting to see the familiar building his father had dragged
him into every other Friday when he got paid. They had not been the
best memories. His father never got paid all that much.

They were standing in what
should have been the parking lot of the Eagle Rock branch of the
Bank of America. There was no asphalt or painted parking spaces
now. Only rocks and boulders fallen from the top of the embankment
were strewn about in a random fashion. There were ferns and
chaparral bushes and wild grasses everywhere. There was even the
occasional slumped plant or clasping vine from Storm. All covered
in snow. All disappeared further underneath the blanket of white
this new storm deposited.

Andrew frowned, realizing
Garfield was bent over something on the ground, something almost
covered. It was a human shape, small and motionless.

Following his companions,
he ran toward the prone figure without another thought. The rest of
the Fistians began to set up a defensive parameter around them.
Though, as one, they turned their bodies to watch what was
happening within the protective circle they had formed. They were
too curious not to watch what was unfolding.

By the time he reached the
child-sized body lying upon the cold earth, Anthony and Sophie were
already on their hands and knees. Wild, they dusted snow off
the…
girl!

Holy shit! It’s a
girl!
thought Andrew
panic-stricken.

Then he saw her face and
was dumbstruck with shock.

Where once he was all
movement and action; now he just stood there frozen, staring -
soaking in every detail of her.

I know you, right? Where
have I seen you before?

He gazed upon her black
hair, cut at the shoulder, covering most of her face. Still, he
could see her brown skin had gone pale, almost opaque from the
extreme chill.

Jesus, she’s so
small…

“
She’s so cold,” cried
Sophie as she tugged the girl from the ground, pulling her into her
lap. She wrapped her arms around her. She rubbed her hands and arms
and face. Sophie tried with every ounce of energy she possessed to
bring back some semblance of warmth to other’s body.

“
Ah Christ, she is almost
blue,” breathed Anthony, his face a twisted mask of
pain.

“
She’s hypothermic,”
announced Jason, pinched with worry as well.

“
She’s not going to die is
she?” fretted Mikalah, her voice made small with
trepidation.

“
Not if we can help it,”
answered her brother almost at once.

That seemed to snap Andrew
out of his stupor. He yanked one of the blankets he was wearing
over his head. He dropped to his knees, holding out his arms to
Sophie, the blanket draped over them. “Sophie, put her in my arms,”
he said in a single breath. “I will wrap her in the blanket and
keep her warm.”

Sophie stared back at him
for a second not quite understanding.

“
Sophie, do it. Andrew’s
right. He’s bigger than you. His body will warm the girl much, much
faster than you could manage,” advised Anthony. He put a reassuring
hand on one of Sophie’s arms, squeezing with the lightest
touch.

She glanced between them,
and then nodded in acquiescence. She moved on her knees to place
the girl in Andrew’s arms. Her pink jeans ruined beyond repair
now.

“
She is going to be
alright, yes?” asked Elena, standing next to him shivering, though
Andrew was certain it had nothing to do with the cold.

“
Andrew will try his best
to warm her up,” reassured Hyun, hobbling up to the little girl and
placing a soothing hand on her shoulder. Her face was still full
with the pain of her punctured back.

He looked down at the girl
in his lap, seeing she was wearing only a sweater over a cotton
t-shirt. They were virtually no protection against a climate as
severe as that of the Melded World. It was no great surprise she
was freezing to death. He gathering the blanket about her in a
rush, trying to shield her from as much of wind and swirling snow
as he possibly could. Only her face shone through a small gap in
the fabric.

“
Andrew,” came Kodiak’s
low voice at his ear like the grinding of gravel in his
ear.

She startled him for a
second, because he did not know she had moved closer.

“
Why don’t you climb with
the girl into the shopping cart behind me. You can keep her nearer
the warmth of your body without having to carry her. It will be
better for the both of you, and we will move faster as a whole. I
think it prudent to get her out of this growing storm as soon as
possible.”

“
Are you sure you could
manage our combined weight?” wondered Andrew. He knew full well
between him and the girl, though she was small, they easily weighed
close to two hundred pounds.

Kodiak gave him a sardonic
smile. “I doubt I will even feel it, Andrew Ibarra.”

Derek and Jason both burst
with sardonic huffs of air.

Kimberly looked on, her
eyes big and round.

Alright, big tough doggy,
but don’t come complaining to me when you have a back strain later
on tonight. I gave up giving doggy massages a long time
ago
, thought Andrew to himself. He stood
up with the girl in his arms, having no issue bearing her and the
bulk of the blanket as one.

He walked past the great
bear-dog and up to the shopping cart strapped to her massive form,
trailing behind her by about seven feet. He stumbled as he made his
first attempt to scale the side of the cart. It was about a foot
higher up off the ground, because of the sleds underneath it.
Carrying the girl made it all the more difficult.

Joaquin and Jason stepped
forward and steadied his back, stabilizing leg, so his ascent would
be easier. With a second push, he swung his leg over the top bar of
the cart and squeezed his way down into a sitting position. Soon,
both he and the small girl were comfortable.

Before him, Kodiak had
turned her large head to back at him, her eyes bright with mirth.
“You ready, Andrew Ibarra?” she inquired once he
settled.

He nodded, curt, breaking
his gaze from the bear-dog to look once more at the girl to see if
she was alright.

I know her… I’m sure of
it.

He felt a jolt and swayed
forward, then back as Kodiak resumed walking, dragging the shopping
cart once again. She pulled the cart, the pair of large sleds
lashed to it and them without any hint it taxed in the least. The
extra weight was negligible to her.

He peered down at the girl
yet one more time, his brow furling as he tried to place where he
had seen her before. He realized she was not as young as he had
first envisioned. She was small for her age. Enthralled, he moved
the blanket aside so he could see more of her visage. It had an
oval shape to it, terminating in a gradual, v-shaped chin. Her skin
seemed tinged with red. Now though, it looked splotched with a
bluish undertone belying her current physical state. She had dark
hair and small, thin lips, pale and lifeless to Andrew. Her nose
was short, but thin, ending in a comely button. She looked about
his age, though she could not have been any more than five feet
tall.
Maybe smaller
, he surmised. She did not appear to weigh any more than
ninety pounds. She was much lighter than any weight he had been
bench pressing in well over a year.

He continued to stare at
her. He wondered what had happened to her. He tried to figure out
why she was running about in the Melded World without a coat or
even a jacket. Without either there was no way she could keep the
perpetual cold from attacking her body. There was little doubt she
was aware of the icy menace plaguing them since their arrival here
four days ago. How could she be so reckless?

He peered through the
shadows cast upon her visage by the blanket. He gazed at her small,
well-formed features, curious of her story. What had happened to
her? What dangers had she been running from before she had crossed
their path? What had she gone through her mind? Was she frightened
or distraught over her exile from her family, her friends, her
home, her happiness?

Of course, you
idiot!