by Rae Knightly
Ben placed his hands firmly on his mouth. Images of a fading Kaia flashed before his eyes and he wanted to scream. Yes, she had died after she had given her skill to him, but he had not taken it from her forcefully.
We are not alike!
“Huh,” Bordock said with interest, his voice moving away. “There’s your dog. I hope it’s not hurt.” His footsteps receded.
Ben’s eyes shot open.
Tike!
His hands began to glow and blood rushed to his ears. He listened, but there was only silence.
Tike?
He called his dog with his mind, anxiously trying to make contact. There was no answer.
Ben’s heart leapt. He turned to lie on his stomach and pulled himself frantically through the snow with his arms.
I’m right here. I’m stuck.
Branches rustled not far from Ben and he found the terrier trapped in a natural cage made of twigs laden with pine needles.
“Hold on…” Ben whispered, reaching out to release his dog. “Aargh!”
A firm hand grabbed the boy forcefully by the collar. He yelled, struggling as Bordock dragged him on his back into the open. Ben’s arms flailed, searching for something to grab on to but his hands only found snow. Frantic, he raised his arms and let himself slide out of his jacket.
Bordock whirled.
Ben sprang to his feet, but the alien was too close for him to be able to make a run for it. He staggered backwards, Bordock shadowing his every step.
“We are not alike!” Ben burst out with a mixture of anger and fear.
A sliver of a smile appeared on Bordock’s face. “Ah, but we are. If only you would stop running and let me explain. We could get your mother. We could sit down, the three of us, and talk. She is not far. I took good care of her. You can trust me.” He reached out his hand.
Ben’s heart leapt in disgust. “You’re lying! I saw her–in there.” He pointed to the forest behind them, vaguely surprised that his hands were still blue from connecting with Tike. “I’ll never trust you!” he said, taking another step back. His foot caught in something. He tripped and fell heavily on his backside.
In a flash, Bordock was on top of him, choking him with his hands. “Clever boy,” he said with a growl.
Ben squirmed. The more he struggled, the more Bordock pressed on his neck, until he saw stars. He grabbed Bordock’s arms weakly, his hands gleaming from the skill.
Bordock nodded satisfyingly. “Good. The skill is strong. It has lost nothing of its essence.” His face was strangely calm and his eyes were emotionless black pearls. “No need to resist,” he said quietly. “It won’t hurt.”
He waved a hand over Ben’s face and Ben felt his eyes roll back in his head. In his mind’s eye, he watched the blue fillaments begin to seep away from every blood cell. And it hurt. It hurt as if a million healthy teeth were being extracted at the same time. Whales, ants, crows, bears–Tike–all flashed before his eyes. It was as if his closest friends were being torn away from him.
Not the skill!
For the first and briefest moment, Ben knew he never wanted to part with the skill. It was his, and his alone, and Kaia had seen it in him that he was worthy to wield it.
Determination broke through the pain and Ben focused the strength he had left towards the skill. He sensed his hands glowing ever stronger and the blood in his ears rushed like waterfalls. Yet that action only made it easier for Bordock to absorb the skill like a magnet.
There was a scuffle, and Ben heard a short yelp. The connection broke for a fraction of a second. It was all Ben needed. The skill exploded outwards. His mind’s eye caught Tike biting Bordock’s arm and Bordock casting the dog away. He sent one thought whizzing on through the forest until it collided with the mind of the grizzly.
H-E-L-P!
No sooner had he uttered the silent cry than Ben’s world turned dark again. Bordock reaped the blue fillaments from the boy’s blood cells, destroying them in the process. Ben knew he was done for.
He felt himself fall into a tunnel of darkness .He floated in a murky world for an obscure amount of time, watching helplessly as the skill floated away from him.
From somewhere beyond his closed eyelids, he watched with numb interest as a gigantic shadow swooped over him.
There was a deafening roar and a shriek.
And just like that, Bordock was gone.
Ben gasped, the air leaving his throat in rasps. He blinked his eyes open, forced himself painfully on his stomach and watched, dumbfounded, as the grizzly bear held Bordock in its paws.
A mighty bang escaped from the alien’s hands, thrusting the two away from each other. The grizzly collapsed on its side. Bordock crouched not far from it like a wounded animal.
Abruptly, Mesmo appeared out of nowhere. He placed his hands in the snow and a wall of ice surged before them, separating them from the shapeshifter.
Ben staggered to the grizzly’s side. He searched the bear’s mind frantically, his throat on fire.
Are you hurt?
He scanned the bear as it huffed heavily through its nostrils.
I am fine. Run, little cub. The men with thunder are here.
An image of whirling police car lights flashed through Ben’s mind. He caught his breath, consumed by an immediate sense of urgency.
He turned to Mesmo, who was staring at the icy wall he had created. The alien’s face was pale and grey. Whatever Bordock’s attack had done to him, it had left a mark.
The shapeshifter stalked them from behind the ice, surrounded by a halo of blue light. Something abnormal was happening to the outline of his body. It twisted and deformed, inflating like a balloon.
Ben’s mouth dropped as he realized the alien’s intentions.
He’s turning into a grizzly!
Ben and Mesmo watched, stunned, as the shape of a grizzly bear, identical to Ben’s friend, took form behind the ice. The dark creature contemplated them with a low, menacing growl. Then it moved away swiftly, taking them off guard.
Ben’s pulse raced as he realized Bordock’s intentions. “My mom! He’s going after my mom!”
They sprang into action.
“Tike, hurry!” Ben called his dog as they sprinted into the trees after the shapeshifter.
By the time they reached the edge of the lake, the fake grizzly had already gained the other side. Mesmo plunged his hands in the half-frozen water and sharp, crystalline stalagmites shot up from its surface, forming a wall that crackled with immense, sharp edges, cutting off the grizzly’s path to Laura.
Ben didn’t wait to see what Bordock would do next. He raced along the far edge of the lake, taking the long way around the sharp-toothed wall. He reached his mother as she crouched by the tree, trying to protect herself from flying ice-debris from the waves of power that emanated from either alien as they battled.
“Ben!” she gasped as he threw his arms around her.
He saw the handcuffs and understood why she couldn’t get away. He pulled at them, knowing it was useless. He glanced around for Mesmo and spotted the alien on the other side of the lake, catching his eye. Again, the alien hovered his hand above the surface of the lake.
“Watch out!” Ben yelled, covering his mother’s head with his arms.
A silent explosion hurtled him backwards. He hit his head on a tree trunk and saw stars. Blinking several times, he saw that the lake no longer existed. It had transformed into a thick fog filled with glittering droplets of water suspended in mid-air.
Already Mesmo was at Laura’s side. He surrounded the handcuffs with snow and froze it to such a degree that the metal cracked.
“Ouch!” Laura yelled when the sub-zero metal scraped her arm.
“Sorry,” Mesmo apologized, but Laura was already up, kneading her wrist.
She rushed over to Ben. “Are you ok?”
Ben nodded, rubbing the back of his head.
They helped each other up and followed Mesmo hastily as he parted a way for them through the
thick mist.
***
The officers heard the strange sounds coming from the forest: low but powerful rumblings. Pine needless shook off the trees. Waves of cold air, not like natural gusts of wind, slapped their faces. They crouched down, glancing at each other with wide eyes.
“What’s going on?” one of them asked.
Hao saw tiny, blue sparkles of ice floating by. “It’s them!” He straightened and spotted a clearing some way ahead. “Let’s go!” he urged.
The Sheriff spoke into his walkie-talkie, directing the helicopters towards the source of the noise.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
The Wrath of the Kananaskis
Suddenly, they were out in the open.
Laura and Ben stopped at the edge of the forest, hesitating to step onto the fold of the mountain.
Ben gasped. He recognized the clearing; he had flown over it with the crow’s help. “The road’s over there!” He pointed to the other side of the snow-packed area. Spotting a corner of the road from where they stood, he took Laura’s hand and urged her on.
She didn’t budge as she scanned the area, her face tightening. “Maybe we should follow the trees…” she began, staring down the slope.
At the bottom of the mountain, Ben saw a lone man venture onto the open. Even from so far away, Ben recognized Inspector Hao. Along the side of the forest, other men slowly made their way up towards them.
A sound like firecrackers sent them flying for cover. Ben whirled to find Bordock the Grizzly emerging from the shadows of the forest. The animal’s body fluctuated from an intense heat that surrounded it, its eyes gleaming a cold blue. The trees scorched black at its passage. Large branches snapped like twigs in a hurricane and fell to the ground around it. Ben felt goosebumps rise at the tension emanating from the shapeshifter. Bordock was livid.
“Go!” Mesmo yelled.
Ben and Laura sprang in the opposite direction, glancing over their shoulders.
Bordock the Grizzly glowed steadily from a blue halo of power, which he concentrated before him and thrust at them with a sway of its large head.
It was all Mesmo could do to stop the formidable attack. He erected a vast wall of ice, just in time. It curved under the force of the static blow and bent towards Ben and Laura like a massive, frozen hand rushing to engulf them.
But it was enough to sway the onslaught from Bordock’s transparent wave of energy, which slipped off the arched crest like lightning and was projected skyward. The crackling static caught a passing helicopter, which was hurled aside as if a giant finger had flicked it away.
Mesmo lifted his fist from the ground at the base of the gigantic hand made of ice. Behind it, Bordock the Grizzly moved up and down like a trapped beast searching for an exit, its form visible as if through cracked glass.
Mesmo urged Ben and Laura away. They had been rooted to the spot, mesmerized by the alien confrontation. Needing no further encouragements, Ben struggled forward after his mother, their progress hampered by the deep snow.
He was almost halfway across the mountain artery when something pulled at his mind and blood rushed to his ears. A name left his lips, making him cringe with terror.
“Tike!”
Ben merged with his dog in an instant. He watched through Tike’s eyes as the terrier sniffed at the icy wave Mesmo had created, searching for a way out. Finding none, the dog turned to face Bordock the Grizzly.
The shapeshifter spotted him and roared with mad fury. The electrifying fear that grasped Tike was so strong it ejected Ben from his dog's mind. The boy tumbled to the ground and watched helplessly as the beast lurched after his dog. The two animals scrambled down the mountain in a frenzy.
“Tike! No! Come back!” Ben cried.
He dove down the mountain after his dog, who scurried straight towards Hao.
***
Hao’s blood went cold when the furious grizzly emerged from the trees. It headed into the clearing and bolted headlong in his direction. He briefly registered the boy and his mother, then a man unexpectedly rushing after it.
What’s wrong with them?
“Grizzly!” he yelled in warning to the Sheriff. He expertly seized his gun, aimed at the charging beast, and pulled the trigger. There was a deafening bang, followed by a whimper.
The boy’s cry was heartwrenching.
“N-o-o-o-o-o!”
The grizzly scampered back at the deafening sound. It rushed for cover in close proximity of the trees, unharmed.
Hao watched, confused, as the boy continued to run towards him. I thought I missed? He saw Ben throw himself behind a mound of snow.
The grizzly shook its mane, then slowly approached again.
Hao raised his gun once more, but just then the ground heaved beneath him. His mouth fell open. A portion of the mountain detached itself, releasing an outbreak of snow, which came toppling down the slope with an unmistakable, heartstopping rumble.
“Avalanche!” The Sheriff’s shout barely reached his ears above the noise. “Fall back!”
The raging snow plunged towards them, unforgiving, swallowing the grizzly, then the three fugitives.
Hao had a brief moment to think. This was not how I expected to die, before the avalanche caught up with him and thrust him into darkness.
***
Ben longed for silence. He didn’t care about the overpowering noise that surrounded him, the threatening roar that resembled a furious gust of wind, the trembling ground beneath him, or the strange blue light that covered him. He didn’t care about the alien who yelled under the effort to keep them safe from the raging avalanche, his hands spread out before him in an attempt to shove the descending snow above and around them. He didn’t care that, when a muffled silence finally settled, the alien had almost become transparent as he staggered to the ground. Somewhere far away, his mother was calling his name. He didn’t care about that either.
All Ben cared about was the heartbeat. Tike’s heartbeat: very slow, very weak. Just like his. The excruciating pain that had blasted through his chest was almost too much too bear. It throbbed with each pulse, sending a flood of agony through his body. Or was it Tike’s? He couldn’t tell. They were one and the same. But as long as they held each other’s gaze, maybe there was a chance, a glimmer of hope.
Tike blinked. A tiny light gleamed in his eyes and Ben held on to it with all his might.
“Ben!” Mesmo’s voice barely reached him. “Break the connection!” The alien’s shouts were a mere irritating buzz in Ben’s ear.
Don’t listen to him. I’m staying with you.
It hurts!
It’s ok. Give me your pain. I’ll help you carry it.
Searing pain gushed through Ben’s body and he groaned.
“Ben! Break the connection or you’ll die!” The words were vital, pressing, yet unimportant.
“Ben! Wake up! Ben!” His mother called frantically.
Why don’t they leave us alone?
Ben held his dog’s gaze. It was the only thing that mattered in the world.
Laura’s voice called from far away. “Tike!” Tike’s eyes moved away from Ben’s and the boy struggled inwardly, not wanting to break the only bridge remaining between them.
“Tike,” Laura sobbed. “You beautiful, beautiful dog. Please don’t take Ben away from me! You have to let him go.”
Ben didn’t catch the meaning of the words, but he did not like the sound of them. Tike licked Laura’s hand once, then his eyes fell on Ben again.
It’s ok. I feel better already. I’m going to sleep a bit now. I love you.
I love you, too.
Ben felt reassured. His dog was going to sleep for a while. Maybe he would, too. Ben sent him a blanket of comforting thoughts, wishing his dog a good rest. They did not get through. The bridge between them faded. The light in Tike's eyes faded. Something was wrong.
No, wait!
The dog’s body sagged and Ben felt a rush of consciousness return to his mind. Cold under his
body, a hard roof of ice above his head, the touch of his mother’s hand on his shoulder.
He swallowed a tremendous volume of air, which triggered his body functions. He heaved and wailed, “No! Tike!”
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Doubt
Hao blinked his eyes open. His brain was scattered and he felt completely disoriented. He tried to move, but for some reason his body would not respond. His eyes focused and he saw white. Everything was white. He wiggled his gloves; the stuff that surrounded his fingers seeped cold through the material.
And suddenly he remembered. His body jolted at the realization. He had been caught in an avalanche. And he was trapped in it, alive.
He gasped in panic as his mind scrambled to grasp reality. Never in his life had he been more afraid.
He almost lost consciousness again, but then his years of harsh training in the police kicked in. He shut his eyes, willed his breathing to slow, and focused on forming coherent thoughts. It took him a while to quiet the horrendous thoughts of being buried under miles of snow, alone. He blocked the image out of his mind and concentrated on facts.
For one, he wasn’t alone. He was confident that the Sheriff and his men had survived the avalanche, for they had been near the trees and would have had time to run for cover. One of them, at least, would rush for help.
Then, there were the helicopters. They would have seen the event from up high. Hao reassured himself with as much confidence as he could muster that help was on the way. A couple of hours at the most–that was the amount of time he would need to wait before rescue teams were set into action. He could handle a couple of hours.
Now to figure out how to catch their attention. Hao’s heart skipped a beat as he realized the extent of the area they would have to search. He struggled for several minutes to restrain his reoccurring panic.
He licked his dry lips, still breathing hard, but in a more controlled way. He checked his body, moving one muscle at a time, testing for injuries. Everything seemed in one piece until he reached his left leg. A searing pain sent him yelling in shock. Black spots floated before his eyes and he puffed air like a locomotive.
