The Serpent League

by Brendan Walsh

  “You’re the one that brought me to Elder, aren’t you?”

  “Yes.” She cocked her head. “I apologize if I was a bit rough. Usually when I trap someone with my beak it is because I’m trying to kill them.”

  “You were fine, but I think my pride took a hit at being so easily ambushed.”

  The bat hoped that she could tell he was being friendly.

  “But you escaped after.” she said. “Elder’s daughter came to get you. And then the League came and got me, and now here we are.”

  “Here we are.” he repeated. “What is your name?”

  The giant cat-bird blinked.

  “Do you go by any name?”

  “I prefer not to. Words are limiting. I prefer things like feelings or senses, like scent and sight.”

  “I see. My…friends gave me the name I have- had. They called me Edgar.” He saw that the gryphon didn’t understand. “It’s a reference to a famous writer, and the fact that they’re called ‘The Raven Gang’.”

  “What are you doing, Delta?” she asked.

  “What do you mean?”

  The bat felt the gryphon tense up and her claws dug into the roof again. Her fear of him made Delta feel like he had been stabbed in the spine with a stake.

  “You’re my Master. The real Master here. We’re crusaders. You’ve become something you can’t come back from, and I am an expendable sentinel. We’re not friends.”

  “I’m sorry.” Delta shook his head. “I didn’t realize. I haven’t had company in a while…”

  She raised her shoulders, out of a defensive position. “It’s how it is. Even after this is over, you…you’ll still be something people can’t comprehend. You have no weaknesses, and creatures like me will leave and go and die and you’ll still be here.”

  Delta recoiled, swiping a wing across his head as if shielding himself from a flame. Some kind of new creature was reaching out to him in his mind, and it wasn’t something he recognized.

  “What is it?” the gryphon asked.

  The bat screeched, baring his fangs and tossing his head about like he was trying to kill prey. “Someone is in my head!”

  “It’s just one of the animals you’ve talked to!” shouted another gryphon, who was a safe distance from the manic bat.

  “No,” He continued shaking his head. “this one is stronger, and it’s hostile.”

  Something flickered in that part of his mind. What it was created enough of an image for Delta to get a look at what was causing his mental disruption. He could feel all the animals he talked to and all the black birds in the sky have their rhythm disrupted as the intruder did its damage.

  He could see numbers. 12...1…2…3…and the numbers receded away, and a round shape of something was as clear as water.

  No. He recognized it. He thought he was looking at a clock, but it was a watch. It was a device he’d seen several times.

  You didn’t. Please tell me you didn’t do that to yourself…

  Patrick…

  19

  New Friends

  “I got him!” yelled Patrick.

  “You’ve got him?” Slate asked. “You’ve got Edgar?”

  “I can feel him. He’s in pain!”

  The group had rushed forward after Patrick and Gary had taken the blood. Patrick didn’t know whether they chose to surround him in a circle like that because they were protective of him or they all wanted a good view of his transformation.

  It wasn’t like John Hunter’s. He hadn’t changed physically at all, but his mind felt as if doors had been opened inside his skull and his brain was allowed to fly freely, unbothered by anything. Except, as in the current instance, by another mind.

  “That’s good right?” Lindsey turned to Samuel. “But we’ve got to act fast.”

  “I’m afraid to let go of Edgar.” Patrick clutched his head. “I think I’m inhibiting him.”

  “You are,” Johnny observed, pointing to the sky. “Look!”

  The swarm of birds was still expanding, but not cleanly as it had been. They were crashing into each other as if their wings had holes in them, and the ones that took the hardest hits fell out of the horde, plummeting towards the ground like limp, tiny parachutes.

  “If Patrick’s effort is hurting the birds,” Johnny continued. “Perhaps it’s inhibiting Edgar’s contact with everyone else.”

  “And it’s a lot of things he’s talking to.” Patrick said. “Jeez, where I close one line, Edgar opens two in its place. I don’t know how long I can do this.”

  “Then you need to get higher.”

  Everyone turned to Gary. It had been Patrick who first started feeling the force of the blood inside him. As Patrick felt his mind soar outside his body, Gary had his knees on the ground, clutching at his abdomen. When he assured everyone he was fine, they reluctantly gave him space. As of now, he wasn’t exhibiting any new physical attributes, and all that was different was his increased restlessness.

  “Higher, like, up there?” Patrick pointed to the uneven circle of birds.

  “Maybe not that high.” He gripped one hand in the other, shaking. “Look, if you’re going to get into people’s minds to help them, wouldn’t it be easier if you got closer to them?”

  “That’s right.”

  Gary raised his finger to the air. “Then you’re going to need to fly.”

  “I can carry him.” Eagle Eye approached, stopping at Patrick’s shoulder. “I was able to get used to these things after just a bit of practice. You might weigh a little more than Lindsey, but it should be no problem.”

  “Thanks, sir.” Patrick smiled.

  “Well, what are you waiting for?” Lindsey gave both her father and her friend a shove forward. “Do your thing, guys. Don’t worry, we’ll be busy down here too.” she winked.

  Eagle Eye turned to his daughter, then to the rest of the group. He raised a wing in goodbye.

  “We won’t be too far.” he said. “Once we do this, we’ll have more ‘superheroes’ on our side. The League will know that they made a serious mistake in holding off this long.”

  The detective gave his bare, feathered back a couple pats. Patrick took that as his cue to hop on. He felt silly for looking like he was about to get a piggy-back ride, but what other option did they have?

  He wrapped his arms around Eagle Eye’s soft shoulders. A couple loose feathers fell to the ground. The bird-man bent forward, hunched over to give his passenger a better grip as his wings shot out faster than a cat’s claws. Their flapping sounded like a heavy tent knocked by the wind as his feet left the ground.

  “Where to first, Patrick?”

  “I think we can go above the birds.” he replied. “I still have a small hold on them, and I don’t want my communications with our new friends to be blacked out by them.”

  “That shouldn’t be a problem.” Eagle Eye’s beak drew a smile.

  With a couple flaps that caused the gang to flutter back, the two of them shot into the sky. And just as quickly, they were above the clouds.

  BJ’s ears began to wiggle, and she turned her head to the depths of the park, sniffing like a bloodhound.

  “Do you guys hear that?” she asked.

  Everyone was instantly on edge. Gary still hadn’t fully recovered from taking the blood. So far all it had done was give him the feeling of horrible heart-burn, but he was able to stand alert. His normal human eyes could make out the silhouettes approaching.

  “Suddenly I’m reminded that none of us are armed.” Johnny said. Slate and Jane nodded shyly.

  “Speak for yourself.” Elder dug a hand into the inside pocket of his coat, though no one could see what he was hiding.

  Everyone stood still, waiting for the shadows to come out of the darkness under the trees to be seen. The sound of giant padded-feet on dirt followed by smaller, rapid footsteps caught their ears.

  “They’re mine,” the doctor whispered.

  “What do you mean?” Laura asked.

  “I
mean that it appears that my monsters have come to see us.”

  Some of the smaller ones creeping in were in their human forms, side-by-side with the wolves. The giant gryphons had a more slow, calm swing in their legs.

  Lindsey instinctively put herself next to Jane and Slate. “Perhaps we shouldn’t have had my father and Patrick leave us so soon.”

  “Wait,” Jane grabbed her two friends. “they don’t look ready to attack.”

  “What do you want?” Gary asked.

  Some of them looked at him as if he were crazy.

  “We know what you’re trying to do,” one of the wolves said, using its telepathy. “you took the blood, and the other one, a stronger one, he took it too.”

  Gary blinked, both from confusion and from being implied as a ‘weaker’ one. “How did you know?”

  “We sensed it,” another creature, a human, replied. “your friend fell into our minds. He told us where to find you.”

  “And you all got here really fast.” Lindsey said, stepping up. “How did you manage that? Sorry to seem suspicious, but we haven’t really been friends yet.”

  “It’s because of me,” came a new voice.

  It had more force to it than the others, and a tone that suggested greater certainty.

  An even louder set of footsteps followed, and the gang was able to make out a pair of eyes that hovered higher than all the others in the darkness.

  Jane’s eyes widened. “I remember you.”

  “I think we all do.” Gary took two cautious steps forward, raising his head to meet the eyes of the massive beast. “You’re the one they called the Time Keeper.”

  The giant gryphon lowered his head. Gary took that as a ‘that’s right’.

  “Well,” Gary started. “how have you been since the fight?”

  The creature seemed to sense the amusement of the awkwardness. He exhaled softly. “I didn’t want to fight anymore, after seeing the success of the bat’s freedom. Suddenly there was no point to it. Elder didn’t mean to make us as intelligent as we ended up. Of course, that’s the Serpent League’s doing, more than his.”

  “So how did you end up here?” Lindsey asked. “Out of anywhere you could have gone, you chose a park on one of the most densely populated spots on the planet.”

  The Time Keeper looked over at Elder. The doctor’s hand was still in his pocket, and they stared at each other as if they were each trying to make the other burst to flames. It didn’t look like either of them was going to let up.

  “How did you choose it?” Lindsey asked again.

  The lead gryphon shook his head, as if brushing the anger off his fur. “I had a feeling that this thing wasn’t over yet. After the events of that night, I wanted to take the remaining members of my kin into hiding, but still within easy reach of humanity.”

  “And we were right to do so,” came a female werewolf’s voice, as she stopped at the Time Keeper’s foreleg. “The Serpent League reached out to us and gave us some hints as to what their ultimate goal was, and why they’re doing it now.”

  “It’s Edgar, isn’t it?” Gary asked.

  The gryphon nodded. “They view him as the worthiest creature on earth. He was once a normal animal, then became something much greater, and, through his human friends, gained a perspective that is unique to him and him alone. That makes him the ideal ruler. But, not all of us were skeptical of the League. We lost about half of our remaining numbers to them.”

  “Why didn’t you choose to go with them?” Jane asked. “Hasn’t humanity let you down? Don’t you think we deserve to be ended?”

  “The League doesn’t want to end humanity. It just wants to reduce it, not so much by a mass extinction, but by accelerating them to what they believe to be the future of evolution. While we largely agree with them, there are irreconcilable differences between us.”

  “The League thinks they have all the answers.” The new voice belonged to another gryphon, much smaller with lighter fur. “but their refusal to adapt their ways to any new information will be their downfall. Billions of creatures might have their lives bettered by the League, but billions and billions more will suffer. They are so sure in their own righteousness that they represent a ‘final evolution’ that they would suppress positive change in favor of their own power. And no one, no matter how wise, should be given as much power as they plan to give the bat, the power that they’ve already given the bat.”

  “But it’s not too late?” Gary approached them, his hands tight at his sides. “I mean, if it were too late already, you wouldn’t be here, now would you?”

  “I wish I could say it isn’t,” the Time Keeper lowered his massive head. “but we simply don’t know. There are many possible outcomes to this battle.”

  “It’ll mean fighting our friend, guys.” Gary said, turning back to the group solemnly. “But I’m prepared to do it.”

  “I agree,” Slate said. “but how do we plan on doing it? I mean, Lindsey’s dad and Patrick are our biggest stars right now, and they’re off in the sky. BJ can only do so much on her own, and besides that, we’re just a group of normal Homo Sapiens.”

  Gary shook his head. “Not quite. I have the blood in me.”

  “It hasn’t done jack for you yet!” Johnny protested.

  The Time Keeper opened his beak slightly, cocking his head. “You haven’t had any changes in you yet, boy?”

  “No, and if we’re going to be on the same team now, you can call me Gary.”

  The Time Keeper approached him slowly, cocking his head to the side, as if trying to appear less imposing. “Interesting. I imagine it can take extra time for some.”

  “Unlucky for us, I happen to be one of them. We don’t need this right now. We need all the power we can to stop the League, and I can’t be wasting another second stranded down here.” Gary pointed to the sky towards the expanding ring of birds. “I need to fight them at the source.”

  “If you’re that eager,” The massive gryphon stopped a few feet in front of the human. “then there are ways to speed up the process.”

  “What do you mean?” Gary asked.

  He looked anxiously up at the giant beast. Gary caught a twinkle in the gryphon’s eye. Coupled with the immense size difference between the two, the human didn’t think that the monster had something great in mind.

  “If you must get up there, then I’ll take you.”

  The Time Keeper reared up on his hind legs, grabbing ahold of Gary’s shoulders with his front paws. The human squirmed in his grip, trying to get the monster’s claws off his shoulders, but it was pointless.

  “Wait, what are you doing?” he protested. “Let go of me!”

  Flapping his wings, which were easily twice Gary’s height, the gryphon took off, leaving the rest of the gang huddled and gasping, unable to do anything as the lead beast took their friend into the sky.

  “We need to do something!” Slate shouted.

  BJ grabbed his shoulder to stop him. “No. Not yet. I think he knows what he’s doing.”

  Gary winced as the beast’s claws dug into his shirt. He could feel them like fat daggers just one soft movement away from ripping his shoulders like ribbons. He didn’t even want to look down. By now, he and the Time Keeper were thousands of feet above the ground. The wind was much cooler as they zoomed through the sky, and that didn’t help sate his terror.

  “Are you trying to kill me?” Gary screamed. “What good am I going to be if I’m dead?”

  “You’re not going to die, Gary.” assured the gryphon. “I will see to that. No no. Instead, I’m going to help you live like you never thought you could.”

  “You have no idea how much I don’t like the sound of that.” Gary caught himself looking down, and yipped as he began to struggle for a tighter grip on his shoulders. “I really think you’re out of your cat-bird mind!”

  “Maybe so, but in my experience, sometimes all baby birds need in order to be able to defy gravity is just a simple push.”

  I
n the next moment, Gary’s shoulders were freed, and the full weight of the gryphon’s speed was upon him. He screamed and cursed, instinctively trying to get himself into a steady free fall.

  The buildings and the streets below flew passed him. He knew that in another few moments the strength of the Time Keeper’s throw would cease, and gravity would claim him as another victim of the laws of physics.

  He could feel his rise coming to an end, and the psychotic gryphon that chucked him into the sky was nowhere to be seen. This isn’t how it’s going to end, he told himself.

  I’m Garrett Jackson Frost. Life has been attacking me way more than it hasn’t. I was an undesirable, misbehaving kid. I was violent, angry, and I never wanted to grow up. And now for the first time in my life, I have friends and there is no way it is going to end this way for me.

  He stopped spinning, steadying himself against the wind. Gary tried to make out how far away the nearest skyscraper he was on collision-course with, but the velocity was making it hard for him to keep his eyes open. If he could manage it for more than a few seconds, it felt as if he were going to pass out, and he didn’t want that as his final memory.

  My friends…I’ve made it out okay. I might have been mistaken to trust my flying friend, but not the others. And I’m going to do exactly what I’ve done all my life that has allowed me to finally get to a comfortable place.

  I’m going to adapt.

  I’ll fight the fall. Arms, legs, wings against the current, brushed ceaselessly into the future.

  He felt the pain before he heard the tearing of his arms. If he screamed, the wind swallowed it before he could hear it. His shirt, already tattered on the sleeves from the Time Keeper’s grip, was ripped like a sack. Blood poured from his armpits all the way to his wrists, raining down on the empty city.

  The pain vanished as the former human felt himself slow down. Instinctively, he swung his arms up and down as if keeping balance on a ledge.

  Now that he could open his eyes fully, Gary saw a building approaching. Even at the slowed rate, he was still on track for a collision. Swinging his arms around had been effective in slowing him down, so he did it again…and again and again.