by Tracey Tobin
Tori thought about what she’d been told and felt something click in the back of her mind. “Guys,” she asked, “why are they called the Howling Mountains?”
Jacob and Kaima both blinked at her and shrugged. “They’ve just always been called that, as far as I know,” Jacob offered.
Trying to forget that it was causing him pain that he was keeping secret from her, Tori gestured to the compass-mark on Jacob’s arm. “And that’s still pointing us in the mountains’ direction?”
Jacob took a moment to examine the mark, and then the position of the sun in the sky before agreeing.
“Well, if Kaima can smell one, it seems to me that there’s a good chance that they’ve been hunting here, which might mean that they’re who the blood magic is leading us toward. I guess that’s where I’m going to get my next ‘donation’.”
Kaima groaned and her tail fluffed out again, making her look like a house cat being approached by a vacuum. “Oh great.”
Chapter Four
For the remainder of the trip, Tori spent as much time as she dared in ‘Maelekanai mode’, as she’d come to think of it, hoping to strengthen herself. She had her companions attempt to time her, and did notice a slight, gradual increase in the length of time she was able to hold the transformation before becoming exhausted. It was encouraging to know that the practice was helping - at least a little - but it was also discouraging how quickly the fatigue came upon her. She’d feel absolutely fine one moment, heady with the energy the magic seemed to give her, and would collapse to the ground the next moment. A little rest and some food would help return her to normal, but the helplessness she felt during those periods of exhaustion was worrisome.
“You just need more practice,” Kaima would tell her.
“Eventually your body is bound to get used to it,” Jacob would add.
She certainly hoped so, because between her night-time terrors and this ‘blood magic fatigue’ thing, she was feeling less and less confident about her ability to accomplish her Herculean task of literally saving the world.
On the tenth day, early in the morning, they finally broke out of the forest and onto an expanse of flatlands. For a moment Tori reveled in the change of scenery. The forest had begun to make her feel very claustrophobic, and the field of yellow grass glinted like strands of gold in the early-hour sunlight. She stretched her arms out wide and enjoyed the chilly breeze that played through her hair and cooled her face. She actually even felt a little bit like laughing; it was just so nice to be free from the confinement of the trees at last.
Then her brain registered the sight of the mountains a few miles away and her heart sank.
Back home, in the world she’d grown up in, she’d lived in a rocky sort of area that was surrounded by hills and long, winding roads. There was an area near her hometown that was always described by the locals as “the mountain”, and if you were a keen and healthy person, you could bike up the paved road and get to the summit look-off in a little over three hours.
These mountains were...larger.
Tori stared up at the slate gray peaks, at the dizzying heights, the jagged offshoots, and the distinct lack of anything resembling a road, and felt her already-aching body weep in protest. “You’ve got to be kidding me,” she groaned, letting her knees buckle down to the soft grass.
Kaima chuckled and hauled Tori back up by the elbow. “Come on, princess,” she jabbed playfully. “Just think of it as a lovely hike on a sunny day.”
“We’ve already been hiking for over a week,” Tori grumbled under her breath. She thought she saw Jacob, out of the corner of her eye, turning his head to hide a smile.
They reached the base of the central mountain by midday, broke for a short rest and a snack of some fresh tubers that Kaima had dug up and roasted on their fire coals that morning, and prepared themselves for the climb.
At the urging of both Jacob and Kaima, Tori decided to use her only advantage to help her scale as much of the mountain as she could before nightfall. She worried about the fatigue kicking in at the absolute worst time, but her companions promised they would keep track of the time she spent transformed so that they could all take breaks at regular intervals to avoid any incidents.
So she clenched her fists, closed her eyes, and listened to the pulse of the blood in her veins.
When she opened her eyes again she reached her claws to the sky and let out what was becoming a traditional cry of elation. She felt so much better like this. She felt heady and high rather than sore and tired. The burst of energy made her laugh out loud at the mountain’s heights. It must have been contagious because Jacob and Kaima were soon chuckling along with her.
For a while Tori didn’t even notice time passing. When the path ahead was rocky she climbed and leaped like no human ever could, digging her powerful claws into the smallest crevices to pull herself up to great heights. When the path offered them a respite of flat terrain, she would run on ahead, loving the feeling of the cool breeze on her face as she did so. She soaked in the joy of this body and all it could do, and several times throughout the afternoon she had to be dragged back by Kaima because she kept running ahead whenever Jacob slowed them down at a difficult spot.
True to their word, her companions kept a close eye on her and demanded breaks on a regular basis. Tori hated returning to her normal self, feeling the aches returning to her tired muscles. She especially hated the way her normal body was beginning to react to the air around them. As they moved ever upward the mountain was getting colder, which she didn’t seem to really notice when using her blood magic. She also found herself glancing sideways at Jacob, wondering if the cold was beginning to bother him. She at least had her tattered hoodie keeping her arms covered, but since she’d met her young Guardian he had worn a leather vest with nothing beneath. If he was bothered, though, he didn’t let on.
“One more push, I think,” he suggested as they finished a rest and a meal of dried meat and apples. He stood, hands on his hips, and examined the compass on his arm. “We seem to be more or less headed in the right direction, so let’s see how much further we can get before sunset.”
Tori immediately called out to the power in her blood and agreed with a toothy grin. “Let’s do it,” she told the others, and leaped for a nearby ledge.
The night air felt lovely in this form. The moon was beginning to peek out at her from the darkening sky. It was a beautiful night, and her companions’ careful watch over her had meant she hadn’t fallen into a fatigue all day. She began to run, breathing deep of the smells around her, enjoying the feeling of energy and freedom coursing through her. Somewhere in the back of her mind she knew she was being foolish and overconfident, but she kept running regardless, until Kaima caught up with her and snatched her back by the ear.
“Ouch!” the human-Maelekanai-hybrid cried. “Let go!”
“You’re like a little kid, you know that?” the Maelekanai admonished, dragging her backward. “We’re supposed to be staying together. The compass doesn’t work if you get too far from Jacob, remember?”
Tori grumbled, but turned to head backward none-the-less, until something caught her attention.
Tori’s enhanced ears twitched first and stopped her in her tracks. “Do you hear that?” she hissed.
Something was slithering toward them in the approaching twilight.
Kaima opened her mouth to tell the girl off, but quickly snapped it shut again, her eyes narrowed. “Come on,” she growled, and gave Tori an urgent tug. “We’ve got to get back to Jacob.”
They ran like thieves in the night, bouncing on the pads of their feet. They met Jacob a short ways away, sprinting in their direction with his sword in his hand. The look on his face told them that he already knew.
“Shadows,” Kaima hissed.
Jacob’s gaze had been surveying their surroundings as he ran, but he looked resigned with what he saw. “There’s no cover here and it’s still too light out to hide effectively,” he told them. “We’re going to have t
o fight.”
The voice in the back of Tori’s head that told her she should be terrified by this development, but she was still running on a blood magic high, so instead she clenched her fists and flashed her fangs. “Let’s do it,” said the new part of her, the part that was far too cocky for her own good.
It was nearly impossible in this environment to determine where the distinctive slithering noise was coming from, so the trio stood back-to-back-to-back and peered out into the darkness in every direction, waiting to see where the attack would come from. When Jacob could hear them too they knew the danger was getting very close, but still they didn’t see anything. Tori pushed her eyes to the limit, certain that she would be the first to spot her prey and launch into battle .
When a predatory shriek came from above, however, her heart jumped in surprise.
“Princess, watch out!” Jacob cried. Tori was quick, but in her confusion Jacob was actually quicker. A half-second after his shout they were all splattered with ice-cold black ooze as the first of the dive-bombing Shadows melted around his upraised sword.
All three of them hit the ground rolling to avoid the second wave of the attack, and what followed was chaos. Tori gaped up with her mouth hanging open as oozing, shape-shifting Shadows with enormous black wings filled the sky.
“Why the hell did no one tell me they could fly?!” Tori screamed.
“We didn’t know!” Jacob and Kaima cried back in unison.
After that Tori lost track of her companions for some time. She rolled and dodged, leaped on Shadows and plunged her claws through their bodies as they swooped down to attack her. Some of them melted around her arms as she was able to strike the heart, but others wriggled and ripped their own bodies apart in order to escape her grasp and regroup for another try. She felt sharp pinches of pain as the razor-tipped wings and snapping beaks were able to reach her arms and legs, but she fought on with a grin on her face, knowing that Jacob and Kaima were doing the same. The battle went on and on, but she felt confident and powerful, strong and unstoppable. They were going to win this fight. She was absolutely certain of it.
All at once, her head swam, and her heart thumped with panic as she realized what was happening. One moment Tori was holding her own, was rife with confidence, and felt like nothing in the world could stop her. The next moment she felt all the energy draining out of her body in a single sweep. The world in front of her wobbled like an amusement park ride, nauseating and unrelenting. She stumbled to the side, her feet betraying her. She tried to shake her head to clear it, but in the next moment a Shadow’s wing had clipped her shoulder and sent her sprawling to the ground.
The blood magic washed away from her as her pulse pounded in her ears. Human once again, Tori struggled to push herself up from the ground, but her elbows shook and collapsed, sending her face-first back into the cool rock. She felt her lip split open and her head rang.
Her ears were stuffed with cotton. She felt, rather than heard, the whip of wind as another Shadow swooped past, diving low to snatch at her shirt.
“Jacob…” she called, but she felt like she couldn’t get enough air to support the required volume. She tried again as she forced herself to crawl blindly forward. “Jacob…!”
She heard a shriek and felt icy ichor splash across her back.
“I’ve got you,” came Kaima’s voice, and a moment later Tori found herself being hoisted up from under the arms. “Gods, you are heavy,” the small-structured Maelekanai muttered.
Tori blinked her eyes hard, desperate to clear her vision so that she could see what the hell was happening, but all she could make out through the dizzy haze was the fuzzy silhouette of Jacob desperately fighting off the Shadows that were coming from everywhere. With Tori’s weight in Kaima’s arms, he was the lone defender left in the group.
They were going to lose this battle. Tori was absolutely certain of it.
An ear-splitting howl rent the air, echoing off of every surface and penetrating even Tori’s cottony eardrums. For a moment, Tori inexplicably imagined that Cerberus himself had appeared before them to drag her and her companions down to the underworld.
There was a great flurry of movement and noise. Tori saw a blur of color and felt Kaima’s grip on her tighten considerably. Jacob backed up closer to them so that his shoulder touched Tori’s. He seemed especially tense, but also seemed to have lowered his sword, which made Tori frown and rock her head in confusion. The air was filled with the shriek of Shadows and the bay of…wolves?
A few short minutes later it seemed to all be over. Something extremely large walked up and cast a dark shadow across the trio. Tori felt Jacob’s arm tense even more as he squeezed the hilt of his sword.
“State your names, trespassers,” spoke a low, loud voice that sounded more like a growl.
Tori thought that she heard Jacob reply, but she was distracted. She was squeezing her eyes shut and trying to gather some focus so that she could see what the hell was standing in front of her. She forced herself to breathe slowly and concentrated on bringing her heart rate down. She felt sore and exhausted and weak as a kitten, but the steady thrum in her ears gradually began to fade.
She opened her eyes again and her vision was much clearer, but she seemed to be looking at a wall of mottled gray-and-brown fur.
She looked up…
And up…
And up…
Chapter Five
Tori was certain that her eyes were bulging out of her head and that her jaw had become completely detached from the rest of her face. The inside of her skull was filled to bursting with one long, unending squeal of fear.
Her first discernible thought was, ‘Werewolf!’, but she quickly dismissed this notion because the creature before her was far larger than any lycanthrope she’d ever seen on the big or small screens. It was a good eight feet tall and wide enough across the shoulders that you could have fit two of Jacob in the same space and had plenty of room to spare.
Every inch of it was covered in fur that was scruffy and showed signs of being a creature that spent a significant amount of its time hunting and foraging. Thick, powerful legs bent at odd angles so that the creature balanced on the balls of its enormous feet, and too-long arms hung low at its sides, tipped with sharp claws as thick as Tori’s fingers. Its stature was hunched, so that its head and huge chest loomed out over the top of the trio, glaring down at them.
That head was the most terrifying bit. It was like a wolf’s head, but three times bigger, with a longer snout that was filled with rows of slobber-drenched teeth. Eyes like ruddy red marbles glared down at the trio with a horrible sense of hunger.
Tori felt faint, and couldn’t tell if it was because of the blood magic fatigue, or if it was simply the presence of this creature and the dozen or so of its mates who had surrounded them and looked rather displeased to meet them.
“I am Jacob Ravenson,” Jacob was saying. “Son of Robert Ravenson of the Kynnon Royal Guard. My companions and I seek an audience with the head of your tribe.”
The Coiyana that was hovering over them growled deep in his throat.
“What I want to know, tiny Ravenson,” the gruff, angry voice huffed down at them, “is how you even found our tribe?”
Jacob did his best to stand tall, but despite his efforts he looked tiny next to the Coiyana. Regardless, he held his head high and lifted his arm to show the compass tattoo. “This lead us where we wished to go,” he explained. “It is created from blood magic.” He turned slightly and gestured to Tori before adding, “Her blood magic.”
The surrounding Coiyana began to murmur among themselves. Tori didn’t like the way the sound was so very much like growling. The leader lowered his head and narrowed his red eyes at Tori. A low rumble escaped from his throat that made her blood run cold.
“Are you trying to tell me,” the leader growled, “that this little girl is from royal blood?”
Jacob readjusted himself so that he was standing more in front of Tori. He ma
de no attempt to hide the fact that he was trying to keep the Coiyana away from her. “That’s exactly what I’m saying,” he said in a firm voice. “This is Princess Victoria, the true-born heir to the Kynnon throne, and she wishes to plead her case to the Coiyana people, if you would kindly take us for an audience with your tribe’s leader.”
By the end of the sentence Jacob’s voice got very demanding, causing the Coiyana leader to lean in closer to his face with a deep rumble snaking out through his teeth. Tori reached up and gripped the back of Jacob’s vest, not knowing what she was going to do, but feeling that she needed to be in contact with him.
The stare-down seemed to last forever, but just when Tori was starting to think the Coiyana was going to separate Jacob’s head from his shoulders, the creature lifted its head to the sky and let out a single loud bark that sounded rather like a laugh.
“You are brave, for a human, Jacob Ravenson,” he seemed to chuckle to himself. He clapped an enormous paw on Jacob’s shoulder, nearly causing the Guardian to buckle right to the ground. “We will bring you to our Chief and you may plead your case,” he barked. With a stern look he added, “But know that if the Chief wills it, you will be disposed of in order to keep our tribe’s location secret.”
The voice in Tori’s mind screamed at her to refuse, to turn around, and to run the hell away as fast as possible, but somehow she found herself nodding limply from behind Jacob. Beside her Kaima was bristling with what she could only imagine was a dozen different emotions, not the least of which was evident in the way her tail looked like it had been shoved in an electrical socket.
As the sun began to set behind the mountains, the group of Coiyana surrounded Tori and her companions and shepherded them through the rocky terrain. Kaima and Jacob wrapped their arms around Tori and did their best to carry her without letting on how weak she was.
“I am Heln,” the leader deigned to inform them. “I am the alpha of this hunting party.” He turned and gave the trio something like a grin that gave them an excellent view of his canine teeth. “You are lucky that I am the one who found you,” he claimed. “Some of the others would have killed you on sight for wandering so close to our settlement.”
