by Natalie Erin
“I’m sorry. That was uncalled for,” Echo stated. Lottie’s surprise quickly melted away. He pushed against her and said, “Come on, kid. Let’s go.”
The pair raced off after their flying companions, who had gained a great deal of distance already.
Lilja stood there, unable to comprehend what had just happened. Cornia came to his side and brushed against it. “Don’t worry. I don’t like Echo much either, but Lottie will come to her senses sooner or later.”
Above, Ionan watched with a weary eye. “What’s the big deal if they have a little fun, Ionan?” Kia asked. “I know it’s important we get to the Ice Borns and find the children fast, but as long as they can keep up, I don’t see what the problem is. We all need something to loosen us up. It’s just stress coming out in weird ways.”
“Yeah Ionan. What’s bugging you?” Keota added.
He thought for a moment, wondering if he should answer. “I don’t care if they play,” he said carefully. “But I don’t like Echo around Lottie. He’s a bad influence. I wonder if we should’ve let him come.”
“A little protective maybe?” Keota said teasingly.
“Yes, a little. But I don’t want her to get too close to him.”
“Why?” Kia asked. “I can understand why you want to guard her feelings, but why shouldn’t she be able to fall in love, as Lilja, Keota and I have? It’s only fair she has a mate too.”
“And children,” Keota added.
“That’s the problem!” Ionan rumbled and he rolled in the air in his frustration. Keota clung to him like a cat, and when Ionan finally stopped whirling he yelled warningly, “Don’t you buck me off again!”
Ionan halted, though smoke furled out of his mouth and nose. Casiff glared at Ionan and said, “What’s wrong with my Lottie?”
“I never said anything was,” Ionan said defensively.
“I know that look in your eyes. There’s something you’re not telling us,” Casiff insisted.
“So do I,” added Kia. “You never get like that unless you have a secret to hide.”
“What’s going on with her?!” Casiff shouted. “I want to know! It’s my right!”
When Ionan still was silent, Keota cried, “Ionan, I command you to tell us!”
Ionan roared, knowing he was cornered. There was no way he could avoid a direct order. Marveling at the unfairness of Accompanies being the masters of their Changers, Ionan said, “I don’t want Lottie to fall in love with Echo because I’m afraid he won’t accept her!”
“Is that all?” Kia laughed.
“Why wouldn’t he accept her?” Casiff asked. Ionan growled and said angrily, “Echo might not be her mate because she is unable to conceive pups!”
Keota gasped. Kia’s eyes welled up with tears, while Casiff’s face went white. “No. It can’t be true. How do you know?” he asked accusingly.
“I could sense it the moment we first met. We Changers know these things. I want Lottie to fall in love and be with a mate just as much as the rest of you do. But I think we all know Echo wants more than what she can give him. He didn’t agree to come with us because he likes Lottie for Lottie. She’s one of the most powerful wolves in the Lands, and he knows it.”
“Maybe he really does like Lottie for Lottie,” Kia said, shrugging. “Maybe he won’t care.”
“Really?” Ionan turned a large eye on her. “I would think deeply on that statement. Another wolf wouldn’t care. But Echo surely does.”
“I have to tell her!” Casiff yelled. He tried jumping off of Snow Drop, making his wings appear, but Kia grabbed his shoulder. “We can’t tell her, Casiff.”
“Why? Why shouldn’t she know?” he argued.
“Because,” she said calmly. “It would break her heart.”
“She’s going to find out anyway!” Casiff protested.
Ionan shook his head. “He’s right. It must remain a secret. If she finds out, it could stall our journey. If it’s terrible news to us, how do you think Lottie will take it? Or her brother? Or Cornia? Wolves love pups more than anything else. How long do you think Echo will stick around when he knows? We can’t afford losing anyone, not when it’s Wyntier we’re dealing with. We need all the help we can get to take him down.”
Everyone knew he was right. Still, none of them wanted to admit it.
Maekrel had been dressed and was wandering about the cave doing anything and everything he was asked to do.
“So this was your plan?” Vera asked Wyntier shortly afterwards, watching the creature who had despised Wyntier with all his heart do whatever he asked happily.
“Do you think I would’ve wasted five years in this cave if my plan wasn’t foolproof?” Wyntier asked. “The mutation doesn’t work on animals, but it works on Changers, just like I had hoped. You take an Accompany’s Changer away, they’re nothing. Now all I have to do is make enough of it to take back to Nesting’s Haven, and whoever disagrees with us will have their Changer transformed into my slave. No one will dare stand against me.”
It was worse than Vera had ever imagined. She thought that the medicine inside the vial would simply kill, or make one sick. She didn’t know that this strange concoction actually had the power to give Wyntier control of Nesting’s Haven. I have to stop this somehow, she thought, but her mind gave her no ideas. She had found it disturbing that Maekrel had mutated into the one thing that Changers couldn’t mold themselves into. Trust Wyntier to find the one thing so evil it went against nature itself.
After a while Wyntier had gotten tired of Maekrel constantly annoying him, and the human had been told to play with Kennu, Allie, and the wolf pups.
“Why are you so tall?” Caini asked, putting her paws against his leg.
“I don’t know. Why are you so tiny?” he answered her.
From behind him, Kennu dug his hands into Maekrel’s long hair. When he had a decent grip the prince pulled as hard as he could. Maekrel yelped and carefully pulled the five year old’s hands out of the golden locks. “You can’t do that, little one,” Maekrel said softly. “That hurts my head a good deal.”
“Do it again, Kennu. It’s funny,” Allie encouraged. Kennu yanked Maekrel’s head once again and the man screamed out in pain as chunks of blonde hair were ripped out and thrown to the floor. Both Allie and Kennu giggled uncontrollably.
“Please stop! You’re being a nuisance!” Maekrel said, clutching his bald spots.
Allie jumped up and tackled Maekrel to the ground beneath her lynx form. “Allie wants Kennu to,” she meowed softly. “It makes Allie happy.”
Maekrel pushed her off of him carefully and sat up. “Well it makes me grumpy.”
“Too bad. Bad man say you play with us, so suck it up.” Allie smiled at him slyly and batted her small paws at his face. Kennu laughed and yanked on Maekrel’s blonde hair a third time, enjoying his yelp. Vera came in from the cold, holding dinner for the wolf pups in her jaws, and put it down when she saw Maekrel being tormented.
“They seem to enjoy hurting you, Maekrel, so why don’t you go outside and take a walk? I can watch the kids for now,” she said.
“Master didn’t say that,” Maekrel protested.
“Well, Master is going to be furious if you keep shouting, and I don’t think any of us are in the mood to deal with his temper today. Go, please.”
“Oh. Okay then. Thank you,” Maekrel said, standing up and walking into the blinding snow.
Maekrel had been gone for hours. Vera was babysitting the little ones, keeping a watchful eye on all of them as she observed the weather outside. It looked pretty bad, but she knew it would only get more terrible as the days went on.
“Where is Maekrel?” Wyntier yelled, rushing impatiently into the room with two vials. “You sent him away hours ago!”
“He’ll return,” Vera rumbled.
“Io,” Allie whimpered sadly.
“What is it, baby?” asked Vera softly.
Allie snuggled up to Vera’s side. “Allie want Io.”
“Io,” Allie insisted. Vera nuzzled her with her head, trying to comfort her.
There was a crash behind her and Vera heard a small voice whine, “I want Mommy and Daddy!”
“Oh no!” Vera cried. Kennu had latched onto Wyntier’s leg and was screaming at the top of his lungs, throwing a true tantrum. He had made Wyntier drop a vial.
“Brat!” Wyntier growled, and rose his hand to strike. Kennu let go of his leg and recoiled against the floor, terrified.
“No!” Vera called. She flew in front of him, changing into a sparrow, and said, “You can hit me all you like but don’t you touch any of them!”
Wyntier smacked her harder than he had, sending her flying across the room. “Keep them out of my way then! I’m going to go search for that idiot!”
All of the children were looking at her with wide eyes, their hearts beating quick. Wyntier went to leave but Allie stood in his way.
“Move!” he shouted, his lips curling into a terrible snarl.
Allie looked defiantly at him. “Bad man hit his Changer. That is wrong. Allie doesn’t like bad man.”
“Allie, come here,” Vera called from the floor, changing into a dog and wagging her tail at the child, trying to appear friendly. Allie trotted over to Vera’s side, her tail upturned at Wyntier as she went. Kennu hugged his Changer and stuck his tongue out at Wyntier. The Accompany left in a hurry and the little ones herded over to Vera naturally, gathering into a circle.
“Does it hurt? Do you want me to get you something to make the pain go away?” Midnightstar asked, concerned.
Vera changed into a Pegasus, and then shook her head. “No thank you. It doesn’t hurt for long, anyway.”
“This isn’t the first time he’s hit you, is it?” Shadowin asked angrily.
Vera shook her head. Caini crawled to her side and licked the place Wyntier smacked. Jade pushed a little bit of leftover rabbit forward. “Want the rest of my dinner?” she asked hopefully.
“No thank you. I don’t eat,” Vera smiled.
Snapfoot looked at her with confusion in his eyes. “Why do you let him push you around like that?” he asked.
Vera thought for a minute. “Because I love him,” she said softly.
“How can you love someone who abuses you all the time? How can you stay?” Caini questioned.
Vera looked at them and knew they didn’t understand. She didn’t really understand either.
“Kennu loves Allie very much!” Kennu giggled and put his arms around Allie. “I will never hit Allie, ever.”
“That’s good to know,” Vera smiled. Jade padded over to the entrance of the cave, looking out into the blustering snowstorm. “When can we go home?” she asked.
Vera laid there, and didn’t answer.
Silence came over the children. “We’re not going home, are we?” Snapfoot asked. Vera shook her head.
She thought that the pups would’ve ventured out of the cave to try and head home themselves, but instead they walked over to Vera and laid by her side. The others fell asleep and Vera and Allie let happier memories wash over them. The world’s problems would have to wait, for at least a little while.
Even for an Accompany, Wyntier traveled at an amazing speed through the cold. When he had finally found Maekrel, he was sitting in the snow.
“What are you doing? Get up, you incompetent bastard!” Wyntier ordered.
“Yes Master,” Maekrel said. “I got lost, so I decided to sit here and wait for you. I knew you’d come to get me, eventually. By the way, it’s pretty cold outside. Is there a way to turn up the heat? I’d really love to sit in the sand right now.” Maekrel fell backwards and started making angels in the snow. He clearly had lost his mind.
“I should leave you out here,” Wyntier said, shaking his head. It had seemed like a good idea to change Maekrel at the time, but he was becoming so irritating that Wyntier was considering killing him just for the mere pleasure of watching him bleed. He couldn’t do that, though...Maekrel had caused him trouble for years, and the Accompany would prefer to start all over again with his mutation formula rather than let Maekrel die without getting any work out of him.
“Just follow my footsteps and head back to the cave,” Wyntier ordered. Maekrel did so and Wyntier went to go after him, until he was knocked to the ground by a grey shape twirling around his legs.
“What are you doing?” Wyntier snarled as he pushed an alpha wolf male off of him. “Get out of the way!”
The wolf refused to move, staring at disgust at the man in front of him with his fangs bared. Wyntier tried to shove past but the wolf blocked his way. A female came out of a den in the ground, her teeth also showing.
“How dare you stand in my path!” he shouted, pointing his finger at the alpha.
The wolf licked his lips and said, “There have been rumors of a missing unicorn from the valley. And there are also rumors of missing pups and children. The suspect is an Accompany. You’re taller than any fairy than I have ever seen, and much stronger. We’re thinking that you’re the kidnapper.”
Wyntier glared at the wolves, breathing raggedly. His hand began to move towards his side, under his coat.
“You’re coming with us,” the female said. “Vixen will take care of you.”
Wyntier paid no attention. He instead charged forward and kicked the she-wolf away from her den. The male became infuriated and latched onto Wyntier’s arm. Wyntier screamed, and with his good hand pulled out his gun. With a malicious, happy look in his eyes he put his finger on the trigger and fired.
Vera heard the gunshot immediately. “No,” she whispered, fear in her eyes. She looked through the swirling snow and saw birds escaping into the cloudy sky. Fear raged throughout the mountains and she left the children silently, praying they wouldn’t wake up.
Her eyes filled with tears as she saw the sight before her. “Wyntier, what have you done?”
Wyntier was wrapping up his bleeding arm with the gun still in his hand. She saw two beautiful wolves lying on the ground, blood pooling around them and melting the snow.
“Wyntier!” she sobbed. “These were young wolves! Why did you murder them in cold blood?”
“They knew too much,” he said. “They were going to tell Vixen and turn me in. I couldn’t let them do that.”
“But why did you have to kill them? You could’ve left them out of it!”
“I don’t have time to appreciate the lives of insignificant animals,” Wyntier snapped. “Consider it your reward for making me hike all over the mountains looking for Maekrel. Take me back before this gets infected! Don’t worry about the bodies being discovered. The snow will bury them.”
He spoke as if the dead wolves were just business. Vera let her tears fall on the two canines and turned away. But as she did so her ears picked up a high-pitched whimpering. “What was that?” she asked.
Wyntier looked at herand she knew he had heard the whines too. It was coming from the den. Wyntier got down and looked inside. “They had pups,” he said with disinterest.
Vera gasped. Her Accompany had just orphaned pups. She stood there, horrified as he clambered up on her back.
“What about their babies?” she asked.
“What about them? They’re none of my business.”
“But they will starve out here!” Vera cried, horrified.
Wyntier shrugged. “Their parents shouldn’t have defied me.”
At that moment, Vera made the first decision of her own since she had been bound to Wyntier. “I’m taking them with us,” she said determinedly.
“What do you think we are running, a nursery?” Wyntier asked, outraged. “Kill them and be done with it!”
“You can beat me all you like, but approve or not, they are now under my care,” she growled, finally starting to get angry. “If we leave the pups behind we may be discovered and then your precious plan will fall to pieces! Now do you want to leave or not?
I can’t stand it here much longer,” she choked, looking at the mother’s body being slowly covered in a snowy shroud.
Wyntier protested no further. She gently reached in with her claws and pulled out three little ones, just barely weaned by the looks of it. Eight wolf pups to take care of now, she thought. Enough to make a pack. How am I ever going to manage this?
The children were still asleep when she got back, and for that she was grateful. Wyntier headed off to his lab without another word and she laid down beside them, forming a cocoon around the little ones. The brand new pups lay happily near her tail. I must think of something else, she thought, beginning to drift into memories. Something happy...
Sunlight, warm, gracious, beautiful sunlight, shone down upon her scales and gave her strength as she laid about in the courtyard, practicing her fire breathing skills. Senior year, Vera thought with wonder, and she let out an experimental puff of smoke to see if it would take the form of a flower, which it did. A lily, she thought happily, and she continued making more smoke lilies in the air until the area around her became a garden, an array of wonder and magic twirling around her to complement the actual garden that she lay amongst. The sand-colored castle walls stood proudly around her and the fountain trickled slowly nearby, complementing the palm trees waving in the ocean breeze. From her dorm room she could watch the sea. As the lilies faded away Vera felt a shiver of excitement. Dinkleberry University was the most prestigious school in all of Nesting’s Haven, and she would be graduating from there with a degree in Music Artistry and Religious Aspects, two of the most challenging programs the school offered, all just before her sixteenth birthday. There would be only one more summer spent in Southwild before she’d be able to start traveling the country as a priestess.
Vera felt as if she were going to burst out of her skin with excitement. Priests and priestesses of the temple were legendary. If one passed the difficult tests, they’d be inducted to a sibling hood of honor and prestige. She’d spend her time ministering to the broken down and weary, taking care of those who felt lost and whispering stories of the Creator, all while proclaiming His beauty in song and in light. She’d care for the widowed, the orphaned, the dying. If she became skilled enough, she might even rise to the status of some of the High Priests and Priestesses. These mysterious Changers and Accompanies had the power to heal sickness, control wonders, and consult with the other side.
