Becoming Valkyrie

by Brandy L. Cunningham

  Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes for a long moment. “The problem with people these days is that they are so filled with silly Hollywood stories that they think there is an answer to everything. It is not always that simple. There are, of course, key elements that need to happen before certain prophecies can come to pass.

  For example, there once was a Witch who prophesized the corruption of the gods. She told of a time that would come to pass when the sun would disappear and for seven days and seven nights, there would be only darkness. She said that during this time, gods and man alike would begin to lose their minds and turn on one another.

  In her prophecy, she said that a certain god would descend upon earth, where he would be provoked into a murderous rage by the death of his wife. In his rage, he would begin to consume the life essence of man, and if this came to pass, this god would create the race of Vampire.”

  I stared at her. If what she said were true, then that would mean gods were true as well. I frowned, having a hard time believing this. She smiled knowingly at me.

  “Go ahead, child. Tell me that this story cannot possibly be true. That it defies the logic of reason.”

  I eyed her. Was she goading me? I had been raised with my beliefs instilled in reality, however, I had never heard of a person rising from the ashes after being burned alive. Yet, here I stood.

  “Well, in theory, yes that is what we have been led to believe. Who is to say what is real and what is not?”

  Tamyra nodded. “Yes, who is to say? Consider this, the Bible says that this god of yours rules over heaven and earth. It says that he created earth and man and all you see before you. He created the angels, and some became fallen. From there the demon children were spawned. Is this correct?”

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  4

  Scorched

  Isat there quietly for a very long time. I didn’t have any funny jokes or smart answers for her. I really had no idea how to explain any of this. Tamyra watched me closely. Once she saw I had no answer to give her, she stood and came closer to me. Standing just inside her protective symbols, she slowly knelt to the ground. Lowering her voice to barely above a whisper, she lifted a brow.

  “There are worlds within worlds you know nothing about child. What do you think your god feared so much that he created his angels to protect him?”

  Listening to the breathy whisper, I stared at her. “Evil.”

  She smiled. “But what is the evil? Do you truly know? Does anyone? I want to show you something.”

  As I watched, Tamyra pulled an ancient looking locket from around her neck. Pulling it over her head, she held it out to me. It took me several seconds before I realized that the hands that held it were not the hands of an old woman. Lifting my gaze to hers, I stared into the bright blue eyes of a woman who appeared to be not much older than I was. Blinking rapidly, I didn’t know what to think, how to wrap my mind around what I was seeing.

  “How is this possible? I…. I don’t understand.” I fumbled with my words, apparently unable to form coherent speech.

  The beautiful woman kneeling before me smiled. “It is very possible, Valkyrie, you are not the only one with a magic necklace. This has kept me hidden for a very long time. I choose what others see. It also allows me entry into places you have no idea exist. It was given to me as a gift by the one who asked me to come here, and to await you.”

  I needed to clear my head. Standing, I paced the outer perimeter of her cabin and its peculiar symbols. Tamyra placed her necklace back on, and once again became the stooped old woman. She watched me. I shook my head. I could not come to terms with what she had said and what she had shown me. I was still trying to understand how it was that I stood here, alive while my town lay wasted in ash.

  Turning toward her, I fingered the pendant on my neck. “What exactly will happen if I remove this pendant?”

  Tamyra looked at me a long time before answering. “According to the pages in this book, it will unveil what you are, and those who hunt you will know where you are. Until you are strong enough for that day, you must keep it on.”

  I placed my forehead against the tree before me. I was angry. I needed more answers, not more questions. My head swam with all of the information this crazy woman had just given me, and I felt even more lost and alone. Why me? Why did I have to be the one survivor of my town? My hands trembled with anxiety as my emotions rose. I wanted so badly to go back in time, to undo what had happened. I could feel heat coursing through me the angrier I got. When I smelled something smoky, I lifted my head, stunned when I noticed a singed area on the tree where my head had rested. Stepping back in fear, I turned toward Tamyra.

  “Did you see that? What did I just do? What….what the hell am I?” My voice came out as a terrified yell.

  Tamyra stared at me. I could see several emotions on her face. The one that struck me the most was disbelief. Why did she stare at me so? Looking down, I gasped. The frock she had given me hung from my neck in tatters of charred cloth. The strange fire inside of me coursed wildly through my body, and I realized my hair was engulfed in flames. I screamed. Throwing myself to the ground, I tried to roll the fire out. Stop. Drop. Roll. I repeated the long-known fire drill in my mind. The harder I tried, the brighter it seemed to burn, until I heard Tamyra’s calm voice.

  “You need to relax. Be still. Control and calm yourself.” Her face was controlled, but I could see the fascination in her eyes.

  I looked at her as though she had seriously lost it. “Are you fucking kidding me?”

  When she laughed, I wanted to strangle the damned woman. My anger was only growing. My body burst with flames, and that was the moment I realized that I wasn’t on fire, I was the fire. That thought plagued me for hours. I was the fire. Somehow, I could burst into flames and, apparently I didn’t burn or die. Apprehension filled me the longer I thought about what had happened.

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  Laying very still on the ground draped in a new frock, I listened to Tamyra mumble to herself. The black cat eyed me from his spot a few feet away, and I sighed. The Witch kept mumbling that I needed to leave this place soon, but I had nowhere to go. What was I supposed to do? Wander aimlessly the rest of my miserable existence? No thank you. I was going to stay here with her until she forced me to go. I needed to get as many answers as I could possibly milk from this Witch.

  So much, I wished that I was still the naïve little Val, that I was with Vanessa and Emily, and we were stealing each other’s french fries. Times had seemed so simple, so obvious. I was going to head off to school, Vanessa was going to Hollywood, and Emily was going to attend college close to home where she could find a nice man to settle down with. My heart hurt just thinking about my two very best friends and my parents. God, how I missed them. Warmth stung at my eyes, but no tears dripped down my cheeks.

  I closed my eyes, willing images of the four of them to enter my mind. Watching the memories play out across my subconscious, I bit my lip, wanting so badly to be with them. I could easily hear Emily’s laughter, my father’s dorky conversations. Life had been so good with them, so happy. Now, I was alone, and I was a freak. I didn’t know what I had become, something from a nightmare, probably. Maybe I would doom the world, or destroy it with fire. There really was no telling.

  How do you go on without those you love? How do you pretend nothing is wrong, and keep going? I had no idea how to deal with pain that had no outlet, and I was at a complete loss as to how to handle what I was now. So many confused thoughts swam in my head. The visions of my friends receded, and new ones surfaced. A blond man. Tall, strikingly handsome, but also terrifying. His features were aristocratic, but the multi-hued color of his eyes made him incredibly mysterious. I saw his face, as he howled with rage, and long sharp fangs descended from his gums. What caught my attention more than that, however, was the terrible pain and hurt I could read in his eyes. Eyes that seemed hauntingly familiar to me. Eyes that made me want desperately to go to him.

&
nbsp; Gasping, I shook my head to rid it of the images that had invaded. My heart rate had accelerated, and my breathing was ragged and difficult. Who was this creature that looked hideously scary, yet at the same time, evoked within me a response completely foreign to me? Was that lust I had felt? I hadn’t ever had sexual thoughts about a man before, but my thoughts with these images had certainly been…different. I tried to close my mind off to all thoughts of what I had just seen and felt. I did not want to explore those thoughts again.

  Lifting myself up onto my elbows, trying to distract myself, I studied the cat sitting before me. He regarded me with what I might call an amused expression as he licked his paw in a bored manner.

  “If I cannot cut myself, does that mean I will not die?” my eyes rotated toward the porch where Tamyra sat, running her fingers through short frazzled hair.

  Tamyra’s voice drifted across the space. “Probably not. I will not die of old age, at least not for a very long time. Chances are, you cannot be killed by normal methods or age either.”

  I sighed. “Great. So, I’m destined to wander alone for all of eternity. Sounds amazing. Can’t wait to get started.”

  “Don’t be so dramatic, Valkyrie. You’re not alone. Now, when night falls, we must leave this place.” Tamyra continued flipping through the pages of her book.

  “Uh, leave this place? We? You are going to come with me? Why? What about all of your cats?” I was frowning, shaking my head in confusion. The thought that this Witch would stay with me brought with it a wave of relief.

  Lifting her head, Tamyra eyed me. “I must go with you, child. It is the way of things. It is why I have been here for so long. I have much to teach you. My cats will be fine. They are not what you think they are.”

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  Tamyra and I walked through the dark forest. The pace was slow. Around us, the forest seemed much spookier at night than it ever had during the light of day. Shadows crept out at us, making me jump at every little noise, and movement. The large redwood trees, with their fibrous, shedding bark, had never seemed so daunting. They towered over us, giants in our world. I had always loved the woods, loved nature in general. There was certainly something about the massive trunks of these impressive trees that made one think of them as ancient beings. As entranced as I was with the beauty of the woods, I was equally as frightened by the unknown that may be lurking in the darkness they provided.

  Staying close to the old woman, I peered behind us several times, wondering why the black cat still followed us. Tamyra still had her head buried in her book, muttering about this moon or that element. I had no idea what she was talking about. Most of what she said just confused me more than I already was. Looking down at my bare feet, I kept expecting them to become sore, to bleed from walking amongst the debris on the forest floor, but it didn’t happen. To my surprise, I didn’t get cuts from the sticks and fallen bark I walked over.

  I allowed my thoughts to wander. Many times, I revisited the night of Halloween, trying to figure out if there was something different I could have done to save my town. I was still pretty convinced that this necklace the green-eyed man had given me was what had caused this change in me. All of my life, I had been a normal girl. I bled like the other kids, I felt pain like everyone else, and I cried. Now, I couldn’t even summon one damn tear for those I had lost. Inside, I was a blubbering mess of pain. My own parents had burned alive, my friends, everyone. It didn’t seem fair that I should be alive while they would never again walk the earth.

  The fact that I no longer felt hunger worried me. If I didn’t need to eat or drink, how was I still going? Everything had to have an energy source, so what was mine? Thinking back to Tamyra’s mention about light, I pondered that thought. Did she mean sunlight? It didn’t make sense for it to be artificial light, so I felt certain she must be have meant true light, like the sun, or perhaps, the moon. Still, I didn’t see how that could be possible. I wasn’t a plant—I didn’t absorb light and use photosynthesis—so how was I supposed to gain energy from the light? I was baffled.

  “Tamyra, was the sun what you referred to earlier? Is that where my energy comes from?”

  Stopping, she continued rifling through her book as she slowly turned to face me. When she finally finished mumbling, she lifted her head and nodded. “Yes. Your body feeds off sunlight. Possibly the light of the moon, too.”

  I groaned. Possibly? How was this Witch supposed to help me if she wasn’t even certain what I was? Looking down at the cat, I found him regarding me with a look I could only guess was amusement. I sighed. Even the cat thought I was doomed.

  A twig snapped in the distance, and both of us went still. Tamyra tucked her book into her cloak and pointed toward a clump of brush. Silently, we crept into the cover a clump of bushes provided. Hiding, we waited, neither of us daring to breathe. In the darkness, I could see the shape of a person. Judging by their shape, I guessed it was a man. My ability to see perfectly into the darkness had been another surprise. Now, I was grateful for it. The man turned about, seeming to look in every direction. Beside me, Tamyra silently mouthed words. I kept my eyes focused on the man. When the man’s silhouette disappeared and then reappeared several feet from where I had first seen him, I swallowed.

  That was not a good sign. Tamyra had seen it too, and her eyes were wide. She began drawing unfamiliar marks on the ground. I wasn’t sure her spells would protect me. Watching the man, I felt chilled. It wasn’t exactly fear I felt, but more of a creepy sensation. I felt the pendant warm against my skin where it lay.

  The man walked about and appeared to be sniffing the air. What really rattled me was the moment the man shifted, fell to all fours, and seemed to become something else before my eyes. I stared in horror. As I watched, the man morphed into a giant animal. I knew the look on my face must be bleak. How was I to survive against something like that? Had things like this always been here in my world and I had been so blind? I made a mental note to ask the Witch if we made it out of this alive.

  The creature, whatever it was, roared mightily. It thrashed about, seemingly angered. Running from tree to tree, it sniffed, and scrutinized the forest with bright yellow eyes. If I had been normal as I had before Halloween, I think I would have wet myself. As I was now, I crouched unmoving, not a muscle in my body twitched. I was afraid, but my body didn’t exhibit any signs of fear. It was completely controlled, unnervingly so.

  Beside Tamyra and me, the black cat hissed. As I watched him, he stood, arched his back, and stepped forward. I gaped. Nudging Tamyra, I pointed toward the crazy cat who was about to get himself killed. The Witch looked up, nodded, and returned to her strange symbols. Sighing, I tried to grab the cat, but he swatted at my hand before leaping out of the brush.

  I had one of those moments then. It was as if time itself suspended, and somehow, the cat that leaped from my side of the bush was not the same cat that landed on the opposite side. No, as he landed, he was suddenly a four-hundred-pound Panther. Although I blinked several times, I could not explain it. I kept telling myself this all had to be some very strange dream I just could not seem to wake from.

  The creature in the woods whipped around, sensing the giant cat’s presence. The two of them faced off, slowly circling each other. I still wasn’t entirely sure what the creature in the woods was. I was definitely going to have a lot of new questions for Tamyra. As I watched, frozen in place, the cat attacked the dog-like creature.

  Thrashing about, the two of them played a very dangerous game of cat and mouse. I knew in the end, one of them might die, and I hoped fervently it would not be the cat. The black cat-turned-Panther lunged toward the other animal, biting into its neck, ripping into its flesh with dagger-like claws. The creature cried out in anger and tore himself from the grasp of the larger Panther. As I watched, two other men appeared at the edge of the forest. One of them called out to the creature.

  “Dorian, come back. It’s not worth it. We both know a shifter would never travel with a hybrid
like the one we seek. She is outcast. She will be alone. Come!”

  The creature sent the Panther one last growl before it disappeared from sight along with the two men. Sinking back onto my heels, I stared at the Panther as it cleaned its fur outside the bushes. Shrugging, I thought maybe his relaxed demeanor meant we were safe, for now. Clearly, they had been looking for someone else.

  When I looked over at Tamyra, she was watching me. It gave me the creeps. Her eyes bored into mine, and I began to squirm beneath their intensity.

  Frowning, I asked, “What?”

  The Witch sighed. “So, I was right. They sent their dogs to track you. That’s not good. It means they do not think you are dead. We must be very careful.”

  Furrowing my brows, I shook my head in confusion. “Tamyra, stop speaking in riddles. You heard them. They’re looking for a hybrid who the cat wouldn’t be around. They are obviously after someone else.”

  Letting out a very long breath, Tamyra shook her head at me. “You are so naïve. How did you even manage to be reborn from your past death when you are so very immature?”

  I gawked at her. Was she serious? “Okay. You know I just turned eighteen yesterday, right?”

  She laughed. “Eighteen in this lifetime maybe, but hundreds of years in your last. Do you remember nothing of your past self? This is like raising an infant. Those men, they spoke of you. You are the one and only Valkyrie. You may be reborn time and again, but there will only ever be one of you.”

  I frowned again. “All right, let’s say I am the one they are looking for. Then tell me why that giant cat is with us.” I was not about to tell this insane woman about the dreams of my childhood, nor the recent images of my overactive imagination.

  Tamyra looked up, studying the Panther. As if the two shared a silent conversation, the Panther stood and approached the bushes. Sitting just outside, he peered in at us with giant golden eyes. When she finally looked back at me, Tamyra looked annoyed.