The creature was very agile for its size using its long limbs to its advantage. It slashed its claws at them and was quick enough to avoid their return strikes. It bounced around on its legs like a professional boxer easily outmaneuvering the two Wardens at first.
The Wardens were initially back to the wall but slowly worked their way around to the sides. They attacked methodically until they almost had it flanked. The wendigo continued to dodge their blades and realized they were trying to surround it. It dropped to all fours and leaped dozens of feet to the other side of the cave near the entrance.
The two Wardens slowly walked towards the creature, their swords out. They moved further apart so the wendigo could not reach both at the same time. The wendigo was more intelligent than they thought and when it realized it was being surrounded, it leaped towards the entrance, but Chelsea cut it off. The two of them were on opposite sides of the wendigo and the creature was blocked from running.
The wendigo lunged towards Chelsea, trying to get around her and to the exit. Chelsea slashed at it and grazed it. She didn’t draw blood, but the stun pulse had a noticeable effect. The creature shrieked and ran up the wall and away from her.
“Being able to climb stone isn’t in this thing’s profile,” said Sebastian.
“Welcome to the field. Many of the fey are rare and we don’t encounter them enough to get a full list of their abilities. You have to be ready for anything and able to adapt to unknowns. The hunts I’ve taken you on prior to this one were cherry-picked to get your feet wet. Now it’s time to sink or swim,” she replied, while slowly moving towards the wendigo and keeping her eyes fixed on it.
The wendigo backed further down the wall as they crept towards it. Sebastian took out his pistol and cycled to silver rounds. He started firing at the wendigo, the sound of the gunfire deafening in the cave. The beast managed to dodge most of the shots, but one caught it in the left leg and it fell from the ceiling, managing to twist and land on its feet.
“I was wondering if you would remember silver. I was waiting as long as I could before doing it myself,” she said. “Good job rookie.”
“It's hurt. That will make it more dangerous,” he told her.
The creature took advantage of Chelsea's distraction and pounced. It jumped towards Chelsea. She turned to it and braced for its charge and as it hit her, she buried her blade to the hilt in its shoulder. It screamed in pain as the blade sunk in and blood poured out. Its already injured leg hurt its agility some, but it still managed to catch her with one arm and the impact sent her sprawling backward leaving her blade stuck in its shoulder.
It jumped again and was on top of her snapping at her head. She grabbed the hilt of her blade and twisted, catching it off guard and stopping it for a moment. Sebastian ran towards the two of them and jumped, landing on the wendigo’s back like it was a saddle as it again tried to bite Chelsea. He drove his sword down and with his combined strength and momentum, pierced through the resilient hide and into the creature's spine. The wendigo fell onto its side trapping Sebastian underneath it. He was trying to get himself free as the wendigo turned its head towards him, snapping its fangs only inches from Sebastian’s face. His sword was stuck in the spine and his gun in the holster on his trapped leg leaving him defenseless. The wendigo got its mouth around his arm and was trying to rip through his armor.
Chelsea picked herself up and rushed over to the two of them. She removed her blade and with some effort managed to pierce the chest and through the wendigo’s heart. It stopped moving. “Heart and head. Anything else will get you killed with most fey,” she told Sebastian.
“You were down, and it was about to kill you. I did what was necessary to save you,” he said.
They left the cave and started heading towards the pickup location at the lake.
“Our first priority is the elimination of the target for the protection of the people,” she replied.
“Exactly and you’re one of the people. You’re a Warden but you’re also a human and protecting humanity from the fey is our charge. You’re part of that,” he said.
“We agree to put our lives on the line,” she said.
“All lives are important, yours and mine and the rest of the Wardens included. I crippled it. It was unable to fight and made for an easy kill,” he told her.
“What if you missed? That was a high-risk move. What if you missed the spine or misjudged your jump?” she asked.
“It was a calculated risk. Everything we do is a calculated risk,” he told her. “What about you? All that stuff about focus and you stop in the middle of a fight to tell me good job on remembering a fey weakness?”
She looked angry and was in his face. “Who the hell are you to question me? I give the orders here. Do you understand me?”
“I question anyone who makes a bad decision. I wouldn’t have missed. I know my abilities and my limits,” he told her.
“You cocky asshole. We’re not debating this,” she said.
He was about to reply when he looked at the blonde and saw the fire in her eyes. He looked at her a moment then grabbed her and kissed her. She pushed away from him.
“What do you think you are doing?” she asked.
“I…it’s just…” he started to say but she grabbed him and kissed him back this time he pushed her away. “You’re my SO and we’ve become friends. I don’t want to mess that up. We could be kicked out of the Wardens.”
“You really don’t know when to shut up do you?” she said as she kissed him again.
The two of them were aggressively passionate, practically ripping their clothes and biomesh off. He picked her up and sat her on the edge of a picnic table and vigorously made love to her. The old table creaked with the motion and their sounds of pleasure intensified to a crescendo of guttural screams and moans. The table broke and collapsed but the two didn't stop. She rolled on top of him and rode him until they both climaxed together and fell asleep on the grass by the lake.
“Excuse me. Are you two okay? You can’t be sleeping naked out here by the lake,” said a voice waking the two. “Hey, wake up!” said the voice a bit louder.
Sebastian looked up and saw a young man in a uniform looking down at them. He couldn’t have been more than twenty. From the look of his uniform, he was part of the B.C. recreational patrol that took care of the local parks and lakes. Much of the territory was pristine wilderness and had been set aside for centuries as public land. A small group of enforcement agents kept an eye on campers and made sure they weren't leaving a mess at the campgrounds or poaching endangered animals.
“This place isn’t safe. There’s a monster around here killing people and until the Wardens find it, this place is closed to the public,” he said as they got dressed.
“That’s not an issue anymore officer. My name is Lady Chelsea, and this is my trainee Squire Sebastian. We’re out of Warden Facility 14 in NYC. The monster was a wendigo and we’ll be calling in a cleanup crew shortly. It’s not a danger anymore,” she told him.
“Wardens, you say? Let me verify your identity and we’ll be all set,” he said.
As they dressed, the two Wardens provided a retinal scan for the officer to confirm their identities.
“Officer, I know you have to fill out a report and I don’t want you to lie on it, but I would like to ask if you would leave out certain…personal details that aren't really relevant” said Lady Chelsea.
“Did you really kill that thing that was killing my campers?” asked the officer.
“We did. We can show you the body if you’d like confirmation and it would make writing your report easier,” replied Lady Chelsea.
“You will? I’ll make you a deal. You show me the monster and my report will say nothing more than a routine check that was yielded to Warden authority with no mention of your other activities,” he told her.
“You have a deal,” replied Lady Chelsea.
They led him to the cave and showed him the corpse.
“Th
at’s a jackalope! My grandpa had one mounted in his study,” the officer told them as he took pictures of the corpse. He started to take pictures of the Wardens, but Chelsea stopped him.
“The jackalope legend is likely inspired by this creature. Jackalope trophy mounts are creative taxidermy. This is the real deal. This is what killed your two families but won’t be killing anything else. The only other local fey are sasquatch and they’re benign,” said Squire Sebastian.
“I’ve heard the rumors of bigfoot around here, but no one has ever seen one,” the young man replied.
“They’re out there but they’re reclusive and not hostile. They blend in well and are good at hiding. You have nothing to worry about with them. They're herbivores and don't attack humans as long as you don't threaten them,” said Lady Chelsea. “Do we have a deal?”
“We do and thank you. This job is kind of boring most of the time. Seeing that thing isn't as exciting as fighting it but it’s still cool,” he replied. “I see one of these things I might just have to draw a bead on it.”
“What you call excitement was extraordinarily dangerous and could have cost both of us our lives. The fey are very dangerous. If you see one, the only thing you should be doing is pulling out your comm, and calling the Wardens,” said Squire Sebastian.
“Are they really that dangerous?” asked the officer.
They showed the young man the alcove in the back that had been clawed out. “That thing has claws strong enough to dig through stone and unless you’re packing a military rifle, then your gun isn’t going to penetrate its hide. Even then the bullets may not hurt it. For your own safety call us if you ever see anything you think might be a fey,” said Lady Chelsea.
The trio walked back to the lake and Lady Chelsea called back to Facility 14 for a pickup as the officer got on his gravcycle and continued his patrol.
“Sebastian, about what happened. I’m not sorry and it was nice, but we can’t ever let command find out. It could cost us both,” Chelsea told him. “I like you and all, but this is forbidden. I'm your S.O. and you're in training and that was a serious breach of chain of command ethics. We can’t do anything that would jeopardize that by letting personal feelings get in the way of duty.”
“You’re right. Maybe after I’m done with training we can revisit this. My own feelings are in tune with yours. For now, we can’t let indiscretions end our tenure,” he replied. “Did you ever skip rocks as a child?”
“Maybe when I was five,” she replied. “What does that have to do with anything?”
He walked over to the lake while they waited on the shuttle and started skipping rocks. “We gotta do something while we wait for our ride home. My dad taught me to do this as a kid. I bet I can get one farther than you!”
She laughed at him then joined him and the two spent the next twenty minutes skipping rocks.
A few minutes before their pickup shuttle arrived, a news shuttle touched down and a reporter and camera operator got out.
“Must have had sniffers on patrol feeds and got wind of us. Follow protocol,” Lady Chelsea told Squire Sebastian.
The man walked over to the two Wardens and looked at the camera. “This is Todd McKenzie and we're live on the scene with two Wardens on the shore of scenic Cowichan Lake in beautiful British Columbia. The tranquility of this peaceful lake was recently shattered by the tragic deaths of two families at the hands of a monstrous fey. We are told by local authorities the Wardens responsible for sparing future families the same fate are here and I see two people who fit that description.” The camera panned over to the two Wardens. “Wardens, can you tell us your names and what happened here?”
“All inquiries can be addressed to the Warden's website or press relations office,” she told the reporter.
“Wardens, can you confirm this was a fey attack?” asked the reporter.
“All inquiries can be addressed to the Warden's website or press relations office,” Lady Chelsea told the reporter.
“Can you tell us any information?” asked the reporter.
“All inquiries can be addressed to the Warden's website or press relations office,” she once again told the reporter.
The reporter was looking very frustrated and motioned to for the camera operator to kill her feed. “Look, I'm new to this and no one gives the new guy good assignments. I get zoo animal births, public park statue dedications, and Warden interviews. You must give me something here other than calling your press office. Every time a Warden is seen in public you give us nothing. They send the new people out to interview you as a joke because they know you don't give interviews and they think it's funny to see yet another Warden telling some new reporter to visit a website. We don't even get to see the fey. By the time we even find out you're involved, it's already too late.”
“I would really like to help you, but I can't. No one likes secrets but sometimes they're necessary for the safety of people. How would you feel if you did a story on what happened here, and some kid thought it was cool and the next time they saw a fey, instead of calling us they tried to fight it?” Lady Chelsea told him.
“I understand where you're coming from, but people should know about what you do. They see you as a paramilitary group. It could really help your image. I showed up here expecting to see jackbooted government thugs instead I see two people throwing rocks in a lake. You should give me a story. Think about it. There's a real human-interest piece behind the secrets and the monsters,” the reporter told them.
“I'll pass along your request to my chain of command. I can't offer you anything more than that,” Lady Chelsea told him.
After the reporter left, Sebastian asked Chelsea, “Did you really mean that? Do you actually plan on telling the command staff we should give interviews to the press?”
“That's not what I said. I said I would pass along his request through the chain of command and I will via my report. They'll disregard it like always and that will be the end of it. I have to. It's on film and part of an official statement. I can't be dishonest on camera now, can I?” Chelsea told him.
“The camera was off,” Sebastian told her.
“The camera operator put the camera down and made the motion but never actually disabled it. It was still recording. The indicator light never went off,” she replied.
“You knew it was recording? You're going to get a reprimand for that,” Sebastian replied.
“Only if they know I knew it was recording and as far as the commanders know, I had no idea I was being recorded. We're the only two that know, and I think you can keep a secret. If you can't, that is the least of our worries,” she said and smiled at him.
#
Merlin headed to the Council chamber and took his seat at the table and looked around. Only eight remained. Eight. The number of masters once was in the hundreds and now, after years of war, there were eight.
Merlin was the most powerful and ran the Council.
Solomon was universally considered the wisest among them. His knowledge was second to none. He was an ancient man and looked as if he should have died of old age long ago.
Ra was next to him. He was the oldest member of the Council and his memory of the world preceded the written history of most cultures. He was a massive man topping seven feet. He was physically very imposing but those who knew him knew he was a child at heart. Despite his power and age, he still enjoyed life and looked at it with the glee and wonder of a child. He delighted in new things be it a food he had never tasted, the music he had never heard or a country he had never seen.
Ra's wife, Nefertiti sat next to him. He shared her as a wife of Amenhotep and after Amenhotep’s death, the two left Egypt to further pursue their study of their necromantic magic. She was Nubian, and her light skin and hair were flawless. She was as beautiful as all the legends about her claimed.
Boudicca was the most restless of them. People often took her for granted. They saw her wild, unkempt flaming red hair, heavy tribal tattooing, and clothing ref
lective more of a tavern wench than a powerful sorceress and overlooked her. The fact that she often acted like a tavern wench didn't help. She was beautiful and knew it and lived her life to the fullest spending many evenings drinking and spending those nights with whatever man or woman sparked her fancy. She practiced a form of magic most of the council stayed away from, a nature-based method of casting that, while the others considered it primitive, its power could not be denied but many feared the nature of the spirits the magic drew upon.
Alexander was studying some ancient tome while waiting for them to begin. He was always reading. Despite his Greek heritage, he acted more like his teacher Merlin than his own people. Merlin had found him centuries before, dying of poison. History records his death, but he didn't die, he was rescued when Merlin felt the power in him and convinced him to give up his conquest and learn to harness that power. He had long since cut his long curls and having ascended at a relatively young age he maintained his youthful looks despite his vast age.
Sitting next to him was Socrates, another fellow Greek who sought the craft after he became disillusioned with politics. Though Socrates and Merlin were born thousands of miles and hundreds of years apart, they could have passed for brothers. The two had the same gray hair and long tangled beards. The even shared the same eye color and complexion.
The Seal of Solomon Page 5
