by Hickory Mack
Soon, Elsie stopped looking at the speedometer entirely, her entire focus on catching the wolf. She was finally gaining on him, but he was still too far ahead of her. She tuned out everything except what mattered. Don’t die in a fiery crash. So caught up in what she was doing, Elsie failed to notice how much noise her bike was making as she hauled ass through the trees.
Sky people enforcers seemed to be falling from the sky like lightning strikes. The ground shook, and Elsie slammed on her brakes, the bike kicking up dust as it skidded across the cinnabar ground. The front wheel wobbled, and the bike toppled and slid sideways. She barely managed to keep it upright enough to stop from leaving her skin in the dirt.
Frida launched into the sky as Elsie kicked her way free. Abandoning the motorbike and tumbling to the side, she was up and running in seconds as her bike continued toward the sky people. She was hoping it would confuse them enough to give her a head start. Elsie cursed as she ran, pushing her muscles to move as fast as they could go. There were three of them. She could take one by herself, but three together wasn’t going to be easy.
Their coloration was similar to that of the cartoon devils of old on Earth. Bright bloody red. Their eyes were dark, though Elsie had never gotten close enough to see if they were brown or black. She thought they kind of looked like gorilla shifters covered in bright red hair. That is, they would, if gorillas were ten feet tall, twice as muscular, and made with more proportionate legs and waists.
Then there were the claws. Each one as long as Elsie’s hand and as sharp as the grass she was so keen to avoid. She heard the bike crash to a stop and ducked as the air was displaced above her head. One of them had hurled the motorbike at her, though it kept going right past her. It was the only positive she could think of about these beasts. They were used to thinner air since they lived so far above the Earth.
The oxygen rush of being so close to the ground screwed with their heads a little bit. One of the three monsters roared, the sound rattling her bones. Elsie jumped, leaping straight over her bike. The poor thing was completely destroyed, but she just kept running without looking back. The last thing she wanted was a reminder of how long and sharp their teeth were, and just how far their jaws could come unhinged.
It took the sky people a long time to hit their stride. Their oversized bodies were cumbersome and didn’t lend themselves to being excessively agile. Elsie planned to take advantage of it.
Running as hard as she could, she took a hard right. There was another kind of tree in this place. A smaller, harsher tree that the sky people and their large size couldn’t get through without injuring themselves. She used to sleep under them when she had to be in this world overnight.
These were the inverse of the larger trees. Their bark was a pale yellow, and the sap they oozed was blood red rather than gold. Instead of leaves, they had needles, like a pine, and instead of red, they were such a bright yellow she’d started calling them banana trees. On Earth, bright colors warned of poisonous plants. The same concept applied here. Each needle was coated in a poison that would take even the largest and strongest of the sky people down.
It was a self-defense mechanism the plant had evolved over centuries to protect its incredibly sweet and nourishing fruit. They were at least four miles away from those trees. She’d put a lot of ground between herself and the sky people, but she knew it wouldn’t last. They’d soon stop losing ground and start gaining.
Her lungs burned, and her muscles complained, but she didn’t stop. ‘Come on Elsie, you can do this,’ she mentally pushed herself.
The cuff grew warm, and she nearly rolled her eyes. He’d gotten himself so far separated from her, the damned wolf was diving back into the cuff instead of making himself useful. At least, that’s what she’d thought. The chain disappeared, and the cuff glowed and went dark, only to immediately repeat the process in reverse.
He exploded out of the cuff in a flurry of teeth and smoke, running full tilt back toward the sky people.
“Motherfucker,” Elsie gasped out, twisting around as she continued running. “No! Bad shadow demon! Come with me!” she shouted. If he heard her, he didn’t listen. Yes, he was buying them time, but he was also dooming them to failure. She skidded to a stop and turned, panting.
“Precious! Heel!” she demanded, but he continued ignoring her. Everything in her wanted to keep running away from the gargantuan gorilla people, but she had to stop the wolf to save both of their asses. She picked up the pace again, going back toward the shadow wolf, hollering at him despite her lack of breath.
“You mangy, gods damned wolf!” she cursed. “Why are you constantly making everything so much more difficult?”
She watched his hindquarters gather, and then he leapt onto the chest of the first sky person, his teeth clamping down on its throat. Elsie groaned. This was not good. Now that one was injured, their only chance was to kill all three and run as fast as they could. With her bike destroyed, that wasn’t very fast.
She whipped out her scythe as she ran. Flipping the weapon sideways, she let her alchemy flow through the metal as she imagined what she wanted. With a savage twist, the shaft separated, coming apart so she held one in each hand. The metal flowed and arranged itself until it became graceful twin swords, the Sun and Moon swords of Ancient China.
Protecting the backs of her hands were curved crescent blades used for close work and deflecting other weapons. These swords gave her the ability to fight long or close range. Beyond the grip, pointing past her elbows, were deadly sharp spear tips. She was covered on all sides with these swords.
One of the sky people had stopped to hammer on the wolf’s back, trying to rip him away from his fallen friend. The other kept coming straight for Elsie. Raising one hand up to defend as soon as he was in range, she sliced forward with the other. He moved to deflect, his claws flying toward her, but she was ready for him. Elsie’s defending hand flashed upward, and the grip’s blade sliced across his wrist.
She twirled to the side, blades flying, and managed to get another cut in on his meaty thigh. Elsie didn’t even bother glancing at his wrist. She’d cut him, and he was bleeding, but his hand remained intact.
“Precious, we need to kill all three of these guys,” she growled at him, knowing he’d be able to hear her whether he responded or not. Elsie ducked a swipe of those long claws and sliced at his legs as she did, taking advantage of where she was in the moment. She kept pressing forward, refusing to give ground and keeping her opponent where she wanted him at all times.
Small wounds were adding up. He was bleeding from over a dozen holes in his body, but he wasn’t giving up. They were tough bastards, the sky people. Sweat stung Elsie’s eyes, but she didn’t have time to stop and wipe it away. She just kept going, waiting for her opening. It finally came when she yelled and came at him aggressively. He’d taken a single step back, but it was a little further than those previous.
His arm swung to the side to correct his balance, and Elsie darted forward. Flipping one of the swords around, she jammed the spear end into his heart and twisted. His eyes widened with shock, and Elsie noted for the first time that they were brown and so terribly human.
“Fuck,” she cursed as he fell to the ground. This wasn’t supposed to happen. She hadn’t taken enough precautions before bringing the wolf here. She’d planned on explaining what to avoid in this world once they were through, but she should have done it before she’d even opened the door. These deaths were on her hands, not his.
Elsie joined the wolf. His first opponent was dead, the second gravely injured, but it hadn’t happened without consequence. The shadow wolf could, in fact, be wounded; he wasn’t as impenetrable as he seemed. He was bleeding from an injury she couldn’t see.
“You know, this all could have been avoided if you’d just listened to me,” she groused, circling around behind the sky person. The wolf’s only acknowledgment was to shift his strategy. Instead of trying to engage with the red creature, he kept it busy, dartin
g in to give a quick nip before dashing back. It gave Elsie the seconds she needed to cross her swords and slash them outward.
She’d cut his Achilles tendons. The sky person fell to his knees with a bellow, calling out for help from anyone that could hear him. Elsie’s eyes darted above them as the wolf clamped down on the red gorilla’s throat, but thankfully, no more came crashing down through the trees.
The final creature made a wet gurgling sound as he died, and Elsie looked from one to the other with a sour expression. Three sky people were dead. She looked at the wolf and frowned. He was definitely injured, but there was nothing she could do for him just then. They needed to get to a safe place; she could heal him afterward.
“Are you able to keep running?” she asked. The wolf cocked his head in question. Elsie nodded and picked up a light jog, knowing she wouldn’t be able to keep up the punishing pace from earlier. She restored the Staff of Sanaia to a single piece, then reattached it to her bracelet.
“We have a couple of problems,” Elsie stated as the wolf trotted alongside her, panting hard. “One, when those three don’t come back, the other sky people are going to come looking for them. There are a lot of sky people, Precious.”
He growled then fell quiet. She could almost feel him thinking about the repercussions of his actions.
“They’ll want retribution for their loss. Two, I lost my bike. One of the sky people destroyed it. Three, there’s a time distortion between this world and Earth. Each day spent here is one week in our world. On my bike, it would have taken us one day to get to where we need to be. I was planning on spending no more than a week of Earth time in this world.” Elsie gritted her teeth.
“On foot, it will take us at least four days if we keep moving. Which means we are going to lose an entire month in our world.” It didn’t seem very important to the wolf, but it was to her. He’d given her six months, and now she’d only have five. She didn’t think it would affect the curse, and maybe that was a good thing. It would leave the hunters wondering how she’d survived so long without their help.
“We’ll get as far away from here as we can then stop under one of the banana tree groves for the night. I’ll need you to stand watch so I can get two hours of sleep. You can sleep in the cuff whenever you want,” she reminded him. “That is the only time we’ll be able to eat and rest. The faster we’re out of here, the better.”
Chapter 6
Elsie crawled out from under one of the bright yellow pine trees in the grove she was familiar with. The shadow wolf gave her and the fruits she’d harvested a quizzical look. It wasn’t easy to get in and out of the groves, so she’d made him wait outside the treeline while she took a quick break to grab them.
They’d have to eat the fruit on the run since she wanted to put as much distance between them and the bodies of the dead sky people as possible. Not that distance would make all that much of a difference. Other species didn’t come to this planet all that often, so it was likely they were the only ones present, which made them the only suspects. She put all but two into her pocket dimension, continuing to jog while carving out slices of the fruit with her dagger.
They were dense, with a deep red husk and a pale pink inside. The consistency was that of a melon, dripping with a sweet juice. “Eat up,” Elsie said, tossing slices that the wolf snatched out of the air. “We’re going to be here for a while, and I’ve never found water on this world. I think it’s pretty deep underground. We have to stay hydrated.”
It took the sky people longer to find their dead than Elsie had expected. She’d thought those above them would check in on those who’d come down much sooner. Over an hour after leaving the banana trees, they heard it—the low, distant sound of horns being blown. The shadow wolf stopped running and turned back to face it, then raised his muzzle to the sky.
Elsie pounced on him in a panic, clamping her arms around his mouth and yanking him back down. “Are you crazy? You can’t howl back at them. You’ll bring them right to us!” she hissed angrily. They shared a shocked moment as they both realized what she’d done.
His fur bristled, and he growled, eyes glinting with an angry red light. Elsie released him and stepped back quickly, her hands in the air. “Sorry about that. Please don’t eat me.”
He bared his fangs, then looked back to the source of the horns as they were blown again. The image of an army of red, hairy ape men crashed its way into Elsie’s mind. The ground shook under her feet, and she could smell gunpowder on the air. Her body felt the sound concussion of the explosions, and she shook her head violently, trying to get the images out of her head.
“I don’t think they have those kinds of weapons in this world, but I generally avoid their kind when I can. You should too. Let’s keep going. They aren’t the greatest trackers, and I’ve been magically wiping our prints, but I don’t want to take any chances. Especially if they’re angry enough to alert the other tribes. We could walk right into a trap if we’re not careful,” she told him.
As Elsie grew too tired to continue, she switched between walking and jogging at five-minute intervals. For the first time in her life, she regretted not practicing the art of jumping. She had the power to move through miles of space in a fraction of the time needed to do it physically, but she’d been too damned stubborn to put it to much use. Jumping gave her a terrible case of motion sickness, and while she could do it, she wasn’t good at it. She certainly wasn’t confident she could jump with the wolf in tow.
They continued moving all day until the deep pink sun was going down. The wolf hadn’t complained the entire time, and Elsie had to admit that he was better company than she’d expected. He just trotted alongside her with no sign of impatience when she slowed to a walk.
“See those banana trees in the distance?” She pointed them out, and the wolf gave a low ‘woof’ in reply. “That’s where we’ll stop for a break. I need to get a little sleep, and we’ll have something to eat. We’ll stock up on some more fruit while we’re there, too.”
It took another hour to reach the trees, and the sun was completely down. The moon rose, a pale pink in the sky, illuminating the world in an eerie light. Elsie crouched down and inspected the underside of the trees, searching for an entrance big enough for the wolf to crawl through. It took a few minutes, but she eventually found a space.
She wasn’t sure what kind of creature made these paths as she’d never seen anything other than the sky people here, but Elsie was certain it had to be something. The paths through the banana trees were perfectly carved out of the branches, large enough to travel, and far too small to admit one of the large ape-like people.
“Can you make yourself smaller again?” Elsie questioned. “There will be a safe place to stay in this grove. There always is.”
The shadow wolf shrank down to the smallest she’d seen him. He was twice the size of a regular wolf, but that beat his usual size. He belly-crawled behind her when she inched her way in. The tunnels twisted and turned, making it impossible for any larger creatures to get through without getting poisoned by the tree’s needles, and the wolf made himself even smaller to be capable of managing. In a few places, other pathways intersected with theirs, but after a while, it widened and got taller.
At the center of the grove was a clearing in a perfect circle. The ground was covered in soft grasses that Elsie could only assume had been purposely planted and tended to. It was a safe haven for a few hours of sleep.
The wolf stood and stretched before shaking himself off while Elsie busied herself with picking more fruit, shoving it into her pocket dimension. When she had enough, she picked another armful and brought it to the center of the circle. After peeling the husk from one, she tossed it whole to the wolf, watching him slurp it down. She gave him two more and grabbed one for herself before taking off her pack and unrolling her bedroll.
There was no point in changing into her pajamas. It wasn’t like she could take a shower or a bath here. She’d just have to accept that she’d
be coming out of this world with some extra personal spice. Elsie sat down on the bedroll with a sigh as her feet throbbed in relief. Taking off her shoes, she rubbed them gently.
“Ugh, I hate all this running,” she complained. “You may be okay with it, but I’m a creature of comfort, Wolfie. I like hot showers and warm bubble baths and snuggling under my blankets. This? This is bullshit.”
He made a moaning sound that she swore sounded like he was teasing her.
“So what if I’m soft? I’ve earned it, haven’t I? I worked my ass off for nine years with the hunters.” She gave one of her thighs a squeeze. “I deserve a little extra layer of comfort.”
She lay back and looked up at the night sky. It was so red there were no visible stars even though there were no clouds. Nothing up there but a pale pink moon. “I appreciate you helping me earlier. I couldn’t have taken all three of those guys on my own,” she admitted. A moment of silence stretched between them, and the wolf made a grunting noise, low in his throat.
Pain hit her gut, and she grabbed her stomach, pulling away a hand covered in blood. She looked up in time to see a red hand grip her throat, and then she was outside of her body, looking at her lifeless form on the grass. A moment later, the wolf collapsed. His life taken with hers.
Elsie sat up with a gasp, grasping at her stomach and throat, but there was no blood. It had been another vision. Her stomach still hurt like someone had stabbed her there. His ability to communicate with her was getting stronger the more time they spent together, and she’d understood him perfectly.
“It doesn’t matter to me that you saved me for selfish reasons. You still helped me, and I’m grateful,” she told him, then lay back down. “Will you wake me up in two hours? I’ll make us some real food afterward, and then you can go into the cuff to rest while I keep running if you want. We have to keep moving. I don’t want to give the sky people the chance to catch up.”
