Winter's Fury - Volume Two of The Saga of the Twelves

by Richard M. Heredia

  They all negotiated the snow for a few minutes.

  Then Garfield stopped.

  Mikalah could not tell why he had done so.

  He was scrutinizing a small area of the ground ahead of them.

  Jason halted his forward progress as well, his head searching left then right, and finally up.

  Mikalah’s eyes followed and that’s was when she saw it. The biggest flower she had ever seen in her life, way over fourteen feet across, standing half again taller.

  Joaquin spoke the moment he laid eyes on the impossible bloom. “Jason, stop! Do not go any further! Not one fucking step!”

  Jason made no move forward.

  Both Garfield and Mr. Patas stayed glued to his sides.

  “Wow, what a gorgeous bloom,” said Sophie with admiration.

  Mikalah found she agreed with her, through a grimace at Joaquin’s foul mouth.

  The petals of the flower were a deep magenta, flecked with crimson and saffron - both atop and underneath. From the center of the flower sprouted huge stamen and lower hanging pistol, bright yellow, drenched in pollen. From more than twenty-five yards away, Mikalah could smell the sweet fragrance, saturating the air about the blossom. It was a honey–like scent, thick and saccharine, but pervasive, almost overpowering.

  “Yes, it is beautiful. That’s what makes it so lethal,” clarified Joaquin.

  Lethal? thought Mikalah. It did not appear to be deadly.

  “It’s a Tethering Thresh, one of the most virulent plants on the World of Storm. One of the most aggressive as well,” explained the large teen, walking up beside her, pointing. “You see the thorns growing along the stem?”

  Thorns? She had not noticed any…

  Then, she did. They were dark green barbs about three to four inches long, about half that in width. Their color so much like that of the stem, she had not seen them. In fact, she would not have, if Joaquin hadn’t pointed them out. They grew all along the plant’s stalk, on every side, spaced well apart. They were equidistant, definitely not random as a more normal flower might grow, which was unsettling.

  From the other side of Joaquin, she heard Andrew grunt that he had seen the thorns as well.

  “You walk too close to that thing,” began Joaquin, clearing his throat, “and one of those thorns will shoot out at you from the stem. It is connected to a sinewy, but strong, silk-like tether almost as strong as steel. They shoot out with a huge amount of speed. This allows the barb on the tip of the thorn to puncture the skin, even the hides of the hardiest of beasts.

  “Once it has a hold of something, it will pump hundreds and hundreds of seeds through that silken rope and into the newfound host. It will do this until it has succeeded in completely filling the unfortunate victim with its’ spore. Only then, will the tether fall free of the stalk.

  “The only way to save the host is to dig out all the seeds and cauterize the wounds. Otherwise, the victim will be consumed from the inside out until there is no more left to eat. The seeds then work themselves to the surface and burst free. They'll fall onto the ground where they burrow down and away in all directions. They will continue to tunnel for a suitable place to grow. Rumors on Storm suggest that some seeds dig through a hundred miles of earth before they allow themselves to germinate. Only then will another Thresh bloom. Always somewhere far from the one that created them. They are nasty plants.”

  “Jeez, that’s horrible,” said Sophie, shuddering, giving Mikalah’s brother a squeeze on the hand.

  Mikalah turned to look at the macabre flower with new eyes. It disturbed her when she realized the flower was not growing from an accompanying plant or vine or bush. Rather, the sweet smelling blossom grew from the ground itself upon a tree-like trunk. This was unlike any flower that she had seen back home. Once she realized it was hostile, the mere sight of it was enough to cause fear to shoot up and down her spine.

  “It is all deception,” intoned Joaquin, bitterness in his voice. “It uses beauty and its pleasant smell to lure in heedless victims. It would murder them with unparalleled savagery. Even in the cruel world ruled by the Lord of the Storm, they are vicious.

  “Even the pollen is not real,” he added as an afterthought. “It’s sticky glue that’s disabling. Its mires potential prey into its’ gooey grasp until they fall from the petals and onto the ground. There, victims are impaled by the tethered thorns…,” he breathed heavy, “…Freakin’ nasty-ass plants.”

  “Isn’t there anything from that place that isn’t gross or demented?” asked Elena desperate to hear anything positive.

  Mikalah could tell in an instant her sister was on edge. It was on her face and in her voice.

  Then Joaquin surprised them all. “To tell you the truth, there are a few species that are benign, but they stay hidden, out of sight, unless they have to do otherwise. But I doubt any of their kind would have made it here. They're not as numerous as the other, more violent species”

  A silence befell them and stretched for a time.

  Mikalah glanced up and saw the tops of the trees were beginning to sway with a breeze that had not quite reached their level yet.

  It is a storm, she thought, and it is coming fast. Sophie was right. We don’t have much time before we’re gonna get socked again by the stupid weather.

  “Well, at least, it’s good to know there are some things in that horrendous place that are decent,” offered Sophie. She was trying to lighten the mood, but it fell flat on the entire group.

  “There are a few…," was all Joaquin said on that account. Then he raised his voice so that it would carry. “We will need to walk around it. We’ll have to stay at least thirty feet away from the frickin’ thing. Any closer and any one of us might get pin-cushioned.”

  Jason turned back and gave thumbs up as he, Garfield and Mr. Patas conferred for short time. Then, they began to track through the forest off to the left of their original course.

  “I think it is an abomination. A plant that uses such devices as natural glamor and becoming scents to lure in its’ intended prey is appalling. It is against the order of nature itself,” rumbled Kodiak from deep within her throat. Her voice was like ancient bedrock rupturing during a mild volcanic event.

  Kenai tossed her huge head. “I agree, Mother, though I reckon there is little order or nature on Storm.” Her long lips curling into a rueful snarl.

  Kodiak joined her. “Well said, my Heartling.”

  The rest of them followed, giving the Tethering Thresh twice the range Joaquin had recommended. Their shoes and boots and sneakers crunched into the frozen snow as they stepped. The air began to stir for the first time since they had left the cave. Already, Mikalah could feel the frosty currents brushing against her cheeks. They were colder than they had been minutes before. She knew, before long, they would be icy enough to chap her skin. I hope we find Jason’s tents before the snow begins to fall again. I don’t want to freeze to death out here.

  They walked for no more than a hundred yards. The Thresh disappeared in their wake, shrouded by the sheer density of the other foliage.

  Jason announced of a sudden: “This is it.” There was dejection in his tone, his expression and his body all at once. “My house should be right here and it is not, everything is gone. Shit!”

  “Crap!” echoed Andrew, a few feet behind them all, kicking at the snow in frustration, his hands shoved in his pockets.

  “So, now what?” wondered Sophie as the boys milled about lost for words.

  Garfield came into the group then, agitated and jumpy, which was not like him at all. “I say we leave immediately.” He glanced around and then stared hard at Anthony, which Mikalah took as a bad sign almost at once.

  Garfield did not prefer direct looks.

  “Why, Cat Face, what’s the rush…? Well, besides the weather closing in?” questioned Anthony. He searched Garfield’s eyes, an attempt to glean what he meant.

  “This area was scouted,” he said, succinct.

  This got eve
ryone’s attention immediately.

  “By what, great feline?” inquired Kodiak, her brow knitted as she eased her body closer to the huge cat.

  “By a pack of those large hounds,” he replied, sniffing at the air again. This seemed to edify his conclusion by re-smelling their bacterium.

  Joaquin came closer, then: “Are you talking about Isighünds, Garfield?”

  “That is correct, Loremaster,” came the quick reply. “And, there is something else,” went on the lion-sized feline, “something I have yet to come across. It is like the hounds, but different, much bigger. But alas, I cannot tell from its’ scent alone.”

  Loremaster? though Mikalah. She let the thought go.

  It was Joaquin once more. “What kind of smell was it?”

  Garfield gazed at the large teen, holding the boys’ eyes for a time, not letting go. Again, something he usually did not do – eye contact was not his way. “It smelt of canine - musky and sweaty sweet. Still, there was something that should not have accompanied the trail of any animal’s scent – brimstone.”

  Joaquin took a step back and shuddered as if electrocuted, which stunned Mikalah.

  Those of the group close enough to witness the teenage boys reaction, glanced at once another in bewilderment.

  Anthony looked to her and Elena both, mouthing the words, “His Gift”, waylaying her worst fears.

  Joaquin’s Gift is creepy when it sneaks up on him of a sudden.

  A few seconds passed, as they waited for the well-muscled teen to recover. “I agree with Garfield, we should leave at once,” he gurgled through a throat that would not work. There was a sense of urgency about him that had not been there before.

  “Ok, we’ll go. But first, tell us, what’s going on?” queried Anthony. His curiosity was too great. He needed to know what had unnerved his two companions to this degree.

  “Garfield has caught the scent of a Dēowulf –,” Joaquin attempted.

  “A what?” asked some of them at once.

  Joaquin continued as if he had not heard them.

  Anthony waved them to silence, so he could hear what the large boy was saying.

  Mikalah felt her forehead wrinkle with questions.

  “- a kinda Isighünd and Isig-Pjäs put together – bigger - only it’s much more than both, and also hard to kill. It has the ability to control a whole slew of them, to tell them what to do without question. It is much smarter than they are. Its’ one of the greatest creatures ever created by the Prēosts.

  “In the World of Storm, they are another sort of tracker like a Nixy. Only these Dēowulfs bring numbers, hordes of canine-like beasts are theirs to command.” He stopped to think. “The only way I can describe them with any accuracy is to translate their name, and maybe that might help you understand. It means in a loose sense, Demon Wolf… or wolf-like demon or something like that.”

  Oh crap! thought Mikalah and still the boy went on.

  “And this one seems to have anticipated we would want to see if our houses made it through the Rending. I bet you, if we went to every one of the locations where our homes used to be, we would find each spot scouted just the same.”

  “Holy shit, Tony, we gotta get out of here!” interjected Andrew, rubbing his hands against his blanket-covered thighs.

  Man, he needs a jacket. He’s gonna freeze his you-know-what’s off out here.

  “They knew where we lived all along, huh?” questioned Sophie, her voice quivering. With events in her immediate being what they were, she did not like the idea someone had observed her without her knowledge.

  Mikalah was old enough to know something like that always freaked out girls. Someone stalking about was ominous and spooky.

  “Yeah, I think they had us pegged from day one,” asserted Andrew, scowling and shaking his head back and forth, as he did often. “I mean, they sure had me and Anthony and Mikalah and Elena nailed, so why wouldn’t they scope the rest of you out as well?”

  “Damn, man, I almost led us right into a trap and right back into Fenris’ hands,” said Jason with a sick look on his face.

  “It doesn’t matter, Jay. The plan was good. It was worth a try. Besides, we didn’t spring any sort of trap. We just missed springing one and that’s a whole different thing, so don’t worry about it.” Anthony gazed about, his decision made. “Let’s just get moving and head back to cave and figure out our next move. It’s too dangerous out here. We need to get inside, under some cover and some degree of safety, before we try to come up with an alternate plan. We have another storm coming in fast.” He concluded with a firm shake of his head.

  A moment later, they were all moving. They had reformed the original traveling procession they had employed when they left the cave an hour earlier. They were retracing their steps through the forest, giving the Thresh wide berth as they trudged along.

  Five minutes later, they were back on the Townsend pathway, walking toward the Colorado trail, much faster than before. Them all were eager to put as put distance as possible between them and where the Dēowulf and its’ horde had scouted.

  Complying with Anthony’s request for strength in numbers, Garfield stayed closer than he had on their way out. Now, he was poking around for anything out of the ordinary a few feet in front of Mr. Patas. No longer was he traipsing about the forest.

  The rest of them moved in unison.

  Overhead, the light of the day was diminishing fast. The first tendrils of cloud cover began to blot out the bright blue sky as the storm began to move in from the west. With it, came more cold and a stronger, steadier breeze. The first sustained wind they had felt all day.

  Mikalah felt a tap on her shoulder and turned to see Elena looking back at her. “I guess it was a good thing we didn’t go back to our house after all, huh?”

  Mikalah nodded in agreement. “It wouldn’t have been there anyway.”

  “How do you know, Mikalah?”

  “Because it seems the only ‘things’ that made it through the Rending were those ‘things’ one of us was inside when it all happened. We were outside, remember, so was Louis and Andrew. For them and for us everything we knew vanished. For Joaquin and Jason, they were at Vons. The store was pulled from our world into this one. You see, that’s why I don’t think our house would’ve even been there anyway,” she explained.

  Her logic was sound to Elena. She nodded as she pursed her lips with her usual “sounds-good-to-me” expression on her face.

  “I think you’re right, Mikalah,” injected Sophie.

  Both of the girls turned to look at her, unaware she had overheard their conversation.

  Sophie gazed at them for a heartbeat or two and then continued. “I was in our pool house when it happened to me. I was looking for the cover to the pool. My Dad and I were going to put something over the water, because the weather had changed so dramatically that day. You know, the one before Thanksgiving. My Dad had been just outside the door, straining leaves from the water. It was already half frozen-over with the cold. That’s when the weird lights came and then the nausea in my stomach followed. I fell to the floor of the pool house and just kinda laid there trying not to throw up. I think I passed out next. When I woke up, I was still in the shed. But when I went outside, everything was gone – the pool, our house, my Dad, the backyard, everything was gone. But like you said, Mikalah, only the pool house made it through the Rending, and it most likely did so, because I was in it.”

  Elena seemed to drift off in thought.

  Mikalah held Sophie’s eyes for a moment longer, smiling.

  The pretty teen girl added, “You are very smart, Miki, very, very smart.”

  The little girl felt her face flush with embarrassment, though, not without a degree of pride as well. Her smile fluctuated, caught between the two emotions, on her face. She saw her brother smile at his new-made girlfriend and the warm look they shared between them

  “Halt! I see something up ahead, on the trail,” growled Mugzy.

  They all fro
ze in their tracks.

  Garfield turned to position himself perpendicular to the pathway Mugzy’s mentioned, crouching. His eyes were like a pair of headlights beaming out before him, scanning the area in detail.

  It was then they heard them - voices on the wind, coming from up ahead – both of them female. They were arguing, loud.

  Oh god! Please, don’t bring the Dēowulf and his pack down us with your racket! was all Mikalah could think when another voice joined in, deeper, male.

  It sounded as though someone was about to get into a fight.

  Whoever was up ahead, they did not like each other at all.

  ~~~~~~~<<< ᴥ >>>~~~~~~~

  ~ 12 ~

  With Friends Like This, Who Needs Friends…

  Day Four, Sunday, 8:52 am…

  For a second time that hour, they approached the intersection of Townsend and Colorado. This time though, they did so in two separate parties. Each group left the trail and gathered in the forest surrounding the one-time road. Because they did not know who or what was making the racket ahead, they decided it was best to remain concealed as long as possible. They would then make an educated determination once they spied their quarry.

  Thus, their plan was to move slow through the dense foliage and observe. Every one of them hoped they had not stumbled upon a Swüreg hunting party or worse, the dreaded Dēowulf and its’ pack.

  Although to Elena, from all the noise these others were making, they did not sound at all like creatures from the World of Storm.

  From the left side of the bracketing forest strode Kenai, Garfield and Mr. Patas in a line diagonal to the intersection itself. Anthony, Elena, Mikalah and Sophie followed, forming in a loose line mirroring the first. On the opposite side of the trail came Mugzy and Kodiak, with Joaquin, Jason, Louis and Andrew walking behind. They were also diagonal to the intersection, an inverted copy of those on the left. If one was able to gaze at them from above, their twin groups formed something that resembled a chevron, converging upon the intersection from two opposing sides.