Snow Fright

by Kaye Draper

  I glanced around me and wondered how different this settlement we had going on here was from the one Cloud had lived in before she became a hunter. I wanted to know more about her and her past. But I knew there was pain there, so I was always hesitant to ask. Well, and there were always other things to worry about... you know, like hunters and witches, and mystery organizations....

  Cloud saw me approaching and left off her bullying the witches. They scurried off to their assigned chores and I smirked. "How is it that you supposedly spent all this time alone as a lone-wolf hunter-type, when you so clearly enjoy ordering everyone around?"

  Her expression was flat, but emotions flitted behind her eyes. "Did you sleep well?"

  I waggled my eyebrows at her. "Did you?"

  She heaved a sigh. "Not as well as I would have liked." And this time there was emotion on her face. Too much emotion. Hunger, and wickedness, and promise... and I suddenly forgot how to talk or form snarky replies. The wendigo in me capered happily for food. I told it silently to fuck off.

  "The council agreed to gather to speak with me. I had Bob be our go-between. Are you ready to go?" Cloud asked, losing her dangerous look.

  I nodded. "Sure. Let's do this thing."

  She held out a hand. "We will travel in the shadows."

  Clearly, she thought that this would slow down whatever creature I planned to bring with me. She was wrong. I smiled and took her hand. "Whisk away, oh huntery one."

  She shook her head and her magic wrapped around us, pulling us into the darkness between places. Cold pulled at me, wanting to keep me there in the dark, but I felt Cloud's hand tug on mine and I stepped free of it and into the shadows of a towering pine tree near what looked to be an old hunting lodge.

  I pulled in air for a moment, adjusting to the sensations that came with traveling in the shadows. I shook off the cold and darkness like a dog shaking off water. Then I squeezed Cloud's hand and let go. I could feel the hunters' presence around us. "Let's get this over with," I said tiredly. I wasn't one for public events. Talking to the witches yesterday and now facing a bunch of assholes who wanted me dead was my utmost limit for stupid shit.

  Cloud looked at me. "What about your friends. You said you were bringing protection."

  I shrugged. "They'll get here eventually, don't worry."

  She narrowed her glowing eyes at me. "Tess."

  I smiled. "Let's go talk to some hunter assholes so we can hurry up and go back to my tepee. It's cozy in there. You can use my sleeping bag some more. Or you can use me, whatever you prefer."

  She shook her head. "You are so...."

  "Funny? Wonderful? Sexy? Scary powerful and amazing?" I added helpfully.

  "Confusing and frustrating," she finished in a flat tone. "Focus, Tess."

  I gestured for her to proceed. "Onward."

  I followed Cloud across the yard, past the black ring of a snow-covered fire pit and up to a wide wooden door. She opened the door without knocking and strode inside like she owned the place, back ramrod straight, shoulders back. I walked along behind at a slow pace, trying to look like I didn't have a care in the world, hood up, hands stuffed in my jacket pockets.

  A bunch of people were sitting on the floor on blankets and rugs. They formed a lose circle, and more people sat in worn chairs, or leaned against the walls. Six of the people in the circle were elders. The rest were hunters. Weapons glinted here and there, all sheathed for the time being—though the monster in me could feel the threat of the murderous blades like a physical force. There was a lot of leather. And a lot of glaring.

  "Hanging Cloud," one of the old women on the floor said. She pointed to a gap in the circle, directly across from her. "Come sit with us and tell us what you wish to tell us."

  The old woman's voice was dry and raspy. And emotionless. She wasn't happy to see Cloud. But I couldn't tell if she was not happy because she couldn't care less, or not happy because she was planning to murder us both before we left.

  Cloud turned toward me slightly and waved me over to indicate I should sit next to her. Before I could move, the woman spoke again. "The invitation was for you, Hanging Cloud. Monsters do not belong in a hunter's circle."

  Several of the younger-looking hunters' gazes snapped to me at that. The more experienced hunters had probably been feeling my power since I arrived on the lawn. But the younger ones had fallen for the innocent look.

  "Oh, it may look human enough all covered up like that," the woman said, still in that calm, dry voice. "But do not be fooled by appearances, my children."

  I narrowed my eyes at her. Cloud crossed her arms over her chest and glared down at the elder. "You are not in charge of this meeting, old woman," she said softly, her voice carrying through the room like magic. "You seem to forget I was sitting in the medicine woman's circle before you were born. And I think we can all agree that some humans are more monstrous than the forest spirits."

  Several of the hunters around the circle either hissed, or went wide-eyed in surprise either at the revelation, or at Cloud's disrespect.

  Bunch of stick-up-their-ass idiots. "God," I bitched. "This is worse than a witches’ coven."

  Cloud's mouth twitched. The elder glared at me as if her eyes were throwing knives and I was a big 'ol target. "Oh, fucking stop it," I said to her.

  Her mouth pinched up like she had just sucked on a lemon. Then she turned her gaze back to Cloud. "You said you had important information to relay to us, Hanging Cloud. If this information involves the fact that you have been secretly harboring a monster for the last year, that you have chosen to disregard your sacred duty as a hunter and resorted to killing your brethren, then save your breath. We are aware of your dishonor."

  Cloud clenched her fists at her sides for a brief second before she forced herself to relax, going all waspish and sharp. "Good," she said softly. "Then we can skip right along to the real issue. We can speak of how the hunters have been mistaken for hundreds of years, misguided and misused and operating under lies and half-truths and ignorance."

  She sank down gracefully to sit cross-legged in the gap they had saved for her, sitting too close to her neighbor and causing them to shift over or get a lap-full of pissed off hunter. Then she looked at me, face calm and serene. "Tess?"

  I stifled a smile at her antics. God, I loved my beautiful, dangerous hunter. And I nearly choked on that thought. What was wrong with me? I flipped my hood back with a clawed hand and went to sit next to Cloud in the space she had made for me.

  The hunters stared at me. I could feel every pair of eyes, taking in my odd appearance with greedy curiosity. I got the feeling that half the people here were happy for an excuse to shake up the odd, archaic structure of the hunter world. I smiled for effect, letting my fangs show. "Howdy."

  Cloud nudged me, probably wanting me to shut up and tone it down. I shrugged. When I caught one young hunter still staring at me, I winked, making him blush and look at his hands.

  "Well," another elder said. This time a wrinkly man to the other one’s right. "You insist on saying your piece, Cloud Princess. Say it."

  She sat up tall and did just that. She told of how she was taught to fear the creatures that walked between both worlds the moment she became a hunter. "Before that time, it was different," she said, her brown eyes boring into the elder across the circle from her. "We lived in harmony once. We respected the boundaries and needs of the creatures, and they left us alone. Much like the relationship a human has with a wild creature, like a fox or a wolf."

  She reviewed the things the hunters were told as they trained. The narrow view they were encouraged to believe. That all creatures that were not human or hunter were evil. Then, voice going soft, she plucked at their fears and doubts, like a musician plucking the strings of a harp to make a melody. "But we have all seen things to make us doubt this, haven't we?" She slowly met the eyes of each hunter in the circle. "Surely you've felt it too? Seen the eyes of the creatures you hunt, watch them retreat like a rabbit before
a hound? Wondered if we were the trespassers."

  There was a breathless silence, then someone snorted. I looked around to find a hunter who looked young, but probably wasn't, a man with short-cropped brown hair and sharp hazel eyes and a face full of belligerence. "And we've all seen things that make us believe what we've been taught, haven't we?" He gestured around the circle. "I've watched a shadow with teeth devour a little boy. I've gathered up the remains of an old man attacked by some fucking bear thing. The world is painted in the blood of their human victims."

  I hissed, and all eyes darted to me. "And humans don't hunt other living things? Humans kill other humans all the time. And for far less reason than the need to eat."

  The old woman smiled. I immediately knew that was a bad thing. "How many people have you killed, wendigo? Do you eat your victims whole? We found bits of clothes and bone at a site where you were being hunted. Did the hunter and the witch following you simply... disappear?"

  I bared my teeth at her. "If a bear is walking through the woods, and you choose to go after it poking it with sharp sticks, the fault is not with the bear for being a bear."

  She stopped smiling. "This is a pointless conversation."

  Cloud shook her head. "It is not pointless. There is a very good point. And if you will kindly shut up long enough, we will get to it."

  I looked around the circle. "Not all creatures are bad," I said softly, losing my sarcasm. "And not all humans are good." I shook my head. "Not all monsters are supernatural."

  I held out a hand and willed my claws back in, leaving the fingers looking naked, and normal. "I didn't choose this," I said, my chest clenching with remembered fear and desperation. "And I didn't deserve to be murdered in cold blood just for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Yes, Cloud saved me. And she didn't tell anyone. Because she knew no one would listen or believe the truth."

  I turned to Cloud as what I said really started to sink in. All the time I thought she was thinking about killing me, that she was only training me to use as a weapon... even when I thought she had abandoned me.... "She has been fighting against indoctrination, ignorance, and the hunters' blood lust for almost a year to keep me alive." I shifted my gaze away from Cloud's proud face before I could do something stupid, like start crying. Or bite her. I glared around the circle.

  "She had to do that all alone. Because if she told anyone what she knew, she risked everything. You people talk about sacred duty and your little hunter family like it means something. But what happens when someone sees injustice and speaks up about it? Are they supported? Are they assisted in any way? What is sacred about your little club? Where the hell is this fucking brethren shit? I've never met a lonelier bunch of people in my life."

  The elder opened her mouth, but one of the younger hunters, a woman with cherry-red hair and a dozen facial piercings, cut her off. The elder glared, but the woman ignored her. "She's right. The monster is dead right about our shitty-assed club. And we could sit here and argue about that until we are blue in the face, but...that isn't really the reason you are here, is it Cloud?"

  Cloud took a deep breath. "No, it isn't."

  We told them about the nameless organization that was also hunting the creatures. We told them that the organization was targeting the human-crosses and powerful creatures for research and experimentation. We sat back and watched as the hunters put the rest together themselves.

  "You fucking knew, didn't you?" Cherry-hair demanded of the half-dozen elders sitting in the circle, her glare murderous. "You knew, and you didn't tell us. You didn't tell us why we were being asked to hunt more specific targets."

  Another hunter, a big, burly bald guy with a massive sword who reminded me of Brutus, stopped leaning against the wall and stood up straight, his posture menacing. "And all these damned battles we've been in the last few months? The hunters we've lost.... Why are the creatures suddenly so aggressive, when for ages they mainly engaged only when attacked?"

  A slender, nerdy-looking guy with a silver streak in his hair and a belt full of shiny knives looked right at the elder who had done most of the speaking, then glanced at Cloud and I, his intelligent green eyes widening. "They got more aggressive in response to being hunted. The creatures were suddenly being captured by the other organization, then the hunters show up and chase them to the ends of the earth and--"

  Another hunter, this one clothed all in camo, with a long blond braid, and smoky gray eyes, finished his sentence. "And they are running out of natural places to live...to hide. They...shit, they've got nowhere to go. A wild animal is most dangerous when they are wounded or cornered."

  Cloud glanced at me out of the corner of her eye and her mouth twitched. I narrowed my eyes at her. Did she just mentally compare me to a wild animal? I was so going to bite her. Hard.

  She stopped smirking at me and cleared her throat, getting everyone's attention. "Regardless of whether you believe the creatures are inherently dangerous or not, I think we can all agree that a strange organization collecting creatures for study and experimentation has all the potential of going very, very wrong. We must prevent this, and, if possible, figure out what they are doing with the creatures and the information so that we can stop whatever it is they are doing before it spreads to other places... if it hasn't already."

  The room erupted in murmurs of debate and speculation. But hey, no one was bleeding yet. It could have been worse.

  Not that I wasn't up for a little hunter blood.

  Still, something in me unknotted as I watched Cloud's little inner circle loosen the fuck up. No matter what Cloud said, and how angry she was over what they had done to deceive or misguide her over the years, I knew a bit about feeling alone. And like it or not, these crazy-ass hunters were her only family.

  I knew a little something about having a crazy-ass family that you hated, but also loved more than you were willing to admit.

  I stood and left Cloud deep in conversation—much of it consisting of snide verbal backhands—with the elders while I made my rounds around the outer circle of hunters. The younger and somewhat less uptight of the bunch. I could practically feel their curiosity coming off them in waves.

  Hopefully if they talked with me and I didn't eat anyone that would help Cloud make her point. Socialization. Networking. Gag.

  The things I did for Cloud. I swear, she owed me big time.

  A bit later my hunter called me to her side again. "You said you were bringing someone to help convince them of what needed to be done," she said, face that cold mask that told me she was still having trouble with the elders.

  I looked at the elders who were now standing with Cloud in a cluster. A couple looked resigned. A couple looked convinced. And couple looked ready to murder our faces.

  If they didn't break a hip first.

  I chuckled at that thought and Cloud elbowed me. "Please tell me you didn't bring your adoptive dad."

  I blinked at her. My adoptive...oh. "No. He... well that was my original plan. But no one would be able to see him. I think he he's pretty picky about that. And besides, if he touched someone and they croaked, then you'd bitch at me about it being my fault."

  She blinked at me and I could tell she was praying for patience. I grinned.

  The head old-chick made an impatient noise.

  I turned to look at her, letting my claws out. "Do you have the power to see the spirit world?"

  Her breath hitched, and I thought she might be trying her best not to take a big step backward.

  "Oh, calm your titties," I said with a wave. "You'd be way too tough and chewy for me to bother."

  "Tess," Cloud warned.

  I rolled my eyes. "So, can they see the creatures? The spirits and imaginary shit?"

  She nodded. "If they are as gifted as they always claim to be. Though at this point I wouldn't be surprised if that was a lie too."

  That got her all kinds of puffed up chests and indignation. I shrugged. "Be right back."

  I went to out the fro
nt door and held up an arm. "Come on spirit chicken."

  Ahanu landed on my arm and cawed at me. I brushed a finger over his head to let him know I didn't mean it. Then turned and carried him back inside and over to the elders.

  "Hunter council, meet Ahanu the ghost bird. Ahanu, meet some old uptight asses who need proof that we aren't crazy, so they'll help us protect the creatures in the woods and stop the possibly insane organization that is hunting us all."

  Ahanu fluffed up his feathers as if he was angry and let out an obnoxious croaking caw. That got the attention of every hunter in the room. They all shuffled closer to me and the bird.

  "Okay then, tell them yourself."

  Ahanu wavered, then turned to smoke before coalescing into his see-through ghost boy form. The little Indian boy looked around at the hunters. "You should all work together," he said in his hallow little voice. "What you are doing, hunting indiscriminately, ignoring the truth of your hearts, is causing imbalance. The ancestors weep at your blindness." He glanced at me. "Tess, Death is waiting for you in the forest. He says it is urgent."

  Then he swirled into ghostly mist and became a raven once more. He hop-fluttered to my shoulder and I smiled awkwardly at the hunters.

  "Um...yeah, so that was an ancestor sent to us to guide me and Cloud in fixing this shit. Hope you were watching closely. Cause he doesn't show himself to anyone but us, usually. And it sounds like I have to go now."

  Cloud shook her head at me like she was watching the antics of a particularly odd child.

  One of the elders, an old man with a feather tucked behind his ear, gaped at me. "Did the bird just foretell your death?"

  I laughed. "What? Um, no. I kind of have to go... talk to the god of death." I shuffled toward the door. "Probably should do that now, or else the annoying jerk will be in here crashing your party."