The Unwanted Winter - Volume One of the Saga of the Twelves

by Richard Heredia

  They each, in turn, nodded toward Joaquin and Jason as they were announced.

  “The larger of the two bear-dogs - I think that’s what we’ll call them - is called Kodiak. The smaller one down there is Kenai, her daughter. Both of which used to be our pets, by the way, and are now… Well, you can see they’re a bit different since everything happened around here.” Anthony smiled a crooked smile, not sure if he could explain it any better.

  The two bear-dogs nodded their heads toward the boys, who stared back in wide-eyed fascination, unable to fully acknowledge the greeting. They motioned vaguely their way and stepped closer to one another.

  Anthony continued, “I might be going to go out on a limb here, but…,” his smile gained a degree of certainty, “…if I’m not mistaken, the rabbit-like animal over there is Mr. Patas,” he said, pointing out the strange long eared, bug-eyed, hare-like man.

  To the surprise of all of them, except Kodiak and Kenai who’d had no reaction at all, Mr. Patas inclined his head in very formal fashion to all five of the children. He finished with Anthony. He gave him a warm smile and a whopping wink from one of his giant eyeballs.

  “I see I was right,” went on Anthony, repeating Mr. Patas gesture back to him, smile included. Then he straightened to his full height and spoke. “So that would make the dark haired and exquisitely groomed figure next to Mr. Patas, my sister’s favorite companion, Mugzy, who was once a tiny Brussels-Griffon pooch. And now, seems to have undergone a metamorphosis of Adonis-like proportions.” He rumbled with a quiet laugh. “Let’s just say he’s much, much more than he used to be, right Mugzy?”

  Mugzy nodded in affirmation and bent at the knees, one foot before the other, and gave a flourishing bow to all those in attendance, a smile spread from one side of his skull to the other.

  Beside him, the crouched feline muttered, although loud enough for everyone to hear, “Show-off,” which made Mr. Patas laugh like a chittering bird.

  The boys gaped anew at the sound of the feline’s voice. Though, they’d heard Kodiak shout at Fenris earlier, it mustn’t have occurred to them that all of the animals had the command of human speech.

  Anthony brought his free hand to his mouth, balled in a fist, trying to hide his snicker. “And that one, laying there without a care in the world is my wonderful, little kitty cat, Garfield,” presented Anthony, pointing at the feline.

  The great feline stopped licking itself and gave the boy a level look through hooded eyes, clearly disapproving of being called, “a little kitty cat”. He didn’t move for a moment or two. Eventually, it went back to grooming its befouled foreleg, ignoring everyone and everything around it.

  “Yup, that’s my Garfield alright,” concluded Anthony.

  “So, now that we’re all done with the introductions, what do we do now?” asked Andrew, gazing up toward the rest of them, hands in his pockets, bundled in the skin of an unknown animal, trying to ward off the cold.

  They looked from one another - the Five Fingers of the Lord of the Light and the six of twelve children now entangled in this vile plot – questions without answers behind their eyes.

  Time passed. The snow fell in droves. The wind made it dance in its’ playful grasp.

  Kodiak cleared her throat, an incredibly low sounding noise, like heavy bricks dragging across the ground.

  All heads turned toward her, expectantly.

  “I know there must be many, many things to be asked and explained before this day is out, and they do need to be expressed indeed. But, I am of the mind, we should requite ourselves to the safety of the cave my colleagues and I have prepared as our temporary shelter. We should make haste to the cave and then discuss in detail our next plan of attack, no pun intended. What say you?” she asked, imploring all of them. She didn’t look directly at any of them, though. Her eyes were only for the landscape about them.

  They all exchanged glances, already nodding in agreement.

  “Yes, let us get out of this weather,” chimed in Mugzy in a slow, measure voice, surprisingly rich, full with warmth.

  Elena couldn’t help but smile at him.

  He couldn’t resist her either and smiled back.

  “Then let’s be off,” announced Kodiak.

  As a group, they began to quickly come down the incline, gathering at the larger La Loma trail, making their way down the steep hill toward their destination.

  ~~~~~~~~<<<<<<{ ☼ }>>>>>>~~~~~~~~

  ~ 46 ~

  To Shelter

  Day One, Thursday, 7:17 am…

  They made their way down the trail, roughly in pairs. The trail was just wide enough now to accommodate two abreast. The plant life had thinned out on this side of the hill, nearly devoid of ferns and other low lying foliage as it had on the way up. Trotting as they went, they all couldn’t stop glancing about. Their eyes darted in every direction for any sign of danger.

  Kodiak and Anthony were at the front, followed by Mugzy and Elena, then came Joaquin and Jason, with Mikalah and Mr. Patas next. Andrew and Kenai were the last pairing, while Garfield intentionally took a more leisurely pace. Kodiak had commanded he hang back and scout the way behind them, making sure they weren’t followed. Fenris had escaped, after all. There was no telling how many more minions he had at his beckon call.

  When they came to the bottom of the hill, there should’ve been a road or a trail branching off to the left (Joaquin wasn’t sure if it was a street called Landmark or Lanark), but there was nothing there now.

  No one said anything, though. Joaquin was under the impression they were all still shell shocked by the turn of events since awaking and finding themselves in this cold, desolate place. He knew he was. The fact his eye was still throbbed, where one of the now dead Swüreg warriors had clouted him earlier, didn’t help either. They trotted about twenty yards farther, to where the trail should’ve forked. Again, it didn’t. It merely continued on, straight. Like the side street before it, there was no sign of Neola Way as well.

  Joaquin peered around some more, scrutinizing the landscape with greater care and realized there was no sign of the car wash that had once stood, all by itself, on a small triangle of land, surrounded by streets on all sides. He didn’t have a chance to speak of it, nonetheless, his mind clouded. I’m almost back where I started, he thought nervously, because where he’d awakened that morning hadn’t been a very nice place.

  Kodiak continued to walk on, never hesitating. Apparently, she knew precisely where to go.

  To what, he could only guess. Kodiak had mentioned something about a cave, but really hadn’t been paying attention. Fear had its’ frozen claws deep in his flesh.

  The bear-dog forged on a few more paces toward the intersection of what should’ve been La Loma Road and Figueroa Street before she turned abruptly to the right. She scampered up the short embankment on the side of the trail and into a large copse of trees beyond.

  He exchanged a brief glance with Jason, who merely shrugged and raised his eyebrows. His face, still dirty from their run in with those demented creatures, melted into a tired smile. Then, Joaquin heard the scraping of shoes across the ground and turned to see Anthony scuttle up the mild slope, after the huge, bear-like canine. No questions asked. He was definitely confident Kodiak knew what she was doing.

  Well, I guess Jason and I don’t have much of a choice…

  The rest followed, bounding up the snow-piled rise, amongst a variety of trees growing abundantly on that side of the trail.

  “Wasn’t there some sort of plant nursery here before… well, before everything changed?” intoned Jason, his head swiveling back and forth like a life-sized bobble-head.

  Joaquin looked at his best friend and smiled. Only you would think of something like that in a time like this, he thought to himself.

  From up front Anthony turned back and said: “I think you’re right. I remember buying some plants or small trees, or something like that, with my grandmother a few years ago. I think we went there… or here, or… whateve
r.” The boy shrugged his shoulders, turned and resumed following the bear-dog.

  That dude’s a dork, determined Joaquin. Who the hell talks about their grandmother to other dudes without apologizing for being a tool in the first place? He pulled his eyes from his companions, taking stock of what was around them. Besides, Jason was talking to me.

  He heard himself speak and was immediately shocked his mouth had opened of its own accord. “Yeah, man, there was a plant nursery here, before everything went to shit,” he colluded, his mouth still moving of its own volition, making his eyes widen. And still, he continued! “It was a pretty big one from what I remember. I think it went all the way back to Colorado Boulevard at its back end.”

  Now, I’m the freakin’ tool!

  “Yeah, it was, huh?” echoed Jason thoughtfully. He shrugged again as if he’d made a decision and moved to follow the others.

  Joaquin let him get a few paces ahead before he followed. Where the hell else am I gonna go, right?

  In the beginning, the landscape was level for the most part, but after a hundred feet away from the trail it began to angle upward. Kodiak was leading them in a slightly curved fashion, a wide sort of arch angling toward the right. After a time, Joaquin realized she was skirting the vestiges of the large hill, the very one topped by the La Loma trail. Where the huge animals had left carnage in their wake…

  About them, the trees were a mixture of palms, both the broad and tall sorts, typical of southern California. Elms and other broad leaf trees grew intermixed as well, though, to a one, they seemed as equally shocked and bewildered by the sudden change in climate as Joaquin. There was a light sprinkling of pines, growing here and there, but to Joaquin, they seemed no worse for the wear, having already adapted to the cold and the ubiquitous snow eons ago on earth.

  The ground was covered in a multitude of confused layers. First and foremost, closest to the ground, were a variety of wild grasses and other small plants as well as the usual assortment of weed-lings. Over this was a multitude of fallen leaves and needles that seemed to have died off, en masse, at the abrupt turning of the weather. Draped over everything, was a thick dusting of snow and ice – a blanket of cold, freezing everything, making the entire jumble of flora extremely brittle. As they stepped, they found they were making a substantial amount of noise as they traipsed after the bear-dog, knees high to compensate for the thickness of it.

  It made them all cringe. They sounded as loud as a marching band.

  The snow had slowed down considerably. For the most part was caught by the throng of leaves, twigs and branches still clinging to the tree limbs above them. The air was much cooler now. Far below freezing, surmised Joaquin. He could feel the chill creeping through his many garments, griping at his skeleton. He had never experienced temperatures this low before. Which amazed him, because he was half-jogging, exerting a lot of energy, and had been for some time now. He wondered if he hadn’t been trotting after the large form of the bear-dog, would he have been frozen stiff by now.

  He wondered if the others were just as cold as he, then happened to glance back at Andrew and knew the answer to that question at once, thinking himself stupid for even asking. Andrew was shivering uncontrollably now, his lips tinged blue, his cheeks whitish with flaking skin. Poor dude! We gotta find shelter quick or this homeboy is gonna croak!

  He managed a quick glance skyward, seeing through the trees. The sky was still overcast, thickly so. It was even more foreboding than it had been when he had awakened this morning, after being so horribly sick the night before. He had passed out and awoke to find he wasn’t in his bed as he should’ve been. No, he had awakened next to Jason on ice-cold, tiled Linoleum flooring. To top it all off, he happened to open his bleary eyes to an entirely different world, finding himself immersed in a new, frightening set of circumstances. No, he wasn’t in his bed. He wasn’t even home. He was somewhere else, somewhere far.

  Yeah, Dorothy, I’m definitely not in Kansas anymore, am I? Fuck no! I’m in an igloo’ed world of shit! He ground his teeth against the sense of loss he felt in his heart. Clarisse where are you?

  Ahead, he saw Kodiak and Anthony, and next, the black-and-white-haired man-dog, named Mugzy, trot around a very large pile of moss covered rocks and boulders. They seemed to grow out of the hill itself. One after the other, his companions popped out of sight before him.

  He watched as the girl named Mikalah rounded the corner, briefly screened from his vision. He peered upward, along the incline, noting a few pines had found adequate purchase atop the rock-pile. It was obvious to him the geological structure had been here for quite some time, or at least it looked as though it had. He couldn’t be entirely sure in a place like this.

  He turned the edge himself and found the others just a few yards ahead. All of them had stopped and were looking at the fifteen-foot conglomeration of boulders he had just jogged around. The entire pile was interspersed with shrubs and grasses, seemingly held together by a throng of lichen and moss growing from every crack. A few moments later, those behind him came around the rocky mound. They milled about, chests heaving from the short exertion through the woods.

  “S-s-s-so now w-w-what?” inquired Andrew impatiently.

  It was clear to Joaquin the boy was cold. All he was wearing was an awful looking animal skin that could’ve come off a large dog or an emaciated cow or something of that nature. It smelled like week old gym socks. He couldn’t help the slightly disgusted expression. The hide looked nasty. Silently, he hoped, for Andrew’s sake, it wasn’t infested with lice or fleas. Although, when he thought about it, the cold had most likely done away with vermin of that ilk. Nothing insectile or warmish could survive conditions such as this. I need to get a grip! My mind is wondering all over the place.

  “We go in,” answered the smaller of the bear-dogs with a rumbling tone.

  “Go in where?” asked Anthony, leaning from side to side trying to find an opening. “I don’t see anything but a giant crap-load of rocks.”

  The rest of the kids laughed quietly, Joaquin included. Ok, he was a funny dork, he said to himself, chuckling along with the rest of the group.

  The bear-dog merely sniffed in indignation and walked toward the collection of stone, straight and unwavering, until she reached a particular boulder standing nine feet tall entirely topped in lichen that hung down either side. Then, miraculously, she disappeared, making a sharp right turn around the left hand side.

  All of the children gasped with shock.

  Garfield enjoyed a snicker or two, which made Mugzy give him a hard look, shake his head. Garfield returned his look with another one of his patented blank stares, complete with hooded eyes.

  “Where the heck did she go?” responded Elena, her tiny voice made shriller by her excitement.

  “She went in the cave, my dear,” replied Kodiak. “Come let us all go in and make the flicker-heat. I know we are all in desperate need of its’ warmth.”

  ~~~~~~~~<<<<<<{ ☼ }>>>>>>~~~~~~~~

  ~ 47 ~

  Kenai’s Labor

  Day One, Thursday, A Footstep Later…

  Kodiak nudged the two girls. They seemed scared to approach anything unknown. Their day had been filled with enough uncertainty and misgiving. They clearly weren’t in the mood to trust anything out of the ordinary.

  “Go on, little ones,” urged the bear-dog,

  They shared a quick glance, and then stared back at Kodiak.

  Again, she nodded.

  Together, they stalwartly walked toward what seemed nothing but a solid wall of rock. Just as abruptly, they too vanished around the boulder.

  Seeing it for the second time, Joaquin saw through the optical illusion, realizing what he was seeing. The lichen growing on the right hand side of the boulder grew in between the seams that had formed where the boulder rested against the other rocks and stones of the pile. Meanwhile, the lichen on the left hand side, which looked identical to the rest, was not in fact growing in a small crack between rock
s, because the rock wasn’t wedged or leaning against anything on its left side. Since the lichen growing behind it appeared the same, this gave the impression he was looking at a solid face of jumbled boulders. What the configuration masked was depth. It gave the illusion his companions had merely vanished into the rocks. To anyone looking from the front, and at a distance, would see a solid face of rock. It wasn’t. When Joaquin walked closer to the boulder, the illusion melted away. He found, as he approached, there was indeed an open space behind it - about three and a half feet of it actually. When he stepped into that space, he found there was a narrow passageway before him, open to the sky above, between two separate, sheer mounds of stone.

  Ah dude, this is freaky!

  He took a number of steps into the passage, until it turned abruptly to the left, into the hillside itself. When he stepped next through the threshold of this natural opening, he found himself inside a very large, sufficiently round cave some ninety feet across and twenty feet high at the highest point of the ceiling. Even from the entrance, through the semi-darkness, he could see, at its’ middle, was a very unremarkable ring of stones, gathered and stacked accordance with what he envisioned would hold a good-sized campfire. He was surprised, when he walked closer, to see there was wood stacked “tee-pee”-like in the middle, covering a good amount of kindling. Someone had prepared this place in advance!

  But, how could that be, if they didn’t know we were coming…? Joaquin shook his head in disgust. Ah great, quoting Lando Calrissian without even realizing what I’m doing! I’m losing it… I’m freakin’ losing it, big-time! It’s this freakin’ place… It sucks!