Flight

by Jason Cheek

  Most of my life had been spent studying and teaching martial arts with classes full of men, but now my healing courses were mostly filled with women.

  Not that I was complaining, it was just a decidedly different atmosphere than what I was accustomed to. Not to mention, I still wasn’t sure how to handle all of the attention.

  Sigh, twenty-four and still a virgin!

  That alone was strange enough in today’s day and age, but not uncommon among Werewolves who mated for life. My training and devotions left little time for a social life, and moving every year or two didn’t help either. Not that I would inflict someone I loved with my terrible Geis!

  Over the years, I began to believe it would be best if I remained alone.

  Closing my eyes for a moment, I let the blowing winds take my worries away. Even after all of these years I still struggled to understand this strange world I’d found myself thrown into.

  My reminiscence was suddenly cut off by a heart wrenching scream from somewhere behind me!

  Looking back the way I’d come, I saw it was from the tourists I’d past earlier. The Mother was standing knee deep in the surf screaming hysterically at her husband as he struggled against the battering waves with a limp form under each of his arms.

  Even from this distance, I could see the man’s face was contorted in agony as he fought his way back to the shoreline. As I watched, he suddenly disappeared under a large wave still twenty yards out.

  Seeing the man’s unconscious body surface behind the wave, floating face down in the water, I immediately felt myself shift into combat mode as I sprinted back down the beach.

  If they were going to live, I had to get them out of the water quickly. That meant getting to them before the rip current sucked them out even further.

  Focusing my Will, I said a quick prayer to Ukko.

  “Acelerar.”

  Power flooded through me as the word left my lips. With a green glow surrounding me, the aura took effect as I practically flew through the air.

  Within seconds, I crossed the fifty yards back to the tourists as the next wave began forming behind the floating bodies. As the wave started dragging the bodies further out into the ocean, I plowed into the surf, leaping into a flat dive as soon as the water hit my knees.

  I covered the first ten yards in the air, before slicing below the surface.

  Out of all of the seal’s I’d mastered, “Acelerar” was the most visibly noticeable aura, since it nearly tripled my movement speed. The aura used huge amounts of energy, so I couldn’t hold it for any great length of time, although, in short bursts, it was extremely effective.

  Grandsire had said that my power reserves should grow with repeated use, similar to a muscle when exercised. Even though it felt as if I burned too quickly through my energy reserves, I could tell his wisdom was proving to be correct. Every day, I could do a little bit more. Unfortunately, I had already used up most of my energy earlier today when I was surfing, and I still hadn’t fully recovered.

  Strong strokes brought me to the floating bodies in a matter of seconds.

  Breaking the surface, I scooped up the two girls under my right arm and their Father with my left just as the next wave hit, hurling us in a white foaming rush towards the beach. Arching my back, I rode the wave until it broke near the shoreline. Feeling as my feet touched the sandy bottom, I braced myself as the rip current started sucking the wave back out into the ocean.

  That’s when it hit me too.

  Burning fire wrapped around my torso and legs, racking my body in agony. For a second, the intensity of the pain stole my breath away.

  Grasping for air, I fought the building pressure in front of me as the water tried to tear the family from my arms. Out of the corners of my eyes, I saw the rest of the wave breaking to my right and left, passing around me as it was sucked back out into the ocean.

  A second later, the wall of water in front of me began flowing away, until I was left standing in the surf near the hysterical Mother.

  Focusing my Will, I triggered the Rök runes of protection tattooed into my skin. Flaring to life, the runes began to glow red against my tanned skin. The searing pain was still there, but it was now muted to a dull ache as I carried the father and children the rest of the way up the beach.

  Functioning similar to armor, my runes offered protection against physical and elemental damage, but at the cost of using up my energy. With the Acelerar aura and Rök runes both activated, I could feel the last of my power reserves dropping quickly, but at least the excruciating pain was temporarily better. Although even with my armor in place, I could feel my muscles still burning.

  Whatever had attacked me must have been poisonous!

  I allowed my Werewolf rage to flow, which kept my muscles moving as the woman helped me with my precious burden. Focusing my Will, I released the aura as we laid the unconscious bodies on the dry sand.

  Now I could now see the Portuguese Man O’ Wars thick strands of stinger tentacles covering their bodies in layers as my own pain suddenly made sense.

  Portuguese Man O’ War traveled in groups by the thousands driven by the tides and the wind. Sometimes a storm would drive a whole group onto a shore, which is what must have just now happened.

  Normally, you would see the washed up bodies on the beach and know not to get into the water, or get hit by a tentacle or two as the bodies broke apart as they were washed ashore. The burning of the poison would hurt enough to get you out of the water, but not be dangerous enough to cause serious injury. The girls, unfortunately, had been unlucky enough to be just entering the water as the entire group of Man O’ War was being first blown ashore.

  Not that the Father had fared any better than the girls.

  You barely could see his skin from the mass of blue tentacles covering his body. That amount of poison was enough to cause sudden death in children, and cardiac arrest followed by death in adults.

  I had to move quickly.

  The best way to deal with any emergency situation was to keep calm. Besides the obvious concern for a loved one, fear in most cases comes from the ignorance of not knowing what to do next. I wasn’t a medic, per say, but I could save their lives.

  Looking into the Mother’s red rimmed eyes, I explained what I needed from her.

  “Don’t touch the tentacles, or you’ll just be poisoned too. I’ll handle that. Do you know CPR?”

  Numbly she shook her head up and down.

  “Yes, I’m an RN in New Jersey.”

  Being a nurse meant she understood the danger her family was truly in. Trying to put all of the confidence I had into my next words, I gave her hope that she needed to hear.

  “Good, once I get the tentacles off we’ll get them fixed up in no time."

  Quickly, I worked on the youngest girl first. Using both hands, I began ripping off the mass of tentacles wrapped around her body.

  The tentacles easily covered over two thirds of the child’s body, and everywhere I removed the tentacles were left blistered swollen skin. The girl was not breathing as I passed her quickly to her Mother. Who frantically flipped her little girl over to pump the water from her lungs as I started on the second child. By the time I cleaned the tentacles off, I could see her lips were already turning blue.

  Definitely a bad sign!

  Quickly picking up the girl, I draped her over my forearm using a modified Heimlich maneuver to pump the water out of her lungs, before passing her to her Mother. Who started giving CPR immediately to the second child as I moved on to the Father.

  I gave him the same treatment that I’d given the girls, and in moments he started hacking and moaning as the water left his lungs. He was already going into shock as I laid him back onto the sand.

  Unfortunately, contact poison was one of my few weaknesses on Earth, since its effects could pass through even my skin. It wouldn’t kill me, but I would be hurting until I neutralized its affects. My Ukko pendant thumped against my chest as I quickly tore off my shirt, b
efore pulling off the fibrous mass of tentacles still wrapped around my arms and legs. Thankfully the T-shirt had mostly protected my torso.

  Free of tentacles, I willed-off the Rök runes that had been protecting me from further exposure to the contact poison. Slowly the red glow of the tattoos faded to black once again.

  Looking up, I saw the woman’s look of fear as she continued giving CPR to her daughters.

  Between the poison coursing through my system, and the strain from holding the Acelerar aura and runic armor, I was already feeling light headed. Still, I couldn’t rest if I wanted to save the girls lives. Letting my sense flow into them, I could already tell they were too far over the line of life and death for me to restore on my own.

  I would have to ask Ukko to intercede on their behalf.

  Luckily, their Mother was able to give me the extra time I needed to at least get the tentacles cleared, but there was no way she was going to be able to keep up that pace much longer.

  CPR is exhausting when you’re giving it to one person, let alone two, so time was of the essence. I had to move quickly to save them before they were out of even Ukko’s reach. Shaking my head to clear the poison’s effects, I knelt next to the mother, in-between the two little girls.

  Stopping for a second, she looked at me anxiously.

  “We have to get them to a hospital, or they’re going to die!”

  Immediately she went back to giving them CPR.

  There was no time to explain.

  Gripping the fist sized pendant hanging from my neck, I began to pray. The pendant was shaped in a point at one end with an arch flaring down at the other end. For me, it was the holy symbol I used to represent my devotion to Ukko and was a symbol of his power, which had been given me at my birth by my Father.

  Looking up to the sky, I chanted out my prayer in high Klavikian as my voice began rising in volume.

  “Ukko, ber jeg om makten til å redde disse menneskelige barn. Vennligst gi meg kraft til å returnere dem til sin mor!”(Ukko, I ask for the power to save these human children. Please give me the strength to return them to their Mother!)

  The holy symbol in my hand began to glow as a bright golden beam of light shot down from the heavens, enveloping me in an eye watering ray of holy light. I saw the woman fall back onto the ground holding her arm protectively before her eyes in shock. The ray of light slowly began to fade as it gathered into the pendant hanging from my neck.

  Bringing both of my hands together in supplication, I felt Ukko’s grace flowing through me as I bowed my head to my chest, chanting my thanks.

  “Takk min herre for livets gave du gir til disse barna!” (Thank you my Lord for the gift you give to these children!)

  The glowing light traveled out from my pendant and down my arms before stopping at my hands. Gently, I placed my glowing hands onto the children’s foreheads.

  Ignoring the alarmed look of disbelief in their Mother’s eyes, I focused my thoughts and Will as I spoke my prayer out loud.

  “Helbrede.”

  The golden glow flowed from my hands into the children as soon as the word left my lips. The holy light enveloped the girls as the healing energy began coursing through their injured bodies doing its work.

  The light lasted for only a moment, but in my mind’s eye I focused on each process needed to bring the children back to life. I felt the girls’ souls pulled back from the brink of death as the healing fire cleansed the poison from their bodies. Where the fire left, only healed internal organs remained. Their hearts began to pump once more as their lungs drew in the air of their own accord. Lastly, the blistered swollen skin covering most of their bodies disappeared as if the attack had never happened.

  When the light faded away, the healing was complete.

  Suddenly, coughing chokes filled the air as both girls began hacking the rest of the water from their lungs. The youngest sat up first clutching at her Mother.

  “Mommy, I want to go home now.”

  “Holy Crap!”

  Suddenly, I couldn’t smell anything, but the fear pouring out of the woman. Looking at me in shock, she held her daughter close to her chest in a tight embrace. Running her hands over her daughter’s body, she searched for the poisonous burns that were there just seconds earlier.

  “What the Hell did you just do?”

  I helped the older girl sit up as she reached wordlessly for her mother crying. The woman clutched both children to her chest, rocking them back and forth as she continued to look at me fearfully.

  “Who are you?”

  I didn’t blame the woman for her reaction. People’s normal response to seeing something they didn’t understand was fear. It had been that way throughout Earth’s bloody history. Add, on top of that, the intense emotions of knowing you’re going to lose your children, to suddenly having them saved from a miracle by a holy tattooed man were enough to freak anyone out.

  Tiredly, I gave her my usual response.

  “I’m just a stranger who happened to be at the right place at the right time, nothing more than that.”

  Ignoring my spinning head, I crawled on my hands and knees to the woman’s husband. Sitting back on my thighs, I placed my hands on either side of the man’s head, once again praying to Ukko.

  “Helbrede.”

  This time, the bright golden light didn’t shoot down from the heavens at my prayer, but instead shined forth from my hands, enveloping the woman’s husband. Unlike the children, who had been knocking on deaths door, the man was only injured, which put his healing well within the realm of the power that Ukko had blessed me with.

  The wounds healed slower this time, with the healing light fading away before the man’s injuries were fully healed. What was left would be a painful rash, but the internal damage from the poison had been fully repaired.

  Removing my hand from the man’s head, I let myself fall back onto the dry sand panting heavily.

  The poison was obviously affecting me more severely than I’d anticipated, but that wasn’t the reason for the incomplete healing. As always, it was Ukko’s decision.

  He wanted the parents to have something to think about for the next few days, so that next time they would think before putting their children lives at risk. Ukko was merciful, but hard, as I knew well from my own personal experiences.

  The woman dragged her children to her husband’s side as she helped him sit up whispering anxiously into his ear. Half dazed, the man held onto his family looking at me with an unreadable expression on his face.

  “Except for feeling like truck just ran you over, you’ll be okay after a full night’s rest. The painful rash on your skin will clear up within the next few days.”

  The man nodded his head carefully in response to my words.

  I wasn’t sure if that was due to him being freaked out like his wife, or because he was still wiped out from the entire ordeal. The stench of the woman’s fear was currently overwhelming every other odor in the area, but I imaged it was probably a little bit of both.

  I heard the wife hissing loudly to her husband.

  “That’s not possible!”

  Ignoring the comment, I rolled to my hands and knees. Slowly climbing to my feet, I carefully picked up my soiled T-shirt, before heading back down the beach for my gear.

  You would have thought the woman would have been grateful instead of angry. Either way, that had been enough fun for me for one day. It probably would be easier to burn the T-shirt than to clean it, but I didn’t have any clothing to waste, so I brought it with me.

  “Excuse me, Sir.”

  Turning around, I saw the man slowly stand with the help of his wife. She immediately stood behind him, anxiously clutched their daughters.

  “Thank you for saving our lives.”

  Looking the man in the eyes, I gave him a tired bow.

  “Don’t mention it. I’m just a Good Samaritan who happened to be in the right place at the right time.”

  The man’s wife visibly relaxed at my
words. Although, I could tell from her body language, she was struggling with her next question, but looking at my injuries she asked anyway.

  “Do you need any help?”

  “I’ll be okay, it looks worse than it is. Try to get some rest.”

  Turning around to go, the man stopped me with one last question.

  “Can I at least get your name?”

  Smiling, I took the man’s offered hand shaking it firmly.

  “Sure, it’s Startüm Ironwolf.”

  Releasing the man’s hand, I started walking away.

  “Sorry, but I really need to get going.”

  I was going to be late for class, not that I had much of a choice in the matter. Being a Paladin of Ukko means that I was required to help those in need, whether it worked with my schedule or not.

  Quickly, I headed back down the beach trying not to stagger as I walked.

  Healing people like that always created questions. My healing power did not remove the memory of pain or fear of the experience, everything that happened was still there. My healing touch only repaired the physical body.

  Most people couldn’t handle being faced with the supernatural, especially in a life or death situation. Few people have seen my rune armor in action and still wanted to be friends with me afterwards. The glowing red tattoos were too similar to the world of devils and demons to make most humans comfortable.

  From my experience, there were few people in this world who could look at a person’s actions and judge them independently of their looks.

  The beach had been mostly empty, so hopefully that had stopped anyone but the mother I had helped from seeing the use of my power and raising questions. Even in the worst case scenario, people would be hard pressed to believe a hysterical Mother if she decided to make an issue about what happened.

  It’s not like most people would believe her story, even if they’d seen the energy being used before their own eyes.

  People in today’s society knew that magic and miracles did not actually exist, and even when evidence to the contrary suddenly presented itself in their lives, most people would change what they saw to make it fit into their world outlook or scientific explanation.