The clouds above us were dark and threatened to open up on us at any minute. The terrain looked as if it hadn’t seen any kind of care in some time. The cabin that our outhouse would have serviced was burned to the ground. It was so remote that whoever owned the land hadn’t bothered to replace it. Before we even started to walk, the first few drops of rain splashed against my jacket. Just great.
Marcus waved his hand over his head, and I watched as the rain hit something invisible above him and then ran off the sides. April shrugged and did something similar. I’d never thought about casting a spell to do something like keep the rain off of me. Coming from the desert, I loved the rain. Whenever it rained, it was like a special treat. My leather coat would grow heavy after hours of the stuff, so I shrugged and focused on what I wanted to happen. Just like shielding myself from an attack, but instead, it was rain that fell harmlessly away from me as I started walking forward.
The rest of the day proved to be just as much fun as I thought it would be. The rain decided to continue through most of the day. It was on again off again, like some of our favorite celebrity relationships. The terrain grew harder to cross, but our magic helped us there. Marcus blazed a path better than we could have with an army of axes or machetes. In the end, we made decent time through the forest.
Marcus pulled out an object that I hadn’t seen before, and held it in the air. It beeped a few times, and then he pulled it down and looked at the screen. “We are about three miles away from the coordinates. I say we call it a day.”
“What is that thing?”
“Satellite GPS tracker. You think I’ve just been wandering around all day?”
“I just assumed you were using some kind of spell.”
“Technology is good for something. Plus, if the location is warded, who knows where a tracking spell would have sent us.”
“You wouldn’t have happened to bring any food with you?” April asked.
“Guys, come on. Seriously, do you not plan at all?”
“Well, we are kind of used to a more smash-and-grab kind of operation. This whole extended quest thing is kind of new to us.”
“Well, if you would have looked at a map before we left like I did, you might have been a little more prepared.”
April put her hand on her hip, and I could tell she was about to rip into Marcus. After a long day of hiking, she wasn’t ready to take any of his crap. I slid up behind her and pressed my body against hers. She gave me a look that said back off. Instead, I wrapped a hand around her waist and kept her pulled tightly against me. “So my great and all powerful Marcus, tell me how you used this knowledge to save us from ourselves.”
“Well, now that you mention it, I might have just packed a few things in my bag to save you from yourselves.”
April stiffened again. “Bro, I’m not sure how long I can hold her back if you keep delaying.” Marcus looked over at us for the first time, looking a little worried. April and Marcus had trained together a few times. It was always a great test for them since Marcus specialized in offensive magic, and April in defensive. If she ever closed the distance between them, Marcus was a dead man, but I was sure he had a few tricks up his sleeve that he hadn’t shown us yet.
He pulled out a little black bag and held it up in triumph. April let out a snort and turned away from me. This time, I let her go. Marcus looked crushed that we didn’t appreciate his little black satchel. The thing wasn’t very impressive. At most, it could have held a few energy bars.
April walked to the edge of the clearing and then marched back and got into Marcus’s face. “You made such a big deal about how prepared you were, and what, you have a few candy bars.”
Marcus laughed, which was a pretty bold move with my fiery little redhead in front of him. “Oh, I have so much more than that.” He cast a spell out to shield us from the rain. “Jackson, a little help with the ground.”
I pulled my magic into myself and started to heat the ground slowly. When it was dry, I looked at him expectantly. He pulled out six rods and set them up in a circle around the clearing. Once they were in place, he cast a spell into them to shield us from the rain. It reminded me of the invisibility set-up we had used on the roof. It was easier to cast a stronger spell than to have to maintain it throughout the night. Then he cast his magic out again, creating a little channel around us for the rainwater.
I still hadn’t figured out how he had pulled six eight-foot-tall rods out of his little bag, but with Marcus, sometimes you just didn’t ask questions. He then pulled out three sleeping bags, a couple of bottles of water, and a small cooler. Somehow I could smell what was in the cooler, and my stomach started to grumble.
Marcus looked at me. “That’s right, big boy. Steak and potatoes.”
“That bag is pretty amazing,” April admitted grudgingly.
“Steak is pretty amazing,” I said, pulling open the cooler.
Marcus just laughed and walked out into the forest to gather some wood. We could use our magic to dry it out and start a fire. Then we could get down to serious business and start eating. I looked over at April, and she had laid out our sleeping bags. One open on the bottom and another on top, making us a cozy little bed. It was going to be awesome sleeping out under the stars. The rain fell around us, and the sounds of the slumbering forest eased away the stress of the day. Now this was camping. It was like being in a bubble. None of the bad elements could get in, and we could enjoy everything the forest had to offer.
CHAPTER 13
JACKSON
With the morning came the gnawing hunger, as if I hadn’t eaten in weeks instead of hours. The rain had stopped at some point during the night, and after finding a tree to relieve myself behind, I started looking for wood. Sure, we could have just cooked whatever Marcus had in that satchel of his with magic, but using fire added actual flavor to the food. Not that flavor was the most important thing in the world right now. If there happened to be a half-eaten Snickers someone tossed on the ground a week ago in front of me right now, I would have gladly brushed the ants off the melted mess and eaten it with a smile on my face.
When I came back to camp, I started the fire again and watched as April stretched and slid out of our sleeping bags. She looked fantastic even just crawling out of bed. Just seeing her made my heart rate jump. She caught me looking and flashed me a quick smile before heading off into the woods herself. Marcus was still sleeping, so with the fire started, I went about cleaning up our sleeping bags for an early departure.
Once everything was put away, April came back to camp, and I started cooking some bacon. We only had one pan, so the bacon would come first, and then I would cook the eggs in the bacon fat. It might seem a little over the top for most people, but I needed the calories. April grabbed a few English muffins and went about putting them on sticks and toasting them beside my pan. Marcus woke up when the third pan of bacon was done. Yep, I said three full pans. I had to leave some for the others.
Marcus didn’t even move from where he was sleeping. “Is there going to be coffee to go with that bacon?”
“I’ll get the pot on the fire as soon as I’m done with the eggs.”
Marcus crawled out of bed like a bear lumbering out of a cave at the end of winter. He filled our kettle with water and coffee grounds and then snapped his fingers. Steam started to shoot out from the kettle as it screamed into the quiet forest. I jumped to my feet and pulled out the kettle’s flap to stop it from whistling. Marcus gave me a look as if I were crazy.
“Well, if there was something waiting for us at the coordinates that didn’t know we were here, it knows now.”
Marcus looked slightly chagrined but also had a smile on his face. “Come on, bro, we’re in the middle of nowhere.” He pulled out a strainer and started to pour three mugs of coffee. “Trust me when I tell you coffee will make it all better.”
“Not if we die before we can drink it.”
April laughed, and I looked at her. She just shrugged her shoulders. “No
thing is charging through the forest trying to eat us yet.”
I could see that she was already carrying her swords, and I thought that I should grab mine as well. She always set the best example about being prepared. Sure, nothing was charging at us, but if it had been, April was the only one of us who was ready to defend herself.
When the last panful of bacon was done, I added it to the pile I already had ready and dumped a dozen eggs into the pan. As soon as the eggs were cooking, I found my weapons and strapped them in place. It was always better to be prepared. A piece of advice I had heard often but seemed to ignore on a daily basis.
“Jesus, Jackson. You cooked all of the bacon and eggs. That should have been enough for at least two more meals.”
“He gets pretty hungry,” April said with a smirk.
“Well, I guess so,” Marcus replied, looking stunned.
I just moved back toward the pile of bacon and snatched a few pieces off of the plate. Fixing Marcus with a wolfish grin, I said, “Jackson must eat. Jackson hungry.”
He looked at me, not sure if he should laugh or be disturbed by the amount of food I was piling on my plate. Sure, a person could say that fourteen strips of bacon, six eggs, and three English muffins were a little much for one meal, but that person didn’t have a werewolf hiding inside of them.
When breakfast was done, we broke down camp as quickly as we could. Marcus fit everything back into his satchel, and we started to walk away. I turned back to our camp and cast a quick spell, covering the ring of rocks we built our fire in with a sheet of ice. No reason to take a chance on starting a forest fire. Granted, the ground was wet enough that the risk was low, but at least Smokey the Bear would be happy.
There were so many things that I wanted to ask Marcus about that pouch. Was it heavy, how much could he fit into it, and lastly, where the hell could I get one? It was probably the coolest enchanted item I had seen since finding out I had magic. It was practical and yet totally awesome. I wondered if they made tents like in Harry Potter. It would look like a little pup tent from outside; inside, the tent was as spacious as a house. I could get behind an idea like that. Who needed physics and dimensional planes of existence? We had magic, baby.
When we had about a mile left to the coordinates, I pulled everyone together. “I have no idea what we are going to find when we get there, so keep your eyes open and stay safe.”
April and Marcus nodded, pulling their weapons free. April was rocking a pair of short swords, and Marcus had his favorite staff. My father’s swords found their way into my hands. The grips felt like they had been molded for my fingers. The blades almost seemed to vibrate slightly in anticipation of violence. My swords looked like the gladius weapons used by the Roman soldiers and gladiators in the arena. They were perfectly balanced, and the blades glowed with a golden light.
We were in hunt mode now, moving through the forest in complete silence. As we approached the coordinates, we fanned out so we could enter the space from three different angles. Slowly, we crept out from the forest and into the small clearing. Nothing happened or attacked us on sight, so I moved further into the clearing. Again, nothing happened. I don’t know what I had been expecting, but if this was a Dungeons and Dragons game, the game master would have dropped us a surprise or a trap. There was never a clearing that was just a clearing.
When a boss monster didn’t appear, I sheathed my swords and started to look around. The far end of the clearing was dominated by a small pond. You could have called the water flowing into it a waterfall, but that would have been generous. It was more like the water splashed down a few rocks maybe five feet at a time and then landed in the pond. The water looked cool and clear, but the pond wasn’t exactly large. I would have marked the entire thing at fortyish feet of shoreline and maybe twenty or thirty feet to the rocks behind it. That meant the water was going somewhere. Underground cavern, maybe? Crazy kraken monster inside? God, I hoped it didn’t come to us having to swim into some kind of cavern. That never ended well for any hero that I had ever played.
April had sheathed her swords as well and walked to the edge of the pond. I stiffened and felt my senses jump into hyper alert. The smells of the forest overwhelmed me, and I was ready to pounce at a moment's notice. It took me a moment to realize that I must have been calling on my wolf to get this kind of sensory overload. I tried to calm down, but it didn’t work while April was still at the pond’s edge.
“April, come here,” I growled out.
Instead of looking mad, concern flashed across her face as she rushed to my side. “What’s wrong?”
The world slowly drew back into regular focus. The smell of the water and the woods around us faded away. My ears stopped being able to hear the bird singing fifty yards to the left of us. She put her hand on my chest, and my muscles finally started to unclench. “I’m not sure. When you were by the water, I sensed danger, and everything got a little weird.”
“Did you sense danger or just perceive a threat?”
“I think I was just thinking about all the things that could have come out of the water and snatched you. It sent me into overdrive.”
“I’m here, and everything is ok.” She smiled and hit me in the shoulder. “Not to mention I can take care of myself.”
“Of that, I have no doubt.”
“Hey, if you guys are done sharing a moment, maybe one of you can fill me in on what we do now?”
“I hate to break it to you, Marcus, but I have no idea what to do now.”
“I guess we should all just look around and see if there is anything to find,” April said.
Both of them looked at me waiting for me to make the call. “Let’s do that, but stay away from the water.” Marcus shot me a weird look. “You know, just in case?”
“Got it, evil cave monster in the water,” Marcus said with a laugh.
“Yeah, it’s all fun and games until the first tentacle comes out. Then we will see who’s laughing,” I shouted back across the clearing.
He waved at me and then ran by the water and back into the forest. Funny, I didn’t get the same reaction when Marcus got close to the water. Maybe because he was just trying to be a dick. A funny dick, but still a dick. I knew he would be circling around the outside of the clearing, probing for magic. That meant we got to spend our time checking the interior, and at some point, we would have to check the pond. I just wasn’t ready to do that until it was the last possible place to check. I dreaded the idea of having to swim into some underground cavern, full of God knew what. Granted, I wouldn’t be surprised if Marcus had some kind of breathe-underwater spell, and all of us could conjure light. So maybe it wouldn’t be that bad? Maybe.
April and I split up and started searching the clearing. I spent as much time looking for clues as I did watching her to make sure nothing happened. So much for the grand adventure. We had reached the first clue and had no idea how to proceed. It’s funny; in the movies, they made it seem so easy. Indiana Jones always knew what to look for or just happened to fall into the right thing. In National Treasure, Nicholas Cage made incredible leaps of logic. Here, I just walked in slow circles, looking for something that didn’t exist.
Marcus came back into the clearing. “No traces of magic anywhere around the perimeter.”
April walked back to join him in the middle of the clearing. “Absolutely nothing on my side.”
I moved across the clearing to join them, keeping one wary eye on the pond. “I couldn’t find anything either.”
“Maybe we should check the scroll again?” April said.
“I don’t see why not. Nothing else has given us a clue.” I reached into my jacket and pulled out the tightly sealed tube the scroll was in. Who knows? Maybe we would get lucky. I hoped so, because before we got here, the scroll didn’t show anything else on it. Just the location of where we were standing now.
The scroll came free, and I unrolled it. The coordinates were gone, and in their place was a short poem. “Wet as a fish and s
lippery as an eel, the way underwater is now unsealed.” I read it again just to make sure that I was going to have to go into the water. Nothing had changed despite the fact that I wanted it to. I rolled up the scroll and started to tuck it away.
“Might as well tell us the bad news,” Marcus said.
“Bad news?”
“Yeah, bro, your face went white as a sheet for a second there.”
I told them what the scroll said, and Marcus and April had the opposite reaction that I did; they looked excited and ready to go. How could they be so excited? I’d seen this movie. It didn’t end well. There was always something in the creepy cave, not to mention I was wondering if I was the eel or the fish. If my luck had anything to do with it, I was the fish, and some creepy ass monster was going to come after us in the water.
“Marcus, is that pouch of yours waterproof?” April asked.
“Sure is.”
“Great, we can put our clothes and gear in there. The last thing we want is all of our gear to be wet.”
“Clothes?” I said.
“Yeah. Have you ever tried swimming with all of your clothes on? It’s nearly impossible. We need to be able to react.”
She was right, of course. That didn’t mean I had to like it. Even though we could dry our clothes with magic, nothing would make them easier to swim in. She started to strip almost immediately. I followed suit by stripping off my weapons. Then I wrapped everything up into a bundle. I looked over at Marcus as April was shimmying out of her pants. He was out of his robe and down to his boxers already. His eyes were firmly planted on April’s wiggling backside.
“Eyes up, bro.”
“Yeah, yeah.” He said it with a grin, but found something else to look at almost instantly.
He finished stuffing all of his clothes into the pouch. April walked over and put her clothes and swords inside. I noticed she still had a dagger strapped to her thigh. A few lustful thoughts washed over me as I enjoyed the look of her in her sports bra and panties. She had on that tiny boy short kind. They hugged her in all the right places and showed off her toned figure.
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