Shadow of the Hook

by Erik Schubach

  Amanda was being pulled through the water, looking indignant and seemed to be yelling at the mermaids swirling about her as they moved her toward the lagoon at incredible speed. A smile spread on my lips as I started running along branches and springing from tree to tree as fast as my legs could carry me, back to my shelter on the beach.

  I could hear my mate growling like her wolf as she was spitting out, “Hey! Stop touching me there! Get away, I can swim myself! God damn it, I'm not drowning!”

  Unable to restrain myself, I started laughing at the sight, as she tore off a necklace of seaweed one of the mermaids got around her neck as she dove over her from the water.

  Camellia was chastising her. “Behave doggy girl. The Robyn of the Locksley has struck a deal. One saved doggy for one favor owed. You need to be presentable.”

  Amanda stilled as she was being pulled along and she blurted out, “Robyn? She's ok? You know where she is?”

  Camellia giggled and said, “For a future favor, I can answer your queries doggy girl.”

  I called out with a laugh, “Now Camellia, don't try getting another favor when you're already here. For shame.”

  Mandywolf's head snapped over to me on the sand in the receding tide as her feet hit the sandy floor of the sea. Two mermaids dove over her, depositing two more seaweed necklaces as she started thrashing her way to me, exposing her tantalizing flesh as she surfaced and started to run to me.

  I admit to having prurient thoughts, seeing my mate running to me in her unclothed state. I mean, yum.

  Camellia swam up to us as close as she could and raised up and asked with the expectancy of a child wishing for sweets, “Is this the doggy who you wished us to save?”

  I nodded and held a hand out to grasp hers. “Yes, my mate and I thank you for bringing her to safety.”

  Amanda growled. “I'm not thanking anyone for...”

  I flicked her nose and said, “Bad dog.”

  She snapped at my finger with her teeth then sighed and relaxed a bit, then turned to the mermaids. “Thank you for bringing me to Robyn. Even though I could have made the swim myself in a day or so.”

  I squinted an eye at her, and she deflated and reiterated, “Thank you.”

  The mermaids all giggled at the display then Camellia reminded me, “Hold true to your oath when the time comes to honor our deal.”

  I nodded. “Of course.” Then I smiled. “A deal is a deal.”

  They all tittered and brightened and started chiming out, “Sealed with a kiss,” as they all started diving back underwater when they turned to the sea.

  The redheaded mermaid said, “We must be off. There was a battle. Maybe the Hook left us something to eat, or to rescue for favors.”

  Without a goodbye she dove up into the air, her gossamer tail flashing in the sunlight and dove back into the waters and disappeared. The ripples on the surface telling of the impossible speed in which they left us standing there, knee deep in the water.

  My smile faltered, knowing that by 'to eat, or to rescue' she meant any men who had fallen overboard during the short naval engagement.

  I turned to my bare girl, water glistening on her skin and pulled her to me, holding her tight. “I thought the worst.”

  She smirked when I pulled back a little. “I can take a little tumble into the water.” Then she was kissing me, and all was right in this confusing world. A little tumble? Only my Mandywolf would call falling from a mile in the sky a little tumble.

  Before I could say anything, she was releasing me and heading toward my little shelter, seeing her things hanging there. “Hey, is that my rig? I don't suppose you found any of my clothes? I know I'm fabulous, but I'm sort of naked, I know you have a hangup about that.” It was true, the cursed had little to no modesty about nudity, since three mornings a month they woke up with shredded clothing in their silver laced containment cages.

  I had to chuckle at her questions. Of course, those would be her first two thoughts after being rescued at sea. I turned as I rolled my eyes and followed after her as she asked back over her shoulder, “Where are the others? Is this Perchta's garden? It looks... different than I pictured.”

  As we approached the little shelter, I shook my head and said, “No, this is not Perchta's garden, nor is it the mortal realm. It seems it was just the two of us as I saw nobody else falling to the sea. I do not know where we are, just that it is neither here nor there. Are you alright, Amanda?”

  She turned to look back at me with a crooked smirk on her face as she reached for her weapon's rig. “Of course, I told you it takes a little more than a little fall to...” She trailed off then softened at the look on my face. “Yes, love, I'm fine. I was more worried about you, you weren't there when I woke up underwater with a damn fish girl preparing to bite into my leg. They thought a little thing like drowning could kill one of the cursed. But they assured me that they had saved 'my companion' and were trying to make a deal with me the whole time they dragged me to you.”

  I handed her my now dry hunting cloak to cover up in, she gave me a crooked smile and roll of her eyes as she donned it then sat on a log and started pulling her weapons apart to check them out and clean them. I often forget her military training and just how adept she is with the various weapons in her gear. She's such a physical being and prefers hand to hand where she can work out her anger and frustrations in a primal way, with her wolf so close to the surface.

  She glanced at me expectantly, in that look I could almost hear her Alpha, Rachel, barking out, “Sitrep?”

  I reached out and tapped a finger on her forehead. She snapped at my finger with her teeth again, a smile on her face. I sighed and then said, “We're on a small island in a chain, fresh water, lots of fruits and vegetables, virtually no wildlife except avians. Many populated islands within swimming distance, we appear to be in a shipping lane or fishing ground. Technology level seems to be equivalent to the sixteen or seventeen hundreds.”

  She nodded after making a sour face when I said fruits and vegetables, as she deftly reassembled her two guns, slid the magazines home, then stood as she donned her rig over my cloak, then tested drawing. “Ok, then let's get...”

  I placed a hand on her arm. “We can't. Not until we know if last night was the last of this full moon cycle. We have to find a way to contain you, we have no silver.”

  She hesitated then snarled, more wolflike than normal. “You're right. The full moon was days off, what's going on here?”

  I knew she was always terrified of her wolf going on a rampage and hurting innocent people... worse yet, passing on the lycan contagion and starting the curse all over again after the mortal world had finally done away with it except a tiny handful who have sworn to contain themselves upon penalty of death, like my Mandywolf.

  She looked at me. “I don't know what it is, but I can feel it trying to get out even now, pushing me for control. It's like the moon has more sway over me than normal. I felt it with the damn fish girls, my instincts had me wanting to tear them to shreds with my fangs and claws, but I had none. I just wrote it off to drowning a few times and being in no mood to deal with all the damn giggling.”

  She drew her guns twice more, at speeds a normal human would have problems following, but I could. She was almost as fast as I was and that was one of the first things that attracted me to the impulsive woman. She holstered the weapons and then drew out and extended her metal batons with a snick. Spun them around and collapsed them on her hips and slid them back into their slots in a blur of motion and ease that displayed countless hours of training with her lycan speed and reflexes. It was so graceful that it all appeared to be one fluid motion.

  Last was her huge tactical knife which she drew, spun around in a whirlwind of steel death, switching hands and test thrusting and slashing before sheathing it. She nodded her satisfaction. She smirked at me and nodded again, indicating she was ready.

  I had to roll my eyes at her display of skill and was feeling playful as I said, “The mo
on was many times larger than normal, and the nights last twenty-four hours here,” as I drew my bow and one of the three arrows made from wood from Perchta's garden and fired toward the sea, seeing movement in my peripheral but not turning that way.

  She mouthed, “Showoff,” then bounded to the shallow waters of the lagoon to grab the large orangish fish I had impaled with my arrow. She asked as she tore into the fish raw, with her pointed canines as she returned. “Want some?”

  I had to chuckle at my mate. A carnivore to the end. I shook my head as she walked past, as she absently slipped the arrow into the quiver which still held three arrows, and still having just three after she added the fourth. A divine gift from the Goddess to her creation. One for her Holy Spirit, one for the nature around us, and one for the gift of life.

  She asked as she finished off the fish, bones and all, “So, just where do the arrows go? And where do they... oh come on, don't go all divine providence and bird girl on me. Snow is good, but this good?”

  Even now, it still felt surreal to me that the essence of the Goddess was housed in our friend, Gretta Snow. But I have seen the miracle of Perchta emerging from her whenever we need her most. I had never thought to see she who had birthed all that there is. She who embodies nature.

  It is a wonder that comes with pain. Knowing that if the Goddess were to live again, she would consume our friend. So for our friend to live, Perchta has to be imprisoned in her, as it was a sacrifice Perchta had made for Gretta, to save her life. To love someone so much, you would give all that you are to ensure their safety. I often wondered if it were possible.

  I looked at my Mandywolf as she cleaned her hands in the stream, using white sand from the beach to scrub them. I smiled knowing that yes, it is possible.

  Then in an instant, she did a graceful roll to stand back to back, weapons drawn and tracking the trees, and I automatically drew my bow as I scanned the area. There was laughing.

  There. We adjusted our aim. There it was again.

  Her nose was flaring, her mouth slightly open as she drew air across the scent sack at the back of her tongue as I followed a few blurs that were flying through the trees with my farsight. We erratically tracked them, then had to readjust as more seemed to join in from different directions.

  Then the laughing reached a crescendo, and a voice called out as two of the blurs seemed to collide, “Tag! You're it.”

  A form came tumbling out of the air through the fronds on the trees to land on the sand and tumble to our feet. I blinked. A young teen boy, in tattered clothing, and a mop of curly blonde hair giggled as he rolled to a three-point stance, his eyes tracking the other blurs, “I'll get...”

  He stiffened, then tilted his head back upside down, almost falling as he looked up to see us. His eyes went wide, and he was flying in an instant, a tiny little dagger in his hand as he hovered in the air in front of us.

  He brought his free hand to his lips and gave a shrill whistle, yelling out, “Pirates!”

  In moments, six or seven more boys were surrounding us as a couple hovered over the trees, all had little daggers pointing our way. Before I could say anything, I could feel a subsonic growl building up, and Amanda gruffed out as she holstered her weapons, “Give me that before you hurt yourself.”

  As unbelievably fast as these children were, my little wolf was faster. And in the blink of an eye, she had the boy's dagger in her hand. He recoiled in fear, and the others closed in. I said, “Please, we mean you no harm. We...”

  I spun back and grabbed a dagger from a boy who had silently flown up behind me and was lifting my hair with his blade. He fell to the ground, eyes wide in shock as he blurted out in shock, “The Tink.”

  The other boys backed up a bit, their weapons drooping in their hands as whispers of, “Tink,” and “Grown up,” and “Tinkerbell?” circulated through them.

  The boy got up and hovered at eye level with me and reached a hand out, I tried not to flinch back as he lifted my hair to show one of my pointed ears. Then his confusion and alarm bled away into sheer excitement as he almost crooned, “Tink, you're back! It this the Wendy? You both got so...”

  All the boys chimed in, “...old! They're oldies!”

  Mandy stiffened, but not at them saying we were old like we were ancient artifacts to them. “Hold the phone. Tinkerbell? Wendy? Flying children. Who are you, and where are we?” She moved a hand to indicate everywhere.

  A young boy, possibly only six or seven zipped over to us and then looked at the others. “They've forgotten, like all the oldies.” Then he said slowly like we couldn't understand, “We're the Lost Boys, and this is Neverland. You've been gone for so long.”

  Mandy whispered as her face paled, “Neverland?” Ok, now I was confused. Was I supposed to know this Tinkerbell or Neverland?

  I whispered to my Mandywolf, “What's a Neverland?” To the giggles and hooting of the boys who were closing in, I wasn't sure what was going on as another little one latched onto my waist in a hug, saying with glee, “Welcome home, Tink. What happened to your wings, did the Hook cut them off?”

  Chapter 3

  Pan

  After all our weapons were secured, we sat down with these flying children and Amanda explained to me a fairy tale book about a faraway land where children never aged, and they could fly with happy thoughts and fairies were real.

  Well, of course, fairies were real, but... well in Mandy's time, a time of werewolves and demons, the fairy folk had learned to hide so well they were thought to be just stories. But their dust didn't help people fly. That was just nonsense. And most of them were quite vicious and territorial.

  The Lost Boys were quite excited and excitable and were insisting we go to meet their leader, the Pan. Amanda seemed quite interested. “Peter Pan is real too?”

  Then she paled as they nodded, smiles plastered on their faces. “Wait, the mermaids said something about Hook, and so did you kids. Captain Hook?” She curled her hand into a hook shape as the children cowered and nodded.

  Mandywolf just shook her head in apparent amazement as the youngest said to me, “The Pan said that Hook had killed you when he kidnapped the Wendy.” Then he looked at Mandy. “You're a Wendy, did you see ours before you escaped?”

  My girl cocked her head in a wolf-like manner. “Escaped? A Wendy? You mean a girl? Yes I'm a girl, a woman, do you not have any here? And we didn't escape, we umm...”

  I offered, “We come from a faraway land.”

  They all nodded like they understood more than we did as they murmured between themselves, “The Faraway.”

  One chimed out, “The only Wendys we've known are with the oldies, with the pirates. Then one day, the Pan brought us a young Wendy. And she could play and fight, and fly like us!”

  Interrupting, the eldest crossed his arms across his chest and said with authority, “The Pan will be ever so happy that you survived Tink. We should go to him now, he'll know what to do next. Maybe with you back, we can rescue the Wendy from Hook.”

  The others chimed in as they started rising into the air, “Yes, to Pan. Come on.”

  They circled around us, and the youngest called out, “Did you forget how to fly.”

  Another said with sadness, “They are grown-ups, of course, they forgot like they forget everything.”

  A third said, “Once you think you can't fly, you lose it forever.”

  Yet another drooped to the ground and said somberly, “They always forget.”

  Mandy said, “We could never fly, people cannot where we come from.”

  I saw her narrow one eye, no doubt thinking of Snow and some of the demons who could fly.

  Murmurs of, “The Faraway,” rippled through the kids again.

  The eldest said, “We can fly you home.”

  I had to protest, “We... we can't unless last night was the last night of the full moon. If not, Amanda here is, well she is cursed, and we need to isolate her, so she doesn't hurt anyone during the full moon or spread her curse.
Is the full moon over?”

  The children looked confused, and one poked Mandy with a small wooden sword as he looked at her curiously. She growled at him, showing her elongated canines that looked like little, underdeveloped wolf fangs.

  I clarified, “When the moon is fully round in the sky.”

  The eldest again looked confused. “The moon is the moon, it is always round in the sky.”

  Amanda stiffened and my gut clenched as I had him clarify as I grabbed a stick to draw in the sand. “Always round and full like this every night?” I drew a circle, then added, “Never just partially round like this?” I drew a half circle.

  He looked at me then the drawings, then looked back to the other boys with a smile. They all laughed and giggled. He asked, “What marvelous new game is this? Of course, the moon is always round, it is the moon. How do we play this new game?”

  I turned to my Mandywolf who was pale as a ghost now. She asked me like she forgot the children were there, “Every night is a full moon here? My... my wolf.”

  The youngest boy landed in front of her and took her hand, she almost yanked back but softened at the concerned look on his little angelic face as he said, “A wolf hunts you? We can protect you, Wendy, we have steel and spears. He patted the tiny dagger on his hip.

  Then he narrowed an eye at her and asked slyly, “Or is this a new game?” He zipped into the air as they others started chanting, “Wolf, wolf, wolf...”

  The little one flew past another boy and touched him, “You're it!”

  The others all screamed in fun and flew toward the trees yelling, “Wolf! Run!”

  The last boy smiled and howled like a wolf to the sky, “Aroooo!” Then he darted off to chase the others.

  I cocked my head. Most of them were young teens, but they acted less mature than that. I called out, “No, this is not a game, children. Amanda becomes a wolf at night. The moon calls her curse to the surface, and she is dangerous to everyone.”