Snowbound Nomad

by Cassie Power

  He walked for a long while, making big snowshoe tracks in the snow, taking little steps and sinking in deep each time. That was so she could follow him more easily, she knew.

  At the road Dan turned left. The whole thing was melting already.

  “Is it just me, or is it getting kind of warm out?”

  “There’s a lot of magic in the air right now. I think… This way. It isn’t the closest house, but it gets stronger. The heat… It must be sixty out already. That isn’t normal.”

  She knew that one. Even in Portland it would have been just over fifty, at a guess. The river effect and the mild seasons there were legendary that way. It meant things were damp a lot, which was good. Mainly because she was used to things like that, so understood what it meant.

  They were walking on snow, but there was a small river forming on the pavement underneath them.

  “This is going to be a river soon. Part of an attack?”

  Dan moved a bit faster, the tingling from the north hitting her powerfully enough that she had to blink back tears for a second.

  “I don’t know. It won’t really hurt us, if we’re the target. We’re up on a hill. Everyone in the area is, I think, so it won’t be a real issue that way. We need to hurry.”

  The nine-millimeter was in her pack, which was probably a mistake, she realized. The holster had a strap and harness on it, but it was the wrong size for her. That meant, as Dan pointed to the left, and well forward, she waved, huffing a little.

  “I need to get the gun out. Um…” She didn’t know how to explain the idea to him, but he didn’t need that, just stomping in a circle a few times. Making a clearing of sorts.

  “I’ll get that for you, so you don’t have to take the pack off. I don’t know, but something feels wrong here. We should make best time.”

  The whole thing still took several minutes since the weapon wasn’t on the top of things. The water was. A canteen was handed to her, to drink from while Dan worked. Then, as soon as she could, weapon forced deep into her pocket, they shuffled off, rapidly. Enough that it actually hurt a bit, trying to keep up. She didn’t stop, in case there really was a problem.

  People being eaten or sacrificed to strange gods. That kind of thing.

  Apparently, that was part of her world now.

  It took almost two hours anyway, to find the scene. When they got there, the source of the buzzing and tingling was clear, being a boy.

  A young man of about fifteen. He had brown hair and was waving his hands at the house in front of him. Desperately, from the look of things. It was half buried under the snow, the roof caved in. It was tempting to stop his soulless magical attack on the house, except that Dan waved at her first.

  “It’s collapsing. He’s holding it up… using magic. Then trying to melt the snow.”

  She frowned, then tilted her head. There really was a small beam of light, a very faint one, running from the ground to the roof of the building. Things were melting, but then she heard what the boy was muttering. Not even looking at them as they came up.

  “Oh god, oh god, oh god.”

  The panicked tone and cadence didn’t seem like he was trying to summon anything, more like he was just saying the words. Then, it was clear, as things started to shift, that he was about to lose the whole thing. There was an ominous groan from the structure, then a sudden crack. Several voices called out from inside. A few were female, but one was a man.

  That was the one she understood.

  “Tom! Get a four by four from the barn! The whole thing is about to fail!”

  That other building was under snow as well, and over to the side. It had a sharper peak on the roof, so was holding up a lot better. Looking at the whole thing, she nearly didn’t know what to do. The kid wasn’t going anywhere, she realized. He looked ready to fall down, but what was holding the whole thing up at the moment.

  Nodding, she came up with a plan.

  “I’ll get the four by four. Tom, keep holding things here. Don’t worry about melting the snow, we can do that after we shore things up. Dan… Um…You…”

  There was a strange sound then. After a moment, he dropped the pack and nodded.

  “I’ll hold things here. No one freak out?”

  Merry grinned, not knowing what was going to happen. She dropped her own pack, but kept the gun, in case it was all a trick. Then, awkwardly, she shuffled toward the steel building. It was a fight to get the door open and so dark inside that she had to feel her way around, getting cut several times before she located the large stack of lumber. If it was stacked four by four she didn’t know, but when she tried to pick up several at once she understood that wasn’t happening.

  Instead she ended up taking one of them by the end and dragging it. On solid ground she probably could have carried it on her shoulder, but at the moment that wasn’t happening at all. It also didn’t matter. Her goal was to shore up the roof before people died. That, it seemed, was what everyone there was doing. Even the kid with the magic.

  The scene had changed a bit, when she got back, about two or three minutes later. Tom was staring at the building, but his eyes were even wider now. He was breathing so hard that passing out couldn’t have been far off for him. It wasn’t all fear either. Even if an evil looking yeti was standing in front of him, holding the roof of the building in place. That seemed to be working for the moment.

  The creature was, from the pile of clothing on the dropped pack, Dan.

  He was also at least ten feet tall, vast in size and covered with long, but thick looking hair. On his hands were sharp talons and his face, instead of being flat and monkey like, was extended. Like a wolf. Sharp white teeth stuck out. Very different from bigfoot.

  Still, she didn’t hesitate. It was still just Dan. Dragging her prize over, which was treated to look red for some reason, she tried to prop it up next to him. That took work, but by lifting and pushing the bottom into place, they had that under the mainly fallen down side of the building soon enough. Then she ran off, to get more of them. By the time they had six of them in place, just held by weight, Dan waved a giant white hand at her, changed back into his normal shape and then grabbed his clothing.

  He looked away, at Tom. Then snorted softly. The kid took a huge breath. Relaxing his own effort. The makeshift support held though. Looking around, he seemed scared for some reason.

  “Are you… From the government? Here to kill me for… you know.” There was a wave at the snow. Then a hard swallow as he looked at Dan putting his pants on. “I didn’t… I wasn’t trying to hurt you, just scare you away. People saw what I was doing and… I don’t want to go to prison. Or a lab. I didn’t mean for this… Please?” There was a gasp, but no more feeble attempts to explain how stupid he’d been.

  Which was fine. She sort of got the idea, even without asking. He’d been playing around and trying his cool powers out. A lot like anyone would. Then strangers came. Clearly, mind reading wasn’t his strongest suit or he would have understood who they were already. Then the shape changing man had been confused with a government agent, so maybe that part could be forgiven as well. The kid probably was just scared, so had messed up a bit.

  Merry snorted and shook her head a little.

  “No. We’re from a television show. Uncanny Things? We will be having a talk about the safe and ethical use of your abilities soon, regardless, is that understood? For now… Well, don’t mention the yeti in the yard or anything like that. That will just make you seem weird and no one wants that. We need to quiet things down, not freak out the people inside. Your family?”

  “Yeah. Um, thanks. For saving them. Sorry, I guess. I heard that people were coming and didn’t know what to do, so I made it snow. Then you stayed, so I tried it again. That was kind of dumb, huh?”

  She nodded, but smiled at the same time.

  “Yep. We ended up stuck in place with bigfoot walking through a wall and half eaten bread. No big thing, as long as we all get out alive. Now, let’s get the peopl
e inside free and see about making sure you have a place to stay for the night?”

  Dan just stood there, dressing. Then got a small folding shovel out and started digging. Smiling at her the whole time.

  Tom, for his part, got other shovels, so they could all work.

  It went pretty fast, doing it the normal way. Even if her back and legs were still killing her.

  Epilogue: three months later

  Holding the rather nice phone to her ear, Merry had to roll her eyes at Dan, who was fighting a playful smile from his lips. One of the things that she’d learned about him was that his hearing was incredible. All the time. That meant he was getting both sides of what was going on at the moment.

  The voice on the phone was gruff, being an ex-military man who’d gone into monster hunting after too many wars not to have left scars on his mind. The current work didn’t help with that, but it was his life and really, someone had to do the work.

  “Serious here, Merry. This is a class three poltergeist case. It would be great for your team of softies to look into. Oh, they might get hit with a few pans or flying knives, or set on fire, but no guts no glory, right?” The man had a very skewed idea of what safe really meant, she decided.

  They’d had a whole conversation about what they were looking for, as far as the show went. The man was just a bit harder than her friends on the crew were, that was all.

  Dan, for his part, just tilted his head at her.

  It was her job to put the team in the field after all. Now. The one for the show. Their ratings had been climbing in the last weeks, since they’d had two episodes with more than vague voices to show people. Not much more, but enough that people had noticed. There were even rumors that they might get a good time slot soon, if things kept up.

  She tilted her head back, filling with warmth as she looked at Dan.

  Her Dan. Her love.

  He was perfect. All the time, too. At first she’d thought that he’d try to take over from her, work wise. To protect her from life, out of love. Instead, out of that same feeling, he’d let her do almost anything she could think of. The whole thing was up to her, even if it might be dangerous. It was kind of exciting that way.

  “You know… I think we’ll try them on it. Good call, Mason. I have the specs on that. Let me set it up. You’re heading off to Houston for those murders?” That was probably a werewolf. At least that was what the Detroit team had called it. Then, they called anything that changed shape and had claws that, no matter what it looked like in the descriptions.

  Dan figured that it wasn’t one of his people, though he was keeping an eye on the whole thing. Everyone seemed to be staying alive so far, so he didn’t think it was a big issue. They investigated things, but as long as no one was being hurt, tended to leave them be. Even the Detroit team did that, when they could. It was safer for everyone involved.

  When the phone call ended, Dan wrapped his arms around her and held her closely for a few moments. Longer than was normal for them. It was nice. So much so that she didn’t want to leave the comfort of them for a moment. She had to pull him down to kiss him, but did it. It was their thing.

  Finally, he sighed. Sounding pleased about something.

  “Have I ever told you how wonderful you are?”

  She nodded.

  “Twice today, in fact. Thanks, though. You do all right yourself. You know…”

  She looked around the house. They were working out of Portland, so staying at his mansion there. It was vast, nice and comfortable. A thing they could come back to whenever they wanted.

  “What?”

  “Well, we should both go. With the team? I can bring my hunky and well-connected artist slash psychic boyfriend to this, don’t you think? No one will mind that much. In fact, everyone kind of likes you. It’s all that help with the lifting and toting you do. What do you say?”

  He hugged her again.

  “Yes. I would go anywhere with you, Merry. Even to the ends of the Earth and beyond.”

  She blinked, then nodded.

  “We should do that. Later. Maybe next season? We need to build up to things a bit, or people won’t be able to accept it. Anyway, I love you.” It was just blurted out.

  Not for the first time, either.

  “I love you too, my heart.”

  Then, taking her hand, they left to get ready for what came next. Which would, no doubt, be wonderful beyond all imagination.

  With magic. Possibly bigfoot. That, and lots of ghosts.

  She really couldn’t imagine anything better than that.