The Godsend Backfire: The Beginning

by Harold Straugh

  It was midway through the day, when I heard a clap of thunder off in the distance and looked. On the horizon, dark, stormy clouds formed, and I could see the rain from where we were. The water began to get choppy and for the first time Mylicious had a worried look on his face.

  “Prepare brother, this is going to get bad,” he said and looked at me, “The rain is going to be cold, might even get hard on us.”

  To say it got bad, was an understatement. First heavy winds moved in, rocking the boat to where we stopped rowing and held on, the wind died down and the rains started in. It was frozen rain and I could tell Mylicious didn’t like it. Then, on top of the frozen rain, the wind picked up again. The front of the boat would lift up in the air and come crashing back down, throwing water up in the boat. Then, suddenly, it all stopped, the rain and the wind. Mylicious was staring off in the distance and he looked back at, beard frozen.

  “I know you don’t like Jehovah right now, but you might want to pray,” he said and pointed off in the distance. It took me a minute to figure it what he was pointing. There was wall of water and it was headed our way. “PADDLE!!!” Mylicious yelled.

  Instead of heading away from the wall of water, we headed right towards it. My brother was yelling obscenities and shaking his fist at the sky in between rowing. We were in a head-on collision with the wall of water. Soon the whole boat started to go up the wall, we paddled harder than ever before. The frozen rain started up again, sticking in his beard and in my hair.

  We went high on the wave, it had to be over eighty-feet high and when we got to top, we could see the sun and more snow-covered land on the other side. Mylicious looked back and smiled at me, he tossed the oar inside the boat and grabbed on a rope he used to tie the boat off with. The wall of water split, the backside of the wave, that we were on, headed towards the land. Mylicious bellowed out as we went barreling towards the land. I held on for dear life. We were going so fast down the back of the wave, that ice chunks were flying off my hair and front of the boat

  We hit the land and hit it hard. The boat bounced as we skidded across the ice-laden land. We skidded about a hundred-yards before the boat turned sideways, tossing us out. I hit the ground and the ice that was on me, shattered. I rolled, rolled some more and, then slid across the ice, stopping only when I slid into Mylicious, who had changed his hand into the wolfen form and dug into the ice.

  “That was a rush my brother,” Mylicous said, I watched as his hand went back into human form and his breath formed in the air.

  “Maybe for you,” I said and stood up, shaking what ice that was left on me off. I saw my breath for the first time. I’ve been through winters before but never seen my breath before that day. I looked over Mylicous was staring at me oddly, “What?”

  “You act as if you never seen your breath before,” he said and breathed into the air, a thick, visible breath came rolling out of his mouth.

  “I haven’t I don’t know why either,” I said, “I guess it has to be greatly cold for my body to react.”

  “I love how we are all so different,” he said and clapped me on the back, knocking even more ice off me, “Derium, doesn’t breathe at all.”

  “Derium’s not doing much of anything,” I said and smirked a little bit. Mylicious’s face changed, I don’t think he enjoyed my joke.

  “Come, we have to walk a little,” He said, looking up at the sky, “Well, I can’t see the sun very well.”

  There was indeed a thick fog and if Mylicious was having a hard time seeing I definitely was. Mylicious undressed, rolled up his clothes, then changed right before me. He asked my in my head, if I could pick up his clothes, so I did. He then took a big sniff of the air, I could see the fog entering his large, wolfen nostrils.

  “This way!” he said to me in my head.

  I followed him, watching him breath heavily, the fog in and out of his nostrils, breaking down every scent he could. There couldn’t have been much, there wasn’t much that looked alive there. We walked for miles, upon miles and I didn’t see one tree, even when the fog lifted, it was just snow and mountains. After a while, even the cold was getting to me. I was realizing I could feel elements, just on much higher extreme than anyone else.

  “Almost there, brother!” Mylicious said.

  We walked for another couple of miles and then suddenly he stopped, “Look,” he said and pointed with his nose.

  Off in the distance, I could see a glimmer of light, it danced back and forth, a small glimmer of whatever hope lie ahead. We walked up to the light, it was torch, set next to a big hole in the frozen earth. Mylicious transformed back, I gave him his clothes and then he took the torch.

  There were steps carved out of the frozen earth. I could see claw marks on them where Mylicious had carved them out by hand. We walked down about a quarter mile before I saw more flickers of light ahead of us. Mylicious remained quiet the whole time we walked, and I didn’t bother to ask if anything was wrong with him.

  The flickers of light got brighter, and we soon came an opening. There was a dome-like room, with torches all around, the floor wasn’t ice, but many, different looking, furs, except by the fire. There was a large fire in the middle of the room, and with the ceiling of the room well over twenty-feet high, the chances of the room melting were slim. There was, what appeared, to be a hole in the ceiling, above the fire for the smoke to go out of. There were other tunnels, five to be exact, that webbed out different directions as you walked around the room. I saw some reflective eyes in the tunnels, and heard some growls.

  He put his had up and spoke in a different language, the growling stopped, and the reflective eyes went away. Then appeared from one of the tunnels, a woman. She was about five-feet and three-inches tall, she had short, just about the shoulder length, black hair and wide brown eyes. Her skin was a light brown and she was wearing nothing, when she appeared. She looked at Mylicious and the two talked, as usual I listened for a few minutes and then I could understand them.

  “Why is he so white? Is he a wolf like you?” she asked and before Mylicious could speak, I spoke for me.

  “I’ve always been this way,” I said in her language, she stared at me in amazement. The language, which is lost now to today’s world, was a form of Inuit. There was though, certain sounds they would make with their tongues, a click or a cluck here and there, that took me awhile to understand, “And no, I am not wolf like he, I am different a lot different.”

  “How do you know our language?” she asked.

  “I don’t know, the more you talk, the more I learn, I’ve always been able to do it,” I said.

  “I wish I could do that,” Mylicious said.

  “I guess there are certain things I can do, that you can’t and things you can do that I can’t,” I said.

  “Are you demon?” she asked.

  “Mila that’s enough, he’s no more demon than I am, I’ve told you where we are from,” Mylicious said.

  “It’s quite alright brother, I’m use to the questions,” I said and smiled.

  It was then I noticed her eye-balling something behind me, then she spoke, “You know how to shoot?”

  “I do, I’m a great shot,” I boasted a little.

  “He might come in handy,” she said, then turned and walked away, her backside fading in the darkness of the tunnel.

  “You’ll have to excuse her brother, she’s weary of my relatives, ever since Derium tried to feed from her brother.”

  “He sure does now how to ruin things.”

  “It appears so,” Mylicious said and looked down.

  “Father!” I heard coming from the tunnel that Mila walked down. Out of the tunnel, two kids, about ten-years-old, came running out. They looked identical in the face, but one was a boy and one was girl. They were fully clothed, thankfully, then Mila re-appeared with dress, made of hide. The left side of the dress was higher than the right, cut slightly above the knee and angled down to her right ankle. The tip, of the end of dress was dyed blue. Sh
e smiled softly at me and I nodded back.

  The two children ran up Mylicious and they all embraced. He turned them to me and spoke, “Amka, Amaruq, this is my brother, Roldian.”

  They looked up at me and then got closer to Mylicious, I stepped forward and put my arms out. They started crying, wretched creatures. I put my arms down and stepped back, they sniffled and wiped their eyes, brats.

  I then heard howling, It was radiating from the hole in the center of the ceiling, “The rest of my pack is here, there’s Kallik, Tarkik the other two men in my pack. Then we have Tapeesa and Yura the other two females in the pack,” Mylicious said with a smile on his face, he was proud.

  I heard the massive footsteps coming down the steps and then a group of four, massive wolves came through the doorway. One was black, with a white patch on its chest and yellow eyes, the second one was a dark brown, all around with blue eyes, the third one was a lighter brown and had red eyes, then the last one, the last one I really liked. It was grey and had purple eyes, it caught my attention the minute it walked through the doorway.

  “We have guest, go and change, then come back dressed please,” Mylicious said.

  The black wolf walked by me and snarled a little bit, but I paid no attention to him, I was too busy looking at the grey wolf, who looked back at me before it went into one of the tunnels with the rest of the wolves. Minutes later they all came back, dressed.

  “Introduce yourselves,” Mylicious said.

  “Is it even going to understand us?” one of the males asked rudely.

  “I’ll understand more than you ever will, and I’m not an “It”,” I said hastily, only to receive a look of surprise from them and laughter from Mylicious.

  “This my brother Roldian, I’ve mentioned him before.”

  “Plenty of times actually,” the rude male said.

  “Mind your tongue, Kallik before I rip it out and make you choke on it,” Mylicious said, it was first, hateful thing I’ve heard him say.

  “I’m sorry, it was a rough hunt.” Kallik said.

  “We have plenty of food, so don’t worry,” Mylicious said.

  Kallik put his head down and nodded, “Would the rest of you like to introduce yourselves?” Mylicious asked.

  “I’m Tarkik,” the other male said, like the other male, he was well built, not as well as I, but close. His hair was jet black and long, down his back and braided. Kallik’s hair was shorter than Tarkik’s and simply put in a pony tail.

  I nodded, as the first female introduced herself, she was petite, but had a firm grip, “I’m Tapeesa,” she said as she took my hand. She too had long hair, that was braided all the way down her back.

  Then the last one came up to me, she seemed nervous. I’ll never forget what she was wearing. She had on tan top, cut out right below the right breast and angled down to the bottom of the left rib cage. Her stomach wasn’t as flat as Tapeesa’s, but it fit her build. She wore a matching skirt and she was little bit thicker from the waist down than the waist up. She slowly stuck out her hand and I took it, it felt soft to my touch, “You must be Yura?” I asked before she could open her mouth.

  “I am,” her eyes gleamed.

  “I’m glad to have met you,” I said stumbling on my words a little. This was the first time I remember ever being nervous in front of a woman.

  I got a sideways look from Kallik, it was then I notice Tapeesa was standing next to Tarkik, holding his hand. So, I let go of Yura’s hand, but she didn’t walk to Kallik’s side. She simply walked right past him and headed to the fire. She stopped and looked at me, then slowly turned around and finished walking to the fire.

  It was then I noticed I didn’t see their breath, nor mine. I figured being completely surrounded by ice and underground, it would be freezing, but the place appeared to be really warm. I took more notice of things around the room. There were benches made of lumber, that surrounded the firepit. There were spears and some spools of twine, that had, what could have been, the very first fishing hooks on them. My attention was diverted back to the group.

  “Can you shoot?” Kallik asked, “You carry, you should be able to shoot.” Kallik apparently had a problem with me.

  “Yes, I can, as I’ve already told Mila,” I said.

  “Then prove it,” he said.

  I nodded, knocked an arrow and took aim at a torch across the room, it had to be over thirty-yards away. I aimed or the tip of the flame, relaxed and released the arrow. The arrow whizzed through the air and the flame disappeared. Kallik put his hands on his hips, looked at me and said, “The gods were with you on that one,” then walked away. I noticed he had a rope tied around his waist to hold his pants up, the knot was of to the side. So I knocked another arrow.

  “Roldian?” Mylicious asked in my mind.

  “Trust me brother,” I said back and released the arrow. The arrow hit the knot, popping the rope, dropping his pants mid-walk. “They definitely weren’t with you there!” I said, only to get laughter from the rest of the group. He stumbled, then pulled his pants up from around his ankles and disappeared down a tunnel. Only to reappear a few minutes later with a freshly tied knot and hate in his eyes.

  “You have to excuse Kallik, the full moon is coming up, which means mating time. Tapeesa has already claimed Tarkik and Yura doesn’t desire Kallik, so he has to travel to the main land and try to find a mate there. He’s had no luck,” Mila spoke.

  I was confused, then Mylicious spoke up, “Let me explain some. After the first year of my curse, I stopped forcefully transforming on the full moon, and something more desirable started happening. Just like with Derium making more vampires, I could make more wolves, all I must do is bite, but I can also mate, as can Derium, but it’s much harder for him. There are so many groups out there, I set up rules and they follow them, mostly. Each pack has a leader, something else I think is wrong with Kallik, he wants to be the Alpha male, its not going to happen in this pack.”

  I nodded, jealous once more they can just go off and make more of themselves and I still hadn’t figured it out yet. I shook off my frustration and we walked over to the benches and sat down by the fire. I noticed Yura was staring at me, when I caught her, she quickly diverted her eyes from me.

  “I’m sorry, your eyes are so white, so pure,” she said.

  “I assure you, there is nothing pure about me,” I said, she blushed a little bit, I didn’t realize how sexual it had sounded until I thought about it, “I usually have my eyes and face covered,” I said and put my face mask on and produced my purple glasses and put them on.

  “They’re just like my eyes,” Yura said, and it was then I noticed her eyes were a shade of purple, not as bright as in wolfen form, but purple.

  “I had a dear friend get me these a long time ago,” I said, feeling saddened at the thought of Noemi.

  “You won’t have to cover up here,” Tapeesa spoke to me.

  “If you’re family to Mylicious, you’re family to us,” Tarkik said.

  The group spoke to me, all except Kallik, he sat at the opposite end of the bench, giving me glares here and there. He was acting more of a brat than Mylicious’s brats were.

  “I hope you’re hungry brother, as for me, I’m famished,” Mylicious said as Mila, Tapeesa and Yura got up and disappeared into the tunnel fourth to the from the left of the doorway. They came back a few minutes later, each carrying a massive leg of meat. I had never seen a leg of meat so large before. I didn’t see any vegetables, which meant no potatoes. I was a little saddened, the last time I had a potato was when Noemi was alive.

  The two children, along with myself, set idly by as the rest of the pack, set up a spit, made of iron. There were two long forked rods, that were about six-feet-high and a pointed, longer rod, with a large handle. They skewered the meat on that rod and the men lifted it over and set it on the forks. I’ve seen it done many of time before but, never in a carved-out cave in the middle of the Artic.

  I also noticed there was no seasoning
being applied, Noemi would have been having a fit, if she saw that. The meat smelled good though. After about thirty-minutes, the fat started to render down and drip onto the fire, making little sizzling and popping noises as it did. After about another forty-minutes Mylicious walked over and tore a chunk of meat off and tossed it to me.

  “Try that brother, you won’t be disappointed,” he said, the fire danced off his eyes.

  I caught the meat with one hand, it was tender to the touch and juiced dripped from in between my fingers and onto the fur-covered floor. I easily tore a piece off and put it in my mouth. It was tender, juicy and Mylicious was right, I was not disappointed. The meat had a mild gamey taste, but not over powering, it was unlike any other meat I had sampled before.

  “What is this?” I asked.

  “They call them Yeti’s, they live in the mountains on the far side of the land. We try to stay away but, they tend to venture into my land. They put up a good fight, they’re huge, eight-feet tall was the smallest I have ever seen.”

  Tarkik and Kallik took the pointed rod off the fire, turned the point downwards and stuck it in the ice. Mylicious tossed another piece to me, then nodded at the rest of the pack. They attacked the meat as if it were still alive. They didn’t use utensils, wooden or metal plates, they used their hands. They ripped it apart, gross slurping and chewing sounds filled my ears. Even innocent looking Yura was on all fours, pawing at the food. I ate my food away from the pack, in silence, and disgust. As usual I didn’t even get to swallow most the food, it just absorbed into my body.

  Mylicious’s kids were the first to walk away, they came closer to me than before and sat down, staring at me. Amka, the girl, came a little closer, I wanted to hiss at her, to get her to go away, but I didn’t. I just looked at her and turned my attention back to the feeding frenzy. I watched with my peripheral vision as Amka inched closer. She then slowly reached out her tiny hand and touched my hand. I looked over at her and she had a look of curiosity on her face.

  “What?” I asked her.

  “You’re not as cold as the ice, but you look like the ice,” she said and moved the hair from her face.