We Could Be Heroes 2

by Harmon Cooper

  “There is a rune user nearby,” Juniper said, a spark of energy shooting out from her fingertips and touching everything in the immediate vicinity before fading away. “I’ve marked it. For now, let’s deal with these two.”

  “Power-up, on,” Ozella said, and Dinah’s form took shape. “Go, Dinah!”

  A smile formed on the strange woman’s face, especially once she saw that she was standing in snow. Dinah took off toward the front of the group, just as the first bearwolf began its charge.

  Dinah met the creature head on, doing her best to gouge out the monster’s eyes, Dinah not experiencing any pain as it tried to chomp down on her. In fact, because her ability allowed her to keep growing appendages back, she ended up confusing the creature, riding it in a way as it tried to repeatedly tear her arm from its socket.

  “Stay back!” Zoe said, going for the next creature and sidestepping just in time for the bearwolf to jump forward, gnashing its teeth, snow spraying in the air.

  The two predators circled each other, Zoe the most feline Sam had ever seen her, hunched over, her arms fully transformed, her tail up in the air.

  The creature tried for another bite and Zoe dodged it, scraping her claws along its side and suffering from an intense shock in the process.

  “We can’t touch its flesh,” Juniper said as she dialed up another rune, sending it forward just as the bearwolf lunged toward Zoe.

  The rune, which spiraled as more written characters formed around it, slipped between Zoe and the creature just in time, the monster slamming into it as if it had run straight into a wall.

  “Blast it down, Sam!” Helena commanded, pointing forward.

  “Right,” Sam said, his hand now under his opposite elbow as he fired his first shot. The beam of energy struck the monster, sending it stumbling backward, a cloud of snowy mist peppering the air.

  Adjusting the dial on his arm to set the weapon to lethal, Sam blasted the bearwolf again, and another time, the monster finally falling to the side, wheezing.

  The other bearwolf, Dinah’s arm still in its mouth, took one look at its fallen partner and backpedaled, whimpering for a moment even as Dinah tried to push injury into its body.

  It reared up onto its hind legs, knocking Dinah off, and bolted into the woods.

  “Follow it!” Juniper said, already starting to chase after the bearwolf.

  Helena followed her without hesitation, Sam, Zoe, Ozella and Dinah bringing up the rear. Dinah was fast, and she soon passed Sam and Ozella. Zoe took this as a challenge and increasing her speed as she sped through the trees. Juniper traced a script as she ran, a floating light appearing overhead.

  “Thanks!” Helena caught up to Juniper, both of them running at exactly the same speed now.

  “Why are we chasing this thing?” Sam asked.

  “I don’t know!” Ozella shouted.

  “Just shut up and run!” Zoe yelled over her shoulder, still racing Dinah, who turned to Zoe, stuck her tongue out, and increased her speed. “Bitch,” the tiger girl said under her breath as they came to a toppled tree.

  She leapt over it, Sam too, Ozella not so much.

  The statkeeper tripped forward, crying out in pain as she face-planted in the snow. “Ozella?” Sam circled back to help her to her feet.

  “Dang…” she said.

  “Are you okay?” he asked as he started dusting her off.

  “Sorry, I’m not as fast as you guys,” she said. “So sorry…”

  “Nothing to be sorry about. Come on, let’s catch up with them.”

  Sam saw a flash of something incredibly fast coming his way. The wolf he had blasted earlier leapt over the fallen tree trunk and brought Sam to the ground, immediately sinking its teeth into his shoulder, electricity coursing through his body.

  Sam fired a blast from his wrist guard, but it went wide, cutting into a tree.

  What the…!?

  The bearwolf staggered for a moment and fell to the side, Ozella standing in the snow, her hair covering her face, her wrist guard still pointed at the creature.

  “Damn…” Sam rolled to the side, his shoulder all sorts of fucked.

  “Power-up, off,” Ozella said, stumbling over to Sam. “Dinah…”

  The ghost woman rose from the ground, her hands coming to her mouth as she saw Sam, his shoulder a bloodied mess, the flecks of snow on his coat stained crimson. She went at it almost immediately, her hands on both sides of Sam’s face as her lips met his cheek.

  “Where are the others?” Sam asked as the pain began to fade. It was weird for Dinah to be this close to him, almost as if she was kissing him, but he ignored it as the pain dissipated.

  “I think they’re still chasing the other bearwolf,” Ozella said. “But Juniper left some lights for us to follow.” She pointed up at the trees, and Sam noticed a string of small, glowing orbs.

  “Sweet. That should make this a bit easier.”

  Once he was healed up, Dinah focused her power on Ozella, who wasn’t too injured, but had taken a pretty good fall after hitting the tree stump.

  Just to be sure, Sam aimed his wrist guard at the downed bearwolf’s head, firing off a blast that sprayed its brains against the snow.

  “Just to be sure it doesn’t sneak up on us again,” he said.

  “Good plan. Let’s catch up with them,” Ozella said, “and we can go slower this time.”

  “Yeah, let’s go a little slower,” he said, offering Ozella his arm. She took it, and with Dinah in front of them, they began following the orbs.

  Chapter Thirty-Five: Crabby Hermit

  (Or hermity crab?)

  “I really hope that these orbs take us where we’re supposed to go,” Ozella said. They had been following the glowing orbs for almost thirty minutes now, and Sam was starting to get apprehensive. Their bags were getting heavy too. Sam had offered to carry Ozella’s a couple of times, but the shy statkeeper had told him she could handle it.

  It wasn’t that he didn’t trust Juniper; he trusted anyone that Helena could vouch for. But they were in a foreign country with just a small amount of information on their current location, plus it was freezing out, plus they were running around in the goddamn woods, plus it was getting harder and harder to see the glowing orbs.

  “We’ll get there eventually,” he told Ozella, who was still latched onto his arm. It was better this way, the two of them braving this together, both occasionally getting a glimpse of Dinah’s naked blue ass as she led the way.

  “Are you cold?” Sam asked Ozella.

  “I’m fine, but my cheeks are freezing; they feel like they’re frozen solid. I really wish I had a facemask or something.”

  “Tell me about it. My runny nose has definitely limited my power,” Sam said as a gust of wind blew past, obscuring the orbs. “Shit. Okay, whew, they’re back.”

  “I really hope we get some shelter soon. My guess is that it only gets colder as the night progresses, plus there must be some other types of crazy animals out here.”

  As Ozella said this she squeezed Sam’s arm, Sam naturally tensing his muscle, using what little bicep he had to hopefully offer her some encouragement. They kept going like this, deeper and deeper into the forest, a sinking feeling in Sam’s chest starting to move to his extremities.

  He wasn’t cold, aside from his face, but he was starting to get scared, and he didn’t want this feeling to rub off on Ozella. So he pushed ahead, following the orbs as stoically as a dude with an enhanced sniffer lost in the woods could until they came to a rock formation.

  At first, Sam couldn’t tell what they were looking at, but then he saw light from the orbs cut off in a way that made him believe they were about to enter into a cave.

  “I hear voices,” Ozella said as both of them felt a rush of energy.

  “Let’s hurry.”

  They moved quickly into the cavern, Sam glad to be out of the snow. They stopped once they heard the voices again, and Sam pressed his back against the cave wall. “Ozella,” he whis
pered, “get ready to use your weapon. We don’t know what’s happening down there; they could have captured Helena and the others.”

  “Who?” Ozella asked.

  “Helena and the others.”

  “No, who could have captured them?”

  “Didn’t Juniper say that there was a rune user in the vicinity? I think it had something to do with the bearwolves. Anyway, it doesn’t matter, let’s just be prepared. Dinah can be our backup weapon.”

  “Dinah,” Ozella said, the ghost woman appearing at her side. “Stay close, we may need you.”

  Dinah nodded as they moved deeper into the cavern. Sam was finally able to remove his hood for a moment, snow falling from his hood onto the rough soil beneath him.

  “You brought this upon yourself,” they heard Juniper say. “Stop blaming us for killing your pet. Besides, you conjured it, so it’s not real in the first place. You can technically conjure another one.”

  “Do you know how much effort it takes for a man my age to conjure a bearwolf? Especially one as cute as that? Why can’t you understand this? You are from the School of Script. You don’t have the heart to understand it.”

  “That’s not what we are discussing here; what we are discussing is why you have taken it upon yourself to attack us.”

  “This is my… This is my area,” the man replied. “It’s all I have, dammit. And you were, and still are, intruders.”

  “We’re here,” Sam called out, lowering his weapon after he saw Zoe, Helena and Juniper’s shadows, the shadow of an older man as well, the guy hunched forward a bit. They came around a bend and moved over to Helena’s side. There were magical candles, or at least Sam assumed they were magical, lit around the perimeter of the dwelling. He also saw a few books lying in the corner surrounded by bunched up scrolls, pillows and a few empty boxes.

  “Glad you two could finally join us,” Zoe said.

  “Is everything okay?” he asked Helena.

  “Yes, he’s just being difficult,” she said, looking over her shoulder at the man.

  “Difficult?” The man started to cough. He wiped his mouth, his long white beard shaking. “You barge into my cave…”

  “You attacked us,” Zoe said, “and how many times do we have to go over this? We followed your bearwolf back here.”

  “But you didn’t have to kill him! And where’s the other one?”

  “We killed that one,” Sam said matter-of-factly.

  “You what!?” The old man slapped his hand against his forehead. “Fuck-to-all-the-gods why, why, are you five so interested in killing an old man’s only friends?”

  “How many times do we have to go over this?” Juniper asked. “You can just make new ones.”

  “But I really liked those two, and you,” he said, his bushy eyebrows narrowing on Zoe. “You killed mine after he led you back to us. You could have spared his life.”

  “That motherfucker had it coming.”

  “What? Who says something so crass? Who is this woman you brought to me, Girl of the Script?” he asked Juniper.

  “Man of the Heart, these are my traveling companions.”

  “Some companions they are! Tasty morsels, maybe, but I’m nearly a hundred years old, and it would take more than a couple of runes for me to erect my proof of manhood. I digress,” he said, running his hand through his beard.

  He was dirty, and Sam knew better than to tilt his nose in the old man’s direction. He was glad in that instant that his nostrils were still wet, runny from the cold weather.

  “Did you just call us tasty morsels?” Zoe asked, her claws taking shape.

  “Relax, Tiger Girl, and allow a perverted old hermit to be himself. Why do you think I’m in this cave all alone? Especially now, after you’ve killed my two companions.”

  “I think we got off on the wrong foot,” Juniper said, some of Helena’s trademark diplomacy making itself known. “My name is Juniper. This is Helena, Zoe, Ozella, and Sam.”

  “All names I will forget shortly,” the old man said, coughing again. “And take no offense to that statement. I’m just not very good with names. Let me try something. Zoe, Zoe, Zoe. Helena, Helena, Helena. Juniper, Juniper, Juniper. Ozella, Ozella, Ozella. Sam, Sam, Sam. Nope, it’s not helping.”

  “Well, that’s fine, what’s your name?” Juniper asked.

  “My name?” The man looked up at her for a moment, the clearly magical candles he had in the cave allowing Sam to finally get a good look at his face. The man’s eyes were glassy and gray, his beard stained, an ancient tattoo starting from his forehead and running down the bridge of his nose. “Dorzmon. That’s my name.”

  Juniper stopped for a moment, her hand coming to her chest.

  “What is it?” Helena asked as she moved from Sam to her friend.

  “The Dorzmon?” Juniper asked “Yes, it has to be. You’re the famous lecturer from the School of Heart. What are you doing out here?”

  “I’ve been out here for a while now, Girl of the Script.” He tilted his head down, a shadow coming over his face. “And I plan to die out here. And now, I plan to die alone.”

  “If you really are Dorzmon, you should easily be able to conjure new creations.”

  “Yeah, yeah. I’ve been depressed for a couple of years,” he said, gesturing for them to join him on the ground. He sat, his frail legs crossed under his robes. “Please, set your bags down and take a seat. Apparently, you five will be staying here tonight. I keep trying to kick you out, but you don’t get the hint. But what can I do? You know, I have to be honest with you five. I tried to deny what the rune was telling me. Hell, I sent my two best friends to scare the five of you off. But the rune never lies, the spirit is ever-present.”

  Sam and the others took their seats around the man, Zoe the only one not to sit. She crouched instead, still ready to spring into action if necessary.

  “Why are you out here?” Juniper asked again.

  “I was banished from the school by the new headmaster, a wicked man named Sugoz. But it’s not as bad as it sounds. While the cave can get cold, it’s quite toasty at night, especially if I borrow a little strength from the ground.”

  Dorzmon placed a hand on the ground, and a warm wave radiated forward. Soon, Sam was warm enough to take off his jacket, which he did, folding and placing it on the ground next to him. There was still a tear where the bearwolf had bitten into the coat, bite marks which also cut through Sam’s uniform. But at least he was healed up, just a bit of dried blood around the two holes.

  “Why have you been banished?” Helena asked.

  “The rune schools aren’t supposed to be for commercial gain. Of course, they have become that, especially with the changes in leadership over the last couple centuries. But I always had faith in the School of Heart, that we wouldn’t become a strictly financial institution, like the one you went to, Script Girl,” he told Juniper.

  Sam waited for Juniper to snap back, but she didn’t, merely acknowledging what he said with a slight nod of her head.

  “But the new headmaster, the wretched Sugoz, is interested in financial and political gain as well. And here I am. This is what happens when you speak up, when you make your thoughts known, and looking back, I guess it’s stupid to say this but it’s true, dammit. I wouldn’t have done it any other way. I don’t know if I affected any of the students in the courtyard that day, when I told Sugoz exactly how I felt, but I like to think I did.”

  “We were actually heading toward the School of Heart,” Juniper said.

  “I know,” said Dorzmon, a weariness to his voice that made Sam feel sorry for the guy even though the dude’s bearwolf had seriously tried to take a chunk out of Sam’s shoulder.

  “Are you a telepath?” Ozella asked. The way she was looking at the man told Sam that she wasn’t getting a reading on him at all. Sam assumed that this was because of a rune, Ozella blinking her eyes, rubbing them, trying to focus on the man and coming up with nothing.

  “No, and you won’t get any i
nformation from me that way. No, I merely listen to the rune. You know, Girl of the Script, the better you get at listening to the rune, the more it becomes part of you. It is part of my blood and it could be part of your blood, regardless of which school you studied at, and failed to graduate from.”

  Juniper hung her head in shame for a moment.

  Dorzmon waved his hand in her direction. “It speaks to all of us in different ways, even Centralians. So to answer your question, I’m not a telepath, I simply listen. And you will find that in nature, it is much easier to listen than it is in the bustling cities of our world. Sure, some enlightened fellow may tell you that you can reach bliss anywhere, but fuck that guy. He doesn’t know what he’s talking about.”

  Sam cracked a grin at the old man. He imagined in that moment being his student, getting a daily dosage of both wisdom and vulgarity.

  “So then you know why we’re here,” Helena said, getting right to the point.

  “You are here because of the caravan I saw passing through earlier today.”

  “Vampires,” said Ozella.

  “Indeed.” The old man began to cough. “Excuse me, sorry,” he said after he finished coughing. “It is rather ironic, isn’t it? Sending vampires to the School of Heart? Especially given how our rune casting works. It’s quite the shame, but I don’t think there’s much the five of you can do to stop it. Evil is an inevitability. May I suggest retiring to the world you have created for yourselves, one of wealth in Centralia for you,” he told Helena, “and the same for you here, Girl of the Script. I’m sure the rest of you will figure it out.”

  “Sorry, that’s not how we operate,” said Sam.

  “I was afraid you would say something like that. Well, just let it be known now that I believe the five of you will end up dead if you go after the caravan, and that’s not considering some of the more powerful instructors they have at the School of Heart. While some used to be my friends, who knows what influence Sugoz has had over them. I can say this, however. Going at it in the way you are planning, by marching right up to the gate, is foolhardy indeed. They have checkpoints along the road, wards you won’t be able to get through.”