Of Beasts and Bells

by J E Mueller

  “Nothing interesting needs catching up on. The to-be-read pile can wait awhile and who doesn’t try to put off laundry whenever possible?” I tried to make the situation lighter, but Nadia didn’t seem to be falling for it.

  “Do what must be done,” she replied without emotion before pulling another sword off the wall and bringing it to me. “While I have no problems with the wolves, it will be better to be fully prepared this time around.”

  I looked at the sword she handed me. It was a lighter blade, one that was easier for practice, and one that Nadia had been teaching me with. I hated the idea of needing it, but the wolves were magical entities that didn’t care about reason, just the mission they were created for. They wouldn’t feel a thing and be back before dark. Without another thought, I strapped it on.

  “Do you think we’ll run into many of them? How many are there even?” With how big the forest must be I assumed a lot of them existed. Or did the magic just cover the forest and wolves appear as needed?

  “More than twenty-two. I got bored walking around after that number, but I could still hear them in the distance.” Nadia shrugged as she led the way out. “Do you have everything?”

  I bobbed my head as I put on the backpack I brought and the cloak she gave me over that. It was instantly warmer than I needed, but I knew that feeling wouldn’t last once we hit the woods.

  I hated that I was right.

  Not even five minutes into the woods the cold air hit me and I was thankful for the cloak. I was certain the only reason I made it to the castle myself the first time around with just a little sweater was because of all the pedaling and exercise I had done prior.

  “What will you do while I’m gone?” I asked, partly out of curiosity, partly to help myself ignore the cold.

  Nadia slowed her pace for a moment. “Maybe resume combing through the library.” She gave a shrug and resumed her normal pace for a while before adding “I haven’t explored the attic either really. Maybe that.”

  The idea intrigued me. “Oh, what’s up there?”

  “Who even knows.” She gave a small laugh. “Probably a lot of decorations. Different furniture that used to be switched out seasonally.”

  She seemed indifferent on what was up there, but I was excited about the possibilities. “Oooo, make sure you let me know if you find anything. I’m sure there’s got to be at least something of interest up there. Attics always have the best stuff.”

  She raised her eyebrow at me. “I very much doubt that. I’m positive there are some fun things to look at but doubtful anything really useful.”

  We bantered and discussed the possibilities as we continued on. The conversation almost took us all the way to the end of the forest. As we started to see the trees thinning out, Nadia brought up a new topic.

  “I don’t want you trying to come back on your own,” she stated very matter-of-fact, placing her hands on her hips for emphasis.

  “There are only so many ways back,” I pointed out the obvious.

  “Agreed. You’ll wait for me to escort you back. Those wolves will make quick work of you.” Her blunt statement put me on the defense instantly and I had to take a breath not to argue with her.

  “They won’t with a sword, but you’re right, the numbers can give them the advantage. What exactly do you suggest? It's not like you can wait here all day either.”

  “I’ll come back here. We can meet about noon. The walk gives me something to do,” Nadia stated as if it was the most logical answer in the world.

  “We should figure out an exact day then,” I replied, not wanting her to wait endlessly and I wasn’t exactly sure how long I would take. While I wanted to be back tomorrow, I might need another day or two.

  “Whenever. The walk is fine. It’s not like it takes forever, and it’s better than being stuffed up all the time.” Her words had an odd sense of finality to them.

  I nodded as we stopped at the edge of the forest, not sure what else to say.

  Nadia made a shooing motion at me. “Go contact your brother.”

  I paused for a moment, the memory of her knocking out Marcus in order to take him out of the woods coming to mind. “You can just enter and leave consciously? Why did you knock my brother out?”

  Nadia gave a shrug, looking a bit bashful at the question. “I was mad and didn’t want to hear him complaining and arguing the entire way. I’m sorry, that was the wrong course of action. There isn’t a good excuse for it.”

  “As long as you apologize to him when you can all is forgiven.” I smiled back, glad to see how much she had grown in the time I had spent with her. A little shove in the right direction was doing her a lot of good.

  “I will, I promise.” She nodded, motioning once again for me to exit the woods.

  With another nod, I stepped out of the woods and pulled out my phone. Full bars happily showed on the screen. I dialed Marcus’s number before looking back at the woods. Nadia was already gone. The sight of no one there was oddly depressing and almost hurtful.

  I forced myself to concentrate on the call instead. Marcus needed to know I was fine.

  ——Marcus——

  We had stayed up late putting together a series of stun-guns and tasers to combat whatever nonsense Donny might bring. It was hard to sleep. While I had moments of restlessness worrying about Ash, I worried about this more. He was steadily getting creepier and more stalkerish by the moment. The one time I mentioned it to someone in town, their only response was to laugh and say Donny is just a guy who gets what he wants, and that Ash better just give in and accept a great guy was after her. When I pointed out a great guy wouldn’t act like this, they claimed I was just being dense and hateful.

  The second we could move out of town, we would.

  Richard divided up the different gadgets among us as we prepped to head out. “I’ve got some low key fire magic, what did everyone else have again?”

  Stan sighed. “Extreme dexterity and shields.”

  Jon raised an eyebrow. “How is dexterity a magical ability again?”

  Stan gave another sigh and stood up before doing a series of flips and twists in the air that seemed inhumanly possible from a simple standing position. “Because magic said so,” Stan replied before sitting back down again.

  “My bad, man,” Jon replied with a low whistle. “Not that I can talk. I can shoot ice and it will always hit my target if it’s within ‘eyesight’.” He did finger quotes on the last word.

  “Do explain,” I stated, letting myself be momentarily curious and distracted from gearing up.

  “If the target leaves my range of vision, like goes behind me, and the target would still be considered in my line of sight when I move I can still hit it. Even without turning around.” Jon summed up.

  “Damn man, that's OP.” Stan laughed as Richard nodded in agreement.

  “I’m just the tech guy. Nothing exciting there.” I shrugged.

  Richard gave a shrug. “Well, I feel on the normal side now.”

  “Good, was starting to think I accidentally befriended some weird magic gods.” I chuckled.

  Jon laughed. “Nah, it’s just a lucky gift. Can cause more trouble than not if you accidentally stab someone.”

  “But if it always hits, how is that on accident?” Richard crossed his arms.

  Jon gave a nervous laugh. “Come on, we’ve all accidentally used magic before. We’re not perfect here. It’s easier now but growing up? What a pain.”

  I gave a small laugh in return. “Let’s get going. Ash was the queen of doing that junk. We had to use a paint scraper once to get eggs off the ceiling.” I motioned for us to leave. Everyone picked up their gear and headed out.

  The parking lot seemed eerily quiet for this time of day. Usually the mid morning, early afternoon time frame, people were buzzily going about their day. A cool breeze seemed to be the culprit. An early fall seemed to be wanting to come in, bringing some dark storm clouds along with it.

  “Great, nothing says
adventure like a ‘dark and stormy night’,” Jon complained as we piled into the car.

  “It’s mid afternoon, shut up,” Richard threw back.

  “Going to storm the castle like BAMFs and save the day,” Stan added in. “Forget those clouds.”

  “I just don’t want to deal with that wanna be lover-boy,” Jon groaned.

  “Same,” I agreed a bit too earnestly as we headed off. Hopefully we wouldn’t see him. Maybe he’d even get attacked by some wolves.

  Of course while he likely would be attacked by the wolves, he was also far more prepared to handle that issue. I had zero doubts he’d be bringing guns at the very least, and likely several friends in an attempt to figure out what is going on and save the day. I wondered if in his mind he was always the hero who never did wrong. The people here certainly acted like it.

  By the time we reached the woods, my stomach dropped. Two trucks I easily recognized as part of Donny’s crew were right where we had been last night.

  I didn’t say anything as I bolted from the car and into the woods. The guys quickly rushed to catch up to me. Richard called his fire to him and glanced down at his fists with a frown.

  “It’s harder to call magic here. It’s taking work to even get a small flame,” Richard commented.

  “I told you in the castle I couldn’t get anything to work, remember?” I pointed out, not surprised.

  Jon grumbled as he carefully moved around some roots sticking up from the ground. “Great, we actually have to be careful and possibly fight both wolves and crazed hunters. This is going to be a delight.”

  Stan shrugged. “At least we are prepared. The tech should work until the castle and by then the other group will be on the same level as us.”

  Hopefully, but I wasn’t going to put many bets on that. While I knew this place impacted magic, there was no saying what non-magical things Donny might have with him.

  We didn’t really chat much as we got deeper into the woods. I was surprised when after only ten minutes we started hearing sounds ahead of us. As careful as we could, we tried to catch up with the group.

  “Those wolves back there were weird,” I heard Max state, a slight twinge of fear in his voice.

  “They were magical contraptions,” Higgs laughed off the statement, not even the least bit concerned that there were such beasts here.

  “Obviously,” Max stated loudly. “They vanished into mist. That’s not the problem. Why are they here?”

  “What? Suddenly afraid of a little trespassing?” Higgs laughed again.

  “Come now, Max,” Donny stated matter-of-factly. “There’s adventure ahead. Those geeks were here yesterday for a reason. If I had to guess, my fair exquisite lady had decided to run away from these simpletons who only have their heads in books all day. Let’s see where this gets us.”

  “That still doesn’t explain the wolves,” Max pointed out. At least one of them had some sort of brains. Sadly not enough since he was still with this lot.

  “Maybe Ash created them. It’s not like her brother can take them on,” Donny gave a huge laugh as if it was the funniest thing he had ever thought of.

  “I don’t think her magic does anything but randomly explode small things.” Max sighed. “Girl needs some manners.”

  I felt my blood start to boil as the conversation continued but kept it inside. It was good that there were so many trees and foliage between us because I was more than tempted to pick up the pace and punch all of them in the jaw. If we were going to take them on, we’d be better off waiting until there were some wolves to join us in that adventure. I felt bad for even thinking about it, but we were likely no match for them and their guns as it was.

  A weird buzz shook my pocket and I was surprised my phone vibrated. I stopped. I was already with everyone who would normally message me. I glanced at the guys but saw none of them had their phones out. Slowly, I grabbed my phone and saw Astrid’s name pop up. This was not what I expected.

  “Hello?” I asked surprised, as quietly into the phone as I could.

  “Hey, surprise!” Her voice came back rather chipper and relieved. “So, long story short, I’m out. I need a ride back since I didn’t even think to grab my bike.” I stood there for a moment unsure what to say. “Marcus?”

  I snapped out of it. “How did you get free? Where are you?” I whispered frantically, grateful the voices of the other guys were fading.

  “At the edge of the forest. I'm not exactly sure where, but you can find my location now,” she replied as if it was the simplest thing in the world. It really was now though.

  The guys stared at me curiously as I looked up her location. I glanced at them. “I don’t know how, but Ash is free and fine,” I said to them as the location popped up about a mile away from where we were parked. She was just far enough away to not see everything. I breathed a sigh of relief.

  “Good. Mission accomplished then, right?” Jon asked.

  I shrugged and talked into my phone. “If you head west, in about a mile you’ll reach the cars. Long story short, Donny and crew are trying to find you in the forest.”

  There was a pause before a loud and frantic “What?!”

  “Yeah, Donny saw us looking and assessing the woods last night and got some weird idea that meant you were here. He’s not exactly wrong but that’s a weird leap to make.”

  “I’m coming to you, we have to get to the castle before them or lead them back out,” Ash stated frantically, already walking through the woods from the sound of it.

  “What? No. It’s dangerous,” I argued back.

  “We can’t let them get to Nadia. He’d kill her and probably half the castle.” Ash had her mind made up already and I knew arguing was futile.

  Still, argue I did. “The beast locked you up for weeks! You shouldn’t be concerned about her.”

  “Yeah, she was a bit off her rocker. You would be too if you spent eighteen flipping months trapped as a creature with gossipy hateful staff!”

  I wasn’t expecting that reply, not that I knew what to expect anymore. “We’re coming to you, then we can go after them.” I sighed as I clicked the conversation off and started following her location on my phone.

  “Well?” Richard just about demanded.

  Sighing, I waved for them to follow as I filled them in on what I knew. Sadly, it wasn’t much and left far more questions than I had answers for.

  “So, is she like B-F-Fs with this beast now?” Richard asked, skeptical of the change in events.

  “It doesn’t sound like they’re enemies.” I shrugged. “I don’t know what happened, or how things changed, but here we are.”

  “This whole thing makes me feel like a pawn in a really stupid game.” Jon sighed. “When do we get to punch the low lifes?”

  “Yeah! I want to punch the misogynists!” Stan agreed.

  “Are you sure they’re as bad as misogynists?” Richard asked hesitantly. “They are certainly jerks, but are they that bad?”

  “I was told my sister should just give in to him, because she owes it to him, so yes,” I stated bluntly, having no time for that conversation.

  Richard did a sharp intake of breath. “Yeah, no.”

  At least that was more than solved.

  A few minutes later I saw Ash, just the same time as the wolves started to howl right by us. The four of us froze and looked around carefully, but Ash did not stop. She continued to march toward us, determination lining her face and her hands sparkling with magic.

  A wolf leapt out of the brush at her but Ash did little more than raise her hand and the wolf went face first into a shield before hitting the ground hard. I knew she had no idea what her magic would do for her at any given moment, but I admired her confidence in it here. Maybe we’d get through this forest unscathed after all.

  Chapter 10

  ——Astrid——

  Fury and outrage could not properly describe how I felt when I heard Marcus say Donny was heading toward Nadia. That monster was som
eone who really needed a curse like this put on him, but of course, life was cruel and didn’t work that way.

  For once, I gleefully let the magic course through me. It could feel my need to lash out and defend, but it had no idea what to do. There was a lot of walking to do ahead. The second I saw Marcus and his friends I heard the wolves. Of course they’d suddenly appear now. Like they couldn’t time it any better. I didn’t even move for my sword. The second I heard the underbrush move I let my magic erupt outward. I barely registered the wolf hitting the shield. If it knew what was best, it would lay low.

  “Let’s move,” I called to the guys as I walked by them.

  “No hi?” Jon gave a small laugh, unsure how to take in what just happened.

  “Hi Jon, less talky, more walky,” I replied, not even looking back.

  I could hear Marcus chuckling as they followed behind me. “Glad to see you’re alive. Can we get some details of what's been going on? You know I’ve been worried.”

  “It’s a complicated mess. The short of it is Nadia’s father did some bad things. Nadia knew but made no move to stop it. The dad got what he deserved and the rest of them got this curse as punishment. Of course since the wonderful council didn’t have the brains to deal with it they decided to try calling a Daeum for guidance. One actually flipping responded and now it’s a huge mess!”

  “Daeum? The fairy tale god-like creatures?” Stan asked skeptically.

  “They’re very real. Just very hard to get a hold of.” I waved it off. Of course they didn't respond to everything. They were deities. They could probably do whatever they wanted.

  Doing whatever they wanted shouldn’t lead to this crap though. The rage was getting hard to contain and I set a faster pace. I hoped the wolves were delaying the jerkwads ahead of us because I wouldn’t be held accountable for what happened if they harmed Nadia.

  “Why all the concern for this person?” Richard asked hesitantly as he easily kept up.