The Timber Effect

by Jacklyn Reynolds

  Henry tried to step in and help, but Timber barked at him to back off. She was going to finish them off herself. The werewolves both attempted to rush Timber, taking the same position they had with Dresden. They didn't count on Timber's speed, agility and the training she received from her mother. One rushed her from the side while the other ran out in front. Timber met the one on the front with a quick slash from her white paw. His face was ripped open and blood poured freely. A split second later, Timber spun around and met the other with her teeth around his neck. She clamped down and threw him down on the ground, snapping his neck and killing him instantly.

  Then it was still. The fighting had stopped and the forest was eerily quiet. Timber transformed and grabbed Henry's large paw. She knew the worst was coming. They had only used the first layer of their army and she had only seen the troll and the werewolves. She looked at Henry, who was searching the skies for Jaci and Aiyanna. Neither of them could be seen which meant they were still in the trees.

  "There's more," said Timber sniffing the air. "More werewolves. There couldn't be that many werewolves inside Haven could there?"

  Henry shook his wolf head, set down his sword, and took Timber gently in his large, arms and held her for a moment until she giggled. His gold eyes looked at her in confusion.

  "Your fur tickled my nose," grinned Timber.

  Henry pulled back his lips, but his attempt at a smile failed and Timber could only laugh. A movement close by caught their attention and they both stilled. Through the trees came a man disfigured face due to a large scar that crossed over his right eye and down to the left side of his jaw. His velvet garments were black and looked to be from the late 1600s. He had thick brown hair that fell in waves at his shoulders and a well-groomed mustache. In his left hand, he carried a polished black cane with a silver lion head at the top. He looked around at the group who had reformed their original ranks with Aiyanna and Jaci out of sight and Timber standing behind Henry.

  "Well, you have a nice little army," he said with a hint of sarcasm in his temperate tone. "It's a pity that you are all fighting on the losing side. I would hate to spill more blood than necessary."

  "Who are you?" demanded Lord Avanti, clutching his sword in his blood covered hands.

  "Of course, how rude of me," he said with a light chuckle. "My name is Mortem. Mortem Donatoris. I remember you, Frost. Champion of mortals and the weak. You see, before you banished me and locked me in Hell for three hundred years, I had a nice run. I could kill as I pleased and feed until I was content. I was the free King of the Lyndrath. Then you got involved and overthrew me. Well, I happen to know that the particular spell you used can only be used once. You have no hope now. You seem confused. I don't blame you. I only found out recently. It was welcome news to me. I am certain it is not to you."

  "What happened to your face?" asked Timber, observing his large scar.

  "My appearance has changed since Frost saw me last thanks in part to the Merlin Emerald. Cursed thing rejected me. Oh, I also believe that you are acquainted with my traitorous daughter, Jaci Halen, who guards the Emerald."

  Timber stared at him. Jaci had mentioned that she was a half-demon whose mother abandoned her. Timber understood what they were dealing with and it frightened her. If Mortem could do what Jaci could do, they were all in a great deal of trouble. Timber's mind filled with images of her Uncle Chad, Aunt Grace, and Emily. Then she saw Xianna, Ashley, Kendra, and Gina. She wondered if she would ever see them again. Then she saw Andy in her mind. Tears filled her eyes when she realized that she might not make it home.

  "Now, I have one very simple request," said Mortem calmly as he looked at the silver lion head on the cane he was carrying. "I want you to hand over the wolf abomination. You see, her father is a dear friend of mine. He has tried to kill her for years but the whelp seems to be uncooperative."

  "Daniel Brogan is dead," said Lord Avanti. "I saw his body myself."

  "Correction, Daniel Brogan was dead." From out of the shadows came a figure that Timber was very familiar with. Daniel Brogan stepped beside Mortem and smiled in a way that made Timber's blood freeze. "You see, Daniel sold his soul to me for the power to kill his dear daughter but too many people have interfered. So here is my offer. Hand over Timber Brogan, and I will leave. Fail to comply and I will unleash the full power of Haven."

  Lord Frost stepped forward protectively as Henry lowered himself in front of Timber and grasped Bellator tightly, growling, and ready to attack anyone who tried to take her from him.

  "You will never have Timber," said Lord Frost with a furious note in his steady voice. "I will not allow it."

  "Very well," said Mortem.

  From a distance, they could see the outlines of Hydra, two basilisks, and several Manticores. Some creatures looked like their skin had been ripped off, things that looked like they were flickering in and out of vision, and creatures that seemed to be nothing but teeth and spikes. Then she saw something that Mortem did not. Every Berserker Timber could see was leaving the ranks, as well as several other creatures. If they were joining their side, they might stand a chance. Sure enough, the number had turned around and was now fighting those they had marched with.

  Mortem looked behind him and became angry. Then he showed his true self. Black, bat-like wings appeared blazed with fire. He took off and set his monsters loose. Timber watched as Jaci took off like a bullet out of the redwood tree to meet him. It was clear that Mortem didn't expect this. The expression on his face was a mixture of both anger and surprise. Having never actually met his daughter, he had never expected Jaci to be so powerful.

  He launched himself at Jaci, who folded her wings around her as she spun around to dodge and face him again. She unfolded her wings and took him higher. She grabbed him by the wrist and shot lighting and ice around him. He cried out and grabbed her around the throat. Jaci retaliated by setting her whole body on fire, scaring Mortem into letting her go. She gazed at him with deep concentration. Fear filled Mortem's eyes but he broke away from her power too quickly. On the ground, all hell had broken loose, but Jaci was far too busy fighting Mortem to pay attention to the ground. He was shooting fire at her, and ancient curses Jaci had never heard before. However, he was getting angry because nothing was getting through her shield. They were spinning around each other, dodging attacks, and trying to kill. Multiple times, they went after each other's wings in an attempt to disable the other.

  Aiyanna was in the air too, but she was keeping Hydra away from the rest of the battle. She was so enormous; Aiyanna and her wings could fit down her throat. Aiyanna was weaving back and forth between the necks, trying to figure out which head was immortal. She had frozen Hydra's feet to the ground and set her on fire. When the fire died Aiyanna found the immortal head. It was completely untouched. The other seven were charred. She folded her wings in and dove and the heads followed. Within minutes, Aiyanna had all the heads tied up in knots. Again, she set Hydra on fire, and then covered her with ice.

  The fight raged on for over an hour and it was visibly taking its toll on everyone. The battlefield was littered with wounded and lifeless bodies from both sides, and the once green moss on the ground was heavily stained with blood. Ugly, long-armed monsters were eating the flesh of the dead in the middle of the battlefield. Mortem was still up in the air now fighting both Jaci and Aiyanna. Aiyanna had permanently taken care of Hydra by slicing her open at the belly and cooking her from the inside out, then freezing her so the heat didn't spread. Mortem was livid as powerful assaults came from both sides.

  Lord Frost was on the back of a white unicorn, with his sword making short work of the opponents who challenged him. Timber was still beside Henry, who was destroying a large group of vicious boar-like creatures, but they had become separated from everyone else. Lord Avanti was close to the back of the battlefield after being forced back by a Minotaur. A powerful rush shook the ground and the sky. Everyone on the ground stopped and looked up. A young woman, who Timber notice
d was scarred, and heavily armed was standing on the neck of a black dragon. She led the dragon down to the ground and everyone scattered. Mortem let out a furious cry as the dragon made short work of many of the largest monsters. He darted down and before she could react, he grabbed the woman from off of the dragon and brought her up by her throat.

  "LET ME GO!" she gasped.

  Jaci and Aiyanna rushed to her aid as the dragon she was riding shot upwards. Mortem tightened his grip on her throat cutting off her air before burning her throat. The dragon rammed into him with such force, he was sent higher into the air. He let go of the woman and she began to hurdle to the ground in a spiral. Jaci folded her wings back, making her more aerodynamic. She caught the woman five feet above the ground but she was so severely burned, half of her face was unrecognizable. Jaci spread her wings and caught some air, helping her to slow down. Timber came running up to her to carry her away from the battle and to Lord Avanti. She was still conscious and determined to stay. The woman, who introduced herself as Charlie, refused aid and took off in search of her dragon.

  The next second, Timber was confronted by a large human-looking creature with no skin and no eyes. Timber's first instinct was to run, but she again remembered Andy and his bravery so she stood her ground and growled. The creature slashed at Timber with his six-inch, sword-like fingernails but missed by several inches as Timber sprang away. Without warning, the head of her opponent was at her feet. Lord Kyne was standing behind it with his notched sword covered in blood.

  "Are you okay?" he asked as he stopped to catch his breath. Timber nodded gratefully. "I could not let you bite him. The skin of a Guntrant is deadly. You would have died in seconds."

  He looked up and darted off so Timber went in search of a familiar face to stay beside. Chaos was everywhere as they all seemed to have forgotten about the black dragon, which Timber saw remaining quiet and motionless behind Charlie. The moonlight danced against her black scales making her body look like a distant lake. It rendered the dragon invisible. Timber had lost sight of Henry and everyone else she knew so she stood close to Charlie. Thankfully Charlie was a very good archer. One of the Minotaur spotted them and ran right to Timber. She ducked underneath and clamped her sharp teeth down on its leg, making it raise its head in pain. Charlie put an arrow through its throat and the beast fell.

  Without warning, a swarm of various monsters rushed at Timber and Charlie but before they could do anything, the dragon opened her eyes and stood up. The monsters stopped in their tracks as she opened her mouth. The group spun around and tried to escape but they were not quite fast enough. Her chest and neck glowed red, then she shot a massive fireball at the swarm of would-be assassins. One of the group was able to dodge the fire and called the remaining pack of werewolves to attack the dragon.

  The whole pack left the core of the fight and rushed to her immediately. Timber took out one by meeting him mid-jump and ripping open his throat, while Charlie used her last arrow to eliminate the leader of the pack. Within seconds the giant dragon was covered in werewolves. She roared angrily, spread her huge wings and stood up on her hind legs. Charlie howled an eerie howl and all movement stopped. Timber stared at Charlie is amazement. She had told the wolves to stop and they obeyed though it was more out of confusion. The dragon shook her sleek body as her attackers fell to the ground. She roasted them to the point of well done before they could run away.

  All of a sudden she let out a roar of pain. One of the remaining wolves had dug his claws into her wing and slid down, tearing them to pieces. Charlie was standing with a dagger pointed at the wolf, with the Timber beside her. The werewolf went to lunge for Charlie but was devoured whole in midair by the dragon. With a curt nod, the dragon took off into the night and was soon out of sight.

  Seconds later, Timber was facing a ferocious, powerfully built carnivore with high front shoulders and a sloping back. It looked to Timber like a cross between a grizzly bear and a hyena. It lunged at her and she returned its aggression. Their jaws locked onto the others and they both began a tug of war as if they were each trying to rip the snout of the other off. Timber tried to claw at her opponent but she couldn't reach. Then she had an idea. She brought her head down and swiped at the creature's face and it released her jaw as it cried in pain. Timber took her chance and wrapped her teeth around its neck. She shook her head viciously ripping apart its jugular vein and her opponent fell to the ground, never to move again.

  Timber heard someone scream. She turned around, only to see a monstrous centipede with a body the size of a school bus trying to climb through the gaps between the trees. She leaped on its back, and sunk her teeth into its head, weakening it. The taste in her mouth was awful but she wouldn't let go until it went down. Timber heard Lord Frost and another voice shouting together. Timber leaped off just in time. Lord Frost and Lord Kyne had their hands raised with their gold markings glowing. Their magic collided in a swirl of light that lit up the sky and the monster was blown backward, and vanished into the darkness.

  "It brought more!" Lord Frost yelled to Lord Kyne, glancing through the trees.

  A hundred giant centipedes were running towards them with incredible speed. Timber ran to Lord Frost and sunk her teeth into the face of one of the beasts that snuck up on him from behind. Timber saw black flames racing in their direction and she jumped off of the beast. A powerful blast of Jaci's fire sent the lead monster into its fellows. The rest kept coming and Timber had no idea what to do.

  Without warning, Lord Frost pushed her down and shielded her with his body as a powerful, well-aimed shockwave ripped through the air. Timber and Lord Frost were pushed forward by the air and the ground beneath Timber's feet rolled like the ocean waves, bringing them away from the battle. When Timber looked up, every single centipede had been obliterated and the giant Redwood trees were shattered on the ground for at least a mile. Anything within the blast would have died immediately. Timber supposed this was Aiyanna's shockwave. Now she understood why Henry said it was frightening. Lord Frost looked at Timber to make sure she was alright and hurried off to aid Lord Avanti who was trying to take down the second basilisk.

  Without warning the air filled with a loud screech and Timber saw what they had come for originally. At least twenty Lyndraths were coming on the battlefield from the air, all of them looking like rotting, screaming gray corpses. All Timber could feel at that second was an intense amount of pain all over, like something was squeezing her into a little ball. It seemed that they had already found spirits to possess because Lord Frost said there were only a few left. As it had with the Vanquisher, blood rose from the ground but Timber knew now that it was an illusion.

  She saw Henry regroup with the remaining werewolves a few yards away and she sprinted as fast as she could to join them. Henry was drenched in the blood of those he had killed but he remained unscathed. However, the rest, like Timber, showed the physical side effects of battle. Aiyanna came rushing towards them with her wings blazing. She sped in a circle at such a high speed she appeared as nothing more than a blur. She set the ground on fire and trapped the Lyndraths so they had no choice but to fight the werewolves. She kept them in with a large cyclone of air that caught the fire and raised it into a swirling wall like a flaming tornado. The heat from the fire was so intense Timber felt as though she had been thrown into the oven.

  The Lyndraths attacked in a violent clash of teeth. Timber crouched down low and hid under Henry, safe from the Lyndraths and the heavy wind that had her long fur blowing in every direction. She watched as Lyndraths began falling and vanishing as Henry and the others attacked. Since they had no means of escape, the Lyndraths had no choice but to fight, but there was something wrong. While she was hiding out of sight, she noticed something unusual about the way the Lyndraths were attacking. Seven of the twenty Lyndraths were making the same movements at the same time.

  After a few seconds, Timber realized that only one of them was a real Lyndrath and the rest were only illusions. At that po
int, Timber noticed one ahead of the others in his movements. Timber came out of hiding and leaped on Henry's back, using him as a springboard to launch herself into the air. She sunk her fangs into the Lyndraths throat and the illusions vanished immediately. The others, caught off guard from Timber coming out of nowhere, stopped to see what was happening. In their carelessness, they were brought down and killed. The Lyndrath Timber grabbed ahold of carried her fifty feet into the air and away from the other werewolves, trying to escape, but the venom Timber had injected into him took effect within a matter of seconds. He vanished with a high-pitched hiss that Timber heard clearly as the wind and fire vanished without a trace.

  Timber plummeted down to earth but Lord Frost caught her as a severed basilisk head fell in front of them. Lord Frost carried Timber away from the head a few feet. He set Timber down, smiling proudly at her when his face froze in surprise. Timber looked down and saw that he and been run through from behind with his own sword. Timber's world stopped and she reeled backward. Her heart seemed to stop. Lord Frost looked once more at Timber with an expression of both love and sorrow and fell to the ground. Timber looked at the ground where his body had fallen. Time seemed to halt and the raging war around her became silent. A boiling fury swelled inside of her, and the physical pain was too much to bear. She looked up at his assailant and choked.

  The soulless form of Daniel Brogan was now standing in front of Timber, holding Lord Frost's sword. His red-brown eyes shone bright with malice and contempt. Timber had never hated anyone more in her eighteen years of life. Every strand of blood covered fur on her body stood on end and she showed her teeth with her ears flattened back. For the first time, Timber desperately wanted to kill for blood but she remained still. She was going to attempt to use what her mother taught her. Then she realized that Daniel knew that strategy. She would have to improvise and fight dirty. She would still wait for him to make the first move. She wasn't going to waste energy on him.