Morning passed into afternoon and Red and I visited about a great many things. He was very wise and seemed to know what I was thinking. I enjoyed his company immensely, and his companions followed us at a respectful distance. The one thing that stuck inside my head was one of the conversations the two of us had about time travel.
“Some of us have always been,” Red said in a voice just above a whisper.
That caught my attention. “What do you mean?” I asked, walking side by side with the squirrel on the soft carpet of pine needles.
“Most of us live and die only once. There are some of us who exist in other times and some of us who exist in alternate destinies. A few of us manage to do both. You and I belong to the last group. We transcend the past and present, what is, and what might have been. Do you see? We have the power to go back and correct our mistakes.”
I thought about that as we continued to walk. How could a squirrel know such a thing? We were now following a trickling stream that meandered through the bottom of the forest, littered with large rocks that were green with moss. Sunlight fell in patches where the massive trunks of fallen pines allowed it to do so. Where one of the mighty trees had fallen, there were a dozen more waiting in the wings to replace it. I hoped that Red knew where we were heading, for I was totally lost.
“Your Major Soliah is like us, and he is trying to correct his mistakes. We can’t allow that to happen. No, that’s not quite right… You can’t allow that to happen. He must be stopped.”
“That’s just what I plan to do,” I said with a lot more confidence than I felt. “So, how do you suppose that I do it?”
“I only wish it were that easy. This is going to be a battle and we are going to need help. I’m afraid that even with the help of my army, that we don’t stand a rat’s fart of a chance. He is too powerful and he has many friends.”
He was quiet for a long while as he waited for me to digest the information. The army of red squirrels chirped merrily as they scampered along behind us. And suddenly all was silent.
Red lifted his nose in the air. “Oh shit,” he said. “Wolves.”
I turned my head and caught the sudden movement of dozens of dark shapes as they descended upon us. We were surrounded in the blink of an eye, the pack of wolves never so much as snapping a twig in the process. What I assumed was the leader of the pack stood fifty feet up the path. He was by far the largest of the wolves, and nearly the size of a fully grown bear. I felt as if the wind had just been dumped from my sails. The wolf approached us with such confidence that like my squirrel friends, I was too afraid to move. We stood there like garden gnomes on the floor of the forest and waited out our fate.
“Scared?” asked the wolf in a sinister voice. “You should be; I enjoy a little human with my squirrel.”
“Don’t make me hurt you, we don’t want any trouble,” I said, feeling very small and vulnerable.
The great wolf flopped back on his haunches and began to howl. The others in his pack did the same thing and soon the forest was ringing with the ear-splitting howls of wolf laughter. I could feel my ears turn red as the anger crept back inside of me, replacing the fear, which proved to be a fleeting gut reaction.
“Don’t make me hurt you,” mocked the wolf as he moved to within a few feet of us. He was close enough that we could smell his hot breath. His voice was as slick as oil. “And how do you plan on hurting me? Are you going to kick me, or claw me with your little fingernails? Ouch. Oh look, my paws are shaking.”
This brought on another great wave of howling and this is what drove me over the edge. I waited it out as the howling trailed off to a lone wolf on the outside of the circle. He stopped abruptly when he realized that all eyes were on him. “Wolf, we have no quarrel with you. Step aside and you won’t be harmed.” I said, pressing forward until our noses nearly touched.
I could see a terrible rage in the eyes of the wolf, but I held my ground. I was ready to die if I had to. There was no backing down at this point. Suddenly, the peaked ears of the wolf fell flat on his head and he scampered away with his tail between his legs. I thought that perhaps he had noticed my earrings, and that they had frightened him away. I was wrong.
“That was me,” Red said, making a chomping face and showing his long teeth. They were bright red with fresh blood. “That’ll teach him to laugh at us.”
The wolf began to drag its butt along the pine needles as it howled with pain. I looked at Red with amazement. He was as lightning fast as he was brave. He had also created a dozen enemies among the wolves. They moved in fast and surrounded the two of us, completely ignoring the mass of Red’s companions. The leader quickly composed himself, shaking his great head in a frenzy of rage and he charged at us with full speed.
From out of nowhere, Otis burst upon the path and he met the charge head on. I saw the wolf fly high into the air as Otis used his antlers and his incredible strength to fling the wolf into a cartwheel spin. The wolf hit a large rock with a sickening crunch and I knew in an instant that he had broken his back. He came to rest at an impossible angle, nearly twisted in half. The other wolves cried in horror and they ran up to their stricken leader and began to howl. There was no mistaking the sound of anguish. Otis turned and bounded over to join us.
“Damn,” he said. “I didn’t mean to do that. You know, you are trespassing in their woods. I was just hoping to buy us a ticket out of here. Oh man, I think I’m gonna to be sick. Oh man… Go tell them that I’m really sorry, will ya? This is bad.”
The howling grew louder and more sorrowful with each passing second. The wolves were crowded around their fallen leader. I knew what I had to do, I only hoped that there was still time. I broke away from Otis and Red and jogged up to where the wolves stood. “Stand back!” I ordered. I was answered by a fierce growl. “I am a Medicine Man. Let me take away his pain!”
A sudden hush fell among the wolves when I heard the weak voice of the stricken leader ask the others to give me room. They instantly responded and I grimaced at the sight of him. Blood trickled from his mouth and ears and his front and rear paws were limp, and pointed at opposite angles. He looked sad and broken.
“We wouldn’t have eaten you,” he said in a whisper. “We only wanted you to leave and to never return. Look what you’ve done to me. Did I hurt you?”
“No,” I said, shaking my head. I felt terrible and wanted to try and save him. “If I save your life, you owe me a favor. Do you understand that?”
“What a bargain,” scoffed the wolf, even as he lay there fighting for his life. “Fine, it’s not like I have much of a choice.”
“Don’t you want to know what it is?”
“Does it matter?”
I thought about that. He was right, it didn’t matter. I was his only hope and he obviously understood that. I began the chant softly, feeling it come back to me in huge pieces. I was soon chugging around the fallen wolf and chanting at the top of my lungs.
The floor of the forest was soon alive with hungry rats and they began to feed.
That was how we enlisted the wolf pack. The leader introduced himself as Goober and I thought that was a funny name for a wolf. He didn’t find the humor when I mentioned it. He said that an old man had given him the name and that it was very powerful among his people. Otis and I exchanged a knowing glance. The wolf’s eyes lit up when I mentioned the name Odd Whitefeather. “That’s him,” he said with a wolfish grin. “I owe him my life,” with that, Goober promised to help me and he pledged the loyalty of the pack. They quickly joined our group and we wasted no time before continuing on our trek. Goober padded along at the front with us, next to Otis, while the rest of his group covered our flanks. Otis and Goober were soon talking like old friends. Red eyed the pair with suspicion, never getting too far away from me.
With my stomach rumbling and the light beginning to fade, I was having serious doubts as to where we were headed. I estimated that we had covered at least fifteen miles and my feet were beginning to cramp up. With Otis telling Goo
ber yet another of his one-line zingers, I leaned down to Red. “Where are we going?” I asked. “We should have been there by now.”
Red gave me a puzzled look and shook his head. “Just where do you think we’re going?”
“Spirit Lake,” I whispered, scratching at a mosquito bite.
“Spirit Lake?” asked Red, as if I had said the moon.
I caught both Goober’s and Otis’ reaction and they were visibly shaken. Apparently, I had struck a nerve and there was more to Spirit Lake than I knew. I would later find out that Soliah hated animals of any kind, far worse than he hated any man. His magic was powerful enough to seek out and kill a cougar, or anything else on four legs, at ten miles away. There was a way to counter that magic. We needed to rescue my grandfather from where he was being held captive in Walker. I didn’t remember mentioning his name, much less telling any of them that we had been to Walker; or better said, a distant memory of Walker. “How do you know all of this?” I asked, feeling numb and a little stupid.
“He’s talking to us right now. Can’t you hear him? Listen…”
“Odd Whitefeather?” I asked, a lot louder than I had intended to.
A thousand red squirrels stopped in their tracks and bowed their heads. What I heard next was very strange. In a clear and precise voice the squirrels said: “The Oddfather…” And they said it with such sweet reverence that I had to bite my lip to keep from laughing. My grandfather, the Oddfather, why not? The animals would answer to the names that he gave them, and he was free to choose his own name to be used among them. I had thought that Otis was jumping to conclusions about his name, but after meeting Goober I could see that wasn’t the case. I doubt my grandfather ever thought that his little secret would come out. One thing was certain. The Oddfather had a strange sense of humor.
Red cupped his little paw behind his ear and looked at me. I strained my ears and shook my head. I heard nothing but the crickets and the night birds inside the forest.
We stopped at a small clearing to rest and I fell asleep before my head hit the ground. I drifted off into a thousand dreams, none of which were pleasant.
Chapter Twenty
Brindle's Odyssey Page 30