An American Weredeer in Michigan

by C. T. Phipps

  “You killed your own kids,” I said, having no sympathy. “I’m pretty sure humanity isn’t the problem so much as people like you.”

  Robyn reached Jones’s side before kneeing him in the balls then giving him a solid punch across the jaw that allowed me to assume my deer form then bash him in the stomach then kick him in the head. My attempts to trample him came to an abrupt end as his hand glowed and Alex tackled me out of the way, my body still four legged, right before he blasted a ray of blinding heat up toward the sky.

  I turned back into my human form and lifted up the Merlin Gun before seeing the Devil Gun on the ground nearby Jones. The magician’s eyes darted to the gun on the ground before I turned my gun from him to his weapon then pulled the trigger.

  “See you in Hell,” I said, watching the Devil Gun explode into a shower of light and smoke. Jones’s hand was only a few inches away before he pulled it back.

  “You fool, that weapon was irreplaceable!” Jones shouted, stretching his hands out as a glowing bubble appeared around him. It was straight-out-of-a-comic-book magic and I wondered how much he could do here where reality was determined by thought.

  “Yeah, I’m sure your master will love it,” I said, pulling back and aiming the Merlin Gun at him. “Why did you send all those tools to Robyn’s dad? Did you think he’d kill us or were you just trying to mess with him?”

  I was actually distracting him because I had no idea how the hell I was going to hurt him given he was a much more powerful wizard than anyone else here and he’d already taken out Kim Su.

  “I had nothing to do with that,” Jones hissed. “Do you think I’m stupid enough to give someone who hates me the magic to kill me?”

  “Yes?” I said, mostly trying to distract him long enough to come up with a plan to kill him.

  “Fire of the Sun!” Alex shouted, stepping in front of me and a column of bright light shot from his hands before smashing into Jones’s shield.

  Robyn fell back behind us, crawling a bit from the sight. “I’m in a comic book.”

  “You’re just noticing that now?” I asked, watching Jones struggle against Alex’s strike.

  “I am your superior in every way,” Jones said, grunting as if he was trying to hold back a tsunami with his mind. “While you were learning to punch things or languishing in a straightjacket, I was one of the most powerful wizards in America. I have tens of thousands of followers ready to give their lives to me.”

  “You’re in another dimension far from your slaves,” Alex said, continuing to blast well past the point he should have exhausted himself. “But you’ve already lost. Jane killed you before this battle began.”

  “What are you—” Jones started to say before the ground opened up beneath him. “No!”

  Massive roots reached up from the ground and wrapped around his arms, legs, and even neck before dragging him down. Jones’s scream echoed in my ears as he found himself swallowed by the ground before it sealed up above him. It was a nightmarish scene I wouldn’t have wished on my worst enemy. After a few seconds, there was nothing but an empty patch of ground where Jones had once stood. He’d been buried alive.

  “Goddess,” I whispered, looking at the sight.

  “An awful end,” Alex said, putting his arms around my shoulder. “But a deserved one.”

  I looked behind me at Robyn, expecting her to be the party responsible for Jones’s horrible end. Instead, I saw her wearing an expression every bit as horrified as mine. She hadn’t been the person responsible. Turning my head, I saw Kim Su was still laid out on the ground and looking expressionless. Then I saw Robyn, again, and did a double-take. This Robyn had red and gold colored hair and a gown of leaves covering her nakedness. There was a sad expression on her face, but one that was also hard and angry.

  The Dryad had returned.

  “Oh crap,” I said, taking a step back and debating using the Merlin Gun on the new Robyn.

  Don’t, Raguel cautioned. Let us see what fruits your actions have borne.

  The other Robyn, the Dryad, stretched out her hand toward the spot where Jones had been buried alive then waved it from side to side. A small sapling tree grew from the spot and I felt the Grove’s magic grow stronger and wilder.

  “He wanted to be a god ever since he stopped believing in them,” the Dryad said, sounding exactly like Robyn. “Now he can be one. It will require a new life, though, in a new form. Perhaps he will gain sentience again and be a spirit worthy of the power here. Perhaps he will not.”

  Robyn looked at her, an angry look on her face. “Back again?”

  “Yes,” the Dryad said, walking to Andy’s side and placing her hand against him. “You have done an excellent job cleansing the wound, but I will give him more help. He will be strong right up until the end of his days.”

  “Which will be soon,” Alex said, frowning. “He turned to black magic because you didn’t help him.”

  “I am sorry,” the Dryad whispered. “I forget when a god takes flesh in the penumbra between worlds, they become a part of it. You reminded me of what it was like to know pain, suffering, and regret.”

  “What is she talking about?” Robyn asked. “Also, why does she look like me?”

  “I kinda-sorta gave her your memories as a way to tell her what you’d been through,” I said, looking over my shoulder.

  “You did what?” Robyn asked, staring at me.

  “I know!” I said, trying to play it off. “I didn’t even know I could do that!”

  The Dryad stared forward. “I am sorry.”

  “Too late!” Robyn said, looking at her. “Sorry does not begin to cover what I have been through.”

  “I know,” the Dryad said. “I see this world through your eyes now. It will last until my winter years. I will do what I can to try to make amends, though. Your memories gives me perspective as my past fulfills the hole in your heart. A world that has never rewarded idealism or wanting to believe in something bigger than yourself.”

  “What the hell are you even talking about?” Robyn asked, confused.

  “You’re basically Forest Jesus!” I said, embarrassed and surprised by what happened.

  “You ruined my life,” Robyn said, staring at the Dryad. “You ruined my father’s.”

  “I gave you your life,” the Dryad said, holding Andy’s head in her lap. “I also know the mistakes you’ve made. I lived them and know why you’re really running away from New Detroit. You have the power to change the world, daughter, but you’ll have to change who you are. Those around you have sacrificed of themselves to give you that opportunity.”

  “How much have we sacrificed?” I asked, going to Kim Su’s side.

  “Not dead yet,” Kim Su said, coughing between breaths. “Being immortal has its advantages.”

  “She will heal to full recovery,” the Dryad said. “I cannot say the same for everyone else.”

  I took a deep breath. “So what did you do to Jones? I mean, did you really turn him into a tree?”

  “Yes,” the Dryad replied. “Take the sapling with you and plant it elsewhere. It will make Bright Falls stronger or create another sacred place that will strengthen magic as a whole in the physical world.”

  “I’m not sure that’s a good idea,” I said, remembering what she’d done to Dave Johnson. “Magic has as many downsides as it has advantages.”

  “Much like life,” the Dryad said.

  “So you just get away with everything because you look like me now?” Robyn said, still angry, and I didn’t blame her in the slightest.

  “I have suffered and will suffer for what I have done,” the Dryad said. “So much so even you will be able to call it justice.”

  “How’s that?” Robyn asked sarcastically.

  “Thanks to you, I know what it is to love a child and the pain of their loss,” the Dryad said. “I gained those feelings too.”

  Robyn opened her mouth to reply then closed it. There was a curling of her lip that told me she knew exactl
y what the Dryad was talking about and felt it was a punishment well-deserved. I wondered how much her choice to give up Sparrow was motivated by a desire to do right by him versus the fact she knew she couldn’t care for him—and hated herself for it.

  Alex walked over to the fallen plant and pulled it up after digging around its roots before handing it over to Robyn. “It has been a pleasure meeting you, Ms. Taylor. If you ever need a job, I think you’d do wonderful as an associate to my business.”

  “What do you do?” Robyn asked.

  “I kill monsters,” Alex said.

  Robyn smiled. “I’ll think about it. You should treat Jane right.”

  “I fully intend to,” Alex said, nodding. “Otherwise she’d kill me.”

  “You got a brother?” Robyn smirked.

  I tried to be less jealous and failed. Mostly. “So, Kim, you going to be all right?”

  Kim climbed to her feet and looked at her stained shirt as well as the hole there. “The Earthmother made me immortal and it’ll take more than an archangel with daddy issues to put me down.”

  “It’s the mistake of being a mentor that went out into the field,” I said, shaking my head. “Every teacher who does that dies or turns evil because that’s the only way the student can stand on their own. Obi-Wan Kenobi, Gandalf—”

  “Gandalf came back, though,” Kim Su said.

  “Yeah, and the story was kind of ruined for it,” I said. “Way to remove the dramatic tension.”

  Kim Su gave me a hug. “Jane, don’t ever change. You’re truly a breath of fresh air in a world of pleasant smoke and mirrors.”

  “I’ll try,” I said, frowning. “But I think I know a good deal more about how real magic works. You make the spells yourself. You aren’t taught them.”

  Kim Su put her hand on my shoulder. “You’ve past the biggest test to becoming a true mage. Refining your technique and learning to manage your powers is what you have before you now.”

  “You’ll still be there to sponge off my free labor, right?” I asked, a bright smile on my face.

  “Oh yes,” Kim Su said, patting me on the shoulder. “Of course. I’ll also happily teach you some of the hundreds of ways a small woman might pummel the crap out of larger men. Also poor peasants with rich, armed warriors. It’s pretty much the origin of all martial arts.”

  “Yes, Sensei.”

  “Sifu,” Kim Su corrected. “Or teacher, since I didn’t originally speak Chinese.”

  “What language did you speak?” I asked.

  “Caveman grunts,” Kim Su said, smiling. “We weren’t lucky enough to have a cave, though.”

  “I don’t believe you’re that old,” I said, glad to see she was all right. My mom would be returning soon, but Kim Su had become the grandmother I’d never had. You know, despite the fact that she looked like she should be listening to boy bands.

  “Ook-ook,” Kim Su grunted. “That means ‘Fire bad, tree pretty’.”

  “Dad, we should go,” Robyn said, looking down at Andy. “If you still want to associate with me instead of Galadriel here.”

  Andy looked up at Robyn. His voice lacked its earlier pain and confusion. “I’ll be along in a bit. I think we should talk tonight about everything I’ve kept from you. One thing I want you to know, though, I’ve always been proud of you but what you’ve done here is good. You’re a better guardian than I ever was.”

  Robyn looked over her shoulder. “Yeah, bad news, that Dave Johnson guy was killed by—”

  “Jones,” the Dryad said. “I’m sorry about your friend’s loss.”

  Andy closed his eyes. “I understand. Thank you for avenging him.”

  I started looking for an exit. “Open sesame? Arch? Computer end program?”

  Kim Su waved her hand and a door appeared beside me. “Take the rest of the week off. You’ve earned it.”

  I looked over at Alex and Robyn who were exchanging glances about the Dryad’s lie. I gestured for them to come over.

  “Yeah, I did,” I said. “I think I’m good for the rest of the year personally.”

  “If only that were your choice,” Kim Su said.

  I still had some questions, like who was the person who armed Andy Taylor with all that black magic as well as what we were going to do with the Ultralogists but things were mostly wrapped up.

  As Alex and Robyn came to me, I looked over at them both. “Are you guys good?”

  “I doubt Jones will be telling me where my father is,” Alex said, frowning. “At least not anytime soon.”

  Robyn looked down at the plant in her arms. “I’m cool. If she really does have my memories, then I doubt she’ll be leaving any other kids to die. That’s really all that matters.”

  “I don’t suppose either of you have a way to keep the Deerlighftul in the Doe family’s hands?” I asked. “Because, really, that’s what’s most important here.”

  “You could ask Lucien to buy it for you,” Alex said, deadpanning.

  “Oh hush, you!”

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  The three of us exited out the gateway to find our friends as well as allies still present. Deana was standing off to one side by Gerald, looking sullen as always, while Lucien was chatting with Larry and Yolanda. Emma was standing guard right beside the gateway and I had to give her credit for somehow managing to look both adorable as well as fierce. The place smelled awful, the result of unburied dead and Emma being a very big wet canine.

  “We’re back!” I said, waving as we came through the portal.

  Emma turned back into a human instantly and hugged me. She was still soaking wet, her clothes too, which made no sense to me but magic was like that. I let her hug me then hugged her back.

  “What happened?” Emma asked.

  I patted her on the back. “Oh nothing. Jones got turned into a plant, so he’s not only merely dead but really most sincerely dead. We also killed a unicorn.”

  Emma pulled back. “You what?”

  “Yep!” I said, cheerfully. “All in a day’s work for Deerdevil: the Doe without Fear. I am looking forward to getting myself a big fat steak at the Deerlightful.”

  “I thought deer were herbivores,” Robyn said, chuckling as she held the plant that was our former enemy. I wondered how much of a temptation it was for her to dash it on the ground.

  Probably a lot.

  “We’re opportunity omnivores,” I reassured her. “Not at all just because I love a good steak and could never resist one if it’s put in front of me.”

  “I’m a vegetarian,” Emma said cheerfully. “You know, when in human form. Not when I’m in wolf form. That would be weird.”

  “Which is wrong and unnatural for a werewolf,” I said, mock glaring at her. “Shame, shame, shame.”

  Emma rolled her eyes. “What happened with the Dryad?”

  I paused, trying to figure out how to distill that into words. “We’re cool. Are we cool, Robyn?”

  “We’re as cool as when you asked thirty seconds ago,” Robyn said, frowning. She looked back to the gate. “Is my father going to be all right? You’ve been cagey about just how much damage was done by the black magic since you cleansed him.”

  Alex lowered his head. “He damaged much of his body and spirit with the use of black magic. I’ve purged that from his system and can maybe teach him a few things to extend his lifespan, but nothing that will keep him alive indefinitely.”

  Immortality seemed like a crap shot in this world. Everyone who had the potential to live forever died. Well, except Kim Su. So far.

  “How long does he have?” Robyn asked, closing my eyes. “If we’re optimistic.”

  “Five or six years,” Alex said, no judgment in his voice. “He could have lived for centuries otherwise.”

  “You didn’t need to add that part, chief,” Robyn said, taking a deep breath. It was clear she was devastated by the news. “Is there anything the Dryad can do? I mean, if she is me, then she’d do anything.”

  “I don’t kn
ow.” Alex’s voice was pained. “The person who sent the magic did so with the intention of making it the antithesis of the Earthmother so he couldn’t be easily healed.”

  Robyn looked a bit teary eyed and I didn’t blame her. “At least Sparrow will get to know his grandfather.”

  I paused. “Are you going to be okay? I mean, financially. I’ve got your back if you want any help. I think this horrible nightmarish experience has really been a bonding experience for us all.”

  “I’m free of some of my enemies,” Robyn said, frowning. “I also have friends here in Bright Falls. I just need to find a job and spend some time with my son.”

  Emma put her hand on Robyn’s shoulder. “I’m exceptionally jealous of how cool you are, but if you need a job then I’ll happily get you one as a blackjack dealer or something similarly sexy.”

  “Blackjack dealers are sexy?” I asked.

  “Have you seen those vests?” Emma asked, blushing. It was weird finding out your best friend’s fetishes but I supposed that was what friends were for.

  I snorted. “Well, I can only offer you a job waiting tables. You should take the job at Emma’s casino.”

  Robyn smirked. “I dunno, I’m not sure being around that much money is a good thing. I kinda-sorta may have been fired from my last job for stealing.”

  I grimaced. “I suddenly regret offering you a job.”

  Robyn laughed, not realizing I was serious.

  “How is Yolanda going to die?” I asked, glancing at Alex. “I mean, you were cleansing her of black magic venom too.”

  “She should make a full recovery,” Alex said, looking over at them. “One of the benefits of healing with black magic.”

  Robyn opened her mouth then closed it. “Right, I shouldn’t ask the question on my mind.”

  I assumed her question was ‘can you murder some dudes to restore my father? Preferably people who have it coming.’

  “No,” Alex said, sighing. “I’m sorry.”

  Robyn didn’t say anything else. I knew what question she was going to ask. Could Alex heal her father by killing someone else. Probably. That wasn’t a road Alex would walk down, though. I doubt he would have done it if not for the fact I’d asked him to heal Yolanda that way. I didn’t regret doing so but I knew the cost of asking. I just didn’t care.