Pinnacle

by Lynn Veevers

  When she tried to move Kaya found she was stiff and in pain. Movement came slow and she was seeing double. Kenneth let loose a long howl after he’d pinned his opponent. This gave the Afflicted just enough time to break free and start running toward his allies' yipping. It was in the manner he’d told her about wolves doing when they found and needed help with prey. She found that interesting considering this Afflicted’s “prey” was about to chase him. Turning his head back toward Kaya, Kenneth was clearly torn between giving chase or staying with her.

  Telepathically, she told him what he needed to hear. “Go! Don’t let him get to the others! I’ll be fine.”

  He gave her one last look, and as he ran after her assailant, she felt his thoughts enter her head, wrapping around her like a warm, secure blanket. “I love you, Kays. I’ll be back for you.”

  She was grateful for her protective pack and mate and felt safe there in the tall grass of the pasture. The feeling didn’t last long because another, all too familiar feeling crept over her. Kenneth had only been fighting one Afflicted, but she had seen two from the air. Kaya was not alone.

  She tried to morph, fly, anything. All she could do was hobble along.

  “Why can’t I fly?” she asked herself.

  Panicking she knew it was here because she could feel it watching her. Wherever it was, Kaya knew it had to be close, but for whatever reason, it was not making its location known.

  It did not take Kaya long to figure out why. Less than thirty seconds later, the rest of her hunting party was stampeding her way. Kaya squawked as loud as she could. Noah and Cole were bringing up the rear. The others ran right past her, but Noah stopped directly in front of her. He saw Kaya with knowing eyes and picked her up in his mouth.

  She wondered for a split second why he had been able to recognize her when none of the others had, then she realized it was because of his superior sense of smell. Even in this form, she’d retained a portion of her natural scent and he had picked it up.

  He had just started to run in order to catch up with the others when he stopped suddenly. She suspected he’d picked up on the hidden Afflicted’s scent. Shifting to his left, he gently placed Kaya on the ground and started barking a series of fast, sharp pitched yips to alert the others.

  He paced back and forth in front of her, trying to protect her. Noah was different from the others; he didn’t have the feral fighter vibe about him. He was calmer, less aggressive, and had a bright, intelligent feel to his personality. There was a gentle nature about him; a lover not a fighter, a resounding voice of reason.

  The Afflicted jumped out of the tall brush directly in front of them and charged Noah with ferocious intent. There would be no sensible reasoning with this creature. Noah stopped his pacing and directed a less than intimidating growl toward the Afflicted. The creature was not moved at all. When the Afflicted saw an opening it lunged at Noah.

  Kaya was helpless to do anything but watch in horror as Noah’s attacker made extremely quick work of him. The two went tumbling through the pasture grass. Noah’s sleek brown fur went flying everywhere as his assailant bit huge chunks from his side. Kaya cringed at the sound of Noah yelping in agony as the Afflicted ripped, shred, and tore at him. The others came running toward them, Kenneth heading the group by a considerable distance.

  Even with all his speed, he wasn’t fast enough. Kaya turned back toward Noah who had fallen silent and saw him lying on the ground, his head half bit off and gushing blood. His body twitched and convulsed violently and then went silent and still as the life fled from his eyes.

  Kenneth leapt over Kaya and landed between her and the Afflicted, blocking the attacker’s path to her. Kaya hunkered down and Kenneth’s hackles came up as he growled and paced back in forth in front of the creature much like Noah had.

  He was clearly not scared of Kenneth in the least bit and further drove the point home by sitting on his haunches and waiting for Kenneth to make his move. The others had finally caught up and formed a circle around the Afflicted, Kenneth, and Kaya.

  Dahlia and Owen were the last to arrive and when Dahlia saw Noah lifeless on the ground, she fell down, whimpering and howling hysterically. Owen took in the scene and, without warning, charged Noah’s cocky killer before it could process what was happening. In a split second, Owen had covered the distance to the creature and swiped his claws across its throat, laying it open to spill its blood all over the ground close to where Noah lay lifeless. The Afflicted was not dead, but seriously injured.

  Owen saw Dahlia had collapsed in a fit of uncontrolled sobbing. Tears of rage and empathy filled the bear’s eyes and when he glared down at the Afflicted, everyone knew it would be the end of the creature then and there. Owen brought a massive paw down atop the Afflicted’s head, smashing it into a bloody, broken mass of bone, fur, and blood. Kenneth moved in to finalize his father’s kill.

  After the gruesome task was complete, he went to where Kaya lay on the ground, now in her Human Form. Looking her over he could tell Kaya was in a lot of pain from the grimace that touched her face every time she moved. So Kenneth got down on his belly and for once, she didn’t complain about his wanting her to ride him. Instead she climbed onto his back the best she could before he stood up again.

  “Kays, I think your shoulder is out of socket.”

  That explained the excruciating pain in her neck and arm as well as the reason why she was unable to fly. “I know you don’t fancy the idea of riding me but you need to this time,” he said firmly, just in case she got the mind to resist and tried climbing off him.

  “Noah…Kenneth, what about Noah?” Kaya said, full-blown crying as she looked at their new friend motionless on the ground. “We can’t just leave him here,” she said in between sobs.

  “We’re not going to,” Kenneth assured her.

  Owen was in Human Form, standing beside Dahlia who was still on the ground crying over her husband’s body. She stroked the fur on his side, murmuring something unintelligible and rocked back and forth. Owen sank down next to her, pulled her into his arms, and turned her away from the grisly sight lying before them.

  She cried into his shoulder. “How am I going to go on without Noah? How can I tell our children their father is dead?”

  Owen tightened his hold and picked her up; walking away from the man she had loved since she’d been a young girl.

  “See to it Noah is brought to the barn and we will make preparations for his burial. Make sure he is put in a safe, cool place away from scavengers. The refrigerated room where we keep the feed for the horses is probably best,” Owen said to Cole as he slowly walked by.

  Cole walked over to where Kenneth stood, resumed Human Form, and motioned for Kenneth to lie down. He did as his brother asked and Cole lifted Kaya from his back and placed her on the ground. Leaning over her he examined her shoulder, neck, and arm. Then, without forewarning, he shoved her arm back into the shoulder socket and she screamed with the searing pain that ran through her like a freight train on fire. Kenneth growled at his brother and got to his paws. Cole gave his brother a withering look.

  “I know that was a dirty move, Kenneth, but I didn’t want her to be overwhelmed with anxiety knowing what I was about to do. Not on top of everything she just witnessed.”

  Kenneth asked Kaya if she was all right.

  “I’ll be fine… He saved my life. If it weren’t for him, I’d be dead. He gave his life for mine,” Kaya said simply through her still flowing tears.

  “Kaya, tell Dahlia and my kids I love them, and tell them I am so sorry.”

  She spun around to Noah standing in front of her and knew it was her spirit speaking ability that had made him materialize. Because of her emotional upheaval, she was wide open. As if to verify that fact, her parents also materialized on either side of Noah.

  “Don’t worry, Kaya. We will show him the way,” Kaya’s mother said.

  “I will let them know, Noah. I promise,” Kaya assured him.

  She would hav
e given anything to change this, to bring him back, but knew she couldn’t and it broke her heart. Noah and her parents faded from sight. He had died for his cause and there was no greater love and loyalty.

  “Kenneth, I am a little stiff, but I think I can manage a ground traveling form. I think flying would be too much right now. I am sure Cole could use your help with Noah, seeing how he died in Pure Form, he’s going to be hard to move.”

  “It is going to take me a long while to get used to your eyes glowing every time we communicate like this. Are you sure you will be OK going back to the house?” Kenneth asked inside her head.

  “You know, I am already starting to hate this new ability you two share. I am standing right here watching you guys be all secretive,” Cole said, clearly irritated.

  “We are not being secretive, Cole! He can’t talk to me when he is in Pure form unless I take a similar form, and clearly, I am currently not, so this is the only way I can talk to him.”

  She heard Kenneth snickering in her head and turned on him shouting, “I fail to see what is so funny!”

  She’d had about enough of their comments and decided to take her leave by running toward the house. As she ran, the form just came to her and took hold in less than two strides. Kenneth and Cole were now both in Pure Form and saw the transformation. Their jaws hit the ground when they saw her. She pranced around, feeling good, free even, in the agile form of a snow-white deer.

  Kaya made her way back toward the house in no real hurry. The leaves were still green, just barely starting to turn. Trees back home were forever green and so this display of varying greens and shades of yellow was new to her. It had a calming effect on her troubled mind. She just couldn’t get the vision of Noah dead on the ground out of her head. Senka had struck again and now there were four young children without a father. Kaya’s rage surfaced, making her heart darker when it came to her thoughts of this evil creature.

  She is going to die for her crimes against the innocent! she thought to herself.

  She thought of Dahlia and her cubs and the hard, long road in front of them. Her heart ached and wept for the children who would no doubt struggle with the loss of their father. She could completely relate to the journey they were about to go through. What would become of them and their mother now? The threat, for the present time, had been eradicated, but Kaya wasn’t about to fool herself into believing this was the end of the dangers they faced.

  Kaya took her time getting back to the house, taking a more scenic route along one of the streams that ran through the land. She needed time to be alone.

  It took her about an hour to get back. It was an hour of necessary solitude. She was prancing by the barn just as Cole and Kenneth stepped out, both glum in their expressions. Cole saw Kaya first, which was not surprising because of how his ears worked. Giving her a curt nod, he walked toward the house.

  Kaya shifted her gaze to the doors of the barn and had to fight back the tears that threatened to start up again. She knew who lay inside the barn, lifeless. The guilt had started to set in and ate at her like acid eats at the lining of an empty stomach as she resumed her Human Form. Kaya walked to where Kenneth stood and welcomed his embrace as she gave into her grief and started crying anew.

  “It’s my fault, Kenneth. If I had just been flying at a higher altitude, this would not have ended this way. Those kids don’t have a father anymore, Dahlia is a widow now, and it is my fault entirely.”

  Kenneth caught the side of her face and gently forced her to look at him. He spoke in a harsher tone than he had ever used with Kaya before. “Kays, I am not going to stand by and watch you beat yourself up over this. No one could have seen this coming. This is not your fault!”

  He was practically shouting at her by the time he finished and his eyes bore into hers with the weight of all the emotion he was suppressing. It was obvious that he was barely keeping it together - she could see that. As she wrapped her arms around his neck, he buried his face in her hair, and then breathed in deeply. They stayed like that for a long time, just absorbing the comfort they drew from each other.

  “You know, we should head back to the house. We need to be there for the cubs and Dahlia. They need all the support the pack can offer right now,” Kaya said with a heavy heart.

  Kenneth stepped back and caught her hand in his, and together they slowly walked back to the house. When the house came into view, they saw that Samantha had the cubs on the front lawn with her. Three of them played and giggled not far from where she had laid out the blanket, and one of the girls sat on it as they ate the remnants of the food Samantha had prepared earlier. The little girl seemed far less happy than her siblings.

  Kenneth and Kaya stopped and sat with the two of them in the shade of the huge pecan tree that dominated the right side of the yard. One look at the girl’s tear-stained face told Kaya she somehow knew. The other children seemed oblivious to the tragedy that had taken place.

  Kaya scooted closer to the young gal and covered her hand with her’s. The girl had gold flecks in her eyes that shimmered when the sunlight coming through the tree’s branches caught them. They were bright, intelligent, intuitive, and beautiful, even in their saddened state. It was like looking into Noah’s eyes. The three girls all looked identical, right down to a dimple they all had in their right cheek when they smiled. Kaya couldn’t tell them apart even if she tried.

  “I am Morgan. I always wear the green necklace.”

  Kaya’s eyes dropped to the tiny emerald heart pendant hanging from the gold chain about the girl’s neck.

  “I am the oldest. Valarie came next and wears the purple one, then Nadia with her red one. Our brother, Christian, wears a blue, crystal-shaped sapphire. Daddy gave them to us on our first birthday,” she said, a single tiny tear spilling from her eye.

  It was clear to Kaya that she knew at least a portion of the events that led to her father’s death. Samantha motioned for Kaya to follow her away from the place they were sitting. She reluctantly left the shade of the tree, and when they were out of earshot, Samantha leaned toward Kaya to whisper.

  “Our specific trait can materialize any time after puberty has started. Morgan’s came fast and violently earlier today when her father was in the heat of battle. She saw the whole thing through his eyes. Knew why he was there, and what he was trying to accomplish. She could not only see what he saw, but she also felt what he felt. Her trait is displacement. Basically, her consciousness temporarily links to another’s, allowing her to experience what they experience, to see the world through their eyes, feel through their emotions. She is not old enough yet to project her trait and control it, so when her wave came on, it left her disoriented. I knew something was up immediately because she went into a sort of trance. It scared me senseless. I was shaking her and screaming her name, but nothing came of it. At first I thought she was having a seizure. When she came out of it, she started crying uncontrollably.”

  “Poor baby, that was the worst possible time her body could have picked to manifest her trait! How did the others react to what was going on with Morgan,” Kaya asked.

  “Well, I told the others to stay put then whisked her out of the room and asked her what was wrong. She told me in explicit detail what had happened and I knew she had just gained her trait. I explained what had just happened to her as best I could. After, she became distraught and removed. We went back to the room and she sat in a corner by herself, eventually taking on Pure Form and curling up to go to sleep. I don’t know what I can do to help her. I am way out of my element here. The others wanted to know what was wrong and I told them she just didn’t feel good. They all took on Pure Form and lay down with her in a tangled, furry ball. There is much love and support in their family. It is going to be hard on all of them, but I am certain they will pull through together and intact.”

  Kaya was thoughtful for a brief moment. “You love those little ones already, don’t you Samantha?”

  Samantha glanced past Kaya to her charges
and silently nodded her affirmation.

  “We can’t just turn them out. They have to stay here where they are safe, Kaya. They need to be here where I can know for certain they are going to be OK.”

  One look at her standing there, fretting obsessively over them, and Kaya knew, one day, Samantha would be a force to be reckoned with when it came to her own cubs. She was glowing with maternal instinct.

  “Everything is going to be OK,” Kaya told her and walked to where Kenneth sat with Morgan wrapped up in his arms, crying her little heart out.

  The sight was endearing and it pulled at her heart strings. He was stroking her golden-blond hair as she soaked his shirt with tears. His eyes were also overflowing and he kept murmuring to her that everything was going to be OK. His tone was gentle and soothing, and she clung to him like her life depended on it.

  Samantha walked over and sat down where she had been sitting before. Morgan immediately crawled up into her lap and drifted off to sleep.

  Kaya took Kenneth by the hand and he stood to walk to the house. They walked past the three playing children, up the steps, and through the front door. Both of them could hear the soft and persistent crying of a devastated Dahlia and the gentle, soothing tones of Owen’s voice trying to comfort her. He had her in his arms and held on to her like he would never let go. Cole was nowhere to be seen and Kaya wondered where he’d run off to.

  Kenneth’s thoughts entered her mind and he told her his brother was up in his room. He could hear him through the walls, pacing the floor and beating himself up for not being tuned in enough to hear the Afflicted that had slaughtered Noah.

  “We need to go up there and reassure him it wasn’t his fault,” Kaya said out loud.