by Lynn Veevers
“Kays, what are you doing?” Kenneth asked, looking at her in his side view mirror.
“I’m catching raindrops!” she said as she turned her face skyward.
Kenneth laughed right as a crack of thunder moved across the land. Kaya squinted as the rain started to slowly pick up.
“Those clouds right above us are seriously dark, and man, are they booking! It’s making me dizzy just watching them!” she said as she pulled her head back through the truck window.
Kenneth brought the truck to a stop and Owen pulled up right behind them. When Kenneth got out of the truck without a word, Kaya figured there must be something he needed to tell his dad, but then why not just use his cell? She got out when he just stood right outside of his door, looking up at the sky. She noticed for the first time that the outside had a greenish tint to it. All the tiny, peach fuzz hairs on her arms stood on end.
“Kenneth, I read somewhere this green tint to the sky means a tornado is going to happen soon.”
Kenneth laughed and she frowned at him, perplexed by what he found so funny.
“Well honestly, I have seen the sky turn this color on many an occasion, but I have seen far fewer tornados in my life. Never have I noticed the hue with tornadoes. However, with every green sky I have seen, there are thunderstorms, which we are clearly about to have one here real soon. Not to say we won’t have one with this storm, I am simply saying the green has nothing to do with it. What concerns me is that!” he said pointing up at the sky.
Kaya saw the clouds had gone from a lazy-paced, circular motion to a more distinct circular rotation. Their appearance had darkened and the wind had picked up significantly. The sky had become a fireworks show of lightning, complete with complimentary booms of rumbling thunder. Out of nowhere, the rain started pouring down and dime-sized hail fell with it.
Both Kenneth and Kaya dove back into the truck and closed their respective doors. Kenneth’s phone rang and he went back and forth with his dad about what was going on right above them.
“Yea Dad, I agree. It is moving east and fast…I think that’s a plan. I will tell the rest of my group what is going on.”
Kenneth disconnected the call and heaved an agitated sigh.
“Dad and I both agree this storm is going to more than likely produce a tornado. It is moving away from us, so we are going to stay where we are, wait it out, and hope the path of the storm does not circle back around. If it does, we will drive as fast as we can away from it.”
The rain pounded down with such intensity Kaya thought it might break the windshield. Kenneth tuned to a local station on the radio and the announcer came across the air with a weather update.
“The storm is heading northeast toward Joplin at sixty-five miles per hour, and expected to produce damaging winds and golf ball size hail. We have tornadic rotation and given the conditions, a tornado touch down is likely. This is a radar indicated threat folks, and a tornado warning has been issued for the listening area. Now is the time to take action and seek cover.”
Through the windshield and the wipers moving at their fastest speed, they watched as the funnel descended from the clouds in an eerie, unnatural-looking arch. Everyone in the vehicle fell silent as they watched the tornado make contact with the ground, spewing up debris as it did. It was a good ten miles in the distance, weaving a path of destruction as it traveled further away from them.
Kaya tried not to panic, but she was beside herself with fear. Give her an earthquake any day of the week and she’d be the textbook example of calm, but a tornado was out of her realm of experience. Kenneth must have sensed her unease because he told Josh to switch seats with him. Josh crawled over Kaya, opened the door, and the two switched with remarkable speed, but that did not save them from getting soaked anyway. The rain was driving down in sheets now.
“I promise I won’t let anything happen to you,” Kenneth whispered in her ear as he pulled her into his arms.
She laid her head on his chest and felt the cool dampness of his shirt. It was oddly comforting along with the steady beating of his heart. Kaya realized he was not scared at all and that did a lot to put her at ease. Being in situations she had no control over had never settled well with her.
They sat in the truck until the sky lightened, the wind died down, and the radio confirmed the tornado’s path of destruction had left the area. Josh and Kenneth traded places once more and they started driving due east again. The whirling winds of destruction headed northeast so they were fairly sure they would not have to deal with that particular issue again. With still more than an hour to go, the truck was buzzing with conversation that reflected jittery nerves.
As Kaya glanced around the cab of the truck, she saw a bunch of teenagers; they and she were just kids. Extraordinary kids, yes, but still kids all the same.
Senka was no doubt a powerful, diabolical force. Kaya took pause to wonder if this group who had become like family to her had what it took to defeat this crazed madwoman. Just from what Kaya knew of her, she seemed insane, with no regard for whose life she destroyed. Even her own flesh and blood was not safe from her vengeance.
As they drove along, the landscape changed from the flat plains in Kansas to the lush, green, rolling hills of Missouri. Trees became more abundant, and water sheds speckled the land. Before long they were driving into Branson.
Owen paid for the hotel rooms they were going to stay in and they all took their overnight bags in to their respective rooms. After everything was settled, they met in Owen’s and Dahlia’s room to get started on their search.
Art came strolling in from the patio and said, “Shannon’s scent is not strong in the air, but it is definitely there. Wherever they are holding her reeks of death and decay.” Art cleared his throat and then continued, “I am picking up her scent from the west and, as I mentioned before, it is faint, which means she is a ways off. Even if she was fifteen miles away, her scent would still come across as moderately strong, so we know she is at least twenty miles away. As we draw closer, her scent will grow in potency.”
They went over the last-minute details and then set out. It didn’t take long for them to get close enough to feel that parking the trucks was a good course of action. Driving through the woods that Art’s trait led them into would have proved difficult, not to mention a vehicle would make it hard to sneak up on anyone.
Only twenty-five minutes had passed since they’d left the trucks and still they continued the prowl on foot. Kaya carried Josh and Kenneth carried Anissa. It would have been the other way around, but Josh insisted on riding with Kaya. She thought it was odd, but he was adamant about it. Maybe it was because she was a Natural Mystic too, and that made him feel more secure.
She plodded along dead center in the pack so Josh would not have to span his gift unnecessarily far. Art and Cole led the progression, one following a specific scent and the other picking up every noise made within miles of their location. Owen and Dahlia flanked the sides of the group, with Owen slightly behind and to Kaya and Josh’s right and Dahlia slightly behind and to Anissa and Kenneth’s left. Behind Josh and Kaya was Samantha, on alert and snuffing out the possibility of them being detected and tracked. Kaya had never seen her in camo mode, but it was by far the coolest trait she’d seen so far. Samantha appeared almost translucent. She was barely noticeable, and if she stood perfectly still, she disappeared altogether. Quinn and Eric flanked Samantha. Eric, who was behind Kaya, had a look of extreme concentration on his face as he listened for thoughts other than those of the group. Quinn kept a leisurely pace, his head cocked to one side as he regarded Anissa from behind. Anyone could see that he found her completely intriguing; you’d have to be blind to not notice.
“I can feel you watching me, Quinn, although I can’t fathom why,” she said, twisting the upper half of her body to look down at him and smiling at the surprised look that registered on his wolven face.
She let out a small giggle when his expression remained the same, and then faced
forward again, scratching behind Kenneth’s ear as she did. It was the sweetest little gesture. Anissa and Kenneth were close, almost as close as Kenneth and Josh. Kenneth thought of Anissa along the same lines he thought of Samantha. There was nothing he would not do for her and the feeling was reciprocated back to him by Anissa. They were essentially siblings that were not actually blood related. She didn’t have a pack mark but it was common knowledge that anyone in the pack would risk their life for her and she for them.
It amazed Kaya just how in tune Anissa was with her surroundings. True, she was not a Lycan with a specific trait or a Natural Mystic with a gift to fall back on. She wasn’t even blessed with magical ability, but she was every bit aware of everything within her environment as if she did have some unseen power. It was easy to understand why Quinn might be curious about her.
Art stopped and sniffed the air before he assumed Human Form.
“We are close. Her scent is strong and there are many Afflicted in the same vicinity. We could be right on top of them. My nose is telling me we need to head that way,” Art said, pointing to the right toward a small spot of forest thick with a blanket of autumn leaves.
Cole stepped forward, now also in Human Form. “I can hear water running in that direction. Not like a creek or river, but more like a cup filling up.”
Anissa laughed and said, “You mean like a waterfall?”
Cole just huffed and assumed Pure Form once more, along with his uncle. The group made their way through the winding natural paths of the forest made by the wildlife of the area. Judging by how trampled the ground was, this water source they were headed for was a preferred place to drink for the deer and whatever else traveled this way. The same bright red leaves sparsely scattered through the branches overhead also littered the ground in a thick cushion of red. The trees that housed the leaves were smaller than most of their neighbors, but there was an abundance of them.
Kaya was busy looking up at the trees when Anissa said, “They are dogwood trees, Kaya, and they are common here.”
Kaya took a moment to look at her in acknowledgement, and then returned her attention to following Art and Cole.
They had been walking along for a short while when they heard the sound of the water Cole had mentioned before. A few minutes longer and they found themselves standing on the edge of a lagoon fed by a waterfall. The waterfall was at the opposite end from them and probably fifteen to twenty feet high. Water cascaded over a natural rock formation that was more of a brownish gray than your typical stone on the ground would be. Natural rock spread down from either side of the waterfall and wrapped around three quarters of the lagoon, tapering down in height as it got further away from the waterfall. Where they stood was flat, grassy, and flanked by dogwood trees. The grass in front of them gave way to dark-colored sand and then to a thin layer of silt where the water met the shore. To their right, almost to the natural stone wall, was a little creek leaving the lagoon to cut a path through the forest. The waterfall flowed sparkling clear over the rocks. It threw facets of color as the descending sun’s rays shone through it.
Other than the roaring gurgle of the waterfall, the place was blissfully quiet. Kaya heard no bird chatter, no rustling in the undergrowth, no insect sounds. She reached out to Kenneth and told him as much in their silent way.
“I noticed the lack of sound, too. It’s nature’s way of warning us,” Kenneth said to Kaya.
Kaya lowered to the ground and Josh climbed off. She rose to her feet in Human Form and addressed the entire group. Kaya watched as Anissa noticed how everyone started to take Human Form. She glanced down at Kenneth, who she was still sitting on, heaved an agitated sigh, then dismounted in a perfectly executed backflip. By time she hit the ground, Kenneth was in Human Form and oozing disappointment. Anissa strolled to where Kenneth stood and patted him on the shoulder.
“Oh, it’s OK, Kenny, you’ll get me next time…maybe,” Anissa said with mock sympathy.
A tirade of giggling broke out among their small group because of Kenneth’s obvious discontent.
“Art, this is it, right? But I see no caves, not even something that would lead into a cave-like area,” Kaya said.
Art surveyed the area and then said, “No, I am not mistaken. This is where the scent is the strongest. We are right on top of her, but it keeps shifting and twisting. It is almost like they have found a way to filter their scents so I can’t get a positive lock or direction on them.”
“Everyone spread out and looked for anything that might be a way in.”
Less than five minutes had passed and Kenneth spoke in Kaya’s mind. “Eric, Quinn, and I are behind the waterfall. There is a cave, but it is shallow and leads nowhere.”
She told him to continue searching, and after another hour and twenty minutes, it was dark and they were no closer to their objective.
Everyone went over every possible avenue and still came up empty-handed.
Art cleared his throat and grabbed everyone’s attention. “The only other thing I can contribute is that I picked up a much older scent that belongs to Shannon than the one I used to track her, but it ends right here at the water’s edge. I have circled this lagoon twenty times to find where they might have exited the water, but there is no exit point to be found. It doesn’t make sense. So I went back to following the original strand of scent I was tracking. It was hard, but I managed to track it to a tree about fifty or so yards back from the summit of the waterfall. It was like her scent was coming up through the ground around the tree, but if she is in a cave, that makes sense, I guess. Maybe we should look in the area of the tree.”
Anissa had been quiet up until then. She got up, walked to the water’s edge, and surveyed the waterfall and the lagoon. “Kenneth, you said there was a cave behind the waterfall, right, and it had some standing water in it? Are you positive it was standing water, or was it water from the lagoon seeping up through the floor,” Anissa asked still looking at the water.
They all gawked at her like she’d lost her mind.
“Sometimes on my vacations with my dad we’d have to submerge to find the opening to a cave because it was underwater. These caves were underground and the only way to access them was through swimming.”
She adverted her gaze to the ground, and then to the water’s edge where Art had stood. “I bet you anything that is how we will get in.” She was getting ready to dive in to investigate, but Kaya said, “But Anissa it’s already dark and in the water, you wouldn’t be able to see anything.
“I can morph into a water type and investigate,” Kaya said as she pondered what exactly she could morph to. She needed something that swam well, but had good vision in the dark. After some time, she settled for a beaver. It was native to the area and would not draw attention. They had horrible vision, but what they lacked in sight, they made up for in other senses; and they were excellent swimmers with great lung capacity. She could feel her way to the entrance if it was under the lagoon.
“Give me twenty minutes and I’ll be back.”
Morphing into the beaver, she waddled into the water. She dove ten feet realizing the lagoon was much deeper than it looked. It was a short distance to the waterfall, but was met with a solid rock wall. Beaver senses told her there was no opening between her and the surface of the water, so she went down another ten feet or so and found what she was looking for. There was an opening in the rock, probably eight feet tall and four feet wide. Kaya mentally took a deep breath and swam forward into the dark unknown. The rock canal curved and weaved, steadily climbing upward as it went deeper into the earth.
After a short while swimming at a beaver’s pace, she broke the surface and could breathe air again. Everything was blurry, so she swam quietly to the far end of this massive cavern and morphed into a rat. She stood on a rock ledge and surveyed the area. It was a wide-open space with torches lining the walls leading down the cavern. It smelled dank, wet, and like something had died. Off to the side of the cave was scuba equipment. This
was definitely what they were looking for, but the swim would be tough for anything other than a beaver.
Kaya realized they had a problem. She took to the water once more and returned to the others to share what she’d found. Getting back seemed to go faster, probably because she knew exactly where she was going.
Kaya broke the surface of the water about twelve feet from shore and was greeted with a collective sigh of relief.
“So what did you find?” Anissa asked Kaya.
“Your suspicion was right. The cave entrance is underwater. It is about a twenty-foot dive, then another stint of swimming through a curvy, underwater cavern that ascends to a huge open space. I didn’t go far, but it has lit torches and curves in two directions. There was also scuba gear fairly close to the water on the cave side. The swim was easy as a beaver, but the rest of you are going to have an issue getting all the way there without drowning.”
“I am fairly certain that I can,” Anissa said confidently.
After a moment of consideration, Kaya agreed that she maybe could. She was, after all, a diver and endurance swimmer on the varsity swim team. When you added that to everything Kaya knew about Anissa, it was obvious that out of everyone in the group, except Kaya, she was the most capable of surviving such a long stretch of swimming. So the question was how to get the rest of them through this alive.
The answer came from the last person Kaya would have thought to make a critical decision since he always just went with the flow.
Eric stepped forward and said, “What about having Josh throw a bubble up and then we descend into the water inside an air bubble? He would essentially be our life line.”
Josh was grinning like a fool and raking his hand through his thick red hair before he replied, “Oh, you flatter me, Eric. However, I cannot maintain that kind of concentration and still swim. Unfortunately, my gift takes total focus to maintain. Then there is also the point of being able to see when we are twenty feet down.”