Beast of Dreams

by Cynthia Williams

  “Dinner’s on the table and everybody’s waiting. No more time for making up and kissing, Karrick!”

  He ran back into the house laughing, making loud kissing noises, having barely missed the huge paw that took a swipe at him.

  Chapter 11

  Amanda saw that the table had already been set and everyone was waiting expectantly in their seats for them to arrive. Karrick made a show of pulling Amanda’s chair out for her before sitting down in the one next to her. Bethan reached over and patted her hand.

  “Amanda, you are always welcome in our home,” Bethan said, her protective hand squeezing Amanda’s tightly.

  “Thank you. I really appreciate hearing that from you.” Amanda glanced around the room catching each of Karrick’s family members by eye. “Please don’t worry. We talked and everything’s going to be fine. Karrick, don’t you have something to say?”

  Karrick leaned forward, his face creased in a sudden smile. “We talked together and agreed to marry. If it’s okay with Amanda, we’ll bond after her uncle arrives so he can be part of the ceremony as well.”

  Jadd whooped up a big cheer and the rest of the family joined in, offering their congratulations and well wishes.

  Amanda’s smile lit up the room with its radiance. “I’d love that. Thanks for thinking of that, Karrick. With everything going on, I forgot that Uncle Sirus was planning on arriving next Monday to pick me up.”

  Alexander, with intense astonishment, dropped the bowl of mashed barnips he was about to pass to Nathan on the table. “Sirus? Sirus is coming?”

  Amanda glanced at him uncertainly. “Yes, Sirus, my dad’s brother. He’s a free-trader, now.”

  “He was just a boy, a year or so younger than Jadd, when I last saw him,” he said, his voice lighthearted. “Your grandparents had just adopted him, and he was having a bit of a hard time adjusting to his new home. I imagine he turned out to be quite the hell-raiser.”

  “Yes, he certainly raised quite a ruckus until Dad pulled him out of New Earth Academy and decided to home-school him in business. He really enjoyed it and later went off on his own to be a free-trader.”

  “Yes, I could see him doing that,” Bethan said, intensely interested in how the boy had turned out. “He’d be able to get away from people when he needed to and be with them on his own terms.”

  “Why do you say that?” Amanda asked. She sensed an undercurrent from Alexander and Bethan that led her to believe that there was more to her uncle than what she already knew.

  “Did Sirus ever talk to you about what his life was like before he was adopted into your family?” Bethan asked, her eyes sharpening.

  Amanda’s tone was apologetic. “No. Actually, it’s understood in our family that Sirus came from a very bad situation and nearly died before he could be rescued from it. Dad told me once that Sirus’s life started over when he came into our family and that he never looks back at the past. There were a couple times when I asked my dad about him, but he said it wasn’t his place to tell me, but Sirus’s.”

  “So Sirus never brought it up to you?”

  “No. Once I asked him what he must have been like as a child and he said he had never really been a child.” Amanda’s eyes darkened at the memory of the pain that flashed across his features when she asked him. “He avoids the topic and I haven’t felt comfortable bringing it up again.”

  “Amanda, let’s talk later, just you and I. I think that it would be appropriate to tell you a few things you should know,” Bethan offered, “especially because of the situation with the Conglomerate attacking wolfan outposts. No subspecies is really safe anymore and maybe we can utilize Sirus to help with the effort to turn the situation around.”

  Nathan spoke up, the quietest and most intense of the four brothers. “Have you found out yet what might help the wolfan, Amanda?”

  “Not yet. I spent most of the day meeting the pack and I also spent a few hours with Jadd looking over the wreckage. Nothing stands out.”

  Alexander drew his lips in thoughtfully. “You know, your earlier suggestion to go over in detail what Jonathon did and experienced during the month he was here, has a lot of merit.”

  “Well, I, Nathan, and Jadd weren’t even born yet so it must have to do with you guys or with Karrick,” Carson suggested to his parents.

  “Did anything truly unusual happen? I mean, something that might have startled him or made him take notice in some way?” Amanda asked.

  Alexander began to chuckle. “Well there was that time Karrick made your dad build the sand castle. Pissed him off, err, I mean it rankled him quite a bit to find out he had been compelled to build one, especially when it was the first time he had slept in three days and there was so much work to be done.”

  “What do you mean Karrick ‘made’ him build a sand castle?” Amanda asked.

  “Well, Karrick was just a baby, a two-and-a-half year-old really, and he didn’t know any better—”

  “Dad, please…she already thinks I’m out of control.”

  “No, Karrick, let him speak. I think we’re on to something here,” Amanda insisted. “What did Karrick do?”

  “Well, he often woke up in the middle of the night, all ready to play and have fun, when everyone else was lying down dead with exhaustion from trying to salvage what we could from the crash. He already had the ability to enter other people’s dreams and this was his favorite way to entertain himself, since we were all too tired to take him from his crib and give him attention.” Alexander smiled, his eyes quite merry with the memory of his son’s mischief. “Anyway, he really took a liking to your dad and wanted him to wake up and play with him. Back then, there wasn’t much to play with and Bethan had made a sand pit for Karrick and the other small children to play in while the adults worked. He kept jumping into your dad’s dreams, demanding he play with him and build a sand castle, and your dad didn’t have the heart to discipline him in the dream like I suggested. So, Karrick kept popping up in his dreams and Jonathon kept trying to gently fend the boy off. Then one night, Karrick had a real tantrum about it and gave him a mental push—”

  “It was actually more like a hypnotic suggestion, dear,” Bethan interjected.

  “Uh, Dad’s more right on that, Mom. It was more like a push, a really big push,” Karrick said, admitting to his mother he knew more about how to do it than he previously stated.

  “Let me continue,” Alexander said. “Anyway, Karrick got mad and had this big tantrum, opening his little mind full throttle, and Jonathon wakes up immediately with this huge headache and a compulsion to get out of bed and head over to the sand pit. Up he gets out of his sleeping bag, walks into our tent without us knowing it to get Karrick, and out they go to the sand pit. We found Jonathon the next morning asleep in the pit with the biggest damn sandcastle I’d ever seen, and little Karrick cuddled up next to him, asleep and sucking his thumb.”

  “I just love that story,” Jadd said, laughing.

  “You just love watching me die from embarrassment, Jadd,” Karrick said before looking at Amanda to see her reaction to the tale. She sat there, transfixed, a look of excitement building on her features.

  “That’s it! I’m certain of it. That’s something we can use. If we can get close enough to some of the council members who are pushing to eradicate the wolfan, maybe we can have Karrick compel them to change their minds about the wolfan or at least change some of their decisions.”

  “You know it might work,” Bethan said, deep in thought. “But with the edict against wolfan entering standard human territories, how could Karrick possibly get near enough to connect with them?”

  Amanda sat quietly, knowing the answer but afraid of Karrick’s reaction when she voiced it. After several minutes of listening to varying ideas, none of which held much water, she decided to speak up. “He could go as a standard human, if he removed most of his body hair. Wolfan are basically just humans with hair on them. That ointment you used on him would do the trick—”

 
Kujah wine spewed out of Karrick’s mouth, hitting Carson and Nathan, who had the misfortune of sitting across from him. Jadd was laughing so hard he was holding on to his sides. Even Karrick’s parents were smiling, but were trying to hide it from Karrick.

  “Are you out of your goddamn mind?” he roared. “I was lucky my goddamn hair grew back the last time. Jeez, are you crazy?”

  “What’s the big deal, Karrick? So what if you have to remove your hair? It’s for a good cause,” Amanda said, defensively.

  “Ask him what happened before, Amanda,” Jadd suggested, snickering.

  “What happened before, Karrick?”

  Karrick glowered at her, refusing to speak. Carson decided to step in and fill Amanda in with the details.

  “Karrick has always been one to go a little too far with his dream games and when he was a teenager, he tried to sneak into a couple of the women’s dreams, hoping to entice them into taking his virginity, something he felt was a great burden to him at the time. Well, he got caught at it—”

  “Always was too ham-handed. He needs more finesse,” interjected Nathan.

  “Yeah, more finesse…I agree with you, Nathan. Anyway, Karrick got caught at it because he was too sloppy at hiding the dream signs and one of the women picked up on that. He has a distinctive ‘touch’ when he enters someone else’s mind and if you’re aware of it, you can pretty much figure out that it’s him. So, anyway, she wakes and tells the other one what he did and they decided to get him back.”

  “That was right at the time my pack dad developed the ointment for use in surgeries and first aid,” Jadd piped in.

  “They get this bright idea to put the ointment on him when he’s asleep, and rub it in real good over each butt cheek with a wide arrow pointing down his back to his rear end,” Carson said, with an evil grin.

  “Oh my god…” Amanda moaned.

  Jadd’s mouth twitched with amusement. “He’s a real deep sleeper when he drinks too much wine.”

  Carson clapped his hand over Jadd’s mouth and continued, “Karrick woke later and went to the river for a swim, not noticing that a bunch of his hair was missing until he climbed out and the girls started laughing at him.”

  “No one knew at the time that the ointment had that strong of hair growth inhibition properties, and Karrick was anxiously waiting day after day for a sign that his hair would grow back. Usually, if you lose a patch of hair, it takes about three or four days before it starts growing back, and maybe another month before it’s grown back enough not to be noticeable,” Bethan explained.

  “He was getting a little crazier each day, and towards the end, even Dad was giving up hope,” Nathan added, shaking his head sadly, belied by the twinkling in his eyes.

  “Took three months before even the paltriest amount of fuzz started showing up and another few weeks before his fur was its normal thickness and color,” Carson pronounced, wagging his eyebrows up and down.

  Everyone laughed, and after a few moments, even Karrick joined in.

  Amanda asked, “I have a foolish question. Why do you use the ointment to remove hair? Couldn’t you just shave the hair off for surgeries and first aid?”

  Alexander explained, “Hair removal is just a side effect. The ointment has strong antibiotic properties and some of the microbes on this planet are very prevalent and nasty if they get into a cut. In fact, as you probably already know, one of the reasons this planet remained unsettled until we got here is because of that fact. It’s something we have to constantly watch out for even though wolfan tend not to get too many scratches or wounds due to their protective layer of fur.”

  Bethan added, “It was so bad that Alexander lost two patients and almost four more over the years before we started using the ointment, from infections following surgery. The ointment has been a godsend. The antibiotic properties are extremely broad spectrum. So far, it’s worked against every type of bacteria we’ve come across, and even the molds it’s come in contact with.”

  Alexander furthered passionately, “Most of the wolfan are fine with its use and appreciate the value of this gift from Eridani. This planet, while it has many dangers, is also in many ways a pharmacological paradise. There are dozens of drugs we’ve found available in nature here that are artificially produced elsewhere. I think with the right equipment and resources, we could eventually find and develop many more new drugs that would help humankind.”

  “Now, don’t you feel ashamed, Karrick?” Jadd commented. “You should be happy to sacrifice your fur to a good cause,” he said, attempting to look pious.

  Nathan, having sat quietly through most of this exchange, spoke up. “Actually, as powerful as Karrick is, he really isn’t the best choice to send. He could probably manipulate the receiver’s mind to a certain extent, but he’s obvious and likely to get caught at some point.” He turned to Karrick and said, “You know it’s true, brother.”

  “Now I feel insulted,” Karrick grumbled.

  “We have others in the pack with the ability to manipulate others’ thoughts in dreams. In fact, I’m one of them.”

  “No you’re not—” Bethan protested.

  “Yes, I am, Mom. I’ve never come forward because you monitor the hell out of everyone who’s admitted they have the ability. I’ve never had the desire to be watched over and interrogated if I wanted to get myself a little sleep nookie.”

  Karrick laughed. “Sleep nookie?”

  “Nookie is an old fashioned Earth term I’ve always liked for something that should be considered fun and completely natural. You better appreciate the sacrifice I’m about to make for you, especially now that I’m about to admit a few things that are going to get my butt in a wringer with Mom and Dad,” Nathan asserted.

  This caught Bethan and Alexander’s attention, the two glancing at each other quickly before turning back to Nathan.

  Carson rubbed his palms together in glee. “I can’t wait to hear this!”

  Jadd leaned close in and set his chin on the palm of his hand, his elbow resting on the edge of the table. “Jeez, Nathan, we’re always hearing how you’re the ‘good’ one.”

  Nathan pushed his chair back a bit, as if readying himself for a quick escape, if needed. “Uh, Mom, remember when I got drunk on too much Kujah wine when I was about Jadd’s age and Dad had taken the other kids on a hiking trip for a couple days up to Williams’ Point?”

  Bethan looked at him confused, “I remember that you had to stay home because you were ill the day they left, but you were pretty much an angel the whole time. You must have done a good job hiding it.”

  “You caught me red-handed, Mom.”

  “Well, I don’t remember it…”

  “I’ve made my point.”

  Karrick’s eyes were bugging out and Alexander started laughing, covering it up with a few sharp coughs. Shock quickly led to anger as Bethan’s eyes widened and she began making blustering noises.

  Alexander shushed her, wanting to hear what else Nathan had pulled on her.

  Bethan’s eyes narrowed in satisfaction when Nathan turned to his father and confessed, “And Dad, remember the time I came home in the middle of the night, with my fur all ruffled and Cheryl’s leather halter stuffed in the waistband of my breechclout?”

  “No…”

  “Exactly. You have no memory of it, even the memory of lecturing me on it and saying that you were going to talk to Cheryl’s uncle.”

  Carson interrupted the discussion to say, “Ah, this is all a bunch of crap… None of it happened in the first place and you’re making it all up.”

  “The wine I drank was from the jug you and Karrick hid in the stream. The one you both got into a fist fight over after you each accused the other of stealing it and drinking it with your friends. And as for Cheryl, hell, all you have to do is ask her what happened to her halter top after she played strip poker with Harrell and me. Hell, go ask Harrell what he thought when Dad caught me, because he was there when it happened. Dad sent him home and the next
day when he came over after supper, he couldn’t believe how Mom and Dad acted like nothing happened and let me go out again the next night.”

  “Nathan, I believe you,” Alexander said. “I don’t remember the conversation but I do remember Harrell looking at me very strangely when I asked your mother if the leather halter I found hanging off the wall hook outside was hers.”

  “You know, if he’s telling the truth, he’d be a lot safer than Karrick would be if he took this mission on, and a lot more likely to succeed,” Carson remarked.

  Chapter 12

  The roast dinner was delicious, but Amanda tasted little of it as her mind was filled with all sorts of details that would have to be handled, if they were to find a way to get Nathan and others with the same abilities inside the Conglomerate’s territories.

  Many of the council members lived on their homeworlds most of the time and traveled only occasionally, or when the council was in session once every two years for a six-month period. The next session was due to start in four months and that wasn’t much time to get Nathan prepared for his task and set up on Proxima Alpha, the planetary seat of the Conglomerate.

  “Amanda… Amanda,” Bethan spoke firmly, finally breaking into the young woman’s reverie.

  “I’m sorry, Bethan, I’m just thinking of all the things that need to be done if we’re to get Nathan set up properly for his trip to Proxima Alpha.”

  “There’s plenty of time for that, dear. We can deal with that tomorrow. Why don’t you help Karrick and me with clearing the table, and then I want you to come with me to the study. I want to show you some holopics of Karrick and of your father and uncle.”

  Amanda quickly got up and helped clear the dinner table, and after giving Karrick a warm hug, left with his mother to look at the holopics. Bethan pointed to a comfortable padded chair and turned around to open a small chest. She pulled out some items and sat next to Amanda.

  “We’ll bring these back and some holovids, too, to share with the men, but I wanted to have some private time with you to talk about your uncle.”