Goldilocks

by Patria L. Dunn

  “The seventeenth…?” Hannah croaked out, catching the shocked looked on Jake’s face when she snuck a peek at him.

  Even the teacher seemed surprised at her correct answer, his eyes narrowing suspiciously as he looked from her to Jake before lowering back to the text book in his hand.

  “How did you do that?” she demanded in a hushed whisper -the second the lesson continued- her body shifting so that there was now plenty of space between them at the table. “You were inside my head! I heard you! Can you hear my thoughts too?!”

  “I…I don’t know,” Jake answered honestly, the same questions burning in his mind now.

  He’d simply been wishing that he’d been the one called, since he’d heard the question and also knew the answer. He had never consciously tried to push a thought forward to a human like that before, yet she’d heard him perfectly. He’d felt the connection with her mind as their thoughts had synched for a split second and then suddenly released. And now she was looking at him in horror, her head shaking in disbelief.

  “Don’t do that again.”

  “I didn’t. I mean I did, but I don’t know how.”

  “Really?!” Hannah muttered sarcastically, rolling her eyes when he tried to reach for her hand.

  “Tomorrow, I’ll tell you everything. Everything that I know,” Jake promised, leaning forward so that she was forced to look him in the eye.

  She didn’t like having her privacy invaded. And she really didn’t like the thought of him being inside her head, but it wasn’t dishonesty she saw when she finally looked at him. It was the same pleading look the bear had given her the night she’d discovered the cave, and it was the look Jake had given her up on the ridge just before he’d shifted. She trusted that look, and until she found out that she couldn’t, she would at least give him a chance to explain.

  “Come early,” Hannah nodded once, her head turning to the front once again. “I have plans later.”

  Chapter 18:

  Hannah winced as she flexed her toes under the covers, every inch of her feet still throbbing from the 5k race she’d barely won the night before. Her father hadn’t been able to bring her running shoes in time, and so she’d been forced to run in the low cut Converse she’d worn to school yesterday. Even her thick ankle socks hadn’t been able to save her from the tender callouses that had formed on the sides of her feet, Lindsey’s smug look only slightly soured when Hannah had limped forward to accept her ribbon for first place.

  Even still Hannah didn’t want a narrow victory like that again with Lindsey. She’d crossed the finish line only a few seconds before the other girl and had come nowhere near the record time she’d been running all week in practice. Coach had sentenced her to five extra drills all next week for forgetting her shoes, and had also promised to sit her out of the next meet if it happened again. Hannah had been all too glad to remain in bed when her father had left at the crack of dawn this morning, but it was just after eight now, and the beams of sunlight –peeping through her curtains- reminded her that she had very little time to finish cleaning before Beth and Lindsey arrived.

  With a sigh she swung her legs over the edge of the bed, stretching, before gingerly padding her way towards the kitchen in search of breakfast. A smile touched her lips when she rounded the corner and found that there was no need for her to look far. A note scrawled in her father’s illegible handwriting, plus a blueberry muffin, sat in the middle of the kitchen table waiting for her. Hannah was just about to reach for it when she heard a familiar rumble outside, announcing ‘Big Red’s’ return.

  She rolled her eyes as she waited for her father’s footsteps to grow closer, up the porch stairs, his keys jingling as he turned the lock. A frown pinched the corners of her mouth down when he popped his head in the door, a wide smile on his face. She hated that he was probably checking up on her even though he’d left just a few hours before, but the carton of pink frosted cupcakes he pulled from behind his back couldn’t let her be mad long.

  “Just thought you and your friends would like some snacks,” Paul offered the box of cakes, his gaze falling on the running shoes she’d left beside the table the day before.

  “I’m not going into the woods Dad,” Hannah promised before he could mention it, setting the desserts on the table to grab the muffin off the plate.

  “I wasn’t…” Paul trailed off at the sideways glance Hannah shot his way, smiling sheepishly as he ran his fingers threw his tangled locks.

  “Okay so maybe I was checking on you, but I love you Hannah, and the woods just aren’t safe,” he reasoned, shaking the memory from his head of the last collapse at the mine.

  “I love you too dad,” Hannah grinned, gesturing toward the cupcakes. “I don’t suppose Beth and Lindsey will mind skipping out on the salad I was planning to make,” she giggled when he laughed, patting his stomach as he shook his head.

  “I’m getting used to it, but I’m not so sure your friends are as into rabbit food as you are,” Paul smiled, already backing out the still open door. “Gotta run, but you know where to reach me,” he paused at the first step, waiting until Hannah followed him out on the porch.

  “Please go! Do some work or something!” Hannah laughed, shooing him off towards the jeep.

  She couldn’t help but giggle as she watched him pull back out of the driveway, blowing kisses as he went.

  Out into the grass she walked until she could no longer see ‘Big Red’s’ rusty paint through the trees, her toes digging into the warm blades as she made her way around the house towards the garden. It was too early for strawberries, but last week she’d spotted the green fruit, dotting the edges of the row of lettuce. With all the sunshine this week, Hannah was almost betting on ripe red berries, ready to be picked. They would go perfectly in the tea she was planning on making, and she’d still have enough left over to use for dinner tonight.

  Looking up into the bright, summer blue sky, she stretched her arms high over her head, loosening out the kinks that had formed in her sleep, her thoughts suddenly on Jake. She felt his presence before she saw him, her face warming as she paused mid turn, her eyes skimming the line of woods surrounding the back of the cabin. He was nearly hidden, just beyond the mouth of the trail, blending in between the trunks of two old pines. Her eyes locked with his, and for a minute, neither of them moved, Hannah’s hand on her chest as she stared at the bear she knew was Jake.

  “Wait!” she called when he turned suddenly, a burst of speed carrying him out of sight before she’d broken into a run.

  The moss covering the trail was even slicker against her bare feet, her tender soles crying out in protest as they slapped down against broken twigs and pebbles embedded in the soft earth. She couldn’t see him, but she could hear him, not too far ahead, leaves rustling in a straight path up and over the first hill. Hannah slowed when his movements stopped all together, the birds chirping in the branches above, the only sounds that she could hear echoing through the still forest. Her father’s warning chimed through her head as she slowed to a hesitant walk, her heart thudding in her chest at the promise she hadn’t meant to break.

  “I thought you weren’t supposed to be in the woods?” Jake came from behind her, catching her wrist as she spun around in surprise.

  Like her he was wearing shorts, but that was all, the muscles of his bare broad chest still rippling from his shift. Hannah’s mouth was suddenly dry, her wrist jerking from his hold at the searing heat that suddenly shot up her arm. Warmth claimed her cheeks as she forced her eyes up to his face, shaking her head as she looked back at the cabin.

  “You were in my head again!?” she accused, her eyes narrowing as she pushed past him in annoyance, starting back down the trail.

  “No! I was listening,” Jake’s mouth snapped shut when she tossed him a withering look over her shoulder, quickening her pace into a long stride.

  He caught up to her in seconds, grabbing her shoulder this time, forcing her to stop.

  “You said come e
arly, so I did. I was just about to dress,” he gestured to the shorts he was now wearing. “When I heard your father coming down the driveway. Bears can hear up to ten miles you know, especially if it’s quiet. I wasn’t eavesdropping on purpose, I just heard…and I didn’t want to draw attention, so I stayed put,” Jake shrugged, searching Hannah’s eyes as they widened slightly and then lowered, long lashes brushing her cheeks.

  “So you are then?” Hannah swallowed hard, unable to force the exact words out.

  “You know that I am,” Jake answered solemnly, his hand slipping from her shoulder to her wrist. “Which is why I think it would be a bad idea for me to tell you anything more than what your father already has. Please stay out of the woods. You don’t…”

  “No! No! No!” Hannah shoved at Jake’s chest hard, only succeeding in knocking herself back instead of him.

  He was even more solid than he looked, and didn’t budge under her angry stare either.

  “You promised that you would tell me everything, and I’m not going anywhere until you do! You owe me an explanation!” Hannah demanded, her arms crossing as she straightened to her full height.

  Even with her long legs at her advantage, Jake was still almost a full head and a half taller than she was, towering over her as he took another step forward, shaking his head.

  “I can’t.”

  “You can if you don’t want me to run tell everyone your secret!” Hannah spat out, almost instantly regretting it the second the words were free.

  Jake’s face was once again fixed with the stony expression she’d become so used to seeing, his shoulder squaring as he turned to head in the opposite direction, back up into the woods.

  “I wouldn’t!” Hannah cried out, grabbing his arm before he could walk away, releasing it almost immediately when he turned, their bodies nearly brushing now. “I really wouldn’t,” Hannah breathed softly, meeting Jake’s questioning stare, her head shaking as she released his arms. “I shouldn’t have said that.”

  “You shouldn’t have,” Jake agreed, his fingers lifting to push a few stray tendrils back behind her ear. “You have no idea what that would mean, and all I’m trying to do is protect you.”

  “Knowing is protecting me,” Hannah insisted softly, her finger lifting to point up towards the wooded hills leading towards the base of the mountain. “Either I figure it out on my own, or you give me a reason not to.”

  “You wouldn’t,” Jake shook his head firmly. “Not after…”

  His eyes widened as Hannah’s narrowed in determination, her arms folding across her chest as she waited for him to cave.

  “I like your hair down,” Jake finally murmured, his gaze running over the length of her loose golden locks and back up again.

  “It’s too long,” Hannah shrugged, cringing as she imagined what her hair must look like after a night of tossing and turning.

  She hadn’t bothered to brush it upon waking like she normally did, and could almost feel the thin strands rising in the heat, absorbing any bits of moisture that was left over from last night’s rain.

  “Goldilocks,” Jake commented as he watched her smooth her hands over the crown of her head, his hands reaching to stop hers.

  “If I tell you,” Jake sighed heavily, his head shaking slightly at what he’d spent all night deciding against. “Do you promise to stay out of the woods?”

  Hannah hated that the pained look on his face was because of her, but she had to know the truth.

  It was the same words that she’d said to her father, but she meant them this time. As long as he told her everything, she’d do as he asked.

  “I promise.”

  Chapter 19:

  “This was my second home for a while,” Jake admitted, pointing towards the cabin as they settled on the top of the boulder marking the beginning of the old miner’s trail. “I kept the garden up after old man Jacob’s disappeared…for the deer,” Jake smiled at Hannah’s surprised look.

  “So you lived here…in my house?”

  “No, not lived,” Jake shook his head, snatching a leaf from one of the branches dangling over them, the stem twirling slowly between his thumb and index. “It was my thinking spot. When I needed some space away from my parents, I…”

  “Your parents!? So you don’t live all alone up in that cave. I mean, I know I saw two bedrooms, but…” Hannah’s words trailed off as her cheeks grew hot with embarrassment.

  She hadn’t meant to bring up her previous violation of his privacy and home.

  “Yeah, we’ve always lived here,” Jake shrugged. “These woods,” he sighed, the leaf dropping from his fingertips to float to the ground below. “They’ve been guarded by my family for more than a few centuries now. Before roads, before Hinsdale had even been thought of, even before humans, there were only Kind,” Jake explained, his eyes closing to see more clearly the ancient history his father had imbedded deep in his memories.

  He spoke it as he saw it, the way his father had explained it to him, even before he was old enough to really comprehend.

  “Once upon a time, the entire earth was ruled by only animals, some of the smartest of those creatures consisting of apes, eagles, bears, wolves, moose and many others. Thousands of years ago, any warm blooded creature was known as Kind, meaning givers of life. Today, many believe that humans only evolved from apes, because that is the form they can be associated with the best, but in their truest of forms, the leaders of every Kind species had the ability to create new life, as well as give old life. So that the power wouldn’t be abused, and the earth overpopulated by one particular Kind or another, a council was formed. But there was still strife within the council, each Kind wanting to be more dominant than the next. So it was decided that a new species would be created. Born of their spirits, but superior in every way, and that Kind would be the head ruler of the council. And so they created a Kind from all of their traits, long arms and hands like the ape, sharp eyes like the eagle, a lean torso like the wolf, soft skin like the otter, thick hair to cover it with, like the bear…from every council member they gleaned something. And when they were done…a new Kind was born of their images, and they called it man…hence the word Mankind.”

  “Man born of animals,” Hannah whispered in awe, her eyes wide as Jake’s words sunk in.

  “Yes,” Jake sighed, wincing at the vivid images now flashing through his head, reliving the downfall just as his father had all those years ago. “Now the council saw what they had done, and pronounced it good. With man leading their path, they could do things they’d never thought to do before. He had their combined intelligence and a unique structure that they used to their benefit. They loved man so much that they used their combined powers to create an ability to shift into man’s form. They could mimic man, but they could never be man. But it came a time, where man grew lonely. He didn’t just want a companion that could look like him; he wanted a companion that could be him. He saw that every Kind had another Kind, and one day he asked the council to give him a true mate as well. It was a request that would lead the Kind to the destruction of their purity as a whole, and create an earth that they’d never be able to take back. The council decided that only man would know what type of mate would please him, so even though it was forbidden to ever give one’s power to another, they decided that for one time only, they would bless man with their own power so that he could create an equal match for himself. Well, man was smart, and saw the council as selfish for only giving him this power once. The council had off spring for many generations, and man worried that one day, they would no longer need him. So man used his power to create woman. It was a loophole the council had overlooked. A bearer of his own offspring, man no longer needed the council’s power to continue his own Kind. Now because man was created of every Kind spirit, the dominant animal trait within him lived on through his breed. With each new Kind born of man, a Kind trait was instilled in them. Wolves, bears, moose, eagles…they were all born with the ability to shift into the kind trait t
hat was bestowed on them in the womb. But man was the only one of his Kind that could pass on the trait. The council realized that as man’s offspring grew and began to procreate, the Kind spirit became completely lost. These offspring were called human,” Jake paused, his eyes meeting Hannah’s for the first time since he’d started telling the story.

  To him it was history, but to her, it was an unbelievable truth that his father said no human would ever understand. He expected to see doubt in her features, maybe even a smirk on her face, but all he found was wonder. Her eyes searched his, pleading for him to continue. She took his hand gently when he hesitated, her eyes closing as she turned her face up towards the trees.

  “And then…?” she murmured, exhaling softly when he finally continued.

  “And so decades passed, and man grew old and weak. He pleaded with the council to give him the gift of immortality that only they shared, but they refused. Man’s breed was beginning to outnumber the Kind all together, separating themselves from their superiors and changing the earth from the natural habitat that had always been the Kind’s home. It was with relief that the council watched man die from his old age, but it was already too late. Man’s offspring had evolved, branching out into their own languages, and territories, forgetting their origins. Only his direct breed remained and even then, after man’s death, they no longer recognized the council as rulers over them. They turned on the Kind, using their shifting abilities to trick them into leaving their homes, and enslaving the ones that stayed for their benefit. The tables were suddenly turned. Humans were thriving and despite the council’s efforts to remain the true rulers, even their own breeds succumb to the lesser nature humans force them into. Human shelters became homes, and thickets of forest were wiped out to build roads. The higher the human population became, the less the council fought it. They knew that their creation of man was the undoing of the Kind and they accepted it because they had no other choice; their numbers were no match in comparison to how fast the human breed was reproducing. The council disbanded when the last of their breeds moved on, their own immortal lives, only a reminder of the true history of this earth. Most of them were resolved to their fates, except one. Creed –the council’s wolf Kind- was unhappy with the council’s decision to disband. He didn’t want to listen to reason, and when the council refused to fight with him against the humans, in secret, he began to birth from his spirit an army that would help him destroy the humans. But a spirit can only be given so many times, and a flesh with a spirit could only be born jointly of all council members. After the first few attempts at recreating a man Kind, Creed had already done more damage than he himself could contain. His offspring’s spirits were birthed broken, their animalistic, pack tendencies more prominent and deformed than anything the council had ever seen, but Creed didn’t care. He continued trying to birth the perfect spirit on his own, and by the time the council got word of the hordes of wolf Kind ravaging the land, it was almost too late. Except a handful of babes, what you know now as Hinsdale and Lake City had all but been massacred, the human breed desecrated and left to rot right where they fell. By then, Creed was too weak to produce more offspring, so it gave the council time to come up with a plan. You see, they are immortal against each other. A spirit taken, is a spirit given. So the council set about capturing each of Creed’s army, binding their spirits and casting them down into the center of what is now the four passes. They also encased the loop around the pass with a curse that would never allow a wolf Kind to pass in its bound state. Unable to shift, it’s impossible for a wolf Kind to climb the treacherous terrain of the abyss; they are stuck there forever, their spirits immortal. Well…that’s how it was supposed to be,” Jake sighed, present memories fading in and out of the past ones now.