The journey was long, and her chest hurt from bouncing on his back. Her arms hurt from being restrained and the jolting on her shoulder joints was agonizing. At first, it looked like Lakan knew where he was headed but after only an hour he stopped and changed direction. Then after another hour of determined travel, he stopped again. He wandered. He looked for food. She had heard that the shifters were often hungry and tired. Lakan looked both.
Angry, he stood again, forcing her already painful shoulders to jerk as they took more of her body weight. He tried to move his body to make hers shift, as if to rub his back on her instead of a tree. He tried to bite her as an annoyance, as though he didn’t put her there in the first place. Instead, as though he couldn’t process his information correctly, he reacted as though she were not on his back. He acted annoyed that she continued to stay on, confused as to why she remained between himself and the tree that would give him relief.
After shaking his body a few times, he leaned against the oak and rubbed, allowing the bark to tear at her clothing and back. She cried out but only moans and muted sounds escaped past the cloth still lodged in her mouth. She gagged with the tears adding blockage to her throat. She used her tongue to push some of the crammed cloth from the back of her throat. It worked enough to stop the gag reflex.
She had to think smarter, as Sterling and her grandmother had told her. Do not waste your efforts. The day was long and made even longer because Lakan hid, then walked, rested, dug in garbage, only to run to another area of the city. She was positive they had passed some places twice. He was hopelessly lost. He’d become extremely agitated at one point, throwing Maya on her back, over his head, to dislodge her arms from around his neck. It had hurt, and her shoulders continued to give her pain, but she was freer than she was on his back and the continual pressure was gone.
Her back burned, the scratches itched, and were painful from the tree first and then being thrown on the ground. She could walk now. She was happy to be able to gain back some of her control, but it was painful to move after the long hours in the one position. She wished she had her pack. She was hungry too, but she’d survive. Now she spoke to Lakan.
“Shift back to yourself. It’ll be easier for you to live that way. I can help you find food.”
He lunged at her, snapping his big teeth. She didn’t offer again. An unbalanced man was one thing, but a mad animal was even more unpredictably dangerous. They had found water in the park and the rain had helped them tremendously, but food was important. Her hands were still tied but they were in the front and she used them to remove the gag to drink. He never noticed it was missing.
She had chalk in her pocket that she had with her since going to the city. She wanted a way to mark where she’d been if necessary and now she’d need to do just that. She wrote her name wherever they went when she could. Unfortunately, it had been more than a day, and going into the second night since Lakan had taken her. Any trail they might have left would have gone colder than they would have liked. Even for her Paxton.
She’d tried to sneak away from him during the night but running in her bare feet and the muted darkness made it difficult. The shadows grew and shifted as she moved. Her feet had grown more tender since coming to her men and the ground was less forgiving. Lakan caught her, swiping his large paw against her head and knocking her to the ground. She thought he would do it again, but he stopped and sat down where she was. Now that she could, she drank from a puddle and spoke in their native tongue.
“I do not know why you’ve done this, but my men will find us. I need to go back home before they find you and kill you. They have great guns.”
To her great surprise, he spoke. “You know why I’ve done this. It was you who brought me to this place of hell. You’re my woman and I’ll not allow you to give yourself to another.”
“I have told you, I am like Sage Woman. I have three husbands who were chosen for me. The creator did not mean me for you. I did not bring you here, you followed me to harm me. The spirits are angry with you,” she told him, knowing neither of their versions was entirely true.
“You need to take me back to the tribe.” His statement was almost desperate.
“I don’t know how to get there. When I fell through the rock, you followed. That is not my fault. You have nothing but your greed and lechery to blame. I cannot return. I am called Medicine Woman Maya to the old ones now because I saved the people by taking you away from them.”
“You mean you won’t return because you’ve walked onto your life path, but you’ve taken me with you. Maya daughter of Rainwater, you brought us here, you’ll take us back.”
His paw swiped her shoulder, scratching it deeply. The blood from that strike blended with the other blood. She was bleeding the blood of her men as well. They had merged their life’s blood as one. She cried out and fell to the ground, but Lakan didn’t seem to notice. He was breathing harder. He lay down and placed his front paw through the loop her tied wrists made, leaving the foreleg stationed between her arms as an anchor. Then he slept, as did Maya.
When she woke, she at first wondered if he had died. He was so still. Then, when he made sounds of life, she worried he had lost all sense. Sterling’s words ‘psychotic break’ came to her mind. She didn’t need a mental visual because she was positive she had a physical manifestation of that concept. There were even more problems if he lost his mind, more things she had to be careful to watch for.
If he was going crazy, he might forget how to shift back, and she’d never be able to see him in the face, and say his name while looking him in the eye. Maya knew they wouldn’t last long. It had been two days, and this was the third night. She had almost nothing left to continue and Lakan, whom she was sure was dying, had found food and eaten but the effect of the food seemed minimal at best. It wasn’t enough. She’d eaten nothing.
To force him to shift, she chanted. He hit her. Her head throbbing, she prayed, calling to the great ones asking for forgiveness and help. His big clumsy paw gagged her with her shredded shirt made so by one of his paws as he stopped her from crying out to the creator. She silently prayed and fell into dreaming. The dreams made no sense, but she believed in their truth. She knew that a part of sleepwalk was a connection with Sterling. They were looking for her and they would find her. Desperately, she held on to that reality. But will I be living when they do find me?
She made sure that she left whatever traces she could of where they had been. She found one trace she had left previously, but despaired of ever seeing her men again. Now all that seemed important was food and getting out alive. Lakan would die anyway. He found more food behind a farmer’s market. Old fruit and vegetables. This time she ate while he gorged himself. She felt better but so did Lakan. His thinking seemed to be clearer for a little while after eating and he confidently headed farther into town.
Maya left all four letters of her name when she had time and materials. Sometimes rocks or other things were available but leaving her trail without Lakan noticing had become difficult.
He was at times closer than others, but she persisted. Sterling had shown her how to write her name. Maya Rainwater. They do not say “daughter of” in this time. Maya, MR, and any other variations she could do for her name that her lovers would understand, she did. Changing it up stopped a distracted Lakan from noticing. Since they had no written language that they used, Lakan, when he noticed, thought it drawings of strange almost geometric designs but nothing more.
Maya knew he couldn’t give her any more of his time than was necessary to keep her with him. He had to eat first, always, and then find the place where they had come into this time. Maya knew it was useless to go back to the spot, but Lakan wouldn’t listen. Most of the time, it was as though his reality was more than he could deal with. He was at one moment frantic, another angry, or frightened. She couldn’t help him. She had to do what she was called on to do, but would she be in a fit state to do it properly was the real question.
He was mor
e lucid as he spoke for the first time in a whole day. “You need to eat. I need you to live. You must take me to the place we entered. It’s the only way.” He removed the cloth from her mouth and gave her water and fruit. It tasted rotten, but she needed to eat what she could to stay alive.
“Lakan, I don’t know where that is. I haven’t returned. I don’t know about this strange place. It’s as confusing to me as it is to you.”
“But you’ve been with men who understand all of this.”
“Yes, but they do not understand about me and certainly do not know how I got here. They have never seen it before. We do not speak the same language. I am living my purpose. You must reach yours.”
He growled menacingly. “No, you are chosen to take my place in the tribe.”
“We’re no longer with our tribe but among many others who know nothing of our tribe. We must find our way in this place.”
“No, you can take us back. Do it. Start in the direction we must go.”
“Lakan, I can only guess for I’ve been given no knowledge of it.”
She watched Lakan. He never looked her directly in the eye in case she’d say his name. Maya knew from her dreams that he needed to be in his human form, but Lakan didn’t seem to understand that. Even now, he feared her power of knowledge.
She reminded herself that this was why he wanted her. Why he had hounded her, tracked her that day they had literally fell into this world and time. She had been blessed and he was greedy.
Instead of being thankful for the power she had been given and using her messages to inform his decisions for the tribe, he had wanted to steal the gift. Her gift. It upset the balance of their lives and brought them here. She had prayed that her men were her future, but it might have been a cruel joke. Maybe she perished with Lakan. She looked around.
“There. I believe it’s there. We needed to move north of where we were in the beginning.”
“How far?”
She shook her head. “I’ve no idea.”
She didn’t see the paw coming until it knocked her to the ground with the violent forcefulness of his blow. She lay still, stunned and unable to move at first. She didn’t want to when she thought she could again do so. She was losing her ability to continue, and her path didn’t seem as clear as it had days ago. Her inner sight was confused.
She lay on the ground, speaking in English, a language he’d recognized as having heard in this place, but she knew he didn’t understand the words. She prayed in English. He must have thought she was going mad herself, for he left her alone with her foreign mumbles. Maybe she was.
As they inched forward, it appeared they were trapped by fences and houses, tall buildings and roads. Fresh water became harder to find as they left the place Maya knew as a park. The world became louder, brighter, the stars less visible. During daylight the sun was merciless. Maya was sure she was going the way of Lakan. Sometimes she felt as if she, too, were going mad with the hopelessness of their situation. Not only was she bothered by the fear of Lakan, but disorientation was setting in.
He removed the gag, but it did little to comfort her. The strong sun, the heat, the lack of adequate food or water caused her perpetual dehydration. Her body ached without relief, her muscles cramped often, and the pain was nearly unbearable. She was hungry and had dried blood on her shredded shirt from the blows she had sustained from Lakan. Praying for relief from her ancestors, from her creator, kept her with a tiny hold on her reality.
It was over. Soon, she would join her ancestors. She was becoming delirious like Lakan, when in his fury and despair, he approached her, hurling angry words and curses. It mattered no longer. She was in pain, tired, and thirsty. The hunger had subsided now. She could see through her hazy vision that Lakan stood over her. In his ultimate despair, he would deliver the final blow, the killing blow, and the blessed darkness seeped into her peripheral vision. She felt the tingling in her nose that heralded the single tear that slid down her cheek. She hovered on the edge between awake and asleep. The relief of darkness was just out of her reach. Maya reached out to touch the cool, gentle oblivion of night and her hand touched Sterling’s outstretched one.
We’re coming, baby. Where are you? Leave us a sign. We’re coming.
Maya drew strength from her lover’s words. The darkness turned gray. The sleep was refreshing not life ending, but that didn’t change her situation otherwise. Lakan had snapped, but it didn’t matter now, nothing mattered now. She had failed. He would die and come back as a skinwalker from birth. Or, if he could think clearly at all, he would shift into something small that would take little to strengthen. He could then come again as a skinwalker, bent on death and destruction.
Maya lay with her eyes closed, hearing his angry words hurled at her. She heard the powerful swish like an updraft that fueled a forest fire. He was shifting. Her prayers had been answered. She endured the pain and carefully opened her eyes in time to see Lakan transform into his shaman self. Closing her eyes again quickly, she gathered her wandering thoughts and meager strength about her as a buffalo robe. One last prayer for help and one last thought to her lovers and it was time. With an inner strength she didn’t know she had, she opened her eyes and moaned, pulling his eyes to hers. The depth of her stare pierced his as she spoke.
“Lakan Kanoenuskawa.”
Surprise overtook his expression first, followed by horror. She had looked him in the eye, called his full name, and condemned him to death for his greedy, wicked ways. He’d thought her dead. His surprise told her that. He might not have been wrong. She may well have given her life to stop him, but she had succeeded, and she could go to her ancestors with pride. No more death from Lakan, but what of the others that this time had? It wasn’t hers to worry about. Lakan was dying. She had fulfilled her destiny. Except she no longer had her men. Killing Lakan had taken all she had. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw him. He picked up a piece of wood, pain, bursts of light, and then…
Chapter 15
“Where the hell is she?” Paxton threw his stress ball at the screen. “Her tracker is dead. It’s either broken or where there’s no sun to recharge it.” The comment left his companions to think the worse-case scenario. He was thinking it.
Sterling was still hopeful. “Maybe it is just outside of satellite reach. Like it has been.”
“Either way, it doesn’t matter because it’s no longer registering.” He leaned forward and ran his hands through his hair for the hundredth time since Maya had been taken. “They can’t be on the main roads. They must be in a park, by the river, or somewhere in the countryside.” It made sense but also made finding them harder.
Zander was at the end of his rope. “Of all the fucking technology we have, a woman and a bear have been able to stay out of our reach for thirty hours.”
“Can we track her with the implant?” asked Paxton.
“No. I never thought we would need something like that,” Sterling replied.
She had been gone long enough to call in a missing person alert. If they did, however, it would go on the record that Maya had runaway—not wandered away but deliberately left. As an adult, it wouldn’t raise many flags, but as an immigrant still in training, she’d be viewed as a menace or worse, a spy. No one would believe a bear took her, or big foot, or any other creature. Even with Zander to verify the possibility. She’d be deported to where ever or kept in a camp for five years, undergoing intense indoctrination. They would never be allowed to see her. She’d never survive. Neither would they.
“How about calling in some help from Ambrose now?” Paxton asked.
Zander stood, his agitation shown in his resumption of the pacing he had taken up whenever they were not moving to follow their leads. Those had dried up. He wouldn’t believe his woman was gone or… dead.
“I’m going to call in the menace squad to hunt down Lakan as a bear.”
Both men looked at their partner. For Zander, a man who fought even the existence of the protection unit that hunte
d and killed animals they thought were dangerous, who was an integral part of the Animal Preservation Department, it was telling.
Sterling shook his head sadly. “You can’t, man. You can’t go against your belief that it’s wrong to have that unit and then use it when you want to. It will end your credibility in that area and go against everything you believe in.”
“This is Maya we’re talking about, dammit, and it won’t matter if we can’t find her. We’ve called every hospital with no result. Nothing will matter if we lose her.” His pacing turned to repetitive stomping across the bamboo floor.
“You can’t compromise your own integrity. When we find her, you’ll need to continue your work, but will not be as effective. What we can do is use you to get impressions from the animals we pass. You know, you’re good at connecting with them.” Pax turned hopefully towards Zander.
“Animals I’m working with, yes, but random beasts we pass? That’s ridiculous.”
Sterling leaned forward in his chair. “Look. I’m doing my best, but I worry something has really happened. I don’t dream, don’t feel her near or even at all. Pax has used his tracking but now he’s at a dead end. There isn’t much open to us, man. We either call in Ambrose and risk exposure of her gifts or take one of your dogs.”
“Ditsy. That’s what she called the dogs in her language. I think it was deet-see, but the pup seems a little goofy so Ditsy fits. Anyway, she loves him, and he loves her. I can work with that.”
“Thank God, we have another avenue. And this one might work. I had no idea she played with a dog. What kind of dog is he?”
“A mixed breed but he has skill. She was training him. Where are her dirty underwear?” His companions stared at him. “For the dog.”
“She doesn’t usually wear any,” said Sterling.
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