by Martha Carr
Perrom sat on the edge of the forest at the sanctuary in Texas enjoying the sunlight on his head, his eyes closed, his face turned toward the sun. He wanted to get back to Oriceran and see Ossonia, needed to, but he took a few more moments to enjoy the quiet by himself. It was still early in the morning and a lot of the residents of the dense woods weren’t awake and stirring yet. Only the songbirds were letting everyone know the sun had risen.
Perrom lay back on the grass and let the scales along his body flip over to match the long, green blades, hiding him in plain sight. He took in a deep, easy breath, making the ground look like it was rolling. His mind wandered, thinking of Ossonia’s hand in his as a loud, painful screech erupted behind him.
He jerked his head up, some of the scales partially turning, only part of his face becoming visible along the ground. He looked backward in the direction of the forest where the sound erupted. More sounds of sudden movement.
Perrom jumped to his feet, quickly changing appearance back to his normal resting state of honey brown as the irises of his eyes shifted in every direction looking for clues. The tops of the trees were wildly swaying, all in a southern direction.
Away from some danger. It wasn’t a typical predator, whatever it was. The normal ones like large cats or a brown bear were under the Gardener’s protective spell and didn’t hunt within the sanctuary. Something new had found its way inside.
Perrom ran into the depths of the woods, the light quickly fading under the dense canopy, leaping over familiar tree roots and taking shortcuts through the thick underbrush. He knew every square inch as he slid around the base of a tall, wide oak, running his hand along the bark for balance.
Several elk came running at him, their eyes wide with fear, turning at the last moment and running, fleeing away from something. Perrom put out his arms wide, attempting to calm the animals as their hooves thundered dangerously close to him. The calming spell that normally hung over the entire property was being torn to shreds.
Perrom took off running in the direction of the loudest screams, his heart beating hard in his chest. He came along a familiar path and found small trees and bushes pulled up by their roots, broken into pieces, the ground trampled flat. How is this even possible?
The trail had an abrupt beginning as if the menace had appeared out of nowhere, emerging right on that spot.
Portal. Something magical… something fucking powerful found its way past every protection. This is bad.
The Gardener of the Dark Forest was a master practitioner of protection spells. Something or someone had made a mockery of them.
A roar erupted from just yards away down a narrow path by the magnolia trees, their blossoms scattered along the ground with the green, waxy leaves. He slowed down as he heard the cries of a deer, screaming its last and came closer, taking a sharp turn.
There in a clearing created by the large beast covered in fur stood Lucius, tearing at a deer and feasting on all of it. The deer was past caring. Perrom hesitated, shocked more by something invading the grounds of the sanctuary this deep inside of the forest than the sight of a shifter. The layers of spells were supposed to make a feat like this impossible. All of his irises focused on Lucius, studying the shifter, looking for weaknesses.
Biggest fucking shifter I’ve ever seen.
He wasn’t finding them. His mind was running a million miles a minute searching for the best options. Too late to find his father. There wasn’t enough time. His father was back on Oriceran.
All the animals had run to another part of the vast sanctuary but at some point they would run out of room. He would have to defend the forest as best he could until the Gardener came on his usual rounds, hours from now.
He stepped back, forming a fireball as his foot stepped down on a stick in the momentary quiet, making a small cracking noise. Lucius looked up from burying his face in his catch, his face bloody. Perrom considered climbing for higher ground but that would draw Lucius closer to the animals.
He held his breath steady, holding the glowing fireball in his open hand as Lucius wiped his mouth on his furry arm, a low rumble coming from his chest. He kept his eyes on Perrom as he flexed one of his large paws, the long claws tipped in deep red. Perrom held his ground, waiting to see what the beast would decide to do next, satisfied with a standoff.
But Lucius dropped the partially eaten carcass and smacked his lips, looking to the right in the direction of the animals the Gardener had worked so hard to preserve. A steely determination came over Perrom and he flung the fireball, knowing it would find its mark.
Lucius growled and batted at the fireball as it whizzed past him just out of his reach and circled back, slamming into his side, knocking the wind out of him and catching some of his fur on fire. The acrid smell of burning hair filled the air around them. Lucius stumbled backward, surprised but didn’t fall.
Now it was Perrom’s turn to be surprised but he didn’t waste a moment worrying about what it meant. That could come later. He formed another fireball in moments, singing into it and hauled it sideways as hard as he could, watching it split apart into hundreds of tiny fireballs, peppering Lucius’ fur.
Too many to be able to put out quickly or dodge. Lucius reared his head back and let out a roar, shaking the tree branches over his head. He fell to the ground and rolled as Perrom sent out another volley, singeing the beast, leaving small welts on the bottom of his feet.
Perrom circled, keeping up the barrage. He smelled something strange, noticing the black curling mist that was spreading along the forest floor but there was no time to wonder what that meant. Maybe I can get him to shift back, come to his senses. At least run the mad dog off. Get the hell out of here the way he came.
But Lucius had other plans.
He rose to his feet, his entire body trembling, his muscles tense as he made himself stand the small fires still clinging to his fur.
Perrom saw his chance and opened a portal that opened by the ocean in Oriceran where there would be the least amount of Elves or Witches nearby. The smell of salt air blew into the forest as Perrom turned to draw Lucius behind him, even as he kept up the stream of fireballs that were now raining down on Lucius from above.
Perrom kept two irises on Lucius, the others scanning the nearby area to make sure his hunch was right. It was all Lucius needed. He dropped back just enough, bending his knees and leapt forward, his claws outstretched, raking Perrom down his left side, and tearing at the muscles in his arm. Perrom stumbled and fell back into the forest, the portal wheezing and sparking. Perrom gasped at the surge of pain and looked up in horror in time to see the portal tear and the world in between exposed.
Hagan sat next to Lois in the warehouse doing his best to read the symbols on the board overhead. “Artifact discovered… artifact stolen… Witch practicing spells in San Fernando… Light Elf fixing a basketball game. That’s a new one,” he muttered.
Lois absentmindedly pushed her glasses back up her nose. Her head was bent over an iPad reading a report from General Anderson. “Earle is not going to believe this shit.” She looked up, surprised. “Forget I said that out loud. Earle doesn’t exactly have clearance. Not that I tell him the really juicy stuff. I know the limits. Those I save for Patty.”
“You’re babbling. It’s not a good look. What does the report say? I’m figuring I at least have Earle-level clearance.”
Lois pressed her lips together and arched an eyebrow. “Normally, Patty says something like that and I zing her with a tiny little fireball. Seeing as how you’re human and old and might tell on me, I’ll skip it.”
“Much obliged but call me a rat again and I’ll figure out how to throw one of those at you.”
Lois let out a snort. “Fair enough. The report is about regular citizens, translate humans, seeing larger than average wolves that have been tearing up plants and maybe a few pets. Then disappearing into thin air. Boy, this is not good. I was hoping I’d get to go to my grave without humans finding out about shifters. I bel
ieve they call them werewolves.”
“You knew all along about shifters?”
“Of course I did,” said Lois, insulted. “I was a member of the Silver Griffins, after all.” She slid her finger across the screen, scrolling to the next page. “Shifters have been with us since ancient times, long before the last gates were open. But the natives took them as some kind of sign of the devil at first, and then as pure fiction. The magical community on Earth helped perpetuate that myth and we were all hoping to keep it that way. Humans have proven to be testy when they find out some of them were used in spells and turned into hairy beasts with claws and fangs. They tend to burn the rest of us at stakes when they hear that sort of thing.”
Hagan kept looking up at the board even as he fumbled around for the bowl of Starburst. Lois conveniently kept waving her wand to move it inches from his reach. “Dragon egg found on farm in Virginia… Artifact… artifact… artifact…” He looked up just in time to see Lois lower her wand. “Hey! Unspoken rule among partners. You don’t mess with the food… ever.” He jerked his head back toward the scroll crawling across the middle of the room. The annoyance quickly dropped from his face as he waited to see if the same combination of symbols passed in front of him again.
“There it is… sanctuary. You don’t think? Is the magic stream keeping an eye on the sanctuaries? What’s that symbol mean? Isn’t that death… no, something close…”
Lois lowered her iPad and looked up, the color draining from her face. She jumped to her feet, pushing up her glasses as the iPad slid off her lap. “Maim… that’s what that means. Rough translation but close enough. Nothing good. Something bad is happening at the sanctuary.”
Hagan looked back at the symbols, doing his best to read them. “I thought that place was the magical Fort Knox for animals.”
“It’s supposed to be. Hell, this is the first time it’s shown up on our boards. We need to tell Leira.”
“General Anderson sent her on some kind of recon and Correk’s out on a Fixer assignment.” Hagan stood up and clapped his hands together. “That leaves you and me. Come on, don’t shake your head. From the looks of that thing, there’s no time to consult with others. That place means a lot to a lot of good people. Beam me up there. Do it!”
“Oh, I am going to get in so much shit if this goes south. Helping a human being go battle something magical in a hidden sanctuary. So much paperwork if you get killed.”
“I’ll do my best to save you from the paperwork, trust me. Now do it. Come on, chop chop.”
Lois looked up at the coordinates one more time and waved her wand, opening a portal just behind the wounded Perrom. His arm lay by his side, torn at the muscle by his shoulder and he was bleeding badly. Lucius was towering over him, his arm raised to tear out Perrom’s throat.
Hagan leaned through the opening of the portal and lifted Perrom in one motion, pulling him into the warehouse. His hands dipped into the black mist partially covering Perrom, clinging to the hairs on his arm as he pulled back. His stomach lurched at the stench as he held up Perrom’s head, even as he looked directly in Lucius’ eyes.
“Close it! Close it now!” He could feel the swish of wind as Lucius brought down his paw in anger and lunged toward the opening. Lois was ready and whipped her wand across the open space, zipping the portal closed in the nick of time.
Hagan rested Perrom on his desk, pushing everything off the surface and onto the floor as he laid him back. Perrom’s body tried to take on the appearance of the desk, instinctively hiding him but the scales fluttered, going back and forth. “Get some bandages or some rags to stop this bleeding.” Hagan wasn’t waiting for Lois. He pulled off his tie and wrapped it around Perrom’s arm just at the shoulder, making a tourniquet. “Come on Wood Elf, stay with us.”
Lois came running with the first aid kit shoving it toward Hagan as she raised her wand, mumbling spell after spell trying to find one to stop the bleeding. “Nothing is working!” She shook her head in desperation. “Has to be that damned shifter! There’s something about him. Some kind of spell clinging to him that’s poisoning everything. We have to find the Gardener. He may know what to do.”
“That arm looks bad. If we don’t figure out something he may not be able to keep it.”
Lois shook out her arms and waved her wand, opening a portal to Oriceran. “Then we better get moving.”
“Not the way I pictured seeing another world for the first time.” He gently lifted Perrom off the desk and held him close as the blood soaked through his shirt making an ever-increasing stain. He stepped through the portal and stood in the clearing looking around, waiting for Lois. “How do we find the Gardener?”
“We don’t. He’ll find us. I just hope we’re not too late.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Yumfuck sat on the back of the couch in the guest house, wearing his red cowboy boots. He was licking his paw and rubbed his paw on his cape, working at the worst of the stains to see if he could make his super hero costume look a little more dignified. It wasn’t working. “Meh, will have to do for now. There’s work to be done.”
He put on the cape and mask and bounded up to the back of the red velvet chair to get a look at himself in the mirror. “Not bad.” He dropped his voice into a low grumble and put his hands on his hips. “I am Batfuck. Time to get to work.”
He headed out into the neighborhood looking for trouble. The bar was just getting warmed up with the early lunch crowd as Yumfuck waited in the shadows for Estelle to walk back inside. He saw his chance and ran for the knot in the fence that was just his size and leaped through head first, the cape streaming behind him. It snagged on a nail and left him hanging, floating just above the concrete on the other side.
The troll took the opportunity to spread his arms out straight in front of himself and fly momentarily. He let out a satisfied cackle and put his feet down, working the cape off the nail and examining the new small tear it had made. “Price of justice, motherfuckers.”
He took off running down Rainey Street searching for trouble and turned on Driskill headed toward the highway frontage road. He was almost to the frontage road when he heard a woman cry for help. He let out a tiny gasp and stopped to listen, trying to figure out where the cry came from.
“Hey! Somebody stop him!”
A wiry man with a scruffy gray beard and long, dirty dark hair came running down the sidewalk toward Yumfuck. Just behind him down the block a woman was yelling, waving her arms, unable to see the five-inch troll on the ground. She was desperately looking around for help. “He has my purse! Help!”
Yumfuck looked up at the rapidly approaching man and saw the grey leather purse he was cradling tightly, close to his chest. The troll made his move and positioned himself in front of the man’s right leg, timing his encounter.
“One Mississippi, two Mississippi, three Mississippi… Now!” Just as the toe of the man’s worn work boot hit Yumfuck, the troll grew to a foot tall, startling the thief and tripping him. He fell, face first breaking his nose on the concrete, still clutching the purse, knocking himself clean out. Yumfuck quickly shrunk back down and grabbed the purse, holding it over his head as he ran back toward the woman.
“I have got to cut down on the coffee for sure. My doctor was right.” The woman watched, mystified with her mouth open as her purse bobbed toward her, as if it was moving on its own.
The troll dropped it at the woman’s feet, crawling out from under it and put his hands on his hips. “I am Batfuck,” he growled, cackling, sticking out his tiny chest. “At your service.”
“Holy shit, the girls will never believe this one. I was saved by a rat wearing a mask and miniature cowboy boots.”
Yumfuck took a bow and stood up smiling, showing all his tiny, pointed teeth. “Aloha motherfuckers,” he chirped and ran in the direction of home, the tiny cape flapping behind him. He turned the corner and stopped for a moment, surveying the landscape. “I’m really getting good at this,” he said, as he bound ont
o the top of a car rolling toward home, hitching a ride like a tiny roof ornament out to save the day.
The woman cautiously bent down and retrieved her purse, digging out her phone to take a picture of her rescuer but by the time she stood back up again, Yumfuck was gone. “Okay, maybe I need to start drinking wine in the morning instead,” she muttered as she dialed 911.
“911, what is your emergency?” The calm operator’s voice came on instantly.
“Um, uh…”
“Ma’am are you okay? What’s your emergency?”
“Someone tried to mug me.”
“Tried ma’am? Are you safe?”
“Um, uh… yes, I am but the thief uh, tripped and knocked himself out. You better hurry.” Better save the whole story for the girls. Worse they’ll do is laugh at me. I was saved by a crime-fighting rat from Texas. Holy shit… “Aloha motherfuckers is right…”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Leira stood in the warehouse listening to Hagan and Lois take turns telling her what happened. Twice she started to make a portal and go over to Oriceran herself, but Lois stopped her both times. “I’m telling you, there’s no more we can do for now. The Gardener of the Dark Forest found us pretty damn quick and took over from there. He didn’t even ask us many questions”
“Just wanted to know who did that to his son. All we could tell him was a shifter from hell. That same beast we saw at the vineyards.” Hagan rubbed his face with his hands. “It was not pretty. His arm was practically ripped off his body.”
“His name is Lucius. He was a Light Elf but Rhazdon turned him into that hundreds of years ago.” Her stomach turned and she swallowed hard. The bitch has managed to reach out and hurt someone else I care about and still no justice. Anger crawled up her throat as she clenched her fists at her side. Her eyes glowed momentarily. The energy sensed her desire to do something, but she held back… for now.