by Bob Blink
As far as Randy could tell, they could have been walking in a completely different area than he had crossed the previous day. Nothing looked familiar going this way, with only the occasional footprint in the ground to show this was the way he had come. Several times he turned around and gazed back the way they’d come, trying to decide if it looked more familiar going that way. While he thought he might recognize a couple of landmarks, he realized he had been intent on the marks left by the wizards the previous day and for the most part had paid little attention to his surroundings.
Asari showed him things he had totally missed. There was one small lake, partially hidden off the trail, but something he should have seen. The water was clear and deep, with multitudes of medium sized fish swimming near the bottom. He had no trouble seeing all the way to the bottom in the crystal clear water. Another pool further along was a bit more brackish, and was the home to multitudes of small furry animals that could have been cousins to beavers back home.
At one point they came across a broken and dead tree that was the home to thousands of colorful butterflies. Asari laughed, shed his pack and made his way up the side of the tree. Reaching the broken top, he waved away a cloud of the butterflies, and reached inside. When he came back down, his hand was coated with a thick whitish liquid, which he proceeded to lick off his fingers. Honey, or something similar? He placed a bit in Randy’s hand to try, who found it bitter and unappealing. Asari was undeterred. He picked up his pack and continued to lick the liquid off his hands as they continued on the way.
By late morning they had arrived at the abandoned camp. It was more obvious that people has spent time here than in the other camp, probably because they tended to remain here for more than a single night. Three stone ringed fire pits still smelled of burnt wood, and the grass was matted or worn away where they had setup. While it was obvious people had stayed here, nothing about the area gave any indication there was something special about the place, but Randy already knew there was. He could “sense” it, although he would have been hard put to explain what he was “sensing”.
“Over here,” Asari indicated, knowing exactly what Randy most wanted to see.
He led them to a spot almost a hundred yards off the “path” they had been following, and came to a stop between several large trees. The ground was flat like that in the rest of the camp, with spotty grass growing in clumps, but nothing to distinguish the spot. Randy was disappointed. He’d had in his mind a feeling the spot would be unique, with something to make its remarkableness obvious. In truth, he’d half expected to find a twin to the odd raised patch of ground that marked the spot the wizard had chosen back in Boulder. But forgetting the visual clues, he knew Asari had brought him to the right place. The ‘feeling’ in his brain was by far the strongest here.
“This is where Cheurt appears or disappears,” Asari said simply.
“I know,” Randy replied. “I can sense it.”
Asari looked at him with a puzzled frown. “How can that be. It has only been a few hours since you swallowed the Karonabark. Your ability to sense or use the power must still be blocked.”
Randy sighed and decided it was time to be forthcoming. “The ‘bark’ doesn’t work on me anymore,” he said.
“Impossible. It has always worked, and the duration of its influence is very repeatable.”
There was a simple way to end this discussion, and Randy took it. He willed a small rock laying on the ground a few feet into the air and brought it to float at rest in front of the boy’s face.
Asari paled. “You tricked me!” he said. ‘You didn’t really swallow what I gave you this morning.”
“I did,” Randy insisted. “I wanted to see what would happen. No, don’t start thinking I knew more than I pretended. Yesterday when you said there was a way to detect that presence of the stuff, something happened to me. Suddenly I knew how to do it. I also knew something else; along with the feeling that this additional knowledge is not generally known. I know how to suppress the effects. I could eat the whole Karona tree and it would have no effect.”
“Why have you kept this a secret?”
“You seemed uncomfortable about me having any access to the power as long as the other wizards were close. We had already agreed this morning that I wouldn’t take any more of the “bark” after they were gone. I didn’t want to do anything to put stress or doubt between us.”
“And now?”
“Now, the others are far gone. By now you know I am not with them, and I need to tell you what has happened because I want to try an experiment.”
“What kind of experiment?” Asari asked suspiciously.
“I want you to blindfold me, and walk me around the area, making sure to disorient me so I can’t just remember where we’ve been. At times, I want you to return to this spot. I want to see if I can tell when I’m directly over where Cheurt has been making his jumps.”
It didn’t matter what Asari tried. Randy knew immediately as they approached the spot, and accurately called out when they passed over it. In fact, as long as he was within a hundred feet or so, he could point in the proper direction from wherever he was. It “called” to him. Asari, of course, knew where the spot was, but could not feel anything special about it.
That was all, however. Standing on the exact peak point yielded nothing that helped him beyond locating the spot. Any hope that coming here would trigger the jump back across the void to home was dashed. Obviously, more was required of him. He not only had to be here, he had to trigger the process by the proper “spell” or whatever the correct term was for the wizard’s use of the power.
An hour later they had both become tired of the activity. A careful search was made of the whole camp area, but the wizards had left nothing here. There was no point to remaining. At least he had tried, and Randy now knew only that he could easily locate the proper place if someone could bring him back to this place. It wouldn’t matter what season, whether the place was leveled by a fire, or deliberately disguised. The jump point would be easy to locate. With that bit of knowledge, they headed back up the trail. Randy was anxious to start the walk out of here. He needed to get to a place where there were wizards or mages who could help him trigger the jump.
They were well on their way back to the enclosure with Randy now finding the way somewhat familiar, and almost confident he could make the trip unaided, allowing his attention to drift to some of the many questions he had about the land in which he found himself. He and Asari had been exchanging information about their respective worlds when he realized that he had somehow lost Asari’s ear. He looked over at the boy who seemed to have suddenly become very interested in something other than the story he was relating about his sky diving adventures the previous summer.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, not really expecting anything was amiss. They’d had the forest to themselves, except for the frequent small creatures scuttling around in the brush, and of course the bugs that had come out a bit earlier.
“Something’s following us,” Asari responded simply, his attention remaining focused on the forest around them.
Looking behind them, Randy didn’t see anything. “I don’t see anything. How do you know?”
“We are alone,” he replied, indicating the silence that now surrounded them and had gone unnoticed by Randy as he talked. The background chirping of the birds and the rustling of leaves by the small squirrels and their brethren had disappeared.
“As we approach, they all flee,” Asari said. “Look over there, across the stream. All appears normal. You can see the birds from here. But where we are, all have made off for cover. They sense something is coming.”
“Do you know how far back?” Randy asked, now uncomfortable.
“Perhaps a half mile, but it is closing the distance now. For a time it seemed content to follow, but I think it has decided it is time to make its kill.”
Something in Asari’s voice caused a shiver of goose bumps to climb up Randy’s arms, a
nd he couldn’t help taking another long look behind him. When he turned back toward the boy he was shocked at what he saw in the boy’s eyes. Asari was scared. Gone was the confidence he had shown at every moment since the two had met. Gone was the boyish grin that slipped through when something delighted him. Now the eyes were pinched, and stark horror starred back at him.
“You’ve seen it, haven’t you?” Randy asked.
Asari nodded grimly. “Briefly, when it crossed the stream behind us a short time ago. Just a glance, but enough to be sure.”
“So what is following us? You’ve said you have been here many times and had no real trouble. What has you so concerned this time?”
“This trip has been different in many ways,” he answered, avoiding the question. “I have only seen the like of this creature alive once, several years ago, when my father pointed it out to me. We were well away, up in the rocks and across a swiftly moving river, so out of danger. Never has one been this close with its focus on me.”
“What is it?” Randy insisted, anxious to put a name to their stalker.
‘Muloka,” the boy whispered silently.
“You mean that magical wolf you tried to scare me with the other night? I didn’t think you were being serious.” He stopped speaking realizing the boy was desperately frightened. The fear was contagious. Randy realized he was out of his depth and they were in real danger.
“Can’t we ambush it?” he asked, now nervous as well. “You are a remarkable shot with that bow. Maybe we climb a tree and you can put a couple of arrows in it; discourage it if nothing else.”
A flash of pride at Randy’s praise slipped through the alarm on the boy’s face, but disappeared just as quickly. “Don’t talk stupid,” he said. “An arrow cannot harm a Muloka. They are created from a mighty warping of the power. They tap it to live, and carry shields no normal weapon can penetrate. Our only hope is to find a way it cannot pass. Come,” he commanded suddenly. “I remember a side path up ahead that leads off to the rock climbs.”
The two set off at a hurried pace, Asari slinging his bow over his shoulder and taking the lead while searching for the break from the trail he remembered. Randy was right behind him, his own fear pushing him to keep pace and wanting to run past the boy, but knowing he had no idea where to go so he was limited to following behind.
“Here,” Asari said suddenly, and broke sharply to the left. As they broke into a run, Randy could see a twisted path of rock a quarter mile ahead that broke out of the underbrush and lead up the side of a bluff. The path led to an even steeper climb as the land began a rise up to the rocky hills beyond.
As they reached the first of the rocks, Asari leaped over the large boulder blocking their way and started scrambling up the incline, dislodging small rocks as he went. Randy following right behind him without breaking stride, and soon the two were half walking, half crawling up the rocky face, careful not to dislodge anything big enough to bring them crashing to the bottom. They were almost to the top, breathing heavily, when the Muloka burst out of the cover of the trees.
It was huge! Randy had seen wolves before, and thought in terms of large dogs. This creature was three or four times the size he remembered, and was now coming fast, eating up the ground between the trees and the base of the hill, realizing its game had discovered they were being stalked. He covered the ground in far less time than they had, and leaped onto the side of the hill, scrambling a bit as the rocks slipped beneath its large paws.
Randy looked over his shoulder and saw that Asari was already fifty feet ahead of him, and was just going over the top of the small crest. Energized, he turned and scrambled up the last of the bluff himself, clearing the top at a run. He saw that Asari was clinging to an almost vertical section of rock that spanned a deep ravine almost fifty feet wide and at least two hundred deep. When he reached the edge, he could see the boy had his feet on a small ledge and his fingers were grasping for purchase among the cracks in the rock as he shimmied his way across the ravine. Randy could see his intention. The beast would be unable to make the crossing, and the break was too far for even the creature to jump. If they could get to the other side, they would be safe, at least for the moment.
An honest respect, call it a mild fear, of heights didn’t prevent him from running up to the edge and starting across after Asari. He didn’t have to worry about looking down. His full attention was required to keep his fingers engaged in one crack or protrusion after another as he made his way after the boy, who was just now stepping onto the rock shelf at the far end. He heard a cry from him, and looked over to see him pointing back the way they had come. Looking the other way he could see the snarling beast coming over the crest. Damn, the thing looked vicious!
The fear could have frozen him, but in this case it caused him to take a few chances, and he doubled his speed across the gap, reaching the other side just as the boy drew his bow and released an arrow. Randy had to watch, and saw with satisfaction that it was another perfect shot, the arrow taking the wolf right behind the shoulder, which should put the arrowhead close to its heart. But then, no, he was wrong. The arrow had missed, and he saw it skitter across the ground behind the beast, kicking up dirt and burying itself in the dirt some twenty feet to the rear.
Asari launched another arrow, and Randy was positive this one took the beast in the center of the head, almost directly between its eyes. Waiting for a yowl of pain, Randy was shocked to once again see the arrow bounce along the ground behind the creature having done no harm at all.
By now Randy had made it to where the boy waited, the bow lowered, standing with a look of resignation on his face.
“See,” he said. “It is as I told you. No arrow can harm the Muloka. My arrows simply pass through it somehow. We must go, before it finds a way around the ravine.”
The ground behind them was not encouraging. Most of the hill was solid rock, and the small plateau on which they stood sloped downward at the far right to an abrupt fall into the ravine. There was only one gap in the rocks, which offered any hope of a way off the flat.
“Do you know where that goes?” Randy asked, expecting the boy who seemed to know everything about the area to be familiar with the place he had led them.
Instead, he was surprised to see the boy shake his head. “I’ve never come this way before. There was no reason. But it is the only possibility it seems.”
The two made their way to the slit in the rocks, a passage a mere ten feet in width, with a sloping roof of rock that caused the roof to close in the deeper in one looked. There was light in the back, perhaps twenty feet or so away, so some kind of opening had to exist.
They looked back at the Muloka, which had stopped pacing on the far edge. As they watched, it crouched down and was still, as if contemplating attempting the impossible leap across the gap. Curious what it might be doing, they had stopped to watch, and were shocked to see the body become translucent, and then start to fade away, and then suddenly begin to take shape again on their side of the ravine.
“Run!” Randy insisted, and the two of them bolted into the opening, running all the way to the back where the light was streaming into a circular opening about twenty feet across.
Very soon it was clear they would be going no further. Smooth and very steep rock walls surrounded them on all sides. The only opening was the one they had just come through, and they could see the wolf slowly making his way to the entrance. It would be on them before they could go a couple of feet.
It looked like it ended here. Randy reached into the pack and drew out the Colt, dropping the bag on the ground. He didn’t even take the spare magazines. He wouldn’t have time to reload. Asari looked resigned, and had nocked an arrow into his bow. He had placed several others upright sticking into the sand in front of him, although they both knew now how useless they would be. Randy didn’t know what he hoped to accomplish with the handgun, but he figured he might as well try. Maybe the sound would have some effect. The beast was far too large for the u
nder powered handgun bullet to have much stopping power, even if the shields weren’t present. What he needed was his 300 Win Mag.
They looked at each other briefly, which was all the time they had before the massive beast padded into the sunlight, mere feet away. The glowing eyes were frightening and reflected the unnatural origins of the creature. It’s massive jaws spread and a low growl started just as Asari started firing arrow after arrow at an impressive rate of speed. As before, the valiant effort was wasted, as each arrow simply seemed to pass through the wolf as if he wasn’t there.
The wolf turned towards Asari. The barrage of arrows seemed to annoy it, even if they had no other affect. As it took a step in the boy’s direction, Randy stepped in front of it and raised the .45 automatic. The beast was less than five feet away and his hand was shaking so bad he could barely hold the front of the gun on the broad target of its wide head. He couldn’t see the tiny front sight in the bright light, and when he felt he was more or less pointed correctly he yanked the trigger with the intention of following up with additional shots until the pistol was empty. By then he figured the wolf would be on him.