by Hickory Mack
Elsie hoped she was exhausted enough to sleep since she’d barely gotten any the night before. She’d never trusted anyone but Saint to watch her back while she was sleeping in the field before, and it felt queer that she was in a position where she had to trust another canine now. At least, canine shaped. She still wasn’t convinced that the wolf was actually a wolf.
It took longer than usual, but Elsie’s mind wandered as she drifted off to sleep. Her dream brought her back to how harshly she’d spoken to Mara, replaying the hurt look on her face when she realized she was being rebuked.
She’d already watched the scenario play out in two different ways when she was startled awake by a sharp pain in her side. Elsie jolted into a sitting position, gripping her stomach with a gasp. No matter how she adjusted her body, there was a pressure she couldn’t release, but there was no immediately identifiable source.
“Fuck,” she moaned, then prodded with her fingertips, pushing until she found where her pain was coming from. It was her liver. The shadow wolf’s ears perked up, and he stared at her with calm eyes, but when he impressed the idea of a question into her mind, there was an undertone of alarm.
“It’s the curse,” she wheezed. “It’s attacking my liver. I didn’t think it would hurt this badly.”
She took the tiny vial of blue liquid out of her pocket and stared at it for a moment before putting it back. Marley had said its effects were only temporary and to wait until she was suffering before using it. If this was only the beginning, Elsie wasn’t looking forward to what came next. She’d be feeling a whole lot worse in not a lot of time.
The wolf nudged a fruit toward her, and Elsie looked at him in surprise. Her pain wasn’t affecting him. This time, he was trying to help her for entirely unselfish reasons. That, or he was just annoyed by the little whimpers she couldn’t stop from exiting her throat. She picked up the fruit and took a deep breath, trying to stretch and relieve some of the pressure.
“Thank you, Wolfie,” she said, amused when he gave her a definite grumpy face. “I guess we’ll have to work on that. Giving you a better name. You haven’t complained about Precious…”
His lips curled up to show his teeth, and his fur bristled.
“Well, if you disliked it so much, you could have said something before now. I think I might just keep it,” Elsie teased, still holding her stomach. She stood and stretched fully, bending backward as far as she could without toppling over. The pain didn’t get any better, but it didn’t get any worse, either.
She was about to say as much when it stopped all at once. Elsie took a deep breath in relief and gently prodded at her liver. She wasn’t adept at healing herself, her body usually did the work on its own, so she couldn’t tell if there was anything physically wrong with it just by knowing where it was. Walking back to the center, she sat on her bedroll and sliced open the fruit, once again sharing it with the shadow wolf.
“It’s better for now,” she told him, tossing the husk under one of the banana trees. “Remember, just two hours, okay?” In general, Elsie could wake herself up after a set amount of time, but she was worried that she might be too exhausted and too out of practice this time. A few minutes later, she passed out.
When she woke, Elsie felt a little better. She’d slept a dreamless sleep and actually felt a rise in energy. It put her in a better mood until she looked up at the sky and noticed that the moon was nowhere to be seen. She glared at the wolf, who looked back at her with no concern at all.
“How long did I sleep?” she asked suspiciously. Warmth hit her, and she was standing in an ancient village. There were men with long blond hair carrying axes. Elsie tried to look around, thinking she was being given an insight into the shadow wolf’s past, even if it didn’t make any sense, and her attention was pulled away to focus on a sundial on the ground in front of her.
It was noon. She watched the shadows move, tracking the sun and the time all at once. It hit the next hour. And the next. Then four more times. Elsie groaned as the vision faded. He’d let her sleep for six fucking hours!
“We don’t have time to spend sleeping!” She seethed, and he leveled her with a look that reminded her why she’d been afraid of him in the first place. It wasn’t the type of look a regular wolf could pull off. It was one that reminded her that something else was inside of that wolf. The next image to hit her mind was herself, clutching her stomach, her tan skin pale with the pain.
“Yeah, I know I wasn’t feeling well, but look! I’m healed! Six hours here is practically two days in our world. And did you think about what will happen with the sky people? They’ll have had the chance to catch up to us and call the other tribes. We’re so dead,” Elsie scolded.
The wolf looked to the sky, and she swore he was rolling his eyes at her. He growled, and the air charged with electricity. It sparked and zapped, making tiny lightning bolts in the space between them. He was making a clear statement. The shadow wolf was not afraid of the sky people.
“We can’t just eradicate these people. We shouldn’t be messing with them at all! We aren’t from here. We’re not supposed to make changes like that. They need to live their lives without our influence,” Elsie reasoned, but he looked unimpressed. She reached up absently to pet her cat, just now realizing the alebrije was missing.
“Shit! Frida!” she called out in a panic, looking around frantically. A horrible thought hit her. She hadn’t seen the alebrije since the fight with the sky people. “Oh my gods, I’m the worst caretaker ever. How could I have forgotten her? Miss Kahlo! Fuck, what if I left her behind?!”
Elsie looked through her bag, fear rising. If she lost her spirit animal on this planet, she’d never get her back. She’d get lost, and the mercury poisoning would take her. It no longer mattered to her if it took an extended amount of time; she’d go back to look for the cat and take on the entirety of the sky people’s civilization to do it.
With a faint feeling of amusement, the image of Frida running across the circle’s grass assaulted her mind. She nodded automatically while looking around, completely distracted to the point where the places she was searching didn’t even make sense. Elsie threw her bag to the ground. She’d already searched there, damn it!
“Yes, that’s exactly who I’m looking for. Have you seen her?” Elsie asked, glancing up at him. He sat up to scratch at his neck, and she heard a familiar angry squeak. The wolf gave a sharp bark and snarled. She must have bitten him or sunken her claws into his skin. A puff of bright blue against all that long black fur made an appearance, and Elsie almost hugged him in relief. He’d kept the little monster safe.
“Frida, come here. You scared me half to death!” she commanded, but the cat bird snuggled back in. Elsie bit her lip. She definitely wasn’t going to root around in the shadow wolf’s fur and risk losing a limb. “Do you mind if she stays there for now? I’ll take her back when we’re ready to go.”
He didn’t bother with a reply that time, so she folded and rolled up her bedroll before securing it to her bag. Elsie reached into her pocket dimension and took out some flour, some salt, and some baking soda along with a canteen and vegetable oil. The wolf’s eyes started to glow as he saw the canteen.
“Yes, it’s water,” Elsie told him. “But we’re not going to drink it. We have to be sparing with it if we’re going to get out of this world as quickly as possible.” She took a collapsible bowl from her pack and mixed together all the ingredients except the oil. When a dough formed, she flattened the bowl into a plate and kneaded it until she had the right consistency.
The wolf watched her work with interest. Then, from her bag, Elsie produced a smaller version of that big iron skillet she’d wanted from Mrs. Cutler’s shop. She poured the oil into it and looked at the wolf.
“Do you have fire magic?” she asked, and he shook his head in reply. “Me either. But I learned how to heat things up without it. Heat can come from pretty much anything if you have the energy to convert it.”
Elsie called on
her ethereal magic. Usually, she’d use her white moon magic for this, but there was no way of knowing how far away she was from her moon. The spell could backfire. Conjuring thoughts of heat and fire in her mind, she imagined it warming the pan and the oil inside of it.
While it heated, she broke off a piece of the dough and flattened it out, then took another plate, a knife, and tongs out of her bag. From the pocket dimension, she snatched a can of pinto beans. In another bowl, she mashed the beans until they resembled refried beans, though she didn’t have the spices to make them properly, not that the wolf would appreciate it if she did.
Once the oil was ready, she lowered the first bit of dough in, keeping an eye on it, waiting for it to bob to the surface. When it was finished, she fished it out and set it on the plate to cool, then put another in. It smelled delicious.
Elsie smeared beans on top, giving the meal protein, and held it out to the wolf. He opened his mouth, and she tossed it in. He swallowed it down in two bites and made a rumbling sound that almost sounded like purring. Elsie laughed at him.
“You like that, huh? It’s called fry bread. It’s perfect for when we don’t have a lot of time or resources to cook a full meal,” she told him, pulling the next one out and putting a third in. “My mother taught me how to make it. When all of this is over, and you’re free and I’m not cursed, we can find a safe place, and I’ll cook for you. A real Spanish feast. By then you’ll be used to the spices.”
He sneezed at her, and she laughed again. She gave him two more before taking one for herself. It was hot and crispy on the outside, with a dense chewiness to it, the beans making it just a bit sweet. Filling enough to keep them going and light enough not to slow them down.
Frida left her place in the wolf’s fur, coming out to explore the scent of food. She ate the bits of bread that Elsie tore off for her, holding it between her little kitty paws. They ate the last two pieces of fruit, careful to keep hydrated, especially Frida, who hadn’t come out to have any earlier.
She kept cooking until they were all full then set about carefully washing the plates and cooking utensils using as little water as possible. Before they left, Elsie grabbed another armload of fruit, figuring they may as well have extra rather than run out. Once everything was secure, they carefully crawled through the tunnels until they could exit the banana trees.
Elsie looked around carefully, every sense alert, while the wolf did the same. He may not be afraid of the red ape men, but she sure as heck wasn’t interested in running into a pack of them.
“I think we’re good, but we’ll be under the big trees again, and it’s too big of an area to go around. All we can do is hope not to get spotted,” Elsie said. “We’ll do the same as earlier, except in ten-minute intervals.”
So they ran, putting distance between themselves and the banana trees. Elsie was pretty sure the sky folk didn’t come out at night—at least, she’d never seen any around after dark. She figured they had about three more hours until the sun rose, plenty of time to regain a lead if they hadn’t already lost it. All she could hope was that the sky people had gone looking in the wrong direction.
“Can you tell me what you’d like to be called? Maybe something that reminds you of home, or something that feels familiar? Maybe it will help you remember your actual name?” Elsie suggested when they slowed to a walk for the third time. The banana trees were lost to the horizon, and the next stand of the sky people’s trees was in front of them in the distance.
He didn’t say anything for a long way, and Elsie assumed it was another one of those times when he just didn’t feel like answering. He was pretty good at avoiding subjects he wasn’t interested in. They ran for another ten minutes, and by the time they’d slowed to a walk again, she’d forgotten she’d even asked.
Then she felt a chill wind touch her skin, so cold it made her shiver. She could smell the cold in the air. The world was green around her, but everything was covered in a layer of white ice crystals. It lasted for five seconds before she was back in the present, rubbing her arms to stave off the chill even though it had felt nice after spending so much time in this world’s heat.
They walked in silence until she decided she understood what he wanted to be called. “Frost?” she guessed. He gave a small ‘woof,’ and a feeling of acceptance pressed against her mind.
It didn’t fit with anything she knew about him. A shadow king, a demon, a wolf with black fur… But that didn’t matter. She now had something to call him that he was comfortable with. It brought to mind the blond men with axes when he’d shown her the sundial. Had he intended to show her as much as he had?
She didn’t know enough about history to know who those men were or where they’d come from anyway, but what struck her most was that they’d appeared human, and they were dressed like they’d come from a time before the invention of the sewing machine.
Santisima hadn’t taken the wolf—Frost, she reminded herself—under contract until after she’d become a goddess, of that much she was sure. But as far as gods and goddesses went, her mother was young. It wasn’t long before the Dragons had come out of their long sleep, she remembered, though it was difficult to really piece it all together. History bored the snot out of her.
If she was right, her mother had become a goddess less than five hundred years ago, and there had definitely been technology then. She stared at Frost as they walked, and theories formed. He’d either visited Earth before, or he’d been here for a very long time, and that didn’t mesh with him being king of the shadow world.
If only she’d paid more attention while Stolas was teaching her history! She’d found hunting techniques, weaponry, and survival classes far more interesting. Though to be honest, she’d long since forgotten anything Stolas had taught her before she turned seven, and anything the hunters had taught her was skewed.
‘If I get through this alive, I can find someone to ask,’ she told herself. Besides, Santisima had told her that people learned better when they actually wanted to. The information would be absorbed better. What was the point in learning it when she wasn’t interested? Elsie decided that was what she was going with.
They cycled through for another hour before the sun rose, stopping only once to eat more fruit to keep their energy up. As the light grew brighter, the treeline loomed closer, and standing among their shadows was a greeting party filled with angry sky people.
Chapter 7
“Great,” Elsie muttered. There were at least a hundred of the sky people, and there was no way they hadn’t already been spotted. She chewed the inside of her lip, thinking it over. She wasn’t as familiar with this place as she’d always just driven past it on her way to the next connection point. “We need to get out of here.”
The thick scent of copper assaulted her senses seconds before she felt the sticky, hot spray of a viscous fluid peppering her skin. Elsie shook her head at the wolf and his bloodlust. “What is it with you and wanting to attack these people? We’re not going to fight them. My light moon magic doesn’t work here, and there are too many of them for just the two of us.”
He gave her a discomforting wolfy grin, and the air crackled with electricity once more. Apparently, his magic was working just fine, not that she was even sure what his magic was. Did shadow demons use air elemental magic? She’d only ever seen them use lightning before. If he used anything from her world, she’d assumed it would be dark moon, which she now realized was a dumb assumption. He wouldn’t be so frighteningly powerful if that were the case.
“This planet is convenient for traveling quickly. If we start a war with these people, they’ll always be hostile to anyone that comes through here in the future. It’s bad enough we killed those other three as it is.” Elsie turned in a slow circle, getting a feel for how far away they were from the other Earth connection sites.
Maybe they could make a run for it if one wasn’t too far away. Even if it meant showing up Earthside on the wrong side of the planet, at least they’d get out o
f here without decimating the local population. The closest connection she found was the one they’d come through, and that one was off limits. She wasn’t going to run right back into Callum and Marley’s hands.
Elsie glanced at the sky people, waiting vigilantly under the trees, and made a decision. They’d just have to go around them. She could mask her presence with ethereal magic, and the wolf could stay in the cuff, so she wouldn’t have to worry about him. If she made it look like she’d disappeared and covered her tracks, the sky people wouldn’t be able to find her.
“Frost, I have a plan,” she said, then explained it to the wolf. His hackles bristled, and the low growl in his throat grew louder as she spoke. He was clearly too impatient to accept her idea. “It isn’t too much different than the plan we already had, right? You let me sleep for a while, and now it’s your turn.”
He showed her a vision of herself in pain, and she scowled. “If it happens again, I can handle it. I’ve had to run with worse pain than that before. But… if it gets to be too much, I’ll call out to you, alright? By then, my cover will be blown anyway, and you’ll get your chance to take on any sky person that tries to stop us.” The wolf didn’t look impressed.
“We have so much further to go, and this is the fastest way to get there. I know you want off that chain just as much as I do. You’re going to have to trust me,” Elsie pleaded. Frost curled back his lips, showing her his teeth, then lunged forward, quickly putting distance between them.
“Frost! Frost, no! Leave them alone, you stupid demon!” Elsie yelled after him, cursing and running as hard as she could to catch up. She was about halfway there when a shooting pain seared through her chest and she stopped, clutching at her heart. The curse was forcing her to experience a heart attack. “Oh, gods.”
Elsie fell to her knees as another wave of pain struck her like an invisible hand was squeezing her heart. Gasping for air, she watched helplessly as Frost called down a lightning storm like nothing she’d ever seen before. She couldn’t let this happen. The stupid wolf was ruining everything.