Winter's Fury - Volume Two of The Saga of the Twelves

by Richard M. Heredia

  They had talked for a long time. Then, the three youngest began to yawn, cracking their jaws as they gaped. Their onsetting fatigue was fierce and unrelenting. They were wilting fast before it.

  Marianna had stood. She asked if the boys could be good and stay put, for the girls were about to venture deeper into recesses of the store to find pajamas and change.

  A deep silence had ensued, followed by a few nervous cackles from Andrew.

  Marianna had glared at him until he was quiet. Then she had said in flat tones, once the girls had finished, then the boys could do the same.

  Anthony had told her it was a good plan and that all males would be gentlemen and would indeed stay put. This had garnered a loving look from Sophie and a thankful one from Kimberly.

  Moments later, the girls had left.

  It was not long before high-pitched squeals, gales of laughter and rapid banter had come floating back to the boys. The girls were being girlie and that got all their attention.

  The boys had all exchanged smirks and smiles, trying to be cool. Although Anthony knew each one of them was wondering. What it would be like to look upon the girls as they wiggled out of their clothes and put on their newfound pajamas?

  Anthony had not been immune to that curiosity. He found himself thinking hard on what Sophie would look like underneath all the layers she wore. Though he knew how blissful it was to have her in his arms clothed, still he wondered. What was her skin like? Was she soft? Was she pale and beautiful all over, pleasing and curvaceous to the eye? He let himself ponder those thoughts for a time.

  Then, he had shaken free of them when he happened to look across the way and his eyes met those of his longtime friend. He had always been able to read Andrew like an open book. And he could tell without a doubt the other boy was thinking the exact same thing about Marianna.

  They both had blushed furiously and looked away.

  A few minutes later, the girls had all come back. They carried their clothing in their arms. To a one, they had dressed in nightgowns or two-pieced sets of varying colors, all a cotton blend of some sort. They had also pulled their hair back to reveal their faces. And each wore thick woolen socks and slippers on their feet.

  Sophie had walked up to Anthony in a flowing nightgown of modest cut, but still did not hide the swell of her breasts or the curve of her hips.

  Anthony had forced himself to stare into her face as she asked him if what she had found for his sisters was warm enough for them to sleep in.

  He had glanced at Elena and Mikalah. He was glad to see they were both wearing thick cotton, footed pajamas encasing their bodies from neck to toe. He had smiled at the bright swirling colors and patterns. He told his girlfriend they were perfect, well suited for the cold.

  She had smiled back, giving him a quick peck on the cheek, mumbling it was time for the boys to go and change.

  He and the other males of the group had come and gone in half the time it took for the girls to dress. Most of them opted for sweat pants and the matching pullover sweatshirts. To a one, they had all chose to dawn either charcoal gray or brown or black-colored garments. They each wore a pair of thick woolen socks much like their female counterparts.

  Jason had comeback wearing a pair of dark brown corduroy slippers, a perfect match to his sweats.

  When Andrew and Louis had seen them, they disappeared for a few minutes and each came back with a pair of their own.

  Anthony had been surprised when Andrew tossed both him and Joaquin a pair, saying, “I knew you guys would end up going back for some. I just thought I’d save you the trip.”

  Joaquin had muttered thanks.

  Anthony just nodded and smiled at his friend.

  They had reformed their circle after, but the conversation was now muted and slow. Before long they began to turn off the battery operated lanterns and one by one drifted off to bed, sleeping two to a mattress. It gave them all more than enough room to rest their heads, since all the mattresses were queen-sized.

  His sisters shared one, having ample room for them to flop around. Andrew and Marianna had chosen another. Jason and Joaquin had claimed one of the ones on the edge. Hyun and Kimberly decided to sleep side-by-side, close enough to hug one another. And last, Derek and Louis paired, which had left the final air mattress for Anthony and Sophie. He was sure the others had known they would sleep together. They had been doing so since the first night in the Melded World. To the group, he and the platinum blond were a real couple.

  Anthony lay there now. It was dark. He remembered how Sophie had crawled hand and knees toward the opening of the double-wide sleeping bag they were using. He recalled seeing, for a second time, the half-nervous, half-curious look on her face. One second, she was anxious, the next, prurient. He had wormed his way into the bedding before her and had held it open for her to enter. She scooted her way in to lie down on her back. He lay down as well, on his side facing her, watching as she breathed deep enough to fill her lungs, a strange expression on her face.

  He was about to ask if everything was alright, when she turned toward him and pulled herself close. Astonishment made his face flush when he felt beneath her nightgown and found she was naked. He was self-conscious in an instant, realizing beneath his sweats, he was nude too. The possibility had not even entered his mind. The idea he might sleep without underwear at night was a forgone conclusion. He had always slept that way. Feeling the periodic binding and synching of undergarments had always made him feel uncomfortable. It was downright bothersome in the middle of the night after a wild dream or two.

  He had just assumed Sophie would sleep with at least her panties on. Being a girl he had figured she would be more apt to keep layers of clothing between them, especially due to the proximity they were about to sleep.

  She brought her knee up, placing it on his thigh.

  Feeling her body so close to his own intimate parts startled him. He had come near to jumping out of his skin. He could felt his throat constrict, cutting off his ability to breath.

  “Don’t be nervous, Tony,” she had whispered. “I don’t think I can handle this if you are. It would weird me out.”

  Anthony gulped, somehow remembering how to breathe. “I’m… I’m - uh, sorry, Soph. I just didn’t expect this. You know? For you to be… well, you know, in only your nightgown.”

  “I know, right?” Her tone lightened. “I totally didn’t think about it until I was about to climb into the sleeping bag with you,” she had begun. She looked into his eyes, searching.

  Anthony tried to exude some degree of calm and maybe a slice of confidence along with it.

  “I have slept like this since I was a little girl, my mom always -,” she had stopped, giggling without warning.

  He smiled through a frown of curiosity.

  “She said it was healthier to sleep this way.” She giggled deeper in her throat. “She said girls should ‘air-it-out’ now and again, so I always have…”

  He gulped, a vivid visual coming to mind that he pushed away almost at once.

  “Funny thing, Sophie, I have always slept the same way too,” he grinned with her, feeling better. His confession continued: “When I felt you and I realized I was without my… you know, my boxers, I sort of just wigged out. I mean, knowing there were only two layers of thin clothing are separating our – um, I mean from touching us … Ah, you know what I mean!” His voice had gone hoarse and musky. “I got scared.”

  “Oh,” she had gasped as cute as button. “When you put it that way, I could see why you… oh my, Tony!”

  To him, she had sounded demure and shy at first. But he noticed she had not shied away. She had not moved her leg from his. Rather, she did the exact opposite and hooked her heel about the back of his knee and pulled herself even closer to him. They were touching, not smashed together like before in the dark at the front of the store, but touching nonetheless.

  He had closed his eyes and submitted to the hundreds of images of her racing through his mind. He knew
even if he fought them, they would overwhelm him to the point of stupefaction. He did not want to come across looking like an idiot. So, he had let them run over him, through him and pass in the matter of a few heartbeats. He accepted the fact that, in his heart of hearts, in the center of his mind where he made his innermost decisions, he wanted her. He wanted her as man wants a woman. There was other way to put it, no other way to describe it. It was what it was and there was nothing else to it. He knew his upbringing and his lack of knowledge in that given area would be enough to give him pause. He knew he would approach that particular act with care and caution, but it was out there now. He loved Sophie Reed. He wanted to know everything there was to know about her - even what she looked like underneath her nightgown.

  No, this was not the time for half-truths.

  He wanted to know in detail what she looked like underneath her nightgown.

  He was about to say something, peering at her through the semi-darkness just as someone turned out the last of the lanterns. He realized she had already fallen asleep. Her mouth was open a fraction of an inch, a soft snore coming from her. She was a lion cub purring.

  She fell asleep in my arms! Even though she is half-naked and I am half-naked, she fell asleep in my arms. There had never been a thing to strike so deep into the core of Anthony Herrera. That one notion – her feeling completely secure in his embrace – made him marvel. Here he was just a normal kid from Highland Park. And yet, a gorgeous, blonde-haired girl had just wrapped her near-nude body around him and slept like a baby. He was the luckiest sonofabitch he had ever known.

  It had been a wondrous thought.

  Until another thought intruded.

  This was same blonde-haired beauty he might not remember. Once he dived into the shimmering pool of water at the center of a majestic cavern and retrieved the Legacy of Truth all bets were off.

  *****

  He must have dreaming about the thought or thinking about it in some off-handed fashion. That had to have been the reason he had awakened so sudden in the night. He did not remember when his own arm had crept about the girl’s shoulders. He had done that in his sleep. His arm was now beneath her neck and looped about onto her back. Yeah, it had to’ve been in my sleep. He stroked her shoulder blade, feeling her warm skin through the sheer weft and weave of cotton beneath his fingertips. He let his hand roam a bit, but halted its’ random caresses at her side just below the swell of her breast. He gave her a quick hug, then with care unwound his limb from her.

  She stirred again in her sleep, murmuring something unintelligible as she half-turned from him. He extracted his legs from hers. As gentle as he could manage, he sat up. He squirmed from the sleeping bag and stood with obvious deliberation. He did not wanting to shake the girl too much with his movements. He found his slippers, walked into them and made his way away from the others.

  He had not gone far from the area they had encircled with space heaters when he began to feel the cold of the night. A few steps beyond that he turned and made his way back in search of his jacket. It was too damned cold to go anywhere far without it.

  He found it exactly where he had left it. With alacrity, he put it on and walked in total silence from the sleeping area, zipping it up as he went, minimizing the noise. He shoved his hands in the pockets of the jacket, snaking his way through the throng of clothing racks and shelving. He picked his way through, angling in a sort of crisscross fashion, toward the doors leading out to the upper level parking lot.

  As before, the storm was still pounding the landscape with unrelenting abandon. The wind was creating eddies of snow and other debris so high and so wide, sometimes it was the only thing he could make out beyond the double-paned, glass doors. He stepped closer to the transparent portal. He rocked back and forth on his feet, amazed at the drop in temperature with every inch he moved further from the heaters. He could feel the cold already chapping his cheeks and making his nose itch with its’ icy dryness.

  Will I still know that I love Sophie…?

  Every time he replayed himself asking that question, Joaquin’s reply rang in his ears anew. He was certain that would be the time his heart would physically come free of his chest. Like what he had seen in the Temple of Doom. Indiana Jones had watched in horror as the High Priest of Kali had driven his fingers into the chest of a man. He had brought forth that very blood-churning muscle, still beating and alive. The way he felt right then, it might as well be him, instead of some Indian peasant in a loincloth.

  He was coming to terms with the obvious now. Though he walked the Melded World, he was already dead.

  It just seemed so unfair. After so many years of waiting for the girl who would sweep him off his feet, he had found one who had taken genuine notice of him. She made him feel special. Now that he had finally found her, it was quite possible he would forget she had ever existed in the first place. What kind of sick joke is that?

  Sure, he’d had his share of girls. He had gone out on dates. He hung out, went to the movies. He had made out with a few, engaged in mild petting. But, he had yet to meet the one that made him want to alter his schedule. He had not met the girl who got under his skin and made him think about her on a consistent basis.

  All the others, well, they had just been fleeting, casual to him at best. They had been good for the moment, but not interesting or intriguing enough to want to go out of his way and pursue.

  Online gaming had been more fulfilling.

  There had even been one who had dropped sexual hints at him with ever other sentence. She had flirted with every part of her body, trying to entice him into something he did not feel was right to do with her.

  He was no choirboy. He was not above having thoughts of desire or carnal intentions about girls. For him, it just had to be the right girl. He wanted a girl who sparked his mind as well as the physical parts of himself. He wanted the intellect and the atrraction at the same time, in concert. He had waited a long time for that girl.

  Now, he had found her. In the guise of Sophie Reed, he had found his mystery lady. There was no one else he could be with other than her. She had swept into his life, under the worse possible circumstances. And yet, she had found a way into that place he has always guarded, fortified against the wiles of the female form. With the ease of a master locksmith, she had picked through the layers of him and had touched him. She had moved him where no other woman had been able to do. He found that a fact he could not deny. He wanted her in his arms naked and willing.

  Yet, he could not deny he loved her enough to make certain it would never happen unless the circumstances were perfect. Their intentions would have to be right and there was nothing between them left unsaid. He did not want anything to sour the act over time. She was too precious to him. He would make certain he did his upmost to take care of her.

  Until, I forgot who she is and became something more, something unknown and indescribable.

  This was a sick joke. When everything was said and done, the only option left to him was he had to die. If there was one shred of hope left, then he would have to swim down to the bottomless depths of a pool. He would have to die in search of a talisman that had never been more than a legend, a myth of a bygone age, no more than a rumor, even way back then.

  I love you, Sophie! I hope you never forget that, even if I do.

  He continued to stare out at the blizzard, gazing through the blackened grayness beyond the confines of the store. He was not quite sure if he should cry or just fall onto the floor in an exhausted heap and give up.

  Why did this have to happen to me? I don’t want to be the Kring-Hël. I don’t want to be the one to have save everyone. All I want is to live and love and be the best father I know I can grow up to be. Why is that so hard to give to me? Haven’t I earned it, haven’t I? I’ve been good for the most part. I have always been respectful to my parents. I did all that they asked of me.

  Why am I being punished? When I have found the one I have been waiting for, why am I denied her? I
was never promiscuous or a man-whore like so many other guys. I never knocked anyone up. Shit, I never even hurt the girls I dated. I was always truthful. I was always up front. Why does it have to be me? Why was I chosen? Out of the millions of other teens on Earth, why does it have to be me?

  I don’t want to die.

  I don’t want to forget.

  I love her, god dammit! I don’t want to lose her now!

  “Tony-boy, why are you out here in the freezing cold?” came a deep, guttural voice off to his left that made his yelp with fright.

  “Jesus fucking Christ, Garfield! You scared the living shit out of me!” he exclaimed exasperated, dazed and bewildered he had not heard the huge cat come forth. This was despite the fact he stood four and a half feet at the shoulder and weighed seven hundred pounds.

  “My apologies, son. It was not my intention to frighten you. I was curious. Why you are out here looking upon this impenetrable storm, when you should be snug and warm, cuddling with your mate,” ventured the cat. His large eyes were somehow capable of capturing the miniscule amount of light within and reflect it back.

  Wait a minute… my mate? Oh my god, did you honestly just call her that?

  “I couldn’t sleep,” he replied, instead of voicing what he was thinking.

  “It is a symptom of nerves quite familiar to us felines,” quirked Garfield. He displayed a wry twist of his lips that Anthony could see through the near darkness. Then, after a time: “What is on your mind, my old friend?” It was the kindest, most gentle voice Anthony had ever heard from his one-time pet.

  Anthony savored the feeling for a few minutes. “It just seems with every passing hour things are getting more and more difficult. Decisions, choices, and other things have to happen… It gets kinda overwhelming at times.”

  Garfield listened with a sniff, making his snout rumble as though he snored. He tossed his head from side to side, and then stopped to look at him.

  Anthony could see his huge orbs, their pupils wide and dark.