The Big Game

by Sarah Jaune

  Something cracked in the trees behind him. All three of them jumped and spun around to stare out into the night.

  “Talking about them was stupid,” Ivy muttered as she stood up and moved over to the tree line. “Now we’ve freaked ourselves out for nothing.”

  Eli moved to stand next to her as he squinted out into the darkness. “It could be a mountain lion.”

  “It could be,” she agreed quietly.

  When nothing else moved, they went back to the fire.

  “I’ll take first watch,” Oliver offered. “We should get some sleep.”

  Eli couldn’t sleep, though. At first his mind wouldn’t let go of the image of red eyes peering out at him in the dark, ready to spring on them. Then his thoughts drifted over to snakes, which wasn’t any better. He gave up after an hour and made Oliver go to sleep while he kept the watch.

  He felt like they were being watched, which he knew was probably ridiculous. Maybe. Eli stood and made a slow circle around their clearing, trying to see out into the dark. He didn’t see anything beyond the trees except for the occasional fly which would flitter into the circle close to the fire, then back out again.

  This is what came of talking about wendigoes while they were stuck out in the woods late at night.

  Eli took up another of the fallen branches they’d collected and broke it in half, then in half again so that the pieces would fit in their makeshift fire pit. He sighed and took a seat again. He didn’t want to admit that they were lost. They weren’t lost, exactly. Eli was reasonably certain he could get them home again, but that didn’t mean they were any closer to finding Pablo. His dad’s face flashed into his mind. Pablo’s brown eyes now held laugh lines all the time. His square, firm jaw sometimes showed his stubborn determination, but to Eli it had also always meant stability. Pablo was tall, broad, and in great shape. He knew how to survive out in the wilderness, which was something he had passed on to his adopted sons. Someday he would pass it on to his daughters.

  Someday.

  Eli raised his head and stared into the fire as something shifted in the air around him. He didn’t know what, exactly, but something had changed. He fixed his eyes on the woods behind Ivy’s curled up form and stared hard. A large shape shifted in the black.

  Eli sprang to his feet, put on a spurt of speed and magical power, to vault over the fire to place himself between Ivy and whatever was out there. His heart slammed into his throat as fear flooded him. He didn’t have to wait long to find out what was coming, but when he saw the snow white shape floating towards him, he was sure he was hallucinating.

  It was a wolf. A huge white wolf. The eyes glowed weirdly as it approached, almost as though it had fireflies instead of eyes.

  “Stop!” Eli commanded as he focused his magic on keeping the wolf out of the clearing. He wanted to turn, to see if something was coming up from behind him, but couldn’t seem to turn his feet now that he was at the edge. “Ivy! Oliver! Wake up!”

  They didn’t move.

  He risked a glance behind him and saw they were still asleep, right where they’d been before. Eli turned back to the wolf which was walking forward again. Eli tried to force it back, but his telekinesis utterly failed him. The wolf lowered its head, pushing its ears back as it continued a slow walk to the clearing.

  It stopped three feet from Eli and sat. Up close, in the firelight, Eli could make out the pale, tawny eyes that were piercing and intense. They were the exact color of a corn husk, but yet seemed to glow. The wolf wasn’t just huge. It was monstrous. Sitting on its hind quarters, the creature was eye level to Eli. If it reared, it would have to be at least ten feet tall, end to end.

  “Ivy!” Eli said again. She didn’t respond. He blinked, and narrowed his gaze. “Am I dreaming?”

  The wolf inclined its head, but didn’t respond.

  This was not an ordinary wolf. This one had to be magical, much like the gigantic alligator that Eli’s father had kept in the lake next to his Chicago mansion. How had it come to this forest? How had it come to be? More importantly, why was it here?

  “Uh,” Eli hesitated, still not sure if he was dreaming or not. He didn’t think he was dreaming, because he hadn’t been tired, but Ivy definitely should have woken up when he’d called. “Are you going to eat me?”

  This seemed to amuse the wolf, which let out a low woof, and made no other move.

  “I’m going to take that as a no, then,” Eli said as it continued to study him closely. “Why are you here? Why won’t they wake up?” he asked as he pointed behind him.

  The answer came to him, springing fulling formed into his mind.

  They couldn’t wake because the wolf didn’t want them to wake.

  Which was ridiculous… or was it?

  “Am I dreaming?” Eli demanded. He pinched his own arm, hard, which hurt like crazy. “I’m not dreaming?”

  The wolf grinned again, which was extraordinarily disconcerting.

  “I killed a bunch of wolves not that long ago,” Eli admitted quietly. “I didn’t want to, but they attacked and wouldn’t back off.”

  The wolf bobbed its head once.

  “Are you here to get revenge for that?” Eli asked.

  The wolf’s eyes flashed, almost to the same green as Ivy’s eyes, then back to their vivid yellow amber.

  Again, the answer came to him. It was his own voice, speaking in his head, but Eli sensed that the wolf was feeding the information to him.

  Revenge is needed for those who caused the first harm.

  “Oh,” Eli breathed the word out. He wasn’t entirely sure what that meant. “Do you mean because the wolves and all of the wildlife are going hungry?”

  Balance is gone from this place. We need the water back. The human can move the water. We need the water back.

  Ivy… Eli shook his head in wonder. Ivy’s power with water made her powerful, there was no doubt about that, but to have so many creatures drawn to her for help was astonishing. The Sasquatch in Yellowstone could communicate with a few simple words and by drawing in the sand.

  If this wolf was truly magical, then it had the ability to use telepathy. Somehow, and Eli had no idea how, the wolf had also caused Ivy and Oliver to sleep through this whole encounter.

  Or Eli was dreaming.

  Or he was crazy.

  At this point, any of those options were viable.

  “So you want her to fix the water,” Eli stated as he pointed behind him to Ivy.

  The wolf inclined its head again.

  “Right,” he sighed wearily as he ran a hand distractedly through his midnight hair. “We want to help, but we need to find my dad. He came in here to see why the Bigfoots were moving closer to town. After that we can help.”

  The wolf growled low, baring its teeth for a brief moment. The words came again.

  You will do both. You will need the help of the giant ones to put things right.

  “The giant ones are the Sasquatch?” Eli asked as he tried not to be intimidated by the wolf’s gleaming teeth. He tried to swallow past the lump in his throat, but it didn’t want to budge.

  It had to be a dream, though. There was no way his magic shouldn’t work against this creature unless he was dreaming. Eli wanted to test it, but also didn’t want to infuriate the wolf, that looked like it could eat him in one mouthful. “I’m dreaming,” he said out loud.

  No.

  Eli sucked in a breath as he tried to process this. “How did you get here? I’ve never heard of anything like you.”

  Why would I want to be seen?

  “Fair enough,” Eli agreed as he shifted from one foot to the other. “I need to get to the Sasquatch, right? Is that where I’ll find my dad?”

  The wolf let out another woof of agreement.

  “Can you tell me where to go?” Eli questioned.

  In response the wolf lay down at the edge of the fire and rested its head on its paws.

  We go in the morning.

  Eli hesitated, only a moment,
before he moved over to sit next to Ivy. He didn’t mean to sleep. He didn’t want to sleep, but his eyes drifted shut, and Eli slumped to the ground as he heard a voice say, “You have done well, old friend.”

  “Elijah!” Ivy’s panicked voice had Eli’s eyes springing open. He bolted up and tried not to wince at the ache in his back from sleeping on the ground. Ivy grabbed his arm, and he turned to see her staring at the wolf, which was lying right where it had been the night before.

  “Oh,” Eli said slowly. “It wasn’t a dream.”

  “What is going on?” Oliver demanded as he, too, woke up. “Daggers!” he bellowed in alarm as he spotted the wolf.

  “It’s okay,” Eli said as he pushed slowly to his feet. “The wolf isn’t here to harm us. It’s been there all night.”

  “Uh, Eli,” Ivy said as she attempted not to sound skeptical, or panicked. Eli wasn’t sure which at this point. “We haven’t had the best of luck with wolves, and this one is—”

  “It’s huge,” Eli nodded as he pointed towards it. In the light of morning, Eli could see now just how brilliantly white the fur was. The eyes were no less alarming in the dawn, though. They were so vivid that it was difficult to meet them. There was no way that this wolf would have made it past infancy here if it weren’t magical. There would be no hiding that bright fur, which was the exact color of newly fallen snow. “It’s a magical wolf, Ivy. It isn’t going to hurt us.”

  “I really would love to see your proof for that,” Oliver said in a voice slightly higher than his normal one.

  Eli shrugged. “We aren’t dead yet, right? It could kill us. I couldn’t use my magic against it.”

  Ivy groaned at that.

  “So, let’s eat something from our bags, pack up, and go,” Eli told them. He glanced to the wolf. “Does that work for you?”

  It woofed quietly.

  “See,” Eli said as he plastered on a fake, forced smile. “Nothing to worry about.”

  The moment they were packed up, the wolf rose onto its legs and started to walk. The three teens hesitated briefly, then Eli plunged into the woods after the wolf.

  The wolf led them along rabbit trails, over fallen trees, up mountains, then back down again along paths that he would never have followed otherwise. Several times they had to stop to eat or rest. The wolf didn’t eat. It didn’t seem to tire. It never complained when they stopped, but its tense posture and gaze that was always fixed on the horizon ahead of them told Eli it didn’t want to sit for long. Not once, through the whole day, did Eli hear that voice speak to him again, even though he asked the animal several questions.

  He had a weird thought that the wolf might have more magical powers at night, but immediately dismissed it. The whole situation was putting him on edge, and speculating about the wolf wasn’t helping him any.

  “I’m so tired,” Ivy told Eli as night fell around them. “My feet are killing me.”

  “Mine, too,” Oliver agreed. “We need to stop soon and eat a huge dinner.”

  Eli was worn thin as well. They weren’t eating enough compared to the energy they were putting out, plus they’d been going through rough terrain for over twelve hours. “Okay, let’s find a place to camp.”

  The wolf yipped at him and inclined its head.

  “I guess we follow,” Eli said heavily as they continued on down into a valley. “Who wanted to sleep anyway?”

  “I did,” Ivy admitted with an exhausted laugh. “You might have to carry me if we go any further.”

  “Me, too,” Oliver assured him as he batted his eye lashes at Eli, then ducked as Ivy tried to push Oliver over. “Just kidding.”

  CHAPTER 16

  THE WHITE WOLF

  Eli understood immediately why they hadn’t stopped before when he saw where the wolf had led them. It was another cave, but this one wasn’t nearly as large as the previous cave. This one was a simple fissure in the rocks that the humans could enter, but the wolf couldn’t.

  “You want us to sleep in there?” Eli asked the wolf.

  It sat and waited. Eli almost suggested they continue on, but the voice, which had been silent all day, filled his mind.

  Danger is coming. Be in the cave all night.

  Ivy gasped and stared at the wolf. “Was that from him?”

  “What?” Oliver asked her curiously.

  She pointed to the wolf as she stared at Oliver. “You didn’t hear that?”

  “Hear what?” Oliver demanded.

  Eli scrambled to make sense of this. “You heard the wolf?” he asked Ivy, who nodded. He turned to face Oliver. “You didn’t hear anything?”

  “No,” Oliver drawled out slowly, like Eli was acting crazy. “Wolves don’t talk.”

  “This wolf talks,” Eli told him honestly. “It says we need to stay inside tonight.”

  “Why, exactly,” Oliver began skeptically, “would we need to stay in that little cave?”

  Men.

  Eli and Ivy spun at the exact moment to stare at the wolf. “I can take on men. Men do not scare me,” he told the wolf.

  The wolf bobbed its head. Not the right time for that.

  Slightly exasperated, Eli held up his hands in defeat. “Okay, but if they see you, they’re going to know something is up.”

  The wolf grinned and shook its head, making its ears flap. It was so close to a normal dog’s motion, that it unnerved Eli.

  I am only seen when I want to be seen.

  Ivy snorted at that. “Of course you are,” she said dryly. “Fine, let’s get some sleep. I’m beyond exhausted and some of my cuts are starting to sting.”

  They retreated into the cave, which was warmer than Eli would have expected, and lit a small fire after he went out to scrounge up some kindling. The cave was small, no more than seven feet square, but it was enough room for him to walk without hitting his head. They dug into the rations they’d brought with them, and Ivy worked on the cuts on her arms that were oozing.

  “Where did you get those?” Eli asked as he watched her dabbing cream on them.

  “When we slid down that hill to the first cave,” she explained with a slight wince. “They didn’t start bleeding until an hour ago. I brushed against a sticker bush, and it pulled off the scabs.”

  “We don’t have a lot of food left,” Oliver noted as he rooted through the bags.

  “We’ll hunt more often, then,” Eli said as exhaustion swamped him, leaving him lightheaded. “Let’s get some sleep.”

  Oliver shook his head. “No you don’t! First off, that wolf was talking to you. Let’s start with how stupid that is, and go from there.”

  “I don’t know why you can’t hear it,” Eli admitted. “The only thing Ivy and I share is the multiple powers.”

  “I was actually thinking that,” Ivy said pensively as she put away the first aid cream. “There’s no reason that Oliver shouldn’t have heard him speaking. He’s magical, the same as us. The only difference is our powers. Whatever our parents did to make that happen seems to have messed with us more than we thought.”

  Oliver scrubbed at his hair as he contemplated this. “I’ve never heard of a magical wolf.”

  “I haven’t either,” Ivy agreed.

  Eli shrugged helplessly. “We’re three for three, then. My father had a huge alligator that had to be magical, though, so it’s not like we haven’t seen evidence before.”

  “This breaks my brain,” Oliver told him seriously. “All I wanted to do was to find Dad, and here I am with you two weirdos who can talk to wolves.”

  “Probably just that wolf,” Ivy said, then flushed in the firelight when Oliver scowled at her. “I’m tired. I’m hungry, and I really don’t want to deal with whatever my father did, Oliver. Give me a break.”

  Oliver gaped at her. Eli almost intervened, but Oliver sighed and dropped his head in his hands. “You’re right, I’m sorry. I’m…”

  “We all want to find Pablo,” Ivy reminded him. “That’s our primary goal. I am trying to stay level here, but
with the water being off it’s like I’m constantly having panic attacks. My anxiety is through the roof right now. We need to work together, not pick at each other.”

  Eli glanced between them as Ivy stared Oliver down. He didn’t think his brother would relent, but finally Oliver’s shoulders slouched. “I never wanted to be part of the Guard.”

  “As soon as we find Dad, your part in this is done,” Eli promised. “We’ll handle the rest.”