The two wolves left standing backed the Fire Witch very near the opening on the tree, but were now wary of getting too close to her, after they realized that their brothers were not healing as quickly as they should.
Running Wolf knew it was a matter of seconds now before the Fire Witch figured their plan. He ran faster than he ever had before, leaping over the two remaining wolves, and landed completely against the Fire Witch, covering most of her with his body. The force of his landing threw them both into the hollow of the tree.
The Fire Witch hadn’t realized what was happening other than that the huge black wolf had slammed into her. She shrieked in pain as she bumped against the inside of the sycamore. Now quite aware of where she had landed, she hissed at the wolf still against her who blocked her only way of escape. Arms pinned under his weight, she reached down and bit his neck with her sharp teeth.
Running Wolf yelped and leapt back from the Fire Witch, whining as a moldy black fog seeped from the wound. He had just cleared the opening of the hollow, when the tree’s bark groaned and started to stretch from either side in an effort to close the void and trap her inside. She jumped forward, trying to escape, then screamed as her hands burned when they touched the wood. The tree healed faster now, bark groaned as it twisted and turned, thickening as it criss-crossed in wide strips in front of her.
The Fire Witch knew she was trapped, and her voice rang out like thunder as she glared at Running Wolf. “One day I shall be free and all of your people will pay for what has been done!” An evil smile painted her lips as she cast her spell. “When your eyes show their true color once more, I will come! One of your own shall give his blood and set me free!”
The black fog rolled across Running Wolf’s face, and his golden eyes turned as dark as a starless night. The Fire Witch cackled in delight, the evil sound echoed, sending chills along Ella’s spine. Ella shivered as the Fire Witch turned fathomless eyes to her next. The Fire Witch stared at her a moment, as if seeing something deep inside the small white-haired girl, then said, “Thy magic will stay, thy life will be long, but love shall never again find thee.”
The tree cracked as the final slab of bark stretched into place. The dark brown tree shuddered, as if in terror of the evil trapped within, then its bark gnarled and knotted, and turned a ghostly white.
The wolves backed from the tree, still keeping a careful watch. The two who hadn’t been able to stand, were now able to rise and the group retreated across the creek that stirred with their crossing.
Tiny whispers echoed through the water as the Water Beings talked about the tree that had chosen to hold the evil one. They had always liked the big tree. They let his roots drink in the creek and his leaves dot its surface during the harvest moon. But they didn’t like the evil one who was now trapped in his center. With sad hearts, the fairies picked up their precious droplets, filling the air with shimmering walls of water as they moved their creek away from their beloved tree — and away from the evil he held.
The creek now gone, one wolf glared across the bone-dry bed with a single brown eye, its mate forever lost. Every wound the Fire Witch had inflicted on the Keepers, healed slowly, scarring the wolves as no wound had ever been able to do before. The scars they would keep their entire lives, both as wolves and as humans. Running Wolf’s eyes would stay forever black.
And Ella would feel the truth in the Fire Witch’s prophecy for the rest of her days…
Her heart would forever stay broken.
Chapter Fourteen
Brian
Everything was always more alive at night. Especially when you were a creature that loved moonlight.
That just happened to be the reason I was running through the woods. Well, okay, the moon was one of them. Another was that before I left Nikki and Tori, the magic wall gave us a different image — a scene from the window of the forest outside, where Adam normally came through on his visits to Nikki. So I was doing my duty by checking it out. But to be honest, the main reason I was out that night was that I was trying to convince myself to “hunt” like the others and save myself a lot of embarrassment when the time came that I did actually have to hunt with them. My stomach still revolted at the idea of killing something, let alone eating it raw. But you’ve got to start some time, right? May as well throw up by myself where no one else would witness the gory details.
I took a deep breath, and tried to put the whole thing out of my mind. If I came across a rabbit or something, I’d go from there. But until then, I was going to do my best to enjoy the smells and sounds of the night forest, and the sight of the full, round moon.
Though there was still a chill in the air, the forest was more alive than usual. An owl watched me from high above, resting on a branch, eyes glowing like beacons that flickered on and off with each blink. A small shadow scampered across the ground ahead of me, and the bird swooped down. Something made a high-pitched squeal as he grabbed it. Then the owl flapped his wings and took off. I focused in on him as he flew overhead. He had caught a small field mouse that still wriggled in his beak.
Mouse wasn’t on the menu for me. If I was going to hunt something, it was going to be worth being sick over. Still, I was glad when the owl was out of sight with his snack.
I decided to run to clear my head. One of the coolest things about being a wolf was how fast you could run while nature moves the forest around to help clear your path. I saw every detail, every limb and leaf as I ran past. And it didn’t even matter that it was dark, I still had awesome vision.
I was still thinking about that very thing when I came up on Wolf Creek. I bent down to get a drink when I felt movement across from me. I looked up and saw the one thing I hoped I wouldn’t find.
A deer.
I growled, deep and low, hoping to spook the big doe that simply stood and stared at me with huge, wide eyes.
Dumb deer. I snorted. Well, if it was going to be like that, I may as well do this hunt thing. I crouched down low, hoping it would take off…hoping it would run faster than me…doubting it was going to be faster than me…hoping that it would quit looking at me as if it were Bambi…
A twig snapped somewhere behind the deer, and it jumped. Eyes wide in terror, the doe ran, jumping across the creek, tail gleaming like a white flag in the moonlight.
A flash of tawny fur appeared, tail twitching in anticipation. Black eyes sparkled like onyx. The mountain lion crouched low, and sprang all in one fluid movement, disappearing in the same direction as the deer. It was way too big to be a normal cat and we didn’t have a lot of mountain lions in the area. It was one of the Lakota guys.
He never acknowledged my presence, so I wasn’t sure if he just hadn’t seen me, or if he was deliberately ignoring me. After all, I was a huge black and white wolf. I didn’t exactly blend in with my surroundings — even if I had been crouching in the cattails by the edge of the creek.
Erik and the others hadn’t been able to track the Lakotas when the girls and I left them earlier. Their scent had led the Keepers for a short while, and then dissipated, leaving no other traces for them to follow. It had been a dead end, and no one had any clue where to look for them next.
But now, by some stroke of luck, one landed literally in front of me — and he was after my deer! (Yeah, I hadn’t wanted to hunt her earlier, but I saw her first and I don’t share well.)
I took off after them, hoping they hadn’t gotten too much of a lead. I had just picked up speed when I caught a glimpse of the cat up ahead. I skidded to a halt, piles of dead leaves bunched up under my paws.
Well, crap. I thought, irritated, as I watched him crouch over the deer’s body. He had killed my deer! A sickening rip sounded as he tore out a huge chunk of flesh at the deer’s throat.
I growled low, letting myself be known, then varied the cadence a little to let him know I wasn’t happy that he had invaded my hunting space and killed my prey.
Apparently, I had actually managed to be invisible earlier. Surprised, the cat jumped, t
hen spun around, hissing and spitting, making a rather impressive show of his long, white fangs.
Not to be outdone, I snarled and showed him mine. Mine are bigger than yours, want to see if they’re sharper, you overgrown housecat?
His tail twitched in agitation, and he crouched low. I waited, expecting him to spring. His muscles were taut, standing out like cords in his shoulders. It was then I noticed an odd marking in his fur. A darker line of brown that zigzagged in the shape of a lightning bolt on his shoulder.
I knew then which Lakota was the one ready to kill me. The bad part of knowing that, was the knowledge that he was the friendliest of the lot.
Chase was the one who had a tattoo of a lightning bolt on his left shoulder. He had told me before with a huge grin on his face, that it meant “swiftness,” for his speed as a hunter. Then I had asked him if “Chase” was actually his real name. He only grinned that much wider.
The discovery of the tattoo in his cat’s fur made him a real person to me, not just some wild animal ready to fight over the carcass of a dead deer. He was someone I knew. Someone I liked. I didn’t want to fight him. I wanted to help him, but to do that, I needed him to know who I was. So, I did something I normally wouldn’t have ever done. I did something incredibly stupid…
I switched back to human. Extremely fast. Even Adam would have been envious of how quick I changed.
The huge cat was a millisecond from springing through the air and attacking me, when I spoke.
“Chase! Hey, man, it’s me! You know, Brian?” I said quickly, but in a low voice that I hoped was soothing, “You know me. Remember, you told me about the tattoo on your shoulder? Swiftness, Chase, remember? Listen, something’s not right with you. I can help you…”
Chase hissed, then let out an ear-splitting roar…but he didn’t jump me. In fact, he changed his stance and actually backed up a step. Taking it as evidence of progress I kept going…
“There’s something going on with you, dude. I know someone who can counter the black magic, but you have to come with me…” Well, it wasn’t exactly a lie. I did sort of know someone. I wasn’t sure he had actually been able to fix Ed, but maybe Adam’s grandpa could do something about it. It was worth a shot to try to convince him.
His eyes narrowed, and he bared lots of white fang. He wasn’t convinced. With another deafening roar, he sprang, jumping over the deer, taking off through the woods with a mind-blowing speed that I knew I couldn’t match or even have a chance of catching up.
I sighed, switched back to wolf, and then trotted along behind the scent he left, following it a short distance until it faded away. He disappeared, leaving nothing but the dead deer as evidence he had ever been there. I decided I didn’t like the idea of leftovers.
I meandered around for a while longer, half-heartedly searching for something else for my wolf to hunt before I headed back and called Erik with a cat update. A snake slithered under a log. I didn’t like snakes, neither did my wolf, so we were both in agreement on that one. A skunk waddled by, and we both agreed on that one, too. I was getting ready to give up and start back toward home, when I saw it.
A deer. Very much like the doe from before. I watched as she walked slowly, head down, as if grazing. I tensed, ready to attack her, and then growled just the tiniest bit to let her know I was there. It didn’t seem fair not to let her know I was there, when I clearly had every advantage over her. I had to give her something in return for being such defenseless, easy prey.
She moved differently, so I assumed my warning had been heard, and that she was getting ready to take flight. But instead, she moved to face me, with a weird shuffling kind of gait, her head still bent toward the ground.
Then I realized why her head hung low…there wasn’t anything left of her neck to support her head. She was the same deer that I had left just a short while ago.
There really was bad magic in Chase.
That doe was dead…
…and she was walking around the forest.
***
“We’ve got BIG problems!” I hissed in Nikki’s ear the next morning at school, as she shoved some books in her locker, “There is a zombie deer in the woods!”
“No way! You’re joking,” she turned, staring at me. Her brown eyes looked only slightly less sad as they were replaced with wariness over my undead announcement; my mental health was now apparently under scrutiny.
“I’m not joking! This is not something I’d joke about!” I hissed again, steering her over to a less populated corner of the hallway where I recounted the previous night’s adventures of Bambi deer, bad mountain lion, and then zombie deer. I deliberately left out the last part of the night, where I, Keeper of the forest, strong and fearless protector, ran out of the forest faster than I ever had before, vowing I would never return to hunt alone again.
“Wow,” Nikki remarked, her eyebrows raising an inch, “I’m glad I didn’t have a vision of that! I wouldn’t know what to do about it.”
“Well, honestly, I didn’t know what to do about it, either. After all, how do you kill something that’s already dead?” I shook my head, trying to dislodge the memory of the deer, and decided to change the subject to someone who had looked much better, “What’s Tori doing while you’re here and your mom’s at work?”
“She’s heading to the library. She’s stuck on finding out more about Eleanor Brown and why she isn’t dead, according to my family tree,” Nikki rolled her eyes, and then switched the conversation back to the deer, “You need to tell Erik what you saw last night.”
“Yeah, I called him when I got home. He wasn’t his usual happy self. I don’t think he liked it that I found one of the cats when I wasn’t trying to after they had been at it for hours. He said he and the others were skipping school today to search some more,” I shrugged, and then grinned, “He also said that I’m still supposed to watch you. So you’re stuck with me when school lets out. I came as wolf, so I’m riding back with you in your car.”
“You’d better not get seen ‘as wolf’ or Mr. Giles will flip out and be calling animal control on you,” Nikki laughed.
“I came through the woods at the back of the building, no one saw me. But regardless, somehow I don’t think Giles would flip out over seeing a wolf, he’s not exactly what he appears to be either.”
“What is he then?”
I grinned, “Tommy tells me he’s the principal.”
“So what does Michael say he is?” Nikki asked, knowing the cousins did everything together, including finishing each other’s sentences.
“A forest gremlin. And they’re both right. He’s both. The only advice I can give you is not to make him mad or he’ll throw a desk at you.” I advised, in my most serious tone.
Nikki smiled, but it still didn’t reach her eyes. Her eyes haven’t smiled since Adam disappeared. They always look sad now.
She must have heard me thinking that, because she suddenly bit her lip and those sad eyes filled with tears.
“I’m sorry,” I said quickly, as I tried to take my thoughts back, “I’m a jerk — but I can’t help that you heard that. Please just ignore what goes on in my head, okay?”
She nodded, rubbing the back of her hand across her eyes to quickly brush away the tears that managed to spill over. She ducked her head, hoping I hadn’t seen the emotion play on her face. “Yeah, sure. Listen, I’ll see you later, I’m late for class.” I nodded, and watched as she walked away.
It was then that I noticed the faint, white aura around her again. If I hadn’t been staring after her, I never would have seen it. I shook my head, and looked again. It was still there and so faint is looked like she was edged in a light fog as she made her way down the hallway.
Chapter Fifteen
Ella
Round Mountain
November 21, 1774
She stood within inches of the cliff, but it wasn’t enough. She knew she would have to stand on the very edge to gain the Great Spirit’s attention.
&nb
sp; Ella shuffled closer.
Small pebbles in front of her feet clattered, bouncing down the rock face of the mountain. She watched them in a detached sort of way. The trees below looked so tiny from where stood. She could barely see the tiny wisp of smoke that came from the fire in Old Mother’s hut.
Ella had come a long way.
It had taken her hours to climb the highest mountain. She didn’t remember it. She could only see Bright Eyes’ face, and heard the Fire Witch’s last words echoing in her mind over and over, “…your life will be long…looong…”
She didn’t want a long life. She didn’t want any life without Bright Eyes. A future without him would be endless torture. He had been her soul. Even though her heart was still beating, she didn’t feel like she was really living. When he died, part of her died with him, and from what she could tell, that was the only part of her that had mattered.
She hadn’t cried since he took his last breath in her arms — even when the Keepers brought him back to the village and Old Mother fell to the ground sobbing over the body of her grandson, feeble hands running over his still form in a futile search for signs of life. She stayed strong and kept her grief bottled inside, turning instead to care for the old woman who had become very much a mother to her.
Days passed, and then weeks, and the sadness that mounted up inside her soon became more than she could bear. Her heart was so broken that it felt like some giant hand reached in to kill the parts that were left, strangling and choking her so that it felt she couldn’t ever take another deep breath again. She was so, so broken inside…
Once Upon a Haunted Moon (The Keeper Saga) Page 9