by Mark Tufo
“Did you truly fight a Lycan?” she asked, eyes large.
“I did.”
“And you won?”
“I did.”
“How?”
I looked at her for a moment. I thought about telling her, but there were already enough monsters in the world. Why did she need to know about another one? “Grace of the gods, I suppose,” I told her instead. “Listen, if what my friends have told me is true, then Lycan are coming. You need to convince the chancellor that what you have isn’t adequate to stop them. They are planning a war.”
“I will try. Father can be stubborn. Thank you,” she said as she gripped my hand. She pulled back quickly from the contact. I looked down to her hand, and with that, I left.
***
“Dammit, Michael,” Azile said with the same far away stare.
“What’s the matter?” Tommy asked, pulling up alongside.
“That man! He’s like trying to catch falling leaves in the winter.”
Tommy sat back not sure how to respond. “Azile, there are no leaves in the winter.”
“Exactly,” she said, exasperated. “He went off the pathway.”
“Should we go get him?” Tommy asked.
“No, for whatever reason he left, it must be important. We will continue on.”
&nbequize="+0sp;
***
I walked away from the fortress happy to have some food. I alternated eating bread and cheese, always giving Oggie a piece of whatever I was having. Normally he liked to roam around, but he was hanging pretty close since we started eating. I found a small copse of trees and removed my destroyed clothes. I enjoyed the feel of the sun on my skin and actually took a moment to lie down. I had to admit, there was something extremely primitive and inviting about being this close to nature. I let my eyes close. Oggie was sniffing around the bag.
“We’ll eat more in a minute,” I told him groggily.
I heard him go bounding off. I think Oggie took the minute part literally I heard him come traipsing back much quicker than I had anticipated, or I had fallen asleep and more time had elapsed than I thought. I sat up when I realized those weren’t the sounds of paws on grass, but rather, shoed feet.
Nothing makes you feel more vulnerable than nudity, and besides some clinging twigs and leaves, I was as naked as one could get. I was staring at the clothes Lana had given me; I reached out and snagged them. My hand nearly rebelled at the feel of the scratchy Rayon-Burlap hybrid. I think I would have put my shredded clothes back on if I hadn’t shed them back at the opening to the copse. There was no way I was getting into a fight with my talliwacker flapping about. I had just pulled the rough material over my head when I heard her.
“Sir,” Lana called out.
“You’re kidding right?” I said softly, ducking down and putting my arms through the torturous sleeves as quickly as I could. “I’d rather wear rusty armor,” I said as I pulled the pants up. My socks were a lost cause and I had discarded them with the rest of my previous clothing. The boots could use a thorough rinsing, but they were in great shape. I put them on, foregoing tying them for the moment.
“What are you doing here?” I stood up. She had gotten a lot closer than I had expected and gasped in surprise when she saw me.
“I told my father. He did not believe me that a war is coming. My father said that you were just trying to scare us because we would not let you in.”
“So how did coming to find me seem like a good idea? You have no idea who I am. I could very easily be the monster your father believes that I am. Or worse,” I added, bending over to tie my boots. The wind had kicked up exposing that damned delicious looking neck again.
“This a test, God?” I grumbled.
“Excuse me?” Lana asked, thinking I was talking to her.
“Nothing.” I told her, thankful her hair had dropped back down. “Go home, I appreciate what you’ve done for me, but there’s nothing except danger out here.”
“Where are you from...really?” she asked, completely blowing off my warning.
“I love teenagers, such a uniquely obstinate being.”
“Your clothes, I couldn’t tell from the wall, but I knew they were different. And then when I saw your boots, I knew you weren’t from idten’t Maine and you have an accent I’ve never heard before. It’s so exotic.”
“You’ve never heard a Bostonian accent before?” I asked.
“Where? Are you from across the ocean? Father told me that people used to travel over the waterways covering vast distances.”
“I’m from...” I let it trail off, Massachusetts would mean as much to her as Boston would.
“And more importantly,” she pressed on, “What are you?”
“What?”
“I touched your hand…you are no man.”
“You have no idea what I am or where I’m from, and you come out alone and unarmed. And they say I have the dumbs.”
She looked slightly crestfallen. If she had lived during my times, though, she probably would have been a cheerleader with how quickly she rebounded.
“You are no Lycan like my father believes.”
“How do you know that?” I asked in between whistles for Oggie.
I wanted him to come back quickly so we could leave before her father sent out a brigade of men to hunt us down. And truth be told, being alone with a teenage girl scared the shit out of me. Not because I felt like I would commit any impropriety, but rather because like I’ve pointed out in other journals; the female teenager may be the most foreign creature on this planet. That includes zombies, vampires and now even Lycans and werewolves. They were an emotional bundle of drama, and I dreaded being around the ticking time bombs.
“You are not Lycan because they nearly burn to the touch. That is why I grasped your hand. I had to know.”
“Have you ever heard the phrase, curiosity killed the cat?”
“Many times,” she replied.
“Apparently that didn’t resonate with you, I’m thinking.”
“What is your name?” she asked, completely ignoring me in a perfect teenage fashion.
“Fine, I’m Michael Talbot.”
She let that roll around in her head for a moment before she spoke. “Again, sir, you are no Lycan, and I do not believe you to be any ordinary man. You are cold to the touch, but do not show any signs of hypothermia. My original question stands.”
“Listen, Lana, go home. Do whatever it is teenagers do during this time.”
“Teenager?”
“A person of teen years. You know fifteen, sixteen, etcetera.”
“Middling, you mean?”
“Sure, take your middling ass and go home. Your father is going to want my head now, and I’m very attached to its present location.”
“I am nearly an adult. I will do as I please!” she informed me in no uncertain terms.
“Great really, but go rebel somewhere else.”
“Why are you avoiding my questio, cg my quns?”
“You will not like the answers.”
“I know more than you think I do.”
“Most teen...middlings do.”
“I can sense something in you. Are you attracted to me?”
“Listen, Lana, you really don’t want to be around me. I don’t know what you sense or why you feel the need to be here. I may be attracted to you, but not in any way that is flattering.”
She looked at me crossly, my words confusing her.
I laughed, before realizing my folly. “Where is that damned mutt?” I asked impatiently wanting to extract myself from this socially awkward situation.
“You’re laughing at me? Is something about me funny to you?” She was truly angry now.
Poked a bear, wonderful. “Lana, I am many years your senior and have been in a time vastly different from this one. I find humor wherever I can get it. Go home, find someone you love to be with. Enjoy him while you can. Love hard, life is fleeting.”
“Why is there so much
sadness around you?” she asked, stepping in closer.
Oggie finally trundled up. He was all wags and kisses to our new guest.
“Great of you to finally show up. We’re leaving, pooch,” I told him as I grabbed my meager supplies. I walked out of the copse and back towards the roadway. Lana did not immediately follow. But she would. How did I know that? Because what middling isn’t defiant?
“Don’t make me carry you back!” I shouted into the woods behind me where she trailed by a couple of dozen yards.
“You cannot see me!” she shouted in reply.
“I’m no woodsman, but a bear in heat would make less noise than you.”
“I want to see the world. I have only been out of Denarth once, and I was still within sight of her walls.”
“The world sucks, Lana. There’s all manner of unsavory things out here. “Even right here.” I mumbled that part. “Your father was wise to keep you inside.”
“A life half lived is not worth living,” she said as she approached.
“Why are you so desperate to cut both of our existences short?”
“My father will understand,” she said, coming abreast of me.
“No, he won’t. I was a father once.”
“Once?”
“Last chance, Lana, I have to catch up to my friends. (For lack of a better term.) Where I go I do not foresee a rosy ending. I have done things in this life I must atone for, and I have a fate to fulfill. And apparently it starts with these clothes. Are they used as some sort of punishment?” I asked, pulling the shirt away from my chest where it was abrading my many wounds.
“I have a salve I can put on those.” she said, realizing my discomfort.
“NO!” I said much too quickly.
“I think I frighten you, Michael Talbot.” She laughed.
“You have no idea.”
“What happened to your children?” she prodded.
“Time,” was my solemn answer.
“Surely you are not old enough to have outlived them.”
I stopped and turned to look at her. “You are a smart one, aren’t you? Fine, this may be the only chance I have to be rid of you.” My pupils dilated as I opened my mouth, long canines pulled down pointedly, my heart raced as I felt the beat of her heart. The delivery of so much blood quickened my pulse in return.
“What are you?” she cried, pulling back.
“I am the worst of what this world has to offer,” I told her truthfully as I wrestled to regain control of my emotions. Oggie stood and watched purposefully. I wondered what he would do if I attacked the girl. He had seemed to grow fond of her, and I can’t imagine he would stand idly by as I devoured her. “I am a vampire, Lana.”
She raised her hand to her mouth. “Impossible. You are lying! This is some sort of trick to make me leave,” she said, but she was still backing up and looked like she would bolt at any moment. “That is why you are so cold?” she asked, stopping.
I nodded.
“Your family…all of your family has passed?”
I nodded again, tears threatening to fall. “Most of my friends as well.”
“You poor man.” She came closer, placing her hand against my cheek.
“I am no man.” I told her in a whisper; though I had meant to say it with force. “Lana, I am constantly in a whirlwind of destruction, and those around me usually pay for my transgressions. Go be happy, live your life out. Forget the world outside, it is not a place for those with kind hearts.”
“How can you say Lycans threaten our very existence and yet you wish me to sit by while they come for us? Will our walls hold?”
“No.”
“I must do what I can then to prevent that.”
“Yes, by going back and convincing your father his defenses are inadequate. That is the best thing you can do.”
“You would have me go back by myself, with all the hidden dangers lurking about?”
“It’s not that far.”
“What if I got lost? My death would be on your conscience.”
“Advanced degree in manipulation I take it?”
“It’s getting dark. I don’t think I’d make it back in time…being a silly little girl and all.”
“Let’s go.” I said, grabbing her arm, she tried to pull away. “We’re going back to your home.”
“I’ll tell father we kissed, Denarth laws dictate marriage.”
“What?” I asked, almost flinging her arm away as if it we ty as ifere on fire. “Now you’re lying.”
“Am I? What would you do then?”
“Run for the friggin’ hills, I suppose.”
“I do not wish to marry you Michael, but I will threaten you with Denarth laws.”
“So you would do something you do not wish to do just to spite the both of us? How is it that teens do not learn from those that went before them? Marriage would be horrible; you’d be talking about new hip-hop bands and shoes you wanted to buy. You’d probably want to go out dancing every night. Folks would tell you how nice it is you caring for your grandfather.”
She laughed. “I don’t know what hip hop bands are, but I do like shoes.”
“Go figure. Let’s go.” I’ll take my chances with Denarth law.
“Do you hear that?”
“No, do you have bat ears?”
“Horses,” she said, ducking down.
I didn’t hear them, but I heard the braying of dogs. “Hounds. We’re being tracked. This your dad’s doing?”
“Yours is the first dog I’ve seen in five years. A trader came to our gates once, had this old gnarled thing that lay in the back of his cart most of the time. I, at first, thought it was stuffed, it moved so little.”
“See, Lana, this is the kind of shit I’m talking about. I’m walking around minding my own business eating bread and cheese and I guarantee you these people are chasing me – now us – and want to do us harm.”
“We’d better get moving then.”
She was right, but we were going to have to move away from the area I had wanted to travel towards. For now I was stuck with Lana.
“Any idea who this is?” I asked her as we ducked behind some bushes. I was trying to get my bearings so we could get back to the general direction I needed to be going.
“I don’t,” she said, her eyes wide. I figured with fright, but I would later learn it was excitement. I’d forgotten how adept at lying middlings were.
We had been moving at a good clip, and, at times, the dogs’ barking sounded far distanced at other times it approached. The problem was, I could go a lot longer than Oggie, and Lana looked like she was already beginning to flag; youth or not, she had led a relatively sheltered life. Oggie was looking over at me from time to time, I think wondering when I was going to pick him up. In theory I could pick both of them up. I don’t know how much I’d be able to see at that point, or how comfortable a ride it would be for either of them. And with the thought of fresh blood being that closely pressed to me also had its own distaste.
“I’m exhausted,” Lana said, nearly stumbling.
“Having fun yet?” I asked with a sneer. “Told you it was a barrel of laughs out here.” The sun had set; the moon, which was at a little over three-quarters, shone brightly. “Whoever is chasing us is determined,” I said to her as we took a quick rpanok a quespite.
Oggie quickly laid down, his eyes shutting. His ears would swivel when he heard barking, but he couldn’t be bothered enough to look up.
The next round of dog barks was within a football field away; we were sunk. I could not carry two and outdistance a hound. Then we scored a mild victory. I heard men talking – only wisps as the wind would allow – but the retrieval of the dogs was clear enough, they were bedding down for the night. We could take a few more minutes to recover and then we would start out again. Oggie I would carry. Lana would have to make do. Maybe the harshness would send her back.
That tactic didn’t work out so well either, she was out. When I went to wake her,
nothing short of dropping her in an ice cold bath was going to work. That and I felt somewhat guilty for the predicament she found herself in.
“I don’t even have a soul! Why the fuck do I need to be hampered down with morality?” I said as I shifted Oggie’s wriggling body around. I had each of them draped over a shoulder like sacks of potatoes. I walked throughout the night, not caring what sort of trail I was leaving. There wasn’t a damn thing I could do about it anyway.
“Where…where am I?” Lana asked.
I put her down and my back cracked in response. Oggie wasn’t quite ready to face the day. “You friggin’ lug,” I told him as I also set him down. I stretched and was rewarded with multiple pops and squeaks as I tried to realign myself.
“Are they still after us?” Lana asked, looking around. “None of this is familiar.”
“We’re about twenty miles from your city.”
“Tw-twenty miles? How is that possible?”
“We traveled throughout the night. And we’re going to have to keep traveling. Dogs and horses are going to be a lot faster than we are. They’ll make up most of this ground before dusk.”
Lana absently scratched behind Oggie’s ears.
“I should have known,” I told her.
“Known what?”
“That you were lying. How would someone who’d never been exposed to dogs know to scratch behind the ears?”
“It just seems—”
“Stop, just stop. My bullshit meter is pegged.”
“Meter?”
“The dogs are your dad’s?”
“The finest hunting dogs. They’re used to round up meat for the winter.”
“You tricked me. I carried you for miles to keep you from danger, and instead I brought you into it. This is no fucking game!” I raged at her. “I’m not some knight come to rescue you from your castle like in a fairy tale.”
“A lot of people die in those fairy tales,” she said. “I knew what I was getting into.”
“But I didn’t. I don’t have the time or the inclination to babysit you.”
“I’m nearly an adult, I can do everything you can.”
“You can carry me and Oggie? That would be fantastic. Walking without socks sucks.”
She continued on without waiting for me.