The beast-man turned its head towards me. Its leathery brow furrowed as it took stock of me, shockingly clear blue eyes seeming to look directly into my soul. The sasquatch drew on its pipe, then exhaled a plume of pungent tobacco smoke out the side of its mouth. He stared at me, and I stared at him. We both seemed to be grappling with the incongruity of the situation. Given the powerful compulsion driving people away from his door, I didn’t expect many visitors had found their way to the sasquatch’s home. As for me, well, I couldn’t believe I was actually staring at a creature even the local Lorekeeper wasn’t sure was real.
“My name is Alex,” I offered.
“Alex,” he repeated. The sasquatch mumbled my name several times over, pronouncing it a little differently every time as though tasting the nuance of each variation until it found one that felt right.
After a minute of this, the sasquatch stood up from his chair. He was so tall, his head nearly brushed the ceiling. I flinched backwards when he bent towards me, but I quickly realized he was simply offering a polite bow.
“I am called Hrarlderflorvberkenstretchken,” he said. Or at least, that’s what little sense I could make of it. His actual name sounded like the someone snapping twigs in half while knocking a polished river stone against a hollowed out tree trunk. “It is a most pleasing thing to make your acquaintance, little wizard Alex.”
“Haral-der-flaba…?” I gave up before I butchered the name any further. “I don’t suppose you’ve got a nickname or something?”
The sasquatch’s ape-like lips curled in a smile. “Yes, yes. I had the making of a goodly friend once some time ago. He too experienced much difficulty producing my name. By his way of calling, I was named Charles. This might be a more acceptable appellation for the little wizard to twist her tongue around.”
“That is much easier,” I said. Unsure of what protocol dictated in this situation, I made an awkward little curtsy. “Pleasure to meet you, Charles.”
The sasquatch nodded, then turned to crouch next to the fire. For all his furry bulk, his actions were almost dainty when he tapped his tobacco ash onto the coals before reverentially setting the pipe down next to the fireplace. He then reached for the soot-blackened cast iron kettle sitting near the edge of the flames, grabbing it with his bare hands. The metal handle must have been scorchingly hot, but he lifted it without so much as flinching.
“Tea?” he asked.
I nodded and waited while he fetched two beat up tin mugs. I still hadn’t figured out whether this guy was behind the attack on Bloedermeyer’s work site, or what his involvement in Nicola’s harassment was. I didn’t get the feeling I was in any immediate danger, so I relaxed my guard and accepted a mug of the steaming hot tea. I sipped it carefully, scalding my lips on the hot tin mug, anyway. The tea tasted strongly of dried wheat stalks blended with something slightly spicy and fruity. The hike from the construction site up to the sasquatch’s den had exhausted me, but just the one sip of tea perked me up immediately. I felt suddenly clear-headed and alert, new strength rushing into my arms and legs.
Charles poured tea into his own mug, then returned to his chair.
“You know why I’m here?” I asked.
“As nothing in this life can be known for certain, I could only do so much as guess,” he replied. “If, however, it is guesses we are playing at, I might venture that this has something to do with that horrible Bloedermeyer man and his persistent insistence on destroying my home.”
“So you are involved?” I asked.
The sasquatch sipped his tea and narrowed his eyes. He set the cup down, leaned forward in his chair, and pointed a long hairy finger at me.
“That man is a menace,” Charles said. “His interest lies only in lining his pockets with gold. He cares not for the land he crushes beneath the tread of his machines. He spares no thought for the lives he displaces for the sake of what? Hotels? Fancy stores? Not this time. He has gone too far. I, for one, won’t stand for it.”
“So you’re willing to kill in order to stop him?” I felt my blood rising. “I know he’s encroaching on your home, but that’s no excuse for violence. A man died yesterday.”
“That was outside and beyond my involvement,” the sasquatch said adamantly. “I won’t deny responsibility for earlier destruction of his mechanical monsters, but nothing was done with the aim to hurt anyone. Quite opposite. Great pains were taken to see that no harm came to any human.”
“So who is responsible then?” I set my tea down on the hearth. “Someone obviously used magic to blow up that excavator. And Bloedermeyer’s daughter? I understand wanting to go after the man threatening your home, but going after his daughter? She’s just a kid, for fuck’s sake.”
The sasquatch leaned back in his chair and shook his head. He ran a hand through his beard, sighed, then leaned over to collect his pipe and a small pouch of tobacco. I watched him fill the pipe, then light it with a taper from the fire. He puffed several times, then looked at me with evident concern.
“The deeds you describe are not of my doing,” he said. “It may surprise you to learn that I am something of a pacifist. I have never intentionally harmed another living creature. It has always been such with me and my kind. I know the girl of which you speak. Punishing a child for the sins of her father is not my way, nor would I condone it from any I have the fortune to influence.”
“So who is responsible then?” I asked. “Something out there is terrorizing the Bloedermeyer family. The local Lorekeeper seemed to think you might have answers, even if he was a little sketchy on the details of who you were or where you lived.”
“Yes, young Rivers.” Charles smiled wistfully. “It has been many years since he or any of his kin have come to visit me. I had the acquaintance of his great-grandfather, you know. It was he who taught me to speak your tongue.”
“Nathan wasn’t so sure you even existed,” I said. “I guess his great-grandfather didn’t pass on the news of your existence.”
The sasquatch smiled. “Nathan is wiser than he may make apparent. Though he does not visit me as often as his great-grandfather did, he possesses absolute knowledge of my living in these hills. We have a long-standing agreement that he not share his knowing of me or my kin. Besides, most of your people would think him unclean in the head should he chance to speak of me. They dismiss fact for fiction until they see it with their own eyes. Few are willing to come looking for the truth. Your kind and mine have seldom gotten along. It has been many years since I revealed myself to a new human.”
Feeling awkward standing over the sasquatch, I sat cross-legged on the floor and tried to relax a little. There was every chance Charles could suddenly decide to tear me limb from limb, but he seemed more like a merry prankster than a hardened killer. There wasn’t any sort of cold storage visible anywhere. There were, however, buckets of dried berries, fruit, and dried herbs sitting behind Charles’s chair. Given what he’d said about not harming living creatures, it was a safe bet my sasquatch was a pretty hard-core vegan.
“Why risk exposing yourself in the first place?” I asked. “If you are the one responsible for sabotaging the development this past summer, why weren’t you worried about being caught?”
“What is to say I was not filled with concern?” Charles sighed again. “For most of my life, I have enjoyed the peaceful solitude of this region. Few ventured into these foothills, and those like great-grandfather Rivers who did manage to track me down understood my wish to remain undisturbed. Considerable-much has changed in recent times. Men like Bloedermeyer come. They cut down trees. They tear up the earth. They destroy natural beauty, only to replace it with concrete monstrosities.”
“Why don’t you just leave?” I asked. “I know it’s not the best solution, but surely it must be better than losing everything?”
“This is my home.” The sasquatch stared at me with fire in his eyes. “Generations of my family have whelped and grown here. We were here before any man set foot in this valley. We will be h
ere long after every man has left. More than love of the land binds me to this place. It is as much a part of me as I am of it. This is not a concept one like you could possibly understand.”
He had a point. Despite his humanoid shape, Charles was more fae than anything else. It wasn’t uncommon for beings like him to risk death if they ventured too far from their ancestral territory. It wasn’t fair for anyone to ask him to leave. But with Bloedermeyer’s development being built less than a mile away, it was only a matter time before things began to encroach on the sasquatch’s home. Before long there would be hillside chalets, private gondolas, and networks of hiking trails crisscrossing the whole region. Even with the sasquatch’s protective spells in place, people would be stumbling across his front door within a matter of years.
“Back to my original question, who else is trying to sabotage the Bloedermeyer development?” I asked. “Last night I was attacked by magically enhanced feral wolves. If you’re not stirring up the local wildlife, who is?”
“This I know not,” Charles said. “Great evil stirs anew. The trees and I have a long-standing agreement; if I protect them, so too do they protect me. Even so, I feel the darkness. A vile corruption seeps into these lands.”
“You’re not the first to suggest that,” I said. “But no one seems to know any more about what this darkness is.”
“Ancient beings inhabited these lands long before even my kind came into being,” he explained. “For season beyond counting, they have lain dormant. Who may say with any certainty what has awakened? Beings such as this do not experience emotions the same way you or I might. They do not love. They do not hate. If, however, something persists in threatening their slumber, they will not hesitate to destroy it.”
“So you think ancient forces have been awakened?” I asked. “And that they’re not actually angry, but they are about to unleash hell on the entire village because someone woke them from their nap?”
“This is the truth I believe.”
“Great.” I picked up my now cold tea and drank it down. Not even the refreshing liquid could calm me. Everyone I’ve spoken to — even that hipster vampire at the bar — had mentioned something being out of whack. I didn’t know much about ancient powers sleeping beneath the hills, but experience had taught me not to discount things just because they seemed too far-fetched. Either a dark mage was working in the area, sabotaging the Bloedermeyer site and staging attacks against Nicola, or something much bigger was at play here. If the sasquatch wasn’t involved in the attempts on Nicola’s life, I was going to have to start taking this talk of ancient evil more seriously.
“Moonrise draws near,” Charles said. “It would be wise for you to journey back to town now. I would think it a great personal favor if you would keep this meeting of ours a matter of private memory.”
“I understand,” I said as a got back to my feet. “Thank you for your help. For what it’s worth, I don’t blame you for not wanting to leave. If my home was threatened, I’d probably stay and fight too.”
The sasquatch nodded. “Some battles are thrust upon us. This is not a conflict of my choosing, but I will see it through to the end or I will die in the trying.”
I didn’t know what to say to that, so I stood unmoving, staring into the fire.
“Hrmph,” Charles said, face scrunching up in annoyance. He rose from his chair and stalked to the opening from which I’d entered. “Were you followed when you came here?”
I thought back to the last thing I’d told Ada, cringing at how stupid I’d been. There was no telling how seriously she might’ve taken me. The woman was obviously sensitive to magic. Her effort in creating the pentacle proved she believed in it plenty enough.
Charles beckoned for me to follow, so I hurried after him into the stone passageway, still trying to wrap my head around the fact that I’d just had tea with a sasquatch.
Chapter Fifteen
“Nicola?” I pushed past Charles to crouch by the girl’s side. “Are you okay?”
Nicola looked up at me, her eyes slightly unfocused. “Alex? I… I found your snowshoes. I knew you had to be here somewhere. I’m just so… so tired.”
“How did you even find me here?” I asked.
She took several long breaths, swallowed with difficulty, then finally began to explain. “Eric dropped me off at home. He tried to stay and look after me, but I told him he should just go. When I asked Ada where you were, she was being all weird. I knew something had to be up, so I got the truth out of her. Once I got to the construction site, it was easy enough to just follow your snowshoe tracks.”
I sensed Charles shifting uneasily behind me. Nicola hadn’t seemed to notice him yet, but it was only a matter of time. There were questions I wanted answers for before she inevitably freaked out over the sight of an eight-foot tall ape man.
“How were you able to follow my tracks?” I asked. “Didn’t you feel like turning back?”
Nicola nodded. “It was so weird. The security guard told me you’d gone off in this direction, and other than that stupid loop you did, your tracks were pretty easy to follow. It made me so tired, though. I kept going because I knew you were out here. Ada wouldn’t tell me everything, but I just knew you were trying to hide something from me. I didn’t want to turn back until I knew what it was.”
I looked over my shoulder at Charles. The concern on his face wasn’t reassuring. I can only guess how unhappy he was to have had one visitor today, but at least I’d had an excuse. Nicola, on the other hand, might not get off so easily.
“Holy fuck,” Nicola said. She sat up straighter and scooted away from Charles before losing her balance and sprawling sideways. Her eyes bulged wide with fear. “What is that? Alex, what the hell is that thing standing behind you?”
“This,” I said, putting on my most innocuous smile, “is Charles.”
Charles took a step forward, bowing slightly before lowering himself to one knee and stretching a hand towards Nicola. The poor girl was so shocked she just reached out and shook it, her own hand dwarfed by his massive furry fingers.
“Pleased to make your acquaintance,” Charles said.
“Don’t freak out,” I told her. “Charles is a friend. He’s not going to hurt you… unless you give him a reason.”
No need for Nicola to learn that Charles was a peace-loving vegetarian just yet.
“Are you really… the sasquatch?” she asked.
“This is the name your people have given me,” he said. “Although, I am only one of some. My kind have become few in recent years, yet some others of my kin-folk dwell in these mountains and in the valleys beyond.”
Nicola started giggling. She looked at the sasquatch then at me, then out the cave entrance to the snow blowing across the opening. Her body shook with hysterical laughter. She had trouble breathing, doubling forward and shaking her head.
“I’m dying, aren’t I?” she asked. “I’m hypothermic, and I’m slowly dying. That’s the only excuse for this. Sasquatch aren’t real. Alex’s isn’t here. This is all just a bizarre hallucination.”
“This is very much real,” I assured her. “You and I need to have a talk about some things, but this might not be the time or the place. If we don’t get back before dark, we might be facing bigger problems than just your shattered worldview.”
“Alex is correct,” Charles said. “These woods are not as safe as they should be. There was a time I could proudly vouch for every creature within one hundred miles of my doorstep, but this is no longer the case. Even I dare not stray too far from home once night has fallen.”
I collected my snowshoes and began strapping them back onto my feet. Nicola was going to need time to adjust to her new reality, but she could do it on the walk home. I was pretty sure my phone was dead, and if it was too dark to follow my tracks back to the construction site, I wasn’t sure how we were going to find our way through the forest.
“Don’t suppose you’d be up for escorting us back?” I asked Charles.
>
He shook his shaggy head. “I am afraid not. I fear for what is to come. I would rather die than abandon my ancestral home, and I think it’s time I take greater precautions against anyone else stumbling onto my doorstep. Forget you ever saw me, little wizard. Should you attempt to locate me again, you may not find success so readily achieved.”
“All right, Nicola,” I said. “It’s just you and me. Let’s walk and talk.”
Nicola hadn’t taken her snowshoes off, so we set off immediately. The second we stepped from the safety of the cave’s opening I felt the full force of the compulsion slam into me. Even knowing a friendly sasquatch and a warm hearth lay behind us, I wanted only to get out of there as quickly as possible.
We didn’t talk until after we’d scooted down the snow slope just outside Charles’s cave. I let Nicola collect her thoughts for a few minutes. We shuffled through the snow, eyes on the barely visible track stretching off into the gloom before us. The sun wouldn’t properly set for another hour or two, but this deep into the forest and with the mountains blocking the western horizon, it was already dark enough to drop visibility to less than twenty feet.
“So are you going to tell me what the hell I saw back there?” Nicola eventually asked.
“It’s exactly what you think it was,” I said. “Charles is a sasquatch. I don’t know how old he is, but he’s been living here longer than Whistler was even a town.”
“Unreal,” Nicola breathed. “Pretty much everybody in town knows someone with a sasquatch story. They’re always bullshit though. I mean, you know it was just someone drunk or stoned seeing shit while walking through the woods late at night.”
“One or two of those stories might have been true,” I said. “Although, I think Charles is pretty careful not to be seen.”
Black Ice (Black Records Book 3) Page 13