It wasn't until then that I realized that I could smell Yoshi finally. Yes, he was Yoshi now. After that story, he could never be a last name and a case number. He was Mr. Fox. But there was something else about his smell too. For some reason his scent reminded me of Patricia, my girlfriend's sister-in-law.
"I am sorry for your loss. I fear I must tell you of another loss as well, Johann Messinger will not be coming back. He was killed in a traffic accident."
"We thought as much; not so much how he died, but that he did. He was the closest to being fully in this world of any of us. He was our liaison with the outside world. He was also our planner, he will be missed."
"Uh, Yoshi, pardon me for this rudeness, but I have experienced a presence somewhat like you before. You do not smell to me like a Lycanthrope, but you do smell of fox. What are you?"
With this, Yoshi leaned back and grinned. "Ah, so, John, you have never seen my like before. There are few of us, and fewer still that leave the Blessed Islands. Behold!" And he changed before my eyes. It didn't look like a 'Thrope change, one second he was a short little Japanese guy, the next, he was a fox. A very large fox. With four tails.
My jaw dropped, and I muttered "What-da-fu...?" Then he was back in human guise, still grinning.
"Are not my tails gorgeous? Is not my pelt the finest you have seen? For I am Kitsune! I have guarded my charges since Toyotomi Hideyoshi became Kampaku. It was a debt of honor that my Matriarch Mariko bid me fulfill for our clan. The Okutsu family performed a great service for us." Then suddenly his face fell, and his demeanor changed. "A charge that I have now failed in, for Yukio is dead, and the family dies with him. Now all I have is the men that were his family after the war. I may never get my fifth tail; I may never be allowed to form my own clan. I am disgraced. Now you come, and what disaster do you bring with you? For surely you are not a war-shocked veteran. I sense about you traces of other gods, and other ways. I see too, a uniform of sorts. We are hunted now, by men in helicopters. Our hunting land is patrolled by men of hostile intent, and several of us feel that we are back at war."
"Yoshi, you have my word of honor, and my word as a Priest of Tyr, that I mean you and yours, no harm. I am here to help you, and to bring your family, my family too, home."
We talked well into the night. I explaining to Yoshi what was going on in the world, and Yoshi telling me about some of the guys that were in the group. The next morning Yoshi brought me into the camp.
Chapter Thirteen
Early in the morning, it must have been about six or so because the sun wasn't even a glimmer yet, I woke to the sound of footsteps squeaking in the snow. For a second I was disoriented, and thought I was back in the Teams. I was out of my "space blanket" with gun in hand, diving for concealment before I had fully woken up.
Now I suppose if this had been some cheesy novel, I would have been "diving for cover". That was one of those things that always used to drive us nuts back in the day. Look here you, if you ever decide to do something as silly as write a book, get the terminology right! Cover is something that stops bullets. Concealment keeps them from seeing you to shoot at you. Where I was at, there was damn little "cover" for about five or six feet, so I had to settle for some brush.
By the time I had rolled out of the rack and got something between me and the sound, I came to enough to remember that this was not somewhere in the mountains of far-off Ahstan, or some other boil on the world's ass, like North Korea, and that I no longer had a ROE (that's rules of engagement) that allowed me to shoot anything that saw me, in the interest of operational security, (opsec). I heard a voice out of the darkness call "Easy there Mr. Cat, I'm not Charley. I'm coming in, slow, hands up. I just want to check on my buddy."
I saw him and smelled him at about the same time. Wolf-'Thrope. This one was in partial changed form. He mostly looked human, but his eyes and face were subtly wrong, he had fur everywhere, and his hands ended in clawed hand paws. He looked at me with some respect and said "You haven't been out of the bush long, have you?"
"Five years, but I've been working the sort of job that keeps your edge." With that, I stood up and holstered my pistol. "John Fisher. U.S. Navy, Retired."
The wolf slowly dropped his hands, and held the right one out to me. "Sean McTavish, Ex-U.S. Army, Fifth of the first SF. Only one type of squid I know has moves like that. You in the Teams?"
As I reached for his hand, I replied "Hooyah". Of course he went for the crushing grip, no surprise here, he's a wolf; it's a dominance thing. He had to find out who would win. I gave as good as I got. This went on awhile...
Soon Yoshi cleared his throat, and muttered "Why do not you gentlemen just whip out your swords and see which one is bigger. Sean, I know you started it. It is your nature. Knock it off."
As I released Sean's grip, something occurred to me. "Yoshi, was Yukio furry?"
The question seemed to confuse Yoshi for a second. "Furry? Oh, you make a joke. No, Yukio could not change forms."
Well, this was a surprise, we thought everyone up here was a 'Thrope. Shit. If there were non-'Thropes in the group, maybe they were the ones that killed Brown. Damn! I had to ask. "Yoshi, Sean here is a 'Thrope, and I heard that there are others of us up here, and you're preternatural, I guess I sort of thought that the group was all..."
Yoshi smiled sadly. "Oh, we are. Yukio was the last of the 'non-Furry' as you put it. We have had a few over the years and they are welcome, but they really do not live as long, so..." and he looked down for a second. "The only ones that have made it far enough in to have found us since the war in Siam have been what you call Furry. They have been few, yet not as few as we could have hoped."
At that I must have looked puzzled for a second because Sean smiled at Yoshi, and shook his head. "He means 'Nam, sometimes Yoshi isn't really in this century." As I looked over at Yoshi he sneaked a sly wink at me on the side away from Sean. Sean continued "Yoshi, do you vouch for him?" At a sharp "Hai" from Yoshi, Sean nodded. "Well, come on then, let's bring you into the camp. If Yoshi vouches for you, we don't need anything more." With that, Sean turned and started to walk off.
I gathered up my gear quickly, not that I had much out, and headed after. A short two hours later we came upon an old mine shaft somewhere in Enchanted Valley. A while before, Sean had suddenly let out a wolf howl, and then continued on. At the mouth of this abandoned mine, he gestured me in. Just before I started to go, Yoshi stopped me.
"Sean, that would be a very bad idea. John is one of us, and also apart. Do not do this; it will not end well."
Sean looked at him and at me with the "butter wouldn't melt in his mouth" look. Yoshi continued "John, it will happen this way. When you walk through that doorway, there will be two big men who will grab you, and take everything you have away. They will bind you and blindfold you. They will then take you deep into the mine system where our camp has been since before my arrival. There you will be given the rules of the camp and asked whether or not you will abide by them. If you are not willing, you will be taken out of the area, and dropped off in a location from which you cannot find us. If you agree, you will be bound by our rules."
As he was saying this, Sean's eyes were getting bigger and bigger, and he was making all sorts of gestures, none of which Yoshi paid any attention to. Finally Sean screamed at Yoshi "GODS DAMN IT YOU STUPID JAP, IF HE'S OUR ENEMY, WE'RE FUCKED."
Yoshi calmly looked back at him and said "If he's our enemy we are already "fucked" as you so gracefully put it. John is not an ordinary shape shifter, nor is he an ordinary soldier. There are many things about him that you do not know. But I do know that he will not harm us. If he wanted to, we would not be having this conversation."
"That's bullshit. He's just one fucking cat, I don't care if he is a SEAL. We're all bad-asses here. Surely between all of us we can take one little puddy tat. Hell, Teador alone could whip his ass."
"Teador may be able to beat John in a fair fight. If John agreed to use no unfair advantage, and ag
reed not to involve his Deity, or his birthright. But if surprised, while we would probably win, in the end it would avail us not. In the end, we would have so many injuries that we would starve before anyone was well enough to hunt. It also would bring down on us our enemies...John, will you surrender your belongings to me, on my promise that neither I nor anyone else will harm them or go through them until after you are made a member? I nodded. "Will you let me bind and blindfold you?" I nodded again.
Sean didn't like this. "Now just a damn minute. The rest of us don't agree to this! Hell, what if he's got some sort of tracker in there. We had those back in the 'Nam. If he's being tracked, we gotta know about it."
Yoshi looked at him and I could feel the temperature drop. "If he has a device to allow someone to track him, they already know where we are. Do you question my honor?"
Somehow I got the feeling that this particular phrase had been used before. And that challenging Yoshi's honor was something that you REALLY didn't want to do. Sean backed up and his ears went down. If he had had a tail at that moment, it would have gone between his legs. "No, Yoshi, I do not challenge your honor. But there may be some who will wonder at your judgment. What if he's carrying some sort of magic stuff? What if he's here to take us out?"
"Sean, you just do not understand. He is "some sort of magic stuff." He is a mage of sorts. He and I talked long into the night last night. I have given my honor that my skills see no lie within him. Unless someone wants to challenge that, it is done."
As they were having this discussion, I was taking off my gear and wadding it up into a bundle, trying desperately not to let anything that looked like a badge show. I wasn't sure who 'the enemy' was in their mind, but it might just be the government. If it was, I really didn't want them to see my badge. I was honored by Yoshi's opinion of me, but I so didn't want to take these guys on. Besides, at the bottom line, I was here to rescue these guys, not hurt them. I handed the bundle to Yoshi, placed my hands behind my back, and waited to be bound. Yoshi walked up to me, and brought my hands back in front of me. He then pulled a silk ribbon out of a pocket and tied it once around my wrists in a bow. He looked at me, and asked "Are you bound, and will you promise not to attempt to break this bond?" I nodded, while Sean again looked scandalized. Then Yoshi pulled out a piece of black silk and tied it around my head, to blindfold me, asking "Are you able to see? And will you promise not to remove this until allowed to?" I shook my head, and then nodded, and was led inside. I could hear Sean muttering something under his breath.
We walked for some time, and I heard various voices, and some argument about the irregularity of this whole thing. Through it all, Yoshi stood firm, and would tolerate no argument. Eventually we came to what sounded like a large cavern. We had been going past light sources periodically but this area seemed to be the best lit so far. As they set me in a chair, I heard lots of sounds, including something that sounded like a waterfall, and a guy singing "I Will Go", there were just too many scents to process.
I always hated that song. It's pretty enough as music...but the story it tells.
A bit after the Battle of Culloden, the only way to be allowed to wear the Plaid, and play the pipes, was to be in the British Army's Highland Regiments. Those who joined fought with distinction in foreign wars, then came home to find that their families had been put in the street, or killed outright, and their lands seized in the highland clearances.
A voice was telling me that "the rules of the group are simple" and in the background I could hear "When the King's son came around, he called us all together, Saying "Brave Highland men, will ye fight for my father?"
I will go, I will go"
"You must be a Veteran. You must pull your own weight in the camp's chores. You must give each member his due."
"When they put us all on board, the lasses were singing but the tears came to their eyes when they heard the bells a-ringing, I will go, I will go."
"Duels are allowed only if approved by the rest of the group. We do not fight for dominance."
"When we landed on the shore and saw the foreign heather, we knew that some would fall and be staying there forever, I will go, I will go."
"Leadership is by seniority unless the senior man refuses to take the position, or the entire group votes him down."
"When we came back to the glen, the winter was turning, our goods lay in the snow and the houses they were burning. I will go, I will go."
"You must not endanger the group. You may leave the group, but you may not speak of it to the outside. Discipline is by a jury, and you must agree to subject yourself to their will, up to the final penalty."
"I will go, I will go, when the fighting is over to the land of McLeod that I left to be a soldier, I will go, I will go."
"Do you agree to these conditions?"
I was willing to agree to about anything, just to get the guy who was singing in the background to shut up before I slit my own wrists. Gods, the shortest book in the world must be "Gaelic songs with happy endings!" So I stood and said "Yes, I agree. Can I take these off now?" In the background the singer had shifted to "The Green Hills Of Tyrol". Not much better from a depression point of view.
The voice said yes, so I popped the ribbon holding my wrists together, and pulled the blindfold off. There were twelve guys standing around me, in various stages of change. Off in near corner of the large cavern we were in sat a tall guy with a mandolin. He was the singer I had been hearing. He seemed to be wolfen, and not entirely changed back. I could hear a few other guys off down the cavern somewhere. Sean looked at the way I had snapped the ribbon and whirled on Yoshi. "Damn it, you led me to believe that he was secure!"
Yoshi looked calmly back and asked "Did he escape?"
"No." there was a pregnant pause "But he could have! That ribbon had no magical effect at all, did it?" Sean was livid; he was practically foaming at the mouth.
Yoshi was still calm, and actually dropped his voice lower. "Think back, did I ever say that the ribbon was magical?"
"Well...No, but you said that it would hold him!"
"Did it not?" Yoshi quirked an elegant eyebrow.
"Only because he didn't test it! He could have broken it at any time."
Yoshi just looked at him, then looked at me as if to say, "Pardon the boy, he's too young to know better." So I spoke up. "Sean, you don't understand. The ribbon wasn't what held me."
Sean looked at me, then back at Yoshi "So there was a spell."
I replied before Yoshi could. "No, you are jumping to conclusions again. What held me was my word. Had I broken my bond, I would have broken my word, and I am sure that Yoshi had something prepared if that happened, but I don't know what."
Yoshi shook his head "I did not, I did not need such preparation, your word was good."
Sean still didn't get it. "How could you know that?" he screamed.
Yoshi just shook his head sadly, and walked away. Before I could say anything, the voice I had heard question me came out of the REALLY big guy in front of me. "Sean, Yoshi is over five hundred years old. In that long, even someone as foolish as you could learn to read a man's heart." Then this guy, who must have been six foot five, four hundred pounds, black hair, and swarthy skin, turned to me and said "I'm Teador Zwinul. Formerly of the Hundred and First. I was born in 1924, and have been part of this group since 1946. The only one of us senior to me is Yoshi, who has refused to lead. Do you challenge my seniority?" He had an odd accent, which I just couldn't place.
I looked up at him and realized that I could finally separate his smell from the rest. This guy was the tiger I had smelled earlier. I really didn't want any of him in a bad mood. "No sir, I do not. Would it be possible to have a meeting with you and Yoshi later?"
Teador looked over at Yoshi and some sort of unspoken communication passed between them. The sorts of communication that the long-married seem to have. Then he looked at me, and said "Sure, later. I will find you or send someone to find you. Why do you not make yourself at h
ome, we have spaces off the main cavern, grab one. It does not look like you have much in the way of gear there, there's a grab bag over by the kitchen, follow your nose, grab what you need. I shall need to talk to you later about what you can do for the group, and work you into the watch bill anyway. Lunch is when you want it, dinner is at seven." At that, he turned and gestured to Yoshi to go with him, then headed off to my left. Yoshi handed me my gear, and he headed that way too. I thought about shifting, then sitting down and getting dressed, but decided that I needed to look at my gear and make sure it didn't say Federal Police on it.
The guy over in the corner had started in on a song I had never heard before.
"Gather round me, children, there's a story I would tell, about a brave young Indian you should remember well; from the land of the Pima Indians, a proud and noble band, who farmed the Phoenix Valley in Arizona land.
Down their ditches for a thousand years the waters grew Ira's people's crops, 'till the white man stole their water rights and their sparklin' water stopped.
Now Ira's folks grew hungry, and their farms grew crops of weeds. When war came, Ira volunteered and forgot the white man's greed."
Aw shit, I thought. Yet another slit your wrist song. I was right...
"Call him drunken Ira Hayes--
He won't answer anymore,
not the whiskey-drinkin' Indian,
Not the Marine who went to war.
Well, they battled up Iwo Jima hill--
two hundred and fifty men
but only twenty-seven lived--
Keeping The Faith (John Fisher Chronicles Book 2) Page 15