A Time To Survive (Verge of Extinction): A Magical & Monstrous / Supernatural Urban Fantasy.

by J. Axbridge

  “Arthur, at least we are not going back across that bridge. Think only positives,” Mayumi smiled wide while bending over touching her toes.

  “Easy for you to say, Ninja girl.”

  “Not a Ninja Arthur, a Huntra. We are much more skilled.”

  “Huntra you are correct, it would take too long to get you seven back across. No . . . , we’re going to use that bridge to retire some of those vampires as they try to cross it.”

  The whole cabin sat in restless silence focused on the Elder Wolf waiting for his plan three to be revealed.

  “Let’s get the show on the road,” the Elder Wolf began limping across the room and opened the back door to his cabin. “This my young friends, is plan three.”

  To Arthur’s relief there was no insane bridge leading up to an even higher mountain peak, actually there was no bridge at all, just dense forest was found outside the back door. The Elder Wolf then limped quickly over to an old wooden chest against the wall and lifted the cover to creeks until the cover rested gently against the log cabin. Slowly reaching in, he pulled out what appeared to be folded dark green towels. On closer inspection I noticed they looked like mini parachutes with handles attached to the chute itself, no ropes, strings or harnesses, just a small dark green chute with handles sewn into the fabric on either side.

  “Wow, now this looks interesting,” I said, handing one of the contraptions to Jax.

  “Do I even want to ask?” Arthur moaned, as he grabbed a chute and looked it over, opening it up and pulling at the seams testing its strength.

  Everyone now had a chute in their hands inspecting them as the Elder Wolf shut the chest lid slowly and turned back to face us. He too held one for an instant before setting it down on the chest top.

  “These are what we call ‘Chuters’. They’re used as a last resort to get off this mountain top and this my new friends, is one of those moments. We must keep you five alive at all costs, I hope you understand. You are our best hope in defeating the evil that is taking over what’s left of our once beautiful country.

  “Never forget, you’re special, you’re half breeds and that alone is a gift. But the Fairy Prophecy is real and important to know, it tells of the five siblings that would bring back order to the world should it go astray. Also that prophecy mentions the symbols that would appear on the siblings. Now I’m not sure on the exact percentage of accuracy of the prophecy but if I recall correctly, this one says the symbols would be on the fingers. It’s either fairy folklore and that would be unfortunate . . . or it’s the real deal and we’re in business, so let’s have a look kids before you go, I want to see this with my own eyes if it’s true.”

  Looking over our fingers carefully, turning them around and holding them close to our faces none of us saw anything special, not a symbol or marking whatsoever. The twins compared their hands which were identical in size and shape but also did not notice anything strange or different about them. Ethan peered at each finger individually. Arthur stood in silence and shook his head in disbelief of the whole prophecy idea and leaned against the wall while I showed my hands to Jax who held them tenderly, inspecting each finger one by one for any sign of a mark. I couldn’t help but blush as I felt my body heat up with his gentle yet strong touch.

  “Elder, not to say the fairies were wrong but none of us have markings on our hands except for the scrapes, cuts and bruises we sustained getting up to your cabin, mostly from your damned bridge,” Arthur leaned back against the wall again while continuing to pull his chuter taunt making sure it wouldn’t rip.

  “Grandson, please hand me that bottle of alcohol,” the Elder pointed at a decaying wooden shelf. His grandson reached up, stretching for the clear bottle of alcohol, took it down dusting it off and handed it to the Elder Wolf.

  “Yes . . . , this should work,” The Elder took a swig of the clear liquid before turning to me, “Give me your hand please.”

  I looked to Jax for encouragement but all he did was shrug his shoulders and motion for me to go ahead. “Not much help, are you?” I mumbled.

  “It is worth a shot Addie, give him your hand,” Mayumi pushed herself up off the dusty floor, “Either he is full-on nutty or you are about to learn a whole lot more about yourself, and your family.”

  “Fine,” I relented and stuck out my hand for the Elder to inspect.

  Chapter 41 – Symbols

  Adelaide

  “This won’t hurt at all, nails up please,” the Elder said as he held my fingers firmly with his scratchy, age hardened hands.

  Pouring a little too much alcohol over my thumb nail, the alcohol slid down my forearm to my elbow then pooled before dripping onto the floor. Ignoring the mess the Elder Werewolf took out a half torn blue flannel rag from his back pocket and began rubbing off my nail polish in a quick circular motion. As the nail polish vanished, a mark under my nail began revealing itself, slowly at first. Initially I thought it was just a blood blister under my nail but as the image became clearer, I couldn’t deny that it was in the shape of a werewolf. More precisely the shape was an intricate werewolf’s head, its mane flowing with large snarling teeth.

  “That’s impossible - you put this on me; I’ve never seen a mark like that before,” I paused, staring at my thumbnail. “Was that some sort of trick . . . are you some sort of magician?” I said in disbelief.

  “This is no trick; it appears your marking may not have been so prominent until you learned of your lineage. Once you discovered who you truly were the symbol would have started to darken and fill in. Now it’s a permanent symbol and it’ll stay with you forever.”

  “Addie, it looks like someone hand painted that design on your nail. It’s actually kind of cool,” Arthur said while holding his thumb only inches from his face, still not seeing a thing. “Elder, how come I don’t have one on my thumb, I just found out my lin . . . , OUUUUCH!” Arthur grabbed his thumb and squeezed hard, “WHAT THE . . . !” He couldn’t even finish his sentence. “What the hell, my thumb . . . it . . . it feels like I just slammed it in a car door, it f-ing hurts,” he squeezed his thumb tighter all the while watching an image of a lean and muscular werewolf’s body appear and slowly grow darker under his nail. “Damn that hurts,” he said holding onto his thumb tightly with his left hand walking over to Mayumi and showing her the design. “Have you ever seen anything like this Yu?” he asked as she inspected the intricate design that now adorned his right thumbnail.

  “No, never seen anything like this before, but the detail is amazing. I am jealous!” Mayumi said raising her voice.

  “Jealous? Why the hell would you be jealous…? It hurts like a bitch!” Arthur scowled.

  “Calm down big boy,” Mayumi patted Arthur’s shoulder. “I am just jealous of how good your nails look . . . Who does them?” Mayumi laughed, and then slapped me and the twins high fives as Ethan smirked from ear to ear.

  “Ha, ha, very funny girls, I guess I’m just a freak of nature?” Arthur replied, shaking off the pain in his hand and walking over to Ethan.

  Ethan on the other hand didn’t complain a bit. “WOW,” he gasped, grimacing only a moment while staring at his thumb nail as an image of a wolf’s tale swirled around and formed.

  Having read a variety of fairy tales and fantasy novels by the age of eleven he seemed more fascinated by his tail than scared. “We need to be prepared.” He muttered proudly, looking around the room at the rest of us.

  Next Victoria and Caelyn carefully poured the alcohol over their right thumbs and started rubbing away their nail polish excitedly in the same circular motion the Elder had done, using their shirts. Within seconds they also saw images appear.

  “THEY’RE WINGS!” The twins yelled. Underneath each of their right thumb nails appeared one wing similar to that of a butterfly’s.

  The Elder Wolf asked them to try their left thumbs also. Quickly they took the rag with alcohol and rubbed off their polish on their left thumb nails revealing a matching wing. Putting their left and right thum
bs together they formed a beautiful pair of fairy wings.

  “Too cool . . . JINX,” the twins hollered giddily, then laughed showing off their new intricate tattoo like wings under their nails.

  “WAIT!” Ethan jumped up so fast that he cracked his knees on the heavy oak table. Bending over rubbing the pain away he looked at the twins, “Vic, Cae. Remember . . . ,” He said excitedly but the twins just looked at our little brother confused; not sure what he was talking about. “. . . Remember, on the boat, your fingers were hurting. You weren’t bit; I bet that pain was the same pain Arthur just had when his mark formed.”

  Realizing Ethan may be right we anxiously watched the twins as they began working on their index fingers on their right hands rubbing off their nail polish breathlessly. It only took a moment to reveal yet another symbol and then even more surprisingly a third symbol revealed itself under their middle fingers on their right hands.

  “What do all these symbols mean?” Victoria smiled at the Elder Wolf, as he too curiously inspected the twins’ nails closely.

  “What was it that happened the moment you felt the pains in your fingers? What exactly were you thinking or doing?” He asked my sisters.

  “Um . . . I guess the first time my finger hurt was in our home, during the meteor showers, I was praying we wouldn’t get hit and that we’d make it through the storm alive,” Victoria answered calmly, staring at her symbols in awe.

  “That’s right Vic, we chanted together in the basement,” Caelyn added. “And the second time it happened we were in the boat begging for the wind to change directions and by miracle the wind did change. Then, just after the wind change, our middle fingers began to hurt. We thought we’d been bitten?” Caelyn said a little unsure.

  “You definitely were not bitten; you grew more powers in those times of uncertainty. One of them being the power of the wind, a very strong power that is, and you gained that power while on the boat. See here,” the Elder pointed at Caelyn’s finger, “This we can only assume to be the symbol for wind.” The twins gazed at their middle fingers and realized the image was of a mouth puffing out a gust of wind.

  “Now I see it,” said Caelyn, her eyes widening as she peered at her finger.

  “Me too,” Victoria agreed. “This is weird, but who cares, I really like my new nails, pretty cool, right,” Victoria flashed her nails for all of us to see.

  “Elder, what’s the meaning of the symbol on our index fingers?” Caelyn quizzically asked flipping her hand over for the Elder to inspect it more closely once again.

  “Hmm . . . , a circle . . . but not a mere circle, there’s something more. . .” The Elder pondered.” Yes, it’s a bubble. See here, the small semi-circle here.” The Elder pointed excitedly, “That’s definitely a bubble. You must have created a bubble of protection, not just for your family but for your entire home,” the Elder’s smile was wider than when we all first arrived. “You two are much stronger than you realize.” The twins looked down at their fingers in amazement.

  “Does anyone else have other symbols on their nails?” The Elder Wolf indicated for us to check all our nails. Quickly each of us took turns using the alcohol to wipe our nails clean, but none of us had more than one symbol except for the twins.

  “This is super, and surely very important, but what does all this really mean for them, and us?” Mayumi asked while inspecting Arthur’s and then my hands closer as if trying to decipher their secret meanings.

  “Miss Gushiken, it’s a sign that the five Allisters have completed the first part of their journey, which was to recognize and accept their true selves. You three,” the Elder looked at Ethan, Arthur and me with grandfatherly admiration. “Have the werewolf’s, head, body and tail on your nails. The twins there have fairy wings, plus a few important additional symbols,” he grinned big, his aged face taking on a youthful look of wonder. “If the prophecy stays true to what was written you’ll each have different symbols appear under your nails revealing various powers as you grow and learn more about yourselves. The final symbol to appear under each of your pinky fingernails is said to be an eye, I believe? Meaning you would have seen the past for what it was and you should be able to see the future for what it will be. And once each of you has ten symbols, one appearing under each nail, you’ll be at your strongest.”

  After saying this, the Elder Werewolf rubbed his chin. “Something like that anyway, it’s not a direct translation,” he said, “the prophecy was written by fairies after all . . . The important thing is that your journey has begun and we must keep all of you safe, the more symbols you acquire, the stronger you’ll become and the better off we’ll all be. Of course Lawrence Karayan will want to stop you from becoming too strong, he seems to know the prophecy as well, and with this information he will stop at nothing to get to you five. He may even try to turn you to his side, if that is possible.”

  “You mean . . . turn us into vampires?” Ethan grimaced.

  “Yes vampires, so you must go into hiding and go at once. We MUST protect you five at all cost until you are strong enough to not just confront him, but defeat him.”

  “Hiding, I’m not hiding. We need to fight; we need to destroy these vampire bastards. They’ve almost killed off what’s left of the human race and they have Jax’s parents captive. Who by the way, someone needs to save in case you’ve forgotten, and as you’ve pointed out, we’re special, and we have strength and growing powers. This isn’t a time to hide, I say we fight!” Arthur stood proudly.

  “Slow down Teen Wolf!” the Elder Werewolf rested his strong hand on Arthur’s shoulder. “Arthur, you are the warrior and the strongest of your siblings, that’s why you have the lean, muscular body of the wolf under your nail. It’s in your blood to want to stay and fight and save those you care about, including Jax’s parents. You have a strong thirst to be the hero, but you must think things through thoroughly. Your desire for fighting and protecting will only grow stronger as you age so you’ll need to learn how to control those emotions or it could bring you to your untimely death . . .

  “Your sister Adelaide on the other hand has the head of a werewolf for a reason, she is the leader, always listen to what she has to say before being rash even though it will be tough at times. You two must learn to balance each other out!

  “And Ethan here,” The Elder smiled at him before continuing, “has the tail, he completes the three of you, he helps keep the balance and you need the whole body in balance to survive. My point young man is that there is a time for fighting and a time for surviving. Right now it’s a time for surviving. We don’t have the numbers to fight now or the necessary skills no matter how strong you believe you are. You all have grown greatly but you have so much more to learn before taking on someone like Lawrence Karayan and his large army of demons.”

  Just then a warning signal from the Elder’s grandsons rang out in the distance. Peter and Thomas had whistled loudly as ordered to warn us of the vampires’ impending arrival near the bridge, which was apparently a lot sooner than the Elder Wolf had assumed.

  Chapter 42 - The Bridge

  Peter

  After whistling to warn the others of the advancing vampires, Thomas and I made sure they spotted the two of us and took chase. When we had those devils full attention we took off sprinting towards the bridge, planning on luring a large group of them into a fatal trap and cutting off their path to our great grandfather and the Allisters’.

  Although turning into werewolves would have given us greater speed and agility we needed to stay in human form to make the crossing. So instead we zigzagged through the forest, kicking up dirt, pine cones and large dry pine needles as the vampires were in close chase through the thick forest. At times we came so close to the branches that they bounced off us, some gashing our bodies causing us to leave a trail of blood that only fueled the vampires’ pursuit. A few branches even broke off from our impact but there was no time for pain, the vampires were gaining ground. Thomas and I were at our limit and couldn’t
move any faster or our human lungs would have burst. That’s the thing with werewolves; we can push ourselves over the limit in that form but in human form our bodies can’t take the stress so we had to be careful but couldn’t slow down. As the vampires chasing us advanced yet further, we knew something drastic had to be done immediately in order to get to the bridge before them or our plan would fail.

  “PETER, GO . . . GO NOW! GET TO THE BRIDGE, I’LL SLOW THEM DOWN!” Thomas yelled to me from behind as I was only a step in front of him.

  Without missing a beat I swerved around the next large oak tree ripping off a layer of skin on my thigh then veered left heading directly to the cabin that lead to the bridge. I chanced a glance and looked back only to see Thomas in a blur, jump, spin in mid air and change into a werewolf before landing on all fours facing the vampires, snarling. The plan worked; the move surprised the vampires and gave me the needed time to arrive at the bridge first. The two lead and clearly newly changed vampires hesitated a moment before jumping on Thomas going for his neck while Thomas snapped, tearing at their inhuman flesh, ripping off parts of their bodies, fighting them hard to the death. A pain welled inside that I’d never experienced before and my eyes glazed over for my brother, I wanted to turn back and help Thomas but I knew I had no choice but to continue, this is what we’ve prepared for our whole lives. I couldn’t and would not fail our great grandfather and Thomas wouldn’t have wanted me to turn back, I knew that.

  While the two young vampires were busy fighting with Thomas, a large group continued their chase. Sidestepping Thomas, a second group of vampires were once again gaining on me as I flew through the cabin and began crossing the rope bridge. Unfortunately they were not afraid of heights, “bats I guess”, and were seemingly flying across the thin boards after me. I looked back in disbelief on how close they’d actually come in such a short time span. Being hyper alert, I suddenly became aware of my sweat dripping down my body and I began panting hard as I looked up the bridge spying Shawn waving for me to run faster.