by Lori Aisling
“No,” Ristan grumbled. “The only thing they kill intentionally is humans. They will kill a horse to get the human off the animal, but it’s simply collateral damage to them. They don’t hunt them to kill. Chaos cannot feed off of organic fear from animals, only human emotions, so there is really no benefit.”
“I hate that I am going to say this. I don’t want anything to happen to either of you, but I think it’s a good plan. It’s the best one I can think of,” Jayson said. “If we play our cards right and situate ourselves properly, using the form of telepathy that you three have, we will still be able to communicate.”
“If we can get close enough to figure out the conductor, one well-placed arrow will keep us from even having to engage the entire horde. Bristol can let us know which one she thinks it is, then we can sneak closer. Jessie can cause a distraction by rushing the horses. They will bolt and while the chayn is distracted, the closest one to the communicator can take the shot,” Boz finished, sounding rather satisfied. “I would love to figure out a way to remove some of the effectiveness of the horde. It’ll take some time for Chaos to figure out what is going on since the only one that can communicate will be dead.”
“Am I the only one that is still thinking about the fact that this is all speculation? We don’t know for sure that this is how the horde works. What if we’re wrong and we are walking into a damn horde using Bristol and Jessie for bait?” Ristan barked at them, obviously frustrated.
“No, you aren’t the only one. I too am concerned.” Bror took the opportunity to side with Ristan.
“Can we just consider it? Can we figure out how to track the horde, unaware, and once we have the opportunity, at least try and get a closer look at their dynamics? You haven’t shared with the group what you learned from Fear tonight, Ri. I think perhaps Bror’s mind will be changed when he hears about your conversation with Fear. After all, it was him that said we needed to start being proactive, not reactive, didn’t you, Bror?”
“That I did,” he admitted. “What did ya learn?”
“Chaos has not only awoken, but she has been for some time. She has all her Others and is conspiring something big. Fear was confident that not only would they prevail in this realm, but that they are going to be able to kill all of us. For good. This must be a power or god that we have not dealt with before if he is bragging about a sure death for us all. With Chaos gathering strength and numbers, it is paramount we figure out any chinks in her armor and exploit them,” Ristan stated. “We had assumed that the horde of chayn knew that Bristol had awoken, but I don’t think that was the case. I think they were just harvesting fear for Chaos and when they saw us protecting her, they made an assumption. From the conversation I had with Fear, this new intel has not yet been communicated to Chaos or he would have known. Plus, there would be a horde over every knoll.”
Bror nodded. “If our assumptions are correct, then we have no choice but ta circle back to the original horde. We need ta stop the intel that The Balance has awoken and has two of her Others. Our element of surprise will be ruined if Chaos finds out that Bristol is within her grasp and not at her full strength. The original horde also knows that Bristol can shift, as she surprised us all with that when we fled the town that day.”
“This settles it, then,” Bristol said. “We have to at least try. We’ll circle back around the way we came and see if we can find a way to get behind the original horde. With no tack and making us look dirty, I can’t see why the chayn would pay any attention at all to a couple of stray horses. Jessie may not be able to be visible since she fought as the tigress that day, but she can still use her stealth to get close and report back what she sees.”
“Let’s ride, then. No reason to waste the cover of night. Fear will be amassing a posse to follow Ristan and he will not think that he would circle back around,” Bror stated as he plucked a couple of yellowing leaves off an amber plant and pulled a dried seed head from a branch. Rolling the seeds in his palm, they crumbled to coarse dust. Rolling them in the leaves, he grabbed a smoldering stick from the small fire and placing one end in his mouth, he lit the other.
“You can smoke amber?” Jayson asked. “Is that like pot? Will it get you high?”
“I don’t know what you mean by pot. But if it is like tobacco, then yes. High? If you mean by intoxicated in some way, then no,” Bror answered. “There are a few consistencies with every Change. There will always be Chaos, her Others, and her beasts. Four Others for The Balance, and amber. We believe that amber was a gift from the gods that created The Balance ta help the realm survive while the war is waged. Since the majority of the crops die due to lack of tendin’, food shortages were a huge issue centuries ago. Humans and animals alike went without. Suddenly, there was amber. It is called somethin’ different in every realm, but it is the same.
Regardless of the Re-Order, this plant will grow. It can be used in the same way grain crops can be used by harvesting the seed for flour. The leaves can be used for silage for livestock. It can be distilled for liquor, smoked like tobacco and the stalk fiber can be used to make rope. It is truly a wonderful crop. However, once the balance is restored in a realm, the amber will disappear as quickly as it grew.”
“I always wondered where it came from. For a long time, I thought The Change was alien in nature. Like from space. Because that plant had to come from somewhere. Never in a million years would I have thought it was a gift from the gods to help us survive,” Bristol said, somber. “I really do think they have planted clues for us. We just have to figure out what they are.”
Ristan and Boz walked into the light of the small fire leading Max and Sly. Sleip and Phase followed behind. “Let’s get on with it, then,” Ristan stated.
“Can I ride with you?” Bristol asked. She saw his lips tug up in a small smile and he nodded.
“Of course you can. Try to keep your hands to yourself, though,” he teased.
Bristol blushed a bright red as her friends laughed at her expense. In the midst of all the chaos surrounding them, Bristol felt the sense of balance in her crazy crew of friends and lovers and it fed her. She knew right then that it was as it should be. She was on the right path. She would be reunited with Caspian and Bane. She would come into her full powers and face Chaos. And she knew she would prevail. She would not accept any other option. Chaos thought she had the upper hand this time, and the gods were surely enjoying their game. But Bristol had other plans; she was going to rock this realm. The gods were never going to see her coming.
Bristol
They rode through the night keeping a brisk, steady pace. When dawn broke, they stopped long enough to let the horses rest a bit and cooked up a few rabbits Jessie had managed to flush for them. They set out again immediately, time being of the essence to find the horde before they had a chance to report back to Chaos. Bristol had shifted and she kept her internal monologue going with Ristan and Bror, learning everything she could about her successes and failures in past realms. Jessie had roamed on ahead, it was much easier for her to blend into the trees and undergrowth to scout for them. She burst out of the undergrowth and shifted before coming to a stop, sliding to a stop on her butt in front of the horses.
“Horde,” she whispered, breathing hard. “Just through those trees, less than a quarter of a mile. They’re stopped at an old farmstead and it doesn’t look good for the people that were living there.”
“Have they killed the residents?” Bror asked.
“Looks like it. If they aren’t dead, they are close to it. There is nothing we can do to save them, but it’s a perfect time for us to get close because the horde is not moving.”
“We don’t have time to get Sly and Max untacked. Jessie and I will go. I will try to keep the horde from seeing me, but we have to see if I’m right and if this will work,” she communicated to Bror and Ristan. “I’m going. Tell Jessie to shift and follow me, you guys keep close.”
“Bristol, wait,” Bror pleaded.
“No. The
re is no time,” she answered adamantly, as she galloped away from the group, Jessie hot on her tail.
Bristol could hear the shrieks of the chayn way before she could see them. She slowed to a walk and Jessie crept in front of her, using the tall amber ferns for cover. Coming to a pile of rocks, she turned around, looking at Bristol, and flicked her tail. Unable to keep herself disguised as a large horse, Bristol shifted and crawled up next to the big cat. Peeking over the rocks, she saw a great horde of chayn and realized Jessie had been right- there was nothing they could do for the family that had lived there; they had been torn apart by the horde. One of the men was held up off the ground by a couple of chayn, their shrill cackling grating her nerves. His body was limp, she could tell he was dead. Looking at the horde, she tried to see any differences in them, anything that would tell her which one was the leader. Try as she may, she couldn't tell any of them apart.
“Can you see any differences in them? Because I sure can’t,” Ristan said. “Jayson is at your 9:00. Bror and Boz should be right about 2:00 in any minute and I am at your 5:00. Tell Jessie to head to Jayson and back him up in case any members of the horde head his way.”
Bristol told the cat where to find Jayson and she disappeared, silently, into the thick growth. “Dang it, guys. I seriously can’t tell them apart. Bror? You see any differences?”
“We have a pretty close viewpoint on a large number of them, but I am sorry, love. I can’t tell who could be leadin’ or communicating. I can tell ya that this is a large horde. We have no chance of cleaning them out on our own. There is just too many of them.”
“We need to back off, Bristol,” Ristan said.
“No. I’m not ready yet, just give me another moment. They don’t know we are here and the bloodshed by that family is a sacrifice. The horde can’t smell us right now. I don’t want those people to have died in vain without me at least trying! Just be quiet a second. Let me concentrate.” Bristol closed her eyes for a moment, trying her best to activate her powers. Gritting her teeth, she focused on the tingling in her stomach, the feeling of licks of fire running down her arms, warming her. Opening her eyes, she stared hard at the horde. Come on you bloody bastards. Which one are you? She thought to herself. The yellow highlights danced around her, illuminating usable objects for weapons, and a way to escape. She honed in on individual chayn, trying to see something different about each one. Feeling frustrated, she pushed her power harder. I can do this. I know I’m right! She thought. The tingling in her stomach increased and she heard a voice. That same female voice she had heard a decade ago when her powers had first awoken and saved her life. It had pointed out the way for her to save herself from Dave. The words were almost the same as they had been all those years ago. “Do you see it? Do you see the answer?” Looking around her, trying to see what the voice was telling her, she could not see a single chayn illuminated; there was nothing to tell her which one it was. “Do you see it?” The tone was louder and more insistent. Looking around her, Bristol saw the yellow highlights dancing in and around the foliage, pointing her to the answer. Bror, Ristan, and Boz all danced in the highlights of her power. Suddenly, Bristol knew what she needed. She didn’t know how she knew, she just did.
“Ristan. Bror. Come to me, now. Bring Boz with you.”
“Are you ok? Have they seen you?” Ristan responded, his tone worried.
“No. But I have the answers and I need the three of you to come to me. Now!”
Holding her breath, staring at the horde of chayn, Bristol waited for the three men to make their way silently to her. Bror and Ristan squatted down, each flanking her naked body, close enough for her to feel the heat radiating off their skin.
“Give Boz a bow,” she demanded, and Ristan quickly complied. Reaching out to each of her Other, Bristol grasped their forearms tightly.
“I need your magic. We need to combine them.” Instantly Bristol could feel the power from each of her Others flooding the air around her. Bror’s icy blue force and Ristan’s heated amber danced with hers, encasing them. Reaching for the power with her mind, she grasped at it, absorbing it into her. She heard both of them gasp and the pull from her dropped them from a squat onto their knees. Glancing at each of her mates, she saw their runes pulsing, glowing with the color of their magic as each man strained, staring at the ground, their bodies breaking into a sweat. Looking back at the horde, she immediately saw the chayn they had been searching for. Her yellow glow surrounded it, marking it from the others. A sickly looking stream of vapor floated around the creature and she knew this was the way the chayn communicated. As she looked around the horde, she saw another one! There were two! Knowing their time was limited, she moved her focus from one chayn to the other and she spoke to Ristan. “Touch Boz. His skin.” He reached his hand out and put his hand on Boz’s lower back, under his shirt. His hand was shaking from the draw Bristol was putting on his body. Bristol saw Boz stiffen and his body jerked from the force of the power flooding into his body.
“Shoot them, Boz. Shoot what I see,” she whispered.
Boz looked at her and she saw her yellow power had completed consumed his eyes; he then turned his gaze back to the horde of chayn. Pulling two arrows out of the quiver, he notched one and took careful aim using the corner of his eye as his anchor point. The moment the arrow loosed he quickly notched the second, swinging to his left to take aim at the second communicator. Bristol heard the ‘thunk’ of the first arrow finding its target the moment Boz let loose the second arrow. She never heard the sound of it finding its target but she knew it did as ear-piercing screams filled the air. The chayn, caught unaware and now without the means to communicate, tumbled into chaos. She could hear them circling, moving around the clearing, wailing at the hidden assassins. Bror belly-crawled up the edge of the rock they were hiding behind and peeked over the top.
“Dammit, they are headed right towards Jayson and Jessie,” he swore, throwing a look over his shoulder at Bristol.
Before any of them could stop her, Bristol shifted and ran off into the brush heading in the direction that two of her best friends were last seen hiding.
Bristol
As she raced through the thick underbrush, Bristol could hear Bror and Ristan yelling at her in her mind. She knew she had left them weak and vulnerable when she had drawn so much power from them, but the chayn were not headed towards them. They were headed towards Jayson and Jessie and she had to help them. Destroying the communicators was key in this battle, but she would not lose her friends to it. Bursting through a section of overgrown amber and sapling trees into a clearing, she saw her two friends surrounded by chayn. Jessie was still shifted, the huge tigress snarling and swiping at chayn as they tried to sneak in for an attack. She also noticed that each demon was acting individually. Before, they had acted as a team, working together to inflict the most damage and create the most fear. This was an unorganized mob, about fifty of them; they flitted about, running into each other, even attacking each other. Bristol never paused, she ran headlong into the mess of attacking chayn, a pissed off vampire and an out of control tiger. Charging through the perimeter, she reared up, slashing at the chayn with her hooves and stomping on the ones she brought to the ground. She grabbed one in her mouth and flung it across the field of trampled amber and wildflowers. Kicking and bucking, she spun, trying to keep them off her and her friends while inflicting as much damage as she could. Chayn started to rush her when she got between them and their prey. She continued to strike and rear, but there were too many. Right as one made a leap for her, an arrow whizzed by her head and struck the chayn between his eyes, and it disintegrated into black ooze. Boz joined the fight and as she circled and kicked, she saw Phase and Sleip approaching, carrying Ristan and Bror. They leaped off the horses mid-stride, blades drawn and swinging. The group of six fought for all they were worth as the horde made strike after strike. Even without a leader, they were out for blood. Coming at her from all sides, Bristol felt the sharp claws as a chayn dug int
o her shoulder. Instantly, its shrieks filled the air as its arm clear up to the shoulder sizzled and popped, flailing to the ground. Three more leaped at her from behind, barbed talons digging in her back legs and rump. Bristol could hear the burning of their flesh as her acid-producing skin finally showed its purpose. Another beast jumped across her back, its claws raking down her ribcage. His body turned to mush and slid to the ground at her feet where she continued to stomp it back to the hell from hence it came. Realizing that she would only take superficial damage from the demons, Bristol barrelled further into the fight, seeing four chayn getting the better of Jessie.
Rearing and stomping on the beasts once more, she felt them as they reached and pawed at her, only to end up as stinking sludge permeating the ground around them. Looking around, she realized that their little group of six was going to successfully clean out the entire horde. Of the few chayn remaining, a couple of them attempted to flee, only to be taken out of the air with some well-placed arrows loosed by Boz and Bror. As the fight finished up and the rest of the horde were killed, Bristol did a headcount of her friends and mates to make sure they were all ok. Other then some slices and gashes, most of the injuries she could observe were superficial and would heal fine. When the final shriek faded and the only sound that could be heard was heavy breathing, Bristol shifted back to her human form. Her body was covered with blood, punctures, and flays from the claws of the chayn and she knew she was going to be sore for a few days. But she was alive. They all were. They did it! Running towards Ristan, she threw herself into his arms.
“We did it! We actually did it!”
“No, love. You did it. You accomplished feats with your powers today that have never been done before with only two of your Others. The power you called, controlled and held should not have been possible. And even though I want to spank this bare ass red for your risks, the weapon your shifted form posed was incredible.” He held her close, running his hands up under her hair. “We all need to tend to our wounds. Especially you. You have quite a lot of damage and we don’t want it getting infected.”