Twi

by Romi Hart

  “No, I am not. And you’re not fooling anyone, Zoe.” I had an idea she was the one behind the scent. Maybe she’d put some sort of pheromone liquid in the water they’d both washed up in. And maybe Val had no idea about that.

  Zoe was a hunter and hunters did things like that all the time to attract their prey to them so they could kill them. Zoe might not have known she’d concocted a recipe to attract shifters instead of Wendigos, but she had. And I had fallen for it.

  As I walked away, I felt used. Looking over my shoulder, I found Val looking back at me. Locking eyes, my heart ached to touch her just one more time.

  Stupid pheromones.

  Pulling my eyes away from hers was the hardest thing I’d ever done. But it only proved to me how powerful the thing was that had drawn me to her.

  How corrupt that the smell could even draw my heart into the mix.

  14

  Valentine

  My heart hurt so much that it made tears fall from my eyes. “I hate men. I really do.” Sniffling, I dug through the glove compartment to find something to blow my nose with.

  Zoe eased out of the parking spot at our camp, pulling onto the main road. “I hate them too. You can’t trust them. And what was all that shit Twi spouted about us smelling the same and trying to attract the Wendigo? What a lunatic.” She looked at me out of the corner of her eye. “Please tell me that you’re on birth control and a little human that’s half that crazy man won’t be growing within your belly soon.”

  “I’ve got that covered.” Finding an old takeout napkin, I unfolded it then blew my nose as my tears had dried up. “There won’t be anything like that coming along.” Sighing heavily, I wished the pain would go away. “God, why?”

  “Why what?” Zoe asked as her eyes rolled. “Why are you hurting right now? I’ll tell you why. He used you.”

  “It didn’t feel like that at the time.” Something caught my eye and I looked into the trees as we drove slowly. “Zoe, hang on. Stop. I see something.”

  “If it’s that man, I swear to you that I am not going to let you get out of this vehicle to say even one more word to him.” She stopped the car and looked int eh direction I did. “He is as done with you as you are with him.”

  “Which I find odd.” I pointed out the dim green light that wasn’t more than a speck. But I’d seen it. “What do you think that is?”

  “I think it’s way the fuck in the back of the forest is what I think. It could be anything. Someone’s flashlight is what comes to mind first.” She squinted her eyes, then snapped her fingers. “I’ll get my camera to see if I can zoom in on it.”

  “Better park first, just in case someone comes along.” We hadn’t seen anyone but Twi and Mist since we’d gotten there. The place was as desolate as it could get.

  Parking in the grass on the side of the road, we got out. I went toward the woods as Zoe grabbed her camera then came to join me. “We’re going back there, aren’t we?”

  “I think we should.” Pointing at the now clear sky, I added, “The storm is over. No reason not to go check this out. It’s probably nothing but we can’t not go look.”

  “I agree.” Pulling her camera up, she zoomed in as much as she could as we stopped to let her get a look at it. “Well, it’s bigger than it appears to be. That means it’s pretty far into the woods.”

  “Is there anyone around it?” My main thought is that someone was shining the light.

  “I don’t see anything around it but more trees.” She put the camera down, letting it hang around her neck. “Come on. Let’s get moving.”

  Trying to hurry but not make much noise, we got further and further away from the van and the safety of it when I remembered something important. “We don’t have our weapons.”

  “Fuck,” Zoe hissed. “How could we forget to grab those things?” Looking back, she shook her head. “If we go all the way back then try to come this way again, we might miss out on seeing what this is.”

  “Let’s just keep going. We’re not trying to get into any altercations anyway. We’re just going to take pictures and videos and not engage with anyone or anything.” I thought we’d be fine without the knife and gun. Plus, my curiosity outweighed any fear of not having our weapons.

  The closer we got, the larger the green glow appeared to be. “It’s some sort of a circle,” Zoe commented. “A very big circle. Maybe a foot off the ground and about eight feet high from what I can tell from here.”

  “But what can it be?” Confusing riddled me.

  “An orb maybe,” Zoe guessed.

  “Like a ghostly orb?” I hadn’t ever heard of an orb being big. “I think they’re much, much smaller than that thing is.”

  “Yeah. But it sure looks like one.” She kept her eyes on the thing. “It’s mesmerizing.”

  “I think orbs move and this thing isn’t moving. It’s like it’s locked in place. I don’t know how, but it’s not moving with the breeze that comes through occasionally. I would think something like that would blow in the wind.” I couldn’t stop looking at the thing. “You’re right. It is mesmerizing. Like I can’t take my eyes off of it.”

  “I know.” She threw her hand out, stopping me as it hit me in the stomach. “Wait. Look. Someone is coming.”

  We were far enough away so that we wouldn’t be noticed. But we could see a tall man very clearly. He had on silver clothing that shimmered with his movements. Long black hair flowed down his back as he turned and raised his arm then stepped to the side of the green circle.

  “Oh shit,” I whispered as I saw something coming toward him. A rack of horns eased away from a tree. Then the head of a dear leaned in further. “The Wendigo, Zoe.”

  “I know,” she gasped as she pulled the camera up to take a shot.

  “Careful not to make a sound,” I cautioned her.

  But the man snapped his fingers and we could hear it, the sound was so loud. The Wendigo jumped and moved as fast as lightning, going into the green circle of light.

  “Holly, shit!” Zoe exclaimed.

  The man went in right behind him, also disappearing into the light. I couldn’t believe my eyes. “A portal.”

  “I think you’re right,” Zoe agreed.

  We looked at each other, both nodding. “Let’s hurry before it closes,” I said just before taking off like a shot.

  Running as fast as we could, Zoe’s head and body jerked harshly as the strap of her camera got caught on a tree limb. As she fell on her ass, the camera flew into the air, coming down so hard on the ground that it shattered the lens. “No! My camera!”

  Gesturing for her to get up and come with me, I wasn’t going to waste time crying over the loss. “Come on. We have no idea how long we have to get there.”

  Jumping up, she ran again, “I’ll get it when we’re done. Maybe I’ll just need a new lens. Maybe the whole eight-hundred-dollar camera isn’t broken.”

  “Fingers crossed,” I said as I held up my crossed fingers.

  Sliding to stop as we got to the thing we’d been looking at for what seemed like forever, we took a moment to catch our breaths. Leaning over with our hands on our knees, we gasped for breath then I rose up and reached inside the green glowing circle. My hand disappeared.

  “Is it hot or cold in there?” Zoe asked as she raised her hand to touch it too.

  “It’s no different than the temperature we’re in right now.” I picked up one foot, raising it up a foot to where the circle started from the ground. It disappeared too. “Come on, Zoe. Let’s just jump in the way we’d do a cold lake.”

  Without waiting for her, I went right into the green light and came out on the other side of it. Turning back, I saw the same circle of light and then Zoe came through it. “Wow,” she said breathlessly.

  “I know.” Turning back around, I found everything inside of it a dull grey color. “Nothing is in here at all.”

  Zoe pointed out the other green circle directly across from the one we’d come through. “They must�
�ve gone through that one too.”

  Moving toward it, I knew we had to keep going. “No reason to stop here. Let’s go.”

  She came along with me, musing as she went, “I can’t believe I lost our only way of proving this is real.”

  “I suppose that’s how it’s meant to be, Zoe. There are reasons these kinds of things have many witnesses but no photographic proof.” I wasn’t going to question it. I was going to live it and see what I could see. If all I could do was only tell my tale, then so be it.

  Holding my breath as we stood in front of the other portal, I put my hand through it. “Oh, it’s hot on the other side of this thing.” Pulling my hand back, I pressed it against Zoe’s cheek to let her feel the heat.

  Her eyes grew in size. “Shit.”

  “If we can’t stand the heat once we get through, we’ll just come right back. At least we’ll see a little of what’s through there.” I was going, even if she wasn’t. “You still with me?”

  Nodding, she took a deep breath then we held hands and went through together this time. Stepping into the bright light and onto a hard surface covered in drifting sand that made the air sparkle with the tiny crystals, we blinked our eyes until they adjusted to the brightness.

  “It smells like burning wood or something like that,” Zoe remarked as we both looked at the vast emptiness of the place.

  “This isn’t on Earth,” I said. “I don’t think so anyway.”

  “I agree. It’s got to be another planet.” She pointed off to the right. “Look. Is that a castle?”

  With the sparkling air, it made visibility the same as if we were looking through a heavy mist. An enormous structure rose up out of the otherwise flat terrain. “I think it is a castle.” I knew I was going to check that out but wasn’t sure Zoe would be into getting that far away from our escape back to reality. “You coming with me to see what’s in that castle?”

  “You couldn’t stop me if you wanted to.” The heat was nearly overbearing. “But don’t run, even though I know you want to because I do too. The heat will knock us out if we don’t be careful.”

  “I agree.” Moving at a steady pace, not too slow, not too fast, we walked across the ground that never changed shape or texture. “This is so weird feeling.” I took off the rubber raincoat. “I’ve gotta ditch the boots too. We can pick them up on the way back.”

  Taking off the hot clothing and the boots that covered our sneakers, we left them right there then got back to getting to the castle that just kept looking bigger and bigger as we approached it.

  “It’s a little weird that no one is outside of the castle,” Zoe commented as we got close enough to see no movement outside of the structure.

  “I’m just glad there’s no moat surrounding it.” I pointed an arch that was wide open to one side of the double wooden doors that were big enough for a giant to walk through. The arch was much smaller, more human-sized. “Let’s go in over there. And be very quiet. Let no one know we’re here. I have no idea what they will do with us if we get caught.”

  “Time to turn into church mice,” she said just before we went through the arch.

  The temperature was still hot but not nearly as smoldering as it was outside the thick grey walls of the castle. Growling sounds led us down a stone staircase, into what resembled a dungeon.

  Giant metal cages ran in two rows, one on each side of the dark internal chamber. Although the cages were empty, the sounds we heard came from further back.

  I gulped back fear to move on. As if in a dream, I kept on going, not letting anything hold me back from what was to come next. Step by step, we got closer to the sounds. A familiar growl met my ears, “Arghworloof.”

  Zoe and I exchanged looks as we nodded, knowing that was the Wendigo who had made that sound. My heart lurched as I had no idea what we were about to see next.

  A wall with only one opening was at the end of the empty chamber. A dim light came from the opening. Splitting up, so we could each look inside the opening, we went to the sides of it then peeked in.

  The tall man had one of the cage doors open but the Wendigo stood still, not going inside of it. Other cages housed animals as well. But they were much larger than normal ones. Lions, bears, tigers, a centaur, a hairy beast with huge feet and tall stature, and even a mermaid laying in a small pool of water filled the cages in the cavernous area.

  They all seemed to be watching what the Wendigo would do, almost as if it might be able to fight back somehow and save them all. The thing looked at the tall man who wanted it to go inside the cage. Its deer head shook slowly.

  Suddenly, the sound of thunder was so loud, I had to cover my ears as an enormous, thick, black tail came out of nowhere, shipping the beast into the cage, then the tall man locked it quickly and the tail moved in an odd way, morphing as it moved all the way back until it was nothing more than the man’s backside.

  With a smirk on his face, he walked away from the caged creatures, into the darkness on the other side of the cavern. Something began happening to some of the animals. A polar bear changed into a man with snow-white hair and a very long beard. He had on a tattered blue dress shirt and slacks with shiny black shoes. He looked as if he’d just come from the office – only a long time ago and had gone through a fair amount of shit on his way.

  One of the tigers turned into a woman with auburn hair. She wore a green dress and high heels. A lion became a well-dressed man. A cheetah switched into a woman with long dark braids and dark skin, wearing a loincloth and another piece of soft leathery material that was tied around her breasts.

  “A Wendigo?” the well-dressed man groaned. “What is Codut doing? What does he think he can do with something like that?”

  The female mermaid spoke in a shrill voice, “Codut wants all of us. I think we’re part of a menagerie. I think he’s going to use you shifters to get more things like me and the Wendigo and Sasquatch.”

  The woman in the leather garb chimed in, “He’s going to use as to make an army. I overheard him in his sleep when he took me into his chamber last night. I think he plans to use our kind for much more than just capturing creatures for his little zoo here. Universal domination comes to mind.”

  Zoe and I looked at each other, then backed away slowly. Not that I wanted to leave, but we had to get the hell out of there and find help.

  Who would believe us? I had no idea. But we had to try. This was far bigger than I had ever thought it could be.

  Trying not to make a sound, we made it back out of the castle. Neither of us said a word as we hurried back to the place we’d come out of. Even with the heavy particles in the air, we saw the green circle still glowed.

  Once we had to stop to pick up the rubber boots and raincoats, I said, “Shifters are real. I cannot believe that they’re real. And they are regular people too. People with jobs, apparently. People from all over the world.”

  “There are mermaids,” Zoe mumbled. “Mermaids, Val. I’ve always wanted to be a mermaid. And they’re real.”

  “A shifter you might be able to become. A mermaid, I don’t know.” Carrying my things with me, I began walking again as my mind buzzed with ideas. “Okay, who do we go to for help? The military?”

  “No one is going to believe us, Val.” Her head shook as she looked sad. “All of the creatures will die in there.”

  “I think shifters are immortal.” I laughed. “Well, from the stories I’ve read, they are. But some say they aren’t immortal. I don’t know. Hell, I don’t know a damn thing. This whole thing has opened my eyes to the fact that I know nothing.”

  “Don’t sell yourself short, Val. You did have enough of an open mind to search for mythical beasts.” Her chest heaved as she smiled. “They’re all real! If I only hadn’t lost my damn camera.”

  “I don’t know what we’re going to be able to do, Zoe. We’ve got to think of something. We can’t let them be stuck like that.”

  “This isn’t really in our hands,” she said with a certain amount
of conviction. “I don’t even think this is our planet. Who are we supposed to go to for help?”

  I had no idea. None at all. But I knew I had to try to do something. “If we can get them out of the cages, I think that could take that tall man down.”

  Cocking her head, she grinned at me. “You do know what that tall man is right?”

  I shrugged. “Not a clue.”

  “That tail was a dragon’s tail. That tall guy they called Codut is a dragon-shifter. A dragon, Val. Capable of raining down fire on us all. We don’t have anything in our arsenal that can take down a dragon and I doubt that those things in there do either. If they did, then they wouldn’t have gotten caught in the first place.”

  My mind sparked with an idea. “What we saw today, and thought was a weird storm was that dragon using its fire to herd the Wendigo to the portal. That Codut man-dragon thingy must’ve opened the portal.” Just as we got to the green circle, it hit me that Twilight and Mist had been talking to the man. “Zoe, the guys knew that Codut guy.”

  Her jaw dropped. “They do. And didn’t he ask Mist to go with him? Did he mean to capture him once he got him here?”

  “I think so. But why would he want some plain man?” I had so many questions that it boggled my mind. I’d never actually had my mind boggled, but this was it – mind-boggling.

  Zoe said what I thought, “Mist and Twilight aren’t plain men, Val. They’re something else entirely. But what are they?”

  I thought about the above-average sized foxes that had gotten between us and the Wendigo the night before. “Maybe they’re foxes.”

  She nodded. “They knew about the Wendigo too. I knew something wasn’t right with them.”

  “Well, we’re not sure of that. But it could be.” I thought about their names. “They do have foxy names. And when I asked Twi about where he came from, he spoke about clans and Ireland, confusing me a bit. I think we’re right. I think those two are fox-shifters.”

  I had sex with a fox-shifter!