Aegis Rising (21 page)

Mariah was exploring the opposite end from where the group entered and shouted out so the others could hear. “There’s another entrance from this side!”

“How wide is it?” Jag yelled back from where he was up in the tree.

“A touch wider than the one we walked through!”

Tegan paid no heed to their conversation and sauntered off to join Kody up on the boulders. Aari was looking around, gazing at the almost circular rock wall, noting how it varied in height. He guessed the lowest point to be ten feet and the highest point to be perhaps forty feet. As he observed the enclosure, he heard both Tegan and Kody announce that they were hungry as they jumped down from the boulders. The group started heading back to where they’d left their packs.

“We have two cans of tuna, three cans of chicken soup, one can of clam chowder . . . and one can of Malaysian satay sauce?” Mariah looked at Kody who’d helped pack the food for the trip to Dawson City. He shrugged sheepishly. Mariah rolled her eyes and said, “We’re going to have to ration the food in case we don’t find a town soon.”

Kody was aghast. He looked over his shoulder at the pond. “Maybe there’s fish in there,” he suggested hopefully. He, Tegan, and Aari peered in, but even with the sun hitting the water they realized the pond was too dark a blue to see anything under the surface.

“Let’s get a fire started first, then we’ll come back to the food,” Aari said. The five spread out to look for firewood and met back a few minutes later. Tegan had already cleared a spot near their packs for the fire and had collected some kindling. Aari and Mariah hauled some rocks over, and Jag heaved several large logs. As he dumped the last log, he looked around. “Where’s Kody?”

His answer came trotting toward them, carrying a few broken branches that were long and sharp. The four stared at him. Jag scratched the back of his neck. “Um, Kody? You know those things burn up pretty quick, right?”

Kody looked at him as if he were crazy. “Who said anything about these going into the fire? They’re my insurance, the same way they were last night. Remember when we tried to sleep out in the open and heard the roaring and all that?”

The friends exchanged a look and decided to let it go. “I think we should make a bonfire,” Aari said, tapping one of the rocks with his shoe. “We’ve already made a pretty big pit for it, and the stones will make a good barricade. What do you guys think?”

Kody raised his hands. “You know what, man, I don’t care. I just want the dang food.”

As they placed the stones in a wide circle, Mariah looked up and stared at something with wide eyes. The others saw her and turned to look. At the opening in the rock wall where they’d entered stood a honey-colored lynx, its white-silver stripes appearing to glow in the light of the setting sun. Its familiar golden-green eyes bore into the five’s and it turned around in frantic circles, hissing urgently.

“What’s the matter with it?” Mariah murmured warily.

Tegan shook her head in wonderment. “No clue. It’s not attacking us.”

“Well, something’s bothering it. You think we’re settling down in its territory?”

“I’m pretty sure we’ve trekked into different territories over the past hours, and we haven’t had an incident. The lynx would either attack us or leave us alone.”

“Then what is it
doing?
”

“That’s wicked,” Aari grinned. “I’ve never seen a lynx in the wild before.” He studied it closely. “Hey, that looks like the lynx Akol described. Remember? Ticks, Tikes, Toes . . .”

“Tyse!” Mariah exclaimed softly. “He’s right. Tegan, we saw her before, when we first went looking for the guys.”

Tegan’s eyes registered recognition. “It’s her alright. Is she following us?”

The lynx was still acting anxious, sitting on her hind legs and clapping her paws in the air. The friends looked at each other, mystified. In a seemingly desperate attempt, the cat leapt into the air and made odd sounds in her throat. The friends were still confused by the feline’s odd display.

The lynx growled, obviously upset at the group, then craned her neck and stared right up at the sky. She didn’t look down, so the five looked up into the heavens to see what had caught her attention. In the darkening sky, a golden eagle soared overhead, gliding in large circles around the site. When the group looked back down at the cat, all they saw was her tail as she sprinted away.

“That was strange,” Kody remarked.

The eagle that had been gliding above suddenly swooped down. It flew around the perimeter of the enclosure, screeching the whole way. The friends watched, agape, as the eagle hovered not ten feet in front of them, flapping its wings and creating a great gust of wind in the five’s direction as if telling them to leave. It cawed restlessly and after a few moments soared right over their heads, did a turn, and flew back over to a tree at the top of the rock wall, settling onto a branch.

Not knowing what to make of these occurrences, the five continued to place the logs to start the fire. They lit the kindling with a couple of matches from the emergency bag from the plane.

Once they had a good fire going, the girls unpacked the sleeping bags and spread them in a semi-circle under a large tree not far from the flames.

Mariah took off her jacket and threw it onto her sleeping bag. “This is a decent fire.”

“Food,” Kody grumbled. “Let’s crack open the tuna cans. They can be eaten straight out.”

The group washed dirt off their hands by dipping them in the pond. Jag and Kody then pulled back the tabs and passed the tuna cans around as they all sat on their sleeping bags.

After they’d finished eating, they leaned back under the tree where the girls had spread the sleeping bags. They were disappointed that they didn’t have more food to spare, but were grateful for the little they had.

Kody was silently berating himself for not having the food pack. It had been well-filled. “Ninety-nine bags of burgers on the wall, ninety-nine bags of burgers,” he sighed.

“Take one down, pass it around, ninety-eight bags of burgers on the wall,” Tegan continued. Soon they were all singing, counting down to seventy-eight when they decided to stop and crawl into their sleeping bags. They lay down with their feet facing the fire and watched as some sparks flew from it. One by one they nodded off until they were all in deep sleep.

22

T
he night was quiet. The fire crackled by the five’s feet; it had gotten a tad smaller but still burned brightly. There was no wind, and it seemed like nothing stirred inside the enclosure or around it.

Jag slowly opened his eyes. He didn’t move and kept his chin slightly tucked in under his sleeping bag. He could hear the fire and looked around without moving his head. He saw Tegan’s dark hair on his left and Mariah’s lighter tresses beside hers. He knew Kody was on his right and Aari was on Mariah’s other side. By their breathing he could tell they were all asleep.

So why then had he woken up?

He sat up quietly and squinted at the fire, then looked down at the other four as they slept. His eyes returned to the large, warm flames and he licked his lips uneasily. Something didn’t feel right.

He reached into his sleeping bag, pulled out his hoodie and shrugged it on before zipping it up. He sat for a little while, not sure what to do, then glanced up when he saw something out of the corner of his eye. The eagle that had perched on the tree high up on the rock wall was still there, its wings spread as the wind picked up a little. All Jag could see of it was its silhouette, and for some reason it made him more than a little nervous.

The large bird launched itself into the air and swooped around the enclosure like it had earlier, keeping close to the rock wall. Jag watched it warily. It soared back around for the second time and flew right past the group, creating a sudden gust of wind, and screeched sharply. Jag flinched and covered his ears.

Mariah, Tegan, and Aari jolted awake and looked around in terror, then caught sight of the eagle up in the sky. “What’s that crazy thing doing?” Aari complained groggily.

Jag kicked out of his sleeping bag and muttered, “We need to get out of here.”

Mariah looked over at him, puzzled. “What’s the matter? It’s just an eagle.”

“No, I’m serious. Something’s wrong. We need to get out of here
now
.”

His friends couldn’t ignore the alarm in his usually calm tone and wriggled out of their sleeping bags. Jag looked over and saw Kody still in a deep sleep with a cluster of long sticks at his side. Jag grabbed his shoulder and shook him. The other boy half-opened his eyes and glared up.

“We’re moving out, Kody. Get up.”

Roused by the uncharacteristic tenseness in Jag’s voice, Kody quickly wormed out of his sleeping bag into the cold air. Jag moved to the base of his own sleeping bag to roll it up and pack it away. Beside him, Tegan was doing the same. He glanced about to check if the eagle was still flying around but didn’t see it and finished rolling. He shifted uncomfortably; the fire was hot against his back.

As he was putting his sleeping bag away, he felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. Slowly, he looked toward the opening the five had squeezed through earlier in the evening. Two glowing red embers hovered in the darkness, a few inches apart. Jag strained to see what they were, but the firelight didn’t reach far enough.

Unsettled, he leaned closer to Tegan and whispered, “Look.”

Tegan looked up. She saw the red orbs against the dark background and breathed in sharply, then bent her head closer to Jag’s. “What is it?” she asked softly.

“I don’t know.”

The others noticed nothing as they continued packing. Jag and Tegan kept their heads bent together and stared at the red lights. Suddenly two more pairs, exact replicas, appeared on either side of the first one.

They heard a gasp behind them and heard Aari and Mariah talking quickly in quiet tones. Tegan and Jag looked over their shoulders past the fire. At the other entrance in the rock wall were three more glowing pairs of red orbs. Kody looked over to see what they were muttering about and started.

“What are those?” Aari rasped.

“More on this side,” Tegan murmured. The others turned to look and their eyes widened. Jag looked into the fire and saw a log the length of his arm, one end of it aflame. He grabbed it and hurled it as far as he could toward the first entrance.

The burning log landed several feet from the entrance and the five froze. The fire glinted off three separate sets of large, sharp teeth and cast ominous shadows onto the rock wall. The middle pair of orbs drew closer toward the burning log.

In the firelight the five saw the face of a scarred, angry timber wolf. Only the front of its body was visible, but it was easy to tell that it was frighteningly large. From its paws to its chest it was nearly three feet tall. The dark gray fur on its face was matted with dried blood and clumps of fur were missing on its muzzle. One ear was torn, the other heavily scratched. Foam was lathered around its jaws and dripped to the ground at its massive paws. The flames reflected in its eyes, making the wolf appear to glare out at the friends.

The animal turned its head slightly toward where the other half of its pack was closing in from the opposite entrance, circling the pond toward the five. The friends rose to their feet to stand back to back beside the tree they were under. Kody passed a pair of his improvised spears to Aari and Jag and held onto one himself.

“What do we do?” Tegan whispered. No one knew what to say as they watched the wolves close in from both directions.

Jag’s mind was racing as his eyes darted from side to side. “Get around the pond to the other entrance,” he said quietly.

Mariah looked at him. “What?”

“Go around the other side away from the wolves, and head for the exit.” Jag didn’t take his eyes off the animals as he roared,
“Run!”

Mariah spun and raced around the pond, Aari hot on her heels. One of the wolves that had come in from the second entrance saw her and charged back to intercept. Mariah halted and turned around, nearly colliding into Aari. She tore past him towards a cluster of boulders. There was a small gap between them and Mariah headed right for it, chancing it even though she didn’t know if she could fit in. The wolf that had tried to intercept her rocketed after her, ignoring Aari.

Mariah dove head-first between the boulders and quickly pulled her legs into the tight space, breathing heavily.
Stupid brute—

She screamed as the wolf that had chased her suddenly forced its jaws into the gap in the boulders, its sharp teeth snapping. Foam sprayed everywhere. Mariah whimpered in fright. She lifted up one foot and aimed a kick at the wolf’s face. Her foot smashed against the animal’s nose and it withdrew, letting out a series of short barks. But instead of deterring it, she had only enraged it. The wolf shoved its muzzle into the gap again, lips pulled back into a snarl as it furiously tried to reach her. Mariah bum-scooted as far away from the wolf as she possibly could in the narrow space.

Suddenly she heard a low growl from behind and froze. Slowly turning her head, she came face-to-face with the snapping jaws of another wolf. She shrieked, attempting to move to the center of the small refuge, and tried to pull her knees closer to her chest.

Aari saw the coordinated attack by the two animals and wanted to help Mariah, but was surprised by a wolf charging at him from his right flank. He yelped and sprinted toward the exit. He knew he wouldn’t be fast enough to escape and instead scrambled up a tree near the second entrance. The wolf tried to propel itself up after the boy, digging its claws into the bark, but slid back down. It circled the tree and whined in frustration, red eyes glaring up at Aari. Aari stared back from the safety of a branch, wondering what would cause an animal to have such maddened eyes that even its pupils were reddened.

The wolf again attempted to climb the tree and Aari kicked it down, being careful not to get bitten as he saw foam spraying from its mouth. Jeez, they’re rabid! No wonder they’re flying off the handle. It leapt, digging its claws deep into the tree, and pulled itself up. Aari goggled and scampered further up the tree onto another branch.