Into Eden: Pangaea - Book 1 (29 page)

The three of them stopped running.

“Where did it come from?” Perez asked.

“I think in back of us,” Jesse answered.

“Enoch, do you smell wolf?” Jesse asked.

Enoch put his nose in the night air and sniffed, “Yes. But they are not close. Perhaps half a mile.”

Before anyone could say more they heard another howl off to their right, then another to their left. The only place that wolves were not, it seemed, was dead ahead.

“Enoch!” Jesse pleaded. “Let’s run!”

The dog took off running down the road in the dark, with Jesse and Perez running down the mountain behind him as fast as they could. At one point Perez tripped over a rock and went rolling head-over-heels on the road. He got right back up, however, and urged Enoch to keep on running. But Jesse could tell even in the dark that Perez had sprained an ankle.

Perez hobbled in the darkness, trying to keep up, but Enoch and Jesse seemed to be getting further and further ahead. Finally he stopped, the pain too much to continue on. Jesse stopped too, and yelled up at Enoch, “Perez is hurt!”

Enoch trotted back and warned them, “The wolves are very close now. I can smell them!”

“Go on, you two!” Perez told them. “I can still put up a fight!” With that he drew his sword.

“Put it away!” Jesse said. “And put your arm around me. We’re going down together, or we’re not going!”

Perez sheathed his sword and took Jesse’s hand. Jesse pulled him to his feet and with Perez’s arm around Jesse’s shoulder the two of them headed back down the road following Enoch. Then, as they turned a corner in the road they were stopped by four pair of eyes that glowed red in the foggy moonlight.

The three turned to run back up the road, but behind them were four more pairs. Under the trees on both sides of the road they could see other sets of red, glowing eyes. The wolves had them surrounded. They had led them into an ambush simply by howling to frighten them into it.

In the moonlight Jesse could see the wolves. They did not appear to be ordinary wolves. They were nearly twice the size of wolves that Jesse had seen growing up in the Foothills. Some of these wolves were gray, others were black, but all had features that set them aside from their smaller cousins. Their muzzles were shorter, and faces less angular, giving an almost human appearance. Jesse also noted that at the end of their paws were what appeared to be stubby fingers with claws on the end. Yes, the Prophet was right; there were werewolves on the mountain. The two boys drew their swords.

“Do you think that you can harm us with those puny weapons, you pathetic little humans?” a black werewolf in the front said as he stood up on two feet. The werewolves began to close in on all sides.

“I’m going to enjoy eating you,” said the werewolf that was standing. “I think that I’ll start with the eyeballs. Then kill you later.”

Jesse’s heart was racing. Yes, he was feeling terror again, but this time he could not move.

Enoch started to growl, and then yelled at the werewolves, “BACK OFF!”

The werewolves stopped their advance.

“Oh my,” the werewolf on two paws said, “what have we here? A dog that talks? Do talking dogs taste better than ordinary mutts? I think not.” Then he raised his muzzle and howled at the moon. A long, blood-curdling howl that terrified them even more.

Then the standing werewolf addressed them again, “I’ll tell you what. I’m willing to make a deal with you. You put down your little swords and I promise to kill you quickly. How does that sound?” The werewolf sounded arrogant, condescending, and clearly enjoying the terror that he had instilled in them.

“I’ll tell YOU what,” Jesse said. “You take another step closer and I’ll run my blade through your furry chest!”

“Temper, temper, my human entrée. I don’t think that you’re fast enough.”

“Let’s find out,” Jesse said, then pushed himself away from Perez as he took one step toward the standing werewolf. The werewolf took a step backwards.

“If any of your buddies lunges at my friends you’ll be the first to die,” Jesse continued.

“Hmmmm…” The werewolf said. “It seems that we have a conundrum. I want to eat you. You want to kill me. Up here on the mountain we call that a Territories stando…”

The werewolf never finished his sentence. Jesse heard a “thud” and noticed an arrowhead sticking from the werewolf’s chest. The werewolf began to howl and at the same time three of the werewolves that were on the ground beside him began to howl in pain while the others all scattered into the forest. Three of the four remaining werewolves ran off to follow the rest of the pack, arrows still sticking from their backs. In a moment two other arrows sunk into the remaining werewolf, who was now lying on the ground, bleeding profusely and still threatening the boys.

“You’ll never make it off this mountain alive! My pack will hunt you down! We’ll eat you one by one!”

Out of the fog behind the werewolves a band of men appeared, they were dark people, their heads were shaved, and they wore buckskins and carried bows, spears, and large hunting knives. The werewolf on the ground looked up and turned his threats to the approaching men.

“You’re gonna die, Kenan! We’ll break into your camp and drag off your children! I’ll feed your young to my pups!”

“I’ve had enough of you, Man-stalker,” the one in the front said as he knelt over the writhing werewolf and drew his knife. With a swift motion he jerked the animal’s head back and slit its throat. In a few seconds the werewolf was still.

The man that had killed the werewolf then turned to one of the other men with him, “Jared! Skin that monster! I want his hide on the wall of the Great Room at Bastrap. Man-stalker has killed his last human or an-nef!”

The man that was referred to as, “Jared” dropped to his knees and pulled out his hunting knife and began to work quickly on the dead werewolf. Then the one in charged stepped forward and extended his hand.

“I’m Kenan. Chief of the people of Bastrap. You two are a long way from home and headed in the wrong direction. What brings you to the mountain?”

As Kenan spoke the men behind him began to light torches. Jesse could now see that there were at least twenty men in the band.

“We going to Eden to trade,” Jesse lied.

“Trade in what?”

“Silk. Rugs.”

“Really,” Kenan replied, putting his hands on his hips. “No human goes to Eden to trade. But I’m sure that you already know that. I’ve just saved your life at risk to my own. You repay me with a lie. Now, I’m only going to ask you one more time, and if you lie to me again I’ll take my trophy and leave you on this mountain for the werewolves to finish what they started. Now, why are you here?”

“I’ve come to kill an an-nef,” Jesse replied. He wondered if they could see the redness in his face in the torchlight.

“That’s more like it,” Kenan replied. “Now why don’t the two of you and your dog come spend the night with us and you can tell me more about this an-nef that you want to kill. We’ve got comfortable beds, hot food and walls too high for any werewolf to climb.”

Enoch started to wag his tail.

Kenan chuckled. “It’s almost like your dog understands what I’m saying. Very smart animal.”

Enoch grinned a pointy grin and wagged his tail some more.

“You like elk, doggie?” Kenan asked.

Enoch nodded his head and wagged his tail again.

Kenan looked at Enoch gravely. “Can this dog understand what I’m saying?” he asked Jesse.

“Oh, he’s a very smart dog…when he wants to be. But I doubt that he’s that smart.”

Enoch stopped wagging his tale and stared at Jesse.

“Ten of you men double-time it back to Bastrap and tell them to prepare a feast! We have guests!” yelled Kenan.

The men at the back of the group took off running through the night down the Mountain Road in the direction that they had come.

“Chief Kenan,” said Jesse, “this is my brother Perez.”

Perez shook Kenan’s hand, “Please to meet you, Chief.”

“Just Kenan will do.”

“How did you know that we were here?” Perez asked.

Kenan laughed, “How did we know? You’re kidding me, right?”

Perez shook his head.

“Noise travels far at night, and the two of you were making enough noise to raise the dead. All that hollering and all. That’s probably what drew the werewolf’s attention, too. I couldn’t make out what the two of you were arguing about, but I figured that I’d better find you before the werewolves did or Man-stalker and his pack would be eating well tonight.”

Perez was mortified at Kenan’s remarks. They had acted like children.
He
had acted like a child, and his childishness had nearly gotten all of them killed.

Kenan turned back to Jesse, “And what’s your dog’s name?”

“This is Enoch,” said Jesse.

Enoch lifted one paw and wagged his tail again.

“This dog
can
understand us,” Kenan said as he bent over and shook Enoch’s paw. He then petted Enoch on the head and said, “There’ll be extra elk for you tonight!”

Enoch licked his lips and continued to wag his tail.

“Amazing,” said Kenan.

“Jared! You got that werewolf skinned yet?”

“Yes sir!”

“Good! Good! Everybody ready to move out?”

“Ahhh, Mr. Kenan, I’m afraid that I’m moving a little slow tonight,” said Perez. “Took a bit of a tumble when I was running from the werewolves. Sprained my ankle, I’m afraid.”

“No problem,” replied Kenan. “Jehoshaphat! Give your spear to Obed! We’ve got a man here who can’t walk.”

The man that Kenan called, “Jehoshaphat” stepped forward and handed his spear to the man beside Kenan. He was, Jesse thought, one of the biggest men that he had ever laid eyes on. Taller than Jesse, and built like a mammoth, Jesse believed that he must have some Nephilim blood running through his veins. Jehoshaphat approached Perez and without a word of warning bent over and threw Perez over his shoulder. Perez uttered a surprise, “Hey!” as his sword slid from its scabbard and dropped to the ground.

Jesse picked up his brother’s sword and said, “I guess that we’re ready.”

The boys headed down the Mountain Road with an escort of dark men with torches on either side. Kenan and Jehoshaphat—with Perez slung over his shoulder—walked in the center with Jesse and Enoch. After about half a mile the dark men turned off the road and walked down a path that led through the forest. Another half mile and they could see lights up ahead. One more half mile and they were standing before a massive wooden gate that led into a stockade. The walls of the stockade were five paces high, and they stretched out into the darkness further than Jesse could see, with torches lit above them every ten paces or so, and guards carrying spears and bows peering out from between the pointed poles. Men opened the gate at their approach and as they passed though they could see ramparts along the top of the stockade where the guards walked.

“All this to keep out the werewolves?” asked Jesse.

“Yes,” Kenan answered. “From time to time they like to test our perimeter. Sometimes they get careless and one of our archers will get one.”

As they walked on Jesse could see that the path that they were on led through a plowed field with crops starting to sprout. “What are you planting here?” he asked.

“Potatoes, carrots, onions, tomatoes, corn—you name it. This far south on the mountain, we have a fairly long growing season, and it’s still cool enough so we don’t have to contend with the heat on the other side of the river. Nor the monsters. Nor the an-nef. If it weren’t for the werewolves we could clear half the mountainside to raise crops. As it is, we must confine our growing to the stockade.”

Up ahead Jesse could see another wooden gate and another wall surrounded by more torches and more guards.

“Double perimeter?” Jesse asked.

“Yes. Up ahead is Bastrap’s old fort. It’s where the houses and Great Room are today. Back in the old days we used to raise crops outside the stockade, but in recent years the werewolves started to get bold. They would attack women and children as they picked vegetables in the middle of the day, so we expanded the stockade out.”

Men opened the second gate like the first as they approached. Once inside they found themselves in a village with torches for streetlamps and buildings built of logs and roofed with wooden shakes. Dragons would love this place, thought Jesse. Like the other towns that he had visited on his travels, all but the main street were narrow, with alleys separating log homes built close together. At the center of the town was a large log structure that stood two stories high; their Great Room, Kenan told them. The building was twenty paces long and about seven paces in width. They were led into the Great Room where in front of them a long table was being prepared with food, with a large, but simple chandelier suspended from one of the many rough-hewn beams that stretched from side to side above them. Glancing up, Jesse could see that the roof formed the ceiling high above them. At the far end of the Great Room was a large hearth, with a roaring fire that filled the Great Room with light and warmth.

“Sit with me at the head of the table,” Kenan said as he motioned for Jehoshaphat to put Perez down. By now people were starting to fill up the room with many bringing chairs and lining up around the table. Kenan introduced them to his wife, an attractive woman named, “Zillah” and his daughter, “Adah,” who was short, a little round—but not overly so—and who wore her long hair in the manner of many of the women there, what the dark people called, “dreadlocks.” She was not what one would call “beautiful,” but she was definitely cute. They sat together at the head of the table with Kenan and Zillah at the very end with the fire to their backs, and Jesse and Perez on the right side next to them, and Adah and some others that Kenan hadn’t introduced next to her. As Jesse turned to speak to Kenan again, he recognized Adah’s face. She was the one that he had seen in his vision, and this was the place that he had seen her—he was sure of it. Adah smiled at Jesse.

“Is something wrong?” Kenan asked.

“No. No. Everything’s just fine.”

“You seem…distracted.”