Rise of the Death Walkers (The Circle of Heritage Saga) (12 page)

Two things happened. One; my grandfathers backpack burst into flame. Two; Grandfather Sam feeling the heat of the fire so close to him, jumped up and reached out with his right hand. He closed the hand and the flame on his backpack died out.

“I am sorry Grandfather I meant to light the fire!” I was contrite that I failed to do what he asked of me.

“It’s fine Pasche. Fire is one of the elements that is most difficult to control. I remember my brother setting the kitchen on fire when we were young and being trained by my father.”

“Is that why you brought me out here to train?”

“Yes, the last thing I need is for Mimi to get mad at me or you if we burn her kitchen down.” He replied with a grin.

“Try it again. This time imagine your arm as the channel you use to direct the fire where you want it.”

I pictured the image of fire in my mind’s eye and pictured the fire following the line created by my arm. The fire followed the line I provided for it and flowed into the fire pit. Flames leaped up from the dry wood and I heard the crackling of the fire.

“Very good, Grandson.” Grandfather leaned back on the log he was sitting on. “Now you remembered the useful effect of the wind on cooling your room. I want you to stand and feel the wind. Imagine the wind is a protective shield around your body. Keep it under tight control. You can use the wind to deflect incoming attacks. Slower projectiles can be deflected with the wind.”

He tossed a branch at me and I saw how the wind picked it out of the air and whipped it on a tangent from my own body.

“Very good. Now maintain control. I am going to advance on you in an attack. Think of the way your control of the wind can help you.”

I mentally braced myself and waited for his attack. When he advanced on me I created a blunt spear of air emanating from my shield to his chest. My grandfather was lifted and driven back some thirty feet. Seeing the danger he was in I created a pillow of air to ease him to the ground.

“Sprits! I did not mean to hit you so hard Grandfather.”

“It’s fine Jason, really. You reacted quick and provided me a safe landing place.” Hs eyes darkened. “Never show such mercy to your enemies though.”

“Yes Sir. I feel a dual function of the wind when I grasp it grandfather.”

“Can you explain this better?” He asked.

“Well the Wind is just the movement of the air. I think I can use the air itself as a shield.”

“What do you mean?”

I stopped the wind and created a shield of compressed air in front of me. The air was so dense it cut off the small breeze that was flowing in my direction. “Take a stone and throw it as hard as you can at me grandfather.”

“Are you sure?” He bents and gathered a stone from the fire pit.

“Yes, I am”

He whipped the stone in my direction and before the stone could reach me the air shield I had formed stopped it and deflected it off on a tangent.

Grandfather’s eyes bugged out. “What did you do?”

“I... I made the air molecules in front of me so dense that nothing can get through. Walk toward me please.

Grandfather walked toward me and when he reached the shield he was stopped.

“Interesting.” he murmured as he felt the air shield with his hands. “It’s almost like an invisible brick wall. Very good Jason. I have never seen that element used like this before.”

“Thank you sir.” I felt the warmth in my face.

“Wind and fire can be very destructive. Water and Earth are as I said the life giving elements. Feel the Earth with your mind. Look in front of you. Feel the interaction between Earth and the plant in front of you. Once you feel this use water and Earth to coax the life in the plant to grow. You have to feel the connection to life to do this.”

I did as he asked and this time when I shifted my focus between the elements and the plant I could actually feel the small spark of life in the tiny plant. I coaxed it with my mind and fed it nutrients taken from the Earth and water. The plant started to grow and went into bloom. I saw white flowers come to life and I could smell their scent floating on the air.

“Very good. Can you feel the spark of life?”

“I can and its is a glorious thing to feel.”

“You used the nutrient of the Earth to bring the flower to life. Complete the cycle and watch.”

I continued doing what I was and suddenly the plant started growing old and dying. I could feel as the spark of life stumbled as age set in and then finally fade.

“I killed it!”

“No grandson. You just sped up the cycle of life. The nutrients you used from the Earth will be returned to the Earth as the plant decomposes.”

“I still feel sorrow at a life extinguished.” My emotional state was in a jumble.

“This is a hard lesson Jason I know. Always keep in mind that life, all life, has a fixed cycle that cannot be avoided. What comes from the Earth must be returned to the Earth for it always belongs there. You cannot have life without death. It is how nature is intended to be.”

He waved to encompass everything that stood around us. “Nature has a very delicate balance that can be upset easily. Men have been doing this for centuries and still are. We, as men, are the only part of the cycle that nature can do without. Everything else has a purpose in nature. The wolves keep the population of the deer in check so the vegetation is not completely consumed. The bee pollinates the plants in it’s never ending search for nourishment.”

“Everything ties together and it is our duty to use nature as was intended. Never take more than you can actually use to survive from nature. Always be willing to give back to nature. If you always have these thoughts in mind your control over the elements will remain balanced.”

“Grandfather you called water and Earth the life giving elements.”

“Yes?”

“They can be destructive too. Earthquakes can destroy everything we have in nature and Water is erosive. It can strip everything away from unguarded soil.”

“Very good Jason. I was wondering if you would catch that. You are correct. This is where the balance I mentioned before comes in. If you remain balanced within then any of the elements you control can be used for creation or destruction.”

He stood up and motioned with the hand. “Let’s head home. You know enough now to practice being one with the elements.” He stopped for a moment and turned back toward me. “Let me see you hand. The one with the birthmark.”

I showed him the hand requested and he continued. “The four diamond represent the elements you have control over. The star in the middle is you, the controlling part between men and nature. Notice how everything is equidistance from the other?”

“Yes”

“That’s the balance I am talking about.” He held up his hand and showed me his birth mark.

“Notice by me the star is missing and I show only two diamonds.”

“Why only two?”

“I can control only Air and Fire. Yet is it not a balanced control like you have. This is why I could never do the same things with Air that you can. You are the balance we need to defeat our enemies and I have no doubt that when the day comes you will stand proud and remember what I have taught you.”

“I will never forget you or any of the lessons Grandfather.”

He nodded at me, threw his arm over my shoulders and said. “Let’s go home to your grandmother. I bet she has some cookies already made for us.”

Chapter 12 - Missing

Things were bothering me lately. Dreams I could not get rid of. I keep seeing Katie's body laying broken on a snow covered road and I have no idea where it is. I feel months of darkness for my own soul. I walk through the dreams endlessly searching for the one I love but never finding her. I see her in the distance but can never quite able to reach her. I would wake in a cold sweat and stare into the blackness of my room analyzing the dream until I would drift back into sleep again and the cycle would continue. It was getting so I would wake up in the morning even more tired than when I had gotten in bed. The sleepless nights were beginning to show on me.

I was walking with Katie in the forest outside my room one cold November weekend when Katie spoke up about it the first time. "Jason, what is wrong with you lately?

I was startled by such a direct approach. "Me? Nothing love why would you ask that?"

She stepped closer to me and said, "I know you better than that Jason, something is bothering you so out with it."

She did know me to well so all I could do was deflect the question by a change of subject.

"I am wondering just how much more of my grandmothers and your mothers planning I can take. It seem to me that they are planning a celebration bigger than the two hundred year celebration of the country."

"It does seem like that doesn't it?" she said safely steered off topic. "I didn't know there were so many kinds of invitations to choose from it took me three days to look through them all."

I was distracted by a scent and didn't quite catch the last bit of what she said. I stepped near her and in the direction the scent was coming and made a motion with my hand she should be quiet. A dark shape flirted at the edge of my vision but every time I tried to focus on it there would be a swift shimmering and it would dart out of my field of vision quickly. I reached out with my mind and shifted the wind so the scent was always moving in my direction. I pushed Katie behind me.

I had seen these signs before slightly before the men of the patrols closed in for the kill but something was different. We were patrolling our lands with regular patrols since the activity of the Soul Extractors had increased. Out of the corner of my eye I spotted my cousins Jared and Saul moving silently into position. I called out in the ancient tongue for them to hold. "Katie, stay behind me." I said in a tone I had never used to her before.

"What's wrong Jason?" She was clearly frightened by my tone and was shaking.

I didn't answer because the shadowy form of a black wolf stepped into the clearing in front of us. It was the largest black wolf I had ever seen before. I could see by the eyes that it was clearly not just a wolf. The ancient tongue oozed from its mouth like dripping acid. "So you are the one the legends have talked about."

I responded in the same language, "I am he. What is it you want from us." I whipped up the wind around us and called for the water in the air to begin to solidify. Before long the wind was driving the snow in a shielding barrier between us.

"I was curious." The thing replied. "You don't seem to be much of a form. You look so weak."

"You dare to use the form of the most sacred symbol our people have to deliver whatever message you have to deliver?" I shot back.

"It was convenient at the time. This world has not many of the intelligent primitive forms. The land you choose to dwell in have beings we can’t insert ourselves in." It replied.

“We are protected by our abilities from your invasive habits.”

"Jason what is going on?" Katie screeched from behind me. I spotted more from the tribe showing up and motioned for them to stand ready.

"Katie please be still. You are in great danger now. Go with Jared he will keep you safe." I returned to the ancient speech. "These primitive forms as you so choose to call them have the ability to show compassion. Something your kind is unable to do."

Katie stood steady behind me. "If I am in danger you are also and I will not leave your side." I knew she was going to be stubborn she always was.

I shoved her back and ordered. "Jared and Saul Get her to the house with Mimi." I saw them hesitate. "Do it now!" they closed in and there was little Katie could do to stop them. The patrol closed rank and came to my side.

"Compassion is an emotion of the weak. This proves to me you are easily defeated." The wolf moved forward and I could see other forms taking shape around him. There were fluid and dark constantly shifting in and out of vision.

"So you say, but you have been trying for many generations to defeat us here and on the ancient world and have been unable to do so." I spotted my grandfather arriving and motioned him to the spot beside me.

The black wolf shifted its gaze from mine to my grandfather, "Ahh old one you I know we have battled before."

I growled and shifted the Earth in front of the wolf so its view was blocked. It nimbly jumped onto the mound. "The old one is not the one you should be worried about now. You deal with me."

"Strong words for a pup who is still wet behind the ears." It purred to me but relocked its gaze on mine.

The darting forms began closing on us as the wolf and I stood locked in a contest of wills. The patrol took care of any who got too close to us. I could feel the mental force being applied in the area. Nature itself rose to meet the enemy. I moved in quicker than the eye and grasped the throat of the wolf. Before I could get there, the soul within withdrew. I was left with the dying animal in my grasp. I signaled for everyone to attack, and end the battle. Soon more dying forms of the attacking force lay on the ground. I gently lay the black wolf on the ground and kneeled over it the full horror in my own spirit at what I had been forced to do.

I then turned and caused the wind to spear out in multiple directions catching each of the enemy and driving them back from the patrol. The wind screamed around me in a vengeance.

I felt the need to avenge the loss of a kindred spirit of nature. Reaching out I grabbed one of the waifs circling around us and crushed it with the wind.

All around me the battle raged with each member of the patrol using his or her abilities in the way they were taught. I whipped the blizzard to a fury and the snow became shards of ice that tore through the forms, shredding them beyond recognition.

My mind was expanded in a way I never believed I could as I shielded each member of the patrol from attacks. With the demise of the last attacker I changed the ice to snow and dropped to my knees to gather up the wolf I had killed. The senseless loss of a friend of nature tormented me. The storm built in harmony of my torment.

The patrol began taking defensive positions around me and many drifted back to the village. I sat there rocking over the prone body of a prince of nature who had been called to sacrifice its own life in this deed of evil. With my sorrow the storm raged on around me unchecked until my grandfather gently grasped my shoulder. "Jason you need to calm yourself.”