Thunder: The Shadows Are Stirring (Thunder Stories Book 1) (10 page)

“Um, yeah. Okay. We need to regroup and go.” I glance around our campsite, taking in what we have to work with. I swear loudly. Either Olivia or Ethan has left their satchel behind. They are now down half their team and half their own supplies. I don’t see Ethan’s blades though; he must have had those still strapped to him. Same with Olivia’s knife; I don’t think she’d removed it from her boot. I’m positive they don’t have anything on them for long-range cover, though. Nothing like arrows or a slingshot. I turn to Jamie. “Alright. Start packing up what we can use. The bag should fit inside one of ours; if not, I’ll wear it across my chest. That way your arms will be free for aiming your bow. We’ll hold on to each other and cross through at the same time.”

“What about Thunder and Storm? Shouldn’t we write a note or something?”

“Nah. Thunder won’t be shocked by any of this. Different paths, same destination, right? He’ll find us if he needs to, but this is all on us. This is our journey. This is what
we
need to do.”

“Okay,” is all he says and, consumed by our thoughts, we repack our gear and put out the campfire we’d lit in preparation for dinner. Then, uncertain, we stare at each other. Jamie reaches for my hand first, and I hold his tight. We open our minds and feel for the cold of the fog Barriers, which comes without time to second guess. I feel my body fall into a thousand pieces.

~~~

“
J
AMIE!”
I gasp. Reforming tickles in a spider-web-in-my-face kind of way, except it’s like that all over, including inside. Taking my first breath hurts. Like my lungs are flattened and the air that I suck in is too sharp. This was harder on my body than crossing the Barriers of the Training Grounds. Gunther had said those Barriers are the strongest, but that must be for the negative-energy types. I shake my head to clear it and wait for my eyes to adjust to the dim lighting. Wherever we are, it’s nighttime.

I hear a groan. “Right here, man. I landed on something sharp. I can’t see it, but I think I’ve cut myself.”

Jamie’s sitting a little way behind me, with his hand gripping the right side of his ribcage. We’re in a forest similar to the one we just left, but we’re in the heart of it where there is no light besides whatever is reaching us from the moon. It’s either not very full or the trees are dense; I can make out Jamie’s huddled outline. I make my way to him, keeping my hearing on high alert. We have no idea what to expect here, and a forest could be filled with all sorts of creatures.

“Move your hand, Squirt. Let me see.” I keep my voice low. No need to make more noise than we need to. Since I can’t see well enough, and am wary of using a flashlight, I press my watch button. The face glows a dim green. Using my fingertips, I feel around the back curve of his ribs. My fingers come away wet. “Ah, it’s like the good ol’ days. You’re bleeding, but not too bad. I can fix you up; let me see your bag.”

Even though Jamie is the Healer, at Gunther’s everyone gets trained for basic emergencies. Besides, I had experience patching him up a couple times when we lived on the mountain. Knowing what I need, my hands easily grab the gauze and cream from his pack. When I finish, I search the ground to find what cut him. I discover a small knife with a curved blade, not made of any metal I recognize. I wrap it in a spare tee-shirt and tuck it into my bag. It may come in handy.

“Thanks, Sam. What now?”

 I don’t think we should start a fire or hike through the dark forest. And we need to get our bodies adjusted to the time here because I’m planning for an early start in the morning. “We should find somewhere safe and try to sleep,” I decide, even though it hadn’t been late when we’d left the Training Grounds.

Jamie eyes the dark figures of the trees. “You’re probably right.”

The trees are tall with sturdy branches, good for climbing. Being off the ground and hidden away has a certain appeal right now. We won’t have to go far to find our campsite.

“You good for climbing?” I say, indicating his injured side.

“Yeah; it feels okay. You did good.”

“Alright, you go up first; I’ll be right behind you.”

We situate ourselves against the trunk and the V created by the thick branches, so we’re half sitting, and I make sure we’re tied tight. We’ve done this before and I know the night will be long and uncomfortable, but we’ll be safer up here than exposed on the ground.

Since it still feels early, I’m not tired yet; with nothing to do but wait for morning to come, I decide to end our evening with a story. Speaking low to keep my voice from traveling beyond where Jamie sits above me, I start it the same as all the others.

“Once upon a time, there were two amazing boys named Samuel and James who were on their first real adventure and were separated from their family. They were brave and strong and smart, so they did not worry. They knew they would come across their sister, Olivia, and their friend, Ethan, when the time was right. The boys had a journey of their own they had not anticipated, that was all.

“Little did they know, someone had already learned of the boys’ whereabouts; someone who was in need of help and had heard of the Williams children and of the many great deeds they had already accomplished. More especially, the boys weren’t aware this someone was currently almost underfoot as they settled themselves down for their evening’s rest. He lay in wait of them, his own breathing heavy with sleep, but his eyes open and unblinking. He would not lose sight of them.”

“Sam?” Jamie interrupts.

“Yeah?”

“That’s a little creepy right now. Thinking someone’s watching us. Now all I can think about is some spook staring us down. I’ll never sleep.”

“Sorry, Squirt. It’s what came to me, though. Like Mom always said when she’d tell us her stories. They come in their own way. Remember how sometimes she wouldn’t tell us a story even if we’d ask? She’d say the story wasn’t there yet and we’d have to wait for the next story to come.

“Besides, mine’s about someone needing our help, not someone trying to attack us. Don’t be spooked. But that’s all the story there is right now, anyway. We’ll have to wait for the rest to come when it’s ready. We’ve gotta try to sleep or we’ll be too tired in the morning.”

“Okay. G’night, Sam.”

“G’night, Squirt.”

~~~

I
WAKE UP
when the sun is beginning to turn the sky a pale purple-blue. The brightest stars are still visible through the gaps of the tree branches. I roll my neck and tip my head to check on Jamie. I can see his feet, which are dangling around the edge of his branch. Still sleeping, I surmise. Untying my rope, I shimmy out of the tree, landing with a muffled thud as my feet hit the leaf-packed ground.

Topher was right about the feel of this place. There’s a hum to the air like everything is alive and waiting, and the back of my neck prickles like I’m being watched. I turn around, canvassing the ground and trees, but I see nothing out of place other than our own scuffed tracks leading from our reconstruction point to the tree. We’d done a poor cover job in the dark; this was a major fail on my part and could have been dangerous if something had been on the lookout for us.

The trees are tall and their massive trunks are covered in moss and lined with little shelves of mushrooms. The ground is a mixture of dirt, fallen leaves, and undergrowth. From all the reds and golds around us, I’d say it’s the beginning of fall. The brisk air is heavy and expectant. In the distance, a birdcall echoes through the silence.

My ears catch a slight sound of scraping from the tree I’d just left, and I turn to greet Jamie. His clothes are wrinkled, his shirt has a dark stain and tear at the side, and his hair is all spikey and flattened in random spots. In other words, he looks like he usually does.

We eat before we search out our surroundings. After cleaning up, I climb our tree as high as I can, to get a better view of the area. The yellow leaves get in my way, but there’s not much to see anyway. Just more trees in all directions. We need to find out if Livs and Ethan are in the area, or if we’re in some arbitrary location.

“Let’s get moving and see if we can track down any recent activity.”

Remembering the odd knife, I slip it out of my pack. Its blade is flat and curved like the silhouette of a bear’s claw. It’s a few inches long, but the outside curve is as sharp as the inside bend and the tip tapers almost to a needle point. The handle has grips to fit a hand larger than mine. The style is different from anything I’ve seen. All I can tell is it’s carved from some type of dark polished rock; Jamie says it’s like something used for surgeries.

Scrutinizing the blade, I see a dull brown stain along the edge. Some of it at least would be from Jamie’s injury. I rewrap it and put it away thinking of the logistics of finding anyone here. What’s to say Livs and Ethan landed at this specific location rather than half way around the world from us? I suppose I’d been hoping we’d reconstructed at the same site they had, and maybe they’d left us some kind of clue. But I guess that would’ve been too easy; neither of them had anything like this anyway. I’d like to kick a stump in frustration but decide it’s better to suck it up and start moving.

As we walk, I can’t help but inspect the trees. They have oddly bent branches and their trunks are filled with knotholes. Roots bulge from the earth in heaving mounds, creating all sorts of shadowy crevices. Mom would have pointed out all of these as potential fairy homes. She loved imagining fairies and Littles and things like that. She saw magic everywhere. Heck, maybe she wasn’t imagining after all. I shiver as the noises of the forest wake up and roll over us; sporadic birdcalls, the droning of some type of beetle, random snaps and cracks of twigs. We move in companionable silence for some time until Jamie speaks up.

“Hey, Sam, why don’t you finish your story while we’re walking? It’ll kill time. Who needed our help and why?”

I clear my throat. The telling of these stories is a ritual in our family and there’s a certain flowing of the voice and particular word phrasing to get the true feel of it. Not how I would normally talk, but something I learned from Mom. I wonder now if she’d learned it from Gunther.

I jump in right where I’d left off. “Well, Samuel and James had almost fallen asleep when a gravelly voice scratched across their ears and startled them into clear-headedness. A bear stood below them, over the crest of the hill upon which they had decided to sleep.

“‘You are the Williams children, correct?’ the Bear asked with slight anxiety.

“‘Yes,’ the boys responded, bowing their heads in respect—for they could tell they were in the presence of a being of power.

“‘It is you we’ll be needing. There has been a dark and dreadful battle, and the Bright Hope of our clan has been taken, and many are left wounded. Pleased we’d be for you to journey to our den-grounds in assistance.’

“‘Certainly, friend Bear,’ answered the boys. And off they went, the three together.

“Upon arrival at the den-grounds, the boys were greeted with moans of pain and tears of sorrow. Jamie, being the Healer of the two, directed all healthy souls to clear the area. Then he, with his brother as assistant, began to clean, stitch, and soothe the wounded. Once the creams and ointments were applied, sounds of soft even breathing filled the air, for all the Bears had been healed and were now asleep. The clan was happy and later celebrated with a feast of fresh berries and meats and honey cakes. But there was more still to accomplish. The boys were sent forth to find the lost Bright Hope.”

 I stop the story; a half an hour of walking has passed and I have just realized I hadn’t truly grasped my role. I’d been puzzled in the first place why I was the Leader if we had to follow Olivia’s path to wherever the rift is. Now I understand. I’m supposed to get Jamie to them, to Livs and Ethan; there’s probably something planned for us along the way, a reason we were separated if I want to think like Gunther. I wasn’t ever meant to direct the whole group of us to Livs’ destination. But they’ll need Jamie’s skills. That’s got to be it.

It’s right as this thought crosses my mind that we discover our first broken arrow shafts. They are scattered haphazardly across the forest floor. We study the trees, which are freshly scarred and have sap oozing from their gashes. A little further along, obvious drag marks make a wide trail through the leaves on the ground. Instantly, my slingshot is in my hand, steel ball ready to fly. Jamie has drawn and nocked an arrow. And a howl breaks the silence around us.

Chapter Nine: Keeping Pace

(ETHAN)

M
Y FIRST THOUGHT IS
, “Man. I
am
going soft.” I’m doubled over and wheezing like an asthmatic in a pollen storm. Is it possible for parts to not reform correctly? Because I’m feeling like my lungs didn’t quite make it through.

My second thought is, “Did I grab her hand in time?” On jelly legs, I try to jump up, managing to stumble and awkwardly roll over onto my back. I notice my knife is still clenched in my hand. Good to know if something were to attack us by falling directly onto the blade, we’d be safe. By craning my neck, I spot Olivia, who is curled on her side in the flattened grass, eyes open and staring at me. We made it through the Barriers and we managed to stay together. So we’re good.