Thunder: The Shadows Are Stirring (Thunder Stories Book 1) (12 page)

The leaves here are slippery with dew and decay, so, as a mammoth wolf springs at me, I twist my body and slide feet-first under its furry belly. With a double grip, I thrust my blade into its stomach. I miss anything vital. Twisting the hilt, I try to inflict the most damage possible. The beast bellows like an angry man.

The very human noise shakes me. Was that the wolf? Without thinking, I relax my grip.

The wolf flips into a somersault, rolling itself around and trying to pin me. Claws as sharp as my metal blade rake across my back as I roll to a crouch, away from the angry animal. The stench of the wolves is overwhelming and makes my skin prickle. For some reason my brain thinks about gray fog.

I wheeze out a ragged breath. Without the adrenaline zipping through my bloodstream, I know I’d be in serious pain. Unlike the wolves, with all their snarling and yelping, I don’t waste any more of my air on noise. I’d yelled in the first place to get their attention. It worked.

Three wolves are honed in on me. One is in front, wounded, and two are behind, ready to go for my backside. From my crouch, I go into a back spring, crushing the snout of one. This exposes my torso to the other, who takes advantage. Fire burns through my side and I get a good whiff of hot, rotten breath before I hear the twang and thwap of Jamie’s arrow. It strikes true, and the teeth, which are attempting to use me as a chew toy, relax and pull back as the body slides to the ground. Fortunately, without a chunk of me. No good dying from a quick bleed-out. At least Jamie has made it to a safe perch.

I do a quick count. Two wolves have Jamie treed. One has a shaft through his leg; the other is uninjured and raring for a fight. A third is on me, the one with a bleeding gut. An arrow has finished off the wolf with the shattered muzzle.

Feeling cold and shaky, I’m afraid I’m more injured than I thought. But I know I’m really losing it when things take a dive into the deep-end of bizarre. From behind Gimpy, where Number Three has been sniffing at the air, a gravelly voice cuts over the snarls. Maybe I’m hallucinating, because I’m pretty positive it’s Mr. Wolf who’s talking.

“Enough! Oden draws near.” He tips his muzzle to where the other wolves had fallen, obviously pointing out their evaporated condition. “Unless you want that beast to finish what these humans began, we must leave now.” He bares his teeth and growls at what is left of his newly inherited pack, before turning tail and trotting away without a glance in my direction.

Gimpy and Guts make no move to follow, so we’re still facing two predators. Wounded or not, it’s not a comforting visual. With eyes filled with pain, they watch both Jamie and me. I stare back, and Jamie slips down from his safe haven, looking to me for permission. I nod my head, knowing what he plans to offer. You can’t stop a true Healer when there’s a need, regardless of the circumstances.

Unfazed by the fact these wolves are talking animals that have just
attacked
us, Jamie walks closer to the pair and asks, “Wow! Can you both speak, too?”

Gimpy nods shortly.

Fear forgotten, Jamie throws a smile over to me. “Man, this is cool.”

Yeah. Or not so much. I grimace; it’s hard to concentrate. My vision is growing hazy, like smoke’s closing in around me. I try to brush it back and have to catch myself mid-stumble.

Focused again on the two injured wolves, Jamie offers what he’s best at. Help and healing. “Come on, you obviously need it; you’re hurt and you didn’t follow that other guy. We can help you, if you let us.”

Their eyes widen in disbelief. Guts wheezes, “Are you daft? We attack you unprovoked, wounding your brother, and we have orders to destroy you.”

“Um, yes, but you haven’t, so I’m thinking you’re not gonna.”

“Daft. In any case, there is no help for us. We have failed.” He tilts his head in the direction where the uninjured wolf has disappeared, “Grayden is the fool for thinking he can return. We have lost too many of our own. There will be no homecoming for him.”

Gimpy, who’d been panting heavily at Guts’ side, perks up his ears and sniffs at the air. Turning to his companion, he growls in a low voice. “We must depart before Oden arrives; he will not show mercy.”

They both start backing away, but Gimpy shoots Jamie one last look. He says grudgingly, “You fought with intelligence and you act with honor.” They leave, limping down a different path from the one Grayden took.

My ears echo strangely with their footfalls. Thud-thud, thud-thud. Or maybe it’s my own heartbeat. My fuzzed vision narrows to nothing and I have no idea which way is up. I reach for something solid, but the ground finds me first.

“Sam?” Jamie sounds surprised. “Blast it, Samuel, stay with me.”

I distantly hear Jamie rushing to me, can even feel his hand on my shoulder, and I know he’s already reaching into his bag. I try hard to focus on his voice, try to will myself not to go too far away. But going away from here sounds good.

“I’m sorry, man, I didn’t realize how bad off you were.” He lifts my shirt which is now wet enough to suction against me, tugging at my skin. Aw, cripes, that hurts. Jamie swears, so I know it can’t be good.

That’s when the shakes hit me.

“Samuel.” Jamie’s voice is calm and steady as my body spasms, “Sam, I’m putting a warming blanket over you; it’ll help with the shock, but I need to roll you to the right. Your left side and back need some work. Take this first.” He pours something powdery into my mouth. It dissolves and leaves a foul aftertaste. He mutters something about how this Oden guy had better be on our side, since even the blasted wolves are scared of him. I guess that means we’re stuck here for now. Then the darkness takes me and I don’t think about it anymore.

When I come to, I’m lying on my side in the same small clearing in the woods. Damp leaves cushion my body, and I’m wearing a new shirt under Jamie’s warming blanket. When I move my arm and torso, a waft of his special blends hits my nose and I realize I have minimal pain; Jamie is good.

Because I know my brother, I know he’d want me to keep still. As slow as a crippled slug, I attempt to sit up without attracting attention. He catches me anyway and stops me with a yelp.

“Sam! Don’t move yet.” He walks around me and kneels down near my face. “You’ll be good in a day or two, but you need to lay low right now to give the medicines and stitches time to do their thing. Man, if I didn’t have this stuff, it would take forever.” His face positively glows, and with his hair sticking out even more than usual, and dirt smeared across his nose, he could be a Boy Scout receiving his first badge. Too young for any of this.

He glances up over the back of my head, where I can’t see, and holds up one finger like he’s asking someone to hold on for a minute. I try to twist my head to see who he’s motioning to, but he leans forward and whispers, “You know the story you were telling me?”

“Ya-aah ...?”

“I don’t think you’re gonna have to tell me the end of it.”

“Huh? What are you talking about?”

“Um, Oden is here.”

“Wha—?”

“And he’s a bear. Who talks. Whoa, don’t move, Sam! You’re gonna tear something!”

I’m struggling to sit up again, but he presses me back. “I wanted to let you know before he came over here; I didn’t want you to freak out. He’s good. And he thinks we can help each other.” Jamie nods over my head, and I feel very defenseless curled up on my side, like I’m some kind of invalid. The ground shakes with approaching footsteps. Sorry Jamie, you may have to re-stitch me, but I’ll be blasted if I’m laying still for this one.

I roll to my hands and knees, smelling the damp earth and decaying leaves; woodsy and welcoming. Ignoring Jamie’s groan of “Sa-aam,” I stagger to my feet.

Ooh, yeah. There’s some of that pain.

Then I look up. And up. Walking on his hind legs, Oden is easily nine feet tall, maybe even more. Dude. No wonder the wolves ran. I would, too, if I could. Instead, I gulp. He must weigh at least eight-hundred pounds. His brown fur is thick and sleek for the upcoming winter, and the claws on his front paws are long and curved like three-inch hooks. I can’t imagine what we could ever do to “help” someone like him. Nothing easy. But when I study his face, I am reminded of an old ratty teddy bear I used to have when I was little. His eyes are dark brown and somewhat droopy, but quite alert.

“Ho, there, young Samuel!” Oden’s voice rumbles from deep within his immense chest.

I kick myself for not getting more practice with Owen and Gunther in their animal forms. Even though Thunder uses mind-speak rather than vocalized words, it’s the same concept. I can’t pull off the speaking-animal nonchalance Jamie can. For me, it’s kind of like talking with someone who has a fake eye and you’re not sure which one it is, so you don’t know where to look.

“Um, hello. Oden. Sir.” I end up staring at his nose after glancing into his eyes.

Oden smiles a slow grin and clicks his teeth. Did he just wink?

“Boys, we need to get moving. James, grab all the gear. You can walk. Samuel, you ride. We have much to discuss.” He drops to all fours and is now about five feet tall at the shoulder. Jamie doesn’t want me ripping anything he’s had to patch up; he helps boost me onto Oden’s expansive back.

I can’t help myself. “Hey. I get to ride bear back. Get it? Bare. Bear?” Buh-duh-bum-bum. Maybe Jamie’s powder has made me loopy because for some reason I find my joke to be hilarious. Jamie, however, rolls his eyes and I think Oden groans. It’s either that or a growl. So I’ll stick with thinking it’s a groan.

~~~

O
DEN LOPES WITH BIG ROLLING STEPS
, which lift me up and down like I’m on a slow motion kiddie-carousel. With each of his movements, I am very aware of his flexing muscles. Oden angry would be insane and I plan to never get on his bad side. Jamie easily trots along next to us, hopping over fallen branches and bulging roots. Except for our weapons, he’s put everything, including my satchel, into his bag.

 To help me relax, I decide to pretend Oden is like Thunder. An animal with hooves rather than claws, and definitely something more prone to eating hay than meat. I’m thinking whatever works right now is legit; Olivia uses tricks like that whenever she’s stressed.

“Sir?” I blurt. “What’s the deal with those wolves? It looked like there’d been some sort of attack not too long before we’d arrived. Do they just hang out in this part of the woods or what? And why did their bodies disappear? How did they know you were coming? And where are we going now?” I stop for breath and Oden takes advantage of my silence to answer.

“Talk when you’re nervous, do you?” I can hear the wry grin in his voice. “First of all, the wolves from that pack are a part of the darkness that has seeped through our Barriers. There are usually a couple such beasts lurking here in the Shadows. Wolves, and other creatures besides, who like to create chaos and act in violence precisely for the sake of it. They can take whatever form they choose when they cross their own Barriers from the Under Layers. Typically they’ll select a predator of some type. And retain all the attributes of that predator, which is how Grayden knew I was coming. And he knows I am stronger; wolves do not like confrontations weighted against them. When a Slider is killed here in the Shadows, its essence is destroyed and it fully ceases to exist, on all levels. That’s what the ‘disappearing’ bodies are about, since their physical body is tied to their essence.”

Oden ducks through some low hanging branches, which scrape over my back and make me flinch. He angles our direction, and we begin to climb an incline. My stomach rumbles and I hope eating will be a part of our immediate future. Oden has been popping pinecones and mushrooms like they’re Tic-Tacs; I’m slightly more particular about my food.

His voice is serious as he continues, though I can tell he’s speaking around another bite. “In times such as these, when there is a rift somewhere, all we can do is fight back. We can’t stop them from coming through. No one but a human Seeker can close a rift. Very specific qualities are needed. Until mended, the opening allows for mass trespass. The opening may also influence regular Shadow Dwellers who can pick up an affinity for such base deeds, and choose to spread darkness—just as it leeches over into the human world.

“We have all known you would arrive; just not where or when.”

“We’re missing two of us,” I’m compelled to inform him because we aren’t the ones they desperately need. “Our sister and friend came through on their own. We were separated by mistake. We need to find them; Jamie’s a Healer, and they’ll need him.” I’m just Jamie’s way to get there safely, so I don’t say anything about myself.

“There are no mistakes,” Oden says fiercely, sounding familiar. “We know of the Four, but first comes the journey of the Two.

“The Dwellers and the Sliders both have had scouts on the lookout here in Hunter’s Grove and in many other outlying areas. They found you first, regrettably, but you held your own and now we’ve got you. The rest of our particular group is several miles away, towards the river. Which is where we’re aiming at present.”

He lifts a massive paw like he’s pointing ahead of us, but I see no sign of a river yet. Our line of sight is blocked by tons of trees and brush, still with all the vivid colors. “For now, we will trust the other Two will also be found by Dwellers. You must focus on your own journey.

“The marks you saw in the clearing back there are from a conflict between the two sides. The risks here are real.” Oden’s voice becomes thicker. “We lost several brave warriors but were able to drive off the pack after they sustained heavy losses themselves. And now you have finished them.”

Jamie interrupts. “Uh, actually, sir, three got away.”

“Ah, yes, but you see, James, Grayden is as good as terminated, for his master has no pity. The other two; tell me about them. I caught their scent, but something didn’t align.”

I tell Oden what happened, and he tips his head with a burst of laughter. “Oh, this is good news, boys. Already you have brought change! Just as the Sliders can spread dissention and corruption, you Benders can spread hope and courage. An old-fashioned idea for the two of you, you may think, but necessary in both our realms. You realize, don’t you, a change like that can have as much an impact in the Under Layers as if you had truly obliterated them? Those two, if they live, may just have a chance of becoming real Dwellers. You may have sucked the malice right out of them.”