and crashing continued for a while.
Then everything went quiet.
Suddenly, Wing came flying back to the camp fast. "Wing,
Wing." He said, in a panic. "They need you." He said, as he
landed hard on the ground. "Lina, go call the others; there needed
too."
He said, and with that Lina jumped off Wings palm and ran
off into the woods. "David, somethings wrong." I heard grandma
say. I turned toward her and saw that she had become very weak,
nearly falling over.
"Lana." Grandpa said, catching her before she hit the ground.
He laid her down softly and stroked her hair.
"Lana, Lana. What's
wrong?" He said, with the sound of utter panic in his voice.
"Grandma." I said, running over to her side. "Mia, you stay here."
Elder Wing called out, before disappearing into the forest. I looked
up at the tree tops and noticed that the trees began to shake more
violently and the distant rumbling sound, grew louder and louder
as the ground began to shake more and more.
Grandma's face turned a pale gray, like she was sick to her
stomach. "Mia help me get her to the tent." Grandpa said, putting
her arms around his neck to help her up. She tried her best to
move her feet, but her limp body wouldn't let her. "Grandpa,
what's wrong with her?" I said, starting to feel scared.
"I don't
know." He replied still in a panic.
We got grandma to the tent and laid her down on the bed. I
noticed that a box in the far corner of her tent was moving, like
there was something inside trying to get out. I could see a golden
glow coming from the box. "Mia, get the scrolls." She insisted,
pointing at the glowing box. I picked up the box and hurried back
to her side.
As she grabbed the box from me I could hear a loud howling
sound outside the tent. I started to get up to see what it was, but
grandma grabbed my arm with one hand; putting the other on
grandpa's. "No, stay in here both of you." She said softly. "You'll
both be safe in here." She said, holding on to the both of us tightly.
The howling grew louder and louder until it was right beside
the tent. "I can smell them, but I cannot see them." A voice said
with a growl. Just then I heard a louder deep growl and felt the
ground shake. "You will leave this place and never come back." I
heard the deeper voice say. Grandpa and I sat there quietly
looking at each other with utter fear in our eyes. "I know that she's
here and I want her now." A smaller evil voice said. "You will not
have her." The deep voice said.
Suddenly we heard crashing, and pounding, and loud
growling just outside the tent. "David, don't move." Grandma said
calmly. "But Lana." Grandpa replied. "Please; my dear just stay
with me, I fear we both may not have much time left." She
pleaded, with sadness in her eyes. Grandpa didn't say another
word; instead he sat back on the floor next to her bed and held her
hand in his. As the loud crashing and banging around continued
outside you could actually see how much love grandma and
grandpa had for one another, as they stared endlessly into each
others eyes lost in memory.
Soon the noise subsided with the sound of whimpering that
seem to grow distant with every breath. "I will kill you the next time
you are in these mountains you demon." The deep voice said.
"Grandma." I said, scared to the core hearing all the ruckus from
outside. "Don't worry Mia; our friends are here and they are here
to help. You must trust them." She said, her voice becoming so
frail.
"Lana are you still there?" The deep voice said, from behind
the tent door. "Yes; I am my friend, please come in." She said, as
the tent door flew open and the head of a huge brown bear
suddenly appeared.
"Aaahhh." I screamed in total fear. "Oh, shut up girl, I won't
hurt you." He said, cringing at the sound of my scream. "I...I...I'm
sorry but your a bear." I said, quickly jumping onto the corner of
my grandmother's bed, backing away quickly. "I'm sorry my friend
but she hasn't had much time to learn about our allies." Grandma
laughed, in her ever growing frailness. Grandpa didn't move not
even a finger he just sat there staring at grandma. "Those demons
are gone, and I don't think they'll be back; the barricade is almost
complete." The bear said in his deep voice. "Good." Grandma
replied.
"We'll stay here until the time comes, that we are no longer
needed; but by looks of things we may be here longer than I
thought."
The bear said, as he pulled his head back out of the
tent. "Grandma that; that was a big bear; a big, talking bear." I
said, stumbling over my words as they left my mouth. "Yes dear,
and there is a black wolf, and a red stag too." She said, with a soft
smile. "Grandma are you ok? I asked softly.
"In due time Mia we will all have to go to be with the gods, but
as for me and your grandpa here, that time will come soon. Our
old body's cannot last forever you know." She said softly with a
smile.
She looked over at grandpa and held his stare before
looking back at me.
“Come here my Mia.”
She said motioning to
her lap.
I laid my head across her lap, and I could feel her and
grandpa stroking my hair. Suddenly we could hear footsteps
getting closer toward the camp. "Whoa." I heard Tucker say
startled; followed by a deep growl. "I guess Tucker just met your
friend." I chuckled. "Go on outside and tell them what happened.”
She said softly, with a quiet giggle. I stepped out of the tent to find
the huge brown bear sitting in front the door, blocking the way.
Tucker just looked at me with big round eyes not saying
anything. "Don't worry I freaked out." I said with a chuckle. The
bear looked at me with a snarl, and took a deep breath before
plopping himself down with a heavy thud, followed by a cloud of
dust, in front the tent door. I could feel a sudden breath of ease
from Tucker. "Where's everyone else?" I asked looking around.
"Right there." He said pointing to a large cleared path that
suddenly appeared. "Wow, cool did you do that?" I asked. "Yup."
He said proudly, as everyone came filing out of the forest.
Elder
Wolf came over to the bear and sat next to him, and although we
couldn't hear it, we could all tell that they were talking to each
other.
"This is weird, how they can talk to animals." Tucker said leaning
over toward me.
"Tell me about it, sometimes I can hear them talking too." I said
with a raised brow.
"So you're crazy too...oh gosh my sister nuts." He laughed. "Shut
up Tucker, that's not funny." I snapped.
"Hey; you better watch out or she'll burn you, literally."
Steve
laughed with a raised brow.
"Oh right I forgot about that." Tucker laughed back.
As the day slowly turned to evening, and the sun slowly
disappeared behind the mountain the air grew much, much colder.
Uncle Tom started to prepare dinner and it sure didn't smell very
good.
Grandma and grandpa didn't come out of the tent, and
oddly enough no one asked for them either. I went to the tent
where Elder Wolf and the bear still sat talking to each other. I
slipped past the bears huge body and went into the tent.
Grandma and grandpa were still in the same position,
grandma laid on the bed sleeping and grandpa sat at her side on
the floor.
"Grandpa, dinner's almost done." I said softly. "Oh, yeah
dinner. I almost forgot." He said, trying to hurry to stand up but he
too seemed so frail and out of energy; he had a very hard time
getting up. I helped him up by his arm, and he hurried out of the
tent, I just stood at the entrance looking at grandma.
"Oh no Thomas, what are you doing?" Grandpa snarled at
uncle Tom.
"Well; hey at least I'm trying. David's just sitting there
playing with his sticks. Uncle Tom argued back. "Move, move I'll
fix this." Grandpa said smelling the atrocious concoction on the
fire.
Everyone laughed as grandpa quickly pushed uncle Tom
away from the food, while shaking his head disappointed.
"Mia." Grandma called out. "Yes grandma." I said as I went
back to her bed side. "Soon my dear; your grandfather and I will
go to be with the gods, because it is now yours and your brothers
turn to take our place among the people of our tribes. We will give
our place in this world for you two to have yours." She said sadly.
"What no; you can't, none of you can." I demanded. "I've lost
you both once before grandma and I refuse to lose you again." I
said, as the warmth in my face grew and tears began to build in
my eyes. "I won't let you go grandma." I said, allowing the tears to
flow freely down my cheeks. "I'm sorry my dear Mia; my Mia, but
you don't have a choice."
She said softly.
She moved closer to the edge of the bed finding the small box
that was glowing earlier. She took out the golden canister which
held the scrolls. She pulled out one of the scrolls and turned it
over, showing me a blank piece of paper. "What is this, it's blank."
I said, wiping the tears from my eyes. "No; Mia it's not. Grab that
mirror over there and the bowl on the table." She said as she
pointed them out.
I got the mirror and the bowl, that had a little water in it from
the table, and sat back at her side. "Look again Mia." She said, as
she put her finger in the water and touched the paper. Words
began to slowly appear, as the water from her finger seeped into
the paper; but I couldn't make out what it said. I sat there with a
confused look on my face.
"Here." She said, as she took the
mirror and placed the paper in front of it. Slowly I could make out
some words:
You will follow the path laid in front of you by the light of the red
moon,
"Wow." I said, leaning back a little with an intrigued smile.
“This is a trick to these scrolls Mia, a trick that no one but me and
now you, know. You are not to show any one; not Jon or even
Tucker." She said, as she re-rolled the scrolls together and placed
them back into the canister. She handed me the mirror and the
canister with a smile. "This is now yours, this is the only mirror that
can show you the words." She said.
I grabbed them without a
questions and looked at her.
"I won't show a single soul." I agreed, sticking the canister
and mirror into a small pile of animal furs that were piled high near
her bed.
"Dinner is ready." Grandpa called out. "Mia you go and
eat, I'll be fine." She said, nodding toward the door. "Go ahead.
Mia remember I'll always love you; and I will always be there for
you, maybe not in the flesh but I will be there in spirit." She said
softly. "I will always love you my Mia.” She said again. "I'll be right
back after I'm done." I said, overwhelmed with sadness.
I stepped out of the tent and to my surprise the bear was
gone. I looked around, but the bear was nowhere to be found. "He
went to find his own food." Elder Wolf explained watching me look
around. I didn't say anything I just smiled at him.
"Hey you still up for that walk." Jon said with his hand on my
back as we got our food.
"Um, well." I started to say. "Mia, I'll be
here and so will your dad."
Grandpa said softly,
standing across
from Jon and I. "Go ahead, it'll be fine.
We're all gonna be here."
He repeated. 'We don't have too." Jon started to say but I cut him
off. "Yeah, why don't we go now." I said looking at the sky.
"Looks like the night sky is gonna be beautiful so why not." I
said, picking up a piece of fur from the side of my tent, and began
walking into the direction of the lake.
We walked along a long
wide quite path; eating our dinner not saying anything.
There
were no night animals, no sounds only the sound of our feet
dragging in the dirt beneath our feet. Soon we came to the lake.
We sat at the waters edge, and I put my feet in. I sat there
quite, feeling the cold flowing water around my toes, it felt really
good. Jon and I used to spend countless hours just sitting quietly
letting our thoughts run without even saying a single word, and it
