The Unwanted Winter - Volume One of the Saga of the Twelves (49 page)

My daughter is
beautiful!

The smaller bear-dog
streaked up the trail, head lowered as she ran with all she could
muster. Her own excitement was plainly visible to her mother, who
smiled a very human-like smile at the other’s approach. Ten feet
away the younger creature stopped and sniffed the air, her own grin
nearly as wide.

“
It has a long time,
mother,” she said, her voice like a river of gravel, deep and
rich.

“
Too long, my darling
daughter,” echoed the larger. Her voice was deeper, almost below
the register of human hearing. If there’d been humans around to
hear.

That was all it took.
Mother and daughter rushed each other, came together and touched
their chests against the other, their heads resting upon the
other’s shoulder and back, locked fiercely in a canine embrace.
They stood, leaned slightly against one another, hearing the
beating of their great hearts, the steady repetition of their
breathing. They remained that way, for a time, reacquainting
themselves to their “selves”, reforming the intimate physical bonds
they’d established the moment one had birthed the other. The mental
ones had never severed. They were as strong as they’d been the day
they were separated, over five years ago.

Then, it was
time!

There would be no
lingering reunion between the two of them.

She stepped back from her
daughter, who nodded in silent agreement.

The Fist must
form…

…
that was when the great
bear-dog, reared back her massive head and howled into the dawn of
their first day together in the Melded World.

~~~~~~~~<<<<<<{ ☼
}>>>>>>~~~~~~~~

Bound

Day One, Thursday, What
Felt Like Only an Hour Later, but was Actually Much
Longer…

It was dark and cold. He
was laying on something hard, unyielding. Somewhere, in front of
him, there was a flicker of light. Though he couldn’t gauge the
distance, it drew his attention all the same. He tried to open his
eyes, to see more clearly, but his head exploded with pain. He
squeezed them shut against it and chose to stay still, do nothing,
until the hurt diminished, allowing him to think
clearer.

He knew he was still
dressed in his winter coat and still wore his fingerless gloves
with the skulls on the backs. The only part of him that was chilled
were his fingertips. He turned to face away from the unsteady
light, trying to open his eyes for a second time, hoping the
darkness would be kinder to him. There was some pain, but it was
manageable. So, he laid there unmoving, letting his eyes adjust to
his new surroundings.

After a minute or two, he
could make out two small, slumped figures piled atop one another,
stacked like wooden logs alongside someone’s house. Another minute
passed before he realized what he was looking at – his sisters,
Elena and Mikalah - both of them were still unconscious. In the
waning light, he was relieved he could make out they both were
breathing and seemed no worse for the wear.
Well, at least we’re together
, he
though, hoping that circumstance wouldn’t change in the near
future.

All of them were bound.
Thick ropes were tied about their hands and feet, but their captors
had tied them to allow for a degree of movement. Testing his bonds,
he knew he’d be able to change position if the need arose. He could
probably shuffle, but he couldn’t run, or at least not very fast.
He’d most likely end up on his ass, if he tried.

Anthony glanced around
some more, taking note of the rough stone walls and ceiling. It
dawned on him, they were in some sort of cave or mine shaft, which
accounted for the hard floor. He slowly picked up his head from the
floor to see what lie beyond his sisters. He found only
darkness.

He waited a few moments
longer. Once again, he attempted to look in the opposite direction
where the lighting was better, trying to ascertain the severity of
their predicament. He was still partially blind. Everything was
blurred at a distance, but the pain had receded to a dull ache
behind his eyes. He could just barely make out a few figures
clustered around the opening of the tunnel-like structure they were
within. Beyond the opening was the bright light of morning. Anthony
sucked in his breath in surprise. They’d been in their respective
stupors for much longer than he’d anticipated. His body was telling
him it was still night, but now that he’d seen the rays of the sun,
he knew otherwise. They’d been sleeping for at least twelve
hours!

He stared back at the
figures silhouetted against the day’s early light. He could see one
was seated, while the rest stood, all of them talking in a guttural
version of English he could barely understand. It sounded worse
than the cockneyed accents he’d heard on a popular British movie
he’d watched a few weeks prior.

“…
the rest of the Fists
are mustering, my Lord Fenris, and are off to the south, headed
this way. All of the scouts have returned except the six we sent to
the north, but they should be back shortly. All of the returned
scouts have reported all the same, there is nothing to report.
There is no human movement or habitation of any kind in the
immediate area.”

Anthony could now discern,
though his vision was still weakened, the figures standing were all
Swüreg warriors. That meant, the seated figure had to be Fenris. He
was the figure perched atop a boulder of some size, jutting from
the living rock itself.

His gauntleted hands
resting on his knees, he appeared in complete control, his
arrogance bled into the air around him. “Good, Band Sergeant, I
want this
precious cargo
taken to the site where the encampment is to be
built as planned. I want it done to perfection. We cannot afford to
make any mistakes, the Lord of the Light is cunning and a brilliant
strategist at the least. He has surely left something here to foil
our plot. I can feel it, there is more to this combined place than
we initially anticipated. The balance of the natural order demands
it.

“
Besides, he has always
done so in the past. He will do so now. Remember, we have absolute
knowledge of only four of the twelve Guardians of the World of Man.
It is vital we collect the rest of them quickly, before they garner
an inkling of where they are and why. We need them put under guard
and kept them as ignorant as possible.

“
Therefore, be swift in
your actions, but not too quick you overlook some small detail that
could doom us all.” Fenris pounded his metal encased fists
emphatically against his knees as he spoke with his slippery
lisp.

Anthony let the
information sink in and stayed his thoughts. It was suddenly no
longer important he had lost his sense of time.
Twelve of them! Guardians?!?
he
exclaimed to himself.
The Lord of the
Light? Who was Fenris talking about? Why did they have to remain
ignorant? What was that all about? What was he talking
about?

Where the hell were they?
What the hell was going on?

“
As you command, my Lord
Fenris,” the Swüreg spoke and moved off as Fenris waved him and the
others away.

Anthony stayed on the
floor unmoving, watching, letting his vision return. Already, he
could see they weren’t in a mineshaft at all. Rather, they were in
a cave, naturally hollowed through the ragged rock. He assumed it
was of some significant size, because he hadn’t been able to see
the back of it when he’d looked earlier. It must go back too far
for the light to reach its deepest environs.

He and his sisters were
lying on the floor of the cave, the floor having been smoothed
somehow over the years, so only small irregularities remained upon
its relatively level surface. There were no natural features upon
it anymore.

He glanced at the prone
bodies of his sisters once more and was glad to see, they were
beginning to stir. Their tiny arms and legs moved slowly in the
wavering light. He reached out slowly to them. His hand came to
rest upon one ankle, then the other. He squeezed slightly. It was
an old “hide and seek” signal they’d used many, many times before.
A silent message saying: “Be quiet, don’t move.”

As each of his sisters
became evermore aware, they’d begun to struggle against their own
infirmities. The moment they felt Anthony’s telling clutch, they
quieted and moved slowly into more comfortable positions without
making any sound. Ever so slightly, they re-positioned themselves
and came to face the same direction Anthony was looking. As quietly
as he could, he motioned to them, quietly reassuring them, all was
as well as it was going to be. For the moment, all they needed to
do was make no sound… and watch.

“
Tony, it hurts to look in
the light,” whispered Elena, stating the obvious in her tiniest
voice.

“
Just give it some time,
Ellie, and it will go away,” began Anthony, his voice a quivering
wisp of air. His ears strained, listening if any of the others had
heard their voices. “Stay where you are and just be
still.”

A few feet away, he felt
Mikalah relax as if his words had the exact effect on her. She’d
always been the better listener. The trait was proving its’ worth
at this very moment. Mikalah knew how to wait and bide her
time.

As if to let him know she
was on the same page, Mikalah’s small hand clasped his pinky finger
in a quick, desperate clutch and then let go. Anthony knew she
wasn’t about to let their enemies know she was conscious and
functional. He knew her head probably hurt like hell from the clout
Fenris had given her the night before, and still, she had the
gumption to stay quiet and not complain.

As he lay there in the
semi-dark of the cave, he smiled. For the first time in his life,
he was truly proud to be the brother of these brave, resilient
little women. He knew then, as certain as he had ever known the sky
was blue and the sea was green, these little girls would always be
by his side, fighting. He wouldn’t let the moment pass this time,
as he had so many times in the past.

“
Be brave, ladies,” he
whispered, trying to force some degree of confidence into his tone,
which was difficult. It was hard to convey anything with feeling
while having to speak as low as he could manage and still be able
to communicate. “I will find us a way out of this bullshit mess, I
promise. I will.”

“
Ok.”, “Ok.” They replied,
a fraction of a second apart, both of their voices trembling with
fear, but not with hysteria. They were under control.

Anthony was
grateful.

He turned back toward the
entrance of the cave, moving only his head as slow as possible. His
vision was near normal now. He could see a few yards beyond the
stone portal, but not much further than that. It was snowing
outside, earnestly, a steady downpour, large and flaky, so constant
he was certain he couldn’t have seen much further through it with
full visual acuity at his disposal. Other than the snow, he could
only make a few vague tree-like objects and not much else. It was
all too bright and reflective. His eyes couldn’t penetrate
beyond.

It’s a whiteout beyond the
entrance to the cave. I can’t see a damned thing!

He continued to lay prone,
his sisters curled up against his back, facing in the same
direction, but hiding their faces, concentrating on their breathing
instead. Six or seven minutes passed when Anthony saw the same
Swüreg warrior, or maybe it was another. They were hard to tell
apart. He approached Fenris and stated in a clipped, military
sounding voice. “Inghëldir comes from the west with the fourth
child, my Lord. The Isighünd, Jätung, guards their rear, though
nothing follows from behind. They have made their way here in
secret as you have commanded.”

Anthony’s brow
furled.
The fourth child, what did they
mean by that? Who was this fourth child?

“
Very well,” replied
Fenris, not moving a muscle, still seated upon the rocky
formation.

Anthony was surprised to
see the man-wolf was staring back at them from some forty feet
distant. His eyes were dancing over them as they lay on the ground
at the middle of the cave. He titled his head in a very canine-like
fashion and sniffed the air above his head. The Swüreg was about to
make his leave, but Fenris stopped him, announcing, “It appears as
though our
guests
are stirring from their various ailments…”