The Unwanted Winter - Volume One of the Saga of the Twelves (53 page)

It searched over the five
of them as it came closer, its’ nose flaring as it snuffed at their
scents, committing them to memory.

“
Why are you so far from
the sanctuary, girl? I told you to stay behind and guard it, to
keep it secret!” growled Kodiak at the other creature, obvious
disgusted. “How many times have we been told how important are
these children? They are the saviors of their kind. How many times,
my daughter, have we been told we must always put their care above
all else?”

“
I know,
mother! I know! Trust me. I have been planning for this day for a
long, long time. There is no way I could
ever
forget the importance of these
magnificent children. But, circumstances changed since you were
away,” replied the other bear-dog.

“
Oh, really, how?”
Kodiak’s thick brows arched.

“
I saw two other children
running from the fell minions of the Storm Lord just down the road.
They were in need of aid. Since I couldn’t offer assistance to them
alone, I came to see if I could find you and the others. We need to
help them.” Although, its’ voice was low and gruff, Mikalah could
tell it was resoundingly feminine in her ears. If Kodiak hadn’t
alluded to its’ gender already, she would’ve figured it out soon
enough.

“
Sorry, my child, I spoke
hastily, but did you say there are two others? Do you mean children
such as these?” asked Kodiak in a rush.

The four of them exchanged
surprised glances between them, but otherwise stayed quiet,
listening.

Two more children? Could
we have found more of the twelve kids supposedly here, already,
this fast? That would be awesome!
Mikalah’s eyes were riveted to the other bear-dog.

“
Yes, mother, but where
are our brothers-at-arms?”

“
They still engage the
enemy, but should be following soon, if everything has gone
according to plan,” responded the larger creature. “But please,
daughter, what can you tell me of the enemy? What are their
numbers? Where are the children of whom you speak?”

“
There are just a handful,
mother,” replied the younger bear-dog. “If we are to find them we
must range along the small path ahead.”

“
Good, lead the way,
daughter. May your nose be true! We’ll track down these miscreants
and save the children before anything bad happens to
them.”

At once, they were off
again, down what was left of Avenue 64 and made a left onto what
should’ve been La Loma. It was no more than a three-foot wide
pathway now, zigzagging through trees, bushes and boulders, as it
angled upward and out of sight.

They had run on the
smaller track for only a few moments when Anthony suddenly gasped,
so loud all of his companion’s heads swiveled to make sure he was
ok.

Mikalah could easily read
the shock on his face.

Yet, it was what he said
in the next second that sent shock throughout hers.

“
Kenai… is that
you?”

The lead bear-dog just
turned to peer behind back at him. It was only for a stride or two,
but Mikalah saw, as plainly as the snow falling through the trees,
the beast had winked at her brother. A small smirk had pulled at
one side of its’ mouth and no more. She resumed leading them
through what looked like the beginnings of a true
forest.

Kenai, her brother’s dog,
lost for nearly half a decade, had come back…?

…
Or had we found
her?

~~~~~~~~<<<<<<{ ☼
}>>>>>>~~~~~~~~

Kenai

Day One, Thursday,
Immediately Thereafter…

Since the trail was too
small for them to run side-by-side, they ran in single file. Kenai
in the lead, followed by Anthony, then Andrew, and finally Kodiak
with the girls perched on her back, each with a double-fist full of
her fur. Anthony trotted behind Kenai lost in thought as they
continued up the winding trail. It had been a paved road almost
twenty feet wide in the world he was from. He paid it no mind. His
mind was elsewhere, meandering somewhere back in time.

He’d been Elena’s age when
he had jumped into the front passenger seat of his grandmother’s
car. It was a Friday like so many other Fridays in the past. He
remembered he’d been excited, eager to get his weekend started –
the video games, the cartoons, the continuous building, breaking
and re-building of his Lego’s. All of it was ahead of him with no
bedtime or busy schedule or alarm clock in the morning. He used to
take full advantage of his weekends back then, completely indulgent
in childhood adventures and not have a care in the
world.

He’d been about to give
his grandmother an enthusiastic hello when his eyes fell on her
face. Instantly, he knew she’d been crying. At once, his thoughts
of playtime popped like a soup bubble. His full attention was on
his grandmother.

“
What’s wrong, Grandma?”
he had asked wanting to make her feel better, but a little wary of
her answer just the same.

“
I have something to tell
you, Anthony, but first, I want you to know that I’m sorry,” she
replied. Suddenly, she burst into tears.

He’d been totally shocked.
He felt his guarded feeling melt into something else. He had been
downright scared.
“Why, what happened?”
He’d been surprised at how small his voice sounded in his own
ears.

“
Tony, I’m so sorry, but
Kenai busted through the back fence last night and ran away,” she
said quickly, like she was taking off a Band-Aid. Do it quick, get
it done and over with. Don’t prolong the pain more than was
necessary.

He’d sat there taken
aback. Her reply had been the furthest thing from his mind, but,
her reaction to it had truly frightened him. He was almost relieved
it hadn’t been something worse, maybe involving his parents. It
took him a few seconds before he made the connection. Kenai was his
dog, his responsibility. Now she was gone and on the streets, where
just about any bad thing could happen to her. Aside from posting
fliers around the neighborhood, there was very little he could’ve
done about it.

The drive to his
grandmother’s house, though short in distance, had seemed long. He
couldn’t help but reminisce about the only dog he’d been able to
call his own. She’d been a puppy when he had first met her. Only
six weeks old, she was already beautiful. He couldn’t remember all
of the details, but he knew one day his grandmother had gone out
looking for a dog at the local dog pound. After a few hours, she’d
come back with Kodiak and six puppies, one of which was Kenai. When
the pups had grown large enough to leave their mother, his
grandmother had told him, he could keep one for his own. He’d
chosen Kenai. The other five puppies had gone back to the dog
pound, where other families adopted them within hours.

That was the day Anthony
began his caring for his first dog. She’d only been his for three
years at the time, before the day she had run away.

When they arrived at his
grandmother’s house, he had gone to the back yard, to fence at the
back and looked at the pair of wooden planks she had pushed apart
from their nails in the fence. Between them, she’d been able to
squeeze through the fence. The first thought that had come to mind
was he’d wondered what she was doing right then. His second was he
hoped she was ok. He sat down on a random cinder block and had
cried, alone and away from his grandmother and his uncle, who were
both in the house at the time. Even back then, he’d been private
with his innermost emotions.

Through the years, when he
asked about this day, Anthony always said he hadn’t cried, because
no one had been around to see him. But, on that day, when the hurt
was fresh in his mind, he had. He’d chosen, instead, not to think
of it again. He stored it away, deep in a mental filing cabinet and
had locked the drawer. Over time, it was like it had never
happened.

Until now, after all of
this time, the memories came flooding back to the surface and he
was amazed at the thought that she, Kenai, would still be alive.
She would be here, having made this incredible journey with him,
from one world to another. He couldn’t help it, despite all else,
he felt like the luckiest sixteen-year-old kid alive. His old
friend was still
alive!

They had just come to the
point where the trail had reached its’ highest point on the hill.
It was still lower than the true zenith of the long, gently-sloping
hill they’d gradually been climbing. The pathway here ran only
about a hundred feet flat before it began its’ downward leg on the
other side of the hill, a much steeper portion following where La
Loma Road had once been.

Kenai’s trotting slowed to
a walk and the stopped altogether.

Anthony looked around to
see what was going on, but all he could see was rocks, trees, and
bushes and, of course, snow was everywhere. He scowled at the lack
of the familiar houses he knew should’ve been there. Atop the hill,
they’d been crammed together like sardines. It was a meadow now,
stretching far and wide, a thousand-year-old forest, as if there’d
never been a city named Los Angeles in the first place.

“
What is it, my daughter?”
inquired Kodiak sniffing the air for threats. Her eyes darted back
and forth over the various forms of plant life.

“
We are close, mother. We
must use caution from this point forward,” replied Kenai in a more
subdued tone, dipping her nose to the snow-strewn ground, gathering
in a multitude of scent - inspecting, searching. “We must make
certain we do not run headlong into anything
unpleasant.”

Kodiak looked back at
Anthony’s sisters. “It might be best if you two little ones climb
down for the moment. I might need my full range of movement. Such
violent action would most definitely knock you to the ground, and
we wouldn’t want that now would we?”

The girls shook their
heads in unison. They let go of the large animal’s fur.

Both of the boys helped
them get down as Kodiak was nearly as tall as a large pony at the
shoulder. Each of them placed a little lady on the ground at either
side of the bear-dog. Kodiak gave herself a great shake, resettling
her coat into a more natural form and then stepped toward
Kenai.

“
They are close, mother,”
mentioned Kenai upon her mother’s approach.

“
Where did you see them
last, Kenai?” implored the larger bear-dog.

“
I was slightly ahead of
them on this very trail before I went after you, so they should be
around here somewhere. Although, I cannot get a single whiff of
them at the moment,” she said this, beginning to sniff the ground
in ever-larger rings around where her and her mother
stood.

Kodiak watched for a
second. She turned toward Anthony. “Maybe we should get the girls
out of plain sight?”

“
Good idea,” he agreed,
motioning to Andrew.

He stepped over, stomping
on the snow as he went, trying to warm himself. His inadequate
outerwear allowed the cold to seep in the moment he stopped moving
about. “Drew, find a hiding place for the girls and stay with them,
while the rest of us look around for a bit.” Anthony could see the
other was about to protest, so he added, “Dude, you are bigger and
stronger than me. In a one on one fight, they’d stand a better
chance with you than with me, ok?”

Andrew considered this for
a moment, then smiled. “Well, when you put it that way, it does
make sense.” He turned from Anthony. He motioned for the girls to
follow him up the one of the small rises, sloping upward from the
small level area they’d mounted the shoulder of the hill. He swung
back around after three steps, looking at Anthony with a huge grin
on his face. “Wimp!” he taunted.

The girls walked passed
him, holding hands, occasionally wiping at their eyes. They kept
tearing up in the cold.

He didn’t wait for Anthony
to respond. The three of them vanished from sight through the
foliage.

“
What a dweeb,” Anthony
said quietly to himself, and then made his way toward Kodiak, who
was still sniffing the air.

Kenai continued chuffing
at the ground.