|
Escape From Manitou Island: Part 107 |
|
Wendigo Woes WINTER BORN AND Pakwa froze in midstep along the glacier trail. A rending scream cut through the air, echoing off the trees and mountainside; the two of them stood where they'd halted, eyes wide and mouths open. The scream died away--and immediately Winter Born had whirled around, and started racing back up the trail. "Hey--!" Pakwa had just enough time to exclaim, but she started scrambling at the loose gravel and earth, pulling herself along. She heard him scampering after her, and the thud of her own heart in her ears. The sight of Charmian as she'd last left her--seated beside the mountain, with her face pale and her ankle twisted--flashed in her mind, and then her eyes grew wider when she realized who she'd left her with. Pakwa was here with her to see her safely down the mountain for help. That meant she'd left Charmian alone with-- She sucked in a panicked breath and tried climbing faster. I shouldn't've left her alone with him!! He's probably eating her right now--!! Her mind started filing away curses to say to herself later, for such a foolish oversight; her mother would never have made such a mistake. Even her father wouldn't have. So how could she? She hastened up the slope and dashed around the curve of the trail, picking up a small smooth rock as she did so and hefting it in the air. She raised her hand to take aim and then froze again. Charmian still sat beside the mountain, but she was wide awake now, her knee bent up and her hands wrapped around her ankle. She was rocking back and forth, a grimace etched on her face and tears squeezing from her eyes. Her voice came out in a paper-thin whimper. "Ow...ow...ow...ow...!" Pakwa clambered to a halt beside Winter Born, panting, and they both stared at her for a moment in confusion, then turned to look at Augwak, who was busily stalking away from her, dusting his hands and scowling. "Should've just asked ME first!" he muttered, going and plopping himself down beneath the nearest pine tree and ignoring them. They stared at him for another moment--an oddly perplexed look on Pakwa's face--before Winter Born hurried over to Charmian and dropped down beside her. She looked down at her ankle and saw that, while it was still badly bruised, it was no longer so crooked; her brow furrowed and she tilted her head as Charmian continued rocking and whimpering. "Charmian...?" she asked softly, and reached down to gingerly run her fingers over it. Charmian winced and shuddered but Winter Born couldn't feel any broken bones. Her confusion grew. HE set it...? Not that long after, Charmian had managed to settle down some, though she couldn't stop making awful faces and letting out a small sound once in a while; Winter Born finished lacing the leather cord around the piece of wood and leather now attached to her leg, tying it tight. Charmian grimaced but tolerated it; Winter Born tucked in the loose ends and looked at her work as she bit her lip. "I hope I did it okay," she said. "Mother taught me how, but I've never had to make a splint before..." She pulled her hands away and Charmian gingerly extended her leg, stretching the knee a bit. "I think you did a good job," she said, her voice still thin. Her face was an unpleasant shade of gray, but at least she could think somewhat coherently again. "Do you think you'll be able to walk now...?" Winter Born asked as Pakwa poked around at the nearby rocks, Augwak still ignoring them. Charmian drew her leg back up. "Maybe, after I rest a little...ugh." She made a face and shivered. "I can be burned and kicked and slapped and punched and thrown into trees and rocks and water and stuff...but breaking bones...I don't think I'm ever going to get used to that." Winter Born stood up and put away some stray leather cords in her pouch as Pakwa came ambling back toward them. "Well...maybe Mudroot can help when we get back down to them? I bet she could do a better job than me..." She turned to look down at Pakwa as he held up his hand. "Oh!" Her face brightened and she plucked something from his fingers, kneeling beside Charmian's legs again. "I told Pakwa to go find some of this...Mother used to give it to me when I was little, and it would help take care of headaches and things...maybe it'll help a little too?" She started tucking little bits of what looked to be moss between the leather and Charmian's ankle, and even though it stung each time she did so, Charmian bit down her protests and let her finish. She really didn't think that a headache cure could help much for a broken ankle, but didn't have the heart to say so. "There," Winter Born said, kneeling back as Charmian stretched her leg again. "Feel better?" she asked hopefully. Charmian let out a breath and forced herself to nod. "Yeah...I think it did help a bit." Winter Born's face brightened again and Charmian put her hand against the mountainside, leaning forward and bracing herself with her good leg. The girl's smile instantly vanished as she hurried forward to place herself under Charmian's arm, supporting her weight as she pushed herself up. "Careful!" she said. "I think I'd need to get more moss if you walk on it!" "I think maybe I can lean on it just a little," Charmian said, biting her lip and testing it; she found that she could put a bit of weight on the ball of her foot, but not for long, and only a little bit, before her ankle started burning with pain. Before she could say anything, Winter Born was waving Pakwa forward, and the GeeBee placed himself at her other side, keeping his hand on her other leg so she wouldn't topple over. "Don't worry!" Winter Born promised. "With both of us here you won't fall over!" Charmian suppressed a sigh and started walking, albeit very slowly. She slowed down--such as it was--long enough to look over her shoulder at Augwak, who still sat beneath the pine tree, scowling off at nothing. "Augwak?" she called out. "You coming or not?" He turned his head and made an awful face at her. "Why SHOULD I?" he barked in return. Charmian blinked, then furrowed her brow. "I don't know--maybe--because if you head back down there, they'll probably burn you to a crisp--?" His face paled a little, then his scowl returned, but he got up and came after them, muttering the entire way. She waited until he'd caught up before starting to walk again. "Thanks for setting my ankle," she said. She expected a grumble at least, some sort of "fleshling" insult at most, which was why it surprised her so much when his head jerked up and he gave her the most venomous glare imaginable. "YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE SO DAMNED GRATEFUL ABOUT IT!!" he screamed, making them jump. "IT'S NOT LIKE I DID IT FOR YOU ANY! I JUST WANT MY MEDICINE BACK! STOP THANKING ME LIKE IT MEANS ANYTHING!!" And with that, he turned and stormed up the slope and out of sight, trails of pebbles cascading down behind him. The other three were left staring at the space he'd left behind, brows furrowed and mouths hanging open. Charmian blinked once or twice, then leaned on Winter Born again and resumed her climb. "Cripes," she murmured, confused. "What crawled up his butt!" "Why was his face turning all red like that?" Winter Born asked, perplexed. Charmian shrugged as best as she could. "Beats the hell out of me! Maybe he needs more food!" "Needs to be less picky," Pakwa suggested. "Would like a sweet over a fleshling any day." "That too," Charmian said. They again started moving upward. "Maybe Mudroot has something particularly disgusting that he can gnaw on..." They halted yet again when Augwak popped back into sight, barrelling down toward them and nearly knocking them over; he ducked behind Pakwa and started craning his neck, peering back up the trail, eyes wide and ears pricking. His breath came fast in his throat. Charmian scowled. "NOW what!" "Don't you SMELL that?!" he demanded, and took a big sniff. "The reek of it! It's EVERYWHERE! And it's HUGE!" He started shifting nervously from foot to foot. "It can't be what it smells like...!!" "Smells like what? Am I like the only person here who can't SMELL everything?!" Charmian exclaimed. "I don't really smell anything!" Winter Born offered. Pakwa sniffed at the air, then started bristling--at least, as much as a hairless being could bristle. He began growling and creeping back, Augwak creeping along with him. The other two stared at them in confusion for a moment before Charmian put her hand on her hip and gave them a foul look. "Come on, stupid! We're on a tight schedule here in case you forgot!" Pakwa looked up at her, seeming nervous himself. "Really can't smell it--?" he asked, just as a very deep, very low boom throbbed in their ears, and the ground trembled along with it. They all looked down now, and when the noise came again, Charmian could swear that she saw the pebbles dancing. Winter Born furrowed her brow. "What...what makes a noise like that?" The blood drained from Charmian's face. "I think I know," she managed to get out, feeling suddenly weak. She must have tensed her leg for running, as Winter Born grasped onto her harder--and they all stared up the trail in anxious dread as the booming noises grew closer, the mountain itself quaking, sending little hunks of ice and rock tumbling with each reverberation. Charmian blinked when something pointed appeared over the rise in the distance--then a gigantic head followed it, its long ears quivering, its positively gargantuan eyes scanning the glacier before focusing on the trail the small group stood upon. Charmian's own eyes felt like they were about to fall out, and the other three looked about the same. The yellow moons staring at them narrowed and then the head rose to reveal a mouthful of teeth longer than human arms and sharper than knives, and a fetid, icy breath blasted over them, an awful rattling sound accompanying it. Charmian dug her fingers into Winter Born's arm. "RUN!!" she thought she screamed, though it came out more as a panicked whisper-scream--either way, she barely needed to say it, as at that instant all four of them were running, even her on her injured ankle. They bolted to the left, as nothing but mountain arose to the right; the bulk of the smaller mountain rose off ahead of them, yet between it was the glacier, and small scattered stands of pines and tumbled boulders. Patches of snow littered the ground here and there and their feet slipped numerous times as they ran, yet they pressed on, when the gigantic Wendigo reared up and came thudding after them, its shadow looming over them taller than a skyscraper. Its breath was a hundred times worse than that of Pauguk, the giant ghost skeleton who kept watch over the Spirit Road; Charmian gagged as the stink filled the air. Winter Born had a hand clasped over her nose and mouth. "Charmian! Is--is that a Wendigo--?" she cried, her voice coming out thin and nasal. "No, stupid, it's a PUPPY DOG!" Augwak screamed. "OF COURSE IT'S A WENDIGO!!" They vaulted over a boulder and went sliding down the decline behind it. "But why's it so big?!" Winter Born yelled, the four of them clambering to their feet and running again. The rock rose in crags around them and they started scanning these desperately, seeking shelter. "That's what they ALL used to be like!!" Charmian shouted back. "When they were REALLY powerful!!" Pakwa landed in front of them--Charmian and Winter Born gasped and halted immediately, not even knowing where he'd just come from--and he waved and pointed toward the smaller mountain. "Little space over there! Can run in and--" A frigid gale suddenly blasted over them, toppling some nearby trees and making Charmian and Winter Born scream and cling to each other like barnacles. Charmian's head popped up and she looked to see the giant Wendigo stomping in their direction again. She finally got a good look at it now, and could see that it mostly resembled Pakwa and Augwak in basic form, having the same pointed ears and owlish eyes and gangly limbs which stuck out every which way, and it wore the exact same grin that Augwak used to wear whenever he was the one doing the threatening; but it was even bigger than he had been when he'd regained his full powers from Chakenapok--which meant it was even bigger than Sugar Loaf Rock itself--and its skin was pale blue, the color of ice. When it lifted one hand she saw that its claws were long and ragged and white, stained with dirt and other things she didn't want to think about, and its teeth were yellow and glinted in the dim light. Its breath rasped out between them and she saw that, unlike Augwak or the GeeBees, its body seemed to be covered with a thin layer of long scraggly white hair, which covered it as well as the GeeBees' tattered clothes covered them. The hair ended at its knees and elbows and lower chest, leaving the rest of it bare--but that was all she got to see before she felt Winter Born tugging frantically on her arm. "Come on, Charmian!" she cried. "We have to move!!" Charmian stared into the giant's eyes for a second, then shook herself out of it and shoved Winter Born away. The girl tumbled to the ground, blinking at her with a look of mixed hurt and surprise. Charmian jerked a hand at her. "Get going!! Augwak and I'll try to hold it off!!" "WHAT?!" Augwak screamed, flailing his arms like a monkey. "I barely have any powers, FOOL!!" "As if I'd leave her with you!" Charmian snapped back, waving at Pakwa. "You've had enough powers to look out for me all the REST of this time!" His face started going brilliant red. "So shut up and start using them NOW if you ever want to get the REST of them back!!" Augwak gawked at her, then his eyes welled up but he bared his teeth and whirled away. "Selfish brat!!" He threw up both hands. "Watch me DIE just because you dote on that pathetic SCRAP back there!!" Oh, shut up, Charmian thought, but didn't say it. She held up her own hands, seeing and feeling the fire go spinning up over her fingers before sending it out in as big a fireball as she could muster. Augwak hurled a gust of wind lined with glinting ice darts, one attack going for the head, one for the chest. They both struck the Wendigo, but it brushed them away as if they were mosquitoes, and Charmian's mouth fell open as Augwak collapsed in a gasping muddle. She whirled to glare at him. "You mean that's ALL you've got?!" He shook his fist at her. "UNTIL YOU GET MY DAMNED MEDICINE BACK, THEN YES!!" "Charmian--!" Winter Born called out, just as Pakwa scooped her up and went flying away with her. The Wendigo opened its mouth and blew out another gale which slammed into the two, sending them spinning; Charmian gritted her teeth and, bracing herself against a boulder for support, stomped her good foot against the ground as hard as she could. "EARTH!" She worried that nothing would happen--so when the ground quaked and then split open, she was relieved, though she did have to hurry to scramble backwards to avoid falling in. The Wendigo backed away a step as well, seeming surprised, though this didn't deter it long; its great yellow eyes narrowed and it stomped forward again, a rumbling growl escaping its throat and making her bones throb. She took advantage of this tiny delay by hurling another fireball directly at its eye. It made contact, and the Wendigo halted, its head jerking back as it let out a horrific scream ten times as loud as Kenu's, boulders breaking loose from the mountain and rolling away down the glacier. Charmian grimaced and nearly fell over, but blinked when a shadow fell over her; her own head jerked up and her eyes goggled when she saw a gargantuan hand coming right down at her. Her mind went entirely blank, but for one thought, like a tiny scribble on the endless black ocean of a chalkboard. Pancake--? "STUPID FOOL IDIOT MORON FLESHLING!!" Augwak's voice screeched in her ear. "MOVE IT ALREADY!!" She blinked again. Then would have yelled, except that the breath vanished from her lungs; she felt something gouging into her arms and would have fought it had she been able. Instead she found herself suddenly sailing through midair, and she glanced from side to side and then up again, brow furrowing in bewilderment. The Wendigo was looking directly at her with its good eye, nostrils flaring--she could have climbed up in one had she wanted--and teeth bared. It lifted its hand and swung it through the air at her as if to swat her like a bug, but she jerked to the side and it missed, sending another gust of wind sailing down into the little valley created by the glacier. Charmian twisted her head to look down but could no longer see Pakwa or Winter Born, and wondered where they were. She then noticed the claws digging into her arm and furrowed her brow again, then looked up. Augwak was the one carrying her, just as he had at the Thunderbird battle. His teeth were gritted and she could have sworn that he'd gone a shade paler--she could see his shoulders shaking--but he managed to hold up as he carried her up and along the glacier and past the smaller mountain. The bigger mountain kept going on--but they didn't manage to make it all the way to the back of it before the GeeBee started bobbing and weaving, gasping for breath, and Charmian sucked in one of her own and clung to his arm. "NOT HERE!!" she yelled in panic. "Take us DOWN first!!" "Wh--wh--what do you--think I'm--TRYING to do--?!" Augwak wheezed, gliding down toward a stand of pines. Charmian readied herself for a hard landing--when another gust of wind buffeted them, sending them both whirling through the air with a startled yell. Augwak let go and Charmian didn't even have time to cry out before she'd landed facefirst in a drift of snow; a cracking and then thudding noise came from nearby, and she assumed it was Augwak's landing. She managed to lift her head a little to avoid suffocating, but it was spinning, and her ankle was throbbing anew, and she felt like throwing up now, to boot. When she tried to focus on the trees ahead of her, she saw that the snow all around her was glowing brilliant powder blue, and the trees were shocking emerald green, and she somehow knew that that, at least, wasn't from her vision. "Ooh," she croaked, then let her head drop back into the snow. It was chilling, but at least it deadened her nerves. Best to just let it pass. Holy cripes I'm getting soft. She decided not to bother fighting it this time. She could hear the dull boom of the Wendigo's footfalls, but they didn't seem to be drawing closer...and that was good enough for her. She had a rather odd sense of déjà vu, of her tumble with Walks-On-The-Shore in the Iroquois land, before things faded into black and she rather preferred it that way. She found herself opening her eyes what seemed to be a moment later, and blinked, realizing that she didn't hurt whatsoever. Everything was hazy at first, until she furrowed her brow a little bit and then called out, "Chakenapok...?" The mist before her lit up slightly and his wavery figure appeared, solidifying as he took a step or two toward her. She peered around again. Nice trick. "So I'm unconscious?" she asked. He got a rather odd look and lifted a shoulder. "You mean you aren't sure?" He wrinkled his nose a little. "I'm rather glad that you called me and not that Red Swan." "Oh!" Charmian blinked, eyes growing. "What happened to her--?" "I merely nudged her away a little bit. She's fine. Confused, but fine." He seemed to shrug, but she could tell that the gesture was more irritation than indifference, judging by the sour look on his face. "I do not trust her and I do not think you should, either." "That dream I had," Charmian blurted out, and her mouth fell open. "You gave me that--?" "The Dreamspinner did." "The Red Swan--?" "No. The Dreamspinner." Charmian fell silent for a moment or so. "Tal Natha?" she said at last; when he didn't correct her, her confusion grew. "You mean you blocked out the Red Swan so you could channel him through to me...?" Another pause, then she took in a breath. "You bypassed her," she said. "You didn't WANT her knowing you sent me that dream! Geezhigo-Quae said she saw you in her Tree!" She clenched her fists. "What the hell's going on here, Chakenapok--? If I'm supposed to trust you then what are you trying to tell me--?" "She knew you had been to see the Sky Mother," Chakenapok said with a scowl. "Remember? And she'll find some way to find out what you've said here. So shut your mouth! It's up to YOU to figure out what that meant. If I tell you, she'll hear." He fell silent and took a breath and let it out; she felt a bit of surprise to see that he was apparently trying to calm himself down somewhat. "My only purpose here was to tell you to watch yourself and your thoughts around her. She already knows I distrust her, so this is nothing new. But keep your dream to yourself. And figure it out on your own." "Gee. Thanks," Charmian said dryly. There was an awkward pause, then she blinked, remembering where she was. "Chakenapok!" she said, abruptly enough to startle him. "I wanted to ask for your advice." "Advice...?" He frowned. She nodded. "For dealing with Kabebonikka." He seemed even more perplexed so she went on. "I was told that he likes to think of everything in terms of a game," she explained. "So I thought maybe you could help me understand how to deal with him better." A strange look came to his face, half rueful, half spiteful. "I have left that behind me," he murmured. "Surely you know this." Charmian hastened to nod. "I know! But...you still remember it, right?" She clasped her hands together. "I just think you could be really helpful if you clued me in as to how he might think. So we know how to deal with him." "I can only suggest to you the one thing you didn't do when you fought against me," Chakenapok said, and she gave him a questioning look. "Think of it as a game yourself," he said. "This is the best and only way to figure him out." "Oh." Charmian bit her lip thoughtfully. It was true...she hadn't really thought of her last fight as a game by any means, and the mere idea had offended her. Still...if it could help... "Okay, then. I'll try." She took a step back, feeling a dull throb start to enter her head and ankle. "Thanks, Chakenapok." "Remember to watch over your dream," Chakenapok said, and she nodded, before her vision of him faded away and she found herself staring up at something dull and gray and lumpy. She frowned a little, then tried blinking the blur from her eyes. As soon as she did, she couldn't help the grimace that spread across her face, and lifted one hand to rub at her forehead. "Ugh," she murmured, wishing that she had some aspirin. Then--"Ow!"--she wished that she had some for her ankle, too. A shifting noise came from somewhere behind her. She blinked a few more times to see that she seemed to be lying in a tunnel or cave entrance, the rock gouged out roughly around her. She put her hand down and it dug not into stone, but fur. Her brow furrowed. Fur--? A shadow fell over her and she blinked once more to clear her hazy eyes. And found herself staring up into the face of the stone-throwing man from before. |