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Escape From Manitou Island: Part 183 |
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(DISCLAIMER: This part, and all parts hereafter, are works in progress (WIPs) and have not been proofread or checked for plot inconsistencies. I've decided to present them "as is" for now, as there is a significant amount of unfinished material; yet this story has been on hiatus for a long while, I've forgotten certain details, and I have no plans to resume work on it any time soon. Please keep in mind while reading that details may change in the future. Should you spot an inconsistency, however, please feel free to point it out to me for possible correction.)
THE MELTDOWN "WINTER BORN!" CHARMIAN'S eyes shot open and she sucked in a startled breath at hearing the distant call in the midst of the roaring wind manitous. She saw Moon Wolf tense, and Thomas's own eyes go wide, and realized that she wasn't the only one shocked to hear a familiar voice. When she whirled around, the reactions of several of the others, Stick-In-The-Dirt and Black Elk Horn among them, told her that she hadn't imagined it after all. "That--" Her voice came out in a croak. "Was that--Silver Eagle Feather--?" "She--she didn't follow us somehow, did she--?" Thomas exclaimed. "She's supposed to be back on the Island!" Moon Wolf said, seeming just as confused. "How would she reach us after all this way--?" Barrington reached us. Black Elk Horn reached us, Charmian thought feverishly, and took a few jogging steps toward the chaos swirling around Winter Born. Until now, the little girl had done an amazing job of fending off Kabebonikka's wind manitous, at least judging by the horrible mess in the snow--it looked like a war zone--and the jubilant cries that the others had been letting out. Now that her name had been called, however, her eyes were open again, and she was blinking at the milling wind manitous in confusion. They were no longer attacking, but instead paced back and forth, back and forth, occasionally breaking apart here and there and re-forming again, their eyes flashing malevolently and gusts spurting from their noses. "M...Mother...?" Winter Born said tentatively. Charmian abruptly stood straight and threw out her mental net. She did so without preparing herself, and so to feel all the others so close around her, including the massive windlings, shocked her senses at first, and Thomas had to steady her to keep her from falling. She quickly shrugged off the feeling and sought Silver Eagle Feather's presence, prying high and low, left and right, desperate to find something to explain whatever she'd just heard. The medicine woman was one of the wisest people she knew. If anybody from the Island could find a way to follow them all the way out here, it would be her. If she was there... She's part Ocryx--probably the most powerful one--she has ALL KINDS of powers! I wanted to ask her along in the first place, but with White Coyote and everything, I never got the chance--if she followed us--she could help us for sure...! She was so intent on finding her that the strangeness of the situation didn't immediately strike her, and it was only when she came up wanting that she slowly opened her eyes, brow furrowing, to stare at the windlings. She blinked a few times. "She's...she's not there. She's not anywhere. I can't feel her." "I know I heard her voice," Thomas said, though he also seemed to be growing doubtful. "It was likely the wind," Moon Wolf said. "Remember the Wintermaker's not above trying all sorts of tricks! Why not call up her voice if it suits him--?" "Winter Born!" the voice called again, and Winter Born let out a little gasp and a jump. Stick-In-The-Dirt, several paces away, quailed and pulled out his turtle-shell rattle and started shaking it. Black Elk Horn craned his neck and squinted at the manitous for a moment before something that he saw made his face go nearly white. Charmian, noticing this, whirled to look at the windlings herself. There was a small break in the crowd, and a whirlwind was revealed, still spinning despite the fact that its fellows had changed shape long before. It didn't possess ice blades, however, and as Charmian watched, it grew semitransparent, and she could make out a vague form within it. She couldn't tell what this was until something suddenly jutted out of the whirlwind's side, but it wasn't a shard of ice. It was a human hand, and it clawed at the air a second before another one joined it, then the two started scrabbling and tearing at the front of the whirlwind itself, gouging open a small hole. Something looked out and Charmian stiffened in shock as Winter Born jumped and let out a squeak. "Winter Born!" Silver Eagle Feather called out, her voice harsh from shouting, before the whirlwind enveloped her again and she was lost from sight. "Mother!" Winter Born yelled, and ran at her, but the other manitous closed in around the whirlind and blocked it off. The girl ducked left and right, seeking a way through, without any success. Charmian opened her mouth just as Black Elk Horn made a run for it--then Lieutenant Barrington threw himself atop him and they both collapsed in the snow. Francois and Baptiste hurried toward them as well and as soon as the ogimah threw Barrington off, the other two hauled him back. Barrington, left in the snow, wiped at his bleeding lip and turned toward Charmian's group. "That's some sort of trick of theirs! Again! Isn't it?" "I--" Charmian couldn't get any other words to come. Truthfully, she had no idea what this was. She turned to Moon Wolf, and Stick-In-The-Dirt, who joined them, still shaking the rattle fitfully. "What the heck?! It should be a trick--but--if Barrington and Elk could follow us, then she surely could, too--" "And didn't he get those winds from the Island?" Stick-In-The-Dirt put in. "Who's to say he couldn't have had them carry her here--?" "And he said his test was over!" Charmian looked at the group of manitous again, at Winter Born hopping up and down frantically in front of them. "He's a powerful manitou so he could probably mask her presence if he wanted. Why would he pull something like this--?" "Why do you think?" Moon Wolf hissed. "Isn't it obvious? Use your head. Do you really think she came all this way after us, or that he forced her here?" Charmian stared at the manitous, straining for another glimpse of the medicine woman. "I..." She trailed off into silence for a moment. No...I don't think either of those happened... Silver knows where she's really needed...she would know to stay on the Island and not follow us. The Island needs her far more than we do. She would never leave it behind unless it was necessary. She wouldn't have followed us... And even if Kabebonikka called these winds from the Island, they're just manitous--they're nowhere near as strong as she is--she would never let such a thing happen, if she could help it...plus, there's no way Ocryx would ever let it happen...! That's NOT her...Barrington's right for once, it's another trick--not to test Winter Born, but to keep us from getting west! That's what he promised he'd do! "She's going to end up wasting all her time trying to get her mother out when she's not even there!" she said, and took a step forward, but Moon Wolf barred her. "All of those things you went through with Chakenapok," he said, making her blink. "All those times he insisted you were like Ocryana, and you could do certain things, would you have believed any of that if one of us had just told you to your face?" Charmian's brow furrowed. "Huh? What the heck does--" "You just made a big point of not interfering in all this, right?" Thomas added, coming close so Winter Born couldn't hear them, though she wasn't paying attention in the least. "Well--is telling her this is a trick interfering any?" Charmian ground her teeth. "Nuts! That's right. Then that means we can't let Elk know it's not really Silver, either! He's not the best actor in the world--you won't believe the crap I went through with him earlier in those whirlwinds!" "As long as they keep him restrained," Moon Wolf said, glancing over at the voyageurs struggling with Black Elk Horn, "then it should suffice. She has to figure this out on her own, but do you think she's clever enough?" "Of course she is," Charmian insisted. "I just don't know how LONG it'll take her!" "I suppose that's for us to find out," Thomas said. "Maybe we'll luck out and he won't make her very convincing..." Convincing! "If it's really supposed to be her," Charmian blurted out, "then we ALL have to believe it!" And she went rushing off toward the windlings, leaving the others behind, gaping after her. Thomas, Stick-In-The-Dirt, and Moon Wolf all raised their hands and got awful looks as if they wanted to strangle her; when they noticed that they were all doing the same thing, they blushed terribly and stopped, hurriedly looking away from each other. "SILVER EAGLE FEATHER!" Charmian yelled at the top of her lungs. Winter Born stopped her useless hopping and turned to look at her, her eyes wide and wet. She waved frantically. "Charmian! They've got Mother! I don't know how but--how do I get her out? Is she okay? MOTHER!" Charmian halted beside her, fists clenched. "DIRTY TRICK!!" she yelled at the top of her lungs. Vaguely clever, Kabebonikka replied in her head. Do you mean my supposed trick itself or the fact that it is a trick--? Charmian shook her fist at the air. "It's no fair bringing her into this!" she snapped, feeling very weird that she was acting and yet she meant every bit of it, too. At least it made her act convincing, she hoped. Well, I never said I was above such tactics, Kabebonikka said, now for both of them to hear. Whatever it takes to uphold my end of the bargain. Think you can uphold yours...? "But--how did he even get her here?" Winter Born cried, chewing on her lip as she tried hard to see the stray whirlwind. "The Island's so far away! It took Father and the red man ages to catch up with us!" Just as Charmian started to hope that Winter Born would see through the trick as quickly as the rest of them had, she gasped and exclaimed, "Did she turn into an Ocryx and fly here--?" She hurried forward until she stood practically pressed against the big wind manitous, and even put her hands against one to crane herself forward and look. "MOTHER! How did he get you? What happened?" The manitou that Winter Born was leaning against broke apart and she yelped and fell into the snow. The whirlwind zoomed into place right before her and transparefied* again. Charmian winced on seeing Silver Eagle Feather fall against its side, apparently losing her balance since there wasn't really much of a space to stand in. She immediately pushed herself back from the spinning wall of the whirlwind and made a face, seeming to try to keep herself from touching it too much, although this was impossible. Charmian stared at her in awe. It really did look just like her, and her reactions were such that she really did look like somebody trapped and brought here against their will. Kabebonikka could have stopped at just having her present; this was definitely going above the call of things. "Winter Born!" she gasped again, her voice still hoarse. Her hair whipped around her, much of it pulled loose of its braid, and she had to keep shielding her eyes as she swayed and occasionally lost balance again to land against the whirlwind's side. "I was at Fort Holmes," she managed to say, "visiting Tal Natha--he's been helping to fight off the Lynxes that try to come near the Island, and the Animiki have been helping too." "Ishkode's men!" Charmian said, stunned. "When I left the cave a great wind came up," Silver Eagle Feather, or her apparition, or whatever, went on. She grimaced and batted her fist at the side of her prison. "I thought it was the Animiki at first so by the time I figured out that it wasn't, it had caught me. I tried to fight it but it's more than anything I've ever felt! And it seems to be sapping my medicine away. Wind fights wind." Winter Born put her hands up to her mouth. Charmian felt pretty unsettled, herself. She well knew of how like elements could fight or cancel each other out. The story she was hearing was so convincing that she had to mentally slap herself into disbelieving it, but it was difficult. "But didn't Grandfather try to stop it--? Or Tal Natha?" Winter Born pressed, confused. The whirlwind started to go opaque; Silver Eagle Feather bared her teeth and punched a hole in it again. "The wind was too fast for Ocryx; he did fly up from the lake, but was so far away, and Tal Natha tried but you know he can never leave the Island." That's...that's true, too, Charmian thought, and doubt started to seep back in. It was no secret to her that the Ocryxes were tied to the Island so closely that its demise was their own, but she wasn't sure how many people knew about this connection, nor had she been absolutely positive about Tal Natha's ability to travel to and from it. She realized that she'd never given it much thought and had just assumed that, like X'aaru, he simply preferred staying there. "I don't...I don't think you're real!" she found herself shouting; Winter Born looked at her wide eyed, and a dim part in the back of Charmian's mind demanded to know what she was doing. The thought of tipping Winter Born off that this was a trick didn't cross her thoughts, however. She felt as if she had to prove it to herself now, this situation was getting so bizarre. "I know you don't!" Silver Eagle Feather cried, and for a moment was lost from sight as the whirlwind overcame her. Winter Born let out little whimpering noises and bobbed left and right to try to see better; a minute or so later, the medicine woman again managed to tear her way partly through the whirlwind's side, gasping for breath. "I'd never expect you to fall for such a thing," she panted. "I don't ask you to think that I'm real. But he'll use whatever he can to keep you from getting west. I think these whirlwinds are taking away my medicine and using it as their own." As if to test this, she pressed her hand against the wall and there was a sudden burst of light as the whirlwind was set aglow for an instant. Charmian and Winter Born jumped a little, not sure what had happened; but when Silver Eagle Feather slumped back and the whirlwind got bigger, that made it pretty obvious. "I would try using my water medicine," she managed to say, "but they use ice as well, and if I were to try that..." An image of the wicked ice blades flashed in Charmian's head and she shuddered. "You mean--maybe she's not really here?" Winter Born asked, and Charmian looked at her. Her eyes were still wet but she kept the tears from falling, so far. "Maybe this is a trick of his?" she added, and the begging tone of her voice made Charmian want to spill all right then and there, no matter how confused she herself now was. Instead she forced herself to shrug. "I...I really don't know anymore," she admitted, hating that it was the truth. "I figured he'd use another trick, but she seems to know what she's talking about..." "Then--then test her, or something!" Winter Born exclaimed, startling her. She faced the wind manitous and clenched her fists. "That's what you do when you're not sure of something, right? You test it--?" Before Charmian could speak up she yelled, "If you were Mother you'd be able to PROVE it! So there'd be no reason for me to think you're not her! Mother would be smart enough to know that! I think maybe you ARE a fake!" Charmian's heart leapt. Just as Silver Eagle Feather struggled to regain her balance within the whirlwind, thrust her hand forward, and said: "Ask him--the Wendigo long knife--ask him about the big red leaf!" "Huh--?" Winter Born said, brow furrowing in confusion, the meaning of the words lost on her. They had the opposite effect on Charmian, however--she stood bolt upright as if electrocuted, her eyes going wide and her face going stark white. Winter Born noticed this when she turned to ask her about her mother's meaning, and let out a gasp, racing to her side and grabbing her hand. "Charmian! What is it? You know what she's talking about--?" Before Charmian could speak, she turned to look back at the others. Some flicker of reason in Charmian's head told her that Silver Eagle Feather's exact words had just made it through to the girl, and she was now looking for Thomas. Charmian finally thought to look as well--and the expression that Thomas wore was the same as the one she figured she must have. She'd never seen his face so white before, not even when Mishosha had been using his doll on him. A snippet of conversation Charmian had had once with Thomas--long ago, her last time on the Island, as they'd been making their way to the Sky Tree--flashed through her head. Thomas had been ribbing her about an embarrassing misunderstanding with Niskigwun, and to pacify her, had told her an equally humiliating story about himself. "I didn't mean to laugh about it, really. But you have to admit it was rather funny...as in, a little child giving a valentine to an adult they have a crush on... "It was a big foil heart, which I bought with my own money, and she said thank you for the pretty red leaf decoration... They don't give valentines among the Indians, so she thought it was an aspen leaf. And I wanted her to put it on her door, but she said her husband might not be too happy with that..." How does...how does Kabebonikka know about that...? "It means something?" Winter Born asked again. "You and Thomas! You know something about the big red leaf--?" "He can't know that," Charmian whispered. "Thomas only told me about it!" She directed her thoughts at him, just as he did the same, so that they both spoke to each other at once. Thomas! Did you tell anybody else while we were walking--? Charmian! I figured you wouldn't TELL anybody that story!! They both stared at each other for a brief moment. You didn't tell? they both thought; then Charmian thought, Stop that! and Thomas blushed. I didn't tell anybody! You didn't either? Not even in passing, so he might've overheard us--? I wouldn't even have told YOU if you hadn't been in such a mood! Thomas retorted. So don't look at me! "I don't get it," Charmian said aloud, so confused that she didn't even realize she was speaking. "Only Silver Eagle Feather should know that!" Winter Born whirled back toward the winds. "YOU'RE A FAKE!" she yelled at the top of her lungs, making Charmian jump. The little girl stomped her foot in the snow, fists clenched. "I knew it! You didn't catch Mother at all! It's just your stupid TRICKS again!" And she threw up her hands in front of herself. Charmian stumbled but managed to grab her arm before she could do anything. "Winter Born! What are you doing--? How do you know that's not really her?!" "It's okay, Charmian!" Winter Born said, not even looking at her. The sharp concentrated glow flared around her, making Charmian's eyes hurt. "You were right the first time. It's not her. I'm sure of it." "But--how? She knows something that only she and Thomas and I know--" "Nuh-uh," Winter Born said, shaking her head. She turned to look at Charmian now. "Think about it! Kabebonikka is a manitou, right? He can find things out." "But he only started watching us on this trip," Charmian protested. "And nobody even MENTIONED this red leaf thing the entire time! He couldn't have overheard it..." "He probably wouldn't've overheard it anyway," Winter Born said. "And that's how I figured it out. Remember? In his cave? He said that he watched us travel but he said he couldn't hear us that much..." "Actually, I said that I watched. Unfortunately, my vision does not allow for me to hear all that well...so perhaps you'd best explain why it is you went to such great lengths just to come visit me...?" Charmian blinked--Winter Born really remembered back that far? "But...that doesn't explain..." "It does," Winter Born said. "Kabebonikka's a manitou! Which means he can hear when we're thinking, and he can read some of our thoughts if we're not careful with them! You and Thomas, you didn't talk about the red leaf thing, but maybe he could look in your thoughts and find it out somehow...? The same way he found out about Mother, how she acts and talks and what she knows and everything? He would've picked that up from me. I've been thinking about her almost since leaving the Island!" Charmian dredged her thoughts and could not for the life of her remember having consciously thought about Thomas's story...but that didn't mean the memory wasn't there, admittedly. Perhaps Kabebonikka could read people's memories like she could read a manitou's thought images. The thought unsettled her, but it made perfect sense. "So the fact that Kabebonikka probably couldn't have overheard us even if we had been talking..." she murmured. "Means this CAN'T be Mother," Winter Born finished. "I know it seems to say it's her, but you taught me, he'll do anything he can to trick us, and, well..." She looked at the whirlwind. "This is what he hasn't tried yet, right?" It certainly makes more sense than him actually picking her up and dragging her here! Charmian thought, and let go of Winter Born's arm. "If you really believe it's not her," she said, hating the tone of doubt in her own voice, "then give it all you've got!" "Go on!" Manabozho shouted from some distance away. "Knock the senses out of them so we can get heading west!" Several of the others started calling out and jeering at the winds as well. Charmian edged her way back as Winter Born lifted her arms and aimed at the wind manitous, which just seemed to increase in size and bluster, tossing their antlers and breaking apart and re-forming. The glow around Winter Born made Charmian have to avert her own eyes, but as soon as she did so, she caught a bright flash; she'd had the occasional nightmare about a nuclear bomb falling, and that was what the light reminded her of. She gasped and looked up again as only a split second had passed, just enough time for her to look away, but that was all it had taken. Winter Born now held her hand out in a dismissive gesture, as if getting ready to tell someone to shoo. But apparently she already had. For the briefest instant the wind manitous and the whirlwind were all frozen in place, as if everything had been put on pause--Charmian didn't understand why they didn't simply evaporate into the air now that the wind was no longer circulating. Then, the manitous seemed to start growing larger, and larger, and larger, and Charmian quailed at the thought of defeat, until realizing that they weren't so much growing as-- "They're breaking up!" Niskigwun exclaimed in surprise, and those were the last words Charmian could hear, as a monstrous roaring suddenly filled the air, making everyone cover their ears and grimace. She had to dig her feet into the snow to avoid being pulled forward by the sucking force of the winds yanking away from them--their grotesquely swelling forms broke apart at last and went sailing in fragments, more and more of them disappearing into the air, a horrific howling and shrieking reverberating everywhere around the group. The whirlwind itself, with Silver Eagle Feather's form still inside, held out the longest; the medicine woman stared out at them, eyes wide and mouth open in horror, and Charmian almost went running for her, as suicidal as that would have been, the look on her face was so convincing--what if Winter Born was wrong after all? But as she watched, the bands of the whirlwind broke apart, and then Silver Eagle Feather herself--she tore into pieces, which then lost all their color, becoming transparent and then invisible as they merged with the disintegrating winds and sailed away toward the horizon. Charmian didn't even realize how hard she'd been struggling to maintain her balance, or that she'd been holding her breath seeing as the suction made it impossible to breathe, until the roaring began at last to fade a little and she gulped in the cold air gratefully, her limbs shaking from the strain. The roar and shriek finally died away completely. Dead silence filled the air now, so loud that Charmian's ears rang, and after a moment she fell to one knee in the snow, letting out a breath. She yelped when, instead of just ending up kneeling, she slipped and collapsed on her side. "OW!" she yelled when she felt her elbow strike something hard--then, "Ew!!" when she felt something cold and wet slosh up into her sleeve. She started trying to push herself upright, and then began panicking to find that she must have landed in a patch of mud or quicksand or something equally unpleasant. What the--? She at last fell still long enough to take a look at where she was. She and everyone else still stood in the same spot--even Winter Born remained as she'd been left, now lowering her hand and scanning the horizon as if in search of any trace of the winds--but everything had changed-- The others in the group commenced yelling and jerking their feet about in surprise. For the mounds and drifts and hills of snow that had previously surrounded them were melting so rapidly that they were now turning into mounds and piles and hills of slush, which mixed with the soil beneath, and everyone's feet began sinking into the sticky mixture. Charmian pushed herself somewhat upright. It was slush that had slipped into her sleeve, and her arm had struck a rock, previously shielded from her by the drifts. Her moccasins and half her outfit were now coated in thick gooey mud; it was crunchy with ice crystals, but even as she watched, these were melting into water. "Oh my goodness! Oh my goodness!!" Peepaukawiss cried, pointing. "Look what's happening! Oh!" He tried jumping up and down, only to slip and fall as Charmian had, then letting out an awful squeal; Marten tried futilely to pull him out of his own patch of mud. Charmian glanced northeastward in the direction that he'd been pointing. She blinked a few times. The snow as far as her eyes could see was not only melting but rapidly retreating, as if it, along with the winds, were being sucked back to where it had come from. Not only that, but the air itself had changed as well; she took in another breath to test it, and it didn't sting her lungs with its chill anymore. She breathed out, and could no longer see the plume of steam. The whiteness all around them shrank and shrank into small patches contained in little valleys and hollows, revealing a landscape of small hills and hummocks coated with long brown grass; and just as quickly as that was revealed, the patches of mud and slush began to dry up, and new, fresh grass began to sprout, as if someone were showing a nature film in fast-forward mode. The grayness in the sky began to fade into blue, as the formerly snow-blanketed landscape faded from white to brown to green right before their eyes. Charmian knelt on hands and knees and watched a multitude of tiny flowers unfurl mere inches from her face, spreading outward and outward like a ripple on the water. When she turned her head, she saw that she was now surrounded by them, and they were starting to blanket the land just as the snow had. The stands of pine trees shifted from dark blackish green to bright green, and what few deciduous trees stood among them now sprouted fresh leaves. The last of the snow vanished in the distance, taking the cold air with it, and in a matter of moments, the group found themselves standing in a sunny, grassy meadowland, surrounded by swaying grasses and colorful flowers, a warm southern breeze drifting through the air. Charmian blinked. She couldn't believe it. In an instant, the winter had gone. |