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Whether Keira meant it or not, her razor sharp nails dug into the teen’s chest. He grimaced and moaned with pain as she stood to the side of his barely conscious body.
Danny’s face was ashen. He looked on in terror and pressed the door lock hopeful it would keep the mountain lion out.
“That was awesome!” Cam yelled. He clapped his hands with joy. “That’s how we deal with trouble makers.”
Keira didn’t hear a word he said. She looked down at Bobby’s face and saw fresh tears. Bobby cried out, “I’m sorry Keira.”
She looked down again and saw the anguish his body was now experiencing. It was too much for her to bear. Transforming back into her human form, she fell down to the ground and held the boy’s hand.
Cam rushed over to her. He grabbed the money and the bags of food.
“What are you doing?”
“What have I done?”
“You did what you had to do. It was glorious.”
“Am I going to die?” Bobby stared aimlessly at the darkening sky, as his shredded shirt stained with blood.
Unclasping her hands from Bobby’s, Cam handed the food and money over to Keira.
“You got to get out of here.”
“I can’t. He’s going to die because of me.”
“I’ll take care of it and get him some help. Go while you can.” He pushed Keira away from the scene.
The purple Dodge truck roared forward. Luza opened the passenger side door.
“Get in Princess!”
Keira looked again at Bobby’s face. She closed her eyes and froze.
“Grab her!” Cam motioned to Luza.
He led Keira to the truck and pushed her towards Luza’s awaiting arms. Slamming the door shut, he wore a smile on his face. He then turned back to the fallen boy and his friend Danny.
Luza grabbed the food from Keira’s shaking hands and dropped them to the floor. As Riley swung the truck around the drive thru, Luza swore she saw Cam standing over Bobby’s body. Before she could get another look, they had driven out of the parking lot, onto Main Street, into the early evening twilight.
* * *
“I thought you said you couldn’t drive?” Luza said.
“Maybe I decided to downplay what I could do.”
“No I remember you saying you didn’t know how,” Luza persisted.
“Does it matter? We’re on the road. Just open the map so we can figure out how to get to Monson.”
Riley held onto the steering wheel with one hand over the top edge. He peered out at the road despite one of his eyes being completely covered by his gangly brown hair.
Luza did her best to unfold the map. One section was completely torn by the time it was opened.
“Take it easy,” Riley said, “we only have one.”
“Sure big guy, Mr. Way-to-laid-back. How does it feel to have a woman do your dirty work?”
“What’s that suppose to mean?”
“How about what it does mean? Keira didn’t have to go after him. Now look at her.”
Keira was out cold. She was breathing slowly and her eyes were closed. She had been in this state shortly after Riley pulled away from the restaurant. They had tried talking to her, but it was no matter. Her eyes swelled with tears. Then she looked aimlessly out the window, before finally nodding off.
Luza felt awful. She refused to touch any of the food until Keira woke up. She even took the money and put it back in the wallet that Keira had rested on the dash. The whole incident bothered her for a variety of reasons.
Still she couldn’t even voice properly what was going on in her head. The idea that Riley was so passive didn’t make any sense to her.
Riley blew the whole scene off. He had always been taught by his parents to take the high road. There was more at stake than money or food. They had told him as much. His goal had always been to protect Luza and that was what he had set out to do. Whether the girls agreed with that, he didn’t care. Neither one of them knew the potential ahead, not what was foretold. Riley’s messing around with locals wasn’t going to achieve any of their goals. He was confident of that and drove on satisfied that he was in the right.
Still as he looked across the front seat and saw Keira’s resting head, he wondered why it had to play out that way. Part of him was actually upset. How could she ignore his advice?
“Luza you know it’s not my fault. She didn’t listen to me.”
“Why should she? What reason have you given her to listen to your every word? Look at me? You didn’t even give me a heads-up.”
“I didn’t see you rushing after her,” Riley was borderline arrogant.
“Seriously? I can’t do anything right now, save talk. At least she stood up for us, for me. What did you do?” She threw the map on his lap. “Take this thing.”
“Come on Luza just tell me where the town is.”
“You idiot! I can’t read. You figure it out with your one eye on the road.”
“I have both eyes on the road.”
“How? You got your left covered by your hair. Even Keira doesn’t drive with her eyes partially covered.”
“It helps with the glare.”
Luza held up her hand and flipped it back at him. “This is sort of like driving in the dark without lights? To think I was complaining about Keira’s driving.”
Riley didn’t say a word. He felt around for the switch and within a few seconds the headlights turned on.
“That’s better. It’s a start.”
Luza grabbed on to Keira’s hand and squeezed.
“You know Princess I would give my life for you,” Riley said softly.
“We’ll see my prince. We’ll see.”
* * *
The sound of running water filled the air. Birds chirped in the background and the sun glistened from above onto the vibrant green hues of the trees. What was left of the morning dew had all but disappeared as she struck out across the unkempt grass of the garden.
She had been to this place. It was familiar to her eyes and to the touch.
Thirsty, she made her way to the running stream. Stepping down to get closer to the water, Keira leaned down and sipped.
“Brrr.”
It was cold and yet so refreshing.
Looking at her reflection, she was momentarily stunned. Gone were her porcelain face, her long wavy black hair, and her soft features, replaced with a black button nose, and the long whiskers of a mountain lion. Her eyes were wider than she remembered; no longer blue with amber specks, but a deep grayish blue color.
Her thirst quenched, she turned away from the water and went deeper into the woods. The grass became sparser as more trees and granite boulders filled her surroundings.
She moved swiftly through the undergrowth, seeking, searching for a familiar voice. It was clear now as she hid behind a series of boulders that looked out onto a shallow pond with a lone large willow tree.
Two boys hung from a series of branches that reached across the pond. From her vantage point, she couldn’t tell their features apart, but their smell was undeniable.
She knew it from the cave and from somewhere else. It was faint, but a smell one couldn’t easily forget.
The laughing of the two boys grew louder. They were oblivious to the fact that she stalked one or both of them, waiting for an opportunity to strike.
It can all end now. Do what is necessary and act. Are you going to jeopardize everything just because this child is deemed innocent? The innocent will not remain one as the years pass.
The voice grew louder. Unable to take anymore, she let out a loud roar.
“Rrrrrrrrrawwwww.”
Startled and stunned, both boys lost their balance and dangled from the branches of the tree.
There is no time. Act while you can.
That’s the one I need. Right there.
She leapt and reached out with her sharp claws. One clean swipe and the boy would be down.
He was stronger than he appeared. With a lucky kick, he saved himself from her grasp. Still he was hurt. Her claws had cleaved his shin and it took all of his strength to pull himself back up onto that branch, safe from her reach.
At about the same time, the second boy lost his grip and fell between the mountain lion and the tree.
Get by this one and finish what you started.
There was no second guessing. She darted into the boy with the straggly long brown hair and the doe colored eyes. Sinking her teeth into his midsection, she hoped he would meet a quick end, and buy her time to deal with the boy she needed and had wanted to dispose of.
As her claws and teeth sunk into his flesh, and he felt the world disappearing from his grasp, a middle-aged man, with dark brown eyes and thick curly hair on his head, appeared with an entourage of guards surrounded her and the screaming child.
“Your Majesty, please,” the man pleaded. “Just let him go.”
* * *
Keira’s head jerked up from the cool glass of the Dodge. Briefly, she couldn’t tell where she was, or remember how she got there.
Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes again. It was no matter; she couldn’t get back so easily.
Luza felt Keira’s hand twitch and held it tightly. She even reached across and stroked the teen’s arm.
“Are you okay Princess?”
Keira didn’t respond. She didn’t want to.
The more she sat with her head against the glass, she remembered what happened. That wasn’t her in the dream, but it was her in the parking lot.
She went after Bobby. There was no mistaking that.
Taking her hand away from Luza, she wiped the fresh tears from her face. She could see Bobby on the ground.
She had never seen anyone in so much pain. For once, she was the one to blame.
As she feigned sleep, Keira didn’t hold a grudge against the others in the truck. This was her family curse. If she wasn’t careful, there was no telling who she else was going to get hurt.
* * *
“Is she awake?” Riley asked.
“I think she was, but not anymore. Listen to her,” Luza whispered.
Keira had in fact fallen back asleep. It wasn’t right away, but several minutes after her dream, the lull of the truck had caused her to drift back into a dreamless sleep.
“Do you know how much longer we have to drive?”
“I don’t know. We’ll get there when we get there.”
“Just wake me when we do,” Luza frowned with her parting comment.
She was irritable and afraid. Perhaps for the first time in her entire journey, she felt unsettled, unconfident, and doubtful that she would see the end of this.
Even looking at Riley, realizing that at some level they had a deeper bond, it didn’t matter. He wasn’t the man she thought he was and now it made her question how things might be in the future.
Closing her eyes, she felt herself falling into a deep sleep.
* * *
The stars were clearer than she remembered. They were so bright and large over the lake. When was the last time she had seen her home? Had it been months? Years? Luza stood under a large oak tree that served more like a watch tower on the banks of the vast lake before her.
Frozen over, the first snow had yet to arrive, and the ice was dark and menacing. Crackling sounds of the settling ice filled the air. There was no breeze to speak of and no light at all save from the stars above. Even the moon had disappeared this night. A long shadow had covered the celestial object and there it was blocked from view, save one little sliver.
No matter, Luza could still see everything. She knew it was only a few minutes to her mother, the same mother that told her to undertake this foolish mission. Not far down from where she stood was where the Great Mother had appeared to her family. How would they have known that the flames meant to celebrate the coming of the summer were a better representation of the road Luza had traveled?
Still it was for a higher calling. That’s what she had been told. It was what they had all understood. Even now as she stood under the mighty oak, half wondering how she could stay permanently in this spot, her long white hair with several prominent dark streaks told her otherwise.
Despite her porcelain skin, and the fact she now stood on two feet as opposed to four, some things remained. Luza could hear the racing of paw prints across the hardened ground. There were others, almost too many to count, in close distance.
Turning away from the lake, her eyes still worked the same they always had. She could see her cousin Freddo, fat though he was, waddling at a speed he had never had a reason to travel before.
Behind him, a pack of wolves were in pursuit. These weren’t the ones from the adjacent territory; those the foxes had learned to avoid and manage daily life with. No, these wolves were different. Their fur was a matted grey and not the familiar white. These wolves worked as a unit. Far bigger than any wolves Luza had even seen, they continued to gain on Freddo.
“Get away from him!” she screamed.
“What are you doing? You aren’t supposed to be here,” Freddo wailed as he came to a sudden halt at her feet.
“Did I cause this?” She knelt down and looked at her cousin’s glistening amber eyes.
He shook his head and pointed.
“She lied. This is the end for all of us,” he cried.
“It can’t be,” Luza said.
She was bold. Luza stepped out of the shadows of the oak tree and onto the path where the wolves ran.
“Freddo, warn the others before it’s too late.”
Before he could acknowledge her words, the lead wolf ran past her and sunk his sharp teeth into her cousin’s now lifeless body.
The majority of the pack continued running past her, with the exception of three wolves that slowed to face the Arctic princess.
“What have I done?”