The Great Northern Plains

Alone with his still-sleeping adversary, Wolf stood in the entry of the messy cave. The low position of the sun told him it was early morning. Exhausted, they both must have slept through the previous afternoon and all night.

After the uncomfortable dampness of Omah’s cave, the warmth in the air was welcome. Eyes closed, he lifted his face to the source of the heat, allowing the blanket to fall from his bare shoulders. Motionless, moments passed as the heat soaked into his abused body.

An unwelcomed snicker interrupted his tranquility. “Working on your tan? I would’ve thought you’d be working on your sadly lacking travel skills.”

Wolf’s eyes remained shut as the fiery red light from the sun circled and danced behind his eyelids. “I’m surprised you’re awake. It isn’t noon yet.”

“You know, if someone attacked you right now, you’d be as good as blind after staring into the sun like that.”

Wolf still didn’t move. The last thing he needed was advice on his survival skills. “You could always protect me with that cute little knife in your shoe.”

She wasn’t going to take the bait. “Perhaps it would be me attacking. Then what would you do?”

One eye cracked open to look at her. He would never admit that she was a cloudy, wavering mass of red. “Do you require another demonstration of what I can do? I’d be happy to oblige.”

Omah didn’t answer as she took a bite of the deer jerky in her hand. Still stiff from getting pinned to the ground those two times, she could hardly move. “Let’s just save that for later. Are you hungry?”

“Steak and eggs would be good. You cook?”

“Don’t sound so surprised. I’ve been known to.” When no one else was around and it was the only option to keep me from starving to death. “I was going to offer you some jerky.”

Wolf, his eyes back to normal, looked at the black thing she held out to him. “What is that? A burnt offering?”

“Hey, it’s not that bad. It’s teriyaki.”

Wolf raised an eyebrow. “Really?”

“No.”

His chest rumbled with a laugh. “Thought that sounded too good to be true.” Wolf held out a reluctant hand for the meat. After taking a bite, he winced. “Tell you what, you show me how to travel correctly and I’ll have the Cooking Woman from my tribe show you how to cook correctly.”

“At least you’re admitting that you don’t travel the right way. That’s a start.”

Unable to swallow what was in his mouth, Wolf walked to the edge of the clearing and spat the wad as far as he could. “I have a feeling that’ll still be lying there when the next Ice Age comes.”

“Are you always this charming when you’re hungry?”

“It’s been ten minutes and you still haven’t taken another bite. Point made.”

Omah shrugged her shoulders as she stared at the jerky in her hand. “I hate it when you’re right.” With a mighty hurl, the meat was thrown in the same direction as Wolf’s. “It was my first attempt at jerky.”

“How long ago?” Knowing how difficult it was for a tribe to find fresh meat, Wolf couldn’t believe someone would desecrate it like that.

Five years. Taking a moment to dig some dirt from under her fingernails, Omah didn’t answer. “Why don’t we get back to something important rather than my cooking skills?”

“Skills?”

Having had enough buttons pushed, her anger, never too far away, finally resurfaced. Eyes flashing, she whirled at him and snapped, “Enough, Wolf! You have things you do well. I have things I do well. We can bicker all day or we can try to teach you something.”

Wolf held up a placating hand that irritated her more than it calmed. He, too, didn’t want another fight. Even though he had somehow come back to her past as a man, he figured she could transform him into a wolf again if she so desired. Plus, he had a firm conviction that members of her Blackfoot tribe were always watching, hidden within the shadowy depths of the forest. That was what his Lakota tribe would do and he had no reason to doubt hers would do the same. He didn’t fear them, but knew they would rush to her defense if it appeared he would hurt her. Absentmindedly rubbing the fresh spear prick in his side, he didn’t need any more of those. He was tired of fighting.

During his silence, her sharp eyes went from his upraised hand to the one placed over the angry, red welt. As her eyes moved over his muscular torso, there were more scars to be seen. Her anger faded. A normal man would never have marks like that on his body. Until she had learned how to control whether or not she appeared as a wolf, she, too, had been hunted and hurt. They had both been through a lot in their lives. And now it was time to help him. Perhaps he wouldn’t have to be hurt again.

Wolf saw when the anger drained away from her, wondering what prompted the change. As her eyes slowly moved over his bare chest, he understood and tensed, waiting for the pity or shock his friends usually displayed when they saw the unexplainable battle scars. But, that didn’t happen this time with Omah. What he saw instead was understanding. “You, too?”

At first she didn’t comprehend what he asked. Her eyes rose to his impassive, waiting face as he stared back at her. It took a moment, but, then she gave him a brief nod. “You’ll excuse me if I don’t remove my shirt to show you my back. But, yes, I have similar marks.” She slowly walked up to Wolf to put a tentative hand on his shoulder. When he didn’t shove it away as she half expected, she gave a light squeeze. “Let’s fix it so that doesn’t happen anymore.”

His large hand covered hers. “That sounds good to me. What do we need to do? What’s first?”

Surprised by his touch, Omah stepped back out of reach. When his hand fell back to his side, she felt deprived of its warmth. “Well, to be honest, I’ve never had to teach anyone before.” Arms folded over her chest, she quickly turned away to hide whatever conflicting emotions her face might betray. She’d have to analyze her reaction to his touch later. A slight movement in the forest caught her eye, distracting her from her confusing thoughts. With a slight flutter of her hand, Omah signaled her hidden sister that all was well. In all that had been going on, she had forgotten her tribe was always close by.

“In case you wondered, I saw her, too.”

“Just now?” Omah gave a little laugh. “Kiaayo is usually more discreet than that.”

“Maybe she can get me something to eat….”

The warm, odd feelings of a moment ago were forgotten as Omah shot a less-than-friendly glare at him. When she saw the smile on Wolf’s face, she relaxed, realizing he was joking. “And they say you don’t have a sense of humor.”

“Who says that?”

“Everyone you work with at Disneyland.”

That stopped him. He had to think back. “I keep forgetting you worked at Disneyland. Nothing about you screams the happiest place on earth.”

She let that slide. “I knew about you when I was a mermaid in the Submarine Lagoon.” A womanly grin played over her face. “All the girls knew about you. You were quite the man of mystery.”

“Still am.”

“I suppose that’d be true. Walt sure was fond of you.”

A brief look of sadness passed over Wolf. “It was mutual.” When he realized what she had just said, he frowned. “You talked to Walt about me?”

Omah gave another shrug. “I knew you were more than just a security guard. It was obvious to me, more so than anyone else, because I was more than just a mermaid. I didn’t know about your traveling abilities, of course. Just that there was something different about you. For me, the job was a means to an end.”

Wolf let that sink in. He had known Walt had used other people in various capacities. Wolf worked with Kimberly’s father to get the clue searches in place and helped see that Walt’s visions of the future came true. As Guardians of Walt, as they came to call themselves, it was their job and their privilege to protect their boss. “What was your other work?”

Omah had hoped that her past failure wouldn’t come up again. The fiasco had sent her from Walt’s good graces to Florida where she had to wait out the building of Walt Disney World to get her position back. Then, when Walt suddenly died in 1966, her hopes of finally proving her worth to him came to an end. It had snapped her power of reason and she became fanatical in her attempt to bring that clue search to the end Walt had wanted. She had to relive all of those bitter memories after she found Peter and Catie in the Haunted Mansion with the object she had spent decades trying to find. And Wolf had been witness to her breakdown while he relentlessly pursued her as she used Peter to track down the mermaid. When she finally spoke, she looked embarrassed. “You know about my search for the mermaid all those years.” Without waiting for his reply, she just forged ahead. “I had been assigned to help Walt set up a clue hunt. Whoever found the hidden clues would be rewarded at the end if they could figure out the riddles he put in place. It was a pretty easy hunt and Margaret, Catie’s grandmother….”

“I know who Margaret is.”

Her train of thought broken, Omah momentarily looked confused. “Of course you do. Anyway, it got all messed up and I could never find the mermaid once the Submarine captains started hiding her. It never got back on track and I…I failed Walt. He sent me to Florida.”

Wolf was stunned as the implications of what she just said and what she had said to Peter slowly became apparent. Back in 1965 there had been a search Walt set up without him. It had bothered him that Walt used someone else, but, that was Walt. He always had more than one iron in the fire. Questions began to pour into Wolf’s mind: Did Walt originally plan on having her work with him and the Blond-Haired Man? What would have happened if her quest had been fulfilled?Had Walt been setting her up to become another Guardian?

“Why do you look like that? You look like I just stepped on your puppy.”

Her voice snapped him out of his daze. Her question ignored, he asked instead, “Did Walt ever say what the end result would be?”

“I already told you. The person who followed the quest to the end would get some sort of prize. Knowing Walt, probably some piece of animation.”

Wolf licked his dry lips. “No. I meant what your end result would be?”

“Oh.” Omah had to shrug. “I figured he’d use me again for different things over the years. Different positions of trust. He never really said. Then, when he died, well, that kinda ended everything for me.” Her eyes narrowed as she looked at Wolf. There seemed to be so much that he wasn’t saying. It was written all over his usually expressionless face. “Did you know about those treasure hunts? I always had the feeling that mine wasn’t the first. Did he use you, too?”

How much do I tell her? A Guardian is effective because of the anonymity. Walt had said nothing to me or to Kimberly’s father about Omah. “Yes. I had set up a Hidden Mickey hunt or two myself.”

“And?”

“And what?”

“Why did Walt do it? Did he use you later for other things?”

Wolf just nodded. “Yes. We had a close relationship. I would help him do whatever he needed.”

“And I missed out on that because I failed with the mermaid.” Not realizing he hadn’t really answered her, bitterness over the past slipped back into Omah’s voice. “Everything would have been so different.” About to continue her rant, a confused look slowly began to overshadow her anger. Mouth clamped shut, she walked to the edge of the clearing to stare out over the trees.

Becoming used to her mercurial changes of mood, Wolf just waited. “What’s wrong?”

Slowly turning back, Omah’s face was still a puzzle. “I just had another thought. Now there’s another thing we have in common: the wolf attacking our pregnant mothers, the ability to travel through time, and that we both worked with Walt on secret plans.” She turned away again. “Don’t you think that’s odd?”

“I never thought about that. But, you’re right.”

A smile briefly crossed her lips. “I’ll add that to my ever-growing list of things I’m right about.” The smile was gone as quickly as it came and the seriousness returned. “Do you think it’s all related?”

“That our mothers were both attacked by the same wolf and we ended up working for Walt? Sounds more like a coincidence. An odd coincidence, but a coincidence just the same. Look at how many employees have worked for Disney over the decades. There has to be a lot of shared traits in there somewhere.”

Running a hand through her messy red hair, Omah began to pace in front of her cave, the plans to help Wolf shoved aside. “Possibly. Possibly. But.…” She broke off as another idea suddenly surfaced.

“But what? What are you thinking?”

“But, what if we were attacked because we worked for Disney?” Her eyes were wide as she spoke this aloud. “Is that too weird? We can’t possibly be the only ones who can travel through time. What if we were targeted?”

Wolf was silent again as he thought about her supposition. There had been a lot of strange things that happened in his travels. He had met Merlin a couple of times throughout the centuries. And, then there had been that battle with…. His mouth fell open as his past ordeal with helping Aurora came back to mind. Way before Aurora’s lifetime, his opponent had been known as Merlin’s apprentice Nimue. She had lost a valuable piece of jewelry Merlin had given her. Once she knew where it was and who had it, she wanted it back. And that had meant many centuries of trouble and many name changes as she traveled. In Aurora’s time, she went by another name, one that struck terror into those who whispered it. Wolf and his friend Wals had taken Aurora home and ended up in a battle with the evil fairy. She had enchanted all her followers—including Wolf—and turned them into a snarling pack of wolves, herself being the largest, most powerful. “But I defeated her. She was too weak to do any more. Merriweather told me it would be a long time before she recovered. But it’s only been seven years.”

“Who are you talking about? Who did you defeat?”

Wolf snapped back to the present, not realizing he had spoken out loud. He wanted to think about this and analyze it in private. If she was somehow involved, the effects could be far-reaching—and devastating. Aware Omah’s eyes were on him, intently staring as she waited for his explanation, he knew she would have to wait. There wouldn’t be one just yet. “Sorry. I hadn’t expected your reasoning.”

In spite of the seriousness of what they were discussing, Omah gave a slight grin. “What? That I can reason or that I might have a point?”

“Both.” Wolf rubbed a hand over his face. “I need time to think this through. Can we get back to what we originally planned to do? We can discuss this again later.”

“Oh, we will. You can depend on that.”

“So, how do you travel? What do you do to get where you want to be?” In an effort to change the subject, Wolf waved a vague hand around the clearing. “You obviously don’t use portals.”

“I just think of a happy thought.”

“And then you can fly?”

They both laughed and some of the tension drained away.

Omah shoved all the unanswered questions to the back of her mind. Yes, she and Wolf would have another long discussion. But, obviously, not now. She allowed Wolf to distract her. “To me, now, it’s just about that easy. At first, I did use portals like that. Terrifying things….”

More relaxed now and keenly interested in what she might show him, Wolf was all ears. “How did you realize there was a different way to travel? How did you figure it out?”

Omah gave a small laugh as she thought back. “I came out of a portal—much like what you just put me through at Disneyland—only I was dumped on top of that mountain,” she pointed to the far north at a tall, snow-covered peak, “not here with my family. In case you’re wondering, that range has snow all year. And, yes, it was freezing.”

Wolf shrugged, not seeing the connection. “I’ve made mistakes, too. I wanted to visit Walt and ended up back in Marceline when he was nine years old. Scared his little sister Ruth so badly that you can probably guess where the song ‘Who’s Afraid of the Big, Bad Wolf’ came from.”

“Well, this mistake almost killed me. I wasn’t prepared for the cold and there was no way down without starting an avalanche.”

“What did you do?”

“Got mad.”

Wolf chuckled. “You? Really?”

“Yeah, hard to believe, right? Anyway, I started fuming, which, by the way, helped keep me warm…. Anyway, I started yelling that I didn’t want to be there and I wanted to be with my family. And, suddenly, I was.”

Wolf thought he must have missed something. “Wait, back up. What?”

She shook her head slowly side to side as the wonderment of it came to her again. “That’s all it took. I was so focused on where I wanted to be—and with whom—that I was instantly transported there.”

“As a wolf or as a woman?”

“That’s a good question. At first, since I was traveling from our current time, I was a woman and I arrived in the snow as a woman. But, when I came off the mountain, I was a wolf. I couldn’t figure that out for the longest time.”

“What did you figure out?”

Her blue eyes filled with amusement. “Apparently in my ranting, as I thought back on what I had said, I had said something about wolf fur would have been welcome for once. I must have mentioned that right before I said I wanted to go to my family. So, apparently my wish was granted—or whatever prompted it—and I was a wolf when I arrived.”

Wolf found his heart was beating faster in his chest. If what she said was true, if this is what it took to travel like she did…. This could make his life so much easier, so much more enjoyable when he traveled. His father…. Wolf recalled when Merriweather had allowed him to travel one time as a man to see the Shaman. It had been the first time since he was a young boy that his father had seen his face. He had never seen his father cry before. “I want to do this.”

“Of course you do. That’s what this is all about.”

“No, I mean right now. I just think where I want to go? Is that all?”

“All?” Omah didn’t know whether to be insulted or amused. “There’s no ‘all’ to it. There’s more to it than that. Haven’t you been listening? And don’t growl at me. It’s not becoming.”

Wolf had to take a deep breath to keep from becoming irritated at her again. She was quite capable of refusing to help if he kept pushing her. “Sorry.”

“Oh, that sounded sincere.”

“Listen….” Wolf bit back the rest of his words and lowered the hand that pointed at her. “Sorry. I’m just intrigued and anxious to try it. Can’t you understand that?”

“Yes, I can. Once I first learned how to do it right I traveled all over the place! But, it can still go wrong if….”

“So it won’t go wrong.” Wolf interrupted her to keep from having to listen to a lecture. “I want to try it now.”

“I’d rather take you somewhere myself the first time so I can talk you through it and you can see my process.”

“I don’t need that. You’ve already shown me the results a few times.”

Omah kept her mocking thoughts to herself. If he wanted to do it himself alone, fine. She’d be here waiting when he came back. And then she’d show him the right way. “Since I can’t seem to stop you, go ahead. Think of where you want to be, and with whom. Let the power do the rest.”

Wolf had to stop and think. Where did he want to go first? Who did he want to see? “Since I don’t know how long we’ve been gone, I should probably check in with Lance and Kimberly. If it’s been too long, they might be worried.”

Omah gave an indifferent shrug. “Then you have what you need.”

Wolf closed his eyes and concentrated on his friends and fellow Guardians.

Fullerton — Current Day

A shrill scream suddenly pierced the air. Startled, Lance dropped his full coffee mug and bounded up the stairs two at a time to the master bedroom. Heart racing, he started yelling for his wife. “Kimberly? Where are you? Are you all right? Honey?” He could hear the water was running in the bath and then the shower door slammed.

Wrapped in a towel hastily thrown around her body, an embarrassed, angry Kimberly rushed out of the steamy bathroom. “Where is he? Where’s….”

Lance threw his arms around her to keep her from rushing out of the bedroom. “What happened? Why did you scream?”

Once she realized Lance was holding her, Kimberly relaxed her rigid posture. As she pushed a dripping strand of hair out of her face, her eyes darted around the empty bedroom. “It was Wolf! Wolf got in the shower with me! Where is he? I want to….”

Lance held her at arm’s length so he could look into her face. “What? How could Wolf be in your shower? We haven’t seen him in weeks. He certainly isn’t here. Look around. I would have seen him, wouldn’t I?”

“Well, he certainly saw me!” Kimberly jerked the towel tighter around her body, her face a bright red. “You don’t believe me! I know what I saw, Lance.”

“I’m not saying you didn’t. But, there wasn’t any lightning or wind, was there? That’s what we usually see when he…travels, shifts, whatever it is he does. How could he just show up like that?”

“I don’t know. It was like he just appeared next to me and then he was gone.”

Lance was trying very hard not to break out laughing. He didn’t figure it would help right now. “Did he say anything? Was he a wolf?”

“No, he wasn’t a wolf. He...he was a man.” The red began to creep up her neck again. “And, no, he didn’t say anything. To be honest, he looked about as surprised as I was.”

Lance had to bite the inside of his cheek to keep from smiling. “I’m sure he was. Maybe something happened while he’s been gone.” Another thought came to mind that put a damper on his mirth. “I wonder if Omah was involved in any way. The last time you saw him he was with her.”

The mention of the woman who attacked her son made Kimberly forget her humiliation. “Omah? Wolf hated her. He wouldn’t work with her. Would he? You’ve known him longer than I have.”

Lance could only shrug as he took her in his arms for another hug. “I don’t know, sweetheart. He’s been gone a long time. Things change over time. Maybe there’s more to it than we know. Plus, you’re dripping all over the carpet.”

Glancing down at the floor, Kimberly saw the large water stain beneath her. With a loud ‘hmmph,’ she stormed back into the bathroom to finish her shower, mumbling all the way. “Just wait until I see him again. I’m going to give him a piece of my mind.”

Lance waited until the shower door had slammed shut once more. It was only then that he started laughing, his face safely—and wisely—muffled in one of the pillows from the bed.