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{The Wendigo is closing in.
Wolf Howl and the Mossad assassin, Shadow,
have taken out all but one of the rural cannibals.
But he is pointing a revolver at the heart of the Lakota shaman ...}
He stood aiming the revolver at me with a wide grin.
"No guns, huh? You know what they say about those who live by the sword?"
He cocked his revolver. "They die by the guns of those who don't."
As he pulled the trigger, I pushed the finger of my will deep into the muzzle of his gun.
The barrel exploded. My head felt like it had gone off with it. Despite the pain, I swept a startled Shadow back into the tangle of trees we had just left.
She started to speak, but I gasped, "Hush!"
I pointed to the clearing. It was quite a scene.
The woman whose throat Shadow had impaled was thrashing about, droplets of blood flinging from her body in a black rain.
The two I had choked were still on their knees, retching and turning dark-faced.
The gunman was clutching the mauled stump of his left hand as he screamed like a little girl.
I nodded to the trees behind the screamer. Shadow stiffened. The Wendigo was here.
Movement. Something vast and shadowy. A monstrous outline. Coming towards us from the other side of the clearing. Emerging slowly from the night mist.
Wreaths of fog trailed from its wet dark nostrils. Almost buried in matted fur, two small blue eyes looked down upon the screaming cannibal. It moved. Faster than anything should be able to, it moved.
For a heartbeat, I clearly saw its eyes, cold, uncompromising, full of ultimate darkness and bleakness. Then, in a fluid hook of sharp talons, it seized the top of the screamer's head and twisted.
With a sick, wet crunch, the top of the skull came off in the creature's hand. The rest of the body reeled like a wet sack of flour to the black grass.
Holding the top of the skull upside down like some gruesome bowl, the Wendigo scooped out the soppy brain as if it were an oyster. It inhaled it with a satisfied gulp. It was only then that I noticed the fallen cannibal's body was layered in frost.
The strangling cannibals on their knees started to crab backwards while they still gagged on the stones choking them. Too little too late. The Wendigo stood rock still for a moment, regarding them with grim amusement.
Shadow hissed low, "I can't make it out clear."
"It is a black body."
"Another of your legends?"
"Another theory of your science. Objects that absorb all energy, reflect none at all."
"Ridiculous."
"Tell that to your scientists."
The Wendigo seemed to move immediately from where it towered to right next to the choking cannibal to our left without taking a step.
It howled gleeful and hungry. Then, like some child out of the White Man's Hell, it bent and picked up the mewing human, embracing him like some long lost doll.
The cannibal went stiff, slowly freezing solid. Shadow began to shiver. This death was something outside her experience but nonetheless real because of that, its silence that of winter snows and bleak gray skies.
I murmured, "However many ways there are to live, there are many more ways to die."
The Wendigo growled wet and disappointed, dropping the now useless body to the misty grass.
It approached the other strangling cannibal who mewed in fear and helplessness. So fast was the creature that the human seemed to just appear in its meaty, hairy arms. More slowly, the frost began to layer the struggling cannibal. Still it took but seconds for him to become stiff and ice-rock hard.
The Wendigo dropped him and approached towards the last cannibal, still thrashing and clutching at Shadow's knife in her throat.
Shadow glared at me and misquoted Yeats, "Though the leaves are many, the root is one."
She still believed the Wendigo to be my Id and GrandMother to be my Anima. No matter. It was time to leave.
As the grunting creature was freezing the last cannibal slower than the others, I snatched Shadow's hand. "Time to lure this thing to GrandMother."
"I thought she would not fight it?"
"She will now since you tweaked her proud nose."
"No! It ends here. On mourra seul (We shall die alone.)”
My heart became stone. I reached out to grab her. Too late.
Her body was a living lance. Through the air she hurled straight at the Wendigo, her legs wrapping about its furred neck in a scissors lock.
Her whole body twisted sharply with all her strength. Any other creature would have died of a snapped neck.
The Wendigo laughed and flung her off easily. Shadow hit the tree not three feet away with the sickening sound of breaking bones and snapping sinews. No!
I yelled my throat raw and rushed at the creature.
He reached out for me with waiting arms. I slid to the ground on my back, slipping under him. I made a knife of my will and stabbed deep into his groin.
He stopped laughing.
I tumbled through his legs, bounding to where Shadow lay.
She was whimpering from the pain. I bent and placed my palm on her chest. The Wendigo spun around. I willed all my Orenda into a healing mist upon the woman I loved more than my life.
The Wendigo tackled me. We hit hard beside Shadow. The breath was knocked out of me. A cold so utter it was a fire swept through me. I flung out my hand to Shadow.
"T-Take my hand. To-Together we can ...."
Still sprawled on the wet grass, she snatched her hand right up against her chest.
"No! No, Drew. There is no Wendigo. No Grandmother. Only you, and you are killing yourself. With you dead, the world is safer."
The Wendigo started laughing again.
***
Wolf Howl and the Mossad assassin, Shadow,
have taken out all but one of the rural cannibals.
But he is pointing a revolver at the heart of the Lakota shaman ...}
He stood aiming the revolver at me with a wide grin.
"No guns, huh? You know what they say about those who live by the sword?"
He cocked his revolver. "They die by the guns of those who don't."
As he pulled the trigger, I pushed the finger of my will deep into the muzzle of his gun.
The barrel exploded. My head felt like it had gone off with it. Despite the pain, I swept a startled Shadow back into the tangle of trees we had just left.
She started to speak, but I gasped, "Hush!"
I pointed to the clearing. It was quite a scene.
The woman whose throat Shadow had impaled was thrashing about, droplets of blood flinging from her body in a black rain.
The two I had choked were still on their knees, retching and turning dark-faced.
The gunman was clutching the mauled stump of his left hand as he screamed like a little girl.
I nodded to the trees behind the screamer. Shadow stiffened. The Wendigo was here.
Movement. Something vast and shadowy. A monstrous outline. Coming towards us from the other side of the clearing. Emerging slowly from the night mist.
Wreaths of fog trailed from its wet dark nostrils. Almost buried in matted fur, two small blue eyes looked down upon the screaming cannibal. It moved. Faster than anything should be able to, it moved.
For a heartbeat, I clearly saw its eyes, cold, uncompromising, full of ultimate darkness and bleakness. Then, in a fluid hook of sharp talons, it seized the top of the screamer's head and twisted.
With a sick, wet crunch, the top of the skull came off in the creature's hand. The rest of the body reeled like a wet sack of flour to the black grass.
Holding the top of the skull upside down like some gruesome bowl, the Wendigo scooped out the soppy brain as if it were an oyster. It inhaled it with a satisfied gulp. It was only then that I noticed the fallen cannibal's body was layered in frost.
The strangling cannibals on their knees started to crab backwards while they still gagged on the stones choking them. Too little too late. The Wendigo stood rock still for a moment, regarding them with grim amusement.
Shadow hissed low, "I can't make it out clear."
"It is a black body."
"Another of your legends?"
"Another theory of your science. Objects that absorb all energy, reflect none at all."
"Ridiculous."
"Tell that to your scientists."
The Wendigo seemed to move immediately from where it towered to right next to the choking cannibal to our left without taking a step.
It howled gleeful and hungry. Then, like some child out of the White Man's Hell, it bent and picked up the mewing human, embracing him like some long lost doll.
The cannibal went stiff, slowly freezing solid. Shadow began to shiver. This death was something outside her experience but nonetheless real because of that, its silence that of winter snows and bleak gray skies.
I murmured, "However many ways there are to live, there are many more ways to die."
The Wendigo growled wet and disappointed, dropping the now useless body to the misty grass.
It approached the other strangling cannibal who mewed in fear and helplessness. So fast was the creature that the human seemed to just appear in its meaty, hairy arms. More slowly, the frost began to layer the struggling cannibal. Still it took but seconds for him to become stiff and ice-rock hard.
The Wendigo dropped him and approached towards the last cannibal, still thrashing and clutching at Shadow's knife in her throat.
Shadow glared at me and misquoted Yeats, "Though the leaves are many, the root is one."
She still believed the Wendigo to be my Id and GrandMother to be my Anima. No matter. It was time to leave.
As the grunting creature was freezing the last cannibal slower than the others, I snatched Shadow's hand. "Time to lure this thing to GrandMother."
"I thought she would not fight it?"
"She will now since you tweaked her proud nose."
"No! It ends here. On mourra seul (We shall die alone.)”
My heart became stone. I reached out to grab her. Too late.
Her body was a living lance. Through the air she hurled straight at the Wendigo, her legs wrapping about its furred neck in a scissors lock.
Her whole body twisted sharply with all her strength. Any other creature would have died of a snapped neck.
The Wendigo laughed and flung her off easily. Shadow hit the tree not three feet away with the sickening sound of breaking bones and snapping sinews. No!
I yelled my throat raw and rushed at the creature.
He reached out for me with waiting arms. I slid to the ground on my back, slipping under him. I made a knife of my will and stabbed deep into his groin.
He stopped laughing.
I tumbled through his legs, bounding to where Shadow lay.
She was whimpering from the pain. I bent and placed my palm on her chest. The Wendigo spun around. I willed all my Orenda into a healing mist upon the woman I loved more than my life.
The Wendigo tackled me. We hit hard beside Shadow. The breath was knocked out of me. A cold so utter it was a fire swept through me. I flung out my hand to Shadow.
"T-Take my hand. To-Together we can ...."
Still sprawled on the wet grass, she snatched her hand right up against her chest.
"No! No, Drew. There is no Wendigo. No Grandmother. Only you, and you are killing yourself. With you dead, the world is safer."
The Wendigo started laughing again.
***
It's getting very tense. I can't wait for the conclusion.
ReplyDeleteThat's definitely a cliffhanger!
ReplyDelete