Forging Day (Crucible of Change Book 1) (8 page)

Mikah tried to pull out his phone, and Derek slammed a fist into the side of his head. Mikah dropped again, and this time he wasn’t getting up. Derek growled, “I told you to stay out of it.” Grabbing Mikah by the ankle, he dragged him along with the rest of us.

* * * *

There were even more of the Beast Lords waiting when we got to their camp. I saw Beast Lords as bears, big hunting cats, wolves, one hyena, and even an eagle. Augra didn’t help them, but she didn’t try to stop them either.

They tied me to one tree, hands bound behind my back. They tied Tessa next to me, bound the same way, except she also had a strip of duct tape over her mouth. Her eyes were huge and tears were running down her cheeks. Derek dropped Mikah to the ground and tied him to one of those heavy metal picnic tables. Mikah was breathing, but he looked awfully pale, and his eyes were closed.

My head pounded and I shook with fear. I had a pretty good idea what Derek meant when he said he’d teach me a lesson for interfering with Tessa. It was the same lesson evil bullies had used against women throughout the ages.

I heard several someones running toward the camp, and there seemed to be a lot of shouting from Korembi and Berto and several others in the Troll contingent. “Derek, mon, this has to stop. De rangers already been called. You only makin’ things worse, mon.”

I had trouble seeing through my tears, but Derek seemed much bigger and hairier than I remembered, and he had horns. I blinked wildly and forced my eyes to focus. He had giant horns, and he wasn’t wearing a mask. “They’re my prizes. Get your own,” he growled at Korembi.

The forest was alive with animal noises, and the air was filled with purple clouds and swirls of purple ground fog. I don’t know how I saw this in the dark, but something small with a bright feathered crest was sneaking toward me. It looked like a compy. Now I knew I’d lost it. Maybe I was actually in the hospital already? I saw another compy, and then another, but no one else seemed to notice them. They disappeared behind us, and something started chewing at the ropes. I tried not to wince when sharp little teeth grazed my skin every now and then.

The world seemed to ripple, and even Derek’s group rocked back a little. What the hell? It was still dark, but now I could see everything. There were people beyond the trees, and smaller creatures moving along the ground and higher up. I heard a screeching hiss, and a large creature rushed toward us from Korembi’s camp. How did something that big move with so little noise? Frantic, I gave my hands a jerk and the rope finally separated.

Energy pulsed through me, wanting to get out. “Derek, you bastard. You’re going to pay for this.”

I pulled myself up as he charged toward me, bellowing incoherently with rage. Oh my god. He was freaking
huge
. I jumped out of the way at the last minute, backpedaling through the trees, and he grabbed the axe from their wood pile like it was a child’s toy.

I shouted, “Stop,” and tiny balls of blue light flew from my hands and slammed into his massive chest.

He staggered and I smelled burnt fur, but he was still coming. His axe began its fatal arc toward me when a seven-foot tall dinosaur skeleton—a freaking Utahraptor—leaped onto his back. Its claws dug deep, and there was so much blood. He howled and tried to bring the axe around, but he was no match for the raptor. It was a born hunter, and tonight Derek was its prey.

Derek thrashed around, slamming back into a tree and trying to knock the raptor loose. He gave it a jolt, but it had too good a grip. It hissed again and reached around Derek, opening his belly like an overripe melon, spilling gleaming entrails onto the ground. He screamed, and I hoped to never hear that sound again. The raptor screeched, shaking Derek like a doll. There was a sharp crack and Derek went limp and silent.

The creature bent to feed, snout buried in Derek’s gut. I stared in horror at the muscles and flesh regenerating on the skeletal raptor. The compys scampered over to the body, waiting for some kind of signal from the raptor, eagerly jostling each other for the scraps.

The world froze in time for one horrible second, and the only sound was the wet feasting of the dinosaurs and several people sobbing. Korembi said, “Stella?” and the raptor, now flesh and blood, cocked her head and looked at him. She shook her body, settling her feathers, and then stalked over to him, gently butting his chest with her head. Her eyes followed Berto as he came toward us, but she made no move to attack. She made a chirruping noise at Korembi, and returned to Derek’s remains.

I fumbled with Tessa’s ropes, nearly chewed through by the compys, and finally got her free. She braced herself and yanked the tape off of her mouth, wincing at the hair it took with it, and pulling out the washcloth they’d used to gag her. I stumbled my way to Mikah and Berto. The remaining Beast Lords, now truly part Beast, watched, but kept their distance.

Berto had tears in his eyes. “He’s breathing. He just has to wake up. You hear that Mikah? You need to wake up now.” He looked at me then, and his eyes got wide. “Olivia?”

“What?”

“I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore. Olivia, look at your arm.”

I did, and rubbed my eyes again. My arm was gleaming obsidian. The hair straggling over my shoulder was fine, and white as snow. My ears had finally stopped itching. I touched one ear cautiously. It was elongated and came to a delicate point, sticking out through my new hair.

Berto and Mikah looked normal to me, but Tessa was not quite herself. She had tiny, ivory horns peeking out of her hair. The pupils of her eyes were vertical crimson slits. Her bodice was mostly tatters, and leathery black wings curved up from her back. A barbed tail lashed back and forth with agitation and excitement. She gave me a wicked look, and suddenly I wanted her again—as urgently as the first time. If we were doing a dungeon crawl, I’d have said she was a succubus. As soon as the word popped into my head, I knew I was right.

Korembi came up to us, eyes still on the raptor. “I think Stella be fine now, mon. Our first raptor. Ain’t she a beauty?” He looked me over. “I’d say you be making a fine Dark Elf yourself, Olivia. Maybe we wake up tomorrow, and maybe we don’t, but I always knew I was Troll to the bone, mon.” He drew my attention to his companion. She looked like a Seal Point Siamese—all creamy fur darkening to rich brown around her hands and muzzle, delicate pointed ears, and she was wearing Kat’s clothes. I stared, and it was Kat staring back at me from the delicate feline face.

“Miss Kitty? Oh my god.”

She hugged me tight. “Olivia, what are we going to do? I’m a cat. I can’t be a giant cat. And dinosaurs don’t just show up and eat people, no matter how much they deserve it.”

If anyone needed a drink right now, she did. What was I saying? We all did. “We need to get out of here. We need to get home.”

Berto stroked Mikah’s forehead, whispering quietly. A soft golden glow followed the wake of his hand, and the broken skin on Mikah’s forehead visibly knit itself back together. Mikah’s eyes fluttered open, and his face glowed with love as he gazed up at Berto. “You fixed my headache. I always said you have magic hands.”

None of Derek’s people tried to keep us from leaving their camp. I think seeing their leader being eaten by a Utahraptor had a deleterious effect on their morale.

My jeans were loose, and too long on my new body. Elves really were smaller. The strap from my quiver would be pressed into service as a belt the second we returned to our camp.

The druid camp was surrounded by a shimmering gold dome. I hoped they were okay, but I wasn’t going to stop and ask.

We were putting the last few things in the cars, and suddenly I couldn’t stop laughing. I laughed until I couldn’t breathe, and only stopped when Berto gave me a shake. “They sent Cordie to the CDC. I don’t think there’s going to be a miracle vaccination for this one.” I snapped a selfie and added a quick text to Cordie. “Hey, sis. Vaccinate this!”

Interoffice Memo

To:Dr. Wxxxxx

From:Dr. Hxxxxx

Oh my god! I told you he was losing it. Dr. Fxxxxx is locked in his lab. There are flying rats in the hallways. We can’t cut the power. Why aren’t those boneheads from Special Forces doing anything? Can’t they break down the door? If you don’t come out of your office, I swear I’m going to have them break down your door. Come on. Hide under your desk later.

To:Dr. Hxxxxx

From:Dr. Wxxxxx

Screw you! I’m a chubby walking teddy bear. I’ll hide under my desk if I want to.

Campers, We Are Leaving!

I really wanted to get out of here, but this night wasn’t quite done with us yet. With my amazing new vision, I could easily see a young boy standing on the dark road just outside our camp. “Who’s there?”

Seth, Wendy’s oldest son, rushed into our campsite. He had one of those small dragons on his shoulder, but this one was looking around and making crooning noises. His eyes got huge when he looked at us, but his need outweighed his surprise. “You’re still here! Mom says we need Berto. Something got my dad and his leg is hurt real bad.”

While Berto got his medical kit from the van, I grabbed my archery gear. “Let’s go,” Berto told Seth.

“I’m going with you!” I told him. “You can’t go alone, and someone needs to stay with Kat and Tessa.”

“I’ll stay,” said Mikah. He got his own archery gear out of the van as we left with Seth.

Last time we went to the pavilion loop, it was a short walk in broad daylight. While I could see everything as clear as day, I still jumped at every shadow.

Seth kept his flashlight aimed at the ground and was practically running. “You have to hurry!”

Wendy was ghost pale when we got to her camp. Mike had a blood-soaked towel wrapped around his lower leg and his lips were grey. Berto was all business now. “Wendy, I need your help. You can do this.”

Ignoring Mike’s muffled groans and focusing on the forest around us, I put the light to my back and moved a little way into the darkness. With an arrow nocked but not drawn, I scanned the night for anything coming this way. Wendy hadn’t said what got Mike, but it attacked his leg, so I kept a watch close to the ground.

There was a flash of movement, and a small snarling creature hurtled toward me. I got off one arrow. It went wide, and the creature was on me. It wasn’t big, but its leap knocked me to the ground. It was one of the small wolf-like creatures from the sheep-stealing competition.

I got an arm between me and the creature just in time. It kept those flashing teeth away from my throat, but its claws were shredding my forearm. Grimly ignoring the pain, I desperately felt around for one of my other arrows. I snagged one and drove the arrow deep into one of its glowing yellow eyes. The thrashing finally slowed and then stopped. The remaining eye went dim. I threw the body off me, clutching my torn arm tight to my chest and trying to staunch the bleeding.

I lay there, panting, eyes squeezed closed, and finally forced myself to get up. Snagging my bow with my good hand, I staggered back to the camp. “Berto, when you’re done there, I have another customer for you.”

I dropped onto the bench of the picnic table and willed my head to stop spinning. My ears were ringing, and everything sounded far away. Seth was great. He got another towel and wrapped it tightly around my wounded arm.

“I got it,” I gritted out. “It’s just past those trees.”

Seth dug a stick into the embers of their campfire and grimly walked toward where I’d gestured, carrying his makeshift torch. He looked like a whole different kid from the little boy I’d seen at dinner in another life.

“Seth, please stay close. We don’t know how many more there are.”

He came back with the body and dropped it near the wood pile. He confirmed my guess. “That was one of the wolves from the sheep-stealing thing. I saw at least ten of them while I was making my dragon.” The tiny creature stretched her blue and gold wings and preened under the attention. He broke into a ghost of a smile. “Her name is Karinda.”

“Okay, well, that’s one wolf critter down, and maybe nine or so to go.” I gestured at the body and the arrow still sticking out of its eye. “I’m going to guess that one of those is what attacked your dad.”

His eyes got wide and he looked a little pale. Karinda responded to his fear by flaring her little wings and hissing as he stared at the wolf body.

“Where are your sisters right now?”

“They’re in the tent. Mom didn’t want them to see dad’s leg.”

“I think it might be better if they came out and sat with us. Can you go get them? Oh, and did they make any critters today?”

“Adele didn’t make anything. She says stealing is bad, even for fun. Bethie made a pink sheep.”

I was relieved when Seth returned quickly with both girls trailing behind him. The youngest was cuddling a fuzzy pink sheep about the size of a small poodle.

I spared a look in Berto’s direction, wishing he would hurry. Mike was biting down hard on a leather belt and Berto was stitching the deep gash in his leg. I hoped to never again see someone’s leg from that particular angle, and I really didn’t want to look at my arm when that towel came off.

“Seth, do you think you could build up the campfire for us? It’s down to coals and I think we could stand to have a better fire going.”

He seemed happier to have something to do. He was trying so hard to look grown-up. I think he was all of thirteen. Adele and Beth slid closer to me. Adele looked to be eleven or twelve, and Beth looked a few years younger. I told them, “You girls are being so brave tonight. I know your mom and dad are proud of you. Your dad is going to be okay, you know. Berto is taking good care of him.”

The fire messed up my newfound ability to see things in the dark, but I was having trouble focusing my eyes anyway, and wouldn’t have been able to fight off anything else if it had popped out of the darkness. I was really hoping the fire would keep the smaller critters away for now. Seth even brought me a bottle of water, lid off, when he finished. Good kid.