Raven (25 page)

“
She's
been gone about 30 years, but never forgotten,” he added, smiling.
“She was a remarkable woman. Not unlike Rose, actually. They were
good friends.”

“
You
and Rose are very close,” I replied and he laughed,
nodding,

“
Elsebeth made us promise that we would be there for each
other. She wanted Rose to take her place. She felt that I needed a
wife and Rose was the person she nominated,” he chuckled, “but Rose
and I are, and have always been, just very good friends. I have
managed on my own but Rose is always there when I need her, and
vice versa.”

I agreed
that he and Rose would make a great couple, but understood
perfectly that some people are better off living alone – well, kind
of alone.

“
Gabriel?” I said.

“
Mm?”

“
I'm
sorry about Oliver. I'm sorry that I made him go away. I know that
he is like a son to you.”

Gabriel
stopped walking and turned to me, “Don't apologise for being who
you are Lilly. It is not your fault that it happened the way it
did. Oliver is a fine young man, he can look after himself and I
know he'll be okay. Like I said to you before, I am a strong
believer in fate. What is meant to be, will be, so don't blame
yourself” he said, “he'll be fine. And so will we.”

We
continued walking uphill in silence, until the terrain started to
become a little more rugged. Gabriel pointed to an area where there
were a few more trees and told me that was where we would stop for
the night. As we approached, myself a little breathless, I noticed
a small cave, the entrance of which was well hidden by
foliage.

“
This
is where I usually stop and sleep,” he said as we exhaustedly let
our backpacks drop to the ground. I slumped down on a nearby rock
until my breathing became slower and steadier, watching as Gabriel
began collecting sticks and twigs and larger pieces of wood to
create a fire.

He had
barely even caught his breath. Feeling guilty for just sitting and
watching, I stood up and began to help but I soon stopped when I
had the feeling we were being watched.

I moved
closer to Gabriel's side and whispered, “Gabriel, I think there's
someone here. I think someone's watching us.”

“
Stay
close Lilly, and act naturally,” he replied without looking up as
he continued to collect kindling for the fire.

I saw
from the corner of my eye that he was discreetly looking around to
see who it could be. Suddenly he stood upright and chuckled. I
turned to see the source of his amusement and noticed a rather
large white wild mountain goat perched slightly above us, watching
us with beady eyes.

“
Hello, old chap,” shouted Gabriel, “I thought I might bump
into you again.”

The goat
carefully and cleverly climbed down from the narrow shelf above us
and as he did so, the top half of his body changed dramatically.
Like Sammy, he was half animal, half human in every sense of the
words.

His head
and arms were that of a human and the rest of him was most
certainly that of a goat. His hair was completely white, as was his
long goatee. Age wise, I would have said he was in his
sixties.

“
Gabriel. Good to see you, old man. Frightfully sorry if I
gave the young girl cause for concern,” he said in a posh British
accent, which completely puzzled me.

“
Hello
my dear,” he said as he walked over to me, with his hand
outstretched. I shook it, my mouth open in surprise.

“
Close
your mouth, Lilly,” laughed Gabriel, “this is an acquaintance of
mine, Charlie.”

“
Acquaintance? I would say friend... would you not?” he
chuckled, before adding, “absolutely charmed to meet you, my dear
Lilly. You must be the old man's grand-daughter from London, I
presume,” he said, still holding my hand in his.

I
nodded, not quite sure what to say. I'd never seen a half man, half
goat before. Especially not one with such a strong English
accent.

“
Nice
to meet you Charlie,” I eventually managed to spit out.

He
finally let go of my hand and turned his attention to Gabriel, just
as Gabriel was explaining that he had met Charlie when he'd visited
the Elders the previous winter, at about the same time I'd arrived
– the reason Gabriel had been unable to collect me from the
airport.

“
I
presume you are on your way to visit the Elders?” Charlie asked
while he began to assist making the fire.

“
Yes,
I'm taking Lilly up to meet them. What have you been up to lately,
Charlie?” asked Gabriel.

Charlie
stuttered momentarily before explaining that he had actually been
recovering from an injury and so he'd had little choice but to stay
on the mountain for the last few months.

“
What
kind of injury?” asked Gabriel as he lit the fire.

“
Oh,
nothing to worry about really,” answered Charlie in a way that
suggested he didn't want to talk about it. Gabriel promptly changed
the subject, asking if he'd met anyone of interest there
lately.

Charlie
moved over to the now roaring fire and sat down, making himself
comfortable as he told us about a small group of travellers he'd
seen just a few weeks before. Having not recognised any of the
group, Charlie had kept his distance, watching from above. They
were a group of young hikers. “Kids,” said Charlie, “the human
variety... not fellow goats!” he added, chuckling.

“
I
just stood grazing while I watched them attempt to make a fire.
They drank lots of beer and acted like idiots,” he added, “other
than them, there hasn't been much going on around here for quite a
while... unless you count the time when a strange young woman
stayed the night. It was around Christmastime, I
believe.”

“
A
strange young woman?” questioned Gabriel, “I wonder who that
was.”

“
Her
name was Tabitha, I think. That's it. Do you know her
Gabriel?”

He shook
his head.

I was
intrigued. Who was this Tabitha? Where had she come from? Where was
she going? What was she doing up here alone? And why was she
strange?

Going by
Gabriel's friendliness to the goat man, I finally accepted that
Charlie must be somebody (or something) that could be trusted, so I
pulled out my sleeping bag and laid it down next to Gabriel's where
I curled up and listened to their conversation to find out more
about the folk that often gathered around the mountain.

Charlie
had obviously spent some time watching Tabitha, and he revealed
that she appeared to be a witch.

“
So
what was she up to at Christmas, Charlie?” asked Gabriel as he
warmed his cold hands over the flames.

“
I
don't know where she was coming from but she stopped at this very
cave for a night. I was near enough to watch her without being
seen,” said Charlie as I began to get the feeling that he was
something of a voyeur.

“
She
was alone to begin with but was later joined by a young man who
wasn't exactly the kind of boy you'd like your daughter to bring
home, if you know what I mean. He was covered in those awful
tattoos, all up his arms and legs. Dreadful things. I thought they
were perhaps lovers but before I knew it, they were having a huge
argument. I couldn't quite hear what they were fighting about but
it was clearly serious. And then just when I thought they were over
it, he turned into a wolf, of all things. I knew then that I needed
to make a quick exit, so I went and hid away in my cave until they
left. They were gone by the next morning. I was intrigued, to say
the least. I'd have loved to know what that was all about,” he
said.

“
Interesting,” said Gabriel, “but I don't know either of
them. Did you hear what the boy was called?”

Charlie
sat motionless for a moment, deep in thought. “Aah yes. It was
Zoltan.”

Zoltan
and Tabitha. A werewolf and a witch. I asked how Charlie had come
to the conclusion that she was a witch.

“
I
just knew... it was written all over her,” he chuckled, before
adding, “that and the fact that she appeared to be attempting to
cast spells before wolfie arrived.”

I was so
fascinated that I decided I wanted to meet them. I wasn't sure why,
there was just something about the way they had been described that
intrigued me.

Gabriel
and Charlie began chatting about things that were of little
interest to me, so I decided to have a wander around on my own for
a while.

“
Be
careful Lilly and don't go too far,” said Gabriel as I walked away
from them as they continued chatting.

Dusk was
approaching and I knew it wouldn't be too long until it was dark so
I kept fairly close to our camp. Since becoming a mountain lion, my
eyesight had improved dramatically, even in human form, but because
I wasn't familiar with the area, I certainly didn't want to tempt
fate. And I never forgot that I had promised Gabriel that I would
remain in human form.

As I
walked out of sight of them both, I heard the gentle cooing of an
owl. Following the sound, I saw the majestic creature sitting on
the branch of a lone tree. As he cooed, he just sat staring off
into the distance. I didn't want to disturb him, so I just stood
for a few moments, watching. Looking around for somewhere to sit, I
noticed a large smooth rock a few metres away but to get there, I'd
probably make some noise. I tiptoed as silently as possible and,
sure enough, he turned his head to look at me. He probably knew I
was there all along.

Sitting
down so he wouldn't feel threatened, I watched as he did nothing.
He just sat and stared at me while I admired his unusual dark eyes.
After a few minutes, he must have got bored of my face and so he
turned to look in the opposite direction before he took to flight
and disappeared.

I stayed
where I was and, looking around me, I saw what a spectacular place
it was. It was amazing how far we had actually climbed, the tops of
the dense woods below were quite a distance away. Other than me,
Gabriel, Charlie and the lone owl, we appeared to be very much
alone. It was an excellent spot to get away from it all and I could
certainly understand Gabriel's penchant for doing that
occasionally. Whenever life had a strange twist to it, I supposed.
Over the course of Gabriel's life there had certainly been rather a
lot of twists and turns, and the majority of them weren't
particularly pleasant.

I
wondered about Charlie. Who was he? And how did he have such a posh
British accent? It was bizarre. As far as I knew, wild mountain
goats didn't exist in the UK and for creatures that were capable of
changing from animal to human, they must have been born into it.
Like I was, it was in my genes. There was something about Charlie
that was a little strange. Why had he changed the subject about his
injury? And why had he been watching us for a while before coming
down to greet us? After giving it a bit more thought, I wasn't so
sure that I trusted him, so I walked back round to make sure
everything was okay. Darkness had fallen and I didn't want Gabriel
to worry unnecessarily about my whereabouts. I also knew that he
would be preparing some food before we called it a
night.

Sure
enough, as I wandered carefully over the rough terrain back to the
camp, I could smell the food. I just hoped that the bears couldn't
smell it too. But Gabriel knew what he was doing.

Although
I watched Charlie carefully while we ate, I concluded that there
didn't appear to be anything to worry about and so, exhaustion
taking me by surprise, I curled up in my sleeping bag and drifted
off to sleep. The sound of Charlie's and Gabriel's words did
nothing to keep me awake.

#

“
Lilly, Lilly.”

I awoke
with a start, someone was nudging me, “Wake up, Lilly. It's
Gabriel. He's gone,” said Charlie as he finally managed to drag me
out of a comfortable sleep with a bang.

His
words twisted my stomach into a knot, “he's gone? What do you mean,
he's gone?” I asked, jumping out of my sleeping bag. I looked
around and saw that Gabriel's sleeping bag was still there, exactly
where it had been the night before, a few embers smouldered in the
fire but Gabriel was nowhere to be seen.

“
Are
you sure he didn't just go to get some water or something?” I said,
trying hard not to panic, even though I could feel it rising from
the pit of my stomach.

Charlie
shook his head and stuttered, “I've... I've been awake for over an
hour. I thought the same. I assumed that he had gone for water or
to the toilet. But he hasn't come back, Lilly. We must leave
immediately. We must travel to the Elders together. There we will
be able to get some help,” he said as he grabbed everything in
sight and shoved it into mine and Gabriel's rucksacks.