Hiyaas! I'm back! Okay, for those of you that loved Bracken's speech, I loved writing it! For those of you that thought it was weird, so did Kendra. Sorry for the long wait, I'm back, and writing faster than ever!
Probably going to write something here.
Chapter Twenty
Kendra hears the playful yipping laugh before she sees him. Brach, the lame little pup without a reflection, dancing on his two hind legs in front of the chimera Kendra had scared off. Bracken freezes in place with Kendra in his arms, eyes the size of quarters.
The chimera doesn't look all that tolerant of the white pup, snarling at it, fur standing on end and goat hooves pawing at the ground. However, Brach doesn't stop. Kendra's heart moves into her throat as she gawks at the helpless pup, blindly wandering closer and closer to the chimera.
He's going to get killed, whispers Bracken into her mind, accompanying the statement with a sensation of mounting horror.
Kendra rolls her eyes. Thanks, Captain Sunshine. Set me down.
Bracken tries his hardest, Kendra can tell, to set her down quietly, but she still makes a noise as she regains her balance on the slick cave floor. Brach's ears prick. He drops back to all fours, swiveling around to look at them, putting his back to the chimera. Kendra gasps, lurching forward, but unable to stop the claws of the chimera from whipping through the air.
With a pained yowl, Brach gets tossed into the cave wall, ribbons of red tracing up his back in a map of the chimera's blow. Kendra stumbles forward over the slick floor, ignoring the spitting chimera behind her plus Bracken's exasperated: "Kendra!" and scoops him up. He's lighter than she remembered, and hangs limp in her arms. Red liquid pours over her arms, sticky and warm. His milky eyes are closed, and his pink tongue dangles from his mouth. Brach whines softly, trying to right himself.
Quickly, Kendra jogs back to Bracken's side. She wants the unicorn to heal Brach, to patch him up, but he's absorbed in countering the chimera's feints and lunges. The sight of Bracken facing off with the chimera doesn't really sit well with Kendra. In fact, it does quite the opposite. She rolls her eyes, impressed by the fact that Bracken's just as blind as human men.
"Bracken!" she calls as he blocks a strike from the chimera's claws with his sword-horn. "This didn't go so well last time!"
Bracken steadfastly ignores Kendra.
Kendra falls to the ground, gently laying Brach on her lap. She strokes his fur, massaging around his ears, trying to calm him. "Sh, buddy, it's going to be okay… You'll see, Bracken's going to kill the chimera, and then we'll be okay…"
A thought makes Kendra choke up. All of his life, being so helpless has made him into a loving fluff ball, forced to trust everything he meets, never being able to comprehend pity or scorn or dislike or anger, never understanding that everyone in the world isn't his friend. Now, he's been shoved into a cold dark world, filled with the realization that not everyone is his companion. For a pup that doesn't know up from down, that's heartbreaking for Kendra.
She leans forward and presses her lips to his furry forehead, forgetting about the power of a fairykind kiss.
Brach erupts in a party of burning golden sparks. Kendra instinctively shoves the scorching mass of golden and white sparkles off her lap, allowing it to grow. Her eyes widen as it convulses and ripples, growing like a massive star of flashing lights. She hears Bracken gasp, and then a triumphant howl from inside of the sparks, growing deeper and stronger throughout its duration.
A ginormous white wolf drops to the ground on four straight legs and flawless paws, flexing his huge muscles threateningly. A long tail swishes through the air. He opens his mouth and snarls, revealing fangs the size of daggers. But that's not what makes Kendra quiver with self-inflicted fear.
The white wolf raises a pair of fairy wings menacingly, growling at the chimera like a wolf god.
The chimera shivers, detaching from Bracken, baring its long yellow teeth in fear. "Spare me!" it begs, backing away from the white wolf with wide frightened eyes. "I – I – …I did not mean it! Spare me!" And with that the chimera is gone, scampering down the tunnel with wails of terror.
The white wolf yawns, closing his eyes, and collapses on the ground next to Kendra, whining and looking up at her. Kendra blinks in shock. The wolf's innocent eyes are an unusual color. They're not quite pale pink but not exactly light orange. Oranger than salmon. His wings are like a monarch's, except with light pink and light orange and white instead of dark orange and black. He makes a gurgling noise, and then opens his mouth, allowing his tongue to loll out with a very familiar puppy smile.
"Brach?" whispers Kendra in disbelief. The wolf's smile widens.
"That's me," he laughs with a light voice. Kendra blinks in shock. Brach has a voice like his mum, except its higher and a tad less musical. Judging by the cadence of his voice, Brach, the former adorable puppy, is now a teenager. A sweet, cuddly teenager, but a teenager nonetheless.
"How-?" chokes Kendra. The wolf shrugs.
"I dunno. One moment I am stumbling around with scratches that hurt, the next I'm huge and big and can see and can walk. Actually, I am not trying to walk. That'll only humiliate me further."
"Extraordinary," murmurs Bracken, walking up and extending a hand towards Brach's white pelt, his silvery blue eyes blown wide with wonder. "I've heard rumors about the kiss of a fairykind, but this – this is truly amazing! He's an entire new form of life!"
"He can hear you," reminds Brach, cocking his head.
"Ah, sorry, yes," apologizes Bracken sheepishly. "How exactly are you speaking right now? That should be impossible."
Brach frowns and tilts his head. "I don't know much, only what my mum's streamed into my mind throughout the years about who I am, but I am pretty sure that wolves are born with the powers of speech, like animals or whatever. I mean, nobody teaches a deer to speak. There's no speech therapist for squirrels. Plus, I've got a few of Kendra's memories swirling around in here." He taps his head with his paw and nods.
"I'm not sure how it's possible, but I'm intrigued," hums Bracken, looking Brach over, circling the big puppy.
Brach looks at Bracken with wide eyes. "You're a unicorn, right?"
Bracken's taken aback. "Ah, yes."
"Cool!" yips the puppy. He giggles like a little kid and rolls onto his back, waggling his feet in the air as he laughs. Bracken just stares at him with a frown. "Doesn't that hurt your wings?"
Brach halts his happy dance, and flips to his feet, glancing at his back in surprise. "My wings?" His eyes widen as he takes in the huge fairy wings sprouting from his shoulder blades. "Oh, cool!" Brach flaps them experimentally, stirring the air in the dank cavern. Something wails in the darkness from one of the tunnels, causing him to pause and raise his head, eyes searching down the dismal cave in bewildered awe.
"Never heard something like that before," he harrumphs, "but it can't be good. Shall we go?"
Kendra's still shocked to see the little Brach had become not-so-little-Brach. "Uh…"
"Yes," answers Bracken for her, holding out his hand and gently tugging Kendra to her feet. His hand is warm and strong within her grasp, so Kendra tightens her hold, unwilling to let go.
"Okay," hums Brach. "Which way?"
"No clue," babbles Kendra.
"Hmm." The white wolf takes a big sniff, closing his eyes and focusing. His wings furl up somehow. "We have the passage on the right that leads upwards. There's something big and faintly smelling like pigs racing towards up from that pass, which is a confrontation I'd like to avoid with Kendra going into shock and her bad foot. We have the route behind us, but the chimera traveled that way. Again, I'd like to avoid that. We have the direction you came, but that would be completely redundant. We could go either down the tunnel to our back left, the tunnel looping by roaring water and slick animal smells, or the one directly in front of me. I think that's our best choice, considering the linger of wolf scent originating from that shaft. What do you say, Bracken?"
"Front sounds good to me," laughs Bracken frankly. He scoops Kendra up, jolting her a bit, and walks briskly forward. Brach's first hesitant steps are unsteady and awkward, bumpy pace that makes Kendra wince in pity. By the time he reaches the mouth of the tunnel, though, he has a sort of klutzy rhythm, even though it's nowhere near as graceful as some of the adult wolves.
With clumsy fingers, Kendra grasps Bracken's horn. Not using words, she sends him all of her confusion and fright and guilt. Bracken looks down at her sadly.
I'm sorry, is all Bracken says.
"Swift-Song!" cries Seth as the brown wolf walks in crisply through the back entrance. Sure, the nice lady wolf isn't what he'd been praying to cross through the door, but he's relieved she's okay. Swift-Song smiles at him warmly, opening her mouth to respond, but Zia beats her to it, popping her head out from the darkness.
"That isn't her name," Zia snaps, walking to the center of the room. Everybody looks at her in bewilderment. Seth frowns, creasing his brow.
"Whatdaya mean, that isn't her name?" questions Warren with a frown, quitting playing with Vanessa's black hair. "That's Swift-Song."
"No," sighs the she wolf wearily, ears folding. She looks down, eyes drooping tiredly. "No, that isn't my name. The name I was born with, at least."
Seth frowns, noticing that Fiona's become very quiet. Mara leans forward. "The name you were born with? What do you mean?"
Swift-Song sighs, shaking her head. She looks millions of years old, like an artifact from prehistoric eras, a remnant from the ancient past, and someone that's seen so much more than mortal eyes are supposed to handle. "Wolf culture is different from human culture," explains Swift-Song thickly. "If you've noticed, people of this clan have two names. Thunder-Soul. Snow-Angel. It's customary that, if you move to a new clan with different rules, your name be changed to whatever title is average."
"I didn't want to," mutters Fiona, rolling her eyes. "I mean, what's the point? This clan's obviously not going to last much longer."
"Hush," growls Swift-Song, looking at her daughter sinisterly. "I still don't know why you couldn't just change your name to Flicker-Flame. It's not that different from Fiona."
"It's the most different thing in the world!" explodes Fiona, eyes burning with irritation.
"Quiet," snaps Zia. "Go on… Swift-Song." The word sounds like a taunt to Seth's ears.
Swift-Song sighs deeply. "My name was not always Swift-Song. My name used to inspire fear in my enemies." She hangs her head. "My name bound species together. My name united everyone. My name used to make demons quake in their boots. That is, if they were wearing boots. But why would a demon wear boots? My, that's a funny phrase!"
"Off topic," reminds Zia.
"Oops," apologizes Swift-Song. Her eyes, one blue and one gold, flash up to Seth's face, holding those ancient emotions. Seth frowns, some distant memory tugging at the back of his brain… But Swift-Song squares her shoulders and cuts off his thoughts. "My name," she announces, "is not Swift-Song. My name is Cadeliah."
Silence hangs in the air like a heavy tarp. Seth blinks, and the truth comes crashing down on him like a lead weight. Cadeliah, the mother wolf. Cadeliah, the wolf with one golden eye. Cadeliah, the one that always has to move on. Cadeliah, the wolf that never dies. Cadeliah, the wolf that has songs song about her glory every night. Cadeliah, the Soul Bearer.
"I am Cadeliah," she continues, eyes panning over the group of gawking humans. "I am the Cadeliah you hear of in legends, the eternal mother, the hunter of sins, and a nightmare come true for all those that oppose me. Rival me and threaten my pups, whether biological or not, and you will be crushed. Befriend me and allow yourself to be taken under my wing, and I will show you a whole new world for only those that are lucky enough to see it."
After a moment of silence, Zia remarks, "Mental distractor spells can be annoying, can't they?"
"But – but that means that you're superbly intelligent!" gasps Tanu. "Do you have any potions you care to share with an interested traveler?"
"You can see into the future?" asks Warren, interest shining in his eyes.
Seth doesn't join the hullaballoo of questions, but tries to keep himself from vomiting. Because with Cadeliah's distractor spell, he senses another one slipping, one concealing the truth about the large purplish gem secretly tucked away in his backpack, where he'd greedily hidden it from his companions. His hands shake.
Not looking at Seth, Cadeliah clears her throat and announces, "Yes, I can see the future, and also I can sense my soul out there in the hands of another. I know precisely who has it. I know precisely where they are, what they're thinking at this exact moment. I must go soon, to locate Bracken and Kendra and my son, but know this, Soul Stealer:" – her eyes sweep the room, not resting on Seth for any longer than anyone else – "I know that you're here, in this room, staring at me with extreme guilt. I know that you're scared of me. You're ashamed with yourself. And that's okay. But I warn all of you this, my children: do not seek out the Soul Stealer, and to the Soul Stealer, do not reveal your identity to anyone, least of all a wolf. If you utter a word about this calamity to anyone outside this room, you will all be ripped apart and your souls cursed to forever wander the earth in repayment for your crimes. Heed my advice, dear children. Bye-bye!"
And with that, Cadeliah, the great and powerful wolf, wheels around and darts back into the cave, brown tail flashing like a wave of farewell.
"Brackendra!" cries a familiar voice, and Thunder-Bolt rises from the mass of giggling puppies. He springs towards them with a huge grin, before stopping in his tracks with a puzzled look on his face. "Brackendra and, uh…"
Brach tilts his head. "I associate your scent with the sensation of wind in my fur and exhilarating speeds. Why is that?"
Thunder-Bolt is dumbfounded. "Huh?"
Kendra sends Bracken a pulse through his horn, and he sets her down. "We ran into Brach in the tunnels," explains Kendra. "He got injured by a chimera, and I kissed him. Then… well, then this happened. He got all big and stuff."
Thunder-Bolt gasps. "You're Brach?"
Brach turns to the side and twitches his wings, cocking his eyebrows. "New and improved."
"Do you know anything about that?" asks Bracken. Thunder-Bolt frowns and chew on his black lips thoughtfully, face scrunching with his thought process.
"Can't say I do," he says slowly. "I've heard rumors, though. You can ask Cadeliah, though. I'm pretty sure she'll be able to give you a three page long speech and a PowerPoint projection to go with it."
Bracken and Kendra exchange a glance. "You know about Cadeliah?" she questions, eyeing him suspiciously.
Thunder-Bolt makes an awed face. "Yeah. She spilled the beans to your brother, and now everything's all over the communication veins! I don't know if anybody doesn't know about Cadeliah at this point!"
"Communication veins?" questions Bracken.
"Veins of copper that stretch throughout the entire sanctuary," explains Thunder-Bolt dismissively. "Howl something into it over here, they understand it over there because of vibrations and whatnot. Like old-fashioned cell phones."
Kendra sighs. "Poor Cadeliah. I don't think she wanted all the attention."
Thunder-Bolt shrugs. "If she's expecting me to give her the royal treatment from now on, well, I can veto that real quick! She's my friend, and if Cadeliah thinks that's going to change because she's famous now, it's not. But I guess this does mean that Flash-Foot is her nephew. And he didn't even know about it. Little guy's psyched."
"Aww," laughs Kendra. Thunder-Bolt smiles, and then gestures his head towards the den.
"Come inside," he invites, warmly moving out of the way for the group to pass by. Bracken tips his head respectfully and walks into the chamber. After a moment of hesitation, Kendra follows. She can feel Brach breathing at her heel.
Inside the room are a bunch of little pups, tiny balls of fuzz that aren't even past the toddler stage yet. They yawn and gawk up at Kendra and Bracken and lastly Brach, displaying toothless maws and tiny tongues, curled up against Sand-Heart and Flash-Foot.
"Pups, meet Bracken, Kendra, and Brach," introduces Thunder-Bolt, coming in after the fairy wolf. "Bracken's a unicorn, and Kendra's a fairykind."
A collective gasp rings around the cave, and all eyes fly to Bracken and Kendra. One pup inches forward. "How do you tell male from female?" he asks with the most adorable voice Kendra's ever heard. His amber eyes sparkle, reminding her of Aladdin.
"Well," starts Sand-Heart in a matter-of-fact tone of voice, "females are generally smaller and slighter than males in build. They also have longer hair and usually better hygiene. No offense, Bracken. Males, on the other hand, are typically larger and taller and buffer. Females usually have higher voices, whereas males are deep. Like wolves, females are usually the more intelligent ones. No offense – you know what? Live with it, Bracken. Females have more delicate features, while men have strongly chiseled facial structures. Males have an angular and broad sort of body, meant to be packed with muscles but, most of the time, not. Females are curvier and naturally have increased fat that their counterparts. They also have, ah, rounder chests –"
"Boobs," whispers one pup knowingly.
"—and occasionally where paint on their faces, which they believe makes them prettier." By the end, she's cracking up because of the inappropriate comment interrupting her speech. Kendra joins her in laughing, not sure is she's offended or amused by the pup's tone of voice. Brach frowns in confusion.
"What?" he asks flatly, holding out his wings and cocking his head.
A pup gasps. "You're a fairy!" she exclaims gleefully, waddling up and gawping at him. Brach grins at her, gently leaning down and nudging the puppy cheerfully.
"Yuppers," he chuckles, fanning the air with brisk flaps of his fragile wings. The other pups bombard him, racing over to Brach and leaping on his shoulders and nipping at his ears until he collapses heavily, carefully positioning himself so he doesn't crush any pups. The pups hold a King of the Hill game, except it's called King of the Fairy Wolf. The winner is Flash-Foot, softly tossing any of the smaller pups off of the patiently chuckling Brach with the broad of his head, eyes burning with blue flames.
Thunder-Soul pads over to his mate and whispers something in her ear. Sand-heart looks at Brach with wide eyes as the fairy wolf rises, shaking out his wings. She rises and bows curtly. "Please, stay as long as you like, Brach. You too, Kendra and Bracken."
"Actually," booms a deep, musical voice from the direction of the chamber entrance, "Kendra's brother's about to go through the roof with worry back at my den, so I might have to take you all home."
Brach freezes, ears flattening against his head, and position lowering. He tucks his tail between his legs, and slowly inches towards the figure looming from the darkness.
"Mum?" Brach whines, licking Cadeliah's muzzle submissively. "Mum, it's me, Brach."
Cadeliah gasps, and studies her son with pain-filled eyes, noting his wings and eyes and healed legs. Her expression traumatized, Cadeliah looks at Kendra with horrified disbelief. Kendra's heart skips a beat at the message clearly conveyed there: "What have you done to my son?"
But the moment passes, and Cadeliah surges forward, clutching her son to her chest, sinking to her feet with ecstatic sobs, holding Brach to her and refusing to let go. Brach's tail begins wagging, slowly building speed until it's just a white blur.
"Mum," he chokes, curling up in her embrace.
"Brach," she whispers, a tear slipping from her blue eye.
"Everyone's staring at me," says the white wolf bluntly as he whips his head around, his undulating fairy wings held upright. "Stahp it."
"Who's the fairy?" questions Warren with a frown.
The white wolf looks at Warren indignantly. "You're the one that stole my bone." Seth frowns at the amount of sense in that statement.
"Huh?" wonders Vanessa aloud, a frown creasing her gorr-geous face.
"Fablehaven Questers," laughs the white wolf, sweeping into a bow and displaying his wings proudly, "meet the new and improved version of Brach!"
That takes a moment to sink in. Seth blinks in astonishment. "Brach? As in, Brach the little blind dude? The guy with the silly giggle?"
The fairy wolf looks at him with a crooked grin, his ears flattening. Seth's jaw drops as he releases the exact same laugh that he'd been referring to, with the silly face and everything. "That's me!"
"But – how?" whispers Fiona, standing up. Brach, if it is Brach, towers over her even without the combined height his massive butterfly wings give him. Fiona's eyes are a mix of confusion and horror. "What happened to you?"
"Kendra healed him." Cadeliah steps out of the shadows with her noble stance with the whisper of paws brushing against the cave floor, ears pricked and ruff spread. "She kissed him on the head and unknowingly remedied all of his injuries, along with a few notable additions. I think it's because of a DNA transplant, but I can't be sure. I'll need to research it."
Seth stares at the brown wolf nervously. Her blue and gold eyes rest on him for a casual amount of time, before scanning the room. She steps out of the tunnel, making way for Bracken cradling Seth's sister's limp form gently in his arms. Fearing the worst, Seth darts forward across the room, peering at Kendra's face anxiously.
"Don't be alarmed," whispers Bracken quietly, soothing Seth's fears. "She fell asleep on the way here. She needs the rest."
Seth nods, and holds a finger to his lips. "I'll be quiet. Can't be sure about everybody else, though."
Bracken shrugs slightly, careful not to stir Kendra. "Let's get her to a sleeping bag. Then we can talk."
Seth nods, eyes following Bracken as the unicorn gingerly sets Kendra down on her blue sleeping bag. He strokes a strand of hair out of Kendra's face before joining the marveled conversation retaining to Brach.
The fairy wolf flaps his wings rapidly, like some sort of humming bird, sending waves of air rushing into Seth's face. It makes a noisy fwum fwum fwum sound, but Brach manages to lift all four paws a few inches off the ground. Panting, the wolf halts and drops back to the cave floor, head drooping and wings hanging.
"I'll go research," murmurs Cadeliah almost to herself, turning on heel and marching back through the cave entrance. "Keep an eye on each other! Fiona, with me."
Fiona obeys, instantly matching Cadeliah's stride with a sort of slick confidence. Like those gangsters Seth sees hanging around street corners with the baggy shirts and the pants halfway off their butts, Fiona has a sort of twisted dignity about her walk. She knows what she's doing. She can beat you up. That sort of aura.
A howl rings through the caves, not uttered from any of the wolves in the cavern, spooking then soothing Seth Sorenson.
"All clear! Free to exit! Repeat, all clear! The lockdown is over!"
Opening her eyes, Kendra's flooded by soft light. Rising, she realizes she must be dreaming. Nothing in reality is this weird. The light has a faintly greenish tint to it, and she can only see ten feet in any direction because of the milky jade fog billowing through the clearing. The grass underneath her hands is soft, like a bunch of silk ribbons. The meadow is spotted with lavender flowers, the gentle shade of lilac blending well with the pastel greens. A few bushes line one side, crawling with purple flowers the exact color of the lavender, though the bloom design is very different. Nothing makes any sound, not Kendra, or birds, or any sign of life anywhere.
Kendra's wearing a long gown, a slip made up of lots of different golden fabrics all stitched together. Somehow, it looks pretty on her, not just like a patchwork monster. Her feet are bare, and her hair is bound in a long hairdo tumbling over one shoulder. The tightly braided plait is longer than she remembers her hair have being, but it looks nice that way, so she doesn't complain.
Wander aimlessly, Kendra drifts over the soft grass through the bushes, the ones she figures out is a maze of poorly hedged greeneries. The dream hits the fast forward button, and Kendra finds herself in the center of the dreamy labyrinth.
Golden light pours from the clouded sky, warding off the fog fumbling at the edges of the clearing and illuminating the meadow. A small creek with water the color of the blue sky flows noiselessly. Resting on one of the boulders beside the brook is a golden wolf, one with purple eyes the color of the flowers twisting up around his paws. Calmly and slowly, the wolf lifts his handsome head and smiles gently at Kendra.
"Welcome," he greets, deep, pleasant voice echoing around in Kendra's brain confusingly. After so long in the quiet of her dream, it's unusual to hear a sound.
"Where am I?" asks Kendra, her voice bubbling the same way the wolf's did. "Who are you?"
The golden wolf looks around peacefully. "I'm not sure. You subconsciously chose the location, not I."
"Who are you?" repeats Kendra.
His eyes fasten onto hers. "I am a prince of a kingdom long lost. You may call me Boro."
"Is this real, Boro?" asks Kendra, panicking at the sensation of her mind awakening. "Is this a dream? How is this possible?"
Boro smiles twistedly. "I am real, and you are real, and wherever we may be is real, so why shouldn't this be?"
And then the golden wolf is gone, fading as Kendra rouses with a start, safely tucked into her sleeping bag.
NO CLIFFHANGER! I am on a roll! Anyways, hope you enjoyed it and stuff! My poll this time is: What do you guys think Seth is going to do about his dilemma with having to kill wolves and also holding their soul? I'm very interested to see what you guys have to say.
Ciao,
~wolfluvermh