Chapter 10
Frisk sat next to Susie, both swinging their legs off the edge of the lean-to they'd claimed once the scouts had made it to campsite 'Serendipity' of Camp Whisper. Both watched the sky turn orange and then purple as the sun set, waiting to be called for dinner. The lean-to was Susie's favorite, or so she'd claimed. It had a longer overhang than the other nine lean-tos, and was painted a bright blue with yellow suns, white crescent moons, and silver stars. The other lean-tos were also brightly painted, and decorated in other themes: mountains, rainbows, animals, trees, insects. The lean-tos were hidden beyond the tree line of the clearing that marked the campsite on the side of Mt. Farnby.
The grassy clearing itself welcomed a large pavilion with an outdoor kitchen and several picnic tables. Behind the pavilion, and facing the lean-tos was a bathhouse. To the right, as Frisk saw it, was a large, stone ringed fire pit, bright flames roaring away, and to the left was the trail the troop hiked to the campsite.
"I'm glad the latrines are actual bathrooms here and not outhouses," Frisk said. She reached down, petting Toby, who was snuggled against her leg. "I wasn't expecting toilets that flushed let alone private washrooms with showers."
Susie nodded. "Oh yeah. We even have hot water! I mean, latrine duty sucks, but it's not so bad at Serendipity. If we were at the tabins at Cinder or the tent platforms at Red Arrow, we would just have outhouse style latrines and a trough to wash up outside." Susie stuck out her tongue. "Yuck."
Noelle waved to everyone from the pavilion. "Food's ready!"
Frisk slid off the edge of the lean-to, sneakers hitting leaf strewn ground. Toby followed her with a leap, tail wagging. Susie jumped the edge, sending up leaves as she landed, and sauntered down to the pavilion. The scouts of the Wolf Troop lined up at the outdoor kitchen to wash their hands and grab hot dogs to roast over the fire.
Once seated at the fire, Frisk elbowed Noelle. "Any chance I can get that ice cream recipe you and Snowy did for the science fair? It was delicious."
Noelle gave her a sheepish smile. "Actually, you'll have to ask him. He was the brains behind the project. I just provided the materials and set everything up."
Catti actually looked up from her phone. "Shocking."
Noelle shrugged, both hands coming up. "I just didn't feel like having to put work in it this time."
Catti went back to her screen. "Did you get your points?"
Susie smiled big, teeth sharp. "Oh yeah! Finished for the year!"
"How'd you get so many points so fast?" Frisk asked.
Suddenly, every scout was listening in, even if their eyes were pretending to be on their hot dogs. Susie gave them her best glare. And was disappointed by the lack of reaction.
"You can't pull being a punk with us, Susie," Felix, a yellow and black striped fish monster said. "We all know better."
"She's the Nightrest Science Ambassador," Addison, a green rabbit monster, explained.
Noelle's jaw dropped. "I thought-!"
"Called it," Alan said. He held out a hand to Parker, a blue rabbit monster and Addison's brother. Parker dug in the pocket of his uniform and pulled out a grubby gold coin, slamming it into Alan's hand.
Noelle continued her statement, "I thought that was Berdly. It's all he talks about."
Susie shrugged. "He can say what he wants. It keeps people from bugging me."
"Does he know?" Parker asked.
"Nah."
"I meant, does he know he's not the science ambassador?"
Everyone went quiet for a minute, before shrugging it off.
"So what does being the science ambassador entail?" Noelle asked.
"Oh. Uh…" Susie rubbed the back of her head, purple face taking on a reddish blush. "I go out to the really small, one room school houses in the rural parts of Kaparia with Dr. Whitman every two weeks to teach science classes to little kids." She smiled a little. "It's… a lot of fun."
"Makes sense that Berdly isn't the ambassador," Alan said.
"Why?" Frisk asked.
"He's a condescending twit," Catti answered. She glanced up from her phone for a moment. "Be prepared for a future project assignment with him and be doubly prepared for it to suck."
"I doubt Frisk will have a problem handling him," Susie chuckled.
Noelle looked to Frisk and gestured to Susie.
Frisk shrugged.
Susie huffed, disappointed. "She handled me, didn't she?"
"Says the girl who's great with the youngest scouts in the Nightrest Unit," Parker said.
Catti didn't even look up from her phone. Her hot dog started smoking. "Yeah. You can be a disaffected loner with a mean streak at school all you want. But here, you're our troop mate. We know better."
The hot dog caught fire and, still looking at her phone, she blew out the flames and started eating it off the stick.
"Anyone know what's on the menu for dinner tomorrow?" Parker asked between bites.
Mrs. Evans, a blue harpy and the troop leader answered, "The Eagle Scouts are responsible for dinner and they've opted for surprise, so none of us get to know what we're having until we get there." She fluttered unto a bench, one clawed foot holding her hot dog.
The scouts groaned.
"I really don't like surprise dinner," Frisk sighed.
"Whatever. Food's food," Susie said.
"At least they haven't poisoned us yet," Alan added.
"That's because the Eagles always make spaghetti. It'll be the same this time too. The surprise is our continued disappointment at the lack of originality," Catti monotoned.
Chara came off the trail, flashlight in hand, Niko trotting along with him. Frisk sighed, relieved.
Susie elbowed Frisk. "Hey. It's cool. Everything's good here."
Frisk shook her head. "It's not that. Just… I don't know."
Susie patted her shoulder. "It's safe here."
"You sure?"
"Is this about the bear attack?" Noelle asked. "Because there aren't bears on Mt. Farnby."
Frisk sank down. "Does everyone know about the bear attack?"
"Nightrest is small. Everyone knows everything about everyone," Parker said.
Catti glanced up at Frisk. "Well, mostly, anyway."
"Yeah. Anytime you wanna start spilling the beans, we're all ears," Parker added, his ears up waggling in Frisk's direction.
Frisk ignored the bait. "How are there no bears here?"
Chara sat at the campfire with a hot dog. "I guess it is time for the 'locals talk' and the locals are the reason."
He put his hot dog over the fire. "I know you've all heard this a hundred times before, but you're going to hear it every camping trip and every long distance hike until you're no longer a scout. There are fae who live on Mt. Farnby. This is their home, and they don't mind us or the camp being here. They keep the camp clear of bears, wolves, and mountain lions and maintain the trails when scouts and camp staff aren't around to do it. That said, they are not to be trifled with. They are dangerous. Do not go near them. If you happen on a fae, leave them alone. If a fae greets you, be courteous, but do not engage in conversation. Are we clear?"
"Yes, Mr. Dreemurr," the Wolves intoned.
"Don't be Addison," Mrs. Evans said.
"Don't be me," Addison agreed.
"What did you do?" Frisk asked.
"Mouthed off to a fae." The rabbit shuddered. "It tied me up and left me on the other side of the mountain. Niko and Toby found me."
Chara rubbed his temples. "Not one of my favorite days." He waved toward the bathhouse. "The water up here was switched to the main line a couple months ago, so we don't have to worry about whether or not it's potable." He eyed Wolves. "However, the hot water tank is still the same size, so no long showers."
"Alan," Catti said under her breath.
"Bite me," Alan snarked.
"Not hard to do. You don't exactly run fast."
"And Catti spikes another one over the net!" Felix chortled.
Chara and Mrs. Evans gave each other the same, amused smile.
"We good?" she asked.
"We're good," he answered.
Mrs. Evans finished her hot dog. "Mr. Dreemurr is making us breakfast."
"Yes! Bacon and pancakes!" Felix shouted.
Chara gave him a devious smile. "I don't remember saying I was making bacon and pancakes. I might just put out cereal."
"Oh please don't, Mr. Dreemurr. It'll be cold enough in the morning that I'll have trouble moving as it is," Alan whined.
"Yes, it's bacon and pancakes," Chara chuckled. He leaned toward Mrs. Evans. "And hot dogs for you."
She leaned toward him, her head touching his. "I knew you loved me."
"Anything for you, Shirley."
Evening moved swiftly, a warm and welcome darkness crawling in over the clearing, the sky lighting with a thousand, twinkling stars. As the Wolves finished their hot dogs, they switched to roasting marshmallows for smores. Mrs. Evans started talking about wilderness survival and environmental hazards, asking the kids to mentally run through scenarios.
"We're here at Serendipity. Tomorrow morning you wake up and it's snowing heavily. A blizzard has hit the area unexpectedly. What's the first thing you do?" she quizzed.
"Make sure Alan is warm," Felix said.
"Make sure I'm warm," Alan repeated.
"Pick up Alan and Felix and move all three of us into the bathhouse to stay warm," Susie said.
"Very good," Mrs. Evans said. "Knowing your needs and the needs of your troop mates is very important. Alan, Susie, and Felix are cold blooded and need warmth their bodies cannot provide. What else?"
Noelle waved. "Pack up our gear and food and move to the access road on the far end of the campsite."
"Why?" Chara asked while sliding a toasted marshmallow into a mug of hot chocolate.
"The access road is the fastest and easiest way down the mountain. Even if the camp master hasn't come through with a plow, it's still way easier to get down than the trail," Addison answered.
"Excellent. It's still a blizzard and you're on the access road. You know that no one is coming up the mountain to get you. Where do you go?" Chara asked.
"Pinecone Lodge. It's at the bottom of the access road, closest to the camp parking lot, i.e. rescue, and has its own generator if the power goes out," Parker answered. "It also has a fireplace, a covered wood box, and all the non-perishable food used by the camp staff during the summer stored there."
"Those non-perishables are behind a locked door," Chara pointed out.
Susie snorted, amused. "Not an issue."
Mrs. Evans elbowed Chara. "Are we raising scouts or hoodlums?"
"Both." Chara waved toward the pavilion. "There's hot chocolate on the camp stove. I've already put out mugs. Everyone is responsible for washing their mug when they're done."
The kids jumped up and rushed the pavilion.
Mrs. Evans sighed, one clawed foot reaching out to scratch Niko behind the ears. "Frisk was nervous after you went up the trail with the Eagle Troop."
Chara nodded. "She's still cooling down after the attack. It will be a bit until she isn't nervous."
"Do you think she'll be okay tonight?"
He smiled as the kids came back over with their hot chocolate, Frisk sitting next to him. He put an arm around her shoulders. "It'll be fine."
When the lights inside Chara's and Mrs. Evans' tents had been out for an hour, the Wolves snuck over to Susie and Frisk's lean-to. Susie sat up as Addison hopped up to the platform in one bound. The rabbit girl gently pressed a furred finger to Frisk's lips.
"Shhh."
Frisk looked over at Susie and got a thumbs up. Noelle tied a blindfold over Frisk's eyes.
The Wolves led Frisk away from the lean-to, Susie and Felix holding her arms to keep her from tripping, and onto the trail down the mountain. Toby followed along, trotting next to Frisk. Once they were out of sight of the pavilion, the Wolves switched on their flashlights. Halfway down the mountain, they turned off onto a side trail blazed a neon orange. Frisk held tightly to Susie and Parker, only just managing to keep her feet when they stopped.
The blindfold came off to reveal an empty clearing bathed in silvery moonlight, and made bright by the white of the surrounding birch trees. Every blade of grass sparkled with the early sign of an overnight frost pricking the tips. Frisk turned a circle looking at the trees and stopped dead, eyes on what appeared to be a woman by the shape of her legs alone, her head hidden under a hood, sitting in a tree. In her gray, cracked hands was a teacup and saucer. Lined all along the branches around her were the dark outlines of owls with eyes like orange flames. Or were they teapots with an unusual shine?
Addison turned Frisk around. "It's time to make you a wolf."
"Initiation!" Susie barked, fist pumping the air.
Frisk looked back over her shoulder at the woman in the tree. "Uh.. guys…"
Noelle turned her back around. Catti held a face paint kit while Noelle painted Frisk's face, making her look like a wolf.
"Now you need to walk on all fours!" Alan crowed.
Frisk watched as the typically four legged of the monsters hit the ground.
Felix grabbed her hand. "Come on. This part's a pain for me too."
They both got on their hands and knees. The group shot off, running around the clearing, Frisk struggling to keep up with all but Alan and Felix, Toby following with happy yips. The group circled Frisk and Addison knocked her over, rolling her across the cold grass.
"Time to roll around!" the rabbit girl said.
Toby rolled on his back with the rest of the scouts, all of them giggling.
Susie sat up first. "And now we howl at the moon!"
What started as howls turned into laughter and Toby's loud barking.
"Such noisy children. Don't you know to be in bed at this hour?"
The Wolves froze for a moment before finding their feet and looking around for the source of the voice. Out of the tree line crept a thing too tall and too slender for the rotting cloak wrapped around it. Skin just this side of sickly green pulled back from a mouth filled with cracked, jagged teeth. A half rotted nose and sunken black eyes completed a face surrounded by stringy gray hair and a mass of black feathers.
"It's him," Addison whispered.
Parker stepped in front of her.
"So you didn't learn your lesson the last time, Rabbit? And this time you brought others along? Naughty children need to be taught a lesson."
Frisk stepped in front of the group. "You're a night dweller, so we didn't wake you and we weren't making that much of a ruckus. You're just being a jerk. Picking on us because you think you can."
The fae stepped closer, sickly green lights glowing from the black sunken depths of his eye sockets. "Ah, does the little human think she can talk back to me? I own this mountain."
Frisk called the bluff. "No you don't."
"Frisk!" Susie reached out to grab Frisk's arm only for Frisk to step out of reach.
Frisk squared her shoulders as the fae approached. Toby leaped in front of Frisk, growling and ready to attack. The fae paused, green light pinpricks on the dog as the air filled with the sound of sleigh bells. North Star stepped from the tree line, shaking himself, and sending a cascade of flower petals to the shining grass. He trotted to Frisk and snuffed at her cheek before taking up position next to Toby and pawing the ground threateningly.
The fae froze in place, the green lights disappearing from black nothing of his eye sockets. He stepped back, kneeling on one knee, one green clawed hand covering his chest while the other reached out to the side, his head bowing so low his stringy gray hair touched the grass.
"I offer my deepest apologies."
Frisk felt something in her right hand and she gripped it tightly. Looking down, she held a sword, white and ghostly. She could almost see through her own hand, so pale, so white, and ethereal. She opened her hand and the sword disappeared as it fell.
Frisk looked up at the fae. "Begone."
The fae glanced up at Frisk and then fled, a shadow disappearing in the tree line.
Addison crashed into Frisk, hugging her tightly. "Thank you!"
"Addie," Parker started. "Don't just..."
"I don't care! Frisk saved us!"
Frisk looked back at everyone, blinking at their shocked stares. "What's wrong?"
Susie huffed, shaking her head at the white, wisp of a thing slowly solidifying back into a human in front of her. "Nothing. Nothing's wrong."
Susie knocked her on the back, mostly to confirm to herself that Frisk was still solid. "Welcome to the newest Wolf!"
"Welcome, Wolf!" the others yelled before letting out a combined howl.
Frisk ducked a little, shoulders coming up against the noise, and glanced up to spot the woman still sitting in the tree, the tea cup in her hand disappearing under the hood for a sip.
Noelle reached out toward North Star. "Is he yours? Can I pet him?"
"You don't just pet a fae creature!" Alan sputtered.
"It's cool. I've already ridden him," Susie said.
"You got on that," Felix pointed at the elk, "willingly?"
Susie shrugged. "It's how Frisk got me away from the bear after I twisted my ankle."
"Ask him first and be gentle," Frisk said. She reached out and North Star came up under her hand, now looking solid; human. She rubbed his snout. "His name is North Star. And don't stand right behind him. It will make him nervous. He can't see back there and might kick you without meaning too."
The Wolves gathered around the elk, hands gently touching its neck, fingers sliding along the silver ornaments hanging from his horns, causing them to jingle. Catti made a bowl of her hands, catching flower petals as they rained from North Star's antlers.
"I don't mean to cut us short, but it's getting really late." Alan made for the neon orange trail. "Let's get back before Mrs. Evans or Mr. Dreemurr find out we're gone."
The Wolves ran for the trail, Toby and North Star trotting behind.
Chara and Shirley remained hidden in the trees near the trail, waiting for the children to pass.
"A fae child?" Shirley whispered.
"Half fae, half human," Chara confirmed.
"She had a sword."
"Likely a manifestation of her Determination."
"Yet she offered mercy instead," Shirley hummed. "A noble as well. She doesn't seem to be aware of it."
"She isn't. Though the rest of them are going to be all over her about it any opportunity they get." Chara sighed. "We'll have to make sure they have opportunities."
Shirley reached over with one, blue feathered wing, rubbing his back. "I know it's hard. This is something you can't explain to her because you don't know enough about it either. And it's hard to trust that the troop will bond with her. But kids have a way of figuring things out for themselves, among themselves. We saw that with Susie."
Chara patted her wing. "Thank you. Follow the kids back. I need to have a word with the fae. The incident with Addison was within his rights. This time, he broke covenant with the camp."
Shirley frowned darkly. "A word or a sword?"
"Both."
"Good." The harpy jumped, shooting into the air to fly above the canopy back to the campsite.
Chara lifted a hand, snapping his fingers with the cast of a cantrip, and dashed across the field, his magic easily lighting up the trail of the retreating fae. He followed it into the valley and Camp Whisper proper at the bottom of the dam on the camp's lake. In an alcove by the water run off made too dark by the fae's presence, the creature huddled, covering its face and moaning lowly.
Chara stood over it, a sword appearing in his hand. "I find it interesting that, after our last conversation, you thought that threatening my scouts a second time would be a good idea."
"I won't go near them again! I swear! Just don't… don't let the bright one near me."
Chara smirked. "No need to swear on it."
The fae gasped and backed up, only to hit the concrete wall. "There's no need for revenge!"
"Revenge? This isn't revenge. You meant serious harm to my scouts. To my daughter." Chara lifted the sword. "I am merely returning the favor."
The fae's sickly green skin paled. "Daughter?!"
His sword cleaved through the fae's head, splitting it like a melon. The fae hadn't even time to shriek before his body caught fire, burning with blue flames, and quickly turning to smoking ash. Chara pulled on his campfire gloves and reached down, gathering a handful of the ashes.
"And just in case you are the kind who has the phoenix ability, I'll be taking some of you with me. There won't be reconstitution without all of your parts."
Chara kicked the remains on the ground, scattering the ash across the run off from the dam.
He turned and came full stop, staring up at the bare, pale legs of a fae sitting in the tree above him, its face hidden under a dark hood. Owls filled the branches of the trees around it, all watching him with orange eyes.
"Do you object?" he asked.
The voice came like a whisper and it wrapped around his ears. "No."
Chara relaxed, head cocking back. "Well then?"
The sound was so soft, it tickled his ears. "You call the noble child your daughter."
"She is my daughter."
"But not of your blood."
"Considering my own situation, I know that to not be a requirement." Chara took a chance, "Can you tell me anything about her?"
"She is like all of your kind. Hidden away, even from herself."
"Why?" he asked.
"The fae love their children deeply and they love those children with human blood desperately so. But such children are prized by the Farrath and it is a creature we cannot fight. That is all I can give you, but it should be enough." As the voice faded, so did the fae, disappearing as if it had never been.
Chara gave the fading image a bow. "Thank you, Whisper."
