AN: Huge thanks to ardnaseel for answering my questions about the local restaurants and keeping my location references straight! Thanks!
Clurichaun: Mischievous fairy, much like a leprechaun, known for his great love of drinking.
Banshee: Female spirit who's wailing warns of an impending death.
Púca: Type of goblin that is a shape changer and enjoys creating havoc and mischief.
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CHAPTER 14
Camping Trip
Hardison prioritized their list of errands on their way into town: first; food, second; check out of hotel, three; rent RVs, and four; buy camping supplies.
"Babe, how long do you think this camping thing is going to last?" Hardison glanced away from his phone to look at Parker.
"Don't know." Parker kept her eyes on the road.
"Probably a couple of days." Abby sounded exhausted and didn't open her eyes or shift from her reclined position in the front passenger seat.
Hardison did a quick search for Italian restaurants in or around Elkhorn. Hardison had noticed over the years that after steak or other red meat, Italian was Eliot's go to comfort food. After the night they had all just put in, comfort food seemed a good idea. Sperino's had a lot of good reviews and seemed to offer a wide variety on their menu. He decided to wait on placing the order until he got the word from some of the locals. He knew just how easy it was to make up things on the internet so an in-person review would be good.
Hardison asked the receptionist at the hotel what she thought of the restaurant and got a number of positive recommendations on menu choices and her information was seconded by the man across the street at the RV rental. Hardison called in and placed an order that made the woman on the other side of the phone stutter when she read it back and gave him the total. If she asked him about the extra, extra large order he'd just tell her it was for a family reunion. Which was true enough and didn't involve explaining the four very hungry werewolves.
After placing the huge food order Hardison checked for places to pick up camping supplies. There were a couple of places around town that offered that kind of thing but first Hardison ran a search on exactly what he might need. After that disastrous job years ago where he and Eliot had been running through the woods escaping a crazy militia group, Hardison had vowed never to go out in the woods again let alone go camping. He was a city dweller and he was more than fine with that. Eliot had drug him out into the woods on a rare occasion since then. But Hardison had no idea what they would need for this impromptu camping trip. Hardison made his list from google's very helpful suggestions and found a store that carried everything he thought he'd need. Of course if he missed something they were only a few miles from town so at least it wouldn't be a major problem.
Once they had the food and other supplies loaded up Hardison and Parker, each drove one of the motorhomes, and Abby followed behind them in Lucille.
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Eliot could smell the pasta, marinara, and meat balls, along with a slew of other delicious scents, before he saw the first RV make the turn at the head of the driveway. His stomach grumbled loudly and Ewen snickered. "Shut up or I'll eat your share too." Eliot grumbled. He hoped Hardison had brought enough food.
He'd already given Matchitehew, Parker's 'secret' stash of candy bars. He supposed that the three bars hidden in the lining of the duffel bag she'd left were meant to be secret but when Matchitehew started asking, via Keme, about when they could go hunting Eliot had decided that it was better to give Matchitehew the candy bars than to have to deal with an impromptu hunt in the daylight.
Two motorhomes and one beat up van caravanned down the long driveway and pulled to a stop in a slight semicircle in front of the old house. Eliot had taken the time to check out the house and knew that there wasn't much left of it and thought this property might sell faster if the realtors had the old house knocked down.
Hardison climbed out of the first RV. "Not the most awesome ride on the planet but I guess it'll do for now." He stretched his arms over his head until his back popped several times.
Parker and Abby joined the rest of the group, looking tired but happy. "So do you need any help with the food?" Eliot looked at the three of them, impatient to get something to eat.
"We've got collapsible tables and folding chairs that need setting up." Hardison turned toward the RV he'd driven. Eliot and Ewen weren't far behind him and began the setup with alacrity in hopes of getting to the food sooner.
Their work was rewarded and in no time food was set out in large foil trays on the tables and paper plates and cutlery were passed around. No one could seem to help the blissful looks on their faces as the aluminum lids were removed from the trays and the steam that wafted out brought with it scents that promised wonderful flavors to follow. Plates were passed back and forth until the food was piled high on each. Abby noticed that Matchitehew, who was sitting across from her, hadn't gotten any meatballs yet, but when she reached for his plate he growled loudly at her. Eliot stood up at the other end of the table with a growl of his own and turned a yellow-eyed glare on Matchitehew.
Eliot picked up his plate and chair and moved to the other end of the table, where he settled at the end between Abby and Matchitehew. Eliot stared hard at Matchitehew until the old wolf looked away from him. After Matchitehew broke eye contact Eliot reached for the man's plate and handed it to Abby who placed five meatballs teetering on the edge of the very full plate. Abby handed the plate back to Eliot who set it in front of Matchitehew. Without a word about it everyone returned their attention to their plates.
At first Matchitehew ate with his hands, and other than a shocked look from Hardison, everyone pretended not to notice. After the initial excitement over the food settled Keme got his brother's attention and tried to encourage him to eat with a fork. Matchitehew had no trouble stabbing the food on his plate with his fork but some of the finer elements of using the implement seemed to elude him. When he had emptied his plate Abby reached her hand toward it but waited until Matchitehew looked at Eliot and away before she took it. The plate was passed the length of the tables and was returned, heaping with food again. Abby set the plate down in front of Matchitehew and he nodded an acknowledgement at her.
"You could charm birds from the trees." Ewen told Abby quietly as he kissed her cheek.
"Who knows, but I think this had more to do with Eliot sitting close enough to break his neck." Abby's tone was light and humorous but there was a truth in her words.
While not silent, the rest of the meal passed fairly quietly as everyone was too hungry and too tired to be up for a lot of conversation. At the end of the meal Abby got out a large trash bag and she and Eliot cleared things up. Hardison, Parker and Ewen started converting couches to beds and unrolling new sleeping bags. No one commented on the fact that it was very early afternoon because they were all nearly asleep on their feet.
"Ewen I want you to stay with Abby, Parker, and Hardison. I'll stay with Keme and Mattie in the other RV." Eliot spoke quietly with Ewen while Keme talked his brother into coming inside the RV instead of staying underneath it. Ewen stepped up into the RV when Eliot stopped him. "Hey, can you send Hardison out here?"
Ewen disappeared inside the RV and Hardison came out a moment later. "What's up E?"
"I need you to do a couple things. First make sure you and Parker have your paintball guns. I want you to do whatever Ewen tells you if something goes wrong. Second I need you to get in touch with the alpha in Barrow, Alaska, and see if he would be willing to take Keme and Mattie."
"Sure, sure." Hardison looked toward the other RV. "Do you think something will go wrong?"
"Man, I hope not. When I thought he might be unstable I was more worried that the wolf would take control even in his human shape and be violent. I didn't think that we'd be dealing with…" Eliot and Hardison both turned sharply at the sound of Keme's yelp. Keme was rubbing at his hand and glaring down at his brother who was sitting dog-like next to Keme's feet. "Yah, this; I didn't think we'd be dealing with this." Eliot ran a hand over his face. "The problem is that he is a werewolf and not just a feral child. I think it will be a while before he's ready for society."
"Do I tell the alpha in Alaska what's going on or do I just ask if he'll take them."
"Tell him everything. If he is who I think he is he'll want to know but none of this will scare him off." Eliot thumped his fist lightly against the side of the RV and turned to go.
"Sparky! Where is my chocolate?" Parker was leaning out of the other side door of the RV and glaring her fiercest glare.
As long as she wasn't holding a knife, or a fork, Eliot thought her fierce glare was kind of cute. "What chocolate?"
"You know what chocolate!" Parker threw the duffle bag, that had hidden her chocolate, at him.
"Oh…That chocolate. Parker I'll get you more chocolate later."
"And Chinese food, and money, and…"
"Stop. I'll get you more chocolate, but that's it." Eliot tried to sound firm.
"And Chinese food." Parker smiled and disappeared back into the RV.
"And Chinese food." Eliot sighed and turned to Hardison.
"I already found a Chinese place in town." Hardison held his fist out and they went through their hand slapping fist bumping routine. Hardison sent a text with the address to Eliot's phone as he walked away.
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After three hours of sleep Eliot rousted everyone, despite grumbling, protests, and growls. "Come on. Get up!" Eliot jerked the pillow out from under Ewen's head and threw it at Hardison.
"I swear I will shoot you with this paintball gun…again." Was the slightly muffled response from somewhere in the fold-down-couch cushions.
"You'll thank me later. Get up. Now!" Eliot let the door slam on his way out. Eliot walked back toward the tables and chairs that they'd left out earlier. Stretching his shoulders, back, and arms. As he walked slowly in a small circle.
Before long he heard a door open and close behind him. Parker came out and curled herself into one of the folding chairs with a blanket wrapped around her shoulders. Her eyes were red and puffy and she cast him a sullen look.
"Come on Parker, get up and stretch with me. If you sleep the rest of the day you'll be up all night."
A mumble came from inside the blanket that Parker had pulled up over her head. "eefsrnctrnl"
Eliot interpreted that to be 'thieves are nocturnal'. "We've talked about this before it's not good for you to stay awake all night and sleep all day. You need sunlight, and fresh air."
"grrrrrr" The sound of Parker's version of a wolf growl barely preceded her as she emerged from the blanket.
"I second that, babe." Hardison plunked himself down in the seat next to Parker. "What's with the wakeup call?"
"We'll be done with this job soon and it would be better to get back to a normal schedule now, rather than later. Besides you need sunlight and fresh air too."
Hardison glanced around at three more sleepy faces. "Hey where's Lucille? And where's Keme?"
"I sent him on an errand. He'll be back soon."
With a little more grumbling and cajoling they all were, soon, dressed in something fit for walking in the cool weather. Eliot led them into the woods and after a few minutes the grumbling, and snippy comments about pushy wolves, died down. Eliot was enjoying the quiet of the misty forest but the fall weather was beginning to close in on them and he noticed a shift in the emotions of the group. A twig snapped nearby and Hardison and Parker both jumped. Farther away something moved in the underbrush and Eliot saw Ewen unobtrusively, and Mattie not so unobtrusively, trying to catch a scent. The whole group was starting to get jumpy.
"Abby, do you remember the story of 'Jack and his friends'?" Eliot paced backward for a moment while he grinned at Abby. She nodded at him with a grin of her own. "I don't think Hardison or Parker have heard that one."
Abby told the story of how Jack and his animal friends thwarted a bunch of thieves, with such hilarity that soon everyone was laughing and other stories were told. Eliot had begun picking up deadfall branches and Ewen and Mattie started to do the same. Before long they all made it back to the RVs.
Eliot and Ewen started setting up a fire ring out of stones found near the old house. Mattie didn't speak or understand enough English to communicate well but he was a clever mimic and having a familiar task seemed to please him, as he brought another armful of stones to the fire ring. Abby and Parker went to make hot chocolate and Hardison made a bee line for his electronics. Abby, Parker and Hardison had resettled themselves near the newly built fire ring and were waiting on Eliot and Ewen to get the fire started when they noticed the three werewolves tense and turn their attention toward the highway.
Hardison turned in his chair but couldn't make out anything in the gloaming that was fast turning to night. "Werewolf vision man." Hardison muttered mostly to himself. A little louder he said "So what do you guys see?"
The tension melted away as Eliot answered. "Keme coming back in Lucille."
Ewen's stomach growled loudly. "I hope you sent him for food. I could do with a bite."
Eliot and Ewen both inhaled deeply and Eliot smiled at Parker. "Hope you're hungry darlin."
Parker quirked an eyebrow but didn't say anything.
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Hardison tried to muffle a belch behind his fist as he threw a take-away carton from Moy's Chinese restaurant into the fire. "That was really good."
"Almost good enough to forgive chocolate thievery… almost." Parker shot a sideways look at Eliot who got up and made his way over to a nearby tree and snapped off a few long thin sticks.
Eliot came back and snagged a shopping bag out of the back of Lucille before he settled next to the fire. "I didn't have time to make graham crackers so I hope you guys don't mind store bought." Eliot impaled a marshmallow and began toasting it slowly until it was a crisp golden brown on the outside and hot and gooey on the inside.
"You have a recipe for graham crackers." Hardison rolled his eyes. "Of course you do."
Eliot rolled his eyes at Hardison in return and finished assembling the smore. After sandwiching the toasted marshmallow between graham crackers and chocolate he handed the finished smore to Parker.
Parker took the first bite and moaned loudly as she nestled into her chair. "Okay Sparky you're forgiven for the chocolate. The rest we'll talk about later."
"The rest?" Eliot looked at her over his shoulder while he toasted another marshmallow. "What rest?"
"Later." Parker moaned her way through another bite.
Eliot gave the next smore to Mattie who took it and with a glance at Parker, imitated her technique, and took a bite. As soon as he swallowed the first bite he started animatedly jabbering at Keme.
Keme looked at Eliot. "Mattie says that you all were telling stories before and he wants to know if the smores were part of them. Apparently he's never had one, and he thinks they are worthy of a story." Keme smiled affectionately at his brother.
"How'd he know we were telling stories?" Ewen asked around a yawn.
"The rhythm. People talk differently when they are telling stories. There is a rhythm that lets you know it's a story." While Parker was talking she slid the chocolate off of Hardison's graham cracker when he turned to get a marshmallow.
Eliot shrugged and bobbed his head in acceptance. "We were actually just telling old folk stories mostly. I'm sure this lot know a few more stories though." Eliot indicated the rest of the group while he settled in to toast another marshmallow.
"Ooh, I know a scary story!" Parker took the chocolate off of Hardison's graham cracker again as she sat up straighter in her chair.
Everyone settled in as Parker began her story about a thief who was trying to steal money from a haunted house in France. Eliot continued to make and pass out smores. Hardison had given up on making his own since he couldn't hang onto his chocolate long enough to finish the job.
"…And then after the thief had made it past the laser grid and the weight-sensitive floor tiles she was finally able to open the safe but…" Parker held the pause in her story as she looked around at everyone. "when she finally opened the door, the safe was empty. There wasn't even one euro left." Parker finished her story but no one seemed scared or amazed so she looked at Hardison for an explanation.
"Babe, uhm, well that story wasn't really scary and you never actually talked about the ghost." Hardison shrugged.
"Wasn't scary? But the safe was EMPTY! Empty, no money, nada, zip, nothing!" Parker furrowed her brow in emphasis.
"Nope. Still not scary." Hardison leaned over and kissed her forehead.
"Okay. I've got a good story." Ewen licked the sticky marshmallow off his fingers while he gathered his thoughts. "So when my father was walking down a lane not far from our house…"
Eliot looked around at the group and sighed. His team and all the others that he was responsible for were safe and happy. Eliot finished making a smore for himself and tuned back into Ewen's story just in time to catch the ending.
Abby swatted at Ewen's arm. "Your da' blaming a clurichaun for drinking all the beer in the cellar is even less scary than Parker's story."
Abby took her turn and scared them all silly with stories of banshees and púcas. The story telling continued for quite a while until finally one-by-one people started falling asleep, sitting up in their chairs. Finally Eliot dowsed the fire and sent everyone off to bed.
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The next morning Hardison woke to the scent of fresh biscuits. Sitting up and stretching he saw the small red light on the RV's oven that told him that was the source of the delicious smell. Getting out of bed his first thought was to crack open the oven door for a quick peek at the biscuits but in his head he could already hear the 'Dammit Hardison' that would follow such an action. Pulling on his boots and a jacket he headed outside and dropped down into a chair near the fire ring.
"Morning." Eliot didn't look up from the griddle he had balanced over the fire.
"Mor…" The rest of the greeting was lost in a massive yawn. When Hardison opened his eyes again Eliot was holding out a cup of coffee in front of him. "Where's my orange soda?"
"It's this or nothin'." Eliot started spearing sausages with a fork and flipping them over.
Hardison sipped the coffee. Even if he wasn't a huge fan of coffee at least it would keep his hands warm. "I forgot to tell you last night that I got a message back from Jim Skookum up in Utqiaġvik."
"Where? What? That's not the name of one of your little elf friends is it?" Eliot kept his attention mostly on his cooking.
"Orc not elf and no. No it's not the name of one of my friends. Apparently they changed the name of Barrow, Alaska to Utqiaġvik."
Eliot shook his head. "Okay so what did Skookum say?"
Hardison pulled out his phone and checked the date to be sure. "He said he'd take them. He should be here today. Probably by lunch time." Hardison's stomach growled and Eliot handed him a sausage. "You think the town name was weird. What about Skookum? What kind of a name is that?"
"Means strong or brave. Google Skookum Jim." Eliot couldn't hide his grin as he started platting the sausages.
After tapping on his phone for a moment he glanced at Eliot. "Are you saying that Jim Skookum was Skookum Jim Mason? One of the guys that kicked off the Klondike gold rush." Hardison was scrolling through info on his phone. "Wow there's a lot of info on this guy. Including a death date. So when did he become a werewolf?"
"Don't know." There was a very light ding that sounded in the RV. Eliot went to the RV to retrieve his biscuits.
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Before long everyone had eaten breakfast and plans were being made for going home. Abby and Ewen wanted to stay until things were settled with Keme and Mattie but they planned, with Hardison's help, to leave for home from the General Mitchell International Airport in Milwaukee.
"So what is our plan from here?" Keme looked at Eliot.
"Your alpha is coming to pick you up today." Parker answered Keme without looking up from her bowl of Lucky Charms.
"Alpha?" Keme looked back and forth between Eliot and Parker. "But I have no alpha and you are Mattie's alpha now." Keme looked at Eliot. "I would stay with my brother if I can."
Hardison suddenly recalled some of the children that had been brought to his Nana's house. Some of them had been separated from siblings before they came to Nana's and all of them had the same look and sorrowful tone that Keme now had. "Nah man, it's not like that. Jim Skookum said that he would take you both. He actually sounded pretty excited about it."
Keme's face lit up. "Thank you. Thank you all so much. I cannot express the depth of my gratitude." Keme turned to his brother and started talking animatedly.
"So what's next?" Hardison looked between Parker and Eliot.