Author's note: I meant what I said, I'm not waiting for the next seasons to come out. I'm gonna do like other fanfic author's do, going by the book. Hopefully I can finish Arc 2 before the new year then get started on Arc 3 'Secrets in the Green Hollows' (Monster in the Hollows).
Remember this is an Isekai, expect canon characters interacting with my ocs, my ocs experiencing canon events, and character development. In this case, Elisheva finding both her confidence and where she feels best at home. Zev, finding out what else he's good at and making true friends.
As always, comments/reviews for this fanfiction are appreciated but please if you wish to share news, you tell me through PM. Review to whether tell me its getting spooky, what you liked about it, what you guess comes next, it's amazing, and stuff, etc. please.
Now onto the chapter, read and don't forget to leave a review.
Last time, the Bennet siblings maternal side of the family are anxious for news as Grandfather Cleavon not so subtly blames Rivka's friends.
Arthram sees a familiar face among the captive children. While Janner, Elisheva and Zev joined by Maraly make their way to the Stony Mountains.
Miles away, in the freezing plains, two Fangs shivered, they'd been called to relay a message.
"Sir, w-will that be all?" One of the Fangs whimpered.
Three feet away, a large figure casually walked to the edge of a campfire.
"Yes..." answered the figure which turned around to reveal himself as a six foot grey wolf walking on its hind legs. His eyes were yellow and there was a scar over his left eye. He wore armor and a cloak.
"Slither back to the Phoob islands. Tell the Stonekeeper my troops are heading to the Ice Prairies, and tell her the weather is fine." the wolf said.
Then it threw back its head to howl, no doubt sending a message to it's pack.
"Aaaahh! Get away from me!" Elisheva bolted up from her sleeping spot, dripping with sweat.
Maraly jumped, then upon seeing Elisheva only had a bad dream, glowered at the older girl. "A'm sure ilka beast 'n' fang heard ye scream richt noo."
The weary group of four youngsters had settled down near a hollow tree for the night. They each took different shifts according to the moon's position.
Janner slowly sat up from his spot, "You had the nightmare about the night Slarb clawed your arm again, didn't you?" Janner questioned.
Zev stirred and sat up in concern, ever since they'd left Dugtown, his older sister had been having nightmares. Then he registered Janner's words. "Whaaa? Who's Slarb?!" Zev questioned, his eyes wide.
"Again?" Maraly scowled in disbelief. "Ye mean this haes happened afore?!"
Elisheva held her left arm but shook her head. "No. It wasn't about any of those reptilian thugs, it was something more er, the kind of danger that lingered with or without the Fangs."
"What kind of danger?" Maraly wondered frowning, but her tone curious.
"Three little words." Elisheva replied. "Let's not meet."
Zev's eyes widened, wondering if his tough older sister had to contend with dangerous lunatics. Janner and Maraly were confused.
"Human dangers, that is." Elisheva emphasized. "But it's not about… well, once we make it to the Ice Prairies I'll tell you."
In the time they'd traveled together, the four had to learn to coexist so Elisheva and Maraly had gained some form of grudging respect towards one another.
Janner, Elisheva, Zev and Maraly had walked for two days over a ragged landscape. The grass was no longer green but brown and scraggly. The boulders were giant brown eggs, rounded and smooth from ages of wind and rain, some of them big as houses, and bitter the farther they walked. At times the boulders so covered the foothills that the children were forced to weave between them or climb them and leap from rock to rock.
But for most of their journey, they tramped up long, barren slopes of yellow grass with the Stony Mountains looming white and sharp in the distance.
They spoke little, but the silence wasn't unpleasant. Maraly seemed happier the farther they got from the East Bend and her father.
Zev was relieved he was still wearing the same green sweater he'd work back home when the Fangs dragged him and his family out of their apartment home in New York. Even then he knew the temperature was gonna drop significantly lower.
The wind cut through Janner's shin and breeches, and he worried more and more about how they would survive the snow and ice.
Elisheva had her cloak but she knew they'd soon be needing better clothing best suited for the cold.
The only animals they saw were squirrely creatures Maraly called browndogs. They chittered and vanished into holes in the earth whenever the passed. Maraly's skill with her dagger was put to the test, but she was able to catch and clean three as they went. Her bag filled with meat, and since the weather had turned so wintry, there were no flies.
In the middle of the second long day, they reached the foot of the mountains. The steepening hills fell away to cliffs, as if they had been cut in two and the north side removed.
The four scrambled down the pebbled slopes and several times had to retrace their steps and find another way around. All the time, the wind grew fiercer.
"What are we going to do?" Janner asked after they slid to the ground again.
"Don't know. Was hopin' you'd have an idea."
"Well, we can't go back. It's too far and too dangerous. We have food, and there's plenty of water. We just don't have anything to keep us warm."
"I truly hate to say it, but if we're gonna survive the harsh cold we're gonna have to get warm outerwear the hard way." Elisheva said.
Zev gulped. "You don't mean…? Pop off a wild animal and then…?" He made slicing motion with his hands.
The idea gave him the creeps.
Elisheva nodded. "I'm afraid so. It's either that or we end up as dead living statues."
"There's them bomnubbles," Maraly said.
"I know what a bomnubble is," Janner said. "What does that have to do with anything?"
"We could get one. I ain't never seen one, but I've heard me Granny Nurgabog talk about 'em. Said they're big as a tree and furry as the hair on her toes."
"How are we gonna pull that off?" Zev asked. Grim as it was, he'd rather not hurt another animal for it's fur.
"But We can't kill a bomnubble," Janner said. "Even the rangers could barely kill them in the old days. Rangers tried to get rid of them to make travel in the Stony Mountains safer, but they lost too many men, so they gave up. They claimed bomnubbles were too scarce to be much threat anyway."
"What makes ye think you know so much about bomnubbles?" Maraly asked, rolling her eyes.
"Books. I read about them in one called Pembrick's Creaturepedia."
"Books, eh?" She stopped in her tracks. "Shh!" She flung her dagger at a brown-dog at the foot of a nearby rock. She missed, cursed under her breath, and retrieved the weapon. "Well, did your precious book tell ye how to find one?"
"A bomnubble?"
"Aye."
"No, not that I remember. It said they live in caves in the Stony Mountains, that's all."
"Well, Granny Nurgabog told me how to find one."
"Are you nuts?" Elisheva hissed. "This isn't just a mid-sized predator this is a big sized man-eater-"
"Shh!" she said again, but this time she didn't throw the dagger. She squinted one eye and pointed at the nearest slope.
Elisheva, Janner and Zev squinted.
At the foot of the mountain lay a cluster of what looked like dark green bushes—which were actually trees, dwarfed by the distance and the enormity of the mountain. Above the trees, the mountain face was covered with what looked like pebbles but were actually boulders that had slid down the slope.
"See the snow?" Maraly asked.
The snow, just above the line of trees, swathed across the stones like strokes of white paint. At first the three saw nothing but more snow. Then it shifted. A speck of grayish white moved down from the snowfield to the tree line.
Elisheva's eyes grew wide, her hand began shaking as she clung to her sidebag. Zev croaked, then covered his mouth with both hands in shock.
Even from this distance, Janner's stomach tingled with fear. He knew the bomnubble couldn't see them (Pembrick's Creaturepedia said the monsters had poor vision), but he still felt vulnerable. If the bomnubble decided to have them for its dinner, there would be little they could do; the creature knew these mountains far better than the four did.
"We need to get out of here," Janner said. Elisheva and Zev nodded fearfully.
Maraly sniggered and drew her dagger. "Nurgabog told me their caves are usually in little forests like that one. I've been watchin' for it ever since I spotted the trees. Sure enough, old Nurgie was right. Let's go."
"Maraly, wait!" Janner hissed, but she ignored him.
"Stop!" Elisheva tried to say but it came out as a squeak. Zev tried to grab onto Maraly but he missed.
Janner watched her go, feeling a familiar anger. She didn't think about consequences. She didn't care what Janner said. She was reckless and foolish. She was, Janner thought, a girl version of Tink. And as with Tink, Janner found he couldn't resist the urge to follow.
Zev looked back and forth then followed after with a whine. Elisheva facepalmed then followed after the three.
They snuck from rock to rock until they reached a dried streambed that provided cover for several hundred yards. Maraly crept along in silence, and every time Janner or the Bennet sibling's foot slipped and sent a pebble clattering away, she glared at them with great annoyance.
Soon the stand of trees was an arrow shot away, close enough that it blocked the view of the snowfields above it, where they had seen the beast.
Maraly sat on her haunches in the creek bed and drew her dagger. "Well, are you gonna draw yer sword or what?"
"Maraly, this is foolishness!" Janner whispered. "You have to listen to me. This isn't as easy as killing a browndog. Have you ever seen a bomnubble up close?"
"Nope. You?" She grinned.
"Well, no, but I've seen pictures. They're twice as tall as a man and mean as fire." Janner replied.
"Yeah, I'm pretty sure you need as least a crossbow or something else to make it go down and stay down!" Elisheva whispered back.
"Aw, they can't be that hard to kill. Besides, we need somethin' to keep warm, don't we?"
Janner had to admit they did.
"This is crazy!" Zev mumbled.
From just over the rim of the creek bed came a grunt. The four froze in place. The bomnubble snorted and smacked, so near that the youngsters were afraid to breathe. After several moments, the creature moved away. Maraly grinned and peeked over the bank, despite frantic gestures to stay hidden.
When Maraly's head wasn't bitten off, Janner gulped and took a look. Elisheva and Zev gathered their courage to get a first look at an actual bomnubble in the wilds of the Stony Mountains.
Only a stone's throw away, in a little clearing among the trees, stood the beast, its back to the four. It was even taller than imagined and covered in fine white fur, so long that it swayed in the wind. Its legs were short and stout, but its arms were enormous and thick as a tree. Its back and shoulders rippled with muscle, visible even through its fur. The bomnubble was eating something and seemed to be enjoying itself.
Just beyond the beast, on the higher side of the clearing, was the mouth of a cave.
Maraly's face was ashen. Janner wasn't used to seeing her afraid, and he felt a little sorry for her. But to his surprise, she took a deep breath, winked at him, and the rest, then mouthed the word, "Ready?"
A howl echoed through the clearing.
The bomnubble stood to its full height and turned enough that they could see its fearsome face. Its eyes were hidden in locks of white fur, its nose small and black, but its mouth was huge and bright with blood from its meal. Two teeth as long as Janner's forearm curved up from its lower jaw. They heard another howl, and the bomnubble bounded to the mouth of its cave and threw the carcass inside. Then the beast climbed up the side of the mountain and out of sight.
"Blast!" Maraly said. She plopped down on the ground with her arms folded, pouting like a two-year-old. "We would've had it!"
Zev shook his head. "Naw, we'd need a bigger firecracker or maybe a rock slide to take it down."
"And we're NOT doing that again!" Elisheva said sternly, "That was way too close for comfort!"
Janner stood, looking into the dark mouth of the cave. "Wait, did any of you see what it was eating?"
"Nope," Maraly said grumpily.
"It was a wolf." Janner said.
"So what?"
"I have an idea."
Janner hopped out of the creek bed and bolted into the clearing, reveling, for once, in the fact that he was the one rushing ahead.
"Wait!" Maraly said, and Janner smiled.
"Jan, what are you doing?" Elisheva questioned.
The strawberry blonde boy skidded to a halt at the entrance of the cave and listened. Maraly, Zev and Elisheva caught up with him a moment later, and they leaned over one by one to look inside. The smell issuing from the blackness was overpowering.
Janner looked queasy, but he forced himself into the cave. On the floor lay the mangled carcass of the wolf. Its fur hung from it in tatters.
"Ahh," Maraly said. "Now you're thinkin' like a Strander."
Janner grimaced and pulled the wolf's skin from its bones. Deeper in the cave the four found the remains of animals neither Janner nor Elisheva had read about, some with the remnants of scaly skin, some with bony exoskeletons, and some with thick coats of fur. Most of them had decomposed beyond any usefulness, but several were fresh kills, and the four emerged from the cave minutes later with armfuls of smelly—but wonderfully warm—pelts.
"Now we're getting somewhere." Zev said, relieved they wouldn't have to hunt an animal for it's pelt.
They sprinted back to the creek bed and hid just as the bomnubble leapt into the clearing again, dragging another big wolf behind it like a toy. It grunted its way into the cave and stayed there until the four youngsters were far away.
That night on the slope of the mountain, Maraly cooked a fine meal of diggle and browndog meat. When clouds hid the bright stars and snow fell, the four slept in a mound of fins. Maraly admitted it had been far easier to scavenge the skins than to fight the bomnubble, and Janner fell asleep with a proud smile on his face.
They spent most of the next morning making the pelts into something each of them could wear. Zev sorted and held them out for Maraly to poked holes in the skins with her dagger, Elisheva and Janner sewed them together with twine from his pack.
By the time the sun began its descent, Maraly and Janner and the Bennet siblings alike were draped and hooded in furs. They looked like fierce little bomnubbles themselves and felt capable of living happily in the Stony Mountains for years if need be.
Later that afternoon they discovered a lake so round and blue it looked like a jewel cut from the sky. It rested between the shoulders of two white-capped peaks that blocked the constant wind and left the surface of the water smooth as glass.
The group of four knelt at the water's edge in silence. There was some great peace in the place they didn't wish to disturb. They dropped their packs, filled the water skins, then sat on a stone a short distance from the shore.
Before them, between the V of the slopes that cradled the lake, rose Mog-Balgrik. The Witch's Nose stabbed at the sky and carved the clouds in two. The ridge to the left of the nose bore a depression that looked like a shadowed eye socket, and to the right of the nose lay a cut in the mountain that formed a mouth curved in a jagged frown.
Podo's note said they were to find a trail that wound around the right shoulder of the peak—right over that jagged mouth. Janner shivered. It was too easy to imagine the great sleeping witch eating them as they passed.
"So that's where we're goin', eh?" said Maraly as she removed her hood.
"Yeah. Somehow we have to get over that mountain. There's supposed to be a trail I guess if we keep going that way, we'll cross it eventually."
"Aye." Maraly sighed. "Want to camp here tonight?"
"Looks cool to me," Zev said.
The hollow seemed safe enough. It was the first peaceful spot they had found in the Stony Mountains, and he hated to leave. They gathered enough sticks and scrub for a fire and settled in to cook a meal.
The setting sun broke through the clouds and shot a golden beam at Mog-Balgrik. The light transformed the hideous semblance of a face and showed the peak for the ancient beauty that it was.
"Look!" Maraly said.
Janner pulled his gaze from the bright mountain, as did the Bennet siblings. They saw what appeared to be a cloud of yellow flower petals floating down from the slopes to the lake.
"Are those flowers or leaves?" Elisheva mumbled curiously.
Then they heard the flutter of wings and the twitter of birdsong.
Thousands of yellow birds alighted on the surface of the lake, so many that it looked like the water itself had turned to gold. They sang and groomed their wings in the twilight and were visible long after night fell.
A sight that made Elisheva and Zev smile warmly. It made them think of the times they went camping on family vacations back when they mother was still alive.
"Hmph," was all Maraly said, but Janner noticed that she wiped her eyes.
The youngsters fell asleep to the pleasant play of the birds on the water. Janner woke more than once that night to see the starlit creatures still floating on the lake, and he went back to sleep with wonder in his heart.
Sometime during Elisheva's shift, Zev was having trouble sleeping to the point tossing and turning in his spot.
"Slugger, quit moving around so much. You'll wake Janner and Maraly." Elisheva loudly whispered to him.
Zev whispered back, slowly sitting up. "Sorry, Lish! But I can't help it! I'm not sleepy yet!"
Elisheva sighed, casting her gaze back at the lake. She left part of the fur on her left arm to scratch, even from this angle, Zev caught a glimpse of the scars.
"Jeepers, Lish! What did that?!" Zev hissed nervously.
Elisheva noticed her brother looking at her scar and sighed. "Remember Janner mentioning that nightmare then you asked who Slarb was?"
"Yeah...?" Zev nodded slowly.
"As I told you back in the clearing, I met Janner and his folks in a small coastal place called Glipwood Township, but the events that lead up to the Fangs coming after us... well one night, we went to hide in an old house Anklejelly Manor." Elisheva explained. "Slarb was a Fang who had it in for us, Janner's grandpa and I fought against him and during the struggle, he clawed my arm."
"Yeowch." Zev winced. Speaking of Fangs, this reminded Zev. "But I just don't get it. Why are the Fangs so dead set on catching one family AND somebody who doesn't even live here?" he wondered witha frown.
"I promise I'll explain everything when we get to Kimera, Slugger." Elisheva said apologetically. "I'd literally feel much better telling you over there than out in the open where anyone or anything could be onto us."
"Okay," Zev nodded and he laid back down to try and sleep. "But you know you can still talk to me and Jan here."
"Thanks, now try to sleep while it's dark, we got a long way to go." Elisheva whispered gently.
In the morning, the lake was glassy and still, and the yellow birds had flown. The Witch's Nose was grim as ever.
Maraly and Zev were still asleep, Elisheva's shift had ended.
Janner crawled out of his blanket of furs and walked a little way along the shore. He drank deep at the edge of the lake before he saw the man with the sword.
He stood just a few feet away, leaning against a boulder. His hair was black, and he wore a heavy, fur-lined coat that hung to his ankles.
"The Fangs are coming," he said.
To be continued…
Author's note: Gonna put up a poll for more drabbles on Key and Wingfeathers. Would you rather see Zev explaining to his new friends about why relationships with his maternal randfather are tense, or a brief AU where the Wingfeathers and one of the Bennets end up stuck in New York City?