Eugene flips another page of the large tome in front of him. Stacked beside him on the desk are more volumes, books and pamphlets of varying sizes. Viken has a book open on his lap as well as he slides down the edge of his chair.
"This is so boring," he whines. "You should have brought Taho instead. He's better at this than I am."
"Pick a different book then," Eugene replies. He scans the book piles, pulls one out of the middle and tosses it to Viken. "Here's a picture book, try this."
"What are all those?" Heli sits up, but isn't quite ready to remove himself from the warmth of his blankets just yet.
"Legends, lore, monster stories. Looking for some idea about what we might be dealing with here." Eugene grins. "You're up early."
"Early?" Heli rubs his eyes and casts a glance to the window. One side of the curtain is drawn and the outside certainly isn't light. "It's already dark out."
"Right now it's late afternoon, which is early for you," says Viken. "Come look."
With hesitation, Heli pulls off the duvet and steps towards the window. The last of a deep orange light barely crests over the tops of the mountains, fading into green and darkening shades of blue.
"There was a little more light a couple hours ago, but this is about as bright as it's going to get," Eugene explains. "We're far enough north that the sun won't fully rise for another couple weeks. Too bad it's so cold, otherwise it'd be a vampire paradise. And the fact that the summer is the opposite."
"You mean the sun doesn't set?"
"That's right," Eugene says. "Welcome to polar night."
He leans into the window sill as he watches the sky deepen, trying to tune out Viken and Eugene's bickering voices. A vampire paradise. If only there was a place stuck in eternal night and of a moderate temperature. Someplace even he could go out whenever he pleased. Wouldn't that just be nice…
"Here, there are werewolf stories. Look," Viken says as he shoves an open book under Eugene's face.
"I'm just not sure," Eugene responds. "Some of these details are bothering me…"
Movement below catches Heli's eye. A dark figure is walking on the ground below, dipping in and out of sight as it lurks around the building. This definitely isn't an animal. Rather, it looks to be a person dressed in a long coat. Something thick wraps around where its neck ought to be, like the wrap of a scarf. It stops and turns, seemingly scanning for something on the ground, and then looks up. In the shadows, Heli can't see a face under the dark clothing, but he thinks, for just a second, their eyes meet. He leans closer to the glass. The person below pauses just a moment, as they seemingly stare back.
And then it's gone.
Heli jumps in surprise, rising from his leaning position to try and get a better view of the road below.
"Is something wrong?"
Eugene looks up from his book, concerned.
"There was something out there," Heli says.
"Something?" Eugene joins him at the window, pressing his face to the glass. "What kind of something?"
"More of a someone. They've disappeared though, I don't think it was a normal person."
"Are you sure it wasn't Jakah looking around? He went out earlier."
Heli shakes his head. "Looked too tall to be Jakah. How early was he up?"
Eugene frowns as he sinks back down to his stack of books. "Why don't you go look for him? Honestly, I'm not too keen on the idea of him being unsupervised, you never know what he'll get up to."
Heli doesn't feel like reading and Jaan is still asleep so he agrees.
"I don't think anyone should go poking around the forest yet," Eugene calls after him, just as he's about to close the door. "Not until I have a better idea of what we're dealing with."
Much like the previous night, the inn is empty. Heli rounds a corner to see Jakah crouched near the floor. Not too far away, also crouched on the floor and growling, is the dog.
"Stop," Jakah raises an arm to keep Heli from approaching. "I'm making progress."
"Are you sure about that?"
"She's not just running away from me now, so yes."
"If you want to be friends with Frida, you need to give her the right treats." Eira comes up the stairs with a small bag in hand that gives off the faintest smell of meat. "I'll give you these with the condition that you take her for walks as long as you're here."
Jakah shoots up, a smile on his face. "Deal." He takes the bag from Eira and settles back onto the floor, ready with refreshed attempts to bribe the dog Frida into being friendly. Heli follows Eira back downstairs.
"Is there no one else here?" he asks.
"No," says Eira. "Bookings have been slow since news of attacks spread but after last night, everyone else cleared out." She walks back into the cafe. "Honestly, I don't really mind. Doing everything one-handed is a real pain." With a sigh she ducks down behind the counter they'd eaten at the night before.
"Why don't you go home and rest?" Heli says. "Instead of working."
Eira laughs. "I spend more time here than at home." She stands up and sets to work clearing the few dishes still out. "What else would I do, just sit around? Usually we have plenty of bookings from people passing through for a north pole adventure, or whatever it is they're looking for up here. I may be slow going right now, but I'd rather be busy than bored."
She starts collecting napkin holders from the tables. Working with an injured arm the way she is doesn't really feel admirable, and Heli wonders if the rest of the employees have also taken off for fear.
"Is there anything I can do?" he says.
"Hm?"
"To help you."
"Oh," Eira shakes her head. "No, you're supposed to be my guest, after all."
"I don't mind. Everyone else has something to do, so. I'm kinda bored."
Eira looks around the small cafe. "Fine, then. You can put the chairs up on the tables. Remember how they were?"
Heli nods. Surveying the tables, the image of all the chairs flipping up at once flashes across his mind. He smiles at the silliness of it until another idea enters his head.
Was there any reason that shouldn't be possible? He'd never tried to lift multiple things at once, but surely he could if he wanted to.
He casts a glance at Eira. Her back is turned as she's cleaning off something else. All he has to do is the number of chairs, their positions and create an image of how he wants them to move. Easy. He turns, taking in each detail, then visualises them at once rising and turning over.
There's a slight jerk of the seats closest to him, but it's far from the complete flipping he'd been aiming for. Looks like he'll have to work up to it after all. He starts with one. The wooden chairs are heavy but telekinetically lifting it isn't a problem, but when he tries to turn it over, it clatters to the floor.
"If you're trying to show off, it'd be more impressive if you just lifted chairs with your pinky or something." Jaan appears in the doorway, his arms crossed.
"I was trying to put them all up at once," Heli retorts and Jaan shakes his head. "I'll get it, just watch."
With a few more tries, he does get one chair up on the table. Considerable effort later, he is able to at least move two at once. Even the slightest meander in his concentration causes everything to drop, but at least he's sure it's absolutely possible.
By the time he can comfortably lift a whole table's worth, Jaan has long finished helping Eira clean the rest of the room.
"You didn't give me much of a chance," Heli whines. Though he really had done next to nothing, Eira rewards them both with fresh blood fare.
"You were taking way too long," Jaan shakes his head.
"What is your wizard friend up to?" Eira asks.
"Reading up on folklore," Heli says. "Looking for something to help him figure out what sort of monster is out there."
Eira laughs. "Folklore is full of monsters. Is that his whole plan? How do you usually go about these things?"
"Good question," Jaan raises an eyebrow as he looks over at Heli.
Heli shrugs. "I doubt he ever has a fully realised plan."
"Is that why you came along?" Eira grins. "Strange travel party you've got isn't it?"
"It's related but that's not the reason," Heli replies.
"I figured he was a monster expert when I figured out what his companions were."
"I'm not a-"
Jaan nudges his shoulder to quiet him, and interjects. "Any folklore or stories unique to this area? Doesn't have to be about monsters."
"Unique to here?" Eira leans into the counter with her good hand. "Sure, there are plenty of old stories about explorers and adventurers, ancient outposts. But I don't want to bore you with history lessons."
She points to the back of the cafe. Hanging up on one wall is a round shield, painted red and black, the centre boss a shining, polished silver. Beside it two swords are mounted, their scabbards deep black leather, and their hilts engraved with an elaborate series of weaving knots.
"Those are just decorations of course," she explains, then points to the glass case. "But as it turns out, the forests are full of treasures. Can you keep a secret?"
"Secrets are our specialty," says Jaan.
Eira leaves and returns with a small wooden box in hand. She sets it on the counter and lid revealing a stash of chipped silver coins and green stone beads.
"We used to just pick this stuff up off the ground walking through the forests. I never thought it was anything valuable, but last summer a team of professors from the university came up to excavate what they kept saying were rare and priceless artefacts."
"What kind of artefacts?" asked Heli.
"I couldn't tell you for sure. But they definitely found something. They stayed here for a few weeks, all worked up the whole time, then they left with crates full of who knows what."
"You didn't see any of it?" Jaan picks up one of the silver coins and turns it over in his hands.
"I thought we'd get to look at something really fascinating, but in the end it was rather disappointing. At least for me," Eira sighs. Jaan drops the coin back into the box and Eira closes the lid. "Pappa helped them navigate around a bit and might have better stories. You'd have to ask him."
"Treasure?" Eugene crosses his arms as he looks up at the shield. "I wonder if it was anything like these."
"She said these were put up during the summer," Heli said.
"I guess it makes good decor, especially if this is the spot for tourists," Eugene nods.
"They were digging things up in the woods," Heli adds.
"The treasure? Right before the attacks, too. Ah!" Eugene lights up.
"I don't see a connection here," Heli frowns.
"Ancient treasure is always connected."
Heli shrugs as Eugene walks back to a stack of papers on the cafe bar. He spreads clips of articles about each attack around a map of the town. With a marker, he draws an X on each place where someone had died, a spot behind the location of the inn where Eira had managed to escape, and finally one last X at the spot just down the street they had been last night. A startling pattern emerges. Each attack had been within a few blocks of the inn.
"The victims are a combination of inn guests and locals," Eugene says, capping his marker. "Most of the bodies were found intact, but as winter draws on, things get more violent. Why?"
"Because there's less to eat for a hungry bear." A tall man enters the cafe. Snow trails after him, falling from his boots as he steps, his figure made more imposing by the thick coat he wears and a face sporting a long beard. He stops and narrows his eyes and he scans the articles spread out around Eugene. "Eira hasn't got you on this monster nonsense now, I hope? Where is she?"
"That's the best kind of nonsense," Eugene hops off his stool, holding out a hand in greeting. "Would you be Mr. Iversen?"
The other man doesn't take Eugene's outstretched hand.
"You'd be best to get out of here. We don't need any more tourists feeding the man-eater. Do you know where Eira is?" he asks again.
"You don't actually think it's a bear," Eugene says. "You haven't seen one, have you?"
"And I suppose you have?"
"Heli saw something." Eugene turns to Heli, but Heli's response doesn't exactly help him out.
"I saw a wolf," Heli replies flatley.
"There you have it." Mr. Iversen steps behind the bar and pokes a fur-covered head into the back room. "There are plenty of monstrous things already without making up stories about the undead."
Heli and Eugene exchange a look. Werewolves aren't undead, not that anyone had confirmed that's what they were dealing with.
"Eira's not here," Heli says in an attempt to deflect the course of the conversation. "She told us you could maybe tell us more about what the archaeologists found."
"Archaeologists? You mean the university fools. Maybe smart, but up here they're helpless. What do you want to know?"
Mr. Iversen's glare is intense and Heli loses track of what he had been saying.
"These decorations for example," Eugene finishes. "Anything like that? Anything related to any local legends?"
"Not really," Mr. Iversen says. "There were people here but don't get in your head some romanticised warlords. They were whalers. Anything the university men picked up was just exciting because it was old."
"How old are we talking?"
"Oh, you know, 800, 900, 1000 years." Mr. Iversen turns to walk back out of the cafe.
"Where is the treasure now?" Eugene continues.
"Who knows. Some museum basement, probably. And who called it treasure?" He disappears down the hall, calling for Eira.
Eugene sits back down and spins on the stool back to the counter.
"He wasn't helpful at all. What do you think?"
"Turns out everyone has a different idea of what old means," Heli sighs.
"All a matter of perspective," Eugene laughs. "You're old for a twenty-one year old, but not for a vampire. Those swords would be old for a man made object. How old is your Lamia?"
"I don't know, two or three thousand years?"
Eugene chokes.
"And why is she my Lamia?"
Eugene doesn't answer, just pours over his map and his notes, the newspaper articles, humming and scratching his head. He looks back up at the shield hanging on the wall.
"There's something here," he says. "I know it. I don't know what it is, but I know it." He turns to Heli. "Go get your coat."
"I'm not going outside," Heli protests.
"Get Viken and the others too."
Whether he wants to or not, he slides off the stool and heads back upstairs to round up Viken. In a matter of minutes Eugene has them all out of doors, bundled up with as many layers as they could find.
"I thought you were going to figure out what the monster was before we went looking for it," Viken mumbles through his scarf.
"I said no one should go out alone," Eugene says. "All of us together should be fine." He looks at Jaan and Jakah with a wide smile. Jakah returns a gloved thumbs up.
While they're still in town the light reflecting off the snow makes seeing no problem, but as they journey deeper into the evergreen forest, everything darkens. Viken flips on his torch. There are no paths through this woods, and they wind through the trees, their eyes on the ground. Heli looks up through the treetops into a cloudy sky. A few flakes of snow drift down, a light but steady wind blowing more from the branches. Heli knows Eugene thinks they'll protect him and Viken if they do run into anything. They're his insurance. Heli certainly doesn't add knowledge to this endeavour, but instead of basking in Eugene's confidence, it makes him feel nervous.
Every shadow in the periphery of his vision seems like the presence of a stalking beast. Every glint of the torch light on ice could be its glowing eyes.
He grabs the back of Viken's sleeve.
"Something wrong?" Viken shines the torchlight straight into Heli's eyes as he turns.
"No," Heli squints back. "Is there something we're supposed to be looking for, or are we just wandering aimlessly?"
Viken directs the light beam to Eugene, who's a few paces behind and shivering while he consults what looks to be a folded map in his hands.
"Go in a that way direction," he points slightly to the right.
"You know we can't save you from being lost," Jaan says.
"We're not lost," Eugene retorts. "I know exactly where we are." He shoves the map back into his coat pocket and continues on marching through the snow.
"Alright," Jaan shakes his head as they follow.
They walk in silence for some time, keeping pace with Eugene who forages confidently through the trees.
"It's getting colder," Jakah mumbles.
"The wind is picking up," Jaan adds.
"Should we go back?" Heli says to Viken, not wanting to break Eugene's concentration. But no sooner does he pose the question, they enter a clearing. A large, open field stretches out, encompassed by the forest. Boulders rise from the snow, the entire field full of the rise of white-covered mounds.
"Is this it?" Jakah asks.
"Possibly," says Eugene. "We're looking for anything weird."
Viken sits heavily on the rounded top of the nearest boulder. "What's weird about a bunch of rocks?"
"They're not just rocks," Eugene says.
What Heli can see of Viken's face carries a confused expression. Heli climbs to the top of an adjacent boulder and takes in the full view of the clearing. From above, a pattern emerges. Each stone is placed to create an oblong, oval pattern. Several of the same shape are interspersed around the field, and in the middle of each oval the ground rises in a large mound. The faint smell of decay and a feeling of dread hangs on the air. He looks down at Eugene.
"Are these…graves?"
"That's right," Eugene nods. "If I've mapped it out correctly, this should be the spot those archaeologists were digging for treasure."
"How did you figure it out?"
"Nothing I can't find without a few print articles and a good map," he boasts. "See, I can do things even without Taho."
"Oh no, he's learning," Viken groans, earning a push that sends him backwards into the deep snow.
"We're looking for a beast, not treasure," says Jaan.
"Right, but this seemed like a good place to start. Let's spread out, but don't lose sight of each other. There's a fair amount of ground to cover." Eugene starts circling around some of the nearby stones.
"Still not sure if I would know if I see something useful or not," Jaan says. "What about you?"
"I don't know anything." Heli jumps down from the stone. "Eugene seems to, though."
"He should have brought Taho instead," Viken says, brushing the snow off his coat. "Give him a shout if you see something other than rocks, trees and snow, I guess."
Viken's plan is about as much as any of them can think to do. Though Eugene does appear to be searching for something in particular, he won't give them any clues. Heli walks along the edge of the treeline, watching as the others meander around the stones and wiping snow and ice away from a few of them. Their lights grow smaller as he wanders further and further away, until he reaches the far side of the ancient cemetery. He shines his torchlight over the stones, but they seem to be just that. Plain boulders stuck upright with rounded tops sticking out of the ground. Maybe Eugene doesn't know what he's doing.
Snow that had been falling gently begins to come down quickly, in larger flakes as the strength of the wind also increases. The sky overhead is starless. Heli looks around for the others' torch lights but in the thickening snow they're becoming even harder to see.
"Heli!"
Heli jumps as Jakah appears from the blowing snow right beside him.
"We're going to head back now," Jakah shouts over the wind.
"Did anyone find anything?" Heli asks.
Jakah shakes his head and shouts something else, but all Heli can make out over a wind gust is "storm" and "weather".
"What?"
Jakah is already walking away, only turning back to gesture for Heli to follow. He's a few paces behind, trying to keep track of Jakah's back as he braces against the wind, when a dark shadow catches his eye.
Startled, he freezes, the torch pointed fully in the direction of the dark shape. Tension in his shoulders relaxes just a bit as he comes to the realisation that it's not the shadow of a wolf or other beast, but instead, a gaping hole. Moving closer, he can see there's something like a tunnel going deep into one of the snow mounds. He can't see the bottom, only inky blackness where the piled snow transitions into earth. The hole extends far beyond the reach of the torch light. Wafting from deep under the ground is a horrific stench, the rancid odour of decay.
"Jakah, wait!" He calls, but looks up to nothing but swirlling snow. He can't even make out the lights from their torches.
He starts to head back in the same direction, but he still can't see anything or anyone. If he can get back into the forest the trees would provide some cover from the wind, but here in this open space feels like a spinning vortex. Teleporting is out of the question, as he can't create a clear mental image of how far he needs to go. He'd probably end up face first into a stone. The picture of a facefull of rock no sooner enters his mind than a particularly large stone come into view straight in front of him.
He feels colder. Not just his extremities, though his fingers feel like they're just about ready to fall off into his gloves, but his chest and head fill with a creeping chill.
"Jaan! Viken!" He yells into the wind but he can barely hear his own voice over the growing storm.
He doesn't think he's been turned around. The passing stones at least give some clue that he's not going around in circles. Though the approach of the stones reveal something else, that sends a sickening feeling into his stomach.
He's moving slower and slower. His chest tightens, and he's not sure if it's because of a growing anxiety or the biting, cold air filling his lungs. Everything hurts. Each step forward is turning into a fight with his body as he forces his joints to keep moving. They crack with protest, losing mobility with each minute.
Finally, he sees trees. Under the cover of the evergreens, he sinks to the ground, leaning into a tree trunk. His legs refuse to move at all, and the pain of the cold is turning into numbness. Each breath grows more shallow as his whole body succumbs to the freezing wind. He had tried to warn Eugene about this. The amount of layers he'd been put in doesn't make much difference to a body that doesn't produce enough heat to keep in.
It'll be okay.
He's not going to die from freezing. At least there's that going for him. When the storm clears, someone will come back and find him curled up here. He would be just fine, even during the day when the sun doesn't rise.
As long as nothing else came along in the meantime. He would really be done for if something came along and ate him while he was totally helpless.
Stop thinking about that.
He squeezes his eyes shut, trying to imagine something else and finds he can't open them again. He focusses on the sound of the wind, the cracking of trees in the forest, and crunching of snow under feet.
See, they're already coming back for me.
"Are you sure about that?"
A second voice joins his inner monologue, a voice that's both familiar and unwelcome. In his mind, Lamia laughs.
"So helpless," she sings. "You really can't do anything to save yourself, can you?"
"Shut up," Heli mumbles into the storm. "They're not going to leave me here."
"Weren't you already abandoned once?"
"Viken will come back for me." As he says the words, a strange feeling washes over him. He repeats the words as though he's on the brink of a new revelation, teetering on the edge of a lost memory. "Jaan will come back for me."
"If only you hadn't come here," Lamia mocks. "If only they didn't keep leaving you behind."
"Shut up! Get out of my head!"
Her laughter fades.
She's wrong, they will come back. He hasn't been abandoned again. All he needs to do is wait out the storm, and hope nothing happens while he's rendered immobile.
Nothing is going to happen, he repeats.
Nothing at all. At least being numb doesn't hurt, and even the stabbing of his lungs, now forced still, is subsiding. He tries not to think about what monsters of other creatures may be lurking in this forest. There's nothing he can do about it now anyway but tell himself everything is going to work out, and the sound of something sniffing at his ear is just his imagination.