Ch. 37
Imported from SF2 with no description.
I must have managed to fall asleep, though I couldn’t have guessed at when. It was before dawn, if only just, when Penance woke me, quiet and tense, her paw on my mouth stifling my voice. She nudged me hard then turned to face the window.
There at the window I saw the silhouette of someone looking in through the window. The light cast from the encroaching sunrise, combined with the morning dew left upon the window robbed me of a good look at the source, but I was up in an instant, all but storming out the door. By the time I got there, however, the sneak was long gone. I circled the building while Tempest waited at the door, but no answers were forthcoming as I returned.
Tempest had my bag packed before I even needed to ask, but the experience had me feeling more than a little vulnerable. I should have felt a little bad to steal the hotel’s old towel, but as I weighted it down with the ten inch steel tent stakes, folding it over into a bludgeon, I knew that it might well have been the difference between a bad day, and the last day I saw. Waking Wendy, I apprised her of the situation. She thought at first I might have been exaggerating, but the heavy clatter of metal striking together as I hefted the improvised weapon told her it may have been worse than I openly stated.
Wary didn’t begin to express the mood, as the seven of us continued down the road. Staccato insisted on carrying Wendy and I, and would not be placated. In his mind the best way to keep us safe was to be ready to get us out of there at a moment’s notice.
Penance and Tempest were in agreement that the best defense was a good offense, and were fully prepared to fight, fang and claw, against anyone stupid enough to stand in our way. Mira was just worried about where my mind was, the way I held the weapon, never letting it out of my hand, my knuckles straining with the force of my grip, it was something she’d never seen before.
Cocoa was impossible to read. She walked beside me, never straying much more than a foot away, though she kept her thoughts to herself, and her eyes to the tree line.
By the middle of the day we all felt it. The feeling of being watched. Followed. It was enough to drive us to distraction, and I could feel a sense of palpable growing ire from my girls. I wondered if it would be a frustration or a relief to actually get into a fight.
It kept on, for the whole day. It felt like every shadow, every rock was watching us. Staccato was visibly grinding teeth, seeming to want nothing more than to take the pair of us, and bolt. But I knew too well the danger that could be, and warned him to it. They’d seen us riding. A trip line would rob us of more than our beloved pokemon. I wouldn’t put it past them, either. Not after the warning videos and photos they made us all see during our licensing requirements.
That night, we made camp. We had no choice but to. I staked the tent down using a rock, the canvas stretched out against tall stones, a fire out front that I spent an hour gathering wood for with Tempest. I stretched, and went through my routines, limbering up, readying for what I had felt was an inevitable fight. Staccato didn’t say a word, just laid himself down by the tent, waiting for the signal.
I put the girls on watch shifts, Mira at the beginning, and Tempest at the end, when I was most likely to be fatigued. Penance volunteered, but I bade her to stay close to Wendy, just in case. For her part, Wendy volunteered to take a shift, so I asked her to stay up with Tempest in the early hours so I could try for a little sleep. To which she readily agreed, setting an alarm on her tablet to rouse her early.
And so it was I sat by the fire, stirring glowing embers and trying my best to ignore the knot in my stomach. All I could do was wait, really. Wait for the storm to blow over, or to find ourselves in the eye of it.
My mind kept wandering back to the fight that sparked it all off. It had been a close thing in a lot of ways. If I’d hesitated, Wendy would’ve taken the blow to the back of her head. Unprepared, it might have killed her. If I was slow, it would’ve been my head. No telling how that turned out. We both got lucky, even the bruise on my shoulder was a lucky thing. Glancing, indirect. It would fade quickly and not slow me down.
We had all gotten very lucky, and that was what worried me most.
The crackling of the fire was distracting to my ears, but I kept my back to it. It was enough to keep me warm, and I tried to let my eyes adjust to the darkness, as best as I could. It wasn’t ideal, and I felt like maybe I should have just snuffed the flames. But it was really too late now.
The die had been cast, and none of us could say for sure where it would land. Pretending we knew anything was just a way to fight back against all the gnawing uncertainties we felt. I knew that better than anyone.
The whole thing, the whole awful trip had come from the blindside. And so it seemed the trend was destined to continue…
I hadn’t anticipated it. None of us could have. She, and I knew it with an absolute certainty by the way she approached, the confidence, the stride, and the manner in which she measured me as she stared from across the fire, came seemingly out of nowhere. The pea soup fog that had shrouded the valley we were in hid her flawless white fur until the amber glow of the fire revealed her.
She stared at me, for a long moment, and I felt a sense of trepidation. Of unrest. But she had come alone, and for a long moment she stood, waiting as if giving me a chance to appraise the situation. She chose not to speak, so I did.
“Absol, have you been following us? For what purpose? To what end?”
She stared, sat, and for a moment, waited. Finally, she sighed. “Why would you ask a question you wouldn’t even understand the answer to? How the hell am I going to explain this to you in a way you’d even get?”
“If I wasn’t going to understand the answer, I wouldn’t have wasted my time asking.” I replied, feeding the fire. “Now, if you’re done looking down at me, let’s try this again. Why are you following me?”
Cocoa had been stirred by the noise, and poked her head out of the tent, warily. She didn’t move away from the doorway, but I could tell from her posture, she was more than ready to.
A moment passed in silence, then a growl and a sigh as she moved a little closer, meeting my gaze from beside the fire rather than across it, as Mira moved between us, defensively.
“That’s far enough.” Mira warned, as Tempest came out of the tent, claws at the ready. She moved to my side, but then took a spot atop the rocks behind me, crouched low and waiting. I didn’t need to track her with my eyes, I knew her well enough, she trusted me to handle what was in front of me. Her wary, angry eyes kept to the fog.
“And here comes the welcoming party…” The absol said, tone dripping with venom as she smiled sweetly before staring back at me. “The whole damned walking calamity.” She shook her head. “Minus one, isn’t it? The worst of the bunch. The demon herself.”
“Claire.” I finished for her, with an impatient scowl. “And she’s not a demon.” I added, shaking a finger at her. "Now, why don’t you either get to the point, or fuck off? I’m not interested in a fight, chubby."
She stared for a moment, before all but howling with laughter, waking up the whole camp. “Oh, but you have some fire in you, don’t you? Fine, if that’s how you want to play it, we’ll do it your way. You take her to dear sweet mom, and she kills everyone. You still want to tell me to… how did you put it? Fuck off?”
“Define everyone. And which she?” I asked, as Wendy made her way out of the tent, Penance at her side eying the new arrival warily. They both moved to my side, though Penance leapt up to the rocks behind us, casting an eye to the shadows.
“Doesn’t matter much to you, since you’re a corpse. But her mother kills you, and when the demon loses her shit, she kills everyone else.” She smiled, leaning in a little. “If it soothes your feelings any, at least she didn’t murder you, and I’m sure she doesn’t mean to burn down half of the sanctuary. Oh, and kill all your little friends, too.”
Tempest spat, and stalked off to the tent. I shared the sentiment, but sat quietly for a moment as I took it in. None of it was too far a stretch. I knew that. Her mother was going to hate me for what I did to her daughter. Her daughter loved me so much she’d have tried to defend me, even against her own mother. A fight was inevitable, and if it weren’t completely one-sided… or if something went wrong…
“Let’s assume I believe you.” I asked, nodding my head. “That leaves us with a different problem. I’m not leaving Claire locked away. That isn’t an option.”
“Then you’d better get ready to die.” The absol replied, staring into my eyes. “Because I haven’t foreseen anything for you beside that.”