Back They Come 2 | lostchronicles

Back They Come Cont.

Five hours later, after searching the house for a notebook that did not want to magically appear, some soup, and a nap, we found ourselves heading out to the forest with our flashlight and a lamp.

Avalon marched proudly through the woods, her flip flops slapping loudly in the quiet, auburn hair starting to fall out of her low bun.

I, on the other hand, was trying my best to avoid tripping on roots or getting twigs caught in my hair, which seemed to be a magnet for that sort of thing.

Through the trees I spotted a small clearing and a rock surrounded by flowers. The ground nearby was still chewed up from where we had dug a grave for Avira’s remains.

Yeah. That was the start of our summer.

“Leave,” a voice screeched from behind me, causing me to scream as I spun around.

An apparition hung in the air before me, a blue girl in a long nightgown. And she wasn’t happy.

“Avira, chill, it’s just us,” Avalon reminded her, trying to calm her down.

“Avalon, Natasha, leave!” she screeched again, nearly deafening me.

“Why?” I asked, probably speaking too loud. “Is there something dangerous?”

“Danger,” she repeated. “Avalon, Natasha, danger.”

“There haven’t been any bandits in this forest for hundreds of years,” Avalon claimed. “What else could be dangerous here?”

Never challenge the Universe. It’s always listening, and it likes a challenge. Like, if you say ‘At least it isn’t raining,’ boom. Instant thunderstorm. Or, ‘At least it can’t get any worse,’ boom, somehow it always gets worse. So, chances are, when you ask ‘What else could be dangerous here?’ you’re going to hear a low, rumbling growl from the trees and spot a pair of glowing, almost flaming, eyes to go along with it.

“Avalon,” I muttered, not taking my eyes away from the pair staring me down in the dark.

“Yeah?” she asked, following my gaze. “Oh.”

The first thing we saw were the massive paws stepping out of the shadows. The next were the maws, lips pulled back just enough to see the teeth and drool. The fur looked like black smoke, barely separating from the evening shadows.

Facts about wolves raced through my mind. 42 teeth to rip us to shreds with, normal sized wolves can weigh up to 130 pounds, they don’t care if they killed their meal themselves, they hunt using efficient pack strategies –

They hunt in packs.

As if on cue, another growl sounded behind us, and Avira started to screech at something on our left. A glance to the right provided a glimpse of movement in the shadows.

“Trees,” I told Avalon, who had picked up a stick like she was going to fight them off.

I ran at the nearest tree, jumping up and scrambling to grab a branch. It dipped and swayed as I clung to it, trying to pull myself up. Adrenaline pumped through my system as Avalon followed my lead, leaping up and pushing off the tree trunk with the grace of a video game character.

I finally managed to hook a leg over my branch, pulling myself up and moving on to the one above as Avalon did the same.

Avira screamed and hissed at the wolves, who didn’t seem bothered as they growled and circled the tree, occasionally lunging up, clawing at the bark below us.

“You had to challenge the universe,” I called to Avalon over the wolves’ snarls.

“This is not my fault,” she called back, “It was just bad timing.”

“I’m going to kill your cousin if we find a way out of here,” I claimed.

“Only if I don’t beat you to it,” she agreed.

My mind was racing, trying to come up with a way to get out of the tree without getting ripped to pieces the second my feet touched the ground, when I heard a roar from the shadows.

Not like how a wolf growls; a roar, powerful and admittedly terrifying. I glanced at Avalon, who was already moving among the branches, trying to find the source.

The wolves paused in their pursuit of me and my friend, pacing about the clearing and looking into the shadows, hackles raised.

I spotted a flash of blue bursting into the clearing, slamming into the side of one of the wolves with another roar.

The other wolves spun, wasting no time in attacking this new creature, who resembled a tiger striped in shades of blue rather than black and orange.

I glanced at Avalon, only to see an empty tree. Looking down, I spotted her grabbing her stick from the ground once more.

I screamed her name but she ignored me, whacking a wolf as it lunged for the tiger’s throat, knocking it off course. It turned back on her. She swung again, connecting with its nose and turning its head as it lunged.

She backed up towards a tree, the wolf advancing until it was directly beneath me. Without thinking I dropped down onto its back before it could attack my best friend.

I pulled my leg back, narrowly dodging the teeth snapping at me as Avalon swung again and the tiger continued to hold its own against the other three. Avira still screamed at them.

The next time the wolf twisted his head around, I slammed my foot into the side of its head.

I heard another wolf howl in pain and risked a glance towards the tiger, who had its teeth buried in the shoulder of one of the wolves while the other two darted around its hindquarters, nipping and scratching at it.

I felt the ground roll beneath me and realized too late that it was the wolf I rode. I didn’t even have a chance to scream before I was underneath, crushed by its weight and smothered in its fur. It felt like I was under the wolf for ages, but it could have only been a heartbeat or two, since when it got to its feet the battle was still raging. I thanked no one in particular that I couldn’t feel anything broken.

I gasped a lungful of air and screamed as a wolf lunged at me, throwing my arms over my head. I heard another roar, a flash of blue slamming into the wolf, the teeth barely missing me.

Suddenly Avalon and I were in the middle of the fight with all four giant wolves and the mystical blue tiger that seemed to be on our side. I pulled my satchel off my shoulder and started swinging it around for lack of a better weapon.

While we didn’t seem to do much damage, Avalon and I managed to keep ourselves alive, provoking the wolves and keeping their attention off of the tiger so it could do its thing.

I saw the tiger grab the throat of one of the wolves and toss it to the side. It roared as the wolf got to its feet, snarled, and darted into the trees. The other wolves followed suit, whining loudly.

The tiger roared once more at the retreating figures before lying down in the clearing.

“Thanks,” Avalon panted, looking as rough as I felt – cut up, dirty, and drenched in sweat. “We owe you.”

I watched as the tiger blurred, shrinking in size and shifting in form until a boy sat in its place and the pieces clicked in my mind.

“Nick? But, how did you know we were going to be attacked by giant wolves?” I asked. “And why were you a blue tiger?”

“You seem to be a magnet for these types of situations,” he replied, out of breath. “Also, I’m very bad at that shape.”

“So, what were those things?” Avalon asked. “Mutants? Science experiment gone wrong?”

“Ever heard of Loki?”

“Norse god of Chaos,” I said at the same time Avalon said, “Thor’s hot brother.”

“That would be the one,” Nick responded, either ignoring Avalon’s ‘hot’ comment or not caring. “They say one of his sons was Fenrir, a huge creature that became the father of all wolves.”

“He gave birth to a wolf?” Avalon questioned. “That’s just wrong.”

“And the Greek myths aren’t?” I countered.

“A little less so when the main character of a popular book series based on them is a demigod sass machine. Back to the point,” she turned to Nick, “Are you saying we were just attacked by a god’s offspring? . . . Why am I not more confused by that?”

“Well, technically they’re some of his descendants,” he explained. “I’ve heard legends of them from some of the nokken I’ve met at river crossings, but I didn’t really think they could be here.”

“Well, they are, so how do we get rid of them?” I asked.

“I want to know why we don’t have a notebook on them,” Avalon exclaimed.

I shrugged, looking around. I noticed my satchel was open and had spilled a now open book onto the ground. I pointed. “That has a wolf on it.”

Avalon spun and snatched it up. “How did we not know about this?” Her eyes flew over the words. “Migra – this is part of their hundred and ninety-one year migratory route!” She whirled on Nick. “You couldn’t have mentioned that earlier?”

“In my defense I’m not that old,” he replied.

I took the notebook from Avalon and skimmed it. The pages were in Avira’s notebook. “I don’t see any weaknesses,” I said. “Fighting them again is not a good plan, we clearly got lucky this time.”

“Well we’re not just leaving the forest to them,” Avalon countered. “I say we go after them right now anyways, while they’re still licking their wounds. We chase them out, show them this is our territory. You in, Nick?”

“Sure,” he agreed. “As long as we don’t kill any of them.”

“No killing,” Avalon claimed. “Natasha?”

“I really wish you would let us stay out of danger, just once.” I sighed, rubbing my forehead. “Fine. You need someone to watch your back, just don’t expect me to jump on any more of theirs.”

“Deal. Let’s go.” She turned, picked up her flashlight, and marched off into the shadows, her hair flowing out behind her as if she were some hero in a movie, off to defeat the villain and save the town.