Tranquil Fury (8 page)

Ryan, partially asleep, looked up, “Samantha, what is going on?”

Lauren knew that she looked like her sister, but also knew he was delusional, burning up with fever. Still, it was like a hot iron spike through her heart. She pulled a berry out of her leaf pouch, and placed it in his mouth, “Sleep.”

Once Lauren was sure she had cleaned each wound, she maneuvered his legs so that she could apply the poultice, and for the smaller wounds, she simply smeared the thick ointment on them. She toiled for hours on Ryan, making sure that every nick and cut received treatment, and while Ryan needed more healing, the rest would have to wait for later, but she knew he should be able to walk in a day or two. She covered him up, and went over to Zack.

Lauren pulled two berries from her leaf pouch, and squeezed them into Zack’s mouth. The burnt shirt, no longer covered his torso, as he had retrieved the black hoodie that was in his backpack, and after waiting a few minutes, she undid the zipper. Zack had been picking the burnt plastic from his wounds, which looked the worse for it, and she was stunned to see Zack’s torso covered in multiple patches of fur, which were growing from his skin. There were a few that she was able to identify, like skunk and polar bear, but over a dozen remained a mystery, and over half of his torso was now a crazy quilt of different animal furs. Between the furs, pieces of plastic, fused into scabs were still present, some small, some large. She slowly opened his hoodie, exposed more of his chest and abdomen, and was shocked to see his upper right shoulder covered with snake-skin. She rolled Zack onto his side, and was surprised to see a large feather firmly attached into his back, with several smaller ones growing beside it.
What sins have you committed, that your reward is such a horrific curse?

From the leaf pouch, she pulled out a dozen different items, and added them to a fresh pot of water. She stirred the contents until she had a thick green cream, which she applied to all of the raw wounds, and then ran her hands over his body, and could feel the toxins inside him.
Zack needs purification
. To a third pot, she added water and some of the beans from that coffee-like drink, that Logan enjoyed so much. Lauren pulled out a much larger pine cone, smacked it on the ground, and shook loose three seeds. She ran her hands over his body again, had heard rumors about Zack, and his fondness for illegal substances. Over the pot, in her right hand, she held two of the pine cone seeds, and in the left hand, she held one. Then, ever so silently, she mumbled, “Help me.” After a minute, she dropped in all three seeds, and waited for it to boil, eventually straining the contents into a mug, and for an hour, she sat spoon-feeding the dark liquid to Zack.

Tired by her nocturnal healing activities, the tarp overhead growing brighter, it signaled that pre-dawn was arriving, and she wandered back to her little patch of bliss. Again, she crawled into the tree cavity with her tri-wood staff, smiling as she fell asleep. The staff lay across her body, the root cluster resting on the ground outside, and slowly fresh roots extended from it, drinking in nourishment from the ground.

She was on the stump again, as twelve multi-colored butterflies circled her. Then to her amazement, one by one, they started to join each other, and in the end, one giant butterfly floated over to her, embraced her, and rocked her back and forth. It was the embrace of a mother, and she wept as relief flooded over her.

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The night before, when Mirtza finally went to sleep, he tossed and turned, as his head filled with nightmares of plague. It was dark out when the sound of magic startled him awake. So quick was the noise, that he was unable to identify its direction or distance. He awoke early the next day, still tired, the nightmares having fought off the restful sleep. Without having a morning meal, he climbed onto the back of his steed, leaned forward, and whispered, ‘find people’ into its ear. A slow trot quickly turned into a blistering gallop, countryside flew by, and in the end, he visited eight small communities, but once again, not a single soul found. Barns and cold cellars, stocked to the rafters with harvested crops, the expectation, bare floors the unexplained observation again, and could not even find hay or straw. Around noon, he thought the magical horse might have a malfunction, instructed it to find water, but just as quick, it took him to a bubbling spring. He continued his search well past dusk, but to no avail, and that night, too tired to find a secured location, he slept in the open.

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Lauren got up late in the day, was surprised to see how the forest had grown, as a little bit of light and rain had made a magical transformation to the once dead place. She wandered over to a green-leafed tree, plucked several large leaves from its branches, and then sat down in the warm sunlight. She removed her jacket, unzipped the mesh lining, and then for several hours carefully weaved the leaf stems into the mesh, and reassembled her jacket. She knew that she would leave soon, but now at least, she could take a small part of it with her.

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Eric felt the need to do something, even if it did not accomplish anything. He let John and Logan sleep, as he made breakfast, hoping the smells would attract Lauren back to their camp. The smell of fresh food did wake up John, but the rest remained asleep, so Eric went to watch the road, and left John in charge of the camp, in case Lauren did return.

John went over to one of the food chests and opened it. Inside were over one hundred gold replicas of food items, but the chest was empty of any food. He examined each side, but on the outside, it was just a wooden box. He put on the large platinum ring, waved his hand over the box, as he thought of an apple, and when he opened the box, an apple was waiting for him.
So much for science
. As he sat on the log eating the apple, he looked at Zack, remembered how intrigued he was the first time he saw him at school. John was always terrified in some ways of going into a new class, was never sure what to expect, but when Zack walked into a room, he was a force of one, a dark shadow which confidently stated ‘Leave me alone.’ Zack neither needed nor wanted friends, and in some ways, he fascinated John. A few times, kids would try to get at Zack, call him names or such. He in turn would just walk up to them, stare them down, would never say a word, and the other students would back off, unsure of what Zack was capable of doing. It did not help with the rumours, but John felt pretty sure that Zack had little interest, in what others said.

John had performed an Internet search on Zack one night, and found more than he had anticipated. Given up for adoption by his birth mother, Zack had been in and out of foster homes for years, one bad adoption after another, and what should have been his last adoption, became final in a different way, as three years ago, his parents filed for divorce. During the proceedings, it became apparent that neither wanted custody, as the judge was preparing his recommendation, both of his adopted parents died in a freak car accident, so the courts awarded custody of Zack to his uncle. The way the story sounded, it seemed that the uncle was more interested in the large financial settlement, and inheritance that Zack was entitled to, rather than his nephew’s best interests. John felt that there was more to the story, but only Zack would have those answers. When Logan woke up, he went to sit with Eric at the roadside, and the rest of the day was quiet in the camp.

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It was early dusk when Lauren wandered over to the boys’ campsite, all of whom were absent, so she walked over to the road entrance, and found them having an argument about Mirtza.
He said he would be back in three days—did that mean he would be back on the third day, or the day after
? She left them there, and went back to check on Zack and Ryan. Lauren pulled a berry from her pocket, squeezed the juice into Ryan’s mouth, felt his forehead, smiled that his fever was gone, and even Zack looked healthier. She then went back to her tree, sat at the base, and leaned against it for support, as she watched the sunsets, mesmerized by the colors, slowly the smile on her face faded, as a dreamless sleep welcomed her.

Chapter 7

John was the first to wake the next morning, and went to watch the road without Eric having to kick him awake. Eric woke an hour later, and started the fire in preparation for the morning meal. Logan woke up, helped with the meal, and soon smells of fresh meat, and bean juice brought John back from the road. Lauren also wandered in from the forest, with her tri-wood staff in hand.

Eric was both pleased and surprised to see her, “Lauren, I am sorry for what I said. I was just upset. I didn’t mean any of it,”

“I know. We were both upset.”

 “Mirtza should be back soon, and then we can get out of here.”

 Laurens words were blunt. “And go where?”

John looked at them both, “Please don’t start fighting again. It won’t accomplish anything.”

At this point Ryan rolled over, “Will you guys please be quiet. I have a terrible headache.” He sat up, pulled his blanket off, and they could see the dressings on him.

Eric smiled, “Mirtza must have come back last night and brought a healer. We have good news, the dead rise.”

 “It's because you guys are making so much damn noise, the dead cannot get any rest,” said Zack as he rolled over.

Eric was almost giddy, as he thought that Ryan would surely die, and was not placing any bets on Zack, so the sight of both injured parties now awake cheered everybody up. As Eric dished out breakfast, he said, “Now all we have to do is wait for Mirtza, the elves, and get to civilization.”

Ryan tilted his head to one side, “Elves? Can somebody please explain to me what has happened? And where are we?”

Lauren, while pleased to see Ryan awake, offered to sit watch while the boys updated him, and did not know how they were going to explain what had happened, or how he would never see his parents again. Part of her wanted to stay, watch the tears well up in his eyes. Watch Ryan cry uncontrollably, the way she cried when they told her about Samantha, how she had died in Ryan’s car. Wanted to hear him scream at the injustice of what was happening, wondered if he would scream as loud as she did. She heard the first sobs before she left the new camp, heard the first screams as she passed through the old camp. Part of her wanted to smile, part of her wanted to cry, but there was no part of her that wanted any of them to be stuck here. After lunch, John came out to relieve Lauren from the watch, but she did not rejoin the boys, and instead returned to her little camp, to avoid another fight.

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It was mid-morning when Mirtza gave up, stopped his steed, and whispered, “Back to the covered forest.” As they raced back, he considered his options;
I have tried my best, don’t know what else I can do. I will gather them together, and tell them what I have found, which is nothing. Nothing—but those damn plague posters
.
The only thing I can do is use the bracelet, open as many portals as possible, and go through the one that looks best.
He tried to think of other options, but much like the answers he sought, those alternatives also eluded him. In a matter of hours, the covered forest came into view, the magical steed began to slow down, and as he stopped in front of the expanse of the covered trees, he saw John stand up and wave, could hear him yell to the others as he went running inside. Defeated, Mirtza dismounted, gathered his thoughts, and then looked to the east;
dust clouds. RIDERS! They are moving too fast
.

Mirtza waved his cloak over the steed, pulled the cloak back, revealing the horse amulet on the ground, which he exchanged with the wagon replica, and after repeating the action with his cloak, a wagon stood in front of him. He ran inside, “Quick gather our stuff, load the wagon, we need to… ” Mirtza saw Ryan and Zack standing, “What happened here?”

“We thought you brought the healers by last night. Zack and Ryan both got up this morning after being healed,” Eric said.

Mirtza’s tone conveyed the new sense of urgency, “I was not here last night. We do not have time to discuss this right now. Gather everything important and load the wagon, NOW! Where is Lauren?”

As Eric started to gather the chests, he pointed, “She has been camping on the far side of the forest.”

Mirtza headed off into the dead forest, “I will go get her, WE HAVE TO GET OUT OF HERE NOW.” He went through the forest yelling out Lauren’s name, until she answered him, and he followed the sound of her voice, and then saw the sunlight from the ripped tarp. He walked up to the rip, pulled out a knife, tried to cut the tarp, but his knife would not pierce the fabric, it was magic, “WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?”

Lauren was startled, “It was raining. I wanted to clean myself, I was upset, and so I hit the thing with a dead tree. It ripped. Don’t get so excited.”

This is what I heard, this is why riders come, they don’t know what or who they are looking for, but they know something is up. You don’t go to all of this effort, and just let somebody destroy it, “
Get to the wagon, we have to get out of here, NOW!”

 “I don’t—”

 “What have you done? This.” Mirtza grabbed the torn tarp, “Because of this, riders come, riders that I do not wish to meet. MOVE! GET TO THE WAGON NOW!”

Lauren grabbed her pouch and tri-wood staff, and headed to the wagon. He reached for the staff, but Lauren pulled it back, “Impure Trickster, please does naught touch which does belong to me.” Her pupils were dilated wide open, the iris, nothing more than a small coral ring that contained her large black orbs. She stepped closer to Mirtza, “Does thou understand?” Lauren was not yelling, but her voice seemed different, authoritative.