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While the Sheriff ties the canisters to Noah's and her horses’ saddles, Astrid and Fynn mount Ranger and Shiva.
“Thanks for coming with me,” Astrid says to Fynn.
“Gladly, but thank me once we find them. Oskar! Come!” Fynn yells and spurs his horse.
The Lieutenant mounts his motorcycle and calls to Fynn and Astrid, “I’ll drive slowly. Yell if something’s wrong.” His bike lets out a loud roar as his engine starts.
Astrid and Fynn gallop after the soldier until they reach the car Astrid and her family were driving in before the fog. It remains exactly the way Astrid left it, with the front door and trunk wide open. The man drives right past it.
“That's our car over there!” she yells to Fynn.
Fynn perks up in his saddle and yells, “Stop!”
The soldier makes a full stop. “What?” he yells, his hand already on his rifle.
“We can get her family’s scent from the car. It’ll make them easier to track.”
The soldier relaxes. “Man! You gave me a scare there.”
“Sorry ‘bout that, but we can put Oskar on the right track to finding them.”
They all dismount and Fynn leads Oskar to the car. At first, the wolf seems a bit confused about what he’s supposed to do. He tries to search for a clue on the ground, but after a few light tugs on his leash and incessant pointing from Fynn, Oskar understands what he’s supposed to do. He sniffs the driver's seat, his tail wagging like there’s no tomorrow.
“Good boy. Get that scent,” Fynn says.
Astrid and the Lieutenant watch Fynn and Oskar do their work. After a few seconds, the soldier asks, “So… How did you get separated from your family if you were traveling together?”
Astrid frowns. “I'm not sure. We got out of the car and then just kind of lost each other in the fog. It’s hard to remember.”
“I know what you mean. I crashed my car during the fog. Drove my brand new Mercedes right into a tree. Woke up sleeping on the airbag with no idea what had happened. Ever since then I've been having these weird dreams, but I guess that's nothing compared to what happened to you.”
Astrid wants to ask if he has been having the same odd dreams as her, even though he’s still human, but Fynn suddenly yells, “I think he’s got them.”
They turn to see Oskar jump out of the car. He slowly pulls Fynn along on a trail only he can smell.
They follow the dog as he slowly makes his way along the road. Astrid feels like they should be moving faster, like every second they waste is one in which her family could get hurt, but she keeps her anxiety to herself. She knows Oskar is following the scent as quickly as he can.
Finally, the Lieutenant says, “Look. That’s where we met the giant. Your brother.”
“Someone was transformed here.” Fynn points at a pile of ripped clothes. Oskar continues to pull, but a, “Stop!” from Fynn causes him to freeze dead in his tracks and sit down. “This is not where the scent ends,” Fynn informs Astrid. “Are those your parents’ clothes?”
Astrid dismounts and runs to inspect the rags. “I see the remains of my mother's pants and shoes, completely ripped apart. Here’s my brother’s shirt and pants, also destroyed. I don’t see anything belonging to my younger brother or father though.”
Fynn leaves Oskar's side for a moment. The dog tries to follow, curious if there’s something new that needs to be found, but a “Stay” from Fynn makes him sit back down.
Fynn kneels down beside Astrid. “We know your brother is a giant. Lieutenant, did you see anyone else with him?”
“No. He was alone.”
“Okay. Your younger brother and father must’ve stayed human, but I have no idea what your mother might’ve been turned into.”
“Maybe she got turned into an elf too. Where does that path lead?” Astrid asks as she mounts Ranger once more.
Fynn pulls a map out of his pocket. “According to this, there are several places they could have gone. It's possible that they followed the trail to the highway, but there’s also a lake, and a bit farther away, another town. Oskar is still tracking your father though and this is not where the scent ends. His nose is better than any vague assumptions.”
Astrid nods. “Then let's not waste any more time.”
The Lieutenant restarts his motorcycle. “All right. I’ll go back to the others then. Good luck.”
With a loud vroom, he accelerates back the way they came.
Fynn walks back to Oskar. “Find,” he commands and the wolf immediately continues following the trail. Instead of going into the forest though, he continues walking down the road. They have barely walked a few paces before he stops at a single piece of tattered clothing. He looks up, then starts walking in circles around it.
“What is he doing?” Astrid asks.
“He’s trying to reacquire the sent. Stay away,” he tells her as she’s about to walk up to the piece of clothing.
After a few more progressively larger circles, Oskar finally walks back to the piece of clothing and sits down.
“The scent ends here,” Fynn informs Astrid.
She grabs the tattered piece of clothing. “I don’t even recognize who this belongs to.”
“Oskar is tracking whoever was sitting in the driver’s seat. So if your father was driving, this must belong to him.”
“What the hell did my father transform into?”
“Maybe a giant?” Fynn offers. “The scent of his new form must still cling to that fabric. Let’s continue tracking him.” He throws the rag back on the ground and says, “Find.”
Once again, Oskar starts sniffing the object.
Waging his tail, he follows the road for a few paces, then starts zig-zagging. After a few seconds, he starts walking in circles. His tail stops wagging as he becomes more and more frustrated. What was clearly a new scent is losing itself. It seems to be everywhere and nowhere at the same time, which confuses Oskar to no end. He continues trying to follow it, but there is simply no spot in which the scent is strongest. No point to indicate what direction he should go.
“He’s never done that before,” Fynn says as Oskar desperately tries to find any clue that could tell him where to lead them.
Fynn turns to Astrid. “The two scents must be confusing him. Let’s just go to your mother and brother’s clothes and have him track their new scents instead.”
Astrid nods.
“Stop. Come,” Fynn orders.
At first, Oskar doesn’t respond. He’s still trying to find a direction to take them. A tug on his leash finally tells him that he has failed. Frustrated and defeated, he stops his search and trots to Fynn. There’s a slight hope that a ‘Good boy’ or a ‘Well done’ from Fynn will tell him that this was what he was supposed to do, but it doesn’t come. Oskar is sure that he just failed. Probably in a spectacular manner and he’s most likely a disappointment.
They reach the spot where the clothes of Astrid’s mother and brother lie. Fynn pulls Oskar along. “Find,” he commands, while pointing at Astrid’s mother’s clothes.
Happy about a new opportunity to prove himself, Oskar races to the pile, his tail wagging once more. He buries his nose in the clothes. There are several smells in there. He searches around the pile until he finds another very clear trail that leads away from the road. Since it’s the only one, he figures it must be what he’s supposed to track. With new confidence, he pulls the others along.
“They went this way,” Fynn informs Astrid. “Did your parents leave you any clue as to where they went?”
“They left me a piece of paper that said they would wait for me at the nearest town. I’m still kinda pissed that they just left me, but there was a monster flying around, so I kinda understand it.”
Fynn frowns. “Your brother must've come back to look for you.”
“Yeah. ‘The closest town’ isn’t exactly a very precise location. Luckily, I have you and Oskar.”
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
The three follow the small road winding through the forest until they reach a spot where the trail forks. A small creek flows from the right path and follows the left one.
Oskar pulls them towards the shore. Fynn looks down into the water and notices something. Footprints are trampled into the now-dry mud next to the creek. “Look,” he tells Astrid.
She ties Ranger and Shiva to a nearby tree and runs to the edge of the creek.
During the rain four days ago the creek must’ve held much more water than it does now. Right after the fog the soil and sand around it must’ve been wet and that was when someone walked through it. After three days, most of the mud has dried, preserving the footprints.
Astrid examines the prints more closely. They are large and barefoot. “Okay. We can assume those big prints are my brother’s, but what was he doing so close to the water? Was he thirsty?”
“I don’t think that’s it. Look at that.” Fynn kneels down. Right next to the water, handprints are pressed into the dry mud, as well as large body-shaped indentations. “Someone dragged themselves out of the water and through the mud here. The crawling ends there, next to more of your brother's footprints.”
Astrid has no idea why anyone would drag themselves through the mud and she doesn’t really care, because she has just noticed something far more interesting. “The tracks lead to the left path. That's where they must've gone.” From the way he’s standing, Oskar seems to agree.
“Let's hurry then. We need to find someplace safe before nightfall,” Fynn says.
Astrid takes Shiva and Ranger's reins. “You don’t think we’ll make it back before sundown?”
Fynn checks his wristwatch. “It's 5:15 pm. There is no way we'll get back to the farm before dark.”
Astrid frowns. “So we have about two hours before the sun sets and need to find some sort of shelter before that happens.”
Fynn nods.
As they follow the narrow path, something shoots out from between the trees. Astrid almost has a heart attack and both of them reach for their weapons, but before they can pull them out, the deer has already jumped back into the thicket. Oskar looks like he wants to chase, but decides that the scent he’s following is far more interesting.
“Holy…” Astrid tries to say something, but Fynn interrupts her.
“Go. I don’t want to meet what it was running away from.”
Luckily, they don’t meet what was chasing the deer and soon reach the edge of a lake. The water is clear and the afternoon sun reflects off the smooth surface. A few birds sit on the excavator platform that calmly floats in the center of the lake. A long conveyor belt that, just a few days ago, used to carry the gravel mined from the bottom of the lake to the machinery and silos at the shore, still provides the only way to access the platform without swimming.
Oskar pulls them to the edge of the water. The three scents he was following stop here. The faintest one enters the water, while the other two continue to the left.
As soon as the horses see the water, they walk to the edge to take a drink.
Fynn sits down next to the animals and says, “I know we need to find your family, but we should rest. We’ve been riding all day and this seems as good a place as any.”
Astrid wants to protest. She’s not tired at all, but not wanting to sound ungrateful, she stays quiet.
They remove the bits from their horses’ mouths and allow them to drink from the lake and graze, while the two riders sit at the water's edge and rest.
“You think we can drink that water too?” Astrid asks Fynn, nodding towards the lake.
Fynn leans forward, cups his hands and takes a sip. “It tastes fine, so I don’t see why not.”
Astrid leans down next to him. She feels a bit weird as she fills her cupped hands with the cold water and drinks it. The water tastes fine, but she still feels like it’s unclean. While her dry throat considers it to be good enough, she only drinks as much as she needs to.
“You wouldn’t happen to have anything to eat with you, would you?” she asks as she wipes her mouth.
Fynn shakes his head. “Nope.”
Feeling her stomach cramp at the mere thought of food, Astrid groans. “God. I would kill someone for a pizza and a soda right about now.”
Fynn grimaces. “Why did you have to say that? Now I’m hungry too.”
“Sorry.” Astrid pauses for a moment, then adds, “I really feel like taking a swim.”
Fynn scowls. “Come on. We need to find your parents as quickly as possible and it's going to be dark soon.”
Astrid moves her hand through the water. “I’m not taking my clothes off, am I?”
While they talk, something moves in the lake. The water prevents Astrid's heat vision from highlighting whatever is down there. It takes Fynn a moment to notice, but he spots the dark shape coming up from the depths.
“Watch out!” he yells.
As the creature breaks the surface, Astrid catapults herself away from the water. It takes them a moment to realize that the head protruding from the lake looks more or less human. The man has light-gray skin, like that of a dolphin. His face is long and thin, with large, almost entirely black eyes with no irises, and only a little bit of white surrounding his massive pupils. His hair is black. Thick strands that barely stick together in the water. Astrid can see his lower body beneath the surface, and where legs should be, there is a large fin. Unlike mermaids from stories, his tail isn’t covered in scales, but in the same light-gray skin that covers the rest of his body. A striped shirt hides his chest. Astrid’s mother's striped shirt. It takes Astrid a few moments to recover from her surprise.
The merman raises one of his arms to greet them, but before he can say anything Astrid says, “Mom?”
The merman’s jaw drops. His lips move, but instead of words, water bubbles out of his mouth. He grimaces and wretches. Astrid wants to take a step towards him, but he holds up a finger as though to say, ‘Give me a second.’ With weird, gargled, grunt-like noises he pulls himself out of the water until his upper body leaves the lake and exposes three slits on either side of his body, right underneath his ribs. The openings expand, allowing most of the water in his lungs to flow out. The slits close again as he takes a deep breath. “Astrid… is that you?” His voice sounds deep and has a very rich tone.
Astrid scrambles back to the water's edge. “Yes! It’s me. Where's Dad and Kilian and Elijah?”
“Kilian went to look for you. You have no idea how happy I am you’re alive. After the fog, we weren't sure… But let’s not dwell on that. You got transformed too. You know, you look a bit like an elf with those pointy ears. Are you okay or is your transformation bad? And who is that?”
Astrid can barely follow the mountain of questions her mother just threw at her.
“That's… Fynn… a hunter from a nearby town. He helped me find you. I'm fine, but… you're a mermaid?!"
“Me? Ah yes,” the merman who used to be Astrid’s mother says. He lifts his tail out of the water. “Though I think ‘merman’ is the more appropriate term. Not being able to walk is… not nice, but I can breathe underwater now. I’m still getting used to the fact that I have to empty my lungs before I can talk and swimming underwater for too long without breathing air makes me feel like I’m drunk, but never mind that. All that matters is that you're alive. Your brother will be so happy to see you.” His gaze shifts to Fynn. “Thank you for helping Astrid find us. We don't really have anything, but if there is any way we can help you, just ask.”
“Thank you, but it was the least I could do.”
Astrid’s mother smiles back, then turns back to his daughter. “You have to tell me everything that's happened, but your brother will want to know too. Now we just need to find your father and little brother and then we’ll all be together again.”
“What do you mean? Are Dad and Elijah not with you? And where is Kilian?”
“We couldn’t find your father after we woke up. We lost your younger brother yesterday. We were attacked by some sort of flying monster. It grabbed your brother and flew off...” His voice falters. He pauses and his gaze sinks, but then his eyes snap back up to Astrid. “But thank God you're here now. We thought you were gone too. Kilian is on that floating platform. Quick. I’ll tell him you’re here.” The merman pushes himself back into the water. With a single stroke of his tail, he launches himself towards the platform in the middle of the lake.
Astrid's heart sinks like a stone. ‘Elijah, carried off by a flying monster and Dad is nowhere to be found…’ She feels like falling to her knees and crying. She's only stopped when Fynn says, “Go, greet your family. I’ll stay with the horses.”
Astrid gives him a quick nod. ‘There is no point in grieving. At this point, I have to take everything this world is going to give me, and I’ve found Mom and Kilian. Alive and probably well. Right now, that has to be enough.’
Astrid runs to where the conveyer connects to solid land. Before she’s even halfway there, the merman launches himself out of the water like a dolphin. He yells something, and a moment later, a large tarp is pushed aside by a massive hand.
Astrid can see her brother’s giant frame from the shore. He spots her too and runs onto the conveyor to meet her halfway.
She runs past a large pile of gravel and several big machines. She leaps onto the conveyor.
Her brother’s every step shakes and tilts the entire structure. “Astrid! Where have you been?” He charges into her like an elephant and lifts her up like she weighs nothing.
“Looking for you guys-” she says before the giant almost crushes her in his embrace. She gasps from the pressure before he sets her back down.
“Look at you, sis, you got a new body too. What's it like?”
“Different. I’m taller and stronger. And I have heat vision. What's it like to be a giant?”
Her brother looks even bigger than the giant policeman. His back and shoulders are covered with long, dark-gray fur that’s almost black, while the rest of him shows gray skin. It’s a bit like that of an elephant. Adorning his head are two large horns similar to those the giant policeman had. His hair, and the magnificent beard that adorns his face, are the same color as his fur.
A smile splits her brother's square face. “I'm almost as tall as a bus. I mean, look at this.” He flexes his muscles. His arm somehow looks both muscular and fat at the same time. “I can lift Mom up like it's nothing.”
Their mother surfaces with a splash. He spits out some water and says, “I’m so glad you found us. The only question that remains is, what do we do now?”
Kilian replies, “Look for Dad, of course, then get Elijah back – or at the very least, murder the hell out of that dragon. What else?”
Astrid blinks. “A dragon?! Never mind, you can tell me about it later. Let’s talk to Fynn. We need someplace to put the horses before it gets dark.”
Her brother snaps his head around to look at her again. “Who’s Fynn…” He trails off as he notices the revolver on Astrid’s hip. “Is that a gun? Where did you get that?”
Astrid looks at the weapon. “Fynn gave it to me.”
“Have you used it?” her brother asks quietly.
The face of the woman that hit her over the head and a loud, sharp bang flash through her head. ‘They don’t need to know,’ Astrid decides. “No. I’m a terrible shot, but it is great for keeping others from starting a fight. People back down at the mere sight of this thing.” She pats the holster to emphasize her point.
The sun is already getting lower as Astrid and her brother reach the shore. Their mother can't follow them, but pulls his torso out of the water and watches them from the water’s edge.
Fynn leaves the horses to graze and sits down against a tree. He watches Astrid and her brother come closer and only gets up when they almost reach him.
Kilian extends his hand. “So you must be Fynn. Nice to meet you.”
“You must be Astrid’s brother. Nice to meet you too.” Fynn tries to shake Kilian’s hand, but only manages to grab two of his fingers.
Kilian smiles. “What were you thinking, giving my sister a gun? She’s probably already shot herself in the foot, hasn’t she?” He winks at Astrid, a wide smile on his face.
Fynn smiles as well. “No, not really. She’s actually doing quite well for someone who had never handled a weapon before.”
“Ohhh.” Kilian slowly turns back to Astrid. “Miss ‘Why do you enjoy shooting so much?’ is a natural. I always knew you were just jealous when I told you about target practice.”
‘At least his humor is still as bad as before,’ Astrid thinks and smiles. “Of course I was,” she says as she rolls her eyes.
Fynn follows their small exchange with a smile. “Now, do you have a safe place for tonight? We won’t make it back to Rot Rock before nightfall.”
Kilian answers, “I’ve been using the excavator platform. Animals left me alone there, but I don’t think the horses will want to sleep there. There’s also a small shed next to the machinery. I didn’t fit through the door, but you could hide the horses there.”
Fynn nods. “Then that’s what we’ll do. Astrid, I’ll sleep with the horses. You can sleep with your family. If you want to.”
Astrid does want to sleep with her family. A few days ago, she would have been the exact opposite of thrilled to sleep right next to her brother, with nothing but a thin blanket separating her from a cold, hard steel floor. Of course, this is a new world, and even though the ground beneath her is hard, she sleeps well knowing that she’s not alone. At least still has her brother and mother… and Fynn.