I was surprised how far I was supposed to drive Sam. He set the GPS address as two hours away, but at least it was in the same direction as Laura's house so I could stop there on the way home and make sure that everything was going according to plan. I wasn't all that worried about Mia, since I would have known if she was in trouble, but there was still that bad feeling every time I thought about the monster. The drive was relaxing enough that I could think about what exactly we saw last night. I knew it wasn't a zombie or a ghoul, the monster was too fast and it mimicked human voices too perfectly. We were also not in the vicinity of any cemeteries, so I could rule those two out. I was quite sure it wasn't a striga which was a form of zombie/vampire that my grandma would tell me about in her bedtime stories. Strigas need a quite unique circumstance to be raised and I seriously don't think I'm that unlucky and grandma was sure they would only rise in the old slavic cemeteries. Even if it would be a striga, simple beheading would do the trick and kill it for sure, but then, beheading would kill everything so I can’t use it as a form of exclusion. It might have been a revenant which was a vampire who has gone mad and has started feeding on flesh instead of blood. Revenants are smart and fast, and they are supposed to smell bad, but this thing didn’t exactly feel dead even if it looked similar to a corpse, based on its arm. But there was that nasty feeling again and Tim's words came to mind. Wendigo. He didn't go into detailed description of the being and I'm sure he would have mentioned the stench of death and rot, but maybe he didn't know. If it was a wendigo it would mean that it is already awake and hunting and Tim might be too late to catch it before it starts killing. Tim also never mentioned how to kill the creature, although like I deduced already, beheading would probably do the trick. I was hoping Sam would wake up soon and maybe tell me if he knew anything, or maybe we could at least brainstorm but he was dead to the world.

He woke up just five minutes away from his house and by then I didn't want to bother him with questions that he probably didn't have the answer to anyway. I decided to call Tim as soon as I made sure that Mia and Laura were ok, and maybe take a little nap. After a night like that I deserve more than just a nap, but a girl can't be greedy when saving a family.

As soon as the house came into view we noticed several cars parked in the driveway and several people rushing out of the house to greet us. My stomach immediately dropped and I figured we were in some kind of trouble. Sam cursed loudly as soon as he noticed the people but before I could ask if something was wrong, everyone turned toward us and looked quite hostile and were clearly upset about something. I parked behind the last car and turned toward Sam.

"You did have permission to join Penelope, right?" Sam nodded and whispered.

"Yeah, my parents even called her parents, but I don't think they realized I would come home quite so late. Even so, those two elderly in the back are members of the elder council. Why would they be here? And look, there are Tim and Penelope!"

I turned toward Penelope and noticed she had red cheeks, but not in a good way, like she was really excited to see us. It looked more like someone slapped her face so strong that it left a mark. I could feel anger rising inside of me and my bear spirit stood up. I opened the door and walked toward the group with anger in my step. Tim, who rushed toward me, recoiled and it took me a second to realize he probably recoiled due to the stench that was coming off me and not because I looked menacing. He gave me a wide eyed look but before he could ask any questions, an older woman who had to be Sam's mom screamed.

"My baby, I was so worried!" She ran toward him, but as soon as she came into hugging distance she retched on the side and turned away from him. I was still pissed, because now that I was closer I could see that I was right and someone slapped the shit out of Penelope, but on the other hand the woman retching on the side while trying to be mad was entertaining as hell.

"No offense but you smell. What have you been doing last night?" Tim said quietly before I had time to do anything else. I almost forgot just how bad we smelled, so for a second I merely looked at him as if he grew a second head.

"I will explain in a bit, I just need to make sure that Mia finished the ceremony safely." I turned toward Penelope who came closer but put her t-shirt over her face to stop the smell.

"Yes, all was well.” She said quiet enough that only we heard it.

“It was a major success. She was practically floating on her way to the car, because she was overflowing with magic." I smiled and relaxed that at least something went right. People next to us were arguing in their native language and were getting more and more agitated and I almost wished that I could understand, because it was getting heated. Of course the entertainment ended once I noticed Sam's tears, and I realized this was probably more serious than just coming home late.

“Why is everyone so upset? I mean I know we are late and we smell horribly but this seems excessive?” I pointed to the group that was surrounding poor Sam. Penelope sighed and explained.

“Apparently they thought that we were just going to sit in the woods and there would be no danger whatsoever and Sam was supposed to stay with me the entire time. When I came home without him they made a huge fuss and were convinced I was tricked by your cousin into sacrificing Sam in some weird witch ritual. It didn't help that I couldn't really explain the details of the ceremony…” I nodded and realized maybe I should explain what happened. I cleared my throat loud enough that everyone turned their heads toward me.

"Ok everyone, before you start making too much of a fuss, everyone is safe. Sam was never in any real danger, because every decision I made in that forest was to assure everyone's safety. Keep that in mind, while I explain what happened." Now that I had all the attention to myself, I could see the mistrust in the elders' eyes.

“First of all the ceremony that my cousin did, and required Penelope's help, was to help a young woman and her children. They are being hunted by the father of the children who wants to harm them, and because the young woman couldn’t make a protection circle strong enough herself, my cousin offered to help. The ceremony was to ask the old Gods to give my cousin enough strength to make a protective circle strong enough to withstand the fury of a sorcerer and everything else that might want to harm the children.” Usually I would keep a detail like the old Gods to myself, but I was tired of keeping secrets, so just going full on honesty was exhilarating.

“I formed a protection circle around them, with my blood and my life force and the protection was strong enough to stop a demon or a God or anything else that might want to try and harm them.” Penelope nodded and confirmed. I saw that one of the elders was trying to interrupt, but I spoke louder.

“Sam wasn’t even supposed to be there in the first place, but since he wasn’t allowed to be in the protective circle due to him having a penis,” I tried to sound completely serious, but I couldn't help but smile a little once I saw the blushing elders.

“He was stuck on guard duty with me. Saying that, I was and am grateful that he was there, since he can confirm what we saw.” I took a minute to think about how to say the next part.

"Sasha," Penelope said confused:

"Please tell us what happened. I think we are all confused and would like to hear more." I nodded and continued.

"I will only tell you the short version and Sam can tell you all the details later, since I really need to go to Laura’s house and make sure she is doing well. However, a few hours after the ceremony Sam noticed that something was wrong. There was something unnatural in the forest, something so wrong and foul that the entire forest went completely silent. There were no animals, not even bugs, it was as if time stood still. It called us away from the clearing with the voices of kids yelling for help and even if I knew it was a trap I had to go see, in case the children were really in trouble. Knowing that the barrier I made was impenetrable I followed the noise and made Sam follow me. Because I knew that the girls were safe, my only priority was making sure Sam was safe and since I didn't know what the creature was, the safest place for him was next to me, where I could protect him." I made a point to look at Penelope, but I regretted it in a second. She had tears streaming down her face.

"So you just went and followed it?" The elder asked.

"What else was I supposed to do?" I asked, annoyed. They were all silent and I continued, more sullen now.

"Anyway, the creature called us away and then double tracked back and tried to go into the barrier." That's when everyone gasped and looked at me in horror. I swear I'm done with this story, I haven’t even told them the scary parts and they are already gasping.

"The protective barrier did as it always does to evil, it scorched its skin and marked it by magic that only I could follow. It was hurt enough now to realize that it would not be able to penetrate the circle so it ran, and I ran after it, knowing I can follow it and take it out, before it gets too out of control." Question, yelling, noises. I shushed them all up.

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"We followed it. For the entire night me and Sam were running after the damn thing and we couldn't catch it. It was too fast or too smart I should say. It knew we were following it and we were not in our human form, so how did it recognize the danger? It also knew about the tracking spell that was embedded into its flesh, because soon we found this," I went to the back of the car, took the severed arm out of it and threw it on the ground in front of the elders. I made a little pause for dramatic effect and to give everyone time to take a long look at the arm and enjoy the stench that surrounded it. I swear the stench was like a cloud of miasma, emanating from that damn arm, and it was so bad that most people couldn’t stand it and went as far as they could. I spoke louder now, so that those far enough would hear me.

"It severed its arm because it knew that I could follow it. It was smart enough to know about the spell in its arm, it could talk, it went after the weaker human members and yet it had the speed and agility of…" I was interrupted once again.

"Wendigo." Tim said, eyes closed and nose covered from the smell. They were looking from the severed arm to Sam, to me. I shrugged.

"Never seen a wendigo, so I don't know what it was. It could have been a freshly risen revenant for all I know.” I went quiet, as I didn’t have anything more to add. But after a couple moments of silence I finally added.

“Anyway, I really need to go now. I have other stuff to do…" I started to turn around to leave when I felt Tim's hand on mine. He was looking at me with very big sad eyes.

"Just wait a minute, please. You don't understand, we didn't know you were going to do the ceremony at Wolf Creek Park. There have been rumors about the park for the past few months, not just about the park but the area around it… If I knew where you planned to go I would have warned you!"

"Well I don't know what to tell you." I felt a bit embarrassed. One of the elders came closer.

"You survived an encounter with a wendigo and you have brought us its arm. You have kept both of the youngsters safe. I thank you." He bowed his head a little and I felt bad.

"It's my job as a Guardian. I really want you to understand that if I felt anyone was in real danger, I would have made sure that they were safe. I wouldn't have followed the creature unless I thought I could handle it." I opened the door to my car, making it clear I was leaving. Just before I left I turned toward the people who were looking at me with a certain sadness. As I was looking at them I reached the decision of killing the damn beast, because I knew that they don’t stand a chance against it and I do.

"Don't go after it alone. It is going to be pissed, since it lost an arm. If you give me a couple of days I'll go after it and kill it for you." They stared at me in horror, but I didn't really give a damn. I waved goodbye and left before I said too much and upset more people.

I reconsidered on my drive to the town. I was being too blunt and too hasty again. I sighed and wished it didn't happen at all, but I was so tired. I was running the entire night and I felt ambushed with the elders and Penelope crying. I searched for my phone and called Mia. She, of course, did not pick up but I did leave a voicemail telling her that I will be a bit late and if she can invite Penelope tomorrow so that I can apologize and we can talk. I also need to ask Penelope who slapped her hard enough to leave a mark and if she needs me to slap them back,

I actually wished that they didn't even know about the damn creature. If they didn't know about it I could have made my own plan, find a good group and go kill it. But Tim already invited me to go help them hunt, and even had a vision that I need to be there to take it down, so that complicated things. I don’t like hunting monsters with humans, because they are too fragile and they die so easily. Just as I was coming up to the town where Laura's house was I had a thought. I stopped the car and sent a message to a friend, the only one I knew I could trust to help me kill the creature. Satisfied that I had at least a semblance of a plan, I drove toward the house.

My happy mood did not last long, only until I caught a glimpse of a massive dark cloud-like creature that was hovering above the house and clearly eating the protection around it. It was bad. Laura's house was being invaded by darkness and I was sure it was the same dark cloud that I glimpsed when we went to visit the witches, except that this time it seemed a bit smaller and a lot more menacing. What was it doing all the way here? I jumped out of the car as soon as it was parked semi safe, looking for Mia and the kids. That's when I noticed that Mia was inside of the house, chanting and crying, trying to keep the darkness at bay with the last line of defense. I cursed myself and the whole fucking situation. I was late, almost too late.

Darkness was above the house so I took the opportunity and tried to run for the door, to touch Mia and give her my essence of a guardian so that she may bolster her defenses and maybe push the darkness back, but I wasn’t fast enough. As soon as I came close to the door a massive black wall appeared in front of me, blocking my way in. I stopped just in time so I didn’t run into the damn darkness. I took a second to evaluate the situation. The darkness seemed sentient, and it had more substance than just a shadow, it almost seemed like it had a top layer that was made out of dark liquid. It was moving back and forth as if it was actually breathing. I tried to yell as loud as I could,

“Mia, can you hear me? Is everyone ok?” But there was no response, so maybe the darkness was blocking more than just sound. Suddenly I heard a crackle and I realized it was a crackle of a protection circle being slowly broken apart. I was out of time and I knew there was only one thing a guardian like me could do. I shifted my hands into half paws, until I had claws and sliced my wrists on both hands. It hurt like hell, but the blood and the magic in my veins was enough to get the darkness's attention.

“Come at me you stupid dark cloud, and stop picking on little kids!” I screamed as loud as I could. I needed to buy time for Mia to either bolster the protective circle or to get the kids far away. When the darkness came toward me I had a thought that this may mean my death, but I didn’t have long to dwell on those thoughts. I always knew I would die sacrificing my life for someone else and I was prepared for it.

Immediately I was in complete and utter darkness. I don’t know how long I stood there, it could have been a minute or it could have been a week, before I started thinking like a person again. The darkness consumed me and there was nothing else but dark. There were no walls, no floor, no sun, no anything. Just endless darkness. Slowly I started to feel my body and I could feel the darkness probing me, licking me, touching me, pulling on my skin, hair and clothes. I tasted the tears that were leaking down my cheeks to the corners of my mouth and they tasted awfully like they were mixed with blood. I stood there for what seemed like an eternity and yet I was sure it wasn’t longer than a minute. Suddenly I heard a whisper coming from all around me and yet what should have been a whisper was more like a booming all encompassing sound.

What are you? It suddenly said,

"My name is Sasha and I am the guardian of the people!" I answered loudly.

Guardian? What is a guardian? Can you help me? I am cold.

I was confused. Was it cold? I couldn’t tell.

"Why are you here?" I asked about the endless darkness around me.

I want to live.

"Are you dead?" My arms were hurting for some reason, but I couldn’t give up now.

I want to live.

"Why come here?" I repeated the question.

He said there that magic here will make me alive.

He? There is a he. A master? Is this some weird construct? Some magic gone wrong?

"How would you come alive? There are just children in there and even if they are magical they can't make you alive." It faltered. It seemed confused and sad.

Warmth. Life. Laughter. It helps. It makes me feel.

I tried again.

"What are you? Maybe I can help?" I suddenly felt the intense pressure on my body. As if the weight of the darkness just came crushing on me. I fell on my knees.

I was made to kill. To take magic. To store magic. But he never took it away. The pain, the suffering. The never ending death. He said if I come here and finish the light, kill the light he will make it stop.

And just like that I knew that whoever made this darkness, made the shadow that was here just days ago. That knowledge gave me power and I could think again. It was not darkness or some sort of weird God, it was just a construct of magic, by the same man who made the shadow. So this darkness must have an essence from which it came, like a soul. This means that all we need to do is find the soul, find the origin of it and we can end it!

Luckily for me I was close enough to Mia that she could use her mind magic and eventually I could hear her voice in my head.

“Sasha, please don’t tell me you are the reason that this damn dark cloud stopped eating my protection magic and that you are somewhere safe, far away?” I didn’t have time for this, I said to myself, forgetting that Mia could hear my every thought.

“Mia, it's similar to the shadow I fought a while ago. It was constructed by someone to collect and store magic!” She gasped loudly enough that I could hear and finally went silent.

It took her a mere few seconds to hatch a plan. She and I bonded, melded our minds as only a witch and her guardian could. She spoke and I acted, she wove the spell and I was the conduit. As loud as I could, I said in my voice but her words.

"I protect this land and the people within. Darkness, evil and malice have no power here!" And I stomped. I flung my arms wider, as if I was coming to hug it. I felt sharp pain on my arms and I knew that somehow I was bleeding from my wrists hard enough that my blood was dripping down my arms to the darkness that surrounded me.

"With my blood I claim thee. With my blood I make thee mine. With my will I bind thee. With my body I make thee bow. With my words I gave thee voice. With my heart I make thee light. With my mouth I ate thee, darkness. BE MINE!"

There was a loud pop and I was flung backwards, until I hit something metal with a loud thud and then I finally passed out.