Gwen's not smaller… I'm just bigger.
Natalie was on top of Gwen and riding comfortably, but it wasn't a huge ocean of grey fur like it used to seem. She'd offered to let one of her friends ride instead, but Gwen wouldn't allow anyone else on her back. They all insisted she keep riding—Kelsey seemed offended that Natalie considered walking when this was an option—but Natalie still felt a little guilty nonetheless. It wasn't a short walk up to Rallsburg, after all.
"Is that where we're going, then?" asked Kelsey. "I thought you wanted to get to the Greywood."
"Well…" Natalie hesitated. "I do, but I want to see home too. Plus… I'm not sure how to get there, exactly."
"You don't know where we're going?" asked Mitch.
"I do!" said Natalie. "I've been out in these woods all the time. Rallsburg is that way—" she said, pointing it out, "—and the Greywood used to be that way."
"Used to be?" said Tyler excitedly.
"I… I don't think she can move it or anything, but Cinza told me at the funeral that they were adding more stuff to protect it. So I don't think I can get in the same way I used to."
"Oh." He actually sounded disappointed. Maybe Kendra could move it though… there's so many things you could do with those pocket dimensions…
"Can we find it in the dark?" asked Kelsey, glancing around.
The sun had long-since set, and the clock on Natalie's phone said seven now. They'd already been walking for over an hour. Natalie was keeping their group lit with a constant spell—a warm fairy light that bobbed above them like a lantern on an invisible pole. It didn't actually need to, but Natalie did it anyway. She really liked how it looked, how the shadows of the trees and branches danced around them, mingled with the strong fierce shadow cast by Gwen.
"Yeah. It'll be really obvious."
"Will we be there soon?" asked Tyler, shivering. He was bundled up in three layers. Natalie had been warming up their path as they walked, but she had to keep paying attention to it and keep the light going and watch out for anyone coming up on them and keep her balance on Gwen's back and… well, Natalie was more than a little distracted, and she let the warmth slip every now and then.
She nodded. "Really soon."
They went back to talking about a game. Natalie strained her ears, listening to the sounds of the forest—the wind, the crickets, the frogs, the owls. Animals in every direction, and the shuffle of footsteps in the distance.
Footsteps? We aren't close enough to Rallsburg yet. And nobody's supposed to be there anymore anyway, right? It was closed off or something. Quarantined.
Not everyone follows such rules.
Oh yeah… that one kid said his brother went there. But still… we aren't there yet.
Be on guard, Natalie. There could be many others in this forest. You heard the Kincaids speak of people trying to find magic. They may be all around you.
Natalie called for a break. Her friends were getting hungry anyway, and Natalie wanted to figure out the source of the sound. She wasn't really hungry yet—ever since she'd changed herself, her body didn't seem to need as much food, though she still usually ate as much as anyone else to hide that fact—so Natalie lit a fire for them to warm up hot-dogs while she scouted the area nearby.
More footsteps nearby. Natalie tried to figure out where they were coming from. Branches and leaves were brushing in ways that weren't normal. She knew what the normal sounds of the forest were, and with her new ears, she could hear all of them perfectly. This sound wasn't one of them, but it was so quiet.
Somebody was out there who didn't want to be found.
They're not very far away.
They are no threat to us yet. Do not provoke an enemy we haven't made. Let them pass unaware of our presence.
Natalie did, though it went against her instincts. If these were normal people, looking for magic or for something else, they wouldn't be sneaking. This seemed like something else. Still, with the scent of cooking food wafting through the air and the fire crackling behind her, Natalie couldn't stray too far. Her friends needed her more than whomever might be slipping through the trees.
"I've never been out here before," said Tyler, looking around at the forest. To him, it was obviously foreboding, no matter how Natalie might feel. "Is it always this dark?"
Natalie shrugged. "Pretty much. It depends on the moon, and what time of year, but yeah."
"It never gets this dark at home, even in the park."
"That's 'cause of the city," said Mitch. "Light pollution or something."
"We didn't have that at home," said Natalie.
"You didn't have lights?"
"No, I mean, everybody turned off all the lights at night. It made everything darker, but it made it way easier to see the stars at night." Natalie glanced up, and sure enough, the stars filled the sky once more in a huge curtain of dancing lights. She smiled. "I like this way more."
"It's really pretty," Tyler agreed.
"There's a light over there though," said Kelsey, pointing.
Natalie looked up. She definitely hadn't seen a light before, but Kelsey's eyes were sharp too. There was a faint flicker of light, barely visible through the trees to the west—at least, Natalie was pretty sure it was west. She'd been trying to get better at knowing which direction was which at all times, since it seemed really useful. The light wasn't anything distinct yet though—not fire, definitely artificial, but beyond that, Natalie couldn't tell.
It was moving toward them.
Immediately, she smothered their fire with her mind. Light fled into the shadows, not to return.
"Wha—" said Mitch, before Kelsey kicked him. "Hey!"
"Shut up!" she hissed.
Natalie stood up. Gwen paced back and forth behind her, and a low growl echoed from her jaws.
Gwen's eyes narrowed. It was someone she knew, but Natalie couldn't exactly get a name out of her wolf. She also couldn't tell if this was a hostile reaction or not. Gwen was suspicious, but not exactly ready to attack. Natalie prepared herself anyway, readying a lightning bolt in her fingers. Tiny flecks of pink electricity buzzed around her fingers, not quite crackling, but ready to leap at an instant if she needed it.
Her hawk flew into the canopy. A brief screech echoed around them. Percy had spotted the sneaking pair. They were still moving toward her. Natalie waved at her friends, motioning for them to stay still and low. She bounded forward and leapt fifteen feet up into the nearest tree, silently climbing high in an instant thanks to another burst of magic.
There! But… who is that? Gwen seems to know them, but I don't…
Be on your guard. Trust no one. Ruby said there were traitors in the Greywood.
Two people were approaching, a man and a woman. The man carried a small electric lantern and a huge backpack, the woman another large pack and a rifle slung over her shoulder. Beside them floated… something. What is that?
It is not natural, whatever it may be. They must be awakened. Do not let it near you.
I'm not just gonna attack them.
With any luck, they will pass by.
Natalie wished that were the case, but as she leaned forward to get a better look at the strange blue shape near them, her foot slipped. The branch below it snapped. A crack echoed through the whole area, and the branch tumbled to the ground.
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The woman's ice-blue eyes snapped onto Natalie's tree.
Oh my god… I do know her. That's… the sniper woman. The one who hung out with Viper. And Viper tried to kidnap Alden, so she's probably no good either. But… who's the guy?
"Lani," she murmured, pointing Natalie's way.
The man—Lani, I guess?—started walking forward, and the little blue shape followed him, floating nearby like a ghost. Actually… it kinda does look like a ghost. It has a face and everything. What does it do?
They are approaching us. We must choose a course of action.
Run?
Can your friends outrun a mercenary such as she? This is Viper's companion. She is probably military.
So we stall them while my friends run.
Into the woods alone, and with many other potential threats nearby?
...What should we do?
Protect your own.
Gwen immediately tilted her head to the sky and howled again, loud and long. Natalie, in unison, summoned a huge wall of fire between herself and the pair—strong, hot and fierce, crackling and spitting out licks of flame. It wouldn't actually catch any of the trees, she was controlling it too well to let that happen, but it stopped the pair in their tracks. In fact, they both stepped back at the sudden conflagration.
"What the hell?" said the woman, in a voice quite different than the woman Natalie was familiar with. "...Magic, right?"
"Yeah," said Lani, "but… this is crazy. There's so much."
Above, Percy shrieked, a hunting cry right above their heads.
"I think we're not wanted here…" said the woman, though her hand was tight to her rifle. If she took it off her back, Natalie was ready to rip it to shreds right in her grip. They were still pretty far away, but with the gemstones she'd gotten out of her bag, Natalie was pretty sure she could manage it. The wall of fire continued to burn, growing in intensity. She'd have to let go soon, or some lick of flame was bound to break free and start bringing the whole forest down.
"Let's go," said Lani, taking her hand. They turned and fled the other direction, slipping through the trees as quietly as they'd come.
Natalie extinguished the fire with a relieved sigh. She watched them go, and jealousy flared up in her stomach. They were close, holding hands, watching each other's backs, trusting each other and sticking together. Meanwhile…
She shook her head, and slipped out of her own tree to rejoin her relieved friends. Gwen wrapped up around her as Natalie sat down and dug into the hot dogs and soda. She leaned back into her best friend's fur and closed her eyes, a sense of loss trickling into her mind from the empty space next to her.
----------------------------------------
"Another light," Kelsey reported.
Natalie had already seen it, but she was still grateful someone else was keeping an eye out. She couldn't watch every direction at once. This light was much different, though—and as she peered closer, she realized it was many lights. There was a whole sea of them, quickly expanding as the group passed more trees and they came into view.
"It's like a camp or something," said Natalie.
Percy lit off of Gwen's back, swooping out into the trees without his usual squawk of protest. She'd finally managed to impress on him the need for stealth, and to her relief, he was keeping it up. Gwen, meanwhile, was used to the role of a silent hunter, and needed no reminders. If anything, her stern looks were keeping both Percy and the rest of Natalie's friends in line.
"If it's a camp, do you think they'll have somewhere to lay down?" said Tyler, gasping a little. "I'm really tired."
"We got tents and air mattresses in the bag," Mitch reminded him.
"Or a bathroom," Tyler went on, ignoring him.
"We can go look at it," said Natalie. "If it looks okay, we'll go there."
This is an unnecessary risk. We need to reach the Greywood.
We don't know how to get to the Greywood. Maybe we can find one of Cinza's people here.
Natalie pressed Gwen forward, her friends close behind. Mitch helped Tyler keep going, while Kelsey continued to act as a second pair of eyes. Natalie was surprised they'd gone so long before anyone complained—she loved her friends, but she hadn't expected them to last this long before realizing what they were in for. She was used to long treks alone in the woods, but they were all city kids.
And yet, they'd gone nearly all day without complaint. Natalie was helping, of course, keeping them warm and navigating them through the easier parts of the forest, but still.
The camp was growing in size in front of them, a wide swathe of tents, RVs, food carts, even a ramshackle cabin. To Natalie's relief, it seemed nothing like the homeless camp she'd previously visited in Seattle, but it ebbed away a moment later as she realized where she actually was.
The RV park outside Rallsburg… the one where Jenny died.
He's gone. They killed him. We don't have to be afraid of him anymore.
Your friends will be safe with you.
More shuffling in the trees. Natalie flashed a red light at her friends, the new signal for them to fall silent and stay low. Someone had just started moving, very close to them. They weren't trying to be stealthy, so Natalie wasn't too afraid, but she caught something else.
A radio crackle. She focused, and tried to draw in every sound from that direction with a wave of magic. The sound of the radio, a tiny quiet thing, finally reached her ears.
"...but Malich ain't sure. West and him are moving closer. Over."
Natalie waited. The shuffling seemed to be moving away, but she wasn't sure. Now she was hearing it from two directions. Was it her magic on the area, messing up the way the sound bounced around? She released the spell, and the faint radio chatter faded away, replaced with the general sounds of the forest once more.
It's two people. Someone else is there.
"Natalie?" whispered Kelsey, crouching close to Gwen's side. Natalie waved her off, still trying to listen for all the movement around them.
"Somebody's nearby."
"Can we ask them for directions?" asked Tyler earnestly, thankfully in a whisper.
"You moron, what if they're evil?" hissed Mitch.
"Shh," hushed Natalie.
The shuffling had changed. The two sounds merged into one, and got more pronounced. A faint grunt, followed by a thump on the ground, and then… a sickening sound, one Natalie had only heard once before, but could never forget in a million years.
A blade slicing open flesh, and a choked gurgle as someone breathed their last breath.
"Ashe clear."
"Stebbins clear."
The radio kept echoing, but the shuffling had stopped. Natalie hesitated. Do I go forward? Try to save whoever that was? I'm probably too late… oh god. What if… what if they come this way? Natalie quickly tuned back into the area, reviving her spell—just in time to catch a voice she certainly didn't expect echoing out of the radio.
"Stebbins, Nossinger. Give me the last known location of West, over."
Jackie's on the radio? But the radio didn't move, and the person who's still alive is moving… which means they just killed one of Jackie's friends. They're not on my side.
That sound is not an approach. They are moving away.
They're moving toward the camp, and they just killed somebody. What if… oh god, what if this is like Lakewood? They're going to—
This is a choice, Natalie. Your friends are here, and a camp of awakened waits ahead. Between them lies an unknown enemy. What will we do?
I… I don't…
Jackie and the others on the radio do not know of the threat. Only we do. We can track it. We can stop it.
We can't leave my friends here though. They can't take on one of those guys.
Keep them close, then.
"There's something about to happen," said Natalie. She slid off Gwen's back and landed in the middle of her three friends. They gathered close, and she dropped to a whisper. "Someone just got attacked nearby, and they were on our side. Whoever attacked is going toward the camp now. I gotta stop them before they get there."
"Is it one of… you know, your dad's guys?" asked Mitch reluctantly.
Natalie hesitated. "...I don't know."
"What do we do?" asked Tyler.
"Stay close to me." Natalie looked around, and to her relief, they still seemed to be totally alone. Kelsey looked confident, while both Mitch and Tyler were practically shaking. Natalie tried to send another wave of warmth at them, but it didn't help in the slightest. "Gwen will probably have to split up with us, that's how she works best, and I won't make much light anymore. We gotta make sure we aren't seen."
"But we'll be totally blind out here," said Mitch.
"I can see in the dark."
"Oh wow," said Tyler, his eyes widening.
"Just stay near me, okay?"
Three nods. The shuffling had ended as well, but Natalie had a pretty good idea of the direction where they'd stopped moving—and she had Gwen to track the rest of the way.
Gwen sniffed the air. Her huge head nuzzled Natalie's hand, before she started off. Natalie waved to her friends, and they followed close behind. Natalie's eyes let her see the whole forest like a faint outline, as if everything were just a little bit glow-in-the-dark. Her friends had to struggle over roots and branches, and Natalie wished she could make things easier for them, but she had to focus ahead.
A killer waited, only a few hundred feet away.
The forest loomed around her, but the forest was Natalie's friend, not theirs. She reached out with her mind, opening as she had learned to do, and the animals were waiting for her. Slowly, she gained a sense of what they felt, what they saw. It wasn't clear—she couldn't see anything or feel anything through them—but the impression still made it through, and they permeated the entire forest nearby.
Everywhere… except for one hole, the one where Gwen was leading them.
Natalie grabbed up the gemstones again from her bag, a pair of rubies and topaz. She wouldn't kill anyone, nor would she even hurt anyone if she could avoid it, but Natalie would be ready to fight. She knew how the world worked. She'd been up against people like this before.
A shift in the underbrush. Gwen tensed up. She started moving to the side. Natalie crept forward, fists raised, her friends a few steps behind. A pair of legs stuck out from underneath ferns, clad in heavy boots, watching the camp with a rifle on the ground nearby.
Disarm her!
Natalie didn't need to be told twice. She grabbed at the rifle and flung it backwards, high in the air above her friends. As it flew, Natalie twisted the barrel in half. It took a lot more strength than she expected, but she knew the rifle was useless now. Instantly, the woman—for it was a woman, as Natalie discovered—twisted around. Her dark eyes filled with fear and hatred.
Natalie summoned a wall of fire again, blinding the woman before they could be seen.
"Get out of here!" she shouted.
"Witch!" the woman screamed back.
A gunshot echoed in the distance. Natalie flinched. Her wall of fire dissipated, but to her relief, the woman held no gun. The shot had been far away—but the damage was done nonetheless. The woman could see her, and her friends crouching behind. The moonlight was dim, and the fire had completely ruined their night vision, but the woman's eyes widened.
"You're just a kid!"
Natalie shook her head. "I'm not anymore."
Her eyes narrowed. Natalie hesitated, still hoping she'd just give up and leave.
"Your gun's ruined, and you can't fight me. Just go away. Leave us alone."
To the side, hidden in the trees, Gwen growled—loud and harsh, one of her worst growls. The woman's legs shook slightly, but she didn't waver. There was a knife at her belt, and her hand inched toward it. Natalie shook her head.
The knife leapt out and flew away, just like the gun had. It landed right in Natalie's hand. She dropped it as soon as she noticed it was still covered in blood.
"Now you don't have anything," said Natalie.
The woman smiled wickedly.
There was a gunshot! She's not alone!
Natalie whipped around. Percy screeched and dove… behind Natalie's friends. Gwen leapt at the woman, pinning her to the forest floor. Behind them in the forest, a man, small and full of rage, had gotten close—too close. He had a pistol. Natalie hadn't had time to react. Her friends hadn't even realized he was there. Kelsey, Tyler, and Mitch were still watching Natalie confront the woman who'd been setting up to attack the camp. The man had them all… easy targets.
He squeezed the trigger.