Wendigo Wars Read online

  It was then that we noticed that there was a stone formation which was almost like a throne at the front of the cavern. Seated on the throne was a wendigo man.”

  “What? What do you mean a wendigo man?”

  “Exactly that. He looked like a man but also like a wendigo. He was taller than a man, about seven feet tall. He had the body of a wendigo; bony and grey with leathery skin but without the tufts of matted hair that the wendigo have. His ribs poked out like scimitars. He had the rows of wendigo teeth, needle thin and the blue-black tongue of the wendigo, though it was a normal human length. His eyes were set deep in the sockets, ice blue and rimmed in red.”

  “So how was he like a man? He sounds like most wendigo at the moment. Apart from the civil tone he greeted you with of course.”

  “His face was that of a man. Grey, like his body, but he did not have the snout of a wendigo, just a normal but thin face with sharp cheekbones. He had no tufts of fur but his hair was wild. Long, course and white grey. He was far more terrifying than the wendigo.”

  “How did he control the wendigo?”

  “We didn’t find that out until later. I will come to that.”

  “Sorry. I’m rushing you. What happened next?”

  “Look, I am getting tired talking and I don’t think I can really do this story justice.” Dash rubbed his head and sighed, lost in his thoughts for a moment. Then he looked up with a glimmer of hope in his eyes. “Do you know how to do a Past Vision Ceremony?” he asked.

  Chapter Twelve

  Mathilde had never been an expert at dealing with the spirit and dream worlds. In the eyes of many of her peers she was seen as expert but when compared to Violette and Fleur Mathilde knew that she was merely competent. Whereas her sisters found all types of vision dealings, dream communes and walks with the spirit world easy, Mathilde found that she had to concentrate far too hard to get anywhere near the levels that they reached with ease.

  She had left Dash shortly after his question, promising to talk to Violette. A Past Vision Ceremony was one of the most difficult types of spirit quest. Unlike most types of spirit dealings, which took place on astral plains but very much in the present, a Past Vision Ceremony meant entering someone’s memories to see events as they had. There was very little to do with spirits and was often difficult, both because of the journey to the past and also because it meant breaking down several barriers in a person’s subconscious to get there. Barriers that person built to help heal and protect them self from the pain of the past.

  There was no question that Mathilde would be able to do this on her own. The only way she could do it would be with Violette’s help. After leaving Dash Mathilde had gone straight to Violette to ask for her help and Violette had offered it willingly. So now she was returning to Dash’s hospital alcove not twenty four hours since their last chat. It had been almost impossible to leave him with so many questions unanswered but he had been so set on her seeing what he had seen for herself that there seemed no point in pushing him.

  Now that word had spread about the People’s Rebellion supporting the royal family Protector Superior Paul had given the go ahead to stop the round the clock guard of Dash. Everyone in the settlement had nothing but good will for Dash and, from the amount of good luck charms, food parcels and carved ornaments around his room it seemed that half the settlement had been to visit since the day before.

  When Mathilde and Violette arrived at the hospital alcove Dash was not in bed but in the main alcove area. His strength had been building over the last twenty four hours, as if the main cause for his lethargy had been the burden of his story and that was almost lifted. He even mustered a smile when the sisters entered the room.

  Mathilde smiled back for the first time since they had met. His smile held hints of nervousness and happiness. Mathilde wondered how much of it was because of the burden being lifted and the story yet to come and how much of it was because of their new friendship. As always he looked at her straight in the eyes and for longer than was natural but this time Mathilde did not feel uncomfortable. She felt her heart soar and had trouble looking away. In fact she realised that she didn't look away, her gaze was merely blocked by Violette as she leaned down between them to put her bag of herbs and stones on the ground before speaking to Dash.

  "Are you sure you want to do this Dash? You know that you will have to relive the experience along with us. We can’t see the memories unless you think them.”

  “Yes I know but it is easier than having to talk about it and, well I think you need to see it for yourself to believe it. I know that you are still unsure Mathilde.”

  As they locked eyes again Mathilde could see the pain behind Dash’s eyes. Pain caused not only by the memories but also by the thought that Mathilde may not believe all that he had told her.

  “Of course I believe you Dash. It is just that it’s so unexpected. It goes against everything that we have believed about the wendigo for generations. I mean, how is this man not a full wendigo? How does he control wendigo without them ripping him or each other to shreds? I just don’t understand yet but I do believe you.”

  “Ok let’s get started,” said Violette as they made their way into the more private side room.

  The three of them sat on the floor in a circle and Violette began arranging the things she had brought with her on the floor in between them. A small collection of moonstones were arranged into a circle to make a tiny makeshift fireplace in which Violette was working to create a low smoulder in a heap of lavender. Around the three of them Violette had arranged a circle of alternating amber and moonstones. The moonstones to mask their presence in the spirit realm so as not to attract wendigo and the amber to create a barrier and buy a few extra minutes to break out of their trance if the wendigo did sense their presence.

  Violette and Mathilde were not afraid of the wendigo that they were going to be watching. They were merely memories and were as insubstantial as wind. They were no threat. On entering the spirit world, however, they entered a world which was inhabited by all spirits including those of long dead wendigo searching for temporarily uninhabited bodies to possess and make their own.

  “Ready?” Violette looked at the faces of the two people about to follow her lead into the past. They both nodded.

  “Ok. Hold hands and close your eyes. I want to you listen to my voice and I will talk you into the spirit realm and then into Dash’s memories. Dash this is going to be painful. Whatever it is you are going to show us you will have to relive and the memories may hurt you just as much as the events did but you have to stick with it. When you feel we have seen enough just give me a mental nudge, call my name in your head, and I will bring us back. Ok?”

  Dash nodded. If possible he was looking even paler and as Mathilde held his hand the jolt which ran straight from her palms to her body to make her heart race, soon disappeared to be replaced by his fear, which radiated from his sweaty palms and his too tight grip.

  “Right. Close your eyes and listen to my voice. One, two, breathe in the lavender, three, four, hold the breath, five six, seven eight, exhale slowly, keep breathing. One, two, in, three, four, hold, five, six, seven, eight, exhale.”

  Violette carried on in this way for what seemed like ten minutes until Mathilde’s head began to spin and she felt disorientated. She could no longer feel most of her body and only had a slight sense of still holding Violette and Dash’s hands. As her mind drifted upwards she heard Violette’s voice very thin and far away.

  “We are now entering the spirit world. We have completed the first part of our journey. You can open your eyes. Your physical eyes will remain closed but once you imagine opening your eyes you will be able to see the spirit realm.”

  Mathilde slowly concentrated on being able to see. The air was neither hot nor cold and as Mathilde looked around all was clear within the circle in which they sat but not so outside of the circle. Everywhere she looked she could see a thick white fog. Every few moments she would see a dark shape
flit or drag past the circle. Some quite far away and others quite close but the fog was so thick that they could not see what most of the shapes were.

  Some of the shapes came very close to the circle, close enough to be seen more clearly. They were a mixture of beings. All spirits of course but spirits of different things. Mathilde felt sad to see human spirits, some old, many warriors and Protectors and, heartbreakingly, some children. Mathilde heard Dash gasp and she looked to the spot at which he was staring. There stood a wendigo, all skin, bones, teeth and claws. It flitted to and fro for a few moments then stopped to sniff the air frantically, as if it could sense their presence. At one point it stared straight at Mathilde with its blood rimmed eyes, but it didn’t seem to see her and pounced away to be quickly enveloped by the thick white fog.

  “Well done,” whispered Violette. “They can’t see us but they can hear us so if a wendigo approaches we must remain quiet.”

  “It sensed us” said Dash. He looked nervous and Mathilde felt his hand begin to tremble slightly.

  “Yes. They are constantly searching. In our world they are searching for food but in the spirit realm they are searching for a spirit still tied to a body.”

  “Like us?” asked Dash.

  “Yes, like us,” said Violette, “or someone on their death bed - someone just holding onto life by a thread, half in the spirit world already.”

  The thought that their own spirits were just holding onto their bodies by a thread caused a shiver to run down Mathilde’s spine.

  “Ok you can let go of each other’s hands now for a while. We will rejoin in a minute but for now relax. I will talk you through what is going to happen next.”

  Mathilde and Dash remained holding each other’s hands for just half a second more then let go. Each of the three spirit travellers cracked their knuckles and rubbed their fingers. Mathilde had not realised how tight they were all holding on or how much her fingers were going to ache.

  “Our next phase is the drop into Dash’s memories. Mathilde, you just need to watch and stay quiet but Dash you’re going to have to take a more active role. You need to remember everything. Sights, sounds and smells. We can only see what you show us.

  If you want us to come out of the memory just say my name. We will see things from your point of view so anything outside of the eye line you had we will not be able to see. Our spirits will remain in the spirit realm so remain still and quiet whatever happens”

  Dash nodded to show he understood. His eyes, which had earlier seemed so scared, now seemed set in stone with nothing but determination shining from them. Mathilde’s head spun. So their bodies were in the settlement, their spirits were in the spirit realm and their minds were in Dash’s memories? It was just too confusing. She would never understand how Violette and Fleur found this stuff so easy.

  “Ok let’s do it,” Dash said then gave Mathilde and Violette a tight smile.

  “Right join hands again. This won’t take as long as it took us to get here. Dash you just need to concentrate hard on the memories that you want us to see. As soon as your memories are strong enough I will be able to tune in and I will do the rest. “

  Mathilde closed her eyes and sat in silence. She could still see white even with her eyes closed as if the fog penetrated her eyelids. The white grew stronger and brighter. Every fibre in Mathilde’s body and spirit wanted to turn away or close her eyes to protect herself from the painful bright white light but there was nowhere to turn her head to and her eyes were already closed. Then all of a sudden she was plunged into darkness. The inky black quickly began to clear to brown and then Mathilde heard Violette’s voice whisper in her head “Open your eyes now Mathilde so that you can see what we are seeing.”

  It was strange to hear Violette’s voice like that. Definitely not out loud but very clear. Like her own thoughts but in Violette’s voice. Dash’s voice joined in.

  “Can they hear us?”

  “No. They can’t see or hear us. We aren’t really here. We are just watching your memories. This is no more real than remembering your childhood. Our bodies are still in the settlement and our spirits are in the spirit realm. Now just try to keep remembering everything as it happened and we will watch.”

  Mathilde looked around. She had no weight or physical feelings and her view point seemed to be from next to Memory-Dash’s head. She looked at what he was seeing.

  They were in the cavern that he had described to her. The walls were grey and green with sediment marks. In some places the marks had settled to make a cheetah print pattern. As Memory-Dash looked around Mathilde saw the wendigo lining the walls of the cavern. She could see in from their frantic movements, rocking forwards and backwards on the balls of their elongated feet, that they longed to pounce on the small group of people in the centre of the cavern but something held them back.

  Mathilde heard a commanding voice “Welcome” and Memory-Dash looked to the location of the voice. For the first time Mathilde saw the wendigo man that Dash had described. Seven feet tall, thin and grey as a wendigo but with a face half wendigo and half human, exactly as Dash had described him. As he smiled his many, uneven pointed teeth made his mouth seem like the cavern itself scattered with stalagmites and stalactites. He sat on a natural, stone throne at one end of the cavern and behind him was a skeletal painting of the Grim Reaper which must have been ten feet tall.

  “Who are you? What do you want?”

  Mathilde looked towards the voice. It was deep and just as commanding as the voice of the wendigo man. The man who had spoken looked like an older, heavy set version of Dash with a thick black beard and long thick black hair. He stood proud and strong despite an obvious injury to his leg and Mathilde knew that this must be Dash’s father, King Darius. Next to him stood a tall, slender woman with dark blond hair woven into intricate plaits and buns; Dash’s mother.

  “Your majesty; it’s a pleasure to meet you, and your beautiful wife Queen Genevieve too. What an honour for you to visit our humble abode.”

  The wendigo man spread his arms wide as if to show them his underground palace. His face held a patronising, superior sneer. He held all the power and he seemed to be enjoying the game.

  “My name is General Zhu, your humble servant, and I hope you enjoy your stay in my home.”

  Mathilde gasped and in her head she heard Violette do the same before muttering “Zhu”

  “This is my close colleague Captain Gein. Do excuse his skittishness. He is a good partner in war but struggles so when faced with temptation.” Zhu gestured with his head and a loose flick of the wrist to another wendigo man hovering behind his throne. Gein was more wendigo than Zhu was. His tongue was the long thin tongue of the wendigo and he had the hunched stoop of a full wendigo. He only had one eye, the other was a socket barely healed over with a puckered patch of grey scar tissue. The remaining eye was deep set and had a blood coloured rim. The white of his eye had a spattering of burst blood vessels. He had closely cropped matted fur on his head and was a foot smaller than Zhu. Whereas every move that Zhu made seemed minute and carefully calculated, Gein skittered around on the spot as if his body and mind were fighting between his desire to follow Zhu’s lead and his desire to launch himself at the tasty morsels before him

  Genevieve and Darius stared at Zhu and Gein. Their faces showed nothing of what they were thinking or feeling and years of royal breeding shone from them like a sterling silver armour of composure. Their daughter did not seem to share their calm and Mathilde was surprised to find herself looking at an almost exact double of Dash. Her colouring and features were identical to Dash's apart from her long straight hair which cascaded down her back, her slightly fuller lips and her more rounded face. Suzanna was his twin. She had to be.

  Suzanna still lay where she had been dropped and she sobbed. The Protectors gathered near to her as if sensing that she was the weakest and most in need of protection. Obvious really from the way she behaved. Mathilde envied her that, the luxury of being able to give in
to her fear and be the damsel in distress with no-one relying on her to stay strong.

  Memory-Dash looked from his sister to do a quick sweep of the cavern. As he did Mathilde was able to see that Suzanna's open display of fear excited the wendigo and those nearest to her seemed as if they were itching to tear the regal delicacy to shreds.

  "Be patient my children. We must be polite to our guests."

  The wendigo snarled, some in what seemed like annoyance and some with the characteristic hyena smile of their kind, obviously enjoying the show.

  "Now to your questions your Royal Highness," sneered Zhu. "Who am I? Surely you meant to ask what am I. Myself and Gein are… special. I am sure you have observed that we are neither wendigo nor human. We were once military men your Majesty, and so have exceedingly good self restraint. Luckily for us this allows us to maintain a certain level of control over what and how much we eat. Having seen several of your people become wendigo once they have become slaves to their gluttony I am sure that you can appreciate how useful this willpower can be in our…evolution. Now to your second question. What do I want? Well I have brought you here for a meeting to negotiate."

  "What do you want?" asked Darius in a low voice with a heavy undercurrent of barely controlled rage.

  "I have a dream of a civilized world without fighting or murder."

  Mathilde felt herself staring closely at the Zhu, just as Dash must have done, and wondered how he dare talk of being civilized.

  "You can help me to achieve my dream. You can tell your countrymen - your people - that we are going to rule together."

  "What? Why would I support a wendigo? Why would I share my throne with a wendigo?"

  "Oh I don't need your actual throne your highness. As you can see I have quite a nice one of my own. All I need is the obedience of your people."

  "They would never give you their obedience. Why should they?"

  “Oh well because the alternative is so much worse! Have you not noticed the increasing frequency of attacks? Have you not marveled at the intelligence and organisation behind them? We wendigo are the fastest, strongest and most vicious opponent you will ever face. What makes you think that you would survive if I launched an attack with all of these wendigo following my orders?”