After a five-hour drive to Columbus Ohio, and now coming to the end of a 12+ hour flight, I’ll be touching down in Fairbanks very shortly. Isabella tried getting Otto to come with me, but I pointed out that this was more of a solo trip. As knowledgeable and talented as Otto is, I’m the one who has more of a direct connection to the wolf. The recent dreams have proven this to me, and even this high up, I think I can feel the gap between me and the errant Sangui-Sapio shrinking. Or maybe it’s just wishful thinking. I’ll know for sure once we touch down.
The flight crew are
asking us to shut down our electronics. I’ll take this up once I’m back on the
ground.
Three hours later…
Okay, so much for my
‘solo’ mission. Apparently, Isabella has been acting as the eyes and ears for
Lisa and Marisa without my knowledge. How did I find out? Well, coming off the
plane and finding Marisa at the gate holding up a sign that says,
“Congratulations on your sex change, Sis… er Bro!”, which included a photo of
me in my ‘Nadine’ persona, was a huge hint. You see, I’ve only ever let
Isabella take photos of me in that form, so I knew it had to have been her
doing.
I was tempted to walk in
the opposite direction, only I had this horrible image of Marisa running after
me yelling, “So? How’s the new plumbing working out?” I know how tenacious she
can be. So instead, I simply walked right up to her and said quietly, “Thanks
for going the sibling route, instead of something like, ‘Congratulations on the
sex change, Honey. When do I get to try out your new equipment?’.”
She laughed and said, “Ooo…
I’m saving that for next time.”
“Me and my big mouth,” I
murmured as we headed for the baggage area. “So, how did you land all the way
up here. I thought you were riding the rails with our Karneval Schatten friends?”
Karneval Schatten, as the
name implies, is a traveling carnival made up of people and beings from various
Para-Earths who at one point or another found themselves stranded in this world.
By traveling and presenting themselves as performers, they’re able to hide
their ‘strangeness’ from the folks of this world. And like Otto and me, they seek
out incursions from other Para-Earths and try to return any creatures/beings land
up here. If they cannot return the ‘visitor’ to their reality, they will add
them to their ranks if possible. However, in cases where the intruder is
hostile or more dangerous, they will contact me or Otto to help contain the being.
They travel by an unusual
train which can actually travel through various Para-Earths and reappear in this
world at a variety of select locations that act as beacons for them. Just don’t
ask me for the mechanics of how the train does it because I have no idea. Nor do
my carnival friends to be honest. They ‘borrowed’ it from another Para-Earth
traveler, who had been gathering and imprisoning them (and eventually me) for
purposes I’d rather not go into right now.
Damn, just thinking about
that day still makes me shudder. I swear if it hadn’t been for Brandon Elliott,
and his grandson Peter, God only knows what might have happened to us and this
world.
The rest of my reverie
was interrupted by Marisa.
“Once I heard you were
coming here, I asked them to drop me off,” she explained, brushing a stray
blonde hair out of her face and back into the hood of her parka. “I was ready
to head home anyway and figured I could catch a lift back with you after we
find your… friend.”
I halted in mid-step and
frowned at her. “My sister sent you the article too?”
“No, I found it,” she laughed,
“Who do you think sent it to her the others in the first place?”
Eying her curiously I asked,
“So, you’ve been keeping an eye out for possible ‘incursions’?”
She nodded. “Incursions,
strange phenomenon, sightings… after all I need material for my children and
Young Adult ‘fantasy’ books don’t I?” Then she bumped me with her hip saying, “Unlike
some people, I don’t have over a century and a half of life experience to draw
upon.”
“Touche’,” I conceded. “When
are you going to finally try releasing one of them?”
“I want to have a good number of them completed in case I hit a dry spell so I can keep releasing stories in a timely manner. That way the audience doesn’t wind up getting frustrated that it’s taking so long between books,” she replied as we started walking towards the baggage area again.
“Five, but I want eight
at least before I start publishing.”
“Eight?” I frowned as we
reached the baggage carousel. “Why so many?”
“That way I can safely put
out two per year with plenty of room for travel or…” she paused to snatch my
bag which had just appeared on the conveyor belt, “Life getting in the way for
a good four years.”
I had to admit she had a
point. I often wished I still had a few books set and ready to go some days.
But ever since I moved back to the family mansion, I’ve had a number of
distractions (which included her and Lisa) to deal with. And this ‘werewolf’ business
was only the latest.
As we made our way out
the doors of the terminal I could see how much snow had fallen recently. Marisa
must’ve noticed it too and promptly huddled closer to me as we walked through
the parking lot. Since she is almost as tall as me meant she could rest her head
on my shoulder, and promptly did so.
“You didn’t by chance
rent a car, did you?” I asked.
She shook her head. “I caught
a taxi and came right here. Besides, I wasn’t sure if we’d need a car, skis, or
a snowmobile.” Here she paused and looked at me, “Then again, we could just
rent a dogsled and tie you to the front. You’re so strong we wouldn’t need a full
dog team.”
“You just want an excuse
to get a leash on me,” I blurted and instantly regretted it.
“Well now that you’ve
brought it up…” she began.
“Uh-oh,” I muttered,
looking up. “It’s starting to snow again.”
Marisa frowned, “So? I
thought you loved the snow?”
“I do, but with it falling
that means no moon or Northern Lights to help us find my ‘friend’ as you call
him,” I explained and looked around. I blew out a breath. “I’ll have to reach out
mentally to try and get an idea…”
“FOUND HIM!” Marisa cut
in and pointed.
TO BE CONTINUED…
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