Chapter 8

  Horns

  Ari and Boreal slept the rest of the afternoon and through the night. The girl woke in the early hours of the morning with a pounding headache. She groped for her canteen, thirst burning her throat. Dawn in the giant’s forest was little brighter than the night and it was only thanks to the soft glow of strange fungi speckling the pine’s bark that she could see at all. Boreal’s fur added to the dim light. Ari checked on him once her thirst was quenched and was pleased to see the bear had regained his opacity.

  As she sat waiting for him to wake up, she became aware of a dull thudding sound. It was slow, rhythmic, and growing closer. Brows knit, she peered out of the cave and gasped. A hulking silhouette lumbered thorough the forest, its height eclipsed only by the godpines. It was humanoid, vaguely masculine, with bulging muscles, and long arms. While was too dark to pick out finer details, Ari felt safe in assuming this was a giant. She restrained a squeak and retreated under the lip of the cave as it approached. It stopped beside the ancient pine, large head swiveling as if it was searching for something. A hairy foot rested on the tree’s wavelike roots. It smelled of resin and unwashed skin. To her relief, the giant shook his head, and left, muttering to itself in a strange language that sounded somewhat like whale calls.

  Ari released the breath she’d been holding and slumped back against the cave wall. She let her nerves settle before grabbing her pack. She ate a lean breakfast of granola and a few pieces of beef jerky to save the few MREs left in her pack. She’d give anything for Cynthia’s waffles right then. She was getting sick of granola. Hopefully they’d find help and a proper meal at the enclave.

  With her stomach unsatisfied and patience exhausted, Ari scooted over to where Boreal lay and gently nudged his shoulder. The bear grunted, but didn’t wake. Ari nudged him a bit harder.

  “Boreal, it's dawn, we have to go,” she said into his ear.

  The starlight eyes cracked open. He yawned widely, his brilliant teeth on full display. His breath was cool and had no smell.

  “Are you feeling any better?” she asked him.

  “Yes,” he said, the word distorted by another yawn.

  Ari smiled, a bit of worry lifting from her shoulders. She set to rolling up her sleeping bag and prepping for their departure.

  “I saw a giant while you were asleep, not much of it since its still dark, but it was huge!”

  Boreal grunted, watching her pack.

  “Glad it didn’t see us. Do you think we’ll run into any others on our way to the enclave?” she asked.

  Boreal didn’t respond. Ari turned to look at him, worried that her chatter had annoyed him. The bear stared with an unreadable expression. His big head tilted to the side, as if he were trying to study her from a new angle.

  “What?” she asked, brows bunched in confusion. “Why are you staring at me like that?”

  The bear remained silent. It looked like he was searching for the right words.

  Something above her brow itched. Ari reached up, wondering if there was a bug crawling on her head, and found something hard and conical hidden among her hair. She grabbed it between her thumb and forefinger and pulled at it. Whatever it was, it seemed firmly rooted to her skull.

  “Boreal, what is it? I can’t see,” Ari asked, a bit of fear creeping into her voice.

  “A horn,” Boreal said calmly, his head now tilted to the left. “There is another, on other side.”

  Ari searched for the second horn and found it. The two horns were little more than stubs, their tips just poking out of from her hair. She combed her scalp with her fingers. When she didn’t locate any other horns or protrusions, her hands fell onto her lap. She looked up at the bear, who had continued to watch her placidly, and asked. “Why is this happening to me? Am I cursed?”

  Boreal moved closer and drew in a deep breath through his nose. He exhaled, taking one more deep sniff before sitting back on his haunches, his eyes narrowed as he examined her scent and her aura.

  “No curse. Is natural,” he said after a while.

  “Natural? What about this is natural? Humans don’t grow horns!” Ari said, gesturing frantically at the stubs.

  The bear’s head tilted to the side again. Now he looked confused.

  “Humans have no horns, but you are only half human,” he said.

  “Since when? I’ve been human my whole life,” she protested. “This only started when I came here!”

  “I smell it on you at first meeting. Mostly human smell, but underneath, something else. Was weak then. Is stronger now. Stronger everyday. Magic burns in your blood. Your aura is sunfire when you sleep. Goes dim when you wake,” Boreal said.

  Ari wanted to argue, but as her thoughts roved back over the last few days, she realized that the changes had begun before she left Earth. The day the hunters first attacked, she woke with a fever, and a burning sensation in the skin between her shoulder-blades. When the hunter shot her, his bullet hit that exact spot and crumpled. She’d felt the scales there when she pulled the bullet out of her shirt. They’d come in just that morning, just in time, a day before the trip her father refused to tell her anything about.

  “He knew this was going to happen,” she said.

  She could see her father as he was when they parted, regret and guilt painted all over his face. He knew and meant to tell her, but he’d waited too long, and ran out of time in the worst way. He’d been acting odd around her for a while before that day. He kept asking her about her dreams, how she was feeling, and if she were experiencing any ‘changes’. At the time, Ari figured he was gearing up to have some sort of puberty talk with her. Now she realized he was prepping for an entirely different conversation.

  “Boreal . . . is Dad human?” she asked the bear.

  He nodded. “He is mage, a human with magic.”

  That leaves only one option then, Ari thought. My mother’s the one who isn’t human, but then what is she? What am I?

  “Whats my other half? Can you tell?” she asked.

  Boreal hesitated a moment, eyes narrowed again. “Sometimes I think I know, but . . . the scent, your aura, it shifts, changes. You are too in between. All I know, is not curse. Is natural.”

  “Okay,” Ari said, taking a deep breath. She didn’t know exactly how she felt about all this, the only clear emotion was fear, terror that there were things happening to her body she couldn’t control or understand. She took another deep, steadying breath. Hamza told her that panic is poison, it only makes things worse, especially when a person’s in danger. Right now she needed to corral the fear. She could feel it later when she was safe and had time to process it.

  “Enclave is close, let’s go,” Boreal said as he climbed to his feet.

  Ari nodded and gathered her things. By that point sunlight had returned the forest floor. Ari watched some ducks drift lazily down the stream as they crossed it. The sun was bright on their feathers, revealing hidden shades of green and blue in the black plumage. The light seemed to gather around them like halos. She narrowed her eyes. Where they . . . glowing? She blinked and the effect faded. The ducks looked normal.

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  As they continued along, Ari kept having to shut her eyes, clearing away halos and dots of colorful light that either surrounded animals or hovered along the ground or in the air. These visual disturbances came and went, sometimes faint, other times distractedly bright. It didn’t help that the forest was far livelier than it had been when they’d first arrived. Mundane animals, like deer and rabbits, had soft, weak halos. A mossy hill in the distance grew a head and yawned, revealing itself to be a giant tortoise. The blue halo outlining the great beast shimmered like sunlight on water and hummed with an ancient magic that vibrated in Ari’s bones.

  “Boreal, what do auras look like?” she asked.

  “Light, like glow around moon during eclipse. For some is like fire, others lightning. You see them now?” he asked her.

  “Yeah, I think so,” Ari said, glancing up as winged snakes with jeweled eyes flitted overhead. She watched them lap at nectar pooled inside barrel-sized flowers with forked tongues. She’d seen them before, back at the hunters’ camp, stuck in a cage with other tiny creatures. They seemed harmless, but then again, so did the little mushroom guy, and he or she tore a truck apart with vines and roots.

  A few of the snakes flitted around her and Boreal, curious, but cautious. They darted away when she reached out to touch them, startling some lantern-like, jellyfish creatures that bobbed among the lower branches of the canopy. They spun around, shaking their ribbon arms at the snakes, chiming angrily as they drifted up into the branches.

  By that point, Ari had become so used to the calls of beasts and birds that she’d tuned out the din. She was oblivious to the eerie silence that washed through the forest at first. Boreal stopped walking and turned his head this way and that, as searching for some sound in the distance. Ari took a few more strides before noticing he wasn’t beside her. She turned and stared at him, only then realizing just how quite it was. The animals had gone into hiding. Even the wind had fallen still. She shivered. Then a dull thudding, like feet pounding the ground, caught her ear. She met Boreal’s gaze.

  “Get on my back,” he said.

  Ari didn’t need convincing. She climbed on and he took off, running full tilt from the giant they knew was behind them. The thudding grew louder, accompanied by the wet snap of breaking foliage. A shadow sailed across the ground. Ari glanced up, screamed, and buried her face into Boreal’s back. The bear saw it to. He veered left, narrowly avoiding the boulder that smashed into the dirt where he would have been had he stayed his course. An angry bellow shook the lower branches of the godpines.

  Ari turned her head, face still half buried in the bear’s fur, and peered over her shoulder at the pursuing giant. He was rangy, muscular, with a large head sporting rams horns and thick white hair. His skin was a warm gray-green, with white striations like the kind she often found on river stones. His smoky aura roiled like steam rising from boiling water. In one smooth motion, without slowing for even a second, he scooped a boulder off the ground, wound up, and threw.

  “Boreal, watch out!” Ari cried as the stone careened toward them. With a roar, Boreal spun around and lashed out with a paw. Three seething blades of light arced from his claws and hit the boulder, reducing it to rubble in the air. The sudden explosion made the giant pause, allowing Boreal to keep his lead as he took off running again.

  Ari summoned fire in her palm, letting it swirl into a roiling ball. She lobbed it over her shoulder in a clumsy arc, only just managing to strike her target. The giant didn’t even flinch as the ball of fire hit its shoulder.

  “Crap. We can’t beat thing thing can we?” she asked.

  “No, but we do not have to. Enclave is near,” Boreal said.

  The bear put on a burst of speed, his fur burning with silver fire. Ari clung to him and prayed she wouldn’t fall off. The giant continued to lob boulders and branches thick as normal tree-trunks, forcing Boreal to slalom around obstacles and falling projectiles. Hoping to give him a break, Ari summoned another ball of flame, took aim, and let it fly, hitting the giant right between the eyes. Blinded by the flash, he slowed and dropped the boulder he was preparing to throw.

  As they raced through a maze of rippled roots, a new sound became audible under the crashing footfalls of the giant. The high mechanical whines and growls of engines was immediately familiar to Ari. She raised her head, eyes sweeping the forest floor for any sign of the approaching vehicles.

  Something sailed overhead. Ari’s head snapped up just in time to see a large, silver net unfurl in the air and drop onto the giant’s head. The monster gave a frustrated howl as he attempted to pull it off, only for it to cling to his skin like spider silk. Two more nets fell, pinning his arms at awkward angles. Tangled and blind with rage, he tripped over the knotted root of an ancient pine and crash face first into the ground.

  A round of celebratory whoops and calls was followed by the roar of motors. Six ATVs burst out of the undergrowth ahead, each bearing a driver, and another rider holding what looked like a boxy rocket longer. Ari’s stomach frosted over as they advanced. The hunters had found them again.

  “You said we’d lose the hunters by coming here,” she shouted.

  “Worry not,” Boreal said as the riders streamed around them. Curious eyes slid over the two, lingering a few moments before refocusing their real target, the fallen giant. Ari could only make out a few details as they buzzed past, but one stuck out in particular. The riders’ tactical armor bore a familiar symbol, a silver shield with a gold four-pointed star, and two crossed arrows. It was the same symbol she’d seen on Hamza’s vest the day she left Earth.

  “Who are they?” she asked.

  “Armir Guildsmen. They protect enclaves, travelers, and hunt monsters, ” Boreal explained.

  Ari turned to watch the Armir circle the giant. The monster was rolling on the ground, his howls reduced to grunts and pants. The sticky nets seemed to grow tighter as he struggled. She almost felt bad for him.

  “Are they going to kill the giant?” she asked.

  “No, is too close to the enclave, his death would draw his tribe. They sedate and relocate him,” Boreal explained, his pace slowed to make it easier to speak. “Enclave is near, see that hollow?”

  Ari didn’t know how she could miss it. A hundred yards or so ahead of them stood a pine far wider and taller than the rest. A cathedral-sized hollow yawned at its base, the inside lit by green lanterns that hung in the air or clung to the tree’s trunk. The light was a beacon that cut through the forest’s omnipresent gloom. Tire tracks left by the ATVs lead straight into it.

  “Yeah, I see it,” she said with palpable awe.

  “Good . . . good,” Boreal said.

  His pace continued to slow, his breathing labored. Ari frowned and looked down at him, brows furrowing with concern as she saw the light of his fur dimming, and slipped off his back. He was starting to go transparent again, she could almost see clean through him.

  “You wore yourself out running from the giant,” she said.

  The bear gave a weary nod.

  “Cold iron took much from me. I cannot hold this form. I . . . need rest. I am sorry,” he said, voice thick with exhaustion. His starlight fur flickered like a dying candle flame, quickly loosing opacity until Ari could see straight through him.

  “What do you mean? Are you sick? Are you dying? You can’t leave me here alone!” she said, frantic questions and please pouring from her mouth.

  “Quiet, Girl!” Boreal snapped.

  Ari drew her lips into a tight line and fell silent.

  “I will be with you, but not as I am. Enclave is ahead. Go there, find Armir Guildhall. They help you while I rest. Understand?” he asked.

  The girl nodded, a few hot tears falling from her lashes as she did so. “Yeah, okay.”

  Boreal nodded. He was little more than an outline, his eyes the brightest, clearest part of him.

  “Hold out your hand,” he said.

  Ari did as he asked. Boreal’s outline fractured into splinters and coalesced into a small bead of light that drifted onto her palm. She stared at the bead. It was faintly warm and tickled her skin. When she was certain it wouldn’t wink out entirely, she tucked the bead into the pouch pocket of her sweater. On the ground where Boreal had stood was a thin piece of metal. Ari knelt down to pick it up, wrenching her hand away as the cold iron bit at her fingertips.

  “Was that inside him the whole time? No wonder he was sick,” she said. She kicked the big of cold iron aside, dried her eyes on her sleeves, and started walking.

  Inside the hollow the air was damp and smelled heavily of loam. Ari gazed wide eyed at the vast space. Steep, knotted walls climbed into darkness, lit here and there by green glass lanterns that hung in the air, slowly revolving. Prints and furrows left by foot traffic and wheeled vehicles marked the soil beneath her feet. The tracks either led too or away from a large stone disk set at the hollow’s center. She approached the disk and saw that its surface was covered in delicately etched lines and odd symbols. Whatever it was, it looked magical.

  “This must be the way up, I don’t see an elevator anywhere,” Ari said. She took a deep breath and stepped onto the disk, eyes shut tight. Nothing happened. She waited a few quiet moments, frowning. Just as she was about to open her eyes, the lines etched into the disk’s surface blazed to life, cutting through the darkness behind her eyelids. Startled by the sudden light, she jumped and almost slipped backwards off the disk. She caught herself and followed the shimmering threads to the center where she could feel a strong concentration of magic. At her feet a chain of runes and intersecting lines formed a smaller circle that pulsed with power.

  Maybe I have to activate it with magic, she thought as reached out with the toe of her shoe and tapped the circle. The glowing lines flared, their light consuming the hollow. A sudden wrenching sensation gripped Ari, pulling her upwards, passing in a heartbeat, leaving the girl disoriented and confused. She drew in a gasping breath and opened her eyes.

  A cool breeze lifted errant strands of hair from her face as she stared out over the vast canopy of the god pines. Above the treetops the sky was bright and open. Ari blinked to clear her stinging eyes. The daylight was harsh after so much time spent in the gloom below. The difference was staggering. Glancing about once her eyes cleared, she wondered where the enclave was. She turned around and found it.

  On the other side of a long wooden bridge, colorful buildings sat clustered like giant birdhouses in the upper branches of the godpines. Sturdy bridges and platforms connected the gaps between boughs. She could see people walking along them in the distance and spotted a few cars as well. The sounds of civilization reached her, comforting in their familiarity, and drew her across the bridge to the city in the branches.