Chapter Nine

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Chapter Nine

Zave knew the airplane had never been alive, but looking at it now, charred and half melted at the bottom of a gully, it was hard to think of it as anything else but dead.

The sky was gray, and a light but steady rain had been falling since they'd gotten up that morning, but there was no lightning or thunder. Glenn had explained how the storm would grow stronger when the thunderbird drew closer, and weaker when it was farther away. Right now the sky was telling them that the thunderbird was still in the area, but not close enough that it posed an immediate threat.

Yet.

"So, what's our plan? Zave asked as Glenn circled the fallen plane, cautiously sniffing the air for danger. "How are we going to find Clueless and the others when we don't have a trail to follow?"

"We're not going to find them," Glenn answered. "We're going to let them find us."

Zave raised his eyebrows, but Glenn was too busy scoping out the area to notice. Fey noticed his confused look, though—was it his imagination, or had Fey been noticing more things about him lately?—and explained.

"We don’t have a trail to follow, but we do have one thing: a landmark. Ember may not be the freshest fruit in the tree, but even she has to know we went down with the front half of the plane. More importantly, she's going to want to find her alpha. That means that her best bet for picking up our trail is to come right here. And if we're already here when she shows up, then she won't have to track us down at all."

"That makes sense," Zave admitted. "But we have no idea how far away they landed. What if they were so close that they found the plane while we were asleep last night? What if they've already decided to head further into the forest and we missed them entirely?"

Glenn came around the far side of the plane, apparently satisfied that there was no more danger lurking nearby. "That's what you and Fey are going to be doing while I work down here."

Zave blinked in surprise. "What do you—"

"While I scavenge for any supplies I can find, the two of you are going to act as lookouts until Ember's half of the group finds us."

"Lookouts? How are we supposed to see far enough to be lookouts with all these…trees…"

Zave's voice trailed off, and he looked up at the wooden giants, towering over them and swaying gently in the wind. The shortest one he could see was about forty feet tall, with most of them reaching at least seventy feet up into the sky.

Zave looked down at Fey, his skin pale and eyes wide. "I- I can't- that's too…"

To his surprise, she gave him a gentle smile. "You don't have to be afraid of heights as long as I'm here, Zave. Climbing stuff is kinda my thing, you know?"

Still, he shook his head. "Can't I stay down here and help Glenn? Together we could—"

"Zave." Before he could react, Fey had pulled him close to her and pressed her lips against his ear. He froze, their closeness sending an unexpected shock through his system, and she whispered, "It's been less than forty eight hours since Glenn lost his son. He needs some time to be alone, but as long as he's the one in charge he'll never say that out loud. So don't make a big deal out of this, okay?"

Zave stared at her, his mouth moving while no excuse came to mind for it to use, until he finally sighed and nodded.

"Thanks," Fey whispered, and withdrew. "Come on, let's do this."

“What do you need me to do?”

Fey turned to face the other way, then looked at him over her shoulder. “I need you to ride me.”

Immediately, Zave's face turned bright red. "I, uh…what?"

Fey raised an eyebrow. "What are you…" She froze, a blush so red rising to her cheeks that Zave could see it beneath her pure white fur. "Th- That’s not what I meant, and you know it! Just get over here, you pervert!"

Tentatively, feeling for all the world like he was trying not to agitate an already pissed off cobra, Zave stepped up behind her.

"Okay, now put your arms around me," she instructed. Swallowing hard, Zave did as he was told. "Now your legs—and don't you say a word about it, understand?"

Zave hesitated, not because of embarrassment—though there was still plenty of that burning in his face—but because if he did what she said he would be forcing Fey to carry all of his weight.

"I-I don't…" he stammered. "Are you sure you can—"

Fey looked over her shoulder and gave him an amused smirk. "Don't worry about me, Zave. I'm stronger than I look."

Putting his misgivings aside with some difficulty, Zave hoisted himself up onto Fey's back and swung his legs so that they were wrapped around her waist. The awkward position, made even more awkward by the fact that Zave was at least four inches taller than her, resulted in his cheek being pressed against Fey's furrier one. To his surprise, though, she was able to support his weight without issue.

"Ready?" she asked. Zave looked up at the trees again, took a deep breath, and nodded. "Then hold on tight!"

With that, Fey bent her knees. Zave's eyes widened when he realized he could feel her muscles move beneath her skin and fur—and they were stronger than he ever would have imagined. Not that he'd ever thought Fey was weak, but feeling it for himself was…it made his heart begin to race inside his chest.

And then Fey jumped, and the two of them shot up into the air like a bottle rocket. Zave's mouth opened, though he wasn't sure if he wanted to scream or cheer, and so he only gasped quietly as he flew. The wind, which had been chilly moments ago, abruptly turned ice cold as it blew his hair back and stung his eyes. And then, just as quickly as it had begun, their journey stopped. Zave's head reeled, his mind doing somersaults to try and process everything that had just happened. Glancing down, he saw that they were now more than fifteen feet in the air, Fey's hooves planted firmly on the lowest branch of the tallest oak close to them.

"Still okay?" Fey asked over her shoulder.

"Your fur is really soft."

Both of them froze. Zave's eyes slowly widened when he realized what had just come out of his mouth. But it was true. Pressed up against her like this, it was impossible not to notice the silky softness of her fur. But he also strongly suspected that this wasn't the time nor the place to be saying such things.

Please don't drop me out of the tree, he prayed to whatever entity might have been listening. Please don't drop me out of the tree. Please don't drop me out of the tree!

Instead, Fey raised one hesitant hand and touched Zave's arm.

"Th- Thank you," she said, her voice strangely emotional.

Zave cleared his throat. After a second, Fey lowered her hand and cleared hers too. Then, summoning her animalistic strength once again, she launched them further up the tree.

This part of the climb was rougher than the first leap. Now that they were actually in the tree, the branches were closer together, meaning Fey didn't have to jump nearly as high each time as she had to begin with. Instead, she made a zigzag, vaulting from one branch to the next, each one carrying them higher, until—

Fey burst out of the leaves and into open air.

For a split second, Zave thought they were going to go hurtling right over the edge of the tree, plummeting to their doom on the forest floor eighty feet below. Instead, after continuing upwards for a few more feet, Fey came back down to land lightly on the mighty oak's topmost branch. The wooden limb swayed alarmingly under their combined weight, it being no thicker than Zave's wrist, but Fey balanced on it with all the ease of an experienced sailor weathering the turbulent footing of a ship at sea.

The forest spread out before them like an ocean of green, and Zave felt his breath catch in his throat at the unexpected beauty of it.

"You can stand here if you want," Fey said, gesturing to a spot just to her left. She wasn't acting like she was struggling under his weight, but he slowly put one foot down on the branch anyway, and then the other. Immediately, Fey grabbed his hand, and he looked up to see her staring at him more intently than she ever had before. "I won't let you fall. I promise."

And she didn't. No matter how violently the branch swayed, or how hard the wind blew, as long as his hand was in hers, Zave felt like he was standing on solid ground.

Remembering that they had come up here for a reason, Zave began to scan the forest below them. Almost immediately, he thrust his hand out to point at something in the distance.

"Look!" he exclaimed. "Over to our northeast. I think that's a town!"

"You're right," Fey agreed. "I can make out their grain elevator. But trust me, that's the last direction we need to be looking."

Zave glanced at her, confused. "What do you mean?"

"I mean that Ember's the one leading the other group, and she would rather die than go into a human town—especially when there's all this forest around for her to use instead."

Together, they turned until they were looking almost due west. There, a good twenty or thirty miles in the distance, Zave could see a mountain rising up to point its lonely finger at the heavens.

He could also see the churning black clouds that seemed to radiate from the mountain's peak.

"Damn," Fey whispered, half in fear and half in awe.

"Well, I guess we know which direction we don't want to go," Zave tried to joke, but the smile he gave her didn't reach his eyes.

For a few minutes, they stood and watched the distant storm in silence. Occasionally, lightning would flash deep inside those dark, ominous clouds, but they were too far away for the thunder to reach them.

"What do you think it's doing over there?" Fey asked in a quiet voice.

"I'm not the expert here," Zave said with a shake of his head. "That guy's down there looking for supplies."

A chill wind blew over them.

"Fey," Zave said slowly, "if Glenn is right and I’m somehow tied to everything that's happening…"

"None of this is your fault," she interrupted him.

Zave glanced away. "Not even—"

"No, not even indirectly. I don't know what's going on here, and neither does Glenn. Maybe he's right and all this craziness is somehow a reaction to…whatever it is you are, but…"

"But that would mean that I'm causing this," he said before she could finish. "I’m not trying to, but that doesn’t change anything. All those people on the plane with us would still be alive if it weren’t for me.”

The wind blew again, moving the branch, but Fey steadied Zave by taking his other hand in her own.

"Zave, you can’t blame yourself for what other people do," she said firmly. "Driving yourself insane won’t help anyone. So just stop, okay?"

He gave the goat-walker a shy look. "If I stop, will you stop too?"

Fey froze, and then wilted in shame. Far in the distance, Zave heard the faint crash of thunder.

"That's different," she said. "I led those monsters to my old pack. I made that happen, and—"

"And it was still the wendigos that killed them," said Zave, his voice carrying a conviction he didn't quite feel. "Not you. So at least try to take your own advice, okay?"

Thunder boomed again.

"You don't understand," Fey whispered, shaking her head. "I'm supposed to be an alpha. I'm supposed to be like Glenn. Strong and capable, always having the answer and never second guessing myself. And I've spent the past three years running from that responsibility."

"Fey…"

"No, Zave! I gave up being a skinwalker to escape those responsibilities. Ember is right, I shouldn't even be here right now. But I am. I finally stopped running, tried to embrace what I am, and…"

"Fey?"

"And people died because of it, Zave! And not just anybody. The three most innocent, defenseless members of Glenn's pack. Not even my own pack! I brought death to Glenn and the others! Me! How can I say that I'm worthy to lead my own pack when—"

"FEY!" Zave yelled, cutting her off.

Fey looked into his eyes, saw the fear that was reflected in them, and spun around. In the space of just a couple minutes, the sky had grown darker. The wind had picked up. The rain began to come down harder, and the sound of thunder broke the silence every few heartbeats.

And in the distance, coming from the mountain they had spied just minutes before, a massive black shadow was cutting swiftly through the air—heading right for them.

NEXT CHAPTER: 1/08/2025