Tales of a Shifter (P5) - White Mountain

Chapter 10 - So It Must Be

Chapter 10 – So It Must Be

And so another week passed by.... but nothing really changed with Brandon's situation.

Ove the course of the week Brandon had spent time either sequestered alone in his room....or actively out of his room participating in various repairs to the Leopards Mansion. Feeling responsible for the attack Brandon threw most of his energy into scrubbing away blood, plastering and paining across the holes ripped into the walls by claws. 

He also helped Glen, Erin, Nate and Drin moves in new furniture that the other Leopards in the Clan carved for Mantilo. Brandon liked the work, mostly because it was distraction, but soon there was nothing left to fix and he once more had to face reality.

But....he wouldn't.

In the morning Brandon took his food back to his room in fear that he would encounter Ezekiel at the breakfast table, and whenever Ezekiel walked near him or past him Brandon developed the habit of completely ignoring him. And...Ezekiel did the same.

Their behavior towards each other was awkward and far from graceful and on more than one occasion Brandon had caught Ezekiel's brothers and cousins cringing or even down right laughing out loud (Lander). But Brandon was glad to face that embarrassment versus the emotional whiplash from thinking of talking to Ezekiel upfront.

So...It was now two whole weeks since Hovel and Jacob had attacked and still Brandon and Ezekiel remained apart. Brandon felt like he was in limbo, unable to move forwards or backwards. Knowing that Ezekiel would be out patrolling for many long hours to come Brandon had decided to come out of his room, and settle down in the newly furnished living room of the mansion to think. The large room was empty and silent....leaving Brandon to do all the pacing and muttering he could muster. Until he was exhausted by his own emotions. Never before had he felt so much in one period of time.

Even after seemingly coming to a decision to turn away from Ezekiel Brandon found himself constantly waffling around.

Even after speaking with Walter Brandon wasn't able to truly come to any type of decision.

Should he turn Ezekiel away? Yes.

Did he want Ezekiel to walk out of his life forever? No.

Brandon told himself that he and Ezekiel couldn't be together. But was it cowardice? OR was it simply the truth?

Suddenly Brandon put his hands to his face, screamed and then Brandon fell backwards. Landing in a dejected slump in a cushy arm chair, with his head resting back and his tired eyes trained on the distant ceiling....

Brandon had been sleeping poorly the last few days. He felt a dark cloud on his mind. A cloud that often signaled that he was in for another nightmare. So Brandon had slept light, often only grabbing a handful of minutes at a time, before awakening once more.

"Just...a few minutes..." Brandon now sighed as his eyes seemed to magnetize shut against his will. In seconds lethargy made him numb to his own swirling thoughts.

But even as he escaped some of the emotional baggage....he ran head long into other types of problems and thoughts.

Images flashed across his mind. Sensations traced his spine.

Jacobs's chest cavity broken and bursting all over him, spraying his face and skin with gore and flesh.

To destroy. To flush his system with strength and power....

Brandon could feel a ghost of the Flames willingness to be turned lose on Jacob. He could still remember the seamless way he had wielded the power and shot it into Jacobs core. The utter need he'd felt to go wild. To kill. Not to feed. But simply to be unleased. To rampage.

What am I?

Brandon whispered inside as he fled from the memories. Then Brandon felt the Flame wiggle in his soul. And with a small flare of annoyance he shouted.

And what the f**k are you!?

That question brought up the unpleasant image of Hovels cold eyes and condescending voice. Brandon listed to the Grand Master scream in his head then he shook his head and puzzled the words that still echoed in his mind.

Hovel.....said the Flame isn't this things real name...and he said that my power was The Precursor? I don't get it! What the f**k does all of this even mean!? And why does my blood seem so important to Jacob?

Brandon puzzled and puzzled, but all he kept coming back to was his possible relationship with Ezekiel and the confusion surrounding his own biology. And even with his eyes closed Brandon still felt his fists harden.

Then he started to ask himself.

If Hovel means that my power is the Origin of Alchemy....then what do I do with that? What is this powers true name? Why.....is something like this inside of me?

***

Brandon was so caught up in his own turmoil...that when everything suddenly went silent in his head....it took him a moment to realize that he was already dreaming.

......But in moment Brandon knew that this was not the average repeating dream. No....this was not like any dream Brandon had experience before. There was no strobe light sun glaring across mountain tops. No screaming, bloody twin versions of himself holding swords.

No.....this time, Brandon was floating in a star lit sky. Thousands of pin points of light speckled the heavens above him and stretched out below him was a grass knoll. A lush patch of earth, in shadowed on all side, and impregnated with a tense silence that no cricket or breeze dared to disturb.

For an indeterminate time Brandon hung there and wondered.

What the Hell is this..?

Until the sudden movement of tow figures danced into view beneath the dim starlight.

The darkness was just heavy enough that Brandon struggled to see the figures. All Brandon could see was the swash of white robes on the dark grass...and the whispering voices of two men arguing. Two men, whose voices Brandon instantly recognized.

One of the voices Brandon recognized, was only familiar to him, because it was Brandon's own voice echoing across the darkness. And yet this voice was a smidge deeper and filled with more disgust and pain then Brandon had ever remembered summoning.

"You made me kill them!" Brandon's twin was whispering, then screaming in the darkness. "You thirst for war has brought violence into our home! MY HOME. A Land that hasn't been touched by blood in eons! You did that to me!"

"Enough Brother...please just listen to me...." The second voice suddenly bit back in anger. This voice....was Kail's voice. IT was smooth and strong, but also filled with raw emotion.

"Don't touch me!" Brandon head his twin scream, and with the sharp shuffle of feet Kail and a man that looked like Brandon stumbled out into clear view.

Unlike Kail and Brandon's twin had appeared on top of the mountain, both men were completely injury free, and they were both dressed down in billowing white robes, instead of the heavy black, silver, white and gold battle robes they two men had worn in previous dreams. Instantly suggesting that this dream was happening before the events in the first dream. Intrigued Brandon watched in riveted fascination as his twin shoved at Kail, forcing the taller man to stumble and grown still.

"Listen to me! My Brother I know your rage is boundless, but I'm begging you! Do not stand with your Kin Slayers." Kail gestured and screamed. "I was wrong to force your people to obey my commands but I am your KING, and I know that with the power of that gem we could overcome the scourge of Mankind." Kail suddenly walked forwards, grabbed his brothers clothes....and pressed his face into Brandon's twin's robes and clung to him in what looked like needy desperation.

"Please...Brother.....Grant us your mercy, so that we can save ourselves!" Kail looked up and continued, sliver light glancing across his pupils as tears touched his face, trailing down his cheeks. "The Mortals want the Arcis to be formed out of greed. They have killed so many of my people. Brother....You and your people can no longer sit by idle as this conflict escalates." Kail clamped his hands around Brandon's twin and shook him desperately. "I demand that you give us the blessings of your people. The Arcais mixed with our Magic could quell the mortal masses for centuries to come..."

Seeming unable to stomach Kail's pleas Brandon's twin snatched back.

"Unhand me Great Lizard" Brandon's twin barked with so much authority and cool rage that Kail, flinched back from him. A small moment of silence fell...then Brandon's twin started shouting. "My Brother do you hear your own words?! Do you hear the insanity in them? The hate you speak into my soul is foul. As foul as the betrayal you have visited on me!" Brandon's tin turned and spat into the darkness.

"You killed thousands of mortals...and dozens of your own children...and finally forced me to kill my own people. Simply by attempting to create that abomination you created endless tragedy. The Arcis was never meant to exist Kail! I told you IT was taken from this world eons ago....and it was taken away because of fools like you! But you won't stop your madness...." Brandon's twin clenched his jaw, shook his head, and finished. "Leave my sight. I banish you My King, My Brother and all of your kind. You will never taste the power of the Balance. And you will never have the Acris."

The harsh words echoed like lashes in the darkness. So cold....so painful. Brandon wanted to press his hands over his ears suddenly. He didn't want to see more pain and tragedy. Didn't he already have enough to feel bad about without being caught up in these strange emotional dreams?

But no matter what he did Brandon couldn't turn from the painful conversation....or stop the dream. And the longer it went....the more Brandon felt like crumbling into sobs.

"You banish me?" Kail breathed after a long silence. "How can you do this? Brother, everything I did I had to do!" Kail started to defend. But the nest moment Kail's face grew ridged...and a snarl of resentment over took his handsome features "Your superiority disgusts me! It is easy for you to stand by and judge the rest of us from the shadows. You have the sight. You have the essences. You have the power to stand over all of creation!" Kail stepped forwards and roared like a beast. "But yet you offer not a finger to aid us! You won't twitch a finger to save my people."

Kail threw his hands into the air and cried. "The destruction of that Prescious mortal village....and the death of my people and your own people it all lays at your feet Brother!" Kail grabbed at his chest. At his own heart.

"You pushed me to desperation." He said next in open hostility. "You've pushed us all to desperation! And now you speak down on me!? You want me to ignore your treason! No Brother! I curse you!"

Brandon's twin screamed back just as bitterly. "So it must be between us for your own actions!" With a shake of his fist Brandon's twin said. "Let fire rain....and let blood be spilled between us!"

"So it must be...." Kail breathed sounding like he was wounded, but a moment later Kail was turning and walking away. "You have poisoned the alliance between our people Brother. I will see you all burn. You.....and those filthy mortals you have sided with. Consider our alliance dead forever more!"

Brandon watched the two men separate and felt his heart shatter at the sight. He didn't know why...but this moment was like having a blade pressed into his core. But, in the next moment one thing managed to overcome the pain and it was the shocking sight of a bright sliver flash engulfing Kailas tall body as he walked into the darkness.

And as the light faded, flesh began to stretch, and morph and elongate. Shinny flesh, hard horns.

A terrible screech of rage and sorrow tore the night sky and a giant shadow swallowed the starlit sky's.

Completely out of nowhere a jet of pure rosy red flames rocketed downwards going straight for Brandon's twin in the dream. The heat was blistering....and the grasses on the earth wilted into ashes in a flash as the Flames spread.

But just as the flames looked as if they would swallow Brandon's twin, a sharp burst of white light grew and encased his body. A small dome of white lights, repelled the harsh flames, so that the sizzle of grass being fried and the crackle of dust on the wind swallowed the area.

Then...the flames stopped jetting forwards, as if a faucet had been turned, and a terrible rumble rolled out into the darkness. The sound of something large, something otherworldly. There was a swish of leather, like curtains in the breeze and there was the sound of claws being drug across the earth.....Then there was the glint of silver. Large silver reptilian eyes.

The eyes of Kail. But these eyes were as large as platters....and twice as wide as if Kail had been turned into a giant.

The Brandon of the real world screamed in horrified awe.

What the hell is that thing!? Is that Kail's eye!? Its humongous! Did he Shift? What.... what is he?

Brandon silently panicked inside of his own head as he continued to watch the dream play out.

There was a harsh whoosh of air. The dispelled air dampened the flames eating up the grassy rock side so that darkness and moonlight took over....and in the skies the form of a nightmare spread across the heavens.

Long, spiked wings as long and as wide as the mountain tops arched into sight.

Brandon stared in shock as wings tipped with claws beat at the night sky, and the glint of moonlight and stars out lined a long reptilian tail that whipped back and forth in rage. The beast had a maw nearly torn wide with ivory colored fangs the length of stalagmites, perhaps twice as long and deadly.

The beastly mountain of scale and majesty then quickly and silently screeched, twined its sensuous body like a flood of sentient winds and sailed off into the unknown....its snout parted on earth rumbling roars. Its cries elicited aches of pain in Brandon's heart, as flecks of red hot fire dripped off into the air like burning butterflies.

In the silence that followed Brandon was surprised to watch his twin suddenly collapse into the backed earth, clutch his face and whisper. "Yes...So it must be....." Brandon's twin breathed, then he started to rock in the ashes.... then he started to scream in torment.

***

"Brandon! Brandon wake up! Sweetheart, can you hear me!?"

Brandon shot awake, nearly spring up from his own dream so fast that he almost toppled from his seat.

Luckily Brandon felt a strong, but small hand close over his arm, and gently hold him in his seat. Brandon's heart was hammering. His mind was racing with images, and feeling.... but not all of them felt like they actually belonged to him. His skin felt hot and dry.... but this was only a ghost of the sensations he had felt in the dream.

Panting, in confusion Brandon steeled back into his seat. Ignoring the sweat on his brow Brandon finally tried to focus on who was standing in front of him.

To his surprise he ended up staring into the gentle, but oddly serious eyes of Ezekiel's mother.

"Brandon...sweetheart. I'm sorry I disturbed you, but there's something I think you need to hear." Glen softly, but firmly pressed.

Unable to mount a response just yet Brandon woodenly nodded his head up and down, and tried to pay attention even as he still felt like he was floating far above the earth.

"What is it! What's wrong!?" Brandon gorged trying to shake the haze of exhaustion as he tried to focus on her voice and sit up in his seat.

"Nothing's wrong Brandon. But...look its important. We need to talk. I have something that I believe you need to hear. Can I talk to you?"

Drowsy and with a swirling heart, Brandon nodded again and silently watched Glen turn form him and walk towards a nearby seat. Brandon once more shook the heaviness of his confusing dreams from his mind, choosing to store key parts of what he could remember in the back of his head for pondering later on.

Glen gently dropped down into a seat near Brandon's right and folded her hands. Ezekiel's mother was dressed in a long light blue silken strapless dress. Her feet were strapped into a pair of silver heels and her hair pinned back, so that curls spiraled down the back of her neck and shoulders. Blue sapphires danced along her slender collar from a silver necklace and more sapphires dangled from her ears.

All together the Leopardess was glowing. And even though there was a serious look on her face...Brandon could see the contentment and happiness in her eyes.

Happy himself to be presented with a charming sight after experiencing the terror in his dreams, Brandon openly smiled at Glen and said. "Wow. You look amazing!"

Glen seem surprised as she first blinked, glanced down at her dress, then chuckled and replied. "Oh! Yes. Thank you, Brandon." She glanced up, a soft smile on her glossy lips. "Today's my Anniversary."

"Oh?" Brandon put forth, unsure of exactly what an "Anniversary" was, but rather then plague Glen with questions he went off of the vibe he could feel around her.... which was joy. She glowed with quiet satisfaction. "Congratulations!" he said, hoping that it was the right thing to say.

Glen smiled brighter as if tickled and she chuckled again. "Thank you, sweetheart." She said, then she raised her left hand and presented the back of it to Brandon. And for the first time he got a clear look at the ring that she always wore. The simple golden band was fit snuggly to her ring finger, and along the surface was the small image of a G engraved.

Brandon guessed the G stood for Glen, and as he looked the piece over Glen pulled back and started to speak.

"Today..." Glen softly elaborated. "Is the anniversary of the day that Mantilo and I became Mates Brandon. The day we Wed was so many decades ago, but every year we celebrate it together...as most couples celebrate their various events in mortal marriages."

Now fully comprehending what an Anniversary was Brandon was sure that he needed to offer a positive response, but before he could Glen continued to speak.

"This day is also the Anniversary of something else, you see. Today is the day that a terrible Civil War ended between the Shifters in this Clan." Glen curled her hands in her lap and became very somber.

"A Civil War? Oh! Yeah." Brandon replied with a snap of his left hand as he sat up higher in his seat to give her his full attention.

"You know I remember Ezekiel told me how you and Mantilo ended something like that in the past.... but he never really told me what happened or any details about it." Brandon deftly recalled.

Then with a small bit of confusion he asked the Healer. "Um is...is that what you wanted to talk about? The War?"

To his question Glen nodded and Brandon gestured to her.

"But...Why?" He asked confused.

Glen smiled sadly, glanced down at her hands and softly answered him. "Honestly sweetheart I don't like to think about this time in my life. I don't like to remember any of it actually happened." Glen reported, then she lifted her gaze and finished. "The Waring times were hard and vile. There was a lot of loss, but I want to tell you about it and after I tell you about these things that happened to my people.... I'm hoping that you will be open to listening to what I and Mantilo have to say next. We have an important matter to discuss with you, you understand? So...will you listen to me before we ask you anything else?"

Not liking the idea of the Healer putting herself through anything painful, but also sensing the seriousness in her request Brandon swallowed and nodded and sat up higher in his chair. "Yes.... of course."