The Beginning of the End

The Beginning of the End 16

She was standing in the doorway of the science lab when the Chief came through the door bellowing her name, “Where the hell is Aspin and what the hell is going on?” She looked down the hall and watched as he came toward her flanked by his assistant, “Well we have one hell of a mess in here Chief, want to take a look?” She stepped aside letting the Chief enter the room, he stopped dead in his tracks as soon as he entered, “What in the unholy hell…” was all he managed before his assistant began to vomit in the doorway. The Chief lept back further into the room to avoid the splatter if the vomit, when he did the heel of his boot landed, and slipped in a small pool of blood. The Chief fell backwards, and landing flat on his ass, let out a curse of surprise and pain. One of the officers rushed over to help him up, Aspin just stood in the hall watching, laughing to herself she though, ‘Wow some big bad hero, we really need to vote this man out of office next election.’ Problem was no one else really wanted the job, the mayor was a b***h and even harder to work for than the Chief.

She shook her head as she walked down the hall toward the exit, she could still hear the Chief swearing loudly as the men tried to help him out of the floor, she smiled and calling a couple more officers she sent them down to the lab to assist. Once she was back outside, she scanned the tree line looking for Katz, there was still no sign of him. She knew in her bones that he was involved in this somehow, but as he pointes out there was no legal reason for her to bring him down for questioning. She would have to either figure out how he was connected so she could question him, or just figure out a way to get him to talk freely. As she opened her car door it hit her like a brick, he was responsive when she first talked to him, he was in a comfortable environment, and she had been a lot easier going. Where she was screwing up was, she was coming off as too official and it was causing him to shut down and become defensive, she would have to change that, but how? She put the car in gear and pulled out onto the road headed back to the station to figure out a game plan.

From the tree tops the ravens watched as the detective drove away up the street, then they turned their attention back into the woods, watching, and waiting, the battle was near and soon there would be souls to carry away. A light breeze rustled the treetops and a few of the ravens took flight, landing on the roof of the school or following the car that has just left. It will be an eventful day, the birds knew what was coming, what would happen between dark and light. Patrick stood behind a young fur tree and watched as Aspin’s car vanished over a hill and out of site. He felt the wind pick up and heard a few of the ravens take flight, he could not be distracted by that now, he had to find the dark one’s trail and follow it to find the traps set by him.

He placed his hand on the fur and closed his eyes, “Show me,” he said to the tree then the visions began to play out in his mind. The fur was young, no more than fifteen years old and of the mortal world, so the visions were scrambled, some coming too fast, some too slow. He got a vision of the school, Ailwi standing near it summoning something, then he was entering the graveyard by the dinner, next under the water tower, and finally at the mouth of a great cave deep in the forest. He opened his eyes, “You did well my young friend, thank you for your trust and assistance.” Removing his hand from the tree he placed it into a beam of light that had broken through the canopy of the treetops, he marveled and smiled as he saw the dust particles dancing in the beam, then he was gone. The ravens blinked, but still did not make a sound.

He now stood in an open glade in the middle of the forest, he listened closely, but heard nothing. He looked around, eyes following the tree line looking for anything out of place, again there was nothing. Before him were three paths, he studied the entrance of each taking in the size the foliage surrounding it as well as the depth of the darkness in each one. The all appeared to be gaping mouths and in fact they were, well two of them were. This was the first of the dark one’s traps that he had come across. He closed his eyes and once again listened, there was no animal chatter, no flowing water, but there were two faint but distinct breezes. Both very faint, a unsuspecting mortal’s senses would not pick them out, but his highly developed senses on the other hand could and did. Opening his eyes, he sent beams of light down the center tunnel as well as the one on his right, there was a mighty roar of pain as both paths vanished replaced by the heads of two mighty dragons. Fafnir an Drakon rose into the air roaring in with pain and surprise, Drakon looked down on Patrick, and with a snarl of his lip vanished, followed closely by Fafnir. ‘It was a good trap,’ he thought to himself as he started down the remaining path, ‘Had I not been meditating I may have fallen early in the battle.’ He started down the remaining path, his natural glow lighting his way.