He smiled and gestured to the surrounding land. “I picked a beautiful part of the Harrowlands to claim.”
Did he? I focused on the landscape as we climbed the mountain near his den. The glorious view of the valley below and the toy-sized town below registered. It was beautiful. Trees and grass in jewel-toned colors, puffs of smoke from thatch cottage chimneys, and shocking blue skies made a rich landscape right out of the books we read about the Harrowlands. That all this belonged to him should have been intimidating, but he didn’t talk about it that way. Somehow, the comfort of being an insignificant dot on the side of a mountain made me calmer. I'd always done better unnoticed, anyway.
Not to be a downer, but if a Goddess created this relic, what are we going to do with it to stop whatever bad vibes it's putting out?
Ward grunted. “I am one of the most powerful mages in the Harrowlands. I can build a spell to contain it, cut off the call, until we figure out if it can help you.”
Fancy. Did he preen a bit beneath me? His warmth notched a degree higher.
“That you’re not affected by it bodes well for it helping you shift. Its magic might call you while we’re caught in its wake.”
I didn’t know how true that was, but I didn’t want to live in a terrarium my whole life, so I was willing to find out.
“Hold on,” Ward said, as he powered over some giant boulders. Muscles for more than show propelled us up the mountain. His strength took my breath away. What would it be like to be that powerful? One last push and he hopped over a ledge like a fifteen foot leap was nothing, revealing a gigantic glacial lake. The hallucinatory body of water reflected the mountains surrounding it, overlaid with an eerie blue. Halfway up the next mountain sat a tiny, shambling temple. The tumbling stones and hanging vegetation would look scream pastoral rather than creepy if we didn’t have to go in there.
Cute.My sarcasm apparently translated from snake as Ward chuckled. Having the sound vibrate through me wasn’t the worst thing in the world. Few people got my sense of humor.
We made our way around the lake with no one in sight. I loosened my hold on Ward with every step.
He unwound me from his neck as we crunched through the gravel of the lakeside. “I’m going to shift now.” It was a reluctant statement. “If we encounter another shifter, they can’t know we’ve broken the call.”
The bear was only marginally less scary than the first time I saw him and only because I had talked to the man inside. Ward let me come to him, inch by inch. I still sucked at slithering, but made it to his neck ruff. With no hands or arms, I latched on with my mouth to his fur, praying I didn't get dislodged and find myself in front of a frothing mad bear. He was quite scary enough when he did nothing more than stand still.
Whatever we find up there, mate, do not let go of me,Ward said.At least he sounded the same in this form.
You won’t have to worry about that. A bunch of water and rocks didn’t seem scary enough to qualify this as a quest. Or was this the part where Fate decided all was too calm for our own good?
Like a jinx, boulders and scree tumbled down the side of the mountain before us. My mouth hung open as giant flower blooms without a stem, the size of a dog, made their way from their mountain dens down toward the icy lake.
What the hell are those?I asked.
Each flower’s pale cream collection of petals bobbed as it waddled back and forth on two stumpy legs. I must have made an inhuman sound that carried across the water because the entire herd… flock… murder turned, “looking” at me with no eyes, so I peered into their deep crimson centers. Their black stamens flicked like they were tasting the air.
Ward chuckled.Just some Angel’s Bell. They’re quite friendly.
Sure. Decorating a porch, at a normal size, the flowers would have been quite the village statement. The flowers were too big, too sentient not to make my flesh crawl. I tried to bury myself in Ward’s fur.
The first Angel’s Bell tested the water before it went to drink. Sip with what, I had no idea, but they went at it, lowering themselves to the water.
I grabbed his fur, my tail curling around a tuft.Do they eat raw meat? I'm barely an appetizer. It looks like it wants to eat me.
Oh, no. They feed on sunlight. The carnivorous ones are the Devil’s Bell. Very different. Don’t go near those.
I did not appreciate his nonchalant description of something that could eat me. He was big enough to choke someone. I was not.
I stiffened against his back.So I do have to worry about man-eating plants?
Well, not that one,he said with a casual shrug in the least reassuring tone ever.
Once we crossed the lake, the flowers surrounded us. I didn't care what Ward said. I was not touching one of those things. We waded through them and little flutters brushed my heart as a giant Ward scooted them aside with his dinner plate paws and scythe-sized claws. He didn’t even bruise a petal. Something about a giant bear being that gentle struck deep. How was he defying every story I’d been told about shifters right out of the gate? How bad could being a mate?—
A flash of white fur and angry teeth slammed into Ward. I sank my own teeth into what I hoped was just fur and held on for all I was worth as Ward stumbled back.
Are you okay?I asked him, purely from self-preservation, not because he was growing on me.
Ward shook his shaggy head and turned to the other shifter. A giant white weasel stared back at us, snake-like body coiled, teeth bared in its sharp face.
I will have it,the creature said.
