Ravenwild: Book 01 - Ravenwild (24 page)

“Wait,” said Orie. He went upstairs and returned with several hundred dollars, which he handed to Mark. “You’ll need this,” he said, “For gas and food and stuff.”

Orie then nodded to Minos.

He entered the codes that Minos had told him to enter. He vanished.

He looked at Ryan and Gracie.

“Ready?”

They both nodded. He looked at Mark.

“Protect Jacqueline.”

Mark gave him the thumbs-up.

He entered the second set of codes. They disappeared.

Mark walked slowly down the back stairs and climbed into Blake’s truck to drive home. Not having a driver’s license just didn’t seem to matter right now. All the way, he wondered how on earth this was all possible.

Chapter 11

He cast out his line and settled back for the inevitable strike that would hopefully garner him another fish. He smiled contentedly. It had been a good day of fishing up to this point. Five fat trout now hung from a forked stick drying in the sun, and it was still midmorning. It had taken him years to discover that hanging them to dry within moments after landing them helped enormously in the smoking process, and he needed plenty of smoked fish to help get him through the tough winters. He liked fishing. It was less work than hunting, and he would rather eat fish than pretty much any of the game he hunted. Rabbits were good too, he thought, milder than all of the larger game. He made a mental note to be sure to check his snares on the way back to his cabin. Oh, and yes, he needed to fix a leak on the water system he had installed this summer. He was quite proud of the fact that he now had continuous running water flowing to his cabin, piped in under gravity feed from a spring that was about a quarter mile from his simple home. He had hewn the pipes by hand from rock-maple logs, burning them hollow by standing them on end and using hot coals for the coring, a project that had taken the last four years. His next desire was to figure out a way to heat the water en route to the house. He was always experimenting, drawing nearly all of his ideas from the books he had in the cabin.

He loved his books. He cherished them as he cherished no other thing in Ravenwild. He had learned of these miraculous things from his father, the only other person he had ever known who had knowledge of books. He had often thought this strange, and even more so that his father had forbidden him at an early age to ever speak of them to anyone. His father had taught him to read and understand the ancient words.

He had perhaps a hundred; Books on History, Geography, Science, Mathematics, Magic, Prophecy, and more, and he was captivated enough by them that he practically had them all memorized. Many he could recite almost word for word, despite the fact that they might be hundreds of pages long. Other than plainly surviving, books were the essence of his life in the woods.

Childhood pox had left him terribly scarred, and somewhat disfigured, and he had been shunned by the beautiful citizenry of Belcourt for the entirety of his youth. Hence, after both of his parents had passed on, he had packed up the two mules with the family axes, knives, flints, and steels, along with a few cooking utensils. These few things, his beloved books, and the clothes on his back were all he had set out with, traveling northeast for weeks into the great forest of the Colchester Highlands where he had settled.

He had chosen his spot wisely, building his cabin on a bluff overlooking a crystal clear lake that was of sufficient size to support enough fish to feed him for a lifetime, but not so large as to expose him to big winds, his valley being otherwise surrounded by hills of roughly four hundred feet on all four sides.

For years he had hunted, fished, foraged for berries, nuts, edible roots and the like, and read. He had had no Human contact since leaving some ten years before, and was just as happy for it. He would always think of himself as repulsive. But as he aged, the scarring and deformities had largely faded, leaving him a pretty normal looking, if not handsome, man.

When he had caught an even dozen, he packed up his simple fishing gear, picked up the stick holding his prizes, and began the short walk to the cabin.

He sniffed the air. It didn’t smell right. No, it definitely didn’t,
most
definitely didn’t, smell right. There it was again. He wondered where Silver, his Wolf, was. She had shown up several years back as a pup, starving and near-dead. Jared had taken her in. More than once he had thought that he was going to lose her, but his ministrations had proven successful, and he had restored her to full health. More than a pet, they had formed a friendship, a bond, that was as immutable as the forest in which they lived. Since they had lived together, she had always warned him of danger that was about, and he was surprised that she had not already given him such a warning. He hoped that she was all right, but surely he would have heard something if she had tangled with whatever it was that was out there. He crouched low and noiselessly set his fish and tackle down. He drew his knife, a wicked looking thing about 14 inches in length. Nervously, he proceeded slowly, silent as a ghost, down the trail. The branches closed in on him, affording him practically no view of his surroundings. He sniffed again. There it was. It baffled him that he couldn’t place the smell. It was definitely an animal scent, but none that he recognized. Ten years of living alone in the woods had honed his sense of smell to a degree that the city dwellers would never have, yet he still couldn’t get a handle on its source.

On he crept, one foot placed carefully in front of the other, ever mindful that a snapping twig, or even a gentle rustling of the leaves, might betray his position to whatever it was.

He sniffed again. The smell was definitely stronger, and now he could smell Silver as well. That was it. Silver was stalking whatever it was that was stalking him. Them.

He entered a small clearing, and what he saw almost caused him to fall over.

Right in front of him, sitting on the stump of one of the trees that he had felled to build his cabin, was a girl, no, a young woman, patting his beloved Wolf. He sniffed the air quickly. Yes. She was the source of the smell. No wonder he couldn’t place it. It was Human!

He crossed the clearing slowly. He couldn’t take his eyes off of her. She was as beautiful as he could ever imagine a young woman to be. Her hair was thick, jet-black, and fell off her shoulders in a cascade of waves. Her face was thin; with lines that suggested that she had not eaten well of late. She had a modest nose and full lips, despite being a little pale.

She looked at him, and he felt as though his heart might stop, as he stood there with no idea what to say.

Finally, he spoke the first words he had uttered to a Human for as long as he had lived in the wild.

“Hello. My name is Jared Novaman. Welcome. I see you have already met Silver.”

Silver wagged her tail happily at the sound of her name.

She stood. Once again her beauty nearly took his breath away. It was a picture he would frame in his mind for the rest of his life, her standing in this pastoral setting against the backdrop of his cabin and the hills beyond. She had an hourglass figure, despite being obviously thin from not eating well. She was dressed in buckskins; the sleeves of her blouse and the leggings of her pants adorned with fringe.

He noticed that she carried a sword, obviously meant for battle, as well as a longbow, and daggers which protruded from the tops of each of her deerskin boots. “Hello,” she said. “My name is Diana Fairman. Thank you.”

She smiled, and his heart melted. Never in all of his life in Belcourt had anybody ever extended to him a smile such as this except, of course, his mother and father. He felt, at once, whole. Yet at the same time, he felt a slight pang of sadness, for he knew that they would never have more than a relationship from a distance, if they would have even that. He was far too unattractive to ever have and hold a woman of such incomparable beauty.

There was a brief silence as each contemplated what next to say, which he ended by speaking first. “I’m sorry. Forgive me. You look like you’re hungry. Can I offer you something to eat?”

“That would be grand,” she said. Then she laughed. “The truth of it is, it would be much more than grand. I confess, I haven’t had much to eat in the last few days. The hunting has been poor of late.”

“It would be my honor,” he said, giving her an awkward little bow. She laughed a second time, and he decided right then and there that he would take an arrow in the chest for the opportunity to hear that laugh again.

“Please,” he said, gesturing towards the cabin. “I need to go and retrieve this morning’s catch. I’ll be just a minute. Go in and make yourself at home. Silver, please accompany our guest to the house.”

She lowered her head and nodded slightly a few times. The way her hair fell over her face when she did so was enchanting. She almost seemed a little embarrassed at her intrusion. But hunger, like fear, is a great motivator, so off she went with the giant Wolf, who was acting more like an excited puppy than a ferocious Agden Woods Wolf.

Jared fairly sprang down the trail, grabbed his fish and tackle, and raced back towards the cabin. It was as though if he were late by even a minute, she might be gone upon his return, and there would be no point in living. But when he opened the front door, she was right where she should have been, and he let escape an audible sigh. She was studying his ingenious continuous-water-flow system. Her eyes were shining. He was glad she seemed to approve.

“Is everything all right?” she asked. “Oh yes. Quite. It's that I had this strange fear that when I got back, you might already be gone, and I would have found that a very difficult notion with which to live, having just met and all.”

She laughed again. “I wouldn’t do that,” she said. “That would be bad manners. Besides, I’m half-starving, remember? Leaving would not solve that now, would it?

“If it would not be rude to ask, how did you ever manage to construct such a clever way to get water to flow nonstop into your house?”

“Yes, of course. Thank you. Ummm. Well, first things first. We need to get you fed. Perhaps you would like a hot bath first. I can have a hot tub drawn for you out back in a few minutes, and after that we can eat and learn more about each other.”

She looked puzzled by his suggestion, so he added, “Oh don’t worry, it’s perfectly safe. I assure you there is no magic involved. Silver can keep you company. She seems quite fond of you. She hasn’t left your side since you arrived. Oh, and I promise I won’t peek.” She blushed.

“Wait here,” he said, “I’ll be right back.” He dashed to the cold-room and returned in a minute with a plate of fruits, nuts, and berries, which he set in front of her, saying, “Munch on this,” and scurried about, knocking some small items on the countertop to the floor in his haste.

He hurried away to prepare her bath, and she settled down at the small kitchen table with her fruit and nut medley. Silver padded over to her side and waited expectantly for the inevitable pat. She moved her head up and down to express her satisfaction, and Diana grinned. She was famished and found it hard to not devour the entire plate in a matter of seconds, but scratching her newfound friend proved just enough distraction to allow her to eat with at least a modicum of civility.

Jared returned just as she had finished about half of the plateful. He seemed about ready to burst. She didn’t know it, but he had already stopped himself to try and slow down several times while he was getting his water system to switch over to hot water for her bath. It was quite hard for him. He was almost too excited to bear it.