Natasha picked up after two rings
“Hello Betony, what...”
In a rapid frantic hushed whisper Betony interrupted her “Please just listen. The ritual was interrupted by a tribe of Sasquatch. They just ran out of the woods and are running everywhere and attacking people at random. Does this even make any sense to you?”
“Da”
“I am hiding behind a rock right now, they don’t see me. I think so anyways.” Betony related as she peered from around the large chunk of granite.
“Da”
She quickly hid back in the shadow and used her hand to cup over the phone to minimize the noise. “I’m kinda freaking out here. I don’t know if I can do this without you guys.”
“OK, calm down.”
The howling and whooping of the big foot tribe continued unabated. “I have to help. I just can’t just sit here. What should I do?”
“Sit tight, we are on our way.”
From the other side of the rock Betony heard a whooping noise getting louder and an incredibly bad odor of dirty sweat sox and burning bread get stronger. “Oh no, I have to go, I think one sees me. Please hurry.”
“We will get there as soon as we can. Goodbye.”
Betony ended the call on her phone and tossed it into her belt pouch just as a large hairy five fingered hand gripped the top of the rock and sent it spinning into the surround forest with a howl and a reek of eye wateringly bad Bigfoot stank. Dirt, rocks and leaves flew everywhere as the boulder tumbled off.
Betony scrambled backwards trying to pull herself to her feet from her nearly prone sitting position. She franticly tried to come up with a spell, any spell, that might help her in this situation. Just as the lumbering beast reached for her she remembered a spell that might work. A few eldritch words and a twiddle of fingers later a bright purple flash erupted from her hands directly into the face of the rampaging Sasquatch.
The Bigfoot’s hands flew to its face covering its eyes. Its howls of rage turning to howls of pain as it stumbled backwards blindly into the path of one of its companions. The enraged beast feeling contact turned blindly to attack what it thought was its assailant, who reciprocated. The two creatures attacked each other with wild abandon.
With several of the creatures distracted Betony finally was able to stand up without worry of being eaten or suffocated by stink. She looked around the clearing for the other druids to see how everyone was and where she could lend a hand. About half way across the clearing she spotted her mother constructing some protective wards with a few other conscious members of the ritual. Most of them looked pretty bad. More than one had scrapes on his or her face and bloody torn robes. Large hairy fists pummeled the dome of swirling and moving runes.
Using a spell of far speech Betony sent a message to her mom. “Are you ok? Do you need help?”
Her mother’s head tracked across the clearing trying to look through the milling bodies until she saw Betony and sent back. “Are you ok sweetie?”
“I’m fine mom just a little bruised.”
“Is your reserve still mostly full?” Seeing her daughter nod Roan continued “You will probably need to transform to unlock total access to it. Then grab everyone you can and start another dome of runic protection. We need to figure out why they are attacking. Normally the sasquatch are peaceful timid creatures.”
“I just called my team they are on their way. So we need to hold on until they get here from Seattle. Which I think I remember you saying was about 4 hours away. The good news is if Crusader is driving them it will probably be a lot less. Did you see where Margat went to? I could really use her help.”
“She is in here with me. She took a blow to the head early and is out cold. You unfortunately have to gather everyone you can on your own. It looks like my spell is distracting a majority of the Sasquatch, so that will be a point in your favor. Good luck hon.”
Betony nodded to her mother and knew she had to get working if they were to survive the next few hours. She reached into her ever present pouch, pulled out her amulet and put it on. Within moments the teenage druidess grew up onto her adult crime fighting form allowing her full magic reservoirs to flow through her veins. Now she could get to business.
The woods were dark and strangely still as Grande, Crusader and Sun Wolf entered them. Off in the distance echoing off of the valleys and hills they could hear an occasional whoop.
About ten feet into the forest Grande was the first to break the silence of their trek. “Deid anyone bring a flashlight? ‘Cause I am blind as heck and I don’t want to fall off of a cleiff or get eaten by a bear.”
“I can see fine...” Sun Wolf began “Oh, I forgot that you all can’t see in the dark like I can. Crusader Do you have any flashlights in your car?”
“Unfortunately I don’t. It is one of those things I keep wanting to do but never get around to. Sorry guys.”
“Well we’re boned.” Grande said disgustedly. “How are we supposed to get out to where Betony eis? No light means no rescue.”
“We have gotta figure something out.”
“Calm down, we can figure something out” placated Sun Wolf. She looked around hoping for inspiration, checking the surroundings and her teammates gear. As she looked at Crusader one wolfy eyebrow rose as she had an idea.
“Crusader I want to try something. Please draw your sword.” He looked a little confused but did as she asked. He pulled the magical blade from the worn leather scabbard. A faint blue glow emanated from the blade dimly lighting the faces of the three present along the trail.
“Now can you try to make it glow brighter?”
“I’ve never even thought about doing that but I’ll give it a try.” Crusader stared at his sword for a few quiet moments and concentrated. The sword lit up. But it wasn’t a gradual increase. It flashed like a one hundred watt light bulb turned on in a dark room temporarily blinding everyone.
While everyone was blinking sword shaped after images out of their eyes Sun Wolf grinned. “That worked way better than I hoped. Come on let’s hustle and get to Betony.”
With Roland’s direction they trekked through the eerily quiet forest with only the distant echoing whooping to keep them company. The bright blue glow from the sword lit up the surrounding area very clearly, throwing everything into sharp contrast.
They walked in silence keeping watch for rogue Sasquatch.
Crusader spoke aloud as he glanced sideways at Grande “Man I sure hope there is not an abandoned summer camp anywhere near here.”
Grande was aghast. “Why would you say that?”
“I’m just making conversation. Going through dark woods in the middle of nowhere in an area known to be full of Sasquatch. This seems like a very likely place for an abandoned summer camp to be located.”
“Man eif a guy in a hockey mask shows up with a machete and tries to kill us I blame you and am making sure he gets you first.”
If anything Grande was even more paranoid in searching for attack as they continued.
“Roland,” Sun Wolf spoke aloud while looking directly at Crusader “Are there any abandoned summer camps near here?”
A minute or 2 of walking in silence passed.
The cat’s voice answered in their heads “No Sun Wolf. I checked the county records back for one hundred and fifty years. The nearest abandoned summer camp is near Olympia.”
“See Grande you have nothing to worry about. Now keep quiet I think we might be getting close I think I see a light ahead.”
Grande looked visibly relieved.
“But a search of abandoned properties shows that there is a condemned school twenty miles away to the east.”
“Not helping Roland.”
Grande no longer looked relieved.
As they walked closer to the top of the hill a faint pink illumination shone through the trees near the top. The light seemed to flicker as if it was moving rapidly. The whooping and screams got louder as did the strong smell of Bigfoot.
“Crusader put away your sword; I don’t want them to see us.”
Crusader quickly complied and they carefully walked the last three hundred feet only using the pink light from the clearing to guide their way. The source of the light revealed itself to be a pair of semi-translucent domes with runic script swirling across their faces; one a purple and the other in red. Their light combined together to form an odd pinkish glow. From what the threesome at the edge of the woods could see both domes had multiple people inside. What they originally took to be movement of the lights was the shadows cast by the capering of Bigfeet. There seemed to be at least a dozen in the clearing, yelling whooping and trying to crush the domes with their fists and the occasional large rock.
Grande grinned. “I got the ones on the left. You guys take the rest.”
“Are you nuts? That’s your whole plan?”
“Calm down man. I was joking.” Grande whispered harshly “I wanted to say sometheing that sounded all cool like ein a movie and stuff. I know these dudes are strong. I don’t theink I can take one.”
“Quiet both of you; we don’t know how sensitive the ears of a Sasquatch are.” Sun Wolf said through clenched werewolf jaws. “I think I can take one or two in a straight up fight. But even with the three of us I don’t think we can take on the whole dozen I see there.”
Looking out at the condition of the ground and the surrounding tree near the clearing full of milling Bigfeet they had to agree and nodded in assent.
Sun Wolf paused and looked to the side and not quite up position you use when talking to a telepath. “Roland?”
He replied almost instantly to the group. “Yes Sun Wolf how can I assist you?”
“Roland we are at the clearing. And we see two runic domes. Probably protection spells of some sort. I am pretty sure Betony is in one of them. Can you contact her?”
“Let me try.” They all waited in silence as the Sasquatch ran around. “Something in there is preventing me from making mental contact. It is probably the shields you were describing. Sorry.”
“No need to apologize.”
Crusader spoke up. “Is it just me or is this really unusual behavior for big feet? Aren’t they normally really shy and reclusive?”
“That they are Crusader. In the research I did while you were traveling I found that a gathering like this is unheard of in the recorded history of the Bigfoot in the Pacific Northwest, which stretched back nearly one hundred years. When they are seen at all it is usually in singly or domestic groups of four at the maximum. Normally at the first sign of danger or trouble they quickly run away and hide.”
“That means somebody must be controlling them!” Grande exclaimed. Everyone looked at him. “Don’t look so surprised. I was paying attention. I am more than just rugged good looks.”
Sun Wolf smirked and shook her head while Crusader rolled his eyes.
Sun Wolf took the lead “Right. Good call Grande. We need to get out there beat up some Sasquatch and cause some mayhem so whoever is controlling them gets mad and makes an appearance.”
“No can do guys.” Interjected Crusader “We can’t beat up the sasquatch. They are an endangered species. If we seriously hurt or kill one we are going to get fined and or go to jail. And from what you were telling me today you would have to register too. And wouldn’t that be the most embarrassing reason to register too? Beating up bigfoot?”
“So how are we supposed to rescue Betony and confront who eis controlling the beigfeet?”
“Sorry man. I have no idea.”
Grande looked thoughtful for a moment. “I theink I have an Idea. What about a deistraction.”
The other two looked skeptically at him.
“Didn’t Crusader just say that idea wouldn’t work because they are protected?” Sun Wolf asked.
“Ya, ya. He deid, but my idea might work better. What eif just two of us deid the deistraction? And the third one went looking for who or what eis controlling them? And we if we don’t actually hurt the beigfeet just made noise and ran around a bunch to make them leave the domes alone we aren’t actually breaking the law.”
Crusader looked at Grande and back at the milling Sasquatch. “That has got to be the...”
“The most brilliant thing you have come up with in a long time.” Sun Wolf interrupted. ”Do you think you and Crusader can distract them for long?”
“Huh? Why me and Grande?”
She gestured to her hybrid form. “I can turn completely into a wolf and I have night vision. So I can actually find whoever it is out here without using a blatant light source like the two of you.”
“Oh, yeah. That makes sense.”
She stepped behind a convenient bush and began to ready herself for her transformation.
“Catch” A small bundle of leather and metal flew out from behind the bush to land at Crusaders feet. “Keep these for me I don’t want them to get lost in the woods before I change back.”
Crusader gingerly picked up her leather bikini and put it into a pocket of his armored motorcycle jacket zipping it closed.
The sound of popping joints, the twangs of shifting muscles and grunts of exertion came from behind the bush as Sun Wolf underwent her transformation from wolf woman to wolf. Fur got thicker, her muzzle elongated and her hands became large padded paws. In less than thirty seconds her metamorphosis was complete. The blond haired wolf that came out from behind the cover was easily four feet high at the shoulder and stretched six feet long from tip of the muzzle to the end of the tail. She looked at Crusader and Grande then sharply at the Sasquatch filled clearing commanding them to get on with their part of the plan. The large werewolf then turned and bounded into the woods quickly disappearing from sight.
“I guess it is time for us to do our job huh.”
“Si. Let’s do eit!”
Crusader thought in Roland’s direction. “Hey Roland is it possible for you to influence the big feet and make them more interested in us?”
“All I can do is try. As soon as you two start your distraction I will do what I can”
“Thanks Roland.”
Breathing deep Sun Wolf loped through the woods her nose working overtime trying to filter the overpowering scents of the Sasquatch from the other ore common and natural scents of the woods. The glow from the moon and the protective spheres giving her more than enough light to see by as she scanned the area for unusual movement or out of place objects. She began to circle the clearing spiraling out as she went. Hopefully the other two could draw enough attention their way to mess up the controllers plans.
Grande and Crusader bolted into the clearing in a scatter of leaves, twigs and dirt making as much noise as they could.
“Hey stinky over here!”
“Woo Woo! Here I am, come get me! What are you waiting for?! Come on!”
Crusader waved his glowing sword and Grande flapped his arms drawing the attention of the Bigfeet.
A little too well, actually, when all the Sasquatch stopped howling and turned as one to stare at the new arrivals in the clearing.
“Roland! I theink you deid your job too good! They really want to play!”
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