Chapter Thirty-Six – Who We Are, Who We Become
His father. He needed to see his father. Even his wolf wasn't fast enough to take him to his people's settlement, and he had to get there before the night fell, before the Embercasting—
Theodore stopped at the sight of the first houses. It wasn't even very dark, yet no lights flickered in the windows, no cheerful fires to match the pyre that would soon be lit. However, the somber atmosphere of those homes wasn't matched by silence. His sensitive ears caught something, a growing murmur rising like a tide.
Voices! He recognized his father's, booming now, the more Theodore rushed toward his people. But it was also… angry?
He turned into his human shape and began walking slowly.
Everyone was gathered around the pyre. The alpha of Whiteflame was asking something…
"Who took the flint? Did you see anyone sneaking around?" his father kept repeating.
Everyone was silent. No one knew anything. Except for Theodore, who felt the weight of the flint in his pocket overwhelming him.
His father was mad. Angered and wounded. He believed someone had stolen the flint, and wouldn't he be heartbroken once he learned the truth? That it had been his son, and not a stranger who'd done that?
A stranger. Theodore stopped. He could blame it on the two humans pretending to be wolves. But no! That wasn't how he'd been raised. He needed to come forward and accept his punishment. Even if it was in front of the entire pack. They would see him as worthless, a thief, and then… they wouldn't accept him as their alpha, would they? His father, already old, would have to live in shame. An alpha failing to raise his own son to be just and honorable? Any pack would laugh at Whiteflame.
Theodore knew that he had to make a decision. The flint was cold in his palm now. He'd sneak in front and light the pyre, and everyone would see him as worthy of becoming their alpha.
***
"What are we going to do, Vee?" Jack whined loudly. "Can we go against a dark, evil forest made of many dark, evil trees?"
He knew he was babbling, but there was no way they could get out of this alive. Well, there was the matter of time-traveling, of course, so maybe, just maybe, they weren't even there—
Argh, what was he even thinking? They were there to save Theo, or right a few wrongs, or who knew what. This really, but really wasn't the time for him to piss his pants and start behaving like a coward. Theo was right about one thing. He needed to stop being a stupid little coward. Well, Theo hadn't been that harsh, but Jack couldn't see why he himself shouldn't give himself a good ol' dressing down under the circumstances.
While he was busy battling his inner fears, the reasons for the current outer fears were on the move.
In Vince's hands, the ugly tree turned into the goo they'd seen before and slid away from its attacker. The forest howled like a pack of wolves, and not the good kind. They moved slowly, but menacingly, swinging about and making their branches strike each other. The sound of hollow bones, of wind rushing through a place of death, filled the air.
"Get behind me," Vince said, standing tall between Jack and the skeletal trees. "You should run to Tharion and ask for help."
"And leave you alone? No way," Jack protested, although he saw the logic behind Vince's plan. "You may be a guardian, Vee, but you're no match for so many trees."
Match. Jack began patting down his pockets.
"Jack, I mean it. And yes, I am a guardian, which means that I have the means to hold them off. Just go!" Vince shouted.
"Vee," Jack called out, ignoring that direct order on purpose, "do you happen to have some matches? Or a lighter?"
"Don't tell me you're in the mood to start smoking right now!"
The forest, fortunately, as evil and dark as it was, moved at a snail's pace. Like when he was watching zombie movies, Jack wondered if they could just run at a moderate pace and escape these evil-looking things.
"They are just a bunch of dry twigs!" Jack shouted back.
"Ah, damn it!" Vee exclaimed. "I don't have matches, or a lighter!"
"Me neither! But it's a good plan, right?"
Cavernous laughter interrupted them. The self-entitled wisdom tree towered over them again. Apparently, it didn't stay long in goo form; that was something to keep in mind.
"I was wondering where you went," Jack said.
"Jack, please leave," Vince begged him, taking another step back.
"Vee, how about we both run?"
"Not a good idea! We need to hold them off! We want them as far from Theo's pack as possible!"
Vee had a point. Still, a box of matches or something they could use to set fire to this stupid forest would've worked wonders!
"Are you perhaps looking for this?" The wisdom tree impersonator stretched a long gnarly branch, showing them something trapped between the twigs pretending to be its fingers.
Vince and Jack stopped. They both stared curiously at the object.
"Is that…? I've seen that before!" Jack shouted.
"It is the flint of Embercasting," the dark tree said gleefully. More hoarse laughter followed.
"Shut up! I mean, speak up!" Jack had no idea how to deal with this revelation. "Did you steal it from Theo?"
"Oh, do you think that tiny boy is capable of actually doing something wrong? Tsk, tsk. He is on his way to give back the flint to his father."
"Of course, he's a good boy, and I'm not just saying that." Jack made a quick attempt to grab the flint, but the tree pulled its long branch back.
"What is your plan?" Vince asked with a low growl. Jack had to look at his friend to check if he hadn't turned back into his wolf. Woof, no chance of that.
"Since your presence here changes nothing, I might just as well tell you. Theodore will try to do the right thing, and he will be shunned by his pack. The flint will not work because it's not the true one. And that means that midnight will belong to us. The young alpha will fall. And we will twist him to become what we want him to be. A killer. A murderer. The destroyer of his pack."
Jack narrowed his eyes. "We're here for a reason."
"You cannot change the past," the evil tree insisted.
"This is like a fairytale, a scary one, but still a fairytale. Which means, obviously, that everything that happens means something. Vee," he whispered from the corner of his mouth, "jump on this fugly creature. I'll grab the flint and run a like a freaking unicorn. Deal?"
"You are a most infuriating, curious clairvoyant! Don't you realize I can hear you?"
Dazzle the enemy. That was a good strategy in Jack's book. And he could rely on Vince to play along, even if their plan – his alone in case it didn't work – was nuts.
"Now, Vee," he whispered, and his companion barreled into the fugly tree with the force of a freight train.
Although the horrible creature knew their plan, it wasn't ready for Vince's attack. Jack jumped like a rabbit and pressed his knees against the branch the evildoer used as an arm. He struggled with its fingers – while Vince did the same thing, but with the rest of the creature. Those things were like made from steel, but Jack was fueled by despair and anger, so he brought his teeth down on the dry twigs.
He hadn't expected much, except maybe to chip a tooth, but it worked. The fingers flexed and the flint fell in the snow.
"You bit me!" the tree bellowed. "My brethren, attack!"
Jack had no time to waste. Vince was shouting at him to run, and he was going to do that but not without the flint. His hands searched frantically through the snow, but it seemed as if the flint had been swallowed by the earth itself.
"I can't find it!" he yelled, while he continued to throw handfuls of snow everywhere in his desperate search.
A horrible sound, like someone choking, made his hair stand on end. When he turned, he saw Vince fall prey to the forest. Branches wrapped around him from all sides, threatening to engulf him. Jack caught his eyes. They showed resignation, but they were also begging him, without words, to save himself.
"Leave Vince alone!" Jack shouted and grabbed a handful of snow in a worthless attempt to attack Vince's assailants.
But his hand now held something hard, not only thawing snow. Jack stared in disbelief. It was the flint, which until then had proven impossible to find.
"Run, seer, run," the trees whispered at him. "Abandon your friend. You cannot save him. Don't you want to save Whiteflame instead?"
Was this the moment of truth? When Jack would show his true colors by choosing wrong? How did the message in the rock go? The wolf's heart had to be true… and wild, but Jack wasn't a wolf, and this wasn't the wisdom tree, and yet—
Yet he couldn't choose wrong; if he did, all was lost. They were here for a reason. But it couldn't be to change the past. The consequences of his actions would reverberate into the present if he chose wrong.
"What do I do?" Jack whispered, his hand already shaking.
A swish of wind rose behind him. Before him, the Black Forest froze. Vince was no longer blinking. It took Jack a total of two moments to realize that everything was standing still.
"He is at a crossroads," he heard someone commenting behind him.
Jack knew, even without turning, who it was. That nehesh was making fun at him, and at a time like this!
"He is indeed," the wisdom tree confirmed.
"But we cannot tell him what to do. This is something only he can realize," the nehesh continued.
They were really lucky that Jack couldn't turn to give them a piece of his mind. Wasn't it cozy and comfortable to be an ancient magical creature and not give a damn about anything?
"Though we could point him in the right direction. After all, when you've been told all your life that you're wrong, you start to believe it yourself," the wisdom tree said.
Well, the old tree had a point. Jack had known all his life how wrong he was about just about everything. How was he supposed to know how to choose the right thing after dealing with nothing but negativity for twenty-plus years?
"I would normally be against it, but he is quite remarkable for someone who only recently discovered the truth about himself," the nehesh continued his ruthless analysis of Jack. "I will let you handle the encouragement. I am not exactly adept at it."
"Very well," the wisdom tree said pleasantly. "You are right, Jack. The first thought that comes to your mind, do not doubt it. Don't overthink it as people say in your world. You have the right to your truth, and you have a good head on your shoulders."
Those were all very nice things to say, but Jack still didn't believe he understood an iota out of them.
"Aim high," the nehesh whispered suddenly.
Another swish of wind and the Black Forest moved again, along with Jack who almost fell with his nose in the snow, as if he'd been held up by invisible strings until now.
"Decide, seer. Who will you choose to save?" the dark tree taunted him.
A thought did cross his mind, a reckless, impossible thought, but Jack listened to the wisdom tree's advice. He didn't overthink it.
"Take this, you motherfucker," he shouted and threw the flint straight at what he thought to be the creature's eyes.
The flint described a beautiful arc through the air. It burned, catching fire by itself, sending sparks everywhere. A collective cry of dread rose from the dry twigs trying to take Vince down.
But the sparks died down once the flint hit its target. The dark, ugly tree shook momentarily, but that was all.
"Oh shit," Jack said. Well, not all motivational advice was good, right? Some was just… not that good.
Before he had the chance to regret having done the first thing that crossed his mind, a single spot inside the creature's face began to glow. At first, Jack thought he was looking at the tree's only eye, gleaming evilly at him, but that wasn't it.
"It burns," he whispered. "It truly burns!"
The Black Forest trembled before him. Him, a seer with doubtful skills and questionable taste in clothes.
"What have you done?" the ugly tree howled.
"Whatever crossed my mind!" Jack shouted back.
***
The men and women of the pack were murmuring among themselves. They were holding their children close, scared as they seemed to be by the missing flint of the Embercasting. Theodore moved slowly through their ranks. They were ignoring him, because they were listening to their alpha, worrying and wondering what would happen to them if they couldn't light the pyre of Embercasting this year.
It didn't matter what that tree told him. He should have never taken the flint from its hiding place. Even if they would despise him for it, he needed to right this wrong.
"Father," he called out, once he arrived in front, "it was I who took the flint."
"Theodore," his father said, his eyes stern. "This isn't the time to be childish. You couldn't have done it."
The people started whispering. They were already accusing their alpha of doting too much on his only child.
"I am not lying," he insisted. "Here is the flint." He walked over to where his father was standing and opened his palm.
His father stared at the flint, but he didn't take it. "Theodore," he said his son's name, but this time with barely concealed frustration. "We've raised you better than this. This isn't the flint of Embercasting."
How could that be? Theodore stared in disbelief at his father, then at the flint he was holding. That was impossible! He had taken the flint! How could his father not see it? Was he trying to protect him from the others? But then everyone would think his father was weak.
Furious, Theodore closed his fist. He walked over to the pyre, under the looks of consternation of all those present.
"I will light the pyre," he announced. "The light of Embercasting will shine through."
"Theodore!" His father grabbed his arm and pulled him back. "What is the meaning of this? Stop right this moment!"
Theodore struggled, taking his sire by surprise. It wasn't like him to be disobedient. But his father would understand later that he had done it for him and would forgive him.
It was tricky to light the pyre. But Theodore had seen his father do it before, so starting the Embercasting fire was no mystery to him.
"Please, father, I must!"
"Let your son use the flint if he stole it," someone called from the crowd.
"He is responsible now," another said.
Murmurs of agreement rose from all corners.
"Embercasting is not a game for children," Tharion insisted.
"Alpha, you do not have the flint," a tall wolf said. "How can you be certain that the object in your son's hand is not the flint of Embercasting?"
Theodore looked at that wolf. He didn't look like anyone he knew. And he knew all their pack members. Could it be that he was a traveler? But they didn't receive many strangers on the day of Embercasting.
The wolf looked at him. His eyes were like dark pits, and no light gleamed in them. Theodore continued to stare as he approached the pyre. He had no time to ponder such things. What mattered most now was to prove himself to his father and light the pyre.
His hands were cold as he tried to use the flint.
"You are encouraging a child in his lie," Tharion accused the pack members. But as a just alpha, he didn't go against their wishes, when they were unanimous as they were now. "Go ahead, Theodore. And I will have a word with you later."
Theodore moved even closer. The flint was heavy in his hand. But as much as he moved his fingers across its sharpest edge, as he'd seen his father do before, nothing was happening. He blinked hard and tried again, but still nothing.
"Give me that," his father said and took the flint from him.
"You try it, father," Theodore begged. He was too young, and the tree had been wrong. And now, his father didn't even believe that this was the flint of Embercasting.
"There is nothing to try," Tharion said sternly. "You will not attend the Embercasting this year. Your mother will see that you remain indoors while we celebrate."
Theodore struggled as his mother came to take him away. She was whispering soothing words, but he didn't care. He only cared that his father discarded the flint like a useless object, and that the pyre remained unlit.
***
It was all burning. Vince ended up on his hands and knees as he tried to get away from the burning trees.
"Come on, Vee, come on! We need to get to the people of Whiteflame!"
The ash was getting in his mouth, so he chose to keep it shut. But he couldn't keep his eyes closed all the time because he needed to grab Jack's hand. His friend pulled him along, away from the fire behind him.
"The flint, Jack," Vince shouted. "We need it."
Jack had a strange expression in his eyes, like he was about to cry. "I don't think it's up to us to change the past, Vee. I think the flint is gone."
TBC