Witch of the Wild Woods

Chapter 3 - Comment

Uncle Dan looked as if David Bowie had actually fallen back to earth. Not any less handsome than the original, just a little more grizzled, unshaven, but still radiated that otherworldly charisma. Luna remembered only seeing Dan outside of his pressed tan suit, indigo tie, and polished hiking boots once when they last visited Spirit Lake ten years ago. His style hadn't changed. Their Uncle sat across from The Twins wearing the same outfit at their table against the bay window of Portland's Royal House of Noodles. They'd ordered only moments ago when three bowls of hot pork ramen, steak, and tofu were delivered by one of the undergrad wait staff.

"Where's the beef?" Luna asked Uncle Dan with mock concern.

"Trying to save a few extra years. Ain't got your Aunt Sally 'round to look after me so, it's on me to stay ahead of the curve. Eat healthy, exercise, all that rot. It's exhausting," Uncle Dan chuckled as he picked up a square of tofu with his chopsticks and tossed it up into his mouth. He caught it, chewed, and with a disappointed frown, swallowed.

"Admirable," said Lane dryly, flipping through his Notebook. The notebook.

In the years following their first shared paranormal encounter, Lane's college-ruled palm pad had evolved into a hardback, nearly four-hundred page brick of a book. Lane continued to thumb through some of the sections, subsections, footnotes; nothing about disappearing animals that matched what he'd seen last night.

"Thanks for lunch by the way," Luna said at their Uncle while jabbing a finger into her brother's ribs under the table.

"Yeah, thank you. I've missed RHN," Lane glanced up at Dan, smiled, and dove back into his notes. Somewhere, at some point in all their adventures they'd had to have encountered something similar. Something about ghosts? Ghost animals? Anything?!

"So," Luna began swallowing a bite of steak, "What brings you down from the Shack down to Portland? Needed a break from the tourist trap business?"

Uncle Dan smiled and sipped his tea, his attention was on something that'd caught his eye out the window, "Oh, it's probably nothing. Got a call from an old colleague at the station that wanted me to look into a robbery yesterday."

Lane's ears perked up, "What kind of robbery?"

Uncle Dan kept his eyes out the window, "Something about a handful of books being stolen from Powells'. Expensive. Old. Occult. Apparently, the manager was in hysterics-"

The boy's full attention came about, like an excited child, Lane blurted out, "Occult? What branch? Witchcraft? Do you think the Azure Coven has come back to Portland-"

Luna poked Lane again, hard.

"Ouch!" Lane yelped, "A fork, Luna, really?"

"I know what you're thinking. Please, don't," Luna asked, her voice low and earnest.

"You're not at all curious if one of the most dangerous covens are back and-" Lane was brought to silence by Luna's hand pressed against his mouth. Her seafoam green eyes shone brighter, begging Lane to slow his mind down.

Holding up his hands in surrender, Lane wrestled his curiosity into submission; a lone cowboy trying to restrain a bucking bronco. There were literally millions of questions he wanted to ask arguably the foremost expert in the occult sitting directly across from them. Uncle Dan had spent his whole life studying, exploring, and fighting the supernatural. Even more than the questions, there was a slim chance the robbery was linked to the shadow leopard The Twins had encountered last night.

"I know you're curious, brother," Luna said gently with a hand on his thigh, "Please, promise me; we're going on a vacation. Six weeks. Wilderness and relaxation, that's all."