Tales of a Shifter (P5) The White Mountain

Chapter 123 - Out Of Time

Chapter 123 - Out of Time

Brandon awakened flailing and shuddering in terrified pain. He thrashed and sobbed and gagged until he lost all strength in his body and went limp and numb in shock. Tangled in familiar sheets he soon realized he was safe and to his momentary surprise he found himself lying in Ezekiel's bed back at the Mansion.

Ezekiel must have been the one to carry him home that morning, the Shifter had even wrapped him in a fresh robe before putting him in the bed. His mind raced with questions about Ezekiels current whereabouts.

But with a throbbing gut the first thing Brandon did was roll out of bed so fast he hit the floor. Cursing he rolled up to his feet, dashed across the room and burst into the bathroom and rushed towards the mirror mounted over the bathroom sink. Vomit threatend but he had nothing to give so he forced the nausea away.

He stared at his reflection for a long time, touching his eyes, tracing his normal length ears, glaring into the depth of his non glowing pupils....No claw marks across his face. No gouged out eyes, no blood.

Oh god...oh god! Was that real? Did that just happen? Or have I finally cracked!?

Brandon wanted to fall to his knees in relief that he was awake but he felt so uneasy all he could do was continue to stare at himself as he tried to compartmentalize everything he had seen and dreamed....and possibly remembered....of all the freaky stuff that had could have happened to him he was now physically changing in ways he couldn't understand. His memories. The way he power and body felt. What did it all mean that in his Dream he had carried that strange visage? And....the Banes voice was somehow tormenting him now too in those same dreams.

Brandon soothed a hand over his face and arms, his mind a swirling mess of uncertainty and then he gasped and clutched at his head as an intense flash of pain flittered over his eyes and mind.

Brother!

Called Jacobs and Kail's voices at the same time. In his mind and Brandon gasped as he felt the Lion and Kail embracing him. So warm. So loving. Their eyes shining with deep unending affection. Affection that made his soul feel like it was being flayed alive to witness.

Curse of Bane!

Howled the screams of the Bane in his face. He saw the churning mass of deadly darkness seething in his mind's eye. The formless mass of hatred and hunger lunging at him and tearing deep into his being.

Lil One. Brandon. Fight! DIE! STOP!! IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT!!!

The words of Jacob, the Bane and Kail cut into his psyche, the phantoms of their voices like acid to the base of his skull. Eating into him, forcing their way to the center of his confused being.

Brandon screamed and fell to his knees clutching his head as his mind seemed too shatter wide open. A million images and sounds and smells tried to bombard him all at one. Some of them were just painfully blurry messy images and words distorted like the howling of spirits in his mind. He couldn't understand all of it...and yet there was something screaming inside of his at the same time. Something screaming that he had to understand everything he was being shown. That he should understand it all, but he didn't.

All he understood was that all of it was deeply and undeniably important in some unknown way.

And then like a clap of silent thunder over his entire soul his mind was engulfed with that sweet scent of a million flowers, and alpine air filled his nose. Thin and clean and sharp and cold on his lungs. His eyes burned with tears as he saw himself standing at the precipice of a giant mountain, overlooking the yawning caverns of earth and land far beyond. Standing beside him once again there was Kail, and Jacob...and in the skies above millions of giant flying beasts circled and swooped and danced and frolicked in the clouds as if they were men walking across an endless blue field.