Free Runner (House of Night Fanfic)

Chapter 19

Kai

It hurt. Just about everywhere. I groaned at the white hot iron rods of pain that shot through my body if I so much as twitched.

Where in hill Billy hell am I?

I gritted my teeth against my body's protests and sat up to look around. It was a forest, lush greenery everywhere, sun beaming through the thickets, water trickling down a stream.

I knew this place. It was Pa's favorite hunting spot for big Mule Deer. I looked down the deep slopes and bluffs with shelves where I knew the big ones would be eating from.

I heard a long, loud, and deep howl a little bit to my left, behind me. Adrenaline pumped into my veins, allowing the pain to go away for me to move. I stood, facing the direction in which the howl came from, and waited.

But nothing came. I waited for what seemed forever and nothing came. I relaxed.

Taking a moment for the pain to arise again, I looked around me again, only to find a fluffy thing trailing the edge of my vision. I yelped then growled at my own girly noise. Then stopped. That didn't sound like a human noise. I looked down to my feet and jumped. They were paws. Grey canine paws.

Okay, so I am here in spirit form.

Then, Where's my body?

Suddenly, I heard a hoof stomping the ground. I shot my head up to look where it came from and saw the hugest Mule Deer I have ever seen.

A huge, barreled tawny body, a thick neck that held the biggest set of antlers I have ever seen, and he was looking right at me.

My first thought immediately was, Where the hell is my Bow Tech when I need it, then mentally slapped myself. I'm dead, so I couldn't hurt him even if I wanted to.

Then I took another look at him as he stared. My next thought went to the stories that Pa always told me about some of his dreams. He couldn't see his body, but he could see the tips of antlers in the edge of his vision, making him think of himself as a big buck.

I found my voice and spoke. "Pa?"

He dipped his head to acknowledge me and answer me. "Hey, Kiddo."

A wave of emotion hit  me so hard I mistook it as the physical pain coming back. I could've cried there and then if I was in my human body. Instead, I heard a whine escape my muzzle and my bushy tail began to wag so hard it shook my whole body, my ears laying flat against my head.

"Been a while, huh?" His eyes held sadness, like that time I shot a buck and it was still alive so I sat on his neck and slit his throat, still kicking and bucking until there was nothing left to bleed from his open wound. His eyes held the same sadness in them.

"Yeah, been a while."

"You gonna get your butt over here or are you gonna just stand there?"

I ran to him, clawed feet easily able to get my body up the bench. And suddenly, we were human form and hugging. He still smelled like the woods, and the gross aroma of his hunting pack that smelled like the musky buck in a rut. It smelled like home. As I hugged him harder, I could just barely still taste his Sunday pancakes that had their own weird recipe that he could never teach.

"Baby? Is that you?" I turned around to see mom, who looked like an older version of me without the red streak of hair, and I began to feel my tears sting my eyes.

"Mom." I untangled myself from Pa and hugged her, too. She still smelled like her garden that we had behind the house, earthy and flowery like all the lilies that she planted that one year before it all went bad.

"Why are you here? you're still so young but you're here?" Mom grabbed my face to check for cuts and bruises like she always did.

I didn't know how to answer her without getting a lecture. How do you explain to your mom that your best friend killed you, confessed his love to you, and begin to explain all the crap that went down for the past few years at the House of Night?

"Uh, it's a really long story."

"Your daughter has fought hard and long against Darkness at the Vancouver House of Night, Aaron and Olivia Williams."

Just like that, Nyx was there before us, pale as the moon and dressed as the dark indigo colours of the night. I broke away from Mom and fisted a hand over my heart before bowing down, my body in wolf form again.

"Kai, my daughter. You may stand." I looked up and Nyx was there in front of me, gazing at me with black eyes. I was captured by them, and I couldn't bring myself to look away.

"You have a calling, my Daughter. You were not meant to leave your mortal world so soon, and I apologize for that. But now, the first Red High Priestess calls for your spirit to return to your body and to continue your fight against those who oppose me. But I have one gift that I give to all of my Daughters and Sons; Free Will. And so it is your choice if you want to return to your world if you so choose."

I looked at my parents, mom was dressed in a flowery gown that reminded me of her garden, and Pa was in the form of a Deer, again. I looked back at my Goddess, and made my decision.

A.N

HEY! So, that happened. It's just kind of a filler. You know, the "calm before the storm" and I am currently trying to plan that out, I assure you.