10:11
Abe looked down the side of the gallery they were on. “Is it better to keep moving around on the left or go back to front?”
Dan turned to look over his shoulder at the right side. “Start from the back, eliminating each canvas before moving forward. If our goal is at the end then we don’t have to double back.”
“Okay. So we have, uhm,” Abe rubbed their temple with their fingertip, “the kids playing with a ball closest to the entry wall then the ballet we think we can ignore and, uh–”
Kim turned to look at the wall, “The lady in the fancy dress that we’re not sure about in front of Gwen and Siobhan.”
“Okay,” Siobhan called without shifting her focus from possible attacks. “So, what attacker goes where?’
“Maybe the boy goes in the first?” Dan suggested.
“And we aren’t sure about the painting of the woman. Might be sneaky guy.”
“I got sneaky guy!” Ben called from the dark in the space in front of Gwen and Prairie.
“Drive him towards the painting of the lady!” Abe shot back in that direction.
“Heard!”
The male attacker in the dark leather jerkin and form fitting trousers stumbled backwards out of the dark. Abe strained to see Ben forcing the movement but all they could see was dark.
The dark-clothed man raised their short sword to block a strike Abe could not see. Metal clashed with metal and the figure took several more steps back. Still no matter how Abe tried they could not make out who the man was fighting, though based on the occasional Ben sounding grunt as the man danced back and forth and struck with both swords, Ben had to be his opponent.
“Ha!” Ben yelled.
Nothing, the male figure said being he was as silent as the other attackers, but his mouth parted as if on a grunt, or growl, or some other response. He bared his teeth and started a dance of swords that was so fast it was hard for Abe to follow. Dog. Gone.
“Ha!” Ben yelled again and the man fell back, his back leg braced and his torso bending back. Gwen ran in from the right, the fight having gotten close enough she could engage without ruining the integrity of the defensive circle.
She swept a plunger blow into the dark figure’s stomach, forcing the man to take several steps backwards and towards the canvas in order to absorb the impetus. Gwen reeled back and landed another gut blow as the man crossed his swords in front of his face to block an attack from up high.
Another smack from Gwen’s plunger sent the attacker reeling back and careening into the canvas which bent slightly with the impact. Then the canvas flexed and Abe felt a flow of Magick on the air, similar to what they wielded.
Abe hurried forward on a right angle so they could get a view of the canvas. The male figure flattened out, the two-dimensional plane of him rippling on the small slice of air between him and the canvas.
Abe squinted to see the dance of particulate Magick in the thin space reach out to the surface of the man and suck it down to the canvas. Then there was a pulse and the man regained his three-dimensional form and sprang away from the painting. He landed with soft feet in the pool of light from the spotlight, darted a quick glance left and right then dashed off into the dark along the wall, heading into the dark towards the front.
Abe pivoted and looked at Dan and then at Kim.
“Guess that one was wrong,” Kim called across the circle.
Siobhan turned to look at them. “Any other thoughts about who fits this one? Oh!” she called out as the little boy in blue came running in and headbutt her in the thigh. From there the kid took to thrashing his little fists to hit either side of her leg.
She delicately countered the hits with the back of her free hand, careful to not hit the boy with her sword, “No honey. Don’t do that! Ow!” she cried as the kid punched her in the region of the groin. She turned her knee in, protecting that point and tried to push the boy’s head away from where it dug into her leg.
Dempsey dropped his shield and sword and ran in, grabbing the little boy by the shoulders. He held the kid out at arms-length, a feat considering how much the little boy was thrashing, kicking and punching legs and arms. Dempsey grunted and braced his legs. “Any idea where this one goes?” he threw back over his shoulder.
“First canvas against that wall with the kids playing ball?” Abe suggested.
“Got it. Cover me?”
Siobhan slid over to cover his movement on the left, sword out to the dark and favoring her right leg where the kid had butted her. The rest of the group shuffled back a few steps, keeping their formation and moving so Dempsey could reach the first canvas. Dempsey carried his squirming, kicking, punching burden towards the canvas with quick feet. Once there he shoved the boy against the painting of children playing ball in an idyllic garden.
The kid didn’t even flatten out. Just kept punching and kicking. Then he bent in two, leaned forward, and bit Dempsey’s arm. Despite wearing a leather jacket Dempsey must have felt it because he released his hold on the boy who squirmed out of Dempsey’s loose grip, hit the ground on his knees, then fell back with his knees at impossible angles, elbows hitting the ground, and scurried backwards into the dark, his movements more like those of a spider or centipede than a human.
“Oh,” Siobhan muttered, “I’m going to have nightmares.”
Dempsey took a huge step back from the canvas. “You and me both.”
Abe blinked, staring off after the creepy crawler, then turned to look at the stretch of wall and canvases. “I can’t think of who else would fit that painting.”
They shot Dan a quick look. “You?”
When Dan said, “No,” Abe shifted to look at Kim who scrunched up her face then said, “No.”
Dan pulled out his book and made a note. “No figure for the first or second on the right.” He shifted to look at the left wall where they’d started. The first painting was out, the woman with the fan already replaced in it.
“Can we move back towards the left?”
Without comment everyone shifted to follow Dan’s direction. As they’d shifted back to the entry wall so Dempsey could try the first canvas on the right their movement drew them in line with the woman with the fan.
“And up to the second canvas?”
At Dan’s question the circle shuffled forward. It was a testament to their familiarity with each other they’d developed over their other adventures that very little logistics was required to shift the group left, right, up, and down.
They stopped in front of the canvas with the two dogs looking at an empty seat. Or throne. It might be a throne. Siobhan and Gwen held the right side of the circle, their backs to the canvas and gazes focused into the dark on that side. Prairie and Ivan continued to hold the front. Ben kept Benning. Somewhere. Dempsey skirted around to hold the front slash back nearer the canvas while Patti, Dan, Abe, and Kim peered at the painting.
“Someone should be sitting in that chair,” Patti said.
“Agreed.” Dempsey, well, agreed.
“Any thoughts to who?” Dan asked.
Abe ran through the list in their head. “We have a few options. A twin? And maybe the other twin goes somewhere else in the painting?”
“Or the man in black?” Kim offered.
“Johnny Cash?” Patti asked then chuckled. “Kidding. Sneaky guy. Maybe? Watch out!”
She jabbed her punch shield out to the left, blocking the cat jumping from the shadows with claws extended towards Dempsey’s head.
Dempsey whipped a look at Patti, snapped a short “Thanks,” then turned back to staring at the area behind them.
“Could also be the kid,” Dan suggested.
Kim nodded. “Could be. Only one way to tell though.”
Kim twisted to address the others’ backs. “Next time the kid attacks we need to try this painting.”
“And if others attack?” Gwen lunged forward and popped something with her plunger.
“Drive them off?”
“This is going to take forever!”
“Yeah. Prairie?”
“Yes?” Prairie responded without turning.
“Any chance you can ask The House to make this easier for us?”
Prairie snorted. “If this is a test I don’t think so?”
“Try please? I’d like to make it home before my next birthday.”
“Okay.” Prairie tipped her head back to look at the dark ceiling. “Arfa?”
Abe couldn’t hear a response but maybe The House would talk to Prairie privately?
After several mikros Prairie repeated, “Arfa?” pretty much answering Abe’s question of a private communication.
Another several mikros and Prairie sighed. “Nothing.”
Kim shrugged. “It was worth a try. Oof!” This last came when the remaining dog came tearing out of the dark and hip checked her. She stomped her foot, planting it to catch her weight and turned to glare at the dog as it dashed through the circle, flying off into the dark between Siobhan and Dempsey.
“Got him!” Ivan called out, lunging into the dark and coming back with the boy in blue held out at arm’s length. Luckily Ivan was of a similar size, if not bulk, to Dempsey so the posture didn’t seem to be a huge strain for him. Still he gritted his teeth as he drew back into the circle with his kicking and punching burden.
He hustled towards the canvas with the empty chair then paused to look to Abe, “Just shove him into the canvas? Whoa, little man!”
He shifted his shoulder to avoid a bite from the boy who’d bent forward towards Ivan’s right arm. Gwen pivoted from her position, then lunged and planted the cup of her plunger on the kid’s face, effectively blocking more biting. The kid’s eyes went wide as saucer’s, the blue of them emphasized by the arc of red rubber over the bridge of their nose.
Gwen shuffled backwards, holding the plunger steady as Ivan moved towards the canvas. Abe hurried to take Ivan’s place in the circle, stepping up next to Prairie who’d extended her arms to either side, daggers pointing out at angles to cover the spots left open by Gwen and Ivan’s absence. Prairie nodded and shuffled closer to Siobhan.
Abe tossed a quick look back over their shoulder to determine if Ivan and Gwen had gotten the kid to the canvas but then they turned back to look into the dark. They strained their eyes to see any movement in the gloom. The silence of their attackers made it possible for them to strain their ears to listen to what was happening behind them.
“Just like that.” Dan said.
Ivan grunted then said, “Pull the plunger off!”
“Ouch,” came a mikro before there was the sound of someone impacting the ground. Abe turned quickly to see Gwen with her back on the floor and her legs over the bench with her feet kicking.
“Here,” Kim leaned in and offered Gwen a hand. Together they managed to get Gwen back on her feet. Abe slanted a very quick look at the canvas where the little boy now sat on the throne with his hands on the armrests and his feet dangling an easy foot from the ground. One of the spaniels had its head lying on the boy’s foot.
Nailed it.
Abe turned back to search the dark for attacks. When Ivan and Gwen came to take their spots back Abe stepped back and then returned to their place between Dan and Kim.
“That’s two down,” they said as they slipped in next to Dan.
“Yep.” Dan made a note in his book. “That leaves,” he paused a moment, “eight plus the dog to place. So, nine.”
“The next one over here is the perch we think the hawk goes on,” Kim said.
Siobhan cast a quick look over her shoulder. “Move up?”
“Uh,” Kim looked over at Siobhan, going on tiptoe to look at the canvas across from Gwen and Siobhan. “Any thoughts on the woman’s portrait? We know it isn’t sketchy guy.”
“Cat?” Ivan suggested.
Abe frowned. “I think we are going to have to try a few to figure out which the cat goes in. If the cat attacks and you can grab it we can try that canvas but,” they shrugged, “it isn’t one of the easy ones.”
“So come back to it?” Siobhan suggested.
“That would be what I’d suggest.”
“Okay, so the hawk?”
“This having to wait for the right thing to attack us at the right time really sucks,” Patti said.
“Too bad we don’t have cages for the smaller things like the hawk and the cat.” Gwen mused.
“Oh,” Abe looked down at their right hand. “Maybe we do? Uhm, I’m not sure it would work any better than Ivan’s net but I could make a cage out of ink?”
“Yeah?” Patti shot Abe a look to which Abe shrugged.
“It’s worth a try?”
“It is,” Dempsey said. He pitched his voice to carry around the circle. “The next time one of the smaller creatures attacks catch it and Abe can try caging it.”
“Yes, Sir, Sir!” Gwen called in a staccato tone.
Dempsey snorted. “That gets funnier every time.”
“It does?”
“No.” Dempsey turned to look over his shoulder at Abe. “The next closest canvas is the hawk on this side. What’s the next on the right?”
Dan answered. “Knight. Most likely. It’s the battle scene with the empty spot in the center.”
“Okay.” Dempsey nodded. “If we want to handle this in an organized manner our next goals are either the hawk or the knight. After that? Because I don’t have a problem advancing a few canvases as long as we don’t have to double back too much.”
“The next one on the right is one of the questionable ones. A woman sitting in a window seat, reading.” Dan read from his notes. He pointed his pencil to the right, “The next on the left is the reclining woman which is also questionable. It’s the one we think the twins might fit in or maybe the guy in black.”
“Got it. So best bet is hawk or knight and we catch and release the others. Unless it’s the cat and then Abe tries to cage it.”
Dan nodded at this plan.
“Incoming,” Ivan called only to go “Oh, never mind. Ben?”
Ben’s “yeah,” came from somewhere vaguely forward and maybe centerish.
“Could you not kill them? We’re trying to jab them into the paintings, in case you missed the read in.”
“Oh. Yeah.” Ben’s tone was sheepish. “My bad.”
“They just come back.”
“Yeah, got it. Don’t kill the bad things that are trying to kill us.”
“Probably not trying to kill us,” Abe ventured, raising their voice to carry into the dark.
“Just hurt us?” Ben replied from the dark.
“Maybe?”
“Okay. Got it. Maim, don’t kill.”
Ivan chuckled and flashed a look at Abe over his shoulder. “Probably the best we’re getting.”
“True dat,” Gwen said. “Whoa! Got you! Ugh, stop! No scratch. Scratch bad!”
Gwen fell back from the line, heading towards the center of the circle and holding a black cat out as far as she could at the end of her arms. She spun so fast the cat’s tail followed like a flag. The cat reached down and dug its claws into Gwen’s arms. She shrieked and shook the cat while Siobhan dropped back to lay a hand on Gwen’s arm where the claws were digging in. Siobhan closed a hand on the cat’s arm and extricated the claws then she and Gwen stared at Abe.
“Well?” Gwen asked around a grimace. “Want to try that cage thing?”
Abe realized they’d been standing their mouth agape. They pushed up their jaw, closing their mouth, and then looked down at their palm while willing ink into it.
“A cage?” they whispered to the ink. The ink in turn shimmied and then expanded upwards, forming strands or cage supports. The part of the ink still in their palm expanded out, forming a disc as the base of the cage with Abe’s palm under the center to support it. After rising up about two feet the strands curved inwards to form a domed top of the cage. There was no door to the cage. Instead, the strands bent outwards to make a cat-sized hole in the side of the cage.
Abe held the cage out towards Siobhan and Gwen. As Siobhan reached out a hand to take it the ink formed a ring in the top of the cage for Siobhan to link her fingers in.
Abe had never actually made a construct from their ink. They were pretty sure they were not going to be able to retain the shape of the cage if they let go. Probably they should have considered that logistic element before suggesting a cage.
Uh, they formed the thought then flowed it from their head down their shoulder and their arm and their fingers, pushing it into the ink flowing through their palm, how do we do this?
The ink didn’t respond with words or even thoughts but there was a subtle tug and then a very thin spool of ink formed in their palm under the cage, a loop of it falling to the side of their hand. Okay. Interesting.
Abe pursed their lips and then looked at Siobhan. “Take it. I’ll keep a hold of it with this.” They indicated their intent by rolling the thin thread of ink around their left hand.
Siobhan took the cage. Abe felt a tug on the thread around their left hand and then more ink spooled from their right hand, growing so Abe could cast out some of the length to stretch between themselves and Abe.
The line of ink was hard to see in the gloom but Abe could feel it in the bones of their wrist as it stretched. They also felt when the cat brushed the edges of the hole in the cage when Gwen shoved it in. And also felt the cage close.
“Here,” Siobhan offered the cage back to Abe. They took it, feeling the spooled thread draw back around their left hand and then retracting into their right. Stooping down they placed the cage on the floor, then stood back up. The thread of ink grew to accommodate the placement. Well, guess that worked.
They looked up and around the circle, “That worked.”
They left off the “guess”. Better to inspire confidence. Maybe the others might stop calling them kid going forward because this right here was some pretty advanced, definitely not kid level, Magick.
The ink tugged at their wrist bones as they took a few tentative steps away from the caged cat. Otherwise, the integrity of the cage held. Yes!
They looked over at Dan and raised their thumb. He shifted his toothpick and nodded. While this exchange was taking place Ivan called out. Kim moved in his direction, hand out, then frowned and lowered it.
“Capture not kill,” she said to Abe. “Guess I’m going to have to be the brute squad that shoves stuff into pictures.”
Ivan, meanwhile threw his shield up and blocked an attack. Abe looked over to see which attacker it was. They saw Ivan block a rapier stab. Darn. Wrong weapon.
Retaining his shield block Ivan reached over with his right hand and punched his attacker in the face. Rapier guy fell back into the dark at the hit.
“Here hawky, hawky, hawky!” Gwen called into the dark.
“Here hawky hawky?” Patti muttered.
Gwen doubled down, “Hawky hawky! Or Knight dude. I’m totally vulnerable. A weak little girl. Definitely unable to defend myself from a sword!”
Dan snorted next to Abe. Abe shot him a look and then chortled and mouthed, “Hawky hawky hawky!”
Dan shifted his toothpick then said, “Watch out!”
He leaned around Abe and shouted a short string of a poem that Abe vaguely recognized. The twin girls who’d come in from the dark between the canvas with the perch and the next froze in place. Like actually froze. Abe peered at them. The hands reaching towards Abe had small icicles on them, with pointy ones dripping down from their clawed fingers.
Kim turned and looked at Dan. “Damn. Ice!”
Dan nodded. “Ice.”
“Didn’t know you could do that.”
“It’s new. I was thinking about your water–” he stopped midthought and snapped, “behind you!”
Kim turned in time to see the hawk flying for her head. She did a swirly thing with her hands, spinning them around each other like she was twisting yarn into a ball. A transparent woman, discernable from the dark largely because of the spotlight she flowed through, sweeped in and spinned around the hawk. There was no doubt she was a woman, made of air, for she had sweeping hair and wore a gossamer dress that danced on the invisible air currents in the room. The spotlight poured down over her features in profile, gilding a sharp turn of nose and catching on a delicate pout of a mouth.
The bird’s wings snapped in tight to its body and it looked like it would plummet to the ground. Abe lunged, hands out to catch the hawk but its descent slowed and then it flowed back upwards. The image of it, elevated within the cone of the spotlight made Abe think of spirits ascending to the heavens. Beautiful.
Abe’s thought shattered as the bundled bird was projected towards the canvas with the perch. As it flowed through the air the bird transformed to a flat image held in the insubstantial grasp of the air creature. When it came in contact with the canvas the woman made of air gently smoothed her hands over the hawk’s wingspan, blending the bird’s substance into the paint on the canvas. For a single mikro it opened its beak on a silent screech then it settled into the painting, taking its place on the perch.
Abe looked to the side, reading Kim’s lips as she whispered, “Thank you.”
The air woman flowed around Kim, pressing her cheek to Kim’s. Translucent eyelids closed over eyes made of swirling storms and then the woman dissipated, leaving an afterimage for a mikro before that too disappeared.
Wow, Abe mouthed to Kim. Kim’s mouth curved on a gentle smile then she nodded.
Wow indeed.
Enter The Woods 