Page 21 of The Flame

Kimle seemed to know what she meant, though most likely, no one else present understood it at all. “I heard your call to the People,” he said. “It woke me from my forever sleep. I haven’t heard that call in a very long time.”

Rissa smiled. “The People came and they answered the call.”

Kimle smiled back at her. “I know this old earth has changed a great deal since our time but the People will always answer the call once it is sent out. The question now is what are you going to do? I can feel the wolves in the distance and I can sense men are here, keeping you safe. What are you going to do now?”

Rissa cocked her head at him and explained, “I cursed those wolves over twenty years ago when one of them stole my granddaughter from my daughter. He is her father and he almost killed my daughter, then he tried to make a deal with me, he would surrender my granddaughter to me for a bucket of the Maiden’s gold. I told him then that he would never see this place again and he would never get any of the Maiden’s treasure. I hid the mountain from him and his kind. Then his father let my granddaughter go free and her heart brought her home. They followed her and this demon tagged along to find the mountain.” She motioned to the still burning pile of... fur and bone. “He thought he could wait until the battle with Milo was over and then he could raid the mountain and take the gold for himself. But he found out the hard way that wasn’t going to happen. As you can see.”

“But child,” Kimle said. “You forget the demon blinded me with his gaze. I can sense he is near and I can sense your aura but I cannot see anything.”

Rissa shook her head. “I had forgotten that.”

The old man smiled. “I thought so.”

A swirling light now came down from nowhere.

The men all stepped back a bit as did the People who stood behind them.

“What the hell?” Diesel exclaimed.

“Yeah, we now have spirits and shit coming from nowhere,” Luther replied.

The swirling light looked like a small tornado as it was joined by another.

Suddenly two forms spun out of the lights.

Rissa stared at the pair. “Amil?” She then looked over at the young woman next to him. “Lisset?”

They both smiled as they came to stand next to Kimle. Placing their hands onto his shoulders, the three of them glowed with more light.

Kimle blinked and stared at Rissa. “They have given me sight.” He now got to see everything. Looking down, he stared at the small pile of what had been TankaTae. “The gods have deemed it so. One less demon to deal with.”

Rissa looked down as well. Then she saw a red spark flashing from the ash. It then grew from that spark and glowed brighter. “Everyone, watch out!” she yelled.

“For what?” Luther asked as he followed her gaze.

They all looked over.

The red spark spiraled up and thickened. It then seemed to slither through the air like a red glowing snake form.

“He is looking for a host!” Kimle shouted.

Before anyone could even react, the swirling bloody looking demon light raced over and shot into Milo.

Milo’s body whirled around helplessly.

“Oh, shit,” Luther muttered. “This can’t be good.”

“What is happening?’ Griffen shouted as he and his Weres backed away.

“No...” Rissa muttered. “No.”

Milo’s body shimmied and shapeshifted into his wolf, only his fur looked bloody and crimson as he shot off into the forest.

No one moved as it all had happened so fast that no one could do anything.

“Well, fuck,” Luther swore and looked over at Griffen. “You had a pussy wolf as a son a minute ago. Now you have one bloody mess of a...” He paused as the name or title of what Milo was now wouldn’t come.

“A bloody rag dog!” Swag chimed in with a rather hysterical laugh.

---