Strange Vacation

I heard Brett's voice arguing with Wife and Night Glow. "I have to get him to a hospital or he is going to die. Is that how you want to repay him for all that he has done for you?"

"He shall not die," came Wife's reply. "You heard what Raven told us. Husband will live and father many children yet."

"Yeah, I heard, but meaning no disrespect, I'd rather put my faith in a well equipped trauma team at a hospital in Phoenix or Tucson," Brett grumbled.

I opened my eyes to see the tent roof curving above me.

Turning my head I saw the young girl from the challenge circle kneeling at my side watching me intently. She started to get to her feet excitedly, but I held a hand up to stop her and put a finger to m lips to signal for silence and she settled back to her knees.

"Brett don't be a fool," I managed to say.

Damn, it hurt to talk or even breathe. "If you took me to a hospital, that would mean that we'd have to leave our women here unprotected. And that would doom them as surely as if you stuck them with a cold iron knife."

Brett came into the tent when he heard my voice. "How long have you been awake?" he asked.

"Long enough to hear you make an ass of yourself," I told him.

Wife brushed past him to kneel beside me. I could feel her lifting the poultice from my side and then her fingers gently probing the wound.

"I think that Raven's medicine has drawn out the poison," she said as she handed the bloody mess to Night Glow to dispose of. "The bleeding has stopped," she continued as she smeared some more smelly gunk over the wound, making me wince a little.

"Yeah, well I'm still not used to all this weird shit going down out here in the boonies," Brett said. "But I'll stick it out. God knows that you've hung your ass out on the line for me often enough."

"Just watch out for that damn Coyote," I told him. "No way he's going to give up now."

Brett smiled grimly. "I doubt that he knows anything about claymores."

I raised an eyebrow. "I didn't see any claymores in the stuff that you brought with you."

Wife patted my forehead with a damp cloth. "My Husband, you have lain as if dead for almost a full month. Brett has come and gone many times in his ultralight," she stumbled a bit over the last word.

Well, that would explain the dreams about giant mosquitoes.

"Any sign of that treacherous asshole?" I asked.

"He was wounded as badly as you were," said Night Glow from the doorway of the tent. "The cold iron of your blade did as much harm to him as the poison on his blade did to you."

If I was waking up and feeling better, then Loki/Coyote would be up and around as well.

I reached down and touched the place where he had stabbed me. I could feel the stitches that closed the lips of the wound and the poultice that was supposed to be helping heal me.

"Brett, help me outside so I can sit in the sun for a while."

Wife opened her mouth to protest, then subsided and helped him get me to my feet and out to the log by the fire.

The sun felt good on my back and the fresh air seemed to re-energize me.

The young girl came out and sat beside me, taking my hand and holding it as I looked out over the pond.

It occurred to me that I had never heard her speak. Hell, I didn't even know her name, only that she was wife's kid sister.

"What is your name?" I asked.

She ducked her head and mumbled something.

"I couldn't hear you," I said. "Hold your head up and speak clearly please."

Slowly she raised her head and looked straight ahead. "I have no name," she said. "When my parents were killed, I left my childhood behind and my childhood name with it."

"Then I shall call you Treasure and declare you to be my daughter." I told her.

Her head whipped around so fast I thought her neck would break. "Truly?"

I heard a familiar mental laugh from behind me. Bear was back.

"He speaks truly and from the heart little Treasure," Bear assured her. "He does things like this all the time. It is most amusing,"

I glanced back over my shoulder at the hairy hulk sitting next to the tent.

"Laugh it up while you can," I told the Bear. "We still have to figure out what Coyote's plans are, and how to throw a monkey wrench into the works."

The bear just scratched itself vigorously and remained silent.

Brett came over and sat down beside me. "Well Slick, you haven't lost your touch with a blade. But I don't see that character letting you get that close to him again."

"No," I agreed. "Not unless he doesn't know I'm there."

Brett laughed. "Gonna ninja up on his ass are you?"

I had to smile at his whimsy. "Hardly."

Brett sobered abruptly. "You know that we'll have to fight the next battle on his own ground."

"Yeah," I muttered.

Treasure tugged at my hand to get my attention. "What will you do to my brother if you catch him?"

"I don't know," I replied honestly. "What do you think that we should do with him?"

"Make it so that he can't come here anymore!" she said.

"How do we do that?" Brett asked. "Unless we kill him."

"Winter Dawn knows how," Treasure declared and ran off to go find her sister.

Brett stood up. "I am going to go get us an edge." He said, then headed for his ultralight.

I looked back over my shoulder at the bear. He was asleep. Or at least appeared to be.

The hairy beast didn't twitch an ear when Brett's ultralight buzzed to life and took off.

I sat there on the log and thought long and hard.

Then a delightfully evil plan took shape in my head.

"Bear," I spoke aloud. "I have a mission for you, should you choose to accept it."

The Grizzly raised his head to blink solemnly at me. "And what madness are you hatching now?"

"I need to speak to the spirits native to this place." I said.

The bear reared back onto its haunches in surprise. "You do not know what you ask."

"Oh, but I do," I replied.

"If the Kachina do not like what you have to say, they will strip the soul from your body," warned the Bear.

"I propose to point them at someone that they will be far more angry at than just a presumptuous mortal." I said.

Bear chuckled, "You do not lack for courage. And the plan is one worthy of the Trickster himself."

The bear lumbered off into the forest without a backward glance.

Wife came over to sit down next to me as I laid my plans for the evening's festivities.

"What is it that you are plotting my love?" She asked.

"I am going to try to enlist the aid of some others before I go after Coyote in his lair."

"What others?" she asked curiously.

"The Kachina." I replied.

Wife paled. "The Kachina do not like our kind, and humans even less. Especially white humans."

I smiled at her. " No worries my wife, I know what I am doing."

Famous last words.

Wife went on into the tent where I could hear her arguing with her sisters.

I could imagine what the subject was.

Bear came back just before dusk and gave me instructions on how to prepare to receive the visiting spirits.

I drew a circle on the ground and a smaller one a few feet away.

In the smaller circle I placed tobacco, corn, and salt.

I sat cross-legged in the larger circle and waited.

Wife, Night Glow and Treasure were in the tent huddled together on the blankets.

Bear sat nearby offering advice until the moon was fully above the trees. "I cannot remain here," he said as he lurched to his feet. "I shall return at dawn."

As soon as he disappeared into the trees, I heard what sounded like wings, and then a small tornado seemed to arise from the smaller circle.

"Why have you disturbed our rest?" came a voice from the whirlwind.

"I bring you a warning," I said evenly.

"What warning could you possibly have that would concern us?" came a new voice from the mini twister.

"A new move by Loki that would mean his gaining enough power to challenge even you." I replied.

Abruptly the whirlwind solidified into several manlike forms arranged in a row around the front of the circle that I was sitting in.

I won't even try to describe what the Kachina looked like save to say that the Hopi dolls were only a vague representation of their true forms.

I wish that I could wipe the memory of the sight from my brain, but that is part of the price I must bear for having summoned them.

"What is your part in this?" said the tallest figure in a voice like a snakes rattle.

Abruptly I felt something around my neck, cutting off my wind and leaving me unable to speak.

"How can he answer you if you keep doing that?" said a slightly shorter figure in an almost feminine voice.

The constriction around my throat eased enough for me to catch my breath. "Thanks heaps Darth Vader." I said sourly.

(Remember that problem I have with keeping my mouth shut?)

"Do not anger him further," cautioned the figure on the far left.

I nodded to it and then turned my attention back to the largest figure.

"I am fighting against Loki for my own reasons," I said. "I intend to wreck whatever plans that he is hatching, and if possible, banish him from this realm forever."

"And what do you wish from us?" Asked yet another of the figures.

"Nothing," I replied. "I thought that you should know what Coyote has planned so that you can move to counter him if I fail."

There was a buzzing, whispering sound just at the edge of my consciousness as the Kachina conferred among themselves.

"We will watch and see how well you do," said the tallest one finally. "IF you succeed, you will have our thanks and will be allowed to depart in peace. If you fail, your spirit is forfeit to us."

Then they were gone and the night sounds returned.

I sat there for a long time, not daring to move even if I had felt capable of it.

Just as the first rays of dawn lightened the eastern horizon I heard a voice sigh, "Let us depart. I told you that he would not be so foolish as to expose himself to our hungers."

Then I could sense the watching presences disappear.

I got painfully to my feet and stood there swaying until the dizziness faded away.

Wife peeked out of the tent and spotted me.

She scrambled to get the flap unzipped, and then ran to throw her arms around me, burying her head against my chest as she cried.

"I was sure that you would be taken from me," she said between sobs.

"Never my heart," I murmured as I stroked her hair and back.

Night Glow and Treasure emerged from the tent and stood watching us until Wife moved slightly away from me.

"Come, we have a lot to do while there is still daylight to work by," I said.

Treasure and Night Glow began preparations for the morning meal while Wife and I walked over to the cliff by the waterfall.

I studied the pile of rocks at the base of the cliff. There might just be enough stone to do what I had in mind.

"We need to gather as many of these rocks as we can and take them back to the tents," I said.

"But why?" asked Wife.

"I will build my home here," I told her. "With thick walls to keep out the cold of winter and the heat of summer."

"Typical human, building a cave when there are so many to chose from close by."

I damn near jumped out of my skin. "Damn it Bear, do you have to sneak up on me like that?"

"No," replied the bear with a mental chuckle. "But I do enjoy seeing you get all flustered like that."

Wife snickered and I had to laugh as well. "Just wait my friend, you will get yours soon enough," I told the grizzly.

Unimpressed, the bear yawned and scratched behind an ear with his hind paw.

The rest of the morning went by quickly with Night Glow and Wife hauling stones on a makeshift travois and Treasure mixing mud and grass to make a primitive mortar to hold the rocks together.

I used stakes and twine to lay out the shape on the cabin. Then I took my shovel and leveled the foundation lines as best I could.

Once sufficient stones had been gathered, I shaped them roughly with my hammer and passed them on to the ladies to set into place.

By the time Brett returned about sundown, the walls were already waist high.

There were actually two sets of walls, one inside the other with about 6 inches of space between them. This space I filled with dirt and tamped it down tight. This would provide additional insulation and would help block drafts coming through the inevitable chinks in the walls.

Once the walls were high enough, I took the shovel and leveled the interior space to lay flat stones for a floor. The excess dirt went into the space between the walls.

Brett landed his ultralight and secured it for the night. Night Glow left her labors to run and greet her husband with kisses and hugs.

She was chattering away as she showed Brett the work that we had accomplished so far.

Brett just listened and looked, then made a few suggestions of his own.

"The interior walls don't have to be heavy," he said. "And it should be easy enough to find seasoned timbers enough to make the roof supports."

"What did you bring back with you?" I asked.

"Mostly bad news," he said. "They are trying to recall both of us to active duty."

"Fuck that," I replied. "I have my own war to fight right here."

Brett laughed. "That was pretty much my response. Fortunately I was able to dodge the 90-day wonder that they sent to pass the invitations out to us."

I chuckled at Brett's use of the term for a freshly minted graduate of officer Candidate School. They were almost always full of by-the-book enthusiasm and way short on common sense.

That evening I filled Brett in on the visit from the Kachina spirits.

He let out a low whistle. "Man, you are playing in the big leagues now Slick."

"Ah, but I have a plan," I said.

Brett rolled his eyes. "Now where have I heard that one before," he quipped. "Oh yeah, right before everything went to hell in a handbasket."

"Get bent," I retorted.

Brett just laughed.

A quotation had been rolling around in my mind all day. "The great Kung Fu Tze confounded by the question of a dolt!"

In other words, Loki/Coyote would be expecting me to try something complex and devious.

That was the way his mind worked, and I doubted that he would be able to think in simple linear terms even if he had to.

I was going to exploit this by being direct and simple.

Hopefully while he was trying to figure out what my real plan was, I would be too close for him to do anything about it.

To quote a favorite author of mine, "He's playing chess when the name of the game is checkers."

With Bear to help locate the dead trees we needed and Brett to help fell and haul the dead timber, we were ready to build the roof long before the ladies had the walls high enough. So we pitched in and helped them haul and stack the stones.

Treasure left off mixing the mud and grass, turning that chore over to Night Glow.

She harvested reeds from the shore of the pond and set about weaving them into mats that would serve as the inside walls of the cabin.

On the third day we finally raised the timbers to support the roof of the cabin.

I elected for a flat roof with a small parapet around the outside edge.

Brett made a quick trip out to find Pete and arrange for a delivery of several sacks of cement and a few rolls of nylon mesh.

When Pete dropped off the supplies the next day, Brett and I spread the nylon mesh in layers to support the cement that was hauled up the side of the house a bucket at a time.

When we were done, the house was snug and as weatherproof as we could make it.

A final flight by Brett brought in brass hinges and other hardware to fit the fiberglass door and windows that Pete had dropped off along with the cement.

I carried Wife over the threshold into our new home much to the amusement of Brett and her sisters.

Over the next few days Wife and her sisters made beds while Brett and I fashioned a table and chairs,

Night Glow asked Brett when we would start building their house.

Brett looked flustered. "Umm," he said. "I hadn't even thought about that yet."

The next morning Brett and his wife had picked out a sit not far from our cabin.

With the experience that we had gained from building the first cabin, the second went up in about half the time.

Pete made a couple of trips with the needed hardware and supplies. On the last trip he finally got out of the chopper long enough to meet the ladies.

"Next time I come out here, I'm putting the pods on the chopper," he told us. "There's something that doesn't feel right about this place to me, and I'll be damned if I come up here unarmed again!"

Bear came to me a few nights later. "The Kachina are getting impatient," he said. "They want to know when you are going to make your move."

"Tell them that it will be soon, and that I don't want to tip off Coyote by making overt preparations just yet." I replied.

Bear shook his head. "They will not like this, but I will counsel patience."

That night I sat at the table with Brett and the ladies. "I need someone to open a way into Coyote's realm," I said. "Tonight I make my move."

Treasure looked at me with her eyes wide. "We will be at our most vulnerable there."

"Not ‘we' Sweetness," I told her. "I am going in alone and unarmed."

"Madness!" exclaimed Wife. Night Glow nodded her agreement.

"Take this with you," Brett said as he pulled a sheathed knife from under his jacket.

I took the blade from the scabbard. It was a "CIA Letter Opener" A knife with a polymer blade and hilt shaped like the famous Sikes/Fairburn dagger carried by the British forces in WW2.

It would not cause a disturbance in the other realm like a blade of cold steel would, and it just might be all the edge I'd need.

"Thanks Sarge." I said.

"De Nada," he replied.

After more arguments, Wife finally agreed to open the portal to the other world.

"But only after I take you to bed again. If this is the last time I get the chance, I am not going to waste it."

She shooed everyone else out of the cabin and dragged me off to bed.

Of course I didn't resist much at all.

When we were done, Wife reluctantly dressed and stood in the middle of the room with her eyes closed.

I took a step towards her to give her another kiss before I left.

Between one step and another I found myself standing in a deep forest in the other world.