Frostbite (Bk 1 of the Elementals)

Chapter 4

Ariel looked around, considering the farm. It appeared to be in some sort of grassy basin surrounded on all sides by mountains and trees. The was a medium sized red barn off a ways on the edge of one of the fields, surrounded by a flock of chickens. Aaron had stopped by the side of a run down old house. The paint was peeling, and the wooden shingles were falling off the roof. The house looked, well, almost dead. One of the walls was so slanted that it looked more like a lean-to than an actually structurally sound building side.

“Is that—building where you live?” Ariel asked Aaron, unable to bring herself to call the ramshackle collection of boards a house.

“I sure hope not, not unless my dad has kicked me out of the house since I went to go get you” He replied “No, that’s just an old homestead. It was my great grandfather’s old house, but the was over a hundred years ago”

“Speaking of going to get me, how did you find me?” Ariel asked, turning back to face Aaron.

“It’s… hard to explain” Aaron began, his face go dark, like he had just shut himself up to the outside world. 

“I’m listening” Ariel said, “It’s not like I’m constrained time wise”

“It’s not like that, It’s just— Well, I’ll explain later” Aaron replied, getting back on his dirt bike. 

“Hop on, we should get back to the farmhouse before it gets dark. It’s just a little ways farther.” Ariel got on, and Aaron revved the engine before throttling up, setting the bike shooting off like a bullet.

As Ariel and Aaron rode on, Ariel wondered why Aaron had stopped. Wouldn't it have made more sense if he had just taken her straight to the farm house?  As the bike slowed down, eventually coming to a stop, Ariel looked up again, once again taking in her new surroundings. The two of them had come to stop by the red barn. Ariel could see that there was a a house on this side, hidden behind the massive barn before. The farm house wasn’t anything special, but it was certainly more well kept than the old building she had seen earlier. Everything looked fine at first, but as Ariel got of the bike, getting a better look at the house, she could see the door was cracked, one of the windows was broken, and the paint was scratched off the side of the house in several parallel streaks, almost as if someone had taken a knife to the side of the building. Aaron jogged inside,

“Mom? Dad?” he yelled inside. Aaron came out running over to the barn. Ariel walked over to the house, inspecting the gashes on the side of the building. There were four gashes, side by side. Now that Ariel could look at them closer, she saw they were not clean marks, but wide gashes tearing deal into the wood. From the gash on one edge to the other edge was maybe five or six inches.

“Ariel” Aaron said from behind Ariel. She turned around slowly, her eyes still caught on the gashes, before looking at Aaron.

“Yeah?”  she said, giving him a curious look. Aaron face was a mask of worry,

“How many of those things do you think were chasing you” Aaron asked.

“Things?”

“The wolves, how many” he pressed

“Maybe three or so. Why?” Ariel said, giving Aaron an odd look, trying to figure out what this was all about.

“Those things that were chasing you, they weren’t wolves.” Aaron stated, he looked like he was going to continue, but Ariel interrupted him before he could.

“What do you mean those weren't wolves? Of course they were, didn’t you see them?”

“No, they're not wolves” Aaron said, shaking his head, “There are no wolves in Colorado. Those things, they’re different. They started coming a couple months ago, appearing for a few hours, sometimes a couple days, and then just disappearing. Every time they disappear, so does someone from around here.”

“What you mean? if there not wolves, then what are they?” Ariel asked, now thoroughly confused.

“I don’t know what they are. About the same time the wolves showed up, a group of people arrived in town. No one knows who they are, but they’ve been helping us keep the wolves at bay. They said the wolves were something called an Acuru, whatever that is.” Aaron tried to explain, “But the one thing we’ve learned about these ‘Acuru’ is that they always, always, travel in packs of five.” Ariel considered this for a moment, then hesitantly said 

“So then, if there were only three following me, where were the other two?” Then it all clicked. The cracked door, where one of the wolves had thrown itself at the fixture in an attempt to get inside the house. The scratches on the side of the building where one of the wolves had racked its claws down the side of the building, and finally, the broken window where one, or maybe even both, had managed to jump inside the house.