Decemberland

Chapter 49: Enter Gaius

Crackling sparks floated through the air from the large bonfire in the darkened twilight. Nico strolled up to the oversized flames with an arm full of sticks and twigs for kindling. Three variously sized wendigo walked behind her carrying twice as in both arms; one very tall, lanky wendigo with four long, perky ears, two on each side, another short, fat wendigo with floppy ears and lips, and a normal sized wendigo with three jewels embedded in the top of its muzzle just above its snout.

The four of them handed the wood to the three-eyed wendigo, whom Nico now knew of as Mr. McFeener, or at least knew of him as he had previously been.

“I do not go by that name anymore,” he stated, taking the sticks and placing them upright in the fire, “That name belongs to the man I was, not the beast I am.”

“Then, if you’re not McFeener anymore, who do we call you?” asked Blake.

“To my companions, I am known as Gaius. A common name among those who speak the tongue of the beast.”

Phillip sat cross-legged by the fire, turning a small coin over and over in his hands, looking at it sadly. Gaius caught a glimpse of it shining in his hands and walked over to him. “May I see that?” he asked with his hand outstretched. His palm and the underside of his fingers were padded black like an animal paw, to Phillip a reminder of how alien the man he had once known so well became. Still, a hopeful glint shone in his eyes when he looked up at Gaius, that perhaps something of Mr. McFeener still remained.

Phillip handed the coin over to Gaius, and he raised it up into the firelight for a better look. “So even with the trinket I gave you on hand, your aim still wavered?”

“Something told me to stop. Your coin spoke to me.”

A small grin crept up Gaius’s muzzle. “I am glad you took such good care of it.” He crouched next to Phillip and handed the coin back. “Although I am different now, I do not forget who I was. For sake of the fond memories.”

He stood up again, in front of Nico and Blake and all the wendigo sitting near them around the fire. “Do not feel sad for me, boy. I accept who I am now, beast or human. Not because there is no going back, but because I can still make the best of what is to come. I strongly believe this.”

“You always have,” said Blake. Nico couldn’t quite understand why that unlike Phillip, Blake was all smiles. After all, being cursed into a mutated monstrosity was not something to make light of. But when she looked at Gaius, she didn’t feel all that sad for him either. She knew she should, he would never be able to go back to being human again.

“I must admit, I would be in a dark place if I was going through this alone,” said Gaius, “But I am not. And the only sadness I feel is the guilt of being grateful for it. These, my friends, are suffering the same fate. No innocent man, woman or child should have to suffer this. But they are not alone either. They have me, and I have them. There is nothing more that I could ask for.”

Energetic cries rang from the voice of every wendigo around the fire. They all grinned with their big, sharp teeth and wagging tongues hanging out the side of their jaws. They looked happy. And while it stung her as somewhat bittersweet, Nico couldn’t help but smile like Blake.

Gaius turned his gaze toward her. “It’s all thanks to you, little one.”

“I-I’m not little,” she said with a hesitant laugh, “I’m pretty average height for my kind. But thanks… I think.”

Gaius laughed, and she jolted in surprise. Even though he was a beast, his nature seemed more and more human by the second.

“Your flute,” he asked, “Do you have it?”