Gods and Ancients - 11. A Pair of Nightmares

A swirling cloud of mist appeared in the air above the wolves’ base camp on the dry lakebed. The soldiers scrambled to take up defensive positions around the perimeter of the cloud, but when it descended to the ground, it left eight bears, two tigers and one cat standing in the middle of the camp.

“Tell me,” Axel said, turning to Bill and Bernie, “When we decided that the two of you were going to be joining my little hunting party?”

“Sorry, there wasn’t time to loop you in on the change of plans,” Bill replied, “Ezekiel caught me just as we were walking to the dining room. He and I both felt it was a good idea to get Bernie the hell out of there before they figured out who and what he was. Who knows what that lunatic would decide to do if he knew he had the Heir of Odin right there inside his own palace walls.”

“Good thinking,” Adam commented, “I just wish we’d have gotten Mike out as well so all three of Bernie’s private guard could be with him.”

“I managed to get a quick word with Mike,” Bernie said, “He agreed to stay behind to watch out for the rest of the group. He worked out a special signal with Rodney and the Wights to perform an emergency evac of everyone else if things start to escalate.”

“In the meantime,” Bill added, “The Wights are going to be integral in the next phase of the lions’ psychological downfall.”

“All right, then,” Axel said, “Time to turn our attention to The Benefactors.”

He looked around at the wolves who were still surrounding their group in a loose circle, listening to the bears’ strategy and planning.

“Who’s in charge of this mob while the General and Colonel are guests of the Emperor?” Axel bellowed to the wolves.

“That would be me, Axel,” A wolf replied raising his hand and stepping forward.

Axel recognized the wolf as one of his occasional fuck-buddies during previous joint missions between wolves and bears, and grinned.

“Lieutenant Cooper!” he exclaimed with a chuckle, “The general left you and that fantastic ass of yours in charge?”

“It’s Major Cooper now, Axel,” the wolf said, slightly embarrassed but standing up straight and tall. “Let me know what you need to get underway on your mission to track down The Benefactors. I’ve already ordered two Humvees offloaded from the C-17 for your team.”

“Well, load them back up again,” Axel replied, stepping close to the wolf until he was looming over him, “If you think we’re going to spend three days crossing the Sahara desert by Humvee when the C-17 can get us to Marrakesh in a matter of hours, you’re out of your wolfy little mind.”

“Axel sir,” Major Cooper replied, “I can’t commandeer the only means of retreat for the rest of the team here at the ALC palace just to chauffer you to Marrakesh. What if there’s an emergency and they all come running out of the palace with the lions’ warriors hot on their heels?”

“Trust me,” Axel said, “After what we put those lions through this evening, and what we have planned for them tonight while they’re sleeping, we have at least twelve hours before they’re going to even think about trying anything funny. That’s more than enough time to chauffer our asses to the other side of the desert, refuel the plane in Marrakesh, and get back here before the lions wake up and have their morning coffee and okapi omelet, or whatever the fuck they eat for breakfast around here.”

“Well,” the Major replied, “We are going to have to refuel at some point before we can head back across the Atlantic…”

“That’s the spirit!” Axel said, throwing his arm around the Major’s shoulders and leading him away from the rest of the group toward the plane. “Why don’t you come along on the flight so you can oversee the refueling, and on the way, we’ll see if I still know how to hit that magic spot that makes you howl like a bitch in heat?”

The rest of the wolf soldiers scattered to find busy-work to do, and to pretend they didn’t just witness their commanding officer getting seduced by a Kodiak bear, while the rest of the bears and tigers followed Axel and the Major at a safe distance.

“Your Papa certainly has a way with the wolves,” Nukilik said as they watched Axel grab the wolf’s ass suggestively while they walked to the waiting aircraft.

“Well, you polar bears and tigers haven’t cornered the market on interspecies playtime,” Adam replied with a grin. “Just ask Beta Chad!”

****

The aircraft cruised at 35,000 feet, leaving the ALC palace behind in the northern region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, crossing the Central African Republic airspace and entering the Sahara.

The wheels were barely up before Axel and Adam took Major Cooper into the section of the cabin with the sleeping berths and dropped a curtain for privacy. Not that the curtain did much to hide what was going on, as Axel’s rhythmic grunting accompanying his shouted dirty talk to both Cooper and Adam echoed throughout the fuselage anyway.

The eight other members of Axel’s team were gathered around a makeshift conference table, upon which an enormous map of the Atlas Mountain range in Morocco was spread.

To one side of the table, a video monitor plotted the C-17’s location as it traversed the continent.

“Ah gods, Bill,” Bernie grumbled as he eyed the monitor now and rubbed the center of his forehead, “That bad feeling is getting worse the farther into the Sahara we go.”

“What bad feeling?” Siku asked, staring at the pair curiously. “Something we should know about?”

“Yeah,” Bernie replied, “I think it’s time to let the rest of the party in on the deep, dark secret.”

Bill nodded and let Bernie proceed.

“Ever since we first flew into Africa, I’ve had this feeling like some evil… thing has been watching us. Watching me in particular. Whatever it is, it is filled with hatred and malice, and I can feel its emotions coming at me in waves just as easily as a bear can detect another’s scent from across a room.”

“So, what you’re saying,” Shivay said, “Is that in addition to Emperor Crazy-Pants and the heard-but-never-seen meddlesome Benefactors, we may have yet another pissed-off African entity with a telepathic link to our demigod friend?”

“That’s the long and short of it,” Bill replied. “We don’t know what it’s intentions are, where it is located, or what it even… is.”

“Maybe we should have brought some of the Wights along on this excursion,” Max said nervously.

“The Wights wouldn’t be any kind of help so far away from Rodney,” Bill said, “We can teach them some parlor tricks to allow us to get them to perform pre-determined actions based on Rodney’s instructions, but they wouldn’t have answered any of our commands even if we were able to get some of them to follow along with us to Morocco. Not without Rodney, and they need him there at the Palace to keep up the pressure on the Emperor and the Kings.”

Deep beneath the sands, the being sensed the blood of Odin flying high above his domain, just out of reach. It drew a breath and exhaled in anger; a loud rumbling roar that threw a terrible dust storm high into the atmosphere.

“Attention passengers and flight crew,” the voice of the Captain crackled over the plane’s internal PA system, “You all better strap in. We’re heading into a dust storm so huge there’s no way around it. I’ve never seen one this size at this altitude before in my career, and we’re going to have to fly straight through it. Everybody find a seat and hang on!”

The nose of the plane entered the dust storm and the entire craft lurched. Behind the privacy curtain, three bodies could be heard falling onto the floor with a series of loud “thumps” and a few seconds later, Adam came running back to where the rest of the group were struggling to get buckled in, clad only a military green jockstrap and mumbling, “I hate flying, I hate flying, I hate flying!”

The aircraft lurched a second time, and Axel and Major Cooper came staggering back as well, holding onto each other for support. Both had taken the time to pull their tactical cargo pants back on, and they practically fell into a pair of seats next to Adam and the rest of the team.

Axel got his seat belt buckled quickly but one end of Cooper’s belt was partially stuck between the seat cushion and armrest when the aircraft suddenly took a nosedive, flinging the panicked wolf out of his seat and bouncing him against the ceiling of the fuselage like a rag doll. As the plane righted itself and Cooper began to fall toward the floor again, Bernie’s protective reflexes took over, and he quickly unbuckled his belt and stood to catch the battered wolf in his arms before he could suffer any more injury.

The plane lurched upward once again, and Bernie dropped back into his seat heavily, buckling his belt back across his hips with one hand while continuing to cradle the unconscious wolf in his other arm.

The C-17 entered a patch of heavy turbulence, and the rumbling vibration of the craft rattled the bones of the team strapped into their seats. Charlie the cat had crawled inside Siku’s uniform jacket at the first warning of trouble, and now her head poked out of the top of the zipper underneath the bear’s chin, emitting an unhappy “mr-r-r-r-r” sound along with the vibrations of the turbulence.

A loud explosion could be heard to the right of the aircraft and the plane suddenly tilted forty-five degrees in that direction before slowly righting itself.

Axel thumbed a button in front of his seat to contact the cockpit via intercom.

“What the fuck was that?” he shouted, “Are we under missile attack?”

“No sir, Axel,” the Captain replied with a shaky voice, “One of our starboard engines just blew from the dust and sand clogging up the intake. Don’t worry, we still have three more engines to get us to Marrakesh!”

The aircraft continued to fight the turbulence and occasional bumps large enough to send the plane lurching suddenly in one direction or another for twenty more agonizing minutes before the dust storm cleared and the plane leveled out.

“Finally!” Nameer exclaimed, releasing his Mate’s arm but leaving five claw-marks behind in the flesh of Nukilik’s skin, “Let’s pray for clear skies the remainder of the flight to Morocco!”

Axel scrutinized his own Mate, the huge Kodiak curled into as tight a ball as he could manage with his feet pulled up onto his seat and his forehead resting against his knees, still clad only in a jockstrap. Adam had been flying successfully for several years now without needing to be doped-up on orpin roseroot, but this storm seemed to have been too much for the aerophobic Cub.

“Adam,” Axel said softly, tapping his Mate on the shoulder, “It’s over. Why don’t you go find your clothes and get dressed?”

“Yes, Papa,” Adam said, uncurling himself and unbuckling his seatbelt to stand on shaky legs once again.

He had only walked halfway back to their curtained privacy area where his clothing laid strewn about when a second loud explosion could be heard from the left side of the plane this time, and the aircraft made another sudden forty-five degree bank to the left, knocking any of the team on their feet back to the floor, and sending Adam tumbling into the side of one of the Humvees strapped down in the cargo bay.

“Goddammit!” Axel yelled from his spot on the floor, reaching up to hit the intercom button again, “What the fuck is happening now?”

“One of the port-side engines just blew,” the Captain called back. “We’re down to two engines, but that’s enough to keep us airborne until we reach our destination, I’ll just have to decrease our cruising altitude somewhat to compensate.”

“Do we have anybody on the team who can fix an engine?” Axel asked hopefully.

“Yes, sir,” the Captain replied, “But not on this flight crew. They’re back at the palace base camp.”

“Fuck, fuckity, fuck!” Axel grumbled to himself before thumbing the intercom button back on again.

“Just do your best to get us there in one piece, Captain. We’ll reassess our strategy once we’re back on the ground.”

Axel leapt back to his feet and ran down the aisle into the cargo bay area to find his Cub. He found Adam slumped unconscious against one of the Humvee’s big tires with a deep gash across his forehead which was slowly healing and trickling blood down his face.

“Cub!” Axel shouted, taking him by the shoulders, “Adam! Are you okay?”

Adam opened his eyes and blinked around the blood obscuring his vision.

“Papa?” he said, smiling a little bit at Axel’s face hovering over him, “Oh, I just had the worst nightmare. I was in a plane falling out of the sky, but instead of hitting the ground, I somehow got hit in mid-air by a big fucking truck! How weird is that?”

“Sounds like a doozy, Cub,” Axel replied, smiling back at him. “Why don’t you try to get a little more sleep, okay? I think the nightmares are over… for now.”

****

“Are you Ready, Rodney?” Mike asked as the remaining bears along with Apollo and Susie gathered around in the living area of their suite of rooms within the palace. “The lions’ worst nightmare is about to begin!”

Rodney stepped up and his eyes began to glow green. The Wights gathered in a swirling cloud over his head.

“We’re ready,” Rodney replied, “What’s the plan?”

“Well,” Mike said, “I was planning the next strategy with Bill, and he remembered back when Bernie was a cadet at the Academy, and the Wights would invade his dreams every night. So, rather than letting our hosts get a good night’s sleep, let’s give them a night to remember!”

“What do we have in mind, Cub?” Gunnar asked, “What can we show them in their dreams that would make a difference to the egomaniac-in-chief?”

“These lions put us through quite a trauma a week ago,” Mike replied. “How about we give them a taste of their own medicine?”

The bears nodded and reviewed the plan with Rodney, who instructed the Wights. Once the orders were given, the misty cloud seeped around the edges of their door and flew through the interconnected rooms of the Palace, dividing as necessary until they reached the bedchambers of the nine Kings and the Emperor himself. They hovered over the faces of the lions, waiting for the next deep breath. Simultaneously, throughout the Palace, the Wights entered the nasal passages of each, moving through their heads to the brain, and beginning their shared nightmare.

****

Emperor Kintu opened his eyes and looked around his room. This was not his royal bedchamber, and he was not in the Palace. He lay upon a large soft bed, covered in sheets of white cotton and a coverlet filled with down. He leapt from the bed and looked around the room. As he moved, artificial lighting slowly brightened automatically in response. He was in a modern Western-style structure with painted plaster, carpet on the floor, chrome and leather furniture, and walls of glass. He moved quickly to one of these glass walls, and saw an unfamiliar landscape, decidedly not African. Snow-capped mountains stretched to the horizon in one direction, and the lights of a human city sparkled a short distance away in the other.

“Servants!” Kintu shouted, “Cheetahs! Attend to me!”

But, no servants entered the room; he was all alone.

Kintu realized as he stood in the middle of the ugly, modern bedroom that he was completely naked. He threw open a cupboard along one wall and found a plain, gray cotton robe. He snatched it from its hangar and put it on to cover himself before striding to the door on the far side of the living area, and throwing it open, still expecting to find the comforting sight of the antechamber to his royal suite on the other side of the door.

His face fell into a deep scowl as emerged into a long, straight, and narrow hallway, lined with doors similar to the one from which he had just exited. Without realizing it, the door to his strange room swung closed on its own, and he heard the metallic “click” as it latched and locked itself. He grabbed the handle and jiggled it up and down several times before realizing that there was no returning to this room now that he had left it. He must push forward.

He strode along the hallway, coming to a crossroads where two other halls branched away in either direction. He selected the path to the right and continued on his journey. Each turn he made led him only to more identical hallways lined with more identical doors, all locked.

Eventually, after roaming the maze of hallways for what seemed an eternity, he turned a corner and came face-to-face with King Shombay dressed in a gray robe identical to his own.

“Your Highness!” Shombay shouted in surprise. “What is happening? Where are we?”

“I do not know,” Kintu replied with a hint of relief showing on his face at finally seeing another lion in this strange place. “I suspect those devious bears have used their powers again.”

“If this is meant to teach us a lesson,” Shombay said with fear in his voice, “I don’t know yet what that lesson is supposed to be.”

The pair, continued to wander the maze of hallways. The design of this structure made no sense to the lions, as it did not follow the beautiful spiraling symmetry of their Palace. After many hours of roaming, they came to a shorter, wider hallway with a series of silver, metal doors placed close together on opposite walls. All at once, lights above four of the doors flashed, and soft bells rang before the doors slid open and eight more Kings emerged in pairs from the four small rooms revealed within the walls.

“Your Highness! Emperor!” the other eight Kings shouted as they rushed from the tiny rooms into the hall where Kintu and Shombay stood.

All lions wore the same gray cotton robe, and Kintu thought with great displeasure that the devious bears had attempted to equalize the rank and status between King and Emperor.

“And where have you all been?” Kintu raged to the eight other Kings as they gathered around him in the hall. “Shombay and I have been wandering this senseless maze for hours!”

“Yes,” Shombay added, “Before finding you just now, I thought that I might be going insane trapped here alone with the Emperor!”

Kintu turned upon Shombay with a look of rage but said nothing as the panicked lion was clutching the shoulder of King Tau with his eyes closed and trying to control his breathing.

“Your highness,” King Tau replied, attempting to deflect the Emperor’s attention away from Shombay, “King Zidan and I each wandered alone for a long time before finding one another, and even then, we too searched endlessly for hours and began to question our own sanity before encountering the wide hall with the silver doors. A light over one of the doors was illuminated, and a bell rang before the doors opened upon that small room. Seeming to have no other options, we entered, and the doors closed behind us. A few seconds later the doors re-opened, and we saw you and King Shombay in what appeared to be the same wide hall, waiting.”

Each of the lion pairs related the same story until Kintu had heard enough.

“This is all more trickery by the bears and their powers,” he said angrily. “They have found a punishment worse than their so-called Void.”

“Did you happen to notice the landscape outside through the window in the room in which you awoke?” Tau asked the group, “Based on what I have heard from descriptions, I believe the mountains and the human city to be Calgary. The bears have transported us to their own NALC headquarters complex!”

“Nonsense!” Kintu replied, “If this was the NALC, where are the wolves? Where is the Supreme Alpha? They would not bring us here just to allow us to wander the halls unguarded!”

“Unless we have been under surveillance from the moment we arrived,” King Adnan said, and the lions looked around at each other uncomfortably.

At that moment, the light above one of the silver doors lit up once again and a bell rang out. The doors slid open, and revealed a small room again, but this one was considerably larger than the other four. Large enough for all ten lions to fit at once.

The lions stood together in a group staring at the small room, unsure whether to enter once again. After several seconds the doors slid closed, only for the light above to flash, the bell to ring, and the doors to slide back open once more.

“It seems that we’re meant to enter this small room once more,” King Basel said. “Entering it the last time at least caused us all to be reunited, so there may be more waiting for us when the doors open once again. Maybe even the cheetah servants or the lionesses!”

Emperor Kintu growled and shoved the Kings out of his way as he strode into the small room. The Kings quickly followed, and once all ten were packed into the small room, the doors slid shut once more. They could feel a vibration in the floor, and they looked at each other nervously, but the ordeal lasted less than a minute before the doors re-opened and they found themselves looking at a much larger hallway with floors of polished marble instead of carpeting. They disembarked from the small room as a group, and the doors closed behind them again.

“Look in that direction!” King Basel shouted, “There is light and a great open space at the end of this hall. It may be our chance at freedom!”

Kintu led the way, and the nine Kings followed closely behind as they all moved quickly toward the light at the end of the hallway. When they reached it, they found themselves in a great atrium made of glass and steel that rose to a height that rivaled the great central hall of the Palace itself. In the middle of the atrium stood an enormous marble statue depicting four wolves standing around a fifth, elevated upon a rock in the center, and all five tipping their heads toward the sky in a victorious howl. The statue itself stood in the center of a deep pool, and jets of water from around the perimeter of the pool splashed and danced on the statues.

An empty stage was erected in front of the fountain and statue, and gathered in front of this stage were about two-hundred bears in their human forms, all turning to look at the arrival of the lions who now stood at the edge of the atrium.

“Hail Emperor Kintu!” the bears shouted, “Hail Kings of Africa!”

The group of bears moved quickly to engulf the new arrivals, and the lions found themselves pushed in confusion toward the center of the room and the stage. When they reached the front of the crowd of bears and were at the edge of the stage, they saw that it was no longer empty as before. Standing upon the stage looking down upon them were ten lions of advanced age in their human forms. Kintu’s eyes fell upon one lion who looked back and him directly, and he gasped in surprise.

“Father,” Kintu whispered.

There were similar responses of shock and surprise from the Kings as one by one, they each recognized their own ancient father standing upon the stage regarding them sternly. This sudden appearance was all the more shocking to the lions, since each of their fathers had been dead for many hundreds of years.

“Come, sons of Africa,” Kintu’s father called, gesturing with his arm for the lions to join their fathers on the stage.

“It has been far too long since we have seen each other,” another of the ancient lions said to the sons, “We have feared that you have forgotten the faces of your fathers.”

“Never!” King Tau replied, pushing his way in front of Kintu onto the stage to embrace this lion. His father. “I remember your face and all the wisdom that you taught me.”

The other eight kings elbowed their way past Kintu as well, rushing onto the stage to be reunited with their fathers until the Emperor was the only one left standing on the floor in front of the stage.

“Come son,” Kintu’s father said, still looking down at him, “Do you not desire to be reunited with me?”

“I would,” Kintu said, “If I thought that you were my real father, and not some trick being played upon me by the powers of the bears.”

“The bears did not bring me here to trick you,” Kintu’s father said, “I am here as a manifestation of your own memories.”

The ancient lion extended his hand. Kintu scowled but took his father’s offered hand and stepped upon the stage with him.

The Emperor looked away from the manifestation of his father for a few seconds in order to regard the Kings of his Council. They each stood embracing their long-deceased fathers, brought back to them in the flesh, openly showing emotion as these elders whispered comfort into their ears.

“Why have you come here now?” Kintu asked his father, not stepping forward to embrace him or showing any emotion. “Why in this place… at this time? Surely it is not for my benefit or the benefit of the Kings. This reunion stinks of the treachery of the bears.”

“Why are you so intimidated by these bears?” his father asked, gesturing to the two hundred faces watching them from the crowd in the atrium. “What have they really done to threaten your Empire?”

“They are too powerful!” Kintu raged. “First with the ascension of the Heir of Odin, a demigod among their ranks, and then by revealing that supernatural powers are common among their breed. They are a race who have the power to destroy, and any race with that power is an enemy of the Empire.”

“The bears do not stand alone among the races with the power to destroy, my son,” the lion said, “The difference is that the bears are not so eager to use that power.”

As the lion finished these words to his son, a small, lanky wolf stepped up to the end of the stage.

“Excuse me, Bear Lord?” the small wolf said nervously. He held a box covered with brightly colored party paper in his hands. All nine Kings and their fathers turned to look at this strange newcomer to their reunion within the atrium.

“The lions of the African Lycan Council extend their greetings to you and all werebears of North America. Please accept this token as a symbol of their respect for the Heir of Odin on Earth.”

The wolf stepped on the dais and began to walk towards the lions with the package extended in front of him.

“Bomb!” several bears within the crowd shouted, and Kintu and the Kings looked at the wolf and his package with shock and fear.

The ten ancient fathers each smiled at their sons one final time before moving swiftly in the direction of the wolf, surrounding him, and covering him and his deadly package with their very bodies.

“Father!” King Tau cried out, “No!”

An instant later, the atrium was consumed in the flash and deafening explosion as the package detonated, blasting the lions’ collective nightmare apart.

****

Tau sat up in bed screaming. The explosion was so real he could still imagine seeing the ghost of the bright flash in front of his eyes as he looked around his room in the Palace with fear and desperation.

Chikondi sat up beside him and threw his arms around the lion’s shoulders to offer comfort.

“What is it my love?” he whispered, as Tau continued to breathe heavily in a panic. “Did you have a bad dream?”

Tau closed his eyes again and focused his senses, he could still faintly detect the remnants of his father’s scent, lingering in the forefront of his mind.

“What have we done?” he asked aloud, confusing his cheetah lover, “We have become the very thing that we fear the most.”

Chikondi continued to rub his back in comfort, but Tau’s emotions overcame him as he sat in bed and wept.

****

Across the Palace, Kintu woke in his own bed with a start, sitting up quickly and scanning the room in a panic. The lights of the blast still danced before his eyes in the gloom of the bedchamber, and his ears still rang with the sound.

“Did something disturb you, my Lord?” Auryon asked, sitting up beside her husband and touching him gently on the arm.

“Just a dream,” Kintu replied, closing his eyes again and controlling his breathing. “My father was in it… as well as the Kings… and the stinking bears.”

“The power of the trickster bears has gotten inside your head, my love,” Auryon replied. “You must stand fast to your principles.”

“I feel that my father was trying to teach me some kind of lesson,” Kintu continued. “But the message is already fading rapidly from my memory along with the rest of the dream.”

“Good,” Auryon said, “Rest now and clear your mind. Tomorrow, we turn up the heat on the bears to show them that the lions are not to be trifled with.”