Part 109: Run For The Hills

Main story folder & table of contents: "Escape From Manitou Island" 
Previous chapter: "Part 108: Between The Peaks" 

PART ONE HUNDRED AND NINE:
Run For The Hills

AUGWAK'S EYES POPPED open, and Charmian paused in midstep to see his pupils dilate, then dart to the side to focus on her face. They suddenly dilated further, and before she knew it Augwak had leapt to his feet, hissing and reaching out to grab her by the neck. She had enough time to let out a tiny squeak of surprise, feeling his fingernails digging into her skin--before he hurled her against the wall, where she smacked facefirst before sliding to the ground, dazed and befuddled. She heard a loud gasping noise and shook her head, pushing herself around to see what was going on. Her jaw fell open and her eyes goggled.

Augwak had leapt across the room and knocked No-Tongue over onto his back, and was now balanced on his chest, his fingers crooked and his face ugly. It looked like every single one of his teeth was bared, if that were even physically possible.

"Even TRY anything, fleshling," he hissed in the most awful voice imaginable, "and I'll rip the heart right out of your CHEST!"

Charmian gawked, utterly baffled. No-Tongue started quaking, his own teeth bared; when Augwak hissed again and swung his hand down toward him, she gasped and jumped up.

"AUGWAK! KNOCK IT OFF!"

Augwak's hand froze directly over No-Tongue's heart and his head popped up, turning to look at her. She furrowed her brow at the look he had--he looked completely innocent, and she certainly wasn't used to seeing that expression on his face. He blinked, then his own brow furrowed as if she'd hurt his feelings.

"But--" He threw up his hands but made sure to dig his toenails in. "Fleshling! He was trying to kill you! I can finish him off and eat him up and be done with it!" He glared down into No-Tongue's face again and licked his teeth.

Charmian clenched her fists. "If you even DARE I'll knock your head in! GET OFF!!"

The GeeBee gave her another look, lips curling back, but his eyes started brimming. She gave him a look of her own as he reluctantly stepped off of No-Tongue's chest. No-Tongue, for his part, leapt to his feet and bolted into the far corner of the cave, clasping his arms around himself and gasping for breath as he gawked at them, shaking like a leaf.

Augwak clenched his fists and started muttering, moving to sit beside the opposite wall and fuming to himself. "An incredible waste of perfectly good fleshling...!" she heard him grumble, and his stomach started growling so he clutched at it and groaned. Charmian scowled, then slumped back against her wall and let out a breath. She ran her hand down her face.

Cripes!! How the hell am I even going to get up and down this mountain with company like this--?

Wait a minute--"He was trying to kill you"--?

Kill me? Not "kill us"...?

Her eyes opened and she peered at the GeeBee between her fingers, feeling very weirdly confused.

Didn't he mean, "He was trying to kill us"--? Why would he care that he was trying to kill ME--?

She turned to look at No-Tongue again, who still cowered by the other wall. She pushed herself away from the wall and took a step toward him; he gasped and ducked his head, cringing. She threw Augwak a dirty look but then ignored him.

"I'm sorry about that," she apologized. "He's just...been really hungry lately! Do you think you could point us out the right way to get down from here? I have to find the others and then get on our way. I'll try not to make it take long, I promise."

No-Tongue chattered for a moment, then bit his lip hard and lowered his arms. He glanced between the two of them a few times, then slowly stood, straightening himself out. He began making signs with his hands; when Charmian frowned, he went to the wall and rubbed at the drawing, adding a new trail leading around the smaller mountain. Charmian stared at it.

"You know a path?" she asked, and he began adding trees. He drew a little stick figure with pointed ears and her face lit up. "Pakwa! You saw them--? Are they a little bit around this mountain then--?"

No-Tongue shook his head to the first, but shrugged at the second. He started signing anew, somewhat quickly; Charmian's enthusiasm died a little as she frowned and tried to figure out what he was even saying. She furrowed her brow in confusion.

"For spirits' sakes! Can't you read sign language--?" Augwak snapped, making her jump. He gave her a foul look. "He's SAYING that there's ANOTHER cave in that direction, and that when people get lost, they tend to head over there! So if that idiot and that brat are still up here, THAT'S where they went!"

"Can you give us directions?" Charmian asked.

No-Tongue nodded and began drawing on the picture, then trailed off, frowning a little. After a moment he wiped it away with his elbow and turned back to her, waving between the two of them. He made a hand gesture of two figures walking, one behind the other, and started walking them up an imaginary slope.

Charmian blinked. "You could show us--? I mean, come along with us--?" He nodded and she brightened again. "You're sure? I mean, I've already bothered you enough..."

No-Tongue shook his head quickly and waved at her pack, made chewing motions, then rubbed his stomach and sighed. He made the walking gestures again and she sensed that he was quite relieved that she hadn't turned the offer down.

"Well...okay!" she exclaimed. "Thank you! You don't need to pay me back...it's only what anybody would've done..."

"Not me," Augwak grumbled.

"Shut up, Augwak," Charmian said without even thinking about it, and turned back to No-Tongue. "Do you think we could get going now? I know it's abrupt, but I'm really worried about the others, and we have a really strict timetable to keep to..."

No-Tongue nodded and she slipped on her pack. He went to the corner to dig something out and sat down; she paused to see him lacing on some snowshoes. She made a face and pulled her pack off, pulling out the snowshoes which she'd stuck halfway into it while going up the mountain. She hated the cumbersome things, yet the thought of wallowing around, especially with this bad ankle, didn't appeal to her much. She sat down and carefully laced them on, wincing when she had to do one up around her splint, but aside from that they fit pretty well. She sighed and bobbed on her good foot a bit, just to try to get used to it. "You need any, Augwak--?" she called out, just to be annoying, but the GeeBee was already stomping toward the entrance, muttering the entire way.

"Could just as well leave them BEHIND! And get it over with a LOT sooner, and get my MEDICINE back...!!"

"I have never met anybody as fixated in my life," Charmian said, but made certain to wrap her clothes around herself more tightly as No-Tongue passed her, gesturing for her to follow. They stepped out of the cave and Charmian got her first good look around them.

They had stepped onto a steep snowy slope, which led somewhat diagonally down the mountainside; Charmian shivered and followed in No-Tongue's exact path when he signed for her to do so. He also put a finger to his mouth and she nodded, peering up uneasily at the drifts of heavy snow looming overhead. The sky had grown even darker than before, and she began to worry that setting out right now hadn't been the best idea after all...but then again, leaving Winter Born and Pakwa alone in the middle of who-knows-where didn't strike her as very appealing either.

She held up her hand, but the flame it emitted wasn't bright enough to light up a substantial part of the path, and it seemed to make No-Tongue uneasy. "I wish I hadn't been out so long," she murmured. "What if we can't see them in the dark?"

"Duh, as your stupid FRIENDS would say," Augwak snapped. "I can SMELL them! BOTH of them. Which means they can't be TOO far away. That stupid hairy wretch MASKED their scents before. Now at least the air's a little bit CLEARER!"

"That stupid hairy wretch could've been your grandfather," Charmian retorted. "So I suggest you think twice before insulting it again! It wasn't that long ago when YOU were like that thing! Remember?"

Augwak bared his teeth at her and shook a fist. "At least THEN you thought twice about sassing me! Oh wait, no--YOU DIDN'T! One of these days SOME Wendigo or bear or Lynx is going to BITE YOUR HEAD OFF and I will do nothing but LAUGH!"

"No you won't, you'd miss me too much," Charmian said. The words slipped out before she even realized what she was saying, then she blinked. The look that Augwak got, however, made her feel even greater disbelief. His face went brilliant red and his eyes looked ready to pop out; he clapped his hands to his chest, gave a horrible grimace, and then turned and went scurrying away down the trail. Charmian wondered if she should run after him; it looked like he'd been ready to have a heart attack.

No-Tongue turned to her with a frown and started signing. When he saw that she didn't understand, he patted at his chest, made a circle with his thumbs and forefingers, and patted at his chest again, waving after the vanishing GeeBee.

Charmian furrowed her brow. "What about his spirit stone? You mean you can see stuff like that?"

No-Tongue bit his lip and shrugged; he gestured vaguely at the mountain and she felt that he was saying, "You get that way from living up here!" Then he made the spirit-stone gesture again.

"Well, what?" Charmian asked, growing a little peeved.

In response No-Tongue picked up a pebble lying in the snow, held it up to his chest, then shook his head and tossed it away. He pointed at the little flame over her hand, made the ring gesture, and nodded. Then turned away before her mouth could fall all the way open.

What the HELL--?!

"Hey, wait a minute!!" she exclaimed, then clapped her hands to her mouth when he shushed her. She hurried after him. "What the heck did THAT mean--?"

A far-off moaning sound made them freeze in place, eyes wide and ears straining. No-Tongue peered back over his shoulder, then at her, and gestured for her to keep moving. Charmian bit her lip but obeyed. They walked in relative silence now, peeking back every now and then, but nothing showed up on the trail but the glitter of the snow.

"Whittikos...?" Charmian whispered.

No-Tongue nodded. He began signing, but he kept the gestures simple enough that she could get the basic gist of what he was saying. She recognized obvious signs for Wendigo and huge and eating and freezing in there. Then he started signing some things that she assumed to be events from his stay up in the mountains...they were somewhat harder to follow, and she was sure that she missed a lot, but at least it was quiet, and seemed to keep the two of them busy, and she found that she liked that more than just walking and thinking too much. She pretended she understood more than she did, nodding every time he paused and waving at him to go on. Eventually they caught up with Augwak and he rejoined them, grinding his teeth and slapping his hands and feet against the snow as he walked. They continued in this way as the trail wound down and around the mountain's base and toward the other side--Charmian was grateful that these weren't the Himalayas, now--until it grew too dark to make the gestures out clearly, at which point she began talking softly again.

"Listen," she whispered, as they squeezed around a fallen boulder, "I made friends with the people down in the nearest camp...kind of...and helped them kill off a Whittiko. And told them I'd help them with the ones up here. I think maybe they'd believe me if I convinced them you're not one. You could come down with me and I could put in a good word for you, if you want."

No-Tongue peered at her uncertainly. He made a sign at his chest.

Charmian shrugged. "I could show them that! That's all they really need to see, isn't it? That and the fact that you'd rather eat granola bars instead of people. You could've easily eaten me or Augwak while we were out but you didn't. That says a lot more than some stupid superstition." She tilted her head. "What do you say? As soon as we get this thing taken care of, you can come along with us and I'll take you to the camp. There's this old woman there who'll vouch for you too. It has to beat living up in an ice cave and eating...whatever it is that you eat!"

No-Tongue gnawed on the inside of his mouth, but she could tell that he wanted to say yes. "Come on!" she said. "I insist. It's no trouble at all." His eyes slowly lit up and he patted at his chest hopefully; she nodded and smiled, and then he beamed in return, and gave a rapid nod of his own. "Settled, then," Charmian said. "As soon as this is all taken care of, you can move on out. And probably have lots better eating, too."

"My heart is going to melt from the utter disgustingness of this," Augwak muttered.

"You're just jealous because that Wendigo is bigger than you," Charmian said. No-Tongue tugged on her sleeve and halted, pointing; she stopped and peered ahead. The mountain was sloping away from them again, leading into a series of smaller foothills; the valley between them was a mixture of snow and tendrils of glacier, dotted with stands of pines. No-Tongue pointed at one of the foothills and nudged her closer so she could see exactly the one he pointed at; she squinted. "That's where the cave is?" she asked, and received a nod. "Augwak--?"

The GeeBee took a big sniff, then made a face. "Smells about right," he grumbled.

Charmian let out a sigh of relief. "Well then...let's get going! The sooner we get back together, the sooner we meet Kabebonikka and get this all over with."

They started meandering down the trail into the valley. The little hills all looked much the same under their coating of snow, and Charmian wondered how anyone could tell them apart, though No-Tongue and Augwak didn't seem to be having any trouble knowing where they were going. She bit her lip and suppressed a sigh. Someday she'd have to stop by the Island just to have Francois or Stick or someone teach her how to do everyday things like build canoes...and tell directions without a compass...and find hidden caves in snowy foothills.

Her brow pinched in worry. That is, IF there's still an Island, after all this...

"Come on, hurry it up!" Augwak snapped, glaring back at her; her head popped up and she realized that she'd been drifting. "I thought you wanted to be QUICK about this!"

Charmian's temper flared. "Oh, shut up!" she shot back, No-Tongue waving at her. "You've done nothing but BITCH and moan this entire trip! You do realize that it's all up to ME whether you even see that medicine again, don't you--?"

The ground started vibrating, and only a little too late did Charmian clap her hands to her mouth again, thinking, Avalanche--!! But No-Tongue grabbed her wrist a little hard, shooting her a panicked look, and before she knew it he was towing her along after him as he jumped from the trail and started scrambling down the mountainside. Charmian had time to let out a startled yelp before she was following, crying out again every time her ankle was jarred. In a split second Augwak was racing alongside them, kicking up roostertails of snow as he passed. A thunderous BOOM came from overhead and behind, and Charmian felt her blood go cold when she realized, THAT'S not an avalanche...

She made the mistake of glancing back behind them. They'd passed the curve of the mountain, and the bigger mountain was slipping out of sight; yet a gigantic shadow passed along its side, before the gigantic head it belonged to came into view, and the Wendigo turned to look straight down at them, its huge yellow eyes narrowing and its ears pricking. Charmian couldn't even tell if it was the same one as before or not. It opened its mouth, showing a complete set of slavering teeth, and ponderously turned to follow them.

Charmian tripped and fell then, and with a yell she and No-Tongue went tumbling down the slope.

They landed against an ice-coated boulder, breaking their fall before they could go plunging off into nothing; No-Tongue stumbled to his feet, shook himself off like a wet dog, and grabbed her arm again. Charmian grimaced--her ankle was positively throbbing by now--and tried to follow, but started to fall back over. She opened her mouth yet didn't get the chance to speak; No-Tongue promptly hauled her onto his back and set off running again, at least, as much as he could run. One of his snowshoes had snapped in back but aside from that he seemed intact, and he even darted a fearful glance of his own back at the approaching Wendigo.

"WOULD YOU TWO IDIOTS HURRY IT UP?!" Augwak screamed from ahead.

Charmian gritted her teeth. "I don't see YOU helping any!!" she yelled, her voice cracking. A BOOM made her gasp, and No-Tongue nearly pitched forward; Charmian craned her neck and saw that they had just entered the little valley on the other side of the mountain and were starting to descend toward its middle, the foothills on the other side. It was snowier up here, and several times they sank despite No-Tongue's snowshoes; they passed Augwak, who hopped from foot to foot, chattering, but he managed to hurl an icy gust up into the Wendigo's face, making it blink and slow down just a little. He rejoined them, grimacing, kicking up gobs of snow. Charmian almost made a snotty comment about the situation, until she saw the fear in his eyes, and remembered how the other GeeBees had gnawed on his arms. Then she shut her mouth, biting her tongue.

As much as he might deserve it...now's hardly the time to go rubbing his face in it! At least he's on my side now, so to speak!

No-Tongue let out a gasping sound and jerked his head forward. Charmian craned her neck to the other side and her face lit up when she saw the hill rising ahead of them, looming ever closer--two sets of footprints led through the snow toward a small opening up in its side. "That's it! They must be there!" she exclaimed. "Are you sure it's safe--?"

No-Tongue pointed hastily at a boulder as they passed it, then at the foothill. He waved back at the Wendigo--which was growling by now--and shook his head.

"It's made of rock and he can't break through--?" Charmian let out a sigh of relief. "Thank goodness! We're almost there! I think maybe we can make it!" She twisted her head around to look back at Augwak. "AUGWAK! Hit him again! I think just once more is all we need!"

"Easy enough for YOU to say!!" the GeeBee yelled, feet and hands flying as he ran.

Charmian ground her teeth, but held up her hand. "FINE!" She concentrated on the Wendigo's face and a bolt of fire shot from her hand, toward its eye.

The Wendigo halted and batted the fire aside as if it were a wasp, and its lips curled back in a ghastly scowl. Then it resumed its approach. But at least it had stopped, and this tiny pause gave No-Tongue the time he needed to launch himself at the hill's side and start clambering up.

Charmian winced at a jolt of pain in her ankle, but tried her best to ignore it. She wished that she could climb on her own, but knew that that would just get them killed all the quicker. A faint yelling noise caught her attention, and she looked up in the direction of the footprints. Two little heads were peeking down at them from far above, and even as she looked, she saw Winter Born start waving, a huge smile on her face.

"CHARMIAN!" she shouted. "YOU'RE OKAY!" Pakwa reached out and placed his hand over her mouth so her cry cut off in a stream of unintelligible mumbling.

"We're coming up! Get back inside!" Charmian yelled back, and they disappeared from view. Augwak bounded up past them but remained just outside the cave opening, shifting from foot to foot and making faces; he waved at them impatiently, and No-Tongue slowed down, bending into the incline and helping Charmian down from his back. He gave her a nudge; a second later, she felt Pakwa and Winter Born take hold of her arms and start pulling her up. She kicked at the hill with her good foot and fell into the opening headfirst, jarring her elbows. The other two pulled her in all the way and she collapsed in the entrance with a gust of breath.

Winter Born started hopping. "Charmian! Pakwa was worried but I knew you'd be okay!"

Charmian glanced breathlessly at the GeeBee but all that he did was give her his blandest look and say, "Eh."

She swept her hair from her eyes and turned back to the entryway; Augwak jumped inside, then No-Tongue appeared, pulling himself up to the edge. Charmian let out another breath in relief, but Winter Born gave a small gasp and hopped back.

"Charmian--! It's that rock-throwing person!" she exclaimed.

Charmian quickly shook her head. "It's okay! He's here to help us. We'll find Kabebonikka's entryway with him." She turned back to the entrance and reached out a hand. "Come on! Until that thing wanders off!"

No-Tongue let out his own breath in a sigh, and reached out to grasp her hand. As she pulled on him, Winter Born and Pakwa stepping forward to help, he lifted his free hand and signed something at her. She didn't understand it so he mouthed it instead.

Megwetch!

Charmian started to smile. She saw No-Tongue do the same before a gigantic hand came down and swept him out of sight.

Continue:

Part 110: Taking A Tumble  (13+) Charmian bids No-Tongue a bitter farewell... #1805653 by Tehuti, Lord Of The Eight

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