The Return
THE LAST BELL rang, and students immediately poured out of the school, chattering and gesturing excitedly. Some of them got into buses, some of them got into cars, still others walked as their homes were not too far away in the city, but all of them walked with a bit more of a spring in their step, their bookbags lighter than usual, the sun brighter in the sky than usual.
One bookbag wasn't quite as light as the others. Charmian made a face as she walked down the sidewalk, a twinge of pain lancing through her shoulder; she had always carried lots of books around with her, but this was a bit much, even for her.
Go figure that I'm the ONLY one carrying a ton of books on the last day of school. She made another face. "Scientists Have Confirmed: Charmian Is A Geek." Story at eleven.
She sighed and halfheartedly glanced from left to right as she crossed the street on her way to the park, and hoisted the bag a bit more. "I used to carry a LOT more than this not that long ago," she said to herself. "So how come it's such a hassle here? Do I turn into a wimp whenever I come back home...?"
She heard a clunking noise behind her, and halted; one of the books had fallen to the ground, and she stooped to pick it up. She looked at the cover as she went off of the sidewalk and made her way through the grass.
Myths & Legends Of The Mackinacs & The Lake Region.
Charmian chewed thoughtfully on her lip and flipped the book open, browsing its contents. Even though school was officially out for freshmen, she had managed to wrangle permission to check out some of the library's books, ones which she hadn't managed to read just yet. She stopped flipping when she came to a particular page and her eyes fell on the first paragraph.
Devil's Lake
At the west end of Mackinac Island there was once a small but very deep piece of water, known by the Indians to have been the home of an evil Manitou. This pond or bog is now dry, but the hollow where it once lay is still called Devil's Lake, and being situated just above the Devil's Kitchen, the latter place no doubt derived its name from the old lake, the source of the inexhaustible supply of water which still drips clear as crystal from its hidden springs, or runs in musical little rills from innumerable natural mains among the "top shelves and wall pockets," the indispensable adjuncts of even a Devil's Kitchen.
Devil's Lake was regarded with awe by the dusky inhabitants, as it was believed to be bottomless; the body of any one drowned there never having been recovered...
This "deep water" is said to have been the abode of an evil god, who attracted persons to its edge by sweet singing, and then bore them to his submarine home, there to remain forever...
The wind blew the book shut, and Charmian tucked it back in her bag before continuing on her way.
Bottomless, yes. Dried up, no. Evil god? Not really, but close enough...
Her feet carried her across the grass and toward the bluff overlooking Little Traverse Bay, and as she lifted her head she found her step slowing; she stared out at Lake Michigan for several moments, before picking up her pace, and approaching the overlook. She leaned on the fence and watched the whitecaps crashing out on the lake, hearing other students busily talking and laughing not that far away, yet it was as if they weren't even there.
Devil's Lake, she thought absently. A few years ago, I would've read that story and laughed my head off. Now...I wonder how that "evil god" is doing...
They say there was a manitou like that in this very bay once...a long time ago...I wonder why I never see it here? Why I have to be over there? I wonder why things are so different...
She sighed and shrugged her pack off of her shoulders, setting it on the ground next to her and stretching her sore muscles. "It doesn't matter much anyway," she yawned. "No more homework, no more books--I'll just head on back there myself!" She smiled, and reached down for her pack.
A particularly large whitecap crashed against the shore far below, drawing her attention; another followed it, and a boat out on the lake started bobbing wildly. That wasn't what puzzled her, though; that would have been the flock of seagulls which arose, flapping away as if in a great panic, their squawks filling the air all around her. She shielded her head as they swept past, the other nearby students yelling and waving their arms at them to shoo them away, but the birds didn't even stop to try to pick up any of the stray food which had been littered about. Charmian watched them fly away, then turned her head to look again at the lake. She blinked when she noticed that the water itself seemed to be darker, having changed from sea blue to almost midnight blue, even near the shore...and this made her shiver and rub at her arms even though the air was warm. A gust of wind tugged at her hair and she brushed it out of her eyes, thinking she had seen something glinting out in the water. Yet when she looked again all that she saw was whitecaps.
Her brow furrowed. Did I just see...copper, out there...?
What would copper be doing in the middle of the lake...?
Something pelted against her nose, and she sputtered, blinking. A quick glance up showed her what she'd missed noticing--dark heavy clouds rolling in, seemingly out of nowhere, though living on a Great Lake her entire life, she didn't find this surprising. The rapidity with which they moved, however, did surprise her, and she hurried to slip her bookbag over her shoulder, the rest of the students fleeing before they could be caught in the coming downpour. Charmian turned on one heel to start running, but something out on the lake again caught her attention and she froze.
I DID see something--!
What the heck WAS it--?
She blinked. In that instant, the sky opened up, and the rain came crashing down, soaking her straight through. Charmian sputtered again and started running and sliding toward the stand of trees at the edge of the bluff, scurrying under one and managing to escape the worst of the rain, though it was futile to even think of staying dry, now. Instead she sat beneath the pine boughs and watched the rain spatter the grass and smack against the lake far below.
Cripes...this wasn't in the forecast!! She gasped and flinched when a tremendous CRACK of thunder shook the earth, and realized just what a stupid position she was in, sitting under a veritable lightning rod.
As if on cue, at the very same moment that the noise came, and she thought this, she watched in awe as a bolt of light shot down from the sky and speared the lake right before her eyes. Her eyes grew and it was as if the lightning moved in slow motion; she saw its tendrils lance out over the water, as it seemed to connect with something, and another boom of thunder came ringing in her ears, before it retreated and her vision temporarily went black. She blinked furiously to adjust her eyes, but by the time she could see again, whatever she had spotted was gone. There was nothing remaining but whitecaps, and thunderclouds, and rain smacking the lake in sheets.
She huddled in on herself, eyes wide.
I could've sworn...that lightning just HIT something...
Thunder boomed again, drawing her out of her daze, and she gasped and grabbed her bookbag, scuttling out from under the tree. The dash home was a long one, and she couldn't have gotten wetter if she had been dunked in the lake herself, but her thoughts were so preoccupied that she barely even noticed.
She reached home in record time, pushing open the door and dashing through the kitchen and stumbling her way up the stairs. Her dog barked but she didn't even notice. She slammed open her door and dumped the books on her bed, dashing over to her window to look outside. The branches of the trees whipped in the gale, though she could barely see them through the driving rain. She chewed her lip.
I know I saw something in the lake! But--nothing THAT big would live out there! Except maybe a sturgeon...but...do sturgeon look like that...?
She turned back and threw herself on her bed. She dug almost frantically through the books she had checked out, finally selecting one and flipping through it. She at last reached the section she'd been looking for and pressed the pages flat, staring at the image before her. It was a photograph of a rock painting, made hundreds of years ago. Her eyes flicked down to the description.
The Great Horned Lynx
Agawa Rock, Lake Superior
Her stare drifted back up to the image. A strange silhouetted figure, spines running down its back toward the end of its long tail, and wide horns curving upward from its head. She slowly started chewing on her lip.
I couldn't've seen THAT...I mean...it doesn't EXIST! Not here, at least...
But...couldn't it? I mean...maybe...?
She bit the inside of her mouth, then pushed the book away in frustration. "It's not like I've never seen WEIRDER things!" she exclaimed aloud, just to hear her voice; and she sighed and flopped back on the bed, irritatedly brushing a strand of dripping hair from her eyes. She stared at the ceiling for a long while, then her stare shifted toward the object hanging from her bedpost.
A dreamcatcher was here, its webbing gleaming faintly in the dim light, its colored feathers and shiny pebbles doing likewise. She stared at it even longer, then sat up and picked at the nap on her blanket.
I have a bad feeling, she thought, and chewed on her lip again, uneasy.
After a moment of staring she got to her feet and pulled the dreamcatcher down, running her fingers over it. Her grandmother had given her this, not long before her death; this itself had not been so long ago, so that Charmian felt a pang when thinking of it. This dreamcatcher was also the way she had used to reach Manitou Island again. She had been there twice so far, and twice had had to help defeat powerful spirits intent on destroying the Island she had grown to love so much. She had met so many new people her last time there, and had promised to return as soon as she could, during summer vacation, in fact...
You'll come right back, you promise--remember? And I promised I'd be waiting...
Her eyes stung. The words of the last person she'd spoken to on the Island, before she'd had to leave...Thomas...someone she'd known only the length of her last stay, though by the time she'd left, it felt like she'd known him forever...
I thought I might come with you.
Come--come with me--?
You don't want me to come back with you--?
No! Yes! I mean--I don't not want you to--it's just--I can't take you away from all this! This is where you belong. You might not believe it, but--it is. Just like the mainland's my home. I'll come back, I mean it. As soon as I'm able. I promise. I can't really be sure how long it'll take me. But it'll be as soon as I can.
I'll just have to wait for you, then.
You...you'd do that? For me?
Of course I would.
I'll make it back. I'm sure I will.
I'm going to hold you to that promise...
She felt her face grow warm. He had kissed her then, and even though it hadn't been the first time he'd kissed her, still, she couldn't believe how strange she'd felt when he'd done it. She lifted her head to look at the dreamcatcher, and suddenly was filled with a longing to return. It hadn't been that long...but time had a strange way of moving on the Island...the last time, she had been absent less than a year, but about ten years seemed to have passed, Island time...
How different will it be now...?
She rubbed the webbing and chewed on her lip again. Her longing faded and was replaced by her unease of a moment ago, and she glanced at the thunder and lightning still booming and flashing outside. She'd never seen a storm so ferocious, and she had seen plenty of thunderstorms. Even if it hadn't been so violent...it still gave her a strange feeling...
I know I saw something in Lake Michigan. So what was it? Her brow furrowed. Could something from there make its way through to here...?
"I don't even know if it has anything to do with the Island," she murmured, chewing on her lip. "Maybe this place has its own manitous and stuff...in fact that's kind of what they told me...I just don't know how to communicate with them..." Her face slowly lit up, and she went to her window and peered out. From here, Lake Michigan and Little Traverse Bay were barely visible, in the distance, and she stared at the dark roiling water for a few moments.
"Like the story said," she thought aloud. "A manitou used to live there. Maybe that's what I saw? Maybe it's trying to talk to me now!" She took a step back and started glancing around her room. "I bet that's it! Maybe I can finally learn how to talk to them! They're showing themselves, so--they WANT me to see them!"
If that's so...then how come it disappeared...?
This thought made her frown again, and she puzzled over it a moment before shaking her head. "Because there were others around," she said matter-of-factly, and nodded. "Others who've never even HEARD of Manitou Island before." Her good humor returned, and she got to her knees and started fishing around under her bed for her old backpack. She dug it out, feeling around inside to make sure nothing was left over from the last time; then she started poking around her room, depositing everything she thought she might need into the pack. She started smiling as she loaded it more and more.
"Snickers bars for Pakwa," she said, making a mental checklist. "Costume jewelry for Ocryx, just in case I need a favor. This for Peepaukawiss, in case I meet him again. This book for White Deer...and this for Stick-In-The-Dirt...and this for Manabozho..."
She finished packing everything the bag could hold, and struggled to strap it shut. She fetched her Megis shell necklace, which Yellow Turtle, the old ogimah of the tribe, had given her before he'd died...she slipped this around her neck, as well as the little sprig of cedar that the Onondaga, Singing Cedars, had given her to help her attain a vision; along with these she picked up a little carved pinecone which the old manitou Nokomis had given her. She made sure that a note she'd written just for this occasion--Went over to visit with Drake, will be back later--was sitting in plain sight on her desk--her friend Drake had promised to vouch for her in case she went missing for a while. Her cheer grew with each little gesture, and she took off her wet clothes and dressed in some dry ones, slipping on her vest with its many pockets, as well; the pinecone went in her right side pocket. "Who better to teach me manitou than...manitous?" she asked aloud. "I bet 'Bozho can teach me everything I need to know to talk with whatever's out in that bay...maybe it can teach me things, too!" She found the thought of freely conversing with manitous in her own land exciting, and cheerily picked up her dreamcatcher again, holding it aloft.
Her smile immediately vanished. She blinked at the hoop, then glanced at her wall.
"Oh...nuts," she said softly, heavy disappointment moving in. "Moonlight brought me through the last time...when it shone through the catcher." Her shoulders began to slump as she peered at the window, at the storm raging outside. "Even if it were nighttime...and the moon was out...it'd still be too cloudy to do much of anything!"
She let out a huge sigh, lowering the dreamcatcher again and staring at the floor. She'd just been so set on the idea of going...that the exact mechanics of doing so hadn't struck her, until now. The dreamcatcher had opened up a passageway in her wall...when the moon had cast its shadow. Now, with the thunderstorm raging outside, the only light she had to cast its shadow was her room's artificial light, and she knew already that that didn't work...
Her brow furrowed just slightly, and she lifted her head to peer out the window. The thunder was crashing and the lightning flashing almost continuously now, one right after the other, so that the outdoors looked almost like a disco dance party. Charmian stared at this for a long time, then looked at her dreamcatcher. She raised it a bit, held it near the window, then glanced back at her wall.
Nothing was there, but then again, her light was on. She hurried to turn it off, then went back to the window. The dying daylight threw her room into murky shadows, which the lightning only managed to darken and make more concrete. Charmian watched this, then held the dreamcatcher up in front of the window. The lightning flashed, casting its shadow on her wall. This vanished a split second along with the lightning, and she began to feel her heart sink, but another bolt replaced the first as soon as it was done, then another, and another. As Charmian watched, the shadow of the dreamcatcher began to appear upon her wall, like watching the different frames of an old movie reel being shown at slow speed. She concentrated on these, until the lightning flashed so steadily that it was like a floodlight was being shined into her room; and the longer she watched, the darker the shadow became, and thicker, and more real, until she was just about sure that the old tunnel entrance she had used to reach the Island the last time had reappeared, right there in her bedroom! It wavered and trembled as if it were merely an illusion, but to her it looked real enough...
Her eyes grew and she carefully stepped toward it, making sure to keep the dreamcatcher up in the air. She reached the wall and gingerly held out her hand to touch the shadow, which was now big enough to walk through. Her hand met nothing and her heart skipped a beat.
"YES!" She grinned from ear to ear and slipped her pack on, staggering under its weight. "This thing is even better than I THOUGHT!" she exclaimed, smiling at the dreamcatcher, and she hastened through the tunnel before the lightning could die away.
Just as she stepped through her wall, she heard a terrific CRASH, and jumped; but the entry vanished behind her, and she let out her breath at the sudden eerie stillness which descended. It was so quiet that her ears rang, and she rubbed at them, then peered around herself.
"Is this the same...?" she murmured, frowning a little, then shrugged. "Guess I'll find out! Not that I'm too worried!"
She made sure that her pack was secure, and started walking. The longer she went the more her uncertainty grew, as this tunnel didn't quite unwind the same way that the last one had; the last one had led her up to Arch Rock, overlooking the eastern shore, but this one just seemed to keep going down and down and down. Plus, she hadn't heard dripping water in that tunnel...
"Water...?" Her brow furrowed and she had to grasp onto the wall to avoid slipping; her hand came back damp. "But...Arch Rock is over a hundred feet above the water..."
Her confusion only grew when her feet splashed in a puddle, and she gasped and jumped out; that water was icy cold! She shook her feet off and peered anxiously at the walls as the tunnel widened around her. She caught sight of wispy bits of glowing spiderwebs--Weavers' webs--but they were old and dim, and she knew that the Weavers, the giant spiders which lived in Scott's Cave on the east shore, hadn't been here in quite a while. Plus, the tunnels in Scott's Cave hadn't been particularly wet, either.
"Well..." She chewed on her lip and thought. "One of the tunnels in Scott's Cave led out under Lake Huron...so maybe that's the path I'm taking...?" She grimaced. "Crap, I hope I don't end up in the LAKE!"
Perhaps this hadn't been such a great idea after all.
She let out her breath when the tunnel became big enough for someone twice her height to pass through, and even sidestepped another puddle. The dripping noises became louder, and she could tell that they were coming from several different locations far off in an underground cave system. At least the Weavers' webs assured her that she was heading toward the right Island. Her step slowed as the tunnel opened up into a cavern, and she peered up at its ceiling, but it was lost in darkness. A crystal here and there set in the dank walls kept the place dimly lit, and she could see a great glittering black mass just off to her side. She stared at it for a moment or two before her eyes grew again.
"A lake--?" She gawked, then stepped toward it, halting on its shore and staring down at the black water, yet not daring to look at her reflection. The water rippled and she lifted her head to see stalactites dangling over it until it vanished into the darkness. She blinked when she realized that she recognized this place.
"Croghan Water?" She furrowed her brow and scratched at her head. "I'm under Croghan Water?" she echoed herself, confused. "But...that's way over in the MIDDLE of the Island...way underground! Why didn't I end up on Arch Rock again...?"
She heard a soft shifting noise not too far behind her, where the cave wall reared up, and her spine stiffened. She hadn't even thought of considering that something might be down here--the last time, it had been the Shadow Wolves, and their leader, a great wolf known as the Ogimah-Quae...but she had died, her last time here. The Shadow Wolves had been bothersome at first, but they had returned to normal when the one controlling them had been defeated. Still...an uneasy feeling seeped up inside her, and the hair on the back of her neck prickled, as she realized that she was being watched, and she slowly turned her head to peer over her shoulder. She saw someone rising to their feet, from where they had been sitting near the wall previously; they lifted their head and their eyes met hers, and she lost her breath in an instant, when their eyes flared yellow.
All of the blood drained from Charmian's face and her voice came out in the merest whisper. "Ch--Chakenapok--?"
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