The Changelings Part 17

I was already a couple of levels up. "Did you feel it?"

He shook his head. "Nope." He grabbed the lowest branch and started to come up behind me.

I was touching the tree with various parts of my body. I could feel its welcoming green glow going all through me. I'd never felt this as a kid, climbing trees. If I had, I probably never would have come down.

Tony was a few feet below me, his pace slowing.

"You okay down there?"

"Um ... getting a little nervous, actually."

He looked up at me and I could see the sweat on his upper lip and forehead.

"Just stay there, I'm fine. I'll go the rest of the way alone."

I was now up higher in this tree than I'd ever climbed in my life, which was kind of ironic, because as I've grown up, I've learned to have a greater appreciation for my mortality. When I was a kid, I never worried about falling and hurting myself or possibly even dying a it never even crossed my mind. But now that I was older, I didn't climb trees anymore because I did worry about that kind of stuff. I fully appreciated at this moment what a b.u.mmer that is a how limiting it makes your life when you walk around always afraid something tragic could happen.

I reached a spot that didn't have any handy branches I could use to help me get to the next level. I stopped and looked around, trying to figure out what to do. I looked down and could see Tony's small form, still below me but much farther away. I just needed to go another ten feet or so...

"What are you doing?" asked Tony.

"Trying to get higher. But I can't."

"Why not?"

"There aren't any branches nearby." s.h.i.+ts.h.i.+ts.h.i.+t.

Then I remembered the leafy toilet paper incident. I bit my lip, looking around at the nearby trees. The one I was on didn't have any branches that could help me a but the tree next to mine had some really big ones up here. Branches that, if they moved, could get me as high as I needed to go. Should I do it?

"Come on, hurry up!" said Tony as loudly as he dared.

I made my decision. I placed my arms around the tree trunk. The energy that had been tingling through my hands as I climbed was amplified a bit, now that more of me was making contact.

So, how does this work? I wondered. Do I ask in English? "Tree, move a branch for me so I can see higher."

Some branches nearby moved a bit, but it could have been from a breeze, it was so slight.

Okay, not English. French? No, that wasn't going to work. All I could remember how to say was Je vais a la plage a I'm going to the beach. Not helpful.

Okay, how about pictures? I closed my eyes and imagined in my head what I wanted the tree to do. My mind's eye saw one of the big nearby branches swinging over to where I was standing, positioning itself to hoist me up to the highest level of the tree I was latched onto. Then I pictured myself looking out over the treetops off to the east.

I was so busy picturing every little detail, I wasn't paying attention to what I was actually physically doing on the tree.

Tony's voice cut through my daydream. "Holy c.r.a.p, Jayne, what are you doing?"

I opened my eyes. The branch that had been fifteen feet away from me had moved. The tree it belonged to was groaning, but the branch remained still, extended out directly in front of me. I tentatively put my foot out, left one first, onto the big branch of the larger tree. I kept my hands on the trunk of the smaller tree. I realized then that I hadn't thought this out very well. I had nothing to grab hold of. I swallowed the panic that began to rise up and quickly closed my eyes, imagining a second branch being there for my hands to hold onto. I opened my eyes in time to see it swinging over to join the first. As soon as it came close enough, I let go of the trunk and swiftly grabbed hold with a death grip, telling myself not to look down, no matter what.

"Jayne, don't do that! You're going to fall!"

"Shush, Tony! Don't upset the tree. I won't fall."

I could hear him muttering below me. "Upset the tree. Upset the tree? She's nuts, upset the tree ... "

Please lift me up, I asked the tree, showing it in my head what I wanted it to do.

It was like being on an elevator in the forest. The tree strained, lifting its two branches as high as they would go. I heard the groaning of the wood and then a cracking. Okay, stop! Hold me here for just a moment. It made it difficult to concentrate on anything else, this picturing stuff to communicate instead of talking. I kept closing my eyes to make it easier.

I quickly opened my eyes to look around. I was now above most of the trees in the forest. The sun was barely s.h.i.+ning, the clouds covering most of its brilliance. No wonder it's so dark down there. The forest seemed to stretch out forever in all directions. I couldn't see an end to it no matter which way I turned. "f.u.c.king A," I said to no one in particular.

To the east and a bit south, I saw a break in the trees and what looked like a small sliver of something s.h.i.+ny peaking out. It must be the second waypoint. I strained my neck to see farther. I was hoping to see the third waypoint, but I couldn't. We must be too far away.

"Okay tree, down we go." I pictured the big tree putting me back where I had been on the other one. Within seconds, the groaning and creaking began again and I was transported over to the smaller tree. As the branch started to move to its original position, I reached out and touched it again briefly with my hand. Thank you, Tree.

I felt a burst of energy in return. Love.

I was definitely going to plant some trees when I got home. I'd make a mini forest right in my mom's back yard. Front yard too.

I looked down to report my observations to Tony but I couldn't see him anymore. "Tony?"

No answer.

I began to get worried. I was thinking he might have fallen. We were out here in the middle of nowhere a and now I'd seen just how out in the middle of nowhere we really were a and if he was hurt, I wasn't sure how I was going to get him out of the forest or even to the next waypoint.

I scrambled down the tree as fast as I could. When I got to the last branch, I dropped to the ground and stood, anxiously looking around the base of the tree, trying to locate Tony. He wasn't there, but his backpack was. And his axe was lying on top.

"Holy s.h.i.+t ... Tony!" I whisper-yelled because I was afraid Niles and his little buddy were still close by. "Tony!"

I heard the sound of a voice a a female voice, coming from around the other side of the tree.

That's weird. I walked around in time to see Tony standing in front of a crooked old hag, getting ready to plunge into what looked like a heavy-duty makeout session. His hands were on the hag's waist and his head was tilted, angled to the side in expectation of a real juicy liplock.

"Oh, s.h.i.+t, Tony, that's disgusting! Get away from her!" I ran over to break up the love fest.

She saw me coming and pulled back a few inches from Tony, anger brightening her beady eyes.

"SSSStaaaay awaaaay human giiirrrrl," she hiss-screeched, foamy spittle collecting at the corners of her mouth.

I nearly gagged, thinking of my Tony getting his first kiss from that ugly-a.s.s woman. She looked about two hundred years old with stringy, greasy gray hair hanging down past her shoulders. One of her eyes was a cloudy light blue, the other one black; I couldn't see any iris a just one big, inky pupil, sunk within a wrinkly, mottled skeletal face. She was wearing a shapeless, dingy-gray cloak, stained and ragged. I looked with disgust at her rotted and crooked yellowish-brown teeth.

"No f.u.c.king way are you kissing my Tony with that mouth," I declared, stepping towards her with my stick in one hand and Tony's axe in the other.

She took a step back, releasing his arm.

Tony stood still for a second as I approached and then looked up, turning his head to face me. His eyes were open, but I saw no recognition in them when he looked me. Tony turned and moved towards the hag again, his arms reaching for her waist in a bid to finish their disgusting business together.

"Huh-uh, Tony Baloney, not so fast." I reached out and gripped his shoulder, pulling him back away from her.

He put up little resistance.

The hag backed farther away from me, her eyes not on the axe but on Blackie.

I noticed she seemed to be worried about it, so I held it up. "You want a taste of Blackie? Well then bring it, b.i.t.c.h."

The hag raised her chin, staring at me malevolently. She growled out in her rusty, acidic voice, "You know nothing of what you do, of what you have. I can see it in your eyes."

"Look again, hag." I brandished Blackie in front of me. "Come on, put your money where your mouth is, old lady. Don't think for one second that I won't stab this motherf.u.c.ker right in your ugly, cloudy, beady-a.s.s eye. Or maybe I should go for the good one!" I adjusted the point of my stick a smidge to the right.

The hag considered me for a moment and then looked at Tony.

"Darling," she simpered, "please ... help me. She's going to hurt me." She turned back to me, grinning maliciously.

I looked at her with disgust. Like Tony was going to fall for that s.h.i.+t. She was about as far from a kindly cookie-baking grandma as someone could possibly be.

I felt Tony's hand on my shoulder.

"Tony ... "

I never got the rest of my sentence out. Tony pushed me to the ground, quickly grabbing the axe that fell out of my hand. He stood over me, a rage I've never seen before, blazing in his eyes.

"Leave her alone, Jayne. She's mine."

I felt the vomit rise up in my throat. I had to swallow hard to make it go down and stay there. My ears were hot and ringing. What the h.e.l.l was going on? Tony was hypnotized or something. She'd put a spell on his stupid a.s.s. For chrissake ... as if I didn't have enough problems right now.

"Tony! She's an old hag! She's hypnotized you or something! Come on, it's me ... Jayne, your best friend!" I searched his face desperately, but there was nothing there. Tony was somewhere far, far away. This guy in front of me? I had no idea who he was. Some necrophiliac apparently, because that hag looked like a walking corpse, and I'm pretty sure it was l.u.s.t I had seen in his eyes earlier.

"Hag?" he said, confused. He shook his head, smiling condescendingly. "Those who are blind cannot see." He gestured to the woman. "She's the most beautiful girl who ever walked this earth. You remember her, Jayne, don't you? She was with us at the warehouse." He turned to the old woman. "Samantha, come over here and say h.e.l.lo to Jayne."

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN.

"Samantha? No friggin' way, Tony, that is not Samantha." I stood up, shaking my head from side to side, backing away from both of them. I wasn't sure exactly what was going on here, other than the fact that Tony had been mind-f.u.c.ked, but there was no way in h.e.l.l Samantha, or whoever that was, was gonna suck face with my best friend. Over my dead body.

Tony stood in front of me, his axe hanging at his side. "Jayne, you're just confused. Samantha came back for us." He turned his head to look at the hag again. "She came back for me." He looked back at me, his face s.h.i.+ning with deranged happiness.

The hag walked up to resume her place next to Tony, putting her hand on his arm.

He began rubbing her forearm, leaning down, preparing to kiss her again.

I couldn't take it. Maybe I was going to be cursed or whatever by the hag, but I was not going to let that kiss happen. I just hoped that when this was over, I'd get my Tony back a the real Tony, not the bewitched necrophiliac Tony. I ran as fast as I could at the hag, ready to knock her antiquated a.s.s to the ground.

She saw me coming and readied herself for my attack.

Tony was still slightly mesmerized, looking down at his new girlfriend, so at least for this brief moment I only had one battle to fight.

I had Blackie in my fist, held out in front of me, as I rushed forward. The point wasn't out because it was too awkward to carry like that when I was running, plus I wasn't totally comfortable with stabbing her. She was disgusting and she had cursed my friend, but she was an old lady after all.

The hag raised her left hand, her palm facing in my direction. As we collided, the fist holding Blackie was the first thing that came into contact with her body. The side of the stick's tip grazed her shoulder, emitting a hissing sound and the acrid smell of sulfur. A split second later, a blast of some horrible black energy erupted from her hand and hit me smack in the chest, sending me flying backwards.

I should have landed on my a.s.s in the middle of some brambles, but instead I found myself in a pile of leafy limbs. Three trees standing witness to our battle had interlocked their branches, creating a net of sorts. I was caught inside it, but was released as soon as it had stopped my backward movement.

I sent out a vibe of grat.i.tude. It felt good to know that at least The Green was on my side. I had a feeling I was going to need some allies, after having seen and felt that black powerful whatever-it-was coming out of her hand. My chest felt cold and bleak where it had made contact. That was one unhappy dose of magic she had going on there.

Tony watched what was happening, confusion marring his features. He looked from the hag, to me, and back again. "Jayne?"

"Don't look at her! Look at me! Samantha. Remember, darling?"

Tony's face broke out in smiles again. "h.e.l.lo, Samantha. What are you doing to Jayne?" He didn't seem mad about the fact that she'd just blasted me with some sick-a.s.s black lightning a just confused.

"Jayne is bad, Tony. She's trying to hurt me. You need to stop her."

"Jayne, is that true?"

"STOP HER!" the hag yelled, raising her hand again.

Tony lifted his axe and started moving towards me, a very determined look on his face.

Trees, don't fail me now, was all I could think. I played pictures through my mind as I grabbed hold of the nearest branches. I prayed that the connection I had with one tree could somehow be communicated to the others. All I had without them was that f.u.c.king black stick.

Tony was swinging his horrible axe, blue glowing pathways cutting through the air, and the humming sound rising to a crescendo that could only mean one thing: that axe was one bad motherf.u.c.ker of a weapon, and if it hit me, it was going to be lights out.

Everything happened so fast, it took me a few moments to remember exactly how it went down. As Tony approached, the tree that had branches above his head bent down, wood popping and snapping with the effort. A wall of pine needles and leaves smashed into Tony's face, loosening his grip on the axe. The weapon fell to the ground and a vine of ivy raced across the forest floor, wrapping its tendrils around the axe and pulling it away, deep into the woods. I lost sight of it within seconds.

Luckily, so did Tony.

While Tony was wrapped up in battling leaves and branches, I slipped around the side and faced off with the hag.

"You think you're so clever, girl, with your tree friends. We'll see how badly they want to help you when they feel my fire!"

She held her palm up and blasted the tree next to me, the one interfering in Tony's struggle to get untangled. The potent stench of sulfur filled the air again, immediately followed by the smell of burning wood. I felt the pain of the tree a not as my own pain, but as echoes of sadness and disintegration. It was one of the most horrible sensations I'd ever experienced. I just wanted it to stop.

"Don't!" I yelled, desperation and anger coloring my voice.

The hag laughed maniacally and sent another cruel blast to the tree.

I could feel its strength waning. The ache of unshed tears jumped to my throat. If the tree continued to help me, she was going to destroy it a demolish its soul. I realized then that this is what she did; this is what made her happy, her reason for being. She thrived on the pain of others. As the tree suffered, she grew stronger.

This s.h.i.+t had to stop. Now.

I charged her, Blackie held out in front of me, point first a f.u.c.k the old lady pity card. She wanted to play rough, so she was going to have to deal with my new take-no-prisoners plan.

She raised her palm to stop me, but a quick thought-message from me asking a nearby vine to wrap itself around the hag's wrist and pull, sent her blast wide. I flinched as it hit a tree behind me, but it was the last minute distraction that I needed.