Den Mother Ep. 06: WIeLD GOOSE CHASE

"Ominous!" Harlan sighed, "So, what do you suggest our next move to be?"

"Blood!" Stanos ventured toward the spot where he just knew the dimensional staircase had been located. Snow and cleaning solutions could not mistake immortality. At least the life's blood being immortal. "Our friend Anna died here. I can smell her blood even beneath fresh snow and chemical defecation. From the amount of blood, I surmise immortality was somehow cut short. Interesting, that should not be possible. There are many mysteries involved here."

"Immortality is real? How do you end immortality?" Peregrine grew involved. A moment to linger he questioned if even his kill switch nanites could blow up the wolves.

"A very good question." Stanos crouched using his hand to scoop and brush the snowfall over the spot where Anna's body was left. He did not want to reveal that Tailchaser was beheaded for fear it might give the soldiers ideas in the future. Not even he was certain how her loss actually killed her, Anna being immortal. Keeping his own thoughts isolated due to Peregrine was not easy but Stanos had centuries to perfect his abilities. "What I do know is that she was placed in a body bag here and drug out by dogs and up the hilltop over there." He pointed to the North. Peregrine led one of his men up to the hill to see if there were any unnoticed clues.

"Acetaline was used. Likely to dismantle the plane." Stanos furthered what he was picking up. "Wendigo blood. Sasquatch blood." He knew these already but opted to reveal these to the General. Harker having moved closer to him hovering with curiosity looked up at the trees.

"There's no masking the collision course of impact." He paused, "Sasquatch, you say?" His men looked at one another, their scent of fear easily captured by Lucien and Stanos heightened senses.

"Yes, they do exist. No, I will not track them for you. There is part of that blood loyalty even concerning those more primitive than any of us."

"Wendigo?"

"Demon of a sort, a beast capable of possession." Lucien added. "A Sasquatch killed the original body of the Wendigo. We can smell its bones. The Wendigo having lost its body had to have taken a host to survive."

"I hope it wasn't Aurora." Lynn trembled.

"No." Stanos stood up, "She and our brother walked freely away into nothingness."

"Break that down a bit more." Harker winced.

"A dimensional portal, General. I can pick up a hint of stones not common in this region."

"From where then? That could be a clue as to where to start looking."

"Europe!"

"Okay, so, stones from Europe just magically appeared here and carried everyone including my son away?"

"Magic most definitely." Stanos took a walk toward the crash crater somewhat filled in by both snow, soil, and fallen trees. "Who do you know that might wear boot soles made with a leather exterior, but fibers sewn within made of copper, nickel, and amplified alloys of titanium? All metals that cooperate with extreme cold temperatures."

"Alaska cold?"

"Arctic I would guess."

"Again, I'm looking at black."

"As in Ops?" Lucien swallowed dryly; he was turning away from Lynn because he couldn't keep his dick limp. Courtesy mostly, controlling his attraction to her hanging in there too. Lynn had been listening intently but was still stealing glances at Lucky's hefty cock. It was impossible not to check it out, even for the soldiers, most likely just Merc's. To them the man had a God cock, envy easily smelled.

"If it's involving anything unidentified or worth money you can bet it's the darkest of the dark." Returning from the hilltop Peregrine reports nothing noticeable outside of a small clearing where a chopper might have clearance to remove whatever was important. Multiple choppers to clear out such a debris field properly.

"Obsidian Corps?" Peregrine invited a guess.

"What is Obsidian Corps?" Lucien winced.

"It's just a term for the dark side. They can see out, but we can't see in."

"Did the cargo plane have a flight log as to where it was headed?" Stanos looked to Lynn, her eyes lingering on Lucky's erection, Stanos had to ask her twice then block her gaze from his brother. Sadly, her eyes ended up on Stano's dangling monster. "Lynn... please."

"What? Oh, flight plan? All it said in the books was Arctic. That confirms your theory of the location."

"But hardly narrows it down." Harker sighs grumbling. "There are dozens of bases up there. Some even I don't know about."

"It is a start." Peregrine chimed in. "If nothing else we have a direction."

"Do we?" Harlan scowled.

"Perhaps we do General." Stanos and Lucien both sniff the air and look about as if seeing something that no one else could. "A moment General." Stanos puts a hand up to pause the troops and keep them quiet. "We have company."

"What? Where?" Harker and his men search about for some sign of intruders. "I see nothing."

"Our perceptions go beyond your human eyes. Please remain calm they mean no harm."

"They?"

"Spirits, General."

"A whole lot of spirits." Lucien swallowed, "An entire tribe of spirits."

"Peregrine?" Harker looks at his Psi for any answers. His man Perry simply shrugs.

"Lucien? Remain here, I am going to confer with the Shaman. General? Please relax your troops they mean no harm, nor am I a threat. I am going to change now." Right before their eyes Stanos returned to his wolf form, his morphing seemingly painful but without so much as a cringe of agony shown. Once his body had altered Stanos took the hill in a hurry and sat down looking up at open air as if watching an actual person. A silence amongst everyone left Stanos to do whatever it was he was doing.

"Is this some game you two are playing?" Harker stood next to Lucien whispering.

"No. I see them too. Hundreds of spirits all around us. Ancients who roamed this land long before any of you were born. I'm guessing ten or more generations before you were born. They're an offshoot tribe called the Antiaquoix from a unified merger consisting of the Athabascan and Inuit. A sect that split off on to their own in the 1400's."

"How could you know how old they are?"

"I'm older, that's why." Harker was taken back by an age admission. "Dark Ages! Let's not get technical." Lucky smirked.

"Jesus!"

"Nice guy." Lucky winked.

"You knew, Christ?"

"Three wise... ummm!" He bit his tongue. Lucien was not about to finish the fact that he and his two brothers were the Three Wise Men in the Bible who adopted new identities over History.

Up above Stanos continued his invisible talk through eyes seeing past the veil of time and space. Darting his gaze out over the crash crater Stanos found images of every movement as if some playback in a movie. Heat signatures long gone outside of the fact that human souls left a mark in stationary perimeters for a length of time. Ordinarily, this might escape even his senses but the Shaman even unto death granted Stanos hindsight.

Harker was lost as to what was going down, "What is he looking at?"

"Not sure. My brother is blocking my link with him at the moment. Sorry, but we don't trust you enough yet." Lucky winced, Lynn moving next to him now occupied by watching Stanos instead of Lucky's penis. A time and place for everything. Shivering at the cold she hopped in step. Noting her actions Lucien placed an arm around her and pulled her to his side to absorb his body heat. Being immortal the cold meant nothing to him. Thanking him with a smile Lynn Dawson returned her curiosity up to the hill.

Stanos could literally see the past unfolding, of the militarized cleanup of the crash site. Men wearing black bodysuits without parkas, suits obviously designed to protect them but offer a freedom of movement. Markings on their upper arms like an insignia in the shape of a concentric circle like a target but with an actual eye at the bullseye point. Strangely, the eyes flowed as if watching their every move. "Illuminati!" Stanos realized, "The all-seeing eye."

While examining more closely he saw images of the long-gone soldiers remove the bodies of all involved. Wendigo parts, Sasquatches, the remains of the pilot, even... "Tailchaser. They took Anna's body." He even witnessed them holding Anna's head up by her hair, her eyes white and retreated back into her severed skull. "Chase your tail no longer, Sweet Anna."

As if hearing choppers over the treetops he caught brief images of four separate choppers hauling away the dismantled cargo plane. Even what appeared to be scientists taking soil samples. Once the relocation process concluded for all things material professional cleaners set out to remedy truth from fiction concerning anyone not part of their activities. They were as thorough as humanly possible. But Stanos was not human. Nor were they it seemed. At least a few of them.

A final glimpse of what appeared to be the Field Leader, a woman with raven black hair seemingly peered directly up at Stanos. "Are you seeing me from... the future... my past?" It sure seemed like it. Wearing night glasses, it was hard to tell. In the blink of her insignias eye the visions ended. "Wait! We need the direction they went." Too late. "Dammit!"

Reconvening with the Shaman, Stanos found the elder tribesman pointing to the sky. High above a flock of Canadian geese were flying in their traditional arrow shaped flight pattern Northeast. "Thank you for gifting me unseen sight, Old One. Yes, I know I'm an older one. I will follow your wisdom."

"The tribe is gone." Lucky reported just as Stanos walked on all fours from the hill and took on his humanoid form. Once the transformation ended, he stood to face the General.

"How much do you know about the Illuminati?"

"Uh? Myth?" Harker puckered with a shrug.

"Bullseye insignia on their uniforms with an eye dead center. The eyes seemed sentient; they moved as if watching everything."

"How could you possibly?" Peregrine decided to head up to where Stanos had sat communing. Once up the hill he found a strange tiny totem laying in the snow attached to beads and a goose feather. Collecting it he brought it back down to share in its knowledge.

"What's this?" Harker showed Stanos and Lucien.

"A sign."

"Of what?"

"Let us call it a compass."

"Let's discuss this over coffee. I'm freezing my balls off." Harker hissed motioning his men back to their snowmobiles. Lynn Dawson agreed to that, she needed to thaw out herself. However, the mention of balls led her eyes to Lucky's. Squinting at her Lucky wagged his finger, she simply blushed. At least her cheeks were warm now.

********

Somewhere, somewhen, out there!

Garameth caught a strange scent, one he recognized.

"Stanos? How?"

Again, the birds in the trees took flight startling him from a search as to how he could smell his baby brother. This time the sparrows did not return to their prior perches but rallied into a clustered shadow flock formation and flying off to the Northeast.

A sign indeed!

"Thank you, Brother!"

It was all he had.