Myka's Tail Ch. 04

Avery didn't say much, but the look on her face made it clear that she really didn't believe that any of what was currently happening was what we said it was, let alone what might happen soon.

"I know you find it hard to believe," Kelli sighed as she continued. "But in a few minutes some of our friends will be here and they will go out and try and find whoever is doing this. They will not use methods you will recognize or even think are real, but they are all very good at what they do."

"Whatever. You can just sit around and wait if you want, but if those shits are out there right now and your guess is right, then I am going to call the sheriff's office and get them out here right away."

"Please don't do that," and to everyone's surprise, it was my mother who had placed her hand on Avery as she whispered her request. "The police here will just ignite a lot of questions that we do not need to be asked right now. Let Kelli and her friends take care of it."

"I can't just sit by and let poachers run wild on land I have been assigned to. I took an oath to..."

She was interrupted by the door to our basement room opening and the emergence of several people. The part of me that could still register surprise did so as Ali, Cassandra, Gina and Mary all joined us in our living room.

"What is wrong with her," Gina cried out as she rushed to my side so that she could help.

Kelli spent a little time going over the events of the last several weeks in a quick and concise manner. How we found out about the new business deal and the takeover of our houses. The fact that Mathias was behind the entire scheme, and was apparently using it as a means to get back at Myka. And finally, how I was so connected to the earth that I was feeling the deaths of what they were killing at this very moment, and it had sent me into a frenzy.

"Can you help our dads take care of this," Kelli asked, the pleading plain in her voice. "I can't let her go outside like this. Myka will just go after them and it is too dangerous."

While Kelli was talking to Gina about me, Cassandra and Ali had already begun to confer with our dads. Both had a shotgun with them, and her dad had already strapped on his belt holster to add a pistol to the mix. Military habits die hard he once told me, and it apparently still held true. Avery was also standing with them, and I finally noticed through my haze of pain and suffering that she had a sidearm as well.

"Who is this Miss Kelli," Cassandra asked, indicating a rather confused Avery.

"Who am I," she responded with a touch of venom in her voice. "Who the fuck are you people and were they just hanging out in your basement?"

"Now, now my dear," was Cassandra's slightly condescending reply. "There is never a need for such language. It accomplishes nothing. And my question still stands Miss Kelli."

"Cassandra, this is Avery Michaelson," Kelli answered trying her best to stay calm. "She is the fish and wildlife officer who has been working with us for the past several weeks. Initially we thought we might be dealing with normal poachers, but we were wrong. That is why I called you."

"I know dear, and you were right to do so. You know how dangerous it is having her here, do you not?"

"I am aware of the danger, but with Myka's life on the line and with all due respect Cassandra, right now I couldn't care less about the danger."

"You should care dear one, for it is all our lives if normal humans find out. I know that Millicent was, quite informing with your family, and I vehemently disagreed with her actions at the time. But this is entirely different and you have risked us all by bringing in yet another unknowledgeable human that cannot protect herself."

"Excuse me lady," Avery cried out in anger and resentment. "I don't know who you are, or who you think you are. I'll have you know..."

"Enough," shouted Ali over everyone else, and I began to feel a more commanding presence in the room coming from her. "Mother, what's done is done. And by the goddess, I probably would have done the same damned thing. And you also know my feelings on this matter. Millicent and I are in agreement. Now how are we going to handle this?"

Everyone in the room seemed to look at Ali now with a little more respect. Cassandra was still the one in charge, by a large margin, but her daughter was now someone to be listened to in times of crisis when orders must be given.

"Very well. What will be, will be. We shall enter the wood this night and make sure that Mathias and his servants never cross us again."

"Who will be responsible for who," was Ali's response.

"You, daughter, shall go with this hot headed young officer," Cassandra continued, and Avery only protested a little at her comment. "Since Miss Kelli is the least experienced of us, I will be with her. And Mary will stand with Daniel and Steven, which leaves you, Gina, to care for Myka please."

"No. I cannot do that," Gina stated and I could see the iron in her spine. "In fact, you need to release her so that she can go and protect the earth she is bound to, Kelli."

"No way am I going to do that," was her response, and even in my haze I could feel her love, anger and that fierce desire to protect me. "Mathias wants her, and if she goes out there I will lose her to him."

"Yes, you may," Gina replied with little feeling in her voice. "If it is fated that she die at Mathias' hands tonight, then that is what must happen. But that outcome is not certain until it occurs. I will tell you that if you do not let her go, you will certainly lose the Myka you know and love and nothing will be able to bring her back."

"What are you talking about," Kelli replied, her face having gone ghostly pale.

"I knew a druid once," Gina began with a slow deep breath. "It was a few years ago, but I can never forget it. He was bound to the earth, much like Myka is, and it was his task to protect his small portion of it. A logging company came in and began to harvest every scrap of wood they could find, and it started to tear him apart, much like Myka is being torn apart."

"But we can stop them without her," Kelli complained in a hushed voice.

"It doesn't matter. The earth has called her, and given her a charge. That druid ignored his call, tried to ride out the things he was feeling, and the price he paid for ignoring his duty was quite high. His personality flattened out, he felt nothing anymore, desired nothing anymore, and within five years he took his own life. If you force Myka to stay, and don't let her protect the earth as she is meant to do, you will lose her as surely as if she were to die tonight."

"There has to be another way," Kelli cried in anguish, her heart nearly breaking in two as Gina came over and wrapped her in a comforting hug.

"I am sorry, but there is not. Release Myka. Release her to do what she is meant to do, and trust in her and in the training I have given her. Trust. Trust is love, and love is trust. I will stay and protect your mothers in case they decide to come here."

Kelli did nothing for a few minutes but weep in Gina's arms, and everyone around could see that she didn't want to make this choice. In Scotland, I was the one who had to make hard choices, and I knew I would still have to make them, but right now it was Kelli's turn. It was her time in the crucible. Both my primal side, and my more conscious self, sat there and awaited her decision. Finally she straightened her back and looked me in the eye with a fire I never suspected that she had.

"Are we ready to go," Kelli asked, and got an affirmative from everyone in the room. "Fine then. Myka, I am sorry for keeping you back. I was only trying to keep you safe. Go. Go and fight them where you can, and we will be right behind you."

I leapt up at her pronouncement and bolted across the room, headed for the door, but a stray thought had both sides of my personality in agreement. I turned around at that point, still naked as the day I was born, and stalked towards my love as my tail lashed back and forth in anticipation. Once I had come to her, I noticed Kelli's confused expression, and I let out a low chuckle as I gripped the sides of her head and kissed her with all the feeling that I could bring to bear. Once done, I turned and left a breathless Kelli behind me as I ran out of the back door and into the night.

As I ran through the trees in the moonlit dark, I could feel some of my primal self receding, allowing me to take back a measure of control. With my training I was able to keep a good deal of my conscious side forward in my mind so that it could be used when I needed it. And I was sure I was going to need it. I could feel the earth still thundering in my ears, demanding action, and I was ready to give it. First, though, I needed to get my bearings.

Within minutes I arrived at the clearing, but I did so moving through the trees above. If these guys were really after me then they probably had researched and knew this was most likely one of the first places I would go. Off in the distance I heard a gunshot, and it was immediately accompanied by another wave of nausea and pain. I had certainly been right. These fuckers were out killing so that they would get me out here to protect the forest, and I vowed to make them regret it.

I was suddenly glad I came in from up above because down below me I was able to make out two men in combat gear patrolling the area near the pond. For normal humans they moved in relative silence to the world around them, but with my hearing I was able to sense every step. They would report in to someone every few minutes, and I used some time as Sensei had instructed. I could have eliminated them quickly, but more information was always beneficial in a fight.

They were dressed in a forest pattern camouflage set of fatigues, and each carried some sort of sub-machine gun type weapon. I decided that I would have Kelli's dad give me a run down on the types later in case this ever happened again. I noticed that they had on some sort of harness that had what looked like extra clips, and some other devices that I was not sure what they were. And both had some sort of headset based radio that they were communicating with.

I knew the others would need this information if they were going to stay safe, so I concentrated and formed what was a pretty accurate mental picture of what these guys looked like and how they moved. Once I had that in my head I opened up my bond to Kelli a little wider and did my best to send the image of what looked like soldiers to her. I got a pulse of love and understanding back over the bond, and I hoped that what I had done would let the others be a little more prepared. Then I waited for the right moment to deal with these two.

Since the clearing was not that big it only took a minute or two for their patrol pattern to bring them back near the tree I was in. It was finally time, and I fought for a brief moment with a knotted feeling in my gut. I wanted to keep the violence that was sure to happen to a minimum, but with the weapons these guys had, and how organized they were, I knew I was going to have to kill some of them. I didn't want to, but even Sensei had said that there were times when you had to be prepared to kill and to do it if you had others to protect. Now was the time.

As they passed by my hiding spot I leaped out of the tree with the grace of the cat that I am, and as I landed I grabbed the first of the two around the neck and pulled him over my shoulder. I had also added a slight twist to the maneuver, and as my heightened strength pulled his body over mine I felt and heard the snap as his neck broke, and what landed on the ground was never moving again. I immediately turned to the other one, and I could see the surprise on his face at the near instant death of his partner, and before he could do anything I swept his legs and gave his neck the same treatment as he fell.

I regretted having to kill the two of them, but at the moment the element of surprise was still paramount. During the next minute I broke the radio of one so that it was silenced, and I grabbed the other radio and a belt to carry it with. I tightened the belt around my hips and clipped the earpiece to the side because it wouldn't fit my cat like ears. With my hearing level, however, I was able to turn the radio volume down, and still hear it clearly, even without it in my ear. Once set I made my way back into the forest.

After a few minutes of moving through the trees again, I got the sense that someone was following me, so I moved to the side and back up into the trees. I doubled back for a little bit, and kept my eye out, but I did not see or hear anything. The next thing I knew, I was staring down at two wolves that had stopped to look up at me. I was not sure how long they had known I was there, but I realized that they were probably much better at this than I was.

I dropped down to the ground and made my way over to the pair, keeping my movements slow so I did not alarm or antagonize the two males. There was nothing that I had learned yet to tell me that they were male, but I knew they were, and I also realized that they were there to follow my lead. I quietly thanked the power of the earth that I had for this gift, but knew I would have time to think about it later. I allowed the two to sniff my hands, and they allowed me to give their heads a rub or two before it was time to go, and we all moved off in another direction with me in the lead.

As we were moving through the trees, I heard the roaring report of a pair of shotguns and I realized that my dads had run into trouble. I also heard the distinct chatter of automatic weapons fire in the same general area, and that was when the element of surprise went out the window. Once the firefight began, the radio at my belt also came to life and the wolves and I stopped so that I could listen to what was said.

"Contact! Contact," someone was shouting over the radio, the sounds of gunfire in the background. "Mitchell is down! I repeat, Mitchell is down!"

"Davis," another voice called out. "Report your situation. Did you make contact with the target?"

"That's a negative, boss. Negative on target contact. I am pinned down currently by two guys with shotguns and a woman who has some sort of flame throwing device."

"Give me a description Davis."

"Sir, it's like... I've never seen anything like it sir. She's shooting what appear to be grenades made of fire. They move through the air and explode on contact."

Once I heard that I turned up the volume on my radio some so that I could listen while on the run. That done, the wolves and I set a very rapid pace, headed towards where I could still hear the gunfire. Because of my nervousness and due to my amped up senses, I was also becoming hyper aware of things around me. That turned out to be a good thing, because as I was moving to help my dads and Mary, I ran into another pair of soldiers. It looked like they were also trying to aid the one named Davis, because they were headed in the same direction and were moving fast enough that their noise masked my own.

I ignored the radio chatter for another few moments while we took down the new pair of soldiers before they could come to the aid of their friend. I made a quick running leap into a tree trunk and used that to push off and land near one of the two men using a side kick to destroy his knee as I did. My strike was true, causing him to crumple and roll across the ground in confusion, his holler of pain filling the darkness. One instant later I was straddled across his chest and with a few well-placed fists I rendered him unconscious. His partner was not so lucky.

At his comrade's scream the other one stopped and turned, his weapon moving to point at where I was attacking. Because he was paying attention to me, it was a complete surprise when one wolf barreled into him, knocking him on his ass. It was also a surprise when the wolf that followed the first one tore out the soldier's throat before he could even pull the trigger. I had never seen something like that before, and it almost made my stomach turn, but my adrenaline was running high enough that I could ignore it and worry about it later.

I kicked the guns away from the dying man and his unconscious friend and I destroyed their radios for good measure while the wolves sat to the side, watching me work. I used a set of zip-ties to hogtie the unconscious soldier, and after tearing some of his shirt and using one of his gear belts to improvise a gag, I again led the wolves off in the direction to help my dads.

"Davis, are you still under fire," the one voice asked, and sounded concerned when he didn't receive an immediate answer. "Davis? Davis, report?"

"Sorry sir," Davis finally replied. "I'm trying to get to one of the fall back positions, but this damned fire weapon is keeping me from moving very fast."

"Stay where you are, keep your head down, and ping your locator so we can find you," the commanding voice said. "I have Johnson and Tries moving in on your location. Johnson, report."

I realized that the two that we just put out of commission were probably the ones that the commander was referring to, which meant that soon the other soldiers would know that there was at least one other person or group after them. This made me pick up the pace so that I could get to my dads before anything could happen to them.

"Johnson! Tries! I said report," the voice demanded again, and once again received no answer. "All teams report in!"

The radio came to life with several different voices all responding to the call of their commander to report their condition. I was still on the move, but I did my best to count how many teams answered the call. I knew that this was vital information that we could use if I could get it to my dads or to one of the circle who could communicate it to the others. A minute or two later the reports quit coming over the radio and I estimated that there were currently eight more teams of two still active in the woods, but I wasn't able to get the count of how many had fallen. I know I had accounted for two myself, and it sounded like my dads and Mary had one down, but that was the best I could figure at the moment.

"Davis," the commanding voice instructed. "Move as quickly as you can to the south, about 500 yards and then wait and provide covering fire if needed. Jackson and Kellar will be there shortly, and then we can regroup."

"Roger that sir," Davis called, and I realized that not only had I heard him over the radio, he was close enough that I heard him naturally.

I put on an extra burst of speed in the direction that I had heard Davis' voice, and the wolves were right behind me. Left, right, and left I dodged through the trees, never once needing to slow down, and the wind rushing past my face made me smile in grim delight. Moments later I saw a person, who was probably Davis, moving at a fair jog through the trees, and I could hear the sounds of others following. Out from behind another tree I dodged, and nailed Davis with a snap kick to the gut and a hammer fist to the nose, and he collapsed. He began backpedaling on the ground as the wolves came forward to assist me, and in those few seconds he started talking again.

"This is Davis! I have contact with the target and some sort of animals. She..."

His talking quickly cut off as I dropped and axe kick into his gut again, and before he could bring his gun to bear I stepped on his arm and then grabbed him by the throat. My face was inches away from his, and I could see the fear in his eyes as I hissed at him. He was no longer able to answer when the radio came to life again asking him to report on his progress, and as that was happening I began to squeeze ever so slowly.