****
Two Bears arrived at the scene of the battle deep in the Goth woods only minutes later, but he was already too late. At first he had a hard time making any sense of what he found, but then realization hit him so hard that it staggered him. He would have thought it impossible, but there was no mistaking what had happened.
He closed his eyes and linked himself more strongly with the forest to both calm himself and to focus on sensing the powerful evil forces that must have accomplished such horror, but he sensed nothing in the immediate vicinity except a lingering hint of death that led deeper into the forest.
“Baldor has been defeated, Johnny, and a great evil is moving towards you,” he pathed.
“Dark?” Johnny asked.
“I suspect so but I can’t be totally certain.”
“Baldor doesn’t know?”
“Baldor is destroyed. Cut into pieces.”
It took a moment for Johnny to reply. “Pieces? My God!”
Though it hurt him to do so, Two Bears again surveyed the scene, using all his senses. Sections of glowing white unicorn were scattered through the forest, each piece cut cleanly as though by a great sharp knife. Baldor looked like a sliced up statue; there was no blood or gore, only a solid white material that resembled marble or solid, hard plastic. The great glowing horn was nowhere to be found.
“Yes, he was sliced into dozens of pieces, none larger than a turkey. It had to be Dark, perhaps using iron weapons. Small Bear would not have the strength to do such a thing. But judging by the trail left by the intruders, there appear to be two of them. Likely it is both Dark and Small Bear, moving towards you.”
“We’ll be ready,” replied Johnny.
Two Bears studied the battle site further. There were burned trees and areas of earth where blasts of power had smashed the surroundings; Baldor had put up a fight. But he had been very quickly overpowered, before he could even voice a warning message.
Such evil would have to be removed from this holy place.
Two Bears looked in the direction of Goth Mountain. Anything that could do this to a unicorn was incredibly dangerous. Johnny would need his help. He was about set off in pursuit of the intruders when he received an urgent radio message from Black Knife. The logging equipment was moving towards the gate, manned by loggers, bikers, and police.
He had to return to the cabin at once. He couldn't join Johnny and the others on the Mountain. That meant that unless more help arrived from the People, Johnny, Dooley, Ned, and Elizabeth were on their own.
As he approached the cabin he could hear the sound of dozens of engines belonging to heavy equipment, starting up. Near the inner gate he was surprised to be met by a grinning Angela Welborne.
“Two Bears! Back from the dead, I see! Johnny’s work, I bet,” she told him.
“You must be Angela.” Up to this point Angela had stayed mostly in her rental car and Two Bears had managed to avoid her.
“I have a proposition for you. I had my father acquire new logging equipment and the National Guard with attack vehicles to aid Fenster. I can have him take it all back again if you give me what I want.”
“And what would that be?”
“I want to know how Johnny does his tricks and I want him to perform those tricks for me publicly, under contract to me. I’ll be his agent.”
Two Bears frowned, trying to understand just what she was asking and why anyone would want such a thing. But it was no use. White man society was far too odd to comprehend.
Angela was still grinning. “I’m not totally selfish. It’s a win-win thing for everyone. We’ll all be rich and famous. Given the tourism and research grants and such that will result, your tribe will be able to trade in its tepees for deluxe condos.”
Two Bears finally smiled. Her frame of reference for everything was so strange to him that comprehension had been difficult, but this was an easy choice. “No thanks,” he stated, simply. He continued walking towards the cabin. He could hear more and more heavy machinery coming to life beyond the outer gate. The noise was so great that if he were a normal man, limited by normal senses, he might be concerned that they had already plowed through the fence and into the Goth forest. But he was one with the forest now, and the forest trees knew exactly where the big machines were.
Angela’s face hardened, as she struggled to keep pace with his long strides. “You don’t understand; you really have no choice if you want to keep this place in one piece. I’ve been talking to Fenster and my father. They’ve had the police arrest most of those silly protesters. We have over a hundred armed men and you have a handful of men with guns without bullets. With Johnny further up the Mountain somewhere your remaining forces are a total joke. We have armored personnel carriers and logging machines that will go right through anything you can throw at them, including even Johnny, if he ever does show. My compromise is your only hope.”
“I think you’ve worn out your welcome, Angela,” said Ann Goth, as she stepped into view from around the corner of the cabin. “Get out of here now. We have important things to do.”
“I didn’t date Johnny all that time to end up with nothing.”
“You’ve already had far more from Johnny than you deserve,” said Ann. “Leave now under your own power or you’ll be thrown out.”
“That’s good advice, Miss,” seconded Two Bears. “What news, Ann?” he pathed.
“Not good. Mort’s Body is missing from the cemetery near town.”
“Someone knows too much,” answered Two Bears. He didn’t have to say who, this was probably the work of Small Bear, again one step ahead of his opposition. Sadly, he pathed the terrible news about Baldor to Ann, and explained his difficult decision to not pursue the intruders and aid Johnny.
Ann’s head was pounding, but she closed her eyes and pathed encouragement to Johnny before replying to Two Bears. “I understand,” she pathed. “I’ll prepare the others.” She turned on her heal and marched back towards the cabin door. Her worst fears were coming true, damn it all to hell!
“What is her problem?” Angela asked.
Two Bears turned to face Angela. “That’s not your concern. Now, like Ann says, you’ve overstayed your welcome. Come; I’ll walk you out. I’m headed that way anyhow. I'm going to do something about those noisy folks at the gate.”
It was a command, not a request. Angela shrugged and again half walked, half trotted, to keep pace with the enormous stride of Two Bears. As they moved down the driveway, the great trees around them began to sway slowly, though there was no wind. A soft sound, growing ever more immense, rose from millions of leaves stirring, then gradually transitioned to strident scraping, creaking and thrashing of countless branches. Wind began to build, wind caused by the motion of massive trees, rather than the other way around.
“What’s happening?” a spooked Angela asked the giant walking next to her, as the sound of logger equipment was almost totally drowned out by the lashing trees.
“I wake the forest, in case your friends are stupid enough to attack it. You see, we are not as defenseless as you seem to think, if we become desperate enough.”
For the first time, it occurred to Angela that Johnny wasn’t the only one with strange powers. Out of the corner of her eye she glimpsed movement at ground level among the trees. She saw that there were dozens of animals paralleling their movement along the driveway; ranging in size from tiny unidentifiable rodents to squires, opossums, skunks, raccoons, foxes, and coyotes. She thought that she glimpsed larger animals too, wolves, elk, bears and mountain lions - but she told herself that she was imagining them. At one point she thought that she glimpsed something humanoid in form, but monstrously big and hairy. The creatures moved through the forest silently and with purpose, animals that were normally hunters and prey, now acting together as one. Birds flow above the ground level animals, jays and fiches by the thousands, shadowed from above by swarms of flying insects and scores of owls great and small. Above the restless trees
soared hawks and eagles. Still higher, a black thundercloud gathered, defying forecasts of good weather.
In the commotion, Angela hadn’t noticed the vine until it was too late. An inch thick and strong as a towing cable, it whipped around her legs and waist quickly. She screamed.
“Relax Miss,” said the giant Indian, with a grim smile. “I think you’ll be kept safer here for now.” With that the vine lifted her off the ground and pulled her into the forest. The thrashing of the forest soon drowned out her screams.
A great brown bear stepped from the forest to join Two Bears. “Greetings, Two Bears,” it announced, as it stood before him.
Two Bears recognized who spoke to him, but not the creature’s unusually serious attitude. “Greetings, Fen,” replied the Shaman, with a warm smile. “It has been far too long a time since you left The Land to see us here on Goth Mountain. Have you come to help defend the forest and the gateway to your hidden home?”
“True, it has been too long, human. Yes, Pru has told us of what you face. Despite the danger of the Evil One, many of us have come to help. I prefer the goat-man form, but that would raise human eyebrows.”
“The bear form is a good one for you and for Ned in these dangerous times. What of Pru?”
“She is still trying to persuade the Council of your needs. Those of us that immediately agreed to help came here right away as a personal choice. We intended to report to Baldor but we cannot sense him. Do you know why?”
“I have very bad news for you about Baldor.” The Shaman telepathically broadcasted news of the destruction of Baldor, so that all nearby People would learn.
Fen’s bear form wavered for several seconds as he struggled with the news, before solidly recapturing his bear-form. "Nothing like this had happened in centuries. One of us will return to the Land to inform Pru and the others,” he told Two Bears. “Pru at least will return here, that much is very certain.”