* * *
A gnarled hand appeared from the left side of the chair and motioned for him to approach. “Come here, Rafe. Give your report. None of that growling and barking. Take your human form. Barghest hurts my head, what with all those pitches and body language,” an airy voice whispered, so thin a gentle breeze might have masked it.
The first pop is always the worst, he reminded himself. He'd always hated the change, but he knew it was a vital part of proving his humanity remained intact.
With a grinding wave of pain, he felt his lupine bones being manipulated. A feeling of spiders crawling over every part of his body and finally ended with him standing straight.
Most of the fur was gone, but the hair on the top of his head was still rather matted, and no less black. The scars remained as an eternal reminder to his dishonor.
Thankfully, the transformation allowed for clothes to remain intact, as otherwise it could have gotten very awkward.
He stopped directly behind the chair. Seeing the true form of his master once had been more than enough for even him. "Master, your information was correct. Though I can hardly believe that he will become what you say he must. That puny thing would be overcome by a common boggart, let alone a real warrior.”
“You think so, do you? What else did you perceive of the boy?” The voice echoed through his head with a hint of amusement.
“He isn't much himself, but the potential is there. I do have to admit, you don't find many of The Children that have auras that powerful in this age.
“In fact, he could possibly be the strongest Child in several generations, but he knows nothing of our world. It's plain his parents have never told him anything about his heritage..”
For a few moments, there was a silence from the other side of the chair. “I am aware of his ignorance. It was for his own safety… And you say that his aura could already be considered strong? Hmm… Perhaps the parents… maybe… Thank you, Rafe. You have given me much to consider. I have another assignment for you.”
Rafe sighed, knowing what was coming. “Yes?”
“Watch the boy. Make sure the wrong… influences don't get their claws into him until he is ready. He must be ready for what is to come, both here in this world, and in ours… Oh, and make sure you don't scare him again like that. Your human form only, please.”
Two
Mere Coincidence?
“What is happenstance but another moment in which the impossibly extraordinary appears?”
- Prophet of the Sand
The next day, on the way to the library, Charley felt like someone was watching him, almost like a sixth sense. Charley looked and saw a young man sitting in a coffee shop across the street. His long black hair fell in waves onto his bronzed skin perfect, except the deep scars that marked his face and neck.
He almost looked familiar to him, but Charley knew he had never seen the man before. For a second, he could have sworn the man was watching him pass, but he shook the thought from his head.
Turning the corner, he saw the large brownstone library. Charley and the others rushed for the entrance, knowing that cool relief was just within their grasp. They were brought to a stop as three figures stepped in their path.
Standing at the front was the smallest boy. His black hair contrasting as sharply as a knife with his zombie-white skin. The other two were nearly as tall as Riley, and probably a few years older, but were probably twenty pounds heavier in the muscles area, and about sixty IQ points lower.
“Well, well. Summer break started today, and look who's already going to the library. Bunch of nerds, aren't they” the smaller boy said to the two others.
Abe stepped forward. “Just leave us alone, Victor. Don't you have some puppies to torture?”
Charley stepped forward and put his hand on Abe's shoulder. “Let's go. He's not worth it.”
“Not worth it? You guys should be bowing down to me after yesterday. I got everyone out of school forty minutes early– Well, it was my plan anyways,” Victor said.
Nina's face went nearly as red as her hair. “You're the one who ruined my hair?”''
Victor smirked. “You mean it can get worse than that?” This time, it was Nina that Charley had to hold back from windmilling into Victor.
At that moment, Charley heard a raspy voice with a hint of an Irish accent from behind him. “Is there a problem here?”
Charley looked over his shoulder, still holding tightly onto Nina as he did so. The same man from the coffee shop was standing beside Riley. Even as tall as Riley was, the man still stood nearly six inches taller. With a coffee in one hand, he stood waiting. Even with his suburban clothing, Charley could tell there was something dangerous about him. Something just beneath the surface that told Charley he shouldn't make this man mad.
“No, sir. I just had to defend myself from her. She was trying to take out my eye,” Victor said in his nasally voice.
The man smirked. “Well, I dare say you deserve to have your eye taken out if you can't handle a girl,” the man said sarcastically.
Charley turned to see Victor had gone a bright red that didn't match well with his pale skin. “Let's go. We've got better things to do,” he said to his two goons before reversing down the street.
“Thanks for the help,” Charley said as he turned back to the man.
The man waved him off. “Don't worry about it. I've seen his kind before.” He looked down at his watch. “Well, I must take my leave. Have a good day Charley,” he said as he sped past them.
Charley shook his head, not able to remember if he had told the man his name. I must have…
They continued on to the library, Victor forgotten soon after entering the refreshingly cool library. Abe looked at Riley, who was staring reverently at the books, and just rolled his eyes. Charley could have sworn he heard him mutter, “Nerd.”
Charley always found it funny when Abe would try to taunt Riley. Sure, Riley and Abe were paternal twins, and sure, they had different personalities and tastes. Though Abe appeared to look like the one that would make the better nerd with his small build, he was the one that was athletic. Riley, on the other hand, even with his large size, tended to side with the intellects. Even though they were so different from each other they were still extremely close.
Riley smiled at Abe and started walking forward again. They had all stopped when Riley had, as he was the one that really knew his way around the library.
Humming to himself, Riley started running his fingers along the spines horizontally as he passed them, causing him to slow down almost to a stop. "Riley, we're here to help Charley, remember?" Nina whispered at him vehemently.
Riley turned to them sheepish, and a small smile appeared on his face. “Sorry, I forgot.”
Charley smiled back. “It's fine, I like books too.”
Nina laughed. “Yeah, comic books.”
“They're books,” Charley said, defending himself.
They made it to the librarian's desk without any further stops along the way. They stepped into line with a few people ahead of them. Charley turned to Riley. “Do you think they're going to have anything?”
“I don't know. They have a lot of books, they might.” Soon, the line diminished until there was only one more person in front of them. By this time, Abe was tapping his foot as fast as a rabbit in impatience, even though they had only been waiting five minutes.
“Okay, I'll take the next one here,” an older women said, motioning for Charley to come up. “And how can I help you, dearie?”
“Well, I’m not sure. I was wondering if I could use one of the computers to look something up.”
She shook her head. “I'm sorry honey, all of the public computers are down for maintenance. Maybe if you tell me what you're looking for I can help you, though.”
“That's the thing. I only have a word- Barghest- and I have no idea what that is.” He gave her a guilty look and shrugged.
“I've never even heard of anything like that.”
She looked to her fellow librarian. “Hey, Marge, have you ever heard of something called a…” she turned back to Charley. “What was it again, dearie?”
“A Barghest,” he repeated.
They looked at each other and then the one called Marge answered. “No, can't say that I've ever heard of something like that. Do you want me to do a search on the computer? All I’ll need is how it's spelled.”
Charley looked at them with embarrassment. “Uh… actually, I don't know how to spell it, sorry.”
The two librarians looked at him and Marge replied. “If we don't know what we are looking for, or how to even spell it, we can't really do much for you.”
They left the library defeated. Even though they had spent an hour looking in all the wildlife sections to see if they could find anything, nothing appeared. All they found was a book on timber wolves and their habitats, and also a book on large dogs and their characteristics.
Both proved to be useless, as there was nothing in there that even resembled the thing that Charley had seen. The wolves looked similar, but even they weren't large enough.
On the way home Charley felt deflated. It was getting even hotter now, and the clouds were gone. Charley felt the sun pelting his shoulders and he knew he was going to burn into a crisp.
Riley turned to Charley. “I'm sorry we didn't find anything. I know I wasn't much help… Sorry,” he said, shrugging his shoulders.
“Don't sweat it. We'll figure out something,” Charley said, trying to put on a happy face for them.
They kept walking, as this was certainly no day to be out walking, especially with the building humidity. Charley saw that Nina was visibly panting, though she would smile and shake her head anytime one of them asked her if she wanted to stop and take a rest.
Finally, Charley gave up. “Okay, that's it, you're doing worse than I am. You need to sit down.” Seeing a nearby bookstore, he pulled her by the arm into the building.
He heard a tinkling above his head and then behind him as Abe and Riley followed them into the store. He deposited her in one of the chairs around a short coffee table.
The entire time she glared at him. He felt her glare follow him like the Grim Reaper over his shoulder as he walked over to the service bar and rang the bell.
They heard thumping coming from the back of the room and they all turned as an older man, came around the corner of a bookshelf. His eyes widened at seeing them.
His eyes landed on Nina and lit up with understanding. “Young lady, would you like a drink?”
Nina nodded instead of speaking. The man walked behind the counter and bent down. He soon returned with a bottle of water and handed it to her. “Allow me to introduce myself. I am Renwick Mordecai, bookstore owner, and procurer of rare artifacts… among other things.”
Charley pointed to the four of them in turn, “Nina, Riley, Abe and me, Charley.”
“A pleasure. Correct me if I’m wrong, but you look like someone who could use some much-needed knowledge.”
Charley was confused for a moment but then responded, “Oh… yeah… but I don't know if you would even be able to help, sorry.”
The man looked at him with a glint in his eye. “If I do not have anything on the topic, I'll give you the store to keep.”
Charley grinned at his joke and replied, “Okay then, do you have anything on what a Barghest is? I don't know how to spell it, and I also don't know anything else about it.”
He laughed. “Well, I think I have both good and bad news for you: One, you do not get a store; and two, I think I have just what you are looking for. Wait here.”
He walked behind his counter and returned with a large leather-bound book. At seeing everyone's reaction he laughed and said, “Don't worry, this isn't the book. This is my catalog. I don't have a good memory, so I use to this to remember where I put everything.”
As he said this, he thumbed through the pages, occasionally running his forefinger across a line on a page, but shook his head, and then moving on. Finally, “Aha, of course. I should have known,” he said, and then slapped his forehead. “It's upstairs with the more valuable books. Wait here.”
He was gone for what seemed an hour to Charley. Abe took it worse, though. When Abe rose to pace, Charley looked at the clock mounted on the wall behind the counter and saw that only fifteen minutes had gone by.
Abe spoke up. “I wonder when he'll find it. All I hear is him making a huge racket.” Charley agreed but didn't say anything. Riley looked at him with annoyance. “Come on, he did look kind of frail… Maybe we should have gone with him.”
Nina shook her head. “No, we probably would have gotten in his way. I mean, he did say he had valuable books up there,” she turned her head toward the back of the shop. “Anyways, I think I hear him coming.”
Sure enough, Charley could hear him coming back down the stairs. Clunk. Thump. Clunk. Thump. All the way to the bottom of the stairs, and, in hand, he held a thin volume in his hand.
“Come here, I’ll show you where it is,” he motioned for all of them to come to him as he set it under a lamp at a reading table. “Right there,” he said, pointing to a portion of the text and then pushing it over to Charley.
Charley read aloud, “Barghest: one of the oldest beings in Irish and Welsh mythology. Related to the Wild Hunt of the Tuatha. In mythology, they were known for their wolf-like appearance and overly large size, along with claws and teeth to rival that of any large cat. Their only natural enemy was supposedly man itself, who thought sighting one was a death omen. Also known as 'the Grim.'”
Charley looked at the others in confusion. They looked back at him with matching looks, though Riley appeared preoccupied. To Charley, it looked like he was giving real consideration to the idea.
Renwick looked at them out of the corner of his eye. “Well, I have obviously given all four of you some confusing news. Maybe not what you were looking for, after all?” He turned and walked to the counter where he pulled a sleeve of cookies down from a shelf and returned to the four of them.
“Charley, I hope you found what you were looking for.”
“I think so, but I’m not sure.”
Renwick looked at him with a frown. “I'm sorry that I can't be of more help. I usually have more information on things, but some mythologies are more obscure than others. Unfortunately, Welsh mythology is one of those. I suppose I could ask some of my colleagues if they have anything,” he said, looking at Charley, leaving the question unspoken.
Charley shook his head. “No, that's all right. I don't think that I need anymore information. Thanks for the cookies and the water. How much?” he asked, reaching for his pocket. His parents had given him cash that morning in case he got anything to eat.
Renwick held up his hand in a stop motion. “Don't worry about it. It's not often that I find those as young as you that are interested in that kind of information, let alone four of you. It's my honor to treat young scholars,” he said with a wink and a broad smile.
“Are you su-”
Abe cut him off. “He said it was his honor.”
“Charley was just being polite,” Nina said as she bumped him with her elbow.