Chapter 11: 11. Wake-Up Call

For the second morning in a row I woke up in Soneya's arms, with my face nestled in between her neck and shoulder. Like the first night I'd stripped down to only a t-shirt, while the wolfgirl was dressed in a tee and a pair of borrowed panties. We were together on our makeshift bed with the blanket ontop of us, and Lia lay sprawled out across both our legs.

The biggest difference was the first time I woke up in my companion's arms I almost panicked about it. This time my anxiety was down to a manageable level. In fact I was able to just lay there and enjoy the moment, while my tail started happily wagging and softly thumping against the floor behind me.

When Soneya woke a few moments later I felt her body tense slightly, though it wasn't as bad as the first time. She was maybe wary or uneasy, but I was sure she wasn't freaking out. And she didn't immediately pull away either so I stayed where I was too, and sure enough the gentle thumping of my wagging tail was joined by the soft thud of hers wagging against the floor behind her.

From the light coming in around the edges of the canvas door flap I figured it was only just sunrise, or maybe a little past that. I knew we should probably get up and get moving, but I was a little too comfortable.

After another minute or two Soneya whispered, "Tori? Are you awake?"

"Yeah," I whispered back.

"Me too," Lia added.

None of us had actually moved yet, we were still cuddled tightly together with our little sister sprawled ontop. And I couldn't help smiling as I felt a little flutter deep inside me at the close contact between the three of us. Like we became a pack or something last night. Or maybe we became a little family. Either way, it felt good.

The three of us continued to rest together like that for another minute or two, then our pack leader took a breath as if to say something. Before she made a sound though my ears twitched at a distant noise, and from the way both my companions suddenly tensed up I knew they heard it too. My and Soneya's tails were both suddenly motionless, the happy wagging replaced by tense focus.

Lia silently rolled off our legs and sat on the floor with her back to us, facing the door of the shelter. Her head was tilted slightly and both ears focused. Meanwhile me and Soneya still hadn't moved, apart from both of us raised our heads as we also strained to listen.

"Men," our little sister stated. "Coming this way."

The sounds were already clearer, we heard people approaching through the woods or along the trail. It took me a moment to remember where we were in relation to the river, then I could visualize the scene outside better. The people were approaching from the west, from the direction we wanted to go.

We could hear voices now too, the people were talking to each other. They were keeping their voices down, but all three of us had excellent hearing. I wasn't sure how many people there were, but based on the number of footfalls it had to be at least a dozen. I couldn't hear that many voices, but some of the people might have been staying quiet. What I did hear was mostly men, and at least one woman. And their accents varied, but most seemed to be either French, mid-west, or east coast.

There were at least three separate conversations, one group was complaining about the early morning and long hike ahead of them while another was griping about breakfast. The third was speculating about that impossible mountain in the park.

Me and my companions were still silent. Soneya and I hadn't moved yet, we remained in each other's arms in our makeshift bed, while Lia sat between us and the door of the shelter, as if on guard duty.

I was about to ask Soneya what we should do when one of the voices out there spoke up louder than the rest. He had a French accent but spoke English as he ordered, "Cut the chatter. This is the first campsite on our route. Spread out and check for anything unusual. Nguyen, Thomas, you two check that shelter."

The group immediately became a lot more quiet. We could still hear their movements, but they were obviously making an effort to keep the noise down. And there were definitely two sets of footsteps heading straight for us.

My heart started racing. I looked to Soneya and asked in a faint whisper, "What do we do?"

Part of me wanted to just sit up and greet whoever was outside. With the military helicopters landing a kilometre or two away yesterday and based on what we'd heard it was fairly easy to guess these were soldiers outside. They were probably looking for survivors, hopefully they were here to help any hikers caught up in the earthquake.

But another part of me was scared. Soldiers would have guns. And the guy in charge didn't say 'check for survivors', they were looking for anything unusual. Soneya and I definitely qualified for that. I had no idea if they'd even see us as human, or if they'd react like we were monsters. And they'd probably see Lia as a wild animal.

And with the both of us being half naked and still in bed with our gear all unpacked we definitely weren't in any condition to make a run for it. That's assuming we could even get past what I assumed to be a dozen armed soldiers outside the shelter.

Soneya looked as uneasy as I felt. She didn't look as scared as me though, and I felt her muscles tense again like she was preparing herself for action.

Then Lia spoke up. Our little sister hadn't moved from where she was sitting but she stated, "Don't move. Stay quiet."

A moment later the canvas door flap was yanked aside and two soldiers stood in the doorway. On the left was a shorter asian woman, on the right a tall slim white guy in glasses. They both had rifles raised to their shoulders as if ready to open fire, and my heart practically stopped.

Except at the same instant the canvas was pulled open it seemed as if Lia vanished. And so did our gear. In fact I couldn't even see Soneya next to me, or our bedding beneath me. I couldn't even see myself, it was like all three of us and all our stuff was suddenly gone, leaving the shelter completely empty.

Both soldiers were wearing some kind of combat fatigues, they had heavy-looking packs on their backs, helmets, the works. I didn't know enough about military stuff to understand any of the subdued insignia or rank things on their outfits, but I could tell they were Canadian Forces from the markings on their helmets.

The two soldiers' eyes swept the empty shelter and a second later the woman stated, "Clear!"

The man let the canvas door drop back into place and we heard their footsteps head away, while Lia and Soneya and everything else including me reappeared.

My heart was still racing and I was almost afraid to breathe by that point. I stayed silent, and held Soneya a little tighter as all three of us continued listening to the soldiers.

We heard one of the other men state, "The site's clear, no sign of anyone or anything around."

Then the voice that gave the earlier order spoke up, "Papa golf whiskey, site Ruisseau Bascon is clear."

"All right let's keep going!" he added. "We need to get to the rendezvous point at Mont Dodge, and I want us there before Hendrick's team! Move out!"

The random conversations started up again as the group moved away, following the trail east towards the park and that impossible mountain.

Meanwhile me and Soneya and Lia all stayed absolutely silent and still for at least another ten minutes. It wasn't until we couldn't hear any other sign of people outside that I finally let out a loud sigh as I practically went limp and flopped down on the bedding.

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Alpine took a few deep breaths as she sat up. "Lia was that you? What did you do? And how?"

"I don't know," our little sister replied calmly. "I think it was magic? I wanted us to be hidden, so we were hidden."

"You made us invisible, I think?" I mumbled as I lay on my back and stared at the canvas ceiling. "Not just us but all our gear too. Either we were invisible or it was some kind of illusion, to make the shelter appear empty. Same thing I guess?"

I added after another deep breath, "Soneya has fire magic, I can do water magic, and I bet yours is light magic."

After another minute or two Soneya finally stated in a quiet voice, "Let's get moving. Tori, I need you to get breakfast started while I pack up. And we both need to get dressed so we're ready to go if we have to."

"Maybe we should skip breakfast?" I asked. "If we have to move in a hurry while I have a pot of boiling water going..."

She shook her head, "It's more than five miles to Petit Sault, and if we don't find that guy's car or it doesn't work then we'll have another mountain to climb after that. You can't hike without eating Tori. We're barely getting enough calories as it is."

"Right," I nodded. "You're right, I wasn't thinking about that."

"It's ok," she gave me a sympathetic smile. "We're all tense after that, and I want to be away from here as much as you do. But we need to eat."

"I'm going to check that it's safe outside," Lia announced as she slipped out the door to scout around again.

I whisper-shouted after here, "Be careful!"

Then Soneya and I both started to move. I set up the stove and got a pot of water heating first, then pulled on my cutoff jeans and my hoodie. The wolfgirl got into her jeans as well, then started rolling up the sleeping bag.

Along with the freeze-dried bacon and eggs I also prepared two cups of camp coffee, taking advantage of the tin cup Soneya found in that cabin back on Mont Louis-Marie Lalonde.

"You're going to need shoes when we reach Amqui," my companion stated. "They won't let you into stores or restaurants barefoot. I'm going to sacrifice your sneakers to make you some camp sandals like I told you about the other day, ok?"

I nodded, "Thanks Soneya. I appreciate it."

She got out her knife and a tightly-wrapped bundle of paracord, then started slicing up my oversized mens sneakers. And for a few awkward minutes I was sitting beside the stove with both my feet on her lap, as she did some measuring and figured out how small to cut down the shoes and where to put the holes for the paracord.

The food was ready before she was finished working on my new footwear, and Lia returned as well. I dished it all up like usual, with half going to our tall strong pack leader, and the rest divided between our little sister and me.

"There are no other men nearby," Lia announced. "There is distant noise of machines though, in the direction of the flying machines from last night."

Soneya had a sip of her coffee then nodded, "The hotel. That'll be their forward base, it's probably where that group who came through here started."

She pulled out her map bundle and checked it, "We'll need to be careful when we go by there. The trail doesn't get too close, maybe a couple hundred meters from the hotel. It's a lot higher up too, looks like a couple hundred meters above the valley. We should be able to keep out of sight if we stick to the trees."

After another sip of coffee she added, "The last leg of our hike is going to be along the side of a road. The trail follows a main road for about a mile. If there's a lot of military activity around here, we might be seeing some traffic along there."

I thought that over as I chewed on a mouthful of reconstituted scrambled eggs and bacon bits. Then after I swallowed I asked, "Why are we hiding from them? I know I felt scared when they were here, but trying to think logically about the situation aren't they they good guys? Like... They're rescuers right?"

A thoughtful frown settled on Alpine's face as she quietly munched on a mouthful of breakfast.

She eventually responded, "They're not rescuers. If you're looking to find and help people who're lost or potentially injured, you call out to them. You alternate between calling out then listening for a response. You want the people you're looking for to know you're there, so they'll call back and help you find them. You don't make a half-assed attempt at being quiet and stealthy. You don't go quiet to search an area for victims, unless you're specifically listening to try and locate them. And you don't search with guns pointed like you're ready to start shooting."

"They might help hikers in trouble if they come across any," she added. She scowled as she continued, "If they get as far as the cabins on Mount LML they'll find that guy who tried to steal our supplies, they might help him. And he'll probably tell them about getting attacked by a couple monster girls or something."

That put a frown on my face too. I pointed out, "That's inside the... I don't know what to call it? Anti-technology zone? So they won't be able to radio out from there."

Soneya nodded, "They could set up a tent or something on top of Mount Dodge, that's just outside the line. Then they just need to send people back and forth on foot to relay information to those outside the park."

"Right," I sighed. "So what do we do? Just keep avoiding soldiers I guess?"

"Avoid anyone with guns," she stated. "And keep heading east to Amqui. The further we get from this stuff the safer we should be."

By then we were all finished eating. Soneya put the finishing touches on my camp sandals, but I didn't bother wearing them yet. She stayed barefoot too, the shoes and boots went back in the pack along with everything else. There were a couple more things we needed to do before we set out though. First the wolfgirl and I both took a few minutes in some nearby bushes, then we gathered up all our stuff and headed to the river.

We found a spot where we could get right down to the edge of the water, then Soneya started filling our jugs and bottles while I rinsed out the pot and bowl and our cups. And we both noticed it at the same time.

She and I looked at each other as I stated, "This water's changed overnight. It was normal last night, now it's different."

Soneya looked east, back in the direction we came from yesterday. "This river's flowing down from those mountains. The magic's spreading..."