Adventures of Jacko the Conjurer, Jamie Ott [great novels to read .txt] 📗

Goodnight, Faunus.”

“Why did you agree? He’s insane. You’re mad to consider traveling with that psycho. Did you see what he was wearing? And in this weather?”

“Julius,” said Jacko as he plopped down in front of the fire. “We have no choice. We need to get out of here, and he seems to know where we’re going.”

“I think we should stay,” he insisted. “What if we get stuck somewhere worse than this cave? At least we’re warm in here.”

Right as he said this, Larry and Joe flew into the cave, yammering at each other in high pitched voices. They slammed to the ground and rolled across the dirt as they tugged at something brown and hairy in their hands. After a second, Jacko realized they were fighting over a dead squirrel.

Suddenly, the bats zoomed back out of the cave. Jacko, Uncle Bally and Julius followed. They flew to the high end of a thick trunked tree, where Faunus was lying on an enormous branch, staring at the sky.

Faunus turned his head and watched Larry and Joe bicker back and forth, waving their black fists in the air. Instead of responding in English, Faunus spoke in the same dialect as the bats.

The bats seemed to respect Faunus, for they shook hands and zoomed back into the cave.

“Okay, we leave tomorrow, or as soon as we’ve got enough supplies for the trip,” shouted Jacko.

“Agreed,” he said.

“Are you sure you want to do this?”

Faunus turned his gaze to Julius.

A shadow fell across his face as his jaw slackened. Where only a moment ago, he looked merely strange, he now looked ferocious.

Julius took a step back.

“What’s wrong?” asked Jacko, looking from Julius to Faunus.

Suddenly he said with coldness, “Nothing. We’ll talk in the morning. Good night, humans.”

Back inside the cave, Julius asked, “Did you see the way he looked at me? That monster of a man?”

“Shut your mouth,” Jacko replied. “He can hear us.”

Larry and Joe stood on Jacko’s sleeping bag, skinning their squirrel.

“Hey, do that over there!”

He sat and exhaled.

“What do you think, Uncle Bally? Should we go or stay?”

“Well, it’s like he said, ‘what choice have we got?’” Uncle Bally swigged from his bottle. “This planet is dying. We need to get out of here before it’s too late. We need to move before our last food source – animal - starts dying off, or worse, killing each other to survive.”

~~~

The next day, the sound of something enormous breaking woke him.

Jacko opened his eyes and found he was alone. He put on his shoes, and forgetting that the snow was gone, almost fell to his knees as he reached out to climb into a tunnel that was no longer there.

Outside, Faunus managed an enormous fire. On one tiny end, the water can was steaming. He went over and poured himself a cup of dandelion coffee.

The sound of hacking came from behind. He turned to see Uncle Bally and Faunus working. Faunus was braiding twigs and branches into a mesh blanket. Uncle Bally chopped up wood, and placed them on the blanket.

He walked up to them and asked, “Isn’t all that wood gonna slow us down?”

“Faunus says we should take it with us. The higher up, the harder it’ll be to come by trees.”

“What do you need me to do?”

Faunus set down the branches and set to showing him how to make snow shoes.

Watching Faunus work was incredible. His fingers were quick and detailed. But Jacko’s jaw dropped when he pulled a tree right out of the ground, the sound of its roots snapping, and laid it down on the ground so Uncle Bally could keep chopping.

Around noon, Julius and the bats returned from hunting. Julius had a handful of pheasants, and Larry and Joe had a couple more squirrels. Immediately, they set to skinning and smoking their meat for the trip.

Overall, it was nice to be out and about, though his hands hurt from the braiding. They didn’t break for lunch until it was nearly evening. Faunus fed the fire and watched as they stuffed themselves with hot bird.

“Where do you normally live?” asked Uncle Bally.

“Down below, in the garden.”

“Why are you only making your way to the summit, now?”

“The garden has been my home for a long time. I wanted to hold out for as long as I could. Now, I see that things are going to be just as messy as the time before.”

“What do you mean by time before? Surely, nothing like this has ever happened.” asked Julius.

Again, Faunus looked at him with darkness in his eyes.

“Why do you look at me like that?”

“You don’t belong here, boy, and you know it.”

“What do you mean? I was invited, you vagrant!”

“Okay, I don’t know what’s going on with you, Faunus, but Julius is our friend.”

He looked at Jacko piteously.

“Well, you should all rest early. Tomorrow will be a tough day, and we won’t stop until the sky is like blood wine.”

Then Faunus climbed up the tree and rested on the same branch with his face skyward. Larry and Joe flew up and landed on his calves and pigeon talked to him.

Jacko, Uncle Bally and Julius grabbed a couple lit logs and went back inside the cave.

“You know, I’m gonna miss this place,” said Julius. “I’m especially gonna be disappointed if we get stuck somewhere when we could have been here.”

“What difference does it make if either way we die? If we leave now, we still have a fighting chance.”

They climbed into their sacks. Julius was out immediately. Uncle Bally watched him sleeping, as he took swigs from his whiskey. Almost as if sensing Jacko was watching him, his eyes flicked directly at his.

Jacko motioned at him with a wave of his hand, indicating that he understood what was going through his mind: Did Faunus know something about Julius?

~~~

The next morning, they ate a couple apples as they geared up, packed the last of their items and set off.

The weather was just as unforgiving as every other day on the mountain. Only this time, with bellies full and Faunus as their guide, the day seemed to progress faster. It was slow-going walking when they weren’t sure of their direction, but with confidence – now that Faunus was there, they moved faster, covering twice as much mileage.

“Nice work!” said Uncle Bally.

It turned out the snow shoes he’d braided really did keep them from sinking.

“It’s nice to take small, normal steps again,” laughed Julius.

If only they had thought of it before, they might have made it to the summit already. Not having to dig ones legs out of the snow with each step was a saver on time and their strength.

Faunus walked far ahead of them, dragging the little mesh sack that was full of wood. But they didn’t get lost because he was so big that his neck and shoulders was always visible from many feet away.

The snow fell lightly that morning, and gradually increased to blizzard status by twilight. But Faunus insisted they press on in spite of the biting cold until the last remnant of daylight was snuffed.

By the end of the day, they were sodden with muddy snow and had rashes on their face. Walking behind Faunus was torture, as each step he took splashed snow up from the ground. Each time he flicked his heel, they got a face full of ice shards stabbing their skin and eyes, and leaving behind the sting of dirt.

The bats tired of the trek after only a few hours of flight. Faunus was kind enough to allow them to rest on his big, bushy head as he walked.

Uncle Bally was worse for the wear. When they broke for lunch, Faunus whittled out a miniature sled on which he could sit as he dragged him up the incline with a harness he’d made the day before.

On the following evening, Faunus caused an avalanche when he used his hands to sweep a blanket of snow off a cliff. He grabbed Jacko and the others right as they almost got swept away. The snow gathered around his ankles, all the way up to thighs, making it so he couldn’t move. He spent many hours into the night trying to dig himself out while Larry and Joe whizzed around his head, teasing him.

That night, the bats were kind enough to make dinner because they were dead tired, and Faunus ordered them to.

Still stuck in the snow, Uncle Bally shouted over the cliff, “Faunus, don’t you ever eat?”

“Sometimes, but usually only for ceremonial reasons.”

Jacko knew what he meant only too well, thinking back to his dinner in heaven.

They tried to get to sleep early but it was difficult with the loud sounds of Faunus still digging.

“Don’t you have the power to move the snow?”

“You can’t use magic on the mount; it’s a holy place.”

Right as he said this, the cliff trembled. Then all the snow around his legs cleared down and off the nearest peak.

At dawn, Jacko woke feeling rather well.

He rubbed his eyes and opened them. Uncle Bally and Julius were puttering about the fire. Faunus was standing dead still on the other end of the cliff.

There was a question that was nagging him. He slipped out of his bag and laced up his boots.

“Hey,” he said, the snow crunching under his feet.

Larry and Joe sat on his head, bickering as usual.

Faunus didn’t turn to face him but continued to stand there with his eyes closed.

“What is it you want?”

“You remember the last time this war was fought. Can you tell me what the last conjurer did to win? I mean it can’t just be a final battle between me and a demon, can it?”

“I can’t tell you. It’s forbidden to interfere with fate by influencing it in any way. To do so could cost our side, greatly.”

“Knowing what others did before might save my life, and put an end to this war now.”

“What is your life compared to the Earth and the billion souls that inhabit it?”

Jacko said nothing.

“You’ve been told before, and I’ll tell you, too: You’ll know what to do when the time is right. You must do it on your own. I’m only here to help you get up the mount and nothing more. Now, if you don’t mind, I’d like a few moments of peace.”

After breakfast, they set off as usual. Uncle Bally seemed to enjoy the day much more, as he didn’t have to walk. Faunus dragged him and the wood along as if they weighed nothing.

They stopped for lunch and then continued until the sun disappeared behind the horizon. The evening was so cold that no matter how hot Faunus made the fire, they couldn’t get warm.

To help, Faunus placed large rocks in a ring around them. He promised to keep feeding the fire, as they slept through the night.

Jacko, Uncle Bally, Julius, Larry and Joe all huddled close together and to the fire. For the first few hours, they rested nicely, but about midnight, there was an earthquake, and the sound of a dozen sonic-like booms.

They sat up in their sacks, put on their shoes and exited their shelter.

Faunus stood on the edge of the cliff, looking down with a stone cold expression.

“They’ve begun taking over,” he said.

They moved beside him and looked below.

“My lord,” said Uncle Bally.

Below, down in the garden, a large fissure had formed in the ground; it went on for miles out of sight. Slowly, bubbling up from within the crack was a glowing reddish-orange liquid.

The magma continued to rise and bleed out over onto the snow. Trails of bubbles formed as it melted the snow and surface into its runniness. An impression of a trail was made as it melted down and traveled through the snow.

“Look over there,” said Julius.

On the east side, trees were slowly deleveling, as their trunks were devoured by magma.

“Get your things, now,” said Faunus. “We must get to the summit