Owen drove into the empty parking lot.  He opened the glove compartment, took out the flashlight and turned it on to test if the batteries were still working.  A strong beam of light shot out from it, and Owen hoped that it would last as he climbed out of the vehicle, locking the door behind himself.
     He turned off the flashlight, knowing every step of the park blindfolded, and headed for the grove of trees at the far end of the field.  The silence was unnerving.  Even the crickets did not make a sound.  The grass was damp and muffled his footsteps.  He turned on the flashlight, scanning it over the edge of the grove, hoping he would see something.  The leaves rustled in the wind, but the trees were otherwise motionless.  He shut off the light, took a deep breath, and made his way towards the start of the path.
     After the first branch slapped his face, he turned the light on again.  He moved forward carefully, watching for the slightest sign of movement.  He suddenly wished he’d brought Baldwin, realising that he had no idea if this was a friendly meeting.
     A sudden movement to his left caused him to spin around, in time to see a rabbit run out from the bush in front of him.  Laughing suddenly at his paranoia, he moved forward more confidently, reminding himself that if it was an ambush whoever it was would never have gone to see him at work.  The wind picked up and the branches rustled loudly, obscuring all noises.
     “Buchanan?”, a voice suddenly came from behind him, sounding forced as if it had trouble making the necessary sounds.  He twisted his head around to see what looked like a small bear in medieval clothes standing on its hind legs and holding a crossbow.
     “Who are you?”, he asked, turning around, and was answered by the bolt flying from the weapon and lodging itself in a tree to his left.
     Owen didn’t wait for the creature to reload as he took off at a run down the path, hoping that no roots had grown up out of the ground that would trip him.  Through the sound of the branches he couldn’t tell if the creature was following, but he knew better than to assume it wouldn’t.  A roar sounded behind him, the distance was hard to judge, and was answered by another farther down the path.  Stopping suddenly, Owen took in his surroundings, then turned off the flashlight.  He remembered a large tree around the next bend in the path, and he started running again, leaping as he turned the corner and catching a thick limb.  Using his adrenaline fuelled strength he pulled himself up to the branch and climbed the tree.  His mind raced as he tried to recall what he knew about bears, even if it didn’t apply to demons.  Their eyesight wasn’t very good, so it would be easy to hide, but their sense of smell would be harder to fool.  Cursing himself for not knowing a way to hide his scent, Owen held himself against the tree.  He remained perfectly still and waited to see if he was hidden.
     The bear demon that had shot the crossbow at him walked past, not looking up.  Owen held his breath as he waited until it was out of sight, then as quietly as he could lowered himself from his hiding place onto the ground.  He picked up the flashlight he hadn’t noticed he’d dropped, thankful that the demon hadn’t seen it.  He ran down the path, careful to keep his head low so he wouldn’t hit any branches during his escape.
     He’d nearly reached the edge of the trees when he saw another figure standing in front of him, a sword strapped to its side but sheathed.  He stopped, ready to turn back, as the thing spoke.
     “You are Buchanan?”, it said, more easily than the bear.
     “What do you want with me?”, he shouted out, unsure of what to do.  He couldn’t escape, not with at least two more demons searching for him down the path.
     “We search for Pretzen.  We have item for him.  Not know much of language here, hard to speak.  You understand me?”, the demon’s voice relaxed slightly.
     Owen used his light to look at the demon, which was more like a wolf than a bear, and it shielded its eyes from the beam.  On its face was a network of scars, visible even through the fur on its face.
     “Wait, are you the prince Kenrick rescued?”, Owen asked.
     “I know not Kenrick.  We search for Pretzen.  You are Buchanan?”, it asked again.
     “Yes, I’m Owen Buchanan.  Kenrick is the name Kexrouth Pretzen has in this place.  Are you the prince he rescued?”.
     “I am prince of Talmida.  I am Tal Wenden, son of Tal Endos.”, the demon introduced himself, “Seer say find student of Pretzen at place of work or here on ‘Road of Dreams’.  Say not to go to Buchanan’s home, too close to Belfar.”.
     Owen lowered the flashlight, to Wenden’s relief.
     “So you have something to give to Kenrick, I mean Kexrouth?”, he asked.
     Wenden reached into a pouch on the wide leather belt he wore.  He withdrew his hand and held it open to Owen, showing him a small medallion made of red gold.  The markings on it were unfamiliar to Owen, and he cautiously picked it up from Wenden’s palm.  On closer examination, the markings were a coat of arms.
     “What is it?”, he asked.
     “Not know.”, Wenden said, and made a strange gesture of tilting his head to his left shoulder, “Old man say give item to Pretzen.  He speak language of Belfar.  Seer say to trust, so we bring item to Buchanan.  Buchanan take item to Pretzen.”.
     “I don’t understand what’s going on here, but I will take this to him.  You don’t know what it does?”, Owen assured the demon.
     “Old man say Pretzen need item.  Item help Pretzen.  Seer say to trust.”, Wenden told him again.
     Owen pocketed the medallion, and asked, “Where did you meet this ‘old man’?”.
     Wenden took out a map on withered paper.  Most of the writing on it made no sense to Owen, so Wenden explained.
     “We have old map of this place from long time ago.  Meet old man in place these people,”, he pointed to a point on the map that Owen recognized as Italy, “call Caledonia.”.  Wenden spoke the last word very slowly, as if unsure he was saying it right.
     “You mean your people visited the Roman Empire?”, Owen said in astonishment, “And the old man was in Scotland?”.
     “You understand.”, Wenden touched his head to his right shoulder as he rolled the map, “Old man say he not need item, give to Pretzen.  He find portal to this place, we find Buchanan.”.
     “Okay, I understand you now.  I’ll take it to him.”.
     Wenden smiled at him, and then became very serious, “This place danger.  Belfarius want this place.  We leave to new place Belfarius not know.  Pretzen stay, but we not help.  If Buchanan live, we meet again.”.
     Wenden touched the corner of his right eye with his thumb and drew a line down to his cheek, then let loose a loud bark.  Three of the bears came running, and Wenden spoke to them in a language Owen couldn’t understand or place, he guessed it was their native language.  The wolf drew another two objects out of his belt pouch, one of which he threw to Owen.
     “This bring luck to Buchanan.”, he explained as Owen caught it, and the demons all placed their hands on an engraved cylinder of green crystal.  Wenden barked three times, and the demons vanished leaving Owen alone.
     He looked at the pendant Wenden had thrown to him.  It was carved of the same green crystal, and hung on a thin silver chain.
     Owen turned off the flashlight, and made his way back to his car.

     Kenrick wasn’t to be found when Owen searched the apartment, so he stripped off his clothes and crawled into bed.  Reminding himself that he had to work in the morning, he set his alarm and fell asleep.

     Kenrick was still in the closet when Owen woke up.  He got ready for work, not thinking about the night before.
     The morning at work was slow and uneventful.  Owen finished his paperwork, and spent the rest of the morning keeping himself busy.
     At noon Julie arrived for her shift, and came in searching for Owen.
     “Okay, I know there has to be a good story behind this one.”, she began, not even bothering with a greeting.
     “Hi, Julie.  How was your night?”, Owen sighed.
     “No evasions.  Some guy in a cloak came in here looking for you last night, and I want to know why.”, she stared at him defiantly, daring him to explain.
     “It was all just a prank by a cousin of mine from Europe.  He’s a bit of an eccentric, so he decided to pull a prank on me while he was passing through town.  He’s on his way to visit my Aunt in Victoria.”.
     “Oh.”, she paused, “I suppose that explains the werewolf mask, if he’s related to you.”.
     “I’m not sure whether I should take offence at that.”.

     Owen arrived home to the sound of his phone ringing.  He picked it up, and was greeted by Jim’s voice.
     “Why do I have the feeling that you can explain the dozen werewolf sightings last night?”
     “Only because I can.  It’ll have to wait, though.  Can I phone you later?”.
     “Sure.”.
     “Later, then.”.
     Owen and Jim both hung up, and Owen went looking for Kenrick.  He was in the A/V room, watching the new again, as a psychiatrist was on explaining the causes of mass halucinations.
     “I thought werewolves were a myth?”, he smiled at Owen as he said it.
     “They are, but Tal Wenden is real enough.”.
     Kenrick jumped to his feet at the name, and blurted out, “You saw Prince Wenden?  Other people saw him?”.
     “Don’t worry, nobody will believe it.  He gave me something for you.  I think he’s on the run, since he said he’s going somewhere Belfarius had never heard of.”, Owen said as he reached into his pocket to pull out the medallion.
      Kenrick took the medallion from his hand, and turned it over in his hand.
      “The Pretzen coat of arms.”, he said as he looked at it, his voice full of wonder and confusion.
     He pulled the medallion over his head, and a smile spread across his face.  Owen took a step backwards, not knowing what was happening.  Kenrick held out the palm of his hand, and a small ball of flame formed in it, which climbed upwards in a spiral and extinguised itself a handspan from the ceiling.
     “What is that?”, Owen gasped.
     “An explorer’s medallion, saturated with magic from Belfar.”, Kenrick’s smile grew wider as he said the words, “It allows me to travel in other dimensions without fear of dying, and I can use the magic I learned in Belfar.”.
     “It was in Scotland.  It was given to Prince Wenden by an old man who spoke whatever language is used in Belfar.”.
     “I’m not questioning my good fortune.  Some of these medallions have been lost for centuries, and if someone who hates Belfarius wants me to have it, then I won’t refuse.  We have three weeks to go before the next attack can be made from Belfar, and I can prepare a few surprises for them.”.

Table of Contents