Wild Avalon

9

My little mountain spring was joined by two other small tributary water ways before I decided I would stop and pitch my tent for the night. The stream bubbling and rippling beside me. It wasn't very deep, or wide. Hilda let me know that she hasn't sensed any game worth her time or effort all afternoon, so she wouldn't be hunting.

That was fine. I set my net just as I had every other night and got to work on the tent and bed roll. Only happy once I knew I had a place to sleep, next I started a small fire. Making sure it would stay burning long enough for me to check my nets. For the first time my nets remained empty. No fresh food for me tonight. The ground was rockier here. Very little topsoil. There didn't seem to be any edible berries or greens anywhere nearby. I tried to call mom, or I dug the satphone out of my bag only to find that it had run out of battery. Impossible, unless it had kept searching for signals constantly and never found one.

Aaron's mate might be dead. He was running. The thoughts turning over and over in my mind. I wish mom hadn't been so evasive on the phone. If she hadn't taken so long to just spit it out she could have told me more. Instead of leaving me wondering what the hell had happened. I didn't love him, not like that. He had been my best friend before we were anything more. I didn't like him very much right now, that didn't mean I wanted anything bad to happen to him either.

After close to two weeks now enjoying fresh food. The highly preserved and salted military ration I had for dinner no longer tasted good to me at all. I knew I needed the calories and nutrients regardless of how palatable the meal was; so I still choked everything down. Waste not want not. I also wanted to make sure I ate everything, I hadn't come across any bears yet and my brief research indicated I should have seen at least evidence of a bear sometime on my hike. I worried I was overdue for an encounter and wanted to take all precautions to be safe. Which meant no left over food or food smells if it could be mitigated in any way.

No bears, no large wildlife at all, and today not even any game to hunt or fish. Now that I was listening, I wasn't sure if I had heard any birdsong all day. The air around me felt electric, charged with energy. The storm must be making all the animals as on edge as I was. Their animal instincts moving them to seek shelter from whatever was coming.  The brook and thunder making eerie music together as I ate which did not help change the strange feeling in the air. Hilda was listening, telling me there was no danger, nothing else alive around us.

Now that I was in a new area, the thunder that had followed me all day sounded different. Duller rolls of thunder with no sharp cracks. It hasn't rained on me, I stayed ahead of the storm the whole day. As I crawled into bed I hoped my good fortune would hold and the storm would either run itself out or would change direction before it caught up with me.

The air around me started to get misty while it was still twilight. Since it wouldn't get much darker even at midnight, I decided to call it a day. I should reach a dense, old growth forest that had never known modern logging, or development of any kind. I had expected this river valley to be more lively. It turned out to be the quietest place I had ever been. It was so quiet it was hard to get my mind to be quiet enough for me to get to sleep. I did eventually manage as the mist turned to slow uneven drops against the tent.

My sleep did not last long. I was awoken, cold and wet, Hilda screaming in my head at me to wake up. I was barely awake, still wasn't sure what was happening when I heard Hilda yell my name before taking control and shifting, taking all control and plunging me into darkness. Terrified. She had taken all control. I couldn't see. I couldn't hear. "Hilda!" I screamed hoping she would hear me. "I need to see and hear, I wont fight!" I was in the dark. Alone. After waking up in a nightmare. My ribs felt too small for my lungs to inflate. I've been here before. "Hilda!" I cried. As a flash of lightning turned everything white as she let me see where we were. The cracking thunder hurt my ears. I could feel it vibrate in Hilda's chest.

She was fighting to claw her way out of the tent. Caught up in my shredded clothes, the sleeping bag. Everything tangled together, heavy from water that was spilling in. The storm had followed us. Still raging at full strength. All the mountains must feed into this valley. The river was rising. Quickly. Too quickly. It had only just come over the bedroll a minute ago. Now in the same spot, Hilda was nearly at risk of getting stuck in the tent and drowning us.

She thrashed at the nylon. The tent shredding open finally letting her swim free. Everything in my camp was underwater. I had heard of flashfloods. Seen news stories about ones that had struck. I had made a terrible mistake. I hadn't considered what would happen to this watershed in a strong storm. This was all my fault.

'Shut up!' Hilda hissed at me. 'Watch, listen help. Shut. Up. Avalon.' Hilda snarled out every word. I did as she said. There was this waking nightmare. There was also another one locked behind a door in a memory. I would take the real nightmare right now. Whatever memory had been triggered by being alone in the dark. Scared; Was one my whole body and soul said I should run away from.

I focused on watching where we were swimming. Watching the rushing water. Trying to see where hidden rocks, stumps and anything else could be in our path. Hilda was an excellent swimmer as much as she swore she hated the water. She already knew we needed to head towards the side of the valley that had more trees. It was the choice I would have made too.

We were doing ok in the steadily rising water. Then there was a thundering roar that filled the entire valley that had nothing to do with the storm clouds, or any beast on the ground. Hilda only had seconds warning before a wall of water crashed into the pool the river valley had become. Sending boulders, uprooted trees, debris and thousands of water currents free. The water around us became a blender.

The trees that were supposed to provide us safe places to catch hold and take a breather became obstacles that could crack our skull, or break our back. Hilda was doing her best to swim in between, using our powerful hind legs to push off from one tree to avoid the next ones. Repeating the process over and over as she kept swimming to keep her head above the water. The current was erratic, changing with every second, no matter how she aimed for the shore, the water was rising so fast that land wasn't getting any closer. I could feel her energy waning.

"I love you Hilda." I whispered. She knew everything else. I just wanted her to really know. To hear me say it again. I would have died in the tent. Drowning in my bed. The ecologist who forgot to think of flooding. I was going to die a joke. Like I had always been.

'I haven't let you die yet. Shut. Up.' Something in her tone, in her mood was knocking on the door to the memory I didn't want to open. She hasn't let me die yet. I let Hilda focus on swimming us towards the shore. She hasn't let me die yet. The door was opening as she dodged another tree, this one wasn't rooted anymore. Her jump off didn't go as planned as the uprooted tree shifted underfoot. Hilda faltered before regaining her rhythm. Keeping us alive.

I could only remember one time before tonight when I thought I would die. It was the day after my first shift. I was nine. When Hilda had been revealed. Beautiful, unique and powerful. A hybrid who told me her name the very first night! Named beasts were a sign of strength, a symbol of a truly noble pairing in fairy tales. I had been so overjoyed. Dad had taken me out for burgers and fries followed by icecream. He never wanted to do anything just the two of us. I had been so excited. He was my hero. The beautiful black panther who kept me and mom safe always.

He was gone the next morning. He never came back. My memory was hazy. I had gotten sick with mono or the flu or something the same night he left. My stomach had hurt so badly and my body felt it was burning up with fever. Was bed ridden for days as I recovered. Mom had been so sad, her mate had left her, and I had been sick enough to need to be admitted to a hospital. I was ruminating on how Hilda's shifter stamina must have kicked in so I could fight the infection and live.

Hilda hissed, as my memories filtered into me wondering what my father might be doing now. I could feel Hilda's rage as she yelled at me. 'Talik tried to poison you that night you stupid girl!' her words barely more than a snarl at the end. Distracting both of us with her rage just as we crashed face first into a sturdy silver birch tree. All the world going dark as the water continued to surge.