Phantom Wolves

Chapter 2

The twittering of birds overhead penetrated my cloudy mind, and then slowly the blackness moved to the outside edges of my vision and let the daylight stream in. Blades of grass swayed by the slight breeze, tickled my cheek. I looked around, not sure what I was seeing at first. My mind began to clear and it all came rushing back to me. The creaking of the pines overhead reminded me I’d come into the woods to look over my treasures.

I sat up quickly, which proved to be a mistake. The forest began to spin. I pulled my knees up, laid my head on them, and closed my eyes. Taking a deep breath, I waited for a moment then opened my eyes again. 

This time the world stayed in the proper position. My hand went to the back of my head. Sure enough, a lump had risen there. I glanced around. Off to my left sat the two bone knives and to my right, the totem. Right in front of me sat one tile. I reached out and pulled it close. The snowy forest scene on the tile came into focus, crisp and beautiful.

I looked closer.

No wolves. Glancing around, I searched for the other tile in the tall grass. On my hands and knees, I worked my way further from the tree, but the other tile was gone.

“Dang, I should have known. If the tiles were magic, someone already knew about them,” I said out loud. 

Here I was in the middle of the woods, crawling around on my hands and knees, a lump growing on my head, and I was talking to myself. This didn’t speak well for me.

I made my way to a tree and leaned my back against the rough bark. Jenny and Alice were going to get me on this one. I could already hear them saying, “I told you not to go into the woods by yourself.”

I groaned and rested my head against the tree.

“Ouch!” I’d forgotten about the bump so I moved it slightly to one side.  My mind wasn’t as clear as it should have been. 

I went over what I knew. 

Someone obviously knew I had the tiles, and they’d waited for their opportunity to get them from me. How did they know I had them?  Did they see me buy them?   Were they at that danged art thingy? The answers could only be ‘yes’ to all of my questions. The problem now consisted of getting back what was mine. Nobody took what belonged to me and got away with it. Where would I start looking?

The silver wolf popped into my head and I remembered the band. The bar sat at the edge of the woods and was on my way home. It wouldn’t hurt to stop in and see what I could find out about him.

I slowly got to my feet, no negative effects, except the pounding in my temples. I’m tough; this is only a minor inconvenience. I gathered my treasures, tucked the knives into my back pockets, and the other things inside my blouse. I wasn’t taking any more chances. Glancing around and not seeing anyone, I moved off through the trees. When I reached the edge of the woods, I paused. The sinking sunlight reflecting off the clouds had me thinking it was somewhere around six-thirty. I scanned the scene before me. 

A log cabin with a thatched roof housed the bar; resembling an old-time building and giving you the feeling you had stepped back in time. The lights glowed in the small windows. They were open, although it wasn’t time for people to begin gathering there yet and the band would be hanging out in the back. The bouncer would never let me backstage if I went in the front door.

I moved around to the rear. The service entrance stood wide open. I could see the cook checking a pot steaming on the stove. The sounds of laughter were coming from inside, past the kitchen, right around the backstage area. When the cook went into the big walk-in freezer, I rushed past the stove, through the double swinging kitchen doors, and onto the landing of the stairs leading off the stage. I blinked in the dim light.