Katie was running into the meadow, blathering her unintelligible rabbit chatter. A cacophony of agreement showered from the baby pookahs, echoing Katie as she extolled the good motives of the wolf boys. To prove it, they shifted back into their human forms, which didn’t even phase the Pookahs. Then again, they did live on a magical island that didn’t exist.
What happened next was unexplainable to me, and for that matter, to even Katie. Maybe it was due to the powerful raw magic permeating the atmosphere. Who knew? But somehow, she cast an enchantment making direct communication with the pookahs possible. Not just for herself, but for all of us. I decided that when (if) we ever got home, I was going to pay Keegan two hundred bucks myself, even though I hadn’t bet against him. He deserved it. This was absolutely the weirdest shit I’d ever seen in my life.
The two adult pookahs were not seven feet tall, as advertised. Pookahs don’t stand up on their hind legs. They get around with hops, like any rabbit, but if you could, somehow, stand them up straight, they’d be closer to twelve feet tall. The adult pair were man and wife. (Unlike rabbits, pookahs mate for life). Always affectionate to one another, and especially to their pookah pups. The litter was about six weeks old, but would be full grown by the end of the month. As the pups gamboled and tousled in the grass, I fell in love with the pookahs. The father I named Harvey.
They told us they hadn’t seen anything of the three shitbirds, or any strangers for that matter. As for the Cu Sidhe, nobody brought them here, they assured us. The beasts were natives here, like the pookahs. They were natural enemies. Yes, the pookahs knew of the Temple City, a place they stayed far away from. But they did confirm that we were on the right trail. It was still quite a trek ahead. “Just follow the stream,” they said. We all parted friends, and we started to trudge onward. Then Harvey called out (telepathically, that is). He said he owed us for the lives of his children, and wanted to repay us. How? He called over his wife, and the two largest sons.
“Oh my god!” Katie exclaimed. “Riding a pookah?”
Weylyn and Orin climbed on Harveys back, as Brann and Keegan boarded his wife. Katie and I each rode one of the juveniles.
With all aboard, the pookahs took off up the trail.
Were they fast? I wouldn’t bet on any tortoise or Sea Biscuit. It would have been an unbearably bone jarring ride on a horse, or a camel. But every shock and bump was absorbed in their thick, soft fur. Their bounding leaps felt as easy and graceful as riding a dolphin. I’d imagine. I supposed I could ask Harvey if he knows Flipper.
About twenty minutes later we came to a wall of bushes that looked a little out of place, and a bit too straight and groomed for nature. It looked like a man-made hedge. I wondered, Is this here to conceal something? Like maybe a Temple city?
Harvey confirmed that we were here, and the pookahs had gone as far as they were willing. We all thanked them, and in a blink, they had vanished back into the forest. I pushed the branches of the hedge aside, and squeezed myself through. Before I got loose, though, I lost my footing and slipped. I let out a loud scream, tumbling down the side of a dirt hill until I hit bottom. I could hear the others calling after me, but I couldn’t answer back. What I saw was too magnificent. I had literally stumbled into what had to be the Temple City. I heard the clatter of my friends behind me, and their various exclamations of astonished wonder.
“Dip me in caramel and call me an apple...” Keegan said.
“One that fell far from the tree,” Katie snarked. “Your father must have dropped you on your head as a baby.”
“Shut it, you two. We don’t know if anyone is still here,” Orin said, as we followed a worn trail down to the road, and into town.
“Go carefully, guys.” Katie said. “Fools rush in where pookahs fear to tread.”
But Weylyn was taking a deep sniff of the air. “It’s a ghost town,” he decided. “I don’t sense anyone, or any living thing here.”
We set out for the center of the city, where we expected to find the Spirit Temple. The silence was almost oppressive. Streets that once vibrated with life stood empty and deserted. Gone were the vendors who once sold cloth goods, roast meat, and fresh bread from the broken stalls and wooden carts that lined the deserted streets. No laughter, no children playing, no more treasures in the empty, looted shops. Shattered glass crunched underfoot. The pavement was cracked, with overgrown roots thrusting up to reclaim the territory.
“Do you think the Fomorians finally found Hy-Brasil?” I ventured softly, taking in the scene around me.
“Let’s hope not, for our sake,” Brann said solemnly. “But whoever it was stripped it bare.”
“Please, Goddess,” I prayed. “Not the Bone Knife. Please no.”
As we pressed deeper into the city, the mounting evidence of plunder made my stomach roll. Once this was a thriving city, filled with commerce, worship, love... now it was empty of the long dead souls who once called this home. Not even a bird singing. The air held only the silence of death.
We finally reached the center of the town. All the buildings surrounded a great open forum, fronting a single, massive stone edifice. It was the Spirit Temple.
Katie stopped at the foot of the entry steps. “Do you think there are any wards set? Or traps?”
Keegan chuckled. “Oy, like Raiders of the Lost Ark?”
Orin turned to him. “Why not? You’re the one who thinks every spooky fable is the blinking truth.”
I
