Howl of the Heavens ch.12

Paul Jones looks out the front of the gas station to a very familiar green truck turning onto the dirt road that leads to Pine Ridge,

 

   “Damn, that Mike guy is back.” exclaimed Paul, to the surprise of Nick Jones, his nephew who was busy sweeping up the lobby.  

 

    Nick looks up to see the rear of the truck as it disappears behind the trees.

 

   “What is wrong with Mr. King being around here Uncle Paul?” asked Nick,

 

    “Well” said Paul, “I really don’t wanna get in it with ya Nick, but that guy there, he just bugs me.”

 

    “Oh” said Nick with a roll of his eyes.

 

    Mike stopped out side of Jeff Jones’ house and was greeted at the door by Mr. Jones,

 

    “Ah welcome back my friend.” Said Mr. Jones happily,

 

    “So” he continued, “I probably shouldn’t ask why you left, but is there any good news?”

 

    “Not really” replied Mike, “But I do want to ask you about someone.”

 

   “Who?”

 

   “a Mr. Henry Jones” answered Mike,

 

    “That’s my father.” Stated Jeff a little confused, “He’s a priest at that old church out side of town near the paved road. Crazy old man, made up all sorts of stories and told them to my sons, even tried to convince me of them, he even lives up there at the church.”

 

    “Well, can you tell me how to get up there, I have something I need to talk to him about.”

 

    “Guess dad wasn’t lying” thought Jeff as he answered Mike, “well you just take the road back up the way to the trading post but on your left there will be a dirt path with a cross next to it, your truck should be able to make it up that path.”

 

    At that Mike said his good byes and thanks to Jeff and headed out to meet the priest he had been told about by none other than the council of the Knights of the Golden Cross it’s self.

 

   A half hour later Mike stops out side the old church, the building is two stories tall with an old dark brown wood side and stain glass windows. There was only the front entrance, and the solid sides, he imagines there was likely a second back door and probably the town’s cemetery behind the church. He had to park to the side near the trees as the front porch was mere feet from the edge of the hill which had clearly been dug away to accompany the increased size of the trading post as was evident by the loose rock being held against the steep hill side by fencing. Mike walked up to the church and was startled by a voice coming from an upstairs window.

 

    “come on in Brother Mike I have been expecting you for some time, the stairs are to your right upon entering the front door, please hurry up I don’t much like screaming out the window, I am simply to old and don’t have the lung capacity anymore.”

 

   Mike noted a slight laugh at the end and thought, “this must be Father Henry Jones.”

 

     Mike proceeded inside and up the old creaky stairs noting that the church didn’t seem to have been cleaned in a very long time. Which came a sharp contrast to the very clean second floor which seemed to have been designed as a home with bedrooms and even a bathroom which he passed by.

 

    At the end of the hall stood a robed monk like figure; the figure turned to Mike and said, “ Welcome I am father Henry Jones of the Order of the Knights of the Golden Cross, please come inside my room Brother Mike King of our order we have much to discuss.”

 

    Mike followed Henry into the small room which had only one simple bed, a three windows, one looking out towards the woods, one towards the gas station and a third one that looked to the other ledge across the road. Mike noted he had a standing telescope at each window and the most unusual object for this simple room, a laptop computer.

 

    Henry sat down on a chair at the desk the laptop was sitting on and said, “Please take a seat Brother Mike.”

 

    Mike pulled up the only other chair in the room which was little more than a wicker stool supported by some wood boards.

 

    As Mike sat down Father Henry began to speak, “I had expected you sooner, that is until I received an e-mail from the council just a few weeks ago explaining the situation to me, it seems you were apparently un-aware there was already a member of the order watching Versa.”  

 

    “So you know the situation then?” asked Mike,

 

    “I was born in this town,” Henry said as if he hadn’t heard Mike, “I heard the legend and stories, one day I was out hunting in the forest and saw the grey haired woman change, that same day I saw her kill another were-wolf, I believe it is called a skin walker, I still do not know if she is a threat to the people here, but I do know she is capable of it, so after I took my place as my father did before me as a member for the order I decided to be a watcher and the council accepted my proposal for watching this creature seeing as it matches the description of something they have been keeping there eyes on.”

 

    Father Henry stopped to catch his breath, at which point Mike interjected, “I knew nothing about anyone being here, I was called by my old partner and teacher Brother Rick. He told me a local had seen this Versa change shape, I am after all one of the most accomplished were-wolf hunters so I thought nothing of being called in to deal with this monster.”

 

    Henry continued, “Ah Rick, the guy who came around here claiming to be a big foot researcher, of course I knew who he really was, the cross with the halo and golden wings that we all wear is a dead give away.”

 

    Father Henry indicated the cross on the collar of his robe and the one on Mike’s collar before he continued, “My son Jeff the one you met, he knows all this, of course he claims not to believe but he knows better, after all I am teaching his son, my grandson Peter to be a member of our order. My son he actually convinced that Rick guy to call in someone to “deal” with Versa.”

 

   Mike noted that Father Henry made the quotation marks sign with his hands as he said “deal”.

 

     Mike stood up and walked over to one of the telescopes and said, “So I take it you have been watching everything through here instead of going out in the field?”

 

    Father Henry replied, “I am an old man”

 

    with that he stood up and walked over to the far telescope and peaked through it before continuing, “I am 78 years old, far too old to go chasing monsters especially since they are stronger than young men, and I wouldn’t dream of chasing Versa, especially not after what the order told me.”

 

    Henry walked back over to his chair and sat down with a groan.

 

    “The order told you what?” asked Mike.

 

    Father Henry looked at Mike with a confused glare, “The order has a name for them, funny thing is after that they started to call themselves by that name making up some strange story about Dire wolves, but we know better, not that we really know where they came from.”

 

    Mike asked, “What name?”

 

   “Oh sorry” replied Father Henry, “The Dire, a fitting name for something so powerful, did you know not once have we ever been able to kill one. Every time we try they just slaughter our people, or worse turn them into monsters with their dark magic.”

 

   “what?” stated Mike in shock, “I have never heard about these “Dire” I will admit my confrontation with that black one did tell me it wasn’t your run of the mill were-wolf; but every thing has a weakness, or maybe there just strong and more perseverance and strategy is needed.”

 

    Father Henry just shook his head and said in a somber tone, “To be young again, although I would think you were right maybe we are just afraid of them, but then again nothing seems to affect them, not that it matters its not like there is only one Dire here anyway.”

 

    With a deep sigh he continued, “Rhuen is here, the most dangerous Dire according to the records, I almost had a heart attack when I saw him arrive at the trading post and then leave with Versa. You see I had had an encounter with him once before during the war, World War Two that is, I had been drafted into the army, and a secret group with in the U.S. government asked me to look into something as I was one of the few Order members that hadn’t been found and captured by Mussolini or the Nazis, they had me go after the NeunToter. The Nazis had awoken and convinced it to help them somehow. Count Fontaine was his name, Rhuen was somehow mixed up in it,”

 

    Father Henry stopped and a shiver ran down his spine as if remembering something horrible, “anyway he is here now and apparently knows Versa so it would be best to leave them alone. I would think after all Versa has yet after all these centuries to attack a human and has never caused any trouble.”

 

    “and how long will that last?” interjected Mike, “this “Rune” has been attacking livestock and whose to say it wont go after people or if this isn’t the beginning of something big? And another thing you don’t seem to be too secretive about this “Rune” creature, I wasn’t able to find anything on it in the archives yet the order knows about it obviously; so why isn’t it in the archives?”

 

    Father Henry gave him a questioning look, “Well how your pronouncing it is off. Are you sure you looked up the right spelling.”

 

    Mike a bit confounded asked “its Rune isn’t it? I found many were-wolves, vampires, and other demons and many spells but not this Dire thing.”

 

   Father Henry said, “Its Rhuen not Rune, you must have been spelling it R.U. N. E. the archives have it spelled R.H.U.E.N. it’s pronounced a little funny like trying to say rune and hewn at the same time.”

 

    “Oh” said Mike obviously a little embarrassed and confused, “I just wasted a lot of time when I should have just come back here, how was I suppose to know that. There wasn’t even anyone around the whole time I was there.”

 

    “Oh that,” stated Father Henry with a concerned tone, “I got an e-mail about that, apparently there is something causing all sorts of chaos in the Middle East right now, but that’s for the Elite Paladins to deal with, not you or me. Now Brother Mike if you really want to make a difference than follow me.”

 

    Father Henry led Mike down the stairs and around behind the stairs there was a second set of stairs that led into the basement of the church. In the corner of the basement Father Henry pushed a panel on the wall which flipped the wall around to reveal an arsenal of weapons and a trunk came out of the floor through a trap door. Mike could only stare at the weapons, two sacred six shooters, a sacred silver sword, a golem slayer, and several others.  

 

    Father Henry grabbed the Golem Slayer from the wall and handed it to Mike. Mike examined it, a tan brown Obelisk on a stone handle with Hebrew letters on each side of the Obelisk with a color at the base of each.

 

    Father Henry said, “150 miles to the south in a cave out side of the town of Big Bear there is an Onyx Gargoyle. By the time I learned of its existence I was already far too old to deal with it and my grandson is still far too in-experienced. You on the other hand may be able to, granted you can read Hebrew. You can read Hebrew can’t you?”

 

    “Yes, and I suppose the colors tell me more than these spells written on each side of it?”

 

    “Yes the red indicates the destroyer spell, the blue the basic attack spell, the white the stun spell, and the green the anti-enchant spell. The Obelisk was designed for any type of rock demon, so will you help me and all those people who lose their pets to that monster?”

 

    Mike answers while holding the Golem Slayer, “yes, but one question… pets?”

 

    Father Henry with a smirk replied, “Yes that vial monster seems to have an appetite for cats and dogs.”

 

   “That demon will perish then I will take care of these Dire monsters.” Mike thinks to himself while holding the sword.

 

    Father Henry and Mike headed back up to the first floor where they finished with the details to the onyx gargoyle’s location before Mike headed on his way.

 

    Unknown to both Mike and Father Henry something was listening to them from out back in the cemetery, the shadowed figure of Rhuen in his full fourteen foot form was leaning against the wall of the church with his arms crossed tapping his claws on his upper arms, he scoffs and thinks to himself,

 

   “These humans are more foolish than I thought. These order fools never win and always persist, such annoying little pests. This Mike thinks he can win against me, he will hunt that pathetic gargoyle slay it then come looking for me. He begins to test my patience; perhaps we shall have some fun little hunter.”

 

   Rhuen released a light jackal like laughing bark and vanished only to reappear floating above the roof. Floating atop the roof he watched as Mike drove off in his truck. Rhuen thought to himself, “Little Human go and slay that beast of stone; then we shall have our fun.” Rhuen flew straight up into the air and vanished.