Full Moon Hike by Julie Steimle (ebook e reader TXT) 📕

We reached the summit in good time. When we passed the fifth campground, we could already see the summit so we just continued on to it. At the top of the hill, it was flat and cleared with a broad wooden sign describing the historical significance of that lookout, though I didn’t read it. I walked to the railing and gazed out at the vast trees and world below. I could see some of the lake, and straight down below us were the switch-backs that would take us almost to the forest floor and perhaps to where the cabins were. Travis went to edge also, whipped out his camera and took pictures of everything.

“Hey, have a picture with me,” Dawn said to Rick, waving him over to the railing where she stood.

Rick grinned, hobbling over. She did not get so close to the edge, but then her head for heights was not like mine. Not since I learned how to fly have I been afraid of heights. Dawn handed me her camera.

“Take the picture, Eve.”

I shrugged and did as she asked, walking across the plateau towards the trees so I could get in all the scenery as well as them. When I got a good frame of their bodies, I took two pictures.

“Gee, I wish I had a camera on me now,” Rick murmured, scratching the back of his neck.

“I’ll give you a copy,” Dawn said with a smile and patted him on the head without thinking.

I almost laughed, but held it in. Rick shared a look with me to say he thought it funny that people still treated him like a dog.

Travis then stuffed his camera in Rick’s hands. “Take a picture of all of us.”

Dawn hopped and put her camera in Rick’s hand also. “Mine too!”

Rick shrugged and walked to where I was, gesturing for me to go where Travis and Dawn were already gathering and dragging Will to join us at the railing. Posing together, we waited for the flashes. He did Travis’s first. Then he took up Dawn’s.

“And you said you didn’t see him.” One of the hunters stepped into the summit clearing about ten feet from where Rick stood. The other two came out right behind that man, panting.

Rick staggered towards us, limping. I ran forward, pulling him away from the three men.

“We never said anything like that!” Will shouted at the man.

I put myself between Rick and the men, shoving Rick towards Will. “What are you crazy men doing up here chasing a boy anyway?”

They glanced Rick up and down, their lips curling with a cruel sneer as their beady eyes focused only on his face. One gestured to him. “You don’t know what you got there. Just hand him over.”

“I know exactly who we got here,” I said then cast Rick a glance to tell him I would take care of it. “The guy who owns this place. This is his son.”

Through their nicotine stained teeth, they spat back words that my mom would not have allowed. Then they said, “Get out of our way!”

“No!” I shouted. Then I turned to Will where we all had edged toward the switchbacks. “You take him down. I’ll watch your backs.”

They nodded to me. Both of my brothers and sister grabbed Rick, dragging him down the steep path that would lead them to the forest floor, or at least they tried to. The nearest hunter seized me and shoved me against the railing before they could get even down the path. Will shouted out and Dawn screamed, but all I felt was the man forcing me over the wood rail with a hard muscular push. I tipped with nothing to hold me up. As I fell, I heard the man say, “You’re all going down.”

In broad daylight? I didn’t care anymore. All that mattered was that he attempted to murder me, and I had no reason to let myself fall. My wings ripped out, ruined my shirt, and I had to drop my backpack on the switchback far below me. Whipping upright with one flap, I flapped hard again and my wingspan pulled out even broader. The air gusted around me. Pine needles fell off, pinecones toppled as squirrels scattered, and Dawn’s fluffy hair poofed up, throwing dirt in it—something she probably wouldn’t forgive me for.

I landed on the cliff railing.

With my thickened and immediately sharp fingernails, I slashed at the man who had now seized Travis with his meaty hands to push him over. Travis stumbled away on the switchback, falling against Will.

“Monster!” One of the men shouted, lifting his rifle then shooting.

I dodged, swooping with a twist and catching the wind to soar back down on them. Travis and the rest ran down the hill, dragging Rick who stared up at me, his crutch abandoned. I heard Will remind them all of what I had previously told them to do before I was pushed off the cliff. One of the men tried to shoot at them but I dived right at him, pounced on his shoulders, and ripped the rifle right out of his fingers. I tossed that gun off the cliff.

“No! You demon!” One of them screamed.

“That’s why she helped him!” The first one pointed right up at me. “Shoot her! Shoot her!”

Crack! Crack! Crack! I heard each bullet leave their rifles. They made echoing sounds against the mountains, perhaps announcing clear enough to the rangers of the hunters’ presence. They didn’t hit me though. As soon as I could, I went invisible and immaterial, the bullets racing right through me without any effect, though I felt them somewhat. I swooped down and rematerialized behind the men, kicking them in their rears to get their attention.

“Missed me,” I said with a mocking smile, tilting my head to the side.

Whipping around, they shot at me again, one of them with a pistol since I had chucked his rifle over the cliff side. I dodged this round, twisting faster than most people can move, though the speed of an imp and the speed of a bullet were not that different. I caught two of the bullets, but the other one grazed my left wing.

Then I went invisible again.

They swore.

“Naughty, naughty,” I said.

They whipped around shooting at where they had heard my voice, but I was immaterial again. Nothing could hurt me. They swiped at the air, first with their guns then their hands. Their guns passed through me, but for some reason their hands did not. I felt a hard slap. I jerked right away as the man laughed with triumph.

“Ha! I’ll get you, you demon!”

But I flapped, going over their heads, and landed on their other side. With hardly any footfalls on the ground, I darted back over to the railing to look down. I could still see Rick and the others rushing away. That meant so could those creeps if they ever went back to their original plan. My family needed more time.

So, I flew back towards the trees and called out to the hunters. “I think I should tell on you again. Now that I really know your faces, I can give a full description.”

They shot at the trees, but I soared to another spot and landed. That tree actually swayed. One of the men turned when he noticed, firing in that direction. I pushed off again wondering if being immaterial was in fact a temporary thing. I had been focusing on it before, so perhaps it was also a state of mind. Being part vampire made me more solid than an ordinary imp.

“She’s distracting us,” one of the men murmured. “We should be going after those kids. Not that monster.”

“Not yet anyway,” one of the others said. “Nobody’s paying for her head.”

Flapping to the railing, I looked down again. My family had gone far enough that they had a good head start at least, but those hunters would be running after them. I had to trip those men up in some way.

“We can’t shoot wolf boy in the daylight anyway,” the ringleader said, rushing to the railing not far from where I was perched.

I decided to materialize there.

“Look out!” One shouted and shot at me.

I jumped back with a flap over the switchbacks, but not fast enough to dodge that one. The bullet cut through my right wing, making a small stinging hole in the skin.

“OW!” I cast him a glare before flapping up again. I could feel the blood drip from it as the wind cut through the hole. He kept shooting at me. This time I caught the bullets and threw them back at him. They didn’t do any more damage than throwing marbles at someone—but he ducked as each one struck him, raising his arms with a puzzled wince as I shouted at him. “Knock it off! Bullets hurt!”

They all fired at me again. This time I swooped up then vanished to draw their eyes skyward. However, once invisible, I dropped directly down, letting my wings catch me like a parachute. I glided all the way down to the lower switchbacks where my backpack was. The others had just left it, and no wonder since carrying Rick was hard enough.

Scooping up my pack, I took of into the air again, following where I hoped they had gone.

“We can’t just leave her!” I heard Rick shout up ahead through the trees along the last stretch of the path. They were almost at the campground, having literally run down all the switchbacks to the bottom, making Rick jog in a three-legged race with them.

“Eve can take care of herself against people like that,” Travis said, though Will looked worried. He heaved Rick’s arm higher onto his shoulder. “Don’t you worry. She’ll be right behind us.”

Dawn glanced back to see if that was true, but of course she didn’t see me flying after them.

“But they were shooting at her!” Rick shouted, not fighting them, though I was sure he wished to. “Can your sister dodge bullets?”

“I don’t know,” Will murmured, shaking his head. “But she would get real angry if we didn’t go. Besides, we don’t have a way to fight those men off. At least if we get to camp fast we can get the rangers to help out.”

“But your sister….” Rick set his feet to the ground to halt. “I can’t just run when—”

“Will!” I spotted my mother near the opening of the trail, jogging to it with relief on her face. “We heard gunshots. The rangers have gone up the mountain to find out who’s shooting up there. Your father and I were so worried.”

“Where’s Eve?” My father asked, already searching the group for me, looking from face to face to face, stopping on Rick’s face and staring at him.

I swooped in, making myself visible again as I landed on the ground. I set my pack down with a smile. “We’re back! Can we go to the beach now?”

My dad blinked and then closed his eyes with a moan. “Eve, it is broad daylight. What are you doing flying in when the sun in up?”

I took that as a hint to tuck in my wings. No one was about the camp except for a couple of men in nice suits that rushed over to us.

“Mr. Deacon! Mr. Deacon!” They reached for Rick, looking at me first, then at my brothers and sisters, and then my parents. They gave my parents a nod. “We thank you for his safe return. If there is anything we can do for you—”

“Mr. Deacon?” My mother repeated, peering at Rick and his bare chest then his ratty blood-stained pants. She gasped, drawing in a breath.

“You mean you are the owner of this place?” My father asked, not really seeing anything except Rick’s young face.

Rick bashfully smiled and cast me a glance as I wiped the sweat off my forehead. “Uh. No. That would be my father. I was, uh, hiking up in the mountains last night when—”

“Rick ran into