THE RED HOODY
PART 2
Chapter 4
The Grey Walker
Five years ago....day of the Birth of Britin Castle...
The beast was hungry. The beast was his stomach and it ruled him utterly.
He always seemed to be hungry. He roamed the forests constantly, hunting always hunting. His favourite was deer for that at least was a decent meal; rabbits and the like were useless, nothing more than a bite sized tease. But he was always hungry so he didn’t turn his nose up and besides they were kind of fun to chase as they ran...as if they really thought they could get away.
He snarled and sniffed the air. Something...something was coming.
He trotted toward it. He thought it might be an especially juicy deer, already killed and ready for him. That was always the best. He loved it when he didn’t have to chase them down first. Although...he really did like the chase as well.
The thing was coming. It was fetid and rotten and smelled of death. The creature stopped, confused. He whined. This was no deer. It was too strong. He didn’t know what it was...but he liked it.
He bounded forward his voice coming out in a yelp. Whatever this thing was...he wanted it! He wanted to be a part of it! He heard the crashing and smelled the earth unheaving rather than seeing the trees uproot. He ran on, closer and closer to the thing.
He hit the shockwave head on. He felt the energy, the power flow into him and still it was too much and he was knocked back a few feet. He flipped over twice backward and was astonished when he landed on his hind legs.
GRRRRRRAAAAAWWWWWRRRRRRR!!!!” he roared. He continued to transform.
His fur grew thicker, greyer, and longer. His muscles grew huge. His front legs turned into hairy arms with bulging biceps . His back legs transformed, his knees reversing with a sickening snap. He yelped in pain but it was quickly over and then he found he could stand up....up...up...
He was huge. Easily 8 feet tall, he towered over all life in the forest. His hands were still paws but the claws were now twice as long as sharp and pointy like daggers. He felt his teeth with his tongue. They were likewise as long and sharp as knives.
His hearing had improved and so had his smell. He could now detect that wily old man who always eluded him 2 miles away. However he could now detect that the man was old and tough and unattractive to eat anymore. He looked and sniffed elsewhere. There was a horse in the forest. Ahh yes, the man-beast’s Clydesdale. The creature was tempted but decided not to bother with the horse’s deadly hooves for the sake of what would now be a very unsatisfying meal.
But the man-beast! The man-beast was a different thing altogether! The monster (for that’s what he was now) had always wanted to fight him, to kill him, to rip his throat out, or maybe just beat him up if not just for the sake of becoming his Alpha. But as predatory as he was, he always knew he would he would come up short. He flexed his biceps, his huge, wide chest and gave a short triumphant roar. Now....now might be the time to change all that.
With a second, satisfied snuffling snarl, he began to push his way through the forest to where he knew to be the man-beast’s lair. He could smell them. He could tell they were very near.... Their blood….it smelled so….so sweet…..
A short while later...
He was approaching the house, which was big and old and musty when the second thing happened.
The man-beast was very close. He smelled a bit…different than before but the monster didn’t think that was anything to be concerned about.
But then there was a smell of…life. It was the smell of flowers and green and the sweetness that rides on the air in the wind of springtime.
The creature whined. Oh, how he hated this new smell! This was awful! Something was terribly, terribly wrong!
The monster turned tail and fled. The smell chased him mercilessly and he saw the musty house transform and grow and swell.
He saw the thing that smelled like life change the grass from yellow to green. He bent his body, used his arms as legs and ran as if bent in the middle. This let him run faster and faster and he began to beat the shock wave. He ran past crumbling and disused stables and saw them transform into new ones and heard horses that had not been there whinny.
Faster and faster but it was no use. The wave came closer and closer until finally….it overtook him.
Again, it picked him up and carried him. This one was much stronger and it threw him far and fast through the air, the world going by in a blur. He did no know how far he was carried. Again, he landed in a heap. Peripherally, he was aware of greenery growing all around him. But the pain! Pain like a he’d never thought possible flashed through his body in waves. Over and over again. He felt the power go out of him. He screamed and his voice changed, became more and more…like them! And then there was a final flash of pain that felt like fire and knives everywhere and he yelped before his throat closed and he passed out.
A few hours later:
He woke up slowly, in stages. His body felt numb and heavy and sluggish and it was hard to move for a few moments. Finally, he was able to lift his head…then dig in his arms…then push up…then sit on his knees. He was kneeling on a manicured lawn surrounded by hedges and in front of him was a nice house painted yellow. In the center of the lawn was an apple tree. He was naked.
Behind him and far off were the balconies and turrets of a shiny white castle. In front of him and far off was a large white tower with a round and pointy red roof.
He looked down on himself in horror. He wasn’t a monster anymore His teeth and claws were gone and he was left with a set of manicured but useless nails and dull grinders for teeth and (he felt) four weak, measly fangs that wouldn’t do anything to raw meat at all.
His hair was largely gone. He had hair on his head and a beard but otherwise he had a sparse covering, and a hairy chest. His beautiful fur coat was gone. His snout was gone. He had never felt so naked in his life. A wind flew over him and he shivered. With no other choice, he picked himself up and took refuge in the house.
Inside, it was neat as a pin. The furniture was modern and chic. The house opened quickly into a living room with a bathroom off to the side and a kitchen to the back. There was a pantry to the back of that, full of food. There was a stairway off to the right that led to three bedrooms.
The man prowled through the house, exploring everything. Upstairs, in the nicest bedroom, was a set of work clothes and grey overalls the same color as his hair. He put them on, figuring this was his station in life now. Somehow, he had been caught in some powerful, horrible magic that had stripped him of all his monster powers and furthermore turned him into....this. He was...one of them!!!! A check in a mirror confirmed this.
Black rage filled his heart. He knew...he just knew...this was the man-beast’s doing. Somehow, he had bested him again! The Grey Walker (he refused to think of himself as a man, no matter what he looked like) swore revenge, to destroy him and his happiness at all costs through guile and dirty trickery to outright brute force. Somehow....and if it took him the rest of his life....he would pay him back.
He took a look out the window to get the lay of the land and he ended up opening the shutters and sticking his head out and taking a good long look around, his eyes wide.
Now that he was higher up, he could see more clearly where he was. He could now understand why the castle and other buildings seemed so far off, even though they towered above him. He scanned the landscape in wonder at the beauty and then churned with nausea at the horrific implications. He was trapped. His breathing quickened in panic.
Then he quieted and took a deep sniff and calmed. Maybe everything would be all right after all. For whatever reasons, the powers that be had let him keep his sense of smell. He sniffed deeply and he could still smell that moldy old man in the forest. The Clydesdale was still there but he smelled a bit earthier somehow. Even the man-beast and his mate were still around but it was harder to tell where because of all the greenery and the enormity of the castle in between them now. But he could smell them. He could smell....everything.
All around the house and several miles deep in every direction was a vast and intricate hedge maze. The hedges were beautiful but the paths were not navigable and seemed to go on forever. The grey Walker supposed he might even be at the center. He marvelled at the fate that had brought him here. He might have been deposited somewhere out there in the paths somewhere and then where would he have been? As it was, he may have been in the center of this cage but it was a cage that no one could penetrate either. He’d be safe until he’d figured out his revenge and no one would dare to attempt the maze on their own.
After he had finished looking and smelling, he closed the window and went to lie down. He slept heavily and without dreaming.
When he woke, he was a little disoriented because it looked roughly the same as it did when he went to sleep. This was in fact because he had slept for nearly 24 hrs. straight. But he quickly figured this out and then forgot about it. Here in the center of a maze, he was in an oasis in the middle of an emptiness of reality. Time didn’t matter here; or at the very least, was the least of his concerns.
He raided the kitchen, checked out the living room, found a TV and settled in.
He lived this way for two days and then decided to strike out. He found a pack, packed it with food and happily left the house, bed unmade, unwashed dishes in the sink, and the living room in disarray.
Outside in the yard were four entrances, one at each of the compass points. He knew that three of them were dummies and would lead to nothing but dead ends but he had no idea which was the real one. He had no choice but to try them all.
He decided to try the one in front of him first, that is, the one opposite the front door. Bu first...he’d need a start point. And so....he did something quite disgusting. At least...from a human point of view.
He went to the entrance of the maze and peed there. He marked it like he marked the trees of his territory in the forest and he could smell the mark quite pungently. Then he began to run the maze. Dead ends and forks abounded. He took to breaking a twig to show where he had come from and kept it up. He dead ended frequently and backtracked enough to realize this was probably a dummy course. By this time, he had been at it nearly all day. He followed his markers and his nose and tracked his way back to the center. As repugnant as it was, he was going to have to face his mess at the house.
He arrived and went inside, exhausted. He froze. He was astonished.
Inside was as neat as a pin. His dirty dishes were gone. The food he had eaten was replaced. The house was....reset.
Curiously, the Grey Walker went in, knocked a few books off a shelf, overturned a chair, and mussed up a few pillows on the couch. He went outside and closed the door. He counted 1...2...3...and went back in.
Reset. Everything was in order.
The Grey Walker smiled a cruel smile. This was an interesting development. He went in and slammed the door.
BJBJBJBJBJBJBJBJ
The house really was a marvel.
It was filled with a quiet, shy sort of magic. You never saw anything happen. But whenever you went out and shut the door, and then went in again, everything was reset and cleaned away. Eventually, the Grey Walker also learned that if you made a need or wish known before you left, when you returned, it would be granted of fulfilled to the best of the house’s ability. At first, when he discovered this, he used it to ask for chocolate or beer or a live rabbit or lobster. He would boil this and then eat it in the messiest and most disgusting manner possible.
In this wonderful house, the Grey Walker lived like a King for many days. And indeed, he came to think of the Great Maze as his own kingdom, his own part of the world that was his and his alone.
However, as it is with many Kings and the way of the world, the Grey Walker cast his eyes beyond the borders of his green and leafy kingdom to the castle next door and hungered for the wealth and power that it must contain. He hungered for the revenge that he craved and he could see the castle start to become more and more active as more and more people arrived seemingly to live there.
And among them all, carried on the wind, the Grey Walker could smell him...the man-beast and his blond homosexual mate. Both of them smelled stronger than ever to the Grey Walker and it was disgusting. They smelled like a pure smell like sheets that had been left to dry in the sunshine all day, or the clearest, cleanest water the Walker could imagine. It was at once beautiful and terrible, full of power and promise. It was in his nostrils all the time and he hated it. But he wanted it too, wanted to possess it, wanted to taste it, to utterly consume and dominate it and it drove him to distraction.
Finally, there came a day when he could bear it no longer. Besides, the castle seemed to be in full swing and it seemed only a matter of time before people would strike out and try to conquer the maze. If someone did...if someone found him living here.... The Grey Walker knew he could not let that happen.
He also knew that he could not waste any more time trying to solve the maze as he had done many times since he arrived and had always failed and either ended back at the center or was forced to retreat back there. He needed help. A sure thing.
“There must! There must be a way! A solution! There must be a way through this maze! I need to get out! I need a simple solution to get through the Maze!!” he growled as if to himself, or at the very least a nonchalant manner. The house always gave the best help if it though you weren’t really asking for it and it never responded to out and out demands. The he bit back a cruel smile and left the house, letting the front door click shut behind him.
When he entered again his gaze was immediately drawn to the coffee table where a ball of shining gold thread was sitting on a small piece of paper. The ball was about as big as a softball and was beautiful, shining like yellow sunshine. It was soft and yet delightfully smooth.
The paper read:
Tell the ball where you want to go and put it on the ground. It will lead you to the best of its ability.
Be kind and courteous and all will go well with you.
The Grey Walker had no idea what kind and courteous was. He cared even less. He balled the note and threw it carelessly away. He did not bother to bite back the wide and cruel smile that lit up his face now.
He threw a few things into a pack, food, a few changes of clothes the house had provided and some toiletries and then left the house with the golden ball.
He went out into the middle of the yard and said to the ball: “I want to get out of here. Show me the way to the entrance of the Maze!” He dropped the ball on the ground.
Immediately, the ball rolled away to the right, choosing a doorway to the maze off in that direction. As it went, it left a shining gold thread line. The Grey Walker followed it eagerly.
It was a good thing he did. After about 20 feet or so, he was the back end of the thread start to roll up again behind him. If he had lingered too long it would have rolled away from him and been lost to him forever.
As it was, he did not linger but ran after the unrolling ball and followed the golden trail eagerly. The golden thread knew exactly where to go and chose each fork, smoothly and confidently. The Grey Walker followed.
The golden thread went on and on unrolling from the front and feeding the back ball like a scroll. Eventually, the front ball grew smaller and smaller and the back ball grew bigger and bigger. Eventually, and deep in the maze, the ball unrolled entirely and the back ball rolled completely up into one big ball again. The Grey Walker stooped, a little worried for a minute but he need not have for the ball simply started to unroll again and the scrolling process began again.
The thread scrolled its way through the grassy paths 10 times and without hitting any dead ends it took 5 hours to traverse. This might give you an idea of how massive this thing really was!
However, at last the ball unrolled completely for a final time and at the very end was the double doorway to the outside world. The Grey Walker followed the now rolling up ball to the end where is stopped and waited obediently. The Grey Walker picked it up and put it in his pocket. Moving cautiously, he checked around the outside. There was no-one about.
Quickly and cautiously, he moved out onto the Lawn and walked toward the castle as if he had always been there and was just coming back from a walk.
He walked in and admired the splendour for a bit. At last, his workman uniform was noticed by a blond, well dressed man who strode over and grabbed his hand. Startled, the Grey Walker pulled back but the other man just though he was starting a shake and pumped his hand up and down a few times.
“Hello! My name’s Jack! I don’t recall seeing you in the village! What’s your name? Did you come for work?” he asked, taking in his gardener’s getup.
The Grey Walker’s first instinct was to clamp his steel jaws onto Jack’s jugular and rip his throat out. Then he looked down at himself and remembered the pitiful state he had been transformed into.
“I – I came from the maze.” he said, quite truthfully.
“The maze! I hope you didn’t actually go in there alone!” Jack exclaimed in concern.
“No.” This was not exactly a lie. He had never actually gone in, he had been magically placed there. But he saw no reason to burden Jack with the whole truth. “But I wanted to see it. It will need trimming,” He supplied.
“Hmmmm, yes, I suppose you’re right. All right, you can do that.” Jack snapped his fingers and someone appeared. “This man is going to be a groundskeeper. Get him a ladder and hedge clippers and pruning shears and anything else he desires.”
“Yes Sir!” the man jumped away to obey.
“The Patrons won’t be back for two more days. Don’t venture into the paths until we can figure out a way to navigate them without fear of losing our way,” said Jack, as if they were both going back out there to work their fingers to the bone.
His eyes narrowed with disgust and hate at the presumptuous ass but he said nothing. He did not need to ask who the Patrons were. Instead, he pretended to think and then carefully suggested, “Suppose…suppose I could navigate the maze. Suppose…I could get to the center? What would be my reward?”
Jack was dumbfounded, “But how could you? It’s impossible!”
“Oh….Plants and me…we have a way of understanding one another. I’m sure I could do it.” Was all he would say.
“Well, my goodness! If you could solve the maze…why…I’d put you in charge of it! And give you 10 men to help you work it!” said Jack.
“Done.” The Grey Walker pumped Jack’s hand before he could say anything else and told him, “I looked at it from higher up and saw that there is a house with a yard in the center. In the yard is an apple tree. I shall bring you an apple from that tree. You can search my bag before I start.”
The two set out right away and as news traveled that someone was going to try and run the maze, more and more people followed them until there was quite a crowd following him to send him off.
When they reached the entrance, he warned: “I should warn you. It still will take me a great deal of time to run the maze. It might be wise for me to rest in the house before starting back. If that is the case, I will not be back until tomorrow. But I will be back here before noon. If I am past that you can consider the challenge failed.”
Jack laughed heartily and slapped him on the back. “I love your confidence...uhhhh....oh my! What’s your name, fella?”
The Grey Walker thought a bit and hated to do it but gave himself a human name. But he gave himself a name that would make sure he never forgot where he came from. To never forget who he really was.
“I’m Jackson. Jackson Wolfe,” he said.
“Well, good luck to you Jackson Wolfe. We’ll be watching!” said Jack.
“What do you mean?” Jackson said, taken aback. He had not expected this. He thought quickly.
Jack indicated the large, white balcony where people could view the maze from above. “From there. We’ve taken to calling it the Overlook. We’ll all have a watch...from time to time.”
The thoughts spun uselessly, going no-where, like a hamster in a wheel. He was trapped. He’d just have to hope for the best.
“Of course sir,” he said obsequiously.
His pack was dutifully checked and then without any more preamble he started off into the maze....again. He’d just been here. Was this to be his home...forevermore? At the first turn, he turned and waved. Everyone cheered. He jogged off.
He took a few random turns and choices and when he thought it was safe, pulled out the thread.
“Show me the way to the center,” he asked it, “But keep to the sides of the paths at all costs.”
The thread obeyed, backtracked a bit, chose another fork, and then began to roll in earnest. Obediently, it kept to the sides, as near to the edge of the hedge as possible. As Jackson ran through the paths again, he heard nothing of “He cheating!...or...Hey! He’s following something!...So he figured it was below their line of sight. As it was the further and further he went along, he could hear cheers intermittently and then get more and more frequent as he somehow managed to avoid pitfall after pitfall.
BJBJBJBJBJBJBJ
He reached the center as it was starting to get dark. He didn’t want to run the paths in the dark so he headed inside where it was warm and cozy.
He ate dinner, watched a werewolf movie on the TV but went to bed early. If he wanted to run the maze out tomorrow before noon, he would have to get an early start.
The next day the alarm woke him at 7 AM. He showered quickly, made a hurried ham omelet and wolfed it down. He found a few energy bars in the pantry and tossed them into his pack. Then he left, shut the door to reset the house and went over to the young apple tree that was growing in the very center of the center of the maze yard. He chose an especially rosy red apple and added that to his pack.
Then he whispered his instructions to the thread and it dutifully rolled off.
People had been keeping tabs on him on The Overlook ad as he got closer and closer back, the excitement grew to a fever pitch. As he grew nearer and nearer back to the start, everyone raced through the castle and onto the lawn to meet him.
The thread scrolled and rolled and led him back and unrolled just in front of the last turn, rolled itself back up and stopped. Jackson picked it up, put it away and then stepped into view. He ran the rest of the way and out of the entrance. He pulled out the rose-red apple and held it aloft in triumph. There were deafening cheers, whistles, and clapping. He took a humble bow but they would have none of it. He was grabbed and carried on many shoulders as a hero back to the castle where Jack was waiting with open arms and a huge smile.
Well, I’ll spare you the details of the speeches and ceremony but the long and the short of it is that he got the job, the men, the ladder, an assortment of trimming tools and several huge spools of thick rope and anything else his heart desired to start his job as groundskeeper of the Maze.
Which, of course, is where Justin met him the next day after finishing his honeymoon in the White Tower.
TBC