Chapter 3

Seraph glared at the intersection. She had been driving for hours, following whatever force was driving her. Unfortunately, it did not account for where roads were, where roads were not, buildings, fences, dead ends and dozens of other obstacles that would keep someone from traveling in a straight line. After driving around in circles just to get out of the city, Seraph had found a street that was going exactly the way she wanted to. Until it ended. Now she could go right or left, but not forward. Damnit.

Gabe sat in the passenger seat with a map spread out over his legs. "Maybe we should get out and walk?"

Seraph turned to glare at him. He seemed to find this whole thing a lot funnier than she did. It was really annoying.

"Come on, it's supposed to be in a cave, right? We knew it wasn't going to be in the middle of downtown Portland," he said.

She sighed. "It just feels like it's close, and all these road blocks are driving me crazy."

"How close?" Gabe looked around, as if trying to see the cave from where he sat. "Maybe you really should get out and walk."

"No, not that close... eh, what does the map say?"

Gabe spent a few minutes studying the map before sighing. "Well, to the right the road goes west again, but there aren't any cross streets for a long time. It looks like there is a park or something after about a mile. To the left the road goes straight before turning back the way we came."

"Right it is then," Seraph said.

Soon the fields gave way to trees that closed in on both sides of the road. Seraph felt strange being in the middle of a forest again, even with the insulation the car gave her. Since she returned from her disastrous camping trip, she hadn't left the safety of paved roads and cement sidewalks with their concrete structures that had no interest in sending her on lunatic errands. Truth be told, she was apprehensive about returning to even this small patch of wilderness. She had not had another attack since agreeing to follow the voice's commands, but she still had a nagging fear that the trees would set it off again.

She kept one hand on the steering wheel while the other nervously played with her new cell phone- tapping it against her leg and rubbing it like a worry stone. Gabe insisted that she get one before she went traipsing off into the woods again. Never one for gadgets, she had managed to avoid getting one until now. The look on the salesperson's face when he learned that she really, truly had never owned one before was almost worth the hassle of picking the damn thing out. It seemed they did not sell phones that were just phones– hers had a camera of all things in it. At least she had managed to avoid getting one with access to the internet. She couldn't imagine looking up something on those tiny little screens. Who really used their phone for that?

The road turned as the map promised and before long the trees on the left side ended. In their place was what looked like a small summer camp. Several low buildings surrounded a lawn filled with picnic tables and a totem poll. In front of the main office building was a flag poll with both the current US flag and the old colonial flag with its circle of thirteen stars. Tourists and children came and went from the buildings or sat at the tables. Separated from all of this by a turn off from the main road was a dirt parking lot. It was by no means full, but it still held a respectable number of cars and even a yellow school bus.

Seraph took the turn off and pulled up to the parking lot kiosk. A woman wearing khakis and a red polo shirt walked over to them. Seraph rolled down her window as the woman came closer. She leaned towards the car with a thousand watt smile and a nametag that declared her name to be Bethany.

"Welcome to Pine Grove Park. Can I help you?"

"Yeah, what is this place?" asked Seraph, nodding to the cluster of buildings.

"Pine Grove Park is a Native American history museum," Bethany bubbled. "We have all kinds of exhibits that are fun for the whole family! Each building focuses on a different Native American tribe. And we also have a nature trail that leads to an authentic recreation of a real Native American village!"

Seraph understood 'fun for the whole family' to mean aimed at kids, and only vaguely informative. The kind of place that was great because it meant no school for the day. She eyed the woman and forced a smile onto her face. "Sounds fun," she said, ignoring her brother's loudly cleared throat.

"Oh, it is! And only fifteen dollars for adults," she volunteered.

"Is the village handicapped accessible?"

"Oh," Bethany's eyes widened and flicked to the wheelchair folded in the back seat of the jeep then to Gabe before moving back to Seraph. "Oh! Yes. Of course. It shouldn't be a problem. Right, of course." She smiled nervously.

Seraph wordlessly handed over the money in exchange for a parking pass and a polite command to have a great day. She pulled into the dirt lot and had parked her rental jeep before Gabe spoke up.

"What are we doing here?"

"I think this will be the best place to park," she said. "Before getting out to walk."

"You really think it's near here?"

"Yeah," Seraph said, eyes distant. "Anyway, I've paid for it, might as well take a look. Maybe they have arrow heads in the gift shop."

Gabe rolled his eyes and sighed dramatically as Seraph got out of the car. She ignored him once again as she pulled his chair and her new messenger style backpack out of the backseat. She quickly had the wheelchair on the ground and Gabe in the wheelchair and both across the parking lot with only minor grumbling. Once across the turn off, the museum itself had paved walkways, which were easier to rollover and Gabe had no trouble moving himself once there.

Each building was indeed dedicated to a different famous tribe, the Navajo, Lakota, Cherokee, Pueblo, and others. The exhibits that Seraph saw were pretty much what she expected. Broken pottery and stone tools were displayed along side artist's interpretations of everyday life- each with its own small plaque that proudly explained how bows and arrows were for hunting and that these pots held food while those pots held water.

Seraph stopped in front of a small exhibit for a leather pouch and thought that it was too bad that she could not stick around and explore the place some. A Medicine Bag was usually the property of a tribe's Shaman, and held items of magic or supernatural power, and spell components- the plaque read. As vapid as the museum came across, it was still a little bit fun, and reminded her of her childhood interest with Indians.

"You think they have arrowheads in the gift shop?"

"You want to shop?" Gabe asked in disbelief.

Seraph laughed. "No, not really. Just wondering."

Behind the buildings was the paved 'nature' trail that lead to the mock camp. Seraph and Gave followed it past the first bend and stopped.

"I'm going to take off. You'll be fine here?"

"I'll be bored out of my skull here. Do you think this is going to take long?" Gabe asked.

"It shouldn't," Seraph said. "But I'll walk real slow so you can have extra time to enjoy our field trip."

"Punk. Get out of here. I want to be home in time to watch Lost. If you're not back, I'm leaving without you."

Laughing, Seraph stepped off the trail and into the woods.

The difference in speed between a car driving on paved roads and a person walking uphill over broken ground is directly proportional to the level of irritation that person will feel every time she gets hit in the face with a branch. That is to say, it was taking Seraph much longer than she thought it would. The sun was beginning to set and she still had not found the cave. The relief and even the excitement she had felt setting out from the park died when she failed to find the cave immediately, and it was buried when she was led right through every tree and bush on the stupid hill.

And it was getting cold.

Seraph knew somewhere in the back of her mind that she should turn back. Pine Grove was unlikely to stay open very late and Gabe would get kicked out. While this was not as bad as it could be, Gabe had a hand control device that would let him drive and she imagined that someone would help him into the jeep. Although, it would be hard to explain her absence. The last thing she wanted was a search party to come looking for her because she had wandered off the trail.

The ground inclined sharply in front of her, and after a few feet it became impossible to walk forward. Seraph stared at the almost vertical slope- about a dozen feet up, was the cave. Above the mouth of the cave, the ground continued at a much more reasonable degree, and directly in front was a small patch of level dirt. But between the cave and Seraph was an impassable rock wall. The only way to get to the cave that Seraph could see would be to climb down from above. With a long suffered sigh, she turned and started walking. Hopefully she would find a way up before next year.

Trailblazing quickly lost its novelty and Seraph was gratified and surprised to find a suitable way up just a few yards to the right. It led up and past the cave mouth to the gentler slope above, from there it would be easy to get to the cave entrance.

Seraph was feeling almost giddy. After weeks of ignoring or drinking away the... compulsion to come to this place, she was finally here. She slipped her bag off her shoulder and dug inside it for her flashlight and compass. Standing right in front of the cave, she put her back to it and checked the direction. If it was a straight line here, it was a straight line back, it would be good to know which way she needed to go because she doubted that the force leading her here would be considerate enough to lead her back. Once noted, she stuffed the compass back in her backpack. She had rope and other supplies there as well, but she knew next to nothing about spelunking, so she hoped she would not need them.

Luckily, the cave appeared to be a simple tunnel leading deeper into the hill. Seraph flicked on her flashlight and set off. The bright LED light cut through the gloom, casting the tunnel floor into bright relief and deepening the shadows. The cave went farther than Seraph had thought it would and widened so much that Seraph would have had to stretch to touch the walls. All the while the cave headed steadily down. She could feel the nearness of her goal, she was almost on top of it, just a little bit further and she would reach it.

Abruptly, the cave ended.

Seraph stared in disbelief at the rock wall in front of her. There was no way forward. Swinging the flashlight from side to side, she searched the dead end for any way deeper, but there was nothing. The stupid cave just ended, as if someone had been digging the cave out, but had become bored and simply left, leaving a smooth featureless barrier between her and her goal. The crown was on the other side. Just on the other side, by a few feet at most, and she had no idea how to get to it. Had she missed a branching off somewhere behind her? No, the cave hadn't been that wide, she would have seen one, wouldn't she?

"Damn it!" she swore. Bringing her foot up she kicked the wall to vent her frustration. And almost fell on her ass as her foot hit only air.

She brought her flashlight up to shine on the target of her anger. It looked much the same as the rest of the cave. Carefully, Seraph touched the wall, it felt solid. Sliding her fingers over the rock, she started to tell herself that she had been imagining things when her hand disappeared. It felt like plunging her arm in ice cold water, almost painful, definitely unpleasant. She pulled her hand back out and examined it, wiggling her fingers. Other than still felling cold it seemed unharmed. Transferring the flashlight to her mouth, she used both hands to feel the wall. The 'hole' was about four feet high and two to three feet wide. Seraph took a step back and picked up a pebble, with an underhand toss, she sent the pebble flying through the hole. She listened for it to hit, but there was only silence. She frowned, did that mean there was a pit fall on the other side? Or something else? Maybe the illusion blocked the sound?

Seraph considered the fake wall for only a second before squaring her shoulders and stepping forward. She wasn't not going through the fake wall. She had not come this far to balk at this. Stalling would only waste the daylight she would need to get back. She would face whatever was on the other side when she found it. Ducking down she put a hand out to find the top of the opening and with deliberate steps, ducked into the illusion.

The shock of cold was not unexpected, and she went forward without breaking stride, and then she was on the other side.

The space on the other side of the fake wall was not at all what Seraph expected, which was rapidly becoming a familiar occurrence. Animal skins covered the floor- deer, wolf, bear, mountain lion and a small brown skin that Seraph believed might have been a coyote. On top of these were a pallet and a low bench that had a few scattered bits of pottery on it. A makeshift shelf was pressed against the left wall. It, like the bench, held pottery as well as dried herbs and animal bones. All of this Seraph saw instantly as she swept her flashlight across the room before the light fell on the object of her quest.

There, on the far wall, on a natural rock ledge, the crown sat waiting. Seraph absently put her flashlight on the bench, letting it shine on the crown while freeing her hands.

The Erlking's crown was a large medieval style helmet, bucket shaped with a Y cut out of the front for the eyes and mouth. It might have once been ornate, but now it was filthy and stained, covered in layers of dirt. But none of that detracted from the ancient crown's most predominate feature. Two magnificent five-point antlers rose from just over the eyes. Perfectly symmetrical and free from dirt, they gleamed in the dim light. Slowly, Seraph reached out and traced her fingers over the smooth bone. Touching it sent tingles up her arm and she started breathing again. She had not realized that she had been holding her breath since first seeing the crown.

It seemed as though the crown was sleeping, like a great hibernating bear. If left, it would continue its rest indefinitely, but once woken, it would be powerful and fierce. Reverently, Seraph pulled the crown from its place on the wall. Dirt fell away from where she touched it. For long moments, she simply held it, before turning it over and lifting it slowly above her head. Her eyes slipped closed as she brought it down.

Then her cell phone rang.

Jerked back from her trance, Seraph almost dropped the damn thing. She was breathing heavily as she crammed the crown under one arm so she could fumble the phone from her pocket.

"Yeah?"

"Seraph, you find it yet?"

"Um, yeah, I found it." Had she really almost put it on? "I'm on my way back now."

"You okay? You sound weird."

"I'm fine," Seraph said.

"Well, hurry back, they're shutting this place down soon."

"I will."

Seraph closed the cell without saying goodbye and grabbed her flashlight. She hurried from the strange room, trying not to think too hard about the crown still tucked under her arm. It was much larger than she was expecting and there was no way it would fit in her bag. She would have to carry it the whole way. She didn't blink as she passed through the cold of the fake wall and out into the cave proper.

The flashlight beam bounced off the walls and along the floor as she jogged along. The park would be east southeast, but she hoped there would be enough daylight for her to find the trail. Up ahead, she saw dim sunlight from the exit, so she turned off her flashlight but didn't slow down. It looked like the sun was going down.

Suddenly, the light went out. Seraph blinked in surprise and stopped. There was a man standing at the mouth of the cave.

He stood in front of the setting sun. The red light was not enough to reveal his features, but it outlined him nicely. He was tall, taking up almost the whole entrance, and wearing some sort of hood. But anything more than that, Seraph could not make out.

"Hello?" Seraph called out.

He did not answer, or give any indication that he had heard her at all. Shifting so she was holding the crown behind her, Seraph raised her flashlight and turned it on.

She stared, dumfounded. Before her was an Indian in full tribal dress. He wore leather moccasins and pants, and a wide leather belt held a bone handle knife on one side and a pouch on the other. Across his shoulders was a cloak made from a whole bear skin, its paws crossed over his bare chest and the flap of its face resting over his forehead. A small, leather medicine bag hung from his neck. He was glaring at her.

"Um... hi?" she tried again.

It was then that the man noticed the crown under Seraph's arm. He snarled wordlessly at her, his lips pulling back from large sharp teeth that didn't belong in a human mouth. In seconds, his whole face transformed with rage, taking on the façade of a rabid animal. The last of the sunlight disappeared behind him, leaving only Seraph's flashlight. His shoulders hunched forward and his bearskin seemed to flow over him. Seraph stumbled backwards, falling to the ground, the beam from her flashlight danced wildly over him, showing only small snatches of what was happening. A hand curled with claws. Dark fur moving like water over skin. Horrible shifting of bones under skin. A snarling muzzle filled with teeth. Growing taller, wider.

Seraph scrambled back up into a crouch, steadying her flashlight to shine on the monstrous bear that now filled the cave mouth. Its eyes glinted red as it opened its huge mouth to roar.

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