CHAPTER 121

Velvet found Uncle Foot up on the roof of the cabin. He stood next to the chimney, his face fixed in concentration as he surveyed the land. The sun was nearing the treeline, and his features were grim.

"You okay?" she asked him.

He shrugged, an expression that made his fur ripple. There was a scorch mark on his leg where Quetzalli had accidentally tased him. "There has been much change in the last few days," he told her. "And I fear the changes yet to come. Have I ever told you that I can smell the future on the wind?"

"Only about a million times." She smiled. "But I don't ever get tired of hearing about it."

Bigfoot snorted. "I should have been able to sense them," he said. "The Nirumbi and Leeds. The forest should have told me, much in the same way that it tells me where to find game, or if a hunter is lost."

"It is winter. The forest is asleep."

"Even asleep, the forest always watches." He frowned. "I wonder if what Leeds told me is true. Have I turned my back on the land? It would explain many things."

She snorted. "Please, he's so full of shit. He came storming in here with an army and every intent to kill us. You can't give him credit for that."

"Just because someone is your enemy does not automatically make them wrong." He fixed her with an intense gaze that made her look away. "I have long wondered if perhaps I have spent too much time in one place."

"What do you mean?"

He shook his head again. "I mean that I know about the eggs. And I know about your feelings for him."

She blushed and looked away from him. There was no use in denying any of it. Uncle Foot may play at being super laid back, but he was still very perceptive. Maybe that was from centuries of wandering the forests of North America.

"You don't know everything," she told him.

"Of course not. But I do know that your place is by his side."

She groaned, then instinctively placed her hands on her belly. She could still feel the tightness of the clutch from before she had laid them. Her uncle wasn't wrong, she really wanted to go with Mike. His idea to open a portal and connect his home with the cabin's land had made her heart soar.

"You're planning to leave, aren't you?" Her voice was barely a whisper, but she knew he could hear it.

"Your father told me to take care of you. Mike seems like a good man. A very good man. He can give you many things that I cannot." He sighed and then sat down on the roof. "Can I tell you something I've never said out loud? I've always been scared of watching you girls grow old."

"What do you mean?"

"In all of my life, I have wandered. I've had many friends, but I rarely stay in one place. You and Lala are the first mortals I have watched since the beginning. You were children, each of you fitting in my palm." He smiled wryly, then held up his giant hands.

"That isn't saying much," she pointed out.

"I watched you grow. Hell, I helped raise you. But I will also be here when you die. When Darren...when he got sick..." He turned his head away and took a moment before continuing. "I watched him grow old and waste away. It was one of the hardest things I've ever experienced. But I never thought of him as my own child. Time is a bastard. When you're young, you wish it would pass faster. When you're old, you wish you had more of it. But when you're like me, you take it for granted. The idea of watching you and your sister grow old terrifies me. And so, I wonder. Have I stayed in one place too long?"

"Ah, Uncle Foot." She wrapped her arms around his and hugged his bicep. "We've still got maybe fifteen, twenty years left before that happens."

"It goes faster than you think." He wiped his eyes. "But it isn't just that. I--"

There was a rumble beneath them, and all the lights in the cabin went out.

"I wouldn't worry about it unless they come get us," she suggested. She could hear Mike's moans through the vibrations of the roof, which made her belly tighten up.

Bigfoot nodded in agreement. "What I was trying to tell you is that when the two of you are gone, that's it. Your family brought me so much damned joy, and it's hard knowing that the end is coming."

"And so you want to leave?"

He shivered, even though she knew he never got cold. "I do, but I don't. I want to distance myself now, to spread the agony out over the years. To reconnect with the land and scatter the grief to come over the years."

"I hate your plan." She let go of his arm and smacked him on the thigh. "It's a stupid fucking plan. Boo-hoo, I'm sad, so fuck you all?"

He snorted, then laughed. "Yeah, it does sound kind of stupid when you say it like that."

"If you want to wander the land, then go wander. Fuck the Order, fuck the internet. Lala can keep your travels scrubbed, she would probably see it as a personal challenge. Come back and visit, watch what happens next. You don't have to give up one thing to have another."

The two of them sat in silence for several minutes as Bigfoot contemplated her words. It was getting dark enough that a couple of the brightest stars had come out early to greet them, and he peered up at them.

"Shit." He turned to look at her. "When did you become so smart?"

She blushed again. Ordinarily, she would bask in his comment and maybe even gloat a little. However, his speech about her family had her mind whirling in circles. Uncle Foot had no way of knowing about what she had stashed in the glove box of her father's jeep moments before Abella had arrived. It was a single egg, very different from all the rest.

She wished she could talk to her sister about it. Out of the entire clutch, not only had this one felt different than all the rest, but when she touched it, she had seen her mysterious offspring again. How was it possible that she could have had a vision of someone before they were even conceived? Was she romanticizing the idea of reproducing with Mike? Or were her instincts on point?

It was a time-sensitive issue, though, and she desperately needed advice.

"Uncle Foot?" She unconsciously toyed with her father's dog tags. "I need to talk about something kind of important."

"Tell me what you need, fuzzy girl." When Bigfoot turned to look at her, the sun glinted off his eyes, making them glow. The grin on his face was safe and familiar, and she knew she was in good hands.

But that grin fell away as he rose and gripped the chimney so hard that a stone came loose.

"What is it?" she asked, but he had leapt free of the roof and onto the ground below. She followed him, suddenly aware that she had left her father's pistol in the cabin.

Up on the roof of the barn, a massive snow owl watched them. It let out a hoot in greeting and then glided down to land roughly thirty feet away. Its wings were massive, and when it landed, it tumbled into a ball and unfolded itself into a woman who stood nearly eight feet tall. Her features were avian, as if she was more owl than human. She regarded them with wide, inscrutable eyes.

"Impossible," Bigfoot declared. "You are supposed to be dead."

"And yet here I stand." The woman bowed. "We wish to speak with the Caretaker."

"We who?" Velvet challenged the owl woman with a show of fangs.

"The children of the forest." She held a hand up and gave a wave. Nirumbi revealed themselves, though none were armed. Behind the trees, large creatures shifted about, revealing themselves through movement. They were completely surrounded. "We mean you no harm, but peace won't hold for long."

"Are you threatening us?" Bigfoot asked, his body expanding.

"While the Devil of Jersey is absent, we have an opportunity." Her voice clicked in places, and Velvet realized that her lips were actually a flattened owl's beak. "If you wish for peace, then I suggest we hurry."

"Uncle Foot, who is this?"

Bigfoot balled up his fists, then looked at Velvet. "Her name has been forgotten by the forest. But I do know that she's nothing but trouble, her and her troublesome sisters."

"It is just me now. And much like you, I have changed over these long years." She turned to gesture at the Nirumbi. "They won't wait long, and neither will Leeds. Please. The Caretaker. Only he can help us now."

Bigfoot growled, but Velvet put her hand on his arm.

"It's his decision," she told him. "We should let him make it."

He turned his head toward her and nodded. "Fine. But it'll probably be the wrong one."

Her uncle was probably right. But no matter Mike's choice, Velvet was prepared to stand by him when he made it.