Page 105 of Brandt's Rule
“Hold on, now. I’m coming. I ain’t letting you go all that way alone,” Maverik said.
“I got it, Uncle Maverik. I broke this, I’ll fix it.”
“I’m sure you can. But I can take you right up to where the store used to be. From there we can go south and see what happens,” Maverik said.
“Christmas is in three days. You need to be here. I’ll find her, and I’ll bring her back,” Brandt said.
“She might want to spend Christmas with her family,” Avaleigh pointed out.
Janie walked over and hugged her son. “Do what you have to do to make this right. There will be other Christmases. Just make things right with Tempest. Make sure that she knows beyond the shadow of a doubt that she can depend on you, so when she feels unsure in the future, because I’m sure with all of us around, at some point she might, she can lean on you.”
“And remember that no matter how strong she is, she’s just as fragile. Sometimes navigating unfamiliar situations can be as tough as anything else you’ve endured. You constantly second guess yourself,” Delilah said.
“I can help you with this!” Maverik said. “I helped with Delilah when she first came to us.”
“I need to do this myself. To prove that she means enough to me to come after her. Her mom is right. It wouldn’t mean as much if I showed up courtesy of her mother. I need to put in the work to find her.”
“Brandt?” Daisy asked.
Brandt looked over at his sister.
“Trust your gut, it’ll lead you to her. The bond you’ve already established will help you find her. As long as the bond isn’t broken, you can follow it.”
“Even if she’s blocking me?” Brandt asked.
“Hwy 56. South, about a mile and a half out of town, is where the little store was. I’m thinking they live in the swamps even further south. Try the Cocodrie Swamp. If you don’t find anything, keep going until you’re standing on the edge of the world looking at the gulf,” Maverik said. “Might have to ask somebody back in town if they know where the store was if it’s gone now.”
Brandt nodded, “I’ll do what I have to.” He hugged his mother once more and walked out of the kitchen, on his way to find his mate. “I’ll be back when I’ve found her,” he promised. “Barron, you’re it while I’m gone.”
“I got you!” Barron answered. “Just bring back our girl!” he laughed.
“She’s mine!” Brandt roared from outside, but he didn’t come back to argue the point.
Chapter 22
After an almost three hour drive to the community of Cocodrie, Brandt felt no relief at all at having arrived. There was very little in the community. A few houses here and there, up on stilts, much like his own home. Multiple fishing camps. A couple of small mom and pop restaurants. A bait shop. A store called ‘Fred’s’ that seemed to carry an array of things — kind of like a small department store that even had a few small choices in furniture, and gas station. Not much else, though.
Driving slowly through the community he hesitated to call a town, he kept his eyes open for any sign of a very old store. But he didn’t see one. He drove south for five miles beyond Cocodrie, and still saw nothing. “Damnit!” he grouched. Deciding that he wouldn’t be able to figure out where the store was without help, he considered going back to the little community itself, but changed his mind. “Maverik said due south, I’m going due south.”
Driving south, he kept his eyes on the signs he passed along the way. Some warned of not pulling off the highway. Others were signs for junctions if you needed to intersect with other highways to reach other communities in the area, and still others reminded drivers that they’d already passed the last community before they ran out of road. The wetlands were up ahead, and to turn back. One even said ‘If you are part of a chartered fishing group, or a tour group, you are lost. Please turn around.’
Brandt laughed at that one, and continued to drive slowly along the old two lane highway until he reached a point that had another sign. It stated that the wetlands beyond that point were protected and motorized vehicles were not allowed. “I guess this is where I start walking.” He pulled his truck over to the small, precarious shoulder of the highway and locked it up tight before trying to send out a message to Tempest again. Nothing. Not a damn thing came back to him. It was like talking to yourself, and he had no doubt that she didn’t even receive his attempts to communicate with her because she still had him blocked.
“I’m coming to find you, Tempest. I won’t go home without you,” he said aloud as he trudged off the road and into the wetlands. He stopped about thirty feet from the truck and wondered if he should leave his clothes there and shift, or continue on as his human self.
“If I need to shift I’ll just carry them,” he grumbled, and started walking again. He walked. And walked. And walked. Eventually he reached a point that was so grown up with foliage, so dense with underbrush that he’d have to shift to get through. Then he noticed the tingles on his skin as he tried to enter at different spots in the overgrown blockage. He looked down at his arm and the goosebumps raised there, then up at the for all intents and purposes impenetrable overgrowth of plants and trees and smiled. “Found you,” he whispered.
He took off his clothes and folded them into a neat stack, then took off his boots and tied them together by his shoestrings and laid the tied shoestrings across his clothing. He shifted to his Bear, picked up his stack of clothes with his boots dangling from either side of his mouth, and slipped through a small opening at about knee-level in the dense overgrowth.
Seven hours later he was pissed off, having walked all night, sure he was going south, only to find himself back where he began. He’d stopped trying to determine which direction he was going and just walked straight ahead, eventually stepping into a thick, goopy expanse of mud that dropped off into a waist deep pit of muck, and seemed to get even more treacherous with every movement. Irritated beyond all measure at the time he was losing wandering aimlessly, and fighting his way out of the mud, he shifted back. “This is not cool, Tempest! Not cool at all!” he shouted.
Naked and clutching his clothing, with his boots hanging around his neck, snarling with every concentrated movement to pull himself out of the muck, he finally managed to get to the side and climb out. Lying there with mud drying on his skin, catching his breath while he considered his next move, he suddenly realized the sun was coming up, and he was lying in the shadow of someone huge standing over him.
Jumping to his feet, exhausted, naked and caked in dried mud, he shored up to fight the massive creature standing in front of him.
Instead of fighting him, or attacking, the male started laughing.
“What is so funny?” Brandt demanded.