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Once her small space was as comfortable and dry as she could make it, she unfolded a second silver sheet, laid down next to the fire, and draped it over herself. She held little hope that the thin sheet would actually provide warmth and protection from the elements. The blankets had been an unexpected discovery, tucked away in the corner. According to the pictures, they were supposed to be warm and had a light-weight design. Something that would keep her alive until she could find a place to stay long enough to hunt and gather the items she would need to survive. It didn’t seem possible that something so thin and flimsy could work the way the pictures said it would.

She curled her arm under her head to act as a pillow. Her backpack was too wet to use. Thankfully, the dry bags worked just as they said they would, keeping her food and clothing dry.

To her surprise, a few minutes later she was beginning to feel warm. Her fingers curled around the edge of the blanket, keeping it close to her head. She pulled the wool scarf her mother made her closer and tucked her hands into it.

“Six months. I have maybe six months to prepare for winter and decide where I will stay,” she calculated in a sleepy voice.

Her mind wandering from one thought to another at random. The ambience of the rain, the low roll of thunder, and the combined warmth of dry clothes, the fire, her exhaustion, and the blanket soon lured her into a trance-like state where she was caught between two worlds.

Just as I am with them, she mused before sleep finally claimed her.

Chapter 12

Victoria, Canada:

Pineminister Castle

* * *

The sharp tap of a cane against tile echoed in the great hallway of Pineminister Castle. The castle had been built by an Orangutan-shifter nearly two hundred years before in the isolated wilds of Canada. Isabella and Theodore’s paternal grandmother, three-times removed, had been the trusted assistant of Lord Pine, managing his vast estate.

Her grandmother, Isabella, whom she had been named after, would eventually marry Lord Pine. Upon his death, the castle was passed down through her lineage. Now, she was the castle’s mistress.

She entered the library, pausing in the doorway. A fire burned in the massive hearth framed by the heritage of its original master. Thick vines, heavy with fruit, rose to the top mantle where ancient ruins of the fabled Orangutan king, Or’Ang the Great, were carved into the ancient red oak.

Dr. Theodore Badger sat at the heavy mahogany desk. Isabella studied her younger half-brother with a dispassionate expression. He looked like a crazed lunatic. Only she knew better. He was brilliant, although reckless when he became fixated on something he wanted.

“When was the last time you had a shower or a meal?” she inquired.

Theodore started at the unexpected intrusion. He blinked at her behind thick glasses. His eyes were unfocused behind the smudged lenses. He owlishly stared back at her with an expression of disorientation and irritation. His hand swept out to adjust his glasses. Instead, he caught a stack of books piled near his right arm. The books slid in different directions, knocking against a pile of papers before sending them to the floor.

Theodore released an annoyed growl and slipped from the plush leather chair onto his hands and knees on the floor. He grabbed wildly at the papers, peering at them and muttering under his breath before he placed them into separate piles.

Isabella crossed to a chair placed before the fireplace. She lowered herself onto the eighteenth century, handstitched fabric with a grace that belied her advanced age of seventy years. She waited for her brother to finish retrieving his research papers.

“You shouldn’t startle me like that,” Theodore snapped.

She waved an irate hand. “Sit down. You were the one who called me. What was so important that I needed to return?”

“I heard on the news that more humans have been found,” he said.

Isabella pursed her lips and tightened her grip on the handle of her cane. Her orangutan wanted to use it to beat her half-brother. She had inherited her mother’s genetic shifter qualities while her brother had inherited her step-father’s badger genomes.

“I’m aware there are more humans,” she replied.

Theodore stared at her, opening and closing his mouth like a drunken fish. He mumbled inaudibly again while he shuffled through the papers spread out across the floor in front of him. His expression changed to one of triumph, and he held out a wrinkled sheet.

“But… did you know about this? Did you? It’s real, Issy. I knew it was real.”

Isabella scowled at her brother. “You know I hate when you call me that.”

Theodore shook the paper at her. “Take it. Look at it, Is—Isabella. All my research has led me to this moment. I knew I wasn’t crazy. It is real,” he insisted.

Isabella leaned forward and snatched the sheet out of her brother’s quivering hand. She sat back and read the paper; or rather, she studied the drawing. She turned the paper over before studying the front again. The paper felt… old. She looked at her brother with a frown.

“Where did you get this?”

“Tomes. The tomes stored in the archives at the Observatory. The directors didn’t even know what they had, but I did the moment I found it hidden in an ancient tome from the Great War, the Shifter-Human War. The minute I saw this, I knew what it was,” Theodore muttered in a rushed tone.