Coyote Tricks: The Bone Eaters Well

The battle to free Kit has begun but who will be freed Kit or the Queen of Shadows?
This chapter is rated R for violence (duh). If you haven’t read the warnings and disclaimers in chapter 1 please do so before proceeding.

The Final Battle

“Die Human!” Kit cried and thrust the tip of Silver Fang right at Singer’s heart.
Toshiro’s Katana flashed in turning the spear point at the last moment as he pushed Singer out of the way.
Kit leapt back falling into a crouch spear ready.
“Filthy half human” he cried and charged.
“Who are you calling filthy, half coyote” he calmly answered back as he parried the spear thrust.

Singer sat up from where he fell. Pain shot through his hip precluding any attempt to stand.
‘Probably broke it’ he thought ‘it is such a pain to grow old.’
He looked up as the feminine laughter from before became a roar. The opening in the wall was filled with octopus type tentacles of blackness tearing at the edges of the opening. Lightning flashed around the opening as the Queen of Darkness fought to widen the breach in her prison.
Singer quickly located his flute on the ground next to him and began playing and summoning his power.

Shippo’s Godzilla was making mincemeat of the demon horde. The power of five tailed Kitsune was such that his illusions took on the power of reality as long as his victims believed in them. Thus when the giant lizard stomped on a demon it was crushed even though there was no impression on the ground from the footstep and when it breathed its fire breath the demons burst into flame even thought the plants around them were unharmed.

“Fools” Momoru yelled and strode forward raising his hands. Streamers of dark energy shot forth from his hands and wrapped around the movie monster like a pack of snakes. The monster roared and struggled for a moment then with a massive pop and puff of smoke disappeared, a tiny toy plastic Godzilla fell to the ground.

The handful of demons that had not run cried with glee and charged while Momoru turned to rally the others.
“My turn” Kurama said as he strode forward to the point were the rift widened out to the valley floor. The demons charging them were coming down this narrow point. Kurama reached into a hidden pocket and drew out a handful of seeds that he scattered across the mouth of the rift.
As the first demon approached him he whipped out with the rose whip faster than the eye could see tearing the demon to pieces and scattering the remains. The demons behind that one paused which proved fatal as the first demon’s blood struck the ground hundreds of vines sprang up grabbing the others. They screamed in agony and collapsed as the vines holding them throbbed. The cluster of vines soon became an impassable mass as the remainder the demons arrived.

Kurama stepped back to rejoin Shippo.
“Blood vines,” he said, “that will hold them for awhile.”
“Looks like they are trying to tear through anyway” Shippo observed.
“Then they are fools, most of them will be drained dry before they succeed” Kurama said. “Shall we go help the others?”

A horrendous scream arose from the opening in the wall as the hole began to shrink slowly undoing the progress the black tentacles had made. Suddenly one of tentacles rose up and flung a ball of blackness at the blood vine tangle. When it struck a billowing dark cloud spread out to envelope the vines. Where it touched the vines withered and died.

“I recognize that” Shippo said “it’s miasma!”
The poisonous cloud quickly killed a large swath in the vines, along with several hapless demons that didn’t retreat quickly enough, allowing the demons passage. As the cloud cleared the demons came pouring through.

“This may be it” Kurama remarked calmly.
“Perhaps but lets make sure they pay dearly for it, old friend” Shippo said as he began to grow in size to nearly 10 feet. His tail expanded in number to five as he summoned and revealed his full demon strength. A bright blue ball of flame formed in his hands.
“Fox Fire!” He yelled as he threw the fireball into the leading ranks, killing 50 instantly and causing the charge to falter. Rose whip and claws flailed out as Kurama and Shippo leapt upon the startled survivors.

Toshiro was holding even with Kit. He was the superior fighter but he couldn’t afford to kill the brainwashed coyote and the longer reach of the spear was giving Kit just enough advantage to hold his own. Toshiro’s hope was that Kit would make a mistake just long enough to allow him to disarm the coyote. He thought he had his chance when another scream came from the shrinking hole in the wall.
Kit paused.
“Shadow Mother” he said looking up.
Toshiro started an attack designed to knock the spear away when a tentacle shot out and knocked him to ground. Another struck Singer sending him rolling. The hole stopped shrinking and slowly started expanding again.
“Stop him! Kill him!” The Queen’s voice shrieked.

Singer’s head cleared just in time to see Kit standing above him. The coyote raised his spear.
“Kit” Singer said “I love you son.”
Kit hesitated at these words and then something beside Singer’s head caught his attention. Lying there where it had fallen from Singer’s pocket was Kit’s tin whistle.

-
The fire was burning warmly in the hearth of the cabin. A dark haired Spirit Singer was playing his flute as Kit, a teenager by spirit standards, watched intently. Slowly the magic coalesced into a cloud hovering in the air above them. Atop the cloud a silvery coyote appeared running as if across a fog covered plain. The illusion formed, Singer nodded to the entranced Kit who lifted his tin whistle and began playing counter point to Singer’s music. As soon as he joined the rhythm Kit could hear Singer in his mind.
‘Yes Kit’ the voice said ‘feel the power in the music. Become one with it, sustain it.’
The voice became less and less audible but he could still feel the reassurance through the link. He poured all his concentration on the music and the image it created supporting the magic and strengthening it. He never even noticed when Singer stopped playing. The strain started to hurt his head. The image started to waver and Kit poured more energy into it. It solidified again and Kit looked over for Singer’s reaction and noticed that he wasn’t playing. Kit’s concentration collapsed and the image disintegrated into nothingness.
“I did it” Kit said excitedly “I sustained the magic all by myself.”
“Yes you did.”
“Does that mean I can be a Bard?”
“No” Singer said with a touch of regret “I’m afraid you just aren’t strong enough to create bardic magic but you are powerful enough to sustain it once created. That means you can help me out. Would you like that?”
“Oh yes Wise Elder.”
Singer laughed at the excited look in Kit’s face. He leaned forward and looked into the boys face.
“You make me proud Kit” The shaman said with a smile. “You coming into my life is the best thing that ever happened to me. I love you son.”
Kit threw his arms around Singer.
“I love you too…”

-
“…Singer Father.”
The spear clattered at Kit’s feet as the blackness drained from his eyes.
“KILL HIM!” the Darkness cried.
Kit whirled around.
“No! You lied to me! He does love me, he always loved me!”
Kit turned back to look Singer in the eyes.
“And I love him” he said.
“Treacherous half breed!” the Queen raged and a black tentacle shot out and wrapped itself around Kit’s throat.
“Kit!” Singer cried trying to rise to his aid.
“Foxfire Blade Attack!” Toshiro drove the blade of his katana into the tentacle and the blue flames traveled along the blade severing the blackness.
Kit fell to his knees sucking in breath.
“Thank you” he managed to pant out.
Toshiro laughed as he assumed a defensive stance over the two.
“Thank yourself” he said “you’re the one that bound the sword to my spirit energy.”

“Kit we have to seal the wall,” Singer said handing him the tin whistle. “Can you help me?”
“Yes Singer Father”
Singer nodded and looked up at Toshiro.
“Can you keep her off of us?”
“I’ll try my best. Do it” the fox said.

Singer nodded and putting his flute to his lips began to play again. As the music and the magic waxed, Kit picked up the melody and added his power sustaining and boosting the power.
The Queen of Shadows shrieked as the hole began to close again. The tentacles lashed out trying to strike the pair but Toshiro’s blade held them at bay.

‘Kit’ Singer’s voice came into the coyote’s head as the magic formed a link between them.
‘Yes Father?’
‘I love you Kit.’
‘I love you too Father.’

“Stop them! Stop! Momoru!” the dark voice cried.
Momoru turned his attention away from the demon horde that was slowly driving back the red haired boy and Kitsune. He climbed a rise to see over the heads of the battle. He held up his right arm and a black sphere formed above it. The sphere elongated to form a spear. Momoru grasped the spear and hurled it.

Kit felt the pain through the link and the music faltered.
‘Father!’ he called out over the mental link
‘Kit don’t stop playing. You must sustain the magic.’
‘Yes Father.’

Toshiro heard the music disrupted with a grunt of pain. Turning he saw that Singer had been stabbed with a black spear that as he watched dissolved into the wound with sickening bubbling of miasma at work.
He rushed to the shaman’s side.
“Master Singer!”

Kit could feel Singer’s strength failing.
‘Father please!’
‘Don’t stop Kit, don’t stop.’
Kit obeyed but his heart screamed as the life energy of the only father he had known started to fade.

Shippo and Kurama had been driven back against a rock to make their final stand. Demon bodies and blood surrounded them mixed with their own. Occasionally they worked enough time and space to unleash one of their attacks but Momoru kept killing Kurama’s plants with miasma and the demons had learned that they could defeat the Kitsune illusions by simply not believing in them.
They were both bleeding and wounded several times over. Wounds that would not be immediately fatal to demons but Kurama was still in a human body. He fell and the demons seeing an opening charged.

“SHOTGUN” a voice cried out and a several blasts of spirit energy tore into the ranks of the demons from the rear. The demons were disoriented by this sudden attack. A blur moved through them and a path opened in their ranks as several fell to the ground cut to pieces. The blur resolved itself into a short figure dark haired figure wearing a dark overcoat and a white head band. Shippo sensed that he was a demon but he couldn’t determine what kind.
Kurama looked up at the short swordsman standing over him.
“Hiei, glad you could make our little party.”
“Humph. I had to come to tell you how perturbed I am that you planned a trip to my old stomping grounds without inviting me.”
Shippo couldn’t figure out if the newcomer was joking or not.
“I take it you know this guy?” He asked Kurama.
“Yes, and judging from those sounds I say he brought the cavalry with him.”
Shippo looked up to see that the demons were scattering faced with fresh foes. At their rear were three humans. One was a teenage boy with swept back hair who had originally launched the spirit energy blasts. Now he was attacking the demons head on in the traditional fighting style known as ‘wailing on them’. A second teenage, taller than the first, was swinging in with a sword made of spirit energy. The last was an old woman doing more damage than the other two combined in a massive display of spirit energy combat.

Singer’s music was failing rapidly.
‘Keep playing Kit. Sustain the magic, seal the wall.’
‘Yes Father.’
‘Kit, I love you.’
‘I love you too Father.’

Tears filled Kit’s eyes as Singer’s music stopped and the link was broken. The burden of the music fell on him and it took all his power and concentration of keep it alive.
“NO! NO! NO! NO!” The Queen of Shadows shrieked and railed against the closing hole to no avail. The hole closed and the darkness of the wall became still again.
The tin whistle clattered to the ground as Kit threw himself on prostrate figure of Singer in Toshiro’s arms.
“Spirit Father” he whispered and great sobs began to wrack his body as he could find no sign of life in the shaman’s body. Kit reared back his head and howled out his grief and anger to the heavens.

From his vantage point over looking the failed battle, Momoru turned and disappeared into the shadows.

--
Author’s Notes: The Queen is locked away again and humanity is safe for now. But what is to become of Kit? Next Chapter: Aftermaths and Farewells.