Warden by Kevin Hardman Page A

with pushing the silver bits inside. Finally, he had sealed the little holes in the pods with the epoxy from his medicine kit. The result was seed pods that would still inflate (or blow up), but with a little something extra inside.
    All of this he had done while in Gale’s sleeping bag with her. He had dared not do it in the open for fear that the monster would see him, and a lot of activity by him – in his sleeping bag alone – might also make it wary.  He was far more willing to let it think whatever it wanted about his activities in Gale’s sleeping bag while he brought his plan to fruition.
    Everything had worked as he had hoped, with the pod exploding and shredding the Wendigo with silver shrapnel.  Errol’s joy at success, however, was short-lived.  In what was almost a sickening act, Errol saw the thing thrust its claws into its own chest - much like the night before - and then dig around before coming out with something: a bit of silver! In essence, the creature – unable to get at the silver from the entry points in its back – was, in a remarkable act of self-preservation, digging the metal out through the front of its body.
    Errol was so shocked that, for a second, he couldn’t move.  However, by the time the creature had pulled out a second piece of silver, he was in motion.  He ran forward and scooped up his axe, then swung with all his might at the Wendigo’s right knee.  It was like striking a stone, but flesh and tendon came apart as the blow connected.
    Already weak from the infiltration of silver, the leg collapsed under the additional damage caused by the axe, and the Wendigo went down on one knee with a shriek. Still screaming, it swatted at Errol, connecting with a backhand that sent him flying.
    The impact when he hit the ground knocked the breath out of him, and he lay there dazed for a moment.  He looked at the Wendigo, saw that it was still mining silver from its chest, and struggled to his feet.  He pulled another seed pod from his pocket and flung it towards the campfire. Shockingly, the Wendigo reached for it with a claw that was bloody and slick with its own gore.
    Errol bit his knuckle in anguish as the monster seemed to snag the pod.  However, it actually missed, although it did indeed make contact with the pod, throwing its trajectory off. It hit the ground a few feet shy of the fire. The Wendigo looked at Errol, making its weird laugh again, and continued removing the silver bits from its body.  Errol made as if to circle around, but the monster, despite its collapsed knee, scrambled along the ground to keep itself between him and the pod. Errol, forgetting about his warding wand, held up his right hand and uttered an incantation.  He curled the hand into a fist as a hazy blue-white glow began forming around it.
    Suddenly, the campfire flared up, the result of Errol having carefully laid the firewood (or rather, the plants he was using as firewood) in the pattern of a ward earlier.  The Wendigo turned to look at it just as the heat made the pod Errol had thrown explode. It sent a second load of silver projectiles flying at the creature. The monster howled and clutched at its face, neck, and chest.  When it turned back to Errol, he could see that its face was a ruin. One eye was gone, leaving nothing but a sickly yellow socket. Its nose and cheeks had been shredded, leaving strips of skin hanging down like melting globs of goo. Likewise, its torso was peppered with holes where fragments of silver had entered, making Errol wonder how it was still holding together in one piece.
    Errol held out his hand and fired a spark from his palm. It struck the Wendigo in the chest and knocked it back into the campfire, which suddenly blazed up around the creature in an eerie black flame that Errol had never seen or heard of before. The monster got up, coated in ebony flames and shrieking like a banshee, so loud, prolonged, and blood-chilling that Errol had to cover his ears. Then it