Refugees Page 8

  Chapter 11

  Mud - Amanki

  I was so afraid that for a moment I almost stopped rowing. As a Webby, I instinctively wanted to dive into the water and head for the far shore of the river, but if Manhera and I dove into the water, Baskrod and the boat would be lost. Instead, I renewed my rowing efforts with added vigor.

  Instead of aiming directly toward our boat in the canal, the beast streamed across the field diagonally toward the river. I realized he was going to try to cut off our exit. Desperate, I located the fishing trident, grabbed it, placed it at my feet and then resumed rowing.

  “Keep rowing,” I urged Manhera, who was straining to stay even with my strokes. “If it looks like he will overtake the boat, dive deep and swim for the distant side of the river. Don’t worry about what I’m doing, understand?”

  “Yes,” she replied, her voice trembling slightly.

  We would soon gain the river, except the beast-rider was now along the shore in front of us. I despised him. Bunches of bloodstained Webby feet were hanging from the ropes he gripped. He was now no more than three boat lengths away from us. Although the rider urged his horse into the water, the beast hesitated. The man yelled to me in a language that I did not understand. When he saw me looking at him, he pointed to me, then pulled his fist into his chest. He yanked the fist up and away, then took his other hand and pointed to himself. I thought he was threatening to rip out my heart, which was beating wildly.

  I just kept rowing, while looking at him blankly. He put his fist to his chest once more. When he kicked the beast again, it splashed into the water, and headed for us. The man lifted his bow above the water and took aim at me.

  Then, in that instant, I realized what he wanted. I grabbed the cylinder seal, lifted it off of my neck and held it up to show him. As I held it up in the sunlight, it shone a deep blue. He nodded his head in encouragement and pointed to himself, while sending unintelligible sounds to me. But, instead of offering him the seal, I held it dangling over the water on the side of the boat as if to drop it in the muddy canal. Realizing my intent, he froze, his fingers holding the arrow in place on the taut string, with a look in his eyes like that of the Berserker himself. Then he slowly lowered the bow still staring at me. I suddenly felt powerful. I had something he wanted. If the cylinder seal dropped in the canal, it would be lost in the mud.

  “Keep rowing,” I instructed Manhera, while still holding the seal above the water. I could tell that the man was trying to decide if I was bluffing. Whatever it was I was holding must be very valuable, but if he shot me, it would drop into the canal. He must have realized this was true, because he put the bow and arrow back in the quiver at his side, while his beast slowly paddled toward us.

  While still holding the seal above the water, I held up my other hand and yelled, “Stop!”

  Pulling on the ropes connected to the beast, he turned the animal so that it swam parallel with our boat. We were about to gain the river. The man lifted his bow in the air, shook it over his head and began shouting. As we entered the river, I put the string around my neck and grabbed the oars, synchronizing my pulls with Manhera’s to rapidly advance the boat into the current of river.

  “Just a little further and you can rest,” I urged Manhera. “Don’t give up.”

  The man lowered the bow, aimed, and released the arrow. It flew through the air directly at me. I dodged, but it wasn’t necessary. Although the arrow flew far, it fell short of its mark.

  The man yelled in anger, calling to some of the other raiders. Manhera let go of the oars, panting with exhaustion.

  “We made it.” I said with relief, but I did not let go of the oars. “I’ll put up the sail as soon as I think it’s safe.”

  I kept rowing with the string hanging safely around my neck. I couldn’t wait to take a closer look at that cylinder seal. I had seen cylinder seals hanging from the necks of the wealthiest men in Arvuk, but I had only seen one so brilliantly blue in my dreams, those crazy repetitive dreams that my brothers had laughed about. Those dreams seemed more real than life right now. I wanted to awaken on my reed mat, tell my brothers this nightmare, and let them mock me. They could mock me all day and all night as long as they were safe and alive. But, instead here I was in this unreal world, wondering: Why had that woman given this seal to me and why did the man on the mud beast want it so badly?

  Chapter 12

  Trees - Brina

  “Brina, we know how close you were to Klala. You can return to your home now if it is too difficult for you to stay. Tonight will be a long one.” Garwin said gently.

  I took a deep breath and replied, “No, it is my duty to remain, out of respect to Klala.”

  Others were assigned to come back after us and transport the bodies of the lion and the dead men, but first it was our duty as a troop to go back for Klala. I closed my eyes, breathed deeply, and exhaled to try to calm myself. As a visual thinker, I knew that I would never be able to erase the picture in my mind of Klala falling. Although it happened in an instant, I saw it replayed in slow motion, over and over. I wanted to swoop down and save her. I could still see the lion as he leapt into the air. Why didn’t any of us shoot the beast before he snapped her neck?

  Now my troop waited in silence, listening for the call which would let us know that it was safe to glide to the ground and retrieve the body. I have no idea how long we remained in the troop tree before the call went out. The events of the night seemed to have gone in unreal spurts of action, some parts seeming to speed up and some going in slow motion. Crouching there in silence, it felt like an eternity passed. The only comfort I felt was having the rest of my troop close by. We all knew that it could have been any one of us that had fallen but it had not been our time. Still, why did it have to be Klala?

  Nobody said a word. I felt numb. I wanted to go back to my home, awaken in my hammock, and find out that this was just a daymare. I thought of the captured man. He had not killed Klala. He was not even there when she died, but I hated him. Remembering that the captured man had wanted to fetch Klala’s body to feed it to the lions, I shuddered and hated him even more. The lions must have acquired a taste for Gliders’ flesh by the barbarians feeding our bodies to their pets.

  “Woaoawooao!” the bird-like whistle of safety rang out. That meant that we were free to go to the ground. It was still dangerous, because the lions might come back or wild, free-roaming lions in the area might be attracted by the blood. So we would need to hurry.

  Garwin was a skilled archer and a kind man, but it would probably not go well for him in the council that night. He leapt from the tree and glided gently toward the ground. The rest of us remained in the tree to guard him. I readied an arrow on my bow and listened. I was glad that this duty called for me to be watchful of the surrounding area, since that way I did not have to look directly at Klala’s body. I had seen the lion bite the back of her neck, close to her skull, and knew it would have broken her neck. Garwin landed on the ground near the dead lion and Klala. He cautiously walked toward their bodies while we covered him.

  Suddenly, he stopped in his tracks and held up a hand. Then he motioned for Barque and Taber to join him. I was really getting nervous. Every sound, every movement in the trees, made me almost jump. I was so scared that the lions would return or that the lion on the ground might not be completely dead. The creature was huge. Now that I saw Garwin, one of our taller villagers, next to the lion, I realized just how humongous it was. One swipe from his paw could kill a man. Garwin reached the lion, watched carefully for its breath for a moment, and then finally touched it on the neck, looking for a pulse. Apparently there was no pulse, because next moment Barque and Taber helped him to move one of the lion’s paws off of Klala’s body. I looked away, still searching and listening for anything amiss in the forest that might signal danger.

  The next thing I knew, Garwin had signaled for Sabra to drop the pod on the vine from our troop tree. Garwin gently lifted Klala’s body into the pod, secured it c
losed with another portion of a vine, and the pod was lifted into the air. Barque retrieved Klala’s bow from where it lay on the ground. Garwin, Barque, and Taber scrambled back up our troop tree to safety. Finally I could breathe. Silently, Barque handed Klala’s bow to me. Garwin would want several members of the troop to remain at our troop tree to stand guard, in case the lions came back. But my place was with Klala’s death pod. I would accompany it to her family’s tree, and return her bow to them.

  Chapter 13

  Rocks - Moshoi

  I remained as still as I could and considered curling back into a ball. The creature remained as still as I was. This was going to be a game of chicken, which of course I could have won if I had not already uncurled. If it was a hydois, then it would strike as soon as I moved, and I was not nearly as quick as a hydois.

  Suddenly, the animal moved its head toward mine too quickly for me to react, except with an instant, spine-tingling fear.

  The next thing I knew, my lips were being licked. I must have had salt on my lips from the jug kabob I had enjoyed earlier. The tickling feeling would have been annoying, but I was so relieved that I began to laugh. Of course, this scared the timid chamois, who turned and leapt away, before I even realized what was happening. The whole thing was actually rather comical now that I knew I wasn’t going to die a horrible death.

  I wiped off my mouth, picked my sword up off the ground, put it back in its sheath, and once again hoisted my pack onto my back. I began to climb, quickly now, since I had lost so much time, and I did not want to meet any more hydois. I was sweating profusely in the hot sun and was starting to feel weak, having so recently awakened from my rock state. Finally, I saw the large curved mouth of Rhabdom’s rock cave up above me. Perhaps because of the heat, I couldn’t help but imagine a giant tongue coming out of the cave to lick me in the face. Of course, this didn’t happen. Nothing came out of the cave. There was no way I would be able to climb up the sheer rock face below the entrance, unless Rhabdom lowered his ladder for me.

  So I cupped my hands around my mouth and bellowed, "Rhabdom! Rhabdom!”

  Finally, a small, wrinkly, unscaled face with a mustache and short cropped white beard appeared over the ledge that wrapped around the mouth of the cave. He was wearing a familiar long, yellow robe and a round, flat-topped hat that resembled the flat rocks on top of some of the rock spires in the valley below. When he saw me, he waved and then disappeared into the cave. In a few moments, he was lowering a long rope ladder for me. Once Rhabdom had securely tied the top of the ladder to a large rock, I began to climb. My scales, along with the pack, made my back heavy and I gripped tightly as I climbed, so as not to fall off backwards to my death.

  When I reached the top, Rhabdom grasped my shoulders and pulled me toward him, first to his right side, then to his left side, and then he faced me, clasped both my hands and said, “Welcome Moshoi! So you have seen the star!”

  “How did you know?” I asked, incredulously.

  “Well, I didn’t think you would come here during hibernation season for some conversation, as stimulating as my conversation might be,” laughed Rhabdom.

  “I was bringing you some jug kabob, but I had to toss it to some hungry hydois along the way,” I said, with empty hands.

  “Thank you, my friend,” said Rhabdom, “but you should not have risked bringing your family’s precious food to me during this drought when I have set aside plenty of my own.”

  I looked around to see if he really had, since he was always so thin. But indeed in addition to his potter’s wheel, and some uncovered pots, there were numerous covered jars around the cave, and I assumed they contained food stores. To one side, a small round stone table was set with dried fruit, bread and…two plates. No matter how many times he did it, it still startled me when Rhabdom knew things before they happened.

  “I was just about to eat. Please join me.”

  We sat and Rhabdom offered thanks to Adon. Then we enjoyed the simple meal Rhabdom had prepared.

  “I will not detain you with idle talk,” Rhabdom said, as if anything the wise man of the mountain ever said could be considered idle talk. “Let’s get to the heart of the matter. It is time for you to begin your journey to Tzoladia!”

  “I am very excited for this great adventure!” I responded with some exuberance. “But I am not sure that I know how to get there.”

  “That part is easy,” Rhabdom said. “Just follow your star.”

  “Should I bring my brother, Tuka? He wants to come with me,” I found myself saying.

  “Do you want to bring him?” Rhabdom asked. He often answered my questions with another question.

  “Well, yes, I think I do.”

  “Then bring him!” Rhabdom said, as if it was obvious.

  “Should I bring a yakama to carry the supplies?”

  “Would your father loan you a yakama?” Rhabdom asked.

  “Well, no,” I answered, suddenly worried about how I had ever thought to take one of my father’s yakamas in the first place.

  “Then take one of mine!” Rhabdom exclaimed. “I won’t need her.”

  “To tell you the truth, I didn’t know you had one,” I replied.

  “I keep her in a pen through the tunnel,” Rhabdom said. “But I never go anywhere, so I don’t need her. I just have to keep her fed.”

  He led me down a rock stairway that went through a tunnel in the ground and came out at a large dry meadow in a gulley surrounded by high rock cliffs. Two yakamas were munching on some stalks of wheat that Rhabdom had apparently thrown to them earlier. Rhabdom walked over to the smaller yakama, stroked her, then put a rope around her neck and brought her to me with a grin.

  “Her name is Star,” Rhabdom said, patting the animal’s neck affectionately. I reached up and patted her neck too. “Tomorrow we will load her with the supplies you will need.”

  For a moment I stood and gawked. I realized that Rhabdom had probably raised and fed this yakama for years so that when the time came, I could have her as a pack animal for my journey.

  “No need to bring her back,” Rhabdom said. “But don’t let the hydois get her,” he added with a wink.

  “I was attacked by a pack of them on the way up here,” I said.

  “I saw,” he replied absentmindedly.

  I never knew how to take it when he said things like that. He could not possibly have seen it with his eyes, because he had been too far away.

  “What else do you see?” I asked, because, well, I really wanted to know.

  “I see that it will soon grow dark, so you will need to spend the night in my cave and set out in the morning,” he replied, simply. “And by the way, you should wash your face after our morning meal,” he said, chuckling to himself.

  I looked at him in surprise.

  “You really don’t want to be licked by a smelly yakama!” he said and started laughing.

  I followed him back up the stairway. Hopefully, before I left in the morning, he would be able to warn me of things before they happened, instead of laughing at me after.

  Chapter 14

  Trees - Brina

  When I finally made my way back to my family’s tree, I was exhausted. It was afternoon already and I had not slept. I knew I should try and get some sleep before evening, when I would be summoned for the council meeting. My mother greeted me with a hug at the door. I collapsed into her arms in tears, grasping her tightly and sobbing, in great gasps of breath.

  “You will never stop missing her,” she said, and her words comforted me, because I knew it was the truth.

  My father stood by and silently put his hand on my shoulder. My brother and sisters had all gathered around us, some of them with tears in their eyes too.

  “Her spirit has flown away to the stars,” my father said. “We will all see her again, when we join her there someday.” I remembered how, only last evening, I had dreamed of gliding up among the stars, and I felt in my heart that my father was right.

  “I
will miss her until the day we can glide among the stars together,” I said. Speaking the words out loud helped me to believe it was true.

  “Please try to eat something,” my mama said.

  Has there ever been a time when my mama has not thought that I should be hungry? I wondered. I knew that it was comforting to her to be able to try to find a way to be helpful. So I tried to eat a few bites of the nut bread she offered me. I took the cup of mesmeringa tea and sipped on it slowly. The warm, sweet fluid calmed me.

  “You’ll need to get some sleep before tonight.” My father voiced what I had been thinking earlier.

  “Yes,” I nodded. “I will try.” I sat sideways in my hammock, finished my tea, and then lay down to try to get some sleep.

  My little sister Glorna, asked, “Would it help if I played my harp?”

  I didn’t think anything would help, but I appreciated that she was trying. After all, Glorna had spent a lot of time with Klala and me, and I knew she would miss her too.

  “Thanks Glorna, yes, that would be really nice,” I answered.

  She began to pluck the strings with soft rhythmic movements that brought forth a cascade of sounds that pleased the Forest. Before I knew it, I must have dozed.

  My father awakened me later. For a few seconds, I was happy. Then it hit me. I remembered. Klala was dead. I wanted to climb back in my hammock, curl up, and sleep forever.

  “I’m sorry to wake you, but the council has summoned you,” Papa said.

  “I knew that they would,” I replied.

  My Papa was holding my finest silk cloak. He fastened it around my neck. “I will be with you, Brina. Do not be afraid.”

  “What does a cat rider look like?” My littlest sister Ceila asked inquisitively, tugging at my cloak.

  “Ceila…!” Mama reprimanded her.