Stone Heart

by Pauline Creeden

  Once I had finished eating, I stood, and looked around the common area for Kane. I had been keeping an eye out for him all through the meal but hadn’t spotted him. He was not eating with everyone, though. Where could he be? While returning to my room, I continued to search for him, but the crowds of people continued to point and stare at me instead. Some of them sending their children over to ask questions, it seemed, instead of doing their own dirty work. The people in the cavern city impressed me as not much different from my own kind in the ocean. Only they had more curiosity about me and a wee bit less disdain.

  When I finally got back to my room, I gathered up my things, checking my pack to make sure I had everything I needed. Because I was still waiting to see if Kane would show up, I packed things as slowly as I could. I put the pants and the two extra sets of clothes I’d been given this morning inside, just in case. Then, I grabbed my water canteen and slung my pack over my shoulder. An empty canteen wouldn’t do for the start of the trip. I really needed to find somewhere to fill it before leaving. I headed out into the hallway and started toward the bathroom, one thing on my mind and not much else.

  “Where are you going?” Kane asked. He stood in the hallway from the opposite direction than I had been going

  I yelped and spun around, a hand clutching my chest. “Kane! You scared me.”

  “Sorry,” he whispered and took a step back from me. He wore the same dark clothing as yesterday. It made me wonder if he ever changed clothing or just had several sets of the same outfit.

  “I was just going to fill up my canteen.” I held up the item in question and wiggled it a bit.

  “This way,” he said, and turned, leading me down a hallway I hadn’t gone before.

  I followed, ignoring the stares of everyone around us. Now that I was with Kane, it seemed as if the whispering and pointing multiplied. The disdain I’d found missing earlier was added in, but it made me wonder if it was directed at Kane. The whole thing left me frowning. And for the first time today, I wanted to yell at them and tell them to stop. Instead I took a deep breath to calm myself. Soon, we would be out on our own, and I would never have to see these people again. I needed to take solace in that.

  He led me outside into another area where people milled about, but these people all wore white and other light colors as well as cloth over their heads. I’d come to discover that these seemed to be at the servant level in the cavern hierarchy. In the ocean the only servants around were used by the elders--each one had an assistant. But here, it seemed that there were several people who worked to serve the whole community and were treated as though they were invisible and unimportant. I was glad they didn’t have the same thing in the ocean, or I likely would have been forced into this sort of position. It didn’t stop the workers from stopping to stare and whisper once we entered the courtyard.

  “Here,” Kane said, motioning at a well and then stepping back and crossing his arms over his chest.

  Once I got closer to the stone wall surrounding the well, I peered back at Kane. I thought he would help me pull up the rope with the bucket on the end, but he walked to a nearby rock and lay down with an arm over his eyes. Ugh. I set down the pack and got to work. I pulled the rope, hand over hand, until I finally got the bucket to the top. The muscles in my arms and shoulders complained at the heavy weight. Finally, I pulled the bucket over the edge, spilling some of the water onto myself. Cold. I cursed beneath my breath as I righted the bucket. The task would have been a lot easier had Kane helped me.

  With a sigh, I looked back at him, but his position remained unchanged. I filled my canteen, took a big drink of water from the bucket, and then turned to Kane. “I’m all done,” I said as I pushed the bucket back over the edge of the well.

  Kane sat up and his eyes widened. “Ivy!” he yelled and rushed towards me.

  I turned to see what he was freaking out about, staring in disbelief as the well’s rope wrapped around my wrist and began to tug me down into the well.

  The top half of my body fell over the wall and toward the well. I screamed, the sound echoing against the stone. The weight of the bucket pulled on the rope as I tried to brace myself and keep from falling further in.

  Then strong hands gripped my waist and hauled me back up. The rope burned my arm, but once I was out of the well, Kane unwrapped the rope and tossed it away from me.

  He sighed, his eyes resuming their half-lidded, bored look as he inspected the red marks on my arm. “Are you alright?”

  I nodded. The burns on my arm stung a bit, but it wasn’t anything I couldn’t handle. My heart still raced in my chest as the adrenaline still coursed through my veins. I hadn’t even made it on the start of the journey and I’d almost died twice. No wonder only four sirens had made it this far.

  “Let’s try to be a bit more cautious, okay?” He sighed again, turning his back to me.

  I rubbed my arm and nodded at his back. That was something we could both agree on.

  “Let me see your arm.” One of the older women in white clothing approached me and knelt beside me.

  I blinked at her, unsure of what she had planned. The workers behind her continued to watch from a distance and whisper behind their hands. But this woman’s brown eyes held kindness as she held her hands out to me, palms up. Everything about her demeanor told me that she was trustworthy. I peered at Kane, but he leaned against the well, his gaze avoiding mine. Why did he have to be no help at all? Though I winced a bit, I showed her my rope-burned arm. She held it lightly with her thin fingers. Her touch felt light and cool on my red, raw arm. Then her hands began to glow. A blue light formed around the red marks on my arm, feeling even colder than her fingers. I resisted pulling away when the cold became almost unbearable. I chewed the inside of my cheek while I forced myself to remain still. Then I felt the sensation subside and she pulled her hands away.

  “Whoa,” I whispered, looking at my perfect, unblemished skin. “Thank you.”

  She nodded and looked at Kane. “Stay safe, Kane.”

  He didn’t smile or reply to her, his face remained impassive. Odd. I wanted to ask about it but held my tongue as she left and returned to the other workers, ushering them back into the building.

  Kane ushered me back toward the building, as well, purposefully putting his body between me and the well. My teeth ground together, and I turned away from him, letting my hair fall between us like a curtain, so he couldn’t see my face. I wasn’t used to being in this place. It wasn’t fair to judge me based upon the one accident I had on land. I seethed for a moment, took a deep breath before I picked up my pack. After putting my shoulders through the loops, I buckled it on my chest. It had gotten heavier, rather than lighter already. As long as the pack didn’t end up upside down on my journey, nothing should be in danger of falling out of it. The sharktopus had made the opening a little wider than the closure.

  Once buckled, I turned to Kane. “I’m ready to go.”

  “Me, too,” he replied softly without raising his head. His brows furrowed, but he kept his eyes downcast and his hand tightened on the rod of his staff.

  I tried to be chipper, as I said, “Lead on!”

  But there was no change in his expression. He turned and headed towards the side of the mountain where I could see a small cave-like entrance. Once inside the cave, he shook his body, and then stood a bit straighter and walked a bit faster. I kept stride with him, glad we weren’t ambling around any longer. He stopped at a dead end and pressed his hand to the rock face. Marks glowed on the wall and then it disappeared, leading us into the jungle beyond.

  I was not looking forward to the heat that waited for us out there.

  Kane glanced at me.

  I nodded and gripped the straps of my backpack.

  He nodded in return and we stepped out into the sunlight.

  I raised my arm to block out the sun as my eyes adjusted to the new lighting, and then lowered it to look around. The thick, heavy air filled my lungs and felt almost half full
of warm water. Tall trees stretched toward the sky. Vines wrapped around the trees and hung down from branches, making everything green and full of leaves no matter which direction I looked. Buzzing and caws filled the air with noise from bugs and birds in every direction. The greenery was thicker here than the wooded area we’d arrived through. I’d heard of jungles in my clan and seen the pictures, but this was much more than I’d expected.

  “This way,” Kane said, heading off to the right.

  Blinking, I jumped and followed, not wanting to lag behind and risk a predator attacking me. Almost dying twice was my limit. I didn’t want to try for a third.

  Kane walked at a slow, even pace, his breathing normal. But tension remained in his shoulders and he scanned our surroundings discreetly.

  A red bug caught my attention, but I just glared at it. Nope, I would not fall for its pretty coloring. Red is dead. That was something I would never forget.

  Kane stopped suddenly, throwing an arm out to stop me. He put a finger to his lips, and I held my breath for a moment. His eyes trained in front of us, his body tenser than before. I tried to see what he saw, but it was just more jungle, vines and leaves. I let out a slow breath but kept my lips clamped. He edged nearer to me and then nudged me closer to the tree to our right. I slowly shuffled over, avoiding stepping on the branches at my feet and alerting whatever it was that he saw. Kane pushed me closer to the tree and then wrapped his body around mine, tucking my head into his chest with his hands.

  He was so warm. And, he smelled so nice. Despite knowing he was just doing this to protect me from whatever we were hiding from, I enjoyed being surrounded by his warmth like this. I hadn’t been touched or held in this way in I didn’t know how long… maybe since my father left.

  Something crawled down my neck, and I must have made a noise, because Kane pressed closer. I grit my teeth and tried not to move, despite having something crawling into my shirt. I was about to break free and risk the predator seeing me just to get the creepy crawling thing away from me, but then I heard the loud snuffling and froze. My heart raced, and my eyes grew wider. From beneath Kane’s arm, I could see the side of a massive snout. I had no idea what type of beast it was, but its lips parted and exposed several sharp, pointy teeth.

  Kane stayed perfectly still, and for once, I stayed silent and still as well. The snout withdrew, and the sound of its footsteps retreated. I then realized that the rest of the jungle had gone silent as well.

  Apparently, we weren’t the only things scared of the giant creature.

  “You okay?” Kane whispered after the jungle began to buzz with animal noises again.

  “Bug,” I said with tears blurring my vision.

  He stepped back and looked at me with a frown. “What?”

  I spun around and smacked at my back. “Bug!”

  He jerked the top of my shirt back and then reached in and pulled out a long bug with a countless number of legs. He tossed it away from us and then looked back in my shirt. “All clear.”

  I shuddered and groaned. “That was awful.”

  “Better than being eaten by the beast we just encountered,” he offered, resuming his ambling walk through the jungle.

  “Speak for yourself,” I grumbled.

  He turned around to say something, but his eyes widened and he swung his staff at my head. Magic swirled and crackled through the air.

  I yelped and ducked down, covering my head with my hands. “What the Caracas do you think you’re doing?” I snapped.

  I turned and stared at the huge snake now on the ground, unmoving.

  “Was that—”

  “About to eat you? Yes. Yes, it was,” Kane said.

  My mouth opened, but no sound came out.

  “The words you’re looking for are, ‘thank you.’” he said, lifting a brow at me.

  “I hate the land,” I grumbled and turned away.

  He chuckled and despite the severity of it all, that chuckle made me relax a bit.

  Kane and I resumed our trek, this time, I stayed right by his side. A frown tugged at my lips and I couldn’t get morbid thoughts to leave me alone.

  “What are you thinking about so hard over there?” Kane asked.

  I looked up at him. “Huh?”

  “You’re scowling awfully hard and your face keeps twitching. What are you thinking about?”

  I sighed. “I’m just wondering why everything wants to eat me. I never realized I was tasty-looking.”

  He threw back his head and laughed, a huge, booming laugh that startled me. He looked down at me with a huge smile on his face. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to laugh at you. You just looked so serious while you said that.”

  “I am serious,” I snapped and folded my arms over my chest.

  “Well, to answer your question, you are tasty-looking,” he said.

  Blood rushed to my cheeks, and my heart skipped. I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to say thank you or not, so I just stayed quiet and looked away. After several minutes my emotions settled, and I concentrated more on the walk. But the jungle seemed never-ending.

  “Why is it so hot?” I tugged the shirt away from my body to let air reach the sweat.

  “Once we get out of the jungle, it won’t be so humid.” He continued to lead me forward down the path in front of us while the birds and bugs continued their song. The whole thing had a lulling effect on me. The heat, the sounds, the fact the scenery didn’t change much from leaf to leaf. I continued placing one foot in front of the other, but my eyelids dropped a bit. Until Kane stopped dead again. My head snapped up to see what had caused him to stop.

  A huge wolf stood into our path. It snarled, baring its teeth at us, and drool clung to its jowls, dripping toward the ground with the vibrations of his growl. His head stood at the same height as Kane’s, and he was covered in black fur that had camouflaged him as his body remained half in the shadows. The fur on his back stood on end and I realized that its pelt was not the fur I’d been expecting. Long, sharp porcupine quills replaced the fur, and they shined in the light as the wolf took a step closer to us.

  “Will we make it out of the jungle?” I gulped.

  Chapter Four

  The wolf’s growl intensified, and his lip pulled back, revealing more of its sharp, pointed teeth. Every end of the animal seemed to protrude with a sharp point, except for maybe its underbelly and legs. Its golden eyes were fixed mostly on me as its claws dug into the dirt of the path and it took a step closer.

  “Is there a way to make me less appetizing looking?” I asked Kane as we both retreated a few steps back. My hand pressed against the hard, tense muscles of his back. He reached an arm in front of me as though it would protect me from the jaws of the wolf before us.

  “Now is really not the time for jokes,” he grumbled.

  Who was joking?

  The porcupine-wolf took another step closer, drool strings dripping from his mouth all the way to the ground. Underwater we had no beasts like this, just old photos that I’d found in a trunk, preserved in the closed pages of a book. They hadn’t lasted long after I’d opened the trunk and they had been exposed to the water, but it had been worth it so that I could have some knowledge of the land animals. But the pictures I found didn’t have the same characteristics as the animal before us. Instead this animal had multiple characteristics combined. And I didn’t remember reading any advice on how to survive an encounter like this, either.

  “We can’t outrun it, right?” I asked softly, my hand fisting on his shirt.

  “Nope,” Kane replied looking around the jungle, as though an escape route would suddenly show itself.

  “I’ve never climbed a tree, so I doubt I’ll be able to make it fast enough to escape his jaws,” I said when I saw him looking up the trunk of an especially tall one.

  Kane groaned. “Which leaves fighting it.”

  The wolf barked, and I threw my hands up to cover my ears. A squeal escaped my lips. Dang, it was loud. I pulled my hands away, hearing o
nly a mild ringing noise in my ears as the jungle went silent.

  “That sounds like a terrible option,” I whispered as if the wolf was going to hear me and understand.

  He huffed. “At least you’ve got a knife.”

  Yes, one tiny knife against a big wolf. But I had defeated that sharktopus with it. My heart rate rose as I gripped the handle of my knife. I pulled it from the holster on my leg, and smiled at Kane, taking a step back from him. “Well, at least I can go out fighting.”

  His eyes widened, and his lips parted but before he could say anything, I slipped under his raised arm and charged the wolf. Each step brought me closer to the wolf as it zeroed in on me and crouched closer to the ground. The wolf zeroed in on me, and I screamed as mighty a battle cry as I could.

  The wolf swiped at me with his giant paw, and I slid beneath it, my legs slipping along the slick leaves. I sliced the wolf’s legs as I slid beneath him. It yelped in pain. Once I was clear of the wolf, I flipped myself back to my feet and ran behind a tree. Its snarl deepened as it spun around and began limping toward me.

  “Here, boy!” I yelled and darted towards the next tree. Up ahead the trees and greenery were thicker, growing closer together. It would be easy for me to slip between trees, and duck and dodge the wolf.

  The wolf growled and came towards me with faltering steps.

  “She’s insane,” Kane said from far away.

  The wolf was still fast even though it was injured. It snapped at me as I dashed behind another tree, narrowly avoiding the wolf’s teeth. I quickly spun around the tree and stabbed the wolf’s face, avoiding its quills. Its eye popped under the point of my blade and it cried out again. I darted to another tree before it could spin around and get to me. The trees being so close together meant he didn’t have much room for maneuvering his big body either.

  After I secured a position around a tree, I spun around to the other side to peer out and search for the wolf. A cold wet nose touched mine and I peered into its one golden eye. I swallowed a scream as I jerked back. He snapped his jaws at me, catching the end of my hair and tearing a few strands lose.