Bread

by Stephen Brown

THE CASEBOOK OF GEEZA VERMIES

  So, we’re here in Africa at last! The flight took an age, and the infernal airline company wouldn’t let me smoke for the duration. Elliot booked us into a hotel, and as soon as I got into my room I realised that the blasted manager had switched the air conditioner on! Christ, how am I supposed to assimilate myself to the place with so much artificiality?

  Needless to say, I strode straight across the room and switched the damn thing off, throwing open the balcony doors to try and let some of the night in - it’s bad enough that we’re three floors up. I suspect that the Allies I shall find here will be immensely strong - and tricky - so I really have to localise myself, because apart from the obvious ‘not-wanting-to-get-torn-to-bits’, I must make contact very quickly, otherwise I’ll lose the scent for sure. The Prof could be thousands of miles away by now. I must act fast.

  Right, smoke a pipe man and calm down.

  Later…

  Ok, so I sat at the foot of my bed - it is nice and low, but I still prefer just a mattress on the ground, if not the ground itself. We’re so removed from everything these days! I filled up Old Smokey, having shut off the lights. There was a big, fat, contented Moon lazing by and Her silvery glow illuminated several grotesque animal heads hanging up on the wall. I felt for the things, I really did and as I sat puffing away the sorrow seeped in with the smoke - I swallowed lungfuls of the stuff.

  It brought tears to my eyes, the wanton destruction… the sheer lack of respect. I looked into the Lion’s face, and saw the last moments of his life, sprawled out on the Savannah after a big meal in which the whole pack had been able to gorge itself. He spent a leisurely afternoon playing with the cubs, and then he spots a strange contraption moving closer to his family group, kicking up huge clouds of dust. He rose to confront the invaders of his territory, and moved a good dozen lengths away from the pack. That was when, isolated, he had been hit square in the chest by a Winchester. It took seven shots to put him down.

  Bastards! A hole seemed to open up inside my stomach, a bottomless pit of pain and loss and it was at that moment that they came to me, just as I was about to lapse into a pit of sorrow and grief. Suddenly there was this towering dark figure standing where an Antelope’s head had once been, only about two yards away from me!

  I’m going to have to tread very carefully with these guys - they’re so sharp! You get nothing like this raw energy, this freshness back in England.

  She stood a good eight feet tall, the antlers on her shoulders rising another six or seven inches past that. The silken qualities of her smooth, chocolate coloured skin seemed enhanced by the Moonlight, and she gave off an aura that was exotic, alluring and powerful.

  I took a strong but very respectful stance, and offered her the Pipe. She smiled, with narrowed eyes, but made no further move. I was still unsure of what was going to happen here and was all too aware that one false move on my part could well prove fatal. I guessed that something further was expected of me, so I decided on an impromptu speech, keeping it formal.

  “I give my thanks for your coming and wish for you to know that I have called you freely and welcome your presence here. I am grateful for any assistance you may be able to offer.” Still nothing. She just stood there, radiating power and looking down at me with a quizzical, slightly amused expression. I continued.

  “Should you desire to lend your help to me then I would be glad to perform a service in return,” and here I chose my words carefully. “Anything that it would be within my limited power as a stranger in your land to perform without malice or unnecessary detriment.”

  At hearing this she smiled beautifully and stepped forward towards me. Although still potentially on dangerous ground I remained where I was, unflinching. Stretching out her long arms she held my face in her large, elfin hands. Still my resolve held and I made no reaction, though inside my heart was pounding like a jack hammer! I was really on my toes, ready for something to happen, whatever it may be.

  In what can only be described as one of the most amazing feelings I have ever experienced, she leaned down and kissed the top of my head. I was flooded instantly with both ecstasy and relief. Her touch and kiss surged through me in rush after rush, after golden rush.

  “Always so formal little one?” she purred, her hands lifting my head up to stare into her eyes. “Come now, I do not feel this is your way.” She gave me the look of a fiery temptress then and stroked one long finger down my chest. “Surely you do not wish for anything to be between us,” she teased like a sultry predator closing in for the kill.

  As I was struggling for words – struggling to do anything in fact – she burst out laughing and released me from her delicate grasp, stepping away and staring at me as if she could see straight into my soul. She smiled again and then sprawled herself across my bed, lying on her back and stretching out luxuriously.

  “You are the first in forty years to speak with us in this place,” she said. “Do you know who we are?” I had a few guesses which turned out to be pretty near the mark, but seeing as I still couldn’t speak she went ahead and told me. “I am Malika, of the Denubari, only one of the many Animal Spirits who frequents this place, seeking recompense for the wrongs committed by those who came before you. Seeking a way to put things right.” She propped herself up on one elbow and stared at me again. “We know why you are here Little Thief.”

  I knew by the way she said it that this was a name she had chosen for me. It puzzled me. Little Thief? Why would she call me that?

  “Yes, we know what you are after and will gladly assist you – and perhaps you could do just one small thing for us in return, seeing as you offered so kindly with so eloquent a speech just now.” Her movements and tone had turned temptress again. “And if not for the others,” she said, looking down and toying with the bed sheets, “then maybe just as a personal favour for me… Would you do a favour just for me…?”

  Not for the first time my mouth became as dry as the desert. She continued.

  “This hotel contains many of these despicable remnants, heads and other dismembered body parts, taken merely to be trophies by those of your kind – needless cruelty and death just to ornament their dwellings.”

  At last I found my voice. “I look at them with probably almost as much hatred and contempt as you, but surely you can’t expect me to exact revenge for you – the scum who did this will all be long dead themselves by now I should think-” she silenced me simply by tilting her head to one side and smiling.

  “But my Little Thief, you misunderstand. We look for no revenge. Any retribution we could have carried out years ago. The recompense we are looking for is simply to remove these hideous insults to all that lives and return them to the Wilds in which they belong. To give them the respect denied to them for so long.

  “Would it please you to do this small service for us Little Thief? It would please me… Do you wish to please me…?” She rolled coquettishly on the bed and left the question hanging in the hot, night air. Gods! She is achingly beautiful!

  Of course I agreed to do this for them – that it would be an honour. I even told her it would be my pleasure, flirting back a little bit. She loved it.

  So I don’t know how I’m going to do it yet, but I will get them out of here and bury them with an appropriate ceremony in a wild and untamed place - just as soon as I come across one.

  Having agreed to help them I decided to stick my head out a bit and tried to press upon her the need for urgency in catching up with the Professor. Again the beautiful Denubari stopped me with a glance.

  “But I have already told you Little Thief, do not worry. Your quest is known to us. Look into my eyes and also the eyes of others. It is there that you will find what you are looking for.”

  It was then as I looked closely that I noticed the area immediately surrounding each of her almond eyes was shaded a much darker, ebony colour which followed the contours of her strongly defined bone structure like some kind of ceremonial face paint.


  “Should you complete our little task as you have promised you will find the Denubari very useful Allies.” She gave me another smouldering look. “And very willing…” Then she sat up and said one last thing. “Know me as a friend Little Thief, for I am Malika. Be kind to the Children.”

  And then she was gone.

  ***