He don’t even try to stop his tears this time. They run down his face leaving twin streaks through the dirt and drip from his chin. I feel real bad for his hurtin’ and I lay my hand on his shoulder.
“Hey, it’s okay! Don’t be ashamed ‘cause you hid. There weren’t nuthin you could have done. You would have been killed…or taken! You did right by hiding…that’s what your folks would have wanted you to do,” I say.
He looks up at me through his tears. His eyes are all red and swollen and his pale face is covered in rosy blotches.
“You being truthful?” he asks.
“Aye,” I say. “Cross my heart. And if it makes you feel any better I hid from ‘em too.”
I figured I wouldn’t mention it was ‘cause of gra’da knocking me out with the cooking pot and throwing me in the cellar. He didn’t need to know that. He sniffs for a bit, wipes his nose with his sleeve. He sniffs again but don’t cry no more.
“Cat tried to stop ‘em, she chased ‘em, but we were too late,” he says dully. Poor kid. No doubt he’s been beating himself up over it ever since it happened, thinking what he could have done to stop it….like me. For the first time since it all happened I don’t feel so alone in my grief…or my anger. It was…comforting somehow to know that they were just men and not monsters like I had first feared. And that they could be killed, had been killed by the beast. Maybe I had misjudged the devil cat. Maybe she ain’t so bad after all.
I lay the shooter back in the chest. I don’t want to look at it or touch it anymore. Just holding it is making me queasy, thinking about what it done to Finn’s kin and what others like it had done to mine. Even the touch of it makes me feel….strange. The boy watches me, his cheeks still wet from his crying.
“Are you gonna camp here tonight?” he says then, unexpectedly, and maybe even hopefully?
I shrug. “If you like,” I say. “I mean I wouldn’t mind staying. I gotta hunt though…my food’s all gone.”
He brightens instantly.
“No need for hunting. Cat’s real good at catching rabbits and dirt dogs. We were out hunting before you showed up. Got us a nice fat rabbit. Only thing is though you got to give her the innards…that’s her favorite part.”
I look over at the black beast, who is now lying halfway in the shanty door so as to keep a watchful eye on Finn, her head laying on her massive paws.
“Cat can have whatever she wants,” I say. I sure ain’t gonna argue with the she devil.
After stuffing ourselves on boiled rabbit, we talk long into the evening. I tell Finn all about Rivercross. About gra’da and Ben and everybody. Feels real good to talk about ‘em…like somehow they’re still with me. I talk and talk and talk…I cain’t stop. I talk about me and Ben as young’uns and growing up together and all the things we done. I tell him about gra’da finding and rearing me and how he was so good to me. I talk about Thomas’s spook stories and Miz Emmas berry bread. I don’t know why but the words just pour out of me. I talk about everything and anything. Finn just listens and laughs at times but he don’t interrupt. It’s as if he’s just happy to be listening to another soul’s voice. Finally I tell him about the monster men coming and how they took Ben and Jane and young Thomas and how I got to go find ‘em. He ain’t heard of Littlepass neither. I reckoned as much him being a young’un and all.
When I’m all talked out it’s Finn’s turn. He tells me all about his kin that he lost…his ma and pa, his pa’s brother and wife and his gra’da. They all lived here together. Unlike my village the monster men didn’t take nobody ‘cause Finn had been the only young’un here, but they had still killed the rest. He asks me why they done it.
“I dunno why,” I say. “Some men are just born with darkness in their hearts I guess.”
It’s the only reason I can give him but he seems to accept it. He goes on to tell me about how he remembers once living in a bigger village with lots of other young folk to play with but for some reason his kin up and left that place and settled out here in the sand lands. He don’t know why, he was never told the reason. He said he remembers being real lonely ‘til one day his pa was out hunting and found a dead devil cat. It was tore up real bad, his pa couldn’t say what had done it but he hears some gods awful bawling coming from under it. Sure enough the she cat has a cub, all curled up underneath her and trying to feed from its dead mama. Finn said his pa had too kind a heart to kill it or leave it to die so he brought it home. His gra’da had taken one look at it and wanted to kill it but Finn had a fit he says, and of course he got his way. The cub was his and….well he reared it ever since.
“Me and Cat’s family now, ain’t we Cat,” he says.
The beast looks up at its name but just yawns, showing its wicked looking teeth. It still makes me shiver. But Finn assures me I ain’t got nuthin’ to fret about. He says Cat is the best protection, better than any crossbow or iron shooter. For him maybe. For me, well I ain’t so sure. I still didn’t want to be alone with it. I wasn’t in no hurry to find out how good of a meal I would make.
The boy yawns too and I’m surprised to see how low the fire is. It ain’t nuthin but glowing embers….must be real late. I feel kind of bad but I take Finn up on his offer of the bed while he takes to sleeping in front of the hearth. He don’t mind he says, Cat makes for a real soft pillow.
After weeks of sleeping on the hard ground the bed feels like laying on a cloud. It don’t take long for my mind to shut down and I drift off. I don’t rightly know if it were the soft bed, the boys company, or the protection offered from the devil cat, but for the first time since leaving Rivercross the night terrors don’t come….and I sleep.
****************************************************************************
“Finn you ain’t coming with me and that’s that!”
We’ve been arguing since the sun come up. For some reason the boy has decided he is to go with me to Littlepass and I cain’t get him to change his mind. When he made up his mind about this I ain’t sure, but he’s like a hound with a bone, he’s not giving up on it.
“Why would you want to leave here? You have food, shelter, water, Cat to keep you safe…you’re just being foolish,” I say, for about the fifth time.
“I’m going with you and you cain’t stop me!” he says. He is standing in front of me his feet planted apart on the ground and his hands on his hips. His face is about as red as his hair but it ain’t got nuthin to do with the heat of the day. And the look on it…well it kind of makes me want to laugh, but I don’t dare. It’s a real stubborn mule headed look and for some reason it kind of reminds me of Ben though they don’t look the least bit alike.
“And I’m telling you, AGAIN, it’s too dangerous. I dunno what I’m gonna find in Littlepass. Shizen, I don’t even know if I’m gonna make it to Littlepass. I could get killed by raiders or eaten by critters…..today, tomorrow. Anything could happen.”
I’m losing patience with the boy. I just want to get back on the road. After my nights rest I feel full of energy….renewed. Even my feet have healed up good, calloused and hardened. I just want to fill my waterskins and head out. Feels like I’ve wasted enough time already and I have to move quick to make up for it. I believe the longer I stay here the further and further Ben is moving away from me. But Finn is not giving up.
“Then that’s why we should go with you, to protect you. Cat is real good at protectin’…she will keep you safe from any old raiders or critters.”
“Aye, she probably could,” I say. “But then what? Say we make it to Littlepass. What then? We just gonna walk right on in with a full grown devil cat trailing behind us? ‘Oh don’t run and get your axes or bows folks, she’s a real nice devil cat. She only ever ate one person and he well deserved it’….is that what you’re gonna say to ‘em? They’ll kill her before you get two words in, they will.”
I know I’m being mean but I’m trying to get the boy to understand.
“You don’t know that,” he says stubbornly.
“No you don’t!” he yells and knocks the waterskin right out of my hand! I look at him, surprised by this outburst. He crosses his arms over his skinny chest and sticks his chin out, looking at me all defiant. I start to get angry. That certainly wasn’t called for! But before I can say anything his chin starts to quiver and he chokes out.
“Please Tara, don’t leave me here! I don’t wanna be alone anymore….I cain’t stand it! Let me go with you…please. Please Tara!”
Oh gods. My heart twists at his plea. I don’t need this! I don’t need or want to be looking after some skinny little runt who will undoubtedly slow me down. And traveling with a devil cat, well nuthin like drawing attention to yourself. No, absolutely not, I think.
“Please...” it comes out as a whisper and one single tear escapes and rolls down his cheek. He wipes it away almost angrily. I look at his pleading face. I mull his words over in my head. I sigh, pick up my waterskin and dust it off.
“I’ll be leaving shortly,” I say. “You best be ready….I ain’t waitin’.”
The grin nearly splits his face. He starts to scamper off but turns and runs right for me wrapping his scrawny arms around my waist.
“We’ll be a real good help, you’ll see. Me and Cat. We’ll hunt and protect you real good,” he says then runs off again, to collect his things I reckon. I watch him go shaking my head. What have I just agreed to? Letting the boy and beast go with me is just asking for trouble.... I can feel it. I glance over at the cat. The whole time we had been arguing the critter had lain real content in the shade of the shanty, not the least bit interested. Now it is watching me intently with its red eyes as if it knows what decision has been made. I stare back at it.
“Don’t make me sorry for this,” I say. It blinks at me. “And for gods sake if you get hungry during the night, don’t eat me!”
In response it snorts at me, shakes its head and the blue tongue I remember so disgustingly well, pokes out to lick its lips as if it’s saying “I ain’t making no promises.”
Gods help me, I think.
We set out, the boy, the beast and me. I couldn’t have imagined more unlikely traveling companions if I tried. But Finn was true to his word, the critter did all the hunting and provided for us every meal…we never went hungry. Whether it was rabbit, dirt dog or some crow unlucky enough to have landed when it shouldn’t have, Cat supplies us with food. And I would never admit it to Finn but it was real nice not having to worry about the hunting. As for the boy, he don’t ever complain about all the walking…not once. He don’t shut up neither though. He talks so much it finally just sounds like buzzing in my ears. Funny thing is though I find I don’t mind. It keeps me from thinking about other things and worrying about stuff I got no control over. As far as traveling companions went, they were all right.
We had reached the tree line about six days past and had been walking in the woods since. Didn’t have much of a choice but to go through ‘em. The tree line was massive, as spread out as far as the eye could see. Would have been foolish and a waste of time to try and go around. Plus our easterly course was straight through and I wasn’t willing to veer off course.
I ain’t used to trees this size. It had been a little overwhelming at first. The biggest of trees in Rivercross only grew to your waist but these trees tower over us, their branches and leaves blocking out the sun and keeping some of its heat off of us. Would have been kind of nice if it wasn’t for the smell of death and rot coming from the wood. Most of the trees are sickly, their bark gray as ash and their leaves dry and withered. A lot of them were just snag trees, dead, half fallen over into each other, blocking our way. Slowing us down. We try not to stray too much off our path but sometimes it cain’t be helped. Cat scouts ahead of us at times, we lose track of her for a bit, but never for too long. All it takes is for Finn to give two short whistle bursts and she’s back, checking on him. She brings an occasional tree rat or crow, but there ain’t a lot of game in these dead woods. There ain’t a lot of anything but stillness and quiet. It rattles our nerves. Even Finn, who ain’t shut up for days, talks a mite quieter now and less often the deeper in the woods we get. It’s as if he don’t want to disturb any ghost or demon that might call this wood home. It spooks me something fierce.
The evening dusk is coming on us fast. It always comes earlier in here. The shadows are getting longer and darker, making our minds play tricks on us. Making us see shapes…things we know ain’t really there. We got to make camp soon. There’s no way either of us wants to be walking these woods after dark. We need a fire, which thankfully don’t pose no problem now a days. The one good thing these dead woods did have to offer was plenty of fire kindlin’.
We enter a small clearing big enough for a campfire and for us to stretch out our bed rolls. I stop walking, look around. Finn stops beside me.
“Here?” he asks.
“Aye,” I say. “This will do.”
We have it down to a routine now. While I get the makings of our fire together, he clears the ground for our beds, lays out our blankets, gets the waterskins out. He even lays out the iron shooter. I didn’t know he had brought it along at first. Cain’t rightly say I would have let him bring it had I known. To me it was just a reminder of the evil men it had come from. But now, after being in these damn, frightening woods for days, it was almost comforting to have it so handy.
We work in silence and it ain’t long before I got us a nice flame burning, chasing away some of the shadows, keeping them at bay. Finn joins me at the fire, hands me a waterskin. It’s almost empty. With the three of us drinking now the water is being used up a lot faster but there ain’t no way I’m tapping any of those trees for water. The thought of drinking from something so sickly, it don’t feel right. We cain’t chance getting sick. We’ll just keep looking for a water supply. I figure there has to be something here.
I pull the remaining crow we cooked last evening from my slingbag and share it between us. Cat ain’t nowhere to be seen. I reckon she can fend for herself tonight. Finn takes his and starts chewing, staring into the flames.
“How much longer you think these woods will last Tara?” he asks eventually.
“Dunno,” I say, biting into my own crow meat. It’s tough and hard to chew, but it’s all we got. Finn keeps eating, all quiet like, then he asks “How long you think it’s gonna take us to get to Littlepass?”
“I dunno that either,” I say. Why’s he asking me questions I don’t know the answers to I wonder.
“What do you think we’re gonna find when we get there?”
“Do I look like some kind of seer?” I snap at him. “I dunno. Maybe we won’t find nuthin or nobody ‘cause sickness done took ‘em all! Or maybe the monster men came and killed all of them too!”
Don’t know why his questions were bothering me so. Maybe it’s the frustrating endless walking, the endless heat, the little food, the even less water. The not knowing. Everything I guess. But his questions are getting to me and I don’t know how to answer them!
Then I look at his face. His eyes have gone all big and round at my cruel words, and his mouth is hanging open so as I can see his half chewed food. I feel real ashamed at my actions and I think to myself, ‘He’s just a little boy Tara. A scared little boy just looking for some comfort.”
“Or maybe,” I say, a little gentler this time. “We’ll find a magical place where food grows on the trees, and the animals all talk and….and the people live in buildings that touch the sky. And they keep their mouths closed when eating crow.”
I poke him in the ribs and he starts giggling.
“Now you’re just being foolish,” he says, but I feel much better at hearing him laugh. I poke him again, then start tickling his ribs, making him shriek in glee.
“Stop Tara! Stop!”
I don’
t see Cat approaching ‘til she’s almost on top of us. She’s so black she blends right in with the evening shadows. Silently, she pads up to Finn and drops whatever she has caught tonight between us.
Shizen!
I fall backwards on my elbows and shimmy away in fright at the rather large, still moving critter.
“What is that?” I say, a little more loudly then I mean it to be. Finn, unlike me, is all excited and grabs the creature’s head….no wait, heads! There are two of ‘em attached to its long writhing body. He gets to his feet and the critter is about as tall as he is!
“Ain’t you ever seen a tree snake before?” he asks, grinning like he’s got the moon in his hands.
Feeling a little foolish now for showing the boy my fright, my answer comes out a bit cross like.
“If I did then I wouldn’t have to ask now would I?” I say, sniffing and wiping my hands on my trousers, embarrassed by my reaction.
“Don’t look like something we should be eating,” I say.
The boy shakes his head, disagreeing. “Nah, tree snakes are good to eat and real tender too. I cain’t believe you never seen one before.”
He is truly tickled to be one up on me. I give him my best irritating look.
“Aye.... well if you’re such an expert then you can clean it and cook it,” I say holding out my knife. He just shrugs and takes it from me.
“Okay. I’d be better at it anyways since you don’t even know what it is!” he says and cracks up laughing at his own words.
“Mule turd!” I say to him but my own lips twitch in amusement.
I watch all interested as he chops off both heads with one swing of the knife, then a part of the tail. The snake looks huge laying on the ground, almost 2 arm spans I reckon. He slits it from the tail end up then makes a couple of notches with the knife and pulls off the skin all in one piece. I ain’t ever seen anything like that done before.
Awaken Page 5
