She stops in the middle of the sentence and quickly grabs Evi’s arm. Her eyes are wide open and she stares into the forest.
“Evi, hurry back to the hut as fast as you can!”
She turns around and drags Evi with her and they start running. Evi turns her head in panic and looks back, and she sees some dark figures appearing from the forest. They’re heading for the camp.
CHAPTER 34
Salomon and Dagwood are standing outside the hut looking at the group of people heading for the camp. They both have knives in their hands and next to them is the largest of the dogs. It senses that they’re nervous and the hair on its back stands up. Its legs are firmly planted on the ground and its teeth show as it growls. Dagwood tries to get an overview of how many people are coming, and how large they are.
“It’s only four or five boys and a few girls. They look pretty small …”
Salomon nods as he answers: “One of them is a bit bigger. The one in the middle.”
Dagwood knows who he’s referring to and thinks he must be their leader. His head is hanging low and he looks wretched despite his size. It’s almost as if he deliberately huddles up to appear smaller than he actually is.
“I think they come in peace, Sal. They don’t look like they’re ready to attack. They look lost.”
The others stand inside the hut, trying to follow the progress of the intruding pack, but they’re still too afraid to step forward until Salomon and Dagwood have confronted the group. They’ve almost reached the campfire before Dagwood shouts at them: “STOP! Tell us who you are and what you want. We have weapons and we outnumber you!”
The dog starts barking when it hears the agitated voice of Dagwood, and Salomon puts his hands on its head to make it stop. The rain has intensified, and the cold water already has soaked Dagwood and Salomon’s clothing.
The group of uninvited guests has stopped and the largest of the boys lifts his hand with his palm turned against them as a sign that he’s heard Dagwood’s warning. He turns to the others in the group for a moment and then continues alone towards the hut. With slow steps he reaches Dagwood and Salomon, and then he stops. He lifts his gaze towards them as the rain runs through his hair and over his face.
“We come without evil or hostility. I’m Axton, and we’re asking you for help.”
Dagwood sizes him up. He’s tall and muscular, and his shoulders are broad. The wet clothes cling to his body and indicate a strong chest. Had he met him in the forest without weapons he would have feared a tough battle, but not now. The look in his eyes is the look of a defeated warrior who’s given up the fight. Dagwood wipes most of the rain away from his face so that he can look Axton in the eye better when he answers him: “I’m Dagwood, and this is Salomon.”
He points to Salomon, who stands in silence next to him, motionless, like a statue. The dog’s stopped barking. It still growls and flashes its teeth.
Dagwood asks: “Why do you need help? And where do you come from?”
Puk steps out of the door opening and whispers to him: “I recognize him, Dag. It’s one of The Others.”
Dagwood squints and studies Axton. His face is covered with stubble and wet hair, and he can’t tell whether Puk is right in his judgement or not. They’ve met The Others in the forest and the clearing several times, and a few times they’ve even challenged each other to a fight. But those times the conditions had been different. The sun had been high in the sky and their clothes had been lighter and their faces smooth and clean.
“Show us your face!”
Dagwood shouts at him and takes a small step forward. With both hands Axton pulls his hair back, and his strong cheekbones appear. His eyebrows are thick and dark, making it hard to see his squinting eyes. But Dagwood no longer has any doubts. He recognizes Axton too from one of the last fights they had in the forest against The Others. He was the one who fought so violently against their clan member Miner that he later died of his injuries.
“I recognize you. We’ve met before.”
Axton nods quietly. He seems disturbingly exhausted and Dagwood suddenly becomes nervous.
“You’re not answering me! Why are you so quiet? Are you sick?”
A quiet buzzing of words starts behind him and he can feel the panic in the voices of the others.
Axton steps forward towards them and Dagwood shouts loudly at him: “STOP! Don’t come any closer. Answer me: are any of you sick?”
Axton stops suddenly. He shrugs his shoulders and shakes his head, but his answer doesn’t seem very convincing.
“We’re not sick but some of those we’ve left behind were sick. That’s why we need your help.”
Dagwood’s puzzled and says: “Were sick … Are they well now or are they …”
Axton finishes his sentence: “… dead. Yes, they’re all gone now.”
The voices behind him grow louder and more panicky, and the dog starts to become uneasy once again. Suddenly Salomon walks toward him and continues Dagwood’s questions.
“What did they die of? Has the sickness found you too?”
Surprised, Axton looks at him and shakes his head as he answers: “The sickness? What sickness … I don’t understand. Those we’ve lost died of food poisoning, but we’ve found out what it was.”
He reaches down into one of his pockets and finds something. Slowly he lifts his hand up and opens it showing them what it looks like, a small dried up fungus. Salomon turns around and looks at Dagwood, who sighs a sigh of relief and relaxes a bit in his shoulders.
Axton doesn’t understand their concern but is more optimistic when he sees the relief in Dagwood’s face. He continues: “But we’re tired and exhausted, and our clan is weakened. We need a fresh start.”
Their wet clothes hang to dry by the fire, and the all blankets in the hut are used. Undressed and wet, they try to get some warmth back in their cold bodies. Salomon is the only one who’s changed into a dry shirt and has sat a bit away from the others. The wet guests sit close to each other and they all look wretched and cold.
Skye looks carefully at them and tries to assess them by the way they look, but she can’t read anything from their faces. She looks at Puk and tries to catch his attention. Maybe he’s able to feel some revealing secrets about the newcomers and can tell whether they’re good or evil. But he’s too busy feeding Twice and doesn’t see her inquisitive eyes.
One of the new girls starts smiling when she sees Twice. Most of his head is covered in milk and he’s chewing noisily while his stiff legs are wiggling in the air. Skye also starts giggling at the sight, and soon everyone’s attention is directed at the little roundsnout and its fight to eat. The mood in the hut lifts, and friends and guests share a much-needed laugh.
Puk’s offended on behalf of Twice and finds it hard to see the fun at first, but he surrenders after a while as he sees the happy faces of the others.
He covers Twice’s ears and says: “He doesn’t like to be laughed at. He’s very proud and important. And right now, he doesn’t look his best. Normally he’s much prettier. And housetrained.”
He smiles at his small friend and puts him by the mother dog and the puppies. Axton raises his eyebrow and is about to say something, but he stops himself before saying anything.
Dagwood looks at him and says: “We could all learn something from that.”
He points at Twice, who’s lying buried between the little puppies.
“Even though he isn’t her natural young, she’s still taken him in as if he was one of her own.”
He gets up and walks to the fireplace to put another log on the fire.
“We can’t give you any food, but you’re welcome to get warm here while you tell us your story. And what you want from us. Tonight we’re all friends.”
The seriousness spreads on the faces of The Others, and Axton leans forward on the bed he’s sitting on.
He clears his throat before starting to speak.
“For a long time we’ve been a large and strong clan, but earlier this year something happened that split us into two. One of the boys, Kale, died in a drowning accident. He was my best friend, and had wandered with me since the beginning. He’d always been a strong swimmer so I found the accident odd. In fact, I wasn’t even certain that is was an accident. You see, there was this other boy, North, who joined the clan a little later than the rest of us. None of us knew his story or where he came from, but he was strong and a good hunter so we took him in. He quickly became friends with some of the other boys, but I never really grew to trust him. There was something about him that I couldn’t put my finger on. He was always in … opposition. He doubted my decisions and tried to break up my friendship with Kale. But Kale was a loyal and good friend, and he always supported me, which annoyed North. One day he and Kale went hunting, and when North later returned to the camp alone and told us that Kale had drowned … I didn’t believe him. We all discussed it for a long time, and some of the others thought that my accusations were unjust, and they chose to take North’s side. Shortly after that, the clan evicted them and they wandered off. We haven’t seen them since.”
Salomon suddenly interrupts Axton’s story.
“Did North become sick in the time after Kale’s death?”
Axton tilts his head slightly and looks puzzled.
“I don’t really understand why …”
Salomon cuts him off and repeats his question.
“Did he get sick? Was he coughing, or did his behavior change?”
“I don’t remember, but they left quickly afterwards, so maybe he fell ill then. But why do you ask? I don’t understand what that has to do with Kale dying.”
Salomon doesn’t answer him and leans back again, away from the glow of the fire. Axton drinks some water before continuing.
“The first weeks after they left, we had enough food supplies and we thought we could do without them. But, unfortunately, the best hunters had left with North and it soon turned out that we lacked their skills. We weren’t getting enough food and slowly we became weaker and weaker, and we had to hunt further away to find food. One day, some members of the clan came home after a hunting trip where they’d found a lot of funguses, berries and roots, and we were all happy. Sadly, some of the funguses were poisonous and during the night we lost four of our friends …”
Axton stops speaking and looks at the floor. One of the girls sitting next to him gently strokes his back, and Skye senses love between them. A love between a brother and a sister who share each other’s worries and sorrow. She’s certain that they’ve nothing to fear from them, that their intentions are real and stem from hopelessness and desperation.
“Now it’s only us left, and we no longer feel we can survive on our own. We need food, strength and hope.”
He looks at the others around him. His eyes are large and pleading.
“Will you help us?”
Dagwood meets his eyes and answers: “Let’s sleep on it first. We’re all tired and need to think it through. Tomorrow our clan will discuss the situation and reach a decision.”
CHAPTER 35
The rain has finally stopped, and a few rays of sunshine find their way through the treetops. The new guests have slept in one end of the hut while the others have slept in the end closest to the fire. Salomon, Dagwood and Knox have taken turn keeping guard during the night. Puk and Skye are already up. They’ve both had trouble sleeping because of the excitement and curiosity of the new people.
Skye sneaks over to Evi’s bed. She lies under the blanket with Flo as she always does. Skye carefully touches her arm and whispers her name. She opens her eyes slowly and looks at Skye with sleepy eyes.
“Do you want to come with me to the river and catch some swimmers?”
Evi smiles back at Skye and shakes her head.
“Oh no, I’m not very good at it. I scare them all away … why don’t you ask Flo. She’s much better at it than me.”
She closes her eyes again and hides under the blanket. Skye looks at Flo, who still seems to be sleeping, but she doesn’t ask her. She turns around and sneaks out of the hut. Shortly after, Flo opens her eyes, but she doesn’t say a word.
The ground is muddy and slippery after the many days of rain, and Skye has left her clumsy straw shoes in the hut. She’s going to stand in the water with bare feet anyway, and the sensation of getting mud between your toes is fun and gross at the same time. On her way to the river she finds some of the largest and muddiest puddles, and they all have to be conquered.
She promised Puk to bring some fresh stems back so he can make a new ointment for Twice’s wounds. He’s made a small sling for the little roundsnout, which he holds under his belly to help him walk. Patiently and persistently he helps Twice to practice walking, and the little roundsnout gets stronger every day.
Skye’s reached the river, and she enjoys the beautiful morning with the dancing buzzers and singing birds. The water’s surface is flat like a mirror, and she suddenly feels like seeing herself. She wants to see a different reflection than the one she saw last time, when she was too thin and had hollow eyes. She wants to look nice. Without thinking about the wet and muddy ground, she kneels and puts her spear next to her. Slowly she leans forward towards the water. Her eyes are closed, and for a moment she thinks about pulling back without opening them, without seeing her reflection. She waits for a moment and looks into the water.
A big smile spreads on her lips. It’s as if Ecco is looking back at her from the clear water, and she feels like reaching her hand out and touching him. But she doesn’t want to destroy the moment and the perfect reflection. She wants to enjoy it a little longer. The resemblance between her and Ecco is astonishing. If her hair had been shorter and her eyebrows a little thicker, you could easily mistake them for the same person. Carefully she runs her hand over her nose and touches the freckles spread across her cheeks. The fullness of her face has returned and the dark circles under her eyes are gone. She sees her eyes clearly, and they look exactly like Ecco’s eyes.
She misses him so much that she feels like screaming. And at the same time she feels like he’s here with her, and she smiles down at her reflection again. Just then a small swimmer flicks its tail, making a splash in the water, and Ecco disappears. She quickly gets up and grabs her spear. In an uncontrolled movement she throws it in the water after the swimmer, but she misses it by a long way.
She hurries into the water and picks up her spear as she looks around to see if anyone’s been watching her while she clumsily missed her mark. But there’s no one else but her, and she laughs at herself a little as she thinks about Ecco. He would have laughed at her too, and teased her until she became so wound up and angry she would’ve either hit him or walked away. The sun’s moved a little above the treetops and the light is perfect for scouting after swimmers. Skye carefully gets into position, lifts her spear and prepares to throw it.
Evi is awake and looks around the room. Most of the others are already up and have left the hut, and Flo’s no longer lying next to her. The newly arrived guests are also awake, but they’re still sitting by their sleeping bunks inside, talking to each other. Evi thinks they look sad, and one of the girls appears very weak. It looks like she’s been crying, and the big boy, Axton, tries to comfort her. She can’t help listening to their conversation, but she still can’t hear everything they say and only catches bits of the conversation. Suddenly she hears something that makes her heart stop and she hurries over to them.
“What was it you just talked about?”
She stares down at them both and her gaze darts from one face to another. They both look surprised and puzzled at her.
The crying girl stutters quietly: “… we were talking about how much we missed our friends who left us.”
Evi’s voice is trembling an
d she starts speaking again.
“What were their names? The names of those who left you?”
Axton takes over and continues: “The ones who walked away with North were Falkner, Konnor, Whistler, Egor, and Brogan …”
“Brogan! Was someone in your camp named Brogan?”
Evi can’t believe what she’s hearing. Could it be her Brogan?
She eagerly goes on: “What did he look like? Where did he come from?”
Axton suddenly starts smiling at her and grabs her shoulders.
“Are you Evi? Are you his sister? He always spoke about you.”
Evi feels a pang in her belly, and she quickly sits down next to them. Her head is exploding with questions and she can hardly hold back tears of joy.
“Tell me EVERYTHING about him. Even the smallest details!”
And then Axton and the girl start telling Evi about Brogan.
Skye throws two small swimmers on the ground. It’s not much of a catch, but there haven’t been any large swimmers close to her. She’s annoyed with her bad luck and hates returning to the others with such a disappointing catch. She’d much rather return with a huge swimmer that could feed them all for the rest of the day.
She loved it when the others looked at her with admiration in their eyes when she came back from the river with a large catch in her hands. It was the best feeling in the world when she impressed the others with her skills. And she couldn’t help feeling extra joyful when she saw Flo looking at her with envy in her eyes. Because then she knew she’d beaten her biggest rival. It was Flo’s own fault that Skye felt this way. From the start she’d questioned Skye’s skills and strength, and she’d said it out loud for everyone to hear, and now she turned out to be a bad loser. At least that was the way she was acting every time she was close to her.
For a moment Skye thinks whether she would’ve been an equally bad loser if the roles had been reversed, but she doesn’t finish the thought before she’s interrupted.
The Dawn of Skye (The Someday Children Book 1) Page 23
