Wild Hope

by C. M. Estopare

  “What for?”

  “He seeks blood reparations—”

  “I am ready,” Kato said, cutting the guardswoman off. “For the Dreaming. To set foot in the Wilds and become a man. Please,” he said, lifting his head, “let me prove this.”

  But before he could meet the Shamaness’s cold, marble-like, eyes; her glare sent his head slamming into the planks face first with a crunch.

  “You will not look at me.”

  The crowd gasped. The bodies seemed to back further away.

  “You will not question my decisions, outcast.”

  “I protected Zuri and Akinyi today from a boar that has been terrorizing the people for over a month! I helped Akinyi kill it!”

  The silence made him hope. Made him press himself up from the planks. “I am ready for the ceremony, Shamaness. I have been ready for three years.”

  “You think I am purposefully deterring you?” she said finally, tracing the length of her cheekbone with her gold nail-guard. “Yes, that is it, isn’t it? You’ve come to beg.”

  “Please.” He said, kissing his forehead to the planks. “Please, I will be an asset to the tribe. Let me prove it.”

  She hummed, thinking. Tapping her sandal against the planks, she slowly made her way toward Kato. The wide bell of her skirts fluttered across the boardwalk as she paused, took her hand from her cheekbone, and crossed her arms. “I have been merciful.” She brought her gaze to the crowd. “I believe we all have. But it is time you learned the truth.”

  The truth? Kato’s stomach rolled as he forced himself not to look up. What does she mean by that?

  “You are an outcast.” She stated bluntly. “The child of a Mesh and an Outsider. Your kind is independent and uncaring of our culture—of the Mesh and our Way. The moment we grant you a home, a wife, a purpose; you will leave. As so many of your kind have.” She glided past him, floating like a lotus across a pond. “What use is an asset if it leaves? What use is a tribesman if he is untrustworthy? If we have seen the consequences of allowing your kind to take up residence in our village and live as if you are one of us? You will leave.” She said matter-of-factly, turning to face him again. “Just like all the others have. Outcasts are useless creatures. You suck the life from my people like a leech sucks the blood from a fish! But, no matter. You are small. You are insignificant.”

  “I am ready.” He said, looking at her fully. “Please—I will not leave. This is my home! The Mesh are my—” she only needed one hand to strangle him with nearby vines. The aqua-blue crystal hanging at her neck sparkled and glowed as she opened her hand wide and brought her middle finger and thumb back to the palm. Honeysuckle vines wrapped around his throat and contorted. Silencing him.

  “You are not ready. Nor will you ever be, Outcast.”

  When her fingers dropped, the vines retreated and Kato coughed an explosive gasp. He dropped to the planks and stared at them, watching the quiet river below move along. Glowing just like the Shamaness’s crystal.

  “The Mesh are my family.” He murmured to himself, his throat burning as he said the words. This is my home.

  The Shamaness stood before him. Pulling back her skirts, she revealed her sandaled feet. “You will never ask this again, Outcast. Never.”

  He brushed his lips across the rough skin of her feet as her aura licked him, cold and dark and misty. It threaded around him, daring him to make another misstep.

  4

  Kato would not leech off of his mother any longer. If the Shamaness wouldn’t allow him a Dreaming ceremony, then he’d leave. Find other ways to help. Become an asset. Prove his worth outside of the tribe. Somehow.

  But the Mesh were all he knew. The rustic village of Nyx with its lazy rivers and crawling waterfalls. Though the tribes-people ostracized him and the Shamaness seemed intent on pushing him away, he had come to respect them all for their strength and resilience. Even if the people were particularly cold-hearted, he’d always remember his home, his mother. He’d always remember her eyes.

  Stepping out of his mother’s house for the last time, he whispered a prayer just as tiny droplets of rain began falling. Carrying a beaten leather satchel over the gaping wound weeping through his bloodied tunic, he crouched and set off down the boardwalk. As drizzle hissed overhead and threatened to become a curtain of black rain, he prayed he wouldn’t be spotted by the other Mesh. High-pitched voices swam from the outer windows of nearby huts and as the voices became closer, he slowed to a trot. The boardwalk moaned beneath his weight as the drizzle became a downpour, the droplets smashing into the river below the boardwalk like tiny meteors.

  “The nerve of that outcast! Asking for reparations—he lied to Souda just to get the Shamaness’s attention. The nerve!”

  Squatting low, he crawled beneath the open window as the tribeswomen bickered. Passing the open archway to their home, he froze as a bead curtain clicked and rose. Brown feet pounded onto the boardwalk. Attached to the slender body of a young tribeswoman. Emblazoned on her forehead was a diamond with a single strike through it. She met Kato’s eyes with a growl.

  “A thief?” she hissed, the bamboo tray in her hands shifting to become a weapon.

  Shaking his head, Kato threw up his hands.

  “Who’s out there?”

  The girl’s brown eyes widened as the voices merged into footsteps. Planting a finger to her full lips, she grabbed Kato by the arm and threw him into a nearby alleyway.

  “Seble? Are you speaking to yourself, girl?” snapped a familiar voice. Peering around the alley’s bamboo wall, Kato’s eyes narrowed as Zori raised her hand to strike Seble.

  “To the fishes, Ma’am. Apologies if I disturbed you.”

  Zori held her hand back, narrowing her eyes before snapping her gaze to Kato’s hiding place. Kato held his breath and slipped away, planting his back firmly up against the bamboo.

  “If you’re going act crazy, do it somewhere else.” She hissed before stomping back inside.

  Seble sighed audibly, “Yes, ma’am.” There was no reply.

  Slipping into the alleyway with Kato, Seble grasped his shoulders. Her eyebrows rose as she took in the pack on his back and the determined look in his eyes. “Don’t tell me.”

  Peeling her hands off of his shoulders, Kato took a step back. “Please—keep quiet about this.”

  “You’re running away.” She said, eyes widening. “You’re going to leave—all because of the Shamaness, aren’t you?” she shook her head. “Wow.” Tracing the broken diamond on her forehead, she tapped it two times. “I’m an Oathbreaker and I haven’t even thought of actually running away. You outcasts are treated like royalty here. You don’t have to pick up a shit job. Hell—you don’t even have to have a job at all.”

  Backing away toward the alley’s opening, Kato opened his hands. “Please, Seble, don’t tell anyone.”

  “Oh—what’ll happen? It’s not like you’re coming back. I wish I could simply leave.”

  You could. But he didn’t want to babysit an Oathbreaker while he ventured through the jungle. “Maybe someday you can.”

  “Maybe tonight I can.”

  Kato stopped moving. “I’m not running away.”

  “Liar.” A wicked grin twisted her features as rain soaked her dreadlocks. “You are a bad liar, Outcast.”

  “I can prove it.” I hope. Dropping his pack to the ground, he took out the pack’s only contents.

  Seble twisted her lips. “Bananas?”

  “For my father.”

  Seble shrugged. “The hermit.” She spat. “Then why tell me—don’t tell anyone?”

  That part would be harder to explain. “The Shamaness doesn’t want him hanging around…” he stumbled over his words. “One of the Shield told me…she said…”

  “Okay, okay. Don’t get so emotional—I get it.” She pushed past him, moving toward the alley’s exit. “You’re going to go hunt him yourself to prove your worth, right? Patricide for the greater good—or rather, yourself.” Hawking,
she spat again. This time in Kato’s direction.

  As she walked off, Kato’s shoulders relaxed. It was better if the tribe thought he had gone to get rid of the Shamaness’s hermit problem. At least this way his mother wouldn’t be harmed once the Mesh found out he was gone for good. If they even cared enough to realize he was gone at all. Putting his pack back together, he peeped around the alleyway and set off down the boardwalk again. This time, sprinting as the rain masked his footfalls. Once he got off the boardwalk and sprinted to the edge of the village, he allowed himself one final look. Teak wood huts darkened by the rain stared back at him. Each one brandishing its own style of thatched crown. He could spot his mother’s hut from here, the windows pitched black. White smoke rising from the lavender incense she burned by her bedside.

  I’ll come back and make you proud, he promised before turning away and approaching the overgrown outskirts of the Wilds. Slipping his pack from his back, he took out the bananas and dropped them into the grass.

  “Is that all you’ve brought for me?” muttered a familiar voice.

  5

  Alemayu. Kato almost smiled upon seeing him.

  Blood coated the hermit’s hands. Kato caught a palm and examined it.

  “I need your spear.” The hermit said, his cat-like eyes glinting. “I also need to show you something.”

  Kato’s eyes narrowed. “I came out here to ask something of you…” the hermit glanced away, ignoring Kato.

  “Give me your spear.” He said more urgently, his bloody hand grasping at air. “Now, Kato. Can’t you smell it?”

  He smelled nothing but rain-kissed air and soaked dirt. “I’m leaving the Mesh, Alemayu. I need you to take me further inland.”

  “Spear.” Alemayu intoned. “Now.”

  A crackle of thunder morphed into a prolonged growl that threaded through the slick brush. The sound made Kato rise onto the balls of his feet.

  “Kato!”

  Shrugging the spear off his back, he slammed it into Alemayu’s waiting palm. Alemayu flashed a smile before turning on his heel. Crouching like a stalking cat, he fled into the brush. “Keep close!” he hissed.

  Ripping through the fronds like a curtain, Kato kept up with Alemayu as he crouched low in the brush and froze. The growl reverberated again, long and low and laced with poison. A slender form wove along the jungle’s underbelly at a trickling pace. Almost as if the creature were trying to avoid the raindrops as they fell. A whimper made Kato twitch.

  “If we live,” Alemayu said, gripping Kato’s spear in one hand like a staff, “you will learn much this night.”

  “If we live,” Kato repeated, cursing himself for not bringing a second weapon. “If.”

  Lightning shrieked, the light spearing through the darkness, lighting up the creature’s eyes. They burned gold like miniature supernovas before they blinked out of existence, the light dying as thunder swelled in the sky.

  “Keep close!” Alemayu hissed again as he took off. Kato had no choice but to do as he was told. He had no chance of surviving in the Wilds alone. He didn’t know the terrain like his father did. He didn’t know the animals, the people. If anyone lived further inland, that is. But if he were to claim a purpose and prove he was an asset to the Mesh, he’d need to travel toward the jungle’s heart. Find something of worth and bring it back. Then the Shamaness would have to let him undergo the ceremony…right?

  Lightning flashed again, the golden eyes lighting up once more. Midnight fur slunk toward them, prowling. Thick white fangs protruded from its mouth as the creature roared. Blood matted its fur near its wide chest. And just as quickly as Kato could see the puma, the light fizzled out. Darkness prevailed and the monstrous feline soared. It’s gigantic paws outstretched, ready to crush their skulls.

  With his chest raised, Alemayu hefted the spear high above his head and roared like a wild boar. Kato’s breath hitched in his throat, but he knew what he had to do to make sure the puma impaled itself on the spear. Sliding in the wet foliage, he positioned himself beneath the butt of the spear and held it there. Wincing as the wound on his back opened up completely. When bone met steel with a crackling crunch, thunder echoed overhead as the creature cried a deafening melody. It collapsed to the ground in a heap of sodden flesh and midnight fur.

  In the darkness, something whimpered.

  “You see?” Alemayu said, crouching before the puma’s black body. “To have something—anything at all in this world—you must fight for it.” And he kneeled, bringing his hand to the puma’s heart-shaped head. The creature growled and attempted to swat at him, but Alemayu curved his chest inward. Avoiding the massive paw. “From Moira we come, and to Moira we return.” He cut the cat’s throat.

  What is this supposed to teach me? “I understand that going further inland can be dangerous, Alemayu. I know this.”

  “Come,” Alemayu said, standing tall. “Follow me.”

  Kato sighed as the hermit outright ignored him—again. At the very least, if he wanted his spear back, he’d have to do as he was told. For now.

  Rain dripped from high above, threading through the canopy as thunder growled. Lightning smashed before sizzling out into a hiss. The whimper became louder, became a cry that crashed into Kato’s ears as his father came to stand before a little beige and gold squirrel monkey. It rolled itself into a ball at their approach, its long bushy tail split down the middle. Pumping blood into the wet leaves.

  “It’s gone, now.” Alemayu told it, crouching down before it. Passing the spear back to Kato, he slowly brought a hand to the creature’s small head. It almost fit his palm. “Come on, friend. I will take care of you.” The little monkey chattered, examining its tail before standing on its back legs. It wouldn’t come near Alemayu though he stretched his arm out, beckoning the monkey. As his fingers came closer, the monkey froze before it hissed. With a lightning fast strike, it bit Alemayu on the fingertips and skittered away like a roach.

  “Do you see?” Alemayu asked, rubbing his fingertips as he stood.

  “It was a monkey.” Kato shrugged. “I don’t see how that has anything to do with me going further inland.”

  “Purpose,” Alemayu said, grinning at Kato as if this were a joke. “That was purpose, my son.”

  Kato sniffed. He had an inkling of what his father was talking about—purpose. “I don’t belong here anymore. I think my purpose is out there—somewhere.” He said, throwing up his hands.

  “It’s right here, Kato. Believe me. Please, let me explain to you why.” Snatching Kato’s spear from his hand, Alemayu treated it like a walking stick. “Come.”

  “Look, if you aren’t going to help me you’re just wasting my time.”

  “Trust me, Kato. I know why you’re here.”

  “No.” He snapped, reaching for his spear. “Trust me, Dad. I know what I want.”

  “You are just a boy.”

  “I am sixteen.”

  Alemayu chuckled. “Where I come from sixteen is still a child, boy. Now, come.” Moving the spear from Kato’s reach, Alemayu turned away and moved toward the outskirts at a breakneck pace.

  Kato cursed. Balling his hands up into fists—he could just leave the damned thing. But that would render him defenseless and in the Wilds that would be deadly. He saw that first hand when Alemayu killed the puma that had been haunting that monkey. The farther one went, the more dangerous the beasts became and there were more frightening things in the jungle than pumas. Kato knew. And as the hollowed out pits of one such creature bored into his skin, he ignored the urge to turn back and look.

  6

  Alemayu remained silent as they walked.

  “I’m not going to beg you,” Kato said. “But I need my spear back. I’ll go further inland with, or without, you.”

  Alemayu chuckled as the rain lightened to a fierce drizzle. By now, they had gone past the Mesh village. Climbing a rolling hill, Kato could see that they were coming to the edge of a cliff that overlooked the island’s vast northern beach. />
  “It sounds like the exact opposite to me.” Alemayu said.

  It was Kato’s turn to remain silent as he clenched and unclenched his fists. He knew Alemayu would give him the spear back soon, but with every moment he kept it he was purposefully wasting time. Prolonging things. The quicker Kato ventured into the jungle and found something of note, the quicker he could return home and prove to the Shamaness and the Mesh that he was worth something. And here his father was stopping all of this. Making sure he’d be delayed in his quest. Perhaps forever.

  “It sounds like you are begging to die.” Alemayu said, stopping as the cliff tapered off into a dangerous drop. “Look.”

  White light blazed over the beach. Not the light of the moon, but the light of strange torches attached to cryptic wooden structures that resembled skeletons. The skeletons of massive houses. Mansions. His eyes roved further as strange things seemed to pop out of the sand like sand fleas. People. Monstrous steel tools. A massive white castle floating miles from the shore like a gigantic rock sinking into a lake.

  “What is that?” his eyes caught the people again. Men walking around the skeleton house in ones and twos carrying weapons too small for him to clearly make out. Closer to the cliff face, he spotted a group of more of them crowding around a familiar group of people. “Mesh.” He murmured. “But they’re speaking to…”

  “Outsiders.” Alemayu said, clasping his hands behind his back. “That,” he pointed to the floating castle, “is a ship. A ship from my homeland.”

  “America?” Kato said, stumbling over the word as he switched to English. “Chicago?”

  Alemayu nodded. “That,” he pointed to the skeletal structure, “will more than likely become their living quarters.” Alemayu moved his hand to a small white building, “They live there, for the time being, until construction is done.”

  Kato shook his head in disbelief. “And the lanterns? That’s—that’s not fire.”