by Shane Mason
‘Perhaps someone made a wrong decision?’
Everything Lexington wanted to say to Melaleuca, Melaleuca could see written on Lexington’s face, and the words, “take counsel” from Lexington came back to her. She ignored her want to put Lexington in her place, choosing instead to head back up to the pass.
Over the pass Melaleuca stopped and waited for Argus to lead the way, though he only trotted a few feet past her, halted and dropped his jaw open. He stared out over the naked hills below, worry evident on his dirt stained face and shook his head.
‘It’s gone. But that is impossible….Unless, but no, I could never.’
He threw his pack off and rummaged in it and produced a compass and a map.
‘Wait here.’ He dashed back up the slope into the wind. ‘And don’t move.’
‘Sit. Rest,’ Melaleuca said and sidled along the hillside to try and see what Argus was up to.
Quixote and Lexington flopped down and Ari joined Melaleuca.
‘I don’t often see you unsure,’ Ari said.
‘I have never had to re-check my decisions either.’
Much had changed in such a short time. Melaleuca looked out on the swamp land, emotionless and lost in thought.
‘That’s unlike you,’ Ari said.
‘This is new.’ Her hawk eyes moistened. ‘It feels like I have to learn to trust, again. I can’t...just...can’t explain it.’
The time had arrived for their playing to stop and now a realness not experienced by them before, lay ahead. Yet playing, as her mother had explained to her away from the others, was one of their best strengths.
Got to trust.
‘I know what your mum said,’ Ari said, placing his hand on her shoulder. ‘You have to unite us don’t you, especially those two.’ He pointed to Quixote and Lexington.
‘Unite...yes. Those two? Yes. And me and Lexington. She is upset that my instincts disagree with her conclusions.’
‘She thinks too much. We all know that. We all need a clearing, especially her. Too many changes too fast and she cannot think straight.’
‘She is right to suspect. Our parents have hidden a lot from us. I have known this for a number of years but told no one. I knew our parents would tell us when...’ She stopped mid sentence realising she never knew. ‘Well…they would have told us.’
A disconsolate Argus returned and sat down.
‘Something ill natured is at hand here.’
‘What is it?’ Melaleuca asked.
His steely jaw underlined his pursed lips and she could tell he was unsure about telling them.
‘Tell us if we are to trust you.’
Argus flicked his head down hill. ‘Last night there was a forest covering this entire hill. Now it’s gone.’
‘Forests don’t disappear overnight,’ Lexington said.
‘Really! This...’ He held up the compass and map. ‘...says otherwise.’
A large shadow moved over the land toward Melaleuca and then crossed over them.
‘Look,’ Ari said and jabbed his finger skyward.
The Kockoroc dived toward the ground in a beeline though spread its wings wide, breaking its dive, and brought itself to a mid-air halt, gliding down in a gentle motion. Its massive feathered body loomed above Melaleuca and her cousins, with Argus’s head barely coming up to its underbelly. Power radiated off it and a haughty arrogance swam about it. It opened and shut its beak as it clicked and cackled.
Melaleuca struggled for a feeling on it and then Quixote flashed into her mind, though too late.
He leapt forward and cried out, ‘A giant’s pet bird. Let’s ride it.’
The Kockoroc swivelled its head fast. The feathers on its neck rose and its glassy brown eyes demanded to know who dared to approach. Ari tackled Quixote to the ground and they both rolled forward, halting at its feet. Melaleuca felt Lexington huddle behind her.
‘I just know Quixote will get us killed one day,’ Lexington said.
‘Don’t move,’ Ari said to Quixote.
‘It’s not going to hurt us,’ said Melaleuca and before Lexington could hassle her she added, ‘Yes I felt it and decided it to be true.’
Argus rushed forward to protect the boys.
‘Wait Argus,’ Melaleuca said.
The Kockoroc spread it wings and arched its neck, squawking and pecking at Argus. Argus ducked like a boxer avoiding a punch and moved away.
‘Bloody menace.’
The Kockoroc clicked and bent its head down, nudging Quixote playfully, even allowing him to tousle its feathers.
‘Only to you it seems,’ Melaleuca said.
Melaleuca approached it with Lexington walking a ginger pace behind with her pen scrawling in her notebook.
‘It’s friendly Argus,’ Melaleuca said. ‘Come toward it slowly.’
He tried again, saying with a threat in his voice, ‘You don’t know where it is from. Eagles this size died out millions of years ago.’
Once again the Kockoroc spread its wings and threatened Argus. For some strange reason this pleased Melaleuca.
‘Dumb eagle,’ Argus said.
Lexington flipped through her notebook and read from it.
‘Hmm. The eagle likes us. It doesn’t like you. We are from here and the eagle must be as well and you are not. Animals are known to grasp character better. Seems maybe you are not who you say you are.’
‘Whatever.’
‘Your actions and tone threaten him,’ Melaleuca said.
‘Look I don’t know what big bird wants. It could be a trick from the enemy.’
‘My feelings say otherwise.’
‘The facts agree with her feelings,’ Lexington said.
‘Finally,’ Quixote said in a low voice, earning stares from both the girls.
Anger and weariness mixed in Argus’s face.
‘You know nothing about it. It could have come from those men, who, right now, as we speak are trekking up this hill or have we forgotten.’
Melaleuca searched Argus’s gnarled old face for the truth of his words. Thick skin like an elephant’s trunk covered his face and his eyebrows bushed out large, and deep lines crawled away from the corner of his eyes curving down the side of his cheeks. He speaks sincerely.
‘Equally our parents could have sent it.’
‘Fine. Suit yourself. Way too old for this. No gold is worth this.’
He walked away from them and headed down hill.
‘Maybe we could fly on it,’ Quixote yelled after him.
Argus held up two fingers to Quixote in a gesture none of them understood.
‘Two what?’ Lexington asked.
The Kockoroc beat its great wings and launched itself into the air, creating a powerful down draught, knocking them over. It flew higher and higher and higher until it appeared like a normal sized bird. It circled a few times and then let out a loud cry that sounded like the roar of thundering bulls, almost as if ancient memories were coming to life after being dormant for eons.
‘It’s been trapped for many years. It’s crying freedom,’ Ari said.
Lexington scrawled furiously in her notebook and her eyes started to blink rapidly, a sign Melaleuca had come to see as Lexington’s mind over analysing.
‘Lex?’
‘So much to consider. Too much. Wish I could freeze things. Why’d Ari say that? What’s he base it on?’
The Kockoroc circled tighter and tighter and tighter until the circle became a dot. The dot stayed in one place and slowly became larger and larger and larger.
‘It’s going to attack,’ Ari yelled.
‘How do you know that?’ Lexington said flummoxed.
‘LOOK!’ He cried out. ‘DUCK!’
The Kockoroc bore down on them at incredible speed. Thin streams and wisps of vapour trailed behind its outspread wings.
‘IT’S GOING FOR ARGUS,’ Lexington screamed. ‘I KNEW HE WAS BAD.’
The Kockoroc roared by, ripping up such turbulence that Melaleuca and the o
thers flicked up into the air. She managed to catch sight of the Kockoroc dropping over into their valley before she landed hard. Ari, Quixote and Lexington landed beside her and an earth shattering ‘BOOOMMM’ blasted from their valley. A shockwave flew over the pass blowing right over them, echoing loudly. For a few brief moments it felt as if it lodged in their chests and with stunned faces they swapped glances.
Then silence.
Quixote stood first and yelled, ‘Yaaaaaaarrrrrggghhhhh! Yeeeaaah! Do it again!’
‘Everyone else okay?’ Melaleuca said.
‘I’m fine,’ Ari replied, ‘though I’m not sure about Lex.’
Lexington stood as if frozen in time, not breathing, staring off into space. Ari shook her.
‘Lexington? Lexington!’
Melaleuca raced over to help.
‘What’s wrong with her now?’
‘She’s not breathing.’
Argus arrived on the spot and whacked Lexington hard on the back.
‘Oi!’ Ari cried out and punched Argus back.
Lexington gasped and drew in a huge breath.
‘Idiot,’ Argus said. ‘I was making her breath. She was mesmerised.’
‘Explain!’ Melaleuca said unimpressed.
‘The explosion overwhelmed her. She was stuck.’
‘Well. You could have said something before hitting her.’
Before he could reply, Quixote ran past and started circling everyone.
‘Can we see it again?’
Argus’s face showed strain and tiredness.
‘NO! ENOUGH! FOLLOW ME NOW.’
He headed down hill, yelling over his shoulder, ‘The bird attacked the men following you. I’m guessing so that you can escape. I was wrong about it.’
Melaleuca placed a hand on Lexington’s back.
‘Are you okay?’
‘Yes,’ she nodded. ‘I don’t know what happened. Everything is happening to fast. I can’t get it written down. I need time to think.’ A hollow look of worry fell across her face.
‘She needs a clearing,’ Ari said.
Much mystery surrounded all the events so far and though Lexington was best suited to sort out the facts, their urgent need was to flee, not stop and analyse.
Melaleuca placed two hands on Lexington’s shoulder.
‘Lex, listen. We need to get to the bottom of this hill. I know this is asking a lot, but until we get there you need to stop thinking about this. We will clear ourselves when we get to the bottom.’
‘MOVE,’ Argus shouted. ‘YOUR PARENTS WILL MEET YOU AT THE BOTTOM.’
‘Let’s go.’
Down along the ridges they descended at a steady trot passing by what remained of the apparent forest - a few stunted mountain trees here and there. Down narrow goat tracks, past rocks and through scrubby tussock they trundled heading to the valley swamp-floor.
Early evening rushed up and soon darkness and chilly air wrapped around them. Half way down the moon rose and bathed the hillside in dull moonlight. Small animals leapt around in front of them, and goats brayed in the distance and even rutting pigs grunted up from one of the gullies.
Melaleuca studied Argus ahead of her and noted him trip on his own feet. He scuffed them forward unable to lift them very high.
He’s exhausted.
‘Ari. Take the lead,’ a tired sounding Argus said.
Ari ran out in front followed by Quixote who made zapping noises as he overtook Argus.
‘Slow the pace a bit as well,’ he said and looked at Melaleuca. ‘If the leader approves.’
‘Approved.’
‘Really,’ Lexington said from behind Melaleuca, and she heard Lexington flicking the pages of her notebook.
‘Argus,’ Lexington said. ‘I would like to know where you are from?’
‘Shh. Keep quiet,’ he replied.
‘I have been thinking about you. Seems I was wrong back there about the eagle going for you. I’m not surprised. It was a hasty conclusion. Not something I am at all good at.’
‘No matter. Less talk, more walk.’
‘I am better at thinking about things. Noting things. Picking up on things that others miss in their haste. Slower, yes, but thorough. You see I have been analysing you all this time and even are now as we speak.’
‘Tell me later. Shut up for now.’
‘I know things by just knowing things,’ Melaleuca added.
‘Knowing is one thing Mel, I can provide the reasons why,’ Lexington said in a slighted tone.
‘Working together we can solve anything,’ Melaleuca said.
‘Work together on this,’ Argus said. ‘Shut up!’
Melaleuca took the hint and bade Lexington to do likewise.
Argus whirled about and Melaleuca had to stop herself running into him. She felt Lexington bump into her and Argus stared uphill to some worrying sight.
‘Boys,’ she called out and they stopped a small distance ahead and headed back.
‘Drop to the ground. Now,’ Argus said.
Melaleuca fell on the ground and the others followed suit, and along with her cousins peered uphill into the cold of the moonlit land.
‘Can you hear that?’ Argus said.
Melaleuca only heard the normal noises of the land and saw the others shrug their shoulders and looking blank at each other.
‘We do not,’ Melaleuca whispered back.
Argus spoke with a smug air.
‘That is a line of silence. Only those who have spent hundreds of nights behind enemy lines being chased can hear that. Listen again and this time, listen for where the silence falls. Imagine you are sitting on a clock, and uphill is 12 o’clock. A line of silence is falling along one of the numbers. Listen for where it falls.’
They listened again, straining to hear this silence.
‘Uphill. 12 o’clock,’ Ari said.
‘Yes. Something is moving downhill. Something that is creating silence as it passes,’ Argus said.
Suddenly Melaleuca could hear it - a slow encroaching lack of noise, moving like a silent tide down the hill, spreading out like a fan.
‘Run,’ Argus said.
Quixote took the lead and threw his feather light frame with reckless abandon down the hill, thrilling in the sensation of pretend-flying. Ari thundered behind him steady footed, kicking clear a small path for the others to follow. Melaleuca nimbly stuck as close to Ari as possible while Lexington struggled to keep up.
‘Come on, pick up the pace,’ Argus yelled at Lexington.
The rest of the night they fumbled and picked their way down the hill, trying to outrun the silence. As pre-dawn light filtered over the horizon they arrived at the bottom of the hill and turned to see what had been following them.
Chapter 4 - Journey
‘Where did they come from?’ Lexington asked.
A forest of tall trees covered the hill so dense that little light shone through from the tops, leaving no sign of the barren ridges of tussock they had spent all night running down.
Quixote jumped up and down.
‘Magical trees. The eagle brought them.’
‘Oh Quixote, hardly,’ Lexington said and trod to the base of one of them. ‘From the looks of it, it’s been here many years.’
She kicked one of the roots protruding out of the ground.
‘Yeah – well, I bet I can find claw marks.’
‘Well,’ Melaleuca said to Argus.
Argus stood slack-jawed, bewildered by them and wobbled to and fro, slumped to the ground and then fell forward.
‘Argus!’
Melaleuca bent down and Ari helped her turn him over. He grumbled and shoo-ed them away with his hand and started snoring.
‘He’s asleep,’ Ari said.
‘He was looking exhausted. Just leave him.’
Quixote pushed past her and reached inside his jacket for his pistol.
‘Oh Quixote, enough,’ Melaleuca said.
Pistol in hand, he scampered off with it anyway.
<
br /> As Melaleuca stood she saw in Ari’s face the question of, “what do they do now?” Before she could even search her feelings, Lexington said to her, ‘What do your instincts tell you now?’
Melaleuca took two hasty steps toward Lexington and Ari shifted back from her.
I’m in no mood for this.
‘To follow me. We wait here for our parents.’
Relish stirred in Lexington’s face and with brave trepidation she said, ‘Can your decisions tell us where they are? I can sort through the facts.’
‘I should think they are leading the attackers in the opposite direction,’ said a strange hollow sounding voice from the forest. A long-limbed humanoid figure over eight feet tall, clad in robes woven out of living plants, blended out of the forest. A perfectly round hairless and eyebrow-less face looked down upon Melaleuca. Colour-faded eyes sat above a shrunken nose and a thin lip-less mouth creased in a slight smile.
‘Come. I am called Antavahni in your language.’ The fingers on its hand twitched as it spoke.
No gut feeling arose in Melaleuca despite her searching its face. Confused, the words of needing to trust her instincts ran through her mind, but still her gut-feelings on it were silent. She turned to Lexington though Lexington had a stumped expression on her face, and she seemed frozen in mid note taking.
A gentle nature settled around Antavahni and the features on its face seemed to shimmer and somehow make the trees brighter and more alive. Antavahni swiveled its head about searching for something.
‘What are you?’ Melaleuca said.
‘Where are you from?’ Lexington said at the same time. She started to write.
Quixote barged forward and Ari leapt once again to him, placing a hand on his shoulder, slowing him down.
‘Are you a giant?’ Quixote said. He clasped his hands together like a little boy excited before a great prize, the pistol dangling between them. ‘Was that your eagle?’ The expression on his face told of all his imagined worlds coming true.
Antavahni ignored them and swished past a scrawling Lexington. With no gut feeling Melaleuca’s instincts said to let trust fill the void. She almost wanted to challenge Lexington to work this one out, though from the look on her face, illogical possible impossibilities marched through her logical mind and battled with one another.
