The clearing was quiet again. I let out the pent-up energy and changed my hands back to their normal form. I hardly noticed the popping of the joints and the receding claws.
I grabbed the few possessions that we had and crept out from under the bushes, keeping to the side of the ridge and moving in the direction that Julio had taken. After ten minutes I found him. The horse shied when I came into view, but Julio kept it under control. He could ride well, as was the case with lots of people here. The energy crisis had reintroduced the horse as a means of transport, so most people learned how to ride. Looking at him mounted, I guessed that he had been able to ride long before the gasoline ran out.
‘Alejandro?’ Julio asked in a whisper. I shook my head.
‘They took him back.’ I said. This caused even more anguish on his already broken features.
‘The others!’ He exclaimed. ‘We have to help them.’ He was about to turn the horse and head to the farm. I took hold of the reins—much to the horse’s discomfort—and stopped him.
‘No.’ I said quietly. ‘We can’t.’ I looked up at him. ‘There is nothing we can do.’ He almost protested, but the truth was evident. His eyes clouded over, and he started to cry.
‘The whole family?’ It was more a statement than a question. I nodded. The conversation between the two Latino soldiers had convinced me that there would be no survivors. Julio dismounted, walked two steps from the horse and fell to his knees—weeping.
‘You were right.’ He finally said between sobs. ‘We should never have come this way. It is my fault that they are dead. They died because of me.’ I tied the horse’s reins to a stout bush and moved over to Julio. I took him in my arms. He felt so fragile.
‘No Julio.’ I whispered. ‘They are after me, so if there is any fault, it is mine, and mine alone. for what I did at the lab.’ He didn’t answer, just softly cried.
After a few minutes, he coughed and extracted himself from my embrace. Standing up on wobbly legs he walked back to the horse. He started packing the few possessions on to the back of the saddle.
‘We must leave.’ He was back in control. ‘They might come back this way looking for the horse.’
I got up and moved over to him. He mounted the horse and made room for me. I declined.
‘No, you ride, I will run.’ I said. ‘The horse will not let me ride, and anyway we can make better time this way.’
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
We headed off to the east, circumventing the farm. It was nearing the end of the afternoon, about four or five o’clock. For this once we would travel in daylight.
After two hours we changed direction, moving more to the south again.
Julio was silent. He had not said a word since we left the terrible scene. In this manner we travelled most of the evening and night.
We stopped to let the horse rest and drink at a stream, and by early morning I estimated that we had put about thirty miles between us and the farm.
A little further on, we found a large cave at the bottom of a steep hillside and decided to stay there. There was some scattered grass and water was nearby. I unsaddled and hobbled the horse to let it graze. It had gotten used to me by now and had decided that I was no immediate threat, though it was still apprehensive. At least now I could approach it easier.
Julio had found some jerky in the saddlebag and offered it to me. I accepted the stringy food and sat opposite him in the mouth of the cave.
‘Tell me about them’ I asked. It would do him good to talk about his family. He needed to grieve.
Julio told me about his youth growing up in relative peace. Until the America’s ran out of energy and annexed the Latin countries. He talked for more than an hour.
‘I grew up near the town of Rama in Columbia, near Mitu, to the south east of Bogota.’ He explained. ‘We were a close-knit family, with all our aunts and uncles, cousins and the grandparents. The family was reasonably well off, we owned a big estate, with wineries and many cattle. We also bred horses, for racing at the local fests as well as to work on the farm.’ That explained his prowess at riding.
‘The farm was more or less self-sufficient like the other properties in that region. We had large wind and sun energy collection facilities, good water and good soil as long as we took care of the waterways. The people were prosperous. I was the eldest of three boys, destined to take over from my father so I was sent to university in Managua. I studied economics and geology. Things that would come in handy when I took over the business. It never got that far. The America’s attacked our government, with soldiers and with disease—LKX disseminated the population. They purposely infected the Paisans. The rich were offered the antidote if they joined the American cause. My father deceived them. He pretended to support the Americanos, gained their trust, got the antidote and distributed it among the people.’ He was quiet for a few minutes—the memories were still vivid for him.
‘Naturally we all supported my father and the Partisans’ he continued. ‘The Americanos found out—there was a mole in the partisans—and my father was taken prisoner along with my mother and an uncle. In a mock trial in Rama they were convicted of treason and sentenced to death. They shot them in the town square. It was like an old spaghetti western.’ He paused to take a deep breath. ‘The rest of us escaped and witnessed their deaths on a stream. It was broadcasted throughout the whole of the Latin countries, as a deterrent. For us it had the opposite effect, we continued to fight the Americanos and joined the revolutionaries. My brother Inno and I still fight them. Alejandras was tired of the violence and left the revolution with his family to go back to farming. He even moved to Guatemala in an attempt to distance himself from his earlier life. He thought that the wrath of the Americanos would be quenched by now. But obviously it wasn’t.’
Once again, the silence descended upon us.
‘My family lives in constant danger. We move around a lot, never staying in one place long enough to be found. I hope that we can get word to them, so that we can find them once we are back in Columbia.’
‘How did they find you?’ I asked him.
‘There were five of us, we had planned to rob the depot in El Estor, here in Guatemala, looking for medicines. But we’d been betrayed. They were waiting. Three were killed in the shooting. They left Miranda and me alive though she was severely wounded, probably fatally. They knew who I was and sent me to the General. Miranda, I don’t know what happened to her, but I can imagine.’ He paused. ‘She was a beautiful woman. They will have had their way with her before they killed her.’ There was nothing more to say. We made ourselves as comfortable as possible and bedded down on the long dry grass that we had collected.
We slept.
I woke once to hear Julio softly crying.
In the twilight we retrieved the horse, saddled her again and headed off—Julio riding, me walking and sometimes running alongside.
The scenery changed in the course of the night as we entered the rainforest. We travelled through valleys that were more and more heavily wooded. It became increasingly difficult to move in the dark. Fallen branches and trees barred our way and had to be cleared or circumvented.
Around midnight it was so dark that continuing would have been too dangerous. We stopped and set up our meagre camp. The horse was once again hobbled, and we lay down to rest. There was no moon, only the stars lit up the night sky. My eyes took in their light and it was reasonably easy for me to see what was around. I could hear a lot of animals moving in the dark as well. The woods were home to a variety of mammals and other creatures. Maybe we would get lucky and catch something. I left the campsite and set up some primitive traps along the trail that I could smell out. Small animals went this way.
When morning came I returned to the traps. One was empty, the other had caught a small rabbit. I dispatched the animal and brought it back to our camp. We didn’t dare to cook the animal, not wanting to alert anyone to our whereabouts with smoke from a fire, so we both ate some of the flesh raw
and saved the rest for later. Julio had problems forcing the raw meat down. I—on the other hand—had no such scruples.
I almost felt at home in the forest. Some long forgotten or unknown instincts had started to kick in.
We decided that as long as we were in the forests, we would travel early morning until about noon and then again at the end of the day until it got too dark.
Journeying this way for three days, we finally came to a small lake. We were all tired. The horse flatly refused to take another step, so we decided to stay here for a while. There were no scents of other humans, neither recent nor old. It was devoid of human life.
With our last breath, we set up camp in the hollow of a very big tree at the edge of the forest, the horse didn’t need to be hobbled anymore, she chose to stay with us. She was used to my scent by now, and even stayed in the area when I practiced the change. She kept an eye on me, but that was to be expected. Gratefully she stuck her nose in the grass and proceeded to graze.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
It was another clear day, the fourth that we had been in the clearing. We’d gathered our strength and were planning to start traveling again tomorrow. I’d hunted and caught some small Agouti and a Capybara. Some of the meat Julio had dried in the sun for the days to come. Fishing had also been good and as an extra we had gathered fruits and nuts in the forest. We were well fed, rested and feeling good.
Swimming naked in the small lake, created by the stream and a natural dam a little further on from our camp, relaxed me. The water was cool and refreshing. I’d gotten into the habit of swimming at least two times a day. After the long journey—when water was at a premium—it felt great to be clean again.
Julio was in the lean-to, busy weaving some reeds into baskets that he wanted to attach to the saddle. That way we could take more provisions with us which make us less dependent on foraging and prevented unnecessary delay. We’d needed the rest, but it had cost us four days. One way or the other we had to get back on the road and make up for some of the lost time.
The clearing was tranquil. The smell of the brightly coloured flowers, trees and the tall grass was overwhelming and there was a small breeze from the direction of the tiny waterfall. The birds were plentiful and noisy. I could hear the horse grazing. She had begun to wander further from the lean-to. The relative quiet and safety had lulled all of us all into carelessness.
An unknown scream and the terrified nickering of the horse abruptly broke the peace. She tried to run towards the lean-to and to us. But a large puma had jumped out of the tree line and in one mighty leap was on her back with its teeth locked deep into her neck. The horse bucked and tried to free itself, but the cat was tenacious.
I swam to the edge of the lake as fast as I could, calling all the time. Julio had left the lean-to and was frantically trying to scare the cat away. The horse was on the ground. Its legs flailing, the Puma at its throat. Grabbing some stones Julio desperately started to throw them at the puma. One hit the ochre coat and the cat growled menacingly. It let go of the horse and hissed at Julio. Without any thought for his own safety, Julio interpreted this as a good sign and renewed his attempts to chase the cat away with more stones aimed at its head and body. The puma was enraged and turned its full attention to Julio. It advanced on him menacingly. Finally understanding that he was dangerously in over his head, Julio slowly walked backwards, all the time keeping his terrified eyes on the advancing danger.
In the meantime, I had left the water and was running towards the rapidly escalating drama.
The Puma growled.
I shouted, or at least that was what I wanted to do.
The sound came out of my throat as a deep and powerful roar.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
In mid-stride she fell to all fours and continued to advance on the Puma. She was changing. Fully this time, no holds barred.
The Puma was astounded. It stopped its advance and turned towards this gigantic animal that was running unsteadily but full tilt at it. It hesitated, unsure of what it was seeing and that gave the newcomer the edge. The enormous feline ran full force into the puma and drew blood with the claws on her massive front paws. More agile, the Puma managed to minimise the damage by turning sharply to the side and out of reach. In mid-turn it clawed at the sudden and unexpected threat, opening a row of slashes on its adversary’s left shoulder. The big cat reacted unsurely, the blood bright red on her tawny coat. Her body felt alien and wouldn’t function as she wanted it to. This offered the Puma the chance to flee the scene, and that was exactly what it did.
The cat-fight was over before it had really begun. The gigantic feline took a few unsteady leaps after its smaller cousin, but soon stopped when the puma disappeared into the dense forest.
The clearing was silent. Nothing moved. She turned and walked back to the bloody scene. The horse was still alive, but barely. The damage that the Puma had done was irreversible. Her throat was almost ripped out. Blood poured from the damaged neck, seeping into the ground below. Tonal sat down to change back into human form when Julio stopped her.
‘No.’ He said softly. ‘Please, stay as you are. Don’t change back. Be the cat for a while. Get used to your new body and what it can do.’
She looked at him and seemed to ponder his words.
‘And please help the horse. It’s suffering.’ She understood what he wanted. The poor animal was in a great amount of pain. Her feeble attempts to move her legs and head were pathetic. The cat strode over to the downed horse. It took the horse’s neck into its great jaws and with one quick jerk, broke the vertebra. The horse died instantly. With surprising softness, the cat laid the horse’s head back down on the grass.
The light from the clearing and afternoon sun shone on her tawny coat. The gashes from the puma were already beginning to close. The edges of the wounds moving together and knitting as though they had never been rendered, the blood was the only reminder of the fight.
Julio looked at the gigantic cat in wonder. At the lab, he had closed his eyes for most of the time that she was in this form, and he had not been able to appreciate what she had become. She was more than one and a half metres high at the shoulder. And had to be almost four metres from the nose to the tip of her tail. That made her bigger than any Lion or Tiger that he had ever seen or heard of. Her coat was a tawny brown-ochre, with a hint of shadow stripes over her back. Her belly and under her muzzle were almost white. Her head was enormous. The fangs showed slightly under her closed mouth—red with the horse’s blood. Her eyes were the same deep ochre as when she was in human form. Julio swept his eyes over the enormous body, the paws—almost ten inches in width—the heavily muscled body and softly swishing tail.
‘You are beyond words’ he said out loud. She merely observed him, making him slightly uneasy, but he reminded himself that it was her—Tonal. That she was his friend, his saviour actually.
‘Stay like this for a while, run a bit, use your legs and get used to the feeling. Learn how to be you.’ He saw her hesitate. ‘Don’t worry’ he added ‘you won’t hurt me.’ To put value to his words, he approached her. Trembling slightly, he reached out to touch her. She followed his hand with her gaze and when she didn’t move, he placed it squarely on her enormous shoulder. The feeling was exciting and terrifying at the same time. Her pelt was soft and warm, pleasant to the touch. Beneath the fur he could feel the muscles and the enormous power that they represented.
He didn’t know whether to stroke her or not. She wasn’t exactly a house cat. He compromised and just left his hand where it was. She seemed to appreciate the gesture, and relaxed. A little later she lay down on the grass. He sat down next to her. Enjoying the silence for a few minutes.
‘You must practice more, now that you see that you still have full control over yourself, it is safe to experiment with what you can do. You don’t have to be frightened anymore.’ He knew that this had been her biggest fear; that she would turn on him if she changed fully. That she would not be able t
o control the feline. That nature and instinct would take over. That she would ultimately kill him.
She felt fantastic.
The power, the strength that she felt was beyond anything she had ever experienced. She didn’t want to change back. This felt too good. She stood up and gingerly moved forward. Julio sat back and watched her discover her new body. She became more confident with each step. Soon she was turning and changing direction.
Sprinting out into the clearing, she stumbled over her paws and rolled over in the grass. If she could have laughed out loud, she wouldn’t have stopped. It felt so good. She leapt up and bounded away again—like a small kitten, playing and finding unimaginable pleasure in everything around her. She jumped, ran and leapt at twigs and insects. Sharpening her gigantic claws on a tree near the edge of the forest, she left furrows five inches deep in its bark. Birds and other animals screamed a warning to each other, unsure what to make of this strange predator, and of its even stranger actions. The pure joy was contagious and soon Julio found himself laughing. She stopped at the sound, looked at him, turned and bounded back to where he was, barely stopping in time. Julio jumped to the side as she came to a shuddering stop exactly where he had just been. She rolled over on the grass and sat there. He approached her and joined her on the soft ground. He took her giant head in his hands and looked her in the eyes.
Primal Nature Page 8
