by Reece Dinn
The night was filled with howls and screeches that woke him as soon as he was about to drift off. He tried focusing on his breathing, but no sooner did he count to ten breaths then another howl startled him. Effectively paralysed, there was little he could do should anything attack. He lay there staring up at the sky through the hole in the top of the furaz.
A howl woke him just as he'd finally drifted off to sleep. Sounds close.
A snarl. Something padded around on the snow outside.
He peered out of a hole in the furaz covering. Three sehseh had their heads buried in the lilnac carcass he'd thrown away, devouring it. Not a threat. Still he couldn't sleep with them there. He took in a deep breath then screamed as loud as he could. The sehseh on the right twisted around and barked at him. Melonaz swallowed hard. Before he could even think to do anything it leapt into the furaz, pounced on him and bit into his arm. Melonaz cried out and tried to hit it but hadn't the strength to even lift his arm. The sehseh's fangs sank in deeper.
Desperately he focused his Raiz and sent a small jolt of lightning out of his arm, the best he could muster. It was enough. The sehseh screeched, releasing him as it bounced back with a yelp, while hitting its head on the furaz's central pole.
Tears ran down his face as he tried to lift himself up, but the agony was too great. Blood ran down both sides of his bitten arm, the holes the sehseh's teeth had made wide.
The sehseh jumped up, barked, and ran out of the furaz to its companions, who were slowly advancing, fanning out into a line.
Nukuk. All of you die. He focused his Raiz again. It was a struggle for his mind, it felt like he would lose consciousness at any moment. Fire. He created a ball of fire in front of his face, the only place he could push Raiz out of. The flames licked at his eyes, its heat scaring him.
The sehseh stopped.
Melonaz cried out and launched the fireball through the furaz's entrance flap using a Raiz push, aiming it at the one in the middle. The fireball fell short, hissing as it fizzled out on the snow.
It did its job however. The sehseh barked, then ran away, whimpering.
He grimaced at the sight of his wounded arm as he drew back the expended Raiz. A tear ran down his face. He didn't wipe it away.
He didn't sleep for the rest of the night, despite his exhaustion. His spirits were lifted however when the first rays of dawn's light entered the furaz.
The bleeding had stopped, but his wound wasn't fully healed, even having used Brubah for periods throughout the night. He'd managed to move enough to cut a strip from his furs and wrap it around his injured arm. His mind was too tired to use Raiz now, having lost the ability to even sense it not long before sunrise.
Lose some Raiz in forest fight. Get it back though. 'Power' give it back. How? It come. Burns my mind. I let it out. Create big fire with it. Where it come from? When he wasn't thinking of the awful thing he'd done, he persisted in wondering how exactly he'd been able to do it. It come. It go. Why? How?
Peering out of a parting in the furaz's covering he watched the sun slowly rise over the mountains.
He'd fallen asleep not long after sunrise, and had remained asleep until late in the evening. I need food. Need firewood. Need to stay strong. He tried to rise, but was still too sore and weak. Just attempting to move was excruciating. An attempt to focus his Raiz to use Brubah only sent him back to sleep.
He awoke again at sunrise the next day, his stomach grumbling savagely. When the sun had risen fully he forced himself up, relieved to find he could move again, although it was still painful. Moping around, feeling sorry for himself would do him no good, he knew. Wouldn't solve anything, wouldn't change anything. Saving the village was all that mattered now. His life was forfeit. The Lial would have told his family, and the rest of the village, that he, Nekolz, and the others, had died in a ludenez attack. Not see Mal, Sal, Reijiz, again. I dead. He wondered how they had taken the news, how they would live with his apparent death. Thinking about it made him want to cry, so he forced his mind to shift to the tasks at hand. He used Brubah, the healing energy easing his pain enough for him to rise and walk, and left the furaz.
Several trails led away from the camp site. The one opposite the furaz's entrance led back to Oaraz, if memory served him. There'd been nothing to eat in that direction. He had a quick glance at the different trails, then in a snap decision chose the eastern most route and set off along it, ignoring his grumbling stomach and the throbbing pain that sapped his strength.
The trail was narrow and wound steeply down a mountainside into a shallow valley at its feet. Melonaz slipped several times as he descended, one slip nearly sending him right over the edge. Each slip resulted in him swallowing a mouthful of snow. His heart pounded in his chest. Maybe I should rest. My body is weak.
There was no sign of life in the valley, not even a set of tracks to follow. Neither was there a single gola.
He breathed a sigh of relief when he reached the valley floor and then followed it, passing across the feet of several mountains. It was impossible for him to tell how long he walked for, the landscape around him seemingly unchanging. The valley wound on and on, with no end in sight.
The sun was high overhead by the time he finally found something. Three gola.
Bounding over to them like he'd just found an abandoned sturaz full of freshly cooked meat, he ripped apart the gola's leafy exterior and began plucking nuts from the branches. The nuts were cold, but edible. He shoved two in his mouth at once and with great effort chomped on them, enjoying their sharp, nutty flavour, savouring it before he swallowed them. It reminded him of the time he'd found Aeolnaz trying to shove four in her mouth at once, only for their Mal to smack her on the back of the head. She'd spat all four into Reijiz's face. Her Dal had fallen back laughing.
Melonaz fought back the tears. There was no one to see them, but even so, if he allowed himself to cry he knew he'd not stop. Sehnal strong. Emotions make a Sehnal weak.
He snapped off branches while he plucked nuts from two of the gola, filling the pouches of his furs with as many as he could fit into them, while making a small stack of firewood behind him. When he'd gotten what he needed he fell back onto the snow to rest, rolling onto his side, stopping Brubah. The exertion had tired out his already fatigued body.
He gathered up balls of snow in his hands, melted them with Nipah, then drank as much as he could before it dribbled away through the gaps between his fingers.
Something hissed nearby.
Three sets of yellow eyes appeared in the shadowy cracks of the untouched gola exterior.
Lilnac. 'BACK,' he roared at them.
The lilnac hissed again.
Have no energy for another fight. He pushed himself up and pulled out his knife, thankful his sword arm wasn't injured. Lilnac brave up here. Have fight in them.
They hissed again.
He thrust his knife at them. 'Want fight?'
The lilnac leapt out of the gola and bounded towards him.
Melonaz cried out as he used Hakah, and went to swing at the nearest one, but to his surprise, they ran right past him and he struck only air. I wrong. They not brave. He sniggered to himself, until he stopped Hakah and fresh pain burned in his arm.
The trip back was much harder than he anticipated, his weakened body struggling under the additional weight of the firewood bundled in his arms. Several times he was forced to stop and rest. The climb back up the mountainside to camp was even harder, by the time he'd gotten just halfway up he'd resorted to crawling on his hands and knees. By the time he finally returned to camp it was evening and dark, heavy clouds filled the sky.
Not bothering to make a fire he threw the firewood down and went inside the furaz. He curled up into a ball and ate the nuts he'd picked while he listened to the wind whip at the furaz's covering and rattle its frame.
It snowed hard all night, the wind not once relenting. It biting chill pierced the furaz's every hole, making Melonaz's teeth chatter until his jaw ached. Flakes of snow had blown i
n as well, chilling him further. He'd used Nipah for a little while, but eventually the effort had exhausted him to the point where he'd passed out. The bitter wind and snow soon roused him again however.
How do people live in the wild? Lial teach how to? He remembered what Reijiz had tried to teach him, how every person had a role to play. Reijiz live out in wild. Knows how to. Wish I listen to him more. If he'd have listened to him more maybe he would have learnt how to survive and wouldn't be in the pathetic state he now found himself in.
The wind howled and the snow fell until well into the morning. When it'd finally eased the interior of the furaz was ankle deep in snow. His fatigued body was now cold and even sorer than it'd been the day before. Three days of limited rest, little food and warmth had left him too weak to even beat a lilnac in a fight.
He used Nipah to melt the snow from his body, but his head swam from the effort, forcing him to stop and brush it from him instead. Need to make a thick fur. Keep me warm. First, he realised, he'd need to learn to skin a carcass properly. Practise on lilnac, sehseh.
Against his better judgement he decided to go exploring again, taking a different route this time. The snow was thick everywhere, he'd had to climb out over the snow just to exit the furaz. The snow was waist high on the trail he'd chosen in certain parts along it.
The trail dropped down into a valley that steadily rose back up once he reached the floor, more of a cliff dropping into a gorge than a valley he thought. Mountains of sharp, icy, black rock rose up on either side, their peaks disappearing high above the heavy clouds that still hung over him. The cold, deep snow made progress difficult, but he forced himself to keep going. He lost all sense of time as he slowly ascended the valley. It was hard to tell exactly where he was going, everything around him covered in a smooth layer of pure white snow. Up ahead the valley disappeared over a gap between two mountains far ahead, and dropped down into another one, so Melonaz assumed. There'll be nothing there no doubt. Where's food? Things to kill? Wild full of animals, yes? The more he walked the more he forgot why he'd decided to make the journey in the first place.
Eventually he collapsed on the snow, exhaustion overwhelming him. Remember Lial say to make hole in snow if need to sleep in the open. Mustering all the strength he had left he dug his way down beneath the snow's surface, then curled up into a ball inside the hole, feeling suddenly warm, to his surprise. Moments later sleep took him.
It was dark when he awoke. The wind howled again, blowing over the entrance to his sleeping hole and whipping snow over it, but not making its way inside, to his relief. He closed his eyes again and tried to get back to sleep. His mind however had other ideas and the rest of his night was plagued with the faces of Nekolz, his two friends, and those two girls. He imagined their final moments, burning to death in the raging fire of his making, screaming in agony. Imagining it made him sick to his stomach. It was a long time before sleep took him again.
He was awoken by grunts outside.
He pulled out his knife. Need make wooden sword. It'd be better than this. Still, it'd served him well so far.
More grunts. Close by.
Cautiously, he poked his head out of the hole.
The valley was full of mirac of many different colours, more variety than he'd ever seen before. They were still the same red, white, or black that they normally were, but some had mixed colours, red and white, black and white, red and black. Some of the bulls' horns were white instead of black as well. The wild mirac were much bigger than the ones that'd been in Reijiz's herd. There was strength in these creatures. Their eyes still drooped however, giving them the same dimwitted look, but something told him not to underestimate them.
None of their heads were buried in the snow, like mirac were wont to do. Snow too deep? Not get buchmi?
A mirac moaned behind him and he twisted round, panicked. A large head loomed over him, its droopy eyes glaring down at him, its large horns pointed right at his throat. He stared up into them, transfixed. Snow crumbled down into the hole under the weight of the mirac.
Kak.
He focused his Raiz and used Hakah. Without waiting a moment longer he scrambled out of the hole and ploughed his way up the right hand rise, the only place he could see where there were few mirac to block his way.
The mirac bull bellowed behind him, in a way he'd never heard before, like a battle cry.
Kak. Kak.
The bull gave chase. Melonaz kept on running, drawing Raiz back and reusing it to power his Hakah, gritting his teeth to endure the burning pain in his limbs.
Two more mirac joined the pursuit, kicking up snow in their wake as they bounded forward, blocking his path.
'Nukuk,' he cried, and aimed for the gap between the two of them.
The mirac lowered their horns, aiming for his chest. He shot through, narrowly avoiding being impaled. The mirac crashed together, horns stabbing into one another. Both whined as they crashed down. Melonaz kept on running, scrambling up the mountainside he found himself on. He risked a glance back.
The mirac were crowding below, all eyes on him. Several of the bulls bellowed up at him, others moaned. What had seemed like the call of a stupid animal when he'd been with Reijiz's herd now seemed intimidating, scary even.
He kept on climbing until he found a small outcropping that he could lay down flat on and catch his breath. When he released his Raiz and stopped Hakah his whole body throbbed from the exertion. Whatever strength he'd recovered during his night of sleep was now lost. He peered over the edge at the mirac.
More had joined them, none of them moving, as if waiting for him to slip and fall, or give up and come back down to them. They eat buchmi. Not meat. What they want?
He stayed up on the outcropping for an age just watching the mirac, too scared to even make a move. Should kill one. Scare the others away. He couldn't bring himself to try though. With only a stone knife to fight with he doubted he could kill one. Normally he could with a Raiz attack, he figured, but he was so weak he doubted the strength of his attacks, especially with some many others around to rescue their friend.
Distant barks finally made the mirac move. They moaned and began to ascend the valley quickly. The barks grew closer and soon enough small, fast moving shadows appeared a little further down the valley. They gave chase to the mirac.
The sehseh seemed untroubled by the deep snow, their light bodies allowing them to run over it without sinking in. It was something Melonaz had never considered before and was suddenly held a small admiration for them. They were much more adept huntman than he'd given them credit for. They caught up to the mirac quickly and all of the sehseh pounced on a female at the back of the herd. The mirac moaned as it was felled, its moans soon silenced as one opened its throat. The others swiftly tore into its body. The rest of the mirac herd left their friend behind without so much as a glance back.
They fear sehseh, not me. Am I weaker than the sehseh?
He stayed up on the mountainside until long after the sehseh had gone, recuperating his strength, using Brubah in small bursts to try and heal his body, but for the most part he just rested, occasionally melting snow to drink.
The sky had finally begun to clear at least, though the first stars were beginning to appear in the sky as darkness set in. Walk through night. Not want to sleep in the open again. He descended the mountainside, then began the long trek back to camp through waist high snow that quickly sapped his already depleted strength. When at camp, I sleep for three days. His stomach grumbled. Find food, then sleep.
Something screeched behind him, as if in response to his thought.
Melonaz huffed. Not rest for moment?
An ankaroc swooped down, its huge wings spread out wide, casting a large shadow over him. His heart skipped a beat. The ankaroc's large, white eyes caused him to hesitate, sucking the fight out of him. It opened its mouth, revealing two large fangs protruding from its upper jaw. The claws on its feet were long and sharp, like it held three short swords in each.
Its fur was white, almost as white as its eyes, save for its head which was a dark brown that only accentuated the deadness of its eyes. It made to attack.
It took moments longer than it should have for Melonaz to realise that he needed to drop to the ground. A swoosh of wind brushed over his body as the ankaroc's claws passed dangerously close over him. He nearly vomited from the fright. Its claws pierced the snow, and as it rose back up into the air it took huge clumps up with it that broke apart and fell back down in a small shower over him.
Kill fast. Eat meat. Take fur. He struggled to focus his Raiz, his mind still panicked.
The ankaroc flapped, gaining height.
He felt the tingle of his Raiz and focused it.
The ankaroc arced around then swooped back down towards him, screeching.
Lightning. Melonaz raised an arm up at it. Lightning sparked to life in the palm of his hand. He took aim. The ankaroc screeched again, startling him. The claws of its feet glistened in the light, drawing his gaze.
The sparks died away in his hand. He missed the tug of the expended Raiz.
The claws descended towards him.
His heart pounded.
At the last moment he came to his senses and rolled away, narrowly avoiding the ankaroc as it went to tear his body apart. It dug up more snow as it crashed down, then rose back up again.
Don't come back. Give up. The ankaroc continued to rise, then arced back around. Kak.
Another ankaroc screeched.
Moments later a second appeared from behind a mountain and flew straight towards Melonaz's attacker. The ankaroc twisted in the air and narrowly avoided being mauled by the second one. The second twisted around and gave chase as Melonaz's attacker flew away.
Melonaz breathed a sigh of relief as the two disappeared into the distance. I hate it here. What made it even worse was that he knew there was worse things out there than the animals.
Chapter Fifty Four
