“If you run…” the commander started to say, his blade now aimed at Bobby’s throat.
But I would never hear the next words that came out of his mouth.
I took off toward the jungle, faster than I’d ever run before.
I could hear the soldiers chasing after me, the clink of their armor.
And even as my calf muscles screamed, as Bobby yelled for me to run faster, I charged ahead, no idea where I was going or how I’d get away from them. I kept my eyes on the space about seven feet in front of me, looking for dips in the land, loose roots.
As I reached the jungle, I heard the cry of monkeys and birds in the trees above.
I continued forward, nearly stumbling once my foot got caught under a rock, the sounds of the soldiers just over my shoulders.
I kept it up, even though I was starting to get winded, even though it felt like I was running uphill.
There were massive trees with elaborate root systems, colorful mushrooms growing on their trunks, moss-covered rocks, creatures scurrying in every direction wherever I stepped foot.
Everything was a blur.
I made my way through a stream and came to a glade filled with white flowers.
I paused, listening for the soldiers.
Everything was silent, but, rather than stick around, I moved to the other side of the glade, ducking behind a few shrubs when a man in dark blue robes appeared.
His all white eyes narrowed on me as the robed man dropped into an attack pose, and was just about to deliver his final blow when a boar exploded out of the bush, slamming right into him, the man bursting into a cloud of black smoke.
This gave me the time I needed to make a run for it.
The creature snorted, turning its attention to me, cutting its tusks into the ground as it charged. The boar was as large as a cow, angry, snarling, overturning anything in its way as it nearly caught up with me.
I took off, well aware that the thing would catch up with me if I didn’t get some leverage soon.
And who had the robed man been? Even as I hauled ass into the jungle, I couldn’t forget his strange white eyes, the way he had appeared out of nowhere and attacked me.
Had he been one of the soldiers? Why didn’t he have a sword?
The boar made a terrible noise behind me; I looked for a tree that would be easy to climb, and I eventually saw one with a few rocks in front of it, and bulges in its trunk that would give me some grip.
I lunged toward it and started climbing.
The boar charged the tree, ramming its tusks into its trunk. The tree seemed to stretch all the way up to heaven, but I was high enough now that there was no way that the creature would get to me.
The only thing was, the giant boar seemed strong enough to actually knock the tree down if he kept at it, which meant I needed to find even higher ground, or at least, more stable ground.
Trying my best not to look down, and ignoring the tingle in my stomach and my feet, I scooted out onto a limb. I reached out for the next tree over, one with a trunk that was even thicker than mine.
I went for it.
And I was happy that I had enough upper body strength to at least pull my legs up and curl them around the new branch, shimmying my way down to a more stable location and kicking up pollen in the process.
But the damn boar hadn’t given up.
It turned its attention to my new tree, ramming its tusks into the trunk, a tremor reaching me every time the boar connected.
The tree ran alongside a cliff, but from my current location, I could only see rock. If I climbed about twenty feet up, I’d get to a point where I would be able to get onto the ledge above, someplace the boar would never be able to reach me.
Not without a hike.
A wave of exhaustion hit me, and I had to forcibly keep my eyes open as I started to climb.
“Get it together, Nick,” I whispered to myself as if that would do any good.
I ignored the boar below, the snorting bastard. I was sweating profusely now, the muscles in my body screaming.
It wasn’t that hot out; maybe it was adrenaline that was doing something to my sweat glands. But I couldn’t for the life of me figure out what was making me tired.
I reached another limb, and one of my legs gave way.
I just managed to hold on, pulling it up over the side, noticing that my leg was…
Numb?
I looked up, and I looked down.
It wasn’t a great place to rest, but as I yawned again, I found a groove in the trunk that was deep enough to prevent me from falling over the side.
My eyes fluttered shut, and I tried to open them again, but everything started to mash together, my nostrils flaring as I inhaled more pollen.
Pollen?
My hands fell to my sides and I knew there was no fighting it.
I was out for the count.
Chapter Four: Nature Finds a Way
It was dark when I awoke, a gasp coming to me as soon as I laid eyes upon a woman standing before me.
Illuminated by green fireflies, it appeared as if the tree limb had curled backward, its branches splitting and merging back together to form the body of a woman, at least most of her body. There was something serpent-like about her form considering she was all woman from the torso up, erect nipples, bark-covered skin, sharp features, and simply a part of the tree below her waist.
Why are you in my tree? a voice asked me, rippling the leaves all around me and kicking up more pollen.
“This is your tree?”
The trunk behind me adjusted for my weight, and slowly pressed me up. I stood, balancing myself as I looked for a way to escape.
It is. Do you want to leave?
“I don’t even know where I am,” I told the tree woman. She wiped some green leaves off her forehead, sweeping them over her shoulder.
You are in what mortals call the Kingdom of Lhasa, and you are in my tree.
“I’m sorry…”
There’s nothing to apologize for, she said as a branch lowered to the back of my head, lightly grazing against me. It was my pollen that made you drowsy.
More green fireflies appeared, swirling around both of us, illuminating the area. There was something off about the way she was looking at me, a hunger behind her eyes.
“You can control them?”
Yes.
“I don’t know what I’m supposed to do,” I admitted to her. “I was just with my friends, and then I appeared here, near the water.”
I can’t go to the water. There are dreadful things in there.
“Definitely. I saw a dragon, and there were hands coming up from beneath the waves, trying to grab me. Soldiers too, among other things,” I said, recalling the man who had attacked me and the boar who had attacked him.
So you escaped them only to find my tree?
I nodded as she pressed just a bit closer to me.
You’re an outsider then.
“Ever heard of a place called Massachusetts? I didn’t think so. That’s where I’m from.”
Yet somehow, you made your way to my tree…
I watched as her lips parted, the tree woman showing me a set of razor-sharp teeth.
It has been a while since I fed, and I prefer my prey to be awake when I eat them.
“You don’t need to do this,” I said, both hands coming up as I looked around again. I could drop to the bottom, but that was a good forty or fifty feet, and even if I didn’t kill myself, who knew whether the boar was still down there, waiting for me.
My only other option was to climb up to the top of the tree and move to the cliff.
I lowered my hands and placed them on the trunk behind me, where I found the knob. It wasn’t enough to boost me up, but it would have to do.
It won’t be as bad as you think, she said, licking her lips, but I will do my best to make it quite painless.
“Sorry to disappoint.”
I turned away from her, pulling myself up to the next limb. As
soon as I made it up to the next notch, the tree began to move, the woman appearing to my right, pressing out of the trunk, looking at me curiously.
You aren’t going to escape; there’s no reason to exert yourself.
Rather than reply, I simply used her body as leverage, kicking myself up even further by pressing her away with my foot.
The tree began to quake. The limbs whipped at me, bulges forming in the trunk to throw me off course, the bark peeling back with each movement I took.
I was just about to reach the top of the tree when her face emerged from the trunk directly in front of me, inches away from my nose.
“You don’t have to do this,” I told her. “I don’t mean you any harm. I’m just trying to find my friends.”
The woman’s mouth parted, and her forked tongue spilled out, curling up, tasting me from the chin all the way up to my nose.
Her eyes went wild.
The woman’s throat started to quiver, her skin darkening, the fireflies around her brightening.
I must eat you, she hissed, her mouth opening. I must have you!
I pulled myself up to the highest limb that would be able to support my weight, sinking my knee into the tree woman’s face in the process.
The tree shook.
I heard a cracking sound coming from the roots below, as I scurried up to the top and leaped toward the cliffside, just in time for the tree to start falling away, crashing into the jungle below.
I could see the ocean in the far distance, moonlight glistening off its surface. To the west were more mountains, and to the east was a smattering of smoky clouds, obscuring the land.
There was a glow coming from behind me, maybe about a quarter of a mile away, the shadows of people reflected onto a hillside.
I thought about going the opposite direction, trying to make my way off to the right, possibly circumventing whatever the light was coming from, but I was also hungry, afraid, and at this point, ready to turn myself in if it happened to be the soldiers from earlier.
I wasn’t going to survive out here on my own. This much was clear to me.
Not when the trees wanted to eat me, the boars were the size of cows, there were wrathful ninja spirits trying to hand me my ass, and the place had dragons. Fucking dragons. And that was just a summary of everything I’d seen in just the last few hours, there really was no telling…
I shook my head, changing my mode of thinking.
No, I wouldn’t turn myself in.
That would be foolish, but I could at least creep up there and see if I could rescue Bobby in some way.
For all I knew, Bobby was the only one left.
Tom was likely swallowed up by the sea, Hugo went in after him, and my guess was that Evan was dead long before he reached the shoreline.
So if there was someone still alive, it had to be Bobby, and I had to find him. We could survive this together, and hopefully find a way home.
“Okay, you’ve got this,” I told myself as I started to creep toward the fire, the will to live igniting in me.
There was a stretch of tall grass between here and there as if this area used to be a terraced hill. It gave me the cover I needed to move closer to the campfire without being discovered, the spikelets flicking against my face as I crept.
Once I got within earshot of the campfire, it became clear that this wasn’t the soldiers from the shoreline. There were several voices, an older man pleading, others telling him it was hopeless, one of them whimpering.
And rather than creep up on them, I lifted my hands in the air, announcing my presence.
“Who are you?” a man with a shaved head asked, turning to me as he went for a dagger on his belt.
He was joined by a beautiful young woman, an older man and a pair of guys that looked like they could be brothers.
“I come in peace,” I told the group.
“Of course you do,” the man said, lowering his dagger. “You don’t have a weapon.”
“He could be a sorcerer,” the older man grumbled. The area was defined by its campfire in the middle, but there were actually large tents surrounding it, about twice the size of any teepee I had ever seen.
The man with the dagger raised his weapon. “Is that what you are? Some sorcerer from the foothills of Bamda here to collect our foreskins?”
“I assure you I’m not a sorcerer,” I told him. “And I want nothing to do with your foreskins, if that’s, um, a concern you have.” I glanced from the group to one of the large tents. “What’s going on here anyway? Why are you all outside when there are warm tents available?”
“We should be asking you the same thing,” the man said, as the lone woman stepped up behind him, her hands coming to his arm.
“Not now,” he told her, whipping his arm away.
“I have come from…” I nodded toward the sea.
“Have you?”
“Why is he dressed like that, Papa?” the young woman asked.
“I don’t know; I’ve never seen this style of clothing before.”
I glanced down to confirm that I was still wearing what I had been wearing earlier.
The thing was, I’d already seen and been through so much today that it wouldn’t have surprised me in the least bit if all my clothing was gone, replaced by something more native. But no, I was still in my dark jeans, a gray shirt, and a jacket.
I heard a terrible cry from the tent, the ground shaking.
“No, no…” the young woman said, turning to it. She started running toward the tent but her father grabbed her by the waist, pulling her back.
“It’s too late,” he told her. “The spirit already has her.”
“But Papa, she… ”
“There’s nothing we can do now,” said the grandfatherly man standing off to the left. He had a long beard and was missing an eye. Two younger men nodded in agreement behind him, neither one stepping forward to volunteer to go into the tent.
“Just explain to me what happened,” I said, curious now.
“You don’t know?” The man with the dagger looked at me curiously, waiting for a response.
“I honestly don’t.”
“It’s the spirit, my boy! A wrathful one who haunts these hills. We should have listened to her,” he told the older man, wagging his finger at him. “The shaman warned us!”
“Don’t put this on me,” the older man spit. “She warned you what we would need to do if we came here, and you ignored her.”
“So there’s an evil spirit in the tent, is that what you’re telling me?” I asked, looking back at the structure.
“Yes, yes there is,” the man with the dagger said. “What is your name, my boy?”
“Nick Barnette.”
“He really is from somewhere else,” the older man mumbled. “Maybe he’s from the Kingdom of Paro. I’ve never heard a name like that here.”
“I’m not from there,” I assured him.
He waved my concern away. “It doesn’t matter where you’re from, you’re here now. And since you came out of the wild, and you’re clearly a strapping young man capable of taking care of himself…”
The older man exchanged glances with the guy who had a dagger. It was lowered now, but he still held it at his side, just in case he needed to use it again.
“I apologize; this is no way to introduce ourselves,” the man with the weapon said, sheathing his blade. “I’m Kinley. This is my father, Sangay, and my nephews, Druk and Tandin. Some help they are, as you can clearly see. Finally, this is Kiba, my daughter.”
I nodded, waving at all of them. Only Kiba waved back, offering me a warm smile.
“And since you are here, Nick was it?”
“That’s right.”
“Maybe you can help us.”
“I don’t see how,” I started to tell him.
“These are local spirits in these parts,” Kinley said, his father nodding in agreement. “Since you are clearly an outsider, maybe you can stop the demon from taking…” He swallowe
d hard. “My other daughter is in there—Karzi.”
“My sister,” Kiba said, also tearing up. “My dear sister. Karzi, we are sending someone in!” she shouted, only for her father to scold her for yelling.
“And you want me to go in there and rescue her?” I asked after he finished tugging at her arm and threatening her.
“If you could, please, Nick,” he said with a toothy grin. “These local demons won’t know what to make of you. If you can do this for us, we’ll help you in whatever way you need. In fact…” He offered me a solemn nod. “I will also give you my most prized possession. There, I’ve said it.”
“There’s no need for that…”
Kinley dropped to his knees, his hands coming before him in prayer position. “Please, please. If one of us goes in there, the spirit will affect us all. But you, you’re an outsider. The evil spirit will be confused, you’ll triumph over it!”
“Okay,” I told him, turning to the tent.
I didn’t know what had come over me, but I’d never had someone beg me like that before, and I felt sorry for the bunch.
They were clearly superstitious.
Then again, a tree had just come alive and tried to eat me, so maybe I was the one being foolish.
A terrible cry rang out, the ground shaking and kicking up dust. The two cousins, whatever the hell their names were, dropped to the ground with their hands over their heads, the older man striking both of them with his cane and calling them cowards.
I reached the front of the tent and took a deep breath, waiting for the dust to settle.
Things were about to get weird.
Chapter Five: Evil Spirits
A soft whimpering met my ears once I slipped into the tent.
I still didn’t know what the hell I was doing. I didn’t believe in things like this, at least not in my world.
I tried to recall the daughter’s name, the one who was supposed to be trapped in here by a demon spirit. I remembered it sounding like the word ‘car seat’ so I went for it, hoping I got it correct.
“Car Seat?” I called out.
A hiss of frigid air whispered past me, the opening of the tent shutting, everything pitch black.
Path of the Divine Page 2
