by Joe Darris
He takes a bite. The fruit is sweet and meaty, rich and tender. There is something strange though. It does not taste quite like fruit from his home. He holds it in a sunbeam and examines its red skin. It is dark and iridescent. The prongs in his arm were nourished by the fruits like it, Kao is sure of it. It smells fine though, tastes great, if not...alien. He brings it close to his mouth. This time a blue spark jumps from the fruit to his largest fang. It does not hurt, far from it. His stomach feels better. He carefully sinks his teeth into the fruit. He can feel it crackle with each bite, each little spark calms his stomach. When the fruit is gone he grabs another, and another. He has not eaten well for a long time.
Satiated, Kao turns his attention to the garden. That is what it is, he thinks, The Hidden Garden.
He steps from the bushes and stands tall to better survey the area. His stomach no longer twists so much and he can see the garden for what it is, spectacular. It stretches farther than he can see, all the way to the foothills of the mountains far away. Truly, the Hidden must be many.
A prongbuck walks slowly across the horizon, too far to smell. Even from this distance, it looks intimidating. It is at least twice the size of the buck he killed. Its prongs are very developed. They form a shield around its shoulders and back and a deadly weapon in front of it. Kao's sharp eyes can make out the ripple of the huge muscles that support its enormous set of pronged antlers. He had been lucky to kill the smaller prongelk, this one was truly invincible.
The enormous male slowly trudges across the field, moving the ground in front of him with his antlers. Kao has never seen an elk do anything like it before. Sometimes they'd clean their antlers in the dirt, but never in such a deliberate way. He digs?
He looks back at the nearest stream trickling through the Garden. Hunger had blinded him to what is obvious now. A prong stands lodged in the mud. He bends down and pulls it out, happy to have a weapon again, and notices that the banks of the stream are scarred and scratched. Elk dig these.
Sharp eyes scan the Garden for movement. Monkeys dot the landscape gathering fruit. They work in groups, one picking the ripest fruits and the other carrying them back to an enormous pile of food. Are they the Hidden? Are they masters of the Elk?
A shadow darkens the sky and without thinking Kao is hidden in the brush again, instinct is still his master. A kingcrow flies low, towards the monkeys' pile of fruit. Kao expects them to run but instead four of them each grab a corner of an enormous net that lay hidden underneath the pile of fruit. They tie a rope between the corners, the kingcrow snatches it and scoops the haul of food into the hair. More food than Kao's people would eat in a month. How many are the Hidden? The bird pumps its wings and raises skyward, Kao notes it has two eyes. They have more than one.
As he watches it fly higher he remembers the Hermit's same ascent to the Totem. Will they eat him too? No... more likely he'll be down here, another worker. But my sister?
He glances back to the river, his home. It would be so easy to just leave, forget all about his lost tribe and start fresh. He'd miss his sister and the hermit, but surely they were dead already. If not their bodies, then their souls. What could he do against the Hidden? What can stand against elk and crow or rise up against their Totem? Kao has no weapons, only his hands and a growing wit. His eyes follow the stream back to the river, homeward. Something glistens in the afternoon sun. A bright reminder of who he is. He walks to it, then lifts it up to the sun. Some prongs are missing from the fall, but leather cloak and skull helmet still have more than he could ever use. A glance at the Totem and he realizes the foolishness of such a thought. He will destroy the Hidden with weapons they fashioned for him.
A sound and he wraps himself in the leather cloak and vanishes back into bushes. A harem of does prance across the field towards the immense buck. They too are huge. The largest one is bigger than the buck he killed. They carefully walk through the garden, avoiding most of the plants, nibbling here and there at things that grow close to the earth. There are lots of them, more than live in his lands on the other side of the mountains. Kao wonders if they are trespassers in the garden, and the male its defender.
Kao wishes the hermit was here. The mad old man could explain everything. Only now I can understand.
The prongbuck bellows and the harem hurry past him. The monkeys look up from their chores then follow the elk. The Garden empties, all move away from the Totem.
Kao steps from the brush and looks ahead to their destination. They move towards something bigger than any boulder with lines too harsh to be natural. Two kingcrows circle high above it. Approach it he must, for what could be more important to the Hidden than food?
Chapter 17
It's okay... don't cry, I'm sorry.
The girl fights her tears and in a moment they're gone.
Do you have a dad?
The girl looks down, shakes her head, no.
Me neither, none of the pilots do...
Pilots? The girl asks with here eyes.
If you're born with dark hair, Baucis adopts you. He's kind of like our dad... he teaches us, takes care of of us, makes sure we're safe. He's your dad now too...
Baucis stood on the stage of the ballroom next to the hidden ape. In less than an hour, he'd reveal it to the Spire and all would change. The shrouded box and its contents already radiated an air of mystery and intrigue.
On the Media Baron's insistence, Baucis had traded in his silver habiliment for a sleek, crisp, white one. This one did more than hug his form and help regulate his body temperature. It was rigid and stood slightly off his body with help from the Spire's field. He looked muscular, a human trait long neglected in a world without labor. He wished he would have taken Ntelo's advice sooner. Style had its advantages. All clothing was made from the same recycled fibers. Might as well look stunning. Not normally one to be carried by the whims of style, Baucis was glad he had succumbed.
Tonight, the Spire would celebrate him. The Council would be at the gala of course, along with all of their best aides and assistants, hundreds more would watch through the Virtual Reality Chips embedded in their brains, and thousands would hear it narrated. Spire City would hang on every word. Rufus Aurelius had dared the Spire to miss the event. He promised it would be the grandest Naturalist ceremony in history.
With good reason, Baucis thought. Skup had delivered, not one, but two apes. Male and a female no less. Fresh instruments to play, more voices for his symphony of life. Baucis had been losing faith in the vultus flock, but now, for once, was pleasantly surprised to be wrong. He had given too much attention to Urea. He thought she and the panthera would prove to be the ultimate pair, but no. Skup had shown the ecologist his worth, and a world of unrealized potential. When Skup lost the battle against the ape, Baucis hastily decided to finally phase out the vultus flock. The birds were dangerous, expensive, and worst of all, unpopular. The Naturalists didn't like to see a biselk get torn apart by a vultus. It did not matter that the birds culled the herd by removing sick, elderly or genetically inferior members. People didn't like the idea of carrion eaters. They failed to recognize all they did and continued to do for the Spire. People whined about the vultus vomit and that the birds urinated on their own feet, puerile squeamishness. Few realized that the urine was all that sanitized their talons. Without it, no food could be carried into Spire City and the Scourge would have invaded long ago. Preconceptions would change now that Skup and his vultus had delivered the ape.
Blame lied with himself and High Priestess Ntelo too, Baucis knew this. The Naturalist religion was a powerful tool, but it was nothing if not contradictory. The whole spectacle championed Nature through precise technological control. The fundamentalists were the only ones who really made sense, and they had to be ostracized. They embraced Nature, and cursed their home as a prison. Wasn't the alternative being eaten by wolves? Baucis detested them, but he admired their zeal.
The worst were the mindless droves that today's service was designed for: people
that complained about brutal vultus attacks then applauded Urea's panthera hunts. They were won over by messy explanations of nature: the dance of predator and prey fuels evolution, humanity’s role is to restore balance, Nature put humanity in the Spire. All contradictions. They failed to realize that without the Evanimal program only a fraction of them would be alive. Shouldn't survival trump ideology?
Baucis had done more for mega fauna in fifty years than Nature had done in centuries. Tonight the Spire would thank him for it.
Maybe all his critics would be proven right in a way. If the newly captured ape proved to be as versatile as Baucis expected, using a Virtual Control Chip on any other Evanimal would prove to be inefficient. The apes were the ace up his sleeve. Too bad there weren't more of them, but time and the healthy female could remedy that...
The apes would solve all their problems, and the first one had literally fallen from a tree into his life. Baucis had never anticipated anything so fortuitous. He had only sought to do what his predecessors had done: gain a bit more power, leverage a bit more control. He had never thought that he might actually attain what all the Spire dreamed of, the surface. And to imagine their return could come from a wild animal! Hopefully the Naturalists would see his viewpoint. These animals were a boon, gifts, and with them humanity had an opportunity to change its future.
That was what brought them all here tonight. Upon seeing the apes for himself, Rufus insisted in having a grand celebration for all to see. The Media Baron was ecstatic when Ntelo dePious humbly suggested the unveiling be part of a Naturalist ceremony. It had been a wonderful performance, Baucis had been touched despite devising her charade himself. Today would be even grander, the greatest Naturalist ceremony in history.
Both apes could not be be kept secret, especially with their uncanny fit to the prophecy of the Wild Man. So Baucis would bluff a weak hand with the old ape, and wait to see what came down the river before he was forced to show the girl. The Spire had to be fed.
Chapter 18
Her eyes sting with tears but she does not cry.
Don't you want a dad?
She looks at the girl, hard and strong.
Who will take care of you?
She thinks of her tall, strong brother, tough as any hunter, tough as a lion.
Your brother?
Her jaw drops. She said nothing but the girl understood!
I bet you miss him.
She nods.
Don't worry... he's coming...
Kao knew not what he expected, but it is not this.
The stone bowl is not carved but built of stacked rocks with edges straighter than any he had ever seen. Each is larger than he can possibly move, made of red rock not found nearby. How the thing came to be strains his blossoming mind against its already fragile limits. Part of him still believed the Totem had simply been discovered, or carved away from an even taller mountain, but confronted with this, he admits a power he did not wish to face exists.
He followed the prongelk here silently, not once did they turn to watch their pursuer, despite the wind disfavoring him. Kao is not surprised. Scent seems a talent beyond the Hidden, a small victory for the hunter.
Once he arrived at the red stone bowl, he dared not follow the prongelk inside. The buck entered through a narrow passageway that nearly clipped his enormous antlers. The harem and the monkeys that traveled with them went around the side until they were eclipsed from view.
Kao waited until the Garden was drained of every animal in it. He did not wait long. The animals were restless to be inside the brick structure, and before the sun had moved a hands-width across the sky, The Garden was still.
Kao was ready to leave his hiding place among the fruits and vegetables and steal forward when a black lion big as an elk emerged from the Garden. At first Kao though of the mushroom potion he had taken, for surely the beast could not be real. It was more akin to a shadow than an animal. It melted into its surroundings and was silent as sunset. He blinked and rubbed his eyes but the vision persisted. The lion had paws big as Kao's chest, claws longer and more wicked than any prong on his skull. He was not surprised that its fur sparkled rainbow shades of black as it rippled over its supple muscles. All things in the garden have that color, as if the Hidden have painted their landscape with the Totem. It vanished from the sunlight into the same tunnel as the prongbuck. Those two are special.
Sensing the time was right, Kao darted forward and leapt upon the wall, his prongelk leathers streaming behind him. He made short work of the ascent, the crack between the bricks were easy for his strong fingers to bite, and now he perches at the top of the red brick mound and peers down into its scooped out middle. His madness threatens his balance as he teeters over the red stone pile, built by hands stronger than his people's. He looks to the half moon, setting on the horizon and wonders for the first time in his life if it waxes or wains.
For before him is the strangest thing ever witnessed, stranger than the Totem, stranger than the kingcrow's hidden prongs or any of the Hermit's tales. The hunter sits high on the edge of the bowl, behind rows and rows of stone seats. Monkeys, maybe twenty hands worth, and half as many prongelk crowd close to the sandy field. Because of his elevation, Kao can see over their heads to the stage. The prongbuck, the big one, grunts appreciatively to the crowd of beasts. They hoot and holler in reply, delirious with excitement. His antlers sparkle in the midday sun, his muscles tense and release as he rears up and kicks the air. Kao would not fight this beast for any prize. Compared to him, the skull he wears is a child's toy. The prongs that jut from his arm could do little more than graze the buck's flank. This prongelk is invulnerable, with horns that scratch the heavens and antlers that wrap around its back in deadly rows of anarchic spikes. Kao doubts his entire tribe could kill the brute, if they did, they'd eat for months, have enough prongs for years and leathers for every elder in the tribe.
His heart leaps out to the bitter memories of his tribe. Even amongst the excitement below, he misses them. To think what his sister would say about such a story. She would be too clever to believe him outright, but too intelligent to dismiss it entirely. How he misses her and his mother, with her soft hair and strong voice. For the first time he doubts he can rescue the Hermit and avenge his people, not if this monster of an elk is their defender.
And then, in the blink of an eye, he pities the prongbuck. In his excitement, Kao had forgotten the shadow of death that slunk into the brick passageway. She emerges into the sandy field and Kao understands what this all is, an arena. These two beasts will duel here today, the monkeys and the elk came for the sport. But it can be no duel, not truly. The prongbuck is formidable, but the lion is the essence of murderous victory, a savage confidence Kao recognizes in himself. She does not lose, and the thought of such an exquisite killer dying to the prongbuck's clumsy antlers amuses the hunter in Kao. This will be no duel. It will be a slaughter, sacrifice for the masses to consume.
The lion looks towards him and his heart stops. His leather and prongs are tucked behind a stone bench, his body is hidden, only his sharp eyes peek out, but he is certain the huntress sees him. But she looks back to the duel and his blood begins to move again. She is different from the rest, like One-eye. There's more than one mind at work behind hers, and Kao fears all of them.
Chapter 19
Do you have pets?
She scratches her head.
We do! We have lots of them! A whole Garden full.
“Pets?”
Animals you keep and take care of?
Her eyes grow cold.
No... not you. Her voice is pleading, apologetic.
You're not an animal... I've never really talked to an animal... not like this. But we treat them well!
She speaks quickly, desperately.
We play with them, feed them, make sure they get exercise. Everyone loves them! Everyone will love you too...
Hunger. That savage urge to feed clawed at her insides and made her sharper, keener, like
the razor edge of a knife, begging to fulfill its purpose. Her senses were heightened, at the peak of their performance. She felt no fear, only a cold resolution to survive. She was ready.
Urea guided her panthera from the Garden into the Colosseum. The structure was huge, bigger than the Spire, built for a Sport Aurelius called Feetball, or something like it. It was made of concrete with steel supports buried deep inside, like bones in a biselk, so the Scourge hadn't devoured it like all else in its path. Stone was immortal. The surface dwellers would have been wise to use more of it. The concrete was wearing down from rain and wind, but didn't melt like wax as did rest of the city below the Spire.
The only thing that held up better than it were the Spire itself and beautiful but terrifying granite dome Urea had almost lost her panthera too. Government, sport and gambling were the only relics left of a once great society. One had been re-purposed, one forgotten but sport would live on. Ntelo called it religion but the two were synonymous, ritualistic symbols that channeled human instincts.
A growl from her panthera and her mind refocused on the hunger. Neither had eaten, Urea insisted on true synchronization, and they would both hunt better if it meant something to them. Then later, they'd both feast on biselk. Morbid? Perhaps, but it felt right to Urea so that was what she did. She was a hunter, not a philosopher.
The true hunter growled again and Urea forced herself to focus. She was giddy. She loved duels, even if they were one sided.
The two minds in one deadly body slunk through the dark halls of the Colosseum then into the blinding light of the arena.
