We froze and listened carefully. The forest was eerily quiet. The insects had stopped humming and all animals had fallen silent in a startled pause.
The scream repeated and we all jerked our heads around in the direction it had come from.
“Was that human?” I whispered.
Tara had pulled out her sword and she and Trip stood shoulder to shoulder, scanning the dark forest. “It sounded like it.”
“Tumbahti,” she directed a comment in their language and he responded with wide eyes and a fearful expression.
“He said there are rumors of strange beasts in the forest and he did not recognize the noise.” Donnie whispered to me.
We bunched together as Tara and Trip, in full warrior mode and giving hand signals to one another, moved in opposite directions. I hunched between Donnie and Tumbahti, with a death grip on Donnie’s arm.
Tumbahti moved to the fire and stirred it back to life before adding a few more logs to fuel it. Donnie and I hunkered down next to the blaze with our backs to the flames, and our eyes riveted on the dark forest encircling our ring of light. The fire cast long shadows that seemed to reach out and seek shadow mates just beyond our circle of light.
Stop it! I told myself. This was not the time to let my imagination run away from me.
“It was probably a cat, a panther or something.” Donnie patted my trembling hand.
“Tsk tolado, inte’ fornate,” Tumbahti whispered.
I don’t know what he said, but the tone in his voice creeped me out. I squeezed Donnie’s arm more tightly and whimpered. We waited and waited. The scream did not repeat itself and Trip and Tara were gone for what seemed an eternity. I began to worry that they had been led away so that the beast could circle around and attack the more vulnerable prey, the horses…me.
GAH! Stop that!
“What is that?” I pointed into the forest. A small light was bouncing toward us at a measured pace. Donnie and I stood. My body tensed, poised for fight or flight.
“Torme tanta comslako dae!” Tumbahti said in a pleading voice.
I glanced at him and he was on his knees, face to the ground. Great! He’s not going to be any help in a fight.
“I think… it looks…is it a flashlight?” Donnie cocked his head to the side.
“Tara,” I called shakily.
“Yeah, it’s me and Trip.” She called back and clicked off the light as they drew near the fire.
“What was it?” Donnie inquired.
“Big cat, I think.” Trip answered and cut Tara a warning look.
“Let’s pack up and head out,” Tara suggested. “No one is going to get anymore sleep tonight.”
“That’s for sure,” I muttered.
Tara walked over to Tumbahti and touched him on the shoulder and spoke in soft tones in his language.
“I think he was afraid of the flashlight, Tara. You might show it to him.”
She knelt down and spoke to him while turning off and on the light. He drew away from it at first, but warmed up to it and was grinning and flicking the switch on and off by the time we had all packed up.
We rode away from our doused fire pit with Tumbahti and the flashlight in the lead. Tara and Trip had made torches and we were encircled in light as we rode through the dark forest.
Tara rode close to me so I drew alongside her. I smiled at her and she nodded in return. “Trip is too protective of me, Tara. Tell me what you found.”
She snorted. “As if you don’t like every minute of it.”
I frowned and noticed my lip pouting. I sucked it up. “I do.” I admitted. “Does it bother you?”
“No.” She said emphatically. “I feel the same way about you.”
I snapped my head to her. “What?”
“You are so small and…open.”
“Open?”
“Yeah, you trust everyone completely. You have no suspicious nature in you at all. Your heart is wide open. It makes you vulnerable and it brings out the warrior nature in your protectors.” She placed a hand over her heart. “Trip wouldn’t be the man I love if he didn’t respond to that instinct as strongly as I do.”
“Tara, I don’t think…I mean…I am not…I don’t even believe in love.”
“Yeah, you keep telling yourself that, but if that is true, what are you doing here?” She raised an eyebrow to me. “Why come on this jump? You are tiny and frail. You have no skills that would make you useful in tracking someone. Why are you here?”
“I…I…have to find Corey!” I added, “and Pinky.” I was getting uncomfortable with this conversation and really tired of being call weak and frail.
“Why?” She pressed. “Why do you have to find Corey? Why not let us find him for you?”
“I need to know he is safe,” I said in a small voice. I knew where this was going. “I get it. I love him. I love Pinky. I do believe in love.”
“Heart. Wide. Open.” She reached over and drew a circle in the air over my chest. “You loved me when I was bent on hating you, when I was really nasty to you. Is there anyone you have ever met that you didn’t love for who they are?”
“And somehow that makes me vulnerable?”
“Yes, most definitely.” She smiled. “The dragons saw that in you and played you. They manipulated you because of it.”
“Fine. I will try to be less open!” I snapped, done with this share time.
“Don’t you dare!” Tara grabbed the reins of my horse and pulled us to a stop. She leaned over and placed her hand on my chest. “Don’t ever lose that, Kate. It is precious and rare, and I would give my life to protect it. The world needs more people like you.”
She pierced me with her sincere gaze and I was struck by how beautiful she was in the torchlight. “Thank you, Tara,” I whispered.
She nodded and nudged the horses back into their pace. She had given me a lot to think about. I spent the rest of the night pondering her words as I swayed in the saddle.
Heart wide open.
I didn’t feel open. I felt stifled and locked up and angry at my dad most of the time. I felt like I was more of a leech with my suckers sunk deep into the ones I loved the most. Instead of my love bringing them joy, it only brought pain. Poison. My love was poison. It hurt people, beckoned them in and trapped them, then seeped the life out of them until they had to run away screaming.
I was a monster, something to run away from. Tara was wrong. The world didn’t need anything like me. The world was better off without me. Tara tried to hate me, but my neediness sucked her into thinking she had to protect me. Corey fell into my oblivious trap, and it crushed his heart. Trip was snared, and it kept him from seeing true love. Even now, he had feelings for me that he couldn’t work through. My daddy loved me, and then he had to get away from me, too. People were not safe around me.
I was a parasite, a leech, an octopus with my tentacles boring into people’s hearts. There wasn’t an animal bad enough to describe me. I was a mutant…a leech with tentacles…a freakin’ poison tentacle sucking leech!
Wow. Took a turn to the dark side there. Okay, so I was being melodramatic, but the principle remained the same. I hurt people without even trying.
We rode through the forest until mid-morning, and then stopped to rest the horses and eat.
Tumbahti had a fire lit and something stewing over it before we caught up and dismounted. He would disappear into the forest for a few seconds, return and sprinkle his findings into the stew pot. The result was a delicious gumbo of mushrooms, onions, spices and cut up strips of a jerky sausage he had brought with him.
We drank from our cups in silence, and then I stood and walked into the forest to relieve myself. When I returned Trip and Tara were head to head discussing something ominous. I sauntered up behind them.
“…large and predatory,” Trip whispered.
“How do you know?” Tara asked.
“He’s stalking us.”
I puffed an incredulous breath and they whirled around. “What is sta
lking us?” I hissed.
Trip grabbed me by the arm and pulled me out into the thicket.
Tara started talking loudly to Tumbahti and Donnie.
“You were not supposed to hear that.” Trip grimaced.
“What is stalking us, Trip? Is it the cat that screamed last night?”
“Probably.”
I mustered up a stern tell-me-everything face and cross my arms.
“Yes. As well as we can tell, it is a large cat like creature. We saw the tracks last night near our camp site.”
“Why do you think it is stalking us?” My tough girl attitude was slipping. I pressed my lips together to keep them from trembling.
Trip gave me an appraising look then sighed. “Kate, I don’t want to alarm the others, so Tara and I were trying to keep this to ourselves. I saw something in the trail behind us.”
“Trip! We have a right to know these things! Tumbahti has been traipsing back and forth through the woods, completely unaware. I just walked off by myself. We can’t make good decisions if we don’t have all of the information!”
“You are right. Come on, let’s go tell them.” He took me by the arm and turned to head back when the creature decided to attack.
SCREEEEAAAMMMM! I felt something hit me from behind and I dominoed into Trip. We went down. Trip already had his sword out attacking the creature before I could roll over. When I did, I let out a scream to rival the creature’s.
Trip had swiped at it a few times with his sword and they stood facing one another. “Get back to camp! Get on the horses and get as far from here as you can!” He roared and lunged for the beast.
My legs were frozen. I gaped at the sight before me with paralyzed horror. The creature was large, about the size of a small elephant, but lean and sleek. He had iridescent scales as big as tea saucers layered down his neck. His face was pointed, almost eagle like, but his body was definitely feline. Toxic green eyes flitted to take in the whole of Trip and his sword. Long incisors jutted down below his lower jaw. His body was covered in black coarse hair and his feet were padded like a cat’s, but had extremely long talons that shot out when he swiped at Trip.
Tara crashed through the thicket, sword drawn and attacked the creature in tandem with Trip. I stared in awe at their graceful and precise movements, perfectly synchronized and executed. The creature reared up and towered above them, swiping with his fore claws.
Donnie broke through the brush and skidded to a stop. “Whoa!” He whipped his backpack off and dug inside and came out with a Taser. He charged it, took aim, and pulled the trigger. The electrode hit the creature’s soft under belly, but it had no effect, other than to make him mad and give him a direct line to Donnie. He jerked on the line and yanked the Taser out of Donnie’s hands, then turned his attention back to Trip and Tara who were the more pressing threat. Donnie bent down and started collecting rocks.
“Kate, I need rocks. Find me rocks.”
At my name the paralysis left me and I began scouring the ground for rocks. Donnie hit the creature with uncanny precision, right between the eyes every time. I shoveled rocks into Donnie’s arms, and he pelted away. Blood flowed into the greenish eyes. Tara and Trip took full advantage of his blindness and cut him down. Trip shoved the tip of his sword through the top of the beast’s skull and Tara planted her blade into his chest. The creature convulsed and suddenly silenced.
Trip and Tara pulled out their swords at the same time and clashed them together in celebration. Donnie and I dropped the rocks we were holding and hugged each other. We were panting and grinning when Tumbahti came through the forest to investigate our shouts of victory. When he saw the dead monster, he stopped and gaped in horror.
“Tondo! Tondo! Nict tolamort I tski!” He fell to his knees and let out an anguished cry that stabbed me through the heart.
Donnie and Tara ran to him and they all began talking in the native tongue. Trip and I scooted together and watched, cutting sidelong glances at each other. Tara whirled around and looked at the creature with a tormented face. Then she wrapped her arms around Tumbahti and held him while he lamented. Tears streamed down her cheeks.
Donnie rose and walked to us. “This is bad.”
“What is wrong, Donnie?” Trip couldn’t take his eyes off of the weeping Tara.
“This animal was a Tondo, a sacred protector of the tribe we seek. Tumbahti says they are highly revered and extremely intelligent. They live in peace with the tree dwellers and are known to protect children, women and elders.”
“Then why did he attack me?” I was stunned.
“Are you sure he attacked you?” Donnie asked.
“Yes, he tackled me and we all ended up on the ground.”
“What were you doing when he attacked?”
Trip answered. “We were just coming to talk to you and Tumbahti about the cat that I suspected was stalking us.”
“Were you doing anything...” he raised a brow suggestively, “to make it think you were harming Kate?”
“I did grab her arms.” Trip mourned.
“Trip, I gave you that mean look, I am sure we did not look friendly with one another.” I touched his arm.
“This is bad. The tree dwellers will not like that we have struck down one of their deities.”
“What are we going to do?” I whispered. “Is there any way to prevent them from finding out?”
“I don’t think lying is the best way to prove ourselves to them.”
“No, probably not.”
“We will have to confess, express our deep sorrow, and hope they will understand.” Donnie scraped his hand through his hair.
“And if they don’t?” I asked.
“Pray they do,” Donnie answered.
We cleaned up the Tondo as best we could. Out of two saplings and tree vines, Tumbahti and Trip made a litter to carry him, suspended between two horses. I rode with him directly under my horse’s nose, so I got a close look at him. He really was a beautiful animal, now that he wasn’t trying to eat me. The scales sparkled with iridescent jewel tones and his fur was thick and soft. He had a tail with a little tuft at the end, and his black coat was shiny and well groomed.
Tumbahti thought he was a baby because his wings were not fully developed, but tucked into his sides as though he rarely used them. My heart broke. To think that we had celebrated this beautiful creature’s death, made me feel like the monster. I started singing a sad song to the Tondo. He surely deserved some sort of eulogy, and we had done nothing but clean him and tie him up to be transported. I sang a Celtic lullaby that my Grammy used to sing, and then the melody that the voice sang in my and Corey’s Scriptorium began to play in my head. I started humming the tune, and I didn’t realize that I knew the words until they began to pour out of me.
Hold me close, fly with me
Across immortal portals free.
Fall into the lover’s sea
With lips so full of worship.
I will hold you for all time.
Come and press your heart to mine.
With my promise on your breast
I live in your nearness.
Hold me fast, come let’s go
Where fireflies bask in afterglow.
My kiss enfolds the tender soul
In bliss so full of worship.
As the song trickled off behind me, I felt Corey’s presence wrap around me. It was as though we were still in the Scriptorium holding one another, kissing endlessly. “I have loved you for a thousand years,” I whispered.
The horse stopped beneath me and I looked up. We had paused in the trail. Tumbahti spoke in a hushed voice and Tara translated. “He says we are here.”
I looked around and saw only dense thicket and woods. No village, no people, nothing but forest. “Did he misunderstand where we wanted to go?” I asked.
Tara spoke to him again and Donnie interjected here and there.
They turned around with grins on their faces and pointed up.
I tilted my
head back to see what they were pointing at and squinted my eyes to make sense of what I saw. High in the tops of the trees above us was suspended a city of vine and leaf, bark and tree. People walked along massive pathways and bridges that were woven out of the branches and vines of the forest. Tree houses, store fronts, all manner of busy commerce took place above us. I looked over the trail we had taken and saw that we had actually been traveling under a main thoroughfare for a long while. The sounds they made in their daily doings blended effortlessly with the forest. The swish of a branch, the hoot of an owl, the call of a finch, the chime of a cricket all came from above.
Three men peered at us over the railing of the walkway. Their somber expressions of mournful disgruntlement as they studied the dead Tondo turned my stomach. One of them grabbed a boy by the arm, gave him a command and nodded down to us. The little boy’s eyes grew round. He nodded and ran off on whatever errand he had been sent to.
They passed into an enormous tree and I thought they had moved on. I was about to ask how we were going to get up to them, when they appeared on the ground beside the trunk of the large tree they had passed into.
Tumbahti spoke to them and introduced us.
“Welcome to the Darchori.” The leader spoke perfect English. We were stunned.
“You speak our language,” Trip responded.
“Yes. The Cianti Todura taught it to us.”
My heart beat spiked. It was Corey. The Cianti Todura had to be Corey.
“Why do you come here with your atrocities paraded between you?” He glanced at the Tondo with great sadness.
“We have come to bring him home,” Donnie said, “and receive whatever punishment you see fit to give.”
The elders put their heads together and spoke. The leader nodded. “We will leave it to the Cianti Todura to decide.”
“May we see the Cianti Todura?” Donnie asked.
“Old man, how can you see anything with those eyes?” A voice high above us spoke.
The Torn, Book One of the Holding Kate Series Page 17
