by Elin Wyn
I wasn’t that talented.
However, if our situations were reversed, I’d be shaking my head.
“That’s not how it works.” I decided to toy with him a little bit. It kept the mood light and the adrenaline in check.
“Please explain to me how listening works. One of us has a fundamental misunderstanding and I don’t think it’s me.”
“I close my eyes so that I can concentrate more on what I hear. You’d be amazed at the difference it makes,” I explained. “Don’t try it now, though. One of us needs to be able to see where we’re going.”
“That’s exactly what you would say if you were feeding me a load of srell,” Tyehn tutted.
“It takes practice to be able to truly listen. When the Xathi war ended, I had a lot of issues I needed to work through. Learning how to breathe again was the first step. Learning how to see was the second. Finally, I had to relearn how to listen. Lucky for me, my father taught me how to listen to the world around me when I was very young. It wasn’t hard to relearn how to do this correctly.”
“I’m sorry.” He was no longer teasing me. I heard genuine remorse in his voice. “It’s not my place to judge how anyone copes after the Xathi war.”
“You don’t have anything to apologize for. I wasn’t offended.” I listened to his footsteps and figured out where he was in relation to me. I reached out and patted his shoulder.
“What were you aiming for?”
“Your shoulder. Why?”
“You did not touch my shoulder. That was my chest.”
“Oh.” I felt a blush on my cheeks, though I didn’t know why. “Sorry.”
“Don’t apologize. You didn’t offend me,” he shot my line back at me. “What are you listening for, again?”
“Listening keeps me from panicking. Also, if I’m extremely focused, I’m better at feeling the vibrations of other creatures. Might be helpful since we’re trying to outrun a horde of possessed.”
“You don’t seem focused.”
“I’m not but that’s not going to stop me from trying.”
My foot caught on something on the ground. Probably another damned root. I didn’t panic as I stumbled forward.
My hand went to the nearest tree to stop my fall, but not before two strong hands gripped my shoulders.
“It’s time to open your eyes.”
My lids fluttered open. I found myself looking up at Tyehn. He looked equal parts concerned and amused.
“Much better.” He had a handsome smile. I felt another blush coming so I straightened myself up and stepped back.
“Thanks. I would’ve caught myself, you know?”
“I’m sure of it.” He winked. “Did you hear anything interesting?”
“Yes, actually. Aside from our chatter, I heard nothing.”
“How is that interesting?” Tyehn made a show of crushing down a wayward root so I could pass over it without tripping.
“How much time have you spent in the forests of Ankou?” I asked.
“Too much,” he laughed.
“When has it ever been this silent?”
Tyehn’s smile dropped as he listened to what neither of us were hearing.
“That’s not normal.”
“No,” I sighed. “It’s not. All of the creatures are hiding or have moved somewhere else. That’s never a good sign.”
“Could that also mean the possessed have moved on to a more active part of the forest?” I considered this for a moment.
“It’s possible,” I agreed. “I wouldn’t bet my life on it.”
A beep came from Tyehn’s comm unit.
“Maybe you should. Look.”
He showed me a tiny console screen with a little green dot.
“Is that supposed to mean something to me?”
“That’s the shuttle station at the EcoBright camp,” Tyehn explained. “It was offline all day but now it’s back on.”
“It must be running now. The EcoBright team must’ve sent the shuttle for evacuations.”
“Let’s go see if they need any help. Walk with your eyes open this time, please?” Tyehn chuckled. We picked up a steady running pace and made it back to the camp within the hour.
There was no sign of the EcoBright team but the shuttle was there. It had been tipped on its side and completely gutted.
“This doesn’t look recent,” I frowned. “I thought the signal just went off?”
“It did. I don’t understand.”
“We’ll just have to be careful,” I said.
Tyehn let out a groan of frustration.
“Well, my bike’s just over there. I don’t think it’s been messed with.” I tapped his arm and wave for him to follow me.
Ever since I’d been assigned to the EcoBright team, I’d been parking my bike just outside of the clearing.
Luckily, it was exactly where I left it and untouched by the possessed.
“You’re kidding right?” Tyehn laughed when he saw it. “I’m never going to fit on that.”
“It’s stronger than it looks,” I replied. “The bike was custom made for my height but it can hold much more than my weight.”
“How much more?”
“Not sure. Let’s give it a go. That shuttle’s not taking us anywhere anytime soon. It’s been damaged.”
I swung into the seat and patted the space behind me.
“That’s not even six inches of space,” Tyehn laughed.
“Stand on the supports here. Don’t sit. We can make this work.”
“Your optimism’s impressive. I’ll give you that much.”
Tyehn swung his leg over the bike and tried to find a place that would work. He was so tall that my back rested against his thighs when he stood on the back of the bike. The bike groaned under the weight of us.
I used the hand scanner to power it up. It rumbled to life but it didn’t sound right. When I slowly pushed the lever to move it forward, it refused to budge.
“This isn’t going to work,” I sighed.
“That’s what I told you.” He swung his leg back over and stepped away from the bike. “You should take it and ride out of here. I’ll find a way back.”
“That’s not fair,” I said. “I’ll walk the bike out with you. We shouldn’t split up with those things still out there.”
“I’m giving you a chance to get out of here faster. Take it.”
“How about this? If worst comes to worst, I’ll ditch you on the bike.”
“Perfect,” he grinned. “Let’s take one more look at the shuttle before we head out. Maybe we can get it running.”
“I’m game if you are.”
Together, we walked my bike over to the upturned shuttle.
“The signal transmitter is still in one piece.” Tyehn picked up a hunk of metal with a green flashing light. “Why wasn’t it activated before?”
The telltale shrieks of the possessed tore our attention from the shuttle.
“You don’t think they activated the shuttle signal to lure someone in, right?” I asked.
“No. That would be ridiculous.” Tyehn sounded as unconvinced as I felt.
“Right. That would mean they’re capable of advanced planning.”
“We’re in deep srell, aren’t we?”
“Only if we stick around. And… there’s something I need to tell you.”
I pushed my bike behind the shuttle and hoped that would be enough to stop it from getting torn to pieces when the possessed arrived.
“Tell it to me fast, and get out of here, Maki,” Tyehn growled.
“The bike’s not running at all. The signal transmitter is on, but it’s like the power cells have been drained.”
“Seriously?”
I canted my head. “Would I joke at a time like this?”
“Yes,” he deadpanned.
No sooner had I taken my place next to Tyehn than the possessed burst forward from the tree line.
“I’m so sick of this,” I groaned. “Which way’s the n
earest outpost?”
“Southwest of us, I think. First step, getting the hell out of here.”
The possessed clicked and chittered to each other as they fanned out around us. A few hunched forward, ready to lunge at the perfect moment.
I was determined not to give them that moment.
“I’m not keen on taking my eyes off those things to check my navigation unit,” Tyehn snapped.
“Fair enough. Southwest it is. On my signal.” I lifted a hand and bid him to follow my lead. As the possessed moved, I mirrored their movements. I angled myself so that I faced southwest.
“Run!” I shouted.
We took off toward the tree line with the possessed on our heels.
“How many more times am I going to have to do this today?” I groaned.
Tyehn kept pace with me but as the possessed started gaining on us, he moved faster.
“Pick up the pace!” He called back to me.
“This is as fast as I can go.” Already my legs were burning from overexertion.
“You should’ve taken your bike.”
“Believe me, I wish it was an option” I was only half joking. Up ahead, I spied a low hanging branch.
One of the horde lunged at me, missing my leg by half an inch. Without hesitation, I leapt for the low branch and used my momentum to push me forward to the next one.
“What are you doing?” Tyehn shouted from below me.
“Outrunning psychotic monster-people,” I replied. “Swing up on the next low branch you see then follow my lead.”
I leaped far enough to pass Tyehn below me. I couldn’t take my eyes off the path of branches, vines, trunks, and boulders in front of me to check on him but I heard him swing up before long.
When I had a moment of stability, I looked back.
Tyehn threw himself from landing spot to landing spot. He wasn’t properly balanced and relied entirely on his strength to keep himself from falling, but now wasn’t the time to critique his form.
As long as he didn’t fall to his death, we were fine.
“Now I’m really wishing you took the bike,” he yelled to me.
“I’m not. This is way too fun. Now, pick up the pace!”
Tyehn
“What you moping about up there?” Maki asked me as we kept going.
I looked down at her and couldn’t help but be impressed by how resilient she was considering how tiny she was compared to me.
“I’m not moping,” I answer, putting on a pouty face to emphasize my point.
She laughed. “Yeah, okay there jolly green giant. If you’re not moping, then I’m flying in the sky right now.”
“I can make that happen, you know,” I quipped back. “But, in seriousness, I’m not moping, just thinking. I’m trying to figure out how these people are becoming hybrids again.”
“Yeah,” she nodded. “It does seem a bit odd since there aren’t any Xathi left.”
“That’s exactly what I was thinking,” I answer as I grabbed my canteen and offered it to her. She accepted it and took a hard pull from it.
“Thanks,” she said as she handed it back to me. I nodded in return as I took a healthy pull myself.
“Any idea what direction we’re headed?” I asked as we crunched through more snow. I looked up to see a few more flakes falling, but the tree cover was catching most of it, for now.
“Honestly? No,” she answered me. “Sika’s not a big jungle, but she also doesn’t follow most jungle rules either. There’s no moss on the trees and with the cloud cover right now, can’t see the sun.”
I nodded as I stepped over a fallen tree, reaching back to offer her help. She took my hand and smiled a thank you to me as she climbed over it.
It wasn’t a big tree, but she was forced to climb thanks to her lack of height.
“You had to climb,” I teased her with a forced chuckle.
“Shut up,” she responded with a slap to my arm. “We can’t all have mile long legs like your lanky ass.”
I held back my chuckle and simply responded with a “Ah, jealous of the legs, huh.”
She shrugged a little. “Nah, always liked my height. Makes it easier to get in and out of things. Plus, I don’t have to worry about hitting my head on things like doorways or branches, look out.”
I immediately ducked as I stepped forward. I looked back and saw that there was a good sized branch where my face would have been. “Thank you. Not sure how that meeting with the tree would have worked out for me.”
“Probably not well.” She smiled up at me as we walked and I found myself drawn into that smile, like a planet into a black hole.
I fought it, but I could tell I was losing the battle.
“True,” I smiled back at her. We continued making our way through, at a slow pace thanks to the increasing snow fall. “I wonder if anyone can follow our trail?” I say as I looked back and took notice of the massive footprints I was leaving in the snow next to Maki’s smaller ones.
She looked back. “Nah, we’re invisible. Those are animal tracks.”
“Makes sense. You were snoring like one last night,” I said just as I jumped forward to avoid the inevitable smack.
“Hey!” I looked back to see her mouth agape in exaggerated shock. “You weren’t exactly quiet yourself.”
“Quiet enough to keep the possessed away,” I shot back. “Thirsty?”
“Wait, what?”
“I’m asking if you’re thirsty.”
“A little. Why?”
I looked down at my boots as I stood in the small stream that I had accidentally jumped into. “No reason,” I answered.
As she approached, she had a knowing look on her face. “Ah, you found water, and as usual, you had to go and step in it, didn’t you?”
I put my arms out to my side. “I was trying to make sure it was safe, and since it’s not burning my boots, we know it’s water and not a stream of acid.”
I watched as she tried to hold back the laughter, but she failed miserably. I took out my canteen, drank a bit, then handed to her to finish off.
After she emptied it, I refilled it from the stream. It was ice cold, which wasn’t surprising considering the weather.
I heard a rustling noise and looked back to see her opening a pack of what looked to be dried fruit. She held it out to me with a questioning look on her face.
“Thank you,” I said as I cupped my hand. She poured some into my palm, then dipped her fingers into the pack and ate some.
I took a few pieces out and put them in my mouth, letting my saliva rehydrate them before chewing on them. I was pleasantly surprised by the rush of flavor that was still there.
Dried food, outside of what the humans called beef jerky, was not one of my more pleasant memories here.
“What do we do now?” she asked after a few minutes.
I shrugged as I put the rest of the fruit into my mouth. After a minute of chewing, I finally had an empty enough mouth to answer.
“I’m not sure. We keep walking and hope we either reach the end of the jungle so we can figure out where we are, or we make it back to the shuttle. Hopefully my team will be there, in one piece, and we’ll be able to get out of here.”
“Okay. What if we don’t make it to the shuttle and end up leaving the jungle instead?” she asked as she pulled out another pack of dried fruit.
“Then we figure out a new plan from there,” I answered. “Don’t worry, I’ll do everything that I can to keep you safe.”
“Yeah? With what? I think you’re out of ammunition there, Jolly.”
I flashed her a look when she called me ‘Jolly,’ but I chose to ignore it for the moment. “I still have some ammunition, plus my sword and my knives. If all else fails, I make you talk to them and we should be fine.”
“Oh, o-o-okay. You find me that annoying then,” she stated.
I throw my arms out wide as I put on an over-exaggerated thinking face. “No, not annoying per se,” I dragged out the last syllable
.
With a gasp of indignation, she reached down and grabbed some snow to throw at me. Her ‘weapon’ went wide. “You throw like a human,” I teased.
“I’ll show you ‘human’,” she shot back as she grabbed more snow, taking her time to pack it tight. I stood there, on the edge of the stream, waiting.
As she stood and threw, I barely dodged it. She could throw. As I stood up, another snowball hit me in the chin and she erupted into laughter.
“Nice,” I said as I wiped the snow away. “Good throw.”
“Thank you,” she returned with a curtsey.
I shook my head and smiled. “I’ll be right back, need to answer nature.”
“Gross, but thanks for letting me know you’ll be back,” she grimaced.
I walked a few paces away and went behind a tree to relieve myself. There was something different about this woman from all of the others that I knew.
She could most certainly take care of herself if needed, and she seemed to be unafraid of anything, except the things she needed to be afraid of.
Even then, it didn’t seem as though she was scared, just appropriately cautious and aware of the situation. She seemed to know when running was a good idea.
She’s a Valorni in human skin, I started to think to myself as I finished. I was cut short by Maki’s scream.
In less than two seconds, I was back where Maki was.
She was surrounded by six possessed.
These ones looked different than the ones we fought in the clearing.
They weren’t dressed like scientists or the team of guards they had with them.
They looked like normal people, one of them was even in a business-style suit while another looked to be some sort of cook or something from a restaurant.
They might be every day, regular people, except for one thing.
They were closing in on Maki.
Primal rage took over and I let out a growl that made them all jump.
I didn’t remember moving, but I was suddenly in the middle of them all, tearing, punching, breaking, and kicking at anything that wasn’t Maki.
One of them jumped on my back, but I punched back and felt the sickening, yet oddly satisfying feeling of a face crushing beneath my blow.
