Wilderness Untamed

by Butler, J. M.

  WroOth shrugged. "Supposedly it's one of the more efficient ways Vawtrians learn to fly. But there are some risks to the method. I did learn to fly within a relatively short time. Though I may have taken a few trees along with me."

  She stared at him incredulously. "You learned to fly because you were thrown off the edges of cliffs?"

  "AaQar was always waiting below. He'd grab us before we struck the ground if we didn't succeed in transforming. Though this one—" WroOth indicated QueQoa once more, laughing. "He wouldn't make a sound. Not even when he was falling. AaQar almost missed him on more than one occasion because he wouldn't even squeak."

  "It seemed pointless."

  "But apparently correcting everyone that you were not in fact younger than me was important," WroOth countered.

  QueQoa took another bite of the meat. "Yes."

  She held up her hand, continuing to watch them both in shock. "If Naatos and I somehow have children, are you going to throw them off cliffs?"

  "Not before they're ready and not for a very long time, dear heart." WroOth sat on the other side of the fire. "It's actually not the preferred method, but you see, Naatos and AaQar only had our parents to learn from, and our father was… well, how else do you say it but a kivakil donar. He cared about only two things: efficiency and strength. And when he threw AaQar and Naatos off those embankments, he didn't catch them. But with my children and AaQar's, we knew better. Children should really only be thrown off cliffs when they are truly ready."

  Sorrow cut through her, deepened as she remembered Naatos's dream. "Your father was horrible."

  WroOth's expression had grown dark. He stared into the fire. "He was a dreadful man by every accounting. Thankfully he is dead. And hopefully it was an agonizing death that took decades to complete."

  Her heart had slowed its terrified pace. She remained at the edge of the circle, resisting the urge to come closer. "I'm sorry that happened to you and your brothers." It was the only thing that she could think to say, but even though it was sincere, it could not accomplish much.

  "I would be too if it weren't so pointless." WroOth tossed a stick on the fire. "But if you throw a person you care about or invested in, you should always have the decency to assure they are caught."

  "Or perhaps we could bypass the whole throwing people who don't want to be thrown entirely," Amelia suggested.

  WroOth cut his eyes at her, smiling.

  Scoffing, she shook her head. "Of course not. That would be reasonable." She paused then, realizing he was gone.

  QueQoa raised an eyebrow but resumed peeling the bark off a branch. "Probably off flying. Bit abrupt."

  "He's here." She held her finger up as she spread her focus through the clearing. QueQoa's presence was solid, firmly planted just to the left of the fire. WroOth's had been stretched, streaking across broad swathes of air, moving up and down.

  The wind whispered above her, the leaves rustling in harmony with it. And WroOth, whatever he was doing, seemed to be simultaneously high in the trees, low to the ground, and all around. Twice something glimmered in the air like the half-revealed wing of a dragonfly.

  She pressed her hand to the side of her face but kept her elmis exposed, trying to focus.

  "Are you mindreading?" QueQoa clicked his tongue at her. "You're supposed to be resting that today."

  "Invisible tiger swallow, rising and falling circles." She set her hands on her waist. "What—"

  WroOth appeared behind her. "No mindreading." Seizing her, he flung her up in the air.

  Her hand narrowly missed grabbing him as she shot up in the air. Then that awful falling sensation. WroOth easily caught her. "You're getting better. We should do that again."

  She grabbed a fistful of his hair close to the scalp. "WroOth! No more throwing me."

  "Amelia—" he started.

  She took hold of his lithok earring with her other hand, digging her thumb under the elaborate silver covering fastened into the cartilage of his ear. "Your face comes with me if you throw me again without permission."

  WroOth winced. "That's a remarkably small but insistent pain. Ah, careful, dear heart."

  "Do you understand what I'm saying, WroOth?" she demanded.

  He held up his arms to release her. "I hear you very well," he said. "And… apparently you aren't ready to let go."

  She remained coiled against him, elbow on his shoulder, fist embedded in his hair and the other wrapped around his ear. "Do we have an understanding?"

  "Fine." He shook his head, then winced. "Enough, dear heart. You're becoming tedious."

  "You're going to have to lean down. I think I'm stuck in your hair, and if I stop supporting myself on your shoulder, it's just going to rip out."

  The underbrush crunched, then the bushes moved back. Naatos entered the clearing. He stopped on the other side of the fire, holding his spear loosely at his side. "WroOth, there's something in your hair." He was remarkably calm for her having just been screaming. He opened up the vessel of colrum serum and peered inside.

  "Really?" WroOth cast him a dark glance. "I hadn't noticed." He moved over to the nearest log. "You are ridiculously short. You should work on that."

  "I'll do that as soon as I figure out how to turn my bones into rubber." She gained her balance again. His hair had wrapped around her bracelet and tangled in the chain. "Your hair is like a nest of snakes."

  "Next time I'll lure my enemies into it," WroOth said dryly. "Now, now, stop pulling."

  "Just hold still." Amelia tried to untangle the mass. "It's really stuck."

  "Is it really?" WroOth said testily. He flinched. "You're making it worse!"

  "Can you just shift out the tangles?"

  "I could, but I'd probably take your fingers with me. My precision needs work thanks to that cursed huanna and wretched ilzinium."

  "Just hold still, both of you." Naatos unsheathed his hunting knife. "QueQoa, help AaQar with the sledge."

  "Too late." AaQar dragged the sledge in. He frowned slightly as he straightened. "WroOth, what did you do?"

  "I had nothing to do with this," QueQoa said, lifting his hands.

  "Sikalt," WroOth said with mock annoyance. "Traitor."

  Naatos gripped her wrist and then cut through WroOth's hair, leaving a large jagged spot on the side of WroOth's head. Hair remained snagged and tangled on the ridges of the bone as well as mostly in the chain. "Do you two need to apologize to one another?"

  "Anyone who throws me in the air without permission is going to get their face ripped or their hair torn out." She accepted the bracelet back and slipped her wrist through it. The humming resumed at once. "What is this humming exactly?"

  "Magic, energy, whatever you want to call it. It provides added strength to keep the things that need to be confined, confined." He ran his thumb along the bone bracelet's darker red-brown markings and highlights. "You should probably learn energy reservation and preservation sooner rather than later, but only after you've mastered barriers and shields."

  "Except I'm supposed to be resting."

  "Is that what you were doing?" Naatos arched an eyebrow and gave a skeptical pass around the camp.

  "As much as I can. Supposedly we were training, but I think they just wanted an excuse to throw me."

  WroOth shook out his hair and rubbed his temple briskly. As he did, the hair on the side of his head swiftly grew and then evened out, shortening a little to make it even with all the rest. He smoothed it back and then clipped it low against his neck. "If you are small enough to be flung, you should expect that that will happen once or twice or ten times."

  Naatos scoffed. "We leave at first light. Whatever can be packed tonight, we pack."

  That was all it took to bring them all back to focus. Her ban on any activity other than rest was apparently up as well. Or at least no one said anything further. As she was rolling up clothes to put into the packs, she asked WroOth, "Did I hurt you?"

  "What?" WroOth laughed. He wrapped his arm around her an
d squeezed her tight. "No." He sighed. "We just need to figure out how to get you rubber bones or how to fly."

  "I'll work on that." She started to pull free, but he grabbed her by the back of the neck. "Yes?"

  "You listen when we're out there, all right? I'm not going to forgive you if you die. I've lost enough people I love."

  "I know." She sighed. "I had been thinking about doing it just because—"

  "You little sikalt." He chuckled as he pushed her away. "I'll hold you to it."

  The rest of the evening passed without incident, the time with the family almost pleasant. Especially for it being their last night in this place.

  A lot had changed.

  Not enough that she could sleep in her own trench with the dolmaths all vying for snuggles.

  Shuddering, she retreated to the top of the boulder and knotted the string around her wrist. Tacky followed her as usual, insisting on sleeping beside her stomach. Only a few other dolmaths joined her on the boulder. Few enough she could manage and breathe through the tension. Occasionally, her heart still galloped with terror, and that sesame seed oil scent twisted her stomach with nausea from time to time.

  When Naatos finished his watch and AaQar took his place, he came alongside her boulder. "You're still awake."

  "It's not the easiest thing to sleep right now. I can… I can feel everyone." She stretched her hand out on the cool stone. "I feel lighter inside. Maybe a little empty. But not bad. Not even that stiff after they were throwing me around like that."

  "If you're stiff in the morning, you should soak in the suphrite. Even for just a few minutes. It will take the ache out before we spend all day walking."

  "Are these suphrite streams common here?" This was maybe the best part about Naatos. The part that did know how to care for people, to see to needs. She rested her chin on the stone as well, watching him. There was almost a softness to him in this firelight, a calm that she could draw close to. His presence could be so intense at times, but here, for now, it had become easier to accept.

  "They aren't uncommon, but we won't be able to stay near one every night." He jerked his chin toward his brothers. "What are you feeling right now? Without trying to read. What is it that's coming through?"

  "They're worried. So are you but not as much."

  "What about you? Are you worried?"

  She shook her head. "No… I'm just… I think I'm just here." She turned her head to rest her cheek on the rock as she watched him. "I'm all right. Better than I have been in a long while I suppose."

  "If you'd like to join me in my trench…" He let his voice trail off as he gestured to the space, a space which already had twelve dolmaths scurrying about, not to mention dozens of others circling all the rest where they slept and massing on AaQar as he stood watch.

  She smiled a little. "Not tonight. The dolmaths are still a little much for me. And there's always so many of them. But…" She put her hand over his. "Ask me again in a few days."

  Leaning forward, he brushed his lips over the back of her hand. "I will." He breathed a long low sigh. "It's such a pity you want to sleep alone tonight."

  "Alone? You call five dolmaths alone?" She pointed to the ones that had taken up residence on and around her. "The only reason the boulder is better is because most of them prefer the easy route."

  Chuckling, he shook his head. "You have two questions to answer for me, veskaro. From earlier."

  Did she? She frowned slightly. Hadn't those just been if she asked him to give her a day off of whatever seduction he wanted to attempt? "What might those be?"

  "Do you like it when I tell you you're beautiful?"

  Oof. That. She dipped her head forward. "I—" Lies sprang up at once. Denials. Hedges. But the whole point was to be honest. Every part of her hated to answer this. There really was only one answer. "I don't want it to matter to me. But... it does. It actually does. So yes… I suppose I do. But it also makes me—" She shuddered. "Does it make you feel awkward when you're told you're handsome?"

  "No, because I am. When you tell me I'm handsome though—" He made some low growling sound that made her bury her face in her arm.

  She groaned and buried her face in her arm. "What's your other question?"

  "If it weren't for the dolmaths, would you share a bed with me now?"

  Her breath caught in her throat. "Yes," she whispered.

  This time the growl was a little louder. "I have never wanted to harm a single dolmath in the entirety of my life until now."

  She kept her head down, unable to hide her smile. "Soon."

  "Not nearly soon enough." He kissed her hand once more. "And remember, veskaro, if there are things you want, whatever they are, tell me."

  Twisting her wrist, she caught his fingers. "There is one thing."

  "Oh?" Curiosity brightened his eyes. "What might that be?"

  "I want to talk to you as well. I want to know who you are. To understand you. Not tonight. It's going to be a challenging day tomorrow, and we all need to rest. But soon."

  He smiled. "Soon."

  44

  The Trail

  Sleep once more brought darkness and the odd sensation that something else was there. The white-eyed being crouched down so it was eye level with her and simply stared. But as soon as she woke, that image faded until it was only a set of two moons.

  Morning brought with it a flurry of activities. Everything was packed or placed in a large chest AaQar had made. The wooden chest had an invitation burned into the top: for whoever has need.

  "It's unlikely we will encounter anyone else or that anyone else will find this," AaQar said. "But just in case…" He actually seemed a little comforted by this, as if he did think there could be other wanderers out there.

  "I'm sure they will be comforted when they find it." Amelia squeezed his hand.

  It took only a couple hours to finish preparing for their departure. Mercifully, there was no flirting or teasing. Just work. Good simple work that was easy to hide in.

  Naatos and QueQoa had removed a portion of the barriers to make it easier for them to leave. The wooden spikes were placed carefully beneath the thorn trees. Just in case someone other travelers needed them because they most certainly would not be returning here.

  And just like that, they were out of the camp, the small home they had shared for what felt like months.

  They followed the same pattern as their journey to Tri Ce with Naatos leading, AaQar near him, and QueQoa and WroOth bringing up the rear and keeping close to her.

  Progress through the forest was slow. They only made it ten minutes or so before seven-clawed raptors lunged in. Everyone was ready though. All four raptors fell before they landed their first strikes. Proteus grabbed one of the largest raptors out of the air mid-leap and dragged it a few steps to the side while draining it dry before it could even dig its claws in.

  "That didn't take long," she said, staring at the four corpses in shock. The first one had just turned to dust as the bavril started on the second, dragging it with them as they walked.

  "We got farther than I expected." WroOth herded her back toward the bavril. "Don't get too curious. Especially not once we make it out into the open ground."

  "We'll remain under forest cover for the rest of the day," Naatos called back. "Amelia, stay close."

  That made some spiteful bit of her want to walk straight out into the middle of the forest, but commonsense won out. It didn't do her any good to make a useless point. So she put her hand against Proteus's side once more and carried on. His pace remained steady regardless of what showed up or called out unless Naatos commanded him to stop. The predators didn't seem to bother it either. At most, he raised his hackles and swung out his long trunk to snatch whatever prey it could.

  They made it only another twenty minutes before a casket weaver nearly dropped on AaQar's head. The bavril remained uninterested in that as Naatos and AaQar dealt with it swiftly. QueQoa jumped in as well and flung it back into the forest to finish
dying.

  Amelia shuddered. This was going to be a very long journey. And where would it end? What would they do? The fact that none of the brothers appeared particularly concerned about it so long as she stayed close to Proteus made it a little discordant. Everyone felt so much, but they kept it below the surface. There were concerns about what they would find along the way and in Darmoste itself as well as what the world did or didn't hold. Not to mention a fair bit about Rasha.

  But each of them seemed to have concluded that the best way to handle this journey was to pretend as if, for now, none of those issues actually existed. So though it lurked beneath the surface, so obvious it hurt, she did not pry. At least not aloud.

  Her own thoughts twisted and turned over the subjects, organizing bits of information and observations in between the heart-stopping terror of creatures lunging out to attack. It was impressive to watch the brothers shift though. Naatos in particular could turn on a half second's notice.

  Whatever slowness he had complained of earlier was not apparent now. Of course she had stayed silent and avoided him entirely. He only occasionally showed hiccups or delays in finalizing the forms. And aside from the one time he cautioned her to stay close, he'd said nothing to her.

  That hadn't kept QueQoa and WroOth from chatting as amiably as if this was just an ordinary Thursday. They exchanged stories and told her various odd facts and less than helpful things amid the general guidances and facts. AaQar occasionally pointed out factually relevant things, especially any plant life that had a purpose.

  The forest itself grew thinner as they continued, the trees taking on even more shades and growing with broader branches. More and more of them had mangrove-like roots, arching up out of the soil and creating great arches and passages. Naatos never led them under these.

  Amelia found her own pace a little more skittish around those yawning dark chasms with their trails of webs and moss. Especially when a large claw groped out and nearly nicked QueQoa's heel. WroOth just pushed her along. "Don't give them any attention. They're overly dramatic little beasts."