Banished

Together, we work the supple leather into a cross over design that offers some modesty but leaves my wings free. Amazingly, it appears I have been healed by the strange waters of the pond. Tattooed too, according to Khane. I long to see for myself but I am content to be pain free.

“You seem different too.” I muse as we pick our way through the underbrush, hopefully in a direction that will lead us back to camp. He looks the most relaxed I have ever seen him. Not as happy as when he’d first woke, but not a dark brooding mess either.

Khane nods as he holds a prickly vine away from my face with a fan palm.

“Bel and I share….Shared a connection. Last night, when I helped you out of that strange pond, something in the waters severed that connection. Before that I was sharing her experiences.” His expression closes down and I can see he doesn’t want to talk about it anymore.

“I’m sorry.” I feel like a total ass.

Here a tiny part of me was still stewing about his behavior the past two days when all along he had been suffering the same terrible fate that had befallen his girlfriend. I shudder. The Elite Guards didn’t come for just anyone. I had never seen them, had thought them to be more myth than real. There is little doubt that she’d been taken for something terrible and I can’t imagine the sense of powerlessness Khane must be feeling right now. He had escaped with us in the hope of saving her after her Banishment…. Only to find a small boy in her place….and then to share her experience…

The jungle proves less difficult on the way back and we push through in companionable silence. I think about the vibes I’d felt between us this morning. Could I have miss-interpreted what I had sensed? Clearly, I must have imagined his interest in me. His poor girlfriend could be strapped to a steel table right now, filled full of sample holes or whatever they did to you in those labs. I don’t see him as the sort of person that could jump from one bed to the next without thought, which means that the feelings from this morning were one sided. It makes me irritated and I suddenly realize that I want a partner, someone to have my back. I want someone to care for me, not just as a friend but as a lover too. I stifle a laugh, drawing a quizzical smile from Khane. Not yet a week outside the Gates of Banishment and already I am planning a life! And romance! What nonsense.

The sound of shouting breaks through my train of thought. I exchange a look of alarm with Khane. We had left the defenseless members of our group all alone! In a panic we tear through the underbrush, oblivious to thorns and sharply bladed fronds. Together we burst out of the foliage, I’m ready to twist and Khane has his great ax out. I imagined all kinds of terrible creatures rending my friends into small bits but as I look around I see no monsters. Instead, it seems as though a brawl has broken out. The newcomer, Heb, has his puny fists raised against Aito, his face a flushed mask of anger.

Naoaki is yelling, though at whom I can’t tell and Aito merely looks irritated. Our sudden explosion from the thick jungle causes a sudden lull in conversation as they all turn to stare. Shocked expressions all around and I realize we must look quite a sight. Scratches on our faces and arms, mud clumps clinging to our clothes and hints of luminous purple and blue where residue from the pond still glows.

We all gape at each other until Naoaki breaks the spell and falls down laughing. Tears streak her cheeks and she holds her stomach as though the very image of us all muddy and bloody is itself a big joke. I suspected she is just blowing off steam.

“What’s going on?” I ignore Naoaki on the ground. It’s the polite thing to do. I look to Aito for an explanation but it is Heb that has his say.

“He’s a thief! He stole something from me and I want it back!” Heb’s dark curls bounce in indignation, large eyes nearly popping out of his head. “I know it was you! I saw you rummaging through my things!” He shouts at Aito.

“Can we maybe talk about this in quieter tones?” I worry that all the yelling will attract one of the locals, something I’d like to avoid. The fog that has kept most creatures hunkered down, has lifted.

“Thief! Give it back!” Heb screams, his face turning a funny shade of magenta. I try to guess at what his twist might be.

By this point Naoaki has collected herself and recognizes the danger. She is trying her best to shush Heb but some fit seems have taken him and he keeps yelling ‘Thief!’ over and over at the top of his lungs.

I look at Khane, thinking maybe we will have to knock the small boy out to quiet him.

Then the ground starts to tremble. I feel the vibrations travel up my legs and waste no more time with conversation. Whatever is coming is huge. This is not a fight or flight moment… we need to get gone now! I race to the tent, grab Fish, cinch him in place and grab the straps of two packs. Then I am off, trusting that the others have enough sense to follow my lead. I hear them behind me as I crash back into the underbrush. I figure our best bet is to head back to the strange pond. The trees grew much closer together in that area and I hope it will be enough to slow down whatever is coming for us.

Then I hear Naoaki scream, stopping me cold. Glancing back, I almost wish I had just kept going. Over the tops of my friends heads, through the swaying purple palms, I see my own worst nightmare. I can’t see the beast in entirety, a flash of beak and a tentacle is all it takes to turn my insides to ice. I want to vomit but instead I race back, tossing the packs I was carrying to Khane as I run past him. ‘You’re going the wrong way!’ a voice in my head screams. At least I think it is all in my head. I hope I’m not yelling my fool head off like an idiot. Everything is a blur of fear ridden images and I struggle to stay focused.

I grasp Naoaki’s arm in a steel grip and throw her arm across my shoulders, taking the pressure off her twisted ankle. It takes every ounce of combat training to not run away and leave her but every warrior knows that we are only as strong as our weakest link. That, and it is Naoaki… somehow this miss-matched group of society’s discards have become something more to me than just a means for survival.

I can’t say how long we crash through the jungle. We skirt the pond, Khane yelling a warning before anyone dove in. Fear and adrenaline keep us moving forward as the creature doggedly pursues us. It is slowed by the purple palms just as I’d hoped, but our scent keeps it interested. We run until our legs turn to jelly. We run until we can’t. We run until we break from the jungle and crash into an outcropping of giant gray and beige colored boulders. We have been fleeing since morning and now the orange haze in the sky suggests the end of the day. We’d been running, tripping and picking each other up, nearly the whole day.

I sag, exhausted. Panting, sweaty and exhausted, I hand Fish over to Naoaki and find a

patch of shade to crumple into. I am spent. I could have fallen asleep on the spot, would have if Aito didn’t insisted we move further into the boulders. How he has the energy to think at this point I don’t know.

“Here! There’s a path.” Aito pushes us to move and is met with a chorus of groans and other less polite sounds. The distant bellow ofsomethinggets us up, however.

The path is a meandering route through large dun colored boulders and I am sure Aito is making it up as he goes. We crawl over rocks still burning hot from the day’s sun and scoot on our butts under wide overhangs of flat stones. It is as though some big hand has scooped up a mountain and let it dribble to earth from a closed fist. At one point I have to squeeze through a narrow alley, not sure I will make it through to the other side. My back only barely brushes against the rough wall and I brace myself, expecting pain. But it is merely discomfort, the grazing of skin on stone, nothing more.

By now the sun is setting, the sky behind us fading to dark. As I step out onto a narrow plateau and join the others I am met with an expanse of crimson, rose and violet.

The whole world is spread out before us and I am awed by the enormity of it. Passing storms and the setting sun have given us a gift. Every color I can name flowers briefly and then fades to something more muted but equally beautiful. Small, wispy clouds glow pink and teal.

We stand in a line, battered, bruised and scratched. Shoulder to shoulder we watch the sun set, mesmerized. I can’t speak and I feel lines of wetness trailing down my cheeks. The colors finally fade and the last sliver of brilliant orange has dipped below our line of sight. There is a flash of brilliant green and then night is upon us.

“Ah, guys….What’s that twinkling light? Is that a city?”