Outlier

by L. J. Hachmeister

  “You’re kind of a grumpy fella, aren’t ya?” she said, reaching out and touching his back leg. She marveled at the smoothness of the black fur covering his upper body, and the slick feel of the scales covering his hind quarters, legs and tail. Sitting beside him, she spotted the webbed folds of skin between his waist and arms, and when he shifted forward, she saw how it went taut.

  Like wings!

  But the rest of his anatomy didn’t make sense for flight, especially not the heavily spiked tip of his tail, or the sheer size of his frame. That, and the extent of his injuries.

  We’re both in pretty bad shape.

  Something in the distance howled, then tapered off in a garble, as if the cry had been strangled right out of it.

  Don’t wanna to find out what did that.

  “We can’t stay here,” she said, running her hand along his tail, trying to divert his attention.

  Clouds gathered near the moon, threatening to thrust them into total darkness. Sen looked around, trying to memorize the narrow paths between the towering trees, but she knew better than to think she could possibly navigate safely in such conditions.

  “Please.” Gently, she pulled herself up by his fur. “We need to find help.”

  Her animal companion emitted a deep bass rumbling from his throat but lowered his body enough for her to haul herself up onto his back.

  “I think I’ll call you… Akoto,” she said, holding on tight to the bony prominences between his shoulder blades. “It means ‘friend’ in the old language.”

  Whether he understood or not, Akoto made his way through the trees with his nose to the ground, sniffing and snorting. Sen held on best she could, but her swollen right arm would have no part in any prolonged exertion. Electric pain coursed up her arm and into her chest, sending waves of nausea up her throat.

  Switching to a single handhold, she bit down on her lower lip and went through her options.

  Can’t go back.

  And I don’t have anything to offer those people.

  Even outside the Realm, she couldn’t escape her lot.

  I’m not good enough, even out here.

  Sen swallowed hard, fighting the tears that threatened to fall. But instead of dwelling on the impossible, she pressed her head against Akoto’s back, feeling his coarse fur, and the outline of his vertebrae and ribs against her face. “Thanks again for saving me… I wish I had more cherry dumplings for you.”

  The thought of food made her pause.

  When was the last time I ate? Counting backward, she estimated at least four days. Why am I not hungry?

  From the few times she paid attention to her mother’s teachings on plant medicine, she recalled one pertinent lesson: “If you suspect an infection, and the patient has lost their appetite and has a fever, have them chew on a vega root.”

  She leaned over to the side, trying to get a better view of the ground, but Akoto protested the shift in weight, and tried to move her back in the middle by flicking his shoulders.

  “Akoto, no—!”

  Tumbling off, she landed in a tuft of feather grass. Akoto wheeled back around, his eyes dilated with concern.

  “It’s okay, friend. I know you didn’t mean it,” she said, scratching his inquisitive nose. Using his arm, she hauled herself up with a groan, and resumed her search.

  As the moonlight waned under the veil of clouds, she found a patch of the familiar green and blue sprouts near a stream. She gave up trying to use her right arm after a few painful attempts to grasp at the stems, and instead kept it pressed to her chest as she dug into the ground with her left. Too exhausted to rinse off the dirty root, she gave it a shake, and then stuck it in her mouth. The bitter taste made her lips purse, but she gave it a few chews, swallowing the foul-tasting juices.

  Bleh! Who would even try this in the first place?

  Wearily, she dug up a few more and placed them in her satchel. She offered one to Akoto, but after he took a whiff, he made a disgusted face and snorted.

  “You don’t know what you’re missing,” she said, half-grimacing as she swallowed another mouthful.

  Akoto’s one and a half ears perked up, and he rose on his back legs as he gazed upstream.

  “Wha?” Sen said, half of the root dangling out of her mouth.

  Darkness blanketed the forest.

  “Akoto—” Sen whispered, spitting out the contents of her mouth and reaching out to find her friend. She felt the scales of his back leg, and held on tight.

  Growling, the giant beast lowered himself down on all fours. She felt his entire body tense under her hand.

  Something’s out there, she thought, sensing the pervading silence in the forest.

  Heart pounding, she groped around Akoto’s side until she found a secure enough handhold to bring herself up onto his back. He didn’t wait very long, taking off at the fastest pace his injured body would allow. The choppy gait made it difficult to hold on, especially with only one good hand.

  “Run faster,” she bade her friend as chill shot down her spine.

  Something’s behind us.

  No—

  Her eyes widened as images unfolded before her in the dark.

  —inside me.

  Looking down, she saw the faint outline of a hand passing through her shirt and reaching inside her stomach. Cold fingers raked against the back of her spine, sending waves of bright light up into her skull. Voices, emanating from all around her, filled her ears until she couldn’t separate herself from their caustic whispers.

  Underneath her, Akoto faltered. He stuttered, teetering to the side before coming to a standstill.

  “No!” she screamed, throwing her arms around Akoto’s neck. Don’t hurt him!

  Light blossomed from around her hold, spreading out across Dethros like an expanding halo. Something bellowed, making everything around and inside her shake, but the sensation passed, and she felt a great release.

  “What was that?” she said as she tried to catch her breath. “You okay?”

  Akoto huffed, shifting his weight until he righted himself. As he continued to agitate and fuss, she checked her stomach, finding it as intact as it was before. Was that real?

  Maybe it was the vega root, or the poison from the spider bites, she told herself.

  The passing clouds released the moon, and she could make out most of her surroundings. In front of them lay a blue elk, its eyes frozen wide with unseen terror. She didn’t recognize the black streaks around its mouth and nose, or what could have possibly made it contort into such an odd shape.

  Part of her wanted to stay, to somehow comfort the poor lifeless elk, but fear and a sense of someone—or something—lingering in the shadow tore her away.

  That’s real.

  “Run, Akoto,” she whispered, kicking him with her heels.

  He took off, faster than before, making her hold on for dear life as he jerked along on only three good paws.

  As she pressed herself close to Akoto’s back, holding tightly with her legs and good arm, she wondered why her parents never told her of such unconscionable dangers in the wilds.

  Grief replied: …because I wasn’t supposed to live outside the Realm.

  Hugging herself even closer to Akoto, she felt the vibrations of his stride as his paws slapped the ground, jarring her body and her wounds. She remembered the words of her father after the first time she electrocuted herself on a Scylan trying to understand the power he and the rest of the Guild shared with the lightning trees.

  “Can you still feel pain?”

  “Y-yes.”

  “Good. Then you’re still alive.”

  “I’m still alive,” she told herself again. After all she’d been through, she’d somehow survived. Maybe that meant something.

  As they reached a steep drop-off, she called out to Akoto: “Slow down—wait—what are you doing?—no!”

  Her animal friend didn’t slow as he came to the sharp decline. Instead, he sped up, and as he reached the lip, he spread
open his arms, the webbing between his upper limbs and waist going taut. Sen clung to him as hard as she could, but when she felt the air catch under his wings, she peeked one eye open.

  For the brief span of their flight, she forgot about her parents, the people in the trees, her injuries, the spider bites—even the dead elk and the horrifying encounter in the forest. A cry of joy rose in her throat, and as she tilted her head back, she let herself be known to the shining stars up above.

  As Akoto glided down to patch of open sand between gnarly trees, she wiped away the tears from her cheeks.

  “You’re great, Akoto.”

  The beast snorted.

  Sen looked back as Akoto continued east on foot, not seeing or sensing anything dangerous. The edge of the Dethros, perched above the steep drop-off, gave no acknowledgement of her departure, sheltering the darkest of its secrets amongst the whispering trees.

  Is this the Koori lowlands? she thought, gazing out ahead at the vast expanse of high desert.

  She made it—at least out of the divide. Now she faced the real danger. Being an Outlier didn’t mean that any one of the many clans would accept her. And she didn’t even know if that’s what she wanted—not that she had much of a plan in the first place. After all, the girl in the tree had a point. What did she have to offer?

  I’m not smart or strong… and I’m not a fighter…

  And that was beside the immediate problem. The vega root might help with the infection, but she still needed an antidote for the circulating spider poison. She didn’t brave looking at her arm, not when it felt too swollen for the sleeve of her shirt, and burned with even the slightest movement of her fingers.

  I got maybe another day in me.

  She bumped her arm against Akoto’s back, sending a fiery shock up her shoulder, taking her breath away.

  …or maybe until morning.

  Akoto grunted, breaking her from her pain. As he slowed his steps, she saw a flicker of light out in the distance.

  “We’ve got no other choice,” she said, shifting herself higher onto his back to take some of the strain off her good arm. Akoto growled and whined, but she nudged him forward with her heel.

  “Let’s just hope they’re as sweet-tempered as you.”

  Chapter 4

  Nya had been keeping an eye on their tail long before Kaden or any of the other warriors were even aware of their presence.

  “Nya—”

  “I know,” she said, cutting Kaden off as he trotted up beside her.

  “How long?”

  “The last hour. They’ve been slowly gaining.”

  Kaden processed this information, scanning their surroundings and reviewing their numbers. Nya didn’t need to look. The strongest towed their belongings behind them in wooden carts, while the sickest rode upon the few six-legged horses they had left. Osan, the leader of their clan, walked in front, guiding their trek across the treacherous open desert toward the rock Spires that would afford them a better protection.

  But half of us might die before we get there.

  “We’ve got to break soon,” Kaden said in a low voice. “I don’t think we can reach the Spires in one shot.”

  Nya kept her eyes trained forward, not acknowledging his exhaustion, or hers. Every footstep in the sand and dirt felt heavier than the next and did little to lessen the impossible distance between them and the Spires. Even with the shining moon she could barely see the reddish-gray rocks, sculpted by ancient rivers long since vanished, jutting above the twisted trees and rolling sands.

  “Are you sure of what you saw? The Nezra, out here—it doesn’t make any sense.”

  She understood why he questioned her. Moving now, in the middle of the night, would be too much of a strain on his already sickly wife. Still, she offered him no comforts. “Yes.”

  As Kaden walked alongside her, she could hear him succumbing to old nervous habits, popping the knuckles on his hands.

  “Does Osan know?” she asked.

  “About our tail? I came to you first.”

  Nya thumbed the weapons strap across her chest and glanced over her shoulder, in the direction of whatever monster creeped steadily toward their position. Despite the full moon, she couldn’t get a sense of who or what it was, only that it blended in with the shadows, and did well staying out of her direct sight.

  “Keep the group going. I’ll fade back and check it out.”

  Before Kaden could protest, one of the elderly women went into a violent coughing fit. Unable to hold herself up on her horse, she slid off, slamming onto a pocket of red sand.

  Nya let the others rush to her, keeping watch of the shadows behind them. Warriors subdued the frightened horse while Natsugra, the clan’s medicine woman, scuttled over with her sack of herbs.

  “How bad is it?” Kaden asked.

  “She’s dislocated her shoulder,” Natsugra said over the weak cries of the old woman. “Nya, come help.”

  Still keeping an eye out to the west, Nya went over and held down the old woman while Natsugra popped her shoulder back into place.

  “We need to stop,” the medicine woman said, looking directly at Nya.

  “We can’t.”

  Osan came over, resting heavily on his walking stick. “What’s the problem?”

  “If we don’t stop, we’re going to lose at least two more tonight,” Natsugra said as she comforted the injured woman in her arms.

  Nya glanced back to the west. No movements in the shadows. Then again, she could have missed something when she helped Natsugra with the woman’s arm.

  “Nya?” Osan said, reading her serious expression.

  “We stop now, we all die.”

  The Chakoa chief ground his remaining teeth together, looking between the two of them. Nya, his best warrior, and Natsugra, the shrewd, acerbic healer who wouldn’t let him hear the end of it if he disagreed with her.

  “We rest long enough for you to treat her and get her back on that horse. Same goes for the others. No longer,” he said, motioning for the other warriors to help the sick off of the horses and start a fire. “Nya, a word.”

  The young warrior followed the chief into the dark, away from the few torchlights that illuminated their path. Under the light of the moon, Osan withdrew his last dusty strip of dried meat from one of the pouches on his belt and broke it in two, offering her the bigger half.

  “When was the last time you ate?”

  “I’m fine.”

  “I asked you a question, warrior.”

  She had to really think about it. “Since the last attack.”

  The old man nodded as he broke the dried meat into smaller bites and swallowed them without chewing. “I need you here with me, Nya.”

  “I am.”

  “No, you’re not.”

  Cheeks blooming red, she tried to keep the emotion out of her voice, but his passive accusation cut straight through her. “I’ve let go of Sho.”

  “I wasn’t talking about Sho, but that adds to my point. We are without attachments here, Nya, but that doesn’t mean we don’t take care of ourselves, and each other.”

  Reluctantly, she took the jerky from his outstretched hand. She had survived much longer without food, and in much worse conditions. Any sort of charity felt insulting.

  “There’s something tailing us. We can’t stay here.”

  “I know,” he said, waiting until she took a bite to continue. “Take Kaden and Sahib, circle ‘round. Do what you have to do.”

  Nya touched the inked hashes on her left forearm, indicating the many kills in her short lifetime. “My life for the clan.”

  A proud smile crossed his face. Osan touched his forehead to her’s, whispering a prayer in his native tongue. Years ago the sentiment would have brought butterflies to her stomach, but she had found ways to bury those wasted emotions, focusing all of her energy on the only purpose she found worthy.

  As soon as he released her, she tucked the rest of the jerky away in her belt and made her way bac
k to the group, searching for Kaden in the makeshift camp. She found him easing his wife to the ground and carefully propping her against a folded-up tent. Leyla’s half-opened eyes didn’t track any movement, and her head bobbed side to side as he offered her water.

  “Kaden—arm up. We’re going,” she said, already searching for Sahib.

  The young man bowed his head. “She’s dying.”

  No attachments, she thought to herself. Why didn’t he understand that? Life in the outlands demanded it.

  Nya spotted Natsugra helping one of the children. When they met eyes, Nya indicated her question with a nod toward Leyla. Natsugra slowly shook her head and resumed her assessment of the sick boy.

  “You can’t help her.”

  “I won’t leave her,” he said, not looking at Nya.

  “Fine,” she said, not filtering her disapproval. “Stay here.”

  But as she turned to find Sahib, a feeble voice called out from the shadows.

  “Hello…?”

  Every warrior, even some of the sick, raised their weapons. Nya grabbed one of the torches planted into the sand and directed it at the origin of the sound. “Show yourself!”

  A large figure, too big to be human, stepped into view; one with midnight fur, a large mouth full of razor-sharp teeth, and different colored eyes that zeroed in on her position. Only after she saw the scrawny girl riding on his back did she recognize the pair.

  “You again?”

  “Need medicine… spider bites…,” the girl mumbled, barely lifting her head.

  “Who is that?” Osan said, coming up beside Nya.

  Unsheathing her twin short swords, Nya narrowed her eyes. “A problem I should have taken care of in the Dethros.”

  The girl half fell off her beast, landing haphazardly in the red sand.

  “No, Akoto…” she whispered as her beast snapped his massive jaws at the circling warriors.

  “You have nothing we want,” Nya said, her voice rising to a shout.

  Crawling on her hands and knees, the girl made her way toward Nya with rasping breath. When the girl grabbed her satchel, Nya lifted her swords, ready to make a quick end of the sickly outcast and her beast.