The Gatekeeper Trilogy

by Scott Ferrell

  I took a couple more swigs before passing it to Aoife, who drank deeply. When she passed it to Seanna, she took a few small sips before handing it back to me. We finished off the flower and repeated the process for another full flower. Seanna used a thin, wiry vine to tie it closed and I tied it to a belt loop at my hip.

  We pushed our way back to the main path and Seanna stopped to take in the surroundings.

  “The path goes up.” She pointed the direction we were traveling. “We’ll probably need to cross that ridge before the sun sets.” Her finger swung to the left, indicating a tree-covered rise in the distance. “We need to pick up the pace.”

  She walked up the path. Aoife groaned quietly before following. I took up the rear.

  13

  The Plunge

  In spite of all the bravado I put on display for Aoife, I really couldn’t wrap my mind around a specific reason I continued on this insane quest. Adventure. Trek. Whatever you wanted call it. Every time I tried, my thoughts fizzed over like an agitated soda. Trying to focus on just one thought felt like trying to catch an individual soda bubble with my fingers. It would pop and a thousand more would spill over my hand.

  Aoife, trudging up yet another ridge ahead of me, hesitated and half turned. Her face was red with effort and sweat ran in rivers down her forehead and cheeks. A muscle in her jaw tightened and she turned to continue climbing. She pulled the bottom of her sweatshirt down in back.

  Had I been staring at her butt? I opened my mouth to say I wasn’t watching her walk but gave up the notion. It’d just be wasted breath. I knew she wouldn’t have believed me anyway. I really hadn’t been looking at her butt. Okay, maybe I was, but not on purpose. There wasn’t much else to look at other than straight ahead and it wasn’t my fault straight ahead meant her backside. The animal trail had narrowed in around us, leaving only tangled bushes and tree branches to either side as we walked. I wasn’t really looking, just staring straight ahead. It wasn’t not my fault her butt was right there.

  The ground leveled out and the trail widened, sunlight pouring through the gap in the trees. I nearly walked into Aoife’s butt as she stopped.

  “We’ll rest here a few moments,” Seanna said.

  Aoife took a deep, ragged breath, stumbled to a tree and collapsed to a sitting position with her back against its trunk. She rubbed her calves. At least, she tried to, but she was too tired and gave up after a few moments. Instead, she leaned her head back and closed her eyes. Her face had the pinched look of somebody about to pass out from exhaustion. I found it amazing she hadn’t said anything. She hadn’t complained. Not one peep.

  In truth, her refusal to complain had kept me from complaining myself. As an athlete, I kept myself in pretty good shape. Normally a hike wouldn’t have bothered me, but I felt the lack of nutrients deep in my muscles. It was almost like I could feel them atrophying. I had nibbled at the nuts Seanna had given us, but after just a few, my stomach started to turn, so I tossed them away when nobody was looking. I needed real food.

  Aoife needed a paramedic, I think. The sight of her struggling to catch a breath made my self-worries scatter. I took a step to check on her, but movement caught my eye. A little ways up the trail, Seanna sat on a large rock. She pulled her shoes and socks off and wiggled her toes in the soft dirt. I walked to her, looking at her bare feet. Her toes were overlong and slightly more pointed than average. She stuffed the socks in the shoes and set them aside.

  “What are you doing?” I asked, shifting Aoife’s cloak and my blanket from one sweaty arm to another. Although the air was cool, the exertion of the trek made us hot. Aoife had long since discarded her cloak, handing it and her blanket to me to carry over one sweaty shoulder.

  “Walking up these hills in those things make me feel like…” Her eyes slid to Aoife. “Well, I move much better without them.”

  I nodded. She moved like a breeze blowing up the hillside, except she didn’t disturb the surrounding vegetation nearly as much as a breeze would. Aoife, on the other hand, slipped and slid every few steps. She stepped on every dry branch we crossed and generally made more noise than a hippo breakdancing on bubble wrap.

  Unwilling to comment on the dig at Aoife, I turned and looked back the way we came. From the elevated advantage, I could see we had crossed three ridges so far and there was no end to be found. I wonder how many more were to come until we crossed the one Seanna had pointed out earlier that morning.

  I dropped covers, pulled the flower from my belt loop, and examined it. It proved more durable than I thought. It held the water without a leak. I untied the top and moved to hand it to Aoife. She took a hardy drink, gasping when she pulled it from her lips. It was easy to tell she had to force herself to stop. Seanna had told us to be careful of the amount we drank. Finding more water could prove difficult, so we had to conserve what we had.

  I took a drink myself and then held it out to Seanna who shook her head. I shrugged and refastened it my belt. “How are we doing?” The sun had traveled overhead and was beginning its descent on the other side of the sky. “We’ve crossed three ridges. Not bad, I think.”

  “We need to keep pushing,” Seanna answered. “But we should be able to make it in time.”

  “Make it where?” I asked. “Which ridge is it?”

  She stood, and after a quick survey around us, she tilted her head as if listening for something and gave an almost imperceptible nod. She started up the path without an answer, leaving her shoes beside the rock.

  “We need a longer break than that,” I called after her.

  “We will break again soon.” She smiled back at me over her shoulder. “Come along.”

  I sighed and helped Aoife stand. “Are you okay?”

  She nodded. “My legs are about to fall off and my lungs are on fire, but yeah, I’m just dandy,” she breathed. “Out for a leisurely stroll around the block.” She pushed past me to follow Seanna.

  After only a few moments, I found I couldn’t stand the silence anymore. We had traveled that way all day with nothing but odd bird sounds coming from somewhere off in the woods. I needed something to occupy my soda-pop mind. “Didn’t you ever go on hikes with your family?”

  “No,” Aoife replied.

  “What about your brothers? Didn’t you ever go out and play with them? Basketball? Baseball? Anything?”

  The withering look she gave me answered my question.

  “No,” I answered for her. “What about—”

  “Physical exercise was never a priority to me,” she said. “That should be fairly obvious even for a dumb jock.” Her words came out in huffs as she was already losing her breath again.

  “I was just trying to—”

  “I know.” She puffed a moment. “Can we just walk?”

  “Sure,” I said. I leaned around her, looking further up the path. “Where’s Seanna?”

  Aoife didn’t answer. I glanced at the ground, spotting the slight outline of bare footprints with overlong toes.

  “We’re already falling behind,” I said.

  Her shoulders rose and fell a minute amount in something closing in on a shrug but didn’t quite make it. She couldn’t even gather the energy to waste on a complete motion of indifference.

  I felt bad for her. I really did, but it was her choice to come along. Seanna had tried to send her back the moment Aoife had come through the gate. It’s her fault she didn’t go back. I wanted to believe that, but in truth, when I thought about it, I remembered how I had stopped Seanna up on the mountain. I had no clue what was going on, all I knew was Aoife must have felt the same way I did when I came through the gate. All I wanted was to give her a minute to find her wits. Then we could have figured things out together.

  I looked at Aoife trudging ahead of me, trying to ignore her butt. I thought maybe I should go back. Run ahead to find Seanna. Make her take us back up the mountain to the gate. Would I go back through it, though, knowing there was a possibility of helping Mom? Could I? Was it even an
option at that point?

  Aoife pulled up short.

  “What?” I asked.

  “There’s something out there.” Her voice came out as a gasp, and from her tone, I didn’t think it was from the effort of climbing another ridge.

  “What?”

  Seanna appeared from around a bend in the path some thirty yards ahead. “Run!” she yelled.

  “What?” I called back.

  “Run, you idiot!” She had genuine fear in her voice.

  The first thought that crossed my mind was the flying creature that had blown the Jo-Shar village away had found us. I grabbed Aoife by the elbow and turned to run. We ran right into a flock of purple birds that erupted from the bushes down the trail we’d just come through. They shrieked, their wings flapping noisily.

  Seanna ran up to us and grabbed the back of my shirt. “Not that way. There’s another coming from there. They have us pinched in.”

  “There’s two of them?” I exclaimed, then realized I had no clue what she was talking about. “Two of what?”

  “This way.” Seanna darted off the trail, pushing between two small trees.

  I followed, dragging Aoife along behind me. I ignored the branches reaching out to smack my face. They snatched at my clothes and clawed my skin. The ground was thick with undergrowth and old fallen limbs that did their best to trip us. I stumbled more than once and twigs pulled my shoelaces free. They slapped at my ankles as I moved as quick as I could. One lace dived under the opposite foot. I stepped on it and tumbled headfirst to the forest floor. I somehow managed to let go of Aoife before I dragged her down with me. She grabbed my bleeding arm and hauled me to my feet with surprising strength. I opened my mouth to say something, but a loud crack from somewhere out of sight sent me plunging through the forest again.

  Seanna stopped on the path, and we plowed into her, sending us all tumbling to the dirt. I scraped my forearm on a rock.

  “What are you doing?” I demanded.

  “There’s another one up there!”

  Something unseen ahead of us snorted a deep huff of air that could only have come from a massive creature.

  “What are they?” I breathed.

  “Just move!”

  The way grew thick with branches, bushes, trees, and dead limbs. Seanna seemed to slip through the tiniest of cracks in the vegetation wall. I stayed ahead of Aoife, using my body to push an easier path for her, but I heard her inhaling through her teeth every time a sharp branch scratched at her through her sweatshirt.

  Seanna was forced to stop and wait for us often when we were slowed to a near stop. Each time, she’d scan the woods around us with wide eyes.

  Above our heavy breathing, I could hear the things behind us, pushing through the bushes, huffing and grunting loudly. Beyond that, I thought I caught the hint of something else, the gurgling of running water somewhere in front of us.

  “The stream,” I called out to Seanna. “We’ll be trapped.”

  “It’s our only hope of escape,” she called back to me.

  The sounds of the water grew louder as we pushed forward. The noise soon drowned out everything else, including whatever chased us. I realized it was more than just the little stream I had collected water from before. The rushing water was way too loud. My suspicions were confirmed as we bust through a thicket of bushes. I ground to a halt next to Seanna. Aoife’s momentum sent her barreling into me, nearly carrying us both over a cliff that went straight down thirty yards into a fast-moving river. Aoife caught her balance and grabbed my shirt as I twirled my arms like a windmill. She tugged just enough to keep me from toppling over the edge.

  “We’re trapped,” I yelled.

  “There!” Seanna pointed upriver to an old tree that had fallen across the twenty-yard ravine the river had cut through the mountain.

  “You can’t be…serious,” Aoife gasped.

  “Stay here if you like,” Seanna replied. She pushed her way upriver toward the fallen tree.

  I didn’t give Aoife time to think about it. I grabbed her arm and pulled her after Seanna. We climbed over rocks and fallen trees, gaining more bruises and scrapes until we reached the dead tree spanning the river. It was old, gray, and looked like it would crumble if a mild breeze pushed its way past.

  “There’s no other way?” I asked, eyeing the tree.

  “No,” Seanna replied. She stepped over the root system that jutted into the air and stood on the log with bare feet. She turned back to us. “Come on.”

  I took a deep breath. “You go first.”

  Aoife raised an eyebrow at me. “How chivalrous. If it’s going to…break, make sure it’s me that goes…plunging down there.”

  “Seanna is doing it,” I said.

  “She doesn’t weigh more than a grape.”

  “I weigh more than you,” I went on. “I should go last so my weight doesn’t weaken it.”

  “Let’s go!” Seanna called out. She was nearly on the other side.

  “If I die, I’m going to kill you,” Aoife said. She took a deep breath and stepped onto the log. She held her arms out wide to stabilize herself and began shuffling her feet across.

  “Come on, Gaige!” Seanna called from the other side.

  “I can’t!” I answered. “I don’t think it will take both our weight.”

  “It’ll hold, come on!”

  “But—”

  “Shut up and come on!” she yelled over the rage of water below.

  I clamped my mouth shut and ground my teeth. I was getting tired of being told to shut up. Still, I stepped onto the log. My foot slipped a little before I found a comfortable way to place them, toes pointed out. I looked up to see Aoife halfway across. I hesitated longer to give her more time to get off.

  Time was short, though, and I ran out of it. A great crash behind me brought my head around. I saw two massive shapes bounding through the shadows of the forest. Bushes and trees shook violently at their passing. I turned back. “Run, Aoife!”

  She didn’t take the time to think about the shouted command. She ran the last quarter of the tree, launching herself onto the ground on the other side.

  I took a few wobbly steps out onto the log until a deep growl brought me to a stop. I slowly turned to find two big cats at the edge of the log. They put the big in big cats. From snout to the tip of the tail, they were larger than any tiger I’d ever seen at a zoo. Tight muscle rippled along their girth as they moved. They were a light brown with darker brown markings that made for good camouflage in the deep shadows of the forest. A growl rumbled from deep within a chest of one while the other bared its huge teeth inside a mouth that cut way too wide to be normal.

  “They won’t be stupid enough to come up here,” I said to myself. I glanced down at the rushing water below me. “No, I’m the stupid one.”

  One of the creatures put a massive paw the size of my head on the log. Claws as long as my fingers extended out to dig into the rotting wood.

  “Of course, it’s as stupid as me,” I muttered.

  A third cat exploded from the bushes, halting as its sharp, yellow eyes took in the scene. This one was even bigger than the other two.

  “Gaige!” Seanna yelled. “Don’t move.”

  Right. I knew I shouldn’t turn my back on the things. I exhibited that basic knowledge of predators during the encounter with the eioshu, but panic set in. I turned and took a few shaky, running steps across the log. That triggered their deep predatory instincts, and the first two launched themselves onto the log after me. The rotted wood groaned and cracked. It shook under my feet, nearly toppling me over. I regained my balance just in time for it to give way completely. I felt a moment of being suspended in midair before my stomach lurched into my throat as I fell toward the rushing water below. I saw the two big cats tumbling with me as I twisted in the air.

  I hit the water like a ton of bricks. It took my breath away. The rapids snatched at me, dragging me under and sliding me across sharp rocks along the bottom. I kicked and
struggled with all my strength to break the surface, but the relentless water pulled me deeper. My lungs held no air. They burned, desperate for oxygen. Stars sparkled in my vision as darkness crept in at the edges.

  A rock scraped down the length of my arm. My hand twitched around it when I felt it in my palm. For a moment, I held on, but my hand spasmed and I lost my grip. I continued tumbling down the river. The darkness rushed in to claim me.

  14

  Behind Every Hero

  Who would have thought dead was so cold? And painful. I was pretty sure I was dead, anyway. I didn’t think dead had running water in it either. There was definitely water running somewhere close. Over my legs maybe? They hurt worse than the rest of me in spite of the numbing cold that didn’t numb.

  I coughed and felt warm liquid dribble down my cheek. I relished the feeling. I coughed again hoping for more warmth, but none came. Just a dry hacking that made my chest hurt.

  I think somebody called my name, but the distant sound pushed on my ears garbled and watery. I thought I should reply even if it wasn’t my name the voice had called out. Sure, it can be embarrassing to acknowledge somebody when she wasn’t even talking to you, but there was always the hope the person who may or may not have called my name might know why dead was cold and painful.

  “Gaige!”

  That was definitely my name. I should have called out a response that time. “Hey! I’m here! And I’m dead!” would have been sufficient. I opened my mouth to say just that, but my lungs squeezed. The pain caused my response to come out as a low moan. Close enough.

  I wanted to sigh, but my lungs didn’t have the functionality to do that, so I let the pain and cold wash over me, pulling me under. Back into the water I go. Back to the dead. The really dead type of dead. The dead where there was no pain or cold or numb that didn’t numb anything. Dead dead.