by Mara Duryea
Near Golden Sun, I discovered fresh leypel urine. A thrill rushed through me. Crouching on all fours, I slunk through the tunnels of roots and branches—and stumbled onto a road. What was this doing here? Vegetation and plump mushrooms overgrew it. I snatched up a bright red mushroom and popped it in my mouth. Glancing around for my mother, I kicked the rest of the mushrooms to smithereens.
Mania seized me in its voracious fingers, and I crushed every mushroom I could find. Pale pieces rained in every direction. I was careful to eat any bright red one I discovered. For the first time in ages, I laughed.
“What are you doing, Baby?”
“I love smashing mushrooms!” I giggled.
He suddenly picked me up and tickled my stomach.
I stared into the distance. “My.”
Chewing caught my ear. Leypel? I crouched on all fours and crept towards the sound. In a grove of mushrooms, a leypel nibbled a yellow one. This was my ticket to freedom. Sneaking up behind it, I sprang onto its back, jammed my claws into its neck, and twisted. The leypel shrieked. My head shuddered. The leypel rolled on its back, with me underneath. It thrashed like a giant snake as its beak snapped at my head and face, but I held on until it bled to death.
As it twitched in its last death throes, the leaves rustled behind me and Monster Mother stepped from the trees on two legs. Every once in a while one of her hands touched the ground. Gazing at the leypel, she patted my grimy head.
“Good. Baby can survive now. Find My and keep.” Picking up the leypel, she vanished into the forest. I stared after her in a sort of shock. She had abandoned me! She’d been my companion all winter, even made me call her ‘mommy,’ and now it was like she didn’t exist. For a second, I lost my head and ran after her.
“Zhin!” The voice was strangled with agony.
I jumped. Great Cubons, what was I thinking about? My needed me!
“I’m coming!” I sprinted towards it, expecting it to be around the next tree or something. As I barreled through a tangle of roots, I slammed into a huge man.
With a startled cry, he whipped his spear at my head, but jerked it up at the last second. The wind of it flipped my ragged bangs back.
Not knowing what else to do, I darted for another jumble of roots. A few feet and I might have lost him for good, but he seized my arm.
“No, no, no!” I whirled on him with claws and teeth. He folded my arms across my chest and pinned me on my back. He was smaller than Monster Mother, but still stronger than me.
“Stop it,” he said. “I not gonna hurt you. Ehy! You know me. Look at me.”
I did? I ceased kicking long enough to observe him. He was a Miricor. His hair, shaggy tail, ears, and lower legs were almost jet black. Brilliant green eyes were made brighter by his dark brown skin. A few strands of graying hair marked him as being nearer a hundred years old. Other than that, no other aging marred his features, nor would he start becoming old until he neared three hundred. To me, who was only seven, he was quite old and could have been my grandfather.
A plain round shield hung on his back. He wore a long black shirt, and thick pants made of pebbly gray grekham hide. A brown coat full of pockets and buttons fell to his knees. I knew him. Where did I know him?
“Don’t ever carve with your claws. They’ll get tattered. Use a knife.” It was a different voice.
“Remember I saved you from the m’kriths?” said the Miricor. “It was snowing, yeah? I pick you up and bring you inside the wall. Then the Kosalin took you away. Remember?”
It clicked and my face lit up. “Rindar!”
The Miricor smiled. “Yeah.” He let me up and I hugged him around the middle, and then I frowned.
“You hurt my arms.”
Rindar rubbed them. “I sorry, but you running away and then you try for to hurt me.”
“Oh…” I smiled. “It’s okay. I didn’t hurt you?” I glanced worriedly at him.
“No. The Kosalin not help the baby? What you doing out here like this?” He indicated my grungy frame.
“Mommy said I could go if I got a leypel for her.”
The edges of his mouth tugged down. “Who’s ‘mommy’?”
I didn’t know how to describe her. I stretched my arms out as far as I could. “She’s really big!” I angled my arms up. “And she’s tall! She’s bigger than even you!”
The Miricor’s face contorted as his gaze darted across the foliage. “And…she let you go?”
I nodded.
“Anyat,” he murmured under his breath. He scratched his ear. “What you doing now?”
I pointed in the tug’s direction. “I’m going over there.”
He followed my finger. “What’s over there?”
“I don’t know.” I sighed in frustration. “Nobody will let me go there, and now he’s far away.”
“Who’s ‘he’?”
“He’s really tall, but not like Mommy.” I enjoyed talking to Rindar. He made me comfortable.
“Where you from?”
I tilted my head. “I don’t know.”
The Miricor glanced at his kiderrin. “But you know where you want for to go.”
“Mm-hm.”
He was silent a few seconds, and then he said, “I can’t leave you here. Is not right. You come with me, and I take you where you want to go, yeah?”
A weight lifted off my shoulders. “Yeah.” At that point in my life, I would have traveled with a Nri Kryne to reach the tug.
“Baby, what your name?”
“Zhin.”
“Before we go, you clean off. I not ride with one bloody wild child. This way.” Rindar offered his callused hand to me. I took it, and he led me to a spring bubbling out of the ground. The kiderrin followed. Taking soap and a wash cloth from a bag attached to the kiderrin frame, he tossed my rags into the river. He scrubbed the gore and months of grime from my body.
I had no decency left. I’d have wandered around naked in public without a care, had Rindar not found me. When he was satisfied with my cleanliness, he dried me off and fastened a dark green shirt around my hips. Probably someone would have been appalled at how he handled me, but maybe not. I couldn’t tell, because nothing compared to Monster Mother’s “love taps.”
“Keep that on until I get clothes for you,” Rindar said.
I nodded.
He jerked me upright as I moved to crouch. “Stand on your legs, Zhin.”
“Okay.”
“Clean your mouth.” Dipping a fuzzy bristle stick into a jar of blue paste, he scrubbed my teeth. He’d used the Blue Bush to make the paste. The fresh scent reminded me of something homey and I basked in its aroma. After I rinsed, Rindar lifted my chin. “Let me smell.”
I breathed on his face.
“Again.” He brushed my teeth twice more before he was satisfied. “Good, you human again. Get on the kiderrin.”
I flitted up the kiderrin’s tail and plopped into the frame. It was kind of nice being clean. I ran my tongue over my teeth. They weren’t rough anymore. Rindar joined me and secured his spear to the inside of the kiderrin frame.
“That way?” Rindar pointed towards the tug.
“Yeah.”
“Okay.” He sent the kiderrin after it.
Scooting closer to him, I wrapped my short arm around his middle as far as it would go. He in turn draped his arm about my shoulders.
“Rindar?” I said.
“What?”
“How come you’re out here?”
He glanced at me. “I looking for someone.”
My brows went up. We had so much in common! “Who?”
“My wife.”
“Did she get lost?”
Rindar took a deep sighing breath. “Not exactly.”
“What happened?”
“She had to run away, or people would hurt her.”
My mind conjured hordes of enemies hunting Rindar’s wife. She was a beautiful Veerin like Velevy, but instead of all-white hair, there were black patches in it. Her eyes
were light green. Her eyebrows and lashes were as black as night. “Can I help you find her?”
Rindar smirked in amusement. “Sure.”
No sooner had he consented than a dark presence chilled my spine. The soft, high-pitched whimper of a baby resounded among the distant trees. Darting into the safety of Rindar’s lap, I peered into the shadows from whence the sound came.
“What is it?” said Rindar, following the direction of my gaze. “You see something?”
“A baby’s crying.”
Rindar rested the spear next to him as his arm circled my stomach. It seemed to quell the eerie noise.
“Hup-hup!” Rindar hissed at the kiderrin, and it lurched into a sprint. The kiderrin glided like the wind over the un-used road. The baby’s cries receded into the distance and my shoulders relaxed.
“Is okay now?” said Rindar.
“Yup.”
Nevertheless, we continued on until we reached a tree with a zigzag cut into it.
“See that?” said the Miricor. “It means one bunker’s here.”
Sure enough, on the opposite side of the tree, a square cement tunnel sloped underground. Though still daylight, it was too late to travel anymore. Chances were, we might not have found a bunker if we’d continued on.
Daylight illuminated the tunnel, but the bunker itself was black. Lighting a fire stick, Rindar slid the steel door open and led the way inside.
The place was spacious enough to house three kiderrins. The floor and halfway up the walls were made of cement. Sooty roots knitted across the ceiling. Some of them had edged into the cement and cracked it. A firepit was situated in the floor’s center.
“Stay in here, Zhin,” said Rindar, handing me the fire stick. “I get wood.” He went out.
Holding up the little fire, I wandered around the room. People had abandoned tattered blankets and a metal cup in a corner. I picked up the latter. It was as big as my head, so I flipped it upside down and sat on it.
Rindar returned with a stack of wood. After unframing the kiderrin, he built a fire in the pit. Smoke curled to the ceiling, where a hidden draft sucked it out of the room. All bunkers possessed that carefully fashioned gap to eradicate smoke.
“Zhin,” said Rindar, “bring me the yellow bag. Is next to the frame.”
Scurrying over to it, I heaved it to Rindar’s side and dropped it with a groan. It was heavier than a leypel.
“Linnemin,” he said in Vaylanian, which means ‘thank you.’ It rolled off his tongue and almost sounded like a mumble. He removed fresh meat from the bag.
Blood dripped from its shiny red surface. Its subtle, leathery aroma mingled with the campfire smoke. Stealing it from Rindar’s hand, I sank my teeth into the succulent chunk.
Rindar’s eyes started from his head. “No, Zhin!” He snatched it from me. “You not eat it like this!”
The corners of my mouth tugged down as small tears started to my eyes.
Rindar caressed my ear between thumb and forefinger. “Don’t cry, Zhin. I not angry. Is not good you eat raw meat. Is bad for you. I cook it, and then you eat it.” He set the meat on the fire and glanced sideways at me. “What kind meat you eat, Zhin?” He sprinkled herbs and spices on it.
“Mommy brought leypel meat.”
His brow went up. “She make you eat it raw?”
I nodded. “I didn’t like it at first. But I like it now.”
He examined my face. “She hit you?”
“When I was a naughty baby.”
Rindar’s jaw tightened. “Come here, Zhin.” He set me on his lap. “I teach you for to cook, yeah?” His voice had become gentler.
My new friend cooked the meat, blew on a small piece to cool it, and handed it to me. Cooked food hadn’t passed my lips in months. As I crammed it down, I remembered how much I liked it. My mind sped back to the night when Rindar had fed me paveenie.
“Better than raw meat, yeah?” he said.
“Yup,” I said with stuffed mouth.
Rindar ate quietly and said nothing until dinner finished. As he laid out his bed, I played by the giant cup. I tipped it on its side to serve as a hideout.
“Zhin,” said Rindar, “is time for to sleep.”
I bounced into the bedding, and Rindar tucked me in. He dragged the kiderrin’s blanket from where he’d rolled it against the wall.
“There’s lots of room,” I said, patting the spot next to me.
“I have blankets,” said thr Miricor. “Don’t worry about me.”
As he spread the blanket out, eerie whining sounded outside. My muscles seized up and I glanced at my friend. He didn’t hear it, but he noticed me.
“What is it, Zhin?”
“The baby’s outside.”
Rindar grimaced, and sat beside me. “You right. There enough room for me.” As he sprawled out, the whining died away. Sighing in relief, I rolled against the Miricor and slumbered. My face was pressed into his side the next morning.
13
Me and Grampa
Three days later…
“Don’t pull on your head too hard,” said Rindar as he stretched his neck. “Now we count to one hundred.”
We counted together and then leaned our heads to the other side. We stretched outside every morning on the kiderrin blanket after we built the cooking fire. Rindar never prepared breakfast inside the bunker.
Once we were stretched out, Rindar dusted the blanket off. “Bring me the yellow bag. Don’t eat anything until is cooked, yeah?”
“Yup.” I dragged the sack over to him.
Rindar fished out the meat. “We need for to hunt today.”
My heart swelled, suddenly desirous to impress him with the skills Monster Mother had taught me. When we had arrived last night, I’d detected leypel everywhere.
As Rindar chopped up the food, I crept into the forest on all fours. It felt better hunting this way. Pressing the leaves to my nose like Monster Mother had taught me, I trailed the scent to a star tree that was bent over like someone had punched it in the gut. Among the interlaced branches, bark had been scraped by leypel claws. Its droppings were scattered everywhere like black pellets.
“Zhin?” Rindar called from the bunker.
My time was almost up. Scrutinizing the tree, I spotted an incongruous lump perched on the side of a root. I just made out seven ears flush to the red bark. Baring my fangs and extending my claws, I pounced. I murdered this leypel faster than the others. The short fight left me a gory nightmare with a mouth dribbling blood.
“Zhin!” Rindar howled and tore me from the beast’s shuddering body. “You not hunt and kill like this!”
“Why?”
Kneeling, he caught me by the shoulders and peered into my red face. “What happen to you, Zhin? You acting like one animal.”
My brow furrowed. I didn’t understand what I’d done wrong, but Rindar’s alarm upset me.
“The one who had you,” he said, “the one bigger than me, she make you hunt leypels like this?”
I nodded.
He held my face in his hands. “I not want you to be like her. She not good to you. She make you walk on your hands and feet. She make you eat raw meat. You can’t be like her. You understand, Zhin? If you be like her, you become her.”
My heart skipped a beat. Would I bulge into a hairy monstrosity with grimy, chipped claws and scarlet eyes? Screaming like I’d been burned, I flung my arms around Rindar’s neck.
“Don’t cry, minamee,” said Rindar in some alarm. “Is okay. You not know. You…” He took an uncertain breath. “You try to walk like me and hunt like me, okay? You cook food.”
“I swallowed the blood!”
Rindar patted my back. “Just don’t do it again. You be okay. You big help, though, Zhin. You one good hunter.”
“I-I am?”
He wiped the tears from my cheeks. “Just don’t kill with your teeth like that, and stand up.” Rindar smiled. “You like help me gut it and take it back to the kiderrin?”
“Yeah.”
“Now you stop crying.” He poured water from his waterskin on my head. “We get the rest of you when we get back.”
I wiped the back of my hand across my eyes. “Okay.”
***
As the kiderrin loped beneath the star trees, I gnawed on a piece of meat. Rindar had cleaned me off and given me a dark blue shirt. The trees had grown so dense it was almost like night among them. Little white alna birds flitted from branch to branch. Their tails fluttered behind them like flags. They were similar to plupkin birds, except alnas had oval-shaped bodies. A seven-foot, grayish-brown rock on the road’s edge suddenly moved as a bulbous head popped out of it.
“Grampa!” I squeaked. “Look!”
It took Rindar a moment to realize I was addressing him. “W-what?”
I leaned over the frame. “See it?” I pointed.
Rindar pulled me back. “Watch out, Zhin.”
“But look at it!”
“I see it. Sit down before you fall out.” He slowed the kiderrin to a stop several feet from the boulder. Its mouth consisted of two flaps. A pair of dots marked its eyes. The creature possessed no limbs or a nose, as far as I could see.
“What is it?” I said.
“One deldrit. Watch.” Rindar tossed a bone in front of its flappy lips. They stretched forward, slapped over the bone, and sucked it in, shlup!
I bounced up and down. “I wanna try!”
“Go ahead.”
I flung the remains of my breakfast at its face. The lips flopped over it and shlup!
“It ate it!” I laughed. “Where’s the legs?”
“They dug into the ground.”
“Why?”
“So nothing can move it.” Rindar rested his arms on the frame. “Don’t ever walk in front of the deldrit’s lips, because it suck you in just like the bones.”
My eyes widened. “I’ll go inside the rock?”
“And never come out.”
Living inside a rock forever gave me the creeps. It didn’t occur to me that I’d actually die.
Rindar set the kiderrin trotting again. We stopped somewhere between Noon Sun and Golden Sun for lunch. I built the fire under Rindar’s supervision. He smiled when I got the blaze going.