“ARROW!”
But it was too late. He was too far to hear me now.
What had I done? I had tried to warn him, tried to show him. But instead I had pushed him away.
The sun was dying in the sky, and darkness was falling. This wasn’t a good time for a boy to be out on his own.
And yet he was.
So he could save me.
Oh, Arrow.
What had I done?
20
TWO EPIPHYTES ON THE OLD WIMBA TREE NEAR THE ABANDONED VILLAGE SHRIVELED UP AND FELL TO THE GROUND. THEN TWO MORE. THEN TWO MORE. THEN…
Arrow spent the night curled into a corner of the Shimmer Cave. I felt the thump of his pulse on the ground like an echo of regret. I wished he would come back. Curly shrieked in my branches and slapped my bark. She wasn’t happy he had left either.
The whine of the trike machine startled the boy awake the next morning, but by the time he had scrambled outside, it was heading back to the Burnt Circle.
Arrow started to head their way, but when his stomach growled, he went north instead. I hoped he would come home to me, but he stayed away. He didn’t even get close enough to be able to hear me. Two liana slides, and he was in the part of the forest that had the most variety of foods. It was near the Crooked Rock, near where he had first met Petari, and I wondered if he was thinking of her. If he was, he didn’t show it. Just a twinge of cold dripping into the earth gave away any stray hurt he was feeling. He had given himself a mission, and he was determined to do it.
First he went to the soursop tree, loaded up his bent arrow arm with the ripest fruit, and then placed it on the rock for safekeeping. Next he pulled acai berries from the palm, then shimmied up a banana tree, then over to the passion fruit vines. Before long, he had more fruit than he could carry, so his next trip was to a palla tree to harvest palm fronds.
Sitting cross-legged on the forest floor, he hitched the palm fronds under his arm as his fingers and toes weaved the ends together. Until he heard the SNAP and froze.
He curled smaller, his butt digging into the leaves and soil below him.
I had felt the steps coming his way, but his excitement, his need, had made him distracted. Fear thumped through his heart as he scoured the forest. He was usually more careful, more alert. Now his darting eyes told me he was wondering what had broken the twig. Monkey? Jaguar? Caiman?
And was it too late for him to hide?
He sniffed the air, then frowned. Dropping his woven palm fronds, he stood and ran quickly to the intruder.
“What are you doing here?” he asked loudly when Petari was in sight.
The girl screamed and leaped into the air. Turning, she saw Arrow, his arms crossed tightly over his chest, his eyes boring into hers.
“You scared me to death,” she said.
Arrow didn’t understand what that meant, but he didn’t question it. “You shouldn’t be here.”
“I was looking for you. How’d you know I was here, anyway? I know the twig made a noise, but I was silent after that. I’ve been practicing walking like you do, and I’m getting brill. There’s no way you heard me.”
“I didn’t hear you. I smelled you.”
“Smelled me?” Petari’s toes twisted in the soil as she tried to see if she could smell herself too. “I don’t smell. I just cleaned by the side of the river.”
“Exactly,” Arrow said. “I can smell the algae that builds up on the water between the lilies. It’s probably stuck in your hair.”
“Eww!” A stream of water pummeled the earth by Petari’s feet as she wrung out her long hair. “I don’t want that stuff living on me.”
Arrow sighed. “I don’t have time for this. Go back to your herd, Petari. And leave the forest for good.”
He headed back to the hammock he was making. But the girl wouldn’t be stopped that easily. She hurried after him.
“Wait, that’s why I came to see you. I’m really sorry about what happened. They shouldn’t have been like that to you. I’ll talk to them. I’ll make it right.”
Arrow’s heart ticked up at her words, but he stayed silent and didn’t look at Petari. He picked up his carrying hammock, then pulled the final set of fronds into a knot with his fingers and teeth.
“I wish you’d come back,” Petari continued, her voice small.
Arrow placed his pile of fruit in the hammock, testing the strength after each load. “I’ve got things to do.”
“Come on,” Petari said. “We were having fun before. And I want to help fix the magic.”
That stopped Arrow. He glanced at her.
“I know the Stilts are locked down,” she said quickly, before he could stop listening, “but we’ll find a way in somehow. We’ll find the magic together.”
Arrow’s eyes stayed locked on hers for a breath, two, and I thought perhaps he was going to give her another chance. But he looked away, added one more mango to his hammock, then slung it over his shoulder. “I told you, I’ve got things to do.”
Stubborn. This quality had served him well when he was younger, learning to walk, but sometimes I wished he’d outgrow it. I didn’t trust the herd either, yet I had to admit there was something different about Petari.
“That’s a lot of food in that bag. I thought you only picked enough for one meal. Is it for us?”
“In the carrying hammock? No.”
“Yeah, the bag. Who’s it for, then?”
Arrow glanced in the direction of the Burnt Circle. The sun was getting higher, and the stomachs of the machiners would be rolling by now. “It’s no—”
The rest of his words were sliced up by a ROAR that ripped through the forest.
“What was that?” Petari’s eyes were as wide as her mouth as she gazed past the tops of the trees.
THRUM.
THRUM.
THRUM.
More metal bullfrogs were descending on the forest, this time coming from the north instead of the south.
“Go back to the village,” Arrow shouted over the noise.
“I’m not going anywhere,” Petari said. “Those are copters. And they’re close.”
Arrow raised his eyes as another screamed overhead.
“You knew they were coming, didn’t you?” she asked.
“I have to go,” he shouted, and took off, his hammock of fruit slung over his shoulder.
“You’re not leaving me behind!”
Petari followed. She didn’t know this part of the forest at all, and wasn’t as careful as Arrow, but she had gotten quicker and kept up with the boy. Crafting a strong vine into a harness like Arrow’s, she followed him down the liana, and soon they could see the Burnt Circle.
The boxes and green roof had been moved to the side with the metal bullfrog, leaving space for more to land. Crankas and the other machiners stood by the side of the clearing, looking up.
Three more massive metal bullfrogs hovered above the trees.
One was descending.
21
THE PINK PETALS FROM THREE BOBINSANA SHRUBS ON THE RIVERBANK DROPPED TO THE GROUND, FOLLOWED BY THE SHRUBS THEMSELVES. THEY TOPPLED INTO THE WATER THEN FLOATED DOWN TO THE WATERFALL.
As the bullfrog got closer, the ash that still lay on the ground sprang up to meet it. Dust swirled around, hazing the air. Arrow turned his back against it and grabbed Petari’s arm to motion for her to do the same. He pulled her behind a trunk, shielding his eyes.
“You should’ve gone back,” he shouted.
“I want to see.” She was as stubborn as he, but I understood. I, too, wanted to know what they were doing.
Arrow pursed his lips, then led her to a tree on the far side of the Burnt Circle. It was the same tree where he had sat and watched Crankas all those moons ago, where the thick branches and leaves would keep them both protected. At the base of the trunk, he hung his bag on a low branch, then squatted so she could climb onto his shoulder, but Petari batted him away.
“I can reach.”
“Fine,”
he said, and pulled himself up.
As the bullfrog lowered, Arrow and Petari climbed higher and higher, until Arrow motioned for her to squat on a thick branch and hold tight to the trunk. He perched next to her, his elbow crooked around an upward tree limb.
From their spot, they were hidden but had a view of the Burnt Circle through the branches and leaves. No animals or birds sat near them; all had fled at the sounds of the flying machines.
The massive bullfrog descended slowly, scattering more ash and dirt when it landed with a THWOMP in the clearing. On its side was the same picture of the head of the stinkbird that had been on Crankas’s shirt when he had crashed here.
“Fenix!” Petari shouted over the noise.
“What?”
“Fenix, that symbol. They make all the power and water and everything for the Stilts.”
Arrow turned back to the symbol as that section of the metal bullfrog’s rigid skin opened from the top and flapped to the ground. It made an incline that connected the earth to the cavity within its belly. Another section at the back did the same, and humans trailed down them into the Burnt Circle.
They were all adults, like Crankas and the others, some female, some male. All looked big, strong, quick.
Shouts could be heard over the THRUM, THRUM, THRUM of the metal bullfrogs still in the air, but the arms of the one on the ground had stopped turning.
“What are they doing?” Petari whispered.
“Shh,” Arrow replied.
“They can’t hear me.”
He glared at her, then turned back to the clearing. CLANGs and BANGs came from within the bullfrog.
Wiser ran to the end of the machine’s inclined skin, peering inside. She beckoned to Mora and Fratos, who ran up too. Crankas stayed back, but his eyes watched every movement.
Then there was another ROAR, this time from inside the bullfrog’s belly. The noise filled the Burnt Circle, and Arrow and Petari leaned forward for a better look.
A machine with four large wheels and a flat back rolled onto the inclined skin at the bullfrog’s backside. Claws stuck out at the four corners, and cases were stacked on top. The machine rolled down the rear section of skin, over to the machiners’ green roof, and stopped.
Petari gasped. “I’ve seen those in the Barbs.”
“What is it?” Arrow whispered.
“It’s a carrier. They’re really strong and can carry stuff a far distance.”
“What’s it doing here?”
Petari frowned. “About to make trouble, I’d guess.”
Arrow glared at her. “You sound like the Guardian.”
“I do?” She grinned. “I like that.”
I did too.
Arrow shook his head. “Ssshhh.”
“You were talking too!”
Arrow waved her words off and drew his attention back to the Burnt Circle. The claws on the side of the carrier were extending, long tubes that thrust their snapping ends into the air. They grabbed the boxes the machine was carrying, pulled them down, and laid them gently on the ground under the green roof.
“How does it know what to do?” Arrow asked.
Petari pointed to Mora, who had placed some kind of stiff vine on his head. “He’s giving it instructions.”
Another ROAR came from the bullfrog’s belly, and a second carrier rolled out laden with boxes. While this one was unloaded, the first carrier returned to the flying machine’s cavity and emerged minutes later with more boxes.
Arrow and Petari glanced at each other, eyes wide.
A few breaths later, the arms atop the metal bullfrog started spinning. Dust rose, and Arrow grabbed Petari to keep her on the branch. The new humans in the Burnt Circle jumped back into the bullfrog, but two emerged again, this time with bags on their backs. Then the bullfrog rose, higher and higher, as the new humans clasped hands and arms with Crankas, Wiser, and the others.
“Do you know them?” Petari asked. “Are they your group?”
“I told you I don’t have a group.” Arrow sounded exasperated, but there was a hesitancy to his voice.
“Okay, fine. But you knew they were here, didn’t you?”
“I only—”
He didn’t finish his sentence. The rising bullfrog flew north, but the THRUM, THRUM, THRUM of the others got closer. Another was descending.
More dust and ash flew up as this metal bullfrog touched down. Just like the first, a section of its skin opened on its side and its rear, revealing the inside of its belly. More humans stepped out, men and women, shielding their eyes. More shouts. More CLANGs and BANGs. More SCREECHes. Then another box-laden carrier rolled out from the rear of the helicopter. Just like before, it was joined by another. They carried boxes of all different sizes. Flat, black cases and tall gray containers.
Again, the humans ran around, some getting back into the bullfrog’s belly and a few coming out with bags of their own. Once its skin was closed up, the bullfrog rose again, taking off for the north, as the final metal flyer took its place on the ground.
Arrow and Petari held on tight as the third one came down. It was larger than the first two, and the wind pushing out from its spinning arms rocked all the branches around the clearing.
After the side and rear opened, a new carrier emerged, but it was different. Instead of wheels it had six thin legs that sprouted from a flat square. A woman walked next to it, speaking into the stiff vine on her head. The machine looked like a strange giant beetle.
“I haven’t seen one like that before,” Petari said.
Arrow’s eyes flicked in her direction, then back to the clearing below.
The woman stopped at the edge of the inclined strip of the bullfrog’s skin, but this beetle machine kept going until it was under the green roof. It folded itself up as another large beetle machine strode out, then a rolling carrier unloading more boxes.
Finally the bullfrog rose again, above the tops of the trees, then took off north in the path of the rest of its flock.
The dust and ash began to settle. The echo of the spinning arms died out in the forest, but there was still plenty of noise. The Burnt Circle was a bustle of human chatter, boxes shoved into new homes, carriers squeaking as they rolled across the dirt.
“Did you know they were coming?” Petari whispered, turning to face Arrow.
“No, but…” Arrow’s narrowed eyes stayed on the carriers below.
“But what?” Petari nudged him.
“Maybe those are the things that will help them save the forest.”
Petari scrunched up her nose like she’d just smelled another stink bug. “What do you mean?”
“See that man with the sky-colored shirt?” Arrow pointed to Crankas. “He loves the forest just like me. He’s going to help me save it.”
“He said that?” Petari frowned.
Arrow ignored her expression and smiled. “Yep. And it looks like they’re about to get started.”
Petari scowled at the machiners below, moving boxes and bags, talking, laughing, and controlling those strange rolling and walking machines. She shook her head.
“I don’t know, Arrow. This doesn’t look too good to me.”
“Trust me, it’s good. Crankas, that’s the man’s name, he’s already fixed the magic here. I’ve seen it. It’s not as beautiful as the Guardian’s, but it’s still magic.”
“I thought you lived alone in the forest.” Confusion mixed with hurt radiated from Petari.
“I do.” Arrow shifted so he faced the girl. “Crankas fell from the sky moons ago, and I saved his life. Now he’s come back, and he’s going to protect the forest.”
“And you believe that?”
“I saw the magic, Petari. And the man promised. Not all humans lie like you and your group.”
“Hey, I…,” Petari began, but then closed her mouth, perhaps not knowing how to respond. They fell into silence again, watching the activity below. Then Petari narrowed her eyes. “Remember I said that symbol on the side of the copters was fo
r Fenix?”
“Yes.”
“Fenix is a big company. Machines like that are used in the Barbs sometimes. I don’t trust them.”
“Those things are machines?” Arrow’s ears pricked up at the word. His face clouded over, and I was sure he was thinking about the Imposters.
“Yeah, and they do whatever the people want them to do, which isn’t always nice. Fenix is from the Stilts, and people in the Stilts don’t help other people.”
“Luco said some humans in the Stilts helped you.”
Petari pressed her lips together. “That’s different.”
“How?”
“It just is.”
The two studied each other. Finally Petari said, “Just don’t trust those people, okay?”
Arrow glanced down for a breath, then back at the girl. “That’s what the Guardian said about you.”
“I…” Petari huffed. “Hey, I thought the Guardian liked me.”
Hurt radiated from her, sparking and erratic.
“She does,” Arrow said. “Well, did, until Curly was hurt.”
“I’m so sorry, Arrow. I really am. I like Curly, even if she doesn’t like me.” Petari twisted her arms around her middle and pulled in tight. “I just… I want you to be careful, that’s all.”
Arrow sighed. “I know what I’m doing. I know you and your group think I’m strange and that I don’t know the things you do—”
“No—” Petari began, but Arrow didn’t let her finish.
“But I don’t throw things on the ground so animals can get hurt. And I’m not mean to other humans.” He nodded toward Crankas and the other machiners. “You think they’re bad, but it’s you that’s bad, Petari. You and all your horrible group. Crankas wants to help me and the forest. He and his group want to make things better here. And I’m going to let them. I don’t have another choice.”
“Arrow…,” Petari began, thick waves of hurt washing around her. But the boy didn’t listen. He started to climb down the tree, without looking her way.
“Go back to the village, Petari,” he said. “I’ve got to save the forest.”
Arrow Page 16