Arrow

by Samantha M. Clark

  Sadness etched into the bark where he touched, but he pushed it down and continued on.

  I felt sadness for the boy too. Petari had been his first human friend, but like the Imposters had done to me, the children in the village had let him down.

  It’s difficult to soften a heart that’s hardened from hurt.

  22

  AS A CORAL SNAKE SLITHERED ACROSS ONE OF THE BUTTRESS ROOTS OF THE GIANT FICUS TO THE EAST, THE ROOT GREW DRY, SHATTERED, AND DISSOLVED INTO THE GROUND. THE SNAKE CARRIED ON, BUT THE FICUS STRUGGLED TO BREATHE.

  When he got to the ground, Arrow retrieved his bag of fruit, then peered at the machiners’ camp, all the humans as busy as flies around fresh dung. Boxes and bags were being opened, items displayed on tables, pieces clamped onto other pieces.

  There were many more humans now, all much taller than the boy, and for a few breaths, nervousness radiated all around him. He inhaled deeply, gazed around for Crankas and Wiser, then approached them quietly.

  “Two to three days tops,” Wiser was telling Crankas when my dragonfly got close. “We should get more light out that way, then we can start more shifts.”

  “Splendid,” Crankas replied. “We’ll—”

  A hush grew over the other machiners. They froze in place, only the carrier continuing its journey. All eyes were on the skinny boy with bare feet and a palm-woven bag of fruit.

  Suddenly the new machiners dropped their boxes. They grabbed shiny black metal tubes, like the one Wiser carried on her back. The machiners pointed the tubes at Arrow, and I finally recognized what they were. The Imposters had called them guns. They had pointed them at animals in the forest and at some Forest Dwellers. Sometimes the guns had made a BANG and whatever was before them had fallen to the ground, dead.

  I feared for Arrow now more than ever before. He hadn’t seen them in the images I’d given him of the Imposters. He didn’t know the danger he was in.

  But Petari knew. She had begun to climb down the tree after Arrow, but now terror soaked into the branch she perched on.

  “Stay back,” a man wearing gray clothes shouted.

  “Stop!” cried a woman with a long tail of hair swinging from the top of her head.

  “Whoa!” Crankas stepped in front of Arrow, who had frozen too. He had always liked shiny things, but he could tell from the way these humans were pointing the guns at him that something was wrong.

  The machiners glanced from Arrow to Crankas, but they didn’t lower the guns. Then Wiser laughed loudly.

  “Are you guys scared of a little kid?” Her eyes rolled in her head. “Put your weapons away before you damage the equipment. And don’t drop those boxes.”

  She waved Arrow forward. Pulse thumping wildly on the soil, the boy walked closer to Wiser, holding his bag toward her.

  “What a haul!” She turned to Mora. “Put these out of the way, will you?”

  Mora took the bag, patting Arrow on the shoulder. “You rock, kid.”

  Arrow smiled, even though I imagine he had no idea why he was like a rock. I certainly didn’t.

  “Look at all of this,” Crankas said, strolling between Arrow and the machiners, who were once again as busy as flies, although they kept their eyes on the boy as well. “State-of-the-art tech, Arrow. All of the best that money can buy. We’ll have everything up and running soon.”

  Arrow nodded, despite the uncertainty that swirled around him. He didn’t understand money, or art, or tech. But the idea of things happening soon pleased him.

  “You’re using more of your magic for lights?” he asked.

  Wiser glanced at Crankas, some message I couldn’t translate hidden within her eyes.

  Crankas nodded slightly, then turned to Arrow. “Yes, we’re going to make the best magic right here. You wait and see.”

  “Can you show me how you get the magic?”

  “We’re a little busy right now,” Wiser said. “Why don—”

  “That’s okay,” Crankas said, sliding an arm around Arrow’s shoulder. “I think the boy deserves a look. I’ll show him.”

  Arrow’s footsteps were lighter as he followed Crankas to one of the tables near their fabric huts. Joy swirled around him. He was finally going to see how they got the magic. Perhaps I had been wrong about these humans. I had always known Arrow would save us, but I didn’t think it would be this way.

  The table was covered with what looked like small black water lily pads, white bowls similar to ones the Forest Dwellers used to eat from, plus other small items of all different shapes that glinted in the morning rays.

  Crankas picked up one of the bowls and one of the black lily pads. Holding up the pad, he said, “These panels connect to these domed lights with signals that go through the air.”

  “Like the one that helped you find us?”

  “Well done, Arrow. You’re a smart kid.”

  Arrow beamed, ready for more.

  “The panels collect all the energy and send it to the domes so that they light up and will stay lit all through the night.”

  Arrow’s eyes widened. “So you dig deep with the panel?”

  As far as I knew, the Forest Dwellers hadn’t used a panel, but could this have been what we were missing?

  “No, no. We point it at the sun. Usually we can place them near the lights, but with all the trees here, we had to design something quite a bit taller. You see those poles next to the trees?” He gestured around the Burnt Circle, and Arrow noticed the poles for the first time. They were strapped high up onto the trunks of many trees, extending above the canopy and into the sky.

  “Each one of those poles has a panel on the top,” the man said, pride ringing in every word. “And they power the lights below.”

  Arrow frowned. “So where do you get the magic?”

  Crankas laughed. “Well, it’s not really magic, but I like to think that science is magical. The power comes from the sun. These panels take the sun’s rays and transform them into electricity to power the lights.”

  The sun’s rays. This was not how it worked. The humans were not harnessing the magic of the earth.

  “But… But how…” Arrow couldn’t get his mind or words around this information. “But that’s not the real magic. That’s not the Anima.”

  “Anima? What’s that? Some sort of folklore magic? My boy, I told you, there’s no real magic.” The man leaned in close and narrowed his eyes. “Are there other people living here that you forgot to tell me about? Did they tell you this place has magic?”

  “I… It’s just…” Arrow swallowed. “You said you were going to save the forest.”

  “Of course I am!” Crankas raised his arms, like he was beckoning all the trees to come his way. “This forest is the reason I’m here. Of course I want to protect it. It’s going to make me very rich.”

  My roots curled. The Imposters had used that word too.

  “I don’t understand.” Arrow shifted from foot to foot. “How are you going to save it if you can’t get the magic?”

  “Oh, I’ve got big plans. Look here.”

  He pulled the small rectangle he had been making notes on from his pocket. Pressing it lightly, he tilted it toward an empty space on the tabletop, and a light shone down, illuminating a drawing like Petari’s. Arrow’s eyes widened. “That’s the forest. Those are all the places I showed you.” He traced his finger on the line that went from the Burnt Circle to the Shimmer Cave. More lines trailed to the pockets of food growing in the south part of the forest, a calm part of the river, and more. It also had the same squiggly lines Petari had written in her notebook, but Arrow couldn’t read them.

  “This is a map of everywhere you’ve taken me,” Crankas said, squeezing Arrow’s shoulder. “Without this map, I couldn’t have gotten my plan underway so quickly. And I couldn’t have made this map without you. I owe you a lot, young man.”

  Arrow smiled, but it wasn’t big, and it wasn’t pleasant. Something was bubbling within him. Something he didn’t like.

 
“What does the map help you do?”

  “It shows us what we have to do to make our dreams come true.” He winked at Arrow. “The first step is that cave you showed me.” He pointed at the Shimmer Cave on the map. “That place is a gold mine. Once we’ve got a clear path to that cave, we’ll be able to harvest all the gems and get them back to the camp for export. I’ll get a lot of money for what we pull out of that cave.”

  “Pull out of it?”

  “Yes. Once we’ve broken it up and extracted the most precious pieces, I’ll sell them in the city. People there won’t be able to get enough of them. And they’ll pay a lot.”

  Arrow’s arms began to shake. “You’re going to destroy the Shimmer Cave?”

  “I know. It sounds bad. But it’s not.” Crankas turned Arrow away from the map and looked straight into the boy’s eyes as though he were about to tell him something very important. “That money will be enough to bring in all the fertilizers and pesticides we need. We’ll get rid of all those bugs and grubs on the trees so we can save them. I’ll bet that’s the problem you’ve been having with things dying. Bugs will eat up a place like this fast, but we’ve got pesticides for that. And the fertilizers we use in the city will make an ordinary tomato grow to the size of a melon. Wait until you see how big your wonderful acai berries get then. They’ll be as big as your head.”

  How I wished for more Anima. My biggest fears were coming true with every word he said.

  “They’re good the way they are now,” Arrow said, worry streaming from him. “Their size is just enough.”

  The man didn’t seem to hear. He had spent a lot of time formulating this plan of his and seemed to enjoy sharing its every detail. He pointed to another part of his map.

  “We’re going to need bumper crops of all the fruit. We’ll plant more here. A whole area filled only with the most delicious fruit trees.”

  “But they like where they’re growing now.” Fear built up beneath Arrow’s feet. Just as it built up within me. Arrow was trying to tell the man, to educate him about the forest, but Crankas wasn’t listening.

  “They’re going to like this much better,” he said. “The fertilizers and pesticides, remember? The trees won’t need to fight off bugs. We’ll do it for them.”

  He laughed again, louder. “While we’re cleaning up this place, we’ll start working on the second part of the plan.”

  He straightened his shoulders, growing taller. Arrow stiffened. “I’m going to build huge resorts with the best views and food around. We’ll take out all those pesky reeds around the river, make it clearer so people can go swimming.”

  He can’t. He can’t!

  “The reeds protect the soil.” Arrow’s voice got quieter with every word he uttered.

  But it didn’t matter. Crankas wasn’t listening. He pointed at the circles on the map, then at the lines between them. “We’ll build trails all through the forest so people can go hiking. We’ll capture all the animals you’ve told us about. But don’t worry, we won’t hurt them. We’ll build big cages… wait, that doesn’t sound good. We’ll build enclosed areas, but natural-looking. The animals won’t know the difference. And best yet, they won’t have to go hunting for their food; we’ll give it to them so they’ll stay nice and healthy. Don’t want the people staying at the resort to see scraggly animals around, do we?”

  Buildings. Roads. Cages. After everything I had done to protect our beautiful forest, this one human was going to destroy it.

  Arrow’s heart pounded, pounded, pounded. His hand pulled tight into a fist by his side.

  “See that machine they’re working on over there?” Crankas pointed at a group of the humans clamping items together. “That makes easy work of grinding up tree trunks once we’ve got them down.”

  Arrow glared at the man, a cold flood of confusion and despair rolling beneath him.

  Crankas sighed, a contented smile on his face. “My dear Arrow, you have no idea what a treasure you’ve got here. I had read about places like this, seen them in old movies, but I didn’t think they really existed anymore. And to think it was so close all the time, and I’d never even noticed.”

  How I wish he’d never noticed at all. Why did the magic have to fail me now?

  Arrow was as stiff as a trunk. I wished I could rip my roots out of the ground and crash my full weight on top of that camp.

  This was worse than I had imagined. This man was even more horrible than the Imposters. They had known they were destructive and hadn’t cared. This man believed he was benefiting the forest, which would make him even harder to stop.

  But how could they not see the damage this plan would cause? The animals needed to roam free, not be penned. The removal of the reeds by the river would change the delicate community of algae that feed the fish and plants. And hotels. Trails. Humans… Coming… Here… Where would they go? What would they destroy? Every part of the forest depended on the other parts. Kill one, and you kill more.

  Arrow was silent. From the despair swimming around him, I knew he was too stunned to speak.

  The man didn’t notice, though. That’s what you can always count on with arrogance—it doesn’t see well.

  Crankas clapped the boy’s shoulder. “We’ve got a lot of work to do, you and me. We—”

  A ROAR shook the Burnt Circle. All eyes darted in its direction, including Arrow’s.

  The images the dragonflies sent were blurred, but I could still understand why his fear had leaped.

  Standing in the middle of the clearing was a shiny machine twice as tall as the biggest human. At its base were the six metal legs of the giant beetle. A tall tube had been built up high on the flat square of the machine’s back. Arms sprouted from holes in the tube, each equipped with claws, clamps, knives, and more. In the center of the tube stood the human with the tail of hair flowing from the top of her head. She had a determined expression on her face.

  The monster lifted its feet, six legs moving it forward, while the arms twisted and curled, slicing the air.

  “Looks splendid, Oxsen,” Crankas called.

  The female inside the metal monster, Oxsen, waved.

  “It’ll look splendid when it’s doing what it’s supposed to,” Wiser said from the other side of the Burnt Circle. She turned toward Oxsen and the machine. “Let’s make sure everything’s functioning properly.”

  Oxsen nodded, the focused expression back on her face. Her arms moved, although I couldn’t see her hands behind the circular wall on the beetle’s back.

  The other machiners had stopped what they were doing and watched.

  Arrow stepped forward to get a full view, curiosity and fear clouding the air above him.

  The metal beetle’s legs twitched, then lifted, front and back working in tandem. It scurried to the edge of the forest and stopped beside a tall palm tree.

  Clawed arms wrapped around the middle of the trunk. Knived arms slashed the base. Legs dug into the ground, then pulled up.

  In less than a breath, the palm was gone. Roots were dragged out of the soil.

  Arrow gasped.

  My roots shuddered.

  The loss spread throughout the root network. Fungi retreated from the area. Communications were lost.

  Crankas’s hand tightened on the boy’s shoulder. “Fantastic,” he called to the monster.

  Wiser raised her arm. “Don’t congratulate her yet. There’s more.”

  The metal beetle pulled the dying trunk to another machine on the far side of the Burnt Circle. A giant bucket had been built on the back of one of the wheeled carriers. The beetle hauled the trunk into the bucket, leaves flapping.

  Fratos jumped onto a ledge on the side of the bucket machine. His fingers pressed against nodules; then another ROAR reverberated around the Circle. The roar changed to a CRUNCH. The visible end of the palm shook violently as the trunk was pulled farther and farther inside, until it disappeared altogether. A few more breaths, and the crunch stopped. The man hit the nodules again. And the ma
chiners slapped one another’s hands in the air.

  The palm was gone. Dead. Ground into dust before the soil had even settled.

  “Unnh.” The scream was strangled in Arrow’s throat.

  The root network twitched with the loss. My branches drooped.

  “Excellent. Excellent!” Crankas shouted.

  “That was quick, but we need them quicker,” Wiser said. “We’ve got a lot to tear out in a short time. Hurry up and finish. I want everything ready to begin clearing in the morning.”

  A smile broadened across Crankas’s face as he turned back to Arrow.

  The boy, my boy, had slumped, gazing under a furrowed brow at the bucket that now held the ashes of the dead palm.

  Perhaps the man noticed the color drained from the boy’s face, because he said, “Don’t worry, the forest won’t miss a few trees.”

  But Arrow knew it would. I would.

  I did.

  Deep within the root network, the loss was felt. The palm hadn’t even had time to pass along its nutrients and knowledge to be used by others. A hole had been created. A useless hole for no purpose at all. My roots twitched with anger.

  “We’ve got to clear away the stuff we don’t need,” Crankas said. “But soon we’ll have roads all over the forest, and we’ll be able to work much faster to save it then.” His voice was light, joyful, excited, while anger and fear seeped from Arrow.

  “Okay.” Crankas slapped his hands together. “Let’s go over the map again. I want you to make sure I’m not missing anything.”

  Arrow groaned. The guttural noise rose up from his heart and got stuck deep within his throat. I knew he wanted to scream, shout, but his fear was holding him back. He’d seen predators before, but never something that could eat an entire tree in one breath.

  Crankas didn’t understand. Didn’t listen. “You hungry? We can get some food first. Come on. We’ve got some protein bars you’ll love.”

  Arrow shook his head. He opened his mouth, but nothing came out.

  I wished I could help him, offer him comfort, but even if Arrow could’ve heard me at the Burnt Circle, all the comfort I had had drained away.