by Angela Foxxe
He stoked the embers and threw a few broken wooden chair legs onto them to get the fire going once more. He tossed chunks of pig mole meat onto some skewers and placed them over the fire to roast.
He heard Shawna moaning in the back as she tossed around in her sleep.
“Must be having a nightmare,” he said softly as he got up to check on her.
He walked into the office and knelt down next to his mate and placed his hand on her forehead to check for fever.
Her head was extremely hot. He swore softly and placed a blanket over her.
“This isn’t good for the baby,” he said softly. “We need to get that fever down or they’re both going to die.”
He spied a cabinet that was half off of the wall in the office and opened it. Inside there was a white bottle with some blurred out lettering: A-S-P.
“Hmm…Could this be Aspirin?” he said as he opened the bottle.
He took a sniff and was met by the harsh medicine smell of the white pills inside. He looked down at his dying mate and looked at the bottle and decided the risk was acceptable.
“Let’s hope it really is Aspirin. I know it’s probably not good for the baby, but neither is this fever,” he said as he fetched a canteen.
He drew Shawna up into a half sitting position.
“Hey, wake up,” he said as he gently shook her.
She mumbled incoherently as she tossed her dark head back and forth.
“You need to wake up, I have something that’ll save your life,” he commanded as he shook her harder.
Her green eyes fluttered open. “Winston… I’m so thirsty,” she whispered.
“I know. Here, have a gulp of this water…” he said as he raised the canteen to her lips.
Shawna gulped down the mouthful he had poured into her. “More…” she gasped.
“Put this in your mouth first,” he said as he stuffed the two white pills between her lips.
Shawna grimaced at the bitter taste, but her protests were cut off as Winston poured water into her mouth once more.
She gulped gratefully as the warm water soothed her parched throat while washing down the two bitter-tasting pills.
“What the hell were those?” she gasped as she finished her drink.
“Aspirin, I guess. We’ll find out if your fever goes down. You should get back to sleep. I’ll cook up a good chunk of that pig mole for you, all right?”
Shawna didn’t say a word; her eyes were already closed. Winston gave her a soft kiss on her fevered forehead, laid her back down, and let her sleep while he worked throughout the night to cook enough food for her to last for the three days that he had to leave her behind.
CHAPTER SIX
Winston looked over his shoulder as he walked toward the horizon, toward the rising sun. He had heard of an anima settlement not too far from here and he knew that his only chance for finding medicine for Shawna was through them. He hoped that the tiger runners didn’t get up this far already. Maybe they thought he was already dead.
He knew that the falcon anima tribe was much more reclusive than the tigers, and they lived in the burnt-out husks of the massive forests to the north east, but how far north east, that was the question. He knew he couldn’t leave her for more than a few days or else the infection would take her and the baby’s life. He had to protect her, not just because she was the mother to his child, but he honestly did feel a deep attachment to her.
He was in his tiger form so he could travel rapidly through the wastes to minimize his time away. That was one thing he was grateful for, the ability to move rapidly on four feet, and not be stuck with two.
Winston pounced on a small vole and ate it to slake his hunger and thirst, but carried on at a fast pace. He went between running and walking to conserve energy and not tire himself out, but he knew that time was of the essence.
Without Shawna, he could easily traverse a good half a dozen leagues per day before nightfall, but he didn’t plan on stopping. His plan was to nap maybe an hour at most before starting off again since the burnt forest was a good distance away.
While he traveled, he kept feeling this gnawing worry deep in his heart for his mate. Granted, she didn’t know she was officially his mate, but once that baby emerges, it’ll be a moot point. He will pledge his life to defend hers and the child’s.
Since his playmate went missing all those years ago, Winston felt a huge vacancy in his heart, almost like it was missing half. Once he saw Shawna that fateful day, it felt whole again and he made it his mission to make her his, no matter what it took.
The problem was it took both of them losing everything, maybe even their lives, for him to fill that gnawing hole in his heart, and he honestly didn’t know if he should have gone that far.
Maybe Shawna was his friend from long ago. If he would have introduced her to the elders and had her genes scanned, they might have discovered she was their missing tribeswoman.
I’m so foolish, he thought. Why am I so damn impulsive? Now, because of my carelessness, she might die. I won’t be able to live with myself if that happens. I would be her murderer just as much as that stone crab.
Winston silently whipped himself as he ran north. He was so lost in his own thoughts that he almost missed the signs of ferals nearby.
He stopped and sniffed the air warily and smelled the unwashed and gangrenous bodies of radzoms and feral humes nearby, waiting to pounce on him for an easy meal. He heard a click of a pipe gun being loaded and he dove for the scrub brush to his right.
“Where did it go, the silly furry thing?” he heard one hiss.
“I don’t know, but I know we needs it. Its pretty fur will make a great blanket,” another one said.
“I wonder what it’s flesh tastes like. It looks clean. No radiation. Mmmm, clean flesh,” the first one growled as he poked around the scrub.
Winston smelled the gunpowder on the one that was getting closer. He readied himself for a pounce, since there were only two, and they only had one gun.
He bunched his legs underneath him, waiting for the feral hume to get closer to him. No growling, he didn’t want to give any indication that he was waiting there.
Winston felt like a loaded spring as the unsuspecting man drew closer in his search.
“Come out, come out kitty cat. I won’t hurt you; I just need a shiny meat bicycle.”
Without a sound, Winston leaped out of the brush and wrapped his powerful fore paws around the man’s bony torso while latching onto his neck with his sharp teeth, crushing the feral’s windpipe, preventing him from crying out to his companion.
After the first man was dispatched, Winston tackled the second one and just as swiftly ended his life. He looked back at the motionless corpses with disdain as he resumed his journey. He was more alert now because when there are two ferals, there would be more; they lived in packs for survival.
He ran past the ferals’ ramshackle settlement as fast as he could so he wouldn’t get detected by any others. That patrol was too close of a call for his liking.
He looked up and noticed that the sun was setting and he knew he had to find a place to nap for a few hours before carrying on. He couldn’t go all night, that’s for sure, but he could go on just two or three hours of sleep.
While he loped through the harsh wastes, his thoughts continued to drift back to Shawna. He hoped she was holding on. It was a calculated risk, leaving her at the gas station with such a dire injury, but he couldn’t get her medicine with her limping along. She would surely die on the journey along with their unborn child.
The sky turned red then violet as the sun dipped below the horizon, and Winston heard the snuffling of a pig mole near by. His stomach was growling so he decided that it was time to eat. Pig moles were easy prey after all.
After taking the hapless animal down and eating his fill, Winston continued northward as the darkness approached. He wanted to get as far as he could until he could no longer see.
In the distance, he saw the
soft glow of irradiated insects crawling around in the dense brush. With that telltale sign that the midnight hour was approaching, he decided to find a thicket to curl up in and go to sleep. He turned in circles a few times to make a nest, lay down, wrapped his long tail around his body and fell asleep.
***
A few hours later he awoke with a start as he heard a deep growling coming from the distance. He sniffed the air and caught the scent of a wastewraith. Winston cursed silently to himself as he lay deathly still as the hulking reptilian beast lumbered toward his hiding spot.
“I can… smell you… anima…” the beast growled.
Winston tried not to startle up and give away his location.
“I have been… following you… since you rescued that hume from my claws.” The beast snarled. “I don’t know why you’re risking your hide for it. It’s inferior, definitely inferior to us.”
Winston held back a snarl in response.
“I shall respect you, brother. I have cleaned the colony of vermin behind you so you won’t be hunted, consider it a… gift. I shall also make sure your mate stays safe. Why one such as yourself chose to mate with a hume is beyond me.”
“She might not be just a hume.” Winston snarled.
“You mean… she’s a lost one?” the wastewraith said, surprised.
“She needs to be tested, but she has all of the characteristics,” Winston replied.
“She… needs to be awakened before…” the wraith said sadly.
“I know, before she becomes like you,” Winston finished.
“Yes…”
“What tribe?” Winston asked.
“The falcon. The very tribe you seek,” the wastewraith replied.
“How much further do I have to go?” Winston asked.
“One more light… and you’ll be in the burnt forest. They will find you after that.”
“Understood. Do you think they’ll have the medicine?” Winston asked with hope in his amber eyes.
“I do not know. I have not been there for many years. Run, I’ll keep guard outside of the place where you left your mate.”
“My thanks. Just, don’t make yourself known to her okay? Just… deter any potential attackers,” Winston pleaded.
“That was my plan all along. Run along little cat, and pray you won’t be too late when you return,” the wastewraith hissed as it loped off in the direction that Winston had come.
He shook himself and wondered what on earth he was thinking, trusting a wastewraith with Shawna’s safety, but he was at a loss and had to get to the as soon as possible. One more day to travel.
He looked up at the sky for the northern star and oriented himself properly. He then followed his nose through the darkness to the massive burnt out forest in the distance.
The forest was so massive he could see its shadow in the distance against the light of the waxing moon. He decided to run a good deal of the way, practically flying across the dry grasslands. He knew he couldn’t take an entire day to get there so he tapped his reserves and bounded full tilt toward the shadows of the massive, burnt-out redwood trees.
Winston noticed a faint glow on the eastern horizon as he tirelessly ran through the wastes to save his beloved’s life. He was starting to feel worn down, but he didn’t want Shawna to die, so he pressed on.
The ambient smell of the land gradually changed from a parched desert to that of decaying vegetation and unhealthy swamp, that’s how he knew he was getting closer.
The ground got increasingly damp underneath Winston’s paws as he approached the massive charred trunks of the desiccated forest.
The mud squished between Winston’s toe pads as the burnt vegetation started to become dense. He wasn’t in the actual forest yet, just the outskirts, but was taken aback by the immense size of the destroyed trees ahead.
The massive trunks were blackened, the spindly needle-less branches stretched into the clear blue sky. Some trees were snapped off halfway up, giving a rather haunted feeling to the place.
Winston saw the silhouettes of giant bats flying from tree to tree in the primordial forest and the loud chirping and croaking of giant frogs filled the air. He knew there were probably stone crabs and other terrors lurking on the dank forest floor, but he had no choice but to move forward.
A giant bat swooped low as Winston crept through the forest, trying to stay on the dry patches but it was proving difficult. He was getting mired in the thick, radioactive mud while his white fur became stained red with the viscous substance.
He knew that there was no way the bat could harm him, so he kept slogging through the quagmire to wherever the falcons roosted. The wastewraith said they would find him; let’s hope it was right.
With his nose in the air sniffing for potential threats, Winston kept walking deeper into the foreboding forest.
He heard a screech from above and looked up as a giant bat bore down on him, froth dripping from its needle-sharp fangs.
Oh no, he thought, it was the madness disease! He rolled out of the way, further muddying his coat in the bog. He deftly avoided the maddened bat as it swooped toward him.
Suddenly he heard a soft thud above him and another loud screech as a massive bird tore the bat to shreds with its dagger-like talons.
Winston looked up and was amazed by the sheer size of the bird that was perched on the bare black branch above him.
“So you must be one of the falcon tribe,” he said.
“Yes, what brings one of the tigers to our forest?” a female voice replied.
“My mate got attacked by a stone crab and now she’s festering. She’s with child and can’t travel with me, so I came alone in hopes of you having medicine to aid her,” Winston explained.
“I see. Follow me back to the tree and I shall look for the medicine. Why do you smell of hume might I ask?” the falcon said as she glided between trees.
Winston sighed. “I am Winston Jarvis, former head of the tiger clan, exiled for falling in love with a hume,” he said sadly.
“But you suspect she is not,” the falcon replied. “I am Freyna, leader of the falcon tribe. We shall help you save your beloved, if anything to give her the test and see if she really is an anima. We do not need anymore wastewraiths roaming the land.”
“And what if she fails the test?” Winston asked.
“That is no concern to us, since after she is healed, both you and her will leave, regardless of the outcome. We cannot risk a war with the tigers. We offer aid as a form of goodwill and nothing more,” Freyna replied as she flew.
“I understand,” Winston replied as he followed the giant falcon through the trees.
“How long of a journey has it been for you, since you left your mate?”
“Two days. I lanced the wound before I left, but that only bought her a day at the most.” Winston explained.
“We must hurry then. The stone crab toxin works fast,” Freyna replied.
Winston sped through the woods as Freyna flew above, his heart pounding as he navigated around the massive burnt out trees.
Freyna landed on the top of a particularly massive tree. Its crown got sheared clean off from the winds of the nuclear fallout.
“I shall return in a moment,” she said as she descended into the massive trunk.
Winston paced outside of the base of the blackened, dead tree. As soon as he got the medication, he had to run as fast as he could with no rest this time. He couldn’t afford any more delay. Shawna must be delirious with fever by now, and the baby’s life fading as he waited for the falcon leader to emerge.
After what seemed to be an eternity, Freyna flew up from the entrance to her home and hovered above him. “I am capable of carrying you to your beloved, as long as you stay in your two-legged form,” she said. “It is the only way to reach her in time.”
Winston pondered putting his vulnerable human body in the talons of this giant predatory bird. He looked up at Freyna and guessed that her wings were a good twenty feet across an
d her talons were approximately a foot long each. She would have no trouble carrying him across the wastes, but what would keep her from dropping him?
He swallowed hard as he looked up at the giant anima bird and shifted into his human body. Freyna just stared at him with her bright yellow eyes and tilted her head.
“I guess you’re really going to do this?” Winston said as he extended his arms.
“Yes. I won’t drop you if that’s what you’re afraid of,” she replied.
“That’s exactly what I’m afraid of,” Winston replied.
He winced as Freyna’s massive talons gripped his upper arms. He felt himself being lifted off of the muddy ground by her strong wing beats. Each down stroke tousled his hair as she regained altitude.
Winston just kept his eyes shut as he felt the air move around him while he was carried through the air by Freyna. He was definitely uncomfortable by this turn of events and didn’t want to vomit from looking down.
It felt as if he was going a hundred miles an hour through the skies.
“Where did you leave her?” Freyna asked.
“Oh… garage to the south!” he yelled.
“Understood,” she replied as she turned in that direction.
Winston clutched Freyna’s scaly ankles as he felt his body sway as she banked. His heart was in his throat as he was carried over the wastes.
“How long do you think this will take?” he yelled.
“Three hours at most,” Freyna replied as she winged steadily on. Winston just sighed, clung on even tighter, and prayed that they would make it on time.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Shawna rolled over and moaned in her sleep. Her dreams were full of disjointed fevered images that evoked a primal terror in her brain, but she couldn’t awaken from them.
The fever seared her brain as she slept while her leg throbbed angrily. She felt a sense of dread wash over her as another terrifying dreamscape began.
She was running on all fours in a body not her own through the barren wastes as a giant wastewraith was gaining on her. There were times that she could feel the creature’s breath on her neck as she sprinted through the brown grass toward a sparkling gray-blue body of water.