Tovi reached toward the hare slowly, crystal in hand.
The animal shifted its gaze and stared at the hand. Slowly, tentatively, it began to move in Tovi’s direction, its eyes locked onto the shard.
The Azyrean sat still, his hand extended.
The hare continued to approach until it reached the hand. It stopped and stared, transfixed.
Tovi held his position. The hare remained frozen in place. The world stood still for just a moment. Then slowly, Tovi pulled the shard back and put it away in his pack. The hare shook its head once and then scampered away, back to the carod.
“And that’s it.”
Klunk grunted. After a moment, he sat up and rubbed his head. “But the hare is very small. Will it work on a larger animal, like a rock dog?”
“I guess. I don’t know.” Tovi realized that they would be betting a lot on this. If the crystal didn’t work on big things, it could be very bad for them. On the other hand, it probably wouldn’t be any worse than not trying the crystal at all. They would still have to face the beast.
Klunk’s words interrupted the small Azyrean’s thoughts. “And you saw what happened when you put the crystal away. The hare went back to its usual hiding place.”
Tovi turned to the ogre. “Yes. But if we set food down while the crystal is exposed, then when we put the shard away, the animal should go for the food. When it finishes, maybe we can bring the crystal out again and set down more food.” He shrugged. “We just keep doing that until it’s tame.”
Klunk burst out laughing. “And just where do we get that much meat?”
Tovi hadn’t thought of that. He’d brought some extra meat, but Klunk was right. Doing it the way he’d just described would take a lot more meat than he had. “Maybe before we get there, we can stop at a pool for a night and trap some hares. We can cook them up before we go into the mountains.”
“Maybe. But we will then be gone for days. Mamaw will worry.” Klunk stood and stretched. “But we must go. The day will grow short and we must get to two more pools before the sun sleeps.”
Chapter 54: Tovi
Just as the sun touched the western horizon they made their way to the final pools before the mountains and quickly set about preparing traps. The next morning, they had six hares, which they skinned.
Klunk revived the dying fire and they roasted the meat. Tovi took out his stone knife. “I guess we should carve the meat from the bones.” He remembered how Mamaw prepared the meat back at the kraal.
The ogre laughed. “No. The large dogs will devour the hare whole, in just a couple of bites.” He reached up and scratched his head. “I guess we didn’t really even need to cook them. The dogs will eat them raw.”
Tovi gathered large green leaves from the low-growing plants around the pool and wrapped each hare individually. “When we find the right dog, we can put these out one at a time. I hope six will be enough.”
Klunk shrugged. “If not, I fight it.” He chortled. “Come, we have half-sun more journey to the mountains.” He pointed toward the barren peaks rising up before them.
They made it into the small foothills by late afternoon with only a few hours of daylight remaining. Tovi paused, hand on a boulder, catching his breath. “Do we wait here, or do we have to go up higher?” He pointed toward the mountains ahead.
The ogre glanced around. “It is late today, and we do not know for sure how this will work. So, we go a little farther and camp for the night. Tomorrow morning, we will find the right dog.”
Tovi hadn’t considered how they might find a dog. After all, the small desert rat and the hare had come to him. “Do they just walk around during the day?”
“Some travel alone. Some in packs. We must find one that travels alone. They will be out mostly at first and last daylight. They sleep during the high sun.”
“What about at night?”
“They hunt at night, but we cannot tame one then. It is too dangerous. Their eyes can pierce the dark. Mine cannot. Besides, how would we use the crystal at night?”
That announcement comforted Tovi. He wasn’t really afraid of the dark, too much. But staying in camp beside the fire felt better. “Okay. That’s good.”
The two of them plodded forward, led by Klunk’s steady pace. Klik remained perched on Tovi’s shoulder as the young Azyrean struggled to keep up.
Soon the sun disappeared behind the peaks, and Klunk came to an abrupt halt. “Here.” He glanced around the small clearing. “We make camp here. There is brush so we can make a fire.” He pointed ahead. “Those trees might be a good place to find a dog in the early light.” He dropped his pack onto the ground. “Yes. Here for the night. Gather wood and brush for fire.”
Tovi watched Klunk with a mix of amazement and admiration as the ogre went about creating fire. He set a flat rock on the ground in front of him, piled dried leaves and twigs on top of it, and went down on his haunches in front of it. He took a long, straight stick about the width of his large ogre finger and grasped it between his extended hands, and then moved it back and forth rapidly atop the leaves and twigs. Within a minute or two, smoke began to rise from the pile, followed by a burst of yellow flame. Klunk gently placed several sticks on the fire. When those appeared to be burning, he added larger pieces of wood, including several as thick as his arm.
“There, we have fire for the night.” He glanced over at the pile of wood that he and Tovi had gathered. “That should be enough wood. We will have to take turns staying awake to feed the fire all night. It will help keep the wild beasts from attacking in the dark.”
Tovi shook his head. Klunk seemed to always be in control—never afraid.
◆◆◆
The fire danced before his eyes as Tovi laid his head on his pack and pulled his thin blanket up around his shoulders. Klunk sat on the opposite side of the fire, staring down at the ground.
“How do we start in the morning? What do we do first?”
Klunk shifted his gaze to Tovi. “We move closer to those trees. The wind will come from behind us, and we must move to the other side so that it will not carry our scent into the thicket. Then we wait.”
Waiting had never been one of Tovi’s favorite things to do. “How long will it take?”
Klunk chuckled. “It will take as long as it takes. If I could call out and speak to the right dog, I would summon it. But that has never worked for me. So, we wait.”
Tovi was about to answer when a sound of rustling brush overrode the crackling of the fire. “What was that?”
The ogre jerked his head around in the direction of the sound. He stood, peering into the darkness. “I do not know. Maybe just a hare rustling for food.” But his voice didn’t sound that convincing… or convinced.
Another noise broke through, this time from a different location—behind them. It sounded like shuffling stones on the path. Tovi sprang to his feet and stared.
Klunk turned toward the latest sound and then back toward the first.
A howl like nothing he had ever heard before shattered the night. And then another, from the other side of the clearing. And then Tovi saw them—a pair of gleaming red points of light. Into the circle of firelight came a lone rock dog, bigger than any he’d seen among the pets in the kraal. It stopped and stared with a baleful gaze at the two.
To the right, another set of eyes and another form entered the light. And then another. Tovi and Klunk, as if acting as one, retreated to a large boulder and faced the animals.
Klunk glanced over at his club, which stood against a different boulder, on the other side of the fire.
The dogs moved in closer, uttering low guttural growls. Their heads hung low and their teeth protruded from blunt, rounded snouts. They crept forward.
His heart racing, stomach in turmoil, and terror overshadowing all else, Tovi dropped down to his hands and knees and slithered over, grabbing his pack and then shuffling back to Klunk. Maybe. He reached into his pack and retrieved the blue shard. Grasping it firmly in his hand,
he took a step toward the animals, his arm outstretched, displaying his weapon.
The pack of dogs stood without moving. They peered at and seemed collectively locked on the crystal, and yet the vicious, hungry look in their eyes did not abate. They remained where they were. Tovi stopped and stared at them. What now? It seemed an impossible standoff. The dogs were locked in place, or so it seemed. But Tovi was certain that the moment he put the crystal away, they would be on him. And there was no way that the six cooked hares would accomplish anything.
“What do we do now?” He turned his head toward Klunk.
The ogre had a calm look in his eyes. His arms hung loosely to his side. “This is the danger of getting a pet. A hungry pack, it seems, has found us. We will put out the hares for them and then move back toward the desert. I fear they will follow. It is many hours until the sun comes. But we must try.”
As he spoke, another rock dog entered the clearing, this one larger by half again than any of the others. And the worst part was that it seemed unfazed by the crystal. It crept close to Tovi and sniffed his hand, shifting its gaze to the ogre.
And then it sat and stared at the two. Tovi was certain that he could see a wicked smile on the animal’s face. It cast its gaze around the pack of animals who stood transfixed and then back at Tovi and Klunk as if to ask, “Okay, what will you do now?”
Chapter 55: Jarek
Jarek set his empty breakfast plate aside and sipped on his coffee. Another day and still nothing to work with. Burns had said little to him since he wandered off into the swamp, bringing down the wrath of West. He wondered if maybe part of Burns’s job was to babysit him, and she had gotten into trouble for allowing him to leave the caverns. They sat together against the wall sipping their cups of steaming dark liquid without speaking.
Amidst the bustle of preparations for the coming day, Corny appeared before him. “I’m headed out in a few minutes. I need to pick up some things for Virgil, but I’m going to try to find time to stop by a couple of those abandoned mines. I hope to have something for you tonight.”
It was the first good news Jarek had heard in the two days since his near miss in the swamp. He nodded, although it was hard to summon up any enthusiasm. He felt like the cavern pariah. “Excellent. Good luck.” He tried to pour a positive tone into the words but wasn’t at all sure he succeeded. He felt anything but positive.
After the young acquirer of goods slipped away, Jarek turned to Burns. “Do you think he’ll find anything?”
She shrugged without looking at him. “Dunno. But he stands a lot better chance than you do out there.”
He winced at the barb. “Look, I’m sorry. I know I messed up. And if I wasn’t really sure about it, Commander West took great care to explain it to me.”
Burns said nothing.
Jarek sighed in exasperation and tried to get his thoughts back on track. Across the clearing, Virgil had a group of men and women gathered around him. Their preparations for skirmish missions was a daily fixture in the group.
The band around him scattered and he sauntered over to where Jarek and Burns sat. “How’s it going?”
Burns said nothing. Jarek shrugged. “Okay, I guess. About the same.” He had no idea why Virgil would even ask. After all, they weren’t friends or anything. And the captain was not helping acquire the needed material.
“Keep at it. You’ll solve it.” Virgil reached down, put a hand on Jarek’s shoulder, and squeezed. “You’ll see. It’ll work out.” And with that, he was gone.
CeCe stood near the exit, eyeing Jarek. When his gaze caught hers, she nodded, a faint smile on her lips. She turned and left without coming over to greet him.
Odd. In the past, she had been quite friendly and anxious to help. But today she seemed cool and distant.
◆◆◆
Morning passed, and Jarek found an isolated corner of the cavern in which to have his lunch. Nothing seemed right. Things had changed since his adventure in the swamp. CeCe had become indifferent to him. Burns had moped around and refused to talk to him. And Virgil had, oddly enough, become friendlier, although Jarek wasn’t sure whether it was genuine or not.
“Anything new?” Burns dropped down beside him, a cup of coffee in hand.
Jarek wiped his mouth with his sleeve. “Unless you count having dried squirrel instead of smoked pigeon as being new, then no. Nothing new.”
Enough was enough. “This is unbearable, Burns. How many ways can I say that I’m sorry? I didn’t mean to get you into trouble, okay?”
The young woman glanced over at him. “What makes you think I got into trouble?”
“I don’t know. I just assumed that since you were watching over me and I wandered off, you got worked over too.”
She turned to face him, fire in her eyes. “Really? You think that getting an ass-chewing gets me down? You don’t have a clue.”
Jarek’s eyes widened. “What?”
“You don’t get it, do you? You and me, we were getting to be friends. I wouldn’t wander off on you. But you went out without even talking to me about it. That’s not what friends do.”
The words stunned Jarek. Friends? Maybe. Back home, he didn’t have that many friends. Okay, well, he didn’t have any friends. “Burns….” He wanted to say something to make everything okay, but nothing came. Everything she had said was true. He left her without even thinking about it, all to chase some red light that he saw flickering, like he was personally going to discover a wonderful answer to all their problems. “If I promise not to do anything stupid like that again, can we still be friends?”
Burns burst out laughing. “Of all the things you could have said, that surprises me most. Perfect, Jarek, just perfect. Of course, I’m your friend. Good friends are hard to find. So, yeah, just don’t go doing anything else stupid like that, okay?”
◆◆◆
The afternoon crept by. The visitor to the world of humans and the fire starter toyed around with some different ideas but, until they got their hands on real crystals, it was all just more speculation and assumptions.
Virgil’s team returned and put their things away. The smell of cooking poultry and roasting potatoes and carrots filled the cavern. CeCe wandered in, finding her way among the throngs of people and melting into the crowd. Jarek wondered if maybe things were getting back to normal.
Men and women staked out different positions, plates and cups in hand. Much of the buzz of conversation subsided to a pleasant hum of lips smacking, chewing, and the occasional belch. Jarek gazed out across the small pond of humanity in the cavern and then turned to Burns. “You see Corny come back?”
“Nah. But he can be a sneaky one. Probably slid in without your seeing him. I’m sure if he found something, he’ll wander over here shortly. But he’ll eat first. He won’t pass up food.”
“I suppose.” He continued to search the crowd—no Corny.
Chapter 56: Jarek
Dinner came and went with no sign of Corny. Jarek wandered the large cavern, poking his head into every corner and meandering down every finger of the cave except the commander’s personal area. Nothing. After a few hours, his concern turned to worry and then, by the time people were starting to migrate toward their pads for the night, panic set in.
He sought out Virgil. If anyone would know something, it would be the quiet, easy-going captain. “Might I ask you if you have seen Corny tonight? He was supposed to be out looking for some quartz today and I haven’t seen him return yet.”
The tall captain glanced up from the materials he was sorting on the cave floor. “Nope. But I wouldn’t worry. He’s a sly one. And it’s not unusual for him to stay out for extended periods, especially if he gets focused on something. Any idea where he might have been looking?”
Jarek reached up and scratched his ear. “All I know is that he said there were some old abandoned mines around. I figured he’d probably check those.”
Virgil nodded. “Sounds right. I’ll check a couple of them on patrol tomo
rrow. Although, he’s one of those guys you rarely see. He’s quiet and, when he wants to be invisible, even I can’t see him.”
“Thanks. Much appreciated.” Jarek felt a little better. After all, if there was serious reason to worry, Virgil would have picked up on it. He wandered over toward his own pad, although he knew he would have trouble sleeping.
“You look worried.”
Jarek did not hear CeCe approach. “Yeah, well, a little. It’s just that Corny hasn’t come back yet.”
She chuckled. “He’ll be fine. Sometimes he stays gone for days.” She started to walk away and then stopped, turning back toward him. “Anything new on the crystals?”
“Not really. Burns and I have mainly just been talking about what might be. Without something to work with, it’s all just speculation, though.”
She narrowed her eyes as she considered him. “I see. Okay, then. I’ll leave you to it. Have a good night.”
Jarek felt a little better. CeCe and Virgil seemed the two most experienced people here, other than West, of course. And both of them had said there was nothing to worry about. But something felt off. The two had said similar things, but their demeanor seemed different from each other. In what way, he couldn’t quite say.”
◆◆◆
The next morning, Jarek woke to an almost empty cavern. He had been unable to sleep for a long time. Then, when he finally did drift off, he slept later than usual. He was hoping to talk to Virgil again before the skirmish party left.
He found Burns just outside the cavern, her back to a tree trunk, drawing lines, circles, and arrows in the dirt with a stick. “A great work of art?”
“Just knocking around some ideas, that’s all.”
He looked closer and saw what looked like a circle, representing a light source, like a moon. From that, lines emanated out and passed through what might have been a crystal. The lines coming out of the crystal were different—wavy with little vertical slashes drawn through them. “What does all this mean?”
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