by Jon Jacks
*
‘Run!’ Celly cried.
Jake didn’t move.
He was petrified, frozen to the spot with fear and a sense of hopelessness.
The boar had lowered its head, tusks menacingly jutting forward, each one of which would penetrate deeply, shattering bones, ripping apart flesh, muscle, organs. With a fierce jerk of its massive head, he’d be tossed up in the air, badly gored, either dying or at least invalided for life.
He could see its eyes, red with fury and blood lust.
Behind him, there was an abrupt, violent gust of wind, a wind that soared over his head.
Suddenly, the boar ahead of him seemed to be struck by a blinding burst of the sun itself, an orb of glittering gold and silver falling upon it and bringing its charge to an immediate halt.
Celly’s immense wings, curling around the action, glowed vibrantly, almost painfully. Jake saw the furiously rising and falling talons only as further sharp glints of light.
But he could see the effect that Celly’s attack was having on the boar.
It was thrashing, snorting, growling.
Fighting back.
Tossing its head, probing for weaknesses that its fearsome tusks could make the most of.
Lifting itself up on its powerful hind legs, lashing out with its equally powerful forelegs.
But Celly wasn’t retreating.
The talons rose and fell time and time again, each time duller, more bloodied than before. She was even using her wings not only to give her the lift she needed but also to brutally batter the now writhing, squealing animal.
The boar knew it was losing.
It was terrified.
It was trying to get away.
Strangely, Jake felt sorry for it.
‘Celly! Celly!’ he yelled. ‘Let it go! You’ve won! Let it go!’
The pummelling, shredding talons continued to rain down.
Threaded flesh and bloody muscle was scattered around the combatants.
At last, with an effortless flap of her sparkling wings, Celly rose away from the fight.
Jake gasped at her incredible beauty.
She could have been a warring angel, St Michael himself, hovering over the defeated Beast.
The boar, exhausted and with tattered curtains of flesh hanging down its sides, briefly appeared relieved.
It stumbled. Snorted in agony. Fell.
Its eyes were now sad, pained. Oddly pleading.
Instantly forgetting the danger he had been in, Jake whirled on Celly.
‘Why’d you kill it?’
Still hovering in the air, Celly glared back at him.
‘Because it was going to kill you, remember?’
‘But…but you didn’t have to do it so horribly!’
As Celly gracefully dropped back to the ground, her wings rapidly retracted, her bloodied talons slid back into her hands, the metallic glow of her skin faded. She would have looked innocently human again if it hadn’t been for the blood covering her hands, her badly torn shorts, and now almost non-existent t-shirt.
‘Horribly? It put up a bit of a fight, Jake! Or hadn’t you noticed?’
‘But you’d beaten it! You didn’t need to finish it off so…so…’
‘Go on! Say it Jake! Brutally, right? Like I’m an animal, you mean?’
‘No, no…I didn’t…’
‘Yes you did! I’ve watched you all week, Jake! Your face creased in disgust every time you saw Hincheley or Mary killing and skinning an animal! Like we’re animals and you’re some superior being!’
She strode past him, storming off back into the undergrowth.
‘Wait! What about the boar?’
Jake pointed back towards the now lifeless boar.
‘What about it?’ she cried back over her shoulder.
‘Well, we can’t just leave it here, can we? The other animals, they’ll–’
Celly spun around.
‘They’ll eat it, you mean?’
Jake shrugged, embarrassed.
‘Now it’s dead, it seems such a waste–’
‘A waste of food you mean? That’s a bit brutal, isn’t it? Eating the poor thing?’
‘It’s dead anyway–’
Celly furiously strode back towards him.
‘Yes, it’s dead Jake! And do you know what would have happened if it wasn’t dead, Jake? We’d have a wounded boar running about the island, dangerous and looking for trouble. That’s why I killed it!’
Still…’ Jake said weakly.
‘Still what, Jake? We’d have killed it anyway, wouldn’t we? For the meat we need, right?’
He nodded.
‘So…what should we do?’ he asked. ‘It’s too big for us to cut up or drag back, unless you...’
‘Unless I cut it up? You’d like that would you? To see me butchering it? While you can go on pretending you’re back at home, getting all your meat from the supermarket, kidding yourself you’re not really an animal too?’
‘I’m not supposed to be here, remember?’ Jake spat back. ‘I’m supposed to be at home! But you and your family kidnapped me after killing a whole bloody station of coppers!’
‘Because we were about to be discovered! What choice did mum and dad have? Everyone would just think we were monsters, like you do!’
‘Oh, whereas killing a few coppers shows you’re all perfectly human, right?’
‘So humans don’t kill policemen; that’s what you’re saying?’
‘They don’t slaughter them!’
Celly spun around and started heading off through the jungle once more.
‘Where’re you going?’ Jake cried out after her.
‘To the beach, to wash this blood off – or did you think I enjoyed being covered like this?
*
‘The boar! What about the boar?’
Jake yelled out urgently to Celly as he ran after her, following the path she’d angrily and carelessly carved out of the undergrowth.
He didn’t want to see the dead boar going to waste. There was enough meat there to keep them all going for at least a week, he reckoned.
He already regretted being disgusted by Celly’s actions. As she’d quite rightly pointed out, she’d saved his life. And as for the question of killing the boar, yes, he was being hypocritical.
When they’d first come to the island, he’d tried to remain aloof, somehow distanced from the killing and the preparing of the animals they’d caught for food.
Perhaps if Hincheley had used knives rather than his talons, he might have accepted the situation quicker. Perhaps if Mary had looked just a little sickened as she’d expertly skinned their catches as effortlessly as if she were peeling off little fur coats, he wouldn’t have felt they were reverting to a more brutal, bestial state.
But, as Celly had pointed out, all this had also taken place at home; it was all just conveniently out of sight, out of mind, so that he and everyone else could kid themselves that the neatly packaged meat on the shelves had never, ever really been another living being.
Still, despite the recognition of his own hypocrisy, he was glad that Celly had refused to cut the boar up in front of him.
Now, if they’d both done it, using knives, perhaps, you know…
‘What about it?’ Celly demanded, having finally drawn up to a halt and angrily turning on him.
‘We can’t just leave it–’
‘We’ve already had this conversation, haven’t we?’
‘I was wrong; before I mean. Wrong to make out what you were doing…You saved me. Thanks Celly. I’d be dead or injured if it weren’t for you.’
Celly frowned, sighed, like she was wondering if Jake’s apology made up for his previous behaviour.
‘Okay,’ she said resignedly. ‘But I’m not cutting it up in front of you!’
She tilted her head back slightly, closed her eyes as if concentrating.
‘Mary; Mary’s nearby. She can take care of it.’
As Celly finished speaking to hi
m, she continued to say something in a language of hisses, of tongue clicks.
Jake had heard her parents and their servants use this language before. It was the first time that he’d heard Celly using it however.
How did it work over such long distances when used so quietly?
How had Celly known that Mary was nearby?
Had Celly somehow heard her with what must be an acute sense of hearing? Or was it more to do with a heightened sense of smell. As Celly had concentrated, it seemed to him that she could have also been raising her nose to smell the air.
‘What did you say to her?’ he asked.
‘I told her there was large, dead boar at trap five. She said she’d deal with it; but I sensed she wondered why I wasn’t dealing with it,’
Her eyes probed his as she said this, like she was holding him responsible for her inability to take care of things.
‘How’d you know where Mary was? Could you hear her?’
Celly shook her head.
‘No; at least, not until she was directly speaking to me.’
‘Then you smelt her?’
Celly’s eyes blazed.
‘What? Smelt her like an animal, you mean?’
‘No, no…I just meant–’
Whirling around, Celly stormed away from him once again, shouting back over her shoulder.
‘You just meant I’m a monster and you’re not!’
*
Chapter 6
As they descended through the jungle and neared the beach, the covering of thick leaves began to thin out a little, allowing Jake fleeting glimpses of the crudely made huts they now called home.
It was hardly Swiss Family Robinson, but everything had been ingeniously constructed to make it all as civilised as possible.
Yes, Jake thought; civilised.
Everyone had worked hard to create a home that provided as many comforts as possible. A form of thick canvas sheeting had been made from shredded and woven palm leaves, whereas walls were generally constructs of a lattice work of wooden strips supported by a timber frame. There were separate areas to prepare the food, separate huts for the latrines, all of which could be easily flushed clean using the waters of a diverted stream connected to a covered cess pit. There was also a small patch were some of the island’s wild vegetables were now being cultivated.
Of course, even when ‘working hard’, Jack’s efforts hadn’t produced as much as everyone else.
He had watched in awe as, even in mid transformation, those around him used their incredible strength to break or wrench free the small trees they were constructing the huts from. Talons sliced and planed, or dug at and scooped up the earth. Metallically glistening skin appeared immune to the cuts and damage a human might suffer as he went about similar arduous tasks.
As if they were taking care not to alarm Jake, no one underwent a full transformation in front of him unless it was absolutely necessary, such as when a heavy load had to be moved over a distance. Even in these cases, however, Celly would refuse to transform, just as she never used any of her extra abilities while he was present.
Until today, Jake had never seen Celly change since her family had fled to the island. Yet he had not only guessed but also now knew for certain that Celly helped out fully whenever he wasn’t around, having caught glimpses of her flying overhead while out walking in the jungle.
And he had thought she was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.
*
In the coolness of the water, their earlier arguments had been forgotten.
As he had watched Celly washing herself clean of the blood in the rolling, sun-dappled waves, Jake – exhausted and sticky with sweat – had found their whispering promise of soothing relief impossible to resist.
His dive was both shallow and awkward, splashing Celly as he rushed past her.
She laughed, chased him, splashed him back.
She swung away, her own moves fast, graceful, flowing through the water with the suppleness of a mermaid. She hardly disturbed the shoals of fish passing around her, even as she dipped beneath the clear waters and swam amongst them.
Giving chase, Jake’s relatively awkward actions sent the fish scattering in panic.
They both broke the surface spluttering, giggling uncontrollably.
‘Got you!’ Jake cried triumphantly, clasping Celly tightly by her arms.
‘Only because I was laughing so much at how clumsy you are!’ Celly chuckled.
‘Oh, so now I’m clumsy am I?’ Jake teased light-heartedly, letting go of Celly’s arms. ‘Just because I can’t swim like I was born in water, like you, eh?’
‘I wasn’t born in water; just in case you’re being serious!’
She laughed again, if only because it was good to see Jake laughing and joking once more. Since they’d forcibly brought him to the island, he had naturally switched regularly between outright anger and moody acceptance of his situation.
‘Look,’ Celly said, ‘if you must know, I’m sorry we brought you here.’
Jake took her attempt at an apology the wrong way.
‘Just because we had an argument?’ he said.
‘No, silly!’ She playfully struck his bared chest. ‘Not sorry as in sorry that you’re here! Sorry that we had to bring you! I wish we could have left you behind. Left you with your poor mum and dad.’
‘I knew that silly!’ he replied with a nevertheless pleased grin.
‘I’m sure we can let you go back soon! And dad will drop off your letter to your mum and dad, as he promised.’
Erdwin had flown back home with the intention of contacting Dr Frobisher and making sure that the doctor and his family had managed to avoid being implicated in the deaths of the police officers, as well as picking up news of any further developments. He’d also pointed out that it was a perfect opportunity for Jake to let his parents know that he was alive and well by writing a letter (carefully checked, to ensure there was no coding revealing his whereabouts) that Erdwin would leave with the doctor to be posted later.
Jake shrugged, unconcerned either way by Celly’s comment.
‘I can’t see that mum or dad will be that worried about me, to be honest Celly. I’m sure that doctor of yours told them and the police I didn’t seem to be in any danger when I was taken by your family.’
‘Jake! Don’t be so ridiculous!’ Reaching out, Celly shook him tenderly. ‘Of course they’ll be worried!’
Jake shrugged again.
‘Doubt it. Fact is, they were thinking of sending me away to boarding school pretty soon anyway. It’s not like I ever saw much of them anyway; they were always so busy working. You know; high-flyers weren’t they, right? Board meetings to attend, clients to meet, can’t afford not to postpone this, sorry about your birthday Jake, blah blah blah.’
‘But you, Jake; you must miss them, right?’
Jake grimaced as he briefly pondered this.
‘Only as much as I missed them when I hadn’t seen them for a few days because our individual flight paths never really crossed. Why’d you think I was always round at your place, eh?’
Giggling, Celly pushed him playfully in the chest again.
‘And there was me thinking I was the attraction!’
Jake stumbled, lost his footing, and would have fallen back into the water if Celly hadn’t swiftly swung an arm around his waist and brought him back to his feet with nothing more than a panicked splashing.
‘But you were the attraction, silly,’ Jake said, slipping his own arm around her waist to steady himself. ‘And as for now, well; there are worse places to be together, aren’t there?’
With a lazy wave of his other arm, he drew Celly’s attention to their glorious surroundings.
The hills were covered in an amazing variety of greens, of weirdly shaped leaves, of exotic trees and their vibrant blooms. The curling beach framed it, blinding white in the sun. Then came the sea, the sea they were still standing in, an ever-changing mix of pure, rich blues
, topped with an endless, undulating web of sparkling glints.
The reflected sun threw up glistening silver patterns across their bodies, shimmering, vibrating, bringing their skins alive with a rolling light that seemed to have its own heartbeat. Their bodies shone as if made of sapphires.
‘As for mum and dad,’ Jake continued resignedly, ‘well, we’ve all got to grow up sometime, haven’t we?’
Suddenly, he felt Celly slumping limply against him.
‘Celly, you all right?’ he said anxiously, turning to see why he was now having to support her in the crook of his arm.
There was no reply. Celly’s face was blank. Her eyes had rolled back beneath her lids, revealing noting but white orbs.
‘Celly!’
Wrapping his other arm around her, Jake began to urgently drag her through the water back towards the beach.
The jolting, lurching moves and the splashing of the water across her face seemed to slightly revive Celly, although she still sounded bleary, dazed, as she spoke.
‘What? What happened?’
‘You fainted…you fainted, or something.’
‘Really? Sorry…sorry.’
Although Celly could almost stand for herself once more, she was still a little unsteady on her feet. Jake continued to support her as they plunged through the swirling waters. It was ungainly, awkward, clinging to each other like this as they had to raise their feet high to avoid the clashing waves. They began to laugh at their own awkwardness, the ridiculousness of it all.
With relief, they both threw themselves down face-first onto the soft, warm sand. Still laughing. Still holding onto each other around their waists.
They turned their heads to look at each other, their faces only a hand’s width apart.
‘Sorry Jake,’ Celly said. ‘I don’t know what was wrong with me out there. I just suddenly felt dizzy, for some reason.’
‘It might be the heat. Or perhaps you’re just exhausted after taking on that wild boar.’
Jake grinned stupidly.
Celly grinned back.
‘I don’t think so; I felt fine until just a few seconds ago.’
‘Well, you seem okay now; that’s the main thing, right?’
Celly nodded in reply. Closing her eyes, she smiled contentedly.
She looked so peaceful, Jake thought.
So…so beautiful.
The slight upturn to her delicate nose.
The sweeping curves of her lips.
The smooth arc of her chin.