by Jeff Hook
Would his firewall hold? If a ghost buffalo got past, he would need to drop Hishano and catch on fire again to chase it off, possibly wasting the potion. Each moment that went by made him more nervous, and as Hishano’s eyes opened again Karugo dumped even more into his friend’s mouth.
Then it was gone. They were on their own from here on out.
“You saved me,” said Hishano.
“Of course,” said Karugo. “Everyone has their place, and yours is… not dead.”
That was enough heartwarming care for now. Hishano was as recovered as he would get by Karugo’s hand, so it was time to tend to their defenses.
The bamboo was burning fast. The fire hadn’t spread far beyond the original stalks he’d set on fire, but it was moving up and down the stalk. The original part where he’d started the fire was blackened and didn’t burn nearly as brightly as before. The buffalo also weren’t nearly as scared as before.
He’d looked up just in time. He caught on fire and stood in front of Hishano, scaring away the buffalo that soon pushed through his fading shield of burning bamboo.
This was what it felt like to protect.
It felt nice, especially when he saw how grateful Hishano was.
Maybe that was why Hishano kept protecting people so much.
Eventually, the herd thinned out and he was no longer protecting anyone. He was just standing, on fire, in a bamboo forest, surrounded by blackened trunks. The rumbling faded into almost nothingness and he could hear the gentle crackle of fire from above, as it slowly worked its way up the bamboo stalks.
He was just about to sit down in relief when he heard hissing.
Tri-snakes. Five of them.
18
Savage
The farther Ishū went, the weirder things got.
Don’t speak to him, if you value your life!
Another one is coming from the south!
Run, if you can!
Had word of his accidentally broken promises spread so quickly? No, this had more of a panicked quality than just gossip about his trustworthiness.
“Another one”… that was how they referred to him. Another human? Maybe another green human? Karugo and Hishano had been planning on going somewhere in the wilderness. Were they up north? Were they the cause of this?
No, surely not. They’d gone west the last time they fetched ingredients, so they were probably west. But there was smoke up ahead, and he’d accidentally taught Karugo that burning things was a good response to trouble.
Then again, fires probably happened all the time on these wild islands. A natural part of the cycle. But if it was just a natural fire, why did the animals refer to him as “another one”? Was this some natural fear of humans, like the dolphins’? The animals in town and at the farm were used to humans, even if a human that could speak with them was a surprise. These wild animals seemed spooked at his ability.
He ran, aware that he could very well be making things worse, but he had to know. He was close to the mass of quickly moving animals.
Turn! There’s another!
A chorus of thoughts blasted his mind, each a variation of the others and all of them expressing fear and shock that he was there. The mass changed course, turning so it would miss him. In the distance he saw what looked like buffalo, but they seemed to flicker in and out as they went through the bamboo forest, turning nearly transparent as they went through stalks of bamboo. If they could charge a solid object and just go through, why would they be scared of him?
It had to be Karugo catching things on fire. That was the cause of the smoke, the cause of the stampede, and the cause of the full-blown panic that had spread through the animals. Maybe they thought all green-skinned men could catch the forest on fire.
Maybe the Elders were right about Karugo. Ishū had liked the wildness he’d seen in the boy, a refreshing contrast to the static, orderly world that was enforced on Tandoku Island, but if panicked, stampeding animals and a burning forest were the alternatives, maybe putting up with some boredom wasn’t so bad.
——
Hishano popped his back, fixing the last of his ailments from the run-in with the ghost buffalo. That potion had really helped speed along his natural healing power.
However, the five tri-snakes in front of him might mean it was all for nothing.
Two wolves had been able to take on four tri-snakes, yes, but Hishano knew from his experience in the woods yesterday that neither of them was as dangerous as a wolf. The chances that their skills and toughness had improved that much since yesterday was… minimal.
The snakes were splotched green and brown and tan, perfect for blending into the woods and pretty good at blending into the bamboo, at least when they wanted to. But right now they didn’t want to, because they smelled easy prey. Something that had already been through a stampede wasn’t likely to put up much of a fight.
Karugo stood bravely in front of him, holding his ground as the snake approached.
Two of the slithering beasts stopped in front of Karugo, as much to hold his attention as to fight, while the other three slipped around in order to get at Hishano. They thought they knew who the easier prey was.
And they were probably right. Hishano could last a long time, but he had no idea how to fight. How could he protect his friends if he couldn’t face down the dangers of the outside world? This time they weren’t going to be saved by Karugo catching everything on fire.
The snakes closed in, and the one on the right coiled and struck.
Hishano dodged and grabbed at it, getting a hold on one of its tails. But it could still curl its body, and its head wrapped around and positioned itself for another strike. He had to hurl it away to avoid getting bitten. The throw was ineffective, only sending it a couple feet before it hit the ground.
As the one on the left flew at him, he got an idea. He dodged, then grabbed one of the tails and started swinging it in a circle. That kept the head from biting at him, and when he flung the snake it went almost twenty feet, ending its flight by hitting a burned-out bamboo stalk. It tried to wrap itself around the trunk, then realized it was still hot and flopped to the ground.
One down, four to go!
The victory was short-lived. Both of Karugo’s snakes were heading toward Hishano; they’d given up on finding a place on Karugo’s body that wasn’t burning. Even before those got to him, the other two snakes close to Hishano struck at him in a coordinated attack. Dodging both snakes would have been hard no matter what, but he hadn’t yet recovered his stance after throwing their buddy.
Fangs clamped onto his arm, injecting something horrible. An intense burning sensation radiated from the bite, then started spreading.
This could kill a normal person, he understood. His power was fighting the venom, but it would still slow him down. And if all of the snakes succeeding in biting him like this…
He grabbed the body of the snake that had bitten him near the head and squeezed, trying to make it release its grip. It seemed to know that the venom was already in its victim, so it let itself be pulled away and then wriggled out of Hishano’s grasp.
The other snakes spread out around him so that he couldn’t focus on all of them at the same time. The next attack would be even harder to dodge, even if he hadn’t had venom coursing through his veins.
As the snakes slithered toward him the venom took hold and he fell to the ground.
——
Karugo sprinted toward the battle. How dare those snakes just ignore him? He’d have to burn every last one of them. Just looking at their splotchy green and brown skin made him mad.
The first one he easily grabbed from behind since it was so focused on Hishano. He slammed it against the ground like a club.
The other snakes formed around him. Hishano was already on the ground, body trying to fight off whatever the snakes had put in it. If it took Hishano this long to recover, it must be powerful! What if one of the snakes got past his fire defenses and bit him?
He w
ould die.
Too late to think of that now. If he ran, he’d just die sooner.
Fire crackled in the background, not spreading much from where he’d set it but still slowly working its way up the trunks. In front of him the snakes hissed. In the distance he heard wolves.
A snake leapt for him and he caught it behind the head. With flames focused on his hand he charred its skin and cooked its insides.
A second snake got his calf. Drat, he’d pulled some of the flames away in order to kill the first snake more quickly, leaving the rest of him open to attack. He stumbled and fell, hitting his head and making the world spin. Or was that the venom?
Wolves ran past him and he passed out.
19
Going Home
T’vlani only felt a small tinge of panic when Evyleen’s ship began rocking again.
It was natural that he panic. His kind had once been at the bottom of the food chain, hunted successfully by even the smallest of predators. Fast running and prolific breeding had been the only things that kept them alive.
Lapine — rabbits, to those who stooped to such racial slurs — had truly come from humble beginnings. Now, hundreds of years later, they still shared the same fluffy coats and floppy ears as their ancestors. However, they were also blessed with a ninja’s gifts: sharp knives and even sharper intelligence.
There was no rational reason to fear… but it’s hard for intelligence to brute-force instinct into being rational. T’vlani had long since resorted to dirty tricks, viewing his cowardly instincts as a foe to be conquered.
“T’vlani!” shouted Sally.
He jumped, one hand going into a salute, turning this particular instinct into a form of overly strict military discipline. The other hand went to his shurikens — just in case — and he made a mental list of safe places to teleport.
He turned panic into preparedness. That was bravery.
Sally’s long golden hair flowed behind her, heavy, easy to grab, making her absolutely useless in a close-quarters fight. That was mostly okay. If a navigator needed to fight, that meant the rest of the crew had already failed, and her chances of survival at that point would be small even if she’d chopped her hair off to something more combat-ready.
Of course, she had fought off a full-grown man shortly before joining the crew, so maybe the long hair was some sort of trick ninjutsu, a way to get her enemies to underestimate her.
He dropped the salute, moved his hand off the shurikens, and returned her greeting. “Hi, Sally.”
“Guess what?”
T’vlani sighed inwardly. He could never guess what. There just weren’t enough clues, and he had no psychic ninjutsu — such skills were very rare, even among the most powerful families. “What?”
“We’re sailing out!”
“Out?”
“Outside of the Empire!” Her voice and eyes were alight with excitement. “We’re going exploring!”
This announcement sent a different type of panic through T’vlani, a panic that was partly justified. “Thanks for telling me,” he said, giving her an indulgent smile despite the pounding of his heart. She was fourteen and becoming a woman and surprisingly skilled as a navigator, but everyone on the ship treated her as an extremely precocious child. One to be pampered and — more importantly — protected.
He hopped through the corridors, enjoying the time below-decks. These hallways bore a small but comforting resemblance to a warren tunnel, at least when they weren’t rocking too much. He stopped outside Evyleen’s door and waited for his heart rate to slow.
Finally, when his heart was normal and he had his speech prepared, he knocked.
“Come in.”
The door creaked as it opened. That was smart. No way was she getting surprised. He stepped through.
“Word travels fast,” she said, leaning back in her chair and smiling.
Her dark black Mezazi skin stood out against the light beechwood at the back of the room. Any enemy could pick her out at a glance. If she couldn’t stand to cover her walls in tar, then a dark-stained mahogany would provide some protection. At least the desk was walnut, a medium brown where the difference wasn’t so stark.
Evyleen kept telling him that a captain wanted to be seen, but he thought she was putting herself in needless danger. She was pushing forty and couldn’t move as fast as she’d used to. Not even as fast as when he’d joined up with the crew two years ago, although none of the other crew members seemed to notice the change.
“I’d like to go visit my warren,” he said, trembling.
She looked thoughtful. “Yes, you have proven yourself quite brave, haven’t you? That will get you how many…”
“I am the bravest of my one hundred thirty-seven brothers, and we were born to the bravest Lapine in the warren.”
“Braver than your father?” she asked.
“Yes,” he said, his voice shaking. He was asking her to change course, possibly delay whatever objective she had, going out of their way just so he could visit his home and create the next generation. “Many times so.”
“It sounds like you’ll be busy for a while once you return. We’ll be able to get along without, but we’ll miss you.”
Was that a yes? He thumped his foot in nervous joy. “If… if you give me a week to visit, then I should have hundreds of children. That’s enough.” He spoke quickly, his voice going higher than normal. “You and the rest of the crew can visit the warren and meet my family. Then we can all go adventuring again. There’s a port nearby that’s outside of the Mezazi Empire. You’ll like my father. He’s—”
She cut him off with a wave of her hand. “We’ll take you to the port, and then we’ll see. The crew’s safety comes first.”
He nodded rapidly. This sort of caution was what made him trust her, what let him be brave. He bounced out of the room, nearly running into another crewman on the way out.
After two years at sea, he was finally going home!
20
Disharmony
Karugo awoke in H’raldri’s den with Hishano looking over him.
“What? What happened? How’d we escape the snakes?”
“Rainbow wolves chased them off,” said Hishano.
“Whoa. How lucky is that?” Karugo tried to get up, but his head swam as he did so, so he lay back down.
“Not lucky,” grunted Ishū. “I told those wolves about some easy, distracted prey. If not for that, you would be dead.”
“You were in the woods near us instead of in town like you said? I think that’s lucky.”
Ishū grimaced. “I was there because someone caused a disturbance. Do you know how panicked those animals were? Most of them didn’t trust me, because they said I was ‘another’ green human.”
“Why were the animals panicked?” Karugo asked innocently.
“Are you seriously asking that? You set a forest on fire.”
They had been panicking before that! But Karugo didn’t have the strength to argue. It was all he could do to hold his head up. Besides, he’d had hundreds of arguments like this, back on Tandoku Island, and he’d never come out ahead in a single one.
Ishū paced as he continued his rant. “We’re the only ones who look like us here. If you do something bad, and ancestors know you will, because that’s just who you are, then it makes the rest of us look bad. Animals — and people — will look at our green skin and think, ‘that one is a monster’. You can’t just go and do something that gets dozens of animals killed!” He winced as he said that.
“But we didn’t get any of the buffalo killed!”
“You could’ve! You never know what stupid thing will end up leading to a bunch of dead animals! Besides, there’s got to be some reason the animals hate you.”
“How am I supposed to know what the animals want?” Why was Ishū being so unreasonable?
“Be more careful!” said Ishū. “You remember the stories of the world before Tandoku Island formed, during the times of disharmony. How mobs of pe
ople would surround and kill those who were different.”
It was pointless to argue, but Karugo couldn’t help himself. Ishū was making him so mad right now. “Not like the Tandoku are any better,” he spat. “They tried to make sure I was never born.”
“Well, maybe they were right,” hissed Ishū.
“No one is a mistake,” said Hishano. “Isn’t that right, H’raldri?”
The Lapine’s ears twitched and he looked nervously between the other three people in the room. “I don’t know,” he said in a quavering voice. “Genetic discipline is very important. That and a couple of happy mutations are what raised us from prey animals.”
Not a mistake. A manifestation of Grandpa Toraburu’s will. But that didn’t mean his creation wasn’t an error.
“Then maybe that’s what Karugo is,” said Hishano. “He’s raising us Tandoku from prey animals.”
“You, too?” huffed Ishū. “That boy’s stupidity is contagious. Not that you were ever bright.”
Rage filled Karugo. He was used to being put down, but it was shocking to hear Hishano being insulted. Hishano, who had cut himself in half for Karugo.
Karugo decided that it might be a good idea to punch Ishū.
He threw his legs over the side of the bed, then fell off after them, banging his head against the floor. He blacked out briefly, then came to with Hishano and Ishū picking him back up and putting him into bed. “Careful,” said Hishano. “The antidote takes some time to complete its work.”
Ishū stopped yelling and ranting. Instead, once Karugo was safely back in bed, he paced the room. Hishano sat and looked worried.
H’raldri looked as if he had something to say, but he spent ten minutes thinking on it before blurting it out. “The antidote is thirty mezcop.”