by L M Feldt
“Does anyone have a twist that might come in handy?” Khane looks around, his eyes coming to rest on the newcomer. I notice he didn’t look at Aito and I wondered why. To my knowledge, no one knows Aito’s twist, not even me. Why not direct the question at him too? No one says anything and an uncomfortable silence follows as we all stare at each other.
“I have a weak forcefield I can use but I am not sure how that helps.” Khane obviously hopes that his offering might spark someone else to open up.
Silence. I am pretty sure I hear birds chirping in the distance. I sigh. Obviously we have nothing. We will have to hoof it through more dense jungle and hope for the best. I feel bad for Fish. I hope whatever he is going through isn’t too pain filled.
“Tell them.” Aito’s usually soft voice grates harshly. He seems angry and refuses to look at either myself or Fish. “Tell them, Heb, or I will.”
“What!? How?” Heb grows flustered, his large, liquid brown eyes growing even wider. “How do you know!” Angry now, Heb turns on Aito. “You! You are a thief and a freak!”
Heb’s outburst surprises us all. I watch as he shoots up and stalks away. He stands rigid, his back to us as though he is fighting some inner battle. Why should it be so difficult to share one’s twist? Most, like myself, don’t really have an option. Our twists are triggered by the right set of circumstances, like fear or adrenaline. Finally, Heb stalks back, his brow furrowed, arms crossed. His expression is more worried than angry now.
“My name isn’t Heb, it’s Micha.” He sighs. “I don’t have perfect control, so you might want to stand back and, you know, get ready. Or whatever.” He turns away from our astonished faces, all but Aito…and Fish who is barely aware of his surroundings anymore.
“What the…” Naoaki doesn’t have time to swear before Aito has us all moving.
Organized in a loose circle with Aito and Fish in the center, we watch as Heb, or rather Micha, stretches out his arms and begins turning in place. His small face, so often wrinkled in anger, is smooth now, almost serene. A humming sound emanates from him, a sort of thrumming, like many birds synchronized in flight. He turns and hums and turns.
I wrench my eyes from the odd sight and scan the clearing. Palms sway gently, their purple trunks deep and vibrant in the golden afternoon light. The breeze plays gently with their fronds and teasingly ruffles my hair. Nothing else moves. The glade is a verdant and peaceful place. Even with the glimpse of the distant city of light drawing us forward I might have voted to stay for a while, rest up. If not for Fish, anyway.
I noticed then, just as Khane tenses up. The stillness. Micha is still turning but now the sound is beyond our hearing, a pitch to low for human ears. His face, while peaceful before has taken on a soft glow. His eyes open, huge, pale white and luminous, focusing on something none of us can see. A chill creeps into the air and a black mist starts to rise off the ground all around us. Nervously, we inch our circle further away from Micha and the growing darkness. I have never seen anything like this and I am already spooked when a soft keening breaks the stillness.
Looking around wildly I start to see movement. A swaying through the underbrush as something heads our way. Mounds of dirt start bubbling up all around us and as the first rotted snout pushes through the loamy earth, stark fear races down my spine. An electric tingle, a tearing of flesh, and my steel wings rise up. I feel the press of Khane’s forcefield push out and I know I am not the only one freaking out. I shiver, suddenly sure we should have left little Heb to be eaten by the beaked, tentacled monstrosity.
Twelve
Black mist swirls around us as dead creatures dig or crawl a slow path to Micha. Every size and shape I can think of and many I can’t even imagined alive, cry and thump toward him. Somewhere nearby Naoaki has lost it, repeating some prayer over and over. I am scared out of my mind too but remain watchful. As the horror before us unfolds I come to realize that these things are not interested in us, they will not attack us. Their only goal is to reach Micha.
I step back quickly as a long snake like creature with sharp quills behind its eyeless head slithers too close. Bits of it fall off as it struggles forward, probably not a major concern for it since half it’s side has been eaten away. The parade of decayed creatures include some that are much larger. A pair of winged beasts come from the woods, their longs legs mostly intact though white bone shows through in places. They aren’t as rotted as some of the others but long gashes down their necks suggest they have been in a terrible fight, maybe with each other. They would have been fierce and stately in life and even in death there is an elegance to them, a preciseness to their steps. I turn back to watch Micha.
The dead creatures surround him now, oblivious to us or each other, their sightless eye holes fix on his turning figure. If they’d been alive I would expect to see looks of adoration on their scaled or furred faces. The humming is audible again but softer. Micha stops turning and lowers his arms, one hand straying toward a decayed lizard thing with partially intact neck frills. He pets it’s head gently, stroking just above the eye holes, and I realize that he cares for these things, whatever they are.
There must have been a limit to his call, a radius past which the dead remain dead. Slowly, as though in a dream, Micha pulls a knife from his vest and cuts a long red line down his palm. Blood wells and the creatures stir, excited. He holds out his palm to one of the long legged beasts with tattered wings. It nudges his hand in a strangely affectionate gesture, before snaking out a long slimy tongue. It laps a tiny bit of blood and a transformation comes over it. Where before it had been dull and gray, now a wash of color runs over its head and down its back. It is still mostly gray but the hint of color stays and it appears more solid, less like it’d just risen up out of the cold ground. It folds its wings and steps back, allowing another to lick Micha’s hand. He feeds three of the winged beasts and with a final pat, the frilled lizard too. The change takes all four and they cluster close together. One begins preening it’s wings like it might have when it was alive.
The humming is winding down and the remaining creatures press close, nuzzling and begging for attention. Micha bends down and pats or caresses each one. It is clear he loves them. Tears streak his face as he smooths ratty ears and caresses torn flesh. At last, with a final, wistful pat he stops humming.
Silence. The breeze gusts and creatures that had not sampled his blood suddenly implode. One after another, puffs of gray dust as they turned to ash. The breeze carries away the black mist and ash and we are left in a clearing the same as before…. Except for the occasional mound of dirt and four not quite dead creatures hovering near Micha.
“Holy shit!” rasps Khane.
I nod in agreement but I don’t trust my voice yet. It has been a terrifying and beautiful thing to witness. My heart is still racing but more than anything I feel an overwhelming sadness for the creatures that haven’t been chosen. I am shaken. Even Aito, Mr.Knoweverything, looks awed.
“That’s some twist!” murmurs Naoaki. I’m glad she isn’t praying anymore.
We stay where we are, letting Micha commune with his creatures. It isn’t as though any of us are going to approach him anyway. No wonder he’d been set outside the Gates without a scratch. Nobody with eyes in their head would mess with him once his twist kicked in.
After a little while, Micha approaches us. He looks happy, and a little uncertain. He is probably worried we will run off screaming into the night, never to be seen again. It’s a valid concern.
“So….got yourself some pets, huh?” It is a sad attempt at humor, I know, but someone had to say something to break the ice. “Do they have names?”
Micha smiles, though it seems a little forced. I suspect he gets along better with his creatures than live people.
“They have names but the human tongue wouldn’t be able to pronounce them.” He responds.
Of course not, I think to myself.
“I call this one Jax, though.” He pats the dead lizard. “The
se are remnants.” He pauses and notices our blank stares. “Sort of shadows or memories of their former selves. When the energy core of a creature passes on, a tiny sliver is sometimes left behind. They decay slower but eventually that life essence would be reabsorbed into the earth and reborn again.”
“You mean like a seed? Another lizard thingy would sprout up?” asks Naoaki.
Micha shrugs. “Could be anything. Energy is energy.” He gives one of the winged creatures a pat on the nose. “These are pretty fast, faster than walking anyway. Just,” He pauses, “don’t make sudden moves and um….” He looked a little unsure of himself. “I’ll need to wipe some of my blood on you or they might get upset.”
“Ok. Well, I don’t want them upset. I’ll go. Do you need to smear Fish too?” Naoaki steps forward, surprising me. She’s certainly come around since her little babbling fit earlier. “I always thought it’d be cool to ride a horse like those sword swinging guys in history class.”
Micha squeezes his hand to get the blood flowing again and smears a little blood on all of us, all except Fish which Naoaki takes hard. It seems to indicate, at least in her eyes, that Fish is too close to death to register as a threat. Not that he’d been much of a threat before…
I stifle a laugh as I watched Khane approach one of the winged creatures. His face is priceless, pinched like he’s sucked on something sour and his brow is furrowed in concentration. He clearly wants to look brave but can’t help cringing as he tentatively reaches up to the things back. It doesn’t move or react to his touch, so at Micha’s nod he jumps…and lands partly off the other side. His frantic scrambles across the creature’s back have the rest of us laughing quietly, especially when he has to grab an exposed bone to pull himself upright and nearly throws up. I hold my sides from laughing too hard and drop my inner lids, squeezing out a tear. I’d needed that.
With Fish strapped once again to my back we are ready to go. Fish and I are on one creature. I have decided to call it Bat, because of the odd featherless wings. Khane and Micha share another while Naoaki rides with Aito. Micha’s lizard, Jax, goes first. Apparently, it has the ability to make the moss growing on the rocks and trees glow. Aito thinks it is connected to the creatures hunting habits, bouncing sound off the light of the moss similar to sonar. I think it is cool enough without having to analyze the why of it.
Now we have light as we travel through a dark forest. Khane and Micha follow Jax, Micha to direct his pet and Khane to use his force to move some of the underbrush out of the way. I bring up the rear with Fish, just in case something nasty shows up to chase us. And something nastier than our current rides is something I don’t want to see.
We make good time, pushing ourselves for Fish’s sake. We ride all night and through the next day before Fish starts to squirm. I call a halt and Naoaki gets corrected directions. A few miles more and the loamy earth gives way to reddish sand and the vegetation thins out. We get glimpses of strange rock formations through the palms until finally we burst from the forest into a foreign landscape.
Before us is a naturally formed entrance. Two vertical shafts of iron gray stone shoot up into the sky, taller than the palm trees we have just traveled thorough. Variegated veins of shiny black and flecked copper break the uniformity of the stone’s surface. To either side is sheer, smooth rock, impassible. The only way forward is through the imposing gateway, a portal into another world. We get some sense of the path beyond as we approach and it is narrow, too narrow for our winged mounts to navigate.
I climb stiffly down from Bat and try not to groan too loudly. My leg muscles, already sore from our hike down the mountain, now throb painfully. I can appreciate the advantages of being not-dead, or undead. No more pain from pesky overworked muscles.
We gather near the entrance and watch as Micha leads the three winged remnants back into the forest. Jax trots after him but Micha holds up his palm and makes him stay. As Micha disappears from view, a forlorn whistle escapes the ruins of Jax’s throat. He doesn’t like being separated from his master.
We wait quietly, giving Micha the privacy to say goodbye to his creatures. Naoaki starts through the gates as soon as Micha emerges from the trees. She is anxious and very aware that Fish’s time is running out. I follow her with Fish on my back and Aito right behind. Khane hangs back a little, giving Micha some space but also keeping an eye out for danger.
Immediately upon entering the mouth of the path, the slight breeze dies away, blocked by the enormous stones that line the sides. At first there is an obvious route, a meandering path that curves through the walls of stone. Then we start to see narrow cut-aways and glimpses of small pools and waterfalls. These small, natural windows are too narrow to squeeze through so we ignored them and continued our hunt. Fist sized spiked plants grow along the walls in whatever crevices they can find footing. Long slender stems curve out from the green clumps and tiny star shaped flowers in brilliant cornflower blue give off a pleasing aroma. It is spicy and sweet and doesn’t quite mask the smell of rotten eggs that is starting to permeate our noses.
“We’re getting closer, I think. Fish said to pass the pools of blood and the pools of blue. He needs the pool with black water.” Naoaki instructs me. Our red sand path becomes studded with pebbles of copper and shiny black stones. We emerge into a wide open space with saucer-shaped terraced pools spilling into each other. The rounded edges create mini waterfalls from one to the next. The water is red. Aito dips his hand in one of the closer pools. He brings it out, cupped, and we can all see the water is clear.
“Iron deposits line the pools stone surfaces and make it look red.” He wipes his hands off. We have found the pools of blood.
The path narrows back down again and we trudged on. I am exhausted, thirsty and hungry. I hope Fish gets fixed fast like I had. Well, maybe not quite like that, minus the acid-fire, excruciating pain part. Eventually, we come to another open space and more tiered pools. These are aqua colored.
“Copper.” States Aito without touching the water.
Finally we come to another open space. This one has only one large pool. It is impossible to say how deep the water might be, it is black as tar. Aito thought it might be a combination of things turning the water black. A mix of fulvic and humic minerals plus manganese. I am pretty sure he is making things up at this point. The water smells funny too, not the rotten egg smell that Aito had previously informed us was caused by sulfur. This has a sharp tang to it. This must be it.
I shift the harness off my aching shoulders and lower Fish to the ground. He neither moves or signs. Not good.
“What do you think?” I ask Naoaki. “Do we take him out of the carrier? Just lower him in?”
Her brow creases in worry. She squats down next to him but is unable to get a response from him. His eyes are closed but his nearly colorless lids twitch as though he is dreaming. He is still alive. Together we get him out of the carrier and lower him to the water’s edge. He has lost a lot of weight and it takes little effort to lift him even for my tired muscles. I wonder how long it’s been since he’s eaten.
We get him propped up, stick legs dangling into the dark water, unsure what to do next when we notice the movement. None of the other pools had shown any signs of life so we hadn’t thought to be wary. A long inky line cuts the water and makes an ‘S’ shape. Then another and another.
“Shit!” I swear. I grab for Fish’s arm. I am closest but I miss, my hand swatting at empty air. Fish has tipped forward and fallen into the water right in the path of the advancing creatures. I lurch forward to catch some part of his body or bit of clothing, leaning out over the black water….but I am too slow and the inky blackness closes over his pale face.
Thirteen
“Fish!” Naoaki screams. Eyes wild, she throws off her knife harness preparing to dive in.
Aito grabs her arm, catching her just before she jumps and points.
“Look, the swimmers are all moving away.” He says.
I look and sure, the cr
eatures are leaving the area where Fish had fallen in… but we still have to save him from drowning! What is Aito thinking? Naoaki glares at him, wrenching her arm free.
“What is wrong with you! He can’t swim!” She bares her teeth in anger and leaps into the water.
I crouch at the edge, ready to haul Fish in once Naoaki has him. The water swirls and froths as she kicks. It is a viscous liquid, oily and thicker than normal water. Naoaki comes up for air and dives back down again. She is an excellent swimmer, has caught most of our meals by diving in and grabbing fish by their gills, a real accomplishment in my mind. If anyone can find him in this strange water, so thick and too black to see through, it is her. Her head breaks the surface again, eyes frantic. She tries three times with no Fish in tow… and now the swimmers are heading back, en mass.
“Get out!” I shout when her head appears the again. “Get out Naoaki!” I am scared for her, desperate for Fish…but I can’t fight what I can’t see. How many more of those things slither below the surface?
“I can’t find him!” she cries as she treads water. The creatures are nearly upon her, the ones I can see.