Switch!

by Karen Prince

  Ethan lay on his stomach across the back of one of them. Socially, it was a lot more awkward than riding a horse. What do you say to an intelligent stranger who is giving you a piggyback across a lake, Ethan wondered? He would have preferred to ride on Darwishi. He was used to that. But, apparently, Amun and Darwishi had begun their transformation and would be sequestered for several days in a special cave. There had been no shortage of volunteers among the Sobek to transport the boys and Salih to the waterfall exit, though, so he felt sure they did not mind. Several Sobek crocodiles, with Sobek men on their backs, had joined them just for the ride.

  Nuru, himself, rode upon the back of a friend to make sure they passed safely, and to try and persuade the boys to make a return trip someday to spend more time with the Sobek. His crocodile swam beside Tariro. The three of them discussed Tariro’s dad’s political campaign tactics. Nuru posed a question, and the two Sobek read the answers right out of Tariro’s head.

  “Fascinating,” Nuru nodded, his eyebrows almost disappearing into the hairline of his wig.

  Tariro shifted uncomfortably on his mount and tried to deflect the Sobek’s attention towards Ethan. “Ethan’s step-dad is a dot.com millionaire,” he said. “You should ask him what that is all about.”

  Ethan ignored them. If he was honest with himself, he was quite enjoying watching Tariro squirm; he had learned a thing or two about political tactics himself in the last half-hour.

  Trailing his hand in the magic on top of the water, Ethan could just make out the shapes of it shifting and changing and reshaping itself into its marble pattern by the light of his headlamp. He wondered what he would draw from the magic, given enough time. Not that he needed any more magical upheavals, but he wondered if he was absorbing enough of it to turn into something else, and what he would want to turn into. Would it hurt? Fisi had not seemed to suffer any great discomfort when he changed.

  “It takes generations of living with the magic before you can change,” Salih told him. He lounged across the back of a crocodile swimming beside Ethan, looking unusually relaxed for a cat floating on top of the water.

  “Oh, I don’t really want to,” Ethan said, jerking his hand out of the water.

  “Don’t look so guilty, boy, you can have as much magic as you want. There is plenty to go round, and as you heard, what isn’t used is lost over the waterfall. The boy, Tariro, has drunk up enough to satisfy an elephant, and he has filled his water bottle with even more.” Salih rapped his unsheathed claws lightly on the hard hide of his crocodile ride and shook his head with an amused sigh. “The silly boy wants to become an osprey and fly. It won’t happen, of course.” Salih sheathed his claws and leaned over to pat Ethan’s hand. “Don’t worry, he will not become as powerful as you. You have the witch’s power, which is condensed, and the magic he carries with him will become destabilised just as soon as he shakes the bottle.”

  Ethan wasn’t at all bothered if Tariro filled himself up with magic. He could take enough to become an elephant for all he cared, just as long as the boy didn’t do anything stupid, or read Ethan’s mind like the Sobek did and find out about the gems.

  “I’m more worried about Jimoh,” he said to Salih. “He hasn’t said much since Kashka told us there would be no magic at Crystal Pools for a while. I know he would sacrifice anything to save Joe but I think he’s worried about his family.”

  “Ethan, we have a difficult and dangerous journey ahead,” Salih said. “Jimoh will have to focus on staying alive himself, before he can turn his mind to helping his village. The Sobek have been bringing magic to the Crystal Pools for generations. Anyone who has been swimming there will have a bit of power. Jimoh, more than most, because he has taken your blood.” The leopard looked as if he had a sudden idea. “You could make him less worried if you want, but you would have to project into his mind. It would be... rude, and intrusive, and it would not be without some consequence to yourself.”

  Ethan shook his head. Why did the leopard always have to make things so complicated? “I could just tell him not to worry, without being rude,” he sighed. “It wouldn’t stop him worrying though.”

  “Or I could show you how to compel him with the magic. He wouldn’t be any the wiser,” Salih said.

  Ethan was shocked – he wasn’t about to go hypnotising his friend without consulting him, even if he could.

  On the other hand, it would be nice to see Jimoh relax, and they really needed their best ranger to have his wits about him if they were heading into lion country. Besides, so far Salih had not been very instructive about what Ethan could do with the power. Perhaps now was a good time to learn.

  “Okay...”

  “Close your eyes and imagine a drop of water. Imagine you could shape it into a crystal form,” Salih said.

  “Like a snowflake?”

  “Don’t know it. Does it reflect light?” Salih asked.

  “I suppose it does, it’s a frozen drop of water,” Ethan said.

  “Ah yes, like hail. Yes, that will do. Now imagine many, suspended in the air around you.” He waited until he was satisfied Ethan had imagined enough snowflakes. “Now, infuse each particle with reassuring thoughts, and gently push them towards Jimoh. With a bit of luck, as the thoughts bounce off each facet of the crystals they will split and multiply, bouncing off other crystals, much like mirror reflections, until there is an explosion of good will. Jimoh will be unable to resist.”

  More like a nuclear explosion, Ethan thought worriedly, but he stared intently at Jimoh and tried. He thought reassuring thoughts about the world beyond the Crystal Pools: computers and the internet; computer games; shopping malls, with wonderful gadget shops... air conditioning. Then he imagined all these wonderful things of the snowflakes whirling around his head, and he nudged them gently towards Jimoh.

  Suddenly Jimoh looked up at him, a puzzled grin spread across his face.

  “Did you get my message?” Ethan said.

  The boy shook his head, more confused than ever, and then he lounged back against his crocodile and whistled a low complicated tune. He looked happier, at least. Perhaps the exercise had been a success.

  Salih laughed. “He can’t hear your actual thoughts, only the sentiment. Which is just as well. I don’t think Jimoh has a use for any of those strange things.”

  Ethan did not respond because suddenly his senses started to tingle with the schizophrenic confusion in his brain pattern he’d had when he lost his temper with Tariro back at Crystal Pools. But this time something cold flowed into his head with it, and a chilling pain, worse than any brain freeze he’d ever experienced, lanced through him. It washed away as suddenly as it had come; seeping down his central nervous system and out of his body, leaving a foul metallic taste on his tongue, with a hint of the taste of snow.

  Salih waited patiently for the pain to pass. “As I said, not without cost.”

  Ethan put his hands up to his head and took a ragged breath, then slumped forwards against his crocodile, who, oddly, seemed to shake a little as he pulled through the water, with a definite grin on his face. Ethan glowered at the other smiling crocodiles. He wouldn’t be doing that again in a hurry.

  The low murmur of rushing water grew into a roar.

  Early morning sunlight filtered into the tunnel entrance. It was wider here, and the ceiling had grown so low they had to flatten across their crocodiles’ backs to avoid bumping their heads. The crocodiles discharged their passengers on a narrow path running beside the river and then slipped slowly back into the water one by one, oozing sadness and reluctance to part with their new friends. Nuru was the last. He reminded Jimoh several times to look out for a vine rope, hidden on the north side of the waterfall. It would assist them in their climb. Then, with a last invitation to visit in happier times, he slipped quietly away on the back of his friend.

  Ethan crawled along the path, on his hands and knees, to the entrance of the tunnel, which opened out onto a ledge beside the waterfall. Pressing his stomach hard a
gainst the ledge, he looked over the edge of the precipice down into the rift valley. His heart pounded at the exhilarating feeling of being up in the air, and then lurched as a terrible wave of vertigo swept over him.

  Jimoh crawled up beside him and flashed an unsteady smile. Even Tariro looked alarmed as his eyes followed the waterfall’s precipitous plunge down the vertical cliff into the valley far below.

  “How the hell are we supposed to climb down that?” Tariro grumbled, settling down beside Jimoh.

  The early morning sun bathed the nearby cliffs in an eerie pink glow, as if they were made of marble. On closer inspection Ethan realised they were marble. He wondered if it had something to do with the magic.

  The valley spread out before them like a miniature topographical map. The river pooled below the waterfall before disappearing into a sizable swamp. Small rivulets emerged from the far side of the swamp, joining together again to continue their course eastwards where they met up with a wide river running from south to north across the valley.

  “Eh, eh, eh!” Jimoh breathed in wonder, pointing out the thousands of flamingos gathered in the mud flats where the two rivers met.

  In the far reaches of the south, a multi-tiered waterfall, almost obscured from view by its own spray, emptied itself into the river. Ethan shaded his eyes as he followed its path. It snaked its way through the middle of the wilderness, emptying into a vast lake, and then meandered northwards, finally lost to sight.

  A green mosaic of crop fields clung to the eastern banks of the lake, dotted here and there with the early morning cooking fires of small settlements. Vast plains of game country spread away behind them to the distant mountains.

  Jimoh bounced and pointed so excitedly beside him, Ethan had to remind himself that the boy had probably never experienced an aerial view above the bush.

  “See there, Ethan,” he whispered, squinting into the distance. “Elephant. There, between big rocks and river.” He pointed towards a rocky outcrop and Ethan traced a line from it towards the river. A herd of forty or fifty elephants, mostly still under cover of thick msasa woodland, ambled towards the water.

  “My people too,” Fisi said. “You may not see them because of their ability to melt into their surroundings. But there they are, tracking those impala.”

  “Well, are they people or hyena?” Ethan was unable to see them, and he was not sure he would be able to recognise an impala from this distance.

  “Hyena,” Fisi said, sitting up and scratching his groin, dangerously close to the edge of the ledge. He seemed to hold no fear of being sucked over the precipice. “We hunt in the wilderness below in hyena form, and we live in the forests above in our man form,” he explained.

  Suddenly the herd of impala broke out from the cover of the undergrowth as tiny as ants, and Ethan saw several hyenas giving chase but even from this distance he couldn’t bear to watch them go in for the kill.

  A scuffling noise coming from the cliff face above him made him jump and stagger awkwardly to his feet, the blood draining from his face. He fumbled to open a blade on his pocketknife.

  Jimoh and Tariro both rose swiftly and stepped back, towards the precipice, nocking their slingshots. The air shimmered, and abruptly smelled dank. With a soft whoop sound, Fisi changed back into a hyena. Emitting a low growl, he stalked towards Ethan, whose heart skipped a beat before he realised Fisi’s eyes were fixed, not on him, but on a hole in the cliffs above his head.

  Salih sat, perfectly composed, watching expectantly for something to drop out of the hole. Presently, a small hairy bushman-like man squeezed out, landing on his feet with a grunt of triumph.

  “Aah!” he jumped back in fright at the sight of the crouching hyena, fumbling desperately to remove a quiver full of arrows from his back, almost garroting himself on the string of his bow, which hung diagonally across his chest. Managing to separate the two, he dropped the bow at his feet and shakily balanced the quiver on his head, sending a shower of arrows skidding across the floor. Ethan realised he was trying to make himself look more imposing.

  “Sheet!” Jimoh swore, hopping up and down on one foot. An arrow had bounced off the floor grazing his ankle.

  Another small creature dropped out of the tunnel, almost bowling over the first, followed by another and another, until there were a pile of them scrambling to their feet, dusting off their strange twisted animal hide skirts and straightening their head gear.

  “What are you doing?” one said, staring in astonishment at the first one, now standing sheepishly with a quiver on his head for no reason. A quick glance at Tariro confirmed to Ethan that the other boys could understand the little man. Fisi, having taken advantage of the confusion to change back into a young man, leaned innocently against the wall of the cave, an embarrassed grin on his face.

  “Hyena!” muttered the first one, pointing at Fisi with one hand, easing the quiver over his shoulder to settle in its place on his back with his other hand. He drew himself up to his full height of about two feet, and made a surreptitious attempt to shift his headband from around his neck, where it had slipped, to his head, taking care not to prick himself on its hedgehog spines.

  “Riiight,” the second one said, unconvinced. He scratched absently at an old wound that ran from his bare nipple to his belly button.

  “Tokoloshe,” Jimoh breathed in awe. He quietly replaced the slingshot around his neck so that it looked once again like a necklace, and returned the pebble to his pocket moving towards Fisi.

  “What’s a Tokoloshe?” Ethan said, a little unnerved by Jimoh’s anxiety.

  “Mythological creature,” Tariro whispered. He rubbed his eyes and stared at the ugly little creatures. “They’re supposed to have a penis so long they wear it slung over one shoulder or tied around their waists.”

  Fisi let out a whooping hyena giggle. Not only was there no evidence of any penises, but these Tokoloshe didn’t look that scary to Ethan; if anything, they looked disorganised. Most of them carried primitive-looking bows slung over one shoulder and bark quivers full of arrows over the other, that didn’t look big enough to inflict much damage unless they were poisonous.

  Salih smiled a wry smile and said in tones of molasses, “Boys, meet your new guides.”

  ~~~

  “Nomatotlo sent us,” the leader said to Salih. He appeared to have no trouble understanding the leopard. After introducing himself to the boys as Rufiki, he gathered up a few of his clan and they arranged themselves sitting cross-legged, in a semicircle on the floor in front of the leopard. Salih was trying to hold their attention long enough to find out what was happening in the magic world above the cliffs by swishing the tip of his tail back and forth hypnotically. It was not working. Their eyes darted distractedly between the cat and the river. Ethan sat beside Salih watching the rest of the Tokoloshe splash about in the river above the waterfall, worried one of them would be swept over the edge.

  “They have the attention span of a gnat,” Tariro grumbled irritably. One had been explaining to Tariro that the pelts that hung from the thong around his waist were those of the giant golden mole, and that the assortment of seed pods and rodent sculls intertwined with them were hunting trophies, when, without warning, he was overcome with the urge to swim. He had sprung up, mid-sentence and hurtled into the water, followed by most of the rest of them.

  A whiff of catnip floated up off the Tokoloshe. It was so strong when you got near some of them; it smarted in Ethan’s nostrils. He shuddered to think what effect it was having on Salih. Jimoh lay fast asleep, propped up against the wall of the cave. The Tokoloshe arrows, whilst not poisonous, were tipped with a powerful sleeping draft. According to Fisi, they preferred to capture their prey and hold them for ransom, rather than actually killing them. Since they wouldn’t eat any of the creatures in the magic forest, for fear of overdosing on two lots of accumulated magic, this turned out to be more agreeable to all concerned.

  It was Fisi who marshalled their attention in the end. He dug the tin o
f sweets out of Tariro’s backpack and, with an apologetic look at Tariro, banged it loudly.

  “Damn!” Tariro muttered, obviously reluctant to give up his power over the tin. He had guarded the treasure so possessively since the hippopotamus pools, eking out a daily ration of one sweet each. The Tokoloshe erupted out of the water and swamped Fisi almost immediately upon opening the tin.

  “It’s as if they can smell the chocolate,” Tariro wailed.

  “Tariro, I think you are right.” Ethan drew in a sharp breath at the sight of one Tokoloshe who was beginning to shimmer and shake in a disturbing way. The long hair on his back seemed to thicken and started to bounce as he moved about.

  “That’s it!” Salih exclaimed. “Stop them eating the sweets!” He jumped into the fray, hauling Rafiki and a couple of others away from Fisi. Some Tokoloshe backed away of their own accord once they saw some of their friends shimmer and shake and become almost translucent.

  “Someone has been feeding Morathi’s tribe sugar,” Salih panted. He tried to round up a handful of unaffected Tokoloshe into a corner of the cave. “I think it is reacting with the magic to make them hyperactive. And stronger!” he added, struggling against them.

  “Like they weren’t hyperactive before!” Ethan tried to pull one back and then jerked his hand away with a yelp when the creature bit him on the arm.

  “I haven’t got any stronger,” Fisi puffed, trying to pry the tin away from little fingers.

  “More!” a Tokoloshe shouted, climbing up the back of Fisi and perching on his shoulders.

  “More! More!” others took up the cry.

  “No!” Fisi growled, snatching the tin away. The lid flew off, showering the cave floor with the remaining sweets.

  “So much for that,” Tariro sighed after Ethan had explained Salih’s theory of the sugar to him. He flopped down on the cave floor between Ethan and the still-sleeping Jimoh. The sweets had all been eaten and the resulting chaos had died down. Ethan noticed that Fisi had managed to rescue one or two sweets for himself, and then smiled as the hyena youth handed one to Tariro. Rafiki, who hadn’t got any, shot him a resentful glare.