by JA Huss
His sentence drops off and I wait for him to find the words.
"We're not able to have them." The explanation sounds truncated, but I really don't care about the reproductive habits of avians right now. I only want to get the fuck out of this dark cave.
When he continues I'm a little surprised.
"You know sometimes there's little grains of truth to a myth? Like the places the Greeks built and where they say the gods and goddesses appeared and did all those things?"
I nod.
"Well, there is some truth to the myth."
I step back from him as the fear leaves as quickly as it came and I look up and see his face. "Which part?"
He smiles at me, and I wonder if this was all a plot to get my mind off the dogs. "We're an engineered race, Junco. We don't reproduce naturally because, well, it can't happen that way. It's all very sterile and nothing like the families ya have here on Earth."
"Oh," I say. "That's kinda sad. I loved my family."
"Did ya, now?" he says in a low voice.
"Yes. They gave me everything and loved me back. And kept me safe, and healed me when I was sick, and trained me to take care of myself. And I really miss them." I feel my face heat up and my throat aches with the pain of my recent loss. The tears well in my eyes, but I force them to stay put, not willing to descend back into that moat right now.
"They did a wonderful job, darlin'. A truly wonderful job." He hugs me tighter and we stay that way for a while, even after it becomes weird. "There's a little more to it, Junco. Just know that I wouldn't tell ya right now if it wasn't necessary. It's necessary, OK? That ya know."
I look up at him and wait for it.
"Those Seven Siblings from that myth ya read? They're here on Earth. Right now. And I'm beginning to think you're one of them."
I halfheartedly snort out a breath. "That's stupid. You guys are all gonna feel so dumb when you figure out I'm just another human and this shit has nothing to do with me. I'm not an avian or a sibling of anyone. I'm just Junco and that's it."
"OK, well — you can believe me or not. It doesn't matter. I'm taking you with me and we'll sort that part out afterward."
I let out a small exhale and push that last statement away for later. "How are we gonna get out of the cave?"
He tilts my chin up so I'm looking at him. "I'm very glad that yer parents did such a wonderful job raising ya. And yer highly trained, Junco, to handle stressful situations. Whether ya–" he stops for a second – "whether ya realize it or not. So I'm gonna ask ya to do something now. And ya need to trust me so we can get the hell out of here and see the stars again."
"I don't think I can do it, Tier," I say matter-of-factly as I look away.
He laughs. "But ya don't even know what it is I'm asking!"
"It doesn't matter. I recognize the speech. If you need to talk me up with shit like that before telling me, then I know I'm not gonna like it."
He brings my attention back to his eyes. They aren't glowing since the lightstick is the same color, but they are serious. "It is, Junco. I won't lie to ya. It's bad. But if you trust me, I promise that you will be fine."
I shake my head and the tears I was holding back spill silently down my cheeks. "No, I can't do it anymore. I'm done."
"Aye. But you weren't done earlier in the cavern when you told me off, were ya?"
I stay quiet and make the tears stop. I wouldn't exactly call that one of my stellar moments of bravery, but I let it slide.
"We don't have a choice, Junco. There are only two ways out at this point. Go back, which we know we cannot do. Or go through there."
I follow his arm and he lifts it to point to a shimmering spot of light across the small room. For a moment I don't recognize it for what it is. And then it hits me and I shake my head and blurt the words out. "No! No, no, no! I can't even swim, I swear I can't swim!"
He just laughs at me. "Of course ya can swim, Junco. Do ya take me for a fool? Ya have a pool in yer house!"
I sniffle and look up at him. "Look, if you know so much about me, then you know I only swim in that pool when they make me and it's not even close to being fun."
Shut that shit off, Junco. Now.
"Did ya hear me ask for your trust, eh?" When I don't answer he asks again. "Did ya?"
I nod.
"Either you trust me, Junco, or you will die. OK?"
I shake my head this time and look down. "I can't. That's too much, we have to find another way. We'll wait here until they go away and then we'll leave the way we came."
"No, Junco. That's never going to happen. We have about thirty minutes before they find this cavern and then they'll kill me and take you to a place you really don't want to go."
"That's not possible, they will never find this place, not after all those twists and turns we made."
"Junco, they have scenthounds. It's only a matter of time. Thirty minutes might even be pushing it."
And the sounds I've been absently logging for the better part of our trip manifest in my forward consciousness. I can hear them. The hounds. Not the screaming of the nightdogs, but the distant baying of a dog on track. And he's right. They are not that far off.
"It's time now. I have two things to tell you before we do this." He takes my hand and we walk towards the water together. He lights a stick and throws it down into the water so I can see the bottom of the pool. The water is amazingly clear and lights up beautifully. I feel myself relax a little.
"What are they? The two things?" I ask, turning back to him.
"When I tell ya, take the deepest breath you can, deeper than any breath you've ever taken before. You won't have to swim, I'll do all the swimmin' for both of us. Just keep hold of my hand, OK?"
I take a practice breath, and nod.
He removes my jacket and takes his off as well, tying the little sealed bag of stuff from the cavern to a loop on his pants. He kicks off his boots and I do the same, then he ties them to another loop. I'm going to be cold on the other side, but that's better than being drowned from heavy clothing. I stand there in my bare feet and torn shirt with the gaping sides and look up to him, already shivering with cold, or maybe fear. "What's the second thing?"
He pulls me into the cold water with him and my teeth immediately start to chatter. Then looks me straight in the eyes and I think he's going to tell me not to panic or act stupid once we're under the water. But he softens. "I need you to trust me, Junco. Can you do that?"
He pulls me close and takes my face in his hands. They are rough and calloused, but his touch is tender. My eyes are fixated on him and I almost get lost in the green. He leans down towards my lips and I feel his breath tickle my cheek and slide across to my ear. I know what he's doing but I'm in bliss and instead of putting up the wall, I imagine a flood of water sweeping up their tenderness and rushing them through raging rapids to my brain. I feel the slightest tingle against my lips and I moan. Then his mouth covers mine and I feel a rush of warmth flood through my entire body as he presses against me, his breath heavy. The kiss melts me into his arms and I whisper, "I can do that."
We hear the baying of the scenthounds as we pull apart and he tugs me further into the pool of water. "I won't be dropping any more lightsticks. If I do they'll just get through the passage all that much quicker."
I hesitate at this revelation. "Oh, come on. You're just doing this on purpose now." I shake my head at him in the dim light. "Those things are probably in there, Tier."
He laughs. "Things? Help me out here, Junco."
"Those cave river things they found a few years ago over by Ramah. They dragged a kid off when he was playing–"
"Oh, for fuck's sake, Junco. Yer afraid of fish now too? Nightdogs, prairie lions, fish – anything else I should know about?"
"Ya know what? Fuck you. I've been chased by prairie lions. Regularly, in fact, all growing up. Have you ever outrun a raging lion?"
He sighs. "Junco, on the other side we will be at the bottom of a very deep c
avern with an exit straight up through the top. I'll have to fly us both out and with your extra weight it will be very difficult to make that ascent. If I leave the lightsticks as a trail, they'll catch us."
"But they can't fly, they won't be able to get past the water with anything that will help them catch us."
"They can fly, at least one of them can, anyway. And they most certainly can catch us. No lights."
I nod at that unexpected revelation. The dogs are definitely closer now.
"We have to go. On three, take that deep breath, OK? And whatever you do, don't let go of my hand."
I swallow hard, and nod. "OK."
"One. Two. Three!"
I take the deepest breath I can and go under with Tier, but something goes wrong and I sputter out half of it in a choke of bubbles. I'm just about to bob back up and take another one when I am tugged away from the surface. I let him take me and we swim down towards the lightstick. I am hoping that he will pick it up and take it with us so I can see, but he stops before we get to the bottom and slips sideways into a passageway, pulling me along with him. I scrape and bump against the hard, sharp sides and cuts open up on my bare arms. I feel strong currents of water flow past me and I realize he's using his wings to swim.
The passageway gets narrower and the darkness is absolute as we move along and my frantic heartbeat begins to increase. Soon the fast current from his wings is still and we are moving very slowly, like he is clawing his way along the rock. My chest begins constrict with the pressure that comes from being underwater and my head throbs from holding my breath. An almost undeniable urge to puff out all the carbon dioxide building up in my bloodstream takes over my thoughts, poisoning my body from the inside out. But I push the instinct down and concentrate on keeping hold of his hand.
I feel a small tingle on my back where his avian shirt is open to the water and try to ignore it, but the tingle turns into a burn and I realize something is biting me. I push it down because I can see a small glimmer of light up ahead and I concentrate on not puffing out my cheeks and releasing the foul air that is the only thing preventing me from taking a big breath of water into my lungs.
Suddenly I am jerked backwards by my pant leg and I lose my grip on Tier's hand. The light begins to fade and I let out all my bubbles in a silent underwater scream. Water rushes into my mouth and I try against hope to prevent the inevitable inhalation of water that I know is coming. I kick at my attacker and feel it let go, then grab onto the rocks on the side of the narrow passage and begin pulling myself faster and faster back towards the light, back towards Tier, and back towards the world outside.
My lungs ache with pain and now that the expired air is no longer taking up room inside my body I struggle against the instinct to draw in the water. I see the light ahead, getting brighter and brighter, and I tell myself I am going to make it when my mouth opens and desperately draws in a false breath. The water floods my lungs and I stop swimming in shock, gasping as I choke. The world gets fuzzy and green.
Then Tier's face is in front of me and he takes my hand and pulls. I float along helplessly, knowing that I am dying and there is nothing I can do about it. Moments later, the circle of light that beckons me to safety grows larger and larger until finally I surge out of the water, gasping for air.
And that's when the nightdog attacks us.
Chapter Fourteen
The massive nightdog grabs hold of Tier's wing and they struggle. My heart beats against my chest and I try to scream, but no air will come out, only water bubbling up through my windpipe causing me to choke and go below the surface once more. My hands flail around, searching blindly for the edge of the pool, as I fight my way back up into the air that must enter into my body soon, or I know I will die. I struggle until I reach out and feel a rock, then pull myself up and over the barrier of water.
I am on the far side of the pool, and I cling there choking and coughing until Tier's strong hands grab me and pull me out, lying me on my side so I can retch up the water from my lungs.
After a few seconds I try to talk. "Where – where is the night–" I cough and sputter and can't finish my sentence.
Tier removes a heat blanket from the sealed pack and covers me and then shoves my boots on my feet but keeps his tied to the loop on his pants. "Dead, darlin'. Nothing to worry about."
"Th-th-th-there might be m-m-m-more," I manage to say through chattering teeth.
"Shhhh, no. There's only this bitch here. And she's dead. She's dead."
I stay there, shivering from both cold and adrenaline, until my eyes wander down to the floor behind him. "Y-y-y-you're bl-bl-bleeding, T-Tier!"
"Just a cut, Junco. Are you ready for the last leg of our great escape?" he asks.
I nod.
He hovers, giant smoky black wings flapping, and I can see that the bite from the bitch has affected his flight, but he squints down the pain and his talons reach out and grab me by the waist. I gasp as one pierces my skin, and then he swings me up and stabilizes my upper body with his arms, all the while his wings frantically beating to lift us both straight up towards freedom..
It's nothing like the quick flights we've taken together before and I begin to panic as I see bubbles on the surface of the water below us. "They're coming, Tier!" I shout over the deafening sound of his powerful wing thrusts, then whisper to myself, "Holy shit, they're coming!"
The lightstick Tier used to pull me from the pool is still lying on the floor next to the dead nightdog and I can see everything. The surface becomes turbulent and I hold my breath, waiting for what will emerge. We are almost halfway now, but our progress is slow.
My eyes strain to see the water below, and then the thing breaks the surface. I gasp. "Tier," I whisper, but I know he can't hear me over his own labored breathing and thunderous undulation of his tertiary limbs. "Tier, it's..." But the words have a hard time forming because it can't be true. "It's an avian."
He doesn't answer me, so I scream it. "Did you hear me?"
Tier ignores me again, but the thing below me doesn't. "I hear you!"
Faster, I pray. Faster! But Tier's wings are starting to beat slower, and our progress creeps along. I panic for a second when it occurs to me that we might not even make it to the top, not because of the thing below, but because Tier simply won't be able to get us over the ridge of the cavern and out into the air where we can catch the wind.
"We're gonna make it, Junco, don't look down," he says as if reading my thoughts. I want to close my eyes, but they strain to see the avian in the dim green of the lightstick below. He is huge, even from this distance, and his eyes glow red, instead of green.
"Junco!" Tier screams. "Don't look at him!" I close my eyes and pray to God that we can make it out. I don't hear any wings flapping below, and we are almost to the top when I start to hope that everything will be OK. And then I feel the new current as the giant wings of the alien below force the air to part as he makes his rapid ascent.
"Holy shit, he's coming! HE'S COMING!"
I look up and the opening is right there, but our movement is like slow motion through mud, while the thing shooting up towards us is fast and quick.
We breach the rim of the underground canyon and immediately pick up the wind, allowing us to be swooped up and out over a cliff towards the vast grassland.
I turn to look around and the thing grabs me right out of Tier's arms, fumbles as Tier corrects his flight path, and then I am falling.
The ground rushes up to meet me so fast that I gasp for air, and then I am yanked from death by a pair of sharp talons around my waist. My body feels like it will snap in two as I am carried back up to the cliff where the cavern entrance is.
And then I realize who has me and I begin to scream.
"Let me go!" I swing my legs around and try to throw him off balance, but he's strong and his grip is true. Tier comes up beside him and knocks him sideways and he drops me. I fall about ten feet to the ground, roll a few times and come to a stop with my head han
ging over the side of the cliff.
I scamper away in a panic as the stranger lands next to me. I turn over and lie there looking up at him.
He smiles. "Well, that was something, wasn't it?" His accent isn't avian, it's local, and his eyes aren't red, they're orange.
Tier lands in front of me, blocking my view of this new creature in a way that I find a little possessive. "Back off, Moju," he snarls.
He has a name.
Moju smiles again and steps forward. "Go fuck yourself, Tier. I'm here to talk to her."
I squint at him as I pull myself together and get up off the ground, my wet clothes covered in dirt and dry grass. "Shit," I say in my most nonchalant voice, "you don't have to throw me off a cliff to get a word in, ya know. Obviously you two know each other, so just spit it out and let's get the hell off this mountain."
"Junco," Tier snaps at me. "Go wait over there." He points to a place several yards away, as if I am a dog to order around.
"He said," I snap back, "he wanted to talk to me. So why don't you go wait over there." I motion to the same place with my head and he hands me a look that almost makes me want to pee myself.
But I don't, I suck it back in and look past him. To the new guy. "What do you want?"
This time his smile reveals dimples and his eyes twinkle. Literally twinkle. Somehow he makes it charming instead of creepy and I can't help myself, so I smile back. It's real too. And that takes me by surprise. "Who are you?"
He glares over to Tier, who shrugs like they're sharing some private mental conversation. Moju redirects his attention back to me.
"How much has he told you about the Seven Siblings?" he asks.
"I read a poem or myth about them, that's it, really." I look sideways at Tier and he's frowning. Then back towards the new guy to see where this is going. "You want to contribute to my severely lacking body of knowledge, or you wanna just stand there glaring at Tier?"
Apparently that's funny, or cute, or whatever, because he laughs. "I'm one of the Seven Siblings, and you are too, from what that asshole over there says. So there you have it, Junco. It is what it is."