by Mark Harritt
Chapter Thirteen – Now
Matki Awrani had a very tough night. He followed the demon queen back to the cave from her hunt. Now he stood motionless, hand on staff, one foot against the knee of the other leg in a position that humans have used since time immemorial. Matki Awrani, meaning “Touches Thunder” in the language of his tribe, watched the great Demon Queen. On her, the life and death of his tribe existed. It was an uneasy alliance, one the monster knew nothing about, but one which they depended on. She had been the master of this valley since his grandfather was alive, and through the years, it was his family that watched her to ensure the tribe’s survival.
Now, the critical juncture approached. Soon, there would be forty to fifty of her offspring leaving the nest to hunt through the valley. They were smaller than she, and would be searching for smaller prey. This was his great concern. That was a time of violence and death for his people, when those smaller demons hunted in packs. As dangerous as she and her children were, however, the monster kept other demons from the valley, and demon children from other females were hunted relentlessly, killed and eaten, to keep them from competing with and killing hers. Other carnivores were hunted, killed, keeping their numbers low. So his tribe only had to contend with her children.
As it was, the demon was not interested in his tribe, unless they approached too closely. It took more energy to hunt them than the monster could get from eating them. It was another matter entirely for her demon children. When the small demon beasts came out, they would be ravenous, and the tribe would have to defend against them. His tribe’s most vulnerable members would be moved into the caves up in the cliffs to avoid slaughter as the small demons hunted.
Because of this sacred trust, he watched. This was why the tribe valued Matki Awrani. Two older brothers were murdered while tracking the beast, their deaths agonizing as the demon queen played with them. His brothers made mistakes and died too quickly. They didn’t understand that it was not just tracking the monster, but understanding its moods. Matki Awrani spent years shadowing his father to learn the beast. Matki Awrani was different than his brothers. He was able to step into his father’s footsteps lightly, and had been doing so for thirty years since his father became too feeble to scout the beast. He learned the monster’s habits. He could sense its emotions from its movements.
He waited for the demon queen to come back out of the cave, and was shocked when he saw the large, black demons come out instead. He was even more shocked to see the new demons drag the demon queen’s head to the edge of the forest. Large bloody chunks of her carcass soon followed. He started shaking as he smelled her death. It was more than death and gore. It was her scent, the smell of her glands, her death scent. He was amazed that these creatures didn’t smell it. Or maybe they did, but didn’t recognize it. A low moan of fear escaped. The slaughter would begin soon.
Scavengers would come to the area, lured by the smell of the decaying meat. That wasn’t the most dangerous problem. The smell of her death would spread on the wind, and other great demons would know that she was no longer in the valley. Other females would arrive to claim the territory. Males would know that this valley was no longer protected by the demon queen. More savage demons would come to claim the valley. Males, twice her size, would fight over the females. They would hunt, kill, and eat. Nothing would be safe from the rut and violence that would occur here.
Matki Awrani felt the scavengers before he knew they were there. He quickly climbed the great tree, the new giant demons be damned. He moved high, staying on the side away from the cave. Time passed, and he watched as the size of the scavengers grew. His stomach growled, and he pulled dried, spiced meat from a pouch. It was tough, and he had to suck water from his water skin to help soften the meat. At one point, he watched a child, a little girl pull thunder from her pocket and kill a jongom, a murder bird. These were powerful demons, indeed. The day shifted into twilight and soon after, into the dark.
He thought about when he could leave the area. Darkness was not his friend. There were many predators down there that could kill and eat him. He knew that most of the meat on the pile was probably gone, especially with the Talgit, the bear pack in the area. If he went down now, he would be hunted and torn to pieces. He was fast, but they would run him down.
He listened through the night. The pack of Talgit went into frenzy after the sun set, and with the moon hiding behind the clouds, there was no light to see what happened. There was the sound of thunder. He didn’t need to see to understand what happened to the demons at the cave entrance. A pack of Talgit was formidable. He knew that he would see the carcasses of the demons on the ground in the morning. If he was lucky enough, the bear-pack would have enough to eat, and would be torpid when he tried to sneak away. His only worry was the other animals in the area he would have to avoid. Still, with the pack of Talgit close by, other predators might avoid the area. It was a long night, punctuated by the sound of violence and death. He was awakened constantly by the sound of animals moving through the brush. They were large animals, hungry animals.
He had to make water from the top of the tree. Pissing off the tree would make noise, as his water hit the ground, so he pissed down the side of the tree. He hoped that the smell of his urine wouldn’t attract any predators. He sighed as the pressure eased from his bladder. It was a very long night. He was shivering in the early morning. Darkness turned into twilight, and the light increased. With the clouds, the sun didn’t fully light the valley immediately, but illumination increased steadily until he could see. Eventually the sun was up fully, and not too soon for Matki Awrani. He thought he would freeze in the night. Mist rose off of the ground.
He didn’t want to move too quickly. The last thing that he wanted was to attract attention of either the Talgit or the demons. Either could mean his quick death. He stretched and retracted his legs, to get the blood flowing. There was a rustling below him, and he looked to the ground. He didn’t see anything, and held his position as he listened and looked for anything that might be hunting him. Time moved slowly, until he was satisfied that there was nothing down there.
He moved his head around the bole of the tree. He inhaled quickly, not believing his eyes. The carcass of the demon queen was mostly gone, soft tissue rended from the bone. All of the Talgit were dead, their carcasses piled onto the bones of the Demon Queen. Small animals worried the meat and tore chunks to eat. The animals in this area had not eaten so well in quite some time. That had been a large pack. He watched packs like that take down herbivores five times the size of the demon queen. Those pack bears were another reason that his tribe lived along the cliffs in the mountains. The large demon carnivores didn’t climb rock, and the talgit were too big to climb onto the paths that his people used. His tribe spent lifetimes carving into the cliffs to ensure their survival, to escape the large predators on the ground.
He looked at the five black demons, guarding the entrance to the cave. Four were crouched with their fists against the ground. One was standing. He was amazed that these demons were still alive. There were even a few of the smaller demons standing back inside the cave entrance. One seemed to be breathing smoke out through its nose and mouth!
Matki Awrani thought about this. Maybe these were demons of the underworld. He traveled into areas where the land shook and mountains spit red and black blood out of the earth. These demons could possibly come from some area such as that.
He was amazed by them. As he watched, more came to the front of the cave to make water, or squat to defecate. There were many male demons, but not as many females. And they were of different colors. They were pale pink to dark, dark mahogany. They all looked human to him, but no human could have such powers. Only the sky gods had such power. The smell of fire was in the air. Matki Awrani watched as smoke drifted out of the cave. His mouth watered as he smelled food cooking. He wished the demons would bring him
some. He was tired of eating the dried meat and fruits that he carried.
He was not quite so worried now. The Talgit were dead. The scavengers should all be on the pile of carcasses. He should have a better chance to make his escape. He started climbing down, then stopped, to listen and look. In this forest, it paid to be very patient. The wind wasn’t helping him, as it intermittently picked up and rustled through the trees. He stopped. He waited. He learned patience at a very young age. Being patient saved his life many times. The sun was up, and soon the coolness of the morning would move into higher temperatures. He wanted to be well away by then. He sipped water, moving slowly, and ate some more dried meat. He heard nothing in the surrounding vegetation. He started climbing down the tree again. Finally, his feet were on the ground, and he listened. Hearing nothing, he started to move into the forest.
Now, stealth and speed were his friends. He would move slowly, stealthily until he was away from this killing ground, then he would pick up speed to get away from the new demons. He had to get home to tell the tribe about the death of the old demon queen, and the arrival of the new demons. He walked slowly away from the tree, moving from shadow to shadow. Sound and quick movement would get him killed. He was ten feet from the tree, then twenty feet. Insect activity started to pick up. He could feel the insects landing on him, flitting around his face, as if they were in collusion with the demons, trying to make him give his position away.
At thirty feet, uneasiness hit him. His senses went to high alert. Something was not right. He felt like he was being watched. Then he heard it. Off to his right, something was moving. He could hear the slight rustle of plants as the beast moved. He heard something else to his left, a soft rustle of underbrush. He was being stalked by more than one creature. It may have been the thing that tried to climb the tree the night before, or it could be something that smelled his urine. Either way, it was not good. This spoke of patience, and patience meant an ambush predator, which meant a creature that would make a fast and violent attack. And now, he was in the kill zone of the ambush. If the animals were moving, then they were getting ready to spring. There was no way he would make it back up the tree from here, the beasts would grab and kill him before he could make the first branch.
He stood motionless, knowing that any sudden movement would cause the animal to charge. He thought, and could only think of one thing that might save him. If these ambush predators ran into a bigger predator, then he might survive. He could only think of one predator that could stop them. He whirled and ran, dodging around trees, trying to put distance and solid objects between him and the predators behind him. He heard the brush behind him explode as the predators broke their cover. They were maybe thirty feet behind him, and would catch up quickly. He heard a thump and a growl as something impacted into a tree. Luckily he was out of the tree line into the open field before the beast was running again. He opened his mouth and started screaming as he ran, hoping to wake the sleeping demons.
The carcasses of the dragon and bears were on the other side of the meadow, but as soon as he started screaming, the animals on the carcass mound turned and looked at him. He heard the sound of footfalls running behind him. His hands were straight out, elbows and knees pumping as he sprinted across the meadow. His feet were different than those of a homo sapiens. His foot was longer, thinner, except across the ball of his foot. As he ran, the heel of his foot rose from the ground. The difference in foot structure propelled him much faster than a human could run. He was much faster from a walk to sprint than his pursuers were. But they were gaining on him as they warmed up to the sprint. His intent was to run to the large black demons and hope they would kill each other. He hoped that he was small and inoffensive enough that they would ignore him for the most dangerous threat.
The scavengers bolted away as the predators behind him burst out of the woods. He didn’t look around, knowing that looking back would throw off his stride and decrease his speed. He was getting close to the cave and he saw some activity there. If he made it to the cave and there were no demons there, he would run directly into the cave, hoping that the beast chasing him would go after different prey. What he didn’t plan for was the rock that his foot landed on flying out from under his foot, causing him to cartwheel to a stop next to one of the large black demons. As he tumbled, he saw what was chasing him, and how close it was to getting him. He was not going to live through this encounter, and knew that his wife would be mourning him when he didn’t come home.
The grasnigs were fur covered lizards, with hard beaks, bounding across the meadow towards him. They were vicious and one of the fastest runners. If he hadn’t weaved through the trees, they would have caught him quickly and killed him. The beast was getting ready to leap, when the light disappeared. Something large and dark blotted out the sun, casting Matki Awrani in shadow.
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Mickey was on watch when he heard the scream. It sounded like a human scream, coming from the edge of the forest. But he knew the entire crew was behind him in the cave or down in the facility. He turned to look in the direction that his sensors indicated the scream came from. He saw a short man, reddish brown, come barreling out of the forest, running for his life. The man had long hair, braided back to keep it out of his face. His beard was also braided, streaming behind him as he ran. His clothes were muted brown and green. The little man was running incredibly fast, and would have blown away any Olympic runners. As he cleared a few hundred feet into the meadow, two nightmares came crashing out behind him. The monsters had massive heads shaped like parrots, with an elongated bill. They had powerful legs that powered them forward after the small man. They were built for the forest, with short, brindle patterned fur. There was a small mane around their heads that was flattened by the wind as they ran. A scream like a steam whistle sounded across the meadow as they chased the little man.
Then disaster struck. A rock went flying out from underneath the little man’s foot, and he went tumbling to land close to Mickey’s mech armored feet. In a split second, Mickey made his decision, the mech armor moving instantaneously to his mental command. He stepped over the man on the ground, putting his bulk between the little man and the two strange beasts. One of the beast crashed into Mickey’s mech and he grabbed the tail of the other beast as it tried to maneuver around him. He hoped the little man had gotten out of the way in time.
The two beasts fought like wet cats. He pushed one of the beasts away from him, and brought the other one around in an arc that finished in an impact with its mate as it recovered and started to leap at Mickey. The bodies of the beasts impacted in a crushing blow, bones snapping. Mickey ran forward to the two beasts as they tried to rise. He launched a powerful kick into one, sending it flying back towards the trees. The other one grabbed the mech armor wrist with its beak. Mickey pulled the creature up, feeling the impact as its powerful hind legs came up, trying to disembowel the armor. He launched a vicious punch which, with the blade on the top of the fist, when it impacted the writhing beast, snapped bones and sliced flesh.
The beast let go of the mech armor wrist with a shriek, landing on all fours and moving slowly back to its partner, lying on the meadow. The other beast was breathing heavily, but couldn’t move. Both of the beasts had sustained major injuries. It was doubtful that either of them would live through that amount of damage.
Mickey triggered his rail gun, sending a blast of metal into one, and then the other, heads exploding as the incandescent iron pellets ripped into their skulls.
Mickey heard a crackle as Everett started talking, “Mickey, what are you doing? What the hell’s going on?”
“Everett, check behind me. Those monsters were trying to kill a man I haven’t seen before. The way he’s dressed, he has to be local. They were intent on eating him, so I decided to intercede.
“Ah, okay, I understand. Let’s see what we hav
e here.”
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Matki Awrani was amazed by what the dark demon did for him. It jumped between him and the grasnigs, and saved his life. That was very unexpected. He watched the fight in dismay, amazed that something so large could move so quickly. He heard footsteps behind him. There were three demons there, all with thunder sticks. They looked human, but that didn’t guaranteed that they wouldn’t do him harm. He thought about running, then put it out of his mind. He remembered the murder bird from yesterday, and knew they could kill him before he could get to the forest.
The demon in the middle said something in a language that Matki Awrani didn’t understand. The demon moved forward, and held out his hand to Matki Awrani. He grasped the hand and felt powerful muscles pull him to his feet. He limped as he stepped gingerly on his twisted ankle. The thunder sticks were all pointed in his direction. A look of concern crossed his face. The demon on the right looked at him, down at the thunder sticks, and said something to the demon in the middle.
The demon in the middle lowered his thunder stick, and then slung it over his back, and the other two pointed their weapons away from Matki Awrani. The demon in the middle took a curious thing off of his back, held a long vine to its lips, sipped something, and made a smacking noise, indicating pleasure. Everett held out his water bladder to Matki Awrani. Matki Awrani reached out and took the bladder from the demon. The bladder was covered with soft material, and had two straps. Matki Awrani held the bladder by the straps, and put the end of the long vine in his mouth, and sucked the fluid. Surprise lit his eyes. It was cold water.
Everett pointed to the cave, made a motion with his hand indicating that he wanted Matki Awrani to go with them. He, Murphy, and Stein turned and walked back to the cave, leaving him with the bladder of water, alone in the meadow. Matki Awrani felt the impact through the ground as the black demon moved past him towards its guard position in front of the cave. It stopped, turned around, and went still as it assumed its guard duties. The other three entered the cave, seemingly uninterested in what he would do next. Matki Awrani was curious. He no longer felt he was in danger from these demons.
Truth be told, he didn’t know what he was going to do next. He stood there for a few minutes, looking at the formidable line of giant black demons. He took another pull on the water bladder. He realized the scavengers were still out there, and would be back soon. His ankle was sore, and he doubted he could out run anything at this moment. Plus, he was hungry and he could smell food cooking. He really didn’t want to spend another night at the top of a tree, shivering.
He made up his mind. Matki Awrani hoped that he wasn’t making a fatal mistake. He had a slight limp as he walked over to the cave, stopping at the entrance to let his eyes adjust. As they adjusted, he could see nine of the demons, sitting down on silver and green furniture that looked very fragile but was able to hold two bodies sitting. They looked like men, and acted like men. These demons all had different color skin, with different color hair, some with no hair at all. He was beginning to adjust his ideas about these creatures being demons.
The thunder sticks were close by the men, within arm’s length. There were silver cups in front of them, over a small flame. They were stirring the food in the cups. He could smell the food, but the fire smelled unusual, not like wood burning. It was hexamine, something that he wouldn’t know about. Everett indicated the seat next to him, motioning Matki Awrani over to him. Matki Awrani limped over and sat down, a squeak sounding as the fabric shifted against the aluminum frame. Everett stirred the food in the cup, and it smelled delicious.
Everett picked up the cup and held it up to his face. He scooped a spoonful of the food, held it up, blew on it to cool it, and took a small taste. Everett caught Matki Awrani’s eye, and turned the cup so that Matki Awrani could see how he held it, with the two wires. Everett put the cup down on the cave floor at Matki Awrani’s feet, and motioned towards it. Matki Awrani reached down to the cup, and picked it up the way Everett showed him, using the wire handles.
He grabbed the spoon, used it to take some food, and then lifted it to his mouth. The smell was mouth-watering. He stuck his tongue out and just put the tip of his tongue on the food. It was amazing. The food tasted fantastic, with flavors that exploded across his taste buds. His eyes rolled and he put the entire spoon into his mouth. He quickly started shoveling the rest into his mouth. He heard someone say, “Beef stew.” He didn’t care. He tucked into the food and was soon licking the spoon clean and dipping his finger into the metal cup to get all of the tasty food out.
One of the other men passed over another cup of food, and said, “Spaghetti and meatballs.” He tasted with the tip of his tongue again, and was rewarded with a wonderful taste that quickly enveloped his mouth. That cup also went down quickly. There was a pop and a fizz and he was handed a can. Mike had a can also, and showed him how to drink out of it, tipping it to his mouth. The can felt cool in his hand. He put the can to his lips, and tilted it up. He was rewarded with the sweetest thing he had ever tasted in his life. It fizzed as he drank. It was cool, refreshing, and sweet. He was over his initial hunger, so he slowed down with the drink, enjoying its taste, not knowing when he would ever be able to taste it again. All too soon, the fizzy drink was finished, and he sat it down on the ground, looking at the men around him.
The man across from him, pointed at itself, and then said, “Mike,” and pointed back at him. He didn’t understand at first, until the demon next to him pointed at itself and said, “Everett.” Then Everett pointed at him. Then “Rob,” “Tom,” “Rick,” “Murph,” “Bobby,” and “Brian,” all said their names, and pointed at themselves.
He understood, and pointed at himself. “Matki Awrani.”
Mike watched the small man eat the food they gave him and his expression when he drank the coke. The expressions indicated that he never tasted food so good before. The soft drink sealed the deal, “Everett, I don’t know who this guy is, but he’s not from where we’re from.”
Everett nodded, “Yeah, I know, and some things are different about his physiology. His legs are different, and his arms are longer, stronger, looks like he climbs a lot. Did you see how fast he was running across the meadow? There’s no Olympic sprinter that could sprint half that fast.”
Mike thought about this, “Well, if nothing else, he’s a source of information for us. We need to learn his language and figure out where we are, and what the hell is going on here.”
Everett was surprised when Matki Awrani grabbed his wrist and tugged on it. Matki Awrani stood up and motioned for Mike and Everett to follow him. He limped over to the cave mouth, and waved for them to come with him.
“I think he wants us to follow him,” Rob said, stating the obvious.
Mike nodded, “So, let’s follow and see what happens.”
Mike clicked on his ear bud, “Mickey, we’re coming out. Make sure there’s nothing out there to give us a surprise.”
“Roger boss, I don’t see anything that might be trouble, just some scavengers on the bones.”
Mike stood up and grabbed his rifle, and started walking towards Matki Awrani. The others followed. Mike turned to address the group, “Rob, Rick, I need you two to stay and make sure nothing comes in behind us, okay?”
Rob sat back down with a smile on his face, picking up the cup of coffee he just brewed, “Sure thing, boss man.” Rick nodded and sat down, not saying anything.
Matki Awrani limped over to the bones of the dead lizard dragon. As the group approached the pile of bones, there were still some scavengers the size of small dogs on them. They yelped and ran as Mickey’s laser hit them with enough energy to chase them off. Soon they were standing next to the skull of the dragon. Matki Awrani slapped the top of the skull, and started a pantomime with his hands. He held up hands and fingers, then pointed towards the mouth of the valley. Mike moved his
hands to indicate that the small man needed to move slower and repeat. Matki Awrani did the sequence five more times before Mike got it.
Everett was following the exchange. “Mike, do you understand that?”
Mike nodded, “yes, unfortunately I did. Or I think I did. He’s saying there are many more like this one, over the pass, and they’re bigger than this one was.”
Everett’s face blanched, “Bigger?”
Mike nodded again, “Yes, bigger. And did I say more?”
Everett nodded, “Yes you did.”
“Did I tell you that a bunch of them are coming here?”
“No, you left that part out.”
Behind him he heard Tom curse.
They turned around and walked back to the cave.
“This changes everything,” Mike said.
“What do you mean?”
“Well, I thought we would explore this area, find water, food, things we can eat without dying. Maybe build a building around here to house our people so that we don’t have to climb up and down the ladder. But, from what he’s telling me, I’m thinking we don’t have a defensible position. If there are a bunch of those giant dragons, then we could be in deep trouble,” Mike explained.
“Ah, crap,” Everett said.
Mike nodded and said in all seriousness, “Ah crap, indeed.”
When they got to the cave, they scattered to sit and pull maintenance on their weapons. If there was going to be a fight, they all wanted to be prepared. Rob looked around at the crew, “I guess it was bad news, then.”
“Yeah, the worst,” Mike informed them. He pointed to Stein, “I need for you to go down and grab Lieutenant Pang, tell her to come up here so we can talk please.”
Stein nodded, then stood up and walked back into the tunnel.
Thirty minutes later, Pang was walking up the tunnel towards him, with Stein in tow.
“What’s up?” She asked.
Mike motioned her over, and she saw the short man.
“Who’s this?” she asked.
Mike nodded towards Matki Awrani, “Meet our new friend, Matki Awrani. I wanted you to meet him before I took him downstairs.”
Pang looked at the brown man. And the brown man looked back. This was the child with thunder in her pocket. But now he could tell that she was not a child. She smiled. Matki Awrani looked at Jen, and his eyes widened at the beauty before him.
Mike pointed at Jennifer, and said, “Jen.”
“What, you don’t want to give him my rank,” she said, teasing Mike.
“Sorry, need to keep things simple.” Mike answered.
Mike started explaining to Jen, “I think that we may have a problem. From the pantomime that our friend here did, I think that he’s saying that there are many more like that dragon we killed. They’re bigger, and they’re coming here.”
Pang asked, “How does he know this?”
Mike shook his head, “Until we know his language better, and don’t have to rely on sign language, I think we just have to plan for the worst.”
Pang’s head tilted, “What do you have in mind?”
“Well, I think we’ll need to do the same thing we did last time, but if we can find some belt fed machine guns, we’ll need those. Murph tells me that they have SAWs in security. Plus, we need the techs up here to go over the armor at least once per day for maintenance, just to make sure that they don’t go down in the middle of a fight. I’d hate for two or three of those dragon monstrosities to play crack the nut while I can’t do anything to fight back.”
Pang nodded, “I’ll talk to the technical team and see what we can do. A schedule will be easy to put together.”
Mike continued, “As well made as this armor is, we’ll need replacement parts. I know you designed them to be as tough as possible, but we need to ensure their viability.”
Pang frowned for a minute, “Well, we have a fabrication area, but I’ll have to check with Hank Bethel about what they can and can’t do about building parts. I know they have some replacement parts already made, but the fabricators might be able to make more.”
Mike nodded, “We also need to replace all of this ammunition that we’re using. If you can figure that out with your tech geniuses, I would love for that to happen.”
Pang smiled, “Okay, so consider this Christmas, what else do you want Santa to give you.”
Mike leaned over and grabbed her hand in both of his, “If there are more upgrades for the mech armor, I suggest you go ahead and have them installed so that we can start using them.”
Pang looked into Mike’s eyes, and saw the concern in them, “Sure, I’ll tell the Techs that they should tell your team everything, and to get the mech armor fitted up with full kit.”
Mike let go of her hand, “Thanks.”
He leaned back, “Another question, do you have anybody that’s good with languages, who might be able to figure out what Matki Awrani might be trying to tell us?”
Pang thought for a minute, “I’ll check around to see, let me talk to everybody. We may be able to figure something out about that.”
Mike nodded, “I need to walk back down with you. We need to introduce everybody to Matki Awrani.” He waved Everett over, “Everett, you need to go with us. I think it’s time for a big meeting. We need to get buy-in from everybody. I don’t know when the dragon lizards will come, but they might be here soon. I want everybody prepared for the possibility that we need to move. There’s a lot of work to do, to stay here, or to move to another location. Either way, they need to know.” Jen and Everett agreed. He waved and attracted Matki Awrani’s attention and motioned for him to join them.
The four of them started walking towards the back of the cave. As they walked, Matki Awrani noticed that every man in the cave turned and watched Jen. That was when he knew that they weren’t demons at all, but instead were men like him. A large smile broke across his face.
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