“I have a camp nearby with supplies.” His voice quivered in excitement. Despite his fear he was thrilled to be talking to someone his own age.
The girl lifted her head, staring at him through pale eyelashes dotted with mud. “You can talk, Kitty Boy?”
Toby drew himself up to his full three foot height. “I am not a kitten boy,” he said indignantly. “I am a Trilby. My name is Toby. May I ask your name?”
“I am Mia. Why do you have cat ears?” The girl’s eyes shone in his flashlight.
“Why do you keep asking me silly questions when we need to get away from here?” Toby pulled Mia’s hand a little more forcefully. “Please get up!”
“You did such a good job rescuing me. Really, I don’t have much choice.” Mia turned back for one more look at the pit. “Natura can hungry tonight. The swamp people will just have to live with ruined crops and crying children.”
“Come this way.” Toby led her to the path. Thanks to Gramble Colleen’s etiquette classes, he knew it was rude to stare, but found it hard to keep his eyes off the girl. She seemed so brave and strong. The grambles would love Mia “Your life is precious. If this goddess demands your death I don’t think I like her very much.”
A choking noise startled him. He turned to find Mia was sobbing into her muddy hands. “What’s wrong? Are you hurt?”
“I can’t believe you’re being so nice to me!” She searched in vain to find a clean bit of dress to wipe her face. “No one has cared about me since my parents died. The swamp people said I should be honored to be chosen for sacrifice and sometimes I thought I might be better off dead. My life was so miserable.”
Toby wanted to wipe her tears away, but his hands and clothes were covered in grime. “You don’t have to cry anymore. Your life is going to be different now.”
Toby switched off his penlight. The smallest beam would be noticed on a night like this, and he would have to rely on his heightened senses to reach safety. Mia could see almost nothing and clutched at his arm when she stumbled. They made slow progress through the brush.
“How far is your camp?” the girl asked after tripping for the tenth time.
“I followed the procession for at least half an hour.” He pulled a thorn bush out of his tail. “So we still have a while to go.”
“Won’t we run into snakes or alligators?”
Toby remembered the sharp scent encountered earlier. “I can smell any dangerous creatures before they come too close.”
“Oh.” Her voice grew more respectful. “How helpful.”
“Thanks.” He was glad it was dark so she couldn’t see his reddened cheeks.
With every step, Toby imagined the torches flooding through the trees, with a tide of people rushing in to take Mia away. But nothing disturbed them except for mosquitoes. After an agonizing hour and a few false turns, they found his little camp.
After the encounter with the swamp they both needed the warmth, so Toby built a fire. He glanced at Mia’s pinched face. She looked hungry. He could fix that right away. With tired, rope-burned hands he pulled himself back up the tree to retrieve his pack.
When he returned, Mia was by the stream. Her hands and face were clean. One of his survivor blankets served as a robe while she scrubbed the sacrificial dress.
“I wanted to kick it into the underbrush and leave it forever.” She hung the cloth over a branch. “But then I would have nothing to wear.”
Moonlight glittered on the foil blanket and her hair flowed like golden fire down her back. She looked like a fairy queen to Toby. He thought the dress looked lovely, but he said nothing. Having no experience with girls his age he felt arguments, even when complimentary, should be kept to a minimum.
Toby handed her some dried fruit and beef jerky. “Here’s something to eat. Sorry it’s just camping food.”
With timid hands the girl took a handful of dried apples and began to chew them slowly. “These are good! What do you call them?”
“Apples.” Toby was surprised. “They come from a tree. My Gramble Shana has an underground orchard.”
“I know fruit comes from trees.” Mia grabbed another handful. “I’ve just never tasted it like this.”
Toby smiled. “Neither have I. My grambles helped me make it for my trip.”
“Who are your grambles, anyway?”
“My guardians. We live in a cavern not too far from here.”
Mia’s eyes widened. “A cavern, like where the sprits live?”
“I suppose you could say we have spirits.” Toby thought about the Voice. “I’m not sure. Anyway, if you want, I’ll take you there after my adventure.”
Mia scrunched up her face in thought. “Are your Grambles nice?”
“The kindest people in the world,” said Toby.
“Do they sacrifice people?”
Toby pictured Gramble Lenora’s horrified face at such a suggestion. “Never, ever.”
“All right, Toby, I’ll go with you.”
“We should get some rest.” Toby gestured toward his tent. “You can sleep in there; I’d rather be outside anyway.” “Thank you, Toby the Trilby.” Mia smiled as the unfamiliar word rolled off her tongue. She disappeared into the tent.
Despite his exhaustion, Toby lay awake for a long time, staring up at the wonderful stars he had waited so long to see. How could those swamp people be so willing to destroy an innocent life for their own gain?
He remembered another picture from his favorite book. The wonderful man who had played with the children hung from a wooden cross, blood flowing from many wounds in his body. The book said he was a sacrifice for the sins of the world. Toby often stared at the man’s sorrowful face, amazed anyone could be so selfless.
The Voice came back to him then. “You have a purpose,” the Voice said. “You will find me.”
Then it was gone, leaving the noises of the swamp in its place.
5
MIA
Dawn caressed Toby’s face with gentle beams of light. He ran his fingers through his hair, damp from dewfall. A quick hike around the tent turned up no sign of intruders. The swamp people truly believed nothing would disturb Natura’s sacrifice.
If I hadn’t caught sight of those torches, Mia would be dead. This horrible thought was replaced by a beautiful idea. Was I somehow sent to save her? Were all of last night’s events more than coincidences? He remembered the Voice’s words of the evening before. “You have purpose.”
This concept flooded through him like Gramble Shana’s special veggie juice and made him feel stronger, taller somehow. What adventures waited for him today?
“Mia, are you awake?” He tapped on the side of the tent.
Mia crawled out of the tent and blinked in the bright light of morning. Her hair straggled down her shoulders in two messy braids.
“Let me wash the sleep off my face.” She yawned and stretched. “Then I’ll be ready.”
Toby packed up the tent and tidied the camp while Mia combed out her hair and slipped into the white gown.
“Your dress really is pretty.” Toby tried to be helpful. “Do the swamp people use the white material for sacrifices only?”
“My parents brought this dress from the city for my wedding someday.” Mia smoothed the wrinkled fabric. “My mother didn’t know the swamp people didn’t allow manufactured cloth. When we arrived in the village, everything we owned was burned. My mother managed to hide the dress. I was only five. She wanted to keep it so I would remember where I came from.
“When I was chosen for sacrifice, they found the dress and decided to destroy it along with me. Natura devours anything man-made.”
“How did your parents die?” asked Toby.
“Both had the fever last winter,” Mia’s eyes filled with tears. “They didn’t last long.” She brushed them away with the back of her hand.
Toby had never lost anyone close to him. What could he even say? How could he comfort this girl?
“So the village treated you badly?” To
by pulled the tent down and folded the stiff material.
“When my parents died, the swamp people made me sleep in an outdoor shelter without even a blanket to keep me warm. I was so alone, Toby.” She choked on her sobs and could say no more.
Toby reached for her hand. “I will love you, and you shall be my sister.”
Mia’s face lit up. “Really? What a wonderful idea, Toby.”
After Toby brushed dirt over the fire, he checked his food supply. Enough food to last one person a few days. He glanced over at Mia. Her hands were thin and frail. Her pretty dress could not hide the sharpness of her shoulder blades jutting through the cloth. Would she have the strength to continue without extra food? He pulled a compass from his pack. According to his map, if they journeyed west they would continue into new territory. Or, they could go back the way he had come the day before and, if they could avoid meeting the alligator again, go back to the grambles.
He hesitated.
“I know how to find things in the swamp, if you are worried about food,” Mia said, as though reading his thoughts. “I really want to meet your grambles.”
Toby looked down at his feet.
Mia hastily added, “Of course I want you to finish your adventure first. I’d like to see new places. The only time I’ve traveled was when my parents came to live with the swamp people.”
Toby’ heart swelled with relief. “Then we’ll go a little farther.”
While they walked, Toby described the caverns and told Mia about his grambles.
Her eyes filled with wonder while he described the machines and replicators they depended on for survival.
“My parents came from a big town,” she said. “We had many of these machines you describe. Some were placed on display in buildings for people to look at. No one could even remember what most of them were used for.”
“Why did your parents leave the city?” Toby asked.
“The swamp people often sent out small groups to invite city folk to join their village. The city was a dirty, scary place, where people fought over everything left from the Great Calamity.” She bent down to examine a mushroom and shook her head. “My parents were happy to leave. They didn’t realize the swamp people only wanted slaves.”
“What was the Great Calamity?”
“No one speaks of it,” Mia stopped at a berry bush, heavy with fruit. “It all happened before my parents were even born.”
Toby helped her place berries in one of his handkerchiefs. “My grambles lost contact with the outside world long ago. They never tried to find out what happened, or if anyone survived.” He put the last berry in the cloth and they continued down the path.
“I don’t understand.” Mia gestured to the trees around them. “How could you hide away from all of this?”
Branches crackled in front of them and Toby pulled Mia off the trail. He held his breath as they crouched under a bush. Could the swamp people be after us?
A tawny form on spindly legs stepped in front of them. Graceful ears swiveled beneath pronged horns. The deer was gone in an instant.
“Beautiful,” Toby whispered.
“Yes.” Mia stood to look after it.
How could the grambles have left this world behind?
“Maybe my grambles decided they would rather not know if everything they loved had been destroyed.”
“I might have made the same choice,” said Mia.
The ground became less marshy and soon they pushed through patches of long, thick grass. Green hills rolled before them like some great, prehistoric creature had settled down into the meadow to take a nap.
“Shall we cross them?” Mia asked.
“I think we should.” Toby led the way forward. They started over the first hill, leaving footprints in the grass.
Toby munched on a handful of berries, enjoying the wild, rich flavor. “I had a second purpose for coming on this quest.”
“Another reason?”
“I was created in a test tube by humans, and then formed in a machine.” He peeked over at Mia to see her reaction.
Confusion flickered over her face.
“I have a brain and a heart, but there is one thing I don’t know if I possess.”
“In your world of long-forgotten wonders, what could that be?”
“A soul.” Toby sighed.
“The swamp people say Natura binds our souls to the forest. If we do not heed her voice, she will crush them in her wooden hands.”
“If Natura does exist, which I doubt, it seems like she only cares about plants and animals living in the woods. If she treasured human souls, she would shelter them and keep them safe. A loving being would not demand people’s death for her pleasure. This goddess destroys souls. Therefore, she could not have given me one.”
Mia shrugged. “If anything, she only wished to devour mine.”
“I am seeking the true Soul Creator,” said Toby. “A Being who cares for me and loves me.”
Mia clasped her hands in front of her. “Toby, do you think He is real? Maybe He would care for me too!”
Toby looked up at her shining face, then down at her clenched hands, dripping with juice from forgotten berries. “I know He would. Mia, I think He sent me on this quest.”
Mia gasped. “He spoke to you?”
“I’m almost certain.” Toby lifted his chin. “Do you understand why I must find Him?”
“Yes,” said Mia. “Oh, yes.”
The sun shone down on them as they climbed, but was tempered with a cool breeze. Birds sang songs of spring and the joy of flight. Toby realized he could never live in a cave again.
He stopped short. “We should build a house.”
“A house?”
“Yes, close to where my grambles live. The forest above the cavern would be a perfect place to live.” A smile spread across his face. “The storage units have all the supplies we need, and the libraries hold hundreds of books to teach us.”
“Could we have windows and a kitchen?” Mia asked.
“Yes! A garden, too, with vegetables and flowers.”
These thoughts warmed their hearts and they began to build their little house together until it was a very real place in their minds.
6
AN EVIL DART
Toby smelled the smoke before the tendril came into view. White as Gramble Shana’s hair, it curled up and over the hill. The land spread out before them like a map. Toby followed the smoke with his eyes until it disappeared into an unusual structure.
From the hill the wall looked small enough to squeeze between his fingers, but Toby could tell it was massive. Blurred colors and lumps suggested haphazard construction. He could not see past the wall to know if it housed a town or simply a single traveler with a campfire. Only one thing was certain: a fire would have a creator.
Toby turned to Mia. “Do you know if anyone lives down there?”
“I have never been over these hills.” Mia plucked yellow flowers as she talked and wove the stems to make a pretty little crown. “The swamp people do not speak of the outside world, except when sending out their mission teams. Should we go down and see who lives there?” She arranged the crown on her head.
Toby found himself again trying not to stare. Mia was so clever with her hands. She made beautiful art from almost nothing.
“Well?” She interrupted his thoughts.
“We have to be careful.” Toby gazed at the smoke. “We do need provisions and these people might be friendly. However…”
“We don’t want to be sacrificed to their goddess.”
“Exactly.”
A twisted trail led them around boulders and small tufts of brush. These obstacles were soon replaced by much stranger items: a broken soft drink machine, a rusted bicycle, a giant school bus. Some of these things were only familiar to Toby because he had seen them in books or films. The piles of junk grew higher, and Toby’s nose wrinkled as a stench rose around them. The smell was dank and moldy, of things forgotten for a very, very
long time. Who would chose to live in this wreckage?
The wall loomed closer. Toby crouched behind a pile of debris and beckoned for Mia to follow. He peered over a decrepit couch to check for any movements in the surrounding junk piles. He risked a deep breath to try to catch any strange scents and almost passed out. Any human or beast would be masked by the overwhelming stink.
Above him, a large scrap of metal hung precariously from a chain. “What is that thing?” He pointed up.
Mia climbed over an armchair towards his couch, but then stopped and gave a little shriek. She fell back and slid to the ground.
Toby blinked, and his mind struggled to process what had happened. He jumped over the furniture and sank down beside her. “Mia, are you all right?”
Then he saw the arrow.
Tears streamed down Mia’s face. She tugged at the wooden stick, burrowed deep in her shoulder. “Oh, it hurts so much, Toby! Is this what dying feels like?”
“I don’t know,” Toby touched her shoulder, then grabbed his pack, trying to decide what he should do first. “I have never died before.”
He pulled the girl’s hand away from the stick. After lectures from Gramble Howard, and watching many old western movies with Gramble Colleen, he knew the part of the arrow stuck in the shoulder acted as a cork to keep her from bleeding to death.
“You have to stay still.” He laid a hand on the trembling girl’s shoulder. “I have to try to find someone to help.” Mia didn’t respond. Her face, normally a rich tan from a life spent outdoors, was almost translucent, as though her life was flowing away. Her deep blue eyes glazed over, and her shrieks quieted to an occasional moan.
She is going into shock. I must get some help.
A tin can rattled a few feet away, reminding Toby they were still in danger.
Two brown leather boots stepped into view, and standing in them… was a man.
He stood tall and burly, with legs like two thick logs. His eyes, hard and dark, glittered beneath a wooly thatch of black hair. Half a dozen other men, alike enough to be brothers, accompanied him. They were dressed in clothes patched together from cloth of all colors and patterns. All carried weapons. The first man held the only bow; and had a quiver of arrows slung over one shoulder.
The Toby the Trilby Trilogy Boxed Set Page 3