by Amy Lehigh
“No; normally they take them along.”
The two spent the rest of the day talking. Ryan wanted to know more about what Japan was like—Boelik indulged him, though he was four hundred years out of date. Boelik wanted to know more about prey animals (and if there were any forests in this country—and there were, much to his pleasure).
In the end, they both found themselves more comfortable in each other’s company. When they were ready to go to bed, Ryan gestured over to his bed of grass-filled potato sacks. “You can sleep here,” he offered, and the two shared the bed for the night.
***
Boelik woke in darkness. He held still to listen for whatever had awakened him, and he heard a ticking noise like claws on wood. He strained his ears more and heard a snuffling sound and realized that something must have smelled the deer meat. Beginning to move, he noticed that Ryan was awake and holding his breath in fear. Boelik put his furred hand on Ryan’s side behind him in reassurance, and he heard the boy breathe out quietly. Boelik let his eyes adjust to the dim light as he stared out at the source of the noise.
In the slight moonlight filtering through the solitary window and the door frame, Boelik could make out the dim form of the creature. It seemed like a big cat, with an even larger tail. He tapped the wooden floor next to the bed, making it whip its head around. The muzzle was longer than a normal cat’s, though just as square.
The creature turned away from the meat and began stalking towards the two. As its form passed through the doorway, the moonlight fully illuminated its silhouette. That made it clear why its muzzle was so large: it had four canine teeth protruding like tusks from its jaws.
It came over to the bed, tail swishing back and forth. Its tongue crept out of its mouth to lick its lips as it lowered itself into a pouncing position. Ryan was holding his breath again, and Boelik thought he felt him trembling. “I don’t think so,” he said to the cat, shooting up and darting for a spot near it.
On all fours now, he shot forward to get beneath it, twisting onto his back and trying to put his claws under its chin. However, it had already begun to look down at him and open its jaws, so instead he found his hand in its mouth.
The beast saw its chance and took it, clamping its jaws on Boelik’s hand. “Son of a…!” Boelik shouted before pulling himself back together. “Die already!” He used his other hand to punch the beast between the eyes. It had little effect, and the beast just clamped harder, making him cry out.
“Boelik!” Ryan cried.
“Ryan, stay ba—agh!” Boelik cried out again as the beast stepped forward and put one of its paws on his chest, the claws digging into his skin, pressing its weight onto him. He thought he could hear something crack. “Get off of me, you stupid beast!”
Boelik kicked out and up, hitting the cat in the forehead. It snarled at his retreating boot, and Boelik managed to pull his hand out of its mouth and close to his chest. As it snapped back and tried to catch his face, he grabbed a tusk-like tooth with his uninjured hand and used it to redirect the jaws again and again.
With a sudden shriek, it broke away from Boelik. He noticed then that Ryan was watching the cat from the other side, near the door, his eyes wide and his body shaking. The beast roared and lifted its paw off of Boelik’s chest as it began to go after him.
“Oh, no you don’t!” Boelik growled, grabbing the beast’s foreleg. It whipped its head back around to snarl at him. Boelik took his chance then.
His injured hand shot out and found the soft tissue underneath the cat’s jaw and tore into it. The beast made a gurgling growl at him as its blood dripped onto the floor and out of its mouth. Boelik didn’t move as his hand was soaked except to stab deeper. It did not take long for the cat to collapse. Getting up and removing his claws from the carcass, Boelik saw one of the metal rods in the creature’s back between its shoulder blades. He pointed at it and asked Ryan, “Did you do that?”
Ryan blinked back from his own world where he’d been staring at the body with wide eyes, and looked to where Boelik was pointing. “Uh? Oh, uh…uh-huh.”
“Good work. Thank you.”
Ryan continued to stare at Boelik, and responded rather blankly. “Uh…uh-huh.”
Boelik gave a little laugh, a sympathetic smile crawling onto his face. “You really aren’t used to this, are you?”
Ryan seemed to come back to his senses, shaking his head. “Uh…no. Not really.” Boelik laughed again, his laughter turning into ‘ows’ as he folded over and clutched his injured hand and rib cage.
“Are you okay?” Ryan asked, stepping around the cat’s body and coming close to Boelik, hand outstretched. He was as tall as Boelik now.
Boelik mused as he noticed he could look straight into the boy’s eyes, now that he was hunched over in pain. “I’m fine,” he replied, sucking air in between his teeth as his ribcage throbbed. “But that reminds me…take off those bandages on your shoulder.” Ryan looked confused but did as he was told.
“Oh,” he said, seeing that his wound was healed. Boelik nodded at the result.
“Good. You heal quickly as well. Less to worry about. Now, hand me those strips, please.”
“But…” Ryan said, glancing down at the bloodied strips of cloth, “they’re dirty.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll be fine. I just need to staunch the bleeding right now,” Boelik replied calmly, holding his hand where he had been bitten across the knuckles. Ryan reluctantly handed him the strips, and Boelik wrapped them around the wound.
After his hand was wrapped, Boelik sank to the floor. He felt his rib cage and quickly determined it was just bruised. “Well, that was exciting,” he sighed.
“Terrifying’s closer,” Ryan muttered, staring at the creature. Boelik looked at the cat and over at the empty doorway. He noted that the wood moving was probably the reason he woke up upon the cat’s entrance.
“I take it these aren’t normal?”
Ryan shook his head. “No big cats in Ireland.”
“It’s a demon, then. I thought as much.”
Ryan’s form, outlined by the moonlight, moved closer to Boelik again and sat on the floor next to him. “What do we do with it?”
Boelik stared at the carcass and remembered Dayo’s instructions, not for the first time in his many years of solitude. “We burn it.”
“In the house?”
“Are you ready to move?”
Ryan shrugged, nonchalant. “Well, I don’t have much here in the first place.”
“Then, yes. In the morning we’ll gather the food, money, and whatever else we think we’ll need and head off.”
“Where?”
“Somewhere with trees. Hopefully with a decent town not too close but not too far. And a stream. I’m sick of being in the open like this.”
“All right,” Ryan said.
Boelik sighed in contentment. “I’m glad you’re mellow,” he muttered to himself.
“What?” Ryan asked, blinking at him.
“I’m exhausted,” Boelik exhaled. Ryan sighed as well and they both got up and flopped back into bed.
The two rose with the sun and began packing things. They emptied out the potato sacks and put the deer meat into one, some wood into another, and various tools that they managed to find by and under the workbench in another. Finding a pot, Boelik faced Ryan. “You didn’t tell me there was a pot in here,” he accused, waving it in front of Ryan’s face.
“That’s because you didn’t ask,” Ryan argued, stuffing the rest of the deer into the potato sack.
“I could have made stew instead,” Boelik grumbled, putting it in the sack. The two remained in good humor, teasing the other about little things like the pot or dropping something. The cat still lay in the middle of the floor.
Once everything was packed, Boelik changed into his new pants and sighed in relief. He shoved his old pair into another sack as spare material. Then, checking that he and Ryan had grabbed all of their things, he set the place on fire, demon and al
l. The two headed north, the little cottage crackling at their backs in a fiery farewell, the fire’s glow muted by the daylight. They walked for two days with moderate breaks and shared peaceful conversations all the while. Boelik’s hand healed in the meantime, though his bones would take a while to reset, and he got over his bruised ribs.
Evening of the second day was approaching on the quiet plains when Boelik caught a familiar scent on the wind. He and Ryan were on a break, sitting on the bank of a stream, when Boelik stood and began to sniff like a hound on a scent. “What?” Ryan asked.
“Smells like a forest is close,” Boelik said, his eyes glistening.
“Smells?”
“What? You don’t take in the scent of your home? You should, you know—it’s far more convenient when you can’t see.”
“I can see better than I can do anything else,” Ryan countered.
“But what happens if you lose that eye? If you get dirt in your eyes and can’t see? You have to think ahead, Ryan. All of your senses are there to benefit you,” Boelik said, looking hard at Ryan. “Use them. It will make you far more productive.”
Ryan stayed silent for a moment. “So, are we going?”
“Are you ready?”
“Ready enough.”
“Then let’s move.” Boelik dashed out towards the scent of trees, his steps light and his heart pounding.
“Hey, slow down a little!” Ryan protested, sprinting to catch up.
“Hurry up a little, or you’ll be left eating my dust!” Boelik called back, a smile creeping up on him.
***
In the forest, moonlight filtered through the trees in the clear night. Thunder rumbled from somewhere in the far distance, breaking the silence brought by the darkness. Boelik breathed deeply, letting the pungent scents of the woods fill his lungs. They were at once strange and familiar to him.
Glancing back, Boelik spotted Ryan standing just outside the protection of the trees, staring with wide eyes up at the overhanging branches. “Come on,” he encouraged. “The woods won’t bite.”
“It is a little creepy, though,” Ryan said quietly, stepping under the high boughs. He kept his head low, and peered over his shoulder.
“Creepy?” Boelik asked. “Well, I’ll admit it’s a little eerie when it’s nighttime and things are quiet, but it’s certainly a much more hiding-friendly place than that huge moor.”
“There are so many trees in the way,” Ryan mumbled, his eyes darting around to watch every shadow.
“I told you; use your other senses. Hearing is your friend in the forests of the world.”
“But I…” Ryan began before trailing off.
“You what?”
“I can’t hear much out of this ear,” Ryan admitted as he glanced back to Boelik, pointing to his right ear.
“Don’t worry. If there’s anything large enough to be a threat, it’ll make enough noise that you’ll hear it.”
“If you say so.”
Boelik listened to the forest himself: he didn’t hear much life as of yet, but he did hear the burbling of moving water. He motioned for Ryan to follow him and they moved deeper into the forest. The trees grew around them as they walked, the boughs stretching to touch the stars.
A large creek soon emerged, a wooden bridge making a path across the water that ran in rapids from another day’s rain. Boelik stepped onto the wood, testing it with his weight to find it in good repair. Peering into the water, he noted that the stream was fairly large: it was about twice his height across, and seemed almost as deep as he was tall. Judging by the bridge, he figured that there were people nearby. Glancing at the other side, he spotted a well-worn path.
“Stay here,” he told Ryan, leaving the sacks he was carrying beside the bridge on the side that Ryan waited on.
“Where are you going?”
“Scouting. I’ll be back quickly: sit, and don’t be rash.”
With that, Boelik sped along the silver path traced by the moon, turning and twisting along the snake trail around trees and leading him to, hopefully, a village. He had to move slower than he wanted in order to scout, stopping every few meters to check that he was alone and to listen to the woods around him.
Ultimately Boelik arrived at what he expected: the edge of the forest. And, not far beyond that stood a peaceful little hamlet. Now relaxed, Boelik started back towards Ryan, marking the forest around the path in his memory. Will my memory ever overflow? he wondered vaguely as he added this forest to dozens of others.
When the bridge was in view once more, Boelik called out for Ryan. “Ryan?” he called again when no answer came. Walking over to where he’d left the boy, he found only his hat and the potato sacks. “Ryan?” Boelik called out again, a panic rising in his chest.
“Bo!” he heard faintly from downstream.
“Ryan!” Boelik shouted. He charged down the bank of the stream to where he heard the cry, and found himself watching from the shore as Ryan clung to a rock in the middle of the rushing water.
“Ryan, just swim over here,” Boelik said calmly, crouching and holding out his human hand.
“I can’t!” Ryan cried, readjusting his grip on the rock.
“Yes, you can,” Boelik urged, stretching his hand out further.
“No, I can’t! I don’t know how to swim,” he whimpered. “Help me, please!” The stream washed over his face and he emerged spluttering.
“Don’t worry,” Boelik said, standing. “Don’t panic. I’m going to help you. Trust me.” He took off his boots and cloak and stepped into the water, but quickly retreated as he almost lost his footing. The water was stronger than he expected. He tried again, but, shaking his head, he pulled out and looked up the bank.
“Bo…?” Ryan started, his voice small. He coughed as water came into his mouth, undesired and unrelenting.
“I’m just going to go upstream some. I’ll dive in there and get you, all right? Just don’t let go.
“Well, I certainly won’t try to!”
Boelik went upstream and checked the water, judging the current. Casting a glance at Ryan, he dived in, letting the stream pull him toward the rock while he focused on getting lined up. He soon found the stone in his side as the breath whooshed out of him in an oof.
“Are you okay?” Ryan asked as Boelik grabbed the rock, beside him.
Boelik laughed. “You’re the one nearly drowning, and you’re asking if I’m all right!?”
Ryan just gave him a panicked glare, so Boelik reached over the rock with his left hand, straddling it. He shouted for Ryan to grab his other hand. The boy flailed out and took Boelik’s hand and cried, “Now what?”
“We swim to shore,” Boelik replied.
“But—!”
“‘But’ nothing! It’s not that far; just trust me,” Boelik ordered. Ryan shut his mouth and watched him. “Good: now, when I say ‘go’, we both push off of the rock as hard as we can towards the shore. I’ll grab you and keep you from going under, all right?”
Ryan nodded, and they both prepared to push off.
“Are you ready?” Boelik asked, looking toward Ryan who nodded, his jaw set. “Okay…Go!” They pushed off and rocketed towards the bank, Boelik pulling Ryan close. He put his left hand out to grab the shore as they struck like stones. Managing to pull them both out some, he helped Ryan onto land first before dragging himself out.
They remained flopped on the ground for a minute as they let the panic leave their bodies. Boelik began to be able to see his own breath and glanced over at Ryan. The boy was shivering from the cold water and cooling night air, breath coming in coughing spurts. Boelik forced himself up and tossed his dry cloak over Ryan, ignoring his groaning body.
“Why, exactly, were you in the stream, anyway?” he panted.
Ryan was putting the cloak around himself, sitting up. “I fell asleep waiting for you next to the bridge.”
“Why didn’t you at least move inland to a tree or some other thing?” Boelik blustered. Why exactly am I
so angry? he wondered in the back of his head.
“You did tell me to stay put,” Ryan pointed out. Boelik was about to say something, but instead flung his hands up in irritation.
“Just—get your clothes off and dry off,” he said, taking off his own shirt. He grabbed his boots and waited for Ryan to undress. Naked once again.
Boelik sighed.
“What do I do with them, Bo?” Ryan asked, draping the sopping clothes over his arms. At least he had Boelik’s cloak on.
“What?” Boelik asked tersely, his eyes locking with Ryan’s in an instant.
“Er, sorry, Boelik?” Ryan asked, stepping back and staring at Boelik, startled. His legs bent to dart away.
Boelik shook his head and made himself relax. “Sorry, it’s not you. I just…I just haven’t been called ‘Bo’ in a long time.”
“Oh. Sorry.” Ryan still stared at Boelik.
Boelik shook his head again and sighed. “It’s fine. Call me Bo if you want. It’s shorter and simpler. As for your clothes, just hold onto them for now. We’ll put them in a sack until we find a good spot to settle, then put them up to dry.”
“All right,” Ryan said. He wore a blank expression, and it was clear that he still had no clue what was wrong with Boelik, though he did relax some.
Boelik didn’t feel like explaining at the moment, so he just gestured for Ryan to follow him.
Back at the bridge, they stuffed wet clothes into a less-filled potato sack. Ryan glanced at Boelik’s trousers after he put away the other clothes, then up at him. “No, I’m keeping these on,” Boelik said. Ryan shrugged and closed the bag, grabbing his hat from the ground and pulling it back over his face.
Boelik led the way over the bridge and off of the path until he was sure no people would bother wandering so far. He made sure the stream was audible but nowhere near visible; there was not a bit of him that wanted a recurrence of the day’s mishap. Then they made camp.
The two draped their clothes over a low-lying branch and Boelik clawed out a fire-ring. He tossed in some wood, set up some tinder, and lit it to let it go from there. As the fire gained some power, the two fell asleep an arm’s-length apart.