The Prince Who Fell from the Sky

by John Claude Bemis

  Dumpster clicked his teeth. “You think …”

  A cry cut through the night, a strange trumpeting call. The child crouched, holding his stick out with shaking hands.

  “What was that?” Casseomae said.

  Pang whined. “I told you strange creatures inhabit this place.”

  “What sort of city is this?” Dumpster said. “There’s nothing like that where I’m from.”

  Pang trotted ahead, sniffing around the corners of buildings as he led them forward. Soon they could see the dark waters of the river between the ruins. The concrete was covered with silt and mud from the river’s floods. Weeds and trees grew thicker, and the sound of night birds and tree-dwelling creatures was louder.

  Casseomae spied something watching them from a branch overhead. At first she thought it was a large squirrel with a long tail wrapped around its branch. But as they got closer, she realized it looked nothing like a squirrel. In fact it looked somewhat like the cub, like a strange version of a Skinless One except it had a coat of fur.

  “What is that?” she growled.

  As Pang and Dumpster looked up, the creature sprang with powerful back legs to a higher branch and vanished into rustling leaves in the treetop.

  “I couldn’t see it,” Pang said.

  “Doesn’t matter,” Dumpster said. “Keep going.”

  Pang led them past several more buildings until at last he barked, “There!”

  Resting atop the roof of a building was one end of a metal tower. It was crumpled and rusted, but from what Casseomae could see the structure did extend across the river. “How do we get up there?” she asked.

  “The stairs,” Dumpster said.

  “The what?” Pang asked.

  “Stairs,” he repeated. “Don’t you know? In these taller Old Devil dens, they have stairs to help you climb to the top. You see short ones all the time outside houses. Just go inside. I’ll show you.”

  They found the opening to the building. Lying before the entranceway was the remains of a strange deer. It had an exceptionally long neck and had to have been three times as tall as any deer Casseomae had ever seen before. But strangest of all was its hide. Although it was bloodied and rotting, she could make out spots all over its coat, large brown blots against a field of tawny yellow.

  “I have no idea,” Pang said, leaping over the carcass to get into the building.

  Once they were all inside, Dumpster said, “Go down that hall … that passage. They should be somewhere around.”

  Sniffing at every surface, they walked around until Casseomae felt nauseous at being so enclosed. “I don’t like this,” she growled. “I feel trapped.”

  “It’s got to be scratchin’ somewhere around,” Dumpster said. “Look!”

  Through an opening in a wall, there were the leveled concrete steps she had indeed seen often outside Skinless’s dens. But there were so many in here. As she followed the others up the stairs, she felt a certain dizziness climbing inside a building without the comfort of earth under her claws.

  Along the way they saw other passages, but Dumpster said, “Keep climbing.” At last they reached the end of the stairs, where they found a closed door. Dumpster rose on his hind legs. “You’ll have to break this door, old bear. Push your weight against it.”

  Casseomae reared up on her back legs and leaned her forepaws against the door. It groaned but didn’t break. She dropped down and moved back a step before butting her head heavily against the metal. “That hurt,” she growled.

  “Just hit it harder,” the rat squeaked.

  Before Casseomae did it again, the cub chirped something. Then he reached out to turn several things with his delicate fingers. The door swung open.

  “Or we could do that,” Dumpster said.

  To Casseomae’s relief they came out into the open air atop the building. It was not nearly as high as the skyscrapers that lay on the far side of the river, but from where they were, she could see where the tower reached the other bank.

  “We cross this?” she asked Pang.

  “Unless you have another idea,” he said.

  Casseomae reached up with her claws to pull herself atop the fallen tower. The metal creaked and a portion snapped, dropping the entire structure down a fraction. She growled uneasily and took a few steps along the top. Dumpster scampered up ahead of her.

  Pang leaped but could not get a good hold on the surface with his claws. The child grabbed him around the waist and hoisted the dog up with a grunt. Pang whined and scrambled with his forepaws until Casseomae took his loose scruff in her teeth and pulled him up.

  “Thanks,” he said, finding his footing on the metal.

  “Don’t fall,” she said.

  “Easy for you to say, bear. Your kind is good at climbing.”

  “Not on relics like this,” she grunted.

  Once the child scrambled up, the four began easing across the tower. Pang flattened to his belly to crawl ever more slowly. The child was just behind him, also on all fours and breathing heavily through his teeth. Only Dumpster had no trouble and ran forward and back urging the others to hurry.

  When they came out over the river, a trumpeting call stilled them. Dumpster shot to Casseomae and stared at her, nose to nose. “It’s below us,” he whispered with twittering whiskers.

  Another cry broke, louder and nearer. Heavy steps sloshed through water. Whatever they were, they were huge. Casseomae leaned to one side to peer over the edge.

  The wolves had always ruled over the bears not because of their size but because of their numbers and ferocity. Casseomae had always believed the bears to be the biggest creatures in the Forest. What she saw below dwarfed even Chief Alioth.

  An immense shadow moved against the moonlit waters. It flapped huge ears and lifted what appeared to be a snakelike tail, except it was coming from the creature’s face. Protruding from its mouth were two long white fangs. Casseomae knew they could spear her through her gut if the beast was hunting her.

  “Rat,” she whispered. “Does your mischief’s Memory have a name for that?”

  “Not a spittin’ utterance,” he answered.

  The creature blasted a stream of water from the protuberance and curled it around atop its head to give another of the trumpeting calls. Other creatures answered. As Casseomae looked around she saw a whole pack of the monsters filling the shallows of the river’s edge.

  “For Murk’s sake, don’t slip,” Dumpster said. “Those things will tear you to pieces.”

  Pang whimpered pitifully and scooted against Casseomae’s rear. “Go. Just go. Faster, please. Before one of those things snatches me away with its serpent nose!”

  Casseomae went faster, walking steadily with one paw behind the other until they were over the far bank. The base of the tower, where it had broken, lay ahead. Casseomae knew getting off would prove difficult since the tower was wider on this end.

  Dumpster went down first, leaping along the metal framework until he got to the bottom. Casseomae found it to be a bit like coming down the branches of a tree, but the metal was not so easy to hold on to. Halfway down, her claws slipped and she fell to the rough stone.

  Grunting with embarrassment, she rose and shook her coat. “Come on down,” she called.

  The cub sat atop the tower beside Pang, looking anxiously from the dog to the ground. He reached his arm around Pang’s waist, but Pang gave a snarl and squirmed from his grasp.

  “He can’t carry you down,” Casseomae said.

  “I know,” Pang said, licking an apology to the cub’s cheek. “He was just trying to help.”

  “Come,” Casseomae snorted to the child.

  The cub climbed down swiftly with his limber arms and legs. At the bottom, he chirped at Pang and waved his hands.

  “You’re going to have to jump,” Dumpster said.

  “I’ll break my legs!”

  “How else are you going to get down?” Casseomae said.

  “I don’t know.” Pang paced around,
looking for some escape.

  “Can you go back and find another way across?” she asked.

  “I told you, all the bridges are broken.”

  “You could swim,” Dumpster said.

  Pang yipped, “And get eaten by one of those creatures!”

  “The creatures are on the far bank,” Casseomae called to Pang. “If you jump into the river near this bank, they may not come after you.”

  “You don’t know that!” He tucked his tail miserably between his legs.

  Casseomae grunted. “Well, you could wait there for us and hope—”

  A wolf howl, long and piercing, cut through the night.

  “They’re coming!” Casseomae said.

  Pang turned and scampered back along the tower until he was over the river. With a tiny yip, he leaped, disappearing into the dark with only a faint splash echoing a moment later.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  The calls of the wolves grew louder. “We’ve got to go,” Dumpster squeaked.

  “We can’t leave the dog,” Casseomae said.

  “Actually, we can,” Dumpster said.

  Casseomae grunted at the cub to follow her. They climbed down through the debris and vines to the river’s edge. She smelled the leafy water and felt mud beneath her paws.

  “Pang,” she huffed. “Where are you?”

  She saw a ripple of moonlight on the water and then the dog, paddling furiously toward the shore. When he climbed up, he didn’t even take the time to shake the water from his fur but bolted through the weeds past them. When they found him, he was shaking with fright under an overturned car.

  “They almost had me,” he whimpered. “Almost jabbed me with those giant teeth.”

  “No, they didn’t,” Casseomae said. “They were all the way on the other side. I don’t think they even smelled you.”

  Howls reverberated off the buildings lining the river. “At least the wolves don’t have a Companion to boost them up onto the tower,” Pang said. “They won’t be able to cross.”

  “They’ll figure out another way,” Dumpster said. “That many wolves won’t fear swimming, even with those monsters about. We’ve got to find shelter before they pick up our scent.”

  “Where do we go?” Casseomae said.

  “Scratch me bald if I know,” Dumpster replied.

  Pang eased out from under the car and shook the water from his fur. Still trembling, he sniffed around. The city was a dense place. It felt to Casseomae as if she were a tiny cub in the most enormous thicket. Debris and relics were everywhere. Trees broke through the cracks of concrete, but they were dwarfed by the buildings, which nearly blocked out the ruddy glow of dawn in the sky above. Noises groaned all around. Not the noises of animals, but sounds Casseomae could only attribute to restless metal and concrete.

  Up close, the skyscrapers were more encased in ivy and vegetation than what she had seen from a distance. They were pocked with holes. Shrubs and trees grew from them, even up high. A flock of birds took flight from a shattered window, circling the building in a cloud before roosting again on a neighboring skyscraper.

  “I don’t know if I can lead you well in here,” Pang said.

  Casseomae felt it was more than unfamiliar terrain that was hindering the dog. The leap into the river and the fear of the pursuing pack compounded by the dread of what monstrous voras might stalk this city had nearly paralyzed the poor dog with fright. The child knelt, stroking his wet fur and trying to comfort him.

  “You know these cities,” Casseomae said to Dumpster. “This might not be yours, but you have to show us where to go.”

  The rat flicked his tail and rose up on his hind legs. “Oh, all right,” he said. He scampered ahead, dancing over the broken glass and around the drifts of leaves and sticks. “We have to find a skyscraper tall enough to see the Wide Waters.”

  Casseomae lumbered after him with Pang on one side and the cub on the other. Many of the paths were blocked by enormous sections of tumbled skyscrapers. Dumpster had to backtrack several times, and they had hardly gotten far before they heard trumpeting cries from the river and the snarls of wolves.

  “We need to move faster,” Casseomae growled. “They’re crossing the river.”

  “Into that alley,” Dumpster ordered.

  “The what?” Pang whined.

  Dumpster didn’t answer. He simply set off through a gap between two of the buildings. Debris and saplings cluttered the passageway. It was a tight squeeze for Casseomae, but she managed. There was the smell of foxes and skunks as well as the scent of creatures she did not recognize. Emerging on the other side, they reached a more open area.

  “That one,” Dumpster said, pointing with his nose. “Don’t you think?”

  Casseomae surveyed the buildings. Many were sheared off partway up, but one seemed mostly intact. Its exterior was not pocked with the holes of broken glass and weeds that covered the others.

  “Good enough,” Casseomae said.

  They wound their way through the debris until they found the base of the building. “How do we get in?” Pang said, surveying the stone front.

  “Follow me,” Dumpster said. “There should be a doorway on one of the other sides.”

  Coming around the corner, they smelled the sharp tang of a rotting carcass. The carcass itself was too mauled for any of them to identify, but Casseomae thought it had the familiar scent of bear.

  Nothing in the Forest hunted bears. What could have done this? She sniffed to see if its hunter was lurking nearby but didn’t smell anything alive.

  Dumpster headed through the entranceway, a wide opening of broken glass and rusting metal. The interior was fashioned from smooth wood, although it was mostly choked in ivy and creeper.

  “Stairs,” Dumpster said, heading toward a wide expanse of half-rotten wooden stairs leading up into the darkness. Water dripped down from somewhere above, the plip plops echoing around the room. The rat stopped. “The problem is that when the wolves find us, they’ll be able to follow our scent easy as itchin’. We need a way to block the path.”

  “Let’s worry about that after we’re safely inside,” Pang said, starting up the steps. Dumpster dashed after him, with Casseomae and the cub following right behind. They had only gotten halfway up when Casseomae heard groans beneath her paws. Before she could turn back, the stairs collapsed.

  The cub fell with her, shrieking as he grabbed her fur. Casseomae hit the ground hard and lay half-dazed. Dust plumed up around them from the ruined staircase.

  The cub stood and pulled at Casseomae’s foreleg, whimpering.

  “I’m not hurt,” she said, standing to shake off the dirt.

  Pang and Dumpster peered down at them from the ledge above. “That’s not exactly what I meant by blocking the path, you heavy oaf,” the rat squeaked.

  “Can the pup climb up here?” Pang barked down.

  Casseomae grunted and looked up at the dangling remains of the staircase. “It’s too far.”

  “Well, there should be other ways up,” Dumpster said. “There’re often a few sets of stairs in these skyscrapers. Go look around, and we’ll wait for you.”

  Casseomae quickly found other passages, but she didn’t get very far before she was blocked by debris and waterlogged, collapsed ceilings. The cub tried more of the doors, but none would budge. Casseomae butted against them with her full weight. The only one that broke open led back outside.

  They were standing in the narrow alley between the skyscraper and its neighboring building. In one direction the alley was blocked by one of the large metal containers that were Dumpster’s namesake. The other way led back out to the open area in front of the building. She had started in that direction when a wolf’s shadow crossed the alley’s entrance.

  She froze, but the wolf hadn’t seen them. A series of yips and barks announced that the wolves had found their scent at the front of the building.

  The child whimpered, pressing close to her. She gave him a quick reassuring nudge wit
h her nose and snorted, “Stay calm, cub. I’m here.”

  More of the wolves passed outside the alley. Casseomae slowly backed up. At any moment one of them would smell her and lead the rest down to where she was cornered.

  She would fight them. She would have no choice. But she could not defend the cub against them all.

  The cub was no longer pressed against her. He was standing at the dumpster, leaping for something above. It was a metal framework, like a smaller version of one of the electricity towers, except it was attached to the side of the building. The cub was trying to grab the lowest section, but it was just out of his reach.

  A growl resounded down the alley.

  Casseomae turned to see a wolf at the entrance. His hackles were raised and even in the dim light his teeth shone. “Ogeema!” he barked. “I have them.”

  Casseomae whipped around. “You have to get up,” she grunted. She pushed her nose under the cub’s hips and hoisted him up. The cub caught hold of the metal structure. He grunted and pulled until he pitched a leg over the frame and began to climb.

  Casseomae turned to confront the wolf. He was joined by others, until the entranceway was darkened by their numbers.

  “Let me through,” a whispered voice commanded.

  The wolves stepped aside for the massive form of the Ogeema. Casseomae pounded a forepaw to the ground. The Ogeema would not take her easily.

  “You stupid, traitorous bear,” the Ogeema said. “You bring shame to your clan.”

  Casseomae looked up. The cub was standing on the lowest platform, panting for breath. He leaned over the edge and called down to her.

  She had gotten him this far. She had to hope Pang could lead the cub to safety from here. But how? Even if the wolves could not climb the stairs, the cub and Pang and Dumpster would not be able to get past them. They would be trapped.

  Anger surged through Casseomae’s body. Saliva dripped from her teeth as she roared defiance at the Ogeema.

  The cub shook the metal framework, crying out for her.

  “Go, cub!” she said, not wanting him to see what the wolves would do to her. “Get to the others!”