She began to hate herself that day. She was puny compared to the other children and naked without the fur that covered the rest of them in luxurious abundance. She was always cold and her large green eyes stared out from the furs she wrapped herself in like a scared mouse.
More than once she walked to her mother’s quarters with the catcalls of the tribe’s children trailing after her like a noxious odor. “Mouse…Shy Mouse stay away!” they shouted, and laughed as she buried her face in her furs and scurried home.
Rain took it upon herself to teach the little half-breed how to hide her talents. While she gave instruction and comfort to the heartbroken child, she also watched carefully for signs of psychosis or uncontrollable spikes in her psychic power. The little girl not only grew in intelligence but also seemed to handle her developing telepathic powers with aplomb.
Many years passed and one day Rain realized that she was pregnant. Her joy was tempered by the fact that her baby would be a full-blooded sasquatch. She couldn’t help but wonder how Petal would adjust to this newest alienation. She needn’t have worried. When the baby came, another female named Sunshine, Petal embraced her with joy and excitement. They were inseparable, until the day came that the other children informed Sun that her big sister was a freak…an abomination.
Overnight, it seemed that Sun’s affections cooled. She no longer wanted to associate with her bigger sister, and sometimes when the other children hurled taunts in Petal’s direction, Sun’s voice was the loudest. It was heartbreaking, both to Petal and to the parents who loved her.
It was a surprise when Bouldar decided to send his youngest daughter away to mingle with his brother Ironhands’s tribe. Rain was shocked and, in many ways, furious. How dare he send her flesh and blood daughter away like an unwanted dog? She seethed.
She understood the need for it, though. Sunshine would do fine with her cousins and possibly meet a future mate in Ironhands’s tribe. The tension within Bouldar’s living quarters had grown intolerable. More than likely sending Petal away would only ensure her exposure and death.
Five seasons passed before Sunshine came back to Bouldar’s tribe. Her new mate, a young sasquatch named Strong Sapling, and his cousin, Hunter, accompanied her. Sunshine’s behavior toward her half-sister was changed. She no longer glared at Petal with loathing, and sought her counsel whenever possible. Rain was relieved and joined in Petal’s joy.
For Petal’s part, she had never been happier. Not only was her beloved sister the loving sibling she had been before the children turned against her, but she was in love! Sapling’s cousin was a dream come true. Young and handsome, Hunter seemed to share her affections. A month after they first met, Petal and Hunter were joined in marriage.
For three years, their marriage was blissful, but one miscarriage after another soured their intimacy. In addition, Hunter caught Petal using her psychic powers once too often, and thus the seeds of distrust were planted.
Finally, she gave birth to a son. Onio was a fine boy, straight and strong, but like his mother, he was eerily hairless and his bright hazel eyes regarded the world with a cunning intelligence, which frightened the wise ones and made the other children shrink away from him in fear.
Hunter stayed with his family until Onio was ten years old. Then he made his way to Ironhands’s tribe. Although he never mistreated his mate or his son, he could no longer hold his head high amongst Bouldar’s people. Shame drove him away, and Petal was left alone again.
Onio, through sheer force of personality and uncanny intellect, managed to make friends, but Petal grew more and more isolated. Although her foster mother Rain and her father, the king, kept her safe and tried to make her feel welcome, Petal rarely spoke and never smiled. Essentially, Petal ceased to exist.
That was just as well, Petal decided. She glared at her former husband angrily. How can he stand there and allow that fat old king to decide his own son’s fate? She wondered. For a moment, Petal thought she saw Hunter look at her and then quickly away again.
Onio was watching her as well. His gaze spoke volumes and Petal nodded. “Fall down son,” she said silently, “fall down now. Act dead and so you shall be, as far as Ironhands and the tribes are concerned. Do not move until we are gone. After that, take the small human and run! I will try to find you when I can.”
All of this was said without a word being spoken or heard by the other sasquatches. It was a testimony to Petal’s psychic abilities and one of the reasons the wise ones did not allow such talent to flourish within the bloodlines. Petal summoned all her strength and concentrated.
She imagined her beautiful son dead and buried in the sacred burial ground. She imagined the small, female human buried beside him. She felt the grief of some and the triumph of many. She experienced the loss, devastation and eventual acceptance of her son’s death, and turned away in sorrow.
And so did every other sasquatch in the cavern, with the exception of Rain and Onio, who lay in a heap on the ground by Mel’s side. The psychic blanket that lay over the tribe’s consciousness was total and complete. As one, the males, females and children turned away and walked to their living quarters to make ready for the thirty-mile trek to Ironhands’s encampment. Many were weeping as they remembered Ironhands’s mighty thrust and the spear that pierced Onio’s chest.
Ironhands swelled with pride. His aim was true and now, because of the death of Bouldar’s heir, his brother’s tribe was his alone. He walked ahead of the others, as was only proper, and didn’t notice when Hunter paused and looked back.
Petal held her breath and watched as Onio’s father nodded when Onio scrambled to his feet. She watched the father as his son picked the small human female up in his arms and ran in the opposite direction and out of sight. She watched as Hunter turned toward her and gave her a small bow filled with gratitude and respect. She watched as he turned away and followed his king.
Petal waited a few moments before following the rest of the tribe. She was used to being alone and knew that no one would find it strange that Onio’s mother might wish to be solitary in her grief.
She entered her cave and swiftly packed some of her son’s belongings in case he found it difficult to return. Although the tribe was nomadic, certain large caverns were considered property. Scouts would come often, to search for intruders, to clean, and to make ready for a tribe’s rendezvous. Considering what happened today, Petal was certain that Bouldar’s headquarters would be watched for some while to come.
Petal looked around at the only place she had ever called home and smiled. She had done it! Her son was safe. She would wait for a while—a week, maybe two—and then she would find Onio again. He would need help, she knew, in learning to be alone.
Chapter 8
Onio finally came to a stop next to a small stream. He was heaving breathlessly and his arms quivered with fatigue. The female was less than half his weight, but he had run for many miles while the girl muttered and writhed with fever. She was so hot that the front of his body was drenched with sweat even as she shivered with chills.
The female is dying! He thought frantically as he placed her on the ground. He shrugged his fur overcoat off and placed it over the sick girl. Gazing at her anxiously, he glanced up at the glow that lit the eastern sky. It was a city, he knew, and his heart shrank with fear.
Onio had run north and east, away from Ironhands’s tribe. He cut close to the small humans’ more populated areas in an attempt to stay hidden from all sasquatch communities. Word of mouth between the sasquatch scouts was effective, and almost instantaneous. Even if the scout that spotted him was sympathetic or friendly, the word would soon be out that Onio was, in fact, alive, rather than dead and buried as Ironhands believed.
Bouldar had abdicated command of his tribe to his brother, Ironhands. If Ironhands knew that Onio was still alive, nothing Bouldar said would stop the king from turning around and running the renegade and the young girl down.
Still, Onio shivered with fear. The small humans
were all around him now. Much as he was fascinated with them, he knew that they would not hesitate to shoot him with their guns and arrows or, worse yet, take him prisoner. He lifted his nose and sniffed the air. He smelled the small humans…everywhere! Their stench was on the trees, the snow under his feet, even the rocks and pebbles along the creek bed. Onio heard a dog bark…it was close. He squinted into the dusky sky.
There was a farmhouse in the near distance. Split rail fences separated the land into sections. Onio could smell horse, and cow, and he heard a restless rooster warble its morning herald into the pre-dawn air.
Looking down at Mel again, Onio made a decision. He needed medicine for the female. He had read many books about the small human beings over the years. He knew that, on occasion, they grew ill with something called the flu or numoni. When that happened, they needed the mold of bread to get better. He hit his head in frustration. There was a name for it…necilin…botix?
He would go to that house, he decided, and look for medicine to cure the girl. He could not remember the name of the stuff she needed, but Onio knew that if he saw it he would recognize it. He placed some pine boughs over her and prayed that she would not die while he was gone. “I will be back soon,” he whispered and took off walking toward the farmhouse.
The dog Onio heard earlier started barking again at his approach. The sasquatch sent out a friendly but silent greeting. Walking toward the animal, he frowned. The dog was at the end of a long chain that was wound tightly around a tree. The animal could not go forward or back and it whined in anxiety. It was shivering with cold, and he noticed that its paws were frozen and bleeding on the icy snow-packed ground.
He glared in anger. Why did the small humans keep animals under such conditions? Onio had seen worse, but it still rankled that this animal was in pain and stricken dumb with fear. Murmuring softly, he reached down and broke the chain.
Bounding with joy the dog, whose name was Smiles, asked if she could go along with her newfound friend. Shaking his head, Onio said, “No…wait here now. I will be back shortly.”
The dog sat down obediently. Her tail drew angel wings in the snow as Onio made his way cautiously into the humans’ front yard. He crept toward the back door, pausing often to sniff the air and listen to the soft sounds of the sleeping household.
Onio sensed five humans in the house, an older male and female, and three young ones. Their dreams were fuzzy and seethed with images; wild, colorful scenes from the television that slumbered in the living room, images from behind the wheel of an automobile, shadowy silhouettes of other smalls; laughing, yelling and weeping, the sight and sounds of the wind chime above Onio’s head.
Onio’s heart pounded in fear and excitement. He could not be caught by these smalls. Not only did he risk his own life, but that of the girl in his care and all the other sasquatches as well. Even as he tested the doorknob on the backdoor, he knew that he was risking everything he held dear. His breath caught in his throat as the door creaked open.
Onio stepped inside the darkened kitchen. His eyes grew wide as he saw a kitten sitting on the kitchen counter regarding him with sleepy interest. “Greetings, Tisha. Do not be afraid,” he spoke softly.
The kitten yawned and arched her back, purring. Onio scratched her chin, gazing around the room. A small light above the stove allowed him to see into a tiny bathroom/laundry room behind a round table. He tiptoed into the bathroom, staring about in bewilderment. Where are the botix? He wondered.
Onio looked at the medicine cabinet. He saw himself and considered himself ugly, and suddenly felt ashamed and stupid. He had started this whole mess. Now the girl was dying, and he himself was banished, assumed dead. His grandfather the king had lost all authority, and if the tribes ever found out what his mother Petal had done, she would be put to death. He couldn’t even find the medicine he had risked all to find! He slapped his own forehead, hard.
Suddenly, he froze. Catching movement out of the corner of his eye Onio turned around and gaped at the little girl who stood just outside the bathroom door. She held a giant purple bunny in one arm and stood staring up at him with her thumb in her mouth. Her eyes were huge. “Daddy?” she mumbled around the obstacle in her mouth.
Onio took a deep breath and concentrated. He had some telepathic powers, but nothing like Petal’s staggering abilities. He needed this tiny human to think that what she was seeing was normal. He thought of himself as small, sleepy…a father to this child. It must have worked because the little girl dropped the stuffed animal and stretched her arms up to be held.
“Daddy” she said. “I need to go potty.”
Onio hesitated and then lifted the child up and on to the toilet. She giggled, and whispered, “Daddy! I can’t go with my clothes on!”
He winced at the little girl’s strident voice. Hastily pulling the girls pajama bottoms down, Onio placed her back on the seat. He heard her start to urinate, and asked, “Where is the medicine?”
The child frowned and said, “The ipecac?”
Onio shrugged and answered, “Yes! The medicine….”
Suddenly, it seemed as if the fog of confusion that clouded the human’s mind cleared. She stared up at him and her lower lip trembled. “Daddy, I’m not sick in the stomach!”
Onio shuddered. This exchange had gone on for far too long, and the child did not know how to talk without shouting! “Not for you, silly child, for me!” he whispered furiously.
The little girl shrugged, and said, “It’s there!” She pointed to the mirror he had gazed into earlier.
He reached out and banged his fingertips against the glass. Then he felt around the edge of the shiny surface and pulled. The door opened, revealing many bottles of things on the shelves. He started to sweat. He had some rudimentary knowledge of letters and numbers, but these little bottles all looked the same!
He had to get out of there, now! The little girl was asking for help down from the toilet seat, and her voice echoed around the little room. Onio was sure she could be heard all throughout the house. He took a towel off a shiny bar and placed all the medicine inside. Tying the four corners together tightly, he fashioned a sack and then helped the little human into her pajamas again. Now the kitten was winding itself around Onio’s ankles.
The child burst out laughing. “Kitty loves you, Daddy!” Onio almost fell over trying to escape from the cat and its small owner.
“Go back to your bed now, child,” he muttered.
“But Daddy…I want you to tuck me in!” Now the tiny human was growing angry. Her cheeks were red. Tears swam in her eyes.
Onio started to shoo the little human away when he heard a loud, masculine voice say, “What’s going on here? Amy?” The overhead lights washed the room in brightness. Onio covered his eyes, seeing spots.
“What the…shit!”
Onio heard the man gasp, and he took off running. He leapt off the porch, skidded on the icy driveway and fled into the trees. He heard the dog come up behind him, panting with glee.
“Go away, dog!” Onio yelled silently.
“Smiles stay with new master!” The dog was running ahead of him now. Onio saw that the dog was some sort of mixed breed, with a square forehead and blunt nose. Her eyes, when she glanced back at him, were filled with joy and affection. She had chosen him, Onio knew. He sighed and skidded to a stop in front of where Mel lay.
He could hear shouting behind him in the distance. The sky was starting to blush pink with the coming day. Smiles whined and quivered when she caught the scent of the woman under the pine boughs.
“Shush, dog…stay back!” he whispered aloud. Holding his breath in dread, Onio pulled the branches away and peered down at Melody Carver’s sleeping body. She was pale but didn’t seem as feverish as before. The dog started licking her face, tail wagging furiously.
“Smiles…stop that,” Onio grunted. Mel opened her eyes.
She batted at the dog’s exuberant washing and giggled helplessly. Then she stared up at Onio’s worried
face.
“Onio, where are we…what happened?” The dog lay down beside Mel and placed its head on her chest. Mel’s face was still very pale, with two bright spots of fevered red on each cheekbone, but her eyes were clear.
“Here take this, you’re ill.” Onio fumbled at the towel that held the medicine. Mel’s eyes grew wide when she saw all the pill bottles.
“Onio, what is this?” she asked, looking through the bottles. Choosing a bottle that said ‘ampicillin,’ she studied the expiration date. Shrugging, she opened the bottle and took two pills. Even this much activity seemed to drain what little energy she possessed. She lay back on the fur with a sigh.
“Are you better now?” Onio asked.
Mel opened her eyes and answered, “Onio, if these work at all it will take time. I don’t know what you did…how you got these, but thank you.”
Then she was asleep again. Smiles chuffed and stared into the girl’s face. The worry etched on the dog’s wrinkled brow made Onio tremble with fear. Often, he knew, dogs could sense the seriousness of a situation long before any human, large or small, could.
Onio bent over and picked the girl up in his arms. Casting a glance over his shoulder, he decided to head north again. There were fewer small humans there. There were also more predators though, both sasq and animal. There were wolves, bear and worse—the sasquatch tribe under the leadership of King Two Horses, so named because he was known to ride into battle astride the backs of two horses, because one horse could not support his weight.
Since Onio had been just a baby, his tribe and that of his uncle had been at war with Two Horses’s people. And again, Onio thought angrily, it’s all my fault!
Of course, Onio’s pedigree was just an excuse to seize power for Two Horses. Still, Onio sometimes wished he had never been born at all. Dashing tears of shame and fear from his eyes, Onio started running north. The lonely dog named Smiles let out a bark and followed the sasquatch into a new day.
Chapter 9
Onio Page 5