by Lydia Deyes
But if this was the river and the precipice was to my left, then where was the waterfall? I launched into the air and flew south for a while, but I couldn’t see the hole anywhere. It had been buried by the landslide.
No! I thought. How will I get back to them now?
Pushed to haste when I remembered Samuel’s state, I picked away at the pile. I clutched clods of dirt, pebbles, and stones in my claws and flew them to the side. After minutes of frantic motion, I was exhausted. Somehow, the pile looked even larger than it had when I started.
I landed back on the rocks, panting and trying to think of another way. How had I gotten here, above ground? None of my dreams or visions had physically transported me, but this hadn’t been a vision at all. Then everything clicked. Memories flashed through my mind, each one faster than the last. The tree branch that had nearly fallen on the poor rabbit back when I lived with the squirrels. The levitating stones. The piles of papers in Samuel’s room that had moved without any wind… and once before, I’d transported myself, too.
Samuel had taught me how to control my visions and issue them upon command. Could I put the same energy into these rocks and tear apart the landslide that plugged the hole for the waterfall? It was a massive task, but I had to try to control my elusive ability.
I stared at a small white pebble in front of me, memorizing its shape, hairline crack, smudge of gray. When I couldn’t look anymore, I tried to recreate the feeling that had driven me here. Transporting myself above the waterfall was the most powerful thing I’d accidentally done so far, and I needed that power again. I knew what had caused it: the shock of seeing my mentor nearly die, then suffer terrible pain, was far stronger than any fear of water or thunderstorms could ever be.
Grimacing, I forced myself to picture the bone sticking out of Samuel’s leg. I thought about how he’d injured himself trying to save someone associated with the enemy. How he could be bleeding to death from that terrible wound, and how I could do nothing to help. I thought about how much I wanted to help him, how much I needed him to survive. I thought about how I needed these rocks to move if I was ever going to see him again. I thought about my sister and friend, and my newfound mother, so suddenly lost again.
Something small nudged my right foot. I peeked open my eyes.
Yes!
The tiny rock had moved. I didn’t know exactly how I’d done it, but I’d moved it with my mind. With that success, I redoubled my efforts. I didn’t need to move the rocks much, just enough to destabilize the dam. I just needed to clear a way for the water to push through and fall down the hole again.
Not wanting to lose my focus, I closed my eyes and concentrated. I didn’t open them for hours, but I felt an occasional shift beneath me. When the light behind my eyelids had dimmed and my head was pounding from strain, I risked another glance.
Very little had changed, and at first I was disappointed. Then I saw the pile I’d made. To the right of the original landslide was a small cluster of rocks the size of a berry bush. Though it wasn’t much, I puffed up with pride. I had done that. With my mind. I took a quick sip of water, ate as many berries from the grassland side of the ravine as I could stuff in my stomach, then settled down on a branch protruding from the cliff. There was no more time to take breaks or rest — my friends needed me.
This time, I shifted my target and broadened my focus. Rather than memorizing pebbles, I imagined the bottom of the landslide crumbling apart and fixated on that image. I pushed past the blossoming pain in my head, using it as fuel.
My friends are in more pain than me. They are in danger, and I need to help them.
The air shifted to a pleasant cool as the night progressed, but I disregarded the temptation of sleep. Acknowledging every distraction and dismissing it like Samuel had taught me for conjuring a vision, I entered a sort of trance. Time seemed to fly by without a care. The sun rose, turning my eyelids red, but I still didn't open them. It fell, and rose, and began to dim again. I felt hungry, thirsty, and exhausted. My concentration faltered when I nearly fell off the branch from weakness. Just as I opened my eyes to catch myself from falling, something caught my eye.
Blinking away drowsiness, I was sure I was imagining the tiny vortex on the water’s surface. I shook my head and stared at it, then at the wall of dirt and rocks the landslide had created. It still looked massive, but I could see crumbled piles of rocks at the bottom from my work. A small stream of water trickled through the blockade.
Is that all?
My heart faltered, and my head bobbed again. I couldn’t keep this up much longer. Then I felt the vibrations. At first I thought it was my stomach, but when the branch below me began to shake, I stretched my wings and shot into the air. I watched in amazement as the entire mass of rocks shifted, spraying water over the top. With a massive rumble, it heaved and collapsed. Rocks and dirt cascaded to either side, then the center of the mound began to cave inward. The landslide crumbled and fell. The water poured in as soon as there was room, accelerating the collapse. The waterfall was back.
XII
When the chaos had settled and water was flowing freely, I knew it was time. I dove straight down into the hole, avoiding splashes from the water, which still sent shivers of fear through me.
Despite my fear, I was so exhausted that I nearly fell unconscious on the way down, and was startled awake by the light at the bottom. When the water leveled out, I was shocked to see how much the lack of water had affected the world below, after just a couple of days. I spotted my mentor and friends crawling towards the water. All across the cracked riverbanks, dozens of small blue monkeys, just like the form my mother had been imprisoned in, were doing the same. Samuel’s leg was red and swollen, and he looked pale, but he was alive.
His eyes brightened when he saw me. He stepped forward to speak but stumbled and grimaced in pain. He didn’t need to speak, though, nor project his voice into my mind. The way his eyes bored into my soul said more than words could ever have expressed. Even though I hadn’t mentioned anything, he must have seen the change in me.
You’re ready. You know what you need to do.
We’d come here for one reason, and especially now that Samuel had been hurt, our mission had been delayed long enough. When I looked around, though, Nyoka and her “apprentice” were nowhere to be found. I breathed a sigh of relief.
Despite what Samuel thinks, I’m not quite ready yet.
Before I could help anyone, I needed to take care of myself. I couldn’t be much help if I collapsed from exhaustion. Surely, if the snake lived down here, there was something safe to eat. The trees were mostly barren, but after searching thoroughly, I found a brown bush with a single withered nut left. It was a perfectly consistent blue, with a hard outer shell. Starving and desperate to eat, I reached for it but then drew back my beak. Samuel had warned against eating anything in this world.
I took a step back and saw a few beetles crawling on the bush, eager for the same fruit I’d almost picked. New fruit was forming before my eyes, and beetles continued to swarm. I recognized their patterns from the true Earth above and knew they were safe for me to eat, even if the fruit might not be. I snatched as many as I could before they touched the fruit and gobbled them up. Full of renewed energy, I flew back to the river for a drink, then looked around me. It seemed the greatest need was for water.
Using large, stiff leaves, I brought water from the river to slaves too weak to crawl to it. Already, the trees and grass seemed to be stretching with joy, drinking water through their roots. Fruit was sprouting on the bushes and trees at an amazing rate, and leaves that had been shriveled and dry were now crisp and green. I marveled at the different rules that seemed to govern this world. While I was looking around, I spotted Nyoka’s apprentice wandering among the bushes. I couldn’t see the cobra anywhere, so I moved over to help the sparrow. Samuel had risked his life to save her, so she must be worth taking care of.
I led the sparrow to another blue nut bush near the base of
the tree, which was already nearly bursting with fruit and beetles, and spiders who were desperately weaving webs all over the bush to catch the influx of insects. She ate while I kept watch, hoping Nyoka would reveal herself. I’d rescued my mother, but hundreds of other slaves still needed to be freed. I knew that to rescue everyone, I’d first have to face the snake herself.
Nyoka did appear, slithering out of the roots of the tree. She saw me and moved towards me, more slowly than usual. Her tail twitched strangely, and for a moment I saw the whiskers and tail, and the murky dark smoke that permeated all of my dreams and visions. The image was gone in an instant, but I knew now was a good time to strike.
I looked around for something, anything, to work with. My claws and beak alone wouldn’t be enough to defeat her; she’d kill me with her venom. I didn’t want to resort to my newfound power. It had helped me get here, but it was slow, and the potential for strength scared me. I’d nearly killed the rabbit with the falling branch… though, I thought miserably, he didn’t make it anyway, in the end. Shaking the image from my mind, I went back to searching for a weapon. I spotted a tree that held large, spiky fruit. Perfect. I flew over to it as Nyoka approached me, the young sparrow following along behind her.
I grabbed the fruit and tugged, but it was stuck! Its stem was too strong. I pulled with all my might as Nyoka wound herself around the tree in my pursuit, leaving her apprentice on the ground. The fruit finally came loose, but its release shook the tree. Nyoka slipped from where she clung to the trunk, and the fruit flung out of my claws. Instead of hitting the snake as I’d intended, it fell onto the sparrow and burst open. Orange goo oozed out all over her brown feathers.
Nyoka retreated back to the roots beneath the massive central tree. I flew down to the sparrow, apologizing as I picked pieces of fruit off her head, but I stopped when I saw she was unconscious. I called Violet and my mother to help. Barrie would’ve scared her, though he would have meant well, and Samuel was injured. Together, we wiped off as much of the sticky goo as we could while she came to.
The sparrow shifted, then blinked. Her eyes weren’t clouded anymore, and the lost expression on her face was all too familiar. “Who are you? Where am I?” She looked into my eyes for answers. I understood her fear upon waking in a strange place; I’d embarked into the unknown only about a year ago, but it felt like so much longer.
“Hi. I’m Sheer,” I said. I wanted to explain how I knew how she felt, how I’d been through the same thing, but I found there was no need. When I looked into her eyes, it seemed she already knew what I would say, before any words left my beak.
“It’s all right now, dear,” Reika said. “What is your name?” My mother’s body language brought back so many memories… memories from when I’d known nothing about myself. I realized I still didn’t know much about my past, besides the storm that had started it all. At least now I had a sister and mother.
The sparrow closed her eyes. “It’s been so long,” she replied. “It’s hard for me to remember.” After a moment, she opened her eyes and said a single word, but it wasn’t enough for me to interpret from her expression or body language. Confused, I looked to Violet.
My sister hopped forward and used her beak to scrape symbols in the dirt. Amery. It was a beautiful name.
“Amery,” I repeated.
Her eyes shimmered with joy. “Yes! That’s my name. The snake…” Her joy vanished, replaced by fear. “Oh, the snake!” She twisted her head around frantically.
“Hush now,” my mother cooed. “You’re with us now.”
Amery didn’t look convinced. She started to talk fast, with body motions that conveyed fear, but not specifics. I looked to Violet, confused. She graciously motioned out the key words I was missing: potion, memory, force, trance.
I closed my eyes for a second, recalling Amery’s motions and piecing them together with the new information. When I opened them again, I understood what she’d said. “She frightens me. She feeds me a potion and… I don’t know much, really. I can’t remember what happens between the feedings. I must have been in some kind of trance.”
My empathy mixed with a pang of jealousy. Amery may have had a patchy memory, but I had nothing from my past. I pushed away the feeling and looked at Amery with glee, implying she was free, free from the spell. She looked back at me with an equal sense of delight, which morphed into determination. “I want to defeat her,” she said. “I want to free everyone else.”
I shook my head. “No, you need to recover. I need to do this.”
“Are you going right now?” Violet asked, turning to me.
“Yes,” I replied, facing the roots under the massive central tree. “It’s time. You and Barrie should stay here… I’ll call out if I need you to come after me.” Before I had time to hesitate, I pushed myself forward. The snake would pay for enslaving so many.
◆◆◆
Once I ducked under the root structure, my eyes took a while to adjust to the darkness. As I entered the center of the hollow tree, though, enough light was filtering through cracks in the outer shell for me to see. I gaped in awe. Even though I’d seen the room in visions, it was much more massive in real life. I refrained from simply gazing at the inner side of the bark that made up the walls of the lair. I was here for one purpose, and one purpose only. Though I was afraid of power and still afraid to fight, Nyoka was evil. It was time her reign came to an end.
The cavernous hollow, though huge, was mostly empty. I saw a few withered stores of herbs and other potion ingredients. A large pile of snake fangs and dried fruit was stacked against one side. A mouse hung by its tail, far above my head; I wasn’t sure if it was dead or alive. I shivered and shifted my gaze to Nyoka. She was splayed out on a decently large rock off to one side. Her skin was gray, and I guessed she was in the process of shedding it. She was convulsing, and her body was thrashing against the rock.
Seizing the opportunity, I darted over and pinned her head down with both my feet, pressing my toes into her hood. I knew I wouldn’t be able to hold her down, but if she tried to strike, I’d move with her. I remembered Samuel’s lessons and tried to predict all possible retaliations. Yet… she didn’t try to fight back. She just lay there, as if I wasn’t even in the room. Not sure what else to do, I asked her, “What are you doing?”
I closed my eyes and conjured a vision of my surroundings. I needed the temporary ability to hear to understand her response. “I am… not really a snake,” she said. “I use a… potion to appear as one. During the drought, all… of the herbs I need… for the potion were withered… and I could not make the concoc…tion. It has been se…everal days since I ha…ave taken it, and I’m… turning back… back… in…” The convulsions overtook her, and she couldn’t say any more.
“I know,” I said, releasing the vision from my mind and finishing her sentence. “Into a rat.” Even as I said the words, her skin began to molt. She was shedding it, but with it, her entire identity as a snake. Her body bulged under the scales, and as the skin peeled, a rat’s nose and whiskers were revealed. Ears popped out, then her front paws. The uncovered skin puffed out with fur. Nyoka was once more a rat.
XIII
My vision blurred, my head pounded, and I felt as though I was going to be sick. The walls of the hollow spun around me. I fell backwards, losing my hold on the rat. I’d never conjured a real-time vision before… and probably shouldn’t try it again. The blurriness and nausea faded as I blinked and shook my head to clear it.
After several deep breaths, I fought off the dizziness. I noticed how the shafts of light that shone through the cracks in the outer bark wall never wavered. There was no wind in this underground cave. Back on the surface, the light and shadow would constantly dance. I realized I’d fallen away from the rock where the rat was lying still, and flew back up beside her.
“Why, Nyoka?” I asked. “Why force Amery to follow you, and call her your apprentice? Why turn into a snake? Why enslave all those animals as blue monkey creat
ures… and how?”
The rat glared at me with beady eyes. Now that she was a mammal, it was much easier for me to understand Nyoka’s body motions. “Why?” she replied, no longer convulsing. “I was always in the gutter, kicked and spat at, looked down upon. It was about time something changed. I wanted to be the one on top for once.”
“Maybe you had a rough history, but that doesn’t mean these other animals deserved this!”
“That’s life,” she spat. “You don’t get a fair one unless you make it yourself.”
“I know how it feels to be looked down upon,” I said. After hearing Nyoka’s explanation, my own sense of loneliness and frustration rose above all else. Staring at my feet, I continued. “Everyone on the thirteenth floor is afraid of me just because I look different from them… and they don’t even know my past. If they did, they would be even more afraid, for reasons I can’t control. When I was with the squirrels, fire would just burn every place I tried to stay. It even caused the death of someone who was helping me.”
I looked into Nyoka’s eyes. “But despite all of this, I still found a few who do care for me. In fact, I think they care more for me because of my troubles, and because I try to push past them. Don’t you want that? If you gave up this nonsense, maybe they’ll give you a chance, too.”
The rat picked at her paws and didn’t speak for a while. When she looked at me again, the expression in her eyes was completely different — sad, even. “I do want that,” she said.
“It’s never too late to change,” I pressed, my heart beating faster with excitement. Could I really help her, without fighting her? “You can still reverse this.”
“You know,” she mulled, “I didn’t feel so strongly about wanting this power until… well, I’m not really sure what caused it, exactly. All I remember is that before, I didn’t have any strength to help myself.” She held her paws close to her chest, then spread her arms. Freedom. “And then I did. I suddenly felt more than capable, and I knew how to do all of this.” She gestured to the dried potion ingredients around us.