by Logan Jacobs
“It does seem a lot like your island.” Mira nodded. “If only we’d had the sense to make camp inside of the trees there.”
“This is it,” Nadir announced. She stopped at the base of one of the trees and pointed toward the ground, where a hole had been dug similar to the one at the first tree we’d explored. This hole, though, was also the exit to one of the underground tunnels.
Nadir and the women ducked in first, followed by the rest of us, and even George was able to fit in through the hole and into the trees.
What we saw when we entered was far superior to the tree I’d found the day before.
Just like the other tree, there were ledges built into the walls of this one that went all the way up, and tiny holes were drilled into the trunk to let the daylight in. Above us, though, I could see square openings where planks had been laid to act as bridges from one tree to the next. Vines swooped down from ledge to ledge and acted as decoration, and the entire top of the tree we were in had been chewed off to reveal a brilliant sun overhead. I just knew this place would look absolutely beautiful at night, when the spattering of stars and the bright white moon was visible.
“This is very nice.” Sela nodded approvingly, which was the highest compliment from the woman.
“Thank you,” Jira replied with a nod nearly identical to Sela’s.
“Hello!” Nadir called up. “Is anyone here?”
Slowly, faces peered over the edges of the ledge above us, and wide eyes of colors that ranged from the steely gray of Nadir’s, to dark amber, to black looked down at myself and my women, the newcomers. Some of them spotted George and gasped at him, while others pushed themselves forward to stare more closely at all of us.
“Who are these people, Nadir?” one woman with silver hair and black eyes demanded.
“They are here to help us get our treasure back.” Nadir grinned.
The mere mention of their treasure sent a ripple of gasps and excited mutterings through the women. I counted about ten of them, but then one of the women toward the top quickly stood up and dashed out through one of the open doorways. Seconds later, she reappeared with four others behind her.
“We’re also here to help you defeat the orcs,” I explained as I stepped up. “We’ve done it twice now, and we want to do it for all of you, too. It’s not right that they have killed so many of your people and continue to torture you mercilessly.”
“Ben is right about that,” Nadir agreed, but then she turned to me and leveled me with her probing gaze. “And when we have the treasure back, he will help us in defeating the orcs. Treasure first. Of course.”
“Uhh, yeah. Of course.”
It seemed the prospect of the treasure caused a great deal more excitement than the idea that they could rid themselves of the orcs, which I found strange but endearing all at once. After all, I’d told them I was here for whatever they needed, and clearly, that included helping to recover their treasure.
Nadir introduced us to every woman in the camp and took us on a brief tour of their living quarters. They had five trees that had all been hollowed out in identical fashion, done by their teeth and their crude rock tools. Unlike any of the women I’d encountered before, Nadir’s people didn’t have a place to cook or have a fire of any sort. When I asked about this, they explained they just hunted and ate the meat raw, or scavenged in the forest for food.
All over their houses, though, were all sorts of shiny little knick-knacks, from washed up shells, to rocks, to shiny pieces of metal.
“This is my favorite,” Nadir explained as she held up a shiny chunk that looked like a dull silver piece.
“Woah,” I breathed as she handed it over to me. “Where did you find this?”
“Somewhere in the forest,” she replied with a shrug. “I have found a few like this before.”
“Often?” I demanded as my excitement mounted.
“No,” Nadir replied, and then she narrowed her eyes at me in suspicion. “What does it matter? It is pretty and shiny. That is the only importance.”
“What are you thinking, my king?” Mira asked.
“I’m thinking that metal has a lot of uses,” I replied. “And if we can figure out where this stuff is hidden, it’ll be like a gold mine. We’ll be able to make and build things you’ve never even dreamed of.”
Behind Mira, Sela’s green eyes went wide, and she turned to Nadir.
“When we have rescued your people and driven the orcs from this island, you will show us where the metal is,” the warrior instructed.
Nadir narrowed her eyes, but gave no answer. Instead, she looked back at me.
“I am hungry,” she announced abruptly. “Come with me, and I will show you where I hunt for the best meat you will ever find.”
“That’s a pretty big promise,” I laughed. “But I’ll take you up on it.”
“Come,” she instructed. “The creature will have to stay behind. We must take the tunnels, and he cannot fit.”
“Is that alright, George?” I asked.
Of course, dear one. The dragon nodded. I will simply keep our new friends company.
The new friends, though, didn’t seem quite so sure of that. They may not have been able to hear George’s thoughts, but I could tell from the way they looked at him that a water dragon wasn’t the most welcome addition to their little treehouse.
“I will stay with him,” Jemma offered as she glanced up at the women above her. “Maybe that will make them less nervous.”
Thank her for me, please, George sighed in my head.
“George says thank you,” I translated for Jemma. “And I think that’s a good idea.”
So, we left George and Jemma in the treehouse, and Nadir led the way toward the entrance, and then down into the tunnels.
The passageways were perfectly cylindrical, which was an impressive feat of engineering on their part considering they didn’t have any advanced tools and had probably used their hands and rocks to form the tunnels. The walls were lined with long vines from the trees with the twisted trunks, which were held up by small sticks implanted in the wall. Somehow, the vines were covered in tiny little lights, like those fairy lights Pinterest was always trying to sell people. For a split second, I was shocked they had electricity, and I was just about to ask Nadir how the hell they had electricity but shitty weapons when I looked a little closer at the vines.
Then I realized they weren’t tiny lights at all. At least, not electrical ones. The women had captured little fireflies and somehow tied the bugs to the vines, which was how their tunnels were lit up.
“Do you guys have to replace these bugs a lot?” I asked as I brushed my fingertips along a few of the warm bodies.
“When they go out, we replace them.” Nadir shrugged. “Maybe every moon cycle. I do not keep track.”
It was absolutely ingenious. Every single minute I spent with the women showed me how smart they were. Not that Nerissa, Ainsley, and their people weren’t extremely intelligent themselves, but Nadir’s people seemed to be on a completely different level with the way they created things and solved problems.
“When did you guys build these tunnels?” I asked Nadir.
“Long ago,” she replied. “Our ancestors made them when we realized it was not always safe to travel above ground. There are entrances all around this island. We have hidden them now, though, so the orcs do not find us.”
“You should probably hide the entrances to your trees better, to,” I replied. I planned to work on that the next day, if Nadir didn’t drive me straight to her treasure hunt. The entrances were easily spotted, and though someone would have to get pretty far into the forest to find them, the orcs were absolutely relentless. They would get into the forest and spot those entrances.
“I suppose so,” Nadir mused.
The woman had just opened her mouth to say something else when, all of a sudden, the right side of the tunnel exploded in a shower of dirt, rock, and lightning bugs that rivaled any profession explosion o
n TV.
“Hit the deck!” I managed to yell as it happened, and all of us slammed to the ground with our hands over our heads as debris fell all around us.
It only took two more seconds for a loud snuffling to penetrate the sound of falling rocks and dirt, and I looked up to see a massive, mole like rodent that looked exactly like an R.O.U.S. from The Princess Bride.
Only, this thing was about four times the size of those.
With a massive shriek, the creature flew straight toward Nadir’s neck with its sharp front teeth bared, but the woman dropped to all fours with her teeth bared in a very similar manner to the mole’s.
Nadir hissed and shrieked in a very similar fashion, and she ducked to the ground to avoid the onslaught of sharp teeth that wanted to eat her alive.
“Mira, Sela, let’s get this thing!” I shouted.
All three of us drew our swords and made a beeline for the massive mole monster, which had realized it missed Nadir and turned around in the middle of the tunnel to go get her.
So, apparently it had a rather one-track mind.
I leapt up onto its back as it charged toward the woman. I raised my sword high above my head so I could drive it down right into the fatty part of the mole’s neck, and my knuckles scraped against the ceiling of the tunnel, but I didn’t care.
Just as I was about to stab through its trachea, though, the mole bucked up on its hind legs, with a squeal to rival that of an angry toddler, and knocked me off its back completely.
I tumbled backward and slammed hard into the packed dirt of the tunnel floor. The wind was knocked out of me, but I grinned when I saw Sela slice the monster angrily across its back. She drew a stream of thick red blood from under its wrinkled skin and was rewarded with an angry, pained cry.
I swallowed as much air as I possibly could before I pushed myself to my feet, ready to slice the fuck out of this mole and make it pay for that little rearing trick it had pulled.
I didn’t even get the chance, though.
A screech reverberated through the tunnel, and Nadir leapt like a spider onto the mole’s side. Her eyes were deadly, and she shook her head like a dog shakes a bone before she went to town on the mole’s neck.
With her teeth.
The woman literally ripped open its neck and cut its artery with just her teeth. Blood gushed everywhere, and it covered the walls and Nadir and sprayed over Sela, Mira, and me. Nadir, though, didn’t seem to give a fuck. She just ripped and ripped as the mole screeched and shook to try and get her off.
It was no use, though. A few seconds later, the monster had lost way too much blood, and it collapsed on the floor of the tunnel with a final wail.
Nadir stood up, covered in red blood and heaving, and turned to slowly look at us. She didn’t seem embarrassed or apologetic, which only endeared her to me even more.
“Sometimes, the tunnels are not always safe,” she said with a shrug. “A night mole. I did not expect to see one during the day, but I suppose animals can always surprise you. Let us continue.”
As if nothing had happened, Nadir adjusted her little fur shirt and continued on down the tunnel.
“That was… ” Mira breathed as we started to follow the woman.
“Insanely awesome,” I supplied.
“Terrifying,” Sela corrected. “But in the absolute best way. I respect her warrior abilities.”
It appeared we had found women who liked to get their hands dirty. And their mouths.
Nadir showed us her favorite hunting spot, where we managed to shoot both a chicken and a tiny, squirrel like creature without the signature bushy tail. Nadir swiped one of the squirrels and munched happily on it while we traveled back to the tree. We passed the mole carcass, which was now surrounded by a pool of wet, dark blood. The thing was too big to move, or to do much with, and Nadir informed us the meat was “godless and horrible, like the leg of a deceased old woman.” Which was quite the graphic description, but it persuaded the women and I not to even attempt to try the mole meat.
We set up a little fire just outside the treehouses so we could cook the meat for ourselves. The little squirrel was alright, with meat that reminded me of a rabbit’s, but the chicken was just about the most delicious one I’d ever tasted. The meat was moist and melted in my mouth like butter, and it naturally had this thick, smoky flavor that reminded me of ribs, despite the fact it was simple chicken meat cooked over an open fire.
Once we’d finished eating, Nadir showed us to some extra, empty beds in one of the trees, and we all settled in for the night. Mira and Sela tucked themselves in next to me, while Jemma slept with George and let the water dragon’s presence comfort her. Jemma and I both knew she could fight, but I could tell it made her feel safer to have George right next to her.
When we woke up the next day, Nadir was already up and about. She seemed a little less focused on us, though, as she rushed around the treehouse and hopped from ledge to ledge. All of the other women were awake as well, so us newcomers were clearly the late sleepers around there.
“What’s going on?” I asked Nadir when she leapt down from the ledge above us onto the one I’d slept on.
“We are preparing to get our treasure back,” she responded matter-of-factly. “We will have a ceremony when it is returned. Do not bother yourselves with the preparations. We will do them. I will let you know when it is time to go retrieve our treasure.”
With that, she was gone.
I had no idea what the hell kind of ceremony they planned to have when they got this treasure of theirs back, but I decided to use the free time I needed to start making improvements to their housing situation. It was the first step in my plan to help them trust me completely, so they would become a part of my village and help us all to defeat the orcs. Especially after what Nadir had done to that mole the night before, I wanted these women on my side.
Also in my bed and bearing my children, but I would work my way up to that.
“Mira, Sela, and Jemma, can you guys help me fix up their entrances?” I asked the women after we all woke up.
“Absolutely.” Sela nodded. “Any fool with half of a brain could find those openings and decimate all of these women. I am sure that is how the orcs killed many of their people in the first place. They may be stupid, but they are not blind.”
“You are right about that,” I grumbled.
After a quick, hearty breakfast of some chicken eggs we scavenged from a nest and cooked over a fire, the four of us got to work. Nadir and her women had disappeared into one of the treehouses, and I just didn’t feel it was right to disturb them while they prepared for this ceremony of theirs.
The holes in the ground were a little difficult to figure out how to conceal, since they still needed to be easily accessible from either end. Finally, I decided to cut down one of the smaller, twisted trees and craft some little trapdoors out of them. The flatter trunks were perfect for the small doors, so I cut down one tree and then handed a section to each of the women. I kept one for myself, though, and began to carve it into a semi-circular flat board with my sea glass sword.
We then concealed the doors with foliage and flowers we glued to the door with tree sap. This way, any normal passersby would think there was just a growth of plants around these trees. Someone would have to look long and hard to realize it was actually an entrance to the treehouse, and I knew from experience the orcs never thought that long and hard about anything in their entire lives.
Finally, we took some of the vines from the smaller trees, carved two holes in the flat part of the trapdoor, and then tied the vines around the roots of the trees so the doors would stay in place.
That process took only about two hours, thanks to the helping hands I had, but when we were done, we all stepped back to admire our handiwork.
“Those oafs will never see through this,” Mira chuckled.
“Damn right.” I nodded.
“Ben!” Nadir exclaimed as the woman silently appeared right beside me like a gho
st.
“Holy shit, again with the scaring,” I muttered and placed a hand over my heart.
“Do you scare easily?” she asked as she cocked her head.
“Not normally,” I laughed. “But you don’t make very much noise when you walk, you know.”
“Yes, that is on purpose,” she replied. “There are too many creatures in this forest that could harm me if I make too much noise. But never mind that. It is time to go and find our treasure.”
With that, Nadir grabbed my hand and started to haul me off. I didn’t even know what direction she planned to go in, but it was pretty clear she wanted to go right then.
This woman did not like to wait.
“Hold on,” I chuckled, and I pulled my wrist back and stopped.
Nadir took another step forward before she realized I was no longer with her, and then she turned to me with wide, confused gray eyes.
“What is it?” she demanded. “It is time to go find the treasure now. Is that not what you want to do?”
“No, it is,” I replied. “But we just need to gather ourselves first. We need to make sure we’ve got everything we need and figure out who’s going.”
Nadir squinted at me, but she shrugged all the same.
“Fine,” she replied and plopped down on the ground to wait. “When you decide, tell me, and I will lead the way. I have left Jira in charge while I am gone.”
I turned back toward Mira, Sela, Jemma, and George.
“So, who wants to go?” I asked. “George, I think you should come just in case you can, you know, talk to it, or something.”
The very idea of it sounded absolutely bonkers, but George just nodded as if I made all the sense in the world.
“We will all go,” Mira decided.
“Are you sure?” I asked. “This thing destroyed an entire orc ship and crew. It’s dangerous.”
“Or the beast that destroyed the ship and the beast that stole the treasure are two completely different ones,” Jemma replied. “Either way, we are going with you, Ben.”
“Great.” I grinned. “Then let’s go get this treasure back.”
“Yes!” Nadir hollered out from behind me.