A brilliant flash lit up the world along with an explosion of sound that rendered Jubal deaf and blind. It took every bit of concentration to focus on the notes playing in his head to keep them aloft and several minutes of blinking before he could see more than just the burn on his retinas.
He added a Da Capo to the Melody, thereby fixing their position away from the branches and well above the water, yet not high enough to become the likely target of another strike. The ringing in his ears slowly decreased in volume to where he could hear crying. “I have you,” he told the boy.
The three words seemed to help and even so it took a while for the crying to subside enough for Rue to speak. “I can hardly see,” he hiccupped a few times and then continued, “I think we were struck by lightning.”
Jubal eyed his surroundings from their vantage point in mid-air. The branch was charred black, but the solid oak still stood. “No, but it was close. Can you see at all? How are your ears?”
“I keep seeing the flash, even when I close my eyes, so it is hard to see much else. I hear you, but it sounds like you are playing your flute in my ear, except you are playing only one tone,” Rue answered.
“I am experiencing the same,” Jubal replied as raindrops pelted him. “My sight and hearing are improving as time passes and so should yours.” He certainly hoped so, but knew better than to express any doubts to the lad. They had enough to worry about.
Time passed, perhaps a quarter of an hour, while he watched fallen trees float downstream and lightning dance across the sky, providing the only source of light other than the radiance of his life-force energy on an otherwise dark and miserable day. Bolts were striking trees to the left and right, making him hesitant to set down on another branch, and risk making a choice that would get them both killed.
Cassi’s warning of light, darkness, and great peril came back to him and he knew the circumstance fit those words. It seemed she had not exaggerated the peril as he had once contemplated. Prudence dictated he should not be so quick to discount her warnings in the future, assuming he still had a future. His choices not only affected him they greatly involved Rue.
Maintaining the energy to stay in the air came at a price, a cost Mel had made clear. He had spoken of what would happen if the pool of energy and rate of replenishing were exceeded. The idea of becoming a dried out husk had little appeal and would be a little ironic, Jubal contemplated, considering he was soaked to the skin. The strong urge to perform the Melody and move from the branch had to be what the priest had referred to as an irresistible impulse and failing to act upon it surely would have meant death.
Raindrops falling in his open mouth did little to satisfy Jubal’s thirst. He had run off without a water-skin and suddenly had to agree with the parting words of Set, but not about the bow and arrow.
At least an errand runner would have grabbed a container of water for the journey, but not Jubal who was quick to react and slow to think things through, he thought, I need a helper, one who has a detail-oriented mind.
“Hey,” Rue spoke for the first time in a while and also broke the line of thought. “We are floating.”
Clearly his eyesight had improved, which was a good sign. “Yes, as a matter of fact we are.”
“You are not playing a flute,” Rue pointed out.
He had left the caravan before Jubal had met up with them and therefore could not know any different. “Your observation is correct. After learning the Melody from Nimrod, my playing an instrument is not necessary,” Jubal responded matter-of-factly, keeping his voice calm despite his growing concerns. “I am allowing the Aaka to repeat in my head.”
“Okay,” Rue replied. “Just don’t drop me.”
The lad was slightly over two cubits in height and weighed next to nothing, at least to a Nephilim. “You weigh no more than a javelin and I can hold onto one of those for days,” Jubal assured him.
“How far can you throw a javelin?”
“Not far with so many tree limbs in the way, but it doesn’t matter because I am not going to throw you.”
“It wouldn’t be very nice if you did.”
“No,” Jubal agreed, “which is why I am holding onto you. Besides, you don’t have a point and I wouldn’t know which end to throw.”
“I think you are being silly.”
“Seriously, you don’t have a point,” to which the boy giggled.
The storm continued to vent its fury and the idea of setting down on something gained a certain appeal. Jubal watched as various sizes of trees floated beneath him until spotting a thick branch wide enough to bestride. It had smaller limbs that needed to be pruned, but otherwise would fit his need.
“I am going to set us down on that branch and we will float downstream,” he informed Rue.
“Um, where will that that take us?” The boy seemed more curious than afraid.
Jubal did not know precisely where they would end up, so gave the best answer he could, “East. No matter where we go I can get us back to the settlement after the storm is over and the water recedes.”
“Okay,” Rue replied. “Everybody says you know the woods better than anyone.”
Pan knew the woods better than anyone, and Jubal knew he and the boy would likely be going where no human had set foot since before the flood, but rather than shake Rue’s confidence, he focused on the branch and began his descent. Just before settling, he spread his legs wide, and then gently touched down, straddling the soon to be watercraft. He had to raise his feet to keep them from dangling in the water but Rue was perfectly situated, enough so as not to need a hand on him every moment.
Jubal refocused the potential from beneath him to flow from his hands in a pair of beams. The left he focused at the base of the limb to be removed in order to steady the main branch and the right he aimed a hand-span above, levitating the wooden appendage off to the side, effectively snapping it from the base, and then flung it into the water.
“What were those blue beams that snapped off that branch and made it fly over there?” Rue asked the question while pointing in the direction indicated.
Evidently the amount of energy required was visible to the eyes of a non-Nephilim or Rue was one of the few exceptions Vivian and later Mel had spoken about. “I am using the Melody Nimrod taught me to remove all of the wayward limbs so they’ll not catch and strand us against a tree or some other obstacle.”
“Okay,” Rue replied, which was turning into his standard response.
Jubal continued to focus his potential until all of the limbs he could see were snapped off. He stripped and kept one to use as a pole but the rest of the smaller branches were floating away on their own. If not for the thunder, lightning, and incessant rain, the task would have been much easier, yet he was not disappointed, having never expected an easy time of it. Anyone with unrealistic expectations was doomed to be disappointed, although since learning to summon and focus potential his idea of, “realistic,” was expanding.
With no immediate need for the Melody, he removed the Da Capo, and steered the boat manually. Even so, the whole time, little Rue sat quietly in front of him.
They drifted in the current, which seemed to be picking up speed, going by how difficult it was keeping the pole in his hands while steering clear of cedars, oaks, and other assorted trees. He noted dead animals floating to the left and right as well as live creatures that normally lived in the water. There were far too many snakes for his liking and all of them were poisonous or large enough to squeeze the life out of a person. The pole was more often used to discourage the wiggly reptiles away from the hastily-made water craft than it was to steer. A croc swam up to what appeared to be a dead fox and clamped it jaws down, then submerged.
“That was a really big crocodile,” Rue commented while pointing where the reptile had been.
The predator was half the size of the one Jubal had seen earlier. “Big enough to be trouble. It’s a good thing there are plenty of dead critters for them to feed on,” he replied wit
hout elaborating, although continued to be on alert for the ones that preferred to take live prey.
They spent the rest of the day floating in an easterly direction with a constant shower falling on them and lightning flashing up above. Somehow, at some point, the lad fell asleep. Exhaustion had overwhelmed him and his little body simply could not remain awake. Jubal spent most of his time fending off snakes and keeping the branch-craft from being caught on the many trees that needed to be navigated around. All the while his thirst grew, reminding him of the dangers of dehydration. The thick overcast made it difficult to be sure but he was certain twilight had come.
A bolt struck the tree to the left with an explosive force that sent a spine-tingling chill through Jubal, leaving him momentarily stunned. He had been staring right at the cedar when the lightning struck and consequently could see nothing but the flash. Only moments earlier a tingle started in his scalp, along with a profound sense of danger, and as the sensation began to build, he had pushed off the thick trunk to keep from getting stuck. Had he not reacted immediately, they would have been in contact with the tree and the energy would have travelled through the branch and into his body, and likely the boy’s as well. The same feeling had warned him to levitate off the oak in which he and his nephew had originally taken refuge. He still felt the same sense of jeopardy, but wondered if his frayed nerves were making him feel the danger had not passed.
It was after his ears quit ringing he realized Rue was screaming. “That was close but we are alright,” Jubal tried to give assurance, even though his voice came out a little shaky and he could not as yet see anything but the flash burn.
The attempt must have failed because Rue only screamed louder. It was difficult to make out what he was yelling until he managed to form actual words. “Cro, croc, crocodile, it’s a really big one!”
Moments later the entire front of the branch-craft angled sharply downward as if a great weight had settled on it and at the same instant pitched the riders forward. Only a grab by Jubal, using reflexes honed over many years filled with quick responses to danger and his legs clamped firmly to the watercraft, kept him and Rue from sliding down into the jaws of certain death. By the time Jubal’s vision cleared, all he could see was the huge river king moving toward a couple of tasty meals. Hades once told him in the time before the flood men ruled as kings over cities and such. Jubal felt the giant reptile certainly fit the role as ruler of the watery domain.
The notes to Roddy’s Melody played in his mind as the mighty menace drew closer. Rue had turned around and was clinging to Jubal. It was a race. Could he complete the first stanza before the croc reached him?
Desperately he swung the pole with all of his might, bringing the slightly crooked but stout branch around in a swish of sound that ended with a loud crack as it smacked into the side of the river monster. The blow failed to dislodge the predator, but caused the reptile to pause long enough for the Aaka to complete.
Life-force energy flooded into Jubal, giving him the illusion of being almighty, and he focused that potential at his foe. An indigo beam of light shot from his finger and the aquatic hunter came to a stop.
He pointed up, levitating the crocodile into the air, causing the front of the branch-craft to rise rapidly out of the river in a great spray of water. Half of the huge reptile had been on the branch and the quick removal of the great weight nearly flipped the passengers off, but Jubal had anticipated the violent reaction and kept his seating. He whistled at seeing the monster at length, head to tail. It was three times as long he was tall and much bigger around. Even so, he raised it high above the treetops and held it there.
A jagged bolt streaked from the sky, striking the croc, roasting the massive reptile in an instant. The excess energy travelled down along the beam of life-force energy and straight into Jubal. It might not have done so if he had added a Da Capo, but the stray thought did nothing to change the situation, or correct a mistake in judgment that could cost him his life.
Chapter Six: A Good Place To Settle
Electrical force invaded every fiber of Jubal’s spirit; infusing him with power, not just filling but expanding his pool of energy far beyond what it had been before, and making the level he enjoyed in the past seem a paltry thing. Time had no meaning, the blast went on for an eternity, and yet on some level he knew no more than a few moments could have gone by. The infusion ceased but the expansion remained, leaving the potential at his command far greater than it had been, yet did nothing to quench his thirst.
“You are glowing. It hurts just to look at you,” Rue informed him. Eyes the color of pine bark blinked a rapid rhythm with no sign of slowing any time soon. “I saw the crocodile get struck by lightning and that is when you started to glow so bright,” he added with his chin resting on his uncle’s chest. The excitement in him was so great the idea of looking away or closing his eyes apparently did not enter his mind.
Jubal sighed with relief at hearing the piping voice and thanked the Creator that the power had been contained in his body without affecting the boy. “The bolt did me no harm, but it cooked the croc,” he said and then paused while glancing up, “I think we have drifted far enough to let the remains fall back into the water without them landing on us. Maybe something beneath the surface will enjoy eating burnt meat.”
The little boy wiped at his face but the raindrops made the gesture futile. His eyes were still wide with terror, yet the rise and fall of his chest was beginning to slow, indicating he was gaining some measure of calm. “I am glad the crocodile is dead, but next time it might be better not to let one get so close.”
Jubal agreed with the notion, ceased the focus of energy, and then added a Da Capo on the Melody, but held the potential, ready to be focused when necessary. Moments later the crocodile hit the water, making a huge splash, spraying their backs from ten or so paces to the rear of the branch-craft. The extra water made no difference since they were already drenched by the pouring rain.
“You are hardly glowing,” Rue was quick to take note.
“I am conserving energy,” Jubal replied while poling to the left to avoid a cedar, “and yet will be able to focus the blue light at any creatures that threaten us.”
Even though he gained more energy, his thirst had only grown, and he needed to fill the need and soon. He noticed large leaves hanging from a nearby tree and quickly plucked one, cupping the single piece of foliage to catch the rain. After allowing it to fill, he tilted one end into his mouth and drank what had accumulated. It took about twenty repeats of the motion to quench his thirst and then he handed the leaf to Rue.
The young one seemed satisfied after three repeats of the process. “I haven’t had anything to eat in forever,” he made known in exaggerated tones.
It was highly likely the lad had eaten dinner before the caravan departed from the settlement, but Jubal had no doubt it seemed like a long time ago to the boy. “When we reach dry ground, I will catch us some fish and make a fire. How does that sound?”
“I like fishing,” Rue answered enthusiastically. “When are we going to reach high ground?”
“When it appears,” Jubal responded, having no better answer.
“Are you being silly again?” The question came after a gaping yawn.
“Rue, I wish I were,” Jubal replied as raindrops splashed him in the face, reminding him of a need. “Turn around,” he instructed while removing the hunter’s coat.
The boy complied and Jubal placed the garment over his nephew, even ripped with pieces stripped off, the tattered garment covered the child like a cloak. “At least one of us can sleep without raindrops pelting him.”
“I can’t sleep,” Rue declared, but within minutes his slow and steady breathing quietly proved otherwise.
Hours went by, Jubal knew not nor cared how many, as they drifted in the current. The rain had been unrelenting, yet he took heart and was pleased by the lack of lightning and thunder, which probably contributed to the lad’s ability to remain sleep
ing.
They continued to flow with the current and Jubal poled away from the many trees that threaten the easterly heading. His body went through the motions of poling and angling around thick boughs, which left his tiring mind free to wander into vague thoughts. The idea of a place, tens of thousands of paces in diameter, where people could live in peace and harmony, began to form a foundation in his soul. The ideal place to live felt different than the world he knew, perhaps being a promise of what he hoped might be after the upheaval predicted by the priest came to an end, and the earth was refashioned into whatever the Creator had in mind.
A snake slithered onto the front half of the branch-craft, interrupting his fantasy. Jubal brought the pole up out of the water and slammed it against the bothersome reptile, sending the venomous creature flying back into the water. The serpent came right back to the branch and Jubal struck the persistent adversary on the head, not allowing it to get onto the craft. The wily pest swam to the rear and slithered onto the branch-craft, beyond the reach of the pole. “Enough of this,” Jubal grumbled, then focused the potential he had been holding in readiness.
Light shot from his left hand in twin beams, thumb and pointer finger, one struck the snake’s head, the other farther down its curvy body, and then he levitated the stubborn menace out of the water, whipping it a safe distance forward of the craft. With little effort he moved the two digits apart, ripping the reptile in two in a spray of cold blood. Both halves remained in the air where he willed them to be. After drifting beyond the point, he allowed the two pieces to drop back into the water.
A glance to the rear as the ripples settled caused him to take a second look. Stars, he could see them twinkling in the night sky, which meant the rain would stop soon; for how long he dared not guess, but welcomed the sight. He did not even know how far they had drifted since settling on the branch-craft, yet refused to allow that concern to dampen his mood. The improved attitude caused him to rethink what he had done to the snake. He had been impatient after all he had been through, but the serpent had not been smart enough to understand nature. A creature that wants to live long does not pester a bear or an irritable Aakacarn.
Dawn Of The Aakacarns Page 10