by Vivian Venus
“More of your magic tools?” Tor said, intrigued.
“Something like that. I have to try it.” She walked out to the end of the branch where it protruded far out from the rest of the tree and she would able to fire the flare safely into the air. “Don’t be surprised and fall off, okay?” she said to them, and then pointed it at the air and squeezed the trigger.
The flare gun popped and arced out the smoking charge which detonated with a loud bang into a bright red flash which slowly floated down through the air. Both Tor and Toovah gasped. “Shooting star!” Toovah shouted. “You can make shooting stars!”
Kaylee came back over to them, staring intently back out to where the flashing had come from. The flare drifted down, incredibly bright even in the morning daylight, and eventually fizzled out. They waited, watching for something to happen. “Make another star, Kaylee,” Toovah said. Tor hushed him.
Kaylee didn’t think anything was going to happen and was about to be convinced that it was just light shining off of a tree or something, when suddenly she saw a white trail shoot up in the air and then burst into a bright green light.
A flare.
Toovah shouted happily, jumping up and down. “You did it!”
“No,” Kaylee said. “That wasn’t me.”
Tor looked at her. Her expression was strained with a kind of dull shock. “There’s someone else here,” she said. She turned to Tor. “I need to find them. They might need help.”
Tor remembered his task. This was the test the Great Ones expected him to complete. Get her to her people, get her home.
“I’ll help you go to them,” he said, taking her hand.
“Tor…” she said, quietly.
“Me too!” Toovah said. “I’m going too.”
“Well we couldn’t just leave you here,” Tor said, ruffling Toovah’s hair. He smiled at Kaylee. The heaviness was still there, but resolve was replacing it. He wasn’t going to let her down. “That’s about a two day journey,” he said. “We should leave as soon as possible.”
Kaylee wrapped her arms around his waist and squeezed him close, and he leaned down to kiss her. “Thank you, Tor,” she said.
She was his mate, even if they had not been bonded by ceremony, and he would do anything for her. Anything. Even if it meant getting her home…though Tor didn’t think that Kaylee had any desire to leave this place anymore. They had opened their hearts to each other, shared their bodies. They were mates in everything but their name. It was natural that she would want to help her people, and he wanted to as well. The jungle was dangerous, and they would not survive without their help…but Kaylee was Ulduuk now. She had taken the path of the huntress.
No, she wouldn’t leave, Tor thought. Yet still, there was just a shred of doubt that burned like an ember deep in the back of his mind.
The three of them climbed down from the tree. Tor went to the hut where he smoked and dried their meat, and wrapped a day’s worth of provisions. The rest they would hunt and forage on the trail. When he came out, Kaylee was standing ready with her spear in hand, Toovah next to her. “You look like a true Ulduuk huntress,” Tor admired.
Kaylee beamed proudly. “And you’re my Ulduuk prince,” she said.
Tor smiled as he ducked into the hut and retrieved his spear. “I’m not a prince,” he said. “Not even a hunter. Just an Ulduuk.”
Kaylee kissed him. “Well, you’re my prince. My hunter prince.”
“Come on!” Toovah urged them. He stood off by the path leading down out of the village, beckoning them to follow. “I want to find Kaylee’s other star.”
When Kaylee walked down the path towards the vine crossing, she looked back over her shoulder at the village that sat beneath the shade of the giant tree and she had a sad feeling that this would be the last time she would ever see it.
NINE
Tor led the pack, with Toovah in the middle and Kaylee at the back. They were walking out in a direction through the jungle that Kaylee hadn’t been through yet during their hunts, and she was surprised at how varied and new everything seemed to be. It was a combination of the new territory and her deepening awareness of the environment and how to look at it. She could see the tracks left by all sorts of different animals, many more than just the krug which she and Tor had hunted. She could spot out the plants which she knew not to touch, and she could hear and separate the various cries and calls of the creatures hiding in the trees. It was like she was seeing with more than just her eyes. She felt enlightened. Focused.
Then she felt a pang of uncertainty, and her mind became distracted. If whoever was out there had a functioning pod, there was a chance their distress beacon was also working, and that meant that a rescue party would be on the way after all. That would mean she could…leave…
Did she want to?
She had come to love this place and she loved Tor deeply. But home…? Civilization? A return to her old life, her old plans… She pushed away the thought. She didn’t want to think about it, not now. She had to concentrate and watch where she was going, this wasn’t a hiking trail. Her mind shifted back from distraction and into the razor focus that she had learned from Tor, the focus of an Ulduuk huntress. The path seemed to light up again to her full vision.
“Have you ever left the jungle?” Kaylee asked.
“The trees stretch to the ends of this world,” he said over his shoulder. “Only the Great Ones have ever known anything else. And you.”
“How far have you explored?”
“Never far enough to where I cannot climb up and see home,” he said. “There’s never been a reason for the Ulduuk to go any farther than that.”
She understood why. The land was filled with sustenance. All manner of animals walked, flew and swam all within reach of the village, and she imagined even when there were hundreds of Ulduuk it was more than enough for them. And of course, the jungle was filled with dangers. The village was safe. As they walked and moved further and further away from home, Kaylee saw less of what had become familiar. There were so many new tracks now, so many new plants which could kill her if she so much as brushed her skin up against them. All she could do was keep her eye on Tor and Toovah and watch what they did. Even Toovah had become more cautious. During their foraging trips out around the village he would run around, climbing on things and harassing the huge flying insects that he liked to hang on to. Now he was quiet, his ears alert and his tail out, and he didn’t stray from his position behind Tor.
After stopping to eat a lunch of jerky and foraged greens, the three made a discovery that shocked them and made Toovah cower back in fear. The way they were going through the jungle had intersected up with a trail of tracks that Kaylee recognized instantly.
Tor crouched down by disturbed ground and plants, eying it wearily. Kaylee came beside him. “Vizers,” she said.
“Yes. The same pack.”
She touched the dirt that had been torn up by the many claws that had come through. “What do you think, Kaylee?” Tor asked, looking at her inquisitively. “How long ago?”
“Five or six days, maybe?” she said hopefully. She was still not that good and dating tracks.
“Good,” he said, and touched her thigh before standing up again. “Yes, I think that the pack came through almost a week ago, in the direction that we’re headed.”
“Well shit, that means…whoever over there is either being stalked by the vizers or is being attacked by them.”
Tor nodded. “The vizers wouldn’t hold off on attacking their prey. But since we saw their star signal, someone survived and was able to fight them off, at least for now.”
“We might encounter them,” Kaylee said, nervously.
“Yes. We will have to be cautious. Surprise will be our advantage.”
Kaylee swallowed. She was afraid. She had learned to hunt, yes, but she didn’t know how to fight another predator. She tightened her grip on her spear.
“Will you be alright?” Tor asked.
She
nodded. There was another person out there. Maybe more, maybe families with children. She needed to know, and she needed to help them. “I’ll trust in the Great Ones to get us through,” she said.
Tor knelt to Toovah and removed his knife from around his waist. “Are you frightened, Toovah?”
Toovah straightened up, balling his fists at his side, and then nodded slowly.
Tor smiled. “It’s good to be frightened. Use your fear, and conquer it. Become stronger.” He held out the knife to him. “Take this. This will be your first test on your journey to becoming a hunter of the Ulduuk.”
Toovah looked up into Tor’s eyes and wiped away a sprinkling of tears. “I’ll be brave,” he said.
“Good,” Tor nodded. “Then let’s go.”
The three stepped side by side onto the vizer pack’s trail which tore through the jungle like a ragged claw mark, and continued on.
That night, they made camp up in the branches of a large tree. Toovah scampered up to the highest point he could get to where he had a nice view out over everything, and then curled up in a nook to sleep. Tor and Kaylee found their own comfortable spot that allowed them to keep watch over the trail below them, in case the vizers came back through. Kaylee snuggled up against Tor’s warm chest, and he put his arm around her and hugged her close. Kaylee thought it was like nuzzling up against a big warm bear; his arm was certainly big enough.
“Toovah is being very brave,” Kaylee said, intertwining her fingers with Tor's. “To go away from home and be faced with such a scary thing. I don’t know many kids – human kids, I mean – who’d be able handle it all like he is.”
“Of course he is. He’s an Ulduuk. He’ll be a warrior someday, maybe the last.” He squeezed Kaylee hand and smiled. “Unless, you and I…”
She looked up at him. “Have a baby together?” She smiled softly back at him in a way that made him frown.
“What is that look?” he asked.
“It’s funny. Having a baby with anyone was probably the last thing I ever thought I would want in my life. When I left Earth, my plan was to start over again. Try to get back something I missed out on from all those years wasting time, being with the wrong people. And now…I have something here. I have you.”
Tor looked deep into her eyes, reading her expression, and he felt a drop in his stomach. He swallowed. “But you still don’t want a child. You…don’t intend to stay.” He said it slowly.
“God, Tor…I don’t know. This place, you, have given me a new life. New purpose. But I…I just don’t know. There’s something—”
“Calling you back,” he finished for her. He nodded, and spoke firmly, evenly. “I understand. It’s the will of the Great Ones. They sent you here as a test to me, and to you as well. It’s a test we both have to rise to answer.”
She was quiet for a while, resting her lips on inside of his wrist, giving him a light kiss. “I do want a baby with you, Tor,” she said, finally. “But I don’t know if it's possible. You’re an Ulduuk, I’m a human. We're different.”
“The Great Ones brought us together,” he said. “Only they decide that.”
She tilted her head back and kissed him, reaching her hand up and hooking it around the back of his neck, and she felt her warmth growing between her legs. Tor’s hand slipped down to envelop her breasts, and she felt his hardening heat against body. She was aching for him, and she lifted herself up into his lap and sighed as she felt him enter her. Holding her moan back, she grabbed onto his hands for leverage and rode him as he nibbled her neck, his sharp canines pricking her just ever so slightly with a pain that was delicious and wonderful.
Their lovemaking was quick and passionate. Tor wrapped his hands around her, hugging her close against his chest, his breath ragged as he thrust deep inside her. She squeezed tightly around him, not wanting to let him go, and when he came he could barely restrain a shout of pleasure that certainly would’ve woke the jungle. His seed spilled out into her, filling her up, and Kaylee could feel its hotness deep inside. The swell of his cock made her eyes flutter back, the control wrestled from her as she orgasmed, her body shivering with pleasure under the blanket of stars above them.
During the night, a few hours after they had fallen asleep, all three of them were awoken by dull, thundering echoes from out in the jungle. Toovah climbed down from his spot high up to wake them, but they were already standing and looking out over the jungle.
“What is it?” Toovah asked, nervously.
“I don’t know,” Tor said.
“I think I do,” said Kaylee, a sharp edge on her voice. “Shots from an energy rifle. An Earth weapon.”
Each one understood what that meant.
After a short while, the sounds of the shots stopped coming. The night air seemed unusually still and quiet, like every creature in the jungle had stopped to listen. Toovah stayed near them, too nervous to go back to his spot alone, and was soon fast asleep again. Kaylee was the last to sleep, her mind filled with all sorts of possibilities for what had happened. Would there be anyone left when they arrived? Had the pod suffered the same fate as her own? Her head resting against Tor’s chest, she soon was soothed by his rhythmic breathing and dropped into sleep.
The next day Tor set a quicker pace, pushing all of them to their limits. Toovah soldiered on admirably until his legs could no longer carry him at the pace that they were going and they had to take a break. While Kaylee and Toovah rested, Tor climbed up into a tree to scout their progress. He figured they would reach their destination the next afternoon if they managed to keep up the pace. They finished the rest of the provisions they packed for lunch, and for dinner the three of them foraged for food. Tor didn’t want to start a fire this close by – it would give them away and put them in definite danger.
That night they slept again in a tree, and just like the night before they heard the blasts of an energy rifle, or maybe more than one, Kaylee couldn’t be sure. It was louder and more prominent now, and if they looked hard they thought they could see green flashes of light illuminating the trees out in the distance. “They’re still alive, at least,” Kaylee said, hopefully.
Tor nodded. “The vizers are hoping to tire them out. Leaving them alone during the day, attacking at night.”
“Why are they doing this?” Kaylee asked. “The jungle is filled with other prey, so why them?”
“They’re malicious creatures, destroying without any reason. When they’re drawn to something they’re often relentless in consuming and destroying it. But they aren’t smart. They’re like the insects that crawl on the trees.”
On the branch they were camped on, a little line of bugs trundled along from leaf to leaf, munching on them. Tor took a stick and placed it down in the middle of their march, cutting them off. They felt around for a while and then turned to go the other way, abandoning their original route. “If we can surprise them and disrupt them, we can scatter them. And they’re afraid of the Ulduuk. They won’t know we’re only two if we take them by surprise.”
When they continued on the next day, Tor had them move only through the treetops, which slowed down their pace some. Toovah had the least issue of both of them – he was entirely comfortable and agile up in the trees, hopping nimbly from branch to branch and swinging using the vines that sometimes hung over head. Kaylee was weary of trying the vines, unsure if one she grabbed would belong to some deadly creature. Luckily the tree canopy was so dense and the branches so thick that they were often able to cross between trees as if they were connected by bridges. As the day grew on, Tor proceeded slower and more cautiously. Both Kaylee and Toovah followed his lead, dampening their movements as if they were on a hunt.
In the late afternoon, Kaylee was suddenly very aware that the jungle around them had grown mostly silent except for the crinkle of the trees being rustled by the leaves. Tor stopped his advance, his eyes serious. He held his hand over his mouth. Quiet. Then he pointed down.
Kaylee looked down and nearly gasped. In fact, she
was sure her old untrained self would’ve audibly gasped at the sight below. All along the ground and attached the trees like dormant locusts was the vizer pack. They were all unmoving and unaware of their presence. It looked like they were sleeping, if they even did such a thing.
Tor gestured with his head to keep moving. As they crept along the branch they were perched on, Kaylee’s foot dislodged a piece of bark which tumbled and bounced off of each level of branch below them. They all froze as the piece of wood made an audible knock with its fall. Tor gripped his spear. They all slowly looked down.
The bark had dropped benignly onto the dirt right next to one of the vizer’s spindly clawed legs, completely unnoticed.
They all let out a collective sigh of relief and continued on.
The vizer pack dissipated after about half a mile, and then Tor stopped them again and pointed. On the jungle floor just ahead of them was one of the large multi-person escape pods half buried in the dirt. A circular mound had been piled up around it, and the bodies of several vizers lay scorched and lifeless just outside of the perimeter. Two men with energy pistols sat watchful, their faces dirty, bearded, and haggard with fatigue. One man was older, probably in his forties, and the other was around Kaylee's age or a bit younger. The door of the pod was opened, and Kaylee saw that there were people inside, though she didn’t know how many. She nearly gasped as a little girl ran out.
“Daddy?” she said to the older man. “Daddy, I’m hungry.”
“April, I know you’re hungry but we can’t get any food right now. Now hurry up and go back inside, it’s dangerous out here, you know that.”
A woman rushed out of the pod and wrapped her arms around the girl, her frightened eyes shifting back and forth. “Come on, sweetie, come back.” She picked her up and carried her back inside.
Kaylee looked at Tor, her eyes wide with concern. “Call out to them,” he said. “Let them know we’re here.” She nodded.
“Uh, hey!” she said in not quite a shout, still worried she’d wake up the vizers.