by Vivian Venus
The men bolted up, pointing their pistols around wildly. Then they looked at each other like they may have had a shared hallucination.
“Don’t shoot!” Kaylee called again. “We’re up in the tree. We’re friends!”
“Who are you?” the older man called back. The woman started to emerge from the pod, and the man put his hand up, telling her to get back inside. “Who are you?” he repeated.
“My name’s Kaylee Mentz. I’m with Tor and Toovah of the Ulduuk. They’re ah, they’re the aliens who live here.”
“Aliens like those monsters, aliens?” the other man shouted.
“No, nothing like those monsters. We’re here to help you. I crashed here after the shuttle accident. Tor saved me from them. We can get you food. So…can we come down now?”
The two men’s tension seemed to dissipate some. “Alright. Come on down.”
Kaylee slipped out from behind the tree and made her way down with Tor and Toovah following behind and then walked up to the dirt mound wall, weaving their way around the bodies of the dead vizers. They scrambled up the wall and climbed over the other side. The two men stood, their pistols lowered but their bodies still tense.
“Hi,” Kaylee said.
The men quickly looked her up and down, but were more concerned with Tor and Toovah. “He’s huge,” one of them said.
“He can understand you,” Kaylee said. “They both can.”
“My name is Tor, last hunter of the Ulduuk. This is Toovah.” Toovah stood just behind Kaylee and Tor, unsure about the new group.
“I apologize,” the older man said, wearily. “We didn’t mean to be rude. My name’s Roddy, that over there is Howard. And inside the pod is Julia and my daughter April. Come on out you two.”
Julia and April came out from the pod, and Toovah looked curiously at the little girl. When April saw him she squealed happily and pointed. “He’s got ears like a doggy!” Toovah raised an eyebrow and felt his ears with just a bit of self-consciousness.
“It’s rude to point, April,” Roddy said. April hid behind her father and stared intently at Toovah, who stared back, his arms crossed. “You’ve been here a month too?” he asked Kaylee. “You look like you’ve been here for years.”
Kaylee had forgotten how she looked, with her hide garments and her weapons. “Oh,” she laughed. “Yeah.” She touched Tor’s arm. “A lot can happen in a month.”
“You’re hungry,” Tor said.
“Extremely. The creatures, they started coming maybe two weeks ago. We fought them off at first, when we still had enough rations to feed us all. There were more of us then. Eventually our emergency supplies started running low and a couple men volunteered to go out to hunt for game. They never came back. It was Howard's idea to start looking around the area by treetop and well, hell, when we saw your signal flare we thought it was like a gift from God.”
“I’m sorry to hear about the others. Is there…is your beacon working? Mine broke in the crash.”
“Oh, it’s working,” Howard said. “A rescue is on the way. Problem is, they’re a day out and we couldn’t be sure if we had enough juice left in our weapons to fend off another attack. Not to mention the food…”
“It’s a really good thing you came when you did,” Julia said. “After we shot off our flare we didn’t know what else to do…”
A rescue is on the way.
Her mind reeled, and Kaylee suddenly felt frightened, like everything she had achieved the past weeks had just been instantly pulled away from her. Three weeks ago she would’ve been ecstatic at a rescue, and just a day ago she was sure that she would stay, but now she was…just afraid. She loved Tor so much. She loved Toovah too, and she loved this place…but something was calling her back, some old part of her that whispered life will be so much easier if you just go back there. Just go back to what you know.
She went with Toovah to go forage for food in the area around the pod while Tor stayed and spoke to the men to plan their defense. They found a nest of fat and juicy arglodans and collected a pile of them into a broad leaf they were using to carry what they found, and a variety of spicy and sweet roots and greens. “Kaylee,” Toovah said quietly. “You aren’t going to leave, are you?”
She looked at him, surprised. “I don’t know, Toovah. It’s…complicated.”
“You can’t leave. You and Tor are life-mates. You can’t leave, Kaylee.” She saw that tears were forming in his eyes. His ears drooped sadly. He dropped his side of the leaf and the arglodans tumbled to the ground, squirming to get away. He hugged her tightly around her waist, his head resting on her stomach, sniffling. She stroked his hair, somewhat startled at his sudden outburst.
“Be strong, Toovah,” she said. “Tonight when we have to fight the vizers, you’re going to need to protect that little girl. Understand? Only you can do it.”
“I will,” he said, his voice quiet. “But you can’t leave, Kaylee…”
She could only nod, feeling terrible that she didn’t know what to say to him.
TEN
The evening came with a dreaded quickness, the entire group nervous with anticipation for what would be their last stand. Tor and Kaylee separated from the group and took up hiding in the trees, while Roddy and Howard kept their positions behind the dirt wall. Toovah waited inside with Julia and April, his hand never leaving the handle of the obsidian knife that now hung at his waist. During remainder of the afternoon after he and Kaylee had brought back their forage findings, which the group scarfed down without a single complaint, April had bugged Toovah about his ears and tail, constantly wanting to touch them and see if they were real. He had begrudgingly put up with it, taking his new responsibility as her protector very seriously, but now that the light of the day was fading, April had gone quiet and sat very still on Julia’s lap in one of the bucket seats of the pod. Toovah stood near the entrance, his senses tuned.
Tor looked over at Kaylee, crouched on the branch next to him. She had her spear gripped tightly in her hand, and her eyes were focused and scanning the jungle below them. “You should see yourself,” he told her proudly. She her face seemed to change, like she was snapped out of a trance. She looked at him inquisitively. “You had the eyes of a huntress. Calm, focused—” He leaned closer. “—and incredible.” He wanted to take her again, right here and now.
She smiled at him and then turned back to focus, and again her face changed, this time into the narrowed intensity of the huntress. Tor focused too, stretching out to listen to the noises of the jungle for any sign of approach. They would come sometime after dark.
Hours passed, and Kaylee found herself fighting off sleep, her eyes growing heavy. She glanced over and saw Tor was still completely alert. Wake up, Kaylee, wake up.
Then she froze, her ears straining. She thought she had heard the something from in the jungle, a low padded rumble. Tor’s ears perked up and he straightened, and Kaylee knew that she hadn’t imagined it. They were coming. It was that sound she remembered so clearly from when Tor first found her, the low drumming of hundreds of clawed appendages beating their way over dirt and tree and root. Then she saw them. The jungle floor was dark, and so she saw them more as a shifting mass of claws and eyes and legs, all working their way inwards towards the pod.
She gripped her spear and the two of them turned to watch the pack’s continued advance. They had to wait till the right moment to strike…
“Here they come!” they heard Roddy’s voice bellow out, and the pod’s floodlights burst on, causing the vizers to rear up in stunned reaction. Roddy and Howard’s pistols gammed out rays of piercing hot energy with loud crackling snaps. The energy beams extended through the air, cutting through multiple vizers as they swept the pistols in small arcs like gardeners pruning hedges with a laser cutter.
“Come on!” Tor said, and the two of them hopped from tree to tree, hurrying around to the rear of the pod that was undefended. The vizers had begun their attempt to scramble up the dirt mound there. Tor acte
d first. With a might swing of his arm his flung his spear out and hurtled it straight through two vizers before it plunged deep into the side of the mound, and then he leapt from the tree, sweeping up his spear and skewering another vizer. Kaylee threw her spear straight into the back of one before it could make it over the mound, and she jumped down onto its back, grabbing her spear and plunging it deeper in. Then she yanked it out, spun around and lunged forward, stabbing straight into the abdomen of one of the advancing creatures.
Tor stood tall, growling and bearing his fangs, and destroyed two more with a quick lunge. He heard a hissing behind him and he spun around to see a vizer with its claws bared and ready to strike. He brought his spear up to attack, and the monster swung one of its spindly legs and knocked his weapon aside. It made a swipe at him, the razor sharp claws nearly slashing his chest, and he leapt back just in time. Tor held his hands up ready to defend himself against the vizer’s next pounce, when it collapsed onto the ground with a shriek. Kaylee’s spear jutted out from its back and she ran over and yanked it out and gave him a quick grin. Then she turned and skewered another right through its head.
“Energy’s getting low!” Howard shouted.
“Hang in there,” Kaylee shouted back. “Retreat to the pod if you have to!”
Then Howard let out a pained scream. One of the vizers had climbed up the mound and struck out, piercing his shoulder with its claw. His pistol dropped to the ground. Kaylee cursed and ran up onto the top of the pod and hurtled her spear with Olympian skill and accuracy. It drove into the vizer, dropping it instantly, and Howard fell to the ground clutching his arm. Kaylee ran to him. “Are you alright?”
He nodded, his expression pained. She could see his shoulder was in bad shape. “Get to the pod,” she said. She picked up the energy pistol from the ground and tossed it to Roddy who gritted his teeth and let a double torrent of energy fire sweep over the vizer pack.
“They’re scattering!” Tor shouted. “The pack is pulling back!”
Kaylee saw he was right – their numbers had thinned considerably, and they were no longer attempting to summit the mound. They were slinking back into the jungle now, hissing angrily until finally they faded back into the darkness and were gone. She let out a triumphant cheer, and thrust her spear in the air. Tor bellowed and hugged her, pumping his spear up high. Roddy dropped the pistols, which had just run out of energy, and collapsed onto the mound in exhaustion. “We did it,” he murmured. “We’re alive.”
* * *
Julia cared for Howard’s shoulder using the last of the first aid supplies in the shuttle pod. Toovah slept, still gripping the handle of his knife. April dozed next to him, her head resting on his leg. Tor, Kaylee and Roddy remained outside, unable to sleep. They sat silently, watching the perimeter for any sign of a second advance, but it never came. When the morning sun finally came up, the three almost immediately collapsed into deep sleep.
It was mid-afternoon when the rescue party arrived.
Kaylee heard the low roar of engines in the distance, and Roddy rushed into the pod to make sure the distress beacon was still broadcasting their location. “Look,” Tor said, pointing up at the sky with amazement. “A shooting star.”
Kaylee took his hand and squeezed it. The star grew brighter until it resolved into the outline of a space ship. Roddy jumped up on top of the pod and took his shirt off and began waving it around. The rescue ship saw them and slowly descended down over them, its engines making all the tree tops dance wildly in their wake. The side of the ship opened and men on ropes descended down with stretchers and medical supplies.
“God damn are we glad to see you,” Roddy said to the uniformed man who approached them.
“Looks like you folks could use a rescue,” the man said.
“We have an injured man,” Julia said, “and one child.”
“Is the child hurt?” the man asked.
“No, she’s fine.”
The man nodded. “Get the stretcher over here,” he told his men. Soon Howard was being lifted up into the ship. April came out next with Toovah by her side.
“Goodbye, Toovah,” she said, and gave him a hug. Then after a quick thought, she rubbed his ears and giggled, and then ran off to get lifted up into the ship. Toovah’s ears and tail bushed out with embarrassment.
Julia was next to go up after she had thanked Tor for his help. Roddy shook Tor’s hand, still having to crane his neck to look up at the tall alien. “We wouldn’t be alive if it weren’t for both of you,” he said. “Kaylee, you’re going to be famous when we get back, you know that? What a story you’ll have to tell. I’ll see you on board.” He went to the man operating the rescue winch, sat on the seat, and slowly raised up towards the ship.
The rescue worker had a holo-pad in his hand and was checking off names. He came over to Kaylee and Tor, eying the tall alien wearily and looking curiously at Kaylee, who still had her spear in her hand.
“Uh, your name, miss?” he asked, looking down the list.
“Kaylee of the Ulduuk,” she said. “I don’t think you’ll find me on that list.”
Tor looked at her, surprised.
“There’s a…Kaylee Mentz here. That’s not you? They told me you were with them.”
Kaylee shook her head. “No, that’s not me. This is my home.”
The worker nodded. “Right. Okay! Let’s go!” He ran back to the lift and was lifted up. The door of the ship slid closed, and the three of them craned their necks to watch as it blasted away into the atmosphere into a twinkle of light like a fading star.
They were alone again, standing by the empty skeleton of the downed escape pod, its emergency beacon permanently deactivated by the rescue team. Kaylee took Tor’s hand. He leaned down to kiss her and she returned it to him with welling happiness. In the end, the decision had been easy. Fighting the vizers, Kaylee knew that this is where she belonged and that her destiny lay with Tor. She truly was no longer Kaylee Mentz, but Kaylee of the Ulduuk.
EPILOGUE
Kaylee and Toovah moved silently through the jungle, their spears clutched at the ready. Kaylee hung back just slightly, just enough to let Toovah guide the way and make the decisions on his first hunt.
After the birth of Panella, Kaylee had taken up the mantle of teacher while Tor stayed back at the village and cared for their daughter. It was the natural thing to do – Kaylee’s skills as a huntress had advanced to levels that Tor could never have imagined. He was physically stronger than her, yes, but her finesse with her movements and with her weapon was incredible, and her ability to read the tracks had surpassed his. If Toovah was eventually going to carry the Ulduuk people on his shoulders, he needed to learn from the very best.
She watched Toovah carefully. He had a tendency to let excitement overtake him and break his patience, often times causing him to misread tracks or scare off prey. Today he was being extra cautious with his movements. There was a lot on the line, and he wanted to prove to Kaylee he was worthy of the spear she and Tor had made for him.
Kaylee sensed the krug they were tracking up ahead and slowed her movements down even further in order not to get in Toovah’s way at all during the kill.
He nestled down into the brush, waiting, his eyes focused on the animal that was sniffing around the ground for food. Then he lunged. His spear whizzed forward, launching from his hand and struck its target. The krug didn’t even have time to react. It fell down dead – a perfectly clean kill. He didn’t even need to use his knife.
He uttered the words of prayer and rushed over it to check it, and when he saw that he had finished it he looked back to Kaylee and grinned. She smiled and gave him a thumbs up. “Congratulations,” she said. “Very well done.”
The two came back the village, Toovah’s prize strapped around his back. Tor was sitting by the fire pit, his face painted for ceremony. Panella, who was now just a few years younger than Toovah had been when Kaylee had come to them, sat on his lap, her hair done up, face painted and flowe
rs tied into the fur of her tail. Tor was showing her the carvings on his spear, telling her their story, when he heard their approach and looked up.
“You’re back,” Tor said.
“Toovah!” Panella shouted, leaping off her father’s lap. She pointed at him, her other hand resting defiantly on her waist. “Did you disappoint Mama? You did, didn’t you?”
Toovah laughed, and pulled the kill off from his back. “Does this look like disappointment?”
Tor clapped his hands and stood. “Well done, Toovah.”
“Mama!” Panella scurried over and jumped into her mother’s arms.
“Hi, Panella. Did Papa teach you a lot today?”
“Yes. And I’m ready for Toovah’s ceremony. He didn’t fail!”
“No, he didn’t. He did very well.”
Tor got the bonfire roaring high, and both Kaylee and Toovah painted their faces for the ceremony of the First Hunt. Up in the sky, the Great Eye shone boldly overhead, just like it had the night that Kaylee had arrived. Tor put the meat of Toovah’s kill over the fire to cook, and took Kaylee’s hand. Tor and Kaylee, the first of Ulduuk.
Sparks from the fire flew up, twisting and dancing upwards higher and higher into the night sky, up towards the eye of the Great Ones like little frantic shooting stars with minds of their own.
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