“There was a time when the no-tails respected us,” Kunturi said with his booming voice. “The Incas believed the condor was their heavenly messenger, the puma their brother on Earth, and the anaconda their guardian to the underworld. Jaguars were gods to the Maya, crocodiles were gods in Egypt, and the eagle was the Aztec symbol for the sun. Farther north, people considered the bear and wolf to be family, while in Africa, the hyena was the one who brought light to this world.”
Despite my emotionless stare, my chest puffed a little with pride. I hoped that every shape shifter might remember those words about my ancestors.
“But times have changed.” Kunturi’s voice took on a darker tone. “Now, no-tails think they are above nature—above other animals—and give themselves the freedom to do whatever they please.”
Shouts of disgust erupted among the birds; an array of hoots, squawks, and shrieks.
Kunturi thrust forward his spear. “Nature must fight back while we are able. Let us teach the no-tails a lesson and force them back into their place!”
“What should we do?” an eagle cried near the front.
Supreme confidence washed over Kunturi’s face. Straightening his spine and lifting his arms for dramatic effect, he said, “We will attack as a united army—birds, mammals, and reptiles. We will hit them so hard that we cannot be stopped.”
All of a sudden, the purplish glow of Kunturi’s magic flickered, like the lights during a thunderstorm. Several animals started shaking their heads, as if they’d just awoken.
A tiger growled near the front.
“What is this?” boomed Kunturi. He leveled his scepter at the beast.
Nothing happened. The purple glow was completely gone.
The tiger growled again. So did several lions.
Kunturi stepped back and shook the staff, as if it were a flashlight with dead batteries.
In the next instant, I saw a flash of blue. It was the color Curupira warned me about, the color I should hope not to see. My eyes darted around, searching for its source.
It was Anca, with a mix of human and eagle features—including a beak. He pointed his staff at the condor king and unleashed a bolt the color of lapis lazuli. It was the brightest blue I’d ever seen. Kunturi fell over, and a harpy grabbed his staff. Shifting fully into a bird, it climbed higher and hovered in midair.
“Now,” Anca declared, “enough of empty talk. Let us begin this war!”
Blue magic hit the crowd like a tidal wave, and everyone was quickly subdued. Around me, the reddish forms of my spirit protectors merged, creating a protective shell. None of the blue touched my body.
An instant later, the eagle man’s glare fixed on me.
“You thought you could trick us,” he said. “Isn’t that right, hyena?”
“Huh?” His directness knocked me from my act.
“Did you think I could be fooled?”
My gaze popped to the condor king, who remained sprawled on the dried grass. Harpies stood on either side of him, their clawed feet pinning down his arms.
The takeover was complete. And I was in deep trouble.
“You had some plan to stop us?” Anca asked me.
I’d never thought that far ahead, to tell the truth. Stalling for time, I scanned the crowd. Everything was blue, except for me. …
And except for Rosa. Her parrot form had a yellowish sheen about her. She hadn’t been taken over, either. Maybe she also had spirits for protection?
Perhaps she could help me get out of this.
When Anca followed my gaze, I leaped to distract him. I couldn’t let him find out about Rosa, especially since most birds were surrounded with blue. I worried she’d be instantly killed.
As I struck the dry earth, three harpies dug talons into my skin and pushed me to the ground.
Anca leveled his staff at me and chuckled. “Now we shall see whose magic is stronger, hyena boy.”
A blue bolt shot from Anca’s staff, but it was deflected by a reddish glow. I was safe for the time being—protected by my ancestors—although I noticed the shapes around me faded a bit as the blue light deflected off them.
Anca released another bolt, and the red dimmed even more. I strained against the harpies, trying to free myself, but their grip was unbreakable.
With Anca turned away from her, Rosa flapped upward and tried to strike.
Anca pivoted around.
“No!” I whooped.
Rosa probably didn’t see magic like I could, yet she managed to dodge Anca’s first bolt. She wasn’t so lucky on the second; it hit her straight on. Her macaw body tumbled in front of Manny, who did nothing but stand completely still, as if in a trance.
With nothing to stop him, Anca turned his full attention on me again. He fired another bolt from his staff, and then another. I was powerless to resist.
There was only one thing I could do.
“Manny!” I screamed. “You’ve got to snap out of it! You’ve got to help me!”
His jaguar face showed nothing, not even a flicker of emotion.
I struggled again and finally managed to clamp my jaws around one harpy’s leg. There was a satisfying snap, and the eagle monster shrieked in agony.
It didn’t help, though. Another harpy took its place as quickly as it let go of me.
“Come on, Manny!” I whooped. “Wake up!”
“You will never reach him,” said Anca. “No one can match my power. It is a strength unmatched since ancient times!” His beak sprouted fangs—like the Staff God the dolphins had described.
One more bolt of blue, and he’d broken my defenses. The red split around me, and the blue surged through. The next thing I felt was tingling in my brain, which quickly spread to my body.
Anca’s magic was entering, and I felt there was not much I could do to stop it.
With my last bit of strength, I shouted to Manny, “Remember your mother! Remember what she did to bring you here!” I knew what his mother meant to Manny, so if that didn’t work, everything was hopeless.
All of a sudden, I saw a crack in the bluish haze. Then it shattered. When my eyes adjusted, I saw a spotted cat latched onto Anca, who fought back with his golden staff. It had to be Manny—or so I’d thought.
In the moments that followed, everything broke loose. Tigers roared, wolves howled, and lions and leopards went straight for the harpies. Other birds took flight, blocking the air over the harpies’ heads to prevent their escape.
The spell must have been broken completely. And it seemed that some of these birds were on our side.
I glanced over and noticed Kunturi, who was now on his feet. He held his arms out, as if he could fly, but remained in human form. If he’d wanted to shift, he no longer had the power to do so.
A group of bears surrounded him.
Those harpies who’d held me were quickly subdued by spotted figures. Except they weren’t jaguars. Or leopards or cheetahs.
No, it was my mom and dad.
“Samuel,” my father whooped excitedly, “are you okay?”
“I’m fine.” I staggered back to my feet. Glancing at my mother, I gave her a nod of respect and she sniffed me. Then she let out a small smile and a whoop.
Lauren just looked confused, but that wasn’t surprising. Sisters …
But what about Rosa? I looked and she was still slumped at Manny’s feet.
Wait a second—hadn’t Manny attacked Anca? But he couldn’t have. It looked as if he hadn’t moved one muscle.
I called to Rosa again, but she didn’t respond, and she didn’t appear to be breathing.
“She needs help!” I exclaimed. “Somebody find a doctor!” Or maybe I should’ve called for a veterinarian, since she was a parrot right then.
“We’ll fix her,” said a manly voice at my side.
When I turned, I nearly fell over. It was Mr. Fowrou!
“Huh?” I giggled in surprise.
Mr. Fowrou cracked a smile. “Looks like we almost missed the fun, right Sam?” He was
leading a large pack of hyenas.
“How can you help Rosa?” I asked.
“Let me handle it,” said a familiar voice. It was Queen Ayaba, who was being carried on a wooden chair supported by four muscular women. Unlike Mr. Fowrou and his companions, the women were still in human form.
Where the heck had they come from?
The women who carried the queen lowered her next to the spot where Rosa had fallen. They helped Queen Ayaba to a standing position and nudged me aside. Manny also came to his senses and moved.
By this point, the fighting had died down. Hyenas were everywhere, keeping any other animals from attacking our small group.
“Poor child,” said Queen Ayaba, stroking the feathers above Rosa’s beak. “Fetch me something to cover her,” she told me.
I scampered toward the spot where the battle had started and dragged back Anca’s cape. As for the eagle himself, he was nowhere to be seen. His staff lay on the ground nearby, but that was all that appeared to be left of him.
Queen Ayaba took the cape from my jaws. Not long afterward, Manny staggered to my side.
“What’s wrong with her?” he asked.
I didn’t really know what to say. Was Manny actually showing concern for Rosa—the same girl he’d wanted to avoid?
“I’m sorry, Sam, for everything.” He reached up a paw and patted my back.
It was a breakthrough, I realized. Manny actually had some social instincts, and in his own way, he was trying to comfort me.
Glancing at him, I asked, “Sorry for what?”
“Sorry that I didn’t snap out of it earlier. I’m sorry that I ran away from you in the forest. I abandoned you. And I’m sorry I didn’t help you out.”
“Help me with what?” I raised a furry eyebrow.
“With that eagle. I saw it all happening, but I just couldn’t move.”
“But … didn’t you attack? I saw a spotted cat pounce on him.”
“That wasn’t me,” he answered. “It was my mom.”
“Huh?” Now he had my full attention.
“It was the jaguar mother,” Queen Ayaba confirmed. She was running a branch of green leaves over Rosa’s body. “Straight from the spirit world.”
Manny nodded slowly, and I saw sadness pooling in his eyes.
“Only a powerful spirit could stop that eagle,” Queen Ayaba explained. “That is why she crossed over.”
“So she—” I tried to make sense of this “—gave up her life to fight Anca?”
“There was no other way to stop a shape shifter with powers from that ancient god.” The queen peered over at Manny. “That is what your mother understood, and that is why she sacrificed herself—so she could save us all.”
With that, Manny lost it. For the first time since his mom died, I heard him sob. He shed real tears and everything.
I leaned next to him, giving him a sort of hyena hug. That’s what social animals do, and now that I had a real friend, I needed to support him.
Queen Ayaba sprinkled water from a plastic bottle onto Rosa’s face and said, “We could not have done any of this without your help.”
“Really?”
Another voice said, “Only one who faced the three dangers could slip in.”
It was Curupira. He smiled and continued in his telepathic voice, “You showed everyone the way into the condor’s realm.”
Queen Ayaba said, “All three of you led us here—the hyena, the macaw, and the jaguar.”
“But … couldn’t somebody else have done all of this?” I asked. “Why did it have to be us? We’re just a bunch of kids.” It’s not like we knew what we were doing; we’d bumbled our way through and almost failed.
“You three have strong spirits,” said Queen Ayaba. “The strongest we have ever seen.” She peered down at the fallen macaw. “Perhaps that is how you found each other.”
Rosa’s eyelids fluttered. Next, she changed form under Anca’s cape. After the transformation, I could see that she had a bad bruise on the side of her head and couple of cuts on her face.
When her eyes opened completely, everything felt better. For me, at least. Manny was still crying, but I didn’t feel so sad. In fact, I felt happy now that Rosa was awake.
“Are you okay?” I asked her.
“I think so,” she said in a tired voice. “What happened to the eagle?”
“He won’t be coming back,” said Queen Ayaba. “He will be punished by the spirits for what he has done, for trying to break The Code.”
With a gulp, I remembered that I’d violated The Code several times in the past few days—like when we changed form in front of no-tails—and I hoped the spirits might be more forgiving with me. After all, I had done it to save my family and friends.
Rosa sat up and smiled weakly, which filled my chest with a warm, fuzzy sensation. It was weird, and I wasn’t sure what was going on.
My parents trotted over, and I introduced them to the hyenas I’d met in Louisiana. All I could really say was, “They taught me the truth about hyenas.”
Mr. Fowrou nodded. “And you still have lots to learn.”
“Like what?” snapped Lauren. She was never nice to males, and even after all she’d been through, she still was a snot.
“Like showing respect,” said Mr. Fowrou. “Your brother is a hero.”
One of Queen Ayaba’s female bodyguards giggled a warning at my sister, and I couldn’t help but crook a smile as Lauren backed down, her head lowered and eyes to the ground. Finally, someone had put her in her place. It was about time.
The queen motioned for the other women to help Rosa to her feet, and soon she was standing with the feathered cloak wrapped around her. She almost looked like royalty, and she really did look pretty—if you’d force me to admit it.
Then I peered around, and thousands of eyes were on me.
“Samuel Budovich! You have freed us!” shouted an assortment of cats, dogs, and birds. I even spotted a few reptiles here and there, chanting my name.
I stood still, in total shock. It’s like my body had turned to stone.
“Say something,” cried one of the ravens.
“Who, me?” I giggled a little. I had no idea what to say.
“Speak, child,” urged Queen Ayaba.
“Yeah, come on, Brother Samuel,” said Mr. Fowrou. “Speak the truth.”
I scanned the crowd again and laid eyes on the humiliated King Kunturi. He looked a lot frailer than when I’d first seen him: nothing more than a half man, half bird who’d fallen from glory.
“Well,” I started, “I guess that King Kunturi made a good point on how the no-tails are pushing us out of habitats we’ve always known. I’ve seen that everywhere I’ve traveled these past few days.”
Kunturi’s eyes perked up a bit. He seemed happy I’d listened to his speech and had remembered his words.
I continued, “I can’t say that I agree with his tactics, though. Raising an army to scare the no-tails isn’t the answer.”
Kunturi’s gaze fell back to his feet.
“But maybe the no-tails are too powerful,” I said. “And that’s why an army of shape shifters couldn’t possibly win in a war against them. No matter how strong we think we are, they’ll do whatever it takes to crush us in an attack. They’ve got all sorts of weapons and numbers on their side. One on one, we’d beat them, but I think there’s like … seven or eight billion no-tails on Earth.”
I peered at a tiger and asked, “How many tigers are left in the world?”
He said, “Four thousand, I think.”
“That includes shape shifters and regular tigers?”
He nodded.
Turning my attention to a male lion, I asked, “How many of you are left?”
“Twenty thousand in Africa, and five hundred in India,” he said. “Both shape shifters and whole lions who can’t change form.”
Tossing a glance back at Queen Ayaba, I asked, “And how many hyenas?”
“Less than fifty thousand individ
uals,” she said.
“You see?” I looked out over the crowd. “Even if we combined our numbers together, including every last shape shifter and wild relative, we wouldn’t come anywhere near one million, let alone one billion, fighters. The no-tails would have us outnumbered eight thousand to one.”
Focusing on the largest bear I could find, I asked, “Could you take on eight thousand humans?”
“I don’t think so,” he said.
“Exactly my point,” I agreed. “Somebody killed old Gus—a bear I heard about in Tennessee—because he raided people’s trash cans. Now tell me this: if a no-tail would shoot old Gus over some garbage, what do you think they’d do if we started a war against them?”
Most in the audience fell silent. It appeared my words had an effect—and I was shocked that it was I who had spoken them. But I felt that what I said was true. We needed to be smart about taking any steps forward—a whole lot smarter than we’d ever been. Otherwise, the no-tails would eliminate our kind. That’s what they’d tried to do in earlier times, in those old days of silver bullets and other such mythic happenings.
“What should we do, then?” asked Kunturi.
I thought for a moment. “We’ve got to find another way. Maybe we could … uh … I don’t know … reach out to the no-tails somehow?”
“Let them know our secrets?” squawked a macaw.
“That might be too much,” I said after some consideration. “No-tails scare easily when faced with shape shifters. That’s why we’re supposed to stay hidden. I mean, we’ve all heard stories, right, about what no-tails do when confronted with wereanimals?”
“There are good no-tails,” said my mother, and I was shocked to hear her speak up. “In Vermont, we have seen them trying to save the forest. Some even tried to protect the bears.” The look in her eyes was one I hadn’t seen before. Maybe it was … a newfound respect for her son?
“I’ve seen the same in Thailand,” said a tiger.
Another tiger nodded. “I’ve seen them in Nepal as well.”
“And in Kenya,” said a lion.
“And Brazil,” Curupira chimed in.
“You see?” I said to them. “If we work with the good no-tails, maybe we’ll have a better future—one that will be safe for shape shifters, animals, and no-tails alike.”
Earning My Spots Page 17