Elephants Meet

 

“Bebe, leave that beast alone!” Alpen’s annoyance was clear as he paused to insert his shoulder under Mellen’s armpit.

Drindl bent his head forward to check on the limp body. “We need to get him help.”

“The bastards,” Alpen said, looking down the valley into the evening shadows. He turned to look at Bebe again.

“Why is he curling his trunk like that?” Bebe asked as she caught up to the others.

“Why is he…” Drindl shifted under Mellen’s weight and turned to look at the elephant, then said in an urgent voice. “Alpen, we need to take cover. There’s another elephant nearby.”

With his free arm Alpen gave the signal for silence as they carried Mellen to the forest edge and let him slump on the ground. Alpen checked for a pulse and was satisfied. “He needs food, not potions,” Alpen growled in a soft voice as he scanned the slope of grass and rock they had just left.

“I’ll be right back,” Drindl said as he crept deeper into the forest.

Looking to her left, Bebe could see a dim cloud of moonlight through the trees. The elephant was not far away, rubbing the side of its head on several tree branches. Again, it raised its trunk, curling the tri-tip end, but this time it let out a soft grunt. She turned at the sound of a burble bird, then looked to Alpen who was also alert. The sound traveled again through the whispering air between the trees. Alpen let out an answering call.

Now came the sound of a strange language, then a familiar voice and the soft trumpet from another elephant. “Alithea!” Bebe started forward to the sound, then remembered Alpen and Mellen.

“Go,” Alpen waved her away, his voice showing a quiet jubilation. “Bring Alithea here. She needs to look at Mellen.”

Bebe dashed through the wedge of trees that had separated the two parties, then stumbled in the shadows and out into the clearing. “Bebe!” Alithea called out to her and rushed to her side.

“I’m OK,” she said, favoring her left knee. She stood up and embraced Alithea, squeezing Erthen between the two of them. She stepped back and looked down at Erthen gathered in Alithea’s arms. “Baby boy, you’re all right.”

“Not so baby anymore,” Alithea said as she hefted the toddler on her hip.

“Just a few days and he’s grown so big! Here, let me take him,” Bebe asked and held out her arms, but Erthen shrank away from her.

“He doesn’t remember you,” Alithea said in an astonished voice. “It’s only been, what, a few days?” She looked down at Erthen. “This is Bebe.”

Erthen looked up at Bebe in the darkening light, not recognizing her, but remembering the sound of her name. He raised his arms and Bebe gathered him into her arms. She whirled on the grassy slope. “I thought…,” she didn’t finish the sentence, but caught sight of Fallon. “And you!” She reached out one arm to him even though he was out of reach. She noticed the woman next to Fallon, trailing behind the pallet.

Fallon motioned with one arm next to him, “Bebe, this is Sisseku.”

Bebe stopped her swinging motion with Erthen. “Sisseku?” The woman next to Fallon nodded. “We have Mellen, we have Mellen, oh God, we have Mellen!”

Sisseku didn’t understand the language, only the name of her partner that she thought was dead. She looked to Fallon, who translated. Sisseku put down the small bundle she carried and rushed to Bebe’s side, repeating one word.

Bebe looked to Fallon, who said, “She wants to know where.”

Bebe handed Erthen back to Alithea and reached out to Sisseku. “I will take you. Close by. Oh, he’s in poor shape, Sisseku. I’m sorry.” Sisseku again looked to Fallon who translated and waved her away with a nod. Sisseku followed Bebe from the clearing into the dark shadows of the slim wedge of forest.

As Bebe led Sisseku through the forest, she saw only the dim figure of Alpen huddled over the tall grass at the edge of the forest. As they neared, Bebe called out, “Alpen, I have Sisseku.”

Sisseku rushed forward at the sound of Alpen’s name. “Alpen?” He turned to her and called her name, moving away from Mellen. “Mellen?” she asked, motioning toward the dark shadow. She knelt down next to Mellen, feeling his neck, his stomach, his upper legs. She bent down and listened to his ragged breath. “We need to…” she broke off realizing that neither Alpen nor Bebe would be able to understand. She swiveled to look at Bebe. They were all adjusting to the pale light. “Fallon,” she paused, reaching for the word in their language, but it was the same in all their languages, “Elephant.”

Bebe pointed to the elephant browsing the early autumn leaves. Sisseku shook her head, then held her arms wide and motioned to and fro to indicate the pallet. “We’ll put Mellen on the pallet,” Bebe said. She turned and ran back through the forest.

Sisseku sat silently over her partner, brushing Mellen’s cheek as she waited. The rest of the party came up the hill with the elephant pulling the skid of calf carcass. The elephant stopped its browsing and ran forward to greet the other elephant. Alithea offered to check Mellen, but Sisseku wanted no delay. Drindl and Fallon unloaded the calf from the pallet, then Drindl, Alpen and Fallon carried the slumped body of Mellen onto the pallet. Fallon and Alpen hoisted the calf carcass onto Drindl’s shoulders, while Bebe joined both elephants. Sisseku lay down next to Mellen on the pallet, speaking softly into his ear and as they followed the elephants down the hill to the village. 

 

After the Carnage

 

As Alithea and Fallon approached the garrison compound, the silence made them especially cautious. When Erthen pointed to the waiting elephant and made a sound, Alithea covered his mouth with her lips to signal quiet to the boy.

“Sisseku?” Fallon called out as they neared the open pavilion. He put out an arm to block Alithea as he scanned the tables where the bodies slumped in death. “Sisseku!” Her body was slumped forward at a nearby table, her head cradled in folded arms. As he had done with the others, Fallon touched her neck to feel for a pulse.

“What?” Sisseku abruptly jerked awake and lifted her head. “I must have fallen asleep.”

“I thought you had died like the others,” Fallon said.

Sisseku  looked past Fallon to Alithea and Erthen. “Who are they? They are not from the village.”

“My partner and child.” Since they were leaving, Fallon saw no point in lying and introduced them. “We are going to leave. We don’t feel safe here.”

Sisseku was disappointed. “Help me load the meat onto the pallet. This is a wonderful gift for the others in the village.”

Alithea wandered through the bench seats in the pavilion, occasionally reaching for a pulse on a soldier’s neck. She came upon the queen, her head slumped on the table in front of her. She reached down, grabbed the queen’s light brown hair and gently lifted the head from the table. The skin was pale in death, as though carved from a stone of pale moonlight. “I do my own bidding, not yours.” She turned her face to Erthen, who reached up a small hand to touch her lips. “Respect, baby boy. We respect others.” She leaned her face to the boy as he gurgled babble words at her, then let the queen’s hair loose. The head fell forward with a dull thud.

Fallon helped load the meat on the pallet, ready to fend off any questions about the food or Alithea, but Sisseku did not ask how Alithea came to be there. “Sisseku, where did the Fae rider go?”

“She went over the palace earlier while we were preparing the food,” Sisseku said as she looked around. The elephant curled its trunk around a clump of grass, yanked it from the dirt, then tucked the grass into its mouth.

“Such strange creatures,” Fallon said.

“We need some of the meat,” Alithea reminded Fallon.

“Why don’t you come down to the village?” Sisseku asked. “It’s getting late and you’ll be safe.” She looked around. “You’ll need water and I wouldn’t drink what they have here. Who knows what killed them?”

Fallon glanced at Alithea, who was alert to the conversation. “Sisseku suggests that we spend the night in the village.”

“They will be curious about me,” Alithea warned. “Now she knows that we are together.”

“Let’s take the chance. Since the queen and her garrison are dead, they may not care. In the morning we can properly prepare food for the journey.”

“There’s a Fae rider in the village who patrols with a wolf bear at night,” Alithea reminded him.

“The village is north,” Fallon argued. “The cave where we were captured is that way. There may be some of our belongings there. We cut up the meat and leave tonight from the village?” They agreed and Fallon helped tie the meat to the pallet, then covered it to protect it from flying insects which were becoming more numerous in the twilight air.

“How do we tell this beast where to go?” Alithea asked as she bounced Erthen on her hip.

Fallon turned to Sisseku. “Without the Fae rider, how will we control the elephant?”

“She knows water is down in the village,” Sisseku said as she looked to the trees. “Grab a switch. We may need to urge her on from time to time. They dawdle to eat.”

Sisseku held the small branch in her hand as Fallon walked alongside the pallet, making sure the meat stayed secure as the travois bumped along the lumpy ground. Alithea followed behind, carefully dodging small animals that poked their heads out of dirt burrows under the darkening sky.

Suddenly, the elephant picked up its pace and Fallon had to walk quickly to keep alongside the pallet. “How do we get it to slow down?” he asked as he glanced back at Alithea who struggled with the quicker pace.

“I don’t know,” Sisseku answered as she hurried along. “Her trunk is curling up. She smells another elephant close by.”

 

Down Slope

 

As they descended the slope from the mine, Bebe rocked from side to side astride the elephants neck. She restrained the impulse to use her foot claws to secure herself. By the time she got near the bottom of the slope, the din from the mine had diminished. She turned back to the tent and called to Alpen. He leaned out of the tent and answered. “East?” she asked.

Alpen turned toward inside the tent, then turned back to Bebe. “North. We need to look for Fallon and Alithea.”

“They’re…” Bebe didn’t finish the thought, afraid to confirm what she had supposed. She pinched the top of both elephant’s ears, hoping that the animal would stop. She was surprised when it did. Without using her claws to launch herself from atop the elephant, the ground seemed far away. On her knees, she crawled back to the tent, conscious of her precarious position. “Alpen, help.” He stuck his head out of the side flap of the tent and held out an arm. “Lower me to the ground,” she said. Holding onto his arm, she jumped the rest of the way, careful to back away from the tree trunk legs as she landed.

“Can you find a hill or a large rock?” Alpen looked down from the tent.

Bebe glanced ahead of the elephant and behind. “I can look. There’s no rope. Nothing to lead the elephant with. The Fae warrior did it all with her tendrils.”

“Once you find something, find some tall grass,” Alpen said. “They like that. You can lead the elephant with food.”

“How is Mellen?”

“Dazed. He wants to know if he will get his evening dose,” Alpen said. “That’s how they kept the miners prisoner.”

“What happens to him when he doesn’t get, you know…” Bebe didn’t want Mellen to hear.

“I don’t know.” At a sound from inside the tent, Alpen ducked back inside.

Bebe walked to the front of the elephant and scanned the area. She had stopped at a level clearing before the land descended further. On her right, the ground steepened. She paused at the scuffling of the large, padded feet behind her. Turning to look back, the elephant moved forward to her left. From inside the tent, she heard the surprised riders. Not knowing what to do, she called, “It’s all right.”

She moved alongside the trunk that curled up like a large snake. She put out her left hand to stroke the wrinkled skin. When the elephant grunted, she withdrew and looked up at the placid eye staring at her, it’s long graceful eyelashes hinting of an unreachable intelligence inside the large head. She looked up at the tent, but it stayed secure as the beast plodded down the slope, edging toward the tree line. It stopped, curling its trunk around some coarse foot high grass and pulling it up. The sheaf of green shoots disappeared into the mouth below the root of the trunk. Bebe called out, “It was hungry.”

Alpen stuck his head out of the tent flap. “This animal is too slow, too big. We need to leave him alone.” He threw out a long cloth and used it to lower himself down the side of the elephant. The animal protested at the shift in weight but kept on chewing. Alpen called up to the tent and Mellen shimmied down, followed by Drindl.

Alpen said, “Back away and watch him. I’m going to loosen the tent harness under his belly.” Reaching under the belly, he fiddled with the harness then backed away quickly. The tent platform sat askew on the elephant. “Watch out,” he warned and pulled the cloth tied to the platform. The frame tipped toward him and he backed away to join the others. The elephant turned its head to the sound and moved forward faster than expected for such a large animal. It stopped a little ways down the slope and continued feeding.

Bebe looked to Alpen and pointed down the slope. “That’s north, more or less.”

Alpen was distracted by his brother, Mellen, who leaned on Drindl for support. Alpen shook his head as he looked at Bebe. “I thought he could walk, but I see he can’t go far.” He waved to Bebe to lead them down the slope. “Stay alongside the tree line for cover.” He joined Drindl, the two of them holding Mellen up as they continued down the slope.

“Bye, baby,” Bebe said as they walked past the elephant. She walked over a few steps and patted the great trunk. Looking into one yellow brown eye, she said, “I hope you’ll be OK.” She walked away to join the rest, but the elephant made a high short bleat and she turned back. “You want to come? Come on.” She had marveled at the Fae’s ability to control wild animals, and never thought that an animal could be social with others not their own kind. She grabbed some grass shoots and held them out to the elephant. She tried to keep her hand still as the tip of the trunk grazed her wrist and curled around the grass.

“What are you doing?” Alpen called up the slope.

“I think he wants to follow us,” Bebe called back. Turning back to the elephant, she spoke more softly. “Come on, now.” She made tsking sounds as she backed down the slope toward the group. The elephant lumbered forward, its trunk lifting up to the sky in a graceful curve. All the way down the slope Bebe turned back occasionally to call to the elephant.

“I’ll trust your instincts,” Alpen said when they paused for some rest. His displeasure was obvious.

“Maybe he can smell water,” Bebe explained. “An animal that big has to drink a lot of water.”

“He could store it somewhere and we would never notice,” Alpen commented as he inspected Mellen’s face. “He needs to eat. Mellen, I mean. Not the elephant.”

Drindl had gone ahead while they rested. Alpen and Bebe looked up at the sound of his voice from down the slope. He waved one arm as we continued up the slope toward them. After catching his breath, he said, “There’s a village at the bottom of the slope around the curve of trees. I see smoke so maybe can get some food.”

“Guards?” Alpen asked.

“Not that I saw,” Drindl said. He looked at Mellen. “Any better?”

Alpen shook his head. “The food might help.” He looked up at the darkening sky, then motioned to Drindl. “Let’s go before its nightfall and we can’t scout the village.”

Sweet Dreams

 

Fallon and Sisseku brought out a second helping of bread to the feast. As they approached Sisseku glanced to Fallon, puzzled at the stillness. In the dimming sky above, Fallon paused staring at what seemed to be a Faerie or a small bird.

“Hurry, the bread is cooling,” Sisseku stopped and turned back to him.

“Bird? I haven’t seen a bird in a while,” Fallon said, motioning his head skyward.

Sisseku looked up. “Oh, my, that is odd. Come on, the queen will be mad.” She turned toward the tent.

Fallon paused, listening to the silence from the pavilion where he had left the soldiers. If the poison had taken effect, he expected to hear gurgles and moans of pain, not the quiet of an evening breeze. He almost bumped his tray into Sisseku, who had stopped inside the pavilion. “Why are they sleeping?” Sisseku asked.

Fallon moved to the side and put his tray of breads on a nearby table. He noticed the flowing beige gown of the queen, her seated figure at a curved table the soldiers called a dais. Her head lay in her crossed arms on the table and beside her the red-haired soldier slumped sideways in his seat, his head cocked back, his mouth open.

“Shhhh,” Fallon said, turning to Sisseku. He approached the dais table and bent to look at the slack face of the red-haired soldier. He walked around the table and behind the soldier and felt for a pulse on the neck below the beard. He turned to the queen and felt her neck, then looked up to Sisseku and shook his head.

“Not sleeping?” asked Sisseku as she put the bread tray down.

“Not breathing,” Fallon said. “No pulse.”

“But we made all this food,” Sisseku protested as she looked around at the uneaten dishes they had prepared.

Fallon looked around for the bowl with the berry mash but moved casually toward it, pausing to check other soldiers. He kept his eye on Sisseku, ready to intercept her if she moved toward the table with the bowl. She was more interested in the meat tray.

“She’s dead?” Sisseku asked. Fallon nodded and Sisseku cut a piece of haunch meat and held it to her nose before taking a bite.

Reaching the bowl, Fallon saw that it was mostly empty. The soldiers hadn’t waited to eat it after the meal. Fallon pretended to knock the bowl off the table, then bent down and threw some dirt in the bowl. He stood up, holding the bowl to show the dirt, apologizing for his clumsiness. He realized that he couldn’t leave the bowl there in case a stray animal licked it. He turned to a nearby soldier, reached down and slipped the knife from the scabbard at his waist. He brandished the knife in one hand, the bowl in the other using it as a shield. “I’m going to the palace to get the doctor,” he said to Sisseku.

“Don’t leave me here,” she said, her mouth full. She swallowed. “We can bring the meat back to the village.”

Fallon took a chance. “Aren’t you worried that it might be bad?” he asked.

Sisseku shook her head. “The village elder had some this morning. He was fine.”

Fallon paused, “I wonder what happened.”

Sisseku said, “We’ll bring the calf meat down to the village, then clean up in the morning. I don’t want to stay here.” Her shoulders shook as though a chill ran through her body, then took another bite of meat.

Fallon left the tent, moving toward the palace at the top of the rise. Alert to every sound and smell, he was aware of the ocean smell that carried on the night breeze. He saw no motion but heard a slight keening voice from the sky above. Not the sound of a faerie after all, but a bird who balanced on spread wings in the onshore breeze. Fallon stopped to put more dirt in the bowl, rubbing it around, then scooping the loose dirt onto the ground. Finally, he wiped his hands on the ground, aware that he was probably carrying some of the poison on his fur.

A torch light inside the main portico showed no activity but he was cautious, expecting that the Fae palace guards had not attended the dinner. He crept through the opening, watchful for the slightest movement. To his right was the ramp that led up to the clinic, Alithea and Erthen. It was strangely silent. Stooping low, he crept up the ramp, ears and eyes alert to the presence of a Fae guard. At the top of the ramp, he peered down the hallway toward the clinic. A Fae guard lay crumpled a warrior’s length yards from the clinic, a finger tendril laying askew on the hard clay floor. Fallon made the sound of a Burble bird, hoping that Alithea could hear it from inside the clinic.

When Alithea’s head appeared in the clinic opening, she turned left and saw Fallon. Silently, he pointed to the fallen Fae guard. Alithea held up two fingers. Fallon gave her a questioning gesture, hoping she would know where the other guard was, but Alithea shook her head. Fallon crept forward, pausing to feel the neck of the Fae guard, satisfying himself that she was dead and not unconscious. He moved across the hallway and joined Alithea as she backed into the clinic.

“Erthen?” Fallon asked in a whisper, enjoying the contact with Alithea as he clasped her arms in his hands.

“In the other room,” Alithea said. “The queen sent over a dinner for the guards, but I don’t know where the other guard is.

“Wait here. Stay with Erthen,” Fallon cautioned, then turned and snuck into the hallway. An opening at the east end of hallway was the pale light of a quarter moon. Fallon moved slowly, pausing at each room opening to make sure it was safe. When he got to the end of the hallway, he approached opening, knife and bowl at the ready. He made a swift movement through the opening, arm cocked but there was no attack. Looking down he saw a Fae guard folded over the short wall that bounded the small balcony. He moved his foot forward, extending a claw to poke the guard’s foot, but felt no response. He set the bowl down and reached forward to feel the guard’s neck, knife poised to strike. No pulse. He pulled the body back onto the balcony, noticing the limp finger tendrils that signaled death.

Moving cautiously back to the clinic room, he ducked inside. When Alithea started to speak, he made a quieting motion with his hand. “Both guards are dead, but there could be others. Let’s go.” He looked past Alithea to the small room. “Erthen?” She nodded. He went inside and picked up the boy, then put his mouth over the boy’s mouth, making a shushing sound with his tongue, the signal to stay quiet. The boy slapped his father on the shoulders and made joyful throat sounds but did not speak.

Fallon moved through the clinic to the hallway, clutching the boy. “Wait,” Alithea called back in a loud whisper. She gathered some items from a cabinet, put them in a cloth bag and followed Fallon down the hallway. When they reached the main opening to the palace, Fallon scouted the lawn, then moved to the right, away from the ocean. “Where are we going?” she asked in an insistent low tone.

“As far away from here as we can get,” Fallon said, turning to wait for her.

“Sisseku. We can’t leave her here,” Alithea said.

            “We can discuss this when we get to the trees ahead,” Fallon said. “I feel exposed in this moonlight.”

            When they got to the edge of the trees, they stopped. Fallon gave Erthen a smooch as Alithea shifted the bag of medicines she had brought. “Are they all?” she asked.

“It’s like they were drunk or sleeping,” Fallon said, shaking his head. “No pulse. What was that?”

“Never mind,” Alithea said. “Where is the rest of the berries? Some animals could…”

Fallon interrupted. “I cleaned the bowl out with dirt. Oh, my fur,” pushed Erthen away from him. “Take him. I might have some on my hands.”

Alithea put the medicine bag down and scooped Erthen into her arms, cooing at him while she did so. “Did you touch his face?” she brushed away the fine fur around his mouth and nose. “I don’t feel anything.”

Fallon had stooped down, rubbing the front and back of his hands on the grass that grew near the edge of the trees. He peered at the back of his hands in the dim light but he couldn’t see anything. “I think I cleaned it all off. There was just a tiny bit left in the bowl when I first found it.”

“If they are all dead, we can go get Sisseku,” Alithea said.

“She wants me to help her take the calf meat back to the village,” Fallon said. “It’s become her home. Come on, let’s go.”

“What about the others? Bebe, Alpen and Drindl? We can’t just leave them,” Alithea protested. “We could bring some of the food with us.”

“We’re not going back to the village,” Fallon said. “When the other soldiers find out their queen and this garrison are dead, they may just kill us all. I don’t know.”

“We’ll need the food,” Alithea reminded him. “He needs the food, some proper food,” nodding her head to Erthen.

Fallon looked to the east and the moon, then back to the pavilion building. “Quickly. If Sisseku doesn’t want to go with us, we leave. Promise.” Alithea agreed and they followed the tree line toward the north and the pavilion.

 

Elephant Escape

 

Bebe dared not look at the Fae warrior who touched her arm. From behind Drindl pushed her forward to the bottom of the stairs, growling his displeasure at her lack of attention to the line. Bebe turned her head to look back over her left shoulder and away from the Fae warrior. She growled back in a low voice that she hoped sounded masculine enough to confuse the Fae warrior and think she was a male. Squeezing her fist to make as large an arm muscle as she could, she struck back at Drindl. The Fae warrior yelled something, then grabbed her from behind and pushed her forward. Bebe stepped up on the first step, her legs wide, her shoulders swaggering as she imagined a miner might look. Alpen reached back to swat at her and she brushed away his hand with an abrupt motion of her arm.

At the top of the stairs, a Fae warrior let Alpen through the opening into the clinic. Bebe waited, eyes down, sometimes scratching her leg like an animal. She hoped that the Fae warrior would not notice her youth. Suddenly she heard a tik-tik bird from inside the clinic, a call to action from Alpen. She sensed that Drindl was moving forward and struck out with her leg at the Fae warrior, who went off balance and fell over the handrail to the ground below.

Bebe moved from the outside light, her eyes adjusting quickly to the dim interior of the clinic. A Fae warrior lay crumpled on the clinic floor as Alpen turned to the other guard near the window opening of the clinic. The Fae guard had wrapped her arm around the neck of a miner, holding the compliant body to her as a shield. Alpen cried out “Mellen!” as he brushed past another miner.

The Fae warrior on the floor reached out toward Alpen’s foot as he moved away from her. Her grasp missed her mark, but her knees gathered under her, ready to assist her fellow guard. Bebe stepped forward, then launched a kick at the cheek of the Fae warrior. She felt her nails tear into the cheek flesh as she rolled sideways in the air and landed in a crouch, ready to defend against the Fae warrior’s attack. The warrior struck out with her right arm toward Bebe, but fell forward onto the floor, her neck at a curious angle. There was a brief spasm from the warrior then she slumped lifeless.

Drindl sprang from the stairway leading to the main floor of the clinic, glancing at Bebe to make sure she was uninjured. He reached for a long stir stick on the clinic table, then joined Alpen who struggled with the Fae warrior. Drindl let out a battle cry as he came forward, and Alpen stepped to the side, pulling Mellen to the floor. Drindl drove the stirring stick through the eye of the Fae warrior, who stumbled back and collapsed.

Seeing the elephant waiting outside the window, Drindl motioned to Bebe, then helped Alpen load his drugged brother into the tent atop the elephant’s back. Bebe glanced down the stairs leading up to the clinic, alert to another Fae warrior responding to the commotion. Several miners had turned and were trying to get away from the violence. As Bebe prepared to step out of the window opening into the tent, the elephant moved forward, guided by his Fae handler away from the clinic building.

“No, you don’t,” Bebe said to no one and leapt onto the tent frame base, the claws of her right foot sinking into the fabric of the tent wall. The Fae warrior looked back at her in panic as Bebe jumped onto the Fae’s right arm. The warrior screamed as Bebe’s foot claw ripped through the skin. Bebe pushed the Fae off her perch from behind the elephant, whose long thick trunk curled up in alarm.

Bebe had seen one of the human soldiers talk into the ear of an elephant and tried the same tactic, trying to keep her voice calm and manly despite the sound of her own heart crashing in her ears. As she sat astride the elephant’s neck, she fought the urge to dig her foot claws into the sides of the elephant to secure herself. She closed her eyes, pretending that she was once again talking her dead babies to sleep, despite the sounds of alarm and commotion from the clinic.

The Fae warriors controlled an elephant’s movements directly with their minds through their finger tendrils. Without that ability, how was Bebe to control this monstrous animal? She used the same technique she had used as a mother, pinching the right ear of the elephant. Like a child, the elephant turned away from the pinch and Bebe’s heart leapt with relief. This animal had also grown up with a mother who used the same steering technique, bothering the child on the opposite side of where the mother wanted the child to go.

Hunched over the giant skull bone of the elephant’s head, Bebe looked back at the clinic, worried that the remaining Fae warriors would give chase. Instead, she was relieved to see the miners attacking the Fae warriors, probably out of desperation for their medicine. Bebe turned back to the tent behind her and made the cooing sounds of a burble bird. She smiled when she heard Alpen’s answering coo, and scratched the elephant behind the large ears, urging the animal forward toward the crest of the hill at the edge of the mine.

 

Just Desserts

 

“Where’s the berry mash?” Fallon asked, glancing around the shed next to the soldier’s quarters.

“The soldiers were kind enough to take it,” Sisseku said, stirring the giblets of the calf in the soup over the fire.

Fallon sighed, looking up to the vent where the smoke from the fire swirled up to the pale blue of the early evening sky. He remembered the words of his father, “Some days will be easy. Cherish them. They are few.” He shrugged on the large cloak to hide his muscles and frame, then shuffled to the soldier’s barracks.

A brown bearded soldier stopped him as he entered the barracks. Bent over, Fallon looked up at the pock mark on the cheeks below the soldier’s eyes. “Hey, old dog,” the soldier said, “this isn’t the graveyard.”

Fallon turned to several voices laughing. Two soldiers held bowls of some liquid that they tipped to their mouths. He couldn’t let them know he understood what they were say. “Hey, I’m talking to you, dog!” The soldier pushed at Fallon’s left shoulder, and Fallon was careful to curb his reaction.

The pressure of the soldier’s hand indicated that this was not his dominant hand. Glancing at the two companions, Fallon saw that they also held their drinking bowls with their left hand. Was this a custom or were these warriors left-handed? There were few left-handed People and those few did not become warriors. These humans would be a formidable force because they were unusual.

Fallon turned to the soldier and made swirling motions with his arms, careful to keep his forearms disguised under the cloak. He put his fists together, one on top of the other, and made stirring motions. The soldier pushed him back. “You animals, none of you can speak,” the soldier said.

Fallon artfully stepped back, feigning a loss of balance before he stood again, shoulders bent. He repeated his stirring motion. In the background, behind the soldiers in front of him, he caught a glimpse of the instinctual hierarchy in this warrior troop. Soldiers of lower station bowed to their superiors who raised their chins to show their superiority. Fallon tried this subtle language, bowing his head forward as he repeated his stirring motion. The soldier stepped back, sweeping his arm. “Go on, you baboon.” Fallon wasn’t sure what a baboon was, but he understood the dismissive and haughty tone of the soldier’s voice.

Fallon shuffled past the soldier to the large pot where the dessert berry mash sat. As he reached forward to pick up the pot, he realized that this would give away his strength. He made a grunting sound as he appeared to strain with the weight of the mash.

“Step back. You’ll just spill it, you dog.” The soldier’s voice came from behind Fallon’s right shoulder and Fallon feigned a cringe, but didn’t step back, fearing that it might signal he understood. Reaching around Fallon, the soldier placed his palm on Fallon’s shoulder and pushed him away from the mash. “Come on, fellas, someone give me a hand,” the soldier said. Fallon followed a respectful distance behind the two soldiers as they carried the pot of mash back to the shed.

Fallon imagined slashing the soldier’s neck but bowed his thanks and waited for the two soldiers to leave the shed. “Do what you have to do and we’ll take it back,” the soldier said. He looked at Sisseku, then glanced down at her hips as she turned to Fallon. He turned to his companion. “This one. I like the way she moves.” His companion laughed.

Fallon imagined smashing the soldier’s teeth, twisting his neck and looking at the eyes as the life left him. He looked up at the soldier with what he hoped was a questioning look and betrayed none of the anger he felt. The soldier mimicked Fallon’s stirring motion. “Stir, dog, stir!”

Fallon turned to the table where he had put the bag Alithea had given him. When he turned back to the pot with the mash, the soldier stopped his motion with an arm. “Let me taste that.” He dipped a finger in the mound of hazel fury berry and stuck it in his mouth. His tongue licked his lips. “Ooh, that’s good. Put it in there.”

Fallon dumped the poisonous berries in the mash, giving a sidelong glance at the soldier. Was this a fast-acting poison, he wondered? If the soldier fell dead no one else would eat the berry mash. He stirred deliberately to mix the berries into the mash.

“We don’t have all day, dog!” The soldier took the wooden stirrer from Fallon. He must have seen a look of defiance in Fallon’s eyes and shook the stirrer in front of Fallon’s face. “Want to fight me, dog?” Fallon looked downward and the soldier rapped the stirrer on the top of his head. He inspected the stirrer. “Better not have any lice, dog.”

When the soldier had finished stirring the berry mash, he threw the stirrer on the table, then he and his companion took the pot out of the shed. Sisseku reached up and swiped her palm over the top of Fallon’s head. He reached up and held her forearm, looking around for water.

“What are you doing?” Sisseku asked as he put her hand in the pot of water, then lowered his head over the pot and cleaned the top of his head with his hand. “It’s just berry mash,” Sisseku protested. Fallon turned to the table, picked up the stirrer and washed it as well. Sisseku looked at him suspiciously. “What was that?”

“Berries,” Fallon said, not knowing how to allay Sisseku’s suspicions. “Ripe berries.” A thought came to him. “They have no fur. Some of our people say that we can catch their disease and will lose our fur. I don’t want us to die.”

Sisseku made a puffing sound with her lips. “That’s just talk. Nothing to it. It’s not a disease.”

Fallon shrugged and the cloak fell from his shoulders as he stood to his full height.

Mine Assault

“First target, the cleaning station there on the left. We’ll mingle with the miners on their way to the clinic, our prime target,” Alpen said. “If we see Mellen, we grab him and go.”

“Treat the miners as hostile?” Drindl asked. Bebe glanced sideway at him, surprised at the matter-of-fact tone.

“Yes. If they are addicted like Alithea said, their loyalty is to the drug and they will treat us as hostile.”

Bebe realized that it took more than eating some energy to feel comfortable in the warrior community. “It’s not their fault that they are addicted.”

Alpen turned to her. “It’s not the wolfbear’s fault that it’s hungry and I’m food.” He held out his hand to her. “We must act as one. Do you want to stay here?”

Bebe paused, then shook her head. “I’m a negotiator. You are a warrior. You go directly to your target. I circle the target, hoping to strike a bargain.”

“Is that what you did when you were attacked in the queen’s castle?” Alpen asked. The look on Drindl’s face showed his surprise at this revelation.

“My bargaining was to strengthen and defend my position,” Bebe said. “My training took hold.” She paused. “I am with you.”

Alpen took her hand and Drindl’s as they gathered in a circle at the edge of the forest. “We spring from the dirt like the energy in the spring. We are separate roots but one tree reaching for our goal.” Hands clasped, they touched the earth, feeling the network of life through their arms and shoulders, down into their chests, through their hips and into their legs, connecting them with the lifeforce. After a moment of silence, they broke the circle, then moved left along the rim of the gaping hole it the earth.

With a curl of his hand and a point of his finger, Alpen signaled to the elephant coming down the main road into the mine. In less than an hour it would return with a load and more miners on their way to the clinic. He signaled to the clinic building, held up two fingers, then made a walking sign as though going inside and held up two fingers again. He pointed to the left rim of the giant mine where they washed the miners before visiting the clinic. Two fingers. Six Fae warriors in total.

Before descending the slope into open view, Alpen rolled in the brownish gray dirt, and Bebe followed suit. Walking between Alpen and Drindl, Bebe assumed the same tired and bent posture as they drew closer to the washing pool.

Later, she would think back this time, feeling a sense of shared understanding with Alpen and Drindl. As the three of them joined the line of miners at the pool, she would have been attuned to every gesture of the Fae, ready to fight or flee. She was an animal, instinctively reaching for motion as a solution to any need or threat. The energy had helped her meld her senses with the earth, and like all life rooted in the earth, she understood the skill of bending with a threat.

She didn’t look at the Fae warrior as she stood, wide stance like a tired warrior who had battled the dirt and his own fatigue for most of the day. She didn’t worry whether Alpen or Drindl would fight or make a run for it. She somehow knew what their response would be because their minds and emotions were entangled roots joined in the earth.

She sloughed off her tunic, then waited in line, hunched from weariness, burdened with a heavy weight on her shoulders like the miners in front of her. When it came her time, she stood placidly as a Fae warrior quickly scrubbed her down with a long-handled brush. Had the Fae warrior gotten closer, she might have realized that, wide stance or not, Bebe was a female. She copied some of the other miners, turning her hips slightly away from the gaze of the Fae attendant and covering her genital area with her hands. She was handed a tunic that felt rough and she tugged it on as she walked away. Drindl was behind her on the path, Alpen two miners ahead as they trudged to the clinic.

Somehow, she knew that Mellen was not in the line at the bottom of the stairs leading up to the clinic itself. Head hung, focusing on the miner in front of her, she disregarded the short sharp voice to her right. Then she felt a Fae warrior touch her arm.