Aegis Rising (8 page)

Huyani gave Akol a confirming look, and they sat down opposite the friends. Akol began slowly. “I will try my best to tell you what I may, though be forewarned, some things will not be entirely clear to you . . . There are somewhat unmentionable actualities I must take out of this account.” He took a gulp from his own cup and composed himself.

Unmentionable actualities? The five exchanged puzzled looks.
What on earth does that mean?

“You were brought unconscious to us by some of the most amazing inhabitants of these forests. We refer to them as the Guardians. They are powerful and are very protective of the people. We have had great respect for them and their ancestors for many, many years. They must have heard the explosion. We believe they followed the flames in the sky and were led to you.”

Jag pounded the counter with a fist, causing the others to jump. “Hold on a second, Akol. Are these ‘Guardians’ extremely huge bears by any chance?”

Akol coughed, surprised. “Yes, they are.”

Jag hooted and pointed smugly at Kody and Aari. “I told you I wasn’t hallucinating!”

Aari’s jaw dropped in disbelief. Kody just stared blankly at Jag, who cracked his knuckles in contentment.

Akol took up his narrative again. “In any case, our people trust the Guardians with their lives. They are loyal, and have incredible tracking skills. When you were brought to us, our Elders instructed Huyani and I to care for you and keep you from falling into the void.”

Aari interjected. “Who are your Elders?”

Akol took another sip from his drink. “They are our leaders. We revere and trust them. They are wise and caring people who guide us and teach us the ways of the tribe. We look up to them and love them dearly.

“This village, this tribe, has an amazing history. We are descendants of two groups of very different peoples. I will not go into details now, but suffice to say that the unification of the two groups brought about extraordinary capabilities in our tribe. We have developed abilities which may seem miraculous to outsiders. For example, you have experienced Huyani’s healing skills. Also, as you have noticed, Huyani and I are gifted with unusual linguistic ability; I believe the word in your language for this skill is ‘omni-linguism’. This is how we are able to communicate with you. Other people in our village have different abilities.”

“But these are not miracles or magic,” Huyani chipped in. “They are latent in each one of us.”

Akol finished his drink. “This is as much as we can share with you for now. I am certain that the Elders will enlighten you further. They are looking forward to meeting all of you very soon.”

“What?” Mariah tugged at her earlobe. “They’re going to—we’re going to meet them? When? Why?”

Akol appeared caught off guard by her queries. He looked intently at the five’s faces and said, “It would be wise to stay patient for now. In time, things will become clearer, I promise you.”

They nodded, uncertain. Tegan looked thoughtful for a moment, then ventured, “Really, who are you? And
where
are we?”

“My friends,” Akol said as he stood up and stretched his arms, smiling, “welcome to Dema-Ki, the hidden valley.”

9

T
he bright midday sun found the Elders outside their assembly
neyra
. Huyani had finished her briefing some while ago and left, and the Elders decided to step out to discuss what they had gathered from her observations.

“That was an interesting narrative from Huyani,” Tayoka said, scratching his red beard.

Saiyu nodded. “It sounds like they are an amusing group. Bold, too, to step out into unfamiliar surroundings during the night.”

Tikina shaded her green eyes from the sun’s glare. “Huyani mentioned that one of the girls seemed rather guarded, the one with dark-golden hair.”

“They have gone through a harrowing ordeal and being in a strange place is bound to be unsettling,” Saiyu answered.

“The other girl, the taller one with brown hair . . . Huyani is yet to converse with her, so we have very little to assess her with,” Ashack said in his deep voice.

Nageau started walking toward the riverbank. “Perhaps we should go see them. Huyani did say that she and Akol were planning to gather them at her shelter.” He cast a look at Saiyu, who was walking silently now. “You seem distracted. What is on your mind?”

“It was something Huyani said . . . about their eyes,” Saiyu muttered, then wandered back into deep thought.

Hearing her comment, Ashack paused. “That is strange. I felt that way too.”

“Do you two ever have any differing thoughts?” Tayoka teased.

“When you finally pick a mate, you will know what it is like,” Ashack shot back to the others’ amusement.

“Yes, it is about time you found someone to share your life with, Tayoka,” Saiyu remarked lightheartedly.

Tayoka snorted. “What? I am a happy man where I am, thank you very much. Do not try to drag me into the misery you call life-companionship.”

That drew laughter from Nageau, who shook his head with a smile. Noting that his mate was silent, he turned and saw Tikina standing beside him, her eyes closed. He lightly touched her shoulder and before the others noticed, she snapped out of her brief meditative state with a mysterious smile.

“About their eyes—” she started.

Before she could finish, a young boy around ten years of age dashed by, crashing into Nageau. “Elder Nageau! Elder Nageau!” he gasped. “I am so glad I found you!”

Nageau steadied the boy. “What is it, Diyo?” he asked, alarmed.

“It is my father, he is sick!” The boy stopped for a breather. “Our neighbors have brought him back—”

“Where is he?” Saiyu demanded.

“This way!” The boy dashed downriver. The Elders followed him quickly. As they reached the shelter, Diyo veered off to find his mother.

A man in his late twenties sat hunched on a bed in a corner. His lips were chalk white, his face horribly pale. Two other men were tending to him. As the Elders approached, his body tensed and convulsed, and he vomited into a small bucket in front of him. He looked up at the newcomers with an agonized moan.

“Fiotez,” Tikina murmured, as she sat beside him on his bed and wrapped a soothing arm around him.

“Elder Tikin—” he groaned. He tensed as if he were about to retch again, then his eyes rolled to the back of his head and he collapsed in her arms, unconscious. Tikina breathed in sharply.

Nageau glanced back to the open door as he heard hurried footsteps. Diyo burst into the shelter. He choked at the sight of his unconscious father. His mother ran in behind him and gasped.

Tayoka gently ushered them back out the door, saying kindly, “Keep Diyo away from his father for now.” He added more quietly, “I am sorry. It is better for you to stay with your son. Let us take care of Fiotez.”

He reluctantly shut the door on the dismayed mother and son, and sidled over to stand beside his fellow Elders.

“What do you think happened to him?” Nageau asked no one in particular.

His question was met with silence and apprehensive looks from the others. One of the men who had been tending to Fiotez before the Elders arrived stood up and turned to look at Nageau. He was stocky with short, wavy brown hair that bobbed as he dipped his head at the Elder. In a gruff but respectful voice, he said, “Elder Nageau, we are Fiotez’s neighbors and are the ones responsible for bringing him back from our hunting trip.”

“When did he start showing signs of illness?” Tikina queried, picking up some herbs from the household. She flattened the leaves on a pumice slab before rolling them into a pellet, which she gently inserted under Fiotez’s tongue.

“When we were returning from our expedition to one of the mountains,” said the stocky neighbor. “He seemed fine at first, but the symptoms became worse as we got closer to the village.”

Tikina glanced up from scrutinizing her patient. “I think it is best if everyone vacates this shelter so we can have more air circulating. It will allow me to tend to him better.”

The other Elders and Fiotez’s neighbors headed outside silently, grabbing a quick look at Tikina as she continued to work on the sick man.

Outside, Ashack’s voice commanded the other Elders’ attention. “I pray that Fiotez’s condition does not worsen. I have not seen such affliction before . . . Our people are usually strong.”

Nageau didn’t reply. He possessed a keen sense of smell and was disturbed by the strange odor he had gotten in Fiotez’s shelter. Tayoka nudged him, bringing him out of his reflection, then said, “I hope so too, but something tells me . . .” He looked at the two neighbors. “You said you were with Fiotez when he started becoming sick. Please describe everything that occurred during your trip.”

“Well, it had been some time since the three of us have hunted together,” the taller neighbor began, “so we were eagerly anticipating this trip. We had our mates pack our necessities. Also, Huyani asked us to collect some herbs she needed for her stock. Once she gave us a list of what was needed, we departed for Ekota.”

“Ekota? That mountain is quite a long way,” Tayoka noted.

“Yes, it is. It was supposed to have been a four-day trip. The weather held up rather nicely. We did not encounter any game until sundown on the second day, when some caribou were taking a drink from a small brook. We almost got one of the animals, but it was getting dark and we missed. The caribou escaped, leaving us to continue on our way. We camped by a lake and ate our food, then turned in for some rest. We departed early the following morning.” He looked at Tayoka, who nodded and motioned for him to continue.

“We followed some game trails that led us to a dead deer near a stream. It was a strange sight as the animal was not brought down by any predator or by old age, and foam covered its muzzle.

“We turned and continued our hunt down one of the trails. Fiotez slipped on some lichen at one point and nearly tumbled into a crevasse. He must have passed on his clumsiness to us, because a few minutes later, we walked into some thorns.” The man chuckled tiredly, rubbing his bruised arm. “Besides that, nothing else strange happened.” He paused as his eyes followed a small insect in its erratic flight.

“Please, continue,” Saiyu urged. “There must be something more.”

His brows furrowed as he tried to recall. “Though our hunting expedition was rather unsuccessful, we managed to find the herbs that Huyani needed. As we were heading back, Fiotez insisted on trying to hunt game again. We reluctantly agreed, knowing what a passionate hunter Fiotez is. Late in the morning on our third day, he trekked to a nearby creek to refill his water pelt while we waited at the camp. We tried hunting for a little while after that, but fortune was not on our side. We got nothing and sought to come back, but Fiotez wanted to continue. We coaxed him to give it up and he reluctantly agreed; not so much because we outnumbered him two to one, but rather at this point it appeared that he was not feeling too well. So, that sundown we camped again around a good fire and made sure he was comfortably tucked in.”

The man scratched his forehead and sighed, then continued. “The next day as we hiked back, he seemed to weaken. He complained that his legs were not steady, and at first we thought perhaps he was just sore from the grueling trek. But when he started getting dizzy and nearly passed out while descending a mountain, we knew something was wrong.”

“We brought him back as quickly as we could, and it was then we called for help,” the shorter man finished.

Nageau pressed his lips into a flat line. There was silence for a while. “What do you make of this?” he finally asked the other Elders.

Stroking his short beard, Tayoka said, “I do not know. Nothing appeared to be out of the ordinary except for the dead deer.”

“It is hard to determine what this is right now, as we do not know the seriousness or the cause of Fiotez’s condition,” Ashack said, adding, “maybe we should give Tikina some more time to let her remedy take effect.”

Saiyu glanced at Nageau. “It is past midday now. Perhaps we should adjourn. Let us have Huyani relieve her grandmother at sundown. That way, I will be able to take Huyani’s place tonight. One of us must watch over Fiotez until dawn.”

*  *  *

A tender hand shook Tikina’s arm. The Elder opened her eyes blearily and gazed up at the youthful face of her granddaughter. Huyani knelt beside her and asked softly, “How is Fiotez doing?”

Tikina stretched and shook her head. “I have tried every combination I know of for healing him, but I see no effect whatsoever.”

Huyani put a warm hand on hers and turned to look at the sleeping Fiotez on his bed. “I will see to him,” she murmured. “You must go and rest.”

Tikina gave her an appreciative smile. “Thank you. You must keep him hydrated. Squeeze the juices of these leaves”—she held up a fistful of jagged-edged leaves—“into his mouth every little while, and keep feeling for his temperature. At the slightest sign of spasm, call for me immediately.”

Huyani signaled that she understood. They sat together for a little while, talking softly about Huyani and Akol’s time with the five outsiders. “What did you do with them?” Tikina asked.

“We fed them some deer meat, which they consumed ardently. They said it was the best they had ever had. Afterward, Akol and I decided that we need to tell them a few things, as we felt it was not right to keep them in the dark for an extended time.”

Tikina pursed her lips, and then nodded. “Tell me, though. What did you and your brother talk to them about, and how much did you reveal?”

Shrugging, Huyani responded, “We told them how we found them, and informed them about the Guardians. We did not say what they were, but Jag had been in and out of consciousness during the period in which the Guardians brought the five to us, and he figured it out. We told them about you, the Elders. We also told them about the skills we carry within ourselves. Akol and I only shared our abilities, as we did not want to overwhelm them. We said our skills are not impossible. Lastly, we told them where they were.”

Tikina’s eyebrows rose. “Oh? And how did they take to that?”