Authors: Linell Jeppsen
The
cats sprang from one victim to the next, using the warrior’s bodies as launch
pads and leaving long scratch marks on their backs, bellies and shoulders. As
Mel watched, one of the queen’s guards grabbed a smaller cougar by its neck.
Although it wriggled and bit, scoring its captors belly with its hind claws,
Mel saw the cougar’s tongue protrude in agony as the warrior squeezed its
throat. The mighty black-haired sasq let out a howl of victory as the cat
finally convulsed and went limp in his hands.
Looking
away, Mel saw Onio with the dog Smiles snapping and snarling at his side. As
she watched, he grabbed the large female by the tail. Although she fought and
screamed in rage, Onio swung the animal around and around like a mace. Once,
twice, three times Onio hurled the cougar around until he got close to the
tunnel wall. Then he gave a shout and launched the mother cat against the wall
so hard even Mel heard the snap of the creature’s back as it smashed against
the stone, and her screams cut off abruptly.
The
third cat was perched on a shelf of rock high in the back of the cavern. The
queen’s warriors thrust their spears at it in anger and frustration. Even Mel
could see that the animal was mortally wounded. Through Onio’s ears, she could
hear it mewling in pain and fear.
Suddenly
it was all over as Wolf roared, “Move aside!” He cast his spear, as straight as
an arrow, skewering the beast through the chest and pinning it, momentarily, to
the wall.
Mel
stood with her hands over her mouth, shaking with shock. She saw that many of
the warriors were covered with blood and some of the wounds were terrible. One
of the queen’s guards had lost an eye, which still hung precariously from its
roots amidst the damaged flesh. Another warrior gritted his teeth as Wolf
replaced a huge strip of skin that had been peeled away from his back, like the
rind of an orange.
Onio
and the dog walked up to her. Through the shock-induced buzzing in her ears she
heard him ask, “Melody, are you all right?” Mel saw that his arm was bleeding,
though he seemed calm and unaffected by the pain. She stared at him for a
moment and then she took his arm in her hands and turned it over to inspect his
wound. She almost gagged when she saw the jagged tooth marks and puncture
wounds on his forearm. She thought she could see the white gleam of bone
through the blood.
Trembling,
Mel asked, “Onio, where is your bag?”
He
shrugged and gestured down the tunnel from whence they came. “Down there, I
guess. I dropped it when I heard the animals attack. Are you hurt?”
“No,”
she replied. “But this wound needs to be bound, and I think there might be some
medicine left…I hope.”
Melody
turned and made her way into the tunnel. There were some sasq warriors there,
including their queen, who had not been involved in the fight. They moved in
and out of the torch light. Tanah bent down next to the sasq who had lost his
eye, and joked that now he was truly a brother to the mighty king, although it
was unnecessary to lose an eye in the proof. Two other sasq guards doused some
sort of moss with water and pressed the green concoction over their comrade’s
wounds.
Mel
almost stumbled over Onio’s sack that lay forgotten on the floor. Crouching
down, she rummaged through the bag and found the bottles of pills that Onio had
stashed. Mel found some aspirin and Tylenol 800s. There were no more
antibiotics, but there was a tube of Neosporin. She rose from where she
crouched on the floor to take the medicine back to Onio and the wounded sasq warriors,
but found Tanah standing behind her. Mel stifled a gasp and stepped back.
The
queen smiled and used soul song to speak. “Girl, I understand what you are
trying to do, and I appreciate your kindness, but the sasq will not. They will
view your potions with suspicion and will fear ridicule if, in their weakness,
they succumb to your ministrations.” She held up a hand at the expression on
Mel’s face.
“Do
not argue with me girl,” Tanah snapped. “I have lived with the sasq most of my
life. I know what they think and how they feel.” The middle-aged woman with the
missing eye and tattooed face studied Mel’s face kindly.
“You
would be surprised at the knowledge the sasquatch hold,” she continued. “You
have only met Onio, Wolf and the sasq warrior sect. You have not sat at a conclave
with the medicine women or the wise ones. They have potions that are equal to
anything the smalls possess. They can heal with the touch of a hand…stop death
with a song!”
“Go
back and help clean my warriors wounds…help my medics moisten the moss so that
the healing starts quickly. Listen, little girl, and learn. Maybe then you can
see why I, Tanah, though given another choice many, many times, have chosen to
stay amongst the sasq people.”
Mel
nodded and put the medicine back in the bag. She understood that sasquatches didn’t
use the kind of medicine she was used to, and she really didn’t even know if
human medicine was good for the sasq. She just wanted to try to help. She felt
guilty for not saying anything when she first sensed the watchful eyes, but she
couldn’t help wondering why the warriors had not noticed the threat.
Mel
walked back down into the wide mouth of the tunnel and looked for the attending
medics. Spotting them toward the back of the cave, Mel headed in their
direction. She had only walked a few paces when she heard the queen cry out.
“Rear
guard, attend me now!” Tanah’s voice echoed around the cave’s walls. Turning to
look, Mel saw three sasq warriors move to stand in front of the queen. Onio,
Wolf, and four other sasq flanked her. Although the sasq towered over the
woman, she stood tall…majestic in her authority.
“Thunderbolt,
Werecat and Leaping Frog, I would have you explain your actions to me,” Tanah
demanded. Mel could see that the queen was trembling with rage. Wolf held some
sort of whip in his hands and Onio stared at the sasq warriors with rage and
disbelief.
The
biggest guard stepped forward and bowed. “Tanah, my queen, I am sorry we did
not see or smell the threat before it was upon us.” It looked to Mel as though
the big golden-haired guard really was sorry and, more importantly, perplexed.
He kept glancing sideways at a smaller sasq with dark hair and a
permanent-looking frown on his face.
Tanah
was staring at the smaller sasq as well. “Thunderbolt, come forward where I can
see you better,” she snarled.
The
sasquatch hesitated for a moment and then stepped up next to the sasq who had
spoken. “Yes, my queen?”
Mel
stared. The voices she heard were a magnification of thought, she knew. Perhaps
because she could not hear the actual words being filtered through speech, Mel
could, in many ways, sense more clearly the emotions behind the words.
Mel
had heard this warrior’s thoughts before, down on the valley floor. This sasquatch
hated his queen, his king and his brothers. Most of all, he hated Melody
herself with every fiber of his being.
Chapter 14
Melody
and the sasq stayed in an adjacent cave for a day and another night, while some
of the more seriously injured warriors rested and recovered from their
injuries. The moss Mel helped the medics apply was a miracle cure. It seemed
that within minutes of its application the damaged flesh grew pink and knitted
together. There was nothing anyone could do about Black Pony’s damaged eyeball,
though, but place it back within the socket, plaster the wound with moss, and
tightly bandage the whole bloody mess.
Despite
the injuries sustained in the battle, most of the sasquatches joked and laughed
with one another, trading stories and offering praise of one another’s prowess
in a good fight. One sasq stood apart though, aloof from the banter.
All
three guards had been whipped for failing to defend the rear flank adequately.
Two of the reprimanded guards stared at Thunderbolt with anger and loathing
even as Wolf’s whip scored bloody tracks across their backs. The small,
dark-haired sasq gazed back at them with a half-smile on his face.
Tanah
had asked them why they failed to see, smell or hear the threat. Werecat and
Leaping Frog hung their heads and apologized for their part in the tragedy.
Werecat went so far as to say that perhaps he was unfit to be a guard to the
queen or king, which Tanah dismissed with a sniff. Mel watched Thunderbolt, his
eyes glittering with glee, when he said that he had needed to relieve himself…and
how was he to know that the cougars were just beyond the spot he stopped in for
privacy?
Mel
didn’t believe him for a second and was amazed that the other sasq didn’t sense
his subterfuge. She was becoming more and more convinced that, in some ways,
her hearing, or at least the way she sensed things, was more acute than the sasquatches.
No
excuse saved the three guards from a whipping however, which Wolf delivered
with ruthless economy; five stripes for each warrior, and then prompt attention
to the cuts left by the whip’s caress. Werecat and Leaping Frog took the
punishment in stride and now sat amongst their fellows, exchanging jokes and
food. After the whipping, Thunderbolt rejected the medics help and went to sit
by himself in a shadowy corner. Mel shivered as she saw him watching her now,
eyes smoldering with hatred.
Onio
sat down next to her and the dog put her head in Mel’s lap. Rubbing Smiles’s
ears with affection, Mel murmured, “What time is it…do you know?”
Onio
shrugged. “I think that it is middle afternoon. Tanah said we would be leaving
soon. How are you doing, Mel?”
Mel
smiled up at the young sasq. “I’m fine, Onio.” She paused for a moment, biting
her lip. Mel thought that Onio liked her, and wanted to keep her safe. What she
wasn’t sure of was just how loyal he was to the sasq they kept company with.
Mel was convinced that despite what they thought of her opinion, Onio and the
others should know how little she trusted the sasq warrior known as
Thunderbolt.
Onio
frowned at her and said, “What troubles you, Mel?”
Mel
took a deep breath and replied, “Onio, I think you need to be really careful
around Thunderbolt, okay? He is trouble….” She faltered at the expression of
shock on his face. “I’m sorry,” she stammered. “I don’t mean any insult, it’s
just that—”
Onio
put a large hand on her arm.
“Shh,
Melody,” he whispered. “Come with me, please.” He arose and, taking her hand,
led her away from the other sasq into a darkened tunnel. “Stay here for a
moment, please,” he said. “And don’t move from this spot,” he added, pointedly.
Mel
plastered her spine against the wall and tried not to think about what creepy,
crawly things might be inching along the stone wall above her head. A few
moments passed, and then Onio and Wolf came back. The younger sasq took her arm
and the three of them walked down the long, darkened tunnel.
They
stopped and Wolf said, “Onio tells me that something seems wrong to you,
Melody. Please tell me what it is you sense.”
Now
that she was being asked, Mel hesitated. What if she was wrong… paranoid…
nervous over nothing? Still though, Mel thought that she should at least try to
express her feelings of uneasiness.
She
looked at Wolf and used her soul song to speak. “It’s the sasq warrior,
Thunderbolt,” she replied. “Yesterday, before we climbed the mountain and
entered the tunnels, I thought I heard him….” She paused for a moment. “I felt
his hatred toward me, his queen, even the king. I think he means us all harm,
Wolf.”
Wolf
looked at Onio. “I agree with the girl,” he said, to Mel’s relief. “I have not
heard his thoughts, like this one does.” He glanced sideways at the small human
woman. The look on his face was both shocked and amused, which made Mel squirm
with embarrassment. “I feel that something is not right, though,” he continued.
“That warrior’s actions do not correspond with his words. Did you know,” he
asked, turning to Onio, “that Two Horses is Thunderbolt’s sire?” The young sasq
shook his head.
Wolf
nodded. “It is so. Two Horses’s first wife was killed in a fall many seasons
ago. It is rumored that Two Horses favors his second born over the first. It
has caused strife within the king’s clan because the second son is Tanah’s
offspring. He is small for a sasq and weak, but exceedingly clever and much
loved by the king. Thunderbolt believes this is because his father is a lover
of the small humans, but I have heard that, on the contrary, it is Thunderbolt’s
many evil deeds that has caused his father to turn his face away in shame.”
Mel
realized suddenly, with a chill, that this was the reason that Tanah had come
along on their journey. She had as much to lose, maybe more, than any one. The
woman had left her beloved mate, her hearth, and everything that was familiar,
to find her son.
Wolf
looked at Mel and Onio. “Thank you for the warning, Melody. I think we must all
stay on guard against that one’s treachery.” Nodding, he turned on his heel and
strode away.
Onio
smiled at Mel and then frowned in concern. “Does something else bother you?”
Mel
blushed. “Onio, is there someplace where I can go to the bathroom? I don’t know
how to live like this! I’m filthy and don’t know how to get clean!”