The Last Summoning---Andrew and the Quest of Orion's Belt (Book Four) (15 page)

He went on with each throb of the chest,
feeling only numbness inside himself. His legs, his hands, his
shoulders, his back and his feet didn’t feel like flesh and blood
anymore, but something that was not his own. On he pressed through
the night, barely aware that the moon had gone down and the sun had
come up.

“Andrew,” he thought he heard Freddie’s
voice. He pushed on, tugging the chest along with him.

“It is time to rest!” Freddie’s voice
insisted.

Andrew continued onward, unable to stop.
“I’ve got to keep going. We’ve got to reach the ocean before it’s
too late. Before The Drought…”

“ANDREW!” Freddie stood in front of him
holding up a hand. “Stop! You’re going to kill yourself if you
don’t let anyone help you.”

Andrew looked at Freddie, and blinked. He
rubbed his eyes, and nodded, staring off into the distance. “Yeah…I
guess you’re right. I am tired, I think…”

“Yes, you should be. You’ve been heaving that
chest all night. It’s time to rest.” He bent down and tried to pry
Andrew’s fingers off the chest. Andrew stared down at his fingers,
watching as Freddie tried to pry them off the handle. They didn’t
feel like his hands. Perhaps they weren’t.

“Let go, Andrew!”

Andrew tried, but his fingers wouldn’t budge.
“I’m trying.”

“There!” Freddie said, finally prying
Andrew’s hands away from the iron handle.

Pain shot into Andrew’s arms and fingers. He
stared at his hands and slowly tried to wiggle them, flinching as
needles of pain shot up both his arms. His knees wobbled under the
weight of his body. He felt very thirsty and light headed. “Ahg!”
Andrew groaned, leaning against the chest. “I didn’t realize how
tired I was.”

“Yeah,” Freddie murmured. “I noticed. You’ve
ignored everything I’ve said over the last two hours.”

“I have?”

“Yes.”

“Oh…I’m sorry.”

“Forget it. Just sleep. You need it worse
than I do. When you wake, you will let me help you carry that
chest. Okay? Andrew? Andrew...”

Andrew’s eyes were closed. He lay curled up
against the chest, sound asleep as if the throbbing of the chest
had sung him a lullaby, and put him fast to sleep.

The Blogs

Ivory awoke to the sickening smell of sulfur and the
hot prick of water bubbling against her skin. She could not
remember where she was or how she had gotten there.

All she could remember was sitting by a dying
campfire, with the rain pelting down and Gogindy howling about
something coming at them through the darkness.

She looked around her, bewildered. Talic,
like herself, was chained to a metal spike fixed deep into a steamy
bowl-shaped basin filled with warm water that bubbled up from the
ground. The volcanic basin was a beautiful hue of blue, green, and
pink, from the amazing population of algae that grew on the rocks
beneath the water.

“Talic,” Ivory asked, “are you alright?”

Talic’s eyes still looked glossy, and
animal-like. He hadn’t fully recovered from the Twisker Zolic that
Gogindy had given him. His face was less puffy, but his ears were
still Twisker-like and jagged---they drooped in the water, like
wriggling fish fins. His face was covered in long, rabbit-like
whiskers, and his fingernails were long, and sharp.

“Talic?” Ivory said again.

Talic looked at her, confused.

“Can you understand anything I’m saying?”

Talic furrowed his brows, and nodded ever so
slowly. “Yesss.” his voice was slurred. “M…y hea…d hurt…s.” his
words came out slow, and difficult, like his tongue was too big for
his mouth. Whath…s wrong...with…me?”

“What’s wrong with you?” Ivory shifted
uncomfortably in the water. It felt like the water was getting
hotter. “You seem to be suffering from the effects of some Twisker
Zolic, that’s what.”

“Gogindy…dr…ugged me?” Talic’s face clouded
over. His eyes filled with a crazy madness. He seemed to forget
that Ivory was there. He stared at his big nose, going cross-eyed.
Then his eyes grew big as he spotted the whiskers protruding out of
his face. “What’ssss happened tooooo me? Where are…we…I’m so dizzy.
I’m so confused.” He yelped, and pulled against the metal spike,
trying to free himself. “How did we get here?”

Ivory shook her head, feeling a stab of
sympathy for poor Talic. “I’m not sure how we got here. I can’t
remember much. It was raining, I remember, and then these stick
figure monsters came at us…and then Gogindy was running away.”

“Gogindy…!” Talic howled. “Where is he? That
monsssster! That snnnnnipe. That doublecrossingggg, powder
rag!”

As Talic’s angry voice died down, a new sound
arose, growing steadily louder. The sounds popped and cracked, as
if someone was cracking their knuckles over and over again. Then
one by one, a host of scabby-white creatures that looked like
anemic spider-scorpions appeared around the basin, tapping their
numerous legs, as they moved.

“What, what, what’s that?” Talic stuttered,
staring at the ugly scabs in distain.

Ivory glanced beneath the pool of water where
lumps of coral grew on piles of bones, covering the skeletons in
soft, neon colors of pink, blue, yellow and green.

“Look, Talic,” Ivory murmured, nodding her
head at the frightening carnage below them.

Talic’s eyes widened and his mouth dropped
open. “Bones, Ivory, Bones! Dead bones!” He pulled against his
chains in terror. “Help, somebody help.” He seemed to be losing
control as his Twisker self took over. He started screaming and
mumbling words that made no sense. “CAAAAAAAA, GOOT, Twisker soup!
The water hot, hot, hot! Like a boiling pot, pot, pot. They’re
going to boil us alive, and then eat us. Eat us! Eat us, eat us,
eat us, eat us!”

“Quiet,” Talic Ivory shouted. “You’re making
it so I can’t think. Calm yourself.”

The scabs popped and cracked joyously as if
they liked Talic’s outburst of fear. Then, drumming their spidery
feet along the pool, they climbed to the edge, and tapped their
shelly legs against the sides---some dipping their legs into the
water and jumping back, only to repeat the procedure.

Talic’s eyes filled with terror. He howled,
and cried, jerking back and forth against his chains. Tears fell
down his cheeks, and dripped into the water like rain. “I…I…Ivory,
I…I… don’t want to d…d…ie h…here. L…ike this. Boiled alive like a
silly lobster. Like this…”

“Hush, Talic, and try to pull yourself
together!” Ivory snapped. “I don’t want to die here either. So
let’s think of something so we won’t.”

Talic nodded, and sniffed. “Alright,
I’m…thinking.” He closed his eyes, hard. “Gosh, but it’s so hot.
It’s hard to think. All I can think about is eating bugs, and
jumping through grass and dandelions.”

“Never mind,” Ivory murmured. “I’ll do the
thinking. You just be quiet.” She pulled against the spike. It was
old and rusty, but did not budge. She pulled again. It shifted a
little. She pulled again, and it shifted even more.

“It’s moving,” Ivory said, working her arms
against the spike. “Just a little more.”

“Hurry,” Talic shouted. Beads of sweat
dripped down his face and into his eyes.

“I think I’ve got it!” Ivory exclaimed,
pulling as hard as she could against the spike. “Just one
last…There!” She pulled against it as hard as she could and the
spike broke in half. The chains fell from her hands.

The scabs on the edge of the pool grew
excited at Ivory’s thrashing and reached out with their long
feelers, trying to douse her face-first into the water. Ivory
withdrew an arrow from her quiver and stabbed it at one of the
scabs. The arrow sunk into its knobby flesh. The mob of creatures
recoiled in fear, letting out loud scraping clicks and clacks.

“Talic, hold still!” she shouted, prying
against the spike with a dagger she carried. “No. Don’t faint. It’s
not very manly.”

“I…haven’t fainted,” Talic slurred,
struggling to hold up his chin. “I’m just so hot.”

“Here, Talic, I need you to help me pull. On
the count of three, you pull back while I pry against the spike
with my dagger. Okay?”

“Okay.”

“One, two, three, pull!”

The spike suddenly gave way and Ivory and
Talic fell back into the boiling water.

“Hot!” Talic cried, coming up from the water
and sputtering, his lacy ears drooping down to his elbows.

“Yes,” Ivory agreed, making her way through
the water to the edge of the basin where the scabs clicked their
feet in agitation against the edge.

Hundreds of scabs circled around Talic and
Ivory, some lashing out, trying to topple them back into the
boiling water.

“They really want to boil us,” Talic said,
glancing warily at the hot water swirling around his waist.

“Talic!” Ivory commanded, give me your
sword.

“What sword?”

“The one strapped in your belt.”

Talic’s hand went carefully to his sword.
Surprised that Ivory was right, he handed it over to Ivory with
fumbling fingers.

Ivory slogged to the edge of the basin and
stood peering up at the host of scabs. “Get back!” She cried,
jabbing at them with the sword, slicing off one of their long
feelers. Instantly, the scabs went wild with furry. Cracking, and
snapping a dozen poured over the edge of the pool. But, just as
their feelers touched the water, they shriveled into harmless
water-skeeters.”

“Ivory!” Talic gasped, jumping up and down in
the water, stirring up the array of water-skeeters floating about
him with his whiskers. Steam rose and swirled around them as hoards
of remaining scabs pounded their feet against the edge of the pool
in anger, so hard that bits of the creatures’ skin flaked down on
Ivory and Talic.

A long, hissing cry rippled through the
scabs. The ground shook and trembled as a large creature with skin
that looked like the surface of a cracked and claylike desert
floor, came barreling towards them. Thump, thump, thump. Steam,
heat, and wind swirled about the creature, as though the being was
the spirit of the desert itself.

It cried out in a hollow, dry voice, whacking
the scabs back, like they were brittle leaves, staring at them with
his heated glare. His crystal clear eyes, magnified the heat of the
sun, tripling its strength, and turned all under its gaze to
powder. With a single glance, a wave of heat and steam rippled over
the entire host of scabs, drying them up in an instant, turning
them into hollow shells. The being laughed and walked through the
devastation he had caused, crushing the scabs’ bodies into fine
powder beneath his feet.

The crumbly, dusty creature stopped at the
edge of the pool, staring at the water with his glistening eyes. As
he stared at the water, it began to dry up around them, inch by
inch, until the pool had completely evaporated.

Ivory and Talic stared around them, too
stunned to move.

Ivory wanted to look away from this being.
His eyes made her thirsty, made her throat dry, but she couldn’t
help herself. The being was too intriguing for her to look away.
His dry, dusty skin flaked off around his face as he smiled.

He held his hand out for Ivory to take. Ivory
stared at it. His fingers were scaly and covered in clay that was
cracked like the floor of a mud hole that had long since dried up.
The creature looked like the driest, dustiest, oldest, and most
ancient, timeless, ageless, creature she had ever seen in her
life.

She hesitated as she stared at the creature,
unsure if this being was a friend or foe. “Take my hand!” the being
thundered.

Its voice was hard and commanding. Something
you could not disobey. Ivory quickly took the being’s hand, and was
hoisted out of the now-dry sink hole.

The being then helped Talic onto the edge.
“Good,” the being growled, his voice dusty and full of gravel as if
he had swallowed several sand dunes that had lodged in his
throat.

“Who are you?” Ivory ventured, her voice
filled with a kind of fearful reverence. Somehow she knew this
being was no ordinary element.

The being averted his eyes from her, and
stared off into the distance. “It doesn’t matter!” His voice was
angry and distrustful.

Ivory took a step back from the creature,
unsure of its true nature.

It glanced at Ivory’s frightened face, then
softened its grainy tone so it almost sounded kind, but it was
still gritty like a toad. “What matters,” the creature said, “is
that I’ve come to help you. I am to take you to your friend,
Andrew. And I will. If you will let me.”

“Andrew?” Ivory breathed, trying to hide her
excitement. “You know where he is?”

The creature nodded. “I do. I will take you
to him, if you like.”

She looked at Talic, who seemed to be
concentrating on a cricket that had settled itself on the ground by
his feet, and was wholly absorbed in lusting after it.

Ivory sighed, and then turned to the
creature. “Yes. We will go with you.”

The dry, dusty creature smiled, the layers of
dirt and sand on his face cracking, and flaking off as he did so.
“Good. You must follow me, then, and follow quickly. I won’t wait
for stragglers. I’m very busy you know.”

“Where are we going?” Ivory asked.

“To the sea.”

“Andrew’s by the sea?”

The man turned around and glared at her. “You
ask too many questions!”

Ivory quickly averted her eyes from the
creature’s dry, thirsty stare. It made her tongue feel heavy, and
her skin itch.

Talic looked up, his whisker-covered face
bobbing up and down as he grinned, showing off the dangling legs of
a large cricket between his teeth.

Ivory grimaced. “Oh gross, Talic, really!
Must you behave so?”

Talic didn’t seem to take any notice of her,
and continued scanning the ground for any more edibles.