I gasped at the change, then gasped again when cool air rushed into my lungs, with a taste of rain and spring in the air. I breathed again, filling my body with energy and light, lost in the sensation.
The clouds eddied around me, heavy with mist, white and intangible. I started to try to tread the air, to see if I could turn, but my hands passed through the clouds, collecting the heavy drops within. I couldn’t move.
Something else could, though. I caught the movement out of the corner of my eye. There was a rumble, as of far distant thunder on a sunny day. I saw a huge form moving in and out of the clouds, flowing like a snake. I had a quick glimpse of scales that glittered all colors of the spectrum. Then a huge head reared up before me.
I’d seen enough to know a dragon. No wings, just a fierce, lovely face and huge teeth and claws. A museum print come to life, the only source of color in the white billowing clouds.
It saw me. Not just me, it saw through me somehow, right down to my soul, and I shook as I hung there, pierced by its gaze. Then it threw its head back, shook its mane, and laughed.
The heavens resounded, and the earth trembled with the sound, as if all of creation shared the joy of this being. For it did not mock, nor was it threatening. It was a joyful sound, and my heart shared in its delight.
It coiled around me, massive and powerful. It’s . . . no . . . his eyes were warm and bright, considering me as if part of a series of endless possibilities. The laugh came again, and I felt it in my chest, as if it delighted in this strange happening.
“Let it be so,” a voice thundered, and I was thrown back, pitched into a body of flesh and muscle.
“Kate, Kate, speak to me.” Wan’s voice sounded odd in my ear. He was on my shoulder, tugging at my earlobe.
Mac kneeled by my chair, one hand at my wrist, the other on my chest. I blinked at him and took a breath, feeling so very odd.
“What happened?” Mac demanded.
“I don’t—” I licked my lips and swallowed. How the hell did you explain . . . ?
“Oh, Kate.” Wan’s voice was sorrowful. “You should not have done that.”
What had I done?
Itty and Bitty raced ahead of us into the house as we walked in. Mac went first. Wan was on my shoulder, alert and ready for trouble.
Nothing had been touched. Even the computer room and Wan’s library were intact.
“I’ll go out and cast the wards. You’ll be safe within the house.” Mac said.
“The dogs,” I started.
Mac nodded.“I’ll do the backyard as well.” He slipped out the sliding door.
I turned to the kitchen, determined to make a pot of coffee. Wan stayed silent as I worked. He’d been babbling in the car, about sacred guardians and destiny, until I had a headache and Mac’s eyebrows had climbed into his hairline. I’d told Wan to shut up in no uncertain terms.
Yes, I knew he had things to tell me, but it could damn well wait until I’d had more coffee. About a gallon should do it.
Wan seemed to think that I’d offended the gods by my actions, but I remembered the joy in the dragon’s laugh. I might have upset the balance of things, but I don’t think he minded that much. In fact, I rather thought he’d delighted in it, truth be told.
I offered Mac some coffee when he came back inside, but he just shook his head. “I need to contact people. Don’t leave this house until you hear from me. The possum is still out there.”
Swell.
Mac turned to Wan. “Guard her with your life. Whatever has happened, Kate is extraordinary now. See to her safety.”
Wan bowed. Mac gave me a nod and left.
I sighed, taking a long sip of my coffee. Hell of a few days. I dreaded checking e-mail and messages, but that could wait. Poor Wan was about to burst with talk, and I needed to hear it. “All right, Wan. Tell me what this all means.”
I figure he’d burst right out, but he just jumped down to the counter and stood looking at me, his sword over his shoulder. “Kate, I thought you were extraordinary before you touched the sacred necklace.”
I hid a smile in the rim of my mug. “So what did I do, exactly?”
Wan drew himself up and took a deep breath—
Someone knocked on the front door. Itty and Bitty raced for the entryway, farting like crazy and barking their fool heads off.
I sighed. Wan leaped for my arm and climbed up. “Careful, Kate. The doctor’s wards are strong but we should have a care.”
“It’s probably the mailman.” I put the cup down and headed for the door, only to find a small army of guys
with tattoos and leathers on the other side, staring at me grimly.
“Uh . . .”
“Lady, your van was found with our stolen hogs alongside I-75. WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED?”
Uh-oh.
The End—or is it?
BATS IN THEBAYOU
By Steven H Silver
Steven H Silver is a science fiction writer, reviewer, and editor who has written several articles for fanzines, as well as publishing his own annual fanzine
Argentus
, and the monthly APA-zine
Plata
. In 2003, he edited three anthologies,
Wondrous Beginnings, Magical Beginnings,
and
Horrible Beginnings,
which reprinted the first published stories of authors in the science fiction, fantasy, and horror genres. In addition to his writing and editing activities, Silver is involved in running science fiction conventions. He has chaired Windycon twice, founded Midfan and chaired the first Midwest Construction, and ran programming for Chicon 2000, the World Science Fiction Convention. Since 1998, he has sat on the board of Illinois Science Fiction in Chicago and is also the publisher of ISFiC Press. In 1995, he founded the Sidewise Award for Alternate History and has served as a judge ever since. He has been nominated for the
Hugo Award in the Best Fan Writer category nine times.
T
he swamp was filled with the alluring buzz of mosquitoes. N’ctath swooped through the teeming swarms, the thick, humid air providing an updraft beneath her wings, as she scooped up the succulent morsels. The taste of the insects was unlike anything N’ctath had experienced before her arrival on Earth, five years earlier.
Earth, especially the part she had settled in, which the natives called Thebayou, was a paradise. The air was warm and thick, the smells were reminiscent of her home planet, Tseekah, and even the plants resembled the trees back home. It was the animals that lived in Thebayou, however, that really made Earth worth the travel. And the fact that the sentient natives rarely encroached on N’ctath’s hunting ground.
She swooped through another swarm of mosquitoes, relishing the way blood filled her mouth as the insects exploded with each bite. The tiny bodies provided a satisfying snap, but they didn’t have any real taste of their own. In many ways, they were the greatest thing N’ctath had ever tasted.
A strange purple light caught her attention, and she glided over to see a strange glowing tube encased in a fine mesh hanging from a tree. N’ctath knew instantly that it meant the humans had come into the swamps.
Originally, the Tseekahn had planned a traditional invasion of the Earth, but shortly before the first landing, the final reconnaissance of the planet revealed that an alternative might be possible. In light of the new information, the Tseekahn launched what might be the strangest invasion in the known universe.
A junior member of the intelligence team had come to the admiral with his observations. The primary species on Earth lived in great manufactured concrete habitats, which were not entirely suitable for the Tseekahn. The Tseekahn preferred caves, swamps, and forests, which were often either free of the humans or only lightly populated. Even more important, the junior intelligence officer pointed out, although many of the areas the Tseekahn preferred were already populated by animals, they were populated by animals who bore an uncanny resemblance to the Tseekahn.
Plans were immediately made for the Tseekahn to invade only those areas where their terrestrial cousins, creatures called “bats,” already lived. Five years later, aside from a few notes about strange bats, the humans still had no idea that their planet had been invaded by the Tseekahn.
Moonlight glistened off the scales on her broad wings, one of the differences between bats and Tseekahn. As she neared the glowing rod, she noticed a swarm of mosquitoes around the device. One of the mosquitoes got too close, and the air was filled with a loud buzz, a flash of light, and a burning smell as the mosquito was annihilated.
N’ctath saw a small house, its sides and roof made of a shiny fabric. It didn’t look like the wood and metal structures the humans usually lived in. N’ctath flew closer to get a better look just as one of the humans emerged from the house.
“A bat!” the creature cried out as it ducked back into its shelter. A moment later, the human emerged clutching a shovel. When it saw N’ctath, it swung at her. She easily dodged the blow and flew up into the trees to keep an eye on the human without being within range of its weapon.
A few moments later, another human emerged from the tent. The two spoke quickly, and it was clear they were looking for N’ctath in the trees. She waited until both of their backs were turned and then flew off.
We had just gotten the tent pitched and hung a bug zapper from a tree. Jack was in the tent, and I went out to start a fire when I saw a large bat flying around the clearing. I was shocked and leaped back into the tent. Schooner started barking up a storm.
“Gimme a shovel!”
“Why’re you gonna use a shovel to make a fire?”
“There’s a ginormous bat out there. I’m gonna take a whack at it, chase it off.”
Jack reached for one of the guns, but I waved him off, “Any fool knows you don’t hunt bats with a gun. Just pass me the shovel.”
I took the shovel and swung at the flying rat, which managed to avoid the blow, almost as if it saw what I was doing. Must be that bat radar stuff they have. By the time Jack came out of the tent, the bat seemed to be long gone, although Schooner stayed alert, growling every now and then at the trees.
“If we put skeeter netting up around the campsite, it should keep out the bats,” Jack said.
“Do we have enough to cover the whole clearing?”
“We can do once around, if we hang it at the right height.” Jack pointed at the trees and turned in a slow circle.
I thought I heard the bat’s wings flapping in the air; nothing more than my imagination, I knew.
“You wanna get started on that while I build the fire?”
“Be easier if we both do it together. I’ll probably have
to shimmy up the trees to get the right height. You can then pass the netting on up.”
I nodded. Jack was right. “Let’s do the netting first. It’ll be dark soon, and you won’t want to be climbing once the sun goes down.”
We unpacked the nets, and Jack climbed up the cypress trees. I duct-taped the netting to one end of a boat oar and passed it up to him. It took about an hour, with Jack climbing up and down various trees, but eventually we had the netting in place. With the nets to protect us from the bats and the zapper to handle the mosquitoes, all we had to worry about were the snakes, and we quickly laid a coarse rope around the campsite to keep them away.
Once the camp was set up, we’d have two uninterrupted weeks of camping and hunting. It was always good to get away from the plant, but I always do miss fiddling around in my workshop when we get back to nature.
There was a small colony of Tseekahn nearby where N’ctath made her home. She flew back with the news of the human incursion.
“It is only two of the beasts,” H’ckess said. “And it sounds like they aren’t staying here if their house is only made of plastic.”
“Not plastic, fabric,” N’ctath corrected.
“Fabric? Plastic? Neither demonstrates that they’ll be staying. There is no cause to worry,” H’ckess said.
“We can, and should, keep watch over them. Make sure they move on or that we know if more come,” Khakreet, the ranking member of the invasion force with this particular band, said.
“It makes sense,” N’ctath said.
“I wouldn’t worry about it. In fact, I won’t,” H’ckess said. “In fact, what I’ll do is go off and hunt mosquitoes.” He flew off before anyone else could respond.
“However, if the humans are moving into Thebayou,” N’ctath said, “it might be time for us to move out. We can live here because we look a lot like their bats, but if they get too close, they’ll learn we’re different.”
“I’ll contact the colony at Cashone and see if it might make sense for us to move to their colony,” Khakreet said. “If that’s decided, H’ckess actually did have a good idea for once. I’m off to hunt.”
N’ctath watched Khakreet fly off into the trees. She felt very alone, even knowing that at least three claws of Tseekahn were nearby. They were a space-faring race, a race that had successfully invaded this world only five years before, and now all of them were focused entirely on hunting the local animals. With a moment of reflection, N’ctath had to admit that even she was caught up in the desire to hunt, otherwise she would never have been where she was when she found the humans.
For four days, the Tseekahn colony in Thebayou kept watch on the humans. They seemed to have planted themselves, and, although they roamed through the region, they appeared to have no intention of leaving. Khakreet had sent a messenger to the Cashone colony, and late on the fourth day she returned.
“Our visitors are nothing compared to theirs,” the messenger said. “While we have a simple
tent,
the human’s word for the soft-sided house, in Thebayou, over in Cashone they have actual buildings. Several wood structures, with more going up. The humans use boats to navigate the bayous and get from one building to another.”
“Those humans are far from here and nothing to worry about,” H’ckess said.