I tucked the empty pistol into my belt. With naught but a bow for defense, although undoubtedly a strong one based on the thickness of it and the size of the arrows, my desire to avoid a direct confrontation with whatever it was snapping branches the size of my wrist with impunity as it hurried along behind me was no slight urge. Any exhaustion I had felt moments prior from my protracted combat with the horde of forest creatures evaporated quite naturally as my instinctual desire for self-preservation kicked in against this new threat. I made quite good time catching up to Threm and his burden, even without the aid of a temporally distorting event such as the one that had happened before I engaged the creatures.
If I am to be known as an honest man, then I must relay here that it was not without effort that I forced myself not to overtake Threm and the pilot I had so recently saved. Had I left them behind, any vestige of my personal honor would have been proven a farce. Enough pride remained in me that I could not allow that to happen, regardless of the consequences I might suffer.
I ran rearguard behind Threm, not close enough to risk a tumble that might send us both the ground, but not too far to enable me to help steady the burdened Neanderthal should he stumble. Glancing behind me at all too frequent intervals, I noted with some hope that nothing as yet was visible behind us. Perhaps the larger creature had paused upon reaching the clearing and finding the horde of slain younglings, as Threm had indicated they were.
Threm kept a pace that would have been respectable on open terrain and even had he not been burdened. Dodging clumps of undergrowth, leaping over smaller downed trees and rocks, and climbing over larger specimens, Threm and I ran for several hundred yards before slowing slightly. If I had been impressed by his running stamina before, after seeing only the terminus of his arrival at the clearing, I was doubly so upon witnessing him run encumbered through the forest. I found myself gasping for breath and while I didn’t actually stumble, my clearance of the various obstacles we encountered was less than graceful.
We continued at a slower pace long enough for me to begin thinking it was not all that much of a reduction from our initial speed. My breathing came in ragged gasps and my leg muscles ached from the exertion. Whatever burst of energy I had received upon hearing the approaching creature back at the clearing was gone.
Short of actually tumbling to the ground and risk breaking Threm’s bow, I slowed to a walk. He must have heard me break stride, for he slowed as well and turned towards me. I noticed that his chest was rising and falling in the manner of deeper breathing than normal, and several beads of sweat rolled down his forehead, but those were his only outward signs of exertion.
He held one finger to his lips in an unmistakable gesture for me to be quiet and gazed intently in the direction we had come, listening. I silenced my ragged breathing as best I could, although truth be told I was so spent that the effort brought stars to my eyes and I struggled to keep from passing out. Before long, Threm shook his head and spoke in a subdued tone, “I do not hear her, but their kind can move very quietly in the woods when they want to. We must go farther, but perhaps we can do so more carefully now.”
In response I merely nodded and walked a few steps towards Threm and his burden. “Lead on,” I croaked. Walking proved a welcome respite, despite the tension of believing we were pursued. In a short distance we reached a stream. I could only assume it was the same one I had leapt across earlier, but had no way of knowing.
Instead of crossing, Threm turned upstream and walked along the edge of the water, at times in the water, at times along the bank. When I saw him purposefully leaving large footprints and disturbing larger rocks in the water I realized what he was doing and waited, taking the slight opportunity to catch my breath and keep an eye out behind us. I wondered briefly if I would even be able to pull the hefty bow should the need arise, thankfully it did not.
After moving upstream a hundred paces or so, Threm added the finishing touches to his show by walking out of the stream on the same side he had entered it. He walked briefly out of sight before returning, carefully backtracking until reaching the stream bed. I wondered at such an elaborate deception for a creature, but then remembered the strange feeling of intelligence I had upon a close encounter with the snowbound version of these beings.
Thinking on those lines proved more puzzling to me than any of the strangeness I had seen. The snow Other had completely ignored, or at least not reacted to multiple casualties in its companions when it came face to face with me. But now Threm and I were apparently fleeing for our lives, and carrying the incapacitated pilot, from a version of the same creature. Clearly my newly acquired Neanderthal friend was concerned about the Forest Other being enraged at the killing of its offspring.
It quickly became apparent that no answer easily presented itself from my thoughts, and I relegated the puzzle to the ever growing collection of questions about this place that had been forming ever since my advent on this different world. But answers would of course have to wait until our escape was affected. I contented myself with scanning the forest behind us for any sign of pursuit.
More carefully this time, Threm returned to my position by walking carefully in the middle of the shallow stream. When he was almost upon me I entered the water and began walking just as carefully downstream, confident I knew what he intended. That he did not correct me affirmed my supposition.
The walk and the cool stream did much to revitalize me. I could not however shake the feeling that I had recovered from my fatigue much faster than resting alone accounted for. Ignoring the wandering thought, I focused on our present situation. As quickly as possible, I made my way while striving not to disturb the stream bed or make excessive splashing noises.
Eventually we came to an area where the woods and undergrowth began to thin somewhat and the ground seemed more firm. I heard Threm’s deep voice behind me say “Jahn,” and upon looking I saw that he was pointing to the bank on the opposite side of the stream than we had entered. I nodded to him and carefully chose an exit that I felt would support both Threm and his burden without creating undue sign.
We had been in the water long enough that our footwear was quite saturated with water. In another, less perilous situation the squishy, squeaky sound that the leather wraps created as water was forced out of them by walking once again on firm, dry ground might have been humorous to me. Threm apparently found it so as I surprisingly heard a low chuckle from behind me. “What?” I said as I turned to look at him. A grin on his face corroborated the chuckle, “Your feet make sounds like a duck.”
At that I allowed myself to laugh, but not too loudly. Nonetheless, it relieved some of the tension I had been under. “Well my large friend, I would say the same for you, but in your case I don’t believe there is a duck that has ever been hatched that would be large enough to quack so.” At that he laughed as well, but quickly stopped and looked around.
“I must admit that he is getting heavy.” As if to punctuate that statement he shifted the pilot slightly on his shoulder to adjust the weight, “Perhaps someplace a bit farther from the water.” I led on. The ground sloped gently upwards from the stream, but began sloping downwards again after perhaps two hundred paces. Based on his breathing behind me I could tell that Threm was finally becoming fatigued.
It wasn’t far enough by any means, at least not by my reckoning, but after another fifty or so paces down the far side of the slope we came to a rocky outcropping, barren except for some mosses and one small pine struggling to grow in a narrow crack. Threm carried the pilot around to the far side of the outcropping and laid him down as gently as possible. That done he sat down against the rock. Taking a water skin from his back, he took several swallows before handing it to me. I drank thirstily, thinking it possible to sneak back to the stream to refill the bag if needed.
By the time I tilted my head down and wiped my mouth, Threm was apparently fast asleep. His head leaned back on the rock, his eyes were closed and his bre
athing had slowed to a steady rhythm. I glanced down at the pilot and saw that he was still breathing regularly as well. I remember thinking that I should stay awake to stand guard as it were.
The next thing I knew, someone was shaking my shoulder and had a hand over my mouth to prevent me from speaking upon awakening. I opened my eyes and found that it was night. Only the faint moon glow allowed me to recognize Threm as the one whom had awakened me.
I nodded to him as indication of my wakefulness. He held his hand over my mouth for a second more, looking closer at my eyes to see that they were indeed open. His whisper as he released me was deep and resonant. “We must move deeper into the forest.”
Assuming that he was referring to the giant arachnid-like creature that had been following us earlier, I suppressed a groan. I sat up slightly, expecting to be sore from the previous day’s exertions, but found my muscles loose and responsive.
If Threm was any the worse for carrying the pilot, he gave no sign. As he moved to pick up the still unconscious man, I noticed that for one so large he could move quietly should he so choose. I picked up the bow as before but as I stood to follow Threm something brushed my shoulder.
On the verge of crying out in alarm I was checked by a sudden tightness under one arm that extended around to the other side of my neck. With an abruptness I found quite unnerving I was lifted clean off the ground and some distance into the air. All I managed was a croak of surprise, so quickly had I been lifted.
I reached up with my free hand and found my immediate suspicion to be true. I had been secured by a loop of rope of some sort and lifted bodily into the air. Threm turned and realized my predicament, but I was already too high for him to reach. Just as I saw my companion draw his obsidian blade, and I daresay he was planning on throwing it to sever the line which secured me, a second line looped quietly down around both he and the pilot. It was dark in color, so I almost missed it, but there was no mistaking the sudden lifting of the large Neanderthal from his feet.
Even with the pilot slung over his shoulder, Threm was in a better position to resist initially, given that he already had his knife at hand. I saw him start to saw vigorously at the offending rope before the both of us began rising rapidly and steadily away from the ground. As the tension increased on the rope holding me, I spun slightly in the air and lost sight of Threm in the darkness.
Until this point I had given little thought to what exactly was the source of the ropes that secured us. It could have been a platform in the trees or some such contrivance. However, our rapid ascent drew my attention to another possibility.
I looked upward and was not surprised to see the faint outline of a hull above us. Due to the fact that it was still some distance above me and apparently painted a dark color nearly matching the night, I could make out few details. I did note that the ship was running completely dark. No illumination of any sort shone from either the decks or the rigging. Any further analysis would have to wait.
In any event we rose some distance above the trees, and then seemed to come to a halt. At least that is was the lessening of both the tension of the rope around me and the cessation of most of the breeze blowing over me indicated. I caught a glimpse of Threm, still secured by the rope, hanging some distance below me. He must have decided against falling any great distance and desisted from severing the line which held him.
With a sporadic rhythm I felt the rope which secured me being tugged as I began moving slowly upwards again. In this instance, I felt certain that I was being pulled into the vessel of my unknown captors. I though briefly of actually using the great bow I held in my defense as I was pulled closer, but dismissed the idea. Were I to cause any significant amount of inconvenience to my captors it would me no great effort to merely drop me to the ground far below.
Of course, based on my previous survival of the fall from at least a hundred feet from the tower, there was a good chance I would survive this fall onto the softer soil and vegetation in the forest. Not only was that a chance I had no desire to take, but there were others for me to think about at this juncture, Threm and the pilot among them.
Thankfully, my ascent to the ship did not take long. Due to the awkward position of the rope, although I suppose I should be thankful it had not closed solely around my throat, I was forced to grasp it and pull myself up slightly to avoid passing out from the constriction on my neck. I accomplished this task with one hand for a short while before awkwardly slinging Threm’s bow over one shoulder and adding my other hand to the effort.
As I rose, more details of the ship above became visible, although still of a limited nature. It was built in clinker fashion, as the first such air-ship I encountered had been. However, instead of being drawn up over the side on a boom, as the load of cargo and I had been hauled onto the other ship, interestingly a trap-door of sorts had been rigged on the very bottom of the hull. It was into this darkness that I was being drawn.
Once clear of the hull, and on the inside of the ship, the rope was pulled to one side with the use of a boat hook. There was a very dim glimmer from a globe that cast a reddish glow about the room, but owing to the dark clothing of those within, and a seemingly unnatural darkness of the scant areas of exposed skin, I could make out no details. Several pairs of hands grasped me and not only removed the rope from about me, but also held me quite securely while others divested me of the bow and quiver. I was roughly searched and the pilot’s pistol was slipped from my belt.
At this point some people would begin asking foolish questions, such as “What are you doing,” or insinuate in a demanding manner that the people who captured them “had no right” to do such a thing. I chose to keep my mouth shut, figuring that my captors would tell me exactly what they needed me to know, and no more, regardless of what I might say. In any event, I devoted my faculties to analyzing my surrounding for that which might prove useful in aiding my escape.
Once free of the rope and belongings, I was escorted by two dark figures towards a door at the rear of the compartment. As I did not struggle physically, my captors were not overly rough with me. They held me firmly and I had no doubt that they were armed should the need arise to subdue me. The door closed behind us before I was able to see whether or not Threm and the pilot had been lifted into the ship as well, but I had little doubt as to the future outcome in that regard.
The long room on the other side of the door was illuminated slightly more than the one previous. I could make out a series of flat bars, riveted in a square pattern, along one side of the room. A door to the cage was opened and I was thrust through it unceremoniously. As it clanged shut, I turned in an attempt to gain a better look at my captors, but gained little new information.
The two immediately walked back through the door from which they had brought me, and pulled it shut. I was left alone, or so I thought. I had started to survey my surroundings by testing the locking mechanism of the cage door when I was surprised to hear a deep, manly voice from the darkness, “Either you are very brave, or very foolish, to walk in here so confidently. If I had to warrant a guess, I would say that you simply do not know what is in store. Am I incorrect?”
I did not pause in my tactile examination of the enclosure as I replied calmly, “To be sure, other than the possibility of slavery of some sort, I have no idea what to expect. But I cannot conceive of any fate worthy enough to cause me to hang my head dejectedly while my shoulders slump in defeat. We still breathe do we not?”
His laugh was low and subdued, “Well, if breathing is all you desire, then you should be happy enough as a Kulthaka slave, for a time that is.”
I grinned in the dim light and was about to retort in a somewhat braggartly fashion that I had no intention of being a slave when I heard a loud thud from the compartment aft. It was followed quickly by shouting and more thudding. If that was Threm, and he was taking a more direct approach to securing his freedom than I was, I had no choice but to attempt to aid him.<
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There was however, the inconvenient fact that a set of sturdy bars stood between my friend and I. I shook the metal door out of frustration causing it to clatter slightly but nothing more. Stepping back I kicked next to the latch with as much force as I could muster. This also had little to no effect, other than so send a jolt up my leg from the impact.
While I looked around for some sort of lever with which to force the door, I thought of the portals drifting through the air as I fought for Layla in the first airship I had been aboard. I admit that in retrospect the idea which came to my thoughts seemed reckless in the extreme, but at times one is left with few viable alternatives.
I ran to the end of the cage closest to the rear of the compartment and was thankful that there was sufficient clearance on the outside of the bars for what I had planned. It wasn’t until I looked around in the other direction that I realized that not only had I already sped up in thought and action, merely by thinking of a previous such incident, but that an accommodating portal was drifting slowly towards me.
The angle of its approach was taking it directly towards me, and would pass it through the end of the cage. It seemed high enough to allow me access, and only one thing remained, to enter the portal.
Actually in this case, although I had only entered one portal prior to this, I was counting on several things of which I had no concrete evidence to bolster my hypotheses concerning. The first was that the disc shaped portal which I saw was truly unidirectional, meaning that no matter what angle I entered it from, it would act in the same manner. The undesirable alternative was that it might be like the end of a tunnel with only one angle of ingress. If I could only enter from one direction, then my attempt would most likely be fatal, or at the very least injurious in the extreme.
The other thing I was counting on as I grabbed onto a crossbar that I judged to be high enough was that I could pull myself out of the portal without transiting completely through it. Despite my accelerated state, I was barely able to position myself in time so that all of my body except my anchoring hand would actually contact the portal as it drifted closer.
In the initial rush of sensation, the humming, dizziness and disorientation as I entered the portal, I feared I would lose my grip completely and would fall through to wherever the portal would take me. I actually partially exited the portal on the other side and was surprised to say the least to find myself in broad daylight.
Disconcertingly, I was also dangling, apparently in mid-air, some distance from the ground. I hung thusly for only the briefest of moments before I was pulled back through the portal, and did not have much time to examine my surroundings. I did notice that the forest from Threm’s world was absent and was replaced by hilly grassland dotted by large round shrubs. Several animals of various sizes grazed throughout the landscape, but I could not make out many details due to my elevation.
Just as I felt a pulling on my arm and my head began to rise into the glow I noticed something winged and very large drop from the sky onto one of the grazers. In the style of a bird of prey, but one over twenty feet long, it landed talons first on top of the hapless beast and drew it, kicking futilely, into the air. It had huge bat-like wings and I would swear it was covered in diamond shaped scales. This of course happened in slow motion, but was impressive nonetheless. I have no doubt that the winged creature was large enough to have lifted me into the air with as much ease as it demonstrated with its animal prey.
The disorientation as I passed through the portal was less severe as I went back through it, and I was glad of it. Nevertheless I was quite spent as I exited the portal, thankfully on the other side of the bars, but still within the same compartment. My plan had worked as well as I could have expected. I let go of the cage, my hand and arm somewhat sore from grasping it tightly, then collapsed to the floor.
I did not completely lose consciousness, but I admit that the floor was at that moment as comfortable as any bed, and nothing seemed quite as tempting as falling into a deep, relaxing sleep. Another thud through the wall reminded me of my mission, and I shook off my fatigue and climbed back to my feet.
The man’s voice from inside the cage reached out to me, evidence that time had resumed its normal flow. “Now I understand! You are some kind of sorcerer, but with magic the likes of which I have never seen.”
I did not answer, directing my effort toward reaching Threm, but I would return to free the man if I could. Already the sounds from the other room were diminishing, and I feared I might be too late. Several steps carried me to the door, and I flung it open without pausing to listen.
Jumping through, I steeled myself to engage those beyond with my bare hands and whatever else I could find close by. Only one figure stood near the opening in the floor, and it was Threm. He started at me, and then paused. “Jahn! I feared you had been captured.” There was silence for a moment, as both of us realized we had each been endeavoring to rescue the other, and then we laughed.
Threm stepped forward and clapped me on the shoulder, “It appears you didn’t need to be rescued after all. Perhaps I underestimated you?” I looked around and noticed that the lone body on the floor was that of the pilot. None of the other crewmen, those that had captured me, were still in the room. I also noticed that other than the door through which I had come, there was only one other exit.
A gust of air came through the open hatch on the floor as if to illustrate my thought. “Threm, you threw all those men out?” He shook his head, and shrugged apologetically “No, the last one jumped.”
I was about to inquire further, when I noticed for the first time that Threm had not come through his ordeal unscathed. He was holding one of his fingers with his other hand. The finger seemed to be sticking out at an odd angle, and my initial thought was that it must be painful. Without a second’s hesitation, Threm pulled in the finger and twisted it slightly. I heard the pop as it moved back into position.
Threm had not even grunted as he did it. He flexed his hand as if nothing had happened, opening and closing it several times. “I will have to bind that finger later. I think it might be sore for a while.” I would have to discuss with him his tolerance for pain, at some point.
I stepped over to the open cargo hatch, intent on looking out after the crewmen Threm had disposed of. It was still quite black outside and I knelt down to get a closer look. Just then the loud pounding on the deck of several sets of footsteps sounded through the closed door to the cage room. I turned to look just as the handle started to turn, a warning to Threm coming to my lips. Just as I opened my mouth to speak, a hand shot out of the darkness below and grasped me by the throat and pulled me out into the night.
Chapter Ten