“I see nothing, but there IS something here that is not good. I just cannot see what it is.”
Kahira pondered. “I think we should leave here as quickly as we can. We will have to go around the lake since there are no other ways unless we go back.” Not wanting to go back, she waited until Tanka found the safest way to skirt the lake. He started moving.
She heard water bubbling; splashes ahead of them, but the green mist was so thick! Kahira could not see much past Tanka’s shoulders. Reaching into the cart, she put her large axe in its belt loop, pulling her spear out also. She laid the spear across her lap.
As Tanka began moving around the lake, Kahira noticed he was moving much faster than before. Soon he was almost running! Riding on the cart whipped her back and forth on the front board. She hung onto the ropes attached to Tanka, setting her feet on notches below her to steady herself from falling off. Tanka was just curving around the bend of the lake when Kahira saw them!
Chapter 18
Creatures were standing in the path Tanka was trying to take around the lake, dripping green slime onto the ground! Loud sucking sounds were heard from the thick, putrid mud in the lake.
Kahira saw hundreds of the creatures slowly moving out of the lake onto the land. They were hideous! They were as large as humans with worm-like green bodies. Pestilent boils erupted all over their skin, spilling out green pus that smelled revolting. It sizzled like acid when it dripped to the ground.
They looked like giant slugs. Where the head should have been was just a huge gaping hole of a mouth with long, razor sharp fangs coming out around the entire hole. The body ended in a long tail with a tapered fang on the end.
Beginning at the top of the mouth, vertical bone-like structures lay side by side all the way down to the end of the tail. At both ends of each bone were fangs.
There were four thick arms with hands but only three thick legs ending in large stumps. The legs sucked in and out of the boggier lake mud as the creatures slowly moved to the land.
Tanka stopped short when he saw them standing in his way. When he stopped, they began moving towards him, slime dripping to the ground they slithered across. Kahira was stunned for only a moment. She screamed at Tanka, “GO! Don’t stop for anything! Just run right through them! Get us OUT of here!”
Tanka didn’t have to be told twice! He shot off running straight at the creatures blocking their way, shuffling towards him with maws wide open. By this time there were many more creatures in their way.
As Tanka tried to run through them, he ALMOST made it to the place where they would enter the forest to get away from the lake of the green mist. The creatures were everywhere around him.
Kahira gave a piercing scream - her war cry - and jumped onto Tanka’s back end, almost falling from him as she caught a handhold in his hair. She began crawling slowly up to the middle of his gigantic back. When she got there, she straddled across his neck, seeing he was already at battle.
Tanka was lumbering as fast as he could. His open mouth was biting the creatures, tearing them apart. Tanka spit them to the ground right and left, one after another. But many of them passed him as he ran. They grabbed parts of his sides, neck and back in their mouth
holes, tearing at his flesh with sharp fangs. He was burned in several places by the acidic pus dripping from their skin blisters. He was making a concerted effort! Tanka courageously moved forward with his strength and energy flagging.
Kahira held her spear under one of her thighs tightly, facing it upward on his back to point skyward. She only used it when she saw any creature coming at Tanka that had not reached him yet. The spear had a long handle on it. Kahira thrust it deftly through as many of the creatures as she could before they reached Tanka.
She pulled her large axe from the belt loop, immediately slaying the creatures attached to Tanka’s body. Cutting off the heads seemed the best way to make them release his flesh. She was slashing and hacking at both sides of his body, tearing heads and bodies asunder.
Kahira was burned many times as the acidic bodily fluids sprayed every which way. The pain was agonizing but she knew if she let up, they would both perish.
As Tanka rounded the curve, the opening into the forest flashed in front of him. Seeing their escape, Tanka put his head down. Lunging into the tree line, he began to run faster to get away from the lake.
They finally left the fading green mist, soon coming to a stop. Both were panting, sweating profusely. They moved the cart to an opening surrounded by trees that would give them some protection.
Kahira was so concerned for him! He was only a foal and she felt his pain and terror in her mind. She slid off his back. “Tanka? Are you okay?”
“I think I am. There are no broken bones. But the creatures bit pieces out of me. It is more painful than anything else I’ve ever felt. The cuts and slashes from their teeth are also on fire. I am so very, very tired.” Immediately after saying that, Tanka dropped to the ground and was fast asleep!
Chapter 19
Kahira climbed into the cart. She got her sharp dagger with some medicinal herbs and bandaging which she took back to Tanka. Starting at his face, Kahira moved slowly around his entire body, medicating, bandaging. When she was done, she tended to her own bodily wounds.
Gathering her bow and arrows, Kahira went into the forest to hunt food. Tanka would need much fresh meat in order to heal from all of his wounds. She moved quietly as she searched for some animal. When she spotted a large deer (ikpi), Kahira dropped to a knee.
Pulling back the string, she sighted the deer before letting 0the arrow fly. It went straight through the deer’s head. Kahira pulled her knife as she ran to where it fell to begin skinning it. When the pelt was off, she laid it out on the ground.
Kahira cut all the internal organs out, putting them in a pile. She dragged it back, putting it beside Tanka for when he woke up. They would help him heal faster and get stronger.
Returning to the meat, Kahira flayed it into large chunks. She removed the bones from half the meat. Carrying them, as well as the other half of the meat she had cut, back to Tanka, she put the bones on top of the innards.
Kahira cut two large leaves to take back to the camp. She piled the meat with bones on one of the leaves. Then she went to get the last pile of meat without bones, bringing it back to put on the other leaf.
Kahira built a fire, putting the meat full of bones directly on the fire to char for Tanka. While waiting for his meat to cook, Kahira whittled two sticks, each looking like a “Y”.
She stuck them in the ground on each side of the fire. She whittled another stick until it was sharp on one end but smooth all across.
When searching for wood, Kahira found a river running through the forest. It was clean with fresh water. While the meat for Tanka was cooking, she took her largest bowl to get water for him to drink. Upon her return, Tanka looked at her expectantly. He was awake, devouring the innards of the deer. She gave him the bowl of water then got the charred meat with the bones in it for him.
She put the last pieces of boneless meat on the stick, dropping it between the two “V” sections of the other two sticks. “I am so glad you are feeling better, Tanka! I have been so worried about you!”
“I must thank you, Kahira. You have surely saved my life! I am truly grateful to you.”
“What else could I have done? You are my traveling partner! We will find our way on Edla together!” She pulled meat off the stick with her knife. Kahira was extremely hungry! Exhaustion hit her all at once, knowing she could sleep now that Tanka was safe.
They stayed in the shady glen for over a month. Kahira found plenty of food to hunt. She smoked meat and made jerky to replenish what had been eaten since they left home. She cooked extra meat to eat cold so they didn’t need a fire all the time.
Kahira bathed often in the river. There was always swimming or floating fun for her. She even caught a few large fish, smoking them for travel as well.
Tanka healed. He wou
ld accompany her to the river, watching over her while lounging in patches of sunlight filtering through the trees. He was able to get his own water now so Kahira did not have to haul it to him any longer.
Kahira noticed Tanka had grown considerably larger since she had first met him. Now the hair on his body was thicker, longer. She knew fall had begun with winter soon coming.
That’s why Tanka’s hair had grown, to keep him warm in the winter. Kahira made new blankets and clothing from her prey to keep her warm when winter came.
She was sitting on the rocks of the river beach drying from her bath, looking into the clear water as her mind wandered. She noticed a light blue glint spark from the bottom of the river.
Curious, she jumped back into the water, swimming down to move the little pebbles round on the river’s bottom. Kahira saw the spark again as her hand seized an odd-looking pebble. She swam up into the fresh air gasping, gulping air into her lungs.
Again Kahira sat on the beach and opened her hand. In it was a very strange blue stone. It was smooth and shined, sparkled. It had an irregular shape to it. She unthinkingly slid her thumb across it.
A long, thin, shiny beam erupted from the pebble! In the position that she was holding it, the beam hit a strong branch in a big tree close to her. The blue light turned bright white, hurting Kahira’s eyes so she shut them tight.
When she looked again, the tree was shimmering as if it was a mirage! As the light became blue again, it began to dim, shooting back into the stone. The pebble looked the same as when she retrieved it!
Kahira stared at it for a moment then looked up at the tree. Her eyes widened as big around as her mouth! There in the limbs of the tree was a hut! It was built on various limbs with a rope ladder falling to the ground!
Chapter 20
Kahira ran back to Tanka, screaming into his mind in a blind panic! Many confusing, scrambled thoughts ran through her mind! “Tanka, I found a stone that made a hut in a tree! It has a ladder to climb to get to it!”She breathed deep slowly until her heart slowed down.
She quieted enough to tell him the story. Tanka listened to her jumbled story, figuring out most of it. “Let us go to the hut. You can climb the ladder to check it out. That is the first thing to be done.”
They loaded the cart, Tanka pulling it to the river. The hut was still there, the ladder still down. For some reason, Kahira felt no fear. She felt awed excitement but no fear or anxiety about the stone she held or the hut.
Tanka nodded his huge head, pushing her gently with his nose toward the tree trunk where the ladder was suspended. Kahira climbed the ladder, finding it could be withdrawn at the top to make her safe from anyone else climbing to get to her.
The door was thick, hard wood, solid. She looked at Tanka then opened the door, walking inside. She could not believe her eyes as they traveled through the hut. This was surely an other-worldly thing! Kahira had never seen anything like it!
She stood in a main room; the floor was wood sanded to a polished sheen. Two windows looked out at the river with some type of clear, hard things Kahira could pull down to shut against the cold; yet she could still see the river perfectly! There were thin things hanging on each side of the window. When she touched the top of them, she found she could close them to meet in the middle, which closed off the view of the river!
There was a rock fireplace running up the entire wall through the roof in a square. When Kahira pulled on a rod beside it, she could hear a lid closing on the square above the roof. There was a nice-sized square box-like area in which to put wood for a fire.
A round rug was in front of the fireplace. Wonderful regular sized chairs with really long chairs sat around the front of the fireplace. They were so pretty and comfortable!
A table sat in front of the right window with four matching chairs. They were all wooden, smooth and polished to a shine. There were gorgeous carved wood shelves of different sizes and shapes attached to the walls to put things on. They were all smooth, shining like the floor.
Kahira followed the right wall into another room also made of wood like the main one. There were wall cabinets she opened to find strange utensils, pots, pans, dishes, cups.
There was a sink with a plug to keep water in or pull out to drain water. A handle pumped up and down brought water in. It was a warm, graciously crafted room with a place to cook food. There was ample counter space.
Kahira went back into the main room, following the left wall back to another room with a wooden door. Opening it, she was in awe, her eyes wide! It was a bedroom with a carved wooden bed frame. The mattress was so comfortable, so soft as she tried it out, sinking into it blissfully.
Standing in front of two oblong-shaped doorways with two doors in each, Kahira had to take the handles of both doors to open them at the same time. One was filled with shelves topped with bed linens, sheets, pillowcases, towels, striking blankets.
On the lower shelves were many clothes made of wonderful soft materials, feeling good to touch. The bottom held shoes which Kahira figured out because they looked like feet and came in couples! Some were soft as feathers, some comfortable looking boots, some warmly fuzzy. She did not know anything these were made of but they looked fantastic to her! She closed the doors softly.
Going to the next cabinet, Kahira opened both doors. It was actually a bathroom, although Kahira had never seen one. She stared into the stool wondering what it was. Seeing the handle, she pulled it, jumping almost back through the doors as the stool flushed! It filled with water again.
Cautiously, Kahira moved back into the room. There was a big tub with a handle and a plug like the one in the kitchen. She could pump the water in for a bath or pull the plug to drain it!
On the other wall, there was a sink with a handle, a plug; soap on a crystal soap dish. The soap’s scent was marvelous, filling the entire room. The sink was like the one in the kitchen.
When Kahira went to leave the room, there was a mirror on each of the door backs. If she shut the doors from the inside, the mirrors came together into one large ceiling to floor mirror, showing her entirely in it. She did not know what it was made of. It was just another thing in the hut that she had never seen.
As she climbed down the ladder, Kahira looked dumb-struck at Tanka. He had followed her thoughts the entire time she was inside the hut. She looked at him saying, “I do not understand what this thing is but I know it has something to do with the blue stone. What do you think I should do with it?”
She glanced down at the pebble. Without thinking, she turned it towards the hut, rubbing her thumb across the side of it like she had before.
A blue light shot from the stone at the hut which began to undulate like a mirage. Suddenly, as the thin blue line re-entered the stone, the hut disappeared!
Chapter 21
“Can you do that again?” Tanka asked. Kahira pointed the stone at the tree, passing her thumb over it. Suddenly, there was the hut back again in the tree!
The second time, Kahira noticed a tunnel running under the hut straight to the river. Upon examination, it ended in a round metal tube in the river. She figured this was how the hut had the endless supply of water.
With this knowledge came the idea that the hut should always be set up around some place where it could get water. Each time she set it up and took it down, it seemed easier to her! She became calmer until it was quickly done in a second.
Kahira made herself a “V” shaped hair comb, the “V” point coming to the top of the middle of her forehead. Putting the stone at the top of the inside of the “V”, she let it drop.
She used a tool to push it down so it wouldn’t fall out, attaching a wooden bar across the top of the stone, holding it firmly in place. Kahira could put the comb in her hair so it would not fall out, pulling her hair back from her face as well. In this way she knew she would always have the stone on her.
Still moving north through the never-ending forest, Kahira would set up camp every night, taking it down every morning
. It became a tiring, boring ritual. She had not used the hut in the tree; she was still thinking about it and the stone.
They stopped by a pond to drink some refreshing water. There was a glade where they could set up the cart. Kahira was tired, bored; frustrated with being continually in the forest.
As she relaxed on the grass with her eyes closed, she decided to try something she had wondered about. She stood, pulling the comb from her hair. Pointing it at the ground in the glade, she thumbed across its edge.
Blue light lanced making the glade shimmer. When the light came back into the stone, Kahira smiled as she looked at the hut sitting in the glade! “I knew I could put it wherever I wanted to! I just knew it! I have a plan, Tanka. Help me get the cart near the hut!”
“Okay, Kahira. What do you plan to do?”
“I sure hope this works! If it does, it will be much less burden for you! I will not have to live in this rickety cart any longer.”
Tanka pushed the cart with his massive head until it slanted in front of the hut. Kahira opened the front door of the hut, taking a small bundle of herbs into the kitchen and putting them in a cabinet.
Walking back out of the hut, closing the door, she used the stone to make the hut disappear. After a moment, she stroked the stone and the hut reappeared in the glade.
Kahira walked through the door into the kitchen. She opened the cabinet. There, where she had left them, were the herbs! Breathlessly running to Tanka, she was so excited! “Tanka! I can put everything from the cart into the hut! Then I can put the hut into the stone! It will all be there when I bring the hut out again!”
“You will not have to drag the cart around! With only me riding on your back, you will be able to move much quicker, not having to drag that cart behind you any longer!” Kahira excitedly explained.
“Kahira, do you think so?” Tanka was thrilled! “That would be wonderful! You are so smart!”
Kahira moved everything from the cart into the hut, dropping most of it on the main room floor. She disassembled the cart, taking the wood and putting it by the fireplace.