Awaken (8 page)

“
Snake skin is real good for
trading,” he says and lays it aside. He tosses the heads, tail and
innards to Cat who’s waiting patiently by the fire, then spits it
on a long twig and hangs it over the low flames.

“
Oh gods, my mouth is
watering all ready, I cain’t wait!” He’s hopping like a wild rabbit
back and forth from one foot to the other, looking all of his
twelve years. It makes me laugh.

“
Well you’re gonna have to
wait,” I say. “And you’re gonna have to clean up. Your hands are a
mess. Go see if you can find some wet leaves or moss or
such.”

“
Okay,” he says, agreeing
with me and grinning slyly. “Besides...it’s time for my nightly
droppin’s anyway.”

I screw my face up at him. “Ugh! You’re
disgusting!”

His laughter follows him into the
trees. He disappears from sight with my warning of not to go too
far trailing after him. I lay back, close my eyes. The nights are
cooler here in the woods and the warmth of the fire feels good
against my skin. The smell of the cooking snake fills the air,
blocking out the stench of the rotting trees. It’s making my mouth
water as well. If it tastes as good as it smells then we were in
for a real treat, I think. I yawn, the days travel catching up to
me. Maybe just a quick nap while I’m waiting….

“
Tara!”

The scream makes my blood run cold and
I bolt to my feet instantly, but Cat is much quicker than me, she’s
already gone. I grab the iron shooter and run in what I hope is the
right direction.

“
Finn!” I yell, crashing
through the trees. I cain’t see anything, it’s too dark and my eyes
ain’t adjusted from the firelight.

“
Finn!” I yell again, panic
gripping me ‘cause he ain’t answering. I trip over something, a
root maybe, and I stagger but don’t fall. Why ain’t he
answering?

“
Over here,” he finally says
and at the sound of his voice the ice cold fear in my belly eases
some. I stumble onto him, standing on a little bank, looking
perfectly fine, Cat calmly sitting at his side. No sign of danger,
or attack, or critters like I was fearing. There was nuthin. He was
screaming his fool head off over nuthin! I feel my anger at this
starting to build ‘til I notice what he’s staring at. A creek, no
less. A nice big watering hole!

“
You scared the hell outta
me,” I say but my anger is dimmed some by what he has
found.

“
Sorry,” he says but he
don’t look it. He looks excited and hopeful. “You think it’s good
for drinking?”

Before I get a chance to answer him Cat
makes her way down the small slope. She sticks her head down into
the creek, her slurping sounds loud in the quiet night. We look at
each other and grin.

“
I suspect so,” I say and
Finn’s excited whoops echo loudly back at us.

“
I found us a watering hole!
I found us a watering hole!” His chanting is followed by some two
step dance that makes him look more like a hog in its death throes
then anything and I cain’t help but laugh.

“
Okay, okay mister hero, you
found us water, now make yourself useful and go get the
waterskins.”

After we had filled the waterskins and
drunk our share, we laid back on the creek bank just staring at the
moons reflection on the dark water, reluctant to leave our little
haven. Being around the water...well, it was comforting
almost.

“
Tara,” Finn says, breaking
our companionable silence.

I look over to see him watching me with
the oddest expression on his face.

“
What?” I say, wondering
what was going through that head of his.

He shrugs. “I was just thinking… it
would be real nice to wash up. Ain’t had a good wash since…well
before…”

I know what he means by before and I
don’t want him thinking about that so jokingly, I punch him in the
arm.

“
Aye, I know what you mean.
You smell worse than Cat.”

“
Hey!” He looks at me all
offended. “I ain’t that bad.” Cat raises her head and snorts like
she’s disagreeing.

“
Besides, you don’t smell no
better.”

I don’t take no offense ‘cause I know
it to be true. I shrug, “So let’s take a wash then.”

“
But…”

“
But what?” I
say.

“
Well…” he’s all embarrassed
and he sits up, dropping his gaze from me. “You’re a girl and I’m a
boy...” He trails off sheepishly.

I try not to laugh at him and I’m glad
he’s not looking at me so he don’t see my grin.

“
Tell you what, you can go
wash up that end and I’ll go over there.” I point to where a low
hanging tree is growing all sideways over the creek as if its
branches were reaching for the water, forming a wall almost.
“Besides, it’s real dark….and I promise not to peek.”

He mulls it over but the draw of the
water overtakes his shyness. Jumping to his feet he runs for the
creek yanking his tunic off as he goes. “Last one in is a mule
turd!”

The water feels real good. I wash off
the dirt and dust and maybe even some of the misery of the past few
weeks. I loosen my hair from its braid and duck underneath the
water wishing I had some of gra’das mint soap for scrubbin’ but
instead I have to make do with just running my fingers through my
hair. I come back up, sputtering and just let myself float. I can
hear Finn laughing at the other end ‘cause by now Cat is in the
water too and she’s thinking it’s play time. I listen to their
splashing and laughing and my mind starts conjuring up memories of
me and Ben back when we were young’uns at the swimming hole. I
think about how Ben used to challenge me for everything. He always
wanted to be the fastest swimmer, the deepest diver, the highest
climber. Most times I would beat him with little effort but
sometimes I would let him win just so I could watch his stupid
victory dance. I cain’t help but smile as I relive the memories,
one by one. But then that familiar pain starts blossoming in my
chest again so I shut them off. I don’t want to deal with it right
now. Angry, at myself, my weakness, I climb out of the creek and
busy myself with squeezing the water from my dripping hair. Takes
me a while to get dressed ‘cause of being so wet but finally
clothed I head up the slope. Finn’s still in the water.

“
I’m heading back,” I say,
picking up the iron shooter and two of the waterskins.

“
Hey! You said you wouldn’t
peek!” he yells, all offended and hunkers down behind Cat. Sighing,
I turn my back to him.

“
Sorry. Don’t stay much
longer. The snakes probably charred by now. And don’t forget your
waterskin.”

I leave him knowing he’ll be fine with
the beast guarding him and head back in the direction of the camp.
The smell of the cooking snake is guide enough but it ain’t long
‘til I see the light of our campfire flickering through the trees.
Before I reach it however I get a real strange feeling pounding
through my blood. The hair on the back of my neck stands on end and
right away I know somebody is there, in our camp. We ain’t seen
hide nor hair of another soul for weeks but yet, sure enough, I see
a shadow moving around our campsite. Stepping softly so as not to
make the intruder aware of my presence, I sneak closer.

Shizen! We never thought twice about
leaving all our stuff just a laying there for easy picking. I
figured for sure there wasn’t another living soul in these dead
woods. I was so wrong. The man, least I think it’s a man, is
hunched over, pawing through my slingbag. At the sight of that all
my fear leaves me and I get red hot mad! Slowly I step into the
clearing, the iron shooter aimed straight for the intruders back.
My hand is surprisingly rock steady.

“
Mister, if you don’t wanna
hole in the back of your head then you best put down my
slingbag.”

He quickly stops what he is doing and
stands straight. Well, I think he’s standing but he’s still a good
2 heads shorter then a normal man should be. He turns around, still
holding my slingbag but smiling like he’s just here for a
neighborly visit. It’s a man for sure, he’s got a shock of gray
hair sticking out from under a black bowl shaped hat, a wrinkly
face , and a long skinny gray mustache that hangs nearly to his
chin. But he’s so small! I stare. I ain’t ever seen such a small
man, he’s no taller than Finn.

“
Well good evening young
lady, this is quite the pleasant surprise I must say!”

His tone is mild, friendly. I don’t
know what to make of him. I realize my mouth is hanging open and I
shut it with a snap. Wordlessly, I keep staring.

“
Er…do you mind pointing
that pistol in another direction? They do tend to make me a bit
nervous you see, especially when pointed directly at me,” he says,
with a little laugh.

His reminding me of the iron shooter
brings my senses back and I wave it at him angrily.

“
No…you put down my slingbag
first!” I say.

“
Whatever you say my dear.”
He lays the bag on the ground and holds his hands up in the
air.

“
There, now will you please
put that offending piece of weaponry away.”

I sure as hell got no intention of
doing that.

“
Are you a mutie?” I blurt
out. I need to know ‘cause I cain’t understand why he’s so
tiny.

He looks back at me kind of offended I
think, and raises one bushy brow.

“
No I most certainly am not.
Are you?” he asks.

“
What? No I ain’t a mutie,”
I say. “I’m normal.”

He laughs then, like I said something
side splitting funny.

“
Ah, normal. That word is a
conundrum is it not, for surely normal stands in the eye of the
beholder. And since we all have our own unique perspectives....
well then, wouldn’t we all consider ourselves normal?”

Huh? I hope he ain’t waiting for an
answer to that line of gibberish ‘cause I don’t even know what he’s
asking. Nope, he wasn’t expecting me to answer ‘cause he goes right
on talking.

“
I have been called many
names in my years my dear…dwarf, half man, imp….even jester at
times, but never a mutant. You are very amusing.” He points to the
iron shooter again. “Truly I mean you no harm.”

He talks so peculiar I cain’t decide if
he’s a threat or not.

“
Why were you looking
through my slingbag then if you ain’t aiming to rob us?”

“
Us? You are not alone?
Where is the rest of your party?” he asks.

Shizen! I shouldn’t have said that! But
it don’t matter none ‘cause just at the time Finn and Cat come
crashing through the trees, full speed. They must have heard the
stranger’s voice. Finn looks all scared and worried and runs right
to my side but Cat heads straight for what she perceives as the
threat before me or Finn can hold her back. But she don’t hurt the
half man. She don’t even get close enough to lay a paw on him
‘cause he takes one look at the charging beast, lets out this gods
awful shriek and falls right to the ground in a dead faint. Ain’t
never seen a man faint before either…well I’ll be!

“
What is he Tara?” Finn is
whispering….don’t know why. The stranger’s out cold, he ain’t gonna
hear him. I approach the man on the ground slowly, nudge him with
my boot. He groans and stirs a little. I figure if we don’t want
him passing out again when he does wake up we’d best get Cat out of
his eye view so I shoo the beast away from the stranger. She don’t
want to go, she’s sniffing the man, as curious as the rest of us
but Finn calls her over and she listens. She goes and sits calmly
by the boy’s side like she never just scared the little man to
death. I nudge him again, still pointing the iron shooter at him. I
ain’t taking no chance that he may be faking. After a bit he opens
his eyes and stares up at me. I back off a pace.

“
You’re okay,” I say. “The
beast won’t hurt you, not unless we tell it to.”

I watch the memory of what happened
come flooding back to him and he bolts upright looking around
wildly. Finn is keeping Cat firmly by his side, but the boy himself
is staring all wide eyed.

“
That’s a ….a devil cat!”
the little man says like he cain’t believe what he’s seeing. I
don’t know who is more awe struck, him or Finn.

“
Aye that it is,” I say, in
my scariest voice. “And a mighty vicious one at that if you get to
thinking you can rob us again.” I reckon if the iron shooter don’t
scare him away then Cat would do the trick. The stranger watches
Finn keeping Cat calm by scratching her ears. Then a peculiar thing
happens, he starts smiling and clapping his hands! No... no! He’s
supposed to be running away in fear!

“
A tamed devil cat! This is
extraordinary! I never would have thought it possible. Oh my
heavens this is remarkable!”

He gets to his feet and brushes past me
like I ain’t even standing there holding an iron shooter on him.
Bold as anything now he walks over to Finn and Cat.

“
It belongs to you boy?” he
asks Finn. The boy just nods, still in wonder of the
stranger.

“
Extraordinary!” He puts his
hand out towards Cat, then stops. “May I?”