Pursuer (Alwahi Series) (11 page)

Desstina ignored them as they sat down. Dressdon’s eyes quickly scanned over Zanas’s face pausing on her new tattoo, a small smile playing at his face. The twins were talking boisterously about something, and Zanas could only hear bits and pieces of their conversation. One would finish the others sentence or omit words, and somehow it just became jumbled and confusing. They came to a stop as they noticed the girls.

“
A good kill to pay respect to,” one of the brothers said, and Zanas could not tell if it was Tress or Fless. They sat at the end of the table, their hulking bodies seeming to take up the space around them. As she watched, they flashed her matching white smiles.

“
Who are you, girl from above, who tames wanwalfs and slices through chaser beasts like they are pieces of flat bread?” the other said, his face retuning to the pointy grin. Zanas could not help but like the bold and jestful brothers. She raised an eyebrow in response.

“
I’m Zanas,” she said flashing her own smile and the table erupted into laughter. Everyone, that is, except for Desstina who simply rolled her eyes.

They heard a loud banging on one of the tables. Heads turned towards the sound and the hall quickly quieted as they stared at their clan leader. Anessa looked across the seated Pursuers, who sat quiet in their seats, not a single one stirred or spoke. She lifted her hand.

“
Dressdon’s hunting team brings us a fresh kill tonight,” she paused as those seated raised their hands up and down, letting out a call that echoed through the room, and vibrated the air. Her heart skipped a beat in excitement and she found herself raising her fist to the air and echoing their cry. Anessa raised her hand and the hall was instantly silent. She turned her eyes on Zanas.

“
Our new pledge made first blood and finished the beast…” Zanas could hear a low murmur begin in the hall and then heads begin to turn and stare at her. “She has passed her first test,” Anessa finished. The hall was once again silent for a moment, all eyes staring at Zanas. Then it erupted in the loud reverberating cry once more. The roar that echoed in the hall pulsed in Zanas’s ears and she stared around at the Pursuers that surrounded her.

She finally had a feeling of home.

Zanas added logs to the fire poking them with a long stick. Ressna was lying in her bed chewing on jerky, Maleek curled at her feet. It had surprised Zanas how friendly Maleek was towards the girl. He had let out a low purr when she gave him a long chunk of her jerky. It seemed to Zanas that all the animal did was eat and sleep.

He had taken to scratching at the door when he wished to leave. Zanas, at first, had been hesitant to allow him the freedom to come and go. However, she told herself he was not a pet. He had made it clear to her with mental images that he would be leaving with or without her help. The thought of her door hanging on its hinges, quickly set her mind, and she had promptly let him out. Zanas knew that he was perfectly capable of taking care of himself, and the other clan members gave him a wide berth when they came across him in the tunnels. Zanas was not the only one that learned the way to Maleek’s heart was through his stomach, and soon he had dozens of Pursuers saving pieces of their kills for him. He had even taken to following Zanas to the meal hall for some meals.

She smiled as she thought of the first time she had walked into the hall with Maleek by her side. He had been agitated by the amount of people, his fur on edge radiating a blue glow. The Pursuers in the hall had been surprised, some of them showing their teeth and hissing in an animalistic way. But Zanas had walked confidently to the meal table, collected enough food for her and Maleek and then walked to her table. When she had turned and looked at her team, she was met with their amused faces. For once, even Desstina seemed joyed by the presence of the beast. Maleek had eaten well that day, with scraps of food being given to him by anyone within distance.

Zanas had been in the Pursuer hold for over a week now, and she had started to get use to the routine. When she wasn’t hunting the corridors with her team, she spent her time wandering the dark hallways. She was free to go wherever, and quickly familiarized herself with the dimensions of the hold. There were four levels, with the first level being at the cave floor and entering out into the village. Her room was on the third level, the level that all the clan members resided in. The bottom levels were exact replicas of the third. Ressna had explained to her that once all the levels were full of Pursuers, but they had less and less pledges every year and now their number barely filled one level. The fourth level was used for recreation, large chambers carved out of the rock for running, and the games the Pursuers liked to play.

Zanas heard the steady chewing of Ressna. “When do you think I’ll receive my second test?” Zanas asked over her shoulder. She heard a soft chuckle and turned to see Dressdon standing in her doorway.

“
Only time will tell,” he said walking into the room. “Pledges are not allowed to know about the tests they must complete,” he finished giving Ressna a hard look. The girl’s eyes narrowed in anger.

“
I wouldn’t tell her about the tests. All Pursuers must pass the tests or they are unworthy of the clan. There are no weak in this clan,” she finished with a fierce look in her eyes.

It was very apparent to Zanas that the girl was brutally loyal to her clan. Maleek began to growl at Dressdon. He could feel the tension that he was creating in Ressna. Dressdon’s mocking smile returned and he gave a small hiss at the dog, flashing his teeth. Maleek and he were still not on friendly terms. The canine seemed to feel territorial towards the young man, and Dressdon never backed down.

“
It is raining and we are getting ready to go above,” Dressdon said turning to them. Zanas felt a small jolt at the word
above
. Ressna hopped off the bed and began to bounce excitedly.

“
Come on Zanas, we need to get ready,” she called as she pulled on her boots. Zanas glanced at Dressdon.

“
I thought you were not allowed to go above,” she asked and Dressdon laughed.

“
Those are city rules. I guess they are made to protect their soft flesh. We follow our own rules in this clan, which simply put are three. We fight for our clan, we kill for our clan, and we die for our clan. You will fully understand that when you become a Pursuer of the beneath,” he finished, his eyes serious. Zanas felt excitement at his words. He had never before said that he expected her to pass the tests. He turned to leave.

“
You know where to meet, make sure you show her the way,” Dressdon said as he left. Zanas turned to see Ressna staring at her with a small knowing smile on her face.

“
What is it?” she asked, leaning down to pull on her own boot.

“
Oh nothing…” Ressna replied in a cryptic tone.

Zanas shook her head and dismissed her odd behavior. They were heading to the door and Maleek made a move as if to follow them. Zanas shook her head, sending the animal mental images to accompany her refusal. Maleek growled in annoyance, sitting on his haunches and looking at Zanas. She grabbed Ressna’s last bit of jerky and handed it to the canine. He lay down and began to eat the meat, but still made a low growl of contempt.

Maleek had also been coming when she hunted with her team. He listened to her mental commands and ran well with the pack. Nobody said anything about him coming, so he had continued to shadow them, helping to bring down kills when there was multiple prey. He did not understand why, now, he could not come and felt unsatisfied with Zanas’s attempts at mental explanations. She gave him one last look as they stepped out the large door.

Zanas let Ressna take the lead and she followed her as they moved swiftly through the hallways. She realized that she was being led to the fourth level when they came to the stairs and headed up. They made their way through the crowded recreation center, down the long hallways, coming to what seemed to be a dead end. Ressna pushed firmly on a wall and it opened into another shaft. Zanas’s eyes adjusted to the dark unlighted tunnel, and she saw the rest of them waiting further inside.

The light blue glow, that she had come to recognize as the microscopic Ulwahi, was growing on the walls. Dressdon waved them closer and they joined the small huddle of Pursuers.

“
We are going to break off into teams.” He turned to the brothers. “You two will team up, Ressna and Desstina will hunt together and Zanas, you will be with me,” he said looking at her seriously.

Somehow, she always felt uneasy when he was not addressing her with his usual mocking manner. There was something more personal in this type of interaction, something Zanas did not know how to react to.

“
Desstina, you take the lead,” he commanded, and the blonde girl started to run up the tunnel, Ressna right beside her and the twins quickly following. Zanas picked up pace beside Dressdon, and they were all soon flying up the dark tunnel leading to the surface.

They naturally followed the same pace. There was no holding back, each of them easily matching the speeding stride. She could feel each of their breaths as they sucked in and exhaled out, her breathing matching theirs. She sensed the pounding of their hearts, as her own beat solidly with theirs. They ran like this for a long period never missing a step and never breaking pace. They neared the surface, the humidity of the air changing and she could smell the wet air that spoke of the recent rain.

They broke through the surface and into the tree filled forest of the night, pausing at the entrance, a small outcropping of rocks where the small cave erupted from the earth. They began removing their boots and their cloaks. It was refreshing to Zanas to feel the moist earth under her bare feet and to feel the warm tropical air blowing on her skin. As if in welcome, she heard the haunting cries of the birds that populated the dark forest. She stared across the green landscape, her mutated eyes deciphering the colors they had never been able to see before.

The luminous landscape of the pangerra flowers filled her vision. Before, she had been able to see the flowers as they glowed, blinking slightly. But now, she could follow the beginning of the glow from deep inside the plant and watch as it spread through the flower, a flame igniting. She found herself staring at the flowers with her mouth agape, like some bug mystified by the beauty of their radiance. One of the brothers stepped too close to a blossom, and it ejected pollen into the air like fireworks, a flash of brilliance in the night sky.

She heard a soft chuckle and looked to see Dressdon watching her with amusement.

“
Only
we
see the night as it is meant to be seen,” he said quietly.

Zanas said nothing, but understood exactly what he meant. She had never known the colors and shades that she was unable to see. She never even dreamed that there could be such colors, the kind that almost hurt her eyes to view. The pollen also brought back another memory and she began to wonder how she was going to protect herself from the toxic dust. Dressdon seemed to sense her worry and she wondered if he was also remembering that night when they first met.

“
The pollen does not affect those from below. I would say that Alwahi has changed you enough that it will not affect you either,” he said turning to the others. “You know what to do; we will meet back here before the bright light is above,” he said, pointing to a pulsating star that hung low in the horizon. The others nodded their assent, and then quickly disappeared into the forest in pairs. She was once again left standing alone in the bright tapestry of the night with the young man from beneath. He turned his bright eyes on her and she felt that familiar skipping of her heart.

“
We will be looking for a ground beast. They only come out after the rains and their meat is a delicacy for the Pursuers.” He paused for a moment. “Although they are just ground beasts, there are many predators that roam these forests after a rain as well.”

The tone of his voice was slightly mocking, and Zanas suddenly felt angry. He was treating her like a child. She had hunted in this forest before and she had brought down plenty of prey. His eyes widened as he took in her anger and he grinned.

“
Keep close to me, young one, and I’ll keep you safe.” She could tell by the shaking of his shoulders that he was laughing as he turned and began to run.

Zanas was furious. He did not appear to be very much older than her, perhaps nineteen. However, he was treating her as if she were completely inexperienced. She had not been in this world for very long, but she had been training for it her whole life without even knowing it. It was in her blood, in her very being. She growled softly as she picked up pace behind him.

They raced through the forest and her anger began to subside. It was wonderful to feel the damp earth at her feet and see the swaying of the jungle leaves. As they ran through the Pangerra flowers, they were sprayed with vibrant colors, the pollen sticking to their bodies. They glowed brightly like some magical bird, racing through the rainforest. Zanas could hear the splash of water as they came to a small stream and Dressdon leaped across it. She quickly followed his lead and felt the warm water spray her skin as she passed over it.