The Wild Lands: Legend of the Wild Man (41 page)

Though not every shard finds an elk. The
Spire sucks a few of them in. Most of them clatter away harmlessly,
but one of them sticks. A tiny foot long thorn on a tree that
punches a hole in the earth and sky. Already it glows white hot.
Urea will have to remove it.

With each shard that leaves he feels the
vultus
's presence lessen in his own mind, and the
synchronization again becomes one sided.
The bird was amplifying
the signal from his VRC.
Interesting, if not dangerous. He
hopes that without the prongs the
vultus
won't be able to
challenge his mind for dominance, but every feather and bone of the
bird's body is made of the same conductive material. Skup's not
eager to test his hypothesis. He goes a little higher, looking for
his twin.

He spots her. Flip after flip, the
panthera
goes under and above
biselk
. He sees almost
nothing of the lithe black cat, just flinches of pain from the
biselk
and spurts of blood. She targets the ones already hit
by his broad aerial attack, those already looking around for an
attacker. The
panthera
tricks them into fighting each other.
The
biselk
, too jacked on power too think in such terms,
attack the nearest thing they see when they feel pain.

In moments, the herd is incapacitated, their
antlers sending long tendrils of smoke into the moonlit night.
Between him, barely visible to the bird's weak night vision, red
tendrils glow, radiating out from the Spire, roots of the coming
inferno. Skup thinks DOWN, and the
vultus
obliges.

Elia chimes to him. Without
thinking his
vultus
rolls in the air as another plummets
past him, talons splayed. He'd be dead if not for the move, though
Skup didn't order it. Something of the
vultus
still
commands, even without the shards of antler.

Skup takes over and forces the bird higher.
He glances back and sees the
vultus
on his tail. It's the
big one. He knew this battle was coming. He banks left and circles
the Spire, the big one follows. Closer and closer he spirals,
rising all the time, a tight little spiral around the Spire. As he
does he can feel the charge building. Now that the
biselk
are mostly incapacitated, the Spire once again emits regular
power.

she replies. Wonderful
sister, always ready to fix his mistakes, though Skup's not sure if
even her
panthera
can dislodge the antler shard from the
Spire. As mad as it is, Skup has to forget about it for a moment,
if he doesn't best the challenger, the flock will be lost.

Skup takes a gamble. He flies in close, drags
his talons across the surface of the Spire, and feels the last of
his hidden antler shards charge. Again, the King's mind burgeons
beside his own as the electric charge amplifies the bird's VRC. He
lets it build and build, hoping the King understands how much they
need each other. They're going to need all the juice they can
get.

The big one flies in close behind him. He
glances and sees the rest of the birds down below, circling,
waiting for a victor. He thanks Elia a hundred times. He can see
her slender
vultus
fly laps around the others. The rebellion
started with
this
one Skup thinks either to himself or the
King.
Let's fix this.

Closer and closer he gets to the city at the
top of the tower. That hexagonal bulge perched atop the Spire,
shrouded in vapor no longer. Skup banks out, and the big one
follows. He's lighter than the other, and he easily outpaces the
weighty bird. Then they're above the Spire, high above. He stops
pumping his wings, slows down, turns, and shakes the rest of the
shards loose of his wings.

They rocket down, towards Spire City and
through his pursuer. Many of them miss and fly straight for the
Spire, for the
vultus
has a small charge compared to the
electromagnetic pull the enormous
biselk
batteries had, but
in the hailstorm of organic blades, many blow messy chunks of flesh
and feathers out of the bird. Still, the big one pursues. Battered
and weak, he knows only death will end rebellion. Skup lets the
King do as he wills.

The mighty
vultus
ruler dive bombs,
closes in, and finally gores the bird with its talons just before
they crash into the field.

He digs his talons into the other, one in his
torso, the other his neck, and lands atop him. Skup immediately
realizes his mistake. The field is sturdy of course, without the
biselk
attacks it's as strong as ever. However it
immediately charges the
vultus
' skeleton with more
electricity than the pair have ever experienced. The one below is
shocked and burned to death, but the King is spared the worst of
it. He gets just enough energy to rocket his consciousness above
and beyond Skup's.

Suddenly Skup is the puppet. He opens his
eyes, his human eyes, but can still feel his body jerk and move
with the bird's. First his feet scratch at the floor of his
amplification room, then he bites at the floor, tearing muscles and
veins that exist in another place. He dry heaves. He closes his
eyes and sees the King's vision as the acrid bile melts through the
bird's featherless face, then its skull, and finally sizzles in the
Spire's field. Skup hears gentle singing. He thinks himself mad
until he sees through the Spire's electromagnetic field. The
Naturalist congregation kneels on the top floor. Their voices
carry, though Skup knows not if his ears hear them, or the King's.
He hears no more as the King takes to the air and pumps higher and
higher, dragging Skup along for the ride.

The kingcrows. Victory!

It wretches again on the corpse of its
rival.

He hears Elia, thank Nature, but cannot do a
thing to stop the bird. Instead the flock hears their victor's
triumph, sees his celebration and mimic him, like they've been
taught to do their entire life.

A storm of bile falls upon the Spire as the
congregation sings for salvation.

Nature built man, she did, she did,

Man then built the Spire, he hid, and hid

Though she sent the Scourge, forgive him she just
might,

One Day she'll send the Wild Man, he will make
things right.

Screams echo from the bottom of the stairwell
and Kao feels guilt for each one. Many of the monkeys caught up to
him and and the female that lead him upward, but many more are down
below, at the beginning of the steps. As soon as the first few
caught up to Kao he was forced to stop. The monkeys were ruthless
bullies, and though Kao could not blame them, he would not witness
their assaults either. They monkeys would tear at the Hidden's
clothes, scream in their faces, punch them, bite them, and any
other violent perversion that came to their freed minds. Kao felt
their emotions just, but now was not the time. The Hidden cowered
and cried and did nothing to defend themselves as their world
disintegrated. Kao barked at them to come on and they obliged, but
he could do nothing for the monkeys far below, outside of his
vision. Instead he climbs, and follows the female monkey's urgent
hoots.

Each level Kao and his crew of monkeys climb
is filled with more and more of the pitiful Hidden. Most of them
cringe and cower when they approach. Kao and his crew are not
popular, but they are known. Some people try to follow but get
pulled back by others. Some grovel on their knees. A few scream
angrily, most just sob in pathetic puddles of fear.

Kao knows not what to think of it. It is
clear to him that they know him, or his symbol. They should fear
the monkeys if anything, they enslaved them, worse, not even their
minds were given freedom, but they pay them little mind. Instead
thousands of eyes focus on the shrouded figure as he chases the
monkey higher and higher. People grasp at his prongelk cloak, but
no one clings. They touch him, like a child would an apparition.
They question their reality, a natural response given one of their
gods runs among them.

Each level, each step, makes the dull ache in
his arm grow. They approach the source of the energy. The prong and
two stumps in his arm tell him this. Kao readies himself, he only
hopes the moon is high above to fuel his battle. He knows not what
awaits him. They come to the top of the stairs, a heavy door. They
burst through it.

This level is different, much different.
There's a large central room with door after door for walls. Hidden
pace back and forth. These ones are different, more like Urea than
Baucis. They are all young, their features smooth, their faces
afraid but intrepid. Most shocking though, is their hair. Its
nothing like the thick coat that covers the hunter, most of them
have little more than black fuzz coming from their head, but its a
stark difference to the hordes of people in the steps, hairless as
reptiles. Some of the boys even have hair on their chins.

They look at him with interest, as equals, or
closer to it than the rest of people did. Some of them stand up to
see him better, the tallest comes well past his waist, though not
as tall as Urea did.

Warriors. These are their best, their
fighters
.
They are so young
. Kao was a fierce hunter in
his tribe, but there were many skilled elders to learn from. He
sees no elders in this room.

He walks in slowly. No one makes a move to
stop him. He sees them and knows from where these hunters draw
their courage. Next to each other, in adjacent rooms, Urea and her
brother dance their animals. This is what they do. The girl is her
panthera
, the boy the
vultus
he battled. Only their
bodies are distinguishable from their other identities. The girl
flips and lashes out with claws Kao has tasted. The boy soars the
heavens in a room as large as Kao's cage. They are their animals,
one and the same. Kao can see the animals are them as well. Their
minds blend, their bodies become indistinguishable, two vessels
that house the same intertwined mind.

“Damn it!” another yells in their foreign
tongue as he stomps out of a room that edges the central area. “I
can't sync. I get this far,” he paws the ground with a foot, “then
nothing,” the boy shrugs and Kao understands. This is their temple,
their place of power. This is from where they control the
world.

No one says a word to the boy who spoke
“What?” he asks sheepishly. Someone nods towards the seven foot,
horned, half ape, half prongelk standing in their midst. “Oh god!”
he yells and hurries towards one of the rooms.

Kao is there in half the steps. He grabs the
little warrior by the shoulder and lifts him high into the air with
one hand. The monkeys go wild. They had waited at the door, still
fearful of those they knew controlled them, but once Kao touches
the boy they stream into the room, an angry swarm of claws and
teeth. Kao understands. If these are the masters of the animals,
they are far from innocent. He smirks to himself as they berate
those that truly deserve retribution. The female that led him all
this way attacks no one, instead she pulls at his leg, begging him
to stop.

The tone of her grunts, the subtlety of her
movements whispers something to Kao. She is so very familiar. But
the troop is right, one of these masters needs to know fear. Kao
lifts him higher, the monkey pulls at his leg more intensely. He
looks down at her, confused why she would want to stop him from
those so clearly enslaving her own kind. He looks into her eyes and
is shocked to see the electric blue of a Hidden mind.

He had not noticed it before, he assumed when
he flung her across the room, it had been broken, but it is in her
eyes. Why would the little monkey help him? If she was still
controlled by the Hidden, why bring him here to their place of
power? Even with the electric blue spark, he trusts those eyes,
they brim with intelligence. They undoubtedly show the Hidden's
power, but there is more to them. They possess none of the
powerlessness Kao grew accustomed to seeing in the animals in the
Garden.

Entranced in the mystery of the little monkey
Kao jumps when another pair of hands grab at his waist. He drops
the black haired master to floor, and whirls around to see his
sister standing before him.

She looks up with the same look as the monkey
does, her arms pull him the same way but from the other side. Her
eyes well with tears and Kao scoops her up into his arms. The room
falls away with its master and monkeys. Kao forgets about the
Spire, the Garden, Baucis and even the hermit for that moment. His
sister buries her head in his thick coat and he sheds tears as he
feels his shoulder grow wet with hers. He holds her for an
eternity.
I am not not alone anymore.
My sister is alive.
All is well
.
I have done what I came to do
.
We can go
home.
He hugs and coos to her, hums melodies their mother sung
that he did not know he remembered. He squeezes her until she
squeaks and finally he looks into her eyes again. She is safe, and
healthy, and her smile is bigger than he remembers.

He doesn't jump when more hands lay upon his
thick black fur. They mean no harm. They touch him with the same
awe as those in the halls, but none of the fear. They look up to
him, they idolize him, yet he deserves none of this. They saved his
sister, and he has destroyed their city.

All Kao can do is stroke his sister’s hair.
It’s blacker than it was when she was stolen, no doubt from the
fruits of the Garden. He runs his hand through her hair, feeling
for scars, scrapes, bumps and bruises. He feels only one. The back
of her neck bulges just slightly, he pushes her hair apart and sees
the dull glow of a Hidden stone beneath her skin.