Heyna's Tale - Chapter 2 (cont.)
The Climb
Lean, whip and step. Lean, whip and step. Lean, whip and step. Heyna climbed on and on. Lean, whip and step. Slip! What? Lean, whip and step. Slip! The climbing strap was not letting her go higher. It was not maintaining the right tension when she whipped it up to the next level. She was exhausted. Bugs were dive bombing her. She was out of water, her last cooling pack was spent, but she could see light above her. Not fire, but sunlight far up in the canopy. She was almost there! What was wrong with this harness? She couldn't go back down. She had to figure a way up.
She turned on her lantern and examined the harness. The climbing strap is adjustable! She pulled on the tab, and the tension increased. Of course! As she got higher, the trunk gradually narrowed. She sighed in relief. After, applying some more bug spray. She started up again.
She kept climbing, and she started to be able to make out the shapes of other mammoth trees, the buzzing insects and branches in the canopy above her. The light gradually brightened, and the air began to cool as the darkness and insects fell behind. As the darkness slowly receded, Heyna could begin to see patches of sky that looked like the stars at night. The height of the trees above BelowLight was at least as far above her as the forest floor was below. The trunks of the massive trees huddled closer to each other than Heyna thought possible. But the effect was of a massive buttress system that supported the graceful city above. Heyna strained her eyes looking in the gloom for city’s shape in the trees, but the looming trunks blended to a uniform gray. She kept climbing. Almost there! But almost where? As she climbed the more distant trees started to take form.
Heyna squinted at the trees above her, trying to see a path back into the Quetzalcoatl city. Off to her right and still far above her, she saw thick smoke and some flames. The Quetz city loomed behind the flames, growing from, and supported by, the huge trees below. She could see no path over to the city. Her heart sank. There must be a bridge, or rope scaffold or someway to climb over. Erda built this city and we can't fly, she thought.
She climbed until branches came into view above her. The lack of branches allowed her to climb this high. She could climb no higher with the harness. We can't fly, and we can't climb trees either, she thought with horror.
She cinched the strap tight, and hung in the harness thinking. She was glad to be able to see, and doubly glad that the breezes up here cooled her. By the Trees! It was so hot BelowLight! The dark yawned below her and she was glad to be out of it. She cursed her stupid brother again. In her heart though, she couldn’t really blame him. She knew she was the stupid one.
Heyna looked around for the hundredth time. There was no getting around it. She was stuck. The only way up was to try to climb the branches above her, but she wasn't even sure that there was any way out of this tree. Even if she could navigate the branches, what would she do when she got to the top? She wasn't a feather light Quetz. She wasn't Xico. She was Heyna. She was a heavy Erda, with a fat butt and a tail not made for life in the canopy! By the trees!
Maybe if she could make it to the top, she could signal for help? Faint hope! Heyna closed her eyes and tried to focus, but the effort to climb out of her buzzing, baking, black predicament overcame her. She made sure that her belay strap was tight and slumped in the harness. She let herself fall fast asleep.
*
Heyna awoke when something smacked her in the face, something wet. She wiped at her eyes and looked around. It was raining. Rain on the great southern continent of Tototlan was not like the gentle rain in more temperate climes. Rain in Tototlan came down hard, in buckets. It poured down so hard that if you looked up, you couldn't breath. The branches above her scattered the droplets, but Heyna was still soaked through in a minute. She squealed in pleasure as the water cooled her down, washed the slime of the bug spray and the guts of a hundred giant bugs off her. Quetz cowered when it rained like this, but Erda, who had evolved in a watery environment, danced.
She wriggled and preened, digging the ground-in guts out of her fur, laughing all the while, till the sound of her joy rivaled the roar of the downpour. The other thing about rain in Tototlan, was that it was brief. After less than an hour of pouring the rain started to taper off. Then it stopped. Heyna wiped her glasses and saw that the fire over on the corner of the Quetz city was out, just like that! Steam now rose up where thick black smoke had billowed shortly before. Heyna could see into the structure of several buildings that looked like homes. Blackened timbers twisted and popped as the heat pulled them out of their intended shapes making the dwellings look like scary wooden demons.
Water was still dripping and a drop splashed on her glasses. She wiped them again. When she put them back on, the first thing that her eyes focused on was a bridge. A rope bridge! The smoke had hid it from her, but the hissing steam seemed to outline it. She could see that it came from her tree, somewhere above her. It was obviously not meant for Erda, but for the Quetzalcoatl riggers that did the high canopy work, but it would do. Her hopes raised, even though she was still in the same position as before.
She would have to leave the harness and try to climb through the branches. You can do this, Heyna! she told herself. I am light as Xico. I have feathers, not fur. I am a leaf on the wind.
Carefully, she dug her cleats in deep, and loosened the harness. Suddenly, she didn't feel so confident, but she had no other choice. She swallowed her fear and pressed on. Gradually, she worked herself out of the harness and up on to a thick branch.
She looked back and had an idea. She pulled out her multi-tool and grabbed the harness tightly and gave one end of the climbing strap a chop, freeing the whole thing from the tree. She fastened the harness about her again, looked to the branch above her, and wrapped the free end of the climbing strap to it. It was a safety line, so if she fell, the strap would break her fall like a belay rope. No way was she going to fall back into the dark!
She tested her idea, and climbed to the next branch. The branches were closer together at this level, so she didn't have to climb so far with each step. She climbed carefully, but steadily and finally came even with the rope bridge which was anchored to the trunk. It was definitely meant for Quetz, and not Erda. She made sure to tie off her climbing strap as a safety line to the bridge. Then she stepped out onto it.
The bridge was four ropes, braided and lashed into a rough trapezoid, with more rope forming a kind of floor, with gaps, large gaps. Erda don't do rope bridges, so Heyna was startled at how it dipped and swayed with her weight. She gave a little squeak and gripped the rope as tight as she could. When the swaying slowed, she took another step. This time, she really thought she would fall. She lost her footing and only her grip on the strap kept her on the bridge.
She inched forward on her belly, never completely loosening her grip. The wind picked up after the storm and kept the bridge moving. Heyna closed her eyes and kept crawling. She didn’t dare to open her eyes and look down. It seemed like forever, but she felt wood ahead of her, and she scrambled onto a platform.
The platform was shaped and grown from the living tree. Ahead of her was wall with a portal of vines to a long oval room beyond. The structure looked solid and the floor was level. Heyna thought it might be a work station of some kind, not used for years. Another vine portal at the far end was not so easy to pass. The vines had overgrown it, thick and stubborn.
Heyna stared at the thick vines, and thought, Lunch! She tucked her tail, and sat in front of the portal and nibbled the vines. Delicious! She realized that she was starving, and bit into the vines, cutting and chewing large pieces until she was full. There now was enough of a hole in the vines for her to squeeze through.
She tied a bundle of vines to her back, in case she got hungry later. She was worried that the Quetz would be dealing with the aftermath of the raid and it might be a while before her next meal.
On the other side of the portal the floor sloped and wound in a spiral sharply upward. Heyna scampered up as fast as she could, calling as she went.
“Hey! Anybody! Help! Help!” No one answered. She kept moving until she came up into a series of work rooms and storage warehouses. Now each turn of the ramp brought her to another storage area and she continued climbing until she reached a huge building with a vaulted ceiling, and rows and rows of boxes.
“Hey! Anybody!” she yelled again.
“What? Who’s that?”
She saw some Erda across the space just emerging from another passage. She could smell them. Erda carried their identity in their scent. Clans had distinctive fragrances (to Erda noses, anyway). Close families could tell who was related and sometimes how. Strangers could categorize each other, even distant relatives just by scent. An Erda’s scent glands made her an individual. Without them, she could be anonymous.
“Hey! Over here!” They ran over to her.
“Who are you?” They sniffed each other. “Oh! Oh, no! You’re the daughter!”
“I recognize you! You’re from River Clan. What do you mean, I’m the daughter?”
*
The Erda work crew, walked Heyna up long passages and through a maze of rooms and warehouses until they were near the upper reaches of the city. Then they passed Heyna to a Quetz guard detail who were armed with chest mounted sonic amplifiers.
"Come with us," was all they said.
The Quetz soldiers led Heyna into the hall of the ruling Great Council of the Quetzalcoatl Oligarchy. Her eyes went up to the vaulted ceiling automatically. One section of the great woven structure looked singed and blackened. The soldiers stopped at the door, and Heyna walked forward. Everyone else's eyes were down. Quetz looked up, but quickly looked down again if they met her eye. She was suddenly very frightened. Why is everyone focused on me, she thought.
Mrs. Plesh was on the leader's perch and motioned her forward. The other members of the council, including Mr. Plesh were perched in a semi-circle to her left and right.
Heyna advanced, acutely aware of her disheveled appearance. Her fur was all matted from bug spray and bug guts, and her skin and one eye were swollen from a hundred bug bites. The members of the Great Council gazed down at her.
“Heyna,” Mrs. Plesh said, “we are so glad to see that you survived. But…” But! Oh no! “I am sorry to have to tell you that your parents were killed in the raid, and your brother taken. And… Xico.” Mrs. Plesh's voice squawked in anguish. “They took Xico, and others as well, for ransom, we assume.”
"What? No! No, no, no, no!" It couldn't be true. She felt like ice water had been dumped on her. She shivered. Mama and Papa? Dead? “Maybe they just got lost like me! I fell into the BelowLight! It took me forever to climb back up! Maybe...” Heyna gasped and tears came to her eyes.
“I'm sorry, my dear,” Mr. Plesh said. “There's no mistake. Your parents are with the other honored dead.”
“Others! How many…?”
“We're still taking stock, but it looks like more than a hundred.”
“But, Jaasi? He's not here? Maybe he fell like I did.”
“No,” said Mrs. Plesh, “he was wounded defending the city, and witnesses saw him taken.”
“NO! Oh, no!” Now Heyna collapsed and Dr. Juss was at her side. Two Erda came forward and helped her up, but she couldn't walk, couldn't breathe, and had to be carried.
“Dr. Juss, please take care of her,” said Mrs. Plesh. “She's been through a lot. We all have.” Heyna pulled against the doctor. She was suddenly angry. Her hackles went up.
“No!” She shouted as she spun around. “What are we going to do!” she demanded. The Quetz in the hall all fluttered and squawked at the outburst. “Are we going to mount a rescue? I want to go. I want… my brother, my… Xico.” She was weeping now. The doctor was trying to hush her, but she stood her ground.
“A course of action is what we are debating now,” Mr. Plesh said.
“Heyna, we will talk later,” said Mrs. Plesh. “Doctor, if you please.” Heyna hesitated. “Please, dear,” said Mrs. Plesh. Heyna was exhausted and finally let the doctor lead her out of the council hall and down to the Care Arbor, where she had begun her ordeal many hours ago. The Arbor was half shattered, with unbound tree limbs twisted and still popping from the heat.
The wounded were everywhere. Doctors and nurses rushed from perch to perch, and hammock to hammock treating the worst injured. All of the patients were Quetz. One of the nurses called out to Dr. Juss.
“We're full up here doctor,” he said. “I'll take her down to the servant's infirmary."
“No. Rig up a hammock over there,” she pointed to an empty corner near the blackened timbers. “I'll treat this one myself.” The nurse puffed in surprise, but did as he was told. The doctor took her into a shower stall off the main corridor and turned on the water. She rubbed soap on the distraught Erda and scrubbed Heyna's fur until the sticky goop was gone. Heyna shook her body instinctively and doused the doctor, who didn't seem to mind. Then the doctor led her to the hammock and helped her roll in.
“Now, Heyna, I'm going to give you an anti-inflammatory to help with your swelling.” Heyna was still crying, and thinking, no, it can't be true. She didn't really hear the doctor when she said, “I'm also going to give you something to help you sleep. You've had quite an ordeal.” Heyna started to protest, but the doctor slipped the syringe into her arm and before she fell asleep, she spoke fiercely to the doctor.
“Wake me when the rescue party goes out! Promise me!”
“I will. Now sleep.” And Heyna did, with the image of Xico, Jaasi, and her parents in her mind's eye.