Heyna's Tale - Chapter Five (cont.)

Follow the Turtles

Heyna was hungry when she woke up. Seven days at sea left her food depleted. She hoped the sea snakes had something that she could eat. She was alone on the observation deck. The engines had stopped.

She heard shouting, banging. The door flew open and two crew members grabbed her roughly and dragged her back to the command deck and up through a hatch onto the rolling deck of the Tachizame. The sun was bright and hurt her eyes.

Screeble was there. He was roaring. Other crew members, including Kay and Ak’ne were standing on the deck. Screeble rounded on her.

“Nothin’ here, Kit! Nothin’ here!” He glared at her and waived a razor tipped claw at the ocean. The sea was empty from horizon to horizon, except for a far off fog bank. The Tachi bobbed up and down on the ocean, and rocked from side to side. Heyna lost her balance and went down on all fours . “Now…” Screeble looked around, and shouted, “what?”

“I told you she was crazy,” Kay said.

“You cost me time. You cost me fuel. You cost me food.”

“I’ll pay,” Heyna shot back, defiantly.

“Not half enough, crazy kit! Not a quarter.” Screeble turned to his crew. “What we do with her now, eh?” The crew all shouted at once.

“Erda stew!”

“Sell her for a slave!”

“Keel haul her!”

Screeble raised his arms and the crew quieted.

“Make her walk the plank,” Ak’ne growled out of the momentary silence. Heyna looked her way in despair, and Ak’ne winked at her. The only dragon that was civil to her, and now she was taunting her.

“The plank?” shouted Kay. “What good is that? I ain’t had furbun in years. Let’s eat ‘er.”

“More profit in slavin’ her,” said Screeble.

“Ai,” said the crew.

“Oh, but the furbun so plump and juicy,” Kay poked Heyna with one claw and the crew erupted in laughter.

“We got to punish her first, keel haul her,” Ak’ne shouted, and winked again. She really wants to drown me, thought Heyna, but the ocean is better than the stew pot in the short run, anyway.

“No!” Screeble shouted. “I think this one for the slave hold. How you like that, furbun?” Screeble laughed a harsh evil laugh, and the crew joined in, all but Ak’ne who just stared.

One of the crew, a big ugly green, grabbed her by her carryall, which was still strapped tightly to her body just as huge boom sounded across the water.

“Ship!” One of the crew shouted, pointing toward the fog bank, which was now closer. The shell landed in the water nearby, boomed, and splashed water over the deck in a huge wave.

“She’s a Gryph cutter!” Kay shouted. “What’s she doing way out here?” Heyna saw smoke silently puff out of the bow of the cutter and then heard the boom a second later, as it steamed at high speed towards them.

“No time to deploy the deck gun.” Screeble said calmly to Kay.

“Dive, dive, dive!” screamed Kay just as water exploded over the deck by the near miss of the cannon shell. The crew scattered for the hatches.

The big green began to drag Heyna across the deck.

“Let me help you with her,” Ak’ne said, and slipped. Ak’ne bumped hard into the green dragon, shaking one claw loose. Heyna bit hard on the other arm and the green yelped and staggered. Ak’ne made to reach for her, but whispered in her ear.

“It’s the drink for you, my dear. Hope your island’s near.” Ak’ne pushed her over the side.

“The kit’s trying to escape!” the green shouted, just as another boom sounded. The cutter was closing fast. The shell exploded and sent another crashing wave over the deck and pushed Heyna toward the fog bank as though she were driftwood.

“Leave it,” shouted Kay. “Dive, dive, dive!” The crew scrambled down hatches as Heyna dove under the water and swam towards the Gryph cutter. It was her only hope.

She came up and looked back. The Tachizame was moving fast, slipping beneath the waves, and then was gone. Heyna dove again and swam as fast as she could. Her carryall was overly buoyant and slowed her down. If only she could get to the cutter, she was sure the Gryph would help her.

But when she came back to the surface, the cutter was nowhere to be seen. She looked in all directions, bouncing up with the waves to stretch her view, but there was nothing. The ship had been right there, off towards the fog bank, charging in her direction. It couldn’t have turned around and gone back into the fog that fast.

Heyna thought of her climb up out of BelowLight. You’re in it again, she thought. At least it’s cool. What now? She spit out a mouthful of saltwater. A thousand leagues from land, she couldn’t swim that distance. She remembered her water bottle. I can drink the water and use it to keep me afloat if I have to sleep.

But which way to swim? The sun was on her left. North is that way. A thousand leagues? Could I even? Something brushed her tail, and her blood ran cold. She thought of BelowLight again and all the creatures that inhabited it. All the carnivorous creatures. All the creatures that wanted to take a bite out of her.

Something brushed her tail again.

Her heart beat thunderously in her chest, as she saw ominous shadows gliding in the water just below her tail. And there were a lot of them. Sharks? I may be on the menu after all, she thought. Then she noticed that they were not circling or focused on her at all. The shapes seemed all to be going in one direction. They were all headed towards the fog bank.

Heyna was afraid to look, but she put her spectacles in her carryall, and she forced herself to dive down to investigate. It took a second for her eyes to adjust to the salt, but the water was clear and the sun was bright. She could just make out huge forms swimming 20 feet or so below her. She screwed up her courage and dove for a closer look.

Turtles! Hundreds of turtles swam in a long swirling stream, all moving in one direction. Heyna heard Jakintu’s voice in her head. “Follow the turtles.” She swam back to the surface to get her bearings. Yes! The turtles were heading for the fog bank. She took a huge breath and dove down to follow the turtles.

The turtles were gigantic, much bigger than Heyna, big as round leviathans. They clustered in groups of three or four swimming steadily. Each cluster seemed only to be guided by the group ahead. Heyna wondered if this was a migration or swimming home after a day of fishing. What did turtles eat, she wondered?

It was a long swim, and Heyna was glad that she had built up her muscles in Beoford. Even so, she was tired and hungry, and the salt was burning her eyes before long. Above all, she was thirsty. She surfaced and floated on her back long enough to take a large swallow from her water bottle. She didn’t have much left, so she drank it all down. The bottle floated, and she didn’t want it to drag her to the surface while she swam. She didn’t want to throw it away either. She might need it later. Instead, she filled it with seawater until it was neutral buoyant, and put it back in her carryall.

Something dark and fast streaked up from below and smashed through one of the clusters. The turtles scattered and Heyna saw a nightmare of teeth and fins devour a young turtle. A shark, longer and sleeker than any of the turtles chomped the young one, once, twice then down its gullet. The monster circled out and came back for another snack.

Immediately, the biggest turtles converged on the shark. Together the performed a maneuver that astonished Heyna. They swam in formation forming a moving giant shell wall between the shark and the younger turtles.

The shark bumped the wall once, couldn’t get a bite on the huge shells, swam about for a while, and eventually lost interest. Heyna, stayed on the far side of the turtle wall until she needed air. When she went back down, the shark was gone.

Heyna continued to follow the turtles as the procession passed into the shade of the fog bank. The light was dimmer here and there were more sharks, but they didn’t seem interested in the turtle parade. They glided smoothly below and Heyna hoped they were as disinterested in her.

Schools of fish of many shapes and colors swam and flashed beneath her, turning this way and that, as though they had one mind. The sharks ignored them too.

The turtles led her to a reef that reached to the surface in spots. Thousands of fish of all sizes swirled and darted about. The coral grew in hundreds of fantastic shapes and colors. Creatures darted in, out and around the living habitat in an undersea ballet. Urchins and eels, starfish and cuttlefish, black tipped reef sharks and barracuda, anemones and great manta rays, and many more species produced a kaleidoscope of color below and around Heyna as she swam over the reef.

Beyond the reef Heyna left the turtles behind and the water gradually shallowed. The sea floor was covered with short grass where crabs threatened her with their claws as she passed overhead. Heyna kept swimming until the surf deposited her on a wide beach of pure white sand. For a second, she saw a line of rich vegetation, but when she pulled out her glasses, wiped them off, and put them on, there was nothing but sand in front of her and the sea behind.

The sky was cloudy, and Heyna was cold. She shivered and shook out her fur. She headed inland to a grassy knoll that overlooked other knolls covered with the same scrubby grass. Heyna sniffed it. It smelled delicious. She tasted it. It was bitter, and she spit it out. She sat for a long while, but didn’t feel rested. She took out her water bottle, but remembered that it was full of seawater.

She stood and staggered, the motion of the sea was still in her legs and she sat down again. She groomed herself for a while, but her fur still felt matted and grubby. She took out her last bit of dried svella bark and chomped it down, but she was still hungry. She told herself to get moving, but she just wanted to lay down and sleep.

She put her head down, but sleep wouldn’t come. She tried to think of Xico, but she couldn’t picture her face. She forced herself to her feet and staggered forward. She couldn’t see the water anymore. The little sandy knolls were all around. She tried to walk in a straight line, but she kept crossing her own tracks. The sun was obscured by the mist, so she couldn’t get her bearings.

She decided to lay down and wait for night. Maybe the stars would come out and she could navigate that way. She was so tired, but again, she could not sleep. She waited for what seemed like hours, but the sun did not go down. The mist prevented it from warming her. She got colder and colder until she could see her breath.

She gathered an arm full of grass and dug a little pit for a fire. She put the grass in the pit and decided that it was not enough and went for more. When she returned, the pit was empty. Cursing the wind, she gathered more, careful this time to put it in her bag. But however much she gathered, the bag did not get any fuller. Finally, she took what she had, and struck the steel and flint for a spark. The grass caught and was consumed in a minute.

Trembling with cold, Heyna began to grow afraid. She grabbed her things and charged wildly in one direction. She dragged her bag behind her and used the line behind as a guide to keep her walking in a straight line. But she crossed her tracks again, even though the line behind her was straight. Maybe the tracks were from before?

She kept walking, and though she crossed her track over and over, the line behind her was straight. Okay, she thought, not much choice, walk or die. Find water or die. Then she smelled fresh water, but she couldn’t tell what direction it came from. She was so thirsty, the smell of the water was making her frantic.

She realized that the smell was coming from her water bottle, and she opened it and drank quickly before she remembered it was salt water. She tried to spit it out, but vomited all over her legs instead. She watched the precious liquid disappear into the sand. Now I’ve done it, she thought. She stepped back out of the sand caked vomit and brushed her legs off.

She looked around. The little grass covered knolls were all around, she didn’t even see any of her tracks. She felt the urge to cry, but that was just a waste of water. She tried to think. She knew that something wasn’t right about this island. The enchanted foxes were supposed to live here, weren’t they? Nothing could live here above ground. Didn’t foxes burrow underground?

She began to dig with her strong claws and made quite a bit of progress. She began to feel better as she dug, until she hit an impenetrable mass of roots. She clawed and bit at the roots, but they just seemed to grow back as fast as she cut them.

“What is this?” she shouted to the sky. She clawed and bit faster and harder, but it did no good. She couldn’t get past the roots. “Wait,” she said out loud. Grass roots were shallow and thin. These roots were like the roots of mature trees. Where were they growing from?

She looked up and searched the horizon. She squeaked in shock when she saw, or thought she saw Jaasi. He was standing fifty yards away. He was covered in blood. “Jaz!”she shouted. She scrambled up out of the hole, but he was gone when she looked up. She charged after him, but he was gone. There were no tracks. She collapsed.

I must be hallucinating, she thought. She pounded the ground with her fist, and screamed. “Help! Help! Please someone help!” But she knew it was futile. There was no one this far out in the middle of the ocean. Except there was supposed to be. No? That’s why she’d made this journey.

She looked around frantically, and saw, or thought she saw Xico a hundred yards or so off among the knolls. She kept her eyes on Xico and ran in that direction, only to see her friend dissolve into heat waves and disappear. She screamed, “Xico!” and turned wildly about. Then she saw her parents, standing side be side in front of her, just staring, burnt and blood covered.

Heyna closed her eyes, when she opened them Screeble and his crew was charging over the knolls towards her. She screeched in terror and tore off in the opposite direction. She ran as fast as she could until her lungs burned in pain. She could hear the dragons behind her.

“Hey, Kit,” Screeble shouted. “No use running. You cheated me. Your for the slave pen. Nowhere to go!” He laughed his grating laugh.

She ran until she thought her lungs would burst, yet she still heard them getting closer, laughing and whooping, until they were shouting in her ear. She ran over the unchanging landscape until she thought she couldn’t run any more and still she ran. Finally, all her strength spent, she collapsed and curled into a ball. She expected to be torn by the wicked Ryujin claws, but as she lay there panting. Nothing happened. She looked up and she was alone.

Now she grasped at a crazy thought. The Fennec have poisoned me. The grass, or the sand or something. No, she thought. They’ve cast a hex, or what did they call it, a glamour. These were all illusions. Not all. She was thirsty and would die of thirst if she didn’t get some fresh water. The foxes had to have water, or they wouldn’t be able to live here.

Maybe there’s water right in front of me, she thought. She felt around, but there was only grass and sand. Help, she thought. She began to beg out loud. Talking to the wind, the sand and grass.

“Please. Please! I mean you no harm. Please, I’ve just come to ask for help. Please, please! Don’t let me die.” Nothing happened. No one answered. “My name is Heyna of the Paititi Erda,” she pleaded desperately. “I know that you can hear me. I’m trying to rescue my brother and my best friend from a terrible fate.” She started telling her story from the start, how she fell BelowLight, fought the giant spider, climbed out and found her parents dead. She went on an on until her voice was hoarse.

She spoke of how she’d gone to the Dreki Isles and Beoford and Merkataritza. How she’d met Jakintu. She told about the Talking Stones. She described them and her strange vision. When she got to the children and the rhyme, she recited it.

Tha mi sgìth, 's mi leam fhìn,

Buain na ràinich, buain na ràinich,

Tha mi sgìth, 's mi leam fhìn,

Buain na ràinich daonnan.

She reached for something to throw over her shoulder. Not having anything else, she pulled the ruby from her body pouch and chucked it over her left shoulder, as the children had done. Suddenly, searing light flooded her eyes and she collapsed.