Ember's World Chapter Five

Rylings ~ humanoid with webbed feet, long thin arms, upward slanting eyes, flat nose with two slits, no visible ears, two slashes of ‘their’ color on cheeks. When they hit maturity two suction cups appear on the index finger and thumb of both hands. Suction cup are not strong enough to hold their weight. Each one has their own unique color.

Bowne (bow-knee) ~ food
coltays (cole-tays) ~ shoes
Coltelltraetin (Cole-tell-tray-tin) ~ lizard
Domaw (do-maw) ~ father
dovel (do-vell) ~ dress
Image-maker ~ TV
itonot (it-oh-not) ~ idiot
Kela (key-la) ~ friend
Lawto (law-too) ~ cup
Learay (lee-ray) ~ Village Elder Meno (me-no) ~ girl, lady Momaw (mo-maw) ~ mother Nebow (knee-bow) ~ water
Nomay (no-may) ~ boy
Notay (no-tay) ~ brother Portal ~ door raedo (ray-do) ~ pants
raevel (ray-vell) ~ shirt
reato (ray-too) ~ cigar or cigarette
Sonsa (sun-say) ~ cricket milk Tolaw (too-law) ~ plate veldo (vell-do) ~ skirt
Veldor (vel-door) ~ cloth
Veldorae (vel-do-ray) ~ clothes
velrae (vell-ray) ~ coat,jacket
Wakela (way-key-la) ~ best friend
wavor (wave-or) ~ Love
yestay (yes-tay) ~sister


Chapter Five

The ‘Giant’ or Trevor tossed open the door to his disarrayed room. His cell phone was stuck to his large ear as he listened to the voice on the other end.

“Hey dude, I gotta go,” he interrupted the other voice. “Something’s wrong with my lizard. Later man.”

The phone clicked shut and he threw it on the unmade bed where it bounced under cream-colored pillow. He made his way gradually to the terrarium while he brushed his shaggy born hair out of his mud brown eyes, then itched his nose with the back of his scarred hand.

“Hey man, what’s going on?” Trevor asked leaning over the dense growth of Tom-Tom’s living area. He wrinkled his nose as the cloying aroma of old crickets and molding vegetation reached his nostrils. Hot humid air touched his arms as he laid them on the rim.

Tom-Tom reared up and Trevor saw a small stick wedged in his throat.

* * *

I felt myself losing grip on Pentop’s coltay’s and I fought to hung on. My breath came faster and harsh but still I fought to hold on.

“Pentop,” I struggled to make my voice heard over the creatures roar. “Let go! It’s not worth it!”

When he looked down I could see the indecision on his face while the creature swung us back and forth. Sweat was dripping down the sides of his face past the vivid slashes. He shook his head and let go.

We fell in a heap and a shooting pain in my ankle left me breathless as I scrambled onto my feet and into the brushes. Pentop was right behind me holding on to my raevel. Leaves and loose sticks stuck out of our hair and veldoraes.

* * *

Trevor reached down, grabbed Tom-Tom around the middle and hoisted him high enough up to pluck the twig out of his throat. A small drop of blood swelled up and Trevor wiped it away.

“What did you do Tom-Tom? Oh man, you got to be more careful.”

His cell phone rang at that moment and he laid Tom-Tom down to pick it up.

“Hey man, what’s up?” He turned away and mumbled something more. Quickly he turned back, laid the stick down and covered the cage.

Out of the corner of his eye he caught movement. He turned to peer more closely at the tick brush. When nothing moved after a moment or two he stuck a long finger in and pushed aside plants. Two crickets burst from the growth and hopped away. With a shrug Trevor turned away, distracted with the conversation.

* * *

From the undergrowth our eyes watched as the ‘Giant’ picked up the Coltelltraetin and sat it down in another part of the terrarium.

Suddenly the ‘Giants’ finger pushed the plants away so close to us that we could feel the warmth it radiated. Seat dripped down my back soaking my raevel. I could see Pentop tensing and relaxing. I held my breath.

To the right of where we were crouching, hidden in the brush, two crickets hopped away and the finger withdrew taken the warmth with it. The crickets kicked up loose debris and when I took a breath I tasted dry grit and could only think of nebow.

Beneath my hand Pentop relaxed bit by bit, and drew in a sharp breath. A look disgust came over his square face, and while I laughed he spit and coughed.

I couldn’t stop laughing as I handed him my nebow bottle and watched him drink deeply. After he had taken a drink he began laughing with me. Nebow dribbled down his chin leaving a clean track of the palest green skin color.

Several minutes passed, and still we laughed. I had laughed so hard that tears were blurring my sight and my sides hurt from heaving.

Soon we tired and sat in grim silence. The near death experience hung in the air between us. I looked down at my hands, turning them over and over. It was sobering to know that a few minutes ago we could have been eaten. I was studying my palms when I noticed my thumb and index fingers had raised bumps. I groaned.

As I had been looking at my hands, Pentop was holding his spiky haired head in his hands. He looked up penetratingly when I groaned.

“What is it?” He jumped up and was searching all around us. Crouched low he looked like he was ready to bolt. Fear and anger was etched again on his face.

“Nothing. Settle down. It was nothing.” I said quietly folding my hands together so he wouldn’t see the changes I was going through.

Shaking his head, he picked up his pack where he had sat it before the Coltelltraetin had scared us. Hoisting it over his shoulder he asked, “Do you think the ‘Giant’ saw us?”

“No, no I don’t think so. I think the crickets covered for us.” I stood up and shouldered my satchel. “Besides the big question is what happened to your stick?”

“Before he turned away I saw him release it beside the barrier.”

“Good, let’s go get it.” I started off towards the nearest barrier.

“Ember stop. It’s on the other side of the barrier.”

“What?” I skidded to a stop; the mud between my toes had dried and was now flaking off.

“He dropped it on the other side.” He sighed sounding defeated.

“Ok, so we climb out and retrieve it.” I said determinedly, looking up at the high barrier. “It’s not like we weren’t going beyond the barrier anyways.”

I started off not bothering to see if Pentop was following. Again the path grew dense with leaves shadowing the path. In the pale undergrowth the wild crickets took up their seductive melody. It had a calming effect on me and my mind wandered back over what had happened. I took a quick sniff and found my senses overwhelmed by the unpleasant smell of rot and decay. A head of us and a little off the path were the outer shells of four crickets.

“This might have been why he didn’t try to eat us.” Pentop said coming behind me. He was close enough that I could feel the heat searing from him and I found it not unlikable. I could feel my cheeks redden and my slashes darken.

I simply nodded and continued on. The air cleared and the brush thinned as I headed down the hard packed soil.

The feeling of fear hadn’t left us and it hung on the air, taken the very breath from our lungs. Coltelltraetin’s were legends, beast that lived on the outskirts of our civilization. No one had seen one in my short nine years, but stories were told around the fire as bedtime tales. Now there was a new one to add.

My eyes darted back and forth across the path, checking for any sudden movement. Only small creatures rustled the undergrowth searching for food or shelter. But I didn’t relax. The muscles of my shoulders were tense and they ached.

“Ember give me your stick.”

The stick was clenched in both of my hands, out in front of me. I swung it around and knocked Pentop off his feet.

He went down with arms and legs flying wildly.

“Hey,” he yelled.

“The stick stays with me.” I looked at him hard. My slashes brightened and the muscles of my jaw strained against the stubborn grin I had been wearing.

Pentop visibly shrunk away from me, until he looked half his three-inch height.

“O-o-o-ok,” he stammered.

I really hated bullies.

* * *

Standing at the end of the path with my hands against the cool barrier I watched as the ‘Giant’ picked up his velrae and headed out the portal. I caught a brief glimpse of blinding light beyond the portal’s opening.

Behind me I could hear Pentop thrashing about as he paced. Every couple of seconds I could also hear him muttering under his breath. I could never hear what exactly he said though.

As the portal closed behind the ‘Giant’ I turned around. “The Giant’s’ gone. Let’s get started.”

While we were waiting for the ‘Giant’ to leave we had eaten a cold meal of dried cricket meat and biscuits with a mixture of sonsa and green vegetable spread on top. Both tasted good and were healthy for us.

Pentop looked up, with a hand shading his eyes, I watched as his slanted eyes puzzled out the problem at hand.

“What have you got in your pack for grabbing and climbing?” He asked.

I reached into my bag and started laying things on the ground at his feet.

“I don’t know what you mean by grabbing. But I have the cord and this hook made from cricket legs dried and hardened.”

“That’s prefect,” and he snatched the two items off the path.

I stood back and crossed my arms, waiting for the big, strong, itonot nomay to toss the cord.

Minutes passed and till he tossed it up only to have it fall back narrowly missing his head as it did. Four, five, six times it went up and six times it fell.

I dropped my hands to my sides and asked, “Can I make a suggestion?”

His head snapped towards me and his slashes had turned a deep forest green. He had not muttered a single word while throwing the cord, but the frustration was evident by the way he held his body. Now I could see he was angry.

I hesitated, but squared my shoulders and drew in a breath. “Instead of standing directly under the opening maybe you should back up a little and toss it at an angle.”

He glanced up, then behind him and backed up, still without saying anything.

I held my breath as he swung it around his head a couple of times before changing direction then releasing it. We watched as the claw and cord sailed up, going through the opening. It stopped and Pentop started pulling the slack. It seemed it had caught on the lip. I let out the breath I’d been holding and laughed quietly. I held back a big ‘I told you so’, because he didn’t look like he could handle it.

“You first,” he grunted and wiped his hands on his raedo.