Bricrui (The Forgotten: Book 2) (10 page)

Natalya sighed.
More waiting
.

CHAPTER 5

Katya’s journey across the Barren Lands to
the region that the Dena’ina occupied was largely uneventful. She
would even have enjoyed spending time in some of the areas – had
Hunter’s life not been at stake. Beyond the reach of the volcano
the land became alive again, with lush vegetation and fields and
forests teeming with wildlife. Of course, not all of that was
friendly, but those were just details. She was more than capable of
taking care of herself, and Marak’s unique ability to repel
unfriendly creatures made the need for her to do so arise
infrequently.

She had begun making up names for some of the
beasts she came across. There were the Stalkers, which were little
lizard-like creatures that followed after her, darting in and out
of the plant life. At one point one of them had made a mad dash
towards her and took a bite at her boot. Other than the smart pinch
she got from it, she wasn’t harmed and the rap she gave to its head
made it much more cautious. Despite his rather unsociable attempt
at eating her, she enjoyed his company.

The Feeders were the deer-like creatures
similar to the one she had come across in the forest when she had
been searching for Nuko. The ones out here were slightly larger and
these had one large twisting horn protruding from their foreheads.
They never let her get too close, which was unfortunate as they
looked like they would make a very good meal. Luckily for them, she
had not brought a bow with her and refused to use magic to kill
them, so they were safe for now.

There were others she only caught glimpses of
now and again. Something benign watched her movements with
curiosity, flitting in and out amongst the trees, but never into
her view. Something else watched her hungrily from the shadows, but
did not venture out into the light and she made sure to be
well-protected at night.

The forest once again yielded to the
grasslands, this time revealing large mesas spread along its vast
expanse. In the distance, the grasses petered out, leaving only
small patches of it here and there in the dusty flatlands. She
would never have imagined that the world stretched out this far
while living back with Karl in Gelendan as an assassin.

The mesas were supposedly the home of the
Dena’ina, carving their homes into their cliff faces to create
their cave dwellings. As she ventured farther into this new
landscape, she soon spotted the area where the Dena’ina were
located. She stealthily approached a small group of them on the
outskirts of the settlement, sneaking within their midst behind
piles of rocks and darting between bunches of vegetation.

Katya squatted in some bushes, close enough
to hear their conversations, but not so close as to risk detection.
There was a small group sitting outside around a campfire, telling
stories under the stars.

Most of their homes appeared to be either the
caves in the cliff faces of the mesas or rounded buildings made out
of clay and stone that resembled caves. There were several groups
of the tribe, spread out among mesas, with each particular group of
people apparently given a specific task for the good of the tribe
as a whole. Those she was currently watching appeared to be the
ones who took care of the animals. That must be why they were
camped out on the bottom of the mesa. Mostly, it seemed, the people
lived on the top portion or within the caves on the cliff face.
Though it was windier above, it did give the advantage of higher
ground if they needed to protect themselves, and these people
seemed even more paranoid than the Myaamia tribe in that
respect.

An older woman dressed in flamboyant garb
came to stand in front of the fire, stepping into the light
purposefully so that it cast an unearthly glow on her features.

“Many moons ago,” she began with the typical
story telling line, “there was a mighty and powerful dragon named
Zuzka.”

A few of the older children made
ill-concealed faces of disappointment – obviously having heard the
story already – but the younger children made an initial cacophony
of excited noises before falling silent in anticipation.

The old woman continued her tale, “But Zuzka
was also very proud. She didn’t listen to her elders when they told
her that she must be kind and have humility. She would say, ‘I am
the most beautiful and most powerful creature alive, why do I have
to be kind to a mouse?’ One day, the oldest and the wisest of
elders decided to teach young Zuzka a lesson.”

She touched her finger to her nose before
pointing around the circle of youngsters, though speaking directly
to each of them.

“He disguised himself as a deer that had
gotten its horns stuck into a tree branch. When Zuzka strolled by,
posing in front of her reflection in the pond surface, he called
out to her, ‘Please, kind dragon, won’t you help a poor deer get
unstuck?’”

The woman did the voices differently for each
of the characters very convincingly, and a few of the children
snickered at the woe-is-me tone that she used when she said
this.

“But Zuzka wanted no part of helping the
deer, and was angry with it for having ruined her self-admiration
by his presence. But she also wanted it to be gone so that she may
go back to what she was doing. So, she struck out at the deer with
a razor-sharp claw and hacked the stuck horn right off his
head.”

The woman raked her hand across the air, and
the children gasped.

“The elder was quite taken by surprise and he
asked, ‘Do you not know that the deer rely on their horns? They are
used to defend us against dominance attacks and in attracting a
mate, can help clear areas of brush to forage, and can even
increase hearing. And you so callously have removed mine rather
than bother yourself to untangle me?’”

The old woman’s astonished face was so
overdone that it received another flurry of titters from her avid
listeners.

She went on, “Zuzka was not moved. She simply
waved the creature away. The elder transformed back to his true
state and towered above the younger dragon. ‘Zuzka,’ he told her,
‘you cannot be so unkind to your fellow creatures. We are all part
of the universe and all worthy of each other’s caring. To remind
you of your callousness, I shall remove your horns until I feel you
have learned your lesson.’ With that, he magically severed her
horns. She was mortified, and didn’t come out of her cave for a
week, ashamed of how she looked without them.”

The woman covered her head with her hands as
though embarrassed by the lack of horns, but then slowly
straightened and lowered her arms.

“But soon, she convinced herself that she was
even more beautiful without them and she resumed her normal
activities; basking in her reflection at the pond, having the
woodland creatures bow to her every whim to beautify herself, and
in general caring about nothing but her own importance.”

The old woman posed for the young children,
pretending to be Zuzka, flipping her hair about and pursing her
lips into an imaginary mirror.

“After about three days of this, the elder
who had tried to teach her a lesson became frustrated. She hadn’t
learned a thing! So he transformed himself, this time into a lion,
and once again put himself into Zuzka’s path. ‘Kind dragon!’ he
called to her, ‘Please won’t you help me; I seem to have gotten my
claws embedded into this rock while trying to sharpen them and
cannot get them out.’ Zuzka eyed the lion suspiciously, wary of the
elder’s last lesson, but then glanced down at her own claws. She
had just sharpened and buffed them and they were shining so
prettily. If she used them to get the lion out, they would be
ruined.”

The woman paused, examining her own nails.
Then she continued, flourishing her hand out over the children,
“Zuzka turned to the lion and said ‘I cannot get you out, but I
will find someone who will,’ to which the lion replied, ‘Oh, thank
you kind lady, I shall be forever in your debt!’ Zuzka left the
lion to go search for help…” she dramatically danced to the edge of
the circle of listeners as though in search, holding her hand above
her eyes, but then stopping suddenly, saying, “but as she passed
her reflection in the pool, she promptly forgot all about the poor
lion.” She dropped her hands to her sides and began posing once
again.

As the giggling died down, the woman resumed
her previous position, extending her hand out onto a rock in the
ground as the trapped lion. “The Elder was most displeased and he
extricated himself from the situation to go find young Zuzka. When
he approached her, Zuzka exclaimed, ‘Hey, I know you. You got
yourself out I see.’ ‘Indeed,’ replied the lion, ‘with no help from
you. I was there all day waiting for the help you promised.’ Zuzka
shrugged, unconcerned. ‘Guess I forgot.’ ‘Indeed,’ the lion
repeated and transformed back to his rightful shape. Zuzka begged
him not to punish her for her misdeed, but her pleas fell on deaf
ears. The elder stripped her of her beautiful claws.”

The woman slunk away into the shadows,
mimicking Zuzka’s shameful exit to her cave.

“Once again, Zuzka spent several days in her
cave and once again convinced herself she was more beautiful
without her claws. The elder was not pleased. This time he
transformed into a bird, an emu, one of the flightless birds of the
Plains with large bodies, long legs, and tiny wings. Then he
strutted out in front of Zuzka, flapping his wings every now and
then as he made a show of pecking at the ground in front of her.
Zuzka watched the bird dispassionately. Finally she could take it
no more and said, ‘The elder tells me that all creatures are equal,
but look at you, you have wings but can’t even fly! I can soar
through the air like no other animal. Surely, I am the most
important of them all.’ The elder transformed, ‘Not so, young
Zuzka, and now you show me that it is your flight you shall do
without.’”

The woman glanced around at her audience.
“Does anyone know what he transformed into next?” she asked and
several answers were thrown out as suggestions.

“A bat!”

“A turtle!”

“A fish,” said an older boy, rolling his
eyes. Having obviously heard the story already, he decided to ruin
the younger ones’ fun. Someone poked him in the ribs and there was
a slight grumbling through the crowd.

The woman did not allow it to faze her.
“That’s right, a fish. As Zuzka was admiring her reflection in the
pond, a fish swam by that was the elder, once again disguised. He
looked up at Zuzka staring at her reflection and made as if looking
at himself in comparison. Zuzka noticed him and scoffed. ‘Look at
how dull your scales are,’ she said to the fish condescendingly,
‘compared to mine. Mine shine and sparkle in the sunlight with
unmatched beauty. You cannot hope to compete with me. Now be gone.’
Once more the elder transformed and lectured the young dragon and
took away the scales she so vainly bragged about, trying
desperately to get her to reform.” She glanced around, “And
next?”

“A mouse!” yelled another older boy. The
first still held a pout from the reception his ‘guess’ had gotten
and remained silent. He now looked annoyed that the second boy’s
outburst hadn’t gotten criticism as well.

The woman just continued her story. “As Zuzka
was basking on her usual rock, the elder approached her in the form
of a mouse. ‘You are laying on top of my home, dragon, please get
off. My children are in there!’ Zuzka didn’t even open her eyes. He
asked again, and still got no response other than the dragon
swiping at him with her forearm.” The old woman slashed an arm
through the air dramatically, drawing gasps from the crowd.
“’Move!’ the little mouse cried and finally Zuzka cracked open an
eye for just a moment. ‘Make me,’ she told him. The elder
transformed back to a dragon, bellowing his rage at Zuzka’s refusal
to respect her fellow creatures. ‘This is the last straw, Zuzka, I
am taking away your size too if you will so misuse it. I am at my
wits end, and will give you no more chances. Until you prove to me
on your own that you understand the value of respect for your
fellow creatures, you will remain this way!’ So now, Zuzka had no
horns, no claws, no wings, no scales, and was the size of a
mouse.”

The woman moped around with a pathetic look
on her face.

“Then one day, as Zuzka was hiding out in a
tree so that none of her friends would see her in such a state, she
heard someone crying. Having done the same many times the last few
days, she rushed to investigate. Not, mind you,” she held up a
finger, “for the purpose of sympathizing, but rather because she
thought it would be nice to see someone in a worse situation than
herself.” She gave all the children a pointed look, as though
admonishing them for doing the same themselves, and several looked
down at the ground.

“Soon, she found the source of the crying and
was gleeful to discover that it was the ugliest, most pathetic
creature she had ever seen. It had no arms, no legs, was a
disgustingly gross slimy pink color, and had no redeeming features
whatsoever that she could see. In short, it was a worm serpent. She
laughed out loud as she approached, and the thing looked up at her
and sniffled. ‘I can see why you are crying,’ she told it, ‘you are
truly the most disgusting creature in the world.’ The serpent
looked at her with unseeing eyes. ‘I am not crying for me,’ it told
her, ‘but for the dragons that live here. I used to create tunnels
in the ground which diverts the flow of water around their homes,
but recently one of the young dragons thought it would be funny to
pick me up and place me up here on this ledge where I cannot get
down. I don’t think she meant to cause such harm, but she seems to
have forgotten my plight.’ Zuzka felt an unfamiliar feeling wash
over her: shame. She vaguely remembered having been the one to have
placed the worm there…and he was right, she
had
meant to
come back for him later that day. But like most things that didn’t
directly have to do with her, it had slipped her mind.”