Ella Awakened (10 page)

“Sounds
great.  You know, I was thinking; you and my dad dove through this portal after
the Demon so quickly, how is it that you have all of these things from your
home?”

“What
things?”

“Well, you
said you had some seeds with you that you planted, and that makes sense, I
guess.  But, what about your sister’s necklace and the case with the sai?”

“That
necklace was Willow’s most prized possession.  Its value to her could be
compared to an engagement ring in this world.  Her love, Barret, had made it
for her on her fifteenth birthday.  He came from a long line of craftsmen.  I
never saw her without it on.  Barret told me later that they had promised themselves
to each other one night on the cliffs as the moons were rising over the ocean. 
After she was killed, and I laid my hands on her and experienced her last
moments, I vowed to avenge her.  Barret gave me the necklace, and I wore it on
a leather cord to remind me of my vow.  As for the sai, your father was wearing
them.  They are worn across the back in something called a chone.  I have your
father’s chone; we can fit it to you sometime.  When we came through the portal
we had only what we were carrying with us.  Healers carry a bolsay, which is a
leather pouch worn at the hip.  It hangs from the shoulder across the chest
from a long leather strap.  I’ll show you mine sometime; it’s hanging in the
greenhouse.  We used them to carry herbs, seeds, mushrooms, moss, or anything
else we might gather for medicinal purposes.  That’s it; that’s all I have
other than the clothes we were wearing.  You already have your father’s black
diamond.  I sold a ring and the two broaches your dad and I had been wearing to
secure our cloaks.  Jewelry is cherished in my culture, but stones that are
rare and extremely valuable on this planet are found in abundance on Quintar.”

“What about
the chest the sai are in?”

“I made the
case for the sai a few years after your father died.  It’s very similar to the
one he had at home, and I thought it appropriate.  I grew up working with wood;
my father was a carpenter.  As a matter of fact, my father made the original
case your sai were presented to your dad in.  The picture on the front is
traditional, almost like a warrior coat of arms if you will.  Falconry is
almost as important to the history of the warrior as the sai.  Had you been
born and raised on Quintar you would have been presented with a Kinah after
your awakening.  Or rather, a Kinah would have chosen you.  The Kinah are the
birds that warriors hunt with.”

Burke was
interrupted by the beep of the coffee pot shutting itself off.  He’d been lost
in memories of home, and Ella had been rapt with attention listening to him
talk.

“I haven’t
thought about these things in so long, but I had better get going to work,” he
said as he stood up from the table.  “Make yourself at home Ella, and I’ll be
back as soon as I can.”

Later that
afternoon, Burke stood at the kitchen window watching Ella throw knives at the
dummy he had set up for her in the backyard.  She hit the target over half the
time, but was inconsistent with her strikes.  He wasn’t sure if she meant to
hit the target all over the place or had little control.  Suddenly, Ella looked
up at him and shrugged.  Burke went through the back door to meet her.

“You seem a
little frustrated,” he said.

“I’m aiming
center mass, but I’m hitting all over the place.  I guess I just assumed this
would be as instinctual as the sai.”  Ella had sensed that Burke was watching
her, and it made her even more frustrated than she’d already been.  Wasn’t this
stuff supposed to be as easy as breathing?  She was a warrior for crying out
loud!

“Okay, first
of all the sai are from Quintar.  There’s something almost magical about them. 
If we went downtown to a martial arts store and bought you sai, you wouldn’t
bond with them the way you did with your father’s.  Remember how the stones
glowed when you touched the weapons?  You’ll get this, Ella.  How long have you
been practicing?”

“I guess
about an hour.  After you left this morning I went for a run, then worked with
the sai for a couple of hours.”

“Ella,”
Burke couldn’t help but laugh a little, “you picked up a throwing knife for the
first time about an hour ago, and you’re hitting the target.  You’ve already
forgotten what it was like to be human.  Many humans practice years and don’t
throw on the level you are right now.  Don’t over think it.  You just need to
adjust both how you’re holding the knife and the rotation of your wrist to
control the spin a little more.  Most importantly, modify the angle when you
release the knife.  Once you’ve mastered the mechanics of it you’ll be able to
hit a moving target while you’re running.  You’ll even be able to throw around
a corner.”

“I guess,”
Ella said.  “Maybe I need to take a little break then pick it up again.  Are
you any good at this?”

Burke picked
up one of the knives and threw it, hitting the dummy directly where its heart
would be.  “I’ve had a little practice,” he said.  “I brought home lunch; are
you hungry?”

“Starved.”

They went into
the kitchen together and sat down to the sub sandwiches Burke had brought. 
Ella noticed two short leather belts on the table.  “What’s this?” she asked,
picking one up.

“They’re
holsters for the throwing knives.  I stopped in town and bought them.  I have
one, but I figured it would be too big for you.  The smaller one you wear on
your calf and the larger one on your thigh, like under a skirt or dress.  Here,
let me show you.”  Burke held his hand out, and Ella handed him the larger of
the two holsters.  “Give me your leg,” he said.

Ella put her
foot on the edge of Burke’s chair, and he leaned forward to wrap the holster
around her thigh.  She had on running shorts, and as his hands brushed across
her silky skin, he tried to keep them from trembling.  He had an even harder
time controlling the catch in his breathing.

“Like this,”
he said hurriedly, not even bothering to buckle the holster.  “You get the
idea, although you’ll probably want something under it.  That’s what this is
for,” he quickly placed the holster back on the table and held up a tube of
cloth while he still had an ounce of composure left.

Ella’s
cheeks were a little red as she sat back down and took a bite of her sandwich.

“I thought
after lunch we’d work on your tracking skills,” Burke said.  He was trying with
some difficulty to move the focus away from Ella’s legs.

“Sounds
good; what did you have in mind?”

“How about
you give me a twenty minute head start then find me.”

“Okay, and
how am I supposed to find you?” Ella asked.  Then she added under her breath,
“hope you don’t mind being out there for a while.”

“Just wait
until you try.  Ella, you’re going to be fascinated by your own instincts.”

“Right… let
me get this straight; you want a twenty minute head start, then I’m supposed to
track you?”

“Yes,” Burke
just sat there across from her grinning like the Cheshire Cat.

“How…am…I…supposed…to…track…you?”
Ella said the words slowly, separating each one like she was talking to a
child.  He just didn’t seem to get that she had absolutely no clue how to track
anything.

“Have faith
in yourself, Ella.  You have instincts now that you haven’t even begun to
explore.  Take your time; take in every detail around you.  It’s called
‘cutting for sign’.  To ‘cut’ is to search for and then analyze the ‘sign’,
which is the physical evidence.  Trackers pick up on an amazing wealth of
evidence that anyone else would walk right by.  Look for bent or broken twigs. 
You can tell how old the break is by the condition of the wood at the break. 
If it’s moist, soft, or green the break is fresh.  If it’s brittle and all
dried out it’s been broken for a long time.  When you find a break, look around
for fibers of cloth that may have snagged.  If a bush is broken because someone
stepped on it, you push it in the direction of the break.  The branches will
point like an arrow in the direction the person was going.  Nature provides
patterns; leaves fall or are blown uniformly.  Look for a disruption in the
patterns.  A depression or stirring in the forest floor or in a grassy field
indicates that someone or something was there.  It’s even easier to see things
on paths and trails.  People and animals alike almost instinctively follow
paths.  You’ve heard at one time or another someone mention a deer path, right? 
There may be a footprint in the dust.  You’ll be able to tell how old it is by
the crumbling of the walls of the print.  You can also tell if the print has
been there awhile if leaves, pine needles, or other debris have fallen across
it.  Is there another animal print above or below the footprint, or are there
shuffle marks where a bug has crawled across it?  If there are prints
indicating someone stopped to rest, are those prints in the sun or shade?  If
it’s a hot day the person would have rested in the shade if possible.  Look
around yourself and at the sun; the time that’s passed since the resting point
was in the shade is an indication of how far ahead of you the person you’re
tracking is.  If you see shuffle marks, your quarry may know they’re being
followed.  The shuffles indicate they’ve stopped and turned to look around and
behind them.  In such a case you should step off the path and follow alongside
it.  Soon you’ll be able to tell from a footprint how tall someone is, how much
they weigh, if they were carrying something, when the print was made and where
they were coming from.  Even an overturned pebble will draw your attention. 
When tracking, your sight, hearing, and sense of smell give you a great
advantage.  Your senses since your awakening would put a wolf to shame.  You
just have to concentrate, Ella.”

Ella noticed
that when Burke got excited he started talking with his hands.  “Wow, I never
thought about any of this before.  How did you learn all of this?” she asked.

“Most of it
I learned from your dad.  We were always in the woods.  Tracking was both a
game and a sport to us.  I’ve mentioned to you before that life was much
simpler back home.  There were no theaters, clubs, malls, or even television. 
We found other ways to entertain ourselves.  Several years ago I spent some
time in a small village of the Karen Hill Tribes.  In some ways I felt an
incredible kinship toward them.”

“I’m
actually getting excited to try this,” Ella said.

“Let’s do it
then,” Burke stood up, “give me twenty minutes.  I’m heading out back toward
the wildlife reservation, that’s all I’m saying.  Oh, don’t forget your cell
phone,” Burke turned toward the back door.

“Wait a
second,” Ella stopped him.  She walked over to him, and for a second Burke
thought she was going to give him a hug.  She leaned into him and inhaled
deeply.  “You can go now,” Ella said smiling.

“Cheater,”
Burke replied and smiled to himself as he went out the door and jogged across
the back yard.

~~

Ella busied
herself cleaning up the kitchen.  While she wiped down the table she thought
about all the things Burke had told her about tracking.  She knew, in theory,
she had all of these new abilities, but it was still so hard to wrap her mind around
it sometimes. 
Must be how someone feels when they win the lottery
.

Checking the
clock she saw that it had been twenty minutes.  Ella went to the backdoor and
through the yard.  She stopped at the edge of the woods.  Sure enough, there
was a path leading in.  When she’d gone for her run yesterday (
my lord, was
it only yesterday?
) after her awakening, this was the path she’d taken
without even thinking about it.  Burke was right; if there was a path you just
followed it.  This is where she’d start.  Ella started jogging slowly along the
path.  She didn’t want to miss anything.

Mostly the
earth of the path was packed tight, but here and there Ella saw a partial print
where someone had stepped to the side into the softer ground to avoid a root…
or possibly just to make sure she had something to follow.  Ella smiled as she
knelt down to examine a print.  Bless his heart; he was trying to make this
easier for her.  It was a deep full print in soft earth.  She could even make
out the “Oboz” in the center of the tread, which was the brand of hiking boot
Burke had been wearing when he’d left the house.

Ella
continued up the path.  She was becoming more confident in her abilities.  She
thought about the fact that she’d remembered what kind of shoes Burke was
wearing.  She could actually close her eyes and see him standing at the back door
about to leave.  Was a photographic memory part of this package deal?  Of
course this was Burke we were talking about, and lately she couldn’t help but
notice every detail about him.  He’d also had on brown socks, dark khaki cargo
shorts, and a faded red t-shirt.  It was more than that, though; it wasn’t just
that she could remember what he was wearing.  When she thought about it, she
could recall every detail right down to the way the flap on his right back
pocket was creased up, and the exact shape and size of the small hole on the
left sleeve of his red t-shirt.  Speaking of which, Ella saw a red thread
snagged on a snapped branch that hung close to the path.  Of course the wood
inside the break was moist and green.  Ella continued on.  She was still aware
of her surroundings, but at the same time she was a little lost in her
thoughts.