Ghost Leopard (A Zoe & Zak Adventure #1) (20 page)

“Zak. I’m scared,” I said looking around.

“I think I am too.”

“What are we going to do?”

“I don’t know, Zoe.”

We both stood there in the dark. It was quiet except for the crickets. But then I thought I heard something.

“Shh…”

“What is it?”

“Listen.”
 

The wind rustled through the trees.

“I hear footsteps.”

“No, you don’t.”

“I do so.”

I could tell Zak didn’t believe me. He probably thought I was being paranoid. But I heard what I heard. A moment later a spotted blue butterfly fluttered by.

“Hello, Zoe.”

I nearly jumped out of my skin. But it was only Amala. She had appeared out of the darkness.

“There’s a man out there,” I said. “A man with fire in his eyes. He’s coming to get us.”

“I’m sorry you had to meet him like that,” Amala said. “But you’re safe for the moment at least. He’s not here now.”

“Who is he?” I asked. “What does he want?”

“That, Zoe, is the bhagwan. He’s the human form of the Vanara, the Monkey Man Mukta told you about. He is, I’m afraid, the reason you’re here.”

Our campfire burned brightly under the starry night. This high in the mountains, the stars were more brilliant than anything I had ever seen. They looked like millions of diamonds poking out from a black velvet cloth. Zak and I sat around the campfire with Amala. We offered her some cookies and water from our canteen, but she didn’t take any. The plants surrounding us flashed silver occasionally, nothing more.

“Can this bhagwan guy see us?” I asked. “Are the plants like his eyes?”

“The plants are called memory flowers. They only grow in one place in the entire world — here, high in these Himalayan foothills. They aren’t his eyes. He can’t see you through them. But he can use them to show you what he sees.”

“He can see my memories?” I asked.

“The bhagwan is a very dangerous man, Zoe. He can see many things.”

“Then he can see Zoe kicked his butt with her yogi blast,” Zak said.

“I didn’t kick anybody’s butt.”

“I was there, Zo. You totally did.”

“He’s right Zoe,” Amala said. “You’re special.” Zak's face fell. “You’re special too, Zak, just not in the same way.”

“I am so totally special,” Zak said.

“The bhagwan is afraid of both of you. He’s trying to scare you into going back home.”

“He’s doing a great job,” I said.

“The girl in the basket, the girl that was thrown out of the burning building, that was you,” Amala said.

“I know.”

“You’ve got a gift, Zoe. You were born with it. It’s up to you to use it.”

“She’s right, Zoe,” Zak said. “You’ve always been a bit weird.”

“What do you mean weird?”

Zak stoked the fire. “You’re not getting this. We're not talking normal weird here. You’re like
yogi
weird.”
 

“Great. I’m not normal weird.”

“No. You're you, only better. Back at the train station, you weren’t even looking at me but you caught the bag of money. Yogis have super-senses right? Isn’t that what refining your senses until you see all means? You had eyes in the back of your head.”

“I turned at the right time.”

“You hear things.”

“I don’t have wax in my ears.”

“You yanked my head down on the bus.”

“The guy with no teeth yelled.”

“In Hindi!”

Zak had a point. I didn’t say anything.

“Listen to Zak, Zoe. It may be hard for you to accept, but he’s right. You’re different.”

“It happens when you're freaking out too. Like when Patty and Tanya kicked you,” Zak said.

“I don’t want to talk about those girls kicking me.”

“Well, I was at school that day too.”

“Zak, I said I don’t want to talk about it.”

“You need to hear this, Zoe. The nurse had to send both those girls home because one of them broke her toe and the other sprained her foot. It was like they were kicking you and their feet hit a force field or something.”

I hadn’t known about the toes and feet. I thought they just got suspended. That was interesting.

“Just like with that bhagwan guy today,” Zak said. “You blew him right back. Same as when that car was speeding down the freeway. It hit some kind of force field around your basket and drove into the snow pile. Something is watching out for you.”

“OK, genius, if you're right and I'm a yogi, why did I almost fall off that bus roof?”

“How should I know?”

“Well, you seem to think you know a lot.”

“I do not.”

“Do too.”

“Do not.”

“Both of you. Behave. You’re acting like children,” Amala said.

“Like Zoe says,” Zak said, “technically we are children.”

My leg was itchy. I scratched it, pulling my pajama leg up. Then I froze. There on my bare leg sat a six-inch scorpion. Its venomous tail was reared, ready to strike. I must have turned white as a ghost.

“Ah, guys?” I didn’t know what else to say.

“Don’t move,” Zak said.

“Zak's right. Stay very still, Zoe.”

“Now yoginate it.”

“You yoginate it.”

“You’re the yogi!”

I was flustered. First I had a freaky man laughing at me from a bunch of leaves, and half an hour later I had a scorpion on my leg. Could my day get any worse? Zak raised the leather handle of his whip, Stryker, high above his shoulder. Yes. My day could definitely get worse. And it was about to. Zak raised his right arm and smacked down hard.

“Ow!” I screamed.

Zak missed the scorpion. He did, however, leave a red welt on my leg. Fortunately for me, the scorpion didn’t sting. Maybe the big old universe was finally giving me a break. Zak lifted his arm high in the air for a second try.

“Wait,” I said.

I put my hand out to Zak who handed me Stryker. I tried to think good thoughts about the scorpion. Because that’s what a yogi would have done, right? Then, I took the whip by its leather handle and gently flicked the scorpion away. I don’t know if the scorpion appreciated my good energy or not, but it landed on the ground and scuttled off. Score one for me. I considered what Mukta had said. “So why doesn’t the Monkey Man just steal the Leopard’s soul with a camera. Seems easier than shooting an arrow.”

“We’re going to need firewood,” Amala said.

“I’ll help,” I said, pulling down my pajama leg and glaring at Zak. “If I can still walk that is.”

I left Zak at the campfire and climbed a large leafy tree under the stars, struggling to break off the dead wood. Amala waited below me.
 

“Do you ever come out in the day?” I asked.

“Not if I can avoid it,” Amala said.

“Tell me the truth. What do you really think about all this weird stuff that’s been happening up here? The levitation and the talking statues? It’s like these Himalayas are magical mountains.”

“That’s what being home to the gods means, Zoe. Countless souls still believe that the normal rules of our world don’t hold true in these mountains.”

“But what do you believe?”

“I believe that there are forces in our world that science hasn’t begun to explain.”

“You’re not talking about the yogi thing again?”

“I wouldn't necessarily call it that, but yes, the yogi thing is part of what makes these mountains special. The ancient name is
Purvanivasanusmrtijnana
.”

“Abra Cadabra what?”

“
Pur van ivas anu smrt i jnana
.”

“Purr van ee vass ah nu smart ee janana, like banana,” I said, carefully pronouncing each syllable.

“It translates to an awareness of all of one’s past lives,” Amala said. “A yogi is a person who sees this connection between things. Someone to whom the normal barriers between matter and mind no longer exist. Someone who senses the all. Mukta believes you could become such a person, Zoe.”

“The kind of person who can blow people across river gorges?”

“Yes. The kind of person who can blow people across river gorges,” Amala said. “Mukta told me you had quite the day. When he first said that you might be able to help us, I wasn't sure. But after the incident at the river, I think it's clear.”

“The only thing that's clear is that Zak's right. I am weird.”

“I’d call you gifted.”

“Some gift.” I looked at the spotted birthmark on my hand. “What am I supposed to do with it?”

“I don’t have all the answers, Zoe, but I do know this. Not everything is what it seems. It’s only in our darkest moments that we come closest to understanding this.”

I had no idea what Amala meant. But I liked the fact that this mysterious woman was helping us even if I wasn’t exactly sure why she was following us around. I sensed something else though. Amala couldn’t protect us from everything. That we would have to do for ourselves.

I carried an armful of sticks back to the campfire, Amala tagging along behind. I noticed she didn’t carry any firewood, but I didn’t sweat it. Maybe she was more of a city person. Zak was sitting at the campfire, but he didn’t pay me much attention. He was too busy looking at his treasure. In his palm he held the large diamond that he had gotten from the elephant statue’s tear. He held it between his thumb and forefinger staring at the campfire through it. Even from where I stood, I could see that the diamond broke the campfire into a thousand points of light. Looking through it was dizzying, like staring through a kaleidoscope. Zak dropped the diamond back into his dung sack and pulled out the emeralds he had found in the temple. The emeralds were pretty too, but he didn’t spend as long looking at them. Instead he pulled out Stryker.

“Check this out,” he said.
 

Zak started snapping at the air in front of him with Stryker. I was too tired to tell him to stop, so I threw a couple of sticks on the fire and sat down to watch. Sometimes the whip acted like a wet noodle, but at other times, if he really put his whole body into it, he could get a pretty good crack out of it. Zak cracked Stryker good a couple of times, rubbing his thumb along the depressions on the whip’s upper handle. They looked like little potholes. I don’t know for sure, but I think Zak and I had the same thought at exactly the same moment. Ganesha, the elephant-headed god guy, had said something about helping us with a tear. The tear was the diamond. It made sense, so why not?

I shared a glance with Zak and he reached into his dung sack, pulling the diamond back out. Then he placed the diamond in the little pothole nearest the braided part on the handle of his whip. The diamond was probably just a bit smaller than a golf ball. Once it hit the depression, it clicked into place perfectly like it was meant to be there. I rubbed my fingers together in anticipation as the whole whip glowed a dull yellow for a brief moment. I could tell that Zak could barely stand still he thought it was so cool. Zak then reached back into the dung sack as quickly as possible and pulled out the emeralds. He plopped them into the smaller holes on the handle of the whip until he had a line of four gemstones — one diamond and three green emeralds. All four gemstones glowed and Stryker began to hum ever so softly. We both heard it. Zak didn’t speak. He just admired Stryker in awe. Then he cracked it, gently at first.

I was so unprepared for what came next that I almost fell into the fire. A bolt of lightning shot out of Stryker’s silver tip accompanied by a crack that sounded like thunder. The lightning bolt lit up the night around us. Zak cracked Stryker again, harder this time. The same thing happened, only even more of the night sky lit up.

“Hee haw!” Zak cried.

“Whoa,” I said.

Zak cracked Stryker for a third time. This time the whole field lit up around us, his lightning bolt hitting a tree. The tree burst into flame.

“Too cool,” Zak said.

I was starting to get nervous. “You might want to take it easy. You know, before the fire department shows up.”

Amala looked worried. “Listen to Zoe, Zak,” she said.

Zak couldn’t help himself. He cracked Stryker again, lighting up the night sky. Stryker’s silver tip hit a rock which exploded into fragments. The thunder was deafening.

“You have got to be careful with that thing!”

“I know. How cool is that?”

I heard a rustling sound. “Shh,” I said.

“I’m the whip boy! I’m the king of whip mountain!”

“Be quiet. There’s something else out there,” I said.

“What?”

“I don’t know. It’s over there.”

I heard the rustling again. It was just behind the circle of light cast by the fire. I put my arms out on either side of me, motioning Zak and Amala back behind me. I didn’t know why I had done it, but it felt right. I felt like whatever was out there, it was my job to protect them from it. Everybody was silent. I listened intently for a long moment. I was about to turn back to the others when I saw something that made me shudder. Eyes. We were being watched by a pair of yellow eyes and a dark human form. I backed up.

“Zak. Hold up your whip.”

Zak raised Stryker. He didn’t crack it, but he ran his fingers over the elephant’s diamond tear. The diamond tear glowed more brightly casting its pale light in an arc around us. Undersized heads and glowing eyeballs revealed themselves in the darkness.

“It’s a bunch of little kids,” Zak said.

“What are they doing out here?”

The glowing eyeballs moved closer and closer. Amala's look was grave. It was obvious that she didn’t like what she saw. I didn’t know what to think. A bunch of little kids all alone in a field didn’t make any sense. Didn’t they have bedtimes? Or parents? I didn’t have too long to think about it, because something tapped me on the shoulder. I spun around and realized my mistake: They weren’t children. They were monkeys. A whole troop of reddish-brown monkeys with pink faces. I thought they might be rhesus monkeys, but the coloring was off. They were more reddish than gray. One of the monkeys advanced a little closer than the others and took a cookie from Zak's shoulder bag. We were surrounded by them.

“We should get out of here,” Amala said gravely.