Switch! (28 page)

“Chocolate!” he uttered with relish. He seemed to be just as enamoured with the word as the actual sweet.
 

Akin and Manu exchanged a mischievous wink, their little black eyes twinkling as they hunkered down opposite each other to start the fire. Ethan noticed they were preparing to do this with a bowstring and a stick.

“Here, let me show you,” he smiled, scooting between them. There was just enough sunlight for him to show them how to start it by directing the rays of the sun onto the dry tinder through the magnifying-glass attachment on his knife. He would show them that Jimoh was not the only one with a trick up his sleeve.

Salih padded over to sit beside the Tokoloshe. He cocked his head to one side and watched as a wisp of smoke emerged from the tinder and curled towards the sky. Ethan cautiously cupped the wad of tinder in his hands and blew gently on it till a small flame appeared. Careful not to burn his hands, he quickly transferred it to a spot near the entrance of the cave where the Tokoloshe had placed three stones and the firewood, in readiness for the fire. He built a neat pile of small sticks on it, careful to leave gaps for oxygen to get sucked in by the heat. He turned back to the three Tokoloshe.

“There you go,” he said, proudly pointing out his first-ever fire. But they had shifted their attention to tickling Salih. The leopard lay on his back, wriggling from side to side and grinning while three sets of hands scratched all over his underbelly. His hind leg jerked spasmodically in the air. Ethan gave a wry shrug and continued to add slightly bigger branches to his fire. Not long ago the lack of validation for his efforts would have irked him almost as much as having to make his own fire. But there was a sense of affirmation within himself that he had never felt before. This journey had made him aware of just how capable he was; he no longer needed his dad to say, “Well done, Ethan!” Well, at least not as much as he had before...
 

The storm, when it broke, was torrential. A flash of lightning lit the clearing like a strobe light, making the surrounding trees dance momentarily before disappearing behind a solid wall of water. Ethan had hardly begun to worry if Jimoh and Tariro had found shelter from it, when the storm passed almost as suddenly as it had begun.
 

A huge black cloud hovering over the clearing in front of the cave turned out to be flying ants by the millions. Akin, Dembi and Manu rushed out and caught as many as they could, using Ethan’s kanga. They might as well have conserved their energy because soon the ants homed in on the light of the fire and the cave was full of them, their bodies making strange clicking sounds as they crawled about. Akin and Dembi scooped them up by the handful and de-winged them while Manu threw hands full of the insects’ plump juicy backsides into a shield and fried them in their own fat over the fire. On closer inspection Ethan saw the shield was none other than the sweet tin lid, bashed into a concave shape. Overcome with hunger, he tried one and then another and another. The idea of it turned out to be much worse than actually eating them. They tasted like squishy buttered popcorn.

He was glad to be relatively well fed by the time the others returned. They were saturated but proudly carrying a porcupine strung up on a pole. Ethan wasn’t sure he would be able to eat it with that little wet face hanging down all cute.

“Don’t touch it!” Jimoh said when Ethan went to pluck out a quill. “Spikes can still stick you, even when animal is dead. Then stick there like hook for fish. Cannot take out without tearing your flesh.”

“Ouch!” Ethan said, testing Jimoh’s theory with his thumb against a quill. Microscopic barbs scored a graze across his skin, making it bleed. He put his thumb in his mouth and sucked it, then folded it into his fist to hide the small wound, and the fact that it had started to close already.

“You just don’t learn,” Tariro laughed. He lifted Jimoh’s dad’s hat and flicked the rainwater off it before settling it back on his head, then handed Ethan the water bottle he’d borrowed from him because he’d forgotten his own at the spring.
 
“You should have seen Jimoh!” he said. “Just before the rain came, he had the beast cornered outside its burrow. It stuck out its tail quills and spines, and started grunting and rattling them and stamping its back feet.” He stamped his own feet in imitation and then lunged towards Jimoh who ducked out of the way. “Then suddenly it ran at him sideways like that! So fast. Eh! Ethan. Don’t be fooled by those stumpy little feet. It was as quick as lightening, but not as quick as Jimoh. He stabbed it with his stick. Did you know they do not shoot their quills?” He lowered his voice to a whisper. “The Tokoloshe were kind of cowardly though. They scattered and ran.”

“Tariro, you know how they have a sleeping potion on their arrows? I am not convinced they are cowardly – I think they just have a problem actually killing things,” Ethan whispered back.

The porcupine was delicious. Jelani took charge of the plucking and skinning, carefully polishing the microscopic barbs off the ends of the quills and distributing them amongst the tribe to use as decoration. Once the rodent had been staked and roasted it looked almost like supermarket meat, so Ethan ate it.

Jimoh built an A-frame structure with a pole across it, to hang their nets on in case the Adze came back. He and Tariro set it up near the entrance of the cave, away from the smoke of the fire, and everyone took shelter under the nets as soon as it grew dark.

For a long time, Ethan struggled to get comfortable on his back on the hard rock floor. He couldn’t sleep on either side without gemstones digging into him and if he lay on his back, the buckle of his headlamp dug into his head. He had been wearing it on his head since the incident with the Adze. “I made the fire all by myself,” he boasted, but there was no one awake to be impressed.

~~~

A piercing scream woke Ethan out of a deep sleep, followed immediately by a blow to the head. Dazed, he struggled to sit up, but seemed to be pinned down by something. It’s only the mosquito net, collapsed on top of us, he realised with some relief. He reached for his headlamp, but it must have been knocked off his head.
 

Everyone else was awake and stumbling about in the dark yelling by the time he’d disentangled himself and staggered to his feet. He found his headlamp dangling around his neck and switched it on with shaking fingers to see what Tariro was screaming about.

Momentarily distracted by the bright halogen beam, a lion, barely ten metres away, let go of Tariro’s leg and dropped into a crouch beside him, ears flattening against his head as he snarled at the source of the light.

“
Voetsek
!” yelled Jimoh, shooting the animal on his nose. He nocked a second stone into his slingshot, ready for the next shot.

The animal flinched, but stood his ground, his nose wrinkling back into a snarl so loud and angry, Ethan could almost feel the ground vibrate beneath his feet. It sent ripples through the dark ochre fringe around the beast’s cheeks. The lion bent his enormous head down to pick Tariro up once more but then flinched and shook out his thick black and tan mane. By the light of the headlamp Ethan could see several of the Tokoloshes’ little sleeping arrows sticking out of the short hairs of the cat’s upper belly, where his mane ended.

Jimoh’s second pebble hit the lion right between the eyes. He reared sideways, backing away from Tariro a little and another volley of arrows found a target where his mane covered his shoulders.

“The arrows are not strong enough to pass through his hair,” Jimoh gasped. “I have no more stones to shoot! Look! Ethan! More are coming.”
 

Ethan peered through the darkness. Sure enough, dark shadows moved in the forest beyond the clearing, just outside the beam of his headlamp.

Oh, man!
The only thing he could think of vaguely resembling slingshot ammunition was Joe’s ransom. They were going to have to use the gems if Jimoh was going to keep the lions off Tariro. Ethan hesitated for only a moment before withdrawing them from his pockets, and handing them to Jimoh. He would worry about how to rescue Joe later. Right now, they had to save Tariro!

Almost immediately, the lion yelped and backed off further, bringing one giant paw up to its face.

“I got him in eye!” Jimoh yelled excitedly, and kept up a steady stream of priceless shots, but it was no use. The lion stood his ground, snarling. Two females slunk forward and hunkered down on either side of the giant male, emitting a low rumble, their heads lowered, eyes fixed on Ethan’s headlamp.
 

A group of Tokoloshe dashed forwards, waving their arms in the air, shouting. Rafiki beat a stick against the sweet tin lid, but did not get too close. Akin got hit by a stray arrow from behind and stumbled sleepily back into the cave. Ethan wished the sleeping draught would affect the lions that fast but instead a lioness inched slowly towards Tariro.

“The one on the left!” Ethan yelled to Jimoh just before the boy smacked her on the nose with a diamond. She backed off, snarling angrily, but turned straight around and advanced once more on Tariro, who lay writhing and screaming on the ground.
 

“Tariro! Try and get up!” Ethan shouted but he didn’t think Tariro even heard him.

Rafiki, Jelani and Manu edged forward to within a metre of grabbing Tariro when a cry went up.

“Adze!”

Everyone scattered. Rafiki, Jelani and Manu dashed back to the cave empty handed. They struggled to pick up the fallen nets, to scramble back underneath them, while the forest filled with the high-pitched battle cry and the iridescent glow of the little vampires advancing.

Ethan ran towards Tariro, panicked now, beyond any thought for his own safety. If the lions did not get Tariro, the Adze certainly would. No amount of stone throwing would protect the boy from them. Jimoh, who jumped forward almost at the same time as Ethan, grabbed the sweet tin lid and stood over Tariro, banging on it and waving his arms in the air in an attempt to look frightening.

“
Voetsek
!” he screamed at them again, whirling around as something struck him from behind. Some of the Tokoloshe shouted advice and encouragement from behind the safety of the nets, and some lifted the net for short bursts of throwing things in the general direction of the lions. Dembi shrugged sheepishly at Jimoh, then hefted another rat scull from hand to hand in preparation for another shot at the lions.

Ethan also waved his arms about, but it was more like swatting at the Adze who slowly circled his head. It was difficult to keep track of them, and the lions at the same time. The lion and both lionesses crouched low in front of him with their ears flattened against their heads, the black tips of their tails flicking back and forth. Ethan noticed out of the corner of his eye, just beyond the beam of his torchlight, more dark shapes slinking in the shadows. He swayed, more frightened than he had ever been in his life.
 

If the Adze took his soul, he wondered, would they leave any of himself behind? Would he be him, or them? Would his body just walk around without a soul? Would it have the sense to avoid being mauled by the lions? And eaten! Urine trickled down his leg.
 

He tried to think of crystals, icicles, anything that would reflect, but nothing came. It was no use. One way or another, they were going to die.

An Adze flew so close to Ethan, it brushed against his hair. Without meaning to, probably because they grew tired, Ethan’s jerking arms slowed down, but they did not stop. They continued to wave in a strange pattern, as if someone else was controlling them. Mentally squaring his shoulders, Ethan slowly regained control of himself. He almost forgot about the lions as his arms wove the pattern above his head. Such a lot of adrenalin pumped through his body, he felt as if he would explode, until, amazingly, he did.

A powerful wave of air shot out of Ethan, as fast and as unstoppable as a giant sneeze. He could almost see it as it washed outwards like a mini-nuclear explosion. Jimoh staggered back from it. It sent ripples through the dark mane of the lion, who looked for a split second as if he would bolt. The Adze were like illuminated dandelions, scattered to the wind. The jungle grew quiet. Or were his ears blocked?

“Oh my...” Ethan said, as he closed his eyes and slumped onto the ground. He could almost feel the lions drag Tariro and Jimoh away from beside him, but he was too drained and paralysed by fear at the enormity of what he had done to move.
 

Then suddenly he was swept off his feet by someone who smelled as bad as Fisi. His eyes shot open. It was Fisi! The young man threw Ethan over his shoulder, and carried him back into the cave, depositing him in a heap beside the other two boys.

“We were tracking you when we heard the noise. I had gone to fetch those hyenas we saw from the waterfall,” Fisi explained, indicating a pack of seven hyenas who sat panting by the fire. A dirty young girl in a skin skirt was propped up between two of them, fast asleep. The rest wore the same skirt-like garment as a bandana around their necks. It looked very much like their own hyena pelts. Ethan shuddered. Yussy! Were they wearing their dead comrades or something? The Tokoloshe pushed themselves as far back against the cave wall as they could go, eyeing the hyenas nervously.

“What were you doing, Ethan? You cannot just stand in front of a lion with your eyes closed like that. The thing will eat you. And what the hell happened to those Adze?” Fisi added. “They were tracking you too. We could not pass through them to chase off the lion and then suddenly they were scattering everywhere, screaming. They took off.”

“Um, that was me,” Salih said, dropping into a crouch beside Fisi. “I chased them.”

Ethan whipped around to confront the leopard. He knew whatever had happened had come from himself. He could still remember the sharp after-pain in his head. Ears wickedly cocked, Salih shook his head almost imperceptibly, reminding Ethan that he did not trust the hyena youth. Perhaps Salih and Tariro were right. There was something a bit furtive about the hyena, even if he had come back and saved their lives. He’d caught Fisi staring at him in a contemplative way once or twice after the incident with Jimoh’s hat. The hyena already suspected Ethan of some sort of mind manipulation. He would have to remember to warn Tariro not to tell the hyenas about the night he chased the Adze.