White Ghost and the Poison Arrow (20 page)

“Myla will want
to see this.” Bison man reasons. “A strange looking child like this
might make a good sacrifice too.” The others start to argue with
him. “I said we were going to show her to Myla. So that is what
we’re going to do.” Bison snatches Arella from Goat without a
second thought, moving her around like she were only a baby, no
effort at all. You wouldn’t think someone as skinny as him would be
able to move Arella around with such ease. She kicks her legs in an
attempt to get free, but Bison holds on tight. He throws her to the
floor, away from Maska, and ties her to a tree using rope. “You’d
better make sure that cat is tied up properly too, don’t want it
running away in the day while we wait for Myla to get here.” Bison
orders. Goat and Fox do as he says and check Maska’s bonds to make
sure they are tight, strapping his mouth closed also so he cannot
break them with his teeth. Goat gives Maska one last kick.

“Get off him
you… you…” Arella starts.

“What’s wrong
little girl?” Bison mocks. “You lost for words?”

“I just can’t
think of a word nasty enough to call you.” Arella scowls at him,
then looks at Goat. “You think you’re so big, kicking an auron cat
while he’s unconscious. I’d like to see you in a fair fight with
him. You wouldn’t last two seconds…” Arella is stopped quickly as
Bison kicks her in the ribs, knocking the breath out of her.

“Shut up girl
before I decide to kill you before Myla gets here. It would be a
better fate for you anyway.” With that, Bison, Goat and Fox all
depart, leaving Arella staring at Maska through teary eyes,
watching him breath and praying that they both make it through
this. The laughter and bickering of the strange men fades into the
distance, leaving silence in their wake.

Chapter
16

Hours pass
before Arella see’s anyone else. She sits in the same spot, unable
to move from the tree, watching Maska breath. His chest moves up
and down, but it is slow and uneven. She can see a gash on his head
from where one of the men hit him with a rock. The wound it covered
with his blood, now dark and sticky, still bleeding a little and
dripping down his face. Arella tries waking him. “Come on Maska,
wake up.” She prays, looking up at the sky, asking the spirits to
help her. As she looks around at the bodies on the floor. She
notices that there is one animal in the mix that is not dead. A
small porcupine it tied up, one of its back legs tied to a tree.
This must be another sacrifice. “Why is this happening? What have
we done to deserve this?” She asked the sky.

“Shall I tell
you what you did child?” A woman’s voice asks from the shadows
behind her, hiding from view. “You messed up the balance. The
mother auron cat you found a few months ago, she was meant for
death, which means that the cub in return was meant for death. You
saved that cub, taking it on as your own. That was a silly mistake
my child. The spirits are not happy, you took a life from them, and
for that, the life must be taken back, and yours too for
interfering.” The woman steps out from behind the tree, revealing
herself. She also wears almost no clothing, just a short skirt and
small piece of fabric covering her breasts, with ribs over the top
and a sharp tooth necklace around her neck. Long black hair
cascades down her red skinned body, and dark red marking of blood
cover the remainder of her skin. She also wears a skull atop her
head, the skull of a wolf. The teeth on her necklace must also be
from a wolf, as they match those in the skull. She has a pretty
face, tarnished by a deep scar over her right eye and falling down
to her mouth. It stretches in a funny shape when she smiles. “Were
you looking at my scar?” She asks Arella, catching her off guard.
“Do you want to know how I got it? It’s an interesting story.”
Arella looks away, but the wolf woman grabs her face with sharp
nails and turns it to look at her. Arella tries to move her face
away, but the woman only digs her nails in further, drawing blood.
“Am I making you uncomfortable? Good!” Now listen, and listen
close, to the story of how I got this scar.”

“I was only a
little girl, living in a small tribe with my family. We were close
to nature, lived in harmony with bison and foxes and even the
wolves did not bother us. We lived in peace, only killing when we
needed food, and returning the bones of the animal to the earth in
sacrifice to the spirits. This kept them appeased, and they let us
live. On my fifteenth birthday, we were celebrating. I was finally
old enough to marry, and they had a young man in my tribe they were
going to marry me off to.  He was tall, and strong and
beautiful. He had been married before, but his wife died in
childbirth. I was lucky to have the opportunity to be married to
him.” The wolf woman was now walking around the clearing, kicking
at the bones of the animals on the floor as she did so. Arella
noticed that her feet were bare, dirty and her toenails long and
sharp. “On the night of our wedding, we were walking through the
woods. It was cold, so he held me closer, to keep me warm. We heard
a wolf howl, like they always did, except this time was different.
The wolf sounded sick, in pain. We rushed to it, hoping we could
save it. And we did. It was trapped under a log, a fallen tree. Mt
new husband lifted the tree from the wolf and set it free. The wolf
in return lunged at my new husband, mauling him and ripping his
throat out before it turned on me. It looked me right in the eye,
then sprung for me, catching my face with its claw as it jumped
over my head, causing this scar you see now.” She point at her
face. “The wolf killed my husband because its life was meant to
have been lost. One spirit must take the place of another, and his
life was in turn for the wolf.” The wolf woman walks over to Maska.
“So you see, I have to kill this cat here, because he should have
dies anyway, and your life can be taken too, in exchange for the
baby I am soon to carry.” Arella looks on is shock. “You see, I
have never been able to conceive a child, and the spirits told me
last night that if I kill a girl, I will be given a boy.” She
starts to laugh. “So it is destiny that you are her now.”

“But how can
you justify killing all of those animals in the first place. Who’s
lives were they replacing?” Arella asks, confused.

“The spirits
told me to kill them. They said that if I took the life of an
animal, my own baby could be born. The creatures life could be
traded for that of my child.”

“But to poison
them, then just leave them to die a slow and painful death… How is
that fair?” Arella asks.

“It is the
easiest and safest way of doing it.” She answers confidently.
“Better that than risking the lives of my brothers and new
husband.” Arella is surprised by how matter of fact this woman is.
She truly believes what she is saying, and that she can hear the
spirits talking to her about killing these animals.

“You’re
insane.” Arella’s anger is rising. “What makes you think that you
are special enough for the spirits to talk to you, and you alone,
and tell you to take the lives of animals that have done nothing to
you?”

“I bet you’re
the one who has been going around putting the animals we have
poisoned to rest.” She storms over to Arella, still tied up on the
floor. “How dare you interfere with the work of the spirits!” She
shouts, striking Arella across the face, leaving a burning
sensation on her cheek. “For this you will pay, and you will pay
with your life.”

“I thought I
was already paying with my life.” Arella says through gritted
teeth, confidence rising up in her. She has nothing to lose after
all. This woman plans to kill her and Maska anyway. She might as
well go down fighting. Bison, Goat and Fox have all joined the wolf
woman now,

“You stupid
child.” Bison says. “We were going to just leave you under that
tree, take the cat and have done with it.” He laughs. “If you’d
just left well alone, you would still have your life.” Goat
interjects, laughing and sneering.

“We’re been
watching you little girl.” He says creepily. “We saw you come from
the woods on the other side of the lake, through the dead lands,
past the place where the water vanishes, and finally come to rest
under the death willow.”

“Why do you
call is the death willow?” Arella asks.

“It is where we
get our poison. There are lots of them over here, and they really
do make the best poison for slow deaths.” The wolf woman starts to
laugh. Bison also begins to chuckle when he looks at Arella’s
face.

“You didn’t?”
He says through laughter.

“Oh I did.” She
answers, cunning in her lopsided smile. Bison takes her face in his
hands and kisses her roughly.

“My beautiful
devious wife.” He praises. Arella is confused, and this is clear in
her expression. Why were they laughing when they looked at her
face. Then she realises what is happening.

The wolf woman
looks down at her fingers, examining them closely. Arella looks at
them too. They are green. Her eyes widen as she realises what has
happened. “Do you need me to explain child, or do you know what I
have done to you?” The wolf woman laughs. “I have coated my nails
with death willow poison, and now it is in your bloodstream, it
won’t be long until you die.”

“Why would you
do that?” Arella asks, tears in her eyes, knowing that she only has
a couple more days of living left with the poison in her system.
She looks over at Maska, still unconscious on the floor.

“Oh don’t
worry. He will die soon too.” She walks over to him, stroking the
blood matted fur on his head. Maska growls in his unconscious
state, clearly knowing that something is not right. “I have big
plans for him. And you will watch.” She says, looking again at
Arella. “For now though, you two stay here and watch them. Make
sure she doesn’t try anything silly while me and my husband are
away.” She takes Bison’s hand and looks him in the eye. “We must
make a baby, for we have a life to trade for it.” Bison’s eyes
light up, and he eagerly follows the wolf woman away into the
forest. She shouts back just as she is leaving. “I no longer have
need for the porcupine. You can kill it now if you want.” Then she
leaves, laughing as she goes.

Goat and Fox
sit on the ground by the dying fire. Goat pokes at it a few times,
adding small twigs to it, bringing it back to life again. It is
only when they are sat down that Arella notices that Fox is
carrying three rabbits. They still have the skins on them, and have
arrows sticking out of their sides. “I hope you made sure you used
the un-poisoned arrows to catch those.” Goat says to him.

“I’m not
stupid. I know which arrows have the poison on them.” Fox says.
“It’s the ones with the white feathers.” He looks at the arrows in
the rabbits, white feathers. “Oh.”

“Good job
you’re stupid. It’s the arrows with black feathers that have
poison.” Goat snatches them from his brother. “Why anyone would put
you in charge of hunting when you don’t even know which arrows you
should be using, I don’t know.” He pulls the arrows from the bodies
then tosses them back at his brother. “Make yourself useful and
skin these. I’m going to go find some more.” With that, Goat picks
up the bow his brother had dropped on the floor and walks off into
the forest, in the opposite direction to Bison and Wolf. Just
before he goes, he takes one of the arrows from the floor where he
dropped them, moves over to the porcupine and drives it into its
skull. With a scream of pain, the porcupine dies. Arella cannot
believe what she has seen. There is no need for that. No reason,
and no remorse from Goat at all.

“They all say
I’m stupid.” Fox spits as he clumsily skins the rabbits. “No one
ever believes that I’m smart. They all hate me. Always give me the
rubbish jobs. Why do I have to skin the rabbits? Horrible smelly
job.” Arella sees an opportunity here.

“If you cut
under the arms of the rabbit the skin should pretty much peel off.”
Arella tries her luck. Fox tries this.

“I knew that. I
was just seeing if there was another way to do it.” He spits,
unhappy that the prisoner has told him how to do something.

“I don’t think
you’re stupid.” She says to him. Fox looks up at her. “They don’t
understand what it’s like do they, being the younger one?” Arella
is really pushing her luck now. This could get her a beating, or it
just might work. “They think that because they’re older than you,
that they are better than you. But that’s not right is it?” She
winces, waiting for his answer.

“They don’t
trust me to do any of the big jobs.” He finally says. “And they
never listen to me either.”

“What don’t
they listen to you about?” She asks.

“They think
that this is the only way to kill, with poison. But I think they’re
wrong.” Arella’s hopes fall. Maybe she will not be able to get
through to him in the way she would like to. “There are so many
other ways to kill.” Fox’s eyes light up. “You can beat someone to
death, stab them in the chest, cut open their throat and watch them
bleed. So many options.”

“So you would
like to kill in a different way to your brothers and Myla?” She
asks, hoping she will be able to find some way of talking him
around.

“Yes, exactly.”
He says, pleased that someone is listening to him. “And I’d start
with Myla herself. I’m sick of her bossing me around, and then my
brother. Why does he get a wife before I do. It’s unfair, and it
needs to change.” Arella has a small amount of hope again. Maybe
she can turn him against his own family. Devious yes, but if it
will get her and Maska away from harm, and eliminate the problem of
them too, why not.

“So you need to change it.” Arella says to him. As she talks,
she notices Maska moving slightly. He catches her eye, and she
mouths to him “
Quiet Maska. Don’t
Move.”
He stays very still, not alerting
Fox to the fact that he is once again awake. “You need to take
charge and knock her off her high horse. Teach her a
lesson.”