"Trek" - A Fanfic by geoffrey thorne

The thick humid jungle moaned around them as the initial shafts of First Sun’s light made patchwork filigrees on the upper canopy. The night was mostly gone and, with it, their last chance to catch and dispatch the Beast.

"Stop fidgeting, Aryki," said Nika softly. “Are you trying to get us killed?”

Nika was masked in the Hunt Gear so all Aryki could see was her eyes flashing gray in the early morning dark. Hunt Gear was lovely for hiding in the Wood, covering the body as it did in bands of thick dark leather, but it was murder on the shoulders. Worse than that, as the uppermost bands crissed and crossed over her head, the hunt gear hid Nika's face. Aryki thought Nika's face was beautiful.

"Is something out there?" he said, hoping not.

She raised a finger, shushing him again, and nodded. Something was out there. He could sort of feel it too, a little. It was a strange stillness at the far end of the thicket in which they crouched. He regretted instantly volunteering to accompany her on the Trek. He wasn't as good at it as Nika. No one was, really– except Kote, who was even better– but Aryki fancied himself the worst of all. He was clumsy in the wood, stumblefooted. The hunt gear chafed him in places he preferred not to think about or discuss.

He wanted the Scholary, he suddenly realized. He wanted it more than ever, dusty tomes and all. Trek was duty though. Until The Beast was downed it was only fair that everyone, even the scholars, should take their turn. He just wished he enjoyed it as much as Nika.

"Be still," she said, her voice little more than a whisper's ghost. Unlike the noises he made, her words were eaten instantly by the surrounding green. "Wait here."

She motioned for him to stay put, stepped out into the thick foliage and was instantly gone, melting into the greenery like evaporating dew. Aryki let his hand fall to his chargestaff. He wasn't particularly adept with that either but, as it was the only weapon that gave the Beast pause, he was bolstered by its presence.

Raise. Point. Sharp twist. Fire, he thought. Simple.

The staff was as tall as he was, encrusted with shining black stones at either end. Something in the stones' nature let them store ambient electricity and release it on command. He didn't exactly know the mechanics but was determined to make a real study of them upon his return to the enclave. If they returned.

The Beast had taken fourteen from this enclave so far, leaving nothing of them behind but the memory. Only Nika had ever survived an encounter with the thing and she had been left with a hole in her memory, writhing in a fitful delirium for days. When she finally woke it was with a scared face and a thirst for revenge that bordered on the maniacal.

Nika never missed a Trek after that, not once.

The brush rustled slightly nearby and Aryki's staff was in his hand, ready for use.

"It's near," said Nika as she emerged from the green. "Be ready."

Be ready? thought Aryki, pessimism and terror fighting for domination of his mind. Just the two of us?

They— well, Nika— had tracked the creature back and forth across the night-shrouded forest, doing their best to catch it, kill it if they could, but also to keep it so occupied that it didn’t have time to snatch another of the Folk from within the enclave. How Nika managed to follow the Beast was anybody’s guess but she had done it, keeping them just behind it and just out of its reach as well.

Aryki was happiest about the latter. The insanity of the Trek had landed on him fully scant seconds after following Nika into the night. Why were they sending folk out in twos when tens or sixties would make more sense? He resolved to take that very question up with Atherh when he and Nika returned. If they returned.

"When it comes," she said, her voice a soft buzz in his ear."Don't run. Hold your ground and fire."

Aryki nodded. He wasn't a warrior but failure in front of Nika was a fate worse than whatever the Beast might offer. In his dreams Aryki was often a heroic scholar, a warrior of distinction among others like himself. It was those dreams that had spurred him to draw lots for the Trek.

He felt Nika’s gaze on him and hardened his resolve. He forced the tremble out of his hands and set his jaw. At first nothing happened. It continued not to happen for another little while until Aryki felt another fidget coming on. A second sharp glance from Nika put a stop to that.

He was just about to ask her what the thing looked like when the air or the foliage or the whole world went still around them.

Atherh met the Night Guard just as the shift was changing. She was a smallish woman with quiet eyes and ways but what she lacked in stature she made up for in grit. The Folk had never needed a leader but, with the coming of the Beast, one was required. Atherh hadn't really wanted the job; as First Scholar she was content to spend her days deciphering ancient tomes and scrolls but the Beast’s coming had forced the leadership role upon her. After the first takings, Atherh had been the one to organize the Night Guard. This was a group of the strongest Folk, the best with the chargestaff, those with the keenest eyes and ears who would walk the enclave's perimeter from dusk to dawn. The Beast mostly snatched its victims after dark and the Night Guard seemed to be a deterrent. It had taken six before Atherh had stepped up to organize the others.

"Any sight of the Trekkers?" she asked Kote. The big man shook his head. Lateness was a bad sign.

"I was just about to send two more in after them," he said.

Atherh had not had much to do with Kote before the Beast's arrival. She was First Scholar and he, First of the Hunt. The stratified lives of the Folk kept the groups mostly apart for everything but Harvest and Feast. The Beast had changed that as well. Now Kote lead the Night Guard, deferring to Atherh only in that her mind had proven the better one when it came to matters of defense. The Treks had been his idea.

They had quarreled over how many to put on the guard and how many to leave for the Treks only compromising when the enclave’s new mediator forced a solution upon them.

Pairs of hunters, Trekkers now, would go out to stalk and, it was hoped, kill the Beast, leaving the rest to guard the enclave through the night.

"Don't send anyone else," said Atherh after a moment's thought. "If they come out wounded we'll tend to them."

"And if they don't come out?" said Kote.

Atherh shrugged. "Then we'll know what happened."

Atherh turned to go. The Day Guard was a less significant operation than the Night. The Beast never came while the suns were up. At night it moved in the jungle, in the enclave, even among the Folk with invisible impunity, taking whomever it wished and leaving no trace. It left them the day to grieve and plan.

Atherh had only instituted the Day Guard because she'd felt it unwise to take chances. So far whoever the Beast wanted, the Beast got. All but one.

"It was Nika," said Kote.

"It's always Nika," said Atherh.

"Nika and Aryki," finished Kote and watched coolly as the news stopped Atherh in her tracks. Then he went on. "I told him Scholars were exempted but he insisted he be allowed to go. Said he drew the lot just the same as Nika."

Not quite the same, thought Atherh. Nika always drew the lot. How many Treks was this for her now? Six? Seven? Nine? Atherh had tried to dissuade the woman from swapping with others in order to go on every single Trek but Nika's intransigence made her warnings futile. Frankly, a part of her was secretly glad Nika spent as much time as she did hunting the Beast.

Nika made Atherh as uncomfortable as she did the others. She was so different since that first terrible encounter. Before she had fended off The Beast— or escaped, or just been lucky— no one was sure and Nika herself couldn’t remember— Nika had been a happy smiling woman, gregarious, even playful at times.

Since she’d come back from her delirium something had changed in the Second Hunter— for the worse. She was colder than she had been, less apt to smile or share in a joke, almost mechanical in some ways. It was unnerving to say the least, especially so when coupled with her new zeal to be the one to kill the creature herself. Nika had always been an efficient hunter but never a bloodthirsty one.

And Aryki going with her? What''s that about?

The little scholar's affection for the hunter was painfully evident to everyone- except Nika herself ironically- but for it to lead him to join the Trek? Love and madness are often the same, she thought, allowing a rueful smile to curl her mouth.

Kote was surprised to see the little grin. He'd expected some response to the news of Aryki being off Trekking– a shudder, a tear, even one of the infinite series of aphorisms Atherh had culled from the Scholary. He was disappointed. She didn't even turn his way.

"Find Uv’A," she said, starting off again. "And bring him to the Assembly. We need to talk."

"As you wish, Atherh," said Kote, scratching his head with one leathery hand.

The enclave wasn't too big. There were larger ones to the west and to the north. Like those it was composed of a Scholary, an Armory, an Assembly and the domices where the Folk lived. Uv’A knew that there were twenty-six domices in this enclave. He knew because he, as Mediator, had business with them all.

The folk had been a little leery of their new Mediator when he’d come striding out of the jungle those nights ago. He was small for the job, being only of average height and build, but successful. There was something about the dark man's voice and demeanor that inspired calm in the afflicted.

In this generally harmonious enclave there was little, really, for him to do. Less since the Beast had come. He took his turn Trekking like the rest and settled whatever minor disputes managed to arise.

To wit:

"Tell Taris to mind his own business," said Ahna in an icy tone. "Atherh wants a wall built around the enclave and I'm the Mason."

She was even smaller for a Mason than was Uv’A for a Mediator but highly skilled for all that. Her domices weathered storms better than others, kept their occupants cooler or warmer than the air outside, depending. Her temper

was, to say the very least, volatile and she was intensely self-reliant. To Uv’A's mind this last quality indicated poor judgement in her choice of mate.

"Tell Ahna," said Taris with equal frost. "Pregnant women do not build. She could get hurt."

Taris was her husband and, aside from his penchant for practical jokes, didn't really do much for the enclave at all. He'd tried the Hunt, but was deemed too noisy. He'd tried the Scholary but was deemed too boisterous. Mediation, at least the way Uv’A did it, was a one-person job.

Taris was smart enough, agile, strong, but there was something about him that made him unsuited for life in the jungle enclave. Maybe it was the red hair. U’Va had always thought Taris would have been happier in the enclave by the sea where he might at least have access to fishing boats.

"Taris," said Uv’A, judiciously choosing his words. "Ahna is capable of determining those tasks she can safely undertake and those which her present condition precludes."

An aura of smugness began to radiate from Ahna.

"Ahna," said Uv’A, turning her way. "Taris is the father and his concerns, while a bit overarching in this particular instance, must be taken into account."

Ahna's aura receded a bit.

"Perhaps," Uv’A went on. "Ahna can continue in a supervisory role while Taris leads the builders in a more physical capacity."

Surprisingly both Taris and Ahna laughed together.

"Taris is no mason," she said.

“And no leader either,” said Taris.

"You may both be surprised," said Uv’A, rising. "In any case, compromise is the logical solution."

He shooed them off, knowing full well that they'd find something else to bicker over before the suns set. It was their nature and, mostly, it was meaningless. The news Kote brought was not.

Uv’A had noticed him lurking in the domice's entranceway watching intently as he'd wrapped up with Taris and Ahna. The cloudy expression on the First Hunter's face conveyed far more than his words.

"Atherh wants us," he said.

The suns were high overhead. Their light, burning into her right cheek, brought Nika back to herself. She was on her feet again, chargestaff ready, almost before she was conscious.

Aviates and mites sang and skittered in the wood around her. Time had passed, hours by the position of Smaller Sun above her. She'd lost those hours and, worse, she had lost Aryki as well.

One second he'd been crouched in the brush beside her— the next, oblivion.

She'd felt the Beast approaching as she always did. She'd given Aryki fair warning. His staff was as fully and lethally charged as hers but somehow the thing had taken him anyway. Nika still wasn't sure how she could tell when it was near but she could. A sort of chill went through her, starting at the crescent shaped scar around her eye- a gift from the Beast itself- and spreading then through the restof her body until she felt she'd been submerged in an icy stream.

Since she'd awakened from that first hideous encounter she'd had the ability. She didn't tell the others, of course. The Folk were distrustful of anything that smacked of magic and what else could this new power be? Indeed, how could The Beast move among them so freely and vanish so completely without some sort of help from the underworld?

Nika suspected the connection she now shared with the thing was because its touch had somehow corrupted her. With any other problem she might got to Atherh or even to Uv’A for comfort, but simply admitting this problem to either of them would only earn Nika a one-way trip to the punishment ring.

So, instead of seeking help, Nika made sure she Trekked as much as possible. As frightening as her ability was, it was also their best hope of ever killing the Beast. She had done the horrible arithmetic in her head and realized, despite Atherh's precautions, the Beast would take all of them, one-by-one, before the turn of the month.

Though none of them knew of it, the Folk needed Nika's gift. Except now it had failed her and Aryki had been taken. She was a fool to have let him partner with her. The little scholar was a creature of dust and tomes, ill-suited

for the Trek. If Kote had drawn the lot instead, she knew, she and the First Hunter would be wearing the Beast's teeth by now.

If it had teeth.

She ran a finger over the dark scar around her eye. Cold. The creature might still be nearby, resting after its meal. If it was and if she found it, she would end it. She would end it or she would end. That was the only equation.

And, maybe, just maybe, if she succeeded, she would get back those bits of her soul the Beast had taken.

She found Aryki's chargestaff lying on the nearby turf, grabbed it up and grimaced. Fully charged. He'd never even gotten off a shot.

"We have a problem," said Atherh when the two men had settled themselves. Her words echoed ominously against the vaulted wood ceiling. The Assembly was just an enormous domed circle with rows of benches focused at the vacant center ring. The center was for Speakers or Scholars to address the Folk during feasts or times of Thanks. It was meant for large gatherings of all the Folk, not little meetings like this.

"Yes," said Uv’A. He was seated, legs crossed, on the innermost bench. The dark robes of the Mediator hung on him like a shroud. "Defensive measures so far have been less than adequate."

"For once," said Kote. "I agree." He was standing, preparing to pace, it seemed to Atherh. "We've lost too many of the Folk," he went on. "We must stop hiding and attack this thing."

"You sound like Nika," she said. "Attack, attack, attack. Look what it's got her."

"Nika is right," said the First Hunter and spat.

"And almost certainly dead," said Atherh softly. "But that isn't the problem."

"Materials," said the mediator. "I calculate that the wall you've told Ahna to construct cannot be completed with available stores."

"I know that," said Atherh. "I knew it when I asked her to build it. I just wanted to give the Folk something to do other than waiting here to die. But that isn't the problem either."

"What is the problem?" said Uv’A.

"We've lost contact with the other enclaves," she said simply.

They didn't ask her if she was sure. They didn't ask why or how. They didn't ask if she'd sent runners to the sea and to the hills to see if the problem was merely technical.

They knew Atherh. If she was bringing it to their attention it was because she'd already exhausted all other avenues.

"The Beast?" said Kote, knowing the answer.

"What else?" she said.

"So we are alone," said U'va thoughtfully. "Alone and running out of time."

Atherh nodded.

"What does The Curator say?" said Kote when the silence became oppressive.

"Nothing," said Atherh grimly. "At least nothing I can understand."

***

The Curator stood in the center of the Scholary, dominating the place with its presence. It was an ancient obelisk, carved of raw crystal and patterned with inlaid filigrees of copper and gold. It actually spoke on occasion, sometimes to all the Folk but more often to the Scholars alone.

The Curator was their link to the other enclaves. It was the source of Law and Understanding. In many ways it led the Folk as much as Atherh, perhaps more. Many was the time Atherh had used its words to shore up some plan or argument.

“What in the underworld is that?” said Kote, listening to the stream of bizarre sounds emanating from the Curator.

“None of us knows,” said Atherh. “It started making that noise about a day after The Beast’s first attack.”

“They sound almost like words,” said Uv’A bending close to listen. Indeed the strange staccato noise did resemble speech but, if it was, the language was something the mediator couldn’t decipher any more than could the scholars.

“I’ve kept this from the others,” said Atherh. “I don’t want to worry them more than they already are.”

Kote nodded. “That’s wise,” he said. “We don’t need a panic.”

“But we do need a solution,” said U’va, rising. The others only gazed at the Curator in silence. There wasn’t much point in talking. Everything had already been said.

Nika shivered as a wave of frost ran through her. It started at the scar around her eye, spread out across her face down her neck and over her entire body until her skin was covered in gooseflesh.

Nika knew the sensation and, moreover, she knew it wasn’t natural. She only felt this particular chill when the Beast was nearby. She still hadn’t seen it, had no idea of its size or shape or anything really about its nature beyond its appetite and success at procuring prey.

For all that, she felt connected to the creature somehow. The Beast, whatever it was, was not native to this place. Since her unremembered encounter with it, Nika had felt somehow alien as well. The suspicious looks she caught from the others, the pain she felt whenever she came near to the Curator, the strange imagery in her dreams— endless gray corridors lined with sealed doors— all of it she knew, somehow, had been the result of surviving the Beast.

How she had done it was as much a mystery to her as why. Even in this most recent attack it had left her essentially alone. Yes, it had somehow rendered her unconscious but, though she was at its mercy, it had not taken her away. Was it afraid of her? Was it saving her for some special destruction different from what it gave the others? The latter seemed more likely but, with no clues about the Beast itself, her mind could only spin amorphous possibilities. Those wouldn’t help her gut this thing.

After Kote, Nika was the best hunter in the enclave.The jungle’s high climbing trees and hanging green vines were as familiar to her as her own domice. The Beast was an intruder, an alien.

Though it seemed able to vanish into the jungle at will, Nika knew that disappearance must be less than complete. She stilled herself, letting the sounds and motions of the surrounding jungle mask her own. Motionless, silent, wrapped tight in her hunt gear Nika became little more than another shadow in the infinite dappled foliage.

With her body quieted, her senses were free to explore. All around her…

Speckled heat-mites munched lazily on the nearby boorya leaves…

Aviates called and sang in the unseen canopy above… Somewhere off to the left…

A hungry bloodcat growled…

To the right…

A slither cracked its mandibles against the bark of some low branches…

The jungle hummed, filled to bursting with Life and Heat.

For a moment Nika lost herself and was transported back to those happier times when she and the other hunters had roamed the jungle freely, ostensibly in search of game but reveling in the tactile pleasure of each other and the world even more. Before the Beast, the tracking and killing of game had been a sort of dance between her pack of hunters and their prey. Now the Folk were the prey and there was no more dancing.

Kote was so different now. It was as if all his mirth had been siphoned away, leaving only the husk and the fever to kill their attacker. Nika herself was little better.

Those thoughts brought her back to the moment she currently occupied and the feeling that something was wrong.

Somewhere near her— behind her?— there was a patch of what felt very much like Winter.

This cold was like what she felt inside. Indeed, the more she focused on it, the more it seemed to draw her own icy center that way. It was if the two pockets of alien chill called to each other like aviates in their aerial mating dance.

Well. They would dance all right. Nika was tired of tiptoeing around a direct confrontation with the thing. She would kill it or die from trying before the next sunfall.

***

“We should double the number on the Night Guard,” said Kote. “And set those flash charges I told you about around the perimeter.”

“I believe retreat would be the most prudent course,” said Uv’A.

The Hunter bristled at that, drawing an analogy between flight and death that inspired a derisive exhalation from the Mediator. Uv’A went on to point out that many of the Folk were undernourished, all were fearful and some, like the enclave’s mason, were in no condition for any sort of pitched battle. Running would be taxing enough.