Blackwood Flats Safari: Part 9

Jebar sat by the campfire. He stared at the flames dancing in the darkness. Only an aching numbness filled his heart. He didn't care that nobody had eaten dinner except Namir, who had caught his own fish. Nobody spoke. Kairo's passing weighed heavy on everyone’s minds. Coolly, lethally, the blade that had killed his son gleamed in the fires light. Jebar stared at it, the anger building in his heart.

"I'll get some more wood," Lucas said, interrupting the death like silence of the night falling around them. The sky, like their hearts, was completely clouded over, and every once in a while a wind draft of the receding storm would chill their bodies as a constant reminder of the chaos of it's passing. Sheets of cold rain began to fall as Lucas moved deeper into the surrounding foliage trying to scavenge what little dry or semidry wood he could find. He could feel Namir somewhere around him hunting for the night dwellers he knew to be there that, for some reason, refused to sing on this forsaken night. A baleful blue moon parted through the cloud bands illuminating the pitch black of his surroundings, but its light was quick lived as another band of clouds soon replaced its guidance. Sighing inwardly, Lucas held his extinguishing torch in front of him and made his way deeper inland and farther from the sea.

Ironic, he thought sadly, That the life giving sea can just as quickly shatter it.

The howl of the wind and waves died away with the flickers of the fire in their camp that was struggling to survive with the little wood it had, and he hurried away to find more.

The cold rain hitting his body went unfelt by Jebar. All he knew was the slow rage building deep within. It wasn't right. Why had the Captain killed his son? If it haddn't been for Rico and Lt. Tates, Kairo would still be alive. It was their fault, with their stupid prank. If everyone had been able to fit into the proper lifeboats, then Kairo would still be alive.

It wasn't fair. But he could make it fair.

He continued to stare at the knife blade. When Lucas got up to get more firewood, he barely noticed. The rage continued to grow. No, the captain hadn’t done a mercy kill; he'd murdered his son.

Unable to take it anymore, he leaped for the knife and roared his hatred at Captain McGreggor before attacking him. This man would die.

Lucas kneeled down to pick up a damp log he had identified in the near darkness and smiled. If this thing managed to catch fire, it would keep them semi warm most of the night and if the rain didn't get any worse. He had already gathered enough of a load to got back to camp with so adding to it this final burden he turned to head back. He sensed around for his tiger, but couldn't catch any noise that would betray it's where about. Suddenly, another sound caught his ear, shouting. He furrowed his brow upon realizing that it was coming from their camp, now only visible as a distant speck of light against absolute darkness. Something was wrong.

Forgetting about the load of wood, he sprinted back towards the encampment A thousand horrible possibilities drifting through his mind.

What he saw there stopped his heart cold. The captain was fighting for his life while Jebar, in a mad rage, attacked him with the same knife that had ended his sons suffering. In his anger, Jebar was winning, and had already managed to stab the captain several times.

"Jebar! Ye've gone mad! Stop it!" The captain yelled, trying to avoid the knife, but slowed down with an injury to his thigh.

"Mr. Sorla!" Lucas yelled running toward the two men and managing to push Jebar away from Capt. McGreggor. "What in the blazes has gotten in you, man?!"

Jebar pushed himself up and leaped at Lucas. "He killed him!" Plunging the knife downwards, he went at Lucas too. Anyone who tried stopping him would meet the same fate.

Lucas clenched his jaw. What had come over the man? It was obvious he was being driven by extreme sorrow and hatred, but he had to get a hold of himself. He jumped out of the way of the incoming blade shoving McGreggor aside too in the process. The older man was limping and bleeding badly, he noticed with concern.

"Listen to me!" Lucas exclaimed. "This will achieve nothing! You have to get a grip on yourself! We're all here together!"

"Not no more. Not when he killed Kairo. He doesn't care for us! He'd kill us too!" Jebar again leaped at Lucas. "Get outta here boy before I does the same to you."

"I can't let you do this!" Lucas replied. His mind raced. He had no idea what was going to do.

The dark man plunged the knife into Lucas' leg, drawing blood. "Don't you stand in my way."

Lucas swore. "Goodness man! What get a hold of yourself! Are you trying to kill us all?" He tentatively tried his weight on his wounded leg only to discover it gave in under him almost making him loose balance. "Captain," he whispered, never taking his eyes from the other man. "Try to get to my pack; I have a revolver there. We can try to talk sense into him with it."

Captain McGreggor nodded and slowly tried to make his way to the pack without drawing attention to himself. When Jebar heard about the revolver, he leaped at the pack, making it there first as the captain had already been critically injured. "Oh no... You killed my son. Now you gonna die too."

"Jebar!" Lucas called out. Forgetting his injured leg, he threw himself on the darker man summoning all the strength he could muster to drive the weapon from him.

Jebar laughed madly and kept hold of the gun in one hand and the knife in the other. He fell back under Lucas' weight, his finger tightening on the trigger and firing the revolver. While Lucas grabbed for the gun, Jebar thrust the knife into his side.

Lucas' eyes widened and he took a step backwards clutching his side with both his palms. A sharp pain streamed from his side to every corner of his body. For a moment, he felt dizzy. To his horror, he realized that he couldn't breath. He collapsed to his knees and tried to heave in precious oxygen, but something was preventing the life air to reach his lungs. Violently, he began to cough the blood that was blocking the air passage. His vision blurred and focused at odd intervals as he tried to regain control of his body.

“I warned you to get out of my way,” Jebar growled. Turning his back on Lucas, he turned to the Captain. “You. You killed my son. Kairo was a good boy. He didn’t deserve that. You promised we’d be safe on your ship! You no different than the slave owners.” The hatred boiled up again as he raised the pistol, and shot it once, ending Captain Mark McGreggors life.

He looked back at Lucas and reloaded the revolver.

Lucas glared at Jebar, but braced himself. "Not like this," he muttered. "Never like this!"

Jebar clicked the bullet into place and aimed. “Kairo didn’t have to die like he did.” He pulled back the hammer and tightened the grip on the trigger.

Attracted by the noise and scent of blood, Namir ran onto the scene. The great cat leaped on Jebar, throwing off his aim and the bullet flew harmlessly into the air. The tiger roared and pawed the gun away from the human. He let Jebar up, but chased him away, then returned to Lucas.

Lucas smiled weakly at the big cat. "Good boy," he whispered but realized he could no longer waste precious breath on idle talk. Wrapping an arm around Namir's strong neck for support, he motioned for the tiger to help him into the shallows. The least he could do was wash his wounds from infections. Namir obeyed and gently, as if sensing his master's pain, helped him to shore. After soaking for several minutes, he realized that is he didn't stop the bleeding he was going to die from blood loss.

Grabbing unto the cat's neck again, he half dragged himself back to the dying fire and ripping a spare shirt from one of the abandoned packs, produced a rustic bandage for his side and leg. The pain was starting to be maddening, but he had to force himself to live through the night. He hadn't survived countless safaris and a shipwreck to die like this, some how he was going to survive. He laid down by the fire to get what warmth he could and smiled thankfully as Namir sat down next to him blocking his body from the full blast of the elements. Somehow, he was going to make it.

“LiquidFire!” she called at the Utharaptor now making her way down the stairs after. Upon seeing the human youth, LiquidFire altered her direction in order to greet the girl.

“Breath Deep,” she said.

“Seek Peace!” Tamith replied happily. “What brings you to Chandara? I haven’t seen you since our unexpected meeting in your Clan’s grounds.”

LiquidFire made a face and Tamith wasn’t sure if she was grinning at the memory or looking at it with regret. “Yes, it’s been a while. And I’m here right now to assist the local healers in what I can with the wounded from the storm.”

“Oh!” Tamith exclaimed, “Then you’re the one upstairs with-”

“You’re companion, yes, sadly that’s me,” LiquidFire responded. “He isn’t the easiest patient I’ve had and honestly, I’ve seen better behave hatchlings!”

Tamith grinned sheepishly. “Yeah… Dylan isn’t very fond of healers…But before I forget,” she said turning towards the other occupants of the table, “This is Gareth, he aided us with the dolphinbacks, and this is the Chandaran Speaker,” she finished pointing at the Deinonychus.

LiquidFire nodded her greetings then turned to the empty water bowl in her hands. “I better go get some more of this to finish disinfecting his wounds and if he spills it again, I swear I’ll spill the contents of a cauldron over his head!”

The rest of the table laughed.

“Is he really giving you that a hard time?” Gareth asked curiously. “He seemed in no shape to complain, let alone cause major damage.”

“Oh, you’d be surprised what Dylan can do when he sets his mind to it!” Tamith said smiling.

“I can testify to that,” LiquidFire agreed with a toothy grin.

“Would you like our help?” Gareth offered.

Tamith laughed. “I’m positive he’ll behave if we’re both there to witness is tantrums.”

LiquidFire nodded. “Please! I’ll go fetch some more water, you two can keep him busy for a bit.”

The two humans excused themselves from the Speaker and followed LiquidFire to the kitchens. Once they had all the necessary items, they went back up the stairs to the room Dylan was staying in. Tamith knocked on the door and called to her friend, but to her surprise, no one responded. After several attempts with similar results, they opened the door and stared into the room. Everything was as LiquidFire had left it except for an opened window from which the light rain now poured into the room and no Dylan.

“He’s… gone??” LiquidFire said puzzled.

She put the bowl of water on the wooden nightstand in the corner of the inn-room then walked to the window. In the distance she could vaguely see the contours of large buildings but the rain blocked the activity of people on the streets from view. Not that anyone who hadn’t very urgent business would be out in this weather of course.

Nothing was to be seen down on the pavement either. Dylan wasn’t the kind of person who would jump from windows, he must have climbed down somehow. But if he did, he had done so in a very original way since the outer wall seemed too smooth for a human to find hand and foot-holds in and the classical if not slightly cliché ‘rope’ of bed sheets tied to the window and waving in the wind wasn’t there either.

A few moments later the innkeeper had been warned and the Inn searched, which resulted in the turning up of the inn keeper’s wife’s long lost favorite left earring, but no Dylan. This was worrisome. She wondered if she shouldn’t send her pterosaurian city-guide to warn the authorities or at least the hospital.

“Any ideas as to what place in Chandara he wants to visit badly enough to climb out of windows?” she asked Tamith in her own language since she still didn’t master basic Dinotopian too well and Tamith’s knowledge of raptor-dialects had increased greatly since a close encounter in the Basin.

By now everyone in Inn was staring at the strange little group with amusement, curiosity or concern.

Tamith stared blankly out the window in the inn lobby as she considered LiquidFire’s question. Little water droplets where tapping on the window surface in an almost musical fashion and for a moment, she just stared at them totally at a loss for words.

“Oh no,” she muttered. “He wouldn’t…”

“Would what?” the Utharaptor asked her slightly puzzled as the human girl rose from her seat in an almost dreamlike state.

Without giving any explanations, Tamith crossed the lobby and walked out the front door of the inn. LiquidFire gapped after the girl and in a swift movement was after her as well. When she caught up to Tamith, she was sprinting down the city alleys.

“He has to be there…” she muttered. “Where else would he go?”

“Go where??” LiquidFire insisted, still totally lost.

The final alley opened up into the sandy coast of the Bay and only then did Tamith slow down. Panting for breath, she scanned her surroundings.

“Here?” LiquidFire said incredulously. “What kind of idiot comes to the bay when it’s raining outside? Not to mention he was wounded and…” she stopped short and looked in the direction Tamith was pointing, still too breathless for words. Her jaw fell open. Sitting some twenty meters from them, starring peacefully out into the bay was Dylan. For a minute, she just starred speechless and truly pondering the workings of the male human’s brain, because for the life of her she could not figure it out.

Dylan seemed to notice their presence because he turned in their direction and with a giant grin waved them towards him. Tamith was already half of the way there and she wasted no time catching up to her.

“YOU LITTLE IDIOT OF A MAMMAL!” LiquidFire exclaimed. “What were you thinking?” Her wonder and confusion increased further when she saw that Dylan was completely wet. It almost looked as if he had decided to jump in the Bay for a swim.

“I….umm… fancied a swim,” he said sheepishly confirming her ludicrous theory. She simply gapped at him. He had decided to go for a swim in the middle of a storm… That was beyond rash, even by human standards. She looked at Tamith incredulously but strangely, the human girl didn’t look surprised at all.

“You!” Tamith said hugging her friend. “You had us worried sick! You should have told me you’d be here! Half the inn is looking for you, you little sneak!”

“I’m sorry,” Dylan said smiling at her. “I just didn’t want to risk going through her again.” At this he motioned with his head at LiquidFire, who was standing there totally at a loss for words.

“Well…” she said finally reacting. “You didn’t want to spend a night in a hospital, now you’re gonna have to! Swimming in this weather!! And you were wounded, irresponsible! What were you thinking!! Let me look at those again.”

Dylan tried to move away from the healer’s grasp, but he was in the middle of both his friends so he couldn’t squirm away. LiquidFire was muttering something about a loss of perfectly good bandages as she undid the wet and useless ones he was wearing around his head to inspect the wound further. If she had been confused before, what she discovered made her jump backwards. The deep wound he had had that had been freely bleeding but hours before was gone. In fact, there wasn’t any trace of it ever being there at all. She blinked a few times then got a grip of him again and searched for the multiple cuts he had on his arms and chest. They were gone too.

“What the…” Liquidfire muttered. “How did…”

“Well….” Dylan stuttered. “Good job to you, doctor, I’m all better now!”

“Nuh uh!” LiquidFire exclaimed suddenly. “Not like that you aren’t!”

Tamith just sported a big grin on her face. The severity of the situation didn’t seem to stun her at all. She sat back allowing her friend some room to stand up.

“So you guys finally found him.”

The three of them turned around to see Gareth walking towards them. He must have seen the two girls walk out of the inn and followed.

“Yes!” the healer Utharaptor exclaimed. “He.. he… I don’t know! But something’s not right here!”

Dylan ignored the debate that was surely going to start roaring at his back soon and walked back towards the semi stormy waters.

“Where are you going?” Tamith asked him walking to catch up.

“I’m gonna wash the sand off,” he told her. “Obviously I’ll be expected back at the inn now with evil healer pouring in with concerns for my health.” Tamith caught the slight hint of sarcasm and laughed. Dylan grinned back and walked into the foamy waters.

“How can you do that?” Tamith asked. “It must be freezing in there!”

“Naw, it’s quite warm actually,” Dylan replied after ducking under the waves once. “The wind is what makes you feel cold.”

He was waist deep in water before turning to exit. He was almost out when he felt himself grow cold. Dylan narrowed his eyes and winced at the pain that suddenly ripped his insides. Before he knew it, he was on his knees gasping at the sudden pain and his vision blurred. He shut his eyes closed and when he opened them, he notice that he was surrounded in blood. He looked back towards shore, but Tamith was nowhere to be found. All he could see where blurry images of people in motion. All he knew was that someone somewhere was dying.

“DYLAN!” Tamith voice broke through the dreamlike state he had been in. He opened her eyes and saw her worried face above his.

“He’s coming about,” another voice said.

“Irresponsible! Straight to sick bay for you!” the third one exclaimed.

“I’m alright…” he muttered sitting up. He looked around him and was surprised not to find the blood he had seen seconds before. He thought about what he had seen before turning to the people around him.

“We gotta go now,” he stated seriously.

“You bet we do!” LiquidFire said snapped.

“No you don’t understand,” Dylan said turning towards Tamith who had suddenly gone very pale, “They’re dying, all of them.”

“Who’s dying?” Gareth asked.

“The dolphinbacks,” he replied quietly. “They’re all going to die.”

The party had now stopped for nightfall. Kael, Hikari, and Azonthus were busy setting up tents for them to sleep in while Allen and Ressa had taken it upon themselves to start a fire and get dinner on its way. Standtall was taking a break from all the heavy walking and munching on the top leaves of one of the last tall trees they’d be seeing for a while. Some fifteen minutes later, each member had the food of his or her choice and was sitting around the fire, watching the still cloudy sky above them.

“How much longer, do you think?” Hikari asked Kael when he sat down for dinner.

“A few more days,” he replied while sipping some of the soup Allen had cooked up. “We’ve made great time thus far. With any luck, we should be there within the next three days.”

“We’re lucky to have Standtall with,” Allen spoke up. “I could have already been there, but it would have taken you non-fliers forever to arrive!”

Kael smiled. “Not all of us have the advantage of being skybax riders. Where did Highwind go, anyway? I haven’t seen him since we started camp.”

“He and Featherlight went for a hunt,” the blonde rider replied. “They’ll be back.” He excused himself and went to wash in the nearby stream they had found after he had finished dinner. Hikari and Ressa where deep in conversation, swapping stories by the looks of it.

“You know,” Azonthus spoke to Kael for the first time since dinner had started. “You’re nothing like what I expected at first.”

Kael looked surprised. “I’m afraid I don’t understand.”

Azonthus laughed in a raptorian way. “Well, you’re an O’Connor,” she said. “By rights and what I know from your family, trouble follows your every step. And you can be a bit reckless.”

The human laughed. “Oh, I see. My brother’s reputation precedes me!”

“Not in a bad way!” Azonthus quickly put in. “It’s just that I never thought I’d meet a non-hyper O’Connor!”

“I know what you mean, I think,” Kael told her. “Dylan and I are just as alike as we are different. It made growing up... interesting.”

“I bet!” Azonthus said. She watched him a moment longer.

It seemed as if his attention had suddenly drifted from the conversation he was having and focused in a point somewhere in the southern horizon. A cold draft blew across their camp making Hikari run for one of the blankets in her tent before returning to her chat with Ressa. She turned her attention to Kael again and frowned. His complexion had changed. It almost looked as if he was in pain, though his attention was still fixed on the horizon.

“Are you feeling alight?” she asked, getting up and walking towards him. For a moment he didn’t respond, but then, almost as if it caused him a lot of effort, his attention returned to her.

“I’m sorry....” he stammered feeling his forehead and snapping his eyes shut. “It’s just... I suddenly got this really bad feeling about my brother.”

“Dylan?” Az asked.

“Yeah...”Kael answered, though he still looked like he was caught between his thoughts and their conversation. “Featherlight told us he had been injured, but it couldn’t have been that serious, I didn’t feel... Point is, something’s wrong with him now.”

“I’m sure he’s well taken care of,” Azonthus told him. “You said Tamith was with him; I’m sure he’s alright.”

“It’s not that,” Kael said looking sideways at the fire. “It’s just...” He seemed to think better of what he had been about to say and stood up. “I’m sending Featherlight ahead as soon as he returns. I hope he’s up for it. We’ll rest a few hours before starting off ourselves; we better move fast.”

Az knew that whatever Kael had seen was serious. Despite what others may have to say about it, she believed him.

"As soon as he's back, we need Allen and Featherlight to go find out what's going on. Until then, I'm going to sleep." The raptor curled up next to the fire and was quickly sound asleep.

It wasn't long before the skybax returned. Kael immediately sent them on to the coast, demanding they find out what had happened.

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