It wasn’t until midafternoon that we realized we were being followed by a monkey.
It was a different species from the ones we’d killed for Pezock. Much smaller, with skinny arms and legs, a plump body, and bulbous eyes pushing out of its wide head. It hung back, using its striped tail to help it swing from tree branch to tree branch to keep up. Eventually our group stopped walking. Despite our need to reach Aycenia’s clearing before sunset, I wasn’t going to say no to a break. My legs had begun to turn to mush lugging around two cannons, several cannonballs, a barrel of (thankfully usable) gunpowder.
“Maybe it just wants food,” Nakoda offered. He began to reach into one of my saddle bags, one of the ones with emergency rations.
“Why would you feed it?” scoffed Seaweed Man.
Nakoda frowned at him, and then back at the monkey. It was now doing a terrible job of trying to hide. “It, uh, just looks lost, up in that tree-”
“It’s a monkey.”
“Yeah, but-”
“It’s a monkey. Have you seen the horrible things they can do? The horror.”
Nakoda’s left eye trembled as he clearly recalled our last encounter with monkeys. “Yes. I know.”
Seaweed Man eyed the monkey distrustfully before shrugging his bow from his shoulders. “Perhaps we should just kill it-”
“Maybe it’s working with Aycenia,” Nakoda cut him off hurriedly. “Her eyes and ears-”
“And diseases,” Seaweed Man countered.
The Little Rider’s other eyes began twitching as well. “…Why are you like this? Why do you have to assume the worst about people?!”
“It’s not a person,” Belkross grunted. “It’s a monkey.”
“Animals have feelings, too!” Nakoda turned to Lilian. “You get where I’m coming from, right, Lilian?”
Before she could answer, Belkross said, “In the days that we were waiting for the ship, there was this peasant child begging for scraps. She felt pity, so she gave him food. Instead of fixing the problem, the next day, three beggars arrived. Waiting for us.”
“What happened to them?” Nakoda asked hesitantly.
“When the three children come out, that’s the best time to poison them,” Seaweed Man mused aloud, as if were the most reasonable thing in the world to say. “You feed one to lure out the rest and poison the hoard. Problem solved.”
Alton arched a singed eyebrow at him. “What was the name of your guardian again?”
“It is not my right to give that out,” Seaweed Man told him. “But perhaps he’ll speak to you one day, sailor.”
“Looking forward to it,” Alton replied dryly. To Nakoda he then said, like a tired father addressing his overexcited son, “The monkey’s keeping its distance. If it’s working with Aycenia, fine. If not, it’s just a monkey, Drake. It’ll go away on its own.” He grabbed one of the ropes tied around the cannons to help in dragging them through the jungle. Nakoda grabbed one, too. “Now come on. Before it gets dark, and ghosts and monsters come out to play.”
As much as my legs screamed at me for it, we pushed onward. Even after we finally made it back to the clearing, the work was far from over. Paco and Alton looked the cannons over and, with Lilian and Seaweed Man’s magic, mended whatever damage to the metal. Afterwards, it looked like child’s play for her to weld the chains from the manacles to cannonballs. We had a few balls left over, but we only had two of these chained sets to shoot. Two shots. After I’d gotten food, water, and an hour of rest in me, I dragged the cannons over to the cliff. Down below, Nakoda went to work on digging the pit. After that was done, he and Paco stabbed several sharpened sticks into the pit, poisonous fangs tied with vines to the top of them. By then, Aycenia finished knitting the net of vines together.
All in all, a very long day. I noticed that Lilian, Belkross, and Paco continued to go over the traps again and again. Who was going to be doing what. Whether or not there was enough coverage to keep the Shadow from catching onto the trap. Belkross offered to be bait without much fanfare and no one, not even Nakoda, tried arguing against it. Eventually the sun set. No ghost appeared, much to Nakoda’s relief. He nestled up to me and the comfort of his weight, as small as he was, lulled my exhausted mind to sleep.
#
Child…My child…
In the dark, I dreamt of light. The light whispered with my mother’s voice as the dark pulled it apart. I was looking down from above, as if my eyes were those of a very, very large eagle. Even in the dark, shadows loomed large. Four of them. Three of the shadows stood back, smiling in their own distinctive ways, as the fourth shadow prodded and pulled and twisted the light this way and that. Tiny stars poured from the light’s wounds and disappeared, forever. This left the light frailer, smaller, with the dark creeping into the cracks. All the while, the light cried-
“WAKE UP, CHILDREN! THEY’VE COME!”
Aycenia’s cry was near immediately followed up by a gunshot. Together they yanked me out of the nightmare. I lurched to my feet, looked back and forth stupidly. Out of the corner of my eye I spotted Paco, smoke trickling from the mouth of his rifle. While the rest of the group stumbled to their feet or grabbed for their weapons, he pumped out another shot.
A sobbing scream made me flinch. Still blinking sleep out of my eyes, I turned towards it, vaguely aware that Nakoda was climbing up into my saddle as I did so. I spotted three men. It was difficult to tell from this distance, but they looked to be wearing clothes made from hides tied together with thick rope and decorated with yellow-brown stones. One was rolling on the ground, clutching at the bloody mess that had once been his lower jaw. The other two were racing towards us, howling in rage. The stones bounced violently against their chests. No, not stones.
Human teeth.
Cannibals, I realized. To my right, Alton stepped forward, rapier in hand.
Seaweed Man appeared behind him and placed a hand on the first mate’s shoulder. “Here. This should help.” Like with Belkross’ blade, magical light poured across Alton’s rapier. Except this time the light was slime green and left bubble-like afterimages whenever the weapon moved.
Alton sniffed the air. “Salty,” he said wistfully. “Smells like home.” His expression hardened as he refocused his attention on the approaching man-eaters.
“Seems that we’re shooting first, asking questions later,” Lilian called out dryly, shooting Paco an irritated glance.
“Where’s Mr. Belkross?” Nakoda asked.
“Left early to make sure nothing tampered with the traps-Alton!”
Growing impatient, Alton broke into a run. He nearly slipped running down the hill, but that added to the impact when he struck the nearest cannibal. Rapier-shaped bubbles flowed around them as he struck the enemy’s chest. The second cannibal caught up and tried to strike at Alton from behind with his own, cruder sword.
And Alton blocked the attack with his rapier with barely a look.
There was a clang of metal and flash of green light. The light made both of the cannibals blink stupidly at the first mate. Before they could recover, Alton slashed at the second cannibal. He cut through the hides and left a gash that ran from the cannibals shoulder down to his naval.
“YAY, ALTON!” Nakoda cried, punching his lance into the air. I charged. Thanks to the steep slope, my hooves practically slid across the grass. Alton was forced to leap to the side to avoid also getting hit by Nakoda’s lance. The Little Rider drove it into the second cannibals back, knocking him to the ground. It was mostly by accident when I then trampled him to death.
All the while, the jaw-less cannibal rolled back and forth one, twice, and then fell still.
The last cannibal standing, glanced at his companions’ corpses, and then at Alton and Nakoda’s glowing weapons. The lights from both weapons were sizzling against each other, as if trying to cancel each other out…
Lilian cried out a magic word and a shadow suddenly fell across the cannibal’s face. It source was shaped like a large eagle, but made from solid, silver stone. It swooped in, its metallic talons reflecting the light of the morning sun.
The cannibal screamed like a terrified cat and duck down, just barely avoiding getting his face raked off. The eagle flew past but then circled around, eager to try again. Nakoda and I hurried to the cannibal’s right and, following our lead, Alton went to his left. Together with the eagle, we created a triangle of death around the enemy.
Not that it mattered.
With another gunshot, Paco put the blubbering man down.
Because who needs magic when you have bullets, apparently.