Tiger's Curse (40 page)

Fanindra had curled up at my feet in her jewelry position. I picked her up, slid her onto my arm, and then looked around desperately. “Ren? Where’s the golden fruit?”

“It’s here.” He picked it up from where it had fallen at the base of the tree.

“We should hide it.” I picked up my backpack and yanked out my quilt. I reached for the fruit and took it from Ren carefully, making sure our hands didn’t touch, and then I wrapped it in my quilt and stowed it in the backpack. I guess I’d been a little bit too obvious in my desire to avoid touching him, because he was scowling at me when I looked up at him.

“What? You can’t even touch me now? Nice to know I disgust you so much! Too bad you couldn’t convince Kishan to come with you so you could avoid being with me altogether!”

I ignored him and yanked my shoelaces into double knots.

He gestured toward the city and smiled mockingly, “Whenever you feel recovered enough,
rajkumari
.”

I glared and poked him in the chest. “Maybe Kishan would have been less of a jerk. And for the record, Mr. Sarcastic, I don’t like you very much right now.”

He narrowed his eyes at me. “Welcome to the club, Kells. Shall we proceed?”

“Fine.” I turned my back to him, adjusted the straps on the backpack, and marched off on my own.

He threw up his hands in exasperation,
“Fine!”

I hollered back, “FINE!” and walked stiffly back to the city with him following silently behind me, fuming.

When we passed the first building, the ground started shaking. We stopped and turned to look at the golden tree. It was sinking back into the ground, and the two pool halves were moving back together. There was a strange glow coming from inside the four monkey statues.

“Uh, Kells? I think it might be wise to exit the city as soon as possible.”

We double-timed our pace and jogged briskly between the buildings. I heard a hiss and a screech, followed by several more. Monkey statues were glowing and coming to life. Something moved overhead.

Small black and brown figures leapt across buildings following us. The screeches became cacophonous, and the noise level was incredible.

I yelled over at Ren as I ran, “Perfect! Now we’re being chased by hoards of monkeys! Perhaps you would care to name their species as we’re attacked, just so I can appreciate the special traits of said monkey as it kills me!”

He ran along beside me. “At least when the monkeys are harassing you, you don’t have any time to harass
me
!”

The monkeys were getting close. I almost tripped over one as it darted in front of my legs. Ren leapt over a fountain with his tiger power.
Show-off
.

“Ren, you’re holding back. Just get out of here! Take the backpack and go.”

He laughed acerbically as he ran ahead of me; then, he turned to look at me while jogging backward, “Ha! You wish you could get rid of me that easily!”

He ran a bit farther ahead of me and switched to the tiger. Then he barreled back toward me and actually leapt over my running body into the throng of monkeys to slow them down.

I shouted back at him while still running, “Hey! Careful where you jump, Mister! You almost took my head off!”

I kept on course, pumping my legs as fast as they would go. I heard terrible noises behind me. Most of the monkeys had switched to full-on attack mode. Ren was biting, slashing with his claws, and roaring thunderously. I looked back over my shoulder. Brown, gray, and black monkeys covered his body and clung to his fur. A dozen or so monkeys were still chasing me, including the huge, baboon from the reflecting pool.

I turned a corner and finally saw the drawbridge. A monkey leapt and latched itself onto my leg, slowing me down. I tried to shake it off as I ran.

Batting at him ineffectually, I hollered, “Stu-pid mon-key . . . get . . . off!” In response, he bit my knee.

“Owww!” I shook my leg harder as I ran and stomped my foot down hard to make the ride as jarring as possible for the little hitchhiker. Just then, Fanindra animated the top half of her body. She hissed and spat at the monkey, who screeched and immediately let go of my leg.

“Thanks, Fanindra.” I patted her head as she settled back down on my arm again.

I reached the gate, crossed the bridge, and stopped on the other side. Ren was bouncing toward me trying to shake monkeys off his back. Several monkeys were storming toward me. I kicked at them viciously, quickly threw off my backpack, and took out the
gada
.

I started swinging the
gada
like a baseball bat at the monkeys. I hit one with a sickening smack, and it whimpered and hightailed it back to the city. The problem was that I was able to hit a monkey only every third try or so. One jumped on my back and started pulling my hair. Another attached itself to my leg. I continued swinging the
gada
back and forth in front of me, and eventually ended up being able to get rid of most of them.

Ren ran down the drawbridge with about fifteen monkeys clinging to his fur. He bounced over, leapt into the trees, and banged his body up against the trunks, first on one side and then the other. He leapt up high to rub his back on a branch and scrape the remaining monkeys off.

The needle trees came alive, shot leafy tendrils down to ensnare the malicious simians by their legs and tails, and then pulled their shrieking bodies up into the branches. They were too lightweight to fight back and soon disappeared into the treetops.

Meanwhile, I swung the
gada
at the gray baboon but he darted around to avoid being hit. He was too fast for me and chattered at me violently. He swung his long arms and hammered my body at every opportunity. He was strong enough to make his blows hurt. Each pound from his monkey arms battered against my already tired muscles. I felt like I was being tenderized. A tiny monkey sat on my shoulder and tugged on my braids so hard that it brought tears to my eyes.

Free of monkeys, Ren jogged over, detached the monkey’s fingers from my braids, plucked the tiny monkey off my shoulder, and threw him hard back through the city gate. The tiny monkey bounced, rolled on the ground, and then got up, hissed at us, and disappeared. Ren took the
gada
from my hand and raised it to threaten the baboon. The baboon must have realized that Ren’s aim was better than mine because he shrieked loudly and headed back to the city too.

I sat down hard on the ground panting. The city became eerily quiet. Not a monkey hiss or screech could be heard.

Ren turned around to look at me. “Are you okay?”

I waved my hand at him dismissively. He crouched down, touched my cheek, looked me up and down, and then smirked.

“That was a pygmy marmoset, by the way. Just in case you were wondering.”

I wheezed. “Thank you, oh Walking Monkey Dictionary.”

He laughed and got out bottled water for both of us, then handed me an energy bar.

“Aren’t you going to eat one?”

He put a hand on his chest and scoffed. “What, me? Eat an energy bar when the jungle is full of delicious monkeys? No thanks. I’m not hungry.”

I nibbled my energy bar in silence and checked the Golden Fruit to make sure it wasn’t bruised. It was still safely wrapped up in my quilt.

Between bites, I said, “You know, all in all, we made it out of the city fairly unscathed.”

His mouth fell open. “Unscathed? Kelsey, I have monkey bites all over my back and in other places that I don’t even want to think about!”

“I said
fairly
.”

He grunted at me.

After a quick meal and rest, we started the walk back on the pebbly path between the trees and the creek. Ren banged the trees extra hard as we passed. I started to feel guilty about the way I’d been treating him. I watched his stiff shoulders as he paced angrily in front of me.

This was hard. I missed his friendship. Not to mention all the other things.

I was almost ready to apologize when I realized that Kappa were sticking the tops of their heads out of the water and were watching us.

“Uh, Ren? We have company.”

Looking at them only seemed to empower them to more action. They slowly raised their heads out even farther and followed our progress with inky black eyes. I couldn’t stop staring at them. They were horrible! They stank like a fetid swamp, and when they blinked, their lids moved sideways like a crocodile’s.

Their flesh was pale, almost diaphanous, and their pulsing black veins could be seen under their clammy skin. I increased my pace. Ren moved between the creek and me, raising the
gada
as a warning.

“Try bowing to them,” I suggested.

We both started dipping our heads and bowing as we passed, but they ignored us and rose up farther out of the water. They were now standing up and moving forward slowly, mechanically, as if they’d just awakened from a deep sleep. The water currently came up to their chests, but they were getting closer. I turned around and did a deep curtsy type of bow, but it still didn’t work.

“Keep going, Kelsey. Move faster!”

We started jogging. I knew I wouldn’t have the stamina to keep up this pace for long, even with Ren taking on the extra weight of the backpack. More Kappa emerged from the water, several feet in front of us. They had long arms and webbed hands. One of them smiled at me, and I saw sharp, jagged teeth. A shiver tore down my spine, and I ran a little faster.

Now I could see their legs. I was surprised that they had legs like humans. Ridges ran down their backs like a fish spine. Their powerful, muscular legs were covered in brine and pond scum, and their long tails curled like a monkey’s, but ended in a transparent caudal fin. The Kappa swung back and forth menacingly, pulling their feet out of the muck with loud sucking noises while they made their way to the river bank.

The Kappa were careful to keep their heads level, which made their bodies disjointed. The head stayed in one place while the torso bobbed and swayed, zombie-like. They were about a foot shorter than Ren and I, and they moved quickly, picking up speed while shifting awkwardly forward on webbed feet. It was eerie seeing their bodies accelerate while their heads remained virtually still.

“Faster, Kelsey. Run faster!”

“I can’t go any faster, Ren!”

A horde of white Kappa vampires descended upon us, closing the distance quickly.

Ren shouted, “Keep running, Kelsey. I’ll try to slow them down!”

I ran ahead a good distance then turned and jogged backward to see how Ren was faring. He had stopped to try bowing to them again. They paused to assess his action, but contrary to Ren’s mother’s story, the Kappa didn’t bow in return. Gills on the sides of their necks opened and closed, and they opened their mouths to bare their teeth. Viscous black droplets trickled from their mouths as an insipid gurgle turned into a piercing squeal. They surged toward Ren, closing in on their prey.

He swung the
gada
mightily at the nearest one and sunk it deep into the creature’s chest. The monster sprayed filthy dark fluid from its mouth and fell to the creek bank. The other creatures didn’t even notice their fallen comrade. They just closed in on Ren.

He whacked several more, then spun around and ran in my direction again. He waved at me. “Keep running, Kelsey! Don’t stop!”

We were able to keep ahead of them, but I was tiring quickly. We stopped for just a moment to catch our breath.

I gasped for air. “They’re going to catch us. I can’t keep running. My legs are giving out.”

Ren was breathing heavily too. “I know. But we have to keep trying.” Taking a big swig of water, he handed me the rest of the bottle he had taken from my backpack, and grabbed my hand, leading me to the trees. “Come on. Follow me. I have an idea.”

“Ren, the needle trees are awful. If we go back there, we’ll have two things trying to kill us instead of just one.”

“Just trust me, Kells. Follow my lead.”

When we entered the needle trees, the branches immediately began reaching for us. Ren pulled me along as we raced through. I seriously didn’t think I could keep going, but somehow I did. I could feel the thorns whipping my back and ripping my shirt.

After several minutes of running, Ren stopped, told me to stand still, and beat the trees all around me with the
gada
.

He leaned over, panting. “Sit down. Rest for a while. I’m going to try to get the Kappa to chase me into the trees. I hope it works on them as well as it did with the monkeys.”

Ren changed into a tiger, left me with the
gada
and backpack, and then leapt back into the waving branches. I listened carefully and heard the trees moving, trying to snag him as he passed. Then it became deathly quiet. The only sound was my jagged breathing. I sat on the mossy ground as far away from the trees as I could and waited.

I strained my ears to listen but heard nothing, not even birds. Eventually, I lay down and rested my head on my backpack. My sore body and muscles throbbed, and the scratches on my back stung. I must have drifted to sleep because a noise startled me awake. I heard a strange shuffling noise near my head. A sallow grayish-white shape lunged out of the trees toward me, and before I could even get up, it grabbed my arms and jerked me up to a sitting position. It leaned over me and drooled black spittle on my face.

I swung my arms wildly, beating on its chest, but it was more powerful than I was. Its torso was covered with cuts oozing murky droplets; the trees had torn off pieces of its flesh. Alien eyes blinked several times as it pulled me up closer, bared its teeth, and sunk them into my neck.

It grunted and suckled at my neck, and I kicked my legs hard, trying to escape its clutches. I screamed and thrashed, but my energy quickly waned. After a moment, I couldn’t feel it any longer. It was almost as if it were happening to someone else. I could still hear the monster, but a strange lethargy stole through my frame. My vision fogged up, and my mind drifted until I felt a dreamy peace.

I heard a crash, followed by a very angry roar. Then I saw a warrior angel rise up above me. He was magnificent! I felt a slight tugging on my neck, and then a weight lifted off my body. There was a juicy splat, and the handsome man knelt beside me. Although he seemed to be speaking urgently to me, I couldn’t understand his words. I tried to respond, but my tongue wouldn’t work.