The Boys of Fire and Ash (6 page)

“Even though this isn't a traditional ceremony, I thought it would be a treat for Blaze, and all of us, to hear our favorite stories of Rawley, the First Brother.”

Another round of applause followed this grand announcement, and I was too annoyed to sleep. I sighed and sat up. Figuring I might as well eat, I reached above me for my bowl and Cubby's.

I watched Digger come down off the Platform, shaking Blaze's hand and grinning stupidly. The Big Brothers patted Blaze on the back. They'd been following him in a pack all day, asking him questions about his pistol, those creatures he called Tunrar Goblins, and the world outside the Pit in general. Me, I didn't care. I wasn't ready for the world out there and I knew it was none of my business. My business was the Pit, and it would be till I left. Blaze had left already. Why was he back here at all? Had anybody asked him that?

The Little Brothers were pushing and shoving, crowding around the spit as Crow and Mud filled their bowls with chunks of Larmy meat and fenig root. I didn't see Cubby in
the group, or Goobs. Still off playing somewhere—camped out in Cubby's special hiding place, no doubt. I didn't like him climbing up to his little cave alone, and he knew it. It was dangerous, but he never listened. I picked a crusty out of the corner of my eye and hung Cub's bowl up without looking.

Fiver was now on the Platform, cheeks stuffed with Larmy meat as he waited to begin the story. Fiver was the bane of my existence, but I had to admit he was a great storyteller.

“Right!” he yelled out, stretching his legs. He was ready to perform. “ ‘Rawley and the Brothers'? Or ‘Rawley Battles His Mother'?”

Boys hollered their preference from all corners of the A-Frame, and I held back a groan when I saw Digger stand up and raise his hands, apparently needing silence.

“We should let Blaze decide!”

He was commanding, not suggesting.

The A-Frame was silent as everyone looked around for Blaze. He was with Digger last I'd seen him, but he'd managed to escape and was now helping Crow and Mud hand out food.

“Uh…,” he laughed awkwardly, apparently uncomfortable with the attention. “I like the ‘Rawley and the Brothers' story myself.”

Everyone cheered and Blaze hurried to fill the last of the bowls in front of him before he ducked into the crowd. I shook my head. Blaze had been here all of one day and already he was doing his best to escape Digger. Fiver clapped his hands together, ready to start the story. “Thousands of years ago…when the Landfill was empty and the Slag Cavies ruled the Ikkuma Pit, a boy named Rawley was born to an evil Mother.”

Right on cue, a slew of growls and boos rose from the Brothers.

Where was Cubby? He still hadn't come to get his bowl. I scanned the A-Frame for him and was surprised to notice Blaze heading straight for me. His clothing seemed looser, and I noticed he wasn't wearing his belt, the flint box no longer at his waist.

“His Mother and her sisters were the greatest hunters in all the world, but she never fed him…or clothed him…or taught him to hunt so he could feed himself. She never fed his brothers, either, and her sisters never fed their sons. So Rawley taught himself to hunt—”

“Still sting?” said Blaze, sitting down beside me…on my cot…
my
cot. My eyes narrowed on him. I hadn't invited him over, yet here he was, sitting on my cot, my space, the only thing that was mine!

“What?” I said.

“Your chin. Still sting?”

I rubbed the spot where Fiver had slugged me earlier and winced. It must've looked pretty blue. Even so, what did Blaze care?

Blaze smiled. “Thought it might. I'm no stranger to a fight myself, though I can't say I ever took one quite so well as you.”

I inhaled as deep as I could.
Well
. I couldn't help but think he meant something different. Fiver had landed blow after blow, and I had done nothing to protect myself. I hadn't taken it
well
. I'd just taken it.

All because Blaze had to have a bad dream.

Blaze picked a red piece of Larmy meat out of his full bowl with his giant, greasy fingers and offered it to me.

Mouth watering, I shook my head.

“Not hungry, eh?”

I shook my head again and turned away from him, trying to keep my temper in check. Here he was, pretending to be nice to me and it didn't make any sense. It was his fault my body was bruised, his fault Av wasn't talking to me. He could keep his Larmy. I didn't want anything from him.

“What do you care, anyway?” I snapped.

He grinned, a sideways smirk that made me want to hit him. “I dunno. You just remind me of someone, I guess.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Who?”

“Me. A long time ago.”

My back stiffened. I don't know what I expected him to say, but it wasn't that. From where I was sitting, Blaze and I had less in common than a Cavy and the Fire Mountains.

He leaned back on his elbow, making himself more comfortable.

I rested my chin in my hands and tried to focus on Fiver.

“I'd almost forgotten, you know, the way it feels here. I haven't felt this…” He let his words trail off as he savored the food in his mouth, Fiver's words in his ears.

I waited.

He saw me looking at him and he cleared his throat. “Anyway, it's nice to feel it again.”

“Feel what?” I asked.

He smiled, but there was something sad weighing on it, something cloudy behind his eyes as he watched Fiver. “Home.”

“And when his evil Mother and her evil sisters decided they wanted no sons, no fathers, no husbands, they led Rawley and all his brothers and cousins far, far away from their home, leading them to die in the fires of the Ikkuma
Pit. But brave and clever Rawley would not let his brothers and cousins die—”

Blaze began to chuckle. “Word for word. That's unbelievable.”

I turned back to him. “What?”

“The story. It's word for word the same as I remember it.” He stuffed another fat piece of Larmy into his mouth and I felt my stomach grumble.

“It's incredible how nothing changes here, how untouched you boys are.”

I was insulted and I guess my scowl let him know because he shook his head.

“No, it's a good thing, Urgle.”

“When his evil Mother and her evil sisters had abandoned the boys in the Ikkuma Pit, Rawley taught his Brothers all he'd taught himself,” continued Fiver. “Then Rawley took a hot ember and burned the inside of his ankle, a symbol of his promise to take care of, and to share with, all his Brothers. And his Brothers made this same promise, and burned their ankles for Rawley. Every day they ate like kings, hunting the creatures of Nikpartok Forest.”

Untouched
. The word hammered into my brain with Blaze's every smacking chew of Larmy.

“Years later, the evil Mother returned. She had with her another son, a son she did not want—”

“Untouched by what?” I almost didn't realize I'd said it out loud.

Blaze watched Fiver, chewing and smacking. Finally he shrugged. “Things aren't as simple out there, kid. Beyond that forest…”

“When Rawley found the baby”—Fiver's voice drifted into Blaze's silence—“he brought him to his Brothers. ‘There
is not enough room in the Ikkuma Pit for everyone,' he told them, ‘and this place has given me all it can.' ”

“Beyond that forest what?” I demanded.

“It's madness,” he said.

What he meant, I had no idea, and before I thought it I heard myself asking, “What's madness?”

Blaze scratched at his neck, still watching Fiver, mouthing along. I'd seen him do that before, in the torchlight just before he grabbed Crow.
End to the Beginning
.

“ ‘It is time for this man to leave, so that his brother may have the room to grow and learn in the Ikkuma Pit!' ”

“What!” I said.

Somewhere outside, a little voice could be heard screaming.

Blaze's icy-blue eyes locked onto mine. “It's war.”

The story came to an abrupt stop as everyone became aware of the screams. I barely registered it, my eyes fixed on Blaze. I didn't understand what he meant, and my stomach turned.

“AV! AV!”

Blaze turned away from me, his attention on the doorway.

“AV! AV!”

My heart stopped and I looked for Av. He was on his feet, running to the door. We both knew that voice.

Goobs suddenly appeared, and collapsed on the floor of the A-Frame, sobbing and wailing for his Big Brother.

I watched the door, waiting for Cubby to show, my pulse thumping louder in my ears every second he didn't.

“They got him! They got him!” Goobs cried into Av's arms. “At the East Wall, they got him!”

Not Cubby
, I begged. I pushed through the Brothers and
ran to Goobs, who was clinging to Av and whimpering. I could barely understand him. Av looked at me, frightened.

“We were trying to run away from Wasted, he kept yelling, ‘Scroungee! Scroungee!' And then the monsters—” He gulped in panicked breaths.

“Who got who?” I yelled. Silence rolled over the A-Frame, as the echo faded and Goobs tried to get ahold of himself long enough to answer.

“Cubby.” He sniffed. “The monsters have Cubby and Wasted.”

I heard the call of the creatures somewhere in the distance and bolted for the door.

“Urgle!” I heard Blaze yell as I took off outside, running as fast as I could across the floor of the Ikkuma Pit.

Fiver was beside me in an instant, barreling by me, club in hand.

Our bare feet pounded the ground in sync as we charged for the East Wall.

I could see the yellow, ghostly figures of the Tunrar Goblins on a rocky ledge halfway up the wall, Wasted's limp form resting beneath the big one, Cubby kicking and screaming in the clutches of the other.

Fiver roared, startling the Tunrar. The big one shrieked back at him.

Then familiar voices were yelling all around me. Av and Blaze were beside me, bellowing, trying to frighten the creatures off.

Cubby must have heard us because his shrieking became louder, wilder.

I saw the big one drop Wasted and scramble up the East Wall.

Not Cubby
.

We reached the rock face and I began frantically climbing. Fiver and Av were flying upwards, they'd be with Wasted any moment. I could hear Cubby above me, he was screaming my name and I momentarily lost my footing, grating the bottom of my foot against the rock.

Below me, Blaze pushed my stinging foot back up and I kept going.

“Oh, no! No!” I heard Fiver crying.

I hoisted myself up onto the ledge and saw Fiver and Av standing over Wasted.

“Crow!” Fiver screamed, tears streaming down his face as he scooped the little body into his arms.

“He's right behind us,” said Blaze.

Crow and Digger hoisted themselves up, and everyone gathered around Fiver and Wasted. Everyone but me.

I looked above me and saw the Tunrar climbing, Cubby kicking and punching hysterically in the smaller one's muscular arms.

I climbed, my arms ached and burned, but I had to get to him. They'd disappear into Nikpartok Forest any moment.

When I reached the top of the East Wall there was nothing but dead trees before me, silent and crooked, weaving into each other, impossible to see through.

“Cubby!” I screamed.

He let out a cry, not far ahead.

I ran. My legs were numb with the effort, begging me to stop, but I didn't. Branches whipped my face as I plowed ahead through the thick, brittle forest. The guttural call of the Tunrar sounded somewhere to my left—not far. I couldn't see, the light from the fires of the Ikkuma Pit were behind me, the forest was nearly all black.

I kept running.

Another Tunrar sounded to the right. I stopped and listened.

Leaves and twigs crunched under Av's foot as he caught up.

“One of them is flanking our right,” he panted, bent over, gulping in air.

My lungs felt like they were going to burst, and I thought I could taste blood.

There was only silence, except for Av's wheezing. I couldn't hear the screams.

“Go right?” he asked.

I paced back and forth, frantically searching for any sign, any clue as to which way they'd gone. But the damn forest was so black, so dark, I could barely see a thing.

“Cubby!” I cried.

Something shifted to our right; we could hear its labored, sickly breathing. I could see Wasted in my head, what that thing had done to him—his blood, his eyes.

“Cubby!” I begged.

No response.

I threw up.

“Urgs, it's on the right,” whispered Av, pulling out his dagger.

I heard it, but I didn't care.

I stayed there, on my hands and knees, smelling my own sour puke, staring into the black.

Then Cubby's desperate shriek rang out.

I was off in an instant, Av yelling after me.

My foot caught and I fell. My hide ripped and I could feel I'd split open my knee. Didn't matter. I scrambled to my feet and kept going, fast as I could.

That was when the big one got me.

The Tunrar slammed into my right side, throwing me into a tree. My head bashed up against it, stunning me a second. It threw me to the ground and was making a sick hacking sound as it clawed at me, trying to pin my flailing limbs.

I kicked and punched with everything in me.

It hissed and slashed at my thigh with its sharp claws.

I grunted in pain.

It pinned my legs and opened its hideous, gummy mouth, the rotten smell of meat on its hot breath.

Wild and furious, I lunged at it as best I could and sank my teeth into its leathery shoulder.

It screamed and bashed my head on the hard ground.

I was dazed, couldn't move.

It circled me, shuffling around through the leaves, hacking and hissing. Then it brought down a huge, heavy fist on my stomach.