The Exiles (26 page)

‘Anyway,' Trex continued, ‘no one deserves to die.'

The last words Trex had said was a repetition of another one of his uncle lines that the old veteran firmly believed in.

Sara stayed still, absorbing Trex's words. She used to think like Trex, only thinking of individuals, her family and her friends. But since her trouble at school she had realized how seemingly naive such apparent narrow mindedness was. No one cared about just you. There was always a bigger picture. There were traditions and respect. Sara had learnt from her grandfather the importance of the system, of knowing how society worked and how to work with it. There were things bigger then just yourself, more important then the individual. It had made sense; she had seen it work for her after all.

With this new way of thinking Sara didn't have to worry so much about her family, which suited her just fine. There was more to life, something to be part of. The problem was that this bigger-picture didn't always make sense, like now. But that was no good reason to give up on it, she knew that much. You could only control your life if you were part of the system. This she understood from her painful experiences suffered at school. Sara realized that this was also a big reason why her family had had so much difficulty all those years ago. Her parents had not been able to play the game, to fit into society, and so had paid the price. Sara wasn't going to do the same mistake. But what was she to do? It was all too complex in the end. All she could really do was fulfil her grandfather's wishes. If he didn't know, after all he had been able to teach her, well then, who did?

Sara shifted uncomfortably. Though she was quite capable of sleeping without a blanket, it was not something she was used to. Her passage into sleep this night would be an uncomfortable one.

Trex, in the meantime, was already curled up within his cloak. He had changed it into a large sheet to maximize softness and warmth.

Trex stirred from his sleep in the middle of the night. The lion cursed his race's habit of being light sleepers. It was still dark. Sara's continued fidgeting in her sleep was accompanied by shivering and unhappy murmurs, she was obviously not dreaming well. Trex stared at her sleeping form as it turned towards him. Sara's expression was not one of a contented sleep. Grimacing to himself, the young lion wondered what he could do for her.

Lions normally slept quietly, while wolves always twitched and fidgeted. This was something Trex knew from Zea, who seemed to have inherited her sleeping traits from her mother. On some nights when Zea had nightmares she had crawled into Trex's bed, just being near him had usually been enough to calm her down to sleep normally.

Sara turned viciously again, causing Trex to role his eyes, he would be kept awake all night if this continued. Wolves were not as light sleepers as lions; Trex also knew that from Zea.

The young lion found himself suddenly shifting closer to the unsettled wolf. Concentrating for a second, he extended the width of his cloak even further so as to be able to cover both of them without the need to get too close. It would mean it was not as warm for him as before, but he knew he didn't need it in any case. Covering the wolf with the blanked, he moved a bit closer. Turning his back to her so it was just touching her arm, he curled back into a ball. Waiting to see if there was any response, he felt her finally calm down next to him, at least now he would be able to get some sleep.

Back at the exiles camp, the wolf males were also mostly asleep; only two remained awake. Philton was running over the plans for tomorrow, there was still a good chance to kill the Sage; all he had to do was remove all the variables.

The other wolf that was awake was the brown exile Tomn. His mind was too busy thinking of what it would do with the two damn youngsters once he got a hold of them to fall asleep.

It would be a short night far all involved, asleep or otherwise.

Sara slowly awoke from her deep sleep. She had just had one of the strangest dreams; it wasn't what you would call a nightmare, just disorientating.

Never one for getting up quickly, Sara momentarily forgot about were she actually was. Wherever it was, it sure seemed warm and comfortable… and soft.

Wait a second…
thought Sara.

Her mind suddenly registered that something was not right. Blinking a few times, she opened her eyes properly, Orange fur? That was definitely wrong. She appeared to be curled around it, but at least it was… warm? Shaking her head to clear it, Sara removed herself from her warm pillow, which turned out to be the curled up, fuzzy pale orange ball that was Trex, still fast asleep.

Recognition came as a bit of a shock and Sara backed away on all fours. Trex, in the meantime, appeared to sleep on peacefully. Sara could hear him purring softly.

The young wolf stood up, still a little disorientated and a bit embarrassed. How long had she been curled up with the lion? All night? Sara really hoped that Trex hadn't noticed.

He had, however, seemingly noticed the removal of her body heat. The young lion quickly came out of his quiet dozing. Uncurling slowly, Trex seemed to extend beyond any normal proportion. Stretching elastically to a comical angle, he let out a huge yawn, turning around to be on all fours, he did another stretch; arching his back, a small crack came from somewhere in his lower spine, the young lion grinned in satisfaction.

Outside, it was still only very early morning. The birds of the upper mountains were already singing, but the sun was not yet up.

Sara was giving Trex an odd look.

‘What?' asked Trex.

Sara was still watching him sceptically.

‘You do that every morning?' she asked a little hesitantly.

‘Yep,' replied Trex with satisfaction. ‘It feels great; you should give it a go.'

While Trex bend backwards again Sara heard another audible crack. Trex's face contorted, as if still deciding whether the most recent crack was a good thing or a disaster. A moment later his expression changed to lazy contentedness.

‘I think I'll pass,' said Sara. The young female wolf ran her hands through her hair out of habit. Sara, like most Anthro females, was lucky that her long hair didn't seem to get tied into knots too easily. It only needed the odd bit of maintenance, something her claws could handle well enough.

‘So you slept well in the end?' asked Trex casually.

‘In the end?'

‘Well, you were sort of restless last night, you kept me awake.'

Sara stopped to examine Trex's face carefully, his expression seemed innocent enough.

‘Yeah, about last night…' she trailed of questioningly.

Trex suddenly remembered what he had done that might have caused Sara to act as she currently was.

‘Yeah well…' he said a little nervously. ‘You seemed cold, so I sort of moved over to be able to cover you with some of my cloak.'

Sara analysed his expression carefully, but again there was nothing but honesty. Though she had touched the young lion on numerous occasions yesterday, the thought of him cuddling-up to her last night was still disturbing to her. To be honest, she was still embarrassed that this morning it was her who was cuddling up to him.

‘Nothing more?'

Trex looked confused by the question, unsure of how to take it.

‘No, nothing more,' Trex said eventually. ‘Why, was something wrong?' he asked, genuinely concerned.

‘No,' replied Sara hesitantly. She turned away, suddenly uncomfortable with the situation.

‘Thanks,' she said simply.

The flustered female youth moved out into the open. Stepping out from under the ruined building's remains, Sara needed to clear her head, she looked around for somewhere to wash herself.

Apart from the two larger waterfalls that surrounded the central ruined city, a whole series of smaller waterways fell and tumbled their way down the upper cliffs. It didn't take long for Sara to find a small pond to wash herself in, moving closer to the rocks she drinks from the flowing water.

Trex appeared beside her and start to wash his face in the same pond. Kneeling, Trex examined his leg wound. It was throbbing slightly but the cut did not appear to be too deep. The healing cream and rough bandage would be good enough for now. At least the wound didn't hinder his movements.

‘It doesn't look as difficult to get down from here in the light,' said Trex in casual conversation, while washing his face and torso.

Sara stared out beyond the edge of the lower cliffs, moving towards it to get a better view. It wouldn't be too difficult for them to make their way down from here.

‘How long do you think we have?' asked Trex. He hoped that Sara could guess how long it would take the exiles to catch up to them.

Sara was lost in her own thoughts. The view was quite magnificent from up here. The weather has breaking up slightly and only a few puffy clouds sailed lazily high above them, tinged yellow in the fresh morning light. Trex took a drink of water, also filling up a small leather pouch he magically retrieved from somewhere. Trex, like all lions, was always well equipped for any eventuality. Filling the pouch, he then slung it around his shoulder.

Sara remained on her stone perch, the morning wind playing with her skirt and hair. The robust material of the travel skirt was now stained and dirty from her adventures the last few days.

Coming up beside her, Trex looked towards where the exiles camp was across the rapids. It was far too close for his comfort.

‘Do you think they will try to catch us again?' Trex asked. ‘It would only take them an hour or so to get around. They may actually be close already,'

Sara calmly looked towards the west coast, seemingly unconcerned.

‘No. Their aim is to kill Sage Filfia, not us,' Sara said calmly.

‘But after all the effort last night?' Trex persisted.

‘That was last night, and we got away.'

Trex could only watch as the wolf female started to make her way towards the overgrown ridge-way that led to the forest below. After a surprised second's hesitation, Trex quickly ran to get his belongings. He fumbled to get himself travel ready while chasing after the wolf.

‘Hey, wait up!' he called in irritation. He was struggling to get his quiver and staff sections in place on the straps on his back.

Sara didn't react, simply forging ahead.

Ducking and weaving through the thick vegetation, Trex finally managed to catch up. The young lion was clearly irritated at being ignored by the female wolf.

‘Thanks for waiting,' said Trex sarcastically. He was not used to working as a team either, which made Sara's obvious dismissal of his offered help all the more irritating. Trex had to remind himself that even if he had decided to help warn Sage Filfia, this was still Sara's rescue. Recognizing his annoyance as it surfaced in his mind, he suppressed the urge to simply let the arrogant wolf girl go on her own way.

‘You don't have to follow me,' Sara said, her eyes focused on some distant point.

‘Are you kidding?' Trex said, looking around uncertainly. ‘They could still be around, we are safer together.'

Trex spoke in a matter of fact voice, trying to convince Sara, and himself, that they were better off together. Trex would not normally have had a problem to just slip away on his own if the circumstances had been different, but he had made up his mind now.

‘They're not here anymore,' replied Sara confidently

‘How do you know that?'

Sara stopped. Her expression was so focused she looked a little scary,

‘I can feel it,' she informed him, then moved on.

Trex stood there for a second before again following the wolf, unsure of what else to do.

Another ten minutes of hasty decent lead the two young Anthros back into the thick forest. Turning back towards the middle part of the ruined city, Sara made her way along the lower cliff's base.

Trex was still somewhat annoyed with his companion, but followed her while he thought through the situation. He did know that wolves could accurately,
feel
, if another Anthro was around by detecting the energy of their stray emotions; he had used the opposite end of this idea to his advantage the night Sara had saved him from the exiles. It was because of this that the lion also knew that the rather unique sense could be deceived, so he was reluctant to accept Sara's assurances, regardless of how confident she was. Experienced wolves could have a strong emotion without projecting it, so not giving away their feelings and intentions.

Sara felt the lion's irritation, but ignored it. She didn't have time, not for the consideration of others, or for doubt in herself. She had to act quickly, or completely lose the reason for having come this far.

Sara did have a few concerns; she knew that the exiles probably knew how to mask their emotions, at least a few of the more experienced ones. She suppressed her concerns with a mask of overconfidence, which she fuelled through anger and pride.

If I meet an exile I will deal with him, she told herself arrogantly.

At the end of the day, her final aim was a foolhardy, almost suicidal adventure anyway. Why should anything else leading up to this event be any less foolhardy?

They had been travelling for another fifteen minutes. Sara had broken into a brisk jog once the vegetation had cleared a little. Trex was having increasing difficulty in keeping up with the wolf. Though Trex's leg wound had been well tended too, it had not had time to heal, and the rapid movement was causing it to rub painfully.

‘What's the plan?' asked Trex between strained breaths. The young lion did not want to admit that he was having difficulty keeping up, and so hoped that by getting her to talk he could slow her down.

‘Get to Sage Filfia as quickly as possible,' Sara replied quickly. Her speech was not affected at all by her high speed run.

‘What happens… if you… meet an exile?'

‘Rush past or fight, whichever is quicker.'

‘You… call… that… a plan!?' Trex asked in surprise. He wouldn't be able to hold this pace for much longer.

‘I don't have time for anything else, they will kill her as soon as they see her,' said Sara. Running on for a second, Sara couldn't help but notice the laboured breath of her companion. ‘Listen Trex,' she said more kindly, slowing down slightly. ‘I am running back to my horse… I've been thinking about it and to carry both of us would just slow me down, you may as well just go home.'

Trex ran on.

Turning a corner of the small track they were following they came upon the small gully where Sara had left Misha. Defeated, Trex began to lag behind. He was surprised when Sara suddenly stopped up ahead. Jogging up to her slowly, Trex looked down into the gully, his hands on his knees, he was panting heavily.

With her hand on the hilt of her sword, Sara was scanning the area with her large golden eyes. There was a strange horse next to Misha and Sara suddenly couldn't help thinking that she had walked into a trap.

‘Flint!' Trex called out beside her with the last of his breath. Flint looked up from the grass he was nibbling on. Elated to see his owner, he trotted over quickly.

Trex's horse, Flint, had had a rough few days. Just as things were looking up for the horse, that scary mountain liezon had appeared. Then the mounted wolves had turned up, the hostility in them and their horses was a totally new experience for the young horse. They had run, but then his owner had done something strange, Trex had sent him away, not only that he had scared him away. Flint had wanted to return to Trex, but could sense that his master was now surrounded by the hostile wolves and horses.

Flint, as with other horses of the planes, had the ability to easily feel another being's emotions. This was a reason why wolves made such great riders on the animals.

Flint then tagged along behind the exiles to see if perhaps he would be reunited with his master.

That night the group had stopped, and while trotting around aimlessly, Flint had found another horse, one that was not hostile or angry. Happy to have found one of his own kind, Flint had stayed with the fellow animal.

Not having sensed his owner anymore as part of the group that left the next morning, he had decided to stay were he was.

Elated to see his owner once more, Flint ran over and nuzzled Trex happily as the young lion continued to fight for breath.

‘Good boy!' Trex said enthusiastically, honestly amazed at the horses sudden appearance. He gave the horses snout a loving hug.

‘He's yours?' asked Sara, genuinely surprised. She couldn't recognize the horse from the distance she had seen it running the one time.

‘Yep, isn't he great!' said Trex proudly.

Sara blinked away her surprise before moving over to Misha.