The Lord of the Plains (4 page)

‘How fast can you climb?’

‘I can climb faster than you!’

‘Well I can go higher!’

Riley frowned at the small two legs-
children- as they argued. There was an undercurrent of hostility in
the banter that she was well aware of. She was reserved and quiet
among the children as she tried to learn their ways.

One of the smaller, bristly children sprung
up onto the tree they were gathered around. ‘I’ll show you! I can
climb faster and higher than you!’

One of the children shoved Riley suddenly.
‘You go!’

Riley glanced at the shover warily and
approached the tree. ‘Climb, climb, climb!’

Surrounded by chanting children, bristly and
skinned, she saw no option, and no real reason, not to do as they
insisted.

Riley bounded up onto the first branch of
the tree. Then with a laugh the others joined and they were all
racing to the top, or as high as they dared to go.

Riley had never climbed a tree with so many
others. She stopped and paused, balked when she saw another on the
branch she wished to jump too, and so she was much slower than
usual.

She was about half way up and frustrated.
She looked up at the branch above. A skinned child (like her!) was
balancing on it. Riley frowned. She didn’t want to wait. They took
too long and she
liked
climbing! She sprung off the branch
she was on, her fingers latching firmly onto the higher branch. The
child glanced down and their eyes met. Riley was about to swing
herself up. He raised his bare foot. Her mouth opened in an ‘O’ of
surprise as he stepped down hard on her fingers.

She slipped. She could see him standing.
Then he turned and jumped to the next branch. She was falling. Her
fingers scraped upon the next branch down but couldn’t hang on. The
next, the next, the next. The ground was coming closer. With a
thump she landed on her feet. She landed awkwardly, her ankle
buckling under the weight. Her hip hit the hard ground, cushioned
by the hilt of her sword that was no cushion at all. She went down
with a cry of pain.

Her breath came hard. Pain throbbed in her
leg, her side. Sweat broke out on her skin. The tree was above.
They were in it, climbing climbing, climbing. She swallowed and
awkwardly pushed herself up, all her weight on her right side. She
sucked air in, tried to calm her breathing. She began hopping away,
her back prickling. What if they saw?

Hop, hop, she hopped away, using trees and
bushes for support when she could.

When she got back to their camp her chest
was heaving. With disappointment and a little fright she looked
around and saw Aerlid was not there. Riley glanced around quickly,
her mouth dry, looking for somewhere to hide until he returned. If
the little two legs couldn’t be trusted neither could the big two
legs.

Riley hopped and struggled away from the
village and towards the forest. She found a tree and some bushes
and hid herself where she could see the camp.

And she waited.

Aerlid returned about an hour later. It felt
a long time to Riley. Her ankle and side were throbbing. She was
thirsty and tired and scared. Riley struggled from her hiding place
and approached him. He noticed her quickly. ‘Riley, what is it?’ He
asked, his eyes narrowing as he came towards her.

‘Tree, fell.’ she muttered, just loud enough
for him to hear.

Aerlid gathered her up and carried her back
to their camp, putting her back down again. ‘Where does it hurt?’
he asked her, though his eyes were already on her ankle.

‘Ankle, and here,’ she pointed at her left
side, just above her sword belt.

He carefully lifted her shirt up and saw a
dark, ugly bruise already forming. She must have fallen right on
her sword.

From a leather bag Aerlid removed his
physician’s tools. The ankle was broken, her side was badly bruised
and her fingers were scraped raw. Not overly serious, but he could
not say the same about the fear in her eyes.

He brushed a hand over her ankle lightly.
Her face relaxed as the pain eased and he began setting her
ankle.

Chapter 4

Less than a week later, Riley was walking
normally again, her ankle injury a thing of the past. Yet she was
wary in the village and didn’t stray too far from the camp.

The other children mostly ignored her, as if
it had been proven she was not a threat.

Yet Riley was getting frustrated and
annoyed. She bared her teeth at the children as they passed, her
hand brushing her sword, knowing that if Aerlid had seen her
snarling like a wild beast she would have received a thump on the
head. She didn’t want to be frightened. She didn’t want to stay
here because the children were horrible and mean.

So today she ventured into the woods,
determined to overcome her fear. Beforehand she had informed Aerlid
of her plan.

She was careful and avoided the other
children. They were dangerous, she now knew. They were not to be
trusted.

As she played and jumped through the trees
her fear gradually eased and was overcome by delight. A wide grin
was on her face as she flowed like water up a tree, all the way to
the top. She sat on a high, thin branch, overlooking the forest.
Calm and content.

She stayed up there, her eyes drifting
closed, though she didn’t sleep. She enjoyed the feel of the tree
against her back, the wind against her body, the pleasure of
balancing on a thin branch, and the view of the forest before her.
She faced away from the village.

A noise drifted up to her. Her eyes
flickered open. The children. Not an unusual noise, she could
recognize the pleasure and fear in those voices. Another sound,
more uncertain. Another, more fear.

Her eyes flicked open again. They were
annoying her. She couldn’t make the noises go away, but she could
at least see what was happening so she could then ignore it.

Riley flowed down the tree, and then from
one to the next. The sounds grew louder as she approached the
village. She stopped, her heart hammering in her chest.

A deer. A deer standing by a tree, its head
down. But the fur wasn’t right. It was a reddish brown, but it
looked wrong. Not soft and furry. Jagged and tearing. The deer
raised its head. Sharp teeth filled its mouth. The eyes always
distressed her most, because they were the same. The same dewy
tenderness of a normal deer.

Riley tilted her head back and screamed. It
came out like the sound of an owl. The children glanced towards her
from where they were gathered in the trees.

Riley looked back at the ehlkrid deer and
shivered. As she watched, it reared up and slammed its hooves
against the tree the children were in. It shook and creaked. The
children screamed and sobbed in fear, some climbed higher up and
jumped to other trees.

It reared again. More of the children
scampered and leapt into other trees. Soon only three children were
left in the tree and they hung on grimly. Riley watched. She could
not fight the ehlkrid deer. It was a monster, a terrible monster.
She just watched and waited for her call to be answered.

A movement caught her eye. One of the
children was trying to reach her tree, but he had jumped badly. The
branch he was on swung and shook. He clutched it with his knees and
hands, his eyes wide with fear. Riley quickly scampered up to his
branch.

Nervously she approached, intending to help
him along. Her eyes were on the deer.

She was on his branch, carefully moving
along. Then the deer jumped.

It was a prodigious jump, rising near three
meters in the air. Its sharp teeth grabbed the shirt of the boy. He
screamed, though the deer only had his shirt. In his fright though
his hands slipped.

With a cry of dismay Riley jumped out and
grabbed his hand as he fell.

He swung from her hand, his chest heaving,
his eyes bulging.

The deer circled. Riley heaved him up
quickly, her arm shaking from the strain. The boy had his hands on
the branch and Riley was trying to pull him up when the deer jumped
again. Riley reacted instantly and leapt from the branch.

The deer saw her, started and stopped. It
fell gracefully to the ground, its eyes on the easy prey. There was
a standoff as Riley and the deer regarded each other. Then Riley
turned and ran.

She ran and ran. The deer moved after her
quickly and silently. She knew it was there. She was heading
towards the village. The ehlkrid was fast, very fast. Not as fast
as the mountain cats, but then neither was she.

She needed a tree, but the ehlkrid could
jump high and fast too and would likely get her before she could
get high enough to be safe. She let loose another owlish
scream.

She turned suddenly and rolled. She was on
her feet in seconds and was moving again. The deer scrambled, it
could not turn as sharply as her.

She didn’t risk a glimpse behind. She turned
again. The deer was faster this time. Then a flash of silver caught
her eye. Riley hit the ground and rolled. Behind her there was an
animalistic scream. Riley turned and was on her feet again. The
deer was down. It thrashed, its teeth gnashing the air, its hooves
flailing.

Aerlid stood over it, his sword dripping
blood. He stabbed it again and it went still. He turned to her and
said nothing.

‘The children are back there. I don’t think
they got eaten.’ Aerlid nodded.

‘Shall we go check?’ He asked. She nodded.
Giving the corpse a wide birth Riley led the way back to the
children.

They were still huddled in the trees.
Shocked surprise greeted her as she appeared. They’d thought she’d
been eaten.

‘It’s dead now.’ Aerlid announced. ‘Come
down and I’ll take you back to the village.’ The children clambered
down. The pale and trembling group approached and huddled around
him as he herded them back. He noticed the boy with the ripped
shirt. ‘Did it break your skin?’ he asked.

The boy shook his head. ‘If you feel ill or
strange at all, you must tell me at once.’ Aerlid said, and the boy
nodded fearfully.

Back in the village the children suddenly
broke away and hurried to their parents, who had come out of their
houses.

‘What was that?’ one of them asked,
approaching Aerlid.

‘An ehlkrid deer.’ Aerlid said tiredly. ‘I
killed it, now I need to destroy the body.’

The beast, Olef, stepped forward. ‘No! Give
it to us and we will take it.’

Aerlid eyes narrowed. ‘You intend to eat
it.’ he said softly. It was not a question.

Olef, a touch of nervousness in him,
nodded.

‘The ehlkrid flesh will do nothing for you.
At best, you will be terribly sick until it is expelled from your
body.’

‘I have eaten it before!’ He roared, a hand
pounding his chest. ‘I am strong!’

Aerlid paused. ‘Are you sure it made you
stronger? How sick were you?’