That Which Devours

Too bad my clothes couldn’t do the same thing. There wasn’t a chance I would wander the jungle naked with only my spear by my side, but part of me wondered. The sun was hot overhead, but it was on my side. Each moment cast more shade toward the side I crawled along, making it harder to see me. I was only a quarter of the way around the fence, and everything ached. Still, I didn’t rest long before I headed on my way to the next bush. This section was a longer section, but the next bush was bigger.

My foot ached a little, but I ignored it, along with the pain in my shoulders. All that mattered was keeping one foot in front of the other. Time ticked by slowly as I kept going. I stopped for a moment in the shadow of the bigger bush and tried to stretch my calves out. It helped a little, then I got back on track. From this angle, I saw Hawk out in front of the dropship near the crystals. He stared up at the tree that hid Jimmy.

Jimmy had to be sending him some message, because the crystal flashed a few times in a pattern. I didn’t know Morse code well enough to figure it out. Instead, I paused to make sure nothing moved in the area I was headed toward. That was the only direction the cats could enter the fence, since I’d closed and locked the gate behind me when I’d entered.

Hawk’s job was to distract the cats if they entered the fence. Or, if they were nearby, to make it so they didn’t need to enter the fence to ‘get’ to him. He could handle one of the cats much more easily than I could given his level.

When nothing else happened, I moved on. I needed to keep moving along the fence and get to the fallen tree. Each step brought me closer, making it easier to see what I needed to deal with. The next gap was the largest one I needed to cross. There wasn’t any cover until a bunch of ferns that strung along, giving me cover most of the rest of the way toward the fallen tree.

I moved faster than before, staying low to the ground and not letting my cloak flap around. The shadows from the trees provided at least some cover, but I still worried. The crystals in the fence would keep anything off me; the problem would be once I was near the trees and the non-grounded crystals on that end. The more time I had to cut the tree down and fix the crystals before a cat showed up, the better.

My heart pounded as I crawled with sweat dripping down my back, but with each breath, I got closer to the bushes. Until, suddenly, I sat there, under the cover of the large ferns.

I took a moment to check on Hawk. He slowly made his way toward the gate and I tried to figure out why he was already headed in that direction. I couldn’t spot anything in the tree line. All I could do was focus on my own task, and deal with the bushes in between me and the other side of the fence. I walked a little more upright and made great progress. The ferns almost created a tunnel growing near the base of the fence, and the long tendrils arced out toward the sunlight in the cleared center of the compound. It was a pretty solid wall blocking me from view on the other side of the fence, and I took advantage of it.

Something flashed near the corner of my eye and I froze, searching. The flier was back. Hawk pressed himself up against the fence near the gate. Up in the tall tree, I saw Jimmy’s shadow near the tree trunk under the crystal. The flier was lower to the ground, and now I could tell its wingspan was huge. If it couldn’t lift me, I’d be shocked. The physics behind how something like that could fly blew my mind.

It circled high above, circling around the outskirts of the fence. The only question that came to mind was if the cats would be scared of the flier, too. It was big enough to carry one of them off, so it stood to reason they would be. The jungle had gone silent again, and I took a chance to move along the fence, trying to maintain my stealth. The crystals that sparkled on the fence-line should keep the great flying thing away, and if the cats didn’t dare come out, I could make some progress.

Maybe.

The shadow didn’t move closer to me as I kept going. Finally, it vanished over the treetops again. It took longer for the natural sounds of the jungle to come back this time, like the small birds and creatures were afraid of being fooled again. First, the sounds of insects returned, then the birds. By that point, I was almost to the area with the tree leaning on the fence. Hawk stood at the gate, facing away from me toward the carcass of the cat that hung on the fence. He was doing something to it, but I couldn’t make out exactly what.

“That’s what you need, wings.” The sound of Noseen made me jump and I didn’t dare respond to him. The voice was close to my ear, and I could barely hear it, but that was also for the best. “You need to be able to fly like any good devourer can.”

Noseen wan’t wrong, flying would help immensely. I resisted the urge to swat at him and instead tried to study the situation in front of me. It didn’t take long for me to wish I hadn’t agreed to cut the tree down using my crystal knife. From the angle I’d approached from, I hadn’t seen the entire picture.

Now that I was up close and personal, it was clear. This wasn’t a single-tree situation.

It was two. And they were much, much bigger than I’d thought.

A smaller tree had come down first, but it wasn’t clear if that had been during the meteor shower or before, since it looked more dried out than the other. The big tree was leaning on the fence, but also against the smaller dead tree. The branches were tangled together, and the whole mess leaned toward the north. The smaller tree had several large cracks in it that looked recent, further confusing matters.

From where I stood, I could hear the small tree groaning in the breeze.

If I cut in the center of the small tree near one of the cracks, the whole thing might come crashing down. That would clear the fenceline, but I needed to make sure it didn't come crashing down on me.

In the twenty-foot section of fence the two trees were leaning on, only one crystal hummed, sitting on the southern end. The closest one north of the fall that was still glowing was over thirty feet away. No wonder the cats could climb up the bigger tree and jump in. Two crystals hung in the broken section. One was cracked in several places where the big tree hit it, and the other dangled closer to the smaller tree. It was dark, so not grounded, but looked unbroken. It hung from several leather straps and wobbled in the breeze.

I let out a shallow sigh. Keeping that crystal unbroken had to be a major priority. If I cut the smaller tree, the bigger tree might crush that crystal, and it was all I had to protect the gap once I fixed the fence and it could ground. One crystal for that length was going to be spotty, but with the other one broken, it was what we had. There wasn't a chance this wasn't going to suck.

I ducked back close to the fence and searched for a place to climb. This side of the fence leaned inward, and I’d have to go outside the fence to make it possible to get up without hanging upside-down. Thankfully, the cross sections had gaps big enough for me to crawl through. As soon as I was on the other side, my nerves wavered.

Anything could attack me here.

I stopped that train of thought as fast as I could. I’d hiked through the jungle and made it all the way here. Who cared about the fence? Not letting myself think about it any longer, I started climbing. My goal was the intact crystal. I needed to cut it down, then set it on the dirt near the base to ground it. Even from there, it would provide some protection and start getting to full strength sooner. My path would take me over the smaller trunk, and under the bigger tree leaning against it.

Even with the cloak wrapped around me I felt exposed. The trees leaning on the fence hid me from the open area, but from the jungle side, anything could spot me. Hopefully, the flier wouldn’t circle back, since I had no cover.

The fence shuddered as I climbed higher toward the hanging crystal. As I put my weight on the smaller trunk, it trembled for a moment before it stabilized.

Not good.

I moved a little faster, trying not to touch the trees as I climbed. Yanking out my knife, I cut at the two leather straps holding the crystal in place. I put my knife away while I held the football-sized crystal in one hand and climbed down slowly with the other.

It was awkward, and harder than I thought it would be. I couldn’t see where I was going very well, and the cross-sections were spaced a good distance apart. Climbing down was always harder than going up, but this climb was slow, and I couldn’t afford to be slow.

Not far to go.

The hair rose on the back of my neck seconds before teeth latched onto my leg when I was only a few feet from the ground. I shook my foot, but lost my balance. My arms wrapped around the crystal, yanking it to my chest as I fell.

I slammed onto the ground, the weight of the crystal forcing the air out of my lungs. Something lunged at my face and I rolled away, letting go of the crystal as its sharp edges dug into my chest.

I slapped out with my free hand, hitting the thing as I frantically climbed to my feet. All it took was a second before my knife glowed in my hand. It sliced through the first Compy that lunged at me, taking off one of its little arms. Another flew through the air, but I dodged out of the way with a single step. My knife lengthened into a spear as I stabbed at the injured one. It went down with a sizzle.