Nests

Khris led them up the sloping roadway, turning right just before his mother’s flower shop. He pushed them past the houses lining the following streets. The village of Twin Rocks was a straight line sectioned off into other straight lines. Filled with no alleyways, back paths, secret sub-sections, or anything that varied from the pattern. Every road had the same cobblestoned fencing. Each home looked the same. A stone fence circled each home, sharing the fence to either side with their neighbor. 

“We used to live there,” Khris pointed. 

Malik looked to a house that looked the same as all the rest. He wondered how any drunken man found his way home after a long evening at the tavern. 

“How can you tell?” Malik asked out of curiosity. 

Khris looked at him, confused. “By the pine trees.” 

Malik noticed Khris had a way about him; looking to others as if the answers to their questions were obvious. 

Malik looked at the trees, trying not to get into another spatter. Not because he worried about the boy, but because he feared Mollie may hit him again. Malik focused on the trees in each of the yards. 

“What is different about them?” 

They varied a little in shape and size, but in the dark, they would be the same outline. 

“Where they are is different in front of each of the homes.” 

Malik looked again, seeing that while each home had a pine tree in the front yard, each tree was in a unique spot. 

“Clever,” Mollie said. “Why are all the houses the same though?” 

“To show no favoritism throughout the village,” Khris said, “each member of a society should feel the same.” Kris bit his bottom lip. “Although it’s not that way. They look much the same on the outside, but inside each home is different. Every individual is unique too. Some people are good, some are bad, and some are not who they seem at all.” 

Malik figured there was a lot more to the story, but Khris waved them on down the path. Farther on, the houses grew more spaced. Khris explained this was where the town council lived. The furthest house was the mayor’s home. It looked like all the others on the outside, but Khris assured them on the inside he had all the perks akin to a man of his stature. 

Malik did not ask what those amenities were. Something else occupied his mind. The thought of coming face to face with another of those monsters. He could feel its hot ragged breath on his face. Could smell its stale stench. Every image gave him chills. He was not too masculine to admit that he felt genuine fear. 

“Right up here are the sheep grounds. Mother once suggested I become a sheepherder, but I never got into fighting off the wolves. The first time I saw the monster was up this path a little further.” Khris pointed to a drop off in the landscape. “Down here is a small valley we call Grazer’s Paradise. It is nothing more than a pasture of deep green grass. The farmers all fight for their time in the valley to feed their sheep and goats.” 

When Malik reached the edge of the drop off, he could see the grass in the dip was much greener. 

“So, if you will not be a sheep herder why were you down in the grazing area?” Malik asked. 

“Mother comes up with an alternative path for me every week it seems. A month ago, it was sheep herder, before that I believe it was a milk boy, but the week I saw the monster it was gatherer.” Khris pointed down farther into the ravine. 

Copses of fat green trees grew clustered together. Small fruit, the size of a balled fist, dotted all the low-hanging trees. 

“The trees grow all year round. Monumental thing about Twin Rocks is it never gets too cold to kill our trees or crops. We can grow everything all year round. So, I was gathering the first time I saw the monster. Just behind that first section of trees. The gatherers spread apart, covering the whole dip. There is no reason for groups to gather because they will pick over each other’s shoulders. At least that is what Les, the trainer, had to say.” Kris shrugged. “Do you want to go down farther into Grazer’s Paradise?” 

Malik noted he did not sound afraid. The time cooped up in the flower shop had melted his brain. Anyone who saw these creatures and did not want to run was deranged.  

“I would like to see where you were. To see if there was anything special about that spot,” Mollie replied. 

Malik thought about turning around. He could meet them back at Vee’s tavern. That is, if they even made it back. Both times these monsters had died was because of Abrie. Mollie may have shoved the sword through the second one, but it was Abrie’s arrows that slowed it down. Now Abrie was dead or being taken somewhere hostile by Sweet Tongue. 

“I don’t think this is such a splendid idea,” Malik interjected. He hoped Mollie would see the sense in his words. 

She already followed Khris down the trail. Malik sighed. He would not let her go alone. He did not like her plan, but maybe she saw something he had not yet seen. Or maybe she was crazy; he would bet on the latter. 

“During the dry season this is all filled with grass. If left alone, the grass would be higher than our hips during this time of the year. During the wet season, there is a small stream that cuts through the ravine. The stream is impassable during the peak rains. However, the rainy season last only about forty-five days. After that, the grass sprouts right back up and the trees bloom their fruits for the rest of the year.” Khris guided them to a set of stairs built into the ravine wall. They were stone, wood, and in some places carved right into the earth. Malik would have guessed that they dropped over twenty feet before hitting the bottom. 

“There is a ramp way a quarter mile to the east of the village. That is where the sheep herders bring their sheep into the pass. There are several staircases built in for the gatherers’ convenience. It is a bother carrying those hundred-pound baskets farther than you have to.” Khris shuddered at the thought, Malik noticed. 

The ground under Malik’s boots felt much softer. He wondered if it was the grass, the dampness of the earth, or if it was a trick of his mind. 

“Watch your step down here. The grass covers everything, but the stream will cut divots into the ground that are almost impossible to see. Step lightly,” Khris warned them. 

Malik figured this was a great hunting ground for any creature. A quick adversary had only to fall into a hole, breaking its leg, and boom supper on a silver platter. Malik hoped he would not be that supper. 

“I was just over this way,” Khris said, pulling up after about five minutes in the ravine. 

Mollie and Malik stopped beside him, surveying the area. Malik saw hundreds of fruit-bearing trees. Closer, he could smell the sweet scent wafting on the air. Malik’s stomach growled, and he reached out for a fruit from the branches. 

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” 

Malik’s head froze in mid pluck. 

“Is someone going to shoot me for stealing a fruit from a tree?” 

He was only half joking. He knew of certain cultures that were strict about their cultivation. However, that was not normally the case in a place like Luberg. They were close to the border of Opallum though and he had no way to know what customs came over from the smaller kingdom. 

“Not quite. There is a trap built into the fruit itself. A deterrent by nature, not us.” Khris reached out, grabbing the fruit. He pulled it from the tree. 

Malik watched him press his thumbs into the soft skin of the fruit. “The skin will give you loose bowels if you eat it,” he said shucking the skin. “That is inconvenient for sure, but there is something far worse than runny poop.” Khris opened the fruit, showing the inside to Malik and Mollie.

Malik saw the small black seeds dotted throughout the red interior. 

“These are filled with a poison that will cause your insides to not break down your food into nutrients. You will crap it out because of the skin, but you will never feel full. It makes you want another and another. You will poop the seeds out over the landscape as you go, causing new trees to sprout. However, you will not make it two days, as your body will dehydrate. You will die in stomach wrenching agony.” Khris popped the seeds out with his fingers one by one. It took him a few moments and then he smashed the fruit in his palm, shifting it around to make sure none of the seeds had escaped him. 

“Here now you can eat it if you still want to,” Khris said. 

Malik looked at the smashed mess on Khris’ palm. Although his stomach growled and his body yearned for something to eat, he shook his head refusing the pile of pulp. 

“For the best,” Khris said, letting the fruit drop to the ground. “I am not the best at de-seeding. I was sure I got them all, but you can never be too careful about it.” 

During this entire event, Mollie had been rummaging near the base of the trees. 

“This is where you were during your sighting of the monster?” Mollie asked, standing. 

“The first time, yes.” 

Mollie looked around again. Malik figured she saw nothing more than he saw; hundreds of short, fruit filled trees and dark green grass. 

“What about the second time you saw the monster?” 

Khris looked farther down the ravine. “The second time, I was looking for the monster. I knew what I had seen, but no one wanted to believe that I had seen it. I had to sneak out of the house, during the night, and come here with no one else knowing.” Khris’ eyes ate up the landscape as if it were the first time he had seen it all. “There is a small nook in the walls just over this way somewhere. I went into it and it widens out right after the opening. Further back, it is hard to see, but I had a lamp with me. That is when I saw the beast for the second time. He was in that hole.” 

“Can you show us where that is?” Mollie asked, curiosity spiking her voice to a higher pitch. 

Khris looked again toward the wall beyond the copse of trees. He looked reluctant, Malik thought. Malik figured he gained some of his sense back. 

Then he answered like the idiot Malik knew, “I think I can find it again.” 

Malik felt like screaming but contained it to an inward cry. He wished these two explorers would get their fill of this game. 

“Good, you lead the way and we will follow,” Mollie said. 

She turned back to Malik and waved him on again. Malik felt like the party’s third mule. 

Khris moved them through the fruit-bearing forest. Malik wished the little devils would not kill him, because their sweet smell made his mouth water. When they reached the end of the trees Malik thanked the Saints for the mildew smell of wet wood. 

“Just up here,” Khris said, picking up the pace now that they did not have to avoid low-hanging branches. 

The closer they came to the wall, the more the smell carried on the air. Malik also noticed the breeze the smell rode on was cooler. 

“The only reason I found the hole the first time was because of the cooler air coming from inside the wall,” Khris said. He pointed toward a spider web like crack in the rock, at the base of the wall. “It does not look like much, but I assure you that just past the opening it is a full flung cave.” Khris started at the crack with intense eyes. “No one else would come down here with me. They claimed that they had real jobs to do, and that they did not have the time to go on monster hunts. Now, you can tell them what you have seen.” 

“Let’s get in there and see what we can find,” Mollie said. 

“I came along on this silly journey to find the monster. I was fine when you explored the trees. I was fine that you looked for the crack. Actually, I was never fine. This entire thing is crazy, Mollie. You are acting crazy.” Malik tried not to be frantic about everything. It was getting harder to do. 

“I am just trying to get a better understanding of what is going on, Malik. This may be helpful to us.”  She was not doing well hiding her growing anxiety. 

“To what end? We know the creatures exist, Mollie. We have already killed two of them, what more proof do we need of them?” Malik let the fear get the better of him. 

Khris stepped between them, holding his hands out to either side. “Wait!” His voice cracked with the attempt at a commanding yell. 

Mollie and Malik paused. Malik took a deep breath, steadying his rampant nerves. 

“Did you say you knew the beasts were real? You killed two of them?” 

Khris’ face was beet red. Malik looked to Mollie to answer for them. She had been the one to lie to Khris in the inn. Malik agreed with her, but he had nothing to add to the lie. 

Mollie opened her mouth to answer, and then shut it again without saying a word. 

“You guys can tell me,” Khris said, dropping his arms. 

Malik thought he looked more like a child than a man close to his age. Malik looked back to Mollie, who avoided eye contact. 

“Come on,” Khris begged. 

“Stay off your knees with the pleading,” Malik said. 

Khris shot around to him with hope of an answer. 

“I don’t know about the creatures. If you are looking for answers we do not have more than what you already know. It sounds like with that book, you may know more than we do,” Malik said. 

“You said you have killed two of them though?” 

Malik was ready for Khris to jump up and down with glee. 

“We had help, and we did it all together,” Malik answered. Malik left out the part where he had frozen in fear both interactions. 

“How did you kill them?” 

When Malik took too long to answer Khris tried another angle. “It says in the book that they can’t be killed. Or at least, it is unknown if they die. Did you see it die?” 

“Not quite, well not in any sense that I have ever seen anything else die.”

Khris looked at him, trying to figure out what he meant by the answer. Malik could not give him anymore. Malik had never inspected the creatures after death. Their bodies fading away had been a shock at first, but their being gone was a blessing he never questioned. 

“We don’t know anymore,” Malik added before Khris could ask another question. 

Mollie woke from her trance. “That is why we need to go into the cave. We have to figure out where these things are coming from and what they are coming for.” 

“Going in there and dying won’t help us,” Malik argued. 

He felt like he would lose before he even started, but he at least wanted to voice his concerns. 

“Khris did not die when he went.” 

She was right. How Khris had survived the fateful night was a mystery. 

“It was closer than I would have liked,” Khris added. 

“See it is not safe,” Malik piggy backed off the statement. 

“But I think there is a safe way to get in and out without being caught,” Khris said before Mollie could answer. 

Malik thought about strangling Khris. Mollie jumped on the string. 

“What do we need to do?” 

“All we have to do is smash the fruit onto our skins. The only reason I got free the last time is because I threw one of the yama fruits at the monster. It balked at the smell and cowered long enough for me to slip out into the night.” 

“You were going to let us go in there without telling us that?” Malik accused. 

Khris did him the favor of looking abashed. “I was not thinking about it. I am sure I would have thought about it before we got too far into the crack though.” 

Malik was positive Khris tried to convince himself and not the others. 

Khris had them double back to the fruit-bearing trees. There he instructed them on how to remove every seed from fruit the best they could. He reassured Malik and Mollie, both, that the seeds would not seep in through the skin, even if a few made it through.  

Bathed in the juices of the yama fruit, Malik felt a sticky mess. He also thought it absurd that he was about to head into a dark cave, in search of a beast who could rip him apart. 

Mollie, who stood right beside him, did not share those reservations. the same orange, sticky sap of the fruit covered her, but her disposition looked much more inquisitive than afraid. Her eyes roved over everything. She did not linger long on any one object. Malik knew she remembered everything, trying to find some common element that would bring the beast. 

“I have a question,” Malik said. He had been wondering about the question the entire time he had been bathing in the fruit’s nectar. 

Khris and Mollie both glanced at him.

“What is it?” Khris said, as if he grew tired of Malik’s questions. 

Malik ignored his tone. “I was thinking about something. The first time you saw the monster you were in the fruit trees, were you not?” 

Khris answered by shaking his head. 

“I thought I remembered at least that much,” Malik said. 

“Your point being?” Mollie said. 

Malik turned to her. “If he was in the trees and the beasts hate the trees, why were they near them?” 

It was a logical question that made Malik wonder if this foolish plan would even work. Maybe the monster had been confused why a scrawny, young man would enter its cave and even more confused when the boy only had a small fruit for a weapon. 

Mollie turned to Khris. Malik chalked that one as a point for him. Maybe there was still time to talk Mollie out of this.

“I think the trees act as a wall keeping our village safe. It would explain why the monsters do not come into our town. Almost everyone eats the yama fruit daily. That coupled with all the trees, I think they hate us.” 

Mollie nodded. “Makes perfect sense to me.” 

Malik tucked his head to his chest. There was no way he would get out of this. He had to accept his fate. 

“Anything else before we enter the cave?” Khris asked. 

Malik could tell he had no desire to answer more questions. The earlier glimmer of fear had faded. Malik was alone in his thoughts of gloom. 

“I guess not,” Malik answered. 

Khris guided them across the small patch of open ground. He again stopped at the crack in the wall. 

Mollie peered in. Malik doubted she saw anything in the blackness. Malik blocked the sun from his eyes, trying to adjust to the lack of light inside the lip of the cave. There was nothing in there but more darkness. It was impenetrable without some source of light. 

“How are we supposed to see in this thing?” Malik asked. 

Khris smiled, reaching into his trousers. “I have just the thing.” 

Khris opened his hand to reveal three fat sticks of wax. Each stick had a wick in the middle, ready to be lit by flame to produce light and smells. Malik had seen them used all over the country of Luberg to light homes and to chase away the musty smells. 

“Oh, how convenient that you had candles in your pocket,” Malik said. 

Khris pulled a flint from his pocket, striking it and lighting the three sources of light. 

“My mother is a candle maker. That is what her store is. They are always lying around.”  

Malik wondered how much of the story in the tavern had been leading to this moment. Had Khris planned to sucker them in the entire time? Even before they feigned interest in his stories?

Mollie did not seem to share his concern. She took one of the offered candles into her hand. Khris offered the last one to Malik, who took it with some unease. The only thing he wanted less than that candle was to be trapped in the dark with those monsters. 

Even with the light from the candles, it was almost impossible to see. Malik felt like someone thumped him in the chest, but realized it was his own heart trying to break free from the inside. Malik had done some stupid things in his life. Abrie had once told him he was the king of stupid decisions. This was the dumbest thing he had ever done by far. There was nothing even close to this stupid. 

“This had better be worth it.” 

He could not see the facial expression of Mollie, but she sounded confident. “It will be worth it. Anything that helps us understand the Tempre and their wants is important,” she said. 

Malik wished he believed that. Sweet Tongue may want power, but would he trudge through a pitch-black cave to achieve it? Malik knew that had been a silly question. Sweet Tongue had more scars than any other man Malik had ever seen. Sweet Tongue would have walked through fire at the end of the Earth to achieve power. 

Malik was the last of the three to enter the crack. Pushing through, he held his breath, sucking in his stomach to get past the opening. Mollie and Khris’ flames disappeared just ahead of him. His heart fluttered, but he kept pushing forward, telling himself it was just an illusion caused by the cave’s turns. Malik soon saw the flames again, as the cave opened into a sizeable chamber. There was no clear pathway in the room to get through the cave. All Malik could see in their lit-up area was hundreds of banded rock spirals coming up from the ground like the fingers of some gigantic creature. Malik swallowed hard, holding the nausea down, as he thought they could have been the fingers of those monsters. 

“Be careful,” Khris said as a warning, before he stepped forward into the small crevices between pointed rocks. 

Mollie followed slowly behind him, holding her candle out before her. Malik followed in the rear, finding that he wished he and Mollie could switch places. Then he felt shame for being such a coward. 

The further they pressed forward through the rocks, the colder the air became. At some point, it became cold. Malik shivered, not having dressed for the sudden weather change. Even further on, the spirals from the floor joined with overhanging spirals. They were just high enough Malik did not have to duck, but he could reach up and touch them if he had wanted to. He did not want to. He feared that with any momentum they would fall and impale him into the ground. Malik wondered at how the monsters moved freely through this cave. Or maybe that was the point. If no one could move easily, then it was easier to hide, and the monsters did not strike him as a social creature.

“What possessed you to want to come into this damn cave?” Malik asked, pulling his leg from between two rocks. A few times he had barely escaped without snapping his ankle in half. 

“Just a hunch,” Khris answered. 

“That is the most unsatisfying answer ever. Are you a mythical palm reader? Just a feeling?” Malik poked. 

Khris did not answer. 

Malik was glad when the rocks stopped jutting from the ground and the chamber opened to a flat surface. Khris pointed with his light toward the edge of the room. “Over there is where I saw it the second time.” 

Mollie was already walking that way. Malik could see she walked directly toward a slight mound of built up dirt. Something had been pushing the dirt together to make a barrier. The closer Malik got, the more he could tell that this was some type of nest. Malik instantly slowed, not wanting to come upon the nest of some animal that would tear him to shreds. 

Mollie did not share that reservation. Khris followed Mollie like a puppy chasing its mother. 

“This is it,” Mollie said, making her way to the edge of the nest wall. 

“What exactly do you think it is?” Malik said. 

Mollie bent over, caressing something Malik could not see from his vantage point. 

Malik took another step closer. He was still tentative about being this close to a nest, but he pushed back the fear long enough to glance over the edge. That was when he saw four deep, black eggs. Each egg was the size of a human head and on the top of each was a stark white circle. Protruding from one circle was a singular claw, Malik jumped back. 

“We need to go,” he said. He looked around the cave, ready for the monster to jump out at him from every angle. 

Mollie did not move away from the nest. Instead, she reached in for the cracked egg. 

“I think we have to take it,” she said. 

Malik felt like she had just smashed him in the knees with the hilt of her sword. 

“Take it?” he mumbled. “Why in the Saint’s Hell would we take it?” 

Mollie turned to Khris, who was silent. 

“We have to study it, don’t we?” she asked. 

Khris had the decency to look nervous, but Malik expected his answer. “People will believe me in the village if I show them this.” 

Mollie held the egg, with the single claw, closer to her chest. “I don’t know if that is the greatest idea.” She held the egg like she was a proud mother. 

“Just put it back, we can still get out of here alive.” Malik looked for the monster to jump from any of the hundreds of shadows surrounding them. So far, he had heard nothing coming from around them, but that could change in an instant. 

“I am taking it,” Mollie was defiant. 

“Fine, let’s just get out of this cave,” Malik said. He was losing control of his body. Soon he felt it would be impossible for him not to curl into a ball. 

“We can discuss what to do with it outside,” Malik said, before Khris could lay out his case. 

“Fine,” Khris said. 

Malik turned to head back toward the entrance. Just one step at a time and they could make it. He convinced himself not to run, knowing he would only hurt himself. He took the first step, shakily; then the second followed. He took a deep breath, letting it out through his nose. They would make it, he thought. 

Then he heard the roar from somewhere in the cave.