D. MacHale - Black Water

Boon joined me and said, “Pretty, isn’t it?”

“It’s awesome,” I replied. I meant it.

“This is nothing,” Boon scoffed. “Wait until you see Leeandra.” He walked away from me as if he were actually going somewhere.

“Where are you going?” I asked. “We’re in a tree!”

“To Leeandra,” he shouted back without turning. “It’s a long way, let’s not waste any more time.”

I followed him, but fully expected to circle this treetop balcony and end up right back where we started.

We didn’t. After walking a few feet, I saw that there was a bridge leading off the balcony. It was about ten feet wide and held up by thick vines, like a suspension bridge. Boon stepped onto it like it was the most natural thing in the world, and kept walking. I, on the other hand, wasn’t so sure. I stood at the beginning of the bridge and peered over the handrail. It was a long way down. Alongway. The bridge seemed safe. It barely moved when Boon walked across it. Still, this was scary. I’d seen too many movies where people walked across these suspension bridges and the wooden slats started to break through and…look out below! I reached up and grabbed one of the suspension vines, giving it a good tug to see if it would hold.

“It’s safe, Pendragon,” Boon assured me. “I told you, klees live in the trees. We know how to build bridges.”

“So everybody lives in tree houses?” I asked. “Klees and gars?”

“It’s better than worrying about tangs all the time,” he answered.

I gritted my teeth and took a step onto the wooden bridge. Obviously it didn’t break, and I didn’t plummet to a horrifying death. I took a few more tentative steps, and we were on our way to Leeandra. It turned out that the big tree that held the flume was only one of thousands. Every tree on Eelong was as big, if not bigger. The bridges were like roads in the sky, snaking beneath the canopy of leaves. Each new tree we reached had a similar platform that ringed it. Some had multiple platforms with stairs between them. I thought back to the first moment I stepped out of the tree and looked over the cliff. I now realized that the reason I didn’t see any buildings was because they were hovering just below the treetops, out of sight from above. Incredible! An entire civilization existed high above the ground. It was a world of tree houses.

This world was full of life, too. I saw a swarm of tiny, orange hummingbird creatures float by like a small cloud. They each gave off a sweet, whistling sound that must have been their tiny wings beating. Together, the effect was like music. I glanced up to see a large hawk soaring overhead. It was pure white and floated on thermals like a lazy cloud. Directly across from us, on our level, was a tree full of green monkeys. They were cute little things that chattered and chased one another from branch to branch.

Looking over the side to the forest below, I saw that it was dense jungle, like a rain forest. Every so often I’d catch a glimpse of a green tail disappearing into the underbrush. These could only be more of the lizardlike tangs. I decided that if there were more of those bad boys hiding below, I was very happy to be walking above them, out of reach.

Boon walked quickly. I had to work to keep pace. After five minutes we had passed through a dozen trees, each with a couple of different choices as to which bridge to take next. I was going to need a roadmap to find my way back to the flume. That wasn’t good.

“Tell me about Saint Dane,” Boon said as we walked. “He’s a gar, right?”

“I guess,” was my answer. “But he can change himself to look like whatever he wants. I’ll bet he could change himself into a tang if he wanted to.”

“Really? That’s hard to believe,” was his response.

Hard to believe? I was walking along a wooden sky bridge talking to a cat. Don’t tell me about hard to believe.

“You think he’s here, on Eelong?” Boon asked.

“Yes, I do,” was my answer.

“Finally!” Boon exclaimed. He hopped ahead of me with excitement and walked backward while talking quickly. “I’ve been waiting forever to meet this guy. Seegen said he’d be here someday, but I never thought the day would actually come! He’s really bad, right? I mean, do you think he’s going to try and do something horrible on Eelong? Let him try. I’ll slash him like that quig in the flume tree!”

I realized that this man-eating cat was no more than an excited kid who thought the war with Saint Dane was some kind of exciting game.

“Uhh, this isn’t like pro wrestling,” I said. “This is real.”

“I know that,” Boon said defensively. “What’s pro wrestling?”

I didn’t like having to be the voice of reason. I was suddenly feeling like I had to act like an adult or something. I stopped walking and spoke in my most serious voice.

“Look, Boon, I don’t know what Seegen told you, but this isn’t going to be fun. Saint Dane is a killer. I’ve seen him start wars and destroy cities. He’ll do anything he can to turn Eelong inside out.”

“Let him try!” Boon shouted with defiance. “I’m not afraid and neither is Seegen.”

“Yeah, well, I hate to burst your bubble, but maybe you should be.”

“Why? He’s a gar! There hasn’t been a gar born that I can’t handle.”

“He isn’t an ordinary gar, Boon, he’s…Wait, what am I doing? I’m talking to a cat! You’re a freaking cat! This is insane!”

Maybe it was because the shock of my first few moments on Eelong had finally worn off. Maybe it was because I was feeling alone. Or maybe it was because my mind had finally rejected the possibility that cats could talk, but I had had enough.

“I’m going back,” I said, and turned back for the flume. I had no idea how to find it, but I was ready to try. Boon ran around in front to head me off, but I kept walking.

“You can’t go back, you’re supposed to be here!” he complained.

“No, I’m not,” I shot back. “This territory is crazy. Quigs are humans. Cats talk and live in trees because they might get eaten by big lizards. And I’m supposed to follow somebody who thinks battling Saint Dane is going to be fun? I don’t think so.”

I kept walking. Boon kept pace. “But, but, Seegen will be really angry with me,” he complained. “I was supposed to bring you to Leeandra.”

“Tell you what,” I said. “I’m going back home, to Second Earth, where humans are humans and cats pee in a litter box. If this Seegen character wants my help, he can find me there. Let’s see howhelikes dealing with a world where he belongs in a zoo.”

“But what about the other Traveler, Gunny?” Boon asked.

That made me stop. Gunny. I’d almost forgotten. Whatever problems I was having with Eelong, Gunny had them too. I couldn’t leave without finding him.

“Ahhhhh!”A horrifying scream came from down in the jungle. Boon and I ran to the railing of the sky bridge and looked down. On the ground we saw a small band of klees run from the jungle into a clearing that was directly below us. They were running on all fours like, well, like cats.

“I thought the klees lived in the trees?” I asked.

“We do,” Boon answered. “But we still need to spend time on the ground. Food doesn’t grow on trees, you know.”

There was a joke in there somewhere, but I didn’t go after it. Running behind the band of cats we saw a group of humans. They were dressed in the same rags as I wore, but didn’t look as wild as the quigs. They just looked like smallish, dirty people. There were about a dozen in all. Mostly men, but a few women as well. They all looked as if they were running in fear from something, and a second later I saw what it was.

A green shape sprang from the bushes and grabbed the last of the fleeing humans. It was a tang. The lizard wrapped its talons around the leg of the human, who had fallen on his stomach. The beast dragged the guy along the ground toward the bushes. The victim may have looked human, but his terrified screams sounded more like an animal. Adoomedanimal.