D. MacHale - Black Water

I stumbled forward and did a complete somersault only to come face-to-face with a dead gar. Blood trickled from his mouth. I jumped up quickly to see what I had tripped over. It was another dead gar. I then knew what had happened to the group that was shuttling the fruit back to the wagon. They had been ambushed by the tangs. A quick look to my right showed me a tang dragging a gar back into the high stalks. He had gotten his prize. I shot a look to where I had come from to see a tang was running for me. Its mouth was open to reveal bloody, sharp teeth. I was like a deer caught in the headlights. The tang was on a dead run. I was just…dead. There was no way I could turn and run fast enough to get away. I was tang chow. I backed away, but too late. The tang leaped.

And a blur flashed in front of me, knocking the tang off balance. It was a gar! He fought the tang valiantly, but the poor guy didn’t stand a chance. I took a step forward to help him, but it was too late. The tang swept its arm back and stabbed the gar with its long, sharp talons. The three talons went right through his body, coming out his back. It was hideous. The gar writhed in pain, but managed to turn his head and look at me. The guy was in agony, but when he saw me, he relaxed. It was like the pain had magically gone away.

I recognized him. It was one of the gars I had spoken to on the wagon. His eyes looked peaceful. He wasn’t in pain anymore. He smiled. I swear, guys, he smiled. This primitive human-animal had sacrificed his life to save mine. But why? Blood started leaking out the sides of his mouth, but he kept his smile. He croaked out two words. He said them with such a soft whisper, I could barely hear.

“Black Water,” he groaned.

His eyes closed and he died. The tang pulled its talons out of the guy, threw him to the ground and looked at me. I wasn’t sure if it was going to attack or make off with its conquest. I didn’t stick around long enough for it to decide. I turned and ran for the wagon, trying to hold down the sick feeling in my stomach. I expected to feel the tang’s talons stab me in the back, but the stab never came. The tang must have stayed with its victim. Gross.

“Hurry! C’mon!” Boon yelled.

The other klees got to the wagon first. Of the twenty or so gars who were brought here, only a handful survived the attack. I was one of them, thanks to the selfless gar who gave his life to save mine

“Durgen! Help!”

I heard the pained cry come from a klee who was still twenty yards from the wagon. He was on the ground, hurt. I saw that both his back legs were bleeding. He could barely crawl forward using his front paws. A tang was slowly creeping up on him, ready for the kill. It approached cautiously, in case the klee still had some fight left. Lying next to the injured klee was his wooden weapon, but he was too weak to use it. The cat was doomed…unless somebody helped him. I glanced to the wagon to see the gars were hiding underneath. The klees were standing next to one another, weapons up, ready to defend themselves. None made a move to save their friend. I had a quick thought of the gar who died to save me. It felt wrong not to try and do something to help the injured klee. Before I had the chance to chicken out, I ran for the fallen cat. Stupid move, I know. But I had to do it. There had been enough killing.

“No!” Boon yelled.

As I think back to that moment, I wish I had listened to him. Things would have turned out much better. But there was no way I could have guessed at the horrible consequences my actions would have. My plan was to grab the cat’s weapon and try to fend off the tang. I hoped that if the other klees saw that I was putting up a fight to save their friend, they’d come and help us both out.

It was a totally stupid plan.

I ran to the klee and scooped up the weapon. But as soon as I lifted it up, another tang leaped from the cover of the tall stalks. It had been hiding, waiting for a golden opportunity like this. It lashed out with its scaly tail and whipped against my hands so hard and fast, it felt like I was hit with an electric shock. The wooden weapon was knocked out of my grasp. What an idiot. Now the klee and I were both in trouble. He was injured and I was defenseless-with two tangs standing by, ready to attack.

I heard a sound that can be best described as a whistle. Whatever was making it, it came up from behind me fast and whizzed past my ear. It felt so close I ducked, expecting to get hit in the back of the head. An instant later I saw what it was.

Kasha. She had thrown her lasso with the three stones tied to the end. The stones spun like a buzz saw, flew past me, and wrapped themselves around the neck of the closest tang. Kasha gave a sharp yank on the rope and I heard a sickeningsnap. She had broken the tang’s neck. If I wasn’t so relieved, I would have been totally grossed out. The beast fell. It was dead before it hit the ground. But there was still one more tang to deal with and Kasha no longer had her lasso.

The tang made the next move. He didn’t attack me, or Kasha. He pounced on the injured klee, the easy prey. The lizard jumped on the cat’s back and locked its jaws around its neck. The cat reared up and tried to shake the tang off, but the monster would not be denied. The klee was already weak from having lost so much blood. He didn’t stand a chance. I watched in horror as the cat fell to the ground hard, with the tang’s jaws still clamped on its neck.

I felt a strong hand on my shoulder. I whipped around, expecting another tang attack. But it was Kasha.

“It’s over,” she said sadly. “We have to go back.”

It may have been over for the poor klee, but not for us. Other tangs were still sniffing around, looking to do some damage. We had to get out of there. The two of us ran back to the safety of the wagon. I stole a quick glance back at the battleground to see that the tangs were finished. They got what they came for. I watched as the few remaining tangs dragged their victims back into the tall stalks. Most were gars, but of course, there was the one klee. It now suddenly made all sorts of sense to me why the klees chose to build their world in the trees. The tangs were merciless marauders.

I wasn’t sure of what to do when we got back to the wagon. I still had to act like a simple gar, so I decided to hide under the wagon with the survivors. But I didn’t get the chance. As soon as we approached the group of klees, Durgen stepped forward and slapped Kasha across the face. Everybody was so stunned, they froze in place. Including Kasha. Durgen stood in front of her, his eyes fixed on her in anger.

“You sacrificed a klee to save a gar?” he seethed. “Are you insane?”

Uh-oh. Kasha had saved me, but it looked as if she was going to pay a price for it.

“He was as good as dead when I got there,” Kasha said, not backing down. “If I tried to save him, we would have lost both.”

That might have been true, but I wasn’t so sure. Durgen didn’t think it was true at all. He hauled back and slapped Kasha again. Kasha barely flinched. She was tough. She took the hit but stood tall.

“You don’t know that!” he bellowed. “If there was a chance to save him, you should have taken it. But you didn’t. And why? To save… this?”

Durgen grabbed me by the back of my neck and held me up in the air, my feet dangling a few inches off of the ground.

“It is an animal, Kasha!” he shouted in anger. “An animal!”

He tossed me down hard. I wasn’t ready for it and my knees buckled, sending me crashing onto my shoulder. I wasn’t so quick to get back up. I didn’t want him throwing me around again.

“That klee was your friend,” Durgen continued, his voice softening. “You chose this animal over a friend.”