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She couldn't breathe. Her chest was clamped tight, her throat ragged and raw. Rain began to fall in a fine, steamy mist, and with her short breaths it felt like drowning in the humidity. Mercifully it did not turn into a full storm, but persisted as a relentless drizzle, transforming the forest into a land of clouds. Was it her luck holding out, covering up her tracks as she and her tribemates fled past the Taimeran borders?
-Tata... I did it, Tata.- Anameis stumbled on, her good foreleg aching with every step of her hopping gait. -Just a little further. Just a little more-. They had to be out of Taimeran land now, they had to be...
Behind her came a grunt of exhaustion. Kirro and Iskome kept good pace, but Rara struggled. She'd been repeatedly bitten, not enough to kill her, but enough to keep her from fighting back. The massive grey nicheling still forced herself forward, but she was clearly flagging. No amount of determination could hide her dull gems. Anameis wondered how her own must look, and decided she didn't want to know. Even Kirro and Iskome were slowing down on a second glance, their breathing more ragged and tight with every passing moment.
Only Laana appeared unaffected. She ran on in silence, having never spoken a word. Where the others stumbled and gasped, she flowed over the ground like a stream of white water, touching the world only lightly. There was something else different, too, but in her single-minded state, Anameis could not quite touch her paw to it.
Her paws... her paws ached. They -had- to be past the border. Couldn't they stop now?
"We going to... keep running?" Despite her exhaustion, Rara's voice was still a powerful growl. "Hate running..."
Anameis tried to reply, to tell her they had to run, but the words would not come out. She lurched forward, taking one more step... and her body finally failed her. She tumbled forward into a sprawled out heap in a hollow fast turning to mud in the rain. -They'll find the mark I left-, she thought. -We had to look for things like that-.
The rain eased off... no, someone was standing over her. Rara. "Was that your idea back there, Orange?"
Despite herself, Anameis' ears perked. "Liked it?"
"Liked it? Boldest thing I've ever seen!" Rara nosed at Anameis' shoulder. Her breath was heavy as she fought to stay upright, but her pride was unmistakable. "You're Tata's child for sure!"
"But are we safe out here?" Iskome said. She perched on a tree stump, looking back the way they'd come.
"No." Anameis struggled to her feet, ignoring the ache running through her good foreleg. Running on all three legs, putting her full front-body weight upon it, was all she'd ever known. But after so much fleeing, the muscles and bone screamed in pain as though that weight had doubled. Yet, bolstered by Rara's praise, she drove herself on. Mud dripped from her greasy pelt and weighed down her thick tail. A coat of dark sludge hid her gems from view. -Good. Now nobody can see how I feel-. She stroked her shrunken paw through the filth coating her ruff. There were still only two gems. She shouldn't have expected anything else. There'd been no itching or soreness to mark a third, yet she felt it might as well have emerged overnight, in all but physical state. Even -Rara- was waiting for her orders. "They'll track us down," she said. "We have to keep-"
She stopped to swat an insect, perhaps attracted by the stinking mud clinging to her pelt. It buzzed around her head, undeterred by a few exhausted swipes from an undersized paw. If only she -were- Tata. Stories never mentioned what happened when he made his getaways. What would he do now? Get the insects to spy on the land for him?
No - but she knew what they -could- do. "This way."
The air took on a musky scent as they walked on, following Anameis' lead. They had crossed a shallow ridge, and here the ground levelled off from where it sloped to the distant river. Here the rain pooled in murky puddles, and clouds of insects billowed into the air, disturbed by the nichelings' passing. Trees bent and drooped, their branches laden with thick, mossy curtains. In places they bowed so low as to submerge themselves, creating a landscape of arches and hidden hollows, overrun by rushes and tangled, thorny shrubs.
"Is this where I think it is?" Kirro said.
Anameis let herself stop, panting, in a pool that reached nearly to her stomach. Muddy water streamed from her pelt and trickled into the puddles below. No part of her coat was free from muck and mud, her natural orange colouration transformed into a filthy greenish brown.
It wasn't the same swamp the tribe had, in their ignorance, blundered into the last time they'd left Taimeran territory. They hadn't run far enough to reach that point. But you could find swamps like this scattered all throughout the forest, wherever the ground levelled off to let rainwater pool and stagnate. Few tribes wanted such land. Few tribes could live there. Even the berries that grew here drew in toxins from the earth - they'd be edible to nichelings like Anameis, but not her companions without poison or venom of their own. The filthy water harboured all manner of diseases, and if it didn't make you sick, the biting insects swarming across its surface would. A few of them now settled on her ear. She flicked it, sending them buzzing into the air.
Anameis looked back at the others, exhausted and muddy, over her shoulder. Her tongue lolled out of her mouth in amusement, her crooked teeth bare and white against the dirt. To them she must appear less of a nicheling, more some hideous swamp beast of legend. "Last place they'll follow us."
Kirro and Iskome, who had been worse affected the last time they'd wandered into swampy lands, exchanged looks. Anameis lashed her tail, though weighted down as it was, it was more a lazy trawl through the water. Well, what did they want? Where else was there to go? She couldn't go any further. She stood and blustered her way on sheer nerves, and inside they began to fray and unravel.
"She's right."
Softly, Laana walked through the water, leaving a broad V of ripples in her wake. The lower half of her body was stained with mud, her gems too obscured to discern their state. She did not try to groom herself, yet she stood proud and calm within the murky gloom, moving through the stagnant black water with all the grace of Eve walking upon the face of the first ocean.
It was the first time Laana had spoken all day. The first time she had done anything but follow, without question or expression.
"If we stay here, they won't find us. We can rest and move on later, when it gets dark." She glanced around, her ears perked but relaxed, her tail swaying slowly. Her movements were careful and deliberate, as though she put great thought into each one. "We'll be safe. I know we will."
"How do you know?" Kirro said. His ears were slightly flattened - not angry or fearful, but visibly wary.
"I know," Laana said.
"Well, -I'm- not arguing," Rara huffed. The big grey nicheling was still on her feet, but her tail trailed in the water and she held her head so low her breath made rippled upon its surface. "You can talk all you like. I'm staying. Any dry ground here? Drier than this, I mean."
Anameis didn't know the land, but she knew how to look for higher ground in wet weather, and she quickly found a patch that whilst drier was still safely hidden within the swamp, hidden by rushes and thorns. Despite their misgivings, Kirro and Iskome followed. Anameis was grateful, being too exhausted to argue any more. If one of them got sick... well, she knew, rationally, it would be a disaster, but she didn't have the energy to care, and neither did anyone else. The nichelings sank into a pile on the soft, muddy ground, not caring about the dirt, and within moments all five were asleep as a fine rain swept in, shrouding their hiding place in mist.
---
The sun had yet to set by the time Anameis awoke, though by the shadows it would not be long. Curling her tail over her face, she closed her eyes again and willed herself back to sleep, but it refused to fall back upon her. With a groan she stretched out, baring her teeth. She thought she'd grown used to the stiffness each morning after patrol, but this was like starting all over again. Not a single part of her body was free of aches.
She sniffed the air, rearing up and dropping back down. There was no sight or sound of any pursuers. Her stomach growled and she licked her lips with a dry tongue. She sniffed again, this time trying to scent out water - how maddening it was to be surrounded by the stuff, but even she was not brave enough to drink that murky, fly-infested liquid. But it had to flow from somewhere, and, scenting fresher water, she splashed off through the muck.
Her companions were still asleep. For a moment she wondered if she ought to wake them, but thought better of it. At least some of them should get more sleep. Their breathing sounded soft and gentle, without the rasping quality that signified sickness. With all luck, they'd be able to set off again once night fell.
She kept a low profile as she followed the scent, ducking under branches, moss trailing over her back. The waters fanned out behind her in soft ripples. Eventually the sound of running water caught her ears and, cautiously, she slunk closer, resisting the urge to run. Ahead, a stream fed into the swamp, but temping as it was, it brought her further from relative safety. Eventually, satisfied she was alone, she crept closer, where clear water met dirty. They mingled in complex, curling patterns, as she drank her fill upstream.
After so much running and panic, it was like drinking from the heart of Mela's spring of legend. Anameis drank long and deep, barely stopping to breathe until she had her fill of the cool, fast-flowing water. Licking her lips, she lifted her head, droplets falling from her whiskers, and felt something press at her side. A fat leech, its skin gleaming gold under the muddy water falling from its body, had affixed itself to her side. With a snort of amusement she twisted around, pulled it off with her teeth, and swallowed it in a single gulp.
A little food and some water, and she was back to... whoever she was. She didn't know, but it was better than fleeing in terror. For the first time in a long time, she could see a future beyond the immediate moment.
Her companions wouldn't be happy to chew on leeches, though. That was their loss, but what else could they eat here? Anameis was the only one who could eat the swamp berries, and though she'd heard tales of nichelings who lived on the insect swarms, they looked like scarcely a bite even if they -were- appetising, and even she had her limits. Catching a sweet scent, she followed it to a ragged looking berry bush sprouting from slightly drier ground. Its fruits were small and its leaves spindly, but it was edible. She gnawed a a twig, trying to pull away as many berries as she could in one go, and perked up her ears in amusement at the thought of Vankirvan if he could see what she was doing. Though why didn't nichelings harvest berries like this? Surely it was easier than carrying a few around at a time.
Why did nichelings do anything the way they did?
After all, even Relare was only trying to survive.
She turned back, and jumped. A ghost stood in the marshy water, watching her in silence.
"I must say, that looks a lot more appetising than leeches."
"Oh, it's you," Anameis said, around a mouthful of shrubbery.
Laana's pelt was split between white on top and muddy blackish-brown below. She tilted her head slightly, perhaps puzzled by Anameis' acts, perhaps off-balance with that broken horn. It would not regrow - nicheling antlers are named for their resemblance to deer, but do not shed and regrow with the passing seasons. She would bear that snapped horn for life. Anameis was faintly aware that the Seers of the Sea were supposed to have antlers - something about pointing to the stars reflected in the ocean - but it wasn't Taimeran tradition and she wouldn't have paid attention if it was.
Laana didn't seem to care. In her previously dazed state, Anameis wasn't even sure if she'd noticed. She'd heard of nichelings from before Relare's reign who, on the whims of some inner turmoil, had walked into the forest as if to willingly give themselves up to the plants and the apes, unable to pretend any more that they did not exist. She had previously wondered if this state of mind had come over Laana, but now the white nicheling appeared focused again, more present within the world. Even the water seemed to ripple a little more in her wake.
"Yes, I believe it is." Giving her surroundings a wary glance, Laana stepped onto dry land and dipped her head to drink. Anameis kept watch beside her. She might be the only two-gem of the party, but after leading them so far, she felt what she could only describe as a sense of duty toward them, one that persisted even after the immediate danger had passed. The thought made her tail twitch. She, having any notion of duty?
Laana gave the berries Anameis still held a quick look, and turned back to her reflection. Though the water flowed to fast to create a coherent image, she gazed upon its surface , scrutinising the ripples and stones. "Ugh," she said, raising her paw to matted ruff. "No, that won't do."
"What's the point of that?" Anameis said, as Laana began to wash herself off. "You've just got to walk through the mud again!" Nonetheless, it was the most reassuring thing Laana had done all day. Anameis had no idea what had emerged from the caves and run from the ape with her, but the nicheling now cleaning herself off in the stream could be nobody but Laana. She rinsed herself off in the fast flowing water, and settled down to meticulously comb her ruff with her nimble paw. As she lifted her head and stretched out her neck, sunlight sparkled upon gems no longer covered in dirt.
Anameis gaped. The branch fell softly to the ground.
Where once they had been green, and what felt like an age ago blue, Laana's gems were white as snow. As the water glistened on their surface, they shone like three pearls set into her chest.
"What is it?" Laana said.
"You haven't looked at your gems lately?"
"Oh." Laana peered down her nose, her paw brushing against the gem's smooth surface. "Well, look at that!" A little surprise crept into her tone, as though, on some level, she had already expected this to happen.
"What's it mean?" Anameis hopped closer, to get a better look whilst keeping a respectful distance.
"I don't know," Laana said. "But I can guess."
"Yuki?"
"Kois would know," Laana said. She looked distant for a moment, gazing off into the haze between the trees, and shook her head to clear her thoughts.
"What... happened down there? In the caves?" Anameis understood that seers ventured into the caves for their blue gems, having been told so by Kirro. She guessed it was similar to the way the Taimeran royals gained theirs, but that method had always been a mystery.
"I can't tell you."
"I get it. Another of your secrets."
"No, I -can't-. I know something happened, but it is... like remembering a dream, like following a scent through fog. Like biting a fish that swims away." She reared up on her hind legs, looking around in a mimicry of Anameis' typical posture. "I can feel it fading. The song... I am sorry. I cannot explain myself well." She dropped back down, pawing at her horns. "I am still not a Seer of the Sea, but I am something else. I will know in time, I believe." She sniffed at the berries Anameis collected and, after a drawn out moment, nibbled at one.
"Great," Anameis said. "Are you the sort of seer that knows what we should do now?"
"I am not sure of -that-," Laana said, a wry tone creeping into her voice.
"You said we'd be safe here."
"I did, and I think we are. For now. But we should still leave at nightfall." Laana picked at a knot in her ruff. "That feels right. The rest of it, I am not sure. It is too warm here..."
Anameis sniffed the air and peered through the canopy at the sky. It appeared to be early evening - they'd have to rouse the others and give them time to eat and drink. Nichelings do not, as a rule, travel by night, and though she didn't trust the Taimerans to hold back on the trail until morning. It might buy them a little more time to reach the cliffs. Maybe after that point, they'd be safe.
-And what about Norokir and the rest of them?- she thought. -What did you do for them?-
She silenced that thought - it wouldn't do her any good now. Save it for after the cliffs. "Let's move, then," she said, splashing off into the swamp with the remaining berries in her teeth. A little of the muddy water splashed upon Laana's coat, much to the white nicheling's annoyance, and Anameis snorted in amusement. At this point, she'd take what she could get.
---
"Then what did she say?"
The slender gatherer - Elta, as Relare had been told was her name - cowered in the shaft of daylight streaming in from the broken cave ceiling. Her tail was tucked between her hindlegs, her ears flat, her pupils wide and dark in the dim light. The sight of her so broken clawed deep at Relare's gems. Her people were broken and beaten by the terrors of the forest. She must save them. She must.
"She... she said to wait for her. And then..." A shiver ran down Elta's spine. At Relare's side, Lurro curled his tail around his paws. "I don't remember, Ki-Relare, I'm so sorry, I can't remember!" She shrank back until it seemed the stone itself would swallow her up. A faint sickly-rotten scent still clung to her coat, the remnants of the rogue-born's spray still present after days of washing.
"Elta..." Relare stepped forward on soft, silent paws. She ignored the smell. "You are in the caves. You are safe here. Why are you afraid?"
Elta stood, rigid, and turned her gaze away. "I... I am sorry, Ki-Relare."
"Do you know no more, then?" Relare said. "You did not speak to the rogue-born before your patrol?"
"I knew of her, Ki-Relare. I saw her sometimes. But we never spoke." Elta trembled again, wrapping her tail around her body. "By Eve's gems, we never spoke! By-"
"Silence, silence..." Relare's whisper cut through the confines of the tiny cave, and Elta fell silent again. "This is all." She looked back at her guards. "Please escort Elta back to the cavern. Make sure she stays safe."
Elta practically bounded away as Relare stepped aside, only to gather herself again as the two guards posted in the passage outside flanked her. Their pawsteps faded to nothing as Relare stood in the shaft of light pouring downward. She lashed her tail, trying to clear away the stench from the rogue-born's attack. Even after all these days, it clung. Perhaps she should not, then, blame Elta for her lapse. The onslaught of so much spray at once would turn anyone from their post. No, it was not Elta who was to blame, but Anameis. She had been one of them, a valuable tracker full of promise, and she should have been one of them again, and yet, just as Lurro predicted, she turned upon her tribe again. She had seen it coming, but her trackers died, and died, and it never stopped...
Relare's paws kneaded stone as she recalled the ape, crashing through the forest. Kulur, a more loyal and dedicated guard than she could hope for, his spine snapped, blood pooling from his mouth. Was that how her twin died, too, as the flowing blood poured and poured from his body?
She could not placate the forest. She could not shake the snow-seeker's curse. She dared not close her eyes, for if she did she would see them all dying like Kulur, like Roku, like all her fore-bearers on the wall of memories.
She flicked an ear. Someone was returning. "Who is this one?"
Lurro crept into the passageway, sniffing the air, for it was too dim to see. "Norokir. He's the last one. They say he talked with the rogue-born the night before the attack." He settled back down with a grimace. The ape had flung him a fair distance, and his right hind leg had taken the force of the impact. He'd run again, given luck - his gems were bright - but for now he favoured the leg and the pain shortened his temper.
Mimi slunk beside him. "Another poison-coat," she said, with a hint of sharp disappointment. Her venom couldn't hurt this one, for as he came closer to the light Relare could see Norkir's leaf-green coat. His wide paws marked him as a digger, and now she matched the face to the name. She remembered, now, a nicheling who'd be a decent patrol member if only he could shake out his timidity. But he'd never been -trouble-. What could have caused him to throw his lot in with the mountain-seekers?
Relare had thought Elta looked terrified, but she was a picture of bravado next to Norokir. His tail was low, his ears pressed so flat they were nearly hidden in his ruff, and when the guards pushed him into the chamber his gems barely reflected the sunlight, dulled as they were by sleeplessness and terror. He combed out his ruff with bulky claws, trying to regain some composure in front of his leader. Still flanked by Lurro and Mimi, Relare stepped forward once more. "Norokir?"
"Yes... yes, Ki-Relare..."
"Calm yourself. Please. You are safe here."
"Yes, Ki-Relare." Norokir crouched to the ground, but the sharp panting sound of his breath slowed. They never believed her, no matter how much they all tried, her and them alike.
"There is nothing to be afraid of, Norokir. I only want to ask you about your meetings with the rogue-born."
Norokir's ears perked a little. "Her? I was assigned patrol with her when she came back. You remember?"
That last statement was directed at Lurro, but the fanged nicheling ignored him.
"That was her first day of patrol," Relare said. "Lurro, were you not there all day?"
Norokir's tongue flicked out, light pink against bright green, as he licked his lips. "Yes, yes he was."
"Then," Relare said, "I see no reason to ask you any more about that day."
Norokir lifted his head slightly.
"But the night -before- the attack, Norokir?"
"This is enough," Lurro put in. "You know why you are here. You were seen speaking to the rogue-born that night. Do not waste any more time."
"She didn't say anything!" Norkir flinched and pressed his body even closer to the ground. "We just talked about patrol, honest we did! We-"
He spiralled off into repetitive pleas that nothing had happened that night, pleas that Relare only half heard. Every nicheling who might have spoken with Anameis did the same. Every time, Relare had been forced to admit she knew nothing. And now, she was down to one, no closer to avenging Kulur, or her brother, or the whispering traces in the dark...
She could not leave them like this.
She would not.
"What -else- do you know?"
Her voice was still a whisper, yet the else cut through Norkir's rambling like a freshly sharpened claw.
"Nothing, Ki-Relare, nothing, I-"
She placed a paw by his side. Pressed to the ground as he was, his gems were hidden, but the gesture was unmistakable. Relare had slipped her paw into the space between Norkir's cheek and his broad digger's paw, the closest she could come.
"They... they said a few things about where they'd come from?" The whites of his eyes showed as he tried to meet hers whilst daring not to move. "Not the rogue-born, the other two - the black and white ones? Kirro and... Iskota? No, Iskome! Iskome!"
-Why not before? Why do you do this?- Relare's paw stayed where it was. "What things?" Behind her, Lurro and Mimi leaned forward, necks craned, waiting. They would do nothing until she gave the word, but that made no difference to Norokir.
"Well... not a lot, but I know they're in the mountains-"
"This is already known," said Lurro, his voice curt.
"I got names too! Names from their tribe! There's a Kuku, Meana, Tanu-"
"All common names!" snapped Lurro. "What good are-"
"Yuki!"
Relare had, in a different time, prided herself upon her composure. It was the mark of a true Taimeran to stand serene and graceful against the whims of fate. Even after the loss of her brother and the cracks that came after, she was ever the calm ruler of her people. It was the strength they were used to seeing and the face she was used to showing. Without it, she would have recoiled at the name - the name the seer spoke in the depths.
-You're not Yuki-. Laana's voice, dazed yet clear within Relare's memories.
"Enough, Lurro," she said, over her shoulder. "Now, Norokir." She did not remove her paw, but Norokir, sensing he had said something that pleased her, perked his ears up in hope. "Tell me. Who is Yuki?"
-- Response ended
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