The Inner Circle (2 page)

The two married soon after, and for the next three years, Arkadei felt like he was the king of the world, if even in reality, he was merely the most important person among a forgotten and unnoticed tribe of 30 nomads.

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Arkadei picked up the bundle of blankets that held his son, making sure to keep him tightly wrapped. The boy, named Arkadei after his father, barely stirred as he was lifted from his crib. Little Arkadei opened his eyes and looked into the eyes of his father, blinking absently. Arkadei brought the boy towards his bushy face and gently kissed his forehead.

"One day you will grow up to be a leader of this tribe," Arkadei whispered. "You will be strong like me and I will teach you to hunt."

The boy cooed and Arkadei was delighted to see a small smile across the little boy's face. Arkadei heard a rustling sound behind him and saw his wife, Irena, standing up, wrapping the bear skin blanket around her in the process.

"Go back to sleep, my wife," Arkadei said. "It is still very early and you will need your rest for the long day ahead."

Irena did not look like the normal Russian girl Arkadei used to see in Moscow. Unlike the pasty skin and light hair of the typical Russian girl, Irena had darker skin and dark brown hair. Her high cheekbones made her look quite exotic and Arkadei often wondered from where her descendants came. She was a stunning woman, and even more so when the small amount of firelight shone across her face. Arkadei found himself more in love with her each passing day.

"I am awake now. I will start my day with my husband, like every good wife should. Give me our son so I can feed him now."

Arkadei handed over their son to his wife, who clutched the small boy to her breast and fed him. Irena yawned as the boy fed, and when she looked up sleepily at her husband, he was looking down at her, smiling.

"I must go now and find us food."

"Good luck hunting. Bring us back plenty to eat."

Arkadei kissed her cheek and opened the teepee flap, exiting and closing the flap before too much cold air could enter.

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The early morning air was bitingly cold, and the wind made the freshly fallen snow swirl around like it was sand. Black sky slowly began to turn a lighter shade of dark blue and Arkadei knew it was only about an hour before the sun would be completely in the sky. He and the two hunters, Serge and Pavel –who found him nearly dead by the train tracks three years ago – had only a few hours to find enough food for the day. Hares, an animal like a rabbit except with longer ears and legs and bigger feet, were their main source of food and were easiest to hunt in the early morning hours. Hunting them could be very difficult with the primitive spears and bows they had and it usually took a coordinated and strenuous effort between the three of them to catch a single one. If they were lucky, maybe they'd even come across a reindeer or two. Reindeer were even harder to kill, since they were equally as fast as the hares but ten times as strong, and were only taken down by the group's strongest and most well-managed attack.

Pavel was already awake when Arkadei made his way through the small forest to his teepee. Pavel was always up early, as one of his other responsibilities was to get the tribe's daily drinking water from the nearby Tungus River. The two men nodded a good morning to each other and set off for Serge's teepee, which was farthest from the center of the tribe, behind the largest tree near the edge of the forest. Arkadei and Pavel approached the teepee and were met by the barking of Serge's two large huskies. The massive white dogs proved to be an invaluable hunting tool, often times running down and killing the hares which the three hunters were only able to wound. Arkadei ducked down near the dogs and was shielded from the wind and blowing snow by the large tree. He petted the dogs while Pavel went inside and woke their third comrade, who emerged from the teepee a few minutes later. Arkadei untied the dogs from the nearby tree and held onto the leash, nearly falling over after being dragged by the huge animals.

Armed with the bow and arrow, Arkadei and the dogs walked in the front, while Pavel and Serge stayed close behind, each of them with a spear in hand. This was how they hunted every morning, crossing their tribe's small forest, keeping a sharp lookout for freshly-made hare tracks.

This morning's hunt proceeded like hundreds of hunts before, with the group able to bag four hares by the time the sun began to rise. They were very happy with the animals they caught and Pavel was especially glad that the one hare had nice, thick fur. He had been looking for a good animal skin the past few weeks, hoping to make a new blanket for his own newborn child, a daughter. The two new fathers often joked about the chances of their children growing to love each other one day.

The three hunters had traveled farther away from their camp than usual and were soon approaching another forest. They normally didn't travel this far and the few times they had, Pavel and Serge refused to enter the thickly wooded area. They told Arkadei many stories about the woods being haunted, and that no amount of food would be worth them entering and risking their lives. Arkadei – who was not superstitious in the least bit – told them that all an animal had to do was run into this forest and they would be safe. It was ridiculous not to follow them. Pavel and Serge remained true to their fears, though, and would stop as soon as they approached the first tree. And since it was nearly impossible for Arkadei to catch anything without help, he had never seen a reason to enter this forest alone. Arkadei hoped that today would be different though, hoped his friends would get over their silly superstitious beliefs about the forest.

"No, my friend. We must not enter that forest," Pavel said, raising his voice to be heard over the loud winds. "We have already made our catch for the day. It is time to return home."

Serge agreed and the two men stopped walking. Arkadei normally would have agreed with them and turned around, but he had just spotted two large hares scampering into the forest. For once, he wanted to return to the tribe with more than just the minimum amount of food they needed to survive. He thought that today seemed like a good day for a feast.

Arkadei looked at the two men, who stood as still as statues, holding the four dead hares in their hands. Trying to convince them to go into the forest would be worthless, but he thought he might be able to get the hares with the dogs' help. He approached the two men, who were now intently looking up at the sky.

"I will enter the forest and catch the two hares alone. Wait for me here."

The two men did not answer, as they continued to stare in awe at the sky. Arkadei looked up and saw a strange light in the sky. A brilliant dot of light was slowly growing bigger in the sky, and made the sky much brighter than it normally was. It was unlike anything he’d ever seen before, but he did not have time to stare if he wanted to catch the hares.

"Did you two hear me? I am going into the forest to catch the hares. Wait for me here."

"What is that in the sky?" Pavel asked.

"I do not know," Arkadei answered. "But I don't have time to stand here and watch it. I will be back soon. Wait for me here."

He glanced back up at the sky as he approached the forest. Before he made it to the first tree though, he heard yelling behind him. It was Serge.

"No! Don't go in the forest. God will punish us with the light from above."

Arkadei did not answer. The dogs had picked up the scent of the hares and were running as hard as they could toward the forest, dragging Arkadei along with them. The forest was dark, but the dogs still ran hard, causing Arkadei to trip several times over fallen logs. He kept up as well as he could, and was soon rewarded when he saw three large hares close by. The dogs began to bark and were more determined than ever. Arkadei let go of the leashes and the dogs took off, giving him enough time to fire one arrow at the group of hares. It felt like the shot was a good one, though he could not see whether he hit anything. The dogs and hares quickly disappeared and Arkadei traveled deeper and deeper into the forest, following the sounds of barking.

He soon found a small trail of blood amongst the animal tracks and felt relatively certain that his arrow had found its mark. The barking grew louder and louder until he found the two huskies near a small cave among the trees. They were barking furiously and looking in the direction of the small cave's entrance, where Arkadei noticed the trail of blood that led inside.

"Go ahead. Go after them."

The dogs did not listen to him, though, and Arkadei thought their barks now sounded more like frightened whines. He ducked down and looked at the cave entrance, which was about two feet high and three feet wide, plenty of room for the dogs to enter. But it became clear that they would not go in on their own, even though Arkadei had one of the hares already wounded.

"We can not let an arrow go to waste. One of them must be dead in there by now."

Arkadei said this like he was trying to convince the dogs to enter the cave, but he was really trying to talk himself into going in.

"You are scared, just as your owner was scared to come into this forest," Arkadei said, staring into the dark cave, not looking forward to entering himself.

Finally, he tied one of the two huskies to a nearby tree and took the leash of the other, crawling on his hands and knees through the tight entrance, pushing the dog in front of him.

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Serge and Pavel remained exactly where Arkadei left them. Serge still nervously stared up at the sky, watching the light grow closer and closer, awed by what was happening just above them. Pavel, however, quickly grew bored with the mysterious light and stared at the forest, waiting for Arkadei to return.

"What is taking him so long? Do you think he got lost?" Pavel asked.

Serge did not answer. The approaching light controlled his complete attention, and he could not believe that Pavel and Arkadei had not taken it more seriously. The only time something like this happened was when God was creating something of vast importance. He silently prayed while looking straight up, not paying attention to a single word Pavel said.

"Why are you ignoring –"

The light in the sky exploded into a tremendous blast wave as far as the eye could see. In an instant, Pavel, Serge and everything else that stood in its way became instantly engulfed in flame.

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Arkadei had crawled about fifty feet into the cave when he heard an ear-splittingly loud explosion, a sound that reminded him of being in the middle of a battle zone. The dog in front of him stopped in its tracks and began to growl and Arkadei had to pet it to calm it down. The cave was pitch black and much deeper than Arkadei thought it would be, as it gradually opened up into a larger space the farther he went. He hadn't been nervous to enter it before, but after the loud explosion, he felt the ground starting to shake and small pieces of rock from the cave wall began to rain down around his body. For a brief moment, he was afraid the cave would collapse around him and bury him alive.

After deciding to give up on the hares to go and find out the source of the noise, Arkadei turned his body around and began to crawl back. He made it only a few feet when he heard a
whooshing
noise and saw an orange light rushing toward him from the direction of the cave’s entrance. He froze and watched as the orange light came closer, a sudden burst of heat soon washing over him. Arkadei was shocked to realized that it was a fireball.

Without hesitation, he began to crawl backwards as quickly as possible, giving no thought or caution to the rocks that dug into his hands and knees. After moving only a few feet, he ran into the dog, which did not want to move farther into the cave. Arkadei was stuck and could only watch as the fire came closer and closer. The fire sucked all of the oxygen from the cave and breathing was soon impossible, as Arkadei could do little more than sit and watch as death stalked him in the tiny cave.

This whole incident only took a few seconds. When the fire was only a few feet away from completely engulfing Arkadei, a strong surge of wind blew through the cave, extinguishing the flame and tossing Arkadei farther backward. His body was blown like a leaf through the cave and in less than a few seconds, his head to cracked against the cave wall and knocked him unconscious.

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When Arkadei awoke, he felt something wet and warm sliding across his face, licking him from chin to eye. He was momentarily confused about exactly where he was and what was going on. Then he remembered the hares and the cave and the fire. Feeling the matted fur of the husky sitting next to him, Arkadei was glad to see the dog was still alive after the explosion.