Awakening the Mare (Fall of Man Book 1) (17 page)

Sarge made a comment that it was going to be
a long morning, because we had our job cut out for us with cleanup.
No other Savages came to our assigned area that night. In fact,
Sarge moved me to another quadrant. It was quiet and peaceful the
rest of the evening.

The other soldiers and those on patrol tossed
out compliments to me and Tanner about how ‘cool’ we were and
congratulated us on the ‘good job’ of taking down so many Savages.
Even Sarge handed out compliments.

After the tedious task of washing the streets
and bagging remains, I received word that Davis was waiting on me.
I expected that when I met with Davis at the end of my shift I
would be greeted with the same high praise. Instead, I was thrown
off by his anger.

Davis didn’t praise me, he scolded me.

“What were you thinking, Vala?”

My mind was stifled. I stumbled for words and
was at a lack of response. “I don’t know.”

“You don’t
know
?” Davis roared. “Let
me tell me what you were thinking. You
weren’t
thinking.”

“I was.”

“No, Vala, you weren’t.”

“How can you say that?” I said angrily.

“You killed… as we estimated, close to sixty
of them.”

I folded my arms. “Then tell me job well
done.”

“I will do no such thing. And you better lose
that arrogance right now or, Mare or no Mare, we’ll continue
without you.”

I gasped. “Davis, what did I do that was so
wrong?”

“You didn’t think.”

“I did. I wanted to kill them. I didn’t want
them to flee.”

“So I am to assume, in your mind, you thought
about blowing up all the Savages if you just screamed?”

I lowered my head. “No, I thought about
killing them, but not with the scream.”

“The scream did it.”

“I know.”

“Vala, you didn’t think when you screamed.
You blasted them with emotions and lucked out. I’m not talking
about lucking out and killing Savages, I’m talking about lucking
out and not killing Tanner.”

That was something I hadn’t even thought
of.

“As once stated in
Superman
, with
great power comes great responsibility. You have a gift, but if you
don’t learn to use it properly, you are useless. You can’t run it
on emotions, you have to run it on skill.” He moved closer. “What
happened?”

“I don’t know.” I shrugged. “I was unable to
draw upon the power to use the stick.”

“Tanner said you struck out with your hands
and it worked.”

“Yes.”

“And then…?”

“They ran. They fled and I didn’t want them
to flee, I wanted them to
die
. I got angry.”

“So a temper tantrum killed them?”

“I suppose.”

“Vala,” Davis placed his hands on my arms,
“if you told me that blast of destruction was intentional, I would
scream for joy from the rooftops. However, it scares me that you
did that.”

“I’m sorry, Davis, I really am.”

“It scared Tanner.”

“I’ll apologize to him.”

Davis placed his lips to my forehead. “With
practice, you will learn to do that intentionally. I promise. Until
then, please understand that I am going to have to put you in rural
areas not often frequented by Savages.”

“I understand.”

“Now…” he moved back, “Sarge said you were
looking for me earlier. Did you still want to talk?”

I had almost forgotten. My eyes widened. I
sought out my meal sack. “I think you can change your plan.”

“What plan?”

“The one to send the pregnant girl into
Akana.”

“Vala, we need to send her to be chosen. You
need to tap into her to see the Ancient City.”

I pulled the flower from the sack.
“Here.”

“Thank you. This is nice. As I was
saying—”

I giggled. “No, that’s not for you. It was to
show you. I received it.”

“Oh, you have an admirer. That’s very
nice.”

Davis didn’t understand and I guess I wasn’t
clear. “No, I got that from Iry.”

The smile dropped from his face. “The Sybaris
educator.”

“Yes. He came to me and pulled me from a
dream.”

“He pulled you?” Davis asked. “Like, he
transported you himself?”

“Yes.”

“Vala, this isn’t good.”

“You’re missing the point,” I said. “It is
good. He gave that to me.”

“This is disturbing. How does this change
plans?”

“Because Iry made an error by giving me that.
That flower is from the city of the Ancients. He took me there. I
have seen it. I’ve been there. And now... I can go back.”

Davis glanced at the flower, the smile
returning to his face.

What happened on my first real night of
patrol stayed with me and hurt the productivity of my training. Not
that it mattered. I was fast labeled the “Sybaris Repellent”,
because if I was there, they never attempted to attack. For over a
week, I went where they needed me, and walked a boring patrol. The
only interaction I had with the Savage Sybaris were in the field
training. It lacked the realism and tension of a real attack. That
was the training I needed.

Housing areas that were always hard hit
needed only for me to show up one night and the Savages stayed
away. I was defeating the purpose. There was no way to destroy them
if they did not come close.

To make matters worse, they started pairing
me with the pregnant girl, Mindy. She was nice, but I didn’t
understand why they had to send her. Why they had to risk her life
and her baby’s life when I simply could work on getting to the
Ancient City though transporting.

Davis simply stated having someone there was
best.

Any gifts that I had were going to waste. I
was becoming a pretty good grape picker.

Marie sensed my depressed mood. She prepared
a nice meal before I went on my evening patrol, which
coincidentally was at Lyon Estates.

I adored Marie. She was so kind and different
than my mother.

My mother
. I don’t think a day went by
where I wasn’t troubled by the thought over what I saw or worried
for my sister.

“Eat. You have a long night.”

“This smells wonderful.”

“It’s stew and biscuits.” She joined me at
the table. “It's such a warm night and it will be a pleasure
sleeping with the windows open for once.”

My heart sank and I sighed. “Because I scare
them.”

“No, my dear.” She placed her hand on mine.
“You protect us.”

“I want to beat them. I want them all to go
away and the only way that will happen is if we beat them into
extinction.”

“You’ll get there. They’re afraid of you
today, but who knows what tomorrow brings? They may figure out you
aren’t all that.”

My mouth dropped open.

“You know I am teasing you.”

“Thank you.”

“Why are you still down?”

“Because I want to fight but… but ... I’m
afraid of what I am capable of.”

“I see.” Marie nodded. “Afraid of losing
control again.”

“Yes, and I can’t even practice that without
a real attack. Thing is, I wasn’t focused that night. That was it.
I know that was it.”

“What happened?” Marie asked. “Why weren’t
you focused?”

“I was fighting with Tanner.”

She crinkled her face with a confused look.
“Why were you fighting? I thought you were friends?”

“Were. We were friends. He gets me so
mad.”

“I think it’s because you like him.”

“Oh, I don’t like him.”

“What brought it on? What did he do? He’s
typically a really nice boy.”

I paused in eating and looked at her. “I
don’t know why it got me so mad.”

“What?”

“I don’t understand why, Marie. I was
transporting, I went to the beach and he was there with a girl,
they were kissing. I felt this rage in my belly and wanted to
scream.”

Marie sat back. “You were jealous. Jealous,
angry, probably hurt.”

“I don’t understand why.”

“Because you probably didn’t understand that
you were becoming attracted to Tanner. You are still learning how
to decipher feelings. You weren’t raised to recognize the signs of
‘liking’ someone. But you feel it and you feel it when they hurt
you, whether intentional or not.”

“Should I not be mad at him?”

“Oh, I’d be pissed. He did seem to take an
immediate liking to you. Then he’s off traipsing about with
someone. Who’s the girl?”

“I don’t know. Please don’t tell him.”

She held up her hand. “I promise.”

“So that feeling I get, the warm tummy
flopping feeling I had when he looked at me... that need to smile,
and my heart beating, that is all part of liking someone?”

“That’s the beginnings. Just wait until you
feel love. And you will. You will also feel that tummy flopping for
someone else. I promise.”

“You don’t think I’m being silly?”

“You’re never silly,” Marie said. “Except
when you laugh like ALF.”

“Ha…ha-ha… ha.”

She reached out and tapped my nose.

“I want to feel that. I saw it on television.
I want that,” I said.

“That’s not silly, Vala.” She reached out and
squeezed my hand. “That is human.”

I stared with comfort into Marie’s warm eyes.
We had gotten close in the short time I had grown to know her. I
had never had a conversation with my mother like I did with Marie.
We had honest conversations; I was glad she was in my life and
hoped she stayed there for a very long time.

Working and farming the fields had to be done
early in the morning. The weather was far too hot to be out in the
elements, even with thin clothing.

Mindy, the pregnant girl, suffered from the
heat. Her face was red and, despite drinking water, she wasn’t
cooling down. I worried because she was with child.

I worried about her a lot. She would be
leaving soon and I tried to convince them not to send her. I knew
what happened to newborn babies, especially when they were
male.

I heard a sigh and looked over to Mindy. She
was balancing the basket on her stomach and wiped her forehead with
the back of her hand. A purple stain smeared with her sweat.

“Take a break,” I told her.

“No, I’m fine.”

“Go sit by Tanner, he is in the shade.”

“Do you mind?”

“No, not at all. And eat some grapes. Fruit
is good for you.”

Dirty as it was, she popped a grape in her
mouth and headed off toward Tanner.

I didn’t understand why he was suddenly in
the vines with us. Tanner usually worked other fields. Maybe Marie
was trying to get us to talk. I did speak to him, nothing more than
a simple greeting, and I certainly didn’t share any more jokes with
him.

I moved slowly down the vine of grapes. It
wasn’t easy work and it was tedious. I knew that portion of the
vineyard would have to be cleared by the next day. I reached for a
bundle of grapes and examine them. They looked ripe. They would be
used for making wine. I couldn’t wait to stomp them. In fact, as I
held the grapes, I started laughing because my mind flashed to Lucy
and the winemaking episode.

“Vala,” someone called softy.

My heart jumped and I spun around.

“Iry. What…?”

“There you are. Do you know how hard you are
to find?”

“What are you doing here?” I asked, shifting
my eyes around.

“I’m not really
here
per say. I’m
transporting, like you. Who on Earth did you give that flower to? I
kept following it and every time I tried, I ended up in the room of
some big man with graying hair and a guitar.”

That made me laugh. “Davis.”

“You just smiled.” Iry said. “I don’t think
I’ve seen you smile much. You look beautiful.”

I lowered my head.

“This sun and training, it has done well for
you. And… the lack of sleeves works, too.” He winked.

My eyes widened. “Why are you here?”

“I’m here to be serious. You said something
the other night.”

“What did I say?”

“About your mother. Vala, she… this is going
to be difficult to say, or to believe. She is… placing you for
bid.”

“What does that mean?”

“That means she is giving assurance to many
well-off Ancients that you are coming back and she will convince
you on whom to go with. Nito has taken over. And in good faith
exchange, your mother is giving her blood.”

“Why would she do that? Why would she want to
sell me out?”

“I don’t know. But there’s more. Nito has
said enough is enough. I overheard her say she is sending a
warning.”

“To who? To me?”

“For you,” Iry said. “She is going to force
you to come back. To do so she is going to send a Stalker attack
here.”

“Stalkers don’t attack here.”

Iry raised his eyebrows. “Leave, Vala. Come
back on your own. Don’t let them come for you. Don’t let them warn
you. It will only hurt these people you have grown to like. Don’t
do that. Just leave.”

“I can’t leave, Iry. And do what?”

“Come back to Akana. You’re marked. Your
passage is secure after the sea. Come back, and choose me.”

I laughed in ridicule. “You’re lying. You’re
doing this so I come back and you can choose me. You want me to
believe Nito can scare me into coming back, then I return and still
get a choice? How are her warnings valid?”

“She’ll make sure you don’t walk through the
gates of Akana.”

“You said safe passage.”

“That’s because I will provide it. I will
come out and meet you.”

“I can’t believe what you say. You are
lying.”

“No, Vala, I am not. Nito wants you back.
She’ll send the Stalkers and then let you know it was her. She’ll
keep sending them until everyone here is dead.”

“No.”

“Then she’ll go after your mother…”

“No.”

“Your sister.”

“I don’t believe you.”