Bastial Energy (63 page)

He made notes that some Slugari were watering the plants, but he didn’t know where they were getting the water.

The cavern seemed to twist on forever. With each turn, he kept expecting to see the end of it. But after what must have been a mile of plants, pillars, and caregelows lighting their way, he started to wonder if they’d just gone in a big circle. That is, until they came to the lake.

“This is clean water,” Hejel told them. “Make sure not to fall in.”

The Slugari had surrounded the massive body of water with blocks of hardened clay. The room containing it was the largest yet, stretching well past one hundred yards, and the lake touched two sides of its walls. Upon closer investigation, it even looked to be moving, as if the entire body of water was seeping in through one side of the room and flowing out the other.

“How have you brought so much water down here?” Alex asked.

“Brought?” Hejel questioned. “This is groundwater. It was here long before us. There are many places under Ovira where water exists. We can sense the Bastial Energy within it to make it easier to locate. That is what these are for.” Hejel leaned forward. His two short antennae wiggled. “There is Bastial Energy in everything natural. There is more in water than there is in the dirt, although the deeper we dig, the more in the dirt we find. There is more in plants than in water, especially some plants.”

He squirmed toward Terren, his antennae stretching out at Terren’s hand. “And there is much in Humans as well, some more than others. Like her.” He lifted a claw to Effie. “I can feel a lot of Bastial Energy in her, although she is still nowhere near what Slugari have.”

Steffen hurried to write it all down. He’d read some of what Hejel was saying but never with as much specificity. With one eye he noticed Hejel coming over to him.

“What is that you are doing?”

“Taking notes to report back to the King,” Steffen replied, continuing to scribble.

“I understand…and is this all the notes you have taken right there in your hand?” Hejel pointed.

“These scrolls, yes.”

“Good,” Hejel said. He snatched them from Steffen’s grasp. A flicker came from Hejel’s claws, catching the edge of the scrolls aflame. He dropped them to the dirt as fire washed over them. “We cannot have you keeping records of our hidden colony until we are absolutely sure they will remain in safe hands.”

A defeated whimper squeaked out of Steffen as he watched hours of notes melt into the dirt. Reela gave a comforting squeeze to his shoulder.

The boom of the Dajrik’s footsteps came around a pillar. Walking next to him was a chagrined Zoke, his bright yellow eyes avoiding them.

“It appears Queen has decided your Krepp is not a threat,” Hejel said. “It must be true that he cannot smell, otherwise he surely would have succumbed to his urges to eat by now.”

Reela and Effie were whispering loudly to each other. A laugh erupted from Effie that she tried unsuccessfully to stifle with her hand.

When the silence and gazes of the others stopped them, Reela showed Hejel wide eyes above a troubled smile. “Can we pet the Dajrik?” she asked.

What? Pet that thing?
Steffen had known his childhood friends to be adventurous, but their request still came as a shock. He could’ve spent years in the Slugari colony without once thinking of touching the bone-hard skin of the creature more than three times his size.

“Pet?” Hejel asked. “I do not know this word.”

For all I know, there might not even be a word for it in Slugaren,
Steffen thought. “They want to touch the Dajrik,” he explained.

“Touch him?” Hejel was even more confused. “Why?”

Steffen shrugged.

Effie quickly tried to explain. “There’s a connection when we touch another living creature. It’s like sharing a conversation without words.”

Everyone turned to Hejel. His beady eyes were shifting slowly between Effie and Reela. “I will ask him,” Hejel finally replied. His tone was as if he was sure the Dajrik would disagree.

As Hejel began speaking to the Dajrik in Slugaren, Alex leaned over to whisper to Steffen. “You don’t want to pet the Dajrik?”

“Now that I think about it, I would. Not that I know why. His skin surely won’t be soft.”

“It’s not the pleasure of the touch but what it means,” Alex said.

“It doesn’t really matter,” Steffen retorted without giving Alex’s words any thought. “It’s not going to want to be petted anyway.”

“The Dajrik says you can touch him,” Hejel announced to Steffen’s surprise. At that, the giant took a step toward them. His foot displaced the hard dirt in front of them the same way Steffen’s might on a sandy beach.

Zoke and Terren were the only ones uninterested. Steffen overheard them speaking quietly about Queen while he gathered the courage to make contact with the Dajrik’s leg in front of him.

The skin of the Dajrik, if it could even be called skin, was iron gray. It looked as if someone had taken slabs of mountain and shaped them around his limbs. Steffen was surprised when he pushed his palm against it, for it bent slightly, giving way to thick muscle. The texture of the skin was like the coarse mountain walls within the Fjallejons’ pathway, but it was far softer, even stretchy.

“This isn’t as hard as bone,” Steffen said with sheer disappointment.

“He is very old,” Hejel answered. “Over two thousand years. I am sure it used to be far tougher.”

“When was the last time he was touched?” Effie asked. She and Reela were at the other leg, running their hands down to his feet intimately.

Before Hejel could ask, the Dajrik stepped back to take his feet away. At first he looked as if he’d grown tired of the attention, but then he let down a knee so that he could rest two open hands on the dirt. He waited patiently, but Steffen didn’t know what he wanted.

Reela seemed to, though. She had an open-mouthed smile and squeaked with glee. “Come on,” she said, grabbing Effie’s hand and guiding her into one of the Dajrik’s open palms. Then Reela hurried over to the other.

The Dajrik closed his palms around them and brought them to his shoulders, where they sat and held on to his horn-like ears. They each gave a squeal of approval as the Dajrik gingerly rose to both feet.

He proceeded to parade them around, and their squeals became giddy screams.

Alex had a long belly laugh. Steffen, meanwhile, was at a loss for words. Not only didn’t he know what to say, he was too shocked to even know what to think. So he stared in silence, knowing full well it would be a sight he’d never forget.

Their sleeping quarters was an alcove that was attached to that same vast room with the lake. It was easily big enough for their entire party, but all it contained were a few hundred flowers Steffen didn’t recognize. They had long stems that were thick, about as wide as Steffen’s wrist. Atop the stems were milky brown petals with their edges curling inward like a hand at rest. They were packed so tightly together, just navigating through them would be tough.

“We think you will be very pleased with this flower bed.” Hejel had a knowing tone as if he was telling a joke. “It is our understanding that all the begardeens above ground died off before the Humans came to Ovira. Have any of you seen this plant before?”

It seemed as if they all looked at Steffen for the answer.
Begardeens?
“No,” he spoke for them. “We’ve never heard of it.”

“Humans like surprises, do they not?” Hejel asked.

“It depends,” Terren answered before anyone else could, holding his hand near his hilt.

“Go lie on them,” Hejel said. “They are quite strong in numbers.”

Again, they each turned to Steffen and waited.

“Go ahead, Steffen,” Terren pointed. “You’re the chemist. You should try it out first.”

Unsure what to expect, he nodded and started toward the begardeens. When he got close, their fingers curled outward and they leaned toward him, stretching out surprisingly far. Some even came up to his chest. As he tried to push his way through them, they softly pressed back. When he tried to guide his hands between some so that he could make a path, they rushed in front to meet his touch.

“How am I supposed to lie on them?” he asked.

“You have to jump. They will catch you,” Hejel replied. “They want to touch you. They are a very needy plant, highly attracted to warmth and Bastial Energy. It makes it quite difficult to feed the begardeens in the middle of this large cluster. Honestly, if there is any use to the plant for Slugari, we have not discovered it yet. We just cannot possibly let it become extinct like so many other amazing plants have already.”

By how hard the begardeens were pressing against him, Steffen knew they could support his weight. With nervous excitement, he removed his backpack and tightened his belt. He hurried to the wall behind him to give himself more room. Then he took a quick breath and broke into a run to get the speed he needed to leap over the front row of begardeens.

When he jumped, they reached out to hold him as he soared above. His momentum carried him across their tops, giving him the feeling that he was flying for a heartbeat. Now
he
was the one letting out a giddy squeal, Steffen realized.

He was a good ten feet into the cluster when he finally slowed to a halt. He wiggled and tried to get his feet on the ground, but couldn’t. Soon, his mind came around to the notion that they weren’t going to let him down. So he flipped on his back to get more comfortable. Then he bent his neck to lift his head, and to his surprise, begardeens stretched higher to support him.

When he sat up, they pushed on his back to keep him upright. When he pushed hard against them to lie back down, they gave until he pushed no more. Though he had no idea how he would get out, he didn’t mind. It was quite relaxing. He stretched out his arms and legs and yawned.

One by one, the others set down their bags and leapt onto the flower bed. Everyone screamed with excitement as they soared toward the middle of the begardeens. Even Terren had a hearty laugh. Zoke and Vithos were the only ones left who hadn’t. They seemed busy talking to each other in Kreppen until Vithos set down his bag and ran to join the rest of them atop the begardeens with a deep giggle.

“Come, Zoke,” Vithos called to him.

Zoke formed a smile with his long mouth and then broke into a sprint. He was quicker than anyone else had been, speeding to the begardeens and leaping impressively high into the air—only they didn’t reach out to hold him as they did for everyone else. Instead, they shrank and twisted away from his falling body. He screamed, but it was a yelp of sudden fear, not of excitement like everyone else.

Steffen heard a deep thud as Zoke slammed into the dirt with a loud grunt. In a breath, the Krepp was back on his feet with a dumbfounded look. He reached out to the begardeens nearby, and they only leaned farther away.

“Interesting,” Hejel said. “They must not like the stink of Krepps.”

Zoke let out a long sigh before dragging his feet out of the cluster of begardeens. Each plant leaned away from him as he went. “I’m used to sleeping on the dirt by now anyway,” he muttered.

“It from your bad luck,” Vithos said in his thick Kreppen accent, laughing. “Remember, Fjallejon said. You must kiss someone.” The Elf made a loud kissing sound three times. Steffen felt a laugh burst out of him and then he noticed the others laughing as well.

Zoke spat at that, though Steffen thought he could see a hint of a smile at the corner of his long mouth.

Chapter 63: We Think We Know

EFFIE

After an hour of phasing in and out of sleep, Effie was wide awake again. She sighed and pushed herself to sit upright. The begardeens rose with her back and held her there. She felt a tickle along her inner thigh. Glancing down curiously, she saw one of the begardeens had come through her legs to kiss the hand resting on her lap. She twitched her fingers to play with it, and it twitched right back.

The only light within their nook was a faint glow from the dimly lit caregelows outside. It was just enough for her to see the shadowy outline of Alex and Steffen next to her. They were each deeply asleep, breathing in a calm, rhythmic flow. As her eyes found a resting place upon Alex, some of the shadow peeled away so that she could see his features. She let out a soft giggle when she realized he was sleeping on his stomach, for the begardeens had latched onto his face, squashing his cheeks to cause his features to mush together. She couldn’t believe he found it to be comfortable, but he was asleep and she wasn’t.

Startled by sudden footsteps of someone entering, she aimed white light from her hand in their direction. It was just Zoke. He held up a claw to cover his eyes before continuing to the corner, where he rested with his back against the wall.

Effie swam her way out of the begardeens and cautiously went over to join him.

“Can’t sleep?” she asked, sitting down beside him.

“Just needed to urinate,” he answered. He closed his eyes as if disinterested in her company.

For a while they sat together in silence while Effie listened to his breathing. He let out air so slowly he took one breath for every two of hers. The tranquil sound made her feel like she was floating on the body of water just outside. She might even have been asleep when Zoke finally asked her, “You don’t like the plants?”