White Ghost and the Poison Arrow (18 page)

Once the
bedding is packed away, and the bow and arrows safely attached to
the bag, Arella puts on her boots, attaches the dagger to the
inside of them and picks up the grathon. “Okay let’s go!” She says
with enthusiasm. After watching the events that took place last
night, and witnessing the beauty of nature, Arella is madder than
ever, but in complete awe of what nature has in store, and the
miracles it can perform. Nayleen used to tell her that everything
in life was a miracle, and that the earth spirit kept balance of
life. Arella is finding this hard to believe when there is someone
going around needlessly killing animals then leaving them to die.
How can this be balance? How can this be fair?

The ground underfoot is hard and dry, though not rough like
the gravel from the yesterday. It makes for quick walking, without
having to think about where you put your feet, just being able to
walk fast. The ground to the right of Arella, away from the lake,
seems to be the hard, red ground for quite some distance before
again filling out into grasses and forest behind that. It is
strange that this place exists. Arella stares off into the
distance, thinking. “
Somewhere in that
desert land is Maska’s mother’s body, buried in a tomb.”
This makes Arella sad. She turns to Maska and
catches him looking the same way. Maybe he remembers too, although
how could he, he was so young. She quickly finds something to take
their minds off the morbid thought. “So if you could be any type of
plant what would you be?” Maska blinks at her, not quite sure what
she means. “It’s a serious question. Should I tell you what I would
be?” She pauses to think for a second. “I’d be a willow tree.
They’re tall and pretty and strong.” Maska still just stares at
her. “Yeah okay, bad topic to talk about. Seriously though, we need
something to lighten the mood.” Just at that moment, Arella hears a
loud splash at the side of her. She looks over, and so does Maska,
but neither of them see anything. “What was that?” She asks. Her
and Maska then move over to the edge of the lake to investigate the
sound. Maska leans his face close to the water, trying to see what
made the noise, but he can’t see anything. Arella sees it before
Maska does. He doesn’t notice until he is already wet. A big fish
with purple scales pops its head out of the water and spits a
mouthful into Maska’s face, making his sneeze as it goes up his
nose. Arella roars with laughter, but Maska does not look please by
the exchange with the fish. He swats at the water in an attempt to
catch it, but fails, only to have more water from another fish spat
in his face. “Come on Maska.” Arella says through shorts laughing
breaths. “We’d best leave the fish along and keep walking.” She
laughs again, but an evil stare from Maska stops her momentarily.
The look of wet fur and disappointment on his face just make Arella
laugh more, bringing more death stares from Maska. Water drips from
his whiskers and he shakes his head, splashing Arella with it. She
shields her face with her hands and laughs. “Come on Maska. We have
work to be getting on with.” She says as she wipes droplets of
water from her cheek.

The lake slowly
starts to veer off now, meaning that Maska and Arella have come to
the top of it. She didn’t realise the lake was so big. No wonder
she never had any issues catching fish in it, with all this room to
swim in there must be millions of them. “Do you think there are
bigger fish in this lake Maska?” She asks him, his face still a
little damp from earlier. “Because if the lake is so big, there
must be some really big fish in there right? I wonder how deep down
they are, and if anyone’s ever seen them.” Arella’s mind often
wonders off onto odd subjects, she has a habit of going off on a
tangent. Maska rolls his eyes. He has grown used to Arella's
strange ways.

Across the planes, Arella can see a herd of bison grazing on
the dry grass. As she watches, she notices that they have young.
The babies are much cuter than the adults, their whole bodies
covered with a thick layer of fur, tiny little legs holding their
already huge bodies up. She watches as a few of them play, chasing
each other and pretending to fight with horns not yet grown. The
adults watch on, keeping one eye on Maska as he prowls in front of
Arella, not really paying attention to the bison. Arella spots a
male in the mix, his body mass twice that of the females, and horns
much bigger. He huffs and breaths heavy through his nose,
scratching his hoof on the floor creating dust, all while staring
at Arella and Maska. A clear threat, just saying
“
Keep away from my herd of I will charge at
you.”
Arella is not going to argue with a
fully grown male bison, she wouldn’t even argue with a baby, so the
male has no reason to fear them. Maska and Arella just walk on by,
keeping their distance from the grazing animals, continuing on in a
straight line, towards the trees on the other side of the
lake.

As Arella and
Maska walk along the edge of the lake now walking towards the
treeline and mountains on the other side, Arella hears something
strange, something she has never heard before. It sounds like
thunder, continuous thunder. She looks up at the sky, then down at
Maska who is doing the same thing. “Do you hear what I hear?” She
asks him, but it is clear from his reaction that he does. “There
are no clouds, and no rain, so it cannot be thunder.” She looks on
puzzled, following the sound to find out what it is.

Trees have
started growing again, meaning that Arella cannot see the thing
that is making noise, even though she is sure it is in front of her
somewhere. She picks up the pace, eager to see what is making the
strange noise. “Maska, run ahead and see what it is?” She asks him.
He does this without question, also eager to find out what the
noise it. Maska has a curious nature, and it usually gets him into
trouble. As Arella watches Maska shrink into the distance, hidden
by the trees and bushes that are all around, she wonders what they
will find.

Maska
disappears through the trees and when he does not come back, Arella
picks up her pace to go to him. When she gets there, she is
shocked. “So the lake we thought was a lake isn't a lake... It's a
river.” She says. “Not a very strong one from the looks of it, but
still, the water is not still.” She laughs. “Well that's odd, but
explains the noise.” Maska looks a little confused at Arella. “Look
over there Maska, it's a waterfall.” She points to the left. The
water seems to be cascading down a deep hole at quite a rate,
draining out of the lake. White heads form on the water as it
tumbles into the hole, which looks to be large enough for Arella to
fit down if she wanted, causing water to flow faster close to it.
“Water must feed it from other streams on the other side of the
lake... river... whatever it is. I have never seen anything like
this.” Arella moves closer to the hole. “I wonder where the water
goes.” She asks no one in particular. “That would explain the
feeling of water moving, even back at our house. It’s because the
water is flowing, slowly yes, but it is still flowing.” The area
where the water begins to flow faster looks to be fairly deep, but
luckily, Arella and Maska can just walk around it. So around the
strange waterfall Maska and Arella go, keeping their distance so
they don't fall in, and they continue walking, the sound of the
crashing water falling further and further behind them.

Arella's mind
had begun to wander. Her growling stomach brings her back into the
present. “What are we going to have for tea tonight Maska? We need
to keep our energy up by eating still, and we don't have any food
left for tonight.” Arella says as they walk towards the trees on
the other side of the lake. The trees are dead ahead of them, with
the lake on their right. More grass has started growing underfoot,
and the ground has less rocks jutting out of it. Maska just looks
at the water, then at Arella's grathon. “Oh, so you think I'm going
to catch you fish again?” She asks. “What do you think I am, your
servant?” She laughs. Maska nudges into her, nearly knocking her
off balance. “careful Maska, you're stronger than you used to be.”
She giggles. He nudges her again, this time knocking her onto the
floor. Maska then pounces on Arella and starts licking her face.
“Get off me you silly cat!” She shouts through laughter. He gets up
and sits down on the ground in front of her, wagging his tail
happily. “Fish tonight it is then.” She pauses, laughing before she
has even said anything. “Although, are you sure you want fish,
after what happened earlier. I’d have thought you’d have had enough
by now.” She cracks up at the end, but Maska is too fast for her.
He jumps on her again, this time Arella catches him, knocking him
off guard and they both tumble to the floor. Once Arella has caught
her breath again, they get up and continue walking, smiles on both
their faces. In the uncertainty that is to come, they still have
high spirits, keeping each other going, even with tired feet and
sore legs, they push each other on.

Arella is
starting to get tired, and the sun is only mid-way through the sky.
It seems like the lack of sleep is starting to catch up with her,
but she knows she must keep going until nightfall. If they keep
walking at the pace they are going at, Maska and Arella will reach
the dense woodland on the other side of the lake in a couple of
hours, but Arella’s legs are hurting. “Maska, can we rest for a
couple of minutes?” She asks. Maska, who was walking just a little
way ahead turns and walks back to Arella. “We should go and sit
over there, under the shade of that tree for a little while.” She
wipes her forehead, now covered in sweat from the hot summer heat.
“Get out of this sun for a bit.” As they move to sit under the
shade of a small oak tree, Arella notices that Maska is panting
slightly. “Must be hot under that black fur coat.” She notes. “We
will sit under here for a little while, then go for a swim, cool
off a bit before we continue again. How does that sound?” Maska
stretches himself out on the ground under the tree. “I’ll take that
as a yes.”

Arella looks up
at the sky. “Look Maska. There are grey clouds in the sky over
there. Once they come over, we will be a lot cooler, and the sun
won’t be able to get us. They look a couple of hours away, so we
will stay here until they are almost here. Give ourselves a break.”
She looks down at Maska who is completely relaxed and decides that
she should do the same.

Once all of her belongings are resting on the floor by Maska,
Arella goes in search of something to put water in so they can
drink in the shade. She looks around at the sparse trees 
behind her. One of those trees has big broad leaves. She walks over
to it. The leaf feels rubbery and waterproof, is thick and curved.
“
I could use this for collecting
water.”
She pulls once of the leaves from a
branch and takes it over to the lake. Dipping it into the water,
Arella’s suspicions are confirmed, the leaf will hold water well.
She lifts it to her lips, drinking greedily. It Is cool and
refreshing. She hadn’t realised her lips were cracked until the
water touched them, making them sore. She refills the leaf with
water and takes another drink, before taking a full leaf over to
Maska who is on his side under the tree, still panting in the heat.
When he is given the water, Maska drinks it just as quickly as
Arella does, clearly too hot. “We’re not used to the sun are we
boy?” She says as she strokes his head, the last of the water from
the leaf being lapped up. “Maska, go and get in the water, just dip
yourself in then come back here under the tree. That way you will
cool off a lot quicker.” He picks himself up off the hot ground and
does as Arella asks. Maska slinks his obsidian body into the cool
clear lake, fully submerging himself for a few seconds, before
walking back out of the water.

Once he is on
dry land again, Maska shakes out his fur, catching Arella with some
of the spray, then lays down under the tree again, visibly cooler.
Arella goes to the lakeside and gets more water to bring back, then
rests under the tree with Maska. “We will just wait out here until
it cools down a little bit, then we will go again.” Maska is
relaxed, and Arella thinks he might be falling asleep. She could
fall asleep too, if she didn’t have to keep watch. High in the sky,
Arella can see vultures circling. A common sight where she lives,
but a funny one at that. The normally circle dead or dying things,
but Maska and Arella are neither. She places a hand on Maska’s
chest, feeling him breath as she does so. As her touch, Maska
begins to purr loudly, welcoming the affection. Arella watches as
the wet paw prints Maska left on the hot ground dry up in front of
her eyes.

Arella opens
her eyes. She only closed them for a second, to stop the glaring
light from attacking them, but she must have closed them for
longer. Light grey clouds now cover the sky, and the air is
chilled. “We’ve overslept Maska.” She says as she nudges the great
auron cat. He grumbles a little at being woken but gets up
reluctantly. “We should get moving.” Arella says. With this she
flings her deerskin bag back onto her back and picks up the
grathon. Judging by where the clouds are, they must have slept for
about three hours. “I can’t believe I overslept.” Arella says.
“That never happens.” Maska just looks at her. “Yeah I know I was
tired and didn’t sleep last night, but I was meant to be keeping
watch.” Maska just rolls his eyes. Arella pauses. “I’m over
reacting aren’t I?” Maska just nods. “Okay, I’ll be quiet."

Maska stops
Arella just before she is about to walk away from their tree.
“”What’s up Maska?” She asks, but before he can answer she knows
what he wants. “You think we should catch some fish now, then we
don’t have to worry about getting anything later. Smart Maska, very
smart.” Arella puts down her bag and starts catching fish. The
whole time she is stood in the shallows of the water, knee high in
the cool clear lake, the temperature of the air surrounding her is
getting colder, and the wind is starting to pick up. Maska yowls at
her. “I just need to catch one more then we can…” With that Arella
plunges the grathon into the lake for a third time and comes up
trumps with a big fat fish. She quickly guts the fish, leaving the
entrails in the lake for others to eat then climbs out of the lake
and onto the hard ground on the bank. “Okay let’s go.” She takes
the big leaf she was using for a drinking cup and wraps the fish in
it, then places them in the deerskin bag.