White Ghost and the Poison Arrow (21 page)

“You’re right!”
He says. Now getting to his feet. “But how do I do that?”

“Do you want to
annoy her, get her really mad?” Arella asks him.

“Yes, but how
do I do that.”

“You let me and
the cat go.” Arella suggests. “That will make her more mad than
anything else.”

“Do you think
that would work?”

“Of course it
would.” Arella pleads. “The thing she wants most is a baby, and
without me to sacrifice, she cannot have that baby. Don’t you think
that would make her mad?”

“Well yes, but
why let the cat go? I could kill it myself.” Fox turns on Maska,
evil in his eyes.

“But she wants
to kill him too. So by taking that away from her, you would be in
control again right?” Arella is trying to make it sound like it was
Fox’s idea, and luckily it is working. Fox takes a dagger from the
ground and walks over to Maska. Arella holds her breath. He cuts
the bonds holding his paws together, then the ones on his mouth. He
then moves over to Arella and cuts her free.

“Are you sure
this will work?” He asks.

“Sure as I can
be.” She answers.

Arella walks
over to Maska, rubbing her sore hands together. She touches him
gently, reassuring him that he is okay to get up now. He does so
slowly, clearly in pain. Arella then collects her belongings, the
ones that were taken from her when the skull people attacked her,
and she and Maska leave the foul smelling camp, heading back
towards the lake where they came from, always looking over their
shoulders, not sure whether Fox let them go on purpose or if he was
setting a trap.

The forest
floor is muddy and slippery from the downpour the night before. The
rain gave out at some point early morning, but the mud still bares
evidence of it. This makes walking hard, and with Arella and Maska
injured, progress is slow. They keep walking though, through the
mud. Arella trips on a hidden root, and Maska comes to her aid to
pick her up. As she puts her hands in the mud, lifting herself off
the ground, she notices she leaves prints in the mud. She turns and
looks behind her. “Maska, where leaving a trail to follow. We need
to get somewhere where they cannot follow us.” She walks on a
little further, heading directly for the water’s edge not far away.
It turns out, although Arella had been following the trail leading
her to Maska for a while, they had not taken the most direct route,
for she seems to get to the lake within no time at all, considering
the fact that she is poisoned and beaten, and Maska is badly
beaten.

Once at the
water’s edge, Arella climbs in. The water is colder than she would
like, but Maska follows her in too. “If we swim over to the rocky
area, they will not be able to follow tracks. Then we can escape
into the woodland on the other side.” This is a good idea, and
assuming the Wolf, Bison and Goat do not get back to the camp soon,
they will be able to reach the red bank in time to find somewhere
to hide.

Arella is
finding it hard to swim. The poison quickly working its way into
her bloodstream, making her tired and lethargic, she pushes on,
Maska right beside her, his aching muscles easy to see. The swells
in the lake caused by the extra water flowing in from the streams
is making it harder to swim, and by the time they reach the red
bank, both Arella and Maska are exhausted. They haul themselves out
of the lake, bodies feeling twice as heavy as normal, and pull
themselves away from the lapping edge. The sun is still high in the
sky, and the heat will quickly dry them off, but for now, the extra
weight of the water in clothes and fur is dragging them down. The
pulls themselves up from the ground, and start walking towards the
treeline, desperate for somewhere to hide.

A dark cloud
comes over Arella and she can feel a deep burning pain in her
cheeks where Wolf scratched her. This heat is making her sweat, and
there is now pain in her head, causing her vision to blur.

Arella drags
her feet as she walks, head hanging low and arms hanging limp.
Maska walks beside her, helping her stay upright as they move. He
knows that they must find cover soon, but the trees on the other
side are so far away, and Arella is getting weaker and weaker by
the hour. He looks around for something, anything that can help
her. He spots a large rock on the ground and leads Arella over
towards it. Remembering it from when they came past it the day
before, Maska knows that on the other side of this rock, there is a
sheltered area that goes underground slightly. Once there, his
theory is confirmed. Maska stops next to it, then nibbles on
Arella’s hand to get her attention. “Wha’ is i’ M’ska.” She says,
too weak to speak properly. He nudges her towards the underground
cave. “You wan’ m’ to go ‘n there?” She asks. Maska just nudges her
again. Arella is too tired to argue and does as the cat tells her
to do.

Arella curls up
inside the cave, cold taking hold of her and making her shiver. She
unravels the furs in her deerskin back and pulls them over her,
although they fail to keep the cold away. She watches as Maska
leaves her in the cave, clearly abandoning her, running away while
he still can. She doesn’t blame him. She’s doing to die in here,
and she knows it. He vision starts to blur, and she gets a terrible
sickness feeling in her stomach. She closes her eyes, giving up on
life and lets the darkness take her, tears rolling down her cheeks,
the salt burning her cheeks as it goes.

Chapter
17

Maska is
running as fast as his bruised legs will carry him. He knows where
he is going, but he must get there quickly. Maska remembers Arella
telling him something when he was a kitten. When he was disgusted
at the thought of eating berries, she once told him that berries
are good for healing too. Maska thinks that maybe if he brings
Arella berries, she can heal herself with them. He knows it’s a
long shot, but it’s the only one he’s got. He couldn't possibly
lose her. Arella is all Maska has, and he does not know what he
would do without her.

His legs are
aching as he charges across the red ground, the sun has quickly
dried it here, and Maska is kicking up a dust cloud as he runs. The
herd of bison the passed just yesterday see him coming and scatter
in different direction, convinced he is after them. The male stands
his ground, right in Maska’s path. Maska keeps running, heading
straight for the bull. It lowers its head, aiming its horns
directly for Maska and shakes his head, pushing air quickly out of
his nose, making as many noises and threatening actions as he can
to try and scare off the auron cat without a fight. It does not
work, Maska keeps running. The bull finally charges for Maska, but
when it gets to him, Maska simply darts to the side and runs around
it. This confuses the bull, and confuses him even more When Maska
does not turn on the calf who was hiding behind him. He just stares
on bemused and lets Maska pass. The rest of the herd step to the
side, letting him go. Maybe they realise there is some urgency in
the way Maska is running.

Swirls and
patterns of green fill the emptiness. The patterns are shaped like
little motto dear, being chased by wolves. They run and run,
through the red patterned trees and into a white lake. A bit yellow
frog jumps out of the lake and eats the wolves, saving the green
dear from being eaten, then it eats the deer too. Arella laughs at
this, pointing at the shapes in the darkness. Delirium is taking
over and she is seeing all kinds of things. She has broken out into
a cold sweat, and shivers in the cave Maska left her in. Pain grips
at her heart, and Arella doubles over, screaming into the darkness
for all the world to hear, but she does not care. She is dying, and
there’s nothing anyone can do about it. Soon she will join the
spirits in the sky, she will finally be at peace.

The forest is
just in sight, but the sun is now on its way down. Maska has been
running for hours and is starting to tire, but he must get the
berries and take them back to Arella. Suddenly Maska hears a
scream. He knows it is Arella, but does not dare himself to look
back. If he looks back, he will slow, or even worse, he will want
to go to her. No. Maska must keep going and find those berries. He
hears another scream, yet more painful to listen to than the last.
He just hopes no predators can hear it, or the people that attacked
them. His feline hearing helped him hear her, but if they are
close, they would hear her too. Then she would be dead by the time
she got to him. He must be quick. The sun has almost gone, and
Maska has been away for far too long.

Maska searches
and searches but cannot see the berries. He is beginning to lose
hope when the moon shows him the way. A beam of light, focused by
the clouds in the sky, shows him the way. He follows the light,
which leads him to a small bush on the ground. In that bush is a
small clutch of boa berries. Maska takes the thin branch the
berries are growing from, snaps it and pulls it away. He then
tightens his grip on the berries in his jaw and starts running back
towards Arella.

Exhausted
though he is, Maska pushes on at full pelt towards Arella. He must
get to her quickly, or else she might die. As he runs, her
screaming becomes fainter, although it is still there, she is
becoming weaker and weaker. He pushes on even faster, as fast as
his legs will carry him. Fear and adrenalin pushing him onwards.
The pain from his own injuries unimportant. All that matters in
this moment is getting to Arella, saving the life of his only
friend

By the time he
gets back to the cave, Maska’s paws are raw and bleeding. He
carefully climbs inside the cave with Arella, who is barely
conscious. He purrs at her, shoving the berries at her. “Maska I
don’t want to eat.” She says to him. He judges them at her again.
It isn’t working. Arella is too out of it to know what is going on.
Maska is getting desperate now. He has to take matters into his own
hands, paws.

Maska puts the
berries on the floor and does what he hopes will help Arella. He
shakes his head, knowing it probably won’t work and that he will
have lost her forever. He smushed the berries with his paw, then
places it on Arella’s face, covering the area that the wolf woman
cut her with poison nails. He then does this again and again until
nearly all of the berries have gone, hoping and praying that it
will work. Now all he can do is wait. Maska curls up next to
Arella, keeping close to her to keep her warm. Her shivering body
lies next to him, shallow breathing and jerky movements keep him
from sleep, as well as the sharp pain in his head. Maybe if he
stays close, willing her to live, it might work. She just might
pull through. A small tear escapes Maska's eye, drops onto Arella's
cold hand and rolls onto the dusty floor.

Arella has
drifted into unconsciousness, and soon too does Maska. Not knowing
whether he will be alone when he wakes.

Chapter
18

When Maska
wakes up, he is not quite sure what he will find. They day before
is mainly a blur, but he does remember Arella nearly dying, and him
running for miles and miles to bring her berries he thought might
save her life. He does not yet know if it worked, but Arella’s body
still seems to be warm, which means she cannot yet be dead. He
moves gingerly, his aching muscles now hurting more, and not
wanting to hurt Arella. He turns to look at her in the dim morning
light. Her cheeks are pale, but then the usually are. They were
pink last night, bright red even you might call it, but now the
colour has gone. Does that mean the berries worked? Maska hopes
so.

He licks at the
berry juice and blood on her face, hoping to give her some comfort.
She begins to stir. Arella’s eyes flicker, and when she opens them,
they are bright and purple. Maska is so happy to see her alive, he
purrs loudly, causing him pain in his chest where he was kicked
just the day before. Arella laughs at him. “What are you doing
Maska? You know I don’t like you licking my face.” She laughs, but
her bruised ribs keep her from enjoying the laughter. It is then
that Arella remembers what happened the day before. She brings her
hand up to her chin to feel for the marks, but there is nothing
there but a few small scratches. The day before, her face had
started to swell, and it felt like it was burning, now there is
hardly any evidence at all. “Maska, how did you…?” Arella starts to
ask, before she sees the crushed berries on the ground. “Well don’t
for remembering.” She says to him hugging him tight, causing both
of them pain. “How did you get them though. We are miles away from
the forest.” Arella takes Maska’s injured paw into her hand. “You
ran all that way? Maska we need to fix you up right away.” She
says. “More of those berries should do just that.” Luckily Maska
didn’t crush all of the berries, and there are still some on the
ground. Arella takes them into her hands, crushes them and rubs
them into Maska’s feet. “You will need to keep pressure off them
for an hour or so, let the juice settle in, but after that, your
paws should be as good as new.”

Maska and
Arella sit in the dimly lit cave for the next hour, both silently
listening to the world outside. They both drift off into a half
sleep again, although both listening still for sound of anyone
approaching.

Arella wakes up
first. She examines her own wounds in the light streaming into the
cave. She can feel the scratches on her chin, and looks down at her
ribs. Her right hand side is bright purple, sore and slightly
swollen. She touches the purple and flinches. Maska sturrs but does
not wake. She checks Maska’s paws while he still sleeps. They are
now fully healed, and the flesh on them is a bright fresh pink
rather than the black they were before. Arella wakes him up.
“Maska, we have to get up for. We need to get moving before they
find us.” But just as she says this Arella hears footsteps outside
the cave. She signals to Maska to keep quiet. He does so, but it
doesn’t make any difference. The first thing they see is bison’s
great skull staring at them in their cave. “I found them!” He
shouts back. Two more sets of footsteps rush towards them, and Goat
and Wolf appear in the mouth of the cave, Wolf looks terrifying.
She is covered in blood, and it looks fresh. Deep red blood drips
from Wolf's hair and lands on the floor. As she smiles, Arella can
see her teeth are stained with red too. Arella feels a little sick
at the sight of her, and Maska growls low.