The Tribe of the Mountains — Chapter 4 — Daylight?

From the Seventh Sermon to the Dead — Written by Young (real life)

Man is a portal that allow us to go, from the external world of gods demons and souls into the interior world; from the bigger world to the smallest one. Small and insignificant is man; soon we leave him behind and so we enter again in the infinite space in the microcosm, in the interior reality.

In a tree close to a stream, five hours of walk from the northern border of a malignant forest four figures sleep strapped to hammocks tied to the highest branches.
Their dreams must be quite turbulent, since the toss and turn and, if not for the security ropes, they would have fallen to their deaths already.
But, the night is over, the forest is full of the normal noises of birds and monkeys and it is the strident noises of a group of Saguis (small monkeys, very high pitch scream) bellow them that woke Bastet.
Silent like a cat, a bit shaken by undefined nightmares that she couldn`t remember she stretched in the “bed” and looked at the scenery bellow.
Their tree was not the tallest in the forest, but it was tall enough to allow to see glimpses of the border between forest and grasslands to the north. Straining her eyes she could see men in horses galloping here and there in the distant fields, but the camp of the tribe was hidden, too close to the trees to be seen.
The sun was already a bit high in the sky, its bottom already “a hand” above the horizon their people didn`t count time with accuracy, but this would be the hour in which the women would be sent to get water for the morning meal (an old saying - extend a hand in front of your face and see your thumb “touching” the horizon, your little finger will be touching the sun, this is the time to wake up).
With some difficulty she disentangled herself from the security rope sit carefully in the hammock and looked for their destination in the north.
The forest was not so big, at least not in this spot. She knew that the mountains were deceptively close, the eye plays tricks when a distant object is so big, but the first hills were still only a day from their “camp” and she could see glimpses of water here and there amid the foliage indicating that a small stream would take them where they wanted.
By now Anora was also awakening, looking around more than a little startled, with vague memories of dark shapes fighting in her dreams.
- Bastet, do you see any indication of pursuit?
- Nope. As we imagined, the Tribe has more things to worry them. I want to look down to see what the spirit made during the night, but I will not look down from here, too unstable.
- Ok, let`s move to the main branches.
And they did move slowly, always tied to security lines, to the large branches closer to the tree. From there Anora took courage and looked down (OH, the vertigo!) but couldn`t see any predator or thorn bushes.
- Weird, it is as if this was a normal forest.
- Well, do not look at a gift horse too closely. Said a bleary eyed Erynia from her hammock.
Erynia joined them closer to the trunk and also looked down, but she also couldn`t see any danger and her other senses were still recovering from the strain put on them in the last night.
Anora stopped a little to check around with her mind, she was not so tired as Erynia (although another magical light was out of question) and could sense clearly that the spirit of that forest was not active. Except for a faint benign aura coming from the trees and soil and that could form a typical forest spirit if given time.
Well, Bastet said, we need to wake up the male.
They all knew why Eric had not awoken yet. Men only woke latter, when breakfast was already ready.
So, it was with a sense of revenge that Bastet started to rock a certain Hammock until the man inside woke startled.
Weirdly, Eric had slept soundly, no nightmares except for the vision of two behemoths made of mists fighting in the forest`s sky.
The girls also had this one, but after that they were sure that they had darker dreams that they could not remember.
Well, comparing dreams was useful in this situation since all agreed that something really had attacked the spirit of the woods and this was why they were still alive. But breakfast would only be possible in the safety of the ground, preferably close to the stream where a sudden recovery of their enemy would not get them completely unprotected.
So, after a bit of planning and a lot of rope and hammocks recovery, when the sun was already three hands (two and a half of Eric`s hands) above the horizon Bastet went to the ground followed by Eric with the machete close to hand and the others right behind.
What they met was quite surprising.
The thorn bushes had disappeared.
There were marks of things slithering over the ground all around, indication of the shuffling of many of the creatures, there were panther paw prints here and there, from more than one panther and claw marks very high in the bark of the tree, marks similar to those left by a bear, but it would have to be a very tall bear.
And yet, no creature could be seen. It was as if a large army of dangerous creatures had assembled and, suddenly dissipated back into the woods.
Well, they would not wait to see if any was coming back.
Anora`s protection spell had healed many of their small cuts, but walking was still annoying with the odd movement causing an inconvenient itch or stab of pain.
And yet they made good time, Bastet going ahead and showing to Eric where to cut with the machete. Now, in most of the forest, there was enough light to see although some pitch black patches remained.
The forest is always dark.
But they reached the stream pretty fast. They were very close to it after all.
They found a reasonably clear place to sit, in a group of rocks close to the water and opened the backpacks to see what had survived.
They had packed ceramic jugs full of thick meat soup inside of impermeable skins (leather bottles) the idea being that the ceramic would keep the soup fresh (as it does with water, keeping water cold even in hot summer days in the tropics) and, if the ceramic broke, the skins would protect the ropes and hammocks from being drenched.
And this was the content of their back packs, ropes, small stone knifes, jugs of soup and some dried meat. Nope, no extra pair of clothes.
Of course, after the events of last night only one bottle of soup (Anora`s) was not broken. But the skins had avoided any spill and the ceramic had done its cooling magic, the soup was cold, and tasting a bit like clay, but edible.
They decided not to ration food. From the beginning they knew that they would have rations for one day, at most two. If they got to the mountains Eric still had bow and arrows (remember, this is folk used to carry loads not the softies that we became in our cities) and they could hunt.
But another night in these woods would kill them.
So, they started to follow the margins of the stream, going in the direction contrary to the current.
And it was a silent march that took the hole day, with Anora placing the extra effort of a healing spell whenever she could to heal their worst scratches and improve everybody`s mood.
It may seem weird, but the girls were feeling very happy. They might die from starvation and walking close to water was almost the same as saying: “Hey Jaguar see, I am here” but, for the first time in their lives they were feeling free.
Eirc`s mood was not so good at first, after all, besides being the pack mule with the heavier load of rope and most of the remaining food his feelings of not being the dominant partner in the future relationship with his “wives” were growing.
But at the middle of the day Erynia and Anora decided to take out their stained and torn robes and Eric didn`t mid even a little the extra weight that the robes put in his backpack.
To his sore eyes, the brown skinned Anora with her dark her, Erynia, the light skinned blonde and the dark beauty of the small Bastet were a blessing giving him am immediate hard on and lascivious thoughts fed by the curves an variety of these very fit female companions.
So, Eric was half thinking with his other head as he followed the three out of the woods.
Well, not exactly out of the woods, there were still trees and dense foliage in the hills at both sides of the stream but the “feeling” of the place changed.
As higher and higher slopes started to surround the water flow that they were following they felt welcome and something gave them extra energy to continue.
Until the end of a valley, where there was a beautiful waterfall coming from inside a cave a little above where they were. This waterfall originated the stream that they were following.
By now the sun was already one or two hands from the horizon at the west (an estimative, since they couldn`t really see the horizon), so, they had to camp.
Eric preferred to find a rock somewhere (there were a few big ones here and there appearing in the middle of the vegetation) and camp over it but the girls decided that the cave was a better idea. It had water, protection from the elements and was completely out of the domain of the spirit of the woods.
And, against his better judgment, Eric followed them into the darkness.
Darkness from which none of them would come out unchanged.

SHE was waiting.