The Guide - Wulfshard (ebook reader for comics TXT) 📗

spiders and swam as fast as she could to stay alive. Bed sounded like a damn good idea. “Surudu can keep watch.”
“Can I?” Tura asked quietly. “I’m sure I can look out pretty well. I can see in the dark better.”
“Do you know what you’re looking for?”
“Yes. I think I know when I see dangerous giant spiders or wolves.”
“Keep an eye out for our kind as well – and anything that has red eyes – even animals. Wake us up immediately.”
“Alright.”
“Also, we don’t want you patrolling.” Surudu added sternly. “You don’t know the swamp like we do. Keep to the camp. I don’t want you going more than three feet farther than this camp in any direction, understood?”
“Yes sir.”
“Don’t get smart with me!” He snarled. “If you end up dead it’s our fault for letting you guard.”
She didn’t say anything else as everybody got comfortable in the thick, foggy air. Soon the sound of sleep filled the air. Tura kept a sharp eye on the shoreline especially.
“You don’t think…” Ku asked quietly.
“Hush.” Tura rebuked. “They can’t have possibly pursued us this far. I’m just doing what I was asked.”
“So they’re no threat?”
“Get some sleep, Ku. We’ll be traveling in darkness through a treacherous land.”
She didn’t reply, but for a time piercing blue eyes watched the world around them. Slowly they, too, closed. Then Tura was put to her task completely alone.
 
4

“I lay dying
and I'm pouring crimson regret and betrayal
I'm dying, praying, bleeding and screaming
am I too lost to be saved
am I too lost?”
~ Evanescence, Tourniquet

A strange, unnatural sound echoed into Visam’s sensitive ears, waking her. She didn’t move. This wasn’t an animal wondering too close. It wasn’t the quiet paw-steps of Surudu or their clients. The movement was too clumsy and heavy. There was no sureness in the uneven gait. It rustled leaves and broke twigs.
But it doesn’t know I’m aware of it, or it would have stopped moving. This creature is stalking us. This is what has troubled me; we are being watched.
When the sound stopped at last, muffled voices spoke in a very common language heard everywhere else but the swamps. She knew what it was; she just couldn’t understand the words. For a moment she was stunned, alarmed – confused. Humans never wondered the swamps. Then she heard a few snitches of words she did know – kill, trap, surround.
They were after them.
I cannot wait. They will not see me moving in the water. I must strike them down.

Remembering humans poached their kind like they were some prized animal, Visam moved without making enough sound to alert her busy adversaries. By the time she had submerged herself she’d counted twelve.
There are many of them. This isn’t a poaching.
Baffled, for a time she simply watched the group. They set up spiked traps that snapped four-inch thick sticks with eye-blinking speed, rope traps covered and camouflaged amazingly well that would spin the captive into the air to hang upside down by a very unfortunate foot or ankle and pit traps. There were even spear traps that were triggered by wires. She’d seen things this cruel only in territorial wars over food during the shortages when nobody had enough.
Thankfully none of them used the water. They would stare at it and chatter amongst one another, but clearly feared the water. They stayed as much on the land as possible.
That is why I didn’t know they were coming, and why they fell so far behind. Who is their guide?

She looked hard, but saw no Mozori. All of them were human – not even Demis were amid their numbers.
I cannot kill them all. I must return to my fellows.

Carefully gliding under the water so none saw her, Visam returned to the three sleeping forms. She wasn’t surprised that they’d all fallen asleep. Shaking Surudu awake first, she signaled him to rise silently.
“Tura…” She woke the black-white tigress. “Leave everything. Move carefully and silently. Don’t say anything.”
Then the lizard repeated herself with Ku. They slowly made their way into the undergrowth and traveled silently. Shouting – humans shouting. The Demi’s looked back. Their eyes filled with such knowing dread that Visam instantly understood what was going on.
And now they’d been found.
A sharp arrow narrowly missed Tura’s throat zipped passed to land with a thunk into the mud, swallowed by the hungry earth.
“Go!” Surudu shouted. The four of them fled. Frantic and full of hate, anger and rage, Visam wound their way through shallow water, waist-high muck and the center of bramble forests. She heard yelps as fur was yanked, drowned and plastered. Twice she helped the Demis out of the thick mud and picked them up from tripping. But her methods slowly lost their pursuers – for the moment.
Finally Visam had a chance to look around. Her eyes searched more and more frantically. They started to make out red eyes, knotted trees and peat traps. The fog was returning with a vengeance. And there was no real sunlight; only an eerie glow combined with a light stink of rotting flesh and lingering death. Quick as a viper, Visam had a large furred cat in her clawed, scaled hands.
There was a sickening thud as Visam slammed Tura painfully hard against the trunk of a willow tree. The demi grunted in pain as the breath was driven from her lungs. Before Ku could react Surudu had her in his powerful reptilian grasp.
“Who the fuck are you two really and why are there at least ten humans trying to kill us?!” The lizard-guide hissed with pure hate.
“Let-go-of-me” The tigress choked out “and I-can-tell-you!”
As if in great angst by doing so, the Mozori guide slowly released her captive. A spear-like spiked tail, however, quickly replaced the clawed hands.”You’ve betrayed me, cat. This may cost all of us our lives. Your companion here will watch your slow death if you don’t get talking – and remember to tell the truth this time.”
“She’s got nothing to do with this! Let Kukka go!”
“Keep your gods-forsaken voice down, demi.” Surudu snapped. “We’re in the wrong place at the right time. You really don’t want things hearing you here.”
“Look, we didn’t betray anybody.” Tura hurried with wide eyes and a frantic voice. “We tried to fight back – only it got everybody we held dear killed. Their blood was on us for the rebellion. The land was supposed to be ours. Like it was during the days when humans couldn’t hardly walk on two legs and speak in more than grunts.”
“Those days are long gone.”
“They weren’t when we started the rebellion. Only I was the leader when things went wrong – I made the wrong move, got too hasty. They’re after me and our prophet, Kukka. I’m the last heir. My real name is Tuphanu. We lied because we couldn’t trust another guide. So many have betrayed us, we couldn’t risk it. Besides…you said you don’t take fugitives –“
“What?” Surudu sounded confused. “You fought, didn’t you? That makes you a rebel at the end of her line, not some outlawed fugitive fleeing from justice. We take refugees all the time across the swamp – they head south.”
“The thing is; they’d expect that.” Tuphanu told them. “All of us head south. But we never thought they’d follow us east. We thought the most dangerous thing out here were a few alligators and getting lost in the bogs or trapped in peat.”
The tail swooshed away from her throat.
“We could have planned for this, Tura – I mean, Tuphanu. We could have found a way to keep our supplies, boat and my spear all in tact and even shake or kill your pursuers. Now we don’t even have a map. We’re in the heart of the swamp, you foolish feline. And this isn’t a god-damn human forest, tame and dead at the soul. It’s a living swamp.”
“But you said if we stay away from the center and sacred land, we’ll make it just fine.” Kukka said meekly.
Surudu gave a cold, hissing laugh. “Yeah. Except thanks to the humans we’re in the very heart of the damn swamp. We’re at the most sacred part of the swamp there ever was; it’s where the Lost come to breed and the fatally ill come to die a warrior’s death. This is where all of our souls conjugate to keep the life-blood of the swamp safe and flowing. That makes the swamp angry.”
“How do you guys know this?” The white Demi tigress queried with a quivering voice.
“We’ve been here before, Kukka. This is where I nearly died last time.”
“Exactly what do they want with two run away rebels?” Surudu changed the subject.
Tuphanu gave a humorless, cold laugh. “Humans are arrogant, cold-hearted bastards. They must claim our lives to win our land in their laws.”
He snorted. “That’s a lot of meaningless blood-shed.”
“Look…we’re surrounded by dangerous animals guided by an angry swamp, traps set by humans who want to kill us and the very spirits that have died here. We have very little idea of exactly where we are. This isn’t the time to ask about why some group of blood-thirsty humans wants our hearts. Can we please decide on the first action?”
“We should find a path, right?” Surudu asked quietly. “It’s what saved our lives last time.”
Visam nodded. “Alright. That’s our first action. Now…how do we avoid pit traps and still stick to a path without getting torn asunder by Arachnids?”
“Pit traps are easy to identify; they’re covered by a material that isn’t placed quite right. Like leaves where there are no trees overhead, in a central pile.” Tuphanu provided. She seemed to be getting her composure back.
“What about spike traps?”
“Usually they’re easy to spot for the person looking; there will be metal among leaves or some other light, natural material. The old trick to tie a string to a tree and spring you upside down is simple to watch for; just look for the string along the trees. These traps are meant for deer, bear and fox; not Mozori and Demi. They have this thing where they think we’re just animals who stand and make human-like sounds.”
“Good. We’ve got that settled. Surudu can take the rear to have our backs. I need Tuphanu beside me to look for traps. I’ll pathfind. Kukka needs to stay safe in the center. There shouldn’t be a need for her to fight.”
Visam focused, closing her eyes, and searched. She felt for the land and water, for the life around them. Everything was charged with anger; she could feel the pain of the swamp. They were taking where they shouldn’t take; walking where they shouldn’t walk. But she was asking for a way out, a way to