Tyrmia Chapter 28
Korre had bed down in his hammock for night. But he was not tired. His mind was restless thinking about the day’s events. He had no feelings of guilt for having killed an entire tribe of Tyrmians looking for the alien woman. They were nothing more than animals to him. He did think heavily about killing the vurhan woman though. He had lived with the vurhan all his life and had come to think of them as more than mere animals. After all, they were half breeds, part voton and part Tyrmian. The voton side of them was worthy enough to make a slave caste and to warrant using their natural abilities to track and to do hard labor in the fields.
His family had always owned slaves and the vurhan had always been loyal servants. He even had a vurhan woman for a caregiver until he was nine. He knew they were not really animals like the Tyrmians, but he also knew they had a wild side to them that was never too far from the surface. One time when he was fourteen he witnessed a field slave escape. He ran away into the forests that surrounded the ranch was gone. Korre’s father told him they found the slave’s body in a river where he had tried to cross during the spring thaw. The river was deep and cold and they think he was swept away by the current and drowned.
Korre had felt sad on that day, but he didn’t know exactly why. It was how he felt now, having killed a vurhan woman who was living peacefully in the jungle. Regret for having killed a half voton woman who probably had never known any other way of life than one with the Tyrmian savages. Still, she was a savage at heart and probably didn’t have a soul.
He thought about the alien woman who had fallen from the sky and he wondered what she looked like and how advanced she was. What was her world like out amongst the stars? Was she related to his ancestors or was she some other form of life? Her companion in the flying craft was clearly voton. They had stripped the body and discovered its skin color and anatomy was very similar to themselves. Perhaps the woman was a voton with perfectly smooth, pale blue skin, shinning black hair and eyes as dark as coal. He fantasized about what she looked like and what she would do when they finally found her.
The night was dark and he could see the stars occasionally through the tops of the highest trees. They winked at him in the warm, humid air as he swatted at the flying insects buzzing in his ears.
#
The last of the warriors had been dunked in the black and were drying before the fire when the vurhan scout came back with his report. There were a dozen voton soldiers and twice as many more vurhan slaves in the blue-skin camp. Two vurhan warriors slept higher in the tree tops and were taking turns guarding the camp from above. The weapons were mostly fire sticks. They had built a wagon and were preparing to haul off a large object made from shiny material.
My Gunnel-Khener R-77, Zerdy thought to herself. They are probably taking it back for analysis, that would be quite a catch for any non-space faring civilization. She wondered how much of a boost the technology would give their society. It may actually be too advanced for them to make much sense of. The ship was practically a life form in and of itself. The complexity of its onboard sentient cyber-cell alone was orders of magnitude more advanced than the votons were over the Tyrmian natives. Not to mention the exotic metals and composite materials that made up over ninety percent of its structure.
She would have to stop them from taking it back and then she would have to find a way to destroy or hide it. The internal power source was rendered useless in the crash, so blowing it up would not be possible. There were some small explosives in the wings and cockpit, but not enough to do any damage to itself. The best that she could hope for would be to burry it deep in a pit or well and hope that it was never found again.
Chief Kaymon finished briefing her on what his scouts had found and she altered her plan of attack to account for not killing all the slaves. If their masters were killed, she may be able to count on them for her little ragtag rebel force.
Zerdy gathered everyone around in a circle before they headed out.
“Tonight we take back the forest and avenge the deaths of our friends and family. Some of us will not survive the night, but most of us will live to tell our grandchildren of the night we defeated the blue-skins and drove them out of our land.”
She raised her blackened sword and stuck it into the dirt blade down. Then she put Kwin’s hand on the hilt over her own and indicated that Chief Kaymon do the same.
“We three shall never be taken alive. Forever together until death takes us.”
Both men looked at each other hesitantly. Zerdy cracked a wicked grin and then hollered at the top of her lungs a war cry that she had always wanted to use. The others joined in, followed closely by the warriors. Soon the camp was awash in the war cries of twenty forest people.
Zerdy stopped her cry and withdrew her hand with the sword. The others stopped their war cries followed quickly by the warriors. Then they all moved into the forest, their dark black bodies disappearing like shadows in the dark. Not a sound was heard but the for the swaying fronds and branches of a late evening breeze.
#
Zerdy and Kwin crept quietly through the forest a few meters apart. When they got within sight of the voton camp they crouched down and waited for the vurhan to take out the enemy scouts. Zerdy could not see the vurhan warrior pouncing on his blood brother and twisting his head until it snapped like a twig. She could not hear the voton guards meeting similar fates but she knew they had been dispatched when she heard the distinct insect call that told her all was proceeding to plan.
She moved in closer, her sword held at the ready. Her pulse had quickened like on the night of the hunt . She felt alive and alert. The anticipation of taking a life had never felt so right in all her life. She had never murdered anyone, not even in combat. Hers was the first generation of soldier-exporers who only fought when threatened and championed lawful peace. But tonight the only law that mattered was the law of the jungle. And sweet revenge.
High in the tree tops her warriors moved in on the sleeping voton soldiers. She could see their shapes silhouetted in the sky amongst the tree trunks and vines. Kwin was giving her a hand signal that meant he was in position. She signaled back to him that she was in position too. A strange, howling sound echoed through the trees.
#
Korre was finally about to drift off to sleep. His eyes flirted with closing. He noticed movement in the sky above him. Not the regular swaying of the tree branches but a deliberate downward movement that caused him to open his eyes wide and focus beyond the insect netting.
A strange howl broke through the insect chatter of the night time forest and caused him to slowly pull out his pistol. His eyes darted around, looking for movement in the near total darkness. That was when he realized the fire was dead and the camp was cloaked in black. More shapes out the corner of his eye that looked for all the world like the trees were moving around him. Muffled sounds could be heard that could only be described as men being killed by unseen forces.
Korre rolled over and fell out of his hammock to the wet jungle floor. His pistol was drawn and pointing at the dark shapes moving through the camp. But he could not get a clean shot off. He heard the whipping sounds of arrows cutting the humid air around him. He fired a few shots but could not tell if they had any affect. He shouted out into the darkness.
“Sergeant Krupp, Jeroo? Wake up, we are under attack!”
Several soldiers had survived the initial attack and were firing their rifles into the night. Screams cried out as they were cut down by some unseen enemy.
Korre moved in the direction of the wagon, intending to use it as cover. He stopped short as a black shape emerged from the jungle and thrust a dark sword to his neck. He thought he was dead but the sword stopped short of cleaving his head from his shoulders. He squinted to see who it was that held him at blade point. All he could see was a lithe, black form with feminine curves. His pistol was swiped from his hand and he was brutally forced to the ground with his face buried in the cool dirt and weeds. A vine rope was lashed around his hands and he was pulled forcefully to his feet by a second, dark skinned person.
“Who are you people?” Korre asked.
A woman’s voice penetrated the darkness like a beam of light and sent a cold chill down his spine.
“We are your worst nightmare.”
His family had always owned slaves and the vurhan had always been loyal servants. He even had a vurhan woman for a caregiver until he was nine. He knew they were not really animals like the Tyrmians, but he also knew they had a wild side to them that was never too far from the surface. One time when he was fourteen he witnessed a field slave escape. He ran away into the forests that surrounded the ranch was gone. Korre’s father told him they found the slave’s body in a river where he had tried to cross during the spring thaw. The river was deep and cold and they think he was swept away by the current and drowned.
Korre had felt sad on that day, but he didn’t know exactly why. It was how he felt now, having killed a vurhan woman who was living peacefully in the jungle. Regret for having killed a half voton woman who probably had never known any other way of life than one with the Tyrmian savages. Still, she was a savage at heart and probably didn’t have a soul.
He thought about the alien woman who had fallen from the sky and he wondered what she looked like and how advanced she was. What was her world like out amongst the stars? Was she related to his ancestors or was she some other form of life? Her companion in the flying craft was clearly voton. They had stripped the body and discovered its skin color and anatomy was very similar to themselves. Perhaps the woman was a voton with perfectly smooth, pale blue skin, shinning black hair and eyes as dark as coal. He fantasized about what she looked like and what she would do when they finally found her.
The night was dark and he could see the stars occasionally through the tops of the highest trees. They winked at him in the warm, humid air as he swatted at the flying insects buzzing in his ears.
#
The last of the warriors had been dunked in the black and were drying before the fire when the vurhan scout came back with his report. There were a dozen voton soldiers and twice as many more vurhan slaves in the blue-skin camp. Two vurhan warriors slept higher in the tree tops and were taking turns guarding the camp from above. The weapons were mostly fire sticks. They had built a wagon and were preparing to haul off a large object made from shiny material.
My Gunnel-Khener R-77, Zerdy thought to herself. They are probably taking it back for analysis, that would be quite a catch for any non-space faring civilization. She wondered how much of a boost the technology would give their society. It may actually be too advanced for them to make much sense of. The ship was practically a life form in and of itself. The complexity of its onboard sentient cyber-cell alone was orders of magnitude more advanced than the votons were over the Tyrmian natives. Not to mention the exotic metals and composite materials that made up over ninety percent of its structure.
She would have to stop them from taking it back and then she would have to find a way to destroy or hide it. The internal power source was rendered useless in the crash, so blowing it up would not be possible. There were some small explosives in the wings and cockpit, but not enough to do any damage to itself. The best that she could hope for would be to burry it deep in a pit or well and hope that it was never found again.
Chief Kaymon finished briefing her on what his scouts had found and she altered her plan of attack to account for not killing all the slaves. If their masters were killed, she may be able to count on them for her little ragtag rebel force.
Zerdy gathered everyone around in a circle before they headed out.
“Tonight we take back the forest and avenge the deaths of our friends and family. Some of us will not survive the night, but most of us will live to tell our grandchildren of the night we defeated the blue-skins and drove them out of our land.”
She raised her blackened sword and stuck it into the dirt blade down. Then she put Kwin’s hand on the hilt over her own and indicated that Chief Kaymon do the same.
“We three shall never be taken alive. Forever together until death takes us.”
Both men looked at each other hesitantly. Zerdy cracked a wicked grin and then hollered at the top of her lungs a war cry that she had always wanted to use. The others joined in, followed closely by the warriors. Soon the camp was awash in the war cries of twenty forest people.
Zerdy stopped her cry and withdrew her hand with the sword. The others stopped their war cries followed quickly by the warriors. Then they all moved into the forest, their dark black bodies disappearing like shadows in the dark. Not a sound was heard but the for the swaying fronds and branches of a late evening breeze.
#
Zerdy and Kwin crept quietly through the forest a few meters apart. When they got within sight of the voton camp they crouched down and waited for the vurhan to take out the enemy scouts. Zerdy could not see the vurhan warrior pouncing on his blood brother and twisting his head until it snapped like a twig. She could not hear the voton guards meeting similar fates but she knew they had been dispatched when she heard the distinct insect call that told her all was proceeding to plan.
She moved in closer, her sword held at the ready. Her pulse had quickened like on the night of the hunt . She felt alive and alert. The anticipation of taking a life had never felt so right in all her life. She had never murdered anyone, not even in combat. Hers was the first generation of soldier-exporers who only fought when threatened and championed lawful peace. But tonight the only law that mattered was the law of the jungle. And sweet revenge.
High in the tree tops her warriors moved in on the sleeping voton soldiers. She could see their shapes silhouetted in the sky amongst the tree trunks and vines. Kwin was giving her a hand signal that meant he was in position. She signaled back to him that she was in position too. A strange, howling sound echoed through the trees.
#
Korre was finally about to drift off to sleep. His eyes flirted with closing. He noticed movement in the sky above him. Not the regular swaying of the tree branches but a deliberate downward movement that caused him to open his eyes wide and focus beyond the insect netting.
A strange howl broke through the insect chatter of the night time forest and caused him to slowly pull out his pistol. His eyes darted around, looking for movement in the near total darkness. That was when he realized the fire was dead and the camp was cloaked in black. More shapes out the corner of his eye that looked for all the world like the trees were moving around him. Muffled sounds could be heard that could only be described as men being killed by unseen forces.
Korre rolled over and fell out of his hammock to the wet jungle floor. His pistol was drawn and pointing at the dark shapes moving through the camp. But he could not get a clean shot off. He heard the whipping sounds of arrows cutting the humid air around him. He fired a few shots but could not tell if they had any affect. He shouted out into the darkness.
“Sergeant Krupp, Jeroo? Wake up, we are under attack!”
Several soldiers had survived the initial attack and were firing their rifles into the night. Screams cried out as they were cut down by some unseen enemy.
Korre moved in the direction of the wagon, intending to use it as cover. He stopped short as a black shape emerged from the jungle and thrust a dark sword to his neck. He thought he was dead but the sword stopped short of cleaving his head from his shoulders. He squinted to see who it was that held him at blade point. All he could see was a lithe, black form with feminine curves. His pistol was swiped from his hand and he was brutally forced to the ground with his face buried in the cool dirt and weeds. A vine rope was lashed around his hands and he was pulled forcefully to his feet by a second, dark skinned person.
“Who are you people?” Korre asked.
A woman’s voice penetrated the darkness like a beam of light and sent a cold chill down his spine.
“We are your worst nightmare.”
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Ken McConnell on -
I may change that last line to be more personal. Who are you? I am your worst nightmare. I also need to indicate that he understood her, perfectly. But perhaps that is implied in that the scene is from his point of view.
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