Hodari's Story

Hodari's story 9

"So tonight we go out before midnight. We don't have much more time before dad is back out and about." Najuma whispered to Dae over the workbench, their heads almost touching. "I've only tested the goggles on the precut flow wood and the flow battery in the drill. It works on that but I don't know about out in the wild. I just don't think we have any more time to waste."
     "What you girls up to?" Hodari's drawl shocked them both and they startled upright. Dae spun to find Hodari standing in the doorway arms crossed.
     "Nothing dad! Just working on a surprise!" Nakuma tried her most disarming smile. Hodari rubbed his chin, not fully convinced.
     That night after the house grew quiet, Najuma did her normal thing, slipping from her room and making her way quietly to the workshop. About an hour after Dae peaked around the shop door.
     "All clear?"
     Najuma rolled her eyes and laughed. "Well if he was in here he would have seen you now."
     Dae giggled. " I know this just feels so naughty."
Najuma grinned. "Only if we get caught. Now let's try these babies out." She lowered new goggles down over her eyes, the glass had an odd flow like purple glass.
     Hodari watched from the shadows at the side of the house. He sure as hell wasn't born yesterday and those girls were sure as hell up to something. He watched them sneak off in the direction of the still standing walls. Backpacks slung over their shoulders. Oddly both wore their mining goggles but carried no pickaxes. He felt anger prickling his skin and rising up the back of his neck as he marched across the bridge and into Najuma's empty workshop. Only a short bit of rummaging brought out Najuma's blueprints. He spread them quickly on the table. Suddenly two sheets stood out. He was getting better at reading them but not perfect. He frowned at least getting the gist of what was happening. Opening a few more drawers he found his goggles freshly updated. He slid them on, flipping the lights on and off. He flipped a small lever on the side and a secondary set of purplish lenses snapped down. Glancing around the room he frowned at Najuma's drill. Turning he scooped up his pickaxe and followed Dae and Najuma into the darkness.
     Hodari was starting to feel more confused the further Dae and Najuma moved into the bay and towards the ocean. They had passed any openings to his mines and kept a quick pace East. When their feet hit the sand they turned following the beach down to where Hodari knew the wall went into the sea. What the hell was going on!? Just shy of the wall tossed up on the sand and long forgotten was a chunk of boat hull flipped over and half buried by the sand. Dae dropped down and scrambling to dig under it she pulled out two axes. Like legit wood cutting axes. Taking a moment the girls strapped them to the back of their packs and they were again moving towards the wall's ruins rising black from the sand and water. Only then did Hodari see them switch on their headlamps. They had come this whole way in the dark, no words spoken. This had been very carefully planned. Suddenly they seemed to just disappear into the wall. What the hell did he just see? Upon reaching the wall he found a portion had eroded and left a well disguised hole. It wound through some debris but suddenly he was on the other side of the wall and almost ran right into the back of them. He ducked back quickly into the hole just as Dae shushed Najuma and swung her lights back the way they had come. Then they were moving again. He continued to track them further into the outskirts. The lantern bugs buzzing past him and the wind in the trees the only sound around him except the occasional whispered conversation between them.
     "How much time do we have left?" Dae whispered to Najuma. They both paused and Najuma shined her head lamp on something strapped to her wrist. She frowned.
     "I'd say only about 20 min or so."
Dae nodded at a cliff that rose up out of the forest. High above Palia's twin moons seemed to hover just inches from the top. "Then we best get climbing."
     "Climb!?" Hodari gasped immediately, ducking down and silencing himself. Again the two girls glanced around themselves.
     "Man," Najuma shuttered, " the outskirts have the creepiest noises at night."
Sure enough heart pounding he watched Dae and Najuma make the accent. Every single bell and whistle was screaming in his head. His daughter with a prosthesic leg was climbing a fucking mountain wearing a backpack with an axe strapped to her back and nothing but mining goggles. But as he watched he saw Najuma holding her own. Dae boosted her up when needed and they helped pull each other over each lip. Cheering each other softly on as they went. In no time at all they had reached the summit and he could see their silhouettes celebrating against the glow of the moons. It was a short celebration as Najuma was back to checking her wrist. Hodari made his way closer to the cliff base knowing he was hidden by the forest and darkness. He came around the other side and looking up saw them kneeling, goggles on scanning the surrounding forest.
     "Dae!" Najuma squeaked. " it should be any minute..." A strange sound moved through the bay. An odd musical almost forlorn note rising and falling for only a few seconds. Hodari shivered as he felt the surge of flow roll over him like a breaking wave and move off. "Dae! Look! Look!! They work!" Najuma was jumping up and down and pointing off into the woods.
     "No, no that's a whole grove. There is no way you and I could handle that. Look for some smaller stragglers."
     Grove? What? Hodari scrambled to flip the secondary purple lens down and as soon as he did purple glowing mist flowed through the air, making elegant swirls and patterns in the night sky. It was drifting from a whole grove of flow trees that had opened up on another cliff ridge.
     "Look down Najuma. See on that ledge about half way down there is a sapling. I bet we can take it!" Hodari saw the tree and was thankful it was lower down then their current perch. He flipped the lenses up and down mesmerized by the genius of his lil girl, as the glowing miasma blinked in and out of existence. A commotion above him and all good feelings dropped out of Hodari's body. Both women had just unstrapped gliders from their backs that had been hidden by their packs. They unfolded them, tapped knuckles and jumped. Hodari's heart stopped in his chest.
     Several seconds of silence was broken by a loud "whohoooo!!" Bellowed by his daughter followed by the explosive laughter of Dae, booming out into the forest so loudly animals exploded from their hiding spots and bolted in random directions. He watched as his daughter released one hand from the glider and plummeted to a rolling stop right next to the tree on the ledge. Only to be out done by the graceful landing stuck by Dae, who bowed to a cheering clapping Najuma. Hodari felt his heart start beating again.
     Hodari stood back far enough in the shadows to watch them struggle with the small tree. It took quite a bit of time for them to get the small tree down and broken into pieces stuffed into their backpacks. They sat with their feet dangling, catching their breaths on the cliff side. They shared food from their packs and passed a canteen back and forth.
     "I can't believe we did it!" Najuma was so excited her voice came out almost as a squeak. Dae nodded, swallowing her bite.
     "But man, that was hard. I'm not sure we could do much to anything bigger." She could feel the wind come out of Najuma's sails.
     "Yeah but if we keep trying we have to get stronger right!? I mean my dad couldn't break a boulder in half when he was my age." She blurted out.
     "You're right, I bet we will get stronger." Dae said, rubbing her back. It wasn't long before Najuma snapped the lenses back down and scanned around again.
     Jumping suddenly to her feet making Dae scramble to grab the back of her shirt Najuma exclaimed, " Right across from us another straggler! Might be this size and another bigger one." Sure enough all eyes turned and on the cliff across from them two more trees glowed. Dae took a deep breath already feeling the soreness in her body but she set her face in what she imagined was one of Hodari's serious looks and stood.
     "Okay let's go." The girls packed up and made a running leap closing the gap quickly they both landed and inspected the trees. Dae bit her lip checking out the smaller of the two. She could see up close it was a bit bigger than the last. Turning to give Najuma the bad news, she found her kneeling and unbuckling her ax, a familiar glint of stubbornness in her eyes. "Alright. Let's try." Dae said softly.
     Hodari watched from down below. It was painfully obvious how much harder this tree was. Both women were flagging. Dae paused, wiping sweat from her forehead and Najuma was doubled over, hands on her knees gulping in air.  Hodari chuckled softly, a small smile slipping across his lips as he strapped his pickaxe to his back, jogged to the base of the cliff and began to climb. By the time Hodari made it to the ledge both girls had resumed swinging but with lil progress made.
     "Need some help ladies?" His deep drawl broke their focus. Najuma squeaked and dropped her ax and Dae spun leaving hers buried in the tree. Hodari stood beneath the moonlight. A fresh sheen of sweat standing out across his forehead and forearms crossed over his chest. Both girls shared a shocked look before looking back at him.
     "Hodari we.." Dae started. He could hear her panicked heartbeat from where he stood and he felt kinda bad about it.
     "These new goggles are pretty amazing Juma." He said flipping the lenses up and down. He then strode towards the flow tree, yanking Dae's ax from the trunk with one hand. He gave it a once over and nodded at Dae in appreciation. He pulled his new gloves from the pack across his shoulders and drew the ax back.
     Both girls stood back watching as Hodari swung biting the ax slowly further and further into the glowing tree. It was even slowing him down so Dae knew there wasn't anything her and Najuma could have done. She watched as the muscles under Hodari's shirt stretched the fabric across his shoulders. The way his muscles in his arms bunched with each swing. He had long discarded his jacket and sweat had soaked through his unbuttoned shirt. With a few more powerful swings punctuated with fang clenched growls, the tree gave some final pops and cracks and came down. Breaking down the wood was much faster with Hodari there and both bags were filled to bursting quickly. The bigger pieces had been set aside to come back for.
     "Wow dad!" Najuma beamed. You did it! I bet you could even do the bigger tree!"
     Dae chuckled. "Now Najuma.." but Hodari was already rising to the challenge. Standing he shrugged out of his shirt. The new scar glowed under the moonlight. Hefting the ax onto his shoulder he glanced back at Dae.
     "Guess there is only one way to find out." He winked and started towards it.