A Place To Bloom

Jungle

I crouched in the bushes with an arrow nocked, scanning for threats in all directions.

Caleb boy, listen, and ya listen good. If ya ever find yourself in the woods wit sumfin stalking atcha, a cougar, pack of wolves, bear what-have-ya, here's whatcha do...

Chief Dugan of the high mountain clans. The same man who gave that bow to Father Yewan.

... they gonna follow your scent. Ya can't stop it. We're human; we smell bad. It's what we do. So, ya give 'em sumfin to follow. Run around in a circle a few times. Take an area, thirty to fifty yards, and run around in there. Saturate the whole area in your scent. Then ya sit back and get that bow ready.

The vita'o half of a sekiwa could follow a scent as well as any hound. Their eyes, however, like a lot of reptiles, struggled to track what didn't move. The human half, on the other hand, had the most efficient eyes of any creature in the jungle, able to negate even the best camouflage, and trained to follow trails of snapped twigs and molested branches. A tuft of leaves moving without wind. Run, and that lizard will carry her through the forest faster than you would think possible. Try to fight, but it had reflexes like a cat with serrated teeth that will rip your throat out in under a second. Climb higher than it can climb, and its human will simply shoot you.

And I had three of those after me.

Never forget who you are, never forget what you are, and never forget where you are.

Who I was, was an orphaned peasant who grew up in a safe little corner of the Empire. The forests in the mountains around Gath were vastly different from where I was currently, but the same basic principles applied. Hopefully.

What I was, was a human in this hot, humid wilderness. According to Ahmi, there were a few things that every animal understood about humans. We're extremely dangerous in large groups but vulnerable alone. Our wonderful eyes don't work after dark, and we're made of meat like everyone else.

Where I was, was the Jungle. Twenty-foot alligators, thirty-foot snakes, jaguars that moved like lightning, weird monkey-looking things that screamed at you and gave you vertigo, big red-and-white birds that ate you alive, carnivorous ants, that yellow vine. Apparently there were packs of wild dogs out here. Apparently, some of them would pin your arms and legs in place while the others ate your soft parts, starting with your genitals.

Borel forgot where he was, and the Jungle reminded him.

The clouds broke overhead, and my well-scented area was blasted with sunlight and a heat I wouldn't have imagined possible. I sweat profusely just sitting there, waiting for someone to pass through. Anyone. Someone else from my unit, or an enemy.

The siren bird overhead announced human. One chirp. I chose this spot for that reason—should an enemy sekiwa hear her and come to me, I would hear that call and be ready to strike while the lizard was busy trying to figure out where my scent was leading them.

Take out the lizard, you can nock a second shot by the time the rider realizes what's happened. Take out the rider, you have a pissed-off lizard on you before you can blink.

I sat, and I waited, and I heard nothing.

Noon brought a dark mist from the west.

I needed to make it back to the tower, and by the look of it, I would have to make it back alone. I had no idea which of my friends were still alive.

Worse, those enemy sekiwa knew that. They didn't have to stalk me. They didn't have to chase me down and risk walking within range of my bow. All they had to do was patrol the area between me and the tower, and wait.