Lotus Blood

Lotus Blood Part 13

Chapter Eleven

My lips tingle, then my cheeks, on down my neck and away along my back. I wriggle and shake myself the way a wet dog does. Then the heat hits me.

I open my eyes, squinting, but all I get is brown, and some greens and greys. I can't make anything into anything, just random colours and an awful lot of nothing.

"Took your time, didn't you?"

Mink's perched on a large rock, looking down at me curled up on the ground. Cookie's next to me, wagging her tail, stirring up thick red dust. Mum's crouched over Bob, muttering furiously.

"Beginning to think you'd changed your mind," Mink says, out and out grumpy now, banging a large red stone against the rock. "I'm meant to make a little speech, all about how I stay here with you as your consciousness fades, before you're reborn afresh." He hits his stone harder, cracking against the rock. I lie still and stare up at him.

"It's a really nice speech," he goes on, "but there isn't any point. Is there, Maenam?" Mink smashes the stone down and it shatters. "I said there's no point ..."

"I heard you, Mink, darling sweet Mink," says Mum, sitting down next to him.

The grey-green nothingness focuses and I make out trees and red brown earth. Distant hills shimmer in the heat, stretching back and back till it merges in purple-grey haze with the sky. I rub my eyes hard.

"You'll make those sore, darling girl."

"Yes, Mum."

Behind her something long and brown swings up and down. The red dirt softens into mud and a pool of dirty water full of rocks and lumbering giant shapes. I shake my head and it all switches from grey to colour.

"Elephants?"

"Welcome to your new life, not that you'll be here long." Mink's young voice is hard and bitter.

"Mink!" Mum smiles at him, her dangerous smile.

"Elephants," I repeat. I've always loved elephants.

Then finally it all comes together. Four, no five giants and one baby paddle around in the muddy water. Spiky trees are everywhere; evil looking thorns sticking out between green straggly leaves. Beyond the water hole, the ground rises then flattens out into a rolling plane and just so much nothingness. In the very far distance, a glimpse of mountain peaks lost in clouds. Above us the sky's a clear deep blue.

The burning in my hand shoots back in. I fall sideways, smacking my hand in the dust, howling and hurting.

"Get her in the water, Mink!"

Mum and Mink half carry, half drag me out onto the mud and Mum sticks my hand into a dirty puddle. I scream as the throbbing goes up a notch then drops away slightly.

"Better?" asks Mum and I nod but the ground sways. Darkness closes around me and I collapse against Mink. Mum takes me from him, cradling me against her.

"Feel.....heavy."

"It's okay. Okay, darling girl," she says rocking me against her. "It'll pass."

Cookie licks at my face.

"You're just used up, that's all."

"Used up?"

"Like a battery. Your power. You blasted those Krasue. It takes everything you have. Just need to rest and recharge."

The elephants stand watching us from their side of the waterhole. One by one, they dip their trunks in the water and curl them into their mouths, flapping their ears, over and over.