The Sleeping City

Chapter Nine: Wildmen

There was a song about the sleeping city that she could only half remember now. Her thoughts pinged between the song, her family, and the other. Whoever they were, they had been taken from the city as well. She wondered if they would be related if they had seen the same faces in their sleep. Then her thoughts would bounce back to the fair-haired man who had pursued her. She was sure that he no longer knew where she was. If he were smart, he would wait for her at the Sleeping City. Still, she felt out into the earth for horse feet. All she could feel were the burrowing things beneath her. She had thought she felt a horse once but realized it was only a deer when it started to move. It had not been heavy footed enough and made playful leaps.

The sun was bright, but the air was still cold. She was glad for her wool. She had decided she would make a fire tonight. She did not like to bivouac. She loved her bed and blankets. Thoughts of home filled her head as she moved quickly across the earth. She had never walked so much in her life as she was now, but she was strong from climbing the mountains and Atual. She worked to conserve her energy, sending it out in pulses in a thin blanket over the top of the ground. She could not feel out as far as her aunt could, still her range would suffice for keeping her safe; or so she thought.

She remembered the sound of the song, but it was difficult recalling the words now. She played around with the bits she had, moving the words around until they sounded correct.

"...Images from sleep

Walk the silver street...."

She sang out to herself hoping to conjure the rest up but was interrupted by the thud of booted feet hitting the soft ground behind her. Frightened she ran without looking back. She made the ground erupt into tremors beneath him until she felt him lose his footing and fall on all fours, then she turned, taking out her sling in the same motion. There was already a bullet in her hand when she heard the whoop, whoop, whoop of the wildmen war cry fill the air around her. It sent the black feathered birds off in a cloud and made her heart drop into her stomach.

Covered in a matting of skins and bark bound together with dried earth and deer sinew the wildmen dropped from the trees around her. Their stillness had not spooked the birds, and she had no idea of them with their feet so far above the ground. She shaped the bullet in her hand, scratching a quick symbol of protection onto it while she held the stare of the wildmen directly in front of her.

His eyes were green with gold flecks. A color not found in her people. She could not tell the color of his hair or skin covered as it was in moss and mud. She rumbled the ground beneath them menacingly and began to growl. Her eyes popping open as the wildman laughed. "We are not afraid of you little ground mover."The men around her pounded the ends of the staffs they carried against the ground as their leader spoke.

Ketua swung her sling over her head. "You will be if you force me to let loose this bullet. I will not take all of you, but I can ruin one of you at least. That cannot be what you want."

The green-eyed man held her stare, and she felt herself shrink inside. "What we want. What do we want, little knower of others hearts. Let loose your stone bullet."The man demanded.

Ketua shouted. "Just... just leave me alone."

His long strides closed the distance between them. "Do it. Attack me." Ketua's blood rushed from her body, and she let her stone fly. The wildman struck it down easily with his staff then gave her a challenging look. "Only a kept beast would fall to that." He spat at her feet, and she made the earth sink below him. The circle of men closed around her with outreached spears. If she died today then what would happen to her village. With the eye in the hands of these strange men what would become of Leita and Whillion....and mother.