Outlanders

Chapter 6: Vladimir's Spell

Hours into the forest, Zoltána sat back in the cart, gazing at the cloudless, starlit sky. It had been years since she had seen the sky without towering factories or city lights blotting it out. It had been years since the stars seemed so wonderfully close.

Zoltána looked around. Eva and the children all slept in a heap, while Leif slumped against the rear wall of the cart, his ears lying flatly apart, looking as if he had no troubles in the world. Vladimir leaned on him with a quietly embattled look on his face. His thin fingers curled tightly around Leif's shoulder.

Zoltána's streetwise instincts were stubborn. Deep inside her, some voice insisted that she had to get up and get to work- that she should be hauling crates around a dusty factory, or working some behemoth machine, or that someone was sick or starving. Out here, the entire family- such as it was, with Havel gone- slept peacefully. If anyone meant to harm them, they would have to brave Leif's keen senses, Vladimir's necromancy and Zoltána's own mighty fists.

Slowly, as she and the others drifted off to sleep, her mind grew to accept the alien notion that all was well.

* * *

The next morning, Zoltána awoke to shafts of light filtering through the canopy and playing on her eyes. Sitting up slowly, she surveyed her surroundings, seeing everyone else still asleep.

In the morning light, she looked around and examined the surrounding foliage for the first time, seeing scratchy weeds, tiny sprouts and broad-leafed ferns hiding the ground. High above, crooked branches crawling with foliage, filtered the sunlight into diagonal shafts. The bark on these trees' trunks was not visible; moss, insects and parasitic vines coated themselves over these bastions of rigidity, blotting them out. Everything was some shade of green.

A few minutes later, Zoltána spotted little points of purple, orange and blue flowers that stood out among the greenery high and low. Most of these were formed into twisted, unusual shapes, with petals like monster claws or ragged, rippling tails. Having very little experience with wildlife, Zoltána took all this in with passive caution, not thinking to find it strange that she saw almost no animals. The occasional bird might nest in a high tree, and one boulder unfolded crustacean legs and walked away as they passed it. But everything else was still.

"Aunt Zoltána?" said Jordaki, "Were we supposed to be leaving? Julius says we were going to stay in Textile Town."

"I meant to spend more time preparing," Zoltána explained, "but someone found out who Leif was."

"Did they try to hurt Leif?"

"They did. Leif was there when I was in the office of Havel's boss, and he's the only one of us the workers recognized. Vladimir and I don't look distinct from a distance, but him..."

"He's fuzzy."

"Yes, Julius."

"He's like a stuffed animal."

"Well, he isn't. And I don't want you treating him like one. He's not human, but he's still a person, just like you or me. Understand?"

"Sorry."

"But do you understand?"

"Yes, Aunt Zoltána."

"Good."

For a few more hours, Zoltána looked around, drinking in the suspiciously placid scenery while Eva and the rest of the children slowly woke up, one by one. Vladimir and Leif stirred last.

When Leif awoke, he pawed at his eyes groggily, then yawned, opening his jaw all the way, flashing a set of smooth, brilliant white teeth.

The children all gasped in unison.