Black Water

JOURNAL #17
EELONG

I’ve lost all track of time. How long have I been on Eelong? Days? Weeks? It could be months. I don’t know for sure. Did I have a birthday? Am I sixteen? Who knows? Time means nothing to me anymore. Sorry if I sound so glum, but things haven’t been going well since I wrote my last journal. Some things happened to me that I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy. Okay, maybe I’d wish them on Saint Dane, but that’s about it.

Now that I got some food and a little rest, I’m starting to feel human again. Though on Eelong, that’s not such a good thing. Tomorrow we’re taking a journey that I’m hoping will lead us to some answers, and a way to stop Saint Dane and his insane plan to wipe out the gars. There’s a good chance that if this trip is successful, I’ll find Gunny. I can only hope that he’s still alive. We’re not leaving until the morning, so I’ve got a little time to write my journal. Let me go back and get down everything that happened since I wrote last. It’s now, or maybe never. Ileft off when I had just gotten back to Eelong from seeing you guys on Second Earth. Istood at the mouth of the flume, staring at a huge jet-black cat named Kasha.

“So,” she said with a superior air. “You’re not whatIexpected.” She sized me up and down. Ihoped she wasn’t wondering whatIwould taste like.

“Really?”Isaid, trying to be casual. “What did you expect?”

“Idon’t know,” Kasha replied. “Someone more…interesting.”

Gee, thanks. Iwanted to act all insulted, butIneeded to be careful. Kasha may have been the daughter of a Traveler, butIsaw how she handled that tang in the jungle. She was tough, and fearless…and ate meat. I let the insult go without comment.

“Where is my father?” she demanded.

“You tell me,”Ishot back.”Ihaven’t met him yet.”

“Aren’t you the leader of these so-called…Travelers?” she snarled, taking an aggressive step toward me. “Shouldn’t you know these things?”

Itook a step back into the flume. Icouldn’t help it. Iwasn’t used to having a man-eating cat make a move on me. Kasha cocked her head curiously.

“DoIscare you?” she asked.

Ididn’t want to show her thatIwas weak and frightened, but the truth was, Iwas weak and frightened. “On Eelong, I’m a gar,” I said, trying not to let my voice crack. “But come to my home territory. It’s different there.” Truth be told, it isn’t different at all. I’d be just as scared of her on Second Earth as I was here, but I had to say something to keep a little dignity.

Kasha took another step toward me. This time I didn’t back off, but man, I was scared. She put her nose in my face and stared me down. I tried not to blink.

“If something happened to my father because of this silly game you all play”-she seethed intensely-“I will personally tear you apart.”

Gulp.

“This isn’t a game,” I told her. “And you’re insulting your father by calling it that.”

Her eyes grew sharp and angry. I feared I had played this totally wrong and was about to get sliced. But what else could I do? She had dissed everything we Travelers were doing to save the butts of people like her. Or cats like her. Assuming cats even have butts.

“You think this is a game?” I said. “Look at this.” I held up the dirty bag I had carried back from Second Earth that held the grisly gift from Saint Dane.

“Hey, what’s in the bag?” came a welcome, friendly voice. It was Boon. The brown cat padded up behind Kasha and stood at her shoulder. “Did you catch up with Saint Dane?” he asked me.

“Not exactly,” I answered. “But he gave this to my acolytes. It’s a small sample of what he’s capable of.”

I held the bag out for Boon. He took it, reached in, and pulled out Gunny’s hand. I expected them to be all sorts of repulsed, but they looked at the hand like it was no big deal. I guess they were used to seeing dismembered body parts here on Eelong. But me? I had to turn away. The sight of Gunny’s hand made me want to cry.

“It’s got a Traveler ring,” was all Boon said.

“Take it off for me, please,” I asked Boon. Boon took off the ring and handed it to me. I quickly tied it around my neck, along with my own ring.

“Is it the hand of the tall, dark gar? The one you called Gunny?” Boon asked.

“Yes.” I looked to Kasha and said, “Still think this is a game?”

She didn’t answer. Seeing a dismembered hand didn’t faze her. How twisted is that?

“Will you bury it for me?” I asked Boon.

“We have to burn it,” Boon answered. “That’s what we do here. We can’t take the chance that a tang might dig it up and…” He didn’t finish the sentence, but I knew what he meant. He reverently placed Gunny’s hand back in the sack.

“Throw it away!” Kasha demanded. “It’s a gar.”

“But he’s a Traveler,” Boon argued. “He deserves better.”

“Thanks, Boon,” I said. I was really beginning to like this cat.

Kasha shot me an intimidating look. I didn’t blink.

“You’ll come with me now,” she said abruptly. “Tomorrow you’ll help find my father.”

“Fine,” I said. “That’s exactly what I want to do.”

Kasha turned away, annoyed. She didn’t like being stood up to by a gar.

I asked Boon, “Why didn’t you tell me Seegen was missing?”

“I didn’t know,” Boon said defensively. “Last I saw him he was leaving Leeandra with Yorn.”

“Yorn? Who’s Yorn?”

“Seegen’s acolyte. Do you think they’re okay?”

“How should I know? I’m new here, remember?”

“Right,” Boon corrected himself. “Sorry.”

Before leaving the flume I grabbed another pair of raggy shoes off the clothing pile. I took my sweet time tying them on, making Kasha and Boon wait. Kasha didn’t look happy about it and that was okay by me. Hey, maybe I was being petty, but it was the only chance I had to have a little bit of control. Pathetic, I know, but I was floundering. When we got outside I saw that the zenzen horse was long gone, so we climbed up through the tree and walked the sky bridges back to Leeandra.

“When was the last time you saw your father?” I asked Kasha as we walked.

“Three days ago,” she answered coldly.

“What makes you think he’s missing?”

“Because we were supposed to meet this morning, after I got back from the forage,” she said. “He never showed up. That’s not like him.”

Kasha’s answers were clipped. I got the feeling she didn’t like being questioned but hey, tough. This was important.

“What’s a forage?” I asked her.

“It’s what I do.”

“Me too,” Boon added with a little more enthusiasm. “We travel in packs on the jungle floor to hunt or gather fruit or chop trees for building materials or anything else that’s needed in Leeandra. It’s a dangerous job, and very important.”

I asked Kasha, “How much do you know about the Travelers?”

It was one question too many. Kasha stopped short and turned to me, growling. I could see the anger in her eyes. “I’ll tell you what I know, gar.” She spat out the word “gar” like it was a bad taste in her mouth. “My father was a visionary who helped build cities. Now he’s become a silly old klee spinning fantasy stories of time-traveling animals battling an evil gar. He says it’s all very dangerous. You want to see danger? Come on a forage. I’d like to see you stand up to a rampaging tang. Then you can tell me you’re more afraid of a gar named Saint Dane.”

She growled at me, her anger barely contained. I figured it would be a bad idea to argue, seeing as she’d probably bite my head off. Literally. I kept my voice totally calm and said, “If it’s all a fantasy, how do you explain me?”

This threw her. She turned away, saying, “You’re a freak. When we find my father, I’ll prove it to him.”

She continued walking. Boon shrugged and followed. We were getting off to a bad start. I didn’t know what to make of Kasha. If something tragic happened to Seegen, she’d be the Traveler from Eelong. I didn’t look forward to that. On top of that, she’d hold me responsible. I looked evenlessforward to that. All I could hope was that Seegen would turn up okay, and Kasha would only be a minor pain.

I really, really hoped that we’d find Seegen back in Leeandra.