Into the Stone Land Read Free Page B

waiting to see which would be the victor. Tall could not tell which was the dominant and which the challenger, but he enjoyed watching the display against the backdrop of the setting sun.
    Morning brought with it renewed hope and heavy rain. Though Keene’s conditioned had not improved, Tall’s had. He felt stronger and found he could walk short distances with the aid of his staff. Between breaks in the rain, he foraged. Bitter-sweet grew in abundance on the house. He feasted on the wiry bush’s silvery green leaves and slender branches over the next few days while he regained his strength. Soon he was foraging farther and farther away and jumping between residences with increasing ease. Now when he washed away mud caking his wounds, he found scabs turning to red-etched scars.
    Keene wasn’t as fortunate. His wounds festered and a putrid stench told Tall the flesh was dying or already dead. Tall could no longer get the other boy to eat, though he did drink on occasion. It seemed each time Tall checked Keene, the boy was paler and thinner. Thoughts of Keene’s approaching death terrified Tall. Not only because he didn’t know the rituals to help see his friend into and through the afterlife, but because Keene’s death was also the death of hope.
    His stomach bunched in knots, despair overwhelmed him. He curled into a ball at the other boy’s feet. Deep sobs followed tears. His body shook; he convulsed and screamed out. The pain was just too real.
    Return of the hatchlings pulled Tall out of his dark mood. They were hungry and he helped them feed by luring black suckers with drops of his own blood. The hatchlings snatched suckers up in their jaws as soon as they surfaced from the depths of the mud, often fighting over the long, juicy bits as they shredded the suckers with their teeth. Hungry himself, he was returning to get roots from his pack when he heard Keene’s faint voice calling out to him.
    â€œTall, Tall,” Keene said, his voice scarcely a whisper. “The wounds, suckers. They’ll eat the poisoned flesh.”
    â€œSuckers?” Tall asked, but the other boy had already slipped back into a heavy sleep.
    Tall grabbed his container, drank down its contents before returning to the edge of the deep pool. He pricked his finger, squeezed to draw blood by the drop so that it fell to the mud. Suckers surfaced with the first drop, rippling at first beneath the mud and then rising to show their black, slippery forms. He plucked up suckers one by one and thrust them into the container. Something about the feel of them wriggling and squirming between his fingers made his stomach churn. This feeling doubled when he squatted down beside Keene and put the nasty, slimy creatures to Keene’s rotting flesh.
    In the still day, he thought he heard their tiny rows of teeth raking and attaching, but that was nothing compared to what he thought was the soft hum of their rending and chewing. It was enough to make the bile rise at the back of his throat. When he couldn’t stand the thought of it any more, he ran to the deep pool and plunged in. It was a mistake, but by the time he realized this, he was already breaking the surface after his dive.
    Bulls dove into the pool as if someone had rung the village banquet bell. He swam for the shore, had only gone a few strokes when he felt something slip past his leg. Instinctively, he curled into a ball, flipped and dove in the opposite direction. He knew his end waited for him when he came up through a tangle of bulls. It was only a matter of which would claim him first.
    Taking a deep breath, certain one of the bulls would latch onto him, he waited to be pulled to the bottom of the pool. Lessons from the elders spun through his mind. A moment would come when the bull would loosen his grip. That would be his chance to make a break for the surface. If he could reach the surface, he could reach the shore and there he would be safe. Inhale.