Iridescent: Chapter Four

Iridescent

Chapter Four

~The Mountains and the Fields~

After the Fall

Vicky ran up the mountain path and into a cave to get out of the rain. There was already a fire crackling inside. She threw down a pack she had scavenged. Once inside she took off her orange hood and set down an orange ice tool. She set the soaking garment near the fire beside a brown backpack and her shuriken and axes.

She went through the backpack she found in a ravine close my. Vicky smiled when she found a box of beef jerky, a treasure trove. She also found a steel metal box. There was key pad on it. Vicky tried to open it but without the code it was almost a useless venture. She grabbed her ice tool and tried to pry open the box. The box popped open and she looked at a stash of Blue Gold.

Vicky counted five blue vials. She smiled at her first find of the vital liquid. Up until that point she had only seen Others using the liquid. She had frequently wondered how she had survived as long as she did.

“Kew!”

Vicky looked over her shoulder. A small group of soaking wet neuws sat on their haunches at the cave entrance. The slender six inch high rodents swung their tails curiously. They all looked around the same age; the runt of the family was only a little shorter. The color of their fur was a misty combination of a lighter and darker grey as they lived in the mountains. Vicky smiled at the small creatures looking for shelter from the rain.

There was a low rumble and Vicky’s smile disappeared. The thing about neuws was that they didn’t stay six inches tall. They continued to grow though their adult size when they are about seven feet in length not counting the length of the tail. Adult neuw could be very violent when something threatens their family unit.

An adult crested the mouth of the cave. By the angular look to its body and its sheer size, Vicky could tell it was the male. Adults looked different from the cute fuzzy neuws that everyone knew and loved on the Island. Their tails were thicker and more deadly. It could be used as a weapon or used similar as a kangaroo uses it to balance before delivering a powerful kick. They were the most vicious omnivores on the entire Island. They took on bears on a regular basis.

The father growled a low and menacing growl deep in his chest. He walked on all fours and walked closer to Vicky. It roared at her. Vicky let go of her weapon and pushed the box away. The female neuw was slightly smaller than her mate and stood back with the children. The male sniffed at Vicky. Vicky was careful not to look in the neuw’s eyes directly and to keep still.

It seemed to last a lifetime, but after giving her and her items a thorough evaluation, the father walked on. He gave a low call for the rest of his family. The younger neuws ran ahead and joined their father; some of them stopped to sniff at Vicky. The mother walked in after her mate and barely gave Vicky a second glance.

“Kew!” the runt crawled onto Vicky’s lap.

Vicky tried repeatedly to shoo the creature away. She didn’t want to risk ticking off the parents.

“Kew!” the runt sat on its haunches in front of her.

Vicky’s stomach growled. She froze hoping that her stomach didn’t say something in neuw that was offensive. Vicky looked at her bag and reached for the box of jerky under the watchful eye of the large male. She opened the wrapper and bit into the tough piece of meat.

“Kew!” the little neuw cried.

It stood up on its haunches and sniffed at the strange meat. Vicky tore off a piece and gave it to the small overly cheerful neuw. The neuw struggled to chew the strange meat. They were mostly plant and fish eaters. It struggled to eat the meat but found a way to eat it in small portions. It held the meat in its hands and nibbled on it instead of eating it whole.

Vicky watched the neuw. She learned about the creatures in school. They started out hatching from eggs. It took neuws ten years to get to their adult stage. For a majority of that time, neuw were on the near bottom of the food chain. All animals thought neuws were tasty. It was when they were around seven years old, when they had grown to about four feet that they were only hunted by a few animals. When they grew to their adult size, nothing hunted them.

The young neuws played with each other, jumping on each other and play fighting. The neuw finished its jerky and went to go play with its siblings. Being the youngest, he didn’t have as much strength as the others but he seemed more inclined to problem solving.

Vicky ate her fill and lie down beside the fire. The mother neuw walked over toward her and started giving her a tongue bath. Vicky hadn’t realized that she needed a bath so badly. Apparently neuws could be gentle when they needed to be.

<<<>>> 

Deontay walked through the fields. He wore a black trench coat with a sawed off shot gun strapped to his back. The gun was mostly to scare people. He didn’t have any bullets. He did carry a large duffle bag though. The long grass of the fields was up to his knees and higher at certain points.

The land was flat as far as the eye could see. There was the occasional tree in the distance but it was mostly flat. Deontay crested a small hill. There was a rumble behind him and he looked over his shoulder. Dark clouds rolled in from the west and the south.

“Shoot,” Deontay groaned, “I don’t have an umbrella.”

Lightning flashed across the sky.

“Let’s see if I can find a roof tonight,” Deontay groaned.

He jogged on as the rain fell caught up with him. The ground quickly turned into mud. His heavy boots weren’t the best shoes to be sloshing around in the mud with. He crested several more hills but after the latest one there was a small village on the next hill.

Deontay nodded to himself and continued on. The village consisted of only a few houses. The houses were made of mud and grasses. Most of the housed were square or rectangle but the village leader’s home was always circular based. Deontay walked through the center of the village. There was no greeting party as he walked toward the leader’s home.

An elderly lady stood at the door of her. Deontay tried to remember what he had learned in his language class when they studied the language of the Natives of the Island. He gave up as he approached and hoped she could understand English.

“Uh, hello,” Deontay waved awkwardly.

The woman nodded to him. Deontay dug in his duffle bag and pulled out a can of peaches and pointed to the sky as the rain fell down.

“I’ll trade food for shelter from the rain,” Deontay pulled the tab and opened the can.

He gave the woman a piece and she tried it. She spoke in her native tongue and pointed behind him. One of the houses pulled aside their cloth door and motioned to him. Deontay gave the rest of the peaches to the leader and walked to the home.

He entered the home of a family. Deontay smiled at the family who housed him. He gave them food as well as it was the least he could do for their hospitality. The two young girls loved the mixed fruit cups that he had found on his journey.

As the rain fell with great intensity, the father of the household told stories in his native tongue. His daughter’s laughed at his stories and so did Deontay. He laughed simply for the reason that he didn’t want to feel left out. The evening went very well. Family units were more alike than what he thought.