Iridescent: Chapter Seven

Iridescent

Chapter Seven

~Rock…Paper...Scissors…Kew!~

After the Fall

Vicky woke up covered in the tiny neuws. She lay against the female adult neuw and the adult male lay beside the female. Light streamed in from the cave entrance. The fire had gone out sometime in the night so the inner part of the cave was dark. She just lay against the warm body of the female. As the night wore on, it seemed like the female adopted her as her child.

The male stirred and got to his feet. He walked toward the entrance and looked around. A deep purring sound came from his throat. The small neuws stirred awake and the mother got up as well and shook out the sleep in her body.

“Kew!” the little runt cried as his siblings pushed him off of Vicky’s sweater.

It seemed time that the neuw family to move on. The family met at the mouth of the cave. The mother seemed to make sure all of her children were present. The little runt sat near Vicky and looked up at her. The father purred deeply as if calling the little one to follow.

“Ke-kew!” the neuw said.

The mother’s ears stood up. She walked closer and nudged the little runt. She purred gently as she rubbed her nose against her youngest. The mother then nuzzled Vicky as well. She turned and walked back to the family. The other siblings waved and said goodbye at sporadic intervals. The father waved his tail before walking down the steep slope. Soon they were gone.

“Kew!” the grey neuw looked up at Vicky.

“You’re staying with me?” Vicky asked.

“Kew-n,” the neuw walked over to her bag and started eating a piece of jerky.

Vicky shrugged and started packing her things that had been thoroughly explored by the small curious neuws. She packed the five vials in her bag along with the jerky. Her two axes each had a makeshift holder on her belt. She attached the shuriken to her left arm with something she put together. It served as a kind of shield if necessary but could also be easily detached if she needed it. At the moment, the blades were together basically lining her arm serving no purpose at the moment. The ice tool was strapped to her back underneath her back pack. She threw on the hood of her sweater and headed to the mouth of the cave.

“Kew!” the neuw ran up her leg and snuggled under her hood and beside her neck.

“Hey! That tickles!” Vicky smiled.

The neuw peeked his head out, “Kew!”

“Is that your favorite word?” Vicky asked.

“Kew!”

Vicky sighed, “You probably don’t know what I’m saying do you?”

“Kew!”

“Well you need a name, don’t you,” Vicky said, “How about Kew?”

“Kew! Kew! Kew-r!”

Satisfied that Kew seemed to like his name Vicky set out. The mist was heavy like suspended droplets of water just hanging in the air. Vicky dropped down. She slid down the mountain until she had a firm footing. Vicky looked around. She was unsure about where she wanted to go but figured that if she kept moving the answer would be clear soon enough.

Vicky breathed. She decided to head south to see what she could find and then pop back up north. She brought her ice tool and continued south.

“Kew!” Kew exclaimed.

At least she would have some company in an otherwise quiet mountain journey.

<<<>>>

Naru crouched in a tree. He glanced over his shoulder at the others. Kumo was crouched on a branch behind him. The two sisters traveled on the ground. Hina disliked tree travel and Chou didn’t want to leave Hina by herself. She spotted her brother in the trees and waved at him.

“Let’s go, Slowpoke!” Kumo stated, “If you don’t remember we’re trying to keep moving as to avoid unwanted contact.”

“Maybe you forgot that we’re also trying to keep quiet?” Naru tuned and jumped to the next tree.

He grabbed the branch and pulled himself up in a single easy motion. Naru led the way north east to Sandrock Gorge to one of the natural bridges. Their goal was to go as deep into the wilderness as they could. They had excellent survival skills and could live comfortably in the wilderness away from the city. That was the plan anyway. It would also entail not killing Kumo when Naru had the chance.

Naru scouted ahead up until the start of the fields. He sighed. It was going to be a lot harder to travel unseen in the fields. Fortunately, they didn’t have that much farther until the nearest land bridge. It was still a great distance but it was close enough if they were careful.

Kumo stood beside him and looked out at the flat land. Except for a few small hills and the occasional tree the fields were like a gold and brown ocean. He crossed his arms.

“Are we going or what?” Kumo asked.

Naru jumped down the tree and onto the grass. He led the way into the fields. The first few hours went on uneventfully. The trees of the forest faded behind them. In every direction they looked was just more fields. It was hard to tell how far they walk or what direction they were walking in.

“Do you really know where you’re going?” Kumo asked, “Maybe I could lead the way for a while?”

“And get us more lost?” Naru glared at him.

Kumo shrugged, “Like you know where you’re going.”

“At least I’d keep us out of the ocean,” Naru muttered.

Hina rolled her eyes, “Are you at it again?”

Naru looked at her, “At what again?”

“You can’t be at each other’s throat all the time you know,” Hina put her hands on her hips.

“We aren’t always at each other’s throats,” Kumo stated.

“Argh!” Hina slapped her face and groaned.

The three of them argued as Chou looked around to see if she could find a landmark to regain their bearings. She determined that they were going the right direction. It would be better in the long run if they walked north until they hit the gorge and follow it until they reached the land bridge. She looked in the distance and squinted.

“Guys,” Chou looked back at the group.

“Don’t talk to my sister like that,” Naru said.

Kumo narrowed his eyes, “I think your sister can stand up for herself, don’t you think?”

“I think so,” Hina raised her hand.

“But she’s still my sister,” Naru insisted.

Chou squinted. A cloud of dust rose in the distance.

“I think we should run,” Chou said, “Run!”

That got the others attention. Chou led the way and ran north toward the gorge. Naru looked over his shoulder and saw the growing dust cloud. It drew closer and the hum of motorbikes hung on the air. They were quick on their feet and strong in their endurance. But no matter how fast they were they couldn’t out run the coming motorists. Naru looked over at his sister. She gripped her chains tightly. Kumo’s metal nails clinked together as he ran and Chou held one of her fans in her clenched fists. At least this group knew how to fight.

“Do we have a plan?” Hina asked.

“Basic defense positions?” Kumo said.

Naru looked back, “They’ll likely circle us.”

“On three?” Chou asked.

Hina looked confused, “Wait! Like on three? Or like one…two…three…turn?”

“This isn’t Rock-Paper-Scissors! There is no ‘shoot’!” Naru stated.

“It’s a reasonable question!” Kumo sided with Hina.

Hina nodded, “See!”

“Fine, on ‘shoot’!” Naru said.

Chou started, “One…two…three…”

“Turn!” Hina cried.

The group stopped running and formed a circular defense as the motorcycles caught up with them. Hina and Naru had their back to each other just as Chou and Kumo did. Naru drew and arrow as the motorcyclists formed a circle around the group of four. There were six bikes all together and eight people. They laughed and jeered at the group as the kicked up dirt. Eventually they stopped. The leader was a big man with a big beard. The woman sitting behind him had big hair. Altogether, they were meant for each other, Hina thought.

“What do we have here?” he asked his crew.

“Looks like a couple of lost kids, boss,” a man with a long narrow nose laughed.

The leader nodded, “Well, that’s just sad. Should we help these kids out?”

A man with big muscles nodded at Chou, “‘Specially, that little lady ‘ore there.”

“Hey, just leave us alone!” Hina let the chains on her arms hit the ground.

Chou opened her bladed fans, “Get closer if you want to lose a finger!”

“Oh, ho, ho!” the leader laughed.

“I don’t like her shoes, Bob,” the woman on the back of his bike said.

Another woman on the back of another bike looked at her, hand on hip, “You don’t like anythin’, M.”

“I don’t like you either, B,” M said.

Kumo spread his arms out to either side and sighed, “Do you guys have to listen to their earsplitting voices all the time? Why not throw them out already?”

M brought out a gun, “Why I outta—”

Thin string wrapped around her weapon and the gun was pulled from her hand. Kumo threw out his hand sending more strings to wrap around the woman’s arm. She was pulled off the bike. The gun that was in her hand, Kumo now held it tauntingly.

“You should know better than to walk into a spider’s web, Miss Fly,” he said.

“Bob!” M cried, “Do somethin’!”

Bob glared at the group of four, “You won’t get away with that!!”

Bob pulled out a loaded shot gun. Kumo’s thin threads wrapped around the barrel of the gun and pulled it away from him. Hina used her chains and used then to detain the man. She pulled with her might sending him flying into another man.

The man with muscles got off his bike and ran at Chou. He had brass knuckles on his hand and he tried to punch her. Chou dodged his slow movements easily. She spun; her fans were like deadly blades. The man raised his arms to protect himself. Chou turned and cut at his leather jacket and occasionally striking his metal knuckles creating a sudden ringing that caused him to step back. She kicked him in the stomach when he was exposed and he fell to the ground. Chou closed one of her fans and used the blunt end to knock the man out.

Naru fired an arrow at the man with the long nose. The man dodged and covered his head. Naru purposefully missed and ran up to the man. He struck the man in the jaw with his bow. Naru hit him with the bow again in the side of the head knocking the man onto the ground unconscious.

Another man charged at Naru. He threw a wild punch at Naru. Naru ducked and used his bow as a club on the man’s foot. He turned and struck the man in the stomach with the flat part of the bow. The man doubled over and Naru struck the man in the back of the neck.

A man with a scar on his face ran up and grabbed Hina. He wrapped his harm around her upper arms preventing her from using her chains. Hina fought viciously, kicking, screaming, and trying to hit him with the back of her head but he was just out of her reach. Naru turned and notched an arrow but he couldn’t get a clear shot. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Kumo. Kumo looked at Naru a moment before charging at the man with the scar. The man brought out a gun.

“I’ll shoot her, I swear I will! I’ll shoot her!” he screamed at them.

Chou raised on of her fans over her head and threw it. The bladed end grazed the man’s hand that was on the gun. Startled he dropped the weapon. Naru fired his arrow. The man saw it coming and stepped back to avoid getting shot at the angle. Hina lost her balance and fell. To not get pulled down, the man loosened his grip on her and she fell to the ground. Kumo ran up to the man, now exposed.

“You seem to like scars,” Kumo said, “Let me add a few more!”

Kumo slashed at the man’s face. He kicked the man in the stomach then when the man was doubled over he kicked him in the jaw. The man fell in a heap unconscious. All four looked at the remaining member. The girl called B held a hand gun. She awkwardly dropped in and raised her hands in the air.

Naru looked around. The bikes seemed loaded with loot. There seemed far to many bags for just the eight of them.

“Where were you guys going?” Naru asked.

The woman shifted awkwardly, “I don’t know what ur talkin’ bout.”

“You’re pirates on wheels! You rob groups of people like us and leave. Where were you going?” Naru asked again making sure she saw his bow and quiver.

She sighed, “We heard there was a caravan in the desert goin’ round trying to help people where they could, women, children an’ men alike. Bob ‘n M thought we’d rob ‘em nice people. Figured they’d have a lot a loot.”

Naru looked at Kumo, “We’ll take two of their bikes. Let’s try to find this caravan.”

“You sure?” Kumo asked.

“It’s in our destination,” Naru shrugged, “Might as well check it out.”