Return of the Burning Man

Chapter Seven

Raru'iti held up his hand and halted. As usual, Sothoo was far behind and carried on until she caught him up.

'What is it?' Her voice was loud in the quiet of the forest and Raru'iti was quietly angry. He held up his hand as a signal to be quiet; then his index finger up to his pursed lips in a shushing manner.

They stood there for, what Sothoo thought was, an eternity. Raru'iti waved Sothoo closer and whispered into her ear.

'Take Borek's traces. I'm going to head into the forest. I think we are being followed. Do NOT move from here.'

He drew his tang'i and a huge hunting knife and moved quietly into the trees. There was a long pause until Sothoo thought she heard the sound of men struggling and she peered into the greenery to see if she could work out what was going on.

Suddenly a huge hand dropped onto her shoulder and before she had time to scream another wrapped around her mouth to stop it. She bit into the fleshy palm and aimed the heel of her boot down the shin of whoever it was trying to capture her. The arms around her let go and a torrent of what sounded like bad language followed as she ran as fast as she could away from the path. The low branches of the smaller trees whipped into her face as she blindly ran away jumping and hopping over roots and dead trunks as she skidded about on the wet leaf litter on the forest floor. She ran past a huge bramble bush her feet catching on the tangled, barbed stems as she almost fell throwing her arms out, waving them around, trying to regain her balance. She briefly slowed down to try to hear if she was being pursued but decided to just carry on and run for her life and get as far away as possible. The forest opened out a little and she speeded up, she turned again to see if she was being chased and this time as she turned back something hit her on the side of her head.

A blinding flash erupted in front of her eyes as she lost consciousness. The whole world was spinning as it went from forest to black.

Slowly she started to gain a brief consciousness of sorts at first seeing many men standing around her, looking over her and peering at her. Then she felt herself being bound and slung over a horse like so much baggage.

She did not understand much about what was going on but what she did know for sure was she had been captured and her head hurt terribly with a splitting ache running around her head like a crushing band. Her throat ached with a raging thirst and whenever she tried to swallow it felt like she was trying to eat a large pebble. She felt terrible loneliness and wanted to cry but whenever she became overwhelmed she tried to but couldn't. She tried to talk, tried to tell whoever had captured her she needed to drink but she couldn't make herself understood. If she could just get them to give her a drink, perhaps then they would explain who they were, where Raru'iti was, where they were going, and why? But every time she tried to talk it came out as an incoherent babble so, in the end, she gave up because it just made her headache worse. She closed her eyes and tried to get some rest despite everything and leave her questions for another time. As uncomfortable as she was now, as time went on, she prayed things must surely improve for her.

Deran'iti stood at the centre of the assembled elders.

'We have several things that need our attention this evening but they are things that just need your approval and so I shall not keep you very long.

Firstly, must confirm the arrangements for the return of Sothoo. Lolontoo, Rathu'i, and Segar'iti are all here and we have explained what is expected of them. They are due to leave tomorrow morning and will be leaving early and without any fuss. We do not want them to be burdened by expectations. Sothoo is to return to Peral'dul and Lolontoo to carry on returning the bones of the stranger to his village. If they have already done this, Lolontoo is to stay where she is until Sothoo returns. Are we all in agreement?'