Eritopia

Path of Blackness

A day or two after his mother vanished, Fleg was trudging in a small circle among the fallen beech leaves. Head down, he was listening to the rustling and crackling underfoot. Then he started, finding the General standing above him, his sad eyes gazing down into Fleg's.

'Boy,' the General said, with the deep voice of authority. 'Walk with me.'

Fleg was not inclined to move, being full of grief, but did as the General asked out of respect to his elder. They paced around, in the circle that Fleg had traced many times, the beech trees all around them. In the first few minutes they walked, the General said nothing. Then he stopped in front of Fleg.

'It is a great loss,' he said.

Fleg sighed. What did this old fellow know of it? Yet at least there were none of the platitudes that others offered. The General returned the next day, Fleg still in the same spot. He was lifting his leg to pee against the grey trunk of a beech, about to finish off the remains of a rat.

'Will you come?' the General asked.

Fleg looked at him. 'Well,' he began but saw no reason to stay. Then, he did what he had never done before and offered the General part of his meal. The General laughed.

'Not for me,' he said, adding, 'but thank you,' as he bowed his head.

Through the General, Fleg learned many things. It was from those scarred lips that he heard of the hyena past, the silent role they held beyond that of a scavenger. The General told of their use as spies and mercenaries in many scuffles with the Insiders. Hyenas had never taken sides to any degree, preferring the freedom of the neutral. If anything, they sided with creatures that held the same values. Then Fleg heard for the first time of the world of men.

'Did men take her then?' he asked the General one day when the conversation faltered. The evening light dimmed under the beech canopy. As the scent of pines drifted in, the howl of the hyena, the chirp of the cricket and the evening birdsong made music of the dusk.

It didn't make sense. 'How could they find their way here?' He had never seen Outsiders in the Forest.

'As I say, it is a strange thing.'

Fleg talked on, about revenge and justice, until he whimpered, for no particular reason.'Do not think about it, if it causes you pain. There will come a time when you will understand more. Now you are young, and need only look at what happened, not why.'

******

'Harrwow oww wow!' Fleg gasped in pain, his reverie forgotten. He had slipped off a ledge and the sharp rock had cracked into his groin, biting into soft flesh and making him howl.

'Hooo how ow oww!' He hopped around in agony, then crouched and licked his wound. The pain caused arrows of light to shoot across his eyes. He sniffed his skin, there was no blood, which was a consolation.

He now regretted walking into this trap. It seemed more dangerous than the day when the whistling wood had claimed his friends and set the wolf free. The wolf! He remembered something the General had said about the Outsiders.

'They are like us, yet far from us.'

'I've never seen a man,' Fleg said at the time, 'but they say we hyenas are like them.'

'Remarkable,' the General said, 'that you are so ready to believe what others tell you. Have you no mind of your own?'

'Of course.' Fleg said in defence. 'But I also want to travel in the Forest with the others, to see what things are like for myself.'

'It is a start,' the other said. 'Although the pack is a restriction in itself.'

'But it is safer,' Fleg answered. 'No one should go off alone.'

'It is not necessary to go off to be alone.'

Fleg didn't understand. Perhaps the old one was mad in the head after all. That's what the other cubs said when they saw Fleg's companion for the first time.

'He's nuts,' Doge said. 'Tang's mother told us.'

They were forever mentioning mothers, now that he didn't have one.

'You ask anyone.'

Little Elfy, who had three legs and a slight frame but more sense than the others said, 'He's not right. They say the wars exhausted him.'

'Leaked all his brains out,' Tang added, and the others laughed.

The pain in Fleg's groin had become a dull throb, not as sharp as before. It was almost comforting. He slept.

When he awoke he noticed there was light. For the first time, he could see where he was and his eyes focused on the surroundings. There was rock above, below and to the sides; he was still in a cavern.

He checked again for injuries, his nose confirming there were none as before. Had that been last night? He didn't know how long he had slept. He felt refreshed, proof that it was long enough. And as we seem to be born again every day after sleep, so Fleg felt both new and old at the same time. In his dreams, he had been the General, all wisdom and thick skin. He was Elfy, Tang, Doge and his mother, various Colonels, wise ones, squirrel, fox and bear. They were in him and were from him. They spoke with their voices and his voice too.

He set off again, but this time knew where he was going. It was a question of time, not of distance, whether walking, running or sleeping. He would soon catch up with the wolf and the little man.

'How will I know when I get there?' he said aloud.

The General answered. 'You will know. We all do.'