Unholy Star, Beyond Faith

On the ground

The druids escorted Tiger into the cage the would take them from the tree colony platform to the forest floor. One of them started the ignition of a small piston engine the worked the pulleys. The soft hydrogen powered puff puff puff of the vintage engine was the only sound as the cage lowered slowly.

They hit the ground with a thunk that would have knocked the elderly Tiger to the ground had he not been holding on to the side of the cage. One of the druids, a man, drew his scythe and slid the door across to inspect the surroundings. He stepped out, "It is clear, exit the cage." He ordered. Tiger was expecting a push to his back, but instead, the druid behind him patiently waited for him to hobble out. After he had navigated the step down to the ground, she half threw half passed him a backpack, which was small, but still too heavy for him and it fell to the leafy ground.

The druid returned into the cage and said to the bewildered Tiger, "See you in thirty suns old one." There was no scorn or menace in his tone. Condemning a helpless man to his death was simply the way it was.

The cage ascended back to the platform. Tiger watched as the puff puff diminished beyond his hearing.

It was morning, and there was a chill in the air. The warm light of the sun had only just breached the forest planet horizon and was hitting the mighty trunks of the trees casting sharp shadows on the ground. The thick moss growing on chunky bark seemed to glow, and morning sun backlit the fanning tops of the tree ferns that grew in spaces between the trees.

There was a snap in the bracken to the side, and Tiger's thoughts moved to his immediate security. It was just a branch dropping, but, if the stories were to be believed, even a fraction, he was now standing in one of the most dangerous places in the kingdom.  On the ground of the old forest.

From the spot where the cage landed there was a well-defined path forward. He knew that the established tracks down here were likely the least secure places, but he needed to find some human-made facilities where he could make a temporary refuge and make a plan.

He felt the tingle in his bones increase slightly;  a reminder that he was due for his second pill from Pachy. Gefresh was a physically violent processes that required the subject to be placed in an induced coma to survive the cellular regeneration. Tiger wasn't even sure if the drug that his friend had given him was anything to do with gefresh and wondered if it bring him onto the radar of the death squad. What are friends for, he thought to himself as he laboured to loop the backpack over his shoulder. Once up, he moved slowly down the path taking a big branch as a walking stick and almost falling when finding it rotten and not even able to support his slight weight.

The path carried on for a short way before Tiger saw a clearing and small stake-lined fortification that had been built upon a levelled-off mound. The structure was orientated so that its wide open entrance faced the direction of the rising sun. Even if the druids had given him a weapon inside the pack, he knew that he was too feeble to wield it, so he decided to walk the entrance ramp and meet his fate. He figured that if there were a beast inside, his would be a quick end.

At the enclosure, the walls were about eight feet high, and he couldn't see in from the ground level start of the ramp. He climbed quietly and was relieved not to have been pounced on by a predator as he made his way in through the open gateway.

There was no animal inside the enclosure, but the scene was far from the comforting hideout he was hoping for. Disconnected human bones scattered about all over the compacted dirt ground. Tiger estimated thousands more had been stacked into neat six piles around a circle centre. He moved slowly to the middle of the enclosure where lay several bodies. Two were wrapped in shrouds, and four others had been wrapped, but the coverings had been torn open. He suspected that the bodies had been disturbed by animals as the flesh had been removed from fresh skeletons and various limbs had been pulled aside from the body. He was expecting the stench of death, but the area smelled like dirt and forest.

This place was the burial mound. It was where the druids took the aged from the colony when they died. Tiger knew that they existed but had never seen one, he recalled that there was a ceremony attached, but like everything the druids did, it was secret.

The wrapped bodies were fresh from last night or early this morning, or so he guessed, figuring that the animals would have got them otherwise; in fact, the raw meat, made him think that this place was not a good place to be right now.

He was about to leave when he heard the grunt of an animal. Tiger froze and waited for the sound to re-appear. There is it again, thankfully not something that will eat me, maybe even something I can eat, he thought pleased with himself, once a survivor, always a survivor.

He grabbed, a femur from the nearest pile. The large leg bone was a natural club and, provided he had enough strength, would quickly dispatch a small animal.

Slowly, Tiger moved towards the centre circle from where he heard the animal sound. It was going to be an eventful day, he thought to himself when he realised that the sound was not coming from an animal, but from one of the wrapped bodies. Fuckit, he swore under his breath, not dinner, then swore again as he stomach churned and he looked at his club, Please the gods, I hope not dinner.