Arul munched an overripe banana with a look of disgust. He didn’t enjoy its mushy texture, but it gave him strength. The previous night was terrible, his body hurting from the fall in more places than he could count.
Keeran’s concerned face hovered over him.
‘I’m okay. Really!’ Arul said, throwing away the blackened peel. ‘Any sign of those villagers?’
Keeran looked up past the waterfall. ‘No unfriendly faces up there!’ He laughed and slapped Arul on the arm.
‘Ouch! That hurts! Everything hurts.’ Arul winced and lay back on the warm rock. He gazed at the line of cliffs behind the pool, dull orange streaks running across the darker basalt rock like painted brushstrokes. Somewhere inside him, an awful feeling of dread stirred, like something terrible was getting closer.
Something dark.
Then Navira walked out of the jungle with an armful of mangoes. Keeran rushed over with a salivating mouth. ‘Let me help you carry those!’
Arul laughed. He knew Keeran. His friend intended to eat every one of those mangoes. It felt good to laugh, although it made his head ache. He groaned and shifted gingerly, feeling his body throb with pain.
It took the better part of the day for Arul to feel strong enough to walk, Keeran and Navira spending the time sleeping or tossing pebbles into the water. Navira would mix up a foul-tasting herbal concoction every so often and force Arul to drink it. He hadn’t the energy to refuse her remedies, but felt that his recovery was surprisingly rapid.
Imagine Navira being like Inba the village-healer one day. She’d be even grumpier.
Resting in the slanting rays of the warm afternoon sun, it was the best Arul felt since Blue Lake. Except for his anxiety about Jaya. Every so often his eyes would search the cliffs, straining for signs of his wolf.
Another night passed, the waterfall a roaring sheet of white under a full moon. In the morning, ghostly herons waded through swirling banks of fog as Arul and Keeran stood by the river. Under an overhanging branch, they held their spears high and waited.
Arul was about to give up when he saw something shimmer under the water. With a grunt, he plunged his spear into a decent-sized perch, Keeran jumping up and down enthusiastically, no doubt imagining grilled fish for dinner. ‘You eating fish these days, Keeran?’ Arul inquired casually.
Keeran came closer for a better look. ‘I’m so hungry, I’ll eat anything these days!’
‘And your parents? What will they think? Being strict vegetarians and all.’
Keeran looked down at his toes. ‘They probably think I’m a criminal anyway. I don’t know if I’ll ever go back home…’ He said what Arul thought about constantly, but never voiced it.
Going home seemed a distant fantasy, Arul’s chest hurting just thinking about it. For the first time in his life, he knew what it was like to be without a home. But right now he had to be strong for the sake of his friends.
Arul slapped Keeran on the arm. ‘We’ll always stick together. You and Navira are my family now. Keeran! Are you even listening?’ But Keeran was staring across the river with a grin that kept getting wider.
On the other bank stood Jaya, calmly watching them.
Dappled shadows played across the wolf’s black fur as he stared at the river. Then he leapt in with a loud splash, swimming against the current until he crossed over, shaking his body vigorously and drenching the two boys. Keeran held up his arms and laughed hard. It was a good sound to hear.
Arul hugged Jaya, while Navira came running over. Then they sat by the river, laughing and joking. They didn’t need a place to call home. Being together was home.
Arul eyed the river as it swirled into the forest, screeching birds echoing from the shadowy riverbank. The plains were not far off, and on the far side of it, the Royal City.
It’s time to move on. Somehow I have to rescue Appa, although I don’t know how.
Days later, high on the cliffs where Arul had fought off the villagers, corpses lay sprawled like broken dolls. Some had arrows through their necks. Most lay with vacant bulging eyes. Fingers clawing at their throats as if they had choked to death, faint black lines traced on their faces like spider webs.
Rain began to fall in a fine mist, covering the rocks in a sheen of water, shining under a dark sky. At the falls, men in black clothes sifted through the teen’s campsite, searching for anything that might tell them where the boy had gone. At a sign from one of the trackers, they swarmed over the boulders and into the jungle like predators.
Leaving the cliffs far behind, Arul stared at the surrounding trees. Unfamiliar leaves hung in huge clusters, and even the birdcalls grew strange as they trekked east. This jungle was quite different from the highland forests of Arul’s childhood. Navira wiped her face. ‘How do people live in this sticky air?’
At least the river was cool, flowing in a gentle downward slope, gradually broadening on its way to the plains. The teens followed its winding course for days until stands of water-rushes began to appear, clinging to the muddy banks like tall spears. Arul pointed. ‘I’ve never seen those before.’
‘My uncle says that in Ailas, they pound this into sheets for writing,’ Keeran said, breaking off a stalk and sniffing it.
Navira wiped more sweat from her face. ‘If you don’t shut up, I’ll pound you into paper.’
Fish were plentiful in the river, as were fruits and berries in the jungle. They ate well, so long as they did not eat from unfamiliar, possibly poisonous plants. Navira had run out of spices, so they had to make do with plain grilled fish. This didn’t discourage Keeran’s appetite at all, since he had taken quite a liking to fish. During their days following the river, Navira taught him how to gut and clean fish, just as her mother had taught her. One night she turned to Keeran and said, ‘You’re a bit less of an idiot, at least as far as fish are concerned.’ Keeran eyed her suspiciously, unable to decide if he’d been insulted or praised.
On the third day out from the waterfall, they came to an open woodland where the grass grew in wide swathes between huge branching trees. Under the soft green light, herds of spotted deer roamed freely, their alarm calls sounding eerily like children.
Keeran decided to climb one of the taller trees to get a better view. Navira chuckled. ‘He’s a good climber, isn’t he? Like a giant monkey.’
Arul yelled out, ‘Hey monkey! See anything?’
Keeran shaded his eyes, scanning the forest in a slow circle, then nodded to Arul and climbed down. After a few minutes he dropped onto the grass from a low branch and spoke breathlessly. ‘Smoke! There’s smoke in the north!’
‘Do you think the enemy are burning villages?’ Navira said, her eyes nervously swivelling north.
Keeran shrugged. ‘Couldn’t tell. Back east, I can see the cliffs that we climbed down. Westward I thought I saw a hazy line of ridges. Maybe the plains begin there.’
Should I find the main road to Ailas, or follow this river east to the plains?
I don’t care either way. I’m just following you. It was Jaya.
Arul gaped at him. Some help you are!
Fine, I’m going to lie down. Jaya loped off with his tail in the air.
Navira gave Arul a searching look. ‘Listen, Arul. I think we should find the Royal Highway and follow it. It’s safer, and they’re so many towns to find shelter. What do you say?’
Keeran’s face looked doubtful. ‘What if those scouts told the townsfolk to watch for us? Isn’t it safer to follow the river where there are fewer people around?’
‘Let me think,’ Arul said, walking over to Jaya. His wolf was sitting under a flowering tree, tiny red flowers sprouting from every branch like points of fire. He sat down and rubbed Jaya’s neck, feeling the soft fur under his fingers. The forest canopy whispered under a steady breeze, calming Arul’s mind.
Suddenly he rose, his mind made up.
‘We’ll take the road directly to Ailas. I don’t know how many weeks it will take, but I don’t think the scouts would bother to tell people to look for us. They’re too many towns, and most folk wouldn’t care either way.’ He kicked at a pebble. ‘Maybe we can blend into the crowds.’
Navira nodded, but Keeran was still uncertain. He adjusted his satchel and looked at Arul. ‘Two to one. I guess I’m tagging along.’
They continued following the river as wound through the woodland like a vast blue-green serpent. Tall water-rushes grew in great swathes along the muddy banks, and from time- to-time they startled lone egrets, the birds protesting noisily before flying off in a rush of white feathers.
On the fourth day from the falls, Arul spied a sturdy wooden bridge. The forest was cleared on both sides of the river, probably to furnish the necessary timber for the bridge-builders. Arul slapped his hand on the wooden rails. ‘Royal Engineers must have built this. Look how the bridge is so precise and sturdy. Villagers can’t make things like this.’
‘Ugh! It smells of mud and rotting wood,’ Navira said, her nose crinkling.
Arul crossed the bridge, stopping midway to gaze into the swirling water where an enormous eel swam leisurely through clouds of tiny red fish, scattering them like glowing embers. The teens flopped down on the soft grass of the far riverbank, Navira undoing her sandals and placing her feet into the river with a sigh. The murmur of the water soothed them with its hypnotic sound, as though they were back in Sailem and all was right with the world.
Except that it wasn’t.
They were far from home and lost.