The next day, Lincoln went to the main camp while I tracked and followed the smaller group with Shadow. We watched as they made their way through the woods and towards the mountain. I was careful to keep out of their sight and to cover my tracks, mindful of the reapers that roamed the forest as we got closer to the stronghold of the mountain men. They came to the river, and I crouched in the brush to watch them from the safety of the trees. When one of them swung across on a vine, the others cheered and readied to follow him.
Before they could, he held up a sign of the mountain men and they cheered. A spear whistled through the air, through the boy's chest, and pinned him to a tree. My eyes followed the path of the spear as the sky people panicked and ran back into the trees, crashing through the forest as fast as they could manage.
I saw one of Trikru from another village high in the trees. He must have felt the threat was eliminated, with the group cowering back into the forest. I watched him head east, away from the boy, presuming him dead.
His people had fled without checking on him, or taking his body back. I wondered if they had a tradition for death as well, and would want his corpse. When all was quiet in the woods, I crept carefully across the river and assessed. He was tall and skinny, with bones visible through his skin. I watched his chest rise and fall just slightly, and I was surprised he wasn't dead yet. He screamed as I unpinned the him from the tree. I used the seaweed from the river to make a paste for the gaping wound, and dragged the sky boy away from the mountain and back into the safety of the trees.
I left him, patched and breathing, beneath a tree on Trikru side of the river. I clucked my tongue to Shadow and he followed me as we crept to the rendezvous point to meet with Lincoln.
"One of the five was speared," I explained later to Lincoln. The sun was falling, and the four had made it back to their camp. "I made the seaweed paste and left him beneath a tree."
"You shouldn't have interfered," he grunted. I rolled my eyes and snatched his notebook to look at his drawings. "Arli," he said in warning. I flipped until I found a picture of their camp - the one he had started the day before. It was finished now, with marks to indicate how many of them were counted for. He had added - there were 101 in total, with two crossed out.
"More?" I asked.
"Died in the ship. They buried them," he explained. I nodded and returned the book to him.
"And you'll report back to Indra?" I asked.
"We will report back," he clarified. I shook my head.
"I'll stay and keep watch. The one that speared the boy might come back."
"They're not our people," Lincoln protested, eyes narrowed. "You don't need to protect them." We stared at each other, remembering our shared father. He wanted to make Lincoln strong, and had. My mother had raised me differently, and I wore her compassion with honor. Though my village shamed me for it, it reminded me of her.
"Don't be like him," I warned Lincoln. "We do better than those before us."
Lincoln shook his head and walked away, heading in the direction of the village. Shadow found a spot by a hollow tree, and I left him there as I climbed a tree tall enough to peer into their camp.
I watched and listened, hoping to identify their leader. The group of five had a girl that was strong, but I believed that the true leader had stayed with the majority. Watching them interact, and talk about the speared boy, I determined the leader was the tall one with dark hair. He worried over the other girl from the small group, the one with dark hair. He and the girl with yellow hair were disagreeing. It seemed tense, and I wondered if they would fight as my people did for the leader's position among their tiny clan. The girl with yellow hair disappeared into the star, and the leader boy began to bandage the other girl's leg.
The girl with yellow hair was getting ready to leave again, in search of the speared boy. The group changed this time, with the boy leader joining her, a tall dark skinned boy, and a boy with crazy in his eyes.
I watched them walk out of camp, and followed them through the trees. They got into a disagreement not far from camp, and one of the boys from the first group of five joined and pulled the girl with yellow hair along with him.
They split from the others, and I followed them. When we were far enough from the other group to avoid detection, I slipped down the tree and snapped a twig to get their attention.
They spun around, and their eyes widened in shock. I held up my hands peacefully and stepped closer. The boy put the girl behind him and they backed up until they hit a tree.
"Who are you?" the girl asked. "Were you the one with the spear?" I held out my hands again to her, showing them empty.
"Do you know who threw the spear?" the boy asked. "Who are you? How many of you are there?"
I crept closer, and the boy held out something sharp aimed at me.
"No closer," he said fiercely. I blinked and rolled my eyes, then turned my back to them, looked back, and tilted my head.
"She wants us to follow her," the girl said.
"Right into a trap," the boy shot back.
"Maybe she knows where Jasper is," the girl protested. At that, I began walking carefully through the trees. After a little more back-and-forth, I heard them begin to follow me through the woods.
When we got to the tree where I left him, I was surprised he wasn't there any longer. I looked back at the boy and girl and crouched to the ground to touch it. The boy looked around and then crouched with me, touching the dirt.
"He was here," he said to the girl. "Look, those marks are from dragging something. See?" They both looked at the ground, to the soil that had been smoothed over when I dragged the boy to the tree.
"No blood. He's not bleeding enough to leave any behind," the girl said. She looked up at me. "You left him here?"
I looked around, searching for more tracks. Finally, behind the tree, I found footsteps. I took off after them, and heard the boy and girl running to catch up with me.
He was in a clearing, tied to a tree we used to catch wild animals for food. The marking on the tree wasn't that of my village, and so I hesitated moving forward.
"Jasper! What's wrong?" the girl asked. I pointed to the markings. Just then, the rest of their group appeared across the clearing.
"HEY!" the boy leader said. Something shiny in his hand caught the light as he raised it. The girl immediately stepped in front of me and held out her arms to the boy.
"Bellamy, don't shoot! She led us here, she's helping us!" she said. The three boys ran across and over to us.
"How do you know she didn't spear him herself, and bring you here to trap you?" he demanded. He didn't lower the shiny thing. Judging by the way the girl and boy I had led were reacting, it was a weapon.
Not to be seen as weak, I stepped around the girl and pushed my shoulder up to the weapon, getting as close as possible to the leader, Bellamy. My heart beat fast with every second I allowed myself to touch his weapon, but I needed him to know that I wasn't afraid of him. I stared up into his dark eyes, my face fierce and unyielding.
Several eternal seconds passed by before he lowered the weapon. He looked at the people behind me and then nodded to Jasper, tied to the tree.
"Okay, grounder. How do we get him down?" Bellamy asked.
I went to the tree line and grabbed a thin, low-hanging branch. I braced my foot against the tree and pulled, snapping the branch off. Then I pressed the ground as I walked toward the tree, waiting for it to give.
About four feet from the base of the tree, the ground gave, revealing the spikes in a pit, set as a trap. The sky people had crept behind me, and the girl gasped as she peered down.
"Now do you trust her?" she demanded of Bellamy. He didn't say anything, but his eyes revealed his truth. He did not trust me.
I skirted around the edge of the pit and made my way to the tree, where I carefully climbed up to Jasper and pulled a knife from my belt to cut the vines holding him in place. He moaned in pain as I cut his arms free. I moved on to the other vines and hacked them off. When he was free, two of the boys came carefully to the base of the tree to take him from me.
A sleek black animal pounced from the tree line, heading straight for the girl and Bellamy. I whistled high, and Shadow leaped from the trees and onto the animal, claws out as he ripped out its throat. Blood dripped from his muzzle as he climbed off the beast and laid in the grass, waiting for my next command.
I walked over to the panther and crouched beside it, touching its side as I whispered.
"Yu gonplei ste odon."
I stood from my crouch and nodded at the animal. The girl stepped up and looked down at it.
"Food?" she asked. She motioned with her hand, sure I couldn't understand her after hearing my native tongue. "To eat?" she asked.
I grunted in response and ran my fingers through Shadow's coat, turning to leave.
"Wait!" she said. "I have so many questions!" I looked at her briefly, then turned on my heel and disappeared into the thick trees.