Chapter Two: Devastation

It took the small band nearly a full day to get to the Treetop City through the fire which had spread beyond their town now and had started some of the smaller surrounding trees ablaze as well. Their progress was further hindered by the lack of their usual method of climbing the boles, the Yimhi. The shed where the creatures were housed had been opened and most of the twenty-five Yimhi had been slaughtered there. The slightly purple blood from the beasts was deep and had made the floor of their shed into noxious purple red mud as the survivors had milled about in panic. Some had managed to break free of the shed pushing past their assailants and attempting to flee to the forest beyond the tree bas landing. It did not spare them from the slaughter as the large lumps strewn about the open space attested. Whoever had done this had been very thorough, by the tracks left there had not been a single Yimhi that had made it through. The mud made in yimhi blood was only partly dried which meant that they had missed the attack by maybe a day.

Quona had taken several of their rank and returned to Quarta to retrieve the Yimhi that they had used on their mission. The whole of the group was tense and anxious and the decision was made to start the ascent on foot to their home. They all agreed to try and began the arduous task of climbing the large boles toward the city, Yaha carried Gerard and Gui'Yata carried Courtney as they slowly made their way into the treetops. They had made it about one-third the height of the tree and where taking a small break on a fairly large branch when the others returned with the spare Yimhi in tow. They pushed the Yimhi hard up the tree ignoring the bone jarring leaps. The scene upon their arrival was putting it mildly like walking into a war zone.

Gui'Yata jumped quickly from his mount before it had come to a complete stop running toward the brilliant orange and red flames that leapt for the air and singed the black underside of the canopy above. He shielded his face and eyes as the heat became nearly unbearable and blinded his natural vision. He was forced to stop short of the worst of the conflagration.

He lowered his hands to his sides as he took in the devastation around them, his clawed hands making useless fists of rage. The town that he had thrown away his reputation and standing to create now lay in ashes all around him. Strong now was the odor of burning flesh clogging his senses, telling a tale of the lives that had been lost and for a reason that he could not yet grasp. Gui'Yata looked slowly around him his eyes fixing on the charred remains of a Soua, the plasma burn still visible from his back. The growths that served as their dwellings were shriveled and black and Gui'Yata's sensitive mind could still detect the ghosts of their pain, and that forced him to narrow his reception and blocked any active search he tried to make to detect survivors. From the ashes stood curled wires and the heat screens that had been the primary means of communication with the rest of the world they knew. All around him the heat-dried leaves from the canopy filtered down in a death rattle to be consumed completely by the fire that still burned all around them.

He saw no living creature moving through his still heat-blinded field of vision and that only served to enrage him further. He knew deep down that this was no accident. Fires, beyond the ritual ones lit on special occasions, did not just happen on Soona. The trees were fleshy, water laden and just did not catch fire on their own. Even the summer storms, full of lightning that could split the traditional Soua homes, could not bring a sustained fire to them. Only by adding chemicals, plasma and the like could you get the ancient trees to light.

Then it begged the question how could a town the size that Taysa was, a town filled with fierce hunters and warriors be overcome by whatever force that had hit this place? It made no sense. They had lived in the shadow of death…lived as outcasts for so long that they had become ever vigilant against invading parties. Yet all around him was the proof that the sentinels had been either caught off guard or had been overwhelmed.

Until the truce had been struck between themselves and the Ot Eesan at Onona they had lived in constant threat of dishonorable death if they were found. Many raiding parties had infiltrated their town in those years, killing, maiming, and destroying all that they had worked for. It had touched off a series of increasingly bloody attacks back and forth between the traditionalists and the Sai like himself who had without permission founded another city, one that did not abide by the long established code of conduct that all Soua lived by.

The code was a set of behavioral rules that had been established after the major tribes had nearly wiped each other off the face of their own planet after two decades of civil war. They had been small differences, but to Onona it had been blasphemy, punishable by death. They had been criminals to their own society.

The truce had been called by Onona's Ot Eesan as they grew fearful of the swelling ranks young Soua who were starting to rebel within even the long established cities, and fearful of another dark age of Civil War between them. And they had spent five straight days hammering out the details that would quell the growing tide of violence.

Gui'Yata blinked as he heard Nobaya anxiously calling, "Tomakaya! Temasu!" at the top of his considerable lungs. He looked over to see Nobaya heading toward his home, he was oblivious to those around him. Gui'Yata clacked his mandibles together as Nobaya yelled those names, his bondsman and his son. He had bonded just three years ago finding his life-mate in his first mate and sealing his devotion to her for all time. They had been perfect for each other. Tomakaya had provided him a son just a year and a half ago and Temasu had been close to being of age to be taken on a pack ship. Nobaya moved further away from the group still shouting those names in heart wrenching tones of panic.

Courtney bit her lip fighting back the tears as she regarded the smoking ruins, and she forced herself to step down off her own small Yimhi and search for any survivors of this holocaust. As she moved off she noticed the others spurring themselves to action as well searching through the cooling ashes for anything or anyone that could be saved.

For three hours they sifted, they called out, they salvaged what they could. But there was not much left, all of the citizens that they found had been long dead, some charred beyond any hope of recognition, others mostly along the outskirts on the guard posts were found stiff with rigor-mortis and showing signs of scavenger depredation on their flesh. There was evidence all around them of a great fight between the citizens of Taysa and whoever had taken it into their head to attack the city. Plasma burns were rampant over the entire scene, along with some of the more rudimentary mechanical weapons that they found in the bodies of their friends.

As they neared the Gather the devastation was not as great but it still existed, here some of the growths had survived showing fire damage but still maintaining a healthy sheen to them and showing signs of healing already in process. The Gather showed a great many plasma scars, but it was evident, as soon as they saw it that the citizens had made a stand here and had finally won the day. What she found odd was that there was no evidence of any of the attackers aside from the dead bodies and burnt homes. Surely the Taysa Taru had killed many of those who had attacked, yet there were no bodies of the enemies and no real evidence to say just who had been responsible for this massacre. Nobaya returned just as they were about to enter looking weary and upset.

Courtney looked up into his face concern twisting her own features, "Any luck?"

"Our home is but ash," he whispered heavily, "They…were not there, but I do not know if they still live."

"Nobaya?" Courtney's head whipped around as she heard the voice, a voice that was scared and relieved at the same time and neither was a sound she was used to hearing in Soua voices. She gravitated back the direction of the voice, her heart leaping as she recognized it.

"Tomakaya!" Nobaya shouted, as a slightly larger and heavier figure lurched out of the smoke that shrouded the door of the Gather. Courtney caught up to them just in time to see Nobaya grab the figure by the shoulders and press his forehead to hers, as they entwined their upper mandibles in a rare public show of affection. She was a beautiful Soua just inches taller than Nobaya, she had been cream and peach colored with rust spotting over her body and the same had been on the crown of her head in a pattern that had reminded her of a flying swan with its wings outstretched. Her hair had been very light almost gray in color with just a hint of the same peach color that covered her body. After a moment they returned to a more acceptable public stance still holding each other by the shoulders, "Are you alright?" He asked his bondsman. She nodded slightly unwilling to break their contact looking into his eyes as they stood there, "Where is Temasu?"

"He is safe," She said to him softly, exhaustion clear to hear in her voice. She went silent then not seeming to have the strength even to explain her cryptic statement, and every line of her body told that she was about to the limit of her endurance. Courtney noticed only then that Tomakaya's left arm hung limply at her side. On her shoulder was a glaring wound hastily patched with totant and it was obvious that she had not given the Soyasa enough time to treat it properly. Her concern had been for the city and for the others that had somehow made it through.

That was one thing about Tomakaya that had impressed Courtney, unlike most of the female Soua she knew, Tomakaya was a natural leader and in the Eesan's absence she had taken charge of what could easily have been a total loss situation.

Usually females felt no desire to be leaders. They were some of the best warriors the planet possessed but they were happy to remain warriors, hunters, and mothers. Most only spent ten rotations in the hunt and then moved on to city defense or duty as crèche teachers, caring for each successive generation of hunters and teaching the young Soua basics of what would be their life purpose of bringing honor to their line in the hunt. There were a few that bucked that trend, Tomakaya was one, and Courtney knew that though young, Yaha would be another such.

Tomakaya turned from them wearily moving back into the space that to this point had been a meeting place and a staging ground. Without a word they all followed the Soua in slowly taking in the remainder of what had been a steadily growing population. The Gather had been converted to a makeshift triage unit, overflowing with injured Soua.

Most were minor injuries grazing plasma burns cuts from close in fighting with Sasa's and Disa's. Several were severely injured lying in bright pools of their own blood, and the few Soyasa's were inundated with trying to attend them all. Courtney, despite her desire to learn more from Nobaya's bondsman, was pricked by her conscience to break from the group and lend her assistance to the warriors still in dire need of a Soyasa's services. Slowly each of them split up to lend their limited assistance to those steadily working through the most severe cases. Courtney knew nothing but blood for the next several hours and when she had finished she was surprised to see that it was dark outside. She gravitated toward the door stepping into the encompassing blackness. She could just barely make out the sentries, made up of the more able bodied of the injured looking tensely alert for any repeat of the attack that had so devastated their world. She also noticed that by and large the fire had gone out, losing ground to the water saturated trees that made up this primordial forest. She could just make out red embers glowing where some of the hottest parts of the fire had been. She had caught part of Quona's conversation to check the structural soundness of the branches under their home when it became light again. They could regrow the structures but it would do them no good if the branches the city perched on would be unable support the weight of the buildings. Even if the branches somehow had escaped damage many of the buildings were gone and the growths took five to ten years to grow large enough to accommodate a Soua. She sighed suddenly overwhelmed by emotion, and desperately fought to keep from crying in front of the Soua around her. What had happened? Intent on finding out she moved back into the Gather heading for a small bench where the rest of the party was resting.

It was obvious that someone had beaten her to that question for she was in process of explaining the events of that night.

"…After the sun had gone down. The sentinels were posted as they are every night and the rest were in various stages of retiring for the evening. The attackers tore through our sentinels as if they were not there, they were not even given time to shout a warning. They swarmed into the town laying waste to all that would oppose them, many were gunned down before they could gather up a weapon. Those who came fought without honor!

"They used houta to fuel the fires they set ensuring that everything would burn and quickly, some of our finest warriors were trapped in their homes as the fires cooked them alive," She nodded over to one Soua who had been severely burned. "Katasa blasted his way out as did several others but it was thick with flame and still wet with houta. He was doused with burning houta as he won free of his burning dwelling. We survivors made a stand here doing what we could to save our brethren and the town, killing all of the invaders that we could." She looked up into Quona's face, "They had won Quona, their numbers were great. They could have taken us all, but as quickly as they had come they disappeared into the night."

"Who did this?" Quona asked solemnly.

"They were Soua," She answered bitterly.

Quona straightened as if that was the answer that he had been suspecting but did not really want to hear. It was a possibility that they had all touched on in their mind but had been unwilling to voice because of the ramifications such had. They were all hoping that it was a raiding band of Foua or Grawata, two species who were known for setting down on a planet and harrying the residents for a while, and leaving before the Soua could find and kill them.

"Are you certain of this?" Quona said his calm voice belying the tense posture.

She bowed her head, "They were wearing gear for the hunt, they carried Disa's, plasma cannons, raspa's. They chanted war songs and they carried off many 'trophies' of our brothers heads."

"Barbaric," Yaha growled.

"Has the truce been broken then?" Gui'Yata asked suddenly. All eyes were suddenly intent on him and in turn on Quona.

"We cannot jump to that conclusion just yet."