-three-
- - -
"I'm running away." Maelstrom set off across the stream. It was best to go now while his mama was distracted. If she looked back now she wouldn't think anything out of the ordinary was happening...the older lambs were allowed to wander within the general area of the flock and he was still nearby. This time, though, he was not coming back. He couldn't live here while that ram was here. Even now he looked back at him and could see him, standing at least a head taller than everyone else...He couldn't bear to see any more of what he had seen before.
Shiri kept grazing, every once in a while glancing over at the commotion that seemed so important. Of course, she could do nothing about the gûndah not being such a nice ram. Then she saw that Maelstrom was going somewhere. "Maelstrom!" Shiri splashed through the stream after him. "Wait!"
Maelstrom looked back past his flank to see Shiri running after him, golden in the late day sun. What could he say to her? He admitted to himself that he hadn't thought about what she would do. He wasn't used to having friends.
"You heard him. I'm not welcome here."
"Yes you are!" Shiri caught him up on the opposite streambank. The late afternoon sun made her face look rosy. "Yes you are. Silly ram! But...wait a minute...do you--Are you going away?"
"Iam." Maelstrom continued to walk across the grass on the other side. He blinked back tears. "What if he kills me?"
"Your mama wouldn't let a thing like that happen! Would she?" Shiri thought of Thalenes. "And if you leave, won't she be worried? It's dangerous out there! Out--here." She gulped. They were fast leaving the flock behind.
"My mama's not the eyomah. And--even if she was she couldn't stop him. Nothing can stop Heero-ki." Maelstrom slowed, then stopped, and then kept walking again. He finally stopped near some bushes and looked up at the sky, as if answers would come from there. Violet clouds sailed over a changing skyscape...everything was changing.
- - -
Dark brown mareep eyes studied what they could from the bushes. It was difficult to sneak around a place like this, making the young ewe regret her decision to come here. But it was dangerous to live alone for long.
She did her best to sneak closer, using what little cover there was--the few bushes. Her sandy-coloured coat blended with her surroundings, but her golden tailglobe stood out well over the grass and dirt. Kyaru did her best to sneak closer to the two lambs. She tried not to draw attention to herself.
They wouldn't want a dangerous ramling like ME too close, now would they? Kyaru grinned.
Maelstrom turned his eyes from the sky and cast them down, to the grass. He was hungry, so he grazed. It helped him think. What was he doing, running away when his mama needed him more than ever? How many more times would Heero-ki slap Thalenes...hurt her...and he was the gûndah. That meant he was the one most likely to mate her.
"You're right," said the bigger mareep to Shiri. "I can't leave Mama. But what if he kicks me out anyway...Damnit."
"Don't say bad words," said Shiri. She hated foul language. Words like 'damn' might bring a real curse onto something! Or someone.
Maelstrom snorted and spat on the ground. Foul words were often the only thing that expressed how he felt. He noticed the light of a mareep hiding in a bush. He took a couple of steps towards the bush, sniffing the wind. "Another one..." It was a eweling...Had she come here with Shiri's flock, or with Heero or on her own? Predators could be sniffing all three of them out right now. Maybe she was hiding from an enemy that Maelstrom and Shiri had not spotted.
Kyaru gruffed. She'd been spotted. Lowering her head, she cursed to herself. So much for watching them before doing anything. Oh well...she would make the best of the situation.
"Another one what?" she snapped as she emerged from the bush. Her voice was deeper than that of a normal eyomaru, but it was definitely female. She'd done her best to sound gruff and rammish and it hadn't helped much.
"You're another mareep who's found my flock today," said Maelstrom, walking towards the eweling. Would he actually make two friends today? And both with young ewes? It was almost unreal.
"Really?" Kyaru wondered why her voice sounded so feminine no matter how hard she tried. It was a bit embarrassing. She gave the ram an odd look. "Doesn't your gûndah mind?" Her old gûndah had, at least around this time of year, and in the case of strange males, like herself.
"Why would he care?" Maelstrom gave a snort in the flock's direction, then used some of the language that he had heard Cirrus and other young rams use. "He's an asshole anyway."
"Stop it!" Shiri fixed him with a stern, pouty look. Rams! They just had to swear every other word!
"Well," said Kyaru, throwing the two an odd look, "when I'm gûndah of my own flock, I'll make sure not to let any strange rams in without careful consideration. That's dangerous to the flock, isn't it?" She leaned her head down, snatching a mouthful of grass before bringing her head back up to chew.
Maelstrom blinked. "You're going to be a gûndah? But you're a ewe. Ewes can't be gûndië!" Was she out of her head? Ewes could be eyomah, when they got older, but...ewes couldn't be lead rams!
Kyaru gave Maelstrom a death glare. She pawed the ground, much like a sparring ram. "Bakus! I'm NOT a ewe! I'm a ramling! A gumaru! Can't you tell the difference?" Tossing her head, she snorted. Sparks leaped like fizz over her coat and tail. "So I can lead any flock I darn well please! I just need to grow for a few years...then get one together! Yes...my rams and me!"
Maelstrom was not sure how to digest this. He had never been confronted by this. "You smell like a ewe." He took a few steps back. Whatever had convinced her that she was a ram? But seeing the look in her dark eyes flashing, he knew there would be no dissuading her. Maybe he should play along for now. "Maybe you're a ram in disguise." He sidestepped and snipped up a bit more grass.
"Who gives about what I smell like? If you smell like grass, does that make you grass?" Kyaru was proud of her point. Just because she smelled like a ewe, looked more or less like a ewe, and sounded like a ewe, did not mean she was a ewe! If she was a ewe, then..."I'm just a ram who happens to smell like a ewe."
Shiri chuckled. "Silly lamb, you're a girly not an icky boy!" She giggled.
"Hey." Maelstrom looked at Shiri. After all that business with Cirrus and Heero-ki, rams were getting a bad rap around here...
Kyaru squinted her lovely dark eyes at Shiri. "I'm NOT a girly...urr..girl! WHERE do people keep getting the idea that I'm a ewe from, anyway? Hmmph...then again, little lambs like you two wouldn't be able to tell probably."
Maelstrom snorted at her, feeling a little riled up by what she said, but strangely enough he wasn't truly angry, nor did he feel insulted. Her whole attitude was so ridiculous it was hard for him to take it seriously. But she would clearly settle for no less. "All right...gumaru..." he snorted again, slightly emphasizing that last word. "What's your name?"
The eweling threw Maelstrom a warning glance, then lifted her head proudly. "My name's Kyaru. What's yours?"
"Maelstrom, Maelstrom of Cloudspin." Maelstrom's tail flicked at yet another fly that had tried to land on him. "What brings you all the way here, alone?"
"Well, Maelstrom..." Kyaru started, clearing her throat. Ï just felt a need to leave my flock, they refused to respect me...and I ended up spotting this flock. I watched from afar for a while, then decided to let you know I was here." It wasn't exactly what had happened, but hopefully Maelstrom would buy it.
Ï see," the 'other' ram nodded. "I was planning to leave this flock myself." He let himself think out loud. Why not get it out on the breeze that he was pondering it? Maybe she would want to come along with him. The setting sun cast an eerie shadow on him as the three of them stood talking, just past the stream.
"You have to be strong to leave your flock of course." The tatters of Kyaru's left ear shifted in the breeze. "Otherwise, some nasty predator might eat you right down to your bones." She smiled a bit. "You don't need to worry as much if you're strong like me though."
Maelstrom tensed as he imagined the nasty predator and himself being eaten, nodding in agreement to Kyaru. He was not about to show his fear as the setting sun, ducking behind the forested ridge, robbed the field of light.
"Idon't like that!" said Shiri shaking her head. "Scary, Kyaru, scary."
Maelstrom heard his mama calling his name. He turned and started heading back across the stream. Shiri had been right, Mama was worrying about him. "I'm going back if you want to join me."
"I'm coming!" Shiri splashed across the trickling water, bleating as the cool mountain water splashed to the tops of her legs. Not to be outdone, Kyaru followed, overtaking Shiri and reaching the bank just behind Maelstrom.
Thalenes' lights, along with the lights of the other sheep, stood out brightly against the darkening twilight. "Mama!" called Maelstrom, running in with his two new friends. Tamar came trotting behind them. As he and Thalenes met and nuzzled noses, Shiri did the same to her mama. Kyaru grinned at Maelstrom. No one noticed Cirrus giving Tamar a cold glare from halfway across the flock.
- - -
"Drael, Rusamu," called Cirrus to the other young rams as they awoke the next morning. "Tamar's back."
Rusamu the yearling, flaaffy ram looked up at Cirrus. "What're we going to do?"
"We are going to kill him," said Cirrus."I told him if he came back he would pay and he will. We are going to kill that burakos scum of Bangaa."
"How?" Drael stood up, stretched and started grazing. He along with Cirrus had sworn that he would do it, but now? They needed plans. "You got to make sure he's alone when you do. Then...well, he is what, six summers?"
"The three of us could do it."
"That's right we could!" said the yearling flaafy. "I'm ready to go kill some rapists today, how about you."
"I'm ready when the time is right and we know the plan," said Drael. "So, Cirrus, we keep an eye on him."
"He's found some mareep to flock with, Maelstrom and a couple of new lambs," said Cirrus. "Figures that spawn of Moonbeam would take up with him." Especially since Tamar had been close with Moonbeam before the great black ram had left.
"Well he doesn't know," said Drael, still grazing.
"He will."
Cirrus tried to graze away the memories. There was something about the monotony of cropping, chewing and swallowing, coupled with the delicious flavour of good grass and clover, that helped to dull the pain...but this morning it was harder than usual. Tamar's return had seized the recollections from the back of his mind and brought it all up like a bolus of sour cud. The grass lost its taste, seemed to go to dust in his mouth.
The great, huge pit-black body forcing Cirrus down on all fours, spreading his legs and taking him like a ewe. Cirrus remembered the pain as he was stretched wide, the bleeding and the shame. After a while he had grown used to it; the pain had faded, but never the shame. Rams partook in these things quite often, but Moonbeam had forced Cirrus, again and again, and loudly proclaimed him to be his ewe.
It had made his mother's rape all the worse to witness. Cirrus remembered how Tamar had rushed in on her while Heero-ki had been peacefully tending the ewe...then grabbed her while Heero was distracted. Tamar had resisted Heero's headbutting and loud bellows of fury long enough to grab her and run off with her. Heero had not defended her once Tamar had gotten past the flock with her...he had other ewes he had been tending at the same time. It could have been one of them tht Tamar had grabbed, but no, he had chosen this one...
Cirrus's mother had tried to pull free, but Tamar had his flipper wrapped around hers. His flippers moved to her sides as he gripped her from behind and forced her down. She bleated over and over as she was taken...
"Yes...he will soon know."
- - -
"Tag! YOU'RE IT!" Shiri dashed away from Maelstrom in a cloud of giggles. She knew he could run faster than she could, but she now had quite a head start!
Maelstrom took off after her, leaving Kyaru and Tamar in the dust. She and Maelstrom ran through the field in the late morning sunshine.
Kyaru watched them run off and stayed by Tamar, figuring she could learn a few things from him. Like how to act like a grown-up ram, which she would one day be...in six or seven more years! Rams, of which she was one, took several years longer than ewes to grow up.
"Best see where they're going lest they get into trouble," said Tamar, heading after the two lambs. Kyaru trotted out ahead of him. She wasn't going to be like those weak little ewes and get left behind!
Maelstrom caught Shiri up at the edge of a wooded slope. The ram rushed into her side, ramming her not too hard, but not gently either. "Got you!"
"Ahhhh!" Shiri went flying, and she grabbed him with her front legs. Maelstrom fell down on top of her and the two lambs went rolling in a tumble of limbs down the steep forested slant.
"Maelstrom! Shiri!" Kyaru stopped and shouted. She chastised herself for it--she'd just sounded like a screaming eweling!
Tree trunks, vines and bushes whooshed past Maelstrom's vision. He and Shiri were falling out of control. Rays of sunshine flashed past his head. The two of them separated as they rolled towards the bottom of the slant, and a shallow river.
"Ugh!" Shiri finally landed on her side on the rocks that girded the river. Öww...OW."
Maelstrom managed to brace himself on all four of his hooves and slide downward. A tree was in his path and he braced himself to collide with the pine. It was a fall that smacked the wind from him. He lay with his chin to the rough bark, his legs folded up against it, then he uncrumpled himself and stepped carefully out from around it. "Shiri!" He had seen her. "Shiri, where are you?"
He stepped out onto the leaf-littered ground, bracing against the steep slant. Shiri had been the first eweling he had gotten the courage to say hi to. He hoped she was okay. Hearing the water, he picked his way down towards it. She might have rolled all the way down.
Shiri looked around at the bottom of the ravine. Everything seemed darkened...not just by the shade, but by her own thoughts. She was afraid now, with the flock and her mama so far off...she should have never run off with Maelstrom like that. She just hoped Maelstrom was nearby.
Her thoughts were interrupted by a painful throb in her front leg. She strained to get up, but her leg was unstable and she fell again.
"Shiri!" Maelstrom stepped down towards the sparkle of water. "Shiri?"
Shiri's thoughts were forgotten when she heard Maelstrom's voice bleating her name. "Yes?" She spoke in a whisper, then gave herself a little slap with her own tail, like it were telling her to speak up. "I'm over here!"
"Shiri," bleated Maelstrom, looking back and forth past the trees, until he noticed the fallen lamb, with bits of debris in her coat. He climbed over some rocks towards her, feeling many cuts and bruises that he had gained on his own fall. He nuzzled her. "Shiri?"
Shiri's ears perked, alert, as she saw a lamb standing over her. Her scrambled mind wasn't sure who it was at first, then her thoughts fell back into place. "Maelstrom...you fell...too?"
"We both fell," said Maelstrom. He noticed she was breathing deeply, as if labouring to do something, but she was lying down as if resting. No...not resting...injured. "Are you all right?"
"Yeah...I...think so," she said between breaths, as if needing more air than there was. She began to stand again, but toppled down onto the rocks. She squinted and bleated in pain. Her amber eyes glared at her leg.
Maelstrom's light was flickering, showing his fear. He ignored his own minor injuries. "Stand up. Can you stand up?" He felt too scared to be subtle about it.
"Um...I hope..."
Shiri struggled to get to her feet. She stood there for a moment, teetering on three legs. "I did it!"
Maelstrom noticed she was favouring one leg, but she was up. "Come on, let's climb out of here."
Shiri took two steps and fell down again, unable to balance on only three legs. Öh! Owww...Oh I can't--"
"Yes, you--yes. Come on. We can't stay down here, something's going to get us. Get up, you can lean on me, we'll climb out together." Maelstrom stood parallel to her so that she could lean on his side. Shiri started limping on her three good legs.
Maelstrom could tell just by looking up the ravine's wall that they had no chance going back the way they had come. However, some outcroppings studded the ravine just ahead. "I think just up that way we can use the rocks to climb up."
"Okay," Shiri gasped, sniffling as she tried not to cry. The pain throbbed in her leg. Stone by stone, Maelstrom moved slowly and carefully, letting Shiri rest against him.
- - -
Tamar heard someone calling at the bottom of the ravine. The voice was weak, but he could still hear it. It was that eweling.
"Foolish eweling. And ramling!" said Kyaru, looking down the edge of the ravine.
"Come on, I know a way down there." Tamar jogged up the way towards the outcroppings. It would take him a while to get down there, but it was decidedly better than going down the way the two lambs had gone down.
"We've got to tell the flock this happened!" said Kyaru. Tamar stopped where he was and went back to her.
"We'll both go, I don't want to leave you alone out here."
"A strong ram like me doesn't have to worry about being alone for a bit! Do you realise I travelled alone all the way here from my flock?" Kyaru started after him, anyway. She had an argument to state here!
"Well you were a stupid ewe."
"Ram!"
"Whatever." Tamar, too, had decided to humour Kyaru because it was the easiest way to deal with her.
- - -
Shiri saw a recess in the rocks and seized on the chance. "I got to rest. Just a lil while." She limped towards the back wall. "Just a little bit." She stumbled down, slipped and fell, knocking into some loose stones on the ground.
"Something's in here," Maelstrom turned to the back of the recess as a light caught his eye. But there was no one there...only where Shiri had fallen into the stones, they had been knocked aside to reveal a weak light.
Shiri's eyes were squinted shut, her pain was too great to bear. "I...I want my mama..."
Maelstrom was staring at the whitish, crystalline light that shone filling the rock recess. It came from a stone shining within what had been a loose pile of ordinary stones. It was a small stone, no bigger than his own tailball although it was a little longer. How long it had been hidden here, Maelstrom didn't know, but something had hidden it here a long time ago. The stone shone whitely, with a hint of other colours glinting here and there.
Shiri saw the light behind her eyelids that was not hers or Maelstrom's. She opened her eyes and saw the stone next to her. "Oh..."
What was it? Maelstrom dared to place his snout near it and give it a sniff. It smelled like the cavern, like stone would smell. Up close to it he could see the opalescent pattern of the light, like a multicoloured pearl. Curious, he touched his nose to it. It was not cool like rocks were, but almost as warm as his nose was. And he was almost sure that he felt his cuts and bruises ebbing away.
He stepped back from the stone, feeling the movement of his body. Yes, the wounds were lessened.
"What?" said Shiri, who didn't try to get up again. Her leg had begun to swell.
Ï think this rock's got some kind of powers." Maelstrom stared at the stone. It looked like it had been broken off another one. It held a sharpish edge on one side. Maelstrom touched his hoof to it.
Slowly the cuts and bruises faded. Maelstrom nudged the stone over to Shiri. "Touch it."
"Why?" Shiri looked at him oddly. Ït is really pretty..." She touched her good front hoof to it, feeling that it was not as cold as expected. "Wow, it's warm--well not really warm, but warmer than I woulda thought!" Then the pain in her leg began to fade away. It faded very slowly, but the more she touched the stone the less it hurt. The wound did not heal entirely, but when Shiri felt the changes slow down, she put both her front hooves to the ground and stood. "I'm better! I'm standing!" She looked at the stone. "That's amazing!"
"Yeah." Maelstrom began to cover up the rock again, nudging the ordinary rocks back over it. They had found something special, that was for sure. "We got to get back. The others will be worried. My mama..."
"Are we gonna tell 'em about the stone?" Shiri watched him cover it up.
"I'm not," said Maelstrom thoughtfully. "We found it. There must be a reason for that." They said everything happened for a reason.
"Ohhh so it can be our little secret!" Shiri wagged her golden-balled tail."I gotcha."
Maelstrom's spirits had lifted. Shiri wasn't going to die. His first real friend wasn't going to die.
The two lambs stopped in a patch of grass and weeds to feed, since they had not had the chance to most of the day. It was getting on into afternoon when Maelstrom and Shiri reached the top.
"Maaalstrom bebbee!" Thalenes came climbing down, past the edge of the trees. Maelstrom ran up the distance to his mama.
Thalenes climbed downwards faster than he could climb up. "Bebbee dear!"
Ï wasn't gone that long," said Maelstrom as Thalenes scooped him right up off his feet and hugged him. She licked the side of his head and his ear. "Mama."
"Muy bebbee was bein' a foolish ramlin'! Treeepsin' all over the woods an'fallin down tha raveeen! Yer'comin' back tuh the flock an' stayin' there alla the day long today!" Thalenes gave him a final hug, then set the squirming ramling down. Nearby, Shiri's mother was doing the same, hugging her daughter.
"Tamar tol'me yuh fell dooown there an' Ah ruushed tuh find yuh, an' ah saw yuh'n yer laight-fren' a-climbin' up!" Thalenes started heading back to the flock. "Ahm a'making sure yuh dun go nowheres the rest o' the day, muy boy!"
- - -
It was dark on the field. Maelstrom lay next to his mama, dreaming. His tail ball, glowing dimly, took on a troubled flicker. He and Shiri were back down in the recess, in the deep of night. They pushed aside the rocks hiding their healing stone, but when Maelstrom's hoof reached out to touch it, he instead had a flexible flipper in its place. He had evolved! Then a strange ampharos stepped into the alcove. Take this stone and steal back the light. Maelstrom wrapped his flipper around the stone and stepped out of the cave. He knew that it was dark because Phos's light had been stolen, and he knew what he must do. He started climbing up the rocky slope of the ravine to reach the light, to steal it back. At the top of the outcrops waited the mouth of a cave. Maelstrom entered, stone at the ready. Bangaa stood in the cavern's depths, and when Maelstrom leapt at him with the stone, his mask came off...Bangaa's face looked like the face of Cirrus. Cirrus charged into Maelstrom, knocking the stone from his grasp and Maelstrom went falling off the slope...He flailed his limbs, caught in freefall...and he fell until he woke up.