Chapter 8
The children dart ahead and laugh as they play while Khan walks alongside Sharp Quill's wagon.
"Look out! An Invader!" Little Wolf sounds the alarm quickly before the children scuttle away to hide in the bushes once more. The moment Khan and Sharp Quill pass by, they jump out of their hiding places and once again resume their joyful games.
"What are they doing?" Sharp Quill murmurs. "There's no one out here but us."
"She's training them," Khan answers quietly. Sharp Quill looks at him sharply and he shrugs. "That way, if danger should arise…" he trails off to allow her to continue the thought.
"They would be able to evade it…"
"And come out unharmed." He finished.
"How did you know that?"
"I was one a…soldier of sorts." He admits after a moment's hesitation. "I had to train my people how to do battle. We would run drills not too dissimilar to this one in order to condition ourselves on how to react to certain stimuli. Certain situations."
"But that's crazy."
"Not necessarily. That way one wouldn't need to think under physical or mental duress: they'd simply react."
"No." The old woman says patiently. "What I meant, is that it's crazy that she knows how to do this: how to teach them. None of our people are warriors and she's taught them how to fight, how to hunt, and now how to evade capture. Where would she learn this? At such a young age?"
Now that was a good question, Khan thinks.
…
Khan is sitting quietly beside the bank of the river and watches the water flow gently past him. Sunlight skips across the calm surface and birds sing gently from their lofty perches in the trees. The wind embraces him softly before skipping away and running its warm fingers through the grass or rustling nearby foliage.
"Are you angry at me, John?" Little Wolf asks him finally at what her people call Sunhigh ("noon").
"Where would you get that idea?"
"You haven't talked to me all day. Did I make you mad? Are you going to get violent? Are you going to hurt me?"
His head snaps towards her in surprise. "Why would I do that?"
"It happens to lots of people by this point in our journey. They get mad and try to hurt me. I don't know why, but it happens every time." She watches him warily and flinches when he goes to move towards her. He stops and relaxes into the tree behind him slowly.
"I have no desire to harm you." He keeps his voice even. Calm.
"I have no desire to eat fried rat but if I'm hungry enough I will." She counters.
"I will not hurt you, Little Wolf. You know that. Is something wrong? Are you worried about something?" He asks and an emotion flickers quickly through her eyes. When he blinks, it's gone.
"No. I'm fine." She backs away, "Have fun."
"Little Wolf." He calls after her but she's already rushing back towards the group.
…
That night, as the others sleep, Little Wolf stares quietly up at a sky that stares dispassionately back. Khan watches her frown up at the stars and sighs to himself. Despite her people's tradition, she had lied to him. Something was wrong.
"Something is bothering you."
"Yeah…"
"Why did you lie?"
"Because." She pauses as she considers her next words. "I didn't want to admit it. I did want to admit that I would..." Her words cut off immediately.
"That you would…?" Khan prompts.
"That I would think of something like that. Something that bad. Evil." She doesn't look at him.
"Such as?"
"I have a plan for keeping the Invaders away—and the Buzzard Man."
"They would slaughter you in a war. You're people aren't as advanced as they," Khan says swiftly.
"I wasn't…I wasn't talking about war."
"What then if not war?" He raises an eyebrow at her.
"It doesn't matter."
"It's tearing you up from the inside out. You haven't eaten properly or truly smiled since before the fire yesterday."
"Sharp Quill wouldn't approve—none of the People would. It's not worth mentioning or doing." She sighs. "It's stupid. I'm stupid. And evil."
His heart clenches at that last statement. The child was brilliant and he had yet to find anything 'evil' about her. Strange, sure but nothing malicious.
"Doubtful." He replies.
"But true." She says sadly.
"Well, what is this 'evil' plan of yours? Are you going to rob a candy store? Or are you liberating puppies from a mill?"
She throws a pinecone at his head and glares at him. "I mean it!" She whispers loudly.
"Then what is it? Hm?"
"Once I've gotten you to Riverweed and you're gone, I'm going to use a computer to make a big virus that'll make air ships with things called 'microchips' in them turn off when they get too close to our planet, and they'll crash and everyone in them will die."
"That's not evil—it's self-defense."
"But that's not all." She stares down at her feet.
"They have bases not too far from here. The virus will make them all turn off. It'll make everything turn off and our planet's people won't be hurt by it…"
"And the others will."
"Yeah…the animals will come and eat them. They'll all die. See?" She looks at him before quickly looking away. "I'm evil just like they always said." A tear slips down her cheek and is quickly eclipsed by another.
And then another.
She draws in shuddering breaths as Khan moves over to sit down beside her. Wordlessly, he draws her to his chest and rubs her back while she sobs silently into his shoulder.
"You're not evil." He says over and over again.
After a while, she begins to calm down. She listens to his heart pounding in his chest and the sound lulls her to sleep. The fact that she felt any guilt for what she was planning to do was enough evidence to debunk her being 'evil' theory.
…
"John?" Little Wolf wakes before the others and shakes Khan's shoulder until his eyes open and he glares at her warningly. She doesn't notice and shakes harder.
"Stop. Now." He growls. She stops instantly. "What do you want?"
"Are you going to tell Sharp Quill?"
"About what?"
"That thing I told you yesterday."
"No." He rolls from his side and onto his back.
"Really?" She lies down and uses his chest as a pillow.
"Yes."
"Promise?"
"Will you let me go back to sleep?"
"Yep."
"Then yes." A moment of silence passes and then Little Wolf crawls ontop of him and leans down until their noses are nearly touching.
"John?"
"Yes?" He groans.
"Why do you talk do weird?"
"How you mean?"
"Well," She then proceeds to mimic his accent. "You talk like this." Her voice is a squeaky, rumbling sound that seems caught between a purr and growl. She drops his accent completely, "And we talk normal. Why is that?"
"My way sounds more impressive." He says and she blows air in his face. "I will throw you in the river in you don't get off of me." He threatens.
"You can't." She says.
He springs to his feet and picks her up under an arm, cutting off whatever else she was going to say. "I beg to differ."
She opens her mouth to yell something but then he simply tosses her straight into the river. Her head vanishes beneath the surface with a scream. Smirking, Khan rocks back on his heels and waits patiently for her to submerge. Seconds drag by slowly and he frowns.
Surely, it wasn't that deep.
"Where's Little Wolf?" Hawk walks up and rubs his eyes lazily with a fist.
"The river." Khan replies as he scans the water for any sign of movement: nothing. His heart begins to pound in his chest.
"What?" Alarm fills the boy's voice. "John, none of the People can swim!"
Cliff hanger :)