Stony Brook is going to get-“
“Kasha!” came a voice in the doorway. I looked to see a group of cats entering, led by the big cat named Durgen. It was the same group that was with Kasha when they were attacked by the tang the day before. I quickly backed away from Yorn and bent over like the animal I was… or was supposed to be.
“What do you want, Durgen?” Kasha asked, annoyed.
“We’ve got a forage,” Durgen answered.
“No,” Kasha protested. “We’re off the schedule today.”
“Not anymore,” the big cat answered.
“Well, I can’t,” she answered. “There may be a problem with my father and Yorn needs my help to-“
“I’m sure it’s nothing the old klee can’t handle,” Durgen interrupted. “This is a direct order, Kasha.”
Yorn glanced to me, but said nothing. Kasha made a quick move for the door.
“Fine,” she said. “Let’s get out and back fast, all right?”
Durgen asked, “What about the gar? You can’t leave him here.”
“I’ll tend to him,” Yorn offered.
“Nonsense,” the big cat replied. He grabbed the back of my neck and pulled me to my feet. I felt as helpless as a kitten, which is a strange way to put it under the circumstances. “After the attack yesterday we’re short a few gars. We can use this one. We’re going to the south country.”
Yorn sat up straight, as if hearing this surprised him.
“The south country?” Kasha asked, surprised as well. “There hasn’t been a forage there in months.”
“Exactly,” Durgen answered. “There are acres of ripening fruit about to go bad.”
“Yes, but it’s dangerous,” Kasha shot back. “There are huge packs of tangs in the south.”
“That’s why we need all the gars we can get,” the big cat replied. “We’re probably going to lose a few on this one.” The cat looked Kasha right in the eye and said, “Since when were you afraid of a few extra tangs?”
Kasha stiffened and said, “Did I say I was afraid? Let’s go.”
Durgen gave me a shove toward the door. I stumbled but Kasha grabbed me before I could fall. I took a quick glance back at Yorn to see the old klee looking worried. Join the club. I had seen what happens to gars on a forage. Now I was about to experience it for myself.
JOURNAL #17
(CONTINUED)
EELONG
Upuntil that moment, my stay on Eelong had been a nightmare. It was about to get worse. Is there a word for something worse than a nightmare? If I could think of one, I’d use it. Saint Dane’s plan was clear. He was going to throw Eelong into chaos by thinning the gar population, which would tip the balance of nature and lead to the destruction of the klees. My plan was clear too. I had to find Seegen, the Traveler from Eelong, and get his help to find Gunny. Together, the three of us would try to stop Saint Dane. But as treacherous as that was going to be, I couldn’t even get started, because I was being shipped off on a suicide mission to run interference for a bunch of cats so they wouldn’t be killed by rampaging tangs while they harvested some fruit. How idiotic was that? The future of their entire world was at stake, and I had to go out and pick fruit in a war zone.
I was really beginning to hate Eelong.
It was morning. The sky was growing lighter. In no time I expected to see the sunbelt appear in the sky. The team of foragers led me and a few other gars down to the jungle floor and toward the corral where they kept the zenzen horses. There were five cats, along with three gars…and me. They lashed my hands together and tied me up to the other gars so we had to shuffle along like one of those chain gangs you see in prison movies. I’m not really sure why they did this, since the gars didn’t look like they were going anywhere. If there was anybody who wanted to beat feet out of there, it was me. Kasha walked ahead of us with the other klees. A few times she stole a glance back at me. I might be reading too much into this, but I thought I saw a touch of sympathy in her eyes. Maybe even a little worry. She knew I wasn’t ready for this. On the other hand, maybe she was thinking this would be a quick and easy way to get me out of her life, and her father’s life. Either way, I wasn’t real excited about how this day was shaping up.
As we neared the zenzen corral, I looked ahead to see a big wagon with huge wooden wheels being driven toward us, pulled by two zenzens. Sitting in front with the reins was Boon. Loaded in back were a dozen more gars, all looking about as thrilled to be there as I was. Boon brought the wagon to a stop and shouted a friendly greeting. “Morning, everybody!” He spotted me and the smile fell from his face. “Whoa, not that gar. He’s useless.”
I tried to look useless.
“What’s wrong with him?” Durgen asked.
Kasha answered, “He’s been sick. He’s weak. He won’t be able to harvest his weight.”
That was good. Kasha was trying to get me out of this too. At least that meant she was on my side. Durgen felt my arms with his paws. I tried to shrink and act all weak, but there was only so much acting I could do. He lifted my chin and looked into my eyes. Finally he grabbed my hands and examined them. “He is soft,” the cat exclaimed. “But he doesn’t seem frail.” He dropped my hands, turned his back to me, and walked away. Suddenly he whipped around and threw his wooden weapon at me. I didn’t have time to think, only react. I caught the weapon before it beaned me. It was the wrong thing to do. I should have taken the hit. I gave a quick glance to Kasha, who looked to the ground in disappointment.
“His reflexes are fine,” Durgen announced. “Better than most. And he’s the biggest one here. Even if he’s weak, he’ll harvest more than the rest. He comes.”
Oh well. Nice try. The other three gars and I were shoved into the back of the wagon, where there was barely enough room to sit down. Most of the gars were men, but I saw a few women, too. They were all sitting on the hard, wooden floor. Not exactly a deluxe way to travel. I found a small opening between two gars. My first instinct was to be polite and ask, “Excuse me, can I sit there?” But I realized it would be a waste of breath, so I nudged my way in and sat down between the two without a word.
“Let’s go!” Durgen shouted.
Boon cracked the reins and the wagon lumbered forward. The crude wooden wagon bounced across the jungle floor. My aching butt felt every bump and divot. A few minutes later the giant doors swung open and we rolled out of Leeandra, headed for who knows what danger. Kasha and Durgen walked in front of the wagon, with the other three klees walking to the rear. As soon as we left the safety of Leeandra, the cats tensed up and grabbed their weapons. Their eyes darted back and forth, looking for any hint of danger.
Between the threat of tangs and the bumpy ride, I knew we were in for a long trip. All I could do was try to get comfortable and stare at the pathetic-looking gars who surrounded me. It was totally creepy. I was jammed in with a bunch of raggy-looking people who kept their eyes down. I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised, but it was tough getting my mind around the fact that as much as they looked like humans, they weren’t. Expecting them to be social would be like expecting a bunch of cows to stand up and sing some reggae. And they smelled too. I don’t think any of them had a bath in, well, maybe never.
As we bumped along the dirt road, one of the cats tossed a bag into the center of the wagon. The gars dove for it, tearing it apart and pulling out what looked to be pieces of fruit. They looked like apples, but they were bright blue. The gars fought over them like it was their last meal. The sick thought occurred to me that for some of them, it probably was. I hoped I wasn’t one of them. I didn’t join the fight. I didn’t have much of an appetite.
Have I mentioned that I was really beginning to hate Eelong?
We rode for about an hour. Every so often Boon would glance back from his driver’s seat to see if I was okay. All I could do was offer him a weak smile to assure him that I was fine…in spite of my aching butt. Boon would nod in sympathy.
We finally broke out of the jungle and rolled into a vast clearing. At first I thought this would be the farm where we’d stop and pick the fruit, but I couldn’t have been more wrong. This was a farm, all right. The wagon had stopped on the edge of what looked like a vast cornfield. But rather than green husks shielding yellow ears of corn,
