tang’s talons stab me in the back, but the stab never came. The tang must have stayed with its victim. Gross.
“Hurry! C’mon!” Boon yelled.
The other klees got to the wagon first. Of the twenty or so gars who were brought here, only a handful survived the attack. I was one of them, thanks to the selfless gar who gave his life to save mine
“Durgen! Help!”
I heard the pained cry come from a klee who was still twenty yards from the wagon. He was on the ground, hurt. I saw that both his back legs were bleeding. He could barely crawl forward using his front paws. A tang was slowly creeping up on him, ready for the kill. It approached cautiously, in case the klee still had some fight left. Lying next to the injured klee was his wooden weapon, but he was too weak to use it. The cat was doomed…unless somebody helped him. I glanced to the wagon to see the gars were hiding underneath. The klees were standing next to one another, weapons up, ready to defend themselves. None made a move to save their friend. I had a quick thought of the gar who died to save me. It felt wrong not to try and do something to help the injured klee. Before I had the chance to chicken out, I ran for the fallen cat. Stupid move, I know. But I had to do it. There had been enough killing.
“No!” Boon yelled.
As I think back to that moment, I wish I had listened to him. Things would have turned out much better. But there was no way I could have guessed at the horrible consequences my actions would have. My plan was to grab the cat’s weapon and try to fend off the tang. I hoped that if the other klees saw that I was putting up a fight to save their friend, they’d come and help us both out.
It was a totally stupid plan.
I ran to the klee and scooped up the weapon. But as soon as I lifted it up, another tang leaped from the cover of the tall stalks. It had been hiding, waiting for a golden opportunity like this. It lashed out with its scaly tail and whipped against my hands so hard and fast, it felt like I was hit with an electric shock. The wooden weapon was knocked out of my grasp. What an idiot. Now the klee and I were both in trouble. He was injured and I was defenseless-with two tangs standing by, ready to attack.
I heard a sound that can be best described as a whistle. Whatever was making it, it came up from behind me fast and whizzed past my ear. It felt so close I ducked, expecting to get hit in the back of the head. An instant later I saw what it was.
Kasha. She had thrown her lasso with the three stones tied to the end. The stones spun like a buzz saw, flew past me, and wrapped themselves around the neck of the closest tang. Kasha gave a sharp yank on the rope and I heard a sickeningsnap. She had broken the tang’s neck. If I wasn’t so relieved, I would have been totally grossed out. The beast fell. It was dead before it hit the ground. But there was still one more tang to deal with and Kasha no longer had her lasso.
The tang made the next move. He didn’t attack me, or Kasha. He pounced on the injured klee, the easy prey. The lizard jumped on the cat’s back and locked its jaws around its neck. The cat reared up and tried to shake the tang off, but the monster would not be denied. The klee was already weak from having lost so much blood. He didn’t stand a chance. I watched in horror as the cat fell to the ground hard, with the tang’s jaws still clamped on its neck.
I felt a strong hand on my shoulder. I whipped around, expecting another tang attack. But it was Kasha.
“It’s over,” she said sadly. “We have to go back.”
It may have been over for the poor klee, but not for us. Other tangs were still sniffing around, looking to do some damage. We had to get out of there. The two of us ran back to the safety of the wagon. I stole a quick glance back at the battleground to see that the tangs were finished. They got what they came for. I watched as the few remaining tangs dragged their victims back into the tall stalks. Most were gars, but of course, there was the one klee. It now suddenly made all sorts of sense to me why the klees chose to build their world in the trees. The tangs were merciless marauders.
I wasn’t sure of what to do when we got back to the wagon. I still had to act like a simple gar, so I decided to hide under the wagon with the survivors. But I didn’t get the chance. As soon as we approached the group of klees, Durgen stepped forward and slapped Kasha across the face. Everybody was so stunned, they froze in place. Including Kasha. Durgen stood in front of her, his eyes fixed on her in anger.
“You sacrificed a klee to save a gar?” he seethed. “Are you insane?”
Uh-oh. Kasha had saved me, but it looked as if she was going to pay a price for it.
“He was as good as dead when I got there,” Kasha said, not backing down. “If I tried to save him, we would have lost both.”
That might have been true, but I wasn’t so sure. Durgen didn’t think it was true at all. He hauled back and slapped Kasha again. Kasha barely flinched. She was tough. She took the hit but stood tall.
“You don’t know that!” he bellowed. “If there was a chance to save him, you should have taken it. But you didn’t. And why? To save… this?”
Durgen grabbed me by the back of my neck and held me up in the air, my feet dangling a few inches off of the ground.
“It is an animal, Kasha!” he shouted in anger. “An animal!”
He tossed me down hard. I wasn’t ready for it and my knees buckled, sending me crashing onto my shoulder. I wasn’t so quick to get back up. I didn’t want him throwing me around again.
“That klee was your friend,” Durgen continued, his voice softening. “You chose this animal over a friend.”
Kasha looked down. I think it finally hit her that someone she cared about, a fellow klee, had died.
“I did what I felt was right,” she said softly.
“And I will do what I think is right,” Durgen said angrily. “Turn the wagon around! Back to Leeandra!”
I looked to Boon. His eyes were wide and scared. He knew exactly why Kasha had chosen me over the klee, but he wasn’t about to say anything. How could he? I stood up slowly and looked at Kasha. She walked past without looking back at me. I guarantee she was having second thoughts about what she had done. The trip back to Leeandra was grueling. The wagon was full of blue apples, so we gars couldn’t ride. I think the only reason we got to ride out here in the first place was to save our strength to pick the fruit. Now that our job was done, the klee foragers couldn’t care less if we even made it back. Boon drove the wagon again, while I walked behind it with the few surviving gar. Kasha walked behind us with another klee. Durgen and the last klee walked in front of the wagon. If we ran into another band of tangs, I don’t think anybody would have had the strength to fight.
The walk took a few hours and it gave me time to plan my next move. I still had to find Seegen. I figured the best way to do that was through his acolyte, Yorn. If Seegen was on Second Earth, I thought that maybe Yorn could send a message to you guys, and you could tell Seegen to return to Eelong. It was a weak plan, I know. The chances of you guys finding him were pretty slight. I couldn’t imagine a jungle cat wearing a tunic walking through the streets of Stony Brook. He’d either be shot, or captured and put in a zoo. But I couldn’t think of anything else. I was too tired.
Thankfully, no tangs attacked on our return trip. When we finally made it safely inside the gates of Leeandra, I figured I would ask Boon if I could stay with him. I was pretty sure Kasha wouldn’t want me around anymore. But as soon as the gates closed behind us, my plan went right out the window. Durgen grabbed me by the neck, again. It was getting very, very old. He dragged me away from the group. Boon leaped down from the wagon and jumped in front of him.
“Uhh,” he said with a nervous laugh. “What are you doing?”
“Have the rest of the gars unload the wagon at the transfer station,” he ordered. “Then return the wagon to the corral.” He kept walking, dragging me along with him.
“Yeah, sure,” Boon said. “But what are you doing with Kasha’s gar?”
Durgen stopped and looked back to Kasha, who stood by the wagon. Her eyes were wide, but she didn’t say a word. When Durgen spoke, it wasn’t to Boon, it was to Kasha.
“This gar cost me a dear friend,” Durgen said bitterly. “I’m going to make sure I get some value in return.”
What was he talking about? Was he going to eat me or something? Kasha took a step forward.
“You can’t,” she complained. “He’s my gar.”
“Not anymore,” Durgen spat back at her. “I’m selling him to the handlers.”
“No!” shouted Boon.
