The Drifting (15 page)

We watch the rain from the landing outside the tree’s shelter, which Sema calls a “thela.”  Where there’s no coverage the rain falls like sheets, yet in other areas, it run down from leaf to leaf in streamlets.  Sema moves forward and with a wave of her hand, large branches with thick large leaves move toward us, intertwining like huge braided ropes.  I can hear the strain of wood twisting and turning accommodating Sema’s wishes.  Before I know it, a stairway made of the twisting branches is at our feet.  The large heart-shaped leaves move neatly on top of each other to create steps rising far above us.  With another wave of her hand, the stairway shakes furiously like a wet dog.  When it settles, the leafy steps are dry.  Above the stairway, more branches and leaves intertwine to provide us with a natural awning against the rain.

Without a word, Sema nimbly take the steps.  I watch, amazed at her agility despite her age and I follow at a slower pace.  I can’t help feeling vertigo knowing I’m several feet up in a tree.  At one point, my foot slips and a small branch nearby catches my wrist until I regained my balance.  I look at the branch as it gently unwinds from me and I give it a smile of thanks.  Before my eyes, small shoots of leaves appear on it as it trembles with delight at my gratitude.  For the rest of the way, the small branch stayed close, following my every step. 

When I finally reach the top, we’re on a large leaf similar to the one I shared with Lucas, only slightly bigger.  Sema is standing in the middle staring out, hands moving slowly before her.  I watch as the giant trees around her bend to her will.  Slowly, leaves the same size as the one we’re standing on, pull in to make a large platform as big as a high school gym.  Above us, the same thing is happening, providing us coverage from the rain.  With more waving of her hands, the leaves seamed themselves to each other to provide a smooth surface. 

Next, she whistles gently and I hear the sound soft clapping.  Thousands, if not more, large butterflies the size of giant eagles flying gently toward us from all directions.  They gather in a circle creating a wall of brilliant colors around the platform.  I steady myself as the wind generated by the flapping clears all the rainwater from both the leafy surface and its ceiling.  Once done, as quickly as they appear, they fly away like sprinkles of watercolor drops, the rain not affecting their flight.  I thrill at the wonder of such beauty, of these large creatures full of colors that I don’t believe exist in my realm. 

Sema turns slightly to me, a smile on her face and a look of cockiness in her eyes.  I laugh at the old woman and go to her when she beckons me forward. 

“The first thing you should know, Lily, is that this world belongs to you.”  I nod my head thinking of Lucas.  He said the same thing, but he said it belong not only to me, but to Tharin as well.  “And, Tharin, of course,” Sema finishes as if reading my mind.

Taking my hand, she leads me to the center of the platform and turns me so I am facing away from the makeshift stairs.  Before me and beyond our canopy, the trees part to allow the rain to fall unimpeded. 

From behind me, Sema says softly, “Close your eyes, Lily.  I want you to feel the coolness on your skin, the moisture in the air and the breeze spreading it all over you.  I want you to imagine being wrapped in it, as if wearing the air and the moisture like a second skin.  I want you to feel what you cannot see, but know that it’s there.”

I close my eyes and tilt my head upward, trying to catch the breeze as the cool moisture settles on me, around me and through me.  Sema’s voice comes again, even softer than before and hollow as if from a distance, “Listen, Lily.  Listen to what the trees are saying about you, what the rain is singing about you and how the energy of the forest feels about
you
.”

I am no longer standing on solid flooring, nor is there a leafy canopy above me.  I feel weightless and free.  The sense of flight captures me prisoner and time has lost its meaning.  I listen for the songs of the mountains that I heard on my journey here, only to hear a different song.  A soft vibration of notes, of rhythm and of cadence slips quietly, subtly and freely through me.  I feel the rain dance about me in quiet serenity, and the breeze softly echoing with the subtlety of delicate fingers strumming a harp.  I open my eyes and I laugh as nature herself waltzed me before the trees of Velesi.  I hug myself as the rain washes away my sorrow, my chains, my old life and all around me rejoices – and I rejoice with it.

Wanting to share it with her, I turn to look for Sema and find that she’s watching me with wonder and awe.  And that’s when I realize I am several yards away from the platform and a few feet above her.  I’m startled to find myself hanging with nothing to hold on to or anything holding on to me. 

Fear suddenly grips me.  The rain, no longer gentle, continues its downpour and with it, I drop like a rock.  I gasp, desperately reaching out to Sema, but I’m falling too fast.  I quickly drop past her and the platform on my way down.  I glance over my shoulder behind me and I still can’t see the ground.  My hands are flailing, trying to catch anything to stop my fall, but everything is wet and slippery.  I think of the small branch that helped me earlier and picture it in my mind.  I look upward and see the same branch spearing toward me, and just when it’s about to reach me, it reaches its limit and comes to a sudden stop.  I try to stretch upward for it at the same time it strains to pull downward to me.  Falling farther away from the small branch, it finally dawns on me that I’m about to crash and die.  Not knowing what else to do but let the panic overtake me, I open my mouth to scream, when I suddenly hit a net of tightly woven vines…hard.  The wind knocked out of me, I grab the vines, arms spread out and I hang on for dear life.  It takes me a moment to trust that I’m still alive.

From a distance above me I hear Sema call out, “Lily?  Are you all right?’

I take a second to catch my breath while trying not to drown in the downpour.  I swallow hard and then call back at the top of my lungs, “What the hell!  You crazy old woman!  Are you trying to kill me?”

I wait for her to reply, but all I hear is the loud beating of my heart, the harsh heaving of my chest trying to get air into my lungs, and the continuous sound of rain.  It takes another second before I hear both Sema and Ziri laughing uncontrollably.  I shake my head promising the first chance I get…I’m going to kill them both.

Trying to keep her voice steady and doing a lousy job of it, Sema calls out again, “Don’t move, Lily.  Ziri will be down to get you.  And, um, I think that will be all for our lesson today.”  She continues to laugh as she moves away from the edge of the platform.  Not that I can see her leave, but because the sound of her laughter fades as she moves away.

I lay on the vines trying to catch my breath, afraid to let go.  The trees have moved back to their original position cutting off a large portion of the downpour.  I close my eyes against the rain but even it feels as if it’s laughing at me.  In fact, the whole forest seems to be laughing at me.  “Whatever,” I whisper and then bust out laughing myself.  I laugh as the fear and excitement of it all eases out of me.  It rains in
San Diego
, but nothing like this.  The rain here feels so clean, so crisp…and there’s so much of it.  I love it.

The vine shakes and I know Ziri is here to get me down.  I turn my head toward him smiling, feeling completely happy.  The smile dies on my face instantly.  On the net with me is not Ziri, but some sort of creature that sends a frightening chill through me.  I lift my head, trying to see through the rain, making sure I’m not seeing things. 

Before me is what I think is a man.  He’s covered with leaves, mud, loose tree bark and he has twigs sticking out everywhere.  I can’t tell if he’s naked or not due to the amount of debris covering him.  He’s short, a little over four-feet, stocky and hairy.  His head is covered with matted, coarse brownish red hair with a full beard.  His brows are so thick and long, I can’t tell where they begin and where his hair ends.  The soil on his face seems to defy the rain and doesn’t wash off.  Even his bare feet have long matted, coarse hair growing from them, including his toes.  Speaking of his toes, I wish I didn’t look at them.  His toenails are long, ragged and black making them look like talons.  And then there are his eyes – wild and intent…and they were locked on me. 

I sit up slowly afraid to make any sudden moves.  The vine of the net is large, but wet and slippery, making it difficult for me to scoot farther away from the man-beast.  He suddenly moves his head from side to side like a snake seeking his prey.  Is he blind?  And that’s when his ears sticking out from under his coarse hair twitch.  He sniffs the air, trying to locate my scent, and when he does he sneers at me.  Another chill runs through me and I look about for Ziri.  I try to call his name, but when I take a breath, the man-beast focuses on me suddenly and without hesitation…he charges. 

With a guttural roar he comes at me causing the netting to bounce me around.  I look upward to find something to grab.  A hanging vine is only a few feet from me and in one swift movement I’m up and leaping for it just in the nick of time.  As I dive for the vine, my momentum takes me swinging out of my attacker’s way and his charge continues forward until he reaches the edge of the net.  He quickly falls off, but catches at the netting at the last minute with one hand.  I cling desperately to the vine, hugging it to me tightly.  I try to keep my eye on the man-beast as the vine spins me in a slow circle.  I use what little muscle I have and try to shimmy up the vine but slip down due to the rain.  I keep still, my knees pulled up to my chest as high as I can get them while holding on to the vine for dear life.

As the vine continues to turn me at a slow pace, I watch as the man-beast pulls himself up so that he’s got the netting in both hands.  He swings back and forth and with a mighty push, he throws himself over the edge and flips into a squatting position in the center of the net.  I remain still, trying hard not to make a sound or even move, which is almost impossible due to the vine I’m clinging to.

“Here kitty-kitty-kitty,” he growls softly, his head moving back and forth again as he tries to find my scent.  Hearing his voice causes my breath to stop completely, but my random thoughts run off as they usually do when I’m scared as hell as I think,
T
here are cats in Velesi
?  Hello…Cessa? 

I can feel my hands slipping, my arms aching from holding on so tightly to the vine and my thighs start to cramp as I strain to keep them tucked to my chest.  I’m about six feet from him and maybe two feet above him, thanks to his short stature.  I release one of my hands and raise it slowly to twist it around the vine, giving myself more support – a trick I learned from Julia in gym class.  Once my elbow and wrists are in place, I make a fist and pull my hand back down to my chest – bringing the vine down to me as it raises me a few inches higher.  I take my other hand and do the same until I’m a few more inches up and the vines are now wrapped around my arms locking it into place.  I look about me wondering what’s taking Ziri so long.

The man-beast suddenly turns on me, an evil grin on his face, “Ha…there you are.” 

He stalks toward me slowly, his head still moving side to side.  I know he has a general idea of where I am, but not my exact location.  Nonetheless, he approaches closer, and that’s when I see it…the knife in his hand.  Oh my God, he’s going to kill me! 

I send a desperate plea for Ziri to hurry up and I shut my eyes tightly.  I open my eyes again when I realize that the man-beast just below me.  He stops and sniffs the air again, his ears twitching.  Then slowly he looks upward and even though I assume he’s blind, his eyes lock onto mine.  No longer trying to hide now that he’s found me, I start screaming at the top of my lungs.  The man-beast drops his knife and slams his hands over his ears, falling onto the net and curling up into a ball.  At the same time, he tries to scoot away from my screams.  Seeing how much pain he’s in I scream even louder and keep on screaming until he’s almost back to the tree trunk where I first laid eyes on him.

“Ugh…all right, already!” he screams back at me.  “Enough,” he continues to yell, but I keep screaming until I can feel the soreness start at the back of my throat.  Looking about him in frustration, hands still over his ears, he calls out, “Ziri…
enough
!”

My scream comes to a sudden stop.  Did he just call out for Ziri?

I hear Ziri from somewhere above and behind me.  I try to turn toward him, but the vine is being uncooperative.  As he lands on the netting and makes his way toward me, the man-beast yells with a grimace, “You didn’t say I would be dealing with a damn banshee!”  He slowly removes his hands from his ears and when satisfied there’s no more screaming, he quickly gets on his short legs, balancing himself with ease on the bouncing net.

“Trust me, Kulzo, I didn’t either,” answers Ziri.

He walks over to where I’m still dangling from the vine and stops to look at me.  I give him an incredulous look saying, “You know him?  You set all this up?”  A burning anger makes its way to my chest and I swallow before furiously continuing, “Are you both out of your minds?  First, the old woman drops me several feet, and then you put this…this…whatever he is on me?  Was it your plan to have him kill me, too?”