Law of Kanya - The Family Secret Chapter 6

Law of Kanya

Episode 1: The Family Secret

By Josh Buckby



Chapter 6



A sun was bright and high in the sky, beaming down on a lush, fertile forest beneath the peaks of a tall mountain. The landscape was littered with trees, ferns and vines, save for a twisting little stream that ran through the heart of the greenery.

  On a little hillside nearby, a wild dog with golden fur stood poised on one of the streams’ banks. His green eyes transfixed, his nose pressed, to one shifting pack of wet sand. His body was still as a statue. He was prepared to leap into action at any second.

  Well, that is to say ‘wild dog’ is exactly what he would appear to any human eye. Until of course…

“Resher… Naan Maat Ita akhera asuro, lay luca sha!”

The wild dog opened his mouth and the oddest assortment of words came out, rather then primitive growls or barks. They were far from gibberish to him, though they were little more then self indulgent mutters. “Come on… Just one quick step in the right direction, and you’re mine!” he had whispered to himself.

  Even stranger perhaps, what first appeared to be a shiny coat of fur suddenly took the appearance of clothes to a more concentrated eye. His fur was definitely pale yellow, but he wore a gold vest that shone in the sunlight and almost hid a pair of brown, baggy cargos that reached his hindquarters. Both garments were so frayed and torn that if they weren’t already sparkling clean, one might think they'd never been tended to in their lifetime.

  He muttered patiently to himself as he watched the dirt constantly flicker and shake, following a trail he could sense beneath his forepaws. Finally, the canine-like creature found what he was looking for and shifted forward by an inch.

  “That’s it…”

  It was coming close. Just a few more seconds and he'd have it in his clutches...

  “Ready… Set…”

  “WE HIT THE JACKPOT!”

  Shaken by the unexpected shout, the animal leapt back, his hair prickling up. “Oh no!” he huffed, trying franticly to recover the exact spot where’d he’d been standing before, but it was too late. Part of the sand in front of him tumbled into the stream, leaving a big empty hole where he’d been searching.

   “No No No!” he cried, shaking his head.

  Taking a furious breath, he reared up onto his back legs… and stayed upright. Without any effort or struggle the dog perched himself up onto just two legs and his body suddenly took on a very humanoid appearance.

  He turned to a little patch of bushes to his side. He folded his arms and pouted and frowned hard. The cry of “jackpot” had come from a bright little puppy who looked just like him, whose head was now sticking out of those bushes.

  This strange little canine was wearing a ragged brown dress and a feather in her curly mane. She was standing upright just as effortlessly as her companion and frantically pulling patch after patch of red berries off a nearby tree, stuffing them into little pockets in the dress.

  “What do you think?” the young puppy exclaimed. “While you get all muddy and messed up down there, I found berries! There must be a week’s worth back here!”

  “Suri!” he grunted. “That’s what you screamed about? You just made me screw up my strategy for nothing!”

  “Don’t you want to eat tonight?” she laughed.

  “What do you think I’m trying to take care of, sis?” he muttered through gritted teeth. “I’ve got something much better then berries in mind.”

  “Humph - says you!” she scoffed. “You’ve been sitting on that bank for half an hour and I haven’t seen you do anything special.”

  He sighed. It was useless trying to convince her. His sister just thought he was wasting his time digging out sandcastles or something, probably exactly what she’d be doing if this were her job. There was a purpose to his unusual behaviour, and it was going to taste delicious.

  Knowing that, he fell back to all fours without hesitation, once again taking on an appearance similar to that of an average dog. He rummaged into the sand with his nose, but sighed.

  “Yep, it’s gone.” he shouted in protest. “Thanks a lot, Suri. You always do this to me!”

  The little puppy didn’t care in the slightest, stuffing her mouth with some of the berries she was hoarding. “Hmmm!” she mumbled. “Nuran these are great! You should try some!”

  “Oh ha, ha!” he huffed angrily. “Would you pipe down Suri? I’m not letting you wreck this again! I want dinner already!”

  “Fine, but sheesh! Dinner’s served, bro!”

  Suri laughed excitedly as she gobbled up another mouthful of the berries. The bushes were practically swarmped with them. She’d brought two big straw baskets all the way from home and she’d already filled them to the brim. “I don’t know why you don’t just learn to forage like the rest of us!”

  “Because it pays to find something with a little protein to it…” Nuran answered. “Aha! You’re mine this time…”

  He swung back into action like a well oiled machine and started paddling up chunks of the sand. Suri struggled against the bushes to find more of those berries, digging deep into the shrubbery. However, when her forepaws suddenly caressed something furry like herself, she fell on her backside with a startled yelp.

  “MEEP!”

  A little head popped out of the bushes. A tiny little rodent with a long stripe along its head and a big buck tooth. Suri giggled, and clambered back over to it softly. The animal let out another startled cry and ducked inside.

  “Oh hey, come back!” Suri pleaded, jumping into the dense patch of leaves. She found the animal curling up in a small nest of twigs deep inside the berry bush. Suri held out her hand. “Please? You’re a cutie!”

  The creature gave a bewildered glance. It shivered just slightly before climbing back out sniffing the edge of her short, blunted claws.

  “It’s okay. I’m not gonna hurt you, little guy.”

  “Ereep?”

  Suri happily giggled to herself as the rodent warmed up and let her pet it. Back on the riverbank, Nuran’s luck had finally come around. He’d found another trail in the sand, and swarmed to it fiercely.

  “Oh yes please…” he whispered, licking his lips. “One little scurry to the left, the surface of the sand breaks and… YEAAAH!”

  This time round, it was Nuran’s cry that sent his sister jumping out of her skin. The animal she’d been conversing with shook with surprise and scurried up the nearest tree and far out of sight. Suri growled under her breath, stomping out of the bushes.

  “You planned that!” she complained loudly. “That wasn’t funny!”

  Pummelling both paws into the dirt too hectically to notice her, Nuran dug great mounds out until he finally wrapped them victoriously around his prize. Suri’s mouth was open wide as he wriggled around in the sand with a big toothy grin.

  “See! Told you Suri! Hah! That’s a trophy catch, that is!”

  What Nuran had drawn, thrashing out of the ground, was called a lek. A water dwelling bug with long, googly eyestalks and four sharp claws, plated in a light blue shell. The resemblance to a crab was slight but unmistakable, except these things could move like lightning in open water.

  To Nuran, it wasn't an unusual sight. His friends had nicknamed them ‘torrents’, cause they were such awesome little swimmers. He’d been taught at an early age how they dug burrows deep in damp riverbanks, how to find them and tear them loose, and to a creature like Nuran, a lek was lunch served.

  Nuran immobilised the creatures snapping claws in his thumbs and raised the crustacean to his lips in both hands like a burger. “Aha! That there’s how it’s done, see sis?” he gloated to Suri. “That’s how you really find a meal!”

  Suri nearly died inside as her brother bared his teeth, and opened his mouth wide to snap…

  “STOP!”

  It happened in a flash; Sharp puppy teeth sank into Nuran’s arm so quickly even Suri found it hard to believe what she'd done. His eyes wide, he let out an echoing cry.

  “YEAAAOWL!”

  Suri released her grip fairly quickly, flustered but confident she’d done the only thing that would’ve saved the creatures life. Nuran was jogging on the spot and moaning to himself.

  “You bit me?” he wailed, completely taken aback. “You bit me, Suri!”

  He crouched over, rubbing his arm to numb the pain. In that moment of hesitation the lek freed one of its claws and sunk it into his finger. Nuran’s knees buckled and eyes watered as the sudden jolt of pain notified him of his mistake. He had to bite his tongue to keep from screaming again.

  “This isn’t fair…” he whimpered. “This just isn’t fair…”

  Nuran caught his breath and made a desperate grab, barely stopping the lek from leaping away to safety. He immobilized it again and turned to his sister with his teeth bared.

  “Thanks – for – NOTHING!”

  “Nuran, don’t you dare hurt him!” Suri demanded, waggling her finger. Despite her size, she had the sternness of an adult. “It’s not fair!”

  “Oh come on Suri! Not more of this nonsense! I gotta eat! Go pick some nuts or something!” He turned back to his meal, licking his lips, as if it would be that easy. Suri started jumping up against his side, reaching in desperation for the lek.

  “Nuran, I mean it! Stop being a bully like Makara and let it go!”

  Nuran held the lek high out of her reach. “No! I’m not doing it Suri! I caught it fair and square! And I’m gonna eat it!”

  Now she looked absolutely distraught. Tears were beginning to swell up in her eyes. Nuran felt his bravado failing. “Suri, it’s a lek!” he pleaded. “It doesn’t even think properly! It’s just a bug!”

  You’re wrong!” she wailed, stamping her foot. “And I don’t care! It’s just like us and you have no right to hurt it! What if it has a family in that river?”

  “Suri, don’t try and make me feel sorry…”

  Suri sobbed softly, staring up at him with her wide, pleading eyes. “Nuran please.” she begged. “Please don’t eat him.”

  Nuran wasn’t mushy by nature in the slightest, but seeing his sister ready to bawl her eyes out over what he was doing could strike a cord with anyone. He tried one final time to reason with her. “Suri, if I don’t get something descent to eat soon...”

  The look she was giving him was heartbreaking. Groaning and shaking his head, Nuran caved in.

  “OH FINE!” he grumbled loudly. It was no surprise to him, but in the blink of an eye the young girls’ expression changed.

  “Yay!” She shouted ecstatically, rubbing her nose and eyes clean and bobbing up and down on the spot! “Thank you big bro, thank you!”

  “Yeah yeah, anything for you, baby sis,” he muttered, rolling his eyes. “Here! Hope he bites you on the nose!”

  He tossed the struggling lek like a ball into his sisters waiting arms. Suri somewhat foolishly leapt to catch it, and Nuran actually found himself wishing it would attack. ‘Yeah, bite her too!’ he thought stubbornly. ‘That'll teach her you can’t expect every mean thing you meet to return the favour!’ When he looked back, his stomach turned, and he just felt guilty.

  Suri hugged the creature like a stuffed toy and, much to his surprise, it didn't attack her. Didn’t snap with its claws or bite her or try to jump out of her hands. It just sort of sat there and enjoyed the moment of unexpected safety.

  “There, there, it’s okay.” Suri comforted it. “That big toothy monster won’t get you again”.

  “Oh come on!” Nuran grumbled. “You look just like me to it’s eyes!”

  Suri turned and stuck out her tongue. A few moments later, smiling and content, she set the thing down back on the riverbank. “Go on; go back to your home. Bye bye.” The lek leapt into the safety of the water and vanished like a bullet.

  Having lost the only decent meal in days, Nuran felt his stomach rumbling. “Suri, someday you’re gonna run into a monster that wants to eat you, and he's not going to have a pushy little sister to talk him out of it… OUCH!”

  Nuran cringed away as she whacked him on his arm, the very same one she’d bitten. “You would’ve eaten him if I hadn’t been here!”

  “Uh, yeah, that’s kind of obvious!” he grumbled loudly, rubbing his arm. Man, she could be feisty when she wanted to be. “Sis, if I don’t hunt and catch something, Makara just hands me another bucket load of Basuta patties at the end of the day!”

  He felt like leaping at her, claws bared, as his sister giggled madly. It was putting it lightly to say Basuta patties were revolting. “I gotta eat something with flavour, Suri!” he shouted. “You know what? Anything he gives me tonight is going straight in your bowl!”

  “Serves you right, I say.” she sniggered. “This wouldn’t happen if you were more like the rest of us. Why can’t you learn to forage like me? Fit in and be a proper Madraki?”

  “I told you Suri, I don’t want to grow up like that!” he moaned softly, tugging on the leaves of a nearby bush out of boredom. “All those ridiculous rules about defending the forest and living outside the circle of life. I’m more like a Skota! At least Makara knows where to draw the line… hey, what was that?”

  Nuran turned his back on his sister, suddenly startled by an odd sound behind him. It sounded like distant thunder. He looked up out of surprise, but sure enough the sky was clear blue for miles. What in the world had that been?

  “Suri did you hear that?”

  “Hear what?”

  CAAA-RACK!

  Nuran shielded his eyes from a bright white flash just over the nearest hill. He could just make out a silhouette falling. For only a split second he wondered if he was imagining things, until there was an awkward sounding splash from the brook.

  “Is that…”

  Nuran raised his nose to the air and began sniffing wildly. “Perfume?” he exclaimed a moment later. “No, that’s a scent! Suri, come on!”

  Nuran shot up one of the banks, searching every speck of the water in the stream. And there it was: a bright orange shape bobbing face down in the water. Another creature just like him, and it wasn’t moving.

  “Oh no! We gotta help!”

  Nuran acted instinctively, sliding down the muddy slope and tumbling into the churning blue water. Terribly clumsily at first, but once he was in he shot for the shape like a fish. Nuran could swim quite well despite the fact he was basically a wet rug in water, his fur constantly miring his movement.

  One arm after another, he splashed out, a blur of yellow fur and foam. Both he and the canine he was trying to help were already swept a good nine or ten meters up the stream, but after only a few heavy strokes he crashed into it and scooped it up in his arms.

  Lifting its head above the water, he blushed suddenly. The canine was a girl, dressed in ragged remains of odd clothing. Despite being soaked they were black at the edges, as if they’d been burned, but there wasn’t a scratch on her to confirm it.

  With the young girl in one arm, he paddled back to the nearest flat bank with the other. Nuran fought the pull of the water with everything he had and struggled out of the mud, heaving for breath. He had just enough strength left to drop the female softly on the bank before collapsing, and gasping. “No, no!” he said aloud. “No time for that…”

  Nuran jumped up and leaned over the girl, his big pointy ears and bushy tail now hanging heavy and limp. He tilted her head side to side and let some of the water she’d swallowed trickled out the side of her mouth. It seemed he’d gotten to her early. Gasping for breath, the young canine opened her eyes.

  “What? I’m… Alive?” she coughed and winced.

  “Hey! You’re just fine. Take it easy, okay?”

  “Who… Who’re you?” she asked, sitting up and looking at her surroundings. “A Forest? Where am I?”

  She coughed and collapsed on her back again. Nuran took hold of her neck to steady her as the last of the stream water came gushing out of her mouth. She could breathe freely now, but she looked back drowsily one last time before, much to his surprise, she fainted. Nuran sighed. He couldn’t be more relieved she was alive, but what on earth was going on? What was that flash and where had she come from?

  Suri came scurrying over the nearby bushes and tumbling down the bank, a giant perplexed smile on her face. “That... was... AWESOME!” she shouted, raising her fists above her head. “You should’ve seen yourself! Where did that come from?”

  “I don’t know!” Nuran huffed. “I just panicked!”

  “Wait, is… she is okay, right?” Suri’s breath became laboured as she noticed the motionless creature they’d saved.

  “I think so.” he muttered, easing his sisters mind while still struggling for breath himself. “Hey, do you recognize what she is? I’ve never met anyone that looks like her!”

“Nope.” Suri replied carelessly. “I haven’t got a clue! That’s cute though!”

  “What?!” Nuran blushed. “Well, she’s very pretty, yes. But why’s that… Oh.”

  He realised that the rescued creature was very firmly clutching a children’s stuffed animal, a little dog with fuzzy blue fur. It was soaked though from the stream but Suri didn’t seem to mind, prying it out of her fingers and clutching it close. Nuran grimaced and pouted.

  “What?” she squeaked. “I’ll just look after it until she wakes up, okay?” She gave him an evil grin and giggled. “You thought I meant her, didn’t you?”

  “You better give it back!” Nuran grumbled, changing the subject quick as he could. “I’ve got a bad feeling about all this, and we can’t just leave her here. We better take her back to the village. Come on!”

  Nuran tried to life her over his shoulder, but Suri protested. “Hey wait a minute!” she cried and pouted. “I’m not carrying her there!”

  “Why not?!”

  “I can’t carry her and the berries! She’d be about as heavy as you are!”

  Nuran grumbled in disbelief. “Why you selfish little… Are you for real? Just forget about the berries!”

  “No way! I spent forever filling the baskets!”

  “Yeah sure, and I didn’t waste a second of my life hunting that lek you made me throw away!” Nuran grumbled. “Fine, I’ll do everything important, as usual! Just help me get her on my back… Suri? What’s wrong?”

  “N…Nuran!”

  Suri was shaking like a leaf and pointing over his shoulder. Nuran turned and glanced at a long mountain ridge, far on the other side of the riverbank,. His pointy ears shot up in terror to see a plume of black smoke just starting to rise above it.

  They both recognized that smoke. Nothing could have scared them more then that.

  Fast as he could, he tugged the young canine girl onto his back and wrapped her arms round his neck. “Suri – forget about the berries.” he gasped anxiously. “We have to run right now! Help me hold her and run!”

  “But I…”

  “NO! WE HAVE TO GO NOW SURI!”