Chapter Nine

The sun had disappeared from sight, but that was only because it hid behind the mountains. It was not late yet. Arabella felt she had been hiking for the last decade. Mavie flittered back and forth over the trail. She seemed to be chasing something that Arabella could not see. Stig walked quietly beside her.

She felt so ill. She was so hot. Her stomach threatened to become unsettled. She hated throwing up. Her headache was causing black spots to float in front of her eyes. Her breathe came in gasps. Her legs kept cramping in spasms. She knew she was dying. Each time she would stop because she could not go a step farther, Stig would bump into the back of her legs.

The path narrowed and snaked between high walls. The walls cut out the rest of the world. There were only gravel and rock walls here. Arabella thought that the walls had the same texture and coldness as the walls of a tomb.

Mavie flew out of sight up ahead. She came back in a flutter of feathers.

“Hurry,” she tweeted. “Come see.”

Arabella and Stig exchanged glances. Curiosity drove Arabella on faster. The path narrowed at the end of the walls. Arabella took off the sack and dropped it through the opening first. She then turned sideways and squeezed through.

“Oh my,” she gasped.

A small meadow stretched before her. It was full of green. Everywhere she looked there were many shades of green. Purple and pink flowers grew up with the green brush. Arabella watched a little bee flit around a blossom.

“What is it doing?” Arabella asked.

“Nothing much,” said Stig. “I think it’s lost. It’s getting dark and the bees are back in their nest asleep.”

“Oh poor thing,” she said.

Mavie swooped down and snatched the bee out of the flower. Arabella gasped.

“Evil bird,” Stig said.

“I heard that,” Mavie said. “It would have died out here anyway. It would have frozen to death.”

“Huh,” Stig huffed and disappeared into the meadow.

The small haven of wildflowers ended in a think corpse of fir trees that surrounded the edge of the meadow. The trees and brush was tightly intertwined creating a wall. Arabella picked up the sack and followed Mavie to the other side of the meadow.

She noticed that her breathe hung like puffs of steam in the cold air. Arabella knew that it was very cold but she still burned with an inner fire.

“Stig,” she called. The weasel popped up out of the tree line.

“Here,” he called. “I found a way through the trees. You should be able to get through.”

“We need to get lower,” said Mavie. “It should be warmer.”

“All right,” Arabella sighed. She followed Stig into the trees. She had to push branches out of her way. Deeper in she discovered that she had to crawl on her hands and knees to get through. The trees got darker the deeper she went.  

“Stig,” she whispered. “Should we stay here tonight?” She felt safe, tuck away under the trees and brush.

“Look,” Stig pointed.

Arabella looked and shivered. A skull looked back at her. It was smaller than the one she found at Cardew.

The rest of the bones were gathered in a small clear space under the trees. It looked as if they deer had lay down and went to sleep. The only odd thing that Arabella noticed was that the head was thrown back. Its antlers nearly touched its backbone.

“I think it froze to death,” Stig said. “It is small enough to still be young.”

He ran over to the bones and sniffed around. He sat on the skull.

“The bones haven’t been chewed on, so he wasn’t killed.”

Stig motioned her to follow him. She crawled over the bones trying her best not to disturb them. The black skull in the desert was something of a wonder to Arabella. This was different. This was like finding the body of a child in the woods. Fear shivered down her backbone. She did not want to end up like this young stag.

The land dipped and Arabella was able to walk part way upright. She was still nearly bent over at the waist. Her back began to ache. Stig paused in front of her and tilted his head. He seemed to be listening. Arabella listened hard as well, but she could not hear anything.

“What is it?” she asked.

Stig shushed her. He still stood frozen in place. Finally, after an eternity, he moved forward.

“Where is Mavie?” she asked. She had not seen or heard the bird for quite awhile.

“She flew over the trees,” he whispered. “She is already on the other side.”

“Wish I could fly over the trees as well,” she whispered back. Stig nodded.

The land rose again and she was forced to crawl again. She pushed at the branches and trees trunks that blocked her way. She twisted and scooted under the brush. Stig did not have a problem since he was so low to the ground.

She felt a myriad of tiny scratches and scrapes on her hands and legs. She finally pushed herself partway up the slope of the hill and she was out of the crushing mass of trees. Stig sprawled out beside Arabella.

The branch pile that Arabella lay on poked at her, but it felt good to stretch out across them. She watched Stig’s breathe blow out in small puffs of steam.

“We need to celebrate,” Stig said. “How about some food?”

“Stig, are you always hungry?” She asked as she pulled out the food bag.

“Always,” he nodded and snuffled into the bag. Again he came up with mystery meat. “You should eat too.”

Arabella shook her head.

“I know,” Stig went back to the bag. He dragged out a sealed jar with his mouth. “This should help.”

“What is it?” Arabella looked at it.

“Soup,” Stig said. Arabella looked shocked. “Toasty warm soup; chicken flavor.”

“How?” she was so surprised she could not get the rest of the question out.

“Easy, just think of what you want and reach in,” Stig stuffed his meat in his mouth. His cheeks bulged.

Arabella closed her eyes and reached in. She pulled out a gooey sugar bun. Honey dripped off the bottom of the roll. She laughed. She thought that the bag was full of food, instead if was empty until you summoned the food. She expected a bag of bread, jerky, and dried berries; all good food for traveling. She did not expect a bag full of the most decadent foods she could image.

She laughed. Mavie fluttered down to land near Arabella. She fed the little bird pieces of her sticky bun. Arabella ate half of the bun and then drank the soup. It was just broth but it was warm and made her stomach feel better. She sighed.

“What about the water bag? Does it have something different in it than water?” Arabella asked Stig.

He shook his head.

“No, its just water,” he said.

Mavie fluffed out her feathers.

“I’m cold,” she complained.

“I can carry you,” Arabella offered. Mavie agreed and Arabella tucked the little bird under her hair beside her ear. Arabella stood and climbed the rest of the hill. At the top she stopped beside Stig. Sunlight surrounded them. A notch cut into the mountains to the east let in the light of the setting sun.

Green grass and alpine shrubs stretched across another open space. A few trees dotted this new meadow. The edge seemed to drop abruptly. A few tree tops could be seen over the drop off. Below the drop off was a blue lake. It was dotted with little tree filled islands.

On the opposite shore were rows upon rows of trees. They were nicely spaced. A person could walk through the trees and not have to crawl through the forest. A dark gray mountain rose out of the forest. Its sides were sloped sharply up. Arabella doubt anyone could climb that mountain. Patches of white clung to its sides. Horizontal lines cover the sides. It looked as if someone had clawed away the outer covering of the mountain and left just the core showing.

A quarter of the way up the mountain was a massive wound. It ran all the way to the top. The gash was black and looked extremely deep. It seemed as if the mountain was divided into halves. Perhaps some day the mountain would truly split and lay in two pieces like a cut apple.

Clouds swirled behind the mountain. They were white and fluffy. A few of them had darkened centers. They blew in a high wind. They traveled over the top of the surrounding mountains.

“Looks like it might snow,” Stig commented.

Mavie shivered and hunched up more. Arabella felt her sharp toenails in her shoulder of her over dress.

“What do we do if it starts to snow,” she asked Stig.

“We find a hole and crawl in it,” he said. “If it snow, it shouldn’t be so cold. We still need to go lower before it gets dark. We need to be by the lake.”

Stig froze in place again. He looked like a little weasel statue. He stared hard at a clump of trees to the west.

“We need to go now,” he whispered. Arabella nodded and they started walking quickly down the meadow.

A loud grunt came from the trees. Stig froze again. Arabella froze beside him.

A huge brown shape came out of the trees. It stood on its hind legs and stared in their direction. I was at least twice as tall as she was. Its eye fixed on there position. It swayed back and forth on it hind legs.

Arabella found that she was truly frozen with fear. She could not move. The creature’s small curved ears swiveled back and forth listening intently. It forepaws were spiked with long sharp claws. They dangled in front of the creature. It sniffed. Smacked its jaws together and sniffed again.

The creature opened up its mouth and showed its huge teeth. It roared. It echoed off the surrounding mountains.

It was the signal to unfreeze the three. Mavie flew into the safety of the sky.

“Run, Arabella, run,” Stig yelled.

They both ran towards the drop off. The creature sped down the hill after them. It huffed and grunted with each leap. I chased them with incredible speed. By the time Arabella reached the first set of trees, the creature was nearly upon her.

She ran, imagining she could feel its claws ripping into her back. Its breath seemed to blow on the back of her neck. She could picture herself on the ground with the creature sitting on her with her head in its mouth. It was ready to bite down and crunch her into oblivion.

She tried to add more speed to her flight, but she was running out of strength. Her legs grew weak. The edge suddenly appeared before her. She made a sharp turn. Stig turned the opposite direction. The creature followed her. She was the slowest and the biggest snack there.

Arabella stepped onto a patch of small rocky debris. A few loose rocks were all it took to send her over the edge of the drop off. She was suddenly running in air. She flailed at a tree but missed. Her sack caught on a tree root instead.

The creature looked over the edge. Arabella looked up into its angry eyes. Drool splattered down onto her sack. It roared again; long and loud. It placed its forepaws over the drop off. The thing wanted her so badly it was coming after her. It edge farther down.

A pebble bounced off its nose.

“Hey bear,” Stig yelled. “You like weasel meat don’t you.” He threw another rock. “You want some? Come get me!”

The bear roared in Stig’s direction.

“Oh crap,” Stig cried and fled up the slope.

The bear pursued him. Arabella heard the bear roar several more times farther off. She thought that Stig was luring the monster up into the tightly packed trees. Stig would have the advantage in such a tight space.

While Arabella was hanging from the tree root, she was hoping that Stig would get away. She felt a jerk and her eyes widened. She glanced upward. The tree above her shifted even as she watched.

“Arabella,” Mavie shrieked.

“Mavie help me,” even as Arabella said the words she knew that the little bird was helpless. “Mavie save Stig. Bring him back to help,” she said. The tree shifted again. “Hurry,” she yelled as Mavie flew out of sight.

If Stig could get away from the bear, he would be able to help her. He was a smart weasel. She hoped he could figure a way out for her.