“Get up slave!”
I jerked awake when I felt a rough kick in my side. Light
streamed
through
the hut and I squinted.
“GET UP!”
I whipped my head over to see another native kicking at Nick.
“Hey!
Don’t
do that!” I protested.
I struggled to my feet, my body stiff
from
sleeping
on the dirt-packed ground. Nick opened his eyes, looking totally
disoriented. Brian was also waking up.
“Wha--” Nick looked around. When it clicked where he was, he
narrowed his
eyes.
“The medicine woman has a job for you.” A burly native stated
in a
monotone voice.
He held out a leather bag, the size of a
standard
purse. I
took it hesitantly. He stepped back and held open the flap that served
as
the door to the hut. Lelani stepped in, smiling coldly.
“Pay attention, both of you.” She commanded, holding a large
leaf out
for
us to see. She nodded to the bag I held. “Open that.”
I held open the top, wondering where this was going. She held
the
leaf
over it and snapped the thick stem. Then she took her fingers and
pushed it
down the stem, squeezing a milky liquid out of it. “You are to fill
this
bag. It is used to make one of my salves and I am nearly out.” She
said
simply.
I groaned. “You know how long that will take?!” I peered into
the
bottom
of the bag and that leaf had barely left anything at all.
Lelani glared at me. “You will stay in the forest until it is
filled.
Do
not worry, you won’t be alone.” She sneered at Nick. “He will join
you
along with the dark one.”
“Lelani, please! That could take forever. Nick isn’t in the
condition to
be on his feet in a forest all day!” Brian protested, sitting
up.
Lelani’s pretty face twisted, almost as if in pain. “It is not
your
concern. You only need to worry about yourself and getting
well.”
“It is my concern. This isn’t something that either one of them
should be
doing. And Kevin? I know he was punished. I can’t lay in here all
day
and get better when I will worry about them the whole time.” He
argued.
Lelani bit her lip. “You will join them.”
“NO!” Nick and I both cried out at the same time.
“No, I have decided. Brian, you need to learn to appreciate how
I
have
been taking care of you. I have nursed you back to health. Maybe if
you
are treated as a slave for a day, you will learn to appreciate me. You
will
join them for this day.” Lelani said. She turned away, visibly upset.
“Do
not return until it is full.” She said in an angry, choked
voice.
“Lelani...” I said hesitantly. “Our meds. We need those
before we
can
leave.”
She ignored me and left the hut. I glanced at a native and he
just
jerked
his head at me. I grabbed the green backpack and started pulling out
bottles as fast as I could. By now I was used to who took what so I
put
several doses of each med into a bottle and shoved it in my pocket.
Then I
passed the backpack to Nick so he could take his and then he passed it
to
Brian. The native stared at us impatiently, shaking his head.
“So we’re druggies, big deal.” I muttered.
“Lizz...” Brian only shook his head. We shuffled out of the
hut,
Nick
steadying Brian at first. Even though the previous day had let both of
them
gain their strength, I could tell they were both going to have a tough
time
with this. I slung the leather bag over my shoulder and we all
followed the
natives out of the hut. I kept glancing behind me, knowing this was
the
first time in a few days that Brian had even been out of the hut. Nick
looked exhausted, but was hiding it well, as he always did.
We stopped in front of the cave entrance that I had stayed in
for
awhile
before. Kevin was laying on the floor of the cave, on his stomach. It
was
hard to see because of the shadows but it looked like something was
wrong
with his back. I glanced at Nick and he returned my concerned gaze.
Brian
went up to the bars.
“Kevin?” He called, distressed.
“Move!” The burly native barked, shoving Brian out of the way.
Brian
stumbled and nearly fell before Nick caught him.
“Ass.” He growled.
“What did they do to him?!” Brian cried.
The native rolled the rock away that stood in front of the bars.
“Get
out
here slave.” He ordered.
Kevin grimaced and stood up slowly. AJ and Howie also stood up.
Before
they could even protest, they were interrupted.
“Both of you, back up. You don’t want to cause your friend any
more
harm
do you?” The other shorter native directed to AJ and Howie.
Kevin turned and said something to them quietly. They both
nodded and
backed up like they had been told. As he turned I saw his back, the
sun
falling on it and giving me a perfect view. I gasped.
“Sonofabitch.” Nick swore.
I could immediately feel my heart start to pound as I knew
Nick’s was.
“No, Nick. It’ll only make it worse.”
Kevin joined us, glancing at each of us in turn, his gaze
resting
worriedly
on his younger cousin. “Brian?”
“What happened?” Brian whispered, staring at Kevin’s blistered
back.
“It looks worse than it is. What the hell is going on? Why are
you
up?”
Kevin brushed off the concern, more worried about how pale Brian was.
He
turned to Nick. “You really don’t look much better.”
“Thanks.” Nick rolled his eyes. “I’m fine though.”
“’I’m fine though.’” I mimicked, smiling lightly at
Nick.
“Shuddup.” He returned.
“Enough!” The native butted in. “You are to go through those
trees.
I
caution you to not pick the wrong leaves. That will result in severe
punishments.”
We nodded and filed off into the trees. As grim of a situation
we
were in,
I still couldn’t help but notice the beauty of the forest. The sun was
bright, but only shone through in patches through the tops of the
trees.
The ground was uneven and covered with more smaller plants and brightly
colored flowers. It nearly too my breath away. Even in books I have
never
seen anything like it. My gaze fell onto Kevin’s back, who walked in
front
of the rest of us. The blisters were raw and looked really painful.
Then
realization hit me with a gasp.
“Lizz, what is it?” Brian looked at me worriedly.
“Th-that was the punishment I was supposed to get. Oh god,
Brian, you
stopped it. If you hadn’t said anything, they would have done that to
me
too.” I said, my voice shaky.
Nick stopped dead in his tracks. “Punishment? What the hell
did I
miss?
You were supposed to get that too? What did you guys do?”
I sighed. “After your seizure, the bridge started to collapse.”
I
left
out the part about him nearly falling off, knowing it would shake him
up
even more. “Kevin came to try to help and he ended up getting punished
for
not having permission to leave his work. They were going to punish me
because they said the bridge breaking was my fault. Cause I’m a woman.
And
then it did collapse and Kevin almost...anyway they told me to go back
to
their side, but I said I was staying with you. So I was supposed to
get an
even worse punishment.”
Nick narrowed his eyes. I knew he knew that I was leaving
things out,
but
fortunately chose to not press me about it. “And Brian got you out of
it?”
“He begged Lelani to not do it.” I shuddered, thinking of how
close I
got
to going through the same agony that Kevin was forced to endure. Then
I
shuddered again, hating that Kevin had to go through it. He was
putting up
a brave front, but I could tell he was in pain.
We walked for what seemed like forever before we found several
huge
tress
that bore the leaves we needed. They looked relatively easy to climb
with
all the branches and limbs.
“This is insane. How the hell many leaves are we going to have
to
milk to
get that white shit to fill up the bag?” Nick groaned, looking
up.
“A lot. I’m going up.” Kevin stated flatly.
“No, Kevin!” Brian stepped in front of him. “You’re in enough
pain
as it
is. I don’t think it’s a good idea that you do it.”
“Well are you going to?” Kevin returned, gesturing up.
Brian followed his gaze and visibly winced. “Uh...”
Kevin laughed softly. “Didn’t think so.”
“I’ll go.” Nick announced, pushing past both of them.
“NO.” Kevin, Brian and I all said at once, quite emphatically.
He turned and looked at us all with a wide-eyed
expression.
“Nick, you could have a seizure. Then what, fall out of the
tree?” I
reasoned.
“Shit.”
“Yeah, I guess that leaves me. It’s no problem, really. I used
to
climb
trees all the time.” I decided.
“No, Lizz. I have to be the responsible one here and I’m not
about to
let
you go climbing up and falling out.” Kevin argued.
“Besides, you’re a klutz.” Nick added.
“Hey!” I protested. “Seriously, it makes the best sense for me
to
go.”
“I’m going and that’s it.” Kevin said sternly. With that he
held out
his
hand for the bag. I reluctantly shrugged it off and handed it to him.
He
gave me a grim smile and started to climb.
“Careful.” Brian called nervously.
I held my breath as he climbed, knowing he was in considerable
pain
and
frustrated with myself for not pressing it. It would have been better
if I
had gone up. A few minutes later he was perched on a thick branch
about ten
feet away from the trunk. He began pulling off leaves.
“Maybe it would be easier to drop the leaves and the bag and
while you
pull
them off, we can start milking them.” Nick called up.
“Good idea.” Kevin called back. “Hold on, let me get to a
better
place.
The leaves look a little thicker over there.” He inched his way out
further
across the branch. He was almost where he could reach some really good
handfuls when his foot slid.
“Kevin!” I yelled at the same time Nick yelled out, “oh shit!”
Brian
only
gasped. Kevin regained his balance, but the leather bag slipped off
his
shoulder and fell onto a branch just below him.
“Sonofabitch!” He yelled.
“Are you okay?” Brian yelled back.
“I’m fine, but
the damn bag is out of reach and the branch it’s on
won’t
support my weight.” The frustration shone through Kevin’s
voice.
“I’ll get it.” I said, moving towards the tree.
“No, dammit Lizz. I don’t want you to go up there.” Nick
locked eyes
with
me.
“We don’t have a lot of choice. You might have a seizure and
there’s
no
way Brian can go up there. That leaves me. Besides I’m small enough
that
the branch should hold me. We have no choice, we need the bag.” I
reasoned. I squeezed his shoulder and started to climb. My tank top
and
shorts weren’t really the best for tree climbing, but I was fortunate
enough
to have on tennis shoes. Usually in hot weather I could only be seen
in
flip flops or barefoot. The tree was pretty easy to climb and I
reached the
branch that the bag was stuck on. My heart was going pretty good, but
I
made myself concentrate on the task at hand.
“Go slow Lizz.” Kevin coached from just above me.
I nodded, inching my way towards the bag. When I reached it, I
slung
it
over my shoulder very carefully.
“Can you toss it up to me?” Kevin asked.
“Ha. And lose my balance? No thanks, I’ll bring it
up.”
“Alright, be careful then.”
“You guys okay up there?” Nick called anxiously.
“Yup. Here, have some leaves.” I called, yanking a handful and
letting
them flutter to the ground.
I heard them both laugh and I grinned too. Slowly, but surely I
made
my
way up the short distance to Kevin. I was more nervous than I let on,
but I
was okay as long as I kept a death grip on the thicker branches. “As
long
as I am up here, why don’t I help you?” I suggested.
“Lizz you never give up.” Kevin rolled his eyes at me.
“I learned it from Nick. Seriously, Kev, you are in a hella lot
of
pain
and the faster we pull off those leaves, the sooner we can go back
down.” I
pointed out.
“Okay, but be careful.” He pointed a finger at me.
“Yessir.” I smiled. I busied myself yanking off leaves and
dropping
them.
Who knew how many it was going to take? There was only a few hours
left
before the sun started setting and we couldn’t go back until it was
full.
We’d probably get punished for taking too long anyway. After ten
minutes of
dropping leaves, I had tossed the bag down to Brian and Nick so they
could
start milking. Looking down made me dizzy, but I had to laugh at the
pile
of leaves that surrounded them as they sat, milking them.
A rustling sound caught my attention and I slowly
turned.
“Oh god.” I whispered, panic filling my chest. A snake had
lowered
itself
between Kevin and I. I had moved past him a bit ago so I was on the
outside
of the branch. It was thinner so it made sense that I went out further
since I weighed less. The snake was huge. It had to have been almost
six
inches in diameter and who knew how long. I felt myself start to
shake.
There was nothing behind me and only a snake in front of me. It was
almost
equal distance between Kevin and I.
“Kevin. Don’t move.” I hissed.
“Wha-”
“Don’t move!“ I said again, afraid to agitate the snake.
It
was
dangling between us, barely moving. “Oh god...”