|
PULMONOSCORPIUS AT NIGHT
by Roy Dorman
The old woman’s cave was across the savannah from Orthon’s
village. Crossing the savannah would be dangerous at anytime, day
or night, but Orthon felt that he must make the trek before any more
harm came to his people. The old woman, Ageetha, had magic that
could make life easier for Orthon’s village. She had to be made
to see that by withholding her gifts, his people were dying
unnecessarily. Orthon’s own son had died yesterday and had only been
three full moons old. He hated the old woman. He would
force her to help them if it came to that.
Orthon left early in the morning, hoping to be at her cave by
mid-afternoon and home again, with her, before nightfall. During
the day, the long-toothed tigers roamed the savannah and easily killed
and ate anything they hunted. At night the jackals and other
scavengers mainly cleaned up after the big cats. But these
scavengers travelled in bands and would attack a lone man if they were
hungry enough.
Armed with a spear, Orthon made it across the savannah without
difficulty. A few times, he had to circle around a pride of
tigers that were feeding. He stayed downwind of the cats whenever
possible.
At the entrance to her cave, he stopped and yelled for the old
woman. “Ageetha, I have come to take you back to my village so
that you may help my people.”
There was no reply from inside, but a rustling in the tall grass on
both sides of the path caused Orthon to step back a bit to see what
protection the old woman might have outside the cave. Skittering
out of the grass and onto the path came four giant scorpions.
They were easily two feet long and their stingers held the promise of
painful death.
“Hold,” commanded the old woman stepping out of the cave. The
scorpions stopped where they were and even stepped back a bit to leave
the path once more open to the cave.
“Come inside, loud villager,” said the old woman. “We can talk
about your concerns and my needs.”
Orthon cautiously walked past the scorpions. They reared back on
their back legs and clicked ominously at him. Once inside, he saw
that the room had at least a dozen of these same dealers in
death.
“Sit,” said Ageetha. “I can tell you that my price for what you
need, or think you need, remains the same. Be grateful that your
arrogance does not cause me to ask for more. Yet.”
“My son died yesterday and your healing ways could have saved him if
you had been in our caves with us,” said Orthon. There was hatred
in his voice. The scorpions in the room reared back and in unison
made a loud clicking noise. Ageetha shushed them and they once
again were quiet. Quiet, but watchful. Orthon thought for
the first time that he should not have come alone. Ageetha was
all that was keeping the creatures at bay. It was all he could do
to keep from crying out when he felt one of them came to rest near his
bare legs.
The four from the outside now stood as sentries at the cave’s
entrance. Out of the corner of his eye, he would sometimes see
one or two creep ahead a little as if to be closer to him. If he
couldn’t convince the old woman to come back with him, he may have to
leave without her and come up with a new plan. Or he could kill
her and run for his life.
Ageetha watched these thoughts play out across Orthon’s face and then
completely surprised him by saying, “I will come with you and stay for
the setting of four suns. I will do what I can to ease the pain
of your people.”
The walk back across the savannah was uneventful. Ageetha
insisted on walking in a straight line, even though it was near
dark. Any scavenging animals removed themselves from their path
when they sensed who was coming.
Arriving at the three caves in the rocky formation that made up
Orthon’s village, Ageetha strode into Orthon’s cave and set her staff
in the corner by his sleeping space. “I will sleep with you
tonight,” she said. “Your woman can sleep with another.”
The central fire outside of the three caves burned low as the night
turned to pre-dawn. Orthon awoke to complete silence.
Usually by now there was some activity in one or another of the caves
as the younger ones awoke hungry. Ageetha was lying next to him
chanting something in a language he could not understand. He
remembered little from the night after Ageetha had taken off her furs
and had forced him to have sex with her. He again wondered if he
would have to kill her.
As his eyes were still becoming accustomed to the darkness, he heard a
sound that caused his blood to run cold. A rustling, clicking
sound came from the corners of his cave. He was lying on his back
and on his chest one of the huge scorpions was staring into his
eyes. Looking to his left, he saw that scorpions were on the
sleeping places of the others in his group. Orthon realized the
quietness of the village was because all of his people were dead.
The witch had killed them all. Sensing his hatred, the scorpion
on his chest reared back and clicked at him.
“You may come back and live with me as my slave, or you may die
here. You have but seconds to make your choice.”
Other scorpions now left Orthon’s dead villagers and came onto his
sleeping space. They almost completely covered his naked
body. With a scream of rage, Orthon chopped the old woman’s
throat with his right hand as hard as he could. As stingers went
into his flesh, he prayed his hand had been able to exact his
vengeance.
THE END
© 2014 Roy Dorman
Bio: Mr. Dorman has
been a voracious reader for 60 years. Since his retirement, he
has also become a voracious writer and has poetry and flash fiction
published recently in a number of online literary journals. His last
Aphelion appearance was A Tangled Web in our September issue.
E-mail: Roy Dorman
Comment on this
story in the Aphelion
Forum
Return to Aphelion's
Index page.
Comment on this story in the Aphelion Forum
Return to Aphelion's Index page.
|
