The Wild Ba’Neesh Chapter Thirty-Five ©2019 Fay Thompson All Rights Reserved

Two of the Ba’Neesh made a sort of paddle rake by peeling some of the bark off the limbs the Akaitapi had left for firewood. They scraped the floor of the central area removing the top debris and revealing a softer underlayer of silt.

Mick discovered he could sense their movements and see something, it was like they radiated. He talked to Elias about it and they both thought they were seeing a faint aura of Vrill. They tried to see each other but that seemed less successful. Elias said the Ba’Neesh Vrill was cleaner than Soek and maybe that made it brighter. They were subdued. It was stuffy in the cave with everyone breathing, Mick had the feeling they were running out of air although Elias told him there was fresh air along the area of the dripping water.

After they swept out the area the Ba’Neesh settled down into a close-knit group leaving Elias and Mick on the outside. They spoke in Neesh and were playing with each other’s hair. It made Mick grumpy. He wasn’t exactly hungry, although he felt he could eat. He had plenty of water. It was a sort of snubbing, Ba’Neesh to Soek.

He worried over it for maybe an hour before he got up and walked over to Edda. The Ba’Neesh conversation stopped.

“I want to join you.” He said.

Edda didn’t answer, nor did she give any sign of understanding him. He couldn’t tell if she was faking it. Half the time he thought she knew more words than she seemed to know at other times, he felt played. He sat down so close to Edda his thighs touched her.

She chattered at him brusquely and pulled herself out of contact. She gestured as if telling him to leave.

“No.” He said. He had his jacket rolled up to make a pillow so he laid down right there, his feet closest to the Ba’Neesh, right in the middle of their soft, silty dirt.

Elias waited, thinking about it. Then he walked over and lay down next to Mick. The Ba’Neesh pulled away when his intent became clear. There was more unpleasant sounding Neesh, and a full-on argument between Edda and Aenor, the leader.

Elias whispered to Mick, “Hopefully they won’t bash in our brains while we sleep.”

Mick whispered back, “They won’t, they need us for manual labor and shit.”

Both of them snickered, facing each other in the dark. They could hear the Ba’Neesh listening and weirdly it was funny to play the other shoe, snub them back.

It was dark, too warm, close air and quickly the two of them fell asleep, unaware of the confused Ba’Neesh, not certain how to treat the Soek in their midst. Eventually, they too lay down and slept, curled against each other like spoons. Edda forgot Mick was Soek and curled against him and another did the same with Elias.

Because the cave was so dark it was impossible to tell a difference in the time when the group wakened. None of them were sure what wakened them, there didn’t seem to be new noises or anything dangerous. But, Mick pushed himself to his feet.

It took even longer for his eyesight to adjust to where he could see the individual Ba’Neesh shapes again.

“Want to explore?” He asked Elias.

“Yeah.” Elias replied. “I need to warm my muscles up.”

“Didn’t you say the laser was first a light thing?” Mick asked as they picked their way deeper toward the now-familiar drip.

“Yeah.” Elias said, “I should have thought of that earlier. A dim light shouldn’t take a lot of Vrill. As Mael said, I am only talking to the light that exists here in ranges hard for my primitive eyeballs to process.”

“Okay.” Mick said, not really sure what Elias meant exactly.

A soft glow appeared that felt really bright. The Ba’Neesh exclaimed and then they too were radiating light, without the finesse of Elias.

“Turn those off and stop wasting Vrill.” Elias snapped.

The other lights vanished and there were a few words in Neesh that sounded to Mick exactly like snarky words. He tried to repeat them but found his mouth resisting.

It seemed where the two Soek went, the local Ba’Neesh would follow. The dim light was plenty to see by making it much faster to avoid the rocks and boulders.

Elias followed the air to a slot that seemed to be a crack leading to the surface somewhere. There was a hint of more light suggesting it was still daylight outside.

They continued, poking into pockets and holes, looking for anything larger. Eventually they found an animal’s den with lots of bones. It was perhaps two feet tall. Elias suggested he go first to check for danger as he had the stunner and the light. Mick stayed so the Ba’Neesh stayed. Eventually Elias called out that it was tight but went very deep. So, they followed him, the Ba’Neesh occasionally radiating the same type of dim light when it became too dark.

After about an hour on his hands and knees Mick was wondering what it was they were doing, they would have to go all the way back and his knees were complaining, loudly. “Elias?” He called out.

“Yeah, just a bit further, I think.” Elias answered. “Water up here, moving fast. I want to see what it is.”

Mick soldiered on, he couldn’t leave Elias alone. That was a Reserves rule, always buddy up. He could hear the Ba’Neesh complaining to each other without the need of translation. It was clear to Mick they were following a crack and sometimes it was wet without the relief of drinkable water. His pants were wet and his mouth dry.

“Right.” Elias said nice and loud.

Mick did his best to hurry forward for a look at this rushing water promise. He could hear it too and it seemed to aggravate his thirst. The crack widened into a much larger crack, tall enough to stand upright many times over. Far above were some glints of light but Mick could tell it wasn’t a way out, at least not for them. Maybe for mice and bats.

What captivated everyone’s attention was a large culvert pipe. Mick’s experience suggested it was reinforced concrete installed after a drill and brace operation. The Reserve teams left these alone as most would eventually collapse in on themselves and nature would resolve the issues presented. This one had clearly begun the process long ago as the top of the pipe was missing and there was a bit of water splashing up and out of the holes, making them bigger.

The Ba’Neesh crowded forward until the entire open space was jammed.

Now what?

The Ba’Neesh answered by reaching over the curve of the pipe to scoop handfuls of water. Mick watched for a moment and then he saw the concrete under one of the Ba’Neesh wobble.

“Wait!” He yelled out, “Come away before…”

A thunderous sound accompanied by a scream threw the concrete and the three Ba’Neesh leaning on it into the culvert pipe. The water didn’t look that deep but it was brisk. They continued to scream as they disappeared flowing with the water.

“Shit.” Mick yelled and then before Elias could stop him he had jumped in after them. He had years and years of rescue training and he knew that these kinds of pipes often had grated openings that could be opened at periodic intervals for old time maintenance.

It felt like a water slide. He swung himself around to go feet first, hoping the Ba’Neesh were smart enough to do so as well.

Behind him Elias vacillated and then the Ba’Neesh chose again by jumping into the pipe after Mick.

“Shit.” Elias yelled in frustration. “Feet first. Feet first.” By then he was the last one in. It wasn’t so bad, but he worried that he would pile into a plugged up pipe full of Ba’Neesh and they would all die in there.

He passed the first ceiling grate barely seeing it. Then he heard Mick yell out something. Elias did his best to maintain a light in the tube and ahead he noted other light coming on. The Ba’Neesh, at least some of them, were following suit.

Mick grabbed hold of the grate with a clear view of the fading light of evening above it. He stabilized himself and found the rungs.

He heard the Ba’Neesh before he saw her. He yelled. She laughed, clearly enjoying the ride. She swept past him before he could grab at her. He was prepared for the next one and soon there were enough Ba’Neesh to flag and stem off the opposite wall, using each other as braces. They seemed to have a natural gift for understanding engineering. They caught each other and eventually Elias.

Mick called him over to the rungs where he still hung. The Ba’Neesh were angling their bodies to allow the water to continue past them while all of them were looking over at the two Soek.

“It’s rusted solid.” Mick said. “I count four went on down lower. If we get out, we should be able to follow the grate structures to the narrows. They will likely be caught there, hopefully.”

“Right.” Elias used his laser and a hand on a nearby horn mount to cut through the former grate hinges, pushing up and out to throw it off. He climbed out and looked around for any sign of operatives. There was nothing. “Get them out first.” He ordered Mick.

The Ba’Neesh climbed over each other and made the exit look easy, most were smiling and all had drunk enough water to feel good. Elias dropped the grate back in place.

He tapped Edda on the shoulder to get her attention. She flinched at his touch but remained looking at him. He mimed listening to the water and said, “Can you hear it up here?”

“Hear?” She nodded.

“We follow water.” He said.

She gabbled something in Neesh and the Ba’Neesh tilted their heads and then headed down the slight slope. In the distance Mick could see the banks of a river again. Likely the culvert drained into that.

“They will be watching the river.” Elias said.

“Yeah, classic trap.” Mick nodded. They were trailing the Ba’Neesh now who would stop at each maintenance grate and look in and call out.

“Edda?” Mick jogged up to stop her and knelt down. “Trap ahead.” He said. He formed the shape of the clamps on her wrists from the devices the Tule Soc had used on them.

“Trap?” She repeated.

Mick nodded. “Slow, quiet.” He raised a finger to his lips. “Sneaky.”

“Trap.” She nodded, whispering in Neesh.

They did an odd thing. Where before they had been rather noisy and clunky, the Ba’Neesh now became stealthy, all of them on their fours and clearly watchful. They had seen the mimed wrist guards and they seemed to guess at the word trap.

Two grates further down they could hear voices coming up from underground. Elias gestured to Edda to quiet speak to the underground Ba’Neesh. She did a whistle, chirp conversation that ended the voices.

Elias had to burn the hinges on this grate open too and he stood guard as Mick led a chain of Ba”Neesh back down into the culvert where they found another grate where the culvert became three smaller pipes. The Ba’Neesh were up against the side walls but appeared unhurt. They climbed over Mick and the other Ba’Neesh and then up the ladder and out. By the time Elias lowered the grate quietly, the Ba’Neesh were in a rough circle facing outward and sniffing.

“Which way?” Mick asked Elias, guessing the older Soek would have already been thinking about it.

“I think we head back up to the escarpment; it seems riddled with caves.” He whispered. With darkness well upon them they discovered the local Ba’Neesh could blend into the woods as if they had lived there forever. They no longer spoke and on fours they weren’t a lot taller than a large dog in height. It was hard for Mick and Elias to keep up. Occasionally, Aenor, the leader, would pause and the Ba’Neesh would alert, their senses far more sensitive than the Soeks.

It was on one of these alerts that they heard male voices. Aenor gestured the Ba’Neesh off the trail and into the woods to disperse. Mick and Elias continued forward with great care. They had been climbing steadily as the ground sloped upward toward the escarpments. This left uneven low spots likely from thousands of years of runoff before the culverts had been installed. In one of these a cluster of operatives had built a fire and they were setting up camp.

“Nine.” Elias said.

It was a terrible choice. Mick’s group could backtrack and circle wide hoping they wouldn’t come upon another group and that the Vrill tracer in plain sight wouldn’t immediately go off on their trail. But, this ground search suggested Tule Soc had found sign of some Ba’Neesh nearby. Had they found the entry to the cave?

The Ba’Neesh made the choice for them. While Mick and Elias were hunkered down spying on the encampment, the Ba’Neesh circled around on both sides and then made noise. The Soek watched in horror as the operatives raced for weapons and started shooting. Then they saw pairs of Ba’Neesh, one operating as a living battery while the other used her laser finger to fire on the operatives. They weren’t aiming to kill either, they were taking out the weapons. With fourteen pairs of Ba’Neesh it was short work to disarm, sometimes literally, the Tule Soc.

What happened next was instructive and brutal. The Ba’Neesh screamed tribal-like yells and raced into the clearing to engage with the operatives in hand-to-hand combat. It was nearly two on one. Soon, Mick and Elias were witness to the violent and very personal destruction of the operatives. Mostly, they kicked with their hooves or bludgeoned with stones until each one was checked and found to be not alive.

Mick lunged over to a rock to disgorge the water from his stomach. Then he sagged to breathe heavily.

“Come on, Mick.” Elias said grimly. “We need their gear and they will have open coms down there so we can hear what Tule Soc is saying. Run.”

Mick tightened his stomach muscles and followed Elias. It was the first time he’d ever searched newly dead men before. It became easier as he did it. Sometimes he played a thief in his games and he went there in his head. The Ba’Neesh, after dancing around in a drunken mode slowed and panted, then the Soek waved them forward and showed them to gather all of the camping gear. Most was still packed. They took all of the weapons too and two Ba’Neesh turned a laser on the Vrill tracer.

Backing out of the clearing seven of the stronger Ba’Neesh were walking upright wearing packs like the Soek. The bloody rest of them stayed on their fours.

Elias yelled out, “Find water underground.” They headed at an angle to their former direction in the now quite dark woods. Mick and Elias weren’t saying much, they were trailing the Ba’Neesh, not for any particular reason except it felt less stressful. When they were above the clearing Aenor stopped the group and came back to Mick. “Fire?” She asked and pointed.

It was a good idea. A forest fire would bring in Reserve teams but it would also eat up the evidence of the true nature of the massacre.

Mick and Elias shared a glance and then nodded together. Elias reached into his pocket for a lighter but Aenor laughed in derision. She pointed and yelled out, “Fire!” Both Soek jumped back.

“How’d she learn to do that?” Elias yelled as everyone had to run as the top of the ridge had wind blowing in all directions, they could only hope the fire would run downhill and not just chase them.

After a few minutes the wind tapered down and the fire chasing them slowed. The Ba’Neesh were clearly tired and settled in to a slow pace. No sign of the Reserve forces yet.

Edda dropped back as she usually did to match the slowest pace. Mick was pretty sure she had something wrong with one of her legs. She was covered in blood which she ignored and now she was tightly focused on just following the leaders.

It wasn’t too long before Aenor trumpeted and all of the Ba’Neesh sniff snorted and then pointed. The Soek saw and smelled nothing.

“Do you think they really found water or are we just wandering around in the woods?” Mick asked Elias.

“I think they smell water.” Elias said. “They are natural elementals probably. You saw how they cavorted in that damn culvert, laughing all the way down when we all could or should have been beaned. Now the fire thing. I didn’t know you could summon fire like light, maybe water and air too and how would you summon dirt? I’ve been thinking about it, Mael could tell us.”

They reached a grate structure. The sound of water was distant and slow compared to the last culvert, it also sounded deep and even the torches stolen from the dead operatives couldn’t see the water. Elias cut the hinges and headed in first.

“The treads are in bad shape so be careful.” Followed by, “One at a time, not much water in this one.”

And, that was how they found shelter for the night.

(More blood. They do like revenge that is certain. More tomorrow my lovely fans.)