Talithi's Story 3

There was a hole. A big black hole. I probed at it gently. No. A wall. A wall surrounding something, blocking me off. But what was on the other side of the wall? The wall was secure and had no weak spots. How long had it been up? I did not recall such a structure before. Not in my mind. I definitely did not put it there. I opened my body up for sensations. My arm was burning where it had been cut and still bled. Scratches and bruises covered my body. There was a throb at the back of my head. What had happened?

I sought a memory to explain everything futilely. Nothing was coming to me. I moved my good arm slowly out to feel my surroundings. My hand hit metal bars. They were cool to the touch. It continued to move upward to high above me head. Another set of bars. I tried to move the other arm, but a strike of pain told me that maybe the cut wasn’t all that was wrong with it. I could guess what was on the other side of me anyways. More bars.

I was in a cage. A rush of fear and anger rampaged in my body, waiting for release. I had never been in a cage before. Mother had told me stories of people being put into cages to be sold as slaves, but I didn’t believe her. Now it was a more real possibility. My teeth clenched and I forced myself to take long steady breaths. I needed more information.

There were muffled sounds of yells and drunken laughter. It sounded as if I was in some sort of tent. The tongue that they spoke had a similar dialect to one that I had heard recently. Anichols. I had been attacked. Past events finally trickled back into my mind. But something was still missing from them. Something important. The oil smell that followed the anichols around was particularly strong inside the tent, along with another scent that I couldn’t quite identify.

The outside sounds got louder for a few seconds and a small breeze rushed over me, ruffling my long dark hair. I had company. The footsteps were light on the floor and I could hear the anichol nervously dry-washing his hands. “Ah, so you are awake?” came the slithery voice. The voice seemed to have raised slightly at the end of the question. Why would he fear a caged prisoner? “Good, good. Don’t have to wake you for Master,” he muttered under his breath. So maybe he wasn’t scared of me, but the Master. He made his way back out of the tent. Once again the breeze caressed me as the door was opened, this time bringing back the strange scent.

Time moved at a snail’s pace as I waited for the “master” to come to me. I almost wished he would just come and get it over with. Time was spent trying to figure out the eluding reason for the wall in my mind and it was just getting me more frustrated. At least with the “master” I will have a better idea of what I’m dealing with. What kind of leader would lead the anichols anyways? Someone either really smart of terribly stupid, I would think.

The doorway opened, though no breeze entered. There was a rustle of heavy cloth as the figure moved towards my cage. Not a word was spoken, and yet I felt a thick cloak of foreboding lay upon me. I nearly whimpered and immediately hated myself for such a weakness. He seemed to stare at me for ages and every second that passed by weighed heavily in my mind.

It was subtle at first. Like an ant in a large field of grass, insignificant and absolutely harmless. Then it turned into a spark which seemed easy enough to stamp out with my thoughts. Yet, it would not be put out. It grew larger and caught fire. My mind burned. Before I knew what was occurring my mind was covered in flames. It had spread quickly and efficiently and I didn’t have much time to react. I did my best to spread my thoughts over them, thinking to smother them, but instead they seemed to be growing larger, as if I was actually feeding them fuel. There was something in the back of my mind, a pillar of light pulsing and calling my name. But I drew back from it with as much terror as I had for the fire.

The fire drew back slightly as a disconnected voice entered my head, cold and heartless. “This is only a taste of the pain that I can inflict upon you. You have two choices, you can fight and lose your mind, or you can give yourself up to me.” I shuddered. The voice was deep and ominous. I could almost feel the power that he had to crush me to a pulp. A small part of me jumped up and wanted to give in, but I couldn’t do that. Not without a fight. The light continued to pulse, almost pleadingly now, but I ignored it. Too many memories will come with it. I would rather face the fire than those memories.

My energy gathered around me as I hit full force on the fire that had not fully retreated. I threw up a mental wall that would protect precious memories and knowledge. “So this is your answer. Good.” The voice withdrew from my mind and the fire flamed up once more. The fire burned down my walls easily as if they were a pathetic joke. I roared with anger. He was playing with me, not even using his full strength and I was still falling down so fast! I hunted for any kind of weapon that I could use against him, but nothing worked. The light continued its invitations. I continued to ignore it.

I could feel myself losing parts of me. Parts that were important and if I didn’t do something soon, they would be lost to me forever, never to return. My mind was growing weaker. I gave in and stretched towards the light that pulsed. Fire tried to bar my path, but I was on the verge of losing all hope, and this was all I had left. I surged through the fire unheeding to the pain it caused and collapsed into the pillar. Instantly I felt soothed and protected. I emerged, holding onto this power and used it to fight the fire.

At first, the flames vanished at the merest touch, but this hold on me wasn’t going to let go so easily. The flames were strengthened and required a lot more energy to put out. Even with the aid of the light, it appeared to be a losing fight. In the back of my mind I could hear cold laughter. I continued the fight. I was not going to become a prisoner so easily. I was not going to become a prisoner. My strength ebbed and despair filled my entire body. The small part of me that wanted to give up was growing stronger with each passing second.

The mysterious wall crumbled, then burst. Another mind hit my own with full force giving me strength and using its own strength to fight off the fires. I felt more… complete. My mind embraced the presence with open arms and we joined together to fight. With my companion now with me, I fought with even more vigor than ever. A new hope was shining and in sight. We could fight this man off. Just like we had fought off so many other things before. He fought the fire back and I threw up walls and soothed and healed the scars that had been left behind. The enemy grew angry and pulled away and disappeared from my consciousness. His footsteps faded as he ran back out of the tent.

The “master” drew back so quickly I was for a moment at a loss of what to do. My primary purpose in life had changed to staying alive and now that it was over, I didn’t know what to do next. Something bounded through the tent flap. Not something, it was my companion. My wolf brother Aiken. My missing link.

Aiken began gnawing at the metal lock to only chip a tooth. He growled in frustration. Brother, it is okay. I am alright. All the answer I received was mutterings about nearly getting myself killed and foolish and never do that again. I laughed. I still didn’t have the strength to do much more than move my arms, but I pushed a couple fingers through the bars where he was standing. He pushed his head up against them and began washing them clean out of instinct.

Someone else entered into the tent with a jingling of keys. Aiken moved back to give him all the space that might be necessary for him to get the cage door open. I heard a curse as the third key he tried on the link failed to slide through the key insert. After another minute of muttering, the key finally slid through and turned easily to a resounding click. The second that the door was opened
Aiken moved in to my side, sniffing my body for all injuries.

“Can you walk?” the deep voice of Nishade asked me gently. He helped me up to my feet with my good arm. I was upset to note that I needed both him and Aiken to help support me; my legs were like jelly and were completely unstable. I clenched my teeth. No weakness. I took an unsteady step—and nearly had the floor collide with my face. “Apparently not,” Nishade remarked with a small laugh.

My cheeks burned hot from the embarrassment. The adrenaline that had hit me with the battle disappeared and I found myself as weak as a newborn pup. A moment of a little girl popped into my mind, she was staring intently at a twig on the ground. No, I thought. Not now. It loomed larger and larger above me, threatening to overwhelm me and take me into its depths of pain and sorrow. This was the cost of living, remembering.

I tried to push it to the back of my mind, to block it off, and to forget. But it wouldn’t obey, it just moved closer and closer. I was losing, but I didn’t have the energy to be much of a resistance. Brother, the past calls to me. My consciousness began to fade out. A wet nose touched my cheek, Sister, bury the dead. It is time. Just as I lost all knowledge of any outside influences one last thought flitted across my mind, but I can’t.

Move, move, I willed with my mind. The stick stayed motionless. I imagined the stick rolling over on the ground. Nothing. Concentrate, I reprimanded myself. The stick is as light as a feather; I said out loud I have power. I must have power. Mother could heal and run with wolves and Father was supposedly some wizard. It is usually in the genetics… if I can’t talk to wolves I should at least be able to move a stick!. The stick remained where I had placed it two hours ago when I had begun the exercise.

A leaf fluttered. Yes! This was it, I actually did something. My hair blew into my open mouth of glee and moved back out when the breeze ceased, causing the leaf to move back into its own place. I cried out in anguish, it was nature who had moved the leaf. Not me. Once again I fail my mother.
Mother’s face loomed under me. Even pale as death she was still fiercely beautiful. We were all that was left of the pack, and even now, she was slipping out of my grasp. Her breathing was slow and labored as she tried to get oxygen to her lungs. Occasionally she would moan out the name Alsaine. Who he was remained beyond me. I had never heard the name said before.

“Talithi, baby,” I drew closer to her, clasping her hands in mine, though she had lost all feeling several days before. A tear fell down my cheek as her sightless eyes roved around, trying desperately to see my face.

I cleared my throat, “Mother.” I knew that she would be unable to hear my voice, but I still had to answer.

“Baby,” she said again, even though I was near seven years old and was already learning to hunt for myself, “be strong for me. Be strong. Stay in the forest until the time comes to leave…” Her words went incoherently. My ears strained to hear, but they had never adjusted to be like a wolf’s.

“But you’ll be with me Mother. We’ll leave together.”

“No, I move on. I’m going home to see him once more. So long… so long.”

“Make sense Mother. You’ll be here with me, you’re not going anywhere,” my words barely came out above a whisper.

“Be strong. Be strong…” her words faded off to a murmur and she went limp.

Memory after memory tore at me, filling me with guilt and hate for myself. So often had I failed my Mother. I never had any kind of magical abilities of the wizard or the art of healing. If I could have healed, she might still be alive today. If only she knew of the link that I now possessed with Aiken, maybe she might have been a little more proud and loving.

My mind slowly regained consciousness. Aiken’s reassuring body was draped across mine, protecting my body from the chill air. When I stirred, he immediately got up. At last you have awoken, sister. You were asleep for the rising of the sun. He nuzzled me affectionately. Is it done? Have you buried the dead? I put an arm around his neck and buried my face wet with tears in his fur. If anything, brother, I have resurrected them in memory, and I fear that they will never leave.

They will in time, Tali. You just need to let them go, as I have these many years.
I did not respond. Aiken had lost his family as much as I did, maybe even more so. The wolves in the pack had only accepted me as Tikali’s daughter, but not as a complete member of the pack. Aiken had hunted with the pack and had earned his own rank before he had left on his journey. He might have been separate if only for his affection for me even before our link. I had lost my friends and my mother, but he had lost his whole family. We were all that each other had left in this world.

Using Aiken as a support, I managed to get myself to stand up. I was still weak, but much of my strength had returned to me while I had been unconscious. Aiken walked slowly so I could hold on to his back and led me to the fire where the rest were holding council. As I neared, the conversation ceased and went eerily quiet. I found an empty space and sat down, looking in the direction of the fire, but not really seeing it. “I would like to thank you,” I said slowly. I hated to admit that I had needed help and the thought that they would even consider helping me had not even crossed my mind.

Silence. After a few moments, Nishade spoke up. “Your wolf wouldn’t have let us do anything different. That is one smart animal, he saw that he would need help to get through the camp to you and herded us to them. We guessed that you had gotten caught.” I nodded. Thank you brother.

“What are they here for? What are you here for?” I demanded quietly.

“We should have left her with the anichols. Then maybe they would have been happy and we could have gone on in peace,” Maren said, her voice fiery with anger.

“I very much doubt that the anichols would have let us alone after taking Talithi. I believe that they would have attacked us with a larger force. They are here to stop us on our quest, though how they would know or why they care, I do not know,” came the deep voice of Saeroan.

“And what is this quest that I was attacked for? Perhaps I should leave you alone here and let you try to find the center of the forest on your own?” The threatening words were left to silence once more. I was not about to inflict more pain on myself without knowing what it was that I was doing it for. I was not an idiot.

“We should tell her,” Nishade pleaded, “she has more than proven her trust.”

“The less people who know of this the better; we cannot just tell everyone that we meet on the road,” Maren jumped in.

“No. Nishade is right. As our guide, she would have found out sooner or later and she has certainly proven her herself trustworthy. Talithi, we seek a cure, possibly for the same sickness that inflicted your family twelve years ago,” Saeoran’s voice made it sound like a worthy cause, but I laughed bitterly.

“My mother, Tikali,” there was an audible gasp from Maren, but I continued as if I had heard nothing,
“was an exceptional healer and she could do nothing, nor find anything that would aid the pack, until she too succumbed to the disease, and left me alone. There is no cure, not in this forest.”

“We have been sent here by prophesy that the cure would lie here in the heart of magic. Do not be so quick to judge,” Saeroan reprimanded.

“The heart of magic is not necessarily the heart of Taregath forest,” I shot back.

“Taregath forest is filled with the oldest of magics known to man. You do not know magic.”

I opened my mouth to reply, but his words stung too harshly. They sounded too similar to the words of mother when I had failed to see anything in the flames or move the twig. I hate to admit it, sister. But he does have a point. We do not know much of magic, much less the magic of the forest that we have lived in. There may be something here that could help with the sickness that Tikali simply did not know about.

But if there had, why couldn’t it have been found earlier? I asked him bitterly. It would have saved so many lives… “We’ll continue on in the morning when I have regained my full strength,” I told the group before moving off with Aiken to the edge of the camp. A cure.

The next two days through the forest proved to be thankfully boring with no interruptions by the anichols. They seemed to have retreated for the time being. I stopped about an hour from the heart for the rest of the group to catch up. I had gone scouting ahead again, but the paths had overgrown here, so I would have to lead their line instead of leave behind markers like I had been.

Anxiety pummeled me from all sides. It had been so long since I had last been to the den… in fact the last time was when I buried mother and the rest of the pack. All of my mother’s possessions were still inside the den, I had not dared to move them. Twelve long years. Maybe it was about time I faced the past and buried the dead in my heart as Aiken told me.