Marked for Eradication

by Leona Rigger

Biography and
Bibliography

part 2 of 4

Allunai woke the next morning, grateful she’d survived the night, and saw Showa sitting nearby.

“Hurry, lazy!” the Jerinn said.

“All right, all right,” Allunai grumbled and rolled to her feet, scooping up her pack and blanket.

Showa followed but cried out.

Allunai shook her head at Showa’s ignorance. “You can’t walk on your own. You need help.”

“I fine,” Showa claimed and limped to Allunai. “I make it.”

“Do you have any reason?”

The Jerinn opened her mouth wide and let out a shrill cry. Allunai threw her hands over her ears, the wailing beating her head.

After what seemed like several minutes, the yell stopped. Allunai waited until the ringing in her ears faded. “What’s the matter with you!”

“I not need help!” Showa said.

Chest tightening in fear, Allunai scanned their surroundings. Did Wonus hear that? “Why did you scream like that? The Regal Guards might have heard you!”

“I doubt. Humans very deaf.”

“We have to move.”

Showa hobbled and fell. “I need help,” she growled.

Allunai supported Showa by the arm as they traveled through the morning, taking few rests.

“Stop,” Showa ordered. “I heared something.”

Face streaked with sweat, Allunai halted and released Showa. “What?”

The Jerinn looked up, ears alert. “Something come. I cannot tell what. It huge.”

Allunai gazed up the mountain’s slope and spotted a large dot near the summit. Wonus’s found us! “We have to run!” She seized Showa’s arm and hurried east.

“You not know what it,” Showa said, hopping on her right leg. “Plant eater?”

“That’s no gentle plant eater.”

As the dot descended the mountain, Allunai could make out more of their pursuer. A segmented creature five horses long ran on ten needle legs. Two scorpion claws half the size of carriages swiped away any small tree unlucky enough to get in its way. Acorn shaped eyes set in a hammer-like head glowered at them.

Allunai gave up trying to drag Showa and hoisted the Jerinn onto her shoulders. Showa growled. “This isn’t the time to be worrying about your pride.”

Soreness and numbness soon swept through Allunai’s legs. The combined weight of her pack and Showa strained her back. Her focus clouded by exhaustion and pain, Allunai tripped.

With Wonus only yards away, Allunai extended her consciousness beyond her mind and seized the air around his head, yanking it away. Wonus halted and thrashed his head in multiple directions, but Allunai kept the vacuum on him. She picked Showa up and carried her several paces away. He clawed at the vacuum, but his claws passed ineffectively through it.

“Why you stand there?” Showa said. “Run!”

“I must be near him to choke him,” Allunai said. Her temples pounded as she concentrated.

Wonus’s legs shook and caved, and he landed with a thud.

“Keep up!” Showa ordered. “He almost dead.”

The ache was too much for Allunai. Her thoughts let go of the air that surrounded Wonus and rushed back into her head. She staggered back.

“Why stop?” the Jerinn snapped. “He alive!”

Allunai rubbed her forehead. “Sorry. I can’t do it for long.”

“I kill him.” Showa slid off Allunai’s back and crawled, holding her left leg up, toward Wonus who breathed heavily.

“Stop!” Allunai said. “You can’t risk it in your condition.”

“Choke again!” the Jerinn commanded. “I get him.”

“I can’t,” Allunai called. “My head hurts too much.”

“While he weak!”

“I said I can’t!”

One of Wonus’s legs rose into the air and came down near Showa. She turned and hobbled away as legs reached and sliced the ground.

“Weak!” the Jerinn barked. Allunai grabbed Showa’s arm and headed east. They came to an area populated with pines.

Allunai stopped, huffing. “We’ll hide in these trees.”

“He find us,” Showa said.

“We’ve got to. I’m too tired to go on.” Allunai started up a thick evergreen.

“Humans weak.” Showa followed Allunai. “I go all day if my legs okay.”

They ascended the tree until the branches creaked threateningly. Allunai huddled against the trunk while Showa pulled herself to the end of a branch and examined every stretch of the mountain. Surprisingly Wonus didn’t appear.

“How long we here?” Showa said.

Looking at the sun, Allunai guessed they’d been hiding for three hours. “It’s been long enough. I guess we can get down.” They climbed down from the pine.

“If you not wimp, I got him,” Showa claimed.

“I doubt you have enough venom to kill him.”

“What that thing? I not know thing that big here.”

Allunai took a deep breath. “That was Wonus.”

“Many Wonuses here?”

“There’s no species of Wonus. There’s only one Wonus.”

Showa tilted her head. “Last of kind?”

“No, Wonus was created by the Lon priests a long time ago.”

The Jerinn’s jaw dropped. “Humans maked awful thing! You idiots. You maked something too powerful for you control.”

“He’s loose because the Lon priests are dead.”

“’Lon priest’ mean stupid human?”

“They were the representatives of the gods.”

“Why they make beast?” Showa asked, scratching her wound.

“Do you know what reincarnation is?” Allunai looked at the ground.

“Yes, something humans maked up. Why?”

“You don’t believe in reincarnation! How can you not believe? The gods told us about reincarnation. If you don’t believe them, they’ll strike you.”

Showa’s tail lashed the ground. “I not believe in you gods. Funny how many lies humans believe. What Wonus do with fake gods and reincarnation?”

“Well, everyone’s reincarnated even evil people,” Allunai said. “The Lon priests realized they could stop sinful people from being reborn if they destroyed their souls, so that’s why they made Wonus. He eats wicked people and destroys their souls, so they can’t be reincarnated. Criminals were brought to him, and he’d kill them. The Jabu nation attacked and killed the Lon priests, but Wonus escaped.”

“Now crazy monster loose,” Showa said.

“Actually, he’s not a wild, lunatic monster. The strange thing is he still goes after criminals, even though the Lon priests are gone. He leaves innocent people alone.”

Showa eyed Allunai. “You criminal. What you do?”

Allunai realized she’d said a little too much. She made a mental note to watch her tongue from now on. “I’m not a criminal.”

“Wonus hunt criminals. You afraid when you seed him. I never seed human with face marks like you. My guess humans write crimes on guilties’ faces and kick out in forest. Wonus see marks and know he need kill you. I cannot read. What crime?”

Allunai stared at Showa for a moment, bewildered how quickly the Jerinn had figured her out. “I was framed. I didn’t do anything. I used to work for a man named Ulin who breeds and sells horses. He always tried to get me to sleep with him whenever his wife went on her exotic trips. I always refused, but he never stopped. A few weeks ago, he came into the stables and grabbed me, but I used my power on him. His wife came in and saw him on the ground, coughing. He claimed I was a witch and had tried to seduce him. He said I’d used my magic to overpower him and tried to suffocate him when he said no. Everyone thinks he’s an honest man, so they believed him. I was convicted of being a whore and a witch. They tattooed me with these markings and threw me out.” Allunai rubbed the carvings on her face.

“He chase me because you!” the Jerinn growled. “Armor humans after me. I not need monster!” Drops of red venom emerged from the tips of Showa’s claws.

“Wonus’s going to hunt you whether I’m with you or not,” Allunai said. “The Lon priests thought Jerinns are evil too, so Wonus was ordered to kill them as well. He found us because of your call.”

The Jerinn snarled. “All humans I might meet it you!”

“As long as you don’t howl, we’ll be safe.”

“Sins on you face. Other humans hate you? They help?”

Allunai shook her head. “No, Wonus will kill anyone who helps criminals. Anyone I come across will run from me.”

Showa flicked the venom off her claws. “Good, that mean you not turn me in.”

“You don’t need to worry. Doing that won’t do me any good. The only thing I can do is go to the coast. There are cliffs to the south that are really rocky and steep, so Wonus shouldn’t be able to climb them. I’ll be safe there.”

They journeyed southeast and came to a wide river, filled with rapids and rocks, coursing from north to south. No part was smooth and calm.

“Not even Jerinn swim this,” Showa said. “We great swimmers. Bridge nearby?”

“All the bridges across this river are in towns,” Allunai replied.

“Where nearest?”

Allunai laughed. “We can’t just walk into a town, remember? I’ve been banished, and you’re a Jerinn.”

“Cross at night?”

“That won’t work. The towns have walls around them, and guards are on the walls all the time.”

“Wonus not look he swim good. Get across river give us time. What about you power? You use it?”

Allunai raised her eyebrows. “What are you talking about?”

“You move air. Move water?”

“No, only air.”

“You tried?”

“No.”

“Try. Maybe move water.”

Allunai stepped into the water, and fingers of consciousness stretched into the foamy water. She pushed against it, struck by how heavy it was. There were thousands of more particles in water than air. For a few minutes the water gushed by unaffected by her efforts. She doubled her struggle, and a depression formed at her feet as if a large animal was blowing fiercely at the water. Feeling two invisible thumbs pressing hard on her temples, Allunai let go of the water, and it reclaimed her feet.

“You move it!” Showa’s tail whipped the dirt. “We not have go near filthy town.”

“Wait, that was hard. I could only move it for a few seconds. That’s not nearly enough time to get across.”

“That first try. Again and try harder.”

Allunai scowled at the Jerinn. Wish you had this power, so you could see how hard it is. She spent the next few hours pushing the water, but most of that time was spent resting because her head kept threatening to split in half. With each try, she was able to lengthen the time she could displace it.

“It sunset,” Showa said. “You good cross river?”

“I can only hold it for a couple of minutes,” Allunai said, massaging her aching forehead.

Showa looked around. “We cannot stay here.”

“I know, I know.” Allunai turned to the unruly river. “I should be able to hold the water long enough to get from rock to rock.”

“Let us cross now.” Showa climbed onto Allunai’s back.

“What are you doing?”

“If humans leaved me alone, I walk on my own,” Showa snapped.

Allunai narrowed her eyes at Showa and dipped her legs into the water. She banished it from her feet and walked carefully across the pebbled bottom. As the water level deepened, she had to send out more thoughts to push back the additional water.

To make matters worse, the swift current hammered against her consciousness. Her head throbbed, and she wondered if it would hurt this much or more to have her head crushed by one of Wonus’s claws.

Every once in a while a jet of icy water pierced through a weakness in her hold on the water and drenched her. Showa always attempted to position herself to take the worse of the soakings, but Allunai knew the Jerinn wasn’t doing it to protect her. Showa obviously longed for the ocean.

They finally came to the first boulder and climbed on. Once the pain in Allunai’s head subsided to a bearable level, they proceeded to the next rock. Eventually they arrived at the opposite side.

Allunai fell to her knees, trembling from the frigid water, head pulsing, vision muddled. “I’m never going to move water ever again.”

“Amaze,” Showa said. “You not kill us. Which way?”

“Hold on. I’m dizzy. I need a few minutes.”

“We must move. We cannot let Wonus see us across river. Hope he think not possible for us cross.”

Allunai attempted to stand, but her nausea yanked her back to the ground. “I definitely need to rest.”

“Weak.”

Allunai thought of various names she wanted to call Showa but decided to stay quiet given the fact she couldn’t walk at the moment. “There’s a town I want to go to. There’s a man there I know called Nakkin. If I can talk to him, maybe I can convince him to let us borrow a horse or mule. Wonus would have a harder time getting us.”

Showa’s ears flicked back, and her four nostrils flared. “You not allowed in towns.”

“Nakkin’s home is on the outskirts of the town, and there’s a forest right behind it. We should be able to get to it without any problem.”

“We fine without,” Showa growled. “I not want go near diseased humans.”

“We need an animal. We need to keep a good pace if we’re to stay ahead of Wonus, and with your legs that’s hard to do. Just hide in the forest while I go talk to Nakkin.”

To be continued...