Skytrails

11-Changes

Krii and Tinsu made their way along the well worn paths of the forest toward Sharn and his family, the new temple, and the god of the sky who had come to walk the ground.

It had not been easy getting away, but if there was anything Krii knew how to do, it was how to leave. He told his adopted mother and sister he would return soon, and he meant that. He told them he needed to see Sharn, needed to see what was going on with his own eyes. He meant that too. He said next time he would stay much longer, as long as he could. He had not really meant that.

Tinsu scampered along, sometimes ranging ahead, sometimes falling behind, sometimes stalking off into the forest on one side or the other of the path, chasing some foreign smell. Rather than call him little j'n, Krii had decided to give the j'nchaya a name. Tinsu meant a constant drip in his native tongue, both a source of annoyance and a source of life. The little animal had earned the former meaning of the name. Krii was curious to find out if it would earn the latter.

The two of them plodded along the trail to Minkaera country. If they had been out of the forest, they would already have been in it. The Minkaera seemed to fear the forest. Wherever they settled, they cleared the trees to build their houses and fuel their fires and make room for their farms. Then there would be a separation. Settled land. Forest. That was how they seemed to like things. Separated.

Krii's own people owned to similar tendencies. They had domesticated their mountains and were afraid of the outside world. They allowed very little wildness inside their city. Only what they needed for food, for medicine, for decoration, for building with. And ever only what could be made to survive underground. Including the people.

Krii stopped at a stream where it cut across the trail. Tinsu drank. Krii drank too, then filled his water skin. He found a soft place beside the road, not many leaves, not too damp, and laid down. The water gurgled past. The tops of the trees swayed high overhead. A few leaves broke free of the canopy and showered down, drawing lazy circles through dappled sunlight. He felt a warm bag of guts and bones nuzzle in against his left side.

When next he opened his eyes, the sunlight filtered through the trees in different lines. He had fallen asleep. An hour, maybe two. He had not expected to sleep so easily. His side felt cold. He looked over and saw Tinsu sitting motionless, head cocked to one side, staring up the path, the direction they were heading.

Krii sat up and turned to look where Tinsu was looking, expecting to find a vinlii, or something else they might be able to catch and cook for their meal that night. He saw instead a cluster of people walking the path toward them. The group was still far off, maybe fifteen minutes til they reached Krii, but if he could see them, then they would be able to see him.

He slowly laid back down, then rolled over onto his stomach. Moving only his hands, he grabbed the cloak and rolled it up, then crawled on knees and elbows into the thick vegetation beside the path.

Careful not to disturb the leaves and fronds above him, Krii edged himself around to face the path. Tinsu still sat where he had, turning his head back and forth between Krii and the approaching group. Krii beckoned the animal to get off the path. Whoever the travelers were, they would be all too happy take home a hapless little j'n steak to add to their dinner.

Finally, with slow deliberate movements, Tinsu lifted himself off his hindquarters and meandered into the brush toward Krii. He extended his long tongue and licked Krii from chin to forehead, then turned and plopped down in front of him, between Krii and the road.

"You ridiculous animal," Krii whispered. He wrapped his arms around the j'n and swept it sideways into the brush next to him.

As the walkers came closer, Krii counted nine of them. Covered head to toe in loose fitting cloth, except where it was banded tight around forearms and hands, lower legs and feet. Lin'n Draali. His people.