The Tail Tales - Chapter 6 - The Guardian

Through the rest of the night, Andy sat, holding Ael in his lap. At occasions during the night, he would put his ear next to her nose to check if she was still breathing. Her deep sleep showed no signs of breaking as the night wore on. Pitch black darkness was both an ally and an enemy. Strange noises and sounds of breathing carried through to Andy, noises of creatures shuffling about and then stopping perhaps when another predator came close by. He felt that he was going crazy with the riot of activity happening in an otherwise empty night. He had had enough excitement to last him for a lifetime and longed for the comfort of his mother’s hug and the warmth of the kitchen back at home.

But, this was not to be and he continued to sit there staring into the black inky pool around them, peering desperately for some sign of help. At long last, his frayed nerves gave him away and he slumped in a deep doze. Around him, the inky blackness began to slowly withdraw as if the night were slowly and stealthily withdrawing her blanket. An ashen gray sky lay underneath, sickly in hue and weepy in its outlook. The orange yellow sun was late in coming up and hid shyly behind the thick tapestry of clouds that framed the horizon. The leaden yellow day watched Andy doze with Ael in his lap, the little boy in a world that he did not at all understand and was not prepared for.  The clouds sighed in regret as their hearts were heavy with all the rain they were carrying. They drifted in low as the weight dragged them down and as they drifted lower and lower, they started crying their regret for the events that had passed before. The drops were just a few stray ones and fell at random.

One such droplet fell down below into the clearing where Ael lay on Andy’s lap. The drop spiraled down, grape sized and clear, seemingly headed straight for the two of them. A drift of breeze caught it and tried to swing it away but the drop was resolute and held steady to its course. It fell straight and true to catch onto Ael’s right eye lashes. The drop tangled for a moment in the lashes and then seeped through to form a pool in the corner of her eye. Suddenly, the pool was shaken violently as her eyes opened and her clear green pupils stared up at the sky. Her eyes looked confused and disoriented as she struggled to figure out where she was and what had happened. And then she happened to look to her left and saw Andy’s slumped form and the confusion gave way to concern. She rose; half sat up and tried to shake Andy awake. The first couple of times gave no result as Andy seemed to be completely dead to the world. Finally, the third time, she shook him a little hard and he woke up with a start, a violent look in his eyes as if he was expecting the worst. He looked around a little wildly and then at her, his eyes softening at seeing her awake. He did not say anything and just leaned forward and hugged her in relief.

He got to his feet, a little uncomfortable about the show of emotion and as she tried to follow, she found that her feet were still a little unsteady. She almost fell and then finally, balanced herself with a lot of effort, still very wobbly on her feet. Andy asked her to lean on his shoulder and they set off up the mound, away from the field of the deadly flowers. The drizzle continued, feeling strangely refreshing as the water washed them down. As Ael struggled forward and covered some distance, her legs became better until after about a kilometer, she was able to walk on her own. By then the drizzle had slowed down to just a few droplets and the sky had cleared up. The weak yellow sun now surveyed the land as if deciding what to do next. They had almost reached the pool where Andy had drunk the water the previous evening. Both of them were thirsty and drank and washed their faces in the clear cool water.  Andy realized that he was very hungry and thought of going to hunt for the berries again. He asked Ael to sit there by the pool and went deeper into the shrubs searching for the berries. With the sun behind his back, he still stepped cautiously forward, half expecting some large creature or beast to make an appearance from behind a shrub. His breath coming quickly, Andy found no signs of the shrubs that he had seen yesterday. He decided he must have taken the wrong direction and tried to retrace his path back to the pool, looking for signs of his passing and heading back using the sun as a guide.

Suddenly, a huge cloud seemed to come up over him and the sky darkened almost instantly. Andy thought there was going to be further rain and started running back towards the pool so that Ael and he could find shelter. There was a complete silence around for some reason, like the calm before a storm. An uneasy tingle started in his spine and Andy quickened his pace. As he did, a sudden whoosh sounded some distance above him. Andy immediately remembered the happenings of the previous night and almost froze in panic. It took him an enormous effort to lift his head to look up and then his worst nightmare came true. Yellow Eyes was peering down at him like he was a morsel that needed nibbling and was starting to swoop down to get a taste. Andy then did the only thing that came to him in his panic, he hid. He ducked behind a rather large shrub and curled himself into a tight little ball underneath it. He could still see Yellow Eyes through a few gaps in the leaves. Yellow Eyes had stopped mid air at his sudden disappearance and was now turning and dropping down to where he had last been. In a couple of seconds, the beast was on the ground, its massive legs settled down among the shrubs, trampling a few of them like grass under its feet. One of its feet landed close to Andy and its talon came to rest right at the shrub under which Andy hid.

The claw, though small in comparison with the rest of the creature’s body, was about half of Andy’s size. It was dirty brown in color and looked sharp enough to tear him into two with a flick. Andy was mesmerized by it and watched it intently as the claw tapped the ground and then dug grooves into it as the creature shifted its weight and stepped around, searching for him. He glanced up to see that the creature was now bending down, sniffing as if searching for a scent of him. He held his breath, sure now that it was only moments before he got a very close look at those curved teeth. Suddenly, he heard a high pitched girlish voice screaming “Heeeyyyyyy”. Not once but several times, as if calling the attention of the creature. The creature must have heard it too, because, it immediately swung its head up and looked for the source of the sound. Andy realized that Ael must have come out into the open and screamed to draw the creature away, thinking that he was in danger. He cursed her stupidity while his brain explained that she had obviously done it for him. The creature must have seen her for it began to move away, each step of its massive feet causing the ground to tremble and shake and its wings flapping and raising a large cloud of dust.

The dust was everywhere and Andy started choking in it, unable to even see anything. He could only hear the creature moving away, gather pace now. Ael must have still been some distance away but not too far as the creature chose to run on the ground and not take flight. Andy stepped out from the under the shrub and started running in the direction of the sounds knowing full well that he could never outrun the creature and that it would get to Ael far before he could. Somewhere in the middle of all of this, Ael had stopped screaming. Andy prayed that she had the good sense to hide herself, knowing that neither of them had a chance of any kind against this creature.

All of a sudden, Andy heard a different kind of noise, a curious buzz, almost as if it was a high pitched scream. The air seemed to vibrate with the sound which seemed very powerful though obviously not so loud. It almost seemed like the warning growl that a very large dog gives before it attacks. Andy glanced over his shoulder as he continued to run behind Yellow Eyes. And he caught sight of the creature that looked like the one that had saved them the previous night. Only, this one was much larger, almost as if it had grown to about two times its size in the night. Powerful wings pushed it forward as it was swooping down, aiming at a little distance ahead of Andy, roughly the spot where Yellow Eyes was. Andy could see now that Yellow Eyes had sensed the presence of the second creature and had stopped and turned around as if preparing for a fight, raising itself on its hind legs, forelegs pulled up for attack and tail on the ground, steadying itself. Whatever it had been preparing itself for, Yellow Eyes did not expect what happened next.

The black creature simply launched itself like a missile streaking towards Yellow Eyes, not trying to stop or descend to the ground. Yellow Eyes must have realized this late as it started to turn and run away. But by then, it was too late. The black creature had slammed into Yellow Eyes, the impact causing a shock wave that threw Andy back clear off the ground.  He fell and lay there in a daze, shaking his head. Sounds of the two creatures still rolling came to him and he got to his feet, taking cover behind a shrub, hardly realizing that it was of no use at all. He saw that the two creatures were locked in a fierce embrace, forelegs gripping the torso of the other, hind legs kicking and tearing at the other’s belly while the jaws snapped in attempts to bite off portions of the other’s body. Yellow Eyes was clearly the bigger of the two and was heavier as a result. But the black creature was definitely more powerful, its legs easily deflecting away the other’s attacks and then tearing away. Its jaws too began to find weak spots on Yellow Eyes.  As the two massive creatures rolled around on the ground, they flattened everything around like a bunch of twigs in a carpet of grass that they trod on. Suddenly, Yellow Eyes let out what sounded like a scream. Andy could see that the black creature had buried its fangs deep in Yellow Eyes neck and was now pulling and tearing away. Yellow Eyes now struggled grimly to dislodge the hold and threw itself around on the ground. Finally, the both of them landed on a set of trees and the impact loosened the black creature’s hold. At once, Yellow Eyes took flight, flapping its wings a little weakly and desperately pushing away from its attacker.

Andy expected the black creature to take flight and follow Yellow Eyes, to go and finish what had started. But the creature simply got up and shook itself off. It then sat there, like a massive statue carved out of some ancient black rock, except for the rise and fall of its chest as it breathed. Andy suddenly thought that it had sighted Ael and was now shifting its focus to the girl. He broke into a run, desperately thinking of any way in which he could fight the creature. As he got closer, he realized that the creature was simply looking at something close to its feet and not even glancing up at him. He stopped and yelled at it, waving his arms about, trying to attract its attention. He did manage to briefly distract it, for it looked up at him and then quickly looked back down at its feet. Andy was now sure that it had found Ael. He suddenly came into the clearing where the creature sat, all bushes and shrubs around flattened into a green carpet by the mammoths struggling. And he saw Ael lying down at the creature’s feet. He ran to her and tried to lift her and speak to her, only to realize that she was unconscious. There was no visible sign of any injury and Andy thought that she must have been hit by a branch or a shrub during the tussle.

Andy looked up and saw the creature simply looking down, its red black eyes not showing any signs of attack. He tried to pull Ael away from there but he was too weak after the entire struggle and could not move more than a few feet. He finally sank down to the ground, holding Ael and almost sobbed in frustration. At that instant, the creature moved forward and grabbed hold of them. Andy screamed as he felt the powerful claws go around him and Ael, thinking that this was it and that they were going to be crushed. But the claws simply held them like a cage, not squeezing but holding. The creature then simply pushed itself off into the air with its powerful hind legs. One flap of its mighty wings and it was airborne, high above the ground. Andy felt the wind rushing past him as the creature simply glided through the air, only flapping its wings occasionally. A few seconds later, he realized that they were descending. And could see a pool of water far below on the ground. It looked like the pool where they had drunk earlier. The creature descended swiftly and once on the ground, simply set Andy and Ael down on a patch of grass. It then sat back and once again watched them motionlessly.

Andy realized that the creature had brought them to water thinking they would need some. It seemed to be helping them in some way though Andy could not think of any reasons why.  A flood of thoughts ran through his head, starting from the earlier episodes of the stone and how it had always shielded them or protected them. How he had imagined seeing a tail inside it. And how, during the previous night and just then, the creature had fought off Yellow Eyes. As he struggled to understand what had happened, he realized that in this hostile and unknown land they were in, they now seemed to have a guardian of sorts though by the looks of it, the guardian could well change its mind and snack on them in a minute. The sheer relief of having someone on his side was too much for Andy and he just sank his head to the ground weakly. An instant later, he felt a warm moist breeze pass over him and looked up to see the creature breathing down on him, close above, as if enquiring whether he was OK. The rows of sharp curving fangs stretched backwards just a few feet away from his face. But they oddly did not seem threatening or scary any more.

Andy stood up and walked down to the pool of water, gathered some in his cupped hands and walked back to Ael. He splashed some on her face and as she sputtered awake, her eyes filled with alarm at the sight of the creature that loomed over them. Andy then reassured her of the creature’s intentions and proceeded to brief her on the sequence of events thus far and more importantly, share with her the fact that they now had a guardian. The creature was certainly no angel but for now, that seemed far less important. As Ael stared at the creature, still not believing anything that Andy had said, the creature simply extended its fore leg with its claws. The claws now stood inches away from them. Andy grabbed hold of a claw and on seeing him; Ael reluctantly took hold of one too. The creature then simply folded its claws, back to the cage hold that had brought them there. It then simply pushed up in the air again and in seconds, they were soaring high up in the air, the ground rushing past them. The creature continued to soar and Andy saw that it was heading for a mountain like land formation up ahead. For a moment, he felt uneasy at the memory of having escaped from one such mountain with a cave where he had nearly been cooked to death. Then, shrugging the memory off, he simply closed his eyes, letting the wind brush off all his unpleasant memories and clear up his brain.