Hey all! Things are beginning to happen now as we meet some new people. Enjoy this week's update inspired by the prompt: Wonder of Wonders
Part 38
He was bedraggled and dirty. And very hungry. Good thing I’d brought a large bag of cured meat, cheese, and a thick roll of bread. I figured, if he grew up in a city, he’d probably miss fresh break. It smelled amazing. Teddy’s stomach growled, and I pulled out a sandwich I’d made up for him from the supplies I’d filched from the kitchen after the servants had gone to bed.
Wildman licked his fingers and stuck them in bag, picking up
crumbs and sucking them off his fingers. I winced; his nails were broken and
black, and I could only imagine where they’d been. “Good,” he grunted.
In a move I didn’t expect, he popped up and jumped for a
branch of a tree just outside the tunnel opening. “Wait!” I stood up, startled
he could move that fast after stuffing himself. We hadn’t even had a chance to
ask him for help.
He dropped back down, holding something. “Bad.” He shoved it
at me. The leaf wrapped, muddy bundle proved to be the tiny lantern we’d left
with the signal. It was still glowing under the muck.
“Sorry, but we needed to talk to you.”
Squatting down, he cocked his head. “Talk.”
I didn’t want to loom over him, so I sat back down next to
Teddy. I wasn’t sure if that was a question or a demand I hurry up and speak.
“We need help. There’s a bad man in the city hurting people. People like us”—I
waved a hand between me and Teddy and then gestured toward him—“and like you.
It’s not right.”
He didn’t say anything.
“A guard who works for Anna… remember her?” I pointed toward
the abandoned city we’d found. “That guard said you were part of a group of
boys who lived in the wild, and that they’d been capturing you and making you
stay in the city. The others stayed, but you didn’t. You went back to the
jungle, alone.”
Wildman shrugged a shoulder, but he nervously avoided eye
contact.
“See, I think you didn’t stay because you aren’t alone out
here. I think there are more like you. You can speak because someone taught you.
I call you Wildman, but you’re not feral like you’d be if you were all alone
all the time. No one could stand that, much less out here, where it’s so
dangerous. You try to escape because you have someone to go back to. Someone
they don’t know about, and maybe more than one person.”
The longer I spoke, the more agitated Wildman got. He’d
narrowed his eyes and was staring at me, a snarl curling up his lips.
“Hey,” Teddy said softly. “Don’t worry. We’re not going to
hurt you or them. We don’t want anyone to be hurt, that’s why we’re asking for
help. The king, he plans to take our abilities and use them to control all the
people in the city. To take away their choices, like how Anna tried to take
away yours. We just want to know if they have any information, if they know
something that could help us. We need you.”
Teddy’s calm pleading went a long way into easing Wildman
away from the edge. He stopped sneering, but he wasn’t really talking either to
us either. “You said it before. City bad. We agree, but we can’t just leave. We
have to do something to help everyone.”
Wildman picked at a rock embedded in the dirt at his feet,
not looking up at us. Finally he stood, and I stood with him.
“No! You stay.” He practically hissed the words before he
was up in the tree again and gone before I could track which direction he went
in.
“Do you think he’s going to get someone who will help us, or
he’s just leaving and doesn’t want us to follow him?” I asked Teddy.
Teddy shrugged and then winced. “I don’t know. I suppose we
just have to wait to find out.”
How long was that going to take? We were running out of
time.
“Wonder of wonders.” The sun was rising above the trees
already. I had no idea how we’d explain our absence to my parents, but I’d
figure it out. I’d started to lose hope, but Wildman dropped to the ground in
front of us with a soft thump.
He wasn’t alone.
“You wanted to talk to me?” Wildman’s friend wasn’t dressed
any better; his close were ragged and dirty, but his face and hands were clean.
And he could actually speak in sentences.
I stood up and held out my hand. “We did. My name is Will,
and this is Teddy.”
“John.” He eyed my hand, and I slowly let it drop. “What do
you want?”
“Your help. Did Wildman tell you anything?”
“Wildman?” John eyed him where he crouched next to Teddy,
scarfing on the little bit of food we had left. “That fits, but he doesn’t
really share much.”
“I bet.”
“You’re clearly from the city. We don’t want anything to do
with them. We left for a reason. If you’re smart, you’d never go back.”
I shook my head. “I can’t do that. My family let me believe
I was something special when all I really meant to them was a source of cash.
If I just leave, they’ll find someone else to hurt.”
He shrugged. “Their problem.”
“Really? You care that little about someone else being
stripped of their abilities you’ll just leave them to be mentally raped?”
“I’ve lived it. I can’t go back there, and I have
responsibilities to take care of my people.”
“Damn it!” I snapped. “That’s what they say in the city too.
It’s all about salvaging the shreds of humanity people have left after the king
uses them up. Why can’t any of you see that we have to stop it before it
happens to anyone else!”
TBCDo you think they'll help Teddy and Will? Okay, on to more flash! And make sure you swing by the blog of Mann Rambling's as he pops his flash cherry!
Briefers Website
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please feel free to comment about my stories or blog. Flamers will be laughed at!