Chapter 12
Trees - Brina
“Brina, we know how close you were to Klala. You can return to your home now if it is too difficult for you to stay. Tonight will be a long one.” Garwin said gently.
I took a deep breath and replied, “No, it is my duty to remain, out of respect for Klala.”
Others were assigned to come back after us and transport the bodies of the lion and the dead men, but first it was our duty as a troop to go back for Klala. I closed my eyes, breathed deeply, and exhaled to try to calm myself. As a visual thinker, I knew that I would never be able to erase the picture in my mind of Klala falling. Although it happened in an instant, I saw it replayed in slow motion, over and over. I wanted to swoop down and save her. I could still see the lion as he leapt into the air. Why didn’t any of us shoot the beast before he snapped her neck?
Now my troop waited in silence, listening for the call which would let us know that it was safe to glide to the ground and retrieve the body. I have no idea how long we remained in the troop tree before the call went out. The events of the night seemed to have gone in unreal spurts of action: some parts seeming to speed up; some to go in slow motion. Crouching there in silence, it felt like an eternity passed. The only comfort I felt was having the rest of my troop close by. We all knew that it could have been any one of us that had fallen, but it had not been our time. Still, why did it have to be Klala?
Nobody said a word. I felt numb. I wanted to go back to my home, awaken in my hammock, and find out that this was just a daymare. I thought of the captured man. He had not killed Klala. He was not even there when she died, but I hated him. Remembering that the captured man had wanted to fetch Klala’s body to feed it to the lions, I shuddered and hated him even more. The lions must have acquired a taste for Gliders’ flesh by the barbarians feeding our bodies to their pets.
“Woaoawooao!” the bird-like whistle of safety rang out. That meant that we were free to go to the ground. It was still dangerous, because the lions might come back or wild, free-roaming lions in the area might be attracted by the blood. So we would need to hurry.
Garwin was a skilled archer and a kind man, but it would probably not go well for him in the council that night. He leapt from the tree and glided gently toward the ground. The rest of us remained in the tree to guard him. I readied an arrow on my bow and listened. I was glad that this duty called for me to be watchful of the surrounding area, since that way I did not have to look directly at Klala’s body. I had seen the lion bite the back of her neck, close to her skull, and knew it would have broken her neck. Garwin landed on the ground near the dead lion and Klala. He cautiously walked toward their bodies while we covered him.
Suddenly, he stopped in his tracks and held up a hand. Then he motioned for Barque and Taber to join him. I was really getting nervous. Every sound, every movement in the trees, made me almost jump. I was so scared that the lions would return or that the lion on the ground might not be completely dead. The creature was huge. Now that I saw Garwin, one of our taller villagers, next to the lion, I realized just how humongous it was. One swipe from his paw could kill a man. Garwin reached the lion, watched carefully for its breath for a moment, and then finally touched it on the neck, looking for a pulse. Apparently there was no pulse, because next moment Barque and Taber helped him to move one of the lion’s paws off of Klala’s body. I looked away, still searching and listening for anything amiss in the forest that might signal danger.
The next thing I knew, Garwin had signaled for Sabra to drop the pod on the vine from our troop tree. Garwin gently lifted Klala’s body into the pod, secured it closed with another portion of a vine, and the pod was lifted into the air. Barque retrieved Klala’s bow from where it lay on the ground. Garwin, Barque, and Taber scrambled back up our troop tree to safety. Finally I could breathe. Silently, Barque handed Klala’s bow to me. Garwin would want several members of the troop to remain at our troop tree to stand guard, in case the lions came back. But my place was with Klala’s death pod. I would accompany it to her family’s tree and return her bow to them.