Black Water tpa-5 Read online

  “Can you talk?” the cat asked. “Or are you just a dumb gar?”

  As you know, one of the bizarro perks of being a Traveler is that for some reason we’re able to understand the various languages spoken on different territories. But as far as I knew, it didn’t work with animals. If it did, there’d be a whole annoying Doctor Dolittle thing going on and we’d be able to understand conversations had by every crawling, swimming and flying creature we ran in to. But we couldn’t do that. No way. That meant this cat could really talk.

  “I–I’m Pendragon,” I said softly.

  “Then it’s true!” the cat exclaimed. “Unbelievable!”

  I took one more step intoThe Twilight Zonewhen the big cat stood up on its back legs and walked like a human! It must have been around my size, just under six feet. I saw that it too wore some kind of crude clothing. It was a simple, brown tunic that fit snugly to his body, but his outfit was in much better shape than my rags. The garment had no buckles or snaps or buttons. It looked to have been form fitted to his body.

  “Sorry for sneaking up on you like that,” the cat said. “But you can’t be too careful with gars. Especially the ones that hang around here. The quigs, I mean.”

  I figured I had totally snapped. This talking cat knew about quigs! It held out its paw as if to help me up. Or maybe I should call it a hand. It looked to be a cross between a human hand and a big cat paw. It had a thumb like a human’s, but was covered with fur and had some vicious-looking claws.

  “My name’s Boon,” he said. “Welcome to Eelong.”

  His voice sounded as normal as mine. There was no hint that it was coming out of a nonhuman mouth. I looked up at his cat face and realized that maybe he wasn’t a typical cat after all. Sure, his face and head and ears were definitely catlike, but his snout wasn’t as pronounced as a regular cat’s. His mouth was a bit smaller too. But he was covered with fur, and his arms were too long for a human, and he had knees that bent at an odd angle. You know that dumb Broadway musical where everybody dressed in tights and cat makeup and ran around singing about how swell it was to be a cat? Well, forget that. This wasn’t anything like that. This was no costume. This guy was definitely a cat, but with some human traits…not the least of which was talking.

  “It’s okay,” he assured me. “I won’t bite.”

  I tentatively reached up and took his hand. Or his paw. Or whatever. It felt like I was grabbing on to somebody wearing a furry glove, with rough pads in the palm. He was strong, too. And the claws that grazed the back of my hand were sharp. Note to self: Don’t mess with the cat.

  “I don’t mean to stare,” Boon said. “But I’m not used to talking with a gar. This is very strange.”

  Strange? Tell me about it.

  “What’s a gar?” I asked tentatively.

  “You know. A gar. Like you. Two legs, no fur, no teeth, fairly useless. Seegen said you’d be a gar, but I didn’t believe it until, well, until I saw you. We have to do something about the smell, though.”

  “Sorry,” I said. “These clothes reek.”

  “Not the clothes, you!” Boon said sniffing. “Gars all have the same smell, like rotten fruit. No offense.”

  “I’m losing my mind,” I muttered. Then I asked, “How can you talk? Did humans teach you? I mean, did the gars teach you?”

  Boon laughed. He actually laughed. I’d never heard a cat laugh. It was raspy, and trailed off with a croaking growl.

  “A gar teach a klee to talk? That’s funny. You’re a funny one. I heard that about you.”

  My head was spinning. “Okay, I’m a gar, and you’re a klee. Who’s in charge here? I mean, are there other klees like you who can talk?”

  Boon laughed again and patted me on the back like an old pal. It nearly knocked me over. He had a lot of energy and seemed like he was actually having fun. I had no idea how old he was, but it was beginning to feel like he was a young guy, around my age. At least I think he was a guy. I wasn’t about to ask him for a peek between his legs.

  “I hate to tell you this, Pendragon.” He chuckled. “But things are a little different on Eelong. C’mon, I’ll show you.”

  He walked to the far side of the tree room. I didn’t move. I couldn’t get my head around the fact that I was watching a six-foot-tall cat wearing clothes walk around on two legs. It was then that I noticed the one thing that kept Boon from truly looking like a regular old Second Earth mountain lion: He didn’t have a tail. I supposed it could have been curled up inside his tunic, but I didn’t think so. He glanced back to see I wasn’t following.

  “You’re kind of stunned. I am too.” He looked around at the cavern, then continued, “We don’t normally come here to the gate. It’s the quigs. Nasty bunch of little gars. We can usually handle them with no problem, but if they gang up on you…ouch. That’s why I brought my buddy with me. He doesn’t know about them being quigs, though. He just likes hunting wild gars.”

  I was getting nervous about this talking cat knowing so much about the Traveler biz, so I asked, “Are you a Traveler?”

  “Me? Nah. Seegen is the Traveler from Eelong. I’m an acolyte. Actually, I’m not an acolyte yet, officially, but I will be someday. Seegen’s told me everything, though. You like the clothes I picked out?”

  “They stink.”

  “Right, you said that. Like I was saying, we don’t normally come here. It’s a long way from the city, but that’s a good thing. Don’t want anybody finding the flume, do we?”

  The guy spoke fast, like he was excited. Or nervous. Whatever. “Seegen asked me to watch the flume in case the lead Traveler arrived. I couldn’t believe it when he told me you were a gar, too. Just like the other Traveler who showed up and-“

  “Gunny!” I jumped in. “Are you talking about Gunny?”

  “Yes, Seegen said his name was Gunny.”

  “Yeah!” I exclaimed. “Where is he? Is he all right?”

  “I don’t know,” Boon answered. “Seegen wouldn’t tell me. One thing is for sure, though; I’ve never seen him in Leeandra.”

  “Leeandra? What’s a Leeandra?” I asked.

  “It’s my home,” he answered. “Seegen lives there too. We should go see him now.”

  “Absolutely,” I agreed.

  “Good!” Boon exclaimed happily. “This is going to be a great adventure!”

  One of us was having a good time. It wasn’t me.

  “We’ve a long way to go,” he explained. “You’ll need another shoe.”

  Right. I had lost my “shoe” to the lizard thingy. Boon walked to the side of the tree room to a pile of dead vines. He lifted them up to reveal another pile of rag clothing.

  “I keep my gar clothes here,” he explained. “Going down there to the flume is kind of creepy.”

  I knew what he meant. Piles of bones will do that. Boon dug through the clothes and found another raggy shoe. It was amazing how he had the physical dexterity of a human. He tossed the shoe to me, saying, “Is this what you wear on your home territory?”

  It was my turn to laugh. “Not even close,” I chuckled. “So far there isn’t a whole lot here that is like Second Earth.”

  Boon looked totally stunned. “Really?”

  “Oh yeah,” I answered while tying on the shoe. “What you call klees, we call cats. Some are big and wild, but most are small and gars keep them as pets.”

  I saw a frown cross Boon’s face. Uh-oh. Maybe I shouldn’t have told him that.

  “You keep klees as pets?” he asked, incredulous.

  “Not me, no,” I was quick to answer, trying to do damage control. “But some people. A couple people. Not many, really. It’s very rare.” Yikes.

  Boon walked toward me, and I once again realized that he was a dangerous predator. I was about to say something like, “Whoa, remember, I’m the lead Traveler!” But I didn’t want to be lame. Instead I stood up and tried to act like the lead Traveler.

  “Your ring,” he said.

  I looked down at my Trave
ler ring. It was the one item that was allowed to be brought between territories. “What about it?” I asked.

  “Hide it,” Boon said. “If somebody sees you wearing a ring, they’ll know something is wrong. Thebestthing they’ll do is take it from you.”

  “Really?” I asked. “What’s theworstthing they’ll do?”

  “Eat you” was his sober answer. Gulp. I quickly took off my ring. “Can I see it?” Boon asked.

  I reluctantly handed it over to him. Boon took the ring and admired it like it was a priceless jewel.

  “Incredible,” he said with awe. “Someday I’ll have one too.”

  I took the ring back and tied it around my neck with one of the braided vines that I used to lash on my stinky clothing.

  “You should take me to Seegen now,” I said with authority.

  Boon looked at me with cold eyes. Had I pushed too far? Obviously, he wasn’t used to being told what to do by a gar. We held eye contact for a moment longer, then Boon broke out in a big smile.

  “This is going to be fun!” he exclaimed, and hurried off.

  Fun? I can think of a lot of words to describe my first few minutes on Eelong. “Fun” wasn’t one of them. But that didn’t matter. I was here to find Gunny…and stop Saint Dane. Fun wasn’t part of the equation. So I hitched up my shoes, hid my ring around my neck, and jogged after the walking, talking cat that was going to bring me to a place called Leeandra and the Traveler from Eelong.

  JOURNAL #16

  (CONTINUED)

  EELONG

  Eelongis a strange and wonderful place. Strange because oftheway evolution took such a different turnfromon Second Earth… or any of the other territories I’d been to, for that matter. Wonderful because it’s totally beautiful. Not since I first swam through the underwater world of Cloral had I been to a place where you could use the word “paradise” to describe it. I think this territory is about as close as it gets. But Eelong is one other thing. Dangerous. Strange, wonderful, and dangerous. That pretty much summed up my opinion.

  Boon led me to the far side of the massive room inside the hollow tree and pointed up to a ledge that led to a hole in the wall. It must have been a hundred feet up.

  “That’s the tunnel we’ve got to take out of here,” he said.

  “You’re kidding?” I answered. “It’ll take me an hour to climb those vines.”

  Boon shook his head in pity. “How can gars on your territory be superior to klees if they can’t even climb?”

  “We have an agreement with cats,” I answered. “They don’t ask ustoclimb things andwedon’t ask themto doalgebra.”

  Boon had no idea what I meant. But he shrugged and said, “No problem. We’ll take the gar way up.” He walked along the wall of the cavern until he came upon another tunnel into the tree, at ground level. “Follow me,” he said, and disappeared into the opening. I stepped into the opening to find myself in the dark.

  “Boon?” I called out.

  Boon’s head suddenly appeared from above, upside down, right in front of my face. I jumped back in surprise and saw he was hanging from his back feet, or paws.

  “Climb the roots,” he instructed. “It should be easy.”

  I looked up to see he was hanging from a dense tangle of thick roots that created a tunnel going straight up. “Why do we have to climb?” I protested. “Can’t we just go outside and walk to Leeandra?”

  “We could,” Boon answered. “If you don’t mind running into a tang.”

  Tang? The only “Tang” I knew was a fake orange drink that astronauts liked. “What’s a tang?” I asked.

  “Nasty creatures,” Boon answered. “Predators. They eat gars, mostly, but that’s because we klees are smart enough to keep to the trees. Tangs climb even worse than gars do.”

  “Are they green?” I asked. “With lots of teeth, and smell bad when they’re hungry?”

  “You know about ‘em?” he asked.

  “You might say that,” I answered. “I nearly got eaten by one.”

  “Then you know what I’m talking about,” Boon exclaimed. “That’s why we climb.”

  Boon hoisted himself up and climbed the root system. I figured that if the price of avoiding those lizard creatures outside was to climb a tree, that was okay by me. Boon was right; it was easy. It was like climbing the jungle gym in the playground at Glenville School.

  “What happens when we get up?” I called up to Boon. “Won’t we be stuck?” I thought about making a joke about dumb cats getting stuck up in trees and having to be rescued by the fire department, but I didn’t think Boon would get it.

  “Trust me,” he said. “I’ll get you where you need to go.”

  This was his show, so I stopped asking questions. Since he hadn’t eaten me yet, I had no reason to believe he meant me any harm. As strange as the whole situation was, I was beginning to feel that finding Boon was a good thing. And if he took me to Gunny, it would be an even better thing. We climbed quickly for about five minutes. When we reached the top, I hoisted myself out of the vertical tunnel and into another large, empty room. We were still inside the tree, but now high above the ground. The room was about a third of the size of the room at ground level. I could feel a slight swaying as theiuge tree moved in the wind. The floor was made of wood planks that looked old and weathered, like they had been there a long time. Leading outside were three big archways cut into the walls. I felt a warm breeze blowing through and saw blue sky beyond.

  “It’s a tree house,” I said. “Do people, uh, klees live here?”

  “I told you, nobody comes here much anymore,” Boon answered. “It’s too far from civilization. But somebody must have lived here at one time, and built this dwelling.”

  “So now what?” I asked.

  Boon walked for one of the archways. I followed him, but slowed before reaching the opening. I’m not good with heights. I expected to peer out of the archway and see a long drop to the ground. When I took a tentative peek outside, I was surprised to see that beyond the opening was a balcony about twenty feet wide. I took a cautious step outside and saw that it wrapped around the tree. The floor was made of the same wooden planks as inside. There was a handrail around the outside for safety. Better still was the view. I walked slowly toward the handrail and got another look at the incredible forest.

  Boon joined me and said, “Pretty, isn’t it?”

  “It’s awesome,” I replied. I meant it.

  “This is nothing,” Boon scoffed. “Wait until you see Leeandra.” He walked away from me as if he were actually going somewhere.

  “Where are you going?” I asked. “We’re in a tree!”

  “To Leeandra,” he shouted back without turning. “It’s a long way, let’s not waste any more time.”

  I followed him, but fully expected to circle this treetop balcony and end up right back where we started.

  We didn’t. After walking a few feet, I saw that there was a bridge leading off the balcony. It was about ten feet wide and held up by thick vines, like a suspension bridge. Boon stepped onto it like it was the most natural thing in the world, and kept walking. I, on the other hand, wasn’t so sure. I stood at the beginning of the bridge and peered over the handrail. It was a long way down. Alongway. The bridge seemed safe. It barely moved when Boon walked across it. Still, this was scary. I’d seen too many movies where people walked across these suspension bridges and the wooden slats started to break through and…look out below! I reached up and grabbed one of the suspension vines, giving it a good tug to see if it would hold.

  “It’s safe, Pendragon,” Boon assured me. “I told you, klees live in the trees. We know how to build bridges.”

  “So everybody lives in tree houses?” I asked. “Klees and gars?”

  “It’s better than worrying about tangs all the time,” he answered.

  I gritted my teeth and took a step onto the wooden bridge. Obviously it didn’t break, and I didn’t plummet to a horrifying death. I took a few more tentative steps,
and we were on our way to Leeandra. It turned out that the big tree that held the flume was only one of thousands. Every tree on Eelong was as big, if not bigger. The bridges were like roads in the sky, snaking beneath the canopy of leaves. Each new tree we reached had a similar platform that ringed it. Some had multiple platforms with stairs between them. I thought back to the first moment I stepped out of the tree and looked over the cliff. I now realized that the reason I didn’t see any buildings was because they were hovering just below the treetops, out of sight from above. Incredible! An entire civilization existed high above the ground. It was a world of tree houses.

  This world was full of life, too. I saw a swarm of tiny, orange hummingbird creatures float by like a small cloud. They each gave off a sweet, whistling sound that must have been their tiny wings beating. Together, the effect was like music. I glanced up to see a large hawk soaring overhead. It was pure white and floated on thermals like a lazy cloud. Directly across from us, on our level, was a tree full of green monkeys. They were cute little things that chattered and chased one another from branch to branch.

  Looking over the side to the forest below, I saw that it was dense jungle, like a rain forest. Every so often I’d catch a glimpse of a green tail disappearing into the underbrush. These could only be more of the lizardlike tangs. I decided that if there were more of those bad boys hiding below, I was very happy to be walking above them, out of reach.

  Boon walked quickly. I had to work to keep pace. After five minutes we had passed through a dozen trees, each with a couple of different choices as to which bridge to take next. I was going to need a roadmap to find my way back to the flume. That wasn’t good.

  “Tell me about Saint Dane,” Boon said as we walked. “He’s a gar, right?”