The Index -|-

Kpleeb tripped as he crossed the threshold. He landed on his knees and palms and skidded painfully to a stop. It was a momentary and blinding pain, but hopped up quickly.

“Zara!” he hollered at the trees that blocked the cave mouth from the outside world. Tears wet his face, and his heart ached in a way he had never felt before. He could not lose Zara the way he had lost Thoka.

He pushed his way sideways through the right side of the brush. The green, long-needled tree leaves jabbed into his hands, and he grunted in pain at the sharp, stabby sensation that bloomed through him. When he emerged, he saw that the night sky still contained lights that swung in long arcs around the land ahead and below him. The lights and the stars were blurry due to the tears. He swiped his eye sockets with the back of his wrist.

One of the clusters of lights arced closer before turning away, and he realized that the lights must be searching for something.

“Zara!” he called with his hands to his mouth.

“Shh, Da,” Zara’s voice said quietly behind him.

Kpleeb whipped around in surprise, and saw that Zara was standing at the edge of the cluster of trees. She hung back under a branch and watched the lights with what might have been a look of fascination mixed with fear. “What are you doing out here?” he said to her. “We need to go back inside right now!”

“I don’t think the cave will protect us,” she said quietly. Her eyes were affixed on the lights and followed them. “Can you feel it?”

Kpleeb reached out with his senses and felt the kind of weirdness that he had felt before, but nothing more. He sighed. “It’s just the same odd feeling I had before. Why won’t the cave protect us?” He sat next to Zara under the branch and looked into the night sky.

“It’s strong,” she said. “Stronger than I expected. I wonder if Uuiit was this strong?” Her fingers twitched, and she traced a loose shape on her palm.

Kpleeb noticed that her eyes were not focused, but he had learned in the past to speak anyway and trust that she heard everything he said. “Uuiit was strong, but your Mama took care of him. I don’t think we need to worry.”

“Perhaps the angles are stronger.” Zara blinked. “There is more than just another Uuiit there.” Her hand lifted slightly as if to indicate the moving lights.

Angles? Kpleeb didn’t understand. His ears picked up a whining noise that seemed to grow stronger.

“Da!” Zara voice screamed.

Kpleeb turned and saw that one of the clusters of lights moved toward them. It was surely two hour’s walk away, but the lights grew with alarming speed.

There was a flash of purple light from which emitted a purple and red bolt of lightning and a sharp crackle that sounded as if a stone had been shattered. The ground to their right erupted in a shower of dirt and rock.

Kpleeb heard a grunt, and saw Zara grasp the air in front of her like a hanging tapestry and pull downward with a violent twist. There were no corresponding flashes, but the cluster of lights ahead wobbled and plummeted. There was a loud crunching in the trees ahead of them followed by a rumble and a flickering purple light that disappeared after a few seconds.

The remaining cluster of lights pivoted in the distance and began to grow larger in the sky. The same whining that he had heard earlier approached with the lights. “Zara,” Kpleeb hissed, “can you knock this one down?”

Zara stood and nodded shakily. She seemed to be concentrating on the lights, but Kpleeb could not see or feel anything different. She seemed only to wait, and Kpleeb became nervous. He remained silent and watched as the lights approached. The lights slowed and hovered above the spot where the other lights had been thrown down by Zara. Even though it was dark, the purple light that had been emanating from the trees no longer flickered.

The whining changed, lower and then higher in pitch as the lights shifted slowly. Whatever it was, clearly was searching the area.

Zara breathed in deeply and waved her hand quickly in a circle ahead of her. A ball of yellow light began to glow just a few paces in front of them.

“What are you doing?” Kpleeb shook his head.

“It’s fine Da,” Zara said under her breath. “Trust me.” The yellow light flickered and then flashed brightly.

Kpleeb took a step back as the lights swiveled toward them. He hissed with concern, but he felt that Zara deserved his trust. The cluster drew closer quickly, and his fists clenched in anticipate of the destruction that it might unleash.

After a short moment, Zara shoved the ball of light forcefully out and upward. She grabbed Kpleeb’s hand and pulled him sharply to the left. Kpleeb landed clumsily on his outstretched hands in the dirt, and Zara landed next to him.

There was another sharp crackle and the ground where they had stood exploded. Kpleeb grasped his ears and yelped in pain. The world around him was muffled and blurry, but the moment passed shortly. He looked up and saw Zara standing a few paces away staring intensely at the lights in the sky. The cluster was close by, and under it, very close was Zara’s ball of light.

Zara stood with her hands raised toward the lights. The yellow orb flashed, and Kpleeb saw it in a moment. The lights clustered on the front of an angle. “Uuiit’s angle!” he gasped. He stood carefully and approached Zara’s side. Her face was masked with concentration. Her hands swayed, and her fingers twitched with odd motions.

“Why hasn’t it attacked us again?” Kpleeb said.

Zara shifted her weight, small though it was, and cocked her head. Kpleeb heard a strange cough from the angle.

Zara smiled. “It cannot attack us now.” Her hands lowered slowly, and the angle soundlessly lowered with her hands until it rested on the down-sloping ground ahead of them. “Da, the entity inside the angle is still alive. Still very dangerous. I will contain it, but you must prepare to talk to it.” The yellow ball of light winked out of existence.

Kpleeb blinked and looked at Zara. “Talk to it? Is it an Uuiit?”

Zara shook her head slowly. “It might be the same kind as Uuiit. It’s an entity. We don’t know what its name is. Maybe it’s Uuiit’s brother.”

Kpleeb sighed. “Alright.” In his mind he remembered. The entities that took Thoka and I away from our families. The entities that just stole Thoka from me. These might be the same.

He clenched his fists and stood tall grining wickedly. Time to meet my makers… maybe? Either way, this “talk” will be for you, Thoka.

Zara nodded to him. The side of the angle began to split open slowly.