Sunday, October 2, 2005

   Chapter 10: The Angel Caravan (part 2)
The boats were right where the group had left them. Feeling regenerated as the rising suns burned away any remaining fog to reviel a clear sky, the kids and soldiers pushed their boats into the water and took their places at the paddles. It took a little while to break back into the pattern, but, before long, the University Caravan was on the move again.
Not even stopping for lunch—sandwiches were tossed to the kids by the soldiers—they had covered a great deal of distance by the afternoon. Sitting on Pen’s head, Sasheeta was the first to break the lulling silence that hung over the group.
“Hey look!” she exclaimed, pointing ahead. “It’s the Cocytus River!”
Heads turned as everyone noticed the stretch of blue that flowed into the Acheron River from the northern heart of Perol.
“Hello Panda!!” a voice yelled from overhead. A beautiful creature flew overhead: a winged horse, her body shimmering the color of steel, accented by silver wings and feathers. As she wheeled around, they could see the shine of her electric blue eyes.
Keion screeched a greeting, getting a respectful snort as a response as they circled each other. Her rider was another Havoc graduate; to Pen’s surprise, the wizard was an elf-woman. She had light, turquoise-colored hair and bright pink eyes that showed her age. Pen guessed that she was around 40 years old.
“Are we late?” Panda asked her, his voice carrying down to the kids by the wind.
“No, you’re right on time!”
“Nano!” interrupted Contra. “We’re landing on this side of the Acheron!”
“Aren’t we staying in Benttown?” she yelled back, flying lower so that they could talk more easily.
“No, it’s too much trouble this year,” was the answer. “Have your rafts land on the far shore and we can meet in the middle.”
“Okay,” Nano answered. Her pegasus turned away from them again to return to their own fleet of Caravan to pass on the instructions.
As Contra had said, they pulled their boats out of the water on the sandy shore, right at the edge where the two rivers met. Since there were few trees, they could watch as the angel kids pushed their rafts on the beach with paddle-sticks. The Cocytus River was generally wide and shallow; so shallow, in fact, that the favorite form of transportation along it were rafts pushed and steered via long sticks against the river bottom. They were easier control in the gentle stretch of blue. However, the rafts were poor for use on the Acheron’s powerful current.
The angel caravan was slightly bigger than the elven caravan; more angels had survived the Continental War, mostly thanks to the fact that the Okora Mountains were a formitable barrier that had kept the demons from invading the center of Perol.
It wasn’t until Panda and Nano returned, both bearing large bags of food, that the two groups finally mingled. The soldiers built a large fire, on which they roasted two large wild boars. The kids gathered around as the cool night came upon them, their stomachs growling as they watched the roasts slowly start to cook.
Pen and Lucifer sat together in silence, entranced in the beautiful flickering of the fire. It hissed as grease dripped onto it, sending a whaft of delicious scent over to them. Sasheeta was dozing off between them, stretched out luxuriously on her stomach against the warm ground.
When the boars were finally done—with plenty for everyone—a cheerful atmosphere set in. Lucifer and Sasheeta had claimed an entire shoulder for themselves, which they devoured ravenously. Pen watched them with some amusement as they both ate from the same huge piece.
“Mhim iz really amazing,” Lucifer told him when he noticed that he was watching. “You m… ought to try sommme.”
“No thanks,” he responded, a smile tugging at the edges of his mouth. Sasheeta tore a piece off and offered it to him. “It’s alright. I’m not hungry.”
“Can I eat it?” pipped another voice. A brownish pseudodragon, another female who was a handsbreath larger than Sasheeta hopped over to them and took the meat from Sasheeta.
“My name is Sasheeta,” the younger one said, moving over so that she could help herself, too.
“I’m Koshgankae. You can just call me Koshga,” she answered, pulling off another strip and swallowing it down with one bite.
Lucifer, who had already eaten half of the shoulder, declared that he was quite done and set the remaining bone and flesh on the grass for the dragons. He and Pen got to their feet and returned to their boat to sleep. After Lucifer washed his hands in the river, they made comfortable dents in the sand beside it and settled down to rest. Even the fading, far-away murmur of sounds coming from the remaining feast was not enough to keep them from drifting off.
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