Ghost With Cats ~ Book of Eloh #1.Draft

Bries roared and charged the bear. It only took the giant bodyguard moments to cross the distance to the larger predator. The snarling grizzly swiped at him. It’s razor claws sliced Bries’ coat and arm open, but did not pass the dense bony cartilage plates under his thicker than normal skin. He punched it hard in the chest, backing it away from Annie. The bear bit and swiped, but the genetically engineered warrior was it’s match in strength and speed. It’s instincts were no match for the warrior and his training. Finally, Bries delivered a crushing blow to its head, killing it. He was so enraged that he continued beating on the dead ursine.

“Master, he rages,” Vorn warned.

“I know,” Tal answered. “I cannot pull him back.”

Tal strained against the rage that was consuming his sword pet, but Bries’ need to protect Annie was beyond even his control. Tal’s eyes were white as he used his power to restrain Bries. Normally, he could control a dozen who raged unamplified, but he was barely keeping Bries from tearing the bear’s carcass into pieces.

Boaz stared in horror. Vole focused his power into his master, trying to bring Bries back under control. None noticed as Annie slowly pushed herself up, until she stepped toward the out of control warrior.

“Bries stop,” she mumbled. The bear had struck her hard, and she had hit her head on the ground. She was sure she had a concussion, everything was spinning, but she had to calm Bries.

“Bries...Bries... stop it Bries.” She pulled at him and he swung her as he moved his arm. He seemed surprised to see her hanging off his arm. He lowered her to the ground in front of him. The centers of his eyes were deep red with rage. Strangely, she could feel Tal’s mind pulling Bries’ mind back from the place it had gone.

“Enough, Bries! Sit down now.” She commanded calmly in a quiet voice and he obeyed, sitting in the blood covered snow by the dead bear. He was gasping for breath in the high altitude and shaking uncontrollably. She put her arms around his thick neck and stroked his cheek and bald head soothingly, as she spoke softly to him.“It’s okay, you killed it, you saved me. Come back to us now. Your master is calling you. Listen and come back.”

Rule #3 for Daily Life : Be the person ‘they’ expect until you can be invisible again.

It took several minutes, but together Tal and Annie got Bries back to his usual calm, childlike demeanor.

When Bries looked up at her, his eyes were their normal deep gray-black again, “Bries sorry Bries raged. Bries thought Lady Annie died.”

“It’s okay, Shiny Head, you saved me. Thank you. But you are hurt and we need to get you home. It’s just you have to be careful when you rage, and always come back when your Master calls, so we don’t lose you, do you understand?” She spoke very softly.

He nodded, a tear leaked out of the corner of his eye. She wiped it away gently, focusing on him and not the blood-splattered snow all around them. She was glad she didn’t have anything left in her stomach.

“I think he’s okay now,” she said shakily.

Tal hugged her fiercely, he was shaking too, “I would not have gotten him back without you. Are you injured?”

“I think I have whiplash. Bears swat hard,” she said and half-smiled.

Bries just looked up at them, nodding and painfully smiling at her, “Lady Annie speaks the truth. Bears do swat hard.”

As Tal made an exasperated sound and Vorn sighed, shaking his head.

Boaz coughed a laugh around his cigarette, and announced, “Well, I am glad you two think it’s funny, I think you scared 10 years out of me, Annie, and Bries here, 20, which means I will be dead tomorrow.”

Annie grinned at him, “Sorry, Boaz.”

“Humph, let’s take our meat and hope little bear does not have a big brother.” He grumped as he kicked the giant carcass.

For a few moments, they just stood there next to the dead bear before walking back to the horses. Annie waited as they gathered the elk meat. As they rode down the hill, Annie leaned against Tal’s back, her arms wrapped around him. He kept one hand over her clasped hands, he felt strange. He had never feared for another as he had feared for her this day, not even his brothers when they faced the Lottery. His sense of relief over her safety was almost overwhelming. He reached toward Vorn and found that his Cypher was admiring the scenery, so he pulled his mind back, and pondered his new feelings alone.

Vorn felt his master’s conflict over his newly discovered feelings and felt that Tal should examine them on his own so when Tal had reached out to him, Vorn had broadcast a sense of wonder and amazement at the majestic Colorado mountains. Vorn felt Tal retreat back into his own mind to ponder his feelings and he smiled. It was good for his master’s heart to finally know more than duty and honor.

^..^

They made their way down the mountain slowly. Back at the house, they found Annie’s horse hiding in the barn. Boaz watched as Annie cleaned and stitched Bries’ wounds. He was fascinated by the bone-like plates under the sword pet’s thick skin, which protected him from the grizzly’s claws. They were almost like scales. Annie had to stop twice to vomit, she apologized each time to Bries. When she finished, her work was clean and neat. Vorn processed the elk meat and made a hearty dinner for the men, and a simple vegetable soup with rice for Annie. After the meal, Bries got a cup of coffee.

“Bries, what are you doing?” Annie asked surprised. She had forgotten about the punishment she threatened him with after the bear attacked her.

“Lady Annie said Bries has to drink a cup of black coffee as punishment for making her puke again. So Bries is ready for his punishment.” He answered, and he began drinking the black liquid, making the worst faces and gagging.

Annie covered her mouth with her hand, almost laughing. Tears of amusement well up in her eyes, as Bries choked down her favorite beverage. Vorn and Tal watched unsurprised by Bries’ obedience, but were amused by Annie’s reaction to it. Boaz just observed the spectacle, chuckling.

“Coffee is ewww... Bries is punished... Bries is sorry... Bries made Lady Annie puke... please forgive...” Bries begged in a strangled, choking voice as he grimaced about the coffee aftertaste.

“Are you going to vomit?” She demanded coldly, folding her arms, but obviously trying not to laugh.

“Bries thinks Bries may vomit,” he gagged again. He kept sticking his tongue out of his mouth like a dog who has licked something unpleasant.

“Okay, Bries is forgiven,” she said sternly, and she winked at Tal, who slightly smiled. She offered Bries a chocolate bar out of the pantry. The big male smiled at her gratefully and devoured the treat. “Come on, shiny head, time to soak your bear-beaten body in the hot springs.”

Vorn leaned over to Tal. “Master, he is going to be so indulged by the time we return, he will be unable to return to his place.”

“Perhaps, or perhaps he can help us better the station of his kind so they do not live without hope, as Bries once did.” Tal responded, he was watching Annie rinsing the coffee cup, and did not see his Cypher smile.

^..^

There was a path through the woods along the stream, to the base of the mountain. Annie opened a barred gate and they entered a warm cave. Inside was a large carved pool, water bubbled up into it before flowing out to the stream. There are stalactites and stalagmites all around, and carved stone seats. Everywhere around them water dripped from the darkness. Dim lights glow. The place had the feeling of healing and meditation.

In a side room, Annie made Bries take off his boots and socks and shirt, before getting in the warm mineral water in only his shorts. The water was soothing to his rapidly healing wounds. Vorn and Boaz got in. Vorn commented on the healing properties of the water and Boaz responded it was the only thing keeping this old man alive. Annie laughed at him, teasing that he still had 40 years left before he reaches 120.

Tal walked the edge of the room. The cavern was huge. It felt familiar to him, like someplace his brother had taken him once when he was very, very young. He heard a slight splash in the water behind him.

“Are you coming in?” Annie asked him, she had swam up behind him.

“Yes, just trying to remember something,” he answered.

“What did Rabbi Jakob say to get you so quiet? Something about Truh?” She questioned.

“Not really, he did not know Truh, but he told me many interesting things that I have not had the time or stillness to processes.”

“Come and float, Tal, or tomorrow your muscles will make you pay for being on a horse all day. This place was made for stillness and reflection. Some of the most powerful and influential men and women of my mother’s people have come to this place in the last century. Now, it’s your turn.” Her voice echoed quietly around him as she floated away from him into the dark waters.

Tal lowered himself into the water. He began at the beginning, the moment Vorn had walked into his Sanctum room as he had worked his sword. They had just finished pushing back another Jhinne Horde incursion. The energy reading had been clear. He had taken his fastest slipper, it held a 4 persons, and come. Less than 4 days later they had arrived, holding in orbit for a day to get linguistics information and verify where on the planet the reading had come from. It had been a trap. As soon as they entered the atmosphere, they were pursued. He, Vorn, and Bries had dropped in a pod over the desert near the reading, as his pilot had climbed back out of the atmosphere, sacrificing himself to save his Master. Tal had felt him die. In a flash of plasma, his pilot was vaporized.

The three Eloh were captured by the humans, who seemed to be waiting for them, and know how to capture their kind. Bents, the man who had questioned him, did not seem to understand that it was not the technology that made him an Admant, but Tal himself. For days, they were neither fed, nor given rest. Tal had felt Vorn questioned and beaten as he was. However, Vorn as a Cypher, could retreat into a state of meditation where they could not reach his mind. It had frustrated the humans and fascinated them. Bries was another matter. The human male, who was their leader of their torturers was very interested in how much pain his sword pet could endure, but Tal had ordered Bries not to speak, and so Bries had refused to utter a single sound as they had repeatedly beaten him. Then Annie had been brought to the compound as a prisoner too. But their captors had underestimated the tiny female’s will. She had killed the men holding them, then the one beating Bries, then Vorn’s guard. She knew how evil their captors were, and she also knew of his people.

He wondered how many others on her world knew of his people. Certainly more of her people knew of his people than the other way, or was that true? His brother had known. And it had been three unflagged fighter ships of his people’s tech that had vaporized his slipper and killed his pilot. There was more than he knew going on here. Rabbi Jakob had told Tal that their peoples had a history reaching back thousands of years. He looked up at the ceiling; water was dropping around him, plinking on the surface of the water like chimes. He could hear it and his heartbeat.

Tal realized he needed to go back further to a time when Truh was alive. He thought about his brother Truh, traveling backward through each memory. His youngest brother Tome’s birth was more than a year before his mother had killed his father, Truh had been there for it. Tal had been with Truh for Taffen’s birth and death 3 years before Tome’s birth, and Tol’s birth three years after Tal’s own. Tal remembered being with Truh always until he was almost 10, then Truh had left for over 2 years after their father’s death taking Tol with him. During those 2 years he had spent all his time with Tovi, his twice older brother. Truh had just returned with Tome to make sure Tal had survived the Lottery, it was during that trip, he had saved Annie. Truh had survived his turn in the lottery unscathed, even the most violent of females was not able to harm the Regent. A few months after they returned home, Tome had found their eldest brother dead in the garden of a viper bite, but no viper was ever found. Also, there was what Tal now knew was a Christmas Nativity card in Truh’s writing desk.

A drop of water fell on Tal’s cheek, he opened his eyes. On the ceiling, there was a star. It had 7 points, a very curious shape. Suddenly, Tal stood up in the water, it was only chest deep. He remembered the water had been over his head once, he had been swimming around Truh. His brother held him in his arms, and had pointed up at the star. Truh’s voice echoed as he said it represented the perfection of the light of HE who had created all. Tal had been 4 or 5 years old, and he wasn’t supposed to remember swimming here or playing in the meadow of green grass and golden flowers with the brown haired girl who was always followed around by the big black and white cat. It all seemed too impossible. His mind revolted painfully against the knowledge it wasn’t supposed to recover, his body went into shock. His world spiraled into darkness and stars, and he sank below the warm water into the silence.

^..^

“What’s happening to him, Vorn?” a soft voice asked from far away.

“He is having chalom, like a waking dream. It is rare, but his brother was a Regent, a mystic of our people. Sometimes members of a family will share the traits of one calling with each other,” the one called Vorn explained. Talon Vorn is his Cypher and oldest friend.

“Why didn’t he drown?” A man asked. Boaz was his name. He was the caretaker of this place.

“Our people can obtain gases from inhaling liquids,” Vorn answered.

“You can breath underwater?!” The female exclaimed. Her name was Anneliese Winters-Dove, and he had known her his whole life. “Bries, are you strong enough to carry him back to the house?”

“Bries strong enough, Lady Annie.” Bries was his Sword Pet.

“Let’s get him to bed,” she said firmly.

Tal felt himself being carefully wrapped, and lifted. “Just hold on, Tal,” Annie whispered to him. She kissed his cheek. He opened his eyes, blinked once then closed his eyes again. All he was aware of was the star opening the door to his obscured memories.

^..^

Tal woke the next day to a pair of giant golden eyes surrounded by black silk staring into his. It was mid-morning by the light. There was the sound of the wind roaring outside. It was snowing hard, what Boaz had told Vorn this weather was called a full whiteout. It was Christmas Eve; seven years ago tonight, Annie had saved this world and only a few knew. Even fewer knew that his brother had used a resurrection crystal to keep her alive because she was possibly the last descendant of their people living on this world, A bloodline that had been protected by the deaths of millions. Truh had believed she was the one to bring the Light back to their people. Yet he feared what his brother had feared, that if she was brought back to their people, she would be killed because she possessed something that had been lost, and she gave it free to all, just as her mother had. It was called love. But Truh had not known how broken a person those events had made her, or did he?

Something warm and soft was laying on the bed over his arm. A giant orange cat stared at him, its giant golden eyes were unblinking until it yawn. The black cat that was looking down at him yawned too. The cat had more teeth than a hydra or viper, he thought. Both looked bored. The marmalade stood and stretched, revealing Annie’s dark brown hair strewn across her cheek. She was asleep, holding his hand. Her carved stone pendant laying on the bed by her neck. She was half-sitting in a chair by his bed. Tomorrow was her birthday and oddly enough, his.

The cat butted Annie with its giant fire-colored head. Its loud purr vibrating the air. She inhaled deeply and lifted her head, letting it rub its face against hers.

“Good morning, David,” she murmured sleepily to the orange cat, the black demanded her attention in kind. “Good Morning, Goliath. Where’s Solomon?” Annie asked, both cats tiped their heads at her as if understanding the question. She smiled, running her fingers over their pointed ears, “He’s probably eating your breakfast, you know” she answered herself.

The silky, ebony one made a plaintive sound and both felines jumped from the from the bed, bounding from the room. She giggled softly as she leaned back to stretch. Her body made a crackling sound. She sighed heavily, then she noticed Tal is watching her.

She made a surprised squeak, “You’re awake! Omigawd, you scared me half to death,” she declared in a relieved tone. “I thought you drowned.”

“You told me to reflect and be still,” Tal replied in a dry tone, sitting up in the bed.

Annie looked at him eyes wide, jaw dropping, stammering, “Oh...oh... I hate you now.... I have been freaking out worried all night because Vorn said you were having some kind of vision or seizure or something and you...you think it’s a joke!” She was shaking angrily and started to rise, but he pulled her on to the bed next to him, hugging her as she pushed him away. “Let go a’ me or I am gonna get a stick and beat you... I swear...” But he held her firmly in his arms.

Bries was standing in the door looking confused that they are fighting. Tal nudged him to leave, so he did.

“Be still, Anneliese, we need to speak,” he ordered and gave her a small lick on the forehead at her hairline, she tasted sweet. He laid his cheek on her hair and breathed slowly. His long hair hung down his back, he could feel it needed brushed. He was not sure where to begin so he just held her because he needed to.

She stopped struggling, her eyes fierce, her voice low and demanding, “Did you just lick me?”

“You needed comfort and so do I. Vorn said you stayed with me all night. He told you did not need to. But you did, why?” Tal was rocking them slightly. In a few moments, he can feel her relaxing against him. Her anger and surprise melted into something else.

“I was worried, when I worry, I pray.” She responded quietly. “I felt like you were lost to me, I mean us. So I prayed. I don’t know what your people believe, I am sorry if I offended you.”

“I thank you for your prayers. We actually once believed very similar to what your Master Jesus taught, but my people have lost their way in the last several generations. It has been a difficult time especially with the loss of heart as my brother called it. Anneliese, do remember the first time you met my brother and I?”

She looked at him strangely. “Are you sure you are okay? Maybe you breathed too much water?” She said cautiously.

“Anneliese, Annie, think very hard about when you were very little. Do you remember the first time we met?” He insisted.

“You’re scaring me, Tal. We met less than two weeks ago,” she said as she tried to rise, but he held her, looking into her eyes intensely.

“We did not. I was 4 or 5 and you were a year younger.”