Bolting out the door with her pen glowing brightly, Jess made her way toward where she now felt the presence of several large creatures barreling toward the village. She ignored the lack of screams from the Speakers as she ran along the edge of the creek. There she saw Vee grappling with a beast.
With a quick dive and a roll that seemed impossible to achieve with such a large-gutted man, Vee moved out from under the beast’s thickly-furred belly to stab his already bloodied knife into its hide.
The beast had a set of wide, sharp teeth hidden behind thick jowls that flapped with a blubberous noise as it snapped its mouth at the Speaker rolling around underneath it. Its massive ears seemed to twitch as it moved around, a trait that made them incredibly adept at hunting down prey, along with its enormous, gold-shaded eyes. Even as Vee plunged his knife once more into the thick brownish green fur along the beast’s side, the beast roared with furious might as it tried to grab hold of Vee with its teeth and wide paws.
With a quick thrust, Vee tore himself away from the beast and took a few steps back, facing down his attacker. Jess expected the man to run away from the now crouching beast. The enormous animal looked ready to pounce on the Speaker, yet all Vee did was stand at the ready, showing the beast no fear as he held its attention with the red-soaked blade in his injured hand.
Almost at the moment Jess was going to save Vee’s life, almost at the moment the beast was going to pounce on the Speaker, Vee dove to the side as a volley of knives flew from behind him and slashed into the beast’s face.
Knives bounced off the thick skin or stuck harmlessly into the padding around the beast’s mouth. But some sliced across its ears and several pierced into its bulbous eyes, blinding the beast as it roared with fury.
Unable to see and unable to know where its prey was, the beast quickly realized it was no longer the hunter and ran blindly, only to be ambushed by a waiting group of Speakers who deftly used their knives to slice its calves and subdue the beast before finishing it off.
Jess had her hand held up and ready, her pen still glowing white as she breathlessly watched the battle. “Jess can calm now,” Vee said, shocking Jess out of her gaping view of the now dead beast. “Vee is fine.”
“How… how… did you know they were going to throw their knives when they did?” Jess asked.
“Of course Vee know. Vee was calling to them.” The Speaker grimaced as he popped the fingers in his bleeding hand. “Vee may have been a little too eager to kill beast. Beast would have run away if Vee had intimidated it with strength. But it been long time since Vee had salted beast steaks and beasts harder to hunt this time of year.”
“Are you okay?” Jess walked over and examined Vee’s hand, biting her lip at the wounds. “They don’t look that deep, I guess. They don’t have diseases or anything?”
Vee laughed and took his hand back, bending over to wash it in the cool creek water. “Jess worry too much. Vee will get antibodies pill tonight to make sure no bacteria in wound. Simple bandage will be fine, no need to call Gold friends.”
Jess had forgotten the nit-picking technology of Speaker society, and that medical advances were first and foremost among them, in some cases surpassing that of many technologically superior planets.
“Let me just see if anyone else is hurt,” Jess said, and used her White power to examine the sensations of life around her, checking for any in grave condition.
“No need,” Vee explained to the Prophet. “Vee knows no one hurt. Save woman with green and brown eyes but she only hurt her ankle jumping on beast.” Vee, laughing at the fact that Jess had yet to open her eyes, wondered why Jess wasn’t happier. Killing a beast was a joyous occasion for Mother-dwellers. Yet the Prophet’s face showed nothing but worried concentration. “Jess?”
“There’s more of them out there.”
“Is what?”
“Beasts.”
Though none of the Speakers appeared to be concerned by the sounds of stomping a few hundred meters away, Jess could clearly sense the presence of the massive creatures. Their current path would lead them away from the village. But Jess knew they would be back.
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The White Prophet extended her glowing pen toward the forest’s edge and created a force field around the camp with a narrow opening directly in front of her. This blocked the beasts from running away and funneled them toward her, away from the Speakers standing over the fallen beast near the creek.
“What is Jess doing?” Vee asked, sensing her use of power and a disturbance in the woods.
“I’m saving you from the beasts,” Jess said.
“What?”
The other Speakers also stopped what they were doing and stared at the Prophet and the rumbling forest vegetation.
With the shattering of thin trees and the utter destruction of the smaller growth, three beasts as big if not bigger than the first charged through the line of trees and toward the White Prophet.
Vee’s expression was not of fear, readying his knife as he stood seconds away from being trampled by the three monstrosities of muscle and teeth. He wore a face of dumbfounded confusion in front of the Prophet and the beasts.
Before the beasts could get close enough for Jess to smell them, she reached out to the fallen tree and raised it with a flick of her wrist. With the shattering of wood and a monstrous wail, Jess used her power to swing the tree into the first beast like a giant club. The other two leapt over their fallen companion and rushed on as Jess reached out to the smooth stones lining the creek bed.
Her palm held down, and then lifting with a slight motion, Jess telepathically raised dozens of river stones above the bubbling waters. As if she were skipping a rock, Jess flicked her wrist and sent the wave of stones crashing into the leading beast. Pummeled by the rain of smooth rock was like being hit directly from a dozen expertly wielded slings. The beast crashed to the water’s edge, its skull shattered.
The last beast leapt over the other and splashed through the creek. Its speed not halted by the water or the two dead beasts, the creature roared as it sped toward Jess, licking its jowls with expectant hunger. Jess didn’t move till the beast leapt toward her. Centimeters from her face, Jess put an invisible shield of energy in front of her that the beast crashed into at full speed. In a split second, Jess stepped to the side and extended the shield at a right angle that caught the beast like a vice. Using its own momentum against it, Jess’s shield hooked the beast’s head and twisted when Jess stepped around, snapping the beast’s neck before it hit the ground in a heap.
Setting her hand down and dimming her pen, Jess nodded with satisfaction at the work she’d done without ever having to touch anything but the air around her. “You’re welcome,” Jess said to the still speechless Speaker beside her.
The Speakers had been at it for minutes. While a ten-minute discussion of the Sept would barely accomplish the state of affairs at Pinnacle, Jess had no idea the level of depth ten minutes of empathic communication could accomplish with the near two hundred Speakers. As she sat, her white garments seeming full of shadows in the flickering light of the nearby fire, she could hear nothing of this conversation, and had to be appeased with the chirping of insects, the crackle of the fire, and the silent flickering of thousands of glowing stars.
Jess had no idea what they were talking about, but assumed it had something to do with her.
In silence, ignoring Jess’s questions about his silence, Vee had completed the brewing process shortly after the mess of the beasts’ bodies had been cleaned. The beer was cooled and placed in a sealed jug that Vee poured a secret blend of yeast into. “Three weeks it will be done,” was all Vee had said in two hours.
The meeting had started without ceremony, without so much as a ringing of a dinner bell to announce that something important was happening. Jess had actually thought it was a celebratory dinner, since an open spit had been made for one of the beasts to be cooked.
The Speakers had gathered together to cook the beast, bringing placemats and a few chairs to a circular area that had a slight incline leading to a central fire pit. It reminded Jess of the outdoor theatres back in Ieral, on Home. But instead of many silent Homlings watching a live performance with the glow of incandescent lights and a few colorful instruments, Jess found herself sitting awkwardly amongst a couple hundred Mother-dwellers silently speaking with unfathomable speed. Staring up at the stars, Jess for the first time since she was very small truly understood how far apart the seven planets were.
Vee’s face looked animated as a nervous squirrel’s. Sitting beside the leader of the Speakers, Vee tried to get a hint of what they were discussing by the looks he passed to his fellow Speakers. Thus far, all she could conclude with firmness was that quite a few of them were upset and that Vee was trying to calm them down.
“Do you mind if I ask what’s going on?” Jess asked Vee telepathically. She could no longer stand waiting to have an explanation of the meeting’s purpose. The only response Vee made was to give a whisper of a grunt, a clear sign he did not wish to be bothered.
It didn’t take a Mother-Dweller’s empathy to realize the Speakers were discussing Jess. Vess’s demeanor belied he was upset with her as well. The Prophet disliked not being able to defend herself. She was the Blesser and Matriarch! If she had done wrong then she should have a chance to stand up for herself. Brushing off the few insects that had sought warmth in the folds of her garment, Jess stood up to address the Speakers.
“If I may say a few words,” Jess said in her most diplomatic tone. Every single speaker turned their attention to Jess.