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ONE LIFE, ONE LIFE: Jethel and Suntop watch from the trees as a storm approaches.
Pei Lar comes to them, calling them little dung rats. Jethel says, "Uh oh."
Dodia and Kimo come quietly, accidentally scaring Pei Lar. Dart had something to
do first before he will lead them. Kimo tells her it is their way and not to try
to change it. She won't wait nor make her warriors wait. Jethel hss to Suntop, "Hss!
Suntop! Is your head still lost?" Suntop turns, "Oh...just..." Sun
feels they are being dragged into something that they won't get out of for a long
time. Dart is with GeóO, who is tied up, in a canoe as it rains. Sun sends to Dart
and tells him what Pei Lar is up to. GeóO says, "Ohhh, stone slime, now it's
starting to rain!" They pass a frog. Dart splashes GeóO who yelled at him, "I
hate you!!" GeóO stops his tantrum and wonders where Dart is taking him, "Are
you going to kill me?" He begins his yelling again. Aramak visits Door, who
yells at him after a bit, "You have given me nothing!!" This scares a slave
boy so that he drops some fruit. The slave boy cries, "It...it slipped...it
slipped!" Tears come out of the boy's eyes. Green slime grabs the kneeling boy's
arms from behind and a burning point of green slime comes to the boy's chest, mid
center. The boy pants. Door kicks Aramak and his large white haired guard out. It
is Door who will rule, Door has told them. Willowsnap make a web go over the lock
on the door of Windkin and Windkin, tongue between his teeth, pulls it up. Windkin
lets out Ahn Lai from his cell door despite Willowsnap's protests. Ahn Lai can show
them the way out. Windkin has to catch web from Willowsnap's mouth, "Uh, it's
all right this time, Willowsnap. I'll watch out for you." He closes his left
eye, winking at Willowsnap. Windkin will trust the cub just so far. The guards on
the tower are in rain. One of them said some things to Aramak's woman and that is
why he is not in bed right now. The guards wake up the big guard and Aramak. The
outcasts and unbelievers are here. A boy with red dredlocks and a skimpy jeweló chainedóheld
purple loin cloth, showing lots of skin, is told to call the soldiers by the Attained
Father Aramak. Aramak tells hissoldiers that the Sky Spirit has spoken to him and
they should put down the unbelievers. As lightning kraaks, Dart pushes GeóO into
a tomb. The prince's people never come here. Dart shows him his friend...the dead
body of Geoki whose spirit lives. "I met him very long ago. At a place called
Blue Mountain. We came to know each other...there was evil on the wind. He risked
all for me...and we faced death...together. Only the power of the greatest healer
could bring us back. And it cost her much. His people, the HoanóG'TayóSho came here
to this new land, many turns ago. They brought Dooróóyour Sky Spiritóówith them."
Dart has on brown boots with high front tips and a loin cloth, no shirt. "Geoki
lived to see this place. I am glad he did." GeóO tells him as long as his people
have memory, their attained fathers named their sons after Geoóki but they never
told why. Dart cuts his bonds off, "I wanted you to know. This place is special
to me. Now it seems I have another war to fight." The human boy asks Dart to
wait for him. Windkin, Willowsnap, and Ahn Lai see Aramak in a frenzy on the tower,
calling for the warriors to bring the heads of the unbelievers on their spears. Windkin
says, "The fire ants next is really stirred up now." Ahn Lai says, "We're
doomed!" He tells Windkin he sees other Sky Spirits with them. Ahn Lai asks
him if he can fly them both away but Windkin isn't sure he can. Chot and Suntop watch
humans readying to attack, yelling and running. Chot thinks they could use lessons
from the Go Backs. Suntop wonders why they just don't attack. Chot tells him, "We
all fight funny to someone else's eyes, but losing is never fun, cub...just keep
the arrows coming when I call." Door comes out to Aramak. One bearded warrior
looks up, "He is beautiful!" Pei Lar says, "It's the evil one!"
Windkin says, "Door!" Door gives a wild speech, "I am the Door through
which you all live! Now I say, down with Aramak and all his kind. They no longer
speak for me." Door fires a bolt at Aramak and Aramak falls over the wall but
is still alive. The rebel warriors rush him, calling him a tyrant's parrot. Dodia
stops them, telling them they do not know how powerful Door is. Other humans are
over Aramak, beating him. The guard comes running to help him and starts beating
the "fleas" off him. A few are young ones with long ponytails or short
red hair. Door jumps to another level, telling him, "Die, little crawling worm."
The guard, a red haired younger fighter with no shirt on, and another get spikes
through them. The guard and the red head get spikes into their backs and the back
of their bodies. Another in a purple loin cloth gets spikes into his upper stomach
and lower chest. Kimo yells, "Door!" A human (Aramak?) in the bushes cries
tears as Door hears Kimo, "A true spirit. How intriguing. Worship me!"
Kimo feels Door is alert as any of them and they cannot fight a rock shaper. Dodia
thinks Door is worse than any tale Dart told. They retreat, leaving Door to gloat.
Windkin is happy as they melt into the green, "Good, they'll live." Ahn
Lai once more asks Windkin to carry him away. Windkin says, "You have too much
faith in spirits, bu. I...I can not take the extra weight. I..." Ahn Lai grabs
him by the shoulders, panicky, "No!! You must! You must take me away!"
Windkin says, "Let go!!" Human warriors come running to them, telling them
to hold in the name of the Sky Spirit Door! |