Chapter 5
The talk seemed to have cleared the air between them.
The rest of the Traders now seemed to accept her, now that they understood what was going on inside her. For that, Carmine was glad.
She took a look up at the sky. The black clouds of imminent rain were overhead.
Martel reached over and placed a wide brimmed hat on her head, something that the kangaroos of South Island called a ‘giggle.’ He smiled at her and winked. ‘You’ll be glad you have that in a moment,’ he said.
It began to rain.
The other traders barely seemed to notice, merely pulling their own giggle hats out of their bags and slipping them on with a single motion.
‘Well, thank the Queen for kangaroos right?’ she asked with a chuckle.
‘They have their uses,’ Ryswell agreed with a nod.
It rained for about an hour before letting up. She was glad they were travelling on cobblestone; it was one of the few materials that hooves could grip to when wet. She was glad that she had packed food, because she was hungry now. She knew the traders preferred to live off the land, but she had to wonder how they did it, because she had not seen anything appetising during their trek. Of course, she figured that she just didn’t know how to look.
She opened her saddlebag and took out a small ball of rice wrapped in a small sheet of edible seaweed that had been made for her by Li Bao, her village’s mao xiong fisherman. He had made a few for her when she had announced that she was going away. A familiar taste of home was a great way to lift her spirits.
She realised as she finished her rice ball, that she had not seen the members of her party stop to eat either. Now, she figured was a good time to figure out how exactly they lived.
‘Ryswell?’ she asked.
Ryswell looked over and offered her a smile. ‘Yes? Miss Carmine?’
‘You told me that you all lived off the land when you travelled. How exactly do you do that?’ she asked.
‘Well, we usually have one of the company go out and find us something to eat when we stop to rest, but I see no reason why we can’t show you now,’ he said brightly, and signalled for the troop to stop.
Carmine walked over to him as he waved her to come off the road. They walked into the trees for a few moments before coming to a clearing. Ryswell smiled and showed her what he’d found. There were two patches of white mushrooms growing out of the ground. Ryswell trotted up to the patches, and picked one from each. He came back over and sat down holding one of each up in his forehooves.
‘Tell me, what is the difference between these two mushrooms?’ he asked.
Carmine studied the fungus for a few moments trying to discern any difference she could from them. ‘They look the same to me,’ she finally reported after a few moments of not coming up with anything.
‘Yes, I imagine they do,’ Ryswell said with a grin. He held up the mushroom in his left hoof. ‘This one is one we call the button mushroom. It is perfectly safe to eat, and is quite delicious I might add,’ he said, and then set it down, and held up the mushroom in his right hoof.
‘This one, however, will kill you minutes after you’ve eaten it,’ he said simply, and then tossed the poisonous one over his shoulder, and picked the safe one back up and took a bite out of it. ‘Do you understand?’
Carmine blinked at him. She wasn’t sure. He had pointed out two similar looking mushrooms, and they were different, but the way he had asked seemed to indicate that he had some hidden meaning.
‘No,’ she said finally.
Ryswell smiled. ‘The non-poisonous mushroom looks just like the poisonous one, yes?’ he asked.
She nodded her head.
‘But why does it?’
‘I—don’t know,’ she admitted.
‘The normal mushroom has adapted to resemble the poisonous one, it’s disguised as a poisonous mushroom to prevent it from being eaten by animals. Animals know the poisoned one by sight, they steer clear of it. As a consequence, they don’t eat the normal one. The normal one remains safe by disguising itself,’ he said with a bright smile.
Carmine stopped to think about what he was saying. She got the feeling they weren’t talking about mushrooms anymore.
‘Ryswell!’ Martel’s voice called out. Ryswell dropped the half eaten mushroom and quickly trotted back to the rest of the group.
Carmine followed behind him closely as they got back to the road. Martel was looking up at the sky with a pair of binocular goggles over his eyes, adjusting the click wheels on the lenses as he looked.
‘What is it?’ he asked, cocking his head to the side.
Martel pulled the goggles off his eyes and handed them to the troop master. ‘Better to have a look for yourself.’
Ryswell frowned and took them, looking up at the sky and adjusting the click wheels on the binocular goggles to have a better look. He took them off and slipped the goggles in his bag. ‘We need to get off the road, now.’
Carmine was confused, she stood completely befuddled as the troop rolled the carts off the road, and into the tree line.
‘I don’t understand, Ryswell what is going on?’ she asked.
‘Danger in the sky; how is your eyesight?’ he asked.
She blinked, not sure why he was asking. ‘Good enough,’ she said simply.
That didn’t seem to help him, but he tugged at her leg anyway. ‘Come with me, I will need your help.’
Carmine nodded her head and went with him. The pair galloped through trees opposite the road, heading deeper inland, before coming to a clearing at the foot of an uncharacteristically tall hill. Carmine looked at it, her eyes following a trail that winded up the hill some two hundred metres tall.
Ryswell stopped and opened his bag, taking out the binocular goggles and giving them over to her. She slipped them over her eyes and adjusted the click wheels to allow her to see clearly.
‘See that up in the sky?’ he asked.
Carmine looked up and found what he was pointing to. it was a large triangle shaped creature, flying very high up in the sky. She frowned at it and cocked her head to the side. ‘What is it?’ she asked.
‘I believe they call it a “Blackjack”,’ he said. ‘Listen, this is very important. I need to run to the top of this hill. I need you to keep your eyes on it, and call out to me if it sees me. Understand?’
She didn’t understand, but she could tell it was important that she did as she was told. ‘No, I don’t understand, but I will do as you ask regardless.’
Ryswell smiled and leaned over, giving her a kiss on the cheek. ‘Good girl,’ he said and started to jog to the hill.
‘How will I know if it sees you?!’ she called out to him.
‘You’ll know! Trust me!’ he called back.
Carmine kept her eyes up on the Blackjack. She’d never seen anything quite like it before. It reminded her of a bird, the way it almost seemed to glide on the air.
It was getting closer, that much she could tell, it would be overhead in just a few seconds. She watched as it suddenly changed shape. She blinked at it. Was she seeing things?
No. It most certainly changed. It was no longer shaped like a triangle, but had wings that folded out in line perpendicular to its body, like an eagle, it was slowing down, and banked gently to its left, towards the hill.
She knew that this was the sign she was meant to look for. ‘It’s seen you!’ she cried out just as a column of fire erupted from the strange creature and a contrail of smoke billowed from it.
She pulled the binoculars off her eyes and looked over to the top of the hill. Ryswell had reached the summit, and was fiddling with something on the ground.
The contrail was heading down towards the summit of the hill. She didn’t know what exactly was happening, but she was afraid. She knew that Ryswell was in mortal danger. ‘RYSWELL!’ she cried out.
Ryswell suddenly turned and ran, jumping into the air and dove to any sort of relative safety. A red beam of light erupted from the hilltop, and struck the Blackjack. The creature burst into flames, and tumbled from the sky. Carmine raised her forelegs up to shield herself from the bright light, and was suddenly knocked to the ground as the contrail from the creature struck the ground and exploded.
Carmine was stunned. She had forgotten how to breath in the shock, but after a few moments she was able to sit up. She watched as the flaming Blackjack fell from the sky, and crashed headlong into a mountain off in the distance and exploded in a colourful ball of fire.
She rose to her hooves, feeling like she’d forgotten something. ‘Ryswell!’ she called out and ran towards the hill.
She found him on the other side of it, having been thrown by the same shockwave to the bottom of the hill that had knocked her down. She galloped to his side, skidding to a halt and knelt down beside him. ‘Are you alright? Are you hurt?’ she asked.
Ryswell panted and picked himself up. ‘Not terribly, I’ll survive,’ he groaned as he sat up.
‘What sort of creature was that?’ she asked.
‘Not a creature,’ he admitted. ‘That was a machine.’
She could hardly believe him. It must have been obvious when Ryswell noticed her staring blankly at him.
‘I am certain you have many questions. I will answer them, but not here. We are not out of danger yet,’ Ryswell said.
Carmine nodded her head and helped Ryswell to his hooves. The stallion scanned around before spotting a cave opening in a rock wall further back behind the hill. ‘Over there!’ he pointed and tugged her foreleg to run with him.