Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction 3 2018 | Page 110

“He isn’t here,” Urika sighed “We must get moving, that fire must have been made by somebody”. Chatan
was pacing around in a circle and Ahanu was sitting on a tree stump.
“That can’t be right!” Chatan exclaimed, quickening his pace.
Ahanu exhaled deeply “I agree with Urika, whoever set that fire, must have had an intention.”
Chatan’s eyes faltered, “Uh, maybe we can try searching past the crooked stone again, or we could—” He
realised that Kanti was gone. With a tear forming in his eye they set off.
They travelled for days, only stopping to sleep, they were making progress. It seemed as though they were
always marginally ahead of the Englishmen. Chatan was still bothered after the disappearance of Kanti,
everyone was. Apart from Ahanu’s occasional groans, no-one spoke, perhaps it was out of fear, perhaps it
was out of the lack of things to say, but this wasn’t to say that things weren’t uneventful. “Are we nearly
there yet?” Ahanu moaned.
“Patience.” Urika bluntly responded, squatting down and sniffing the dirt.
“But you told me that two days ago,” Ahanu protested half-heartedly.
“Let Urika do his thing,” Chatan explained, “Urika is still developing his tracking skills, you know that
Kanti was the original tracker.”
“Wait,” Urika announced. The two halted and crouched. Urika lay his head the ground and closed his eyes.
“Get to cover.” Could it be the men from the village? Chatan glanced at the horizon. Small figures the size
of a thumb were travelling towards them. The shapes were too hard to make out, but as they got closer,
they seemed to grow into the creatures that they saw in the village. They also appeared to have things on
their backs. The white-skins. They were coming. The group agreed to run towards the end of the river, as
it would probably lead to other tributary rivers and it be easier to hide there. “Hurry!” Shouted Chatan,
seeing Ahanu slow down. Almost there. The white-skins were closing in on them. Urika, who was the
furthest ahead, began to ease his pace, until he approached a stop. As the rest of the group neared, they all
saw, that it was a dead end. It was a cliff. “Oh Gluskab,” cried Ahanu, realising the danger that they were in.
They were stuck.
“You didn’t think it would be this easy. Did you?” The plump man from the village jumped of their
creature. “You would’ve made it.” He said grimly, looking Chatan in the eyes. He pulled a boom-stick
from a pocket in his jacket. “Oh, it appears to me that you have never seen one of these before? Would I be
right in assuming that?” He continued. Chatan, Urika and Ahanu didn’t dare to respond, they had seen what