The Book of Koli (Rampart Trilogy #1) - M. R. Carey Page 0,98
found the second cairn. The topmost stone was marked again in the same rust-red paint showing a hand with two fingers up. That lifted my spirits somewhat, after the scare I got from that pit. I was still on the right way, and making good time.
I did not stay happy for long though. A little while after that, I heard movement from back along the road, like there was something following me. I pushed on faster, but still breaking my pace the way I done before. Then hearing the crackle of leaves and branches even louder, I stepped off the road and hid myself in some bushes that did not look like they was poison nor preying.
The thing that was following me come by at a fast lick. I heard the thumping of its feet as it passed me. Whatever it was, I knowed it had got to be fierce for it didn’t trouble to slow, nor to go quietly. I was minded to look out and see, but I knowed that was foolish thinking. I digged myself in deeper in the bushes instead, and by and by there was stillness again so I come out and went on my way.
When it seemed like it might be the middle of the afternoon, I stopped and et a couple more bites of mutton, taking some bread with it this time and washing the whole lot down with a swig of water. The waterskin was still good and heavy, but it was clear to see the bread and meat wouldn’t last me long. If I got a cold answer at Ludden, there was going to be nothing for it but to hunt or trap something, though I didn’t have nothing I could use for the venture except only a short knife.
I got on my way again, but my troubles only worsened after that. I come upon some more of them deep-digged holes, just exactly like the first one, which made me certain sure that something living had made them. I walked wide around them whenever I seen them, but it troubled me that they was so many, coming closer and closer together so I had them before me and behind me as I walked. If I stumbled or stepped on a branch, and the things that was hid in them stirred and come up above ground, I was like to be surrounded.
Then it come on to rain. Rain was not so bad as sun by a long way, but it brung its own dangers for there was things that woke and become lively with wet weather. Some of them things was bugs that could bite or sting. Then because of the bugs there was molesnakes that come and lay out on the ground, brown side uppermost so they looked like nothing more than a scuff of dirt until they moved. There was also the sound of the rain that covered the sound of other things coming up on you until they was too close to be escaped.
None of the clothes I brung was proof against rain, so I was very soon soaked to the skin and shivering with the cold. I give up in the end and took shelter under a choker tree. Its lower branches, curved round me like claws, give me a twisting feeling in my gut, but I trusted the tree would not get restless in such cold, dark weather as this.
While I was sitting with my back to the choker’s trunk, three rats run by me. I would of been afraid, for they was as big as dogs, but they didn’t so much as look at me as they passed. A moment later, I heard the breaking of twigs and stomp of feet again from somewhere very close. It might be the thing that had come by me before, or something else, but whatever it was I didn’t care to meet it. I stepped around the trunk and backed away with slow and careful steps into a stand of ferns that was higher than my head.
It was not a wise thing to do, I seen that at once. The ferns was thick, hiding the ground at my feet, so I couldn’t see what might be down there. And the branches over my head was big ones that dipped down almost to my shoulders. Anything up above that got the scent of me and found it pleasing could walk a short, straight road to its dinner.