Bedding the Lamia: Tropical Horrors
- eBook
- Paperback
- Book info
- Sample
- Media
- Author updates
- Lists
Synopsis
Release date: December 3, 2021
Publisher: IFWG Publishing International
Print pages: 228
* BingeBooks earns revenue from qualifying purchases as an Amazon Associate as well as from other retail partners.
Reader buzz
Author updates
Bedding the Lamia: Tropical Horrors
David Kuraria
The Gods of Mwaia
“For some, rapid movement from a large tropical insect or arachnid can cause dread. Limbs of crawling things, appendages arranged for locomotive precision repulse certain dispositions. The individual stares with perverse pleasure, frightened yet unable to look away. Touching the bark of a tree only to find under fingertips, movement, turns casual exploration of nature into a frightening experience. It is the camouflage, a perceived malevolent deceit of the hidden, the disguised that horrifies.”
–Astrid Bërgëson
The Hidden Realm, Oslo University Press 1926.
In a shabby second-floor waterfront boarding house room above the Honiara fish markets, Renai sat on a packing crate facing his friend, Alan O’Connor. The hulking New Zealander had been a guide-for-hire in New Guinea for a private security firm, protecting tourist adventurers from kidnappings. He looked freakish in the gloomy confines of the small room. Alan’s skin was grey and his pupils were black.
Over the babble of voices haggling seafood prices from the docks below Alan’s room, Renai explained his situation.
“You already know about the tribes on The Beast, my friend.”
Renai jerked his head towards the south wall of the room, indicating his island home of Mwaia.
Alan shook his head. “You still having problems with those Kwaio landowners?” He paused for a moment. “You never did tell me why you call it The Beast.”
Renai stared at his friend. “Doesn’t matter. What matters is our displacement. Three generations have passed and we are still not allowed back on ancestral lands; no land for crops and forced to build our coral islets out in Bina lagoon, poor soil stolen from the farms. Alan, we can’t continue this. My people starve on a diet of fish, skinny tubers and coconuts.”
Alan looked at Renai, his friend’s blonde afro catching the light of the morning sun shining through the small window.
“What’s happening with the local government in town here?”
Renai growled. “Useless. They keep saying it is out of their jurisdiction. I have no choice. I am going to have to deal with this my way.”
“Now I’m liking it. What have you got in mind?”
Renai leaned forward on the rickety chair. “I have to make a trek up to the highlands to plead my case to the upland Kwaio, the hereditary owners of the coast. These uplanders are secretive and aloof with many tambus.”
“Okay, I’m in, who else do you have?”
Renai explained where he was up to with organising the trek.
“Two interpreters you say? Friends of yours, Ren?”
Renai felt stifled in the sweltering confines of the tiny room. “I’ve met them a few times, decent fellows. La’akwai is a lowland Kwara’e. He’s fluent in Kwaio dialect, but he enjoys his weed. The other one, Luti, is coastal Kwaio and knows his bushcraft. From what I’ve seen he’s good with handling local youth disputes.”
“I’m not getting paid for this, am I?”
Renai grinned. “Of course you aren’t. You’re here to help a friend in need.”
“You know we’re going to need first aid kits and vaccines before we go up.”
Renai looked at the corridor through the open door of the room. “Ahead of you there. I have spoken with the medical staff down in Kirakira hospital on Makira. They are interested in collecting some upland plants for research. I said if they could spare someone to come with us, we could provide them with safety to do their work.”
“So, the hospital is financing this?”
“Well, they’ve promised me a small budget and medical supplies, but we have to provide our own food and gear. I’m taking the ferry down tomorrow to meet with the intern who will be coming with us.”
“At least it’ll get me out of here for a while.” Alan looked about his dismal lodgings. “When do you want to make a start?”
Renai was anxious to get out from the confines of the room.
“Day after tomorrow, we should all meet at the Bina markets.”
Renai sat drinking a sour coffee in the Kirakira hospital cafeteria. He looked up to see a tall, athletic young woman sitting opposite.
“Hi, Mr Renai. I’m Tatau. Dr Mahia has given me a brief.”
She smiled. “Not what you expected?”
Renai laughed. “Well, I was expecting someone with a white coat who would be complaining once we got into the mountains.”
Tatau tapped her fingers on the sides of the table. “Well, you have me instead.”
Renai pushed his coffee cup aside. “So you know where we are going?”
“Yes, into the highlands. I can have my equipment ready in about two hours.” Tatau leaned forward. “How organised are you? How many people will be with us?”
Renai appreciated her enthusiasm, liking her no-nonsense attitude.
“Two interpreters, local boys and a Kiwi fellow, for protection.”
“You know I will be using you to further my research. I just want to get that straight.”
Renai laughed. “I fully understand.”
Tatau stood. “I guess I should go and pack my gear.”
It was market day on the foreshore of Bina Lagoon. Stalls had been erected to sell fruit and seafood and bright-coloured cloth; animals were put into hastily built corrals. Runabouts chugged across the lagoon, their owners nearly hidden by sale goods piled high.
On a grassy bank facing the lagoon, Renai sat with Tatau waiting for Alan to arrive on the Honiara ferry. They had been studying the terrain of the mountainous expanse of Mwaia on Tatau’s laptop. Renai pointed to an upland section of the island.
“We have to be careful when we get up near cloud cover. There are sinkholes and caverns all over the upper reaches. Most of these are hidden by thin coverings of moss.”
Tatau began one last run through of her medical supplies, which included a first aid kit and malaria vaccines stored in a chilled container encased in bubble wrap. Luti and La’akwai returned from the markets carrying bags of rice and salt as gifts to the upland Kwaio.
Renai sat up. “Here’s the ferry.”
Tatau’s first sight of Alan startled her. “Look at the size of him. What’s wrong with his skin?”
“Yes, he does turn heads. Alan used to work at a factory that refined precious metal, silver mostly; he worked at it for too long and absorbed it into his skin. Permanent, sad to say, but not harmful. He told me it’s called argyria. Look at his pupils when I introduce you, he won’t mind—they’re jet black.” Renai looked about the busy marketplace.
“You know, Tatau, this time of year it will be heavy rain every day on the upper slopes, with mudslides and falling rocks. Alan is the only person I know who could get us out of trouble should that happen—should anything happen. No helicopters to get us out.”
She spoke in a whisper. “Strange, the locals aren’t even staring at your friend.”
“Alan’s a local as well, these people have seen him before. They call him the shark man because of the grey skin.”
Alan stepped up and whacked Renai on his shoulder. Renai staggered a little.
“Alan, this is Tatau, our doctor for the trip.”
Tatau smiled. “Hey, nice to meet you.”
So that’s what silver does to a person.
Alan grinned. “Good to meet you, too.”
Renai looked at his companions.
“Okay everyone, check your packs and pick up what you think you may need from the market. We are going to need food for three, four days.”
Mid-morning of the second day Renai could no longer see the ocean. He realised that in Papua New Guinea, a lost trekker could be assured of eventually coming across a mining or logging camp, unless rebels found them first. On Mwaia there were no camps. Rich in old-growth hardwoods, the island had never been logged. Upland tribes fiercely protected their privacy. Up in the mist and torrential rain, the Kwaio lived a life unknown to the modern world. Theirs was a culture of strict tambu. To enter their world was dangerous, and Renai had long suspected what he might encounter when he arrived to plead his case for land rights.
At eight hundred metres the expedition was tired and drenched. The sun was a dim orange ball through the cloud covering. Renai leaned against a hardwood tree of the old-growth forest. He sipped tepid water from his canteen. His sago palm raincoat sat high on his reddish-blond Afro, protecting his head and shoulders from the downpour. He looked at each of his companions as they scratched themselves and brushed away bugs crawling on their exposed skin, seeing nothing of their faces underneath the palm hoods of their leaf coats. Luti, the Kwaio interpreter, was speaking with Tatau. Renai had noticed they had been in conversation quite a lot since leaving the Bina markets. He wondered if there was something between them. Luti looked at Renai briefly, then went back to discussing something with Tatau.
Alan was a little way down the trail, wearing his heavy back pack while doing push ups. La’akwai stood nearby smoking weed and grinning inanely at the tree canopy.
Renai walked down the trail and stood next to Alan as the big man stood.
“He keeps staring and smiling his dopey smile,” Alan said. “Does he need to be high all the time?”
“Look, I’ll have a word with him about his smoking. As for the staring, you are a sight, and he’s not met you before.”
Alan stared into the wall of green. He craned his head to stare up at the cloud cover.
“What ever happened to that fella Lomu who was here studying the fish?”
Renai felt an itch on his neck and absently checked for ticks.
“Marine toxins in sea snakes.”
Alan frowned, turning to his friend. “Why d’you have to correct people all the time, Ren? You know who I mean.”
Renai stopped poking about his neck. He hadn’t realised he did that to people. “He went back to Auckland digging for Moa bones.”
Tatau walked past Renai, her clothes sodden and the plastic covering her backpack dripping rainwater. Renai decided it was time for the second meal break of the day. “Let’s take a rest, people.”
Tatau leaned up against a tree and looked up the trail where rainwater was carving a channel. Runoff from the recent downpour cascaded from a muddy slope overhead. Through the spray, she could just make out the stocky form of Luti.
Renai checked the cloud cover. He knew he had to be careful on the ascent. Well-worn trails were washed away by flash floods. For many, attempting to scale the back of The Beast proved too hard—it broke them. What looked to be a flat rock at the side of an upward track could easily be a grey crust of limestone with a mesh of roots underneath, covering a hidden cave or narrow ravine.
Renai wondered what would happen once he met some of the Upland Kwaio. He hoped Luti was all he claimed and could help him and the others avoid all the social faux-pas which came with the strict societal ways of the Kwaio. He took his GPS from its plastic bag and switched it on. A moment later La’akwai and Tatau came to stand beside him, the plastic covering their packs being smacked by the heavy rain. Luti stopped next to him and shrugged his shoulders to adjust his backpack. Alan stepped up beside him and looked at Renai’s GPS.
“How high are we?”
“Eleven hundred and twenty metres. We should start seeing bamboo forests and cycads a bit higher up.”
Swathes of fern and scattered banyan trees covered the hillsides. Orchids of many colours reached for sunlight filtering down into small glades. A flock of bright-coloured parrots squawked and wheeled above a gap in the canopy. Luti looked down and idly picked a small lizard from La’akwai’s plastic backpack covering and set it on a nearby tree trunk.
“We’re close now to Kwaio outskirts,” said Luti.
Renai looked at him. “How close?”
“Half a kilometre, maybe less; I saw crop gardens through the trees about a hundred metres back.”
“You each know what’s expected of you. What we say and how we behave in the first few moments will mean success or failure. To be sure, Luti, a quick run-through again please, so we’re all straight on this.”
“The Kwaio know of the outside world,” Luti said, “but they have chosen to reject its ways. Don’t think we are walking up to talk with a bunch of ignorant indigenous backwater folk. These people just want to keep their life and religion of their ancestors—magic and sorcery. When we are with them, we have to act as if we believe their ways. Watch their facial expressions. If we don’t fit in straight away there will be trouble for us. There are strict rules. Don’t laugh. Don’t take photos. If you have to…um…urinate, ask someone. Point at yourself and they’ll know and show you where to go.” Luti looked at Tatau. “Unmarried girls and women go naked and married women cover their vaginas. Women visitors must go naked when entering a Kwaio village and are not accepted when they have their periods. I think once you have entered their space in the right way, someone will cover you, but I’m not sure.”
Renai saw Alan and La’akwai look at Tatau.
“I don’t bleed right now,” she said and smiled at the gathered men, strangers only two days ago. “I’m a doctor, these things don’t bother me.” Tatau joggled her heavy backpack containing, among other things, the bags of salt she had brought as gifts. She smiled and looked at Renai. “You don’t think I have come all this way without doing my homework, do you? I know what needs to be done.”
Luti leaned in and spoke a few words to her. She laughed. Again Renai wondered what was going on between them.
“You might see some of the elders act strange, but do not speak with them,” Luti said. “They have sacred rituals which we won’t be allowed to see. The elders eat fungus and they see things. They go to sacred groves with stone circles up in the high country and speak secrets with things—the Ramo. I have to say again: do not speak with these elders. Remember, things will turn nasty if we break any of these tambus.”
And there it is, thought Renai. Ramo. But Renai remembered the other word, the one not even spoken aloud by the coastal peoples, the word. He remembered the time on the cable ship Sumatra Queen, when he and his submarine winch crew, Marina and Fulcrum, had bought something strange up from the depths clinging to the winch arm. He recalled detention in a Guam military facility; the debriefing sessions and the warning of silence—the breaking of that silence with the story he had told Lomu, the New Zealander. It all came back to him, memories he’d tried to put behind him.
“Damned thing—damned memories following me.”
He walked a few metres up the track and checked the cloud cover. Looking back, he noticed the men were watching Tatau. She held something yellow in one hand. Renai heard one of the men respond to something she must have said.
“Strange. I’ve not heard of that.”
“What we have here is the honey mushroom fungus. I’ve read articles. For a sighted person, the licking of this fungus causes partial temporary blindness. Takers hallucinate and the brain tries to make sense of partial information. The eyes send messages and the brain is trying to fill in the gaps.” Luti stared at Tatau. “I hope you are not thinking of finding the stones where the elders go. You can’t go to the stones. Didn’t I say they were tambu?”
Tatau spread her hands.
“Well, we’ll have to find some samples elsewhere.”
Luti pursed his lips and slowly shook his head.
“I am not liking this. No. It is said that when the elders take the rock fungus, they see the Shadow Men—the Ramo. Legend has it, Ramo wear people alive as cloaks sewn to their own bodies, flesh to flesh. The living human is left in agony with no food or water to keep it alive, so the victim dies slowly, being flapped about whenever the Ramo moves. The victim dies in terrible hunger. Another Ramo scoops out the organs, leaving only a rattling cloak of bones and dried skin.” He looked at each of the assembled group. “But if we talk about collecting fungus or mention this spirit race to our hosts, we will have our throats cut.”
Tatau wrinkled her nose. “Charming.”
Renai beckoned the group to him
“People, everything aside, when we get to the outskirts, we stand at the edge of their village and wait to be invited.”
Thunder accompanied the thickening rain. Renai felt a tap on his arm. Turning, he saw Luti trying to see through the close-pressed trunks of the hardwood forest. Luti straightened and sniffed the air. He smelt strong herbs.
“We have company.”
Two copper-haired warriors led Renai’s group into the village. With just the backpack containing medical supplies hanging from her shoulders and a bag of salt held in one hand, Tatau walked naked into the village. Renai followed and could not stop staring at Tatau’s behind. He noticed La’akwai looking at the village huts and saw Alan’s discomfort. Renai knew Alan was trying to look anywhere but at Tatau’s nakedness.
The compound area was surrounded by huts and meeting houses of various sizes which sat on raised stumps amid enormous banyan trees, their arboreal roots falling to the ground like the wooden bars of prison cells. Tatau paced across the packed earth. Renai could see how she was taking this in her stride. She kept her pace regular and her head held high. She managed to take in her surroundings while she walked a little unsteadily towards a group of elders in traditional wear—feathers and local weavings—waiting for the group to approach. Off to one side were a group of women, tall, bare-breasted, the elder ones wearing colourful twisted cloth around their hips, bound around their vaginas. Renai saw how straight they stood, stately and obviously proud. Behind them children peeked out. Tatau saw a lean people, taut-muscled and well-nourished with healthy skin. Full-length leg and torso tattoos were on display, the green and black ink making the Kwaio an intimidating sight. Luti stepped up to Tatau and whispered to her.
“Remember what I said, okay?”
Renai followed Luti and Tatau. Looking ahead at the elders, he saw them conferring and staring at something behind him. Turning, Renai saw they were discussing Alan.
The two warriors leading the group stopped and stood to either side. Renai stepped up to stand beside Tatau. One of the elders, a tall lean man with a parrot-feather headdress and a woven loin cloth, stepped forward. The man leaned to one side and regarded Alan. Ignoring the others, he motioned Alan forward. Alan didn’t hesitate. He stepped forward and stood eye to eye with the elder. Renai saw Alan bow his head for a few seconds and then look up. The elder smiled and turned to the other men behind him. One of them said something and the elder facing Alan grinned. When he spoke, Renai was surprised to hear English words.
“Grey man, shark man, hmmm.” The elder smiled, showing stained teeth. He looked at the gifts bought by the group and nodded approval. He raised his arm and with a flick of his fingers motioned the others of the group forward. Renai stared at Alan
‘Who would have thought he would be the one to get us accepted?’
Another Kwaio stepped forward. This man was old, with a mane of white hair and a posture suggesting great fitness. He pointed to Alan and La’akwai and motioned them to him. Renai knew La’akwai was stoned and a little paranoid. He went with Alan and stood beside the white-haired elder. The old man glanced at him, looking unimpressed. He looked at Alan and reached out and touched his skin. Alan remained still. The elder leaned closer, looking into Alan’s eyes, studying the black pupils. The old man smiled, nodding approvingly. Alan seemed to have no idea what was happening. The elder lightly grasped Alan’s arm and led him towards some women and a curious group of chattering children. The elder jerked his head indicating La’akwai should follow.
In a long lodge constructed from banyan and thatch, Tatau, Renai and Luti sat cross-legged on woven mats. Opposite, the tribal elders faced them. Fruit and water skins were bought in by a young warrior and placed on the mat between them. Renai saw Luti nudge Tatau. She spoke, and Renai was surprised she did not speak English—she was speaking to the elders in Kwaio. Renai had his mouth open and stared at Luti.
“So that’s what they’ve been discussing. He’s been teaching her Kwaio.”
He cursed himself for not having prepared better. He watched the elders nodding as first Luti and then Tatau spoke Kwaio. Renai saw Tatau indicate with a finger the symbol of a needle going into her arm. Tatau held her hand flat with palm down, indicating a small person. The elders nodded and one turned to Luti and spoke a few words. Luti nodded. There was silence for a few moments as the elders conferred. Finally one looked directly at Tatau. He held his hand above the ground to suggest something small. He nodded and Renai saw Tatau’s shoulders drop a little as if she was relieved. He knew then she had been given permission to inoculate the children of the village. Luti had been right. These people did know what went on out in the world; they simply chose to ignore that which did not directly affect them.
Renai nodded, smiling. He was not being upstaged or forgotten at all. The elders were simply getting other business out of the way before seeing to his needs. Renai felt relieved. Tatau shuffled backward. She bowed her head for a moment and smiled at the elders. Tatau said something which Renai guessed might be “thank you” and then she left the lodge.
Luti motioned to Renai. “It’s time, my friend. Let’s do this. I’ll interpret.”
Renai shuffled across and joined him. They both looked expectantly at the elders before them. One stared for a moment at Renai. With a flick of his hand he motioned for the discussion to begin. A few times during the negotiations, Renai regretted not having had the foresight to learn a few basic phrases of at least one Kwaio dialect. He had been planning this for so long and he had not even given thought to the one thing he so needed right then. As he spoke, he listened to Luti interpret. Each time he waited for a response and when it came, Luti related back to him what was said. Negotiations continued for half an hour. Luti and Renai waited tensely for a decision from the elders. It was Kwaio ancestral lands. Even by the coast, Upland Kwaio held dominion. Luti held out his hands, palms up, towards the elders. Even Renai knew this signified a certain defeat. He felt saddened that it had come to this—all the effort and stress had come to nothing. He heard Luti speaking to him.
“Hey, don’t look so down. They agree.”
“What—What?”
“It’s okay, Renai. You have your land grant. It’s just not that big.”
Renai stared at the elders. Without turning, he spoke.
“How big are we talking?”
Luti thought for a moment.
“Ninety longhouses, that’s about…um…twenty acres.”
Renai turned to him.
“Twenty acres? That’s not”—he thought for a moment before speaking— “twenty acres.” He laughed and stopped short. He looked at the elders and saw them watching him. He turned to Luti.
“Hey, that’s actually pretty good.” Renai felt a great relief settle upon him.
Outside the elders’ lodge, Luti and Renai met up with Alan and La’akwai. Tatau joined them, wearing a twisted coloured cloth covering her hips and thighs. Renai checked the time on his GPS.
The group was provided with dried meat and cooked taros and yams. They took their gifts and were escorted to the edge of the village, and there Tatau was able to retrieve her clothes and boots. Alan and Luti shouldered their backpacks. Renai realised they would have a couple of hours of hard travel back down the island trail before they set up camp for the night. He turned to his companions.
“I can’t thank you enough for all you have done. Without—” He looked at Tatau and Luti. “Thank you.” He glanced up and saw clouds promising more rain. “So, let’s go home.” He turned and started down the muddy track.
Tatau walked up behind Renai
“Let’s take a little detour before we go down.”
Renai shrugged his backpack into a more comfortable position.
“Sure. Where do you want to go?”
Tatau stared ahead. “Up, just a little way.”
Renai saw where she was looking. “What, up there? There’s no trail.”
Tatau looked at her boots sinking in the mud. “I’ll make one. You have a good result. Now I need mine. Let’s go up there and find a level place to make camp.”
“Fine, let’s go. But you’re cutting the path.”
Tatau pointed to the machete in Renai’s belt. “I’ll take that.”
Alan stopped behind them. He looked up the slope Tatau had pointed to. “Oh, now that’s nasty. Nice job today, Tatau. I’ll make camp when we get up there. We can go home tomorrow.”
Renai struggled up the muddy slope and followed Tatau onto a flat expanse of short highland heather with a surround of cycads. Luti and Tatau discarded their backpacks. Renai watched La’akwai pull a rolled smoke from his shirt pocket. He lit up, blowing a mouthful of strong dope which clouded the air about the faces of the group.
“There’s no stopping you,” said Alan.
La’akwai grinned and inhaled.
Tatau smiled as she looked up at the canopy. “It’s just an extra day, Renai. I’m sure I can find some fungal specimens before we leave.”
Alan and La’akwai were busy folding tents when Renai woke. He left the tent and saw the cycad forest and thought it looked like something from a dinosaur movie. Clouds had gathered and seasonal rain fell. Renai heard a swish of someone walking through grass bordering the camp. Turning, he saw Tatau walking with some plastic bags, her sago palm rain hood flapping from its string tie around her waist. She smiled.
“Morning. I’ve samples—not honey fungus, but these should tell me something when I get back to the hospital.”
Renai nodded and stretched, then began helping break camp.
Alan packed the tents. He saw Luti coming back with a container of spring water.
“I found a path over there leading down through some rocks,” Luti said.
The way out was a ravine leading the explorers through a cliff-lined path, funnelling them out onto a flat grassy field. Luti walked out into the space. He stopped and stared at a circle of enormous standing stones. He recalled what had been mentioned regarding the Kwaio elders and he knew they had stumbled upon a sacred site. Some vague warning flitted through his consciousness. He looked at the weathered petroglyphs covering the rock faces and at the yellowish green mossy substance clinging in patches to the carvings.
La’akwai wandered out from the ravine. He dropped his pack on the flat ground and hurried across to one of the standing stones. Without hesitating, he put his face up to the surface and licked a patch of moss.
Renai followed Tatau, Alan and Luti out onto the flat expanse, a natural amphitheatre with five-metre cliffs. Renai saw what La’akwai was doing. “No. Come on!”
La’akwai grunted. “This stuff is supposed to make you able to see the afterlife.”
Renai glared at him. “A hallucinogen?”
“So I have heard.”
Renai wiped rain from his face. “Come on. Stop that!”
Luti looked at Renai. “We should not be here, it is tambu. If we’re caught, we’re all going to see the afterlife.”
Renai looked at the massive stones of the circle.
“One of the sacred places. I grew up on the coast hearing of this.”
Alan had dropped his backpack onto the ground inside the stone circle and was wandering about looking at the surrounds. Tatau took a zip top plastic bag and a penknife from her jacket. Renai watched her take a scraping from a mossy growth on one of the stelae. He was going to say something when he felt Luti poke him in the ribs.
“Why do hospital people have to pick and poke?” Luti asked.
“They want to know how things work.”
Tatau bagged the sample. Renai saw Alan with his face up next to one of the standing stones, tasting the yellow-green mat.
“Oh, come on, Alan, not you too. We need you to watch out for us.”
La’akwai spoke. “We need to leave. This is not a place for us.”
Tatau nodded with her back to him. “Yes, yes. Just give me a few minutes.”
La’akwai became insistent. “Now, Doctor, please, we have to find our way back.”
“Yes. I’ll only be a moment.”
Alan looked up one of the huge standing stones. He ran his hands over the pitted surface and the weathered carving, his fingers tracing the lines of the petroglyph. He looked at Renai.
“Yeah, alright, we should go. I don’t want to get caught here by our Kwaio friends”.
Tatau shrugged out of her backpack and placed it on the muddy ground. Rain thickened. She walked around inside the stone circle. At a point farthest from the ravine entrance, she knelt on a limestone outcrop on the lip of a large hole. She lay on her stomach and peered down into the darkened depths, thinking there might be fungus growing near the top. Below, she could see a series of serrated edges, sharpened in a spiral caused by flowing water from the frequent rain. Beneath an overhang she could see vines and creepers poking out from hidden recesses. The edge of bushes scraped against her arms as she leant further into the hole.
Alan spoke from above her. “Hey, careful, you’ll fall in. Here, I’ll hold your ankles.”
Tatau nodded. “Thanks. I want a quick look to see.”
Alan knelt and held her as she leaned over the now muddied edge and peered down. She felt the rain spatter across her back. With her head below ground level, Tatau looked for growths. She heard a noise and lifted her head. She blinked and stared at the opposite wall, just below eye level. Something flickered across the far wall. Tatau stared at the wall and thought she saw a shadow pass back and forth over a lighter patch. A slithering sounded to her left. A shadow appeared a little closer, as if something furtive was travelling unseen around the wall toward her. She felt a sudden panic and cried out.
“Pull me up. Pull me up.”
She felt Alan’s hands tighten about her ankles and she was pulled forcefully from the opening. As her head left the edge of the pit into open air, Tatau saw the entire far wall of the opening just below ground-level ripple, like a jelly mould poked by a questing finger. Tatau sat on the ground and breathed deeply.
Alan stepped closer to the edge of the cliff face, trying to find a little shelter from the rain. A rumble and a crack sounded from above. A section of the cliff detached and slid down towards where Alan was standing.
Through the driving rain, Renai saw the cliff face seem to split. A deluge of water cascaded over the lip. A scraping rumble sounded. Tatau backed away from the cliff face and stood with Luti and Renai.
Alan stepped forward away from the wall and peered up into the rain. “What is that?”
Renai shouted his warning.
They watched a grey shape slide over the edge of the rock face. The boulder hung for a moment and fell. Part of an inside edge caught the side of the cliff and the boulder, weighing many tonnes, flipped outward, turning as it fell.
Alan turned to run. He slipped on the muddy ground. His leg slid sideways and he heard a snap. He cried out in agony and a red-smeared white bone tore a jagged hole through the side of his left calf muscle as he slid across the muddy ground, feeling the spatter of spray from the outer edge of the cascade. He heard voices in the driving rain shouting his name. Through the pain he managed to look up in time to see the huge boulder falling. Next moment he felt a great weight as he was pressed into the mud. There was nothing for a moment. Alan felt numb. The pressure of the boulder had turned him over a little and now his face was half submerged in the water and mud. As he tried to breathe he felt water go up his nose. He exhaled with a snort and mud and a bubble of water were ejected. He struggled and managed to lift his head. Water flowed into his mouth. Another wave of pain hit him. The weight of the boulder pressed his body further into the mud. Under the weight, a section of ground near the mouth of the hole dislodged and fell. Alan was washed over the edge and down in a rushing river of water and mud. Through his pain he glanced back over his shoulder and in the dim light and pouring rain, he saw the forms of his companions swept with him over the edge into the surrounding darkness.
Tatau’s fall had been softened by the deluge of mud and shingle. She’d landed on the moss at the bottom of the recently opened cave. With the roof now collapsed, earth and muddy water swept down into the lightless depths. Tatau was able to see out of the opening some metres overhead. The rain was thinning and the cloud cover parted to show clear sky. She felt as if she was lying at the bottom of a wide chimney. She heard someone babbling and turned to find the source. She recognised La’akwai’s hair. He was curled up into a ball and talking to himself. She saw him jerk a shoulder, then again. To her it looked as if someone had poked his shoulder and he was shrugging away from the touch. She thought is must be the effects of the hallucinogen.
He shouted something and turned to her. La’akwai’s face was contorted, as if he was terrified of something. He thrust his hands out in front of him in an attitude of defence. Behind her Tatau heard another sound, a kind of gurgling moan. She sat up and, in the light filtering down from above, she saw the shirt Alan wore showing above a depression in the thick moss. She crawled over and knelt next to him. She saw his fibula, washed clean of blood, thrusting from his torn trousers. Alan’s face was white and Tatau knew he had lost a lot of blood. He looked up at her and attempted a smile.
“Tatau, I hurt, bad.”
She realised her medical bag was somewhere overhead outside the cave. She reached down and cradled Alan’s head. She felt the sharp edge of a protruding sliver of basalt rock behind Alan’s ear where it entered his skull. She held her breath and felt tears form in her eyes. She tried to keep her voice steady.
“Shhh, fella. We will sort something out.”
Alan smiled through his agony. “My head is numb.”
Tatau watched him watching her. She saw him press his teeth together in some manly effort not to cry out. Unable to move his head he swivelled his gaze, attempting to see through the gloom. His mouth was stretched wide in silent agony. He relaxed a little and coughed up a spurt of blood which sprayed Tatau’s face and trickled down from the bridge of her nose and across her cheek. She peered into Alan’s eyes, knowing he was so close to going. He looked at her again, seeming to be cross-eyed. He shifted his gaze.
“Tat. I see them. They are…they are…big.”
Tatau saw Alan’s eyes widen. She shuddered.
“No!”
Tatau tried to comfort him in his last moments. She looked at his face and realised Alan was not actually looking at her, he was looking just over her shoulder. She felt a soft breeze behind her, ruffling her hair. A cry from behind made her jump. It was La’akwai. Again the movement, an exhalation puffed against her hair. Then, still cradling Alan’s head, Tatau felt something touch the back of her head. Feather-like at first, it became insistent. Tatau felt an encroaching terror. She kept her head still and dropped her gaze to look down at Alan. She saw the loose muscles of his face. The lips had drooped and were pressed up against one of her palms. She knew he was gone. She lowered his head and manoeuvred her hands so she was able to lay his face against the soft moss. She closed her eyes and breathed deeply. The feeling of being rubbed on her head stopped. Tatau lay still for a moment.
A strange smell like herbs burning alerted her to something close, something behind her. She was horrified at her predicament. She felt a pressure—something seemed to be crawling up the outside of her left thigh. She jerked her arm and swept her open palm up the length of her pants. There was nothing there. She clenched her teeth together in an effort not to make a sound. Something again touched her hair. Slowly she turned. There was nothing behind her.
Tatau watched her boots sink a little into the spongy moss. In the gloom she could see growths—etiolated plants, their leaves blanched, growing without light—clinging to the cave walls. Her thoughts centred. At first she wondered what had been missing from the picture. La’akwai was no longer there. For a moment she thought she saw a flickering just in front of her face, as if there was some movement right up against the rock face. She reached out and touched the place. Her fingertips brushed something soft and she jerked her hand away. For some moments she stared at the spot. She felt afraid and moved away.
Where were Renai and Luti? She leant down as if that would aid her in seeing into the gloom of the further recesses of the newly opened cave. She could see nothing back there and was reluctant to venture into that dimness. She looked down at Alan’s broken body. There came a whisper from all about her as if voices were trying to get her attention. Tatau turned, but could see nothing tangible. She looked up and saw by the aid of the light that there were handholds where she could climb out of the cave. She wondered if La’akwai had found his way out while she had been tending to Alan. With one look back at Alan’s slumped form, Tatau stepped across some fallen rocks and put her hands up against the surface of the chimney of the cave. Then came the awful feeling she was not alone.
La’akwai had been facing towards Tatau when she had cradled Alan’s head. His back was against the wall when he felt it ripple against him. He felt strange, as if he was being lifted into the air. Something came down in front of his face. He tried to move and struggle against the descending sheet but found he could not. Again the wall rippled at his back and seemed to recede. La’akwai began to cry out as he sank into the rock. The film thickened around his face. Now he could only vaguely see the outline of Tatau. He called out to her, but the meshy substance covering his face fell into his mouth. He saw Tatau approach the wall where he lay, but he knew by her actions that she could not see him. She reached out and he felt her fingertips touch his throat. She drew her hand back. She appeared confused and frightened. La’akwai felt the wall at his back open. He slid into the gap and the meshy substance tightened, thickened. He screamed, the sound muffled by the ever-tightening gauze of the face covering. The wall opened further.
Tastebuds across the wide expanse of wet rock drank in the flavour of live food. Denticles covering the huge tongue ground against each other, shredding La’akwai’s clothes and raking his flesh. The throat opened and the creature swallowed him whole.
Tatau stood on the flat ground outside the circle of stones. Ahead, near the entrance to the narrow ravine, Renai had taken a length of nylon rope from a backpack. He was in the act of returning to the collapsed cave entrance. Tatau turned and looked back down into the aperture and could no longer see Alan. She turned at the sound of Renai approaching. He stopped and looked at her, saw the look on her face and he knew it to be true.
Outside the stone circle, Renai sat heavily on the muddy ground. Tatau knelt and put a hand on his shoulder.
“I’m sorry. There was nothing you could have done, we could have done. I’m sorry, Renai.”
Renai found his mouth was too dry to speak. He swallowed and worked up some saliva. “What about the others?”
Tatau shook her head. “La’akwai was down there with me, but he seems to have vanished. Luti? I don’t know.” She paused and looked at Renai. “I’m sorry about Alan. He was crushed—that huge boulder, you know.”
Renai put a hand gently on Tatau’s arm. He began to tremble. He exhaled loudly and tried to keep his emotions in check. “Just the two of us.” He began to feel afraid. “We can’t manage without Luti and La’akwai. Alan is a big fellow. We’re going to have to go back to the coast and get help. We can—we can find this place again with the GPS.
Tatau nodded. “Yes. Yes, that’s best.”
Renai looked at the surface of a nearby standing stone. As he stared, he thought he saw a ripple glide across the expanse, causing a patch of moss to move. The colouration of the stone’s face seemed to darken and then lighten. Variegated mineral veins radiated out to the edge of the stone. Renai blinked and for a moment thought he saw the outlines of a monstrous creature.
“Do you smell that?”
Tatau sniffed the air. She frowned and sniffed again.
“Yes. It smells like…cooking meat.”
Renai looked across the natural amphitheatre. Tatau saw he was panicky.
“Let’s call Luti, he has to be here somewhere.”
Tatau walked towards the entrance of the ravine, calling out for Luti. No answer came. She walked through the twisting passage to the outside entrance. The mud was deep and showed no bootprints. Returning, she called again, but still Luti did not respond. On her way back to meet Renai, Tatau walked past a standing stone with deep-carved petroglyphs. As she glanced at the stone’s face, she thought she saw the surface ripple. She stopped and blinked in the sunshine. Lifting her arm, she shaded her eyes and looked again. For a moment she thought she saw movement, reminding her of a wriggling fish burrowing into sand to hide itself, before lying still and waiting. She could not see Renai, but she heard him calling out for Luti. Tatau waited but there was no answering call. She walked past the standing stone and followed the sound of Renai’s voice.
Luti was trapped and held immobile. He watched in confusion as Tatau seemed to stare straight at him, her face so close to his. She’d frowned and stepped backward, turned and walked away. Luti tried to call to her but his mouth was covered by something. He felt something close about his ankles and apply pressure. His vision blurred as if a film had dropped across his eyes. He shouted, but his voice was muffled as something fell into his mouth. He coughed but could not dislodge it. Not able to turn his head, he followed Tatau’s passing by swivelling his eyes. She walked from view. The pressure on his ankles tightened and now he felt something slide upward. His lower legs were surrounded by something, and he was held firm. He tried to kick his feet but was unable to budge. He felt heat intensifying about his lower body. He gasped for air and waited a moment. The heat grew and through his clothing he began to feel himself burning. He struggled in panic and felt pressure all over his body as he was held fast. His clothing was being burned from his body and he felt the scorching heat upon his flesh. He tried to cry out but the gauze choked his throat. Luti felt a searing heat burning his ankles; he screamed as his legs became scorched. Flesh peeled off.
Tatau stepped away from the colossal standing stone and made her way into the centre of the circle. She shivered and stopped. There was a shimmering in the air above. She looked up at the tops of the stones. The space appeared to ripple; she saw the change, but only briefly.
All about the stones, between them and even the walls of the amphitheatre began to ripple as if in a heat haze. The shapes of the standing stones bent and formed odd angles. The surrounding cliff walls seemed to Tatau to vanish and then reappear as a different formation. The walls changed back. She looked up in time to see the patch of cloudless sky alter and discolour from azure to green and back. She blinked and the entire area above her head, including the tops of the standing stones, turned over, flipped, like a billboard made from metal panels or pixels all changing in unison to reveal another sign beneath. For the briefest moment Tatau saw a writhing movement, as of something immense overhead, briefly revealed and then once again hidden from view. She gasped at the revelation of that one glimpse: she thought she saw flashing colours streak upward on some vast amorphous creatures towering between the stones, then the stones and the entire surrounds re-flipped and Tatau saw things were as they had been. She gave a shout of terror, desperately wishing to get away from the stones, feeling as if the great weights would topple down upon her, crushing out her life.
She spied Renai and noticed he held a strip of moss in his hand. She watched him raise it to his mouth and start eating it. She saw the look of greed upon his face. Tatau realised it was the same kind of moss the others had licked for their hallucinatory effects. Tatau felt she should try to stop him, but all desire for decisive action had departed. She watched Renai sit on a boulder near the centre of the stone circle and began wolfing down the fat clump of moss. In the space above her head, things seemed to have returned to how they were. She felt the air charged with energy and realised it felt good. She no longer felt afraid standing next to the huge standing stones. She looked at Renai and frowned. Her feelings of lethargy weakened and she decided to stop him eating the clump of moss.
Renai sat on the boulder inside the circle of stones. He held what he thought to be a fat bread roll between his teeth and chomped down. He chewed the bread and swallowed. Noticing Tatau staring strangely at him, Renai grinned and took another mouthful of the roll. He began to feel lightheaded. He saw the stones of the circle appeared to have altered shape and somehow moved closer to where he sat. He glanced again at Tatau and saw she too had moved closer. He stared wide-eyed at his companion and was surprised to see she looked taller and, wider. He blinked and jumped when he felt a touch upon his arm. He looked up and saw Tatau’s face far above him. He watched in growing fascination as her face seemed to melt and her smile detached itself from her face. Her mouth was twisted and blue and he thought he saw laughter in the shape of circles coming from between her brown and blue lips. He laughed and took another bite from his bread roll. He felt a flapping near his mouth. He saw an enormous moth with thick legs which seemed to want to steal his bread roll—it kept grasping it and Renai kept jerking his hand away. He heard someone speak to him as the moth scrabbled about his face.
“Grobbin amerong mffitahh. Nnnnnnn-op!”
Renai laughed and tried to take another bite from the bread roll, but the moth had it in its legs and was pulling it from his grasp.
Tatau was finding the entire episode rather frustrating. She pulled the clump of hallucinogenic moss from Renai’s grasp.
“Renai, oh, come on. Let go!” She threw the chewed moss across the grass between the stones. “Come on, Renai, get a grip.”
Renai stared up at her with his mouth open. Tatau began to feel the change in the space about her. She felt cold. She glanced down and saw the look of growing panic upon Renai’s face. She wondered what was happening to his befuddled mind. He was not actually looking at her, but past her, up into the air above their heads. Her thoughts raced. She wanted to curl up on the ground, away from the feeling of tremendous pressure pushing down from above. Her mind shrunk away from the oppressive feeling sapping her life force. She felt she was being psychically drained and she wanted to cry. She looked down with horror at Renai’s face and saw the contorted mouth, the crinkled forehead and the eyes staring at something, something above. Then against her will, Tatau moved her body under that weight and turned her head to look up.
Nothing.
She heard Renai move in the mud. He had fallen off the boulder and was now squirming on the ground with his mouth stretched wide. But no sound came from him. He wasn’t breathing. She balled her hand into a fist and punched his chest. He gasped and let out a wheezy rush of air. He took a long breath and, still looking past her above their heads, he began screaming and trying to snake away on his back through the sodden grass. Again he ran out of breath with his mouth open, unable to draw breath; again Tatau punched his chest. And he breathed and screamed. Now Renai had flipped over and was on hands and knees, crawling away. Tatau felt something wispy touch her exposed neck. She stopped and let out a sob of terror. She turned and looked up. The air was somehow moving but she saw nothing. She flicked her gaze towards Renai and saw something on the periphery of her vision—something moving. With terror mounting, she held her gaze on one spot of grass and at the edge of her vision she saw red wetness ebb and flow. She rolled her eyes towards the movement and the moving shapes stayed in place. Tatau turned her head slightly towards the movement and she saw. Appendages, huge and glistening, pierced with stick-like stalks, shifted and scraped together about her, filling the place between the standing stones. Great wide eyes opened on wrinkled hide, blinked, and the mass of red flesh dripped moisture and moved closer, pressing down upon the amphitheatre. The earth beneath Tatau shifted and the sound of rock under the grass crunched and splintered. The standing stones seemed to melt at their edges as the living things altered shape. Tatau closed her eyes and fell to the grass and lay on her side. She listened and felt but did not hear shapes and presences shifting and sliding. Something touched her leg and she was grabbed and tugged a little along the ground. Too horrified to resist, she began sobbing. She was released and lay mute and gasping for air in the suffocating surrounds. Turning her head to one side, it sunk a little into the soft ground. She saw Renai’s head close by, pressed up against one of the standing stones. She saw the rock face wobble as would a jelly mould. A rasping sounded, reminding her of something being roughly shaved. Renai’s shoulders were heaving and his back arched, then fell; the action was repeated again, then again. He made no sound but the movements continued and seemed to Tatau as if he was a puppet being jerked on its strings. A suspiration sounded close by her head, as if there was something at her throat but just out of view. Something pressed against her body, feeling like soft dough pushing insistently. Tatau saw Renai’s head flush against the stele. She felt a pressure on her consciousness and an invasion of her thoughts. She heard someone cry out the word “Mama”.
When it was relayed to the Kwaio elders that none of Renai’s group had passed by the village gardens, the elders sent their people to find the missing visitors. It was not until late afternoon when Tatau and Renai were found amid the circle of standing stones. With the reverence accorded their sacred place, the elders had Tatau and Renai removed. On hastily-made bamboo litters, the pair was taken by selected warriors back down the twisting trails to the coast. As quietly as they had come, the Kwaio left Renai and Tatau in the care of the Bina Lagoon people and vanished back into the forest.
Renai had not fared well. He lay on his woven mat out on one of the small lagoon islets he had spilled blood to build with coral and earth. Tatau stayed with Renai for three days, calling her hospital for supplies to be delivered by motor boat. She saw as best she was able to Renai’s horrific wounds. Under her ministrations, his condition slowly improved. But it was his face that had everybody wondering what had taken place up in the Kwaio highlands of The Beast. The left side of Renai’s face was flattened as if it had been brutally scraped back and forth upon some immense grater. His ear was missing and there was no longer any skin upon his lower jaw or upon his cheek. The rounded bone on both areas had been shaved flat and the tatters of fleshy surrounds appeared to have been cauterised, melted as if his face had been dipped in acid. Looking at Renai as she tended him on his woven mat under his thatch roof shelter, Tatau knew something had happened to both of them, but she felt as if there were memories missing from her experience.
Within a week Renai was up and off his bedding. Despite the horrible damage to his face he seemed to suffer no lasting pain and did not complain of any discomfort. Although now physically strengthening, he appeared incapable of answering questions put to him regarding the ordeal.
It was Tatau who began feeling a delayed effect of the encounter up in the mountains. Over those days she vaguely recalled fleeting scenes from her time in the amphitheatre of the standing stones. Try as she might, she could not fit the pieces together. She remembered a whirling of great boulders; she remembered flying things. There might have been voices and rustlings in the air about her face, sighing of things not seen, but she could not be sure. She remembered being touched, an insistent exploration.
On the day of Tatau’s departure for Kirakira hospital, Renai stood on the end of the Bina lagoon jetty as she boarded the inter-island ferry. She looked at him and he had smiled that timid smile and stood still like a lost child.
After that Renai was always toiling away raising garden beds in the land plots granted his people by the Upland Kwaio owners; he organised plantings and cultivation and always there was the quiet smile looking out of place on his ruined face. He never spoke again. His timid, faraway look suggested to all who knew, that Renai had seen the frightful gods of the Kwaio.
We hope you are enjoying the book so far. To continue reading...