Her Perilous Wolf, Julie Steimle [howl and other poems TXT] 📗

know what I saw.”

Juma stared at her. “But you never saw supernatural things before this. I tried to show you so many times, and you called me superstitious.”

“So I was wrong,” she said, feeling slight nausea again.

He nodded. At least he accepted it.

When Juma left that afternoon, he suggested that when she was feeling better they would head back to Tanzania. They had a couple more sites to check out, and he was thinking it would be best that she head back to the US. She got the feeling that Juma had finally accepted the fact that she was not going to marry him. It was difficult to watch his heart break. But it was necessary.

On the fourth day, Audry felt loads better. Her headache was gone. All her body aches had disappeared. She was able to hold down breakfast, and her appetite had returned. When Sefu showed up to see how she was, he decided she was well enough to head back with them. He called Juma, and she packed her things into her backpack.

However, Mercy rode back with them and Darth to the compound. There, they met up with the rest of the group. They loaded the rest of their things into the jeeps and prepared to go. Audry checked in on the lion—who recognized her on sight. He came up to the fence and rubbed against it. She rested her hand against the fence wire and his fur.

“I’m glad you’re ok. Hopefully they’ll release you soon.”

When she went back to the jeeps, she climbed in with Sefu and Luis. Akachi rode with Juma—and Mercy. The dogs climbed in around Audry, all three snuggling fondly up to her. It made Sefu laugh and Juma stare.

They took a more direct trip over the border, using a main road which was smooth. Once back in Tanzania, they diverted to an off road of dirt, and rolled toward the village where Juma said one of the poacher dumping grounds was near. Audry noticed a peculiar odor, which as they got closer smelled more like burned hair.

She did not recognize the village. It was near a small river. The buildings were more primitive style kraal. And some of the villagers looked like they were in mourning. In fact, she could hear crying.

“What happened here?” Luis murmured as he rose from his seat.

Sefu shook his head, rising with Audry and the dogs who had hopped out immediately to run around.

They shut off their engines and called out to the villagers. They had a contact there who was supposed to meet them. Someone else approached waving his hands, calling out.

“What is it?” Audry asked, the dogs following her.

Juma shook his head, listening to the man. Mercy slapped a hand over her mouth, gasping.

Luis said, “A disease hit here recently. Either Dengue fever or yellow fever. He is saying we should leave.”

Audry nodded, backing up. She did not think her immune system would be able to take either disease right now.

As they headed back to the jeeps, something fell out of the back of Juma’s jeep. Audry was not sure what it was at first, but soon took the shape of a great snake which sprang at her.

She screamed, jumping back, but not in time to grab a gun.

Yet as heads turned to look, Audry also saw, coming out of nowhere, a tall, pale, bloody woman with long straight black hair and enormous dragon-like wings that jutted out of her back, spring in with a huge sword and slash that snake into three pieces—head falling, midsection dropping, end tail flopping to the ground. The pale bloody woman looked up at Audry with a nod, meeting Audry’s gaze with recognition then vanished from sight again.

Audry fainted.

 

“Audry!”

She felt someone gently patting her cheeks then something wet splashed onto her. She was back in the jeep and they were traveling to the next village. She opened her eyes. It was Akachi with her in the back seat. The dogs were in the other jeep, except Darth, who was licking her face.

“What happened?”

Akachi cried out, cheering. “She’s awake!”

“What happened?” she asked again.

“We thought you caught sick again,” Akachi said, the whites of his eyes somewhat red. She wondered if he had been crying. “We cannot go home just yet, but we are going to a village where there is no disease.”

She nodded, sitting up.

“Did that demon bite you?” he asked.

“So you saw it?” She looked around, sitting up more. Darth shifted with a whimper, crawling onto her lap so he would not get crushed.

“The snake?” he nodded. “Yes. But how did you kill it?”

“I didn’t,” she murmured, shaking her head.

He stared at her. “But… we saw it just die—like it disassembled.”

Rubbing her eyes more, Audry shuddered. “You did not see the bloody woman?”

He shook his head. His eyes widened more on her. “No. There was no one. What did you see?”

Sitting up, Audry sighed. “I saw…” Yet her head began to hurt again. “I saw what looked like a… demon. European. Only she had a sword, and she killed the snake.”

“Demon?” His eyes could not get any larger.

She nodded. “And… I think I recognized her. I’ve seen her before somewhere—but, no wings.”

“Wings? What did she look like?” he asked.

But Audry’s head hurt more. And her stomach felt sick. She was not better.

“Audry?”

She shook her head, hand over her mouth. But then she grabbed the edge of the jeep and threw up over the side.

“Sefu! Stop the car!” Akachi pulled on Audry to make sure she did not fall out.

They halted, kicking up dust on the road. It was already quite dark.

Someone called back from the font jeep and Luis answered.

“Sick?” Juma called back. “How bad?”

They answered him, though Juma felt Audry’s forehead. She was burning up. He shouted forward something she did not understand. After the briefest debate, Akachi pulled Audry back into her seat, and the jeeps started up again, a little bit faster.

Audry vomited over the side twice more before they finally arrived at a village. Akachi carried her out with Sefu while Mercy rushed up to help. The dogs were all around her, following with big eyes and whimpers. Juma followed with them, almost in the same manner. They immediately sought out the local witchdoctor who had them lay her down so he could look over her. Audry did not understand a word he said as he murmured over her prone and aching body, but she knew from his tone he had bad news. She would also see it in their faces.

“Am I dying?” she murmured, staring through a migraine at the dark hut ceiling.

Juma’s eyes were full of tears. So were the eyes of everyone there, including Mercy’s. In fact, she seemed to be crying more—though Audry was not sure what for. She still did not think Mercy liked her.

Audry fell asleep not long after.

That night her dreams were a tumult of strange images. In the clearest one, she dreamed of that bloody woman, except she was not carrying a sword, but rather a vial which looked like it was formed out of a solid obsidian stone. It had a stopper of obsidian which the bloody woman was unstoppering to pour out some sort of plague on the village. Yet she was also crying. Audry could see her eyes were orange—and recognized her immediately.

Audry woke with a start, then wished she hadn’t. It was morning, but her body ached worse than before. Her head felt swollen with a fever. They had laid one thin blanket over her, but thankfully not over her face. She was not dead yet.

When she tried to sit up, Juma gently pushed her down again. “Don’t move, Jabari. The doctor is trying is best for you. But you must lie still.”

She wet her mouth with her tongue before she was able to speak. Her throat felt like something had raked claws over it and dry. “I had a strange dream…”

He stroked her forehead, taking up a cloth. “Don’t talk now. Rest.”

Audry shook her head, or rather rocked it as he would not let her lift it—and it hurt anyway. “No. I need to tell you. I saw who killed the snake. I know who it was.”

He stared at her.

Mercy rushed up. “She’s awake?”

“Shhh!” Juma hushed her. To Audry, he said, “Who?”

Sighing, Audry closed her eyes. “Rick’s friend, Eve.”

Juma pulled back.

Mercy took in a breath.

Audry moaned. “But I don’t understand what she’s doing in Africa. I heard she was engaged to be married. And…” she struggled as her throat chaffed. “…in the dream, she was carrying a poison. But when I saw her kill the snake, she had these huge black wings and she was bleeding—like someone shot her. The whites of her eyes even looked a little yellow.”

“It was a hallucination,” Juma murmured. “You were dreaming about your disease.”

“I need to call my mother,” Audry murmured.

“There is no digital signal here,” Mercy said rather apologetically.

Audry closed her eyes. Of course there would not be. This village was not a modern one.

“We’ll get you back to Arusha,” Juma said, rising to do just that.

Yet Mercy followed him saying something in the dialect she spoke. He understood it, cringing. There came a small argument, which Audry could see Juma had lost. She had a feeling they were not going to Arusha.

The witchdoctor tried all sorts of cures over her. But from the smell of the room, the murmurs under his breath, and the look in his face, she could tell nothing was working. It was possible that snake bite was not just bite that removed her vaccinations, but also prevented any cures—at least not from a witchdoctor. Audry was hardly able to tell him to stop, half the time being forced to sip awful tasting soup or tea or whatever, the other half of the time vomiting it up. She spent most of the time half asleep anyway.

As she lay there going in and out of consciousness, her mind drifted. It was an odd way to go. She had never intended to come to Africa to die. And worse, she would not even be able to call her parents to say good bye. Why had she fled the US? What was it? A feeling of pointlessness in her research? Partially. She knew it really was because she had felt so stupid for not seeing the truth after all this time. All the signs has been there, and the only thing that had stopped her from recognizing Rick as the wolf was her own disbelief in the supernatural. For pity’s sake, she had dreamed of him as the wolf numerous times. Her subconscious brain knew already. And she knew she had fled the US because she was scared.

But was she scared of Rick?

Her mind drifted over that question. Was she scared of him?

Her mind answered, ‘A little’. And yet she knew that he would never hurt her. The way his gray eyes looked at her, especially the last time. He had kept his distance. He had shown her he was the wolf was to protect her. And he was always warning her from danger. For pity’s sake, he knew her last boyfriend was a bad deal. He had warned her from Silvia also. He was not a monster.

Audry felt a cool hand on her forehead. She cracked her eyes open, recognized Juma and breathed a sigh. His eyes were extremely damp.

“Jabari,” he murmured. “Can you hear me?”

“Yeah…” she breathed out.

“Can you hold a pen?” he tried to shove one in her fingers, but her hands hurt. She could hardly move, she ached so much.

Her head rocked back and forth, too tired to lift that.

“Ok.” He sat down next to her, wiping his nose with the back of his wrist. Then he looked to her and said, “What is the wolf man’s name?”

“Don’t hurt him,” she murmured. “He’s not a monster.”

Juma groaned. “Will he be upset if you die?”

She closed her eyes. “I don’t know. Maybe.”

He stared at her. “How upset?”

She rocked her head against