Dirty Eden Read Online Free PDF Page B

stiffened. Tsaeb, back to being his little pompous self, giggled insanely from behind.
    She reached out her hand and I staggered backward quickly.
    “My... ribs ?” My arms crossed defensively over my stomach.
    The creature tilted her head to the left, her gaze penetrating me.
    “Yeah, she wants to view your ribs, Norman,” said Tsaeb, chortling.
    I was really beginning to dislike that little shit.
    “Ummm, can’t we just shake hands?”
    The creature stopped in front of me and I could not move. She sniffed me, starting at the neck and moving down each leg before her face found its way to my mouth.
    I felt like I was in a full body cast and all I could move was my eyes. I had stopped breathing at some point.
    “I can sense it in you,” she said leaning away. “Your simplicity, your ignorance, the saltiness of your sweat.”
    “Maybe you can tell me something, anything about what I’m doing here.” Finally, I could breathe. “Just minutes ago I was in a city. Everything was normal, except for him,” I glanced at Tsaeb, “and the Devil himself.”
    No reply.
    “I’d appreciate some answers.” It was not a demand, simply a desperate inquiry.
    But she didn’t seem to have any more answers.
    “You are welcome if you need a place to lay your head,” she said. “We have all the provisions you need here.”
    I gazed beyond the creature, behind her, everywhere. There were no ‘provisions’ here, nothing that a human might eat. There were black surreal trees with thick serpent-like vines hanging from the branches. Moss-covered stones, dead leaves and various strange nuts covered the ground. The only source of live food that I had seen were insects; not even a rabbit or a squirrel had come out of hiding, if even there were such things as rabbits and squirrels here.
    “What about me?” said Tsaeb.
    “That one is forbidden.”
    “Yes, we’ve already established that,” I said, “but I won’t leave him and we’ll die if you don’t let us pass.”
    “You’re wasting your breath, Norman.”
    “Well, we have to do something !”
    “Where is it that you are traveling?” she said.
    “I don’t know! I just asked where I was — ”
    “Because you know not where you are, does not mean you know not where you are going.”
    “Ahhh!” I threw my hands up in the air.
    “They should take the carriage,” said another voice.
    The voice was close; could’ve been feet in front of me, yet no one was there. Panicking inside, I looked over at Tsaeb, hoping that maybe he had unraveled this mystery ahead of me.
    He looked as clueless as I knew I did.
    I waited...and waited...and waited some more until I couldn’t stand it.
    “What carriage?”
    “Every three days,” the creature began, “one of the carriages passes through this area of the field.”
    The mysterious voice added, “You may cross the field safely as long as you do not touch it for more than a brief moment.”
    “Let them cross the field alone,” said yet another voice to my right. “Let them die.”
    “No,” said another, “the man must get across safely.”
    “Treacherous. Vile.”
    “Then allow them passage.”
    “They will still have to go through the field.”
    I was going out of my mind. Voices everywhere. Behind me. In front of me. Above me.
    “He is strong enough.”
    “He is different from the others.”
    Finally, I saw one of them. The bark of a nearby tree moved like skin, rebelling against the natural backdrop of branches and moss. I noticed then that everything was moving, all around me, everywhere; the creatures perfectly camouflaged with the forest. My eyes felt drunk.
    I tried not to show fear, though at any second I was going to run away screaming like a girl out into the field. “Well, how many days until this carriage comes back?”
    “It should arrive tomorrow,” the creature in front of me said, “at this time when the heat is at its greatest.”
    “Good, then Tsaeb and I will camp out here for the