An Earther in the Fonlands – 5
As she stood in the lush forest of the disc of Agê, Coffey felt a feeling she had never known before. She felt calm. Before her death, Coffey’s mother, Alita, had taught her how to survive in the world of white men, and the lesson that she had learned as the most important was to always be on your toes. She told Coffey that the only way to avoid being the victim of white people, was to be aware of how they looked and talked about her, and if she ever heard something negative, she had to find a way to correct it or risk her life.
“We jus property to them,” Alita said, “but you see the way some of these white folks treat they property. You have to show them that you worth something, all the time.”
Anytime Coffey was in the presence of white people, she stood up straight to appear taller and older than she was and her mind would fill with imagined assessments of her body. Even if she wasn’t around white people, she thought about her interactions with them and how she could avoid any negativity the next time she encountered them.
But as she stood in the lush forest of the Agê disc, with huge trees, vines and branches, and the sounds of what she thought were birds and insects, her mind was free, not twisting itself into knots trying to understand the incomprehensible.
The floor of the forest was mostly very soft grass and was sometimes interrupted by stones, roots of trees, babbling brooks, or leaves that had fallen from the trees. There were clusters of flowers too, and most had incredible smells that she couldn’t get enough of, though there were some that had foul smells that made her recoil. Everything was familiar, but more than she had ever witnessed and all of the vegetation seemed to glow even in the daylight. Coffey assumed that there was a sun in the sky, though she could barely see the sky through the thick canopy of trees.
As she moved through the forest, her feathered wings were spread at her back and a faint, blue mist issued along behind her. Coffey had a smile on her face as she beat her wings against the cool air and began to float to see the landscape of the forest from above. When she was a few feet off of the forest floor, she saw the life of the forest. There were small insect-like creatures flitting around, and a family of something that looked like large rabbits with horns commiserating at the entrance to a hollow.
When she noticed what looked like a cougar or a bobcat resting on the branch of a tree, Coffey startled and immediately descended to the ground. When she hit the ground, the large cat did too and Coffey cowered away from it. Its fur was blood red and its sharp ears were perked up on its head. It had long canines that extended past its chin and its piercing eyes scrutinized Coffey. She was frozen, unsure what to expect from the large cat, but she prepared herself to take off as fast as she could if the cat tried to attack her.
“Your essence is refreshing,” the cat said. “I am Santer, kin wompus. You are mmoatia? What is your name?”
“Coffey,” she said hesitantly. She wasn’t surprised that the cat could speak, she was primed for strange things since she was brought to the Umbatia swamp, but it spoke with a reassuring authority that reminded her of her mother.
“Coffey, you seem to be lost. Have you wandered too far from home?”
Coffey wanted to trust the kind voice offering her guidance in an unfamiliar place, but she hadn’t had cause to trust very many people in her life. She had her mother and Sissy before they died on the plantation, and to a much lesser extent Sene and Lofet at the Umbatia swamp, but on the plantation and even in the swamp it turned out that hardly anyone she met was worthy of her trust. Everyone wanted to use her for her body, what she could produce for them.
“Not all wompus are hungry and vicious predators,” Santer said and sat on her hindlegs. She was almost as tall as Coffey when she sat that way. “I don’t eat meat, strictly herbivore, but I guess these fangs make that hard to believe.”
Coffey nodded with a smile.
“Not many Fonlanders can make essence like you do, not even the wildest wompus would dare attack one as you, with such a nice and unique essence.”
“Who is this, Santer?” a voice said and Coffey watched with wonder as a rabbit with yellow-brown fur hopped out of a bush and sat next to Santer. It looked like a large jackrabbit, about half the size of the wompus, and it had a long, black horn protruding from its forehead like a unicorn.
“It’s a lost mmoatia, she’s afraid of me. This is Almi, kin lepusraj, and if a lepusraj can sit next to me in peace, surely you can tell that I am friendly.”
“She is very friendly,” Almi said with a smile. “Santer doesn’t even hunt. If you need help finding your way, we would be glad to help.”
“I’m not really from here,” Coffey said. “I’m from Earth, I’m a Earther…”
“An Earther?” Santer said. “What is that?”
“It’s the place those rips in space lead to,” Almi said. “I’ve heard of you Earthers, but I’ve never seen one before.”
“This is an Fonlander,” Santer said confidently. “Only Fonlanders have a Third Heart.”
“Ohhhh,” Almi said excitedly, “unless the legends are true. They say Pultine had children with Earthers…”
“Pultine?” Santer said and then approached Coffey with curiosity. Coffey lifted off the ground in retreat, but Santer stopped at a distance. “I’m sorry, I don’t mean to alarm you, but I see it now. You could be her twin…”
Suddenly, Coffey was tackled out of the air and she rolled on the grass with her assailant before they came to a stop. Santer growled at the man as Coffey crawled away from him and toward the angry cat. Almi hopped out to grab Coffey in her teeth and she bared her sharp black horn at the man as she drug Coffey to safety.
It was the Lêgba, still wearing dark brown breeches and a long black coat that hung down to his knees. As he stood, he held his hands up in surrender to Santer who looked fearsome and ready to pounce on the man.
“I didn’t mean to start a ruckus,” the Lêgba said. “I just came to take Ms. Coffey back where we came from is all.”
“Do you want to go with him?” Almi asked Coffey who had stood by that point and felt safe with her new friends.
“No, I don’t,” she said forcefully.
Santer roared loudly at the Lêgba, so loud it shook the trees, and the Lêgba teleported, and appeared right next to Coffey.
“I wasn’t really asking you,” he said and moved to grab her, but before he could, Coffey grabbed him and smacked him with an open hand that glittered red, and when she hit him, the Lêgba’s face seemed to shatter.
Coffey let go of his coat and he crumpled to the ground. The side of his face that Coffey had slapped was like jagged rock and there were pebbles of his face scattered in the grass. He looked dead, but he wasn’t, Coffey could hear him moaning, but before she could finish him, he teleported away.
“I don’t know why you were so scared of Santer,” Almi said. “It’s the fangs, she looks scary but she’s the nicest Fonlander you’ll ever meet. You on the other hand, I’ve never seen an aspect like the one you have to your magic.”
“Thank y’all,” Coffey said sincerely. “Y’all don’t know me at all and y’all helped me standup to that creepy man. Like I said, I’m not from here, that man took me from the place I knew, and my friend left me here to keep me safe. I ain’t got nowhere to go back to.”
“You can stay with me,” Santer said, nuzzling Coffey’s arm with her furry face.
“It’ll be fun showing you around,” Almi said. “I think you’ll like it here.”
PRL Serials 