Coffey holds her breath under the cover of thick foliage. If one were to spot her, they would only see the whites of her eyes in the shadow of bushy leaves and vines, but Coffey does not move an inch and her aspect is well contained.
A large reptile ambles a few feet away from her. It has rough, scaly yellow skin with black spots like a leopard and moves on all fours with a long, broad fin tale. Coffey watches the reptile with its feline head sip water from a stream that babbles gently as it snakes through earth and rock. Its teeth glisten as it laps at the water with its forked, red tongue.
After about a minute, Coffey exhales but before she can move to take a step, the large reptile seems to startle and looks up across the stream, in the opposite direction of Coffey. She takes advantage of the distraction and jumps out of the foliage with a sharpened stick that is as long as her body and plunges it into the thick hide of the beast that rears up onto its hind legs and lets go a wail that is equal parts agony and anger. It tries to buck the large stick out of its body, and Coffey hangs on tight, dangling as the beast panics.
Coffey is strong, her muscles are prominent on her body where the simple tunic she wears that covers her chest and stops just above her knees hugs her tightly. She hangs on to the stick with one hand, riding the bucking beast, while she aims the other hand at the beast’s head. A ball of glowing light forms at her palm and it pops and crackles until she pushes it, launching it at the reptile’s neck, that audibly snaps. Coffey removes the stick from the beast and jumps to the ground. She fires off two orbs of light that pop like small explosives under the canopy. She produces a blade about the size of her forearm from inside of her tunic and goes to work hacking at the carcass.
“You got another one!” Almi says excitedly as she jumps to the grass where Coffey is working. Almi points the tip of the horn that protrudes from her forehead at the lifeless body. “It’s not the same as the others. This one feels new.”
“I still don’t understand why they even here all of a sudden,” Coffey said, hacking the carcass. “The dingonek ain’t usually this far from Agbe’s disc, but now it seem like they live here.”
“Santer says that their grazing routes have been disturbed and now crosses from Agbe’s to Agê’s disc. She is looking for a solution, but it could take some time.”
“Well, I hate to have to kill them, they ain’t so bad when don’t nothing mess with them, but there’s too much stuff in this forest and in the jungle already and they just been causing trouble. If I gotta kill em, at least I can eat em too.”
“Santer is still shocked we’ve been eating these things,” Almi says, “but they’re pretty good. I fed a whole party with the last one you took down.”
“Changing the grazing routes for the dingonek ain’t easy I imagine, and it ain’t happen by chance. Seem like somebody trying to start something, but why use the dingonek?”
“Enough of them in one area,” Almi explains, “and they will drain it completely of moisture. They don’t just drink through their mouths. They normally live in lakes, so they can absorb moisture from the air. They were not made to dwell on this disc, they will cause the death of the natural dwellers.”
“Are there anymore nearby?” Coffey asks.
“Not here,” Almi says as she moves her horn through the air. “I think we’re good for now. But maybe it’s about time to reach out to Ahdis. This has been happening for too long to be a coincidence.”
Coffey pauses her work dismembering the dingonek and stares blankly in front of her. Since she arrived to the Fonlands all those years ago, she’s mastered the use of the divine essence and she has used her considerable power to protect defenseless dwellers of the disc. Thanks to the friendship she forged with Almi and Santer, Coffey has fit in well in the Fonlands and many look to her for leadership. She lived on the disc of Agê for almost a century before Ahdis appeared at the large tree where she lived with Almi and Santer. Coffey had never seen someone so beautiful and she was so filled with awe that she bowed to Ahdis and could not make eye contact. But Ahdis dispensed with formality and spoke to Coffey like an equal. She heaped praise on Coffey for her presence in the forest of Agê’s disc and entrusted her to guard it as she had been.
“No,” Coffey shook her head. “Ain’t no reason to bother Ms. Ahdis just yet. We’ll just keep our eyes open and if it get worse, then I’ll figure out what to do. Can’t complain about the meat though. It’s better than chicken.”
Coffey loved her life in the Fonlands and the last thing she wanted was to cause unnecessary ruckus. She wanted Ahdis to return to a disc of peace. She would need it after living on Earth for so long, though most Earthers would perceive her as a white woman and things wouldn’t be as difficult for her as it had been for Coffee. She hadn’t seen Earth since she escaped from the plantation in South Carolina and met the umbatia in the swamp. She accessed the Fonlands from that swamp and was happy to leave her humanity behind. Humans were cruel for no good reason. Being an Fonlander made her powerful.
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