Up a Tree p.5
The tree was unnaturally quiet. A cool, moist breeze blew, a cloud passed over the sun, trailing shadows. No birds sang, no people talked. It was as if the place was abandoned.
Except for the snarling.
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The Doctor and Rory bolted up the massive stairs of the next tree.
"You do realize," Rory said. "If that thing decides to come down this way, we'll have nowhere to go?"
The Doctor nodded. "That's no doubt why the hunters all took different routes."
"Good thing we learned to use the chutes, then," Rory muttered. The Doctor gave him a wry smile, and noted the way Rory carried the spear in a casual, balanced grip.
They crept up the stairs, careful to keep close to the trunk, staying hidden behind the curve as long as possible, just in case they did encounter a treecat on its way down.
The other hunters, including Sondherson, had swarmed their way up the tree climbing straight up the trunk, (there were apparently hand and footholds carved in the tree if you knew where to look) or by working their way around on the intertwining network of branches, trying to surround the treecat before it sensed them.
By the time Rory and the Doctor arrived, the Yblins were already closing in.
The cat, when he finally saw it, was exactly what the locals had described, but nothing Rory had expected. It did have the body conformation of a cat, looking like a muscular panther or jaguar, but instead of fur, it was covered in the same suedy covering as the Trelwins.
It’s hide was a mottled green brown, which made it hard to see in the tree when it crouched still. It was only the flick of its tail that gave it away.
It was fourteen feet long.
Rory crouched down behind the large limb they'd been peering over, suddenly the spear in his hand seemed like a very fragile weapon.
The Doctor was peering over the branch, eyes gleaming. "Beautiful..." he muttered to himself.
"Says you," Rory whispered back fiercely. Personally, he’d rather be holed up in Deran's office.
The cat snarled again, and the sound ripped across Rory's skin, making him flinch. He peered back over the branch.
They'd found a conveniently sturdy knot of branches to watch the action from, the smaller limbs twined around each other here to form a bit of a concealing nest.
The cat was on a larger limb 30 feet away. It was edging forward and back, almost pacing, too large to turn on the branch it was on. It had some sort of prey backed up onto a smaller branch on its other side. Rory couldn't quite make out what it was, but the cat was slashing at it with determined persistence.
The deep-chested rumbling of the thing gave it a weight and immediacy that spanned the gap and made Rory’s monkey-brain want to jibber and run away.
Rory ignored the instinctive shaking in his muscles and looked up to see the other hunters, including Erik and Sondherson, work their way out onto higher branches, surrounding the beast. Beyond them, gray clouds rolled in over the evening sky.
As they watched, Erik edged his way out onto a small branch overhead, the slender limb bent slightly under his weight. Rory caught his breath as he heard the wood crack. Erik grabbed a nearby branch for balance. The hunter shrugged his shoulder, took a grip with his free hand and cast his net.
The heavy, weighted net spread and fell in a perfect arc, falling with a whump onto the treecat's head.
The cat snarled and bounced in surprise at the weight of it, its clawed back feet slipped on the bark and Rory gritted his teeth, hoping it would fall. But the cat shook its head, and with a sharp twist of its neck hooked the edge of the net in its teeth. With a yank it threw the net off. The net spiraled down through the branches, getting caught on the points of the branches farther down.
"Probably used to dealing with vines in the jungle," the Doctor muttered to himself.
"You're enjoying this!" Rory accused.
"Well, just look at it!" The Doctor said, waving an admiring hand. "Have you ever seen anything as magnificent?"
An image of Amy on certain energetic mornings flashed through Rory's head but he shook it off. "No comment." The cat, across from them, went back to ignoring the hunters and tried to step out again on the small branch where its prey was evidently hiding.
"What's he got trapped over there anyway?" Rory asked.
"Dunno. Let's go see," the Doctor said, waving Rory along the branch nearer to the action.
"Me and my big mouth," Rory grumbled.
They shuffled down the branch, climbing up and around through a tangle of branches from the next tree that allowed them to circle the treecat's branch. Rory's foot slipped and he cursed, bark shredding and whirling away underneath them. His heart pounded in his chest.
"Take your shoes off," the Doctor said.
"What?" Rory said in disbelief, hunkering down behind a screen of leaves to stay out of the cat's sight.
The Doctor pointed to the other hunters, who were positioning themselves for another try. One threw a set of bolos that completely missed and sailed off into the tree beyond. Another threw a spear that thunked into the limb below it. The cat ignored them.
"Look at their boots," the Doctor said. He sat down on the treelimb and started untying his boots.
"Are you mad?!"
"Just look at their boots, Rory."
Rory peered out over the leaves at the other scattered hunters. They were all wearing leather boots, but their boots didn't have rigid bottoms. They were more like leather socks than boots. He watched as Sondherson "pussyfooted" his way along a branch, the flexible soles giving him more purchase on the curved bark.
"Okay, I see your point." Rory quickly shucked off his shoes and socks, stuffing his socks in his shoes and slinging them around his neck by the shoelaces, the same as the Doctor was doing.
Great, I'm hunting a giant leopard in my bare feet. He thought to himself, scrabbling back to a crouch, his bare feet flinching at the feel of the rough tree bark underfoot.
"That's what he's after," the Doctor said, once again parting the leaves and staring down at the larger limb beyond them.
The treecat had cornered a Trelwin out on the smaller branch. The longlimbed apelike creature was backed out as far on the smaller branch as it dared, it was guarding something that it had apparently stuffed around the base of an upright branch, blue-green material fluttered around the short limbs that dangled down around the branch on both sides, barely balanced.
"Is that a boy?" Rory demanded.
"Looks like."
The treecat stepped one massive paw out on the branch, the branch bent under its weight. Thwarted, the cat slashed out at the Trelwin with its other paw, claws raking through the air, less than an armlength from the Trelwin's refuge.
The Trelwin, a gray and brown one, spotted like a pinto pony, was hurling leaves and twigs at the giant cat's face, stripping the branches around it for ammunition. If it had actually been a monkey it would have been screeching, but the action all took place in eerie silence, only the cat's frustrated snarls rending the evening.
"Why don't they do something?" Rory demanded, looking around at the hunters. Deran and Erik were apparently having a tense conference at a knot of branches slightly up and across from them.
Shale had retrieved his bolo and was working his way around underneath them, apparently trying to find an angle for a clear shot.
"They have to be careful, Rory. If they jar that branch too hard, the boy will fall. And look down there." the Doctor pointed down, and Rory looked down through the stories of branches to see a couple of platforms and a rope bridge far below them. "They need to either stop the cat up here, or move it somewhere where it’s not going to fall on anything."
"So it’s a stalemate."
"For now." The Doctor got a wickedly fanatical look in his eye. "How do you feel about being bait?"
"NO! I just got married! I'd like to live to enjoy it."
The Doctor pulled out the sonic screwdriver and Rory's stomach dropped. He knew that look.
The Doctor stood up and waved his arms, drawing Sondherson's and Erik's attention. He mimed pointing at himself, at his sonic screwdriver then pointed out toward the smaller branches, away from the bole and the more inhabited areas of the tree.
Sondherson got a horrified look on his face and frantically waved back a negative.
The Doctor gave him a cheery thumbs up.
"This is not a good idea," Rory said.
"We're just going to give it a little siren song," the Doctor said, holding his sonic up to his ear and tuning it. "Just enough to make it wonder where that lovely music is coming from."
The Doctor flicked on the sonic, the end turned green, a soft, almost subsonic hum wafted past Rory.
He looked down. The treecat froze as it swiped at the frantic Trelwin. The cat’s ears laid back as if in puzzlement. Its head cast around.
"See, it’s working," the Doctor said.
The treecat’s lips pulled back over huge teeth and it roared in pain. It looked up, spotted them, and leapt.
It landed with a crash right on the bole of the tree beside them, huge claws ripping strips in the tree as it slid backward under its own weight.
It was cutting off their retreat.
It started raining.
The tree bark darkened and slickened, Rory was suddenly grateful for his bare feet, although he didn't know how long that would last.
The treecat snarled and scrabbled with its back feet, ripping chunks out of the tree, it got enough purchase and jumped, scrabbling its front paws over the branch they were on and pulled itself up.
"Uuuhhh!" The Doctor's excitement turned to panic. "Run. That way!" He pointed one long bony finger beyond Rory, toward the outer tree limbs.
Rory didn't need any encouraging, he spun and ran, he could see the hunters converging around them, trying to get in position to help. He heard the cat scramble onto the limb behind them, felt the branch bounce under its pouncing weight.
"Faster, Rory!" the Doctor yelled. "There! There!"
Rory turned just long enough to see the Doctor, the cat only a few lengths behind him, pointing at one of the cross branches where the third tree's branches intersected this tree's, forming a small bridge. He scrambled forward, the treebark scraping his feet, misting rain coating his face and hair. He stopped and whirled, pushing the Doctor up onto the higher crossbranch ahead of him.
"Rory! What are you doing?" the Doctor yelled.
"Just keep going!" Rory gathered his nerve, set himself into his balance and threw his spear. The javelin sliced through the air, hitting the cat right on the eye socket, but it flinched aside at the last moment and the spear slid up over the eye ridge, slicing along the skull and gouging a split out of the ear. The cat reared back and screamed, snarling, swiping a huge paw over its bloody face.
Rory didn't wait, he scrambled up onto the cross-branch and pushed the Doctor ahead of him.
"That was brilliant, Rory!" the Doctor said, impressed.
"Yeah, yeah," Rory said, still pushing. "Glad you're impressed, but I think I just pissed him off."
Another roar behind him, confirmed that diagnosis, and the branch under them shuddered. He risked a glance over his shoulder, the crossbranch was too small for the treecat, but it had both front feet planted on the branch end where it crossed the larger one, pushing it, sliding it aside.
"Move!" Rory yelled. The wood jittered sideways under their bare feet.
They jumped off the other end of the branch into the other tree just as the branch gave with a huge Twang! Slipping off its rest on the other end and lashing back with a huge sweep of smaller branches.
The Doctor turned back just in time to see the cat swept off the branch by the backlash of smaller branches, leaves exploding everywhere.
The cat fell, yowling like a siren, and slammed down on the next major branch, the branch rising up between its legs, slamming it firmly against the ribcage with a huge hollow sound, like a melon breaking. Rory winced in sympathy.
"That's stunned it." the Doctor said, crouching on the branch, long toes gripping the bark like he was a barefoot boy at some circus show.
"You could have got us killed!" Rory yelled.
"Oh, don't overreact, Rory,” the Doctor said, waving it away. “It got him away from the boy."
Below them the cat rumbled a huge breath, showing it wasn’t dead. It raised its heavy head and shook it.
"Still, no point in staying around here," the Doctor said with sudden alacrity. He started skipping along the bark, almost tiptoeing with tender feet. "We need to get him out in the open, there's too much cover in here, it’s all branches and leaves. They need a clear shot.'
Rory couldn't agree more, anything that got him farther away from the huge cat was a good idea in his book.
Using less than subtle persuasion he grabbed the Doctor's arm once they reached the bole and dragged him along a narrow boardwalk around the the more slender bole at this height. It was apparently one of the outlying residences Sondherson had mentioned, they found a carved arched doorway in the bole, firmly barred and bolted. Rory fought down the desire to pound the door down and slip inside to safety. But he bypassed it, and ran out on a larger limb going out over where the Trelwin was still guarding the boy's body.
He looked back to see the treecat coming to across from them, shaking its heavy head, clambering to its feet.
The other hunters had been edging toward the more cluttered section of foliage, but backed off when they saw the Doctor and Rory emerge. The cat was still visible on the edge of the green area. But it was too dense a thicket to penetrate.
The Doctor and Rory ran out onto a large limb, almost directly above where the Trelwin and boy were, they passed the duo, the Trelwin still shivering and not taking its eyes off the cat across the gap.
"Go out to the end, find an upright and hang on!" Sondherson yelled from his own position slightly above them and out toward the edge of the tree. Erik, beside him, was scowling, but nodded angrily at them.
Rory and the Doctor nodded.
Shale had somehow shinnied his way back up to a limb above them, Rory saw him heft his spear and let fly. The shaft flew across the intervening space, becoming darker as the rain dampened it, and struck with a thud in the treecat's haunch. The cat thundered out a roar of pain, and Shale grimaced but grabbed the upright nearest him as the limb shivered under the sound.
"Rory," the Doctor said as the cat fixed its eyes on Shale, and gathered itself on its haunches, "give me your shoes!"
Rory turned and looked at him like he was mad, but undraped the shoes from around his neck and handed them over, the Doctor yanked his boots from around his neck, whipped the two pairs of shoelaces around each other in a tangle and just as the great cat leapt, stretching to its impressive length, he flung.
The improvised bolo soared through the air, Erik's spear converging on the cat from the other side.
The shoes hit the cat’s front paws, tangling around them, just as they hit the branch in front of Shale. Tied together, it couldn't get any purchase. Before it could even begin to scrabble, Erik's spear hit it with a meaty thunk right in the ribs.
The graceful creature gave a lurching twist in midair, eerily silent, the outflung tangled paws hit an upthrust branch, the outflung body finished its leaping arc, swinging down in an inglorious dangle. Hanging lifeless in the misting rain.
The wind picked up, the rain started to come down in earnest.
The Doctor stared down at the magnificent creature, swinging in the air below them. Rory saw the look. He laid a hand on the Time Lord's shoulder. "We had to protect ourselves."
"I know."
"We knew coming up here that they were going to kill it."
"I know, Rory." The Time Lord gave him one of those very old, innocently crushed looks. He sniffed, then shook the mood off. "Come on, let's go check on the boy."
They ran back to the bole and clambered down to the next level. They found Erik already at the branch, coaxing the terrified Trelwin. The gray and brown creature was trembling violently, but it grabbed the boy by one foot and carefully dragged him forward onto the larger branch.
"Let me look, I'm a nurse," Rory said. Between them he and Erik rolled the boy gently onto his back. The child looked to be eight years old, wearing loose shirt and trousers that looked almost like pajamas to Rory, complete with chute placket on the back.
The side of the boy's head was bloody. A careful inspection through his hair revealed a gash apparently left by one of the cat's claws. He had a bump on his skull and a nasty patch of torn scalp, which was where most of the blood was coming from, but he didn't otherwise seem hurt.
"How did it get him away from it?" Rory asked, looking at the Trelwin, the Trelwin crouched at the edge of the branch, watching him with the boy. Still jittery.
"Whew! What's that smell?" Rory asked as the rain-laden wind shifted and blew an acrid stink in his face. "It smells like burning tar!" His eyes watered.
"That's the Trelwin," Sondherson said as he wandered up. He tore his eyes down from the dangling treecat. "They always smell like that when they get terrified."
"Defense mechanism," the Doctor muttered. He squatted down and made soft, comforting chuffing noises, holding out a gentle hand to the terrified creature.
"Like a skunk?" Rory asked.
"Hmm..." the Doctor mumbled wordlessly. "It’s okay," he assured the Trelwin. He waved a slow hand at Rory and the boy. "See, you did good. He's going to be okay."
The Trelwin wasn't much smaller than a human, but with much longer arms and legs, it would have made a handy mouthful for the treecat. Rory shivered at thinking himself within an arm’s length of that hungry maw.
"You did good," he assured the grey and brown spotted Trelwin. "He's going to be fine." Rory nodded reassuringly.
The Trelwin looked expressionlessly back and forth between him and the Doctor. It stopped shivering. Then it stepped backward off of the branch. Rory yelped. He leaned forward urgently over the boy's form and saw the Trelwin catch a smaller branch ten feet down, the branch bent under its weight and it used the spring to fling itself forward to another branch, and quickly disappeared into the maze of the tree.
"Not much for goodbyes are they?" Rory asked.
"No," Erik answered in his gravelly voice. He straightened the child's clothes. He looked up. "Nice throw with the spear," he said.
"Thanks," Rory shrugged.
"But what was the idea with the whistle?" he growled at the Doctor.
The Doctor shrugged and straightened his chute harness. "Just trying to cause a distraction."
"You caused a distraction, all right. You could have gotten eaten!" He scrubbed a large weary hand over his broad leathery face, apparently scrubbing out the irritation. He calmed down and said wryly. "Do you have any idea of the paperwork involved when a biologist gets eaten?"
"Well, he didn't," Sondherson said from his perch on the branch above them. He was examining the Treecat's paws, and the tangle of boots and shoelaces that held it suspended over the hook of a stout, snapped off branch.
He looked below the cat, the rain plastering his red hair to his head, the wind starting to pick up. He braced himself on a shoulderhigh branch. "The cat's dead, and it didn't even fall on anything important."
He reached forward and jammed his knife into the knot of shoes and shoelaces. He jerked it forward and severed the ties. The cat slid down out of the tree with a weighty silence, falling, twisting, in a sort of ethereal ballet. It disappeared in the mists before it hit bottom.
Deran held up the tangle of boots and shoes. He looked down at the Doctor and Rory, barefoot in the rain. "I think we can find you some better boots."
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