The Dread Pirate Molly Hawke Ch. 03

"Pok want look better to boy," the thing said, "but here, no. Need this to hide. Want help boy."

The eyes widened a little as he moved his bound hands to touch the long fingers tentatively. He felt the warmth there and he looked up, "Please tell me the truth," he whispered, "I want to be free, but nothing is ever good for me. If you get me out of here, ...."

Pok watched as the blue eyes welled up and one tear overflowed his lower lash, "If you're here looking for a person to kill for food, please be quick and let it be me. Promise me, and I'll do anything to help you."

The eyes widened more and the demon shook its head, "Not want food. Not want hurt boy. You wait, you see, Jo-dy. Pok want friend. Pok help."

He eased his cheek back against the fingers which grasped the cage, "I can wait. Where would I go?"

Pok drew her head back and looked at him curiously. She saw the slow tears from his eyes and knew that he had no hope anymore. She had to blink away the beginnings of her own tears. But his next whisper almost caused her to fall off.

"And you're not ugly, not to me, uh, P-Pok."

"Boy wait," Pok said, "please."

He felt the way that the fingers slid away and he nodded, leaving his head against the bars.

Pok hung upside down under the wagon. She saw the metal straps which held the axles and the way that they were covered in grease. An idea came to her because of something that she often saw Clayton do and she knew that this smeared stuff was important.

She hung down a little more and she scooped up some of the coarse sand and pebbles from the roadway and she began to pack it against the rotating axle. In a few minutes, it looked far drier than it had and she could hear the way that the aggregates were already grinding in there. A few minutes work on the other side and the quiet grating was an even better sound to her there. She crawled back up to hang from the rear again.

"Boy," she whispered, "Jo-dy."

He turned his head, looking a little surprised that the demon was back and hadn't been something from his imagination, "Pok?"

He saw the fingers as they curled around the bars again and he tried to lean his face against them, but the creature hissed softly to him, "No. Fingers have sand now. Wait. Wagon stop soon. Hold hands here."

He reached up, thinking that the demon wanted to hold his hand or something, but he stared as the coarse fibers began to smoke a little. He looked up and saw the demon's eyes glowing softly. Then the demon was gone. Jody blinked, but he saw that he was alone, looking through the bars at nothing but the scenery.

"What was that?" A girl said, "I saw something just there, on the other side of the bars."

Jody looked down and saw that his bonds were still smoking a little. He hid his hands away and tried to twist them as carefully as he could. Nothing much had changed, but he found that he could force them a little, He looked back, "What? What are you talking about?"

The bars rang a little dully when one of the men banged a club against them, "Shut up back there!"

The girl looked down.

They rumbled on a few minutes in silence as Jody kept trying to work the crude rope which bound his wrists. It hurt a little, but it was something that he could do. When he looked up, he saw Pok there smiling with a little nod. The long fingers beckoned gently and he held up his hands again, twisting himself around better. The eyes there glowed again.

It took a few tries, a little at a time, since Pok didn't want to burn Jody or cause too much smoke, but eventually, Jody could pull his hands apart. He put his wrists right back together again to keep up the impression that he was still tied. Whenever he looked back, the girl wasn't looking at anything but her feet, lost in her own thoughts again.

As they went on, Jody could feel something underneath him. There was a rumbling, but it wasn't the way that it had sounded before. Now what he heard was the same as what he felt.

The men felt it as well and they stopped at the crest of a rise. One of them set the brakes and got off to walk back and look under the wagon. He began to curse loudly in another moment.

The other man got down and walked back, but before he did that, Jody caught the motion of him setting a shotgun down on the seat.

"Quiet, Jo-dy," he heard Pok whisper and he nodded slowly, looking up only a little to follow a bit of motion and see the demon there on the roof looking down through the bars at him with a smile after it had crawled silently up there. He held his hands together and pointed with one hand toward the front. The other captives were watching the men, so he mouthed the words, "On the seat. Shotgun," and Pok looked forward.

She didn't know what the article was, but it was gone from the seat in another moment and she set it down on a fallen pine trunk out of sight.

"There's sand in the bearings," the driver said, "both sides."

"Well ya got more grease, dontcha?" the other asked.

"Yeah I do," the first man said, "but it'll just drag this out. I'll hafta get in there and wipe it out the best I can before I put more on."

"Well, do it," the other one said, "We're on a ridge here, sitting ducks for --"

Pok groaned softly and looked ahead. She saw the dark shape out there, maybe two miles off and closing.

The man under the wagon stared as the other one fell beside the wagon on his face with something sticking out of his neck.

The others in the wagon began to scream and cry out at the sight of a demon with glowing eyes staring at the lock and the hasp which held the back of the wagon closed.

The screaming grew louder as the metal began to glow.

"Jody," Pok growled, "push. Help Pok. Push."

She pointed behind him, "Other ones come. Hurry!" Jody looked back past the others and he could just see movement if he looked between the heads of the horses.

"Not friends, Jody. Bad ones. Help Pok. Push!"

Jody lunged at the door and he felt it give a little. He looked over and saw that the metal was hot enough to bend a bit. Pok glared at it and the area which was yellow grew to about five inches around. Jody lunged again and the lock gave way, the back of the cage swinging open wide. He jumped down and found himself looking at the other man.

But the man's expression seemed a little distant and then he fell. Jody looked over and he saw Pok, its tail peeking over its head. The other people were cowering in a heap at the front of the wagon.

"Come on!" Jody yelled at them, "Get out. There are demons coming!"

He didn't stop to think, but it came to him a little later that it might have sounded a little stupid. Pok wasn't hidden at all now and that was what they saw, a demon.

"Not that one," Jody cried as he pointed, "There!"

But at that moment, the flock that Pok had seen had followed the contour of the land and had dropped out of sight into the valley that they'd just come out of. Jody didn't know it, but Pok knew why. They were obviously looking for food and staying just over the trees, since the forest there was thick enough to prevent them from seeing anything from high up. Pok was under no illusions, however. She knew they'd crest the ridge in seconds, and then ...

Jody couldn't convince a single one of the others to step out of the wagon. He couldn't believe it.

Suddenly, he felt a somewhat painful impact against his side and then he was falling over the edge of the ridge on the side facing the ocean. But then he realized that he wasn't falling or tumbling in any way.

Pok had him in a tight grip and she was flying him off. He felt the arms and he also felt something else against his back.

He looked up at the crazy view of treetops above him and the underside of a demon's neck below that. As they neared the bottom of the slope, Jody grunted in Pok's grasp as she began to beat her wings. She balanced the strokes of her wings against her need to keep their speed up. All around him, Jody could see shifting colors as they rippled and slid over the demon's body. She looked down at him once and then she was looking forward again.

"What happened?" he asked.

"Other people not come out," the demon said with effort as it flew. "Pok not wait. Can't help anyway. Stupid people."

She looked again and saw him trying to look back, "No, Jody. Not look."

What she'd seen was the flock descending on the scene they'd left behind. Some of them were trying to pull the sides of the wagon off. The horses were already down and covered by feeding demons.

"Pok not wait. Must go. Hope Jody. Hope they not see."

"What's in my back?"

"Shot-gun."

"What shot-gun, Jody?"

He was stuck for a moment and then he looked up, "Bang-stick."

He watched the demon's lips curl at that.

"Where are we going, Pok?"

"Not think Pok can get to home. Pok not big. Jody not big, but ... Hard to fly."

"You're not like those other ones, are you?"

"No," Pok said, "They see us, then we food too."

They were headed back north and in the wide channel, there was a stiff breeze against them. It would have helped Pok to rise and soar under other circumstances. Here, like this, she was too dirty a shape for that and she didn't want the height anyway.

She could shift the colors of her appearance, but she couldn't shift Jody. All she knew was that she likely wouldn't be able to get them all the way back to Clayton's property like this. But as they passed between a couple of islands, they slipped down a little and Pok found that at this height, the headwind was gone and the going was a lot easier.

She still had a way to go, but she felt a little more hope now. She risked a look back and she saw that they hadn't been noticed, or maybe if they had been, the temptation of the amount of food right there must have been enough of an incentive to remain and not give chase.

Pok felt Jody shivering and she looked ahead. Irvines Landing was there. It was a little town and she didn't want to go there, but she knew that she was getting better mileage out low over the ground effect of the water than she'd get over the woods, so she went on, turning right after the town to fly up the channel. She didn't know the units of measure. She just knew that she could likely make it now, though if Clayton were here, he'd tell her that she had eleven-odd miles to go.

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Who says you can't change a man?

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Clayton was a little tired now. He'd spent a large part of the afternoon filling barrels with a hand pump to give Bess a break at it. While he did that, Bess was using the blue light to look into other empty drums to see if they were clean. It was a bit of luck to find that in one area, there were a lot of clean nd empty drums which smelled like the stuff that Clayton had to told her they wanted. When she'd told him, he'd smiled and guessed that it had once been a place to fill drums and sell the stuff.

Whenever he had a full drum, he'd cap it tightly and ease it onto its side so that he could roll it onto the wharf. From there, he'd lift it to carry it aboard and set it down with the others. For this sort of grunt work, he'd elected not to ruin his clothing, so he was in the shape that Bess now liked to watch him in. It was the first time in his life that he didn't feel ashamed and he had to admit that it did feel pretty good.

Jody was freezing, but he wasn't concerned over that. What bothered him more was the way that Pok didn't speak to him anymore. It had been a while now and he could tell that the demon was past being tired. He could hear the deep breaths as they flew and they sounded ragged to him. As they came around a bend in a long turn, he saw some buildings off to the right and they seemed to be heading that way. Then they were nearing a ship and that was when he felt her giving out. They sank rapidly and Pok flared to slow down, but Jody heard the groan and then they were tumbling a little on some wet and cold grass.

Jody looked over and Pok's head was in front of him. He saw heaving ribs there behind the horns and closed eyes.

"Pok? Pok, are you hurt?"

He began to grow concerned, but he felt the claws of one hand as they closed over his hand.

Jody was worried, but his cares increased suddenly as he saw a huge demon walking toward them. He looked around, remembering the shotgun. Seeing it, he crawled to grab it a little frantically. When his hand closed around it, he moved back to Pok and placed himself in front.

Jody had never held a firearm in his life before. They were something from the long past and only people with some money could afford to pay what a finder wanted to sell one for. But he had this one and he'd seen what others did when they wanted to use one. He moved the sliding piece on the underside backward and ahead one time.

It had already been loaded, so the round in the chamber was ejected, the unfired shell flying up to pass Jody's nose, but he raised the thing in his shaking hands and pointed it at the demon, who had stopped by then to stand staring.

"Don't come any closer or I -- I'll shoot," Jody said, wanting to curse the way that his voice sounded so thin and frightened.

"What did you do to Pok?" the huge demon asked and Jody felt his jaw drop. Just then, a woman stepped out from around the corner of the building.

"Pok?" she asked in a concerned tone.

"POK!" She came at a run and Jody was even more confused.

He felt Pok's hand on his leg, trying to get his attention. He looked down, "Friends," came as a wheezing sound to him. He set the weapon down and the large demon began to walk toward them again.

"I didn't do anything to him," Jody said, "He -- he saved me and carried me here."

The fingers on his thigh moved again and he looked down. The demon groaned once and looked up, "Friends, Jody?"

He reached under Pok and lifted gently, nodding, "Yeah. Thank you, Pok."

Bess was there then and began to mutter over her friend, running her hands over the exhausted creature. As she did, Jody found that he felt better as well for some reason. Clayton picked up the shotgun and he set the safety.

"You really don't know how to use one of these, do you?"

When Jody turned, he saw the demon smiling a little and holding the shotgun, pointed away as he shoved the ejected shell back into the loading port, and he shook his head, "No. Pok took it from the wagon. I was afraid."

"Here," he said handing the thing back, "I've set the safety so that you don't shoot your foot off." Turning to Bess, he said, "I can carry Pok to the bed if you think she's ok."

Bess nodded, "Yes. Some warmth and a lot less wind would be better. I think there's enough soup left. I'll make something hot as a drink."

The large demon knelt and reached to pick Pok up, cradling her very gently, "Who's your friend?" he asked quietly.

"Jo-dy," Pok sighed, as she leaned her head against Clayton's chest as he carried her away.

"Where's he going?" Jody asked, "Where's he taking him?"

"Claytan is going to put Pok to bed for some rest," Bess said, "You may come with me. This no weather to be standin' 'ere dressed as you are, boy. Come, I have something for you to wear."

Jody looked down. When he'd been shoved into the wagon he'd had a loincloth and a cloak. Both of them were gone now. All that he had were his cloth shoes. The cloak must have still been in the wagon and the loincloth .... He guessed that it had come off sometime during the flight. He tried to cover himself as they walked but the woman only chuckled.

"If it give you some warmth," she smiled, "then you may hold onto yaself like that. If it outta shame well, it not needed here. I have seen things like that before, you know."

She led him into the building and guided him with her hand on his elbow to keep him from tripping over anything while his eyes adjusted to the dimness, "What ya name, boy?"

"J-Jody Ma'am. My name is Jody. Will Pok be alright?"

"I expect so," she shrugged, "and my name is Bess. What happened? Pok is not in the habit of carrying anyone. Where did she get you from?"

Jody stared, "She? Pok's a --"

Bess laughed, "Pok is a girl. I understand, Jody. What she is, well, it can be hard to tell, I think."

She handed him a large sweater and a pair of baggy pants. Jody thanked her and as he put them on, he told her what had happened. "But there were eight of us in the wagon."

Bess looked down as she stirred the large pot for a moment, "If there were demons close by and on the way and it went as you said, then there are none left alive now. So it seem that Pok has surely saved your life. She had to leave when she did. To stay would have been her death too. Pok can do many things but she can't fight more than a couple of those ones and they not the same as what she is. Claytan is closer to those ones, though he is different as well."

As he watched her, Jody began to see her features. He'd never seen a person who looked quite the way that Bess did, and he thought that she was very beautiful.

"What is Pok?" he asked and he saw her smile then, "She is my dearest friend, Jody. We have known each other for a long time. Pok is a demon to be sure, but she is something from the old style -- ages old, though I don't know her age. She come because I call to her long ago. There are many kinds of demon like outta the pages of a bible, and she is a kind like that. These others that are around here, they are something new. Pok's kind live far below and are held there. Most don't ever come here but some few now and then.

Claytan is a half-breed. He is part man and can hide what him look like if he wishes it so."

She began to ladle some of the soup into two heavy mugs and he watched the intent and careful look on her face for a moment.

She looked at him for a second, "What did Pok want you for, if the demons were not close by when you spoke with her?"

Jody shrugged, "I just remember that I wanted to cry. I was sold by my stepbrother and the ones he sold me to were saying that I'd be taken south to be sold again. They told me that I'd be a whore for somebody. Pok came while I was in the wagon and I thought that he -- she was there to kill me because I wanted it. I told her that I'd do anything to help if she'd kill me quick."

Bess looked over with concern, "But Pok would never do that. She can easily kill what she want for food. She don't need to break humans outta cages for it."

He nodded, "I know that now, but not then. She said she wanted a friend. I thought she was a male demon and that he wanted me ... well I'm used to that and I thought that it might be better than dying."

Bess had to set the mugs down so she wouldn't burn her fingers and she laughed a little then, "I'm sorry, I don't mean to laugh at you, Jody. I know Pok very well. She is always ... well, it not surprise me that she find a want to help you. She is a good person, though she may not look like one. Please, sit down here and listen to me."

As Jody sat down, Bess drew a deep breath and thought to do her best. "Pok almost never wears anything. She is very warm inside herself. You thought she was a boy. I'll allow that what she have look like what a boy have and it even fool me once, but you may trust me, Jody, Pok is a girl.

She think like a girl, she act like a girl and she have a heart like a girl. I know her, Jody, so well. I have a doubt that she even have the thought of it at the time, but I can tell you that to do something as brash as what she has done to get you outta harm's way, there is something inside of her which drive her to it. If you are thankful and her looks don't put you off at all, then you might find yourself with a demon girl who cares for you."

Bess laughed a little then, "And it could be that you find the same thing even if you are put off, but in such a case, Jody, be careful. Pok might have killed two men and flown herself into bed from exhaustion, but she can be hurt easily.