Kesh by Ralph L Wahlstrom Read Free Book Online Page B

would I be chosen?”
    Before Anna could respond, the air shifted suddenly in the hut, and Kesh felt pressure, as if something pushed against his heart. At first, he heard a soft hissing, as if snakes were gathering outside the shack. Then a rumble of growling, the shuffling of hooves, and tails began to twitch and wings and hackles began to rise. The shack rattled as the animals, suddenly alert, shifted nervously and started to push against one another, each sensing something was wrong. Then Muskrat twitched and his tiny eyes grew big as he searched the walls and dark corners for the danger he sensed. “Anna!” he rasped.
    The spider gestured with spindly legs, and the terrified muskrat eased back and became silent. The small creature stayed obediently in his spot, while his body shook violently, helpless to do anything about the danger he had seen. Kesh could taste the bitterness of fear and the sting of anger on the tip of his tongue,
    Anna turned to Kesh again. “You will need courage, boy. And you will be very, very afraid. Remember, without fear there is no courage. Without fear, there is only bravado. Do you understand?”
    Kesh shook his head. “I don’t know.” He started to say more, ask more questions, but he was suddenly startled, barking aloud. “Anna! Behind you! Something is there. Look out!”
    A dark, oily shape, a billowing black ribbon of smoke, had seeped through the ceiling in the corner above the spider. It curled down slowly toward her, and the small room filled with a low, foreboding hiss. Outside, the other animals had begun to shuffle and push with restless tension, and Kesh sensed such fear that he felt they would panic at any moment. If they stampeded, the smaller creatures and many of the others risked being injured by unrestrained claws, beaks, horns, hooves and teeth.
    Anna did not move. “Stay where you are, all of you. You can do nothing for me now. Don’t be afraid for me, my dear friends. Shhhh.” Her voice was a soft and soothing breeze, and before long, the restive animals began to settle and quiet. “This,” she said, pointing with a frail leg at the encroaching smoke, “has been foretold in the old prophecies. It was spoken, ‘The air and waters will run with poison.’ This is the evil that comes. Kesh, you are the warrior. You will find fear and you will find courage. And you will fight this evil.”
    The curling smoke snaked ever closer to the frail spider, filling the corner with a black, hissing stench.
    â€œMuskrat,” Kesh turned to the rodent, “do something.”
    â€œI can’t,” he squeaked. There is nothing I can do. There is nothing any of us can do.”
    Again, the wind rose softly as Anna spoke. “Don’t be afraid for a small spider. Anna is everywhere.” The wind sighed, and the glow began to fade away. Softly the drifting voice whispered, “Now, boy, go home. You have so much work to do, so much to learn.”
    Â With that, the leading tongue of black evil curled around and enveloped the spider. Her soft green light went dark, and in a moment, the lady was nothing more than a tiny, dried husk, a dead gray spider in the corner of a musty old shack. Then, as quickly as it had come, the black death suddenly dissipated and was gone.
    When Kesh was much younger, he had asked his mother if animals could cry. Now he knew.
    The forest creatures parted to let Kesh and Muskrat pass, then fell in behind as they made their way up along the trail, a solemn, silent procession. Just behind Kesh’s right shoulder strode a giant of a wolf, dark fur fading into tan and gray and, Kesh noted, piercing eyes, one as black as ebony, the other a deep emerald green. “What about him?” Kesh whispered to Muskrat.
    Muskrat glanced warily over his shoulder, and Kesh felt him shudder. “Do you mean the wolf?”
    Kesh nodded. “Yes, the big guy with the big teeth. Who