Bloom Ch. 07

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Jasiri's innovation.
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Part 7 of the 9 part series

Updated 06/07/2023
Created 03/14/2016
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vWrath
vWrath
157 Followers

Chapter 7: Jasiri

Jasiri was flying on his board of wood in the cool night's air. He was on his way to the slavers' camp when he saw the four tribesmen moving out of the forest. Mguu Mkubwa was leading them, but Lawrence was nowhere to be seen.

He slowly descended a safe distance away, and approached.

Mguu Mkubwa was in bad shape. His right leg was wounded. The men noticed Jasiri approaching.

"What happened? Where is Lawrence?" he asked with worry.

"There were too many of them, eighteen by our last count. They had hounds... they caught up to us, and we killed as many as we could; then we got away. I saw him fall. I don't think he made it out." Mguu said with a grunt.

Jasiri's heart fell at this news. They had to save Lawrence!

But the camp was alert now. How could they do that without endangering themselves?

He was angry at Lawrence.

This is stupid. They shouldn't have sent me away. He thought. I could have helped.

He led the men to the cave. He decided he needed the time to think while they recovered.

He needed to survey the camp, and in order to do that... Well, he had to think up a new approach.

~*~

It took them a while to reach the cave, thanks to Mguu's injured right leg. They hid their tracks the best they could. Jasiri used Shaping to create directed gusts of wind to sweep their scent away.

Jasiri was still wracking his brain on how to approach the rescue operation. If Lawrence still lived -- which was something he was quite sure of for some reason -- then he would have to either sneak past the sentries or storm the camp by force.

He liked the second option. He just wasn't sure if what he did the first time had been a fluke. It could have been his rage for his mother's injury fuelling his rampage the first time around. Still, going up against eighteen dangerous enemies alone would be a challenge.

As for stealth, they had hounds; which meant that his scent would be instantly detected and they would spot him as soon as he got close. Unless... of course! The river!

If he could cross the river and sneak into the camp from upstream, he would be virtually undetectable to the hounds. The water would mask his scent, and with any luck, they would be upwind from him.

He would have to come up with some trick to dive into the river for a long time, but it was a problem that science could solve, and he liked science very much!

~*~

After healing Mguu's injury with some difficulty. He started looking into his options.

First, he searched the cave and found an assortment of strange items that Lawrence had hidden there. He recognised some of them from Lawrence's memories, but didn't recognise the rest. He concentrated hard to recall what knowledge he could from Lawrence's memories.

Every new item he found triggered Lawrence's knowledge in his head in some way. When he had two bits of knowledge, a third would cascade into his mind, like a jigsaw puzzle -- funny how he knew about those now -- solving itself. All this junk was his gold.

He could work with this.

With a plan in mind, Jasiri started picking out the items he would need.

It took some convincing; but after Shaping a sharp stone axes and handing them out to the men, they went out to fell all the wood he'd need.

For the next day, they collected wood, and using Shaping, he started compressing the wood and bending it to fit his needs. Wheels and axles formed as he concentrated hard on the structures he wanted in his mind. He even made very strong rope by Shaping vines in the same way.

He wondered what would happen if he compressed stone, he tried it and was rewarded with very strong stone that had edges sharper than flint. He used that knowledge to craft nails -- another concept from Lawrence's memories -- to fortify his creations with.

Then he started fitting all the components together. It took him a while to get it all right.

In the end, he had made his first invention, and it only took a day of work.

Turning his attention to the items he'd gathered from Lawrence's stash, he started Shaping his next idea. Some of the items were ancient and worn, but he managed to salvage what he could.

With night coming fast, and his second invention complete. He knew he was finally ready.

Lawrence would be proud. He thought.

It was time to put it to the test.

~*~

Jasiri knew he was exploring new territory with his ideas. From what he'd skimmed from Lawrence's mind, he knew that the man had his qualms about using science for war; but he hoped he'd understand the necessity.

He'd created four identical siege engines, fashioned from compressed wood. He'd made the nails with compressed stone. The wood was so compressed, it wouldn't even burn when he tried to ignite it.

After they received some hasty training in their operation, the men praised him for his ingenuity. Aided with Lawrence's experience and scientific mind, he had made his best guess at aiming them appropriately at their target.

Now in position, they would hopefully rain a hail of death upon the enemy's camp come dusk, and his tribesmen would man the war engines. They spent the rest of the day collecting rocks to load the makeshift siege weapons. Jasiri compressed as many of the rocks as he could.

With a final farewell and wishes of good luck to his party, he made his way to the river bank.

His second invention was not as elaborate as the first. It was a cruder version of the snorkelling equipment he'd seen in Lawrence's memories.

Using a length of tubing and an ancient gas mask he'd found in Lawrence's stash, he'd Shaped a close imitation of the pictures he'd witnessed in Lawrence's mind. It was untested and he wasn't even sure if it would work. He hoped for the best as he dove into the river.

~*~

Siege engines or not, Jasiri was determined to go through this.

He fought the current tooth and nail to approach the slaver's camp. He first tried Shaping in water to propel himself but found it to be extremely difficult. So, he resolved to swimming close to the surface. He hoped that the long shadows cast by the trees from the setting sun would hide any trace of him that broke through the water.

He was finally in position to strike. He hid himself well in the reeds sticking out of the water, and waited.

Just as the first rock landed, he stealthily started making his way out of the reeds and towards the slave enclosure.

The slavers were panicking. They started fleeing away and into the forest, abandoning the hounds and their captives to their fate. After a few shouts from their leader, they started regrouping outside the camp and left the area.

The hounds barked and snarled in their cages as a hail of doom savaged the tents of their camp. One of the enclosure walls was broken by a projectile, the captives scattered and some of them leapt to escape through the broken palisade. Jasiri was perplexed, he thought he caught sight of someone in his tribe's garb coming out through the hole, but he was not sure. The rubble and dust in the air from the barrage was reducing the visibility significantly.

By the time he reached the palisade, most of the captives were gone. The remaining ones were just resigned to their fate and hugged the corners. He supposed that this was the slavers' conditioning that Lawrence mentioned in passing before. If his father was here, he'd already left.

He had to hurry. Lawrence was near, and he could sense him.

"Don't use Shaping!" he heard Lawrence scream into his mind!

He tried to ask Lawrence why he couldn't use Shaping, or where he was, but found that he still wasn't skilled enough to communicate in the same way. He regretted not having Lawrence teach him that when they had the chance, but he still tried. Where do I find him? He thought.

"I'm in a collapsed tent. I don't know which. I'm bound by ropes and I think my leg has been crushed by a fallen rock." He felt Lawrence's thoughts -- and pain -- spill into his mind.

Jasiri sprang into action, he quickly grabbed one of the strange spears the slavers used and made his way towards the tents.

In the first tent, he found a girl bound and trying to free herself. She looked about his age, and was quite beautiful.

Focus, he thought.

He quickly freed her using his flint knife and turned to leave.

He found Lawrence in the second tent. He was bound and bleeding from his crushed leg.

Jasiri quickly freed him, and removed the rock. He momentarily forgot and was about to heal him using Shaping like he'd healed Mguu; but Lawrence stopped him.

"You can't! Sarah will know! She will control you if you use Shaping!" he told him.

"Who's Sarah?" Jasiri asked.

"Long story! We have to get out of here first!"

Jasiri dropped the strange spear and supported Lawrence's arm on his shoulder, and as they turned to leave they noticed that the girl was still following Jasiri, she was standing close by, near the flap of the tent, observing with curiosity.

"What are you waiting for? Go! Run for your life!" Jasiri shouted.

Instead of running, she stubbornly approached them instead. She took Lawrence's other arm over her shoulder, and all together, they exited the tent.

Jasiri was grateful; but then the rocks suddenly stopped falling.

They exchanged worried looks, and they both lifted Lawrence's legs from each side using their free arms, carrying him. They broke into a run.

~*~

"You did what?" Lawrence asked in astonishment.

"I created four of the 'trebuchets' I saw in your memories." Jasiri responded with a smirk.

They were still moving through the forest, on their way southward.

Jasiri could tell that Lawrence was surprised, he was exhausted and confused.

"I also made a snorkelling mask!" He said with a hint of pride to his voice.

"I won't even ask how." Lawrence said in a battered tone.

"We can talk later." Jasiri said as he eyed the girl.

She had said nothing for their entire flight out of the camp, and their lengthy stroll through the forest carrying Lawrence afterwards. He wondered if she could even talk. He couldn't see her features in the darkness either.

"Later." Lawrence said into his mind.

Halfway through the forest, they heard the hurried footfalls following them.

They quickly lowered Lawrence to rest against a tree trunk. Jasiri looked him over quickly and noticed that he was losing blood from his leg wound.

Satisfied that Lawrence was holding for the moment, he and the girl turned to see if danger had caught up. Jasiri was resigned and ready for a fight. He would use Shaping if he had to, despite Lawrence's cryptic warning.

Instead, they were surprised to meet a group of survivors led by elder Nyoka and his father. He recognised some of his tribespeople, and they all looked to be in bad shape.

Jasiri ran up to his father and hugged him fiercely. When they turned back to carry Lawrence, they found him unconscious.

~*~

Jasiri wanted to make a travois to carry Lawrence, but his specific warning against using Shaping stopped him.

This impeded their progress more than he would have liked. He was worried that the slavers would return and follow their trail.

They were still travelling to the south, and much closer to the foot of the mountain now. They'd have to carry Lawrence all the way to the top to cross the mountain, or go around it and risk being easy prey to the slavers.

Just then, elder Nyoka decided to talk.

"Jasiri, how did you summon stone from the sky?" he asked in a bewildered voice.

"This man," he looked to the unconscious Lawrence, "he saved me, and he taught me great knowledge. I used it to make the weapons you all witnessed."

"He must be a great sage."

"He is."

"Jasiri..." His father said, he looked his way.

"I'm proud of you, son." His father spoke as he put a hand on his shoulder.

Jasiri was overcome with emotion.

~*~

Jasiri extended the length of rope he'd salvaged from the trebuchets downwards from a ridge on the mountain, they would use it to carry Lawrence up.

They'd tried to wake him up, but he was feverish and unresponsive.

And so, Jasiri completely dismantled two of the trebuchets with the help of the men. They created a stretcher and bound Lawrence to it, and Jasiri had another idea: he used the wooden axles and some small wheels from the trebuchets to make the stretcher ride smoothly against a flattened wall of the mountain side.

Apparently, his ideas, and the fact that he built the trebuchets to begin with, impressed all those present beyond words. His father foremost.

They tied the ropes to the stretcher carefully, and slowly, a group of men began to pull.

The stretcher was on its way up the mountainside.

As it reached the top. He finally caught his breath.

"Thank you, Lawrence Godwin. For all this knowledge, and much more." he whispered to his unconscious friend.

vWrath
vWrath
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READ MORE OF THIS SERIES

Bloom Ch. 06 Previous Part
Bloom Series Info

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