As they wandered together along the path, they finally saw it up ahead...

‘Vish ka tu tu,” Payek nodded at it. There it is. Payek and Gu-Bar instinctively switched their holds on their spears from walking stick to weapon. The two brothers crouched behind a fern, their platted hair sweeping fallen leaves behind them.
Now what? Whispers Gu-Bar. Payek looks back at him. What do you mean, ‘now what’?
Gu-Bar shrugged. Go, idiot. Payek slapped him on his bare back and Gu-Bar stepped out behind the fern, taking careful steps towards the shrine. He looked back to Payek with an uncomfortable affect plastered on his face, but Payek flicked his hand at him to wave him on. As he stepped into the clearing, the ground became dry and soft, but luxuries were lost on him as the grand totem loomed overhead, its many faces staring down at him with displeasure. 

Gu-Bar’s knees began shaking, and he did not want to get much closer. My – my – our… he then remembered his manners and bowed his head. O great ones.
Payek was still crouching in the underbrush, grinding his teeth at his brother’s nervous stammering.
O great ones, he repeated. O great ones.
He had forgotten the words. Payek spat into the soil; he knew he would muck it up. Of course he would now have to go and finish what his little brother had started. He grabbed his spear with one hand and marched impatiently towards the clearing.
‘O great…’
‘No, idiot, it’s “Hear me, O great ones”’ Gu-Bar’s elder brother stepped boldly into the clearing. Crack. A tree gave way, slamming into the ground just in front of Payek. The brothers froze, looking at each other with wide eyes. Gu-Bar didn’t know much, but he knew that Payek had been disrespectful in a sacred place. The Great Spirits were angry. Payek dropped to his knees and bowed his head.

‘Please, O great ones,’ Gu-Bar continued. ‘Our mother is very sick. She needs your help or she will die. Please fix her, I pray to you.’
The brothers waited, but were greeted only by forest sounds. Gu-Bar’s eyes found the bottom carvings of the totem, and followed them up. Bird faces, hands, feathers, then a horrible mouth full of teeth. Two big eyes stared down at him and he quickly averted his eyes back towards the ground. Payek could sense his brother getting restless - he had not yet learnt the patience of a man and was endangering their chances of getting the help of the Great Ones. He wanted to tell Gu-Bar to be still and noiseless, but he did not want to talk again for fear of angering the spirits. Gu-Bar seemed distracted, thinking deeply about something to himself, but this was not the time or place. After snapping a twig, Payek shot him an angry look, only to see a large Jaguar amongst the trees behind him.

‘Gu- Gu-… There!’ he shouted and pointed. Gu-Bar snapped out of his trance and locked eyes with the jungle cat.
Aiiieeee!
The two stumbled backwards, trying to find their feet as the Jaguar snarled at them from just beyond the clearing. Gu-Bar spoke quietly to Payek without breaking eyes from the animal, ‘just be still, brother. It will not attack us on sacred ground’.

Payek stepped backwards, tripped, and fell flat on his back. The Jaguar launched itself into the clearing. Gu-Bar scrambled away but Payek could not move quickly enough. The Jaguar bore down on him with the power of pure muscle, its jaws seeking flesh. It went in for his neck, but Gu-Bar was quick and plunged his spear deep into the Jaguar’s belly. The beast rolled over in agony, and Gu-Bar finished it in the neck before it had time to strike again. 

Payek’s legs would not work, but he looked up at the shrine like it was all a dream. A little black bird stood at the top, watching the scene. He had a thin, leafy twig in his beak that he dropped when Payek faced him. Gu-Bar helped his brother to his feet, and seeing the dropped twig, recognised the rare healing berries that clung between its leaves. The many faces looked down at them in approval.

‘Kokoba, mayenka.’ He said to Payek. ‘Matuka ba kay na Paganuga’.
Kokoba berries, brother. The bird has been sent to us by the Great Ones.

Refuge

The carriage jolted and Carrie came to. They had been hurtling across the desert for 3 hours now, and the refugees had more or less settled from the crying and the shaking.

Everyone in the road train looked dirty, sitting in silent hunches as their thoughts remained in the war-bound city. Nobody had expected such a travesty to hit on what had seemed like such a normal morning, and whoever had remained to fight would surely be dead soon if they weren’t already. 

Not soldiers. Terrorists. Not war. It was massacre.
The anger welled inside Carrie once again, and her bunched lips could not scorn away painful tears. She had to be brave now for the children aboard, but more importantly for herself.

It was dusty and dark in the carriage, and the only light was coming from a gap in the door just wide enough to stick your head through. Jimbo, one of the bigger guys, was standing next to it with a shotgun in his hand. He was looking out with a stern expression on his face. She couldn’t tell if he was looking at something, or deep in thought about his home town. It had plunged into chaos just less than 5 hours ago, and in the bustle of the mayhem he simply couldn’t know if his wife had made it aboard one of the other road trains leaving the city.

Carrie pushed herself up from the corner and made her way to the front, stepping over legs that stuck out from the wall like teeth of a broken comb. At the door, Jimbo was looking at something. A dust cloud in the distance coming perpendicular to the train.
“What is it?” she asked him.
“I’m not sure,” said Jimbo, “but they’re definitely aiming for us.”