8. Battle for Platsu
Casjara needed five bullets to anger all the animals, and five more to lose faith in the attack. According to Hera, those elephant creatures were actually mammoths. Whatever they were called, their hide was thick enough to withstand bullets.
Don’t think of Hera. Not now.
Time for a new tactic. “Surrender and we’ll do you no more harm!” she shouted at the nest’s gate.
A tiger responded by pouncing straight at her. One of her soldiers jumped in front and took the bite to his side. Her bullets pierced tiger skin. Both creatures fell, bleeding, to the ground.
“That was the wrong choice.”
Her army had long since surrounded the nest, blocking all the exits. They charged in, shooting with complete disregard. Snakes fell from above, coiling around torsos until they couldn’t breathe, or around legs until humans toppled over.
Plants that first seemed small grew ten times their height, seizing wrists and ankles. Soldier after soldier was yanked upside down or deeper into the nest.
Casjara slashed away the plants with a knife. She spotted a wolf and shot him down. The look in the whimpering beast’s eyes reminded her of Hera’s frightened face when they’d first arrived.
Don’t think of that, she scolded herself. Forget Hera. Forget everything. Win this fight and claim your glory.
Her arm looked purple. Maybe the snakebite was poisonous after all,maybe not. Focus on what you know for certain. This arm is useless now.
She switched the rifle to her other arm. That’s when she noticed something she’d forgotten—the group of people who’d gone with Hera but never returned. They were trapped in a cage of thick vines and even thicker leaves. One had been struck by a bullet.
This is a rescue mission, she thought with childlike eagerness. Yes, that’s what it is!
Gradually but surely her army thinned out, just like the animal army. They pushed further into the nest, shooting and screaming. In her mind’s eye, she already saw herself standing atop a high rock, cheering her victory.
She also saw all the dead creatures around her. That doubt slowed her down.
A mammoth charged at her. She didn’t even try shooting anymore and just leapt aside. Its tusk barely grazed her, but that was enough.
Casjara flew through the air and landed hard on the stones beyond. Five soldiers immediately dropped their guns and came to help her up. The mammoth knew exactly what he was doing. Like a wall he stood before the vulnerable animals, seizing every chance to ram through her army.
This needs to end quickly, she thought. They are many and they are intelligent. We certainly don’t want to be here at night.
She rolled onto her good arm and pushed herself up. Her upper body of pure muscle could deliver a lethal kick to any human attacker. But these weren’t humans—they were animals.
Humans are animals too, Hera’s voice repeated in Casjara’s head. They didn’t start this, they just wanted to eat.
Casjara ran faster than she ever had, as if she could outrun the thought. She leapt back and forth between two stones until she hovered above the ground, landing precisely atop a mammoth’s back.
The beast thrashed and trumpeted, but Casjara held on tight, able to survey the entire battlefield now. No, humans aren’t animals, and animals aren’t humans. They’re so much lesser than we are.
And from above, she could shoot down those lesser creatures who had no idea what even hit them.
Until the nest opened up its own bag of tricks. A red-yellow cloud hung in the air, but the mammoth charged through before she could steer clear. The many colorful flowers seemed to cough endless dust into the air.
Her vision grew fuzzy. Her world spun and a horrid stench filled her nose. Her eyes hurt too much to keep open.
When she finally managed it, the entire nest looked different. Upside down, because she’d tumbled off the mammoth’s back and hit the ground hard.
Everything appeared to spin. Rocks floated and animals suddenly had their eyes on their backs. Each sound came at her from all directions, or not at all—until it was too late.
Mindy ran remarkably fast for her age, but it was no use. When they reached the nest, it seemed deserted.
Animals and humans lay strewn on the ground, joined by the one common thread in all of life: death.
It was rare to find anything still standing. The poisonous pink and yellow dust clouds still settled; Mindy deftly avoided them.
She sank to her knees. The panda leaned against her.
“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
She felt the soil, the stones softened from all the trampling and blood. Why can humans only build on blood? The question ricocheted through her otherwise empty mind.
I’ve wondered that long myself, dear reader. I’d hoped relating these tales might bring an answer to light. I don’t know—does it work for you?
Mindy stroked the animals still alive.
“I was too kind to the newcomers. I should have sent them away as soon as they landed.”
Hera shook her head. “That never would have worked. A hundred people against only you?”
The creatures eyed her and Simmo warily, but Mindy’s trust in them bridged the gap. Somehow they must understand not all humans were the same—like humans understand not all animals are the same.
In times like these, this thought was almost impossible to maintain.
“You underestimate my power,” Mindy said. “I’m one of the most famous figures in the human universe. Trevran went on his journey to find the edge of the universe on my recommendation.”
For the first time, Mindy opened up her senses again, daring now to see and feel some of what had happened. It allowed her to hear the gunshots in the distance.
“The fight isn’t over. It’s moved elsewhere.”
“Why? Where to?” Hera didn’t seem to hear.
Simmo examined the cage in the nest’s center, its bars bitten as if a dinosaur had torn it open from above. He followed the debris and saw a deep continuous groove in the ground. Not footsteps, not blood, but a mark of something heavy dragged along.
Mindy instantly stood beside him. “They’ve taken the prisoners. Their feet scraping the earth left this trail.”
She took one last look around. “I don’t think the animals had the upper hand. So they’ve gone to my nest for help.”
“Or the Stoe of Platsu.”
“Which stone?”
No answer came, for Mindy already sprinted full speed ahead.
As the gunshots grew louder, Mindy knew she needed a plan—but she couldn’t think clearly anymore. Soon everything would be gone. Everything she’d given her life and time and dreams to, just to provide a good life for these creatures. Everything!
And she’d allowed monsters with weapons to destroy it all.
A battle cry erupted from deep within, filling the air under a midday sun that pretended it was a lovely day. She ran so swiftly that even the animals couldn’t keep up.
There stood Casjara, held upright by two soldiers.
Her army—and thereby the entire human colony—was whittled down to just dozens. The only humans not enlisted were Simmo’s fuel-gathering group. They further dismantled the Lonely Tree, now more rocket than tree.
Casjara followed their gasoline river. Just a few hundred meters further and it would lead to the rabbits’ nest.
She can never, ever reach that, Mindy thought.
“Hey!” She needed a moment to catch her breath. “My name is Mindy. Yes, you know me. Stop fighting, or I’ll send the whole interplanetary army after you!”
“Interplanetary army?” Hera whispered. “I never read about that in any—”
“It doesn’t exist,” Mindy whispered back. “Hopefully it sounds official.”
Her arrival was meant to be dramatic—to drop weapons and turn heads. Instead, everyone’s attention was on a dark gray stone, perfectly spherical. Shattered eggshells already lay around it, but those had been there a while and didn’t draw the eye.
No, every pupil sparkled from a red flash of light above the Stone of Platsu, growing and growing until the bubble burst.
A black panda stood atop the stone, surrounded by fifty new animal species and more eggs about to hatch.
The animal army had just received reinforcements. They also still held dozens of humans captive.
The human army was exhausted but had weapons aimed, including Casjara’s rifle at Mindy. The only humans without guns refused to stop collecting fuel and baring the rocket.
And Mindy stood between them, beside the Lonely Tree which was surely the Lonely Rocket by now.
The black panda smiled at her and clapped her paws together. “Greetings, hello, good day. I’m Jacintah, I’m the Placefolder, and I’m severely disappointed.”