Caino's Alphabet, D

Despite the hood pulled over his face, 
Aaron was in no doubt 
as to the identity of his captors.  
He had told Caino of the First Science, 
of its dreams and its goals, 
but not of the schism that would divide it.  
Not of the Second Scientists 
who would one day control the Machine, 
not of their misuse of its potential 
and not of their abuse of its power.     
    When they finally stopped again, 
Aaron listened to his kidnappers talking 
as they set up their camp.  
He could not make out much, 
but he knew them for scientists 
from the way that they spoke to each other.  
From what he could gather, 
it would not be so long 
before his body was taken by them.  
Another Mind would take over of its function, 
and all that he was would be gone.
—
    Not far away at all, 
half crouching and silent as a mouse, 
Caino followed Darius 
toward the crest of a ridge and stopped, 
as the wolfish form froze 
and slowly changed into the small 
and frightened child 
he became when danger loomed.      
Caino heard voices from over the ridge—
the sound of a camp being set.  
He ducked down and, 
placing a thick tree trunk 
between himself and the ridge, 
asked Darius, in a language they silently shared, 
to scout out the camp below.  
Darius nodded and mounted the ridge, 
a wraith seen by Caino alone, 
he made his way down to the camp. 
    Meanwhile, Caino weighed his options.  
Firstly, should he simply leave?  
If the answer was no, 
the question now was how a young boy 
could subdue those three kidnappers 
that Darius had described.  
He thought for a time, 
and as night fell his mind turned 
to the trees he had once climbed 
for shelter before joining the monks by their fire.  
He had an Idea.
—    
    The night was dark and moonless 
when Caino started to move.  
Darius guided his steps 
around dry stick and leaf as he slunk, 
silent as a shadow, down to the camp 
and just beyond the light cast by its fire.
    Darius led Caino to a tree 
and he climbed like a shadow, his spear left behind, he instead wore a satchel full of stones.  
Following his friend’s instructions, 
Caino crept out along a branch 
and soon found himself high above 
the dying embers of the fire.  
Below him, a solitary figure stood watch in its glow.
    Caino eased a stone from his satchel and, 
closing one eye, he took aim.  
Just then, the man began to rise 
and Caino had to shift his weight 
to stay above him and… 
he made a mistake.  
    There was a *crack* 
and Caino watched helplessly 
as a dry branch separated from the limb 
on which he sat and began to fall.  
There was now no more time for delay.  
Caino leaned over and dropped the stone.
    The man looked up towards the sound and,
seeing the motion of the falling branch, 
he started out of the way—
directly into the path of Caino’s poorly aimed stone. 
—
    “Erwin?” came a sleepy female voice, 
then, receiving no reply, again in alarm, 
“Erwin!  Farouk, Wake up!”
    Caino remained still as a statue, 
belly down on the branch; with a stone in each hand, he waited for his next chance to drop them.
    “Here by the fire,” came a second voice,
presumably Farouk’s, and a form bent over 
the still body that Caino’s first stone had silenced.
    Caino’s aim was better with his next stone, 
and a second figure soon lay stretched out
next to the first.  
Now there was only one kidnapper left—the girl.  
He heard her rush toward the fire 
from the direction that Darius had told him
Bartholomew and Aaron lay, 
no doubt unaware that Caino had dispatched 
yet another of her companions.
    “The prisoners are tied fast, it must be-“ 
she stopped just within the light of the fire.  
She had seen the bodies; 
she slipped back into the dark.
    Caino, quiet as a cat, 
crept down from the tree and, 
reaching the forest floor found Darius, 
who silently gestured 
toward the other side of the fire 
where Caino faintly made out 
the slightest of movements 
against the backdrop of the forest.     
“Come,” said Darius 
in a voice only Caino could hear, 
and slowly the pair made a wide circle
around the fire before again approaching 
the radius of its light, 
this time on the opposite side—
directly behind the figure he had earlier glimpsed hidden amongst the trees.  
    It was the girl, 
watching from the dark as he had, 
in hope of catching sight of her assailant.  
As Caino made his approach with practised stealth, he looked down at the rough stone 
he held in his hand 
and impulsively cast it to one side.
    When the girl started 
in the direction of the noise, 
Caino covered the distance between them in a flash
and brought his boyish fist down 
upon the side of her head like a hammer.  
The girl crumpled to the forest floor, 
unconscious but otherwise unharmed. 
    Caino searched the girl, and, 
finding a small knife, he cut strips from her clothes
and used these to bind all three of the kidnappers hand and foot.
    Not trusting his knots, 
Caino resolved to stand watch 
over his captives until morning; 
he would see to the sleeping monks 
when they awoke.  
So he sat down and fed the dying fire. 
Gazing into the flickering embers, 
he allowed his mind to wander.  
He thought of the death of the old hunter, 
and recalled the strange blackness about his head.
 His eyelids grew heavy, 
he blinked and then… sleep.