Perilous Jaunt chapter 16
Chapter 16
Peter
"Leave him alone," Esme called out to me, as I began to walk after Dante, who had already disappeared into the woods.
I turned back around and saw Esme crouched down beside the topless lioness. "He seems really upset," I said. "You don't think he'd hurt himself, do you?"
Esme lowered her knife and began to cut the ropes around the bleeding girl's wrists. "Dante's a big boy. He can handle himself,"
After the lioness' arms were free, she covered her chest and managed to speak through her tears, all while looking over her shoulder. "Thank...you,"
"Don't mention it, hun," Esme said, warmly, as she stood up and sheathed her knife. "Where's your tunic?"
The girl sniffed and tried her best to speak calmly. "In the church...on the ground,"
"Do you want my otter friend to go get it for you?" Esme asked.
"Otter?" the girl said with confusion, as she looked over at me.
"Esme!" I hissed at the kangaroo.
"Oh, lighten, up," Esme said. "It was a slip of the tongue,"
I remained silent.
"Would you like him to get your tunic for you?" Esme asked the bleeding lioness again.
"Okay..." the girl whispered.
"Tiny?" Esme asked, glancing towards me. "Could you go get it?"
"Oh," I said and was taken back for a moment. "Sure,"
With haste, I turned and hurried to the front doors of the church. I grabbed the humongous iron bar on the left door, pulled it back and walked in.
The inside of the church was pretty shitty. A few pews were covered in blankets of dust and there were tables scattered around the entire room, which was really cramped. It also didn't help that the walls were rotting on the inside and already had big holes inside of them. There wasn't even a floor. Instead, there was only dirt.
Then, I noticed a brown tunic on the ground in front of me, which looked like it had been carelessly tossed away. I picked it up and, after I sniffed it, realized that it belonged to the lioness.
I turned around and went back through the door, which boomed closed behind me.
When I stepped outside of the church, Esme and the lioness were sitting on the ground side-by-side, facing me. Esme was whispering something to the poor girl and the girl had her head down, causing a shadow to cast itself over her face.
"Here you go," I said, as I stood on the opposite side of the girl from Esme and handed the lioness her tunic.
The lioness stared up at me and then looked down at her tunic. Gently, she reached out and took it from me. "Thank you,"
"No problem," I told her, as I allowed her tunic to slide out of my hands.
"Do you want some help putting it on?" Esme asked.
The poor girl held the tunic, staring at it like it was a long-lost friend. She then looked over to Esme and nodded.
Esme cautiously took the tunic from the girl and moved in front of her. The kangaroo then got on her tiptoes as she carefully put the tunic over the lioness, who had stood up as well. The lioness' head popped out of the top and Esme started to cover the rest of the girl's body with the tunic.
"Ow!" the girl cried, as the tunic touched one of the bleeding cuts on her back.
Esme glanced over at me. "Could you stretch out the back of the tunic so it doesn't touch her cuts?"
"Sure," I said and moved towards the back of the girl. Then, I stretched out the back of the tunic as far as I could.
Being so close to the wounds made me absolutely sick to my stomach. I could see the flaps of fur that had been parted and the hairs that clumped together in the blood. Believe it or not, the stench was even worse. It's one thing to smell blood from a distance, but, as I stood right next to the girl's bleeding back with my nose practically buried into her cuts, the stench of blood was making me woozy and made me feel liking throwing up the bread I had for breakfast. But I didn't complain. Even though I felt sick and kind of lightheaded, that was nothing compared to what the poor lioness was feeling. She was bleeding, on the verge of tears and had parents who told her that she was broken, or some shit. Hell, she was only sixteen and didn't even have anywhere to go. She couldn't go home to her parents. They'd probably just send her to some other crazy asshole to have her "healed". So, she didn't need to hear me bitch. I didn't have the right. And I would have been a complete asshole to think otherwise.
After the girl's tunic completely covered her, she said, "Thanks,"
I took a step to the left, where I silently watched Esme and the girl exchange a few words.
"It's no trouble, dear," Esme assured the lioness, almost motherly.
"Is it..." the lioness sniffed and looked at the dead priest. "Is it true what he said? Am I a monster?"
Esme blinked and placed her hands on both of the girl's shoulders. "Sweetie, you... I'm sorry. What's your name?"
"Madyson," the girl muttered.
"Madyson," Esme repeated, as if she was committing it to her memory forever, and removed her hands from Madyson's shoulders. "There wasn't one morning when someone just up and asked you if you wanted to eat pussy the rest of your life, right?"
Madyson softly shook her head and her ears folded back. "No,"
"No," Esme said. "There wasn't. You didn't choose this. And you didn't choose to be a girl or a lioness, either. So, who or what you like in bed are just like your eye color. They doesn't define who you are as a person,"
"But..." Madyson said. "The priest said that God hates me. He is...was...a priest. So wasn't he right?"
"Why should he be right?" Esme asked.
"Aren't priests supposed to know everything about God?"
Esme sighed and her expression went from gentle to pity. "Look, I'm not the holiest person. I cuss like a motherfucker and I love the occasional cock. But, if God does exist, which I believe He does, He doesn't give a single shit about who we share our beds with. Look around us," The kangaroo then waved her hand towards the woods. "Out there, children are starving. People are being raped. I bet there's even a few murders happening. Now, out of all the things in the world, don't you think God's got bigger things to worry about than who we fuck? Why should He care more about what you like having dangled in your face than all of the real problems in the world? He doesn't! Trust me. He really doesn't give two shits!"
"But the priest had all of these quotes from the Bible," Madyson said, afraid. "And he said I wasn't a true Christian because of my...deformity,"
Esme continued to speak with Madyson, still holding onto her sweet tone. "Now, help me understand, you're telling me that you are a Christian, right? Because I don't want you to think you have to agree with me about God or anything. You can believe whatever the fuck you want,"
"Yes," Madyson answered. "I'm Christian,"
"Okay," Esme said. "Have you ever read the Bible, Madyson?"
Madyson shook her head.
"Well, for one, the Bible has been around a long time and has been translated a lot. So, not everything has the same meaning as it did when it was written. But, one thing it definitely does tell us is that God sent His Son to die so we could be forgiven. Can you imagine that? His _only_Son. And it wasn't for one group of people, like wolves, lions or some shit like that. He did it for everybody! Does that like somebody who would hate you?"
Madyson slowly dropped her head and stared at the ground. "No,"
"Hey," Esme whispered and placed her hand on Madyson's chin to lift the lioness' head. "God could never hate you. Ever. Especially for something like eating pussy,"
"My parents do," Madyson whimpered. "They told me not to come home until I was...fixed,"
Esme was silent for a moment. At first, I thought she was going to ask where Madyson's parents were so she could go beat the living crap of them, but what she actually did was for more surprising.
Esme untied her knife's sheath from her belt and handed it to Madyson, with the knife still inside of it. "Take it,"
"What?" Madyson gasped.
"You don't need people like that in your life!" Esme told her. "Go anywhere else! Get a job or become someone's apprentice. The whole world is out there and you don't need to be around people who don't accept you. But, until you find a place where you're happy, use this knife for protection,"
Madyson shook her head. "But that's your-"
"It was my knife," Esme correct her. "Now, I'm giving it to you,"
Hesitantly, Madyson stuck out her hands and took Esme's gift. She gazed at the leather of the sheath with wonder as Esme let go of it.
"Tie it to your belt," Esme instructed, warmly.
Madyson obeyed and, after several tries, successfully latched the sheath onto her own belt.
"Now," Esme said, before pointing up the road, back the way from which we had come, "about five miles back is a town. It's small, but there's a tavern there. The man who owns it is named Oliver. He's an old buddy of mine. Tell him that Esme sent you and he'll give you some work and a place to stay. You'll probably serve tables, but I'm sure he'll pay you decent coin. If any men get drunk and try to cop a feel, tell Ollie about it. He'll take care of them. And, if anybody gets really handsy or tries to hurt you, cut their cocks right off,"
"Won't your friend send me away if he finds out I'm...?" Madyson asked, fearing the answer.
"Oh, fuck no!" Esme said with a smile. "Ollie's got a boyfriend! He and Rowan have been together for fifteen years. They own the tavern together, actually. Course, since they're both coyotes, they tell everyone they're just brothers. Hard to believe, though, since they're so different from each other, one being a skinny flamer who talks a lot and the other being a quiet six-footer with scars all over. Hell, you might even get more gold from them if you tell them that you're gay,"
Madyson stared down the road, almost in disbelief that someone was treating her with genuine kindness. You would think, just by seeing how shocked she was, that she hadn't been treated nicely during a single day of her life.
Then, without warning, Madyson turned back and threw her arms around Esme in a grateful hug, clearly surprising Esme, who was wide-eyed at the moment.
"Thank you," Madyson sobbed with her face buried into Esme's shoulder. "Thank you so much,"
Steadily, Esme's surprise melted away and she hugged the poor girl back. "You're welcome,"
Suddenly, Madyson broke away from Esme and looked at me with her red, teary eyes, just before bending over to nearly tackle me to the ground with a hug. At first, I was wondering why she was hugging me. All I did was help put her shirt on. But, to keep from her from crying even more, I returned the gesture and squeezed my arms tightly around her.
Madyson then pulled herself away from me, stood up and trotted down the road, heading north. For a moment, she stopped, frozen in space. Then, she turned around to wave goodbye to Esme and I before leaving the two of us alone.
It was strange. Esme had been nothing but a loudmouth bitch since I had first met her, but there she was, having just shown some actual decency to another person. Not only that, but she actually was willing to go as far as giving up her knife to help a poor girl, who she had just met. Would have I done the same thing if I were Esme? Could I have shown that same kind of kindness to someone in need? Then, I began to think that maybe I had misjudged Esme. Perhaps, deep down beneath that loud mouth of hers, she was actually nice. For a Christian.
"Why can't we take her with us?" I asked Esme, once Madyson faded away into the green forest.
"Because," Esme explained, while she kept looking where Madyson was last visible, as if hoping to catch one last glimpse of the lioness, "she's been through enough. It wouldn't be fair to take a girl like her, who can't even fight, with us,"
With a sigh, Esme went over to the priest's body. "You should probably go get Dante and tell him we're leaving,"
"Why?" I asked, watching Esme pick up Dante's gun.
Esme smirked and pointed to the dead priest with the gun. "Unless you'd rather move him instead,"
"Oh," I said. "All right,"
I then walked southwards down the road, the same direction in which Dante had gone.
After making it a few steps down the road, I called out, "Dante!"
There was no response.
"Dante!" I called out again as I walked. "You there?"
The only response I got that time was the chirping of birds.
The church was almost out of sight when I was about to yell for Dante again, but, before I could, I heard a whimper come from my right. I looked to see what was making the sound and I discovered Dante, sitting down against a tree with the side of his left shoulder pointed at me. His head was tilted down and his eyes were swollen like somebody had punched them, not to mention soaking with tears. As he began to cry once more, his body shook and he leaned forward to hide his face into his hands, after which he began to sob uncontrollably.
"Dante?" I whispered.
The wolf's ears jumped to attention and he ripped his face away from his hands. Once he realized that I was present, Dante quickly turned and faced his back towards me.
"What do you want, Peter?" he asked after clearing his throat, trying to hide just how sad his voice sounded.
"I..."
What could I say? How can you make somebody stop crying by just talking to them?
"Esme talked to the girl," I said. "She gave directions to the next town up the road, where some guys she knows live. Esme told her they'd take care of her,"
Dante grunted. "Good,"
An uncomfortable silence passed. Not even the birds where chirping anymore.
"Are you...okay?" I finally asked.
"Yeah...of course," he said. "Just...leave me alone for a little longer,"
"Are you sure?" I asked him. "I could go get Esme. She could come talk to you and-"
"No!" Dante growled at me. "Just leave me the hell alone!"
"Okay..." I told him, trying my best not to push any further. "Well, whenever you're ready, come back,"
I left him there, sitting in the dirt. It was kind of pathetic, really. And, wouldn't you believe it? I actually felt bad for him, even if he wouldn't tell me what was upsetting him so much.