Ahi Kā
(Prose
and interwoven sonnet, Truth Lies in Fire and Dies in Flame)
By
Eileen Mueller and A.J. Ponder
Howls pierced the fog of my dreams. I
clutched Ahi, shaking her awake. “Are they real?” Yowling wound through my ear
canals, ricocheting inside my head. “The dogs, Ahi, can you hear them?”
She woke, startled. “Hurry, Manaaki. They’re
coming.”
We scrambled out of our bush-clad
hideout, dashing up the hillside, sliding in the damp earth, ponga fronds whipping
our faces.
Frenzied yelps closed in on us. The
creatures’ vicious snarling drowned our laboured breathing.
Blue eyes pursued us, hot gas flames in
the dark.
Were they real?
I yanked my meds from my pocket. Pills scattered
in the dirt. I scrabbled for them. One stuck in my throat before sliding down.
#
Cry havoc and let us
unloose the dogs
the dogs, let slip those hellish brutes
of war
for tonight Manaaki will have to choose
to run—
#
“Hellhounds,” Ahi yelled, bounding up
the mud and crumbling rock.
Menacing growls raced through the
underbrush. Ahi yanked a nail from her fingertip. It flared to light,
illuminating the black-hackled beast leaping towards us.
“Ahi?” In all our time together, her
fingernails had never exploded into fireballs. I stared at her and swallowed
another pill, tasting dirt.
The hound, with pain-stricken yelps, was
devoured by flame. Wild baying echoed in the valley below. More hellhounds.
Ahi stood, fingertip bleeding. Her hand,
with only four nails, reached out. Warm blood sticky in my palm, she yanked me uphill.
Had my medication stopped working?
To be sure, I gulped another down.
#
Laugh in the shade of
the slavering beast
let fire light his eyes and make death
tame
the boy is mad—
#
The
hellhounds thundered behind us. Racing through the darkness, we tripped, smashing
our knees on jutting rocks.
I gagged on the stench of the hounds’
hot breath. They snapped at our heels—and bit deep. I
screamed.
Ahi ripped off another nail, flinging it
over her shoulder. The beast yelped and fled, trailing flames.
Fingers spraying glistening blood in the
flame-light, Ahi aimed nail after nail at the perilous beasts, until only two nails
remained.
#
The boy is mad to thwart this hunter’s
feast
the dirt he tastes will never bear his
name
and yet he stops and
turns—
#
Ahi flung her penultimate nail through snarling
fangs.
The beast combusted. Singed fur and
burning flesh. A pale demon loomed behind the hellhound’s flaming carcass. Worse
than hellhounds. Worse than my lover-turned-stranger beside me, oozing blood from
her torn fingertips. Worse than hallucinations.
I screamed.
Ahi smiled through her blood and tears. She
tore the final fingernail from her hand and pressed it into mine. “Swallow
this,” she whispered.
#
Truth Lies in Fire and Dies in Flame
Cry havoc and let us unloose the dogs
the dogs, let slip those hellish brutes of war
for tonight Manaaki will have to choose
to run through fire and flame or face the maw
Laugh in the shade of the slavering beast
Let fire light his eyes and make death tame
The boy is mad to thwart this hunter’s feast
The dirt he tastes will never bear his name
And yet he stops and turns, his wild fear tame
Ahi Kā, Manaaki keep the home fires burning
In blood and fire—with life he stakes his claim
Ahi Kā, let us stand where he is standing
Not hew him as a carcass fit for hounds;
But burn those who chase Manaaki out of bounds
Story and sonnet
A.J. Ponder and
Eileen Mueller
I hope you enjoyed this foray into literary fantasy,
cheers,
A.J. Ponder
You can find A.J. Ponder at:
Once again I have failed to meet the Tuesday deadline with a poem, I'm trying to keep up posting every week and get a new book out, but in the meantime, I'd like to link you to a book I co-wrote with Peter Friend, a few years ago now, called The Great Weta Robbery. It's a great little book published by Gilt Edge for early readers. There's an audio version at the above link, and even better for teachers, there's an educator's guide here.
