The Wild Lands: Legend of the Wild Man Read Online Free Page A

silent. All eyes were on her. Baucis spoke first:
“Do you understand the significance?”
    Urea shook her head. She understood that
everything she thought she knew had changed. He wasn't supposed to
exist, not really. He was a fable, a story to frighten children and
pass the time. He couldn't exist, he shouldn't.
    “Imagine The Garden with tools at our
disposal. Everything will accelerate. The elk will have to adapt to
an infinitely adaptable predator. Their antlers can’t even begin to
defend against it. We’ll need a whole new set of mutation! All from
a new player for my symphony!”
    Urea's mouth hung open in shock. Just like
Baucis to focus on his symphony. He saw himself as a maestro, the
forms of the Evanimals his instruments, the hunts between life and
death his orchestral movements. “The Naturalists would love to see
a new predator I'm sure,” Rufus added. Baucis nodded in agreement,
his eyes seeing five fingered stars.
    Tennay cleared his throat. “Small goals,
gentlemen. Those hands can build. We can build machines again,
exploit resources! Industry can return! If we find a sufficient
population we can reclaim the surface.”
    “You do realize you speak Blasphemy? We
survive the Scourge because of our Spire. You seek to leave it and
damn us all!”
    “Not all of us believe your silly
superstitions, priestess,” Tennay said, his voice laden with
sarcasm.
    “Still, she has prophesied him. At the very
least we'll have to address it.” Rufus was always thinking of the
patrons of the Spire.
    “Nonsense! No one really believes in him!
It's just a way to explain to our children why we're stuck up
here,” Tennay said.
    Ntelo scowled.
    “We must find and capture it, immediately.
Any hesitation and we risk losing the animal. It is clearly
nocturnal, and probably lives past the mountain range. The Field’s
not strong there, so we'll have to capture it before he gets too
far. Urea, that will be your responsibility. Once we have it, then
we can decide how to best introduce him. Any questions?” Baucis
looked around the circle.
    Urea had only one: “Who is he?”
    Tennay looked to Rufus who only shrugged.
Baucis grinned devilishly, but the High Priestess spoke first.
    “He is the Wild Man, sent by Nature to scour
the blight of humanity from this planet.” Phoebe gasped. Fat tears
rolled down Urea's cheeks. Jacob hid his eyes, but she knew that he
too wept.
    The Wild Man, Nature’s Warrior, the force of
Nature that represented all that was good about mankind had killed
one of their cursed biselk . Long had the stories been told
of the Wild Man: he waited out there, in the wild, proof positive
that man could survive on the surface without the help of anything
but his own wits, but that one day, if you weren’t careful, he’d
come for you, so be good and he’ll stay down there! The boogeyman
they had all worked so hard to keep away had reared his ugly
head.
    Skup closed the connection as soon as his
sister started crying. Skup did not like being excluded from
meetings, especially one as important as this. Why did Baucis think
he shouldn’t know about the Wild Man? Unlike everything else, he
actually agreed with Baucis on this one. They should capture the
thing, clearly it was powerful.
    No one wanted to hear from Skup. Ever since
Urea's panthera was introduced to the Garden, his vultus flock had been forgotten, and him along with them.
Now Baucis ignored him too, it was an affront. He knew Baucis was
intimidated by him and his sister and sought to drive them apart.
They were only sixteen but already the most gifted Evanimal Pilots
in all of Spire City. But in light of his sister's panthera the patrons were quickly forgetting about Skup. His flock received
none of the respect it deserved.
    Before Skup no one could pilot a vultus with any success, much less an alpha male that
presided over an entire flock. Without Skup, the flock would have
long ago turned on the biselk , and the Garden would be
doomed. If