“That’s excellent,” Aaron praised, giving the panther an awkward hug. “You did it!”
The panther screamed in his face, pleased with herself as well.
Since things were progressing so well, and Aaron’s forced seclusion in the secured palace was now only two days away, he decided to spend the night in the jungle—after all, he didn’t have much time.
The next day, he worked on the “attack” command with the panther. This one was easier, since the panther seemed to prefer attacking things to sitting down. Aaron fashioned all sorts of fake enemies out of sticks, vines, and branches for the panther to go after, including an army of spider figures.
Quite often during the attack training, Aaron called out “Down!” to make sure the panther didn’t forget that trick—the most important one. And the panther obeyed almost every time. It was the “almost” part that caused Aaron to panic. He wasn’t sure why he was panicking, since he of course hated all Unwanteds and thought they probably deserved their fate. But the girl with the orange eyes that he’d seen in his brother’s mansion right before the neighboring island attacked—she wasn’t an Unwanted. He was sure of that. He’d have remembered her. So maybe she didn’t deserve to die.
As much as he tried, he couldn’t seem to feel good about the panther running around and randomly attacking people. He didn’t want to witness that—it was too horrifying. He only wanted the panther to attack General Blair, and only if the general double-crossed Aaron and took over Artimé’s mansion.
“I know what I need to do,” he said to himself during a break. The little dog came over and climbed in his lap and began nibbling on his fingers with his razor teeth. Aaron shook his hand free and stood up. “I need to make a General Blair decoy.” And so he fashioned one from jungle materials and began calling it General Blair. He taught the panther the decoy’s name, and lined the General Blair decoy up alongside the spiders and several other decoys Aaron had made.
“Panther,” Aaron said to the panther, as he’d begun to call the creature, “attack General Blair!”
The panther bounded over to the lineup, hesitated, and grabbed the nearest spider, shaking its viny body in her teeth.
Aaron tried again, and again the panther attacked the decoy closest to her. Over and over, the panther started out with good intentions, or so Aaron surmised, but the temptation to attack the nearest object won out every time. When Aaron moved the General Blair decoy to the front of the pack, Panther attacked him soundly. But when Aaron moved him behind, the panther just couldn’t ignore the easiest catch.
The rock watched with fascination. This was no doubt the most entertainment he’d seen since Marcus Today had extracted the giant hunk of ebony from his mouth.
“I have an idea,” the rock interjected when Aaron collapsed to the ground after hours of failure. “Perhaps you should only use the command when the enemy you wish the panther to attack is nearest you.”
Aaron sighed deeply, staring up at the canopy of leaves that held up the sky above him. Light was fading once more. Dirty, exhausted, and dejected, Aaron lay there for several minutes before admitting, “You’re probably right.”
The rock thought for a moment but decided to say no more. It moved away, down a path, leaving Aaron alone.
Aaron struggled to his feet and looked at the decoys, many of them mangled beyond recognition. Aaron picked up his original spider and petted the vines as if the creature were alive. He marveled over his ability to put these things together like this. He’d never done anything like it before—not in front of anybody, anyway. He’d never been caught as a child pretending the mop was a fluffy dog, or the worn old broom a hedgehog. Not even Alex knew about that.
He drew a hand over the spider’s mudball head and vine body, thinking about what it would be like to have an animal companion. Certainly it would be better than any human friend. The only thing human friends were good for was advancing one’s self above them and fearing their revenge later. But an animal was no competition. I wonder what it would be like if this spider came alive, he thought. Could he make it happen? He knew he could fix the panther’s tail by attaching a vine and concentrating on it becoming a part of the living creature . . . but what about starting with something that was completely not alive? It had to be impossible. Still, Aaron closed his eyes. Come alive, he thought, and pictured the spider moving about. Come alive.
The vines grew fuzzy under his fingers. Aaron opened his eyes and let out a horrified shout as the spider began moving in his hands. He threw it to the jungle floor and moved backward to get away from it. The spider found its legs and ran frightened down the path that led deep into the jungle. Soon it had disappeared.
“What the—good grief!” he cried. He wiped his hands on his pants, trying to get the creepy crawling sensation off them, and then stood there alone for a long moment, contemplating what had just happened. And wondering anew just what exactly he was capable of.
In the Middle of the Night
It was dark in the jungle when Aaron decided it was time to go. He hadn’t quite accomplished what he’d wanted to, teaching the panther to stay down and attack on command, but in a way, he discovered much more about himself than he’d ever imagined. Still reeling from bringing the spider to life, he stumbled back to the tube and pressed the button. From the mansion, he quickly continued on to Haluki’s closet, then made his way through the dark house and outside, into the pressing heat. There was very little breeze tonight, and Aaron was surprised by how much he missed the cooler air they’d had since the wall came down.