Not the whole story, which ran through my mind now at lightning speed. There’d been a tropical storm, and a young, skinny pine tree fell onto her roof. I was sent up there with my then fifteen year old cousin to assess the damage and push the tree off. No damage thankfully, but damned if Rufus didn’t think it funny to give me a little shove to pretend he was going to push me off the roof. The problem was, the tread on my sneakers was gone, and the roof was still slippery from all the rain. Couple that with how I chose precisely that moment to take a step forward to the edge just then, intending to holler down to ask if we could get down now, and, well, yeah. Broke my collarbone, sprained my arm, bruised everything else to hell and gone, as I landed on her cedar deck, and I had a helluva concussion. I’ve had an irrational fear of heights ever since. Anything higher than two steps up a stepstool, and I’m gone. Poor Rufus never forgave himself. Neither did his parents; they sent him off to a military school in Alabama to learn how to take life seriously. He enlisted straight after graduation and died in a training accident when his tank sank in a swamp.
I’d always felt like that was kinda my fault, somehow, seeing as I fell off the roof and it was just a stupid accident. I’ve always thought my guilt helped fuel my anxiety about the whole heights thing and kept telling myself that someday, when I got a job that paid better, so I could afford the co-pay, I’d go see a therapist and unpack all that, but here we are. Alien planet, no way to really talk to the natives, and a helluva lot more trauma thanks to those ugly fuckers that kidnapped us. I carefully unwound my legs from around Gree-Gree, but he simply pushed my bottom back up, not willing to set me back down yet. Damn, I still had a tight grip around his neck! I loosened my hold and then, feeling daring as I wound my legs back around him, pressed a kiss to his cheek. “Thank you for helping me. I couldn’t have made it on that thing without you.” I decided right then and there to skip the whole humiliation part and just roll with it, as no one else seemed to think I’d been weird. In fact, they merely looked sympathetic, and without any pity in their eyes as I explained the source of my trauma. Gree-Gree carried me into the cave the hoist mechanism was built into, squeezing us past the giant pulley arm, and only then set me down. Rim-beht, the one with thick black stripes following the lines of his cheekbones and a smudge on the tips of each ear, took off his cloak and unshouldered his pack, opening it to quickly add small cubes to stone urns set in a circle. He then took what I quickly realized must be flint as he struck it, causing it to spark and light one of the cubes, which he quickly added to one of the urns, before repeating it with the rest.
“Heaters!” Carol said, looking relieved. “I’ve seen people do that with flower pots and candles. Those pots sometimes explode, so this is probably much better.”
Beth nodded. “Like ceramic heaters,” she agreed. “My hands hurt, it’s so cold.” She took them out from under her cloak. They looked very red but were nowhere as chapped as my own. “No gloves, so I just kept my hands inside and tucked them into my pants.“ She gave a rueful chuckle. “Made me clumsier walking, but hey, no frostbite!”
“Yeah, well, mine need some Vaseline or something, because, man, I kept my cloak closed as much as possible, but it flaps open a bit in the wind and walking, so I’ve got a bit of windburn on them.
“I saw Gree-Gree pack small pots of grease into our packs,” I informed them, remembering as I watched Gree-Gree already rummaging in one of our packs and taking out said jar, which he uncapped, motioning me closer to where he stood by the heaters. I stepped towards him and he gestured for me to sit down. I did, and he settled down next to me, holding the pot of grease over the urns, warming it up. He did this for several minutes, then scooped some out with his fingers and carefully began spreading it across my entire face, including my lips. It stung a bit at first, then felt really, really good. “Am I windburned all over?” I asked, wondering as the others had chapped hands, cheeks, noses, and lips.
“Nah, just your cheeks, tip of your nose, and your lips,” Patrick confirmed, copying Gree-Gree and warming up his small pot of grease. “I think he’s adding more for protection for when we go back out. I don’t think we’re staying here too awfully long.” He tilted his head to indicate Rim-beht, who was further back in the cave, looking at something I couldn’t quite see.
“Ah, okay.”
Hor-rash looked put out when Beth made him let her take care of herself with the grease, but then grinned before bustling about after retrieving a tripod made of scavenged metal, along with a bowl with a wire handle of sorts made from the same. He set up the tripod, took some of those fuel cubes and lit them with his own flint, then hurried outside with the bowl, returning a couple of minutes later with it filled with tightly packed snow. It quickly became obvious what he was up to when both he and Gree-Gree opened a pouch of tea leaves and added them to what was now water. Gree-Gree took his mug out of his pack and looked at me, saying the word for it in a meaningful tone and glancing at my friends even as he took my mug out as well.
I repeated it, nodding my head, and said, “He wants you guys to take your cups out.”
I didn’t have to ask twice.
“You can understand them?” Fred asked, looking rather put out.
“A little bit. Gree-Gree started teaching me some words, using a kids’ picture book sort of thing.”
”Oh, okay. Makes sense.”
It was then that I remembered how he’d been implanted with the language of our captors. He’d indicated that he’d hated that, that it had been a painful process, so had he thought that Gree-Gree somehow got access to a machine like that and had hurt me, and that’s why he was mad? Or was he upset because he thought I’d taken his role as translator? I couldn’t decide which, as Patrick was a complicated fellow and more than a little touchy at the best of times, not that we had had any great times until after getting rescued.
Rim-beht came back and joined our little circle around the heaters, and began speaking to Ho-rash and Gree-Gree about whatever it was back there. Ho-rash listened as he carefully took our cups and filled them with tea, passing them back to us. Nothing to sweeten it this time, but it was hot and wet, and I was parched, so I wasn’t complaining. Gree-Gree handed me some of the jerky, and the others must have decided that was a good idea, as they delved into their packs to take some out and began to chew. With the cloak still around my shoulders, the warmth on my face and the play of light on the cave walls and ceiling from the fire in the urns, and a warm, full belly, I felt myself begin to drift off. It had already been a long, hard day, so a little nap wouldn’t hurt, I decided, leaning against Gree-Gree, who slid an arm around me. ”Awww,” I heard Beth coo, but I didn’t open my eyes. Instead, I let sleep claim me for however long I was going to get.
24
GHRIGRI
Once our bellies were full and we relieved ourselves, the other hunters and I left our drowsy companions to carry out the sledge components Rimbet inspected earlier. We took enough parts for three and carried them over to the hoist platform, then carefully lowered them down along with Hroash. Once down on the ground, he began assembling the first sledge, and Rimbet went to begin rousing our companions. I chuckled at the look of disappointment on their faces, but after conveying that they should slather more of the salve on their faces and hands, we got them to get on the hoist again, all except for Rah-bee.
No amount of coaxing was getting him back on, nor would he clamber onto my back so I could use the hand and footholds to climb down. By the time everyone was back down and all three sledges were assembled and loaded, I realized the only way I was getting him down was to sling him over my shoulder and carry him. So I smiled gently at him, and he happily went back inside the cave, where it was warmer, though the urns were now empty of fire and held only quickly cooling ash. I put the hoist away, and while he looked mournfully inside one of the urns, I picked him up and tossed him over my shoulder, sprinting to the cave mouth.
”Hayyyyy!” he yelled, struggling to get down. His movements ceased as I began climbing down one handed. “Geezuhs mahree hand geehoesssofat!” he shrieked. “Weer gohna fahl!”
Thankfully, it was a short climb, only as high as three males, so it didn’t take long to get back down. Once we reached the bottom, I lowered him onto a waiting sledge and tucked his cloak around him tightly, settling his pack on his lap to help keep the edges closed.
“Aye hayt yoo riet nohw,” he said, his skin having an unfortunate greenish cast to it. I didn’t need to understand his words to figure out he was angry with me, but I knew he’d understand that I couldn’t simply leave him there, and there had been no other ways down. He couldn’t have climbed down himself, either, as the holds were made for an adult male of my species, so he’d have fallen short.
So I simply nodded my acceptance and took up the rope.
“We need to hurry, the clouds are heavy with snow and heading this way,” Hroash observed. Rimbet and I nodded. We’d divided the passengers across all three sledges to make it easier to pull them along at a good pace, which we now put to the test. Even at our fastest, we were likely to find ourselves in the midst of at least the edge of the storm by the time we made it to today’s destination. In addition, it would be nightfall, so hopefully someone would be there to let us enter.
We jogged across the tundra, aiming for the dark line on the horizon which marked the forest boundary. One of the females began singing, ”Dahhhseng thru thuh ssnoe,” she warbled, and suddenly the others were singing along. I winced, glad that there were no signs of predators about, though the closer we got to nightfall, that would likely change. For the moment, though, the sounds helped set a rhythm that aided us in keeping up our pace.
Everything seemed to be going well until the wind picked up and the clouds began to scud across the sky. When the wind calmed, Rimbet and I exchanged glances. The sky was now completely silver, and while we were close, we were not yet at the forest’s edge. He gave a nod towards the ground beside him, and I nodded in affirmation. A stop here would be good, to relieve ourselves and catch our final wind.
“Ho!” he called out to our companions, who slowed to allow us to draw abreast. Once we were level, we came to a stop. “We should pause here, have some tea, and relieve ourselves before continuing on.”
Hroash agreed and quickly set about unpacking the tripod and some fuel we’d brought along.
“Whuhtz goeng ohnn?” Robbie asked me, looking worried as he glanced around. He pointed at the forest looming ahead. “Ahrnt whee goeng ohvuhr thehr?” he asked, pointing. “Feelz liek mohr snoh.”
