"You know, when you put it like that…yeah, we obviously did. I'm lucky anyway," Colton said, and Jo gave a happy sigh against his chest.
"Me too. I'm lucky too." She fell silent, and after a few minutes Colton realized she'd also fallen asleep. He couldn't blame her, and with a bit of wrangling got a couple of blankets over them, at least, and fell asleep himself. Sometime in the night they managed to crawl into the much-warmer sleeping bag, but he was barely conscious for that, and when morning rolled around, he was fairly sure it was his bladder more than any change in the light that told him he needed to wake up. He crawled out, and, shivering, did his business on the downhill slope—which, he realized, he could almost see, even as a human. A shaft of dull light fell through the hole they'd made, so he guessed itwasdaytime as he crawled back to the tent, where Jo was just then sitting up with a bleary expression.
"Morning already?"
"I think so. It's darkest grey out there instead of pitchest black."
"Mmkay. We should pack up and get out of here before…" She shrugged sleepily. "Before later comes."
"Good plan." After she went out to do her own business, they folded everything up, moved the lights out of the tent, and packed it, too. Colton took a light and walked himself to the entrance hole they'd made, peering up through it.
It was snowing out there, light but steady; flakes drifted down the hole onto his face, and he wiped them away with a smile as he turned back toward Jo. "I'm not sure what the best way to get outis. I'd been thinking I could jump out, but the hole's not big enough."
"How high up is it? It felt like I fell about a thousand feet, but it was dark and I was scared."
"Twelve or fifteen, I'd say. I can almostreachit, honestly. Maybe I can knock the hole bigger." He put the light down and shifted, then stood up on his back feet to bat at the hole above.
Jo, behind him, said, "JesusChrist, Colton," with a laugh, and he dropped to turn and look at her in confusion.
"You'retwelve feet tall! At least ten! And those wings! You! Just! Big! So big!"
Well, yes,his chimera said, confused.That's why I thought I should try…?
Humans don't usually see things that are twice their height,Colton said in amusement.It's a little overwhelming if you're not expecting it.
Oh.The chimera shrugged it away as human peculiarity.What're those?
What're what?
Even as Colton asked, the chimera padded over to the wall and stood up again, nearly putting its nose against the wall. Colton's eyes crossed, or felt like they did, from within thechimera's mind, but after a moment he saw what the chimera was seeing.Wait, back up!
It dropped to all fours and moved back, although Colton shifted to human as he did, and picked up one of the tea lights to shine it on the wall. "Oh my God. Jo.Jolene."
"What?" She rose, shouldering the tent bag, and came to his side to look up at the wall. "Oh my God. Is that what I think it is?"
"Pictographs," Colton whispered. "This cave has paintings."
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
"That's impossible," Jo whispered. "Or incredible. Or, oh my god, the weather, the weather will be so bad for them! Oh! Oh, I know, I know—Colton, okay, we have to get out of here?—"
"Don't you want tolookat them first?" Colton wailed, clearly beside himself with excitement.
"Yes, but—yes! Okay! Yes! Oh my God!" Jo laughed, letting her own excitement overcome the moment of ruthless practicality, and together they walked carefully around the area they'd explored by sound the night before, though by mutual, unspoken agreement they didn't go any deeper into the cave.
They didn't have to, Jo thought: what they found here was magnificent. The paintings were in reds and yellows, familiar from photos she'd seen of other cave paintings. There were human figures that seemed to be dancing, bison with huge humps and slender legs running, and dozens of other things Jo couldn't distinguish at all. Some might be rabbits, she thought, but she just wasn't sure. It didn't matter. They were all beautiful, and her heart kept stuttering with disbelief as they slowly looked around.
"This is incredible," she finally breathed. "This must have been here for hundreds or thousands of years. The ones down in Billings are a couple thousand years old. Oh my God, what a find. What luck." She laughed, sharp and staccato. "Because falling into a cave is definitely some kind of luck. Colton,lookat this."
"I see it," he said joyfully. "I'm surprised I see it, because cats don't see red well, but my chimera noticed there was something on the wall. Wow.Wow! Okay, sorry, you were going to say something before I insisted we had to look at them?"
"No, you were right. Do you have any battery left? Can you take pictures?" Jo went back to the entrance hole, looking up. "Once we're out, we need to pin the tent down over that hole so as little weather as possible gets in before we can get people out here. Archaeologists, or whatever. Anthropologists. So we shouldn't knock the hole bigger, not if we can avoid it."
To her surprise and relief, Colton's phone powered on, and he grinned as he went around the cave taking pictures. "So you're saying I shouldn't chimera-up and knock a hole I can get out of, then."
"Not if we can help it. I can boost you…" Jo made a face, looking up the hole, and Colton cleared his throat.
"I could boostyou. If I do it as a chimera you can practically step off the top of my head into the outside."
