Rocks falling from the sky seems strange to me, but it doesn’t matter. “Midoryde. Yes, I agree. It looks just like that. I will get iron for your blade.” I dig into the ground and recover the special tool I’ve secretly made to chip and pry pieces of iron off the rock. I unwrap it from its thin piece of skin, grab a rock, and start hammering. “And some for more spears. Take a step back, Callie. This usually makes some sparks.”
“Is achisl,” Callie says. “We have on Earth.”
“So many things on Earth.” I hit the stone on the wooden handle of the chisl tool. There’s a shower of sparks, and small pieces of iron drop off the rock. I pick them up and hand them over to Callie. “Woman from the sky, can you hold the iron from the sky?”
She holds out her little hand and accepts the pieces. “How much need?”
“More than that,” I tell her as I keep knocking. Now that I’m here, I’ll try to get more iron than ever and keep it hidden in my hut. First I’ll make a little knife for Callie, then slowly make blades for spears. Only the strongest men in the tribe should have them. Mapret’ax, Suner’ex, Agarap’oz…
“There’s rekh,” Callie says calmly behind me.
It takes me a heartbeat before her word lands. Rekh? I turn around, then fall on my rear in surprise. Indeed, here’s a rekh standing twenty paces away in the jungle, staring at us with its yellow eyes.
I drop the tools and pull my spear out from behind my back.
“Get behind me!” I grab Callie’s arm and pull her behind me.
The rekh is bright red and about my size. I’ve seen bigger, but I’ve tried to not fight them because the risk is just too great.
Keeping hold of Callie, I slowly back off, step by careful step. There’s a chance this rekh isn’t hungry and is just curious about the hammering noises.
The rekh takes a step forward and tilts its head to the side, mouth hanging open. Green slime drips from its sharp teeth, each as long as a finger and as sharp as my spear. It’s completely quiet, and somehow that makes it seem more dangerous.
Still we keep backing up, and Callie leads us around the trunk of a big tree. Just as the rekh is about to lose sight of us, it pounces.
“Run!” I push Callie towards the stream and ready the spear to thrust into the rekh. It’s coming towards me on thick, fast legs, lowering its head and opening its gape.
Tiny shadows fly past me, and there’s a sound like hail striking the iron rock behind the attacker, making a bright and surprisingly loud noise. The rekh turns its head to the side, towards the sound.
“Run!” Callie urges me, taking my hand. And I do as she suggests while the rekh is confused.
We sprint straight towards the stream. Behind us, the rekh is coming, but the forest is dense this close to the river, and I think we can make it. All we needed was a head start.
Callie runs fast, but not fast enough. Still holding the spear in one hand, I grab her with my other hand and sprint on. Even carrying her, this is faster.
The boat is ahead, and I barely slow down to push it off the dry rocks and into the current. Jumping in, I drop Callie straight to the deck and grab the pole, then lean into it with all my weight to push the boat out of reach for the rekh. The predator comes bounding out of the bushes and continues into the water, sending a spray of cold water over us. It snaps at my pole and grabs it with its huge gape.
“Vreegh!”I roar as I yank at the pole. The rekh doesn’t let go, but closes its jaw, splintering the pole between its teeth.
I grab the oar and furiously paddle us away from the shore. The rekh stares after us, then turns and runs back into the jungle, probably thinking there’s more prey to be found.
The current takes the boat, but I still help us along down the stream until I’m sure the rekh is not coming back.
Then I sit down beside Callie and breathe out. “That was close. Thank the Deep you’re a fast thinker.”
“And you’re a fast runner,” she counters. “The rekh not so fast.”
The little river winds its way towards the ocean. “He would have caught us, but the jungle is dense near the stream. He’s too wide for the trees there. Did you throw all the iron?”
She shows me her empty little hands. “Yes.”
“Good,” I nod, although I should be annoyed about the waste. “Surviving is more important than bringing home iron. We will go again tomorrow.”
She turns her head and looks up at me with her dark eyes. “Tomorrow we go to the beach. To the Plood ship. My friend wait.”
“How many friends are waiting there?” I ask, not sure what to do about this. “You said there was one, but then you said there are many.”
Callie looks like she’s thinking deeply. “Tribe not should know,” she says. “About other women. Crat'ax only know. Other men, not know.”
