He flicked a look of surprise at her that annoyed her. Like she was too stupid to grasp subtleties?
Frowning, he ignored the question while he focused on fishing out chunks of meat and roots to eat. “No safe,” he said finally, succinctly.
No attempt to explain what he meant by ‘no safe’.
Annika dipped out a serving for herself, although she’d pretty much lost her appetite after the announcement.
“What do you mean it isn’t safe? What happened?”
It dawned on her abruptly that he might have seen a rescue ship. He would consider that a threat, wouldn’t he, even if she didn’t?
Either he was bent on pretending he didn’t understand her, or he really didn’t, because he played deaf and didn’t respond. Instead, he focused on his food.
When she’d settled to eat her own, she was obliged to admit it required concentration. The meat was still the next thing to inedible—almost as tough as it had been the first time she’d tried it and the roots where so mushy it was nearly impossible to scoop them into her mouth with the crude utensil she had to use.
It dawned on her as she struggled with her food that she’d forgotten one of the basic fundamentals of cooking! Everything didn’t cook at the same rate and foods that took longer had to be started first. Foods like meat. She shouldn’t have thrown the roots in until she’d cooked the meat tender.
Damn it!
She at least had the satisfaction that it tasted pretty damn good, but that was cold comfort when it was a flop after all, the meat so tough it was nearly impossible to chew up. She had to cut it into tiny, manageable pieces since she couldn’t chew it well enough to keep it from choking her.
While she worked at eating her disappointing cooking efforts, she tried to think of possible dangers that they might be facing that would be serious enough to alarm Zhor but not so serious that he thought they needed to run—immediately.
Nothing actually came to mindexceptthe possibility that he’d spotted a ship. Every other scenario that came to mind was something of urgent threat that would require an immediate response—natural disaster, animal attack, enemy attack—drought, pestilence.
She supposed it was possible that he’d discovered enemies moving into the neighborhood. That would suggest it wouldn’t be safe where they were anymore and would inspire him to be uneasy and preoccupied.
Maybe he was weighing options?
It was hard to imagine the possibility of finding another shelter that filled all of the needs this one did.
No doubt there were others on this world with the capability of flight that Zhor had, but, strategically, this cavern would still be hard to beat since it had a clear view for miles. It was not only hard to access, it was cut into the stone and it had running water.
As crude as it was, it still beat the hell out of being fully exposed to the elements and predators of all kinds—withnorunning water!
So was he just trying to decide how much of a threat there was? Or was he trying to think of somewhere else to go?
He answered those questions, at least, once they’d eaten what they could of the difficult stew.
