When he spotted a cave opening facing them, he alerted Shabs. The two Rraussha had taken turns driving the aircar and they hadn't even stopped for the night, using red lights, slowly winding through the trees. Anything was better than letting those Hunters close up to them.
“That cave looks like an interesting place to explore,” Zell said. “With luck, it'll hide the aircar. Or be deep enough to live in.
“I thought we would destroy the aircar,” Shabs said slowly. “Drop it into a lake or something.”
“I would like to keep it. It's shelter in an emergency. It has lots of metal in it, and that's always useful. All we have to do is to hide it and make sure it cannot be found.”
Shabs nodded. “That means taking out any electronics. I can do that. Maybe even in a way that we can make it fly again eventually.”
Zell considered that idea. “What makes it fly?”
“Electricity. It has a battery that needs to be recharged eventually. Maybe it won't work.” Shabs sounded very tired. “It won't recharge well out here.”
“I don't know enough about these things,” Zell apologized.
“That's okay. We probably won't need that kind of knowledge around here.” Shabs landed the aircar near the cave entrance and turned it off.
Ssheyrra and Girma stayed with the aircar, while Shabs and Zell climbed up to the cave to explore it. Both had their hunting knives ready.
“Caves are good places to live in. You never know what animal has decided to shelter in one,” Zell explained.
“I understand. I can't see any tracks, though.”
“Yes. Which could make this a good place to stay in.”
They soon stood in the entrance, both panting a little. The cave was even larger than it had seemed from the ground.
“Well, then.” Zell sniffed the air and didn't detect any animal smells aside from old bird droppings. He stepped into the large opening.
The cave offered much room and went quite a ways into the mountain, but it was too open to serve as permanent shelter for them.
“What are you looking for in a cave, Zell?”
“A good shelter has a fairly low entrance, so it won't be very windy. It has an open space after that, for meetings and working skins and such. And it has several smaller branches where people can sleep. If it's ideal, it has some water in it. It needs a bit of a draft, too, to carry away smoke from fires in the winter,” Zell explained. “That's a perfect cave. I don't expect to find one for us, to be honest.”
He looked around again. “This one is better than nothing, but it's little more than a dry place. It won't be warm in winter.”
“I understand. I think we should fly the aircar into this one, at any rate. We can get it in deep enough so it won't be seen easily.”
“That's what I was thinking, yes.”
“How about we take a day to explore this area with the aircar, and then stow it away?” Shabs walked back to the opening of the cave. “We could find good places to set up a camp, find water and such.”
Zell grinned. “I love that idea.”
Shabs looked relieved. “It's good to know I can still contribute.”
Zell put a hand on the Rraussha's arm. “Yes, you can. And we need to talk, all four of us, I can see that.”
He didn't waste any time. As soon as they had returned to the aircar, he waved all of them into the cargo hold.
“This cave is where we'll hide the aircar,” he said. “But we'll explore a bit before we do that. And before we do that, we need to settle a few things.”
Ssheyrra cocked his head at him, while Girma smiled and snuggled up to his side. Shabs just slumped against the crate.
Zell took a deep breath then looked directly at his Master. Or was that his former Master?
“Until a few days ago, Girma and I were your pets. You were our Master. You gave us orders and decided what would happen. Now all of this has changed.”
Shabs rubbed his arms. “Yes, it has. I will say this quite clearly: I am no longer your Master. You are free. I will not order you to do anything.”
Girma stared at him. “Does that mean you'll no longer take pleasure with me, either?”
Shabs closed his eyes with a look of despair about him. “Only if and when you want to,” he said after a while.
“I want to,” Girma said immediately. “Not right now, I mean, but… I want to do this for you. Be there for you.”
The Rraussha looked a little relieved. “Thank you, Girma.”
Ssheyrra fidgeted, and Zell smiled. “I will do the same for you, Ssheyrra. I'm beginning to understand the pressure on you.”
“No, I don't think you do, Zell,” she said quietly. “Not completely. You see, no Rraussha can mate without all of us knowing, somehow. I can actually feel two of us mating illegally right now, far to the east. They have been at it for two days,” Ssheyrra explained. “If we enter a contract and follow the rituals, that signal is transformed and muted. There are many matings going on right now that are done right, which means they are barely noticeable.”
Shabs nodded. “I can sense the same, and while Ssheyrra simply knows and feels it as a distraction, it has a strong pull for me. As male, I'm compelled to go there and compete, and it is hard to resist. They will be found and killed very quickly.”
Ssheyrra shuddered suddenly. “Like right now,” she whispered, while Shabs slumped even more.
Zell took a deep breath. “I had no idea.”
“Without you two to help us relieve the urges, Ssheyrra and I wouldn't be able to stop ourselves out here eventually, since the mating pull can be very strong at certain times of the year. And then every Rraussha would know exactly where we are.” Shabs looked very serious. “We need both of you very much.”
Zell exchanged a look with Girma, then he smiled. “Well, it's not a hardship to be there for you.”
Both Rraussha relaxed visibly.
“While I didn't expect this detail, it is part of what we need to talk about,” Zell said eventually. “Because our survival depends on knowing each other very well, on communicating what's going on and on trusting each other with our lives. And at least for the next time, you will have to listen to me, and sometimes do what I say even if I have no time to explain why.”
“Yes.” Ssheyrra nodded. “In a different sense, you are our leader now, because you know this life”.
Now it was Zell who found his body relaxing, realizing only now how tense he had been. “That is what we need to talk about. I want you to know that I'm not playing Master, even if I shout orders at you. Because I know that will happen. It is dangerous here.”
.... to be continued.
Learn more about The Franssisi Four Chronices.
More books by Hannah Steenbock
The Cloud Lands Saga
Dorelle’s Journey
Kraken War
Dragon Court
Betrayal
Borderline - a Cloud Lands short story
The Cloud Lands Beginnings
Dragon Prey
Short stories
Sequoia
Pu’ukani’s Song
Here be Dragons
Irina’s Revenge
German Tales
Finderlohn
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About the Author
Joanna Steenen is a German writer of Speculative Fiction. She uses both her native German and English as languages f
or her tales, as she loves English and tends to think in that language when plotting Fantasy.
After finishing University with a degree in English and Spanish, she lives and works in Kiel, the northernmost state capital of Germany. Her other pastimes include strolling along beaches, talking with trees and devouring as many stories as time allows.
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