by Joe Derkacht
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The mountain’s twin cataracts stood out like broad ribbons of silver upon its dark face. What Orda and Nuor’s people had failed to notice before was that between the falling waters, the stone bore an inexplicable sheen. Under full sun and a cloudless sky, the curious difference in luminosity suggested something very much like a well-worn pathway. Perhaps that first time they had simply been too travel-weary to see it as they approached, or perhaps the roiling mists had obscured their vision. Now, they wondered how they could have missed it regardless of the circumstances.
Around them, around Nuor and her husband and the others who’d fled from this very place a few scant days before, dozens of Mah began pulling out their field glasses for a closer look. Nuor glanced at her husband and wondered if he shared her anxiety over their return. Ever since hearing of the winged creature’s summons from Uruff-fa Wuanta, she had experienced a rising sense of anticipation. Anticipation of what, though? she wondered. Thus far, none of their experiences upon the planet had fulfilled the expectations they began their journey with those long ages ago from P’nar. Was returning to the mountain really advisable? In spite of Kaniik’s miraculous recovery and his tale of the Glorious One’s visitation, wasn’t the fact of his injury warning enough?
Wouldn’t it be wiser to return to the ship, to restart the engines for liftoff, to flee to P’nar, where they knew they belonged?
Loud cries of exclamation rose around her. Darkness fell as if someone had pulled shut a window shade. She looked up and saw thousands of the planet’s avians crossing the sun on a direct heading for the mountain. Music reached her ears, the music of the flying creatures, music more complex and beautifully ordered than she could describe in the M’hah tongue.
More cries rang out. All around her, M’hah pointed at the mountain. She would have sworn the strange path between the ribbons of silver water was filling with color, sparkling like gems of red and blue and silver and pink and green. As the waters fell, the fountain of colors kept rising, gushing skyward like a geyser. She grabbed out her own field glasses from her pack and raised them to her eyes. She fumbled with the adjustment lever for a few moments before the river of color came into focus.
The M’hah around her started running before her brain was at last able to interpret what she was seeing. Astonishingly, creatures were running straight up its face as if it were a flat, horizontal surface! She recognized them; they were identical to those species she’d encountered that first time she left the ship—the strange beasts with a superfluity of legs.
The M’hah began running en masse toward the mountain. Counter to all her fears, she ran with them though everything in her being clamored to run in the opposite direction. Fleetingly, she wondered if these other creatures were answering the same summons given to Wuanta. Could any of them resist it even if they wanted to?
