by Louise Wise
‘No. I hate the noise, don’t get me wrong, but I know it’s just his way of trying to communicate. Fly,’ she turned to him, touching his bare arm with her fingertips and disturbing the sawdust that rested there, ‘I know you feel you can’t leave me until Bo’s gone home.’ She picked up a sword he’d carved from antler. ‘How many of these have you made?’
‘Five.’
She smiled. ‘Plus all the bows, arrows, locks for the shutters and everything. You’re dying to search for the birds’ nesting place and for the possibility of Jelvias. And I say possibility. There may only be a few Jelvias left. Or one. Just like yourself.’
‘I wish I could believe that, Jenny. Things have been odd here for a while. The honnards joining with another camp, the bird feather, the actual bird. The dead mother and her cub. It’s all beginning to add up.’
Jenny was silent as she digested his words. She wanted to believe he was over obsessing again—willed herself to believe it—but knew this time he was right to be careful. ‘That’s why you need to leave me here while you go and see what’s going on.’
‘Leave you with Bo?’
‘We’re best buddies now.’
‘I may be longer than a day.’
‘You’ve assured me he’s safe, and I believe you.’
They stared at one another for a long moment.
‘I’ll go at dawn, when he’s at his calmest.’ The honnards, although not nocturnal like the native wolves, preferred to hunt after the twin suns had set and so were more alert then. ‘Hopefully, I’ll be back before nightfall.’
‘Be as long as it takes.’
He glanced at her belly. ‘No pains?’
She cupped her stomach and looked down. ‘Nothing. It was a reaction from the shock of the bird, that’s all.’
Fly nodded. ‘I’m going to search the highlands. I’m sure that’s where they’re from.’
***
Usually, when Bo saw Fly at the window he’d scuttle over chuffing and huffing as it opened, but when he saw it was Jenny he hunkered down, subservient, and didn’t move from his haunches as she opened the door.
‘Fly’s gone to see if the birds are nesting near us,’ she said and lowered her pregnant body down to his level. The honnard’s small yellow eyes stared at her. She had a memory of yellow eyes glaring at her through the buggy’s window as native-wolves tore it apart to get to her, and had to remind herself that this honnard and that creature were far removed.
‘How do you feel today?’ She had a plate of meat in her hands and she tipped it slightly to show Bo. ‘I’ve brought dinner.’ She had the idea of checking his wounds as he ate, but seeing him in the flesh made her change her mind. A woman’s prerogative, she told herself.
Bo’s thin nose sniffed the fresh meat, but he didn’t move. His gaze lifted as if to check for Fly behind her.
He’s frightened of me!
She sat back on her heels. ‘I’m, er, Chi-Chi,’ she said, remembering what they called her. She reached up to tug her hair as she repeated her “name” but Bo flinched; his eyes on her hair. She usually tied it back and did when she was busy with the cattle, but since her body had changed through pregnancy her chores had lightened and her hair had been left loose.
She put the plate on the ground and inched forward.
Bo made a few noises in the back of his throat, but stayed still.
Jenny extended her hand towards him; palm up.
Bo stared at her hand, and then back to her face. He shuffled forward and sniffed the air around her hand. Then he sat back, looked at her and grinned. It wasn’t a grin that Jenny considered friendly or nice. It was simply a teeth-together smile to show that the teeth weren’t going to bite.
She lowered her arm.
‘While I was relying on Fly to protect me from you, you thought he was your protector from me.’
Bo reached out a hand again. It was a human hand albeit hairy. The thumb and index finger able to touch. He lightly touched her hair, drew back his hand and stared at his fingers as if thinking they’d look different once he’d touched her.
Jenny moved to the knife she carried around her waist, and slowly, so as not to alarm Bo she sliced off a chunk of her hair and held it out for the honnard to take.
He didn’t immediately; just stared.
Then he took the hairs and raised them to his nose where he sniffed generously. He sneezed, and Jenny laughed.
Bo looked at her as if he was witnessing something wondrous. He made panting noises, which became faster and faster until his mouth opened. It looked like he was laughing.
Jenny couldn’t help but grin. It was there—a rapport, of sorts.
Chapter Fourteen
Fly stopped at the site of his crashed spaceship. The greenery covering it looked undisturbed.
If there were other Jelvias wouldn’t they come back to pillage? It was the first thing he’d done.
The charred tree, inside the crater close to the ship’s opening and where he’d rested against countless of times, was now covered in a green weed. It felt like a long time ago since he’d walked, or rather crawled, out of the ship to find the bodies of his kind scattered around. The years of solitude had reshaped him.
A howl redirected his thoughts and he turned from the crater and headed towards the honnard settlement and warm caves. He bypassed the familiar territory and found himself on rocky plateaus beyond.
It seemed the further inland he walked the more cracked the ground became. The terrain was pitted with crevices and potholes from which geysers spurted amid rolling steam.
Fly hadn’t explored much of this part of Eden before; he had what he wanted where he lived, so travelling would have been an unnecessary expenditure of provisions.
As Fly walked, he kept glancing at the sky but he saw no large birds. He looked for droppings, but again, nothing.
The suns were rising. He’d left before dawn after checking on Bo and seeing that he was asleep. He woke Jenny with a kiss and told her he was going. She’d sleepily got out of their bed and walked with him down to the river.
Fly had no qualms leaving her with Bo. He was locked in Matt and Bodie’s old house, and he had left him enough food. Jenny had no need to visit him at all, but he suspected she would. There had been a steely glint in her eyes—reminding him of their early days when she sought him out wanting to bargain with food. She’d been scared but determined to build bridges.
There was nothing around him. No vegetation. Just brown dirt, scattered boulders, crevices, craggy mountains with caves and spurting geysers.
After the green of the forest, it was strangely beautiful.
Used to seeing a misty sky from living close to the sea, the sky with its fading stars seemed almost alien. A wind raced across the land, stinging any bare flesh.
Despite Jenny urging him to leave her, he hadn’t been keen and the quickest way to spot other civilizations and birds was to climb as high as possible so he could look down on the land and spot anything that resembled civilization, and return to Jenny. Behind the warm caves were hills and clifftops, and as they reared up around him Fly headed for the tallest.
Nowhere near as high as the mountains seen towering in the distance from the spaceship, but good enough. Fly took out a water flask, secured around his waist, and gulped a mouthful of water as he gaged its height. Replacing his flask, he began to climb.
It was sheer in places, but using his claws to grip into the rock, Fly was able to swing from one protruding rock to another.
The higher he climbed the windier it became.
Close to the top, he found a splatter of dung. It was milky-white and spotted with charcoal-like bits. He looked up but the sky was empty. He pulled himself to the top almost expecting to see the land littered with squawking birds. Instead, the ground was covered with a tangle of lowlying dark yellow scrub and with no animal or bird in sight. In the distance, strange trees swayed in the high wind. It was as if he’d entered a new land. There was a lot of the w
hite dung dotted around, but no birds.
Dismissing it, Fly’s attention was caught by another mountain. It towered about him and would be perfect to view more of the world.
Fly checked the suns. Both were high in the sky. Even though Jenny had insisted he was ‘as long as it takes’ he wanted to be back before the suns set. She was so close to the birth now, the baby could come any time.
Extracting his claws, Fly head towards the mountain and began to climb. At the peak, he turned to look over the edge as a gale tugged to pull him over. The land below which he considered his own territory stretched for miles and miles.
A glint caught his eye and he peered out to the horizon, but it was the glaciers on the sea, which sparkled in the sunlight.
He cocked an ear to listen for any tell-tale bird noise, but sound was restricted due to the gale. He stepped carefully over the booby-trapped grassland. The brambles clung to his feet and ripped his clothes.
The land seemed empty of any animal life. Careful of possible crevices and cracks in the ground Fly followed the range of the cliff seeing if he could climb any higher, but the ground seemed flat. The wind was strong and whipped around his head, tugging at his clothes.
Fly’s eyes snapped to something below his feet. The bramble-like grass had spread over the lip of the mountain and clung to the rocky side, and on a ledge where it stretched Fly could see that the middle of it had been pulled away and in its place was softer foliage. A nest.
Fly lowered himself over the ledge and climbed effortlessly towards it. It wasn’t too far down and he felt he could’ve jumped but wasn’t sure if the ledge would hold his weight. Once down he ran over to the nest.
He scanned the sky, and then the lower ground as a few light drops of rain fell on his head. Nothing; no sign of birds anywhere. He decided to follow the ledge around. It became narrow in parts, and necessary for Fly to extract his claws and use them as hooks in the cliff face.
The rain was gathering strength, and making the rock slippery. It beat at his back, soaking his clothes and flattening his hair against his head.
The going was slow, but he was rewarded by seeing a group of trees growing parallel to the mountain with three large nests grouped together within the tightly curled foliage.
The nests were occupied: one with eggs, the others with wriggling young.
As he got closer, Fly saw that the young wasn’t birds, and not occupying a bird’s nest but a nest of their own making. As if to confirm, an insect the size of Fly’s head, scurried from over the edge of the ridge and towards the nest. The feelers on the animal’s head smelled the presence of Fly and flickered wildly pointing at Fly. It shot out a sticky substance, which caught him on the heel as he pulled himself back over cliff edge.
It was the milky-white ‘dung’. And it began to melt the hard leather of his shoe. He stopped to rub the heel of his boot on the grass, then dismissed the insect and, began walking across this new land.
His knees and below became covered in the white goo as he met more of the insects. Jenny had packed him food, wrapped it in leather binding with the contents sown inside. Fly cut the threads, ate the contents, and after dividing the leather, wrapped it around his legs to give him more protection.
The landscape was hilly with deep valleys and deeper gorges with churning white water. Fly had climbed as high as he could in the time he had, and stood on the cliff-edge and looked down at the valley below. It was all green, but from the height he was at, he couldn’t tell if it was grassland or jungle.
He looked up at the sky, and then over his shoulder at the yellow-grass of the terrain. He hadn’t seen any evidence of birds, and no sightings of a fellow Jelvia. Not even a suggestion of one. He looked back down at the valley and at the rocky land beyond.
Wind dragged at his clothes and tugged on his hair. There was no other sound. He strained his ears. Nothing. No sign or sound of life anywhere.
He was alone. Utterly alone.
The bird that attacked Jenny and Bo had to have been off-course from its normal flight path, there could be no other reason. That it had spoken Jelvian was worrying, but if the creature had been flying a wrong route, than this meant the Jelvias were far away. That was reassuring. In a way, the bird had done them a favour. It had made them aware of the possibility of others.
Fly recalled how he crawled out of the spaceship after it crashed and burned, to find many bodies. He’d been so self-congratulatory on their deaths that it hadn’t occurred to him his kind might have escaped and moved on.
Someone once had called him arrogant. They’d been right.
While he was making a world for himself here, it was becoming probable that others had done the same elsewhere. They’d left the ship as it burned and not returned, obviously believing there’d be nothing left worth salvaging.
In the far distance stood the snow-capped mountains. Even though he was on much higher ground, they didn’t appear any closer—or smaller. He stared at them. That’s where the Jelvias would have gone, he was sure of it. Among the mountains were valleys and lakes—and possibly the home of his people.
Chapter Fifteen
Jenny’s heart jumped. There he was!
She’d sat facing the window, watching for Fly to come back. He’d told her to expect him before nightfall, and there he was, ever reliable. She jumped off the chair, and raced out of the house. She ran up the hill as Fly came down towards her. He began to grin as he saw her. As she reached him, he picked her up and held her close, his face snuggling into her neck.
‘You’re shaking,’ he said.
‘Hate you being away.’ She stroked his hair, not caring that it was wet. His entire body was soaking after his swim through the river. ‘You’re so overly confident it’s going to get you into trouble one day.’
‘I don’t like you frightened.’ He nibbled her neck, then set her down. A howl made him glance towards Matt and Bodie’s old house. Bo was outside and watching them, his yellow eyes, flashing in the dark.
‘He got out?’ he asked. ‘Is that why you’re shaking?’
‘Shaking?’ The excited shakes could be translated to fear, she supposed. ‘No, I let him out. It felt cruel to keep him locked up. Anyway, we’ve settled our differences now.’
Fly took her hand. They walked down the hill towards their house.
‘Are you going to tell me what you found?’ she asked.
‘Nothing. I found nothing.’
‘That’s good.’
Inside, he pulled her against him and kissed her. She could feel his erection pressing against her. She trembled again in anticipation.
‘Hmm,’ she said when he let her go. ‘You know, when you come back after being away you’re much more, er, up for it than usual.’
‘I don’t like being away from you. Ever.’ He held her close, his chin resting on the top of her head with his hand cupping the bulge of her stomach. ‘If there are Jelvias you’ll be such a prize,’ he said.
‘But you didn’t find any,’ it wasn’t a question, more of a confirmation.
‘Not a soul. No smoking fires, no hints of civilisation, nothing,’ he said, and she felt there was more he wanted to say, but he bent and picked her up, and carried her into their living space where the log fire blazed. ‘I am making you cold,’ he said as he laid her down on the fur-covered mattress, but didn’t lay beside her.
‘Oh my God,’ said Jenny, sitting up. ‘What’s happened to your legs?’
‘Acid-spitting insects.’
She reached out a hand and pulled off a tatty piece of leather that was once the wrap she’d made for his lunch. It had singe holes in it and beneath, Fly’s flesh was burnt.
He picked up the fur blanket and covered her with it.
‘I’m going to dry off and clean up,’ he said.
Jenny threw off the blanket and grabbed his hand. ‘Later. I want sex.’
Fly looked at her in surprise. ‘I’m wet.’
‘So am I.’
Fly’s eyes
sparkled, but as he hesitated, Jenny grabbed him and pulled him on top of her. He had to fling out his hands either side of her head to stop himself from crushing her. Jenny stared up at him as he landed millimetres above her. Deliberately, she parted her legs so his lay in between hers, then she reached up and pulled the threads that fastened her top and exposed her breasts. Because of the pregnancy, they were larger than normal.
Fly’s eyes finally left her face.
Jenny’s hands were cupping her own breasts, and her thumbs teased both nipples as Fly watched.
‘You know, Bo was becoming more and more attractive the longer you were away.’
Black, alien eyes snapped to her face. Then he grinned. ‘You bloody little tease.’
Jenny snorted. ‘You said “bloody”! Another English word, and so English at that!’
Fly tickled her in answer and she screamed with laughter.
Their play-fighting turned to making love, then they lay in one another’s arms as their breathing stabilised.
Fly turned on his side, and drew imaginary rings around her bulging belly button with one finger. Jenny watched his hand. It was large, callused and badly scarred, but despite its appearance, its touch was very tender. His finger stopped moving and then dropped away from her stomach. She turned her head towards him, his eyes were closed, and very softly, she pulled the fur covers over them and snuggled against his body.
***
Jenny woke wondering about a noise she’d just heard. It came again. Something was knocking at the window. She turned to look, then started and gave a shocked yell.
Fly was instantly awake and sat up, his hair all messy from sleeping with it wet. He looked at her, and then at the window where Bo’s head was pressed against the plastic pane.
Bo chuffed and his breath fogged the window.
‘Jesus Christ,’ Jenny said, falling back onto the bed.
Fly laughed. ‘I’ll sort him out.’
‘I guess that’s my cue for getting you your breakfast.’
He kissed her forehead. ‘I want two breakfasts. I’m really hungry.’
Jenny rose with the fur blanket around her. Normally, it didn’t bother her to be naked but Bo was still peering through the window and she still wasn’t sure how to regard him—man or beast.
