by Louise Wise
‘Where’re we going? C-can’t leave Bo!’
Fly looked over his shoulder at the honnard watching them from the other side of the river. He didn’t know how long they’d be away, or even if they’d ever come back. He sat Jenny down on the riverbank then turned and dived back into the river, and dragging the boat back across, he swam towards Bo.
‘Get in the boat,’ Fly said, as he climbed out on the other side. ‘Now!’
Bo squatted down and chuffed a stream of unknown vocabulary at him.
‘I don’t have time for this!’ Fly grabbed the honnard and threw him into the boat. Bo hit the side and before he could right himself, Fly jumped back in and pushed him across the river towards Jenny, who was moaning with her eyes tightly closed. Bo sat up, rocking the boat, and a stream of honnard language ejected from his throat.
Fly struggled to keep the boat steady as Bo moved about inside. He grabbed one of Bo’s legs to try and hold him still, but the honnard was so panicked that Fly was kicked in the head. Fly took in a mouthful of river water before he was able to surface, and when he did the boat had drifted in the fast moving water. He swam after it as Bo yelped and yelled inside.
Fly got him to the other side eventually, and Bo jumped from the boat causing it to bash into him. Fly found himself under the water again. He surfaced and reached the bank as Bo climbed up the riverbank. He stopped beside Jenny, but as she cried out in pain, he turned and disappeared into the jungle.
Fly lifted her back into his arms and ran into the undergrowth where the buggies had been hidden. He pulled the foliage away one-handed before placing her on the seat of the open-topped one. He jumped into the driver’s side and started the engine. It didn’t start right away.
‘Where’re we going?’
A wave of pain flared on her face even before she’d finished the question, and he didn’t bother to answer. The pain passed and her body relaxed, but she didn’t ask any more questions.
They drove out from the jungle and towards the rocky terrain, bypassing the hot caves and many valleys, Fly kept a look out for Bo. But the honnard had run into the jungle. Fly followed the almost straight line of the rocky ridge until he found a slight clearing, and then he turned towards it and soon the trees and foliage locked them within its confines.
The journey was bumpy, and abrasive branches smashed into the buggy. Fly pressed Jenny down into her seat, his eyes barely off the road. Soon, the jungle became too much for the buggy to pass through, and Fly came to a reluctant halt. He jumped out, and coming round to Jenny’s side, scooped her up. She grabbed their things with one hand, and tightly held around Fly’s neck with the other.
‘I love you,’ she said.
He looked down at her. Her eyes were so full of trust, and he felt a powerful surge of love for her. He was about to tell her that he loved her too, but her face contorted as pain gripped her. He ran with her deep into the forest, and the deeper he ran the more the light seemed to fall away. Animals babbled and shrieked above in the trees and below in the undergrowth.
When they walked into the glade, the burst of light caused them both to squint. The glade was nestled in front of the familiar rocky mountain ridge.
It was the home of the honnards.
A few of them were sitting around seemingly doing nothing, but Fly knew they were guarding their settlement while the others were out hunting; the usual guard was standing at the lair’s highest peak on a mountain, which Fly now knew was a lookout for birds. On seeing Fly, a honnard stood up and shook his spear.
‘Bargi,’ Fly said, stopping.
There was a strange jumble of honnard words as others stood up, raising their spears and shaking them at the sky.
‘Oh my god,’ Jenny said. ‘What the hell are we doing here?’
Many of the honnards had seashell necklaces around their necks, and Fly wondered briefly if they’d copied his own, only with red twine instead of a lock of the real thing. He looked around for Bo, and noticed again the effigies of Jenny all around the camp.
‘It’s OK,’ Fly said. He took a couple of steps into the settlement. ‘They’ll hide us until the baby’s born and you’re strong again.’
‘Ji-ji,’ someone shouted, which brought howls from the group. The noise brought more honnards from the caves.
‘They’ve surrounded us,’ Jenny said. She was looking over his shoulder. Then she closed her eyes tightly as another contraction flared. ‘F-Fly,’ she said on a moan.
‘We’ll be safe here,’ he answered. But he wasn’t sure. The honnards had stopped their noise and were regarding them silently. Fly turned a small circle to see that Jenny was right: they’d surrounded them.
‘Did Bo come back?’ Jenny said. ‘He probably thinks you a-attacked him. Probably ran ahead to warn them of our treachery.’
‘No, he doesn’t—’
But Jenny’s body tensed as pain swamped her, and she turned her head into his chest and stifled a scream and Fly didn’t finish. Her contractions were becoming more frequent, but they were short and in between she was her normal self.
‘Bargi,’ he said over the top of her head to the watching honnards. ‘We need your help. Bargi.’ His words were met with silence. Then the crowd parted and the partially-clothed leader stepped into the circle. He carried a long staff, heavily-decorated with gleaming stones, engravings and Jenny’s hair. He sniffed the air, his long thin nose quivering. Fly felt Jenny cringe in his arms.
Then, with the staff held in two hands above his head, he howled long and hard into the sky. The others responded with cries of ‘Chi-Chi! Chi-Chi!’
Jenny whimpered.
‘That’s right,’ Fly said, stepping forward slowly. ‘This is your Chi-Chi. Your queen.’
The leader’s mouth was stretched wide in a grin and he panted quickly as if he was laughing. Fly stopped within touching distance as the chants rose in decibels. Then the honnard stepped to one side, exposing a path for Fly to carry Jenny further into the glen.
Accepting this consent Fly carried Jenny through the appraising honnards. He noticed a stick-doll of Jenny pinned to an ivy-clad rock face. With surprise he realised the flora covered an entrance to a cave, and when he moved it aside, it revealed a low-roofed hollow. Inside, it was lined with a mixture of foliage and furs.
‘What do you think?’ he said to Jenny, but doubted she heard, wrapped up as she was in her world of pain. He bent inside and laid her down in a nest of fur. He knelt beside her and stroked her hair. She was sweating, and looked terrible.
‘We’ll stay here for a while,’ he said.
Jenny’s eyes flashed open. ‘I didn’t want the baby to be born here.’
‘I know.’
‘It smells.’
‘I know that too.’
Her face contorted as she rode a contraction.
He continued stroking her hair. ‘It’s safe here. There could be other Jelvias. I can’t risk it.’
‘But y-you’d risk them?’ She jerked her head to the mouth of the cave, and Fly looked around. There were honnards squabbling for space to see inside.
A howl scattered them and then the alpha male squatted in the cave’s entrance and looked in, but his gaze was fixed on something behind Fly and Jenny. Fly’s head whipped round and saw another honnard hovering at the back of the cave. She was short and elderly judging by the grey hairs around her mouth. She had small swinging, saggy breasts, that told of the many babies she’d had in the past. She shuffled forward with an impassive expression.
She and the alpha male chatted over the top of Jenny and Fly using short, one-syllable, words as Fly’s head swung from one to the other, and then the alpha left the cave opening and the hanging vine shut off most of the daylight. The old honnard came to crouch down by Jenny.
‘Chi-Chi,’ she said. There was something attached to her arm and she pulled it from its binding and shook it over Jenny’s swollen stomach.
Jenny whimpered again and then focused her green eyes on Fly’s face.
Fly tried to keep his thoughts off his face. He’d taken a risk bringing her here, but he was certain the honnards were on their side. He wondered where Bo was, and hoped the honnard hadn’t seen Fly’s rough handling as aggression.
The elder chanted and the item in her hand jangled as she moved it in circular movements over Jenny’s body.
‘Fari,’ she said. ‘Fari chuff-gliff.’
‘I don’t w-want any of their hocus-pocus. Get me out of here, Fly!’ Jenny beseeched him.
He shook his head. He knew he was doing the right thing. He took her hand and held it against his lips for a moment before saying, ‘We’ll be safe here, but I need to move the buggy. It points to our presence—’
Her arms moved quickly and became hooked in his hair. ‘No,’ she said. ‘No! You can’t leave me alone with them.’
‘Fari chuff-gliff,’ the honnard said as they spoke. Unlike Fly or even Jenny, she was able to stand upright in the cave, and she rose up shaking the rattle above Jenny’s head as she chanted beneath her breath. Jenny wasn’t paying her any attention, and hadn’t taken her eyes off Fly.
‘Jenny, I have to move the buggy—’
‘No… Fly… Please.’ She was speaking through a contraction. Her voice was weak as if all her strength had flushed away.
He forced her hands away, where they had become buried in his hair around his neck. He felt awful leaving her, even if it was going to be for the shortest time. ‘If the others find this glen because of the buggy they will know we’re here.’
Her chin wobbled and then her eyes filled with tears as it dawned on her he was going to leave her.
‘Start counting. I’ll be back before you get to one hundred.’ He clasped her hands together on her chest. ‘I’ll drive the buggy out onto the plain and into a chasm. I’ll be back before you know I’ve gone.’
Chapter Seventeen
She knew she was being unfair. The look of worry on his face was evident. She felt her hands being prised away, and held in one of his against her chest.
‘I’ll drive the buggy out onto the plain and into a chasm. I’ll be back before you know I’ve gone.’
‘Chi-Chi,’ the female chanted and shook her maracas. ‘Chi-Chi.’
‘Might not be anyone else,’ Jenny said. She didn’t want Fly to leave her, yet the rational part of her knew the buggy was a beacon to their whereabouts. ‘Might have just been that one person.’
‘Had he been alone, he’d not have reacted to me like that.’
‘I don’t want you to leave me here.’ She gripped his hand as another wave of pain cascaded over her. She gritted her teeth and waited for it to pass.
‘Stop fighting it,’ Fly said. ‘Think of the pain as your body getting ready to push out our baby.’
‘What d’you know,’ she snapped.
Fly moved away from her, and her hands scrambled around to look for his and prevent him from going. ‘Jenny, listen to me,’ he said. ‘I’m going to move the buggy. I won’t be long, I promise.’
‘No! Fly!’
He began to back out of the cave. ‘I won’t be long.’
‘Bastard,’ she said. ‘Fly—’ she scrabbled in her pocket and brought out her whistle. She blew it, and he stopped. ‘Please,’ she said.
‘The sooner I go, the quicker I’ll—’
‘Oh, go!’ She threw the whistle at him, and it bounced off his head to land on the cave floor. ‘Clear off, and don’t come back!’
Fly, his face tense, backed out, righted himself, and walked away. She heard the chatting of natives as he made his appearance.
‘Ji-ji,’ they said. ‘Chi-Chi.’ It probably meant ‘Now we have them. The suckers! Let’s eat!’
A wave of defeat fell over her and she began to cry, but another contraction slammed into her and she closed her eyes and held her breath until it passed. She felt hands tuck furs around her body, under her back, which amazingly helped with the agony. She opened her eyes and came face to face with the honnard of the hocus-pocus chanting. Her maracas were tucked into a cloth belt around her upper arm. Her arm hair stuck up around it.
There was another sound and Jenny looked over fearfully. In the darkness, towards the rear of the cave a pair of glinting eyes looked at her. As her own eyes became accustomed, she made out a still form lying, as she was, on furs and with a very pregnant stomach. The pregnant she-wolf bared its teeth. This was a smile, Fly had told her. The baring of teeth was showing Jenny that the teeth were closed and weren’t going to bite.
Jenny closed her eyes as another pain swept over her. The contractions were coming closer together and getting stronger. The fussing honnard pulled out the maracas and shook them until the pain passed. Then she moved across the room towards the pregnant honnard. Jenny watched her go, then looked around the cave. There was an abundance of furs, bracken and leaves on the ground. At first, Jenny had thought it was growing vegetation but realised it had been brought in for comfort. She looked over at the groaning pregnant female and the mum-wolf, as she was now going to call the maraca-shaking native, and wondered if the comfort was for pregnant and nursing mothers. Fly had said they looked after their females.
The groaning of the pregnant female sounded very human as ‘Mum’ chanted over her and shook the maracas.
She looked outside; hoping to see Fly coming back, but he’d be a while yet. Because of the way the cave’s entrance sloped forward, she could only see the legs of anyone walking past when the curtain of flora parted in the breeze. Among the usual honnards were the four-legged native-wolves that Jenny still had nightmares about. She pushed aside her thoughts and looked back at Mum. She was fussing around the pregnant honnard.
A small native appeared, ghost-like, out of the wall at the back of the cave. When Jenny craned to look she noticed an entrance—a cave within a cave.
The small native chuffed-chuffed and Jenny stared. It wasn’t an ‘it’. It was a child! Hairless, vulnerable and adorable—younger than the cub she’d seen cruelly butchered. Another face poked out of the hole behind it. It pointed and jabbered something, but Mum turned and shouted a few sharp words and the face and the other child-wolf disappeared back through the hole.
Now that her eyes were accustomed to the gloom, Jenny could see a whole array of holes. She heard voices, childlike, and a baby crying. Another face peered out of the wall. Larger, older, than the others, but still a child. Jenny caught herself thinking the word. Child. Early and primitive but children all the same. All were bare of hair, had a small button nose and a wide mouth. But it was their eyes that enchanted Jenny the most. They were blue and humanlike.
There was strange chirping laughter as faces played peek-a-boo with her. It was surreal.
Jenny caught herself. Of course it was surreal. This was Eden, not Earth. She was living with an alien man, having his alien baby, running from giant birds and other alien men and now living with primitive creatures that’d probably rival both Jelvia and Human when they fully evolved.
The pregnant female was looking at her. Jenny stared back as Mum fussed around her with her maracas. The early pain-relief had a lot of catching up to do, Jenny thought, as a contraction made her gasp. As it passed she looked back at the others. They were so unlike wolves. She had only called them that because of the howling. It had been fitting, she thought. ‘But not now,’ she said aloud.
The pregnant female was lying on her side and the other was rubbing her back as she whimpered and made small chep-chep-chep sounds. Mum made soft noises in return and bustled around her—patting the foliage and furs around her form as if making her comfortable.
Jenny watched them until a wave of pain descended on her so hard she threw back her head and screamed. The pain had no respite now, it was continuous and she no longer noticed her surroundings. Gentle, hairy hands moved around her and pulled off her lower clothes. Then she was lifted beneath the armpits into a half squatting, half-standing pose.
‘Fly-yyyyyyyyyyyy!’ Jenny yelled. A howl outsid
e the cave answered her shout. ‘Oh, Fly,’ she said on a half cry.
There came the soft chep-chep-chep voices in her ear.
She smells, was Jenny’s last coherent thought as her body took over from her brain, and the urge to push became so overwhelming it couldn’t be ignored.
Then the agony was forgotten as her baby fell into the soft nest below.
Chapter Eighteen
He felt cruel leaving her with the honnards, but he couldn’t risk the others finding the natives’ camp. He jogged through the dense forest; the wood becoming sparser and sparser as he neared where the buggy was left. He was going to drive it out of the forest, and let it fall into the deep abyss he’d always bypassed before. It seemed bottomless with its darkness and the buggy would never be found. That he’d never be able to use it again didn’t worry Fly. His immediate priority was Jenny and keeping her safe.
The buggy was exactly how he left it—with the door still open.
He jumped inside and began to pull the door to when something hard hit him on the back of the head. His face was thrust forward and hit the stirring wheel where his nose exploded in a bloody pulp. Hands grabbed him and pulled him from the buggy, and Fly bucked, kicked and rammed his body at his attackers. But there were lots of them. A chain was looped over his head, and his hands were seized and banded together in front of him. His feet were shackled, and he fell heavily amid laughter and jeers from the watching Jelvias.
One kicked him in the ribs, another in the head.
‘Don’t kill him!’ yelled another.
Fly recognised the voice. It was a voice from deep within his nightmares. Murdow. Murdow was one of the most feared wardens on the spaceship, and here he was kneeling beside him. He grabbed Fly’s jaw and swung his face towards his.
‘Where’s the woman? Tell us and we’ll let you go.’
Fly spat, and Murdow recoiled as the venom, harmless, but still able to make a wheal on his forehead. The man wiped away the trickle of blood, then climbed to his feet. He nodded towards another man, and the man took immense pleasure in using the end of the chain in whipping Fly.
