Cris stopped and placed his hands on his knees to catch his breath. His heart was pounding for more reasons than exertion and he knew it. It was fear. "Dammit, why didn't you answer when I called your name?" He began to walk the rest of the way.
"You're not the only one who needed a nap, you know."
Cris reached the top all flushed and out of breath. He wasn't this out of shape; he concluded the atmosphere must be thinner than on Earth.
Tattie observed him during his ascent of the last flight before the roof.
"You ran all the way up here—" It dawned on her what had just happened. "Oh—Cris, you thought that was me down there?" She chuckled.
Now at the top, Cris sucked in another breath and looked behind Tattie, where there lay two basa carcasses, both eviscerated.
He turned to her and said, "I've seen it done. So sorry I got concerned."
The smirk vanished from Tattie's face. "You were worried for me." Cris noted she'd not asked a question, but made a statement.
"Please, don't be offended," he smirked.
Tattie approached him and placed her hands on his shoulders. "I'm sorry, Cris, I know you've seen a great deal of war on Earth. I had no idea you'd seen such horrors."
"Last time I saw that was in the Parenmer village."
"I'm sorry."
"That's why it's called war, it sucks."
"Sucks?"
"Ah—Earth term, means it's a very bad thing. I see you bagged the two basers."
"Basa, yes. I also have some Klama leaves to wrap them in to keep them clean on the trip home, which now will have to wait until dawn."
"Sorry about that—"
"Don't be. You needed that. Come here, let me show you something."
She took him to the Mendaba side of the tower and he looked out over the top of the jungle. The sun was setting behind some clouds that appeared to be just on the other side of a chain of high jagged mountains on the horizon. The mountains were a deep purple, and most of the peaks were snowcapped.
The sky was a beautiful azure blue with gray clouds trimmed in bright orange. The shadows of the mountains were reaching out from their bases toward them. The jungle was a very dark green, and as the sun sank lower, it became darker. That's when Cris saw the small lights rising and falling from the forest canopy. There were more and more with each passing minute until the jungle seem to be populated with as many stars as the sky above. But these stars were moving, in random ways and sometimes in waves, rising and falling.
"What is that?" Cris asked.
"They are toxmista." She looked over the edge of the wall. "Look, one is crawling up the tower."
Cris looked over the side and there, a meter below him, was an insect some thirty centimeters long. Its head held two huge eyes and two long, swaying antennae with tiny lights at their tips. The insect's thorax held its enormous wings and its ten legs. The abdomen was very thin as it left the thorax but quickly ballooned in size. The abdomen was the source of the light.
"It's a lightning bug," Cris observed.
"Toxmista live only one night after incubating underground for three years. They will spend the night seeking a mate, the female is very resistant to the advances of the male, and she is much bigger and possesses large claws. A suitor, unable to subdue her, she will kill. Only a male possessed of cunning and strength will succeed in mating with her. Thus, do the strongest among them survive."
"I guess it's the same everywhere."
"Why do you say that, Cris? Have you been cut in half?"
"I was cut off at the knees—same thing, I guess." Cris turned around and a large star in the sky grabbed his attention, it was as bright as the full Moon back home.
"That is the demi-star Zuluth. It orbits our star and has a system of its own. And look over there, that is Fitri Saren, the birth place of stars." A quarter of the night sky to the Impara was filled with magnificent glowing clouds, a nebula. Inside the illuminated gasses, stars in various stages of formation could be seen, and all the stars in the sky looked as if they had spun out from this truly awe-inspiring sight.
Cris looked about again. The distant mountains were dark except for the snow-covered peaks. The toxmista were everywhere by the billions. The demi-star lit the world in a wonderful yellow glow and over it all sat the Fitri Saren.
Cris looked at Tattie, who he could see clearly in the light. "Nazer is beautiful," he said. "I guess it's just a little hard to see when it's trying to kill you and you're focused on survival—and trying to get home."
Cris noticed Tattie's face fall a little at those last words, and she averted her eyes. Perhaps, in his future, she saw that he would never make it home.
"Yes, Cris, when a person is focused on one narrow thought, it is indeed difficult to see anything else."
There was a great deal of firewood stocked piled atop the tower. Tattie had a fire going and over it on a spit was roasting a piece of meat she'd cut from the basa for their dinner. And now that he noticed it, the aroma hit him, it smelled quite good.
"Is that for us?"
"No gimba, I plan on feeding it to a morka."
"A morka!"
"Relax—the fire will cook the meat and keep away the—you called it a beastie?" Then, she smiled, and with it came the warm feeling and sense of happiness. Tonight, he did not question it, he needed the warmth and feeling of well-being. He was still rather shaken by all he’d seen: the skeletons in the building, his dream, and the shock of finding the pile of fly-covered guts. He took a breath and looked around again. He looked at Tattie, and returned her smile. As he did, he noticed her eyes dilate, and she seemed to shiver.
"Are you cold?"
"Not at all. But it will be chilly by morning. Another reason to keep the fire going, we'll need to stand watch in shifts."
"Did you carry all this wood up here?"
"Oh, no. This tower is now used as a hunter's sanctuary."
About an hour later, they ate in silence. Cris volunteered to take the first shift at fire watch. Tattie agreed, but pointed to a star low in the Hegola-Mendaba. "When that star reaches that tree top, wake me."
Tattie lay upon the stone floor of the tower's top and was soon asleep. Cris watched the lightning bugs and noticed that they never flew into the light of the fire.
Cris took the first guard shift so he could stay awake as long as he could in an attempt to avoid sleep.
Fitri Saren slowly turned in the sky to his north, or Impara. Cris looked all about, still feeling the wonder of this place. He spent long periods of time just staring at Tattie's sleeping figure. Based on the movement of the stars, Cris figured half the night had passed. In that time, he had heard a number of bizarre sounds, but nothing had threatened them.
As Tattie had said, it was getting cool. Cris rose and added logs to the fire, he then removed his jacket and draped it over Tattie. The light touch of the cloth on her skin awoke her. First thing she did was to examine the stars.
"Gimba! Why did you not wake me?" She was clearly angry.
"I wasn't sleepy."
"And what am I to do with you tomorrow when you can't keep moving because of fatigue?"
"I'll be fine."
"You are gambling both our lives on that assumption! I should have known better! How am I to trust you?"
"I guess you'll either trust me or you won't."
She felt the jacket over her shoulders. "What's this?" She jerked if off and was about to toss it away when she recognized it. "Oh—well—" she calmed down, "thank you, but you'll need this."
"Keep it, I've been colder. Two tours in Germany and a winter in Korea."
"Cold places, I guess."
"Yeah, cold."
"Take it," Tattie insisted and held the garment out to Cris, "you're half naked, and—just put your jacket back on."
He now lay in the same spot where Tattie had been, facing away from her. He fought sleep as long as he could, but his nerves demanded rest, and so he drifted away. Perhaps his brain had had eno
ugh, or he was just too tired to dream, but he slept the rest of the hours of darkness, undisturbed by phantoms.
Just before dawn, Tattie woke him with some of last night's meat, rewarmed, and some bread she had in her pack.
"In the night, did you rest at all?" she asked him.
"I did, yes. Thanks."
"You were too tired to fight sleep the rest of the night, weren't you?"
"What do you mean, fight sleep?"
"Cris—I am a very observant lawberow."
"Lawberow?"
"You used the word, woman."
"I'll bet I could teach you English very quickly."
"And, no doubt, you could be taught, as well."
"Taught what?"
She lowered her head a little, her eyes half-closed, a coy smile curling her lips. A hot flame rushed through Cris's body, which caused him to sit up erect and drop his bread.
"Come on gimba, let us go."
Cris found that the early morning chill was completely gone from his body, now. He rose and helped Tattie wrap the dead animals in the large leaves, then tie them with vines. She threw one of the carcasses over her shoulder and headed for the stairs. Cris threw his basa over his shoulders and followed her lead. The sky was turning golden with the dawn, but the stairway was still in total darkness. Cris hugged the wall as he slowly came down one step at a time, and had to leap the section where the steps had fallen.
At the base, Tattie was waiting on him. Cris noted the pile of entrails was gone, as was the trail of blood.
Tattie examined the ground. "It seems a pack of narlofs cleaned up my mess. Cris, we smell of blood and fresh meat. We will have to move quickly."
"I'll try to keep up with you but—"
"I know Cris, I'll not leave you behind."
"You've said that to me like three times already."
"It is important to me that you hear it and believe it."
They pushed through the jungle and Cris was noticing things that he did not on their trip in. The multitude of colors struck him; in addition to the green, there were several shades of blue, red, yellow, and purple. The colors seemed to explode all around him.
Also, the abundance of life—he had already noticed the insects, but now, he saw the wide variety of animals he'd missed before. There were what he thought to be birds, but were actually flying reptiles, like small dragons with feathered wings. Another creature he spotted high in the trees looked like a large spider. Its torso was a full meter long, and it had eight legs, or more correctly, arms, each a meter-and-a-half long, and each ending with a hand possessing three fingers and an opposable thumb. They had no feet, per se, as they never came down from the treetops. Tattie said they were herbivores and not a threat, but they could be very mischievous. She called them zooit sarmerimak.
By midday, they had passed the slidrath's trail and the gorge. They stopped for a breather; though Tattie looked fresh as a daisy, Cris was winded and fatigued.
They put their bundles down and sat on a fallen tree trunk. Tattie handed Cris the leather bladder of the elixir. Cris took a long pull and handed it back to Tattie, who did likewise.
"I'm sorry to appear so out of shape. I really can't understand it, I always maxed my PT tests."
"You've been sedentary with your injury, the altitude is rather high here, and there is the difference in gravity. Your Moon must be quite small."
"I didn't think I was on the Moon long enough to have my muscles atrophied."
Tattie removed the bread from her backpack and handed it and her hunting knife to Cris. "Cut this will you? I'll go refill the bladder, we don't want to run out of elixir."
Cris started to slice the bread as Tattie started off into the woods. She'd not gone three meters when she suddenly stopped, and started backing up slowly, her hands out to her sides.
"Cris!" she said, an odd inflection to her voice.
Cris saw Tattie slowly backing away from what looked like a prehistoric bird. It stood about one point seven meters tall and looked like an Earthly prehistoric raptor, but the thing was covered in feathers. It walked on its hind legs, but unlike its Earth cousin, whose arms were small and almost useless, this creature had large, powerful arms with three fingered claws. Its beak was huge, sharp, and lined with hundreds of tiny razor-sharp teeth. It was slowly moving toward Tattie, who had left her bow by the log.
Moving cautiously, Cris reached for the bow. As he did, the monster's head jerked toward him. Cris kept going and picked up the bow, then grabbed an arrow—which Cris thought awfully small right now. The thing redirected its attention to Cris, but kept glancing at Tattie. It was within three meters now, and it lowered its head and opened its beak. Cris knew it was about to strike. He aimed for a spot above the thing's left arm, where he guessed the heart might be, then let his arrow fly.
It struck the creature in the left thigh and caused it to drop on that leg. The creature screamed and reached its head back, trying to pull the arrow out with its beak. Cris grabbed Tattie's knife and ran directly at the beast. He leapt upon a rock, then jumped. He landed on the beast's back, grabbed a fist full of feathers and started stabbing the monster in the neck, all the while dodging the claws trying to brush him off. The beast fell again on its injured leg just as Cris stabbed again. This time, he cut the artery, and blood flowed like a river. Cris fell off as the thing reared back, and just managed to roll out of the way as it stabbed at him with the point of its beak. Cris jumped to his feet just in time to see the feathered tail disappear into the woods.
Chapter 12
Sad News
Cris stood there covered in his opponent's blood, panting. Tattie ran to him, her eyes big as saucers, their pupils dilated. "Are you hurt?" she gasped.
"No—I don't think so. What the hell was that?"
"That—was a capteao valux. I know of no one to survive an encounter with one."
"Really?"
"Truly, you are a very brave man."
"Fight or flight, and I can't outrun him." Cris then looked hard at Tattie. "But you could have outrun him. You could have gotten away as I fought it."
"I keep telling you, I will not leave you—and still, you do not seem to believe me."
"If I had lost that fight, you'd be dead now, needlessly. Why?"
"I have sufficient reason to remain by your side. The understanding is mine, as is the risk."
"You really need to explain to me what reason you have that would make you want to face a death like that, or death at all."
"Have you never been a part of something greater than yourself?"
"Sure, I'm in the Air Force."
"Where you risked your life for the freedom of others?"
"Yeah."
"Hmm—"
"What?"
"Come with me, Cris, we have got to get that blood off of you before we can proceed."
They picked up their basa, and Cris followed Tattie through the woods in the general direction from which the capteao valux had come. After about three hundred meters, Tattie stopped, and she and Cris knelt. "Ahead is a bend in the river where the waters run quietly. This is a dangerous place, as many creatures come here to drink, and others to hunt. You smell of blood. This may lead some hungry creature to think you are injured and an easy kill, so be alert."
"Outstanding."
A few more meters brought them to the edge of the wood line near the water's edge. The river was wide here, but appeared shallow. The opposite bank presented a sheer cliff, perhaps fifteen meters high, topped with more woods.
They lay their burdens down and ran for the water. Tattie's head was on a swivel. "Just jump in and start scrubbing off the blood," she told him. He did just that, and the water turned red around him.
"Watch for vampire fish."
"For what?"
"Hurry!"
After several minutes, Tattie said, "Now, give me your clothes and scrub your body very hard."
Cris stripped out of his tattered uniform and handed it to Tattie who the
n darted off into the woods. Cris scrubbed his body like she told him until he was sure he'd gotten all the blood off. Tattie returned carrying several very large leaves. She tossed two on the ground and offered the others to Cris. "Here, dry yourself with these." Cris grabbed the huge leaves and, using them to cover himself, stepped out of the water. Tattie had rolled his uniform up in the leaves and was now pounding on them. She looked up at Cris. "Rub the leaves all over yourself." As he did, a terrible odor came off the leaves.
"Whoa! Tattie, these things stink!"
"It will mask the odor of the blood. Hurry."
She traded Cris his uniform for the leaves, and as Cris dressed, Tattie rubbed the leaves all over her clothes, face, and hair.
"Man," Cris complained, "anything out there will smell us coming two kilometers away!"
"And be repulsed—in most cases."
"Most cases?"
The remainder of the trip back to the valley of Faretress was, thankfully, uneventful. They crossed the valley toward Tarnus's house, and there he was, standing outside, waiting for them. He waved.
"I knew you two would be staying the night when I saw the smoke rising from Vonkanoor. I knew you must have sought shelter atop the tower of Dore Zehar," he said in his booming voice as they approached. "Whew—you have been into the leaves of meesaria. Why?"
Tattie quickly told Tarnus of their adventures between here and Vonkanoor Impara, minus Cris's nightmare. "You faced down a valux?"
Cris just shrugged.
"Perhaps I have underestimated you."
"As have I," said Tattie, "I had seen courage in him uncle, but I never expected to see him charge a full grown capteao valux."
Cris was starting to blush and looked decidedly uncomfortable. Tarnus saw this. "Before ether of you enters my house, you'll need to smell better! Tattie, go to the other side of the house. Cris, you and I will boil water over there."
"What has to happen to get this smell off anyway? You have to boil me?"
"No, gimba," Tattie said, "we have to bathe, our clothes must be boiled."
That evening they all gathered in the house's main room to eat. Tarnus had prepared a roast of basa with assorted vegetables, bread, fruit, and a fermented drink made from the blue wildflowers that grew on the edge of the wood.
Across a Sea of Stars Page 16
