Journey To Light: Part I of the High Duties of Pacia

by Bob Craton

CHAPTER 6

  Rafe and Belo

  As he reached the cliff face, Rafe stopped on a small ledge and turned for one more look-around. The sun was out of sight below the cliff behind him but his eyes worked fine in the fading light. Nothing unusual was visible in any direction. The hill he had just climbed rose higher than the forest so when he looked back his view was mostly of the tops of trees. He was certain, however, that anything big enough to bother him would make noise and he didn’t hear any rustling leaves or snapping twigs. Rafe took a moment to watch squirrels move out onto limbs along the route he had just taken. They always disappeared when he passed, but they had very short memories and forgot about him soon after he departed.

  “Don’t know why ya hide,” he said to the squirrels, although in a voice too low for them to hear. Not that his speaking mattered, of course, since squirrels couldn’t understand a word he said anyway. “I ain’t a sneak, ya know, and it’s hard for a big guy like me to catch little darty things like you,” which was true enough. Rafe was a straightforward kind of guy and squirrels really did dart around a lot. “Good thing for you dat Belo’s laid up right now. He’d snatch you up quick in da dark.”

  Turning right to face south, Rafe held his nose high and breathed in. His capacity for inhalation was considerable and his chest expanded for a long time. When every last pocket, nook, and back-alley of his lungs were filled to bursting, he exhaled and said, “Runhh.” It wasn’t a real word; it was just something Rafe used instead of saying damn. It was a habit. Men got less angry at him when he said things they couldn’t understand instead of the actual words he meant.

  Rafe considered shouting out his bold I-am-here-this-is-mine call, but he decided that perhaps he really didn’t want anyone to know his location tonight. Instead he turned, took the last three steps toward the cliff face, and dropped to all fours. Well, technically he dropped to three of his fours since he carried something furry in his right hand and didn’t want to get it dirty. Either way, the entrance to the cave was small and he had to crawl to enter. Belo could walk through it just by bending at the waist, but Belo was already inside. It was dark in the cave but just enough light glimmered for Rafe’s vision to work. He knew that later, when it got absolutely pitch dark and eyesight was useless, he and Belo could still get around in their own ways. Belo could tell where everything was just with his ears and Rafe did nearly as well with his fine nose. Although rock surfaces seemed monotonously similar, Rafe had scent-marked each wall inside differently so he always knew where he stood. When he reached the cave itself and could stand up again, he stretched a moment and held up his furry prize for someone to see.

  “Brought ya a hopper,” he called out.

  “Tank you,” replied a faint high-pitched voice from above (nothing like Rafe’s deep rumbling bass). Then with a fluttering noise, Belo appeared on the floor of the cave. “You really are good to me.”

  “Runhh right, I am,” Rafe said as he handed over the long-legged prey. “I’m so good I’m amzin . . . amase . . .”

  “Amazing,” Belo finished for him. “I’m lucky to have a friend like you.”

  “Not dat either of us have many of those.”

  “Too true,” Belo agreed.

  “Didn’t mean to kill it, but it kept wigglin’ and I squeezed too hard,” Rafe said about the hopper as he sat down on the floor and scratched his hip. Belo used a flat rock for a chair.

  “It’s fine, really.”

  “Da skin’s not broken. Dat’s good, right?”

  “Yes.”

  “I shoulda been more careful.”

  “Rafe, it’s perfect,” Belo assured him. “It will satiate me fully. You’ve taken excellent care of me since I got hurt. I genuinely appreciate you. Now if you don’t mind, I’ll stop talking and dine.”

  “Ummf,” Rafe said, which was a neutral acknowledgement and not a bad word. Something like ‘okay’ just a little easier to say. Rafe watched while his friend grabbed the hopper by its hind feet and lifted it above his head. Then he opened his small mouth and sank tiny but very sharp teeth into the animal’s neck. He had not fed since early morning when Rafe had brought him the haunch of a goat left over from the big guy’s own breakfast. Parts of larger animals such as that were far from ideal, however, since a lot leaked out while Rafe carried them home. The hopper with its skin intact was much better and Belo closed his eyes in contentment as he drank. Holding the meal up helped to drain it and thus partially offset the disadvantage of the prey’s heart being stopped, but Belo still had to suck a bit, even if that wasn’t a polite way to word it.

  When he finished, Belo did not need to wipe his mouth but did anyway. He was just that sort of prim little guy. Handing over the drained hopper, he said, “You can have te leftovers. You caught it after all.”

  “Did ya tranquilifize it?” Rafe asked as he took the limp furry carcass from his friend.

  “Why would I tranquilize it when it was already dead?”

  “Don’t know. Just askin’,” said Rafe as he picked at the hopper’s fur.

  “You won’t get sleepy if you eat te meat, I promise.”

  “Good,” Rafe said as he jammed his forefinger claw into the hole made by Belo’s teeth and stripped off the skin by brute force. Rafe wasn’t as fastidious while eating as his friend, but he considered himself quite civilized and always picked up any bones or fur that he dropped. “It’s not da same after you drain it but it’s good enough to eat,” Rafe said when he finished. “Needed it. Had a piglet before I came back but it wasn’t very big.”

  “A goat tis morning and a piglet tonight. You aren’t raiding a farmyard are you?”

  “Not me. Pure and innocent, I am,” Rafe replied. Rafe spoke well when he concentrated, but this time his lateral lisp and growling R’s showed through and made the words sound like purrrrre and innossshent.

  “I’ll never believe you’re pure and innocent,” Belo said.

  “Me neither, but I ain’t been in any farmyards since we took off.”

  “Okay, I trust you.”

  “You better,” grumbled Rafe. Knowing that his friend could take offense over the most trivial and unintended slight, Belo decided to deflect the big guy’s grumpiness. He offered a little humor (well, Rafe’s type anyway) to improve the mood.

  “Have you ever heard te expression ‘innocent as a baby lamb’?” he asked as a set-up, knowing what Rafe would say as a punch line.

  “Yeah, but I ate it,” answered Rafe right on cue.

  “You sure are funny,” Belo said with convincing sincerely despite the obvious untruth. The big one’s crudities notwithstanding, Rafe was very likeable if you had a little tolerance.

  “Heh, heh, heh. Yeah, I think so too.” Full and satisfied for the moment, both friends let the conversation lapse for a few minutes. It picked up again when Rafe had another subject to mention.

  “Da cat’s gone. Dat’s da good news,” he said, knowing that the predator’s presence in the area bothered Belo.

  “I’m glad. Sometimes I worried about te cat finding tis cave when you’re out. I really can’t fly very well yet.”

  “I know. I saw how ya moved when ya wrapped your wings and I can tell it still hurts.”

  “You’re certain about te cat?” Belo asked.

  “Yup. Scent trail’s very clear. He left durin’ da night and went north.”

  “I’m relieved.”

  “I hate cats,” Rafe growled.

  “Why? You’re too big for one to bother you.”

  “They’re sneaky. They hide and jump out. Not fair, not like chasin’. And their claws stay sharp always. Don’t wear out like mine. And good teef too.”

  “Yours are stronger.”

  “Theirs are sharper. Cats are a pain in da ass.”

  “Only if one bites yours.” Belo thought he was funny too.

  “Humpf,” snorted Rafe, meaning he didn’t like the joke. “Oh, cats are quick, I’ll give ’em that. When they pounce, they can catch things in a
short run. But I got stamina. Could run one down if I kept it movin’ all day. Ya know, if it didn’t climb a tree or hide where I couldn’t get at it.”

  “What would you do if you caught a cat?”

  “Why would I want to? They don’t taste good. Tough and stringy meat, probably.”

  “I see,” said Belo. After a moment, he thought of something else. “You said te cat leaving was te good news.”

  “Yeah.”

  “Okay, but does tat mean tere’s bad news, too?” Belo started worrying when he saw his friend squirming. Rafe scratched himself in several places and emitted a low growl that according to him meant nothing but which to Belo indicated something was bothering the big guy. This is not good, Belo thought to himself as he waited until Rafe finally spoke up.

  “Somethin’ else on da wind.”

  “You mean someting you smelled?”

  “Yep. Caught a scent yesterday and it’s closer today. From da south,” Rafe said.

  And the cat went north during the night, Belo finished silently. “What was it?”

  “Don’t know,” Rafe admitted. That surprised Belo. For Rafe to catch a scent and not identify it was more than unusual. This was worrisome, Belo knew. Something strange was out there.

  “Would you describe it?” Belo recognized the foolishness of the question as soon as it came out. It was equivalent to asking an artist to describe his painting of the sunrise to a blind man. Rafe gave his best answer anyway.

  “Sharp. Bitter. A little somethin’ metallic and oily. And part man, part animal.”

  “It smelled like a man?” Belo was becoming disturbed.

  “No, not like a man smells. Like some of da ugly stinks they put out when they make all dat crap of theirs.”

  “Hmm, I can tell you don’t like it.” Belo worded his comment carefully. If he had said ‘it makes you nervous,’ Rafe would be insulted, which was not a happy situation for anyone. It never entered Belo’s mind to say something even worse such as ‘it scares you.’ No one ever said anything like that to the big guy. Well, certainly not twice anyway.

  “Don’t like it a runhh bit.”

  “Well, just hearing about it disturbs me.” This time Belo’s concentration on enunciation slipped and the S sound came out like a hiss (or perhaps a hissss) making his word seem to be ‘disssssturbsss.’ Not that it bothered Rafe. After all, his Ss were pretty sloppy too.

  “I’ve been thinkin’,” said Rafe.

  Uh-oh, thought Belo. Definitely not a good thing. “About what?”

  “We need to go find another hidey-hole,” Rafe explained.

  “Ssserioussly?” Belo asked. This conversation had just gone far beyond the ‘not good’ stage.

  “We could leave tonight and travel all day tomorrow. Get a good start. There’s some nice hills up north of da hu-men’s big road. We could find somethin’ there. So long as nobody saw us crossin’ da road.”

  “So what if tey do see us? We’re legals. We got a right to be anywhere.”

  “Unless our own folks rat on us to the hu-mens,” Rafe pointed out. “They wouldn’t . . . would they?”

  “Probably not. Keep it in te family, folks always say,” replied Belo. “But tey are pretty mad at us back home. If tey weren’t, we wouldn’t be in tis cave.”

  Rafe just shrugged in reply.

  “Rafe, listen. Crossing te road is a small ting compared to te otter obstacles we face.” Belo waited for Rafe to nod his head and then continued. “I might be able to fly a short distance at a time, but tat’s not good enough which means I’d have to walk and tat would slow you down since you move faster tan me.”

  “Got more stamina, too.”

  “Obviously. I’m not embarrassed about tat since you keep going longer tan anyone.”

  “Thank you.” Rafe said. Unlike Belo, he could pronounce TH, at least when he concentrated, but it tended to come out messy when he spoke. Sometimes he said fank instead of thank, teef rather than teeth, or dat for that; but he did it right this time and didn’t spatter too much saliva.

  “And tere is also my problem with sunburn. We left in such a hurry, I didn’t have a chance to grab my cloak. If I’m out in te daylight wittout a cloak, you know how bad I get.”

  Rafe grinned and said, “I got a plan.” Double uh-oh, thought Belo, but he was wrong. “Ya can pull my jacket over ya to keep da sun off and I’ll carry ya on my back.”

  “You would? I’m really touched. I’m going to owe you a lot of favors by the time we settle down.”

  “Runhh right, ya will. Ya ready to leave?”

  “Of course,” was the reply. Belo was a smart guy with a sound mind and he understood the situation clearly.

  If Rafe sniffed something on the breeze and wanted to get away in a hurry, only an insane moron with a serious suicide wish would stay behind.