Tau Ceti (an Ell Donsaii story #6) (12 page)

Sighing in disappointment hie beat i
nto the air and over to Syrdian who was clearing a spot under five small trees for a fire.
Syrdian looked askance at the tubers, “From the way you stooped I thought you’d
gone after
an animal we could eat.”

“I did.
” Hie shrugged hies wings,
“
I missed. These are better than nothing.”

For a moment
Dex thought that Syrdian
would
to turn hies nose up at the tubers but instead hie said, “Do you want me to cook them?”

“That’d be great! I set a trap. I’m going to go watch it.”
Hie
untied the meteorite from hies harness and leaned it up against one of the trees.
A couple beats lofted
himr
into a glide down to the burrow. Just before hie landed hie thought better of it and after coasting past the burrow
hie
beat up into the air to circle high over the burrow, examining the surrounding terrain for any other possibilities.
Hie
saw a couple of other burrows though the burrowers
themselves
weren’t evident. After checking the one with the snare
hie
coasted down to the next burrow. This one didn’t have any rock to hook the trigger on
so hie had to cut and drive a stake to hook the trigger on.
Then, in frustration,
hie
realized that
hie
didn’t have enough
fiberlin
to reach the closest sapling.
Looking
around
hie
saw a worn path from the burrow running
beneath
the sapling.
Hie
cut a notch for hies trigger hook near the bottom of the sapling, bent the sapling, hooked the trigger and ran the noose from there to drape over the path.  Then hie beat up into the air and over to Syrdian, pleased to see a small fire burning with the tubers spitted over it
.

Syrdian said, “I thought you were going to watch your trap?”

“I set another one. I think we’ll
be able to
see
and hear
them go off from here. I’m really hungry, how about you?”

“Yeah, I could even eat some talor.”

Dex looked
sharply
at Syrdian and saw himr grinning ruefully, “Me too.”

Syrdian said,
“
I’m afraid to ask
, but why don’t you fly back to the cave? I think my parents would come for me. Then you wouldn’t have to do this.”

Dex looked off into the distance, “And what if they told me that you’re dyatso? What if they won’t let me come back?”

Syrdian’s hearts hammered, “But, but my parents… wouldn’t…”

“Don’t be too sure. You know the tribe’s policy. ‘If you can’t fly the migration, you’re dyatso. You must fend for yourself.’”

Wings quivering Syrdian said, “But…”

“Besides, don’t you think it would be easier for them
…
if they think you died cleanly at the beak of a talor… than if they had to come visit you dyatso…
then fly away leaving you here?
They have responsibilities to your small
er
siblings so they couldn’t stay with you even if they
would
give their
own
lives for you.”

After a long pause Syrdian said,
“Dex, I’m embarrassed to ask, but who are
your
parents?”

Embarrassed
Dex shrugged hies wings,
“Deltain and Genex.”

“Oh, I know
of
Deltain. Hies leatherwork is
famous, that must be where you learned
.”
Syrdian looked meaningfully at Dex’s
elegant
harness.

Dex thought it was
polite
of Syrdian not to mention the embarrassing Genex.
Handsome
and artistic
when young, Genex
became addicted to fermented tubers and died
many seasons ago
. Deltain never told Dex what had happened but Genex hadn’t died well. Genex’s poor
standing
had dragged
Deltain’s and
their child’s status down and was to a
significant
degree responsible for Dex only being able to admire Syrdian from afar.
Hie
looked up at Syrdian, “Thanks,
hie did teach me
my leatherwork.
I hope someday to be
half
as good as hie is.” Dex’s head
snapped
around at a
flicker and a
“tw
oo
sh” sound behind
himr
.
The motion
hies
back eyes had seen was the
farthest
of the bent saplings
snapping
upright. Dex beat into the air and coasted down to it. Seeing a burrower struggling in the noose hie pulled out
hies
knife. A quick stab down into the brain at the base of the ne
ck ended its struggles.
Hie
loosened
hies
noose
from under two front limbs
, carefully wrapping
the
heavy
fiberlin
back on the stick from
hies
harness pouch.

***

Emma watched in astonishment as Goldy and Silver broke out of the trees into a clearing. She had the
distinct
feeling that they were much happier in the open than they had been in the forest.
With a few
vigorous
wing beats Goldy rose into the air though in the side camera Emma saw Silver continuing to walk out into the middle of the clearing. Once Goldy had achieved level flight Emma began watching the nose camera of the rocket which faced the direction they were traveling. Occasionally her gaze flickered to the camera that had been facing forward as Goldy walked and
which
now faced down at the ground. Emma didn’t see the cause of Goldy’s dive until the last moment
when she saw the small animal diving
into its burrow.

Emma sent out an email message to the group, “Check attached video, Goldy hunting from air.” Shortly she sent out another email, “Check attached video, Goldy building a snare!”

Emma’s eyes widened as she realized that Silver had built a fire, then to her bemusement Goldy detached the rocket from her chest and leaned it up against a small tree. One
side
’s
camera
showed
the tree
’s bark
, as did the nose camera. The
side
camera opposite the tree showed mostly sky. One camera faced up the mountain. The last camera showed a small cleared area with the fire burning on one side of
the image
. Some lumpy things like ugly potatoes hung over the fire on sticks. But nothing was happening in the view. Emma considered extending the legs and using the attitude jets to set the camera
back up
and turn it around to get a better view. But she
worried
that if it frightened Goldy and Silver away it would be a tremendous loss. Emma settled in to do some reading while waiting for something else to happen.

Quite a while passed, then a
brown object landed in the cle
ared area in front of the fire. T
herefore
it lay in the view
of the camera
facing that way and Emma narrowed her eyes examining it
.
It wasn’t
in the center of the picture but
pretty
close. Emma had zoomed all the way out to try to see something interesting at the periphery of the picture. Now she zoomed in
on what appeared to be a small dead animal.
She was pretty sure that it was either the animal that Goldy had stooped on earlier or a similar animal. Since it had escaped into a hole in the ground Emma thought it must be a burrowing animal like a rabbit.
It appeared to have eight limbs. Four smaller ones that came off one side and four larger ones that came off the other side and reached around to the
same
side
as the small legs
. Goldy stepped into the picture and pushed it with a foot so it rolled, then stepped away. Suddenly it made sense. The four smaller legs were on the bottom now. The bigger legs came off the top of the animal, reminding her of a spider
’
s
legs. The big legs
were long enough to reach the ground on the bottom
side
as well. The big legs, like those of the large animal in the forest had
something like
claws on them
.
The modified claws
looked like they could also be used for something else, though Emma wasn’t sure what.

Goldy reappeared, pulled out its knife
,
crouched
and began cutting the
burrower
up
.
The skin peeled off with a few
quick
strokes of the knife
, pulling up over the head like a shirt. The skin and the head were then chopped off
. Then instead of making a longitudinal slice into a body cavity like Emma had seen her Dad do on fish, Goldy
cut the neck off the body then cut transversely through the burrower just behind the front limbs. Goldy seemed to pause to break something bony at the back and the front before cutting the rest of the way around to separate the burrower into a front and back half. The
n
Goldy
cut through the body expos
ing
a cavity that
she quickly pulled organ
and intestine looking things out of, casting most of them aside but keeping a few solid looking chunks. The limbs were twisted and cut loose. All the pieces were spitted on a stick and hung over the fire.

Emma
had her AI send
another email, “Check attached video
, caught a burrower, cut it up. Cooking it!!”

***

Darkness had fallen by the time
Dex and Syrdian tore into the burrower and tuber. It tasted great! Dex wondered if it
was
due to the old
saying
about
how
everything tast
ed
bette
r if you’d hunted it yourself. O
r perhaps just because walking all day had left
himr
so
hungry?
Hie
eyed Syrdian who looked back at
himr
and said, “This is really good Dex. You’re a
great
cook!”

Deeply affected by the praise, Dex shrugged
hies
wings, “I think it’s just ‘cause we’re hungry, but thanks.
The tubers are done just right too.” Hie cocked
hies
neck, “
I’m glad we didn’t have to eat dried talor.”

Syrdian ducked hies head. “
D
ried talor wouldn’t be that bad.”

Dex snorted, “Yes it would! But we’ll eat it before we starve and be grateful of it.”
Hie
found
himrself
very pleased with Syrdian’s changed attitude. “We should collect some more firewood so we can keep
our fire
burning all night.”

Syrdian said, “I already got some while you were cooking. Would you show me how your snares work? In case… in… if…”

Dex rescued himr, “In case I need help later?”

Syrdian shrugged hies wings in embarrassment, “
Sure
.”

During the night another twoosh sound signaled the triggering of hies second snare. Sure enough when
hie
looked that way Dex could see the infrared shadow of a burrower struggling in the air beneath the first sapling
hie
’d attached a snare to. Dex started to get up but Syrdian said, “I’ll get it.”

Dex settled back down by the fire, somewhat amazed
at the turn around.
Syrdian had
really
begun to contribute. “Bring back the fiberlin,”
hie
called out.

“I will.”

***

Deltain landed on the ledge back at the cave, hearts heavy. Hies wings sagged as hie walked back to hies
leatherworking area. Someone was there and hies hearts lifted momentarily before hie recognized it wasn’t Dex. Still, it might be someone with news of Dex. Then hie saw it was Ercole, one of Syrdian’s parents. “Hello.”