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

Roger grinned at her, “Nah, I never get the easy way out.” He winked.

***

Dex thought that Syrdian was nothing like the wonderful, competent dalin h
i
e’d always pictured when admiring himr from afar. Hie seemed to be waiting for Dex to do everything. To be fair Syrdian was injured, but it was only hies wing. The
selfless and wonderful
Syrdian
hie’d always imagined
would have pitched in to help with hies
perfectly functional
hands. Dex examined the verge
for infrared,
then beat into the air and flew
close
to
it
puffing to take
the scent of the air there. It smelled
safe
. Hie landed by a dead tree and quickly picked up some deadwood, one branch of which had a cluster of dead leaves. A few beats took him
r
back to Syrdian and the
t
alor. Hie
cleared the grass off an area and
shredded
some
of the
dry
leaves. Hie pulled out hi
e
s flint and striker and struck a few sparks that
started
the shredded leaves burning. Dex laid a few dry sticks on the leaves and then a couple of larger branches.
Once
the fire
was
burning h
i
e flew back to
cut some
straight green stick
s. Soon h
i
e had some pieces of talor speared on a stick
and
suspended over the fire. During the entire time Syrdian watched with interest as if hie’d never seen anything cooked in hies life.
Hasn’t h
i
e ever
even
watched
while food is
being
prepared
back at the cave?
Dex wondered.
Why isn’t hie helping?! Is it just that hie d
oesn’t want to sully himrself
by
helping
a
“
low status
”
like me?

When
Dex
took the meat off the fire and cut
off pieces
for Syrdian and him
r
self h
i
e could see that h
i
e’d had it too close to the fire. The outside was a little burned
while
the inside
was
just past warm.
Dex wished h
i
e had some salt to season the meat
,
but it was quite a flight to the nearest lick that Dex knew of.

Syrdian bit into one of hi
e
s pieces.
“It’s tough!” h
i
e exclaimed.

Dex shrugged hies wings, “Predators usually are.”

Syrdian laid hi
e
s piece of talor down, “I’ll wait for them to bring something better.”

Dex’s eyes widened. Syrdian
still
didn’t seem to have any idea how serious hies situation was. “Uh…” Dex began but found h
i
e couldn’t continue.
What would I say? “Your lover Qes has given you up for dead and
has
almost certainly
told the tribe that you
were killed
?” I don’t know
that
it’s true.
Unable to bring him
r
self to tell Syrdian, hie
said nothing after the “Uh
.
”
Hie resumed eating hi
e
s talor.

Syrdian said, “What?” and then when Dex didn’t respond said, “I can’t believe that you’re still eating that.”

“I think we’re going to be hungry,” Dex said darkly.

Syrdian frowned, “Why?
Surely w
hen they come, they’ll bring food.”

Dex shrugged hies
wings and turned to contemplate nightfall. A lot of ground based predators were out at night. Would a fire keep them away? Would the scent of talor deter them or would the scent of death bring them? “Syrdian?”

Syrdian had been looking up the mountain in the direction of the cave, as if wondering where hies rescuers were. Hie turned to Dex, “Yes?”

“I don’t think we should stay here near the talor. Scavengers are going to show up sooner or later.
You
don’t want to be between a brek and its dinner.”

Syrdian looked surprised, probably because breks were to
o
slow moving to be threats to a dalin
like
himrself
. But that assumed that the dalin could fly
. On the ground breks were pretty fierce. Syrdian’s look became shadowed as hie realized that hie
actually
could become a tasty morsel for a brek. “OK, where do you think we should move?”

“Over between some of the rocks over there,” Dex pointed a wing. “Not exactly a cave, but as good as we can get here. I’ll fly over and look for a good place, you carry over a brand from the fire?”

Syrdian shrugged hies wings, “OK.” Hie picked up a reasonable brand from the fire and turned to go.

Dex picked up several
of the sticks he’d brought earlier
, “Can you take
some wood too
? I don’t want to make a lot of trips.”

Looking irritated, Syrdian stopped and went back for more. “Why do we want a fire over there? We aren’t cooking anymore.”

“
Keep
away predators,” Dex said
,
beating into the air.
H
i
e flew
above
the rocks where they stuck up to form
their
little ridge near one side of the meadow. Three of them closed off a small area and h
i
e landed there, waving a wing at Syrdian. H
i
e cleared a small area
at the front edge of the closed off area
and laid the wood h
i
e’d brought there. Then h
i
e beat into the air and back across the meadow to the dead wood at the verge. Once again h
ie
checked visually and
puffed hies
mouth, sucking air over the olfactory patches on hies lips
to
smell
for predators
. Not smelling any predators hie
landed and loaded up with more wood.

Dex made another trip but when hie returned with the load of wood found that Syrdian had piled
all
of
Dex’s
first load
on the fire. The flames had risen so high that Syrdian
had
had to leave the rock enclosure. “You put it
all
on the fire?
Why
!”

“
Why
did you get so much wood?”
Syrdian asked indignantly.

“So we’d have some for later!” Dex said exasperatedly.

“Later?! Why?”

“Syrdian! What if no one from the tribe comes! If we’re here all night
,
we’ll need fire to keep
predators
away! I won’t be
able
to go get more
wood
in the middle of the night.”

“
Why
wouldn’t they come?” Syrdian asked in amazed tone.

“Qes…” Dex
said disdainfully, then
paused, unable to think how to remind Syrdian what Qes had said.

“Qes what?” Syrdian snapped
indignantly
.

“Qes called you dyatso! H
i
e hasn’t gone for help, you’re dead to him
r
.”

“H
i
e wouldn’t!”

“H
i
e did.
You heard himr, you just won’t admit it to yourself.
”

“Wouldn’t.” Syrdian turned to look off over the trees in the direction of the cave. Waiting, presumably
,
for some dalin
s
to
wing
into view, thus proving Dex wrong.

“I’m going to go get more wood.” Dex said disgustedly, “
Don’t
put any more on the fire.”

Dex made six trips to the verge and back and built up quite a pile of wood. Syrdian simply sat and stared
sullenly
up the mountain. Dex made another trip to the talor and brought back meat. This time hie had to chase away some dlak that were scavenging the carcass.
As hie sat, cutting the meat into strips and hanging it near the fire to dry, hie wondered why hie was staying with Syrdian. Yes, Syrdian was beautiful and yes
Dex had
longed for
Syrdian for…
forever. But now that hie’d
actually
spent time with Syrdian hie found himr annoying and
…
shallow. And, worst of all, incompetent to take care of himrself! Dex felt like hie was staying out of sympathy now, not out of hies previously misguided sense of love.

Just before the sun went down Dex flew back to the verge and cut four straight shafts about hi
e
s height. After dark hie trimmed
and
peeled
them, then
sharpened
a point onto one end of each of
them. He carefully
fire hardened their
points.
Such pointed staves were
supposed to be useful for fending
off predators
though hie’d never used one himrself.
Hie laid two
staves
on each side of the fire and then
leaned
the others
against the big rock at the back of the small enclosure
. He crouched down back there himrself. Partly because it
was
to
o
warm by the fire and also
because hie worr
i
ed
about something dropping down from above. H
i
e tried to reassure himrself that the big flying predators
like talors
didn’t fly at night
. Be
sides, they were afraid of fire, weren’t they?

***

Deltain looked up from the harness he’d been working on
. The sun had set
.
Hie stood and walked over to the edge of the
flat
ledge
that provided a work area in front
of
the great cave. Deltain
look
ed
out into the dimming sky.
Where was
Dex
?
Hie’d promised not to push it so close to dark like this!
Worry
fought with irritation in Deltain’s hearts.

Dex was at a difficult age, young adult, angry with
the
low
position in the tribe’s hierarchy
that
Genex had left himr
.
Shifting
from the compliance of youth to the defiance of a young adult. Dex knew how Deltain worried when hie didn’t get home well before dark, yet hie
frequently
pushed it!
Deltain’s wings rippled in frustration.
Would Dex behave this way if it weren’t for
hies
low status? Hie wondered if Dex might
be less rebellious
if hies status rose, something Deltain hoped might happen as Dex’s ability to produce fine leatherwork became more
and more
apparent.

Distantly
Deltain
realized that several other parents were standing on the ledge looking out into the dimming light, perhaps frustrated with the same issues?

A dalin appeared against the sunset sky, winging its way toward the cave. Deltain’s hearts lifted, Dex? Hies hearts sank as the dalin approached and hie recognized the handsome Qes,
an
age mate of
Dex
,
but
of
very
high status. Qes landed beside hies parents and
clasped them
. 
Then
Qes
glanced at
the other parents
waiting
on the ledge.
Deltain recognized
they
were the parents of Syrdian,
Qes’ romantic interest. Qes
spoke quietly to hies own parents
while
repeatedly glancing over at Syrdian’s parents.