Kelly's Adventure. Chapter 4

[random_xtras]

Kerry-bird, come and look at your new clothes,” said Dano. “Keerrry-bird, can you hear me?” He laughed softly. “Help me open her fingers, Caudis. She’s gripping my small coat so strongly that I can’t move.”
Kelly lifted her head and opened her eyes, staring at them muzzily.
“There you are.” Dano bent to look at her more closely. “How do you feel?”
“Fuzzy-headed.” She rubbed her face with both hands, then pushed her hair back away from her face and yawned so that her jaw popped. “Ow.”
“Kerry, come to look at your clothes,” said Caudis. “Murr have…Murr has them.”
“They’re ready?” Kelly looked around at the darkening sky.
“Yes.” Dano helped her to her feet. “Garrow and his sons are waiting here with us so that you can go into the house with Murr and see if they are good.”
Kelly picked up the belt from where it had been laying in her lap. “Do I give him this now?”
“No. You give it to Murr if you are happy with how the clothes look.”
Dano ran his hands over his hair to wipe away rainwater.
Kelly saw and quickly took off his cloak. “Here, you can have this back now.”
“You get wet,” said Caudis quickly.
“Oh well, I’ll survive.” She walked to the edge of the island, then stopped and looked at the bandage on her foot.
“Here.” Dano got to his feet. “I’ll help you across.”
Garrow and his three boys laughed at her startled yelp as he scooped her up into his arms.
She twisted around to scowl at them. “This is embarrassing.”
Dano paused and looked down at her in chagrin. “I’m sorry. I didn’t think of that. Do you want me to put you down?”
Kelly looked down at the stinking mud. “Nope. I’ve lived through embarrassment before.”
He blinked, but carried her over to the hut and set her down inside the leather curtain that hung over the door.
Garrow’s wife, Murr, greeted her excitedly, then caught her hand and led her into the close-smelling semidarkness of the hut.
Kelly squeezed her eyes shut, trying to get them to adjust, then gasped as her foot brushed against a small, furry form. She heard the animal scamper away, then heard a low cooing sound.
Opening her eyes, she tried to see what it was, but couldn’t make out anything in the shadows that danced at the base of the pole and withy walls.
“T’n!” said Murr proudly, picking up a full skirt and holding it against Kelly’s waist. Nodding, she motioned for her to put it on, then took a tunic from a little girl.
Kelly hesitated, unwilling to undress in front of strangers, then did as she had done in the forest and used Dano’s tunic as a changing tent. Pulling off the huge garment, she looked down at herself critically. “The skirt makes my butt look big, but other than that they look good.” She looked up at Murr.
The older woman fingered the skirt thoughtfully, then looked up questioningly. “D’br?”
“Da.” Kelly nodded. “D’br. D’nk.”
Murr sighed and smiled, then looked at the belt.
Kelly grinned and picked it up. “Here, wear it in peace.”
“D’nk.” The grey-haired woman ran her fingers over it, her eyes bright with wonder, then looked up and said something to her older daughter.
The little girl went to the wall and lifted three obviously heavy bags, then staggered over and dropped them at Kelly’s feet. “T’n,” she said, displaying a grin that looked a lot like her dad’s.
“D’nk.” Kelly bent and picked them up by their straps, wondering at how solid they felt.
The little girl went back to the wall and returned with a smaller package, which she presented with an expression as though she was bestowing rare jewels.
“D’nk.” Kelly opened it curiously and was rewarded by a savory smell of salted, dried meat. “Ooo, that smells good.” She fished out a thin strip and tasted it tentatively, then popped it into her mouth. “Yum.”
Murr laughed and nodded in agreement, then said something, pointing toward the shadows by the walls.
Kelly tried to see what she was indicating, but still couldn’t figure out what was over there. Turning back to the older woman, she searched her memory for the right words to ask her, but was interrupted as the smaller of the two little girls brought a loosely wrapped bundle to her mother and made a plaintive request.
“Sua!” Murr scolded in exasperation, taking the bundle and re-wrapping it.
“Kerry?” called a voice from outside.
“Yes? Oh, hi, Tan.” Kelly said, poking her head out around the curtain. “What is it?”
Tan replied excitedly, offering her another small skin bag.
“More meat?” Kelly opened it and looked in. “D’nk.” One of the food bags slipped down her arm and whacked her in the side of the knee, nearly knocking her down. “Ouch! Could you help me carry these to the island?”
She pushed the curtain aside to show them to Tan, then mimed trying to carry all three by herself.
“Da.” Tan held out her hands. “T’n s’tce t’.”
“Oh, d’nk.” Kelly handed her the two smaller pouches and one of the larger ones. Murr said something behind her then and she turned back.
“Sorry? Oh, my boots and cloak.” She looked down at her feet in chagrin, realizing she’d nearly jumped into the mud barefoot. “D’nk for reminding me.”
Murr chuckled and bent to help her tie the circles of soft, heavy leather around her feet and legs, stuffing the foot area with handfuls of animal hair.
“T’n.” She sat back and grinned at her, then picked up another piece of leather and dropped it over Kelly’s head, tying a leather thong at her neck and pulling up a rough hood to cover her head. “T’n, d’br!” She patted her cheek, then took the bundle from her daughter and wrapped it again.
Kelly looked down at the garment, which was more like a serape with a closed front and sides than a cloak, and which smelled just like the one she’d been borrowing from Dano. Still, it was warm, and the soft weight of it was comforting.
She smiled at Murr, then picked up the last two bags of food and turned to go. “D’nk. D’brdng.”
“D’brdng,” said Murr, smiling as she bent to stir something in a clay pot on the fire that burned in the center of the round room.
Dano and Caudis were standing and talking to a circle of men when she got back to the island, so she lay the food bags down and sat a little ways away from them.
She looked at the men, many of whom were wearing ponchos like hers, then tipped her head back and tried to see the stars, remembering her last night on Earth, when she and Mike had looked up at the arch of the Northern Lights.
“He shelters me under His wings,” she murmured softly, swallowing the lump in her throat and hoping that God would show her the way home so she could be back with everyone she loved. She remembered all the scriptures about trusting Him, and prayed for the strength to do it.
A man paused as he walked past her toward the group around Dano and Caudis and looked down at her, a large ferret dangling from one well-wrapped hand, three dead rats from the other. He nodded politely, then went on.
Kelly sighed and pulled her arms inside her poncho, hoping he wasn’t going to offer the rats as a food source.
After awhile the men went away to their various homes and Dano came to sit next to her. “Do you like your new clothes?”
“Yeah.” She frowned at him. “I’m sorry for hanging on to you like that when I was sleeping.”
He shrugged. “You’ve been taken away from everything you know, you didn’t want to lose the….” He lowered his head. “The things you know here, too.”
“The things I’m most familiar with. Yeah, I guess you’re right.” She drew her legs up under her skirt. “Your tunic’s on top of your bag.”
“Thank you.” He pulled it on and wrapped his cloak around his shoulders.
“I just have one question.”
“What is it?” He flipped a raindrop that glinted in the moonlight from a blade of grass.
“Why did you get me a skirt like this? The women here don’t wear them.”
He shook his head. “No, that skirt is the kind worn by some of the people who live in the grassy lands. I will show you why I asked Murr to make it for you in the morning, after we’ve left the village.”
“Okay.” She listened to singing coming from one of the huts and recognized Tan’s voice. “Hey, Dano, what does ‘t’n’ mean? They seem to use it for a lot of things. Or is it actually different words?”
“No, it’s the same word. And the young woman who brought us the bread, her name is the same word, too. It doesn’t translate completely, there’s no word in the Book language that means the same thing. The closest Book word is ‘given’.”
“Given,” mused Kelly. “Then it makes a pretty name. What does Murr mean?”
“Mary. It’s a common name in this village.” He shifted and drew his cloak closer.
Kelly looked at him thoughtfully. “Dano, have you ever told these guys about Jesus?”
“Yes,” he said, his voice low. “That’s why they welcome us so readily.”
She frowned. “But if they believe in Him, why weren’t they waiting to meet me?”
“They believe in Jesus, but they don’t worship Him,” said Dano sadly. “And they refuse to listen to anything that they think is new.”
“How can they believe in Jesus and not worship Him? I don’t get it.”
Dano sighed. “They worship His mother.”
She blinked. “They worship Mary? Don’t they know what the Bible says?”
He shook his head. “They believe that it’s a sin for anyone to get too close to the Book. Only the priests could do that, and there have been no priests here for more time than I can remember.”
“Catholic,” Kelly’s heart sank. “Medieval Catholics believed the same way, and they even killed people who tried to teach them that it was okay for normal people to come to God.”
“The people of Big Rock won’t kill us. But neither will they listen to us.” Dano’s broad shoulders slumped.
Kelly wrapped her arms around herself and leaned them against her pulled-up knees, thinking of what it would be like to be so close to safety, but not to know because you wouldn't step outside of the way things had always been done.
The thought made her shiver. And You gave us all free will, so there’s no way You’ll just suddenly change their minds. If they choose to stay away from You, You’ll respect that. Her eyes filled with tears as she imagined God’s sorrow for all the people who decided to pass on His offer of life.
“Are you cold, Kerry-bird?” asked Dano softly.
“No.” She blinked at him. “No, I’m fine.”
“Are you certain?”
“Yes. I’m just tired.”
He nodded. “You can sleep. We will be starting out tomorrow as soon as the gate is opened.”
The night had turned strangely bright as they talked, and everything was touched with cold white light. "Is the moon full?" Kelly tipped her head back to frown at the luminous clouds.
"No, none of them are full," said Dano. "But tonight they are all up at the same time."
"All up?” she blinked. “How many moons are there?"
"Four," said Dano. “The stories say there used to be only three, but something broke one of them in half.”
“Weird. We only have one moon.” She lay down and looked up, wishing she could see a sky with four moons.
“It must get dark at night.”
“Only in the country. All the cities have streetlights.”
“Streetlights,” he said musingly. “That will look interesting.”
“Yeah.” She gave up trying to see through the clouds and curled on her side, praying for God to keep on working on the people of Big Rock and to take care of her family and Mike. And please show us the way home.
Tired out by the constant overcast and wet, she closed her eyes and fell into a dreamless slumber.


( ( (


“Okay, Dano. You promised to show me why you got me this kind of skirt.” Kelly stopped and looked back. “We’re out of sight of Big Rock.”
Dano also looked back, smiling slightly. “Yes, I did. Pull the back up between your legs and pull it through the belt. Yes, like that. Now pull the front back and tuck it in… there.”
“Wow,” said Kelly. “Pants!”
His smile widened. “I thought you’d like that.”
She grinned back, then tried to stuff her hair back into her hood and scowled in exasperation. “Wish I knew what to do with this. It’s making my neck itch.”
“Cut it,” said Caudis practically.
She looked at him aghast. “Do you know how long it took me to get it this length?”
He shrugged. “Long hair look strange on girl.”
“What?! Long hair doesn’t look strange on a girl.” She scowled at him.
“Look different. Like man hair.” He gave her a smug look.
Kelly balled up her fist, wishing she could smack him, but then she remembered the hacked-looking hair of the women of Big Rock. “You mean, women wear their hair short here?”
“Many do,” said Dano, frowning at Caudis reprovingly. “But that doesn’t mean that you have to cut yours.”
“Then it fit in coat,” said Caudis, totally unrepentant.
Kelly pulled her arm into her poncho and tried to get her hair to hang down her back, but the humidity in the air caused it to itch maddeningly.
“Fine,” she growled. “Give me your razor.”
He looked at her uncertainly.
“I’m cutting it! Give me your razor.” She held out her hand.
He took his bag off his shoulder and took out the little obsidian knife. “Here.”
“Thank you.” Pushing her hood back, she grabbed handfuls of hair and chopped them off till her hair looked even worse than Tan and Murr’s had. Leaning over to dust off the loose hairs, she pulled her hood up and handed the knife back.
Caudis picked up a length of cast away hair and looked at it, then glanced at Kelly, his face slightly mournful. “You throwing it away?”
“What else am I supposed to do with it?” She frowned.
He dropped his eyes and shrugged, running the hair between his fingers.
She shrugged too, and turned to Dano. “Where are we going now?”
“I don’t know.” He looked around, his face creased in indecision. “Maybe we should go back to the place where we met you.”
“No,” said Kelly thoughtfully. “I don’t think we’re supposed to go back there. But I don’t know where we are supposed to go.”
Dano scratched his shoulder. “I have no place that I need to go.”
“I have no place I need to go, too,” said Caudis.
“I don’t have any place to go, either,” corrected Kelly.
“Okay.” He repeated it to himself under his breath a few times.
“Is your village near here?” Kelly looked up at Dano after a few minutes’ silence.
He stirred and shook his head. “No, plague took it many years ago.”
“It’s gone?” She blinked.
“Yes. You can’t tell that it was ever there.”
“Oh. I’m sorry.”
He shrugged. “I was very young when it happened. I don’t remember the village very well.”
“What about your parents? Do you remember them?”
“My father.” He nodded. “My mother died in childbirth. Father didn’t have time to remarry before the plague came.”
“So who raised you, then?” She scratched at a rotten log with the short pole he’d given her for a club.
“My teacher did,” said Dano. “He had been the pastor to my village and another. When everyone died he brought me to his house and cared for me.”
“Is his house still there?” Kelly looked up at him.
“No, it was torn down by the followers of the Path when I was a young man.” He smiled ruefully. “And now no one can remember what the Path was, either. The villages that followed it are all forest again.”
“Wow. That’s a lot of villages disappearing,” said Kelly.
“Yes. They’ve been going faster lately. It’s like the whole world is dying.” He frowned and shook himself. “But that’s enough sad remembering. Where do you think we should go?”
“Can you see where your teacher’s house used to be?” She saw something between two trees and frowned, lifting her stick.
He shook his head at her. “Yes. The floor and part of one wall are still there. Would you like to see it?’’
“Sure, why not?” She gave up searching for what she’d seen and looked up at him. “Maybe we’ll find something useful.”
“I don’t think so,” said Dano. “The Path followers burned it, and took everything they didn’t break.” He turned to Caudis. “What do you think?”
Caudis nodded. “Sure, why not? I want to see where you child, too.”
“Then we’ll go there.” Dano glanced up at the sun to get the direction and started out.
“Why were those Path guys so mad?” asked Kelly, hurrying to catch up with his long strides. “Was it because your pastor was preaching in their village?”
“No, my teacher had never gone to their village, or any other place Path followers lived. They destroyed his house because they believed that their religion was the only true way, and that anyone who didn’t follow that religion deserved to die. The woman who started the Path told them that.”
“Sounds like one we have on my world, only it was started by a guy,” said Kelly soberly. “The guys who believe in it are always blowing up churches and stuff in other countries.” She grimaced. “They don’t think women are going to go to heaven. And in some places the men make woman cover their faces all the time.”
Dano nodded. “This woman taught that men aren’t as good as women, but she didn’t say that they had to cover their faces.”
“When did she live? How long did the Path last?” asked Kelly curiously.
“It started at least a hundred years ago,” said Dano. “When there were many more people in the world.”
Kelly didn’t answer; she was looking at a deep rectangular hole overhung with ferns. “What’s that?”
Dano looked and backed away from it quickly. “Don’t go near it. It could be a grave, or something from long ago.”
“Okay.” She followed his detour. “But what’s the danger?”
“Sickness,” he said grimly. “Even walking with bare feet, or eating the fruit of a tree growing in some places can make you sick enough to die.”
“Radiation?” asked Kelly, eyeing the hole.
“I don’t know what that is.”
“It causes you to loose all your teeth and bleed inside, or lumps to grow in your body.” She watched the area beside their path for more holes.
“I’ve heard of that,” said Dano, “but not recently. That kind of poison mustn’t last forever.”
“No, it fades after a few hundred years.” Kelly glanced back to see where Caudis was and was rewarded with a grimace that reminded her of the expression on the lions on the Chinatown gate at home. “Caudis, what would you do if your face froze that way?”
“Be sorry.” He grinned. “Be laughed at.”
She shook her head and turned back to Dano. “So how do the village people keep from being poisoned? I mean, wouldn't the water be bad, too?”
Dano nodded. “That’s why some only last a few years. At Big Rock they have a deep well. They also keep their animals in pens at all times, and feed them only plants that they've grown in the fields.”
“The horses, you mean,” said Kelly grimly.
“Yes, and the pigs.”
“Pigs?” Kelly fingered the supple leather of her poncho, understanding now why it was so soft. “Is that what our travel food is?”
“Yes. Pig meat and vegetables, preserved in melted pig fat.”
“Blah,” she commented absently, looking at a rhododendron bush with huge peachy-coloured flowers. Glancing around, she realized that a lot of the undergrowth was some kind of rhododendron or azalea. There were huge patches of cyclamen leaves sticking out of the moss, too. “That figures.”
“What is that, Kerry-bird?” Dano turned his head slightly.
“My mom loves these kinds of plants, but every time Dad buys her one it dies. I wish I could get her a picture of these.”
He looked around. “You have the same ones, then?”
“More or less.” She opened one of the smaller food bags and took out some of the thin strips of meat. “You want a snack?”



( ( (


They traveled for three days, walking through rain or murk and sleeping on the ground around a tiny fire at night. Several times they heard lions and other big cats roaring, or wild dogs howling, once Kelly saw a long lean tawny shape stretched out on a low branch of a spreading tree.
“Where did all the big cats and stuff come from?” she asked at one point. “I mean, don’t they usually come from warmer places?”
“I don’t know about them coming from warmer places,” said Dano. “My teacher said that long ago animals like the elephant and the big cat with lines on its body were kept in special pens by the people in the old cities. When the cities died I suppose the animals escaped and became wild.”
“Tigers, the stripy ones are called tigers. The little brown ones are cougars, and the ones with short tails are all some kind of lynx.”
“Who makes all the funny names, Kerry?” asked Caudis, his lean face creased in disbelief.
“I don’t know, lots of people, a long time ago. What do you call them?”
He shrugged. “Ugly, nasty, scary, euwww!”
Kelly rolled her eyes. “I think I have to be more careful with what I say around you. You’re picking up the wrong words.”
“Crumbs,” he said, grinning widely.
“Oops, Caudis, don’t say that, okay?”
“Why?” he said, beaming with wicked innocence. “Bad word?”
“No, but that’s not the way it’s supposed to be used.”
“You use it that way.”
“I’m not supposed to, though.”
“Oh oh, you bad.”
“Caudis, how old are you?” she asked in exasperation.
He stopped short, thinking hard, then called ahead to Dano. “Dano, how old am I?”
“I don’t know. I don’t know how old you were when I traded for you,” said the older man. “I guess about twenty years.”
Caudis turned back to Kelly questioningly.
“Are twenty year olds little kids?” she asked him sternly.
“No, twenty year olds are not little kids,” he said cautiously.
“Then why are you acting like one?”
He fell back, his face creased in intense thought.
Kelly gave a sigh of relief. She liked Caudis, and enjoyed his sense of humor, but sometimes she just needed a little quiet time. Especially now, when she had an annoying tingling feeling going up and down her back. The sensation had been with her since the night, when she’d wakened and thought she’d seen a huge shadow lurking in the trees behind the watching Dano. It made her want to shudder and find a safe place to hide. Gripping her club with both hands, she peered into the spaces between the trees and prayed for courage and safety.
Something moved up ahead and her heart leapt into her throat. “D, Dano?”
“Don’t be frightened, Kerry-bird,” he said softly. “Just walk past them without looking at them.”
“What are they?”
“Big hairy animals that look like people. The male one has a white back.”
“Gorillas?” She blinked in surprise. “Apes?”
“Is that what you call them?”
“I think so. What do they eat?”
“Only plants. I’ve never heard of them eating any meat.”
They were walking past the animals by this time. Kelly was aware of soft grunts and the rustle of bushes and ferns as she went along with her eyes lowered.
Then a black hand reached out and seized the edge of her poncho and she stifled a scream.
The young ape looked up at her with curious brown eyes, then bent and nibbled gently on her clothes.
“Oh,” said Kelly softly. “You scared me. Can I go, now? I have to keep up with my silverback. See him up there? He’s even bigger than your dad.”
Keeping up the low patter, she carefully loosed the little female’s fingers from her poncho and smoothed the fur on her head. “There you go, girl. Go on back to your family now.”
The young gorilla made some soft squeaks deep in her throat, catching Kelly’s hand in her own.
“No, no, I have to go on. Let me go now.” She glanced up, automatically looking for someone to tell the youngster to let her go, and met the small eyes of the silverback.
Oops. She lowered her own quickly. God, could You please get me out of this? I don’t want to scare or upset them or anything.
There was a quiet, commanding huff and the young female reluctantly let go of Kelly and went to sit beside her sire. Kelly was aware of their eyes on her as she walked after Dano.
“How old are you, Kerry?” asked Caudis softly from behind her.
“Sixteen, no, wait.” Her eyes widened. “I’m seventeen now.”
“Are seventeen year olds little kids?”
“No,” she said absently. “Big kids.”
“Well you didn’t act like a kid,” he finished, sounding proud of himself.
“Thanks.” She thought of Mike and her parents and swallowed tears. She just hoped they weren't looking at whatever they’d gotten for her and feeling bad. Boy, what a birthday.
“Kerry, are you okay?” asked Caudis in concern.
Dano, alerted by his tone of voice, turned to look at her. “What’s wrong, Kerry-bird?”
“Nothing. Today’s my birthday.”
“Your birthday? Today is the day you turn seventeen?” Dano smiled. “That’s a happy thing.”
“Yeah,” she said huskily, looking away so he couldn’t see her crying.
He turned her face gently toward him with one big finger. “You’re thinking of your family.”
“Yeah,” she could barely get the word out past the tightening of her throat. She could feel the tears running down her cheeks.
Caudis put his hand on her back. “Don’t cry, Kerry. You’ll go home again.”
Kelly choked in her effort to keep from blubbering out loud.
Dano looked over her head at the younger man, his face troubled.
Then he lay his hand on her shoulder. “Kerry-bird, I know it’s hard, and there’s nothing bad about being sad, but you can’t let the pain cause you to become … unable to go on. Remember, Jesus knows how you feel. He is separated from people that He loves every day, all the ones who refuse to come to Him. And He had to leave His home and do something hard, too.”
“He’s letting me see a little bit of what He suffered when He came to Earth,” she whispered, feeling the edge fade from the hurt in her heart.
“Yes,” he said softly, his voice slightly rough.
Kelly looked up at him and saw the tears in his eyes. Suddenly she thought of what his life must have been like, with everyone that he had ever loved dead for so long that no one else even remembered them. She thought of watching the loss of the battle to survive over and over, and of arriving at an appointed place and realizing that you are all that’s left, despite a lifetime of trying to let others know the truth.
With a little choked sound of sympathy, she impulsively threw her arms around his chest and hugged him.
Dano gave a ‘whoof’ as she knocked the breath out of him, then hugged her back. “Wonid, Kerry-bird,” he murmured. “Tano dimni wonid.”
She stayed like that, with her face buried in the front of his cloak, for a few minutes, then let go and turned away, wiping her nose.
Caudis caught Dano’s eye, looking pleased. “Ert’nt’iyasstvt, t’kT’toe?” he said.
Dano wiped his face on his sleeve. “T’k, Caudis, ert’nt’iyasst,” he replied.
Kelly stood, oblivious to the exchange, her eyes fixed in disbelieving surprise on a huge golden-brown animal that propped itself against a tree some distance away, peacefully pulling leaves into its mouth with a long tongue like a giraffe's. “Guys? What’s that?”
Dano squinted. “I can’t see, it’s too far away. Do you know, Caudis?”
Caudis frowned in that direction, then came over beside Kelly and looked over her shoulder. “Roller. A wild one.”
“Roller?” Kelly stepped away so she could see him. “What’s that?”
He looked surprised. “Can’t you see?”
“Yes. But I’ve never seen anything like that before.”
“You don’t have rollers?” He looked at Dano.
Kelly shook her head. “How does it walk?” she asked, a suspicion growing in her mind.
“Like this.” Caudis bent his hands and turned them so that the pinky edge of his palms rested against a tree trunk. “Big fingernails no good to walk on.”
“It’s a blooming ground-sloth!” she gasped.
“You do have them.” Caudis grinned in relief.
She shook her head. “No, we don’t. Ground-sloths have been extinct for hundreds and hundreds of years. All we have is buried bones.”
He studied her face to see if she was joking, then shook his head. “Wow. Go figure.” He ran his hand through his hair and looked at the roller thoughtfully. “Ground-sloths will be extinct here, too. World’s ending.”
“Yes,” said Dano, his voice a deep rumble of sadness. “But in the world to come all of God’s creation will be recreated the way He meant it to be.”
“That’s going to be cool,” said Kelly, her eyes on the unconscious sloth.
Dano glanced up at the sky. “We should go on. I think we will reach the old house-place soon.”
“Yeah,” Kelly took a last look at the living fossil and turned away. Something on the other side of them caught her eye and she turned her head sharply, but could see nothing. Aii, I’ve got that creepy feeling again, God. Please keep us safe, okay?
Gripping her club, she quickened her pace to catch up to Dano.


( ( (


Dano was right, there wasn’t much left of the house he’d grown up in, just one end wall covered in a sprawling grapevine, and a floor nearly vanished under moss and little plants.
Kelly stooped and scraped some of the moss away, frowning at the heavy squared stones. “These were shaped by someone.”
“Yes.” Dano glanced around, remembering. “The house was over four hundred years old.”
“These berries good?” Caudis called, peering in through the window on the wall.
“The grapes?” Dano asked absently. “They were when I lived here.” He walked around, his eyes full of memories. “This is where the fireplace was. And here is where my bed was.” He smiled reminisceingly. “My teacher wanted to be sure I was warm and dry as I slept. I think he was always worried I’d catch the cold-weather sickness and die, because I was such a small child.”
Kelly looked up from sniffing a tiny orange violet growing out of the moss on the floor, trying to picture him as an undersized child who needed special care.
Dano picked another little violet from its place on the windowsill and ate it. “He slept in the upper room, under the roof. It was pleasant up there because we didn’t have a straw roof.”
“Slate?” Kelly kicked at a pile of them.
“Yes, those were what it was made of.” He picked one up and scratched on it thoughtfully with a pebble.
Something rustled in the pile of slate pieces, and Kelly stooped to see if she could see whatever-it-was. “Hey, there’s a ring in the floor here.”
“What?” Dano bent to look. “It’s a door.”
“Door in the floor?” Caudis came around the wall, his hands full of big red grapes, his spear stuck at a slant through the back of his belt.
“You didn’t know about a cellar?” Kelly looked up, raising her eyebrows.
“No, the table stood here, with sand on the floor to catch drops.” Dano pushed the slates aside and pulled experimentally on the ring. A rectangular slab rose up with only a slight grinding sound, uncovering a dark hole.
“Smells okay,” said Kelly cautiously. “Doesn’t seem to be any rats or anything.”
Dano lay on his stomach to look in. “It isn’t very deep. I can jump in, and there’s a big stone down there to climb out with. Do you want to look at what’s here?”
“Sure, I want to explore,” said Kelly. “How about you, Caudis?”
“Sure, I want to explore.” He stuffed grapes into his mouth so his hands were free.
“Okay, I’ll go first.” Dano walked over and broke a limb off a dead-looking tree that Kelly recognized as honeysuckle, then bent down and used his flint and striker to light one end of it. Lifting it, he waited till the fire had caught firmly, then stuffed his club in his belt and lowered himself into the hole. There was a muffled thud and an exclamation.
“What was that?” Kelly lay down and stuck her head in.
“I hit my head,” said Dano ruefully. “I’m not used to being in a room anymore.”
Kelly chuckled. “Be careful, okay? It’d be kind of lonely if I only brought Caudis home.”
“Ha ha, funny,” said Caudis. “Here, I help you.” He stuck his spear into the hole. “You know how to go down it?”
“Yeah. Thanks.” Kelly slid down the spear shaft fireman style, landing with a thump on the stone floor of the cellar. “Oh, hey, this is cool. Come on, Caudis.”
“I am.” He jumped through, landing lightly with bent knees and looking around. “It is cool.” He pulled his cloak closer.
Kelly poked curiously at the walls, noting that the whole cellar was lined with the same squared stones that made up the floor.
Another exclamation from Dano made her look toward the far end of the small room.
“Caudis, Kerry, come look at this!” he gasped.
“What is it?” She hurried over and peered cautiously around him.
“It’s a Bible.” He opened the wooden cover for her to see the printing inside, holding the torch so that she could see.
Kelly automatically tried to read, but realized that the though the writing was the common alphabet, the words were nothing she’d ever seen before. “What language is this?”
“Mine,” said Dano softly. “The one I spoke when I was a child and young man. He must have been working on it for a long time.”
Kelly took the Book and turned to the front. “He wrote something here.” She handed it back to him.
Dano read it carefully. “It’s a letter he wrote just before the Path followers came. It says:

It looks like I do not get to give you this Book myself after all, Dano, son. They are coming, and I am too old to fight. I hope you find this gift.
Use it and remember me.
Atono”

“Wow,” said Kelly softly. “He translated the New Testament just for you.”
“Yes.” Dano rubbed his thumb against the cover, then held the book near his face. “Icanno wood. Now I will always have something to remind me of my first home.”
“Does it smell good?” Kelly leaned over to sniff. “Mmm, chocolate and cinnamon, with a little bit of musk.”
Dano smiled at her as he slipped the book into his bag, then turned to see if there was anything else worth taking away.
“Look, Kerry,” called Caudis from near the door. “Here is a pretty thing.”
Kelly went over and saw him stooped over a small stone cross with buttery swirls in its glossy surface. “That is pretty. Hey, Dano, was this your teacher’s?”
He looked up from poking through some old sacks. “No, he made them for the other Christians. It can be Caudis’.”
Caudis grinned with satisfaction as he picked the cross up and put it into his bag. “Thanks, Dano.”
“You’re welcome,” he said absently, frowning at some old pieces of paper.
“What are those?” Kelly came back curiously.
“I don’t know,” he said. “Strange lines and pictures, some marked with words. I saw something like them in the back of the new Book.”
“Can I see?” She took one and turned it over in her hands. “Oh, they’re maps. See, this mark is where we are now, it says ‘Atono’s house’. This is supposed to be hills or something, I guess….”
“The broken country!” said Dano excitedly. “And this is Bend River village! And this is the grassy lands. And this….” He trailed off, staring at a mark on the other side of the unforested area. “What does he mean, ‘People of the Promise’?”
“Maybe there are more Christians there?” asked Kelly.
“But why weren’t they at the appointed place, waiting for the messenger?” Dano frowned at her.
“I don’t know.” She shrugged. “But look here, it says ‘New Jerusalem’. Do you think it’s still there?”
“There’s only one way to know,” said Dano. “And we can’t leave them behind, if they are Christians. Maybe they lost the prophecy.”
“How many days of walking?” asked Caudis, tilting his head to try and read the words.
“Six or seven, if we travel quickly.” Dano took out the Bible to compare maps. “We won’t have to go across the center of the grassy lands.”
“Is that good?” asked Caudis.
Dano nodded, then measured the distance between one of the village marks to the edge of the treeless area with his thumb and forefinger. “If this is the distance from Bend River to the grassy lands, then this New Jerusalem should be less than two days of walking from the grassy lands.
“Have you ever been that way before?” asked Kelly, looking up at him.
He shook his head. “When I traveled through the grassy lands I was in this part.” He pointed to the broad northern end of the area. “I didn’t go across.” Some memory made his eyes look dark for a moment, but then he looked at Kelly and Caudis and smiled.
“So, are we going, or what?” Kelly grinned back.
“Yes.” Dano closed the Book.
“Come on, Kerry, let’s go out now,” said Caudis, tugging on her poncho gently. “I will lift you to the door, if you want me to.”
Kelly followed him. “Just make a stirrup with your hands, and I can use it for a step.”
“Show me what a stirrup is.” He looked over his shoulder and watched as she demonstrated. “Okay, I can do that.” He stopped under the door and stooped slightly, cupping his hands together. “Here’s your step.”
“Thank you, Caudis, you’re such a gentleman.”
“Is that good?” He lifted his hands so she could hoist herself out.
“Yes.” She hooked her knee over the edge and rolled away from the hole.


( ( (


The smell hit her an instant before heavy paws pinned her to the ground. Small, angry eyes glared into her own.
Kelly gave a startled scream, then squirmed wildly, trying to get away as the bear snarled and tried to bite. She pounded on its nose with her fist, then got her feet up and braced them against its chest, holding its face away with desperate strength.
Snatching at her club where it had fallen as she rolled, she grabbed it in both hands and brought it down over the bear’s head.
The seasoned willow broke as though it were rotten birch.
Kelly gave a cry of despair and jabbed the shattered end futilely at her attacker’s eyes.
There was a movement at the corner of her vision and the bear gave a roar and twisted around.
Kelly gasped as a sharp pain blossomed in her side and beat the end of her club against the animal’s leg, trying to get it to buckle.
The bear roared again, digging in with its claws as it braced itself against an unseen attacker. Kelly groaned and pounded harder.
Suddenly she was smothering in a stinking darkness as coarse fur pressed against her face. God, help me!
After what seemed like an eternity the weight shifted away from her, and she breathed in huge gulps of air.
Strong hands covered hers. “Kerry! Kerry! You okay? Are you okay?”
She opened her eyes, still gasping, and stared into Caudis’ pale face.
“Are you okay?” he repeated pleadingly when she didn’t answer.
“Y, yeah.” She winced and pulled her hand away from his and pressed it to her side, feeling a small damp trickle run down and soak into the back of her tunic.
“What’s there?” He leaned over to look. “You’re bleeding!”
“Y, yeah,” she said again. “W, where’s Dano?” She sat up shakily and looked around.
“In the hole.” Caudis looked chagrined. “Under the brun.”
“How did that happen?” She gathered her feet under her to get up, but then crouched there, leaning on her hand, the other one still held against the wound in her side as she waited for her head to clear.
“Don’t stand up.” Caudis carefully helped her sit down again. “I’ll get him out.”
“Okay.” She grimaced and pulled up her poncho and tunic to look at the bloody spot as he pulled his spear out of the dead bear and used it as a lever to roll the body away from the cellar door.
The slab lifted as soon as it was cleared. Dano’s head and shoulders popped out, his club held at the ready, his face grim and set.
Seeing the huge corps, he glanced around quickly. “Kerry, are you okay?” He pulled himself out of the hole and came to kneel beside her.
“She’s bleeding,” said Caudis anxiously. “The brun did it with his fingernail.”
“Show me.” Dano moved to her other side.
“It’s not bad.” Kelly let him see the short deep gash over her ribs.
“No, but bears’ fingernails are very dirty. There could be sickness in the wound.”
“You didn’t get any of that corn liquor from Big Rock, did you?” She pulled the sides of the gouge apart and frowned at the dribble of blood that came out.
Dano shook his head, but Caudis made an exclamation and looked around quickly.
“I have some,” he said, finding his bag where it had fallen and pulling out a small leather bottle. “Here it is.”
Dano gave him a strange look, but took the bottle and gently washed the wound in the stinging liquid.
Kelly winced and twisted her face up into strange contortions, but found that the sting was easier to take here than it had been on her foot.
“There,” Dano cleaned his hands carefully and pressed the gash closed. “But it’s not going to heal very nicely. The sides won’t stay together.”
“Can’t you sew it shut?” She tried to see.
“Sew? What’s that?” He leaned his elbows on his knees and looked at her attentively.
She turned over the hem on her tunic and showed him the neat stitches.
He winced and shook his head. “I don’t think I could get the needle through your skin, and the hemp thread would rot and make the spot sicker.”
Kelly groaned at the image, feeling slightly sick to her stomach. Euww, God, what do we do?
“Wait, I have a couple packages of sutures in my purse,” she remembered suddenly, pulling her arms inside her poncho and shrugging out of her knapsack.
“Sutures?” Dano watched her dig through the small square bag.
“Yeah, they’ll stick the sides together.” She pulled the flat white package out from under her keys and tore it open. “Here, you take them out, my hands aren’t clean.”
He pulled one of the little strips out and set the package on his knee while he fumbled at the paper backing, an intent frown on his face. “Oh,” his face cleared, “I see how this works. Hold the sides together and I’ll….” he looked at her for the right words.
“Stick it shut,” she said, without thinking, distracted by Caudis suddenly standing and peering between the trees.
“Yes. I’ll stick it shut.” He bent and did so carefully and neatly, using fewer sutures than Kelly would have herself.
“Hey,” she looked up and leaned back so she could see his head. “You’re bleeding pretty bad yourself. What did you do, hit your head again?”
He sat back and put a hand up to feel the spot. “On the door when it fell shut. How did that happen?”
“I pushed it when I poked the brun,” said Caudis. “I’m sorry.”
“You didn’t do it on purpose.” Dano looked at his bloody hand. “Oh, yuck. I’m bleeding more than you are, Kerry-bird.”
“You want me to wash it and suture it?” She got up and looked at the spot. “Euww, it’s all in your hair. Why do head wounds bleed so much?”
“I don’t know.” Dano handed her the bottle of alcohol, then squeezed his eyes shut in anticipation of the sting.
Kelly washed carefully, then pressed on the wound. “I’m going to have to cut some of your hair off so I can stick it shut.”
“Go ahead.” He looked around. “I left my bag in the cellar.”
“Here.” Caudis handed her his razor.
“Thanks.” She washed the little knife, then scraped carefully around the wound, tossing curls aside and frowning at how long the gash was. “You really split the skin open, Dano.”
“That can’t look good.” Caudis backed up and took a quick peek.
“Euww.” He shuddered and went back to keeping watch.
Dano tilted his head slightly so he could exchange a grin with Kelly.
She snorted and grinned back, then stuck on the rest of the sutures. “I’m going to need the other package. Can you get it open?”
“Yes.” He took it out and carefully slit the top with Caudis’ razor, then handed them to her one at a time.
“There.” She finished and looked at her work critically. “That’s got to be the strangest-looking haircut I've ever seen.”
Dano chuckled as he got up. “It will grow back. I’ll get my bag and cover it with a bandage so the insects can’t get to it.” He stopped and looked down at her. “Are you sure you're okay?”
“Yeah.” She looked around to make sure nothing was sneaking up on them. “Just bruised. That thing was heavy.”
“Yes.” He squeezed her shoulder and turned away.
Kelly watched him jump back into the cellar, then bent and picked up her broken club and threw the pieces as far away as she could. “Lousy piece of junk.”
“Were those bad words?”
She turned and looked up at Caudis. “No, only angry ones.”
He nodded, his smile wobbling a little. “That scared me, that big animal standing on you.”
“You saved my life. If you hadn’t been there I’d be bear food.” The thought made her vision grey at the edges.
Caudis winced. “I don’t like to think about that. You’re not bear food, and you won't be bear food. Ever.”
“Right,” she wobbled, trying to keep from blacking out as the reaction suddenly set in.
“Kerry?” Caudis caught her elbows and lowered her gently to the ground. “What’s wrong?”
“I….” She leaned her head against his chest, fighting for consciousness. “Gonna faint.”
“Faint?” He tipped her back so he could see her face.
She was vaguely aware of his anxious expression as the greyness overtook her.