Journey's Pause

"Why can't Drindl help us?" Alpen asked.

Alithea looked up from Drindl's wound. "He's torn some of the scar tissue. That's why." She continued to clean and disinfect the damaged skin. Alpen held Erthen and looked toward the western sky, judging the amount of light left in the day. He stamped his hoof in frustration and Erthen kicked out in sympathy.

"You're carrying our egg," Bebe reprimanded him. "Don't stomp."

"We have too many eggs or not enough people," Alpen grunted. "A warrior in musth, three eggs, the little one here." He jostled Erthen up and down. "You are a contented little warrior, Erthen. I hope our babies are as contented."

"When Alithea is done, she and I will take the eggs and Erthen," Bebe said quietly. "You and Fallon can tie up Drindl until you get your jail built. I'm waiting to see this." There was a hint of mockery in her voice.

"We're losing the light," Alpen argued. "We'll get it done." He looked to Fallon. "A prisoner cage like the one we built two summers ago."

"We had stones also," Fallon reminded him. He turned from side to side. "No stones." He trusted Alpen but he was just as curious to see how they were going to build a prisoner jail out of nothing but trees.

When Alithea finished, Alpen tied Drindl's hands and feet. He and Fallon slung their tools on their backs, crossed the narrow river, up the far bank and disappeared over a ridge. "I'd feel better if I could see Drindl," Alpen said.

"Alithea and Bebe can take care of themselves," Fallon said. The sun crossed below the top of the nearby trees. "We don't have much time." In a short while, they found a dry river bed and some dried out wood on the flat plain. Fallon looked to his right where the ground rose up and the old river bed curved out of sight. "This river would have cut deeper through the land further upstream. There might be some caves or alcoves we could use."

When they rounded the curve, the ground rose up into small cliffs. There wasn't a cave but there was a depression in the cliff a bit higher than their heads. There were also cobblestones and larger boulders that had fallen long ago into the old riverbank. They made a crude stone stairway to the depression and tested the dirt. "We could dig this out," Alpen said. They descended the stone stairway to get their tools. They were on the eastern side of the ridge and the shadows were darkening.

Before ascending the stairway again, Fallon stopped and scanned the ground. He put his digging tool down, walked over and picked up a small boulder and hefted it. "Imagine if we tied a stone to each of Drindl's feet," Fallon said. "He would have some range of movement but he would be slow. He would work off musth energy pulling the stones around." He pointed to the sky. "We don't have much light left."

Hefting the two boulders, they started back to camp. "I didn't think we had gone that far from camp," Alpen said when they took a brief pause. "Seems like we're the ones working off all our energy." He looked back at the fading sunlight. Several rests later they finally made it back to the river. Fallon almost lost his footing as he crossed the shallow river with the weight.

"We found some berries," Alithea said. "We have a little left food left over but we won't have much for dinner."

There was a bit more light but the sun had dipped below the hills to the west. Bebe made a cradle weave with strong cord and tied the stones to Fallon. "I can just untie them when I want, if I want," he said.

Alpen handed her a faggot from the fire and she briefly touched the hot stick to the knots. "You can try," she said. She gestured to Alpen who gave her back one of the eggs. "If you do get it untied, that's a Cawthingi fishing knot. That will be something to brag about."

Alpen laughed. "You and your knots." She gave him a playful poke.