Out of the Canyon

 

As the group passed from the canyon, the ground turned harder and rose in undulating broad swells. Fallon was grateful to be out of the canyon but now only felt comfortable when they were in one of the land depressions and not in plain sight. On one rise, they paused to take their bearings. "Two days," Fallon guessed. "Bebe, do you remember anything about this land from your maps?"

"No, not directly," she said. "This is below the southern lands of the Cawthingi. All I know is the records we have of the Cawthingi explorers."

Alpen interrupted with a sharp cry. Pinned to the ground below his spear was a lizard. It had been two days since they had eaten meat and it would be a welcome treat at that night's meal. Fallon urged Bebe to continue. "How far to the ocean do you think?"

She looked to the north, glanced at the sun overhead, then held up her hand. She did this frequently during the day, Fallon noticed. Mapmaker magic. "Five days," Bebe said. Fallon started to answer when she continued, "Strange land, unknown wildlife and predators. Add two days. A week then."

Fallon looked to Alpen. "What do you think?"

"Why are you asking me?" Alpen asked. "I can't remember when she's been wrong."

Bebe laughed. "Four springs ago. The snowmelt. I didn't think it would be that heavy."

Alpen turned to Fallon. "Remember the 'battle of the bog'?" They both laughed at the memory. "The river kept rising and flooded the camp during the night." He turned to Bebe and gave her a hug. "Yeah, you got that one wrong. Seven days, then. How long do you think to the forest?"

"The heat rising from the dry ground distorts the distance," Bebe said. "Two days." She turned to Alithea who had finished feeding the babes. "Ready to go?" Drindl took Alpen's spear and watched for lizards as they continued across the dry ground.

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They camped in a depression in the land that night. The land now had a fine film of sand on top of the hard ground, but there was no sign of water. "We have about a day's worth of water," Alithea said to Bebe. "I hope you are right about the time to the forest."

They agreed to drink lightly so that Erthen and the babes would have enough water, which was especially critical for the babes. Drindl had speared another lizard but they felt too exposed to build a fire and agreed to eat the meat after the next day's journey. Fallon was surprised how cold it was that night. The depression faced east and received only a few hours of sunlight a day. They broke out their heavier cloaks to keep the babes warm. They welcomed the light and warmth when the sun broke above the horizon that dawn.

Fallon and Drindl crawled to the rise and scanned the horizon but saw no movement above the foot-high sand grass. Bebe dug out several shells out of the softer ground and gave one to Erthen. "This was an ancient sea," she announced as she swept her arm over the surrounding ground. She looked at the others. "If the sand layer thickens, we will have a hard time dragging the travoises."

A few hours later the ground beneath the sand grew softer and they frequently rotated the arduous duty of pulling the two travoises. Far in the distance, they could see the clouds move slowly above the forest but there was no cover from the sun. Even though the babes were protected from the sun, they were stressed by the heat. As they used up their stores of water, they were aware of a frightening equation of life and death that none of them dared speak about.