To the West

 

They spent the morning packing up and carrying their gear across the river. Drindl took a moment and showed Erthen how to stay afloat in the shallow water. Bebe and Alithea constructed a play pen out of flexible tree branches and broad leaves growing along the river, and they strapped it to the travois. Finally, they began the journey west.

"Can you take us past the spot where you met the strange creatures?" Alithea asked Fallon as he pulled the travois. Erthen called to her so she could see him riding on Drindl's shoulders. She waved to him and looked again to Fallon.

"Unfortunately, that's the easiest path to the west," Fallon agreed.

"They walked on two legs, or did they just stand on two legs?" Alithea asked.

"Walked," Fallon said.

"I wish I could examine them," she said.

"Why would you want to do that?" he asked.

"We're the only living creatures that walk on two legs. Well, and birds," Alithea added. "And now these creatures. There are skeletal adaptations. How tall are they?"

"A bit shorter than we are, but bulkier," he said. "And their arms are longer than ours."

"They have hands?" she asked. "How many fingers?"

"Hands, yes. I don't know how many fingers," he said. "Their fingers were wrapped in some kind of cloth." His tone of voice betrayed his annoyance at the questions that he didn't know the answers to.

"Sexual characteristics? Were they male?" she asked.

"I don't know," he shook his head emphatically. "They acted male. Don't ask me what that means. I wasn't interested in their baby making machinery. I wanted to get them and their weapons in the ground as quickly as possible."

"Don't get mad," she said. "It's my job. It would have been nice to see what kind of weapons they had."

"Weapons are your job now?" he retorted.

"Well, aren't you curious?" she accused him.

"Maybe," he admitted. "We're not going to dig them up."

"No, not now," she said. "Do you think you could find the place again if we came back?"

He paused. From behind, Alpen asked if everything was OK. "Alithea wanted to ask Bebe a question," Fallon called back. Alithea looked at him, made a face and joined Bebe and Drindl toward the rear of their small caravan.