Out to Sea

 

“We shouldn’t be separated,” Bebe stated, but there with a note of pleading in her voice.

“In war we take what the winds and the enemy allow,” Alpen said as he raised her hand to his lips. He glanced over her shoulder at the Cawthingi guards who gathered and sorted the prisoners into work crews.

“Darden, Bella gone. That tore my heart apart. I told myself we can have more children. Now Alithea, Fallon, Erthen. We have to stay together.”

Alpen kept his voice down. “Women only on the pier crew. The women work the river crew. It’s easier work. We won’t be too far away.” He hoped.

Bebe stepped behind Drindl, blocking her from the guards as they jabbed their prod sticks at the prisoners. Facing away from him, she unwrapped her sarong, tore it and rewrapped it to give more freedom to her legs as male prisoners did.

Drindl stammered, “Bebe, what…”

She  turned to Drindl, shouting curse words at him, then backed away in wide stances, then gestured to him as though she were ready to fight.

Drindl was shocked, looking first at Bebe then sideways at Alpen. Alpen rushed forward to control and protect Bebe, afraid that the guards would punish her for acting out. She pushed him away, keeping her arms out from her body and making threatening gestures. Two of the guards came forward and one rapped Bebe on the back of her calf. She made a last aggressive gesture to Drindl, then turned to join the male work crew. When Alpen paused in shock, the other guard hit him in the butt with the point of his prod stick. Drindl and Alpen joined the same crew, bringing up the rear. The guards yelled to the Fae warrior atop the elephant and the Sprints joined the parade down the sandy road to the south.

Walking behind Bebe, Alpen glanced at Drindl, pointed to her exaggerated walk and whispered, “Don’t overdo it.” Bebe reached behind her with one hand and signaled her acknowledgment.

Drindl whispered, “We all look the same to them, I guess.”

Again, Bebe repeated her acknowledgment.

Breaking for lunch at the midday, all three of them sat together and ate their cakes. Bebe flexed her right arm which was cramping from the weight of the stones she had to carry. “You get bigger portions that the women do,” Bebe commented.

“This takes more work,” Drindl said.

Bebe laughed and nodded. “I don’t know if I can do this all day.” Holding the flat slab of pressed food to her nose, she said, “It tastes different. Not bad. Different.”

“Maybe they give us the same stuff as the miners?” Alpen asked.

Bebe stared closely at both. “Your eyes would be speckled blue. You don’t feel strange, do you? Alithea said she felt really strange after handling the miner’s medicine.”

Alpen looked to Drindl and shrugged. “It’s maybe a little bit like the energy before battle. A lift. A communion with the other workers, with the rocks.”

Drindl echoed that. “Yeah, solidarity. That’s a good term. Maybe they put just a little bit in our food.”

“Let me see if it helps me with more energy this afternoon,” Bebe said, swallowing the last of her portion. She looked to Alpen, following his gaze toward the end of the rock pier jutting out into the ocean. A Fae rider on a sea lion had snagged her empty pallet on the jumble of stones that made up the pier. The pallet sank partially below the water. Alpen turned left, closer to shore where a sea lion pulled a pallet fully loaded with rocks.

“Drindl, you’ve been here longer than we have. How do these rocks float?”

“They skin the sea lions,” Drindl said. “Then they blow them up with air.”

Alpen looked at him. “Those heavy rocks float on air?” His voice was incredulous, then he took the last bite of his lunch.

Bebe added, “That’s why we sometimes see a dead Ibik floating on water. But who blows them up with air? Alithea would know all this.” Her shoulders dropped and she reached out to Alpen.

“Don’t touch me,” he warned. “They’ll notice.” She abruptly drew her arm back, then swatted her face as though bit by a bug.

“You and I will have more children, I promise,” Alpen said as he stared out to the sea. “You will act out wonderful stories.”

She lowered her voice as best she could. “Tell them about the day their mom was a warrior.”

            Alpen gave her a sidelong look while Drindl laughed. The sound signaling the end of lunch echoed across the waves. Bebe lowered herself into the knee-high water and turned to the shore where more rocks waited to be loaded.

She worked with Alpen, Drindl and one other as they loaded the sleds, then held on to the rear as a Fae warrior mounted on a sea lion pulled the load out to the end of the pier. On the first load after lunch, Alpen reached under the sled, feeling for the skin bladder that kept the load skimming the water’s surface.

On this first afternoon load, they had to wait while another crew unloaded their pallet. When it was their turn, they worked in pairs unloading the rocks onto the breakwater while the Fae warrior waited. When done, Drindl and Bebe got onto the sled with the other prisoner. They waited while Alpen pushed the front of the sled clear from the rocks. Without warning, he jumped astride the sea lion, just behind the Fae warrior. Bebe was thrown onto her back as the sled jerked forward. She grabbed for the other prisoner as he slid into the water, not realizing at first that Drindl had pushed him off.

The Fae commanded the sea lion to submerge but the air bladders beneath the sled limited the sea lion’s depth. As they got beyond the protection of the southern breakwater, Bebe and Drindl held on as the sled bounced on the waves. Sensing the danger of capsizing, Drindl motioned to her to take a position that would help balance the sled. Glancing toward the shore she saw that Alpen was taking them further south around the curve of land.

As the wind tore at her fur, Bebe dared not twist her head and torso to see Alpen. She was deathly afraid of disappearing beneath the surface of this great body of water just as a flash of light winks out in the night sky. As she sensed the sled’s slowing speed, she was hopeful that the terror might end soon. She wanted only to plant her feet firmly on the sand, and to hug her partner. Feeling more balanced on the sled, she twisted slightly to look at Alpen. His frame hid the Fae warrior, but his elbow jutted out the side. Bebe guessed that he held a sharp object to the Fae’s body.

Drindl looked at her and she signaled she was unhurt. The coastline curved and the waves came toward the shoreline at an angle. Drindl tapped her on the leg and pointed to the coast. She glanced quickly, not wanting to lose her balance, then took a second and longer look at the vista before her. She looked sideways at Drindl who squinted in the sunlight reflecting off the water. As they drew closer to the shore, she leaned over to him and asked, “Are those Ibik?” She had never seen that many animals together.