Trapped

 

Drindl and Bebe stared at the green hills rising to the sky, dotted with thousands of grazing animals. He tapped her on the shoulder and pointed ahead of them to the left and far upland where the light danced on the hills. The spray from the falling water drifted into the air and sailed north, jewels dancing in the wind.

From the corner of her eye, Bebe saw Alpen turned toward them. The grim look on his face reminded her of their plight. When the sea lion’s body grazed the sandy beach, Bebe hurriedly jumped from the sled and into the shallow water. When the breeze tugged at the shreds of her tunic, she pulled the cloth about her, swiftly tying a knot to secure it while Drindl swung the sled around.

Alpen tugged the Fae warrior off the back of the sea lion, then pinned each hand to the sand and sliced through the finger tendril. Bebe turned away as the warrior screamed, then tore shreds from her torn tunic and helped the woman bandage her hand. “Did you have to?” she asked Alpen.

“Yes, to protect us. The tendril will grow back.” Alpen stood up and looked up at the herds of Ibik dotting the hills.

Bebe cinched the bandage around the Fae’s finger, then stood up. “She’ll die without her finger tendril. We should bring her along wherever we are going.”

Alpen held her shoulders with both hands. “This is war. We need to rescue Mellen, find his family and leave this prison camp.” He pointed down at the Fae crouched on the beach. “She tried to drown us. She will kill us at the first chance.”

The sea lion thrashed on the sand, trying to turn the sled around and swim away. Alpen handed the slicing rock to Drindl who cut the thong binding the sled to the animal. Grunting and barking it slid under the waves and swam to open water.

Alpen turned to Bebe. “We can’t. We live and die by our choices. She must do the same.” He turned to Drindl. “We need to find water that we can drink.” He put his arm around Bebe and walked toward the hills that rose above them.

Behind them, the Fae warrior screamed at them. The slight build of female Faes allowed them to gain quick mastery of many animals, but without their finger tendrils to control the animal, they were defenseless against a predator. When Bebe paused again, Alpen said, “If she is careful and stays along the shoreline, she can make it back to the camp within a day.”

The three of them scrambled up the rise from the beach to a low bluff, then paused to stare at the thousands of Ibik before them. To their left, Alpen pointed out an odd deformity in the rising ground and they followed his lead. As they got closer, they realized that there was a divide and approached the edge cautiously. The chasm was several warriors deep and at the bottom lay dead and dying Ibik, some grunting with the pain of broken limbs.

“An easy meal,” Drindl said as he looked down, “but how do we get out?”

Bebe looked right, following the cut in the ground up the escarpment. “It gets deeper as the land rises.” Pointing toward the spray of water. “We follow this cut until we reach that water.”

“What happened here?” Alpen asked.

Bebe stooped, picked a few blades of grass, and tasted them. “Slight taste of salt. Not enough to kill the grass.” She turned to the north, then looked at the coastline, then pointed to an Ibik licking the ground and eyeing them warily. “The Ibik stop here to feed on the salt, then they move on. They land opened up and they are cut off from the north.”

“That’s why we didn’t see any herds on our way south,” Drindl said.

“Our people will starve without the Ibik herds,” Alpen said as he looked at each of them.