“I have no idea how this works,” Virgil said, thrusting a couple of the rods at Anders, “but I glanced at the instructions before deciding it wouldn’t work well up in the trees. Set the posts in the ground, far enough apart that the wire is taut…”
Kesia had fallen silent, but she wasn’t so far in shock that she couldn’t help set out the rods. As they worked, Dacey looked at her daughter.
“Calli, remember that horrible campfire song you tormented us all with when you were eight?”
Dr. Calida started, then grinned. Without a pause she started singing, “Oh! In the cave there was a bear!”
The word “bear” was almost shouted, hitting one of those annoying minor-key notes that delight small children and make adults grit their teeth.
“While over the cave a puma howled!”
This was followed by sounds that might or might not have been a puma howling, but certainly made the mud creature ripple back.
The song went on, introducing more woodland creatures-owls, gautiers, screeching snakes, misty drakes-all of which made very annoying sounds. Anders noted that the treecat was shaking its head in evident distress. Nonetheless, it was counterpointing the raucous song with shrill wails of its own.
Assembling the sonic barrier required three rounds of the song. The first time they didn’t have the rods in the right way. The second time the wire was stretched too tightly. At last, Virgil called out.
“Step back. I think we’ve got the rods in the right places this time. I’m going to throw the switch.”
As the singers fell silent, the mud creature began to slide forward. For a horrible moment, Anders thought the sonic barrier wasn’t working. He was opening his mouth to start again with the bear in the cave when he saw the treecat fold down its ears and wrinkle its nose in evident distaste.
The mud creature reacted far more violently. It reeled back, the ripples of its usual movement transforming into violent waves that revealed a sleek, rubbery hide beneath the coating of mud and ooze. It retreated at least fifteen meters, sinking down into a convenient pool covered with some tiny plants.
Anders didn’t think it was gone, though, and no one else suggested that they try for shore.
“Did you see where the creature went?” Dr. Calida asked. “It retreated to where the air-van went down. I wish it had stayed where I could get some pictures.”
Dr. Whittaker looked at her in shocked disapproval, but Kesia grinned.
“I’ll draw you a picture, dear,” Dacey said, reaching for her sketchbook.
“At least for now we’re safe,” Virgil said, wiping a muddy hand across his pants leg. He already had smeared streaks on his sweaty face. “It’s not coming any closer.”
“But our problem is the same as before,” Anders replied glumly. Now that the emergency was over, he’d turned his counter-grav unit down again and he felt doubly weary for having had the respite from the extra pull. “Power. We’re safe until the battery runs out.”
He looked over at the treecat who waited patiently, curled up against Langston Nez’s side. There had been so much to do that no one had commented, but Anders saw his own awe and wonder at the treecat’s presence reflected in everyone’s eyes. Dr. Whittaker had even attempted to talk to it, but the only response his polite overtures had garnered was a definitely disapproving hiss.
Did I really see two treecats? If I did, where is the other? Could it possibly have gone for help? Anders swallowed a sigh, determined not to give in to the despair he could see on so many of his companions’ faces. Instead, he kept his gaze fixed on the power-indicator light. Even if it did, can help possibly arrive in time?
Climbs Quickly felt the awareness of Dirt Grubber’s bond to Windswept spreading through the members of the Damp Ground Clan. Reactions varied, but he thought there was more approval than not. Like Death Fang’s Bane, Windswept had demonstrated a strength of character that could not be dismissed.
He was thinking about the larger ramifications of this new event when he became aware of an eddy of alertness flowing through the clan. He was not precisely shut out. Rather, it took a moment for the “speaker” to remember to include him.
‹ My son, Left-Striped, is coming back from his scouting. He is very excited. Something about two-legs in our old home?›
This was followed by some non-verbalized grumbling along the lines of why couldn’t young people learn to speak up?
Climbs Quickly extended his mind-voice, seeking that of Left-Striped, which he had come to know well during the days the twins had stayed with the Harrington family. He found it and sent an image of the Damp Ground Clan traveling packed into the back of the slowly moving air-truck.
‹ So that is what Mother was trying to say! Elders should learn to explain things more clearly! I see now why she depicted herself as moving, but I could sense no effort. Now that I have a clearer image, I will be there shortly.›
He fell silent, but they were aware of his faint mind-glow growing stronger. Now that he had a sense of the direction from which Left-Striped was coming, Climbs Quickly turned to Death Fang’s Bane.
“Bleek!” he said, then pointed, making at the same time a motion similar to that of hands on the stick of the air car. He felt her flash of delight and amusement, then heard her making mouth noises to Shadowed Sunlight and the boy who drove the larger flying thing. The two vehicles turned almost as one.
‹ Useful,› commented Nose Biter grudgingly. ‹ Can you always get her to obey so easily?›
‹ It has taken time,› Climbs Quickly admitted, ‹ but once I felt certain that the mouth noises substitute for mind-voices, I knew we had to find a compromise. Their mind-glow is strong, perhaps as strong as that of memory singers, but largely they are mute. My throat cannot shape their noises. Even if it could, all but a very few seem capricious. Even names are difficult. The one who works the smaller vehicle and the vehicle itself are called by similar sounds. For a long time, I thought maybe they were the same.›
Nose Biter seemed interested and the discussion might have continued, but at that very moment Left-Striped came rocketing down from an overhanging branch, landing with studied skill first on the raised front part of the vehicle, then jumping down amid the members of his clan.
Climbs Quickly could hear Death Fang’s Bane explaining the situation to her friend, whose cries of surprise when Left-Striped thumped down over his head had been loud enough to carry through the closed clear sides. However, he gave most of his attention to the excited and anxious Left-Striped.
‹ As requested, my twin and I went back to our prior denning place to see if the fire had reached it. We arrived to find that although the fire was not there, the grove was not as we had expected. We had expected to find ground-runners and other creatures taking shelter from the fire near where there was water-even if in this dry season there is not much. What we found was a cluster of two-legs.
‹ They were not behaving at all normally. Instead of moving about as they usually do, these were sitting out in the middle of the bog.›
Climbs Quickly wondered at the surge of horror that went through the members of the Damp Ground Clan, but he did not wish to interrupt. If it was important, Left-Striped would explain.
‹ We found evidence that for some days before they had been dwelling-I don’t ask you to believe this, you can see if for yourself-in the rock trees. One of them was very weak. The others moved slowly as if burdened. Their scent was wrong, as if they had been eating bad foods. We guessed that when these two-legs smelled the smoke, they moved out of the trees, but, perhaps because of their injured one, they could not go far. Ignorant of the danger, they thought the bog would protect them best from fire.›
Again the shared sensation of horror.
‹ My brother stayed to watch over them, while I came back to inform you so you could decide which way the clan should go. I had not hoped to find two-legs so quickly, but I will admit, finding such would have been my next goal. These lost ones need help.›
‹ I agree,› said a rather fat and elderly female who Climbs Quickly now knew was Brilliant Images, the senior memory singer of the Damp Ground Clan. ‹ We have been helped by these two-legs. We shall help these others. In that way, all debts will be even. We must move swiftly. I can just touch the edges of Right-Striped’s mind-glow and I feel an urgency there.›
Climbs Quickly was grateful, but still confused. ‹ You of the Damp Ground Clan react as if your former nesting place is a place of danger. How could that be?›
