Stevanioncoughed and I looked down at him. He looked at me, his eyes thin slits underthe bright light. I expected him to move away at this unusual proximity, or atleast to comment on it, but he did neither. He closed his eyes again, tried toswallow; failing, he coughed again.
Ilooked at the path.
“Agroup of people,” I said to Stevanion without looking at him. “Two… no, three, coming from… ” I turned myhead to the other direction. “That way. They will help us.”
ThenI looked down at him. “They will help you.”
Buthe was too weak to answer. His eyes half closed, he was at the edge ofconsciousness. I looked up to the path again. And waited.
Afterless than ten passes, I heard the rough sounds of heavy feet on the troddensoil.
“Stevanion,can you stand?”
Stevanionopened his eyes and slowly nodded. I helped him up and stood next to him, holdinghis arm for support. I looked back down the path. My heart was racing.
Then—theycame into sight.
Theywere three.
And I had seen them before.
Chapter 5
“Hello!”
Iheard the strong voice of the large man leading the group while he was stillmore than twenty IPs away. The group continued walking, despite my lack ofresponse. They came to a halt at an uncomfortably close distance.
“Iam Peter Wallace. This is Simon,” he said, moving his hand to his right, “andPatrick.” He motioned to his left.
Hehad a dark brown beard, which covered half of his face, and all I could clearlysee were his pleasant honey-brown eyes.
“We’vebeen looking for you for two days,” he said with a smile. “Most Jumpers staywhere they land, and it’s easy to find them, but you… ” He smiled again andshook his head. “We thought we wouldn’t find you anymore.”
“Untilwe came across your tracks on our way back,” said the man who Peterwallace had introducedas Patrick.
“Fortunately,you chose the right direction. You could have gone the other way, deep into thejungle. We’d never have found you there,” said Peterwallace.
AlthoughI had seen them, and I had expected them, I was still so taken aback that Icould not respond.
Peterwallace’sfeatures took on a worried expression. “Do you understand me?”
“Yes,Peterwallace. I understand you.” My voice was firmer than I thought I couldmuster. “My name is Dora Dana Dasnan. My companion needs assistance.”
Peterwallacecame even closer and looked at Stevanion. He was conscious but so exhausted thathe could not lift his head. The man detached a leather bottle-shaped containerfrom his belt and opened the top. Slowly opening Stevanion’s mouth with hishand, he poured in a bit of water. Stevanion swallowed two sips and thencoughed.
“He’sdehydrated,” Peterwallace said, giving me the water bottle, and with one smoothmotion he scooped Stevanion up in his arms.
“Takea sip—you need it, too!”
Theidea of putting the bottleneck to my lips just after it had touched someoneelse’s slightly revolted me.
“No,thank you, Peterwallace. I am not thirsty.”
Hegave me a side look but didn’t comment.
“Let’sgo back to the village!” he said to Simon and Patrick. Then he turned to me andsaid, “And Dora, it’s just Peter.”
Atfirst, we all walked in silence, our feet crunching the soil underneath our feet.Peter kept watching me intently, and I tried to keep my eyes on the path.
“Youtold me,” I said after a while, still not looking at him, “that other Jumpersstay where they were ported. Which other Jumpers?”
“Ithought you might be interested in that. You all are!” His smile was broad, asif revealing a best-kept secret. “You will hear more from Old Mike once we’reback in the village, but in short, in the last couple of months, we’ve had anumber of people being teleported here. Like I said, most of them are soshocked they just stay where they were dropped, and it’s easy to find them. Butyou… ” He looked at me speculatively over Stevanion’s head that was drooping onhis shoulder. “You didn’t.”
Wecontinued for some moments in silence. He kept looking at me as we walked, and finallyI said, “Why are you looking at me?”
“Oh,I’m sorry, but you… you don’t look very Human. I mean,you do, sort of… but your eyes—they are so green. They don’t look—Human. I don’t mean that in anegative way,” he quickly continued. “It’s just… you look—alien.”
“Iam not an alien. I am a Senthien, a race of the Descendants.” I turned my gazeback in the direction we were walking. “I guess you must have seen manyDescendant porters in the last few months.”
“No,”he said, looking back at me. “No, all of the Jumpers were Humans.”
Humans?
Istared back.
Does this mean that every mistake theMind made was with a Human?
“I…do not understand,” I said.
“Aye,me neither.” He laughed. “But one thing is for sure: If you’re not Human, then you and your partner here are the very first Descendantsto have been ported to Earth.”
Istopped in my tracks.
Earth!
Theword pierced my mind, and I let out an audible gasp, my eyes wide open.
“Earth?”I whispered.
Peterstopped and looked back at me. Behind his beard, I could recognize a smile.
“Hmm—youdidn’t know, did ya? I guess not being a Human, you couldn’a… well, Dora, welcometo Earth!” He continued walking to catch up with the others.
Iwas frozen for a moment, my gaze empty on the ground. Then, realizing I wasfalling behind, I pressed on.
Wewalked for more than two hundred passes. I was getting tired, but I didn’t wantto ask for a break. Peter was still carrying Stevanion, who was eitherunconscious or so exhausted he couldn’t find the strength to protest.
Thevegetation had changed as well. The trees here were very high—twenty, perhapsthirty IPs—and their trunks were thick and brown, wrinkled as the rough,dark soil we were walking on. Their bright green leafy crowns spread high up ontop, completely shadowing the ground.
Andthen, I started recognizing a new sound, first faint and then louder and louder.
Voices.
Human voices.
Isearched the surrounding area, expecting to see houses or domes or some kind ofliving quarters arranged on the ground, but there were none. And although thevoices became so clear I could almost recognize the words, I did not seeanything. All around me were high trees and fern bushes.
Peterturned toward me with a grin on his face and lifted his index finger in frontof his chest.
