“Yes,” I said as I nodded.
She also filled my metal water bottle full of snow at the cave entrance.
She got back to the fire and lay the meat down on the flat slab of rock I had used to grill the tenderloins, then placed the water bottle close enough to the fire that the snow inside would melt.
I watched her the entire time. When she caught me looking at her, she smiled shyly, but kept right on doing her chores.
As she worked, I made a mental list in my head of what to do today.
Now that I had a second mouth to feed, it made sense to capture another deer.
I could also start work on a bow and some arrows.
Probably not a bad idea to pick some of those orange berries, too…
And teach Lelia as much English as I could.
It might be good to try to learn some of her language, as well.
I waved at her to get her attention. She looked at me expectantly.
I pointed to the fire. “What’s this?”
She frowned. “What’s… this?” she asked, tentatively trying out the phrase.
Shit, I hadn’t taught her how to ask what something was yet.
“What’s this? Fire,” I said, then picked up a small stone. “What’s this? Rock.”
“Ohhhhhh,” she said, immediately getting it.
“What’s this?” I asked as I scooped some snow out of the metal water bottle.
“Snow.”
I waited for the snow to melt. “What’s this?”
“Water.”
I ran through everything I had taught her yesterday. I made her laugh as I acted things out.
“What’s this?” I asked as I sprinted from one end of the cave to the other – which took one second flat.
“Jack runs,” she said with a big smile.
She remembered everything perfectly.
When we had covered everything I could remember, I pointed at the fire again. “What’s this in your language?”
She frowned at me, not understanding.
I pointed at the flames. “Jack says, ‘fire.’ Lelia says…”
“Fire,” she said, brightening.
Okay, that wasn’t gonna cut it.
I thought back to when I’d first seen her. At first I’d mistaken her for speaking Thai or Indonesian or something, so I tried to replicate the sounds I’d heard.
I pointed at my lips. “Jacks says, ‘fire.’”
Then I pointed at her lips. “Lelia says, ‘Ha ka na loo na.’”
She looked confused at first – and then a light went on in her eyes.
“Ah! Mavala,” she said, pointing at the fire.
Mavala. Fire. Okay.
Then she started picking up objects and saying the words in her language at a rapid-fire pace. “Rock – tookla. Snow – salana. Water – sala. Meat – ”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” I said, waving my hands.
“Whoa?” she asked, not understanding.
“Stop,” I said, putting out my hands. Then I pointed at the fire. “Uh… ma… la… la?”
She giggled. “Mavala.”
“Okay… mavala… mavala, mavala, mavala,” I repeated, trying to grind in the pronunciation. Then I picked up a stone. “Um…”
She suddenly waved her hands in the air and said, “Whoa.”
I looked at her in surprise. “What?”
She pointed to her own lips. “Lelia says Jack says, yes.”
Then she put on a cartoonish scowl. “Jack says Lelia says, no.”
The intent was clear: we both knew she could learn my language a hell of a lot faster than I could learn hers.
“Okay,” I agreed gratefully.
She smiled, then went back to fixing our breakfast.
The meat took a while to cook, during which time I gave her more English lessons. She enthusiastically played along, saying, “What’s this? What’s this? What’s this?” as she held up everything from my knife to my crampons to my gloves.
After we had eaten, I figured it was time for me to go out and start my list of chores. I put on my jacket and gloves –
At which point she started binding up her arms and legs in her fur wrappings.
“What are you doing?” I asked, surprised.
She looked at me in confusion. “Lelia clothes.”
“No – your ankle is sprained.”
She shook her head. “Ankle good.”
“What?!”
I held out my hand for her feet, which she stuck out at me.
Son of a bitch…
The swelling was completely gone. Both ankles were the same size.
She had apparently healed overnight.
I gingerly prodded and manipulated her foot, but she didn’t betray any discomfort whatsoever, even as I got rougher and pushed her towards the far end of her range of motion.
Jesus… I had stumbled upon a blue female version of Wolverine.
“Lelia ankle good,” she insisted.
“Okay, okay,” I agreed as I let go of her leg. “You can come with me.”
She narrowed her eyes a little as though she were thinking over the sounds I’d just made. “Lelia… can come with… Jack.”
“Yes. Very good.”
She beamed, then went back to wrapping her arms and legs. She put on her balaclava, too, but she left the front of it down, which allowed me to see her face. Her hair, ears, and chin were wrapped in fur, though, with just a few white curls of her long hair peeking out.
I put on my backpack so I could carry my crampons and ice picks with me for when we needed to go back up the wall to the cave.
Once we were both suited up for the cold, I went over to the cave entrance and checked outside.
No wolves. Good.
It was a hazy morning, overcast and grey – but at least it wasn’t snowing anymore.
Then I showed Lelia the rope I used for rappelling. “Rope.”
“Rope…”
Rather than teach her about rappelling right away, I figured I would just slide down it. No need to confuse her.
I took off one glove and handed it over to her.
She frowned as she took it.
The glove was purely to make sure she didn’t get rope burn as she descended. I tried to demonstrate by putting my bare hand on the rope, yanking it back fast, and grimacing. “AAAH!” I yelled as I flapped my hand as though in pain.
She moved forward in alarm to look at my imaginary wound –
“No, no, it’s okay. Watch,” I said. I put the glove hand on the rope, yanked it back fast, and smiled. “Ahhhh…”
“Ohhhh,” she said, understanding.
“Put on the glove,” I said. I
