All Alex needed was another idea to achieve the impossible.
Chapter SixThe Plan
The four humans spent most of the next four days observing godat-ta and the wasta-ta.
Around the campfire the first night, Harta-ak said, “This seems like an impossible task. Nothing can make the godat-ta go away.”
Senta-eh didn’t often disagree with Alex, but she chimed in and said, “Our tribe has survived a long time without the danta. We can keep doing it just the same. Maybe we should just go back to Winten-ah and leave the godat-ta to live as he pleases.”
“I haven’t told you why we are doing this, so I understand why you want to give up.” Alex held up two fingers, then pushed the first one down. “First, the danta will be more helpful than you can imagine. All animals and humans need danta. It serves a valuable purpose in our bodies. Plus, it will make storing our winter’s meat easier. But, that’s not why I want to do this.”
“Why then?” Versa-eh asked.
Alex pushed the second finger down. “The second reason is much more important to me.” He looked back and forth between Harta-ak and Versa-eh. “When we came stumbling out of Lasta-ah, we had not accomplished our mission. We had Lanta-eh, but we were injured, Monda-ak could barely walk, and we were on foot. I had planned the attack well, but our escape poorly.”
Senta-eh put two fingers to her forehead in agreement, remembering.
“Then we came through the gate and you were there, holding onto horses that you gave us. If you hadn’t done that, the Lasta-ah almost certainly would have caught and killed all of us, instead of just Werda-ak. Our mission would have been for nothing. You saved us, and it has cost you everything. You’ve lost your boat, your way of life, and been forced to exile yourself from your home. All because you helped us when you didn’t need to.”
“It was the right thing to do,” Harta-ak said. “Lasta-ah was our home, but we had acted in an evil way. I could not support our city when we were doing evil.”
“Because you are a good person,” Alex said. “But the reality is, you both are now having to seek a new life because of us. I want to help you do that.”
“How?” Senta-eh asked. “How does ridding the area of the godat-ta help them?”
Alex smiled, pleased with himself. “When I met with Rinka-ak, I asked him for two concessions if we can get rid of godat-ta and the wasta-ta. One is the goal we initially set out for—to allow Winten-ah to come and gather as much of the danta as we want. But, the second favor was the more important.”
He glanced around, enjoying his moment of drama. The three human’s eyes were locked on him. Monda-ak was less impressed. He put his head between his paws and went to sleep.
“If we succeed, Rinka-ak agreed that Harta-ak and Versa-eh can also have the rights to take as much of the danta as they want, and they will be the only people who have the right to trade it wherever they want.”
He didn’t need to explain the implications of that to Harta-ak or Versa-eh. Their eyes lit up.
“A commodity that no one has access to, but that has many benefits, and we will be the only ones to trade with it?” Harta-ak asked. “That makes what we did for you look puny by comparison. That is too much.”
Alex touched his fingers to his forehead. “It is our gift to you, for giving us the gift of life when you did.”
Soon after, Harta-ak and Versa-eh wandered off to the stream to get water for the camp. Their heads were close together, already making plans for the future.
“This is a good thing,” Senta-eh said. “I didn’t know how we would ever be able to repay them for what they did for us. Now all we need is another Manta-ak miracle.”
FOR MUCH OF THE NEXT few days, Alex felt like he was watching a marathon nature movie focusing on an impossibly huge bear and bees that were so big they shouldn’t have been able to fly.
Godat-ta wandered around the basin like it was his kingdom. A few times each day, the bear climbed the tree, shaking it and driving the wasta-ta inside mad. They circled around his head like a crazily buzzing cloud, but he ignored them. He tore off chunks of bark, then reached his paw inside. He pulled it out with a sticky-sweet substance dripping from each long claw. And bees. Dozens of giant bees also clung to the honey. Godat-ta paid them no mind. He stuck the entire paw inside his mouth, honey, bees, and all. If the stings he no doubt absorbed in his mouth and throat bothered godat-ta at all, he didn’t show it.
He repeated this process two or three times a day, treating the hive like his own personal food storage.
The tall tree that the wasta-ta had built their hive in was the only tree in the area, and it had been killed by the salt water long before. Its branches were bare and to Alex’s eye, it looked like nothing so much as the kind of tree that stood in front of the haunted houses of his childhood. Its wide body did cast a shadow that allowed godat-ta to escape the worst of the afternoon sun. Like Baloo blown up ten times his size, he squirmed down into the cool dirt and fell asleep in the shade.
This again infuriated the wasta-ta, who buzzed and dive-bombed the bear, who ignored every attack. Alex guessed that these insects were
