Yinet pulled her hood up, only her eyes showing as she tightened it around her face. “No. Gerret will lead Remy.”
“I’ll be fine.” Remy pulled on his parka. “The braces work now.” He tossed me my parka. “Let’s go see what’s here.”
Despite their bickering, Schaeffer was bundling up Lizzy, making sure everything was tucked in for the cold. He snuck a kiss before pulling the strings around her hood. It was odd to see how he’d gotten used to the displays of affection. “I’ll be with Gerret and Remy.”
I almost laughed as Lizzy waddled towards us. Though Schaeffer found gear her size, she was just too tiny under all the insulation. She mumbled something, following Yinet to the wind buffer at the rear of the shuttle. We all fell in behind Lizzy, stepping out into the cold and snow.
Tramping through the drift reminded me of Colorado, except for the sasquatch-shaped Parredet closing in on our group.
Yinet led us out of the clearing and onto a path cut through the trees. Curiosity was killing me as to where they were taking us, but I already knew not to keep asking. The Parredet couldn’t be rushed into anything. Besides, they couldn’t be taking us far.
I told myself that as my toes started going numb. I glanced back to check on Remy, knowing he couldn’t tolerate the cold, regardless of thermal enhanced braces.
Yinet caught me, pointing ahead of us where the path led through two massive boulders. “Not far.” Two Parredet moved around us, running up the last twenty meters. “They will prepare for Remy.”
“Thank you. He still needs time to heal. It will be a difficult winter, but we both felt we had to come back.” I glanced at him again. “Part of the healing process.”
Yinet’s upper body seemed to nod, urging me to keep going.
We finished the last few meters in silence, reaching the crest of the path, only to find it ran downhill from here. My first thought was to protest, for Remy, but Yinet didn’t even look in that direction, instead turning onto a side path that wrapped around one of the boulders, dropping to broad steps. I caught up. Turning another corner, there was the entrance to a cave.
Lizzy and I stopped to look at the face of the cliff, seeing none of the carvings that told their story. Yinet beckoned us into the cave as the males descended the steps. We entered, grateful to find a warm chamber behind a heavy woven curtain. I recognized Parredet Clan Mothers already gathered around a crackling fire.
Unprepared for this meeting, I stalled, waiting for Remy, walking with him to the roaring fire, helping him strip off the heavy boots and coat. A young Parredet offered Remy a blanket and took our gear back to hang at the door.
Remy already saw the protocol and took a seat at the second ring, first ring for the females. Probably just as well, he was as sensitive to heat as he was cold. In true Parredet fashion, no one spoke until all the males joined their mates. Until everyone was seated.
Lizzy took a spot between me and Yinet, a habit even before I left. Funny, before I’d had twinges of jealousy about their relationship. The year off had certainly helped me integrate my personalities into one. I even took my married name, Col. Shara Batista now. I turned to look at Remy and he smiled, letting me know he was fine, to stop doting.
I was drawn back to the circle when a song started, a ritual before the Clan Mothers started their meetings. It was their way of turning off everything except the purpose of the meeting, though I had yet to hear of any conflicts in the Parredet. We had a lot to learn from them about maintaining peace.
We sat quietly through the song, curious, but anxious as I looked at the faces of the Parredet. They all looked serious, solemn. Had we done something wrong? The song ended and that anxiety rose as all eyes shifted to me.
Yinet broke the awkward silence, nudging Lizzy. “You bring the book?”
“Always.” Lizzy reached into the pack tucked between her feet, pulling out her artist pad, digging for an art pencil until Yinet gently took the pad from her.
Yinet flipped to the early pages. “In another age, we lived different. We lived to hold, to take. We paid for greed.” She held up the page Lizzy had drawn from the caves, depicting their ancient city.
The group was quiet, bowing their heads. “We fled terror.” She flipped to another page. “Our home.” The picture showed the exodus of her people from a city crushed by war. “To find our…vetra.” She tapped at her chest.
“Souls.” Lizzy whispered to us.
Silently, looking at the drawing, I felt a similarity to stories of our religious past, to the exodus of Gomorrah where a few fled their homes to save themselves from God’s vengeance.
“We fled. Build future free of war. Never return to downfall.” She pointed to the city, then circled the valley it encompassed.
As she told us this, Gerret translated to those Parredet who didn’t understand our language. Many of the Clan Mothers nodded, barely glancing at the art work.
Yinet lowered the pictures, staring at me. “Your people are young. You follow path of danger. For rock.” She pulled a lump of the ore from her pocket. “Enemy follow you.”
“We won’t bring them back.” I looked to Schaeffer, getting a nod. “We found those responsible and seized their operations.”
“People leave, new people arrive. In time, people die.”
I knew she implied the future we had no control over and I dropped my eyes. “No, I can’t give absolute guarantees. I can only hope, as time goes by, that those in power uphold the laws we have in place now.”
I glanced to Schaeffer again. “We came here looking for the ore, but now that we’ve proven this world isn’t open to us, we’ll have to leave. We’ll keep looking.”
“If you
