The sound wasn't singing. That much Jessica was certain of. It was, perhaps, more like humming, with a soft cadence that made her think of words. It was what singing was at the dawn of time, when such things were still an experimentation on the part of people, stepping out of the cloak of the prehistoric.
Then she realized that she was not burning up any longer, that she was resting on what felt like an actual bed. For a moment, Jessica simply lay still in awe. Somehow, she had never thought she would lie in a bed again.
"Ah, you are awake."
The voice was soft and sweet, but for some reason, there was something foreign about it that confused her. Jessica had dealt with languages all over the world, but there was something about this one that puzzled her even as she turned around. There was a figure silhouetted in the bright daylight coming through the door, and Jessica smiled tentatively. Then she saw the woman in the doorway and her eyes widened.
The woman wore a plain-woven cloth as a short kilt around her narrow hips, but otherwise, from the soles of her long mobile feet to her small long breasts and the top of her head, she was bare. Her pale skin shone through the long coarse fur that covered her from head to foot, and the hair on her round head was no longer than that on her body. Her ears were round and pierced with a dozen golden rings, and her face was flat across the eyes and the nose and came out to a rounded muzzle in the front.
That's why it sounded foreign, she realized belatedly. She's speaking English without a human throat.
"Hello," Jessica managed to croak, and the woman tsked, handing her a small pot full of clean water. It tasted so good that Jessica drained it in a moment.
The woman did not laugh, but her eyes crinkled with humor, and she patted Jessica with a large hand over her shoulder. Jessica observed that her hand was mostly naked of fur, and even from that soft touch, she could feel how strong the woman was.
"Excuse me, but... I don't know where I am or how I came here..." Her eyes widened. "Please, there was a... a man with me, Marcus..."
The woman nodded, covering Jessica's hands with hers to keep her still.
"It is all fine, I promise. The werepanther summoned us, and we came. We treated your illness, and put you to sleep, letting you heal on your own. That is best for such things."
"My illness..."
A faint flicker of unease passed in front of the woman's eyes.
"It was a cruel thing that was done to you. Your man has some bad enemies, a thing you should understand."
"He's not my... well."
There was really no way to say it, and so Jessica kept silent. The woman nodded as if she understood, and offered Jessica a hand.
“Would you like to come see the village?”
Though she still felt about as shaky as a newborn fawn, Jessica was deeply curious, and once she stepped outside, she gasped.
Africa was home to some of the most ancient trees of the Old World, and she could see the truth of that now. She had been sleeping in an enormous tree house, camped far above the forest floor. The tree limbs were easily as wide as sidewalks, and from where she stood, she could see dozens of other tree houses, though she quickly decided that that was far too humble a word for the structures. They were elegant, and at a glance, she could see that they were ancient as well. She felt as if she had happened upon a space that was out of time, inhabited by a people who were only distantly related to the humans she knew.
She wondered where Marcus was, realizing that she missed him with a ferocity that seemed to tear at her soul.
Almost as if in response to her thoughts, there was a sudden shrieking that sounded like a cross between the shouts of children and the cries of young chimps. Suddenly the air was full of youngsters, some in their beast shape, and some in the more human but somehow very alien shape that her caregiver wore. Jessica could barely stop to register to the threat when there was a roar to her right, and suddenly, an enormous black panther dropped down to the branch that she stood on.
There was a moment of shock that drenched Jessica like a bucket of water, but there was no fear at all. She recognized this beast, for he was hers, and she smiled at him.
“Scaring the children?” she asked, and with a purr, Marcus rose into his man form again. There was a cloth just inside the door that he used to wind around his hips, and he turned to her with a smile.
“Putting them through their paces,” he said. “Not sure they've ever been chased through the trees before.”
The woman made a snorting sound at him, shaking her head.
“You underestimate us,” she said. “The Kingdom of Trees has been protected by the best warriors of the world since the dawn of your own history. We simply believe in allowing children to be children while they are growing.”
“That's as it should be,” Marcus said, and he turned to Jessica.
“You look good,” he said, and though his words were simple, even flippant, she could hear the relief and concern in his voice.
“I feel good,” she said, realizing it was true. “How did we get here?”
“Through the good will of the People of the Trees,” he said, nodding at the woman who stood slightly apart from them. “I called, and they were generous enough to answer. Kaella here is the one who saved your life with her medicines, but it was their war chief who made the ruling to bring us in rather than leaving us to die in the forest.”
“Thank you,” Jessica said to Kaella, who nodded with all the regal dignity of a queen. “I can't thank you enough.”
“Your man's people and mine have quarreled in the past,” she said, “but I noticed your satchel. You are a healer, and those have always had a place among us.”
Jessica nodded. A part of her wanted nothing more than to stay in these beautiful houses high in the jungle canopy, to get to know the people who had saved her, but she knew that her time there was limited.
“Then you understand why I need to be on my way,” she said reluctantly. “I think I am well enough to go some distance, Marcus...”
“Not tonight,” Marcus said immediately. “There's no reason to get started when there's so little day left.”
She glanced up at the sun in confusion. There were several hours of daylight left; they could make some significant distance in that amount of time. She opened her mouth to protest, but Kaella interjected.
“He is right. You have only just woken up. Rest now. You can make better time with a decent night of sleep and some food in your belly.”
Jessica wanted to protest, but at last, she had to defer to the wisdom of the healer and Marcus's strange insistence. She thought that there was something going on, but she couldn't imagine what that would be. Kaella offered to show her some of the healing house, where she had been sleeping, and with Marcus pacing by her side, covered only in a swathe of dyed cloth around his waist, she couldn't resist.
The Kingdom of Trees was by turns archaic and modern. There was running water, using pipes that were cast from ceramic, and there was a system of walkways from tree to tree that any civil engineer would have envied. However, there was no sign of a wheel, and when Jessica thought about it, she laughed in realization. What use did the People of the Trees have for wheels when they spent their lives high above? Anything that needed carrying was slung over a shoulder and simply carried. The People were all extremely strong, and Jessica could see how they had built up their kingdom.
Jessica was just getting a little weary when Kaella insisted that she return to her rooms for a bath. She conceded that Jessica did not need someone to watch her, something that disappointed Marcus a little, but that she should give up her clothes for washing. Instead, a wrap was left on a stool by her bath, and Jessica gratefully sank into a tub of cool water perfumed with something that smelled a great deal like tea tree oil.
Her body felt as if it was unwinding from all of the stress that had been building up for the last few days. They had told her that she had been sick and close to death, but as thoroughly as Kaella had healed her, she could barely believe it. Still, there was something perfectly decadent about simply sitting in a tub of water that was meant only for bathing, allowing all of the stress and fear to drain from her.
The pleasure of the bath was spoiled by the doubts that had been nagging at her. Marcus was hiding something, and that made it difficult to rest. With a sigh, long before she was ready to be done, she rose from the bath, scrubbing her body down with the woven towel that had been left, and returned to her room. She would go find Marcus, she decided, tucking the cloth around her body, and she would get the answers that she needed.