- Caroline -

“No,” he replies and keeps walking.

Fine. He has other plans. I'm relieved.

I spot the aloe-like bush and walk over to it, break off a twig, and squeeze the gel out of it. It's barely enough to cover the tip of my little finger, but it's something.

I get more twigs and collect enough fresh-smelling gel to fill the hollow of my palm, and that has to be enough for now.

I hurry to catch up with Xark'on. “Here. I rub gel on your back. Against the burn.”

He frowns and looks around the dark jungle, as if to say 'here?'

“It only take a short time. Better to treat the burn now, not later.” And once I've done that, I can go home without my conscience feeling too guilty.

He holds my gaze with his violet wonders for three heartbeats. “This is the jungle,” he says as if to a child. “The less time we spend here, the better.”

“Yes, I know,” I say, blushing a little. “But the burn—”

So of course that's the time the jungle decides to really show me how silly I am. I hear a rustling behind me, and Xark'on stiffens and stares over my shoulder

I turn slowly around, my back prickling like crazy. If that's the dragon, then I'm going to freak the fuck out.

It's a more conventional dinosaur this time. But that doesn't mean I'm relieved. It's essentially a huge lizard, except it has a giant, bony sail-like fin going down its spine and at least ten long legs with two knee joints each, one pointing backwards and one pointing forwards.

It's just standing there, looking at us with two of its four crusty eyes. The other two are placed on the sides of its head, but they swivel in their sockets, so they can probably see us too.

I don't know what to do. Normally, I think I'd try to back away from the creature, but now I don't have my spear, so I feel like the most vulnerable prey there has ever been. It overloads my brain, and I'm aware that I'm frozen in place.

Xark'on grabs my upper arm and pulls on it, not too gently. I stumble backwards, but he catches me, and then we're both backing away from the dino, very slowly and deliberately. Xark'on slowly bends some bushes out of the way and lets them carefully back again so they don't move suddenly, and the dinosaur's eyes start to swivel away from us.

We keep walking backwards until we can no longer see the dinosaur behind the foliage, and then we turn around and walk fast but quietly away from it. I take some pride in being able to walk just as silently as Xark'on, although I think he could move faster if he wanted to.

I never thought I'd miss having a weapon. Certainly not my cumbersome spear with the creepy dactyl tooth as its tip. But now, its weight in my hand would make me feel a little bit safer.

Heck, I'd feel better if Xark'on had a decent way to defend us. But at least he had the sense to not attack that dino with his bare hands. I half expected that. I'm sure cavemen can be smart in their own ways, but they seem pretty brash and reckless to me. I mean, Heidi's husband keeps flying on a damn dactyl with the coldest, deadest eyes in the universe. Sophia's guy likes to hunt huge predators with only a sword. Emilia's dude goes on long treks in the jungle and comes home with dinosaur filets, large skins, and his torso covered in blood. And Aurora’s one seems to enjoy fighting terrible monsters under the sea. So yeah, I don't feel too sure about how any of these guys will react in a crisis.

I will have to get a weapon of my own. I doubt Xark'on has dactyl teeth just lying around, but I suppose I can sharpen a wooden stick. It would be better than nothing.

I feel that we've put enough jungle between us and the dino. “I'll apply this to your back,” I announce and show him the aloe-like gel in my hand.

He shrugs and lets me carefully rub it on between his stripes. His muscles roll under my hands, feeling hard and soft and warm. He's not that alien, and it reassures me.

The terrain climbs a little, and I have some hopes that soon I might be able to spot Bune in the distance. If I can get there, then I know the way home.

We reach the top of the hill, but the treetops are still high above me, and I can't even see the sky up there.

Xark'on makes his way to something that at first looks like a wall of rock growing out of the ground, like those buttes you get in the desert. Then I get closer and see that it's a tree. The trunk of it reminds me of redwoods, it's so massive. It has to be thirty feet in diameter. It grows into the leafy canopy overhead, through it, and beyond it. If the height is to be in any reasonable relation to the thickness, it has to be a hundred yards tall. Or more.

I've never seen a tree like this on Xren. It dwarfs all the other ones.

“Very big,” I whisper and look up along the rough bark.

Xark'on slaps the trunk with his hand. “Very,” he agrees.

“Is it sacred?” I ask on a whim. The cavemen sometimes proclaim unusual things sacred and taboo. Like Bune.

Xark'on looks at me and frowns. “Yes. How did you know?”

“I know many things,” I state airily. I may not be The Woman, but I want him to find me a little mysterious at least. “Why we are here?”

He goes behind the tree, and I follow.

Ah. There's a long rope hanging down from the top of the tree, and it's tied to an iron nail that has been hammered into the trunk. Xark'on unties it, holds on to the end of it, and then simply walks up the trunk.

My jaw drops. That should not be possible.

For a moment I'm stunned as I watch him simply stroll up the vertical trunk. Then I realize that the rope has to pull him with it, and then I see a dark shape coming down the other way.

It's a boulder about the size of a cabin bag. There must be some kind of pulley system up there that turns this rope into some kind of caveman elevator.

The rock comes further down as Xark'on disappears above the canopy, and when it finally comes to a rest on the ground, I can't see or hear him.

I suddenly feel very alone. Shit. The jungle is all around me, and I have no weapon. If that last dino was following us after all, or that dragon can somehow track us like a bloodhound, then a little spear won't be much help. But at least it would give me the chance to go down fighting, not just squealing and curling up in a shaking little ball of Norwegian linguistics student, which would appear to be my only viable offensive move if anything happens right now.

The the rock is yanked upwards again, and Xark'on comes down from the treetop, holding the rope with one hand as he descends.

He lands softly right beside me and ties the rope to the nail. “Krolai is perhaps hungry?”

It takes me a moment. Krolai? Then I get it. “Carol-eye-nnn. Yes, Xark'on. Caro-line is hungry.”

I haven't really tried to check, but it has to be far past midday, and the only thing I've had is a couple of bites of a piece of fruit. So yeah, a little snack would be nice.

“Then Carolai might enjoy this.” He hands me a large green leaf wrapped around something.

I take it and gingerly open it with my fingertips. I have no idea what this might be.

But it's only the classic here on Xren: fried turkeypig in neat slices.

I take a slice and nibble on it. “Good. Good meat.”

Xark'on nods and looks around, which is always a good idea in the woods. I notice he has a new weapon in his belt now, this time an ax with a head that looks a little like my Macbook Air back on Earth. It's very large for an ax, or so it seems to me. I was never an expert on forestry or its tools.

I munch on the turkeypig and look up at the tree trunk. From up there I'm sure I could see Bune.

“You have store of food in the tree?” I point.

Xark'on looks up. “Among other things.”

“Can I see?”

He scratches his chin. “The tree is sacred.”

“So am I.” Which may not be technically true, but how do you prove someone isn't sacred if they claim to be? Not an easy thing to disprove, I think he'll find.

Xark'on thinks and then lets his gaze wander up and down me in a way that should feel invasive. And it does. But somehow it feels nice too. There's appreciation in his eyes.

“The rope device is difficult to handle.”

“Then teach me.”

He stares me down like he's trying to see what's in my mind. I innocently keep chewing and giving him Bambi eyes.

He sighs. “Finish your food and I will.”

Cool. Bambi eyes seem to work fine with someone who's never seen women before.

I eat the rest of the turkeypig and then regret what I just did. Sure, I may be able to see Bune from up there. But it's very high up. If I lose my grip on the rope, I'll fall a long way.

And now that I'm finally thinking of the danger, dactyls will be able to see me from miles away up there. That tree has to stand out from everything else here, like a disco ball in a church.

Xark'on is looking at the tree and pondering. “It will be dangerous. I will find another way.”

Then he grabs hold of the rope and walks up the tree again while the rock comes down.

This time he leaves me alone down here for a longer time, and I notice that the sun is quickly going lower in the sky. If I start walking home now, it will get dark before I'm halfway. Even if Bune is just a stone's throw away. Which it isn't.

There's a yell from up in the treetops, but I can't see anything. Then I notice another rope dangling down. It has a wooden bar on it tied to the end in a triangular shape.

It comes all the way down to me, and I examine it. It's pretty sturdy, and I could probably stand on it and hold on to the rope with my hands. Except, that wasn't how Xark'on did it. I'm worried he's now put this rope through a pulley up there and tied a huge boulder to the other end. And then he'll toss it down, and it's so heavy it will pull me up fast and then I'll reach the top at breakneck speed, and I'll be catapulted out from the treetop like a chicken fired from a cannon.

“Is it safe?” I yell up into the leafy canopy.

“No!” comes the bassy reply from far, far up there.

Huh. At least he's honest.

Well, I asked for this. Getting out of the jungle upwards seems pretty attractive right now. My nerves are frayed. And it'll be a cool story to tell the girls back at the cave tomorrow.

I step onto the wooden bar and hold on to the rope higher up with my hands. The rope is pretty thick, but if either that or the bar breaks when I'm halfway up, I'll wish for that catapulting chicken thing while I plummet to my death. At least then there'd be a tiny chance I'd land in a pond of water.

But what the hell. So many things in this jungle can kill me anyway. On a day where I've been almost killed by a raptor, a giant lizard with a sail on its back, and a freaking dragon, breaking my neck after a simple fall seems downright luxurious.

I yank at the rope three times in quick succession. It tightens, I leave the ground, and then I'm going up.

Thankfully not at catapult speed. But I'm being lifted at a steady pace.

My mood lifts too. As long as I don't look down I'll be fine.

So I keep looking up. Soon, I'm up at the canopy and the tops of the other trees around here, and the leaves rustle as I pass through them.

Then I'm through and the breath catches in my throat.

It's the first time I see the jungle from above. At first it’s like an ocean of green and red and yellow in every nuance. Then, as I go higher, I can see further and further, and I see hills and valleys and rivers and plains, and an entire landscape. In the yellow light from the setting sun, it's unspeakably beautiful. The humidity is gone, the darkness and danger is gone, and I can appreciate this jungle for the wonder of nature that it is. It's immense. And it's vibrating with life everywhere.

It takes me a minute of admiring the view like this before I remember that I have a destination. I look up.

Okay, that's impressive. It's a house in the sky. A tree house like the kids used to build back in the day, except this one is much larger and probably more sophisticated. There appears to be a round platform that goes around the tree trunk, and on it is a wooden wall and a roof. It's hard to see from down here, but it all looks pretty solid.

There's a hole in the platform, and I'm getting close to it. Then I'm on the other side, and there's Xark'on, hauling on my rope with his bare hands. He's just been lifting me the whole way, and he's not even breaking a sweat.

I step off the wooden bar and look out at the jungle. “This... is spectacular.”

“The jungle is mighty,” he agrees and secures the rope. His own rope that he used to get up here goes through a pulley fastened to the trunk of the giant tree.

I think this tree house is pretty mighty too. I know the cavemen aren't too big on carpentry, but this platform is made from roughly hewn planks that have been worn smooth. It doesn't look new to me.

I stamp on the floor with my primitive sandals. “Did you build this?”

“The tribe built it.”

“It's very wonderful.”

He shrugs again. “It was necessary. The irox were terrorizing the tribe. The tribesmen built this as a trap. They dangled many dead rekh from the roof, there.” He points to hooks in the rough ceiling. “It attracted the irox. When they came flying to eat the rekh, suddenly this platform was full of warriors with sharp swords, long spears and other blades that they thrust at the irox. Many of them were killed and didn't terrorize the tribe again. This was done once every few years. Finally the irox stopped being a nuisance. And then the tribe stopped coming here.”

“Except you.”

He shrugs again. “It was empty. And I have things to do here.”

“Your digging project. What are you digging for? Iron?” The cavemen are very manly and not too vain, so they don't care much about gold, although they know what is is. Iron is the most valuable metal here. Which makes sense. You can make some pretty good weapons from iron.

“I'm digging for peace and for the future. Much like this place.” He indicates the tree house we're in.

Huh. Digging for peace.

No, I don't get it. Whatever, I'm sure it'll make sense later. Now the sun is setting for real and bathing the jungle in red light in a crazy display of natural beauty. Only one thing I've ever seen can compete with this.

I'm scared of many things. Everything, pretty much. Crowds scare me. Cars scare me. The news scares me. Deep water scares me. Knives and guns and parties and teachers and credit cards and large open spaces scare me stiff. The jungle under us now scares me like nothing else.

But I was never afraid of heights.

When I was a kid, my parents took me on a trip to the old country during the summer. Norway has a lot of mountains. Some of them are very steep too. And I loved a place called Pulpit Rock. It's a huge cliff that looks a little like the pulpit in a giant church. It hangs out over the water below.

Two thousand feet below.

It's nice and flat, so you can go all the way out to the edge and look down. Most people who go there never do that, and it's understandable. If you slip, you have two thousand feet of freefall terror in front of you before you hit the water and you break every bone in your body. But I had no problem with it when I was a kid. I went all the way to the edge and sat down, dangling my legs over the edge, admiring the view of the turquoise fjord and the green valleys. It just didn't scare me.

Of course, my mom almost got a heart attack when she saw me out there, leaning out so I could see what was right under me. She was shaking for an hour afterwards.

I wasn't though. I loved it. And now, for a moment, it felt like being back there. Sure, the view is very different, and this tree is nowhere near two thousand feet tall. But the feeling of being above it all is the same. And the red light from a low sun. And the intense feeling of freedom.

I tear myself away from the view. This is not the time.

Xark'on has gone inside the round house, so I decide not to wait for an invitation. His indifference to having a woman this close to him is still puzzling me. I'm the first woman he's seen. I have to be. Then why hasn't he talked about that myth of theirs, The Woman who'll bring back their women?

Well, maybe he's gay. That makes things a lot less complicated. But if so, why does his bulge twitch every time he looks at me?

Inside it's much like you'd expect from a caveman's house. There are skins on the floor and the walls, there are some not-sheep furs here and there, a carefully built stone-lined fire circle on the floor, and huge, glass-less windows that must make this a pretty drafty and wet place to be during a rainstorm.

There are wooden boxes arranged around the tree trunk that the whole thing is built around, and then I come to a section with many ropes hanging from the wall. There must be hundreds of yards of thick rope. No wonder this guy likes to make pulley systems and hauling boulders out of the dirt. He has like a storehouse of fibrous ropes here.

I finally find Xark'on. He's on the side diametrically opposite from the entrance hole, sitting on a low stool and making rope from a huge bundle of plant fibers. I understand why he's sitting in this particular spot. From here, we have a perfect view of Bune.

It reaches up out of the jungle like a dark shadow of edges and curves and fins. From here, it's just as obvious that it is a spaceship as it is when you look at it from the cave. Except this is a different side of it. The setting sun makes it look like the whole thing is on fire. It's a powerful sight. That old spaceship appears to dominate the night sky. Just like it has been a dark presence in our lives for nine months. And at the same time our only hope to get home. Someone is alive in there. Or something.

I glance at Xark'on. Does he know about any of these things? It's weird that he's here alone, sitting where he can see that mysterious mountain that's forbidden to trod on for any caveman. It's as if he's waiting to see something.

Anyway, the cave is further away than I thought. Much further. If I start walking tomorrow morning, I might make it to Bune before night falls. I don't cherish the idea of spending the night inside its eerie, deserted corridors. But there might be no way around it.

Then I turn around and see another Bune.