Chapter 2
They followed the path along the cliff edge, into the trees where it dropped downhill. The sound of rushing water grew stronger until they found the river rushing over stones at the bottom of the canyon, through large pools and over waterfalls.
Reina gasped at the scenery. “The river’s so big! It sounded so small from up there.”
Tara pointed. “Look how high we were. We’re a long way down.”
Reina arched her neck to look at the cliff towering overhead. “And you jump from there? You’re crazy.”
Tara shrugged. “We’re used to it. That’s all. We’re used to running a lot, too.”
“You’re born to it,” Reina countered. “Our people don’t run everywhere, and we don’t jump from cliffs like that to go swimming. We live on flat land.”
“Every faction is different, I guess,” Tara remarked.
Reina gazed at the river. “It’s so wild and free and beautiful. I never imagined anything like it before.”
“What’s your territory like?” Tara asked. “I’ve never been outside ours.”
“I guess that’s the whole point of the peace agreement,” Reina told her. “Soon we’ll all be able to travel and see all the parts of our world.”
“That would be nice,” Tara agreed. “I’d like to visit the other factions and see how they live.”
Reina made a face. “You wouldn’t like our territory. It’s flat and boring compared to yours.”
Tara cocked her head. “How can you think your own territory is boring? It’s your home.”
“My mother says I’m a throwback,” Reina replied.
“A throwback?” Tara repeated. “What’s a throwback?”
“She says I must have inherited a longing for something different from her side of the family,” Reina explained. “She says I inherited a connection with Earth from her.”
Tara frowned. “I guess that makes sense.”
“She says I’m not like any Felsite,” Reina went on, “and I’m not like an Earthling, either. I’m somewhere in between.”
“That must be hard,” Tara exclaimed. “I’m sorry about that.”
“Why should you be sorry?” Reina asked. “You didn’t do it. Besides, my mother says once I grow up a little, I’ll be able to find the place that suits me. She says if I don’t want to stay in Felsite territory, I don’t have to. She says everyone goes through a process of growing up where they have to find the place and the work and the people that make them feel at home. She says everybody goes through it.”
Tara stared at her. “Really?”
Reina burst out laughing. “She drives my father crazy when she talks like that. He gets mad and says she putting ideas into my head. He says I would be content to stay with my family if she wouldn’t fill my head with nonsense.”
“I guess I can see both sides of it,” Tara replied.
“What about you?” Reina asked.
“What about me?” Tara asked.
“Do you dream of a world outside your own territory?” Reina asked.
“Not really,” Tara replied, “except sometimes I dream that I never had to go back to the village. I dream me and Taig and Ari and Aeifa just keep on running forever, that we keep living in the forest, hunting and sleeping in piles of leaves, and we never have to go back and behave ourselves around our families.”
Reina nodded. “I can understand why. If I lived here, the way you do, I wouldn’t want to go back, either.”
Tara turned away. “Well, we have to go back sometime. That’s the way it works. Besides, you’re not ready to stay out here. You would have to learn everything we’ve learned all our lives about how to survive.”
Reina fell in at her side. “All right.”
Tara shot her a smile. “Now that you mention it, my mother sometimes tells me she never wanted to live in the village, either. She told me, when she first came to live with the Lycaon, she and my father spent their first year together running through the woods. They only came back when she got pregnant, and they went back up to live on the mountain as soon as Taig and I got independent enough to move around.”
Reina sighed. “That sounds wonderful. I don’t blame her.”
Tara laughed. “The rest of the family had a fit.”
Reina giggled. “I’ll bet they did.”
Tara became serious again. “All except Caleb and Marissa. They understood, and I think secretly Marissa was jealous.”
“So why did your parents come back to the village in the end?” Reina asked.
“Politics,” Tara replied. “Caleb needed my father too much, and my mother and Marissa got involved with communicating with the other human women in the other factions. It just didn’t work anymore for them to live on the mountain.”
“All this business with the peace process takes up so much time and energy,” Reina remarked. “It almost seems like a waste of time.”
“But when you hear the stories about the way it used to be,” Tara pointed out, “with the wars and the misunderstandings between the factions, you understand why we need it. You and I wouldn’t be talking right now if our parents hadn’t worked for a peace agreement.”
“I know all that,” Reina replied. “I just don’t think I could sacrifice my life for something like that.”
Tara stopped walking. “Maybe you just haven’t found something you care about enough to dedicate yourself to.”
Reina studied her. “Have you?”
Tara turned away. “No.”
A screech interrupted them. Reina spun around, and Taman jumped off a high rock above them to splash down into a big pool. Ari and Allen waited their turns, and the sun sparkled on their wet skin. Aeifa paddled through the water, and one breast flashed above the water when she lifted her arm. She called out, “Come on, Tara. What are you waiting for?”
Tara started forward, but Reina held her back. “Are you sure....?”
“What’s the matter?” Tara asked. “You wanted to stop being tame. Now’s your chance. Come on. It’s perfectly safe.”
“It’s not that,” Reina murmured. “It’s those boys. My father says....”
Tara waited. “Your father says what?”
Reina blushed. “He said I should be careful around so many boys.”
Tara frowned. “Don’t you have boys in your city?”
“Of course,” Reina snapped. “But they would never....” She waved her hand toward the pool, where Allen took his turn crashing into the pool in a shower of sparkling droplets.
Tara snorted. “Boy, you really have been sheltered, haven’t you?”
“I’m the Alpha’s only daughter,” Reina explained. “No boy would dare to look sideways at me. But here, with these boys....My father wouldn’t want me to.....”
“I see,” Tara replied. “You mean your father wouldn’t want you to show your body around them. These boys might not treat you so gently. Is that it?”
Reina dug her toe into the gravel at her feet.
Tara started untying her waistband. “If you don’t want to swim, you don’t have to. Just sit here if you want to.”
Reina clutched at her hand. “You aren’t going in there, are you?”
“Why not?” Tara asked. “We came here to swim, and I’m swimming.”
Reina opened her mouth, but no sound came out. Tara tugged her arm free from Reina’s grasp. In a twinkling, she shucked off her clothes and dived into the pool. Allen jumped from the rock, and when his head broke the surface, Tara splashed water in his face. Everyone shrieked with laughter.
Reina sat on a rock next to the pool. She smiled, but she kept quiet and watched from a safe distance. Tara and Aeifa and the boys played and wrestled and ducked each other under the water. Their hoots and screams rang off the canyon walls long after the sun passed behind the western cliff.
Tara stole a glance at Allen’s flushed face. Blue tinged his lips, and Taman’s lips quivered when he spoke. Both boys shivered with cold. Tara pulled herself up on the rocks. “Come on. It’s time we went back to the village.”
“Just a little longer,” Allen stammered.
“Not yet,” Ari called from the top of the rock. “Just one more jump.”
He jumped and curled into a ball in mid-air before falling with a thunderous splash. Tara brushed the water off her arms and legs. “One more splash each, and then we’re going.”
“Let’s spend the night out here,” Taig suggested. “We’ll hunt up a skidhopper and cook it. We can sleep over there in the ferns.”
“Do we really have to go?” Taman asked.
“What’s the big deal, Tara?” Aeifa asked. “We just got here.”
“Look at these two.”Tara pointed to the Ursidreans. “They’re freezing already. They won’t last out here, and I don’t want two frozen kids on my hands. Do you?”
“Hey!” Allen called. “Who are you calling kids? We’re older than you are.”
“You are not!” Tara yelled back.
Aeifa got out of the water. The water ran down her naked body. “Tara’s right. These kids won’t last the night out here. Come on, kids. We’ll take you home to your mama.”
Taman smacked the water and sent a jet of spray pounding against Aeifa’s back. “Hey!”
Tara slipped into her clothes. Reina stood up and smiled at her for the first time since she took them off. Aeifa got dressed, and Reina relaxed still more. She wasn’t used to this kind of fun.
The smile evaporated off Allen’s face. Shivers racked his body. He tried to warm his arms by rubbing them with his hands, but he only succeeded in spreading the ice-cold water over his skin. “I’m freezing.”
Tara extended her hand to him. “Get out of the water. Hurry.” She pulled him onto the rocks. “Get out of the water, Taman. Now. You’re freezing.”
In an instant, the fun was over. The two Ursidrean boys stood in front of Tara, dripping dry. They couldn’t move or speak through their shivering. Tara used her own shirt to rub them dry. Then she helped them get dressed.
Taig and Ari still jumped and splashed in the water. They hooted and laughed, but no one paid any attention to them. Aeifa rolled her eyes, but Taman and Allen didn’t even turn around. They submitted to Tara’s hands dressing them like children, and they followed her when she moved off down the path. “Come on.”
Ari called one last time, “Aw, come on, Tara.”
Tara and Aeifa led their guests into the trees, where the foliage closed out the last light of the day. “We better hurry. It’s getting cold fast.”
The others didn’t argue. Tara led the way up the path. Her feet found their way in the dark, and Aeifa brought up the rear to make sure no one got lost. By the time they climbed to the top of the cliff, Taig and Ari joined them. Their hair dripped and they smiled with the flush of pleasure, but said nothing to disturb the silence.
Tara paused at the top of the cliff and scanned the horizon. The sun sank in the west, not behind the horizon, but behind a bank of cloud. It blocked the colors of sunset and obliterated the stars.
“Where should we go?” Aeifa asked.
“Let’s head down the other side of the ravine,” Tara murmured.
Reina glanced back over her shoulder. “The village is that way.”
“There isn’t time,” Tara told her. “Take a look at the clouds. We’ll get caught in the storm.”
“So we’ll get a little wet,” Allen broke in. “We’ll dry off when we get back.”
Tara shook her head. “We wouldn’t make it in time, and there’s nowhere to shelter between here and the village. Come on. We’ll show you a place where we can spend the night.”
The Ursidreans didn’t move. “Do we have to? What if we run for it?”
“Not even Ari and Aeifa and Taig and I could run that fast. You three definitely couldn’t, and you’re already chilled. We have to find a place to spend the night, and down the ravine is the only place. Now stop stalling. If we wait much longer, we’ll be soaked when we get there.”
The boys looked at Ari and Taig. Taig shrugged. “Tara’s right. That storm is moving in fast, and the village is a long way off at a walking pace. Come on.”
He set off ahead of the group. Ari and Aeifa fell in behind him. The newcomers tarried a little longer. Tara took Reina by the hand. “It’s going to be all right. We know a cave in the hillside where we can stay dry tonight, and we’ll take you home to your parents in the morning. Trust me.”
“What about your parents?” Reina asked.
Tara chuckled. “They’re used to us staying out, and when the storm hits, they’ll explain everything to your parents. Come on.”
Reina hesitated, and her hesitation made the Ursidreans hesitate. They kept looking back toward the path leading to the village.
Tara took a step closer to Reina and murmured in her ear, but she spoke to all three of them. “I won’t let anything happen to you. You can trust me. Follow me.”
At last, they broke out of their trance and followed her. At first she walked slowly. They didn’t want to move away from the village. After a while, though, the clouds covered the sky. She walked faster. She kept hold of Reina’s hand and tugged her along. The path sloped downward into dense forest where no light penetrated. The strangers tried to hang back, but Tara urged them onward. “Just a little farther.”
A clap of thunder rumbled across the sky. Taman and Allen jumped, and Reina clutched Tara’s hand. “It’s okay. It’s only thunder, but we have to hurry.”
She hauled on Reina’s hand and broke into a run. The boys crashed through the undergrowth. They broke branches and tripped over fallen logs, but Tara continued murmuring, “Come on!” They followed the sound of her voice.
The first spattering of rain bounced on fallen leaves, and a misty smell rose from the soil underfoot. Tara ran faster. The others barely kept up, but she couldn’t slow down now. She barreled down the path, through a stream bed, and up the other side to a massive tree trunk blocking the path. She jumped over it and dragged Reina with her.
She let go of Reina’s hand to pull Taman over. Allen scrambled down after them, and Tara pushed all of them into a hole in the ground behind the tree. Aeifa, Ari and Taig waited for them in the cave. No sooner were they all inside than the storm broke with deafening fury. Lightning streaked down to the ground, and the noise of thunder and rain made conversation impossible.
Taig and Aeifa squatted near the back of the cave. Reina and the Ursidreans stood at the opening and stared out at the tempest. Ari laughed, but his voice fell hollow on their ears. “Haven’t you ever seen rain before?”
“I’ve seen rain,” Reina replied, “but never like this.”
Tara touched her shoulder. “Come inside and get warm.”
The newcomers turned around and saw for the first time the fire Taig and Aeifa kindled deeper inside the cave. The light dazzled Reina’s eyes. “Where did you get the wood for that?”
“We keep it here in case of emergencies,” Tara told her. “There’s food, too, if you’re hungry, but the most important thing is to keep warm and dry. You’re all frozen to the bone.”
Chapter 3
The cave filled with warmth and the group filled their bellies with food stored in the cave. Everyone started to relax. “How long do we have to stay here?”
“The storm will be over by morning,” Ari replied. “Then we can go back to the village.”
“Have you stayed in this cave before?” Reina asked.
“All the time,” Aeifa replied. “That’s why we keep it stocked with everything we need in case we get stuck out overnight.”
“We even stay here when we don’t get stuck,” Taig added. “Sometimes we stay here just for fun.”
“So we don’t have to go home,” Tara chimed in.
“Who wants to go home?” Ari asked.
Everyone laughed. Tara turned to Allen. “Tell us about your home. What’s it like? Is it true you live in caves all the time?”
He looked around. “Our caves aren’t like this one. They’re enormous. The cave at Harbeiz is as big as that cliff you jumped off at the swimming hole.”
Tara eyes widened. “Really? How can that many people live together in one place? Where do you get food?”
“The store chambers and transmogrifiers make the food,” he replied.
“What’s that?” Tara asked.
“They’re machines that create food by realigning the molecular matrix of organic substances,” he told her. “We mine rock from the center of the mountain and feed it into the transmogrifiers. They....well, they transmogrify it into food.”
Tara stared at him with her mouth open, but she couldn’t answer. Taig spoke up. “We hear about the Ursidreans’ technology, but we’ve never seen anything like it. It sounds amazing.”
“It’s not amazing when you live with it all your life,” Allen replied. “It’s normal. I’m amazed how you live out here without it. Do you really hunt and gather all your food from the forest?”
“Where else would we get it?” Taig asked. “No one hands it to us on a plate.”
“I heard,” Reina broke in, “that the Ursidreans have technology that can heal wounds and cure diseases. Is that true? I wonder any Ursidreans ever die.”
“We have technology to treat some diseases,” Allen replied, “and we have bone repair sonofiers and organ repairing nano-robots, but we can’t cure every disease. We can’t stop people from dying. Their bodies get old and worn out, and sometimes someone gets so badly hurt, they can’t be repaired. A lot of people died in the wars. We couldn’t save them.”
A hush fell over the group. “I suppose,” Tara murmured, “we should be grateful our parents are working for this peace agreement. I’m glad we’re growing up in a world where we can be friends instead of enemies.”
“My father says,” Taman added, “everyone in Harbeiz knows someone who lost a family member in the war. He says every family in the whole Ursidrean faction lost someone. The Avitras killed helpless children and defenseless old people.”
“That’s the Avitras,” Ari countered. “Not everyone is like them.”
“All the factions fought in wars,” Tara pointed out. “No one is innocent.”
“Except the Aqinas,” Taig countered. “They never fought in any war.”
Aeifa broke in. “They got others to do their fighting for them.”
“My mother says that’s a lie,” Allen argued. “She says every faction has old prejudices against all the others, and that no one ever bothered to make sure they knew exactly where the borders were. That’s what caused all the wars. Everyone fought everyone else, and everyone suffered.”
“Well, we won’t,” Reina declared. “We won’t continue these horrible wars. We’ll keep the peace our parents worked so hard to build for us.”
“You’re right, Reina,” Tara replied. “Let’s all agree right here and now to stay friends, no matter what. We’re three of the five faction sitting right here. Our parents are Alphas, and they have the influence to overcome all these obstacles. We’ll do the same thing. We’ll make sure their efforts aren’t wasted and Angondra doesn’t fall back into turmoil.”
A murmur of agreement went around the circle.
“That’s all very well,” Taig pointed out, “but you can’t just wave your hand and make those prejudices disappear. We might be friends, but no peace will become real until the factions start interbreeding and become one people again.”
“How likely is that to happen?” Ari asked. “I mean, here we are. We’re three factions right here in one cave. You don’t see us throwing ourselves at each other.”
They exchanged glances, first one way and then the other. Then Taig snorted with laughter. The Ursidrean boys stole glances at Reina and Aeifa. Allen dropped his eyes to the ground.
“That proves nothing,” Taman remarked. “We hardly know each other.”
“That never stopped anybody,” Aeifa pointed out.
“You can’t tell me peace is impossible just because we haven’t fallen into each other’s arms and nooked,” Reina argued.
Tara’s head whipped around. “Nooked? What does that mean?”
Ari paced around the cave. “It must be a Felsite word for scroggin.”
Reina frowned. “Scroggin?”
Allen looked up. “My mother says scroggin is a mixture of nuts and dried fruit. It’s something you eat.”
Ari waved his hands. “Scroggin is sex. Don’t you know that?”
“Obviously we all have different words for it,” Tara pointed out.
“All I meant,” Reina replied, “was that the factions will start interbreeding over time once the old hostilities break down. That should be obvious to anybody.”
“Why shouldn’t it happen here?” Ari asked. “We’re not hostile to each other. We’re all mature and in the prime of our youths. If the factions are going to interbreed, why shouldn’t we?”
Tara threw a stick at him. “Sit down and shut up. These are our guests, and you’re talking about corking ‘em when they just rolled into our village. You should be ashamed of yourself.”
Ari batted the stick away. “I’m just saying....”
“Don’t say,” she snapped. “I’m telling you to sit down and put a plug in it, or you’ll answer to me.”
He glared at her for a moment. Then he sank down by the fire with a sigh. “I’m just saying....” He didn’t finish his sentence.
The others stared into the fire, too. No one dared to speak until Taig muttered under his breath. “We could do a little experiment to find out if he’s right.”
Everyone rounded on him. They all talked at once, but he only sat there with the firelight glowing on his face until they quieted down.
“We’re not experimenting,” Tara told him. “These are our friends and our guests. The least you can do is treat them with respect. Save your experiments for the four of us.”
“We can’t experiment on the four of us,” he replied. “We’re cousins. This could be the only time we get a chance to try something like this. We’re from different factions, we’re not related to each other, and we’re isolated for the night.”
Ari slapped his thigh. “By jingo, he’s right!”
Tara lashed out at him with another stick. “Will you knock it off? No one’s experimenting on anybody. We’re spending the night here until we can take these kids back to their parents. If you want to experiment on somebody, find one of your friends in the village and see how willing they are to go along with your lunatic experiment.”
Aeifa turned to Taig. “What did you have in mind?”
“Aeifa!” Tara exclaimed.
Aeifa held up her hands. “I’m just asking. It can’t hurt to hear what he has to say.”
Tara groaned. “For pity’s sake, don’t encourage him.”
“I’m only suggesting,” Taig told her, “we find out if our factions have any chance of overcoming their past hostilities. If I’m right, peace won’t be possible until members of the different factions can consider members of other factions as potential mates. Am I right?”
“All the factions can consider others as potential mates,” Allen pointed out. “Our mothers came from another planet and mated with Angondran men.”
“They came from another planet,” Taig pointed out. “They didn’t come from another hostile faction that engaged in war and genocide. That’s the difference.”
Taman squared his shoulders. “Who are you saying engaged in genocide?”
“So how are you going to experiment?” Ari asked. “How are you going to find out if we’ve overcome our hostilities?”
“We could play a friendly little game of Point,” Taig replied.
“This is insane,” Tara burst out. “Forget it.”
“What’s Point?” Reina asked.
“Forget it,” Tara snapped. “We’re not playing.”
“You want to play as much as the rest of us,” Aeifa told her. “Don’t you want to find out whether Allen feels the same way about you as you feel about him?”
In a flash, Tara was on her feet. She cut the air with her hand. “You take that back!”
Aeifa laughed out loud. “You see? She does want to play.”
“Of course she does,” Taig replied. “She’s itching to.”
Tara stared at her brother and her cousins. Then she stole a sidelong glance at Allen and found him watching her. The blood rushed to her cheeks and she turned away.
Ari rubbed his hands together. “Right. Now, here’s how you play. We all sit in a circle and take turns tossing a stick in the air—like this.”
He picked up a stick from next to the fire and flipped it into the air. It landed on the ground and bounced. It came to rest, and the whole group looked down at it.
“Whoever it points to,” he explained, “you have to kiss that person. See? It’s pointing at Reina.” He smiled at her. “So I have to kiss her.”
Reina stiffened. “But the other end of the stick is pointing at Aeifa. How can you tell who you’re supposed to kiss?”
“Aeifa’s my sister,” he told her. “It should be pretty obvious who I’m supposed to kiss.”
“What if it isn’t obvious?” Allen asked. “What if someone throws the stick and it’s pointed at two people? How do you decide who to kiss?”
Ari waved his hand. “What difference does it make? Let’s just play the game.”
“I have an idea.” Taig picked up the stick. He picked up a rock from the ground and notched the end of the stick. “There. Whoever this mark points to is the person you kiss.”
“What if one of the boys throws it and it points to another boy?” Reina asked. “Or what if it points to your brother or your cousin?”
“Then we’ll throw again,” Taig replied.
No one said anything. They looked around at each other, and more than one of them shifted back and forth in their seats.
“So what about it?” Ari took a step toward Reina. “I get first kiss.”
Reina held up her hands. “That was just a demonstration. We haven’t even decided yet if we’re going to play.”
Taig scanned the faces surrounding him. “Does everybody want to play?”