Monday, September 20, 2004

Part 7

“I can try to go slower if you are uncomfortable,” Leto said as he paused in the morning sun. The clouds had vanished, and the temperature was warm. The ground all around was soft and muddy, and the going had been rough. Yarrine had been quiet since they left the cave. Leto was moving as fast as he thought he could without causing the litter Yarrine laid upon to bounce or rattle against the uneven ground.
“I’m fine,” she said.
Leto immediately recognized a tone of resentment in her words. “We can stop whenever you feel the need,” he said.
“I have to pee,” she said meekly.
“Oh, of course, I’m sorry. I should have asked you about that before we left,” he said. Quickly he lowered her to the ground and undid the cords that held her in place. “Can you make it alright on your own, or do you need help?” He asked as the last rope was removed.
“I think I can hop over to those trees,” she said pointing to her left.
“Good, but don’t be afraid to call out if you need anything,” he said.
For the first time since he found her lying on the ground Leto saw Yarrine standing up. She was a good deal shorter than him. Her head only came to the middle of his chest. She steadied herself against him with one hand holding his forearm. Her touch gave him an unfamiliar chill. He wanted to touch her, innocently, but did not.
“Alright here I go,” she said smiling up at him. She was strong, and obviously had good coordination. She turned and with her right foot held off the ground in front of her, which he thought was an odd choice, hopped with ease away from him. She reached a cluster of small evergreens not thirty feet away and moved out of sight.
Quiet moments passed, and Leto adjusted his pack to ride higher on his back. He waited nervously, and when he was about to call out to her, just to see if everything was alright, she suddenly appeared from behind a tree and waved for him to come to her. He didn’t hesitate. When he was still a few feet away from her she turned and pointed toward the southwest saying over her shoulder, “Do you know what that is?”
Through the trees, down a gentle slope to the southwest, perhaps a mile or less in the distance Leto could make out what looked like a patch of strewn boulders and smoke rising from the ground. “I don’t know. It looks like smoke. It could be hunters, or prospectors. I don’t really know this area very well,” he said.
“We should check it out, maybe we could get some directions,” she said. Her face was twisted up in pain.
“I can carry you back to the litter,” he said.
“That would be good, very good. I didn’t think it would hurt so much, being up,” she said as she held up her arms inviting Leto to pick her up.
“Are you all through, with, well you know?” He asked.
“Oh, sure. All done. But I feel pretty week from it,” she answered.
Leto put his arms behind her legs and back and was surprised to find she was heavier than she looked, but still easy to lift from the ground. He held her high against his chest and she laid her head on his shoulder. He walked slowly back to the travois enjoying the closeness of her smell.
After he had her secured to the rig again he said, “So I think we can detour over to those rocks and check out that smoke, but it might get a bit bumpy.”
“I’ll be all right don’t worry, I’ll scream if I fall off,” she said with a laugh.
It didn’t take very long to reach the rocks and they were both surprised to find that it was not smoke after all, but steam. The ground was broken and dropped off sharply where it looked as though a hot spring came out of a wide and deep cave. The river was only a dozen or two yards below them and Leto could see from this vantage that it turned sharply southward to his left and if he had kept going the direction he was headed he would not have found it for hours. To his right, to the west the river grew wider and splashed slowly among more rocks. There were large patches of ice in the river still and particularly at the base of the little cliff he stood on now, only pot marked with little holes where the trickle from the hot spring fell over the rocks and into the river. “Lets check out that hot spring,” Yarrine said.
“I don’t know Yarrine,” Leto was finding it was becoming easier to talk with her. “It might be to hot. We have a hot spring in Crystal Glade, we collect the water for its mineral content, but it is far too hot to touch. And the smell is not good.”
“Well I want to see, and I could use a little break before we go on. I’m hungry. Please Leto,” she begged.
“All right but I will have to carry you again. It is to uneven to try the other way,” he said.
“Can you carry the little with me in it?” She asked.
“Yes,” and he did. The cave had a high and wide opening, and once they reached the front of it the saw that it was not very deep, deeper than the one they had stayed in the night before, but they could see the back wall, and the whole cave was well lit from a good southeast facing. There were three pools inside two near the front side on the east and a large one at the back of the cave where they could see water seeping right out of the rocks, the steam was light and the temperature in the cave was mild. The left side of the cave was dry and the ground sloped up to an elevated area. Leto set Yarrine down on the ground of the higher side of the cave and began to untie the cords holding her down.
“I know this is going to sound crazy,” Yarrine said as he helped her off the litter, “But I think I want to try and take a bath in that big pool, could you check it for me. I feel dirty all over, and a hot bath would feel real good right about now.”
“ I suppose I can, but let me do something else first. My coat is very wet, and I am not sure how much longer it will hold out as a support for you unless I can dry it out a little. I am going to set up a small fire, and put these spears in the ground. Then I will hang all of the wet things up to dry,” He said as he went to work as he described.
“Okay, great idea. You can dry my things to,” she said and started to remove her large coat.
“Wait,” Leto said as he tied some cord from the litter to the first spear already stuck in the floor, “You are not going to disrobe are you? I think you should wait until I can finish with this, and then I will try and hunt something for us to eat. You can have some privacy then.” She just smiled and continued to undue the buttons on her shirt.
“Oh don’t be concerned. I have very good undergarments on. Full pants, and a linen wrap. I wont embarrass you though, if it bothers you,” she said.
“No, that’s fine. Go ahead and I will…” He did not finish as the sound of rocks clattering down the slop outside caught his attention.
He had the second spear in his hand but was not able to ready it as the Troll charged him. The thing was more that one and a half times his size and built like a bull. It moved on all fours, but Leto knew it could stand upright if it wanted to. Its head was as large as a barrel with a long snout filled with short, fat, sharp teeth. It struck him in the side and knocked him off his feet. The Troll did not pounce on Leto, but instead turned sniffing in the direction of Yarrine. Before it could move toward her, Leto slashed at it with the spear tip. He did not have time to get to his feet and he knew the move put him in great danger. He cut the beast on the left hip, but it was only a superficial cut. It leapt toward Yarrine. Leto scrambled to his feet and lunged at the Troll, dropping the spear, he tried to wrap his arms around its body. Yarrine, for her part kicked at the snout with her good leg. Surprised by Leto’s weight on its back, the troll fell sideways down the sloping rock floor toward the small pools near the front of the cave. Leto used the momentum of them both rolling on the ground to throw the creature toward the mouth of the cave. It worked the Troll was unable to get a foothold and was sent tumbling across the rocks, but not for long. It regained is balance and rose up on its hind legs, letting out a terrible roar it made an awkward rush on two legs, arms flailing in the air. Leto rolled across the floor to where he had dropped the spear and found, with great luck, it to be lying in a perfect position. Putting one foot on the butt end of the spear he raised it just as the Troll was about to pounce. The spear was driven completely through the thing just below the breastbone. Leto threw his own body at the thing, grabbing its fur and placing one foot in its groin he somersaulted with the Troll propelling it out of the cave and down the rocks. Leto wound up on his stomach looking down across the cliff face, and saw the Troll strike the ice with a splattering effect. The ice shattered from the impact, and the Troll disappeared beneath the fast moving water of the river under the ice.
“Leto, Leto,” Yarrine was screaming, and he turned to see her standing in the cave opening several yards behind him. He raised himself up on one arm and his knees, and waved to signal her he was all right. He was out of breath, and could not shout back. He wanted to tell her he was fine but then he saw the blood on his raised arm, and watched helplessly as Yarrine collapsed at the mouth of the cave.



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