Page 15 of Fall

She blinked in surprise at the bread in his hand. He’d actually saved hersome food.

When she didn’t move, he thrust it at her again. “Take bread!”

She took it, staring down at it in astonishment. No one but Desh had beennice to her since she’d arrived on this planet. She didn’t even know the wordfor “thank you.”

Instead, she said, “Glad. Glad bread.”

Rone was still frowning, but he gave her a nod before he walked fartherinto the cave.

Lenna couldn’t help but pause and watch from a distance as he reached hisbed. She saw him stop, staring down at what must be the cord she’d unknotted.

He picked it up slowly, stroking a finger down the leather and thenraising it to his face. It looked like he was sniffing it, smelling it.

When she saw him start to look back toward her, she hurried out of thecave, eating the bread quickly before she started to work for the day.

She was glad she’d spent the time unknotting his cord.

It had been nice of him to save her the bread.

***

That evening,she was curling up on the floor again in her normal place, hugging her armsacross her belly in an attempt to stay warm.

The cave was never quiet at night. It was one large room with a lot ofpeople in it, so there were always the sounds of talking, of snoring, of sex.

The sex seemed to consist mostly of men taking women from behind, as faras she could tell in the dark. The men did all the grunting. It never lastedvery long. Lenna wondered if the women even knew what an orgasm was.

She gasped and sat up when she was suddenly aware of a man standing aboveher.

Realizing it was Rone, she sighed in relief. She had no idea what he wasdoing, but at least he wasn’t going to attack her.

She blinked a few times until she could see that he was offering her ablanket made of a soft animal skin.

Her lips parted as she stared up at him.

“Cord good,” he grunted. “Blanket.”

Even missing words as she did, she understood what he was saying. He wasthanking her for working on unknotting his cord, and her reward was theblanket.

She accepted the blanket with a smile, wrapping it around her gratefully.

Rone was peering at her with narrowed eyes.

“Glad,” she said, using the word she’d used that morning, since she’dasked Desh earlier and he’d told her there didn’t seem to be a word in theirlanguage that meant thank you. “Glad blanket.” She smiled at him again.

The habitual frown on his face softened. He didn’t smile, but for once hedidn’t look grumpy. He looked vaguely astonished, as if he didn’t know what wasgoing on.

She didn’t know what was going on either, but she was very happy aboutthe blanket. It was rough and smelled like Rone, but it was warm, which was theonly thing that mattered.

It still felt like Rone was watching her in the dark as she tried to goto sleep, far more comfortable than she’d been the night before.

***

The nextmorning, Rone gave her a bowl of stew.

It wasn’t a very good stew, since it was made with the last remnants ofthe deer-like animal they’d killed the previous week. But since she’d hadnothing but bread, berries, and turnip-roots for more than a month, she couldn’tremember ever enjoying anything more.

Rone stood and watched her as she ate it, as if he suspected she wouldn’tknow what to do with it.

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