Page 27 of Planet Zero
He was standing at her side, solid and uncompromising. His bad leg was slightly bent as if he had trouble straightening it all the way and wanted to keep more of his weight on his left side.
Against her will, Addie’s gaze landed on his broken knee, and her trained brain automatically assessed the damage: joint bones appeared to have been smashed and never reconstructed, ligaments and likely tendons torn to pieces and not sewn back together, some thigh muscle missing as if ripped out by a mouth with lots of sharp teeth… There was nothing to be done for him without extensive surgery. She was surprised he maintained the mobility he did. That he could sneak up on her without making a sound was something out of the fiction tale.
“Does it still bother you?” she asked, caught up in her trauma nurse mode.
“That is profoundly none of your concern,” he replied with annoyance. “I thought I’d never see you again. One last time, goodbye.”
Addie raised her eyes to his sour face and grinned. “I see now why you’re being so helpful with directions.” They squared off, all five feet two inches of her to his six-and-a-half. “You may see me again or you may not, I’m not making any promises. But thanks for pointing the way.”
She skipped over a large rock and lightly jogged following the rocks with red moss.
Chapter 10
Drying the Tek meat into jerky had proved to be a more challenging step of the process. For starters, Addie had to manufacture a wicker tray to spread it out on, and she wasn’t very good at basket-weaving. Secondly, slicing the chunks of the marinated meat into ribbon-thin strips with a dullstoneknife wasn’t an epitome of accuracy or efficiency. She’d never cursed so much as she did when working her rudimentary cutting tool.
But Addie was determined.
She slept poorly because of the stress. It was silly of her to agonize over the jerky, but she so wanted the project to succeed. The girls were waiting to try it.
Early the following morning, Addie spread out her would-be jerky on the tray and set the tray under the Ehr sun to dry. It wasn’t very hot out, but the dry air of Planet Zero combined with a slight wind would help the process along nicely.
She settled nearby to keep watch. It was going to be a long day, babysitting the drying meat against the local animal kingdom.
As hours ticked by, the main subject of Addie’s watch became clear: it was her own two Yuux. The smell of the meat attracted the animals like a magnet, and no stern command made a difference in forcing them to abandon their quest to steal a slice or two.
Armed with a leafy branch, Addie kept swinging vigorously over the tray when the Yuux drew near. The animals were persistent, and the swinging action got old fast.
“You two are horrid, I tell you. Horrid. You don’t deserve the Nessi fruit I feed you.”
The tall grasses rustled ominously. Whirling, Addie dropped her branch and palmed the spear, ready to take on any mountain lion or a hungry bear - or their Planet Zero equivalents - and fully prepared to die young defending her jerky.
The tall grasses parted to reveal Melmie’s slim form. Addie sagged with relief. “Melmie! I nearly threw the spear at you!”
“Why?”
“I thought you were a meat-eating animal, here to steal my jerky.”
Melmie gave a loud, uncensored burst of laughter. “If I were a meat-eating animal, you’d be dead by now. You’re too slow, Addie.”
Addie didn’t find Melmie’s observation quite as hilarious.
“I’m notthatslow. I’ve been practicing with the spear.”
Melmie only laughed. “Is the meat ready to try?”
“Not yet/” Addie looked at the sun, checking on its progress across the sky. “Two more days.”
Melmie looked disappointed.
“What are you foraging for today?” Addie asked her.
“Nothing. I came to see you.”
Surprised, Addie asked, “Did you tell your pawi where you went?”
“Yes, I told her where I went. It’s a little too far, but we’ve gone that far before, Oh’na and I.”
Addie sat down as her heart grew full from the unexpected pleasure of being accepted in this way. If a mother allowed her daughter to come to visit her, then she wasn’t too bad of a company in the eyes of the For. Well,someFor.
