Page 76 of Planet Zero
Addie frowned. “Illied?”
“Yes, such a snitch, that one.” Chele clucked like an angry hen. “This place is nothing but rocks. Rocks, rocks everywhere. And I’m not getting any younger.” She lifted her leg and immediately lowered it down.
“Does it hurt to move at all or only in some positions?”
“At all.” Chele sounded despondent.
Addie’s mind whirred. If Chele couldn't walk, she’d attract the Rule of the Fallen.
“Rest your leg,” she instructed Chele, hiding her fear. “We will see how it feels tomorrow. That’s what you need, time.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll be fine by tomorrow.” She made a move to get up but Addie hissed at her, and she settled back onto her bed. “Don’t buzz at me like an agitated Hicar. I’m not a child.”
“Then what are you doing, getting up?”
“I have to do something.”
“Nothing is as important as resting your leg,” Addie argued.
Reluctantly, Chele lay back down, but it was a long time before she relaxed.
???
Their guests left the next morning. Following the custom, the tribe came out en masse to say goodbye and once again demonstrate their collective goodwill. The men, in turn, thanked the chief profusely for his hospitality. Qalae smiled thinly, standing at Net’ok’s side, with a rare expression of benevolence stamped onto her beautiful features. Whether she was truly pleased with the visit or merely glad that the guests were finally leaving, was hard to tell. She was like Earth’s moon, silvery-cold and distant.
Addie hung out to the side, not wishing to call attention to herself.
“We will move some two days east to settle,” Net’ok shared with the other men. Of course, he didn’t say “east,” but this is what Addie figured he meant, in the direction of the rising Ehr sun. “There are vast grasslands, we heard.” Net’ok glanced at Chemmusaayl for support of this claim, and the High Counselor vigorously nodded, though it looked forced. “Elkeks favor grasslands.”
Ell inclined his head in regret. “You won’t find many grasslands around here. They used to abound, but the wind blows too cold now, and they slowly disappear. Times are growing lean.”
His men murmured in confirmation.
“Be well, you and your people.” Ell raised a hand in farewell. “Beware of the vagrants. They have been hunting our people like hungry Wrennlins.”
With this parting shot, he turned and left, his men silently following.
Great. Theother sidewas short on food and rich in marauders. Yippee.
Chapter 24
After the tribe settled in, hunters went out in search of meat, and despite their visitors’ gloomy predictions, their first outing proved successful. They brought back two Elkeks. The atmosphere in the village became euphoric.
When men carried two massive carcasses to the edge of their newly constructed village, Addie came over to investigate because she’d never seen Elkeks, and cautiously circled around two massive mammoth-like bodies of the fallen animals that the hunters delivered.
“How did they bring them in?” she asked Vircea who was also checking the game out.
Vircea looked at her with mild surprise. “They carried them, how else?”
Addie looked at the mastodons again. “They are huge.”
Vircea smiled. “Our men are strong.”
Yes, they were, weren’t they?
The Elkeks were carried with care, not dragged along the ground, to preserve their valuable mink-like pelts. Their tusks and horns had already been removed and given to the chief to allocate at his discretion. Addie knew that Chele had lodged a petition for one, to make a kitchen utensil, but Chele would get nothing. The High Counselor Chemmusaayl advised the chief on the needs of the tribe, and Chele hovered at the very bottom of his favorites’ list, right above Addie who was dead last. Even Zoark scored higher.
When Addie was walking back to her tent, she bumped into Illied leaving it with an angry look on her face. Not only her face but her entire body vibrated with outrage, and she didn’t even acknowledge Addie as she marched past.
