by Candy Rae
CHAPTER 16 (Northern Continent)
Violet and Tara were finding that a close friendship was growing between them, despite the three years difference in their ages.
The morning’s discussions had bored Tara and she had begged to be excused and fled the meeting hall with Kolyei in search of her new ‘cousin’, for as Violet had pointed out, if her mother was Tara’s aunt, then they must be cousins of a sort.
Tara, after so many months away from ‘civilisation’, was desperate to feel the wind on her face and asked if she could go fungus hunting at the edge of the woods.
“Is it safe with the Larg about?” asked Janice of Winston.
“Safe enough,” he replied, having seen the longing in Tara’s face when he had looked up from sorting through his veterinary books. He couldn’t take them all he had now decided; there wouldn’t be room. Perhaps he could claim them later.
“Between here and the trees,” he continued, “is well travelled and didn’t Kolyei say there were Lind patrols in the woods keeping an eye out? Anyway, if she goes with Kolyei she’ll be perfectly safe. Not much passes him I’ll warrant.”
He twinkled at Tara.
“Off you go.”
“Thank you,” she breathed, “and can Violet come too? We’ll gather more if she comes,” she added artfully.
Violet raised large pleading eyes to her father, much resembling a young puppy begging for a bone and held her breath.
“Please Daddy,” she begged.
Winston looked at his wife, wanting to say yes but not sure what she felt.
“If I give you two baskets,” she said, “do you think you could manage to fill them?”
Violet grinned and skipped away to the big cupboard and brought out two rush baskets.
“Stay in sight of the loggers,” Janice warned.
Kolyei was waiting outside. A crowd of interested onlookers had begun to gather and the excited Violet felt very self-conscious as her father lifted her up behind Tara with instructions to hold on tight.
Kolyei turned to him.
“I will not let Violet fall,” he said and trotted off, the crowd giving way before him, Violet laughing aloud at this unexpected treat.
It felt good to be outside the walls of the settlement Tara decided, as they loped up the hill. She waved to the loggers as they passed, remembering her promise to Janice. Kolyei agreed. He had found his first experience of living in a human habitation more than a little strange. The natural habitat of the Lind was woodlands; open plains made him edgy and human homes in the middle of the plains edgier still.
: It is good to be outside : he agreed : feel the wind, hear the trees :
Behind her Violet chattered incessantly, but Tara knew by now that she could ‘mentally’ speak with Kolyei and listen at the same time.
“Can we go faster?” cried Violet and screamed with joy as Kolyei stretched out his lope.
“It’s like flying,” she shouted.
Then Kolyei slowed down.
: Here : he sent : I see root foods, fungi is over there where grass is darker :
After spending the last months at the Zanatei domta, Tara had learnt what was edible and what was not.
The two dismounted, Tara neatly, whilst Violet slithered down any which way and they began to gather the fruits of the forest.
“Roots first,” ordered Tara, “the fungus last otherwise they’ll bruise and be spoiled.”
Kolyei himself decided that a rest was in order and found a secluded spot, out of the wind, where he could keep an eye on them.
Tara was affected by Violet’s exuberance and he was pleased to watch her normally grave little face break into smile after smile every time Violet said something amusing or simply outrageous.
He listened in.
“Are you going to stay with us always?” Violet was asking. “I wish you would. I’ve always wanted a big sister. It’s hard being the oldest girl. Isn’t the wind funny. I never felt wind ‘til we got here.”
“Neither did I,” Tara answered. “I was born about eight weeks after we left Earth.”
Violet ignored that as she sniffed deeply. “The air smells good. Are you going to stay with us?”
“I live with Kolyei in his home,” Tara explained. “He, we, wouldn’t be happy at the settlement, but that won’t matter. I think you’re coming west with us and if you do you’ll see us almost every day.”
“What’s his home like?”
“It’s a big forest with trees much bigger than these ones. Kolyei and I live in a house made of them.”
“A tree house!” exclaimed Violet, her voice filled with wonderment. “Does it have an upstairs? Will I live in a tree house too?”
“Probably.”
Violet thought about that.
“I still think you should stay with us,” she said tenaciously, loathe to give up on what she desired the most.
“We’ll see,” said Tara.
“That’s what Mummy says when she thinks the answers going to be no. I like Kolyei. I’d like to have a Lind as a friend like you.”
“He’s more than a friend.”
“Is he yours?” she pushed.
“No more than I am his,” Tara answered.
They worked in companionable silence for a while as Violet tried to work this out.
“If he’s not yours then whose is he? We have a dog called Tanni and he’s ours.”
“I am his and he is mine,” answered Tara but Violet didn’t understand. In her world, she and her sisters and brothers belonged to their parents just as Tanni belonged to the family as a whole.
She looked at the baskets.
“We’ve almost filled them completely with roots. Can we pick the fungus now? Mummy doesn’t let us gather them in case we pick the poisonous ones.”
“I know which ones are safe to eat and which aren’t,” agreed Tara. “I’ll show you but you must promise not to try and pick them when I’m not here.”
“I promise.”
Violet cast an adoring look at her. Tara didn’t notice. Her eyes were scanning the ground searching for the blue tint of her favourite mushroom.
Kolyei did. He chuckled to himself. Violet was a persistent youngster. He wondered how long it would take her to persuade her parents to offer Tara a more permanent position in the family, providing of course that Winston and Janice weren’t already considering the idea. He rather suspected they were. He sniffed suddenly as he heard someone approaching from the interior of the woods.
: Watch out! Something is coming :
The two girls had heard it too.
It was too noisy for a Lind, Kolyei knew. He rose to his feet. It did not sound like a Larg but it was better to be safe than sorry.
“Stay beside me,” Tara commanded Violet, holding her knife in the workmanlike manner taught to her by Francis McAllister.
The man who emerged from the undergrowth was old, dressed in skins and was weighed down by a huge backpack.
“It’s Daniel Trapper,” squealed Violet, dropping her basket and dancing over to him.
“Well, well, well,” the old man said twinkling down at her, “a young lady that goes by the name of Violet Randall if I’m not mistaken. You’ve grown child.”
He turned frankly interested eyes in Tara’s direction.
“And who is this?”
“That’s Kolyei’s girl,” said Violet with pride. “She’s staying with us.”
“And who in the name of the wee man is Kolyei?”
“Kolyei isn’t a wee man, he’s a Lind,” Violet answered seriously, all important at being the first to tell Daniel of the momentous events transpiring at the settlement. “Haven’t you heard anything?”
He looked at her.
“Young ladies,” he began, “I’ve been up in these here woods this last two months or more. What is a Lind?”
Kolyei rose to his paws.
“I am a Lind,” he announced in stentorian tones.
Daniel nearly dropped on the spot.
&
nbsp; Violet invited Daniel to dinner, saying that her father would be pleased to see him again after so long.
Kolyei volunteered to carry the heavy pack and Violet too. The four of them returned to the settlement.
It was as they walked that they learned of another Larg sighting.
“It looked a bit like you, but heavier, thicker legs and body,” Daniel told them.
“We must warn the Lindars,” said Tara.
“Already done,” answered Kolyei, “he’ll not get far. The Larg always send scouts west to find out what we’re up to if they’re planning an attack. He’s the fifth this moon time, not counting the ones who killed at the farm.”
“This confirms they’re coming doesn’t it?”
Kolyei gazed at her wisely.
“Who are they and what are coming?” asked Daniel in confusion. “I don’t understand.”
Winston Randall told him more than he actually wanted to hear when they reached the Randall cabin. Daniel only waited another three days at the settlement before, bags packed, he left to travel west again. Tara and Kolyei never saw him again.
* * * * *