by Don P. Bick
Chapter 30
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The next morning dawned bright and warm. Camran awakened to the smell of fish cooking over the open fire. Apparently Bran and Druc had gotten up early and caught three fish for everyone's breakfast. They all enjoyed it so much the night before; none of them expected it to taste just as good that morning. They were all pleasantly surprised when it did.
The mood was high as they sat around and ate. They all commented on how well they slept during the night. The breakfast of fish and berries made the morning seem special.
After eating, Gena and Ve-Nah went to pick berries to take with them. Twil left with Druc to scout ahead in the direction they would be traveling.
An hour after breakfast they walked out of the campsite toward the west, staying in the grass for as far as possible. The grass was a welcome change from all the forest and rock they had encountered so far on the journey.
The grass in this valley was basically green, though in had other colors mixed in as well. In some sections the other colors dominated and there the travelers saw various hues of yellows, reds and even some blues.
Wild flowers grew abundantly across all the fields and meadows, speckling the grass with lots of bright color. Most of the flowers were small and in some of the flower rich areas the effect was that of a large brightly colored woven carpet, gently moving in the breeze.
Not too long after they started out, Twil and Druc returned to inform them about a large river not too far ahead they would have to ford. The river was too wide and deep to wade, so they would have to build a small raft and float across. A short time later they arrived at the river and saw what Twil and Druc had meant. It didn't look too difficult, just a little extra work.
The river wasn't real wide at the site they had chosen. It was just too wide to safely cross without something to float on. The danger of losing some of their provisions was too great a risk to chance without a raft. Immediately they set about building one. This raft wouldn’t be anything like the one they had built to pole up the Amazon. Instead, it would be small and accommodate only four of them at a time. They planned on making two trips. Twil being the smallest and lightest, he would pilot the raft on both crossings, bringing it back across the river for the second group.
In no time they had a crude raft put together and the first group began their crossing. It went without a hitch. Twil brought the raft back for the others and they likewise made the crossing without problem. They left the raft up on the bank in case they needed it to re-cross this river on the return trip.
Three times during the following four days they had to do the same thing, build a small raft to cross a river. There were several of them crossing through the valley. The rivers were probably heightened with all the recent snow melt up in the mountains from the storm they had encountered while in the pass. Other than the inconvenience building a raft entailed, the days were uneventful and they made good time walking in the valley. For the most part the terrain was fairly level and the grass made for easy going, compared to the forest or the pass they had just finished crossing.
Each night they stopped near a river or large stream. Bran and Druc would go fishing as soon as they got settled and catch fish for their evening meal. The women discovered the delicious berries grew all over the valley, on the edges of the woods as well as along the river banks. Each night they experimented with different ways to fix the fish. It became a daily contest as to who could concoct the best fish and berry dish in the group. But most days Bran and Gena did the evening cooking. They both seemed to like doing so. Each night they ate fish fixed a different way and each one seemed at least as tasty as the one the previous day.
In addition to the berries and fish, Twil supplied a variety of wild vegetables throughout their trek across the valley. During the time he spent with his people on the lake bottom in Mert he learned about the various plants and wild vegetables that grew in this world. He not only learned the different roots, berries, fruit and wild vegetables that were edible, but also which plants and roots had a medicinal use as well. He was a tremendous help to them all now, enabling them to have fresh vegetables and stews with the fish and berries. Some of the things Twil picked were so good that during the day Camran would hope he would be able to find more of the same for their evening meal.
As the days passed, Twil taught them all how to locate and spot certain edible plants and fruits, as well as some of the plants and roots that could be used as medicines.
The valley was beautiful and they still hadn't seen or heard any animals. Late in the afternoon, several days after they had started out across the valley, they discovered why.
There was no noise to warn them. The first indication of trouble was when Gena cried out in pain. She had been walking at the rear of the column as they crossed a large grassy meadow, approaching a river. When she yelled they all turned to see a huge prehistoric looking bird lifting her in its large talons. The bird had a grasp around her from behind. Fortunately, the backpack she was wearing helped protect her from being crushed.
As usual, Twil was the first to act. He had his crossbow out and loaded before anyone else even had time to think about doing the same. He fired a shot, striking the bird in the neck. As he pulled the trigger, Twil was hoping the arrow would pierce the bird's skin and not bounce off, as it did with the tiger-like animal. To Twil's relief the arrow sank deeply into the bird's leathery looking flesh.
The bird let out a loud squawking noise but continued to lift Gena and fly off. Twil quickly loaded and fired a second arrow, this time hitting the bird in the wing. It didn't seem to affect the bird at all, except to heighten his squawking. Twil hurriedly loaded another arrow in his crossbow, but by then the bird was moving too far away to safely get off another shot, without taking the chance of hitting Gena.
Gena was not idly accepting her abduction by this monster. She had withdrawn her knife from her belt and was stabbing the bird in the leg. Blood flew all over her as she relentlessly continued to stab the creature, but he still wouldn't relinquish his grip.
Before anyone else was able to fire their crossbow it was already too late. The bird was too high and too far away. Gena was in the way of a safe shot. The bird gradually rose higher in the air and began flying out over the river. Halfway across Gena dropped from the bird’s grasp, probably the result of her own action of stabbing the bird in the leg. She landed in the quick moving water of the river. Bran was already running down river to try and save her. The bird, amidst all of its loud squawking, swooped down to retrieve its lost prey.
Gena was conscious of the possibility the bird may dive again for her. She dove under water just before the bird would have snatched her out of the river. If it hadn't been for Bran, Gena would have meant with certain disaster. While the others were concentrating on the squawking wounded bird they failed to notice another one coming after Gena from downstream. Only Bran saw it in time to head it off. He fired his crossbow then dove in the river to see if he could grab Gena, who was just resurfacing after diving to elude the first bird. The arrow hit the second bird in the breast, causing it to call off its dive and fly upward.
Before either of the birds could make another pass at Gena the others had arrived at Bran's side, careful to watch out for one another in the event the birds decided to go for one of them.
Just after Bran jumped into the river to save Gena her head went underwater for the second time. This time there were no birds diving at her and she didn't immediately resurface. Her pack was no doubt weighing her down. After what seemed like a long time her head rose up out of the water for a moment, but then she went under again.
Both birds continued to circle high above them, but for the time being left them alone. Camran could now understand why there were no other animals in this valley. It was the exclusive territory of the two birds. They no doubt kept it clean of anything large enough for them to eat.
Bran reached the middle of the river, in line with where Gena should h
ave been by that time. But there was no sign of her anywhere. Bran dove under the water frantically searching for her.
The others stood anxiously waiting for Bran to resurface. He was under a long time. "There he is!" shouted Twil, above the noise of the river, jumping in to help his friend drag Gena's limp body to shore. Twil reached them and took one side of Gena until they made it to the awaiting arms of the others on shore.
Gena still had her backpack strapped to her back as they lifted her from the water and laid her onto the grass. She started coughing as soon as they rolled her over onto her stomach. She coughed up a lot of water at first but soon began breathing normally. She had an ugly gash across the upper back part of her left arm, where the bird's talon had cut into her. Her bluish blood was all over Bran’s face as he knelt beside her, chest heaving from the exertion. In addition to her blood, she had some of the bird's red blood in her hair and on her face, which Bran gently wiped away.
"She'll be okay," Twil consoled, as he placed his small hand on Bran's muscular shoulder.
Twil and Ve-Nah cleaned and bandaged Gena's arm while the others watched the birds circle. They were huge. The wingspan on each of them must have exceeded twenty-five feet. Occasionally one would drop down closer to them but they stayed well out of the crossbow's firing range.
"Didn't know I could fly, did you?" joked Gena, as she touched Bran's hand. Her touch saying all that was needed to be said between them. “I’m okay now.”
The birds finally quit circling above them and flew off to the west. That was in the direction they were heading. They knew then that they hadn't seen the last of them yet.
On the north side of the valley was a sheer rock wall, approximately one half of a mile long, at least from what they could see of it. It appeared to afford the best opportunity for shelter from the birds and to find Gena a safe place to recuperate from the ordeal she had just been through. There was still a lot of daylight left and it would probably only take an hour to an hour and a half to reach the wall. There they might find a cave or ledge that would offer enough of a shelter for the rest of the day and hopefully for the night.
Gena said she was okay but it was obvious she was weak and shaken. She needed to stop and rest. The cut looked pretty nasty. The others needed time to think out what they would have to do to rid themselves of their newest enemy, the birds.
Gena did fine most of the walk to the rock wall; however, Bran did have to carry her during the last part of the walk. She was weaker than she had believed. It took almost two hours for them to reach the wall. But just as they had hoped, they found a small cave right away that was large enough for all of them to fit into. It wasn't as large as the one they had occupied during the snow storm, but for the time being it would do just fine.
Bran re-bandaged Gena's arm when they got her set up on a makeshift bed. The movement of walking had restarted the bleeding. Twil made a tea for her that put her to sleep in a few minutes. While Gena was being attended to, Druc and Uri were outside making plans to deal with the birds. It was also obvious the birds were not going to leave them alone. The group had invaded their valley, not to mention each of them would make a nice meal for the flying creatures. The birds flew by their position several times during the remainder of the afternoon, but never coming close enough to cause them any undue concern.
Darkness came and with it the birds ceased to be a problem. The seven adventurers were safe inside the cave. Uri and Druc took turns watching the area around the cave opening. Gena slept through the night without waking.
Morning came and Gena awakened with a fever and an arm that was swollen to almost twice its size. Twil mixed up something for her from some things he carried in his pack. Gena drank it and soon went back to sleep. Bran tended to her every minute, concern etched on his rugged face. They stayed in or near the cave throughout that day. There was no sign of the birds the entire time.
During the night Bran finally fell asleep, sitting against the cave wall next to Gena. Ve-Nah quietly rose to change Gena's bandage. In the firelight Gena's arm looked worse than ever. Ve-Nah gently washed the wound with a clean cloth, while Gena stirred beneath the effects of the sleeping potion Twil had given her.
Ve-Nah had come to like Gena a lot since joining this quest. Perhaps it was because they were the only women, or perhaps it was her constant good mood and attitude toward all life and circumstances. She didn't really know why or think much about it, she just liked her. For that reason, when she finished cleansing and rewrapping the injured arm, she placed her hand on Gena's forehead and murmured a silent prayer. The firelight seemed to make her hands shimmer in soft blue light, or maybe she just imagined it. When she finished she crawled back into her bedroll.