Southern Stars

by Melissa Good

  “Gotcha.” Kerry put her arms around Dar and braced her legs.

  Don and Rich flattened themselves against the wall as the bighorn lunged at them. At the last minute Dar slammed the pole end into the animal’s face and let out a loud yell. It veered to one side and then turned, trying to butt her.

  Kerry released her hold and grabbed the horns, yanking the sheep to one side and letting out a yell of her own. The sheep stuck its tongue out and baa’d in frustration. It jerked it’s head back and forth as Dar took the opportunity to kick it in the ribs.

  “Where’s your knife!” Rich yelled. “Let’s kill it!”

  Kerry released her hold and the sheep reeled backwards, smacking itself against the opposite wall before it dashed off in the opposite direction, heading through the narrows back the way they’d come.

  Rich went after it, and Don as well, running as fast as they could after the creature.

  Kerry drew a breath. “Should we have killed that thing, Dar?”

  Dar watched their companions throw rocks after the sheep, as it plunged downhill as fast as it could go. “Do you know how to butcher a sheep?”

  Kerry blinked. “No.”

  “Me either,” Dar said. “Most I can handle is a rabbit or a squirrel. What the hell are we going to do with a quarter ton animal?” She asked. “We left the pots and pans and everything behind, Ker. Everything’s wet.”

  Don and Rich came jogging back. “Damn it,” Rich said. “We had it! We coulda killed it! That thing’d feed us for a week!”

  “You can be in front next time and grab it,” Dar said. “If we find another one closer to the shelter I’ll jump on it with ya.” She went quickly to the passage the animal had come down. She passed through it and down into the plateau where they’d burned Josh’s body, the remnants of the fire, and his bones, already washed long away.

  IT MADE DAR feel better, being out in the open, despite the rain that kept coming down and the wind that was making her eyes water. Off to one side she could hear the waterfall, and all of them breathed audible sighs of relief.

  “That overhang’s still there,” Rich said. “Let me run back and get the rest of them. I think they can make it, right?” He looked overhead. “Maybe just after dark?”

  Dar shaded her eyes and looked across at their former shelter. “Yeah,” she said. “You guys want to go back and get them? Kerry and I will start hunting around for some wood we can dry off.”

  “Sounds good,” Don said. “You ladies going to be okay by yourselves?”

  “Yes,” Kerry said. “I think I see some dead bushes over there we can use for kindling. And who knows? Maybe Dar’ll find a...um.” Her voice trailed off. “Something.”

  Dar chuckled. “I’ll try.”

  “We’ll look too,” Rich said. “If I find that sheep I can get the rest of those guys to help carry it.” He flourished his walking stick and started back up the path. After a moment Don followed him.

  “Be careful!” Don yelled back over his shoulder.

  Dar watched them climb back up the slope. Then she turned and regarded Kerry. “At last.”

  “We’re alone,” Kerry completed the thought.

  Dar extended her hand and they clasped fingers, then turned and started along the narrow track that wound through the valley floor. The rain pattered softly against their rain jackets and made the puddles on the path dance.

  “You know what’s weird?” Kerry said, after they’d walked in silence for about five minutes.

  “Those two jerks disappeared.”

  Kerry sighed. “You really can read my mind,” she said. “Yeah, that’s it. It’s only one path back, Dar. We have the phone.”

  “He has the phone.” Dar pointed over her own shoulder. “I was thinking about those guys. We should have caught them up.”

  “You think they climbed out?”

  Dar looked at the canyon walls, towering over them. “Maybe. You’d think we could see them, though. He said the walls back there were too soft to climb. Maybe these aren’t.” She shaded her eyes again and started searching the dark gray surface.“This looks like different rock.”

  It was getting dark. Twilight was already putting the valley in shadow, but the light tan of the pocket canyons they had come out of was definitely different than the cliffs the waterfall was pouring out of. There was no sign of anyone scaling them, though.

  Dar put her attention back on the trail. They were moving down into the flat part of the valley and there were dripping scrub brush on either side of the path. They passed three or four sodden logs that were split and cracked.

  No animals though. Dar kept walking, aware of how hungry she was. The weather had driven everything under shelter, and as she tipped her head back, there weren’t even any birds to be seen drifting overhead.

  Not that she had anything to catch one with anyway. Dar sighed.

  Kerry squeezed her hand gently. “We’ll get through this, hon. It just seems like a walk through hell right now.”

  Dar listened to the rain for a moment. “We’ve been through worse.” She felt her shoulders relax as they increased their distance from the rest of the party, at least for the moment. It was nice not to hear voices around them, or the sound of things being moved.

  There was just the wind swirling around them, the soft sounds of their boots against the rough path, the waterfall in the distance.

  “You know what I wish we had?” Kerry spoke up, after a pause.

  “Dinner.”

  “A horse.”

  “For dinner?” Dar’s voice lifted in mild outrage.

  “To ride on.” Kerry chuckled a little. “Wouldn’t it be nice? We’ve been walking all day. I’m tired. I want a nice palomino horse to ride.”

  “Those other guys would want to eat him,” Dar said. “We’d end up defending the damn thing with my pocketknife and your makeshift frypan.”

  Kerry wiped the rain out of her eyes, her shoulders shaking with laughter. “Oh God I can imagine that too. I mean, would any of us know what to do if we did catch a sheep, Dar? Seriously?”

  “Seriously I’d hope it was a lady sheep,” Dar responded, as she skirted a deep puddle. “I do know how to milk goats and it can’t be that different.”

  “You do?”

  “Yup.”

  “Can you milk a cow?”

  “Yup.”

  Kerry eyed her. “Dar, you grew up on a Navy base, not a farm. What’s up with that?”

  “Moo,” Dar warbled. “Okay, so we were on the base that was south of the Redlands,” Dar said. “Remember I said I had a buddy who had some horses I learned to ride on?”

  Kerry frowned, then her expression cleared. “Oh, yeah, sure. When we went on that ride on our first vacation, and my horse got bee stung. I nearly got bucked off to the next state. I should have gotten the warning about vacations with you right then.”

  Dar chuckled. “With me? That was my first vacation in a decade.”

  “Mm.”

  “Anyway, my buddy had a couple dozen of everything there. Horses, cows, goats, and chickens. You name it,” Dar said. “So I learned to milk the cows and goats.” She smiled in memory. “He was the original farm to table guy, decades before it was trendy.”

  “Did he make his own cheese and stuff?” Kerry kicked a rock ahead of them. “Like, it was a real farm?”

  “He did,” Dar said. “He was gay. And talking to him, made me realize I might be too.”

  Kerry blinked. “How old were you?”

  “Twelve, thirteen maybe.” Dar shaded her eyes and watched a bird circling overhead. “He was maybe thirty? His parents had owned the farm and they passed on. He had come home after living in San Francisco for five years.”

  “Culture shock?”

  “Kinda. The Redlands were a little thin on liberalism. Still are.” Dar studied the sky. “Those look like vultures.” She turned her head and regarded Kerry. “That could be gross but sort of okay, or really horrific.”

  Ker
ry eyed the birds. “Well, let’s go find out.” She increased her pace, and they moved doggedly up the path and through the weather ravaged bushes, hopping over streams of runoff.

  Some were too wide to jump, and Dar paused as they reached what was in truth a small creek, the water clear and in motion. She took a step into it and sank up to her knees, throwing out her hands for balance. “Whoa.”

  Kerry cautiously followed her, grimacing at the chill of the water as it soaked her pants immediately. They waded across as fast as they could and climbed up the other side, then continued on the path as they closed in on the overhanging shelf they’d sheltered under previously.

  The shelf was there, intact, and Dar spared the spot a few moments attention before she tipped her head back up again and focused on the vultures.

  Condors, actually. “Let me go see what that’s all about.” Dar eased out from behind the rocks that had formed their protection from the mountain lion. “This is going to be about as good as it gets I guess.” She took out her flashlight and unstrapped the pack on her back.

  Kerry hesitated. “I’ll come with you.” She put her pack next to Dar’s and followed her as she emerged back out into the rain.

  It was growing dark. The weather was getting worse. “Keep an eye out for some stuff we can make a fire with,” Dar muttered. They went up the path around the side of the valley back in the direction that would lead them eventually back to the supply hut.

  The condors were circling lower, and Dar saw one coming in for a landing. She got up to the pass just in time to watch the last of the light fade over the scene of a kill. The birds were already plucking at a carcass.

  Too small to be a person. Dar felt relieved. She exhaled as Kerry put a hand on her back and they moved cautiously forward, hearing the rasp and squawk of the birds as they landed.

  She smelled the blood, and as they got closer, saw the outline of the animal and it’s matted, already shredded coat. “I think...” Dar picked up a rock and threw it at the body, hitting one of the condors.

  Kerry resisted the urge to close her eyes as they got closer.

  Dar waved her arms, as the condors hopped awkwardly out of her way and cawed in disgruntlement. “It’s a deer.” She went over and knelt next to the carcass, already stiff in death and missing it’s eyeballs. “Yeah.” She touched it, seeing the front of its throat torn and stained with blood. “A mule deer. Something killed it.”

  “One of those lions?” Kerry hazarded a guess as she reached Dar’s side and had a better view. Its neck was twisted and its mouth was gaped open, tongue protruding and half missing. “Something chewed it.”

  “No idea.” Dar regarded it. “I guess we should take some of the meat. “She studied the dead animal that, aside from the eyes and tongue, was mostly intact.

  Kerry grimaced. “It’s sorta like road kill, isn’t it?”

  “Sorta.” Dar reached back and patted her leg. “It’s better than crickets, right?”

  Kerry sighed.

  “Or beetles.” Dar pointed at one, scurrying away.

  “Okay, okay.”

  “Want to gather stuff for a fire?” Dar looked up over her shoulder. “This gets kinda messy.”

  Kerry looked at her affectionately. “Thanks, honey. She leaned over and kissed Dar on the top of her head. “Thank you for being the cave woman in the family.”

  Dar chuckled silently. “Ooga ooga.”

  “The super macha cave woman.” Kerry ruffled her hair. “Let me see what I can do about the cooking part.” She turned and started back to the overhang, turning on her flashlight and letting it play across the ground as she walked.

  Dar put her own flashlight in her teeth and removed her pocketknife, opening it and setting it down so she could rearrange the dead deer to cut it open.

  It was by far the largest thing she’d ever tried to cut up and she pulled it around in a few different ways, a little glad it was raining to keep the flies back and rinse the blood away. She tried to remember how she’d done this to the small brown rabbits and squirrels they’d caught in the swamp back in the day.

  She wasn’t entirely sure of what she was doing with this. Nearby the condors hopped and cawed, anxious to get to the food now just out of their reach. Dar realized with the dark, and the rain, it was also possible other creatures would be out there equally as hungry as she was.

  Far off, she thought she heard a yell. She paused and listened, but it wasn’t repeated. “Ker?” She called out over her shoulder.

  “Yeah?” Kerry’s voice floated back. “Something wrong?”

  “Nope. Never mind.” Dar went back to her work.

  KERRY DRAGGED A small fallen tree behind her as she made her way up into the shelter of the overhang. She pulled it clear of the rain and paused to wipe the rain from her face. “Phew.”

  Inside the little cave like space it was dark, and she turned on her flashlight and played it over her recent labor, now tucked against the back wall. Arms full of dead grass, waterlogged bushes, numerous dead tree-branches and twigs.

  All soaking wet. She began breaking up the tree she’d dragged in behind her, putting the limbs up against the wall out of the rain.

  Then she went to the edge of the shelter and peered out, seeing a bit of light dancing nearby that was Dar still at work. As she considered going out to help, the light disappeared, then reappeared as Dar turned and started back up to where she was standing.

  No sign of the others, yet. Kerry waited as Dar ducked to enter, a bundle of blood smelling, dusky animal smelling stuff in her hands. “Ew.”

  “Yeah, ew,” Dar said. “I left the rest there. I think a coyote was somewhere nearby growling.”

  Kerry shone her flashlight off past Dar into the darkness, and thought she spotted some motion. “Oh. That’s not good.”

  Dar put the bundle down on the rock they’d previously used as a table, then went over and stuck her hands out into the rain, scrubbing at her skin and letting the water run down to clean the blade of her pocketknife. “Yeah, and this stuff is not going to burn much.” She sighed.

  “All I could find,” Kerry replied, somewhat defensively.

  “I know, hon.” Dar went back and sat down on another rock. She picked up one of the pieces of wood and cut into the bark, working to peel it off. “Grab a handful of rocks, huh? In case we need them.”

  Kerry went over to the fire pit they’d made the last time they were there, and started collecting hand sized rocks. “Not a good mental image.”

  Dar split the bark and peeled it away from the inner core of the limb, exposing a somewhat dry surface underneath. She used the blade to split the inner branch into several pieces, then set them aside and started working on another piece.

  Kerry carefully put the dry pieces up near the wall, and set the rocks next to them. Then she started stripping small twigs and pine needles off and putting them together with the dead grasses she’d found. “Dar?”

  “Huh?” Dar wiggled the blade of her knife under the bark and levered it off. “Gonna ask me how I knew to do this?” She pointed at the branch.

  “No. You come from the thunderstorm and lightning capital of the world, hon. I’m sure you know all about what to do with wet things,” Kerry said, then paused and chuckled.

  Dar chuckled as well. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”

  “Punk.” Kerry went back to drying her twigs.

  It was an odd moment. There was something ancient and strange, and yet familiar about the place she found herself in right then, kneeling in chill discomfort, listening to the scrape of metal against wood, thinking about how good the fire would feel.

  She stood up and went over to pick up more grass, stopping to peer out across the darkness of the valley. There was no sign of the rest of the group and she frowned. “What do you think is taking them so long?”

  Dar glanced past her. “Maybe they decided to stay up there?” She said. “They don’t know it’s any better here.”

  Ker
ry grunted. Then she roamed around the cave and picked up a flat stone, bringing it back to the fire circle. She started arranging the stripped limbs Dar was peeling in a square, wedging in the smaller pieces on all sides. “Well, fine. More for us.”

  “They have all the supplies,” Dar said. “The tarps and all that.”

  Kerry dried the grasses off on her shirt and stuffed them between the wood. “I have all I need right here.” she said, after a moment of quiet. She looked up to find Dar looking back at her, a smile on her face. “And we have fire and deer meat. Who needs tarps?”

  “Good point.” Dar handed her another peeled limb. “Let’s get this lit. I’m freezing.”

  Kerry looked up at her. “We have any matches?”

  They both regarded each other. “Crap,” Dar finally said.

  Kerry sat down and then splayed herself backward. “Son of a bitch.”

  Dar got up and went to her pack, opening it and digging inside. “Maybe I have something I can use...aha!” She pulled her hand out in triumph. “Thought I remembered picking this up!”

  Kerry lifted her head up. “What is it?”

  “Bit of flint.” Dar came back over and removed her knife from her pocket, taking a moment to wipe it off on her shirt and the piece of stone as well. She settled herself on a rock near the fire and turned the rock in her hands, then she scraped the knife blade against it.

  Nothing but sound.

  She scraped it again. Still nothing. “Too wet.” Dar dried both off again, as Kerry sat up and wriggled around to see what she was doing. Then she turned the rock over and tried again, this time rewarded with a single spark. With a grunt, she settled closer and started smacking the rock with the knife, as they heard a rumble of thunder overhead.

  On the two or three dozenth time, a shower of sparks fell into the dead grass, and a minute after that, they had a somewhat smoky little tiny blaze going, which Kerry quickly started sticking some of the twigs into. “Aha!”

  “Aha,” Dar said. “Took long enough.” She resisted the urge to wipe her brow, scooting a little closer to the pile of smoldering brush.