“I am so sorry, Captain. The children have all gone off, on horseback, I believe, though the last time I looked they were all in the pond,” she said, and managed a smile. “I didn’t realize you’d be able to join us or I’d have kept them about the place.”
“Grrgggl . . . the meeting ended sooner than expected,” Grizz said amiably, glancing toward the pond.
“And you thought of a swim, no doubt,” Kelly said, managing to act casually. “Well, while you’re indulging yourself in some well-earned relaxation, we’ll just go back along the trail and hurry the kids in. Here’s Nrrna, too, Captain—” Turning her back briefly on the Gringg, Kelly beckoned furiously at the Hrruban to join them. “How fortunate you came by heli, Jilamey,” and she firmly tucked her arm in his, elbowing him to fall in with her scenario.
“Easiest way to travel speedily,” Jilamey said on cue. “This won’t take long,” he added as he guided Kelly toward the vehicle where Barrington waited.
“Any instructions?” Barrington, who had just rejoined, asked as they began to board.
“Oh, would you please man the communications channels, Barrington?” Kelly said, scrambling into a window seat. “And keep trying the kids’ frequency.” She gave him the code and he bowed politely.
The small craft lifted off and Kelly’s heart did a flip as she saw Grizz, dwarfing Nrrna’s slight figure, standing in the yard.
“Where do you think they went?” Jilamey called over his shoulder from the co-pilot’s seat as they cleared the trees. The heli’s engine was reasonably quiet, but no way to silence the whup-whup-whup of rotors tearing the air had ever been discovered.
“They must have taken a trail ride,” Kelly shouted back and remembered then to turn off her voder before she damaged her eardrums.
“Then they might just have turned their handsets off?” he asked.
“No, a call alert would get through. Nothing did,” Kelly said, disturbed by that. “Those units’ll even continue broadcasting near high-power sources.”
“Think they went mda-watching?” Jilamey asked.
“They wouldn’t dare!” Kelly exclaimed, horrified. “Or maybe they would, the rascals. They were dying to show off the whole planet to Teddy.”
“Would they have known to keep the pace slow for Teddy’s sake?”
“Alison and Hrrana have more common sense than the three boys so they’d have kept to a reasonable pace. Turn toward the swamps, Jilamey. It was swamp-mud Teabag had on his legs.”
“Swamp? This close to Snake Hunt?”
“Yes, I know.” Kelly grimaced. “But Teabag wouldn’t spook at any old tiddler.”
“What about a Big Momma?”
Kelly shook her head impatiently. “I’ll skin them, I will, when I find them. Let’s backtrack Tea’s probable route home. He came in on the swamp road.”
“No sooner said than done, milady,” said Jilamey.
“Look, where the terrain opens, can we skim to see if I can spot hoofprints?” Kelly asked, reaching for the case that held binoculars.
Jilamey had taken the controls and was a deft pilot. In the soft ground of the track, Kelly could make out the darker color of disturbed ground in the even pattern made by a single foot. Skimming along as far as they could until the bushes grew too close, she could also see where the tracks were those of a gallop stretch.
“Well, he was still running scared here,” she said as Jilamey lifted the heli above the thick shore growth.
Now she scanned more widely as they passed over the marsh toward the dunes.
“This is getting all too close to snake-hatching grounds, isn’t it?” he asked.
“It certainly is,” Kelly said, leaning forward with the field glasses.
Jilamey had just angled the heli up and over another line of drifts, and a wide prospect spread before them. She caught her breath at the oh-so-welcome sight of a handful of small figures crouched on a blanket on a dune ridge. Slightly below them were five horses, apparently tied to a driftwood log. “And there they are, the scamps! Teddy’s with them.” Only then did Kelly admit to herself how terrified she had been that he’d be missing. “Set down!”
* * *
With one eye on the tracer screen and the other looking out for riders, Walters drove the small flitter around the edge of the dune where Gallup was waiting. He killed the quiet hum of the motor, and the small vehicle coasted silently to a halt. Gallup gestured for him to climb out, and pointed up the hill at the five youngsters. Walters nodded and swung the pack off his back.
“This place is full of snakes,” he whispered. “Damn near stepped on one that was sleeping! They give me the creeps.”
“Shh!” Gallup said, flattening himself on his belly on the hot sand. Together, they inched up toward the crest of the dune where the children were waiting.
The whupping of heli blades startled them. Hastily, Gallup and Walters burrowed into the sand and covered their heads with their arms. The copter set down on the sand hill between them and the children.
“Aw, hell!” Walters exclaimed, slamming his fist into the hot dry dust. “Commander Greene is going to be furious!”
Gallup plucked at Walters’ collar. “Come on, we have to get out of here before they spot us.” He reached into his pack and switched off the jammer.
Together, the two men crept backwards down the hill to the flitter.
* * *
“Snakes!” Kelly cried, pointing.
There were only a few, and relative tiddlers at that, but they were gathering just out of sight of the cluster of children. Kelly knew that the smaller reptiles wouldn’t attack something big by themselves, but when they were hungry after laying their eggs, and there were a bunch of them, they’d been known to trap urfa or even small mda and rend the animals apart. Jilamey whirled the craft around so that the fine sand blew directly into the faces of the waiting snakes. Most of them fled over the dunes and into the marsh weeds before he landed.
Kelly sprang out, ducking under the still-whirring blades. “There you are! Teddy, you’re all right?” She fumbled to turn on her voder. “You’ve had us worried half to death,” she scolded, running a hand down Teddy’s sticky matted fur before she turned on her twins. “Why didn’t you let us know you were in trouble?”
“We tried, Mama,” Alison said, ducking her head in shame. “We tried.”
“We did, Mom,” Alec said stoutly, reinforcing his sister. “And we made sure the red ‘charged’ light was on before we took them off the rack. They just wouldn’t work when we tried to call you.”
“Well, you nearly caused an interplanetary incident, young lady,” Kelly said sternly, but she hugged her daughter and ruffled Alec’s hair before she plucked Alison’s radio out of the belt clip. She thumbed the switch and then stared at the unit. “It’s working now,” she added expressionlessly.
“It wasn’t before, Mama, honest!” both twins clamored, tugging at her arm.
“Alley tells ze exact truzz,” Hrrunival said, twitching his tail for emphasis.
While it was just like these rascals to stick together, Kelly knew that they were always truthful. She compressed her lips tightly.
“Furthermore, you all know how dangerous the dunes can be at this time of year, so why under the sun did you bring Teddy here of all places?”
“We didn’t bring him, Mom,” Alec began in an exasperated voice, as if she had added insult to the injury of underestimating his common sense. “Teabag did, and Teddy didn’t have much choice.” Alec pressed his lips against a grin. “We followed.”
“Well, then, young man, what spooked Teabag to run off?”
Alec shrugged his shoulders. “I was leading, Alison behind me, then Hrrunival with Hrrana now beside Teddy.”
“Teabag just took off,” Hrrana murmured, obviously upset and feeling responsible.
“Well, no one
has been hurt and Teabag got home. Teddy, did Teabag actually run away with you?” Kelly turned back to the victim and only then saw the yolk streaking the fur around his muzzle. It gave him a ludicrous Pooh Bear look. “He’d had a little something this hour or two.” The verse rattled unbidden through her mind.
Teddy shrugged, so reminiscent of Alec that Kelly had trouble keeping a straight face. “Grrbble . . . the hrrss did not like me on its back. It took time for it to fall me off as I clung tightly.”
Well, Kelly thought, since he’s all right, there’s no need to make an intergalactic incident out of this. “So you’ve found snake eggs, have you, Teddy? Do you like them?” She grinned because his eyes sparkled and he dropped his jaw.
“Gracckle . . . Very tasty indeed. May I take some back? My dam would find them as tasty as I do.”
Alec gave an exasperated snort. “We’ve been trying to get Teddy to move, but he’s stuffing himself.”
“Can we get started home now?” asked Hrrunival. “It’s not much fun sitting around watching someone else eat when you’re hungry, too.”
“You’ll be hungrier by the time you’ve ridden home,” Kelly began, thinking that would be adequate discipline for this escapade.
Just then the horses neighed in alarm and began pulling at their reins which were tied to a driftwood log.
“Kelly, look out!” Jilamey cried, pointing violently even as he reached for whatever hand weapons the heli carried.
As swiftly and inexorably as a tsunami, a medium-sized tiddler boiled over the ridge of the south-facing dune, flowing its leaf-patterned sinuous body toward them with incredible speed.
Because they were beside her, Kelly gave her two children a shove toward the heli before she reached for Teddy, who hadn’t even risen at Jilamey’s warning cry. Hrrunival and Hrruna ran to safety. Teddy first had to rock himself to his feet, even with Kelly yanking at him. The snake, feeling the vibrations, moved in on them.
“Oh, fardles, Teddy, GET UP! That thing wants you for lunch!” Reflexively, she pulled out her belt knife, jumped in front of Teddy, and faced the oncoming snake. She just hoped Jilamey had a snake rifle in his heli. The worst she could do to the snake with her knife was deflect it briefly. But Teddy had to be protected.
Then the snake was close enough to stare directly into her eyes, pinioning her almost hypnotically. She didn’t recall ever being this close to one when on foot before or armed with such an inadequate weapon. She stared with helpless fascination as its maw opened, the jaw unhinged as it widened, showing its extraordinary gullet. Gunfire, deafening in the usual silence of the dunes, startled both her and the snake. Sand kicked up almost in her face, and there was the smell of explosive propellant in the air. The snake was distracted.
“Move away, Kelly, so I can get a clear shot!” Jilamey shouted. He was sighting down a heavy-caliber hunting rifle. “You know I’m a lousy shot.”
“I’ll forgive you,” she shouted back, “if you kill it!”
Kelly and Teddy dodged, getting out of the direct line of fire. The entrepreneur fired again, this time catching the snake in the tail, causing it to thrash back and forth in pain. Then it raised its head and stretched its jaws wide again, moving toward Jilamey. Teddy needed little urging from Kelly now, as she hauled him to the top of the nearby ridge and slid down the far side. They both lost their balance in the loose footing and ended up rolling down into the next valley.
“Aaaaaaggghhh!” Teddy cried, his vodered voice echoing in her ears. Above, below, beyond, and behind her, she heard the repeated boom of the rifle discharging.
She was still trying to spit sand out of her mouth and clear her eyes when Jilamey slithered down beside her, a wisp of smoke curling up from the bore of the rifle.
“It’s okay. It’s as dead as I could get it.”
Kelly got her eyes clear of sand, but that didn’t seem to help. She was at the bottom of a gully covered with sand, looking at what seemed to be a dozen people, their features foreshortened by height and darkened by the sun behind them. In a moment, they coalesced into four, then two, then one Jilamey. She released the fierce clutch she had on the Gringg cub and rose to her knees.
Teddy unrolled easily and waddled to his feet. “That was fun,” he said. “I want to come back here and roll down hills again.”
“Teddy, not here!” Kelly said firmly. “This is the breeding ground for those snakes. You could have been killed.”
“Why didn’t you tell me to defend myself from it? I was not afraid, and I am strong enough to have rendered it harmless,” the cub said calmly.
Kelly started to protest that he was only a child, and then realized that the Gringg cub was probably a lot stronger than she, and might well have been a match for the tiddler. But snake-killing was not likely to be considered a desirable occupation for a species that said it did not like violence.
“Well, I knew Jilamey had a rifle and I certainly don’t want to risk your hide on any snake-wrestling!”
“Oh, that is what one does with these snakes? Wrestles? I like wrestling. I’m good at it,” Teddy said, looking disappointed that he had not been allowed to show his prowess.
“Fardles!” Kelly muttered under her breath and continued to de-sand herself. “Actually, Teddy, I think your dam expected you to play with our young, not wrestle the wildlife.” She got to her feet and extended her hand to the cub. “But let’s leave here now, because I really don’t care to run into anything bigger than that one.”
“How big do they come?” asked Teddy, intrigued.
“That one was small . . . a tiddler. Some of them are immense. The ones we call Great Big Momma Snakes are much, much bigger.” She indicated girth with her hands.
“Oooh,” Teddy said, impressed.
When they got to the top of the dune, he exclaimed in dismay, “It smashed all the eggs.” There was yolk all over the place, and crumpled shells, for in its death throes the snake’s body had convulsed, completely destroying the nest.
“We’ll find more another time, Teddy. Come on. Your mother’s waiting for you at the ranch. Let’s go.” Kelly gave him a gentle shove toward the heli.
“You didn’t mention the mda,” Alison muttered at Alec as they watched the dying snake.
“Do you want to be grounded for the rest of your life?” Alec replied.
“Well, no . . .”
“Then, shh!”
* * *
“Well?” Jilamey asked, steadying Kelly through the sand to the heli.
“Well, what?” she asked. There was sand down the back of her blouse, inside her trousers, and inside her boots. She was itchy and thirsty, and she didn’t know whether to skin her children alive or just never let them out of her sight again.
“My second snake,” Jilamey said plaintively, pointing to the twitching corpse. The children were admiring it and arguing amongst themselves over its length and probable weight. “After nine Hunts and not for want of trying, I have slain another snake. Might it count toward the Coming of Age Ritual?”
Kelly laughed, her voice echoing over the empty land. “Oh, I’m afraid not, Jilamey. I wish it did, you were so heroic. But it’s got to be an official kill or capture during the Hunt itself, or we’d have poaching during the early season by obnoxious youths who want to make sure they qualify. Cheer up,” she added, seeing his crestfallen expression. “It’ll be good enough for a feast. We’ll have a barbecue. Grizz’ll enjoy fresh snake steak, and so will I. I only have to defrost the sauce.”
Jilamey brightened. “I like barbecued snake!”
When the snake’s corpse finally settled to an occasional twitch, they heaved it into the heli. It exuded a slightly musty odor, but the trip back to the ranch wouldn’t take that long.
After settling Teddy inside the craft, Kelly turned to the other youngsters.
“You five go straight home, now,” she
said, shaking her finger at them. “No diversions, no detours. Got that?”
Two “Yes, Moms” from the twins and a meek “Yes, Aunt Gelli,” from the three Hrrubans.
She let a grin break the scowl of disapproval on her face. “I’m just glad you’re safe,” she said, kissing each one in turn.
“I just wish they hadn’t fibbed about those comms. This could have been very serious,” Kelly said softly to Jilamey as he lifted the heli. Teddy had his nose pressed tight against the plasglas, watching the kids ride off.
“They don’t lie as a rule, Kelly,” Jilamey said. “Could someone actually have been using a jammer for some reason?”
“I’d prefer that explanation, but it isn’t likely.” She sighed. “Well, nothing really bad happened.”
* * *
At the house, Grizz was on her feet, a living tower, waiting for the heli to land. Making a most peculiar-sounding ululation, Teddy climbed out of the aircraft almost before it had set down, and hurtled toward his dam. She embraced him fiercely, throwing him up in the air without effort and neatly catching him as he squealed with delight. Jilamey whistled at the careless exhibition of strength.
“And we’ve got a special treat for you,” Kelly shouted over the slowing rotors as she walked toward the Gringg. “Fresh Doonarralan snake, courtesy of Jilamey’s hunting skills. We’ll have a real feast tonight.”
The captain shook her head. “Morra. Please to take me immediately to the government offices. I have had an urgent communication from Eonneh. There is trouble. I must be there.”
* * *
“Quiet!” Todd shouted, waving the crowd down. “One person, tell me what happened.”
His office was full of angry people. The bad news had travelled all over the colony in the time it had taken Mike Solinari to inform him of the incident. Admiral Sumitral had come on the run from his office when he heard the commotion. Second Speaker arrived shortly afterward, with Captain Hrrrv and several of the visitors from Hrruba behind him. The rest were Rraladoonans of both species, all arguing at the top of their lungs. In the middle of it all was the Gringg male, Cinnamon, who said nothing and sat despondently waiting for whatever would happen to him.
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