Paradox: On the Sharp Edge of the Blade

by E. S. Martell

  He wanted to try the thing, but Serensaa was moving too quickly and seemed anxious to put as much distance between them and the site of the morning ambush as possible in the remaining daylight.

  They re-entered the trees. The forest had a thick barrier of scrub along the edge, but it opened out a little once they'd forced their way through. The trees were a blend of long-leaf pines, various oaks, swamp magnolias, some palms, and other trees that he didn't recognize.

  He carefully avoided a patch of poison ivy. There was a lot of it growing in the shady areas. He wasn't surprised to see that Serensaa avoided it also. He assumed that she would likely know about the plants in her world from past experience.

  Chapter 13: MAMMOTHS

  They'd walked for what seemed like a long distance. Logan was beginning to think fondly of the tiger meat he was carrying, when Serensaa interrupted his thoughts of food with a quiet exclamation.

  She'd discovered a heaping mound of dung. Looking at the huge pile, Logan knew it could only have been made by an elephant. , he quickly corrected himself. Mammoth

  As he walked on, following the girl, he stumbled. Catching himself, he realized he'd stepped in a depression. He was suddenly aware that there were numerous such indentations in the soft ground. From that observation it was an easy leap to the understanding that a large group of mammoths had passed through the area. He looked around and saw that they'd left ample sign in the form of dung heaps, tracks, and, now that he was looking more closely, broken branches that they'd torn off of trees while feeding.

  A freshly broken stub that was fifteen feet up a tree caught his eye, emphasizing the true size of the creatures. They had to be really huge. He stumbled again, drawing a look of caution from Serensaa. She pointed ahead and to the left.

  Logan couldn't see anything in that direction. He shrugged.

  The girl made a wry face at him, and held her hand up to her ear. She meant for him to listen, something that he hadn't really been doing. There was a low rumbling noise, almost at the bottom frequency of human hearing, coming from the direction she indicated. It must be a mammoth, or mammoths.

  They veered off to the northwest. Logan understood that she was trying to avoid the creatures. He wondered again where she was heading. Since he had no real destination, nowhere to go, he didn't much care, as long as it was somewhere safe. To him, lost in the primitive wilderness, any one place was as good as any other place, better if it held food and safety.

  A bothersome yellow fly made a pass at Logan's face. He brushed it off. A second later, he flinched as another one bit his lower arm. He slapped at it ineffectually. The biting insects followed them for a while, but then gave up as the two humans passed through a more open area.

  Logan rubbed his arm. The bite was a little painful, but unlikely to be a problem for him. He knew that some people were violently allergic to the fly bites, but they'd never bothered him in the past, and...he almost laughed out-loud at the bitter thought. For him, this truly was the past.

  He bumped into Serensaa. She'd stopped short, and was now looking around. She suddenly, and without warning, broke into a to run. He panicked and ran too, following her.

  There was a crashing in the trees to their left, followed by an incredibly loud trumpeting noise. A mammoth had sighted them. Logan leaped at the noise and redoubled his speed. Both of them were running full out towards a thicker part of the forest.

  There was nowhere they could run that a sufficiently determined mammoth couldn't follow. It could push through underbrush that a human could barely navigate. Climbing a small tree would be useless. There weren't any large boulders or rocks due to the geology of the area. They needed to find a large oak; one they could climb, but one that was too thick for a mammoth to uproot.

  The sounds from behind were louder. The mammoth was apparently angry at their intrusion into what it must consider its territory. Logan glanced back, speeding up as he saw not one, but a whole herd of the large beasts chasing them.

  The two humans had momentarily gained a little, weaving through the trees, but the edge was wearing off their endurance and they were slowing. At least he was. Serensaa was gradually starting to draw ahead of him.

  She swerved sharply to the left, dashed past a clump of trees, and disappeared. Logan, following, panted past the trees blindly, then yelped in surprise as the ground disappeared from beneath him. He fell, seeming to hang in mid-air for an instant, then plunged into deep water.

  When his head broke the surface, he choked, coughed, and then wiped his eyes. Serensaa was close by, clinging to a mass of vines that hung down the rock face they'd fallen down. She was looking at him in glee, laughing.

  Logan wiped his eyes again. Yes. She was laughing. She'd found their close escape funny in some fashion. He paddled around so that he could inspect the surrounding rock walls.

  They'd jumped, fallen in his case, into a sinkhole. It must have formed relatively recently. The walls were steep, not eroded or crumbling, and there was no possible way the mammoths could reach them.

  A large shadow loomed overhead and Logan looked up to see their pursuers. First one, then several mammoths appeared, extending their trunks downward, trying to reach the humans. One of the frustrated beasts trumpeted, and the sound bounced around between the rocky walls making a racket that sounded so loud, it even startled the mammoths.

  Logan slowly stroked over to the girl. She reached out a hand as he drew near, catching his wrist, and pulling him close.

  He was still feeling hurt because he suspected that she'd been laughing at him, but the feel of her slim body against his drove that thought instantly out of his mind. He smiled at her. She smiled back, and pulled him closer until their lips met. The mammoths faded into obscurity as they kissed.

  The fear that he'd been feeling from the chase somehow morphed into arousal. When they broke apart, he was panting almost as hard as he had been while running. Her lips were slightly parted, and her cheeks were flushed. Her eyes sought his and he felt that he could see the depths of her soul in her deep gaze.

  He grasped the vines with one hand, then belatedly looked around wondering if there might be an alligator in the pool. There didn't seem to be anything to worry about. He moved closer to her again, looking into her eyes. Before they touched, some subconscious part of his mind noted the silence from above, and he glanced up.

  The mammoths had disappeared. He pointed, and Serensaa looked. She shook her head negatively. He wasn't sure if she meant that the animals had given up or were hanging around to ambush them when they climbed out.

  In either case, she didn't seem to be in any rush to get out of the sinkhole. Her free arm curved around his neck, pulling him close again. This time, he wondered if the water might turn to steam around his flushed body. He pulled her close, pressing his hips against hers.

  The girl pressed back and made a soft noise. They kissed again, and again.

  Logan's mind had seemingly split into two parts. One part wanted nothing so much as to get her out of the water onto firm ground, so as to pursue their current activity with more efficiency. The other part, a part that was sitting back dispassionately, watching their aroused bodies press together, was critical.

  His thoughts traveled over the same ground they had previously. The girl was a primitive. He didn't know anything about her. She seemed to be at least his age, but she might only be in her early teens as far as he actually knew. She wasn't educated, and couldn't possibly be his intellectual equal. She certainly wasn't going to be able to help him return to his own time.

  For a moment, he felt ashamed. Taking advantage of her in this way seemed like exploitation, but then she kissed him and slid the tip of her tongue into his mouth. All thoughts of this not being a mutually enjoyable activity melted away like frost touched by a blowtorch. Passion drove the last bit of discord from his mind and he pulled her closer, regretting that he had to hold onto the vines with one hand.

  Her legs wrapped around his thighs and her hips
rubbed against his. Logan felt as if he were about to black-out, his breath was so short. He was considering whether he could wrap his arm around a vine so as to be able to hold her with both hands, when a large rock splashed into the water beside them.

  The two jerked apart and looked upwards. One of the mammoths was back. It had been trying to find a spot where it could step down and the rock had given way. The huge creature was poised right above the two, just on the verge of toppling over the edge. A large mass of vine had somehow been knocked loose and was sliding slowly down the rock face below the struggling mammoth.

  As Logan watched, horrified, the twelve thousand pound animal lost its footing and tumbled forward. He had just enough time to force Serensaa against the rocks before the mammoth struck the water behind him, landing directly on its back.

  There was a huge splash, and the wave slammed into the two, knocking them loose from the vines and momentarily lifting them up. Then a second wall of water drove them deep under the surface. Logan held onto Serensaa's wrist as he struggled to break free from the mass of tangled vine that had landed directly on top of them.

  He pushed frantically against the clinging vegetation, desperately trying to break the surface for a breath. Finally, his head poked out and he gasped deeply, inhaling some droplets as he did. He went into a series of convulsive coughs, dragging at Serensaa as he tried to clear his lungs.

  Her head rose through the clear water and came out of the vines. Her eyes were closed, but then she opened them and grinned excitedly at him.

  He wasn't surprised this time. She was just a little crazy. She seemingly felt that this was some kind of fun water park ride.

  Serensaa used her other arm to work free of the vine that was wrapped around her shoulders, while Logan pulled them back to the rock wall.

  There was a loud snort, sounding like someone blowing spit from a brass tuba. Logan jerked around. The mammoth was swimming towards the far side of the pool, breathing through its trunk like a snorkel. It bumped the precipitous rock wall, the trunk feeling for a grip. Finding nothing, it began to swim around the edge of the pool. Its fellow herd members, milled around, moving back and forth on the edge above, making a chorus of distressed noises.

  Logan didn't want to be there when the swimming mammoth reached their location. He felt sorry for the beast, but didn't think it would be in a good humor when it arrived. He didn't know what it would do and he was absolutely sure he didn't want to find out. Playing water polo with a mammoth was not a good idea.

  Some parts of the hanging vine were still clinging to the rocks above their heads. Logan grabbed the sturdiest looking clump and tugged. It might just be possible to climb out of the reach of the swimming mammoth. They couldn't climb all of the way to the top, though. The other herd members were still up there and from the sounds they were making, they were quite worked up.

  Serensaa's head popped out of the water beside him. She grabbed at the vine and began to clamber up, feet braced against the wall. About ten feet above him, she paused, brushed aside a curtain of greenery, then carefully moved over onto a narrow ledge that had been hidden. She slid over, making space for him, as he followed her up.

  Shortly, the two were safely dangling their feet over the ledge, watching the swimming mammoth circle the pool below them. It hadn't paused as it went past their position and likely was unaware that they were above it.

  The herd was still rampaging around on the edge above them. Logan hoped that they didn't knock off any more rocks. That could spell disaster for the two.

  The situation was grim. They could probably climb out, but they wouldn't survive more than a few seconds once they reached the top. The ledge was narrow and uncomfortable. Logan couldn't see the two of them sitting there until the mammoth herd had lost interest. The way they were carrying on, he figured that would take hours.

  He leaned to the side to look upwards. One of the angry beasts was extending its trunk downward right over his head. Fortunately there was still a lot of distance between them. It couldn't possibly reach him. Nevertheless, he flinched a little, thinking of what it could do.

  When he turned back, he was shocked to see that Serensaa had disappeared. He quickly slid over to where she'd been. Suddenly, her hand appeared from the middle of some thick vines clinging to the rock face just beyond the end of the ledge. She'd somehow managed to reach the vines, and then swung into some space behind them. Her hand waved for him to follow.

  Steeling his determination, he checked the swimming beast. It was on the far side of the sinkhole again. If he slipped, he would have time to climb back out of its way.

  Shakily, he worked his way to a standing position, then leaned out and grabbed for the vines. They gave sickeningly when he put his weight on them. He scrambled wildly for a moment, and got his elbow over the new ledge. It was hidden in thick greenery and the vegetation almost caused him to slip off, but he managed to worm over the edge and between the vines.

  Inside the vines, the ledge opened into an area that was wide enough for the two to relax comfortably. The green plants filtered the slanting sun light that shown down at an angle, lighting the niche with a greenish glow. It was as if they were hidden behind an emerald waterfall.

  Serensaa was seated on the sandy floor, leaning against the back wall of the overhang, her smile bright in the dim light. Logan marveled. Nothing ever seemed to disturb her for long. Hidden in the greenly lit area, she seemed so calm, it was like they hadn't just escaped from certain death. He moved over beside her on his hands and knees. The overhang was too low to stand.

  The two sat companionably side-by-side for a while, listening to the ruckus from overhead. Logan was of mixed emotions. Part of him wanted to continue their exploration of each other, while another part wanted to try to communicate with her. This was inadvertently the most secure location they'd been in since they met. He didn't want to miss the chance to try to speak to her.

  She was looking straight ahead at the vines. Tentatively, he asked, “Serensaa?”

  She replied, “Vuss?”

  He was elated. He could almost recognize that as a word. He quickly asked, “Where are we going?”

  She looked puzzled, then put her hand on his cheek, and said, “Logan.” Then she smiled while shaking her head in a negative manner.

  Logan sighed. It wasn't going to work so easily. He was a horrible linguist. He'd almost failed Spanish in high school, and he had only taken the bare minimum of German classes in college, sliding through by the skin of his teeth.

  He considered what he wanted to know. Then he noticed that the floor of the overhanging area had a thin covering of sand. That might work.

  He quickly sketched the outline of Florida, showing both coasts, the keys, Tampa Bay, Lake Okeechobee, Lake George, and what he believed might represent the Harris chain of lakes. Her eyes followed his sketch carefully.

  When he was done, he looked up at her and pointed at the map, then at each of them. He placed his finger approximately where he thought they might be: somewhere just to the west and south of Lake George. Then he placed his finger near his starting point, and traced it across to their current location.

  She studied the map with a serious expression on her face, but Logan couldn't tell if she understood the symbolism. She'd probably never even heard of the concept of maps. She looked up at him, then pointed at herself, and drew a line from the coast north of Tampa Bay eastward to the point where he'd started his line representing their journey together. Then she thoughtfully sketched in a rough circle to the south of the Harris Chain that apparently represented Lake Apopka.

  His mouth dropped open. She went back to their current location and traced a very light line down between the Harris lakes and Lake Apopka, then from there directly over to the area on the Gulf where she'd indicated she'd come from. Finishing with a little flourish of her finger in the air, she turned to Logan and watched expectantly.

  Logan looked at her with appreciation. Not only had she understood
the map, she'd just explained where she'd come from and where she was leading him. A sudden realization caught his attention. She was most likely heading for the Crystal River area. After all, it had been in more or less continuous use for thousands of years. Perhaps her people had camped there.

  He turned to her and nodded his understanding. She placed her hand on his cheek again, and gently pulled his head over to hers. They kissed. Then he moved closer to wrap his arms around her. Another kiss, and the mammoths were totally forgotten.

  Their breathing became deeper. Logan found himself shaking. His skin seemed abnormally sensitive. Every touch of her hands seemed to leave raised hot spots on his neck, face, and sides. Serensaa was breathing heavily also. Suddenly, she pulled back, and simply pulled her buckskin shirt over her head. Her breasts hung free.

  Logan tentatively touched one. It was silky smooth. Her nipple tightened under his fingers. She leaned forward and kissed him. This time, there was even more heat than he'd felt possible. He fumbled at his shirt, finally getting it off. He then pulled at the thong that tied the waistband of her pants.