The Hooman Saga: Episode 04a
Serial Fiction: A human arrives back on Earth — to discover sentient wolves she must help to gain their trust. And so rescue her family…
(This book is available almost everywhere online — if you can’t wait to see how this turns out, see https://calm.li/HoomanSagaBk2Pt1 for more information and links.
Missed the earlier installment? See https://medium.com/@robertcworstell/hooman-saga-episode03-d1ea26662cad)
THEY HADN’T SEEN FERALS at first, since they had come off the steepest part of the mountain. This land slanted with boulders here and there, sprouting out of the rocky soil. Not too different, just less steep.
Tig kept pushing them, pushing them.
Sue was keeping up, barely.
Tig kept stressing the fact of the ferals being close by. Then they saw them.
At first those wolves stayed far distant. Still downhill from where Sue and Tig were traveling. Tig had them travel away, on a slant, to keep out of their sight and to cover up their own scent as much as possible. Tig and Sue wound up going away from their original path.
Tig sent, “I hope to double back soon.” But that wasn’t the case, as the ferals kept reappearing at every chance Tig saw.
They were still moving lower on the mountainside, and more trees appeared. Sue started smiling, to hear Tig, and even more happy to hear the birds singing and talking to each other. She couldn’t make out what they were saying. It was good to hear their voices.
Tig kept his thoughts quiet so he could concentrate on the ferals, and on picking out the path they could take that would let them move down the rugged mountainside. If they could move out into the plain, they could move more quickly, and would be less visible through the forests. Every opening Tig had seen so far had a Feral on its edge, so they continued moving in and around the boulders on the mountainside.
Sue meanwhile, despite having to fight for her breaths in keeping up with Tig, still marveled at this wonderland. It was so different from the life on-board ship. As the sun moved lower in the sky, the shadows deepened along the rocky hillside.
More ferals were showing up, down range and ahead of them, so they were forced to keep going parallel to the ridge. Avoidance was necessary, although the ferals knew Tig and Sue were there. Sue could feel Tig’s concern, even without him sending to her.
At one point, it looked like they had an opening, but moving down found only more Ferals, so they moved back to higher ground again. The high ground was more easily defended against attack, but the only real rest and food they would find was on the low lands.
Now the trees were much denser. Their roots among the rocks now complicated footing. This made stops for rest more frequent. Short periods so that Sue could catch her breath. The altitude wasn’t helping. Ship-board air was set to sea level equivalents. She didn’t work in the mines where air was thinner.
Tig tried to continue briefing her about what could come next. “I was concerned about the dark coming soon. I’d hoped to get back nearer our camp to join our own pack’s hunters.”
He didn’t mention he’d noticed a pattern to the Ferals. Tig and Sue were being herded, he just didn’t know where. Their only solution was to climb higher up the mountain again.
Sue’s ragged breath, even during their rests, wasn’t giving him confidence moving down would be possible before the ferals closed in. And this hooman was defenseless. They couldn’t try to break through the feral lines.
They had to keep moving forward on the thin path they were herded on.
At their next rest, Sue sent, “I can see you’re concerned because you’re so quiet.”
Tig replied, “Catch your breath, and rest.” He smiled to reassure her.
Again, she sent, “But what is bothering you?”
“We are being tracked. They know where they want us and are pushing us that way. I know of many passes in these mountains, but they are keeping us from them.”
Sue sent, “Isn’t there a cave somewhere we could hold up?”
Tig grunted. “Not that I know of. It looks like our chances are best if we go back up the mountain.”
Sue slumped, head down, hands on her knees, blond hair covering her face.
Tig sent, “Come, I think I see something. Let’s get moving.”
So they picked up the pace a little and Tig sent that he now saw ferals moving up behind them, crossing over above them on the mountainside. They were definitely being herded.
Sue worked to pick up the pace, but Tig still kept within her range. He understood her limits better than she did. He also had a better idea of what was coming, but kept his mind quiet to not alarm her. All this was feral-country. He’d passed through here many times.
Still he didn’t understand the ground as well as he should have to protect her. He could keep up a pace faster than this for days without hunting, needing only water from occasional brooks and streams they would cross.
But this human was soft.
He looked back at her when she caught up to where he was standing watch. He saw many places her silver covering was torn. He also noted the cuts on her face and hands from the brush. They had also gone through boulder-sets that had scratched, unforgiving.
He kept his mind still, unreadable, so she wouldn’t perceive his concern.
Sue concentrated on her footing, his path, and keeping up as much speed as she could. Her ungainly boots and the chafing suit didn’t help. She didn’t understand a lot of this. But she saw Tig’s watchfulness. Something was wrong. He wasn’t making the choices he wanted to for their path. He was making the choices he had to.
Sue saw the ferals now. They showed themselves openly both uphill on the flank of the mountain, and down into the lowlands below them. They were heading somewhere, where the Ferals wanted them to go. But she still had to trust Tig’s decisions. For both of them.
At last they hit a real path, a wide path. On both their left and right, taller outcroppings appeared. As they passed in between them, the outcroppings came closer and closer. Still, they kept running.
Tig knew this was a trap. He only hoped he could work out an escape for both of them before it was sprung. Now, their only choice was to run.
They ran further and further down the wide, beaten path. At least the running was easier now and they could pick up speed. But so did the ferals behind them. You could hear them yapping now, calling to each other. On they all ran.
Until a sheer wall rose tall in front of the hooman and wolf. It was a dead-end box canyon.
A wide floor opened in front of them, beat down by many paws and hooves over years of time. There were bones present. These made it obvious that the ferals used this canyon trap for hunting and killing herds.
There were scrubby cedar and pine around the edges. Sue rested against one of the far walls while Tig scouted these edges. There were no escapable outlets anywhere.
You could hear the yaps of the ferals as they were coming down that canyon towards them. They stopped just out of sight. But their calls echoed.
Sue sent, “What should we do next?”
Tig replied, “We have only to wait.”
“Is there no way out?” Sue sent.
Tig answered, “I think you can make it up the cliff right behind you. You’re more designed for climbing than I am. I can hold them off.”
Sue sent, “Hold them off? That means you’ll die.”
Tig sent, “I think these are a smaller breed, these ferals. I can take out twenty of them at least.”
Sue asked, “Only so few out there?”
But Tig sent nothing in return.
Sue shrugged her shoulders and turned around to look at the climbing. She had practiced similar exercises on the ship. They had exercise walls, some in low gravity, some heavier gravity. With small hand-holds, but always relayed by someone else holding a rope.
This cliff wall was every bit as precarious with no safety line. It could be done. But Tig was right. No wolf could climb it on their own.
Tig sent, “They’ve stopped. They’re waiting. There’s more of their pack coming.”
This was going to be an honor kill. Revenge against his kind and hers.
He continued to cast about, around the trees and discover the lay of the land. He again told Sue to search a way up that wall. She studied the sheer wall to line up a route she could take.
She thought if she had a rope, she could throw it down to Tig and help him climb. It wasn’t so steep as the walls in her ship’s exercise room. He’d be able to scramble up if she were pulling on him. But there was no rope. There was no ship. It was only the rock canyon which was becoming a death trap for both of them.
Tig sent, “They may not want to kill either of us. Not right off anyway.”
Sue sent back. “Well that’s reassuring.”
Tig understood the irony in her thought.
Tig sat on his haunches, resting ahead the inevitable conflict he knew would happen…
(This book is available almost everywhere online — if you can’t wait to see how this turns out, see https://calm.li/HoomanSagaBk2Pt1 for more information and links.
Our newest fiction releases are available at https://calm.li/FictionReleases)