Total pages in book: 103
Estimated words: 97459 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 487(@200wpm)___ 390(@250wpm)___ 325(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 97459 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 487(@200wpm)___ 390(@250wpm)___ 325(@300wpm)
There are no metlak scents to indicate they have visited and stolen the fruit.
T’ia and A’tar have recently returned from the Croatoan camp, and they did not take the fruit.
O’jek and D’see were the last ones here, and they returned to camp days ago…with no fruit.
It is a strangeness I do not understand. In all the turns of the seasons we have been at the cold beach, the fruit cave has always borne plenty of fruit, enough for both tribes to enjoy. It has never simply vanished.
And the mystery of it is frustrating. If someone has stolen the fruit, who was it? And where did they take it?
“Perhaps it was a stranger, like R’hosh suggested?” I offer again, fingering a leaf. I do not smell mushrooms like S’bren does, but then again, mushrooms have no scent.
“Then I would have scented him,” A’tam says. He taps his nose with one hairy forearm. “Shadow Cat has the best nose of all the tribes.”
M’tok rolls his eyes.
S’bren scratches his chin and tests the leather binding on his spear-point. “D’see and O’jek were the last here, yes? What if they chewed too much chakk leaf and decided to steal all the fruit?”
“That is a lot of chakk leaf,” A’tar the drakoni points out.
“But maybe they stole it and then forgot?” S’bren continues. “I know when I chew chakk leaf, I forget that I have hands. P’nee laughs at me. She says I stare at my hands all night long. If I can forget I have hands, maybe they forgot they stole the fruit?”
“Then where did they take it?” I ask. “Not only is the fruit gone, but the supplies we kept here are gone, too. The skins full of fermenting juice, the dried meat, the extra furs—all of it is gone. It is as if someone is trying to remove all traces of us from this cave.” I rub my chin. “What about the hole D’see fell down? The one behind the waterfall?”
M’tok waves a hand. “I checked. Nothing. I even went down the rope and tried the door that she said was there. Nothing has been disturbed and there is no scent of anything but her and O’jek down there.”
I should check it myself. M’tok is irritable because he is away from his mate and their kit. He thinks this is a fool’s errand and so far, he is not wrong. “Is that not the only thing that has changed recently, though? Perhaps an outcast came from there instead of through the snows?”
“From the ground?” A’tam shakes his head again, easing himself onto the ledge of the bathing pool. “What do they eat, dirt? Nothing grows inside a cave. They would have to come out for food and we would have noticed the tracks.”
Mmm. I am not convinced. There is something unnerving about the hole under the bathing pool, and I do not like it. It must be connected somehow. I will check it out tomorrow when the others are gone, perhaps.
“Besides,” A’tam says lazily, jumping back into the warm waters. “If someone had been here, I would smell it. We all would.”
And that is what makes me pause. Because even though A’tam’s head is as thick as one of his mate’s clay pots, he is not wrong. We would smell something if someone had been here, but the only scents are the vines and our own. “Maybe the chakk leaf theory is a good one.”
“Bah. It is stupid,” M’tok says with an irritated shake of his head. “We are wasting our time here.”
It is an idea, though, and the only one we have. “Go out in the morning to look,” I tell them. “Check for old tracks or signs that the fruit was carried off. Check the nearest hunter caves. I will stay behind with T’ia.”
M’tok turns his irritation to me. “That female—why is she even here if she’s not helping? She just sits and rubs her sticks together and cries over I’rec.”
He is not wrong. T’ia swore she would help and yet she is lost in her emotions. It is not M’tok’s place to judge, though. It was my decision to bring her, and I will say who comes and goes. “She chased after us. What would you have me do? Send her back to camp?”
“Yes!” M’tok says immediately.
I glare at him, because he does not understand the situation. He only thinks of our fruit-searching party, but I know what it is like to be surrounded by happy people back at the beach. I know what it is like to want to escape, to get away for several days, for any reason at all. That is why I let T’ia stay.
Because if I can hide away from the newly resonated pairs, she should be able to, as well. “Leave it alone, M’tok.” I lace my tone with a warning. “She is not your female, and not your responsibility.”