Hey, everyone.
Two chapters posted this time.
EGRI- Some of us remember Felix the Cat, ha.
I apologize that the copy editing on this story is not quite up to where it should be. I got impatient. I had a deadline and I didn't want to shelve Huntsman until I was done with the other thing. I'm trying to catch them as I post, but it requires me leaving the copy alone for a couple weeks. Sorry about that. -H
CHAPTER SEVEN
[Sutter]
It took a little less than three weeks to get to one of the larger rivers on Tilles Moon. There were two groundshakes on the way, all of them crouching, waiting it out.
They arrived at a wood water boat with oars. Sutter glanced at the river. It was late spring. The river didn't look particularly fast-moving, but it was wide, and there were water predators on Tilles. They all got on board as Hops unwound the rope and tossed it on deck.
Sutter made his way to Rab, Isobet and Jaunt behind him. "How long, doc?"
"About two hours," Rab said. "We float down to get here, but we have to row upriver to get back."
"What about the lujin?" Sutter said.
"Yeah, the ones not rowing have to kill the lujins if they attack," Miter said. "They usually do, unless it's raining. We figured if it was difficult for us, others couldn't get here."
"So, the lujins are here," Sutter said, his eyes roaming the water.
Behind him, Jaunt was just as abruptly interested in their surroundings. "Lujins? Are those the creepy ones with the two tails and the suckers on their faces and the mouths with the teeth, all slimy? They jump out of the water and attach themselves to you and chew away?"
"Hitting them in the air is the easiest," Cope said, nodding, grinning and handing Sutter a big stick, more big sticks at the bottom of the boat, all of them with old blood and guts still sticking to them.
Isobet leaned, looking, and made a small sound, her nose wrinkling.
It was a battle. They all took turns, Sutter feeling his shoulders straining, the resistance when he rowed. There were nine men and six rowing stations, Isobet perched in the center and watching the show, and if you weren't rowing, you were pretty much
, as Cope called it, laughing as he did so, dead lujin flying through the air.
They docked the boat under a grass shelter when they arrived, picking up their stuff and washing themselves off, covered in lujin guts. As they walked away, Sutter's eyes went to the river. He'd rather not do that again, fuck.
By afternoon, they were climbing. "A cave?" Sutter said as they neared it. The cave had a huge mouth, three times his height, under an overhang.
"Satellite doesn't see us in there," Rab said.
"Ulen?" a voice said, a figure emerging from the shadows of the cave's mouth, an intense man with dark hair whose eyes darted to him, and then to Jaunt and Isobet, and then continued on.
Ulen came forward through all of them, his face breaking into a grin as he walked forward. "Seth," he said. The two men met. Ulen bent, kissing him and straightening.
"Hey, Seth," Rab said, passing the couple, everyone following.
They lived mostly in the mouth of the large cave, houses made of lashed hollow tubes of wood and branches, mud and grass. There was a large oven in the center of the houses made of crude bricks, a small stream flowing down the side and trickling off the rocks in front of the cave, a fall.
"That's our shower," Rab said, pointing. "And our source of water. We diverted it from higher up. Not far in, there's a break in the ceiling. We have a small water wheel and we grow things and raise animals there. Gara birds and tamtoms."
"Papa!" they heard, a girl coming running out of a crude stick house, barefoot, her hair in braids.
Rab's daughter, and wasn't she adorable as she arrived and Rab lifted her and put her upside down, the child shrieking with laughter. All the people here were in crude clothing, and Sutter didn't see any technology. The Nix men didn't even appear to have razors or scissors.
"I walked all the way here to see Usta and now she's run away," Rab said. "Wait. Who's feet are these?"
"Mine, Papa!" she yelled, her arms hanging.
A pretty dark-haired woman with a tranquil manner came to the door of the house, holding a basket on her hip. She smiled and stepped out, setting it down and coming to them. Rab turned his daughter right-side-up and reached for the woman, the girl between them, tucking both of them into his chest. "Hello, Oline," Rab said.
Miter pushed past them as a woman appeared farther on, coming slowly out of another door, her hand under her belly. "Careful, Presha," Miter said, trotting to her.
She was pregnant, yes. Really pregnant. Big. "I walk here every day while you're gone, Miter," she said, but she smiled at him. "I'm very glad to see you."
Init was already walking to another woman, also pregnant, although her belly didn't look as terrifying and imminent. When Init arrived, his hand went to her belly and his forehead to hers.
A boy came dashing down the main way from up ahead, that absorbed Nix look on his face. Half-Nix, definitely, the boy fast. He didn't stop until he was almost to them and then he leapt into flight, his expression never varying from solemn intensity as Ero caught him and pulled him tight, the boy wrapping his arms and legs around him.
"I think he missed you," a woman said, Ero looking up.
Ero smiled at her, a pretty tall woman with dark blonde hair, walking to her, bringing the boy. "Malia," he said, reaching for her.
"Islan is with Cala and Sangra in the gardens," Oline said. "Usta, go tell them Cope and Hops are home."
The girl dropped from her father--Sutter could see the Nix now--and scurried at speed, and before long a woman came walking fast with a small child on her hip, a little girl, about three years old.
The woman didn't acknowledge anyone, didn't stop until she'd gotten to Hops, who opened his arms and closed them around her. Another woman came tripping lightly behind her, running, and threw herself at Cope laughing, Cope also laughing and swinging her around.
Rab looked down at Oline. "We have things to talk about, love."
"All right," she said, her voice calm.
#
It took nine days to get everything together and ready, supplies and a cart, and that was with everybody working as hard as they could. Presha was the biggest concern. By Rab's calculation--which was rough--she was only two weeks out now and Jaunt estimated it would take a little over a week to get to the shuttle.
Miter was a mess.
