Solbidyum Wars Saga 5: Desolation (16 page)

“Tib, how are you doing?”  Kala asked.  “You sound weary.”

“I’m still sleepy,” I lied.  “I just woke up and I’m a bit groggy.  I’m going to make an early start to return, and I just wanted to make a call and check on solar activity and weather conditions.”

“Give me a minute to check,” Kala said.  “I need to get into the control room.  Ok, now I am here.  There are no indications of any solar flares in the next few days, but there are some indications that there may be a dust storm today and possibly rain early in the morning tomorrow.   However, it’s not predicted to be much.”

“I should be out of the canyon in plenty of time before either of those strikes,” I said, “and the place I stayed in the desert is high enough to be safe from any flooding, so I should be all right if I use it again.

“How are the kids holding up?”

“I think Lunnie misses you.  She keeps looking about and crying like she expects you to come and pick her up, and she squirms when I pick her up like she wants you instead of me.  She doesn’t calm down until she is convinced you’re not going to show up.”

“So Reidecor doesn’t miss me?”  I said with a chuckle.

“Ha!” Kala responded, “as long as he has food and someone changes him, I don’t think he really cares if anyone is here or not.  He and Lunnie seem to have totally different characters.  However, oddly, he doesn’t like if he and Lunnie are separated and can’t see each other, and when they are lying next to each other Lunnie is always grabbing and holding his hand.”

“Well dear, I best be getting started.  I want to get ahead of the storm even if it is just a light one.  I have no idea how fast the canyon might fill with water and there is no place in there to take refuge that I saw.”

After I had disconnected from Kala, I started heading back the return route to the
ALI
.  When I got to the sloping stepped rapids, I found them more difficult to descend than to climb because of the slippery rocks, and twice I slipped and fell, one time landing hard on my hip.  I was sure I bruised it badly.  From there on I was more careful and slow until I reached the canyon floor.  I had an uneasy sensation once I set foot on the sand.  I had the feeling I was being watched, and I kept looking around and behind me as the sensation grew. I had gone about half way down the canyon, toward the place where the mountain ended and the desert began, when I came across the body of a partially eaten muralam.  I was hoping it was not the one I had seen and fed on my journey in, but it was about the same area where I had last seen it.  I observed tracks that clearly belonged to a woewe, and I began looking about more intently to see if it was nearby.  I took a firm grip on the rifle and had my finger ready on the firing button; however, I saw nothing except the rocks and canyon walls.

The tracks in the sand looked as if the woewe had caught, killed, and was eating the muralam  when it had stopped eating, taken a few steps upstream  and then abruptly turned and headed away from the stream to the canyon wall.  I followed the footprints with my eyes and saw they went right up to the canyon wall, and there they seemed to stop.  I glanced upward on the wall and noticed rocks any rock climber would have seen as good grips for climbing and using. I traced them with my eyes until I noticed a ledge about 8 meters above the canyon floor.  There, peering over the edge, I spotted eyes and top of the head of a woewe.  It ducked its head back quickly when it realized I had spotted it.  I brought my rifle up, aiming at the location waiting for the head to reappear, but it didn’t.  I didn’t like this one bit.  I didn’t know if I moved on if it would come down and finish its meal of the muralam, or if it would begin hunting me.  I moved as far away as possible from the ledge to the opposite side of the stream and kept my eye on the ledge.  As I eased past the spot, I moved downstream.   I had seen the leaping capability of a woewe, and while I didn’t know its maximum range, I didn’t want to find out just now.

One thing I wondered about though was why it hadn’t attacked.  The woewe seemed to be pretty much fearless from what I had seen and were at the top of the food chain.  Why had this one tried to avoid me?  I moved on faster now, glancing back every few steps to see if there were any signs of pursuit, but I saw nothing.  When I glanced down at the sand on the banks of the stream, I noticed the tracks of the woewe, and it clearly had been moving upstream prior to catching and killing the muralam, I was so caught up in my flight away from the creature that I almost missed one important detail.  A woewe travels on four feet like most animals with four legs do.  However, these tracks only showed evidence of three feet being used most of the time and only occasionally four.

The woewe was injured and not using its one leg!  Could it be this was the woewe I had shot and injured at the ship?  If so, what was it doing here?  Was it just a coincidence or was it trailing me?  I felt the panic level in me reaching a new height, and I hastened my pace a bit more.  I was checking back over my shoulder more often looking for the beast.  Once, for just a second, I thought I might have seen something move behind a large boulder, and I had raised my rifle waiting for it to reappear, but nothing did and I moved on again.

At long last, I saw the end of the canyon where the mountain ended, and I breathed a sigh of relief as I started to jog the last bit.  I still kept looking back fearing that at any moment, the woewe would appear, but I reached the mouth of the canyon safely.  I turned to my left and began climbing the slope to reach the desert floor; then the thought hit me that if the woewe was following me, this would be the best place for me to wait and ambush it.  There was one large boulder partly buried in the sand on the dirt-like ramp in the gorge that led from the desert floor down to the stream.  I moved around it, and with my rifle properly braced and positioned for a good shot I waited, and waited.  Time went by but the woewe hadn’t appeared.  It was getting on towards dawn, and it would not be long now before all the life forms on the planet would be burrowing in for the day.

I was about to give up and head for the rubble pile for shelter, though I doubted I would sleep thinking about the woewe, when the thought hit me to cloak.  I knew if I did that, I would not be able to sight my gun, but if I sighted the rifle at a point I was relatively sure the woewe would pass through, and if it appeared, I might just get the beast.  I breathed slowly, and picked a place that was the most likely spot that the woewe would have to traverse as it exited the canyon, and where I thought its head would be, and then I sighted that location and very carefully I reached down with my free hand and cloaked myself.  I had barely gotten my hand back on the rifle when the head of the woewe appeared around the rim of the canyon wall.  It wasn’t where I was sighted, and I knew I would have to wait for it to move into the right location.

The woewe moved out of the mountain ravine sniffing the air and looking about.  I could see it was favoring one leg and not using it much, but it did occasionally with some pain, from what I could tell of its reactions.  It snorted twice looking about.   It looked directly at the spot where I lay cloaked and for a moment, I was almost certain it saw me, but then it looked about in other directions.   It took a few more steps out from the canyon.  By now the beast was fully out in the open, but still not in the right location for my shot.  For a moment I thought it wouldn’t follow the same path I had and would take another route, and I would have to take a wild shot.  But then it lowered its head and started sniffing and following my footsteps.  It was almost at the spot where I wanted it when it stiffened and stopped.  It raised its head looking about and sniffing.  Its head turned in different directions seeking out sounds, and I was sure that it must be hearing my heart beat, as it was now pounding in my chest.  By now it was close enough that I was certain that with one of its leaps, it could reach me.

The woewe waited a few minutes and then once more fixed its eyes on the spot where I lay.  It started to crouch like it was going to leap, and then it paused and once again began moving forward but now in a crouched and crawling attack position.  I was sure that it either heard my heart beat, or it smelled me, but it definitely knew I was somewhere very near.  Finally in what seemed like an hour of waiting, it reached the area I had sighted in on, and I hoped and prayed I had not let the rifle drift in my waiting.  I started to press the firing button just as the beast began to leap.  I expected to see the body fly off the ground at me, but instead it collapsed backwards and began thrashing around as blood sprayed about.  I had planned to shoot it in the head, but in its sudden attempt to leap, I had ended up hitting it in its throat instead.  In a matter of seconds the beast bled to death.

I had faced and killed men in battle, and while that had been frightening it was nothing compared to the fear I felt going up against this beast. I wanted a sip of water, but my hands were trembling so badly that I couldn’t get the backpack open.  I had killed two woewe in just a few days, and I hoped and prayed I would never see another one so long as I lived.  About two hours after it was day light I got up enough strength and courage to be able to stand and walk down to its body.  I felt so small and weak next to this beast.  I saw clearly where I had wounded it days ago and could see that the wound was slowly starting to heal, but that it still was giving the creature a lot of agony.  I wondered if perhaps this one and the one up on the plateau might have been mates.  I guessed I would never know.  I sat there another hour, just staring at the beast.  I was so absorbed in what had just happened that I didn’t even notice the rise in the wind and the dust thickening in the air.  It wasn’t until I started coughing and choking on the dust that I realized what was taking place, and I climbed the rest of the way up to the desert floor and made my way to the ruins where I found my sheltered hole in the rubble and crawled in.  I was almost asleep when my com link activated, and I heard Kala’s voice.

“Tib?  Did you make it out of the canyon?  The dust storm is started, and the rain is right behind it.”

“Kala,” I said as I started to dig into my backpack for the air filtering mask, “Yes I made it, but I was nearly ambushed by that woewe that I wounded back at the ship.  The thing apparently has been tracking me for days.  I ran into it in the canyon, and it stalked me all the way down through the canyon.  I set an ambush for it when I got out of the canyon.   By the stars, Kala, that is one crafty animal.  I have never been so terrified in my life.”

“Oh my,” Kala exclaimed, “did you kill it?  Are you all right?”

“Yes, I got it.  It’s a beast.  It’s quite dead.  I hope I never see one of those animals ever again in my life.  It’s been several hours since I killed it, but my heart is still beating faster than it should.”

“Thank the stars you got it, Tibby.  Have you made it to shelter?”

“Yes I’m in the same place I was when I spent my first day on the trek.  If the rains aren’t too bad today, I should make it back to the ship tomorrow morning.”  I answered.

“The computer is predicting it will only be a light rain, but it still could flood the canyon.”  Kala said.

“Well, I won’t be needing to enter the canyon though I will need to cross a couple of small washes.  I hope by tonight that they will be dry, and I can get across them with no difficulty.”

“Please be careful, Tib.  I love you, and your kids and I need you.”

“I love you too, Kala.  The last thing I want is to make you a widow and our children fatherless.  I’ll be home tomorrow.  I need to cut this conversation short.  The dust is really getting bad now, and I need to put the mask on so I can breathe.”

The dust storm turned out to be worse than I expected, but the mask made it possible for me to keep breathing, though several times I woke up and had to clean the dust accumulations off the filters so I could breathe easier.  Finally somewhere about mid-day it started to rain; it rained hard at first but then after an hour it started to slow down, and by midafternoon it stopped.  By the time the sun set hours later most of the rain had sunk into the sand, and the ground was firm enough to walk on.

I wanted to take one last look at the woewe, and I walked down to the canyon just before the sunset, but the carcass was gone and the water was half-way up to the desert side of the canyon and had carried the body away. I began trekking back toward the
ALI
at a good pace, but then found I was confused as to the actual direction of the ship.  When I had left, I had the mountains to use as a destination but returning I had no idea just where the
ALI
was out there in the desert.  I couldn’t walk in a straight line to get to the ship, and I needed to snake around washes and small gorges.  I found myself repeatedly calling Kala on the com to fire a laser shot up into the air, so I could orient myself.  I decided I would have to make rock pile markers I could use in the future to find my way back.  Another thing that was disorientating was that the Sisoma trees kept relocating themselves.  There might be a small forest of them at one location one day and the next the same spot was a bare desert.  Finally, after several hours, I was close enough to the
ALI
that I could see the ship, even though I still couldn’t walk a straight path to get to it.  I eventually made it back, later than I had thought, as it was closer to noon than dawn when I reached the hatch and entered the ship.

Kala threw herself into my arms and kissed me. “I missed you terribly,” she said and then drew back and looked at me.  “Tib, you need a shave!  And a shower,” as she wrinkled her nose and stepped back.