Cera, who had been in charge of the last run came over to report to Vandiel. He was sitting with Artem on a fallen log not far from Thalia. They were discussing the possible routes the searching away teams should take, tracing them out from the maps.
“Ryzcka,” she said. “That’s the last of them.”
Vandiel raised his head.
“The gurneys?”
“Hidden where no one will find them,” Cera’s answer was assured and confident. Thalia wished she could be more like her.
Perhaps one day when I’ve been a Vadryzka for as long as she has, she decided, gingerly checking the nearest heat-pack with the tip of her middle finger.
: Is the food ready? : asked Josei : I am very hungry :
: Just this very chime of the bell :
: I’m salivating with anticipation :
: Protein rations : Thalia warned.
: Even so :
Vandiel stood up and coughed to get everyone’s attention.
“I believe our meal is about to be served.”
There were some snickers. Serving these rations was definitely not the same as serving beautiful food artistically set out on a plate. A protein ration was a large square block of crushed, mixed proteins. It also smelt better than it tasted.
“Tomorrow we will be busy,” Vandiel announced. “We will prepare the dom for an extended stay. Dagas need to be built to keep off the rain and to hinder the cold. Store places need to be prepared for the supplies, which then must be organised. You will also need to sleep. The away teams will be leaving under cover of darkness tomorrow night.”
Thalia nodded, as did many of the others.
“We shall eat our meal and then seek our bedrolls,” Vandiel continued. “Belu has volunteered to take first watch. I and Zandya will take the second and Tavin and Whufflya the third. Katie and Kenlei will be after them as they too will not be departing with the away teams.”
He sat down. Thalia and Christel began handing out the hot protein squares.
Everyone was hungry and set to eating as soon as they unwrapped the silvery covers.
Mikey’s voice could be clearly heard over the crunching of teeth.
“Tavin. I really don’t think this can possibly be my food. Perhaps it’s cooked wrong or something but I’m positive it’s not mine. I don’t like it. I’m sure I must have been given Lind food by mistake. Can I go and see Thalia and get a proper meal?”
Tavin began explaining. Everyone heard Mikey’s disgusted sigh.
“Serves the little rascal right,” Thalia heard someone whisper. “He’s learning that real adventures are completely different than imaginary ones.”
“Perhaps next time he sees a space ship he won’t be as keen to explore it,” laughed the whisperer’s companion.
I wouldn’t be so sure, thought Thalia with a mental grin as she tore off another mouthful of protein and placed it on to her tongue.
* * * * *
The next day it was ‘all hands to the pumps’ as the dom was prepared for an extended stay. The task however, was not accomplished without a few mishaps, mostly caused by Mickey and his efforts to be helpful.
First, he dropped a box containing protein rations on Christel’s foot.
She yipped and began hopping around.
“You little horror,” she snapped at him through her tears.
“I’m so sorry,” Mikey apologised, backing away from her with a rapidity reminiscent of a vuz scuttling into its burrow.
He backed straight into Katie’s Kenlei and stamped on his paw. He let out a yelp rivalling Christel’s. It was certainly more penetrating. Kenlei limped forward on three paws towards where Katie was, an expression of acute pain on his hairy face.
Katie, who had been stacking boxes under the foliage, emerged like a dam whose puppies where been threatened by a predator and rushed to his side murmuring soothing noises.
Mikey promptly executed a ninety-degree turn and began backing away some more only to trip over a pile of pewter plates and mugs.
He let out a howl on his own account as with a painful clatter his bottom came down slap bang in the middle of them.
Tavin rushed over and lifted him up by the scruff of his neck. He shook him then almost as an afterthought asked him if he was okay.
“It hurts,” sobbed Mikey, rubbing his incipient bruises. His eyes widened as he spied Christel and Katie striding in his direction. Christel looked as if she was going to put him over her knee and give him a good hiding and if that happened how would he be able to hold his head up high in front of the others again?
He tried to wriggle away from his cousin’s grip so violently that Tavin let go and Mikey, desperate to get as far away as possible from Christel, staggered straight into the arms of Vandiel.
“Whoa young man,” the swaying Vandiel cried out. “What’s the rush?”
Vandiel looked up, saw Tavin, Katie and Christel and immediately got a good idea in his head about what must have happened. He gave Mikey a push in the direction of his own Zandya with instructions to stay beside her until he said otherwise.
With a whispered thank you, Mikey scuttled away as fast as his shaking legs could carry him and Vandiel prepared to pour oil on to the unsettled waters.
Mikey didn’t get Christel’s spanking but he was not permitted to take part in a single other task for what remained of the day. This was almost the worst punishment of all. Mikey hated to be made to sit still.
He vowed to be more careful in future, especially around Christel.
* * * * *
Vandiel did not require to gather his commanders round him to tell them what to do. With his telepathic link through Zandya he merely told them when to go.
Artem and Larya’s group were heading southeast and the others in a quarter compass point wheel from there. The First Vadryz under Cera and Xei were going south and the Second Vadryz under Thalia and Josei southwest. The Third under Dafid and Maya came next, they were heading west and the Fourth Vadryz under Jenna and Stasei had been allocated the northwest spot.
They left under cover of darkness.
Left behind was the headquarters team who spend what was left of the night very conscious of their depleted numbers.
Next morning Vandiel decided that those who remained at the dom with him and Zandya should keep busy.
“Katie! Would you and Kenlei take Tavin and Whufflya on a tracking lesson please?” he asked once everyone had eaten breakfast and tidied up the dom to his satisfaction. “And when you’re out,” he added, “set up the warning wires. Better safe than sorry. After midday meal I’ll start him off with a little sword-work.”
“Yes Vandiel,” Katie agreed and beckoned Tavin and Whufflya over.
Mikey shuffled along behind his cousin trying to keep out of sight of Vandiel. He was hoping that he might be invited to go too. A tracking lesson sounded too exciting for words!
So far his adventure hadn’t turned out to be at all the same as what he had fondly believed adventures should be like. His presence here on Tenha was largely superfluous and many of the vadeln-pairs barely tolerated him. Coupled to this was the fact that he was clearly expected to work. He was sure he had never been kept so busy his entire life. There was no one to play with and only a few were prepared to talk and listen to him except Tavin and Whufflya and to an extent, Max and Belu.
Vandiel knew this. He spied him skulking around behind Whufflya.
“You there, boy,” he said. “Come out where I can see you.”
Mikey did, looking slightly sheepish, or kuraish as they called it on Tak.
He waited for what Vandiel had to say.
“I’ll spend a half bell with you,” Vandiel informed him. “Now that you’re here we need to make sure your education continues.”
Mikey’s shoulders slumped and he bit back a groan. Work and now lessons! The adventure was getting worse by the tvan.
Vandiel’s eyes were twinkling.
“A half bell of sword-work will
do you good and the exercise will get some of the fidgets out of you.”
Immediately Mikey’s face broke into a beaming smile. This sounded more like the thing!
“And this afternoon,” continued Vandiel. “Belu has offered to take you with him when he goes scout-flying to the north.”
Mikey’s smile couldn’t have got any wider. The watching Katie thought his cheeks would crack open.
“Thank you,” Mikey said in a blissful voice.
“You must promise to be good,” warned Vandiel. “If you are not, these delights will stop after today and I’ll make you perform many time consuming, boring, messy tasks by way of punishment, all the messiest jobs I can think of.”
“I’ll be good,” Mikey said and meant every word.
Katie wondered if Vandiel would have been so nice if he had known that she had just spent the last quarter bell tidying up after Mikey’s attempt to help Max decant firearm oil from a leaky container to an un-leaky one. She didn’t think she would ever get the resultant mess out of the knees of her trousers.
Max was in a storming rage because he had ordered Mikey to wait for him and so that they could do it together.
Mikey hadn’t waited.
He’s like a naughty ltscta, thought Katie, picking up Kenlei’s harness, but a nice naughty ltscta.
* * * * *
Katie and Kenlei, an apprehensive Tavin and buoyant Whufflya in tow, left about a half bell later.
“Bend down over her neck when you’re trying to avoid low-lying branches. It also helps with tracking if you’re actually looking at the ground,” Katie instructed. She had turned round in time to see the cadet virtually unseated by a springy branch as they entered the foliage and that despite being strapped to Whufflya’s harness.
Tavin immediately bent his upper torso over and prepared to enjoy himself. Katie was a light hearted sort of person, much, he suspected like her friend Thalia was when she forgot about her new rank and responsibilities.
“You must always pay attention to the ground underpaw when you’re tracking,” Katie began, falling back so she and Kenlei could ride beside them. “And always listen to Whufflya. She’s probably forgotten more about tracking and hunting than every person anywhere ever knew.”
Whufflya snorted agreement.
: Let Katie tell you about it and listen well : she advised : I will help and show you more later but she knows what it is to be a human who searches and hunts :
“Some ground is easier to find tracks on than others,” explained Katie. “Mud, snow, anything wet, that’s best. We don’t know if there are any large, dangerous creatures on this planet but be aware of the possibility at all times. As my old tutor used to say when I was a cadet, if there are ruminants there are always carnivore predators around too. If you can it is also best if you keep what you’re tracking between you and the light. Its not always possible but it’s much easier. The light casts a shadow, you see better. Look, do you see that there? Let’s dismount and take a closer look.”
Katie dismounted in the fluid, easy way that Tavin envied in the experienced. He scrambled down anyhow.
Katie was kneeling, looking at a track of four clear indentations on the leaf covered ground.
“It’s a small animal. Smaller that Kenlei and Whufflya. See how the four marks are close together? Our Lind’s tracks have a much larger space between them because their stride is longer. What else can you deduce?”
Tavin stared hard at the marks. “They aren’t like Lind tracks,” he said after a long look. “The creature that made these didn’t have paws.”
“Good, anything else?”
“Four legged?” he guessed.
“Also correct. Well done! We’ll make a tracker of you yet! I’ve also noticed that it isn’t a shod foot. So knowing what we do about Tenha, which admittedly isn’t a lot, what sort of creature do you think made these?”
“Small and four legged,” Tavin answered. “But we don’t yet know if it is dangerous or indeed what it looks like.”
“Excellent. We’ll mount up and continue. Keep your wits about you.”
Tavin concurred and scrambled up on to Whufflya’s back.
“You must also try to work out how fresh the tracks are,” said Katie as they walked along following the intermittent trail. One moment they would see three or four track marks on wet ground then it would become drier and they would lose the trail again. “There’s not much vegetation here so we can’t look out for bruised leaves but I’d say the creature we’re following passed here about a day to a day and a half ago.”
: I agree : ‘said’ Whufflya and Kenlei in unison to their respective partners and Katie laughed.
“Kenlei thinks so too. I don’t see any signs of feeding anywhere so we can’t get an indication of what type of creature it is.”
“I don’t see any droppings either,” Tavin mentioned, almost in passing.
“Droppings would be good,” Katie agreed. “They give an indication about diet. I remember coming across a huge mess of droppings in the mountains when I was about your age. There were tiny bits of bone in it as well as hair and it smelt to high dudgeon. Carnivore droppings smell different from those that have a vegetarian diet.”
“What was it?”
“A gtran, huge, nasty cats.”
“I read about them but I never saw one.”
“You should be glad you didn’t. Kenlei still has the scars to prove that our meeting with that one actually happened. It was a bloody fight but we killed it in the end. Back on Rybak the Vada used to protect the mountain communities from the gtran, and others.”
“Like the wral?”
“They weren’t as vicious, but yes. I’ve always believed the gtran attacked just for the fun of it. I hope the people we left behind are coping with them.”
“They’ll be okay,” Tavin reassured her.
“The bandits too,” Katie continued to worry.
“I’m sure the Garda have taken over their protection.”
“I sincerely hope so. Now you take point. Try to locate the next group of tracks.”
* * * * *
Meanwhile, Mikey was standing in front of Vandiel, outwardly calm but churning up inside. Vandiel was showing him a pair of battered practice swords. They looked heavy and long.
“In the Vada we don’t believe in using smaller swords for smaller fighters,” he told Mikey. “Oh, I know the fencing masters follow that route but we believe in starting with a sword the same weight and length as you will use when you are full-grown and on active service in the field.”
“Is it very heavy?” Mikey asked, eyeing the swords as if either one of them might bite. Artem had given him some fighting exercises to practice during their journey but had refrained from teaching serious sword-work. Vandiel had other ideas. One never knew when Mikey might need to know how to defend himself now he was here on the planet.
“At first, but your muscles will develop. You will find it difficult and it will hurt but if you persevere you’ll soon get used to it. The day will come when you’ll not notice the weight. Your sword will become an extension of your arm. It becomes a part of you.”
Mikey gulped. Taking the one Vandiel handed to him, he grasped the hilt just as he had been shown and waited. The sword was heavy.
“I, I went to a couple of fencing lessons a year ago,” he ventured.
“Good, that means this is not completely new but I am going to teach you how to fight and kill, not how to fence. The Vada don’t use fancy terms like fencers do.”
Mikey gulped again. This was real. This was definitely not a game.
“I will use some terms you might be familiar with. If I say ‘lunge’ that means I want you to attack. A ‘parry’ is when you meet an attack, using your sword to stop my lunge. “Disengage’ means stop. You got all that?”
“Lunge means I attack you, parry means I stop your blow with my sword and disengage means that I stop. Yes, I’ve got it.”
Mikey was gett
ing excited and was forgetting Vandiel’s words about being taught how to kill even though they had been uttered a scant couple of tvans earlier.
“Come at me,” Vandiel encouraged.
Mikey needed no second telling. He raised his sword and leapt forward, only to feel a wham up his arm and to see his sword spinning off into the air.
“Pick your weapon up.”
Stunned, Mikey picked it up again. His arm felt funny. He took up the ‘ready’ position once more.
“Again,” commanded Vandiel.
Mikey lunged and the same thing happened. He kept on losing his sword to Vandiel, again and again.
Vandiel grinned. This was Mikey’s first lesson - the knowledge that he knew nothing and that Vandiel could disarm him with a flick of his wrist. Many boys and girls arrived at the Stronghold fired with enthusiastic visions about galloping off into the sunset brandishing a sword. This first sword-work lesson was always the same, the one Mikey was learning now.
Suitably chastised and his enthusiasm about learning sword-work dimming, a now wary Mikey looked at his instructor and wondered when Vandiel would call a halt. He was hoping it would be soon.
Vandiel set him to performing various exercises designed to strengthen his muscles and ingrain certain movements in Mikey’s brain.
“This is the first of a series of sword drills taught to the cadets. Your cousin Tavin will be doing this with me later. He already knows the basics, unlike you. Now watch.”
He brought his sword into the ‘Ready’ position and brought it down in a short half-arc. “This is movement one. Pay attention Mikey.” He had noticed the boy’s eyes wandering.
With a flick of his wrist he sliced his sword up until both arm and sword were parallel to the ground.
“That was movement two.”
He kept his arm still for some time and Mikey was amazed to see that Vandiel’s practice sword didn’t wobble, even by a little bit. He began understand why strong muscles were necessary. At last Vandiel moved his arm, bringing it down to the rest position with the words, “movement end.”
“That’s all it is,” he told Mikey. “Now you will do it. On the count.”
He made Mikey repeat the exercise again and again, faster each time until Mikey felt that his arm was going to drop off.