Barbarian’s Taming by Ruby Dixon

13

HASSEN

Two Weeks Later

“You are slow today,” I mock my mate as I crest over a large hill. “Pick up your feet. We have far to go.”

Behind me, Mah-dee grumbles something under her breath about ahs-wholes and makes a hand gesture that tells me she is not pleased with me. She does move faster, though not fast enough to keep up with me.

I just chuckle at her response and gaze down across the snowy plains. Mah-dee makes a lot of angry noises, but she tries very hard, and she never gives up. I might tease her about her speed, but I would never leave her behind. Having her company on this trip has made the bleak worries in my mind fade. She is very strong in spirit, my Mah-dee. If she does not have an answer, she will make one. To her, there is no crying over what has happened, only the need to come up with a solution. She is good for me. When my sorrow over my tribe threatens to overwhelm me, Mah-dee sets my head to rights.

My heart has chosen wisely, even if my khui is silent.

I scan the snowy terrain, looking for changes. I have gone this way many times in the past, but much of the landscape looks different after the earth-shakes. Two more have happened in the last few weeks, but then things grew silent. The ash has tapered off, and the snow is clean again, the skies almost clear once more. It almost feels normal.

Mah-dee arrives at the top of the hill, her breath quick pants. She moves to my side, her hand tugging at mine. “What are we looking for?”

“Dvisti. Metlak. Sky-claws.”

“No, no, and helllll no,” she proclaims, moving a little closer to me. “I’ve eaten enough of number one to last me the rest of my life, and number two and three are big nopes in my book.”

“Then your boohk is lucky. There are none that I can see.” That is another strange change after the earth-shake. While the dvisti have been plentiful, I have not seen a single sky-claw, and metlaks are infrequent. While I am glad that the sky-claws have moved on, I worry that there is something I am missing. This is metlak territory. We should at least see traces of them.

“How does it look?” she asks me. “Compared to before? Any big changes? Maybe that’s why there’s no one around.”

“No changes,” I tell her, studying the distant cliffs. There are fewer valleys the closer to the mountains we get, and the land spreads out, smooth and white. We are nearing the edges of familiar territory. Farther north, and we will be close to the strange, flashing cave where Mah-dee and Li-lah were found. I will not go that far into the mountains; there are no hunter caves that deep into metlak territory. They keep to their hunting grounds, and we keep to ours.

“I see a cave over there,” she says, pointing off into the distance. “Is that our next stop?”

“There are two caves in this area,” I tell her. “That one, and then one around that bend.” I point in the opposite direction, to the distant cliffs.

“I’ve got a bit more juice in me,” Mah-dee says, adjusting her furs tighter around her head. “We can go to the distant one before we call it for the night.”

I touch her hood, wishing I could caress her mane. I feel a swell of affection for Mah-dee. My heart. She is strong and pushes herself to her limits because she wishes to be a good partner. Her pack would be as big as mine if I let her, but I watch out for my mate and make sure she is not straining herself. “It is our last stop.”

“Our last stop…overall? Really?” She looks up at me, surprised. “Then we start the journey back?”

I nod. For many handfuls of days, we have visited cave after hunter cave, checking for supplies. Some of the caves were completely gone, crushed by rock. Some were untouched. A few had some damage, and one or two had been raided by metlak and no longer had anything usable. Mah-dee has been scribbling charcoal marks on a skin—taking ‘notes,’ she says. We leave the supplies in each cave, taking only what we need for immediate survival. Once we have stripped the farthest caves of their goods, we will travel back along the path we came from, and clean out the caves as we go.

Here, at the farthest caves, we will need to hunt something large for the bones and large skins to stretch to make sleds. A large one for me, and a smaller one for Mah-dee. I would drag both behind me if I could, but I suspect my fierce, yellow-maned human would not like that much. Just thinking about her reaction makes me smile.

Being with her has been…joyous. There is no other way to describe it. If I was alone, I would be full of despair, worrying over my tribe. But with Mah-dee, she forces me to think logically. To trust that the others are safe under the chief’s care, and to focus on the task at hand. To her, there is no problem that cannot be fixed.

This journey has not been so lonely with her at my side. I wake up each morning with her in my arms, and I go to bed each night in a different cave, but with Mah-dee’s hands tucked against my chest. We mate most nights, but sometimes she is too tired, and that is fine, too. It is enough to hold her close and inhale her scent. It is enough to hear her laugh, or to see the smile cross her funny human face.

When she is with me, I think that even the destruction of the cave is not so bad. It is not something that will destroy us. We will survive and go on. Mah-dee has started her world over. Li-lah, as well. Each human female who found herself here in the snows of our planet, far from home, has started their worlds over. The sa-khui can do this, and be stronger for it.

Mah-dee teaches me this every day.

“So how far are we from the ocean?” Mah-dee asks, shielding her eyes from the sunlight. Today is one of the first days that the suns have broken through the dark gray clouds, and the sight of them has made both of us happy. Sunlight means no more ash. No clouds and no earth-shakes mean things will return to normal soon…and the brutal season will remain at bay for one more day.

O-shunmeans great salt water to her. I remember this. I point at the spiky mountains on the horizon. “On the other side. Did you want to go?”

“Can we cross those?”

“Not easily. We would go around. Take the long way. It will add another two hands of days to travel.” I think for a moment and then add, “My hands, not yours.”

She wiggles her four fingers at me and grins. “I’d like to see what the ocean looks like here, but we should probably get back to the tribe as soon as possible. I guess now’s not the time for a detour.”

“True. I would still go for you.”

“You’re sweet,” she says, squeezing my fingers. “You can just tell me about it instead. Is it blue?”

“Is what blue?” I begin to head down the far side of the hill. The snow here is deeper, and I turn back and offer her my hand so she can descend easily.

“Is the ocean blue?” She grabs my hand and tilts her snowshoes, like I have shown her.

“No, it is green.”

“That sounds gross. Like a dirty swimming pool. Maybe I’ll just pretend it looks nice since we’re not going to go see it.”

“You would not want to swim,” I caution her. “The shore is very rocky and would tear at your feet. Plus, there are many things that live in the water that could eat you in a bite.”

“Charming. I love this place.” Her tone is dry. “So where are we? Close to where you found me and my sister?”

“Closer to the mountains. We would need to journey for another day or two in order to reach it.”

“Good. I really don’t want to head in that direction.” She shudders, and I feel the tremor in her hand. “Sometimes I still have nightmares about those little green dead guys and what might have happened if the ship hadn’t crashed.”

I squeeze her hand tightly in mine. I do not like to think about that at all.

Mah-dee pauses at the base of the hill, pretending to adjust the straps of her pack. I have learned these little tricks; she does not want to tell me that she is tired, so she checks her things. Sometimes it is her shoes, sometimes her pack. I wait patiently, pretending not to notice that she is breathing hard. Every day, she gets stronger and can go for longer, but she is still new to this life. It will take time, and even then she will never be as strong as a sa-khui female. Humans are delicate.

It is good that I am strong and capable, because I can take care of her. The thought gives me fierce pleasure.

“Hmm.” Mah-dee’s steps cease their crunch in the snow.

I stop and turn. “What is it?”

“Thought I saw something. What’s that over there?”

I look around, but I do not see what she refers to. “What?”

“Over there. I thought I saw the snow moving.”

I look where she gestures and see nothing but rolling hills and more snow. A cluster of many snow-covered bushes are visible at the top of a small mound, but other than that, there is nothing unusual. I turn to ask Mah-dee what it is that bothers her…when one of the bushes moves.

It is not a snow-covered bush at all…but a metlak.

And it is not just one, but several. At least two hands. As another bush moves, I realize that it is three hands, maybe more. And they see us. They are hunting us.

Metlak normally avoid sa-khui, and are chased away by anything bearing our scent. They are cowardly creatures…but they are also hungry. I think of the hunter caves we found that were raided, the contents destroyed and the supplies eaten. If they are brave enough to go to our caves, they are brave enough to attack me and Mah-dee. Perhaps they see our packs and think we have food.

Mah-dee is in danger. A cold chill moves over me, and I scan our surroundings. Even if I take her to a hunter cave, there will not be enough time to make a fire to chase them off. We must do something, and fast.

I turn and grab Mah-dee by the arm, hauling her along. “We must go.”

“Where are we going? What’s wrong?”

With my free hand, I yank one of the spears off my back, pulling it free from its bindings on my pack. “Those are metlaks, and they are coming after us.”

She jogs at my side, trying to move fast, but the snowshoes slow her down. “Should we try to talk to them? Lila says they’re intelligent—”

“They are hungry,” I tell her. “And unpredictable. I do not want to risk it. We are going to walk faster and hope they do not follow us.”

It is a stupid hope, but right now, it is all I have.

Mah-dee quickens her steps, and I can hear her breath huffing. “Should I get out my weapon?”

“Yes.”

“Oh, fuck.”

“Not right now,” I tell her, scanning the distant cliffs as we hurry toward them. If we get to the hunter cave fast enough, maybe I can hold them off long enough for Mah-dee to make a fire. The metlaks hate fire and are easily frightened. Mah-dee is not fast with a flint, but perhaps today…

She stumbles, a small cry escaping her. I stop in my tracks, turning to help her up. “Are you all right?” She struggles to get to her feet, nodding, and one of her shoes flops around her ankle, the leather ties broken.

“My shoe,” she pants. “I can keep going.” Then she stumbles again, crying out, and her hands cling to my arm. “Okay, might be my ankle, too. Leave me, Hassen—”

I do not even let her finish. With a growl of anger, I grab her into my arms and sling her over my shoulder, ignoring her cry of protest.

I will not leave Mah-dee behind. I will die first.

With my spear as a walking stick, I jog slowly toward the cliffs. They come ever closer, and despite the gentle weight of Mah-dee on my shoulder and her squirming, I am able to move faster. “Are they still coming?” I ask Mah-dee as I plunge forward.

“Oh yeah,” she says, her voice wobbling. “Also, I might be sick if we don’t slow down. Your shoulder’s hitting my stomach—”

“Then be sick,” I tell her, and speed up.

“Okay,” she says faintly. “Should I get out a weapon?”

“Yes.”

“Fuck.”

“Not right now,” I tell her again, distracted. I am closing in on the distant cliffs, and they look…different. The rocks are tumbled here, the snow mounded. The earth-shake has affected this place, too, and I worry that the hunter cave will not even be there. Desperation makes me move faster, and I head toward the overhanging cliffs and the shadow they cast. We are close. As we approach, I can see the shadow of the cave in the distance, and I double my steps, hurrying. I must get Mah-dee to safety. If I can block the entrance of the cave with her behind me, I can hold them off for longer—

A shattering sound.

The snow beneath my feet disappears. I yelp in surprise, and Mah-dee screams as we tumble through the air. I fling my spear aside and curl my body around hers, trying to shield her—

We land. I fall onto my back, and despite the soft snow, the wind is knocked from my lungs. Blackness dances behind my eyes, but fades just as quickly, and I feel Mah-dee groan as she pulls herself off of me. “What…”

I struggle to sit up. It is dark here, the shadows protecting us from the sunlight above. I look up and see we are in a crevasse, the ground above us split open. A layer of ice must have covered it somehow and I broke through, plunging us down here. Snow is piled around us, and the cliff walls scale far above my head and Mah-dee’s. As I look up, I see a metlak peer over the edge.

Mah-dee sucks in a breath, touching my arm.

The creature hoots at us, then grabs a handful of snow and flings it in our direction. Others appear at its side, agitated. They skirt the edges of the crevasse, glaring down at us and screaming their anger, but none approach.

“I don’t think they can get to us,” Mah-dee says. She looks over at me, worry on her face. “Are you all right?”

I sit up, looking around for my spear. It is several arm lengths away, and I get to my feet slowly, testing my body. “My tail is bruised,” I say, rubbing it. “But I will live.”

She giggles.

I scowl at her. “What is so funny?”

“Just you…rubbing your ass while we’re stuck in a pit.”

“It is not a pit,” I tell her, glancing around, trying to determine what exactly it is. It is almost like the ground has an open wound and we have fallen into it. I am not entirely sure I like it.

“A canyon, then. We have them on Earth.”

I look up. “At least it has stopped the metlak.” They throw handfuls of snow down at us as if responding to my words, but do not move otherwise. They will not come down to us. I do not even know if they can. We are at least two body lengths below them, maybe more. I eye the rocky walls. I will need to climb them to get out and lower a rope to Mah-dee. But that is a problem for later. “We are safe for now.”

She shudders. “There is that. I guess we just stay down here until they leave.”

I glance around. The canyon is wide enough that several hunters could walk abreast, but a herd of dvisti would not make it through. As valleys go, it is extremely narrow. It winds in a zigzag, and I wonder where it goes. I grab my spear, rub my tail, and then pick up my fallen pack and sling it over my back. “Since we are down here, let us see where this goes.”

Mah-dee looks up, where the metlaks watch us from above. “Yeah, I guess we might as well.” She pulls her broken snowshoe off her foot, then the other one, and fixes her boots before hopping to her feet. “Snow’s not very deep here. That’s good.” She takes a few crunching steps forward and holds a hand out to me.

Her hand is cold, and I make sure to wrap my fingers tight around hers.

“We’re going to be okay, right?” Her voice is small.

Her worry makes my heart ache. She is normally so confident, so assured. She has kept me strong in many dark days. I must do the same for her. I turn and bring her hand to my mouth, pressing my lips to her knuckles. “I will not let anything harm you, Mah-dee.”

“I know. I just…I’m a little rattled.” She gives a nervous laugh and glances back at the still-watching metlaks. “Those things are creepy.”

“Stay close to me.”

“Not a problem.” She pulls her hand from mine and puts an arm around my waist. “I’d rub your sore butt for you, but I’d rather get away from the metlaks before we fool around.”

I grunt, not entirely sure how to take that. “Let us see where this takes us, then.”