Tau Ceti Read Online Free PDF Page B

e’d had it too close to the fire. The outside was a little burned while the inside was just past warm. Dex wished h i e had some salt to season the meat , but it was quite a flight to the nearest lick that Dex knew of.
    Syrdian bit into one of hi e s pieces. “It’s tough!” h i e exclaimed.
    Dex shrugged hies wings, “Predators usually are.”
    Syrdian laid hi e s piece of talor down, “I’ll wait for them to bring something better.”
    Dex’s eyes widened. Syrdian still didn’t seem to have any idea how serious hies situation was. “Uh…” Dex began but found h i e couldn’t continue. What would I say? “Your lover Qes has given you up for dead and has almost certainly told the tribe that you were killed ?” I don’t know that it’s true. Unable to bring him r self to tell Syrdian, hie said nothing after the “Uh . ” Hie resumed eating hi e s talor.
    Syrdian said, “What?” and then when Dex didn’t respond said, “I can’t believe that you’re still eating that.”
    “I think we’re going to be hungry,” Dex said darkly.
    Syrdian frowned, “Why? Surely w hen they come, they’ll bring food.”
    Dex shrugged hies wings and turned to contemplate nightfall. A lot of ground based predators were out at night. Would a fire keep them away? Would the scent of talor deter them or would the scent of death bring them? “Syrdian?”
    Syrdian had been looking up the mountain in the direction of the cave, as if wondering where hies rescuers were. Hie turned to Dex, “Yes?”
    “I don’t think we should stay here near the talor. Scavengers are going to show up sooner or later. You don’t want to be between a brek and its dinner.”
    Syrdian looked surprised, probably because breks were to o slow moving to be threats to a dalin like himrself . But that assumed that the dalin could fly . On the ground breks were pretty fierce. Syrdian’s look became shadowed as hie realized that hie actually could become a tasty morsel for a brek. “OK, where do you think we should move?”
    “Over between some of the rocks over there,” Dex pointed a wing. “Not exactly a cave, but as good as we can get here. I’ll fly over and look for a good place, you carry over a brand from the fire?”
    Syrdian shrugged hies wings, “OK.” Hie picked up a reasonable brand from the fire and turned to go.
    Dex picked up several of the sticks he’d brought earlier , “Can you take some wood too ? I don’t want to make a lot of trips.”
    Looking irritated, Syrdian stopped and went back for more. “Why do we want a fire over there? We aren’t cooking anymore.”
    “ Keep away predators,” Dex said , beating into the air. H i e flew above the rocks where they stuck up to form their little ridge near one side of the meadow. Three of them closed off a small area and h i e landed there, waving a wing at Syrdian. H i e cleared a small area at the front edge of the closed off area and laid the wood h i e’d brought there. Then h i e beat into the air and back across the meadow to the dead wood at the verge. Once again h ie checked visually and puffed hies mouth, sucking air over the olfactory patches on hies lips to smell for predators . Not smelling any predators hie landed and loaded up with more wood.
    Dex made another trip but when hie returned with the load of wood found that Syrdian had piled all of Dex’s first load on the fire. The flames had risen so high that Syrdian had had to leave the rock enclosure. “You put it all on the fire? Why !”
    “ Why did you get so much wood?” Syrdian asked indignantly.
    “So we’d have some for later!” Dex said exasperatedly.
    “Later?! Why?”
    “Syrdian! What if no one from the tribe comes! If we’re here all night , we’ll need fire to keep predators away! I won’t be able to go get more wood in the middle of the night.”
    “ Why wouldn’t they come?” Syrdian asked in amazed tone.
    “Qes…” Dex said disdainfully, then paused, unable to think how to remind