It was midday on the strange aberrant world, and the sun was bright and hot as it filtered in through the many wide cracks and gaps in the ceiling of the world. That blazing sun gave the world its rare few hours of true brightness though – at least on the levels closest to the world's ceiling, where the world was green and grasses grew, and made the place look almost hospitable - in the middle of days, otherwise spent in a muted semi darkness. And Ben – currently standing just a short run from the river well up the pathway from the base, and leaning on the handle of his ax for a moment - had learned well already in his time in that place, to enjoy the light of the sun... to be just as thankful as he was for his food, to be closer to the ceiling and under its warmth just as much as possible.
The world was a damp one. There was little doubt about that. There were no great oceans or anything even close – at least as fast as he'd ever seen or heard about. But there was certainly a considerable amount of water regardless. And trapped under that ceiling high above, and under the rock barriers of any levels below, heated by the sun at least near the top, it was certainly a recipe for a decidedly uncomfortable daytime humidity. Moisture clung so easily to his clothing, and to the short furry coat of the shinehorn – Glow – presently sitting quite content on his shoulder, as he stared across the river at a pair of spinosaurs.
A male - he reasoned watching a smallish one with a red sail standing proud on its back – because it postured and snorted and walked a slow circle in the water, slowly moving closer to the second one, considerably larger than itself. That had to be a female. It only made sense as she backed up, so clearly far less than impressed despite her would-be-mate's display. Ben watched the stubborn male as he just kept up his antics, posturing again, and raising up on his hind feet, seemingly driven by instinct to appear bigger then he was – as though fifteen feet high even without the sail to consider, wasn't big enough already – while the big female simply ignored him. She drank water from the river just as though he wasn't there at all.
Ben was uneasy that day, despite the lack of any truly discernible reason to be. The sun, regardless of his gratitude for it, felt too hot that day. And his clothes, nearly sticking in places to his body, caused just enough true discomfort to have fully distrated him from his work . The gun strapped across his back, and the jar of water at his belt felt heavy. And the ceiling of the world high overhead, had begun to feel just like it might crush him under ten tons of rock, before he was left to burn in the flames he knew full well had long ago annihilated the surface of the place above. He felt a pressing need to kick something... to remind himself that the world was real and he could certainly effect it. Because suddenly that doubt seemed logical... and that scared him badly.
He shoved the handle of the ax away from himself, hearing the dull thud as it hit the ground and finding reassurance in the sound, before he kicked a rock beneath his foot – one that had it been any bigger would surely have caused him injury – and took some degree of satisfaction in the dull thwack sound as it hit the truck of some strange part tree – part massive mushroom stalk, nearby.
He might have kicked anther rock toward that same tall and branchless tree. But a terrible bellowing roar from one of the spinos in the river fully caught his attention again. And he looked back at them, to see the female now on her own hind legs, and looming over the little male. She roared and growled – a sound so truly menacing that for a moment all sound around them stopped – and in the very next second, she was slashing at the male's neck with her lethal claws. The water all around both of the massive beasts churned and splashed up madly, And the mud from the bottom swirled to the top.
The male backed away from his conquest – only to so stubbornly posture again - before the object of his desire came wickedly close to tearing out his throat with her snapping teeth. He just roared back for a moment, in response to her snapping – and the low and threatening growl she was making. But she was having not the slightest bit of it. And the next time she snapped at him, the claws of both her front legs followed quickly. The river churned and whirled around then again as she stepped toward him, balanced on her back legs so perfectly while she seemingly tried her best to claw his eyes out.
"Ha! You tell him, girl..." Muttered Lorenzo, his tone so clearly impressed.
Ben found himself close to jumping off the ground, startled at the sound of his tribe-mate speaking, in what had been an empty field. And he spun around quickly, heart pounding in his own ears, to find the man sitting on his gray ravager mount, with a look of interest and awe on his face as he watched the spinos too.
"When, in a million years, will most human beings ever get a chance to see anything like that!" Ellie exclaimed. She raced up behind him on Chomper, with Brendan close beside her on his own raptor. And she sat still, watching the pair of massive beasts in the river with a look of amazement on her face. "Even in this place, surrounded by living dinosaurs... how often does anyone really ever catch them in the act of seeking a mate in the wild!"
She looked somewhat better than she had in at least two weeks. Nowhere near close to truly healthy or strong – she was still so lacking in color, and her pale blond hair hung limp and dull. But she was smiling brighter than Ben remembered she could, and appeared to almost bounce just a little in Chomper's saddle as she reacted to the spinos.
Ben knew he should be happy to see her excited and smiling – to see her so easily riding, when just the day before she'd looked close to falling from the saddle, in a state so bad she surely should not have even tried to ride at all – and he certainly was. She had after all, been his first true friend in that place. But still, her chattering, though it was short lived, sounded so loud inside his own head. And just trying to hear each word – to understand their meaning as more then just half senseless noise – it made him feel like his head was spinning.
Katie and Vinny appeared at some point, in the once quiet clearing by the river. And instantly they were chattering on with the others, while they sat on mounts that huffed and growled low friendly greetings, and pawed at the ground and sniffed. And it all sounded so very... noisy. Creatures – and trained and tamed ones in particular – had never seemed half as loud as they did then, in the act of simply existing.
"I gotta admit, I feel kinda bad for him," Vinny said, though his words too were mostly just a mess of sounds, forced to make sense only through great determination. And Ben heard him laugh... watched him steer his ravager mount just a little closer to the river – still a ways away at a short run. "He's smaller. But he's fast. And he's no pushover, even if he did lose that round. Could be worth trying to trap him... tame and train him..."
"Not the male, no," Ellie countered. She looked so, confidant, so... self assured, as she spoke. Her eyed were still gazing down toward the river, where both spinos seemed to have established a sort of tense truce, and were both silently occupying a side of the river, each one of them now submerged and still. Ellie gave a considering look, before she continued on. "I suppose it depends on...
She went on speaking. Ben could tell that much, because he saw her appearing to do so. He watched her looking out over the river, saw her pause to listen to the words of someone else and then speak again. But the only sound he heard was an intense ringing inside his ears. He shook his head, just as if that might truly do a thing for the ringing, and it seemed to only make it worse.
'This place is dangerous.' He'd never once forgotten that fact. But, as his vision began to blur and everything around him showed in funny and distorted colors when he tried to focus on it, the danger only felt all the more threatening to him.
The dangers of the place suddenly seemed to be everywhere around him, never mind that the others, still on mounts nearby and conversing calmly didn't seem the least bit bothered. He sensed wild raptors in the thicker clumps of trees and bushes behind them. He felt the eyes of ravagers, lurking somewhere hidden down the river bank. He jumped back, surely a foot at the least, certain a spinosaurus was charging toward him right along with his nearby tribe-mates, while they all just went on chatting. But it was gone a second later, and he knew his mind had only called it up from... somewhere, or nowhere at all.
"You down for a try then?" That was Brendan's voice. Ben understood so slowly that the buzzing was less now and he could hear the sound of spoken words. He watched Ellie as she nodded. And he listened, his vision beginning to clear again, as she talked about a trap downstream, and how she thought the group could run a creature into it.
"Ellie," Ben heard his own voice as he spoke, urgent and determined, sounding to himself to be so far away. He watched her turn to him, her expression startled. And he registered somehow that he had snapped and shouted, unsure of his own tone and volume. "You can't really... mean to try..."
His own words died out mid-sentence. And he stared at her, blinking in terror and confusion because he was no longer looking at the friend he'd come to know at all. He blinked again, studying her features as his heart pounded in his ears again. He was looking now at a child... some barely adolescent girl, with something that vaguely resembled the same pale blond hair and blue eyes of his trusted friend. Otherwise though it was a very different - and long forgotten – person. Though she had the familiar kind of confidant and stubborn smile on her face.
"You always underestimate me, Ben," the long forgotten girl said. Her voice was so clear in his mind. And he shuddered in horror, without knowing why exactly, because a smiling young girl was surely the least dangerous and horrifying thing in that strange world. "I can do it. Just watch me try!"
"Ellie!" Ben's voice was harsh and demanding. And it left no room for any protest or argument at all, as he pointed with a shaking hand, towards the chopped wood he'd piled nearby not long before the others had come running up the path. He heard himself forbid her to do anything but sit beside it, even as he acknowledged with some other part of his mind, that he was surely out of line entirely. He watched as her face turned to shock, then quickly to rage and utter defiance.
"What the hell is your problem?" she snapped at him. And through his still blurring vision he watched her shake her head in absolute frustration. "Never mind. Maybe you can explain that later. When you're done with being a complete asshole!"
Ben wanted to respond to her comment. And every bit of logic left in his reality told him to apologize. But she faded way then, along with everything - and everyone else – in the field. And he found himself gasping for breath, heart pounding in terror as he looked out instead over sandy ground and a blowing tumbleweed. He looked again to the river, but it wasn't 'his' river anymore, but one that instead churned over rocks and wound around a sharp bend through the sandy landscape.
"I'm so bored with sitting on the sidelines feeling useless," the strange pale blond haired girl, that once again was not quite Ellie complained, in a voice momentarily so clear in his head. But with one more forceful blink of his eyes, she was gone again, along with the strange wide river, the sand, and the tumbleweeds.
"You all good, Man?" someone said, now close behind him. And Ben forced his eyes to focus barely well enough to understand that Brendan stood behind him now, confusion clear on his face, and one of the tribe's radios held in his hand.
"Just who do you think you are," Ben demanded, in place of an answer to a simple question, asked in simple concern by a tribe mate. He turned toward the man then, a fist ready. And he fought back a sudden, pressing desire to punch him in the face, only because he knew – in the part of his mind still reasoning decently well– that that was absolutely uncalled for.
"I'm... sorry," Brendan said. His voice was genuinely confused. But he took a few steps backwards as he spoke – and wisely so it seemed, as Ben reconsidered hitting him.
"You don't seem to be the least bit concerned for Ellie's safety." Ben shouted. He took a step forward, still looking for a fight for just a second, before he found himself instead walking off the other way to find his horse.
Ben woke up with a sudden start, inside of his familiar bunkroom. And for a moment he just lay where he was - flopped somewhat awkwardly on his back, on sheepskin bed covers halfway yanked off onto the floor, and one of his legs falling over the edge of wood framed bunk – just staring up at the steep slope of the ceiling right above his head.
Struggling just to move, he shifted his position a little pulling his dangling leg up onto the bed, groaning at the instant feeling of pins and needles that shot though his foot as a result laying in such a terrible position in the first place. He looked around the room slowly, his eyes falling on each of the five other bunks in the room in turn. All of them – including the three that belonged to the other men he shared the room with – were presently empty. And he realized, in another wave of confusion that it was certainly not a time he should have been sleeping at all.
The sound of conversation caught his attention through a window sitting open behind his bed. And though he couldn't place exactly who it was that was speaking – a woman by the sounds of it, along with a couple of men – he knew they're mood was light, from their easy cheerful bursts of laughter. He heard a dinosaur bellow – a stegosaurus he guessed from the sound. And the all too familiar noise of a door slamming shut somewhere.
Lightheadedness hit him at once, as he stood up. And the creaking of the floorboard that seemed to creak in loud protest every time he crossed that same floor to his bed, sent a short burst of pain through his head, making him cringe as he stepped as fast as he could off the creaky wooden beam. But he turned around, regardless. And tossed the cover back over the bed – with it's mostly comfortable mattress stuffed with dry plant fiber – as neatly as he could manage, before he shuffled in a daze from the room.
The slightly too steep and narrow wooden staircase at the end of the hallway outside his bunkroom, led down into a small but decidedly comfortable sitting room decorated with soft furs on the floor and dark green stained shelves of various trinkets lined one wall. A fire burned in the stone fireplace that day – one so often did. And large the glass windows that took up most of one outside wall let the firelight reflect well off the glowing blue lake below. Ben wandered to the window. And for several moments he just stood still and looked out over the lake, deciding from the dull hints of light still managing to creep down from the levels above, that it was sometime early in the evening.
The sound of footsteps, on the stairs that led up to the back door from below the main building, followed immediately by another banging door was the thing that made him finally turn away from the window. And his heart dropped at once to see Brendan wander, his own expression half detracted, into the room. Ben recalled at once, everything he'd forgotten until that second about his words to the man, while they stood near the river above. And he found himself backing up a little, and closer to the glass of the window, realizing only then that he didn't even know the fellow well enough to know whether to expect any real retaliation. Despite them both sharing a common friendship with several of their tribe-mates, and with Ellie in particular, the two men had rarely found cause to say more than a sentence here and there to each other. And Ben understand, now that he was at least mostly clear headed again, just how little sense it had made to suddenly shout at the man without provocation.
"I'm.. sorry about..." Ben started to say. Because he had no idea what else to say then. And he tried to speak up again quickly, to explain himself or try to – sure all the while that there was absolutely no explaining his erratic behavior of the afternoon anyway. He was surprised, and most certainly relieved, when his tribe-mate waved off the regret with a motion of his hand as he sat down near the fireplace in one of the room's several chairs, with their green dyed stuffed hide cushions on their seats.
"Ellie was far more offended than I was," Brendan said. And Ben fell into another of the chairs then, recalling only when her name was mentioned, that she had been as much on the receiving end of his strange misplaced behavior as he was – and probably more so. Ben felt his shoulders drop in his embarrassment and horror. And he would have looked at the floor then if Brendan hadn't given a fully unexpected look of assurance.
"I told her I really didn't think you meant any of that ranting," he said. For a brief moment, he sat leaning back in his chair, head resting against the chair-back, before he pulled himself upright again with some obvious effort. "I've got no real idea what in the world that was all about exactly. But I've been here plenty long enough to know you were obviously having some kind of... moment."
"You could say that," Ben replied. The very idea that this man might have understood, at least to some degree, made him feel just a bit better, if not still just as uneasy now as he had been in the moment, as he thought it all over again. He thought for a second about explaining it to him. But the very second he opened his mouth again to even try, he knew he had no words to make it all make any real sense at all. So instead he just shook his head, half helpless again, and felt himself involuntarily shudder in his chair.
"Stella will be along to check up on you sometime this evening," Brendan said. And he quickly went on to explain. "I went to find her after Ellie and I made sure you got safely back to base a few hours ago. She said best to just leave you in your bed for a while and see what happens when you get back up."
Ben watched his tribe-mate for a moment, in growing concern and unease – he could so clearly see at least some hint of the very same pain and general vague look of inner terror that was so ever present in Ellie's expressions, if he watched her for more then a few seconds at a time. He saw the leaning weakly in his chair again, even if only slightly. And he wanted to argue that perhaps Stella should be seeing to him instead, because it was suddenly all too clear the unfortunate man was far less 'okay' then, than was so usually assumed. But he understood, even without being told, the utter futility of pushing that point regardless.
"Thank you for helping," Ben answered instead, nodding understanding over how he'd made it back to the base in the first place. He saw his tribe-mate simply nod in reply, while he appeared to think for a moment.
"You're so wrong though if you really do think I'm not concerned over Ellie and her safety," Brendan muttered. His voice was regretful as he stared into the flames inside the fireplace. He sat for a good moment, just shaking his head slowly while he appeared to consider his words. "That day of the reaper attack... I just knew something was going to go sideways somehow. Call it intuition, or just a lucky guess. Or maybe I've just been in enough fights with those horrid beasts by now to get a decent sense early on for when we're heading straight for some disaster or another. Sure enough it all went bad before more than a small handful of us even noticed... I saw someone picked up from the ground, then flung back just as though human beings are garbage to be thrown away. And... when I saw exactly who it was I found myself hoping she was simply dead from that fall."
"Jessie said something similar," Ben mused sadly. And he shook his head with regret of his own, as he added slowly. "I... I almost considered agreeing with him once."
"We might have all been wrong," Brendan muttered, still thoughtfully. "And I hadn't yet had a single conversation with her then. If I'd had any idea she was half as stubbornly determined as she is, when she gets the idea to do something... I guess she came to learn at some point just how much use imprinted reapers can be to our tribe... and that is certainly true. I'll be honest with you, Man." He looked away from the fireplace then. And his eyes met Ben's intently, before he shook his head again, looking simply baffled by the whole matter. "I was probably the first to seriously try explaining to her just how to go about radiating herself and getting back to safety fast enough to not die trying it. I've known more than one person over the years here, who has certainly done it and lived to be just fine. And it was beyond utterly terrifying to hear her simply refuse the easy way out. But... she's gotten this far and she's still basically okay. I feel like perhaps it's simply not having half a real clue, and just learning step by step what happens next, that's made her just kind of keep on surviving..."
"So...I've been thinking this over," Katie said. And Jessie - watching as she rode beside him, tugging expertly on the reins of her favorite tame ravager, directing the beast into a controlled leap over over a runoff pool at side of the river instead of simply running him around it – just laughed a little.
"Thinking what over?" he questioned her, when she was done with harmlessly jumping with her mount simply because she could.
It was only them that evening, running the loop through the upper levels of the world on their search new comers that both knew they could find anytime, struggling through any of a hundred dangers and in need of good allies. And though four unmounted ravagers traveled in a pack along with their own mounts, he paid even closer attention than usual for dangers as they wandered further and further from their home territory. Still, he listened to the girl all the same, admittedly amused just for a chance to see her goofing off, jumping around run off pool – because she was after all still a young person. And the pressures of surviving in that place certainly could never... and should never, change that fact.
"I'm ready to take on the rock drake trench!" Katie blurted, completing her second well controlled leap on her mount as she finished the sentence.
Jessie, taking aback at hearing the very last thing he was expecting to hear in that moment nearly yanked his own ravager into a standstill, by tugging upward too hard on the reins without intending to. He kicked the beast in the sides of its body to get her moving forward again. And wondered just how he felt about Katie's burst of laughter – one that had escaped her mouth before she could control herself – at the expression of dismay on his face.
"You promised me once, that if I practiced just a bit more with a glider... if I could just be good enough at a sustained dive straight down without losing control of the thing... If I could master grapples.. if I were fast enough and had trusted back up..."
"There's no argument about you being more than good enough," Jessie muttered. And he found himself laughing just a little, almost forgetting his dismay, at least for a moment.
Katie had gone from the trembling girl she'd been when he'd found her – a frightened little thing barely spoke enough words to form a sentence in a week... who trembled though the darkest hours of night curled up in front of the fires he lit in the sitting room fireplace to give her comfort, on the furs that covered the floor... and jumped then promptly froze stiff at any sound that could have been a 'bad thing' nearby – the early hints of her confidant and unstoppable self on the day she'd first discovered unpowered 'flight' with a glider strapped over her small body.
She learned to grapple, and to climb the sheer walls around them and reaching for the hidden sky beyond the ceiling with nothing more than a couple of good climbing picks held firmly in her hands. She'd learned to jump... to grab for ziplines in her path and to swing across the landscape at heights that would surely make so many folks sick with dizziness. She balanced on the clifftops and scampered over bridges so narrow and steep the a ravager would hesitate to run across. And the more she'd done of any of these things, the more she'd smiled... the more she'd spoken up among the others, and dared to face the darkness.
"Katie, if you simply want a baby drake to raise and train, we'll offer a trade with the Dashing Raptors for an egg for you," Jessie said, because it had been in his mind to attempt a trade agreement for several of them anyway with the tribe best known for having mastered the practice of obtaining them. He grinned with confidence then, as he tugged his mount's reins to the right in order to follow a curve along the riverside, and pretended to have truly thought the matter might easily drop at that.
"And let the 'Raptors have the fun job?" Katie protested, sure enough and not at all surprisingly. "Come on. I'd hardly be the first from the Lightened Dwelling to try it myself... and it's not like no one's ever been successful."
"It's just so... dangerous, down there." Jessie knew as soon as the words had left his mouth, that that argument was silly when it came to little Katie, of anyone... that reminders of danger would only make her want to do a thing... anything really... all the more.
"So?" Katie answered, sure enough once again true to form.
"I'll carefully consider..." Jessie began to reply, his tone a mix of amusement and dread. And he would have said more, if the sound of a yell across the river hadn't made him pay immediate attention to that instead.
"What was... that?" Katie questioned. Her voice was now a low whisper. And she gazed across the river in the direction of the noise herself, gone instantly from the young person determined to push every limit, to cautious and ready for anything with a hand slowly reaching for her shouldered shotgun.
"I don't know yet," Jessie answered in a low whisper of his own. "But was was most definitely a human sound." He listened closer, and sure enough, his ears caught to noise of another yell and then a third.
"We're close to Lavinia's base again," Katie mused, looking further out across the river, up to the cliff top base high above that the Red Piranhas occupied, behind a high imposing metal fence, lined with sharp spikes despite lack of any real reason they'd ever need such defenses. Her face fell a little at the thought of another run-in with the 'neighbors.' But she boldly checked around, from her place on her mount's saddle anyway, for anything worth worrying about.
"What the... hell are they doing over there," Jessie wondered out loud after a moment. He watched intently for a short while, as three large men – unnecessarily overdressed in armored chest-pieces and knee protectors over their too thick hide clothing – chased another fellow, clothed only in his under garments around in the field below their base, with stone tipped pikes. And two women – both with faces meaner than the armored men's – only laughed at the situation loudly while cheering near a small blazing cooking fire.
"Hazing their tribe-mate?" Katie suggested. And for a second she just laughed, because beyond a passing reaction, it was certainly no one's else's concern what another tribe choice to consider it's own fun. A second later though she was close enough to Jessie's side, to grab his arm urgently while still in her saddle. And he looked at her quickly, to see her eyes wide with realization.
"I... don't think he's their tribe-mate," she muttered. And she waved a hand toward the underwear clad man, now on his knees appearing to beg for his life as two of the bigger men in armor held their pikes to his sides.
"Bloody hell..." Jessie muttered back. He yanked on his reins in a single instant, whistling loudly for the unmounted pack to follow him, not caring to keep silent now as he sent his own mount splashing into the river.
"Katie, you're right," he called behind him, hearing her splash into the water on her mount close behind him. "That's not one of them at all. He must have washed up near here at some point. And then run right into Lavinia's men!"
"They're gonna kill that guy," Katie muttered, still close behind him, as he jumped his ravager over well placed rocks and a sand bar in the middle of a shallow point in a the river – a place where all tribes crossed as needed. "He'll die for the crime of washing up in the wrong place, and letting the Piranhas find him first because he didn't know any better!"
"Not if we can do a thing about it," Jessie answered. He lowered his voice back to a near whisper instructed quickly, "Katie, stay close behind me and follow my lead. If you get a chance to grab the new arrival do it and run for the ravager pack." He watched her nod at once.
"Evenin' folks," Jessie called out. He rode into the middle of the conflict with his hands firmly on his reins, and allowed himself to look around at those of the opposing tribe, with a forced casual expression on his face. "Looks like you've got something of a situation here. Maybe I can help you sort this out."
"Yo, man. Back off!" exclaimed the slightly smaller of the two pike yielding men – both of whom Jessie now realized were close enough to his own size. The man - his hide clothing dirty with animal blood, and his greasy long hair a mess falling over his shoulders – waved a hand rudely around and then stood, glaring.
"We don't answer to you," the second of the pike wielders – a broad shouldered fellow with a buzz cut and a left arm marred badly by horrible angry looking scars – snarled. He leered at Katie, with a hungry look in his eyes. And even when Jessie glared at him – fighting every urge to slam his fist squarely into the slimeball's jaw – he did so little to hide his predatory gaze.
"What do you think you're trying to prove by attacking this innocent man?" Jessie demanded, silently proud when Katie balled her own hand up into a fist which she quickly hid behind her back in a wordless signal of her eagerness to put a stop to any further leering at her.
"Innocent man?" the fellow with the wild greasy hair retorted. And again he waved his hand around wildly, before he stabbed a far finger at the man that kneeled on the grass. "This man ain't innocent. He wandered right into our territory, and while we was in it no less. Walked right up to our cookin' fire babbling nonsense at us."
"This man probably washed up no more than a day ago," Jessie snapped. And he forced himself to take a breath before he continued on, simply because he knew well he was near the point of exploding with anger. The man on the grass was little more than a boy – that was clear in his facial features now that he was close enough to see them. And he was trembling hard with tears falling on his face. "He wandered up because he needed help, don't you suppose? He may just have assumed you fools had a shred of good in you. Imagine that! He can't be more than seventeen. And you... you bloody barbarians, decided it made perfect sense to kill him with a pike through the rib cage because he was confused!"
He grabbed the man by the front of his hide shift then, in a show of anger and force he so rarely gave in to. And with a hard yank, he dragged the large man back several steps, before he shoved him to the ground away from the shaking new arrival. He would have grabbed the second of the pike carrying brutes in under a second. But the fellow was already backing away – tossing his pike to the ground as he did so.
"What would you have had us do?" he demanded, the fight clearly not completely gone from him, as he stood in a guarded and defensive posture and glared daggers.
"You might have considered helping your fellow human being," Katie said, jumping into the conversation – if it could be called that at all – at a quick and careful nod from Jessie. She glared right back at the glaring man and then his friends who so far appeared to be doing nothing to right the situation either. "Or at the very least, ignored him and let him continue on his way!"
"How do you think your tribe's leader would feel if she heard about this?" Jessie asked. He looked around, waiting to hear an answer from any one of the five hooligans.
"Lavinia would be disappointed that she missed some decent entertainment." The reply came from one of the women, who now stood closer to the group with a laughing expression in her eyes.
"That had better not be the truth," Jessie said. And he resisted every urge to call her a liar only because he couldn't be entirely sure. He shook his head slightly, wanting badly to assume Lavinia – if she had seen that mess – would have simply ordered them all to let the poor young man go at once. He clenched his fist harder, determined to go on believing that.
"He could have been your ally," Katie said to the group of trouble makers. She frowned in disgust. And Jessie saw her quickly blink back tears before the opposing tribes-folk could have the satisfaction of noticing. "He could have proven to be useful... and good."
"Why would we want this pathetic.. crying... little boy, who begs for his life like a fool?" the big man with the buzz cut retorted. He eyed the girl up again, this time letting his gaze rest on her chest as he took a slow step toward her. Jessie chuckled out loud, just a little, when Katie's gray ravager growled from exactly where he'd been left to stand waiting. Jessie stepped closer to his young tribe-mate regardless, and found himself wonderingly darkly, if perhaps he might get a single punch in the next time the man stepped out of line, before the animal got him instead.
"Take him with you, if you want to deal with this... idiot," the greasy haired man said. And he backed away further, gesturing to the young man, still shaking, now near crumpled in a heap on the ground.
Jessie didn't dare to question a thing in the second, for giving up and backing down was clearly an act of mercy from those brutal men – men so strangely nasty and sadistic from a group that had always seemed more a simple nuisance than much else. He hurried forward in an instant. And in a few long strides he reached the young man. He pulled him to his feet, with as much care as he could given his hurry to do so. And he felt relief wash over him when no one attacked him, his tribe-mate or the ravager pack near by. He did look once quickly, to be certain Katie had followed him, and the animals along with her as he hurried a good distance away – leading the stumbling man with him with a firm grip – but he knew she had anyway.
The disoriented young man fell to the ground, once again half in a heap and into his knees, as soon as Jessie let go of him once they had made it a fair distance away from where they had run. He looked up from his crumpled position, eyes wide with utter panic. He was still trembling uncontrollably and gasping for breath through his terror.
"Please..." he begged. His voice was quiet. And he gasped harder as he spoke too quickly. "Please... let me... go. I... I'm not dangerous... I... I swear..."
"You're surely not dangerous in the least," Jessie said. And he let himself laugh a little, because 'dangerous' had to have been the last word he might ever have thought to use to describe this trembling boy, nearly frozen with fright. "But so many things here certainly are. We won't force you into anything. But please, let us help you."
"Help... me...?" the boy's tone made help sound like a fully foreign idea. And he struggled with it as he went on shaking on the ground.
"You are... the... good people?" he asked a moment later, after a good try at catching his breath, and failing to, only to find himself gasping in shock all over again.
"Yes." Katie sat down on the grass – far rougher here, and littered with red mushrooms that through off poisonous vapor when disturbed. She made a clear point of checking for any under both the boy and herself before she fully settled into sitting. And she spoke again slowly. "We are the good people."
"It's terribly unfortunate that the first human beings you met in this place just happened to be a group of people that chose to act like savages," Jessie said sincerely. He stood, half helpless among the pack of ravagers – most of them now standing in a tightly packed group after one had attacked a wandering dodo and the others had run closer to the scent of blood. He searched for supplies in growing collection of so far mostly empty saddle bags – the ravagers wore them, along with strong leather saddles, for defensive armor even when they weren't used for transport - and turned back to the boy. "I do wish it could have been us that you had run into first, my friend."
"Check the dark brown one's left side," Katie said. She had packed the supplies – it was usually she that took care of such details. But she was busy that second, still sitting on the grass now a bit closer to the young man. She waved a hand around her slowly, speaking in quiet and calm tones, and obviously trying to calm him further by showing him what she easily could of their strange aberrant world. She happily gave her name. And Jessie nodded a greeting when she gave his name too, while he searched the bag she'd directed him to, now growing more urgent in his need to find those supplies.
"My name is..." The boy's trembling had lessened until it was almost nonexistent as he looked around at the tall part tree part mushroom stalks and and drifting glow bugs around them, and up to the ceiling of the world and the light that seeped in from the surface above, while he mumbled his utter fascination over being inside a massive cavern. But it abruptly started up again, and new tears threatened, at the edges of his eyes, when he appeared to realize he could not instantly recall his own name.
He sat up straighter though, still on the grass. And instead of crying again, he fought back any tears with a good intake of breath and looked straight ahead, stubborn and determined. Jessie placed a hand lightly on the boy's shoulder, not bothering to hide the pride he felt in the new arrival's first real show of his strength – of the bravery and determination that could well mean the young one might just stand a chance in that place after all. He dropped a set of simple woven clothes he'd finally found in the saddle bag onto ground.
"Put these on," he said firmly. It was clear at once, just looking at the young man's small body that the clothing would be far too big for him. "You'll be warmer at least."
He found a neatly stored little package of dried meat next, along with a jar filled with water. And he offered them both to the young fellow, just as soon as he'd managed to struggle into the strange cloth garments – which sure enough were big enough on him to make him look almost silly. And he was relieved when the boy took the food and water and instantly consumed some of both.
One of the ravagers – the best tempered of the pack and the one that carried the supplies on her - crept in closer following at the tribe leader's heels. And the boy stumbled backwards, stilling sitting on the ground. He gave a scream of fright, and batted at the animal with his hands for a moment, just a bit to far away to reach her, before he just sat still again stiff and shaking all over again.
"She won't hurt ya," Katie said, making a point of her confidant grin as she patted the beast on the head, then scratched her chin, so dangerously close to her jagged teeth. "Her parents are fully tame and she herself is captive born." Katie laughed a little then, and took the ravager's rein in her hand – clearly intended to ease the young man's fears with at least an illusion of full control over an animal who could obviously still jump him if she wanted to. "A face only a mother could love, yeah. But she's a good girl, and she puts up with us." The young man smiled then, just a little. And he managed a slight chuckle of laughter, as he fidgeted uneasily with a shirt sleeve that hung to nearly his finger tips.
"Think you can trust that beast, then?" Jessie questioned, granting the boy another look of approval when he stumbled fully onto his feet without a need for any prompting to do so. The boy nodded with some confidence now.
"I... think so," he muttered. And he even reached out then, holding a hand out to the ravager to sniff, just as though she were a stranger's dog he were so determined to befriend. When she sniffed the air around him, before lowering her head a little in well trained submission, he dared to pat her head, however tentatively.
"Wonderful," Katie said. And she grinned again. "You''re going to ride this one back to base."
"I... I'm not sure I could..."
"Ha. Ravagers are easy enough. Easier than the damn raptors some prefer... wait 'til you meet one of those wild... But just kinda hold on for now. She knows where to go. She'll follow the pack anyway."
"Johnny..." the boy mumbled. And he was staring off into the distance just as soon as he had climbed, in an obedient daze, onto the ravager's saddle "My name was... or is... Johnny..."
"I will add your name to our tribe record," Jessie said simply, in place of any sentiments. He did smile kindly though as he added while climbing quickly onto his own ravager mount, "if you choose to stay among our tribe that is. And of course you would certainly be welcomed."
"Katie," he said, switching the train of his thoughts quickly as he looked up at the ceiling of the world – above which he could see the sun begin to fade now through the cracks. Nightfall was coming fast, and with it would come far greater danger for a group out in the open. He patted his ever present shouldered shotgun, to assure himself of its presence. "Take control of the pack and you ride lead position. I'll bring up the rear."
Notes/ To anyone that's followed this far - thanks!
Not a great deal to note this time, except that obviously I'm filling in details of aberration that the game never even began to hint at... like humidity and mid day stiffing heat. In my mind it makes perfect sense that the place would be in that very situation.