Efet's eyelids fluttered, shut, and fluttered again. For a moment, she forgot where she was and could not understand why she was asleep in a strange sitting position, pressing up against some kind of warm barrier. Reluctantly, Efet lifted her head from the warm place it had settled, and forced her eyes to open. She sat straddling a thick tree branch, still high in the air, her feet dangling into space. To her back was the fragrant tree trunk; she had fallen asleep slumped against the warm figure of the Romulan - Deleth - who was also sitting on the tree branch with his back to her, one hand still clutching a vine, his head leaning on a young branch jutting from the main trunk. Sunbeams danced through the treetops. Efet realized she must've been sleeping on him for at least a couple of hours, with her face nestled in the curve of his neck.

Deleth stirred as she did, shaking his head, then stretching his back. Efet was likewise slowly trying to move her body. Her legs felt numb, and her clothes were still damp from the torrential flood the night before. She realized for the first time that she still had the length of twine tied to her forearm. In all the excitement last night, she had forgotten about it entirely. Efet regarded the twine sadly. She had nothing but the clothes on her back and this twine now.

Deleth climbed to his feet, far more nimble than she, and balanced on the branch. He looked exhausted, and for the first time, Efet saw the youthfulness in his face. He might be, chronologically older than her, as Romulans lived longer than Cardassians, but he was still young, not a battle-hardened soldier. Without a word to her, he swung off their branch and began his descent down the tree trunk.

"Hey!" cried Efet. "Where are you going? You can't leave me up here!"

"I very well can," Deleth called from his place on the tree trunk.

"You saved my life," Efet said, pulling her feet up onto the branch so she sat in a crouch. "Why do that if you intend to leave me up here to die?"

"Surely you can handle yourself." Deleth continued on his way.

"Wait!" Efet grew a little frantic. "I can't get myself down from here."

He did not reply.

Efet sighed in irritation. It seemed Deleth was, indeed, leaving her to rescue herself. She looked again at the twine, and got an idea. Untying it from her forearm, she tied a knot in one end and tried swinging it around the tree trunk. Her first couple of attempts were failures, but then she swung it round and was able to catch the other end. Taking a deep breath, she wound the ends of the twine around her wrists, pressed her heels into the tree trunk, pushed herself out, and tried stepping down the tree. It was exceptionally difficult, as she had to tilt herself so far back and her wrists were supporting her body weight, but she managed to 'walk' herself down several feet.

"A clever idea, for an inferior being," Deleth said, peering up at her. "Are you sure you're strong enough to get all the way down?"

"No," Efet gritted out from between her teeth. "But I have to try." Her arms trembled with the strain. I'm not dying here! she repeated her vow to herself.

Her strength began to fail her. Efet silently cursed to herself as she felt her arms weakening, knowing that the drop to the jungle floor was still too far - even worse than a quick death from a broken neck, she could be broken and paralyzed, lingering on to a much slower and more agonizing death, if she fell. She held on from sheer force of will now.

She heard Deleth moving from below, and in a moment he had climbed up beside her. "Very well," he said. "Climb onto my back. You can go no further."

Efet gasped. "I can't do that! If I let go, I'll fall to my death!"

"If you don't try, you'll die for certain."

"The momentum of my body will pull you lose from your grip, we'll both fall."

"My grip is sure and strong," Deleth assured her. "Try."

Summoning all her will power, Efet swung her body at Deleth and at the same moment, released her hold on one side of the twine. She caught hold of him, catching him round the waist with her legs, and a moment later her other hand also found a hold on his shoulder. Her twine fell to the ground; they could retrieve it easily enough. Deleth swayed a bit, but he maintained his grip. Looking over his shoulder, Efet marveled at the sight of his fingers piercing the tree trunk, digging with tremendous force. His feet were used to brace against the trunk, and they descended, one arm's span at a time, to the great knot of roots at the base.

When she alighted to the forest floor, Efet grabbed her twine, then turned to Deleth and said, "This could've been avoided had you brought me down safely, from the beginning, as I asked!"

"You did not ask," Deleth informed her, giving her a baleful glare with his narrowed eyes. "You demanded I bring you down. I think you must've grown up spoiled and pampered, with many servants."

Efet pouted. "I did not! My family was middle class on Cardassia. We had no servants." She paused. I should be on my best behavior. He's really my only ally here, and if I alienate him, I'll die on this rock. "From now on, I will be sure to ask, as you wish."

Deleth's glare shifted into a look of mild surprise. "There is no ' from now on', because I am leaving you here and having nothing more to do with you from this moment forward." He actually stuck his nose into the air as he started to walk away.

"Wait, one more question!" Efet called after him. "If you don't care what happens to me, why did you save me in the first place?"

That had the desired effect. Deleth stopped, but did not turn around. Efet could tell he was trying to generate a believable answer. It would've been easy to let her drown, or be dashed to pieces in the flood, or even without the flood, she would've died shortly from malnutrition. Efet was no expert on other species, but she knew Romulans had a reputation for being xenophobic, wily, and suspicious. She had never even heard of a Romulan coming to the rescue of an alien.

"You don't know why you saved me," Efet breathed. "You actually don't, do you?"

"Of course I do!" Deleth hissed at her.

"Oh, then please enlighten me!" Efet approached him, struggling through the vegetation and mud. Just as she expected, Deleth shot her another look, but he had no answer. Efet suspected, though she didn't dare voice it, that he was lonely. He'd said there were no others of his kind here, and he looked so bedraggled, she knew he must've been trapped in this camp for some time. Efet still didn't know if there were other prisoners in this valley, but she felt sure she was the least threatening of any of them, if they existed.

"I don't owe you any answers!" Deleth evidently decided he was trying that approach. "You are just some weakling little Cardassian with no allies and no chance of surviving this prison."

"I survived just fine on my own until last night."

"The Klingons gave you supplies, that's the only reason you made it this far. That, and dumb luck. I was given no supplies when I arrived here. I didn't bat my eyes at the guards and simper until they-"

Efet was livid. Her eyes flashed with fury as she said, "Don't you dare imply what I think you're implying! You deviant! The Klingons had mercy on me."

"They took pity on you!" Deleth spat. "A Romulan would rather die than be pitied by an inferior race like the Klingons!"

"Well, I'm not a Romulan," she said, jutting out her chin. "I was just trying to do some good engineering and serve my state, and look where it got me. Here, with you, in this hellish jungle. But I'm not giving up. I may be weaker than you. I'm not a soldier, and I can't pilot any birds-of-prey. But I swore I wasn't going to die here. I'm going to scale those rock walls somehow and get a signal out and live a long life and die in my own bed! And you can just stay here and be secure in your superiority and rot in this jungle if you want!" With that, she tried valiantly to stomp off, but the mud made stomping nigh-impossible. Despite this, she had worked herself into a mighty huff, and felt that she had expressed herself well.

"There's no way out."

"What did you say?"

Deleth had tucked his chin, and in the dim light on the forest floor, he was cast in shadows. She couldn't make out his eyes. "There's no way out of this valley. I've tried. The rock walls block any signals in or out. Even the Klingons have to summit them to communicate with their own starships."

Efet felt great disappointment crushing down on her. "You're sure?" she asked. "You've been to the walls?"

"See for yourself. I can take you to the walls. They cannot be climbed without specialized equipment. Far to the east, you'll find the open side is a massive waterfall. That, too, is impassable, and no one could survive going over the falls."

"No..." Efet knew, of course, it couldn't be easy. If escape was easy, the Klingons would never have left a skeleton crew of guards watching them. They must be truly sure that this valley was a giant cage from which there was no way out. But she'd held out some foolish hope that she could think of something, and she wasn't ready to give up just yet. "Take me there, please! Perhaps you and I together can find a way."