Hope of Earth

  Jes smiled. “Thank Blaze,” she said slowly. She drew a full length of netting from her bundle and presented it to him. “Keep.” And she kissed him.

  This time it was the boy who blushed, overwhelmed by the gift and the manner of its giving. “Blaze happy,” he said, looking dazed.

  Now it was late, and they had to go their ways. Blaze doused his fire, with sand, and Ned and Jes set out for the flint mine. They would probably never meet again, but it had been a pleasant and profitable interlude.

  But they did not go far. “The ashes of that fire are very fine,” Ned remarked.

  “But cooling,” Jes said. “Too late to save any of that fire.”

  “I want them cold.”

  “Ned, I’m not stupid, but I can’t follow your mind.”

  “Good. Then others won’t follow it either.”

  So they went back to the site Blaze had left, and found the ashes warm and dry under the sand. They took several handfuls and put them in their tightest leaf-shielded net bag. They smoothed more sand over the place so that there was no evidence that anything had been taken. Then they resumed their trek toward the mine, ferreting out the best paths.

  They were cautious. This was unfamiliar terrain, and it was possible that Bub’s tribe would have a possessive attitude about the flint mine, though obviously no person had authority over any feature of the land other than the game it supported. So they left the main path and approached the region from a different direction. Here their ability to locate faint paths really helped, because they did not want any stranger to be able to follow them. But darkness was closing, so they found a secluded large tree and climbed into its branches for the night. They put on extra layers of dry grass and leaves bound by netting to shield themselves from the cooler air of night, and from the mosquitos.

  “How she feel, being woman?” Ned inquired. Their own more sophisticated language had words that stood for other words, and these were surprisingly useful in two ways: they eliminated the need to constantly name people, and they made it less intelligible to outsiders. When he had suggested that they give “him” more netting, Jes had understood that he meant the boy. This time “she” meant Jes.

  “Nice,” she said. Normally no man looked at her as men looked at Flo, because of the angularity of her body, the smallness of her breasts, and her homely face. But the boy Blaze had accepted her as a woman, once he had seen the proof of it. There had been a subtle shift of attitude, perhaps unconscious. A softening of tone, a hesitation of gaze, as if she were a person he wished he could impress. And of course the blush when she kissed him. “Young,” she added with regret.

  For if Blaze had been older, and if his judgment of her were not different when he had the passions of a man, he would have been a suitable prospect to bring to their band. But as it was, his destiny was elsewhere. So her chance to feel like a woman was fleeting, and she would continue to masquerade as a boy. Ned regretted that, for Jes was capable in the things required of women, and deserved to be treated as one.

  In the morning they foraged as they explored the mine area, eating berries that were handy. They found where bits of flint had been pried from chalky sections. When they came to a likely spot, they used their staffs to pry at the stones, and in due course did find several fragments of flint. These weren’t useful in their present form, but some careful pounding would produce pieces with sharp edges. They put these in a finely woven net bag. They had accomplished their mission.

  Then they set out for home. But they were still cautious, so sought the slightest paths that would allow them to pass unscathed. “Think Bub knows?” Ned asked. They were lapsing increasingly into the full range of their language, no longer needing to school themselves in pidgin so as to be clear to others.

  “He saw Blaze with net,” she said. “Make him tell.”

  And the boy would have to tell of his meeting with the two of them. He wouldn’t tell that Jes was female, but the rest was regular information. If Bub were inclined to intercept them, he would do so at the place where they had to use a narrow pass between mountains.

  But Blaze had also told them of a more devious route from the mine. One that he had explored with his friend Ember. It wound up the mountain much higher, and could be cold, but it was possible to get to the far side using this path.

  “Alternate route,” Ned decided, and Jes nodded agreement.

  They moved swiftly—but not swiftly enough. Because as they found the alternate path, they saw a man on it. Right where it narrowed between rocky ledges so that there was no other way to pass. He had a stout staff, and was not foraging. They did not need to inquire his business. Obviously Bub had anticipated this alternative, and acted to block it as well as the main path.

  They exchanged a silent glance. Bub was evidently dangerous, because he was smart as well as unscrupulous. But was he smart enough?

  They retreated quietly, until they were safely out of earshot. “We do not know how many men there are,” Ned said. “One in view, one or two in ambush, I think. We must make them show themselves.”

  “They will stop us,” she said. “And beat us, or kill us. We can communicate better, but we can’t fight better.”

  “I want you to do two things,” he said. “It is warm enough. Give me your netting and bag. Take this.” He handed her the small bag of fine ashes.

  “You want me to walk naked past those men?” she asked, not pleased. “They may not find me beautiful, but they will put the bag over my head and rape me. Remember Flo.”

  “Yes, I think they will. Walk in the manner of Wona, so that there is no doubt of your nature. Stand erect and take deep breaths. I will walk behind.”

  “Ned—”

  “Must I explain?” he demanded with mock severity. “Remember what Lin did?”

  A light dawned. “When Bry teased her about her hand? Now I understand!” She quickly removed her net cloak and folded it so that he could carry it. “But I can do better than naked. Fil don the net skirt.”

  “Wonderful!” he agreed. He helped her wrap the band of netting around her, forming a skirt that hung low on her hips and covered just a bit more than her bottom. “You look truly evocative.”

  “Thank you,” she said, pleased. Then she took two hand-fills of ashes.

  Soon they resumed their walk, proceeding heedlessly up the path. Jes was bare except for the string skirt, which concealed absolutely nothing. Of course that was the point of it; only available women wore them, to enhance their sexuality. She was swinging her closed hands and her hips with seeming abandon. Her small breasts bounced, calling attention to themselves, and the tassels on the skirt flounced, drawing eyes to her belly, thighs, and bottom. She was not well endowed, but her motion and the provocative skirt made her extremely sexy. She was his sister, yet when he squinted so as to fuzz her familiarity, those strings over her twinkling buttocks almost made him hunger for her. In fact he had to unsquint, lest he suffer a reaction. So Ned followed, several paces behind, carrying all the nets over his shoulders, and their two staffs with them. Obviously the two of them had no thought of encountering anyone on this remote path; they were complete innocents, perhaps looking for a suitable place to indulge in mating play.

  The man in the path came to attention. He stared at Jes.“Woman!” he exclaimed in amazement. Obviously Blaze hadn’t told that aspect, as he had promised.

  A second man lurched out of hiding. “First!” he cried, staring similarly: first hands on the woman. They hadn’t even noticed her homely face, as Ned had hoped. But maybe they wouldn’t have cared anyway, as obviously they just wanted to rape her and throw her away.

  Ned looked wildly around, as if surprised. “No!” But he seemed to be too stupid to drop his nets and grab his staff; he just watched the two men advance on Jes. They didn’t seem to regard him as any kind of a threat.

  So there were only two. Jes had sprung the trap. Good.

  The first man grabbed for Jes, the second coming at her from the other side.
She shrank away, not having to feign alarm, but both of them pursued her. She raised her hands as if to ward them off with her little fists.

  Then she flung both hands out, swiping at their faces. But her hands didn’t touch them.

  Both men cried out and staggered back, clutching at their eyes. She had scored on them with the fine ashes. She ran on past them and up the path. Ned followed with his burdens. The men didn’t even try to stop them.

  Ned knew that by the time the men got their eyes clear enough to see again, it would be too late for any effective pursuit. Probably the men would report that the quarry had not passed that way, concealing their embarrassment at being duped. Bub might not believe them, but it wouldn’t matter; the escape had been made.

  When they were sure they were safe, they paused, and Jes donned her more solid netwear and took her staff and her share of the burden. “That was almost as much fun as making Blaze blush,” she said. “You do make me feel like a woman.”

  He smiled, letting the matter pass. His band sister was indeed a young woman, with many qualities to recommend her. But most men could not see beyond the face and the too tall, too thin body, so she had little chance to act the part. Had she not caught the two tribesmen completely by surprise, they would soon have seen how small her breasts were, and that the string skirt covered mannishly slender hips. They would have raped her anyway, but with less gusto. He wished he could help her to find a good man. But maybe she would get lucky, as Flo had, taking a seemingly inferior man and having him turn out to be very good. Flo was now somewhat fat, after birthing her son, but Dirk didn’t seem to notice. Was there a good man who would appreciate an angular woman?

  They made their way through the high pass, glad of the clothing to shield them from the cutting winds. The path was difficult, and it was late by the time they crested the ridge. They ate from the dried fruit they carried, and drank from their water skins, then bundled themselves in all their remaining netting and lay down back to back to sleep. They knew that no man would come upon them during the night, because it was too cold for others to handle. In any event, they slept lightly, and any suspicious noise would wake them.

  “Something I must tell you,” Ned said. “You were so much like a woman, it excited me.”

  “From behind,” she replied, calling out the flaw.

  “So I could not recognize you as my sister,” he said, bypassing the flaw. “If I met one like you, but not you, I think I would not care much about her face.”

  She twisted in her wrappings and kissed his ear. “You give me hope,” she murmured, very pleased.

  In the morning they did some spot foraging, finding a few good roots to chew on, and moved on down toward the warmer valley beyond. They got a nice view of it, spread out before them: a grassy plain surrounded by the forest that grew on the slopes. And saw something problematical in that plain.

  “A camp of men,” Jes said, shading her sharp eyes with one hand.

  “Right where we have to cross the valley to return to our regular route home,” Ned said. “They are on the main path. Dare we gamble on their purpose?”

  “No. They are either of Bub’s band, or have a pact with it. There may be others spaced along the valley. I suspect that someone is really angry with us.”

  “And really determined that we not show it is possible for folk to mine their own flint and depart without getting robbed,” Ned agreed. “I think we had better not be caught.”

  “They might get confused and rape you and murder me,” she remarked, smiling grimly.

  But they did have to cross that central valley plain, and there seemed to be no way to do it without being spied by the lurking men of the camp. That was why the campers weren’t even trying to hide; they weren’t the ones being pursued. They would either catch the fugitives as they crossed, or keep them confined to the slope beside the plain until they were spied and caught by other searchers there. It might be hard to catch fugitives in mountains or deep forest, because there were alternate paths and hidden ways, but it was easy in the open.

  “I think a handful of ashes will not suffice, this time,” Ned said, not seeming much dismayed.

  “If hot the ashes, perhaps the fire?” Jes inquired, following his thought.

  “It would be a distraction.”

  So they worked out their plan in detail, knowing that any failure could be disastrous. Jes foraged for tinder while Ned brought out two suitable flint rocks and experimented with striking them together in the manner he had learned from Blaze. It took some time, but he was able to start a fire. Jes made a bed of sand, and they got a small fire going. Of course the smoke would give them away, but it would take time for anyone to travel this high up the mountain.

  Then Ned damped down his little fire, so that it was mostly hot embers, and transferred it with its bed of sand to a section of leaf-and-sand-padded netting. He made a bag of it that he could carry. The first part of their strategy was ready. His setup was clumsy compared to that of a regular fire handler, but it would not have to last long.

  They angled down the slope, leaving the path. This was for several reasons. There might be enemy men coming up that path to attack them, and they needed to get lost in random territory, and they needed to intercept the wind at the right spot.

  But when they reached the place where the wind entered the valley, there was a man posted. He wasn’t even looking for them; he was just waiting, and watching the plain.

  “He will have to be distracted,” Jes said regretfully.

  “Briefly,” Ned agreed. “But you will need a sure escape.”

  “You get that fire going soon, and I will have it,” she said. “You will need it too.”

  He nodded. Then they prepared themselves. They spread out all their untraded net cloaks, then wrapped them around their feet and legs to the knees. They tied them in place just above the knees, so that the knees could still flex. Their legs looked enormously fat, because of the leaf padding between the nets. Then they took their water skins and poured them carefully out onto the padding, making it wet. They saved a little water for refreshing their leggings later. Of course this left them nothing to drink, but they knew there was a river in the next valley.

  Now Jes made her way carefully around the position the enemy man guarded. When she was far enough from Ned, she moved with less caution, until the man heard her. He stood and called out. “Who?”

  Jes did not answer. Instead she hurried on away from Ned. The man called again, going after her, trying to get a good glimpse through the trees and brush.

  Now Ned went to the edge of the plain, where the grass grew tall, and opened his fire bag. He blew on his embers, feeding more tinder to them, and in a moment had an open fire. He set it down amidst the driest tangle of grass and fed in more fuel. The fire spread swiftly, eagerly consuming the grass around it. It reached up, catching the incoming wind.

  Ned stood back, watching the flames eat into the field. Fanned by the wind, they grew and traveled quickly. Smoke billowed up, announcing the fire’s presence. The people in the center of the valley would see it soon enough, and would have to move, because the wind was carrying it right toward them.

  There was a cry from the man who had been pursuing Jes, as he discovered the fire. He ran back—and spied Ned standing at the edge of the forest. He stepped toward Ned, then hesitated, uncertain whether to chase the man or try to deal with the fire.

  Jes hooted behind the man. He turned to go after her again—and Ned hooted. They managed to make the man turn several times in confusion before he got smart and focused on just one of them: Jes. He charged after her. And she ran directly into the spreading fire.

  The man stopped and stared. He did not realize that her wetted leggings protected her feet from the heat of the flames. He could not follow her, for his feet and legs were bare. He did not know what to do.

  Ned hooted again. The man whirled, reminded of him. He charged. And Ned strode blithely into the fire himself.

  N
ow he held his breath and ran as rapidly as he could, getting beyond the burning section. He found Jes there, waiting for him. The smoke was blowing at them, but they were able to duck their heads low and breathe freely, crossing the plain close to the fire. With luck there would be no man to block their way; all the men should be running for the other side of the plain, to avoid getting cut off by the fire. They would assume that Ned and Jes were still waiting to cross, rather than being already across. Because they would not be thinking very clearly, during the considerable distraction of the fire.

  But one man was on the far side of the field. Bub had been cunning enough to keep one man back, just in case. The fire was behind them, the man ahead. He had them—he thought. He made gestures at them with hips and fist, as of raping and bashing. He was big enough to handle both of them.

  They paused to pour the last of their water on their leggings. Then they ran back into the fire, holding their breath again. They knew that the actual region of burning was narrow; the flames ate what they could and moved on, leaving soot and ashes behind. So they were able to run through the burned terrain, and the man could not follow. In fact he could not remain where he was, for the fire was bearing down on him. He fled.

  They ran to the forest edge and hid themselves. Just in time, for their leggings were hot and charring on the outside. When the strings burned through, the leaf padding would spill out even if it remained wet, so they had to watch it carefully. They retreated into the safety of the forest cover, then paused to remove their leggings and beat out the smoldering sections. They had made it through thanks to their alertness and readiness to innovate. Ned was, in the process, coming to appreciate his sister better than ever; he was known as the smart member of their band, but she was staying right with him. If there ever should be a man who was interested in courage, loyalty, and intellect, instead of a pretty face and buxom body, Jes would be a rare prize.