Butterfly Hunter 01 (14 page)

As if Dave’s thought of
animals had triggered Nicholas’s memory, the man cast him a
querying look, and when Dave nodded permission, Nicholas looked
about him and wandered back along the trees, searching. Dave
trailed after him, watching Nicholas, but also glancing around,
wanting to get a feel for their surroundings.

And it was Dave who
spotted them first. “Flowers,” he said – and then had to clear his
throat before trying again. “You said they drink flower nectar,
right?”

Nicholas looked up, and
swung around to see where Dave was pointing. In a dell hidden
beyond an ages–old rockfall, a cluster of wattle offered dark gold
blooms to the sun. Nicholas gasped a little, and halted. Held out a
hand to indicate they should tread carefully. That was all right.
Dave knew the drill by now.

Slowly Nicholas approached
the plants, bent almost double already to peer in amidst the
foliage, keeping an eye on where he was walking. Dave followed him,
not deviating from the path he’d set. Nicholas pushed his Akubra
back, the better to see.

And then Nicholas had
fallen to his knees by the nearest wattle, staring hard, his hands
spread on his own narrow denim–clad thighs, fingers white with
pressure. Dave waited, keeping his distance. But after long
moments, Nicholas reached back, and then turned towards him, that
long face both shocked and beatific. “We’ve found them,” Nicholas
whispered hoarsely.

“
We have?”
Dave took the hand that reached towards him, and let himself be
gathered in. He crouched carefully just by Nicholas, though still
keeping a little further back. He was trying to find blue wings,
but couldn’t see anything. “Where?” he asked, hushed. “What am I
looking for?”

Nicholas laughed, sounding
a little hysterical. “Don’t you know a pupa when you see one by
now? There –” He pointed carefully at … a pupa on a narrow branch
of the wattle, that matched so precisely it all looked just like a
bumpy branch. Unless you had it pointed out to you. “And there
–”

“
I see now …”
There were heaps, now that Dave could identify them. “How do you
know they’re yours?”

Nicholas shot him a grin
tinged with a delightful kind of madness. “I’ve never seen anything
quite like them. But you’re right. We need to make sure.” He
reached into his satchel for his camera, and took a few photos,
carefully focussing in on the pupae. Then he pulled back and
refolded to sit cross–legged, before pulling out his field guide
and starting to leaf through it.

Dave settled himself in beside
the man, and slipped off his backpack. This could take a while, he
knew. He took out his water bottle, and swallowed a few mouthfuls;
handed it to Nicholas, who did likewise; then Dave drank again.
They were long past worrying about things like sharing utensils.
Dave pondered that while Nicholas leafed through pages, muttering
to himself about form, colour and texture; about tapering spinules,
lateral flanges and anal hooks. Which Dave thought sounded rather
painful.

“
Sorry,”
Nicholas murmured, shooting Dave a mischievous glance. “That’s how
they attach themselves to the branches. Well, that or silken
girdles!”

“
That’s so
queer,” Dave commented. “No wonder you’re so fascinated.” To which
Nicholas just gave him a droll look, before returning to his
book.

Occasionally Nicholas
would hand Dave the guide and tip forward onto his hands and knees
to peer in at a pupa. Sometimes he picked up his camera, and
considered the photos on the digital display, zooming in close to
see the details. Eventually he announced, “I’m not finding anything
that matches.”

“
I believe
you.”

Nicholas laughed.
“Sounding a bit defensive, am I? Well, I’ll keep an open mind, I
promise you that, and we won’t know for sure until they transform
into adults. But this is what I’ve been searching for, David. These
are our butterflies!”

Dave just smiled at the
man, and didn’t even tease.
So
much for an open mind, indeed!
But the
last thing he could possibly want was to quench the light in those
beautiful bright blue eyes.

Eventually Nicholas was
done for now in poring over his bits of stick that weren’t. With a
sigh he unfolded, and lay back on the ground beside where Dave sat,
closing his eyes to let the dappled sunlight bathe his face. After
a moment one of his hands found Dave’s, and those long fingers
dovetailed with his own.

“
We’re just
going to stay here now, aren’t we?” Nicholas asked, obviously not
dreading the answer.

“
Yes. For as
long as you need.” Dave felt obliged to add, “Other than weekly
trips for supplies.”

“
Of course. Do
you think you can bring the Cruiser down into here?”

“
Possibly,”
Dave allowed. When Nicholas opened one narrow eye to consider him,
Dave provided a truer answer. “Yes, I could drive her down here,
and get her back out again, I reckon. Easy. That’s not the
problem.”

“
What’s the
problem, then?” Nicholas tilted his head back to look at the flat
and relatively empty area between the trees and the water. “I was
hoping we could set up camp down here.”

“
I
know.”

“
At least it’s
a bit cooler down here. It’s got to be more comfortable. Quite
apart from being close to the butterflies.”

“
Yes. I just
don’t know how wise it is.”

“
What could go
wrong?”

“
I don’t know.
That’s the problem.”

Nicholas lifted up onto
his elbows to consider Dave. “Nothing’s changed around here for
years. Even the water level looks like it’s stayed the
same.”

Dave nodded. “The pool
must be fed from the water table.”

“
Well,
then?”

Dave scrunched up his
face, knowing he didn’t have much to go on other than a sense of
unease. “There’s no trace of animals coming down here. And why
wouldn’t they? It’s the only standing water in this whole area. No
sign of birds inhabiting the trees.”

“
But our
butterflies are protecting themselves from something. They’re
pretty well disguised.”

“
Maybe they
just haven’t bothered evolving. I don’t know. Anyway,” Dave added.
“Charlie said –”

That had Nicholas sitting
up beside him, looking a bit disgruntled for the first time.
“
What
did Charles say? And what else haven’t you told
me?”

“
Nothing.
Nothing, really. He just talked about … a mystery. A
strangeness.”

“
What did he
mean?”

“
I have no
idea. I didn’t want to push. I mean, he’s obviously helped us a bit
more than he should. We’ve found ourselves the Dreamtime place
where the Barcoo grunter ancestor sleeps …”

“
The old
grunter knew what he was doing, didn’t he?” Nicholas agreed with a
laugh. “I can imagine worse places to spend eternity.”

“
Yeah, but I
don’t know whether Charlie was trying to warn me about
something.”

Nicholas thought about
that for a long moment. Eventually he concluded, “No, Charles would
have said if he thought we’d be in danger.”

“
They can be
really secretive when it comes to Dreamtime stuff.”

“
Oh come on,
he’s your friend! There’s no way he would have let us just walk
into danger. He would have found some way of telling you. Or he
would have sent us off in a different direction
altogether.”

“
I suppose
…”

“
Well, then …
?”

Dave sighed. “Not tonight,
Nicholas. Give me twenty–four hours. We’ll camp up by the Cruiser
tonight, and then tomorrow –”

“
Yes?”

“
We’ll
see.”

Nicholas grinned at him.
And then lifted Dave’s hand – not to kiss it, thank God, but to
caress Dave’s palm with his cheek. Which was almost as bad. Maybe
it was worse. “Thank you, David.”

“
Nnn,” he
said, quite coherently.

As the westering sun left
the waterhole in an early twilight, Dave looked at Nicholas, and
Nicholas simply said, “I know.”

“
There’ll
still be an hour of sunlight up there, but we’d better get the camp
set up.”

One of Nicholas’s gentle
smiles blessed him. “I know, David.” He was already packing his
camera and things back into his satchel. “I’m ready.”

“
I’m probably
being paranoid, but I don’t want you coming back down here alone.
Not until we’re sure.”

Nicholas nodded. “I know.
It’s all right.”

“
Really?”

“
You make the
rules, David.”

He thought to wonder how long
that was going to last. And later on he was relieved, though he
hardly admitted it even to himself, when Nicholas without question
or remark set up the second tent as if it were still a matter of
course.

That evening, Dave had to drive
out to the furthest rim of the wider valley before he could get a
signal on the satphone or a reading of their location off the
satnav.

“
We’re settled
here now,” Dave said to Denise. “But I can’t call you from our
campsite. We must be in some kind of blind spot.”

“
All right.
Just give me the directions from where you are now, in case.” When
he was done, Denise said, “That sounds pretty
incredible.”

“
It is. But
it’s like no one’s been down there for decades, if ever. It’s kind
of eerie.”

“
Beautiful,
though.”

“
Yes.
Very beautiful.” He thought about that, and about how he
wanted
to
feel uneasy while down there by the waterhole, but he couldn’t. Not
really. The place was weird, but it wasn’t
wrong
. “Maybe the only
problem is that it’s almost too good to be true.”

“
You should
just enjoy it,” Denise advised.

“
Maybe I
should.”

“
Look, d’you
wanna just call me next time you’re in town? I won’t panic if I
don’t hear from you in the meantime. It’s only another couple of
days, anyway.”

“
Yes, all
right,” Dave found himself agreeing, although he’d never once let a
day go by without calling his father or Denise while he was on a
trip. Never once. “That’ll be fine.”

“
OK, have fun,
Davey!”

“
You, too,
mate,” he replied with a pang of parting. And then they hung up,
and Dave drove back to the camp where Nicholas waited for him – and
even from such a distance away, Nicholas’s long tall figure was
clear and pale and warm in the last of the evening
light.

After breakfast the next day,
the two of them walked back down to the waterhole. Everything was
exactly the same, of course, with the possible exception of the
place being even more beautiful in the cool morning light.

Nicholas was too tactful
to ask again about them moving the campsite down there; he simply
went to check on his pupae. He took some more photos and made some
notes, and eventually came back to join Dave by the side of the
pool. The water was clear and inviting, but beyond the jewel–like
green–blue surface it seemed fathomless. The Barcoo grunter
ancestor had obviously gone
deep
.

“
All right,”
said Dave eventually.

“
Yes?”

“
We’ll pack up
camp, and move down here.”

“
Thank you,
David,” was the quiet response. But Nicholas was grinning like a
madman, Dave knew that even without looking at him. A very fond and
enthusiastic and beautiful madman.

“
This
morning?” Dave asked.

“
Yes,
please.”

Dave sighed, and finally
turned towards the fellow. “All right, then. Let’s get to
it.”

It finally happened that
afternoon. They
’d set up camp, and then
eaten lunch together. Nicholas had washed and dried the dishes, and
then he’d headed off to wander around documenting the area
surrounding the dark gold wattle. Dave spent an hour or so fussing
around the campsite, making sure everything was organised as it
should be.

Eventually, though, even
Dave had to declare himself satisfied. He put a kettle of water on
to heat on the gas stove, and ambled over towards Nicholas to ask
whether he wanted a cup of tea, even though he already knew the
answer would be yes. Maybe it was just an excuse to summon up
another of those smiles. Dave pictured it now: the pleasure and
happiness and gratitude lighting Nicholas up from the inside, his
lovely lips curving and his dark blue eyes glowing … Dave was
beginning to admit to himself that he was not immune to the charms
of this man. Which didn’t mean that anything need necessarily
happen, of course, and actually no doubt nothing ever would, but
still. It was kind of an earth–shattering thing for a straight
Aussie bloke to deal with, when the only thing he’d dreamed about
for all the years of his life was Denise and their own versions of
little Zoe.