Ell Donsaii 12: Impact! (14 page)

When the group seemed ready, Dex led them out of the storage cave and turned towards the outside. Hie spoke quietly to the meteorite hie was carrying, “Should we take one of the fog baskets with us?”

“Maybe? It won’t help much if there is any wind.”

By that time they were exiting the cave proper and Dex remembered that they could hardly see for all the dust. “How are we going to find the meadow when we’re practically blind?!”

“I can tell you which way to go,” the meteorite said, “but everyone will have to stay very close to me so that my lights will let them see well enough not to trip over things.” There was a pause, then the meteorite spoke again, “I think it would be very helpful if your dalins use the buddy system.”

Dex listened in fascination as the meteorite explained how each of the dalins should have a partner so that if someone went missing, the partner could immediately tell the group about it.

The meteorite said, “If someone does go missing, I can make a very loud sound. Anyone lost in the dust can head towards the sound to find the rest of us.”

Dex stopped and talked to the group, most of whom were already horribly shocked by the thickness of the dust and how hard it was to see. It wasn’t hard to convince them they would be at risk for getting lost. At hies request the meteorite set off its siren. “So if you hear that, everyone should move toward it. That way we can all find each other if someone gets lost. If we’re just missing one dalin, the meteorite will call that person’s name before setting off the siren. Then just that one person can follow the sound so that we can find them.”

Before the group set off toward the meadow, the light coming from the meteorite suddenly changed. Before it had been ordinary light much the same as the light that came from the sun. Now it was mostly infrared and Dex realized that hie could see a bit further through the dust in those colors than hie had been able to in the white light before. Nonetheless, hie felt astonished at how many times hie stumbled. Even though hie could see better in infrared and despite hies feeling that hie knew the way very well from the many times hie’d been to the meadow, it seemed like hie was catching a foot on something every few steps. If it hadn’t been for the meteorite giving himr directions hie would have wandered blindly off the path several times. The other dalins crowded nearby so that they could see somewhat in the glowing foggy light from the meteorite. Dex stopped at several narrow or rough spots in the path, standing and holding the meteorite so that the other dalins could work their way through the difficult area. They counted off their buddies at each of those locations to be sure no one had gotten lost.

After much more time than it would normally have taken, they arrived in the meadow where the meteorite led them unerringly to the zornits. In a fearsome portent, it seemed that an entire herd of zornits had choked to death on the dust right out there in the middle of the meadow. Of course the meadow, as well as the zornits, were completely covered with dust. Ominously, none of the carrion eaters, large or small, had gathered round the feast before them.
Is everything dead?
Dex wondered.

Dex and hies group set about loading each of the smaller zornits onto a travois. The fog basket proved to be of little help because a steady wind kept new dust constantly blowing into the area. Fortunately, there were enough small zornits to fill all their travois. Thus, they didn’t have to try to break up one of the larger zornits into two pieces. The trip back to the cave was even more difficult than the trip out because they had to follow each other single file and were more spaced out away from the lights of the meteorite. Eventually, Dex had the meteorite sound its siren just loud enough so that the dalins at the back of the line could hear it and know approximately which direction they were going. They stopped frequently so that Dex could go back up the line and count the group to be sure everyone was there.

As they neared the cave, Dex, at the front of the line, began to hear someone shouting in the distance. At first hie worried that something horrible had happened back at the cave and that those who had stayed behind were trying to call out to himr. Hie resisted the impulse to rush ahead, fearing what might happen if hie lost the group hie’d taken out with himr.

As hie got closer, hie was able to tell that only one voice was shouting which reassured himr that something bad hadn’t happened to the entire tribe. The dalin sounded panicked. Moments later, Dex recognized Qes’ voice. Hie led the front of hies group to the entrance to the cave and counted them off as they headed inside.
Malnot asked, “What’s wrong with Qes
?”

“I’m not sure,” Dex sighed. “Once I’m sure all of you are safely inside, I’ll go out and try to find himr.”

The group stopped and beat most of the dust off of the zornits in front of the fog basket before dragging them back into the little side cave where they planned to butcher them. As soon as the butchering was underway, Dex turned to Malnot who hie thought was friendlier to Qes than most. “Will you go with me to try to find Qes?”

Malnot turned toward the entrance of the cave, Dex thought a little apprehensively. After a moment, hie gave hies wings a brief shake and said, “Okay… I thought maybe you were going to
leave
Qes out there after the way he’s acted towards you.”

Dex picked up the meteorite and turned toward the entrance of the cave. “Well, I’d be lying if I said I liked Qes. But even
hie
doesn’t deserve to die choking on dust like the zornits did.”

Malnot squeaked a blip of air out hies exhaust in amusement, “Maybe not? But I think Bultaken would have left himr out there.”

Out on the ledge in front of the cave Dex turned hies head this way and that, unable to hear Qes anymore.
Did hie find hies way back in while I wasn’t looking? Or has hie gotten well and truly lost?
A ripple of apprehension shot through Dex at the thought something bad might have come to Qes. Everyone in their little group would have heard Qes calling out, some of them might have thought Dex should look for Qes right away rather than waiting until hie got the group inside. “Qes,” hie shouted.

Hie and Malnot stood listening for a few moments, but heard nothing. Dex called Qes’ name several more times as did Malnot, but there was no response. Dex looked up at hies meteorite where hie held it to light the dust around himr, “Can you make your siren sound again?”

“You’re trying to find Qes?” The meteorite asked.

Dex dipped hies head “yes,” then, unsure of whether the meteorite could have seen it or understood the gesture, hie verbally said, “Yes.”

The meteorite made its screeching sound, very loudly. After a centidek it stopped, then called Qes’ name several times, much louder than Dex could have shouted it himrself. It paused. They all listened, but heard nothing.

Dex had a sinking feeling as the meteorite made its siren sound again and called for Qes several more times. Eventually the meteorite said, “Would you like me to look for himr?”

“Yes!”

“You should set this meteorite down and step back so that the fire coming out of its back end doesn’t burn you.”

Dex did so, and with a screeching sound the meteorite shot back up into the air and moved away in the direction Dex thought led off the front of the ledge.

At first Dex was astonished that the meteorite would fly off into the murky air. Dalins found it very frightening to fly when they couldn’t see, although they would occasionally do it for fun in clouds high up in the air. Flying down near the ground when you couldn’t see however—that could lead to terrible injuries if you hit something hidden in fog or darkness. All dalins had an inborn reluctance to fly when they couldn’t see.

After hie gave it a little thought though, Dex realized that if the meteorite could tell himr where to go to find the zornits, it must be able to see despite the dust. After all, it had offered to try to find Qes, how could it possibly do that unless it could see? While hie pondered this, Dex reached up and rotated hies neck-cloth, as hie’d come to think of the air intake device the meteorite had given himr. It had been getting somewhat hard to pull air through it, but hie had found earlier that if hie rotated it to a fresh part of the cloth it made it easier to breathe again. Back in the cave hie’d taken it off and looked at it, finding a great deal of dust in the portion of the neck-cloth that had been right over hies air intake. Hie wondered what was going to happen when the entire neck-cloth was choked with dust.

The meteorite shrieked back down and landed beside Dex. Speaking in its monotone it said, “I found Qes. It looks like hie fell over the lip of the ledge and was injured. Hie is still breathing so I don’t think the fall killed himr, but hie appears to be unconscious. If you’ll pick me up I can lead you to himr.”

Once Dex picked up the meteorite, it had himr turn right instead of going in the direction from which it had come. At first hie was confused, then hie realized that the meteorite understood hie could only walk, not fly. It was taking himr to the end of the ledge and around and down. Since there wasn’t a good path that way Dex found himrself tripping quite a bit more than hie had on the trip up to the meadow. “How do you see in this dust?” hie asked the meteorite.

“I can see with… with special eyes that see even more infrared than you do… Like you can see somewhat better with infrared light, I can see even better yet using… light that is even
more
infrared.”

Dex thought,
more infrared?
To himr, infrared was just one of the colors hie saw and hie couldn’t understand this “more infrared” term. Hie wanted to ask more questions but thought that the answers probably wouldn’t be any easier to understand than the one hie’d just gotten.

Eventually Dex and Malnot found themselves down on the ground beneath the ledge. Qes lay crumpled there. Hies breath still pumped through himr so hie must still be alive. Dex leaned down close and could see that Qes’ neck-cloth was quite dirty over hies air intake. Dex twisted it around to a cleaner portion, then looked Qes over as well as hie could in the dirty air. Hies eyes caught on a funny angle.

Qes’ arm was broken!

Malnot had been leaning in as well. Hie gasped and exclaimed, “Dyatso!”

In its flat voice, the meteorite said, “Dyatso?”

Dex said, “It means ‘walking dead.’ Someone who has injuries so severe that they can’t care for themselves or fly south for the winter. Someone who is alive for now, but will soon be dead. Dyatso is what Qes called Syrdian when Syrdian’s wings were ripped by the talor.”

Malnot, sounding abashed, said, “I forgot that you healed Syrdian’s wings! I suppose you can do the same thing for Qes’ arm?”

“No…! No, I repaired Syrdian’s wings like I do leather work. I have no idea how to fix a broken arm!”

“Oh…” Malnot said in a disappointed tone.

After a brief silence, the meteorite said, “We may be able to offer some suggestions for the care of hies broken arm. We don’t know if they will work in a dalin, but you could try them.”

Dex’s hearts rose as Malnot exclaimed, “We should try it! It can’t make himr worse than dyatso!”

Dex and Malnot picked Qes up, partly by hies wings and partly by hies harness and they shuffled slowly back up to the ledge with hies broken arm dangling in front of himr. They had to stop several times to rest as walking with a heavy burden while barely able to see proved surprisingly difficult. So that Dex wouldn’t have to carry it, the meteorite moved itself, flying a short distance ahead each time they caught up to it.

When they reached the living area of the cave, carrying Qes whose head dangled limply in front of himr, it generated a good deal of consternation. Most of the questions were about what had happened to Qes, but as Dex had feared, a few implied that hie should’ve gone for Qes more quickly.

Qes’ mate Fantais approached angrily, barking accusations. As Dex and Malnot set Qes down, Dex wearily considered pointing out that Fantais had not gone after Qes either. Instead, hie said calmly as hie could, “It looks like Qes fell off the ledge. He’s broken hies arm.”

“Fell!” Fantais said, disbelievingly, “How could hie fall?! There’s nothing wrong with hies wings!”

“I don’t think you’ve been outside yet, have you Fantais?” Dex asked, knowing that Fantais was quite timid for a relatively highly-ranked dalin. Dex said, “The dust is so thick that you cannot see your own feet. If you don’t know where you are walking it would be easy to accidentally step off the rim of the ledge and fall. I am sure that Qes’ got hies wings out in time to slow hies fall, but hie would’ve been reluctant to actually fly when hie couldn’t see. If hie was merely using hies wings to slow hies fall hie may still have landed hard enough to break hies arm. If hie did try to fly, hie might have flown into the cliff face and broken hies arm. We will probably never know because shock has rendered himr unconscious and hie probably won’t remember what happened right before hies injury.”

“Or,” Fantais said with loathing, “perhaps someone just pushed himr off the ledge.”

Dex stared at Fantais, trying to keep hies wings from lifting, but antipathy radiated from himr nonetheless. “Since everyone else was in the cave here, I assume you think that
I
pushed himr off? Malnot will tell you I didn’t, but then you will probably accuse Malnot and I of
conspiring
to push Qes off of the ledge together.” Hie stepped back away from Qes. “I expect that if that is the case, you don’t want me to try to help care for Qes so, instead, I will go and help with the butchering of the zornits.” Dex walked a few steps back out toward the side cave where the butchering was being done, but then stopped, turned, and said, “You might ask the meteorite for help in caring for Qes. It said it could make some suggestions for the treatment of hies broken arm.”