Trek For Survival

"What would you do with them when they are grown and unable to care for you in your old age?" asked Slavok curiously.

"I would take care of them until the day I died!" said Carla, standing up taller.

"And once you were dead, who would care for them? They would have no skills useful to our people if raised by you, and would end up starving to death without your constant care," said Slavok, waving a hand dismissively. "It doesn"t matter, no mother of my clan would hand over a baby that should be killed. And if you arrived back to your people with a child from my clan, it would be certain your people would not accept you back. Come, let"s see how far we can get before Tiktok returns with his friends."

They walked in silence for another hour, each of them thinking about the poor babies doomed to die, when Tiktok landed before them with a small cloud of dust billowing up around him.

"I have found enough others who are willing to help you with your task, Slavok," he grinned, dipping his head down in antic.i.p.ation of her appreciation.

"Remember, Tiktok, they must all arrive well and alive to the edge, or I will hunt you down and kill you slowly," growled Slavok, tilting her head to look at the other large males who had followed Tiktok back.

Gia swallowed her heart, that had jumped up into her throat, and glanced over at Vonn uncertainly. This was not in the agreement to be escorted and she was terrified what might happen. Especially with Mikey, since he would be killed if anything happened to his new pet.

"Don"t worry, little human, none of them want me to kill them this day," said Slavok, noticing her concern.

"Mikey," said Carla, kneeling in front of the boy as the lizardmen headed towards them. "Make sure Sprout stays in his pouch, and it is protected from any b.u.mps! We don"t want him or you getting hurt, okay?"

Mikey nodded quickly, and shoved his pouch deep into his shirt, tightening the string that secured the top of the pouch before b.u.t.toning the shirt up as high as it would go.

"We will tie them to our backs, so they do not fall when we jump or run, and that will leave our arms free," said one of the darker lizardmen as he stepped in front of Gia and looked her over.

She was so scared; she was trembling as he reached for her with a chuckle. His hands were strong and smooth, not rough like she was expecting, and they lifted her over his back, settling her in place before quickly looping several strands of rope around her. He was the first to be done securing her, and she clung to his shoulders with a mixture of fear of him, and fear of what to expect.

"You need not fear me, little human, I will not bite you, and your grasp cannot hurt me," he chuckled, turning so his words could reach her easier.

"This is going to be fun!" cried Mikey, a huge grin on his face.

"Oh my," trembled Carla, as she was secured in place.

"Just close your eyes, dear," said Tom, as he was also tied onto the back of a lizardman.

"I won"t drop her," said the lizard that was carrying her, as if insulted.

"She"s terribly afraid of heights," said Tom. "I don"t expect you to do anything wrong, but I love her dearly and hate to see her so frightened."

"Afraid of heights?" asked the lizard, surprised at the idea. "If that is true, then yes, you want to keep your eyes shut. We will be moving very fast and I don"t want to hear you screaming the whole way."

"Oh my," Carla gasped again, closing her eyes tightly as the lizard tightened her ropes even more with a shake of his head.

"You will be carrying the big male, Tiktok?" asked Slavok curiously.

"How else shall I impress you? Not only will I carry the biggest human for you, but I will still beat everyone to the Edge first!"

"Then it"s a race?" asked the lizard carrying Gia.

"A race to impress Slavok!" agreed the lizard carrying Mikey.

"Whichever male reaches the Edge first, shall be granted permission to partic.i.p.ate in the race to be my mate," agreed Slavok, moving over to the edge of the cliff and looking in the direction of the edge of the mountains.

The other males quickly gathered along the edge of the cliff too, and Gia swallowed her heart again. Surely, they weren"t planning to jump? She glanced over to see the same fear reflected on everyone else"s face, except her mother, who had already closed her eyes tightly and was almost hiding her face in the lizard"s back. Mikey"s look of excitement was fading to one of fear as they did indeed prepare to jump.

With some invisible sign, they all dived over the edge of the cliff and Gia couldn"t keep from screaming a little as the rocks below them drew closer far too fast. Holding the shoulders of the lizard with every ounce of strength she had, she felt him shift slightly, and suddenly they were swinging through the trees, using branches and vines to propel them along faster. Some had swung up onto branches and were running through the trees. It didn"t take long before they had all dropped to the ground and were dodging through the trees and running along beside the river.

The lizard carrying Mikey dived to the side, and they all quickly turned to catch up to him, where he had started jumping and climbing back up the cliff, using the tree roots that were dangling down to swing on.

Gia stopped being afraid, and started to antic.i.p.ate where her lizard was going to jump next by which muscles he was bunching up, and was actually leaning into his swings and helping him round corners with her movements. She didn"t dare try to grab anything, as they were going far too fast to safely be able to do anything like that.

As the edge of the mountain pa.s.s drew closer and closer, she saw that her lizard was pulling ahead of the others only slightly, and she started wanting him to win. She ducked her head down so the wind wouldn"t catch in her hair as bad, and she pulled her legs up a little, to allow him to run easier. Shifting her weight from one side to the other, helped him as well, and his lead was gaining even more.

Another cliff was approaching and some of the lizards had slowed their pace, glancing back and forth between each other, as if seeing if everyone intended to jump again. Gia wasn"t sure what was so dangerous about this cliff over the last several they had already jumped over. Her lizard didn"t bother to glance at the others, in fact, he sped up and as they dived over the edge, her breath caught in her throat. Below them was a raging river that churned around sharp rocks and broken branches that stuck up like spikes. She knew they were going to die and fought the urge to close her eyes. As he bunched up his muscles in preparation for something, she spied a branch that reached out over the water. There was no way it would hold their weight!

Running what would happen through her head, she realized he knew it would break as well, and relaxed a little. He was going to use the branch to slow their momentum and possibly change their direction a little. If it was enough, they wouldn"t land in the river at all.

As his hands closed around the branch, she reached out and grabbed another branch, holding it with all her strength, and as soon as his broke, she let go. It was just enough to slow them down and allow him to land in a crouch on the sh.o.r.e of the water. Without a glance back, he took off running again, dodging trees until they ended and Gia found herself gazing out over a field of tall wild gra.s.ses.

He had undone her ropes and she had walked around a little bit on her rubbery legs before any of the other lizards caught up with them. Her family had such huge looks of relief on their faces when they saw her, that she couldn"t help but smile at them.

"You impress me, Grosgen. You shall be in my race for sure. That was an impressive move jumping from death cliff," said Slovak.

"I had been there just this morning and knew there was a way to survive the jump with the human on my back when I reached it. But it was only because she also grabbed a branch as we fell that I was able to reach the sh.o.r.e. I understand why the leaders were impressed with them," Grosgen said with a wide grin, turning to look back at Gia.

"Gia did that?" asked Vonn, standing on his wobbly legs.

"I"m impressed!" said Tom, not bothering to try and stand. He sat under a tree with Carla and beamed at Gia.

"I always knew my Gia was awesome!" cried Mikey, running to give her a hug.

"You would make a good hunter if you wanted to stay and learn," said Slovak.

"No, thank you. My family is too important to me, besides," said Gia, turning to look across the gra.s.sland, "We"re almost home."