Trek For Survival

A rustle up ahead had them all pausing in apprehension. A large lizardman jumped onto the path before them and stood slowly, looking over each of them.

"Slavok, why are you escorting these humans instead of killing them?" he asked, tilting his head to the side.

Gia swallowed in dread, as the sun sparkled off his blue tinted scales. He still had what looked like blood under his claws.

"Tiktok, what news do you have of the Edge?" asked their escort, Slavok.

"Well, since you ask, a storm is blowing in from the south, you can"t hardly see the Great Tree at the moment, and the Skeleton Mammoth Traders have been spotted. If you keep going at the crawl you"re moving at, you"ll miss them," he said with a low growl, baring his teeth.

"It can"t be helped, the Witchdoctor ordered me to escort the humans to the Edge. If there were some way to get there faster, I"m open to hear your ideas," she responded, ignoring the looks that Gia was sharing with Vonn and her family.

"I could grab a few of my buddies and we could carry them?" he offered, scratching his chin.

Slavok glanced back at them for a moment, then turned back to him. "Do you think you can promise me that none of your buddies will harm them? That includes scaring them to death."

Tiktok laughed out loud. "I"ll see what I can do. I"ll be in touch!"

Before Slavok could say anything more, he ran at the cliff and jumped off. Carla gasped, as Gia rushed to see Tiktok spread two flaps he had on either side, and glided down to the edge of the river, flipping over in the air and landed with one knee and one hand down, before racing off into the trees.

"This cleft in the mountains is a playground for my people. We learn it as we grow, and continuously work to improve our abilities. Tiktok wishes to be my mate, and will do much to impress me. Escorting you through the cleft is something far below my status, but for some reason our leaders have decided you are important, so I will do this for them. If he can come up with a way to get you to the Edge quicker, I will accept it. This will please him, but it is wearisome to escort humans who are worse than younglings through the whole cleft."

"That will please Tiktok," said Gia carefully. "Do you plan to let him be your mate?"

"I may, but there are many suitable in the cleft. I will probably hold a race and whoever catches me, we shall consummate our mating in a wild frenzy," growled Slavok with a wide grin, clasping her fist at the thought.

Gia took a breath at her words and slowly let them out, her face burning at the freedom of what she had said. These lizard people were incredibly crude! She turned to continue along the path and b.u.mped into Vonn. Glancing up at him with an eep!, brought an even darker shade of red to her face and she stared at the ground furiously as she darted around him and continued walking. Why did he have to be standing so close behind her?

"Walking so fast makes me think you want to be caught," laughed Vonn, causing both her parents to chuckle too.

Why did they all have to be so mean?! She couldn"t bare to make a sound, because it would probably come out as another squeak!

"What"s wrong with Gia?" asked Mikey to someone behind her.

"She"s embarra.s.sed," answered Clara, sounding amused.

"What"s she embarra.s.sed about?" asked Mikey, sounding perplexed.

Gia could imagine his face all scrunched up as he tried to understand what was going on.

"It would seem she wishes to be mated with that male, and is uncertain of her desires," said Slavok in amus.e.m.e.nt. "It is common in the very young, who are unskilled in the act of mating. Perhaps you will experience this when you are older and have found someone you wish to mate with."

"Mate with?" asked Mikey as Gia gaped in shock. "What does that mean?"

"Don"t!" cried Gia, spinning around as panic overwhelmed her.

Everyone stopped short, surprised at her reaction.

"Mikey is still innocent! I want to keep him that way as long as possible!" she said, fighting for a reason to end the line of conversation.

"But he is a young male and needs to know these things if he is ever to father any brood. Do you not wish for him to father children?" asked Slavok in confusion. "Every child must learn these things to become adults."

"Yes, he must learn these things, but I don"t think he needs to know them now," argued Gia, her heart beating furiously.

"Are you his parent, to decide this?" asked Slavok, eyeing her carefully.

"She might as well be," sighed Carla. "It has been very difficult for Tom and I to do a proper job raising him without her help."

"Ah, that makes more sense. There is a confusion of roles in this family group. That can happen in times of great duress. Perhaps when you have a chance to build a proper nest, the roles will straighten themselves out."

"What?" asked Mikey, looking around at everyone in even more confusion.

"That means," said Vonn with a chuckle as he ruffled Mikey"s hair, "That you"ll figure it out later, when you"re older."

"Oh," grunted Mikey, his eyes drooping in annoyance. "Why didn"t I think of that?"

"Don"t worry, young one, I"m sure a day will come when you have young of your own and you will have the dilemma of when to teach them things. I would suggest you find a good strong mate who can bear you many young. I don"t think your kind lays eggs," said Slavok.

Gia swung back around, her face burning in embarra.s.sment, even more than before, and hitched her backpack higher.

"No, we aren"t chickens," laughed Mikey.

"Mikey, I believe Lizard people do lay eggs," said Tom quietly.

"Really?" exclaimed Mikey. "How big are they? Are the sh.e.l.ls hard like a chicken egg or soft like a snake egg? Do they get bigger or are your babies really small when they hatch?"

"Our eggs are normally about as big as your newborn babes. They don"t get any bigger as the babe inside grows. The sh.e.l.l is not as fragile as that of a bird or snake. They are much harder to open, which is why our babes are born with sharp bones on their noses, to help cut through the sh.e.l.l when they are ready to emerge," explained Slavok, thinking about each sentence before stating it.

"Wow, that"s neat! I wish I could see one of the eggs," said Mikey.

"That is not likely. When we lay our eggs, it is in a hidden location, that is guarded fiercely until the babes are hatched. Only then are they brought to the village for all to see."

"That"s fascinating," said Tom. "How long does it take for them to hatch?"

"Anywhere from six to nine months, depending on what time of year they are laid and the weather."

"Wouldn"t it be better to lay your eggs in the middle of the village, to better protect them?" asked Carla, clutching her shirt in horror.

"Perhaps if we wanted every babe born to survive, but by having them in seclusion, it allows the mother to cull any who are born wrong. That way there is none to decry the mother for malformed children. All babes must be strong and fit to survive in our world. If they are sick or weakly, they will only be a burden. Better to let them die in the egg than to coddle them their whole life."

"That"s horrible!" exclaimed Gia. "Perhaps if you took better care of the child, while it was in the egg, it might not hatch malformed! How do you know that child won"t grow up strong and be the best hunter, or whatever, your village ever has?"

"There are some mother"s who do not have the will to kill their children when they are born weak, and often, those children will die in childhood, having taken food from the mouths of others who were not weak. It is very rare to have a child born ill and make it to adulthood, but those who do, often become our witchdoctors and leaders. They are not suited to much else, and thus gain the weakest positions in our society."

"Your leaders are the weakest positions?" asked Vonn.

Slavok laughed. "They may be strong in mind, but they are weak in body. If I had to fight anyone in the entire cleft, and be expected to win, I would choose our leaders every time. That does not mean I don"t follow what they tell me to do, as they use their strength to better our village. That does not mean I will bring any of my babes that are born wrong back to the village. I will eat them first!"

"Don"t worry," said Tom. "I don"t think you could be capable of having babies that were born wrong."

"Ah, spoken like a true leader," laughed Slavok.