Trek For Survival

"But it"s only a baby, and if we release it, the snakes will eat it," said Gia, sighing in frustration.

They both knew she wanted nothing to do with the little green figure in her hands, but because Mikey was right there, watching with his little innocent eyes, Gia was going to try.

"Fine," sighed Vonn, taking the goblin, who looked up at him with big wide eyes and sniffed. "I"ll see what I can do."

Mikey grinned and went to follow him as Vonn headed out the door, but Gia grabbed his shoulder.

"No, you don"t. Vonn said he would deal with the baby goblin, and make sure it didn"t get eaten. You are not about to go with him. There are lots of dangerous snakes wandering around, and we"re too close to the gate where those sand monsters are waiting, for me to even consider letting you go out there."

Mikey sighed, but nodded and headed back over to his parents, sitting down next to Tom and complaining, "Gia"s being mean."

"Gia is looking out for you. She doesn"t want to see you get hurt," consoled Tom, glancing up from his carving. "What do you think of my tree? I"m trying to make it look like the great tree we saw back at the lizardman"s mountains."

"Its top branches aren"t big enough. That thing blocked out the sky!" exclaimed Mikey.

"But this is a tiny carving. I can"t have it block out the sky, silly," laughed Tom.

Carla came over to talk to Gia as she waited for Vonn to return. The traders were outside, loading water and food back into the elephants, and trying to patch up any damage the dead creatures had gotten rushing through the sands.

"What do you think Vonn is going to do with the goblin?" asked Carla.

"I don"t care," whispered Gia, glancing back at Mikey. "It was trying to lick my hand, and I was afraid it was going to bite me. It smelled horrible, too!"

"Goblins are known for being horrible little things, back home at least. I don"t know if these goblins would be the same, but it was so tiny. Do you think the snakes really eat them?"

"Probably, mom. What else is there for the snakes to eat?" asked Gia.

"But then, what do you think the goblins eat?"

"If they really live underground, there"s no telling. I just know I"m not going to ask what kind of meat we have to eat when we head back out. Do you think those worms will still be waiting for us?"

"I imagine the traders will figure out a way to get past them. They made it before. Besides, we don"t have much a choice," said Carla with a shrug. "It"s not like we could make it by ourselves."

"Yeah," said Gia softly, thinking back to the giant snake that had given her a ride across the sand. It had moved much faster than the elephants, but she didn"t want to experience that again.

"Here"s Vonn back, I"ll leave you to him," said Carla, heading back to sit with Mikey and Tom.

Vonn glanced over at Carla in confusion, before turning to Gia. "Sudar said he would help the little guy get back to his people. I didn"t really want to be involved, but it sounded like he was going to use it to trade with the snake people. Don"t tell Mikey."

"No, it"s okay. I kind of want to wash my hands after touching it," she said with a small smile.

"I did wash my hands. Want me to show you where?" he offered.

"Yes, please," she nodded, following him hesitantly out of the room that was designated as safe by the snake man guard.

Vonn took her past the elephants to a fountain that could be triggered to spill water out of a statue that protruded out of the wall. The traders had been using it to refill the water bags they had left on the elephants. Vonn quickly showed her how to trigger it, and Gia washed her hands as quickly as she could, so as to preserve as much water as possible.

As they were finishing and turning to leave, a movement out of the corner of her eye had Gia jerking back. A tiny snake with arms, was perched on the edge of the fountain, eyeing her and the water in the basin. Vonn took Gia"s arm and they slowly moved away from the fountain, so as not to spook it. It watched them carefully, then went to move, but fell into the fountain with a splash. There was a small strangled cry as it thrashed in the water, and the snake man who was helping Sudar turned immediately to see what was going on.

"It fell!" exclaimed Gia, covering her mouth in shock, watching as the guard s.n.a.t.c.hed the baby snake out of the water and give them a suspicious look.

"Return to your room," he almost hissed, anger evident in his voice as he turned back to the baby who was struggling in his hands.

"I can"t wait to get out of this desert," gasped Gia as they reached the room once again.

"Of all the places we have been, I believe this is probably the worst," agreed Vonn, still holding her arm from before.

"What happened?" asked Carla.

"I was washing my hands when a baby snake appeared and fell into the water. The snake man thought we had pushed it in," said Gia.

"That"s horrible. Was it alright?" asked Mikey.

"Judging from the way it was struggling in the hands of the snake guy, I would say it was just fine," said Vonn dryly. "I"m going to check with Sudar to see how much longer it will be before we can leave."

"Not soon enough," grumbled Gia as Vonn left.

"I don"t know why you"re so grumpy," said Mikey. "I don"t like traveling in that stinky elephant. It"s so crowded and hot inside! And there"s nothing to do!"

"You could try carving some of the wood I have left," offered Tom.

"No, thank you," said Mikey, laying back on the floor. "When will we be home?"

"Hopefully we can find a good spot to build a house when we get to the other side of these plains," said Gia. She moved over to the wall next to her family and leaned against it. The stone was cool against her back. She couldn"t stand the thought of sitting just yet. "I don"t want to get back in the elephant either, but I don"t want to stay here where everything is dangerous. I hate the sand getting in my clothes and all of the monsters wanting to eat us."

"Someday soon we will find a place and stop traveling," said Tom, turning back to his carving.

"Vonn was going to build us a house that was big enough for all of us, and for any kids we have in the future," said Gia with a small smile, thinking of the family she would have with him in the future. Would there be lots of kids? Would there be more boys than girls?

"Oh, yeah! I remember him saying that," said Mikey, sitting up. "He said I could help him build it!"

"That"s right," said Carla, wiping the hair out of Mikey"s face.

"Will there be other kids for me to play with?" he asked, turning to look at Gia, as if she knew the answer.

"I hope so," she said. "We probably won"t stop to build the house until we find a village with other people in it."

"I hope so, too. I want there to be some other boys, that I can run and play with. Do you think I"ll have to hunt rats again?"

"No, we won"t be living in a big city like before, ever again," said Tom.

"Vonn will probably teach you how to hunt big animals," said Gia.

"I would like that. I hope there"s girls, too. I want to find someone to be my wife," said Mikey. "That way, when I get older, I can build a house for her and me to have some kids, too."

"That"s going to be a while," laughed Carla.

"Well, we"re not there yet," sighed Mikey.

Vonn came back in just then, with a weird look on his face.

"What"s wrong?" asked Gia, standing up from the wall.

"Sudar just said they were calling the lions to help us get out of the desert, and hoped that none of us were afraid of heights," he said, glancing at Carla.

"Don"t worry about me," Carla sighed. "I know how to close my eyes by this time. Oh, sorry, eye."

"Oh, you,��� said Tom with a laugh.

"What does that mean?" asked Gia, referring to the lions.

"I"m not sure, but Sudar said they would be here within the hour, and that we needed to be ready to leave as soon as they arrived. The snake men were not happy with us being here, and were talking about chasing us back out into the desert for the worms to eat."

"Oh dear," said Carla, with a frown.