Hannah's Hero - Ruby Dixon Page 0,51
from?” I ask her, curious. “Is there a piece of one of the suns inside?”
“Not the sun. There’s something inside the equipment that causes a bright light to come out. It’s almost like an itty-bitty fire, but it’s designed to bring light instead of heat. I’m guessing your ancestors that crashed here set this place up as a greenhouse long ago and it’s starting to fall apart.”
“The ancestors,” I say, nodding. “The ones that look like M’dok.” I think of F’rli’s mate with the shiny horns and the body decorations.
“Yeah, that light isn’t natural, and neither is any of this equipment.” She points at the shiny things dotted amidst the leaves, and the black tubing. “If I had to guess, I’d say that when they got stranded here, they pulled a bunch of plants from your island and set them up in this cave and lived near here instead.”
“Why not on the island? Where the fruit is natural?”
“Big honking volcano?”
Ah. The Great Smoking Mountain. I nod. It makes sense. “Do you think it was smoking even back then? Many, many generations ago?”
“Even if it wasn’t, they would have had equipment that would have told them it wasn’t a safe place to live.”
Such a thing sounds unbelievable, but it must be true. “So they had a ‘knowing’ sense like Rokan?”
“In a way.” She shrugs. “If they had volcanos back home, too, it would be easy to tell, too. There are islands like that back where I come from and they’re very green and pretty, but the volcanoes erupt all the time and make problems for people.”
“Ah.” To think, if we would have known that the Great Smoking Mountain would attack, we could have saved my people. “Do you think we can take that light and use it to make sure that no other mountains explode?”
“I don’t know if it works exactly like that,” she says, her tone gentle. “But when we go back, we can ask Mardok about it. Maybe he’ll have ideas on how we can check that sort of thing.”
I am glad she does not laugh at my suggestion. “Until then, we shall enjoy this cave, yes?”
“Absolutely.” She closes her eyes, lying on her back on one of the furs we have spread on the ledge, and sighs. “This is the most relaxed I’ve felt in forever.”
My khui sings loudly, demanding that I reach out and touch her, but I do not want to destroy our fragile truce. I force myself to lie on my back next to her and pretend as if I am relaxing, too. “N’dek will be quite jealous when he learns what we have been feasting on.”
I regret the words the moment they leave my mouth. Guilt surges through me. N’dek would be sad, yes, but he would be here with her instead of me if I had but thrown my spear properly. It is my fault he is doomed to sit around the fire all day, feeling useless.
“What’s the situation with you and N’dek anyhow?” H’nah asks, picking up on my thoughts. “You’re always helping him, but I get the impression all is not well there.”
“I am the reason he is injured,” I tell her, sharing my shame. Even now, it eats at me. I am filled with bitterness and despair when I think of N’dek. I have ruined his life, and here I sit, feasting in a warm, food-filled cave with a pretty mate at my side. I sit up, disgusted with myself. Should I have stayed by his side to help him? Is it cruel that I am here? I thought I would be doing him a favor by forcing him to be on his own, but I am full of doubt.
“You’re the reason? How so?” H’nah sits up as well, putting a hand on my arm to comfort me. She pats me gently. “We don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to.”
“I will tell you.” I will hide nothing from my mate. She is my other half, she should know all of my secrets…and all my shames. “It was after I’chai died. She was Z’hren’s mother and a great hunter, but her mate died and after Z’hren was born, she seemed to give up. She was hunting kaari by herself, which was foolish. They are big…scaly things with long teeth and strong, hungry bodies. Long snouts.”
“Are kaari crocodiles?” she guesses. “Dinosaurs? Not that it matters. Go on.”
“I’chai was a good hunter, but not that good. We did not