Chapter 29

On the wrong side of the river on an unknown planet.

Ureeblay could see they were approaching the end of the storm destruction. Up on the flats, he could see more and more trees that remained upright and whole as well as a few birds flitting about. The high winds had only blown over a few trunks while wrecking the tops of some of the others.

As his thoughts wandered back to what was under Pegasia's tail, Ureeblay felt a stirring of his man part under his clout and kilt. He was shocked that he was experiencing a thrill at seeing what was under Pegasia's tail—her woman parts—and he could feel his body responding stronger now. By the World Mother, he told himself, she is a Centaur, after all!

Spirits help me, he thought, what will she think of me if she discovers what I'm feeling ... and why?

"Do yah ... have ... a sister?" Pegasia asked Ureeblay again with a funny grin on her upturned face as she slowed down further to match his pace as he walked up beside her. "And yahr sister ... ssss ... used to smack yahr ... fore-head for baying a dunce?"

"She is my older sister," Ureeblay informed Pegasia, not knowing what a dunce was, but thinking he was able to guess while he tried to portray by his demeanor that his sister's previous actions now were of no account. "Before I accidently floated over to this side of the Toolie, she thought she could boss me around whenever she felt like it—but that will be all over when I find a way back across the big river."

Ureeblay took his left hand off his spears resting in his quiver, and lifting his arm, he found himself holding out and offering his hand to the young woman beside him.

She looked at his hand and then looked at up at his eyes. Ureeblay could see she didn't understand his gesture. He nodded toward the log the thickness of his chest resting on the sun-washed gravel they were approaching. With his right hand, he pointed his hickory staff at the obstacle.

"You take my hand in yours," he said, lowering his voice and tilting his head in her direction, "so I can help you across the log." Looking at Pegasia, he saw her rapidly move her head to her right and then back to her left before she grinned and took his hand. Immediately Ureeblay liked the feel of her skin as they gently held each other's hand.

"Is We-low Swon-gi ... ssss ... castum?" she asked him in an equally soft voice, sounding amused.

"It is a Welow Swongli custom," he told her with chuckle. He could tell the skin of her fingers and palm had wrinkled from being in the water, but otherwise her hand was alive and warm in his grasp.

I'm touching another person after all this time, Ureeblay thought, beginning to feel sort of giddy at the idea. A strong wooly-worm shiver tickled up his spine under his vest and spirit hammer harness. He must have wiggled his shoulders, because he saw Pegasia give him a funny look.

After taking two more steps, they both lifted their right foot up and over the downed log that the big storm broke off at the base of the trunk and tossed over the high bank. The rest of the tree was out in the moving muddy water to their left. Most of its leaves were green and still on the limbs sticking up out of the muddy water. Ureeblay's gaze continued across the river to the same-colored forest canopy above the far bank. Then a good-sized twig and then a leaf floating downriver several body-lengths from this shore brought his attention back to the direction they were walking. The flotsam was moving with the current about the same pace that Pegasia and he were heading upstream.

Now over the log, he didn't let go of her hand.

Just ahead, he could see the second recently wrecked tree down on the gravel and partially in the water. Beyond that was the fallen treetop hanging down from the high bank. As they walked along the gravel holding hands, Ureeblay could now observe farther upstream past the full, leafy crown that had partially hidden his view of the cutback bank earlier.

He could clearly see the tops of the two, smooth boulders he'd noticed earlier while sitting on his ass after falling from the high bank and looking for any more Hurstmon. The two stones were three body-lengths from, and parallel to the shore. He could appreciate shape of both boulders. Each rock reminded Ureeblay of the small half of a massive egg, sticking up from the surface of the flowing muddy water. The tops of both rocks were the same height, and easily over his head. The boulders were so perfectly alike that Ureeblay was shocked.

What have the spirits, or—or the World Mother done here, he wondered. Because now that he could look along the high cutback beyond the leafy crown hanging down over the bank, he saw that just ashore of the two half-drown egg-stones, was another huge, quite strangely shaped boulder. Partially buried in the riverbank while towering halfway up to the overhanging forest canopy, it blocked two-thirds of the shingle.

As Pegasia and he got closer, Ureeblay could see beginning on the upriver side that the strangely formed massive rock had about two hands or more of smooth, staggered terraces coming out from the bulk of its center. Those features curled around from the gravel up to the top of the bank and on around to the flat crest of the monolith overlooking the river. Ureeblay observed that each flat section was big enough that Pegasia and he could easily climb up to the forest floor without any trouble. How did the World Mother form such stones and cause them to be here and arranged as they are? he asked.

Part of him also recognized each of the terraces was uniformly flat. Such a display of Her power, Ureeblay told himself feeling growing awe in the presence of such a mystery displayed in stone.

Centaur girl gave his hand a little squeeze as they came to the last fallen tree, calling Ureeblay back to the living mystery gently holding his hand and walking beside him. Lifting his hickory staff along with his right foot, they stepped over this trunk in unison too.

"Yahr sister is beeger than yah-ar, Ureebay?" she asked, looking up at him with her inquisitive eyes.

"I-ahh, I've grown during my time on this side of the Toolie," he explained, as a surge of thankfulness for being alive centered in his middle. "Once I return to my family," Ureeblay told Pegasia, finding he did not really want to let go of her warm hand as he released his grip and their hands fell back to their sides. "I'll bend my sister, Nayohme, over my knee and smack her on her rump the next time she tries to show me disrespect by smacking me."

As soon as he said the words, Ureeblay realized his sister would always smack him on the head when she thought he needed it.

"Ahh, after all," Ureeblay said to Pegasia, trying to justify what he just told her he would do to his sister, "I'm not a little boy any more; my adventures on this side of the river have proven that."

As the gravel of the shingle crunched under her hooves, the mysterious Pegasia beside him let out another delightful sounding three-note laugh. Ureeblay found her clear tones to be so much more inviting than the buzz of crickets and the occasional bird song around them; he longed to hear more of that tone of her laughter. Then, he watched as she let the focus of her eyes slowly travel down the front of his body again and settle on his crotch.

Ureeblay was startled and even more surprised when he saw a deep blush coloring her tanned face. She quickly turned her head away from him and she looked out across Muddy River.

They didn't say anything else the rest of their walk to the huge Stepping Stone, as he thought of the massive rock sunk into the bank, its limestone surface a bright, warm white in the angling mid-afternoon rays of Father Sun.

Ureeblay couldn't fail but sense the tension growing between them as he tried to figure out what Pegasia's laughter and that look that she gave him might mean. Well ... he had a good idea from his second life what that look might mean, but he didn't know how these Centaurs thought about things ... those things. She must be some warrior's nectar. Probably has a suitor somewhere, he chided himself. By the Spirits—a ... what? A herd of suitors.

At least Pegasia seemed embarrassed enough to blush, the young man told himself. To take his mind off the dilemma of his confusion as they walked side by side along the muddy water, Ureeblay started to ponder what Pegasia might have in the way of supplies and gear—beside the salt that she'd told him about earlier. He felt a smile come to his face at the thought of salt.

Just how long, he asked himself, the promise of salt suddenly gone from his mind, have those groups of Centaur warriors been looking for her? She must have some survival skills to have eluded the warriors after her for as long as they've chased me ... I wonder what kind of weapons she has, and why she doesn't have any with her now.

Listening to the crunch of her hooves on the gravel next to him, Ureeblay remembered thinking about her kicking his head when he was walking directly behind her and sneaking looks at her—well ... A kick from her rear legs would not only hurt he figured, her hooves would kill him if she kicked his head as hard as she could ... He wondered how fast she could run. The colorfully bedecked Centaur warriors he'd watched from cover could travel faster than he'd ever be able to move that was certain. If she couldn't kick an attacker, she could possibly out run one.

Since Pegasia had been working neck deep in the river, he wondered if she could swim. He'd seen a few of the Centaur warriors swim. In Ureeblay's opinion, now that he thought back on seeing her in the water, Pegasia seemed comfortable with muddy water up to her neck or going under to retrieve mussels. In addition, he realized, she had a lot of shellfish to prove she'd spent some time in the water, as well as the water wrinkles he felt on her hand. Hmmm, her hand... He shook his head to get that idea out of his mind.

Perhaps, he decided, she doesn't need to carry weapons while hunting mussels. Suddenly he was looking forward to learning everything he could about her and her people—and also finding out just why she thought calling him a Maki Boy was so funny.

By the World Mother, he asked himself, what is my mother going to say about me accepting a young, runaway Hurstmon woman under my spear? What will she think about me being man enough to take anyone under my spear?

Thinking further about his family as Pegasia and he reached the first terraced step of the huge limestone boulder, Ureeblay had a feeling that there might be a few problems if his sister and Pegasia ever met.

In the afternoon rays of Father Sun, Ureeblay watched where he put his lead moccasin and the rounded tip of his hickory prod and staff as he climbed the first limestone step. Ureeblay immediately notice the shapes of clamshells embedded in the almost polished surface of the terrace that was raised shin high above the gravel shingle.

Pegasia clopped along on his left around the outside of the curving course of stone terraces up toward the forest floor. The young man, aware of his short sling wrapped around his forehead, the movement of his spirit hammer in its harness on his back as well as his quiver of spears on his left hip and his travel pouch on his right, considered what was under his feet. He knew from past congregations that storytellers from one of the clans of the most distant Warmishers told tales of the evil spirit they called Teoyohitica Tahth Atzinthi; Godfather Water to Coolishers such as himself.

The storytellers were from the Black Mirror Clan—or were they of the Children of the Maize Clan? That doesn't matter right now, Ureeblay thought. In that story the particularly evil spirit, or supernatural, as he'd heard his mother and the healer call Godfather Water, had the power to turn people, creatures, and plants to stone. The Warmishers' storytellers presented several tales that demonstrated how Godfather Water's bad temper was the reason you could sometimes find so many once-living things turned to stone and encased in limestone rocks.

From all the stone evidence that Ureeblay saw since he was little in different places, and now on this side of the Toolie, he thought, _Godfather Water must have a truly bad temper, but what had these creatures done to deserve this? And how could an evil spirit manage to form such flat surfaces while turning all these shellfish into a solid piece of huge rock?"

As he and Pegasia slowly followed the turning terraces upward in the sunshine, Ureeblay knew some parents would tell unruly children that they should be obedient, or Godfather Water might come in the night and turn them to stone. The parents would then ask the child the same thing every time, "If Godfather Water turns you to stone; what will you do when your friends want you to play in the morning? How will you fill your empty belly when you cannot open your mouth to break your fast with us?"

He was glad that his mother and sire never threatened his sister or him with a visit from Godfather Water. Usually his parents' disappointment was enough to chastise them. In some cases, his mother would bend him over when he was small and whack his bottom.

Ureeblay lifted his right foot up onto the terrace just even with the top of the high cutback. From behind him came a sound that could only be Pegasia breaking wind. She did it again as they stepped onto the loam soil and started into the trees. Surprised, he looked over at her face.

"Saahhh," she sighed with a grin and a nod of her head, the bulging bag of mussels moving with her right withers as she walked. "Fairts—so good!"

"Do you mean farts?" Ureeblay asked. Startled by her bold-faced admission, he started to laugh.

"I do mean f-arts," she replied with a happy chuckle as Ureeblay felt his laughter release all the tension and worries he didn't realize he'd held inside.

"Where did you learn your manners?" Ureeblay teased her, realizing it felt really good to laugh with someone again, and not wanting the moment to pass. "Welow Swongli girls, once they become maidens, never fart in front of boys. They all seem to want us to believe that we, ah ... young men, are the only uncivilized louts crass enough to fart in public anymore. Even when my people have wind breaking contests!"

Pegasia laughed with him; her chin lifting as she tossed her head back. The specific uneasy tension that Ureeblay felt early in her presence dissipated completely on the breeze of their shared laughter. With each step of her four-legged gait as they moved into the dappled, angled shadows under the leafy canopy overhead that was undamaged by the recent storm, the Centaur girl on his left let out a measured string of farts.

Amazing! Ureeblay thought as another burst of mirth hit him and he sucked down a lungful of air through his opened mouth.

"Do they..." she asked him with a grin, her attractive reddish-brown eyebrows going up over her sparkling sky-blue eyes, "eeksplaud?"

When she saw he didn't understand, she held up her hands together, forming the shape of a ball and added, "Do the girls berst?"

Calling out, "Baing!" Pegasia jerked her hands apart, spreading her fingers wide.

Imagining that happening to his sister because she held back the wind in her bowels, Ureeblay laughed louder.

"I think they just sneak off," he managed to tell Pegasia, admiring her laughing face and the movement in her human torso, "and then come back after the smell is gone."

"Saahh haa ... Sounds ... unheelthy," she got out, as her laughter diminished to chuckles.

Ureeblay saw Pegasia noticing he was glancing at her long, drying reddish-brown hair covering her moving chest. He looked away from her and tried to pay attention to where they were walking in the forest, his laughter and chuckles suddenly having run their course.

Surprised, Ureeblay realized they were moving between the trees on a grass path that could be the Hurstmon Way! How can that be, he wondered recalling his recent experience with the natural courses taken by the weird, mysterious trail, there certainly wasn't a ford across the section of Muddy River we just left, I'm certain. If this is some part of the Way, that weird, terraced boulder must be the work of the builders. I've certainly never seen any boulder with such even or flat steps before.

"Wh-where..." Pegasia asked before he could put his questions into words, and being careful with her pronunciation, she continued, "is yahr caimp, Ureebay?"

"Ah, well, my camp," he told her, intending to ask her about this path and the Hurstmon Way as soon as possible, "is over toward the Morn." Ureeblay immediately saw that she didn't seem to understand his reference. "That way," he told her pointing off slightly to the right with his hickory staff held in his right hand. "That direction is the Morn ... Where Father Sun rises from his sleep each morning. My camp is close to the point where the Muddy River joins the Toolie. What do you think of that?" he asked her for no reason, noticing she was listening intently to his words.

"Good..." Pegasia said, nodding in understanding. "That direction is the Aast. Sheee... Ita in Centaur. Wh-what is that way?" she asked slowly, pointing of to the left of the clear path ahead.

"The Cool," Ureeblay told her, "the direction where winter goes to sleep through the other seasons." Nodding over his left shoulder he added, "That direction is the Eve, where Father Sun goes to sleep at the end of the day, every evening."

"Narth – nota in Centaur," she told him, nodding ahead and off to their left as they walked together in the dappled shade. "Waist – weta." she nodded over her left shoulder. Then, pushing her left shoulder forward and pulling her right shoulder and arm back, Pegasia turned to look behind them, she added, " Sauth – we saiy hauta in Centaur."

Then Ureeblay wondered; if the we she was talking about were Centaurs, and the second words were their language, then—

"To hear you talk, Pegasia, if hauta is Centaur for the Warm..." Ureeblay asked. "Then what language is S-sauth?"

Ureeblay watched the sun-dappled shadows play across her exotic features as the two of them stepped along over the short grass covering the wide trail. Pegasia was studying his face in return. She tilted her head to her left and then back to her right before nodding her head at him. The young Centaur woman obviously made a decision and then took a deep breath.

"Sauth ... is in the lan-language of the Dauk-taur," she told him as they walked along the grassy trail in the woods.

"What ... or who," Ureeblay asked Pegasia, "is this Dauk Taur? Is the Dauk Taur a people, or a man, a two-leg?" He watched for her response. "You said I wasn't a Dauk Taur's ... ah, man ... when you appeared out of the water ... I hope you know, that I'm sorry I frightened you back there.

"Are there Dauk Taur's men about?" he quickly asked, as questions seemed to surge into his mind. "How do you speak this Dauk Taur's language, in addition to your language ... and my language too? This trail here, is it part of the Hurstmon Way I've been following for so many days from the Cool along the Toolie River?" Something else struck him and he finished by saying, "And, Pegasia ... you are saying my words so much better, so quickly. I'm surprised. No Warmisher that ever joined with a Coolisher mate and move to any of our camps, that I know about anyway, ever changed the way they say their words as much, or learned as quickly as you are."

"As a Dauw-der of Churon, I am taut fram a lettle foawl," she told him, holding out her right hand flat at her bellybutton indicating how small, "so I hear and I lee-learn quee-quickly, Ureebay ... I am taut by the Sisters to rameamba all I hear. Rameambarin' is what Dauw-ders of Churon do for the tribes. Remeambarin' and taichin' what we know ... I know languages, I know how to hail the eel and unjeered with hearbs, meedusun, and ather tickneeks, and I know ... shee ... nambers."

At some point in her explanation, they had both stopped walking. Ureeblay faced Pegasia as she finished telling him about being a member of the Dauw-ders of Churon. He now figured that her sire probably wasn't this Churon, but that she was a member of a Centaur group that was something like the Sisterhood of Women, the storytellers' guild, and the healers of the Welow Swongli.

"You know nambers, Ureebay," she said and held up both of her lightly closed hands between them. Sticking out her right thumb she said, "Wan." Then, as she stuck out each additional finger in turn on her right hand, she added, "Tauw, thuray, fuor, foive." Starting on her left hand she said, "Sux, savun, ate, noin, tain."

Ureeblay saw her smile at the look of amazement on his face as he listened to her way, the Centaur way, of counting. They didn't use a hand or a stone as a measure.

Then, Pegasia started retracting the fingers on her right hand, as she continued, saying, "Aleevan, twilve, thaurtain, fuortain, foiftain—" Now with her right hand closed, she started pulling in the fingers on her left hand. "Suxtain, savuntain, atetain, nointain, and twintay. I know ... ssss ... maure nambers.

"Now, Ureebay, you caunt for me to that mainy," she said, her eyebrows going up as she grinned at him. She reached over and took his hickory staff out of his right hand.

"Ahhh," the amazed young man muttered as the differences between her way of counting challenged his way of thinking. He raised his left hand and then his right. He swallowed and stuck out the thumb on his right hand as he took a deep breath.

"One, two," Ureeblay said slowly, extending each finger in turn. "Three, four, hand." Then his left thumb went out as he continued, saying, "One, two, three, four, hand two." Slowly closing his left thumb as he realized how cumbersome his way of counting seemed to be when compared to the Centaur way, he added, "Ah one, two, three, four, hand three..." His right little finger closed as he told her in a soft voice, "One, two, three, four, umm hand four..."

"My sire," he brightened up at the thought of counting in stones and told her, "ah, he's passed into the third life now ... he taught me during my Swongli lessons at night, how to count stones..."

"I know cou-counting stones, Ureebay," Pegasia told him in a gentle voice and a nod of her head as she held his hickory staff out to him. "We have much to learn from aich ather. I am ak-sightid to be pairt of yahr household. We are gaunah haive faun."

Ureeblay absentmindedly took back his staff, and pondered what he'd just learned. Then it hit him—if Pegasia knew about Welow Swongli stone counting, and could already speak his language as she did, then had she understood when he told her his camp was to the Morn? Did she use his explanations of the Welow Swongli terms for the directions to lead their conversation to the differences in how their peoples counted in some way? It dawned on him that perhaps the Dauw-ders of Churon might be very good teachers indeed.

"This, Ureebay," Pegasia said as she gestured to the wide path, "is part of the Centaur Way. A good name, bait the Centaurs deed not beeld this trail. The Dauk-taur's peeple beelt this trail ... bifore the Dauk-taur cree-aited the Farst Centaurs. The Dauk-taur's Trail, or His Trail, is Centaur name for this trail."

"Wwwhat?" Ureeblay blurted out when what she'd said sunk into his head. "What do you mean, before the Dauk Taur created the first Centaurs?" He unconsciously slowly raised both arms out to his sides, his hickory staff gripped in his right hand, to indicate the woods and everything else around them.

"Everyone knows it is the World Mother who brings all things into being—gives them life. She created all the creatures, the insects, the birds, the plants, the people, this forest, this ground, this land ... everything ... All of this is Her work—Her sacred work."

"Ureebay..." said Pegasia as a soft look formed on her exotic features and she gently lifted up her right arm and rested her hand on the left shoulder of his vest. "The Dauk-taur is the sire of all the traibes—ssss ... the tribes of the Centaurs—the Twilve Tribes. W-when we cross ovah the rivah, Ureebay, we weil be in the land of the Centaurs' Farst Waikin'—the land of the Farst Waikin' is Tapu for all Centaurs ... Sheee... Sacred Grau-Ground ... Tapu Ground.

"We are going to see the Sacred Forest, tagathar, Ureebay. The Sacred Forest where Centaurs farst appaired here on Thessaly. Where the Dauk-taur braight my aincestaurs to life. Where the Centaurs farst appaired in the univarse ... You will see."

What is she saying? Ureeblay's mind demanded. How can anyone other than World Mother create a race of beings? How is it that this Centaur girl thinks she can claim to know these things—just because she is a Daughter of Churon?

He could only look deep into Pegasia's sky blue eyes, searching for understanding, if not the truth. He saw caring, concern, and her sense of humor.

"That is why I know yahr a Moki boy," Pegasia told him in what he realized was an affectionate-sounding tone of voice, in spite of his confusion. She added a disarming grin,

"It is in yahr jains. Jains is what the Dauk-taur mixed tagathar to cra-create my aincestaurs ... and I know that yahr aincestaurs, Ureebay, a-vaulved from Moki. According to yahr jains, the Dauw-taurs learn of jains from ahr Maori Mentaurs, so I know that the ... ssss... World Mother on Eairth made yahr people—

"—but she used a Maki to do it."

Third Mission, outbound aboard the FUP Deep Space Exploration vessel Glenndeavor, 2401 CE

Aboard the Glenndeavor

On my left, Anika took a few steps to the hatchway of C003, triggering the threshold with her ID stick. As the hatch opened, I walked up beside her. There stood the ruddy-complexion of Acting Lieutenant Commander Merchanni in his cammie combat gear—a thin, camo-colored ballistic vest and POT helmet. Just behind him to his right was Gunnery Sergeant Brandt, also dressed for war, but with the turtle-shell vest he'd worn in CSB-3. To Merch's left was a short, young woman with Corporal chevrons on the sleeves of her camo-colored battle blouse as well as Velcro chevrons on her turtle-shell armor over her heart.

The nametape over the Corporal's right breast displayed the name, Grievous in black ink. I didn't see any hair sticking out around the rim of her POT helmet, but her eyebrows were black over wide-set, hazel-colored eyes.

While I was looking at her, I noticed both Bur and the Corporal register that Anika and I were in the dimly lit compartment. Bur looked at our faces and gave Anika and then me a grin before he turned to his right, and began watching that flank. The Corporal's nondescript face showed no emotion as she took two steps back. Turning to her left, she assumed a seemingly nonchalant stance while remaining vigilant to her surroundings.

"Did you get a good six hours?" Merch asked me with his right eyebrow going up toward the rim of his helmet as he took in our gear. "Both of you look well, err... rested. Mostly prepared, too."

I saw Merch had a big, holstered pistol as well as a holstered LTP-PR3 hand laser attached to the Velcro webbing of his lower vest along with a POC, but there was no rifle over his shoulder. Well, Anika and I didn't have our AUGs with us, either. We both figured that if Merch wanted us armed with assault rifles, he'd tell us to get them.

Now, I realized that the impression I'd always had that he was a man you did not want to piss off in a bar—well, seeing him now in his cammies and combat gear amplified that feeling a thousand times. I felt a growing glow of confidence in my chest about this assignment.

"Sir," Anika addressed him in her young, matter-of-fact sounding voice. "Good sleep, good stretching and execution of forms, good breaking of fast, and prospect of good company of such fine comrades at this early of time is both invigorating and honor, thus showing in our countenance. As for preparation, Sir, I am certain you are having plan of action to which we will adjust our kit and weapons load as needed."

I watched a genuine smile break out on Merch's face and in his brown eyes. He focused on Anika through the open hatchway with the lighted, cream-colored passageway behind him and his two companions.

"Ahhh," Merch sighed raising his chin and casting his gaze at the overhead for two seconds before looking at us again. "I do so love the smell of quality enlisted shinola in the morning." He shook his POT-covered head at Anika.