Chapter 9

For Mark and Jean, it was winter in Wonderland.

The next two months passed swiftly for the couple. They made love often and watched as Jean and Bobo’s tummies thickened. Jean worked on her serum, but she hadn’t had the breakthrough she wished for.

Her new version, thanks to Mark’s machines, worked even better for the non-shapeshifting gnawers, and they had fewer side effects if treated quickly. However, her tests on the blood from her flickers weren’t proving positive.

Her latest batch slowed the paralysis, but it didn’t neutralise the venom, and it still degraded the blood. It was just a slower death now. She felt that she had the answer in her, and it nagged at her that she couldn’t find it.

As she got heavier, her temper and frustration had her flaring into anger on occasion, but Mark just hugged her and then fucked her stupid to help her get her frustrations out of her system for a time. Working in her gardens also seemed to help her think, if he wasn’t around to distract her.

Mark worked on various projects in his lab, and the Crystal Room was now advanced enough that he could harvest the crystals with impunity for his projects. He had even expanded the cavern after their first shopping trip.

He created a new cavern linked to the first and created new vents in it. The bugs had happily spread into it and increased production as a result. They loved the mixture of gases and minerals the magma was releasing and had exploded across the new cavern with surprising speed.

After the first trip to town, they now went once a fortnight to visit Morton. It was more to get out of the cave for a day and to interact with others than any other real necessity. They had more than enough food stocked away now to meet their needs for many months, if they had to stay hidden. They even had cluckers living in Bess’s cavern so they had eggs and Mark could cook his chicken dishes.

The day out was always fun, and they had taken to exploring odd little stores just for the fun of it. Mark collected any books he found, and he had collected some other odd knick-knacks that Jean had no idea why he wanted them.

Mark had collected the paperwork for his mine, and one day he took Jean to show her where it was going to be set up. He had purchased a small valley that wasn’t far off the main access road between the pass through the mountains and Villas.

Morton was on the other side of the road of the pass through to the mountains to get to Rollin. Jean’s mother’s land was on the other side of their valley. She liked that it was close to home even if she couldn’t go there.

Mark also got to enjoy someone else’s cooking, and they dined in a variety of establishments so he could sample the local cuisine. He also didn’t wish people to get used to seeing them there all of the time. While they talked to the locals, they tried to keep a low profile. Mark never went near the Castle, but they heard that Alina had delivered a healthy baby girl in the second month of winter.

Jean still had little interest in learning to cook elaborate meals. Mark’s machines in their kitchen meant she had learnt to prepare quick, simple meals to cover breakfast and warm tasty snacks when she became ravenous, which was often, as she grew larger.

Mark frequently cooked enough at night, so Jean had a selection of quick meals that she just had to warm up if he was off exploring or working on his own projects. He had to smile, as she loved his bread and using the electric toaster. One of the things that he had stocked up on when they went to the markets were preserves and jams for her. She had a thing for strawberry jam smothered in thick cream.

Bess had continued to produce milk for the first month and then dried up as she had managed to attract the attention of a passing male camla around the same time that Jean had come into season, so she was pregnant too. Mark didn’t think the male was pleased that she wouldn’t leave the shielded area with him.

As it turned out, he and his small herd of three females had wandered back under the shield about the time Bess stopped producing. He was young, and Mark was surprised that the buck had already founded a small herd of his own.

The camla in these mountains stayed all year round and didn’t migrate. They’d had a very big snow storm, and the camla found that under the shield was an oasis in the mountains that were thickly covered in snow, so they stayed.

Bess was due to have her babies the same week Jean was due to have hers. Bess had produced a lot of milk in the time that she had lactated. In Mark’s preservation room, they had plenty of milk put away for the rest of winter, and it would supply them with, cream and soft cheeses.

They had purchased the harder cheeses that Mark liked, at the markets and more grain and hay for Bess. When the other camla moved in, they managed to acquire more feed for them, so they put food out for them too. The high prices didn’t bother Mark as he made regular small deposits at the bank and assayers office to explain why they were in town.

Neither, Mark nor Jean was surprised to find the new camla bunking in with Bess in her nice warm cave a week later. They had also started to let them touch them and a nice brush-down with the thick bristled brush they had for Bess, had won the girls over easily.

They were expecting too, so a nice warm home with food meant they would have little trouble delivering fine healthy calves. The buck, Mark called him Brutus, was a bit more gun shy but he settled down when he determined the humans were not out to hurt him or his.

The shield kept out the worst of the storms, but it still got cold under it. It didn’t take the couple long to have the camlas eating out of their hands, and they knew they would stick around long term, as they had worked out that under the shield was a safe place to live and they got fed and groomed.

Kia and Bobo became fixtures in the house. Kia took it upon himself to teach Bobo how to live with the humans. Mark made Bobo her own stool and eating utensils, and she joined them at the table. Mark even made them their own nest on the big couch so they could cuddle together in front of the fire with their human friends in the evenings.

In the last week of their second month since becoming a couple, Mark had been planning to go walk about. They’d had another big storm, and he wanted to check what animals had wandered in under the shield and how much food was available for those who had.

He didn’t want the area eaten out, as it would take longer to recover if it was. He was checking the contents of his satchel and had pulled out the spool of silk. It had become quite large, as he had added a few more webs worth to it.

Kia had been sitting on his stool watching Mark. After Mark put it down Kia had picked it up. He plucked the end off and wound off a length. Mark went and filled up his water bottles before grabbing some fruit and nut bars that he had made.

Taking the last couple of bars that were left, he guessed he would have to make more soon. They never seemed to last long after he made them. It seemed that Jean, the flickers and even the camla loved to eat them. Brutus was a sucker for them, and Mark chuckled at how he had won the buck over.

Oats grew well in the climate here and even grew wild. They were popular as stock feed as the camla loved them. It turned out that someone had also worked out how to make oat flakes for porridge. Mark was delighted when he found the oat flakes and had been able to buy a good stock of them to make his energy bars and biscuits.

He had also found a version of treacle, and salt so he could make his own butter. He lightly roasted the flakes and then mixed them, the melted treacle and butter with his cracked roasted nuts, from the nuts he and Kia had found. He added other dried fruits and seeds and varied them each time he made them.

As Mark put his energy bars, some fruit and the filled water bottles into his pack, he glanced at Kia. He stopped and watched what the flicker was doing. He understood the concept of crocheting, but he had never seen anyone doing it without the special hooked needle. Kia was using his nimble fingers to knit a round net.

Kia already had it to a diameter of 70cm. While his net had holes as large as 1cm, Mark could envision that it would trap a lot of animals’ even small ones like Kia, quite easily. He was intrigued that Kia would lick his fingers and wipe them along a length of silk. Then he’d knit the silk into his net. He periodically stopped knitting to wet the next length of silk.

Mark sat and watched fascinated. When Kia had weaved the net, to about a metre around, he bit the silk, and snapped off the end and tied off the end of his net. Mark knew he had to have very sharp teeth to do that. Kia then wove the silk thread very loosely through the outer edge. He created a loop over the end of the silk still attached to the stick.

He dropped the net, and raced off to his nest and came back moments later with a short piece of stick about 2cm round and a hand full of very small rectangular stones. He pulled off about 10m of silk, cut it with his teeth and then wound it onto the stick.

Using a new length of silk and starting near the slip knot, Kia created an elaborately folded knot and tied a small white stone to the net. He then moved to tie in seven more that were darker in colour, so they were evenly spaced. He checked the net over and then looked around the room.

Jumping down he moved his stool away from the table and raced back to climb on the table. Normally he didn’t sit on it, but he glanced at Mark, and then he gathered the net in a specific way and holding the stick in his foot he threw the net over the stool and just as it covered it, he tugged on the silk and pulled the net tight.

Happy, he went and retrieved the almost translucent net, wound up the silk onto the spool and tucked the spool into his satchel that he wore all of the time now when they went out. He placed the carefully folded fine net around his shoulders. He then looked at Mark to see if he was ready. Mark just shook his head in amazement and tapped his shoulder.

They stopped in the mudroom, so Mark could put on his thick coat and pull on the heavy boots. Once set, they headed out. Jean was still tucked up in bed, and Bobo had joined her to snuggle. She was very big and due any day now. They had become inseparable if the boys weren’t around. Bobo even had a special basket in Jean’s lab.

The area under the shield had fresh powder snow, and it was only about 20cm deep. The boys decided to head for the field and tramp around the southern ridge as it had a lot more flat and accessible areas. There were also four small caves that Mark suspected the local wildlife used as a shelter, which he wanted to check out.

The trip to the first cave was uneventful and other than evidence it had been used, no one was home when they visited. They moved onto the next. Mark wasn’t opposed to finding some game if they came across it. They worked around a shallow ledge as they approached the second cave.

It was bigger inside but only had a small entrance about a metre high and half again in diameter. The entrance sat about half a metre above the ledge they walked on. The ledge widened out to about 4m, and a huge tree grew up on the steeper slope making it a safe place to stop for a traveller.

Well, except for the aracnzi. The ledge was thick with leaf matter from the tree, and small sharp rocks protruded through in places to catch the unwary. A wizard’s medallion will protect a wizard to a certain extent, but they don’t shield them from stupidity.

Mark had turned his head to look over the cliff and stepped into the web before Kia, or the medallion could warn him of danger. He stumbled as his foot slid off a sharp stone and he fell forward. As his right side hit the dirt, the aracnzi attacked.

It leapt from the cave entrance and landed on Mark’s outstretched hand. She was huge. Kia had jumped as he felt Mark fall, to land on a larger rock that the web weaved around. He immediately threw the net over the aracnzi and pulled hard.

It took all of Kia’s strength to hold onto the net as the spider that was twice his size thrashed in its confinements. The net and it’s rearing finally tipped the spider over as he pulled its legs out from under it. Mark rolled onto his back to free his left hand, swearing as he did.

He reached for his wand and lashing out he stunned the spider with it like a club. He hit it again and again until it went still. The net that he was laying on had pulled loose, and it was stuck to him. Calming himself, he spelled the net to unravel and wrap around his wand. Once free, he sat up and looked at his right hand.

Kia also looked and let out an angry howl when he saw the puncture wound where one of the fangs had sunk into the large thenar muscle of Mark’s thumb. “Jean,” Mark said in pain, “We have to get to Jean.”

Kia sat on Mark’s thigh and signalled blinking at him. Mark blinked. He, Kia and the aracnzi appeared in Jean’s lab, half scaring her to death. Mark held up his hand and then collapsed sideways onto the floor. Kia frantically pulled at Jean.

The shock had her immobilised at first, but then she slid down to the floor beside Mark. “Oh shit!” she said as she picked up his hand and she frantically thought of how she was going to save him. She looked at Kia as he landed on the floor beside Mark.

Jean gasped as Kia sliced the scalpel he had taken from her bench, through the wound. He then grabbed her left hand, and sliced a similar area and pushed her hand, so her wound was plastered over Mark’s wound. Kia pushed her fingers indicating he wanted her to clasp her hand to Mark’s.

Jean complied and then found herself willing her blood to enter Mark’s system and his to enter her’s. She was the key. She knew as soon as her blood had touched his that she was immune to the aracnzi’s venom and that she could offer immunity to others. Not just, create an antivenin, but inoculations that provided immunity.