Chapter 12

Cindy awoke after daybreak and discovered she was alone. She continued her search for several hours without success, and then heard a number of human voices coming from nearby. She climbed a ridge to investigate and was horrified by what she saw.

Cindy guessed there were seventy dead human bodies in the field before her. The snow was red with their blood. About thirty men and ten women were moving among the corpses. Cindy climbed a tree and stared at the carnage, trying to make sense of it.

It appeared two different groups had fought a battle, one group wearing furs and the other wearing clothes that Cindy thought looked like woven grasses. All of the people currently walking around were wearing woven clothes. The fatalities in woven clothes looked like they had been hacked to pieces. A number of them still were impaled with spears. Most of the fatalities though were wearing furs, and Cindy thought just about all of them looked like they had died from gunshot wounds.

"Could two pistols do all this?! I doubt it. Do other people have guns around here?" Cindy pondered as she stared at the people walking around. "None of these do... Nuts! Are they singing?! How could they sing in a scene like this?!" Cindy watched them quietly as the morning progressed, slowly understanding. "Wow... A singing language... It's so melodic... But what the hell is going on?"

Cindy sat on the branch and watched for over an hour, trying to understand the singing language. After a while several of the people started pointing at her and watching her back, puzzled by her behavior. Cindy suddenly realized that tiger squirrels were not such patient observers, and she ran from the scene. By midday she rejoined the squirrel pack. They jumped and welcomed her when they saw her, and Cindy decided to travel with them for a time, at least until she could think of a more concrete plan of action.

The pack spent the next several days slowly migrating eastward, taking frequent breaks both to feed and to play. Cindy realized she was traveling far away from the mountain which once had her entrance tunnel. In its journey the pack passed close to a human village, and Cindy marveled at the large circular lake nearby. She guessed from its shape it was formed by a meteor impact, and then looked thoughtfully at her new family, considering how innocent they were of such understanding. Cindy vowed to herself she would never court or procreate as a squirrel. She thought that sexual partners should be equals. With her more advanced mind, having sex with a squirrel would be too much like raping an innocent soul.

They finally came to a narrow gorge which contained a swift deep river. It was there that Cindy learned another surprise about her new species. They were omnivores, hunting in the shallows of the river for minnow-like fish. Cindy thought the new food was delicious, but a small voice from her human mind was again telling her that a human would not enjoy the fare. Cindy spent her time in peace, sharpening her fishing skills, enjoying the many play periods, and sleeping curled with the pack at night against the cold winter air.

And the days flowed by. Within a couple of weeks the temperature warmed considerably. Spring had arrived, on a planet Cindy thought the singing humans perhaps called Aina . A few days later a large mixed group of adult humans arrived at the river to fish alongside the squirrels. The pack was wary for a while, but not overly so. Cindy slowly realized the two groups were not really in competition for the food. The squirrels were hunting in the shallows for minnows, and the humans were dragging baited hooks in the deep parts of the river.

The humans came to fish on a daily basis, and Cindy was delighted to find that the humans spent much time teaching each other their languages. The singing language seemed to be native to all of the men and half with women, and the other language native to the other women. Both languages sounded completely unfamiliar. Cindy spent long hours watching them pantomime the meaning of their words to each other, and she slowly learning both languages with them. She would often rehearse her day's learning in her mind at night, while watching the strange and bright constellations.

And the weeks flowed by. There began to be a tremendous amount of daylight. The nights became shorter than anything Cindy had ever experienced. Her large pack of squirrels picked up one day and began heading north. Cindy traveled with them for a full day, but the next morning realized they were on the start of a great migration.

Cindy stopped to consider. They were heading into deep country that appeared totally uninhabited by humans. Would they ever return? Could she find her way back to the human village if they didn't? Cindy decided to return to the humans while she was still only a day away. She started heading south.

Cindy screeched in surprise as she felt something pulling her tail. She turned and was shocked to see Jackpot had bitten into the fur on at the tip of her tail. He was trying to pull her northward. Cindy dug her claws into the earth and hissed at him. Though clenched teeth, he gave a low-frequency purr back, and then made a crying sound.

The rest of the pack became quite agitated too, jumping around the two. Several squirrels, both male and female, tried to push Cindy northward but to no avail. The morning progressed, and then finally with great consternation the pack gave up and resumed their migration. Cindy heard Jackpot calling to her constantly until the pack finally moved out of earshot.