She hated it when he began to stir awake. They lay curled together like a couple of sleen pups underneath the layers of furs, and for the most part they were warm and comfortable. About the time that Ba'atar began to stir, so did Two. Rolling over, she reached into the cradle to dig him out from under his own blanket of furs and pulled him into hers, and began to nurse him. She was worried because either she was not making enough milk, or he was getting to where what she made was not satisfying him. The food rations they were on right now was probably affecting either of those situations. Kaeli had told her that she should be able to produce enough milk to satisfy him, but right now, it did not seem to be so. She would make sure today that she got her ration of verr milk and it would be given to him.
Ba'atar felt he was well enough to join the out riders in the herds. Whether this was the truth or not, she could not say, and she would not argue with him over it. It just was not worth it. After he left, she dressed Two warmly and took him to the boys wagon to be tended to by Ina for the day. She walked to where they had the kaiila herded together and cut Aponi's beast out from the rest. She had intended to send the salve to Aponi and let her tend to the animal, but had changed her mind. Crouched there beside him she rubbed the salve into his joints, wrapped them then threw a blanket over him. Leading him back to the wagons, she tethered him to a wagon, mixed up the herbal mixture with the paga and finally persuaded him to drink. Until they reached the Northern grounds, he would travel tethered to the wagon and would receive her attention each day until she had the chance to teach Aponi how to do it.
By the time they began to move, it was so bitter cold that you almost could not breath. She had never felt or seen anything like it. Rook came riding back and said that there were two older bosk that were down. She saddled up Ciegue and Lyric and told her girls to dress warmly, because they had meat to butcher before it froze. She rode Ciegue and led Lyric by the reins following Rook back to where the bosk were. The two girls rode on Lyric. On the return, one would have to ride with Rook and the other would have to ride with the meat that they would pack on the kaiila's back.
Stopping at the first bosk, it was already dead and had began to freeze. She and Rook worked quickly to skin and butcher the animal, saving every bit that they could, even the bones with their rich marrow. Her wind scarf was pulled so high she could barely see over the rim of it, and what little skin that was exposed burned from the frigid air and wind, and even in the gloves, her fingers began to ache and not want to move. After finishing the first animal, the rode to where the second old heifer lay panting in the snow, one of her legs broken, probably from her struggle to move through the high, icy drifts of snow. Rook was merciful when he put her down, and they began to work quickly. The line of wagons was on the move and they did not want to fall behind.
When they had salvaged all that they could, she had stood, hands on her lower back, stretching. They had given some less choice pieces to the three kaiila, simply because they did not want them attacking to get to the fresh kill. The kaiila were existing on smaller rations just like they were, but did not have the logic that it took to understand why. All they would know is that they hungered and there was meat. After they were fed, the remainder of the meat was distributed and tied down securely. Rook had taken juneau up on the saddle behind him, and kasra was to ride on the beast with the bulk of the meat. They readied to return to the serpentine line of wagons.
Never before had she been this cold. It was to the point she was almost ill from the aching of it, and she did not understand some of the groaning and cracking noises that seemed to grow more intense in nature, and more frequent. She had gathered the reins into her gloved fist, reached for the pommel of the saddle and had just lifted one booted foot to the stirrup, when the air was filled with the most horrid, cracking, roaring noise she had ever heard. Her foot dropped back to the ground, her hand moving to calm Ciegue who had danced slightly. She looked to see that Rook's animal had reared and juneau was barely able to hang on, and kasra had not fared so well. She went flying through the air as Lyric reared and bucked, and landed on the ground.
She was about to take a step to help the girl when another of those rumbles was heard and she could feel the earth shifting beneath her feet. Ciegue took a step back and suddenly there was no ground beneath her feet. The shelves of earth below the surface were shifting, cracking, rearranging themselves. She barely had time to grab the stirrup when the ground disappeared.
A searing pain went through her arm and shoulder as her entire weight, along with the weight of the additional clothing, came to rest on that one hand that gripped the stirrup in what amounted to a grip for her very life, and the supporting arm and shoulder for that hand. Her other hand was grasping for some sort of hold on something, but all it could find was icy ground. Gripping the stirrup tighter she moved her head very slowly to look around and see just exactly what kind of predicament she was in.
She was hanging from the stirrup, her legs flailing in the air trying to get a purchase on the wall of ice that dropped off beneath her. Some how, she was hanging over the edge of a deep, ice crevasse in the ice that seemed to drop off an eternity into darkness. Closing her eyes for a moment, she tried not to focus on the pain in her arm and focused on getting her legs to quit moving, which only added pressure to her fragile grip on that saddle. For a moment, there was this fleeting thought……Rook will be here in a moment, he will save me. I am fine.
Opening her eyes she looked around, and her heart sank. Rook and the girls were standing on the other side of the crevasse, and would be no help. He yelled to her that he was sending for help, but she knew that her frozen fingers would not last much longer. This was her death, and her heart stopped for a moment realizing this. And in that moment, she saw the faces of her mate and their sons, and knew that she would never see them again.
She had closed her eyes and was summoning the courage to let go, to face her fate when she felt something tugging at her arm that was flailing for purchase on the icy ground. Suddenly the grip tightened and she managed to open her eyes and look in that direction.
Ciegue had that blind eyes turned towards her, but had managed to lower his head and grasp her free arm with his jaws. Thankfully she was well padded due to the cold, because once he satisfied himself that he had a good grip on her arm, he began to step back away from the abyss in the ice, pulling her hort by hort. As he backed away and pulled her, she was able to find purchase on the side of the ice and was able to help. With all of this happening, the pressure on her other arm decreased to the point that she was able to hold on, or maybe her fingers were just frozen into position.
Step by step, he backed up until she was able to get her body and legs up over the side of the wall of ice, and onto what she was only hoping was stable ground. Ciegue pulled until he deemed it safe then released the grip of his jaws on her arm, and she finally released the stirrup. When that arm hit the frozen ground, she let out a blood-curdling scream from the intensity of the pain in her shoulders. She was laying face down in the snow, struggling for air and lacking the strength to turn herself over. She felt the gentle nudging of the kaiila as he turned her onto her bad side, causing her to let out another scream.
He seemed to know what he was doing. Folding those long legs beneath himself he lowered to the ground beside her and nudged again. How she saw through the pain enough to have the presence of mind to grasp the pommel with her good hand, she would never know, but she did. With her injured arm tucked in close to her body, the tears of pain flowed from her eyes, freezing on her cheeks that were now exposed, she did manage to pull herself into the saddle with the good arm.
Slowly Ciegue lifted back up and began to move towards the herd, looking for a place where he could cross from where they were to where the others were, stepping carefully around the fissures that had suddenly formed in the ground. She was barely concious, when she heard a voice and a memory swam around her.
She and Fonce were standing in the kaiila pens discussing Ciegue. She was trying to press the kaiila on him, knowing that he wanted and needed him, but he refused. She heard his words from that day.....No, I do not think he is for me. I think he is for you........The words flow around her as she fights the pain then she heard the voice again..........Trust in him Cana, trust in his instincts.
And with that, she passed out from the pain, barely clinging to the back of the half-blind beast.
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