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Old Guard / Other Stories / The Vesari / Cale's Caravan

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Emotions Legend

[quote][b]Remus (Mar 08, 2005 04:47 a.m.):[/b]
Cale busied himself with menial work beside his men as they began to break camp.  With a pair of hands cut loose from the crew they could not afford to waste time sitting around.  They would leave the Desert Road for safety's sake and take a more direct route through rougher terrain.  Cale could not know whether his caravan was truly in any danger from the Dahro, but he could not afford to gamble.  So long as there was a chance of ambush, he would assume that it was a certainty.

The camel had disappeared into the rocky landscape before Cale approached Raspeth.  It had not been his intention to leave her waiting, but he had needed time to let his temper cool before speaking to her.  None of the trouble with the Dahro was truly her fault, and he knew it, but he was also keenly aware that the trouble would not have existed without her.  The girl did not belong in the desert, did not belong around boys like that.  He had to make sure that there would be no more problems before they reached Lahkis.

Cale collected a few water skins and his bow.  He found the girl sitting in the dirt amongst the camels, and gestured that she should get up.  Without waiting, Cale started away from the camp, climbing the easy grade of the outcropping to the south.  He did not say anything to her, and she didn't seem brave enough to speak either.  As they neared the top Cale slowed and began to move more quietly, taking greater care to place his feet where they would not grind the gravel.  Raspeth caught on quickly enough that she should do as he did, but she seemed not to have a clear idea of what was quiet footing and what would crunch.  Without speaking, Cale showed her by demonstration how to shift her weight and where to step to make as little noise as possible.  Inexperienced though she was, she learned quickly.

The campfire below had been smothered by the time Cale motioned for Raspeth to stop.  The light was fading, but there was still enough to see by and the slope was gentle enough that there would be no danger descending.  Cale crouched down amongst the scraggly brush and pointed where Raspeth should look.  A few strides away lay a husham lizard, partially buried in the dirt and difficult to spot without knowing where to look.  What gave it away was its vivid red tongue, stretching out two handspans from its mouth across the sand.  The husham held perfectly still, as it probably had been doing for hours now.  Even Cale could not tell for sure that it was not already dead without disturbing it, but he knew that it was very unlikely that the lizard had died in predation position.  Not far from the husham's tongue was the entrance to a small burrow for some kind of rodent.  Cale did not know how long the lizard had been waiting, but with the sun almost down now a meal would surely be emerging soon.

They did not have to wait long, the observers or the predator.  The inhabitant of the burrow was a lyesa, a scavenger common to this type of terrain.  The little rodent poked its head out cautiously, and took immediate notice of the tongue.  It looked very much like the core of a stalk plant appreciated by lyesa -- though poisonous to humans.  The rodent did not concern itself with why a stalk would have been broken off and peeled, then left outside its hole.  It approached for a taste.  The tongue was not wholly prehensile, but it had enough speed and accuracy to attach to the unlucky rodent with its adhesive excretion and drag the little thing in.  Unexpectedly, the rodent managed to struggle violently enough to break the adhesion.  The husham immediately staggered to its feet and trundled after the lyesa, but the rodent was much too fast and escaped into the brush.  Deprived of its meal, the husham started glumly away.  The sun would be setting, and it would be too cold soon for the lizard to hunt.

Cale sighed.  "What was supposed to happen," he said sourly, "was an enlightening metaphor for the danger of trusting blindly the intentions presented to you by those who wish you harm.  Obviously you'll just have to take my word for it."  He looked at the girl, who looked even smaller in the twilight.  "How old are you?" he asked.[/quote]

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