Dellian watched Yirella scramble onto the top of the largest boulder and slowly scan around. Once he’d finished chopping one of the sleeper tree boughs, he handed the axe to Hable and went to join her. “Keeping watch?” he asked.
“Yes. I can’t see anything moving.”
“The morox won’t come close until dark, and even then the fire will keep them at bay.”
“We’ve heard several now.”
“Yes. Don’t worry, they’ll never get into the fuselage. Even I have trouble squeezing through that gap.”
“What do they eat?”
“Well, not our clanmates tonight, that’s for sure.” He smiled, hoping it would help ease her.
“I don’t mean tonight. I mean every other night.”
“They’re predators. So whatever they can catch. Rabbits, wild dogs, birds…I dunno. Whatever else lives up here?”
“Exactly. That’s my point.”
“What is?”
“We’ve heard probably four already, right? Yet do you see anything else living up here? The bushes are all dead, and there’s no grass. What do their prey live on?”
“Well…” Dellian scratched his head, swiveling around to search the forlorn hillside.
“This entire hill can’t support one morox, let alone four.”
“They’re passing through? Could be a seasonal thing, heading for a fresh hunting ground.”
“Seasonal?” she scoffed. “This is the tropics.”
“All right! I don’t know. Happy?”
“Very much not.” She gave him a nervous smile. “I wasn’t getting at you. I just find all of this weird. The odds of each event that’s hit us today are pretty near improbable, but together they’re impossible.”
“What are you saying?”
“I’m not sure, but this really doesn’t feel good.”
“Yeah, I figured that for myself. Come on, let’s get back to the flyer.” He held out his hand. After a moment, she took it, and together they slipped down the boulder.
“No water, either,” she said. “That may be worse for us than moroxes.”
“Let’s get through the night before we start worrying about that. Besides, if the water situation doesn’t improve, we can drain the sleeper tree roots. I’m sure I saw that being done in a text or a video or something.”
“No, that’s a myth. The tubers are all too deep. You’d expend too much energy digging down to them.”
“There’s no water up here.”
“I know. It means that we have to leave first thing tomorrow and get to the bottom of the hill. There should be water there, even if we have to dig for it.”
“Okay. For a bad minute there I thought you were going to rig up something that’d filter our own pee.”
“That’s not a bad idea, actually. Usually in this kind of climate, survivalists evaporate it and catch the condensed vapor. But maybe there’s no need. The filter pump should be able to handle urine. We should all pee into a container, and save it in case.”
Dellian groaned in dismay.
“It’s not funny, Dellian. Dehydration is dangerous.”
“All right. But I can’t see anyone doing
“They will if you and I carry on doing what we have been doing.”
“What’s that?”
“Combined authority.”
“Huh?”
“My knowledge and your leadership. Together it makes the rest do what we want.”
He opened his mouth to protest, then realized what she had said was right.
“What?” she asked with a sly grin. “You hadn’t noticed?”
“Uh, no, actually.”
“Classically, a good leader has the ability to issue orders that people don’t argue with. I don’t quite know what category a good-leader-who-doesn’t-notice-he’s-giving-orders falls into, but it certainly seems to be successful.”
“I’m not the only leader. Janc and Orellt, they’re good captains, too.”
Yirella lowered her voice as they approached the flyer. “In the tactical games, you’ve been team captain for thirty-two percent of this year’s total. Janc was second with sixteen. You’re the clear leader in our year, Dellian. So be a proper Saint, and don’t let us down. We’re going to need your skills to get through this disaster.”
“Great Saints,” he muttered.
He made a show of examining the filter from the survival case and asking for Ellici’s opinion. She agreed with Yirella that it would filter urine.
“Just in case, then,” Dellian said, and peed into a collapsible plastic carton, much to everyone’s amusement. He played along with the joshing, then passed the carton to Janc, fixing him a level stare. Janc took a moment, then undid his fly.
They lit the fire as the sun fell below the horizon. The general mood was subdued. In their hearts, everyone had expected rescue within the first couple of hours.
“We have to keep the fire burning as long as possible,” Yirella said. “That’ll give the skyforts their best chance to spot the thermal signature.”
“Three of us on one-hour duty outside to keep feeding the fire,” Dellian said quickly. “Each with a weapon, that way we can watch each other’s backs. No one else is to leave the flyer. I’ll take the first watch with the axe. Falar, Orellt, fancy taking it with me?”
Both boys nodded without noticeable reluctance. The mountain air was a lot colder now that the sun had gone. Even with the modest fire burning three meters from the fuselage, the boys wrapped thermal blankets around their shoulders.