“Oh, shit,” Lincoln said. “Maybe that’s not—”
Ripple began speaking to the woman in her language. Ripple paused a few times as if thinking about what words to use then continued. The speaking went on and on.
As the woman listened, her face hardened even more. Now the other nandups on the platform were staring at Skyra, as were those walking beside the platform. This was what Skyra was hoping for. Now the woman would have to accept Skyra’s challenge to fight, if it came to that.
When Ripple finally stopped speaking, Skyra eyed the woman again and said, “You will let us go now. We will leave this place, and I will not have to kill you.”
Again, Ripple spoke the woman’s language.
In response, the nandup woman moved her hand to the short blade on her leather waist strap. She used her free hand and her feet to scoot away from Skyra until she was sitting near the edge of the platform a body’s length away. Then she just sat there, gripping her weapon and glaring at Skyra.
Skyra felt a growl escaping from her chest. “I challenge you to fight me!”
Ripple translated Skyra’s words.
The woman’s face softened, and she turned to one of the nandup men walking beside the platform and spoke. The man threw his head back and let out a laugh. “At-at-at-at-at.”
The other nandups joined in the laughter.
Skyra asked Ripple what the woman had said.
“The woman said, ‘This little one brave. Or maybe I hit this little one too hard with my spear.’”
Skyra jumped to her feet and stepped toward the woman. “I challenge you to fight me!”
The woman and her companions stood up. Other nandups walking beside the structure leapt onto the platform. They attacked Skyra all at once. She had no weapons, and within a few breaths she was on her back on the platform. The nandups yanked her across the rough wood, wrapped some of the leather straps around her wrists and ankles, and cinched the straps tight.
Skyra fought against the restraints and spat at the woman. “I challenge you to fight me!” She then spat at one of the men. “I challenge you to fight me! You are nandups. You must accept. You are afraid I will kill you!”
Ripple spoke Skyra’s words in the nandups’ language. This resulted in another wave of laughter. Most of the nandups hopped off the platform and resumed walking. The woman Skyra had challenged sat back down and began staring out at the passing hills, no longer giving Skyra her attention.
“Skyra, are you hurt?” Lincoln asked.
She turned to look, but Lincoln’s head was now hidden behind the dead bison. His tribemates were also behind the creature’s body.
“I am not hurt, I am angry,” she replied. “These nandups are not like my people. I do not understand them.”
“Well, I’m glad you’re not hurt. We’ll just have to be patient and see what happens next.”
Ripple stepped over to Skyra and stood over her. “Although reckless, your actions have helped us gather information. We now know these nandups do not wish to kill you, at least not before arriving at their destination. I do hope you take no further risks, as my plan requires that you and Lincoln survive this ordeal.” Ripple pulled its legs up into its shell and settled its belly on the platform. “To keep your mind on more productive thoughts, I will now begin teaching you what I have learned about the language used by these nandups.”
Skyra groaned and pulled at her straps. “No, I do not want to know.”
Ripple’s red lights brightened twice. “Perhaps you would like me to tell you a story. I happen to be quite skilled at storytelling.”
“Not now, Ripple!”
The creature fell silent but remained beside Skyra’s head.
She pulled at her straps again, but the nandups had made them too tight to escape.
The wooden structure continued through the hills, creaking and rocking back and forth as it rolled over the bumps on the ground below. Skyra rested her head on the wood and stared out at the walking nandups and the scenery beyond. Other than their strange garments and different weapons, these people looked similar to the nandups of Skyra’s tribe. However, many of them seemed to be much older. Some were even older than the oldest members of Una-Loto, members who had been forced to stop hunting and fighting many seasons ago. How could such ancient nandups fight the way Skyra had seen them fight? She let out a long breath. Everything about this new place was strange and confusing.
Voices came from ahead, and the platform stopped moving. Skyra twisted her neck to see. The camels had stopped walking, and two of them were pressing their noses together and licking the saliva from each other’s drooping lips. The voices were coming from beyond the camels, but Skyra couldn’t see the nandups who were talking. Her eyes were drawn to the horizon, and once again she was nearly overcome by a wave of confusion.
She had thought clouds were forming on the horizon, or perhaps that distant mountains were becoming visible. But now, as she focused on the dark layer that loomed ahead, it was obviously not clouds or mountains. Instead, it was a structure made of stones. The stones had impossibly-straight edges and square corners. Row after row, the stones had been neatly stacked, forming a solid wall even straighter than the sheerest cliff face or smoothest cave wall she had ever seen. She turned her head one way then the other. The wall went on seemingly forever, from one horizon to the other, disappearing into the distance in both directions. Along the top of the wall, spaced out evenly, were nandups, each of them holding a spear next to one shoulder and a long bow slung over the other shoulder.
Skyra had never even imagined such a structure before, but after staring at it for several breaths, she was sure these nandups had built it themselves. Somehow they had made these perfect stones and had placed them into the shape of a wall many times their own height. The thought of such an accomplishment made her thoughts swirl in her head.
Her scalp began to tingle as she made another connection. This wall had been built because of the war. Before today, Skyra had never conceived of a war and didn’t know what one was. Seeing the battlefield had nearly overwhelmed her. But now, staring at this seemingly impossible wall, she started to truly understand. This war was not a raid of one tribe on the camp of another tribe, which would be over in only a small part of one day. This war was immense and ongoing, season after season, even generation after generation. She realized these people were born during the war, fought their entire lives, and died during the war, knowing their children and their children’s children would have to do the same thing. Seeing this wall was almost more horrifying than seeing countless bodies burning and rotting on the battlefield.
Now, even more than before, Skyra wanted to leave this place. She would rather die than stay here.
The camels started walking again, and soon Skyra was staring up at the ceiling of a tunnel through the wall. As she came out the other side, she noticed three nandups staring down at her from atop the wall. The three, like those Skyra had already seen, were older, with scarred, leather-like skin the color of brown sand.
Shouts came from several directions. A great black slab with rows of square holes slid from one side until it slammed into place, blocking the tunnel.
Skyra turned and gazed out one direction then the other. Vast fields of waist-high grasses stretched into the distance. These fields were unlike any Skyra had seen—the grasses grew in rows, with bare soil between the rows. Scattered about in the fields were more nandups. Some of them appeared to be wearing no garments or footwraps, but they were so covered in dirt and mud it was hard to tell. Some were crouched low, engaged in unknown tasks. Others were carrying baskets balanced upon their heads. The baskets were like those Skyra’s tribe used for collecting crayfish from the shallow rivers among the Kapolsek foothills, only many times larger.