Page 35 of Fall

But she couldn’t let Rone get into a real fight with Tamen. The two menwere evenly matched. There was no telling who would win such a fight. Shecouldn’t take that risk. What if Tamen would seriously injure Rone? What if hewould kill him?

There was absolutely no way she would let that happen.

And at least Rone knew she was sad.

It meant something—that he understood.

Seven

“So does Rone knowyou came out with me this afternoon?” Desh asked, the brisk wind blowing hishair back and the bright sun burnishing it almost golden.

Lenna made a face at him. “We have an understanding.”

“And is the understanding that you don’t tell him when you hang out withme and he doesn’t get angry about it?” Desh’s mouth twitched just slightly.

Lenna couldn’t help but laugh. Rone was away from the cave all day,hunting small animals now that the snow had finally melted and the weatherstarted to warm up. She tried to respect Rone’s worldview and so made a pointof not spending too much time with Desh, since she didn’t want Rone to getjealous or confused. But Desh wasn’t any sort of threat to her relationship toRone.

Desh was her friend. She had few enough as it was, and she wasn’t goingto lose him.

So when he’d told her he was going out this afternoon to practicehunting, she’d decided to go with him. After being trapped for the month ofwinter, she wanted to get out in the sunshine and stretch her legs anyway.

The big herds of grazers wouldn’t start coming back through this area foranother several weeks, but the small mammals were beginning to come out ofhiding, now that the weather had turned. So far, Desh had come close to killingtwo of them—but each time he had missed.

She took a deep breath. “It almost smells like spring.”

“It’s still pretty cold to call it spring yet.”

“I know. But you can smell soil and…and something almost warm. Thatsmells like spring to me.”

“How does a city girl like you even know what spring smells like?”

She slanted her eyes over at Desh and saw that he was smiling. “Even onEarth, you can still smell it occasionally.”

For some reason, the words hit her strangely—poignant, almost nostalgic.She didn’t miss Earth. Not at all. She hadn’t lived there since she wasfifteen. After her parents had died, she’d stowed away on a merchant ship andhad only returned to Earth a handful of times since.

She wasn’t sure exactly what had caused the clench in her chest, but thefeeling mingled into the cold smell of spring as she kept inhaling.

Desh was quiet for a minute, as if he were sensing something similar.Then he put his finger to his lips in the universal signal for quiet and noddedover to her right.

She looked in the direction he indicated and gasped softly when she sawfive deer grazing in the distance. They were obviously not part of one of thebig herds—maybe just stragglers who’d gotten left behind for the winter.

Desh started to poise his spear when Lenna noticed that the smallest onedidn’t have a tail and had a visible scar on its back flank.

“Wait!” she exclaimed under her breath, reaching over to put a hand onhis arm. “Don’t! Look at the young one. It think it’s my little baby deer.”

“It couldn’t be,” Desh murmured, lowering his spear.

Very slowly, they took a step closer, and Lenna’s heart jumped as sherecognized the markings on the fur and the shape of the scar.

“It is!” she gasped. “I can’t believe the little guy made it!” She was soastonished and happy that she was ridiculously close to tears. “Please don’tkill him.”

“Of course I won’t. But can I try for one of the other ones? If I bringback a deer at this time of year, I think they might finally accept me as areal man.”

She actually didn’t like the idea of his killing any of the deer, nowthat she’d gotten to know the fawn. But it would be completely irrational forher to insist that Desh not do what was obviously in the best interests of himand the entire tribe, who could really use the food.

So she nodded, and both of them slowly stalked over toward the group ofdeer. She thought they were completely silent, but three of the deer raisedtheir heads suddenly, their ears perked and their eyes wide.

The oldest one bounded off in a run when it saw them approaching, and theothers followed. For just a moment, Lenna thought maybe the baby had recognizedher. It stared at her for longer than the others and didn’t move right away.