Page 50 of Fall
She sat up in bed, suddenly knowing forsure what she wanted to do.
Hall was right. She could choose to live alife where she went to sleep in peace and woke up excited about the day. Andthat life just wasn’t here.
She wanted Rone, and the only way shecould have him was giving up the life she’d known before.
So she was going to choosehim.
***
Three days later, she landed a small spacecraft in themountains, after scouting out a place to hide it where it wouldn’t be likely tobe found. It was near the site of that archaic crashed ship, and none of thetribes on his planet dared to come near to that mountain.
She was pretty sure it would be safe.
The ship had taken most of her savingssince it had all the newest features—primarily fuel cells that would lastlonger than her life span. She would have been happy to spend everything shepossessed on it, though.
She doubted she was ever going to make thetrip off the planet and return to Coalition space. Not while Rone was alive,anyway.
She took the time to pile some big rocksup in front of the one direction the ship could be seen from below, until shewas satisfied that it was well hidden.
Then she hurried down the mountain andacclimated herself to directions before she turned back toward the Kroo caveand started to walk.
The air here felt fresher, crisper, realerthan it did off-world. The sky was bluer and the grass was greener, and shecouldn’t help but smile as she saw a small herd of the deer, grazingcontentedly nearby.
They felt like old friends—not becauseshe’d personalized any of them but the one baby she’d helped to survive butbecause they were part of this world. They helped keep the Kroo alive and forthat they deserved respect.
Her heart raced excitedly as she picked upher speed.
It was late in the day. Almost dinnertime.Rone was probably with the rest of the tribe, making the fire and cooking theirfood.
She really hoped he was all right.
She couldn’t wait to see him.
He might be angry and upset with her, butshe was prepared to deal with that. He was a good man. He would understand.
She was almost to the spot where she andDesh had killed that deer—before Hall had appeared and everything had changed.
She was so focused on getting to the cavethat it took her a minute to realize someone had called out to her.
When she recognized the sound, she pulledto a stop, searching the grasslands to her right, from where the voice had come.
Her heart jumped into her throat when shesaw Rone running toward her.
He wore his normal animal skins, and heheld his spear in his hand. He was racing toward her now, still calling out hername.
She was frozen for a moment, joy andpleasure bursting out so vividly in her heart that she couldn’t even breathe.Then she was running toward him too, closing the distance between them.
He scooped her up into his arms when shereached him, making helpless, guttural sounds of feelings so deep no wordscould embody them. She was almost sobbing as she buried her face in his chest.
And she knew she’d made the rightdecision.
Even if the rest of the universe mightthink she was crazy, this was exactly where she wanted to be.
It was several minutes before either of themwere composed enough to have a conversation. When they finally pulled apart,Lenna was so breathless she had to sit down on the grass to recover herself.
Rone sat down beside her, reaching over tostroke her hair and peering at her with concern and confusion. “Lenna hurt?”
She hadn’t used the primitive language foralmost a week, but the sound of it was familiar, comforting, like home. Sheshook her head. “Lenna no hurt. Lenna good.”