Blondie and Red

On the third day, they spotted a barren hill in the distance. Its greyish form seemed out of place in the lush bluish vegetation that surrounded them. The river circled around it to the south, and the woods and the forest merged at its base. However, the plant life seemed to avoid the hill itself.

"Guess we're climbing that mountain. Maybe we can figure out where to head from up there," Red said, on spotting the hill.

"Red, can't we just find a good shelter and live out here?" Blondie asked the question that had been lingering on her mind for the past couple of days.

Who are we searching for? Are there even others like us in this world?

"And do what, Blondie? Live out our lives as cavemen?" he shook his head.

Doesn't sound too bad.

But, she didn't voice that thought. She simply nodded and followed him.

"We would need a way to carry water. I don't think we will find any on the hill," she said, after a while.

"You're right. I didn't think of that. Let's see if we can find something to use, before we get there."

In the afternoon, when they resumed their journey after lunch, Red suddenly stopped by a bottle-gourd tree.

"Still hungry?" Blondie laughed.

"We might be able to use them as temporary water-containers."

"Hmm."

They plucked some fruit and spent the next hour or so, trying to make them into appropriate containers. Though the initial idea had been Red's, Blondie was the one who was ultimately able to construct a usable product. She cut the tops of the gourds off and scooped out the insides, before using a thorn to thread the top back onto the gourds. With a hole at the top, they made excellent water bottles. Their only problem was that the gourd would eventually spoil, but for now, they could use them.

It was evening by the time they reached the base of the hill. They found an empty cave and spent the night preparing for the next day's climb; they sharpened their weapons and filled their bags with fruit and berries.

As soon as the sun rose the next morning, they began their climb.

***

It soon became apparent to the two climbers that their trek was harder than they had anticipated. Though climbing the steep rocky surface of the hill was not too difficult for their well-toned muscles, they had no defense against the searing heat of the sun, especially as it was magnified by the reflection from the smooth granite surface around them.

It only kept getting hotter as they climbed, and Blondie began to worry if they would have enough water to get to the other side. She glanced at Red trudging ahead with his usual carefree attitude and looked up to the clear, minty sky. She spotted two featherless birds circling over their heads, high up in the sky.

"Red!" she shouted.

He turned around and followed her finger to the birds. "Pterodactyls!" he exclaimed.

"Tero what? What are they?"

"I don't know. The word just came into my head. Shit! I think they are coming closer, and I think they are big!"

"We need to find cover," Blondie cried, looking around. But, there was nothing but smooth grey granite around them; not even a tiny rocky projection that they could huddle under.

"Get your bow ready!" Red said, setting his bag aside and grabbing his spear in both hands.

Blondie knocked an arrow to her bow, got down on one knee, and pointed the bow towards the sky. Red stood right behind her, with his spear ready. "Shoot only when you think you can hit!" he told her, his voice not carrying any trace of tension or fear. She nodded and held her stance, despite the light tremble in her arm. The dino-birds kept getting larger in the sky.

Suddenly, one of them dived. Blondie held her mettle and the arrow. A hundred feet of the ground, the bird's wings titled to help it swoop down on them, giving Blondie a larger target. Still, she waited; Red saying not a single word.

When it was twenty feet away, she let the arrow loose. It shot straight through the webby skin that made its wing. The bird screeched in pain and flapped its wings as gravity brought it towards them.

Red sent a straight unwavering jab towards its heart. His aim was true, and the bird crashed into them, knocking them over. They scrambled out from underneath its body and Red immediately grabbed Blondie's spear to point it towards the other bird.

But seeing its mate downed, the other pterodactyl took off and disappeared behind the hill. They relaxed only after five long minutes, but just as the tension in their bodies eased, they heard a resounding roar that echoed against the hill.

"Shit!" Red cried on looking down the hill. An ursa, almost twice the size of the one they had killed before, was standing on its hind legs and bellowing at them. "Run!" he barked, grabbing Blondie's hand and pulling her to her feet.

"We need the other spear!" she yelled, grabbing the dead dino's wing and trying to flip it over.

The ursa fell heavily on its front feet and started rambling up the hill. Its massive size made it seem slower than it was, but they instinctively knew otherwise. Red hastily grabbed the Pterodactyls beak and helped Blondie flip it over. Retrieving their spear, they took off without looking back.

"Can we fight it?" Blondie breathed as they ran up the hill.

"I don't think so."

When they reached the top, they realized what the hill was. It was a caldera whose cauldron-shaped mouth was currently filled with a lake of water, but had once, in the recent past, been an active volcano. It explained why the hill's surface was so barren.

"What do we do?" she asked, fearfully, as they made their way around the mouth. The ursa drawing ever closer with each moment.

"Over there! We make a stand over there!" he screamed, pointing at a long projection of volcanic rock that jutted outward from the hill's surface at a sixty-degree angle. It had once been a volcanic vent, whose surrounding rock had been blown away in an eruption.

They scurried to the projection and ran up its six-foot wide and hundred-foot long slope. Red paused two-thirds of the way up the slope and turned around to step in front of Blondie. "Fire at will!" he told her, setting his spear aside and drawing his bow.

The ursa was already at the base of the projection and its width alone barely fit over the projection. When it saw them turn around to face it, it rose on its hind legs and let out an ear-numbing bellow.

Red let loose his arrow even before Blondie had a chance to knock hers to her bow. It sank into the bear's chest, but the bear didn't even seem to feel it. It fell on its feet and tumbled up towards them. The two let out a volley of arrows, but the creature treated them as nothing but pin pricks.

When it was around fifteen feet away from them, Red dropped his bow and picked up his spear, shoving it into the approaching ursa's snout. Its momentum pushed him back six feet, even as his spear sank through its snout.

The ursa bellowed in pain and rose up on its feet as he hastily withdrew his spear. Blondie sent an arrow through its throat. The maddened bear charged at her, and for a minuscule second Blondie's body failed to respond. But she had Red by her side. He rushed towards the bear with his spear, with no regard for his own safety.

Having felt the spear rip through its maw before, the bear paused and rose up to guard itself against. He plunged the spear into its chest and the bear swiped its paw at him. He let go of the spear and ducked under its swipe to slide through between its feet.

Once he reached behind the bear, he pulled out their hand axe from his bag, clambered up its furry back, and using both hands, sunk the stone into its neck.

The blow sent the bear to its feet, and Blondie found herself face to face with the ursa. Her fear vanished, and she pulled out the stone needle out of her hair as it unfurled like a cascade behind her.

"Eyaaaaahhhh!" she screamed as she drove the needle into its brain. An uncharacteristic mewl escaped the beast's jaws as it slumped to the ground. A few ragged breaths escaped its nostrils, before Blondie yanked out the needle and plunged it back into its brain. The animal went quiet.

She looked up at Red lying over the ursa and their eyes met. Wide, unbelieving smiles sprouted on their faces as they gazed at each other.

Red pulled out the hand-axe, stood up on the giant beast's back, and spread his arms in the air. "RED AND BLONDIE WIN AGAIN!" he screamed into the sky.

Blondie and Red! She wanted to correct him, but a sudden shadow loomed over them.

Before she could even scream, the pterodactyl from earlier swooped down and grabbed Red by the shoulders, taking him away into the sky.

The dauntless redhead repeatedly jabbed the hand axe into the creature's heart, even as they flew. The dino-bird's wings flapped for a few hundred feet before its heart gave in. Its wings stopped beating and they fell, two thousand feet into the canyon below.

The last thing Blondie saw was the look of hopelessness on his face as he fell, while looking straight into her face.

Great globules of tears formed in her eyes, before they rolled down her cheeks, lit by the afternoon sun. She fell to her knees and loud breath-starving sobs began to escape her lips. Falling on her side, she curled up and cried, wishing another pterodactyl would swoop in and take her away.

The Adventures of Red and Blondie, Red's voice screamed in her mind. She raised her head and peered down the projection. A dense jungle and a river cutting through it was all that was visible. If he had fallen into the trees, he was dead, but if he had fallen into the river? Maybe.

Though logic suggested that such a fall would kill, even if someone fell in water, a tiny hope surged in her heart.

She wiped her tears with her hands, staining her cheeks with the ursa's blood. Sitting up straight, she took in deep breaths to bring back her conviction. "Red and Blondie!" she said out loud, "You are the main character, remember! You cannot die!"

Deciding to not waste anymore time, she quickly picked up her spear, gathered their bows and belongings, and stepped over the bear to begin her search.

She reached the base of the hill by late afternoon, and scoured the nearby forest until sunset, uncaring for her own safety. She found no signs of a body and that only gave her more hope. As darkness began to set in the forest, she ate a few berries she had plucked from random shrubs and found a well-branched tree with copious leaf cover to spend the night.

***

The next couple of days, Blondie spent travelling down the river, screaming for Red at the top of her lungs. She didn't encounter any more danger, at least nothing she couldn't handle, and she frankly found it astonishing, as she made no attempt to hide her trail or presence. However, she found no joy in her luck. Though she had only spent a few days with Red, she missed him terribly.

On the third morning after Red's fall, she heard a couple of voices by the river as she walked towards it from the tree in which she had slept. She tiptoed her way to the bank and peered through the leaves, spotting a flash of red hair under the morning sun.

"Red!" she cried out, instinctively stepping out from her cover. Almost immediately, she realized that the two people in front of her were not Red. They both had red hair, but it was nowhere close to Red's red. Their hair was carrot colored; the woman's was shoulder length while the man's was short. Blondie raised her spear towards them.

"Whoa, girl! Steady," said the man, lowering the crossbow he had instinctively pointed towards her and almost fired.

"A new arrival, and a woman too!" the woman said cheerfully. She held a basket full of herbs and berries in her hands. She seemed a few years older than the man, but the resemblance between them was striking.

Blondie slowly lowered her spear and the woman stepped towards her. She was quite a few inches shorter than Blondie and pretty freckles dotted her nose and cheeks. Her shoulder length hair was tied up in a comfortable ponytail. "I am Kelly, and this is my brother Ryan. What's your name? You look like you've been through a lot," she asked, her sharp, hazel eyes studying Blondie's appearance.

"Blondie. Have you come across a person with hair the color of the setting sun?" she asked.

"A man or a woman?" Ryan asked.

Blondie pondered over the words for a moment. They were unfamiliar to her. "He is flat chested like you," she answered.

Ryan seemed a bit disappointed.

"No, we haven't come across anyone new, except you. Are you searching for your companion? What happened to him?" Kelly asked.

"He was swept away by the river."

"Swept away? This river doesn't flow that fast," said Ryan.

"He fell from a cliff."

"The volcano hill?"

Blondie nodded.

"That must've been quite a fall. I am sorry, but he is probably dead. You should give up on him, Blondie," said Ryan.

"No," Blondie told him firmly. "He is my friend, and I am sure he is alive. Thank you for answering my question. I will take my leave," she said, turning to head back into the forest.

"Wait!" Ryan cried, and Blondie turned back.

"Blondie," Kelly spoke softly, "We have a village, a little down the river. There are currently twenty-seven people in our tribe. You should join us. This world is no place for a lone woman to travel by herself, though you seem plenty capable.

"Why don't you try staying with us for a few days? If your companion is still alive, it is more likely that he will run into one of us than you finding him by yourself. Besides, I think you could use better clothes," she said, looking at Blondie's leaf and feather clothes.

The woman was wearing a knee-length, tanned-leather skirt over a leather shirt, while the man wore pants and a similar shirt. Blondie considered her words for a moment. Kelly's words made too much sense to disagree. "So... we are woman?" she asked Kelly. She had not missed the way Kelly had addressed her.

The two siblings raised their brows in surprise. "Don't you have your memories yet? When did you arrive?" Kelly asked.

"A couple of days ago," Blondie lied without even knowing why.

"Oh, that makes sense! Don't worry, you will start remembering things soon," she said, waving her hand.

"You made all of this in a couple of days?" Ryan asked skeptically, watching her tools.

"My companion did," she lied, again. "He arrived a few days ahead of me."

"It's still strange that you can't remember such basic knowledge. We at least knew that we were siblings and that we were male and female, didn't we, sis?"

"Who knows how this whole thing works, Ryan. Aliens probably messed with our heads before dropping us here," Kelly shook her head. "Come, Blondie. Let's go back to our home, and we shall get you washed up and clothed," she said, hooking her arm under Blondie's. The woman seemed diminutive beside her. "You're quite tall, Blondie. Ryan is six feet and you're even taller than him."

Blondie simply shrugged her shoulders. "Let me get a drink first," she said, walking up to the river.

"She is probably Nordic," she heard Kelly say to her brother.

"Or Dutch."

Blondie knelt on the bank and took in her reflection, for the first time in days. Her hair was a muddy disheveled mess, and her body was covered in dirt and streaks of blood. She couldn't even recognize herself from the beautiful appearance she had witnessed on the first day of her arrival. She shook her head at herself and leaned forwards to drink the water from her cupped hands.

"Ryan! Look away!"

"I am a man, sis," he laughed, apparently not looking away. "I am not going to deny myself such a splendid view."

Blondie drank to her fill and stood up, before setting right the skirt that had ridden up her ass.

"You should be more discreet with your body around men, dear," Kelly said to her.

"Why?"

"Never mind. You will understand once you gain your memories," she said, once again taking her hand and leading her towards the camps.

As they walked, Blondie caught the man eyeing her body, especially her naked legs, and her ass-- her feathered bra didn't have as many holes in it as her leaved skirt. And for some reason, she didn't seem to like his stare. It was strange as she had not minded Red's ogling.

He seemed to purposefully stay behind them, and when Kelly stopped by a brush to pick some berries, he touched her butt. It was only for a moment and he pretended it to have been an accident, but there was something about his touch that she didn't like.

The trio soon came upon a small village of pitched up tents, surrounded by a wooden palisade with sharpened stakes pointing outwards. The hustle and bustle of the people in the village came to a halt when they noticed that the stranger walking beside the siblings.

"Albert! We have a newcomer!" Kelly shouted as they entered the village.

Blondie took in her surroundings as people surrounded them. For the first time since her arrival, she lost her wariness of the wild. This is why Red wanted to find civilization.

The village was a five-hundred-feet wide enclosure, filled mostly with tents. But there were a couple of finished mud houses with several more under construction. Pipes of bamboo reinforced by clay ran from the river to a large earthen tank that stood at the center of the village. More pipes from the tank connected to the houses. A pump by the side of the tank seemed to allow the villagers to draw up the water from the river.

The people of the village came in different shades of skin. From pale-white like Kelly to dark-skinned, but none shared the bronze of Red's skin. Even his hair would've stood out among this group. It made her wonder if she looked as out of place as well.

The larger of the two finished mud houses had an attached smithy with a large forge beside it. A large man wearing a leather apron and leather gloves rushed up to them from the active forge.

"This is Albert," Kelly introduced him to Blondie, as the brown-haired man took off his glove, wiped his hand on the apron, and extended it to Blondie. "He is the village-head, blacksmith, and my husband. He keeps this village from falling apart," Kelly introduced him proudly.

"I am not that amazing, but I try my best," Albert laughed, and gave the hand that Blondie gingerly extended, a hefty shake. He was the only one among the group that was taller than her, and his wide shoulders and barrel chest made him seem even larger than he already was.

However, Blondie liked him. Even more than Kelly. There was something gentle about the lumbering giant. "I am Blondie," she answered with a slight smile.

"Welcome to our village, Blondie. You're one of us now. We don't have much to offer, but we take care of each other," he said, and several people nodded.

"Blondie only landed a couple of days ago, and the aliens did a number on her," Kelly told the villagers. "She doesn't even know that she is a woman. But we will teach her that, won't we ladies?" she said to the women around her. There were nine other women, excluding Kelly and Blondie. They all laughed.

"Not everyone believes in your alien theory, Kelly," said a man.

"No God will play such a cruel prank, Kevin. And, don't you even start about the devil!"

The twenty-seven tribe members introduced themselves to Blondie and their names ranged from Ajay and Keyon to Mei Li. She asked them all if they had seen any sign of Red, and when they asked her about him, she gave them the same answer. "He is my friend, and he saved me."

"Alright," Kelly finally said, after the last person introduced themselves to Blondie. "I will take her to get washed. Do you ladies have any spare clothes?"

The ladies of the tribe managed to scrounge up some spare underwear and a leather skirt and shirt. Kelly collected the clothes and took Blondie to an enclosed bath house, split in two for men and women.