Krygan's Pets Pt. 10

Peljinn shrugged.

"I imagine it's the humiliation they suffer."

Jared Droc laughed.

"It's what happens to the family. They're followed. Probe locked. Their loved ones left to deal with the district rules. Never allowed to leave the district. Given no means of survival. Forced to wear the mark long after the veils come off. They have to sell their marketable skills. Their lives are slowly destroyed. But the probes record everything. And each of the captives is kept alive. Fed from tubes. Living the slow death. But the worst part is that they show them the feeds. Wives, children, brothers, sisters, and parents all scrounging. They watch them dishonored. It's a slow death inside. Their honor is taken from them knowing what their loved ones experience."

Peljinn looked confused.

"Fascinating, but why bring this up?"

Jared Droc smiled.

He pointed to a heavyset ulanoc bay supervisor who was watching them from afar. As the Donadar looked at the huge controller the ulanoc waved at him with a sinister smile on his face.

"Well Overseer Beeshan there called all of our stations and all of the bay controllers from every landing platform in the city, and informed us that the offices of Lord Patack Un made him aware of a certain Donadar who's been nosing around and asking about Lord Krygan Vack's business and his transport. We were informed that compared to the tower of four million deaths our torment for cooperation with you Lord Patack Un would make the tower seem like a pleasant vacation. Now if you'll excuse me, I have work to do. Good day Donadar Peljinn."

Peljinn looked nervous as he saw several platform security officers starting to move in on him. He shook his head and left quickly.

* * * * * * * * * *

The ridge offered an amazing view into the great calderas. Vath Kreena was hungry and curious about the rainforest. It drove him to start hunting for food and suitable materials with which to protect himself and repair the tree hut. In the lush forest biting insects plagued him until he found some zither root and broke it open to rub the juices on his skin. This kept a wide variety of bugs away from him though the fumes made his nose run a bit.

He had found some freshly fallen tungar fruit, but not enough to provide much on a meal. It was a bit tart though loaded with sugar that his body desperately needed. He ate them down with gusto looking around for more, but the rest were high up in the canopy among thorny branches.

As he moved further up the rise to explore the grounds in what he hoped was snap time while night hunters dozed of relaxed in shaded retreats. It was on a sharper slope along a small game trail that he first spotted the small cave opening. It was definitely worth a closer look.

The entry to the cave was narrow and he had to turn sideways to fit inside. But after another meter and a half it widened a bit. The cave went back into a broader chamber and a small hole in the ceiling allowed some of the jungle in as vines and ferns grew down along with epiphytes and bromeliads. There were strange black orchids with turquoise blue spots and edging to their flower petals that hung suspended on the vines in the dim daylight that cast it's radiance on a small pool that formed a water basin beneath the opening.

The pool was only a foot deep at most and strange small pale fish swam around snapping at little flying gnat like insects that stayed in the light shaft only and danced around in the air like a tiny dust devil in the warm air.

Water dripped down from the opening and further back along the left wall water seeped into the rocks through a long tight crack to run silently down the wall and create a glistening affect in the dim light. This water hugged the wall of the cave and seemed to flow like a slow moving stream. There were small pale fish in this water as well but also a few larger fish with long whiskers that hung out from their chins. Their eyes were high on their heads and all but non-existent.

Vath Kreena could not see how far back the cave went but the find was a good one. He waded into the water holding his vaku hem in his left hand to keep it dry and out of the water. He moved beneath the opening and stared at the hole for a moment. It was only a few feet wide and about two meters long. Plus a lot of vines and foliage grew down into the darkness and narrowed the opening even more.

This was perfect Vath thought. The only two openings that he knew of so far were too small to admit any large predators or dangerous herbivores. It was defensible and would be relatively dry if he could build a litter and some platforms from wood, vines, and leaves. It would create a comfortable level bed area and with a fire he'd be able to see, cook meals, boil water, and defend himself. But first he needed a sharp stone to serve as a make shift blade.

He began to search the cave and was able to find some obsidian rocks and quarts stones. He used the harder quartz to break the obsidian into shards and then to nib and chisel more bits away until he had a passable one-sided sharp obsidian blade just a little longer than his hand.

With his newly made stone blade he began to seek out tall bamboo and mikini grass stalks which he cut by using a small piece of hardwood limb as a mallet. By whacking and tapping the thicker unsharpened back edge of the obsidian he cut stalk after stalk and then sawed away at the tall bunches of mikini grass until he had armloads of fronds. He tapped and cut away small green vines and used them to bundle the grass fronds and then grabbed several stalks of bamboo and the frond bundles and dragged them back to the cave and inside.

As the sun climbed higher the shaft of light in the cave ceiling increased in intensity and allowed Vath to work neatly and clearly able to see his harvested materials. He went to work cutting the long green trunks of bamboo and then lashing them into a framework for his bunk. He left two more times to find wooden branches with forks in them to allow him to create legs to suspend the rack a few feet from the cave floor. Cutting branches to size took longer but in the end he succeeded in gathering six good strong limbs. He began the tedious work of making them match in height until the frame rested level on all six "y" forks.

After lashing these in place with green vines and then lashing smaller poles and cross poles midway down the frame he succeeded in building a very solid and sturdy bed. It was mid day and the light shaft was at its strongest in the roof of the small cavern. Vath now gathered larger and longer vines and began to weave a mattress of cross mesh like a great net that held the top of the bed even more tightly in place.

He wove the grass fronds into mats and placed them over the vine webbing and then loaded more grass bundles on top of the woven mats to support the grass bundles. His forth trip out was to harvest more grass with which he made more woven mats as well as bundling and padding his cot with the additional mattress rolls before covering this with his woven mats.

He tested it and found it surprisingly comfortable. But he still needed to forage for wood, kindling, and food of some sort. The wood and a fire came first. His survival training kicked in and he soon had a small fire started. He laid down to rest, intending to get back up in a short while and hunt up some food.

But when he woke hours later his stomach was grumbling and it was dark in the cave except for the faint glowing embers of his fire. He tossed more wood limbs on the coals and waited for about seven or eight minutes until flames once more licked the wood and grew into a strong fire.

Then as he rested and observed the dancing firelight on the cave ceiling and marveled at the shapes and shadows. He'd wait until morning and perhaps try his hand at fishing. But now heavy lids shut and Vath Kreena slept soundly for the first time in many days.

* * * * * * * * * *

Jennifer and Melissa were both pacing nervously. Julie and Kelly watched them while Amanda sat rocking back and forth. Amanda was surprised at her own feelings of emptiness.

The sudden disappearance of Ylloria had been strange and made her wonder. Once again their ten days of freedom to plot and attempt to escape had been interrupted. But this time it was to urgently snatch Ylloria from the cell.

Melissa scratched her head and sat down a moment. But Jennifer was the most annoyed and concerned perhaps of all of them. Or maybe she was just the most animated over the intrusion and sudden removal of their alien teacher.

"They had a dress for her. Did you guys notice that?"

Melissa nodded but seemed confused. She wasn't making the connection.

"Yeah. So what?"

"Wherever they took her she had to be fully clothed."

Kelly looked nervous.

"Maybe they took her to interrogate her about us?"

Jennifer shook her head.

"No. Something feels very wrong. There was fear in the eyes of the ulanoc who took her away. Something has happened and they needed her. I'm sure of it. But what could it be?"

"Maybe they are under attack by her other species the vanac?"

Everyone glanced at Amanda but Jennifer shook her head.

"No. This must have something to do with her gifts or abilities. What is it that sets her apart?"

Suddenly Julie looked at Jennifer.

"Marsdek."

Everyone looked at Julie and Jennifer nodded her head as Julie continued.

"Didn't she say that the animal likes her and Lord Holder Krygan only? What if it has to do with Marsdek? Like maybe he got rabies and only she can calm him down for his shot? Or maybe he ate someone and they need her help to calm him down?"

Jennifer shook her head. Krygan has control over the creature. Why would he need to quickly summon her like this? It doesn't make sense."

Melissa glanced at Jennifer.

"If you relax a bit, maybe you could find out. You know?"

Jennifer paused and then understood what she was hinting at.

She sat down on the bed and then laid back and closed her eyes to concentrate.

She had never tried to reach Ylloria with her mind before. She tried to focus on her beautiful emerald green eyes. Still nothing came to her right away. She relaxed and tried to stretch her feelings past the normal threshold to the entire palace. But she couldn't feel Ylloria anywhere. It was as if she was not in the area. Or perhaps her mind was not readable or reached by ESP or mental means? Maybe the vanac were immune to this or blocked out others energy? She couldn't be sure.

She opened her eyes. Melissa looked at her but she shrugged.

"I got nothing."

Julie looked over at Ylloria's empty bunk.

"I just hope that she's okay."

The others nodded but the room fell back to brooding silence as everyone wondered what had happened?