Total pages in book: 82
Estimated words: 77764 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 389(@200wpm)___ 311(@250wpm)___ 259(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77764 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 389(@200wpm)___ 311(@250wpm)___ 259(@300wpm)
“I have never seen such things,” O’jek says, leaning over and sniffing the pouch over the fire. “And you have added too much water, my mate. It should be making a thick broth.”
“Oh, shoot. What do we do now?” She looks distressed. “Did I ruin it?”
He shakes his head and touches her shoulder comfortingly. “We add more ingredients and more herbs.” He lifts his chin and gives me an amused look. “And we give the extra food to I’rec and his new mate. I hope you are hungry, my friend.”
For D’see’s cooking? No one is that hungry. “Tell me more about these baahts. Do they camouflage? Like we do?” I let my color shift to demonstrate, turning the same dark color as the nearby shadows. “Is that why we cannot see them?”
“Oh no, I don’t imagine they camouflage. If they’re like the bots back at my old master’s gardens, they’re programmed to only come out when no one is around. It’s so they don’t ruin the experience by showing how the sausage is made, so to speak.”
I look over at O’jek to see if her words made sense to him. He just shrugs.
“So what do you think we should do to stop these baahts?” I ask, more interested in a solution than hearing more about her master and his gardens.
She holds a knife awkwardly and begins to cut a root, and I am relieved when O’jek takes the knife from her before she hurts herself and demonstrates how to cut properly. “Right. Um, well, it got me to thinking. We don’t know that there are bots after all. I’m just throwing theories out there. But Penny did say that when she and S’bren went to the Ancestors’ Ship, they found some old writing on the walls. And when I fell and saw the writing on the door in the cave, it reminded me that I can read Old Sakh. That’s the language the ancestors spoke from a long time ago. It was a fun hobby for me to learn their words because my master was on a museum board and we got invited to a lot of parties to stare at artifacts. I thought it might impress if I learned an old language…” She grimaces at O’jek. “I’m sorry if I’m rambling about Johani again.”
“It is all right, my heart. We are resonance mates now. That changes everything.” He smiles patiently at her and wiggles the knife. “Now, watch. I cut in this direction, away from myself.”
She watches him, biting her lip. “You’re so good with your hands, O’jek. So strong.”
The look he gives her is full of pride and heat.
I clear my throat, reminding them of my presence. “D’see, you spoke of the ancestors. What does this have to do with the cave and the missing fruit?”
“Oh. Right.” She smooths a hand on her mane, flustered, and pulls her gaze away from O’jek and his “strong” hands. “Well, O’jek and I were talking, and if there are bots in the cave, there should be a manual uploaded on the ship somewhere as to how they were built or how they work. And Penny’s mention of the writing on the walls made me wonder if they left a message for someone else on how to run them. I thought it might be worth looking at what was left at the ship for some clues.”
It is not a bad idea. If D’see can read the ancestors’ words, perhaps she will uncover other secrets they have left for us to find. “Would it not be wiser to go to the fruit cave and look for these baahts ourselves?”
“Yes and no,” D’see says. “Just because the bots are in the fruit cave doesn’t mean that the maintenance manuals are, whereas any decent computer would have records like that available. You wouldn’t believe the amount of knowledge that could be stored on machines, even ones that are a thousand years old. And I could be wrong. It might not be bots at all, and then we’d just be under-foot if it really is metlaks stealing the fruit.”
“And R’hosh and R’kh said they do not want females anywhere near the caves while this goes on. If it is dangerous, I will not risk D’see.” O’jek gives his mate a possessive look. “I will take her to the ancestors’ cave, but not to the fruit cave.”
It is a sensible plan, and one we could do without involving the other clans. “You should not go alone. All of Shadow Cat should join you.”
This time, O’jek and D’see exchange a look. “We’ve talked about that,” D’see says. “Bridget and Raven have little kids and it’s heck trying to travel with little ones. I wouldn’t ask them to make such a trip. I thought it might be better to go just me and O’jek.”