Irene Peterson's Blog

"Let's get out of here, Clopidogera!"  If it were possible, Acdurian waxed paler than his normal faintly blue look.  He actually reached out and grabbed my arm.
Which resulted in the largest trogu bounding over to us and puffing up, I forget what you call the stance, but the one where the animal enlarges itself to frighten off enemies.
So, my guide unhands me and takes quite a few steps back, leaving me face to face with this huge ape-like creature, which, I may add, was breathing hot breath on me which smelled just like bananas.  I ducked my head slightly and smiled, not showing my teeth.
I don't know why I did that, I think you're supposed to do that to dogs to show them you're not afraid or something.
But, I was afraid.
This guy could crush me as easily as it crushed rocks and dug out crystals with its gigantic hands.
Hands that were twitching in front of its chest.
Hands that were--signing.
Holy Crap!

Lemme remember!  Lemme remember it all!  Thank you Miss Clancy for teaching us signing in sixth grade, but please, wherever you are, let me remember!!!

Fingers crossed.  R
Two fingers straight up.  U
Little finger up then swooped down.  J

R U J.
Are you...J?

Oh, shit.  J.  Jennifer.
Good old "mother" strikes again.
But, in a way, at least she did something good.  I think.

I shook my head.  And signed...what do you sign to a gigantic gorilla-like creature?  I took a deep breath and shook my head again.  NO.  J.
Lemme see what could I say?
No.  J.  Baby.  Like an idiot, I cradled my arms and swung them. 
Got a grunt from the trogu and a display of yellow teeth.

But he didn't eat me.
So, I pointed to myself (my signing is really, really limited to the alphabet and primitive signs, I swear) and made the sign for "C".

He copied it, then turned back to his mates and signed it again, with more signing too quick for me to pick up.

These trogu weren't the dumb creatures Acdurian said they were, that's for sure.

I was about to try to get into some sort of conversation, as limited as it might be (I'm not sure what one would converse with a twenty foot tall gorilla apeman about, but I was willing to give it a go) but one of the natives appeared, shouting and when he got no response from the trogu, he pulled this gigantic bullwhip from his belt and started snapping it.  The trogu cringed and stepped back.
My gut wrenched at the sight.  Here these gigantic creatures who could rip this guy's head completely off his neck with a tweak of their foot long fingers, cowered at the crack of a whip.
Once again, I get a bad feeling, but what can I do right now?

I join Acdurian who is suddenly in a big hurry to get me out of the mine.
I walked slowly, though, past heaps of small yellow crystals and discarded clear crystals and assorted gemstones, taking in as much as I can.  There's too much to be missed.  Too much to take in, as usual, but I have a feeling I need to remember everything I see and hear.
The crack of the whip stopped, and there were some shuffling and grunting, but the native never came back out.  He did stop shouting, though, and I guess everything went back to the way it had been before we got there.

We were presented with our horses and Acdurian wasted no time mounting up and moving me right along.
Once we were away from the mine, I caught up with my guide and casually asked where we ought to go next.

"You've seen the mines.  You've seen the village and our home.  Don't you think that's enough for one day?"  He managed a very small, tight smile.
"Actually," I ventured, "what's on the other side of the island?  Is there a beach?"
"Yes."
"Let's go there, and let the horses run in the waves."
"Whyever would they do that?"
The guy is so bloody thick.  "Oh, I've seen it on television back home.  It looks like fun.  Real California."
Okay, I can be incredibly lame myself.  I wanted to get him away from people, from the sight of the palace, the mine, the native population, so perhaps I could get some honest answers from him.
Acdurian gave me his weirded out uncomprehending look but turned Larry west, heading probably where I asked to go.  It wasn't long before I could hear surf and smell salt air.  My heart lifted a little, just like it always does when I'm near the beach.

And the first sight of the Atlantic was breathtaking.  We came upon it from a bluff.  All the right stuff was there, dune grass, sand, breakers and sea foam and the glorious green blue of the ocean.  I pulled Hot Stuff up and rose in the stirrups, inhaling long and deep.  Ahh.  This was all right.
Both Hot Stuff and even old Larry seemed to enjoy the run in the waves.  Even Acdurian, the most glum guy I'd ever run in to , cracked a smile or two. 
But back on the sand, walking the horses slowly, he got all serious again and started talking. How was I to explain California and TV?  Ulp.  Then he hit me with an even bigger question.
"Clopidogera, back in the mine...with the trogu...you seemed to be rather sympathetic to them."
Hmm?
"I don't know what you mean."
He cleared his throat.  "What I mean is, that I observed that you seemed to...try to communicate with them.  What was that business with your fingers?"

He didn't know.  He thought they were simply dumb beasts, incapable of thought or communication other than their grunts and basic animal stuff.
Should I tell him?

I think not.
Maybe I'll keep this to myself for a bit.  Dunno why.

"I get along well with all kinds of animals.  Smiling, speaking softly, reading their body language, it helps.  No big deal.  They're rather sweet, though, to work so hard and not complain."
He made some sort of weird sound in his throat, but said nothing more.

The sun was high overhead.  I was getting hungry but there wasn't any surprise picnic basket tucked anywhere I could see.    Acdurian got the horses to circle the beach which actually circled the volcano, and brought us up to the other side of the island.  Palm trees and thickly leaved tropical foliage rimmed the dunes which soon gave way to more stable ground and when we rounded a bend, I stopped Hot Stuff and gasped.

Acres of burnt trees, blackened stumps ranged before me.  A forest fire in the jungle? 
Acdurian pulled back and turned Larry to come back for me.
"What's this?  Fire?  You allow fire to run through the jungle?  Aren't you afraid for your town?"
He shrugged, something he's very good at.  "This is how the Master makes charcoal.  It is all quite organized and contained.  No need for anyone to fear."
"Boy, you guys must do a lot of grilling."
"What?"
Thinking out loud, I always seem to do that lately.
"You must like to cook your food over the charcoal, right?"
Acdurian laughed.  "Cook over charcoal?  The master uses the charcoal for his experiements, as he calls them.  The one where he blends the charcoal with the yellow crystal and that awful powder the natives scrape from the caves that harbor the bats."
"Bats?" What could the old jerk need guano for?  Fertilizer?  Made no sense.
"Yes.  There are many caves where the bats rest.  Nasty places.  We Atlanteans never go near them.  Such an unpleasant odor.  And we dislike unpleasantness of any kind."
"I'm sure."  Yeah, they don't really like much of anything, now, do they?  Animals, guano, noise, cruelty, natives, trogu.  Which reminded me...
"How did your people find the trogu, Acdurian?"  We rode on, past the burnt stands, into a lovely green meadow with a stream running through it.

"Science.  Ungodly Atlantean science, according to the master.  He is always talking about god, his god.  The god he has made the natives worship.   And science, his science?  It is not nearly as good as Atlantean science...used to be."
"Is there no more Atlantean science, then?"
"Only what the master has been able to realize.  Most of it was long lost until he appeared in Opar.  And he has a great mind, don't get me wrong.  But he doesn't know half of what he needs to know to make all the devices work."
I touched the time travel device tucked in my belt.  He sure figured out how to use that, though, didn't he, smart guy.  And if the Atlanteans were so smart, how come the whole continent blew up and left you few to survive? 
The horses had steadily been climbing up the steep slope of the mountain.  I'd been so involved in my thoughts and trying to figure out how to ask my questions of my guide and not get his casual shrug that I hadn't been paying much attention.  Hot Stuff and I had actually passed Acdurian on the path.  When I looked back, he had stopped and was checking his stirrup or something, so I just let Hot Stuff do her thing.
And then, I don't know what happened, but old Hot Stuff had stopped short and I went flying over her head into...nothing.

copyright 2009, Irene Peterson