Bina’s stomach rumbled, and she stopped to drink from her water bottle. Danae was somewhere in the trees far uphill. Bina rubbed sweat from her forehead, then her stinging eyes. 

Danae’s idea of breakfast this morning still made Bina queasy. She woke to find Danae already up and out. She returned carrying two freshly killed rabbits. Vesta trotting along beside her with a third swinging in her jaws.  Using her talons, Danae expertly gutted and cleaned them, then offered one of the glistening crimson carcasses to Vesta, who ate with gusto. Danae held another out to Bina while she tore into the last. Bina covered her mouth and turned away, shaking her head. It was the crunching of the bones that made her stomach rise.

“You are not hungry?”

“Not for that. You can finish that other one.” Danae stared at her for moment, then ripped it in half, gave one piece to Vesta and consumed the other, delicately licking the blood from her fingers. When she finished, she arranged her pack, tightened the straps, then donned the cloak. 

She called Vesta and commanded her to sit. She cradled the dog’s head in her hands and gave a series of soft commands in the unusual language Bina had heard before.

Vesta crouched, ran a few feet away, turned back to Danae and barked, then bounded back.

“Good girl. Go!”

Vesta sprinted away in the same direction of their travel, while Bina watched, astonished.

“What did you say to her?”

“I told her to find my brother and bring him to us.”

“She understands?”

Danae’s dismissive look made Bina feel silly for asking. “Now, what types of foods will you eat? Do you hunt?”

Bina shook her head. “No, I don’t hunt. I’ve been fishing before, but we don’t have poles.”

“Do you only eat leaves and shoots, like the deer? There are also some types of tree fungus that are tasty, the ones that aren’t poisonous.”

Bina considered these unappetizing choices.

“Uh, yes, I do eat leaves. Like salad? What you gave me before.”

Danae considered this. “I will help you find more food. If keeping you safe as the Elders command and delivering you to your uncle means feeding you like a little bird, I will do that.”

Bina held back an angry reply, stung again by Danae’s unsparing critique of her survival skills. They resumed their travel in silence.

 Soon Danae was handing Bina small bits of forest matter to eat. Bina chewed the leaves and grasses without enjoyment, drinking often to help get it down. Huffing with exertion, Bina caught up to Danae at the top of a ridge.

“Can we make a fire and cook something?”

Danae stopped and turned. “Cook something?”

“Like one of the little animals you catch. I just can’t eat raw meat like you do.”

Danae pondered this.

“I wondered. Your fingers are so small and soft, and your teeth seem…inadequate.”  She paused in thought.  “When we are near the top, we will find a place to make a fire and cook something. It will delay us, but a fire in daylight is less visible if we are careful. You must eat.”

***

Later, they replenished their water at a small stream. Bina’s curiosity overcame her hunger and fatigue.

“Where do you live? With the rest of your family?”

“Now, I live out here, in the world. But my…family, many of them are in the mountain tunnels a few days of hard travel from here.  Many more are far in the north, with Surt and Skuld, my mother’s sister. I am supposed to go there to be with Skuld, to have babies, to help grow the Laos, our people.  My sister is having the babies here, in the mountain tunnels.”

“Will we see your sister?”

Danae grunted and shook her head. “No, we will meet my brother before then, and we will take you to your uncle. Going to the tunnels was not part of my instructions.”

“You are lucky. I always wanted a sister. Or a brother. It’s always just been me and my mother. And the other kids, in the ganglion, when we lived with the yunk. What is your sister’s name?”

“Freya.” Danae paused. “The people you connect with, the others of the yunk, are they not your family?”

Bina shrugged. “I guess so, but not by blood. We are connected through the group, which I guess makes us a family.”

“But you say ‘yunk’ like it’s one person, but really it’s many? What does that mean? Is yunk just another word for family?”

“No, the yunk is a person, a mind. My mother and my uncle taught me how to communicate with them, with it. I guess I’m really good at it.”

“But why? What do they want from you?”

“I don’t really know. I just can talk easily with it and that helps them somehow. I can talk to the person who is the combination of all the other people.”

“That is confusing. How can many people be one person? What is it like? The talking?”

“It’s not really talking. Mostly touching, sometimes sounds, almost like singing, and then ideas and words just come and go. Not just from one person, but sometimes many, especially when more than one are connected. But when I, and some of the others, connect and mesh, it turns into one voice, like a voice in your head. At first the talking was just with people in the same room, but before we left the group and went on our own, they were using little pads, some screens with flashing lights, microphones and speakers, and people who were far apart could do it, like they were right there. Then it really went fast, and I was really good at it. Then my father was killed by the crazies, and we had to run.”

Danae absorbed this.  She stood, adjusted her harness, replaced the water bottle, then turned to Bina.

“They make decisions for you because of duties they expect, but don’t reveal. Just like me.” She turned up hill and into the trees. Bina followed, pondering this.

They hiked for several more hours and then to Bina’s relief, they stopped while the sun was still well above the horizon. Danae built a fire.

“Tend this while I hunt. Do not feed it too quickly. No smoke.”  Bina fed sticks into the fire one at a time, keeping a small brisk flame going.  When Danae returned with two more rabbits, Bina was disappointed Danae paid no compliments about her fire keeping.

Danae impaled one of the rabbits on a forked stick and held it over the fire. Satisfied with the heat, she handed it to Bina.

“Cook it to your taste.”

The roasting meat smelled good enough to counter Bina’s residual queasiness, until Danae began eating the raw rabbit. Bina did her best to ignore her and tended her meal.

When the edges of the meat began to burn, Bina assessed it as being done. She blew on it for a few minutes, then picked at the crispy parts, trying not to think about the cute ears and fluffy tail that once covered the bony carcass. Danae stood behind her and looked off into the distance, occasionally glancing skyward. Bina wondered what she searched for.

“What’s the matter?”

Danae turned in a circle, ears twitching, then shook her head. “I don’t know. There is something…” She continued her surveillance while Bina did her best with the rabbit.

When Bina was finished eating, Danae ate the rest, then carefully extinguished the coals, concealing all evidence of their presence.

“We must leave soon and find shelter for the night. If we travel far tomorrow, we may see my brother.”

As they headed further up hill, the setting sun at their backs, neither noticed the small black drone detaching from the topmost branches of a pine tree. It hovered for a moment then flew off.

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