Bina wiped her greasy fingers on her jeans with only partial success. The faint taste of burnt feathers lingered from the little roasted bird Danae made for her breakfast. The squirrel, though chewy, was more palatable. Danae’s ability to crunch up the bony carcass of Bina’s leftovers still made her queasy.  She laughed at the thought of Danae saying “are you going to finish that?”, the punch line from the games she would play at the shared meals with the other families before they went into hiding.

They broke camp and headed out, Danae setting a brisk pace that tested Bina once more. Later that morning, they descended a heavily forested slope. At Danae’s gesture, they halted and she directed Bina to crouch behind a log while Danae scouted ahead. Bina suppressed a gasp at Danae’s sudden appearance next to her.

“There is a road ahead. It has enough vehicles that we must be careful crossing. There is a good place not far, with cover on both sides, but we must be quick. I don’t want to wait for dark. We must make haste to meet my brother.”

They hiked parallel to the road for a distance, then carefully approached. Bina saw a two-lane road through the brush. A car would pass every minute or so. Danae scouted in both directions from their side, looking for the best sight line and shortest crossing. Finally satisfied, she returned to Bina’s side.

“I will give a signal, like this.” Danae pursed her lips and mimicked a bird call, three sort chirps, clear and distinct. “Do you understand?”

Bina nodded.  Danae moved toward the road and disappeared. Bina waited, heart pounding. Danae’s serious and careful manner impressed her.

A few cars passed, followed by a lull. Another passed, then Bina heard the chirp. She scrambled out of brush and sprinted to the road. Pebbles crunched as she crossed the apron at a run, backpack bouncing and rattling. Two steps onto the pavement, she hit a patch of fine gravel and went sprawling.

The fall knocked the wind out her and white-hot pain seared her hands and right knee. She laid still for a moment, then rolled over and sat up, looking at her bloody palms and knee through her torn jeans. She slowly pushed to kneeling on her unhurt knee, then was jerked violently upward. In a flash, she was in Danae’s arms and diving into the underbrush on the other side of a drainage ditch. An instant later, a truck whooshed past.

They both laid in the dead grass and brambles, waiting, Bina panting, Danae’s ears twitching and pivoting. Without a word she turned and tipped her head toward the deeper woods and they moved away from the road.

After a few minutes of brisk hiking, they stopped and Danae examined Bina’s wounds. She brusquely turned Bina’s hands over and felt the bones, ignoring Bina’s gasps of pain whenever she touched the abrasions. Danae removed a small packet from her chest pack and took out a small tube. She muttered some kind of prayer while she rinsed Bina’s injuries with water, eliciting more gasps, then rubbed them with inner lining of her cloak. Satisfied with the cleaning, she applied ointment from the tube. When she finished, she sat back and stared at Bina.

“These are minor. Drink some water and we will continue.”

“Don’t you have any bandaids or something? It really stings.”

Danae shook her head. “The coverings I have are for more serious injuries. These will heal.”

Bina wiped her welling eyes with the back of her hand. “Well, you don’t have to be so mean about it.”

Danae looked at her, uncomprehending. “Mean?”

“You were very rough. This really hurts.”

Danae sat back on her haunches and shook her head. “You said you could run. That was not running. Astyanax did not tell me you needed so much protection. But now I am pledged to you.”

Bina rubbed her eyes again and sniffled. “I think this was a big mistake. I shouldn’t have lied to my mother.”

“Mistake? This was your plan. We were supposed to wait for my brother back at your hiding place. You said we must leave immediately to protect your mother.”

Bina looked up, cheeks wet. “Is there any way we can go back? Meet up with my mother?”

Danae let out a low rumbling growl. “No. Vesta already seeks my brother and he will expect us to come to him with her guidance. She won’t know if we go back. It will waste time and perhaps jeopardize your mother. We must continue on this path.”

Bina looked down, wiped her face again, then stared off into the woods. She took a deep breath, stood up, and gently brushed off her hands.

“Okay. Let’s go.”

***

From that moment, Bina noticed Danae stayed closer, circling back more often. She also appreciated the morsels she handed her, dried flowers, some leaves, a bit of some kind of tree fungus. Watching Danae munch with relish gave Bina confidence to try some, others she discretely discarded. As they walked, the pain from the scrapes lessened, leaving only the lingering embarrassment and shame at having put them at risk. Bina collected long stem flowers and weaved a new circlet while they hiked. At their next stop, she presented it to Danae.

“Here. For you.”  Danae held the circlet in her hand, unsure of what to do. “It will fall off my arm.” Bina took it back and placed it on her own head.  “Look, you wear it. Like a crown.”  She removed it and stood on her tip toes, placing it on Danae’s bowed head.  The ring was a little big, and it slid down and rested on her pointed ears.  Bina pushed it up off Danae’s forehead then leaned back, smiling.

“It’s very pretty.”  

On their next water break, Bina saw Danae leaning over a pool, looking at her reflection, adjusting the flowers. She caught Bina watching her and got up quickly, jostling the crown to the side. Bina smiled and came over. She reached up and adjusted it again. The fight appeared to be forgotten.

In the afternoon, Danae appeared holding a large rabbit.

“We’ll stop soon to eat.” She noticed Bina’s look of surprise at the limp animal swaying in her taloned hand. “They are slow. Easy to catch.”

It took a moment for the insult to register, but Danae was gone again before Bina could reply.

They halted in a small clearing under large pine trees and Danae lit a small fire which Bina assisted with, once more feeding small twigs to minimize smoke. Bina averted her gaze while Danae deftly butchered the hare but couldn’t help noticing the extra care she took to use her talons to filet out long thin strips of meat. She laid them across a branch of a nearby tree, then gathered some long sticks and wrapped the strips around the ends. She handed one to Bina.

“For you. It will cook faster this way, as you prefer.”

Bina held the stick near the small flames, and soon the meat sizzled and popped. She twirled it until obviously charred then pulled it out and blew. She nibbled on the roasted morsel and it was delicious. She wolfed that and began cooking another. She was so intent on her task she didn’t notice Danae had eaten the rest of the carcass. 

“I’ll make one for you,” Bina offered, preparing two more skewers. She held the sticks over the fire and soon they both enjoyed the roasted meat. There were two strips left which Bina and Danae shared. Both licked their fingers when finished.

Bina examined her abrasions, remembering their earlier conversation. “What did you mean that you are pledged to me?” 

“I am not old enough to make an oath to you directly. Astyanax, my brother, made me pledge to him as a condition of him bringing me on this quest. So, I pledged to you.”

“You’re not old enough?”

“When a member of the Laos, our people, has enough years and experience, we have a rite called phratria. Once complete, a person can make and receive oaths. Once someone makes an oath, on whatever matter, they are honor bound to fulfill it.”

“But you haven’t?”

“Females have not been permitted to endure the rite. Because of making babies. We can make pledges, though. When we escaped, when I was an infant, there were very few females. My mother and her sisters were the only ones who could have babies, and the young females were too small. So all the females must only have babies. We are not permitted to venture out, to hunt, to protect the Laos. Only stay in the caves and…breed.”

“Who made this rule?”

Danae looked away.

“My mother and her sisters.”

“But why?”

“To protect our people. To make sure we survive in the world, away from the laboratory and the alloioi.”

Bina considered this. The similarities with the lectures she hated so much from her mother were striking. ‘You can’t do that because we need to stay safe.’ Here was Danae, another girl fighting against the same restrictions.

“So how are you out here, with me?”

“I argued with my brother, persuaded him. He made me pledge to him, even though I am too young.”

“Why isn’t he here? Where is he?”

Danae shrugged. “Once we found you, he left me to watch you until he returned. He did not anticipate you would leave without your mother. This was not the plan.”

Danae looked skyward.

“What…” Bina started, but was interrupted by a sharp gesture from Danae.

“There is something. We must go now. I…”

Danae jerked, then turned her head, lifting one hand up to her neck. Bina saw a dart protruding between Danae’s trembling fingers. She clawed at it feebly, then toppled over. Bina knelt down next to her as Danae took a shuddering breath and lay still. The flower crown lay next to her in the dirt.

NEXT