An Excerpt

It was the whimpering, which roused him about thirty seconds later.

He had almost forgotten about the girl. His eyes were getting used to the light, or was it the fact that dusk was falling over the broken earth?
An Immortal !! A sick girl, dirty and thin, but a girl, certainly. Even in the filth of that first evening, he felt the stirring of something, some instinct almost, unknown to him. He had known girls in the underground corridors of Sundras, but they were familiar, playmates only. Already the desire to care for somebody over-rode tiredness and shock. He would have to help her, and judging by her condition, the sooner the better.
Adam knelt on the ground. The girl was conscious, but only just. She pulled away from him.
 
 
"It's all right, I want to help you. Are you badly hurt?"
He noticed the lines of sweat and suffering on her face, traced with his eyes the rivers of her tears that were like nothing he had ever seen before.
There was no response.
"Look, I wouldn't have gone to all this trouble to save you from the animal, if I was going to harm you myself, now would I?"
She didn't look as if she could hear him. Typical of females, you go out of your way to rescue them, and then they show their gratitude to you by ignoring you, or running away.
"I am a friend." He smiled. He pointed to himself, and made the gesture of a person holding a baby, rocking it to sleep. He made stroking gestures in the air, slowly bringing his hand down to her face as he did so. He touched her gently.
"Come on, where does it hurt?"
"I cn't unnerstaind yoo. Speak moor slouly", she replied.
Merciful landslides! How could he expect her to understand him? How many ages of time had elapsed since a person of the caves and corridors had come face to face with an Immortal?
Gingerly he felt her shoulder, her arms, her side.....
"Stap !"
"Look, I'm only trying to find out where you are hurt."
"Mu bek !"
"O.K., your back, good, if I can hold you up, can you walk?"
"I gisso."
He didn't know what that meant, but took it for a positive reaction.
Slowly, painfully he levered her up on to her feet, getting his arm under her he helped her over to the twisted shelter of a mutilated building.
"Shelter of a sort", he thought, suddenly realising that he was in the open air, and was feeling rain on his face for the first time. Food was the next priority.
"I am going out to get some food. I will be back in a few moments, O.K.?"
She said nothing. By now it was quite dark, but for somebody who had lived all his life underground, that was no hardship for Adam. He found the dead dog easily, hoisted it on his back, and returned to the girl.
Out again, to find some dry wood, then he searched his pockets for a svitzar, the implement they used to generate fire in the caves of Sundras. A relation of his father had invented the svitzar, nearly seventy years ago. Made from dried cave weed, and a substance derived from the bodies of centipedes, it worked like a match.
Soon he had a fire burning, and had cut up the body of the dead hound, at least enough to give them a good feed. The girl seemed to relax a little, occasionally smiling at him, shyly, and eating the meat with hesitation, because she still felt the pain in her stomach, but not so badly now. Adam caught the rain water dripping from an overhanging piece of metal, and gave it to her. She touched his hand as she took the liquid, in a gesture of gratitude. He felt that token burning through him, giving him a shock, as if he had touched a elecbeetle. In the darkness he felt the colour rising in his cheeks, and was glad that it was dark now, and she could not see him blushing in the flickering firelight.
Gradually she closed her eyes. Adam found a large tattered skirt or coat in the house, and placed it under her head. Then he settled back against the wall, and considered his position.

(C)David Spurgeon 1996


 

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