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"It's a kind of trail in the rock, leading up!" he called down. "You want to
try and get up here? If that guy they were chasin' made it, you sure can!
Throw me my spear, first, and yours, too, if you're comin'."
Big Ears hesitated for what seemed like a very long time, weighing the risks
and benefits, then sighed and said, "Oh, all right. Get back. I'm a lot
taller'n you!"
Being almost a head taller did help, although he, too, found the going took
every muscle he had.
He pulled himself up and over onto the ledge, then lay there a
moment, getting back his wind.
Finally, sensing his partner wasn't exactly standing over him, he turned,
looked around, and got up fast. "Littlefeet?"
"Come on! I don't want it to get dark on us here!" his friend called from what
seemed higher as well as farther away. Big Ears muttered a series of
curses under his breath, picked up his spear where Littlefeet had left
it, and started following the trail.
And it was a trail, too, or at least a path, clearly made long ago by somebody
for some reason. It spiraled around the big rock, taking him gently
upward. It was still pretty steep, and he found himself breathing
hard. He was just about to sit and take a break when he came upon Littlefeet
and the corpse.
It was a particularly grisly scene, even for two who had seen a
lot of ugly deaths. They had hacked him open like animals, and there were
blood and parts of guts all over the place. It was pretty tough even
figuring out his looks; the skin on his face had been almost filleted off, and
the eyes were gouged out as well. And it stunk.
"Notice anything wild about the guy?" Littlefeet asked Big Ears, just sitting
to one side on a rock outcrop and staring.
"Huh? Other than the fact that they tortured and ate half of him? No."
"No tattoos. No marks on the skin we can see at all. No sign he ever wore
rings or stuff, either.
The hair's in a kind of fashion I never saw, and, well, what you can make out
just don't look right.
Don't look like nobody I ever heard of, but he looks somehow familiar, like. I
can't figure out how, though."
Big Ears studied the mess but came no closer. "I think I know," he said
softly.
"Huh?"
"Remember the pictures in the lockets? The Family Chest? That kind
of hair, that sort of face it's like them."
Littlefeet squinted and looked again. "You know, you're right. The
guy looks like one of the ancestors. You don't think any of 'em survived,
do you? I mean, like some kind of underground colony or something? I heard
stories ..."
"
Now its you with the stories, Big Ears responded, throwing the smaller one's
logic back at him.
'
"
"Just stories. Ain't nobody survived the Titans. Nobody ' cept folks like us.
Jeez, I mean, if even a fire in the dry season can bring 'em, you know
nobody's runnin' none of them old things that took magic power. That'd bring a
Titan ball faster'n anything.
"
"
Help me turn him over, Littlefeet said, approaching the corpse. "I want to
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see his back. I think it
"
should be kinda still together from the looks of him."
Big Ears almost gagged. "You mean touch him? That?"
"Sure. His spirit's gone to the land of the ancestors now. Ain't nothin'
but dead, rotting meat.
Come on. He's too heavy and too stuck in his own dried shit for me to do it
alone."
Revulsion sweeping through him, Big Ears did partici-pate sufficiently to let
his spear be the lever
that turned the torso over. When it did, the head came loose and rolled a
short distance, making things even uglier.
"What I thought," Littlefeet commented. "C'mon. Let's get back."
"What you thought? What the hell did you think to do this? There wasn't
nothin' there but a bare back!"
"A red back. I seen it before on a couple Family mem-bers who were hurt bad
and hid in the caves for a couple weeks to heal. When they come back out,
one or two days of sun, they looked like that. `Sunburned,' they called it. I
noticed it on the shoulders and some of the face. I couldn't be sure with all
this blood and crap, but the back wasn't touched by that."
"Sunburned? What the hell you mean? Red, yeah, but&
"Ain't nobody burn like that guy did. You burn like that, you're dead. But
this guy burned!
So there may be some truth to them rumors after all. I mean, where's the only
place where the sun don't never get to you?"
Big Ears saw his point. "Underground ... Jeez! But what was he doin'
here?"
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