The Great Escape Chapter 3 Part 1 of 3

The Great Escape
Chapter 3 Part 1 of 3

Even before there was enough twilight to see colors in the trees around the sleeping camp, the Woodlanders' cockerel, 'Adam the seventeenth,' had climbed to his perch on top of the coop, filled his lungs with cool crisp air, and screeched a lusty greeting to the impending dawn.

His raucous halo echoed off the walls of the huts and the nearby trees. Wildchild, who had been fast asleep, warmly cuddled between Tamar and Annela, woke alarmed, threw off the thread-bare blanket, and crouched in a defensive posture, trying to see who was attacking them, groping on the reed mat for her hunting knife. Tamar also sat up, pushing her long hair off her face to rub the sleep out of her eyes.

"What is it? What is it?" she asked.

"Shush, girls," Annela reassured them. "there's nothing to fear. It's just our cockerel, Adam,"

"What a horrid noise!" Tamar exclaimed as Adam repeated his call. "Why the blazes do you keep him?"

"Shush," Annela whispered, smiling at the archaic word 'blazes', which she took to be ruder than it was; "Ezra seems to have slept through the racket.

Let's go outside. We might as well get up, anyway."

The girls grabbed their clothes and dressed quietly under the awning in front of the hut.

Wildchild yawned and stretched while Tamar looked at the activity in the camp.

Though it was still half-light, many women emerged from their huts, some singly, others in pairs. Most were walking out of the camp toward the shallow river that flowed lazily in a semi-circle to the north to perform their morning ablutions. Descending the bank to the river's edge, they became shadows in the mist that hung in wisps around the camp.

There were sounds of stirring in the next hut, which belonged to Erin and Carlin. Annela whispered at their door, and soon, Carlin came out, a shy smile on her shiny morning face.

"Carlin, will you look after Wildchild and Tamar for a while? I have some chores before breakfast."

Carlin nodded.

"Are you hungry?" Annela asked Wildchild and Tamar.

Wildchild shook her head. "No, not yet," said Tamar.

"Very good. Go along with Carlin. She will show you around and bring you back here for breakfast. But make little noise. I want Ezra to sleep as long as he can."

Carlin silently beckoned the girls to follow her, and soon, the three girls were out of sight in the mist as they headed for the stream.

Women were milling about the camp as Annela fetched Erin, and they went together to do their morning chores. One of the matrons, Casti, carried a basket of seeds to the chicken run.

She caused havoc among the greedy hens by scattering their food while she pilfered their nests, weighing each night's produce in her hand, taking most of the eggs but leaving some more promising ones to hatch. Another matron added dry kindling to the perpetual fire in an ancient iron pot-belly stove. Two younger women hoisted baskets onto their backs and headed out of the camp to forage for mushrooms in the forest.

Dagma, the dumpy young woman who first met Ezra and the girls, marched across the camp to Sharne and Pepi's hut, carrying two stone axes with long wooden shafts. She scratched on the doorpost, and Sharne immediately appeared. They whispered together, and Sharne returned inside. Seconds later, she came out, folding a heavy cloak over her shoulders and donning her green peaked cap.

Sharne waved at the matron, who was tending the fire. She was an old black woman, once athletic but now stout, clearly Sharne's mother. She smiled and waved back, gave the fire one last stoke, and, walking with a stick, hobbled over to Sharne's hut and went inside to sit with her granddaughter, Pepi.

Meanwhile, her daughter and Dagma strode from the camp into the forest, balancing their axes on their shoulders.

Parvinder, an old Indian woman, sat on a low stool to milk Bessie, the Woodlanders' wizened old cow. The cow lived contentedly in the meadow and gave little milk. After putting a few cupfuls in a pan, she went to the iron stove to begin cooking.

Meanwhile, Annela and Erin began their tasks. They shoveled damp ash from the central fire into a heap inside the chicken run. When the sun had burned off the mist and brought a heat haze down into the forest clearing, the hens would bathe in the dust, wriggling bottom-first into the pile to stir up the superb ash beneath.

Afterward, Annela and Erin rebuilt the central fire with dry logs from under the awning of a storage hut. Fifteen minutes later, they had done.

Annela went quickly back to her hut. She wanted to check on her patient and avoid talking to the woman frying breakfast over the stove, who would pester her with questions about Ezra.

She found him still asleep and gazed at him for a few minutes.

Carlin led them into the forest after taking Tamar and Wildchild to the river to relieve themselves. They said hello to the women picking small brown mushrooms in the undergrowth. Their names were Dipti and Urulla. Dipti was an Indian woman in her late twenties. She was short, dark, and had a round, happy face and long, straight black hair. Most of the younger Woodlanders were skinny, but Dipti was more curvaceous. Urulla was nineteen: tall, pale, brown-haired, thin, flat-chested, and serious-looking.

Both women had greeted their guests kindly last night, and this morning, they wanted to know how the girls had slept. Somebody told me how they met Ezra, which had been told and retold many times around the campfire last night, yet everyone was eager to hear it again firsthand.

But the girls wanted to be on the move, so Carlin shyly explained she was instructed to show the girls around. They answered as briefly as they could and trotted off deeper into the forest.

Carlin gave the girls a tour of the nearby forest. There was abundant wood around the camp to build huts and fences and make the campfire. Within a ten-minute walk of the camp were many kinds of berries and nuts, which came into the season by no set rhythms and were checked periodically throughout the year. Further away were fig trees, oranges, lemons, and other fruits. Even further away was a stand of banana plants. If one followed the river downstream a couple of miles, it flowed into a large lake where ducks could be hunted and reeds cut for basket-weaving. The furthest place the Woodlanders regularly visited in the forest was a small bamboo plantation, where they got canes for roofs and fencing.

Carlin had to explain what ducks were. They were a rare luxury because they were much more challenging to hunt than pigeons. She also told them the river was too shallow for big fish, so the only fish she had eaten were dried and salted ones bought from the Mariners at the monthly trade.

They heard the thump of axes on trees on their way to see if there were any ripe hazelnuts.

Sharne and Dagma were chopping up logs about a quarter mile away.

They reached the hazelnut bushes in another five minutes. The girls had fun gleaning the small brown nuts, but they brought no basket or bag and could only put the hazelnuts in their pockets or break them open and eat them. Tamar carried her hazelnuts by folding the bottom of her skirt into a bag. However, chewing a few hazelnuts piqued the girls' appetites, so they returned to the camp for a proper breakfast when the older girls' pockets were complete.

Mirselene emerged not long after Annela had finished her tasks. She beckoned across the camp for Annela to visit her.

"How is our guest?" Mirselene asked when Annela entered the hut.

"He's still asleep," she answered. "Also, I don't think his arm is broken, only badly sprained."

"That is good news. When he wakes, I'll have Parvinder look at it."

Annela was not offended by this suggestion: Parvinder was the best nurse in the tribe, but it raised a question. Before Annela could ask it, however, Mirselene was giving more orders:

"Annela, you need not do your chores if you are busy nursing Ezra. Getting him better takes priority, and I'll assign your work to others instead. Also, when Ezra wakes, please bring him to visit me. There are some things I'd like to ask that young man."

"As would the rest of us, Madam. Ezra will not be safe from being questioned while he stays with us."

"Understandably so, Annela. I rely on you to alert me when I need to keep order and not allow him to be oppressed."

"Of course, Madam."

"Very good. So, how are our other guests?"

"Very hearty, considering how far they have walked. Carlin is showing them around."

"Good. They interest me. Do they interest you, too?"

"Yes, Madam. I'd like to know why Wildchild doesn't speak. Also, Tamar seems very bright, though her education has been stunted. She wondered this morning why we keep Adam."

"Hmm. That is a good question."

"Madam?"

Annela did not think it was a good question at all. It was apparent why they needed a cockerel if they wanted another generation of hens, but she did not press her chief for an answer, and Mirselene did not explain. The stout woman was deep in thought but was now focused again.

"You might like to give some of your chores to the girls. I intend them to earn their keep."

"Of course, Madam. I'm sure they'll be very keen to do their share."

"Good. We're going to enjoy their company. Where will they sleep?"

"Well, they slept with me last night on the floor. It was comfortable enough with the blanket."

"No, I don't care for that. Are they making good friends with Carlin?"

Annela nodded.

"Then I'll put them in with Erin. I don't want Ezra's recovery to be impeded."

"Yes, Madam."

Although having two warm bodies to cuddle was nice, Annela agreed it was a bit crowded last night, with a bed big enough for two taken up by one man. Now, she waited for Mirselene to speak again, but there were no more commands. Instead, Mirselene got up, saying:

"I smell breakfast!"

Annela headed home, leaving Mirselene at the iron stove where two matrons, Parvinder and
Casti was cooking eggs and vegetables.

"Good morning, ladies," Mirselene said. "That smells good!"

They smiled their greetings in return and attended to their frying pans. Pepi and her grandmother then arrived at the stove for breakfast.

"Good morning, Lenta," Mirselene greeted the ancient woman. "How is our little one today?"

"She's sleepy, Mirselene." Pepi was always a slow riser, but her appetite was fine.

Shortly afterward, Carlin and her new friends arrived with their bounty of nuts. Mirselene was pleased to see the girls being helpful and smiled benevolently.

"Delicious hazelnuts! Well, done!" she exclaimed as the girls emptied the nuts into the basket Erin brought from the food store. Casti invited the girls to take up their plates for breakfast.

Mirselene smiled even more benevolently when Wildchild went to fetch the girls' foraging sacks and offered their provision of berries, fruits, and nuts they had gathered yesterday but not the meat, however, which the girls were saving for their journey.

Back in her hut, Annela waited for the second shift of breakfast when Sharne and Dagma would arrive. This gave her time to check on Ezra and set up her handloom and a wooden stool. Here, she could keep busy with a helpful task: guarding Ezra from prying intrusions.
Of the foragers, Urulla and Dipti were back first with baskets full of mushrooms. The women cooking at the stove selected some to fry and added them to the second breakfast round.

Sharne and Dagma returned with freshly cut logs piled under the awning of a storage hut.

Annela and Erin joined these four women for breakfast, at which the conversation began about Ezra again, but as there was nothing new to say, the topic quickly drew to a close.

After breakfast, Sharne and Dagma headed out again with their axes, and Urulla and Dipti also went off together to cut bananas. Erin took up her tools and set down to weave bamboo cane and reeds into baskets while Annela got comfortable on her wooden stool at the entrance to her hut to weave on her hand loom, shielded from the morning sun by the awning roofed with banana leaves.

No one had any tasks for Carlin, Wildchild, and Tamar, so Mirselene allowed them to play.

They looked after Pepi and didn't make too much noise. Meanwhile, she retired to her hut to think and plan.

The girls decided on a game of tag, with the rule that no one was to touch the ground. This meant they could jump on the benches, the logs for the evening's fire, and the reed mats in front of the huts. A girl would also be 'out' if she made any noise. Needless to say, that rule was not long maintained, especially when, as was inevitable, Pepi, the slowest and least skillful girl, became 'it' and, frustrated by not being able to catch the other girls, laughed wildly as they tempted her by running close and then expertly leaping away. Pepi had strong lungs for a small child, and her raucous laughter resounded about the camp as loudly as Adam's shrill reveille had that morning. The noise the girls made drew Mirselene out of her hut.

"Ahoy, you rapscallions!" she bellowed. "What is the meaning of this commotion?"

The girls stopped mid-chase and stood still, giggling—except Pepi, who bent over double with hysterics.

"Silence, you pests!" Mirselene repeated, "We have an injured man resting nearby. ... Carlin, if you please?"

Carlin understood. She picked up Pepi and held her close until the laughing girl quieted down.

"It seems I need to inflict discipline on your animals. Tamar, can you read?"

"Yes, Madam, very well."

"Good, then I would like you to help Pepi with her reading. She has her book, and you may choose one to read yourself from my library."

As Tamar would instead read than do anything else, she was delighted and saw nothing but joy in her punishment.

"As for you, Wildchild, you don't take much interest in literature. I think a more vigorous activity is required."

Mirselene had guessed correctly. Wildchild waited for the decision, her green eyes large in her pretty face.

"Can you use a bow, child?"

Wildchild shook her head.

"Good, then, Carlin should teach you the fundamentals of archery. If you prove yourself adept, you can join Shane in proper lessons. In a fortnight, we'll go on a duck hunt and see what you've learned. What do you say?"

This was nothing at all like a punishment. Wildchild loved any test of skill or strength. She fully intended to be the best archer in a fortnight. In answer, she beamed the widest smile she could.

Tamar and Wildchild exchanged one of their looks, communicating an entire conversation. The prospect of the duck hunt contained the first suggestion anyone had made about how long they were invited to stay with the Woodlanders. They instantly agreed to stay and learn as much about life in the forest as possible. After all, they intended to trek through the forest to the mountains. The more they knew, the easier the trek would be.

Pepi had quietened down now, so Carlin let her go. Though she could have been a better reader, Pepi had to obey Mirselene. She knew where her book was and, taking Tamar's hand, led her into Mirselene's hut to emerge a minute later with a large picture book of farm animals.

Of the four other books, Tamar chose an ancient, faded, dog-eared book on Earth's history.

They went into Sharne's hut to read, accompanied by admonishing words from Mirselene about treating her precious books with infinite care and not folding the corners or licking a finger to turn pages.

Carlin collected two small practice bows with some arrows and beckoned Wildchild to follow her into the forest.

Quite now returned to the Woodlander camp.

Although Mirselene had exerted her authority to prevent the girls from waking Ezra, her bellowing reprimands, rather than the girls' laughter, shook him from his rest.

It was late morning when Ezra surfaced from a long and refreshing sleep. His exhaustion mainly had gone, and with it, the fever, though he felt a little weak in the legs. Best of all, the sharp pain in his arm had reduced to an easily managed dull ache.

He swung his legs over the side of the bamboo-frame bed and stood on the reed mat. The lumpy mattress left him stiff in the back, but he was stronger than he had been since the crash landing. He found his boots and then pushed aside the cloth door hanging to look out. Annela was sitting in front of the hut, slowly weaving thin bandages from a ball of twine. She tied off her thread and stood to greet him.

The pretty girl had long, straight, russet-blond hair, an oval face, a straight nose over a bow-shaped mouth with pink lips, and a small, determined chin. She had a few freckles on her cheeks and the bridge of her nose. Her skin was pale, especially on her neck and collarbones.

Her calm pale-blue eyes were wide-set and large. At present, focused on Ezra, they showed curiosity and compassion.

"I'm glad you're up, Ezra. How are you feeling?"

"I'm much better, thanks. I know you're my doctor, but I'm sorry, I forgot your name."


To be continued
To be continued