“There! That’s better, Kai,” she said, rubbing her nose against his. “I equate Thek with gloom and doom.” Abruptly she released herself and grabbed a vine. “You know, there’s something odd about such vines growing on a giff’s cliff. You don’t suppose our presence here …”
In another abrupt movement, Varian held onto the vine and leaned out of the cave mouth, peering up at the sky and to her right.
“No, there’re still giffs above us,” she said, swinging in again. She allowed the momentum of the vine to carry her back out, looking to the left this time. “But this is the only cliff covered in vines.
I’m sure it was barren rock when we wedged the shuttle in here.” She made a third excursion, grinning as she released the vine on its inward sway, and landed back at his side. “A fruit-bearing vine, too.” She reached down to her boot and whistled in shrill triumph, removing the slim blade lodged there. “Too frail, like us, to pierce a heavyworlder’s hide but, praise Krim, they left ’em for us. I’m going to cut us juicy, fresh fruit for breakfast. Or whatever meal it is.”
8
Anne McCaffrey – Dinosaur Planet II – The Survivors Before Kai could protest, she had put the knife between her teeth and was pulling herself up a vine, out of sight. He was testing the strength of another thick tendril when her cheerful voice advised him to look up. Instinctively he caught the object launched at him.
“Here comes another. And it’s dead ripe so don’t squeeze hard.”
“Varian.” His fingers did exert too much pressure on the melon and the succulent sweet odor made his mouth water.
“I could eat these all by myself, Kai, so here’s another one for you.” Varian dropped to the cave floor.
“We shouldn’t eat too much at first,” Kai said. He sank down beside her as she sliced a segment off and offered it to him on her knife point.
“Quite likely,” she said, slicing a second piece, for herself. She murmured with delight as she bit the soft green fruit. “Go ahead. Eat!” she urged, juice dribbling from the corners of her mouth.
“The things I do for the EEC,” Kai said, pretending horror at having to eat unprocessed food. As the first sweetness dissolved in his dry mouth, Kai was willing to admit, privately, that natural food was undeniably juicier than processed.
They both ate slowly, chewing thoroughly.
“I suspect root vegetables would have been wiser in terms of protein content but fruit sugar raises blood levels,” Varian remarked thoughtfully. “Oh, but this is good. What I don’t understand,” she went on gesturing with her half-eaten slice, “is how those vines grew here. Granted,” and she raised the slice to forestall Kai, “we don’t know how long we’ve slept, and growth on Ireta is explosive.
But the other cliffs are still clear. The giffs’ main diet is fish and Rift grass. These vines aren’t from the Rift, and this section of cliff looks more like forest than palisade. The vines grow right down to the water.”
“Strangely selective, I agree. Did you see much of the giffs on your swings?”
“Some, circling high. I don’t think they saw me if that’s what you’re wondering. It’s early morningish—hazy, overcast. Couldn’t see their food place from this angle but I’d guess that the morning fishers are about their labors.”
“We will wait,” said Kai with careful authority, “until they have fed before we put in an appearance.”
“Ah, you remember my lecture about disturbing feeding animals!”
“Not that much subjective time has passed, Varian!”
He grinned as she automatically twisted her wrist to glance at her unregistering chronometer.
Varian’s eyes flicked toward the dim bulk of the shuttle. “Should we wake Lunzie or Triv?”
“I see no reason to until Tor has come to some conclusions.”
“Or favors us with an accurate reading of elapsed time. That’s what I’d like to know!” Varian was almost angry. “Why, if it weren’t for the vines over the cave and the dead batteries we could just have overslept.” A shudder seized her shoulders and shook her slender frame.
“The notion is leveling, isn’t it,” Kai said, understanding her mood perfectly. “The universe has gone by without noticing that we have faltered.”