Think. You were boasting to yourself about what a selected, intelligent group we were. Use it, or you might as well be an Australian bushman.
You might better. Survival is something they’re damn good at. But you’ve been pampered all your life.
Survive, damn you.
He gripped Janice by one arm, Dr. Frazer by the other; reached past him to young Domenick, the boy from the Commune who had been studying geology for work in the Colony. He drew them all close together, and spoke over the howling of the storm.
“Can anyone see where the trees are thickest? Since there’s not likely to be a cave here, or any shelter, we’ve got to do the best we can with underbrush, or anything to break the wind and keep dry.”
Janice said, her small voice almost inaudible, “It’s hard to see, but I had the impression there’s something dark over there. If it isn’t solid, the trees must be so thick I can’t see through them. Is that what you mean?”
MacAran had had the same impression himself; now, with it confirmed, he decided to trust it. He’d been led straight to Camilla, that other time.
Psychic? Maybe so. What did he have to lose?
“Everyone hold hands,” he directed, more in gesture than words, “If we lose each other we’ll never find each other again.” Gripping one another tightly, they began to struggle toward the place that was only a darker darkness against the trees.
Dr. Frazer’s grip tightened hard on his arm. He put his face close to MacAran’s and shouted, “Maybe I’m losing my mind, but I saw a light.”
MacAran had thought it was afterimages spinning behind his wind-buffeted eyes. What he thought he saw beyond it was even more unlikely; the figure of a man? Tall and palely shining and naked even in the storm–no, it was gone, it had been only a vision, but he thought the creature had beckoned from the dark loom… they struggled toward it. Janice muttered, “Did you see it?”
“Thought I did.”
Afterward, when they were in the shelter of the thickly laced trees, they compared notes. No two of them had seen the same thing. Dr. Frazer had seen only the light. MacAran had seen a naked man, beckoning. Janice had seen only a face with a curious light around it, as if the face–she said–were really inside her own head, vanishing like the Cheshire cat when she narrowed her eyes to see it better; and to Domenick it had been a figure, tall and shining–“Like an angel,” he said, “or a woman–a woman with long shining hair.” But, stumbling after it, they had come against trees so thickly grown that they could hardly force their way between them; MacAran dropped to the ground and wriggled through, dragging them after.
Inside the clump of thickly growing trees the snow was only a light spray, and the howling wind could not reach them. They huddled together, wrapped in blankets from their packs and sharing body warmth, nibbling at rations cold from their dinner. Later, MacAran struck a light, and saw, against the bole of the tree, carefully fastened flat pieces of wood. A ladder, against the side of the tree, leading upwards… .
Even before they began climbing he guessed that this was not one of the houses of the small furred folk. The rungs were far enough apart to give even MacAran some trouble and Janice, who was small, had to be pulled up them. Dr. Frazer demurred, but MacAran never hesitated.
“If we all saw something different,” he said, “we were led here. Something spoke directly to our minds. You might say we were invited. If the creature was naked–and two of us saw him, or it, that way–evidently the weather doesn’t bother them, whatever they are, but it knows that we’re in danger from it. I suggest we accept the invitation, with a proper respect.”
They had to wriggle through a loosely tied door up through on to a platform, but then they found themselves inside a tightly-built wooden house. MacAran started to strike his light carefully again, and discovered that it was not necessary, for there was indeed a dim light inside, coming from some kind of softly glowing, phosphorescent stuff against the walls. Outside the wind wailed and the boughs of the great trees creaked and swayed, so that the soft floor of the dwelling had a slight motion, not un-pleasant but a little disquieting. There was a single large room; the floor was covered with something soft and spongy, as if moss or some soft winter grass grew there of itself. The exhausted, chilled travellers stretched out gratefully, relaxing in the comparative warmth, dryness, shelter, and slept.