Kai was not completely in favour of such gymnastics but the belt-harness, winched safely to the sled’s exterior attachments, could hold a heavy-worlder securely. He was glad not to be at the end of the pendulum swing as she was to reach her objective.
“Are they watching, Bonnard?” Varian asked over the comunit.
“The young ones are, Varian, and yes, one of the airborne fliers is watching.”
“Let’s see if they have any prohibitive spots …”
“Varian …” Kai grew apprehensive as he, too, saw the adult giff fly in for a close look at Varian’s swinging body.
“It’s only looking, Kai. I expect that. One more swing now and … I got it.” She had grabbed and caught a stony protrusion at the cave entrance and agilely scrambled in.
“Rakers! It’s abandoned. It’s gigantic. Goes so far back I can’t see the end.” Her voice over the comunit sounded muffled and then hollow.
“No, wait. Just what I wanted. An egg. An egg? And they let me in. Oh, it rattles. Dead egg. Small, too. Well, only circumstantial evidence that their young are born immature. Hmmm. There’re grasses here, sort of forming a nest. Too scattered at this point to be sure. They can’t have abandoned a cave because there’s an infertile egg? No fish bones, or scales. They must devour whole. Good digestions then.”
Bonnard and Kai exchanged glances over her monologue and the assorted sounds of her investigations, broadcast from the comunit.
“The nest grasses are not the rift valley type, more like the tougher fibres of the swamp growths. I wonder … Okay, Kai,” and her broadcast voice was augmented by the clearer tones that indicated she had left the cave, “pull me up.”
She had grasses sprouting from her leg pouches as she came over the lip of the ledge, and the egg made an unusual bulge in the front of her ship suit.
“Any sign of alarm?” she asked.
Kai, securing the winch, shook his head as Bonnard leaped to assist her out of the harness.
“Hey, their eggs are small. Can I shake it?”
“Go ahead. What’s in it is long dead.”
“Why?”
Varian shrugged. “We’ll let Trizein have a gawk and see if he can find out. I don’t necessarily wish to fracture it. Let me have that plascovering. Kai,” and she neatly stored the egg, surrounded by the dead grasses and then brushed her gloved hands together to signify a task well completed. “That’s thirsty work,” she said and led the way back to the sled where she broke out more rations.
“You know,” she said, half-way through the quick meal, “I think that each of those groups was out on various set tasks …”
“So we’re staying around to see what they bring home?” asked Kai.
“If you don’t mind?”
“No.” He inclined his head towards the juveniles, some of whom had indeed lost interest and were bumbling about the summit at the far side.
“I’m enjoying the reversal of roles.”
“I wish I could get into a cave currently in use …”
“All in one day?”
“Yes, you’re right, Kai. That’s asking too much. At least, we’ve experienced no aggressive action from them. The adult construed my action as helpful rather than dangerous. It did accept the grass …”
They all glanced upward as an unusual note penetrated the sled’s roof, a high pitched, sharp sustained note. The juveniles on the summit came rigidly to attention. Varian gestured to Bonnard to take the recorder but the boy was already reaching for it, doing a scan of the skies before he steadied the device on the alert young.
A mass of fliers fell from the caves, gained wing room and flew with an astonishing show of speed off into the misty south west.
“That’s the direction of the sea gap. The net fishers?”
“The juveniles are clearing away,” said Bonnard. “Looks like fish for lunch to me.”
Out of the mist now appeared wing-weary giffs, barely skimming the water, rising with obvious effort to ledges where they settled, wings unclosed and drooping. Varian was certain she’d seen grass trailing from the rear claws of one. They waited, and so did the juveniles, occasionally poking at each other. Bonnard, fretting with the interval, moved towards the sled exit but Varian stopped him, just as they saw an adult giff land on their terrace.