If I’m going to slip and fall, she told herself firmly, I might as well do it while trying to get out of here.
“Okay,” she muttered uneasily, clinging tightly to a chartreuse looper with one hand, “but take it slow. I’ve never done anything like this before.”
As at home in the trees as on a solid surface, Naneci-tok eyed the administrator in surprise. “You on Fluva for years and never make road through the forest?”
Matthias offered up a wan smile. “Canopied skimmers are more my speed.”
Naneci-tok grinned. “You smart incubator. I bet you learn quick.”
I will damn well have to, Matthias told herself as she eyed the water some thirty meters below. If she fell and survived the splashdown, there was no one around to fish her out before several of the Viisiiviisii’s water-loving predators found her first.
“There is one other thing,” she told her long-limbed companion. “I’m in pretty good shape, but . . . I’m afraid of heights.”
“Watch me and stay close. I will go slow and grab you if you fall. Follow my back end.”
Matthias did as she was told. It worked even better when in her mind’s eye she substituted Sethwyn Case’s backside for that of the slender, furry Hata. She discovered she could follow it easily as it appeared from behind the moving strappings, the muscles twitching as . . . Though she was able to justify the imported mental picture as a matter of survival, she felt guilty nonetheless.
Moving safely but guiltily through the trees, human and Sakuntala followed a roundabout course toward the skimmer maintenance block. They arrived safely fifteen minutes after Naneci-tok had first snatched the administrator up into the branches. Matthias was soaked to the skin despite her rain cape, having been forced to twist into extreme positions in order to complete the journey. Despite her saturated self she was unnaturally ebullient. Other than a slightly sprained right ankle, her grazing head injury, and a flurry of scratches, all of them minor, she was unhurt.