Niall could see Hrolf lying on his stomach, leaning over the edge of the crater, trying to give Niall a few extra inches of rope. He slipped and managed to retrieve himself and scramble back, sending another shower of stones down on Niall. One of them struck the creature’s head, and stopped it briefly.
Niall shouted: “Never mind the rope. Throw stones.” Hrolf began to bombard the creature with rocks, but most of them bounced off its armoured back.
Veig saw what was happening. “Use the sling!” Hrolf was the best sling-shot in the family. For a moment, he vanished from against the skyline; when he reappeared, he was carrying the sling. He whirled it round his head, and Niall felt the stone whizz past him. Hrolf’s aim was excellent, but the creature had again buried its head in the stones, so the missile bounced off its back again. A moment later, another shower of stones struck Veig as he tried to climb and made him slip down.
As the creature moved towards Veig, another stone from Hrolf struck the blue hemisphere on the side of its head. There was a crunching sound, and the dome seemed to disintegrate into blood. Both Veig and Niall shouted with joy. The creature stopped, and for the first time showed signs of indecision. A second stone missed and bounced off its armour; the third missed altogether. Hrolf was becoming over-excited.
“Listen, Hrolf,” Veig called. His voice was a strained croak. Hrolf loosed another stone, and it bounced off the armour. “Stop! Listen to me.” In spite of its tension, Veig’s voice was calm and controlled. “Take your time. See if you can get its other eye.” He himself hurled a stone at the creature, which had the effect of making it start towards him again. Hrolf took his time, swinging the sling several times before he released the stone. It was a good shot; it landed square at the point where one of the antennae joined the head and knocked it sideways. A second stone struck the centre of the face. The creature stopped, its head turning from side to side as if trying to see its attacker, then turned and buried its head in the stones. Niall thought it was going to throw another shower of stones, then realised, with immense relief, that it was burying itself. There was a final twitch of its back legs, and the striped monster had vanished from their sight.
Both Niall and Veig were too bruised and breathless to move for several minutes. They sat there, staring at the spot where the creature had vanished, expecting to see it looking out at them. When it became clear that it had given up the fight, both renewed their efforts to climb the sides of the pit. Now they could move more slowly and deliberately they were able to progress a few inches at a time. Niall soon reached the end of the rope, and Hrolf heaved him up to safety. Then Niall and Hrolf did the same for Veig. Then all three sat at the edge of the crater, looking down at the spot where the creature had disappeared. Niall and Veig were bruised from head to foot, and their hands, feet and knees were raw; but this seemed unimportant compared to safety.
Veig touched Hrolf on the shoulder.
“Thanks.”
Hrolf shrugged with embarrassment. “We’d better get moving.”
They knew he was right. This wilderness was no place to spend the night. They collected their bundles and their weapons, and limped on over the stones, towards the green landscape that held promise of rest and water.
An hour later the trees were close, and they came upon the first vegetation: creosote bushes, alfa grass and waru plants. Then, suddenly, there was real grass under their feet: coarse and wiry, but amazingly soft to their bruised flesh. Now they could see that the trees were bigger than any they had ever seen before, stretching up twice as high as the giant cactus. There was sand underfoot, but it was not the fine, powdery sand of the desert; it was coarser, and pleasant to walk on. And from this sand grew plants and bushes in unimaginable abundance: flowering cactus with bright rose-coloured flowers, fleshy green plants like warus, but with big yellow flowers, sorb apple, Rose of Jericho, bright green euphorbias and dozens of others that Niall had never seen or imagined. Lizards darted from under their feet, and enormous bees hummed among the flowers. There was even the sound of birdsong. Niall found it all so overwhelming that he forgot his fatigue and bruises. It suddenly seemed to him that it would have been worth a week’s travel in the wilderness to see a place so beautiful and full of living things.
As they approached the trees, Niall could see that they grew along the sides of a shallow stream that meandered along in its rocky bed. They threw down their bundles and weapons and plunged in without hesitation, dropping onto their hands and knees and drinking greedily. For Niall, the sensation was ecstasy. Even in the middle, the stream was scarcely knee deep, so that when Niall sat down, it hardly came up to his waist. As he stared down into it, the continual movement of the water produced an almost hypnotic sensation. His mind relaxed and blended into the rippling flow, and some deep instinct told him that water and green plants were a part of his birthright.
As he sat there, splashing water over his face and chest, his eye caught a movement on the bank. He stared with incredulity at the huge, blood-red creature that scuttled across the sand and vanished into a flowering bush.
“What’s that?” he gasped. Instantly, all three were still, suddenly aware of their vulnerability as they sat there without weapons. Then another of the creatures ran out into the open on its spidery legs, and Veig gasped with relief:
“It’s only an ant.”
“Do they attack human beings?”
“I don’t think so.” Veig was obviously unsure.
Reluctantly, they left the water and returned to their weapons. On the opposite bank, ants emerged periodically and vanished into the vegetation. Sometimes they halted, for no obvious reason, then went off in another direction. Most were about two feet long. They had the same blank faces as the saga monster and the crater insect, and the claw-like mandibles looked formidable; yet there was something about those triangular heads, with their flat-looking eyes and the bent antennae which resembled an upturned moustache, that made them seem quite unmenacing.
Veig looked at the sky; the sun was near the horizon. “We’d better move.” He heaved himself to his feet. The heat had already dried his wet loincloth. “Wait here.”
They watched him splash through the stream and out onto the far bank. A red ant paused in its scurrying, headlong motion, surveyed him for a moment, then hurried on. Encouraged by its lack of interest, he advanced a few feet and stood direct in the path of an oncoming ant. It merely changed direction and scuttled around him. When this had happened half a dozen times more, and it was clear that the ants had no interest in human beings, Niall and Hrolf picked up their bundles and crossed the stream. Once again, an ant stopped to survey them, studied them for a moment, then went on its way. After that, the other ants ignored them. It was as if the first had sent some kind of message, classifying them as harmless.
Nevertheless, they advanced cautiously. This vegetation could conceal the lair of a scorpion or tiger beetle — even a saga insect. But although they saw many beetles, aphids and bugs, and even a seven-foot millipede, there was no sign of carnivorous insects. Half a mile farther on, they came upon a spot that promised shelter for the night. At the foot of a huge rock, there was a hollow in the sand. They prodded into its depths with their spears to make sure it was not already occupied, then settled down to enlarging it with their hands and flint knives. In less than an hour, it had been transformed into a small den, its entrance concealed by bushes hacked and torn out of the sand. Here, at last, they could feel relatively secure.
The sun was on the horizon; the landscape to the east was already dark. Veig had one more task to perform before they retired for the night: to try and establish contact with his family. Back in the burrow, Siris would be wondering if her sons were safe. As the sun sank below the horizon, she would be sitting alone, emptying her mind, hoping for a message. Veig therefore found himself a comfortable spot at the foot of the rock, where he could stare in the direction of their home. Then he also relaxed and emptied his mind. He should have done this half an hour ago, to allow his thoughts and feelings to become quiescent; but they had been preparing their refuge for the night.