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76.
The forest was at its thickest and deepest a mile or two from the crazy-quilt of windows at the far end of the cylinder.
The prodigious beard of dark green vegetation stretched around the inside surfaces of the cylinder. In some places the fog seemed to couch in the tree tops night and day. Alex and Maryan saw a greater variety of birds and animals than ever before. The animal life they saw was smaller than its earthly analogues. They saw miniature wild pigs, some dog-like creatures, cats, a small horse prancing over a ridge like a three-foot tall but fully formed adult pipe dream. They thought, at times, that a small blue or orange human-like face might be hovering amid the leaves, regarding them with serious eyes before melting away. At times, their backs crawled with uncomfortable sensations that they were being watched.
“So far, there is nothing special here for us. We should get back toward the middle or even the wall-end,” Maryan suggested as they sat together on a grassy ridge at night, roasting two squirrel-like animals and a bird they had managed to capture. Beside the tiny fire they’d made in a circle of stones sat a fire bowl Alex had made from river mud. It was a dried ball, about the size of a large fist, hollow inside and containing smoldering embers in a bed of charcoal. It had a tiny opening on top to vent, and a larger opening a quarter of the way down big enough to insert a finger or a twig to stir things around inside. Nearby lay a supply of charcoal (made from dry, burned wood) and kindling straw. This was their supply of fire, designed to be carried from campsite to campsite, avoiding the need to start a new flame.
The great wall of fragmented amber glass glowed with moonlight. Waxy leaves gleamed with dull polish. Now and then, an owl hooted. Insects, rustling leaves, and distant bubbling forest streams kept up a steady low murmur.
“We can dry these hides,” Maryan said as she scraped the rodent skins with a sharp stone in near darkness, “and make belt pouches. That way we can carry seeds to chew, and we won’t go hungry.”
He sat back against a tree trunk, using his fingertips to feel the flint blade of his knife as he chipped idly with another flint to sharpen it. “We can’t stay here forever, Maryan.” Secretly he thought: how often do we have to start over from nothing?
“I know, love. I’m getting antsy myself. This place is too quiet, somehow, too calm. Things are lurking out there someplace, watching us. I just somehow don’t think they mean us harm.”
Alex put aside his moment of despair. “Maybe they caught Nizin and had him for lunch.”
“Hah! Who’d want to eat that strutting rack of scales and white hair?”
“Something that might not consider us good food.”
“You’re dreaming.”
“Turtle and iguana are delicacies in some quarters. I’m trying to keep hope alive.”
She rested her head against his shoulder, while keeping her gory hands away. “I know,” she said with a sigh. “Thanks.”
“My job.”
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