 
To Free a Giant

Phillip C Brown

Published by Phillip Brown at Smashwords.

Copyright 2018 Phillip Brown

© All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except in the case of a reviewer, who may quote brief passages embodied in critical articles or in a review. Trademarked names may appear throughout this book. Rather than use a trademark symbol with every occurrence of a trademarked name, names are used in an editorial fashion, with no intention of infringement of the respective owner's trademark. The information in this book is distributed on an "as is" basis, without warranty. Although every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this work, neither the author nor the publisher shall have any liability to any person or entity with respect to any loss or damage caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by the information contained in this book.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Acknowledgements

Danielle Hawkins thank you so much for all your input and suggestions.

Table of Contents

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About the Author. 1

_Many years before The Flood:_

01

"Never again!" Tresia made a promise to herself as her teeth chattered uncontrollably. The hay surrounding her scratched against her legs, midriff and arms; any bit of exposed skin. She moved some of it in a rather futile attempt to eke out more warmth. It was absolutely frigid but at least with the hay she was able to just keep warm enough to continue. From her itchy hay cocoon she glanced upward and groaned. The fire needed stoking and the bellows needed pumping in order to keep her balloon aloft and upward bound. She fumbled through the hay with her left hand until she found a lump of firewood, with her right hand she grabbed a wooden pole and used it to open the door of the furnace. Gritting her teeth she leaped up; the bone numbing cold hit her with a shock, causing her to gasp. Quickly she threw the log of wood on the fire, staying standing just long enough to pump twice on the bellows before diving back into the hay again. Once there she clumsily closed the door of the furnace with her pole while shivering to try to warm up again.

She was sure that she was now the highest anyone on earth had ever been, and also certainly the coldest as well; except, of course, for her last trip. Her previous attempt to reach the Awai had been thwarted by the cold at about two thirds of the way up, she was completely caught off guard that time. Her drinking water had just started to freeze when she could bear it no more and had to come down; it was the first time she, or anyone else on earth, had ever experienced ice. Tresia wondered if this was what the Awai was made of and she was hoping her visit would tell her this for sure. This time she had bought hay with her to keep warm. Her drinking water was stowed near to the fire so it would not freeze; not that she was prepared to brave the cold to drink it. She also brought a bowl of water with her in the basket. She had watched it carefully as the balloon ascended. It was fascinating to watch the solid layer of ice form on the surface, she even broke some off and sucked on it, enjoying the sensation of ice melting in her mouth. After that she had watched with interest as the rest of the water froze solid.

She looked up to survey the grey paper canopy above her and felt a sense of pride and satisfaction. It had taken a lot of effort to build this balloon and it was working a treat. Hot air balloons were a recent invention; plans for them had travelled all around the world and many had been built so people could fly. But until now no one was crazy enough to go so high. The drab colour did bother her a little, maybe she would stain it. _Yes, red -_ she thought after surveying the colour of her outfit, that would look much better, _a big red balloon_.

She had come up to this altitude in order to be the first person on Earth to survey the Awai up close. The Awai was a crystalline dome surrounding the whole planet. From the ground it looked like a wafer thin sheet of glass in the sky. Tresia hoped her visit would unravel some of the mysteries of the Awai, she had been fascinated by the Awai since she was a small child. Once she had seen a hot air balloon she just had to make one to take her up to the top of the sky, and now she was almost there!

Through a slot in the basket she looked down to the ground far below, she could see north across the territory of Caffan, way below her. She could just make out the town of Newbsrus where she lived. Caffan was pioneered by her great, great, great, great, great grandfather, Cenok a few hundred years ago. Lifespans were very much longer in those days, so Elder Cenok still dictated much of what happened in the land; far too much so, according to some murmurings she had heard recently. The basket slowly rotated to the east and her eyes followed the great Galya River as it flowed out to the Naldim Sea. Caffan was a territory within the large land of Laramidia. It was a day's journey via a river boat from Caffan to the coast. As the basket rotated more she found herself looking south across the vast Galya Jungle. Way in the distance were the hills of the province of Tsaegar; the only way to get there was to go back to the coast and then inland again. The jungle was impenetrable for travelling, in fact it was to be avoided at all costs.

She calculated that she had drifted a lot further than she had anticipated as she was now close to the edge of the jungle. She had a plan for that, she had made some "fireworks", metal tubes filled with black powder strapped to the side of her circular basket. The basket was constructed from wood from the Parisienne tree: strong, light, and flexible. She was sure the fireworks would help guide her way down. She realised that they would not be enough to get her all the way home, but they should be enough to get her back close to civilization; she had seen a village nearby. At least she was sure that her fireworks would take her away from the jungle, which was the main thing. Anyway, she would worry about that on the return journey.

Adjusting her hay so she could reach the rim of the basket, she then looked up to admire the magnificent crystalline Awai. The Awai was an enigma, to most people it was just always there and they took it for granted. But Tresia had always been curious about it and wanted to know more. Lots of people had theories about what it was. Some said it was a diamond layer encapsulating the whole universe. Legend stated that it was solid water, it was even referred to by some as the 'waters above'. But for a people with no knowledge of ice that was a concept too difficult for them to fathom. She compared her bowl of ice with the Awai - _yes it looked to be the same;_ she was now sure that it was made of solid water. With that revelation she felt the elation of having made a significant discovery.

She was enraptured by the beauty of the Awai, she was so close she could almost reach out and touch it, but not quite. Beyond the frozen dome she could see the sky was no longer blue but was a black colour; _most strange_ \- she thought. She wondered what the air was like on the other side of the Awai. It even occurred to her that maybe there was no air; that all the air was trapped underneath the Awai. _If there was no air, then just what was on the other side?_ -Tresia puzzled, there were still too many questions. Her resolve to never come back again quickly faded away with all the discoveries that still needed to be made. She sucked in a deep breath of air in order to crudely analyse it with her nose and lungs. The atmosphere up by the Awai seemed much the same as down on the surface, except definitely colder. She also noticed her lips felt dry and parched, perhaps the air was drier up here too. The altitude also seemed to have no effect on how her balloon flew.

She marvelled as the ice curved with the curvature of the earth. As the Awai glistened in the sunlight she wondered how thick it was. From the ground it looked very thin, but from here she could tell it was actually quite thick. She would have to think of how she could get close enough to touch it next time. She wondered if she could redesign her balloon so she could get to the top of it. That way she could actually touch the Awai and maybe get a sample of it. Perhaps she could even figure out a way to determine how thick it was?

Aside from the composition of the Awai she had made some other discoveries this voyage. She had confirmed the Earth was indeed round; this was already a well-known fact, although many people did not believe it. She had also ascertained that the sun was on the far side of the Awai. There was much debate as to whether the sun, moon & stars were inside the Awai or out. With the sun being outside she was sure the moon and stars would also be on the far side too; but she would need to come back at night some time, just to confirm. She felt that for every discovery she had made though there were two more questions to ask.

Tresia wished there would be someone at home who would share her excitement of these discoveries and ponder the mysteries with; alas everyone she knew thought she was just a crazy kid. It annoyed her being dismissed like that. She was now nearly nineteen, yet even that morning her mother had scolded her, "You have no business in the sky or trying to understand nature." It was a sentiment many shared, particularly the devout folk, as if somehow unravelling the mysteries of earth would disprove the creation stories!

She decided that what she had found would warrant the long voyage to the city of Artris to discuss it with the scholars there. They should be fascinated by this. The previous year she had accompanied her father on a business trip there. It was there she had first seen a hot air balloon. Reaching her hand to just below her neck she felt her necklace. It was an emerald carved into a clover, which grew abundantly in the fields around Artris. A memento from her trip. She wondered how she might get there. Young women did not safely travel alone; her dad's business trip was not a roaring success so he was not planning to go back.

Whilst she was thinking about these things the top of her balloon gently bumped into the Awai and rested there for a moment. The heat of the air inside the balloon melted the surface of the ice, this moisture soaked through the paper of the balloon. Tresia saw the damp patch and got so excited, yes this confirmed that the Awai was made of super cold solid water. Her joy did not last long, she suddenly realised that paper getting wet wasn't ideal. "That can't be good," she murmured to herself as she pulled on a rope that let some of the hot air out of the balloon so it would start to descend. But it was too late, the wet paper quickly blew a large hole out the top, deflating the balloon quickly. Tresia screamed as the basket fell, plummeting to the ground.

It took several minutes to fall from that height to the ground. Most of the first minute was spent with Tresia lying in the hay on the bottom of the basket, facing upwards, bracing her feet and arms against the sides, screaming as the basket spun around and around falling beneath the deflated balloon. She soon began to realise the futility of this exercise and looked up to assess the situation. The fire was roaring with the air now rushing through it, the extra fine mesh designed to contain any sparks was at least keeping it contained away from the balloon. The balloon was semi limp but it was slowing the fall down somewhat. Tresia thought that if she could get rid of a lot of the weight then maybe it would slow her fall down. She started rummaging through the hay to throw everything inside the basket away: her bowl of ice, spare food, unused fuel for the fire, spare black powder to recharge her fireworks. The only thing not to go overboard was her docking rope and a knife.

She tied a loop around her chest with the rope, a task she found not very easy with cold hands. She then looked up to survey the balloon. At its base was a big metal hoop used to keep the paper of the balloon away from the fire. Clutching tight to the ropes between the basket and balloon she stood up and reached up towards the hoop, it was just out of reach. Shimmying up the rope further was difficult with the basket still spinning madly. It took three nervous attempts to place the rope but she finally managed to loop the end of the rope over the hoop and that was quickly tied in another knot. She removed her drinking water container from its holder beside the fire and that also went over the side; as soon as she did she wondered if pouring it over the fire would have being better. Next she pulled out the knife and began working on the lashings that held the furnace in place. She nearly burnt her hands because the fire was still roaring but she managed to free the firebox and push it overboard.

The ground was closer now, whilst she was still dropping fast she felt that getting rid of that weight had somewhat slowed the fall. Tresia hesitated, not sure whether to cut the basket away or not. Cutting it away would slow the descent more, but having it there might help protect her on the landing. In the end the decision was made for her. As the firebox fell away from the basket the flames licked the wick of one of her 'fireworks'. She had planned to carefully position them before lighting to help guide her decent. But this one was still tied in the storage position on the side of the basket.

As the firework erupted it spun the basket even more wildly around, Tresia screamed in panic as she was thrown off balance and out the side of the basket. The rope around her chest tightened and saved her from free falling. As she swung by the rope hanging under the hoop she wildly grabbed back at the erratically spinning basket. On her second attempt, she managed to grab the basket and haul herself back inside. As she did she noticed that the basket was on fire. Dizzy from all the spinning, Tresia reached down and managed to pick up the knife, which in all the chaos had found its way onto the floor of the basket. Furiously she worked on the eight ropes that held the basket in place. By the time the first firework had burnt itself out the whole basket was well alight and her other fireworks were burning causing even more turmoil.

Finally the last rope was cut and the burning basket dropped away into the jungle below. Her knife fell away with it as she reached to grip the hoop tightly with both hands. Instantly with the extra weight gone and only Tresia's slender frame under the balloon she felt the balloon slow its decent and even fill up with some more air. Tresia now was the world's first ever parachutist, although still falling quite fast she was sure the landing would be soft enough. Her relief was very short lived. As the burning basket fell away the final firework ignited and dislodged from the basket, flying towards the balloon. The firework hit the balloon near the base and started a small fire. She looked up in despair as the fire started to slowly spread over the canopy, the ground was close, would it hold up until she got there?

Soon a green blur rushed past her, she had reached the tree tops. The balloon caught on the top of a Parisienne tree and started to tear before lurching to a halt. She looked down and could see the ground still way below her, looking back up she could see that mere shreds of burning paper held her suspended, it would not hold for long! The light wood and fine leaves of the tree were also beginning to catch on fire. A vine hung just out of her reach, she tried a couple of times to reach the vine to no avail. Finally she started to swing towards it. On the first swing it was still just too far away, on the second swing the balloon tore just as she grabbed the vine. She screamed while clutching the vine. The ground rushed up to greet her when finally the vine tightened up and broke her fall somewhat, but she still hit the ground hard. There was a sharp pain in her left foot as she landed in a bush.

Tresia crawled out of the bush and just lay on the jungle floor with her eyes closed for a moment, relieved to be alive but grimacing with the pain in her foot. Apart from her left foot she was relatively unscathed. After a few moments Tresia opened her eyes and looked around her. A new sense of dread spread over her.

"Oh crud, the Jungle," she whispered.

02

Aberaif's muscles bulged and the sweat poured off him as he lowered a post onto the ground.

"Raif, we got some high stuff we need a hand with," Stevit, a fellow slave, was requesting his help.

"No problem."

Aberaif examined the stake Stevit was looking to lower. He towered above his companion and was able to easily reach the upper lashing, which was still tied. "I'll just untie this for you."

"Cheers mate."

Aberaif pretended to fumble the knot briefly, the knot stayed tied tight. "Hang on, I'll have to get a knife off one of the _screws_ ," he said using the slaves' derogatory term for the slave drivers.

Aberaif jogged over to Wilfor, the head slave driver. "Sir, I can't untie a knot, I need your knife."

"The amount of cord we get is monitored," Wilfor informed him as he handed him the folding blade. He then said slowly, emphasising each word, "DO NOT CUT TOO MUCH!"

Aberaif grinned on receiving the instructions. Aberaif quickly cut the first knot, whistling a merry tune as he worked. He then went along cutting all the high knots for the next section of the wall they were dismantling.

As Wilfor collected his knife back again, Nihliz the new assistant slave driver was confused, "I thought you told him not to cut the lashings."

"No, I told him not to cut too much."

"But he cut everything?"

"Well, we only have one giant, it would take all day if he had to untie all the high knots."

"So why not tell him just to cut everything?"

"Well, that would be considered as me being wasteful with the cord."

Nihliz was still puzzled, "What's the difference?"

"Well this way, I get to say I told him not to cut the cord, and he gets to say I told him he could cut it. The magical circle of blame."

"Circle of blame?"

"Yeah, that way no one gets in trouble. The more people in the circle the better; in hindsight I should have got you to give the instructions to the giant."

It was Nihliz's third day as an assistant slave driver and he was puzzled. He pondered and tried to comprehend the wisdom he had just received as he looked up into the clear blue sky; the thin Awai shimmering in the sun. High above the nearby jungle he noticed the falling balloon.

"Whoa, look at that!" he shouted.

Everyone stopped what they were doing and turned to see the spinning deflated balloon. The basket was burning below it with the fireworks throwing it all over the place. Between the burning basket and the balloon they could clearly make out a figure desperately trying to cut the basket away.

A loud ruckus erupted from the group of slaves, they were enraptured by the unfolding tragedy. They cheered convivially about the fact that someone rich enough to afford such a stupid luxury as a hot air balloon would meet their fate though such folly. They gave a loud "Woo-hoo" as the person managed to free the basket and an even greater cheer as the firework shot from the basket to the balloon. At first it looked like the rocket had not harmed the balloon but then they saw the flames at the base of the balloon. Which slowly started to engulf the balloon, just before it disappeared out of sight.

"Great, that's just great!" Wilfor said annoyed, he did not enjoy the show.

"Do you know the pilot?" Nihliz asked.

"No; well she is a distant cousin, but I never met her. Direct heir to Elder Cenok. Never has to work and she gets to fritter money around on hot air balloons and other mad capers."

"Well the hot air ballooning didn't go so well for her."

"No, it didn't. I am also a descendant of Elder Cenok. Except I have to work for the grumpy old fart. No doubt he will be upset by her tragic demise and find a way of making our lives even more miserable."

"We should go and look for her!" Nihliz assertively stated.

"What into the jungle?" Wilfor hated the jungle; he had to work on the edge of it and that was bad enough. "Don't be silly. There is no point, no one could survive that."

The slaves also discussed the crash amongst themselves.

"Wow; what a way to go" exclaimed Octe, a slave with a head of grey hair and a thick grey beard. No one knew exactly how old he was, not even Octe, he was somewhere in his eighth century though. The other slaves looked up to him as leader.

"Yeah, if we were supposed to fly, we would have wings," Dougly, another slave, stated.

Aberaif reached down and grabbed the pint sized Dougly and boosted him high above his head, "I can make you fly."

"Arrrgh, Raif, Put me down!"

"Hey," Wilfor shouted, whilst ringing a small bell. "Put him down, giant. Remember last time you raised him off the ground!" Wilfor reached for his whip.

"Oh yeah," Aberaif murmured as he lowered his comrade.

"Now enough slacking, get back to work."

The slaves groaned as they started back working dismantling the wall.

Fregwit, another older slave moved close to Octe and whispered, "Octe, what about the capsicums? That balloon fell pretty close to them."

Octe frowned, realising Fregwit's concern. Slaves were not allowed capsicums, which were well known for both their healing and relaxation properties. That of course did not stop them and they had a few crops of them growing nearby. No one ever dared to go into the jungle, so they were safe from discovery. It was easy to tend the plants when they were doing their usual job of clearing the jungle. Whilst the slave drivers were busy one or two would slip off and cultivate their crop. But now they were working in the open it was trickier. Still Octe was worried about the burning basket falling on them and decided he needed to check them. He would need a diversion so he could slip away.

He whispered back to Fregwit. "Can you keep the screws busy?"

Fregwit looked across at Wilfor and his new assistant. He grinned as he replied, "With pleasure. But it will be easier without the giant."

"Right, he'll have to come with me then" whispered Octe, quietly perplexed because it would be harder to slip away unnoticed with a giant in tow.

A few minutes later Wilfor looked back across at his slaves and couldn't believe his eyes. Instead of dismantling the wall the slaves were now putting it back up again. He turned to Nihliz, "They are playing us again; let's sort this out."

"What on earth are you doing?" he shouted.

"Building the wall!" Fregwit replied loudly.

"But you were only just pulling it down!" Wilfor said, exasperated. "Last week we built the new wall. This week we are pulling the old one down," he explained further.

"Are you sure? I'm positive we are building this wall! The jungle wall to keep the jungle creatures from eating the crops and worrying the animals." replied Fregwit.

"Yes, it's a JUNGLE wall, look!" pointing to the recently cleared area, "don't you remember clearing that piece of jungle. That makes this piece of wall redundant. Hence we are tearing it down to use the wood again later!"

"Oh, that's right Sir," Fregwit replied, "right you are, so we are pulling this wall down?"

Wilfor just shook his head, "You expect me to believe that you all just forgot what you were doing? What are you really up to?"

"Sir," Fregwit continued, "it's just one day we are building the wall the next day we are destroying the wall, a man can get confused".

Nimm, another slave, then piped up, "I told you we were meant to be tearing it down. Fregwit, you're such a half-witted moron!"

"What did you call me?" came Fregwit's fast reply, "come here and say that to my face, you ugly maggot."

Nimm came right up to Fregwit and put his face inches from Fregwit's before repeating, "I said you're a half-witted....."

He did not get to finish the sentence as Fregwit's fist landed square on Nimm's chin. The other slaves soon joined in and a brawl developed.

Wilfor initially rung his small bell wildly and shouted, "Settle down!" It had the expected result of doing absolutely nothing to restore order.

Wilfor reached for his whip, "Calm down, or else!" he yelled as no one listened. CRACK - he cracked his whip into thin air as a warning. A searing pain went through his right wrist. "Ouch!" he cried dropping the whip on the ground.

"Are you alright?" asked Nihliz.

"Just aggravated a recent wrist injury, that's all. We can deal with it another way."

Fregwit smiled as he saw the whip drop to the ground. He ducked to avoid a fist from Nimm. Wilfor was by far the most lenient of the slave drivers and he was pretty fair too. Octe and Aberaif had already got away, but with Wilfor's whip out of action he figured he could extend the brawl some to buy more time. Staying low, he charged at Nimm and brought him crashing to the ground. Still he knew Wilfor's next line of persuasion and it had the potential to hurt.

"Right you guys asked for this!" Wilfor yelled. He then unslung the weapon that he had been issued, a carbine. Opening up its breech he selected a cork projectile from his pocket. He also had some iron projectiles but he was after pain, not injury. The cork was inserted into the breech. A very small wicked bag stuffed with black powder followed in behind. Closing the breech, he pointed the weapon towards Fregwit and Nimm wrestling on the ground. A small flint was attached to the carbine with a short cord. Clasping the flint he struck it on the side of the firearm, on the third strike it lit the wick.

BANG. The projectile went flying out of the carbine and hit the dirt in front of the fight.

"Drat," Wilfor exclaimed, he was a terrible shot!

He reloaded, quite a slow process. His targets were now standing again. The next shot he overcompensated for height and it went clean over their heads. He shook his right wrist wondering if it would stand a few rounds on the whip, but it was pretty stiff and sore. He could get Nihliz to whip them, but it was only Nihliz's third day and Wilfor would look feeble not using his.

"Sights must be out a little," he told Nihliz, who by now had taken his first shot and hit.

"Wilfor, why don't you just go closer? It will be easier to hit them at point blank range." Nihliz had watched Wilfor's technique and had quickly worked out it was not his sights.

"No, no, this range is good," Wilfor was not prepared to swallow his pride and admit what was perfectly obvious to everyone else.

He reloaded and decided to continue with the carbine. On the third shot he actually hit a slave.

"See I got one," he proudly told Nihliz. It had not been the one he was aiming at, but a hit nonetheless. The slave paused for a few seconds, looked at the nasty welt developing, and got right back to brawling.

Wilfor fired off 15 rounds and got four hits; Nihliz fared a little better, firing 12 and hitting eight. Still the slaves treated been hit as just a small inconvenience and continued fighting. The brawl eventually finished of its own accord.

Whilst this was happening Aberaif and Octe quickly slipped away, initially hiding behind a large pile of leftover branches waiting to be burnt after the recent logging.

"Those fights look like fun, not fair that I don't get to join in," Aberaif complained as they ran.

"Raif, remember what happened last time we let you brawl."

"Oh yeah, poor Dougly. Still he got eight weeks off work."

"Yeah, that might have been because of the broken leg you gave him."

"I'll be more gentle next time!" Aberaif protested.

"Or the time before that?"

"Well, it wasn't necessarily me that dislocated Fregwit's shoulder."

"Yes it was; anyway the guys all think it's too risky for you to join in."

The pair soon got to the newly constructed outer wall and quickly shimmied over it. Aberaif looked deep into the jungle as the trees towered above them, he thought briefly of freedom. But alas, everyone knew that going too far into the jungle meant certain death. The jungle was not a viable escape plan.

Octe looked for the inconspicuous scratchings they had marked on the trees. After walking a few minutes, they arrived at a place where a big old tree had fallen, allowing enough light in to grow their illicit crop. Octe untied one end of a net that stopped the crop from being eaten by the forest animals.

"What do they look like, old man?"

Octe examined the purple capsicums and replied, "Luscious and juicy, they are just about ready."

"That's good." Aberaif then sniffed the air, "Is that smoke?"

"Could be, that balloon was burning good on the way down. It might have started a fire."

"Smoked roast capsicum. It would be great with fish!"

Octe smiled, Aberaif thought everything would go well with fish, even though the giant had not tasted fish in eighteen years. "I'd rather not take the risk, let's harvest them now."

Octe and Aberaif quickly filled two small sacks that had previously been stashed there.

"We will hide the sacks by the new wall. Fregwit buried a chest there last week," Octe told his companion.

"Sneaky, how does he do that without the rest of us knowing?" Aberaif replied surprised. "No wonder the screws never catch you guys!"

The banging of the carbines in the background had stopped.

"Well we better hurry back, we will need to do some explaining to the screws,"

"Right old man, what's the story?"

"Well Raif, you got upset with the fighting and ran and hid and I went after you," Octe answered as he swung a sack over his shoulder.

"Arrrgh, the gentle sensitive giant; do I look like a wimp?"

Octe looked at the giant, muscles bulged out everywhere and he towered a head and shoulders over anyone else. Octe doubted anything would be a match for him as he answered, "Like a little baby girl. Now quick, that smoke is getting thicker."

"HELP!" - They heard a faint but unmistakable sound

"What was that?" said Aberaif, "It sounded like a lady."

They listened carefully again. "HELP." It was definitely a female voice.

"The balloon pilot must have survived!" stated Octe.

"Old man, what do we do?" Aberaif questioned.

Octe frowned as he pondered their options. If they left now they could get back and convince the screws that everything was alright. Plus the smoke was getting thicker, there was a risk that the fire would catch hold. But he also knew that the pilot would be lucky to find her way out and could also be injured. There could even be a reward for rescuing the pilot. The girl would likely see their capsicums and that could also spell trouble.

03

Tresia examined her surroundings as a band of small monkeys gathered around her. Most animals were tame, with no fear of humans, including this group of monkeys who were curious about her. Despite the vast majority of animals being tame, Tresia knew the jungle was no place to be. Navigation was impossible; getting lost was a certainty. But the main reason everyone feared entering the jungle was that there were some very large meat eating reptiles, which were definitely not tame. Tresia was relieved that none of them were nearby.

She shooed the monkeys away as she tried to stand while brushing the last dregs of hay off her. Tresia discovered that she could not bear any weight on her left foot. She could see that the tree top above her was alight so she hopped away from it until she tripped up, even then she continued crawling away. As she scrambled slowly she tried to get her bearings, huge trees were all around her, providing no clue to a possible way out. She was sure she was near the edge of the jungle, _but which way to safety?_ She had been spinning so much on the way down that she was completely disoriented. The jungle canopy was so thick she was even having trouble making out where the sun was shining from, so that was no help in telling direction. She thought she could hear some faint bangs in the distance. After a few minutes she decided to yell for help, knowing full well that absolutely no one would hear her.

"Hello," she thought she heard a faint reply to her second call for help, coming from somewhere behind her.

"Help, over here," she stopped and yelled back, not quite believing her ears.

"We're coming," came the reply. She gazed in the direction of the voices.

"This way," she begged them closer. Soon two figures came scrambling through the undergrowth. A grey haired man and a very tall, well-built giant were approaching. They both were wearing the drab fibre clothing of slaves. The old man had both a tunic and culottes whereas the giant wore culottes but for a shirt he had bits of sack roughly stitched together. He was the biggest, most muscular man she had ever seen. They were most likely her patriarch, Cenok's, slaves. Both carried a small sack that appeared to be full of something. When she saw they were slaves she quickly panicked, she had never spoken to a slave up close before and definitely not a giant. She puzzled to why they might be in the jungle, surely no one would send slaves on a rescue mission. Plus they had got to her very fast.

"Are you ok?" asked the older one.

Tresia looked at the ground, she did not know what to do. _Would these slaves hurt her? The giant might even eat her!_

"Miss, miss?" the giant said gently as he stooped down to her level. Aberaif thought she was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. As a slave he had very limited contact with females and certainly no one as fine as this. She had tailored clothing made from fine linen, a midriff top and short pants, both a fiery red colour.

She looked up at the big giant. He did not look like he was about to eat her, he had a silly looking grin on his face, and there was little she could do if he did. "I've... hurt my foot," she hesitantly admitted.

The giant, who had sad looking blue eyes, reached into the sack he was carrying.

"This will help," he said as he pulled out a purple capsicum.

Octe watched in disbelief as Aberaif revealed the capsicum to the girl, they could get in so much trouble if word got out. Tresia was also taken back; purple capsicums were strictly forbidden, to be caught with one could get you in trouble! _How did the slaves get hold of them?_ It dawned on her why the slaves were in the jungle, and what was in those sacks. The giant obviously saw the change of expression on her face.

"What lady? It will make your foot feel much better".

"No!" she said indignantly, refusing to lower herself to taking illicit substances.

"Its good stuff," said the giant. "Do you take medicine?"

"Yes, of course I take medicine but only when the healer tells me I need it."

"Well this is medicine, all the medicine people do is find out the good stuff in the capsicum and put it in a bottle, this is nature's medicine." The enormous man continued, pointing at the grey haired man, "and my friend here is so old I'm sure he was a healer at some point in his life."

Octe just nodded, he had never studied the art of healing.

Tresia considered the giant's statement. His logic seemed surprisingly robust, she did know that some medicines were taken from plants. She was in a lot of pain; what harm could a capsicum do anyway. She grabbed the capsicum off the giant and took a large bite, discovering she was also hungry, it was rather spicy and very salty, but crisp and refreshing! So she took another large bite.

Octe quickly grabbed the capsicum back off her, "That's more than enough!" he barked. Both Aberaif and Octe were astounded; she had just eaten enough for ten men.

Almost immediately the throbbing in Tresia's foot numbed and she started feeling light headed, her concerns about the two slaves faded away and she thought it only polite to make conversation with her two rescuers, "Hi I'm Tre, Tre..si..a, I saw the A...A...," she passed out before she could get any further.

"Why did you give her that?" Octe scolded.

"Well she was hurt," replied Aberaif, "it's good if you're hurt, dulls the pain."

"If they find you with them; you'll know pain alright," fumed Octe. Yet he thought giving the girl the capsicum might yet work in their favour. She had taken so much that she had lost consciousness, they could say she hit her head in the fall and then conceivably deny everything if anything was said later. Plus with her out for the count they could easily hide the rest of the stash.

Aberaif gave his sack to Octe and picked up the girl and put her over his shoulder. As he did he noticed the necklace around her neck and he was stunned. _Why has this girl got the emblem of his homeland Nore around her neck?_ \- he wondered. For the first time in many years he thought of his home.

They started to head back the way they came. Though as they moved they saw many creatures: deer, rabbits, squirrels, monkeys, reptiles and others running plus birds flying the opposite direction. It didn't take long before the reason became clear, as a wall of flame greeted them.

They joined the animals retreating back further into the jungle. The fire was spreading quickly they could feel the heat on their back as they moved. The girl stirred periodically and murmured something unintelligible, although they recognised the word Awai each time. For a long time they retreated. Looking over their shoulders the jungle canopy high above was also well aflame. They were only just staying ahead of the fire and it seemed to getting more intense.

"What's that ahead?" asked Octe.

There was a rise with sparser vegetation on it, they sprinted up it. At the top of the rise the animals had all stopped running.

"Why have they stopped running?" Aberiaf puzzled, he turned behind to see if the thinner vegetation would stop the flame, but it was drier than on the flats and burning even more quickly.

The reason the creatures paused soon became obvious, the ground dropped away to a cliff and way below them was a river, a distributary taking water from the mighty Galya river deep into the jungle to water and sustain the awesome forest. They had to squeeze through the milling panicking animals. Some of the animals toppled into the river as they charged up to the river.

"Can you swim?" Octe shouted to Aberaif.

"I grew up beside the ocean, we swam everyday as children," came the reply.

Octe realised he knew absolutely nothing about this giant's background, where he'd come from and why he was a slave. He replied, "I used to swim too, but it's been a few centuries."

Aberaif pushed a nearby deer into the water. By doing so he both saved its life and also discovered that the water was relatively deep. Aberaif cradled the girl in front of him as he leaped off the river bank curling into a slight ball so his body protected hers as they hit the water. Aberaif felt the painful slap of the water as he hit the surface. He was relieved to discover the water was deep. Octe jumped in beside him, his two sacks of capsicums floated making it easier for him to tread the water.

The shock of being surrounded by cool water shocked Tresia awake. She was being held underwater by the giant. She started to panic. As they broached the surface she screamed, "Let me go, you brute," punching his shoulders.

Aberaif was struggling to tread water holding onto her, so he gladly obliged. As he did she started struggling against the water and screaming before grabbing back hold of the muscular shoulders of the giant again.

"You can't swim!" stated the giant.

"No," replied Tresia, regretting never learning.

The river was not particularly wide. Narrow enough that the forest canopy covered over it, but wide enough to have to swim across. They made their way until they got to a point where it was shallow enough for the two shorter people to stand up. Tresia gladly jumped away from Aberaif as soon as she could, though she discovered that with a wounded foot she found she still needed to hold on to him for balance. They looked back across the river to see the panicked animals on the other side being overcome by the fire, a few jumped into the river but the rest perished.

"I don't think the river will stop the fire, but perhaps it will keep us safe," stated Octe.

Aberaif and Tresia nodded in agreement that running more would be futile. So they stayed in the water. They watched as the fire spread through the canopy overhead.

"What happened to your balloon?" Aberaif yelled above the roar of the fire.

"I travelled up to the Awai and it got a hole in it" came the reply.

"The Awai?" replied Aberaif, as he pulled Tresia out into the stream and under the water, just as a burning branch fell where they had been standing.

Tresia instinctively grabbed hold of Aberaif and held him tight as this happened. He also reached for her too. As he surfaced she remained holding onto him tight.

"Is it made of sugar? I heard it was pure sugar and every year in the autumn sweets fall from the sky on the city of Artris." Aberaif suddenly realised why he had always wanted to go to Artris as a child.

Surprised that he had heard of a city that was half a world away she replied, "No it's really, really cool water," it was the best she could do to describe it; the language didn't have a word for either cold or ice as everywhere on the surface of earth was warm. She then added, "I'm Tresia. And I've been to Artris in the autumn and it doesn't rain sweets."

"You've been to Artris, that's why you're wearing that necklace," Aberaif exclaimed. "My parents only ever brought us sweets in the autumn, after that we had to wait for the next autumn for more to drop from the Awai." Aberaif had a small coughing fit, the air was thick with smoke and it was difficult to breath. He continued, "Tresia that's a pretty name. I'm Raif and the old ugly guy is Octe."

"Young people, no respect for their elders," Octe replied, mocking offence.

Tresia had heard many legends about the Awai, but sweets falling was a new one to her. In other circumstances she would have laughed, but her life was still in grave danger. His story had astounded Tresia, she had always been told giants were brutes, as stupid as they were big. She had never considered that they had families and told stories. And this giant seemed very nice and he obviously had a sense of humour. She realised that she was still tightly holding onto him, but with the roaring fire still overhead she did not want to let go.

"How did you come to be working for Elder Cenok?" she asked, trying to politely work out what her saviour had done to become a slave.

"Fishing."

"Fishing?"

"Yeah, the last thing my mom ever said to me was, 'Aberaif, don't go fishing in the dark.'"

"Aberaif?"

"Yeah, that's my name but everyone calls me Raif."

"I kinda like Aberaif, it's got a rugged ring to it."

Aberaif looked across at the beautiful woman he was holding and who was holding onto him; he had crouched down so only both their heads were out of the water. "I prefer Raif," he stated.

"Aberaif it is then," she teased. "So Aberaif how did fishing get you to be a slave."

"It was winter in Nore, so short daylight. And it's Raif."

"Artris is the capital of Nore, Aberaif."

"It's Raif," Aberaif could see he was going to lose that fight. "Yes, but I never went that far south. We stayed in the North. My people are fishing and farming folk."

"Aberaif. You went fishing in the dark when your mum told you not to?"

"Well who listens to their parents at thirteen?"

"Or at eighteen," Tresia said thinking of her own mother.

"Well some raiders had set a trap down by the beach. I tripped on a rope in the dark and they surrounded me and tied me up and dragged me to their boat."

"Really, so you never saw your family or got to say goodbye?"

"No. eighteen years ago now, they still don't know if I'm alive or dead."

"That is so awful," Tresia said, as she did a quick calculation in her head to work out that Aberaif was thirteen years older than her; too easy. With folks living for nearly a millennium, it was impossible to tell people's age just by looking at them; and the height of rudeness to ask.

The fire became less intense. Tresia released her grip on Aberaif and stood beside him holding him for balance. And they moved to where the river was shallower. She was curious to what his life was like, "What's it like being a slave?"

"Well we work hard every day, and if we don't work hard enough we get whipped."

"Whipped?"

Aberaif stood up and lifted his sacking shirt revealing some well-toned abs, he then turned enough to show a couple of welts on his back from a few days ago.

"That's terrible."

"Yeah, the guy we have now, Wilfor, isn't so bad though. He will only use the whip if you really deserve it."

"Did you deserve those, Aberaif?"

"Yes, most definitely!" Octe butted in.

"We were building the new jungle wall," Aberaif explained. "Little Dougly was doing a lot of resting on top of the spade telling us what to do and not a lot of digging. So I thought he would be more use as a mascot."

"Raif tied him high up on the wall!" Octe finished the story for him, smiling as he did. "Even Wilfor thought it was funny, Dougly squirming and yelling up there. But he also felt he couldn't just let Raif get away with it."

"So I got a couple of lashes, still worth it."

"Oh." Tresia was struggling to comprehend what it would be like to have everything that happened to you dictated by someone else.

"Some of the screws we had before Wilfor were dreadful, lashings for no reason," Aberaif went on to explain.

Tresia was horrified and morbidly curious at the same time. She had never had anything to do with slaves before, but had always just assumed that slaves deserved their lot. But now she found Aberaif was completely innocent and ripped from his family, and endured hardship and nasty slave drivers. She determined that when they got home she would speak with Elder Cenok and get her two rescuers released. Surely her patriarch would listen to her.

She looked at Aberaif's clothing, "And you lost your tunic and had to use sacks?"

Aberaif laughed, "I don't have a tunic. They don't make 'em that big. Mr Cenok thinks it's bad enough getting culottes and sandals custom made, without wasting money on tunics, I make do."

"Oh," replied Tresia, her patriarch did have a bit of a reputation of being tight fisted. She looked across to Octe, "And sorry I forgot your name."

"Just call him old fart," Aberaif interrupted.

"It's Octe," Octe firmly replied.

"So Octe what's your story?"

"How come he gets to be called what he wants to be called," Aberaif protested.

"Well Aberaif," she teased, "I quite like Octe, he seems like a nice guy."

Octe then started on his story, "I once was a wealthy man with land and slaves of my own."

"What happened?"

"Engines, that's what happened. When engines were first being developed I invested heavily into a newer better design of engine."

"Invested, too heavily?"

"Yes, ended up on the wrong side of technology. I leveraged my assets into it. Ended up bankrupt and forced to sell myself into 100 years of slavery."

"100 years!"

"A long time and I've nearly done them all, only two months left." Octe then added, "Seen as we saved your life, could you please not mention what is in the sacks to anyone?"

"Yes, your secret is safe with me," Tresia agreed; troubled by the stories of slavery they told.

Eventually the smoke cleared and the eerie stillness of a burnt out forest remained. They found a spot upstream of the cliff where they exited the river. Aberaif walked on to examine closer the carcasses of animals who had perished in the fire. Tresia was horrified at the sight of these poor creatures. She was guilt ridden that she was the cause of the fire that had caused such unbridled destruction. She was even more mortified when Aberaif tore some meat off an unfortunate deer and started to eat it!

"How could you even consider eating what used to be such a beautiful creature?" she scolded, even though she knew that giants ate meat. Meat was part of their everyday diet; even as a slave Aberaif was given meat \- the slave owner believed it was what helped him to be so strong.

"Well I'm hungry and this deer has been roasted to perfection by the fire, you should try it," he replied as he passed the meat around.

Octe tucked in, he had not tasted meat since before slavery and only occasionally before that, but he was hungry enough to enjoy it. Tresia was still aghast; like the majority of folks she was completely vegetarian. There was no need to eat meat, the plant life was so varied with an abundance of delicious nutritious food. She found the whole concept of eating meat revulsive, perhaps her assessment of giants being brutes was correct.

"I can't eat that, it used to be a lovely deer," she explained.

"You don't like venison!" the giant seemed surprised, "what about rabbit?" grabbing a charred bunny off the ground, "Not much meat, but delicious in a curry!"

Tresia grimaced. "I have never eaten meat, and I just can't do it."

"Have you got something else to eat? You want some more capsicum?" joked Aberaif.

"That poison you tricked me into eating, Aberaif!" Tresia still felt a little light headed from that capsicum, she vowed to herself to never touch one again. They looked at the charred remains of the jungle. The dense bush was now largely a black empty space. A few of the trees were still standing, but all the greenery and beautiful foliage was gone.

"How do you know you don't' like meat, unless you try it?"

The giant was sounding like her mum when she was younger refusing to try new foods, which grated on her. She watch the other two eat the deer all the while feeling very hungry.

"Why don't you just try a little piece?" asked Octe, "the creature is already dead, not eating it will not bring it back."

He handed her a grape size piece of steak. She timidly put the little morsel in her mouth and chewed; it had a very strong flavour, but it wasn't too bad. So she grabbed another piece, still feeling very guilty, it was surprisingly moreish. She was soon devouring it with the other two.

04

Octe moved away from the river some more. There were still hot embers so he didn't get far before he was forced back to the river side. "Well we can't go that way. We either need to wait here till it cools or we follow the river."

"How long till it cools?" Tresia asked.

Octe had no idea, but he answered anyway, "maybe tomorrow, maybe the day after."

"I'm not staying here that long!" Tresia interjected.

"Follow the river it is then," Aberaif said, he looked upstream for a while before turning to look downstream. "Which way?"

Once again Octe had no clue, but that had never stopped him offering advice before, "We should go upstream."

"Ok," Tresia said, not having a clue either, "now if Aberaif stands beside me I should be good to walk."

"It's Raif," Aberaif said fruitlessly as he stood on her left, she came up to about mid chest height on him.

She grabbed his arm and leaned against it. Using this to support her weight while she hopped with her right foot. They persevered this way for a few minutes making precious little progress. Soon they had to cross a large log. Aberaif went across first then waited while Tresia hesitated as to whether to go front first and risk landing on her face or to sit down on it and drag her legs across .

While she mulled over the situation Aberaif got bored of her indecision and the snail like progress. He grabbed Tresia and flung her over his shoulders. As he lifted her she screamed and at the same time, with the extra abdominal pressure from lifting, he farted. She then screamed again followed by, "You disgusting beast. That stinks! Put me down!"

"Look lady we weren't going anywhere with you trying to walk. I already carried you like this before," revealed Aberaif, "this was so much easier when you were unconscious!"

"It's lucky I'm not dead with your poisonous gases."

Aberaif grinned, secretly proud that at least there was something in the world that he was notorious for. With Tresia still protesting and squirming they started back making their way along the river side, this time at a much faster progress.

"We were getting along just fine! You never let me get into my stride." Tresia moaned.

"I think that you need two good legs to stride." Aberaif replied.

"Well maybe we could try me walking between the two of you, I'm sure that will work."

"I'm sure it won't."

"Well we could try it. I'll even start calling you Raif."

"Actually," he changed to a high pitched voice in order to mimic her previous statement, "I kinda like Aberaif, it's got a rugged ring to it."

The terrible impersonation further irked her, "You didn't even ask, you just picked me up."

"Would you like to try getting out of here on your own?"

"Well I'll need a little help, but I don't need to be carried like a little child."

"Well it's this or you're totally on your own and we leave you behind," Aberaif lied; he would never admit it, but he would not leave her behind now.

Tresia eventually resigned herself to having to accept a ride although it hurt her pride having to do so. Octe followed behind, he smiled to watch the two interacting. They were bickering and disagreeing on everything but he was sure they quite liked each other.

They moved upstream, it was still rather slow going.

"Where are you from, Tresia?" Aberaif was curious about Tresia's background.

"Oh I grew up in Caffan. Cenok is my patriarch, my dad is the oldest child of the oldest child of the oldest child of the oldest child of the oldest child of Elder Cenok," counting on her fingers to make sure she had it right, but she was still not sure and she had in fact skipped a generation. "I am the oldest child of my parents."

Aberaif gasped as he realised just who he was carrying, he stopped walking, knelt down and gently placed Tresia on the ground.

"What are you up to," Tresia ask as she grabbed hold of Octe for balance.

Aberaif continued to back off until he was a couple of strides away. There he knelt on one knee and held both hands on his chest in a sign of reverence.

Tresia was more than a little puzzled, "Aberaif, what is going on?"

"Amira, sorry I did not know you were an Amira!" he contritely explained.

Tresia felt very uncomfortable been revered in such a way. In Caffan titles were not bestowed on anyone, people called Cenok 'Elder' out of respect, but he had no interest in titles nor nobility. "I'm not an Amira," she asserted, "now stand up."

Aberaif obeyed but he insisted, "But if you are an heir to Caffan then you must be an Amira."

"Amira Tresia," Tresia spoke the title out loud, before giggling, "Nah, that doesn't sound right. It's just Tresia. Now Aberaif pick me up and carry me." She surprised herself by how quickly she had become accustomed to be carried by him.

"Yes Amira," Aberaif acknowledged as he obeyed her highness's command.

"It's just Tresia."

"Well, it's also just Raif!"

Octe nearly wet himself with laughter. "Why don't you just call her Tresia and you just call him Raif?" he suggested.

"Because she is an Amira!" Aberaif said matter-of-factly.

Tresia considered the irony of the situation for a short moment before deciding, "No; it's definitely Aberaif."

They continued along the river side some more in silence until Aberaif asked another question. "So Amira Tresia do you have brothers and sisters?"

"It's just Tresia."

"Well I like Amira, it suits you," Aberaif said grinning. "Do you have any siblings?"

Tresia hated being called Amira but she could hardly protest, "Only one a younger sister, they had real trouble having any children at all, took them eighty years to have me. Though I get the feeling they can't wait till I'm 21 and they can marry me off."

"To who?" asked Aberaif.

"Who knows? They'll find someone."

"Arranged marriages!" Octe grunted in disgust. "In my day we married for love."

"Really?" Tresia was surprised, it was the first time she had heard of the concept. "Where is your wife now?"

"We were married 527 years, fortunately she passed on before all this happened," he said indicating to his slave clothes.

"Yeah, back in Nore the giants all marry for love too," Aberaif informed.

Tresia suddenly felt saddened that she was missing out on something important; so she changed the subject. "Aberaif, do you have any brothers and sisters?"

"Amira, I have lots of older brothers and sisters. I am the youngest. Mum and Dad stopped having children after me." Aberaif answered thinking again of his home; he had not thought of home in a long time.

"Gosh, were you that bad that they quit after they had you Aberaif?"

"It's more like once you have reached perfection, best to give up and quit while you're ahead.

"Well I'm the oldest and I only have one six year old sister."

"That makes you an Amira and heir to Cenok's large enterprise, wow you must be rich."

"Except, we don't use titles in Caffan and Elder Cenok isn't known for giving land to his descendants, instead he just uses his family to help do the work, and then he cuts down the jungle to get more land. But because we are the direct line of succession I guess I've been pretty privileged, I get an allowance to do whatever I want with, well at least I did; after this last caper that might be cut off."

"And have you been to Nore?" Aberaif was curious especially since she was wearing that necklace and talked about Artris; he had never met anyone in Caffan who had any connection to his home land.

"Yes, last year Dad went there to try and sell Galya timber there, finest in the world, so they say. We only went to Artris, not up to the North Country, but we heard that giants had villages up there. Such a beautiful country, friendly people. I really want to go back."

"Yes, I'd really like to go back too."

"I'm sure," Tresia sympathised, hearing the sadness in his voice as he remembered his home.

"If you ever go back, can you find my family and let them know I'm ok?" Aberaif felt tears come to his eyes as he summoned his family back into his mind.

"I'll do better than that, Aberaif, I'll let you tell them yourself."

"Huh?" questioned Aberaif, not understanding her.

"Well, I'll take you with me!" Tresia stated, realising that she would not have to travel back there alone if she could take him with her.

"But I'm a slave. A giant at that, I don't think Cenok will let me go."

"I'm sure I'll be able to take care of that." Tresia stated over confidently.

As they progressed further Tresia realised she needed a moment of privacy behind a tree. But she was mortified to have to tell the two males she was with this, so she held on. Bump, bump, bump the motion of been carried was not helping her full bladder, still she persisted for a little while longer. She closed her eyes and concentrated on not embarrassing herself. Eventually realised that if she did not stop soon it would be a disaster.

"STOP, STOP, Aberaif, I need to stop!"

Aberaif stopped walking.

"I don't need to stop here. I need to stop behind that tree over there, and quickly," Tresia's priorities had changed and she no longer cared about the guys knowing she needed a bathroom break, as she pointed to the trunk of a large burnt out but still standing tree.

Aberaif was puzzled for a moment before he worked out what Tresia was on about. He also needed to relieve himself but was equally embarrassed to admit it to the pretty Amira. So Aberaif quickly took her over to behind the tree and walked a fair distance away to find his own tree.

Soon he heard Tresia shout, "All good now." So he started to return towards Tresia. As he approached he heard a cracking sound. The tree that Tresia was beside was weakened by the fire. In horror he saw the massive tree tumble down onto the spot where Tresia had been.

"No, no." he shouted as he saw the tree tumble over.

Aberaif rushed around to where Tresia had been he couldn't see her at all.

"Amira, Amira!" Aberaif yelled. His heart was in his mouth, she had sparked something in him, something he had never felt before. He could not bear the thought that she had now been crushed.

"Over here, Aberaif," she called out from the other side of the trunk.

He rushed around to where she was and bent down to where she was. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, just managed to roll out of the way, no harm done."

"That's a relief," he said as he helped her to stand.

The large thud from the falling tree had created a chain reaction with other trees nearby, dropping either branches or falling over. The sun was low on the horizon.

"We are not going to get out of here today," Octe pointed out. "We should stay beside this fallen tree tonight."

"Out in the open?" Tresia said surprised, sleeping rough was not something she had ever considered.

"Yeah, the animals are scared of the burnt out area so we should be pretty safe."

"I'll go to find some dinner," Aberaif wandered off to find some more meat. Tresia watched him go, he had forever changed her opinion on giants, and he was a really sweet guy. On top of that he had beautiful blue eyes, a rugged square jawline, plus with all the hard work he did, he was rather muscular. On the whole she thought he was very good looking.

Octe and Tresia stayed by the fallen tree. It was close to sunset: Tresia's favourite time of day. She lay on her back looking up at the Awai, it was hard to believe that earlier that day she had been up there, it had been a very eventful afternoon. As the sun dipped low on the horizon to set, it was time for the Ceatha; the light caught the ice at an acute angle, separating the white light into its spectrum of colours. The entire Awai became a spectacular rainbow array. Adding drama to the display was the bright orange glow in the west from the sunset. The remaining smoke from the fire enhanced the effect.

"It's beautiful," said Tresia, whilst she saw the Ceatha nearly every day it never ceased to take her breath away.

"That it is," Octe agreed, 'you know I seldom manage to admire it, but in a couple of months I'll be my own man again and I'll be able to just sit and watch the Ceatha."

"It was so beautiful up close," she reflected. "I sure never meant for any of this to happen." She was feeling guilty about the destruction all around them, caused by the fire.

"Well the person that never makes mistakes, never achieves anything," Octe replied, "made a few myself."

"I wonder if I'll ever get back up there. Imagine being up there now?"

"Why wouldn't you go again?"

"Well my balloon is destroyed and I doubt Elder Cenok will be willing to let me build another one. I used up a lot of goodwill getting that one. If only I could get paid to research the Awai!"

Octe thought carefully for a while, he could see that the girl was passionate about discovering the Awai's secrets and he felt that what she was doing could be important. "Well I have found that people will pay for something if they think there might be a problem," Octe eventually reasoned.

"But how is the Awai a problem? It's always been there and always will!"

"Well, how do we know that unless you do more study on it? Sure we know it's always been there, cause our forefathers tell us that. But how do we know that it will always stay?"

"Well why would it go anywhere?" Tresia was puzzled, "and how does this relate to getting paid to study it?"

"Well when I was young, there was a gold rush in Tsaegar, the province on the far side of the jungle. I was a gold miner back then and we started mining the gold which ran in a rich vein in the Tsaegar hills. One day some bright spark noticed the gold was always embedded in Quartz rock and there was always more Quartz than gold. He then came up with a theory that the rock was once all gold and it slowly turned into Quartz."

"That's just stupid. Who would believe that?" Tresia said, whilst recalling her knowledge of history; Octe had to be very old indeed, the Tsaegar Gold rush was over 700 years ago. It was the first civilization on Laramidia, long before Caffan was established. Many folks went to make their fortune in gold; some did, but many died trying.

"Well, quite a few people it turns out! The idea slowly caught on and there started to be a panic that the gold would disappear. Next the owners of the mine were paying alchemist to research this. For two reasons, the main one is they didn't want the gold to turn back into worthless Quartz, and secondly if they could reverse the process they could turn the Quartz into gold. So after much money was thrown at it, and a few alchemist became rich, they came to the conclusion that gold and Quartz are usually found together but they don't turn into each other."

Tresia shrugged her shoulders, "I don't get it," still looking at the beautiful colours of the Ceatha as they started to fade.

"Girl, you need to make people think that there might be something wrong with the Awai! Then they will pay you to study it." Octe forcefully retorted.

"But there is nothing wrong with it!" Tresia could not believe the scandal Octe was suggesting.

"How do you know, unless you look further, you said it's made of solid water, how do you know it won't just melt and fall down?"

"Melt?" Tresia questioned, it was not a concept used often outside of metal workers.

"Melt, like when a metal forger wants to shape iron, he heats it up to a liquid." He could see she was not comprehending, "or melt like when you put butter into a frying pan."

Tresia understood that analogy. "Well it won't melt, because it's very, very cool up there."

"That makes no sense," Octe puzzled, "it's closer to the sun so how can it be cooler?"

"I don't know," Tresia, she placed hands over her forehead in despair of not knowing the answer; she had not thought of that before.

"Well that is something else you need to find out! I tell you girl, if people think there is even the tiniest risk that the sky might fall on them, they will fall over backwards to give you money to make sure it doesn't."

Aberaif returned at that point with some meat. "Dinners up Amira?" He saw the slight hint of annoyance on her face when he called her that; but despite what she said, she really was an Amira.

"Octe tells us the sky is going to fall, Aberaif," Tresia enlightened.

"The sky falling. Yum, sweets: sounds delicious! But I'm afraid it's char grilled lizard for dinner."

Tresia was not very hungry but she ate a little, somehow eating a reptile did not seem as bad as deer earlier.

Octe continued to reminisce over dinner, "Tsaegar; one of my grandsons still lives there and he's got a place for me to stay after I leave here. I plan to just live quietly out the rest of my days there."

It was a new moon, so not enough light to even consider moving any further over the rough ground. The view of the stars shining through the glass like Awai over the burnt out ground was breath-taking. And over the south horizon was the orange glow of the still burning fire.

After dinner Octe emptied the capsicum sacks and set the fruit all out to dry out, no point letting the fruit go rotten. Aberaif and Octe took a small portion each to help them relax and get to sleep. Seeing how little they took made Tresia realise how she had overdone it earlier, still she refused to take any more, despite the throbbing in her foot. Aberaif and Octe were soon asleep. Tresia didn't sleep well that night, they were out in the open, on rough ground; Tresia was used to sleeping indoors on a soft bed. And she could not decide if the old man or the giant snored louder.

05

The brawling finally finished. "Get back to work you miserable slaves. You'll be lucky if I don't reduce your rations because of this," Wilfor threatened. "Fregwit and Nimm come here."

The guilty pair walked up to Wilfor.

"Sir," Nimm said with a little trepidation.

"You two started this. Give me a good reason why I shouldn't give you five of the best right now."

"Because you have a sore wrist," Fregwit cheekily answered.

Wilfor glared at the two of them, he had not expected them to call his bluff. "Well you guys are lucky today then," he flexed his wrist in front of them. "But you better watch out though cause it's starting to feel better already," he lied.

Fregwit grinned as he jumped back on a spade, to dig around a post; they had gotten away with the brawl. They dug for a few minutes, they worked on the lower cross member lashings for some time. Wilfor was so busy massaging his wrist that he hadn't even noticed his team was reduced by two. The new guy seemed unaware too. With any luck the pair in the jungle would be back before it was noticed they had gone. They then came to the bit that needed the high cross member dismantled. Normally Aberaif would do the high work, but he was not back yet. _Come on_ , willed Fregwit, they should be back by now. Not wanting to be obvious and stop the work Fregwit got Nimm to scale the wall and began working on the cross member.

Wilfor noticed him up there and shouted, "Get down from there, you could fall!" He really did not want the slaves to get injured and not able to work. "Get Raif to do that!" Wilfor instructed before looking around for Aberaif, "The giant, where is the giant?

Fregwit was wondering the same thing, he tried to think of something quickly, "He needed to go to the toilet, so he went to dig a hole."

"But we have an ablution hole just there," replied Wilfor, pointing to a small wall erected for privacy that was hiding a hole. Fregwit frowned not knowing what to say next.

Nimm jumped to his rescue. "But sir, this is a giant we are talking about."

"A giant, how is that significant?"

"Yes sir, you see that there ablution hole there is completely unsatisfactory."

Wilfor painted a mental picture that he really did not want, even still he asked for more detail. "How so?"

"Well for a start it's way too small, that ablution hole would be blocked up quick as a flash," Nimm began.

Wilfor did not believe a word he was saying, but he let Nimm continue.

"And secondly the smell: like nothing else known on the planet. It's all that meat he eats, well it doesn't come out the other end too good. That hole is too close to where we are working, the smell alone could kill us." All the other slaves nodded in agreement, Aberaif was infamous for his evil flatulence.

At this point Nihliz, after doing a quick count then pointed out, "There is only eight here, the old man is missing too."

"Did he need to relieve himself too?" demanded Wilfor.

Even Nimm was at a loss to explain that one. They could only stall for so long and that time was about done. They were getting concerned, _where were the pair?_ They looked over to the jungle and could see a lot of smoke rising from where the basket crashed, _were they caught in that?_

Before the slaves could be interrogated any further a small team of folks arrived from Loke, the local village, running up to them on foot.

Erdminger, the local overseer who was also Wilfor's boss, was in the party. He questioned Wilfor, "Did you see the balloon go down?"

"Yes we did, over there!" he said pointing to the smoke rising from the forest.

"So why are you still here? Why didn't you go make a rescue party?" came the scolding reply.

"I suggested that!" claimed Nihliz, he had a sudden epiphany on how the circle of blame worked. Wilfor gave him a dirty look and he realised that Wilfor had done a poor job of completing the circle.

Erdminger continued, "That was Elder Cenok's heir Tresia in that balloon, he is on his way here now and you will be in huge trouble if he thinks you could've helped and didn't."

That was terrible news to Wilfor he didn't know what to say. "Um, err, well, there is no way she could have survived the fall."

"How do you know that?"

"Um, arr, um."

Next Fregwit attempted to come to his rescue, "He didn't know sir, but boss sent a rescue party anyway, aye boss?"

Unsure of what Fregwit was up to but at a loss to know what else to do, Wilfor simply agreed, "That's right, I did?"

"The old man and the giant went to rescue the girl," Fregwit explained, unaware of the truth of his statement.

"You sent slaves out unsupervised, you imbecile!" Erdminger was clearly not impressed. "They better not harm her. Gather your men, we will form a search party at once."

So they all set off at pace across the field to the outer wall. As they scaled over it they heard a few loud bangs. Tresia's spare black powder, which she had flung overboard, had just been found by the fire.

As a group they entered the dense jungle, Fregwit wished to take the lead; planning a route that would lead away from their precious capsicums, but still toward the crash.

"Sir," he addressed Erdminger, "before I was a slave I was a dinosaur hunter I know the jungle well. Let me take the lead."

Erdminger agreed, so Fregwit was allowed to be at the front.

"ARE YOU THERE? CAN YOU HEAR US?" yelled Erdminger repeatedly into the jungle. He was frustrated with Wilfor. Sending slaves in for a rescue alone, and he was particularly concerned that the giant was one of the pair. He was constantly telling Wilfor off for being far too lenient and letting the slaves get away with far too much. Wilfor's defence was always that his slaves got more work done than anyone else's. This inexplicable fact irked Erdminger, he just could not understand it. Although he did tolerate Wilfor's odd methods because it made Erdminger look good. In the five years since young Wilfor had been in charge of the jungle clearing team, Loke had produced more timber and cleared more land than any of the other villages.

They soon noticed animals and birds coming towards them. Before long they were retreating back because of the flames. They withdrew back out into the open. The breeze was taking the fire away from the wall so a small section of forest between the crash site and the outer wall remained intact. The raging inferno beyond devastated all in its path.

"Well, we did all that we could!" Wilfor noted trying to make conversation, at the same time knowing it was not true.

Erdminger did not even acknowledge him, merely raising his eyebrows in contempt. Wilfor was concerned about the report that Cenok was coming. His patriarch held him in very low esteem at the best of times. He had been consigned to work with slaves on the outskirts of the jungle. Wilfor disliked both the slaves and the jungle. Surely Cenok would not come all the way to where they were. The only way here was by walking or by riding a young two legged reptilian, tahtor; neither of which Cenok did much since he got his new-fangled motorised tumbrel recently.

At that point they saw smoke in the distance, not the massive plume to the south from the forest fire, but a thin trail of smoke toward the north. Beneath the smoke they could see the blue of Cenok's motor-tumbrel driving across the fields towards them. It had just come through the gate of the inner jungle wall.

"That will never make it here!" Erdminger explained. After a long pause he glared at Wilfor. "So, we couldn't get near the crash site because the jungle is on fire! We don't know if the girl is alright and two of your slaves are missing including the giant! And you just let them go!"

"I guess that about sums it up," Wilfor sheepishly replied.

Erdminger looked at the wall they had been dismantling, "And you let the stupid giant cut all the cord again, instead of untying it!"

"I told him not to."

"Well that doesn't matter now. Why send the giant? Do you know how hard it is to get a good giant? Or how much a giant is worth?"

Wilfor knew that it was nearly impossible to buy giant slaves and they were worth many times his annual wage. He attempted an explanation, "Well Octe would not escape, we are releasing him soon. And the giant doesn't have the nous to escape. And if the girl needed carrying the giant's strength was needed."

"You think Cenok will buy that! You'll be in so much trouble, and he'll take it out on the rest of us too," snorted Erdminger in reply. "The only way your excuse works is if you went with them." He paused then exclaimed. "That's it! You did go with them."

"But I didn't," Wilfor was puzzled.

"Yes you did, you need to disappear now, before he sees you."

"Where?"

"I don't know, hide. Go back into the jungle."

"I can't go into the jungle alone."

Erdminger grabbed the two closest slaves. "Take these two with you then. I'll say you and a party of four slaves went on a rescue mission. Stay low for a while and I'll cover for you. If you don't find the others, say you lost them in the fire."

Wilfor could think of only one thing worse than going into the jungle with Nimm and Fregwit; and that was facing the wrath of Elder Cenok. He considered requesting two different slaves but in the end just accepted the two assigned to him and headed back towards the jungle.

"The poor tort-potatoes," Erdminger winced to Nihliz as the automobile moved closer chewing its way through the crop. It then moved slowly onto destroying the asparagus. He was hoping desperately that the machine would get stuck before it reached the aubergines. He was in luck, the contraption started to spray mud and dirt everywhere and stopped moving.

"Have you had the pleasure of meeting Elder Cenok yet?" Erdminger asked Nihliz.

"No."

"Well, round up your men. You're in for a treat. Stupid machine, you can't beat a tahtor pulling a tumbrel. Why would you even bother?" Once a tahtor grew too big to ride, it was put to work pulling a tumbrel.

Erdminger jogged down ahead of the others to the vehicle to face Cenok. He surveyed Cenok's vehicle as he closed in on it, it was the first one in the district and still highly impractical. Cenok only used it to be ostentatious. Whilst the technology was improving all the time Cenok's early automobile was very primitive, and it was definitely not designed for going off road.

The vehicle driver was in the back tending a fire to drive the motor, steering and working a clutch. Realising that going forward was just digging the wheels in more and getting them more stuck he pulled hard on a lever sending full reverse power to the wheels. This was just as Erdminger arrived, spraying mud and asparagus everywhere including all over him.

"Yuk." Erdminger said as he spat mud out of his mouth. His low opinion of motor-tumbrels was sinking even lower, the vehicle remained stuck fast.

"What's happening? Is the girl alright?" questioned Cenok.

Erdminger tried to wiped mud from his face but he was really just smearing it round.

Cenok grew impatient, "Well Erdminger? I haven't got all day, tell me what's happening."

"Sorry Elder," he briefly gave up wiping his face. "Well we saw the balloon go down from the village and we raced straight out there. By the time we got to the crash site the jungle was on fire and we could not proceed. But Wilfor's slave party were working in the area. He took four of his best slaves and immediately started a rescue. We haven't seen him or his team since, but they may have got to Tresia before the fire."

"That silly girl and her crazy ideas," Cenok mused, "it will get her killed one day, I'll be making sure she stops this nonsense!"

"Very good, sir!" Erdminger said, relieved his reply seemed to have worked, for now!

"Now we seem to be a bit stuck. Can you help?" By that time the rest of the group arrived. Erdminger got the slaves and his group around the vehicle and they started to push while the driver worked on the lever and sprayed them all with dirt. The wheels just dug in further.

"Isn't there a strong Nephilim in this lot of slaves?" asked Cenok. "I seem to remember paying a small fortune for him nearly 20 years ago. He would get us out easily."

"He is with the rescue party Wilfor took into the jungle, sir!" Erdminger replied.

Cenok surveyed the now well ablaze skyline. A huge cloud of smoke arose above the jungle, a very strange sight as the afternoon sky was always clear and blue. Clouds never formed in the sky because the atmosphere did not get thinner with height.

He started shouting. "He took the Nephilim on such a dangerous mission! Do you know how hard it is to get a good giant these days! You can't buy Nephilim for love or money."

Erdminger tried to mount a defence. "Well if the girl needed to be carried out the giant could do it easily."

"He could have taken a few of these guys, she is not that heavy!" Cenok roared. "Why did you let him take the giant? You idiot."

Erdminger considered mentioning that he was not even present, but he did not think it would change things. So he let him continue yelling.

"That stupid girl, my wife's favourite, her days of gallivanting are done! And Wilfor, such a disgrace, I'll make him work on the slave team not just watch over it when he comes back." Cenok was in fine yelling form.

Cenok's rant continued the whole time they were trying to get the car unstuck. Unlike many of the folk in Caffan, Erdminger was not related to Cenok. He had initially moved there many years ago to farm the land. But since then he had moved on to be the local overseer; managing the slave drivers and enforcing the rule of the land in Loke.

As they fruitlessly tried to dislodge the automobile Erdminger had to endure Cenok's incessant ranting. "Loke is the most lawless village in the whole of Caffan," he shouted.

"Well, I get no more crime than anywhere else," Erdminger defended.

"No, because the place is so crooked that they are a law unto themselves, they don't even bother the useless overseer."

A brutal assessment of his policing was all Erdminger needed to hear, on top of getting sprayed with mud.

"A good overseer would sort the place out! You better watch it Erdminger, I might just replace you yet."

The machine just was getting more entrenched and Erdminger was keen to change the subject. He was not sure how serious Cenok was when he was ranting like that.

"Look I don't think this vehicle is going anywhere," Erdminger assessed. "There are some mammoths that are being used elsewhere today. We could try and get them tomorrow to free it."

Cenok was not pleased as he had to walk across the muddy fields back into Loke, and he made everyone know his displeasure. Erdminger breathed a deep sigh of relief as he found Cenok a tumbrel and tahtor and was taken back to Newbsrus on it. Though he knew it would be short lived. Cenok had insisted on coming back in the morning to help with the search.

06

Wilfor walked toward the outer jungle wall with Fregwit & Nimm.

"Well that's a lot of trouble you got me in now," he complained to Fregwit.

"You were in trouble the moment that balloon fell from the sky," Fregwit answered, "I was just trying to help out."

"Help out! Now we have to go back into the jungle and hide."

"Sounds like an easy afternoon's work to me, better than moving that darn fence," Nimm smiled. "Relax boss; we climb the fence, we chill out there for a little bit. A while later we climb back over, say that the pilot was dead and that Aberaif and Octe got lost in the fire."

"Yeah," added Fregwit, "and you don't have to meet any work targets or anything, because you are out being the hero, rescuing the rich dudes heir. You can just chill out with us."

By now they had reached the wall and climbed over it.

"Where did the old man and giant really go?" Wilfor asked as he clambered.

"To the toilet," Fregwit repeated his earlier excuse.

"More like tending your crops," Wilfor glared at them as he spoke. He had heard about their crops, but there was no way he was going into the jungle to find them.

"No, pretty sure it was just the call of nature."

Wilfor decided there was no point pressing the issue further. The slaves would never admit to their crops and in a way the less he knew the better. If he did not know about the crops, he could plausibly deny it if they ever were found.

On the jungle side of the fence they found a bunch of animals in distress. The fire was heading off in another direction, but the creatures were visibly upset. Of particular concern were a couple of Cervalces stags in full antler pacing the fence. Whilst usually the large deer would be tame, because of the fire they were acting dangerously. In mating season the stags were not to be trusted anyway. The stags rushed past them so close they had to press against the wall to avoid them. Shortly after that the animals turned to fight each other.

"This is hardly a nice place to chill out." Wilfor griped to Nimm. He was feeling very uneasy about being there.

"No, it's the fence, they get to it and they panic," Fregwit observed. "Perhaps we should go slightly away from the fence."

"But then, how do we find our way back?" asked Wilfor.

"Look, I can get you back. No problem." Fregwit had another capsicum crop nearby and he was keen to double check the fire had missed them.

'What was that?" Nimm inquired pointing into the distance down the fence.

"What was what?" replied a slightly concerned Wilfor.

"I thought I saw a couple of segisaurs."

The others looked in the direction Nimm was pointing.

"Segisaurs," Fregwit gave a long low whistle, "small but nasty. Can't see them."

"Hopefully I was just imagining it."

Wilfor's heart raced with fear. He considered climbing back over the fence and just facing Elder Cenok's wrath.

Fregwit turned around, "Watch out" he screamed.

Wilfor turned to see a Cervalces careering straight towards him. His heart raced with panic. He dived out of the way straight into a prickly shrub, landing partially on his right wrist. The dull ache in his wrist instantly turned into a sharp unbearable pain. "Arrrgh," he cried pulling his right hand away but landing him deeper into the prickles. The other two also had jumped out of the way and were also in the same bush. The stag narrowly cleared them.

"Darn prickles," Nimm moaned as he immediately jumped up; straight into the path of the second stag. "Crud!" he yelled as he dived back into the prickle bush again.

Fregwit laughed, partly at Nimm's double dive into the bush but mainly because he was too nervous to do anything else.

"It's not very funny!" Wilfor explained, "now help me out of here!" Not being able to use his right arm limited his ability to crawl out of the bush.

They pulled him out of the thorns. All of them were covered in scratches. Wilfor was slightly better off than the other two as his long slave driver robes offered more protection of his arms and legs.

"Alright, let's move somewhere slightly safer. You're sure you can find the way back."

"Absolutely positive," Fregwit replied. "What did you do to your wrist?"

"Nothing, just a sprain."

"And how did you sprain it?"

"You needn't worry about it." Wilfor replied defensively, Fregwit decided not to push the issue.

Fregwit took them very close to the slaves' second capsicum crop. He knew he could find his way back to the wall from there.

"So who was the pilot of the balloon?" Nimm asked as they arrived at their destination.

"Her name is Tresia, but I have never met her. She is the direct heir of Cenok the guy who owns nearly the whole province," Wilfor answered.

"Lucky her," Fregwit said.

"Or, maybe not so lucky, since we saw her die in a fireball, crashing down into the ground," Nimm added.

"True, I am also a descendant of Cenok, a lot of the folks that live in Caffan are. But he treats us all like dirt."

"You should try being a slave then." Nimm said.

"Yes, I guess you guys have it worse than me. At least I get to go home to my family at night."

"Your family," Nimm was curious.

"Yes, there is Jeb my young son and Tere my daughter and of course Ave-Maria, the most beautiful, kind woman you could ever imagine."

"Surely not,"

"Yes, sometimes I think I must be the luckiest man alive for her to have married me. She is perfect."

"No one is that good," hassled Nimm.

"Well Ave-Maria is, except..."

"Ha, I knew there would be an except."

"No. It's not Ave-Maria, it's her mother. Mother-in-laws; they are a breed unto themselves!"

Nimm laughed, he had never been married to know. Whilst Wilfor was talking to Nimm, Fregwit got bold enough to wander the short distance over to his crop. He pretended to be peeing on a plant, but really he was sneaking a capsicum into a pocket he had sewn inside his tunic.

Wilfor turned and saw Fregwit had moved away, "Hey what are you up to!"

"Just going for a pee."

Wilfor knew he was lying, and that destroyed the conversation. They waited there in an awkward silence for a time. Both slaves knew Wilfor did not particularly like or trust them.

After a while longer and just as the light was starting to dim for the evening Wilfor announced, "I think we have been out here long enough now; Fregwit show us the way back."

"That's easy." Fregwit said as he looked for the subtle marks they had put on the trees to find their way to and from the crops.

They made it within sight of the wall. They all stopped with fright.

"Those were what I saw before." Nimm said alarmed.

"Ignore them and they will ignore us," instructed Fregwit.

The group of segisaurs saw the trio, one of them gave a low pitch warning squawk at them. Another, still agitated from the fire, started to charge at them. The whole group of vicious waist high animals followed.

"They are not ignoring us," yelled Nimm.

Wilfor had one cork shot and a charge loaded into his carbine. He aimed, fired and unsurprisingly missed. The loud bang did not deter the animals from their attack. There was no time to reload. The men turned and ran away, ploughing through the undergrowth. The reptiles followed hard on their heels. The animals weren't particularly agile and by sidestepping and ducking between the trees they narrowly avoided being bitten several times.

As the last light began to fade Fregwit noticed a tree that looked easily climbable, "Follow me," he yelled.

He jumped up grabbing the branches over his head and pulling himself up. Nimm followed and Wilfor was last up. Wilfor was not quite quick enough and his robe did not make for easy tree climbing. He looked down and saw the jaws of one of the beasts about to bite his leg.

"Arrrgh," he screamed expecting the worst.

Boom; Nimm swung down from his branch and landed his feet square on the beast's nose. It backed off allowing them all to climb higher out of reach of the reptiles.

"Thanks." Wilfor mentioned as they climbed, his wrist hurt but the adrenaline had kicked in and he was using it anyway.

"No problem," answered Nimm.

The segisaurs squawked loudly at the tree, a bunch of birds resting in the branches above took to flight chirping a warning cry as they left. Another loud cry came from higher in the tree.

"What was that?" asked Wilfor.

"Sounded like some sort of big cat," Fregwit replied.

The segisaurs below heard the cry and squawked back. The cat cried back again. The animals exchanged calls at each other several times before the reptiles sat down below the tree.

Fregwit looked up and came face to face with a xenosmilus, a large cat that had made the tree its home for the evening. The long toothed cat was climbing down to see what was happening. The cat had no fear of people but was curious as to why they were in her tree. She sniffed Fregwit's face and made a quiet cry at him.

"Nice kitty," Fregwit said, slightly nervous.

He reached out and stroked the cat between the ears. The cat liked that and stopped descending. Soon it started making a loud purring noise.

"You found a friend there." observed Nimm.

"Looks like it. A pet to take back to the barracks." Fregwit joked

"Not likely," Wilfor replied. His kids wanted a pet, but the neighbour's dog came to visit often enough, so he had yet to give into the temptation. A pet dog could live up to ninety years, long after the kids would have left home.

The trio did not have a lot to fear from the xeno. Felines were also still mostly vegetarian in the age they lived in. Their diet was mainly of large nuts that grew in those days. They needed their large powerful sharp jaws to break down the husks of the nuts and eat the nutritious content inside.

The xeno eventually returned to higher in the tree. The three of them stayed where they were all night, scared and hungry. Sometime during the night the segisaurs vacated.

#

In the thick mist of morning they climbed down. Every morning the vapours came, a very thick fog with an associated heavy dew to water the earth.

"Right, which way back to the wall?" Wilfor demanded.

Fregwit looked around them, nothing looked familiar. The dinosaurs had circled the trees so many times they had trampled any footprints they may have been able to follow home.

"I don't know!"

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU DON'T KNOW?" Wilfor was indignant, he had had no sleep, no dinner, no breakfast and his wrist was worse because of having to spend the night in the tree.

"Well the segisaurs chased us for quite a long time!" Fregwit was also tired and hungry.

"What do we do now?" Wilfor asked.

"We need to eat," Nimm stated.

"What is there to eat out here?" Wilfor demanded as he looked through the thick vapours.

"There is quite a lot to eat, Sir, if you know what to look for." Fregwit said. First he found some berries growing in the undergrowth and shared those about. He then found a large rotten log on the ground. Breaking through the soft wood he found large larvae of a wood eating bug tunnelling through it. He ate the first few then past them to the others in the group. Both Wilfor and Nimm were grossed out by this but they were also hungry so they ate them. They tasted slightly nutty, but they did not enjoy the feeling of live maggots squirming in their mouths before they chewed them. The larvae were surprisingly filling and they soon felt satisfied.

"So you used to be a dinosaur hunter?" Wilfor questioned Fregwit, to find out how much knowledge of the jungle he possessed.

"Well, sort of."

"Sort of! Either you were or you weren't."

"I was the cook for the expeditions. It was a very long time ago, before the first jungle wall around Newbsrus was built. The theory was to go and hunt and kill the beasts before they came and killed us."

Wilfor understood now his knowledge of jungle food; at least that was something. "So did you ever kill a large dinosaur, like a tyrannosaur?"

"No but I've seen it done. It was the days before black powder. You need a steel stake, wood isn't strong enough. The trick is to wedge your stake on the ground so it stabs the monster in the heart as they bend down to try and eat you, and then run between their legs. The timing and positioning is critical."

"Well let's hope we don't run into any of those," Wilfor was terrified they might.

"All the same sir, I'd rather we could make some spears. Can we borrow your knife?"

Wilfor was reluctant to give the slaves a potential weapon, he was all alone with them with no back up. But all the same he needed them to help get out of the jungle. So he handed his folding blade over to Fregwit.

"Just don't try anything funny," he stated lifting his carbine up for all to see.

Fregwit could see the carbine was not loaded, "Do you have many charges left?"

Wilfor reached into his pocket and did a quick tally, "Twelve, all high power." He then looked in his other pocket, "Lots of steel shots too."

Fregwit pointed to the jungle around him. "You'd be better saving the charges for what's out there, than worrying about us."

Fregwit selected a straight stout branch and whittled it into a spear. As he worked the xeno descended from the tree and came up and sat beside Fregwit. He knew the spears would be useless against a large tyrannosaur, but perhaps if they ran into something smaller they could be used. He gave the first one to Nimm; he then fashioned two more. Keeping one for himself he then folded the knife blade into the handle and handed it with the last spear back to Wilfor.

By now the day was heating up and the mist of the morning vapours were clearing. They looked around and saw huge trees; lots and lots of trees, undergrowth, some animals. But nothing to indicate where they might be.

"So on these expeditions, how did you find your way back to Newbsrus?" Wilfor asked Fregwit as he examined his spear.

"Oh, we never went anywhere without marking a very good trail to follow home."

Wilfor grunted in disgust realising that was no help to them now.

"Will they come looking for us?" Nimm questioned.

Wilfor pondered, they would go and look for the girl and the giant, but that was where the fire was. They would not go into the jungle to search for these two missing slaves. _Would they mount a search for him?_ He eventually replied, "I don't think they will."

"Well, we will have to find our own way," Nimm responded. "Any clues which way?"

They all looked blankly at each other. Eventually Fregwit started moving, "We will try this way first."

They headed out single file. Fregwit was in the lead, the black with white spots xeno had befriended Fregwit and stayed right by his side. Wilfor stayed at the back so he could keep an eye on the slaves. After some time they came across a river. They were thirsty and they all drank; plus they each had a small metal water container which they replenished. They then started to cross the river.

"I need to keep my charges dry." Wilfor stated as he realised the river might be deeper than his belt where his ammunition was kept.

"Throw them across," Nimm suggested.

Wilfor was about as good at throwing as he was at shooting. "I'm not sure I'd get it across."

"I'll throw it then!" was Nimm's reply.

Wilfor hated having to trust his valuable charges to one of these slaves. But since they had been lost they had not tried any of their usual tricks on him. He knew if he threw them they would probably get wet. So he reached into his pocket. He wrapped the charges in the carbine's cleaning rag and handed them across. Nimm grabbed them out of his hand.

"See those yellow flowers by the tree there?" Nimm asked.

"Yeah." Fregwit and Wilfor responded in unison.

The bag landed smack in the middle of the clump of flowers.

"Where did you learn to throw like that?" Wilfor questioned, in disbelief of his throw.

"I used to play Airmutt for the Tsaegar Rex's."

"The famous T. Rex's?" Wilfor was aghast; they had won the Airmutt championship many times over.

"Yeah, even lifted the trophy when I was in the team." He then spat on the ground in disgust at now being a slave, "26 years ago since I last played."

Wilfor was a huge fan of the Caffan Lashers, but they had never been the champions. He had watched them play a contest in Newbsrus recently. It had been close, the Lashers were in the lead for most of the game. All they needed to do was prevent the opposition from scoring in the last two minutes. But in the dying moments of the game the Lashers had crashed and burned, making silly mistakes that cost them dearly.

"Oh, my son loves watching Airmutt and the Lashers. I'm supposed to take him to a game against the Galyamouth Whoops in a couple days."

"Well, with any luck you still will be able to," Fregwit said optimistically.

Wilfor had never considered that the slaves had been anything but slaves. That once they had other lives too. Still they were slaves now and probably deserved it. They waded across the river, having to swim briefly in the deepest part. They rested to dry out and collected the charges from the flowers.

"You know I'm a pretty good shot too." Nimm said as Wilfor returned the charges into his pocket.

"Don't even think about it!" He was not about to trust these guys with his carbine.

The Xeno clearly did not like the water, it had stopped by the river and roared out as they crossed it. Perhaps it knew they had not crossed a river when they were being chased, so crossing it could not possibly bring them closer to home. Following the river upstream would have worked, it would eventually take them to the mighty Galya River which was well populated around its banks. But in ignorance they decided to cross to keep heading the same vague direction they were going. The Xeno disappeared upstream and a few minutes later returned to be by Fregwit's side, completely dry.

"What are you going to call her?" Nimm asked once the cat made it clear it was staying with them.

"Xeno?" Fregwit responded.

"So original!" teased Nimm.

The conversation that afternoon was largely between Wilfor and Nimm discussing the finer points of Airmutt. Nimm got a good update of what was happening in the league. Wilfor had no idea that through a series of misfortunate events that he ended up with an Airmutt player in his slave team.

"Ouch," Nimm shouted as a small yellow and black insect buzzed away from him.

"A Wraith Wasp," Fregwit said. "Only small, but they sure pack a punch."

"Sure do," moaned Nimm.

"There are some pretty big insects in the jungle too, we need something to repel them."

"Here is a Parisienne tree," Wilfor said pointing to a specimen of the tree that was used as the symbol of Caffan and prized for its wood.

"Perfect," agreed Fregwit.

They pulled off the bark and rubbed it over their exposed skin, plus took some more for later. Parisienne was a potent insect repellent.

They continued to trek through the Galya jungle. Wilfor kicked over a fallen branch, a scorpion as long as his forearm, reared up to attack him. Before Wilfor even had time to react, a spear plunged into the ground between him and the attacking creature. Nimm's lightning fast reactions, honed from years of playing Airmutt, saved the day. The scorpion stung the spear and scurried away.

"Thank you," Wilfor acknowledged.

They saw plenty of tame mammals birds and herbivorous reptiles, which posed no threat. They saw some small potentially carnivorous reptiles too, including some more segisaurs, but these also kept clear. Thankfully they came across no large meat eaters.

They stopped long before the evening Ceatha as they were all exhausted from the lack of sleep the night before. Fregwit borrowed Wilfor's knife again. He cuts some sticks and large leaves while Nimm dug some soil with his spear and hands. They fashioned a small bivouac out of sticks and leaves to keep any creepy crawlies out. Xeno climbed a tree and cracked opened a nut growing in it. Fregwit tried to coax the cat to drop a nut, with no success. Eventually he found some unappetising but nutritious food, which they all ate. Maggots served up on a broad leaf with a few berries to the side _\- yuck!_

"Even the crud we slaves get is better than this," Nimm observed.

"Well I'm just working with what I've got." Fregwit pointed out. "Bet you don't get meals like this at home?" he said turning towards Wilfor.

Home, until now he had been too exhausted and just trying to survive that he had not thought much of home. "No, Ave-Maria is a great cook," he replied. He wondered how she was coping without him. And little Jeb and Tere would be missing their dad.

"How old are your kids?" asked Nimm.

"Jeb is four, he loves junior Airmutt and wants to play for the Lashers when he grows up. And my girl, Tere, is six. She loves animals and goes to school in Newbsrus."

"Junior Airmutt," Nimm reflected, thinking of the non-contact version of the ball game. "I'm sure I could give him some pointers when we get back."

"Thanks, that will be great," he actually considered the idea. A day ago the prospect of introducing his family to some slaves would not have been entertained. "That's how I hurt my wrist."

"Junior Airmutt?"

"Yes," he replied sheepishly. "Tackled by a group of four year olds."

Nimm cracked up laughing.

They crawled into the bivouac, Wilfor did not trust the slaves lying beside him. He had never been so close to them before, the bivouac was only just big enough for the three of them. He was reluctant to fall asleep. _What if they killed him in his sleep?_ The ground was also very lumpy, not like his comfortable bed at home. But he was exhausted, and Fregwit had secretly seasoned the dinner with capsicum, so he was soon fast asleep.

07

Earlier that same day Tresia awoke to daylight after a very poor night's sleep. She could hear the sound of birds singing accompanied by a rich baritone male voice. Aberaif had got up and was checking out the surroundings whilst singing a very melodic but rather aggressive song slapping his thighs at the end of each line:

" _Don't mess with the giants. -_ Slap

_We will remain defiant. -_ Slap

_If we are ever overthrown. -_ Slap

_The sky will fall and you will groan. -_ Slap

_It's your peril to cause us strife. -_ Slap

_The sky will fall to cost your life."_ \- Slap

He repeated it a couple of times before realising that he was been listened to and he faded out. Tresia thought he had a very nice singing voice, he could certainly hold a tune. As he returned to where the others were she asked, "What were you singing, Aberaif?"

"It's Raif! And that was a bedtime song from when I was a kid. I haven't sung it for years. Must have been all the talk of the sky falling last night."

Tresia puzzled as to whom would teach kids such violent nursery rhymes.

"Where does it come from?" she was intrigued.

"I think that there was a prophecy that when the giants are defeated the sky will fall," he said before adding, "It's all a load of nonsense anyway, cause that will never happen."

"What will never happen?"

"The giants will never get overthrown. They only got me because, I was young and alone." -Slap, he slapped his thighs when he realised he done an accidental rhyme. "But you get a group of us together and we are unbeatable. There are many, many stories of the heroics of the giants."

"Like what?" Tresia asked.

Octe couldn't help himself, "Like the time they stopped an invasion by gassing their enemies to death; by farting alone."

Tresia started laughing, "I could believe that."

Aberaif started, "Well, Amira Tresia, there is the story of Big Bad Johnn."

"Go on," Tresia said.

"Well, I only know it as a song," Aberaif replied, suddenly feeling very self-conscious.

"Another nursery rhyme?"

"Yeah, you could say that."

"Well I'm waiting!" Tresia insisted.

Aberaif began by clapping his hands once followed by a double slap to the thighs. He then repeated the rhythm throughout the verses of the song.

" _The still of evening Dragos takes flight._

Searching for children to eat at night.

From her vantage up high in the air.

Spies a village not far from her lair."

Tresia pondered the first verse of the song. Dragos were somewhat of a mythical creatures; a flying large dinosaur that spews fire from its mouth. It was frequently referred to in stories and songs. Yet it was impossible to find any tangible proof that they actually existed. Tresia was positive that they were entirely fictional.

" _Kato was sleeping tucked in her bed._

Thump on the roof made her wake in dread.

Scared as she watched the roof turn to fire.

Through the flames things were looking quite dire."

Tresia was astounded; the rhythm and beat of the song were like nothing she had heard before, a very powerful aggressive song. She wondered how the young giants ever slept without nightmares.

" _Dragos opened its jaws set to strike._

When Big Bad Johnn appeared through the night.

He grabbed young Kato to keep her safe.

Dodging the blaze as Dragos then strafed."

The rhythm of the song then changed abruptly to a more syncopated beat for the chorus.

" _Big Bad Johnn he's charming, he's fit._

All the ladies think he's a hit.

Brave as a Sabretooth, never retreats

Nothing the giant cannot defeat."

On hearing the chorus Tresia was starting to think that Big Bad Johnn wrote the song about himself and was somewhat overcompensating. Aberaif kept singing.

" _With Kato now safe away from thrall._

Big Bad Johnn had a Dragos to brawl.

Dragos had giant firm in her sights.

She would not go down without a fight.

Dragos spewed flames to combust poor Johnn.

When she looked down the giant was gone.

He had dodged the fire once again.

Ran away safe from the fiery flame.

The song then repeated the chorus a few times before ending.

"Wow, that was sure interesting." Tresia explained. She was very impressed with Aberaif's musical ability. But she was not convinced about the accuracy of the song or its ending. She raised this with Aberaif.

"But Big Bad Johnn, didn't actually kill the Dragos? He just ran away. How does that make him a hero?"

"Well Amira, he saved the girl!"

"I guess so, but you see Aberaif, a true hero would also kill the Dragos."

"It's Raif, and no one can kill a Dragos, they are unkillable!"

Tresia puzzled how a mythical creature could be immortal, given it was just a myth. Surely the guy who invented the myth could invent a mythical way to kill a Dragos.

"What about a solid gold spear with a Tyrannosaur tooth embedded at the tip? That would surely kill a Dragos." Tresia decided that she would make up her own way to kill a Dragos.

Aberaif thought for a moment before asking, "Have you ever seen a Dragos?"

"No, because they don't exist. But if they did exist, a solid gold spear with a tyrannosaur tooth at the end surely would kill it."

At this point Octe weighed in on the debate, "That wouldn't work."

"Why ever not?" Tresia asked incredulously.

"I worked in a gold mine once. Gold is a very soft metal, it would bend too easily."

"Well something else that is stronger?"

"If it is the tyrannosaur tooth that kills the Dragos, does it really matter what it is attached to?" Aberaif asked.

Tresia thought for a moment, "I guess not. So Dragos can be killed with a tyrannosaur tooth."

Aberaif nodded, "Seems reasonable enough. Except there are no Tyrannosaurs in Nore. So Big Bad Johnn could not have had a tooth."

Having settled the matter of how to kill a Dragos they thought about moving on. The embers were now cold enough to navigate through them. Octe looked about, usually it was misty in the morning when the vapours came. But the heat of the embers had kept the mist away from the patch they were on. He pointed to the charred jungle, there were still some burnt out trees standing, but it was mostly open and easy to see.

"If we head that way we should be somewhere near where we met you. From there it's very close to the farmland. Now we need to look out for the trees still standing, as Tresia found out yesterday," Octe instructed them. He then looked at Aberaif and asked, "Raif what's for breakfast?"

"No breakfast, the meat will be off by now, you can only eat it the day you kill it, unless you dry it out. We have to wait till we get to the jungle and find some edible plants."

Tresia was hungry but still pleased not to have to eat meat again, it seem very wasteful to her having to eat an animal all up on the day it died.

Tresia tried standing, she could still not put any weight on her left foot without it hurting too much to bear. But she found that she did not actually mind when Aberaif grasped her with his big muscled arms and put her over his shoulder. He was careful to clench his butt cheeks together tight to ensure no gas escaped as he lifted this time.

They trekked along the charred ground, there were a couple of places where it was still too hot, but they could easily get around them. As they went they observed the surroundings. They could easily see the scar of the fire starting out as a small point near where they had found Tresia. It then spread out in a wedge like pattern before disappearing over the horizon. There was no smoke in the distance so they figured the fire had most likely burnt out. They continued towards the farmland, avoiding the few trees left standing, splashing through numerous small streams that watered the ground. Octe had his sacks of capsicums which he had repacked from the previous evening. He would stash them by the outer wall and collect them later, something he had done many times before.

Aberaif really did not want to go back, this was the closest he'd had to freedom in 18 years. And he really enjoyed Amira Tresia's company. Plus she really was beautiful. He hardly dared to believe her boast that she could free him. He had seldom even met Elder Cenok and even then only at a distance. But Cenok's reputation was well known, he was a greedy, tight-fisted, miserable knave. He owned vast areas of land and would not give any to his descendants, yet he claimed more and more land for himself all the time. In fact that was Aberaif's job, clearing more land for Cenok.

#

Erdminger was also well aware of Cenok's reputation and he was unfortunate enough to have the displeasure of his company. _Just where is Wilfor? -_ Erdminger was wondering. He told him to stay low for a while, but he meant a couple of hours, not all night. Nihliz, Fifthe - Tresia's father, and some other guy - who had not yet been introduced, made up the rescue party.

"Would you look at that!" Cenok explained as they reached the burnt out part of the jungle. They were still in the trees but overlooking the scar from the fire. "That would normally take the slaves months to clear, yet the fire did it in a day. Why haven't we thought of just burning the jungle down before?"

"Because we need to sell the timber," Fifthe answered.

Erdminger had a cursory look at the immediate surroundings and then stated, "I don't see any sign of the balloon or the girl."

"Well I do." Cenok replied as he pointed two figures walking towards them. One was very tall and carrying Tresia. As the slaves approach, Nihliz and Erdminger were both carrying carbines and they pointed them towards the slaves.

Cenok yelled, "Tresia, are you ok? I hope these thugs haven't harmed you."

"No Elder, they have been perfectly fine, they saved my life," she replied. "Do your men have to point their carbines at me?"

The weapons were lowered.

"You mean Wilfor saved your life," Cenok corrected her, "by taking his slaves in to find you! Where is he?"

Erdminger gulped as Tresia replied, "Wilfor?" She thought for a moment as to who Wilfor was, before recalling that the two slaves had spoken of him; "Oh, the slave driver? No never met him."

Erdminger chipped in, "Err, Wilfor and the other two must've been separated by the fire before these two found you."

"We will ask the slaves then," Cenok stated, looking at Octe, "Where are Wilfor and the other two slaves?"

Octe did not have a clue what Cenok was on about, he could see Erdminger looking very distressed, so Octe obfuscated, "Wilfor... and... the... the other... two slaves?"

Erdminger interjected, "Yes, remember, the five of you went looking for Tresia. Did the others get separated by the fire before you found her?"

"Yes, yes," Octe replied, "it happened exactly like that." He was curious as to which other two slaves, why Wilfor would be with them, and how Erdminger was tied up in it all. Cenok at least seemed satisfied with the response.

"Giant get your hands off this girl," Cenok demanded.

Aberaif lowered Tresia gently to the ground as Fifthe and the other new guy ran up to support her. Aberaif then backed off. Tresia suddenly felt lonely as her big rescuer moved away.

"Tresia. So glad you're ok," Fifthe said as he supported his daughter,

"Thanks, Dad, back from your trip to Hutibo already?"

"Yes, just as well. How did you hurt your foot?"

"My balloon ripped on the Awai, I hurt it on the crash landing."

"Anything else hurt."

"No, but we are hungry and thirsty."

Someone found some water and food and gave it to her, but ignored the two slaves. Tresia then spoke up, "Elder, these slaves have been so good to me and saved my life so I was thinking it would be nice to free them."

Cenok laughed, "Do you, well if you hadn't been so silly, you wouldn't need saving. And that's enough of your mad capers there will be no more of them, I'll make sure of that! And I'll keep my slaves"

"But Elder!" Tresia knew it was futile to argue with Cenok, she would have to work on her great, great, great, great, great grandmother when she got back to Newbsrus.

"Yes Tresia," her father spoke up, "we have decided that you done enough gallivanting and crazy schemes. My trip to Hutibo was not just strictly business." He indicated to the man who was supporting her right side, "Meet Yrrab,"

"Hi Yrrab," She was completely stumped about what her dad was talking about, as she looked across at the guy. He was quite good looking and relatively young, but that could mean anywhere between 20 and 200.

"Tresia," Yrrab politely replied.

"Yrrab's family rule the port town at Hutibo," explained Fifthe, "and we think you and Yrrab will be a perfect match. And it's not just Yrrab, it's Amyr Yrrab. My girl is going to be Amira!"

Tresia had spent a good portion of the last day deciding she did not want to be an Amira. "But I'm not 21 yet; that's two years away!"

"No, but you don't need to wait for then. You will get married next month after you turn 19, it will be fantastic!"

Tresia was now desperate to get away from Yrrab and back to Aberaif. She decided to feint passing out. Tresia loosened her grip from her dad and Yrrab and she wriggled a bit to slide from their clutch and onto the ground.

"Tresia, Tresia!" her dad called out to her.

Tresia slowly opened her eyes, "Dad," she said nervously wishing that it was all a bad dream.

"Oh Tresia, you just fainted from excitement about being engaged."

"Yes, I must have."

"So congratulations. Let us help you up."

"No dad, it hurts my foot too much like that. I need to be carried."

"OK, how should we carry you?"

"Well over a shoulder so my foot doesn't touch the ground."

"But, you're too heavy miss," Amyr Yrrab uttered most inappropriately.

"Not for him, I'm not," she pointed to behind them all.

Everyone turned and looked at the huge giant with sacks for a shirt. Aberaif grinned nervously at all the eyes on him. No one spoke for an uncomfortably long time.

"He has already carried me a long way," Tresia said pleadingly.

Another awkward silence. Finally Erdminger spoke up, "Alright then; giant carry the girl." It was an order Aberaif did not mind obeying.

She whispered in his ear as he lifted her, "Aberaif, I'm still going to free you. I'll just have to do it before I get married."

Aberaif nodded, he did not want to get his hopes up, he was sure she would soon return to normal life and forget about him. "I told you, you're an Amira," he told the loveliest girl he had ever met. He was surprised that he felt sad to learn she was now engaged; it was something she did not seem too thrilled about either.

As they started walking back Octe was getting very worried! He had been caught off guard by the meeting. They hadn't seen the group until they were upon them. And he was carrying two sacks of capsicums! He knew eventually someone would notice and want to search the sacks. His plan was to stash them at the wall but he couldn't do that without anyone noticing. They got to the outer wall and all went through the gate.

It was at that point that Erdminger noticed Octe's luggage, "Hey what's that you are carrying?"

"Just some sacks sir."

"Well what's in them?" Erdminger demanded. Octe knew he was undone, he could probably kiss freedom in two months goodbye.

From behind them came a voice: "Those are MY sacks, and you CANNOT look inside them," Tresia expressed with as much authority as she could muster.

"Really!" Erdminger responded cynically, "Why ever not?"

"Well, I took my balloon all the way to the Awai and those sacks contains some of the findings from my voyage. And I think they are toxic; that's why the slave is carrying them," she articulated, surprised to realise that everything she said was true.

Erdminger hardly looked convinced and continued to reach for the sacks. So Tresia continued, lying through her teeth this time, "It also has some of my personal supplies, and it's THAT time of the month!"

Erdminger did not want to risk just what he might find, if she was telling the truth. Still he did not believe her, he knew that she was hiding something. That old slave looked just a little too relieved when he had stopped reaching for the bags. He would have to investigate this further later, as far as he was concerned Tresia was a spoilt brat, he would get to the bottom of what she was up to!

Erdminger wanted to go back into jungle to search for Wilfor and his two slaves. "We should go back and hunt for Wilfor!" he told Cenok.

"We have the girl and the Nephilim! He can find his own way out."

Erdminger was overruled so they trudged on till they arrived at the stuck motor-tumbrel. Tresia was gently placed in the front seat, in front of the over-sized front wheels. Octe stashed the sacks at her feet. Cenok and Fifthe got in the seat while Yrrab sat beside her. They waited there while at the rear the driver lit the fire and it heated up.

Octe examined the motor. It had three hot cylinders heating up in the fire and three cold cylinders with cooling fins. It worked by the different pressures between the hot and cold air.

Octe could not help himself, "You know my motors you could start up and run in just seconds. None of this waiting for it to heat up."

"Shut up old timer; no one wants to hear of your crazy failed schemes." Cenok blurted out.

Tresia however was intrigued, she naturally liked to discover and investigate new things and Octe's engine sounded interesting.

Cenok then asked Octe, "How long have you been working for me now?"

"99 years and 10 months," Octe replied.

"Only two months to go, I guess you can go free early," Cenok said feeling remarkably generous, then he directed at Tresia, "Happy now?"

"No, Aberaif too!"

"Aberaif? Who is Aberaif?"

"The giant - Raif," Tresia pointed to the giant just beside her.

"You know him by name! Giants are just brutes, good for heavy lifting, that is it. I cannot free him. I need the Nephilim to work."

"No, he is not a brute," countered Tresia offended by her patriarch's comments, it disgusted her that her patriarch talked about him like he wasn't even there. She had another idea, "Well, what if I buy him off you?"

Cenok laughed, "You have no idea what a giant is worth do you? I paid 20,000 Dracs for him 18 years ago, young and untrained, he is worth at least 40,000 Dracs now. That is if you can even buy a giant, they are rare as feathers on a monkey now. I want to get a female giant and breed them but I just can't find one."

The thought of breeding Aberaif like cattle repulsed Tresia; she just had to free him. But 40,000 Dracs! - many times the allowance she got, which she may not even get any more. How could she ever get that much money?

An uncomfortable silence hung over the air. Amyr Yrrab decided to break it, "You know I'm building my own motor-tumbrel," he said proudly to Tresia as he inspected the tumbrel. "I can't wait to show you it."

"Yeah sounds great." Tresia replied, unenthusiastically.

"And you build balloons; wow, that is truly amazing."

Two days prior if someone had tried to talk to her about balloons she would have been so excited, but now it just depressed her, "Only one and it's gone now."

"And she is not building another one," Cenok said decisively from behind her.

"I'll show you my motor-tumbrel in Hutibo in a couple of days. You'll meet my family and we will come back here to get married in a month."

_Hutibo, how could she help Aberaif from Hutibo?_ "Yeah, but I can't go to Hutibo till after we are married?"

"Why not, don't you want to come and meet my family first?"

"No, I'm sure they are fine! I can't travel with a sore foot." Tresia was suddenly relieved to have injured her foot, she could use it to buy some time.

Finally the engine warmed up. Some more slaves were brought over and with Aberaif helping to push they managed to move the motor-tumbrel without having to bring the mammoths in. Octe noted it was Nimm and Fregwit missing from the crew.

Aberaif continued pushing as the tumbrel ploughed slowly across the rough ground. Finally it arrived back through the gate of the inner wall onto a firm dirt road where the driver briefly stopped the vehicle.

Erdminger started to round the slaves up and Aberaif turned to leave.
Tresia was desperate to say goodbye to him and despite Cenok being right behind her she yelled out "Aberaif." He was still nearby so he turned to her. She then thought better, 'Raif. You saved my life, Thank you."

Aberaif did not know what to say; she was the first bit of light to enter his life in 18 years, he would miss her. He doubted he would ever see her again but he choked out, "Amira. Call me Aberaif!" That was not the only thing he let out; it was a potent silent one.

"What is that goddam awful smell?" Cenok complained from the back seat, as the slaves were lead away. Tresia just smiled. As the motor-tumbrel started to move he then scolded her further. "You shouldn't talk to slaves. Don't even think about trying to see the giant again, I forbid it."

Tresia did not respond. She turned to look at Amyr Yrrab. _So this is who they chosen for her._ She wondered how old he was. She did not even know enough about Hutibo history to ask him leading questions to reveal it. He was clean shaven with short black hair and olive skin. She had only briefly been to Hutibo before on her trip to Artris. At the thought of Artris she instantly started to think of Aberaif again.

"I'm so pleased to meet you," Yrrab broke the silence, "your Dad told me so much about you."

"Yes, this was very unexpected. Hails comet is coming next month. I hear it is spectacular." she instantly regretted saying such a random statement, he would think she was crazy.

Yrrab seemed unfazed by her comment, "Yes that will be near our wedding. And I've heard the same."

Tresia knew he was less than 80 years old, as Hails comet could only be seen every 75 years, and he would have said so if he had seen it before. Good but she needed to narrow it down more.

"I've seen it several times now," Cenok said gruffly from the back seat. "Don't know what all the fuss is about."

"Well I have never seen a comet," protested Tresia.

"Yes you have, the Shakina comet," argued Fifthe, "you were two and were absolutely fascinated by it, you have been staring at the sky ever since."

"Yes, I remember that one, it was good," revealed Yrrab.

_So he must be older than me._ She now needed to find out how old he was when he saw the comet. "Oh, what were you doing when you saw it?"

"Can't remember."

"Really!" Tresia was disappointed.

"Sorry, I was only four, it's just a vague memory."

Tresia was momentarily delighted, she had worked out Amyr Yrrab's age using comets and he was not much older than her, also a bonus, she did not want to marry someone much older than herself. Her joy was short lived, she immediately started to think of poor Aberaif stuck being a slave again. She had to free him and she did not have much time.

The rest of the short journey Yrrab tried unsuccessfully to engage in conversation with Tresia. She gave only brief answers. Once back in Newbsrus, Cenok had Amyr Yrrab shown around and Fifthe took Tresia to the healer to check her foot.

08

"Tresia," the voice of her mother woke her.

"Yes," she called back from inside her small sleeping hut.

"The servants have delivered breakfast. The rest of us have eaten. I have to take your sister to the school. A bakon may fly down and eat yours if you don't get up and eat it soon."

Tresia reached across from her sleeping mat and grabbed the crutches lying beside her on the wooden floor. Clumsily, she pulled herself up on them till she was standing. Her curly brown hair nearly touched the thatch roof. Grabbing a brush from some shelves beside her she ducked down slightly in order to brush her hair without hitting her hand on the ceiling, while gazing in a small lead framed mirror. She gazed at the selection of clothes on her shelves before selecting a linen outfit that covered most of her body. She smiled realising this outfit would have been far better for her journey to the Awai. She placed a java-wood sandal on her right foot, but left her injured foot bare. Capsicums were littered all across her floor, she limped carefully to avoid them arriving at the net and thick canvas that served as a door. After passing through she pulled the net back into place. She also closed the heavy canvas cover so no one could see in at the capsicums.

Once outside she could see the morning vapours had already cleared; she must have slept late. Her father, mother and sister had already gone leaving her alone. She limped across the turquoise cobblestones to a very low wooden table where awkwardly she sat down on one of the soft cushions beside it. Her grain and nut porridge was cold but at least it had not been eaten by a bakon or some other hungry creature. Holding the bowl up to her lips, she slurped it down.

"Tresia," a voice came from the roadway that passed in front of the dwelling, "I was hoping to see you again before I left."

It took her a few seconds to recognise Octe. He had washed, shaved his beard off and instead of the drab slave clothes he was wearing a light green full length robe. He carried a blue bag, assumably filled with his worldly possessions. "Do come over," she yelled.

"Sit down," insisted Tresia as he arrived at the cobbled area around the table.

Octe selected a cushion and sat on it, beside the round, almost ground level table. "It's been an age since I've sat down at a table," he observed.

"Would you like a tea," thinking she would ring a bell to summon a servant.

Octe looked at the fire and he could see it was out. So rather than get her to light it, he politely declined, "No mam, I need to catch the river boat soon." He looked at her crutches, "How's your foot?"

"The healer thinks I might have a minor break in a foot bone. I have to rest it for four weeks."

"That's no good, but considering you fell from the top of the sky it could be worse."

"Yes I guess so. How is Aberaif?" She had been thinking about him the whole time, innocent but stuck in slavery.

"Yeah he is ok. The guys are all worried. Our usual slave driver is missing; they are worried about his replacement though. They managed to find someone already."

"That's fast."

"Yes, the new guy arrived as I left." Octe then looked around, just to double check no one else was there; even though he knew they were not. He had some juicy gossip to share. In a low tone he said, "Turns out; Erdminger sent Wilfor, into the forest not to look for you, but to cover their butts!"

"To cover their butts?"

"Yes, he found out that we had gone into the jungle alone. Elder Cenok was on the way and he would have gone spare if he found out."

Tresia nodded, you did not want to get on the wrong side of Elder Cenok.

"Turns out that Cenok got enraged anyway when he found out Raif was missing." Octe continued, "But Erdminger thought that we were dead, that no one could have survived the fire. He was expecting to find Wilfor, not us, yesterday."

"He did look mighty uncomfortable when Cenok was questioning us about Wilfor."

"Yes, Wilfor and my two slaves must have got lost."

Tresia also looked about to check no one else was about. In a low whisper she told Octe, "I have your capsicums, they are drying in my room."

"Sorry mam, but I can't take them; I'm finally free after nearly 100 years and I can't risk getting caught with them."

"What should I do with them? Get them back to the other slaves?"

"No, that is far too risky! The guys have other crops that weren't touched by the fire."

"Well I'm not going to use them myself!"

"Just bury them. Although," Octe pondered whether to tell Tresia the next bit, but then did anyway. "Jin the chef, in Loke, might pay you something for them."

"Jin in Loke."

Octe regretted his last statement, "No, no, just bury them."

"Tresia?" Another voice called out, not from the road but from the other direction? She recognised it instantly, her great, great, great, great, great grandmother - Cenok's wife, known to everyone as Nan. She was carrying a cake, walking across from her nearby not so humble abode.

"Nan, lovely to see you."

Nan came over bend down to set the cake on the almost ground level table. She wrapped her arms around Tresia in a maladroit hug; Tresia was still sitting down on her cushion. "Thank goodness you're ok. I was so worried when I heard your balloon had crashed." Nan then selected a free cushion to sit on.

"Well I'm here and ok. Thanks to two very brave slaves, Nan this is Octe." Tresia stated as she hopped up and grabbed a knife and started cutting the cake.

"Yes I heard, Thank you Octe, I hear you are now a free man."

"Yes, I'm just on my way to Tsaegar. I am catching the riverboat soon." Thinking of the voyage ahead, as he took a piece of cake: a day on the river boat, followed by another day on a different boat along the coast. Then it was a two days on foot to his grandson's house in Tsaegar.

"And Tresia, congratulations on your engagement!"

"Thanks, Nan;" she tried to sound enthusiastic. Yrrab would be over to see her that afternoon, but she really did not want to see him. She dearly wanted to see Aberaif again.

"I hear you actually made it to the Awai, so you can finally stop this balloon nonsense," Nan exclaimed. "I guess after that terrible crash you wouldn't be keen to try that caper again."

Tresia knew she needed a reason to get back up there again. She looked across at Octe, remembering what he had said in the jungle. "Actually Nan, the Awai was beautiful up close, but I need to go back up to do some more research."

"Why ever for." Nan was puzzled.

"I think the Awai is unstable."

"Unstable? Nonsense it has always been there and always will be!"

Octe smiled wryly as he heard the exchange. He had finished his cake and he was sure these ladies had some catching up to do. He got up and excused himself. "Ladies, I have a boat to catch, look me up if you're ever in Tsaegar."

Tresia had never been to Tsaegar, it was one of those out of the way places people only went to if they had a reason to go there. She replied, "Yes, I will do. Have a great trip." Tresia thought it very unlikely that she would ever make it there.

"Farewell ladies," he got up and departed down the road.

Returning to the subject of the Awai, Tresia stated, "Yes, the Awai is not as thick as my calculations say it should be. And did you know that the Nephilim have a prophecy that the Awai might collapse one day." She wondered if she was stretching it too far as she added, "And I even saw some cracks in the Awai!"

"Cracks, are you sure? I'm sure the giant stories are just fairy tales."

"Yes but if I did some more research we would know. Did you know that the Awai is just very, very cool water? How do we know it won't melt?"

"Melt?"

"Like butter!"

Nan was uncomfortable with the conversation so she change subject, "Did you like the cake? I made it myself."

"Yes it was lovely thanks," Tresia replied.

Tresia's mother came back, as she approached them she called out, "Nan, lovely of you to stop by."

"Yes, nice to see you too Leza. Well I had to come and see Tresia after her ordeal."

"Hmmmf," Leza grunted before scowling "Tresia; why is the canvas over your door during the day?" Her mum marched towards her room.

"You can't open it!" Tresia cried out. She jumped up as fast as possible and hobbled with her crutches to the door to block her mum.

"Why not? What are you hiding?" Leza was even more curious as to what was in that room and started ducking in behind her.

"I'm not hiding anything?" Tresia panickingly replied, "It's just Dad and your 99th year wedding anniversary next week and I have a special surprise for you." Tresia realised she would have to get something a lot better than the scented candle she had already bought for the occasion.

"Oh, right," Leza smiled satisfied with the answer, "I'm thirsty, I'd love a tea. Let me guess, you haven't offer Nan one either!"

Tresia was embarrassed at having her poor hospitality pointed out. And she went across to ring the bell.

"Don't bother the servants," Leza demanded. "I used to make the tea at your age. There has got to be something useful you can do!"

"But I have a sore foot."

Her mother did not reply but just gave her a menacing look? Tresia begrudgingly hobbled over to the fire. The bell was right beside it, it would be so much easier to just ring it. She picked up her kettle and was pleased to discover it still had enough water in it, saving her a trip to the nearby stream. Kneeling down carefully in front of the stove she took out a flint and managed to get some tinder burning. As the flames developed she added progressively bigger sticks to get the fire hot.

While she was tending the fire, Nan spoke up to Leza, "Your daughter, thinks the Awai is going to melt! Yes, melt like butter."

"You stupid girl." Leza said looking at Tresia. "It's a good thing you're getting married next month. Hopefully your husband won't put up with your mad shenanigans."

Still bending down at the fire; Tresia answered, "I'm not sure, it might be unstable, I just need to go back up to check on it."

"But you destroyed your balloon in the crash! I hear you were lucky to make it out alive." Leza said shortly. "If it wasn't for poor brave Wilfor you would be dead!"

"It was actually two slaves, Octe and Aberaif that saved me. Cenok let Octe walk free, but Aberaif is still a slave. Surely the brave man who rescued me should be rewarded."

"He's actually a giant," Nan explained to Leza, "more brute than man."

Leza continued, "I saw Ave-Maria at the school when dropping Trasia off," referring to Tresia's sister with quite a similar name. "The poor woman is a mess, her husband missing! The guy is a hero. Going into a burning jungle to save you like that. Now here you are and he has disappeared."

"Yes poor Ave-Maria, I'll take her a cake tomorrow." Nan agreed.

The fire was now going strong. Tresia could see that Wilfor was considered the unfortunate hero in the situation, and she was not going to be able to swing that mantle onto Aberaif. She pondered sharing Octe's story that his disappearance was merely a cover up, however that just seemed too disrespectful. The guy was missing and considered a hero, at least let his family hold onto that. The kettle was making the comforting humming sound, as the water heated up but Tresia felt despondent, she had failed to create sympathy for Aberaif and she had been unsuccessful in trying to convince them that the Awai needed more study. Out of desperation she decided to try a more direct approach. "Nan, you need to get Elder to free the giant."

"He won't do it, he already warned me that you would ask that." Nan replied. "He also said to remind you that you are forbidden from going to see the giant."

"Heaven knows why anyone would want to see a filthy slave." Leza indignantly stated. "And a giant at that. Giants are just big dumb oafs, only good for their strength."

"Mum you have no idea, Aberaif the giant is smart; and the slaves were perfect gentlemen when they saved me."

Nan answered, instead of Leza, "That must have been Wilfor that trained his slaves to be so polite. Bless his soul."

"But, Aberaif was kidnapped when he was little more than a child. Taken from his family, they haven't seen him in 18 years. And Elder Cenok just owns him. Imagine if I was kidnapped and forced to work on the other side of the world?"

Leza snarked a reply, "That would be nice! Now is the tea ready yet?"

The lack of empathy infuriated Tresia. She bit her lip though, she knew better than to lose her cool at her mother. And she did not want to offend Nan. She poured the cups of tea and sat in silence while Nan and Leza chatted.

Finally Nan and Leza finished the tea, and Nan got up to leave.

"Lovely to see you dear, look after yourself with that foot," Nan politely said as she departed.

"The tea was a bit too strong for my liking," her mother assessed, followed by, "Such a disappointment."

Tresia wasn't sure if she was talking about the cup of tea or about her.

"Right I'm going to tend my garden," Leza explained. "Tresia you should try gardening, much more useful than hot air balloons or playing your Lyra." Leza departed away to her garden elsewhere on the estate leaving Tresia alone.

Tresia went back into her sleeping hut and fought back some tears. _That did not go as planned_ \- she lamented as she stacked the capsicums, up on the shelves behind her clothes. She selected two of the capsicums and looked carefully at them. Then she found a drawstring bag - a bright red one, her favourite colour. Two capsicums were placed at the bottom of the bag and then some items of clothing stacked above them. Finally she went back outside to the table to retrieve the knife used for the cake. It was blunt and needed sharpening; cooks used knifes all the time and were known for their sharpening skills. She decided the following day she would visit the cook in Loke.

She spied her Lyra in the corner of her hut, a five stringed, guitar like, wooden instrument. Going outside she sat and played some tunes she knew well. Usually playing made her feel better; but not today. As she played she mulled over just how she would see Aberaif. Knowing she was forbidden to visit him just made her more determined to free him. Still she had no idea how she could even see him let alone liberate him. Her sore foot was a further source of frustration. Having to use crutches further restricted what she could do.

"Beautiful, I never knew you could play an instrument. You're very good."

"Thank you, I dabble," Tresia replied with false modesty. She wondered how long Yrrab have been watching and listening to her play. "Do you play?"

"No, but I can sing very badly though. Completely tone deaf."

She finished her tune with a complex arpeggio just to show off, "Oh. Did you know giants can sing?"

"Really, I think my family have a couple of giants as slaves but I seldom see them, never heard them sing."

"Yeah they are great singers,"

"Interesting," Yrrab did not continue along that conversation, there was a long silence.

"So Hutibo, what do you do there?" Tresia asked.

"Well it's by the ocean, lots of boats coming and going. My family owns the port."

"And after we wed, do we live in Hutibo or Newbsrus?"

A blank expression came over Yrrab's face, "I thought Hutibo, but perhaps I could move here? Any chance you could show me around the province."

"Well I can't walk far, but if we had a tumbrel & driver I could."

"Borrowed a tahtor and tumbrel already, parked out on the road."

"And a driver?" Driving a tahtor was a skilled task.

"Looking at him," Yrrab stated proudly.

Tresia hopped up on her crutches and made her way to the roadway. The tahtor was tied to a tree and was using its sharp teeth to chew through a large nut. It was balanced on its powerful hind legs with the two wheeled tumbrel hitched on behind. As it saw Yrrab & Tresia coming it squawked at them and started to strain against the restraining rope. Yrrab introduced the tahtor to Tresia, "This is Guits, he is the fastest tahtor in your Elder's barns. He loves to run. Don't you Guits?"

Tresia thought it was odd that Yrrab would talk to an animal, especially one as stupid as a tahtor. After helping Tresia into the seat he untied the rope from the tree. He jumped on the seat beside Tresia just as the tahtor took off.

"See he doesn't even need an apple to run," Yrrab informed, usually an apple was placed just in front of their nose and the tahtor would run towards it. But Guits accelerated away, Yrrab managed to steer him using some reins attached to his head.

Tresia coughed occasionally from all the dust kicked up by the tahtor pulling the open topped tumbrel over the dirt road. Apart from that it was a perfectly pleasant afternoon, showing Yrrab around the southern lands of Caffan, they never crossed the river on a ferry to the north, it was pretty undeveloped there anyway. Yrrab drove Guits harder and faster than she was used to, which was quite exhilarating. "Just wait till I finish my auto-tumbrel," he boasted, "it should be even faster."

They did not take the road to Loke, as she did not want to involve Yrrab in the dodgy business she had planned there. Loke was the most out of the way village in the whole province.

As he dropped her back at her home he asked, "See you tomorrow?"

"In the afternoon, I have to do something in the morning."

"See you then, I'm back to Hutibo in two days. You sure you can't come?"

Tresia briefly considered it; but she had to free Aberaif first. After that she would be free to marry Yrrab and go to Hutibo.

09

Tresia ached: her left foot hurt from being broken, plus her right limb and both arms hurt from limping a long way on crutches. She was also acutely aware of the weight of her draw string bag hanging off her shoulders. It was not particularly heavy, although she did think she had rather too much in it, but more the two lightweight items at the bottom of it that seemed to add to the burden. She had sneaked off before sunrise, taking comfort in the remaining night and thick fog to hide her culpability from carrying the illegal capsicums. But now it was daylight and vapours were starting to lift. She had considered borrowing a tumbrel and driver from Elder Cenok's stables, as she usually would. But her business in Loke was entirely illegitimate, so out of guilt she decided to just walk in order to not arouse suspicions.

At last she arrived in Loke; she would quickly find Jin the cook and be free of her contraband. She had seldom visited the village in the past and did not know it well. It was mostly just dwellings, in the centre of the village was a general store and the overseer's office on one side of the road, the other side had a metal forge with an eating establishment beside it. The restaurant was still closed and she felt very conspicuous hanging around the middle of the street with her bright red bag, she cringed - _even the colour of the bag acts as a beacon to draw attention to it._ The few people about scrutinised her suspiciously.

She wandered a little further up the road out the other side of the village. Partly to not loiter in the middle of town and partly to check out something she had seen when she returned from the jungle.

Just out of the village was the high inner jungle wall; there to protect the village in case any nasty animals breached the outer wall. It had an open gate into the fields beyond; nothing had breached the outer wall in many years so the gate was always open. Beside the gate was a rectangular enclosure, the inner jungle wall formed the back wall of it. She was sure this was the slaves' barracks. She heard yelling from the other side of the enclosure and could see the gate to the enclosure was being opened. The mist had lifted by now and she did not want to be seen, so she hid in a bush by the road. She saw a group of slaves being mustered out the gate. She could see Aberaif amongst them. He was easy to spot as he stood head and shoulders taller than everyone else. She managed to look at his face, he looked miserable.

"Keep moving!" she heard another yell, followed by CRACK: the slave driver just whipped a slave, the poor slave was not even doing anything wrong. Tresia gasped.

"You filthy slaves, you need to work harder today than yesterday, or I might really get angry." The new slave driver was obviously not as fair as Wilfor, he was quite short too. Tresia had never met Wilfor, but she already liked him. CRACK, this time he whipped Aberaif who again was not doing anything wrong. Tresia winced as she saw it. She had a mind to leave her bush and go tell this new guy to stop being so cruel. But she felt that might be counterproductive. She kept hiding and trembled with anguish. The group of slaves soon disappeared out the open gate and another two lots of slaves appeared, one lot went to the nearby sawmill and the other also went out the gate.

The barracks inside the walls appeared empty. She hobbled over to the gate and peered inside.

"Hello!" she called out.

There was no reply; she went in. The tall stone walls had broken glass on the top; she guessed that was to stop the slaves climbing it. Stone construction was unusual for Caffan. Timber was mainly used for building there, there was always plenty of timber the rate the jungle was been cleared. It was so plentiful that vast quantities were sent away on the riverboat to be sold elsewhere.

In the middle was a courtyard with dirty mats on the ground as an eating area. There were two latrines on the back wall, one was much bigger than the others, obviously for Aberaif. Near the latrines a stream had being diverted and flowed fresh water onto a concrete pad, no doubt for washing. Aside from the latrines the only other buildings were two sleeping quarters and a cottage that was clearly for a slave driver. The slaves did everything outside except for sleeping and toileting. Most of the bunks were in one building. Near the far end of the courtyard there was one sleeping hut with a solitary bed in it. The roof was much taller than the other buildings as was the door. The bed inside was also huge; she knew that must be where Aberaif slept. She longed to leave him a message. _But how?_ She had no pen and paper with her and she did not know if he could even read. _A capsicum?_ But if they searched his bunk room he could get in major trouble. _Her necklace?_ It was from his homeland, _yes that would do_. She took off her emerald necklace and left it in his bedding so he would find it.

She departed the barracks, on the way out she noticed a closed small gate with a lock on it. Hoping that the eating establishment would now be open she headed back to the village. On the edge of town a beautiful young woman was departing from her dwelling. She was trying to manage a small boy with sullen eyes and a young girl who was crying. The most striking feature of both the beautiful lady and her son was they both had beautiful golden coloured eyes, very unusual for Caffan.

"I don't want to go to school, I want to see Daddy," the little girl with green eyes told her mother.

The mum cuddled her daughter, "I know Tere, Mummy wants Daddy to come back too. But you be a good girl and catch the tumbrel into school today."

"Can you come with me?" Tere pleaded.

"I'd love to sweetheart, but I have so much to do here. I'll come to pick you up though."

Tresia approached and asked, "Are you Ave-Maria?"

"Yes, why?" Ave-Maria examined her visitor, looking at her crutches.

"Sorry, I'm Tresia. Your husband went missing looking for me. I'm so, so sorry."

Ave-Maria burst into tears and came and gave her a hug. "I have to get Tere to the school tumbrel now; but please come by later for a cup of tea."

Tresia was shocked, she expected Ave-Maria to be mad at her. After all if she had not crashed her balloon, none of this would have happened. But instead she invited her for a drink.

"Ok, I have some stuff to do in the village too, but I will swing by later," she promised. "I'm sure they are doing fine in the jungle and will find their way out soon."

"I hope so. The kids miss him so much," Ave-Maria wept; "so do I,"

'I'll walk with you to the tumbrel, if you don't mind being slowed down by a cripple."

So Tresia hobbled with the family to the waiting tumbrel. It left from the centre of the village.

"Does the public tumbrel go often?" Tresia asked.

"Why, Yes. Several trips a day. One Drac for an adult or a half Drac for a child."

"Oh," said Tresia. _That would have been so much easier than hobbling all the way here -_ she thought. Her privileged position living under Cenok's umbrella meant she had no knowledge of simple local amenities, like public transport. She felt stupid because of course the locals had to get around somehow.

"But, at the moment the driver lets me go for free, since...since..." Ave-Maria looked like she was about to burst into tears again.

The sadness in her golden eyes touched Tresia, she put a hand on her shoulder, "It's ok, Ave-Maria," she whispered.

"Please, call me Ave."

"Ok, Ave. See you later." Tresia smiled to herself, imagining what Aberaif would have to say about her using Ave-Maria's abbreviated name.

Tere reluctantly got on the tumbrel with some other children plus a few adults. The tahtor dragged them off to Newbsrus. Ave-Maria and little Jeb walked back up the road towards their dwelling.

Tresia examined the restaurant she was outside of. The front was all walled off except for an open gate. A big sign hung above the gate. 'JIN PALACE' it stated boldly.

"What are YOU doing here?" an accusing male voice demanded from behind her.

Tresia jumped with fright and turned to see Erdminger glaring at her.

"I have a knife to sharpen, so was looking for a cook," she replied. Pulling the knife out of the bright red drawstring bag she instinctively pointed it at him.

"And could none of the three cooks in Newbsrus sharpen your knife?" Erdminger knew of Jin's reputation, but he could never catch Jin red-handed.

"I heard that Jin is great at sharpening knives!"

"Really, what's in the bag?"

"Just some stuff."

"You won't mind me looking then, Elder Cenok is not here to protect his precious little Amira today." Erdminger ignored the knife and grabbed her bag.

"You know it's not polite to look through a woman's bag, you brute." She felt that people overestimated her position as an heir to Cenok, it was not all it was cracked up to be.

He started sifting through the bag: he pulled out a few items of clothing. He grunted with disgust, these were clothes that only someone with money could afford. He figured the girl in front of him had never done an honest day's work in her life, so she did not deserve such luxury items.

"You won't find anything but a few of my clothes," Tresia said with her best poker face. She was panicking inside, she was already in a lot of trouble with elder Cenok, it was about to get much worse.

Erdminger then pulled out an item that consisted of a strip of red material attached to a woven purple cord. It suddenly dawned on him that he was holding onto a piece of racy women's underclothing in the middle of the village street. He blushed and stuffed all the clothes back into the bag, and handed it back to her. "You have no business here. Go back to Newbsrus!"

"It's my business to know what my business is! I'm sure Elder would love to hear that it was you that sent Wilfor into the forest to get lost!"

"Are you threatening me girl?" Erdminger was visibly enraged. He looked towards the knife pointing at him.

Tresia was not sure if he might get violent if he pushed him any further. And he would be able to claim self-defence if she still had the knife pointed at him. She put the knife back in the bag, "No, I'm just here to get my knife sharpened."

"The locals here don't like strangers. Especially uppercut folk from Newbsrus, you would do well to stay away!" Erdminger warned.

Tresia turned away and tried to politely exit the situation, "Now have a nice day, overseer."

Erdminger kicked the ground and stormed off. Tresia breathed a long sigh of relief as she turned to enter Jin Palace. That was too close, she would need a better hiding spot next time.

As she entered through the gates she counted a few other patrons seated on cushions around the very low tables. She felt their icy stares stabbing into her, they certainly did not seem to welcome strangers here. Jin Palace was nearly all outdoors surrounded by a high fence. A counter was towards the back of the area and behind that was a young looking lady with flaming red hair, and blue eyes was cooking up some food. The girl glanced up and shouted, "With you in a second." She then continued finishing what she was doing for a couple more minutes before approaching Tresia who was by now waiting at the counter.

"A drink?" the lady questioned rather coldly.

"Yes, I think I need one! What do you recommend?" she did not often drink, but felt she required one today.

"The cider is good, two Dracs?"

"Yes, cider sounds lovely."

The girl poured her a cider shoved it in front of her and returned to stirring a pot. Tresia did enjoy the drink, very crisp and refreshing, as she finished the redhead returned and asked suspiciously, "Anything else?"

"Actually I'm looking for Jin," Tresia said.

"What for?" came a sharp reply.

"I have a knife to sharpen," pulling out her kitchen knife.

The girl grabbed the knife from her and pressed the pointed end into Tresia's back so she could feel the sharpness through her garment. In a low whisper the girl scolded, "You're not from here; yet you came all this way with a bung leg to get a vegetable knife sharpened? I wasn't born yesterday. Why are you really here?"

"I might have some other business with Jin, when can I come back to see him?"

"You can't see him?" The girl's voice return to normal with a hint of annoyance in the tone. The knife remained in place.

"Why not."

"Because Jin is not a him."

Tresia figured out who the girl might be; "Are you Jin?"

The knife was withdrawn from her back, "Yes, and who might you be?"

"Tresia."

"Tresia, the Tresia?" Jin placed a cupped hand into the air brought it down swirling onto the tablet while making a crashing noise with her mouth.

"The very one?" Obviously the story of her crashing into the jungle and burning it down had got around.

"How old are you?"

Tresia could not believe Jin was rude enough to ask her that; still she needed to do business with her, "Eighteen, nearly nineteen." She was too scared of the crazy redhead to do anything but tell the truth.

"So young." Jin scoffed. "Well, you have a lot of nerve showing up here in Loke, after all that you have done! Ave-Maria's husband is still missing you know."

Tresia could tell that as far as Jin was concerned it was all her fault. "So sorry, I never meant..."

Jin stopped her mid-sentence. "He'll be dead. Ave will get over him quick enough, plenty of better men out there."

Tresia was shocked about how unconcerned Jin was to Wilfor's disappearance. Still she had other business to attend to, "I might have found something in the jungle that you could be interested in!" She rummaged around her bag and pulled a purple capsicum to the top, she wondered how old Jin was, but dared not ask.

Jin saw it and quickly closed the bag whispering, "Not here." Then in a much louder voice, "You better come around the back. That knife of yours; it looks very blunt."

She was ushered behind the bar, past the stove with a pot of the soup of the day simmering on top of it. Jin paused by a small machine with a crank. She cranked the handle a few times then fed Tresia's knife in, and then pulled the blade out again. From there they went through a door into a small windowless room, mainly used as a pantry for food, there was a perpetual lamp burning on the wall to provide illumination. A bench was along one end of it. Jin took the capsicums and looked at them carefully. Using Tresia's newly sharpened knife she cut a thin slither off.

"Nice and sharp now," Jin boasted.

"That's good." Tresia said nervously. It was hardly comforting to know the lady that held a knife to her back, now had an even sharper one.

Jin sniffed the slice carefully before putting it in her mouth and slowly chewing it. Tresia saw Jin's face light up and smile in the candle light. Then when Jin caught herself and put a serious look on her face. "It's ok," whispered Jin, "not the best, I'll give you 100 Dracs for the two."

_100 Dracs that's a lot of money_ -Tresia thought. It occurred to her that Jin offered that much too easily. She had no idea of the value, but it had to be higher than that. "Only 100; for that I may as well keep them," she quietly bluffed while reaching back toward the capsicums.

"Well what do you want for them?"

"300 Dracs," Tresia wildly inflated the figure.

"300 Dracs, you're out of your mind girl. 150 take it or leave it."

"250," Tresia counter offered.

"Ok then, 200 Dracs and that really is the last offer."

"Deal then." Tresia agreed. Jin reached under the bench and pulled out a money box. She counted out 200 Dracs and handed it to Tresia.

Once she had the money Tresia added, "I have another 39 of these. You want them too for the same price?"

"Well I'm interested, but I sure don't carry that sort of cash about. And since you got so many to get rid of how about lowering the price."

They haggled a bit more before agreeing on 85 Dracs each, on the condition Jin could inspect each one before she bought it. Still that was a lot of money, she would not need to rely on Cenok's generosity, which after her crash was reduced to zero. Next came the discussion about payment. Jin could pay about half in Dracs but she would need to pay the rest in goods of services.

"I have good contacts," assured Jin, "I can get you just about anything you need."

"How about paper? Lots and lots of paper," Tresia was pondering her return to the Awai, and really could not think of anything else.

"I've never had that request before, but I'll ask my contacts and get an answer to you soon."

"Red paper, if that's possible," Tresia added.

"Will see what I can do! Anything else."

"A small furnace, for say a hot air balloon?"

"A furnace. That will be easy! But don't be setting the jungle on fire again."

"I won't." Tresia did not even know when she would fly it once it was built. It took a long time to inflate and it's not something that could be done in secret, surely Elder Cenok would find out before she even left the ground. Perhaps she would wait till after she was married to build it, surely Yrrab would let her do that.

By the time Tresia left Jin Palace it seemed that Jin had warmed up to her somewhat; Tresia did not completely fear for her life around her. _Just as well_ \- she thought, as she would be visiting a lot in the next little while.

10

Tresia departed Jin Palace satisfied that things had gone reasonably well. They had decided that it was too risky to bring all the capsicums at once. But she would bring three or four a day depending on how easily she could hide them. Jin had suggested a false floor in her bag, she would look at sewing one when she got home. Maybe Jin was not quite as crazy as she first appeared.

Tresia approached Ave-Maria's dwelling. She watched as Ave-Maria stoked the fire on her stove and then opened a cupboard to retrieve a couple of cups, which she placed on the ground beside the cooker. The cooking and eating areas of Ave-Maria's dwelling were visible from the road. Her young son was nearby playing with a dog.

"Hi," Tresia called out.

"Tresia," Ave-Maria turned around to see her guest. Looking all around her she hung her head down in shame. "So sorry about the mess, I meant to clean it before you got here. But I just can't seem to get on top of anything at the moment."

"Don't worry about it," she handed her some beautiful red chrysanthemums she had found growing beside the road. "I picked these for you."

"Oh, thank you." Ave-Maria sounded surprised as she grabbed another cup from the cupboard and put the flowers in it and placed it in the centre of her low table. She then called her son over, "Jeb, can you walk to the stream and get mummy some more water."

"Ok mummy." The small boy grabbed a small container, "Come on Psicko!" The dog followed as Jeb wandered a couple of dwellings down the road to a stream.

Tresia sat down on a cushion, she noted it felt full of straw and not as comfortable as she was used to, plus she noted the fabric was worn, the table was also rough cut, not like the polished surface she had at home.

"Sashileaf tea," Ave-Maria said as she passed the cup over to her. Tresia could not help but stare at her beautiful golden eyes.

"Thank you," Tresia tried to sound appreciative, but Sashileaf wasn't really considered a proper tea, it would never be served at her home. "Do you want me to help you clean up?"

"Really, oh thank you, Your Nan is coming after school is out. I really should have the place clean for her."

"Yes, I'll definitely help then." Tresia replied, knowing that as nice as Nan was, she was a real stickler for cleanliness. "How well do you know Nan?"

"I have never met her; but everyone feels sorry for me, so she has insisted on a visit."

"She will probably bring a cake," Tresia informed. It was obvious that Ave-Maria would rather not have the attention.

"Kids make such a mess you know? Have you got any yourself?" Ave-Maria questioned.

"No, I'm still single. Well I'm actually engaged, I'm only nineteen, at least I will be soon."

"Oh, Yes I married Wilfor when I was nineteen. Tere came soon after, she has her father's eyes. Congratulations on being engaged; who is the lucky guy?"

"Amyr Yrrab from Hutibo."

"Amyr! Wow, congratulations. Do you love him?"

"Well he is nice guy, but I only met him two days ago. What's love anyway?"

"Oh, love. It's when you think about them every second, when you can't wait to see each other again. Perhaps it will grow between you two."

It occurred to Tresia that she had not stopped thinking about Aberaif since she saw him last and she longed to see him again. But it could not be love, that would be stupid; she could simply not be in love with a slave.

The two of them got to work cleaning and they continued chatting. Tresia liked Ave-Maria, she was so unassuming. Tresia felt so guilty; she was to blame for Wilfor being missing. Yet Ave-Maria was so forgiving and non-judgmental. She also felt guilty about the lies she had told her mum and Nan about the cracks in the Awai, and guilty about the Capsicums, plus seeing Aberaif whipped and miserable tore her up too. Plus now she felt guilty of thinking of a man who was not her fiancé.

In the end she told Ave-Maria absolutely everything, only skipping what Octe had told her about Erdminger sending Wilfor into the jungle; better Wilfor stayed a hero. She had been so hung up with it all it was a relief to get it all off her chest.

Ave-Maria listened intently and just seemed to know the right time to interject and add her bit. Tresia half expected her to go and get Erdminger and have her arrested. But she did not; instead she went into the sleeping hut of her dwelling, a rough sawn timber room where the whole family slept. She came out and presented Tresia with a key.

"Here, you might want to use this."

"A key, what does this unlock?" Tresia was puzzled.

"It's the small gate to the slave's barracks. Wilfor's spare key. The poor sod is always losing his key so he keeps a spare here. I'll need it back when he comes home, though. I think you need to go and see this Aberaif again. Plus it may help you to free him someday."

"Really, thank you. Here I am unloading all my stuff on you, and yet you are the one dealing with a missing husband."

"No it's fine, I feel better having someone to talk to too, and hearing other people's problems too. I won't say anything to anyone. You know Wilfor and I married for love."

"What do you mean?"

"Well I was an illegitimate child, raised by my mother. I don't even know who my father is."

"Well, have you asked your mum?"

"She won't say a thing about him. The only thing I know is he is not from around here and I must have got my eye colour from him, but mum won't even admit that."

"Your eyes are beautiful."

Ave-Maria blushed, her whole life she was embarrassed by her eyes because they made her different. "We married for love, but it sure caused major problems. Especially for Wilfor, His parents had already planned to marry him to someone else, but they were too slow. He insisted on marrying me."

"Problems?"

"Well, Wilfor is a descendant of Cenok, not firstborn like you. But all the same, it caused a major stir him marrying a misbegotten girl, especially given my mother's reputation. His family pretty much disowned him. He was forced into a job minding slaves on the jungles edge. He hates the job; but he is so sweet, tells me it's worth it just to be with me." Ave-Maria managed to smile, for the first time in a couple of days.

"Oh, that is sweet. I'm sure he is ok."

"His parents got over it, as soon as the grandchildren came. But my mum however makes it no secret what she thinks of Wilfor, bet she is secretly gloating over his disappearance."

"I'm sure that is not the case," Tresia could not imagine someone being that cold.

"Oh, it is for my mother." Ave-Maria reassured her. "Sounds like you need to come to Loke a bit. If anyone asks why; you're coming to see me. It's time to go to pick up Tere from Newbsrus."

"Shoot, I'm late too!" Tresia was meant to be meeting Yrrab a few hours ago. "I'll come with you. Thank you so much, may I use your outhouse before we go?"

"Why yes, we have our own now. We used to share with a few neighbours but Wilfor got our own built. He was mightily pleased with it."

Tresia thought that an outhouse was a strange thing to be pleased with, although she had to admit it was a very nice one, out of place compared to the rest of the dwelling. Nearby was a wash room; making up the last building of the dwelling.

As they got near to the centre of the village Jeb asked, "Can I stay with Gran?"

Ave-Maria sighed, "I guess so; if it's ok with her."

As they past Jin Palace Jeb yelled out "Gran!"

Jin instantly appeared at the entrance, "My favourite boy, come and give Gran a big hug."

Ave-Maria did the unnecessary introductions, "Tresia, I believe you have already met my drug dealing mother, Jin."

"Fruit," corrected Jin, "just fruit."

The tumbrel ride back to Newbsrus was so much easier than Tresia's long hobble to Loke. They sat in the middle row directly behind the driver. This tumbrel was slower than her ride with Yrrab the previous evening. This tahtor had a much heavier load to pull, with several people on the tumbrel. Tahtors, could only ever be used by themselves. If two were yoked together they would simply fight and destroy stuff.

"Oh, how often do these tumbrels run?" Tresia questioned Ave-Maria.

"Approximately once each hour of the day. First one leaves at Newbsrus at about half past six and the last one departs Loke at about a quarter after ten."

"Really, why so late?"

"Jin Palace closes at ten," Ave-Maria replied. "But the fare is two Dracs for any tumbrel after seven at night."

"Oh, that's great news." Tresia said enthusiastically.

The driver, who had been eavesdropping, called out, "Wow you must really like the nightlife at Jin Palace," He had a bandana wrapped around his face to ward out the dust as he held a stick with an apple in front of the nameless tahtor. It was still fast enough to generate a cloud of dust.

"Yes, yes I do." Tresia smiled as she replied, she had been wondering how she could sneak in to see Aberaif and still get back home again.

Tresia looked back up at the Awai as the journey continued, through the dust whipping against her face she watched it glistened in the sunlight, it looked so thin and delicate from the ground. She still thought it was beautiful and she could not understand why most people simply ignored it.

"You want to go back up there again, don't you?" Ave-Maria said after looking at her new friend gazing at the sky.

"It's stupid after nearly dying the first time, but yes, yes I do. I have been firmly grounded though."

"What is so special about the Awai?"

For the rest of the short trip Tresia shared her excitement of new discoveries and how no one had explored or knew anything about the Awai. Yet she had discovered it was made of very cool water but there was so much more to learn. Before she could delve any deeper into the subject the tumbrel stopped at the school. The driver removed the apple from in front the beast, though the animal kept running. He then skilfully used blinders on sticks to cover the animal's eyes. Once the animal could not see where it was going it quickly came to a halt. Another person waiting at the stop grabbed the reins of the tahtor, whilst shouting at the passengers to be careful disembarking. He then quickly tied the animal to a post to restrain it further.

"Lovely to meet you," Tresia told Ave-Maria as they both clamoured off the tumbrel.

"Yes, you too. Tomorrow there is an Airmutt contest between the Caffan Lashers and the Galyamouth Whoops, normally Wilfor would take the afternoon off and take the kids, but I'll have to take them. Want to come along?"

Tresia normally did not have any interest in a contest, but she thought it might be fun. "Why sure. I think Yrrab would have returned to Hutibo by then too."

"I'll meet you here at the same time. Thank you so much for helping clean up today," Ave-Maria said as she went off to collect Tere.

Tresia also got off the tumbrel and looked down the road to see smoke rising from the big blue auto-tumbrel of Elder Cenok. It rarely had reason to park outside the school, and a bunch of kids had gathered around it to examine it.

"How is your foot," asked Nan, she had spotted Tresia in the crowd.

Tresia had not notice any improvement, but responded, "It's feeling good, thanks."

"Why are you using the public tumbrel? You can use a tahtor and tumbrel from the stables."

"Well, I spent some time with Ave-Maria."

"Yes poor girl; good on you for taking time to spend with someone who is less fortunate than you, very altruistic."

"I suppose," Tresia answered, Ave-Maria had spent more time counselling her than vice-versa.

"Now since you're here, who is this Ave-Maria girl? I'm meeting her here but I don't think I have ever met her before."

Tresia pointed out Ave-Maria, Nan sought her out and took her and Tere back to Loke in the blue motorised tumbrel.

Tresia saw her young sister, Trasia, also waiting at the school, "Hey Sis," she said.

"Tresia, is it true?" her sister asked.

"Is what true?" Tresia was puzzled.

"Is the Awai really unstable? Are there really cracks in it? Is it going to melt like butter?" there was a hint of trepidation in her sister's voice.

"Not really cracks," she tried to reassure her sister, she wondered where Trasia had heard the rumour from. "But I need to go back up to the Awai and take some more measurements."

"But it destroyed your balloon and nearly killed you. It must be dangerous up there."

"That was only because I touched the top of the balloon on the Awai."

Trasia gasped, "It's so bad up there, it caused your balloon to pop!"

Tresia was trying to think how to reassure her sister when their Dad appeared to walk Trasia home.

"Hi darling," Dad came and kissed her on the cheek. "Where have you been? Yrrab is waiting at home for you!"

"Dad! Yes, I went for a walk this morning and it turned into a very long walk."

"Oh," Fifthe seemed satisfied with the explanation, but she was sure her mother would not be. "Your crash has caused a bit of an uproar in the family."

"How so?" Bad luck seemed to be following her at the moment.

"It's Elder Cenok, he saw how much that fire cleared the jungle. He wants to burn more of it down."

"But he can't; I only lit it by accident. It was awful dad. All those dead animals." She then guiltily admitted, "I even had to eat some of them to survive." Reflecting further she asked, "If my fire cleared so much jungle why does he need to burn down more?"

"Well your fire burnt in a big wedge, it's not really practical to fence that shape, so we can't use it. So he wants to burn more down. So he can fence it."

"Dad, I saw the animals burn to death before my eyes."

Trasia started crying; she loved animals. Her Dad gave her a cuddle before replying to Tresia, "I think we need to talk about this later. It's more than little ears can bear."

"Ok, Dad"

"But the only reason we have managed to convince him not to burn down any more forest is because the slave driver Wilfor is still in there. Even so, he thinks Wilfor must already be dead. Who can survive in that jungle for long? So if he doesn't return soon, the fire might get lit anyway." Her Dad considered things for a bit before adding, "Still we didn't approach it from the dead animal point of view, perhaps that might help convince him. I'll need you to come along when we discuss it next."

"OK Dad," she was reluctant to go along, but the last thing she wanted is another jungle fire. Such a terrible situation, and once more directly related to her crashing her balloon. She could not even talk to Ave-Maria about it. Imagine on top of her husband being missing the threat of him being burnt to death by their greedy ancestor.

Fifthe and Trasia turned to walk home, "You coming?" he asked.

"I need to get a few things on the way home, will be back shortly."

"Don't be long," Fifthe said as he left. As soon as he did Tresia heard a voice addressing her from behind.

"Tresia, what is this we hear about the Awai being unstable?"

Tresia turn to look who was talking to her, it was a group of parents from the school but no one she recognised. "Well, it is probably fine, but I do think we need some more research just to be sure."

"But you saw cracks, didn't you?"

"Well, I think it was just the way the light was hitting it, if I go back I'll find out for sure."

"Well when are you going back?"

"Um, I don't know. My balloon got wrecked and it is difficult to build a new one."

"Well let's hope you can sort something out soon." The group of concerned parents departed.

On the way home, she stopped at the material store to buy some sewing materials for her bag. The shop assistant also engaged her in conversation about the stability of the Awai. She was beginning to regret starting the rumour about the Awai being unstable.

By the time she got back to her house she was exhausted. Her sore foot throbbed, her day's activities would hardly count as the rest the doctor ordered. Her mother gave her a disapproving look as Yrrab rushed up to her.

"Where have you been?" he asked concerned, "You should be resting your foot."

"Oh, I thought a walk might do it good. Think I over did it though!"

"Well we still have the rest of the day. What do want to do?"

"Well I hear there is a great place to eat in Loke. We never went back to Loke on our tour yesterday."

"Why sure. I'll go get the Tumbrel."

"Mum, Yrrab and I will be out for dinner?" Tresia informed Leza.

"Hmmmf," Her mother grunted an unimpressed reply; she was clearly still annoyed with her disappearance that morning. Her mother often cooked the evening meal; she was a great cook. Still, Tresia could not understand why she did not get the servants to deliver it; like most of Cenok's heirs did.

As Yrrab went off Tresia return to her room and stuffed a few capsicums into the bottom of her bag. There was no time to sew a false floor, but she would risk it, it would be very unlikely she would be stopped when going with Amyr Yrrab; she was correct, Erdminger was nowhere to be seen.

Yrrab looked around Jin Palace. "Quality establishment here!" It was not a place an Amyr like him would usually visit. It was dirty; the general patronage consisted of two groups: locals from Loke, who were by far the most respectable folk there, and then general low life from all over Caffan. Tresia and Yrrab got plenty of stares from the other patrons.

"Do you like it?" Tresia asked feeling uncomfortable with her choice of dining locations.

"I'm game to give it a go."

Jin's cooking was quite delicious. Jin even came over to her table, she 'accidentally' took Tresia bag when she returned to the pantry, but she quickly realised her 'mistake' and returned it. Yrrab never suspected a thing.

As they enjoyed their after dinner fruit the evening sun appeared low on the horizon. "I love this time of day," she explained to Yrrab. Together they watched the beautiful colours of the spectacular Ceatha plus the orange hue of the sunset. Yrrab even reach out and put an arm around Tresia, she did not protest. But although Tresia was with Yrrab, she could not help but think of Aberaif. Where was he? Had he been whipped again? How could she free him, had he found the little memento she left him that morning?

11

"Get up you lazy, filthy slaves." Aberaif was awoken the following morning by the new guy screaming.

Her opened his eyes and looked at his right hand as he slowly unclenched his huge fist. He gazed at the emerald clover through the dim morning light, he had gone to sleep clutching onto it. He had found it as he went to bed the night before. It reminded him of both home and Tresia. She had been there! He was sure that once she got back to normal life she would have forgotten all about him. She had grated on him initially with her insisting on calling him 'Aberaif'; now he longed that he could hear her call him that again.

He could not stay in bed for long. The necklace was stowed back in his bedding. As he arose he winced at the welts from the lashes he received yesterday. The new guy, Vanize, was very liberal on the amount of times he used the whip. After putting on his work culottes he went out into the courtyard.

"Quarter an hour, then we leave!" Vanize warned while cracking his whip, thankfully at thin air this time.

Quarter an hour! Hardly enough time to eat and use the latrine. Aberaif rushed his lentil breakfast down, he only got meat at night. He then went to the giant latrine to sit on his giant throne. He just made it back out to the courtyard when Vanize was mustering his team up. There were three teams. One lot worked on the farm, another worked in the sawmill. And of course Aberaif's team who primarily cleared the forest. Yesterday morning they finished dismantling the old jungle wall with the afternoon spent putting another gate in the new wall.

Vanize lined them up on the courtyard. He suffered badly from short angry man syndrome. He bellowed at them, "Today, you are cutting the trees down between the new gate and where the fire was! No slacking or I might lose my temper!"

Aberaif was sure that his temper was permanently lost. No one spoke; to speak up would bring attention to oneself and that would likely attract the end of Vanize's whip.

"I don't use cork shot in my carbine either; only steel," Vanize further warned.

They marched in silence, firstly to the saw mill. There they collected the motorised saw and two mammoths to help pull it.

They arrived at the first tree to be cut down. It was a very large redwood, twice as tall as those that would grow after the great deluge. The saw was placed in position and Stevit lit a fire to heat the engine up. After a time he spun a flywheel to get the momentum going and the engine clicked into life. It went slowly at first but started cranking faster as the fire got hotter. While Stevit tended the fire Aberaif positioned a large metal saw blade against the trunk of the tree. The long blade was slightly longer than the girth of the tree. One end was attached to the motor via a flywheel and a set of pulleys which were hanging slack. The other end of the blade was attached to a support which allowed the saw to go back and forth. The other slaves cleared the undergrowth and small trees from around the area.

Aberaif stayed at the support end of the blade. Stevit yelled across to him, "Ready?"

"You bet ya."

Stevit pulled a level and the blade started moving quickly back and forward. Aberaif positioned his end of the blade so the serrated edged started cutting through the bark. It was hard heavy work, his muscles bulged as he pushed against the blade support; digging the blade deeper into the tree. He enjoyed the hard work. It was the only time in his life where he was totally focused on what he was doing and able to escape the depressing reality of his miserable life. Plus he was momentarily safe from the cruelty of the slave drivers. The job was potentially dangerous so Vanize and Nihliz viewed from a safe distance.

The blade got caught on the wood and the pulleys started slipping. Stevit disengaged the lever. "Raif the blade is stuck," he called out.

"All good, I'll sort it." Aberaif manually moved the blade to get it moving again. Once it was free Stevit engaged the lever again.

The first cut was made to about a third of the diameter of the tree. Stevit loosened the pulleys and they removed the blade. The second cut was made above the first coming down at an angle toward the first. It was the most difficult cut as the saw was higher and on an angle. As Aberaif placed the moving blade on the tree he started to ponder:

● _Why had Tresia left the clover on his bed?_

● _Could she really set him free?_

● _She was so beautiful, she had lovely green eyes that matched the emerald. Plus lovely curly brown hair._

● _What would a girl like her have to do with a slave, and a giant at that?_ Back in Nore it was not unknown for giants and non-giants to marry but it was definitely frowned upon. He then started thinking about home.

The blade stopped moving, and Stevit yelled, "Hey, what are you doing? Are you looking to get us both a whipping?"

Aberaif looked at his cut, he was about a blade width into it. The angle was all wrong, too steep. "Sorry, a bit distracted. Let's go again!"

He looked across to Vanize, the drivers had fortunately not seemed to notice his small mistake. Wilfor would have not worried about such a little error; even if he had noticed it, which was extremely unlikely. Aberaif was sure Vanize would make a big deal of it. They started again slightly higher than the first cut. It was perfect this time, the blade did not even bind up. Stevit stopped the blade and they removed it from its slot. Both of them got crowbars and levered the wedge they had cut out of the tree.

"What is the meaning of this?" Vanize had come over and was pointing at the wedge of timber they had removed.

"It's how we cut down trees, we need to take this wedge out first and then cut the other side," Stevit explained.

CRACK, the whip landed on Stevit's back, "I know that you moron, explain why there is another cut in the wedge! You're wasting time making useless cuts."

"Sorry sir," Aberaif apologised, "it won't happen again."

CRACK, Aberaif felt the sting on his back.

"It better not;" Vanize demanded, "now stop wasting time! Back to work." CRACK, he gave Aberaif another one just for good measure.

Vanize retreated back to his previous spot, going the long way about it, in order to scold and whip some of the slaves who were clearing the undergrowth.

"That was a bit brutal," Nihliz said on Vanize's return.

"You got to show them who's boss. They are only slaves, whip them into shape."

"Wilfor told me that if you want them to work hard you got to show them respect. 'Treat them good and they will treat you good.' That's what he used to say."

"Well fat lot of good that did him, he is now missing."

"Well, they hid in the jungle to escape the ranting of Cenok."

"Not to rescue the girl."

"Nah, Wilfor was sure she was dead. Anyway before he went missing he consistently had the best work rates of all the slave drivers in Caffan. And he did it by treating them well and only using the whip when they deserved it."

"Hmmmm." Vanize was unconvinced. "Won't they work harder if they are scared of been beaten."

"Look at Raif and Stevit; they are now moving as slowly as they think they can get away with. If you hadn't whipped them they would be already be on the next cut."

"Hmmmm," Vanize pondered, Nihliz was suggesting a major change to his style.

Back by the tree Stevit asked, "What's up with you?" as they moved the still running engine with the help of a mammoth.

"Oh, I was just thinking of the girl we rescued from the jungle." The slaves had very limited female contract so spending time with a girl was a big deal.

"Well can you not think of her while we are sawing!"

"Yeah, ok. Sorry."

"What is she like?"

"Pretty," Aberaif thought that was an understatement, "an Amira! She is a direct heir to Elder Cenok."

"Well she is well out of your league. Bet you wish she was your slave driver." Stevit grinned.

Aberaif blushed as he untied the engine from the mammoth. She was engaged to be married anyway, he wished he could forget about her. They positioned the blade against the tree. The last cut was directly opposite but slightly higher than the first. They cut a third of the way through. At that point Stevit rang a loud bell that was attached to the engine. This was a signal to everyone else that the tree was soon going to fall, and to be well clear of it. The rest of the slaves stopped clearing the undergrowth and vacated to the safe place near the slave drivers. Even Vanize allowed this pause in work.

The cuts began to merge and the tree teetered before cracking and falling. Stevit rang the bell again as the mighty redwood tree crashed heavily to the ground. Aberaif and Stevit watched satisfied as the tree landed exactly where they had planned it to drop, which was through the open jungle wall gate into the open area beyond it. The rest of the slaves immediately headed towards the fallen tree to start pruning the branches off with hand saws and axes.

As they did Vanize needlessly yelled, "Hurry up you indolent filth."

The engine was then moved along the fallen tree. Aberaif selected a shorter stiffer blade which was leaned up against the trunk. The high end was up in the air so they were unable to use a support for it with this cut. Engaging the motor they sawed through the trunk. As the blade buried into the wood Aberaif stood above it and drove wedges into the top of the cut with a hammer to prevent the blade from binding up. This part was very easy work for him and he was well able to daydream about a beautiful girl. As he worked he started singing, quietly at first. But soon his rich booming baritone was heard above the clicking of the motor and the other noises on the tree. He timed the song to the clicking of the motor, and his hammer struck the wedges on the beat too. It was a haunting ballad from long ago in Nore, about a forbidden romance that could never be. An Amira was in love with a peasant. Vanize would normally try to stop his slaves singing. His ethos was slaves obviously deserved their lot, so how dare sing to try and be happy. But the giant had the most amazing voice he had ever heard, so he let him continue. Plus he was pondering what Nihliz told him. He considered that voice completely wasted on a slave.

The song finished with the king sending the peasant out into battle, then getting the rest of the troops to abandon him so he was struck down and died. The Amira overcome with grief drowned herself in a lake. As he sung the last few bars of the song they finished the first cut. The blade was not long enough to completely sever the log in one cut. So they had to reposition to the other side to complete cutting the first section off. Once this was done the log was tied to the mammoths, who dragged it off to the sawmill. They repeated this process till the tree was split into several large logs for milling.

By the time they finished with the tree there was no time to start cutting another one down. They shut the jungle wall gate. This time they left all the saws and equipment by the jungle because they would need to use it again tomorrow. Vanize was not happy with the amount of progress. Loudly he let them all know his displeasure, however he thankfully did not resort to the whip, as he was still considering what Nihliz told him.

They stopped at a large stream on the way back to their barracks in order to wash up. This stream flowed from the Galya river, once it watered the jungle that was there, but now it was irrigating the farmland.

After cleaning themselves they returned to the barracks. Vanize left them in the care of Werdna, the night guard and returned to the village. They were given their dinner, cooked by some female slaves who were kept in another barracks a little way away. Aberaif's meal contained a generous helping of pork that evening. Most of the other slaves did not like the smell of the cooked pork. But they knew it smelled much worse at the other end.

A few of the slaves played a game with some 12 sided dice they had. But Aberaif returned to his bunk. He was so tall that he had a room to himself. All the other slaves had to share a room, but he would have to bend down constantly to fit in that room. For the first year he had done that but eventually, with the help of Octe, he had managed to convince them to build him his own room, and even his own latrine. Aberaif never suspected that Octe had ulterior olfactory motives for getting the work done. He stripped off his work clothes for he had a clean pair of culottes and another makeshift shirt for the barracks. He was sporting a couple new welts from Vanize's whip today. All because he was daydreaming about Tresia. He looked to see if there was any sign that she had been back but there was none. If only he could see and talk to her. Grabbing her emerald necklace he went to the door of his room and looked up at the beautiful rainbow coloured Ceatha in the evening Awai, plus the beautiful orange glow on the west horizon. He knew that somewhere nearby Tresia would be looking at the same Ceatha.

12

Early that same day Yrrab arrived at Tresia's home. He turned up with the servants who were delivering breakfast, hot from the cookhouse on Cenok's estate. He sat down next to Tresia and they both slurped porridge from the wooden bowls.

"Are you sure you can't come back to Hutibo with me?"

"No, I need to rest in order to heal up my foot." Tresia knew the excuse held little weight given how busy she had been.

"But a few days on a boat will be much more restful than being here."

"You really should go," Fifthe contributed to the conversation, Leza grunted approval for the statement in the background.

But Tresia knew she could not go; _how could she help Aberaif from Hutibo?_ "Seasickness, that won't help me relax my sore foot."

"Tresia," Fifthe said sternly, "you travelled with me to Artris, not once did you get seasick."

"Well I hid it well," Tresia protested. "What about the meeting to stop Cenok burning down the jungle."

"I can handle that without you, this is more important for your future."

"So you'll come then?" Yrrab asked.

"Of course she will," Leza insisted, "I'll go pack your bags." Leza made towards her room.

_The capsicums! Her mother would surely see them hiding in her clothes._ "No mum, I want to pack myself," Tresia rushed towards her room.

"Great then," Leza said smiling.

Tresia realised that she didn't have a choice. She packed her bag and she limped the short distance to the river with Yrrab and the rest of her family, Yrrab carried her beloved Lyra. Trasia even missed the start of school to see her sister off. They got to the dock: a few jetties running perpendicular to the river's edge. A vessel called Harlequin, one of Cenok's timber carting vessels, was tied to the largest Jetty. It was packed with timber in order to take it to the port of Hutibo on the other side of the Naldim Sea. This particular vessel however had some plush cabins set aside for Cenok's heirs to travel in. Fifthe helped carry Tresia's bag down to the cabin and returned with her to the upper deck, Yrrab placed the Lyra in the room too. Tresia desperately was looking for a way out of having to go, but she could see none.

"You got everything?" Fifthe asked, "I know this captain, and once he starts moving he won't stop for anything."

"Yes, I think so," Tresia replied and smiled, she had an idea.

Fifthe gave Tresia a big hug, "Have a great trip. You'll be back in a couple of weeks for your wedding."

Trasia also came over and hugged her, "See you sis."

Her mother even smiled and waved as all the non-travellers departed from the boat. The engine was clicking away with smoke billowing out its furnace. The mooring ropes were let go and the captain put the large boat in reverse. And the vessel started moving slowly along the jetty, away from the shore.

"My Lyra, I can't travel without my Lyra," Tresia suddenly protested. She jumped up and limped on her crutches towards the side of the boat with the jetty.

"But your Lyra is in your cabin," responded Yrrab, "and we are already moving."

Tresia pretended not to hear and made a beeline to the side of the boat. Jumping from the moving boat onto the jetty would have been tricky with two good legs. With her bung left foot and crutches she made a complete hash of it. She misjudged the timing and she did not have enough power to make the gap, she fell straight into the river. She hit the water and submerged under. Regretting once again not learning to swim, she let her crutches go and desperately attempted to tread the surface. With so many spectators it didn't take long before someone from the shore jumped in and rescued her; dragging her to shore before swimming out again to retrieve her floating wooden crutches. She looked back at the boat. Yrrab was on there looking beside himself, she waved to show she was ok. He quickly waved back and then went to talk to the captain, no doubt to ask him to turn around. Her father was right, the boat was not stopping for anything and soon was disappearing down the river.

"What's the meaning of this?" Leza scolded as she and Fifthe came down to where Tresia was, soaking wet beside the river.

"Oh, I remember I'd forgot to pack my Lyra, so I just went to get it."

"But your Lyra is on the boat."

"It is?" Tresia faked a surprised voice.

"You stupid girl, you missed your boat," Fifthe retorted. "Yrrab has gone back to Hutibo without you!"

"You and your Lyra," yelled Leza. "It's bad enough you used to skip your swimming lessons as a kid to play your Lyra, but now you nearly drown trying to get it!"

The irony of it was not lost on Tresia, "So I missed the boat, that's such a shame!" She then clasped her hands over her head, "OH NO, now I really don't have my Lyra."

Neither of her parents replied. As they returned to their dwelling the atmosphere could be cut with a knife. Leza and Fifthe were not at all pleased with Tresia's stunt, getting off the boat like that. Once she was home she went and hid in her room until it was time for the school to get out. She would have dearly loved to have her Lyra to play to pass the time, alas it was on the slow boat to Hutibo, but at least she was not. She then told her parents she would go and get Trasia. At the school she met up with Trasia, Ave-Maria, Jeb and Tere. Jeb was wearing a Caffan Lashers shirt, white with a large green Parisienne tree on the front. The rare Parisienne tree was the province's emblem. They walked back past Tresia's place to drop her sister off. On the way Tresia told Ave-Maria the events of the morning, Tere & Trasia ran ahead playing games with each other.

"Well, I for one am glad you missed your boat." Ave-Maria told her.

"Thanks, you must be the only person; gosh you should've seen the look on poor Yrrab's face."

"I could imagine."

"Oh, do you think he really loves me? Cause surely he would have jumped in after me if it was truly love,"

Ave-Maria offered a solution, "Perhaps he can't swim."

"That must be it. Mum and Dad are hardly speaking to me."

They approached Tresia's home. "Ave-Maria!" Leza came out and gave her a brief hug. "Hope your still going ok. Any word?"

"No news sorry."

"So, why are you here with Tresia?" Leza curiously asked. "She is the whole reason Wilfor is missing!"

Tresia grimaced as her mother tried to pin blame on her once again, fortunately Ave-Maria seemed to totally ignore her remark

"Well Wilfor isn't here to take Jeb to the Airmutt contest so I have to, Tresia is coming with me."

"You're going to a contest with my daughter?" Leza sounded surprised, "I'm sure you could find more interesting people to go with, she doesn't care for it, you know."

Tresia wondered if her mum ever could say anything nice about her.

The Airmutt field was on the edge of town past where Tresia lived. They walked there from the school. Tresia could keep up on her crutches, but she found it frustrating to have to use them. A few people approached her as she walked along; to talk about the Awai melting. She looked up at it, the sunlight shimmering through it. Octe had been right: folks will care more about something if they perceive it to be a problem. She was sure most of them would not normally give the Awai a second thought.

The rectangular Airmutt field had a large pole, nearly twice as tall as a normal person, in the middle of the field. The field was surrounded by a track for racing tahtors and bordering that was a raised grassy embankment where fans could sit and watch either the races or the Airmutt contest. At the halfway line on one side of the field there was a small roofless grandstand with seating. Alongside the grandstand was a bookmaker with a small line of people waiting to make bets of the outcome of the contest. There was also a food vendor beside that. They paid the few Dracs entry fee and Ave-Maria took them towards a spot on the embankment.

"Mummy will the Lashers win today?" Jeb asked Ave-Maria.

"I hope so,"

"They didn't last time."

Ave-Maria had not gone to that contest, but she did recalled Wilfor coming home despondent. He had gone and spent an inordinate amount of time contemplating life in his outhouse after that contest.

"Tresia! What are you doing here?" it was Nan.

Tresia had not been to an Airmutt contest since she was a child, "Oh hi Nan, I've come with Ave-Maria."

"Yes, Ave-Maria. Nice to see you again too."

"You too. Thanks for the cake Nan, it was delicious."

"No problem. This is exciting. The Lashers are playing well, if they win this contest they get to challenge the T. Rexs to be the champions." Nan was talking fast, she was fanatical about Airmutt contests. "But the Whoops can be dangerous, I don't know if I'd trust them to play fair. And they are better at the pole."

"I guess we will see," Tresia said, not having the faintest clue what Nan was on about.

"Where are you sitting?" Nan asked.

"We usually find a spot over there somewhere," Ave-Maria pointed.

"What with all the general riff-raff! No come and sit in the stand with me, I insist."

They had to pass the food vendors and Tresia bought them all a selection of nuts to munch on and a freshly squeezed fruit drink each. Nan then stood in the bookmakers queue and put 20 Dracs on the Whoops.

"Why did you bet on the Whoops? Surely you support the local team!" Ave-Maria was horrified.

"Oh, I do. But if I bet on the Lashers and they lose then I get really upset. At least this way if the Lashers lose I still get to win something."

Ave-Maria was far from convinced, she felt that betting against one's own team was akin to treason. Tresia could kind of see the twisted logic in it, not that she even cared who won.

They took their seats and waited for the match to begin. The nine players each side took to the opposite sides of the field near the base of the tall pole. A small bell rang and the contest began.

Tresia had no idea about the spectacle she was witnessing. Initially there seemed to be a massive brawl at the base of the pole.

Ave-Maria saw Tresia looking confused and attempted to explain, "You see," she pointed to the top of the pole, "both teams are trying to be the first to get the mutt. It starts the game up in the air."

On top of the pole was the 'mutt', a small bright orange rectangular hemp bag filled with grain.

"Hmmmm, both teams are trying to get the mutt." she repeated, trying to sound interested. Though it did confuse her, "Why not just make two mutts? That way each team could have one and not have to fight for it."

"Because then they wouldn't have to fight for it." Ave-Maria was puzzled by the stupid question. "And there are points for being the team to get it down from the pole."

"I see," lied Tresia; she did not get it.

One of the Whoop's players stood on his team mates shoulders and nearly grasped the mutt. Just before he did someone took the guy he was standing on out and he crashed heavily into the ground. Tresia grimaced at the poor man's fate thinking he would be injured, whilst the rest of the crowd cheered at the carnage. The man quickly got up again and re-joined the fray.

Finally one of the Whoops players scaled the pole successfully and threw the mutt to a teammate. The crowd all booed. The guy receiving the mutt promptly got attacked by the Lashers players who managed to get the mutt off him. The next stage of the contest was the players throwing the mutt to each other and whoever had it seemed to get pummelled by the players of the opposite team. The teams seemed to take turns at throwing the mutt and pummelling each other. It was all very confusing as to what was actually happening. Nan and Ave-Maria seemed to get very excited when one of the Lashers players caught the mutt near the far end of the pitch. The player just managed to throw it to another player standing over the far line before getting annihilated by three Whoops players. The bell rang and the crowd cheered.

"Woo-Hoo," Nan screamed.

"What happened?" Tresia asked.

"The Lashers just scored points!" Ave-Maria explained.

"Oh, is that good?"

"Yes, it is very good. Catch the mutt while standing over that line for more points."

"That's seems dumb, why would you do that?"

Ave-Maria tried to explain some of the basics of the contest to Tresia. She had met a few people in her time who did not understand the game. Before she met Wilfor she was even one of them. But Tresia took the cake on all of them. For someone as smart as Tresia, she simply could not grasp the concept of the contest.

"Why not just take the mutt down that end when the other team aren't trying to kill you? That would be far safer."

"But then how would you know who would win!"

The mutt was put back on top of the pole and the bell rung and the contest started again. The next phase of the contest saw another big fracas at the base of the pole. Once again a Whoops player managed to scale the pole. This time he climbed on top of it and stood boldly on top while two of his teammates ran up opposite sides of the field.

"What are they doing now?" Tresia asked.

"Running a decoy, so our players won't know which one he is going to throw it to."

"Oh," Tresia failed to understand.

The guy on top of the pole threw the mutt to the guy on the left, who got pulverised by a couple of Lasher players, who then wrestled the mutt off him.

"Ouch, don't these guys get hurt doing that all the time?"

"They are used to it, but sometimes they do get injured."

"Why risk injury just to get a mutt over the line?"

Ave-Maria could see she was wasting her time trying to explain things further so she replied with, "May I have some more nuts?"

"Sure," Tresia replied as she handed the bag of nuts over.

By now Tresia had completely lost interest as to what was happening on the field, she could not make any sense of it at all. She started watching the crowd instead. There were certainly some very passionate people about. There were a lot of groans as the Whoops scored.

"That's not fair," wailed Nan, clearly disappointed.

Nan was normally a quiet gentle person, but not when the Lashers were playing. She was like a woman possessed, Tresia had never seen her yelling, cursing and screaming before. What's more she was yelling and screaming at people who could not possibly hear her above the rest of the crowd. Quite some time later the Whoops scored again and finally the contest ended.

"So the Whoops won then?" she asked.

"Only half, hopefully the Lashers will do better in the next spell. They are good when coming from behind," Nan answered quickly and semi out of breath from all her screaming.

Tresia felt deflated as she realised she had to endure more of the contest. The second half seemed to take an age, but the Lashers pulled through and won in the closing minute of the contest.

"What a contest, that was so close but they got there in the end," Nan said pleased not to collect on her bet.

"Sure was," agreed Ave-Maria.

"Daddy will be so happy," Jeb said, his golden eyes proudly looking up at his mother.

"Yes, yes he will be," Ave-Maria told her son.

They left the field and walked towards the school so Ave-Maria and family could catch the tumbrel back to Loke.

"I'm planning to use the key you gave me tonight," Tresia told Ave-Maria.

"Exciting. Are you nervous?"

"Oh yeah. There is the chance of getting caught, plus what if he doesn't want to see me?" Tresia was not sure which one scared her the most.

"Tresia you're beautiful, I'm sure he would want to see you."

"Thanks, can I come to your place before I see Aberaif."

"You can, except I won't be there. I'm helping out mum tonight, she is always busy after a contest. The kids are being looked after by her parents. They are the forgers beside Jin palace. I practically grew up with them."

"Ok. I guess I'll take the tumbrel in after dark then, can I still say I'm coming to see you. Mum and Dad would kill me if they knew the real reason."

"Of course you can, but come back with me now. Jin would welcome your help, and we can alibi you to say you never left Jin Palace."

"You'd do that for me?"

"Of course I would."

They ducked back into Tresia's dwelling. Both her parents glared at her but neither spoke. She changed outfit and asked Ave-Maria, who was chatting to Leza, what she thought.

Ave-Maria replied matter-of-factly, "Well it will be dark so it really doesn't matter. But you look lovely, the green enhances the colour of your eye's it's perfect."

'You think so?"

"Yes, you look gorgeous," Ave-Maria was not lying either, "better get moving to catch the tumbrel."

Tresia also grabbed a bag and hid some capsicums in it. Upon leaving announced that she would be back late. As her parents appeared not to be talking to her, they did not object. They made it to the tumbrel just in time and had another dusty ride to Loke. Jeb provided a four year old's commentary of the Airmutt contest the whole way.

On arriving at Loke, Ave-Maria took her children to their great-grandparents at the metal forge and Tresia headed into Jin Palace. Jin saw her arrive with her bag over her shoulder. She ushered her into her pantry and examined the capsicums. Tresia was nervous about Jin, but she appeared happy enough and paid Tresia. By the time they had finished the transaction Ave-Maria arrived.

"Ave, thanks for helping out tonight," Jin thanked her daughter politely before being completely insensitive. "Don't worry, you'll get over Wilfor quick enough."

"Mother! No I won't and I'm sure he is still ok, but this will help me keep my mind off things." Ave-Maria then went on to explain Tresia's plans, finishing with, "I said she could help out here till it was dark."

"So you're engaged to that guy you were here with last night?" Jin interrogated.

"You bought Yrrab here?" Ave-Maria exclaimed, "Wish I'd known so I could have checked him out."

"Yes," Tresia replied to both questions at once.

Jin continued, "And you walked off the side of a ship so you can now sneak off to see another man at night?"

Jin's questioning made Tresia feel very uncomfortable and more than a little guilty. "It was more like a large boat, and it's only cause I need to help free him from slavery."

"Girl, this is good; I love a good saga. But listen to Auntie Jin! Make sure you end up with the man with the money; every time." Jin gave her sage advice.

"Oh, it's not like that." Tresia blushed, "And I still will marry Yrrab, I just need to free Aberaif first."

Jin grinned, and stared at her crutches. "Can you still clean tables?"

"Of course," Tresia responded; she had never cleaned a table in her life.

13

By the time the Awai lit up with the beautiful colours of the Ceatha, Tresia was busy cleaning tables in the dining area of Jin Palace. She did not have time to admire the Awai that night, she only briefly looked up after finishing one table before moving to another table. She used a cleaning rag to wipe all the crumbs and spilt cider off the very low tables and onto the ground, trying to avoid getting the cushions dirty as she did. The clean was rather cursory, there seemed to be dirt that was permanently in place. She knew it was harder because of her sore foot, still she found work exhausting and could not imagine having to work all day like most folks. Collecting a couple of dirty bowls and mugs she started her way back to the kitchen.

Jin Palace was a busy place. Folks of ill-repute from all around Caffan had come for drinks or a meal, many were celebrating the Lasher's victory. Ave-Maria was getting plenty of sympathy from patrons as she served them at the counter. Plus a few other staff were helping. Whilst Tresia had found the patrons initially suspicious of her, as soon as they found out she knew Jin and Ave-Maria they warmed up to her somewhat. She had never associated with so much riff-raff before, her folks would not be happy if they knew.

As Tresia returned to the kitchen, awkwardly carrying the two plates and mugs whilst hobbling on crutches, a short little man stopped her, "Where is my dinner I ordered it a while ago it should be here by now." He then looked at her wooden crutches, "I can't believe they would employ a cripple!"

He looked familiar, she thought, as she answered, "Sorry, I'll find out for you, it's very busy in here tonight." She was particularly struck that he had the same golden eye colour as Ave-Maria. _Could he be her dad? -_ she wondered _._

"Well, I expect better service than this," he said rudely. "Bad enough having to work with those incompetent slaves all day. The dinner is ordered under the name Vanize."

That is where she had seen him before, he was the new slave driver that whipped Aberaif and the other slave. She returned to the kitchen clearly agitated, and also intrigued by his eye colour.

"What's up honey?" asked Jin.

"Order for Vanize, he wants to know where it is."

"Just putting it on the plate now. What did he do to upset you?"

"That's the guy they got to replace Wilfor, miserable scoundrel, he is the one I saw whipping the slaves for no reason yesterday, including Aberaif."

"Whipping really; well I think I have a special seasoning just for him then!" smiled Jin. She looked under her bench and pulled out a little bottle and sprinkled it on the meal.

Jin then took the plate out to Vanize; "Here you are sir, sorry about the delay."

"About bloody time!" came the short reply.

Tresia spied on the exchange; there was no hint that either Jin or Vanize recognised each other, the rude man was clearly not Ave-Maria's father. As Jin returned to the kitchen Tresia asked, "What was that seasoning you put on his plate?"

"Bachroch," Jin replied as she plated up another plate. "It's pretty flavourless to us, but the Wraith Wasps love it."

"The Wraith Wasps?"

"Yes, they live in squadrons in the jungle. Tomorrow your mate there will be up by the jungle with his sweat full of Bachroch."

"A Wraith squadron attack?"

"We can only hope," Jin smiled. "Now, it is dark outside. Don't you have somewhere else you have to be?"

#

Tresia exited Jin Palace via the back entrance. The moon was now a thin crescent in the evening sky, it's light just enough to guide her to the barracks as she made her way out of the village cumbersomely on her crutches. Arriving she peered inside through a crack in the barracks main gate. The courtyard was empty, candle light flickered in the slave driver's quarters, plus she could hear the sound of a bone-flute being played badly; the night guard was evidently learning the instrument. Repositioning to the small gate she got the key out of her pocket and carefully put it in the lock and rotated the key clockwise. Click, the lock unlatched allowing her to open the gate. The gate creaked as she gradually opened it, to her it seemed to be an awful racket, next time she should bring a bit of nut-oil. It creaked again as she closed and locked it again.

"Oh dear," she mouthed to herself shaking her head as she heard another tune being massacred. Still it was comforting to hear the flute playing continue.

She sneaked as best she could to the barracks at the far end of the yard. Sneaking using crutches is not an easy feat and she was surprised when she got to the building that no one had stopped her and the 'music' continued. Slowly she pulled up the insect net covering the entrance. She was nervous: would he even want to see her? And also guilt ridden: she should not be there. She was engaged to Yrrab yet she felt compelled to see Aberaif again. How would he react when she told him that she had not managed to convince Cenok to free him?

The net lifted slowly, Aberaif wondered what trouble he was in to warrant a visit that time of night! But the flute was still playing in the background so he was confused. He held his breath, but then in the moonlight he saw the silhouette of a beautiful lady using crutches and not Werdna the night guard. His heart skipped a beat as she slowly closed the door and hobbled to the side of his sleeping pad and sat down.

"Hi." she said softly.

"Amira," he sat up in the bed. And grabbed onto her hand and held it. Her fingers were so small compared to his. "You came to see me!" He said in disbelief.

"Of course I did Aberaif."

He was holding onto her necklace in his other hand. "I think this looks better on you than me," holding it out to her.

Releasing her hand from his grip she reached out and collected her necklace and put it back on, "Thank you for looking after it."

Aberaif wished it was daylight so he could see the emerald match the hue of her beautiful eyes.

"I have something else for you, Aberaif." She passed a paper bag over to him.

Unravelling the bag he felt inside. "Sweets, well I guess it is the autumn." He stuck one in his mouth and sucked. "Yum," sweetness, he had not tasted candy since the autumn before he was captured.

Tresia giggled and reached out for his hand again. He grabbed it and brought her closer into an embrace with her sitting on his lap. She enjoyed being close to him again, feeling his muscles next to her. Although, feeling extremely guilty about it all at the same time.

"How is your foot?"

"I'm supposed to be resting it for four weeks. But I've hardly been resting."

"And are you engaged to the Amyr?"

"Yes I'm supposed to be with him on a boat to Hutibo now. But I swum back to shore so I could see you."

"But you can't swim!"

"Well, a slight flaw in the plan. It was closer to drowning, but I'm here."

Aberaif laughed quietly. She told him about things that had happened since they last saw each other. He was not surprised to hear she had had no luck trying to free him. He was concerned about Cenok wanting to burn the jungle down; what would that mean for the slaves? He grinned when he heard about the Bachroch in Vanize's dinner. And promised to let her know what happened the next time they met.

"How are you doing?" she asked him, "I hear the new guy isn't the greatest."

"Nah, he is the worst," He told her about how things had changed without Octe, Fregwit, Nimm and Wilfor. Adding at the end, "Wilfor's wife sounds lovely, never pictured him as a family man."

"Yes, let's hope they find their way out of the jungle." Tresia agreed. Far in the distance the sound of the bone-flute continued. "Does the night guard always play the flute?"

"Oh Werdna; yes every night, Pretty terrible isn't he."

"Well for someone that practices every night he sure is bad at it. Plus it's out of tune, one of the holes is in the wrong place."

"How do you know that?"

"Well I play a couple of instruments. I can play the flute, but the Lyra is what I like best. Although it's currently on its way to Hutibo." Tresia added.

"Are you any good?"

"Yeah, I'm pretty handy with it. Certainly better than that awful noise."

"I'd love to hear it one day." Aberaif said savouring the moment: a beautiful girl he was falling for sitting on his lap, talking tenderly together. Although the fact she was engaged to someone else did bother him. Still he did not want the moment to end or anything to spoil it. Then he felt that feeling in his stomach, the feeling of trapped gas needing to escape. He tried to hold it in, but failed noisily.

Tresia instinctively held her fingers over her nose, "Woah, Raif! You got to warn a girl before letting one go!"

"Sorry," he said sheepishly.

She smiled and kissed him on the cheek, "I think it's all that meat you eat, Aberaif."

"Really?" the thought of turning vegetarian sounded really depressing. His life was bad enough already.

"Yeah," she giggled as she admitted, "I let a couple of good ones rip after eating all that meat in the jungle."

They both giggled quietly before sitting in awkward silence together; each one thinking they should say something profound, but not knowing what that might be.

Finally Tresia spoke up, "Why don't we just run away."

"I'd love to, but where can I run. I've thought about it so many times since I've been here."

"Have you?" She knew some slaves did escape occasionally.

"Where could I go? I'm the only giant around. I can't hide or disguise myself. I would be recaptured within a day. The only place I could run to hide is the jungle. And folks aren't known for coming out of there alive."

"I hope they do survive," Tresia suddenly thinking of Wilfor and his slaves, "poor Ave-Maria and her kids miss Wilfor so much."

'I never thought I'd say this about a slave driver; but so do I." Aberaif paused before stating, "And I can't run away with you anyway?"

"What's wrong with running away with me Aberaif?" she asked slightly offended.

"Well, you can hardly even walk at the moment, let alone run."

"Oh," she smiled seeing his point "I guess not till this foot heals up."

"And you're getting married next month."

"Oh yeah!" She had momentarily forgotten about that. The reality of marrying Yrrab in a month weighed heavy again on her heart. She moved off Aberaif's lap and sat down beside him. Tresia thought for a little bit, just running away was rash and could never work; she would need a much better plan. But what?

Eventually Tresia had to catch the tumbrel back to Newbsrus.

"Thanks for the sweets," he acknowledged.

She gave him a kiss on the cheek before she departed. As she went out the door Aberaif grabbed another sweet and sucked. _Beautiful -_ he thought.

The music had finished now. Tresia snuck out to the gate with her cumbersome crutches. Things were going well; she was as silent as a mouse getting to the gate. She leaned her right crutch against the wall in order to get out the key. Taking it from her pocket she unlocked the gate from the inside and slowly creaked it open. Grabbing the key out, she then put it into the outside keyhole with the gate still open. She reach out to retrieve her right crutch, CRASH, she loudly knocked her crutch over.

She heard stirring in the slave driver's quarters. Rather than retrieve the crutch she panicked and quickly closed and locked the gate. Taking the key out again she hobbled away with only her left crutch. She dared not look back, but she was sure she heard noises.

Aberaif heard the crash, he got up and looked out his door. He could see Werdna had also come out to investigate. He could not see Tresia, hopefully she made it away unseen. He thought it best to stay in his hut, as going out might incriminate him. He saw Werdna pick up something off the ground, one of Tresia's crutches! They would know she had been here. There was nothing he could do about it, but he knew that they may link her to him, and that could spell trouble. And worse, it would be much harder for her to visit him again.

Tresia was devastated as she came in the back entrance to Jin Palace. They would now know she had been to see Aberaif. _How would she ever see him again, and how could she free him now?_ She was even more confused than before. She had hoped that seeing Aberaif again would confirm that he was just a slave. She would help free him but there was nothing else there. But instead her heart was aflutter at the thought of him.

"What's wrong honey?" Ave-Maria was out the back. She took one look at Tresia's face and came and gave her a hug. She was expecting the giant had rejected her.

"I dropped my crutch in the slaves' barracks. They will know I was there." Tears were streaming down her face.

"So, was Aberaif happy to see you?"

"Yes. He loved the candy, great idea thanks!"

"Don't mention it." Ave-Maria replied.

Jin was also out the back of Jin Palace. She stopped cleaning up some dishes and came over. "It's ok," she said, as she grabbed Tresia's remaining wooden crutch and threw it into the fire.

"Hey what are you doing? I still need that to walk with."

Jin smiled slyly before disappearing out the back entrance.

Tresia was dumbfounded as she watched her one remaining crutch burn up in the fire. "Your mother is crazy, I needed that."

"Yes she is. But she is good at destroying evidence."

Tresia was still confused, "How am I supposed to go home now?"

Before Ave-Maria could reply Jin reappeared holding two ornate, if slightly rusty steel crutches. "Crazy huh? Twenty years ago, when Ave was just a little girl, I broke my leg. Do you think a metal forger would let his daughter use wooden crutches for eight weeks?"

"Uhmm!" Tresia blushed that she had been overheard.

"I meant to find these to give to you earlier, lucky I didn't. That wooden crutch they found with the slaves can't possibly be yours, because you have metal crutches. And you always have done!"

Tresia was beyond words, she had only met these two ladies the day before and already she would be lost without them.

"Now go and be seen cleaning some tables." Jin changed her tone and barked an order at Tresia. "You have been helping out the back here the rest of the time. There is no way you could have dropped a crutch in the slaves quarters if you were here all night, is there?"

"Oh ok, I guess not."

"Hurry up, get to work!" Jin scowled angrily, before murmuring under her breath, "So hard to get good help these days!"

Tresia ceded to Jin's order and grabbed a cleaning rag and after wiping her eyes dry with it, she went out and cleaned some tables. She was surprised that the steel crutches were both lighter and more comfortable than the wooden ones, Jin's dad was sure a fine craftsman.

Before long it was closing time. And the last tumbrel to Newbsrus was leaving. She paid her two Dracs and climbed aboard the crowded tumbrel. The driver removed the blinders off the dinosaur and it accelerated away, chasing after the apple that was just out of reach. She felt conspicuous with the new crutches. She was sure someone would notice the change, but no one did. Still it was dark now. The true test would come in the light of morning.

14

"What is the meaning of this?" The angry little man looked like he was going to burst as he addressed all the slaves. He held a wooden crutch in the air. The night guard had found it the evening before. No one dared to reply, after all aside from one very tall, well-muscled slave; everyone else was just as mystified. Vanize walked up to an unfortunate slave who worked in the sawmill, the poor guy trembled with fear as Vanize glared at him.

"Well, answer me!" he commanded to the slave.

"Um, arrrgh. I don't know sir," the slave honestly replied.

"I don't think it would be him," Nihliz said.

CRACK, Vanize ignored Nihliz and the whip went searing into the poor slaves shoulder; it was clearly not the answer Vanize had wanted to hear. The slave reeled back and fell to the ground in agony. "Well one of you must know something!" Beads of sweat poured off his beetroot coloured face.

Nihliz considered telling Vanize about the giant rescuing the girl with the sore foot. But he was also scared of Vanize and at that point the local overseer arrived. He walked into the yard and approached Vanize.

"I hear you have a situation here!" Erdminger stated.

"Yes, the night guy heard a noise last night and found this crutch. No one will tell me where it is from. Though I'm sure they must know something," Vanize had calmed down just slightly since Erdminger had arrived.

"Tresia! That crutch belongs to Tresia." Erdminger explained.

Aberaif's heart sunk as he heard them discuss her.

"Who is that, not Cenok's heir?" Vanize asked.

"The very one. The giant and the old man rescued her four days ago from the jungle."

"I saw a girl with crutches at Jin Palace last night."

"That would be her." Erdminger replied. He took the crutch off Vanize before strolling up to Aberaif, "Giant, can you explain how this ended up here." He pointed the end of the crutch up towards his face.

"No idea, sir. It's not mine, it's far too small for me. And look I don't have a sore leg, so I don't need a crutch." Aberaif held his left foot out in front of him and jiggled it and then repeated the process with his right foot.

"She came to see you, didn't she, last night?"

"Who came to see me?" Aberaif asked. "And why would anyone come to see me? I'm just a lowly giant."

Erdminger could see he was getting nowhere with the giant. No matter, he would take the matter up with Cenok and they would go see the girl. She was up to something! And now he had undeniable proof she was somewhere she should not be. He turned to Vanize, "Leave this with me, I'll sort it out."

Erdminger took the crutch and departed towards town.

Forgetting completely about the conversation he had with Nihliz the previous day, Vanize thought that Erdminger's interrogation technique was well and truly lacking. He had not whipped Aberaif even once while questioning him. He walked up to Aberaif and demanded, "Do you know how that crutch got there?"

"I already told the overseer everything. He is going to sort it out now, isn't he?" Aberaif stepped toward Vanize and looked down. He towered over Vanize.

Vanize realised that giant had positioned himself close enough that he could not even get a good swing of his whip. Plus the giant was right, the overseer did say he was going to sort it. Backing off he commanded his jungle team and Nihliz to come with him and they departed for the jungles edge.

#

Tresia was just leaving her dwelling in Newbsrus to catch the tumbrel to Loke. She had four capsicums hidden in the bottom of her bag. Then she saw Cenok's blue automobile stop in front of their dwelling.

"Tresia!" Cenok yelled at her from the road.

She looked over in his direction, Erdminger was also in the vehicle and he was holding her wooden crutch. This visit was hardly unexpected, she was thankful the rest of her family had already left for the day. "Yes Elder."

"Erdminger says he found this crutch that belongs to you in the slaves' barracks near Loke. Have you been to see the giant?" he said angrily.

"No, Elder, I have my two crutches here, it can't possibly be mine!" she yelled back.

Erdminger piped up loudly, "It has to be yours! There is no one else's it could be!"

"Let me look," she hobbled over and picked the crutch out of Erdminger's hand. "Why this is a wooden crutch and you can clearly see my ones are metal."

They all looked at her crutches. The metal work had decorations: a Tyrannosaurus surrounded by flowers. _Interesting taste in art_ \- Tresia thought.

"Hmmmmm," Cenok hummed, addressing Erdminger, "are you sure it's Tresia's? It could belong to someone else."

"They're quite rusty?" noted Erdminger.

"Deliberately so, part of the aesthetic appeal," explained Tresia wondering how anyone could believe the yarn she was spinning. Cenok looked half convinced, Erdminger - not so much.

Tresia put the wooden crutch back into the automobile.

"But she was even in Loke last night," Erdminger protested as he got out of the vehicle.

"I was working at Jin Palace all evening; I never left except to come back here." Tresia was slightly horrified; she had never told so many lies in her whole life as this week, and what's more, they seemed easy to tell. "Ask Jin or Ave-Maria or anyone else who was there."

"What!" Cenok snapped, "What were you doing in Jin Palace? That rotten good for nothing Jin; you can't go there."

"Well since you stopped my allowance I had to find something to do, and Jin offered me to work for her."

Erdminger noticed her bag over her shoulder, "Cenok; I tell you she and Jin are up to something! Ask her what is in her bag."

"I'll show you what's in my bag!" Tresia said indignantly. She opened her bag and pulled out a metal water canister. Erdminger grabbed the metal canister removed the lid looked in and sniffed it, the contents looked and smelt like water. Then she pulled out a blue outfit with yellow embroidered flowers around the knee line, followed by another item of clothing. The next item was a notepad, she past the pad to Cenok who flicked through it; he saw it was filled with her notes about the Awai and the plans for a hot air balloon. Finally she pulled out a feather with the end trimmed to dip in writing die and finally a small bottle of writing die. Then she showed them both the bottom of the bag, "See, are you happy now?"

They looked in and just saw the bottom of the bag. She had finally sewed the false floor in that morning, just in the nick of time.

"Well there is nothing sinister in her bag, Erdminger. You surely must be mistaken about that too." Cenok stated.

Tresia repacked her bag. Erdminger frowned, he knew the crutch was hers and that she was hiding something in her bag; he just could not prove it. At that point the driver of the auto-tumbrel accidentally leaned on the clutch, the large front wheel moved forward and ran over Erdminger's right foot.

"Arrrgh," he screamed and held his foot up in the air. "You stupid idiot," he berated the driver who was very apologetic.

Tresia leaned over and picked up the wooden crutch from the vehicle, "Here you may need this."

He angrily grabbed the wooden crutch and hobbled off to the healer with it.

"Tresia, what is this nonsense I hear about the Awai being unstable, have you been starting rumours to try and get me to allow you to go back up there again?"

Her ancestor knew her too well, still she denied it, "No I just think we need to do more research on it to be sure."

"Well get those ideas out of your head because you are not building another balloon. Not while you are living in Caffan anyway. I've even gone to see the market keeper and instructed him that he is not to supply you with the special paper."

"Oh, Elder, it's not fair," she pretended to be upset; she had a whole lot of red paper arriving via Jin, it was due in the next day or so. Plus she was fairly sure Yrrab would let her build one in Hutibo.

"And I do not want you to have anything to do with that Jin Palace!"

"Jin isn't so bad when you get to know her."

"And I hear you jumped off a boat instead of going with your fiancé. Your parents picked out a good match for you there, I had nothing to do with it, even though a marriage to his family is a great business decision."

"Yrrab, is still coming back to marry me next month."

"Well, I have a good mind to put you on the next boat to Hutibo."

"No, I need to rest my foot."

"Well, Stay away from Loke; I better not hear you have been there, Tresia. That will keep you from the Giant and from Jin."

Tresia just stood there without replying.

"Oh and Fifthe wants you to come to a business meeting tomorrow, goodness knows why? You've yet to show any interest in this family enterprise we have going here. Except when you want to set my valuable slaves free."

The auto-tumbrel started to lumber off, a lot slower than a tahtor would pull it. She watched it disappear around a corner before she hobbled off to catch the tumbrel to Loke.

#

The healer examined Erdminger's foot. "Does this hurt?" he said as he pressed the bone beside the sore one,

"No, not too bad."

"What about here?" he pressed on the sore bit.

"Arrrgh," Erdminger withdrew his foot.

"I'll take that as a yes. What about here?" As he continued his investigation around the foot.

"No, the rest of it is fine, just that one spot."

"Interesting, this is the second time this week I've seen the exact same injury. You'd never guess but the last person I saw got it from falling from a hot air balloon. Stupid inventions, if we were meant to fly we would have had wings. How did you do yours?"

"Run over by Cenok's auto-tumbrel!"

"Ouch, another stupid invention. It won't be long before this new technology kills someone. Well we will bandage it up for tonight. Take this as a tea once per day." he handed him a powder. "And you will need to rest it for 4 weeks so you will need to get some crutches."

"I already have this one, where can I get another?"

"Down at Miyo the carpenters, he does pretty good crutches. Just don't be in a hurry."

"Why thank you," he wondered what he meant by that last statement.

Erdminger, then headed out and hobbled the short distance down the street to Miyo the carpenter. Hobbling around he saw Miyo busy making a stool. He had drilled holes into the seat part and he was carefully pressing the first leg into a hole.

"E hem!' Erdminger coughed to get the guys attention.

The guy completely ignored Erdminger; totally engrossed in the stool he was making. He reached out to get the second leg and pushed it into place.

"Excuse me," Erdminger said loudly.

The carpenter continued to work on the stool. Finally after an age, once the third and final leg was at last in place, he turned around and looked at Erdminger.

Slowly he said, "Sorry I'm not good at multitasking. Can I help you sir."

"Yes, I need another crutch."

"They say multitasking is not really a thing; you are just switching between two tasks rapidly. I prefer to finish something first and then start on the new thing."

"Yes, I see that is clearly the case."

Miyo then looked carefully at him and his crutch; after a good minute or two of looking he concluded, "You really need two new crutches, that one is too small for you! Can I have a look at it?"

Erdminger gave him the crutch.

"Where did you get this?"

"Well it was found at the slave quarters, no one seems to know where it came from!"

"It looks just like one I made earlier in the week. Yes, yes it is, it's made of red beech, and I remember this knot on the wood by the leg." He pointed out a knot patterned into the grain of the wood. "Do you know where the other one is?"

"No I don't. This person you made it for, it wouldn't be Tresia, Cenok's heir by any chance?" Erdminger asked.

Miyo stood there for quite some time before asking, "Is she in trouble? Because she really needs this crutch? Without it she would need to stay in bed."

"I just saw her, and she had two metal crutches. You did make her crutches out of wood didn't you, not steel?" Erdminger questioned further.

"I always use wood. If you want steel crutches you would need to see a forger; I think the one in Loke does crutches. She must have got some made up there and thrown out these ones."

"Yes she must have."

"But wood is better, cheaper and faster to make. It's five Dracs per crutch," he looked at the crutch given to him earlier, "though I could modify this one for you for only two Dracs."

Erdminger had a feeling Miyo did not know the meaning of faster as he waited to be measured. He had selected the cheaper option of getting Tresia's crutch modified and then another one made. Still it was almost worth the sore foot to gain valuable information from Miyo. He now knew for a fact that the crutch found in the slaves' quarters was Tresia's. She must have gone to see the giant, _but why?_ _And how was Jin involved?_ He would need to keep a very close eye on the comings and goings at Jin Palace!

15

Vanize was not just merely angry, he was fuming mad. The giant had out stared him and he had backed off without whipping the miserable slave like he deserved. His anger continued to simmer as they marched closer to the jungle. They arrived at the outer wall just as the last of the morning vapours finally lifted. He determined that he would make an example of Aberaif today. He had already whipped him once as they marched along. But the guy needed a proper lashing, he would need to catch him out on something and then he would get the hiding he needed. How dare he stand up to him like that!

The gate in the jungle wall was opened. The next tree to be cut down was selected and waiting. Stevit lit the fire while Aberaif chose the saw blade and got everything in position. Aberaif could feel the anger towards him emanating off Vanize. He knew his every move was being watched like a hawk, and that trouble was heading his way. Trouble did indeed greet him, but not the kind he was expecting - it was much worse.

"DINOSAURS!" Dougly called out from deeper in the jungle.

Aberaif looked towards where the voice came from. He saw pint sized Dougly sprinting towards the gate. He looked beyond him and could tell something was out there, even though he could not quite see them.

"Let's get out of here, Raif," Stevit suggested.

They dropped what they were doing and joined the rest of the slaves and ran out the open gate.

"What is going on here?" Vanize yelled angrily. All the slaves were coming back through the gate. They started to close it.

Nihliz answered, "Probably they are running from those." He pointed to two tyrannosaurs that crashed into the almost closed gate, breaking it. The huge beasts were over twice as tall as Aberaif with bright red skin.

The two mammoths panicked and ran away. The slightly larger of the dinosaurs chased after the mammoths. The other turned its attention to the humans at the gate.

"Run, Run." Stevit yelled. The slaves split into two groups. Half of them ran one way up the wall, the others ran the opposite direction. The tyrannosaur paused for a moment to consider its options before chasing after the group with Aberaif, Stevit, Vanize, Dougly and Nihliz.

"Back over the wall!" Stevit suggested.

Aberaif, Nihliz and Stevit quickly climbed the wall.

"Help, help," Vanize and Dougly screamed. Both men were too short to climb the wall without assistance.

Aberaif climbed back over to help, but it was too late. "Dougly! Nooooo," he screamed as he watched the filthy beast bite his fellow slave in two. The monster lifted its head into the air and shook it a few times to swallow Dougly's upper half.

Aberaif grabbed Vanize and tried to hoist him up over the wall.

"Grab the top of the wall." Aberaif urged Vanize.

Vanize grabbed the top of the wall and the pair on the opposite side of the wall climbed up to help him. But the dinosaur had finished swallowing its first morsel and it was hungry for more. Vanize looked over his shoulder and saw the large jaws of doom bearing down on him, He was about to be its second course. Vanize let go of the wall and dropped back to the ground. Aberaif was still holding the little man and he rolled the two of them through the legs of the beast, in a desperate attempt to avoid its jaws. The startled dinosaur pirouetted around to make another go at its prey.

"The Carbine. Shoot it with the carbine," Aberaif pleaded to Vanize.

Vanize quickly got out his weapon, BANG, a piece of cork flew out and bounced off the angry animals nose.

"I thought you only ever used steel shot!" Aberaif groaned, as they avoided the jaws again. This time he got Vanize to run between the legs and he avoided the jaws by faking to the left.

BANG, Nihliz shot from the wall. The steel shot hit the side of the dinosaur's neck. It was enough to hurt the beast, but not enough to do it any real damage. This distracted the dinosaur just enough that Aberaif and Vanize got back to the jungle wall. Aberaif lifted Vanize high over his head and this time Nihliz and Stevit pulled him over the wall. Aberaif started to climb himself.

"Raif, lookout," Stevit yelled.

The dinosaur had regained its composure and was coming back again. There was no time to climb the wall. He dropped to the ground, turned around, punching the tyrannosaur in the nose as he did, before rolling away to the right.

"Nice fluid move," Nihliz gave a brief commentary.

The giant beast turned toward the giant man, Aberaif ducked under its legs again. This time he reached up and grabbed hold of its tail. Jumping off the ground he lifted his legs up over the tail as well. The beast swished its tail with Aberaif dangling under it.

"Hold on, you got him," Nihliz cheered unhelpfully from beyond the wall.

Aberaif held on for a couple of shakes but on the third he just could not keep his grip and was sent flying into the jungle wall.

BANG, BANG. Two carbines unloaded into the monster as soon as Aberaif detached. This was enough for it to turn towards where the shots were coming from. It only saw the wall, Vanize and Nihliz were shooting through the narrow gaps. This gave Aberaif the chance he needed and he scaled the wall to safety.

The dinosaur charged the wall, it shook and vibrated, but it managed to hold together. Those on the other side trembled with fear and retreated down the wall some.

"I wonder how old the beast is?" Nihliz asked.

"The thing is trying to kill us and you wonder about its age!" Stevit replied incredulously.

"Well they live for many hundreds of years and reptiles never stop growing. To get so big they must be really old."

The beast took another charge at the wall. This time they could hear and see the timber cracking.

"They can eat nuts and fruit when they are small, but once they grow big they need meat to survive." Nihliz spouted off his dinosaur knowledge to the others who really did not care.

CRASH, the third charge broke some of the posts the wall only just maintaining its shape.

"Well get ready to help it grow bigger, next time it hits the fence it is through," Stevit replied.

The two slave drivers pointed their carbines at the spot on the wall where it was attacking and waited for it to crash through the wall. They waited, nothing.

Aberaif peered through a gap in the wall, "It's run off towards the village."

"I hope they close the inner wall gate in time." stated Stevit.

The group caught their breath and the other slaves joined back up with them. Vanize was in no condition to make any decisions, he was nearly killed, then saved by a slave that he had it in for. He could not believe he had been saved by a slave. It was far too much for him to emotionally process. Stevit suggested they should repair the wall and then go repair the gate. It was a good suggestion, they didn't want any more dinosaurs coming through the wall. Plus none of them wanted to go back to the village for a while. They got to work repairing the wall before heading back up towards the broken gate.

They just got to work repairing the gate when 'bzzz, bzzz, bzzz,' a group of wraith wasps were hanging around. _The Bachroch -_ Aberaif thought, it seemed like a funny idea when he was told about it last night but that was the last thing they needed now. A wasp landed on Vanize.

"Just relax, they will not sting if you don't harm them." Nihliz offered helpful advice.

"Get them away," protested Vanize. But now he had about ten wasps crawling around him. He stood perfectly still. The wasps just continued to mill around and land on Vanize. At least they hadn't stung yet. The whole time the slaves worked repairing the gate, he stood paralysed with fear as more and more wasps crawled around him.

#

The inner jungle wall is there to protect against breaches to the outer jungle wall. It was a far more substantial wall than the outer one, constructed of stone. It had been over 59 years since the last outer wall breach and unfortunately complacency had set in. The gates to the inner wall were always open. The farmers were often coming and going through the gate, so were the mammoths - hauling logs to the sawmill. It became too much of a hassle to constantly open and close it and there had not being a gatekeeper for about 20 years. So the gates were just left open. Plus there was no warning system in place either, so the village folk had no way of knowing that they needed to close the gates.

The mammoths had stop running and the two of them had cornered the other large beast by the inner wall, taking turns to jab their tusks into its thick hide. The other tyrannosaur came back from the wall and the two of them took on the mammoths. The tyrannosaurs were larger but the tusks of the mammoths proved too much for them to overcome, and a stalemate developed.

Panic ensued amongst the slaves working the fields witnessing the massive animals try and fight. They all ran back to the village and started closing the inner gate. The tyrannosaurs saw them run, they gave up on the mammoths, which ran away, and chased after the easier pray. The slaves almost shut the gate before the dinosaurs charged the gap and made it inside the inner wall. From there the slaves ran towards their barracks. All except two managed to get inside and close the gates. Acet, threw a stone at the beasts and ran the other way to divert the attention away from the others. His ruse worked and everyone else got to safety. He was eaten feet first; the slaves hiding safe in the barracks heard his horrific screams as he met his demise.

The other slave ran towards the village yelling, "Dinosaur, Dinosaur."

Tresia was nearly at Ave-Maria's dwelling when she saw and heard the slave. She looked up the street towards the inner wall and saw the two beasts headed down the road. Some of Ave-Maria's neighbours were also about; a few ran screaming into their sleeping huts, others joined the panicked slave heading towards the centre of the village.

Jin was there, she had been telling stories and playing with Jeb and Tere; the kids loved their grandmother. Ave-Maria had been cleaning up, hoping her mother did not corrupt her children too much. On seeing the slave running past she grabbed the children and ran inside her sleeping hut. Jin saw Tresia coming down the road and ran out to help her. Tresia got a burst of adrenaline and ran sore foot and all towards Jin, they both made it into Ave-Maria's little sleeping hut; where all five of them hid inside. Tresia had never been in a sleeping hut of ordinary folk before. She noted that the floor was just dirt, and that the sleeping mats were very thin with a course covering. There were gaps in the construction which were sealed up with dried mud. On a quick assessment she did not think she would like to sleep in there.

Jin poked out some dried mud from a crack and peered out at the beasts. "Ave, we have to get back to Jin Palace," she declared.

"But mum, it's too dangerous out there, we can't take the children."

Jin turned to Tresia, "Tresia, can you stay here and mind the kids."

"Ok." Tresia agreed, with her sore foot she could do little else.

"Ave, you need to come with me." Jin said.

Ave-Maria groaned with disapproval, "Won't the Caffan Emergency Crew take care of it?"

"That useless bunch of good for nothing men," Jin evidently had a low opinion of the emergency crew. "The village will be in rubble by the time they do anything. I think this situation needs a woman's touch!"

"More like an old Dragos," Ave-Maria said under her breath, just loud enough so Jin would hear.

"That's no way to speak of your mother!" Jin retorted.

Jin crept around the back of the sleeping hut with Ave-Maria begrudgingly following her. The two animals were right outside on the road, one of them noticed something. It saw movement coming from the little hut and took exception. Jin and Ave-Maria had ducked in behind the hut so the huge animal gave a loud low pitched squawk and attacked the hut. The room was only designed to provide shelter from the morning vapours and stop bugs from biting at night; it was not very substantial and was easily broken by the dinosaur. Tresia and the children were inside trying to hide when a huge set of teeth appeared through the wall towards them. Tere gave an ear piercing scream as the giant jaws of death enveloped them. Tresia could see they were about to be eaten. As a last resort she grabbed one of her crutches and shoved it into the monster's wide open mouth. The animal tried to bite down on its next meal, discovering that its mouth was wedged open by the crutch. It lurched back in fright and ran away from the house shaking its head to try and get rid of the obstruction.

Ave-Maria and Jin reappeared grabbing the children. Ave-Maria took them around the back of the half demolished hut to hide while Jin grabbed a sachet from Ave-Maria's cooking area and filled it with some sharp cooking skewers, before re-joining them. The dinosaur with Tresia's crutch stuck in its mouth ran blindly away shaking its head and destroying everything in its path. The other one was still milling about in front of Ave-Maria's dwelling.

"I'll provide a distraction. The rest of you get to Jin Palace." Jin commanded. "Ave, put the kids in the vault and get the Ares. Tere, Jeb give Gran a kiss for luck."

The terrified children both kissed their grandmother while Jin made some modifications to her attire. She was wearing an orange, ankle length skirt that matched her flaming red hair. Taking one of the skewers, she used it to make a hole in her skirt at about mid-thigh level. Tearing the fabric sideways she quickly turned her very modest skirt it into a fairly revealing mini skirt. Taking the torn off part she split the seam to give herself a large orange piece of material. She then grabbed a large stick that Jeb had being playing with and tied the cloth to it as a flag. Running out from behind the hut she waved the orange flag in the air towards the dinosaur in front of Ave-Maria's dwelling. There was no one else nearby, the rest of the village were either hiding in their sleeping huts or had retreated to the centre of the village.

"Come here you stinking brute, it's barbecue night at Jin Palace tonight!"

The tyrannosaur turned towards Jin and ran towards her with its mouth wide open. Jin was holding the flag directly in front of her. As the beast got closer she moved to the left, still keeping the orange flag in the same place. The beast attacked the flag and brushed past Jin. As it did she pulled the flag out of the way and tried to stab a skewer into the thick red hide. The first one she did not manage to pierce the skin and the skewer fell onto the ground.

While this was happening Tresia said, "Take the kids and go ahead. I'll come behind. That way it will go for me first and you'll keep the kids safer."

Ave-Maria picked up Jeb and grabbed Tere's hand and they started to run towards the centre of the village. Tresia followed as fast as she could, which given she was a cripple with only one crutch, was not as quick as she would have liked. Her left foot was really sore from the short run she had done on it before. She wondered what the 'Ares' Jin talked about was, she had never heard of it before.

Jin backed away from the beast and waved her flag again, she also shook her head and her beautiful red hair moved in sync with the orange material. The animal once again charged. This time she moved to the right and managed to sink a skewer into the tough red hide near its massive jaw. The beast roared in pain and jumped back a few steps. As it did she noticed that the beast had already been shot, with wounds to the side of the neck.

Jin also stepped back a few steps and waved her flag again shouting, "Take that savage beast. I got plenty more like that."

The dinosaur looked towards Jin, but then something else caught her attention. Tresia was still hobbling away towards the middle of the village. Ave-Maria and the kids were at least a safe distance away now. The animal turned towards Tresia and started running towards her.

"You don't eat my daughter's friend." Jin yelled as she saw it turn towards Tresia, dropping her flag she ran up to it. The only part of the massive animal she could reach was its legs. She jumped up onto its huge right leg. Wrapping her thighs around its hock and her arms around its thigh, while sinking a skewer into its giant thigh muscle with her right hand. She held on for dear life as the beast roared and shook its limb, trying to free itself from the thing now clinging to its leg and causing it pain. But as it moved it just caused the skewer to dig deeper causing more pain. The dinosaur circled a few times but could not dislodge Jin.

Ave-Maria made it to Jin Palace.

"Thank goodness you're here, I thought we were all going to die!" old Marjo, one of Ave-Maria's neighbours told her as she unlocked the main gate of Jin Palace. A panicked crowd was milling around the front of Jin Palace, desperately waiting to seek sanctuary behind its high walls; whilst morbidly watching Jin battle the beast up the road in the distance.

Ave Maria could not have anyone follow her into the restaurant, so she ignored Marjo. She opened the gate just a little and pushed her children through the narrow gap before following and quickly latching the gate closed from the inside.

"Hey let us in, we are going to die out here." There was banging and shouting coming from outside.

Ave-Maria did not respond, the villagers would forgive her soon enough. She rushed inside and went straight for the counter. Tere and Jeb were crying. She moved a keg of cider revealing a hole in the floorboard. Putting two fingers in the hole she lifted up the trap door into the vault. She went down the stairs with the two kids.

"Stay here and be brave, darlings. Don't touch anything."

The kids hugged each other, they were two terrified to touch anything anyway. Ave-Maria started hunting around the vault for what she needed, the 'Ares". She found the metal cylinders full of black powder and some long steel lances. She hurried these up the steps and stowed them by the closed gate, still with banging and shouting on the other side. Returning back to the vault she found a hollow steel tube with a shoulder pad on it. She also grabbed a flint.

The dinosaur gave up trying to dislodge Jin and decided to return back to its alternate target. It started to charge towards Tresia.

"Hurry up Tresia. It's coming for you!" Jin cried out knowing it was in vain. There was no way she could move fast enough to get out of its way.

Tresia heard Jin's plead and turned her head over her shoulder. The fangs of death were once again about to get her.

"Oh my gosh, it is going to kill Tresia," Ave-Maria heard the shout from the other side of the gate.

Ave-Maria had clicked a lance onto a powder filled metal cylinder, she placed that into the hollow tube and put the device on her shoulder. Briskly she unlatched the gate. "Everybody get out of my way," she roared.

At the sight of Ave-Maria with an Ares on her shoulder the small crowd opened up to let her through. She strode out onto the street to see to her horror that Tresia was about to be devoured. There was no time, she flick the flint and lit the wick. "Get down," she commanded those nearby, all who briskly obeyed.

She was a good shot with a carbine but the Ares was completely different to aim. She was petrified that she would hit Tresia but the wick was already lit so she aimed as best as she could.

Whoosh. Something buzzed past Tresia's head and hit the dinosaur. The dinosaur fell down towards Tresia. She sensed the beast falling towards her and dropped to the ground and rolled to her left. Somehow she managed to avoid the dying dinosaur from crushing her to death. She continued to roll until she was well clear and breathed a huge sigh of relief as she used her remaining crutch to get up again. Looking across she saw Ave-Maria holding the Ares launcher and a small crowd of folks around her cheering. Jin dismounted the dead beast's leg and double checked the monster was dead. They both headed over to Ave-Maria.

"Nice shot." Jin complemented.

"Thanks," she had always been a far better shot than her husband.

"Fancy some more target practice, darling daughter?" Jin asked.
Ave-Maria was less than amused at her mother's terms of endearment, but she replied, "Sure, why not?"

Tresia was discretely led by Jin to where the children were. She stayed in the vault and comforted them. Jin then attached another lance to a black powder tube and reloaded the Ares for Ave-Maria. She then grabbed some spare ammunition and the two of them set out to find the other beast. A few of the villagers bravely accompanied them, wanting to see Ave-Maria shoot the other beast. They found it further wrecking Ave-Maria's dwelling, the room was now level with the ground and the bench obliterated. The crutch was still stuck fast in its mouth and it was charging around desperately. The distance was further this time, but Ave-Maria also had more time to aim. Whoosh, another clean kill. The villagers with her cheered wildly and ran back to the centre of town to tell the others. Ave-Maria spent a few moments looking at the dead dinosaur and burst into tears.

Jin came up and gave her a brief hug. "It's ok honey, it's only a dwelling we can rebuild it easy enough."

"It's not that, mum, it's just that he is out there in the jungle, with those beasts! He doesn't stand a chance, does he?" She had always held onto hope that he was coming back. But now she sobbed uncontrollably, realising for the first time that she would probably never see Wilfor again.

"Don't worry," Jin attempted to console her daughter, "you'll find someone else soon enough."

"Just go away!" Ave-Maria yelled as she threw the Ares at her mum, Jin dodged the flying weapon. She attempted to talk to Ave-Maria again, but Ave-Maria ignored her and would not even make eye contact. So she picked the Ares up off the ground and took it back to Jin Palace; all the time wondering why Ave-Maria was so upset with her.

16

"The bald patch of ground beside the pink bush." Nimm was now just showing off as he threw the charges over yet another river.

They waded and swam across; Xeno disappeared but they knew from the other river crossing that she would somehow find her way across and return completely dry. As they got out the other side Wilfor asked, "So how did you go from promising Airmutt player to slave anyway?"

"I dropped a catch."

"That's a bit rough."

"Yes, you ever hear of the Galya Spring Airmutt scandal?"

"I hear a rumour, but not much more." Wilfor had never travelled to Galya Spring, it was as far as a river boat could navigate up the river. But the town will still quite some distance from the huge spring that spewed vast quantities of water up from deep underground. Only a fraction of that water ever made it to the ocean, the majority was carried in smaller rivers such as the one they just crossed to irrigate the jungle.

"Well it was 26 years ago, we were up there playing a game. As far away from home as we ever go."

"I would have been two," Wilfor gave a very valid excuse for not remembering it.

"We were clear favourites to win. And anyway I dropped a howler of a catch and we lost."

"Hardly reason to sell you into slavery."

"No, but someone had made a huge bet on Galya Spring winning. When they did win, it was suspected that we had thrown the match. We were subject to a surprize search and they found 500 Dracs in my bag."

"That's a lot of money!"

"Yes, I have no idea how it got there, it wasn't mine. Someone planted it on me, I swear! Anyway the judge was also the bookie who lost a lot of coin, so he was out for my hide. I got no fair trial just sent to prison then sold on to slavery in Caffan soon after that."

Wilfor believed him and was angry at the injustice of it all. "Any idea who?"

"Yes, Hial was the guy that threw the mutt to me, it went right into the sun and had a weird spin on it. I should have still caught it, but he didn't make it easy. He also made a few silly mistakes that contest. Plus he had opportunity to plant the money in my bag."

"Never heard of him either," Wilfor informed Nimm.

"Well, I'd very much like to catch up with him." Nimm said as he clenched his right fist and punched it angrily into his left palm.

"Well I'd like to catch up with just about anybody, so long as they are not in this forsaken jungle," Wilfor replied, "How long have we been going for now?"

Fregwit counted on his fingers, "Well it's been five nights, so this is the sixth day since we got lost."

"Hmmmm," Wilfor would have considered surviving that long in the jungle impossible before that. At least his wrist was feeling better and giving him no trouble.

Fregwit had been invaluable to their survival. He had kept them fed, not good food - but nutritious enough. Wilfor just wished Fregwit's navigation skills were up with the rest of his jungle skills. For all they knew they could be going around in circles. Still they continued moving in the hope they would eventually find somewhere. Wilfor knew that unless that place happened to be Caffan that he would let the slaves go free. Apart from being able to see his family sooner, he was almost hoping that they would come out somewhere else, just so he could free them.

Whilst the jungle had plenty of wildlife, none had proved a big threat so far; and one, Xeno, had insisted on coming with them. They had seen a couple of huge red tyrannosaurs on day three, fortunately the beasts had not seen them. The trio used the trick from the first night of climbing a tree to wait in till they had gone to avoid them. Since then Fregwit constantly monitored the surroundings, taking note of which trees were climbable and which ones were not, so always keeping an escape route in mind.

"Tell me. How did you meet your wife?" Nimm asked Wilfor.

"Well it's a bit embarrassing really." Wilfor reflected. It was a story he should not really tell to the slaves. But he decided to anyway. "I did some training to learn how to use the carbine."

Nimm and Fregwit looked at each and smiled, _the training cannot have been very good_ \- they both thought.

"She was the only girl in the class, her mother insisted that a girl has got to learn to defend themselves and made her go." By now they had dried out from the river crossing and started packing everything back up again. "Well, I wasn't very good at using the carbine."

"Oh really," mentioned Fregwit, as both he and Nimm pretended to be surprised by the statement.

"And she was just brilliant, she is still the best shot I have ever seen. Anyway she felt sorry for me and decided to tutor me."

"How did that go?" Fregwit asked.

"Oh, great she taught me a lot," Wilfor lied.

"Really?" Nimm enquired.

"Well no, I was a slow learner," Wilfor was exaggerating even at that. The two slaves just nodded and smiled. "But it was also fantastic, we fell in love while she was trying to teach me."

"Oh, nice," said Nimm. "I did not think folks got married just for love anymore?"

"Nah, they don't, my family nearly disowned me, Elder Cenok has never forgiven me. Especially since Ave-Maria was an illegitimate child, she doesn't have a dad."

"Yeah, that would've gone down well." Fregwit assessed.

Wilfor returned to his story, "Well she gave up trying to teach me in the end." He hesitated about telling them the next bit, he hushed his voice, "Anyway, we had to pass a target shooting test."

"And you passed it?" Nimm asked in disbelief.

"Yes, of course I did."

"Really?"

"I did pass. But we cheated; she shot for me."

"How did that work? Did she dress up as you?"

"No she was such a good shot that she sat hidden quite some distance away. She timed the firing of her carbine with mine and hit the targets, while I fired blanks."

The two slaves laughed. On telling that story, Wilfor just felt he needed to load his carbine, so checking it was all dry he got out a steel shot and charge and placed them in the gun. It was the first time he had loaded it since they had been in the jungle. Outside of the jungle he only ever put cork shot in, he still did not trust his aim to use steel shot, even though he felt he was improving. The two slaves noticed him loading it and wondered why.

"I'll just fill the water canisters," Nimm said as he collected the three containers up and headed back down to the river. Crouching down he first filled up Wilfor's container and threw it in a lob to land accurately at his feet.

Wilfor started to lean down to pick it up but then he spotted a pair of eyes in the water, picking up his carbine he yelled, "Get away from the water!"

The sarcosuchus had watched as the trio crossed the river. They had been too far away to get at that stage. Though now, the ancestor of the alligator had drifted towards where they were. Sarcos, like alligators, are ambush predators, they will not chase after their prey. But if the prey happen to come into their attack zone, then it is all fair game.

Nimm took a step back but it was too late, the sarco had already started his attack. Its long narrow jaw opened wide as it rush toward him and the bulb at the end of its nose was almost at Nimm's leg. Nimm's only hope was for Wilfor to shoot it. But Wilfor had never hit anything he had aimed for in his life, plus he would have to shoot past Nimm and risking hitting him. _Ave-Maria would easily make the shot_ \- he thought. He cast his mind back to her trying to teach him how to shoot:

" _You need to hold the gun real steady," she used to say. She would come up and wrap her arms around him and hold the gun with him. It was the only times he had ever managed to hit the target, but she was basically shooting for him. He had sure loved the feeling of her being so close to him. His mind had certainly not been on the task with her body pressed up against his like that._

He imagined Ave-Maria was with him again, helping him hold the gun. He positioned himself just like he had when she was holding it with him.

" _Look straight along the barrel of the carbine. Line up the mark at the start of the barrel with the one at the end of it on your target."_ He could almost hear the silky smooth timbre of her voice whispering in his ear as he aimed the marks on the carbine barrel up with a spot on the sarco's head.

" _Strike the flint in a smooth motion, do not force it."_ He held the flint between his fingers and in a smooth and fluid motion he struck the side of the carbine with it, lighting the wick.

" _And keep aiming until after the projectile hits the target."_ He kept the same pose, with the marks on the barrel lined up with the same spot on the charging sarco for the brief time it took the wick to run. BANG - he felt the carbine ram back into his shoulder, but still he kept it aimed on the spot he was looking at.

The sarco dropped straight in front of Nimm, just as he thought he was about to be eaten. Nimm turned his head around to where the bang had come from as the beast seizured for a minute or so as the dregs of life drained from its body. To his disbelief he saw a bewildered Wilfor holding his carbine.

"I hit it! Did you see that? I actually hit it!" Wilfor was more stunned than anyone else.

"Yes, nice shot." Fregwit congratulated as he approached the beast with the knife to bleed it out. He needed to make sure it was not coming back.

"But I have never hit anything I have aimed at before! Ever!" He still could not believe it. If only Ave-Maria was here to see her training had finally paid off. Though it was like she was with him, as he had made the shot.

"Well, that was a mighty fine time to find your form! Thank you, you saved my life," Nimm said gratefully. Nimm collected the two empty water canisters, he would fill them from small stream later. He did not fancy hanging around the waterline again.

"How did you know to load your carbine anyway?" Fregwit asked.

"I don't really know, we were just talking about carbines, so I decided to load it." Wilfor couldn't explain it either.

Fregwit looked over to the now totally still carcass of the dead reptile. "Hmmmm, I think I'll need to light a fire tonight. Sarco steak on the menu,"

"Sounds better than maggots," Nimm observed.

They pulled the sarco out of the water and Fregwit cut some juicy bits of meat off. They then left the carcass by the river bank. It would soon be food for another sarco, or maybe a bird of prey or pterodactyl. Xeno came running toward them, this time she was wet, obviously she had sensed danger and come straight for them.

"So Nimm you're a pretty good shot, are you?" Wilfor asked.

"I like to think so, maybe not quite in the league of Ave-Maria, but decent all the same."

"Well perhaps you should look after this then. I got lucky with the last shot, don't want to push my luck too much." Wilfor handed the carbine, projectiles and charges to Nimm.

Nimm felt humbled that Wilfor now trusted him enough to give him the weapon. It occurred to Wilfor that he was now the least armed of the three of them. He only had the spear, Nimm had the carbine and Fregwit had his knife. Fregwit was constantly borrowing it so in the end he just let him keep it.

They continued moving and noticed the jungle was changing. Instead of being thick and dense it was starting to open up with grass appearing on the ground between the trees. Soon they found themselves on the edge of a large clearing. At first they hoped it might be the start of civilisation but they could see way across the clearing and it had jungle on the other side. There was a small lake in the middle. They were right beside the stream feeding the lake and could see the watercourse had been damaged; no doubt centuries before. So the water no longer irrigated the ground but went straight into the lake. With only the morning vapours for moisture the trees in that area would have all died and a grassy clearing was left in its place. The clearing had all sorts of grazing animals: buffalo, deer, equines and all sorts of herbivorous reptiles including some huge brontosaurs. None of the three had ever seen an animal so huge before, not even Fregwit in his dinosaur hunting days. Even the mighty tyrannosaurs they had seen were dwarfed in comparison to these.

A commotion started amongst the animals. A couple of medium sized meat-eating dinosaur sprung from the trees and made an attack on the group of animals, fortunately some distance from the trio. They watched as the pair of them cornered a buffalo cow and attacked it. The cow kicked and put up a fight but was soon overcome. Once the beasts had settled into their dinner the rest of the animals calmed down. Xeno's ears pricked up as she watched it and she made some quiet 'grrrrs.'

"I don't fancy going through there. And nor does Xeno," Fregwit stated. His escape plan against predators involved staying near climbable trees. "We will skirt around the edge of it."

So they did exactly that, staying by the bush line and moving along the edge of the clearing. They saw more predators and even climbed a tree for a while; though the animals paid no attention to them.

At the far end of the clearing Fregwit decided it was time to make camp for the night. He gathered some dry grass and bracken. And the others collected some sticks. They were able to use the flint on the carbine to light the dry grasses to start the fire. It was the first campfire they had made in the time they were lost. The animals were afraid of the fire and kept their distance; Xeno took some coaxing but she eventually sat down beside Fregwit near the fire. Even though the trio did not need it for warmth, they found having a fire oddly comforting.

That evening they were not surrounded by thick jungle so they were able to see the evening Ceatha for the first time since they had got lost. They sat around the fire, feasting on barbecued sarco meat under the beautiful evening lights. Even though they were still hopelessly lost, their spirits were buoyed that evening.

"This is quite tasty!" Wilfor exclaimed.

"Sure beats those wriggling maggots we have be eating." Nimm agreed.

"Pleased you like it." Fregwit enjoyed getting a compliment on his cooking; the past few days the other two had done nothing but complain at the food he served them. "Sarco is not bad, but you should taste tyrannosaur! Now that is good meat!"

"Well I'll be quite keen to avoid tasting that on this trip!" Wilfor replied.

After dinner they made a bivouac and rested up for the night. They were all feeling optimistic that they might actually be getting somewhere.

17

The outer jungle wall gate was finally repaired. The slave team did not know what to do next. Should they go back into the village, were the dinosaurs still there? Or stay where they were relatively safe. Vanize remained very still whilst wasps were crawling all over him, but he was yet to be stung. Everyone was giving Vanize a wide berth to avoid the wraith wasps. They decided to move back into the open field. Vanize was last through the gate, moving very slowly.

A slave who usually worked on the farm came up to then with good news, "The dinosaurs are dead."

"Well we won't be cutting any trees down today, back to the village guys." Nihliz took some leadership as his master was otherwise occupied.

They walked back towards Loke. On leaving the forest the wraith wasps decided to fly away. Two of them ended up flying down Vanize's robe. He got stung several times before he managed to strip it off. Once those wasps flew away he ran, as fast as he could, back to the village in only his undergarment.

#

Tresia went down into the vault to comfort the children. The vault was lit with a perpetual lamp on the far wall. These lamps burnt a cold flame that never when out; ideal for dark places where folks did not try to sleep, like the vault.

Through the flickering light Tresia could see why Jin kept the vault hidden. Even Tresia did not know of its existence until now. There were a few carbines and other weapons down there, plus it was where she hid the capsicums. There were a few other bits and pieces lying about. One in particular took Tresia's interest, it was a Lyra made of steel. The surface of it was starting to rust. Pulling it down she saw it still had all its strings on. They were hopelessly out of tune, but she fixed that in no time. She brought Tere and Jeb close to her and started playing the Lyra and singing them a cheerful song. She was intrigued by the louder, sharper, crisper tone that the metal instrument provided compared to her own mellow wooden instrument. The children listened intently and even stopped crying. She had not played since her own instrument had departed to Hutibo, she was enjoying playing it.

Jin came down the stairs to hear her singing a song and playing the Lyra.

"Gran," Jeb saw Jin and went and gave her a cuddle, Tere followed suit. Tresia stopped her song.

"Now kids," Jin instructed. "This is Gran's special place, you can't tell anyone about it. Ok?"

Both children nodded as Jin stowed the Ares. They all returned up the stairs. Jin sealed up the entrance to the vault again. She knew she might have to do a bit of explaining to Erdminger about the lances that were still sticking in the side of the tyrannosaurs. But given they had saved the village she did not think she would be in too much trouble.

"I didn't know you could sing and play." Jin noticed Tresia was still holding the Lyra. "I tried to learn as a kid. Dad made me that thinking I might learn, but I never did. It's just been gathering rust, you can have it. Dad thinks everything is better in metal."

"Oh thanks." Tresia accepted the compliment, and she would have a Lyre to play again. She did not think her singing was very good, but she knew she was pretty handy with the Lyra. "Where is Ave-Maria?"

"Oh, she is at her place, or at least what is left of it."

They went outside and made their way back to the ruins of Ave-Maria's dwelling. Tresia was not managing well with just the one crutch so Jin came up beside her and helped. Ave-Maria was sitting in the middle of her dwelling, still in tears. The place was a complete wreck. Only the outhouse remained intact. When Ave-Maria saw Jin she turned around in disgust. Jin wisely decided to keep her distance while Tresia and the children went up to her.

"Are you ok," Tresia sat down beside her.

"Yes, it's just this is where we spend our whole married life together and now it's a wreck. And I don't know if I'll even see him again," She wiped some tears away, "and Mum thinks it's great that he's gone; she never liked him."

"That's rough. He could still be out there you know, don't give up!" Tresia consoled. "And you can come and stay with us for a bit, we have a spare room."

"Are you sure it will be ok?" Ave-Maria replied thinking Tresia was far better at sympathy than her mother.

"Oh sure, no problem." Tresia hoped her parents would not freak out about it. "It won't be as far for Tere to go to school either."

"Thanks, can you help me collect a few things?" She rummaged through the rubble to collect some clothes for them. She made sure she found Jeb's Airmutt mutt, it had been a gift from his dad and he would be inconsolable if he did not have it.

While Tresia talk to Ave-Maria, Jin went over to the dead dinosaur and tried to remove the crutch from its mouth. It was wedged in too tight. She looked over and saw the other two rummaging around the rubble while the children looked on, she yelled out in the hope of making innocent conversation: "Well look at that! A wooden crutch would have been crushed to splinters. My dad is right: everything is better in metal." There was no doubt in Jin's mind that her steel crutch had saved Tresia's and the kid's lives.

The others ignored her. Too busy collecting stuff and trying to comfort the children who had just seen their home destroyed and had nearly been eaten.

At that point Vanize came running past in his underwear. Jin could not resist from whistling at him. He was bright red, both from running fast and embarrassment, as he made a beeline to his dwelling. The slaves returned from the jungle's edge just a few minutes later. Instead of going straight into their barracks, as they usually would, they continued walking into the village until they came across the dead dinosaur in front of Ave-Maria's dwelling.

"Aberaif," Tresia saw him and hobbled up to him, she stopped about an arm's length away. She longed to give him an embrace but many eyes were watching.

"Amira," he responded,

"I nearly got killed by this beast." Tresia stated pointing to the dead animal; "and then I nearly got killed by the other one."

"Well only one of them tried to kill me," he looked at the neck of the beast and seeing no projectile wounds stated, "must have been the other one!"

He saw the steel crutch in the animal's mouth. Going up he easily removed it; much to Jin's disgust, she could not even budge it.

He cleaned some of the saliva off the crutch with his culottes and handed it to Tresia. "I believe this must belong to you, Amira Tresia. A metal crutch, very nice."

"Thanks, I've always had metal crutches," she replied giving him a wink.

Jin looked at the crutch it was slightly bent from the beast biting on it. "I'll have Dad fix that up for you later."

"It will do nicely for now." Tresia was pleased to have the two of them to walk on again, even if one was still a little slimy.

"Jin, Ave-Maria, this is Raif." Tresia started on introductions, using his abbreviated name.

"Wow, he certainly is well built;" Jin said loudly so everyone could hear, as she admired the giant, "but I'd still married the money." She gave a long low whistle followed by, "Absolutely perfect for a bit on the side, though."

Tresia blushed, terribly embarrassed. Aberaif grinned, the statement fortunately went right over his head.

"MOTHER!" Ave-Maria scowled, wondering how she had managed to do so poorly in the lottery of who your parents are. She stared at Jin with a look of contempt.

"Well, I can see I'm not wanted here," Jin noted, somewhat unusually taking the hint. "Come on kids, Gran has some sweets for you back at the restaurant." She departed with her grandchildren.

"I'm so sorry for my mum," Ave-Maria apologised. She had a burning question she had to ask Aberaif, so she sheepishly questioned, "Hi. Um, sorry for asking, but how did you get separated from Wilfor in the fire?"

"What?" Aberaif did not know what to say.

Tresia could see it she needed to tell her the truth. "Ave, Raif did not go into the jungle with Wilfor. Raif and Octe went in first and Wilfor and the other slaves followed some time later."

'Huh," Ave-Maria looked confused.

Tresia told her that Aberaif and Octe had gone into the jungle to check on their capsicums and found her injured. Wilfor had then been sent into the jungle by Erdminger so he could cover up the fact the giant was missing. She expected Ave-Maria to be upset hearing that her man was not the hero everybody made him out to be.

Instead a wry smile appeared on her face, contradicting the tears still streaming from her eyes, "Oh, that's so like Wilfor; all this time I could not understand why he would go into a burning forest."

"You're not upset."

"Yes and no, Wilfor doesn't have a heroic bone in his body. He is too much of a thinker to take rash risks. But I still love him! But to think Erdminger sent him out needlessly!"

She went on to tell them the story of how they met and how she had cheated on his target shooting test. She had been hiding in a bush some distance to the left and behind Wilfor.

"Hardest part is because of the short wick on the charges it is nearly impossible to time the carbines going off together. Wilfor would tap his left foot three times and fired on the third tap. Still I was sure we would get found out because my carbine always fired slightly after his."

"But they never found out?" Aberaif asked, he knew more than anyone just how terrible a shot Wilfor was.

"No, I think they suspected something, because he went from never hitting anything to getting quite a good score. I tried to spread my hits more than I usually would but still ended up getting them all pretty close to the mark."

Aberaif then went on to tell some stories about Wilfor's prowess with the carbine, "Sometimes Wilfor would shoot us with cork from his carbine, instead of using the whip. The safest place to be was where he was aiming. Once the other slaves were brawling and I was on the other side of the jungle wall, just about alongside Wilfor. Somehow that cork hit me, he must have seriously hooked the shot to the right and it flew through a gap in the wall!"

"I could believe that," Ave-Maria cheered up, she enjoyed hearing about how bad a shot Wilfor was, after all it was the reason they ended up together.

#

The slaves were allowed to stay out of their barracks that afternoon. Two of their number had perished. Acet had even sacrificed himself so the others could make safety. So no one was in a frame of mind to cause trouble. As Jin arrived back at the centre of the village the Caffan Emergency Crew showed up, ready and prepared to fight the dinosaurs.

"You're a good hour or two too late!" Jin scoffed.

"Oh dear," said the leader, "I see you have this all under control," they went off to survey the damage.

"Barbecue day." Jin told her grandchildren after she found them the promised sweets; she collected all the gear she needed and set up some barbecues outside on the street. Slowly most of the village turned up in the middle of the village including all the slaves including the female ones from the other barracks. Aberaif, Tresia & Ave-Maria also arrived. Word had also got to Newbsrus and people were turning up from there to see the dead monsters. Even Tresia's dad turned up, much to the ire of many locals. Elder Cenok had abolished an inner gatekeeper years ago, so they regarded the ruling family as very much to blame. Tresia's dad was barraged by angry villagers stating their case, and he tactfully managed to answer them. Eventually he got to where Tresia and Aberaif were, the two of them were savouring more time together.

"Dad remember Raif, he is the guy that saved me from the jungle. Well he saved a slave drivers life today, too."

"Oh yes; the giant you are forbidden to see, in the village you a forbidden to be in."

Tresia blushed, "Ummm." She suddenly remembered she was still engaged to Yrrab, she had completely forgotten about him in all the commotion. "I was just here visiting Ave-Maria. You know, her husband went missing looking for me."

"Well we will discuss this later, sounds like it was a good thing you were here."

"Oh, and Dad. Ave-Maria's home is destroyed so I said she could stay in the spare room."

"Well, that's very nice of you," Fifthe replied in a tone that was impossible for Tresia to read. He then set off to examine the damage to the village.

Finally Erdminger turned up. He had used the public tumbrel with his broken foot and crutches. He stormed up to Tresia and Aberaif.

"I see you found the owner of the mystery crutch!" Aberaif could not resist saying.

"I know it belonged to you," he told Tresia, "I've been talking to Miyo."

"Nice chap Miyo, that would have been a very long chat." Tresia observed.

But they were quickly interrupted. "Oh, sir, oh sir," Marjo, the excited old great, great, great, great grandmother, approached him. "The dinosaurs attacked the village while you were in Newbsrus, but Jin, Ave-Maria and Tresia saved the town. You must be so pleased with these girls. They are heroes." She paused, "Opps, I mean they are heroines."

Erdminger looked even more annoyed, "Yes, yes I'm ecstatic." He could see he was going to have to continue this later. He was annoyed that the slaves were allowed out of their barracks. But it was not a normal day in Loke and he had not even been there when it all happened. He decided to leave Tresia and Aberaif for now and go survey the damage to the village.

He started by examining the dead tyrannosaur lying near Jin Palace. By now it was starting to be butchered for the barbecue. He examined closely the lance attached to the spent gunpowder tube sticking out the side. He wanted to speak to Jin and Ave-Maria about that, there is no way they should have an Ares at their disposal. But as the weapon had saved the town, he was going to have to let it go this time.

He ran into Vanize who was still itching from all the wasp stings but by now he was fully clothed. Vanize also saw he was now using crutches and joked, "Oh, the owner of the mystery crutch has been discovered."

Erdminger withheld his annoyance, he did not see the funny side of the joke at all.

"What on earth happened?" he asked.

"Well, my slave team were working in the jungle and the two dinosaurs surprised us. We lost one of our slaves. I nearly died. If it wasn't for the giant risking his life I'd be dead."

That was the last thing he wanted to hear, that the pesky giant had once again been the hero. So he stormed off.

Once Erdminger was out of sight Aberaif approached the dead tyrannosaur with a few tools Jin's dad had lent him. He had to sneak them there as slaves were not allow access to such potential weapons, especially around the general public. But he had no nefarious use for the tools, he simply wanted a memento. Opening the dead dinosaur's mouth he used a chisel and hammer to extract the biggest tooth he could find. He then took the tooth to Jin's father, who drilled a hole in it near its base. Tresia platted a cord with some thin strips from the hide of the tyrannosaur. The cord was threaded through the hole and he tied it around his neck.

"Nice necklace, Aberaif," Tresia complemented the large tooth hanging in the middle of his huge pectoral muscles.

"Thanks, now I can kill a Dragos, if we ever run into one."

"You know they don't exist, right?"

"How can you be so sure, Amira?"

"Because no one has ever provided a shred of evidence that a flying, fire breathing dinosaur lives anywhere. Surely such a beast would leave some trace."

"Well when I kill one with my Tyrannosaur tooth, then you'll know they are real." Aberaif smiled.

"Yes, I'll believe it then," she said.

#

The centre of the village had turned into a big party by the time the Ceatha appeared in the sky. Celebrating the fact that the two monsters had been killed. Jin had organised things to keep the barbecues hot and the cider flowing; but she mostly had the evening off to enjoy it; after all she was one of the hero's along with the late Acet, Aberaif, Tresia and most of all Ave-Maria the grieving wife and mum who had actually killed the beasts.

Fifthe was the most senior member of Cenok's family there and he spoke of the gratitude the province of Caffan owed those that risked their lives to save the village. He also assured everyone that that gate to the inner wall would be properly manned and used from here on in. He got lots of jeers and boos as he spoke.

Most people tried the meat, even the great majority of those who were normally vegetarians.

"This monster tried to eat us, and now we are eating it!" Aberaif said with delight as he ate.

"Poetic justice," smiled Tresia. "This is tastier than the deer and lizard we had in the jungle, Aberaif."

"Simply divine," Aberaif paused from his munching to pass judgment on his meal. "The best meat I have ever tasted, almost as good as freshly caught Nore Sea bass."

"Bass?"

"It's a fish, have you ever tried fish Tresia?"

"No, never."

"It's delicious, you'll quit vegetarianism for good once you try fish."

"I doubt that. But maybe I'll try it one day."

Jin decided it was time for some music, she went into Jin Palace and got the rusty Lyra out and gave it to Tresia. The crowd hushed so they could hear her play. She started by finger picking a fast jig, Aberaif was impressed; _the girl is very talented_ \- he thought. After that she started strumming a few chords. Aberaif could not help himself he started humming along, before long he burst into song. At first he sung some songs from his homeland. Then he made up a song about the events of the day. The crowd were wowed by his extraordinary rich voice and her amazing playing.

Vanize found Erdminger, "Isn't that the most amazing voice you ever heard." It was even better now than when he had heard it in the Jungle.

Erdminger did not reply. He was far too caught up in rage at the two musicians. Aberaif was singing and dancing while Tresia was seated playing her instrument.

Finally Jin's father found some fireworks and let them off, as all too soon the evening drew to a close. Tresia and Aberaif managed a brief goodbye. They were not sure when they would manage to see each other again. The slaves were sent back to their barracks. Fifthe then took Tresia, Ave-Maria, Tere and Jeb back to Newbsrus on one of Cenok's tumbrels.

They all arrived back at their dwelling, Leza greeted them surprised, "Ave-Maria? What are you doing here?"

"Oh Mum," Tresia explained, "her dwelling got destroyed by the dinosaur, so I said she could stay here in our spare room,"

Leza did not seem to mind at all, "Oh dear, you poor thing," She gave Ave-Maria a hug. "Of course you can stay till it all gets sorted. I'll show you the room."

Ave-Maria was in awe at the dwelling. The polished turquoise cobblestones surrounding the beautifully finished wooden table. Even in the dark with just lamps to illuminate it she could tell the table was exquisite. "Thank you, Leza, We really don't want to trouble you."

"Nonsense, it's no bother," as she showed them the entrance of the spare sleeping hut.

They soon settled in the sleeping hut for the night. Jeb and Tere were more than impressed with the new sleeping arrangement. It was solid polished hardwood building; twice the size of collection of planks with a dirt floor they usually slept in. "Mum, the sleeping mats are so soft," Tere noted in surprise.

"Yes they are sweetie."

"And mum," Jeb noted in amazement, "you can stand up in here without hitting your head."

"It's very nice isn't it?"

She did not get a reply, both children were fast asleep.

18

Tresia looked around the huge, low, rectangular table where she was reclining on a very plush cushion. At the head of the table was Elder Cenok, her great, great, great, great, great Grandfather, the patriarch who had come to Caffan as a young man and pioneered the province. His oldest daughter Jusi was also there, her oldest son, Zide. In fact the eldest child following the direct line of succession through to Tresia the eighth and final generation in Cenok's line were all present. She never attended family business meetings, she was still considered too young; however Fifthe had wanted her there.

The meeting had been called to discuss burning down more of the jungle. But the events from the previous day in Loke had taken precedence.

"How could those idiots let a dinosaur through? Not just through one gate but two." Patriarch Cenok was in his usual fine ranting mode.

"But dad, it was you who said that having a gate keeping on the inner gate was a waste of a labourer. So we have been leaving it open for 20 odd years now," Jusi his daughter pointed out.

Watha his great granddaughter piped in, "We only lost two slaves, plus a mammoth got mauled; fortunately the Caffan Emergency Crew must have killed the dinosaurs pretty quick," clearly she not heard the full story.

"Only two slaves; you silly girl, I had two vanish on Monday, had to set one free on Tuesday and had two killed Saturday. At this rate I won't have any left by the end of the year." Cenok was not pleased. "Plus mammoths are worth a fortune, and I hear the village is extensively damaged. Isn't that right Fifthe?"

"Well one dwelling is completely destroyed. And several others are badly damaged, but should be able to be repaired. Plus the locals are pretty upset, wouldn't be surprised if they resist any direction or rule from Newbsrus."

"Nonsense!" Cenok rebuffed. Out of curiosity he asked, "Whose dwelling was destroyed?"

Tresia cut in even though the question was not directed at her, "It's the home of Ave-Maria, I was inside her sleeping hut when the dinosaur broke it down. She and her children are currently staying with us."

"You were there!" yelled Cenok, "I told you not to go to Loke."

Tresia sunk back into her cushion with guilt but fortunately Sagi, Tresia's great grandfather, deflected the probing with an unrelated question, "Who is Ave-Maria? The name sounds familiar."

"Her husband Wilford has been missing since the jungle fire." Fifthe replied.

Patriarch Cenok recalled why they were meeting, "Yes the fire. Tresia lit a jungle fire on Monday and it cleared an awesome amount of jungle." He was yelling at her a few moments ago but now he made it sound like she was a hero.

"I did not mean to light the fire," Tresia was slightly agitated that it was made to sound deliberate. "My balloon crashed and started the blaze."

"Doesn't matter how you started it, it is the best thing you have ever done. We should burn more jungle down, it's a complete waste just having trees. Think of all the extra farmland."

No one was convinced but it took a brave person to speak out against Cenok. In the end Jusi spoke, "Dad but what of all the timber we sell down the river, and what of the slaves who cut the trees down?"

"Well we can get those slaves doing something else, like working all that extra land we will have. And the bonus land will make up for all the loss of the timber sales." Patriarch Cenok looked at his descendants faces and saw the all disagreed with him. "Well it's your inheritance, burning the jungle will mean you inherit more land."

He had touched on a thorny subject, especially for Zide who shared his grandfather's temper. "Inheritance! What inheritance? You haven't given any of us even an inch of land! Yet you keep taking more and more for yourself!"

"Calm down Dad, deep breaths" Watha tried to settle her father. Zide listened to his daughter and gulped down big breaths of air.

"Well I started here when it was all just jungle, it was hard gruelling work," Cenok declared, before giving up the fact that he did not actually do the work himself. "I lost a lot of good slaves to the jungle until we could build the first wall. In due time I'll pass it on."

"Yes, in a few hundred years; when we are too old to do anything useful with it. Fifthe and Tresia here are the only ones who might be young enough to inherit something in time." Zide said bitterly, before deeply breathing again.

"Look," Cenok the patriarch pointed out, "If we burn more land down I'll give you a portion of the new land to have as your own to divide amongst you."

"And what of the missing man and his slaves? I believe he is a member of the extended family too," Jusi asked.

"Wilfor, he must be dead by now," Patriarch Cenok stated, "no one has ever survived that long in the jungle." Everyone knew that this statement was likely to be true.

Fifthe spoke up, "Now I invited Tresia here because she witnessed the fire first-hand. I thought she could enlighten us on it."

"Yes. Well I was caught up in the fire, luckily two slaves came to my rescue. It was awful, I watched as many helpless animals burned to death. If we burn more jungle down we will kill many more beautiful animals and destroy their home. What gives us more rights to the jungle than the creatures that call it their home?"

Zide poised a question to a statement made earlier, "How much land will I get?"

Tresia's Dad then rebuked him, "Zide, we are talking about the habitat and lives of thousands of beautiful animals. Surely that is more important than just being able to say that you have a piece of land that you probably will hardly even visit."

Tresia was pleased to hear her dad sticking up for her.

"All of it, you can divide up all the new land as you see fit. It can be yours to do what you want with," patriarch Cenok could see he was swaying Zide.

The meeting continued for quite some time. Cenok, Zide, Watha and Sagi, were all for burning down more jungle, Fifthe and Tresia were totally against it, everyone else suddenly appeared indifferent. Tresia and Fifthe had very little sway in the matter so they decided to go ahead and burn it down. Fifthe did manage to buy them a couple more days just in case Wilfor did manage to return; but they were going to light the fire the day after next.

Tresia left the meeting with her dad, "Thanks Dad, I know you tried. I feel so bad that I started the first fire and now because of that fire they are going to start another one."

Fifthe was more upset than Tresia about how the meeting had gone. "Aren't you sick of whatever Cenok wants he gets. I mean there are thousands of people living in Caffan now. Yet everyone does whatever he wants."

"Well he did pioneer the place."

"You mean he stayed safe, camped on a riverboat; while he send a bunch of slaves to their death to clear some jungle for him."

"I guess you could put it that way. But how do we change anything? It's always been like that." Tresia observed.

"Just because it's always been that way doesn't mean it has to always be. Remember when we went to Artris?"

"Yes, what has that got to do with it?"

"Well over there the people choose the leader?"

"But that was Artris, and this is Caffan!"

"Do you really think that if the people got to choose their leader, that they would choose that arrogant pompous git. I'll burn his habitat down, see how he likes that."

Tresia was not overly comfortable with her father's talk, although she agreed with the sentiment.

"Your friend Ave-Maria, she is somewhat of a hero in Loke," Fifthe stated.

"Yes, well she killed the two tyrannosaurs that were attacking the town and trying to kill us, and her husband went missing trying to find me."

"How do you think the folks of Loke would feel about Elder Cenok burning down the jungle, with her husband still in it?"

"Why does it matter what the people think?" Tresia questioned.

"Well Tresia, I think we need to find that out!"

#

"How did the meeting go?" Ave-Maria could see her friend and Fifthe were not looking happy.

"Terrible, I'm afraid they are going to burn more of the jungle down," answered Tresia.

"But, Wilfor is still in there."

"They don't think he is coming out. Ave, this is deplorable, so many innocent animals are going to die. All because my forefathers are so greedy. But Dad seems to think that he might be able to stop them."

Fifthe replied, "Yes I will go up to Loke this evening again to talk to the villagers."

Ave-Maria breathed deeply and lamented, "I don't think I will see him again, but I just can't bring myself to believe that he is dead. I hope you can sort something out."

"Ave, I'm going to try," Fifthe tried to reassure her. "And you never know, Wilfor could still be out there yet."

"Oh I so hope so, I have to go up to Loke to get some more stuff from my dwelling."

"Oh, I'll go with you," Tresia piped up.

"Tresia, you have been forbidden by Cenok to set foot in that village!" Leza scowled.

Ave-Maria intervened, "She would be a help to me."

'O, let her go," said Fifthe, "Cenok dictates far too much around here."

Tresia carefully packed her red bag again, Ave was going to bring some things back from her house so she also carried a bag. Ave-Maria dropped Tere and Jeb to Wilfor's parents in Newbsrus and they walked to the tumbrel. They were constantly getting stopped by people who wanted to ask Ave-Maria about how she killed the dinosaurs and to ask Tresia if the Awai was going to fall. Tresia was looking forward to getting to Loke as the folks there never questioned her about the Awai.

The bumpy journey the on the tumbrel seemed to take longer than usual, finally they arrived at the village centre and the tumbrel driver grabbed his pole to remove the apple and placed the blinders over the tahtor.

"Wait for the Tumbrel to come to a complete halt before stepping off," the guy who caught the tahtor shouted instructions to them; which one impatient man ignored - jumping off while it was still moving. A brave move given the village overseer was standing there watching.

But Erdminger, standing there with his wooden crutches, was more concerned with another passenger. "Tresia; you need to come with me," he summoned her.

"Why is that?"

"I need to search your bag and I would prefer to do it in my headquarters, just over the road if you don't mind."

"Ave, I'll see you in Jin Palace in a few minutes." Tresia told her friend as both she and Erdminger hobbled on crutches across the street to the overseer's office. They entered the building, there was a jail cell down one end and a low desk in the middle of the room.

"Past the bag over, I know you hiding something in it! I haven't managed to do a thorough search of it yet."

Tresia handed him the bag, "You won't find anything!"

Erdminger poured the contents onto his desk, which was just off the ground, nothing of note there. He squeezed along the bottom of the bag and felt something still inside.

"I knew it! You have a false floor and hidden compartment in it, let see what is inside." He was chuffed, he had finally caught her out. He discovered the knot that held the false floor in place and undid it; he watched as a scented candle fell out. "What have we here!" he knew there must be something illegal about the candle.

"It's just a scented candle!" Tresia replied.

"It can't be, I know you're up to something. Why would you hide a scented candle?"

"Because it's my present to Dad and Mum for their 99th anniversary, day after next. I'm going to get Jin's dad to make a wrought iron candle holder to go with it. But I did not want Mum or Dad to see it." Tresia was grinning.

Erdminger studied the candle long and hard but eventually came to the conclusion that it was just a scented candle, "Get out of here!" he yelled angrily at her.

"That's no way to talk to a lady who has done nothing wrong!" Tresia rebuked him as she bent down to collect her things and depart.

"And get out of Loke too, you know you're forbidden from even coming here," Erdminger called after her.

She hobbled across the road into Jin Palace, ignoring the statement; enforcing Cenok's ban on Tresia was beyond Erdminger's duty. By the time she got there Ave-Maria and Jin had finished stowing all the remaining capsicums from Ave-Maria's bag into the vault. They had decided to move all the capsicums out in one go, so they had packed Ave-Maria's bag full of them. It appeared to Tresia that Jin and Ave-Maria were at least speaking to each other again.

"The merchant is coming later this afternoon; I think I'll send them all down river, things are getting a bit heated around here." Jin observed. "Now let's see that candle, you need a nice decorative holder for it!"

As Jin took the candle across to her metal forging father, Tresia and Ave-Maria headed up to Ave-Maria's ruin to see what more could be salvaged. They past the first dead dinosaur, with the hot humid weather it was already starting to go off a bit; no more meat would be eaten from it. Both dinosaurs had been skinned, the pelts would be used for tough leather goods.

They got to the remains of Ave-Maria's house, all the slave teams were working in the village to clean it up and to bury the dinosaurs. They saw Aberaif with a bunch of other slaves digging a big hole in what used to be Ave-Maria's front yard. He was whistling a tune as he worked.

"What is the hole for?" Tresia asked as she lingered behind and approached the edge of the hole.

"We need to bury the Tyrannosaurs." Aberaif replied as he continued to dig.

Seeing how much progress they had made compared to the size of the dinosaur Tresia stated, "That is going to take a good couple of days."

"Yeah. And we have to dig a couple of them, first get rid of this one then the other one."

Tresia watched his bulging muscles as he worked and thought how handsome he looked. His new large tyrannosaur tooth necklace dangled in front of his chest. This was great news. Yes, she might have to come and do a bit of giant watching in the next few days. Aberaif enjoyed seeing her there but he dared not stop working as they were under the watchful eye of the slave drivers. Vanize was having his day off so watching carefully was Nihliz and another guy.

"Wouldn't it have been better to bury the creature in the middle of the village first?" Tresia observed noting that the air was already slightly tainted by the dead dinosaur smell, "That one will stink more people out than this one."

Nihliz pondered her statement for a while, "Yeah, it will, you're right." He then asked his companion. "Should we move to the other one?"

"Erdminger told us to bury this one. He will get the blame for the smell. We will stay here."

Nihliz nodded. Erdminger would then simply be able to blame his slave drivers for starting on the wrong one, - _the magical circle of blame._

Ave-Maria search through her house and grabbed a few more things before returning to catch the tumbrel back to Newbsrus. Tere and Jeb were still quite upset from nearly being eaten the day before and Ave-Maria was keen to get back to them. As she departed her dwelling Tresia called out to her, "Tell Dad and Mum I have decided to stay a little longer in Loke."

"Yeah, sure, that will go down well."

19

Duldi the merchant rolled into Loke on a hired tumbrel with a few boxes of goods for delivery. He had brought them on his own boat to Newbsrus and hired a tumbrel to get them the rest of the way. The hired tumbrel was parked up at the back of Jin Palace; near the rear entrances to both the restaurant and Jin's father's forge. Erdminger was more than just a little curious about the comings and goings of Jin Palace. He demanded that he thoroughly search all the boxes going in and out. Most contained steel for the forge, but one large box caught his attention.

"What is this?" he queried.

"What does it look like?" Jin replied.

"It looks like rolls of red paper."

"Well, that must be what it is then!" Jin stated the obvious, rather annoyed at the hassle of getting searched.

It did not take Erdminger long to figure out what the paper was going to be used for. He looked around for Tresia, but she was not there. He knew Elder Cenok had banned her from building another balloon.

Not seeing Tresia, Erdminger told Jin, "I'm going to need to take this paper! Elder Cenok has expressly forbidden Tresia from making another hot air balloon."

"That's not Tresia's paper it's mine! You can't just deny me my property."

"Your paper! What do you need so much paper for?"

"Decorations for the river festival!"

"But that is not for months."

"Nothing like planning ahead," Jin argued to no avail.

Erdminger insisted that he confiscate it, "Now take it over to my office he told Jin and the merchant." He was incapable of lifting anything with his injured foot.

"You have to take it yourself," Jin told him.

He grumbled and went off to find some help. He returned a few minutes later with a couple of men to find Jin looking concerned and an empty box.

"Overseer, I need to report a theft," Jin reported, "my red paper has disappeared, it must have been stolen."

"Disappeared?"

"Yes, we went inside and when we came out again, it was gone."

Erdminger knew Jin was playing him, "Let me search your premises. I'm sure we will find it in there."

Erdminger had searched Jin Palace numerous times over the years. She had to have a secret hiding space in there; but he could never find it. He was sure it had to be off the pantry, but despite poking every floorboard and every wall, he always came up with nothing. This time his ability to search was hindered by having to use crutches. Still he did a cursory hunt around the building, coming up with the usual nothing.

He also searched the departing goods as they loaded the merchant with some goods to take back down river. A couple of kegs of Jin's cider, he shook them and heard the liquid slush around. And a few tools that Jin's father had forged. He knew he was missing something he just did not know what.

"You will investigate the theft of my red paper, won't you overseer?" Jin questioned as they both watched Duldi depart.

Erdminger did not reply, he just stormed off in a huff.

#

Tresia had been, in fact, finally resting her sore foot. She salvaged two cushions that had survived the dinosaur attack at Ave-Maria's dwelling and had been sitting on one and had her feet up on the other. She passed time by sipping some of Jin's finest cider while admiring a certain well-built giant working in the sun and listening to him sing as he worked. Finally she returned to Jin Palace from her sight-seeing. The hole was getting too deep for easy viewing, plus she was expecting the paper to arrive.

"Did my package arrived," she asked, on hearing the merchant had been.

"Yes, but Erdminger wanted to confiscate it, said Cenok wouldn't allow it."

"Did he take it?" Tresia was angry that he could just do that.

"No, it's in the vault. But you'll probably need to make your balloon down there. There will be hell to pay if he finds it."

That wasn't good news for Tresia, making a balloon was best done with lots of space to spread out and measure things.

"And the.....?" She did not need to finish the sentence for Jin to know she was talking about the capsicums.

"On the way down river, good old false compartment in the cider keg trick."

Tresia was relieved to hear that; the threat of being caught with them had been hanging over her for nearly a week.

She was keen to look at the paper so she went into the vault. It had been cleverly designed many years before so that you could enter it whilst being unseen from the restaurant even though it was just over the other side of the counter. There were a few patrons in the restaurant area so she had to crawl the last little bit up to the keg and Jin let her down and covered up the hole.

The rolls of paper were lying at the bottom of the stairs, obviously put there in haste. She would need to cut the rolls into large leaf shaped panels and stitch and glue them together. She looked at the vault. It was wide enough for each of the panels but they would be twice as long as the room was, she would have to be constantly rolling up the end she wasn't using. She had been allowed to use a large hall on Cenok's estate to build the first one.

She got to work unrolling the paper and measuring it. There was much more than she needed so she thought she would make the balloon bigger. The work involved plenty of lying on the ground, so her sore foot did not hinder her much. She got to work cutting and had just the first panel cut out when Jin appeared and signalled for her to come up. She crawled up the stairs.

"One of your family's tumbrels just pulled up, I thought you better come up." Jin stated.

"Oh thanks."

She made her way to the main street and saw a very fine tahtor drawn tumbrel that belonged to Cenok. Her dad was standing by the tumbrel helping her mum get down from it. Leza was clearly not impressed.

"Mum, Dad lovely to see you," she said nervously, knowing she would be in trouble for staying there all day.

"Oh, hi darling," her dad kissed her on the cheek as she approached.

_Why is he being so friendly?_ Tresia wondered

"Tresia, what is that awful smell," Leza screwed up her nose.

"That smell would be coming from that," Tresia pointed up the road to the dead dinosaur, and wondered why she had not been yelled at yet.

Despite the ever increasing aroma Leza had never seen a large dinosaur up close, so with morbid curiosity the three of them went closer so she could inspect it. It was skinned and slightly putrid and had big hunks of flesh missing from the barbecue the day before. Plus scavenger birds had been picking at the carcass all day. It really was quite a horrific sight to behold.

"Eww, And Ave-Maria killed this?" Leza seemed both grossed out and genuinely impressed at once.

"Yes Mum, just before it ate me. And she killed another one on the edge of the village."

"Well it is so lovely to have Ave-Maria to stay," Leza complemented, "Trasia and Tere get on so well, we left her with her."

"Anyway I thought I'd come and talk to some of the villagers about what they think about the matter we discussed earlier today. Where do you think the best place to start will be?" Her dad asked her.

"Well it's nearly dinner time so there will be a few folk in Jin Palace." Tresia was relieved, she had got away with staying in Loke all day, her parents obviously had greater priorities.

Before they got there they saw old gran Marjo walking down the street in the middle of town. She saw Tresia and smiled but then frowned when she saw Fifthe there.

Tresia's dad approached her, "Excuse me mam, a word."

"I need to be having words to you. Elder Cenok of Newbsrus doesn't care about the people of Loke, it's all about him and getting more land."

"I know," Tresia's Dad said diplomatically. "I'm afraid I have to warn you of Cenok's latest ploy to get more land for himself."

"That greedy charlatan, his mother obviously never taught him good!"

"He wants to burn more of the jungle down and is planning to do so the day after next. I have tried my hardest to talk him out of it. But he has managed to leverage the greed of the other family members too. Tresia and I don't have any say in the matter, sorry."

Marjo was aghast as Tresia went on to explain how she had seen first-hand the effects of the fire. How she had nearly died and witnessed countless animals burn alive. Leza had also never heard the full story and was equally horrified.

"This is outrageous. And Wilfor is still out there!" Marjo stated. "Why are you telling us? What can we do about it?"

"Well you are the first person we have talked to, but if enough interest is shown I plan to hold a village meeting tomorrow evening. To see if the people can have some sway over what happens."

This was a completely foreign concept for old Marjo and she clearly did not understand what Fifthe was on about. However there was no doubt she would be at the meeting.

They then entered Jin Palace and Tresia took them into the kitchen to see Jin, who was busy cooking but she took a few moments to greet them.

"Jin this is my Dad and Mum, Fifthe and Leza."

Jin approached Fifthe and put her hand over her hearth and blinked several times while saying in a low tone, "Why, Fifthe so lovely to meet you."

Tresia was not sure if she had just witnessed Jin trying to flirt with her father with her mother standing right there. Leza looked very uncomfortable about it.

"This is Ave-Maria's mother," Tresia further introduced Jin.

"Really?" Leza said rather bluntly, "But Ave-Maria is such a nice person," clearly implying that Jin was not. "I guess she gets her lovely golden eyes from her dad."

"NO!" the mention of Ave-Maria's father clearly rattled Jin, "It's a throwback to my family a few generations ago." She went back to her bench and started vigorously chopping vegetables.

Fifthe went on to explain why he was there.

Jin already knew about the plan to burn more jungle down, Tresia had told her earlier. But she was intrigued by Tresia's dad's plan of civil resistance to thwart it. "Sure go ahead and talk to whoever you want. And we can hold the meeting here tomorrow, straight after the Ceatha."

"Why thank you Jin," Fifthe replied.

"I met the Amyr you picked for Tresia, what a lovely guy." Jin complemented, she gave a big wink, "Great picking." Tresia blushed at the statement, as the departed from Jin Palace she heard Jin mutter under her breath, "Wish I could've picked someone decent for my daughter."

They elected to go onto the street and chat to folk as they were coming and going rather than disturb their meal. Most were horrified at the fact that Cenok was planning to burn more forest down, especially since Tresia's stories of burning animals got more and more embellished each time she told it. Most did not know what they could do about it but were keen to come to the meeting. There was no love for Cenok and his immediate heirs in Loke. Although they had warmed up to Tresia and they were even starting to appreciate her father. Leza pretty much kept quiet apart from pleasantries.

Eventually Erdminger could not contain his curiosity and started to come over. Just as the sun was setting to a glorious Ceatha.

"Be careful what you say Dad," warned Tresia as he approached, "You can guarantee that he will go squealing back to Cenok."

"What are you doing here?" Erdminger asked.

"Just talking to the people of the town after what happened yesterday." Fifthe was playing his cards close to his chest.

"We don't need any more trouble in this town now." Erdminger warned as he hobbled off back to his office.

Tresia's parents had to return to Newbsrus. Tresia felt the key in her pocket, she would love to go and see Aberaif again. But she had seen him today already and seeing him in the barracks was very risky, so she elected to go back with her parents on their tumbrel. She admired the magical array of colours in the Awai from the tumbrel speeding behind a fast but stupid tahtor. As the colours faded she raised a concern, "Dad, if Cenok gets wind of what you're up to you could be in major trouble."

"I know, but what's the worst he could do?"

Tresia thought hard for a little bit, "Well, he might stop your salary and maybe kick you out of your dwelling."

"Nah, that would be too extreme, even for him."

Leza looked very perturbed by this statement, "Are you sure, Fifthe?"

"Well, he might. We can worry about that if it happens."

Leza was not having a bar of it, "It's one thing to stick to your principles for your own stake. But when the livelihood of your family is at stake you can't do this."

"Leza, but we can't stop now!"

"I'm not getting kicked out of our home so you can get one up on Cenok."

"I'm sure he won't leave us destitute. That would also be an embarrassment for him."

"We can't risk it, not with little Trasia. It's not worth the risk."

"But what of the meeting? I'm sure we are onto something." Fifthe was clearly frustrated at the thought of not being able to continue what he had started.

"I'll take the meeting!" Tresia stated. "Mum is right, you have too much at stake to throw it all on this."

"But what about you, you could also get offside with Elder." Fifthe was concerned for his daughter.

"Actually, dad. I already am offside with Elder. He already stopped my allowance. Plus I'll be going to live in Hutibo soon."

"Fifthe, listen to your daughter. She is talking sense. I'm sure she can handle things in Loke," it was an extremely rare compliment from her mum. "You'll still get your rebellion but without the same risk. I now worry that what we did tonight will deflect badly on us."

"Don't worry Mum, I can take the blame for tonight too."

Fifthe eventually agreed to relinquish control of his plan to his daughter. They got to their home. Ave-Maria had the kettle boiling, so they had a tea while Fifthe explained his plan in detail to the others.

"The tea is lovely," Leza noted. "Thank you Ave-Maria, at least someone here can make a decent cup."

"You're welcome," Ave-Maria replied.

"Tresia let me know how it all goes tomorrow," her dad requested. "I still wish I could be there."

"It will be fine." Tresia assured.

Ave-Maria spoke up, "Leza can you mind Tere & Jeb tomorrow night; I think I should go with Tresia to Jin Palace."

"Yes, this could get a little interesting," Tresia agreed.

20

As the tumbrel arrived in Loke the next morning Tresia noted the smell was getting worse. They were still working on burying the one on the edge of town, the offending beast in the centre of the village was at least a couple days off been buried.

She started by hobbling up to Ave-Maria's dwelling. Vanize was there overseeing the hole digging. The hole was so deep now she could just make out the top of Aberaif's head. The other slaves were out of sight.

"May I go up and talk with the giant?" she asked Vanize.

Vanize looked at her crutches and remembered the crutch incident from the other day. Still he could supervise any interactions out here, "Make it brief, and he doesn't stop digging."

Aberaif's heart skipped a beat as he saw Tresia approaching. He kept digging but straighten his posture and sucked in his stomach, not that he needed to, he was already lean and well-muscled.

"Aberaif, I see the hole is getting bigger." Tresia called from the side of the hole.

"Yes, should be done by the end of the day."

"I just arrived in the village, so thought I'd come and say hello."

"Thanks, how is your foot Amira?"

It had been a week since she had broken it, it was still sore and she had hardly been resting it.

"Getting better," she lied, as she watched him work for a short time then felt the eyes of Vanize piercing her, "Well I better not stay too long, but I'll try and get back later."

"That would be nice, we get half an hour at lunch time."

He looked up and smiled at her. His big blue eyes melted her heart. Looking up at the rich blue sky with the wafer thin Awai shimmering above she noted his eyes were the same colour as the sky. All the time she was apart from him all she could do was think about him. She tried hard to think of Yrrab, but it was no good. Her mind kept jumping back to Aberaif. She decided it was just because he needed help; once he was a free man she would then forget about him and marry Yrrab. "Lunchtime, ok," she agreed.

Aberaif watched her walk away, he could just see her over the rim of the hole. It was torture to see her occasionally and then watch her walk away. He almost wished she had just forgotten about him and left him to his miserable life. It was killing him seeing her come and go again. Even if she could free him, which was looking unlikely, he was still a giant and she was an heiress. She had to marry Yrrab, they could never be together.

Tresia returned to Jin Palace disheartened, she was still no closer to freeing him than she was when they returned from the jungle. Maybe her Dad's mad plan would eventually bring a change and they could set the slaves free. But she doubted that it could even stop them lighting their fire, let alone achieve much else. She entered the gates of Jin Palace downcast.

"You look like they cancelled your birthday," Jin observed.

"Oh Jin, you have no idea."

"No idea, about what?"

"I promised Aberaif, that I would free him cause he saved my life. But elder won't have a bar of it. I'm forbidden to even see him. In fact in forbidden from even coming to Loke. And in a short time I will marry and leave him to rot in slavery." Tears started to well up in Tresia's eyes and her nose started to run.

Jin pulled out a cloth used to wipe bowls with and gave it to her to wipe her nose.

"Oh, that's right, you want to free the giant," Jin's face lit up mischievously, "Well you should have asked me for help sooner. Let's see, I have smuggled a few things out of Caffan before, but never anything that big. He won't fit in our shipping boxes?"

"I thought I could help him to just run away, but he said he would just be recaptured, it's not like you can disguise a giant."

"Why don't you just get Yrrab to buy the giant?" Jin asked then in a seductive tone she suggested, "Then you could have him as your own personal slave!"

Tresia quickly rejected the idea, "No! That's not freedom, and I'm more honourable than that."

"Ok then, free the giant it is." Jin went deep in thought scheming, "What about your balloon?"

"The problem with that is they just go up and down and just drift with the wind. We could never even leave Caffan. My little rockets might let me manoeuvre a little but not enough to escape the province."

"I'm sure we'll figure something out!" Jin tried to reassure her. "You're pretty smitten with him aren't you?"

"Smitten?"

"You've fallen in love with the Giant."

"No, absolutely not. I'm engaged to marry Yrrab."

"So you love Yrrab!"

Tresia considered the statement, she did not love Yrrab. "No," was her sheepish reply.

"But this Raif guy, you keep on thinking about him. You long to be with him and it's breaking your heart that you can't be! And you are not sure how you can live without him."

Jin had nailed it; Tresia realised she had let herself fall in love with the giant, she kicked herself for being so stupid. She blew her nose into the cloth again, "What do you know about love anyway?"

"Well I'm not the world's expert on it," Jin thought back to a time she had been love stricken. But alas that did not turn out as she had hoped, leaving her alone and pregnant. "But I've seen people do all sorts of things for love. My son-in-law was disowned by his family for marrying Ave-Maria. I really don't know what she saw in him!"

"Still, Ave-Maria was not a slave or a giant. And Wilfor was not engaged to someone else."

"No, but if it's love, it's love." Jin grabbed the cloth back off her and threw it back into the pile of cleaning cloths. "Love is fickle though, I'd still take the money."

Tresia's heart ached as she descended into the vault to spend the rest of the morning cutting out paper. At lunchtime she left back to Ave-Maria's wrecked place, the slaves were still working but she waited sitting patiently on one of the salvaged straw filled cushions till they stopped for lunch. Aberaif collected his bread and lentils and came and sat beside her. He sat on another cushion which was far too small for him. Vanize glared at the two of them but then decided to let them be.

"How's your morning been, Amira?" Aberaif questioned.

"Just been working on a new balloon." she quietly spoke so no one else could hear.

"I thought you weren't allowed to make another one!" he was concerned for her safety after nearly seeing her die when she crashed the first one.

"Well I'm not, but I'm making one anyway! Actually I'm not allowed to see you or even be in Loke either."

"But here you are."

"Yes, I guess I am. Flying a balloon is great."

The thought of flying terrified Aberaif, "Sound's lovely," he lied.

"Oh it is, it is so beautiful up there and peaceful, the feeling of floating above the earth it's amazing!" She then went on to describe her balloon and discoveries about the Awai.

Aberaif loved seeing her become so animated and excited when she started to talk of flying, he could see she loved it. So he listened intently as she recounted all her discoveries about the Awai and all the things that were still left to learn. The way she described it caused Aberaif to wonder about stuff he had always taken for granted.

All too soon lunch break was over and Aberaif went back to work and Tresia back to Jin Palace. Tresia suspected that Aberaif was not super interested in her Awai discoveries, but it was so nice to have someone just listen and not scoff at it. This confused her even further as Yrrab also tried to coax that out of her yet she limited what she had told him. Talking about the Awai again renewed her passion for it. She wondered if the rumours she had started about the Awai had started to wear Elder's resolve about letting her fly her balloon again. It was all anyone talk to her about when she was back in Newbsrus, surely those same people would be hassling Elder about it too. Still after tonight she doubted Elder would let her do anything ever again, still she was going to Hutibo soon and he could not stop her there.

#

Evening came and the tavern area of Jin Palace was packed full, mostly with locals but also a few folk from Newbsrus. Ave-Maria helped Tresia get up onto a small platform, she then stood beside her. The people were expecting her father, but soon hushed when Tresia got up to speak.

"People of Loke. You all know Ave-Maria." Tresia motioned towards her friend beside her.

"A week ago Ave-Maria's brave husband Wilfor went missing trying to search for me. Two days ago Ave-Maria saved my life and the village by killing the two Tyrannosaurs."

The people mumbled amongst themselves until someone shouted, "Hurrah, Ave-Maria!"

The crowd then all shouted, "Hurrah, Ave-Maria!" After which they all took a swig of their drink.

Tresia continued, "Now people of Loke do you think Elder Cenok cares about Ave-Maria or any of us here in Loke?"

A grumble rumbled around the room as Tresia answered her own question, "No, he doesn't, Ave-Maria's house was destroyed and no help came from Elder Cenok, or any of the rest of the family, or anyone else in Newbsrus."

"Boo, boo," someone vocalised from the crowd.

Before Tresia could continue further, Erdminger stormed in through the gate, He looked at the two girls on the platform and the angry glares coming from around the place.

"What is the meaning of this?" he demanded.

"Shhhh. Shut up and listen. And you'll find out!" someone rebuked.

Looking at the scowls around the room Erdminger suddenly felt intimidated and decided to comply.

Tresia was momentarily put off by this. Now Erdminger was here there was no way she could get away from Elder Cenok finding out her involvement. Still she was in too deep to stop now.

"Are you tired of been treated as the poor cousin to the folks of Newbsrus?"

"Boo, Newbsrus." came the chant.

"People of Loke, tomorrow Cenok and his heirs are coming to burn more of our jungle down. Wilfor is in that jungle: battling the heat, surviving the huge insects, dodging the dinosaurs, desperately trying to get home to see his family."

"Hurrah Wilfor!" was shouted, to which the crowd followed suit.

Ave-Maria fought to hold back the tears as the crowd cheered for her husband. Jin ran over with a dishcloth to give her.

"I have been in a jungle fire, and I am very lucky to have survived. Poor Wilfor, after struggling for over a week to survive in the wretch jungle with wraith wasps, rivers, wild animals and all sorts of danger, Wilfor could be just about home, just about to climb the fence to see his lovely family again. Then what; he is killed by a fire, lit by the greed of Cenok."

"Boo, Cenok! Hurrah Wilfor!"

"I saw countless beautiful animals die in the blaze. Do Cenok or his heirs care about the animals? The animals have every right to treat the jungle as their home. But the greed of Cenok wants to kill them so they can take more land for themselves."

The rage in the gathering was palpable, Erdminger was observing all this but dared not speak.

"But you may ask what can we do about it? People of Loke you don't have to be walked over by Cenok anymore."

The place went dead silent, they were all shocked at what they were hearing.

"Beside our village is the only gate to that part of the jungle. The very gate which Elder Cenok neglected - resulting in tragedy." Tresia raised her voice for the next bit, "People of Loke, we control the gate. Let us not let those murderers through our gate. Tomorrow when they come; we will man the gate and they will not pass."

Again empty silence until someone dared to ask, "What are you suggesting?"

She returned to a calmer tone to explain the practicalities of it, "Well if enough of us gather at the gate when they arrive we can stop them from passing through to light their fire!"

"Will that work?" another questioned in disbelief.

Tresia was not sure that it would, but no point revealing her doubt, "I don't see why it wouldn't."

Someone else in the crowd then piped up, "Well tomorrow we will show Cenok that the people of Loke aren't to be trampled no more. Hurrah, Loke; Hurrah, Tresia."

"Hurrah, Loke; Hurrah, Tresia!" the crowd erupted and cheered.

"A round of drinks, on the house," Jin offered.

"Hurrah, Jin!" the mood suddenly lightened. The people realised they had some power and they did not have to bow to every demand and whim of Cenok. They were looking forward to the standoff tomorrow.

Erdminger slipped out the gate, he would be making a trip the Newbsrus first thing to see Elder Cenok.

Tresia and Ave-Maria got down from the platform, not the easiest task for Tresia with her sore foot. Ave-Maria was greeted by women there who want to hug her and offer her sympathy. Tresia was approached by many others with questions and opinions. A few asked where her father was, she vaguely explained that he could not make it because he was ill.

Eventually as the thong of people approaching her was easing off a particular gentleman with a thick full beard, a hat and a full robe that hid most of his body came up to her and said, "Tresia you were brilliant, couldn't have said it better myself."

Tresia inspected the strange man and concluded his beard was indeed fake and she recognised the face hiding behind it.

"Thanks," she accepted the compliment from her heavily disguised father, but thought better than to reveal his identity. She had not known he was there, but she was not surprised, he would not have wanted to miss it. She whispered to him, "Erdminger was here, he will go howling to Elder, so I guess I'll be in deep trouble now."

"I guess you will be. But it all about giving power back to the people, by defying him you strip him of his power." Fifthe was concerned for his daughter but wanted to give her confidence.

"Well we will have to see what happens at the gate tomorrow!"

"Yes, tomorrow will be a very interesting day," Fifthe agreed.

21

Ave-Maria looked out from beside the cooker; she was making some porridge and tea. She was not accustomed to getting servants to bring breakfast, so she was making it. The morning vapours had not cleared and she was the first one up. The blue motor-tumbrel pulled up on the road in front of the dwelling and two men got out and approached.

"Hello, Sirs," she greeted Elder Cenok and Erdminger.

"TRESIA, I need to talk to Tresia. Where is she?" Cenok shouted angrily.

"Could you please keep your voice down!" Ave-Maria quietly scolded, "You'll upset the children, they have already been through so much," before adding, "Tresia is not here, nor are Fifthe or Leza" loudly as so everyone would hear.

"What do you mean she is not here? Where is everyone? This is where they live!" Cenok said angrily, but in a much quieter voice, he was not used to people telling him what to do.

"Yes it is."

"Well what on earth are you doing here?"

"Well, since the inner wall gate was left unattended," answered Ave-Maria, subtly trying to lay some blame back on Cenok, "some dinosaurs entered our village and destroyed my home. Leza has very kindly opened her home up for me to stay with her."

"Is this Ave-Maria?" Cenok questioned Erdminger, having never actually met her before. He had been told that Ave-Maria was staying with Fifthe's family.

Ave-Maria answer the question herself, "Yes I am Ave-Maria."

"She was at the meeting too, she is also involved in it," Erdminger told Cenok.

"What on earth is Tresia playing at?" Cenok angrily asked. "Stirring the village of Loke up against its founders. I'd cut her allowance off; if I hadn't already. Ungrateful lass, after all I have done for her."

"Well you probably will need to talk to Tresia herself about that; but you really should listen to her. She is pretty smart you know!" Ave-Maria was simmering with rage at the two men in front of her; one of them had sent Wilfor into the jungle and the other planned to burn it down with him still in it.

"What were you doing at the meeting last night?" Erdminger interjected, he knew Ave-Maria also had a pivotal role in the plot.

"I sometimes work at Jin Palace, Jin is my mother! You were there! I did not say anything at the meeting. But you already know that my brave husband is still in the jungle that you are trying to burn down." Ave-Maria did not plan to start crying, she was so angry at the two in front of her that she thought that she would be able to contain her emotions. But at the thought of Wilfor still in the jungle and her not knowing if she would ever see him again she burst into tears.

Erdminger and Cenok did not know what to do; they had a crying female in front of them and both felt somewhat guilty for her distress. They decided a hasty retreat was the best plan for the situation.

"Sorry mam," Erdminger apologised as he hobbled quickly away.

"We didn't even find out where Tresia is! I really need to have words with that girl!" Cenok raged as the vehicle moved off. He was still outraged about what Erdminger had told him of the meeting last night.

As soon as Cenok's motor-tumbrel sped off Tresia, Fifthe and Leza emerged, all had overheard and decided hiding to be the best option. Ave-Maria was sitting on a plush cushion crying, Leza came up and put an arm around her. Tresia did the same on the other side and she also started to cry.

"I need to be stronger than this, for the children," Ave-Maria wept.

"It's alright Ave, it's sure been a rough week." Tresia wished she could assure Ave-Maria that things would turn out ok. But no one had ever returned from the jungle who had been lost as long as Wilfor. She knew they truly loved each other.

After breakfast Tresia went to her sleeping hut. She came out holding a beautiful ornate candelabra complete with a scented candle. "Happy 99th Anniversary," she congratulated her parents.

"Darling that is so gorgeous, just like my eldest daughter!" Fifthe said flatteringly.

"Thanks Dad."

Her mother looked at the gift with genuine surprise and just said "Hmmmm."

Tresia wondered if her mum thought that if she could not say anything nasty, that it was better not to speak at all. She would take the silence as a victory.

"Tresia, I can't come up to Loke today. You know I would love to be there," her dad told her.

"That's right it's our 99th anniversary and I am not letting him out of my sight. I'm surprised he managed to keep his mouth shut last night," Leza stated.

"I didn't need to say anything, Tresia was brilliant," Fifthe proclaimed.

"Hmmmm," her mum replied.

#

The hole was finally deep enough. They had finished it the evening before just before knocking off. Now the task was to move the now rotten stinking mass of dinosaur into the hole. In hindsight they should have chopped it into manageable pieces while it was still fresh. But apart from skinning it, it had just been left intact. But now they had to get the decomposing beast into the hole it was sitting right beside. It did not help that no one wanted to touch it.

The mammoths were brought to help out. They trumpeted in protest and spooked at the smell and sight of the putrid beast. There was no way they would go near, the mammoth handler tried with their favourite foods to bribe them, but they would not have a bar of it and refused to approach.

An attempt was also made with a tahtor. Nihliz pointed out before they even started that the attempt would be ill fated from the outset. "Everyone knows tahtors are good for fast light loads; but useless for heavy slow grinds," he said knowingly. "Add to that that smell and sight of the dead tyrannosaur, we don't stand a chance." Nihliz was unfortunately proved right. A tahtor handler even got injured by a violently objecting tahtor, knocking him to the ground.

"We will try without the animals." Vanize stated.

A rope was slid under the tail starting at the tip and working it by sliding it back and forth till it was half way up the tail. Aberaif being the tallest then threw the rope to the other side. Stevit then tied a slip knot at the other end. The rope was laid over the hole and all the available slaves pulled as hard as they could. The monster did not move an inch.

"Pull harder," Vanize yelled. He reached his right hand down towards his whip. He had not used it since before the dinosaur attack. Previously he would have whipped a few slaves for not being able to move it. He looked at their faces and bodies and decided that they were pulling as hard as they could and a whipping would probably not increase their output. "Stop. We will come back later, we need those mammoths!" he instructed.

"They will spook every time; mammoths don't like to be around dead smelly things," Nihliz said. He then screwed up his face because of the stench, "Nor do I, come to think of it."

So with the hole dug but the beast still beside the hole they moved to the centre of the village to begin digging the next hole. As they broke the soil, the answer to the dilemma came chugging into Loke.

"Sir," Stevit nervously summoned Vanize, it was a risk to draw attention to oneself, "That thing might be able to pull the beast into the hole."

Vanize instinctively reached down for his whip, but as he did he realised it was a good idea; "Yes that's it!" He decided to approach Elder Cenok to request the use of it.

The vehicle stopped outside of Jin Palace. The gates were still closed, there was no one inside.

"TRESIA, come out I know you're in there!" Cenok got out of the motor-tumbrel and yelled at the empty premises. He turned to Erdminger, "Are you sure she is here? I have forbidden her from coming to Loke."

"Well she has been here every day since you banned her, so she must be," came the reply.

"Naughty girl, the youth these days. Ungrateful spoilt brats!" Cenok said as he sniffed the air, the aroma was getting ripe. "Why did you get your slave teams to bury the other beast first?"

"I didn't, the slave drivers started on the wrong one."

"Excuse me, but I need to borrow your motor-tumbrel." Vanize interrupted.

"What!" Cenok turned and looked at the person whom made the strange request. "Who on earth is this?" he asked Erdminger.

"That is Vanize, the guy we found to replace Wilfor."

"Vanize; why did you bury the other dinosaur first? This one causes the most offense," Cenok asked.

"I didn't, it was my day off. You could ask my assistant Nihliz."

"Hmmmm." Cenok moaned, he could see little point in asking Nihliz; it was always the same with Erdminger and his slave drivers. Everyone would blame each other and he never knew who really stuffed up.

"But the dinosaur is not fully buried yet and we need this vehicle to complete the task."

"Where is Tresia?" Cenok interrogated.

"I don't know; I just need your motor-tumbrel."

"Maybe the giant knows." Erdminger suggested, before yelling to the group digging further up the road, "Giant, come here."

Aberaif heard them summons him, _more trouble_ \- he thought. He walked up the road to the blue motor-tumbrel.

"Where is the girl?" Erdminger demanded.

"I don't know, haven't seen her since lunchtime yesterday."

Cenok then accused Vanize, "You let the girl see the giant, you incompetent fool!"

"We are working in a public place, I can't stop the slaves from having contact with the public." Vanize defended himself.

"Well you categorically cannot use my motor-tumbrel," Cenok finally replied to his initial question. No one except Nan had ever used his motor-tumbrel and he was in no mood to start lending it out.

"You don't understand sir, we NEED to borrow your vehicle. The other dinosaur is all ready to be buried but we can't pull it into the hole."

"Use the mammoths! You're just as big an idiot as that Wilfor."

Vanize had tried to ask politely and had stayed patient till this moment. Still everyone has a point and he had just reached his. "No wonder the last guy went into the jungle rather than have to listen to your moaning; you butt-wipe of a man," Vanize had heard the true story from Nihliz. "Tell you what; there is a dinosaur up the road beside a hole. Your problem. I quit." He took off his whip and carbine and lay them on the motor-tumbrel. He started to turn away.

"What do you mean?" Cenok was not used to being talked to like that.

"I mean that I am not getting spoken to like that by a mean spirited, angry jerk like you. So I'm leaving."

"I got that part," he was offended, but even more curious about Vanize's initial statement, "why did Wilfor go into the jungle?"

"To rescue Tresia, you already know the story!" Erdminger uncomfortably answered.

"No, the old guy and the giant went to rescue the girl. Erdminger then sent Wilfor into the jungle so he could cover up the fact that the two slaves were missing. Ask him," Vanize pointed to Aberaif before walking away. He had to collect his things and catch a river boat, he was leaving the awful principality of Caffan.

"Giant is this true?" Cenok asked Aberaif in disbelief.

Aberaif nodded.

"So you cost me all those slaves," Cenok shouted at Erdminger.

"It's not like that, I only told Wilfor to hide for a couple of hours. How could I know that the incompetent fool would get lost in that time?"

"Get out of my tumbrel," Cenok picked up Vanize's whip and started swinging it ineffectually towards Erdminger.

Erdminger vacated from the motor-tumbrel and started hobbling away on his crutches as fast as he could. Cenok started chasing him, swinging the whip but not connecting at all.

"We are here to find Tresia remember! We can sort this out later." Erdminger yelled at his assailant.

"You imbecile, why did I make you the overseer?"

Vanize stopped walking away and turned around to see what was happening. When he saw the pair had abandoned the motor-tumbrel; he decided that he would quit a little bit later in the day. He had never been on a motor-tumbrel, this was too good an opportunity to miss. He walked back and, picking back up his carbine, climbed in the front seat.

"Get in," he told Aberaif who climbed in the other side, it was a squeeze but he just managed to fit. "Now take us to the edge of town," Vanize told the driver.

The driver looked around and saw Cenok still yelling and chasing Erdminger further away. "What the heck, let's do this," he said. Pulling on his clutch he got the vehicle moving and using brakes on each side he manoeuvred the motor-tumbrel past the first dinosaur.

"Follow us," Vanize commanded as they past all the rest of the team.

Aberaif did not know what to say or do, he was aghast at what had just happened. In the end Vanize broke the silence.

"If you ever make it out of here; go to Tsaegar."

"Tsaegar! Why Tsaegar?"

"They just abolished slavery there. I was a slave driver there and found myself unemployed. I was travelling around looking for a job when I found this miserable gig."

"Thanks," Aberaif replied surprised at the advice.

"No, thank you, you saved my life. Perhaps you could make money from singing, you have the best voice I ever heard."

"You think; any ideas how to get the Tsaegar?"

"You will have to figure that out yourself. Maybe your girlfriend can help with that one!" Vanize commented as the vehicle came to a halt.

Aberaif hopped out of the vehicle, the words 'your girlfriend' still ringing in his ears. He smiled as he thought of Tresia, he never considered that an outside observer would consider her as that. That would be nice he thought; but she was an Amira and engaged to Yrrab and he was a mere slave.

The driver backed the motor-tumbrel into position on the opposite side of the hole to the dinosaur. The rope was tied to the back of the tumbrel and the driver swung on his clutch to get the vehicle moving. The belts slipped and groaned as the pressure came on them. The wheels gripped and lurched slightly.

"Help him!" Vanize commanded.

The slaves went to the back of the motor-tumbrel and pushed against it. Once Aberaif also got his mass involved the tail of the beast started sliding. Slowly at first but it did not have to move far and gravity started to take over and the tail fell in the hole.

The rope had bond tightly around the rotten tail of the beast. No one wanted to go to try and untie it so all the slaves stood around trying to look as inconspicuous as possible, to not get themselves volunteered.

"Just cut the rope close to the knot," Vanize gave Aberaif his knife; with the previous happenings of the morning he did not care about salvaging the rope. Aberaif climbed into the hole and cut the rope close to the knot but managed to avoid touching the rotting flesh.

The frontend of the beast was more problematic. The head was too heavy to slip a rope under. Plus in the direction they needed to pull from there was a huge pile of dirt.

It was the driver who thought of a solution, "Maybe we could push it rather than pull!"

They tied the remains of Ave-Maria's table onto the front of the tumbrel. The driver then carefully positioned it against the right side of the dinosaurs head. As he made contact he swung the clutch into full power and the slaves pushed against the back of the motor-tumbrel. It was very effective, the head went crashing into the hole. The slaves all gave a loud cheer as it happened.

The driver was not quite quick enough on the brakes. The front wheels dropped into the hole as the vehicle came to a halt. At that point Cenok and Erdminger reappeared. Cenok had calmed down and they were talking with each other. "What on earth have you done to my tumbrel!" he lost his cool again.

"Nothing, I'll get it back to you in a minute." Vanize reassured.

"Technically it's not a tumbrel anyway," explained Nihliz, "you see a tumbrel only has two wheels, whereas that has four."

Cenok glared at the young slave driver, but did not say anything before turning back to the slaves' efforts.

With the engine in the back the front of the vehicle was quite light. Aberaif lifted the right side and a few other slaves the left as the driver applied reverse power. It backed out of the hole easily. The table was removed and Cenok got his motor tumbrel back, or whatever it was going to be called. The slaves started to dig the dirt back over to bury the beast; which was lying with its right hand side up in the hole.

22

Tresia travelled to Loke in the public tumbrel. Looking ahead she saw Elder Cenok's blue automobile going in the opposite direction. She bowed her head and hoped that she would not be spotted. As the opposing vehicles whizzed she got a glimpse of his face, he looked very angry. She held her breath for a time but soon noted the blue vehicle kept going towards Newbsrus, he must not have seen her. She gave the driver an extra half Drac to drop her off on the edge of the village; she knew Erdminger would be waiting at the tumbrel stop. After hopping off she limped with her crutches an extended path around the village to get to Ave-Maria's house. She was surprised to see the dinosaur now lying in the hole.

She approached Vanize, "May I talk to the giant again? I won't disturb his work."

She was completely dumbfounded by his response, "Sure thing, hang on." He then went over to the pile of dirt that was being shovelled back in the hole, "Raif, come down from there, your girlfriend wants to talk to you."

The other slaves jeered and whistled as he got down to go over to Tresia.

"The rest of you keep working!" Vanize warned.

"Why thank you, I promise I won't keep him long."

"Arh, take your time," Vanize grinned.

Tresia and Aberaif walked a little distance away and sat down on the ground beside each other under a tree.

"What's up with him? You guys being feeding him too many capsicums?"

Aberaif laughed, "No, he called Cenok a butt-wipe of a man, a mean spirited, angry jerk and then he quit."

"But he is still here. Cenok would have fired him on the spot for saying that."

"No, Cenok lost his rag at Erdminger; we borrowed Cenok's contraption to push the dinosaur into the hole. And then Erdminger and Cenok came back and begged Vanize to stay for longer; he even got a pay rise."

"No wonder he is in such a good mood, and no wonder Elder looked so angry. Finally a good use for that stupid machine of his."

"You saw him?"

"Yes but he didn't see me." Tresia went on to tell him about the meeting the previous evening and plan to block the gate.

"No wonder he came to Loke looking for you! You sure have some mettle standing up to him like that."

"Well I haven't done that yet, later today we will see. I'm worried I'll fail and they will burn the forest and drive everyone into submission. Things will be worse for everyone!"

Aberaif put her arm around her, "I believe in you, Amira"

"Thanks," Her heart melted having him so close to her, she definitely had fallen in love with the giant. When he was not there she longed to see him; and now he was here the torture was worse knowing they could never be together.

Little did she know but Aberaif had much the same feelings, he paused for a second then mentioned, "Did you know that there is no slavery in Tsaegar?"

"How does that work?" In her travels she had never come across a place without slavery.

"I don't know, ask Vanize, he told me."

Aberaif looked back at the other slaves working and started to feel guilty that he was not helping, even though he savoured every moment with Tresia.

Tresia could see on his face that he thought he should go back, "Well you should get back to work and I should work on my balloon until the firelighters come."

Aberaif really wanted to tell her that he thought of her every waking moment and always yearned just to see her again. That she was the most amazing woman, she was absolutely gorgeous. And how he constantly dreamed of how they could escape this place and be free together. However the only words that came were, "Take care, Amira Tresia." They walked back towards the other slaves working.

Tresia wondered if she should tell him that she had fallen for him, but that was ridiculous and it could never work out between them; so instead she said, "Gosh. That beast sure does stink."

"I know, I can even let one rip and no one even notices." Aberaif joked; it was not quite true, yet. Still Tresia giggled.

He grabbed his shovel and got back to work to even more jeers and whistles from his fellow slaves, they had been watching from the distance.

Tresia approached Vanize, "Thank you so much."

"No problem." He knew that the girl seeing the giant would annoy Elder Cenok so he was more than happy to facilitate a meeting.

"What did Aberaif mean about there been no slavery in Tsaegar?"

"That's right, the people there decided that man had no right to own another man, so slavery was outlawed."

"So they just let all the slaves go free?" Tresia was intrigued; the idea was quite revolutionary.

"Not quite, a couple were released, a few stayed with their masters as paid servants. But the majority were sold out of the district before the new law came in."

'I might have to go to Tsaegar to check it out!"

"I'm sure you won't go alone!" Vanize smiled. "But please, not on my watch?" He was feeling great, he had never been nice to people before and he was surprised at how good it felt.

"Oh, OK." Tresia was still clueless as to how to free Aberaif; but she was sure she could do it when Vanize wasn't working.

She hobbled an extended route to the rear entrance of Jin Palace and made her way down into the bunker. She started working cutting more paper into shape. Jin came down to chat.

"How you going? I heard Elder Cenok came looking for you, did he find you?"

"No, I managed to dodge that one, partly thanks to Ave when he came to my house."

"That's good, He will be back later today. How is Ave? She is hardly talking to me for some reason."

"She is hanging in there; but you should at least pretend to be sad about her husband's disappearance. Rather than openly celebrating it!"

"Gosh, is that all she is upset about!" Jin dismissed.

Tresia spied something in the vault that took her interest, "What's that?"

"Oh that, Dad built an engine once, he thought that if he used it to power the fan to his furnace he could get rid of the bellows."

"Sounds like a good idea."

"I know, except for the first time he used it mum was minding little Ave for me and she got black silt blown all over her. Lucky none of it was hot. Mum told him to get that contraption out of her sight. So I took it and hid it. I have an idea where to use it now though!"

"Oh, how old was Ave-Maria then?"

"Five, school aged but I couldn't afford to send her."

"Ave never went to school?" Tresia was surprised.

"Well, that school is just another money making device for Cenok. Jin Palace took off soon after so I did get to send her. But even now I help Ave & Wilfor put Tere in school, cause they would struggle on his slave drivers wage."

Tresia was horrified and liking her patriarch even less, "Shouldn't everyone be entitled to learn?"

Jin shrugged as she lifted the engine out of its place and manoeuvred it to get it up to her kitchen. It was heavy so Tresia helped as much as she could, which given her sore foot was not a lot.

As they put it on the bench someone appeared at the door, "They're coming! They have been spotted heading up towards us."

Jin locked the gates to Jin Palace and they left via the rear exit to avoid the risk of Erdminger catching them.

Tresia's heart was in her mouth as she and Jin made their way up to the gate. She was very nervous about how this might go. Several of the other villagers were also walking up to the gate. The Awai glistened in the sunlight above their heads as they walked along the dirt road. They got to Ave-Maria and Wilfor's wrecked dwelling and saw the progress the slaves had made, they had nearly finished burying the beast.

At the gate the number of villagers gradually increased until about 50 of them were there. The gatekeeper, who was from Newbsrus decided to flee the scene. The gate was securely shut and the people milled around in front of it.

Before long a few tumbrels came up with people from Newbsrus including Zide, Watha and Sagi. Following behind was Elder Cenok in his automobile. Erdminger was conspicuously absent.

"What is this nonsense, let us through we have an important task to do in the jungle." Zide was impatient.

Someone in the Loke crowd yelled, "Go Home."

Soon everyone was chanting, "Go home, go home, go home!"

Elder Cenok came up, "Where is Tresia?"

Tresia realised she could not hide so came up to the front.

"Tresia get this crowd to stand down, it's not their business what happen in the forest."

"Not their business, the sawmill is huge part of the village's economy and you want to close it down by burning the trees. We will not stand down." She was defiant.

"Can I talk to you alone?" Elder asked.

"What can you say to me that the rest of the people should not hear? The people need to hear your plans too, because the people need a voice."

"Tresia I insist that we discuss this. I need a private word."

Tresia could see he was not going to back down on that so she went down the road with him. They were out of earshot of the rest of the crowd, who had now silenced to see what was happening.

"What is so important you need to talk to me in secret?" she asked in a soft but agitated voice.

"I just have a proposition to negotiate with you."

"No negotiation, you are not going to pass!"

"We will see about that. I have been thinking that if we burn the jungle then I will not need all the forestry slaves."

"What do you mean?" Tresia wondered what he was getting at.

"The giant, if you get them to stand down, I will free the giant. That's what you want isn't it. All your disobedience and walking off the boat. It's all about freeing the giant."

Tresia clasped her hand over her mouth, horrified that her patriarch could read her so well. And yet here was the answer she was looking for, Aberaif could be free. It would be a dream come true, well nearly, if only she could be with him - but that could never be! She looked back at the people who had gathered by the wall. They trusted her and would listen to her, they would stand down if she told them too. But she would be selling them out for her own purposes.

"Well, what do you think?" Elder Cenok impatiently asked.

Her heart was in turmoil. She could not think of any other way to free Aberaif. But could she live with selling herself out? She wished she could talk to Ave-Maria about it. She thought about Vanize's statement: 'I'm sure you won't go alone,' he was evidently sure she would find a way to free him. Finally she said loudly so everyone could hear, "We are not selling out to you, now GO HOME!"

"GO HOME, GO HOME, GO HOME" the chant started up again.

"You'll regret this Tresia," Elder yelled, "Just you watch. And the giant is never, ever going free. Mark my words!"

And with that, the delegation from Newbsrus turned and left for home. The villagers gathered at the gate cheered.

"We won, we defied Cenok and won," one of the villagers excitedly said.

"Yes for now, but they will be back." Tresia warned.

"What did Elder talk to you about?" Jin asked

"Oh, he tried to buy me out!" Tresia did not fancy going into detail in front of everyone.

"But Tresia could not be sold," someone cheered, "hurrah Tresia!"

"Hurrah Tresia," the crowd cheered.

"Thank you all for coming, be ready because we will need to show them another time that the people of Loke cannot be walked over," Tresia addressed the crowd before they all departed.

As Jin and Tresia made their way back to Jin Palace, Jin asked again, "How did Elder try to buy you out?"

"Oh, he offered to free Aberaif if I got everyone to stand down."

"And you turned that down?"

"Should I have accepted?" Tresia started to regret her decision.

"I would have."

"Really. But that would have been putting my own interests ahead of the village."

"So?" Jin seemed puzzled. "But I guess we will get him out somehow! Duldi the merchant is coming back in two days, I'll ask him."

"Two days, I was hoping to have my balloon finished."

"Can we finish it in two days?"

"Not working in that little cramped bunker."

As they got back to Jin Palace they saw that the slaves had finished up by Ave-Maria's dwelling and had moved onto digging a hole beside the tyrannosaur near the centre of Loke. The stench was now overpowering.

"Who is going to visit a tavern for a nice meal and drink with the awful smell outside? It's not good for business!" Jin noted.

"No you might be a bit quiet." Tresia agreed.

"Very quiet, because Jin Palace will be closed for the next two days while they bury the beast and we finish your balloon. I have an idea, and we will need that balloon."

23

With the gates to Jin Palace locked it was impossible to see inside from the street. They moved the tables and chairs and spread the paper out over the dining area. With room to spread out the job became so much easier. It was Tresia's second time making a balloon. The first time she had slowly muddled her way through. But this time she knew what was involved and she found it was much faster as she glued and stitched the paper together. While she worked on the balloon Jin worked on the balloons furnace. When school finished for the day Ave-Maria arrived with Tere and Jeb through the back entrance.

Ave-Maria had heard that the blockade of the gate had been successful and bought her own news, "The town of Newbsrus is in an uproar. The feeling there is that if a small village like Loke can resist Elder Cenok then Newbsrus should be able to too."

"Wow," Tresia was amazed that their actions could echo around the whole province.

"Yes, your Dad is rallying people and plans to hold a meeting like we had in Loke tomorrow night."

"So much for him staying out of it." Tresia wondered what her mum would think, especially on their anniversary.

"What can I do here to help?" Ave-Maria asked after she got her kids settled at a table trying to do art with scraps of red paper.

"The basket!" Tresia said despairingly. "That's the hardest part and we haven't even started."

"What did you do last time?" Ave-Maria asked.

"Well I took the plans to Miyo the carpenter and he built it for me."

"Can we do that again?"

"It took him weeks."

"Would he do a rushed job if we paid him extra?"

"You have never met Miyo, the guy does not know the meaning of the word rush. Plus he needed to get in special expensive Parisienne wood."

"Hmmmm," Ave-Maria pondered. "Can I see the plans?"

Tresia found her notebook and gave it to Ave-Maria. She studied it for a time and then spoke to her children. "Do you kids want to come with mum for a walk?"

"Where to?" Tere asked.

"Our old dwelling,"

"Is the nasty dinosaur still there?"

"No, they buried it this morning," Tresia piped up.

"Ok," Tere said.

"I'm scared mommy," Jeb was obviously nervous, but he did not want to be left behind.

"It's ok. Mummy won't let anything hurt you."

They took the long way round, to avoid the rotten dinosaur still waiting to be buried. There was very little left of their old dwelling. Ave-Maria got the children to sit on the two surviving cushions while she went to look into the rubble.

"Psicko," Jeb said with delight as a neighbour's small dog came bouncing up to play when he recognised the children.

Psicko lapped up the attention Tere and Jeb gave him. He had not been allowed out to play until the dinosaur had been buried and was enjoying the freedom to visit his old neighbours.

Ave-Maria found what she was looking for. "Yes, there it is," she cried out as she found the old handsaw that belonged to Wilfor.

"Do either of you two kids need to use the outhouse?"

"No mommy." replied Jeb, as Tere shook her head.

She then went to her outhouse and estimated the level needed and started sawing.

"Mum, why are you sawing the top off the toilet." Tere had come over, with Jeb following and Psicko bounding behind.

"Mum's friend Tresia needs it."

Jeb started laughing, "Tresia likes to wee-wee outside!"

Tere laughed too on hearing Jeb. Ave-Maria also cracked up.

"No," she laughed, "she doesn't need to use the toilet. She just needs the walls and roof of the toilet for her balloon."

"She will need toilet too," Jeb insisted.

"No she just needs this bit to get her balloon to fly."

"But what if she is flying and needs to go wee-wees?"

"She doesn't need to, she goes before she flies." Ave-Maria realised she was discussing her friend's toileting with her kids. "Now go play with Psicko, let mummy work."

Soon her actions also attracted the attention of some of her neighbours.

"What on earth are you up to?" it was old Marjo.

Ave-Maria was at a complete loss as to how to explain this one. Even the truth, that she needed the top half of her outhouse to become the basket of a balloon, was stretching the limits of sanity. And she could hardly tell the truth and reveal the secret balloon.

"Mommy's friend needs it to go wee-wees in her balloon," Jeb tried to explain the situation as best he could.

"Kids, such vivid imaginations," Marjo explained, knowing that that surely could not be the answer.

By now Ave-Maria decided that the grieving, slightly unbalanced widow was perhaps the best play here. "Wilfor built this. I want to take it with me to remember him by."

"I seem to remember Duvious the builder constructing it, just a couple years ago," Marjo replied.

"Yes, but it was all Wilfor's idea and Wilfor supplied all the timber," she said, thinking of the major saga that had been the building of their outhouse:

It had become a hassle to use the shared neighbourhood outhouse; especially with young children. Wilfor's slave team had just cut down a Parisienne tree and Wilfor had managed to get enough free offcuts to complete an outhouse. It was considered a waste of valuable timber by some at the time. This was not help by the fact that some of the so called 'off-cuts' were pretty decent bits of wood; Wilfor was good friends with some guys in the sawmill. It had created quite a commotion at the time, word even had got back to Elder Cenok. But by the time anyone thought to do anything the building was complete. Erdminger had investigated it: Wilfor blamed the sawmill guy, who blamed his assistant who then completed the 'circle of blame' by blaming Wilfor. Wilfor ended up getting a telling off from Erdminger, but that was about it. He had thought it was well worth it: Parisienne wood as well as being very light and very strong also repels insects; a great feature to keep the flies away from the outhouse.

"Wouldn't it be better to take the whole building?" Marjo observed.

"But I only need half, we shared everything, so I'm just taking his half," She burst into tears to add effect. _Maybe a little too strong on the unbalanced -_ Ave-Maria considered.

Marjo and the other neighbours quickly diagnosed Ave-Maria as slightly unhinged due to her grief and let her be.

It did not take long to saw through the very strong but super light timber. The top half was soon separated from the rest. She turned it so the roof was against the ground and stood inside. _Yes, this will work -_ she thought. The roof had a very slight slope, but not enough to cause any major issues. Still there was work to be done: the floor would need to be made stronger and she would need to fill in where the entrance was. A sheet was used for privacy when it was a toilet.

As she examined the top half of the outhouse further she heard Jeb's voice, "Mommy, I need to go toilet. Number twos."

"Why couldn't you want that ten minutes ago?" Ave-Maria complained to her son.

"I didn't need to go ten minutes ago," Jeb defended.

She held up the sheet, which previously served as a door, while Jeb took a considerable amount of time to do his business. He was enjoying the novelty of viewing the clear blue sky, with the Awai way above, while on the loo. Afterward Tere also decided she needed the facilities. Once they were finished Ave-Maria removed the remainder of the left wall to use as extra wood.

Carting it back to Jin Palace was not easy. It was not too heavy, more awkwardly bulky. She turned it up again so the roof was once again pointed to the sky. She found a pillow from her demolished bedroom. With the pillow on top of her head she entered through the door and stood up lifting the structure off the ground.

"Come on kids lets go."

The children followed her as she walked back to Jin Palace. Psicko also followed for a time before returning home. A few heads turned in Loke as they saw her carrying half her toilet through the village. After a painful walk back, once again avoiding the rotten tyrannosaur, she arrived at the back entrance of Jin Palace.

"Ave, is that what I think it is?" Jin questioned.

"No, it's the basket for the balloon," she quickly turned it upside down and stood in it, "See? It needs a couple of modifications, but it will work."

"A toilet, a flying toilet!" Jin teased.

"Well, Mum, what else can we use? Gosh if Wilfor comes home he will have a heart attack when he sees what I've done to his outhouse."

"He was pretty pleased with it I seem to remember. And I was the first to take a dump in it; that sure annoyed him." Jin grinned.

"Mother!"

"Yes, I kind of miss him a little too," Jin decided to try a touch of sympathy.

Ave-Maria started to cry and gave her mother a hug upon hearing that, "I thought you didn't care."

Jin broke off the embrace after a short time and grabbed a cleaning cloth for Ave-Maria to dry her eyes with, 'Of course I care."

Tresia came over. "Wait. It was your outhouse that was made from Parisienne wood!"

"Yes. Did you hear about it?" Ave responded after blowing her nose into the cloth.

"Hear about it! Cenok ranted about it for days. He was going to come and confiscate it, but Jusi talked him out of it."

"I'm glad he didn't, that would have left us without our loo. Wilfor was so chuffed with it, he was so proud of having the only Parisienne loo in the province. And it sure does keep the flies away."

"Well it will do for a balloon basket. A bit smaller than the last one, and square not round, but functional," Tresia observed.

"Thanks, Can you guys mind the kids while I dart back to collect the rest of it." Ave-Maria had left the extra wood back at the outhouse.

"Sure," Jin agreed. "Now where did gran put her sweets?"

Tere and Jeb took great delight in reminding her where her sweets were.

Ave-Maria walked out to collect the bits that she had left behind. As she approached her destination she saw Erdminger limping back towards town. He glared at her with a look of contempt, before wryly smiling. She knew instantly that he was up to something. But she ignored him and continued on her way.

Old Marjo was still there and greeted her, "Hello. You must tell me what is going on here. Even the overseer was here asking."

"What did you say to him?"

"Well nothing; because I really don't know. Just it reminded you of Wilfor. Oh, and I mentioned what your son said about a toilet for a balloon. He left as soon as I said that, very rude really he didn't even say goodb..." Marjo realised Ave-Maria had also left mid-sentence without a farewell.

Ave-Maria had made the trip between her dwelling and her mother's restaurant too many times to count. None were as fast as this one, she sprinted as fast as she could. She whizzed past Erdminger who was still slowly limping on crutches. She was not sure if he yelled something at her or not, but there was no way she was stopping anyway.

"Soup of the day, table nine in three minutes," she yelled as she entered the back door of Jin Palace.

Tresia looked up confused, she was midway through sewing a seam. Jin understood the predetermined code.

"Rats!" Jin stated, there was no way they could hide the paper in that time.

Jin ran to the main gate and unlatched it, "Tresia, can you go outside and stall Erdminger as long as you can."

Tresia suddenly became aware of what the situation was. And hobbled out the gate. Jin locked it behind her. She could see Erdminger approaching up the road looking mightily fired up, she limped quickly up to him. And stood directly in his path directly beside where the slaves were digging.

"Aren't these crutches such a pain, I can't wait till I don't need them anymore." Tresia attempted some small talk.

Erdminger was not interested and started to duck to the left, she countered still blocking his way.

"Would you mind, I'm on important business!" He was now forced to stop. He shimmied to the right to get round her.

"Yes, I have something important to talk to you about too." Tresia moved left to continue blocking.

"Well it will have to wait, come see me in my office later."

"It's really important it's about the gate blockade, you weren't there so how will you know what happened."

"I know what happened, Elder Cenok chewed my ear off about it! Now get out of the way or I'll put you in the dungeon for obstructing me."

Tresia could see that she had stalled as long as she could, it would not be long enough.

"Ouch, what was that?" A sod of soil hit Erdminger in the head, covering his hair and half his face with moist dirt.

"Sorry sir, I'll be more careful next time." Aberaif apologised.

Erdminger turned to look down it the hole, trying to wipe the mud off but smearing it everywhere.

"YOU!" he yelled at Aberaif. "Vanize sort your giant out!"

"Raif; be more careful or I'll have you whipped." Vanize scolded Aberaif. He had watched the whole deliberate act and was finding it hard to keep a serious face.

"Right sir, I promise to be more attentive and not hit the overseer in the head with dirt again." Aberaif replied and got back to digging.

"Sorry Erdminger, it's hard to get quality slaves," Vanize answered. He then attempted to excuse his giant, "These giants are only good for their strength. All brawn, no brain."

"Hmmf," Erdminger grunted as he stormed off towards Jin Palace. Tresia followed at a distance, so did Vanize, he was curious as to what the kerfuffle was about.

BANG, BANG, BANG. His wooden crutch loudly knocked against the metal gate as he yelled, "Open up, this is the overseer!"

"Sorry, we are closed today because of the smell, please come back when the dinosaur is buried." Jin replied over the gate.

"I don't care if you are closed, it's the overseer. I demand to come in!"

"Oh, the overseer, right. I'll let you right in." She jiggled the lock for a while. "Actually I'm having a bit of trouble with the lock. Would you mind coming around to the back entrance."

Erdminger was wild, he knew Ave-Maria had run to warn them and Tresia had delayed him and now Jin was further delaying him. No doubt they had hidden what they needed to hide by the time he got there. He limped around to the back entrance. First thing he saw was the half a toilet lying on its side.

"Ave-Maria you better explain to me quickly why you have vandalised this toilet."

"Well overseer it's not really vandalism if it belongs to you, is it?"

Jeb sensed something was wrong and huddled up to his mum and started to cry.

Ave-Maria picked him up and cuddled him, "It's ok Jeb."

While she was consoling Jeb, Erdminger glanced around Jin Palace. There was no sign of anything suspicious. Then he spied something on one of the tables.

"What is this?" he yelled, picking up a piece of children's artwork.

"It looks like a paper dinosaur," Tresia answered.

Jeb whispered something into Ave-Maria's ear.

"No, it's not a dinosaur, it's a dog," corrected Ave-Maria.

"Of course it's a dog," said Tresia to try to reassure Jeb.

"I don't care if it's a dinosaur, dog or monkey. Why is there red paper here," yelled Erdminger.

Jeb took exception to the angry yelling man, who had mud smeared on his face, "It's not monkey," he yelled back whilst still crying.

"Oh honey, we know it's not a monkey. It looks like a dog," Ave-Maria reassured, then turning to Erdminger, "Doesn't it overseer?"

Erdminger was exasperated, here he was investigating a major crime. Yet they had skewed the line of inquiry into whether the offending bits of paper looked like a dog. "What does it matter what it is, it's red paper!"

He then looked at the little boy, he had tears streaming down his face. "Yes, it looks like a red paper dog," he finally admitted.

"Definitely a dog," Vanize also agreed from the background.

"Good, we have settled that then," proclaimed Jin, "it is a paper dog!"

"No we haven't, explain the red paper."

"Well I had a whole lot of red paper delivered here, two days ago."

"Yes you reported it missing! Yet this red paper dog is not missing is it."

"No, but the rest of the paper still is missing isn't it? Have you any leads to where it might be?"

Erdminger once again departed without even saying farewell.

24

The following morning Jin entered Jin Palace and found Tresia asleep in the pantry. The sound of Jin moving about woke Tresia from a fairly poor night's sleep.

"Have you been here all night?" Jin queried.

"I worked late into the evening and discovered that because the tavern is closed the late tumbrel isn't running, so I had to stay here."

"Oh, how is the balloon going?"

"It's much harder been back in the vault, but I think we are still on schedule."
"The furnace is finished, I'm going to help Ave today to finish the toilet and attach the furnace."

Jin got Tresia some breakfast. Ave-Maria arrived, without her children, Tere was at school and Jeb with Jin's parents. They all got to work.

Tresia spent all day working on her balloon, apart from a short break to see Aberaif at lunchtime. The slaves had made good progress on the hole. There was at most one more day before the dinosaur would be buried and they returned to working in the jungle. By now the stench was overpowering to any newcomers, but those near it had slightly desensitised to it.

Jin and Ave-Maria finished the basket and had the furnace attached in time for Ave-Maria to leave to collect Tere from the expensive school.

Once Ave-Maria left Jin came down into the bunker to ask, "Anything else I can help with?"

"Well this is really a one person job." Tresia replied as she continued stitching. "But where are we going to launch it? We need two holes dug, side by side."

Jin had not considered a launching site, "Well we could go up near Ave-Maria's place, lots of open space there. But risky getting it there unseen."

"How about the dining area of Jin Palace?" Tresia suggested.

"Is it big enough?"

"Just."

"Also risky, once inflated there is no way it could be hidden from the street."

"If we wait till late enough, hopefully everyone will be asleep."

Jin agreed and she dug the two holes as Tresia prescribed. She also filled the basket with enough fuel to keep the furnace burning for several hours. Early evening Jin asked Tresia how she was going.

"A couple more hours and it should be done."

"We'll finish it in the morning. The evening tumbrel is about to go. You need a good night sleep. Tomorrow, if all goes to plan, will be a long night for us all."

Tresia caught the tumbrel back to the centre of Newbsrus. She was spotted and immediately surrounded by people. This time they were not asking about the Awai but the successful blockade. She explained what happened and how the people have power too.

"Are you coming to the school tonight?" she was asked.

"When is that?"

"Soon, in about half an hour."

She was pretty much outside the school so she decided to go right in. The school was mostly an outside affair. All the classes were taught out in the open. She saw her dad and mum.

"Where have you been?" Leza interrogated, "You didn't come home last night. Ave said you were in Loke."

"Yes, the tumbrel wasn't running. How was the anniversary?" Tresia asked.

"Well, once the fire-lighting party returned from Loke your Dad spent most of the day lobbying people about resisting Cenok's family, even though he is one of them," her mum complained.

"Yes but we have to strike while the iron is hot," her dad retorted. "Well done Tresia, I heard you handled it great."

"So what is your angle tonight Dad?"

"Angle? What do you mean honey."

"What reason are they going to resist Elder Cenok? For Loke it was burning down the forest, they all rallied around that because they knew it was wrong."

"I hadn't thought of an angle."

"So just resistance for resistance sake?"

"I guess so."

"No, that won't work. You need something. What is an annoying thing that Cenok demands, but is of no benefit for the people? Like the expensive fees he charges for this school, you could lobby for free education for all children."

"An angle," her mum replied, "That's easy, vegetables."

"Vegetables?" her husband questioned, "why vegetables?"

"Because the people are forbidden to grow their own vegetables. They are forced to buy them off Elder Cenok."

Leza was an avid gardener, been married to one of Cenok's heirs made it possible for her to grow her own vegetables. But it was a privilege none of her compatriots had.

"Mum. Do you really think people are going to rally around and grow vegetables in defiance? Free education is a much better angle."

"Rubbish! Think of all the money they would save buying vegetables, they could afford to send their kids to school. And that is not counting the taste, fresh garden vegetables from the garden, straight onto the plate. It just can't be beaten."

Tresia had to admit that Leza's yam and leek casserole really was to die for; but still she has not convinced, "But growing vegetables, it's hardly like burning the jungle down, is it. Or even teaching kids important life skills."

"No, it's far more important than that."

By now more folks had arrived and started greeting them. Tresia ended up talking to several folks about what was happening in Loke and her parents were engaged in another conversation. Tresia was pleased to see that none of the rest of Cenok's family had come. Soon it was time to begin, just as the Awai above them began to glow in the radiant colours of the Ceatha.

"Folks, thanks for coming," Fifthe nervously began.

He started to talk at length about how his great, great, great, great, grandfather, ruled Caffan without regard for the everyday people and that it was time for a change. His voice was slow and monotonous and while people listened with interest there was no passion or spark like the meeting in Jin Palace.

"I don't think he is engaging the crowd enough." Tresia whispered to her mum.

"Why is that?" she whispered back.

"Well, everyone is just listening with stonewall faces, not participating. In Loke they were all 'Hurrahs.' Plus there is no plan or actions for the people to follow."

Leza let Fifthe finish his sentence before standing up beside him and loudly addressing everyone.

"What my dear husband is saying is that the people of Newbsrus and all of Caffan have had enough of shoddy vegetables!" She then paused for a while to let her statement settle in. She glared at Tresia, until finally Tresia got her hint.

"What do you mean shoddy vegetables?" Tresia asked.

Leza was relieved when Tresia finally spoke, "Well, who here grows their own fresh vegetables?"

A murmur whispered through the crowd, till finally someone had the courage to say, "We are not allowed to grow vegetables."

"And why not?"

Another murmur. Most had not considered this before but had just accepted it as one of those things.

"Come on people, why are you not allowed to grow vegetables?" Leza urged.

After not getting an answer Leza answered it herself, "I'll tell you why you cannot grow your own vegetables. It's because that greedy jerk Elder Cenok. He wants to keep you poor and in submission to him."

The people gasped as she insulted the patriarch of Caffan, they half expected her to be struck down where she was. But she was not and kept on talking as the sun set over the horizon and the colours on the Awai started to fade.

"He wants to deny you the wholesome flavour of fresh vegetables, so you can buy his overpriced rubbish."

"Look at this," she pulled out a limp asparagus from her bag, "I bought a small bunch of these pathetic asparagus from the market today, guess what it cost me?"

Tresia marvelled at her mother as a few people took guesses ranging between two Dracs and five Dracs. Her father had not come to the meeting with any angle to work, but her mother obviously had. She even had prepared examples.

"Three and a half Dracs for limp, unflavoursome veg; what a rip off!" She then pulled out a plump fresh crisp looking asparagus from her bag. "Look at this, this is from my own garden. Guess how much this cost me?"

"It didn't cost you anything!" someone stated the obvious.

"That's right, gardening is a free gift we should be all able to partake in."

"Yeah!" came a shout from the back.

"And medicine, how expensive is that?" she asked the crowd.

She pulled a lush orange capsicum from her bag, not as potent as the purple ones but it still had the same effect. The crowd gasped in horror, even Tresia was taken aback; she had gone to great lengths to hide hers from her mother. And now here was her mother flaunting her own.

"These are great for relaxation or soothing an ache, but we are not allowed to grow or even own these. Why not."

Again the crowd was silent, worried they might get in trouble by mere association.

"Because that rapacious scoundrel Elder Cenok, he gets a cut of everything sold in Caffan even medicines. He does not want you to be able to fix yourself up for free."

Tresia was sure her mother was overstepping the bounds a bit here. She was sure capsicums were illegal in most places. Leza went on preaching the virtues of home grown produce. As the crowd listened they were awakened to the fact that they had been paying a high price for something that was inferior to what they should be able to have for free. They were enraged about been kept in the dark about this for so long and were determined to defy patriarch Cenok by growing their own vegetables.

The crowd gave a standing ovation once Leza finished. There were many questions about how to grow vegetables. So much so that she agreed to hold weekly lessons, every Wednesday night at the school.

"Mum you were great," Tresia complimented her after the meeting.

"I told you so, vegetables can cause a revolution too."

"Yes," Fifthe agreed, "who knew so many people would get passionate about asparagus."

"Right time to go home, Ave-Maria is minding Trasia for us." Leza said. "We are going to return the favour for her tomorrow night. She has something important on."

Tomorrow night, yes Tresia knew Jin's plan, Ave-Maria had a crucial part to play. They returned to her place together walking in the evening moonlight. Tresia was still feeling very frustrated at having to use crutches to go everywhere, she felt she was slowing the others down.

"How did it go?" Ave-Maria asked as they arrived at the outdoor dwelling in the dark.

"Great, I think you'll see a lot more wholesome fresh vegetables in Newbsrus," Leza replied. "Have the girls behaved themselves?"

"Yes, the two girls played. Are you still ok to mind my two tomorrow night? I might be back quite late."

"Yes. That's fine." Leza replied.

"Leza, Fifthe, Tresia!" Nan called out as she approach them. She had come for a late night visit. Tresia had not seen Nan since the Airmutt game. Before that she would visit her most days.

"Come, take a seat," Leza invited, "A tea?"

"No, I need to talk to you all."

They all sat around the low table; although Fifthe decided to remain standing.

"What is all this ludicrosity I hear about you all going against my Cenok?" Nan was visibly upset as she spoke.

Tresia felt guilty for causing her Nan distress, but still she justified herself, "Well Elder only does what benefits himself and has no regard for others. The people were just standing up for their rights."

"Well, all that shenanigans at the gate yesterday, it did no good you know."

"Yes it did, we saved the forest from being burnt."

"No, you delayed it. Zide and Sagi and a small team took ladders and climbed the wall some distance from Loke today to light a fire."

"Wilfor," Ave-Maria clasped her hand over her mouth thinking that perhaps her husband had been caught in a fire.

"But there was no smoke over the jungle?" Tresia noted.

"No they could not get it to burn. They got small bits of undergrowth to burn but it died out quickly without lighting the trees. It was not for lack of trying either, Zide came back very angry and wanting to know just how you managed to light your fire."

"Well I don't know why my fire caught hold and his didn't." Tresia replied as she breathed a sigh of relief. She remembered that her major fire had started because the burning paper of her balloon had got stuck high up in a Parisienne tree. The dry light wood had caught fire easily and had produced enough heat to ignite the rest of forest canopy. Her basket and furnace also started a large undergrowth fire which she guessed had then merged with the canopy fire, the combination proved devastating. It was an unlucky combination of unlikely factors that got her fire burning, and very difficult to replicate. But there was no way she would divulge this information.

"So you're gathering at the gate simply stirred up everybody for no reason." Nan explained.

Tresia still did not think the exercise had been pointless. Next time Elder tried something that the people did not agree with, he may well have a fight on his hands.

"And Leza, fresh vegetables, really?" Nan clearly had someone check out the meeting for her.

"Why yes. Everyone should grow them Nan."

"You don't understand that rule is in place for the benefit of everyone in Caffan."

"How so?"

"Well if everyone is busy tending their garden, how are they going to do their real work? And what of the farms? Who is going to buy their produce?"

"Well Nan, I think you'll find that the farms will still have customers. People won't grow all their own food."

"Well I don't think they will be bothered growing any. And when Elder finds out he will be livid, he might cut off your allowance too. I'll try to talk him out of it but he is pretty angry at the moment. He thinks everybody is turning against him."

Nan then got up and departed. Leza and Fifthe retired to their sleeping hut leaving Ave-Maria and Tresia up.

"You all set for tomorrow?" Ave-Maria asked.

"Yes, hope it works."

"What could possibly go wrong?"

"Nothing, I guess," Tresia replied. She could think of a number of scenarios where things could go badly wrong.

25

The following morning, deep within the jungle, Wilfor was the first to wake. He listened briefly to the numerous calls of all the bird life in the jungle, before he quietly arose and exited the makeshift bivouac. He found some dead wood and started to ferret for insect larvae. Over the last week or so he had gleaned a few survival skills off Fregwit. Xeno came and sat down beside him and watched.

He looked at the big cat and spoke to it, "Well, Xeno I'm sure you know the way out. Which way should we go?"

The xenosmilus did not reply. A short time later Fregwit emerged from the makeshift bivouac. Xeno gave a 'grrr' of delight and bounded up to him.

"Xeno, good girl," Fregwit proclaimed. "You'll show us the way out today." The big cat just rubbed up against his leg.

Wilfor had scavenged enough for all to eat breakfast.

"I see you're getting a few jungle skills, you must be starting to like the place," joked Nimm.

"Not likely, still can't wait to leave."

"Well, bad as this is being stuck here, it is our first taste of freedom in many years," said Nimm, "try to look on the bright side, there must be something good about being here."

"No;" Wilfor did not see any pluses to their ordeal. After a short pause he considered one, "Well perhaps. A good thing about being here is not having to see my mother-in-law every day."

"Oh, she can't be that bad." Fregwit scoffed.

Wilfor almost did not know where to start, "Well for one, she has some rather dubious business dealings, the amount of contraband she trades through that restaurant of hers, I tell you!"

"Restaurant? Wait, is your mother-in-law Jin?" Fregwit gave a long low whistle.

"You know her?"

"Now that would be telling!" Fregwit proclaimed. Jin was the number one source of contraband for the slaves, traded for some of the capsicums they grew. Fregwit was hardly going to tell his slave driver that.

"I see," Wilfor guessed Fregwit's reluctance to admit more. "What's even worse is my boss; Erdminger. Jin does all this stuff right under his nose, literally - his office is right across the street. But he never can get her red handed. Hopeless, couldn't catch fleas off a dog! Yet he expects me to spy on her and inform him of stuff."

"Ah yes, the wonderful village overseer," interrupted Fregwit.

"Except I don't spy on her, but Jin thinks I does; so she doesn't trust me. And then Erdminger has it in for me for not dobbing her in." Wilfor said exasperated. "So my mother-in-law is the village crook and here Ave-Maria and I are trying to live a clean honest life, and teach it to our children."

"Except for passing shooting contests, or building toilets," Fregwit could not help but add.

"Well nobody's perfect," defended Wilfor. "Besides I got that timber perfectly legitimately."

"Yes, you mentioned that six times when you told us the story," Nimm said laughing.

"Jin just doesn't like me;" Wilfor further explained, "she tells Ave-Maria that she could have done better, right in front of my face." He held his hands out in disbelief.

"Possibly, better than saying it behind your back....?" Fregwit questioned.

"She insists on paying for our daughter's schooling; and then tells me I don't earn enough!" Wilfor felt himself getting frustrated even talking about Jin. "Enough of that subject anyway. I still hate the jungle, if we ever get out I'm never going near it again."

"Fair enough, if I get any choice in it, nor am I," Nimm agreed.

"Well, we will press on, maybe today we will get somewhere. Right Xeno?" Fregwit said, he was ever hopeful.

Wilfor was feeling more and more pessimistic, the hope he had a few days ago that they were finally getting somewhere was starting to fade.

The trio finished their breakfast and started progressing through the undergrowth again. Xeno bounding along with them. Good progress was made before they stopped for lunch. Fregwit found some edible plants to eat and they filled their water bottles from a nearby stream. A while after lunch the jungle began to open up again. Excited they sped up and soon came to an open field full of animals.

"Looks more like another clearing than somewhere we will find people," Nimm observed.

"No; not another clearing." Wilfor said downcast, "the same one!"

In the middle of the clearing was the small lake and they quickly found the remains of their camp fire and the old bivouac.

"So for the last four and a half days we have been going in circles?" Wilfor despaired.

"Well actually only one circle," Fregwit corrected.

Wilfor glared at him with a look of contempt, he was in no mood for semantics.

"Don't worry, we will go another way, we'll make it out yet," Fregwit tried to remain positive.

"I just want to get home to see my family." Wilfor felt anguished inside - _How were Ave-Maria and the children coping without him?_ They would not even know he was still alive. Jeb would be longing to see his dad, so would Tere.

"You sure love your family, don't you?" Nimm remarked.

"Oh, they are my whole world. I hated my job; slaves and jungle were my least favourite things."

"Hmmm," Nimm replied.

"But no matter how bad my day was, I'd come home and as soon as I got near my dwelling there would be a big 'Daddy, daddy' and little Jeb would run up and leap into my arms. Suddenly it wouldn't matter that I'd had a bad day. To know that my little boy thinks the world of his dad and I think the world of him. Words can't describe it."

"Wow, sounds awesome. Never had kids," said Nimm.

"It was a few centuries ago since I had children that age," Fregwit told them. "Been awhile since I even saw any of them. You sure need to enjoy them when they are young."

"I still can't believe Ave-Maria chose me. She was just way out of my league, still is." Wilfor felt the tears welling up in his eyes.

Fregwit saw Wilfor was upset and he was moved by his love for his family. He went up and put his hand on his shoulder, and promised, "I'll get you home, even if it's the last thing I ever do."

"How do you know that?"

"I just do, I'm sure you'll see your family again."

Fregwit went over to their old bivouac and yelled out, "It's early but maybe we should rest up for the rest of the day. Save us having to build a new bivouac."

"Yeah sure, we are getting nowhere fast anyway." Wilfor replied.

The familiarity of the old bivouac caused a moment of carelessness. Fregwit opened the door and was confronted with a viper. It hissed and reared its head at him to strike. He froze. For an age the snake sat poised to strike and Fregwit remained glued in place his heart beating rapidly. Xeno raised the fur on the back of her coat and growled but also stayed staring at the snake.

BANG, Nimm was right on target, shooting it in the neck. Xeno ran away on hearing the shot.

"That was too close," Fregwit noted, "we need to continue to be careful. Still snake meat for dinner, nice shot Nimm."

"Thanks. Anytime."

Fregwit grabbed the tail of the snake and dragged it out into the open. He checked the rest of the bivouac to make sure there were no others. He saw where the snake had entered, they would need to fix the hole. Xeno came bounding back once she realised all was ok.

"Be careful of the snake, they are still dangerous even when they are dead." Fregwit warned.

Wilfor collected some firewood, while Nimm fixed the hole in the bivouac. Fregwit found a large log and laid the snake out on it. First thing to do was to cut the head off, he grabbed the knife and severed the head off. It fell to the ground, he looked at it and decided he would bury that as soon as he was done preparing the meat. He skinned the snake and lay the skin out in the sun to dry, they might be able to use it later. He found some thin wooden sticks. As he cut fillets of snake meat off he pushed them onto the stick to make some kebabs.

"Fire is ready to be lit," Wilfor proclaimed.

"Righty-O, I've finished here anyway," called Nimm he grabbed the carbine and came over with the flint.

"And I got the meat," Fregwit held out the kebabs and brought them over. With all that was going on he forgot about the snakes head.

They sat round while watching the fire start. Once it was well established and a bed of embers appeared they roasted the meat on it.

"That was good," Wilfor said feeling better for a good dinner.

"Thanks," Fregwit replied.

He looked around and saw the remains of the snake. He decided to burn them. He grabbed the skeleton and offal, brought them over and threw them on the fire. "Oh, that's right, I forgot about the head." He walked over and reached down to pick it up, as he did he discovered the long dead snake still had a bite reflex left in it. "Ouch, it got me." Xeno instantly knew something was wrong, she left her place by the fire and went up to Fregwit.

"It can't, it's been dead a while," Nimm thought he was joking.

Fregwit came back to the fire and threw the head on it, "No joke, look at that. It hurts like heck."

Already, his hand was starting to go black from bruising and was swelling up.

"Will you be alright?" Wilfor asked.

He was feeling dizzy, and had to sit down. Xeno licked his face.

"It's ok girl." he tried to reassure her.

Wilfor brought some water over to him and got him to sip some, he was breathing heavily.

"Hang in there," Wilfor pleaded.

For the next few minutes they coaxed Fregwit, trying to keep him talking and awake, with Xeno licking his face occasionally. But it was no use.

"Wilfor..., Nimm....," He was struggling to even speak. "It's been... a pleasure..., Wilfor you're a good man..., don't give up... my friend." They were the last words he spoke.

"You've been a good friend too." Wilfor replied as he cradled Fregwit's head in his hands. Tears streaming down his face as he realised Fregwit wasn't going to make it.

Fregwit soon lost consciousness; not long after that he died.

Xeno roared loudly in distress.

"NOOOOOOO!" Wilfor was also inconsolable when he realised Fregwit had passed.

Even Nimm was grief stricken. They would have never had made it so far without Fregwit and they had no idea how they would get on without him. After a long silence Wilfor got up and started collecting logs of wood.

"What are you doing?" Nimm asked.

"Well we can't just leave him here to be eaten by the animals. We need to send him off."

They both got to work collecting sticks and logs to make a funeral pyre. Xeno stayed by Fregwit's body as they did. It took some time to get enough wood together. They were very cautious about snakes when first moving each log. They piled the wood up to well over their head in height before they decided the pyre was big enough.

The sun had set and it was dark by the time the two of them lifted Fregwit's body on to the top of the wood pile. Xeno climbed up to be with him. They tried hard to coax the cat down, but she would not budge. Eventually Nimm resorted to using one of their precious carbine charges to scare the cat down. It worked and Wilfor quickly set it alight using the still burning campfire. Both of them gazed with sadness as the fire caught hold. Xeno came back and sat down between them. The two men and large cat stayed up a long time watching the bonfire take Fregwit into the night. Large flames licked up into the sky and a xenosmilus roared occasionally.

"Goodbye, my friend Fregwit. Don't know how we will make it home without you," Wilfor wished him farewell.

26

Earlier that same day in Loke, Duldi the merchant endured Erdminger's usual scrutiny of his load. There was nothing to find on this load. Just some raw materials for Jin's Dad and leaving with some finished products and some cider. Once the tumbrel was loaded for the return journey Erdminger departed back to his office and Jin invited Duldi inside.

"Are you in a big hurry to return?" Jin asked.

"Time is money, honey." Duldi said very loudly. He had grown up with two deaf brothers and had a habit of shouting everything.

"Well if you can stay just a bit longer then I'm sure we can reward you for your lost time."

"Go on?" shouted Duldi.

Jin quietly relayed her plan to Duldi, periodically he would shout out parts of the plan. Tresia was also present, she worried about Jin talking secretly with such a loud person. Though the things he was yelling out did not completely add up, Jin did not seem overly bothered.

"Sounds good; 500 Dracs for all that though!" came the deafening reply.

Jin blew a loud long whistle before responding, "Come on, you can do better than that."

They haggled for a bit and finally settled on 375 Dracs.

Once he left Tresia noted, "We will be lucky if the whole village does not know what we are up to with that guy shouting it out."

"I know, that's why I did not tell him the plan, only the bits we need him to know, the rest I made up."

Tresia smiled, Jin always seemed to be one step ahead of the situation.

"Does Raif know the plan?" Jin asked.

"No, I thought about telling him, but there were other slaves nearby. He will find out soon enough."

They then heard the clatter of Cenok's automobile. Going outside to look they were relieved to see that Cenok was not there. It was just the driver, he had come up to use the automobile to move the final dinosaur into the hole. As the driver approached he started dry retching due to the smell. He attempted to hold his nose with his left hand and drive the vehicle with is right. Not easy because it was a two handed job at the best of times. Tresia found it entertaining to watch him trying to do stuff with his elbow. In the end he had to let go of his nose to manoeuvre the vehicle into position. As soon as the automobile stopped the driver jumped off and ran to the side of the street and threw up everywhere. Jin went back into Jin Palace and brought him some water.

Jin and Tresia then continued to watch as the vehicle pulled and pushed the tyrannosaur into the hole.

"Finally we will soon be rid of that smell." Jin rejoiced, "I might be able to open for business tomorrow."

"Yes, that will be great" Tresia agreed though she would hopefully be far away by then.

"Right, we should get to Newbsrus to catch up with Ave, the tumbrel is due to go soon."

"Well we could use the tumbrel, but I know of another way." Tresia went up to the driver of Cenok's motor-tumbrel, "Mind giving us a ride?"

"I guess not."

Jin and Tresia jumped on board and got a ride to Newbsrus. It was Jin's first ride in a motor-tumbrel. Tresia had been in it many times before, though always with either Nan or Elder.

The driver dropped them off right in front of Tresia's home.

"Arriving in style," Ave-Maria noted.

Tresia collected some things together, she was thankful Leza and Fifthe were out, so she did not have to explain why she was packing a bag, she smiled to think that she already had a bag packed, it would be in Hutibo by now.

Jin looked around the plush dwelling, "Well Ave, nice place you're staying in."

Ave-Maria blushed with embarrassment, she would rather have stayed in her now condemned dwelling.

Tresia went with Jin down to the river and saw briefly Duldi. His boat was tied near the end of a jetty. Tresia and Jin walked to the end of the jetty to talk to Duldi on his cargo boat. The boat was all open except for a small tent made from large flat leaves sewn together in the middle of the boat. The bow had several boxes of cargo stacked up. At the stern of the boat a fire was burning. This was used mainly for heating the engine but also served for cooking. The engine was clicking away doing nothing as the propeller was not engaged. Duldi was in the middle of cooking a vegetarian stew over the fire.

"You ready for later?" Jin asked.

"Ready as ever."

Tresia counted out the 375 Dracs and handed over the side of the jetty. "Here is your money."

Duldi briefly stopped stirring the stew to reach out and grab the money. "Now I'm even more ready," he replied.

The pair made the short journey back to Tresia's house. Ave-Maria had prepared them an early dinner. They ate the vegetable casserole for a time in silence, each of them was nervous about how things might go that evening. They were also acutely aware that it was mostly likely the last time they would see Tresia for quite some time.

"This is delicious," Tresia complemented her friends cooking.

"Thanks, your Mum gave me some fresh vegetables from her garden. You really can taste the difference. I think I might plant a garden when I get settled back in my home."

"I do think Mum is onto something there." Tresia agreed.

"Yeah, nice meal," Jin agreed, "I must have taught you something."

Tresia then spoke up, "Thanks so much for your help. Ave-Maria I've never had friend like you before, I'll miss you." Tresia told them. "And Jin you have been awesome too."

"Well you're not too bad yourself either." Jin replied.

"I never really had close friends before."

"What do you mean?" asked Ave-Maria.

"Well been heir to Elder meant everyone treated me different."

"That's so sad." Ave Maria noted, then curiosity got the better of her. "So what's your plan with Aberaif, are you going to stay with him?"

"Well I'm get him to Tsaegar and find Octe," she took a deep breathe. "Then I'll go to Hutibo and find Yrrab."

"But you don't love Yrrab!" Ave-Maria insisted, "You should stay with Aberaif."

"No, Yrrab is a better choice," Jin argued. "He has money and family connections, these thing are important."

"Mum, Wilfor chose love when he married me."

"Yes, I always said he wasn't so bright. Look where it got him, eaten by some creature in the jungle."

Ave-Maria, glared at her mother in contempt, she was not sad, just angry. Tresia tried to defuse the conversation with idle chat, "Anyone been to Tsaegar before?"

"Why yes," Jin replied, "I have been to Tsaegar."

This was news to Ave-Maria and she managed to subside her anger enough to ask, "When, mom when did you ever go to Tsaegar?"

Jin paused, but decided to admit her reason; "I'd just found out I was pregnant and I went to tell the father. He travelled a lot and I had fallen for him good. But when I got to Tsaegar I discovered he had girlfriends in several different places."

"Well did you tell him?"

"No, I came home heartbroken. Set up a cooking business next to Dad's forge. Mum & Dad helped me raise you."

"So who is my Father? Why did he travel? Is he still in Tsaegar?" Ave-Maria was no longer angry with her mother, this was the most information about her dad she had ever heard and she was desperate for more.

Jin decided she had already said way too much. "Last I heard he left Tsaegar, but it doesn't matter now."

"Why won't you tell me who he is?" Ave-Maria complained. "Not even his name!"

"NO!"

"Why not? What harm is there me knowing his name."

"Because I don't want you to try find him, he is not a nice man."

Leza, Fifthe and Trasia returned to a very tense atmosphere between Jin and her daughter.

"Yay, I get to play with Trasia," noted an excited Tere as they arrived and the two girls ran off to have fun.

"Mom, it's not fair Tere gets a friend to play with and I don't." Jeb protested.

Fifthe responded, "Well you get to play with me! Tag - you're it." He tapped Jeb on the shoulder and ran away.

Jeb ran after him. Tresia was hoping for a bit more of a farewell to her dad, but the impromptu game of tag put an end to that. Hopefully he would understand. "Mum, I'm off with Ave and Jin."

"Don't be too late, and stay out of trouble!" her mother demanded.

"Sure Mum." Tresia planned to disobey both.

The trio then departed to catch the evening tumbrel back to Loke. Ave-Maria and Jin were not talking to each other again so it was a long silent journey. As the evening sunset and Ceatha lit the sky with dazzling colours, Jin lit a fire in the bigger of the two holes in the ground of the dining area. Successfully inflating a paper balloon with flame requires always keeping the flames away from the paper. Having the fire down in a hole when the balloon is still deflated is the least risky way of generating the hot air without lighting the balloon on fire. The smaller hole had been tunnelled into the larger hole and this acted as a vent for the fire.

Tresia and Ave-Maria went into the vault and brought back up the rolled up paper balloon. Once in the dining area they unrolled it onto the ground. Tresia then got a large metal hoop and started tying the lines that had been sewn into the seams firmly onto the hoop. Once the knots were all secured they moved the hoop to on top of the fire hole. Slowly the large paper envelope started to fill with air.

"How many times have you flown a balloon?" Jin ask Tresia.

"Three, the first time was just to test it. The second time I tried to go high but it got way too cool to continue. My water turned solid and I was only wearing light clothing. The third time I made it all the way to the Awai."

"So the landings were ok for the first two flights."

"Oh yes you just have the fire low and let the thing settle on the ground. There is the vent cord to release hot air if it needs to descend faster."

"So flying the balloon is easy enough?"

"Yes, just got to make sure not to go near the jungle or hit the top of the Awai. There is usually no wind at night to drift that far if the balloon doesn't go too high. I haven't flown at night but it should be just as easy."

"Well there is a good moon."

"Yes, it's so beautiful up there, word can't describe it."

The envelope of the balloon was starting to rise to the top of the gate level now.

"Is it safe to keep blowing that thing up, it will be seen from the street soon?" Ave-Maria asked.

Jin pretended not to hear the statement but after a couple of minutes she went outside to survey the area. The slaves had gone back to their barracks. They had worked late to finish covering the dinosaur with dirt. Already the putrid smell was starting to dissipate. There was absolutely no one about. The rotten dinosaur had kept most people away from the centre of Loke. Jin was worried that news of the beast being finally buried would bring folks back to check it out, but that did not appear to be the case. Most importantly Erdminger was not in his office.

The sun was well set but the moon was well in the sky and about three quarters from full. This provided quite a lot of illumination. It would help them to see by but also increased their chances of being seen.

Jin returned into Jin Palace. Tresia had lit the furnace over the basket while she had been gone. Jin went to the bar and got them all a small glass of cider each.

"All clear outside," she announced as she handed the drinks out.

"How much longer till that is ready to fly." Ave-Maria asked, the balloon was about half inflated.

"Probably half an hour," Tresia replied.

"Well, I'll give it a few more minutes before I go then. Have you got the key?"

Tresia had only used the key to the small gate on the slaves' barracks the one time. As the slaves ended up working in town after that she had managed to see Aberaif each day without risking entering the barracks. Tresia reached into a pocket and grabbed the key out.

"His is the tall hut near the far end," Tresia reiterated where to find Aberaif. She wished she could go get him herself. But with her still needing to use crutches to get around it was better that Ave-Maria goes and brings him back.

The balloon was starting to get some lift to it so Tresia and Jin then began the process of transferring the mostly inflated balloon from the hole in the ground to the basket. More tying of knots from the hoop onto the basket. As they began this process Ave-Maria walked toward the closed gate. She deliberately passed close to her mother whilst simultaneously ignoring her; just so Jin would know she was still miffed. Once out the gate she headed towards the slaves barracks. She journeyed past her old dwelling then further down the road to the inner jungle wall with the slave's barracks attached. She arrived outside the small gate. In all the years Wilfor had worked there she had never been inside. She check through the crack in the gate to ensure the coast was clear. Plus she heard someone attempting to play a whistle in the night guard's cottage.

Quietly she reached into her pocket and retrieved the key. Putting it slowly into the lock she tried to turn it anticlockwise. It moved quarter a turn and stopped. She reversed the turn and the key did a full 360 degree turn clockwise, clicking as it unlatched the bolt. The gate creaked and squeaked as it slowly opened. Ave-Maria looked at the gap and quietly stepped inside.

27

Ave-Maria looked around the interior of the barracks. She was right beside the night guard's quarters; hideous bone flute noise was emanating from within it. By the moonlight she spotted the high roofed sleeping quarters. She left the gate open, as she would be returning to it soon. Quietly and quickly she made her way across the courtyard to the door of the room.

She opened it and Aberaif looked up at her.

"Amira?" he questioned in a whisper.

"No sorry, Ave-Maria. But grab some things and follow me I'll take you to her."

Aberaif really did not have much in the way of things, though he threw his work clothes over his sleeping clothes. He then followed her to the little gate. She stepped outside and waited for him to follow.

He poked his head out the gate and whispered, "I can't fit through there."

"What?" replied Ave-Maria in frustration.

"Well I am a giant and this is a small gate."

Aberaif tried to squeeze through the little gate, but it was to no avail.

Ave-Maria breathed deeply, annoyed that her mother had made a miscalculation in the plan. "Right are there any other ways out?"

"Just the big gate or over the wall. The big gate is locked."

Ave-Maria re-entered the courtyard. She looked at the big padlock over the main gate. It would take some breaking.

"Can you climb the wall?"

"I never tried. Maybe if I could get on the roof of my room. I could vault over. There is broken glass on top of it so I'll have to be careful."

They retreated back to Aberaif's room. Aberaif managed to jump and reach up to the roof of his room. From there he did a pull-up, so the top of the roof was at neck level. Next he tried to snatch his arms down to raise his body higher up on the roof. The room was designed simply to provide shelter from the morning vapours. It was not engineered well enough for giants to do gymnastics on. CRACK, the wall collapsed loudly. Aberaif ended up lying face first on his bed with his wall around him. Ave-Maria instinctively hid behind the remaining walls and waited for the night guard to arrive. Fortunately the music continued from Werdna's cottage; he was playing his whistle loudly and somehow missed the sound of the building falling. Some of the other slaves had heard it and came over to investigate.

"What's going on here?" Stevit asked in a low voice.

Ave-Maria came out of hiding to whisper, "I am trying to break Aberaif out!"

"I thought you needed crutches!"

"No, that is my friend Tresia, I'm Ave-Maria."

"Woo, Raif; busy man how many girlfriends have you got? You could share!"

"I'm not his girlfriend, I'm Wilfor's wife. I'm just helping out."

"Oh, so sorry to hear about Wilfor. He was a good man."

"Thanks, now any idea about how to get the giant out of here?"

"Well the keys to the gate are on the wall in the sleeping area of the driver's quarters."

They all looked towards the quarters, they could see candle light inside and hear the noise of the whistle.

"He often stays up late."

Ave-Maria was getting worried, Jin and Tresia would expect her back by now.

"A diversion," suggested Stevit. "Let's see what we can do. Go hide in our bunk room."

Ave-Maria and Aberaif entered the larger room. There were a few souls asleep but the majority had gone out to see the commotion.

"Woah! What has happened here," Stevit called out loudly.

Werdna appeared at the door of his hut, "What's going on here?" he yelled.

"Look at this." Stevit called out.

Werdna started his way over to the giant's room. He noticed the small open gate.

He went back into his quarters and pulled out a loud bell. He came out ringing it. "Muster right now," he yelled.

The bell rang long and hard as the remaining few sleeping slaves jumped to their feet. In the darkness they made out Ave-Maria and Aberaif. Ave-Maria covered her mouth at them, a signal to remain silent. Aberaif motioned that he should go out for the muster.

"No stay here. Follow me." Ave-Maria whispered putting a hand on his shoulder.

The slaves all lined up at the end of the yard near Aberaif's room facing the driver's quarters. The driver stood in front of them facing towards the back wall. Ave-Maria took her chance and the two of them slipped into Werdna's hut. The door was only just big enough for Aberaif to fit through, he had to stoop low to fit under the ceiling.

"The giant where is the giant?" A voice came booming across the courtyard. Followed by more ringing of the bell. Everyone else had been accounted for.

"Well look at his hut, something strange is going on there. Maybe he is trapped in it." Stevit replied.

Ave-Maria fumbled around the quarters looking for the keys. The candle was still burning and a hunched up Aberaif brought it over to her. With the extra light from the candle they located the key. She grabbed it from its spot and they returned to the door. Werdna was inspecting Aberaif's broken room. The slaves were all lined up facing them.

"I don't know if we can both sneak out the main gate without being noticed." Ave-Maria whispered. She handed Aberaif the key.

"What are you doing?"

"Another diversion," she replied. "As soon as you get out, run straight to Jin Palace. Don't wait for me and don't stop for anything or anyone. Tell Tresia I've been delayed, but continue with the plan."

Ave-Maria ran to the slaves' main sleeping quarters. Once in the door she peeked out again and screamed before heading inside again. Werdna came running across to where she was. He entered the sleeping quarters after her.

As Ave-Maria was distracting the guard, Aberaif took the key and put it in the padlock. At first it would not unlock. It was a temperamental old lock, it needed gentle handling to unlock. Aberaif remembered seeing the guards struggle with it and been told to slow down. He took a deep breath and gently turned the lock. Click it opened. He unbolted the latch and opened the gate enough to get out.

As he left the gate he saw a group of five guys coming from Loke after hearing the bell.

"Hey there, what are you doing? Stop," Nihliz yelled at him.

He didn't answer, instead he put his head down and charged towards them. Two of them bravely tried to tackle him, they ended up face planting on the road as he brushed them aside. He continued to sprint towards Jin Palace as quick as he could. It took a few moments for the group to get orientated again. Nihliz decided to continue to head on towards the barracks. The rest started to pursue Aberaif.

#

"What are you doing here?" Werdna scolded Ave Maria.

"I was out in the fields and when I came back the jungle wall gate was closed. So I climbed the wall and fell down onto that there hut over there." Ave-Maria held her head to act disorientated.

"But you can't have! The wall by the hut is not opposite the field, it goes onto the road inside the gate, and you couldn't climb it. It's too high."

"Really, that is freaky, I must have fallen at some weird angle or something. And I certainly did climb it."

Werdna was confused, her story fitted with the broken hut, but nothing else added up.

"Did you see a giant?"

"No, should I have?"

"Yes there is a giant missing. He was in the hut you fell on."

"So the giant disappeared when I fell on the hut I couldn't have fallen on. There is definitely something spooky going on here! Well, can you show me out now since I fell in the wrong place?"

"Umm, I guess so,"

Just then Nihliz burst into the door. "The giant was seen leaving through the gate and running towards Loke," he pronounced.

"Well I caught this girl inside the barracks, she probably has something to do with it." Werdna said.

"Ave-Maria," Nihliz recognised her. "You're going to have to explain yourself to Erdminger."

"I can't wait."

Nihliz and Werdna ensured none of the other slaves had escaped. They then locked up the two gates. They bound Ave-Maria's hands together and escorted her into the village.

#

Aberaif continued to run towards the village, he knew the other guys were coming behind him but he was not sure how much distance he had on them. He wondered what the plan was and how much time they would have to get away. As he got near to Jin Palace he saw Erdminger limping towards the slave barracks, he was also slowly responding to the alarm bell.

"GIANT, STOP," he yelled.

Aberaif ignored him and kept on running.

"Stop now, I demand it."

Erdminger turned around to follow Aberaif, a few seconds later the rest of the team from Loke came running past him.

"Stop that giant!" Erdminger encouraged.

As Aberaif got close to Jin Palace he saw the big red balloon glowing on the other side of the wall.

"He's coming," Tresia called to Jin, they had been quite anxious. They had heard the bell from the barracks and suspected things had gone wrong.

"I've got company," he yelled out to Tresia.

"Come in here" she yelled back as she darted inside Jin Palace. She called to Jin, "We need to launch now."

Erdminger saw the balloon opposite the wall too as he limped towards the restaurant. He saw Aberaif disappear into Jin Palace, A moment later he saw the balloon take to flight. He could make out the giant and the girl in the basket. The girl waved out as the balloon rapidly ascended. It went pretty much straight up as there was no wind. The group of guys chasing Aberaif stopped when they saw the balloon. They were all still looking up into the air when Erdminger caught up.

"They have escaped in the balloon," one of them spoke.

"No they haven't," Erdminger replied. "Balloons go up and down and are carried by the breeze, which there is very little of at night. I want you to keep your eyes on the balloon and the moment it descends you are to capture those guys again."

Erdminger grinned they were making this easy for him; too easy he thought. A few minutes later the pair arrived with Ave-Maria.

"We found this girl in the barracks when the giant escaped, we think she may be involved," Werdna stated.

"Well, well, well, Ave-Maria. Helping your friend out has got you nowhere, has it? You know as soon as that balloon lands I'm going to get them."

"Tresia and Aberaif are smarter than that." Ave-Maria replied spitefully.

"I only feel sorry for your children. Their dad killed in the jungle and their mother in jail, probably to be sold as a slave."

"How do you know he is dead? He could still be out there, and I tell you he will be after you when he comes back."

"Wilfor, he never did anything worthwhile in his life, least of all marrying you. And there is no way he could still be alive. Still I might go easy on you yet. Let's see if your mother Jin will be willing to swap places."

He took her into Jin Palace. There was no one to be seen, still he called out, "Jin I know you're in there. I have Ave-Maria, she will be going to jail, maybe sold as a slave."

Silence came as the reply.

"Think of her poor children, their dad killed and their mum sold as a slave. If you have any heart come out now. I will trade her for you. Come on what mum would not trade places with their daughter."

There was still an eerie silence as the reply.

"Looks like your mum is a mean selfish bag. To the cells with you. Don't think your hero status will help you here. Helping a giant escape is worth more than you are. Your mother clearly cares more for herself than for you," Erdminger gloated.

He led her to across the road to his office.

As he passed the team of guys still gazing at the rapidly rising balloon he said, "Come get me as soon as that balloon starts to descend. I'll be in my office, there is too much happening for me to sleep tonight."

He untied Ave-Maria's hands and threw her in the cell. He then lit a few candles, to augment the light coming from the perpetual lamp on the wall. There was paperwork to be done, he had to write up about the goings on of the evening. With a good written scroll from the overseer, there would be no issue to sell Ave-Maria into slavery. He would even get a cut of the sale price, a young woman like her would be worth a bit too.

Ave-Maria sat in the corner of the cell; she wanted to cry but as the cell was in full view of Erdminger she held her unemotional face.

28

Jin was not in Jin Palace listening to Erdminger. She was high above him piloting the balloon and well out of earshot.

"Well Raif, we are flying."

She looked up at the wooden effigy of the giant, he had a stupid grin that Ave-Maria had painted on his face. It was a two dimensional top half of a figure, cut out roughly to look like a big person. Ave-Maria had gone and retrieved some more Parisienne wood from her toilet to make him.

"Don't like heights huh?"

'Raif' did not reply.

"Well, I'm not sure I do either. Still Tresia is right, it sure is beautiful."

She surveyed over the side. She had seen the group stop chasing Aberaif as soon as the balloon launched, so she was sure that he and Tresia had got away. Still she was worried about Ave-Maria, and wondered why she had not returned with Aberaif and what had happened at the barracks.

The plan was always for her to be noticed in the balloon. If things had gone as planned she was going to make a lot of noise as the balloon ascended slowly. But the delay in launching meant the balloon had a whole lot of heat and lift. It had romped up quickly into the air as soon as the tethers were untied. And it sure had been noticed!

She thought she better slow the fire down a bit to save on fuel. Still she had plenty of fuel, she knew they would be watching from the ground preparing to catch her when she landed. So she was planning to land unseen in the thick morning vapours and that meant staying aloft all night. In the morning the searchers would find an empty balloon and Aberaif and Tresia gone. The pair just had to make it down to Duldi's boat before morning.

"Raif, don't take this personally but I'm going to have to burn you before we land." If they found the cut out they might suspect something. The giant effigy just stood there with a stupid grin on his face.

She surveyed around her, with the nearly full moon she could see Caffan quite clearly. She was awestruck at how things looked from the sky and how tiny things on the ground were.

The fire was going well and her engine which she had included in the furnace was clicking away nicely. Jin surveyed the modifications she had made. She had decided to get rid of the 'fireworks' Tresia had for manoeuvring. Tresia had not needed them on the first two fights and they had proven disastrous on the third flight. Jin did not think they would work anyway; she thought that it would most likely just spin the basket without moving it much. Tresia had not actually tested the idea, she had added them as an afterthought because she was going so high.

Instead Jin had incorporated her father's engine into the furnace. The two hot cylinders were just above the fire and the two cold cylinders were below it. The flywheel of the motor was attached via a couple of pulleys to a propeller hanging outside of the basket. Beyond the propeller was a large flat rudder lying perpendicular to it. The air from the propeller blew straight over the rudder which could be turned to give steering.

"Do you think that will work?" Tresia had asked her earlier.

"No idea. But if it doesn't then the propeller pulleys can be loosened and it will just become like a regular hot air balloon," had been Jin's reply.

Well the engine was now clicking at a good amount of revs with the furnace roaring. It was a good time to try. She doubled checked that her hair was up in a ponytail. She thought back to the time when she was a child she had discovered it was dangerous to have it down with moving spinning parts about. Her hair got caught in a foot operated spinning wheel. It was able to be stopped quickly, even so she got a good headache from it and they had to cut a large chunk out of her fiery red hair. It had been so embarrassing the next day with a bit chunk of hair missing from the right side of her head, the other kids had laughed and joked at her. After that her hair was cut short which meant more teasing. Jin considered her hair for a moment, she had been wearing it the same way for a while now; perhaps it was time to cut it short again. She laughed at herself, she was in the middle of a daring escape plot and here she was thinking about her hair.

A lever controlled the tautness of the fibrous pulley belts. She pushed on the lever and the belts tightened and the propeller spun into action. The pulley belts were made from a hard wearing flax like plant. Immediately as the propeller whirled she felt the wind blow in her face. She looked over the edge of the basket to see below and could see her moving in relation to the ground. She was still just able to make out the folks on the ground and could see them start to follow her.

"Well it seems to work well, Raif," she told her wooden friend.

She pulled and pushed on the rudder and she found she had quite good control on where she was going.

"Better than I expected."

She looked at her compass, another addition she had made, she could just make it out with the glow of the furnace. She flew briefly north toward Newbsrus, but then she thought better of it, if there were people on the ground following her no point taking them to where Tresia and Aberaif were heading. Instead she took a path quite a way east of Newbsrus. When she reached the Galya River she turned back toward Loke. The balloon had been climbing the whole time and she was now quite high. She could no longer see the people following her on the ground, but they would still be there. She looked at Loke, she wished she knew what was happening on the ground and if Tresia and Aberaif had made it to the boat. And what was happening to Ave-Maria, she must have been caught. _Serves her right for been such an ungrateful daughter_ \- Jin thought. Still tomorrow she may have another escape mission to break Ave-Maria out of jail, well she would worry about that tomorrow; she was busy enjoying the flight and could do nothing about it at that moment. She then looked beyond Loke to the vast jungle. Something in the jungle caught her eyes. She focused on that spot again, there was a fire deep in the jungle. She looked at it for a long while as she steered towards the flames. It was not a jungle fire like when Tresia crashed, but a discrete fire, a bonfire.

"It can't be," she said shaking her head, "it can't be."

She felt a chill go down her spine. She could think of no other reason why a fire would be in the jungle except that someone had lit it and she only knew of one group of people who might be in the jungle: Wilfor and his slaves. Tresia had given her very strict instructions not to go near the jungle.

"Well Raif, Wilfor is not my choice of a son-in-law, Ave could do much better."

Her wooden friend just grinned, so she answered for him, deliberately making her voice as low pitched as she could, "But Ave-Maria would be so happy to have him back, she might forget about finding out about her deadbeat father. And think of Tere & Jeb."

"I KNOW!" she shouted back, "Time to knock that stupid grin off your face." She reach down and grabbed a small tomahawk. She swung it a few times and decapitated 'Raif'. A few more swings and the head was in small enough pieces. A steel latch on the side of the furnace held the door in place. Grabbing a rag as to not burn her hand she reached and opened the latch and pulled the door open. She put a few bits of the broken head inside along with a few other bits of harder slower burning wood. Using an iron poker she spread the fire out inside the furnace box the best she could before closing the door again.

She flew towards the bonfire, it was not long before she was over the forbidden jungle? She continued flying through the night for a long time; the fire was getting closer, but not very quickly. Once she determined that she had nearly used half of her fuel supply she had a decision to make.

"Do I keep going or do I turn back now?" she talked to herself.

"Where is there to land in the jungle anyway?" This had been troubling her the whole time.

"What's the worst that can happen?"

"Well you can get lost in the jungle and die, Ave-Maria can rot in prison and they re-capture Aberaif and Tresia." She immediately regretted answering her own question.

There were some very compelling reasons to turn back to Caffan. Still there was a chance Wilfor was still alive and she felt she needed to find out.

"I've come this far, might as well continue."

The next time she opened the firebox to refuel she knew the decision was made. She did not have enough fuel to return. She would have to make it to the bonfire. She could still make out the bonfire but the flames had died down some.

About the same time the moon set over the horizon she saw the vapours form below her. Everywhere she looked became a thick carpet of white. It was very beautiful and also a big relief, she did not know till this time how high the vapours went. A common belief was the whole sky turned to mist in the morning. Now she knew it was just the layer close to the ground; the moisture in the lower atmosphere had condensed on contact with the ground which had cooled during the night.

For quite a while she could still make out the fire through the vapours, the heat meant they did not form as thick around it, but eventually even that was obscured from view. She then had to rely on following her compass only, keeping the same heading towards the south. Eventually the sun rose with a glorious colourful morning Ceatha, highlighting the beauty of the crystalline Awai. These were very rare sights, the vapours usually obscured the morning Ceatha.

"Tresia would love this," Jin was talking to herself again.

By now she and her giant should be on Duldi's boat motoring down river. She wondered how they were getting on. They would expect her to be landing somewhere in the Caffan mist and either hiding the balloon and basket or abandoning it.

She wondered where she was in relation to the bonfire, her fuel supplies were precariously low. She needed the vapours to lift. She continually looked over the side to try and get some bearings on something. Finally through the mist she spotted a clearing with a lake in the middle of it. She had just overshot it and had to turn back around to reach it.

"Well that's where I'm landing." She had little choice as she had just put her last fuel in the fire, she hoped she would be able to make the clearing. She needed to lose height too, so she pulled on the vent cord to release a bit of hot air. As she descended she noticed the grassy hills of Tsaegar emerge from the mist. Tsaegar was very close to where she was. It could be a safer option to go there once she refuelled than risk the long flight back to Caffan.

She was not quite over the clearing and her fire was about to go out.

"What else can I burn?" She asked herself.

She searched the basket. It was empty aside from a few tools, spare pulley belts and her money box, which she decided to bring at the last moment and she was not burning that.

"The basket will burn!"

Yes, that was it. She got the tomahawk out and chipped some pieces out of the patch where the door had been. She stuffed them into the fire and it burst back into life. It was just enough to get her to over the clearing at that point, she pulled on the lever to stop the engine driving the propeller. There was no wind so she floated gradually straight down through the slowly dissipating mist.

As she came into land she could see a bunch of animals through the lifting mist, they had never seen a balloon before and were running away from it. She hadn't yet seen any people but she noticed a pile of embers on the ground; she was landing near where the fire had been. Were the people that lit it still about? They could have disappeared back into the jungle by now! And was it Wilfor or maybe some folks from Tsaegar?

Bump; the basket kissed the ground.

29

Aberaif entered into Jin Palace, he was momentarily distracted by the balloon lifting off in front of him. He thought that Tresia had left without him.

"Over here!" Tresia called from the other side of the counter.

He rushed over to where she was and ducked down behind the bar.

"We can hide in here," Tresia said as she motioned towards the entry of the vault.

Aberaif's heart sunk again, whoever planned this escape had not taken into account that he was a giant, "I won't fit."

"What!" Tresia groaned as she realised the calculation error.

They stayed ducked in behind the counter for a couple of minutes before they realised that the rouse had worked. They had not been followed into Jin Palace. Quietly they slipped out the back entrance.

Outside the back of Jin Palace the pair briefly embraced. Tresia was ecstatic. Aberaif was free at last, they just had to sneak down to the river to Duldi's boat in Newbsrus. He would take them down the river and along the coast. They would then walk on to Tsaegar. With everyone thinking they were up in the balloon no one would be looking for them on the ground.

"What is the plan now?" Aberaif asked.

"Well we sneak down to the Galya River where there is a boat waiting to take us to freedom."

"OK, we better get moving then."

Tresia hesitated for a moment, "Wait where is Ave-Maria?"

"I don't know, she said to tell you that she was delayed and to continue on with the plan."

"Alright we better do that. It might be faster if you carry me again."

Aberaif lifted Tresia onto his shoulder and was about to move off when they heard a voice coming from within Jin Palace. It was Erdminger, he was trying to convince Jin to trade herself in for Ave-Maria.

Tresia bit her lip as she heard that, poor Ave-Maria, they could not abandon her.

Tresia whispered to Aberaif, "What should we do?"

"I don't know, we should suss out what is happening."

Aberaif put Tresia back down on the ground. They sneaked around the back of Jin Palace and spied on the road. In the moonlight they saw Erdminger take Ave-Maria into his office.

"There is a cell out the back of his office, which is where she will be!" Tresia whispered, recalling the time she went in the building to get her bag searched.

They waited for a time, watching to see what was happening. A group of men just stood in the middle of the road looking up at the balloon. Tresia studied her balloon; it looked magnificent, the flames from the fire were causing it the glow in the moonlight. Tresia was envious of Jin getting to fly her balloon. She would probably never see that balloon again. She would have to start over again afresh.

"We can't do anything with those guys there." Aberaif observed.

"Could we distract them?" suggested Tresia.

"I think I've had all the distractions I can handle tonight, let's wait and see what happens."

"Ok, what happened at the barracks?" Tresia asked.

"I couldn't fit through the small gate. The other slaves distracted the guard so we could get the key to the big gate, Ave-Maria distracted the guard so I could open it and make a break. And finally Jin used the balloon to distract the guys chasing me."

"Oh, yes we didn't count your size when we came up with the plan," Tresia stated the obvious.

"Where is the boat taking us?"

"Down the river, along the coast. Then we have to walk to Tsaegar."

"Tsaegar, is that on the way to Nore?"

"Well, Nore is a long, long way away. We will go to Tsaegar first." Tresia replied. She had made no further plans than getting Aberaif to Tsaegar. Once he was there, she would go to Hutibo and marry Yrrab, and she did not want to think about that. "But first we need to help Ave-Maria,"

"They are all just standing there looking at the balloon. How long should we wait? There are five of them. I'm sure I could take them all on."

"Until someone brings a carbine out. Hopefully Jin will get the balloon moving away from us soon," Tresia said thinking of her motor.

As she said that the balloon started moving. At first it did a few zig zags before heading towards Newbsrus. The guys on the ground started following the balloon. It was moving quite fast, they were jogging to keep up. Erdminger had remained in his office.

The pair approached it. Tresia was being as stealthy as the crutches allowed her to be. The overseer's office was in two sections. The front half was wooden. But the back part with a cell was made of stone. Tresia knew from her previous visit the cell had steel bars on the inside.

"Well the back half is pretty impenetrable." Aberaif noted after walking around the building to assess it.

Tresia looked through a crack in the wood; there were no windows. "Erdminger is there doing paperwork, he is facing away from the door. Ave-Maria is just sitting in the cell."

They approached the front door.

"I won't fit through there!" Aberaif whispered. "Though the construction looks pretty weak. But he will know I'm coming."

"What choice have we got?"

"None, but he will know we are not in the balloon," Aberaif mentioned the consequence of the rescue.

"We will have to make sure he doesn't get to tell anyone then."

Tresia put her crutches down and hopped to the front door. She quietly opened it, relieved the hinges didn't creak. Erdminger was still facing the other way.

Ave-Maria sat in the corner of the cell facing towards the door. She could see Erdminger writing away, a smug look on his face through the lamps. He was sitting on a large cushion, hunched over his low level desk. She had looked all around the cell for any possible way to escape but could see none. She had to somehow get back to Tere and Jeb. They were already missing their father, she needed to be there for them. At least Aberaif and Tresia had got away.

As she pondered this she saw the door slowly open. Erdminger did not notice as the door was behind him. She saw the silhouette of a girl in the darkness beyond it. She noticed the girl was holding her left foot off the ground as she hopped out of the way. _Tresia; they had come to rescue her._ She needed to distract Erdminger so he didn't look around.

"Excuse me, sir."

An annoyed Erdminger responded, "What do you....," he never finished his sentence.

CRASH, the frame around the door busted as the giant entered running through the open door with pace. Aberaif had to stay stooped down inside the building. Before Erdminger had a chance to react he had a giant hand clasped around his mouth.

"I just thought I'd mention that you have visitors," Ave-Maria smiled as she told this to the alarmed, struggling overseer.

Erdminger tried to fight his assailant, but it was futile against such a big giant.

"The keys where are the keys?" Tresia asked, she had collected her crutches and had entered the building.

"I saw him put them under his desk," Ave-Maria replied.

Tresia reached into the narrow space between the desk and the ground and found a key hanging on a hook. She rushed over to the cell and freed Ave-Maria. The two girls gave each other a quick hug.

"Thanks for coming back for me," Ave-Maria acknowledged.

"Anytime," Tresia replied.

"Hey, what do I do with this guy?" Aberaif asked.

"We need to stop him following us," Tresia said.

"Well, this would do that," Ave-Maria said as she grabbed his carbine from its holder on the wall. She saw the look of fear in his eyes.

"Or I could knock him out," Aberaif suggested. "I just have to get the hit right, too little and he doesn't get knocked out, too much and he never wakes up."

Erdminger was trying to hum something, but the giants hand was still over his mouth. Ave-Maria thought that he sure looked worried.

"Nah, let's just tie him up and gag him," Tresia told the other two.

Both Ave-Maria and Aberaif groaned with disappointment. They looked around the room and could not find anything suitable for the task.

"I know where some rope is," Ave-Maria declared as she ducked out the door.

She returned a minute later with rope and a cleaning cloth that she retrieved from Jin Palace. They put the cleaning cloth gag on him first, then Ave-Maria took great pleasure in tying him up, roping him to his desk.

"I'm sorry, didn't mean to stand on your sore foot," she told him as she watched him grimace in pain. She 'accidentally' stood on his foot a couple more times while tying him up. Soon he was gagged and bound. Aberaif grew tired of bending over, so he stood up straight, putting a hole in the thatch weave roof and debris settled on the floor and all over Erdminger. Ave-Maria found some shot and charges for the carbine, she then put out the candles as the trio departed.

"Well, I guess I'm coming with you now," Ave-Maria stated once they were clear of the overseer's office. "We have to get the children."

Aberaif picked up Tresia and put her over his shoulder and they started jogging towards Newbsrus. The thick pressurised atmosphere meant that jogging was not even tiring, especially in the cool of the night. As they ran they could see the balloon high in the sky. It had turned around above the Galya river and was heading south in the direction of the jungle. The Awai was glistening in the moonlight beyond the balloon.

"I bet Jin is enjoying it up there," Tresia mused to the others.

Ave-Maria was still mad with her mother so just shrugged a reply.

#

Erdminger tugged and heaved on the ropes binding him. They were too tight. Still he was very relieved when Tresia suggested tying him up. The other suggestions were very unfavourable.

So Tresia and the giant never went up in the balloon after all. Who was in the balloon? _Jin_ \- it had to be Jin. Where were Tresia and Aberaif going? He thought for a while, _the merchant,_ \- he had been in the village earlier that day. They would be heading to his boat. He cursed as he realised their plan. Still they would get Jin when the balloon landed. Ave-Maria had young children so she could not just up and leave them. He just hoped that someone would find him soon enough. If he was discovered soon he still might be able to stop them. As he was pondering this a voice was heard at the door.

"What on earth has happened here?" It was Nihliz.

Erdminger was tied facing upwards towards the ceiling. He hummed loudly in reply. Nihliz and a companion entered and removed his gag.

"They are still here. Heading towards the river." Erdminger yelled.

"Who is heading towards the river?"

"The giant and the girl, well the two girls."

"But we saw them take off in the balloon. We were all following it, but decided it was going to be up there for a long time. So a couple of us decided to come back for a while."

"No that was all a ruse so we wouldn't follow them. Now stop standing there and untie me. And get me a tahtor." He hoped he could still ride with a sore foot, but it was his only chance of stopping them.

Soon he was free from his bonds and waited for a tahtor to arrive.

#

Tresia from her vantage point in Aberaif's shoulders was able to watch the balloon fly. "What is Jin up to?" she exclaimed.

"Why is that," Aberaif asked, whilst Ave-Maria grunted at hearing her mother's name.

"I told her not to go near the jungle yet that is where she is going. I thought she would turn away by now."

"Good, hope she gets lost in the jungle; then eaten by something nasty," Ave-Maria responded.

The trio ran through the opening of a derelict stone wall that once served as the jungle wall for Newbsrus. That was back a long time ago when the jungle was a lot closer and Newbsrus was the only locality in the province. They cut in behind the wall in order to take a less conspicuous route to Tresia's parents place. A few moments after they ducked behind the wall two tahtors came speeding past and sped down the road towards the town.

"Who was that?" Aberaif asked.

"Don't know, but they didn't see us," Tresia observed.

"No doubt they are looking for us." Ave-Maria added.

"So we have to get the children and make it to the boat with people looking for us," Tresia explained the situation.

"Sums it up nicely," Ave-Maria agreed.

They moved more slowly and stealthily now they were near the town. They easily got to Tresia's place without attracting attention. Aberaif put Tresia back on the ground again.

"Jin just disappeared from view, headed away from us over the jungle." Tresia was puzzled and concerned by Jin's flightpath.

"We need to get my kids and go, without waking your folks," assessed Ave-Maria.

But it was too late for that, Fifthe loudly whispered, "What's going on here?" He looked around and saw Tresia and Aberaif with Ave-Maria. And Ave-Maria was holding a carbine. He realised something was up and immediately bolted awake.

30

"So let me get this straight," Fifthe said with a concerned look on his face. "You have stolen Elder's giant..."

"Rescued," Tresia interrupted to correct.

"Well, whatever you call it. You tied up the overseer! Now you are fugitives and you need to get to a boat with Ave-Maria's two children. And there may be people out looking for you."

"Well, you make it sound really bad when you say it like that," Tresia complained.

Tresia's mother woke and came to see what the noise was about, she asked, "What's happening?"

"Our daughter is now an outlaw and is trying to escape from Caffan," Fifthe replied.

"Oh, ok," Leza replied nonchalantly and then upon seeing Aberaif, "What is the filthy giant doing here?"

"Tresia decided that because he saved her life, she needed to rescue him from slavery," Fifthe informed.

"And your wedding to Yrrab?" Leza asked.

"I guess the wedding will now be located in Hutibo," Tresia suggested.

Ave-Maria then added, "I got caught up in it too, and I have to take the kids and leave as well."

Leza came and gave Ave-Maria a hug, "Oh no Ave, I should have warned you not to mix with Tresia, I'll miss you so much. We could hide them here for a little to try and figure it out."

"No, we can't, they have the giant with them. He takes a lot of hiding!"

"I'll help you grab a few things to take with you Ave," Leza suggested and headed to Ave's room to help her.

"I'll go and assess the situation, where was that boat?" Fifthe queried Tresia.

Tresia told him what jetty the boat was tied to. It was close to where they were.

Aberaif asked as Fifthe walked past, "Shall I come with you."

"No, you stay here. They're not looking for me."

Soon, Tresia's dad arrived back with a favourable report, "It looks like we are in luck. Didn't see a soul."

They went to get the children, Ave-Maria carried Jeb and Fifthe carried Tere. Both stirred but remained half asleep. Tresia walked with her crutches while Aberaif carried the two bags. They slowly made their way to the riverside. From there the boat was only a little way downstream on the jetty.

As they got slightly closer a voice boomed through the darkness, "You won't find anything!"

It was Duldi, his usual habit of yelling had raised the alarm. The group stayed in the shadows, they could make out through the moonlight someone else on board Duldi's boat. He was moving through it, looking for something. There was also someone waiting at the end of the jetty. The figure at the end of the jetty moved and they could see he was on crutches.

"Erdminger," Tresia cursed, "he got free quickly."

The search of the boat did not take long.

"Satisfied!" Duldi yelled, "Told you there was nothing here."

The searcher returned to solid ground and spoke to Erdminger. In the still night air the group hiding in the shadows could hear the conversation.

"There is nowhere on that boat that people could be hiding," Nihliz told his boss.

"Blast, still they must be coming here," Erdminger replied.

"Well there's a metal Lyra on-board and I know the girl plays a Lyra."

Erdminger grinned, "Yes, they will be coming here alright. You stay here. I'll go and check the girl's dwelling out, it's nearby, ring the bell if there is trouble."

They watched as Erdminger departed, thankful that he decided to take another route to their home, away from where they were.

"We can't get past the guy at the end of the pier," Fifthe observed.

"Well I could easily take him out," Aberaif suggested a solution.

"That could be noisy and draw attention," Fifthe explained.

"Well there is more than one way to the boat," Aberaif noted.

"What is the other way?" Fifthe asked confused.

"The water, we could swim there. It's not that far."

"Except I can't swim." Tresia said.

"Nor can I or the kids." Ave-Maria added.

"Well I can help out there," Aberaif stated.

"What about sarcos?" Ave-Maria asked.

Fifthe answered that one, "We have spent a lot of effort clearing all sarcos away from the town; there should not be any."

"Well I guess we don't have too many options," Tresia lamented, she did not like the water.

"I'll go talk to the guard, try and keep him distracted," Fifthe said as he left to take a long way around to where Nihliz was stationed. By now Tere was wide awake and was standing on the ground.

Aberaif slipped quietly into the deep water. He loved the cool refreshing feeling of being surrounded by water, it reminded him of his childhood. Ave-Maria was going with him first. She put a now awake Jeb on the ground as Tresia reached out to hold His hand. The four year old took it as he watched his mum silently enter the water and grabbed hold of Aberaif's neck. The two bags and the carbine were also going that trip, their contents would need drying later, as would Tresia's money bag which was still around Tresia's neck. The carbine could not be used till they found some more dry charges. Aberaif swam breaststroke directly out into the river then he let the current take them to the stern of the boat. A ladder was attached to the back of the boat and he grabbed onto that.

Ave-Maria climbed the ladder. A surprised Duldi greeted her. Aberaif passed the bags and carbine up the ladder to Duldi, before departing again.

"Quick into the tent," Duldi spoke quietly, breaking his usual habit of yelling.

"My kids are coming next trip, I'll wait till they are here." She looked towards the shore and could see Fifthe talking past the end of the pier. He was keeping the guard facing the other way.

"How long till we can get going?" Ave-Maria whispered, she could hear the engine was still clicking over.

"Not long, I'll heat the fire a bit more. But it's just untie the ropes and hit reverse," Duldi still was talking softly and pointed to a lever.

The return voyage for Aberaif involved going closer to the shore and using the reverse current of an eddy to take him back to where Tresia was holding the two children. The children seemed to grasp the seriousness of the situation as they both climbed down and grabbed Aberaif's shoulders. He set off to piggy backed them both out to the boat in one trip. Tresia watched from the shore as Aberaif set off with the two children. She was surprised how both of them entered the water without any fuss.

"There you are, I've got you now!" Erdminger's angry voice was right behind her.

Tresia whirled around, her right crutch extended out as she spun clockwise. Erdminger had to duck to avoid being hit in the head with Tresia's flying metal crutch. In rage he brought his left crutch high in the air and bought it down to strike Tresia with.

TING, the sound of wood striking metal echoed about as Tresia blocked with her right crutch and then balancing on one foot she swung her left crutch and managed to hit Erdminger in the side of the ribs.

Erdminger winced with pain, but being struck in the ribs made him even madder. He swung his left crutch again while hopping forward towards Tresia. Tresia hopped backwards and blocked again with her right crutch and once again managed to hit Erdminger with her left. At this point Erdminger realised his strategy was not working and he lashed out with his right crutch. This took Tresia off guard, she felt the sharp pain of the crutch striking the side of her abdomen. She stepped backwards towards the river.

Ave-Maria was watching the two fight from the back of the boat as Aberaif approached with the children. She assisted them up the ladder, showering them with praise for being so brave, while still watching Tresia out the corner of her eye.

Ave-Maria lent down the ladder and told Aberaif, "Tresia is in trouble!"

Aberaif also looked over and saw the two fighting each other with their crutches. Erdminger was stronger and was backing Tresia towards the river.

"Hey what's going on?" yelled Nihliz. He had looked around with all the commotion and realised there were more people on the boat.

"We have to go now!" Duldi yelled the others, as Nihliz ran towards them down the jetty. "Lady, hit that lever I showed you."

Aberaif started to swim towards the shore. Duldi quickly released the ropes as Ave-Maria pulled the lever to put the boat in full reverse. The boat backed away from the jetty just before Nihliz reached them. Duldi took back control of the boat and swung the boat hard left so the stern was facing downstream. He then put the boat in forward gear and headed upstream.

"We can't leave them." Ave-Maria told Duldi.

"I know, but your giant will have to swim out to us."

Tresia was right by the water's edge now. Erdminger hopped forward and used his crutches defensively to block Tresia's swings and got close enough to push her in the water. As she started to fall she grabbed hold of Erdminger pulling them both into the water. Erdminger surfaced and was in such a rage he held Tresia under the water. Tresia struggled as she realised she was being held under. She started to panic, dropping her crutches she tried desperately to claw up to the surface to no avail. She was being prevented from surfacing to breathe.

Her panic gave way to light headedness and a feeling of calm as the oxygen levels in her blood decreased. Just as she was about to pass out the overseer stopped pushing her down and a giant hand reached around her and pulled her to the surface. She took a large grasp of air as she grabbed hold of Aberaif and held him tight. Erdminger lay floating unconscious on the top of the water. Aberaif had knocked him out. As tempting as it was to leave him there Aberaif grabbed Erdminger and hauled him to the shore. Fifthe and Nihliz were there to receive him.

"Tresia take care," Fifthe yelled at her. "Send word when you get to Hutibo."

"Ok Dad, love you. Say bye to Trasia from me."

"Will do! Love you too." Fifthe watched as Aberaif took his daughter out to the boat.

Aberaif then swam with Tresia clinging onto him out the boat which was waiting a little way off shore. Ave-Maria helped Tresia into the boat and Aberaif followed. As soon as the pair were on the boat Duldi turned the boat around and headed downstream. Tresia sat beside Aberaif, she was still catching her breath.

"You're free, Aberaif." Tresia exclaimed.

"Thank you," Aberaif explained. He scarcely could believe it.

Ave-Maria looked back at the rapidly disappearing Newbsrus and started to weep.

"What's wrong Ave?" Tresia asked.

"Well I spent my whole life in Caffan and now I'm forced into exile from it. Plus if Wilfor does come home he will find no house, no wife, no children," she then half grinned, "and only half a toilet."

"So sorry," Tresia apologised, "It's all my fault, I never meant for you to get involved like this."

"I can't believe you would do all this just to help me, just a lowly slave," Aberaif expressed his gratitude.

"Well Tresia thinks a lot of you Raif, and you did save her life; a couple of times now. Perhaps a change will do us all a world of good." Ave-Maria replied.

They stayed up for a while, eventually the early morning vapours started to envelop the boat.

"This could be interesting," Duldi shouted despite the fact he was only whispering distance away from them.

"Why is that?" asked Aberaif.

"Navigating the river in the vapours at night," came the loud reply. "Can't see where we are going."

Duldi put the boat close to the middle of the river. He then took the power off the propeller and just let the boat drift down with the flow of the slow moving current. Occasionally he would power the boat back up again to keep it going straight.

"So long as I can keep it in the middle of the river we should be right. Or we don't meet anyone coming the other way." Duldi bellowed.

"Do other boats go out in this?" Ave-Maria asked.

"Unlikely, only bandits risk navigating the river with such poor visibility."

"Does that make us bandits then?" Ave-Maria asked.

"You said it." Duldi replied.

Tresia was exhausted, and soon fell asleep. Ave-Maria went to the tent to be with her children and also fell asleep. Aberaif was too wired to sleep after rescuing Tresia from being drowned by Erdminger

He sat on the back of the boat listening to the motor click away, occasionally it would change pitch as Duldi threw it in and out of gear to manoeuvre. The engines worked really well in the boat as the water was great for cooling the cold cylinders. Such motors had revolutionised sea travel. Sailing ships were non-existent as the wind was not reliable enough. Shipping before the engine was invented involved either a lot of rowing across the open ocean, or for inland rivers being towed from the side.

Aberaif looked down at the beautiful Amira asleep beside him, it was a bittersweet feeling. She had kept her promise and rescued him from slavery, with the help of her friends. He felt guilty that Ave-Maria also had been forced to leave. The butterflies in his stomach told him he had fallen in love with Tresia. Yet she was still engaged to Yrrab, once he was safe she would disappear from his life forever to go marry Yrrab. He continued to admire her beauty in the half light of dawn, as she slept. She was still wearing the emerald necklace from his homeland, Nore. As the vapours started to lift Tresia stirred, she looked over to see Aberaif beside and smiled. But as she further awoke she remembered Yrrab and excused herself and moved to another part of the boat, feeling conflicted inside.

Soon Jeb & Tere got out of the tent and looked about. They saw Aberaif and stared at him. They had seen him from a distance after the dinosaur incident but up close they thought he looked huge. Ave-Maria could see they were concerned.

"It's ok kids, the giant won't hurt you," she told them.

Eventually Jeb plucked up the courage to ask, "Mister, how did you get so big?"

"Oh, I was not always so big, I was once a little kid too. But I always ate my meat to grow big and strong."

"What's meat?' Tere asked.

"It's dead animals, you cook them up and eat it."

"Ewwww. That sounds disgusting!" Tere objected.

"Yes it is, we don't eat meat." Ave-Maria interrupted.

"Do you remember the barbeque after the dinosaur died," Aberaif continued, "well that is meat."

"I didn't try it, cause it looked gross," Tere said.

"Why have you got a tooth around your neck?" Jeb asked.

"Have you heard of a Dragos?" Aberaif asked.

Both the children shook their heads.

"Don't scare the children," Tresia warned

"I'm not scared," Jeb insisted, "what is a Dragos?"

Aberaif looked at Ave-Maria to get permission to go on with the story, she nodded at him.

"A Dragos is a flying, fire breathing dinosaur that can only be killed with the tooth of a Tyrannosaur."

"They don't exist," Tresia quickly added.

"Have you ever killed a Dragos, Mister?" Tere asked with morbid curiosity.

"Not yet, but I'm prepared if ever one comes," he said holding the tooth in his right hand.

The children had not been on a boat before and had at first been slightly concerned about the motion. However listening to Aberaif completely took their mind off it. Tresia admired him as he told stories from the land of Nore to the children and they were enraptured by them. Yes he was good with children. He sung them some songs. Tresia could not help but crack up laughing when the song about Big Bad Johnn now had a verse where Dragos was killed with a Tyrannosaur tooth.

In the afternoon they reach the port at the mouth of the Galya, somewhat originally christened 'Galyamouth'. The river here was noticeably smaller than upstream in Caffan. There Duldi tied up for the night. He waited on board till the riverboat from Newbsrus had come and gone, just to check no one had followed them. Even after that he did not let them get off in case he had to make a speedy departure. They spent the night there. Aberaif was especially uncomfortable as there was nowhere big enough on board for a giant to lie down. As soon as the following morning vapours started to lift they set off around the coast to Kihiki. While they were now in the open ocean the settled weather meant the ocean was always calm, with only the tidal currents to contend with; which on that part of the coast were not a major problem.

31

Wilfor could not sleep. He kept thinking of Fregwit. Such a stupid way to die, if only one of them had seen the snake head earlier and they had buried it! What's more they were still lost, they were no closer to getting out of the jungle than when they began. What's more without Fregwit it would be so much harder. He thought of his family, the only thing that kept him going was the possibility of seeing them again. The night finally began to give way to morning, he looked across and could see Nimm's eyes open.

"You can't sleep either?" Wilfor asked.

"Nah, poor Fregwit."

"Well no point just lying here."

The pair got up. Xeno was outside, moping about by the bivouac. Wilfor found his knife and used it to get some insect larvae to eat. Neither was hungry but they knew they had to eat.

"Well, which way should we go?" Nimm questioned.

"Well we came out that way. And that is the same way we went last time. I don't know. Do you think we'll ever get out?"

Nimm just shrugged, "Let's get going."

"Nah, I think we should wait till the vapours clear!" Wilfor decided there was no need to be hasty.

So they both sat down again and waited; using the time to whittle their spears to sharpen them. The mist was starting to dissipate and they could just begin to make out a few wild animals lurking nearby on the clearing. Xeno suddenly started looking up and growling at the sky.

"What is it girl?" Nimm asked. They both gazed up but could not make anything out. Suddenly the animals spooked and ran away, and Xeno started roaring at the sky.

"What's up with...?" Nimm asked.

Before he finished the sentence a big red balloon came into view in front of them.

Jin concentrated on landing. Tresia had told her the most important thing was to not let the paper of the balloon get near the flames of the furnace. As she landed she followed Tresia's instructions pulling on the vent cord and laying the basket on its side. As soon as she had done that she realised that she had made a mistake, she should have left the balloon inflated. It was too late, she would need to inflate it from scratch again now.

"Hello," a familiar voice called out as the balloon collapsed on the ground.

She turned around a saw Wilfor and another man running towards her with a big xenosmilus beside them. The xeno looked at her and growled, the cat seemed to dislike the newcomer.

"Wilfor," Jin went up and gave him a hug. He had grown a beard and his clothes were ragged. She looked warily at the big cat, "What's with the xeno?"

"Jin!" Wilfor was amazed, he had never been so happy to see his mother-in-law. "Jin! What are you doing in a balloon? How is Ave-Maria? How are the kids?" There were too many questions to ask.

"Well Ave-Maria and the kids will be a lot better when they see you again. How I ended up in a balloon, well that is a long story."

"Well how did you find us?" Nimm asked, while trying to placate the still growling cat.

Jin looked towards Nimm. Wilfor realised he had not introduced them.

"Jin this is Nimm. Nimm this is my mother-in-law. And that is Xeno."

"Yes," responded Nimm, "Wilfor has told us ALL about you."

Jin grinned, "Well I hope you didn't believe a word of it."

"How did you find us?" Nimm asked.

Jin motioned towards the embers on the ground as she answered, "I saw the fire."

Wilfor gasped with surprise and held his right hand over his mouth.

"You ok?" Jinn puzzled.

"Fregwit, he said he would get me home if it were the last thing he ever did. It was his funeral pyre you saw. The last thing he ever did was show you where we were."

"So if it weren't for his funeral, we would still be lost!" Nimm added equally flabbergasted.

"Wow," Jin was also amazed by the story. "Is your cat going to eat me?"

"Well no she is usually friendly," Nimm explained, puzzled as to why the cat was still growling at Jin.

Wilfor whispered in his friend's ear, " _Cat's a good judge of character."_

"I heard that!" Jin responded loudly.

"Well, I guess even been a slave is better than been stuck out here!" Nimm suddenly realised what a return to Caffan would mean.

"Well no more slavery for you, there is no slavery in Tsaegar," Jin explained.

"Tsaegar?" both men said in unison. Nimm with delight, he would be going home, Wilfor in despair as it would take longer to see his family.

"I'm afraid so, Wilfor. We will never make it back to Caffan, I barely made it here. Tsaegar is much closer. From there we can walk down to the port of Kihiki. There we can get a boat back to Galyamouth and catch the river boat home."

"Ok, that's a few days, but I guess that is better than not getting there."

She pulled her tomahawk out of the basket and gave it to Nimm, "We are going to need firewood and plenty of it. Cut to yay big," she held her hands out in front of her to show the required size. "And please take that xeno with you,"

"Yes ma'am," he answered as he took the tomahawk off her and headed to find some wood, Xeno went in tow.

"And Wilfor you need to help me dig a hole, didn't bring a spade I'm afraid."

The pair used some sticks to dig a hole. As they did Jin told the story of Aberaif and Octe rescuing Tresia. How Ave-Maria had killed the dinosaurs and how they had attempted to free Aberaif, hence why Jin was in the balloon. She left out the part about Ave-Maria possibly being caught. She did not know for sure and did not want to cause Wilfor more stress.

"Sounds like things have been eventful in Caffan," Wilfor noted, but there was something else he was very curious about. "Who won the Lashers verses Whoops game?"

"I didn't see it, but Ave-Maria said it was a close game," she then paused for effect.

"And..."

"The Lashers won."

"So we get to play the champions. Woo hoo! I knew we would."

Eventually they had the holes to the right size and lit a fire in the larger one. They then went through the process of inflating the balloon and tying it onto the basket. Nimm had piled it with plenty of wood.

With the three of them in the basket plus the wood for fuel it was very cramped inside. The extra weight meant the balloon struggled to lift off. They had to throw out a little bit of firewood to get off the ground. Xeno sat and watched them go, she roared when they were off the ground and then disappeared into the jungle.

"I'm going to miss that cat." acknowledged Nimm.

As the balloon gradually lifted over the tall trees the hills of Tsaegar came into view. The vegetation on the hills was much sparser that the rich jungle, as it only had the morning vapours to water it, and not the network of streams that the jungle did.

"We were that close, the whole time," Nimm exclaimed. He reckoned that Tsaegar was less than a day's walk from where they were.

"I'm sure we headed off that direction last time, we must have come very close to Tsaegar in our travels," Wilfor mused. "Lucky you came Jin, because we were about to go off the other way."

Jinn engaged the propeller and the balloon headed off slowly towards Tsaegar. Jin had not flown in daylight and she thought it was even more beautiful than at night. Wilfor and Nimm were also taken with the view. The Awai glistened above them enhancing the beauty of it all.

Wilfor looked at the balloon, the big red canopy above him, he was impressed by the amount of work Tresia had done to get the balloon flying. He still had not met the girl, but by Jin's description she did not seem too bad. He then looked around the basket, there was something very familiar about the basket.

"Why are we flying in my toilet?" he inquired with a scowl.

Jin giggled, "I wondered when you would notice."

#

Octe was enjoying his freedom. He had gone down to his local village to socialise and play dice games with some other older folk. He grabbed the two twelve sided dice, he needed a combined total of nine to win. Shaking them hard he released them onto the hardwood table. A three and a six.

"Alright! The old dog knows a few tricks yet," he gloated.

His playing companion suddenly looked to the sky above his shoulder and pointed, "What on earth is that?"

Octe looked about and saw the red balloon over the jungle, heading towards them. "Tresia!" he cried out.

"Tresia?" his companion enquired.

"A girl from Caffan, she builds balloons. I will rematch you later, I need to find the balloon when it lands."

He did not need to go far, Jin headed the balloon straight towards the village and landed in a field just outside. Octe ran up to the balloon and was surprised by the occupants. Not who he was expecting.

"Octe," Nimm shouted glad to see him again.

"Where is Fregwit?" the old man asked.

"He didn't make it, I'm sorry," Nimm replied as Jin collapsed the canopy on the ground. "You know Wilfor and this is Jin."

"Yes, Jin, we have met." Octe said, recalling some black-market capsicum trading he had done back in Loke.

"Good to see you again, Octe," Wilfor proclaimed.

"You too, I have room for you if you need somewhere to stay for a bit and to clean up."

"I really need to get going back to Caffan to see my family," Wilfor explained.

Nimm objected, "Wilfor you would be better to clean up and rest for the night. Tomorrow you can start the journey afresh."

"He does have a point," Jin noted.

Octe then gave further reason to stay, "There is now a tumbrel that leaves for Kihiki in the morning. It's faster than by foot, only takes a day to get there."

Jin did some calculations in her head, "We might even meet Duldi in Kihiki; he could take us directly back to Caffan."

"Ok then, looks like we are leaving in the morning," agreed Wilfor.

They packed up the balloon, Octe would store it till Tresia came. After that they went into the village and got some new clothing for Wilfor and Nimm. They went back to Octe's place where they cleaned up and shaved. Wilfor thought it felt great to be clean and in new clothes again. Life got even better when a plate of decent food was put before him.

"Never eating maggots again," he announced.

"I'll drink to that," Nimm agreed as he raised his drink. "Great to be back in Tsaegar."

"Did you find out what happened to that Airmutt player, was it Hial? The guy who set you up." Wilfor asked.

Jin's spat out her drink and her face dropped as she heard the name.

"You know him too?" Nimm inquired.

"The lying, cheating, scumbag, owes me money," Jin lied as to not reveal her true reason for her reaction.

Nimm answered, "I asked about Hial today at the market. He disappeared a number of years ago. I'd sure like to get some payback on him though."

"So the Lashers get to play the T. Rex's to decide who are the champions." Wilfor was keen to change the subject seeing the angst it was causing. "Maybe this will be our year!"

Nimm and Wilfor immediately started discussing Airmutt to a degree that would bore to death anyone but the most ardent follower.

Everybody slept really well that night. No one had had any sleep the night before. Octe had to wake Wilfor and Jin in the morning in order for them to catch the tumbrel to Kihiki in time.

Wilfor felt quite sad about farewelling Nimm.

"Say 'hi' to your family for me," Nimm said as the tumbrel departed.

"Will do."

The tumbrel ride seemed long and slow to Wilfor. He was longing to get back to Caffan to see his family and the thing just could not go fast enough for him. It took nearly all day and the road was bumpy as it wound in and around some hills. As happy he was that Jin found him, he was fast getting over spending so much quality time with his mother-in-law.

He pondered the conversation about Hial last night before questioning Jin, "Hial is Ave-Maria's dad, isn't he?"

Jin glared at her son-in-law, he always was too much the thinking type, "Why do you think that?"

"Well, you did not have any money to lose till about 20 years ago. Events with Hial took place 26 years ago and Ave is 25."

"Don't tell Ave. He is not a nice man, I'm scared she will try and find him."

Wilfor did not reply. At long last they made it to the port town of Kihiki overlooking the Naldim Sea. With all the water locked up in both the Awai and in huge underground aquifers, the seas were considerably lower than after the great deluge. The sun was low in the horizon and soon the Awai would change colour in a beautiful Ceatha.

"That's his boat," Jin pointed to the boat approaching the dock as they arrived at the port, "with any luck Tresia and Raif will be on that boat."

Wilfor could see the giant on board, he recognised him instantly. "Raif is there alright." He then looked at the other occupants of the boat and could not believe his eyes. He started yelling and jumping up and down waving.

Ave-Maria looked out beyond the bow of Duldi's boat. Ahead they could see the port of Kihiki getting very close now. She could not get off the boat fast enough. They had been on the cramped boat for almost two days. It was getting very claustrophobic, so many people in such a confined space, especially with Duldi's incessant yelling. Duldi had also managed to extract another 200 Dracs off Tresia for the extra passengers. This was much to Ave-Maria's annoyance, she would have much preferred to have gotten off his boat at Galyamouth and taken the coastal ferry across to Kihiki. She neither liked nor trusted Duldi.

Only Tresia playing her Lyra and Raif entertaining the kids had made the voyage semi bearable. He had even tried to teach them how to fish, Duldi lacked the right equipment, that did not stop him trying though and he managed to catch a couple which he then cooked up. However with the port approaching the kids had returned to sit with Ave-Maria.

"I want my mutt!" Jeb complained, as he had done frequently throughout the trip.

"Sorry darling, but in the rush I left it behind. We will get you another one when we get to shore."

"But Daddy got me that."

They heard a voice in the background from the shore, but Ave-Maria ignored it.

"I know sweetie, perhaps Tresia's dad will get it delivered to us."

"DADDY!" Jeb suddenly yelled excited.

"I know you miss him, so does Mummy!"

"DADDY," he shouted again and started waving his hands towards the shore.

Tere started pointing, "It is Dad, look!"

Ave-Maria looked over and sure enough Wilfor was at the dock next to Jin. He was jumping and waving and yelling.

The next five minutes while Duldi docked the boat seemed to take an eternity. The kids were shouting stuff the whole time so was Wilfor, but it was all a blur to Ave-Maria.

Finally the boat docked and the three of them leapt off and group hugged Wilfor who was waiting right there for them. Tere and Jeb excitedly told the story of nearly been eaten by a dinosaur and having to swim to the boat in the middle of the night and how the Lashers had won. Eventually Ave-Maria finally got to talk to her husband when Jin bribed the children into going to find some sweets.

Ave-Maria and Wilfor held each other tight.

"I never thought I'd see you again, I love you so much," Ave-Maria told her husband as tears of joy welled up in her eyes.

"I was having my doubts too, but you and Tere and Jeb were the reason I kept going. I love you." Wilfor also had tears streaming down his face. They kissed then Wilfor asked, "So why are you and the kids in Kihiki?"

"Oh, the plan to rescue Raif did not go as hoped, so now I'm an outlaw in Caffan. So we can't go back there. Our dwelling is wrecked anyway."

"And so is my toilet." Wilfor said grinning.

"Oh, sorry about that."

"Don't be, it flies really well."

"Tresia is taking Raif up to Tsaegar, perhaps we could follow them there." Ave-Maria suggested.

"Yes, I have a couple of friends up there already." Wilfor said, thinking that previously he would have never said that about the slaves he used to watch over. "I hear you saved Loke."

"Oh that, lucky shots really."

"Here I thought I was doing well because I shot a sarco, but you totally upstaged me again."

"You shot a sarco?" Ave-Maria said in surprise, "What were you aiming at, a flying bird?"

"Now that's just cruel. No I was aiming at the sarco!"

"You hit something you were aiming at?" Ave-Maria sounded sceptical.

"Yeah, you can ask Nimm!"

"Nimm?"

"One of the guys I was with in the jungle. He is back in Tsaegar. The other guy didn't make it."

Ave-Maria realised she had not done any introductions, "Oh, do you know Tresia and Raif?"

The pair were waiting nearby, Wilfor turn to greet them.

"Raif, yes, good to see you again. Tresia I've never had the pleasure, but good to finally meet, Jin speaks highly of you."

"Oh thanks," Tresia blushed.

"Hello sir," Aberaif greeted his old slave driver.

"Don't call me sir, Wilfor is fine. I'm not sure what I'll be doing, but it will not be slave driving or anywhere near the jungle ever again."

Jin returned with the children eating sweets. She had enough for everyone.

And she passed the sweets out she told the plan, "We need to stay in Kihiki for the night. Then catch the tumbrel to Tsaegar tomorrow."

"Teresa, what are you doing here?" an unexpected voice rung out from behind Jin.

"Yrrab!" Tresia turned towards her fiancé. "And you?"

"We were heading for Newbsrus when the boat started having issues. So we came here for repairs."

"Oh, I promised Aberaif I would free him after he rescued me from the jungle. So I am taking him to Tsaegar to make good on that."

Jin came up and put her arm around Tresia, "We got it from here. Go with Amyr Yrrab, Your life awaits, don't worry about us."

Tresia was broken-hearted, she knew what Jin said was true and she needed to go with Yrrab. Her family would forgive her and she would live in the comfort and wealth she was used to.

"Ok then. Farewell all." Tresia said as she went immediately with Yrrab as she could not bear a long goodbye. Jin helped her walk as her crutches had sunk in her fight with Erdminger.

Aberaif also was torn up, but going with Yrrab was the right choice for Tresia. Still he followed them at a distance.

"This is for the best," Jin assured her.

Yrrab carried her bag and the metal Lyra towards Yrrab's boat, "You know your Lyra was on board the whole time."

Tresia remembered how she had jumped off the boat to help Aberaif, it was crazy but she would do it again in a heartbeat. She had something she needed to ask, "Yrrab, this is a random question, but can you swim?"

"Of course I can swim, you don't grow up in Hutibo without learning to swim."

Tresia pondered, if Yrrab could swim why had he not jumped in after her? She thought how Aberaif had saved her from the jungle and from Erdminger. Plus Aberaif had even risked his life to save that nasty Vanize. The fact Yrrab had not jumped in after her had bothered her before she knew he could swim, and now she knew he was a good swimmer. It gnawed at her all the way to his boat.

"Well here is the boat," he proclaimed. "It will be good to go in the morning. There is a cabin on it for you. In fact it even has your stuff in it."

"Why didn't you jump in after me when I fell off the boat?" Tresia asked a pointed question before heading onto the gangplank.

"Fell off? Tresia you jumped." Yrrab responded matter-of-factly.

"And why didn't you not jump in to help me?"

Yrrab looked flabbergasted, "Well, I was trying to get the captain to turn around."

It was a better reason than she had been expecting, still she told him, "I can't go with you, Yrrab. Sorry."

"Why not? We can go back to Hutibo if you're worried about the backlash from stealing the giant. It will blow over soon enough. The way I see it you need me; otherwise you'll never be able to go back to Caffan ever again."

Tresia knew this to be true, going with him would mean she could continue the life she was accustomed to; but she had made up her mind. She released her grip of Jin and hopped across to him, and kissed him on the cheek. "Sorry, but I just can't marry you, you're a great guy, I just can't."

"You're leaving me, because I wasn't stupid enough to jump in the sarco infested river after you?" he asked incredulously.

"Well yes," Tresia replied, not wanting to admit that she had fallen in love with the giant.

"She's fallen for the giant," Jin had no such qualms. "Though if you have a thing for redheads, I'm available."

Yrrab now got angry, "It's not like I was that thrilled about marrying a young upstart from a backwater like yours, anyway." He dropped her bag and Lyra and stormed off into his boat.

Tresia started hopping back to Aberaif and the others. Jin came over and supported her again whilst also scolding her, "Silly girl, you should have gone with the money. Wow, talk about burning your bridges!"

Aberaif could not believe it when he saw Yrrab storm into the boat and Tresia hop back towards him.

"Hey Tresia," Yrrab yelled angrily from the boat. "Since you like swimming so much!" Yrrab heaved her wooden Lyra and bag from the side of the boat into the ocean, he then disappeared from view.

"You sure made his day," observed Jin.

Aberaif quickly dived into the water and retrieved her things. As he climb back onto the dock he inquired, "What happened?"

"Aberaif, I couldn't leave you, I already jumped off one boat to be with you. I think I should at least learn to swim before I jump off another one."

"Hey," Aberaif's face lit up. "I can teach you to swim. That way you can jump off any boat you want."

"Oh Aberaif, I love you." She hopped over and embraced him, getting her clothes damp in the process.

"Really?"

"Yes," replied Tresia.

"Hey Raif," Jin interjected, "when a woman tells you she loves you 'really' is not the appropriate answer."

"It's not? What should I say?"

Ave-Maria and family had also come over, and she answered this time, "You should tell her if you love her."

"Oh? Is that like when you can't stop thinking about them, would do anything to be with them. And long to see them again."

"Yes Raif," agreed Wilfor, "a bit like that."

"Well Tresia, I love you too."

Tresia smiled, as she snuggled into her muscled, if rather wet, giant. She suggested a plan, "I reckon that we spent the winter in Tsaegar. That will give my foot time to heal and then when the days are getting longer we will make the journey to Nore."

"How hard is it to get to Nore?" Aberaif asked.

"Compared to leaving Caffan, the voyage to Nore will be a cinch!" Tresia replied.

About the Author

**Phillip C Brown**

To Free a Giant is Phillip's first Novel. Thanks for reading, he is currently working on a sequel.

Phillip is a veterinarian from Te Awamutu, New Zealand.

He is married with two growing daughters.

Phillip is a keen cyclist, yachtie and guitar player.

Find him on Instagram,
