The shock of the news about Dil, and then the departure of Min, lasted for several minutes.
A whiney voice finally broke the tense silence. “Now who’s gonna be my mate?” Ril asked the universe with deep feeling and complete sincerity.
Bim, only ten, had never before imagined that he could succeed at something so grown-up, so manly, where someone like Dil, two years older, had failed. But he was strong, and growing fast. He looked around. None of the other boys, even Tik, appeared interested.
Bim smiled, first inwardly to himself, then for Ril. He saw her eyes sparkle a little, so he plucked up his courage, stepped beside her, and put his arm around her.
They looked at each other and both smiled.
Dem nodded. “I’m glad Ril has a mate. Now we have a crawl-hole to find.”
A sense of urgency came over the remaining ten travelers. The cave they were in was unused, since it contained only broken boulders, but they knew a Patrol could look in at any time.
Glow-stones, held by plump Fim, hovered over the Map. Dem, Tik, and serious little Jin searched it with their eyes. The crawl-hole should be near the back, on the right side, they agreed.
Once the Map was stowed, they crawled onto the rubble like scurrying cave rats. Bim started moving rocks that might be hiding their escape route. Tik
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received the stones and stacked them out of the way. Dem and his simple friend Tol poked around slightly farther back in the cave.
“Got it!” Bim announced, handing one more rock to Tik.
Ril beamed with pride as everyone gathered to look down into the hole.
“It’s not a crawl-hole, it’s a climb-hole!” Tir observed.
“With not an inch to spare,” Bel added. “I’m not sure Dil could have made it.”
Everyone looked at Bim and Ril, the largest boy and girl.
“I’m flexible!” Bim declared, trying hard to sound sure of himself.
Ril joined his mood. “I’ll get though that hole if I have to bleed to do it!”
“Let’s start with a scout to make sure it goes through,” Dem said calmly.
He looked at his sister, and she nodded.
Tir, the first into the hole, was also the first to bleed from the task. Since she was only slightly larger than little Jin, no one, except maybe Jin herself, had any hope of getting through the hole unharmed.
She narrated her progress, and everyone listened, even Tik who kept an eye on the cave entrance. Everyone tried to remember the position of every boulder that would cut them to ribbons if they didn’t bend or twist themselves just right at that point in the nearly-vertical downward climb.
About ten minutes later, which seemed like an hour to those listening, and three hours to Tir, she called up to her friends. “Whew! I’m in a large, old tunnel, fairly level. Lots of boulders from the broken ceiling. I think everyone can make it down if you take it slow and careful.”
Bim and Ril clasped hands and silently looked at each other, gathering their courage, while Dem got all the small or slender ones started into the hole. Remembering Tir’s narrative, most of them got through with only minor scrapes. Jin never seemed to even touch the rocks on the way down, except with her strong little hands. Mushroom bags and thick coats were tossed down separately.
Finally the large couple nodded that they were ready.
Dem asked Bim to go first, knowing he could best keep silent, even if wounded.
Ril, having now forgotten all about Dil, made sounds of pain and sympathy
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every time Bim cut or scraped himself.
Girls! Bim thought to himself, but continued to feel pride at having found a mate as he moved slowly down through the jagged hole, only breaking his silence to explain places where a twist of the hips or a sucked-in belly could avoid a cut or scrape.
When Bim reached the old tunnel at the bottom, Ril almost danced around the exit cave with happiness, and Dem had trouble keeping her quiet. But when she finally settled down, she knew she had to do it. Her mate was at the bottom, waiting for her.
To Dem’s eyes, Ril did try to remain silent, just as Bim had, but she was soon so cut and scraped that she was in real pain. Dem narrated every bit of warning advice he could remember, but Ril’s painful sobbing didn’t allow her to hear much of it.
More than half an hour passed as Ril filled the torturous hole, and when she could finally feel the tunnel floor at the bottom, she was covered with her own blood and crying deeply.
Dem glanced around the upper cave one last time, placed a rock where he could pull it over the hole once he was inside, climbed in, and disappeared from the world he had known.
When Dem got to the tunnel at the bottom, he became aware of several things at once.
Ril was sitting on a rock, crying loudly from the pain of her many scrapes and cuts, and sometimes nearly screaming, even though Bim was close beside her, trying to comfort her.
The light from a large glow-stone, the kind carried by Patrols, was moving in their direction about a hundred yards up the tunnel.
Everyone else looked very frustrated, nearly angry, with their feelings clearly directed at Ril.
Then something happened that surprised everyone. Tik spoke.
“There are probably several more crawl-holes like that.”
Tir looked at Tik with wide eyes, but noticed serious little Jin give him a thumbs-up. A moment later, Tir nodded with understanding.
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Because of the deep link they shared, suddenly Dem understood, too. This was the Moment of Truth for Ril and Bim — Ril had to either master herself, or return to the world she knew.
“No, I can’t go through that again!” Ril shrieked, then began crying once more.
Bim, still beside Ril and holding her tightly, looked up at the others. “I’ll stay with her, deal with the Outer Patrol and everything.”
Quiet Bel cocked her head. “They’ve bonded, like me and Fen.”
A few seconds of silence passed.
“Everyone else,” Dem said firmly, “hiding places, glow-stones covered.”
Bim tossed his mushroom bag to Tol as the remaining eight travelers scurried to find places to hide from the approaching Patrol. Then he returned to comforting his new friend and mate.