“This place is called Khashta. You are welcome. From where do you come?”

Eyanna looked at the ground. Denton answered, smiling for all he was worth, “We are from Sapphia.”

The old man took in Eyanna’s fading scratches knowingly. “Be at rest. You will not be harmed here.”

Denton believed him. The old man had a sympathetic face and his eyes were warm. He seemed different from the Sapphians. He felt… sincere. Denton knew he could be seeing what he wanted to see, again, and, certainly, he would keep his guard up, but for the first time in days, things were looking up.

He squeezed Eyanna’s hand. “I think this is a good place.”

She still looked nervous, but she was a brave girl, god knew. She hesitantly made the Sapphian gesture for “yes.”

That night they shared the community meal. There was meat, which they had not had since leaving Sapphia, fruit, grain, and a fermented beverage. Denton nodded and smiled at everyone, ingratiating himself. He decided to forgo the hard stuff until he was more sure of the place, but it warmed the cockles of his heart to know it was there. The old man who had greeted them was named Yulehulha or something like that (Yule, Denton decided). He even offered them hand-rolled cigarettes. Denton passed.

As the night wore on, his relief and gratitude to have found a new place, which he expressed freely to anyone who would listen, was dampened a little. It was not exactly the party atmosphere he’d gotten used to in the gorge. There were a dozen or so attractive young females but not nearly the bounty the Sapphians had. And the licentiousness he had come to appreciate so fully as a perk of this interstellar voyage stuff was not at all apparent. The Khashtans were more subdued, which he supposed was due to trudging up and down the mountain all day carrying food and water, something he himself had to look forward to. Yippee.

He couldn’t help but feel a spark of resentment toward the Sapphians.

After the meal, Yule got up. He reached behind his back and produced a small brown egg. He showed it to Denton and Eyanna solemnly.

“Khashta means ‘place of the egg.’ Our people revere the egg because it shows the way of all creation.”

Denton smiled and nodded, looking at Eyanna to make sure she was being polite. She was listening quietly.

“All of creation is like this egg when it is conceived inside the mother. The egg has life inside, but it is unformed and soft. As it grows, all that is bad and impure in the egg hardens out to the edges until it becomes the lifeless shell. And all that was good in the egg has become something else.”

He cracked the egg with a flick of a fingernail and carefully pulled it apart. In the center was a baby bird, its feathers bright blue. It unfolded its wings and shook them, emitted a sharp cheep.

Eyanna smiled radiantly. The old man gave her the baby bird and Eyanna held it on her slender palm, smiling.

“And what kind of ‘baby’ does this world create?” Denton asked politely. He half expected some native legend about a giant fox or crow or something. But that was not the answer.

“The ‘egg’ is not just this world, but all of creation, all of the stars, all of the worlds, even the worlds beyond the worlds. And all of creation is still new. Even now, it is only a soft egg inside the womb. But someday, slowly, slowly, the bad will be separated from the good and will harden out to the edges, becoming like the shell. And inside the egg new life will be born.”

“But what kind of life?” Denton asked again.

“Sahee,” Yule answered. God.

That night in the hut, Denton was wired. Eyanna stood in the doorway looking out at the night as he paced, talking eagerly.

“This is good. We’ll be safe here. The people are nice, and I believe them when they say they don’t sacrifice to the skalkits. They’re a little boring maybe, and it’ll be hard work, but it is better than getting tied to trees. Don’t you think so, Eyanna?”

He wanted her to admit it. In fact, it would be nice if she’d fall at his feet as her savior. More or less. Instead, she just gazed out into the night.

“Don’t you think so?”

She turned to look at him. Her eyes were bright with what he thought were happy tears. That was better.

“I could bring my children here,” she said in a full voice.

He hesitated, stopping in the middle of the floor. He was a little annoyed. They just got here, for god’s sake. What the heck did she want from him? And, anyway, her children were in Sapphia—nice, faraway, never-going-near-there-again Sapphia.

“Maybe. Someday.” He started pacing again. “For now, we have a place to live and I think we can be happy here. Especially if… if we’re nice to each other. Do you not think so, Eyanna?”

She gave him a look that reminded him, oddly, of Dave Banks.

“Eyanna? I mean… Come on!”

“Yes, Denton. This is a good place.”

He smiled at her, pleased.

The next morning, Eyanna was gone. Denton knew it as soon as he opened his eyes and saw that she was not in the hut. But still, he was not absolutely sure. He went outside and looked for her around the village, but it was not a big place and it was obvious that she was not there.

Some of the villagers, including Yule, were sitting at the fire in the center of the village and they watched him search without comment. He finally joined them.

“She has left,” Yule observed as Denton sat down.

“Yes. She left.”

Someone offered him a cup of water. He took it. His stomach growled.

“You will go after her?”

Denton thought about it. He had a hard time even knowing what he felt, much less expressing it. “Eyanna was not my woman. She can do what she likes.” He meant it more politely than it sounded, supportive in a women’s lib kind of way, but it came out wrong. “She will come back,” he amended.

And she might. He thought she intended to. But then, he knew where she was going, and he thought her chances of grabbing those children and getting out of Sapphia alive were only slightly greater than his chances of having a cheeseburger, fries, and milk shake for dinner.

But anyway, he wasn’t going after her. She didn’t ask him to and it was none of his business. In fact… it was a bit harsh maybe, but it was not a totally bad thing that she was gone. He could start with a clean slate now. He would not have to be reminded of… of things that had not gone so well between them. And without her here, the Khashtan females might warm up to him and he might not have to live in a perpetual state of frustration. Eyanna was beautiful, but she definitely had some codependency issues.

It was a warm morning, but he suddenly got a bad chill. Yule watched him cough, a wracking, chunky one, and lit up a smoke.

Denton was sick for three days. He felt guilty. He was taking up someone’s hut and not helping gather food at all. If he were in Sapphia, he’d be dino meat. But he couldn’t help it. His legs were watery and the thing that burned in his throat had expanded into his stomach and bowels. He had a terrible headache and he couldn’t catch his breath. It was some native bug, he knew, something horrible, like smallpox or malaria. He lay in his hut wanting to die.

On the third morning, Yule visited him. He felt Denton’s head and limbs, made him open his mouth, and looked in his eyes. Then he sat back on his heels.

“This is a sickness of the head,” he said.

So much for native medicine, Denton thought.

The old man lit up a weed. “Tonight I make a special drink. With this drink, you can see God. If you take some of this drink with me, you will maybe see what is wrong in your heart.”