Dur duh! And after waitin’ fer next to forever, here tis! Another chapter fer all yer luverly people.
Trek
Finally the entire Steef tribe were gathered on the snow plain; Bailey, Stranger Loki, Alika, Haigar and Daimen among them. For a while they milled around uneasily, waiting for something to happen. Stranger and Bailey were especially nervous, this was a new experience for them after all. Loki on the other hand was too young to feel nervous and she was just excited.
Bailey stuck close to Stranger feeling equal parts excited and anxious. As a result she fidgeted nervously, twisting the straps on her packs in her fingers. Sensing her nervousness Stranger put a fatherly arm around her neck. Bailey rested her head on Stranger’s ribs and put an arm around his stomach. She looked around for someone familiar and noticed that there was one Steef missing.
“Where’s the Seer?” she whispered.
“The Seer doesn’t come with us.” explained Damien who’d overheard her. Bailey was surprised.
“All summer by himself? But, what does he eat? Isn’t he lonely?” Damien laughed gently,
“Yes, I don’t know and no.” he answered, Bailey scowling mockingly. “Yes, he spends all summer in the winter homes, because he cant make the journey every year, sometimes he comes and other times he doesn’t. Maybe we should take it as a good thing, he doesn’t feel that the tribe is in danger for him to come along.”
“What about being lonely?” Bailey persisted.
“When I was a little girl I asked the same question.” Alika joined in, “I was told that the Seer went into a kind of hibernating trance, he doesn’t need food when he’s in the spirit world and he had those on the spirit plane for company.”
“Isn’t that a long time to be in a trance?” Bailey asked, Alika shook her head,
“No, several months to us could only be a few hours for him. To him we’ll be back in no time.” Bailey nodded, her questions satisfied, she leaned her head back onto Stranger’s ribs.
“Whadda we waitin’ for?” she asked quietly, after a while.
“I dunno.” Stranger shrugged. Just as he said it the clan of Steef who had up until now being talking quietly went silent as another Steef made his way through them to the head of the group. He was big, bigger then most of the Steef Bailey had seen, and he was dark, almost completely black with a thick, vaguely curly mane and dark brown, almost black eyes. Huge, red-brown horns sprouted from his head, arching up vaguely. At his side was a younger Steef, about Haigar’s age and height and this one Bailey recognised.
“Oh look, it’s Chiron.” She said mildly. “But whose he with?” Haigar trotted closer to stand with Bailey and followed her gaze,
“That’s his father, the tribe leader, his name’s Ixion.” Bailey suddenly had a mental image of Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker…the picture made her smile.
“’E’s big ain’t ‘e.” she said to Haigar, the young Steef nodded. Bailey went quiet as Ixion raised his arms to get everyone’s attention.
“My friends,” he boomed, “Another year has passed and we leave our warm winter homes and go down into the valleys to enjoy the summer. Stay together and do not stray and we shall be sleeping under the stars tonight in out summer home.” A cheer went up as Ixion turned and began leading his tribe of the last Steef in Oddworld across the snowfields. Bailey walked with her family, wondering what summer amongst the Steef would be like.
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The pace of the march wasn’t as slow as Bailey had thought, the Steef moved along at a comfortable but not ambling speed which covered ground pretty quickly. The route they took seemed to be the same as they had in years past as Haigar kept pointing out certain landmarks and told stories about the places and the adventures he himself had had when he was younger. It all fascinated Bailey but she couldn’t help but notice when they passed a certain path that Bailey knew all too way, the land began sloping down and Bailey looked back and up at the sheer cliff that rose to the right and behind the Steef marchers, to a ridge covered in gnarled trees. Where stones lay, covered in rotting leaves…
“Bailey?” Haigar’s questioning voice brought Bailey out of her thoughts, she shook herself and blinked,
“W-What?” she asked, she noticed that she’d stopped walking and that the Steef behind them were passing, Haigar and Stranger were a little ahead, waiting, both of them looking back with worried expressions on their faces. Stranger looked at Haigar and muttered something. Haigar glanced from Stranger to Bailey then nodded. Throwing a glance up at the ridge that had caught Bailey’s attention, the young Steef turned and trotted past the marchers to his parents. Bailey’s eyes strayed towards the ridge again.
“Bailey.” Bailey turned, Stranger was looking at her, “C’mon kid.” He said in a no-nonsense voice. Bailey nodded and walked over to him. Stranger put an arm around her shoulder and guided her back to the family, but not before giving the ridge a dark look.
“Stranger?” Stranger looked down at the human. “Did yer,” Bailey paused, uncertain on how to phrase the question, Stranger didn’t encroach on her silence, he sensed she needed a little time to think and didn’t need interrupting. “Did yer…tell Jorken…yer know…about what we found?” Stranger didn’t answer straight away. He stared straight ahead, keeping his arm around her.
“Yeh.” He said finally in a quiet voice, “I told ‘im…”
Bailey swallowed and nodded, feeling strong echoes of the feelings she’d experienced when she’d found the graves.
“It’s ok.” Murmured Stranger, “It’s ok.” Bailey buried her head in Stranger’s fur. She nodded.
The Steef tribe made it to the bottom on the long, gentle slope and came to the river that wound past the ridge cliff and made up the watercourse in the gorge where the old bridge that Bailey had helped destroy had been.
Here they stopped awhile. The Steef took off their packs and settled down into small groups and talked quietly amongst themselves in muted conversations. Bailey, also set down her pack and watched the river, following the packs of ice floating along with the current. She glanced up at the sun veiled by grey snow clouds, the clouds were still thin and the thicker part of the cloud head was still far away, it wouldn’t snow today, maybe later tomorrow, if the wind kept up at this pace.
From the sun Bailey deduced that it was roughly midmorning. Time for a late breakfast. She joined her small family and though they noticed that she talked little and ate less, they didn’t comment. She was off somewhere else they knew, and she shouldn’t be disturbed. Stranger kept glancing at his silent Bailey. She stared into space, seeing nothing, or rather, seeing something that no one else could.
Eventually the tribe moved off again, Bailey following but still in silence. She mechanically stayed close to Stranger but her thoughts wandered and paused on other things, her mind turning them over gently as she examined them. She withdrew into herself and failed to take any more notice of the country around her. The ridge had brought back painful memories Bailey would have preferred to forget, but as things were, that didn’t look too hopeful. So she went into a depressive silence, thinking about nothing in particular.
The sun was going down when the Steef stopped again, this time they stood on the ridge of a high cliff, below them was a broad vale, one that looked very familiar to Bailey, she peered over the edge.
“Must’ve been where I ‘dropped in’ fer a visit…” she thought dryly. Slowly, one by one and following Ixion, the Steef filed down a steep and narrow defile, invisible to unseasoned eyes, that led down the seemingly sheer cliff face and into the vale. Bailey kept close behind Stranger and hugged the canyon wall, eyes firmly fixed on Stranger’s hindquarters.
“Don’t look down, don’t look down, don’t…” she repeated the mantra in her head, fighting down fear. She risked a glance away from the furry flank in front and her eyes were drawn irresistibly to the drop on her right. She gulped and made a choked whimpering sound,
“Too late.” As vertigo hit her smack in the face and she swayed. With a muffled noise that sounded like ‘meep’, Bailey froze; eyes huge and round. Behind her Haigar stopped too;
“Bailey?” he asked, “Are you alright.” Bailey whimpered and shivered. Haigar laid a hand on the human’s shaking shoulder, “Alright Bailey,” He said soothingly, “I want you to listen to my voice. Look straight ahead and just walk. I’m right behind you so you won’t fall. D’you understand?” There was a pause and then Bailey nodded very slowly. “Good.” Haigar smiled in relief, “Ok, now you can start walking.”
There was another pause and then Bailey set off again. She stayed close to the wall and with Haigar’s encouragements she eventually got to the bottom of the defile and to the valley floor without anything happening. She breathed a sigh of relief, grinned weakly at Haigar of swore blind she was never going to use that path ever again, much to the amusement of her Steef family.