But animals came and went all the time here, Rigg could see. One in particular had been in and out of this grove several times in the past few hours. He recognized its path.
“We have a friend here,” said Rigg.
T
he others looked around, startled.
“Our feathered friend,” said Rigg. “The beast that led us into the past and through the Wall.”
“I thought he went crazy when we popped back into the present and the Wall came back,” said Loaf.
“He’s not in the Wall anymore. He came here. He’s been going up to the trees. Tree to tree.”
“He didn’t look like a climber to me,” said Loaf.
“Or a bark-eater,” said Umbo.
“We wouldn’t know what he looked like,” said Olivenko. “There aren’t any like him in the modern world.”
“He can’t have gotten far,” said Rigg. “He was here not half an hour ago.”
“You know we only have that Vadesh’s word that the water’s not safe,” said Olivenko.
“He can’t lie,” said Umbo.
“And who told us that he can’t?” asked Olivenko. “‘Hi, I can’t possibly lie to you.’ Isn’t that the first thing a liar would say?”
“He’s just like Father,” said Rigg, “and Father never lied to me.”
“He didn’t exactly open up and bare his soul to you, either,” said Loaf.
“He didn’t tell you about me,” said Param.
Rigg started to answer. “He did when he was . . .” But then he realized that Father hadn’t been dying, he had just been hiding behind a fallen tree, pretending to be trapped under it. Lying to Rigg.
Rigg covered his eyes with one hand. “I still live in the world he built around me. All his teachings and talk, and I don’t know what’s true and what isn’t.”
“Welcome to adult life,” said Loaf.
“I’m not an adult,” said Rigg.
“Really?” said Umbo. “Well, I think when you’re in charge of yourself, you’re an adult.”
“Oh, right,” scoffed Loaf.
“Plenty of full-size grownups don’t do half as well as me and Rigg, thanks,” said Umbo.
Again Rigg wanted to know what Umbo had found. What he had in his pocket.
They heard a snorting noise from three rods away. Quietly they spread out to surround it. Rigg looked at Umbo and rolled his eyes. None of the others knew how to walk stealthily. Not that they had to. The beast was making so much noise it couldn’t have heard them.
It was indeed the beast with the barbed feathers, and it was hitting the side of its head against a tree, then scraping the same area on the bark. As Rigg got closer, he could see that he had mud on that side of his head.
Not mud. The thing that looked like mud was actually another creature in its own right. Now that he knew what to look for, he could see its tiny faint path moving through the air right along with the barbfeather’s path the whole time it had been in the woods.
Loaf and Umbo, who had both dealt with animals, were much closer to it now; Olivenko and Param were hanging back. They were city people.
“Don’t get too close,” said Rigg.