Ireta 02 - [Dinosaur Planet 02] - Dinosaur Planet Survivors Read Free Page A

floor, “are enough to feed us for weeks if that’s all we want.”
    Before Kai could stop her, Varian took a running start and, holding tightly to the vine, swung out beyond the cave mouth.
    “Wheeeee!”
    “Varian!” Kai rushed forward, catching her on the swing back, holding tightly to her hips. He’d a moment’s horrific vision of the vine’s parting, dropping her into the sea, meters below, to certain death.
    “Sorry, Kai,” she said in a tone that wasn’t apologetic. “I couldn’t resist the urge. Used to do a lot of vine-swinging as a kid on Fomalhaut.” Then she relented as she realized her exuberance had scared him. “Irresponsible behavior when I’m not quite fit but—” and she grinned at him mischievously “—there’s something about contact with a Thek which makes me behave . . .”
    “Childish?” Kai’s panic had subsided, and he realized that he, too, had overreacted.
    “Yes, childish. Say, have you ever seen a Thek child, young, cub, pup, fledgling . . . or maybe you’d call it a pebble?”
    Varian’s laughter was contagious at any time and, despite his frustrations and worries, Kai laughed too, hugging her to him in wordless appreciation of her ability to find any amusement in their circumstances.
    “There! That’s better, Kai,” she said, rubbing her nose against his. “I equate Thek with gloom and doom.” Abruptly she released herself and grabbed a vine. “You know, there’s something odd about such vines’ growing on a giff’s cliff. You don’t suppose our presence here . . .”
    In another abrupt movement, Varian held onto the vine and leaned out of the cave mouth, peering up at the sky and to her right.
    “No, there’s still giffs above us,” she said, swinging in again. She allowed the momentum of the vine to carry her back out, looking to the left this time. “But this is the only cliff covered in vines. I’m sure it was barren rock when we wedged the shuttle in here.” She made a third excursion, grinning as she released the vine on its inward sway, and landed back at his side. “A fruit-bearing vine, too.” She reached down to her boot and whistled in shrill triumph, removing the slim blade lodged there. “Too frail, like us, to pierce a heavyworlder’s hide, but, praise Krim, they left ’em for us. I’m going to cut us juicy, fresh fruit for breakfast. Or whatever meal it is.”
    Before Kai could protest, she had put the knife between her teeth and was pulling herself up a vine, out of sight. He was testing the strength of another thick tendril when her cheerful voice advised him to look up. Instinctively he caught the object launched at him.
    “Here comes another. And it’s dead ripe so don’t squeeze hard.”
    “Varian—” His fingers did exert too much pressure on the melon and the succulent sweet odor made his mouth water.
    “I could eat these all by myself, Kai, so here’s another one for you.” Varian dropped to the cave floor.
    “We shouldn’t eat too much at first,” Kai said. He sank down beside her as she sliced a segment off and offered it to him on her knife point.
    “Quite likely,” she said, slicing a second piece, for herself. She murmured with delight as she bit the soft green fruit. “Go ahead. Eat!” she urged, juice dribbling from the corners of her mouth.
    “The things I do for the EEC,” Kai said, pretending horror at having to eat unprocessed food. As the first sweetness dissolved in his dry mouth, Kai was willing to admit, privately, that natural food was undeniably juicier than processed.
    They both ate slowly, chewing thoroughly.
    “I suspect root vegetables would have been wiser in terms of protein content, but fruit sugar raises blood levels,” Varian remarked thoughtfully. “Oh, but this is good. What I don’t understand,” she went on gesturing with her half-eaten slice, “is how those vines grew here. Granted,” and she raised the slice to forestall Kai, “we don’t know how long we’ve