If she let herself, Stephanie had to admit that if the visitor had been anyone but Anders, she would have felt a bit uncomfortable about making the offer herself.
But Anders seems to really be interested in treecats. Unlike the rest of them, he doesn’t have papers to publish or academic honors to win. His interest is pure.
Right-Striped was indeed doing much better. Stephanie felt her heart swell with pride for her dad as he carefully examined each of the treecat’s six paws, paying particular attention to the rear two pairs. Stephanie, Karl, and Anders had stayed back about ten meters, but Lionheart had gone ahead with her dad. Stephanie knew Lionheart was offering comfort and reassurance to the two visiting ’cats, although she also thought that by now this was more routine than necessary.
“How are they, Dad?” Stephanie asked.
“I’ll confirm my earlier assessment and say that I think these two are fully healed. They’ll be a bit pink about the pads for a while, but the new skin is good and strong.”
“So,” Anders asked, “will you be giving them a lift back to where you found them?”
Stephanie shook her head. “We talked about it, but there’s no real way to explain to them what we’re doing, so, unless they ask, we’ll let them do things their way.”
Dad had been packing up his gear while they were talking and now left the gazebo. “I’m heading in. Let me know if you go anywhere, okay?”
Stephanie nodded. “I don’t think we will for a while. As long as they’ll put up with us, we want to spend some time with the treecats.”
After Dad left, Lionheart reared up on his backmost pair of legs and signaled that the human visitors could come forward. Stephanie and Lionheart had worked out simple hand gestures for such situations within the first six T-months of their association. The signals were no more complicated than the commands that might be used in directing a herding dog-come on, stop, right, left, back up. The big difference was that in this case the “dog” used the gestures as often as did the “shepherd.”
Stephanie thought that the ease with which Lionheart and Fisher had picked up and used these gestures was proof of their intelligence, but the hard-heads kept making comparisons to how dogs, horses, and other “companion animals” could learn to respond to human commands.
The three advanced, slowing when Lionheart signaled, moving to the right so that the wind would be at their backs and give Right-Striped and Left-Striped ample opportunity to take their scents. At last, about three meters from the gazebo, Lionheart signaled for them to stop.
“That was cool!” Anders said. “I saw some of the videos that Dr. Hobbard sent my dad but it’s different to be up close and personal. Even if you-and Karl-hadn’t been here to tell me what to do, I think I could have understood what Lionheart wanted.”
Stephanie felt disproportionately pleased. She knew it was silly of her. Lionheart had worked out most of the signals himself, picking them up from her own body language, but somehow Anders’ praise felt better than anything any of the rangers or scientists had said.
They stayed in the gazebo visiting with the treecats for quite a long time. Stephanie had thought Anders might get bored. After all, it wasn’t like the three treecats were doing tricks or anything. They were just sitting watching the humans while the humans watched them. She suspected a lively conversation was going on between the ’cats, but if there was, no human would ever “hear” it.
After a while, Lionheart signaled that the humans should move on.
“I don’t blame them,” Karl said. “I mean, just how long would you want to be stared at?”
Stephanie suppressed a fleeting comment that if Anders was doing the staring, she could handle quite a bit of it.
Instead she said, “You guys want to go hiking? We could go back to the house and pack a picnic. I’m starved. Celery might be okay for the ’cats, but I want cake.”
For a moment, Stephanie thought Karl was going to decline her offer. She felt guilty that her heart actually leapt at the possibility of having Anders to herself.
But after he glanced at his uni-link, Karl said, “I’ve got lots of time. Are we going to skip target practice? This is one of our usual days.”
“We have a guest today,” Stephanie countered, aware her voice sounded a little sharp.
Anders saved the day. “No problem. I read about how Stephanie used her handgun to deal with the hexapuma that went after Bolgeo. I’ve never fired one. Maybe you could teach me, Karl. You were the one who taught Stephanie, right?”
Karl nodded. “Me and Frank Lethbridge. How about we have that picnic first? You haven’t seen how mean Stephanie gets when she misses a meal.”
Karl grinned at her and she had to fight an urge to stick out her tongue. That certainly wouldn’t impress Anders.
Karl went on. “After we eat and hike for a bit, then we could go to the shooting range we’ve set up here. That way Steph won’t skip her lessons. Dr. Marjorie says she’s gotten more and more undisciplined since she met Lionheart. She actually got an A-minus last term.”
“Hey!” Stephanie protested. “That was in advanced spatial calculus.”
The two boys laughed, but it wasn’t an unfriendly sound. Stephanie found herself coloring, but she didn’t feel bad at all.
Climbs Quickly understood the utility of the thunder barkers with which Death Fang’s Bane and Shadowed Sunlight regularly practiced, but that didn’t mean he had to like them. Not only were they loud-even with the sound-blockers Death Fang’s Bane carefully inserted into his ears-but they smelled bad.
Therefore, when there were signs that another such session was about to happen, Climbs Quickly absented himself and scampered over to the gazebo, where he found Left-Striped poking at Right-Striped’s feet.
‹ I tell you,› Right-Striped protested indignantly, ‹ my feet feel fine. I am not hiding anything from you.›
‹ Healer does seem to have done a very good job,› Left-Striped agreed.
Taking advantage of his brother’s relative helplessness, he tickled his fingers along where the new skin remained tender and uncalloused. Right-Striped wriggled free, snorting with laughter, then pounced on his twin. The two wrestled for a few minutes, then sat up and gave Climbs Quickly their full attention.
‹ I think you will be leaving soon, › Climbs Quickly said. He carefully hid his disappointment. He was very happy living with Death Fang’s Bane and her family, but he had very much enjoyed having other People nearby these last several days.
‹ Yes. We think the time has come, › Right-Striped agreed. ‹ My over-protective brother is finally convinced that I can walk on my own six feet again. It is a long journey, but with the supplies you have so kindly given us, we will be able to stay up in the trees and avoid the death fangs.›
‹ We are very grateful,› Left-Striped added.
Climbs Quickly knew that by the standards of the two-legs, the twins were departing with hardly anything. However, each had a carry-net in which was wrapped some light, nourishing food-including sun-dried meat. In addition, they each had a few long pieces of cluster stalk. Despite the drought, there was ample water in the direction in which they were headed.
‹ The Damp Ground clan needs us,› Left-Striped said. ‹ There is always so much to do when a clan relocates. With the recent fire cutting us off from one area of hunting, the more hunters and scouts, the better.›
Climbs Quickly could not disagree. Although he was sorry to see his new friends leave, he encouraged their intention, going with them for a ways, turning back only when he might otherwise be late for dinner. It wasn’t as if he couldn’t feed himself, or that Death Fang’s Bane didn’t know through their shared link that he was well, but he knew she would worry until he was back home.