They compromised on many things. The most trouble was caused by Robin's exploration of the cavern. They had the same argument countless times, in almost the same words, and neither of them really minded it. Boredom had become intense, they had talked out every subject they held in common, and even disagreement became a welcome diversion.
"I don't like it when you go out there alone," Chris said for what might have been the twentieth time. "I've read a little about caving, and it's just not something you do, like swimming in deep water by yourself."
"But you can't come with me. Valiha needs you to stay here."
"I'm sorry," Valiha said.
Robin touched the Titanide's hand, assuring her she didn't blame her and apologizing for bringing up the touchy subject. When Valiha had been soothed, she went on.
"Somebody has to go out. We'll all starve if I don't." What she said was true, and Chris knew it. There were animals other than glowbirds living in the cavern, and they, too, lacked both fear and aggression. They were easy to approach and easy to kill, but not so easy to find. Robin had discovered three species so far, each about the mass of a large cat, slow as turtles, all without hair or teeth. What they did with their lives was anyone's guess, but Robin always found them lying immobile near conical gray masses of a warm, rubbery substance that might have been a sessile animal or a plant but that was firmly rooted and almost certainly alive. She called the rubbery masses teats because they bore a resemblance to the udders of a cow, and the three sorts of animals cucumbers, lettuce, and shrimp. It was not for the tastes-they all tasted more or less like beef-but after the three Terran organisms they mimicked. She had walked by the cucumbers for weeks before she accidentally kicked one and it opened big, mooning eyes at her.
"We're doing all right," Chris said. "I don't see why you think you have to go out more often than you already are." But he knew it was not true even as he said it. They had some meat, it was true, but hardly enough for Valiha's huge appetite.
"We can always use more," Robin argued, indicating with her eyes that they would not talk about what they both were thinking while Valiha was present. They had discussed her pregnancy and mentioned some of their fears to her, to find out she shared them and was worried she was not getting enough food, or enough of the right diet, for proper development of her child. "Those things are hard to find," Robin went on. "I'd almost like it better if they ran from me. As it is, I can walk within a meter of one and never see it."
The discussion went on and on, and nothing was changed when it was over. Robin went out every other day, half as much as she wanted to and a thousand times more often than Chris liked. Every moment she was gone he saw her lying broken at the bottom of a pit, unconscious, unable to shout for help, or too far away to be heard. Every moment she was in camp she squirmed, paced, shouted at them, apologized, shouted some more. She accused him of acting like her mother, treating her like a child, and he retorted that she was acting like a child, and a wild, willful one at that, and each knew both allegations were true, and neither could do anything about it. Robin ached to strike out for help but could not so long as they needed her to hunt, and Chris wanted to go nearly as badly but could not say so for Valiha's sake, so they both seethed and fought, and there seemed to be no solution to the problem until the day Robin angrily plunged her knife into one of the gray teats and was rewarded with a faceful of sticky white liquid.
"It is the milk of Gaea," Valiha said happily and immediately drained the waterskin Robin had filled. "I had not expected to find it so deep. In my homeland it flows two to ten meters below the ground."
"What do you mean, the milk of Gaea?" Chris asked.
"I don't know how to explain further. It is simply that: Gaea's milk. And it means my worries are over. My son will grow strong on this. Gaea's milk contains everything needed for survival."
"What about us?" Robin asked. "Can pe ... can humans drink it, too?"
"Humans thrive on it. It is the universal nutrient."
"What's it taste like, Robin?" Chris asked.
"I don't know. You didn't think I'd just drink it, did you?"
"The humans I know who have tried it say it has a bitter flavor," Valiha said. "I myself find some of that but believe its quality varies from one rev to the next. When Gaea is pleased, it becomes sweeter. In times of Gaea's anger, the milk thickens and cloys but is still nourishing."
"How would you say she's feeling now?" Robin asked.
Valiha upended the skin again, letting the last drops fall into her mouth. She tilted her head thoughtfully.
"Worried, I would say."
Robin laughed. "What would Gaea have to worry about?"
"Cirocco."
"What do you mean?"
"What I said. If the Wizard still lives, and if we live to tell her of Gaby's last moments and her last words, Gaea will tremble."
Robin looked dubious, and Chris privately agreed with her. He did not see how Cirocco could ever present a threat to Gaea.
But the significance of her discovery had not been lost on Robin.
"Now I can go get help," she said, beginning an argument that would last for three days and that Chris knew from the start he was certain to lose.
"The rope. Are you sure you have enough rope?"
"How can I know how much is enough?"
"What about matches? Did you get the matches?"
"I have them right here." Robin patted the pocket of her coat, tied to the top of the pack they had improvised from one of Valiha's saddlebags. "Chris, stop it. We've been over the supplies a dozen times."
Chris knew she was right, knew that his last-minute fussing was simply to delay her departure. It had been four days since his final capitulation.
They had located the nearest of Gaea's teats and laboriously moved Valiha. Though it was only 300 meters from the old camp in a straight line, that line had crossed two steep ravines. They had taken her half a kilometer north to find passable land, then a kilometer south, then back again.
"You have the waterskin?"
"Right here." She slung it over her shoulder and reached for her pack. "I have everything, Chris."
He helped her get it settled on her back. She looked so small when it was in place. She was weighted down with gear and reminded him with an irresistible protective tug of a toddler dressed to go out and play in the snow. He loved her at that moment and wanted to take care of her. That was exactly what he could not do, what she did not want him to do, so he turned away before she could see the look on his face. He did not want to get the argument started again.
But he could not keep his mouth shut.
"You'll remember to mark the trail."
Wordlessly she held up the small pick, then slipped it back into a belt loop. It was a wonderful belt, fashioned from cured cucumber hide by Valiha's skilled hands. The plan was that when Valiha got well enough to move with crutches, she and Chris would follow the trail Robin had blazed. Chris did not like to think about it, for if Robin had not made it out and returned with help long before that, it would be because calamity had befallen her.