Ralph sighed. "Well, I was about to, but I think you helped a girl in some manner when you saved some of the pronghorn-kin, right?" Ralph asked and Beth nodded. "Well, that girl and her mother stopped me. I asked and they told me that it was a mark of honor. So, I got the impression that if you want to clean it off, then you should do that yourself because I don't think they would be happy if someone else did it."
"Where the hell did they get that idea?" Amelia snapped, her eyes large with disbelief.
"I think it has to do with their culture. I can't say anything else, because I really don't know anything about that," Ralph answered.
"Well, I don't care if they don't like it or not, I'm cleaning it off," Amelia snapped, taking her pack off and rummaging around in it, taking out a light blue washcloth and a bottle of water.
"Maybe you should keep yours, Beth," Tim suggested. "I mean, we don't know that much about this 'mark of honor' and what it means. So, if you'd be willing to suffer through keeping that dried blood on you, maybe that could help us out."
Beth sighed, partly annoyed that Amelia beat her to cleaning her 'mark of honor' off before her. However, it wasn't the worst feeling. The worst she could think of would be when she'd been out in the heat of the day and gotten so sweaty that her sweat felt like ooze when she went to take a shower. Right now, the blood was dried, and it was almost like she'd fallen asleep after getting some mud on her hair and face, but now it was dry and ready to flake off.
However, she started to wonder if she'd be able to use Ralph as a translator so she could talk with the girl and her mother. Maybe she could figure out what this 'mark of honor' was about and if it only lasted while she had the blood on her or not.
"Well, let's hope that things go well for us today," Hannah commented.
"Yeah, it would suck if each world had something like this happen to it," Wes said as he joined the group.
"Where've you been?" Tim asked.
"Oh, I was just held that way," Wes answered, pointing towards the rise that led to where the deer-kin camp was. "They did something to my ankle so now it hardly hurts."
"That's good to hear," Ralph said.
"So, should we go over what we just talked about so Wes knows what we discussed or just catch him up later?" Beth asked.
"You can catch me up later. Not sure how much longer before the pronghorn-kin are ready to leave," Wes said before anyone else had a chance to say anything.
"So, where were we when Wes came in?" Hannah asked.
"I'm certainly not sure about what we were talking about before, but I think we should talk about what to do with getting ready to go ourselves and what to do to get the pronghorn-kin to let us direct them," Beth said. "I don't know if this 'mark of honor' or whatever will help us with that, but I'm not willing to let all our hopes go with that. I mean, it's be like putting all our eggs in one basket. I think we should see what we can find out about what we can about the pronghorn-kin."
"Yeah, but I'm the only one who can understand them and have them understand me," Ralph commented. "And I can't talk to everyone here, especially before we head out."
"Well, that's just one thing we should be doing. Another is to be treating anyone who's hurt. Amelia and I can work on that, I've already shown some of them that I can do that, and we all know that Amelia is better than any of us," Beth continued.
"What if Hannah joins me at the front to keep an eye out for any dangers," Tim suggested.
"What do you have in mind for that?" Wes asked.
"Well, I can ride a raptor, and maybe one more of us could join me, and we'll keep an eye out for any dangers, including any ambushes that we can see," Tim explained.
"I'll join you with that," Hannah volunteered.
"What should I do?" Wes asked.
"What if you help Ralph out?" Amelia suggested.
"Hey, I don't need help," Ralph protested.
"Well, the rest of us are in a group of two," Beth remarked. "So, why not let Wes accompany you?"
"I pwomise I won't get in in yo' way," Wes said, clearly doing his best to sound like a little kid, making Beth roll her eyes.
Ralph sighed. "Fine. I won't object," he said, looking like he would rather continue to object.
"So, how should we do this?" Wes asked.
"Well, first, I think I'd rather have some breakfast," Hannah remarked.
"What do you have in mind?" Beth asked.
"What do we have?" Hannah asked, as she started rummaging through her pack. "I mean, I'd rather not have just another granola bar for breakfast."
"True, but I'm not sure what else we have to work with here," Tim said. "Has anyone actually looked through what's in their pack?"
Beth shook her head. "No, I actually think we've been too busy to try and help the pronghorn-kin since we encountered them, so I don't think any of us have looked at what Heathcliff's people really packed in them," Beth commented.
"What if we see what the pronghorn-kin are making?" Ralph suggested. "That way we can see what we have later as well as not using up what food we do have."
"Not a bad idea, but will they share with us?" Amelia asked. "We can't say how much food they have for even themselves."
"Actually, they took a bunch of food from the deer-kin, who I got the feeling had taken it from the pronghorn-kin's village," Wes said. "I twisted my ankle when I turned while carrying couple boxes I think weighed about fifty pounds each."
"You can carry a hundred pounds?" Hannah asked surprise evident in her voice, mirroring Beth's own surprise.
"Well, I don't know," Wes answered, looking a little sheepish. "I just know it felt like fifty pounds per box. And I was carrying three, not two."
"Well, if you say a couple, then that means two. A few means three," Hannah remarked. "I'm pretty sure we've gone over this before."
"Yeah, and I still disagree with your opinion on that," Wes returned, his smirk making it clear that he felt he somehow had the upper hand in that exchange.
"Anyway," Beth interjected, "how about Ralph and I see if they have anything for us to eat. If it looks like some of them would have to go hungry in order for us to eat, we'll see what we have in our packs."
"Careful," Tim cautioned. "If they're really that grateful to us for helping them, they might not let us decline."
"I'm sure Ralph will be able to come up with something in that case," Beth answered.
"I'm better with pranks rather than diplomacy," Ralph protested. "I might not be able to figure out how."
"If that's the case, we can leave them some of our food," Amelia said. "I'm sure we'd have to resupply at some point anyway."
"Maybe, but we should still try to avoid that when we can," Beth replied.
"Well, if we debate this much longer, it's not going to matter," Tim remarked. "I have the feeling they'll be ready to move out once the sun is fully up."
Ralph sighed. "Fine, I'll head out now," Ralph said, starting to walk away, though Beth was sure it was a random direction, since there wasn't any clear place that she could see where anyone who would be in charge would be.
However, even though she doubted they were going anywhere specific right away, she followed Ralph, so she wouldn't get left behind.
"Any idea where we would find someone in charge to ask?" Beth asked.
Unsurprisingly, Ralph shrugged. "Not really. Mostly I thought if I walk around long enough, I'm sure I'll overhear something that will let me know what I'd nned to do," he said casually.
Beth sighed. While she wasn't surprised, she really had been hoping to be surprised. After all, even if you don't expect something nice, it's still a good feeling when you get something nice unexpectedly.
As they were walking, suddenly a little girl ran up to Beth and started talking. Beth had no idea what she was saying, but stopped anyway, and knelt down so she was eye level with the girl. Though, Beth could only smile helplessly as the girl babbled something Beth couldn't understand.
She didn't even turn to face Ralph as he began to chuckle. "She's saying that she's glad you're awake and going better," Ralph translated for her.
"That's all she's saying?" Beth asked.
"Nah, she's saying a lot more, but most of it isn't important. More along the lines of how her leg is doing, what she told her friends about knowing you, that kind of stuff."
Beth nodded absently. "I'm glad you're doing better," Beth said to the girl when the girl seemed to run out of things to say..
Ralph translated as Beth stood up. They were about to continue their search when the girl held up her arms, clearly wanting Beth to pick her up.
Sighing helplessly, Beth complied, a little surprised at how much the little girl weighed. She was used to kids that were the size of this girl being heavier. Instead, this girl felt a lot lighter. Maybe it was differences in physiology of their species, but Beth couldn't tell.
The girl however, wrapped an arm around Beth's neck and started pointing in the distance. Though, shen they started going where they had been heading, which was a different direction from where the girl was pointing, she began babbling something again.
Ralph sighed. "I guess she either wants us to go where she's indicating or someone sent her to find us and bring her to them," Ralph said. "I'm not sure which, but I don't think she'll give us any peace until we do."
Apparently the girl could understand Ralph, even when he wasn't talking to her, because she smiled and stopped talking. Beth shook her head in amusement. At the very least, this would help keep them from wandering around aimlessly.
They made their way through the camp, which Beth noticed was in the process of getting taken down, changing their direction when the girl indicated. Beth couldn't help but feel like she was carrying one of her little sisters as she let the girl direct them. It was such a familiar feeling that she almost felt like she was back home.
However, that sense was dispelled as they arrived at where it was the girl was directing them to. It was a tent whose flap was tied open and they could see that it had a number of men who were discussing something, some waving their arms for emphasis of what Beth assumed they were saying. Though, Beth noticed their heads seemed to be growing their horns. Or antlers. She could never be sure what pronghorn had. She never really cared about them enough to really look into it.
"She's saying that someone in that group wanted to talk with us or something," Ralph said.
"I thought you can understand their language?" Beth asked, a smirk on her face.
"Hey, I can understand their language perfectly. What I can't always understand is what a little kid is trying to tell me when they don't know what words to use to properly explain it," Ralph remarked, rubbing the girl's head. The girl giggled as Ralph tousled her hair.
"Well, we might as well see what they want," Beth said. "Though, at the very least, we should be able to ask them about food as well. I mean, this group of them look like they're the ones in charge."
"Yeah, but something tells me they were preparing us something to eat anyway," Ralph said. "Though, I'm not sure if we should call the others over here."
"Why would we need them over here?" Beth asked.
"Because if we get the food here, the others might not get any, but if they already have someone going to send them food, then we wouldn't need to have them come over," Ralph explained.
"Sounds a little bit of a roundabout explanation to me, but no matter," Beth remarked.
"Well, we might as well see what they wanted to talk with us about," Ralph said, stepping into the tent. "We're at least where those we were looking for are, at least."