Chapter 17 Robbie
ROBBIE
Every time I thought I had a handle on this world and their civilization, something else surprised me.
Given the medieval feel of the village, them having scrolls did not surprise me, not much anyway.
But books? Perfectly bound, honest to god printed by some kind of press, books?
Yeah, okay, that totally did. I mean, come on! Holy Gutenberg, Batman!
The book he’d obviously purchased and gifted to me was most definitely some kind of book for kids.
It had pictures with words under them, after a two page spread of what must be their version of an alphabet.
At least that's what I both hoped and feared it was.
Hoped because if I could learn it, I could learn the names of the things in that book and really dig into being able to speak with Gree-Gree and even others.
Feared because, yikes, there were way more than twenty-six.
Easily double that, in fact, and they looked pretty complicated, unlike the Western alphabet and more like a cross between Japanese kanji and Korean Hangul.
It was definitely going to take me a long while to get through those first two pages.
“Gree-Gree!” a voice boomed out.
Gree-Gree stopped in his tracks, pulling me towards him, tucking me in against his side as if protecting me from a threat.
A male even larger than Gree-Gree hurried over.
He seemed almost familiar. Had I met him that first day?
It was all hazy in my mind, everything from the moment we first arrived at the cave entrance onwards a blur except for Gree–Gree and the doctor and Gree-Gree’s house and falling asleep after that tasteless broth.
Gree-Gree and the newcomer spoke in urgent tones to each other. Other than pulling me against him, he wasn’t showing a defensive posture. Oh! Not to defend me, I realized. More like staking his territory. I leaned into him, sliding my arm around his waist.
Gree-Gree glanced down at me in surprise, a soft smile tugging his lips, before returning to his conversation with the other male, who looked at us speculatively. He tilted his head, eyes narrowed, then uttered something that sounded like a question.
Gree-Gree gave him a curt nod, then rattled off a bunch of words really fast.The other male, pursed his lips, then grinned, clapping Gree-Gree on his other shoulder before saying something else.
Gree-Gree relaxed and nodded again, but before he could say anything else, the other male’s expression sobered and he said something else before departing.
Gree-Gree sighed and placed a free hand at the small of my back, urging me to go wherever it was he was leading me now.
I was hopelessly lost now anyway, with no idea how to get back to what I now thought of as our house.
This wasn’t a small village by any means - it was much larger than I would have thought possible.
Just how large was this mountain and how did such large hollows form within?
Had someone made them? My mind reeled with all the questions I longed to ask but no way to get them across.
We came to a stop and I blinked as my memory suddenly decided to play ball, telling me this was the clinic I was first brought to.
Gree-Gree opened the door and led me inside.
Why was I here? Did that guy order him to bring me in for a check up or something?
I felt absolutely fine. A bit hazy about the events after having walked in all that snow and all, but as just now proved, it was all in there.
It just needed a reason to come on out. Besides, I remembered all the important stuff, which was all that mattered.
Right? Most definitely, I reassured myself.
“Gree-Gree! Morhat narg hiltu,” the doc who’d treated me said, turning to greet us.
“Kargit Grishk naralharg,” Gree-Gree replied.
The doc smiled and made a beckoning gesture for us to follow him into a back room. I’d expected another examination room, but found a small ward instead with beds filled with some very familiar faces.
“Oh my God!” Beth shouted. “He made it! We thought you’d died!”
“Fuckin’ a, man, it’s great to see you. How come they’re not keeping you here?” Patrick exclaimed, staring at me in surprise.
I shrugged. “I guess I was in better shape than you guys? I have no idea.”
Carol giggled. “Or maybe we’re still here because the big guy over there, who’s guarding Beth, won’t let them discharge her yet, and if we go, she has to as well.” I glanced back over at Beth, to the large male hovering by the side of her bed.
“Hush,” Beth chided, blushing. “Hoe-rash has been nothing but a sweetie pie, and you know it.” She giggled as he moved closer, hearing his name.
“Be-thuh?” he asked, his tone gentle. She patted his arm gently. “I’m okay, big guy.” She glared at her friend. “See? A total pussy cat.”
Sam snorted. “A pussy cat with a hard on for you.”
Patrick frowned. “Do you know if they’re going to let us go? Do they have ships so they can take us back home?”
“Um. Didn’t you see the cave entrance?” I asked, feeling awkward.”They all live in a giant cave. Well, a set of them really.”
“CAVE?!” they all chorused loudly. I winced, and Hoe-rash, the doc, and a couple of nurses or junior docs or whatever, all hurried to find out what was the matter.
“Not so loud!” I chided them. “And yes, cave. Um, this is a pretty good sized village, but it’s inside a cave, which…well, fuck…how is it lit so brightly? Inside, they use lanterns, but I didn’t see anything like that anywhere.”
“So, probably some means of artificial light, and they live inside the mountain for protection against all that snow,” Gary suggested.
“We were kinda knocked out,” Sam explained. “One of our kidnappers survived, found us right after you left, and zapped us. We woke up here with raging headaches.”
”And Carol barfed,” Beth added.
”Yeah, boy did I ever. That’s probably why they kept us here, in case I had a bug or something.”
Patrick looked at me challengingly. “And what about you?”
“Okay, well, I picked a direction and started walking, and then this big guy here was there and wrapped me up in his fur cloak and brought me here. The uh, doc, looked me over and sent me home with him, and after some charades, I got him to understand you guys were back there, and he told someone else, and then after some more charades, he let me know he told his friend and a bunch of their guys were going out to look for you. I had no idea until now that they’d found you and brought you back already.
I am so happy to see they did!” I teared up, feeling overcome with emotion.
We’d only known each other for a very short time, but that sort of situation bonds you together pretty quickly, imprinting itself on you.
Carol began crying. “I’m so glad you did! They must have got the bastard after he knocked us out, and this is so much better than another cell, being taken gods knows where!”
“So, you’re really free?” Fred asked, glancing at Gree-Gree’s hand on my back as he listened to me speak with my former shipmates. ”Yup, though, um, don’t be grossed out, okay? But I think he’s into me and I’m, um, really into him too.”
“Whatever, man,” Fred sighed, leaning back onto his bed.
I felt a pang of guilt, remembering what he’d gone through.
“He’s not forced me to have sex with him or anything,” I burst out, wanting Fred to feel as safe as I did.
Fred sat bolt upright. “Is that what you think they did to me?” he demanded.
”God, no! But they, um, made me walk around naked and eat off the floor and dance while they swung those shock sticks at me.
And caged my cock. They thought that was the funniest thing, and I’m pretty sure they were feeding me something like Viagra because I kept needing to get hard and couldn’t.
Oh, and this one guy insisted I lick his boots. ” We all stared at him, stunned.
“That’s terrible,” I said.
”Yeah, well, they were bullies, but we’re here safe and warm, and they aren’t. “
“They’re probably all dead,” Gary agreed. “I thought I was dreaming about us being pulled on a sled, and another one with bits of the ship and some of their bodies on it. I must have woken up for a few minutes before passing out again.”
“Be-thuh,” Hoe-rash said again, his hand coming up to her face to gently wipe a tear from her cheek. “Pugrahga no lemesh.”
She covered his hand with hers and sniffled. ”I’m okay. Just hurts to hear what they did to Pat. I hope they are all dead. They deserved to die for hurting him and stealing us and whatever else bad stuff they’d been doing.”
Gree-Gree gave my hand a tug and tilted his head to indicate it was time for us to go. “Um, guess visiting hours are over. I’ll try to come back and see you guys again tomorrow, okay?”
“If they haven’t found somewhere else to put us,” Gary smiled back.
“If they do, it’ll be somewhere nice. They aren’t bad people,” I reassured him, waving good-bye and turning to follow Gree-Gree out the door.