had indeed failed to comprehend what Taric had been saying as she remembered a favorite memory of her grandmother while absently rubbing the soft hide up and down her legs.
“What’s a ranch?” Taric repeated a little louder than before without yelling.
“Wha-what?” she stammered, suddenly drawn out of her melancholy by his unexpected question.
“What’s a ranch?” Taric repeated. “Is it a place in one of your cities?”
“No, no, a ranch would not be in a city,” she answered as she finished drying herself off and began to dress, much to the chagrin of Taric as he watched and listened.
“Cities back home were once a sprawling mass of humanity. But now, because of the war, they have become ugly, nightmarish places. When we left the Earth, most major cities have been destroyed and are littered with the rubble of war. My world is drowning in human blood and there’s nothing that can be done to stop it.
“My parents surrendered all our wealth to pay for our passage to a new world. We were fortunate to escape the insanity and horror on Earth. Our starship was the sixth to launch in six years, ten ships were scheduled each a year apart, but the insane wars raging on the planet were getting worse, and I fear the seventh ship may not have launched. The Earth could be a dead world for all I know; I have no idea how long I was asleep before being thrust into a pod and awakening in your cave.
“Anyway, we expected to awaken from our journey a hundred and thirty-seven years later orbiting a world with an outpost on the surface already established. We were planning on being pioneers like in the days of the old West of ancient Earth. We were going to travel across the land just like they did in covered wagons pulled by oxen. We would have all the equipment and livestock we required to search out a place to call home and build a new life for ourselves. At least that was the plan,” Jennifer explained, continuing on with her conversation as she walked up the river’s bank.
“I did not expect to end up on a world like yours. There’s so much for me to learn and adjust to in order to survive here on this land. I’m a stranger in this world, Taric. I can’t hide it. I have pale white skin and red hair, while your skin is a natural copper-bronze color. The only physical trait we have in common is our green eyes. Other than that, I’ll stand out wherever I travel. I don’t know how your people will react when they first see me? Taric, with you I feel accepted, protected, and loved.
“However, people react differently to strangers, and sometimes it creates unpredictable situations, and that little unknown fact haunts my sleep,” Jennifer explained worriedly, letting Taric hear her inner turmoil and worries. “I’m too different. I might not be accepted when we eventually encounter other people.”
“Jennifer, no harm will come to you. Lay your uncertainty to rest, there is nothing to fear from my people.” Taric assured her as he stood up with his clothes clutched in his hands and began to dress.
Jennifer nodded in understanding, held her tongue, and kept her misgivings to herself. Taric was biased and had initially believed she was an ancestor come back to the land, a spirit granted another chance at life. It was only after he got to know her and the truth of her origins, did he finally accept her as a person and not an ancestor.
“Let me show you how well I can shoot,” Jennifer said with a smile, changing the subject of their conversation as she walked up to Taric and a busy Jaxx running around their legs eager to be off on an adventure with her pack.
“But what’s a ranch?”
“A ranch? I told you, didn’t I?”
“No. You didn’t say anything about a ranch,” Taric laughingly answered then added with a big grin on his face. “I don’t know why.”
Jennifer chuckled and then whispered to herself, “God, I’m turning into my grandmother.”
“A ranch, yes,” Jennifer repeated, giving herself time to get over her case of the prattles, as her grandmother often said. “If you stand in front of our cave and look at the plain below us as a reference point. Imagine a herd of large meaty animals living in the open with no predators around to hunt them. One such animal is what we call a cow. We’ve bred them over countless generations, they’ve become docile and easily led because they’re so dependent on humans for their food and welfare.
What you see below us is our ranch, except here, some of the animals still see us as food. Satisfied?” she asked, flashing him a radiant smile as she placed her hand in his.
They left the rock hand in hand as Jaxx playfully romped ahead a short distance before turning back around to join them as they strolled lazily toward the cave. Jennifer stopped at the crest of the long depression of soil scarred by the escape pods passage. Every day as she and Taric crossed the trench, she never once glanced at the pod, but today she stopped and stood in thoughtful silence staring down the length of the trench at the pod.
Jennifer then came to a decision. Before her life in this world with Taric can begin, she had to forever lock away her other life deep down in her heart. Everyone she knew or loved was forever lost. Fate had decreed she take a different path on her journey of life, and she had no choice but to accept it.
Jennifer turned toward Taric, who followed her gaze down to the end of the trench with his eyes. “What is troubling you?” he asked.
“I have to bury Peter’s remains. I can’t leave him like that,” she said quietly, knowing she’ll never forgive herself for Peter’s death. She allowed her fear to take control of her senses and it cost Peter his life. She had to lay his bones in a proper grave; she owed him that much.
“I will help with whatever you wish,” Taric assured her with a gentle squeeze of his hand. They approached the pod in respectful silence, except for Jaxx’s playful yelps, busily scouring the area with her sensitive snout for small rodents.
“I’ll climb inside and hand the bones out to you.” Thinking it would be less emotional for Jennifer if he did the task, Taric suggested but was stopped by her fingers softly resting on his lips.
“Thank you for offering to help. But this is something I have to do,” she said sadly, slowly withdrawing her hand from his lips as tears began streaming from her eyes and on down her face.
With a heart beating wildly within her chest and a damp drying hide clutched tightly in her hand, Jennifer approached the opening and climbed inside the pod. Other than sunlight streaming in from outside, the only other source was from a small pulsing dim blue light still drawing power from the pod’s energy pack. Jennifer was unaware the light indicated an active emergency beacon.
Looking around the interior, Jennifer took in the full extent of carnage done by the scavengers and immediately realized her brother’s skull was not among the scattered remains. From outside, Taric heard a remorseful guttural cry break from Jennifer’s soul as her quivering lips cried out. “Oh, Peter! Please forgive me!” she cried to his spirit with a hope he would hear her pleas. Her hands shook as she began placing the few remains one by one onto the leather hide. She was careful not to damage the gnawed bones more than they were. It made her sick to her stomach imagining Peter’s body being devoured by scavengers, one gut-wrenching bite at a time. Tears flowed down her cheeks as she placed the bones on the hide until certain she had them all. She folded the hide over the small pile and lifted the bundle out of the open hatch for Taric to grab.
Before climbing out, Jennifer searched the pod’s interior, hoping it contained some emergency medical supplies, thinking some clean bandages and antibacterial ointments could come in handy. She found a small appropriately labeled panel roughly a foot square and opened the tiny compartments latch. Inside she found a med kit as expected but also found a clear plastic box containing a fishing kit and a steel knife with an eight-inch blade. The shaft was bound in leather with the blade safely inside a thick leather sheath that could be tied to her waist. She also found a few days’ worth of synthetic food packets, which were high in energy but low in taste. Jennifer decided to leave the food packets in the pod and opened them for the scavengers to dispose of.
The