A Fire Within

Part 4

Chapter 26

Nima felt fresh air encircle her. It seemed to revive her somewhat from her weakened state. Then it was bright again, and her eyes hurt. She stirred, feeling so tired and sore, hungry and faint, and saw the strangest creature she'd ever seen. Its wet nose was right in her face, it licked her. She lifted an arm to ward it off. She did not want to be eaten by this thing that looked like a strange bear.

Then she saw a larger figure standing over her, a man wrapped in many layers of clothing like the steam dwellers.

"Steam dweller?" she muttered, then darkness overtook her.

When she woke again she had a terrible headache. It was so noisy with seals barking. But it was comforting to be home. She had that uncomfortable feeling of being in the engine room. That sticky muggy feeling, like the air was too wet and it pinched at her skin. It made her thirsty. Why had they put her there?

She sat up and stared around her. It wasn't the engine room.

She was in some kind of strange, unstable room that shook with the wind. There were people there, like the one she had seen before, but she could see now that these weren't steam dwellers, they were . . . something else. The room had boxes and strange weapons and steady fire behind glass, like they had caged it and taught it to behave.

All the people stared at her, someone tried to talk to her but it was all jumbled, she couldn't understand it. A man held out a cup of dark, steaming liquid. Nima thought she might die any moment from the uncomfortableness of the place. She couldn't think. She backed away from the man and his steaming cup, knocking over some of the strange equipment.

They were all calling out to her, waving their hands, encircling her. She had to get out of this place.

Then a flap opened and she saw snow and bolted through the opening into the bright sunlight. There were more of the flimsy shelters around, she felt dizzy and stuck between them all and the ropes that were holding them up. She ran away from them and came face to face with more of those creatures, the barking beasts with pointed faces and skinny legs. She screamed, running away from them toward the water of the coast.

The snow was deep and she was so tired. She struggled, then collapsed quickly. Someone lifted her, a hand touched her face.

"She's burning up, it must be a fever," said a man. "She needs liquid."

"Yes," she said. "Water."

"She just spoke! Bring more of that tea! Hold on, we'll get you back inside."

"No," she said, pointing to the snow. "Here."

The man took off his coat--he had another one underneath--and set it on the snow and helped Nima sit on it. He said something to her, but now they weren't touching and Nima couldn't understand him. She was starting to understand. She would need to use the negotiation ceremony to talk to these people.

A woman brought a small cup of the dark water and handed it to her. She said something, but once again Nima couldn't understand. She took a sip of the liquid. It was firewater, and flavored so strongly. She didn't recognize the tastes, but her tongue seemed overwhelmed. It was sweet and bitter to a level she had never experienced before. She set it down in the snow, instead scooping the snow and melting it in her hands to sip.

The people spoke as she sat there and soon they offered her another cup, this one clear. She sniffed it. It was firewater, but without anything else in it. She added snow to it to calm the fire and soon it was drinkable. She kept sipping it and adding snow.