I had just begun my death song when the pinkman saved me. At first, I thought the berkat in whose web I had fallen had gotten a fly caught in her throat and interrupted preparing for her meal--me, Fast Climber--to clear it. Instead, she chuffed, so close to me I could smell rotten meat on her breath, settled back on her rump, mewed like a newborn berkit, and seemed to fall asleep. She yawned before closing her eyes.
Time passed, measured in the thump of my racing heart, before I realized the berkat was dead. In the heartbeats after her death, I had never heard Mother Jungle so silent. Mother Jungle took several heartbeats to return to her otherwise ceaseless song. The sackmonks began chattering in the tree branches overhead as if they'd just awakened from a night's sleep, yet God's Heart blazed high in a cloudless sky. Upvalley, a 'loper sentry lowed an all clear to the herd. And nearer, I saw the pinkman--a giant, three heads taller than me.
It stood ten spits away, almost half a half-throw, behind the broad leaves of a crythabush, motionless for a pinkman, peering at me down the barrel of its dart-spitter. I hadn't heard its approach--and I had stalked it--so focused was my attention on easing my foot from the web's grasp. What if it had spat the dart at me? I might then become the first of the People taken by pinkmen. I turned several shades of green as I contemplated standing before the Elders. "I let the pinkman take me," I would say, head bowed. "Fast Climber is not worthy to lead the People."
And my cousin One Brow would lead.
I swallowed an anguished cry at the thought of such failure, staying motionless although I knew the pinkman could see me. I would wander in the jungle for a handful of passages of the Nightbird in penance.
But I was captured. I had escaped the berkat, but not the pinkman.
I had been a fool to get excited about the pinkman. I had stalked it to this spot, watching, trying to decide if I should kill it or if it would be worth capturing and bringing back to the Elders. With the capture of an alive pinkman, I would secure the Elders' blessing as leader of the People. Let One Brow catch a mature berkat, or a live galion she, toothsome and half a spit long. I'd capture a pinkman--and keep it alive.
And so, I became inattentive and stepped into the web, my inattention proving me unworthy of leadership.
I sat back and sighed in my mouth as the pinkman approached, dart-spitter still aimed at me.
"Don't move." The pinkman spoke gibberish. I memorized its noise more out of habit than out of some other purpose.
"Spit your dart, pinkman," I said, though I knew it didn't understand People talk--no pinkman did. "I am ready to return to Mother Jungle." My foot remained snared in the web.
The pinkman knelt and put a hand against the berkat's throat. It spared a quick glance away from me at the berkat.
"Guess I saved your little brown and green butt, cammie," the pinkman chattered, plucking a dart from the berkat's rump. It put the dart in a pouch of its skin--its entire body (imagine) was covered in a hairless animal skin--and returned to stalking me, though I sat a galion tail-length away.
"Why, you're as naked as a babe," it said, eyes squinting in a pink, round face. Most pinkmen had a hair patch atop their heads, but this one had no hair there. The round head seemed to sit on his shoulders, neckless. Pinkmen were big, yes, but this one was bigger than any I'd ever seen. Standing, my head would barely reach its chest. The arms were as big as the legs. The pinkman could lift the berkat with ease.
So ugly.
It anchored the dart-spitter over one shoulder and took a thing from a pouch and knelt beside me. It held a thing like a riverpanth longtooth, for cutting, rather than a berkat tooth, for puncturing. "I'm going to cut you loose," it said, squinting at the web around my foot.
I stayed still. I had been foolish a heartbeat ago, getting into the web, but now I was smart.
If the pinkman intended to send me home to Mother Jungle, it would have already done so. I might be the wiser to see what the pinkman planned to do. So I stayed still and listened to it. Now, memorized its song took on more meaningfulness, although I didn't know what that meaning would be.
It pulled a web strand from another pouch; pouches seemed to blister here and there all over its body. It attached one strand end around my waist and the other end to a hide band around its waist.
"This is so you don't run off once I get you out of that web, savvy?" it said, nodding at the strand. I remained still.
"Hey, you alive?" It waved a hand before my face. I blinked. "Okay. Spooky the way you guys freeze up like that."
It sliced at the web with the longtooth, sawing back and forth. "Sweet Jadu, what's this shit made of?"
It continued to slice at the web and the web parted at last. As the web parted, the pinkman backed away as if expecting me to attack. I stayed still.
At last it sighed and stood erect. It returned the longtooth to its pouch and brought the dart-spitter from its shoulder anchor. It pointed the spitter at me and motioned.
"Up," it gibbered. "I'm taking you in with me. Nice catch, if I can get back. Maybe, with you as hostage, I just might. Get back, I mean. Worth a try."
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