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"Zere was so much fire zat ze night looked like day." Nurln paused in his tale to worry at a bit of jerky with his claws. He tossed a bit into the air and snapped it up, bobbing his head like a bird as he swallowed. My own stomach was still turning queasily with the slowly ceasing movements of the slug, and I turned my head to lick Bekki's fur. The taller male was totally entranced by Nurln's recounting of what happened to their home, and didn't interject. "I...I don't know why. Zey burned everyzing. All ze dens, ze storage dens, ze meeting hall, and...ze nursery. Everyzing we built, zat our ancestors built, it is all gone. And everyone, dead. Zose zat didn't get clubbed as zey ran from ze fires ended up like Hairo and ze rest, or died from predators or wounds."

"I suppose zat some might have run up ze river, or furzer west." He gestured in the directions he spoke of. Being unfamiliar with the geography, I just nodded. "Zere are supposed to be enclaves zose ways. I don't know if zey would make it, being so scared and in a panic."
"Why ya stayed in town 'stead-a going to da odder enclaves?" It seemed like they could benefit from being away from these humans, and if there weren't any more of them, why stay? It was Bekki who answered my inquiry, spreading his fingers then clenching them into fists four times. "It is ziiis many to go zere, maybe more! Biglong walk, and we don't got a map." I had to remember that yinglets only had four fingers for my calculations. Frustratingly, my math comprehension skills failed me even worse than normal, and I filed it as a stupid long amount of time.
"Bekki is right. Even if we go, zere's no guaruntee zat we would even find ze other enclaves. Now zat we have you, we should...I don't know. Go back to our enclave? Try to find ze others? Zis is...I'm sorry, my Matriarch. I am not a scout or a forager. I do not know how ze land lies outside of zis down and ze old enclave." His brow wrinkled with frustration. Bekki reached out to pat his side, and Nurln sighed. I got up, an idea in my head, and used the brushy end of my tail to clear a bit of the dirt floor.

Pointing at the clear patch, I canted my ears with a question. "Can you make-a map? Let's make-a plan." Nurln's eyes widened slightly, but he nodded. With a single extended claw, he sketched a rough oval and added some cross-hatching. A series of wavy lines to the south of the oval represented the ocean, and a thick wavy line represented the river next to the town. A smaller circle on the other side with an X through it was the old enclave. After some consultation with Bekki, Nurln drew the west side of the map as a stretch of beach with a few more smaller rivers leading into the sea. At the end of the stretch, he made a sweeping mark that he said indicated uncertainty of what laid further on. He made the same mark after mapping some little river-islands to the north. "What is to de east? Can we live dere?"

Bekki responded with a shake of the head that sent his little round ears flapping. "Nonono! Zat way is only pain. And dunno's. Nobody goes more zan....zis many days zat way!" He held up all eight of his fingers. He added some lines to the map, sticking his tongue out slightly in concentration. "Zere is lotsa cliff zat way. Zis many days.." Three fingers. "Zere is a lot of sea gulls, they getcha goodbad! Poke your eyes and knees and face 'til you DIE." I eyed him speculatively, trying to imagine how big a seagull would be next to him. Sure, the seabirds were big, but with three of us, we could chase them off. Bekki then held up six fingers, paused, and bent the sixth one at the knuckle. "Zis many days is bigbig cliff, 'n when he went to ze top, ze Beej said is nozing good. Just buncha rocks."

The fact that someone was named Beej gave me a moment of silence. Given that most of the landmarks on the map were named after important features or resources, it gave me food for thought on this particular name. I shook my head with vigor to clear it of the thought, and examined the portion of the map Bekki had added. He had a surprisingly decent artistic talent, and the lines representing the eastern coast seemed like they were pretty realistic. "Is dere human-peoples dis way?" This got head-shakes from both males. "Den we should go dis way, if we dunno where de odder enclaves is. We can go-a past de seagulls.." I made a dotted line past the abstract image of the animal. "...'n dun worry, I know how fight-a seagull. We keep goin' past de part wid da rocks. Bekki, is de sea enough food for us?"

His neck bent astoundingly far backward as he regarded the ceiling in contemplation. "Mmm, yeah! Why not? Ze sea has fishies an' clams. Is a scary way to go, zough." Nurln examined the map, looking fairly worried, then sighed.

"I suppose we could go zat way. Eight days or more...zat is a long travel for we yinglets, and dangerous if just zree of us. We should prepare for zis journey, if we are to take it. Let me see..." He trotted over to a far corner of the basement, and began to scratch at the dirt until he dragged a bundle of cloth from the shallow hole. I went over to see, and he unwrapped it to show me what lie within. "All we have here is zis stone knife, a broken spear-point, and zis good-luck charm from my Patriarch. We need more zan zis to go so far....Perhaps, we should go to ze enclave one more time. Maybe some useful zings missed ze burning." The good-luck charm appeared to be a rusty bent nail on a length of worn thread.

"We should go back to ze enclave at night, not now. Ze humans might still be watching to see if any yinglet goes back. My Patriarch said, if anyzing ever happens to ze Patriarchs and Matriarch, to go into his den and go zrough ze door in ze back. If we can get to it, perhaps we can find somezing useful." He picked the nail up, rubbing his finger pads against it with a forlorn look. "If only he was here. Zen, maybe...we would have more of us. We..should do a sleeps soon. Rest for tonight."

"Ya! Sleeps!" Bekki cheered the idea, running at full-tilt to the pile of rags. He smacked down into them, and by the way he went limp, either fell asleep instantly or knocked himself out. Nurln sighed, shaking his head, but managed a small smile. Placing the nail back in the bundle, he put the whole thing to the side and gestured for me to join Bekki on the 'bed'. The tan male hardly twitched as we arranged ourselves next to him. Any thoughts I might have had about not being able to sleep were quashed by the drowsiness that overtook me when I rested my head on his flank. My new brain was very confident that being part of a tangled mass of little pests was a very good thing, and that it was safe to sleep.

"Good nighty-day, Nurln. 'n Bekki. Even dough Bekki already a-sleepy."

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And in the next chapter, the journey finally begins!