Barbarian's Prize(50)

One thing dominates the entire picture, though: an enormous white swirl situated to the southwest. “Um, what is that?” I point at it without touching the screen. It’s covering over half of the map, and that’s throwing me off. It’s unnerving just how big the shape is, and reminds me a lot of a hurricane when it would show up on a weather radar.

“That is an incoming weather system,” the computer explains calmly.

“It looks…big.”

“Scans show that the system will be bringing high winds and a larger than normal amount of frozen precipitation to all affected areas.”

Well, I’m no Not-Hoth weather girl, but that doesn’t sound good to me. “Exactly how much is a larger than normal amount?”

“Expected precipitation will be somewhere in twelve to sixteen nashae.”

My brain automatically filtered through the strange word and told me that was a unit of measurement used by the sakh people. “Compare one nashae to a human measurement of one foot.”

“One nashae is roughly equal to 1.34 human feet.”

Holy crap. “And this storm is going to bring twelve to sixteen feet of snow?”

“Incorrect. The weather system will bring 12-16 nashae of snow. The correct measurement in human terms is 16.08 human feet to 21.44 feet of precipitation. In addition, precipitation will fall as a mix of both snow and ice, later leading to snow as temperatures continue to drop.”

I can feel my eyes bugging in my head. “Does this happen often?” I mean, I’ve seen snow since we landed here, but not twenty feet at once.

“This storm is an outlier and unusual in size and strength. Systems such as this tend to occur over water but rarely make it far inland.”

Sounds a lot like a hurricane or a typhoon to me. A snow-hurricane. Crap, crap, and double crap. “When is it going to hit us? Tell me in hours.”

“Snowfall will begin in less than twelve hours. The storm’s full impact will be felt twenty-six to thirty human hours from now.”

That did not leave a lot of time. Shit.

“Mmm, what’s twenty-six to thirty human hours from now?” Josie asks sleepily. She pads over to me and looks over my shoulder, yawning.

“Trouble,” I tell her. “We need to find the guys.”



• • •





Taushen arrives at the same time Salukh does, and I’m relieved to see them both. I quickly explain the situation, and show them the map. “We have to warn both caves,” I tell them. “Anyone that’s out on the trails is going to be cut off from the cave and vice versa. We need to warn everyone so no one is caught unprepared. You both need to leave and leave now. One of you go to the South cave, and one go to the main tribal cave.”

Taushen nods and grabs his spear, even as Salukh shakes his head. “And what about you and Jo-see,” he says. “You will be trapped here and you will starve to death.”

“We can all go back,” Josie says. “Salukh can carry you—“

“We will not go fast if I carry Tee-fah-nee,” he says. “That is not a solution.” He looks right at me with those intense eyes. “I will stay here and take care of Tee-fah-nee.”

I look over at Taushen, but he nods like this is the right thing to do. “But what about the caves? Taushen can’t run to both.”

“Hello, two perfectly good feet right here,” Josie says, waving a hand. “I’ll go.”

Both men frown at her.

“Oh, come on. Liz does this sort of thing all the time! I’m not so fragile.” She flexes an arm.

“You are female and must be protected,” Taushen says.

“Gross. Do not even try that.” Josie puts her hands on her hips. “Thing is, someone competent needs to stay behind and care for Tiff. I’m not great at hunting but I can walk like a champ, okay? So you might as well let me go to one cave, you go to the other,” she points at Taushen. “Everyone’s warned. Tiff and Salukh stay here until her leg gets better, and everyone’s fine.”

“I’m not sure.” I cross my arms over my chest, concerned. “It’s dangerous for you to go alone, especially for a full day.”

“Then I’ll go to the main cave. It’s a half a day’s walk from here, right?”

“For sa-khui feet, yes,” Taushen says. “It is an easy walk. But human feet are—“

“Yeah, yeah, I know.” She waves a hand. “Humans drool, aliens rule. I got it already. I’ll just do a lot of jogging. I’ll hustle.” She smiles brightly at me and pats my shoulder. “Don’t worry, Tiff. This is the best solution.”