Face-to-Face
? Chapter Thirteen
THE STORY SO FAR: Rainera and Dalton are shocked to see that the Eagles’ heads are not on their shoulders – but resting on a table!
Rainera didn’t scream when she saw that the Eagles had no heads. Instead, she forced herself to look again, this time more carefully. Now she saw that, although the Eagles’ great, open-beaked heads were sitting on a low table, the Eagles themselves still had faces – human faces, only bigger than any she had ever seen!
“Run away!” she thought madly. “Run and hide and watch and think. Don’t let them see us! What were we thinking? We should observe them before revealing ourselves. This is too scary and too strange!”
Unfortunately, Rainera also knew that it was too late for any of this. The Eagles had already seen Dalton and her. For now they stood up, stepped from beneath their shady bower, and began walking forward.
“They’re coming for us,” Rainera whispered loudly. “To greet us, or kill us, or whatever it is they have in mind.”
“Yeah,” said Dalton. “I guess they are.” Rainera heard him gulp. Then he added, “So all we can do now is wait or – “
“Go forward and meet them halfway,” said Rainera, finishing his thought.
They looked at each other. And they nodded. Then, hand in hand, they stepped courageously forward to meet the giant Eagles.
After her first few steps, the strangeness of walking across a summer meadow in the middle of winter toward alien giants from space made Rainera feel as if she were floating or flying; her feet no longer seemed to be touching solid ground. When she looked down, each tiny blade of grass looked like some huge forest tree, seen from a great height. She felt as if she were in a dream, the world far below.
As the Eagles came closer, the strangeness only increased. “They are definitely big,” thought Rainera, “maybe eight, even nine feet tall. And not skinny big, either, but just plain big, like Father, only much more so.”
The warmth of the sunlight; the soft, perfumed breezes; the many flowers, birds, and bugs; and the giant size of the visitors all added to Rainera’s sense of dislocation and disorientation. She turned her head back toward the way she and Dalton had come and saw, behind her, a wall of clouds. Rainera knew that below those clouds deep winter still held the land, the People, and the village in its icy grasp. Yet here she and Dalton were, in summer! She began to shake – and not with cold.
“Steady,” Rainera told herself, facing forward again. “Get a grip. It’s tools and knowing. If they can fly among stars and live forever, who knows what they can do!”
Birds chirped gaily and sang sweetly. Warm sun beat down on Rainera’s face, and the perfume of flowers drifted on the warm breeze. She felt the throb of her pulse and the sweaty grip of Dalton’s hand in hers. Everything seemed real … only none of it made sense.
And then the time for thinking was past. She and Dalton stopped walking. The Eagles – two gigantic men and one gigantic woman – loomed just before them.
The first thing Rainera noticed (being too much in awe to dare look up at the giants’ faces just yet) was that what she had taken to be shiny skin was actually a kind of clothing. “It doesn’t seem woven,” she thought, “but more, well, poured. It catches the light as if it were one smooth piece.” She saw, too, that featherlike tubes hung from the Eagles’ light-colored suits.
Finally Rainera raised her eyes and looked up at the faces of the gigantic creatures staring down at her and Dalton. The Eagle woman had a powerful, handsome face – calm gray eyes, a sturdy beak of a nose, strong cheekbones, and a formidable chin. Her gray hair, cropped short, emphasized the boldness of her features. The men looked not quite so bold, and their dark hair made them seem younger.
“Why, you are just children!” exclaimed the giant woman. “Where are your Elders?”
“Excuse me, ma’am,” Rainera answered shyly. Then she stopped, unsure as to how to proceed. “How do you address Eagles?” she thought. “If these are Eagles. They look human. Then again, looks can be deceiving.” After all, these humans were giant; they were also strangely dressed, had flown from beyond the sky, and could apparently turn winter into summer.
Rainera took off her cap. She had already unbuttoned her jacket and removed her gloves, as had Dalton, who was again fidgeting uncomfortably with his collar.
On her best behavior, Rainera curtsied politely. “The Elders sent us,” she said. “They had an accident coming up the mountain. Our mayor was injured. My father – he’s our doctor and one of the official Emissaries – had to help. They went back down, and we came instead. They sent us.”
“We, uh … happened to be there,” added Dalton.
“Happened? To be there? On the mountain in the middle of winter?” The
strong-faced woman looked at Rainera and Dalton appraisingly, the hint of a smile on her lips. Then, as if she were agreeing about something unspoken, she nodded to the two other Eagles.
Rainera had the uncomfortable feeling that the Eagles saw right through Dalton and her – that they knew exactly why they had been on the mountain in winter. She doubted there would be any point in ever trying to hide anything from them.
Rainera looked up at the giantess and at the two giant men beside her. Then, unable to stop herself, she opened her mouth and let out what was brewing in her mind. “Excuse me,” she began, “but are you … that is, we thought … What I mean is, are you really … Eagles?”
Rainera heard a groan from beside her. Obviously Dalton was worried that, once again, she had been too bold.
• NEXT WEEK: The Eagles’ Tale