Free Quest Beyond Time by Tony Morphett

a civilized manner!’ he yelled to the nearest Yobby.
    ‘I spit on your civilized!’
    ‘I thought he might take that view,’ Mike muttered to himself and kept rowing.
    ‘And I spit on your mother!’ Katrin shouted.
    The Yobbies roared with anger at this. She had hit a nerve.
    ‘You’re a real loss to diplomacy, Katrin. Did you know that?’
    Knowing when she was on a winning streak, Katrin added, by way of detail, ‘I spit on her womb!’
    This got an even bigger response than the first one. She was greatly encouraged.
    ‘I spit on her breasts that fed you! And that fed the village dogs!’
    The Yobbies were raving and shouting now.
    ‘And the village pigs!’
    ‘Katrin, you are making any sort of negotiation very difficult.’ Mike saw a Yobby ride his horse into the shallows. He was waving a sword at them and seemed to have gone purple in the face. ‘Very difficult indeed.’
    She was looking around at the terrain. ‘Mike. . .’
    ‘Why don’t we just give them the boat back. Explain it was all a terrible mistake.’
    ‘Mike. I’ve got a crazy idea. But it just might work.’
    He gaped at her. ‘What did you say?’
    ‘I said I’ve got a crazy idea . . .’
    ‘That’s what I thought you said.’ He felt like putting his head in his hands, but his hands were full of oars.
    ‘Just round this next bend of the river. We’re nearly at the forest.’
    ‘What’s the forest going to do for us?’
    ‘Save our lives.’
    ‘That’s what I want to hear from you, Katrin. That kind of thinking. Congratulations.’
    As they rounded the next bend and entered the new reach of the river, he saw that she was correct. The open country which had flanked the river on each side now gave way to steep, rocky banks with dense forest coming down to the water’s edge.
    ‘They can’t see us for the next mile,’ Katrin said, ‘so we’ll get ashore, and refloat the boat. Let it drift down.’
    ‘Why?’
    ‘So they’ll think we’re hiding in the bottom of it. They might follow it awhile.’
    Katrin pointed out a tiny beach on the south side of the river, and Mike rowed them to it. They unloaded the hang-glider and their packs, and then pushed the boat back into the stream.
    Mike watched the boat as the current caught it, and took it downstream. As it drifted away from him, he felt a pang of regret. He had felt safe in the boat. Then a nasty thought came to him. ‘What if they second-guess us?’ he asked, ‘and come into the forest?’
    ‘They’ll never do that,’ Katrin said as she adjusted the straps on her pack. ‘They’re too frightened.’
    Mike thought about the River Yobbies and then wondered what they could possibly be frightened of. He was not sure he wanted to know. On the other hand he knew that, generally speaking, an unknown danger scared him more than a known one. ‘What are they frightened of?’
    ‘The Forest People.’ She was ready to move out. She turned and looked for the best way up from the beach.
    ‘Why are the River Yobbies frightened of the Forest People, Katrin?’ He was trying to keep his voice calm. There was one part of him wanting to deliver the question in a high-pitched shriek. So he kept his voice deep, like a politician on television trying to sound sincere.
    She said it casually. ‘The Forest People are cannibals. They eat anyone who goes in the forest.’ She chuckled. ‘The stupid Yobbies are terrified of them.’
    Mike now realized it was one of those rare occasions when the known danger scared him more than the unknown. ‘They terrify me, too,’ he said.
    She seemed not to hear him. ‘This way,’ she said, moving from one rock to another.
    ‘Katrin!’
    She turned. ‘Yes?’
    ‘The Forest People eat anyone they catch in the forest, right?’
    ‘Right!’
    ‘Then why are we going into the forest?’
    ‘Mike, are you just going to stand there talking all day?’ She turned again and started on into the forest.
    ‘At least I’m not scared of swimming!’