Knee of the Yeti

.

.

The vonHedwig children enjoyed an exhilarating day on the Himalayan slopes, after initial hours of boredom. Ulrik insisted on finding the gentlest slope in the vicinity (still nearly a sixty degree angle), and then he and the boiler crew drove long spikes into the ice and strung a parachute silk between them to serve as a net.

The children found these precautions excessive, and the younger children muttered impertinent things under their breath. They did not speak their dark thoughts aloud, however, for when Adolphus asked Ulrik how long he planned to muck about with those spikes, the boiler chief bared his fearsome teeth, and Ulrik withdrew the roll of tranquilizer doses from his pocket and contemplated it, smiling. After that, the children retreated to the warmth of the boiler crew’s launch, and played a rather wild game of snap, which even Claire enjoyed, although she believed herself far too old for that sort of thing.

When the safety net was ready, the boiler crew tested it on their skis, and, at the bottom, pronounced their enjoyment in hoots, and leaps, and victorious arm waving. The children were then allowed, at long last, to plunge down the mountainside on their toboggans, screaming their delight all the way down. They spent hours at it, enjoyed a picnic on the launch, and went out again. It was nearly teatime when disaster struck.

One of the boiler crew fell on the slope and broke his leg. They all heard the snap, which made even the twins feel a bit green. Ulrik and the crew raced to his aid. The Chief retrieved a first aid kit from the launch, and he and Ulrik set to work setting and splinting the leg. Ulrik ordered the children back on to the launch to wait.  Bettina, however, found a bottle of brandy on board, and knowing it to be a powerful substance of remarkable healing powers, brought it out to the injured fellow. The Chief patted her head fondly, and pushed her back to the launch.

She trudged back in the trench made by their comings and goings, deep snow nearly over her head to either side of her. Her eyes were on the ground, examining the various types of prints left by their party, when she caught a whiff of strong animal odor. She looked up to find herself looking at enormous, shaggy knees. She looked up again, and up some more. She was face to knee with the fabled Yeti!

“Bear-man!” She offered her tiny hand to the giant creature, as she had been taught, to shake hands with her new acquaintance, but the yeti did not move, nor acknowledge her in any way. Suddenly, she was jerked into the air, an arm around her waist and a gloved hand on her mouth. She bit for all she was worth, but the glove was too thick. She was carried through the launch door, and smelled, rather than heard, the silent yeti enter behind her.

.

This story began with On Grandmothers. The previous episode is The Cage and the next is Kidnapped!