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I stopped complaining in my head when I heard footsteps approach.
"Hope I’m not too late. I had to clean up after my meal."
I looked at Varus. He was eons different from the bloodbath I walked in on shortly before. "You did a good job."
Something changed in his eyes. The wild, hungry look disappeared. He handed me a bundle wrapped in warm leaves. "Your dinner, freshly seared. Careful, it’s hot."
I peeled back the leaves to find a chunk of meat. I recognized the scaly source of it. "Thanks for cooking it first."
He appeared to be skeptical as I brought the food to my mouth. "You don’t look like the sort to eat whatever you find in the woods."
Was that a challenge? Making sure I held his gaze, I took a bite. "Not bad." I chewed. "Could use some Cajun seasoning, though."
Varus was unable to hide his curiosity. "You eat lizard on your planet?"
"Every year when I can get to the Louisiana Gumbo Festival." I ate more of the tail meat. "This tastes like gator, which tastes like chicken."
"You are full of surprises."
I finished one side of the meat and turned it over to get to the other. "Space gator definitely needs seasoning."
"When I get to Racopia, I will personally see to it that this Cajun seasoning is imported for you."
I came out of my food reverie to resume the mission. "Let’s see. You satisfied your need for blood, and you had the serum. It’s going to need time to work."
"Am I cured?"
"Not yet. You spilled part of the first dose, and the second was supposed to be your final. No worries, though. I have the rest of the serum on board the ship."
Water babbled somewhere to the east of us. Varus listened. "The river runs downstream from here. We can follow it to the Quarek camp and then get to your ship."
I gave him a grateful smile, knowing the last thing he wanted to do was go where he’d been caged for months more or less. "I wish it wasn’t dark so we could keep going. You seem to be stabilized for the time being."
"What about you? I heard human behavior changes, too, when they’re hungry."
I got a chuckle from how he phrased it. "Don’t worry. Once I'm no longer full from this space gator meat, I’ll still have enough rations left if I get hangry."
"Hangry?"
"A combination of hungry and angry. It’s not a real word. Yet."
"Interesting. Well, it’s good you’re not hangry because I don’t want another boot to the shin." He viewed my makeshift shelter. "I see you started to make camp."
I dug a small hole in the soil with the toe of my boot. "It’s the best I could do under the circumstances." I dropped the leaves my dinner came wrapped in and covered them with more dirt. "I’d like to build a fire but it’s damp around here and I don’t want to draw predators, Quareks or the local scaly kind." Even as I said those words, I felt safer with the knowledge of what he could do if we ever did come across a giant lizard again.
Of course, I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of knowing it.
He took a seat on a fallen tree trunk across from my lean-to. "I can generate enough heat to warm you."
I settled under the lean-to. "You’re great to camp with. You come with your own hot plate and space heater."
"You’re fortunate not to make camp with a Racopian from the eastern ice fields. They can make the temperature around them drop below freezing."
"That doesn’t appeal at all to my Louisiana blood." I rubbed my arms to ward off the chill that crept into my clothes. "I guess if I were to make friends with them on your planet, I’d have to be in the mood for ice skating."
"Make sure they’re not a follower of Isath if you do." His voice took on a grim tone.
I had no clue if what I said got him heated enough to generate warmth or he observed me rubbing my arms. "Who is Isath, and why do I get the sense you and this person are not cool with each other? Sorry, no pun intended."
