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He probably expected me to have been cured of my curiosity for the time being, but to both our surprise I said, “Yes.”
After the morning wehad had, I didn’t like the idea of exploring our surroundings more, especially with Holly by my side, but Oredeon, Kharle, and Waymore—another of my fellow Vhar’Khyngs—accompanied us.
This was a part of the forest I had never set foot in before, but both Kharle and Waymore had explored this area on other scouting missions. “We saw some fairly intelligent indigenous life-forms here before,” Kharle cautioned.
I felt Holly’s interest pique when she asked, “What did they look like?”
Kharle’s eyes never left our surroundings as he scanned for any danger while he described them to us. “They’re short, only reach my hip, and they have a lot of hair.”
“Sounds like animals,” Oredeon added to the conversation.
Kharle shook his head. “No, definitely intelligent. They had spears and axes and moved with purpose, like hunters.”
“How many did you see?” Holly wanted to know, and I smiled, knowing that her paleontologist side was shining through, more curious than ever. She had told me before of the small, what shecalled human beings, whose skeletons she had unearthed along with my skull.
It was something that still made me uneasy, though I couldn’t have said why. Death was an important part of life. Something nobody escaped, and for a warrior, it was much more important how we would die than when.
“How much farther do you want to go?” Waymore asked me right before a high-pitched scream rang out. It reminded me so much of how I met Holly, that the hairs on the back of my arms stood up.
“Stay right behind me,” I ordered Holly, harsher than necessary, but my adrenaline spiked, and I wanted to make sure she listened.
Satisfied, I noted that Oredeon held his blaster at the ready, and Kharle and Waymore both unsheathed their swords. Unfortunately, we didn’t have enough blasters for everyone, but each one of us was as deadly with a blade as with a blaster.
I motioned for the others to follow my lead and hunch down as we carefully moved forward. Aware of how differently I had acted with Holly, I couldn’t explain why I had run through the forest, headfirst into danger, as if I had known it would be Holly waiting for me.
Crouched, we walked forward, using the bushes as camouflage.
Suddenly a woman who looked like Holly but with black hair crashed through the foliage. Her dark eyes were wide with fright, and small cries escaped her lips.
She must have realized she had run straight into the middle of our group and screamed again, frantically turning in a circle, looking for a way out. Which was when I noticed her arms were bound behind her back.
“Stop,” a voice grunted out, and five shorter humanoid males appeared before they too realized they had run straight intoour center. Another miraculous, yet worrisome, feature of our translators was that if one of us encountered a language, it was distributed to the others like telepathy, renewing my concern about the Manx being able to track us. Kharle’s translator must have picked up enough of these small creatures’ language to seamlessly fill us in on what they were saying now.
I leveled my blaster at them and repeated their word. “Stop!”
The males raised their spears, threateningly waving them at us. The female looked like she was about to bolt, but Holly stepped in her way, and my heart about stopped.
Even though the two females looked similar, the newcomer was still a stranger, and frightened at that. My only consolation was that her hands were bound; otherwise, I wouldn’t have allowed her so close to my mate.
“Lower your spears,” I yelled at the humanoids.
“Our prisoner,” the tallest of the five males asserted.
“Not anymore, she isn’t,” Oredeon snarled, his eyes moving between the five males and the female, who had stopped now and stared open-mouthed at Holly.
My other warriors eyed the female, and I worried their attention would be too diverted.
“We outnumber you,” the male who I thought was the leader snarled.
For good measure, I shot my blaster right in front of his feet. Thunderstruck, he stared at the charred ground and smoldering leaves.
The others still waved their spears, but it was easy to see that all the fight had gone out of them.
“Throw your weapons down,” I ordered, aiming my blaster threateningly at the leader.
One by one, staring defiantly at us through their dark eyes, they did.
“Keep an eye on them,” I ordered Oredeon, while I waved the other two to follow me.
