She went to sit with Sam to stand vigil over Callie while she slept. Her arm wrapped around Sam’s shoulder.
I frowned at them, and turned to find Ohem, who was right beside me, making me jolt again in surprise. I cursed under my breath, shaking my head at him and giving him my best glare before asking the question I should have asked earlier.
“Will we be okay? We got caught up in the history lesson and I forgot to ask if someone was going to come hunting for you when the ship didn’t show up with you all caged and helpless, and full of lady cargo.”
Ohem looked up at the sky and then back at me. “It is likely that we will be hunted, yes. I am valuable for something or they would have just killed me. And rare females from an unknown planet are worth a lot of credits. The ship had dozens of tracking devices on it for any contingency. They will know we are on this planet.”
Fuck! Why couldn’t we just crashland and live like Cast-Away and be left alone with only a volleyball to worry about, but oh no! I had to have some politician hellbent for war and probably some nasty bounty hunter types gunning for us.
Ohem laid his big hand on my shoulder. “We need to get food. We can stay vigilant, but we need to worry about our immediate needs now. One of us should hunt and the other stay behind to guard the others,” he said. “Would you like to hunt or stay here with your friends?”
A hunt sounded like heaven.
I glanced up at his face. “I’ll take the hunt.” He nodded and went to stand guard over my friends.
Chapter 8
Running in my shifted form was always a thrill. The savage freedom of a wild thing on the loose. The form of my feet makes me swift and light. I could run on all four, my arms were long enough, but it was faster to sprint upright.
I’d been loping across the desert for an hour. I hadn’t seen a single animal or even a sign of an animal. Just endless dirt. Not even a blade of grass.
Another issue was the sun. There were two. Not side by side, but on opposite ends of the planet. It would never get dark here. I was beginning to wonder if there were any animals at all. It was a miracle there’s water, and that we landed right next to it. Freaking divine intervention is what it was. Or the universe’s sick joke.
Screw you, Universe!
I stopped at a tall rock outcropping, my breath coming in pants that stirred up the dirt on the surface. I crouched and sprung halfway up the rock, claws scoring the stone, and pulled myself to the peak. I scanned the horizon for something, anything, that might point to food.
Desert, desert, oh look at that! More desert.
Why couldn’t we have landed in a jungle?
We would not starve here! To survive being abducted, liberated, crashed landed, and then fucking die of starvation? No way in hell. The heavy weight of responsibility settled on my shoulders, and the pressure in my chest flared, becoming crushing as the worry ate me from the inside.
Throwing my head back, I let loose a howl of defiance at the universe. The sound spread out and faded into the desert.
Something bellowed back. I snapped my head to the right. There in the distance, against the horizon, was movement. It bellowed again, like an elephant trumpet and a cow got mixed up and blasted out of a cannon.
I jumped down from the rocks and trotted in the noise’s direction, staying low and quiet. It’s harder running this way, my legs straining a little more. I was going up a gradual incline. We were in a valley within a valley. The lake we were at probably used to be a lot bigger, but had dried until only the very middle remained. It might have even been an ocean at one time, judging from how vast the desert was. No wonder I hadn’t been able to see anything on the horizon!
I picked up speed, still staying silent. I ran for twenty minutes before the land above us came into view. It was still a desert, but there were what looked like trees or plants spread out in the distance, following along the base of another mountain range. Milling about those plants were animals. Big, scaly lizard camel things. They don’t actually look anything like either of those animals, but it’s the closest thing I could compare them to. Four-legged, red scaled, with long necks and whip-like tails. They had a big hump on their back that was covered in bony spikes. Their heads were flat, spread out like a hammerhead shark. They were a weird-looking animal, but it wouldn’t be the first time I’d eaten something weird. Probably wouldn’t be the last either.
There were a dozen of them, tearing the skin off the thick green trunks of spiny trees. They shambled from tree to tree, grunting and snuffling.
Jackpot.
I creeped to the west of them, alongside their flank. I wanted to come from the north, through the trees, so they ran into the desert and not deeper into the canyons.
I dropped to all fours and kept my belly close to the ground, moving swiftly until I’m in the treeline, along the mountainside. The tree’s spines were thin and needle sharp, like cat-claw cactus from back home. The canopy consisted of thin yellow leaves as long as me that drooped and made the trees look like they were wearing bad wigs. They cast spider-shaped shadows on the ground.
I weaved through the trees and stalked closer to the lizard camels. They smelled awful, like spoiled milk left out in the sun, and they were easily the size of a large horse. I crouched and waited for one of them to amble close. Digging the claws of my feet into the soil, I sprang, landing on the shoulder of the unlucky creature that moved right past my hiding place. It bellowed and thrashed, trying to shake me off. The others scattered, leaving their herd mate to defend itself. It ran, but was slow and I was tearing into its neck before it could get far. Deep purple blood sprayed, and the thing stumbled to its knees, then collapsed, its breaths shallow before going still. I stood, looking at my kill with satisfaction. It was quick and clean. Now I just had to drag its carcass all the way back to the lake.
I needed to lighten the load. All those pesky internal organs would have to go. Whatever should I do with them? I smiled and ate.
It may smell funky, but it tasted just fine to me. Its flesh was a lighter purple than its blood and it left a weird aftertaste, but overall it tasted how meat was supposed to. I saved the heart and what looks like the liver for Ohem. It was the best mating gift I could give for now.
Drained of its blood and most of its insides, the lizard-camel was light enough to carry back without being a colossal pain in the ass. I had to break off a bunch of the spines off its hump, so they didn’t stab me when I needed to sling it over my back.
With that done and my belly full, it was time to explore a bit. I glanced around, ears flicking back and forth, listening for any predators that might try for my kill. It was silent. The herd of lizard camels had moved far enough away that I couldn’t hear them anymore.
