Somehow, Kira found it hard to doubt him.
"The boy?" Graydon asked, focusing on business again.
"Safe." Kira tilted her head at Devon and the oshota who'd landed next to him. "You can have a look for yourself."
A wail came from a distance. "Kira!"
A muscle in Graydon's cheek jumped.
Kira stepped aside in time for a round shape to barrel into her.
"I thought you were dead!"
Jin burrowed into her chest, stray bits of electricity pinging off his casing and zapping Kira.
She winced but didn't push him away.
"You should know I'm tougher to kill than that."
Jin made a rude sound. "You got lucky."
He knew better than anyone else how bad it could have gone. They'd seen the aftermath of numerous waveboard crashes. They weren't known for having high survivability rates.
In a sense, thelu-ong's intervention was the best outcome they could have hoped for.
"Not everyone can be swallowed by alu-ongand survive," Kira pointed out.
Jin held very still. She knew the exact instant he put together the fact she'd been in a creature's mouth with the substance he could see on her clothes.
Kira's arms closed on him the moment he tried to dart away from her.
She laughed at his struggles to escape.
"No! What is this stuff? Why did you let me touch it?"
Kira's chuckle was evil. "Don't you want to share in my fortune?"
"No!" Jin broke free, landing on the ground where he rubbed all sides of himself against the dirt.
Instead of removing the sticky substance, he simply mixed the dirt in with the saliva.
Kira's head dipped, her shoulders shaking as Wren and the rest of Graydon's oshota landed nearby.
The pitch of Jin's voice rose. "Are you laughing?"
Kira shook her head frantically, unable to stop her grin from breaking over her face.
Jin snarled, darting toward her head. Kira dodged as Jin chased her around Graydon.
"You shouldn't be so mean to someone who was just in alu-ong's belly," Kira shouted, avoiding another of Jin's swoops.
Graydon stood still, letting them have their fun.
"I'm so glad you find this amusing," Wren said in a neutral tone of voice.
Kira and Jin shared a look as they stopped and faced Wren and the rest.
The oshota crouched beside Devon drew her attention. For the first time the field in his hood wasn’t activated, allowing Kira to see his face.
