Smoke rises from the village on platforms. The smell of food being cooked tickles my nose. After years in that saucer, eating the thin gruel it would automatically make, it makes me feel starved.
“Fighting dirty,” I mutter. But of course, they’re not doing it to entice me to stay—this is how they actually live, with ample food, sweet fruit juice, and some degree of safety from dinosaurs. Except the ocean-going ones.
“The krai,” I begin, using a word the boys taught me. “It not often attack?”
“I’ve never seen a krai attack the village,” Crat'ax says. “The last time was before I was taken out of the Lifegiver.”
“Why happens now?” I ask.
“It was a test,” Crat'ax says, but he doesn’t sound convinced. “The Deep wants to see if I deserve you.”
I look up at him. “I am not yours. I am mine.”
He doesn’t reply, just paddles on. When we were going the other way, he made sure to take us in a wide arc around the strange, lone platform without a walkway leading to it. But this time we’re passing closer. As I stare at it and try to see movement,I start to feel anxious. It’s as if I’m in some great danger that I don’t know about.
I look around, but there’s nothing out of the ordinary. The surface of the bay looks innocent in the quickly setting sun, and there doesn’t seem to be a monster somehow following us from the jungle. It’s actually quite peaceful. And yet my chest feels tight, and I have an almost overpowering urge to flee.
Crat'ax notices my nervous fidgeting. “What do you hear, Callie?”
“Nothing,” I admit as we draw away from the strange platform. “Just… I think danger.”
“There’s often danger in the ocean,” he replies. “But notalways, like in the jungle.”
I stare at the platform, and once more I think I see movement. I think they keep something living there, like a sea creature or something. Maybe it’s some kind of holy animal that they use for their worship, or for some other purpose. Well, I’m sure I’ll find out now that it seems I’ll be here for a few days.
As we approach the main platform, the feeling of terror quickly vanishes. Well, being scared on Xren is nothing unusual. And I’m not the most mentally stable person on this planet. I suppose those feelings can come and go.
Eager boys help us fasten the boat to the platform, and many young hands reach out to help me climb up to the platform.
I straighten my jumpsuit. “Thank you.”
“What did you get from the shore?” a boy asks, peering into the boat.
“We saw rekh,” I tell them. “Had to run.”
They gasp. “A rekh? Did it hunt you?”
“Yes,” I tell them. “But Crat'ax runs much fast.”
“His spear isn’t as good against rekh as against krai,” a precocious boy explains. “Better to run.”
“Better to run,” I agree.
Crat'ax easily swings his great bulk up on the platform. “That’s right. And now you boys can run back to our common Circle. It smells like the evening meal has started.”
The younger boys do as he says, and the older ones saunter away with many glances over their shoulders, smiling and laughing.
Crat'ax looks me up and down. “Ready to eat?”
I shrug. “Think so.”
“You will be the center of attention for everyone,” he tells me. “We can leave whenever you want to, and go to our new hut.”
“Oh, we have new hut?”
He points to the platform that was repaired. “We have that to ourselves. It’s bigger than my old one.”
“Good,” I reply, not sure what else to say. They’re already making changes to their village to accommodate me, as if they think I live here now. Which may be true, but that should be my choice.
