"You're barely past primitive. Humans have no natural defenses and are easily captured. You weren't popular until recently despite all of that and I never knew why, but your metamorphosis explains it. I assume you died too easily before to make it a worthwhile investment."
She makes a pained keening sound. "Is that why they started taking your women, too? Would your people help us?"
My breath catches.
Maybe she's right and they found a way around the confinement sickness, but there's no way of knowing.
It would surprise me if they figured out our biology. We don't really understand it ourselves and most of our technological advancements for many generations have been toward that goal.
I hate delivering more bad news, but I never see Session agreeing to assist her species.
"I doubt it. It seems like it's only a matter of time before we move away from our sleepy, peaceful pursuits to revisiting the might of a lost era, but I think it might drive us into extinction to protect even our own system. We waited too long, I'm afraid."
"Well, maybe they will change you in ways that work to your advantage. I know I'm nowhere near as fragile as I once was," she comments.
It's hard to imagine a species being more breakable than she is, but I know better than to voice that thought as she continues.
"They said we were the most durable of harem options. With testing data to back it up. From what I gathered, we are some sort of sport package for more rigorous use, but with the shiny packaging a discerning buyer has come to expect."
Hot rage fizzles along my spine and I have to stop running in case I slam us into a tree.
"They told you that?"
She snorts out a breath. "Thivoll. They showed videos and everything."
Her voice sounds flippant but she's trembling.
I crouch down so she can get down but she doesn't budge. She's making sniffing noises and her trembling gets worse.
"I'd like to hold you," I tell her.
"No. I'm fine. I want to get back to Silver and get better protections in place."
So stubborn.
I do as she asks, though, and pick up my pace. The sooner we're done, the sooner I can comfort her.
The first place I take us is back to where I killed the two idiotic fighting genali. I smell numerous other prey species around the area, but as I suspected, none of them were fooled by the amateur trap laying of the hunters.
Ree helps me disassemble two traps before we return to the one that worked by a trip trigger.
It ends up being useless.
I had assumed the genali blood in the air was from the two hunters in the camp we have been avoiding, but another hapless genali squelched right into the trip wire.
I hear Ree retching and decide not to get any closer. From the way the slime is laying, their pack and weapons are completely bathed in their gray blood.
I've had to wash enough of that out of my fur in streams over the last few days that I'm not inclined to investigate.
All the careful stalking, listening for threats, and communicating with gestures gives a sense of nostalgia for our early, much more awkward interactions. I push my whiskers forward just thinking about it, then shake my head when I think of how much has changed over such a short period.
Not to mention just how odd it is that those are going to be our early relationship memories.
No matter; as long as she's mine then those are unimportant details.
We spend most of the night adding a few more items to the pack on Ree's back, but not nearly as much as I would like. Few hunters are using traps, unfortunately.
When they do, it makes them more reckless and easy to sneak up on.
