Thivoll carefully steps high over it. I turn in my perch to watch him pull his back paws slowly and deliberately over and notice that his tail is held high. He must be taking no chances.
I approve.
Later I should talk to Thivoll about possibly coming back and disassembling it so we can take it with us.
We come across one more trap before Thivoll moves us into the trees.
The genali are very loud now but I still don't see them, since the foliage is extremely thick. Thivoll repositions me and then climbs and I'm impressed that I don't even hear his claws make purchase in the bark as we smoothly and rapidly ascend.
I hold on as tightly as I can to ease our passage.
As much as I want to know what's going on, the heights still bother me so I keep my eyes closed. I can tell we're making our way along branches and moving up and down tree trunks from the difference in where gravity pulls me.
Soon after, he gently rearranges me so I'm sitting on a thick tree branch, with my back against a trunk. He catches my attention with a hand wave and then points.
We are high above the arguing genali. I can just barely make out the top of their gray and pink slime-covered heads.
Thivoll lets me know with gestures that he wants me to wait here and I nod at him. He moves away, then turns back to me. His eyes soften and he reaches forward to stroke my cheek and run his hand down through the fall of my hair. I smile at him and then cover my mouth.
Maybe someday I'll remember it's a threat.
Or maybe he'll just have to deal with it as a permanent human quirk. His whiskers move forward past my shoulders, something about his face letting me know he knows what I'm thinking.
Or at least knows that I'm embarrassed.
After one last pet, he silently disappears into the thick canopy of the trees. I carefully avoid looking down, but luckily most of my thoughts are taken up by anxiety.
I hope he'll be alright.
I assume if they have traps they definitely have weapons.
He moved so quickly with the genali who were threatening me before it was mind-boggling, but they were unarmed, simply relying on that terrible choking gas that had no effect on him.
I carefully keep my breathing under control but I can't help my hands from wringing. It would be a lot better if I could see him and know where he was in relation to the shouting aliens.
A long, anxious minute later I see an orange flash above their heads. Thivoll must've decided to pounce on them from above.
Now the aliens are yelling for a very different reason.
I reach forward and pull down the branch that's blocking my view, more concerned about his safety than the heights. One of the aliens is already on the ground, jagged lines across its throat and a gray viscous liquid coming out.
The other one scrambles back while Thivoll pounces on their compatriot.
I gasp in a breath when I see them pull what looks like a gun, but before they get it fully into position Thivoll's tail whips around and knocks it from their sticky grasp. I wince when there's a loud retort, but I can't see if the bullet contacted Thivoll.
The slime continues to stumble back while Thivoll repositions himself for another strike.
The genali pulls a long serrated knife from a sheathe near his other flipper hand.
He moves toward Thivoll with a gurgling cry, raising the knife to make a stab toward his side as he dances away from them. Thivoll continues the arc of his movement and whips his tail around to drive the ovoid shaped end of it into the alien's side.
The slime tries to take a swipe at him with their blade but his tail pulls back as fast as it struck.
A moment later the genali is overtaken by violent tremors and starts screaming. Despite what I know about them and that they would absolutely kill, rape, or sell me into slavery, the sight of it's still disturbing.
I hope I get used to it,I think.
And then my mind violently reacts to how counter that is to everything I believe. All the oaths I've made to myself in relation to easing the world's suffering, not adding to it.
