She climbs up on my back as I finish speaking.
"Wait. So all the prey are people?"
Her voice is full of horror and disgust.
I growl, agreeing with her assessment. "Yes. Genali decided that the beasts of the northern continent were no longer suitably entertaining, so they started gathering people."
She tries out her own growl and my whiskers move forward at how adorable she sounds for a moment before the weight of our topic makes me serious again.
It isn't safe to keep her at this camp.
I make sure she has a good grip with her hands and legs and then start loping out the same way we came in.
30
Thivoll
I bound over the poorly hidden trap, briefly considering hiding it better, but wanting to put as much distance as possible between us and the smell of genali blood.
Ree makes a drawn out high-pitched sound that doesn't translate, then a moment later she speaks.
"I overheard the genali talking about this place before we crashed. That they put blocks in the prey so they can't attack each other. They haven't placed more than one of each of you on the continent it sounded like. But they never accounted for someone like me being here, Thivoll. They made us translators as a harem package upgrade."
I instantly see her point. "You mean we could try to become allies with the prey?"
I can feel her wiggling in her excitement and it's heavy in her tone when she speaks again. "Yes! We need to speak to one of them."
I think it over for a moment. "They might have a block against hurting me, but they won't have one against hurting you."
She makes a lower-pitched version of the sound from before. "One of the genali hinted the block wouldn't work on you, though."
"Yes, you are correct," I concede.
She loosens her grip with one hand and strokes my mane before holding on again.
"I trust you to keep me safe, Thivoll. We need to try."
I take a moment to check my bearings to ensure I'm headed back toward Silver, then respond.
"I don't like the danger they would pose to you, but I know you're right. We will just have to proceed with caution and figure out a way to get you close enough to speak, but far enough away they cannot hurt you. I've heard several sounds that are likely other prey and it would be easy enough to find someone."
The sun is setting, and I change the subject to more immediate concerns. "Now that you are rested I think we should move to a nocturnal schedule. It will give us a greater advantage. I propose we keep running as long as we can tonight."
Ree groans. "I can't argue with your reasoning, but I did always hate the late night parts of my day-long work shifts."
I'm caught by surprise. "You worked entire days? I thought slavery was already outlawed on your planet?"
She lets out her trill and I can't help but chuff in response, even though I don't know what she finds funny.
"Oh, Thivoll, I wasn't a slave, though you could make a strong case for wage slavery."
I'm still confused, but I'm glad to hear the levity in her voice after how grim she was in the genali camp.
"I always knew I wanted to help people and the long hours aren't really that bad. What about you? You said you were a cleaner?"
"Essentially, yes. But actually an air technician, so cleaning is a large part of it, but also maintaining equipment and keeping all the biologics healthy."
"That sounds a lot more important than just cleaning. Do you talk about it like that because you don't like it? Seems like a pretty critical role."
