Page 13 of Hunter’s Harvest

Nellie searched the place, squinting and sighing.

“What is wrong?”

“Too dark. Can’t see.”

“I will search. What are you looking for?”

“Laptop.” She gestured with her hands. “Abayehbig. Pink.”

The faulty translator in my ear told me it was light red. I did not know of such a color.

“I will look. You stay here. We will rest here for the night. It is relatively safe and defensible. The only humans interested in it have already left and will not be back until tomorrow. And the scourge are not interested in orange fruit and sugar.”

She nodded, yawning, but continued searching inside the shuttle.

I set up a perimeter alarm and got to work searching the immediate area. It might be too dark for her eyes, but not for me. Our kind had extraordinary night vision.

I found several more food bars scattered around but no devices. When I returned to the shuttle, Nellie had magnetized the tarps to the walls of the ship to form a cozy interior. I lifted one of the tarps.

She stood inside, at the ready, wielding a bent metal rod. She was backlit by the glow of a lantern and looked all the world like a mini warrior. And I immediately recalled how sexy she’d looked shooting at cans outside my cabin. She looked ready to strike, but relaxed the moment she saw me.

“Oh, itschu.” She put her weapon down and kept talking as she opened the hatch on the shuttle’s floor.

Inside was completely untouched. The hostile humans must’ve not known about that particular compartment. Neither had I; I’d missed those too.

She held up two lanterns, naming them. Then a medical unit. A scourge lure meant to draw in the scourge when we were hunting.

But I did not recognize the last device. It looked human-made, and she’d called it a re-pell-ant.

“What is re-pell-ant?” I asked.

She picked up the lure again and placed the two devices side by side. She pointed to the lure and made motions of her fingers coming together. Then she pointed to the other device and made motions of her fingers moving away, as if they were running from the device.

“It drives the scourge away?”

“Yes. With sound.”

Ah, so it worked similarly to the lure. “It will be useful. Keep it on you. I did not find much around the shuttle. Only food bars. No devices.”

Her shoulders dropped. “I guess that’s dinner.”

My eyes landed on a pile of shimmering fabric. “You have found clothing.”

“No. Not clothing. Costume.”

I picked up the shimmering piece of fabric. Iridescent scales caught the dim light of the lantern. The material was soft and nearly weightless. It did not look like it would protect her. There was another piece that reminded me of a fish’s tail.

“What is costume?” Humans had such strange customs. And I did not understand this one.

Nellie grinned back at me, her eyes crinkling in amusement. “Itsforhalloween. Dressup. Holiday.”

I only caught one word: holiday. This outfit must be for a special occasion. “Humans have many holidays. I know of the one with many lights and singing. I have witnessed it from afar.”

She chuckled and took the garments from me and draped the tail part over her legs. She pointed to her top half. “Human.” Then she pointed to her bottom half. “Fish.”

I frowned. There was no such thing.

She laughed. “Howda fuck doisplainmermaidtoa hunter?”