Page 119 of Sohut's Protection

The slizz was snarling at him, its teeth protracted, and its eyes bled to black.

It could smell that Clee-yo wasn’t there anymore.

“I didn’t kill her!” Sohut growled. “She was taken.” He hated saying the words but Wawa seemed to calm down a little at the sound of his voice, so he continued.

“I didn’t kill her,” he murmured again. “She was taken by Hedgeruds.”

The slizz made a sound in its throat as its teeth retracted.

It was a questioning sort of mewing and Sohut let out a sad huff of a laugh.

It loved her.

Wawa loved her.

Of all the creatures, his Cleo had befriended a slizz.

Of all creatures, she had befriended him.

“I don’t know, Wawa,” he finally said and he could see, even in the darkness, that Wawa’s ears perked. It was the first time he’d had a proper conversation with the animal. “I don’t know why the Hedgeruds…”

As Wawa wasn’t trying to kill him anymore, he set the animal down and watched it as it paced in front of him, sniffing the ground as it did.

Twiddling with the tracker in his hand, Sohut frowned.

The Hedgeruds had come…not the Gori…and that spelled trouble.

The Hedgeruds only worked for the High Tasqals.

Rich, powerful and cruel, it was no secret that the High Tasqals trafficked beings from Class Four planets—mainly for their entertainment.

Their slaves never lasted long. Not with the disease the Tasqals carried. It was the same disease that was decimating the Tasqal race.

They were dying. Rotting.

And so they bred, forcefully, with beings that had no legal protection on this side of the universe.

His stomach twisted.

The thought that the Hedgeruds were taking Cleo to the High Tasqals for her to be…

He couldn’t stomach the thought.

He needed to get her back.

Groaning, he stood. Every nerve in his body protested.

“We have to get her back,” he muttered and at his feet, the slizz made a sound of agreement.

Taking a few steps in the direction of the stream felt like he was trying to claw his way up a mountain that had one-hundred percent more gravity than usual.

But he could make it.

He would make it and his body wouldn’t hold him back.

He hadn’t let it hold him back when he was in the mines, even though he was sick and close to dying most of the time. He had stayed alive for Riv because dying would have been the ultimate insult to his brother’s life.

He could do that again.

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