Page 74 of Sohut's Protection

As if it could read his thoughts, the slizz protracted its teeth a little and bared them at him.

His fangs responded instinctively.

Ignoring the annoying beast, he turned his attention back to watching Clee-yo’s hips sway underneath her worn attire. He was so mesmerized, he almost tripped over a root on the ground and then Clee-yo turned to glare at him, her strange metal thing pointed in his direction.

Her face softened immediately, as if she’d been so engrossed in walking through the undergrowth that she’d forgotten that he was there.

“You’re so quiet usually, I thought it was something else.” Her eyes darted to the undergrowth again. “I’m hunting some food as we go. I’m hungry. I’m pretty sure you are too.”

Hunting?

He stared at her as she turned and continued walking again.

Everything about her made him curious. She walked through the undergrowth as if she’d been born on this planet.

The way she’d adjusted was…extraordinary, and he felt a level of respect growing within him.

“What are you hunting?”

“Jungle penguins,” she whispered.

Sohut blinked. “I do not comprehend. Jungle what?”

“They’re getting smarter and learning to hide from me now, the fat little things.”

Fat little things?

She had to be referring to the senseless mogs.

“Stop,” he said. “If it’s mogs you want, I’ll call them for you.”

Clee-yo stopped to look back at him, ducking under a hanging vine as she did.

Putting both hands to his mouth he whistled. It was a high sound the mogs were attracted to and he was sure they would come waddling through the bushes directly to where they were standing.

The fact he could do this, help her, made a feeling of unexpected pride surge through him.

No doubt, she’d find it impressive. It wasn’t a whistle many beings could do.

But when he glanced back at the female, she was looking at him weirdly, her nose scrunched up, her upper lip curled as she stared at him.

“What the hell are you doing?”

Sohut blinked, glancing away for just a second. “Whistling.”

“With no sound?”

Now it was his turn to look at her strangely. “You can’t hear it?”

It was high, but even his ears could pick it up.

“You mean you’re actually making a sound?” Her eyes bugged out a little.

Moving closer to her, he whistled again but she only blinked at him. That prompted him to lean down to look at her ears.

So different from his. Hers did not rise to a point and her pinna seemed much less pronounced than his.

He was about to reach out and touch her skin when his hand was swatted away—and not by the female, no less.

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