Page 36 of Alien Viking's Plunder

No, nothing. She was just too tense, seeing things that didn’t exist. She walked on, jogging to stay close to Bragr and making absolutely sure it was his tattooed and wounded back she was following, not some creature from out of the fairy tales.

Another imagined movement got her looking the other way. Again there was nothing.

Damn, was that how this walk would be? Always so tense that she started to see things—

On instinct she spun around.

A shadow was coming right at her, and all she could see was fur and teeth before she yelped and clumsily thrust the spear at the attacker. The oncoming predator, discovered at the last moment, ducked under the stick and went for her leg. White fangs closed around her ankle before she could change her grip on the spear and whack it across the attackers back.

But the creature didn’t let go. It started to growl and shake its head as if to tear Josie’s foot off.

Getting a better grip on her stick, Josie swung it again, hitting the predator’s softer underside with a glancing blow.

It let go with a whine and bounced away on light paws. It was shiny, pitch black, and looked like a wolf, but it was smaller and had six legs and two tails, both standing out straight behind the creature.

Josie got ready to swing the staff again, as the not-wolf ducked its head to the ground and growled at her. Then it jumped to the side, tilted its head curiously, and lowered its head once more as if expecting Josie to attack.

Just as she understood what was happening, Bragr came running, getting between Josie and the predator and drawing his sword with a deadly, metalliczhinggg.

“No!” Josie yelled and grabbed his upper arm. “He’s only playing!”

Bragr stiffened and shook her off him. “Strange way to play. He almost tore your foot off.”

“No, he didn’t.” She showed him the boot that was a part of her uniform. There were shallow tooth marks in the outer layer, but that was it. “He wasn’t even trying.”

“Afenr,” Bragr said as he checked her boot to confirm she was okay. “A young one, a pup, or it wouldn’t have attacked alone.”

“He’s not attacking,” Josie said. “Look at him!”

The fenr jumped into the air again, as lightly as a kitten. He didn’t growl anymore, just blinked its yellow eyes and twirled his tails up as one, then untwisted them again.

Josie opened the pouch on her belt and took out one of the pieces of wrapped candy Bragr had offered her back on his ship. She unwrapped it and held it out to the young fenr. She knew that dogs weren’t supposed to eat chocolate, but this was an alien creature and the marzipan piece only had a thin coating of chocolate on it. “Let’s try to make friends with him.”

The fenr took two slow steps closer, then bounced right back before it tried again. It was clearly scared of Bragr, so Josie moved away from him and offered the candy bar again. The fenr came closer, its head close to the ground as if sneaking up on prey. When it was three feet away from Josie, it bounced into the air and jumped back before starting to sneak forwards once more.

It kept getting closer, but Josie wasn’t confident enough in her judgment about alien predators to want its teeth close to her again. She tossed the piece of candy towards the fenr, intending for it to land on the snow so the creature could decide what to do with it. To her astonishment the little six-legged pup pounced at the small brown bar while still in the air, caught it between its teeth, and crouched down on the snow with it between its clawed paws, gnawing at it with great concentration.

“He thinks it’s a game,” Josie said, smiling at the sheer cuteness of the puppy.

“Dangerous game,” Bragr growled and scanned the woods for more of the fenrir. “His pack must be close.”

The pup got up, gave Josie a yellow look, and trotted away with the candy bar in its mouth.

Josie stared after the black creature. “Are there many of them?”

“There are some packs in the woods,” the Viking said and sheathed his sword. “The only consolation is that they are no more friendly with the dfergir than with us. Hopefully that one will find better prey than you. He’s going in the right direction.”

“I don’t think he’s looking for prey. He could have done much more damage to me than he did.”

“He could,” Bragr agreed. “And a fully grown one could do even more.”

“How big do they get?”

He put his hand by his shoulder. “Up to here, ten times the weight of that one. We’ll stay away from those things if we can. Their meat is sour and stringy.”

They walked on, Josie looking over her shoulder to not be surprised again, and she noticed that Bragr did, too.

The pulsar climbed in the sky, but it didn’t get much warmer. They had just crossed a frozen river when Bragr stopped and waited for Josie to catch up.

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