Page 48 of Catching the Kot'oll Driver

A smack at my head barely scrapes by, I could have died from that. “No idea.”

These have face coverings, which doesn’t feel right at all. Are these just robbers?

Grihul takes a step in front of me. “Let me.”

I don’t mind hiding behind a boulder of a kot’oll, but I don’t want him to be at risk either. While he is a big guy, without combat training or the courage for that, it’s going to end differently. “It’s okay. I can handle—”

A wind blows at my ear. Maybe that’s a bash and I should stop talking until it’s time.

Grihul growls, “Fuck off her!” He rams into one of those, taking a hit on the arm. I wince when there’s a dull crack. Fuck... It can’t be his bone, right?

Please?

Grihul picks up the bat from that guy, swinging it around. “Go away!”

I remain close to Grihul’s back. With those aimless swings, it feels like he’ll smack me in the head quicker than the robbers can manage. I reach for my phone in my pocket, tapping on the emergency button. Hopefully, someone will be here to help.

I pick up a trashed can on the floor. Maybe I can help Grihul. The two other attackers slow down, watching for a gap in Grihul’s bat swings. It won’t take a spaceship scientist to figure out that Grihul has little to no idea what he is doing other than trying to smack someone with the bat.

And... It doesn’t take long before those two come at us again. I toss the can to one of them. They halt for a second and Grihul smashes him in the face.

I wince when there’s a loud cracking sound. Now, Grihul has to have broken something. That guy’s bat drops, so I snatch it and hand it to Grihul.

Now, he is half-armed with bats and with hands to spare.

The remaining guy runs to the other side of the street.

Grihul hisses and I grab his other wrist, stopping. I say, “Don’t go. Let’s retreat to the mall first.”

“Okay...” He takes a breath. “So...” He looks at the bats in his hands, which have blood stains on them. “Do I keep holding onto these? Put them onto the floor?”

I look around. It looks like we’re alone. The commotion didn’t catch attention when there was almost no one around. “Let’s... keep them with you for the moment. We’ll get out of this alley and wait for—”

The siren comes before I can finish my sentence, which means that I don’t need to explain further.

He lets out a breath and puts the bat on the floor. “I guess we’re safe now.”

“Which arm got hit?”

“Which arm?” He looks at his arms as if he has forgotten about it. But I think I saw what I saw.

“One of them got you when you tried to protect me.”

He winces and his upper right arm twitches. “I think it’s this one.”

“How do you not know which got hurt?”

“Because... it didn’t hurt for a bit, until now.” He grimaces and his face turns pale. It is dark, but his arm is surely bruised.

It hurts me to watch him in pain, but I don’t know what I can do to help him...

I reach a finger to his arm, but he pulls away. I sigh. “You know what? Maybe you’re a strong and big kot’oll, but it doesn’t mean you should take a blow just like that.”

“My other arms are busy fighting them. And you were there...”

I hug him. “Thank you. I think I owe you some more. If it weren’t for me...”

“Hey! We don’t know what happened.”

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