Page 17 of Fated to the Alien Protector

She laughs softly. “Maybe a little bit better than I expected.”

“I will take it.”

Once I have the dreri slung over my shoulders, I glance at Abby. “Grab your spear, and let us see if we can track the other.”

She hurries to her weapon, and after she has secured it, I fist mine and take off after our missing prey. The quiet surrounding us is a comfortable one. Perhaps a first. I do not sense the usual anger or wariness from her that I have in all our past interactions. She has lowered her guard, it would appear. At least for now anyway. A victory I will relish for as long as I can.

Every so often, I stop and kneel to search the ground. In quiet tones, I point out tracks and broken twigs that indicate we are heading the right way. We continue walking as the sun moves across the sky. Abby keeps up well, not once lagging behind. There is a break in the trees up ahead, and there, in the bari field are several dreri. I am unable to tell if any are the one we seek, but it does not matter.

I gently place the animal I carry on the forest floor and pause for a moment to check the wind direction. It will do us no good to warn of our arrival too soon. I caution Abby to remain quiet and to tread silently, and she follows in my footsteps, not making a sound, as we make our way to the other side of the small herd. I will need to praise her skills when we have collected our kills.

We move slowly forward until we are within range, and I signal for Abby to strike. For the second time, we release our spears. Again, mine hits its target and hers does not, however she is much closer than before. The remaining dreri scatter.

“This is such bullshit,” she growls.

“It is not your fault. Your throw was a good one. If your spear had been lighter I am certain you would have hit your target.”

She fists her hips. “You’re just trying to make me feel better, aren’t you?”

I lay my hand over my heart. “I would never lie to you, Abby.”

“You’d be the first,” she says, but quickly snaps her mouth closed and glances away as though regretting her words.

As much as I want to know what she means, I also do not want to destroy the tentative truce that seems to be building between us by pushing, so I do not ask. Instead, I offer another question.

“Have you ever used a bow? It is far lighter than the spear and you do not need to be as close to your prey. Several of the warriors use one with success. I could teach you. You may find you prefer it.”

Abby turns to me and her body relaxes as though she had been bracing herself for me to ask more questions. “Thank you. I’d like to try that.”

“You are most welcome. Now, we should return to the village with our kills before it gets too late.”

“I didn’t kill anything, so I can’t take credit.”

“We hunted together, therefore they are ours. It does not matter who brought them down.” I sling this dreri over my shoulder and head back to gather our second.

It lies where I left it, but before I can scoop it up, Abby leans down and grabs its legs. With significant effort and some time, she finally manages to heft it up and drape it over both her shoulders. She breathes heavily but grins with obvious pride at her effort.

“Let us return to the village, then.” Together, we head home.

Chapter 9

Abby

This is the first time I’ve carried a dead animal this big. Zero out of ten, do not recommend. Then again, it’s the only time I’ve had the opportunity. Carter and I had just barely managed to capture the small rabbit-like creatures and a few lucky times the little buggers that sort of resemble an alien squirrel. If the squirrel was purple with a slender, rat-like tail and possessed six legs with taloned claws, that is.

When Rojtar showed up I’d been annoyed, but I tempered my reaction because it’s not like I haven’t noticed he’s avoided me the last week since we moved to the village. It’s exactly like he said it would be. He would leave me alone once we got back there after his escort from the settlement. I honestly think him stumbling upon me today was purely accidental and not planned so I attempted to be polite.

I glance at him in front of me. The dead alien deer thing hangs over his shoulder and the muscles along his back flex with every step he takes. His tail is wrapped around the chest of the animal and I assume helps distribute some of the weight. I’m a bit envious of the ease in which he carries the thing since I’m back here huffing and puffing trying to keep up. I refuse to ask Rojtar to carry my dreri as well.

Considering he’s the one who actually killed the thing, the least I can do is haul it back to the village. I’d been so proud of myself for picking it up without help and boosting it across my shoulders, but now I might be slightly regretting being so stubborn and independent.

“Is all well, Abby?” he calls over his shoulder, like he can sense I’m struggling a little.

“I’m good.” It comes out more breathless than I hoped, but I do my best to measure each inhalation I take so he doesn’t notice I’m practically gasping for air.

“We are not far from the rear of the village.”

I don’t know what he defines as not too far, but I swear we’ve been walking for hours already. I don’t remember being this far from the village when he caught up with me. Then again, I’ve never been great with geography. Just when I’m about to ask to take a short break, one of the alien birds calls out and Rojtar answers it. The same thing happened when I approached the village looking for Carter, which means a scout has seen us. We really are close.

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