“Then don't stop.”
Probably the wrong thing to say. He's on me instantly, no finesse, no control. We fuck right there on the crater's edge while Sketh-kar chitter below. It's violent, desperate, his body responding to chemical commands that override everything else. When he knots, it's too fast, too hard, forcing its way inside before I'm ready.
I scream. The Sketh-kar scream back, like they're cheering.
When it's over, when his knot deflates and reason returns to his eyes, he looks horrified.
“Hurt you.”
“I'm fine.”
“Tore you. Can smell blood.”
He's right. I'm bleeding where his knot forced too quickly. But I've been bleeding for days from my feet. What's a little more?
“We need a different approach.” I watch the Sketh-kar patterns while he tends my damage with shaking hands. “They responded to you as a threat. What if they responded to me as... not a threat?”
“Absolutely not.”
“They're in mating frenzy. Everything is about sex for them right now. You're male, you're competition. I'm female. Different category.”
“They would kill you.”
“Or ignore me.” I stand, testing my legs. Sore but functional. “Let me try. You watch with the vials. If I can distract them, you collect what we need.”
“No.”
But I'm already descending. Using the same handholds he did, though my reach is shorter. The Sketh-kar notice immediately, chittering rising in pitch. But they don't charge. They observe.
I reach a ledge near several tube openings. Stay still. Let them investigate.
One approaches, flowing along the wall. This close, I can smell it. Like rotted fruit mixed with ozone. It extends something that might be a sensory organ, not quite touching me. Tasting the air around me.
The chittering changes. Becomes almost questioning.
Two more approach. Then five. Then a dozen. They surround me but don't attack. One secretes something, the liquid crystallizing as it hits air. Exactly what we need, left as some kind of offering or marking.
Above, Khor descends fast, collecting the secretions while they're distracted by me. They don't care about him anymore. All attention is on the strange female who smells like nothing they know.
“More,” Khor calls. “Need three vials full.”
I move along the ledge, drawing them with me. They follow like a tide, secreting more in response to my presence. The crystallized patterns they leave are beautiful in a toxic way, spiraling fractals that hurt to perceive directly.
Something changes in their chittering. A warning. They all retreat into tubes simultaneously.
“UP!” Khor's voice carries panic I've never heard. “NOW!”
I climb without questioning. Behind me, something else emerges from the deepest tubes. An adult Sketh-kar. The size of three young ones combined, its form so wrong my brain simply refuses to process it. I climb by touch because looking back would break my mind.
We make it over the edge as the adult reaches where I was standing. It screams, the sound a physical force that cracks stone. Then it retreats, taking its young with it.
“Three vials.” Khor shows me the collection, each one full of crystallized secretion. “Payment complete.”
“That was too easy.”
“Easy? You were surrounded by things that eat their mates after breeding.”
“But they didn't. They were... curious.”
