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It is a pleasure to hunt with Sam. She is smart and skilled and keeps up with me easily despite the brisk pace. I remember that Farli was her hunting partner until the other female returned to Croatoan. I should have realized something was odd then, that Sam would hunt with no one but Farli. It was because Farli was female and she trusted her. No male could be trusted.
The realization makes me ache, and yet…she is here with me. It is progress, even if it is slower than my hungry body and raging khui would prefer.
I follow behind Sam as she follows the trail of a large hopper. The tracks are fresh, but more snow is falling. If we do not catch it soon, we will be eating dried meat once more. She is clever and quick, though, and I am content to let her take the lead, trailing behind her simply to keep her company. She does not need me here. She can take care of herself, and yet it is nice to spend the afternoon together like this.
When she bends over to squint at a bit of spoor, her backside goes into the air and my nostrils flare at the sight. I twitch all over, my cock immediately hardening, and I adjust myself while she straightens. "We're close. This is pretty fresh."
"Excellent," I manage, hoping I sound normal.
She turns away and I press my hand to my cock, trying not to watch as her teats bounce when she jogs forward. I wonder if they are sensitive. I wonder if the tips are tight under her clothes, or soft. I wonder—
"Hey, do you see that?"
Sam's confused voice pulls me out of my drifting thoughts. I adjust myself again, this time not caring if she notices, and jog to her side. She points at something in the distance, and I follow her gaze.
I…do not know what it is. My first thought is that it looks like an egg. It is propped up against a rocky outcropping like a tumbled boulder, and the snow crusting the surface says that it has been here for a time. Yet it is far too smooth to be stone, the color of it dark and unnatural against the gray and purple outcropping. The rocks here are jagged and dangerous, and the surface of this dark thing is as perfect and smooth as a shell. It is rounded and fat on one end, but narrow on top, and it reminds me of something.
But what?
It hits me in the next moment, when Sam's footsteps slow and she clutches my arm, her nails digging into my skin. Her breath quickens, and I can tell immediately that she is terrified. "Is that..."
Now I know what it reminds me of. The smoothness and the dark color remind me of the walls at the Ancestors’ Cave. "This is a chip?"
"A ship," Sam corrects, her voice trembling. "And I don't know. It's too small to be a ship like the one we came here on, but what if it's a pod?"
"A pod," I echo. "Like the egg you hatched from? The one that makes you sleep?" I have never been able to quite picture it, and I was too young to go with the hunters when the first humans were rescued. Vektal has said that Shorshie and some of the females were in a cave with square walls, but others were in the wall—in eggs. That when Shorshie touched them, the egg cracked open and the human came spilling out instead of a yolk. The thing that Day-see arrived in did not look much like an egg. I remember thinking it looked like the raft that the islanders arrived in, but with high sides and a lid on top. Almost like a very squat hut.
This is a different shape than that, though. It is rounded, with a heavy bottom, almost like a tear drop. "Perhaps Mar-dok's friend sends more knives?" I like the idea. We can always use more of her special knives, the ones that never need sharpening. "Or more noods?"
"Noodles," Sam corrects, her tone wooden. She has not taken her eyes off of the strange thing. "This doesn't look like the trunks that Niri sends." She looks up at me, her eyes frantic. "Wh-what if it's a person inside? What if it's Brad?" A choked sob escapes her. "What if he's here to collect me?"
I touch her arm. "Sam. No one can collect you. No one can take you somewhere you do not wish to go."
"You could," she cries, a hysterical note in her voice. "You could make me! You and your khui!"
"But I will not," I remind her. I cup her chin, forcing her to look up at me. She looks frantic, her eyes wild like I have seen on Zolaya's mate when she has one of her mind-avalanches. She is not listening to reason. She is lost in terror. I think of Zolaya, and how he handles it, and I make Sam look me in the eye. "Breathe. Breathe and let us think through this."
