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He wrinkles his nose in confusion. “Not eat?”
“No!”
“Humans,” he huffs, and he sets the monkey down. It flings a rock at him and then darts up the nearest tree.
A roar blasts from the forest. I clap my hands over my ears and jump to my feet. How close was that? Ryle is at my side before I can blink, placing himself between me and the source of the noise. “Stay behind,” he says, then barks to his crewmates in their language. They reply, gesturing, sniffing the wind. We all freeze in place. What was that? The monkeys have stopped chittering and disappeared into the trees. We should take a hint. “We should go.”
“Yes. We leave.” Ryle grabs my pack in one hand and lifts me from the ground with the other. “What are you doing?” I hiss. My team watches bug-eyed as they gather their things. They’ve grown accustomed to the aliens - friendly, even - but this is a whole new dimension. We don’t like to be reminded of how much stronger they are. How easily they can throw us around. Even though I know Ryle would never hurt me or any of them, how sure are they?
“Put me down,” I say. “Ryle. Please.”
“I protect my mate.”
That earns a few more intense stares.
It takes some effort to speak. I do feel protected. I remember how carefully he shielded me when we tumbled along the mudslide. But I’m the reluctant leader of this mission. I can’t let him haul me out of danger while I leave my crew on the ground. “You can protect me on my feet. Put me down.”
I can feel him hesitate. Feel him tense. But finally he places me back down. “Animal sound is far,” he says to the group, “But we go. Now.”
No one can argue with that. We high-tail it back to the beach, watching over our shoulders the whole time. But the sound never repeats. Nothing chases us. What could have made such a noise, though? Hopefully something friendly, like an alien elephant, and not something scary, like an alien bear.
The girls pepper me with questions once we’re feeling safer near the sea. Did he ever attack me while we were alone? Is he scary? I reassure them it isn’t like that at all. Which leads them to “is he sexy,” which I’m not ready to answer. I brush them off with “he’s got different customs from us,” but that doesn’t satisfy their curiosity very much. At least they quiet down for a while. We’ve got bigger worries and more work to do.
