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“I mean, they were the number one natural predator of donen,” he said. “And they were attracted to this region because it’s where we mate. So… probably?”
“Sorry,” I whispered. “It’s my fault.”
“Hey, you know what? No more of this blame shit. It’s both of our faults. It’s no one’s fault. We’re just… we’re going to survive. And if I kill it…”
“Its pack will come.”
“We’re safe here, with the fire,” he said. “If we can get it big enough… Safe enough to get some rest.”
“We’re not sleeping with a vvoln stalking around our campfire!” I was horrified.
“It’s the best option, I think.”
“Why?”
“Well, if we kill it and run, then once its pack finds us, it’ll track us easy. And we’ll be exhausted, because we won’t have slept. So, I think we should get some rest.” He glanced at his shoulder and winced.
“Oh, stars, you got burned!” I went to him, reaching out to examine his back and shoulders.
“I’m fine.” But he let me look at him. His skin was red. There were blisters in a few places.
My fingers hovered over the wounds. “This doesn’t look good.” But I noticed that the place where he’d been scratched by the vvoln the other day was entirely closed up. It looked a fogemoon old, not a few hihors old.
“I’ve got an ointment in my pack,” he said. “It’s crazy expensive. It’s this formula that handlers get for gladiators. I’m fine. I’ll get it.” He went over to his pack.
I sat next to the fire, staring at the vvoln, which was pacing back and forth on the edge of the darkness, growling at us. I shook my head. “You know, most animals that are afraid of fire, don’t… don’t…”
“Yeah, well, that vvoln is worked up for some reason,” he said.
“I can’t sleep with that thing there.”
“We’ll sleep in shifts,” he said. “You go first.”
“No way, you go first,” I said, eyeing the vvoln. “You can go to sleep likethat.” I snapped my fingers. “It takes me a while. I’d rather get more tired.”
“Well, if you’re sure?”
“I’m not. I want to go on the record that I don’t like this.” I glanced back at him. “I guess you didn’t bring a blaster?”
“I don’t really use them,” he said. “They destroy perfectly good meat by scorching it.”
“Great,” I muttered.
“The resistance, they didn’t arm you?”
“I didn’t want to take guns from them,” I muttered. “They need them for really important missions. And this isn’t that dangerous. And… anyway, I’m not really great with blasters.”
“What’s there to be great with? You point a blaster and pull the trigger.” He was dismissive. He curled up on the other side of the fire. “Any idiot can kill anything with a blaster. It takes skill to use a bolts and bow.”
“Well, when you want things dead, blasters are handy,” I snapped.
He scoffed, arranging himself so that he was mostly on his belly, so as not to hurt his shoulder and back. He shut his eyes.
“So, when do I wake you up?” I said.
“Two hihors,” he said. “It’s not really enough sleep, but it’ll have to do.”
They were on a schedule on this planet of sleeping for four hihors after being up for eight hihors. If they were really tired, they’d get up for hihors and then sleep again when it was dark. Days here were very short. It seemed to me that they didn’t sleep nearly enough, but I’d been sleeping as much as he had now for a while, and I seemed all right.
