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“Right,” Grodd grunted. “Not hurt you, human.”
The big bastard had mostly gotten himself back under control. That was good.
As for the human, it was still tense and nervous, still held the knife at arm’s length, pointing it back and forth between the two ukkur to keep them at bay. But at least now they were communicating.
“What’s your name, little one?” Jagga asked.
The human hesitated a moment.
“Serenity.”
A strange name. Jagga knew it would take some practice to master the pronunciation.
“I’m Jagga,” he said. “He’s Grodd.”
“Grodd,” Grodd added, just in case Serenity had missed it.
“We want to help you,” Jagga said. “How did you end up out here alone? Don’t you have a pack or something? Other humans?”
“Help you,” Grodd echoed.
Again, the human named Serenity hesitated. Pretty amber eyes darted back and forth between the two ukkur. Finally, the knife arm dropped to the human’s side. It took the device from its ear and held it out.
As Jagga took the offered device, their fingers brushed, and he felt a tingle of electricity pass between them, just like the shock he had felt a few moments ago when their eyes had first met. The human shivered.
Jagga looked at the device doubtfully.
It was definitely crafted by nith hands. He didn’t like that. But Serenity had shown trust by lowering the knife. Now it was Jagga’s turn to reciprocate that trust.
He placed the device onto his ear as he had seen the human do.
“I need your help,” Serenity said.
The human had spoken using its own weird language, but somehow the nith device had transformed those alien sounds into words that Jagga could understand. The ukkur grinned. As much as he hated the gods-rotted nith, he had to admit those bastards had some damn good inventions. He was a bit jealous, actually.
He turned to Grodd.
“Here, try this,” he said, slipping the device from his ear and handing it to his friend.
Grodd was even more apprehensive, but with a bit of goading, the brute attached the language device.
Jagga turned to Serenity, who was starting to look a little impatient.
“Go on, say something else.”
Serenity scowled at him, annoyed, then turned to Grodd and spoke again in that weird alien tongue.
Grodd’s jaw dropped, and his eyes went wide for a moment. Then a low rumbling growl rolled in his chest.
“Nith black magic,” he said.
Grodd wrenched the device from his ear, threw it on the ground and raised his foot. The gods-rotted bastard was going to crush the little machine under his heel!
Jagga lunged forward and shoved Grodd with all his might. The big ukkur was much stronger than him, but standing on one leg threw him off balance, and Jagga’s shove sent him stumbling backward.
“What the rot are you thinking?” Jagga said, snatching the device from the ground and shaking away the dirt.
“Nith black magic,” Grodd repeated.
