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Serenity grew frustrated by the ukkur’s lack of urgency. She felt the heat rising up her neck and into her face, felt her eyes stinging with helpless tears. These two ukkur had helped save Hruk. Why didn’t they seem to care about the others?
“We have to warn them right away!” Serenity blurted finally. “We have to get back to the canyon tonight! The nith could be attacking any minute…”
Jagga shook his head. “No.”
No? Did he mean that he wouldn’t help? Or did he mean the nith would not be attacking? And why was he being so infuriatingly calm? This was an emergency.
Serenity started to speak again, but before she had a chance, Jagga had slipped the nith translator away from his earlobe and tossed it across the fire to her.
Serenity caught it and reluctantly fastened it to her ear.
“Don’t worry, little human. There is still time. The nith are not planning to attack tonight.”
Serenity’s annoyance rose. Hadn’t he listened to anything she had been saying? Or maybe he thought she was lying. Jagga was obviously smart, but maybe he was a little too smart for his own good…
“How know?” Serenity asked in the ukkur-nith language.
Jagga and Grodd both smiled, apparently amused by Serenity’s bad pronunciation.
“We encountered a group of nith last night,” Jagga said. “They were in the gorge in the wasteland where you left your tattered clothes.”
For a moment, Serenity was confused.
She didn’t remember any gorge. It certainly wasn’t how she would describe the dome-shaped place where she and Hruk had spent the night. And she had no idea what Jagga meant about her clothes.
Then she remembered that Hruk had left for a little while after ripping her clothing to shreds. When he had come back, he was no longer carrying the shredded garment, which meant he had left it somewhere in the wilderness. Perhaps he had done that to trick the nith. To make them think she was dead…
Serenity felt suddenly aware of how naked she was. It was rather like one of those anxiety dreams she used to have when she was younger. The ones where she would show up to high school only to realize she wasn’t wearing any clothing. That had been a simpler time, when her nightmares had merely involved shame and embarrassment. Now her nightmares were all about getting butchered in an alien slaughterhouse.
Perched atop the mossy log, Serenity crossed her arms to cover her bare breasts and twisted her hips to hide her nethers. It didn’t do much to make her feel less exposed. If anything, it drew Grodd’s attention even more, which gave Serenity a shameful tingle of excitement.
She liked Grodd looking at her naked skin, even though she knew she should not like it. And the fact that she knew she shouldn’t like it only served to make her like it more.
God, she was a hot mess.
But she did her best to focus on what Jagga was saying. The youthful ukkur went on, explaining about the group of nith he and Grodd had encountered and killed in the previous night.
“Before we ambushed them, the nith were talking about amassing their army for a planned invasion. They said that it would happen on the night of the halfmoon, which is tomorrow night. So there is still plenty of time to get to the canyon and warn your tribe.”
Serenity breathed a sigh of relief.
Still, it made sense to get back to the canyon as quickly as possible so the tribe could have more time to plan their escape. Or their counter attack.
“But…”
Serenity struggled to find the right words in the ukkur language.
“But…time…more time…”
“Do you mean we should go back tonight to warn the tribe earlier?”
Serenity nodded, grateful that he had understood.
“No,” Jagga said. “It’s too dangerous. Beyond the river there is another wide expanse of grassland. It would be too easy for the nith to see us at night. Plus, your friend Hruk is heavy, even for big Grodd. It would be slow going. Better to wait until he’s recovered, which he should be by tomorrow.”
“One go?” Serenity asked, silently cursing her lack of ukkur language skills.
“You mean one of us should go on to the canyon alone?” Jagga shook his head. “Who would go? You can’t go by yourself. Too dangerous.”
