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“A lot less after sex, apparently,” she said.
She frowned at me but couldn’t help the grin that spread across her face. She got the joke. She released her arms and let me take her hands again. I plucked out another half a dozen fibers before I was done with the first palm. Then I got to work on the second.
“I’m impressed you managed to get me in the cart and bring me all the way out to this barn,” I said. “How did you even know where to find it? I guess you stumbled across it?”
“No,” she said. “Klang and Trang brought us here.”
I froze in pulling the fibers out. My heart was in my throat.
“Klang and Trang?” I said. “Who are they?”
“The guys who found me trying to get you in the cart,” Maddy said. “It was a good job too because I’m not sure I would have managed without them.”
“Who are they?”
“They’re a couple of local Yayora. You know, the local little green people? They drove the cart here while I slept in the back with you. They’re really nice. I know you’ll like them.”
I’m not so sure about that.
“Are they still here?” I said.
“They’re downstairs,” Maddy said.
I crawled over to the narrow set of steps that led to the first floor. I peered over the side.
Please tell me I’m wrong…
They sat hunched around a small cooking pot. They sliced vegetables and chopped fresh meat they’d caught. It looked like a perfectly normal scene.
Unless you knew what you were looking for.
“We can get dressed and go down there,” Maddy said. “They said they would cook something while they kept watch.”
“I’m not sure that’s a good idea,” I said.
“You don’t need to be nervous. They’re lovely people. We never would have gotten here if it wasn’t for them.”
Sure. Right where they can keep an eye on us.
“We have to get out of here,” I said.
“Get out of here?” Maddy said, taken aback. “We’ve got a few more hours for you to rest before we need to make a move on the shuttlecraft. And get this, they’re contestants on this dumbass gameshow too!”
“Pack up your things. We’re leaving.”
Maddy folded her arms.
“I’m not going anywhere unless you tell me what’s going on,” she said.
“Those things down there, they’re not Yayora,” I said. “They’re Changelings.”
Maddy unfolded her arms.
“Changelings?” she said. “But they look nothing like them. Changelings are giant insects.”
“Not when they shift. They can adopt any shape similar in size to their own. That’s why they like copying other creatures like ours. Because we fit perfectly within their range.”
Maddy ran her hands through her hair.
