Liz and Jakob treaded softly through the rolling hills of snow. With rifles in their hands, they kept an eye out for each other as they moved from one rust red tree to another. Neither had said a word for hours mindful of the unseen pack of Syn roaming somewhere around them.

  “Hey!” a voice carried over the wind. Jakob came to a stop as Liz shielded her eyes from the glare and spotted a figure waving at them from a hill.

  “That must be him!” she blurted out. Jakob scolded her and ran towards Taylor as he stumbled down towards them.

  “I’m so glad I found you guys!” Taylor exclaimed happily as Jakob walked right up to him and struck him in the gut with the butt of his plasma rifle. Taylor fell back in the snow with a pained grunt.

  “Shut up you idiot they’ll hear you!” Jakob hissed through clenched teeth. He yelped. Liz had appeared to smack Jakob in the back of the head.

  “Who?” Taylor whispered as Liz helped him back to his feet.

  “Syncline!”

  “Oh,” Taylor responded unfazed.

  “You don’t seem surprised.” Liz observed. “Have you seen them?”

  “Your Syncline? No,” Taylor said shaking his head.

  “What the hell is that supposed to mean?” Jakob said as he dragged Taylor up by the arm.

  “You’re just going to have to see for yourself.” Taylor explained with raised hands. “Just please lower your weapons ok. She means well.”

  Jakob and Liz gave each other strange looks as Taylor freed himself and turned back towards the hill to yell, “Agra you can come down now!”

  After a moment, a figure appeared at the top of the hill and waved. “I’m coming down now. I am a friend so please don’t shoot me.” Agra said. Jakob and Liz watched as the tall figure wrapped in white cloth and draped in a shawl staggered down the mountain on backwards facing legs. Agra did not haveher hood up this time and Jakob and Liz quickly realized what the tall thin figure was.

  “I don’t care what kind of trick this is but I’m killing it now,” Jakob roared as both Liz and Taylor tackled him. Agra arrived wide eyed and confused as she found Liz and Taylor tackling Jakob to the ground.

  “What’s going on?” she asked with what passed as a frown on her flat beaked face. Liz looked up almost too stunned to speak. “Oh my god,” she gasped. “Incredible.”

  “Get off me!” Jakob yelled managing to push Liz off him. He swung his gun around and depressed the trigger. Nothing happened. Taylor ran up to Agra with his hands extended and the ammo clip in his hand. “I told you not to hurt her!” he protested. Agra backed away shyly, holding her arms closed to her chest nervously. “I’m a friend honest,” she insisted softly as she hunched down to look less imposing.

  Liz was quickly on her feet and in Agra’s face. “Incredible,” she muttered again.

  “Get away from it!” Jakob growled as he reached for the ammo clip on his belt.

  “Try it buster!” Liz threatened with her own rifle. “Do you realize what this represents?”

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  “I know what it is.” Jakob pointed angrily. “I say we kill it now before the others find us.”

  Something changed in Agra. She stood back up with fury in her eyes. Throwing both Taylor and Liz aside she lunged towards Jakob. He quickly shoved the clip into his rifle and sent a shot fizzling past her head before she grabbed him. Ripping the gun from his hand and casting it into the snow Agra held Jakob off the ground by his collar with her clawed hands. Her beaked face quivered angrily as it unfolded into four separate plates revealing her clicking mandibles. Jakob struggled in her grasp as the other pounced on her. “Agra what are you doing?”

  “Others? You led them here?” she hissed at Jakob covering him in spittle. He struggled to breath let alone speak as she shook him. “You brought more of my kind to this place? Answer me Human!”

  “Agra manners,” pleaded Taylor as Liz pulled at her arms.

  As Jakob was on the verge of being choked out Agra relaxed her grip and dropped him. She blinked for a moment then clutched at her head and fell back in the snow beside Jakob. “What have I done?” she cried shaking her head. “I’m so sorry.” Taylor and Liz tried to comfort her, but she was not listening. While Agra was inconsolable Jakob staggered to his feet clutching his bruised neck and choked, “what the hell. Help me not it.”

  “I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry!” Agra continued to scream with her hands over her head.

  “Didn’t I tell you not to shoot her!” Taylor demanded.

  “The crazy thing tried to kill me!” Jakob gasped hoarsely.

  “You did try to shoot her,” Liz noted with a scowl as she continued to comfort Agra.

  “Her? Can’t you see it’s a Syn? The same scum who killed my family, killed all our families,” Jakob roared with his resurrected voice. This seemed to rouse Agra who pointed a clawed finger at him.

  “How dare you accuse me of anything!” she roared. “I am not like them. I do not deal in death! I have lived here in peace all my life. How could you lead them here?”

  “Lead? You keep saying that word. You mean from space? No, the handful of Syn now on the planet came down in one of our escape pods.” Liz explained. This calmed Agra down a bit.

  “They haven’t come in their ships?” Agra asked.

  “No,” Jakob finally confessed.

  Agra pondered this for a moment than said, “This is not so bad then. I’m sorry for overreacting.”

  “Hold on I get why we should be worried, but you? Aren’t you one of them.” Liz said quickly realizing the implications of the ongoing conversation. Excitement quickened the pace of her speech. “I can’t believe this is happening.”

  “I’m not one of them,” Agra said annoyed. “I was raised by a good man. I’m as human as you.”

  “Who?”

  “His name was Lieutenant Greg Anson.”

  “Lieutenant Greg Anson?” Liz repeated. Hadn’t she heard that name somewhere before? Agra nodded. She got back on her feet and dusted the snow off herself. Jakob kept his distance, wandering away from Agra in a hopeless attempt to find his rifle in the snow.

  “Is it really so hard to believe?” Agra asked bluntly. “Isn’t my talking to you proof enough that I was raised by a human?”

  “But how and why,” Liz asked with a captivated gasp.

  “I’m sure it’s a long interesting story,” Taylor commented with obvious wonder. Jakob scoffed.

  “It is a long story and best explained besides a warm fire,” Agra said looked towards the setting sun with a pensive humming noise. “There will be plenty of time once we get to my home. It’s a cave not far from here.” They heard Jakob grunt.

  “What was that?” Liz demanded. “Would you like to join our pleasant conversation now that we’ve all calmed down?”

  “I said why do we trust this thing?” Jakob repeated loudly. His eyes shifted from side to side at the empty snowscape around them.

  “What’s your problem Jakob?” Taylor asked. Jakob gestured at Agra.

  “Are you shitting me Elizabeth?” Jakob exploded. “Did you not see our ship destroyed and our crewmates slaughtered? Did you not see what the Syncline did to that escape pod? Agra, or whatever it calls itself, is the enemy. Who cares if it can talk or likes to play nice? We don’t need its help.”

  “Yes we do you idiot. Can’t you feel the temperature dropping? We’ll all die of exposure long before the other Syn find us. A cave sounds comfy and secure,” Liz argued.

  “Yeah, besides by tomorrow we won’t have to worry about the other Syn,” Taylor added. “The cold will kill them.”

  “I don’t know about that. My kin wear feathers same as me. They’ll be cold but I doubt they’ll die,” Agra cut in. She pinched at her cloth wrappings. “I don’t wear this to stay warm.”

  “You just like it?” Taylor asked.

  “I just don’t want to be naked,” Agra responded.

  “Your friends don’t seem to mind being naked,” Jakob pointed out rudely.

  “Didn’t she say she isn’t like them?” Liz said. “Come on Agra. Lead the way.”