I had the oddest feeling, like something wasn’t right here. I looked to my left, and Geal was there. Huh...

  “Yiv? Helloooo? Did you hear me?” Came his voice, crisp as he sat with a paw to his cheek, looking up and over the computer screen to me across the desk. O-oh. I was in the university!

  “Y-yes! Sorry, what did you say?” I answered back.

  His voice came back, still a touch on the stuttery side as per usual but... Something still felt weird. “I asked if you had heard about the sightings along the border near the Trikua’s sector, it’s right here on the front page!”

  “Ah. No. No I hadn’t, I didn’t bother looking at that at all. Straight to work! On my ah- project. Yeah.” I lied back, I hadn’t even logged into the computer in front of me by the looks of it, whatever sort of daze that had been had really put me out of it then I guess. Whatever... I felt my paws moving up to the input board and beginning to type, my eyes flicking over the boxes as I-

  “It says here that the Bala’ur have been testing the defences near Trikua space!” I felt my eye twitch. Hhhh... He was interrupting my train of thought.

  With an annoyed flick of my tail I gave him a withering look from overtop my own computer screen, which seemed to make him retreat just a touch. “Geal... I don’t need a personal exposition box, I’m a journalist. I can find it myself.”

  He gulped back, and I set my gaze back down on the logged in system, moving to open up the news page. “W-well!” Oh for- but before I could give him a glare to shut him up properly he was on one of his runs. Best to let him tire himself out honestly. “Don’t you think it’s weird that the Bala’ur keep putting out ships to test the strongest parts of the front? The Trikua have invested monumental resources into the defence of their border outposts, with who knows how many hidden listening posts and picket fleets! By comparison if they just bothered to cross the Abyss, or even try and test at our space they’d probably have a better time of it? Or maybe that’s what they want us to think! Maybeeeee, maybe, maybe they just want to divert us away from thinking of the real target! What if they were to attack us!?”

  I felt my patience waning, not least of which because the Cyonian navy could handle more than enough of whatever they could throw, but also.... I spoke up on the rest. “You’re well aware that they haven’t bothered to conduct a real attack since before you and me were born yeah? They’re just posturing, or getting ready for some small time raid. We crippled them in the Second Coalition War. Now get back to work.” History wasn’t exactly my forte, but being a major for journalism meant knowing galactic politics to some degree. It was pretty clear to me Geal hadn’t been listening in class if he suspected the feathernecks were up to anything but trying to use Coalition space as a proving ground for their young bloods to die or run off with twenty coins or teeth or whatever primitive currency they used’s worth of treasure.

  “Well yeah, I guess. But- ah... Do you really think they’ll sit pretty forever?” Something in my gut said no, but living in constant furious fear was exactly what the second war had been all about, so I just... nodded my head.

  My own thoughts came in a measured, steady tone. By now the computer had been a bit forgotten below me. “They’ll... keep to raiding and being a nuisance until they aren’t. Then I’ll start worrying about it.”

  My eyes had gone to staring at my claws, nervously picking at them a bit. I kept doing that for a couple seconds. Then a couple more... and Geal didn’t reply oddly enough. He almost always replied, it was like a ritual for him to try and drag me into some silly conspiracy argument about this, that, or the other thing. Tonight it’d be Bala’ur, tomorrow it’d be something about the mayor being involved with the mafia.

  Still with all my musing though he didn’t reply, and... I’d nearly picked all my claws clean. Then I smelled something weird all of a sudden, like iron in the-

  With sudden seize of fear in my chest my eyes went up, ears perked to full attention. I tried to scream out but nothing came from the pitted feeling arresting the body I sat in. It was- it- it was right there! A claw had raised to point at it in accusation! My- One of the grey figures in the edges of my vision was right in front of me! Geal he- he was bitten, the savage Bala’ur’s jaw clamped around his neck and shoulder as his body slumped there in his chair, head weakly tilted off to the side as he stared at me, begging with his eyes for help as the one sound he’d made since he last spoke came through as just a wet, splotchy cough of pink blood.

  It pulled off of Geal, my classmate sagging in the side of his chair entirely as it spoke through those stained teeth. “Neirnain a yar!” Came the scratchy, horrifying growl.

  “Yivreen?” Came the questioning tone. That... that wasn’t its voice. Keick? “You’re over there whining like something got you.”

  “A... A dream. I was just- sorry.” Came my own voice, sucking in a couple more breaths as I tried to steady. I’d said it automatically, and... on inspection that seemed to be right. Maybe sleep wasn’t such a good idea anymore, at least not right now. I decided to take the watch from her after that.

  The message from my subconcious was clear enough though, I guess... I wasn’t feeling very well. Not that I’d needed a reminder.

  ___________________________________________

  “Alright, so maybe just a night or two more travelling had been a little optimistic. But we’re almost there!” I pointed my tail down at the path to one of the signs we’d been passing. Those sorts of markers denoted old sites and towns that’d dotted the landscape in this area before being overgrown. “I recognize this area! We’re nearly to the outpost. It couldn’t be more than... I don’t know a forty minute drive from here?”

  Keick’s own annoyed voice from behind me answered back. “Right, well. We’ve been out here for more than a couple nights. And that last patrol nearly sniffed us out, so I’m sorry if I tell you maybe... pathfind faster?” She was right of course, the road had gotten harder as we went. The Bala’ur had started flying ships overhead in patrolling arcs. Not that they’d ever spot a well hidden Cyonian at night with plain sight. You could never take the chance they didn’t have heat imaging or something, or so Keick had informed me. The office worker offered helpful tidbits once in a while... She- was more the outdoorsy type, and apparently thermal imaging to keep an eye out for native predators was normal even with the Rangers.

  I flicked my tail back at her in what could best be described as a yes, but it’d been snippy. With one last little hop from one branch to the next I had to stop, pulling in some air as we both plopped near the trunk of the tree. The reduced food consumption from just foraging had been starting to wane on my strength. But- luckily I did feel that slight pudge I’d been worried about on my stomach slimming out from my little wilderness vacation. Small victories! “We’ll be there by dayfall. I’m sure of it now. With any luck the food hasn’t spoiled either. The battery on the refrigeration wasn’t going to go out for another week even if the solar cells stopped working.”

  “The more you talk about your ‘once in a while going away place’ the more I’m convinced you built a cottage to live there like a hermit.” Keick managed with a shake of her head, having laid down on her chest and crossed her forepaws. Eyes flicking in the night to keep a good watch for us. “First you just popped in to look at some old files for your schooling, theeeenn it was ‘oh there’s a big ol sleeping roll’ and now its ‘oh, and a fridge with solar panels to keep it running.’ Mmh?” She tsk’d me.

  Being my senior, that sort of talk miiiight have sounded a bit mean spirited coming from her, but I knew my companion was tired and scared. I’d grown to feel that when she most stressed she usually just tried to find a vine to yank to keep her mind occupied. “Alright well maybe I liked staying overday, or two, or three. It was relaxing to work when I had all the ambient noise. It was like a... refreshing break from the city.”

  She’d stared back a moment. “You are such a concrete jungler. An introverted one, but a concrete jungler.” She gave a lazy drop of her head on top of those crossed paws to look at me from that laying prone position like some smug little-

  “Look who’s talking!” I answered back with some mock offense. Just because she was more the outdoors type didn’t mean I was just some city-type!... Entirely. Even if part of the reason I liked going out on my trips to the outposts was because being away from the press of people decompressed me- Forget it! I was reading into it too much. “I’m sorry we got a bit off track yesternight. The auhh... The path was a bit wonky.” I tried to go back to what she’d actually been worried about instead of taking more of her bait.

  She bobbed her tail in acknowledgement. “I know. I’d just like to eat something other than the generous offerings of the woodlands.” OK, Fair. I felt the same way. With a slump into the trunk behind me I tried to think. What had I left in there? “There’s a couple frozen fruits, bread, auhh- probably some nuts?” It’d only last a week between two Cyonians, but it’d cover some diet deficiencies we’d have otherwise. It wasn’t like we could waddle on back to the occupied territories and raid the land we’d set aside for agriculture.

  “Well good. Once we’re set up I can think about setting up a garden or something.” A garden? I felt my forward thinking consider the idea.

  “Y-you think it’ll be a growing time’s worth before we’re saved?” I asked in an uncertain tone, glancing down at the portable communicator and gun on my belt. All I got for answer was a more pointed yes bob of her tail again. Agh- that didn’t bode well, I didn’t like that idea.

  With a sigh she changed her posture, sitting with each leg over either side of the branch and setting herself upright. “You see the sky same as I do. Do you see any more flashes from the fleets fighting? What kind of ships have been passing by in the distance for the last couple nights?”

  No. I didn’t see any more flashes in the sky, not even the intermittent ones from nights ago. If any fighting was going on it was too far for us to see. And we’d only seen Bala’ur ships overhead, the ones searching for stragglers. For us. “What a moss-heap.” It was the strongest curse I could muster from my vocabulary for now.

  With that, we’d taken to a couple more minutes of small talk. Every time we got to the matter of our long term survival it always ended up depressing like that. I don’t think either of us had a plan that’d tide us through. The way it was looking the only way off planet was crammed in captivity, did... Bala’ur even take prisoners? If they did you’d probably just be waiting to die. I shivered, a claw reaching down to click on the communicator. I’d taken to checking it at least once a night and day, just letting it scan the frequencies to see if anything was going on. When nothing came on, and compounded with however many nights in a row I hadn’t heard anything, ah... I just clicked it off again in disappointment. Hearing nothing for so long was a really bad sign.

  Our trek lasted another couple hours into the night when I’d stopped, ears perking as something nearby caught on the wind. Keick had been midway through telling me about her visit to Dapo, one of our colonies. “-absolutely beautiful, but it didn’t have much forest! They had ‘prairies’ with tall grass. You believe that? Grass, bush, brush, whatever else, but no trees. Oh and before the rangers cleared some of the hunting species near the colony ground they used to be shorter than the grass and-”

  “Shh shh!” I signalled back to her with my tail and quick hiss of my voice to put the talk to an end. Ears perking as I tried to break through some of the ambient noise from the animals in the woods. I strained, and listened quiet as I could. The other Cyonian was my senior, and she’d been the one more or less teaching me about what berries we could or couldn’t eat in the woods. But- when it came to Bala’ur she was frightened, much moreso than I was. Which was saying something I supposed. Maybe it had to do with the one she’d bashed her truck into? I glanced back at her when no sounds came after a few seconds.

  From my peripheral vision my companion was wearing a mask of seriousness, watching my lead. Anxious tail flicks here and there. Good. If she could keep her cool when I was around that- that boded well. I just- it meant I couldn’t freak out like I had in the city. I had to try and be strong. Then my eyes widened, and my fur stood up when I heard it a second time! I knew it!

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  Gruff voices! Gravelly toned and predatory. I felt fear circulating in my head, but kept a lid on it. Even as the wisps of fog in the corners of my mind tried to summon up those ghostly figures to hiss into my ears with false promises of death like they had in the city. No! I needed to concentrate on the real ones. I heard... what sounded like a belly laugh, and then a thud.

  “We’ll go around.” I murmured quietly, already turning around to go back the way we’d came, we could bypass the road for a little while and then cut back toward it- then I heard the wail of a higher pitch as another thud sounded. “Obelisk’s mercy-” No. Swamp leeches no! Did they have someone? My brow folded inwards and I felt pain for their suffering hollowing out my mind. I opened my mouth to speak to Keick but nothing came out, my face must have spoken enough words though.

  “Yiv. It couldn’t hurt to look right?” She seemed to realize what she’d said. “I mean it will hurt, but- you killed one of them didn’t you? Maybe we can help.”

  “What?...”

  But- was she just volunteering that I do something!?

  I signalled my tail in a round arc to tell her just how much the idea agitated me! We’d get ourselves killed! But her voice came back anyway, a paw reaching lightly to touch at my shoulder. “It could have been us, Yiv. You tried to save Els, you came down from the branches to check on me when I called to you. You don’t want to at least see if we can help?”

  Another round of talking from way off, so far I could only tell two conversation goers among the shouting of the distant disturbance. When Bala’ur wanted to be sneaky they sure could, but this was not one of those times evidently. I felt my mind agreeing with Keick though, the longer I simmered on it, and the more I tried to ignore those infernal whispers from the annoying fear ghosts in my head. “F-fine. Follow me, or don’t. But for the record I only helped you when I didn’t think any of them were around.”

  I turned my body back around, and with quivering trepidation began moving. The stiff feeling of my tail arching down, but staying out in a line behind me was signal enough of how nervous this whole affair made me. I kept my head partly turned to the side so one of my eyes could at least see Keick as I went. I could see she was following me, but she looked more scared than I felt.

  It was evident to me that she must have not expected me to open the invitation for her to go with me, but felt obligated since it was her that’d volunteered I do this in the first place. A roll of my eyes, somehow the social read gave me a sort of humour-born bravery. It would have been worth snickering over if this wasn’t potentially going to get us both killed.

  With a precision leap I rustled over to another tree, and another- travelling at a pace I felt was quick enough to make it before they left, but slow enough I wouldn’t risk making too much noise. Their own disturbance was closer now, even without the speaking I could hear the whimpers from my kind below. With one last little hop and grab at a thin branch I caught sight of them finally. The weave of wood under me shook, rustling some leaves around audibly thanks to my landing, but thankfully none of them looked.

  Keick was somewhere behind me, close enough to see me but not quitttte moving in to the red zone like I was. Let’s see... My eyes had trouble looking at the Feathery shapes dead-on, when I did I felt my heart hammer, and my body wanting to move. No- no darn you! I needed to see. Just- My eyes screwed shut. Breath in. OK. OK... I opened them again, ignoring the ghosts on the edges of my vision. T-three of them. One cage, holding... An amount of my people. Four? Six altogether? It was hard to tell. But one was out of the confined space, a talon’d foot planted on their chest pinning them to the ground. There was a strange but familiar smell on the air, I couldn’t place it for now though. I was too busy watching the more pressing issue.

  “Ooo~ Say it to us like you did when you were all alone huh? Tell these fine ringtails you sold them out.” What? I raised my gaze to a shadow further in the woods. They’d been hiding out at what looked like an old, camouflaged dugout den. The wooden door that’d been the entrance was busted in. That... Didn’t fill me with confidence for the safety of the outpost I was headed towards, if they were this far into the wildlands.

  The voice of the pinned Cyonian spoke up, his voice pitched even despite his choked gasps for air under that tormentors foot. Obelisk. He was just a juvenile! “I-I- I’m sorry. My-” His voice warbled with sobs and his own saliva. “-They said they’d eat me if I didn’t.” I began to close the distance. The poor guy couldn’t be blamed. The way he sounded, that clawed appendage on him was all but crushing him. No way was this happening, I couldn’t let it! I wouldn’t run! No running off like I had in the city over and over.

  The reply to the news of their ‘betrayal’ was not much. I think they were too busy considering their fates. My own heart though- Keick was right. I could and had killed these things before. I could at least do something. My mind sharpened as I turned my attention away from them and up to the path I’d take to get well above them. I slowly crawled along the slender branch, a forepaw reaching out and daintily putting my weight with practised ease from the past nights onto the tree’s neighbour. My scurrying body making it to the trunk. I was above what had been the dugout den they’d been hiding away in. With one of those things in the middle, and two standing by the cage...

  I keyed my mind back to my options. Firearm and... that’s it? What was I doing? Me? Killing three of these things? I’d killed one by accident! You’re a journalist Yivreen, a student. What were you going to do? My moment of bravado waned. I’d felt... Righteous and angry for a moment, but it slipped away as I tried to rationally come up with a plan. Obelisk no, please. I felt my ears wilt back as I watched the tormentors continue their little game, picking up the boy painfully by the tail. I looked around, come on. Something, anything to-

  I gasped ever so quietly. Wait! The smell! The smell, the smell! I sniffed, turning my head around until I could get a good beat on its direction. That smell from before! I had to just hope we had time. With a bit more noise than I’d have liked I scampered from the trunk of the tree to well out of speaking distance. My eyes scanning the forest floor until I spotted the shimmer on the ground of water reflecting off the stars. Yes! OK. OK. Watering hole, it was probably around here.

  I scanned my eyes frantically, it had to be here somewhere and- so it was! Aha! I nearly whooped! I’d never been so happy to discover the presence of a wild animal before. Laying in the underbrush was a black furred, yellow eyed Villate lightly snoozing away. How it’d not decided to investigate all the noise I’d never know. The Villete was just resting.. Mmh- I raked my mind, they were aggressive, that was true. But what did I have to lure it?

  Villate scents were something every Cyonian were exposed to in hunting drills, one of the few natural predators on the planet who would attack a Cyonian. Annnnd notoriously dangerous even to rangers in the circumstance they decided to attack. The long clawed, slim built creatures were adept at traversing dense terrain like this. They also happened to be larger than a Bala’ur, and fiercely territorial! I’d never seen one in person but that fit the description and videos. Cyonians that stayed on the ground and were dumb enough to go this deep into the wildlands without precautions were their usual victims. Villate were usually day hunters, which explained its lucid state. Hrm...

  “H-hey!” I hush whispered down at it in a call. Nothing, barely an annoyed ear flick. I squinted at it. “Hey!” I shout-whispered louder. It still didn’t move. “Stupid!” I actually snapped at it... Still nothing. Urrrgh! I reached into my hip bag, fishing around until... Mmh- Ah! I pulled out my Petelians patented “Predator Distraction RockTM”. I’d never had to use it before but- eh! The little metal thing was supposedly coated with a predator attracting pheromone when tossed. I chucked it down at the creature. The little stone audibly plomping into the ground with a thud. It raised its head and looked at it a moment, then yawned. I hated Petelians. “By the Obelisk why were we ever afraid of you lazy slugs?” I whined in frustration. THEN of course was the time I saw those two yellow eyes look right at me, forward facing, tusks visible and ears perked at me. I saw its eyes dilating. “O-oh.” Had my whine sounded like... I was injured maybe? That made sense! “H-hehe. Instructor Nars always said not to sound hurt when we could smell you.” I babble-talked down at the wild animal.

  I could feel my body giving me the same reaction I’d been getting out of the Bala’ur all week. Thankfully... Those hunting drills had better acclimated me for this flavor of terror. We’d had to see Villate in videos to make sure we wouldn’t freeze up. I could still remember the yell of my instructor. “Run! Run Yivreen don’t just stand there!” As I stared at the snarling video of one of them. Urrgh- “Thanks Nars.” I mumbled. That training had probably saved me back in the city honestly.

  I could hear another scream from the clearing behind me. Aaaa- I was out of time. At least these things couldn’t possibly climb this high, maybe if I just- My mouth gave another, much more acted out sound of whimpering pain and I turned tail and moved back the way I’d come, tree hopping again. My head tilted to keep track of its movement. It was following with a slow trot of interest, maybe anticipating that I’d fall out of the tree since I was ‘hurt.’ Good. Good Villate.

  I’d only needed one more little whine before it’d been lured into range of the clearing’s much more interesting commotion. It’s eyes finally off me and toward the noise. I’d stopped in the same tree I’d decided to seek out the creature, yes! The dumb, terrifying killing machine that would have torn my head off without a second thought was stalking behind a bush, eyeing the unfamiliar Bala’ur! Hah! Territorial! Good!

  “Please! Just put him down!” Came the call from one of the captives. He sounded... distraught. Maybe a parent? Ah- yeah no I needed to serious up.

  With a silent wish for luck I pulled Els’s gun from its holster. My body beginning to creep down the trunk of the tree on the far side from the featherneck’s eyes. Down and down.. Try not to scratch my paws too loudly on the bark. “Stop! Stop, don’t please!” Came the loud cry from the same captive, mossdung- they must have been teasing at biting him by now. Their fun was over and they were going to finally get on with it. I felt my fury returning, just- a litttleee- lower...

  I was scooting myself a couple precious hairs to the right side of the tree, anchoring my foot claws into the trunk to keep myself still as I peered from around the cylinder to see the three of them. I’d arrested my descent at about twice their height. The other two were busy watching and laughing at the ‘show’ being put on. Tch.. I raised the gun, leaning my chest on the trunk to steady myself. I’d practised using the aiming bits on top of it before. Hopefully I was a good shot? They were well within talking distance, I could do this. Aim... My hand shook with the fear I’d hidden from myself as I tried to plant the gun on the back of the tormentor’s head. “You’ll miss.” Came the call of one of those shadow voices who’d oh so helpfully decided they weren’t being ignored anymore.

  “I won’t.” I answered back in a hushed whisper. Ah- Fff- I saw one of their heads turning to look toward my direction from my insane self-talk murmuring! My paw stopped shaking as I willed myself to take the initiative before it was gone. I could feel my teeth clench in some ancient instinct and- I pulled the trigger with my index manipulator.

  The familiar shouting bark of the firearm came back to clap my ears. The orange rose of fire from its muzzle erupting as the projectile sailed. A moment later I heard a sick thunk, and saw the grasped claw on the boy go slack as the Bala’ur was felled, toppling forward to hit the dirt with a whump. “Ambush!” Howled the one who’d been just about to discover me. His rifle raising as he took to aiming at me.

  With frantic scurrying I went to climb my way up the tree on the opposite side again. Loud barking snaps of their much larger gun chucking bullets through the center of the tree like it was mulch. Some of them coming out the other side with kicked out bark and condensed wood. “We have you surrounded!” Came- was that Keick’s voice off in the distance? My scrambling was only just keeping up with the bullets shredding just below and sometimes around my tail. But the firing stopped after they’d realized another voice had joined in.

  “You ringtails! Come out or we’ll gore your friends- Agh!” I heard a piercing, terrifying growl-snarl as something leaped nearby. My own shriek of fear following after it as the default reaction to being pounced by a predator but- oh that wasn’t for me. OK. The scuffle I’d hoped would break out was in progress! At least from the sounds of it? The one I’d downed, and the subsequent confusion had helped the Villate decide to attack while they were distracted.

  I rounded the trunk to look from the side. The Bala’ur that’d been shooting at me was midway through punching and clawing at the head of the oversized jungle prowler, its sabre tusks firmly planted in his neck and dual tails lashing with agitation at the competitor that’d enter its territory. I vaguely recalled how they’d developed those biters to fight off... some allegedly larger predators they used to compete with. I shivered at the thought, something even bigger than the Villate had been out competed by them. The initiative was mine again, time to act!

  I rounded right back down the trunk and past all the newly made bullet holes head first. My controlled fall slowed by my bounding on the tree sideways until I nearly hit the ground and slowed myself to leap out from the base and toward the roof of the dugout. The laid out leaves and other camouflage over the wooden construct crackling from their dead state as I took in the sights. From up here I was about eye level with them and- yeah alright. That one was dead for sure.

  A gurgling predator laid on the ground, clutching at the massive holes in its neck. The other raising its assault rifle to shoot the now injured Villate. The missing eye on it from the revenge clawing from its first victim eliciting an angry howl. It leaped for the last remaining Bala’ur, only for it to take a full automatic blast of bullets and land in a heap against its intended target, throwing them both to the ground. “They have attack creatures!?” Came the confused conjecture from it as it tried to shove the larger, heavier body off. Much too late for it to recover though. I’d raised my pistol, fuelled with that righteous anger I’d felt for the boy’s plight. I fired again. The small clearing flashing with orange light for the forth time. I kept pulling the trigger, each shot from the little implement souring the kicking feeling in my wrists but- Obelisk I needed to be sure it was dead! I was barely aiming when the last ‘click click click’ ushered from it and I slowly lowered the gun. The feathery husk wasn’t moving, not with that many holes.

  Entire body tingling, paws shaking, my jaw trembling.. I puked. My body involuntarily keeling over and losing everything I’d eaten that night with a sick, acidic tang of victory. Three more kills to add to the tally.