my weapon from one target to the next faster than I have on my best day, it’s simply not enough. They begin bearing down on us. We’re still at lease twenty paces from the pool and two have dropped down between us and the water.
Suddenly, a deafening roar splits the air and another Sonarian comes rolling into the mix, slamming his head into one after another of his brethren. I recognize him as the one we captured. I can tell because he’s clean and his eyes have been repaired.
“The Sonarian queen commands you to leave the humans be. Stop fighting them or I will rip your throat out.” Amazingly enough, the creatures stop advancing on us. Pulling back, they sit on their haunches. Our escaped prisoner walks boldly forward. Since I don’t trust him not to eat us like he threatened when we had him in holding, I keep my weapon trained on him.
He’s not coming to talk to me, though. He walks right up to Amber and noses his face into the side of her cheek. “My Amber, you did not trust me to help you.”
She tears up, her bottom lip trembling. “You promised to take them all and you broke your promise to me.” Flicking the feline’s face away, she complains bitterly, “You never listen when I speak because you think you know better.”
Finally, a tiny golden strand slips down the Sonarian’s nose and this all begins to make a lot more sense to me. Clearly the shifter sprung the prisoner and tracked us down. “I’m listening now. Speak to me, my sweet queen.”
Her hand comes up, and the shifter jumps from the Sonarian to her finger. When her eyes close again, I know they’re having that little talk he mentioned.
Meanwhile, the Sonarian realizes he’s in control of his mouth. “You cannot kill the Sonadraid with your weak human weapons.”
“I wasn’t trying to kill them. My energy rifle is on stun.”
He makes a growly noise that seems like a laugh. “I could eat you in two bites.”
Another of the beasts moves forward, stating smugly, “It would only take me one delicious bite to finish her off.” When they all begin to argue about how many bites it would take to eat a human, I lower my weapon. They’re not even looking at me anymore, and when their debate slowly becomes heated, I realize they’re more likely to fight each other than me. As I listen to their heated exchanges, I begin to suspect this whole insistence on eating people is just something they say to be intimidating. It could even be some type of humor that got away from them.
When the escaped prisoner jumps in front of me again, I panic because I wasn’t expecting it. An image of the Sonarian queen flashes through my mind, the way she shoved the peacekeeper away. It’s a wildcard move, but I take a chance. I place my palm over the front of his face and push him away. This is a social custom they apparently recognize, because the one I push away goes meekly and rolls over on his side. “You act like a Sonarian queen. Will you be our queen?”
“As tempting as that offer is, I’m afraid you already have a queen. She’s the one that demanded we find you and bring you to safety. Even now she’s traveling vast distances through space to get to you.”
Suddenly, they’re all kinds of sit up and pay attention. Even the mangy ones move closer and lay at my feet. “Tell us more of this Sonarian Queen.”
I try to think back. “She’s really sleek and pretty. She has green eyes and will put a paw to the face of anyone who gets in her way. I saw her do it to a lawman.” They all make snorting noises that seems like another form of laughter.
I have to admit this whole situation feels surreal. “She wants to know how you came to be so far from your home world and what became of the Moltan that abducted you.”
Scratching behind one ear, one of the scraggly ones comments matter-of-factly, “We ate them.”
Another adds, “They are not delicious but we no longer hunger.”
Well, that explains why they weren’t quick to attack.
Yet another one speaks. “Being hungry makes me angry.”
They’re clearly pack oriented, because others join in the conversation. One opinions, “It is better to eat an enemy than a friend.”
The Sonarians begin having a discussion about how terrible people taste. Then they talk about the