to carry the sap in. If it is the kind of sap we can use.”
I hold out my hand. “May I?”
“They’re pretty heavy.” She comes closer and clumsily hands the pots over.
I heft the stack in my hands. “Too heavy for you to carry all the way, especially if you fill them with fluid. And I need my hands free in case we’re attacked. Wait here.”
I march off to the hut I share with three other warriors, retrieve my own backpack, and return to Dolly. “We’ll put them in here. Do you have straps to keep the lids fastened?”
“In my pack.”
“We’ll only need them if you fill them up. Very well. Are you ready?”
She’s not smiling anymore. “Yes.”
“You walk in front where I can see you. I didn’t like that dragon.”
“Okay.”
“Remember to keep quiet.”
We walk out of the village, along the main path to the jungle that’s now so well-trodden that we don’t have to worry about the undergrowth for quite some time. It also means we can walk pretty fast.
I immediately regret making Dolly walk in front. She attracts my eyes and distracts me more than I thought she would. Her wide hips make her walk differently from any man, rolling them and creating a fluid jiggle that goes up her thighs to her round behind. Her scent fills the air so I can’t use my sense of smell to warn me of danger. But that could be my own soapy smell, too.
I know the way, although I have never before been to our destination. It is where the alien females were dropped by the Plood, and from where Dolly and many others were taken by irox and dumped in another place where they were terrorized by Troga the dragon.
It is a legendary place, the famous Bune that our shamans told so many stories about. It was a sacred place then, before the women arrived and we gradually learned that it was a spaceship and not a mountain with strange lights. It is now called Old Bune, and the upper part of that spaceship is elsewhere.
The path gets less traveled as we go on, and soon we’re walking in the raw jungle. Dolly ducks under branches and jumps over rocks, walks around bushes and sometimes looks behind her to check that I am still there. She sometimes tries a little smile, but I don’t return it. I can’t allow myself to give in to the emotions that are bubbling right under the surface, to smile back at her and to start to enjoy being with her. The jungle will kill us both if it gets the chance, but she is a much easier target for anyone with evil intentions. I must concentrate and not allow any distraction. And I must never forget my actual plan.
And yet, I can’t help taking some pleasure in wondering what exactly lies behind that coarse skin of her garment. The sheer fantasy makes my own garment feel tight in the crotch, which is a mysterious thing for a loincloth to do.
Dolly reaches a cluster of fallen trees, and instead of walking around it, she climbs up onto the nearest trunk.
In the same breath, I smell something nasty.
I draw my sword. “Stand still!”
The rekh immediately understands that its plan has failed. It comes bounding out from its nest, running on both hind legs and making right for Dolly.
She sees it and screams, but I am between her and the deadly Big in two long steps. The rekh is moving too fast to stop and only changes its direction a little. Just as I was hoping.
I swing the sword and take the attacker’s head off in one mighty slash. Cold blood sprays me as the rekh continues running, even without its head on. The body crashes into the heap of fallen trees and falls to the side.
I look around quickly, ready for more attackers. But none are following.
Dolly is still standing on top of the trunk, stiff and pale, a red splash of rekh blood up one leg.
I grab around her waist and lift her down. “Sorry about that. I smelled it too late.”
“It… it’s fine,” she stutters as I gently set her down on the ground. “You took care of it.”
“Eventually,” I agree between clenched teeth. “I fear I was never the best guide in the jungle. Let’s put this place behind us. Rekh like to hunt in packs, and the nest you smell may be home to more of them.”