I take off my backpack and sit down on the ground. It’s all loose rocks and sand and dirt which the spaceship scraped from the bedrock and pushed into a giant heap in front of it when it crashed. I try to think about what that would be called in geology. A morune? A moraine? I’ll have to ask Eleanor when I get back.
Once more, Brank’ox remains standing up.
I squint up at him. “You know, nobody can sneak up on us up here. It’s safe to sit down.”
He looks at me for a moment, then takes his sword out of his belt, sits down beside me, and places the blade across his lap. “It’s never safe to relax in the jungle. But I suppose this may not necessarily count as the jungle.”
“Oh, it’s definitely not the jungle,” I agree, unpacking the food again. “This is the safest place on the planet right now.”
He looks confused. “It is?”
I pour water into our cups. “Yes. Because Brank’ox is here.”
I’m not sure if it makes him smile, exactly, but there is some movement around his lips.
“Sometimes the least safe place is where Brank’ox is,” he says.
I dig into the late lunch. “Oh?”
He looks away. “Yes.”
“Because you might attack someone?”
“No. Not for that reason.”
This sounds like an unburdening coming up. I should grease the gears a little.
I drain my cup of water, then pour a good amount of tequila into it. “Hey. Take this.”
He accepts the cup, but doesn’t drink from it. Well, it was a good try.
“You’re being mysterious. Should I be worried?”
“You must know that I failed your friends. But don’t be worried. I will not fail this time.”
“My friends? Oh, the thing with Mia and Eleanor? They never said you failed them.”
He shrugs. “They’re too polite to say it. Everyone is too polite and kind in that tribe. Nobody states the plain truth!” He makes a fist of his hand and pounds it on a rock.
I take a little sip of not-tequila straight from the pot. “Then what is the truth?”
“The truth is that I lost them both to dragons. I took my eyes off them, and then they were gone.”
I put a slice of smoked not-sheep filet into my mouth and chew thoughtfully. “I never heard any of them tell the story like that. They both say that it suddenly got dark and cold, there were strange noises from all over the place, and they both went into the bushes. You almost got to Eleanor, but then you were tricked by Hani’ox and he almost killed you.”
“Strange noises are no excuse. I turned my back on them at a time when I didn’t know what was going on. Being tricked by someone as simple as Hani’ox is certainly not a mark of great skill. And nobody mentions that I had nineteen men under my command. Still, I lost the two women I had been tasked with protecting.”
“Here, try a slice of not-sheep. It’s good.” I hand it over, forcing him to accept. “Weren’t there two dragons causing all kinds of commotion around you at the time? Fog as thick as granite? One of your men went crazy? The others started fighting each other, confused by the dragon’s spells? The girls were confused and got lost?” I pop another slice of meat into my mouth. It’s tender and delicious.
Brank’ox sniffs the tequila. “Perhaps. It is of no concern.”
“The girls only had themselves to thank for it.” I chew. “They were the ones who left the path because they needed to… well, they needed privacy. And you actually did save Eleanor from Hani’ox. If you hadn’t been there, she certainly would be dead now.”
Finally he looks at me, eyes black as coal and as deep as the night sky itself.
“And they both made it home,” I continue after another sip. “Married and pregnant and happy and better than ever. If you had kept them from leaving the path, we don’t know what could have happened. There was at least one aggressive dragon right by you. And another not far away. I think that you never had a chance, but that you came out of it in the best way anyone could have hoped for.”
He looks out at the view. “Possibly.”
“Oh, without a doubt. Put it behind you, Brank’ox. Nobody blames you for it. You’re a good warrior. Now, either drink that tequila, or give it back here. Some of us are starting