Rescuer by Stefanie Dawn

Author:Stefanie Dawn
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hewlett-Packard Company
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

***

As early afternoon drew near, I offered to stop and have something to eat.

“Do we need to go hunting?” she asked.

“There is likely to be herds of gorae around, but if you don’t fancy the hunt, we can find some luphers.”

She shrugged. “Sure. Whatever works.”

As we walked, I started kicking up the yellowish grasses. Tori let this go unmentioned for a while before she frowned and asked, “What are you doing?”

“Looking for signs of luphers.”

“I thought that—” I shushed her with a light hiss and a wave of my hand, and she silenced, ducking down with me when I pulled her into a crouch. “I thought we weren’t hunting,” she whispered.

“Not exactly. Luphers are too stupid to run away, but they could crush us.”

“Crush us?” Tori hissed through her teeth. “How much do you think we need to eat?”

I shushed her again, causing her to tut.

The luphers always hung around the border between the forest and the fields—another species that wasn’t native to the planet, brought here by the Moeks, though I’m not sure what they were thinking even taking them. They shared no physical characteristics with the Ghaal, so perhaps it was another move born purely from desperation. Or maybe it was a joke, a small act of rebellion. Moeks were the only ones who would help, given the no-trade rules put on the planet by the interstellar authority. Ilk suspected the Moeks grabbed random species under the guise they could be used for breeding, simply to worm more fuel and supplies from the Ghaal.

The luphers had bred quickly, apparently through asexual means, which I had never witnessed the process of. I had no qualms about killing them occasionally for food—they were large and lumbering and ate more than their share, taking it from the smaller native species. After the chemical warfare, the native species had dropped substantially in numbers. Fewer luphers taking their food was a good thing.

I slapped a hand over Tori’s mouth as she squealed when the lupher came into sight—a large yellow creature, brighter yellow than the grasses, and about up to my shoulder in height. It lumbered slowly, weaving in and out of the trees before dropping itself onto the grass with a thump and a huff from its beak.

“Vitri,” Tori hissed, grabbing my arm. “That thing is as big as a fucking car. I don’t think we need that much food. It’s like a giant beetle.”

I chuckled. “Just watch.”

With the lupher settled, I lifted my spear, hurling it toward the creature. With a sure shot, the spear hit the lupher in the side of its large body.

With barely a sound from the creature, it exploded.

“What the fuck?” Tori screamed, standing and jumping backward to avoid the rush of goop flying toward us, spreading over everything near where the lupher had been standing. “Vitri, what the actual fuck?”

I scooped up a handful of the goop, what was left of the lupher, and offered it to Tori. “Eat.”

She looked disgusted as I helped myself, sliding handfuls of the goop down my throat until I was full.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.