Eralis could hardly believe his luck. Not only had he managed to stumble into a cave after leaving the walkway, it just happened to contain what was probably the only pilot within three hundred miles of here! The improbability of it all was nearly enough to make him laugh. Nearly.

“Let go of me!” Mik struggled against Eralis’ hold, but the Federation Agent only tightened his grip on the kid’s shirt.

“Shut up,” he snarled, continuing to limp towards the cave entrance. “Or I’ll do it for you!"

Mik’s eyes flicked downward a split second before he brought his knee up, kicking at the bandage around Eralis’ thigh.

Eralis yelped, letting go of Mik’s shirt, and doubled over, grabbing at his leg. Mik took the opportunity to dart back towards the other exit, shouting at the top of his lungs. “Rocky, Honor, help!”

Eralis growled, turned around, and lunged towards the pilot, tackling him, and throwing him to the ground. Mik scrabbled at the cave floor, trying to get out from underneath him.

Eralis’ leg throbbed, screaming for him to stop and only making him angrier. He grabbed Mik’s head and slammed his forehead into the ground. “Shut! Up!”

The pilot collapsed, stunned. Eralis groaned as he worked his way back onto his feet, his throbbing leg threatening to give out under him. He glared at the groaning figure on the ground and drove his boot into Mik’s ribs. “You’re gonna pay for that later!”

Mik curled up, coughing and trying to protect his chest, a trickle of blood running down his forehead. Eralis sneered and gripped the back of his vest, hauling him to his feet and dragging him to the entrance. It was grueling work, considering the pilot was mostly limp and Eralis’ balance was off because of his leg.

At least I won’t have to drag you the whole way, he thought, throwing Mik through the entrance and into the storm. He paused for just a moment, to retie the jacket around his mouth and nose, then plunged through as well.

For a moment he was afraid he’d lost Mik in the swirling sand. But then he stumbled across the kid, doubled over on the ground, coughing and choking on the sand filling the heated air. Eralis grabbed his collar and jerked him to his feet, dragging him back into the side of the cliff. He followed the cliff face, feeling his way with his hands until he found a slight hollow where they were a bit more protected from the storm and shoved Mik into it.

The kid collapsed against the rock, coughing violently and spitting out sand and grit. Eralis brought his face close to Mik’s so he could shout and make himself heard above the screaming wind.

“Listen to me! The only way you’re making it out of here alive is if you do as I say! Now, I’m getting off this sandy heap, and you’re going to be flying the ship! You’ll never find your way back before the storm ends, so don’t even think about trying to escape, unless you want to be turned into ash when those suns come back out! Do you understand me?”

Mik couldn’t say anything because he was still coughing and gasping for breath, but he managed to nod in answer.

“Good!” Eralis tugged on Mik’s vest. “Better put this over your nose and mouth! I don’t want you suffocating before we get to the ship!”

Mik blinked and wiped sand out of his red-rimmed eyes, nodding and removing his vest. He tied it in a similar manner to Eralis’ jacket, though far more clumsily since there were no sleeves to use as an easy starting point.

Eralis waited until it looked as though the pilot’s face and nose were sufficiently covered before jerking him back out into the storm. He didn’t want to stay too near to the village for any length of time, just in case someone decided to come looking for the kid.

Mik stumbled along behind him as he felt his way along the cliff base. It was hard to see with all the grit flying through the air, coupled with the fact that Eralis had to squint so that his eyes were nearly shut, and they stumbled into and over large bits of rubble and uneven ground. The incessant screaming of the wind was about to drive Eralis insane, and he focused on watching where he was going instead.

He tried not to get too worried as time went on and they still hadn’t found the canyon opening. It was slow going with the wind pushing against them, after all. They probably just hadn’t gotten as far from the caves as it seemed like they should have. It wouldn’t be long now.

On and on, they went, trudging through the storm, the whirling sand scraping their exposed skin raw, their clothes heavy with the weight of all the grit. On, into the storm.

Mik suddenly stopped and clutched at Eralis’ arm, bringing him to a jerking halt. The Federation Agent cursed and turned to give the kid a piece of his mind, but stopped when he heard it, too.

A low, throbbing growl pulsing through the storm, nearly hidden beneath the howling wind. He almost had to strain his ears to even make it out. There was a strange, thrumming rhythm to it, as if it wasn’t constant, but instead came and went. But in a consistent pattern.

Eralis scanned the swirling sand in a futile search for any sign of movement. Even if he could have been able to see past the wall of sand, it was nearly pitch black out there. Whatever was making that noise was completely hidden.

There was a crash of thunder and a flash of lightning illuminated the sky for a split second. Eralis felt Mik’s hand tighten on his bicep. He himself was frozen, staring upwards at the place his eyes had landed when the lightning flashed. The sand lashed his face and scraped painfully into his eyes, but he barely noticed it. He just stood there, waiting for the sky to light up again.

Finally there was another flash of lightning. For a split second it lit everything with a cold blue light, spilling around the dark silhouette of a huge form hovering in the clouds. It seemed part panther, part insectoid, with huge, canopied wings beating the air as it slowly circled the area above the two men. Then the light went out and it disappeared into the storm.

Eralis jolted into motion, stumbling forward as quickly as possible. Mik followed, keeping ahold of his shirt sleeve, and bumping into Eralis as he stumbled over rocks and loose dirt.

They ran forward, keeping one hand on the rock wall, eyes peeled for any sign of danger. The lightning flashed, and Eralis shuddered as he glanced up at the sky.

There was something out there, and it appeared to be hunting them.

Mik suddenly pulled on his arm, pointing back to a crack in the wall they had just barely missed.

Eralis turned, shoving the pilot into the crack and scrambling in after him. There was a rush of wind as something rushed by the cliff and a few rocks shuddered and clattered off of the cliff, falling to the sand below.

The two men huddled in the crack of the rock, shuddering as they heard that throbbing growl turn into an unholy shriek. The cliff shuddered again as something scraped by, sending more rocks clattering down on them.

Eralis grabbed Mik’s arm, jerking him to his feet and shouting in his face. “We can’t stay here!”

Mik nodded and began running down the canyon, one hand against the rock wall. Eralis took a quick look back at the crack, before following Mik as he heard another unholy scream rend the air.

There was no going back. All they could do was go on into the storm.

Honor held a full water skin in one hand as she watched Anaka carefully fill another skin from the water dripping off a spur of rock and into the pool below. The large cavern was surprisingly full of water. Honor had known there must be water somewhere on this world, but the size of the pool was still a great shock after seeing sand for so long.

The cavern was only about thirty feet wide, but it extended back into the darkness for what looked like a mile, though Honor knew it was probably much less. The tribesmen had rigged up a system of large, carved shells and and bowls hanging below the water that continuously dripped from the ceiling, catching as much of the precious liquid as they could. The area was lit by the flickering light from two torches set near the entrance.

“Why not take directly from the pool?” Honor asked, watching the drops trickle into the container, one after another. “Seems like it would be faster.”

“The pool is sacred.” Anaka gestured to the pool. The water was so clear, Honor couldn’t tell if the bottom was three feet down, or twelve. “The water spirit gives us enough to survive the great sunlight. We take only what we need. No more.”

“This is wise.”

“It is necessary.” Anaka pulled the newly filled water skin back from the pool and stoppered it carefully. “Without such rules, we would be unable to survive.”

Honor looked out across the pool into the black space beyond the torch light. She thought for a moment that something sparkled in the darkness, but when she looked for it again, she didn’t see anything.

Anaka bowed reverently to the clear pool, then turned towards the exit. “Come. We must get these back to the preparers. They will be wanting for water.”

Honor followed the painted woman back through the maze of tunnels. The tribe had spread out a bit now that the initial excitement had worn off, and many of them were now choosing side caves for sleeping quarters and preparing to occupy the caves until the storm passed. As a result, the main cave was much calmer now, though there were still several groups huddled around the fire pits.

Anaka led the way to the largest fire in the center of the cave, where several women were collaborating on the cooking. They had some large hunk of meat and were busy cutting it up into smaller pieces that they were mixing up with several other mysterious ingredients.

One of the women looked up and chattered excitedly with Anaka for a moment, offering her a taste of some herbal mixture. Honor gently placed her waterskin down next to one of the workstations and looked around for her companions.

Darryn was nowhere to be seen, and she assumed he had yet to return from checking on Jaxon. And Mik didn’t seem to be around, but she spotted Rocoram sitting against the wall on one side of the room. He appeared to be napping.

Honor left Anaka talking to the cooks and made her way over to where the Gath was leaning against the stone.

He didn’t open his eyes as she approached, but he appeared to notice her anyway. “Where been?”

“Refilling water skins.” Honor crouched next to him. “Where’s the kid?”

“In small front cave.” Rocoram slowly waved a hand at the exit. “Was too noisy to work.”

“Hmmmm.” Honor fingered her star pendant thoughtfully. “Perhaps I should go speak to him.”

Rocoram opened his eyes and turned his head to look at her. “Think young Mik want space.”

“He may have too much space.” Honor pulled out one of her knives and poked at the fire. “Too much time to think. He places too much guilt on his shoulders, Rocoram.”

“He young. Will bounce back.”

“Perhaps.”

“Is mostly worry. Soon Jax is fine. Mik is fine. All be fine then.”

“Likely. But he is not used to this life, my friend. He is still just a kid from one of the inner planets at heart. Not even old enough to properly remember The War. He is not used to how hard life out here can be.”

“Will adjust.” Rocoram picked up a bit of gravel. “Kids like rocks. Sometimes chip and break under pressure. But always come out stronger for it.”

Honor sighed and stared into the fire. He was probably right. It was just hard to think of Mik beating himself up in some corner by himself. She supposed it came from her training. She may have run off before she could be properly trained, but she still couldn’t help wanting to fix people. I guess my mother was right. I am a healer at heart after all.