Abduction - Chapter 25
It’s a very fast-paced chapter. A lot happens and I did my best to make sure it ties in well with the timing of events from the previous chapters. Thanks to everyone for reading along, I’m hoping to wrap this story up fairly soon. Please feel free to leave feedback!
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This wasn’t Jebannuck’s first time aboard a hostile alien ship. Far from it. This was, however, the first time he’d ever been in a situation like this.
He didn’t know why the door to his cell suddenly opened, and at first, he was very cautious. Was someone coming in? Was this an intimidation tactic? Some sort of power play?
But nothing happened.
There were strange sounds coming from beyond the open door. Slowly, he crept toward it, waiting for something to happen. But still, nothing happened. The door was just… open.
Well, he shouldn’t be one to ask a gifted nerg where it came from. He peeked around the corner of his door. To his right, he could see the main door to the hall he had come through when he was first brought here. The guard that was supposed to be stationed at the exit was sprawled out on the floor. Just above him, perched on a bar on the wall was a creature Jebannuck had only read stories about.
Small, winged, four legs, long neck, and long shimmery blue and pink plumage. It must have been what knocked out the guard. A greable death bird. Just a small peck or scratch from it is enough to render even a large adult Biet unconscious for hours. More so if the spores from its feathers enter the wound. Direct or prolonged contact can be fatal.
He backed up slowly, watching the bird who stared back calmly with unblinking eyes. His foot bumped into something small and furry. He jumped. A small black and white four-legged creature was sniffing at his feet. He didn’t recognize it, but he remembered on Gamnut, Mike had described a creature from Earth that seemed very similar to this one and he did not want to be sprayed with any foul-smelling fluids.
The creature, other than the initial sniff, seemed to be completely bored by Jebannuck and wandered off to explore the rest of the cell hall with its residents. There seemed to be plenty- and not just various animals, but also a few other prisoners were starting to investigate why the doors were open. Including Jebannuck, there appeared to be six in total.
“Do you know what’s going on?” A sturdy, orange, bi-pedal alien asked aloud. A few of the other prisoners chimed that they didn’t. A few let out alarmed squawks or shrill chirps as they noticed the various creatures who were now also starting to come out to explore their open doors.
A buggish-looking alien - a Mahben Jeb realized, motioned to him, “You’re a Sefra? You, you’re from the Galactic Confederation?”
“Yes, Jebannuck Sefra, chief security officer for the ESS Gladius. And you?”
“Mahben Glaykur. I was part of the engineering crew for the… well for the former ESS Sicatna. Our ship was destroyed, but a few of my crewmates and I survived in a sealed-off section of the ship in the attack, but,” he looked around at the other prisoners, “I don’t see them here.”
Jebannuck took another look around at the other four prisoners. They weren’t from races in the Galactic Confederation. One wasn’t even one he recognized as a member of the Burnti Empire. They seemed to understand what was being said though if their large tufted ears that seemed to be twitching and following their conversations were anything to go by.
The orange alien- a kalot- who had spoken before stepped towards them. “They’re likely being held in another sector. I would worry more about yourself now though. Our first priority should be getting out of here.” Jebannuck studied the kalot. They were a race of sturdy, warm-blooded bipeds whose small planet was one of the original members of the Burnti Solar Alliance which later grew to become the Burnti Empire. What was he doing in the brig?
The kalot must have noticed Jebannuck’s attention. He gave him a quizzical look.
Jebannuck pointed behind himself. “The control panel to open the door should be over there.” “What?” Chirruped the Mahben, “You mean right under the… is that a flargin’ greable?” “Hmmm…” The kalot turned his attention from Jebannuck to the bird in question. “I’m fairly certain it is, but that appears to be our only way out.”
“Be careful,” Jebannuck warned, “Keep your distance from the… uh, specimens. I don’t know what all of them are, but they all appear to be exotic and/or dangerous.”
As if to emphasize his point, a new creature lumbered out of its cell to enter the short corridor. Jebannuck froze. He didn’t need any explanations or zoological descriptions to know that this creature was dangerous. It screamed dangerous. It was massive. Tall muscular legs ended in sharp-looking hooves. There were what looked like small trees growing from the top of its long head. It stared at them all as if sizing them up.
The rest of the group turned to look back at what Jebannuck was staring at. There was a collective gasp. Glaykur looked like he was going to pass out.
Jebannuck glanced between the hulking brown beast and the door, or more specifically, the greable above the door. Instinctively, he reached for his blaster. It was, of course, not there. Mentally cursing the Burnti for the millionth time, Jebannuck steadied himself and tensed his muscles as he squared up to the large creature in the back.
“I need everyone to, very carefully, step into the closest open cell,” Jeb kept his voice as low and calm as possible. The other prisoners looked nervously between them before following his orders very slowly.
The shaggy beast watched them all until it was only Jebannuck left in its sights. Its hairy brown ears flicked angrily and it threw its head back, its massive antlers connecting with the ceiling, leaving a hole in the otherwise pristine architecture.
Jebannuck lowered his stance, steadying himself in the center of the corridor. “This had better work,” He muttered to himself. The beast bellowed at him. It sounded like a mix between a roar and a saw motor revving. His legs nearly melted like sarrot jelly, but he held his bearings as he filled his lungs to their maximum capacity and yelled back at the huge creature.
The massive antlers were lowered to Jeb’s eye level and the whole, colossal mass started moving toward him at a speed he didn’t think was possible.
There was a moment, just a brief moment when Jebannuck’s mind seemed to pause time. He couldn’t move. He couldn’t breathe. He could only stare forward in terror as his mind thought calmly and quietly, “This is the last thing I’ll see before I die.”
And the moment passed. At the last possible moment, Jebannuck could move again and he dove sideways back into the cell closest to him. The creature barrelled by, stuck in its momentum towards the door. There was a loud hollow smack, followed by cracks and creaks. Metal bent and twisted and gave away and was lost in the sound of the creature’s loud and angry bellows.
With a groan, Jebannuck rolled over and crawled to the edge of the cell. Peeking out, he looked toward the door. Or what was left of it. Metal bars bent beyond recognition. The material in between the bars was completely gone.
Frewan. That door was shot. On one hand, that was great news, but on the other hand, they had lost any hope for stealth. If only he’d been able to get to the control panel! He got to his feet and started for the door. Still, he thought, the door was open, and any nearby guards would be rather preoccupied with that raging behemoth!
He turned to look at the other prisoners behind him. He motioned for them to follow. They might not all be from the Galactic Confederation, but the fact they were here in this place meant they were no friends of the Burnti. Four followed. Which left one.
The alien whose race he didn’t recognize still stood in the corridor. Its long tail curled and flicked back and forth as it just stared at them.
“Come on,” Jebannuck gestured again. Maybe he had assumed wrong that they understood them. Had the Burnti not fitted them with an updated translator?
He stretched a hand out, taking a step back toward them. They just stared. The other prisoners were already picking their way carefully through the debris that had been the door. Thankfully, the greable seemed to have already left, so that was one less thing to worry about right now.
“Jebannuck Sefra,” Glaykur whispered loudly from the exit, “come on. They’re not coming. I don’t know if they even understand you.”
Jebannuck glanced back at him. The guard was passed out. The door was broken. The prisoners were escaping. What’s not to understand?
Still, the mysterious prisoner didn’t move.
Rolling his eyes - a very human gesture, he realized as soon as he did it- he turned back to the door. He wasn’t going to risk getting caught because of this weirdo. As soon as he was out, he noticed that the others had already taken off in different directions. Mahben Glaykur and the orange bipedal alien- the ex-Burnti officer, had waited. shifting nervously on his feet as Jebannuck caught up. He could hear the familiar bellow of the creature that had nearly killed him coming from the corridor in front of him.
Jebannuck bent to pick up a few scraps of the material that had once been the door. It was heavy but quite pliable. It could come in handy. He threw it over his shoulder and did his best to fasten it to itself so it would stay there.
“This way,” Glaykur started down the right corridor.
Jebannuck straightened up, watching Glaykur go and looking to the Kalot at his side for confirmation.
“That’s the best way to go. There should be a docking hangar not too far from here. It’s not a big one, mostly just for service craft and small ships, but it’s the best option we’ve got.” They both started running after Glaykur before he could get completely out of sight.
“That was incredibly brave, what you did back there. I thought that thing was going to kill all of us.”
Jebannuck nodded, too focused on keeping up with the scuttling Mahben ahead of them and watching out for security to form a coherent response.
“My name’s Tarbi. Kalot Tarbi Kurrenmi. I’ve been in there for megacycles, bit harsh I think, considering my only real crime was-”
Jebannuck clapped a hand over Tarbi’s mouth. His rough skin hurt a bit, but it got him to stop talking. Just ahead of them, he could hear guards coming around the corner, yelling orders and coming in at a run. Glaykur paused as well, looking back at them fearfully. Jebannuck tensed. There was nowhere to hide here, especially not for all three of them.
They didn’t have much time to think of another option as a group of four guards turned the corner and all but ran right into them. Relying on instinct and training, Jebannuck pushed Tarbi and Glaykur behind him and grabbed the nearest guard. They weren’t big - a small stocky guard with skin the texture of reddish stone- and in a fluid motion, Jebannuck spun them off the floor and threw them into the other two guards. They went down hard.
“Wow! How did you-”
Jebannuck ignored Tarbi as he narrowly dodged a blaster shot from the remaining guard. He leaped towards them, grabbing the blaster. Realizing what he was trying to do, the guard took a step back, twisting and trying to wrench the blaster back.
As they struggled over the weapon, the other guards were getting up to their feet. Before they could regain their bearings, Glaykur was on them, swinging at and biting anything he could reach.
With a bit of hesitation, Tarbi ran and jumped onto one of the guards, knocking them over a second time. He then bounced off the fallen guard’s chest and into the side of the one Jebannuck was fighting. They let go of the blaster as they fell and Jebannuck shot them and the remaining conscious guards- knocking them out cold.
“Take any weapons you can find. Quickly.” Jebannuck stepped over the fallen guards, checking around the corner as Glaykur and Tarbi rounded up an additional three blasters and a taser.
They continued on in relative silence, each armed and jumpy as a salkree in a bish factory. Thankfully, the docking hangar wasn’t too far.
“The ships are right through here.” Tarbi stepped into the alcove and started entering a series of commands into the door’s panel. “We can get one, or even one for each of us, though I assume you two are going to the same place? Wherever the Confederation retreated back to? I’ll come too. Anything beats being here, especially after everything today. There’s no way I’m getting reinstated now.” He started angrily murmuring something to himself for a moment. “Although,” the door opened with a low beep, “if we do happen to come within range of the Slarsy System, I wouldn’t mind being dropped off-”
“You two go on,” Jebannuck interrupted. “Get out of here. I have companions who are still trapped somewhere aboard this ship.”
Glaykur froze. His antennae twitched as he blinked slowly, his translucent eyelids were pulled tight in a worried expression. “I… do too. I… I should stay and find them as well. Right? We can’t-”
“You two do realize that’s not going to do you or them any good, right?” Tarbi cut in. “Best case scenario, you’re just going to get yourselves captured again and be right back where you started. That’s if you’re not killed. Trust me, you’re not going to be doing anyone any good by staying.”
Glaykur frowned at the floor, shaking his head. “I… I suppose you’re right. We can… we can go back to the Confederation Fleet and… and we can let them know. We can get help.” He looked back up, “They’ll be able to sort this all out, right?”
“Right, so let’s go.” Tarbi stepped out of the alcove and made a break for the docking bay.
Glaykur followed hesitantly, looking back to Jeb who still hadn’t moved. “Jebannuck Sefra, are you coming?”
Jeb looked at the ships just beyond the door. Already Tarbi seemed to have picked one out and was entering commands on a console that started the ship’s untethering procedures. They could do this. They could make it out of here, especially with a former Burnti officer helping.
“I can’t. Not without Mike and Wenona.” “Did you not hear us before? We can’t help them now. The best we can do is get out and get help. They’ll understand.”
“No. They wouldn’t leave me behind. I can’t leave them.” “You really believe that?”
“With every sinew of my soul. What’s more, I can’t leave them in the hands of the Burnti. Rozar has plans for the humans and I don’t trust them to be good for the rest of us.”
“They’re humans?” Jeb nodded.
Glaykur seemed to be lost in thought for a moment before nodding. “And it’s safe to assume that they’ve pack bonded with you?”
Jeb smiled.
Glaykur made a sound that was a mix between a chuckle and a sigh. “Well then, klern beyond shine for you. Or maybe for the Burnti. They’ll need all the help they can get if humans are involved.”
A loud bang made both of them jump. It was the ship’s exterior control panels. Tarbi seemed to be having a hard time with the controls and was losing patience.
Glaykur turned back to Jebannuck. “Go then. Get out of here, find your humans. Be safe.” “You as well. Stay out of view as best you can until you take off.”
They parted. Jebannuck was just a few steps around the corner when he heard guards approaching from behind. He ran, searching for another alcove or place to hide. He hoped Glaykur and Tarbi had enough sense to not be seen.
There were doors on either side of the hall. He tried the ones nearest. All locked. Between the alarm that was still blasting and the sound of approaching footsteps, Jebannuck could feel his anxiety levels rising.
What to do? Where to go? He tried one more door. It opened. He hurriedly ran in and slammed the command panel to shut behind him. It was dark, but not so dark that he couldn’t see. Several machines filled the room. He didn’t know what they were for, but he was glad of the lights and bright panels that cast a soft light throughout the entire room. The soft hum of motors was calming, but Jebannuck knew that if this room was unlocked, it would be one that the guards would check. He’d have to hide. There had to be somewhere that wouldn’t be an obvious hiding spot.
His eyes caught sight of the ventilation intake on the wall. It wasn’t very tall, but it was wide enough and low to the ground. If he could get that panel covering off, it would be the perfect spot. He searched for something, any tool he could use to loosen the panel anything he could use to pry it from the wall. He pulled open drawers, searched cabinets. Nothing. Nothing that would work, anyway.
The door beeped. Jebannuck’s breath hitched. No time to find something, he had to hide now. He ducked into a narrow space between two pieces of machinery. The opening was facing away from the door, but if the guards cared to thoroughly look through the room, there was no way he wouldn’t be found.
The door slid open. Jeb could hear three sets of footsteps enter.
“Do you really think any of them would have made it this far?” “I don’t know,” Another voice answered. “Probably not? Hey, get the lights, would you?” The room lit up outside Jeb’s hiding hole. He blinked as his eyes adjusted. “Honestly, as long as we look busy right? Checking random rooms beats staring at boiler-room readouts all cycle.”
The footsteps seemed to split up and walk around the room. Jebannuck tried crouching down in his hiding spot as much as he could. It was only a matter of micro-moortiks before they found him.
“I wish they’d given us a better sector to search though,” the first voice whined. “This is boring. I thought we were going to see some action.”
A third voice spoke up, “Calm down, Chark’s right. I mean, sure we’re on the outskirts of the search parameters, but it is a nice break to routine.”
One of the pairs of footsteps was coming around the corner. Soon they’d be passing right in front of Jebannuck’s hiding spot. This was it. Try as he might, he couldn’t crouch down anymore or make himself look any smaller. He gripped the blaster he had stolen from the guard earlier. He could take out the one coming close to him, but would he be able to get to the others before they got him? He really had backed himself into a corner this time.
He was glad he had no room to jump when an alarm suddenly went off.
BRAAAAAAA! BRAAAAAAA! BRAAAAAAA!
“What in gadring- What’s going on?”
“Hold on, let me-” the voice paused and heard muffled orders being given over a communicator. Jebannuck wished he could see what was going on. He wanted to peek around the corner, but he was not going to blow this lucky break by being spotted now.
“Right, they found them. They’re trying to steal a ship. The docking bay’s not too far from here! Let’s go!”
The footsteps ran to the door.
“This is way better than watching the boiler-room readouts!” And the door slid shut.
It took a few heartbeats, but finally, Jeb let out a sigh of relief. He all but fell out of his hiding spot and laid on his back next to the machine that had kept him safe from the guards. The alarm continued droning on, and honestly, he could think of no sound that was more beautiful right now.
He wasn’t sure how long he stayed there, it was quite a while, and by the time he got back up to his feet, the alarm stopped. He paused. Did that mean the others had been caught? He had no idea about the three that split off as soon as they were out of the prison corridor, but he hoped Glaykur and Tarbi made it off the ship. It was a long-shot for them to try. They might have had better chances if he had gone with them. He inhaled sharply at that thought.
No. No, he shouldn’t feel guilty. If he’d been there, their chances at success would have still been slim. With Tarbi, it was at least possible. Besides, Jebannuck knew if he left without Mike and Wenona, he’d never get over the disgrace of letting them down.
Who knows, maybe they did make it.
He decided to give it a few minutes before he left the room, let any chaos from before settle down. He was much more likely to sneak around the ship once the guards were back into a routine he could observe and predict. In the meantime, he searched the room for any sort of map or readout that could be useful.
It was only after it had been quiet in the hall for several moortiks that he finally opened the door. He followed in the direction the last patrol went, trusting that they would follow a route and not double back towards him. As he went, he kept a careful eye out for possible hiding spots. Thankfully, he only needed to use the improvised hiding spots once. If the guards had been paying closer attention, they would have seen him clinging on the back-side of a beam as they walked by, but they were caught up in a conversation of a show they had seen recently on the galactic stream.
He followed them, from a large distance of course, for a while before he finally broke off. If he had been following the map he had seen before as well as he thought he had, there should be a stairwell just ahead. There was also an elevator lift nearby, but he didn’t trust that no one else would be using it. As he suspected, the stairs were deserted.
From what he could tell, most of the holding cells were clustered back where he and the others had broken out earlier. There was also a main brig several levels down. He suspected that the humans wouldn’t be there. There were some large holding cells two levels up that seemed likely candidates.
He reached the door to the correct level. Ignoring the control panel, he inched the door open manually, sliding it just enough to try to tell if any guards were nearby. He couldn’t see any movement and didn’t hear any either. Careful not to jam his fingers, he released the door which slid shut before he hit the control panel for it to open all the way.
As he crept through the halls, listening for guards or patrols, Jebannuck’s mind couldn’t help but wonder. The last time he had been on an enemy ship, he had been leading a boarding party. He’d had his own weapons out and at the ready. He’d been in charge of the situation. He’d had no idea who was on that ship and how they would change him.
The fact that he was armed now did help a bit, but it wasn’t his own blaster. In fact, it was kind of awkward to handle. The grip was made for someone with much smaller hands than his. And much more-fingered hands than his - the settings were tiny and intricate! It was a struggle to keep the thing level with just three large fingers.
As he neared the spot where he was pretty sure Mike and Wenona were being kept, he slowed his pace. They’d probably be well-guarded and locked in whatever cell they were in. He had one tiny blaster.
The cell should be just around the corner now. He had to come up with a plan.
A low growl interrupted his thoughts. He froze. What. The. Frewan. Was. That? He waited. If it was a guard, they didn’t come around the corner. Quite a few species in the Burnti Empire could growl, but none of them sounded that terrifying when they did so. None that he knew of, anyway.
There was a quiet rustle and the sound of soft steps. Jebannuck tensed. This was not normal guard behavior. Something was definitely off here.
Well, at least it matched the rest of the day he was having.
He made sure his blaster was ready. Whatever was around the corner, it wasn’t going to stop him from saving his friends. He took a deep breath and jumped out around the corner, blaster aimed straight at…
“Wenona?”
The human had a blaster pointed at him. Her face softened from a hard grimace to shocked realization. Then immediately to alarm as the huge growling beast at her side lunged forward.
“No no! Down, down, down! Carson! DOWN! Come here! Heel!”
If Jebannuck’s finger hadn’t slipped on the stupid blaster trigger, he would have stunned the monster as soon as it started toward him. He’d had quite enough of huge alien creatures trying to kill him today. Instead, he lowered his weapon slightly as he watched, shocked, that Wenona could so easily call it off. It barked at him, she reached out to grab a collar around its neck and stroked its head.
“Good boy. Good boy, Carson,” Wenona holstered her blaster in a decorative sash the Burnti had given her to wear. She scratched behind the creature’s floppy ears, which stopped it from barking, but not from growling at and glaring down Jebannuck.
“Oh my gosh, Jeb, you about gave me a heart attack. What are- how the heck are you here?”
The beast at her side - Carson?- started barking again.
“Carson, down!” She looked between “Carson” and him for a second as she continued to stroke the beast’s head. “Jeb, hold on just a second, I think I’ve got an idea. Carson. Sit.” It took a few repeats of the command, but amazingly, the creature obeyed. “Stay.” Wenona took a step toward Jebannuck. “Stay.” Another two steps. A few more steps. She was right by his side in no time.
“This is Jeb.” She pointed toward Jebannuck. “Jeb. He’s our friend, he’s good. We like Jeb.”
To accentuate this, she put a hand on his shoulder. “Friend. Good. Good Jeb.”Wenona paused and turned to look at Jebannuck. She seemed to be thinking about something intently for a few seconds before pulling Jebannuck into a tight hug. He wasn’t sure what to do, so he just waited patiently. This must be a human thing. Should he do it back? Would that be awkward? He decided to give it a try, slowly embracing her back. That seemed to be the right thing to do. She released her hold and returned to her previous spot, albeit kneeling now.
“Wenona, what by all that is bright and shining is going on?”
“Jeb, meet Carson. He was abducted from Earth too. He’s a dog. He was someone’s pet, but we’ve kind of been taking care of him since we found him in Drin’s lab.” Jebannuck hadn’t heard anything so ridiculous in several megacycles. The look on his face must have said so.
“It’s okay, he’s friendly, he just needs to get to know you first,” Wenona crouched down and motioned for Jebannuck to do the same. Hesitantly, he dropped down as well.
“Hold your hand out like this so he can sniff you.” “Wenona, this seems unnecessary and unsafe.” “Just do it, he’s got to sniff you to get to know you.” Wenona whistled a sliding note to the ‘dog’. “Come Carson.”
To a mixture of Jebannuck’s surprise and panic, Carson came right at the pair of them. The only thing that kept him in place was Wenona who rested her arm over his shoulder.
“It’s okay, just… let him sniff you. He sees that I trust you, just let him sniff you.”
And sniff he did. And drool.
He growled a few times, but Wenona put a stop to it each time. She tried to get Jebannuck to pet the thing on the head, but after a few attempts were halted with growling, she thought it safer to just pet him herself while he continued to sniff. Much to Jebannuck’s relief.
Finally, Wenona decided it was good enough and stood up. Carson followed her, always staying between Jebannuck and Wenona.
Jebannuck wiped the excess drool off his arm and also rose. “Wenona, we need to go. Get Mike and we-” He stopped. He finally took in the rest of the scene in the corridor. The unconscious guard on the floor. The guard who was pacing inside the locked holding-cell with two more downed guards on the floor. Wenona looked very disheveled and seemed to be limping. And also-
“Where’s Mike?”
Wenona shrugged.
“Please tell me this is some joke.” “No. I’m convinced that wandering off is Mike’s superpower. Not even a supposed locked holding-cell doors can keep him in.” She turned to lean against the glass wall and grimaced. Carson was next to her in an instant, whining and nosing at her side.
Jebannuck frowned and stepped forward. “Wenona, what happened?” He had to push aside Carson to get closer and got growled at again for his efforts.
Wenona clenched a fist and hit the window. The thud caused the trapped guard inside to look up. Wenona’s face scrunched in pain and smoothed out as she took several deep breaths.
“I… I’m fine. It’s that idiot in there’s fault. Shot me in the side. Settings were on stun, but… dang.”
“You were shot?!”
“Yeah, I’m fine, I think I just tweaked a muscle or something, set it off again. I’m fine.”
“You were shot? And they haven’t taken you to the medics or anything? They should have checked you over before you even woke up! How long have you been in this condition? Those sick-”
“Jeb!” Wenona interrupted. “There hasn’t been any time. It happened just a bit ago when I got out.”
Jeb just stared at her. “What?”
“It was back when the alarms were going off.” Wenona still didn’t look completely steady, but she was able to straighten up again.
Jebannuck felt dumbfounded. She had… she had been shot. Stun settings or no, she should still be down and out. He held out his hands to help her get steady on her feet again. She ignored the gesture and continued to try to take a few steps unaided. Her eyes met with his. He had seen that look in those eyes before. The first time they’d met. Well, he thought, it wasn’t the same look, just similar. On the Montauk ship, there’d been fear, anger, and confusion. But there’d also been a hard-set determination. Looking in her eyes now, he realized that they had the look of a species that would out-fight and outlast anything, or pass through gadring and beyond trying.
He was once again glad to be considered a friend by one of such a race.
Still, Wenona was only able to make it a few steps before she stumbled and clutched at her side. Jeb grabbed her arm to catch her.
“Wenona, you helped me up the mountain on Gamnut 4, let me help you now.”
She took a few more deep breaths before she nodded. Carefully, he helped her wrap her arm around his shoulder so he could help her support her injured side. He was taller, so it wasn’t the most comfortable position to have to lean down, but he knew she wouldn’t want him carrying her like a youngling unless it was absolutely necessary.
Hopefully, they’d be okay like this for a while.
They were just almost to the corner when Wenona looked back and whistled again. Humans made such a weird variety of noises. “Come on Carson, let’s go find Mike.”
Jebannuck looked back as well to see the terrifying carnivore... dog... pet thing, whatever, follow. Great. Well, he thought, maybe if they ran into any more guards, they wouldn’t need to fight them. The guards would probably just turn and run.
Humans and their monster pets.
Carson bounded in front of them and started sniffing at the ground. He paced a bit back and forth until he lifted his head up and barked loudly and repeatedly. His tail smacked Jebannuck in the legs hard. It didn’t hurt, exactly, but it was surprising how much force it had behind each wag.
Wenona smiled. “I think he’s found Mike’s scent.”
****
And you guys thought I was joking about the moose comment
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