Pure reflex made Morgan grab Al’s arm before he could leap at the wolf.

In the same instant, a glad cry went up from all around them at the wolf’s appearance—she supposed it had been the same with her and Al, but she had been too wet and stunned at the time to realize it.

The crowd of Stone Seekers surged forward to have a look at the newcomer, going from uncomfortably close to crushing in a matter of seconds.

Snarling in frustration and rage, Al whipped his head around. “How dare they! Why have they brought murderers here!?”

“I don’t know,” Morgan had to raise her voice to be heard. “But we’re going to find out. Stay with me.”

She and Al were both thinner than the pear-shaped Stone Seekers. Not to mention they were honored guests. When she moved to push through gaps, the larger aliens made way. They broke out of the bulk of the crowd at the back platform where the council stood, their necklaces polished to a gleam.

“What the hell is going on, Mud Bubble?” Morgan demanded, gesturing back toward the entrance pool.

The feathers stood out on Al’s frame like a frazzled cat. He looked bigger. Dangerous. His voice came out in a low hiss. “What is the meaning of this?”

“Peace, young ones,” Mud Bubble replied. “Our range is a neutral location. Those that step foot here are not allowed to conduct war. You are quite safe.”

Morgan couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “The wolves slaughtered the Yellow Crests!”

He was unconcerned. “Yes. Perhaps, like you, they are a warlike species.”

“We are nothing like them!” she snapped, though deep inside she wondered if that was true.

“You saw what they did to my people’s nests!” Al exclaimed. “Fledglings and eggs! How can you allow one of them in here?”

Mud Bubble’s snort blew a bubble out of one nostril. “Allow? They have been invited. There are many questions left over from your partial memory. These are new people with knowledge and wisdom to share. Perhaps they will be able to provide answers.”

Morgan had respected Mud Bubble for his logical mind, for his analytical nature and pursuit of knowledge. She could feel that respect crumbling away. For the first time, she looked at him and saw him for the alien that he was—a being whose basic logic and thought process was so different from hers that he must, quite literally, be from another planet.

While they spoke, the wolf paddled its way to shore in a very doglike fashion. When it reached the edge it stood to full height with water streaming down its fur. It wore no clothes… except for a single necklace strung with beautiful yellow feathers.

“Oh, God.” For a moment, Morgan thought she was to be sick right there in front of everyone. Those were the long, glorious feathers from atop a Yellow Crest’s head. The wolf wore it like a trophy.

Al growled low in his throat, a constant rumble that went on and on without needing to stop for breath.

Mud Bubble waddled forward, arms open in greeting. The crowd parted for him, opening a path between their councilor and the newcomer. Morgan and Al did not follow.

“Where are the others?” Al demanded, voice shrill.

She glanced at him. “What others?”

“The guides who led us through the cave. The ones who pulled the rope that led us through the cave.”

That’s right, she realized. When she and Al arrived, a group of helpful Stone Seekers had swum all around them in case they couldn’t make it on their own. Now, the pool was empty except for the wolf.

Where had the other Stone Seekers gone?

The wolf watched Mud Bubble’s approach with no readable expression on its face. Claws flexing at its sides, its gaze swept over the assembled Stone Seekers, and then up to the ceiling, then back again. Considering.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

Mud Bubble honked out a welcoming greeting, but the wolf paid him no heed. Instead, it tipped its head back and let out a long, ululating howl.

Then, above, muffled by yards of solid rock, other wolves howled back.

It was a signal. Morgan could feel it down to her marrow.

“Mud Bubble!” Morgan stepped forward only to have her way blocked by bulky Stone Seeker bodies. Aliens who did not understand her. “Mud Bubble, wait! It’s dangerous!”

Either he did not hear her, or did not pay her heed. Shuffling to the edge of the pool, he began again to honk out a standard greeting at the wolf, who finally leveled his gaze at him.

Al saw what was going to happen a split second before Morgan did, because he uttered an inarticulate cry.

The long claws flashed, drawing gouges into Mud Bubble’s blubbery flesh. Mud Bubble’s scream was cut short as the wolf’s took one sinuous step forward, jaws sinking into his neck. The wound was just as mortal to a Stone Seeker as to a human. Mud Bubble fell.

The crowd of Stone Seekers which, until this point, had been pressing close, recoiled both in shock and fear. Distressed honks, like human screams filled the air.

Morgan was jostled back and forth and would have lost her balance if not for Al’s steady presence.

The big gray wolf’s claws dripped pink-red with Stone Seeker blood. Mud Bubble’s blood. And behind him, the water rippled. Then other sharp wolf snouts broke the surface. Within moments, other wolves pulled themselves out of the water.

Most of the Stone Seekers, especially those with young children, fled into the multicolored pools which dotted the pathways. Some of the bigger males stayed, circling the entrance pool and gnashing their teeth together. They didn’t have natural weapons aside from their crocodile-like jaws, but they had tonnage and they looked like they meant to block the pool with their bodies alone. Brave of them.

The big gray wolf looked cool and unconcerned. It seemed to gaze through the choas and fleeing Stone Seekers, unerringly in Morgan’s direction. No, it was staring directly at Al.

Morgan gripped his arm. “Run.”

For a second, Al didn’t move. The big gray wolf used its powerful hind quarters to leap over the blockade of Stone Seekers. Several more large adults closed ranks around the wolf in an effort to contain it.

The wolf struck out, and the sounds of Stone Seeker sequels echoed bounced around the walls.

And more wolves were coming up from the pool, howling their triumph as they broke the surface of the water. This was an invitation force.

Al flinched and turned. “Run,” he agreed.

Together, they pelted away from the pool and down the twisting, nonsensical pathways. The only exit out of the city of was by the way of the pool, but that was closed to them now.

Morgan wished she had a gun. She’d even settle for a bow and arrow. Something, anything.

Mud Bubble had called humans a tool-making species, but all the tools she had with her were useless. Some seaweed paper, her mylar sleeping bag, flint, and other odds and ends. Unless she wanted to count the sewing needle in the tiny repair kit, her only weapons were a tiny box cutter and a multi-tool. And she wasn't particularly witty or inventive.

She was so screwed.

Finally, they came to a stop. The stone pathways beyond the research hive were twisting and complex, and neither one had explored them over the last week.

Al turned to her. “What do we do?”

“What? Why are you asking me?”

Al made a frustrated sound in the back of his throat. “Your people know of war. You seem to live for war. What do we do?”

She stared at him hopelessly. “I have no freakin’ idea. We… we have to get out of here.” But how? The only exit she knew about currently had wolves swimming through it. Besides, Al couldn’t swim like she could, and Morgan would not leave him behind.

Al turned away, looking back towards the direction they had come. “They must have followed me. I led them here.”

“No,” she said, not because she didn’t think it could be true—but because if it was true, that meant Al had led them through the human’s range, too. She couldn’t bear to think about that possibility. “You can't blame yourself for the actions of evil, violent people. If anything, it's Mud Bubble and the rest of the council’s fault for letting them in. You tried to warn them, Al. You showed them what they were capable of.”

“But—”

“They are aliens,” she snapped, thinking of Mud Bubble’s thirst for knowledge that went beyond reason. “Who knows why they're here? Maybe it’s part of Wolf religion to conquer other people or something. You don't know—” She stopped as an idea struck her. “Wait… Al, your people knew about the Stone Seekers.”

“Yes?”

A realization both wonderful and terrible hit her. She clutched Al’s arm, almost wavering on her feet. “They would have had to follow you across your range, mine, and that bare, blank one. There’s no way. That’s too far. But, your people—your Elders have met with the Stone Seekers before. That’s how the Wolves knew to come here. It wasn’t you.”

“But…” He trailed off. His expression went very odd, head crest raising and lowering as if denial were warring with anger. and both emotions were fighting hope. “You think someone told them about the Stone Seekers?”

“It’s a guess,” she answered, “but if it’s true, some of your people might be alive.” Alive and captured—for what purpose, Morgan didn’t really want to think about. Hopefully not feather harvesting.

The change in Al was subtle, but she’d come to know him well by now. He straightened as if an invisible weight had fallen off his shoulders. “I think you’re right.”

“I think I am, too.” She took a breath. “And that means we have to get to the Knowledge Transfer Device. Right now.”