Morgan’s eyes snapped open and she was met with instant darkness. The outside campfires had long ago burned out, and all was quiet. A single beam of silvery light came through the partially opened doors.

Timberly shifted around, murmuring, "What's he growling about?"

"How many people are outside?" she asked Al.

That jolted Timberly awake. “Huh? People?"

“Shh!” With a quick cut-off gesture, Morgan sat up, trying to make as little noise as possible. Her eyes had adjusted just enough to identify basic shapes: They were still alone in the cargo container. She lowered her voice to a whisper. “Someone’s trying to get in.”

"A hunting pair," Al corrected. "They approached from the wrong side and are circling around."

Morgan strained to listen, but couldn't pick out any footsteps. Al's hearing was much better than hers.

Timberly went silent, listening too. Then she whispered, "Neveah and one of her friends?"

"Yeah, I think so." As silently as she could, Morgan stood and stepped to one side of the door.

Al took up a hunting position on the other, curling his tail downward to fit snugly into the corner. Timberly started to move to join them, but Morgan waved her to stay in place.

Then she looked at Al. "I don't want to hurt them, but it's okay to scare them."

He bobbed his head in a nod.

At last, she heard the crunch of a shoe against dirt and whispers, too low to make out. The door cracked open wider.

"Morgan?" called a soft, familiar voice.

"Leah?" Timberly answered in surprise.

“Leah?” Morgan echoed, straightening.

Leah was a short, mousey girl with glasses. Lower on the high school popularity scale than Morgan had been, she had been taken in by Colton's group of jocks mostly because she was smart... though she had always hung out on the edge as an outsider. Morgan wasn't too surprised to hear she had taken off with Donut's group.

Following behind her was Jacqueline, an artsy girl with a mass of curly red hair. On hearing their voices, Jacqueline surged past Leah to step fully into the container.

“You’re here!” Jacqueline gushed. “We heard you were back, but I wasn't sure I could believe it. We had to find out for ourselves."

"So, do we attack them or scare them?" Al asked.

Hearing his growling language, Jacqueline turned and let out a short scream.

Morgan shoved her back against the metal wall and slapped a hand over her mouth. "Don't!"

Say this for Jacqueline—either it was the shock of Morgan’s quick move or the fear of Al, but her scream cut off almost before it had begun. She froze.

They all waited endless seconds to see if someone would come and investigate.

Morgan's heart pounded, and she wasn't quite sure why. Colton had said there wasn't bad blood between the two villages, but she was willing to bet that it was a big no-no for people to visit in the middle of the night.

Apparently, that hadn't stopped rumors from making their way to the other village. Had Lucas heard? If so, why wasn’t he here?

Leah had frozen, too, but she had sense enough not to scream. For his part, Al looked slightly abashed he had caused a scene. He shrank back as if to make himself smaller.

Timberly pushed past them all to look out the door.

"Everything okay in there, Tim?" someone called. Probably one of the sentries.

"Yeah, sorry. Morgan had a nightmare."

“Oh, thanks," she hissed, but the sentry moved off and Timberly closed the container door so that only a crack of light showed through. Then she gave Morgan a look.

Morgan relaxed and let her hand drop from Jacquline's mouth. "Sorry, this is Al. He's my friend. Al, this is Jacqueline and Leah, from Donut's village."

Al started to bob his head in greeting but was completely taken aback when Leah rushed forward. "Oh my gosh, you're an alien, aren't you? Were you born on another planet? You look like a dinosaur—Can I shake your hand?"

Al looked startled and also like he were wondering if he should hug Leah in greeting. From behind her, Morgan held out her hand in an exaggerated pose. Al copied the gesture and Leah gripped it and pumped it enthusiastically.

"I'm Leah. It is such an honor to meet an actual alien. Are you the ones who brought us in the spaceship?"

“No, his people were brought here, same as us," Morgan said. "It's a long story. I’ll have to translate for him, but he can understand you.“

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

"Not really." Al still looked taken aback but from the way his head crest tilted almost all the way forward, he was pleased to have such a fuss made of him.

Leah also noticed the crest. "Oh wow, that is so beautiful—Uh, sorry sir, is that rude?"

“Calm down girl, you're embarrassing yourself," Timberly said.

Flushing, Leah dropped Al's hand.

In the brief silence that followed, Morgan found she couldn’t hold in her questions anymore. "How's Lucas? Is he—where is he?“

Does he hate me?

Leah turned, casting her face in the light long enough for Morgan to see her wince. "He wanted to come to see you, too. But... he can't walk all that well. The knee, you know?"

A wave of guilt swamped over her anew. “He’s at the other village, right?” She waited for Leah and Jacqueline to nod. “I want to see him. Can you show me the way there?"

"What, now?" Timberly asked, surprised.

She turned to her. "Yes, now. Everyone needs to hear what I found. Not just Colton’s group.“

Timberly shook her head. "I forgot how much you liked to stir up trouble."

"This isn't a prison. I can come and go when I want. Colton can't stop me." He'd better not even try, she silently vowed and turned to Al. "Are you up for a journey tonight?"

"Where you go, I go," he said simply.

No one but Morgan could understand him, but the human style nod he gave was clear enough.

Timberly gusted a sigh. "All right, let's go."

"You, too?" Jacqueline asked, surprised. "I thought you didn't like Donuts."

"That was Max, and like Morgan said, this isn't a prison."

Yeah, there was definitely some tension between Timberly and her boyfriend.

"Besides," Timberly added, "Last time Morgan went somewhere, she returned with a dinosaur. I don't want to miss out twice."

* * *

It wasn't hard to sneak out of the village. Yes, someone had been alerted by Jacquline's scream, but it was two or three o’clock in the morning and the "sentries" seemed to be sitting suspiciously still near the dying embers of campfire. Morgan suspected they were asleep.

Leah and Jacqueline led them out to the far side of the meadow and through the band of trees, past where the drink-water river ran through the next meadow: The same place where one of the cylindrical cake machines stood.

Morgan turned deliberately toward the device and stopped, gesturing to it. "That reminds me, every range has one of these. The cakes are specialized with nutrients for the people who live in them. Al told me you should eat one once a month."

Timberly wrinkled her nose. "I hate the taste of those things. They're like sugarless protein bars."

"Better than getting scurvy or whatever." Morgan waved her hand in front of the port and the machine obligingly spit out a dry, puck-shaped cake. Deliberately, she took a bite and handed it over to Timberly who made a face but bit as well. Leah got the next bite and Jacqueline finished off the last bit.

In the spirit of solidarity, Al dug out his own puck-like cake from one of his grass woven pockets. They were easy to miss among all his feathers.

They moved on. The moon had set, and as they walked away from the campfires the only lights came from twinkling stars above.

Morgan wasn't a big fan of the dark. This place wasn’t like Earth where the land had been long conquered before her grandparents had been born. This was wild, and possibly alien, with more wildlife noises than she was used to hearing even while staying at her dad's mountain cabin.

Plus, there was something about the quality of darkness tonight that seemed to press into her eyeballs. It made her uneasy.

To distract herself, she dropped back a few steps to walk side-by-side with Al. She nudged him with an elbow. “What do you think of my people so far?"

"You are much less warlike than I imagined," Al said promptly. "Your memories in the Stone Seeker city were filled with violence and blood."

She winced. Those had mostly been memories of movies and TV shows. She’d wanted to keep the Stone Seeker’s attention—and her access to the Device. So she’d shown the exciting stuff.

"I expected to see several fights to the death by now," Al continued. Then he paused and tilted his head to the side, considering. "My father would have pulled my tail feathers out if I ruined good meat the way you treat yours. But I think with a strong matron to lead you, you would be much like my people."

Morgan stifled a laugh. "That's... good to know. Thanks."

"What is?" Jacqueline asked loudly from ahead.

"He doesn't like the way we cook our food."

Leah fell back to join them as well. "Do you cook a different way? Or not at all, like how they do ceviche, or—”

Al stopped suddenly, causing Leah to sidestep to keep from crashing into him. He took no notice, whipping his head from side to side, feathers bristling. "There is something lurking in the trees ahead.”

Nobody but Morgan could understand his words, but his body language spoke clear enough. The group stopped, darting worried looks their way.

Morgan lowered her voice. "He says there's something in that grove."

They were skirting the edge of a line of trees. A cluster of truly massive blueberry bushes stood before it, obscuring any view of what lay beyond.

They all stopped, listening for endless seconds. Then, distinctly, a twig snapped.

"Did you hear that?" Timberly hissed.

"Everyone did. Be quiet." Morgan turned. "Al?"

Al drew great gusts of air but then shook his head in a very human-like gesture. "The wind is wrong and I'm not familiar with the plants around here."

"Deer?" Leah asked.

Morgan couldn't say why, but the hair standing on the back of her neck screamed that wasn't a deer. "I don't think—"

On the heels ofher words came a low growl from the bushes, deep and rumbling. It was the sound of a very large predator.

Al gave an alarmed squawk and Morgan grabbed his arm before he could try to leap into the air and glide away. Splitting up was a very bad idea.

"Back away, very, very slowly," Morgan said. "Keep together. Look as big as you can, and grab a stick or something in case it—” she couldn't finish. She didn’t need to.

There weren’t a lot of branches laying around. Most of the easy deadwood this close to the village had been gathered up for bonfires long before. Timberly managed to scoop up a knotty looking branch that she held like a baseball bat. Leah dug around in her pockets and pulled something out. With a click, a tiny flame leaped out. She had a lighter.

"Where did you get that?" Timberly asked.

"Donuts."

Al flinched at the fire but stayed with them as they all backed up a few more steps together.

In the new light, Morgan spied a fallen branch with dead leaves still clinging onto one end. Grabbing it, she held the leafy end to the lighter. Within moments she had a crude torch. It was a thin branch and wouldn't last long, but that wasn't the point.

The fire chased back some of the darkness beyond the blueberry bushes. A pair of blood-red eyes stared straight at them.

Jacqueline screamed and turned to run. This time, it was Timberly who grabbed her.

Morgan’s heart pounded and her throat felt dry. Holding the torch up, she took a step forward. Even with the added light, she couldn’t tell what the creature was.

A tiger? No, the eyes were too high off the ground. They hadn't seen any earth-like predators, but maybe the Makers introduced something to help with the deer population.

Besides, her heart already knew: It was an alien from another range.

Whatever it was, it didn't like Morgan getting close. The growl deepened with a clear command to back off.

"Who are you?" Morgan called. "What do you want?"

The growl stopped, the ruby-red eyes narrowed and then disappeared completely as the creature backed away. Within a few moments, it was gone.

"Morgan…” Al's voice was tight.

"I know," she said.

And she did. Judging by the height, it stood as tall as a man. Just as tall as a Blood Wolf.