We drag Climbers surprisingly heavy dead body with us and check on Big Archers as we dump Climbers body there. Big Archers broken bow is normal, but Big Archer have a good steel knife in a leather holster and it seems like it was brought to this planet, so we take it as I don't want to leave stuff for Violet if we have to leave this place in retreat or follow her, as she might circle back to get gear. Violet is still far away, so we pick up my surprisingly undamaged bolts before dragging Four Arms heavy body way from the water line, with his weapons. The axe is high quality bronze or something and big, so we take that and hide it in the jungle. Four Arms is a very heavy son-of-a-bitch and we decide to leave the body high on the beach, and I keep watch as Reiley carefully remove the spear line from the sand. We need to remove dangerous things that might help Violet. Violet have surfaced many more times, but Xuela have shouted that she basically seems to rest on the bottom, which is why we do this now. Violet basically just stand up and take a breath and look around, and I can just imagine what she thinks and plans. That she doesn't try to shoot Bokyli is a sign that Violet know Bokyli will be hard to hit and she have few arrows, and Bokyli is more likely to hit her. Actually, now that Violet is still, maybe have Xuela try to do a flying attack with her crossbow? Shooting through water and hitting will be hard, but since Violet is in fairly shallow water a bad hit is still a hit and wound, and Xuela can strike from above.

"A huge fish is swimming in through the inlet!"

Xuela's shout surprise me and I wonder why that is important. Oh shit! That is a fin disappearing below the surface! All the blood in the water!

"Shark! Shark!" Shit! They don't know what that word means! "Large dangerous predator fish in the water! Probably attracted by the blood! Violet might get attacked!"

We hurry along the beach towards Bokyli and Violets location, while Xuela stay high on the cliff as the lookout. It doesn't take long before the surface is broken, and in the trashing churning water Violet fights against a freaking shark thing that is probably 3 meters long! There is blood from the many stab wounds the shark gets, and Violet hurries up on the beach, bleeding from her arm and legs as the shark lets go and swims away. Yeah, her armour is tough and she might have lost her left shoulder or arm otherwise. Violet is not holding the bow and probably dropped it in the shark fight, but she have Climbers bandolier and quiver. Violet stumbles to her knee as she see us hurrying towards her and Bokyli being ready with her bow from 15 meters away. This has not been Violets day.

"Throw your weapons to the side and remove the armour!"

Violet just looks at Bokyli and towards us, and respond with something I can't hear as we run toward them. Probably cursing. I hear Bokyli command that Violet should interlock her hands on her head, which Violet do. Shit, we have a prisoner to interrogate and execute. This is a bad day. Although it could be much much worse.

"I'm willing to talk terms for oath bound servitude!"

What? Oh, yeah right. Not gonna happen. I won't trust the word of some Alien enemy raider we defeated after killing her companions. We stop as we form a line 10 meters from her. Violet repeat her offer:

"I'm willing to talk terms for oath bound servitude."

That seems almost painful for her to say, or it might just be pain from her bleeding wounds. Reiley throw cord at Violet and reply: "Slowly throw away your weapons behind your back, tie your ankles, remove the armour and then tie your wrists to the ankles, and use a noose you tighten with your mouth."

Violet start to silently comply, and she is soon sitting there in just some tunic style cloth on her upper body as she ties the noose for her wrists. We really should have made some kind of leather pouches to use on a prisoners hand since that would make it harder to escape or grip something. Most species seem to have some kind of hands with fingers, but big size and digit differences, so we might have to do two sizes and very long. Might be a good idea to loop back the excess and have them fist their hands before being tied to the wrist. Everyone is an alien so hard to know how their hands are or can do. Xuela shouts:

"Arne, the big sark fish seems to be dead and is over there on the bottom in the bloody water! There is another one circling offshore! Take the sark fish as food?"

I don't know if that is a good idea, but having a feeding frenzy in here is also bad. But I'm not too keen on wading out even in shallow water trying to see if a fucking 3 meter shark is dead, but there is no option as I need to get that bow while I still can.

"Guard Violet. I'll grab the dropped bow and test the shark deadness with the crossbow before stabbing the shark with a spear."

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The shark is dead as a door nail, and it does feel weirdly manly to drag it a shore, even though I do it with a flint tipped spear through the tail as the skin might be a problem, and I want to be as far away from the teeth as possible. It is still closer to a big shark thing than I ever been before or wanted to be. A Zoo doesn't count. But I manage to drag the heavy ass shark up on the beach before Xuela shouts that another shark is swimming in through the inlet. The shark is way too heavy to carry and hang up, so I start to gut the shark as I need more time to think, and everyone seems happy to wait for me. I've seen enough of 'Shark Week' documentaries that I sort of remember that sharks pee through their blood and skin which can make their meat taste foul. Although that might not apply for this alien shark looking thing. This is also way more meat than we will be able to eat before it goes bad and we hade limited smoking capacity, so I focus on getting good cuts while I talk to myself, just to vent.

"My life have become so weird over these last weeks. Here I am, gutting a freaking shark looking animal on a sandy beach in a jungle surrounded cove, with an alien made machete on an alien planet, being watch by four different alien species, one of whom is a prisoner. Shit, five. Damn alien bastards! It this what you want to see? People killing people. I've helped killed three alien people that hadn't done me anything. Sure, they probably wouldn't hesitate to hurt, kill or enslave us, but still. This is not the life I had planned, but you sure didn't care about that, now did you? Selfish bastards. Is it fun for you to watch intelligent beings attack and kill each other? Forcing them to fight for their survival and being eaten by large predators? That is savage. But then again I truly despise how invasive your tech in us are. We have no privacy at all. You are watching and listening as I tell you this. Even the worst criminals among Human's get privacy and are not treated like this."

Stolen novel; please report.

I finish the gutting, and take most of the shark teeth too, as they might be useful for something as they are strong and really sharp and nasty looking things. Then I bury the guts a few meters into the jungle, and it takes several trips. I'm gonna smell so bad, and I really want to take a bath, and a shower. With plenty of soap. We didn't remember to bring soap, but I wash off in puddles of a tiny stream. Reiley keeps guarding Violet while Bokyli have removed Violets stuff from her vicinity, and Bokyli have also made a fire to grill and prepare the shark meat. We need to prepare a bonfire for the three bodies too. But first I need to talk with Violet, who haven't said a word. The sun haven't cleared the mountains yet, and the cove is in the shade and quite cool, so I just sit in the sand a few meters behind Violet. She knows I'm here and my crossbow is loaded.

"What are your terms for my oath?"

"We will come to that, but I want to ask you a whole bunch of questions first. About stuff like why the ambush here, the camp you come from, the other people there, and what has happened the last weeks."

"I'll answer your questions after we have come to an agreement about my servitude and oath."

"You don't really have a strong negotiating position."

"My only negotiating power is my knowledge and servitude. If you don't accept my oath, I won't say anything even under torture, as you only seems interested in my knowledge and will probably kill me, chop my head off and burn my body once I have answered."

Violet turns her head and looks at me. I don't know how good my poker faces is for an alien, but a lot of body language seems to translate well enough, so I might as well answer her. Violet seems bad-ass enough that torture might just be a waste of time, and it's not like I want to torture her. Threatening her with a slow painful death is an option, as we might just bury her up to her head.

"You are part of a raiding group that attack one of my companions former camp, and you were here in this cove for several days in an obvious ambush. You are a killer and that is why we attacked. You are from an alien culture with other laws and traditions, and we are from alien cultures to you. Why should we trust your oath?"

"What is your name?"

"I don't know if I want to tell you that, since I sure don't trust the intentions and scheming from the Aliens you might know as The Spirits, that took us from our lives and brought us to this horrible world."

"Please?" I shake my head as a no, but that gesture might mean something else in her culture. Earth have that problem. Violet speak up while looking at me: "Might Spirits, hear my oath! I, Koru, swear to never intentionally harm this person that I am looking at, that I believe is called Arne, and I pledge my life in service, and I will follow Arne's command. Punish me with death if I break this oath or fail to uphold it!"

"Koru Weilu have pledged her life in your service, and her life is now bound by her oath."

What the hell? That is the same ethereal voice the DAB's computor use, and I see orange light making a symbol in front of Violet.

"My master, Arne Svensson. I am at your service." Violet have a wicked smug smile as she roll over her shoulder and sit facing me, before she continue to talk. "My old camps commander was a King before waking up here, and by accident he figured out that an oath like that sworn to the spirits here, truly is upheld by the spirits. I will just fall dead if I fail to uphold that oath." Shit. That means the bomb in my head or body is real. Damn Alien Bastards! "Have I already displeased my master?" Koru seems really worried, and I sure understand her after an oath like that.

"I wish you had just told me, but it confirms several suspicions that I've had, and don't like getting confirmed. So if I order you to kill yourself, you are dead?"

"Yes. I will die either by my hand, or from the Mighty Spirits punishment."

"Shit. I really really don't like to have that power as it can be misunderstood or abused. I dislike rule lawyering. Okay. Done is done. Understand this: I don't trust you, but I won't usually order you to do things, as I don't want there to be misunderstandings so you die for a stupid reason. But I will order you if I have to, and you haven't proven that letting you live is worth it yet."

Reiley cuts in: "Arne, you should order her to never harm us, to protect us, and never divulge our secrets."

"Reiley, Koru's oath is very specific and completely deadly. I don't want to order anything, exactly because she might die from accidentally breaking her oath, especially when it is very inconvenient and 'funny'. Sure, she can kill you, or cause my death to be released from her oath. But I have to be very very careful what I say to her, and I need to think a bit."

"I made a wise choice. My former commander was not this careful and wise." Koru looks pleased.

"Okay. Koru. Only if I start with the phrase 'Koru, I order you...' is what follows an oath bound order or command."

"Understood. Only if my master Arne Svensson start with the phrase 'Koru, I order you...' is the following an oath bound order or command from my master."

"If I die, are you automatically released from any orders I have previously given?"

"No. My oath was to follow Masters orders. Master being alive doesn't matter once the order is given."

Koru is smiling and it is unnerving. I don't think it's because she plans to finagle out of her oath, but more from actually being please that I am careful. She took one hell of a chance, but I guess she saw no other way out. And she is right. I would have killed her after our talk if the damn alien bastards didn't have their finger on Koru's kill button.

"Koru, I order you to tell me about all sworn oaths you are bound by."

Her smile grows wider as she replies: "I am only bound by one oath to the spirits here, which is my recent pledge to serve my master Arne Svensson."

I think for a bit about the words, before I say anything more. Translation issues might be bad.

"Koru, I order you, that you need my expressed order to severely intentionally wound me or my companions here that are; Reiley of Clan Tomol; Bokyli; Xuela Yge no Zhara."

"My masters order is understood."

"Koru, I order you, that unless I annul this order or my death was accidental, you will avenge my death and kill the one or ones responsible within 16 days."

"Understood."

"Koru, I order you, that you have to have a conversation with me no more than 8 days apart, unless I annul this order or die."

"Understood."

"Now, don't make me order you. Because I will, and I can be very inventive."

"I assume so from this conversation, and that much of this ambush and traps are further proof of my masters ingenuity and deviousness. That order about the conversation every 8 days is smart. I can't leave or silence Master to prevent receiving orders, as it will kill me. If Master hadn't added that part of death releasing me from that order, I would die within 8 days of Masters death. I thank for that kindness."

"And please don't call me master. Arne is fine."

"Understood."

"Did you old camp commander try to force deadly oaths on people in your camp?"

"Yes, but we banded together and he would die if he tried. The camp have oath bound three slaves."

"Do you have any way of knowing which orders you have to follow?"

"Yes. I can ask something like 'Mighty Spirits, which orders must I follow?' and I now hear them being spoken by their voice. If I'm about to fail an order I will get a warning."

I wait for Koru to signal the voice have stopped before I speak.

"Now, lets have answers to all those questions."

"Might I suggest that I'm untied? My legs and arms are wounded, but I can move and answer questions while I help with the chores. Help clean up and burn my former companions bodies?"

"You have no issue with their deaths?"

"None. Like most we worked together because we had to, and beside that, they were killed fairly and skilfully in a battle. My allegiance is now completely to you, Arne Svensson."

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