The riders shook the water from their clothing and shed water like from a duck’s back. They got dressed and sat on the rocks around the pool, feet still in the water.

Sarah sat apart braiding her hair.

The argument had unsettled the rest of the riders. Probably as much to do with the language they had all used than the animosity which had been a bit of light relief for the group after the tension of the fight and flight.

A man walked up to him and proffered some dried meat. Peter thanked him and got an acknowledging nod in return. The others looked sidelong at the leather-like stuff while Peter chewed on the fatty meaty morsel. His mouth watered as he gnawed away at it. The thought of Breeze having at a corn cob came to him and he smiled.

When he looked up Sarah's glare had daggers.

Walt had started chewing his jerky, while Tiz soaked his in the water.

‘I don’t think that will do much good,’ said Peter. ‘You’ll just have to chomp away at it.’

Peter had just finished his when the two tied up beasts twisted around, and reared up as if to attack. A rumble of approaching riders echoed around the clearing and then the other half of the group of riders rode up, their mounts huffing and wheezing steam from their nostrils. They gave the rider-less beasts a wide birth. Then they too ran their mounts into the water and had slid off into the warm waters. Not nearly so clear as before with the mud from the beasts movements. The stink of the animals churned with the sulfurous air.

Peter led the cousins away and to the side near where the tied up beasts had settled back down. He sensed the beasts somehow missed their riders. Likely that had made them unsettled and quick tempered. The mottled yellow under the eyes of one reminded him of the skin of a leopard. He started when he realized the beast had turned and now stared at him with one eye. It turned and looked at him with its head lowered, mouth parted just enough for him to see the huge teeth.

‘Look at those chompers,’ said Tiz.

‘Yeah. It’s like T-Rex met a parrot and their baby put on yellow and black camouflage.’

‘Some baby. That thing is bigger than an elephant,’ said Walt.

‘It’s sad,’ said Peter.

‘You what?’

‘It’s lost its friend and master. Wouldn’t you be sad?’

‘Well now you mention it. I have lost my family, my friends, the comforts of home. I’m pretty damn sad too,’ said Tiz. ‘This does my head in. Look at that monster. It’s something out of nightmares, but this is no dream. Is it?’

‘No. I had a friend once who couldn’t accept ending up on another planet…’

‘And you can?’ said Jan. ‘The thing that scares me the most? That woman has been stuck here for ten years.’

‘I hate to point out, but the old Italian guy... he might’ve come here as a kid too. And look at him.’

The Italian had settled in amongst the rocks and spoke with Sarah. They both glanced up at the cousins now and again, then returned to their conversation.

Jan lowered her voice, though no one could have heard or understood her. ‘What do you think they’re talking about?’

‘How crazy the odds are Peter came here and meets an old flame,’ said Tiz.

‘She’s never…’

‘I know. But what are the chances?’ Tix asked.

‘That’s the thing,’ Peter said. ‘She thinks it’s connected, that she’s here because I’m here.’

‘How can that be?’ Tiz said shaking his head. ‘You’ve just arrived, and she’s been here ten years.’

‘Spacetime does not really work the way we think it does,’ said Peter. ‘But that doesn’t matter. She might be right. I might be the reason she came here. We left at the same point in spacetime, and now we ended up in the same place, just shifted ten years.’

Tiz opened his mouth to say something when one of the riderless beasts reared up and broke its tether. It swung its head to the closest people then took a pace forward.

The cousins froze and all stared as one at the approaching beast.

Peter had one thought.

We can run, but that monster is faster.

‘Don’t move,’ said Peter with his next thought. ‘It’s just curious.’

The beast took another pace forward and lowered its head. The rest of the humans had also stilled and watched.

‘The other beasts have their masters here,’ said Peter. ‘It’s alone and lonely, and confused. But it will be alright. She knows humans. She knows they care for her. She does not eat humans. Humans give her food to eat.’

‘Why are you still talking?’ said Jan. ‘You’re the one making it curious.’

Peter thought that too, but also that he spoke the truth. The beast’s curiousity, and hunger, and confusion had welled up until it had to take action.

Hunters were like that.

‘We should have been further away,’ said Tiz.

‘It’s okay.’ Peter stood up. ‘You three. Get behind me. And then ease back towards the others.’

The beast cocked its head at Peter’s movement. He stared back at the creature’s large eye, but small in comparison to the huge bulk of the truck-sized beast.

Peter heard the others crunch away through the snow. He lowered his head just as the beast lower hers. She opened her mouth to reveal her huge teeth. Their size and shape reminded him of the niho taniwha carved pendent around his neck. He reached down his neck and drew it out where is swung back and forth below his fist. He slid his hand down and stopped its swing.

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The beast’s gaze shifted to his.

She’s beautiful.

The yellow markings twisted across her face and down her neck. Small iridescent feathers, almost too small to see, flecked the underlying mottled grey and black skin. Peter stared at her in wonder.

Her head whipped around them. The leader of the troupe had vaulted onto his mount and urged it on towards them. In response she lowered her head until it almost touched the ground, her long neck stretched out, and she gave a rumbling warble almost like a purr.

The leader’s charging mount slid to a halt and dropped its head too, despite the urging of its rider.

Peter walked close, laid his hand on her neck, and stroked the small feathers where the formed a smooth sheen.

‘So? You’re no terrible lizard after all. Are you?’

The rest of the troupe took an intake of breath, but for Peter the risk had ended. This close to the beast it would be hard for her to get to him, she would have to spring back to bring her mouth to bear on him. Perhaps the claws though would be more dangerous. He sensed the greater danger had been when she had first approached, but she had quietened and posed no threat. Afterwards he could not quite explain how he had kept so calm.

But later again it struck him as obvious - he still had tulanvarqa. That connexion ability worked on these beasts as well as it ever had with Breeze. As it had perhaps even with Moby and the mantas.

‘Magic lives in this world too.’

‘Jan, you go talk to Sarah. She might be more willing to tell you what’s happening than to me.’

The riders had staked the great beasts in a circle facing one another, and after some discussion even the riderless mounts had been brought back into the troupe though there had been some argument at that.

The display of quiescence and submissiveness had convinced the leader to at least stake them out with the others. Peter agreed, the isolation had been enough for the riderless creatures to become unsettled. Here at least they were in the pack again.

‘Why do those huge monsters even obey the humans?’ said Walt.

‘Same as elephants, and horses, and any large animal,’ said Tiz. ‘They either bond with them, or are intimidated by them.’

And probably imprinting somehow.

But Peter did not voice that thought. Too much would need to be explained.

The afternoon had drawn on. Food had been broken out and shared. More jerky. Peter began to wish for one of his uncle’s apples. The trees at the bottom of his garden forever represented all he had lost again. The cousins had not quite accepted what had happened, but their conversations had turned to trying to understand the world rather than to just marvel at the differences.

The start of acceptance. Not that it ever really stops.

He looked for Sarah and Jan. He saw them in an animated discussion with the leader and the majordomo. The old Italian nodded and gestured net to them.

Then Sarah, Jan and the leader walked towards them. Sarah obviously not happy. But Jan had a grim smile on her face, pleased at her success perhaps. Peter did not think the news would be good.

‘It’s like we thought,’ said Jan once the group had joined Peter and the two boys. ‘They’re a raiding party. They’d been waiting for a good time to attack, and when we escaped and got into the portal building they attacked. At first they thought we were some of their friends who had been captured, but then the confusion worked to their advantage.’

Peter glanced at Sarah who looked away. She had reworked the paint on her face again, and if anything, it made her look more angry than ever.

The leader nodded. Then once Jan had stopped talking, he grunted at Sarah who made a comment in their guttural language.

Peter heard only sounds, but when the leader spoke he got more of a sense of their meaning. He concentrated and then Sarah translated into English.

‘You may stay with us,' Sarah said. 'But know that we will raid again. And it will be dangerous.’

Peter nodded with impatience. Then he turned to the leader and without thought he said, ‘Thank you. I would fight with you if I could.’

The leader started and stared at him. ’Your words are strange but the meaning is clear,’ he said. ‘What magic is this?’

Sarah grunted. ‘Drake? What did you just say? I didn’t…’

‘Not magic,’ said Peter interrupting her. ‘It is a skill I learned a long time ago, on another planet very different to this one. But I sense now that this place shares something of this trait with Eoth.’

‘What is this?’ said Sarah. ‘What language are you speaking?’

‘I am Thorn,’ he said ignoring Sarah. ‘I have heard of such. In distant parts it is said some have this gift of tongues.’

Thorn held his hand out. Peter gripped his forearm and nodded with his head bowed down.

‘You know our ways?’ said Thorn.

‘No. I saw you greet the others when you arrived. I am just a man like you, with a skill I learned in the past. Nothing more.’

‘I don’t believe this,' Sarah said. 'You’re not even speaking English, but he can understand you.’

Peter thought on that and realized he had slipped into Thaluk, the language of Eoth. It did not matter the language he spoke, tulanvarqa did the communicating. He understood them. Sarah, as nuvra, could not understand when a man raised on this planet could, just not so well as on Eoth.

‘This is freaky. How are you suddenly able to talk like that, and understand him?’ said Tiz.

‘Long story. I didn’t really want to go into it,’ Peter said in English.

He turned to Thorn. ‘Do you understand these English words?’ Thorn shook his head so Peter switched to Thaluk again. ‘I guess this is easier for you? So then, tell me of this raid, your plans, and how we can help, or at least stay out of your way.’

Sarah had stomped off. Literally. Peter had not seen anyone really do that, but the snow flew from her feet as she strode off.

Thorn chuckled. ‘That one has more spirit and determination than any of us. I am sorry for you that she has such anger for you.’

‘Yeah. Believe it friend. Me too.’

Peter learned that the aliens had taken the village from them the previous year. The aliens had destroyed a temple and built their new building over the ruins while occupying the rest.

The land around the village in the summer had been rich and well watered. It allowed the tribe to grow food during the summer. Then in the winter they would take their beasts to find grazing under the snow in the lower valleys. Until the aliens had taken their summer land from them.

Now they had reverted to a nomadic existence, but they could not get enough food and forage. Instead they subsisted on meat from their herd beasts and had gathered a force of mounts in which to both travel on but to also protect themselves from rivals and the aliens.

‘It is a hard life moving from camp to camp. And each month the aliens increase in number.’

‘On each full moon?’ Peter said.

‘Yes. That is why we attacked when we did, just after full moon. Do you know from where they come and how they arrive from nowhere into that building?’

‘No. But somehow I must have been brought from my world at the full moon, just when they had expected their own people,’ Peter said. ‘It delayed but did not stop them this month.’

‘Our attack found too many aliens still in the building and in the village. In most months they would have left so the village would be less prepared for our attack.’

‘Why would you take such a risk?’

‘We wish to be rid of them, and to get to storerooms beneath our homes. They have not yet been found. Our people cannot live on meat and the meagre pickings from the land alone during winter. We must have our stores and the special foods we need to live in this place.’

‘So, your plan did not go as you wanted?’

‘No. We attacked with the hope that our retreat would draw enough off so we could get behind them to the village. Our ambush proved to be deadly for the first wave, perhaps too good. Your flight served our purpose well, leading them on. You were deserving of our rescue. But the aliens did not follow us or our trail. They did not empty the village, but instead they pulled back.’

Thorn fell silent and Peter thought he had finished.

‘The ways of these aliens are strange. We do not know what they want, why they came. But worst of all we do not know how we might defeat them.’

‘What will you do now?’

‘We will return to our camp. You may join us, though we have little food. We lost two good people last night, you may have their portion.’

Thorn gazed at the two riderless beasts.

‘And those mounts?’ Peter said. ‘What will you do with them?’

‘They are imprinted upon those that are lost. They are dangerous to keep with us, as you saw today. Once we are back in our camp we will feed them to our mounts. For a time that will spare us giving our mounts the meat of our pack animals.’

The thought of the beautiful creature being killed for food made Peter’s guts churn. He glanced up at the beast and found her eyes locked on his.

He had the strangest feeling she knew her fate. And Peter decided there and then to steal her from it.