Night had fallen.

The hunting party and Brooks were still out; this was unusual, but Diver assured him that in a group they were fine and this was something they did often.

"He!ak are best hunted at night," he said. "They are sluggish then."

Brooks was slightly confused, as he had thought they were hunting hamomo. But the two names might be cognate; he suspected that they were hamomo in normal speech, but the name he!ak was used when hunting them. The precise rules, though, were unclear.

There was a troop of creatures on the ridge itself, about thirty of them, which were alert to their presence. They remained silent but watched the !A!amo carefully. They looked similar to the !Xomyi in some ways, smaller in size, about as large as a mid-size Earth monkey. Their heads were smaller, but their snouts longer.

Distant relatives, maybe, Brooks thought. Like baboons were to humans.

"!Kos will be quiet," Diver said. "Unless we threaten them."

"We will kill them if they interfere with our hunt of the he!ak," Hard Biter promised. Brooks could believe that he would, too.

They crept to a lower edge of the ridge to look down on the he!ak.

The creatures were larger than Brooks expected. There were ten to fifteen of them, large animals that had short trunk-like snouts and bulbous bodies.

The largest probably weighed several tons. They would provide a huge amount of meat for the clan.

They'll eat like kings if they can pull this off, Brooks thought.

But looking at the !A!amo, he wasn't sure how they could realistically do it. Yes, humans had hunted mammoths in ancient times, but the !Xomyi were far smaller than a human. They had only spears and blowguns. Unless the poisons in those darts was spectacularly powerful, he wasn't sure if they could fatally injure a creature this big.

The herd was also alert, despite the darkness. The !A!amo seemed to have no trouble seeing in the dark, reminding him again that they had evolved from nocturnal creatures, slowly moving towards being diurnal.

Their ancestors, living in trees, had gained much safety from foraging at night. But on the ground, it only increased their vulnerability to larger predators.

Diver turned to him. "We move now to hunt. When we kill, we must remain cautious. Large beasts will come, drawn to the smell of blood."

Brooks nodded. "I'll be ready."

Amazing, he thought, that they had survived in a world of giants.

On some level, he wasn't sure that he could. Would his pistol be enough protection against one of the Tyrannosaur-sized carnivores? The drones kept them at bay most of the time, but it was likely that the lure of food would be enough to make them power through.

"Kai," he radioed. "Are you nearby?"

"I'm trailing back about a kilometer. Do you need help?"

"Not presently. But something big might come this way if there's a kill. Can you move closer safely?"

"I'll be there shortly," she replied.

"But safely?" Brooks asked.

She sighed. "I'm monitoring the drones. I'll be safe."

"Don't hurry. Your priority is to keep yourself alive."

"My priority is to keep you alive, sir."

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"We differ in that. But I outrank you, and your life comes first. Things haven't started yet, so there's still time, I think."

"Copy," Kai replied. She was not happy.

The !A!amo began down the hill, towards the herd. Diver stayed with Brooks, taking more care now to help show him the best way to move without making too much sound.

"Your feet are big and clumpy," Diver said, making clump, clump sounds with motions of plodding. "You must walk with more softness."

Brooks considered, then took off his space boots. He'd worn the boots for the long-distance travel, but now he needed stealth.

He was still louder than Diver, but the soft leather moccasins helped a lot.

"Do they need you?" he asked Diver.

"Yes. You remain here." Diver disappeared in an instant, with very little sound. Brooks felt humbled by just how much he'd been holding the !Xomyi back.

The position he'd been left in, still partially on the slope down to the lower area where the herd was resting, gave him a nice view of the clearing. But the !A!amo were impossible to see. Shifting his vision through different modes, even in infrared he could see only small spots that might have been the hunters, though there were so many from small life forms that it was hard to be sure.

His spy drones were the only way he could keep tabs on them. The !A!amo were incredibly stealthy; their lives depended on this, after all.

His system created a filter, seeking signals that only matched the size of each member of the !A!amo party, and in a second he had their exact positions.

A part of him felt a strange guilt, using such high technology to spy on them when they went through all this effort. His technology rendered their skill meaningless, and the gulf between their people and his had never felt wider.

The !A!amo spread out in the jungle, forming a crescent shape. Diver was separate from the others.

Brooks kept the top-down view from the drones and added the data to his visual system, highlighting the position of the hunters in the real world.

They were inching closer, communicating with a bird whistle that did not seem to be noticed by the he!ak.

But then something spooked them. One member of the herd let out a loud snorting cry, and the wake ones all turned, crying as well. The sleeping members all started to rouse.

A light came from the forest, and Good Hunter emerged, carrying in each hand a torch. Brooks wondered for a moment how he'd made it so quickly, then remembered that the higher oxygen content of Ko's atmosphere made it far easier to start a fire.

Good Hunter was yelling, twirling as if in a trance, swinging the torches in a way that seemed wild yet must have been very controlled.

The he!ak began to make a deep, gurgling cry, some moving towards Good Hunter, others moving away.

The !Xomyi was in a dangerous position, drawing their attention, the he!ak could charge him and run him down without much chance to survive. But they seemed to fear the torches, and even the largest of them were starting to move away. Yet at the same time, they seem entranced in a way that was more than watching a predator. Perhaps this was exploiting some aspect of their behavior or mind? Thousands of years of living alongside the he!ak had surely taught the !A!amo secrets of the creatures.

Then, from the forest, the hunters emerged. A dart came in, making a horrible howling as it flew. Unlike most of the spears Brooks had seen, this one had some objects attached to it, hanging by leather thongs. They must have been pierced in a way that the air rushing through them as they flew caused the sound.

Panic gripped the he!ak, and some began to run into the jungle. More darts flew in among them, not seeming to be aimed to wound, but to frighten and break up the group.

As most of the he!ak made their escape, a smaller one was cut from the herd. It was still probably a ton in weight, but it was slower than the others, one leg perhaps lame.

More screaming darts came in, in front of the lame he!ak. It came to a halt, changing its direction - and leaving its flank open.

More darts flashed out of the jungle, this time true hunting darts. Three hit the he!ak, one skidding off its top flank, two hitting in the body. One fell out, leaving a wound that gushed a light-colored blood. The other struck just below where Brooks thought the shoulder girdle would be. It went deep, the shaft falling out while leaving the head in.

The he!ak let out a wounded cry, and the herd ahead started to turn, but more screaming darts sent their way kept them running. They stampeded into the jungle, the volume of their flight seeming all the worse for it being night.

The wounded animal was limping along, but a huge stream of pale blood was coming from its flank.

It had been speared through the heart, Brooks realized. Or whatever its alien equivalent was.

The other darts had done only a little damage. But this one, precisely placed, would bring down a creature that weighed dozens of times as much as the one who cast it.

For a time it continued to try and flee, making its way towards the jungle, in the path carved by its kin. Much had been trampled, leaving the area almost barren. It stopped to regain its strength, its sides heaving with breath.

One !Xomyi emerged from the jungle, approaching the wounded beast. From this distance, it was hard to tell who, but Brooks thought it was Hard Biter.

He held a heavy spear, and he came close to the he!ak. It saw him and tried to move, but sank down onto its belly.

Hard Biter thrust the spear into its neck, just at the base of the skull. The he!ak let out one last cry, and rolled over onto its side, its legs finally going still.

The hunters came out. Hard Biter climbed the he!ak, pulling his spear from its head and hefting it up. The power of the moment still burned in him.

The others raised a clamor, hefting their spears. Diver came over, his torches burned low, and let out a triumphant cry.

An alert came on his system. Something big was approaching.

The !Xomyi were outside of his sphere of drones, he realized. Whatever it was, it was already on them.

"Hey!" he called, raising a hand. "Something's coming!"

The !Xomyi heard his call, but did not seem to understand. They raised their spears to him in victory, happiness on their faces.

It turned to terror as a huge animal came from the forest.

It moved with stunning speed, enough that Brooks barely had time to register it. It was big - bigger than a human, almost like a bear, but long and lean. It did not roar or stop to threaten like every predator in every low-budget film.

The !A!amo saw it too late. Then it was on Hard Biter.

The !Xomyi screamed, a sound of pain and shock. But the creature's fangs had already sunk into his head. Its long, knife-like canines pierced into his skull through his eye sockets.

His spear dropped from his hands and he reached up, clawing at its face, but to no avail.

The other !Xomyi were screaming as well, in shock which quickly turned to rage. They thrust with their spears, but the attacks were not well-aimed, and they did nothing but glance off the creature's fur.

It was like a bipedal cat, almost, Brooks thought. But its face was more reptilian than that; like a dinosaur. It lacked the features that !Xomyi and humans shared, and the thought came to him unbidden; it had no face, and so did not have a soul.

It backed up but let out a high shriek around its prey. Hard Biter's movements had gone more feeble.

Brooks realized that his feet had taken him on a run down there. He was panting for breath, crashing through the underbrush like a wildman. He had drawn his sidearm.

He came stumbling out, but the giant animal had pulled Hard Biter back with it, to the edge of the jungle. It gave a hard shake of its head, and the !Xomyi moved no more.

The others were edging forward, throwing some spears at it, but it waved a paw and knocked them aside.

It saw Brooks approaching, an unknown element, and it made eye contact with him.

There was intelligence in its eyes, he realized. It was studying him.

It moved back, into the jungle, and was gone.