Saav smiled, “I am happy to help you.”

He gestured for Delvik to be seated at their table, and once he was seated, leaned forward and said, “your human, I have seen him. Spoke with him when we arrived.”

Saav pointed at a round object on the side wall, “the long line has gone round twice since Human passed by.” He was proud to put the knowledge his Queen had taught him to use.

Delviks ears drooped as he looked at the object the Arvo was pointing at, an oversized clock that Thomas had installed to better tell time, and if he was telling the truth, then it had been about two hours since Thomas had last been seen.

He smacked his forehead against the wooden slats of the table in frustration.

Saav watched curiously as the raccoon person thumped its head against the table. He knew this particular one was close to the Human his Queen had ordered him to observe, nor did he forget that this one had nearly defeated an entire hunting party by itself, so why was it acting this way?

As he thought about what he knew and what he was seeing, the gears in his mind began to turn and a figurative light bulb lit up in his mind.

“Ah, you are frustrated at missing prey.. Er..friend.” Saav stated happily, his toothy smile startling several of the other Rakus. “Then, as Queen commanded, I offer help, in ummmm…. Spirit of cooperation”, drawing out the pause as he found the right words that his Queen had used.

With a final thump, Delvik raised his head to look at the Arvo in disbelief, which quickly turned to apprehension as the Arvo stood, towering over the table and offering its scaly, clawed hand.

He really did not want the help of the Arvo, he still didn't trust them not to immediately turn and begin attacking everything in sight, regardless of what Thomas had said. His eyes drifted from the hand back to the tooth filled maw that might be what passed for as a smile to their kind, then back to the hand, tipped with razor sharp talons. He also heard the whispering from behind him, whispers of fear and disgust from the other Rakus.

Dammit Thomas, he thought to himself, remembering the first meeting between Thomas and himself atop that strange robot eating food, and then, once more after their escape into the bunker. His hand reached out once again, and clasped a much larger hand.

The silence in the room was deafening as they shook hands.

Delvik was pleasantly surprised that it… no, Saav, didn't crush his paw with his undoubtedly powerful grip.

Saav was surprised that it had worked at all, and chastised himself for doubting the wisdom of his Queen.

Everyone else was simply shocked to see a handshake between former enemies. Many of the Rakus present were hunters, scouts or warriors. Many of them had fought and killed, or lost friends and family to the Arvo. They knew Thomas had said that a peace of sorts now exists, and the Matrons had confirmed it. That there was a crude village along the perimeter of the base that the Arvo were building, and that they were even allowed to come to the bar and grill so long as they were peaceful, but it was that kind of knowledge that you nodded at and promptly ignored, or at least kept a paw near your weapon when you saw them.

It was one more change in a rapid series of changes, challenging their world view, and not everyone was happy about it. Hushed conversations broke out all over as Delvik and the Arvo departed through the swinging doors and into the twilight.

A few of the older Rakus exchanged looks, raised eyebrows, twitched whiskers, flicked ears. Entire sentences spoken without a single word being uttered, before they shifted their gaze to one particular figure at the bar.

Indral sighed as he felt his friends' gazes settle on him, “Don't give me that look, you all know what Thomas said, besides, if there is treachery from them, preparations have been made.”

He set his drink down and, turning to face the rest of the room, “It's a brave new world here, maybe this peace works, maybe it doesn't, but..” he drew out the pause, “I'll shave the tail of any of our people that breaks it first.” he said, his voice raised so that everyone could hear as he stared intently around the room. A few cheers and scattered clapping or banging mugs on tables answered him, but it wasn't the majority he was looking at with his focused stare, but those he thought would understand his words for what they truly were, and take appropriate actions.

After all, it was better to be prepared rather than let calamity sneak up on you.

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This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

The sun was slowly crawling slowly across the sky, the days getting shorter and cooler. Soon, Delvik thought, the mornings would sparkle with ice and normally his people would hunker down until the air began to warm again.

Normally, he would be out scouting the herds of blade horns and rooters, or as Thomas had called them, deer and wild pigs. Both were dangerous to his people, but could, with some work, be stored and eaten through the cold months.

Normally, he and the other scouts would lead parties of forgers to collect berries, mushrooms, nuts and wild vegetables for the cold months.

Normally, his people wouldn't be on the surface in such numbers. Wouldn't be out in the open so freely. Wouldn’t be building structures of wood and metal with the help of creatures of metal and electricity. They did do one thing that he had expected though, his people stopped and slowly turned to stare as he passed by.

Delvik felt the skin under his fur begin to get slick with sweat in embarrassment as he swayed, standing atop the Arvo’s shoulders, his paws gripping the ridges at the top of his head, as Saav plodded along with heavy steps.

He didn't even know why he was feeling embarrassed, it had been Saavs idea to put him up here in the first place, and with logical reasoning. The Arvo was already tall, towering over his people, and had stated bluntly that Delvik would have a better chance at spotting Thomas from a higher perch. Delvik had thought that was a solid idea and had looked around for a way up onto one of the nearby roofs when Saav had reached down, picked him up and set him atop his shoulders.

He had been speechless as the Arvo chuckled and made a joke about his new furry scout hat.

But here he was, standing atop the shoulders of a giant mutant alligator, striding through what appeared to be a human town from nearly three hundred years ago being built by mutant raccoons while looking for a human time traveler.

What a strange turn his life had taken, he mused as they continued their search, missing the eyes that sparkled in the dark shadows under the new buildings as an idea began to take root.

The two had been walking the streets, with Saav watching straight ahead and Delvik peeking around in all directions to try and spot Thomas. It shouldn't be this hard, he thought to himself, to spot a human in a bright white coat amongst all gray, brown and wilted greens. So far, they had just been looping around in an ever widening circle from the bar, and so far had found not a single sighting of Thomas.

They had even stopped to ask others as they passed, and still nothing. It was as if Thomas had simply vanished. It was turning his worry into a solid kernel of fear.

Delvik tapped Saav on the ridge over his right eye, a method they had worked out to tell the giant Arvo which direction to go after the third time Delvik had bitten his tongue trying to speak, as the Arvos heavy footsteps plodded along.

Since they were having no luck here, they would need to expand their search, and they would need some help, so Delvik guided Saav to a nearby building that sat at an ancient intersection of what used to be a main road through the base. The second floor corner wall had mostly collapsed and gave them a nice clear view of the road heading towards the Arvo encampment.

As they approached, he could hear excited chittering mixed with muffled laughter coming from within the scouts nest. Delvik gave the signal to stop as they reached the wall of the building and partially climbed down Saavs' back to whisper an idea into his ear hole. The Arvos thick torso began to shake in what he had come to learn was its rumbling for of laughter, and then a scaly arm reached up and easily grabbed the bottom of the crumbled second floor. As soon as Delvik saw the powerful claws sink into the stone, he scrambled up and across the arm, leaping into the room as the laughter turned to panic.

Swiftly, Delvik reached out and slapped a paw against three of the five scouts that manned this post, before tripping the fourth and placing the fifth in a headlock. “Surprise attack, you are all dead” he shouted before releasing the one he had captured and stepped back towards the edge head leapt up onto.

His smug grin was met with looks of incredulity as he stood there, before immediately erupting into accusations that boiled down to, “what the hell man!”

Quickly, Delvik was able to explain what the situation was, and his request. Two of the scouts saluted and dashed off to spread the word and organize a search of the base. Two more would remain and coordinate other teams and the remaining scout nervously looked down from the edge of the building as Delvik slid down the arm and moved to the other side of the Arvos head and waved him down.

The scout balked, fear freezing his nerves.

Delvik whispered something to the giant lizard monster, and one of its yellow eyes locked onto him, a maw full of wickedly sharp teeth were bared as it quietly grunted/rumbled something incomprehensible back to Delvik.

He saw Delvik give a questioning look to the Arvo before once again waving him down, but there was no way he could do it, even being this close was causing him to freeze up. He had seen Arvo at a distance before, with the key part being at a distance. Not within range of those flesh rending claws or bone crushing teeth. He felt the floor creak loudly beneath him and saw the arm withdraw slowly as the massive head shook from side to side.

Delvik shook his head in disappointment, but it wasn't truly surprising that the other scout would hesitate to ride atop the shoulders of a former enemy that had preyed upon their kind. He had hoped that his example would help, as Thomas put it, break the ice, but he guessed more time would be needed to adjust to this new world.

As Saav stepped away from the wall, he turned his head and looked at Delvik through his left eye. “Hold tight, I will also get more to help”, and before Delvik could fully process the words, Saav leaned back and let out a series of rumbling barks that echoed off the building.

In the mud across the street, grassy banks and the rubble of buildings along the road back to the Arvo camp, eyes began to open, glinting yellow in the light of the setting sun.

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[ Data Decryption: 38.11% complete ]