They stood around the shadows, beyond the dwindling light of the campfire and they wore cloaks with hoods that obscured their faces. The bows and arrows were visible though, and I kept my hands raised in surrender as I carefully took in the scene.

One of our attackers was visible, though their thick cloak made it impossible to see any of their features beyond a generally masculine build. They had a hand in Rel’s voluminous hair, tilting it back and holding her in place on her knees with the sharp edge of a dagger pressed to her throat to ensure she wouldn’t try anything.

They must have got the drop on her, I figured. Her pistol was still on her hip, she was still wearing her bracer too. Rel was armed, but regardless that the weapons she could use were certainly more dangerous than a mere bow and arrow, quantity certainly won out against quality right now.

“We mean you no harm,” I said slowly, hoping that my tone at least could get what I was trying to say through to these people. This was a random, presumably pre industrial civilisation on some random previously undiscovered planet. I didn’t fancy my chances at these guys being able to understand the basic language that people spoke up in the stars but this was the best I could do.

There was a bit of shuffling from the strangers. I couldn’t tell if my words had had any effect but I figured that continuing to not be being attacked was a good sign.

One of them stepped forward. It was a tall, somewhat slender figure and their brown cloak obscured their features in shadow until they suddenly threw their hood back.

It was a man, or at least a part man. He looked like a normal human, somewhat rugged with a trimmed beard and dark hair hanging loosely around his head. What stuck out as different though was the ears.

He had dog ears like a beagle’s that blended with his hair but which stood out clearly in the remaining light. I suspected somewhere under that cloak he probably had a tail too.

“Holy shit it’s a furry planet,” I said before I could stop myself. Fortunately my words didn’t seem to register in any way with the now revealed man.

“Step forwards,” the man ordered.

Not wanting to disobey for fear of finding out what a pincushion felt like, I slowly stepped around until the fire was to my side, Rel being on the other side. The stranger looked me up and down, assessing me before looking towards Rel for a few seconds. I couldn’t tell what he was thinking but the expression on his face only grew more serious.

“What are your names,” he demanded, looking over my shoulder at Starship Rex behind me.

I glanced towards Rel who went to open her mouth but was jostled by her captor. She grimaced and went silent. The question was for me.

“I’m Alex, that’s Rel,” I said, discarding the confusion about how these guys could understand me for the moment. I decided to take a chance.

“Who’re you?” I tried hopefully.

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The question seemed to surprise the man who hesitated for a few seconds, his face betraying confusion before turning to realisation and then settling on something I charitably decided to describe as grim constipation.

“We will not give you our names,” he said, looking around him and giving the impression that the words were just as much an order to what I figured were his subordinates as they were a statement to me.

That didn’t sound good, I thought. I looked to Rel to see if she had any idea what the hell was going on but she wasn’t in much of a position to respond right now.

Suddenly the sound of metal colliding rang out in the forest. I turned around to see one of the hooded figures had been approaching the entrance to Starship Rex and the entrance hatch had slammed in their face.

“Hold!” the leader shouted as his subordinates fidgeted with their bows, clearly moments from just firing at me.

That caused a lot of our shadowy attackers to shift again with their weapons and I tensed up, ready to try and jump away but I was fortunate that no arrows were actually fired. At these distances I really didn’t think I’d have been able to dodge even one arrow if it were loosed, no matter how easy action heroes might make it seem to dodge deadly projectiles.

The clearing became silent for several long moments as nothing happened and the tension bled away.

“You will both come with us,” the ranger, or hunter, or whatever he was, told me gruffly. Then one of the others, the one holding Rel hostage spoke.

“You sure we should be bringing them back to the village, Dar- I mean… boss?” He asked, voice sounding harsh and gravelly.

“No I’m not, but I think we can all agree that this is well beyond our understanding,” the man whose name began with ‘Dar’ replied. We will bring them to the church. They will be able to figure out if these are who we’ve been waiting for.”

‘Dar’ gestured, and some of the other hunters came forward.

“Bind them. We need to get moving before the birds arrive,” he instructed.

“Gah!” Rel gasped as she was pulled to her feet, by her hair.

“Hey don’t hurt her!” I shouted but suddenly someone grabbed my arms from behind me and I almost shrieked in surprise as my hands were pulled behind my back and tied together tightly. I hadn’t heard them approaching at all and whoever it was was far stronger than me.

Which wasn’t saying much, to be fair. If we got out of this the next thing I’d ask Starship Rex was if it had a gym.

“Do not hurt them,” the leader barked suddenly. He almost looked apologetic before shooting the larger man holding Rel a serious look. “They aren’t our enemies,” he said pointedly.

I could practically taste the ‘yet’ in that statement. I certainly didn’t feel like I was a friend.

“Sorry,” the other man said gruffly, not sounding very apologetic. The leader didn’t respond, looking around at the other hunters.

“You’re on point,” the man said to one of the others as he started kicking dust and dirt at the campfire. “We’ll need your eyes to navigate through this darkness.”

“Right,” agreed the hooded figure, their voice sounding feminine. She pulled back her hood.

I’d expected something like the man, but it appeared this planet showed a range on the furry scale because this one was fully decked out in fur and more feline features, including a small muzzle and whiskers.

“You and you, make sure they stay with us,” the leader said. I could barely make out him pointing at some of the hunters through the darkness, my eyes still adjusting to the loss of the fire.

The campfire was snuffed out with dirt, the embers dying down and bathing us in mostly darkness.

“Let’s move,” the man with dog ears commanded.

Whoever was behind me pushed me forward slightly, keeping a hand on my shoulder and that was enough of a message to tell me to start moving.

Well, at least I didn’t have to ask them to take me to their leader.