---Arrows---

---Jae’s perspective---

“*OOF*!” grunts Yasmin as Mvak’s feet impact her stomach.

She splutters and laughs as the green skinned girl licks her across the face.

Easily enclosing the Twigg’s slim waist in her hands, Yasmin lifts her off herself and places her down on the ground.

“Mrag vin ha mor wen nrot, Mvak!… Dem mlek em sakk…” she says, kindly, in what (to my ears) sounds like flawless Twigg.

Hard not to be jealous of such a talent… the ability to become conversational in a language in a matter of weeks!

The Twigg girl gives a slightly disappointed looking shrug of her shoulders (which seems to have roughly the same meaning to them as it does to Terrans) before scampering off.

As wrong as it is… it’s sort of hard not to think of them as children!

They have what can only be described as ‘ADHD energy’; playful, energetic and easily distracted.

Their lack of anything we would consider ‘social grace’ leads to them seeming to have a childlike frankness(!) You don’t have to guess what a Twigg thinks of you… they’ll tell you!

Oh and, of course, they’re the height of 3 year olds, if that!

I have to constantly remind myself not to coddle them or baby them as my every broody instinct is trying to compel me to do!

I have to remember that they are intelligent adults… however they act!

Of course, having seen actual Twigg children made that easier…

So cute!

Timid and nervous of us in a way the adults aren’t (but totally makes sense when you imagine an early Iron Age child seeing a 4m tall giant who weighs most of a tonne, which is what we are from their perspective) the younger Twigg took a little longer to warm up to us.

I saw what had to be a newborn in swaddling that wasn’t much bigger than a large potato, yesterday(!)

My heart absolutely melted!

I want one(!)

Even now, it’s a conscious effort I’m having to make not to squee at the memory of the adorable little bean!

Of course, something else that constantly brings home how adult the Twigg are is just how many times I’ve been licked on the face since starting to interact with them!

They display absolutely none of the hesitance or trepidation over interspecies intercourse that basically every other species in the galaxy does!

Even most Terrans usually need a little time to adjust to a new species before their thoughts turn to the lascivious!

Thankfully, I’ve not yet seen any of them get at all offended by having their propositions politely but firmly refused… aside from some playful teasing about us being ‘greedies’, which immediately went into my notes… Apparently, they (at least semiseriously) consider sex to be a resource that can be hoarded(!)

I’ve not yet seen a single one of them successfully plant a lick on Tymie’s face!

The pattern is always the same, one of them will try and sneak up on him, he won’t react in any way until they pounce, at which point he dodges, they laugh and unsuccessfully try to catch him while he just stares down at them blankly and, eventually, they give up and skitter off.

I’m sure that, in reality, he’s just grossed out by the idea of being licked on the face but… I like to imagine that he’s protecting his honour for me(!)

‘Jae’s the only one allowed to lick my face! Begone thots!!!’

Yaz turns her face to me and asks “What are you giggling at?” with a sly grin.

“Nothing.” I lie, innocently.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Yasmin is clearly unconvinced but I’m rescued from further inquiry by Grriv and Viig showing up.

“You ready?” Viig asks my boyfriend.

“Yes.” he answers, standing from his seat beside me on the ground.

I reach out to give his hand a little squeeze and wish him “Good luck!”

His expressionless face turns back to me and briefly has the ghost of a smile hover over it.

“We’ll be watching from here! Put on a good show for us!” teases Yasmin.

---Grriv’s perspective---

I have to say, when they told us that this guy was the best hunter in the [galaxy], I was sceptical…

Sure, he’s surprisingly nimble from how I’ve seen him dance away from Folk who want to play with him but… he’s so tall and so skinny!

You’d think that, if he was that good, he’d have a bit more meat on his bones!

If he stood upright, he’d be nearly twice the height of the ferns and prey would spot him easily!

The clothes he wears are all in quite eyecatching shades of brown.

All that being said, he moves like a shadow!

Crouched down to make himself not much taller than us, he’s still able to move so quickly…

He carries a bow, though it’s not like the ones the Monst…the Vrakhand use…

I hear and smell the [grasshopper deer] we’ve been tracking and turn to the party to signal them to stop.

The Terran is not there…

Then, from around 20 metres away, I hear *thwip**thwip* followed by a harsh whistling shriek.

---Yasmin’s perspective---

Jae and I are watching the feed from the camera attached to her boyfriend’s helmet, as he creeps along at the back of the hunting party.

Suddenly, based on cues he’s picked up on (and we haven’t) he breaks from the line and begins stalking along his own path through the undergrowth.

He pops his head over the ferns for an instant, allowing us the briefest of glimpses at a small heard of grazing animals at the edge of the forest.

Back beneath cover, we see the top edge of a bow and a hand holding two arrows.

In a single fluid motion, he stands just high enough to see the animal again, draws his bow and looses the first arrow and, in a fraction of a second, has knocked, drawn and loosed the next!

He begins darting through the undergrowth the same instant as we hear a pained wail from the animal.

He bursts from cover and gives us another momentary glimpse of the creature (that looks like an unholy mashup of a locust and a fallow deer), staggering woozily, with an arrow shaft sticking out of one of its eyes and another in its neck.

The rest of the herd are scattering for the forest.

The man whose perspective we’re looking from leaps onto its back, pulling it over.

There is a brief flash of silver, after which the struggling very quickly ceases.

The whole thing lasted maybe 20 seconds from start to finish!

My mouth hangs agape at what I just witnessed!

I turn to Jae, who’s looking as dumbstruck as I feel.

“Fucking hell!” curses Jae.

“You didn’t know he could do that?” I ask.

“I didn’t have a clue!… I didn’t think there was anyone alive who could do that!… If I didn’t know where this footage was coming from, I’d have thought it was test footage from someone’s attempt to illegally engineer a cutting edge assassin droid!… I mean, I knew he was ‘the best in the galaxy’ and all but… that was inHuman!… He just, instantly, identified, targeted, shot and hit weak points on a species of animal that (as far as I know) he’d never even seen before then rushed it down and stabbed it to death!… That was…” she trails off.

“A little frightening?” I suggest.

“…Yeah…” she admits, uncomfortably “Like… since we met, I’ve kind of thought of him as… it sounds bad to say but… like a little, lost puppy!… He had so little understanding of anything and everything we take it for granted to know. I felt this really strong matern…” something flickers across her face as she readjusts what she was about to say “…protective urge… That was less like a lost puppy and more like a starving wolf!”

“Mmm!” I grunt in agreement.

At this point the Twigg emerge from the ferns.

Viig laughs “Maybe you are the best, lanklet(!)”

Tymancha does not answer other than to continue to stare at the little woman.

Her half brother, Grriv, raises his hand and points it forward, past our POV “Set to butchering it!”

“No.” states Tymancha, flatly, his voice translated into English by holo (for my benefit, since I don’t like using translators and Evenki isn’t a language I know yet.)

All the Twigg stare back, quizzically.

“What do you mean ‘no’?” asks Viig, looking wary.

“If you butcher it in the field, you will waste its blood. We should take it back to your village, where we can butcher it properly, first.”

The Twigg chuckle and share knowing looks with eachother.

“Well and good to say, [stringbean], but how do you want us to carry that thing!?” elaborates Viig.

“Like this.” he answers, simply and neutrally.

Our view shifts as the man turns to the animal he just killed.

A right hand reaches out and gathers the four hindlegs into a bundle, mostly enclosing the spindly, chitinous ankles in its grip. A left hand then does the same for the forelegs.

Pulling some kind of manoeuvre that the helmet cam doesn’t give us a good view of, he lifts the animal onto his shoulders.

Jae’s and my eyes go wide in disbelief for the second time in as many minutes!

When the camera turns to show the Twigg again, they’re wearing similarly incredulous expressions.

“Don’t be stupid!” protests Mvak “That thing's got to weigh more than you do! You’ll never make it more than fifty steps!!!”

“I’ve carried heavier loads further.” he answers, unphased, though without the slightest hint of smugness or arrogance in his words!

There’s a stunned silence for a few moments then all the Twigg burst out into laughter.

“First he kills for us and now he carries for us! I’ve never known someone to be a greedy for work before(!)” laughs Grriv.

“For the sake of a little bit of blood(!)” adds Votd.

“Don’t be afraid to say if it turns out it’s too much!” cautions Viig, more seriously.

“I wouldn’t be and it won’t be.” answers Tymancha, in his typical Laconic style.

With that, the band begin making their way back the way they came.

“Well…” I puff “…one part of the purpose of sending him was fulfilled at least! He definitely seems to have ingratiated himself and, by extension, us with them!… He seems to have forgotten that we also wanted to see them hunt!… Sorry you didn’t get that data…”

Jae shakes her head “No! Don’t be!… This has been quite informative…”