I met his gaze. "We have traveled long and far. There are more of us. We are seeking answers and hope you might have them for us."
"You didn't come from here. There is no one left," one of the other men said in a grim voice. "We are all that remains. We know. We looked."
Zaarek took a deep breath, "We came from the stars, but we don't know why we were taken there or what was done to us. Please, we need your help."
Kryvale’s brow furrowed, uncertainty flashing over his expression. The other male looked like he was going to say something, but one sharp glare from Kryvale shut him up.
"Our ancestors left us their history. We know what happened to your people. You incited the wrath of the gods with your stoic ways and got punished. Other gods came and terminated all of you. They only left us to repopulate Darlam according to the true belief." Kryvale stated. "I'm sorry, I cannot help you. I do not want you close to my town or my people. Go back to where you came from."
He waved his hands. The females gathered the children and washing articles, the males their nets, which were now filled with fish. Kryvale did not look back when he prodded his people back into the forest.
"Great, now what?" I ran my hand through my hair in frustration.
"I can send Noodar to find out where they live," Sloane offered.
"No," Zaarek said. "This will take time. We were a surprise to them. We just need time to establish trust between us."
"Time," I mused, sighing.
"Great," Sloane sounded just as frustrated. "Let me send Noodar to bring you back up."
Again, Zaarek said, "No. Something tells me that we should stay here. Don't send Noodar." He looked at me, "Are you good with that?"
"Yeah," I resigned myself to spending the night away from Alice. I hated the idea, but he was right. We needed to establish some kind of trust between the Darlams and ourselves, and we weren't going to gain it if we flew off in a frygging spaceship. "Who is going fishing, you or me?"
"If memory doesn't fail me, you're terrible at fishing, but you do make a decent fire." He grinned, and I grinned back. By the stars, it felt good having my brother back.
ALICE
I hatedthe idea of sleeping separated from him. I stared at Darlam's dark surface through the window. We were too high up even to make out the ocean and the continent, so I had no idea where he was. He could be on the other side.
I had the comm up to be closer to him, watching him through the drone footage. It had been entertaining watching Zaarek fish. He wasn't quite as good as he had bragged to be, but he did manage to get some dinner for the two of them while Xyrek set up a crude campground and lit a fire. It looked peaceful, and I envied him. It wasn't just that I missed his company; the glimpses I received through the drone footage showed me how beautiful the night sky looked from down there. It would have been nice to be there. With Xyrek. Especially after the kind of day he had.
Returning to the place where we had died couldn’t have been easy. Or watching Zaarek in pain. I imagined Nova was lying in her bed, doing the same thing I was. I watched Zaarek talk on his comm; I was sure he was talking to Nova, probably telling her about all the returned memories, like Xyrek had done with me when his returned.
Xyrek was lying on a pile of grass, covered by a large leaf. I wasn't sure if he was sleeping or not; we had said our goodnights earlier because Zaarek had offered to take the first watch. They could have left it to the drone, but I suspected this was some kind of man-bonding thing, so I didn't intervene. I contemplated working on the bots. I was sure I wouldn't be able to sleep all night, but lying here, staring at the comm, seemed kind of… creepy, too. Minor stalker vibes and all.
I decided I should work on the bots. It would be nice if I got them going again. Before I got up, I looked one more time at the footage, and that's when I noticed it.
"Zaarek," I hissed.
He looked up, startled. My voice was coming through the drone. "Over to your right."
He pulled his blaster with one hand, kicked Xyrek in the kidney with his foot to wake him, and rolled to the side, aiming at the bush I had seen moving. A young Darlam appeared. He looked to be sixteen or seventeen, if I had to guess. It was hard to tell, since I had zero idea how to judge them. Xyrek could be twenty or sixty for all I knew.
"Hey," the young Darlam said.
Xyrek had also pulled his blaster but put it away now that there seemed to be only one of the Darlams.
"Can you send the drones and check our surroundings?" Xyrek asked me.
"Yes," I said, wondering if I should wake the others. But then Nova was probably seeing this too, so I would leave it up to her to decide while I navigated one of the drones through the immediate forest surrounding the makeshift camp.
In the meantime, I kept an eye on Xyrek, Zaarek, and the Darlam.
"I'm Narvale," he introduced himself. "I wasn't with the others earlier, but my friend Horvale told me about you. I was curious."
He sat down by the dying fire and threw on some more wood from the pile that Xyrek had collected earlier. He wasn't the least bit wary, but it was strange observing him.
