Page 7 of Fated to the Hunter (Xarc’n Warriors #13)
“I see you are still trying to prove you are the better fighter?”
I turned to see Jorg’k leaning against the side of the building, the tiny Earth rodent he’d befriended sitting on his shoulder, his impressive gonads on display.
“I am already the better fighter,” I said. “There is no need to prove anything.”
“Retrieving a priceless artifact from beyond the Dead Zone is a worthy challenge. If you succeed, I will relinquish the title to you.”
“You cannot relinquish a title you do not hold. And I do not care about the artifact,” I said honestly.
“Ah! So it is about the female! My mate was right.”
“It is not. I am there for the glory.” It was only a partial truth. I really was interested in the female, not permanently as a mate, but for the physical experience. I hadn’t had many opportunities to tell untruths, and I was sure my face was giving it away as we spoke.
“Kiera and Connie are friends. Like us.”
“We are not friends,” I said. “We are rivals.”
He laughed. “Same thing. But I’ve been sent here by my mate to warn you that you must return her friend alive and happy.”
I frowned. “That is my plan.”
I continued toward my shuttle, which I’d landed at the outskirts of the market area with all the other shuttles. Jorg’k pushed off the wall and followed me.
“Connie was really surprised to hear about the quest. She says Kiera is not the type who leaves the settlement walls often. She’s been out there a few times, and I’ve even taken her to nearby reference libraries, but she isn’t a fighter and forager like my Connie.
She prefers to help the settlement with other talents, like her brain. ”
“She is a Tech Wizard. She was at their table.”
Jorg’k chortled.
I narrowed my eyes at him. “Why are you laughing?”
“She’s not a Tech Wizard.”
“I saw her with them. They treat her like one of their own.”
“Have you been on the human survivor forum?” he asked as we stopped in front of my shuttle.
“No, why would I go on that? And I am a fighter, not a survivor.”
“Oh boy,” Jorg’k said, sounding much too human for my liking. The male was spending too much time with them. “Let me in. I’ll show you something.”
I hesitated. Hunters were supposed to be neat and tidy; it was supposed to show discipline and forethought, but I’d always had trouble with that, despite not owning many things.
No one knew because no one ever saw the inside of my shuttle.
But Jorg’k had piqued my interest. If it was something about Kiera, then I wanted to know.
I reluctantly let him in, hoping he wouldn’t say anything about the wax wrappers I’d left on the counter, or the last set of armor still in the decontaminator. He didn’t.
But Tooth did. The little critter jumped off Jorg’k’s shoulder and ran at the wrappers, pouncing on them more violently than a supposedly herbivorous animal of his size and caliber should.
It grabbed the first crumpled wrapper and bit into it…
and was promptly disappointed to find it empty.
Holding it in his tiny hands, he kicked at it with his feet, sending it flying across the shuttle.
I caught the wrapper, even as Tooth jumped on the second one, which met the same fate. I had no idea Tooth was such a deadly hunter. Realizing the wrappers didn’t contain anything edible, he jumped back on Jorg’k’s shoulder.
Jorg’k just shook his head and went straight to my navigation screen. Recognizing him as another hunter, my shuttle let him pull up the human forum.
“Here’s Kiera’s profile.” Jorg’k turned on the English translation feature that all the shuttles on this continent had been upgraded with.
I frowned at the unfamiliar title: the Keeper of Knowledge? That sounded important. A keeper of anything was important, but one of knowledge? That must be a crucial role in their society.
“And here’s her website.”
Website? I was still relatively new to human words and phrases. I’d heard the word “website” before but had never asked what exactly it was.
I was relatively new to the hunter group I currently worked with, having been transferred from my original post fighting the scourge in the mountains to the northwest. While many of the humans in the nearest town, Jasper, had been Xarc’n-friendly, we hadn’t worked as closely with the humans there as we did now.
That area was now mostly free of the scourge and, like the rest of the mountain range, had been turned into a wildlife refuge.
Am’r and Gutim’r had stayed back to prevent any new nests from forming, while the rest left to join groups that needed our help. Nov’k and I had joined the group stationed in the flat expanse at the center of the continent.
Jorg’k left the survivor forum, which looked similar to the system hunters used to communicate across the planet and even the stars, then pulled up another page. This one was more colorful. According to my shuttle, the fancy script at the top read Kiera’s Corner of Tech and Specs.
Need to fix your bike? Want to build a radio? Looking for the recipe to mustard gas? At Kiera’s Corner of Tech and Specs, the answer is just a click away.
Brows furrowed, I clicked on one of the brightly colored links, and a schematic of something—a vehicle? It had wheels—showed up on the screen.
“Are these hers? Does she put these out for others to use?”
“I don’t know the details. But I do know that many people use her site. And my Connie cares very much about her, and she will be very sad if you do not return her friend in one piece. That is not acceptable.”
“So you are here to threaten me that I succeed.”
“Affirmative. Do not make me go into a Dead Zone to rescue you.” He slapped me hard on the back. “What is that saying humans have? Good luck, you are going to need it.” Then he was gathering the little rodent into his arms and stepping out of my shuttle.
I was left staring at the colorful screen. I clicked on a few more words until Kiera’s smiling face showed up at the screen. Under it were the words “ Keeper of Knowledge at your service!?”
It all made so much sense now. Her bravery to embark on such a dangerous mission, and the willingness of the Tech Wizards to support her. And she’d agreed to allow me to be her protector. There was much glory to be had from completing this mission.
A sense of purpose I hadn’t felt in many years filled my chest with warmth. Just mindlessly killing the scourge seemed so pointless now in the face of greatness. If it was a protector she needed, then a protector I would be, no matter how impossible the odds.