Left foot forward. Right foot forward. Left. Right. Over and over. Walking is a funny thing if you think about it. You have to keep balance on this very small part of your body - at one point only a few square inches of your foot touch the ground, and yet you don’t fall down. Even when you have been walking for days. Even when you are tired. Exhausted. Even when you can’t just concentrate on placing one foot in front of the other, but also have to carefully watch your surroundings to avoid things that want to grab a bite. Of you. Still, you keep walking. Left. Right. Left. Right. Like a machine.

An indistinct path she had been following through the thick forest ended on a small clearance. The way forward was blocked by an impenetrable wall of thorny bushes. “Fuck it!” Yuki stopped. “I hate this stupid planet!” It had been eight days since she left the alien ship and started walking back to the Omega station. Back to civilization. Safety. Hot bubble bath. In an ideal world, she would just need another day or two to reach the oddly silent front. But this was Ellara, not an ideal world. Four days ago, she reached a wide river. The wild stream jumped in cascades and while it was a beautiful sight it quickly turned out to be an impassable obstacle. Trying to cross it directly was a suicide - the rocks were sharp and slippery and the violent streams between them could easily carry her away and push her helpless body around, smashing her against the sharp edges.

Yuki decided to go upstream, following the logical thought that downstream the river would only get wider and stronger. For three days she walked, crawled, climbed across the rocks and through bushes before she finally found a spot where she could cross. Not without danger, but at least with a solid chance to survive. When she pulled herself out of the water on the other side, exhausted, banged up, and gritting her teeth, she hardly felt any relief. So much time and energy wasted going in a completely wrong direction. She was now way off her original course, but it wasn’t such a big issue. If she just kept walking she eventually had to pass through the line of outposts, guard towers, and sensor points that marked the border of the territory the Undefeated had already conquered on this continent. Someone would definitely notice that. The trick was getting there alive.

She rested, ate, refilled her water containers, and the next morning continued her journey. Following a path was risky, you never know who made it or might be using it, but it was certainly better than trying to crawl through thick bushes with ten-inch thorns spiced up by a ton of tiny hooks that tore holes in your clothes and skin. There didn’t seem to be any fresh tracks on the ground, but Yuki was hardly a skilled tracker. She would have probably noticed if an oliphant had walked through there earlier, but anything smaller than that was debatable.

A twig snapped somewhere behind her and Yuki turned around, startled. For hours she had a constant feeling something or someone was watching her and every sudden noise made her jump up. The forest was full of scary unexplainable noises so she did a lot of jumping and turning around.

She sighed as her eyes scanned the impenetrable bushy wall, trying to find some more accessible point. Sadly her compass insisted she had to go that way. Yuki rolled her eyes and in doing so she caught a glimpse of movement up in the treetops. The trees were tall and their thick long branches created sort of an upper level of the forest - if you were tall, strong, and flexible enough you could pass from one to another crossing great distances without ever touching the ground and having to struggle in the bushes. Yuki wasn’t either of those things. Most humans wouldn’t be. Unfortunately, humans weren’t at the top of the food chain in these parts.

Drops of cold sweat ran down her spine as she stood there motionless, carefully watching the trees above. There were two of them. At least two. It didn’t matter really, two, three, twenty. Even one was enough. Her combat suit would make one on one fight equal. If she had her rifle, she could take out three or four before they would even reach her. But now, dressed in a shirt of a dead alien giant and armed with a knife and a sharpened stick… She couldn’t kill a Screecher baby.

They noticed she knew about them and stopped hiding, lazily swinging and jumping from one branch to another to get closer to her. Her mouth was dry as she turned her head trying to keep them both in her field of vision, fingers desperately clutching the handle of her knife. From this distance, the Screechers looked like huge monkeys - the average adults were around 8 feet tall. On the ground, they walked on two back legs, but up in the trees, they used all four limbs equally. Their bodies were covered by short fur that varied in color - the forest tribes were usually various shades of brown or black. Yuki had seen images from the battle of Flat Mountain, the local primitives were plain white and barely visible in the snowdrifts. Her new friends were dark brown, wearing only simple leather waist-cloths and straps across their bodies to which various tools and weapons were attached. Each had several long spears and some knives. Their civilization, if you can even call it that way, hadn’t progressed far enough to make use of metals, so their weapons were made out of sharpened stones and bones. Which of course didn’t make them any less dangerous.

The noises they made would cause any sane person to turn around and flee. Yuki couldn’t even imagine how terrified the first scouting parties must have been. To land on an unknown planet, enter an unexplored area, and then hear the ear ripping wailing, screeching, screaming, and other indescribable sounds. At least Yuki knew where the sounds were coming from. Although it hardly helped.

The first Screecher finally got tired of watching her from a distance and leaped down onto the clearing. He seemed a bit smaller than average, only about 6 feet which meant he was most likely a young one trying to prove himself to one of the tribe elders. Still, he was at least a head taller than Yuki and their muscle mass was incomparable. He let out a long 'eek' and grabbed his spear, waving the ornate bone tip in her direction. The other one stayed up for now, but Yuki had no illusions about them having some concept of a fair fight. If it looked for a second that by some miracle she would be getting the upper hand in this fight, the elder would not hesitate to join in and help his protege out.

“Come on then, you asshole.” Yuki grabbed her weapons, just as primitive as her enemy’s. “I’ll give you a coming-of-age experience you won’t forget for the rest of your shitty life!” The alien howled and leaped towards her. Did he seriously think she would just stand there motionless and let him stab her? She leaned aside to avoid his spear and pointed her own against him. His own momentum worked against him now, earning him a long scratch on the side of his chest. He jumped away from her, staring at the dark blood dripping from his wound in disbelief. Screecher's faces were surprisingly humanoid, but their huge eyes were black instead of white, with large yellow irises and vertical pupils similar to cats. Their noses were bigger and longer to accommodate the increased number of sensory cells for their heightened sense of smell.

“Eeeee-ech!” He spat out furiously.

“Ech yourself, dummy,” Yuki teased him. The Screechers were smart, much smarter than what they looked like, but just like humans, they tended to act irrationally when angry. This one could have just thrown one of his spears at her, she wouldn’t be able to dodge it from such a short distance, but now he was angry and wanted to deal with her from up close. Without a rifle, that was Yuki’s only chance to at least hurt him.

Her spear didn’t do her much good as he sprinted to her, the alien just waved his hand against it, breaking the piece of wood in two, and knocking her to the ground. He landed above her on all four and lifted one arm, the sharp claws ready to rip her throat open. The triumphant smirk on his face quickly turned into a scream of pain when she raised her knife and plunged it between his ribs, right into the spot where she assumed one of his two hearts should be. She must have missed it because he didn’t die. He straightened up instead, trying to grab the small hilt of the knife with his long fingers. The blood pouring from his wound made everything slippery and he was just hurting himself even more. Yuki didn’t wait for him to finish what he was doing and quickly rolled over to her stomach and crawled away from him.

Just as she thought she was in a safe distance and tried to get up, she heard a loud stomp right next to her and a strong kick into her stomach threw her a few yards away. Luckily she landed in a pile of leaves and avoided the stones and roots sticking from the ground, but still, all she could do was curl up into a small hurting ball and try not to throw up her intestines.

“Uk-uk! EEEEE!” The older Screecher turned to the younger one, shrieking at him. They finally managed to pull out Yuki’s knife but the bleeding only got stronger.

“Don’t yell at him. He sucks but that only means you were a shitty teacher.” Yuki laughed and coughed up some blood. That was not good. The older alien hissed violently and walked over towards her. Yuki tried to stand up, she really didn’t want to die on her knees, but her body was not cooperating. He leisurely kicked her again, this time she could distinctly hear a rib crack. She landed on her back and her fingers desperately scoured the ground for anything that could be used as a weapon. A branch, a bone, a stone, whatever. It just felt so lame to die empty-handed. As he leaned over her, she could admire his necklace. The trophies were mostly human ears and noses, but there were some other things that looked like Screecher parts - claws, noses, and something that looked very much like a gigantic penis. She turned her head in disgust as it rocked over her face, determined not to go out with an alien dick in her mouth.

Suddenly, the Screecher let out a quiet groan and wavered. It took a second for Yuki to notice the tip of something bloodied, sharp, and shiny sticking out from the front of his chest. Ignoring the sharp pain in her ribcage, she managed to roll away just in time before the massive alien body collapsed to the ground. She squinted through the tears of pain to see a long wooden handle sticking out from the alien's back. A spear probably, thrown with much greater strength than any human could ever develop. Which only meant one thing - there were more of them around here.

The new arrival was a well-built adult with brown fur, and for some reason had blue stripes painted over his head and chest. Yuki had never seen or heard of anything like that before. He reached onto his back to grab a new spear. “Ek-ek-ek.” He let out a strange whooping noise as he approached the younger Screecher. Yuki’s first opponent was now kneeling in the dirt, his hands pushed against the wound on his chest, unable to stop the blood pouring out. It looked like although she missed the heart, she still cut through something important enough to kill him. A fat lot of good it did for her.

The blue-striped alien came to the young one, watched him for a second, and then mercilessly shoved the spear through his neck. Bending over to the body, he pulled out a knife and started cutting something off. A knife. An actual knife made out of actual metal. Crude and primitive maybe, but still ways off from the sharpened bones and stones the others used. Yuki remembered that the tip of his first spear was also shinier than you would expect from a bone. How was this possible?

Yuki got up on all four and grabbed the hilt of the spear sticking from the dead Screecher next to her, trying to wrest it off his body. When it finally slid out with a loud slurping noise, she couldn’t keep her balance and fell back onto the ground. “Ek-ek-ek.” The alien was standing a few steps away from her, watching her curiously, his ugly teeth sticking out in a wide grin. Yuki stood up, using the spear as a cane, taking her time to look at the metallic spearhead. A low-quality iron, their metallurgy certainly wasn't the state of the art, but just the fact that they had something that could be called metallurgy was a huge breakthrough. Not that it would help Yuki in any way in her current situation.

He made the whooping sound again and Yuki snapped at him. "Are you actually laughing at me?! Come over here, I'll give you something to laugh at."

He stepped closer and she pointed his bloodied spear in his direction. It was merely a gesture, she was so weak she could barely stand unsupported, and the Screecher knew it. "K'eeh rhsh," he snorted and easily knocked the weapon out of her hands.

"Fuck you too." Yuki had to tilt her head back a lot to look directly into his eyes. He looked back at her, strangely quiet and motionless. "So what are you waiting for?" Yuki staggered. It hurt to stand, talk, even just breathe. Darkness slowly crept to the corners of her field of vision. She blinked to get it out but it only got bigger until she slowly collapsed to the ground.

She woke up into a world of cold and pain, lying on wet ground in a very uncomfortable position. An attempt to move revealed her hands are tied behind her back and there is a rope around her neck. “S-shit,” she mumbled through the gritting teeth. The place was unfamiliar to her, there was a small stream running right between two huge trees. How did she get here? The answer was sitting next to her, munching on some pink berries, and digging through her improvised backpack.

The blue-striped Screecher was methodically pulling things out, carefully observing and sniffing them before putting them on the ground. Yuki didn’t gather many things, just a small water canteen she found in the alien shipwreck and some food wrapped in thick green leaves - the remains of a grilled lizard and some fruit she picked because it looked and smelled nice but didn’t have the courage to test it yet. And she wasn’t going to, the Screecher just looked at it and threw it away. Probably a good thing she didn’t eat it. And then, on the very bottom of the bag, there was her notebook. She had grown very attached to it, every evening she drew what she saw on that day, she added notes about peculiar creatures she met, even sketched a rough map of where she had been. A part of her soul was on those pages and now that creature pulled it out with his dirty claws. “Don’t touch that!” Yuki acted before thinking, getting up on her knees and trying to lunge forward. The rope around her neck tightened as she moved, strangling her. 

The Screecher got up and watched her gasp for air for a few moments. He laughed and leaned over her, releasing the rope just enough so she could breathe. Then he went back to ignoring her, intrigued by the thing she was trying to protect so much. His fingers swiped through the pages surprisingly gently and he stared at each page, making various humming and growling sounds. Yuki tried to wiggle herself into a bit more comfortable position without strangling herself again and ended up sitting with her back against a thick above-ground root. The pain from the broken rib was agonizing, it felt like being stabbed with each breath she took. Plus she really needed to scratch her nose, which was an impossible task with the hands tied behind her back. 

At least those feelings helped her overcome the paralyzing fear that threatened to take over her. It seemed that for now her nose, ears, and other body parts were in the correct position, but for how long? He didn’t kill her right away, which was terrifying - the Screechers rarely took prisoners. And when they did… the rescue teams usually found only bones, picked clean, with distinct claw and teeth marks. Was he keeping her around just to have fresh meat for dinner? Or bringing her home for his offspring to practice killing as the pterroes did? None of the options she could think of were optimistic.

He finished browsing the notebook, closed it, and put it back into the bag along with her other things. After attaching the bag to his belt (Yuki noticed that instead of a simple waistcloth he was actually wearing something vaguely resembling shorts) he walked back to her, extending his hand. There were a couple of the pink berries he had been eating earlier on his palm. Yuki was hungry, but not [i]that[/i] hungry. Also, she remembered a story her mother told her, about an old hag living in an abandoned factory in the middle of the woods. The hag captured people, locked them in cages, and stuffed them with food until they were nicely fat. Then she ate them. Yuki was always terrified of that story. Why would you tell something like that to children? Anyway, she certainly wasn’t going to season her own flesh for him by eating whatever that thing was. She tightly closed her lips and shook her head. He shrugged in an oddly human way and poured the berries into his mouth.

He grabbed the other end of the rope that was around her neck, untied it from a tree, and then grabbed her arm to pull her up. Yuki had to bite her tongue so as not to shout out in pain. The rope straightened as he started walking and she had to follow unless she wanted to fall and smash her face. It was a nightmare. Even under normal circumstances, moving through these woods was complicated, having to climb over roots sticking out of the ground, avoiding bushes and low-hanging branches, carefully watching each step, because what seemed like a twig from a distance could turn out to be a poisonous snake when you step on it. With her hands tied behind her back, she had no way to keep balance. Her lungs were on fire and her entire abdomen was pulsing in pain. Yuki wondered whether she had some internal injuries and how long it would take for her to die from them. Plus the Screecher’s legs were about twice as long as hers, so for his casual stride, she would have to jog to keep up the pace.

She slipped on a moldy rock and banged her knee and then moments later she stumbled over a root and fell into a muddy puddle. “Alright, that’s it! I’m done with you!” That was all she could shout before the rope cut off her air supply. She gave up and stayed down, hoping she would just pass out quickly. The alien stopped pulling the rope and went back to her, his huge figure looming over her. “Yea, that’s right,” Yuki whispered in a hoarse voice. “I’m not making another step unless you untie me. If you wanna drag my dead body around, suit yourself,” she spat out and closed her eyes. The mud was surprisingly comfortable, albeit cold.

The Screecher tilted his head back and let out a long loud scream. Anyone and anything in a few miles radius must have heard that terrifying noise. He crouched beside her and hissed violently, but she just raised her brow and continued to ignore him. What she couldn’t ignore anymore was when his knife touched the skin on her throat. Part of her just wished it to be over, but there was a part of her that desperately clung to staying alive at all costs. “Look,” she tried to sound calm, knowing he didn't understand a word she was saying. “You want me to walk, fine, I’ll walk. But it will all go much faster and easier if you untie me. It’s not like I could outrun you.” That idea was amusing. They stared at each other for a few moments before the Screecher finally made a decision and jerked the knife up, cutting through the noose around her neck. Yuki closed her eyes in relief. He helped her up and quickly untied her hands. “Thank you,” she said quietly, rubbing her wrists. The Screecher just snorted and started moving again, easily jumping over a fallen tree and then stopping to see what she would do. Yuki crawled underneath it, she was already covered in mud, putting on some extra didn’t bother her. Her situation still sucked, but at least now she could move freely. Just as she said, she couldn’t hope to outrun the Screecher, but now she was ready to grab an opportunity, should one arise.

It felt like they walked for ages even though it was probably just an hour or two before her captor finally stopped on a small clearing dominated by a tree with a huge above-ground root system that created holes and caverns of various sizes. The Screecher motioned her to stop and Yuki didn't protest, sitting down on a log totally exhausted, and carefully lifted her T-shirt. A huge bruise covered the entire side of her ribcage, black, blue, and yellow spots mixed together like some abstract art. Yuki knew she should wrap her chest in tight bandages to help the broken rib heal, but even if she was willing to sacrifice a part of her huge alien shirt to do that, it’s not like her new friend would just lend her a knife. She looked at him, curious about what he was doing, just to see him quietly creeping around the tree, peeking into the holes, and occasionally poking there with his spear. 

Yuki let him do his weird stuff and slowly walked towards a small stream that was running around the clearing. The water seemed to be ever-present in these forests, anywhere you went you eventually came across a river, a stream, a lake, or a swamp. Yuki gathered some water with her hands and splashed it against her face. It was warmer than she expected. Sure, it was strides away from a hot bubble bath, but at least it didn’t feel like her skin was being pinched by thousands of tiny needles. She took off the large shirt she stole from a dead alien and was now using as a cloak, and tried to rinse the stains off as best as she could without an actual washing machine.

When she got back to the Screecher, he was just gutting and skinning an armadillo-looking creature he pulled out of a tree hole, all while carefully watching her, ready to jump at her in case she strode too far off. Yuki hung the wet shirt on a tree branch and started to collect firewood, hissing in pain every time she leaned over or crouched. 

“Aren’t we just like a happy couple going camping?” she mumbled ironically when they sat near a small fire and watched the armadillo sizzle above the flames. This time she didn’t refuse when he offered her food. If she was going to be stumbling through the forest the entire next day, she needed to gather some strength. She actually regretted not having her notebook to draw the Screecher the way he was sitting there, staring in the flames and eating, tearing the meat off the bones with his sharp teeth. Despite it being primitive and quite scary, or maybe even because of that, it seemed worth recording. Damn her artistic soul. She should be thinking about how to get out of this mess, not about the influence natural light has on the scene.

Her plans to sneak out at night quickly turned to dust when the Screecher forced her to crawl into one of the empty holes under the tree and slept blocking the only exit. Still, it was better than sleeping tied up which was apparently the other option. The next morning they continued their journey. Yuki had to admit that he knew his way around these woods and was always able to find the most easily passable way. Still, his pace was murderous and she could barely keep up. Just when she thought they would spend another night camping outside, a short screech pierced the silence. It came from somewhere above. Yuki’s ‘friend’ answered with a similar sound and kept going. “Advanced patrol,” Yuki mumbled to herself. That must have meant they were getting closer to wherever they were headed. 

Yuki’s heart started racing. She thought she would have more time to escape but right now she didn’t see a way out. Sure, she could try to run or fight, but without any real chance of surviving it would be an empty gesture, a stupid one for that matter. 

The forest ended in a small valley and Yuki had to stop and stare at the view. It was breathtaking. There was an azure lake in the center and groups of rather primitive huts were scattered along its banks. The sides of the valley were protected by steep mountains and the further end was closed off by a tall cliff with an impressive waterfall. It was a good place to defend, the only reasonable access was the forest through which they just arrived. Sure, small groups of enemies could cross the mountains or use ropes to climb down the cliff, and of course, it was completely vulnerable to an airborne assault, but all things considered, it was a good place for a village. The Screecher wasn’t of the most patient kind, he pulled out one of his spears and poked her with the shaft. 

Yuki had visited some Screecher settlements before, mostly to kill everyone inside and burn it down to the ground. She hated those kinds of missions, killing helpless elders and children was not really her thing, but the locals would hardly appreciate that kind of information even if she had a way to tell them. If angry stares could kill, she would be dead a hundred times over. She kept her head down, not wanting to anger the small crowd that gathered around, wondering what humans would do if the situation was reversed. Would they throw rotten eggs and tomatoes? Stones? Would some wannabe hero just pull out a gun and get it over with? The Screechers just stood there in silence. Ironically, they looked just as afraid of her as she was of them.

Even though she tried not to look around much, she noticed some odd things. The first one was naturally the forge. A large hut built aside from others with smoke and loud metallic banging coming from inside. Primitive, but still ways ahead of anything she had seen in Screecher villages before. The second, and probably the most notable difference was the locals’ fur. Normally, a tribe living together like this would have a similar color but here it seemed like the villagers came from all over the continent, if not all over the planet. Brown and black Screechers were standing next to the beige and yellow ones, even though their original tribes were most likely natural enemies. The only thing they had in common was the blue stripes painted on their chests.

She was led through the village to the central hut and she and her guide both entered it. It was dark and a bit smokey and Yuki had to wait a few moments for her eyes to adjust. Meanwhile, the Screecher approached a figure sitting on a long bench covered in pelts next to a fireplace in the center of the room. He bowed his head and they started a vivid debate full of screeching, growling, and barking. Yuki’s friend was angry but the other voice sounded almost calm, at least for a Screecher. If they were having an argument, the latter was definitely winning. Her guide motioned her to come closer and she reluctantly took a few steps towards the fireplace. 

The second Screecher was a female, a very old one, most likely the local Matriarch. The Screechers didn’t really care about their leaders’ genders, they followed the strong for their power and the old for their wisdom. Tribes were led by a council of the elders which was ruled by either a Matriarch or a Patriarch. This one’s fur was bright white, safe for the blue stripes, and she looked almost ancient, her wrinkled skin was full of scars. Yuki looked at some of them more carefully and then gulped audibly. She thought she was in trouble before, but now it became obvious she was doomed. Because those scars, a set of perfect circles around the Screecher’s neck, were caused by humans. And it was not in combat, which at least would be something they might tolerate. No, these wounds were caused by an electric collar, a rather brutal device used in labor camps to keep the aliens under control. Yuki had no idea that some Screechers managed to escape the camps. The thought of being brutally tortured in front of the whole village suddenly became the most probable outcome of this situation.

The Matriarch leaned forward, her eyes carefully studying Yuki’s face. She murmured something and the other Screecher responded by grabbing Yuki’s arm and pulling her closer. “Tak, tak,” the Matriarch clattered, nodded, and got up. She moved slowly, as old people with sore joints did, and Yuki noticed one of her legs was twisted strangely. It didn’t stop her from moving around though, using an ornate spear as a cane she hobbled to Yuki. “See’wah,” she said, pointing at herself.

Yuki stared at her. She expected a lot of things to happen, but this was not one of them. Did the elder just tell her her name? The Screechers have never responded to any attempts to communicate with them or come up with their own. Violence seemed to be their only method of communication, at least with humans. Until now. “Uh…,” Yuki hesitated. “Yuki.” She pointed at her chest, deciding that a small friendly conversation can’t hurt. 

“Yuh’kee.” See’wah rolled the name on her tongue while the other Screecher laughed. Great, her name probably meant something funny in their language. The Matriarch turned to him, barked a few orders, and hobbled back to her chair. 

He just stared at her in disbelief. See’wah repeated herself, sounding stronger and louder this time, and when he still didn’t react, she smacked his head with her cane. He growled violently, showing all his teeth, but she looked unamused. Snorting, he turned to Yuki. “Gree,” he said, banging his fist against his chest.

Yuki opened her mouth to answer him, but he just stormed out, leaving her alone with the Matriarch. Actually, they were not alone, she just now noticed that there were at least two guards hidden in the shadowy corners. She turned back to See’wah, who gestured to sit beside her. Yuki walked over to her, bewildered. The furniture was designed for 8-foot tall users so Yuki had to climb up and even then she felt like a kid invited to the adult table. They sat there in silence for a moment, Yuki pondering what the hell was happening and See’wah just staring into the flames. “Akh,” she said eventually and pointed towards the fire, looking at Yuki.

Yuki straightened up, prepared for an attack, certain that the Matriarch will have her thrown into the flames. What else would she do with a human? The labor camps were a terrible place, even from a battle-hardened soldier perspective. Screechers were treated as slaves, even worse, as animals, shocked or beaten up at any sign of disobedience. Some of the guards enjoyed themselves so much they would torture the aliens without any reason at all. Yuki couldn’t even imagine what horrors See’wah went through. But nothing happened, the guards didn’t jump out of the shadows to burn her alive. 

“Akh,” the Matriarch repeated vigorously, waving her cane over the flames. 

A small part of Yuki’s brain operating in a different mode came up with a possible solution. A strange one, but… maybe? “Fire?” she asked, pointing at the fireplace. “Is ‘akh’ fire?” She was sure she pronounced the word wrong, her vocal cords weren't used to making such sounds, but See’wah nodded. Well, be damned. "But why?" She mumbled quietly to herself. The Matriarch grinned and tapped at the scars on her neck. That was not really an explanation, at least not one Yuki was hoping for, but who knows what See’wah meant by that. The brutal torture and death still weren’t completely off the table. It just looked like she was about to receive some education first.