“Why run? Why not just sit here and wait for them to come?” I ask.
Again, white flashes in the woman’s face and I wonder if this isn’t some sort of surprised expression. It would help if it were, because otherwise, there is no expression to their faces whatsoever. Just sculpted cheeks and sideways blinking eyes that freak the shit out of me.
“As a ruse?”
As a way to save our strength and plan a concerted offensive. “Sure.”
Her head tilts in a way I find weird because it’s so human and finally says, “It could be intriguing. To confuse them, perhaps? But certainly, all of us couldn’t…” Her brow bone flashes grey then blue then the palest cream. Several of the other women begin to whisper. Some shake their heads.
I don’t understand and unleash my frustration. “I’m just saying, what is the point of running? Why would we separate and run off like idiots when we could prepare now to fight?”
“I…” It’s as if the thought has never occurred to her. Maybe it hasn’t. She shakes her head. “We cannot fight the Okkari and his warriors. It is unheard of, besides. We must give good chase. If we are too easy to catch, then it will be assumed we are too weak to bear, raise and protect our kits. We will not be chosen, even if there are unmated males left.”
“So if we do nothing, we won’t be chosen? Is that a guarantee?”
The female’s ridges blaze another color, this time bright fuchsia. “Nox. Nothing is guaranteed in the Mountain Run…”
“Then we can’t risk it.” My next words stick in my throat as I realize what I’ve said. I said we. “I can’t risk it. So if you can’t fight and staying put accomplishes nothing, then what happens when we do run and outlast the males?”
Her hands rest on her thighs as she kneels on the hard stone ground. No one else seems to have a blanket here but me. “It would be too dangerous not to be found at all. The Mountain Run can take to the end of the solar, and by the lunar, the temperatures are too stark. And even if somehow one managed to survive the lunar temperatures, it is likely that a night beast would find you quickly.” She raises one hand. It has six long, hideous fingers. “They are not possible to kill bare-handed.”
A fist tightens in my chest. I punch it down with aggression, plowing straight through it. “Where is the next village? How far?”
“Too great a distance to travel,” she answers hesitantly. “Not without provisions.”
I hardly wait for her answer before I fire off, “So there’s no way to avoid this Hunt without being caught? Not if we want to live.” I said we again. Fuck me. Fuck them.
“If a female were to evade capture altogether and return to the village after the final horn is blown, then…I suppose she could choose not to select a mate, as none were suitable for her. She may then be given the opportunity to participate in a Mountain Run in a different tribe so that she may find a stronger, more worthy male but…Va’Rakukanna, your concerns are unfounded. Never has this happened in the history of the Run on the Mountain.”
I feel my insides pitch and my lips twist, as if biting down on sour fruit. “So I must either outlast the males or kill them.”
“Kill them?” White ridges ripple around the cave. Six-fingered hands cup around hard, abrasive looking lips as low words are traded between the females. The white in the cave intensifies and it has nothing to do with the cold outside.
“I fear I do not understand. This Mountain Run has been called in your honor. We never thought we would be so lucky to have our own Okkari — the Va’Raku — discover his Xiveri mate on a Dra’Kesh moon; however, he did and now that you are well, he wanted to organize the Mountain Run immediately.
“Even if you are not able to present an adequate chase, and even if another male vies for you — which is likely to happen given the interest of our males in the human females,” she says, trying out the word in my own human brogue. Hearing our language on her tongue feels slimy and an unnatural chill shoots down my spine. “…the Okkari would not allow himself to be bested in this. It is a true test for him. And he will take you no matter how you present. It is known that you are overcoming your injury, my Xhea…”
“Don’t call me that,” I say, dropping to one knee beside her in the circle and slamming my fist onto the floor where it makes a muted thump. “Don’t call me any of these stupid fucking alien names. Don’t call me anything. Just tell me everything about the terrain.”
She seems to search my face with her gaze, but I shut down, becoming as blank as she appears to me. All I hope to communicate is that I hate her. I don’t want to be here. I want to see where my friends are and I want to know that they’re alright. I want to go back to my mom and Jaxal and the shitty colony we live on — comets, I’d even take my dad and his new family at this point — but first I need to survive the night.
“Alright.” She nods and proceeds to show me the crude outline of the mountain that they’ve sketched with twigs and rocks and snow. There are a few known hideouts, so naturally I’ll be avoiding all of those. There’s a copse of trees that looks promising. A mire that looks equally promising and what she describes as a stone labyrinth of chenag nests that also looks good.
When I ask her what’s beyond the mire, she says, “Nothing. Just the endless ocean on top of the mountain. To the east. As far as the eye can see.”
As if on cue, another wind gale whips in through the metal gate, bringing more of the white cold and with it, promises of a slow, torturous death. “And how do the males hunt?”
“By scent. They have been through our cave to track the scent markings of the females they desire most. Several stopped by to tag your scent while you slept, including the Okkari.”
What. In. The. Actual. Fuck. I stop breathing until pain punctures my lungs and I feel sick with the taste of it. I glance around the barren cavern, imagining the huge, red giant who hunted me those three rotations ago leering over me while I slept, a big blue giant like the one who’s probably torturing Miari now as I speak, right beside him. Why didn’t they just rape us again then? Why go through with this sick pageant?
I shut down my thoughts, refusing to think of Miari because I can’t help her now. Or Svera. Whatever gods Svera prays to will keep her safe. They have to. Because I can’t get to them here on this planet full of white and cold and aliens. I need to get free so I can see them and make sure they’re safe. Make sure they’re not ruined like I was. But first, I need to kill the red one.
The thought of seeing him again makes my whole torso shake and goose pimples break out along the back of my neck. Sweat glosses my palms and I blink wildly, trying to shake the sudden hollowness in my stomach or the wobble to my knees. The women are busy trying to decide how best to traverse the labyrinthine cave system, but I’ve got half a plan and a lot more questions. And a promise, one made to myself: I’m going to kill the red one. That means that there’s nothing to be afraid of. I won’t let him hurt me.
“If they tag a female they want, but they don’t find that female, what happens?”
Some of the women glance at me, colors visible in their faces but I don’t know what they mean any more than I understand why we’re being hunted like this in the first place.