“We will never trade with him again!” someone else said.
“Never mind that now,” a cracked but strong voice said, lifting above the clucking sounds the Orniths made when they were upset or agitated.
It was Jemeena, Bobbi saw, craning to look around the crowd in front of her. She and Therena had been pushed to the far back of the hut and it was difficult to see past all the long, snaky necks and bobbing heads that were in her way.
“Everyone stay calm,” the elder continued, cocking her head to one side and eyeing the crowd of flustered Orniths sternly. “The main thing is to protect the chicklings and the fertilized eggs. Nothing else matters, do you hear?”
There was a ragged chorus of “Yes, Elder,” from the assembled group.
“Good.” Jemeena nodded, her head bobbing. “Then let’s just stay together until they leave. Is everyone here? Good. Then put the chicklings in the center of the group and stay put.”
There was a rustling and bustling and the youngest members of the tribe were pushed to the center so they were surrounded by adults. This had the effect of pushing Bobbi and Therena even further back against the wall, though Bobbi could see her friend eying her newly laid egg with obvious concern.
“Don’t worry, Therena,” she whispered, reaching for her friend’s hand—which was cool and hard, more like a claw than a human hand. “I’m sure it will be all right.”
“Oh, do you really think so?” Therena asked, her black eyes wide with worry. “This has never happened before! I have never met outsiders other than you and the Kindred who sent you, Bobbi. They have never come here to bother us—the traders always go to them!”
“They probably just want to come trade for the eggs for themselves and get them fresh, right from the source,” Bobbi said, hoping she was right. “I’m sure they won’t—”
But just then, a dark figure filled the rounded doorway, cutting off the golden light and casting the laying hut into gloom.
Bobbi bit her lip as the words died in her throat. She couldn’t console Therena or promise her friend that everything would be all right any longer.
She had no idea what was going to happen but she had a feeling it was going to be bad.
4
The visitors—or outsiders, as Therena had called them—were freaking huge. They had to duck to get through the doorway and when they straightened up, their heads brushed the top of the peaked straw roof.
“Fucking dusty in here,” one of them snarled, choking on the words, which ended in a coughing fit.
“You were the one who wanted to come get the eggs for the feast right from the source,” the one beside him replied.
Bobbi squinted, trying to get a better look at the two of them. As she watched, several more of the big males—because there could be no doubt that they were, in fact male—came pushing into the already crowded hut.
Beside them was a male Ornith—the trader she’d heard the females talking about. He ducked his head miserably and his narrow shoulders were hunched in what looked like fear and shame to Bobbi. She thought it was likely that he hadn’t wanted to bring the alien males here—he probably hadn’t been given a choice.
But it wasn’t the Ornith trader that captured most of her attention. The alien males were much bigger—all over six feet or two meters tall, she estimated. And they looked like giant lizards.
Flat faces with slits for nostrils were barely revealed in the gloom of the crowded laying hut. Instead of skin like humans or feathers like the Orniths, their bodies were covered in dark green scales and their eyes were yellow-green with vertical slits for pupils.
The reptilian eyes made them look even more menacing, as far as Bobbi was concerned. They were dressed in black leather clothing which molded to their muscular forms and they appeared to be armed—at least, she saw what she assumed were blasters or some other kind of weapons on their belts.
But as she scanned their faces, lifting her chin to try and see through the forest of long, snaky Ornith necks, she saw that one of them was different. He was the biggest one of all—half a head taller than the rest—but he was standing near the back, which was why she had missed him at first.
He’s no lizard! Bobbi thought, frowning as she tried to make him out. He looks almost…Kindred. At least from the size of him. But what is a Kindred doing with these guys?
There were no answers on his face, which had strong, regular features with a straight nose and large, bronze eyes that almost seemed to glow in the dim hut. He had black hair—at least Bobbi thought he did. It was slicked back from his high forehead as close to his skull as possible. On the side of his neck, she saw a black tattoo—or was it a tattoo? It seemed to be shifting slowly, forming shapes that flowed into one another. A tattoo that moved?
On his arms were more tattoos, but these had colors. They flowed down to cover his massive biceps and strong forearms in multiple shades, ending right at the wrists. These seemed to be pictures of some kind and they, too, appeared to be moving. What were they doing? And how in the world had they been done? How—
Her thoughts were cut off when the head lizard guy spoke up. He was slightly larger than the others—except for the Kindred, who towered over them all—and had bands of yellow scales around his slitted eyes. These gave him a mean, calculating look—at least Bobbi thought so—and his voice was loud and booming in the small hut.
“Listen up, we’re here for eggs,” he snarled, glaring at the assembled Orniths. “We were told by our good friend, Yerm, here, that you lot have the freshest and the best eggs around!”
He clapped the male Ornith on the back, nearly knocking the much smaller being over.
“Yerm, you should not have brought them here,” Jemeena said, glaring at the miserable male. “You traded with us not three solar weeks ago and took all the eggs we had. You know we don’t have a big enough store of eggs built up for trading again so soon!”
“Forgive me, wise one.” Yerm ducked his head in apology. “They…they cornered me at the spaceport and your tribe was the first one that came to my beak.”
“Better to bind your beak closed than speak our name and bring danger to us,” the elder Ornith scolded.
“All right, old lady, you can stop with the fucking complaining. We only need a dozen,” the head lizard snapped, his long, forked tongue flickering from his lipless mouth as he spoke.
“The egg pit is there.” Yerm pointed with a trembling finger to the far side of the hut.
“You heard him,” the head lizard barked at the others. “Go get the fucking things and let’s get out of here! Too fucking hot on this damn planet—I’m roasting!”
Several of the lizard males trooped over to the pit and began pulling the straw which concealed the eggs out of the way. They counted as they lifted the eggs out, passing them along in a chain to some others who had remained outside and were presumably storing the large white eggs in some kind of packing crate for transport back to their home planet.
“What will you pay us for our eggs?” Jemeena demanded, as the lizard men emptied the storage pit. “We worked hard to lay them—we should be compensated.”
“I’ll pay you by not blasting your little bird brain out of your fucking skull,” the head lizard snarled, his forked tongue lashing. “Shut your beak, you old bitch!”