Conquer

"It attacked me. I got too close in my eagerness to observe it," I half lied, still clutching my bleeding arm. In English, I added, "|I was just defending myself, I swear.|"

Wolf looked at me for a while, then the gaze of his mask shifted to my arm.

"I see," he said, approaching me. "Then there was no helping it."

I was relieved. Maybe I could get away without making him too upset with me. He seemed to buy my excuse for now.

"You will need to cauterize that wound. It will not stop bleeding until you do, even if you bandage or staple it," Wolf said. It was more of a command than a recommendation, not that I would have argued with him about it.

There was just a teensy problem.

"What is 'cauterize'?" I asked. The Yaut'ja word was foreign to me.

Unlike normal, he seemed somewhat disgruntled that he had to explain. I supposed time was of the essence, though, since David could be back on us in moments.

"Use heat to close the wound."

Ah, 'cauterize'.

Wait, that was going to suck!

David was back on his feet. He gave himself a vigorous shake and then let out that ear-splitting roar again. Both Wolf and I staggered at the aural onslaught; my ears were ringing and my head was fuzzy.

"I will hold its attention. When you are well enough to rejoin, our goal is to drive it off, not kill it," Wolf instructed. "Do not use firearms—it may draw unwanted attention."

There wasn't time for us to say much else. David pounced and scattered the two of us.

At first, David was intent on continuing his pursuit of me, but Wolf drew him away with a successful throat punch. Incensed, David turned on my companion.

My vision was starting to go in and out, so I had to work fast. Since Wolf said nothing would work except cauterizing the wound, I didn't bother taking out my medkit. Instead, I drew my carving knife and firestarter, using the latter to heat the blade until it was faintly glowing.

I picked up a stick, chomped down on it, then pressed the flat side of the blade up against the first gash. A strangled sound escaped my throat and the sickly scent of burning flesh filled my nose. The pain had me seeing stars, but I persisted and did it two more times—once for each of the three lacerations running down my bicep.

After checking my work, I decided the wounds had, indeed, stopped bleeding. The ground around me was darkened brown all over the place, but I wasn't going to lose anymore. I took out a roll of gauze-like material from my medkit and tied it around my arm just in case.

Since the bleeding had stopped and David was still busy with Wolf, I felt like I had enough breathing room to get the gauze.

My fingers curled and flexed just fine once I was done, so I decided everything was okay.

Well, except for the pain.

But pain was my life. I could work through it.

I located the two of them locked in a dance not far away. David was on the attack, but Wolf still cut in with some sharp blows of his own. He had his wrist blades out and was parrying David's high energy slashes and swipes. As I approached, he barely had enough time to acknowledge me with a glance before he had to dodge another clawed paw.

"Hey!" I shouted, trying to divert David's attention to me again.

The suddenness of my voice did exactly what I wanted and Wolf snuck in a decisive counterattack to a sloppy swat from David. The digits of his second right paw broke and a few snapped claws clattered among the stones below. David reeled, yelping in pain, but didn't fully retreat.

He was limping, but he was still going after Wolf who was being driven toward the edge of the woods. It was then that I knew what I had to do.

"Wolf, throw me at that tree!" I shouted, running straight at him.

The tree in question was drooping over the ravine not too far away.

Wolf laced his fingers together. When I stepped into his palms, he flung me toward the tree. Just as I trusted, he didn't over- or undershoot. I caught the tree's stalk easily, sailing over David who tried desperately to snatch me out of the air—but failed.

It looked for a second like David would continue to pursue me, but Wolf jumped on him. He kept David busy by locking him in a stranglehold with his bare fucking hands, keeping him subdued for the time being with his unadulterated big dick energy. I used what leverage I could muster to shove off my branch and shoot straight down just as the beast freed himself from Wolf's grapple.

With a snarl, David got in a single swipe at Wolf before I placed a well-aimed heel drop to the center of David's forehead.

My braces hummed with the effort to absorb the impact and it was enough to send a shock wave up to my hips, but the effect was instantaneous; David made a strangled sound as another tooth chipped and his face was shoved into the rocky floor.

Wolf helped me back to my feet: the impact had been a bit much and I was unsteady. The two of us edged back, waiting to see what David would do. I had been ready to go back in, but Wolf had restrained me with a gesture and a sharp sound.

It took a minute for David to stagger upright, then he bared his broken fangs at us. I braced for another attack, but the beast huffed and puffed—then turned tail and fled into the night.

Still we waited, watching, trying to see if he'd come back.

He didn't.

I felt like my whole body was electrified with giddy excitement. I turned to Wolf with a bright expression hidden by my mask. "We did it! That was—"

Wolf grabbed my injured arm and interrupted me. I let out a pained squeak as he examined the bandaged injury, chittering to himself thoughtfully. I kept my mouth shut while he assessed the damage, knowing that I was on thin fucking ice after this fiasco.

"You did cauterize these well. The bandages were unnecessary though," he grunted, running his fingers over the gauze.

Shrugging, I said, "|They make me feel better.|"

He scoffed at that.

"How did you know I was in trouble?" I asked.

"Your vitals indicated that you were likely in a bad situation. I would have let you get yourself out of it, but for some reason, you were close enough that I could check on you," he said. Somewhere in there was an accusation.

I gaped and quickly checked my map. While avoiding David, I hadn't had the chance and had just assumed I was still in range of the ship. Turned out that I was halfway between the ship and the spot where I'd last seen Wolf on my map. I knew he'd been able to track me, but I hadn't realized he was keeping tabs on me the whole time, either.

The news made me equal parts touched and frustrated.

"Now, tell me what happened," he clipped.

"|I told you, I just got a little sloppy while I was following him,|" I insisted.

Wolf was unconvinced. "And why were you following him?"

"|I didn't have anything else to do.|"

I couldn't quite meet his gaze and he picked up on that fact. Growling, he crowded me and made me even more aware of our size difference.

"You purposefully antagonized it into attacking you, did you not?"

My mouth worked up and down for a second, but all I managed to do was croak out a half-hearted, "|What, no.|"

"Nichole!"

His use of my birth name made me flinch. He had to use his throat like a talking bird to pronounce it, so it was a bit distorted, but there was no doubt that he had shouted my name.

I fidgeted and tried to come up with an excuse, but he likely knew when I was lying. He could read my heartbeat and temperature and body language better than anyone could. I hadn't ever needed to lie to him before, so it had never been something I dwelled on.

"|That wasn't my . . . plan. Not really. I just, I was just following him and trying to learn things about him so that maybe I could hunt him later when you got back,|" I finally said after a moment or two passed. "|I wanted you to see that I was ready.|"

"How long did you follow it? What did you witness?" Wolf demanded.

"|He hunted those giant bugs to eat and wandered around some, and I learned that his hide is too protected for piercing . . . And when I used his own call, he came running and would follow.|"

Wolf chittered quickly. "Did you see how it handled any confrontation with other large beasts?"

"No . . ."

"What it is capable of? How it attacked?"

"I saw him use his head and claws to dig . . ."

"Its sleep patterns? Social habits?"

"I get it!"

"Do you?" he snapped, grabbing my arm again. "Did you know that their claws have a bacteria that prevents clotting? That even a shallow cut can make you bleed out? If you knew that, would you have been so quick to instigate a fight without proper preparation?"

My hands balled into fists and I fought back angry tears. "No," I almost whispered.

"You think too much when you do not need to and not enough when it counts!" he berated me.

Before I could rebut, he suddenly staggered. I didn't hesitate to try to aid him, but he pushed me away. That hurt more than any words he could spit at me.

I couldn't see very well with night vision, so I switched to visible light and used my fire starter to provide illumination, though it wasn't a lot. It was enough, however, for me to see the copious amounts of blood pooling underneath him.

David had got him.

Thankfully, now I knew what to do.

"Quick, let me treat it!" I yelped, coming once again to his side to see just where he had been scratched.

This time, he let me. Before I could find the source, however, a single voice cut through the silent night and both of us froze.

"Well, well, well . . . Look what we found, boys."