Dragon and Herdsman

Jack glanced back again. "Actually, I don't think she noticed."

"How could she not?" Draycos countered. "She is right in back where she can see everything."

"I know, but everyone was very cool about it," Jack told him. "The next batch of K'da just sort of drifted over to their chosen Erassvas; then they went up one sleeve while the old batch came out the other. Very slick. I'd told Hren to keep it a secret, but I hadn't really thought he and the others could pull it off."

Draycos was silent a moment. "We can hope they will continue to be as capable." he said, sounding doubtful. "Still, now that I'm here, we can take rear guard while Alison leads. That way, she will be facing away from the K'da for the next transfer."

"If she'll let me," Jack warned. "Don't forget, she's the one with the gun."

"You do not need a gun," Draycos pointed out. "You have me."

"I know that, but Alison doesn't," Jack reminded him.

"You will find a way to convince her," Draycos said. "I have confidence in you."

"Thanks," Jack said. "Any ideas on what we do when it's Greenie's turn, by the way?"

"Greenie?"

"Our leader of the pack," Jack said, nodding at the green K'da padding along beside him. "Alison's bound to miss him. Especially if she's the one leading him at the time."

"That would certainly make her wonder," Draycos agreed with the first touch of humor Jack had heard from him since they'd arrived on this world. "We will have to call a rest break when that time comes."

"I suppose that'll work," Jack said. "Any chance you can give me some warning before he needs a host?"

"I can do that," Draycos assured him. "Tell me, did Taneem return safely?"

Jack frowned. "Who?"

"I mean the gray-scaled K'da."

"Oh—him," Jack said, looking around.

"Her." Draycos corrected. "She is a female."

"Ah," Jack said. He'd wondered earlier whether there were any females among the group. "Yeah, there she is—over to the left." He half-turned his torso so that Draycos could see her through the opening in his shirt. "Looks okay to me."

"Good," Draycos said. "She followed me, and I had to send her back."

"Did she give you trouble?"

"I doubt any of these beings are capable of giving genuine trouble to anyone," Draycos said scornfully. "I was merely concerned that she had returned safely."

"Ah," Jack said, nodding. "You called her Taneem?"

There was a short silence, and he had the odd impression that Draycos was actually embarrassed. "She looks very much like someone I once knew," the dragon said at last, reluctantly. "I apologize for the confusion."

"No, that's all right," Jack assured him. "We can call her Taneem if you want to."

"I do not want to," the dragon growled. "My Taneem was nothing like this. I do not wish her name associated with these . . . creatures."

"Okay, fine," Jack said hastily. "I'm sorry I even brought it up."

He felt the dragon move restlessly against his skin. "I am sorry in turn," Draycos said more quietly. "I will try not to—just a moment."

"What?" Jack asked, coming to an abrupt stop. He knew that tone, and it usually meant trouble.

"Something ahead," Draycos said. His tongue flicked out through Jack's shirt as he tasted the air. "Animals. Many of them."

"A herd of something?" Jack asked hopefully.

"Or a pack of something," Draycos said grimly. "There is no way to tell whether or not they are predators without seeing them."

Jack looked over his shoulder. He could see Alison through the trees, but her attention was on something off to her right. "Clear," he told Draycos, putting his hand around the side of the nearest tree. "Go."

Draycos shot out of his sleeve, his claws catching the tree trunk in a solid grip as he passed. Scampering up the trunk like a giant golden squirrel, he vanished into the foliage above.

"Jack?" Alison called. "You'd better come see this."

"Corning," Jack said. Giving Greenie a pat on the flank, he headed back.

He found her staring up into one of the larger trees. "What do you think?" she asked, gesturing.

Jack followed her pointing finger. Eight feet up the trunk was a spot about a foot and a half across where the bark had been almost completely torn off. "Looks like something was trying to carve its initials in the tree," he said.

"And kept making mistakes and having to erase," Alison agreed. "You can see claw marks there at the edge."

Jack nodded. They looked very similar, in fact, to the marks made by K'da claws.

Except that these scratch marks were much farther apart, which meant this animal had much larger paws. And they were eight feet off the ground. "I don't think we want to run into this guy," he said.

Alison snorted. "I don't think I'd even want to see him in a zoo," she said darkly. "I don't know if he'd bother a Phooka, let alone a whole group of them. But the Erassvas would be like dumplings on the hoof to something this size."

"Assuming he's a carnivore."

"It would be criminally stupid to assume anything else at the moment," Alison said. "Any thoughts?"