Spears of Uu'kata

Chapter 24 - Nothing but the Rain

As they made their way back to the sprawling war camp, Charlotte tuned out the conversation of the other females and children and thought of the attack on her farming outpost. She considered angles she hadn't before. Like the fact that the crops were destroyed and nothing was taken. It was pure mayhem. Nothing more. The Uu'k'asht would have gained nothing out of it other than cramping the food supply to a few space stations. Her farm didn't even supply the military, for that matter. Most of their crops went to the ice collectors in the asteroid belt—

Charlotte's attention snapped to the base of a tree she was passing as something slithered into the brush. She slowed and stopped, putting herself between whatever it was, and the children, who didn't seem to notice anything amiss. She'd heard of creatures on Earth called snakes, most of which were poisonous.

"Charlotte?" Shodara asked, turning around and coming back.

"Something moved there," Charlotte said, jerking her chin.

"This is a forest, everything moves," Shodara said with no small amount of sarcasm.

"No, I mean, something slithered."

"Yes. It's getting close to the rainy season."

Charlotte raised an eyebrow. "What does that have to do with slithering things?" she asked.

Shodara frowned as though Charlotte had just asked a very stupid question.

"The trees need to get ready for the rain," she said slowly.

Charlotte gave her a droll stare. She still didn't understand but she wasn't going to let Shodara think she was a total moron. She clearly knew something about trees that Charlotte didn't.

Without another word, Charlotte folded her arms and continued walking.

As she made her way back to camp, she saw more slithering things out of the corners of her eyes, but whenever she looked, everything was still.

Somewhere in the distance, something rumbled. Charlotte looked up sharply and turned a slow circle. What was that? It had sounded like distant ordinance. But different.

"Did you hear that?" She asked.

Shodara pulled her along with a chuckle.

The wind blew and it carried with it a smell That made Charlotte inhale deeply, savoring it. It didn't exactly smell edible, but she still turned into the wind and parted her lips hoping to taste it.

"What is that smell?" She asked.

"I smell nothing but the meal that is going cold on us," Shodara said, once again urging her to walk.

They entered the camp finally and Shodara led Charlotte, not to the tent, but to a line of Uu'k'asht who were receiving plates of food from several males and females standing behind tables lined up under open-sided tents.

They weren't just Kothos Clan either. She noticed markings from other tribes and whereas Clan Kothos was growing used to getting glimpses of her, the others were seeing her for the first time. She recognized many of the adult females because they tended to hang out regardless of clan, but the males and children stared. Some gapped openly. She stood behind Shodara and looked over her shoulder just as two young males came up behind her.

"Oh, whoa. What is that?" one of them asked.

"I think that's the human prisoner," said the other.

"Is it... is it female?"

"Yes, I'm female," she said, looking back at them.

"It-she can speak!" one of them exclaimed.

"Why is your skin like that? Where is your fuzz?" asked the other.