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In response to the strike, tentacles flares from the creature’s throat and twine around round because, despite their slenderness, these tendril- vine things possess a terrible, tensile strength I wish I had blades like Vel’s, but I don’t, so I roll, trying to twist thes, and I can hurt the, and slices the cords binding me His monsters follow in unnatural bounds They don’t s, for one thing, and they leap, not run

Now free, I flip to my feet I have so to do Once they get us bound and helpless on the ground, they will devour us while we’re still alive Like the Morgut, they prefer fresh prey; -terror taste in their meat

They ti succeeds in biting me It hurts like a bitch, and the teeth lock on like certain carnivorous fish, so that when I knock it away, it takes a chunk out of reater excite at my back anymore since he broke to cut me loose, but they hunt in pairs, so his flora-beasts take no notice of h I’ve injured the first one, it doesn’t show signs of slowing down But more blood drizzles from its mouth from where Vel severed its tendrils, and it moans as it moves to try to pin me

Once more, they coordinate a leap; I knock the second one back with a swing of the shockstick It is not sinking those long, curved teeth intothat Focus, Jax I concentrate on the wounded one, ai a powerful roundhouse kick at ould be its ribs in a norans I can dah-pitched that I can’t hear all the notes, but I can tell by Vel’s reaction that it’s a horrendous noise

The scream distracts his opponents, and he disembowels one with a scissor-sweep of his blades Gray entrails spill out onto the foliage, but it’s nothing I’ve ever seen before--and I’ve killed some monsters inin that awful black blood, and it stinks of rotting vegetation His re itself at hirace of his knives

Mine don’t cut and run, though It’s as though these creatures forether I find that oddly touching even as I crush one’s throat with a final, lethal kick That leaves only one, and it beco its fate I almost feel bad as I break its skull wide open with a two-handed swing of the shockstick More uts splatter everywhere

"What the hell do you make of that?" I ask, palers Mary, I need medical attention I hope Vel has some Nu-Skin I don’t think that has any circuits to be fried in transit, so it should work, even here My excitement at the adventure dims a bit; when I set out to chart new beacons with Kai, I was generally more prepared than this, and we have precious few resources

"Cohesive unit, hunting as one We merely had skills and weapons unfao so smoothly"

"Smoothly?" I show hi the corpses

You wouldn’t expect Vel to be gentle, but his claws are remarkably dexterous as he cleans the wound and then seals it with a fresh pack of Nu-Skin It bonds at once, relieving n ray moss inside

"We need toworked better on these creatures than blunt-force trauma I’m not experienced with knives, but I don’t want to be eaten, either I’ll work it out, so curve And the really fun part? We don’t know this jungle at all, so those creatures s here

"Do you kno?"

He inclines his head "Trapper taught

"We need tofor them"

"I will look for usable supplies and a defensible place to spend the night"

Now that he’sThis definitely is not Marakeq, with its dreaht No, this world offers black velvet darkness unbroken by artificial light

The long night is co, and only Mary knohether we’ll survive it

[Vid-mail from Dina, sent on the four-day bounce]

Nola forwarded your ot it, but we’d already put down on Marakeq by then It sucks like hell to be the one to tell you this, but Jax isn’t here Twelve hours after our arrival, her comate, but neither of us can understand the natives They aren’t hostile, but Jax and Vel have vanished No sign of the up hope yet We’re scanning and searching the surrounding swamp I promise we’ll find her if it’s hue ends]

[Vid-ency channel, priority reply]

I’ll hop a ship and be there ASAP to help you search

[ht falls, the temperature drops, and I’es, Vel grows out his cae skin, but this time it’s for insulation, not to pass as human But in honor of my aesthetic sensibilities, he takes hu the faux-skin to shape as it will This is the first tiued by the a he does