The air hazed over and cleared as I brought eight hunters to a new crystal the Saursune had guided us to. Roxanne, Calum, and Andre were collecting greens nearby and straightened in surprise.

"I brought you some more helpers," I told the porters.

"Oh, thanks," Roxanne said, coming over. She took a second look at me. "You look tired."

"It's been a long morning," I said, hoping she wouldn't think a Saursune caught me already.

To distract them, I told them about my plan to leave some of my group with them, notably not mentioning the patriarchs didn't want me near fields or out by myself.

Roxanne readily nodded. "I'm always happy for more helpers. I can try porting them to the Guard Station, but I might need your help if a Saursune shows up."

"Sure. In the meantime, I'll be at Orange Flower if you need me."

I ported to Orange Flower and joined the others in their mostly fruitless quest for edible greens without damaging the plants beyond recovery. Right now, I was very glad that half of my group was with Roxanne.

~

The morning passed into late afternoon without the Saursune returning. Our collections were meager, and there was barely enough to feed us. I stood straight and stretched the kinks out of my back after picking leaves off the ground for far too many hours. My carry net was completely empty.

I watched as Callie picked leaves and stuffed them into her mouth with single-minded intensity, more active now than she'd been all day. My heart broke as I recognized the early signs of a child reacting to food scarcity. She knew her food would be restricted when we went home, and each leaf she ate now was one more thing in her belly to keep the claws of hunger at bay while she slept.

I closed my eyes to keep the tears at bay. Children were not supposed to go hungry. I'd heard at least two crying last night as well. My far-ranging hunters might be bringing in a fair bit, but most groups were struggling to find enough to feed themselves, let alone others. One large group couldn't feed an entire village. If the patriarchs kept putting restrictions on Grant's plans, the rationing was only going to get worse.

During the big drought, I remembered hugging Merryl as we cried ourselves to sleep from hunger. We had even harvested near the farms and just outside the fields during those dark days. Many hunters had gone searching for lost crystals, as had I. All of us had taken risks we would have never otherwise taken.

There was no way the patriarchs didn't remember those lean years, and despite that, they didn't even want us to go near the fields right now because a Saursune might kidnap us. Unfortunately for them, I would do everything in my power to keep a child from crying from hunger, even if it meant letting the aliens come over to visit me. And I didn't particularly care if the patriarchs liked it or not.

My thoughts were distracted as a flash of brown bounded into sight, slowing to a trot now that she was closer. The brown Saursune headed directly for me. Her jaws weren't quite closed, and as she got closer, I could see she was carrying something small.

She circled around me and sat on her haunches as she dropped a clam-shell shaped object into her hand. Her hum vibrated the air as she sat up—freeing her hands—and opened it like a clamshell.

I shifted my weight, unsure of what the mud-like substance was and what she was doing. With a deeper hum, she dabbed her finger into the brown stuff and set the shell on the grass. Turning to me, her other hand reached for mine.

The sight of the claws actually extending toward me sent my heart racing. It was a struggle not to pull away. My eyes focused on the four scars on the back of her hand as she lifted my arm and gently dabbed the brown stuff onto my bruised wrist. She carefully smeared it over the discolored skin without her claws so much as brushing against my skin. Coolness radiated into my skin and made the dull ache fade.

She touched the pad of her finger into the brown stuff again, and spread it farther, not stopping until the entire bruise was covered in what could only be some sort of salve. Had she really brought me healing ointment for something as minor as a bruise?

Tilting her head, she inspected her handiwork and closed the shell before tucking it into a slot on an armband I only just noticed, being almost the exact same color as her scales.

I bowed my head. "Thank you."

She hummed in reply, closed her eyes and pressed her forehead against my chest. Pulling back, she turned and trotted away.

"What did she do to your wrist?" Ariel asked, coming closer with a cautious glance at the bushes the Saursune had disappeared into.

"I think she put salve on it," I replied, turning my hand over as I peered at the creamy brown paste.

A few others came over to look before returning to the tedious task of finding food. Four of the older hunters tossed fishing nets into the river. They weren't having much luck though; the remaining fish had grown wise enough to hide under roots, rocks, or flee as soon as something disturbed the surface. Gone were the days I had hunted with a spear and caught several. At least we could wander around with fishing nets without fearing a negative reaction from the Saursunes.

An idea hit me so hard that I turned around to stare at my surroundings. This area was perfect.

"Hey, Sophia!" I called to the old gatherer with a limp.

She hobbled around a bush so she could see me. "Yes?"

"Really dumb question, but why are we searching so hard for plants when we could be planting a garden? Only Keywa and us know about this place. We could each have our own gardens here since we don't have to worry about the Saursunes setting traps for us anymore."

She blinked, then blinked several more times as if stunned by the idea. At least I wasn't the only one having delayed revelations today.

One of the older hunters asked, "Can you get the digging picks and shovels for us? Digging a garden is a better use of my time with how little we're finding."

With a grin, I ran to the crystal and ported home. When my view cleared, Grant was nowhere in sight.

"Hey, Grant!" I called. "We just had an idea!"

He appeared in his office doorway. "What idea?"

"We could plant gardens at Orange Flower! There's no reason to hide them at that spot when we're there almost every day. Keywa can plant their own gardens. We can share the crystal, but have our own garden plots! That location has a creek running right through it, so we won't even have to haul water far!"

"The Saursunes will find—" he paused mid-sentence. I could practically hear the realization clicking into place. "But the Saursunes are already finding us everywhere, and we go there daily for water. I think planting gardens is an excellent idea. I can talk to someone from Keywa at the Oasis tonight and also arrange some trades for seeds."

I grinned as Grant easily adapted the traditional response to fit the new situation. "I'll grab the digging picks! There isn't much time left today, but we can probably do a fair bit in a couple of hours."

I ran to the supply shelves and grabbed an armful of the bone-tipped digging picks and some wooden scoop shovels. Returning to the crystal, I pressed both elbows on the spires. It felt like I fell several paces before the normal porting sensation flowed through me. My stomach churned unpleasantly.

The haze cleared as I reappeared at Orange Flower. All the hunters and gatherers who had remained near the crystal were waiting for me and quickly relieved me of the tools. As a group, we went to an opening between several trees and began working up the soil.

Using a pick with a bone tip, I broke up the clumps of dirt and tossed any roots I found to the base of a tree to form a compost pile. Our dull search for greens turned into a focused effort to prepare several patches of dirt for the seeds Grant would get for us.

We were just starting on a second patch when Shelly's voice called out from the crystal, "Natalie! Merryl! A mega storm is near Irwin Village, and they're about to be hit with a flash flood. They need help evacuating!"

Without pausing to ask any questions, my sister and I ran to the crystal even as Shelly used the location phrase for where Roxanne's group was.

"Ariel, please stay with the hunters," I called back as I held out my hand to Merryl so she didn't waste a port. When she grabbed it, I said, "Irwin Village."

Our view hazed over, then cleared as we appeared amid a flurry of activity. We backed away from the crystal to get our bearings. Like Vermilion Village, Irwin Village was a deep crevice in the desert. Wind blew sand over the upper rim and whipped around us. Distant thunder rumbled unceasingly in the distance, sending goosebumps down my arms.

Mega storms were practically sucked into the dry desert air, and they brought winds strong enough to roll rocks and torrential rains capable of creating massive flash floods that could fill an entire ravine in minutes. I had once ported into knee-deep water while checking for shards, and that memory had me watching the upper ridges uneasily.

The porter from this morning might not have been overjoyed to see me at their hidden crystal, but her expression now was one of relief.

"Where are we going?" I called over to her.

She slipped through the crowd. "I'll show you. The sentries are watching, but we don't have long until the water hits." Merryl and I held onto her shoulders as she told those around her, "Hands clear! Catseye Stone."

The air hazed around us, then cleared to reveal a cave with a detailed painting of a cat's eye on the wall. As Merryl studied the painting, I turned to the fully-grown crystal and ran my fingers along the smooth spires.

Once I knew I could return, I asked, "Do your other porters know?"

Any returning porter not ready to bounce would appear amid the muddy churning water, and they could easily be swept away or be so deep they couldn't reach the surface in time.

She nodded. "Yes, they're all helping."

"If you wait a moment, I'll give you a lift back," I told her.

She nodded and watched Merryl, who only took a few more seconds to memorize the location.

Both held onto my shoulders as I said, "Irwin Village." When our vision cleared, I asked, "How long do we have? Less than five minutes? Thirty minutes?"

No rain was falling out of the hazy sky above us. The storm wasn't close by, although that didn't mean much if this ravine was along a flood route. Water had carved out most gullies like this, so the odds were against us.

The coordinator was nearby and replied, "Maybe five or ten minutes. Twenty tops. Two sand dunes are blocking the flow, but the storm is dropping a ton of rain farther out. They won't be able to hold back that kind of water for long. A sentry is watching, so we'll have about a minute of warning."

Other porters got up from the resting hides and began collecting passengers.

"I can take ten."

The coordinator picked ten—two families—who held onto my shoulders or each other with trembling hands.

As soon as they had a solid hold, I murmured, "Catseye Mural."

It wasn't quite the same location code they used, but it fit my memory more clearly, and I doubted anyone here was going to argue while I was helping them.

Their backup crystal was in a cliffside cave, and it gave an excellent view of the cloudless sky. I rolled my shoulders as I moved to the side as porters began appearing behind me.

I finally noticed a dozen porters resting on knee-high rocks. They were from various villages, and most of them looked like they were on the last of their strength, as if they had maxed out their ports while searching for open crystals this morning or bringing people here.

After a thirty-second breather, I squirmed my way through the people arriving to reach the crystal and ported back to Irwin Village. "I can take another ten."

The coordinator inspected me and apparently decided I wasn't suffering from any porting strain. He picked ten more, but at least two hundred remained.

"Catseye Mural."

The porters didn't look any more rested, although many were. Merryl appeared beside me with six and moved to the side. I felt fully rested so I only lingered for another minute before returning.

Two trips later, a voice called from above, "The water has breached the first sand dune! The second one isn't going to hold for long!"

Most of the porters had managed at least one round trip since I arrived, but well over a hundred villagers remained.

"Get groups of eight ready," I told the coordinator. "As soon as the water is heading this way, I'll bounce until I can't stand. I can take eight now."

Groups of eight would give me a few more ports before I hit my limits. I just hoped it would be enough.

I took the next group to Catseye Mural, where one of my passengers told the resting porters, "It's past the big sand dune! We're running out of time!"

Half staggered to their feet to try making at least one more round trip, but half shook their heads in regret, too tired to port there and immediately bounce back with passengers. Irwin's porters were absent, likely already pushed themselves to the point of collapse and had been carried elsewhere. I took a deep breath and returned to Irwin Village.

We were about to see how much my abilities had truly grown.