The next few days were spent running and training in more specifics in weapons. But mostly running. The first two days of jogging helped ease the five into better endurance, their stamina increasing daily. Now the tribe ran.

The first day they kept mostly flat lands, although a few tribesfolk immediately took to free running across fallen trees and large rocks.

The next day, the tribe ran across more hills than anything, building endurance and strength on inclines to supplement their flat running.

As time went on, more and more people were taking to the steeper inclines. Even Bob found himself taking a few of the more difficult routes.

Karl stuck to the easier paths, not because he did not dare to jump over trees or run high inclines, but because he was focusing on listening, and jumping trees and rocks took away his concentration. Inclines took his breath. He was listening to the world the way Fae had shown him. It made him appreciate the runs.

His breaths were short and quick, but still deep. He was thankful he and his friends had spent time on Earth with Frank building their endurance; he might not have made it otherwise.

Karl's lungs burned by the end of their last great run. He was breathing heavy but the air was fresh and cool in his chest. His legs no longer grew sore, only warm. He paced around for a bit, willing his breathing to steady and his body to relax.

Once he was feeling more normal, he joined his friends gathered in a circle. They were passing around a small pile of dried leaves that to Karl looked like seaweed, had the texture or lettuce, and the flavor of kiwi.

The first day it had been passed, many of Karl's friends from Earth though to pass it up, thinking of all the controversial plants on Earth. But it was explained that the raas, as it was known, would help their muscles heal quickly. On the first taste, indeed their bodies that had ached so much the first night relaxed in minutes.

Many of the tribesfolk also passed a small pipe between themselves. They claimed it to be another way to relax, but it smelled foul. Bob had tried a puff the second night and coughed so hard he gagged, so no other Earthling felt the risk was worth taking.

Karl took a leaf of raas and passed the stack. He nibbled on a corner, letting the nutrients flow through his body. He took his time eating the raas before moving on to his dinner of fruits and some form of jerky. The tribe was passing through a patch of Vampyr territory and felt fires would be too noticeable.

This night, more of the tribesfolk slept in the trees than not. It gave them more space to sleep over a much smaller area, and made for a good vantage point should something enter camp.

Even with the higher precautions, Karl slept soundly.

*** ***

It was dark, the shallow sound of dripping water seemed louder than it actually was. Karl could hear breathing. Not the breathing of an animal on a hunt, not breathing from someone in fear. This was slow, steady. Like someone was asleep. Karl tried to look around but it was too dark.

He closed his eyes and opened his mind to what his ears could perceive. A bit of concentration let him know he was in a very small room, but intuitively he knew this already.

There was a small opening above him, possibly a window in a door. This did not seem to come as a surprise either.

The sound of a small wind crossed the window, carrying the low tones of hushed speech. The voices he could not make out, but he felt like he knew the speaker.

Karl strained in the dark to hear what was being said, but he could not get a grasp on the mame. He strained harder, craning his neck.

There! Another voice. Was that...?

*** ***

Karl awoke with a start. The sun was only just peeking through the trees. It must have been early; most of the tribe was still fast asleep. Besides the immediate sentries, only a small handful of people were awake.

Despite the vividity of his dream, Karl felt well rested and relaxed. The runs and training seemed to be giving him more energy lately. He stood up, stretched, then walked around a bit looking for someone awake.

He found one of the sentries nearby. It was Li. "Mornin'," Karl said.

"Hi stranger," Li replied. "You're up early for putting in so much effort lately."

"Strange dream," Karl said. "Felt like moving around."

"Ah, I get those sometimes," Li said. "I'm usually running around carrying odd animals or eating strange fruits."

Karl laughed. "There are silly dreams like that where I'm from. A big one is people who see themselves go to work naked."

Li cocked his head to one side. "That is strange. Why would anyone go to work naked?"

"It's usually the subconscious," Karl explained. "It usually means they feel vulnerable, like something could go wrong, or they are meeting someone important for the first time."

Li grinned. "You come from a strange land, indeed."

Karl stood with Li for a while, but soon the tribe was beginning to wake, and eventually Li was finished with his shift, replaced by some girl Karl had not yet met. He rejoined his friends and their trainers, most of whom were just starting to stir.

Fae, who was the only other person in the little group actually awake and coherent and not groggy, smiled as Karl approached. He held out a leaf of raas and some fruit, the name of which Karl could not pronounce. He took the offering gratefully, took a piece of each, then passed the stacks to the nearest person awake.

He at quickly, but in a meditative silence, just the way Fae had shown him. Before he would close his eyes and savor the flavor of his bites, but now he could feel it if he let himself.

By the time he had finished breakfast, the rest of the camp was abustle. People ate quickly and began stretches, something Karl had not seen most do before runs.

"What's going on?" Karl asked James.

"We're on higher alert now than we were last night," James replied. "We expected an attack, but got nothing. I talked to Bryan just now, and he says night shift guards saw nothing. Not an animal, not a vampyr. Nothing."

"Isn't that a good thing?"

James shook his head. "You don't know the vampyres very well. They didn't even hunt, which by their own standards means either they are away, or they have something dangerous in the works."

The five were offered their packs; today was back to jogging but they were to carry to their own gear to begin the strength and balance parts of their training.

The group started off at a slow jog, letting the five adjust to the weight of their packs. The bouncing and shifting made for a difficult run, and all the moving was sure to rub skin raw.

But by the end of the first hour, everyone had tied their packs down and tightened the straps enough that all necessary movement had ceased.

The rest of the morning, Karl and his friends got used to the balance of their packs, their centers of gravity having moved up and back.

By lunch time, Karl had begun to take more risky paths again, jumping felled trees and rocks. His breathing had become sporadic, but his body had adjusted nicely.

It was a quick lunch; Erika stopped by to see the progress of the five, and on hearing they were well, she opted to set out again quickly. Karl though he heard the word "skeel-taan" but had no clue what that meant.

So after a very quick meal of berries, fruits, raas and water, Karl was once again on the move amidst the mass of tribesfolk.

*** ***

"Why are we slowing down?" Karl asked Fae, as if the silent boy next to him might somehow know. Fae shrugged. Curious, Karl stepped to the side of the line and looked ahead as far as he could, but all he saw were people. There was no indication as to why they had stopped jogging.

"See anything?" Sam asked, leaving the line to walk beside Karl.

Karl shook his head. "Nothing," he replied. "Just us." The pair stepped back in line and continued on.

Not long after, a small murmur met the crowd in front of Karl's position. He peeked around the side and noticed a small group walking back down the line. As he watched, one stopped at a point, standing just outside the moving mass. The rest continued on, and at another point, another stopped. Before that group neared Karl and his friends, he saw another group pass on the opposite side, one stopping only feet from him.

"What's going on?" Sam asked the boy.

He replied, "We found skeeltahn in the area."

"What are skeeltahn?" asked Julie.

"The humanoid specie of the skeely," the boy said. "They are one of the few creatures that eat humans."

"Oh no," Julie said.

The boy nodded. "Unless we spot one nearby, just be calm and quiet, and we'll try to get out of their areas."

Karl turned to his friends. "This isn't good," he whispered.

The group moved on carefully. Karl noticed the sentries on the sides, standing vigilant, unmoving. Every so often one would come walking by quickly, moving to the front of the line, only to stand guard again.

"Why do they do that?" Karl asked James.

"Only a handful of us have been trained to see the skeeltahn stalking," James replied. "Once they pounce, they're easy to spot, but they blend in well, otherwise."

"That doesn't sound very good at all," Julie said.

"It's not," James said. "The skeeltahn are very dangerous. Worse than a feralynx on a hot day."

Karl had barely taken another dozen steps when a very hushed murmur sounded behind him. Before he had time to turn and see what the commotion was, someone ran right past him. A second person was on the heels of the first, a third right behind.

Karl started to turn but caught the eye of his mentor, Fae. Fae's eyes were wide, almost wider than Karl thought possible. The two turned and looked behind them. At first all he could see was a mass of people in the line, some walking and confused, some wild-eyed and running. He could barely see a few people edging those at the back forward-- everyone the ushers tapped began to run, and some in front of them caught on and ran, too.

Noiselessly the tribe was breaking into a sprint. Then Karl saw why. Behind them, and getting closer, was a group-- a pack?-- of something humanoid that ambled on rickety legs, a very stiff walk that seemed to ease the more steps they took. Probably it was the closer they got to their prey, the faster they moved.

They were thin creatures, with only a head and thorax that resembled those of humans. The rest of the creature was very thin-- impossibly thin. The neck had to be thinner than a human wrist, the shoulders were large balls. The arms were near-wires, set apart by bulges of the round joints. The thorax was wide, set in by a healthy-size ribcage, but where the abdomen should have been was nothing but a thin string, the size of an average human forearm. This was followed by a round base that resembled a wide hip, finished by wiry legs and large knee joints and larger feet.

The only way Karl could think to describe these creatures was like a walking skeleton. And suddenly the name made sense, skeeltahn. Skeleton. Skele-e-ton. And the shortened version given to all the animal types, skeely. It wa clever. Dangerously clever. He did not know which name had come first; Earth as a planet was much older, if the histories of both planets were accurate, but Corsavvott had a longer history of sentient beings. As fast as creatures seemed to evolve on Corsavvott, however, these creatures, the skeeltahn, could very well be only decades old.

Karl started to whisper loudly to his friends, to run, but even before he had turned himself, he saw the skeeltahn double their speed. Someone at the back of the group did what he did not have time for.

"RUN!"

All at once the quiet hustle of the tribe turned into an all out sprint for their lives. Even in the panic, the tribe stayed together as a unit. They kept their minds collected and kept to their general lines. Unlike riots on Earth where people in a panic might knock into one another and trample some, the Lost Tribe was used to seeing action. They lived together, moved together, trained and fought together. They were a team, a family, and although they each had individual personalities and skills, they could also work as cohesively as a school of fish. Their safety was in their numbers, but also in the bonds their shared experiences brought them.

And right now, Karl was a part of that team. So he ran. He ran faster than he had any day prior while training, and he was glad to have had that training, for his endurance was better than it had ever been.

They ran on. Every so often Karl watched someone stop and turn and fire an arrow into the swarm of skeeltahn, always resulting in a scream varying from frightening to bloodcurdling. At one point even Julie stopped and fired. The scream that followed let Karl know her training had indeed been as precise as his own. Then Julie was running again, right beside Karl. And they ran.

They ran until Karl's lungs felt like they were going to burst. He was ready to give up but still he ran. Across hills and over trees they ran. Down a ravine, across a ditch they ran. Out of one forest and into another. The trees were closer here, the brush thicker. It put more strain on Karl's already tired body. Just before Karl thought he might fall over and pass out, someone shouted out ahead, "Almost there! Keep going!" Karl pulled together the last of his reserves and pushed ahead.

What felt to his body like forever but could have only been another few minutes, Karl saw the line of people before him spread out. At first he thought they might be making a stand, ready to fight, but then he saw some raise above the others, and he realised they were climbing into the trees. He was not sure if they were using naturally occurring vines or if they had ropes from a previous visit, but it got them off the ground and gave them an advantage with which to fight their enemy.

As the majority of the group climbed, a few spread out on either side and readied their bows, firing at will into the mass behind the tribe. Although they were taking out many of the skeeltahn, they were forced to aim for the middle rather than those closest to the fleeing people for fear of hitting one of their friends.

Karl was near the back of the line, and watched most of the tribesfolk climb. By the time he reached the ropes, there was no one in his way to climb. Karl jumped up and grabbed the rope as high as he could and started to climb.

"I'm out!" he heard someone cry. Karl looked over to see a guy throw his bow across his shoulder and scurry up the nearest rope. A second later another cry, "Out!" and a girl started her ascent.

As Karl climbed, his rope swung and he could see the still large mass of skeeltahn approaching. Even with the threat of arrows and death, their hunger was too great yet to surrender.

More people were shooting their final arrows, but many without bows were still on the ground, trying to reach the safety of the trees. Karl took a fraction of an instant to look all around him, using his breathing techniques to feel everything.

Only seven or eight bowmen remained, Emily included, and their arrows were dwindling quickly. Another dozen or more were still a ways out from the ropes, while a small handful climbed. Most of the tribe was safely off-ground, but helpless to fight. Karl looked up. He was not quite halfway up his rope, maybe ten or so feet off the forest floor. He caught Sam's eye, who was still on the ground. Sam smiled a meager smile, drew his sword and turned toward the danger.

Karl looked up and saw Bob. Bob shook his head.

Karl let go of the rope.